June 21, 2014
[Review] Pokepark Wii: Pikachu’s Adventure (Wii)

More Pokemon! This one has always been alluring to me. The promise of exploring a 3D environment, interacting directly with Pokemon, certainly has appeal. When I saw that you could play as Surfing Pikachu, I (having got on at the Yellow floor) knew I had to try it.

Unfortunately, it seems I didn’t do enough research beforehand. The game I ended up with seems targeted well below my demographic. What I mean is it’s essentially a baby game for babies. Very simple mechanics, a lot of repetition and boring music, and the rough edges you come to expect in a game for those with low expectations. That’s not to say I didn’t have fun. In fact, I’m trying for 100%.

You could say I myself have low expectations. All I want is to run around and meet some Pokemon. This game delivers that. I find it interesting to see them wandering around their chosen environment, calling out their names. It’s all a bit stiff, but I can forgive it because it’s really quite charming. The Pokes all have their own personalities and dialogue, although I get the feeling it was more distinctive to each one before getting the translation treatment. Always a tricky problem when you’re stuck with just text.

The main part of the game is doing minigames. The framing context is reasonably solid, but it is just a series of repetitive tasks when you get down to it. You have interactions with each Poke you come across as Pikachu, either battling them or chasing them as they run away, which is done in the world as you come across them. You also then have Attractions, which are segmented off into their own little loading zones and more structured. They’re mostly different, and use unique control schemes, and you also get to choose to play as any of the other Pokes you’ve befriended.

The way I play Attractions, by repeating them with each Poke I have to get the bonuses, makes it a bit tedious. There’s some variety between them but not much between Pokes in the same event. I find it the most efficient to do it that way though because of the loading screens and such. Oh well.

I’d like to mention the control scheme, because normally holding the Wii remote sideways is terrible. “Oh it’s like a NES controller” well phooey. The NES controller was terrible and both it and the Wiimote dig into your hands uncomfortably. The button layout is also inconvenient, and when used on modern games, like Metroid Other M, you find that they jam too many functions on the same button and it just sucks to play. Pokepark is not so bad in this respect because of its simplicity, but I do talk sometimes when I want to jump. The simple one remote set up though allows them to switch it up easily for the Attractions, so I reckon it gets a pass overall, especially because like I said, it’s easy for kids I suppose.

I had to toss up whether to get this game or the sequel, but if the second one is anything like this, I’m ok with getting the cheaper one. If what I’ve said sounds appealing, then it has been reprinted recently, or otherwise maybe get it for your kids. But it’s not the ultra 3D Pokemon experience that us adult fans sometimes say we want.

12:00pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1JHVoOr
Filed under: review wii pokepark wii: pikachu's adventure pokemon creatures inc. 
June 20, 2014
[Review] Pokemon Link Battle (3DS)

Simple puzzle games can be fun, especially when they involve something you love, like Pokemon. Actually the reason I played this was motivated by my wife. She’s probably a bigger Pokemon fan than me, which is saying something considering how many hours I’ve put into Pokemon Pinball on the GBC. We both got this game so we could play the co-op mode. We hadn’t seen the DS original, but it’s not really connected too closely anyway.

For example, the DS one had a plot with humans and stuff, whereas this one just has locations to catch Pokemon. Normally I’d prefer a plot, but in this case it’s fine, since we played together most of the time. It’s focused more on unlocking new areas and Pokemon, doing certain conditions to find rarer Pokemon and so on. They also seem to have refined the gameplay in this one from what I’ve heard. It’s quite satisfying to move your little icons around freely to set up massive combos, especially when it pays off in a big attack.

It does get super hard later on though. We probably wouldn’t have made it to the end if we hadn’t been doing it together. There must be something we’re missing about the pace of the game or something because trying to find some of the secret Pokemon or just finishing some later stages was really frustrating at times. It does seem better with two of us though.

To me the game appealed because it had really cute representations of all known Pokemon, all mixed up together, hanging out in the wild, and you could catch each one and use it yourself. The match-3 stuff gets its hooks in though. Yeah I dunno, there’s not much to say. A fun diversion.

