As part of readying myself for Dream Team, I had to finish the first three games, and this was the last one I needed. It may just be the latest-played-game effect that I’ve experienced before, but I felt like this was the best of the three. This contradicts opinions I’ve read that place it below the other two. Just taste, I guess. Since the gameplay is very similar to the other two, I’ll mostly just try to compare them.
The first thing that grabbed me coming straight off Superstar Saga is the increased graphical and sound fidelity on the DS system. The effects look better, the resolution is higher, it sounds better. The second screen is also used very helpfully, with maps of the area you’re in most of the time. It’s got that functionality from having the screen, whereas Bowser’s Inside Story only sometimes had a map, and sometimes Bowser or the Bros, depending on what was happening. It was inconsistent.
That principle follows through into other game aspects. BIS uses both screens, and the microphone, and touch controls. It’s cool to use the hardware but got gimmicky at times. PIT is more pure, like SS, but more advanced technically. I appreciate that. The “minigame” segments were also more organic, and less forced (and less often, I think).
The item systems are cool in this game. We still have eqipment badges rather than the activated badges of BIS that I didn’t use much. Special attacks are also activated by items rather than a character’s points stat, which is cool because you can stock up then feel better about using them more often, and you also get more different rewards on the map more often, which feels good.
The big feature of this game is the 2x2 gameplay, with the Bros. teaming up with their baby counterparts. I thought this was a very fun dynamic, and totally cute too! Instead of cycling through many abilities, they’re activated by different interaction between babies and adults, together or separate. Unlike the alternative of Bowser in the third, these characters are together and working together most of the time. The teaming-up mechanic weaves through both overworld and battles, and even to item management, not to mention the cutscenes. It’s a strong system, and getting more level-ups is always cool.
The presence of babies is due to the time-travelling plot. I liked being in the Mushroom Kingdom this time, and interacting with its residents under attack by a conquering alien race. Rather than the open world of the first or third games, this one is based around a hub in the present with portals leading to isolated locations in the past. It allows for a bit more variety to locales than in SS, and the stage-based structure has its pros and cons, but they do feel cut off. I did approve of having a Yoshi’s Island location, though.
The time travel was used a few times in cool ways, most often in interactions between younger and older versions of characters. Unfortunately there was no sense of consequences to locations, since you were stuck in the castle in the present, and the implications of an attack in the past to the present was not really explored.
The plot had a few little twists to it, which kept it interesting, as well as good use of recurring characters (I especially loved Stuffwell, Baby Bowser and Kamek, and the Toadsworths). However, the Shroobs made for less interesting antagonists. Despite their eeriness and apparent power, they didn’t really communicate with you so you didn’t have an equivalent to Fawful with his amusing writing. There was a stronger through-line than SS and even BIS, though, the plot being more focused.
So this game was a good sequel to SS, expanding on it and polishing its mechanics. The complexity of the 2x2 team was a good kind of complexity, and the babies were just great characters with a lot of potential and fun interactions with their older selves. It also is more focused than the other two I feel, especially the gameplay systems which got a bit out of hand in BIS. I was surprised that I seem to hold this one in the highest esteem of the three, judging from other reactions I’d read. But now it just leaves me to find out how Dream Team will stack up. Now that I’ve written this, I think I may be ready to play it now. Back to adventure!
I’ll keep this short. This is a great remake, but the game is fundamentally broken and unfun.
To elaborate, I was excited to get this game in the recent free promotion on 3DS, because I like free things. I was very appreciative of all its wacky features, like Game Boy Printer integration and the calendar, not to mention including (most of) the Lost Levels, the Boo race mode, the extra collectibles, the additional frames of animation, the added world map (even if it’s purely cosmetic). All good stuff, which makes it a great example of how to do a remake or rerelease right.
The two big drawbacks are using the same graphics, unlike the Mario Advance games and All-Stars, and the smaller screen size but same size sprites, which makes the whole thing much harder. Upcoming pits and enemies basically take you by surprise, putting the game at an even harder state than its wonky physics and slipshod controls already condemn it to. I don’t think SMB is a good game, because I grew up with World, not to mention Donkey Kong Country 2 and Yoshi’s Island.
But, I felt like I should play through it so as a Nintendo fan, I could say I did. Afterwards I also got the requisite point score to unlock the Lost Levels, through copious use of the VC restore point function, but I didn’t play that there because 1) It’s just annoyingly hard, and 2) It’s by far the inferior version, without even the NES version’s graphical update, still the smaller screen, and missing I think it’s 6 whole worlds?
Still, the fact that it’s there is cool, and it makes me long for more remakes of this type, with a ton of cool stuff added on. The Advance games are little better than the All-Stars versions or originals, and you still have the screen size tradeoff to contend with. There’s just a lot of character too in those menus, with Peach sitting around with her Toads and stuff happening, a fortune telling minigame with very limited purpose. It reminds me of the Game Boy Camera software with all its crazy little touches that tell you that they had fun making it. Anyway it’s a cool little oddity, but I’m glad I never have to play SMB again (unless I decide to give All-Stars a proper shot at some point).