Oh yes, one more thing, the title exhibits that annoying feature of differing between America and everyone else (not counting Japan). They experienced the phenomenon of the untranslated title, a whole nother beast entirely, like Ni no Kuni or Tomodachi Life, or even Katamari Damacy. I don’t think this game or the word in particular has the cultural cache to pull it off, but on the other hand as a title Pokemon Link is very bland. So I’m conflicted.

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Filed under: review pokemon pokemon link battle 3ds genius sonority 
June 18, 2014
Remember when Nintendo acknowledged that the Donkey Kong Country Trilogy existed? It doesn’t seem to happen too often.

Remember when Nintendo acknowledged that the Donkey Kong Country Trilogy existed? It doesn’t seem to happen too often.

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(Notes: 1)
  
June 18, 2014

I’m Mii crazy! Here’s the regular cast of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which they’ve been playing on the local TV. I love the show and it’s got some great characters. I considered making Next Gen Miis, but I figured it’s probably not as done to death to do DS9.

The hard part is doing the aliens. Some people might be able to do tricky things with eyebrows and such, but I prefer mine to look like real people, especially as in games Miis change expression, thus ruining any faces that have been achieved with such trickery. So I make faces evocative of the characters, hopefully leaving them recognisable even without their most distinctive features of forehead ridges or giant lobes.

9:57am  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1I-86I2
(Notes: 10)
  
Filed under: mii smash 4 star trek star trek: deep space nine benjamin sisko jadzia dax julian bashir kira nerys odo quark worf miles o'brien 
June 18, 2014

I’ve still got the Mii fever! Here’s a set I made for my wife, a big Layton fan. Sometimes you gotta work with what you have, and luckily there’s a hella sweet top hat you can use on Mii Fighters. Don’t use Layton without it!

9:40am  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1I-37hz
(Notes: 6)
  
Filed under: mii smash 4 professor layton emmy altavia hershel layton luke triton 
June 14, 2014

After making a few game character Miis, I quickly moved on to portraying the Dwarfers. I’m watching through the whole of Red Dwarf again right now and I love it. I’m looking forward to using these guys to beat up rogue simulants (Mega Man), strange GELFs (Yoshi), and crazed mechanoids (ROB…?).

1:45pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1Ieecw0
(Notes: 4)
  
Filed under: mii smash 4 red dwarf lister rimmer cat kochanski kryten 
June 14, 2014

Here’s some cool Miis I made last night, in excitement for the Mii Fighter in Smash 4. I started making a few DKU characters, but started having trouble portraying anthropomorphic animals. I’m pretty proud of Mr. Pants though, even though he was very quick to do.

1:37pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1IecIOn
(Notes: 2)
  
Filed under: mii smash 4 rareware diddy kong dixie kong mr. pants 
June 13, 2014
[Review] Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (PS3)

Stop me if you’ve heard this, but this is the game named for the words that are spoken most frequently in the duration. My wife certainly tired of the Orks’ tendency to shout “Space Marine!” and “Kill the Space Marine!”. It gets better when the Chaos dudes show up halfway through though.

I don’t have a strong attachment to the Warhammer/40k franchise, but from having a local game store growing up and several friends with armies of their own, I have a familiarity with the setting, especially 40k. I like the richness of the lore even as I have little interest in playing and collecting the tabletop game itself. Therefore this game represents a way to experience some of that world without the exorbitant cost of entry, not to mention storage space.

As a device for delivering lore, a game is perhaps one of the better media, and this example especially so. Although the setting employs only a handful of characters, three races, and a single planet, you get a very good feel for the culture of the Imperium, by exploring different locations on one of their factory worlds under siege. You also get audio logs of its citizens, giving insight into their daily lives, which are ruled by the ever-present warfare of their culture and the oppression of their society. It’s very evocative stuff, and the architecture you traverse is simply amazing, a blend of massive sci-fi structures and gothic cathedrals. Your main characters also demonstrate the themes and common interaction among the classes of the Astartes. Fascinating stuff.

The game is a third-person shooter, fairly standard as I understand it. I’ve said before that I rarely play this sort of game, but as far as I can tell this is a serviceable example. You have a few weapon slots that you can switch out, and some hard-hitting melee combat to supplement it. There are gradual upgrades through the game, and as you progress you also find a set of weapons you’re comfortable with, even knowing when to switch out some for a given situation. Even when I died several times in a row, I mostly felt good about going back to reassess my approach.

The enemies ramp up as well. I was initially disappointed with only having Orks to fight, but as you get familiar with them it helps to recognise what it’s throwing at you so you can respond. Then the Chaos came along, which was a great upset and added a new dimension to the type of fights you get, especially at first when you’re stumbling into fights between the two.

The Chaos element adds a lot to the plot, as it’s an underlying aspect of the whole mythos and the Imperium is very paranoid about it. You get some nice tension between your Captain Titus and the Inquisitor you meet on the planet, as well as suspicion from your own comrades when you find that you’re resistant to the energies of the Warp. (This was a bit of a mystery in the game, but I did some research afterwards and found that Titus may in fact be a member of the Illuminati, which in this universe consists of folk who’ve been possessed by Chaos Demons but have freed themselves, and have to keep it a secret for fear of persecution.) The ending is also a bit bleak, which totally fits the setting in which there are no winners.

Overall I had a great time, I’m not fatigued by playing too many shooters like this so I do enjoy the occasional one. I found it fun to play, and well made. And the story and setting were very compelling to me as well. I tried the multiplayer mode too, which was a bit meh. You need to put some time into it to get the good weapons, and everyone else already has them.

I should mention too that this was made by Relic, who made one of my all-time favourite PC games, Homeworld 2. They became stewards of sorts for 40k games after that, which sucks for Homeworld but if they make things as good as this, I can’t complain. I hope they continue to produce at this level after the collapse of THQ. Actually, looking a bit more they made Impossible Creatures too, a wacky strategy game where you put animal parts together to create strange killer hybrids. In fact, this is like their only non-strategy game. I can take or leave dull WW2-themed games, though. Well, as the Orks say, “Humans to kill!”

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1IYZGNz
Filed under: review relic entertainment warhammer warhammer 40k: space marine ps3 
June 8, 2014
Star Fox Command (DS)

And so I finally got around to playing the final Star Fox installment. I bought it a while ago, but waited until I’d played them in chronological order. I’m glad I did, because they do share continuity and build on previous events.

This game has been criticised, just as Adventures and Assault have, for not following up on “classic Star Fox gameplay”. I share the sentiment to some extent, but then again trying new things can be good and we can always just play Lylat Wars again. What a lot of people also fail to realise is that this game, unlike the 64 one, was made by the people behind Star Wing/Fox and the unreleased Star Fox 2. Additionally, it carries over many gameplay features from the latter, as it never had a chance to be released.

It’s surprising actually, how different Star Fox 2 is, and by extension this game. We have strategy maps, with your ships planning movement and taking simultaneous turns with the enemy. When the two meet, you enter instanced battle arenas in which you complete repetitive objectives and destroy enemy ships. There are a variety of characters, whose ships all have different attributes. All these qualities are shared between 2 and Command, which gives it a heck of a lot of legitimacy even as it differs so much from the scrolling stages we love.

There is some limited scrolling-type gameplay in missile chases and some bosses, but most combat is in All-Range mode. This is my less preferred gameplay style but the greater focus on charge shots makes it more forgiving. There’s no tanks or submarines, ships just fly underwater when they need to.

It’s also one of those DS games that does everything by the touchscreen, all buttons being identical in function as the shoot button. You move, boost, bomb, aim, and do the strategy stages by touch. It works pretty well, although the boosted usefulness of the roll belies its slightly awkward swiping activation. I didn’t have any major troubles with it, it’s just another control scheme to get used to.

The big draw of this game to me was the plot and characters. It has a familiar path-choosing system but ties it to the plot and decisions, giving you the potential not just of different stages to play but different combinations of characters in coversation and eventually different endings. The breadth of these branches makes many mutually exclusive, but the fun is figuring out what aspects of which branches are “most canon”, or at least canon to you, and which are compatible. For example, maybe Star Fox defeats the bad guys, or maybe Star Wolf does, with or without Krystal. If Slippy’s on Aquas then Falco can still be with Fox on Solar, etc, etc.

It does a great job though of involving many beloved characters. No Tricky unfortunately but many previous antagonists show up, either aligned with the new Anglar guys or with their own agendas. The new characters also mesh well, with each one having dialogue to involve them and make them feel right in that world. Said dialogue is well written for the most part, although I find Krystal’s characterisation confusing, a tradition of Star Fox I guess. It did make me laugh though at other parts. They also bring in Octoman from F-Zero as an enemy, which along with a couple other nods cements the connection between those series. Great stuff.

The mechanics of the game are relatively simple and as I said you repeat them many times, especially if you’re replaying for more endings. But I don’t mind that so much as long as the game has other factors to keep me playing, which it does, plus those mechanics feel good enough moment to moment to carry me through. Despite its lack of bombast and fidelity compared to Assault, I think I prefer it. It’s allowed to explore smaller, more personal stories in amongst the conflict due to the branching structure, and look at consequences and relationships rather than a series of big action scenes.

I’ve really enjoyed Command, it’s a fitting end to the Star Fox saga (for now!), there’s a lot of closure in there amongst some silliness with all the endings. There’s also a strange sense of fulfillment as it delivers on all the concepts introduced in the unfortunate Star Fox 2. Sure, it’s not the scrolling shooter we really want but for the DS that might not have worked so well anyway. I do want more but I concede that this game seems to end things well. Unless they do a continuity barrel roll, or else go the next generation route like Golden Sun or Sin & Punishment (I don’t have the confidence Nintendo will do that, it’s not safe enough). Well Nintendo, trust your instincts. Or not, whatever.

12:00pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1I53i7C
(Notes: 2)
  
Filed under: review star fox star fox command ds q games 
June 7, 2014
Picross e2 (3DS)

Uh. What can I say? It’s more Picross. That is a good thing.

Picross e was good, and now I’ve figured out how to activate the auto-greying numbers I enjoy the gameplay a lot more. The macro painting mode was really cool, the individual puzzles are very different in style to normal ones and building up the picture is rewarding.

It still has the drawbacks compared to Picross DS, such as non-animated solutions (although the pixel art does look very nice), and lack of Nintendo-themed puzzles, which was a highlight for me. It also again ran out of content quickly, because I played it so ravenously. But that’s the style they’re going for, short and cheap, and frequently released. It’s like episodic gaming!

I also wish there were more harder puzzles, because the hardest ones began to really test me and forced me to strengthen my MIGHTY PICROSS SKILLS. I really love all of Jupiter’s Picross stuff. It won’t happen, but I wish they ported their old Mario Picross games to stylus controls, I would be all over that. It’s very hard to go back to moving a square around when you have such direct control on the DS.

I’ve also bought e3 and e4, and they to some extent replace Micross (the painting thing) with Mega Picross, which uses numbers over multiple rows, giving you a new technique to learn. I still enjoy Micross better though, so for the number of such puzzles in this game I’m tentatively awarding Picross e2 “best Picross e installment”.

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1H-XjDj
Filed under: review picross picross e2 jupiter 3ds 
June 4, 2014
[Review] Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS)

Ah, Zelda. I’ve been playing them since Ocarina, of course. The three “big” entry point games for those of my generation are the original, Link to the Past, and Ocarina of Time. Unfortunately in the style of Nintendo at the moment, everything seems to be jamming on the nostalgia button HARD. Obviously this game leans very very heavily on LttP, which predates my own entry point. In fact I played LttP a few years after Ocarina, but it’s not “my” Zelda game, if you get me.

Consequently I don’t have the blind rush of giddy nostalgia juices for this game. Looking objectively at it though, I can say that it’s a very good game and I enjoyed it. I just feel weird playing it, because it’s so heavily based on a game I don’t have such a personal connection to, and indeed have only played once. There’s some lipservice to other games in the canon, but they’re a bit tacked on and feel out of place. Basically what I’m saying is it feels like the wrong way to do nostalgia.

Anyways the few improvements to the LttP formula, like having main character counterparts in the Dark World, having individualised Sages, shaking up the item acquisition and dungeoning, are very good decisions. Generally it’s good at giving you the things you need and want but still being challenging. Well, I say challenging because some rooms, tasks, and dungeons were tricky moment-to-moment but overall it’s an easy game.

It might just be my super skills, but I never died, and I always had boatloads of rupees. I never got lost or stuck, because there’s lots to do, which is a good thing. Not a good thing is the balance, although I have said the same about other Zelda games, and maybe Hero mode would have suited me better. It’s just that the things people have been saying about the risk and reward of the item system ring false to me, because I rented everything straight away, never died to have them taken, and just sunk rupees steadily into buying the items so I could upgrade them. Not very risky, and the rupees kept flowing in so when I’d bought everything it went straight to 9999 and I’m like “what now?”. So I bought a golden bee.

Anyway I had a great time finding all the things, collecting stuff and getting mightier. I liked interacting with NPCs, but ultimately that was pretty shallow and although the writing was good, it wasn’t a more personable experience than your standard Zelda game, and worse than several of them. I liked the Sages being people from the world that you’d met, but that’s ripped straight from Ocarina and like that game (and to a lesser extent, Wind Waker) they are removed from the world by the plot, making it a more dull place.

I didn’t want to get this game at first because it seemed like just another Zelda game, and that’s not what I wanted. But my lovely wife bought it for me, and so I had to play it. At which point I realised that playing just another Zelda game was something I could get behind. Especially when it’s as fun, addictive, and accessible as this one. Not exactly groundbreaking but it had some cool new features that will apparently inform the future direction of the series. I think they could stand to shake up more aspects of the experience (after all, Majora’s Mask is one of my faves) but this installment is perfectly solid. Yep.

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Filed under: review zelda zelda: a link between worlds nintendo ead 3ds 
June 3, 2014
[Review] Yoshi’s Panepon (SNES)

I like to play other related games to coincide with getting the new latest game in a series. In this case, I knew Yoshi’s New Island was on the way so I went after the number 1 most Yoshi’s Island-style game, the very inaptly named Tetris Attack. The name seems to be cashing in on the Tetris craze that sweeped the world, despite the fact that the Panel de Pon/Puzzle League games are nothing like Tetris besides being dynamic puzzle games. This title (and the Western boxart) also give no indication of the Yoshi branding, which makes the game insanely colourful and fun to look at. So badly named all around.

You may be aware that this game is a reskin of the Japanese original, Panel de Pon. It featured flowery fairies that I guess wouldn’t fly with the young male demographic. Yoshi’s still cute, but not that cute. They ported it to Game Boy too, which is nice and retains the same gameplay and features, with its own visual flairs that are still nowhere near the colourful frenzy of the SNES version. The GB one retained its Yoshi-ness when returned to Japan, and gained the name Yoshi’s Panepon, which is probably the most correct title, which is why I used it on this post (even though I played the English version). The Yoshi SNES version made its way over there eventually too, on the SNES satellite addon the Satellaview.

Unlike the other two Yoshi puzzle games, Yoshi/Mario & Yoshi/Yoshi’s Egg (NES and GB), and Yoshi’s Cookie (NES, GB, SNES, and SNES rerelease with extra stuff to promote some oven or something…), this game is Yoshi’s Island through and through. No adult Mario, no Mario enemies, just pure Island stuff. I couldn’t be happier to just take in all the framing. You get cute little sprites and more lavish backgrounds of Poochy, Raphael the Raven, Prince Froggy, all the favourites.

As for the gameplay though, I struggled to get the hang of it. Compared to other tile matching games I’ve played, the control is quite limited. You are only able to switch two tiles horizontally at a time, and try to create lines and combos. Combos are essential as the difficulty climbs in later stages, and it’s just something I just found got too hard too quickly. The learning curve seemed very steep: I was all easy, easy, easy, UGH I lose so quickly now! Luckily there’s lots of modes so when one part got too tough in the clear stages mode, I could switch to puzzle or versus and continue there for a bit.

Ultimately the difficulty and limited control meant the game’s appeal didn’t last that long for me. I absolutely love the Yoshi’s Island style and this game does a great job of bringing that across. But I got frustrated at the gameplay, which made me stop before really reaching the ending. I came for the Yoshi but didn’t stay for the gameplay. Is that a good soundbite? Eh, probably not.

But it does bring up a problem I have with some more recent sanitised Nintendo releases: the next Puzzle League games were a paired Pokemon set on N64 and GBC (based on the anime actually, a tradition of sorts in games after Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine co-opted Puyo Puyo Pop with branding from the Sonic cartoon… but I digress). And the GCN’s Puzzle Collection featured a straight-up sequel to Lip’s Panel de Pon. But since then there’ve been two releases for GBA and DS that are basic and bland, without any series stamped on them. This means the game is forced to stand on its gameplay alone which as I asserted is not that compelling. There’s a reason I bought Tetris DS and not Tetris Party, and it wasn’t the online multiplayer. And with that, I’m off!

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1HebXkq
Filed under: review snes yoshi's panepon yoshi tetris attack intelligent systems 
May 29, 2014
[Review] Star Fox Assault (GCN)

So having played Adventures, I could finally continue the Star Fox saga in order. The current canon anyway, which goes Lylat Wars-> Adventures-> Assault-> Command. The original Star Wing was retconned by 64, and Star Fox 2 was never canon anyway but I still intend to play them as well, as Command’s multiple endings gives a good excuse to explore the other non-canon corners of that universe.

My friend Scraps helpfully lent me his copy of Assault, another borrowing for which I’m glad, as it doesn’t feel like Assault has quite the staying power of other Star Fox games. It’s another experiment you might say and like Metroid Prime Hunters seems to have been built around the multiplayer, with the campaign added afterwards with the existing mechanics. This may be related to the never-released arcade adaptation, much like F-Zero GX/AX.

This one’s a Namco production, and its strengths, especially as a fan of the series, are its adherence to the lore and continuity and how it builds on them. It does a great job expressing this cool world in an impressive way, with developed settings, characters, and sci-fi concepts. It also manages to ccapture a very epic feeling to the events of the game. It adds explicit FTL travel by warp gates, new characters Panther as a member of Star Wolf and Slippy’s dad Beltino, as well as the game’s major antagonists, the hivelike Aparoids. No new planets aside from the Aparoid homeworld but it gives a new level of realism to many established locations such as Corneria and Fichina.

The characters are a strength of the series, and Assault gives them lots of chances to converse between and during missions. They even bring back Tricky, which made me very happy so soon after Adventures. The relationship between Fox and Krystal is developed a little clumsily though. There’s also a little problem with Fox in that his voice actor and model don’t convey much emotion, so as the protagonist he didn’t hold up too well.

Let’s talk about the gameplay though. As I alluded to the missions are mainly in multiplayer maps, with objectives to do. You can hop in and out of the Arwing or Landmaster when you need to, and there’s a lot of on-foot running and gunning. The controls for this mode can be customised but are generally a bit awkward, which sucks because you spend so much time like that. The maps are often a little small for proper Arwing All-Range action too. The first mission fools you into thinking this game will be a scrolling shooter like everyone wants after Lylat Wars, which makes all the pilot stuff a rude shock. They do try to mix up the pilot gameplay though. There’s lots of weapons to use in different situations, and terrain varies from mission to mission.

So you have three different control schemes to master that need to be switched between in many missions, and things like laser upgrades for the Arwing or a pilot’s weapons don’t affect the other mode. It feels a little bolted together.

On balance the game doesn’t top the Star Fox charts, but it remains the most modern-looking and with an in-depth plot, which definitely counts for something. It’s just a shame that the campaign (which is uniquely linear for the series) pushes the roaming on-foot structure so much, because the few Arwing scrolling stages were good fun and work better, for my tastes anyway. It also has lots of impact plotwise on Command, which I’m now playing, which makes me appreciate the continuity the whole series has kept up with (since 64 anyway). As for whether you should play it? Trust your instincts.

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1HB6X2A
Filed under: review gcn namco star fox star fox assault 
May 25, 2014
themmnetwork: “nadiaoxford: “ comicsalliance: “ BLUE BOMBERS OF TWO ERAS COLLIDE IN ARCHIE’S ‘MEGA MAN’ #37 By Caleb Goellner Even though they met in the 1994 Mega Man animated series, it’s been almost 20 years since Mega Man and his future...

themmnetwork:

nadiaoxford:

comicsalliance:

BLUE BOMBERS OF TWO ERAS COLLIDE IN ARCHIE’S ‘MEGA MAN’ #37 

By Caleb Goellner

Even though they met in the 1994 Mega Man animated series, it’s been almost 20 years since Mega Man and his future counterpart Mega Man X crossed paths. Next Wednesday, Capcom’s Blue Bombers correct crossover course in Archie Comics‘s Mega Man #37 by writer Ian Flynn and artists Jamal Peppers, Gary Martin, John Workman and Matt Herms. The new storyline builds on previously released MMX backup stories and gives fans an updated take on why and how Dr. Light’s most heroic androids become timecrossed allies with common foes. Lots of common foes. We got a quick look at some line art back in March, but now Archie’s ready to reveal some pages in full color. Click past the cut for what Chris Sims refers to as “The Crossover Event of 20XX”.

READ A PREVIEW AT COMICS ALLIANCE

I think the most important thing we can take away from this interspecies interlude is that a reploid’s hand is approximately as big as a human male’s ass.

Methinks that Comics Alliance is forgetting/ignoring the final part of the Dreamwave series. ;) —LBD

Of course, we all remember the time Rockman and X played tennis together. More recent than both those other examples, and arguably more canon as it was a game rather than an adaptation.
http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/Rockman_Tennis

(via themmnetwork)

10:44pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1Gqw2np
(Notes: 183)
  
May 23, 2014
[Review] Yoshi’s New Island (3DS)

I believe I’ve written about Yoshi’s Island DS here, and you must know it’s been widely criticised. Lazy design, just awful soundtrack, and mediocre art are a few of the common complaints. So when information about the new 3DS Yoshi game was coming out and it had the same developers attached, some red flags started going up.

I did enjoy YIDS in the end, maybe nostalgia has a lot to do with it. So I was looking forward to this too. I even preordered to get a little Yoshi egg game case. I played through it over about a week and, as I was expecting, was not exactly blown away. The level design is uninspired, the soundtrack is again awful. The art style is not bad, but is more a matter of taste this time as it’s all 3D models that evoke the original art of YI, but also make it more Mario-y, and thus less distinctive.

It has a few touches that I appreciated. Collectibles now are counted by set (red coins, flowers, and stars) instead of all up, which basically means that to get more completion in the game you don’t have to get perfect runs anymore. Oh no I can’t think of any more here come the bad points…

Items are still gone, and the goal ring now has a confusing system that awards medals (lame). Shooting eggs now involves an initial animation, limiting your twitch response time and making the process a tad unwieldy—lame. Eggs can randomly be yellow or red, which is fine and all for giving you some extra stars in a pinch, but a red egg will not bounce off walls. Lame. Yoshi now seems to run more slowly, as he must gain momentum; again, lame. There were quite a few little tweaks to the formula, but they were obviously not thought through because they add up to making the game feel worse than the two previous ones it’s aping. Very lame.

Oh, I remember. Each fortress (mid-world boss stage) now has a battle with Kamek, which cuts down on the unique boss battles (a highlight of previous games), but which is actually kind of cool because he’s always been untouchable. The fights can also be inventive in concept, more puzzly affairs. Although their execution can be dull to play through. So a mixed bag there.

The all-new mechanics are pretty bad. There’s big eggs which are highly situational. They’re given to you when required, and then you pass that point. Very badly implemented. The transformations are gyro-controlled, and I don’t have to tell you that’s a bad idea. They’re also very segmented from the rest of the game, which feels gamey and annoying. They also have a couple of concessions to the New Mario, Super Guide stuff which is so patronising. However, there is an excellent payoff to the aspect of the noob-helper character that ties into the ending.

Speaking of which, the final boss is boring and predictably completely rips off the original Yoshi’s Island, but worse. They then surprise you by literally throwing adult Bowser at you out of nowhere through a time portal. It makes no sense and really undermines the whole concept of this being a separate game series from Mario that takes place in the past.

As I said in my Club Nintendo survey, the good parts of the game are where it sticks to the formula put down by much better game developers 15 years ago. Ironically you could say those are lazy parts, but then the new parts to this game are very lazily implemented. The result is relentlessly mediocre. Of course I managed to get some fun out of it, being a fan of Yoshi’s games. It looks nice and play fine, but because it’s trying to evoke the original it just shows all the more what a pale imitation it is. I think it’s time for Nintendo to take the franchise a little more seriously, take it away from these guys.

Gosh I’m pretty negative eh? I still finished and enjoyed it, but maybe it’s best to stick to Yoshi’s Island GBA, out now on the Wii U. That damnable small screen view aside, it’s a great game.

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1GdEDse
(Notes: 1)
  
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