I’m always thrilled to spot a Nintendo game for cheap at the shops. Metroid Prime Pinball was a real breath of fresh air, bringing back the Prime sensibilities in some small way to clear away the feeling I got from Other M. But that wasn’t why I bought it, just a nice side effect.
The game I probably played the most in my childhood was, oddly enough, Pokemon Pinball for the GBC. Pinball resonates with me even if I rarely ever had the chance with an actual table. It had been a while and I’m actually close to beating every Metroid game, since there aren’t too many. I’m glad I picked it up, even if it’s really short. So short in fact that hungry for more pinball content I emulated Mario Pinball Land, the previous pinball game Fuse had done for Nintendo, not willing to wait for the VC release.
The two games are surprisingly different. Mario is more like an adventury Mario game, while Metroid hews a bit closer to the aesthetic of a physical pinball table. In Mario, you go through single GBA screens in an interconnected area, accomplishing a simple task on each screen to get a star, while also collecting powerups and coins. It’s a very different take on a pinball game, with secret entrances to new screens, roaming enemies and boss fights, and a persistent story, of a kind. You can even continue progress in the adventure if you lose all your balls, the focus is less on the score attack. It’s like if Super Mario 64 was pinball-based.
Metroid, on the other hand, also has a story but plays out more like a pinball machine. There’s different boards but each one covers just the DS’s two screens. You are trying to re-enact the story of Metroid Prime mostly, completing a series of pinball table-like tasks to advance to a new area. It has bosses and enemies too, but a bit more modular. I love the liberties it takes though, doing things a real pinball table would never be able to do, like when Samus suddenly stands up and starts shooting bugs that are coming her way.
Metroid is really great, a well-tuned pinball experience with a goal and an adventure along the way. Mario is a bit less focused, with a sprawling world unlike a traditional pinball experience, with many secrets and actually a lot of accuracy required, not to mention trial and error and persistence. Yeah it’s hard but in a less fun way than Metroid. I preferred the DS offering, it seems a better crafted game, not to mention the subject matter. That’s not to say that Mario didn’t try interesting things with the pinball formula and gave a unique experience. It’s too bad Fuse has parted ways with Nintendo for now, maybe Jupiter (the developer of the three Pokemon pinball games) can take some time off Picross, and take another franchise to the table. Kirby’s had his shot… Donkey Kong Pinball, anyone?
Hrm. Well, I played it. I’m going to have to be a Negative Nancy again.
I like Super Mario World. I just want to get that out there, although I admit it’s probably mostly nostalgia. But it seems every Mario platformer I play leaves me stone cold. (Yoshi’s Island is not a Mario game. It’s a Yoshi game. A spin-off with distinct art style and mechanics. Ahem) The Galaxies were fun but didn’t have lasting appeal for me and in retrospect seemed flawed. Mario 64 is of course a glorified tech demo™. The 2D platformers are uniformly lacking in imagination, from the NES ones to the “New” ones. (I know everyone likes to suck up to Mario 24/7, so please read “solely in the opinion of a jaded gamer” after my every declaration. Thank you, Mario fans.)
I thought Sunshine would be the one to turn it around. Everything I’ve heard is that it’s the black sheep of the family, it’s divisive, it stands out too much. This seemed like a good idea to me. People have praised the world and atmosphere, qualities I value. I also like the extra interaction with the environment that FLUDD, the new core mechanic, affords.
Unfortunately I have to say that in terms of structure and design it’s way too similar to the ironclad blueprint that SM64 apparently laid down. I was expecting a world, but each level is segregated by magic portals. Why make the theme so homogenous when everything is so cut off? I expected a bit of plot focus, but there’s pretty much three cutscenes with atrocious voice acting (Bowser sounds like a Muppet). Peach was standing around talking to me for the first ten minutes: what a boon! But no, she got kidnapped again. Sigh.
I just couldn’t see past the obvious similarities, the mission structure. Sure, there’s lots of NPCs but they don’t really have anything to say and actually talking to them is stupidly awkward (too many functions mapped to the same buttons, and it’s very finicky for certain things like talking). I guess you could say I had expectations, but it fell short on all of them. However, at least it tried these things like plot and making a world, unlike other Mario games. The execution was just poor, and everything else is just the same as always.
So these elements that make it stand out to some degree were so flawed as to become drawbacks: the plot is dumb and the voices ear-bleeding. The world doesn’t have the variety that Galaxy or even 64 manages to achieve. It also has so many other missteps that I began to see why it was so widely disliked. The camera’s bad, many mechanics are poorly introduced and barely used, like Yoshi and fruits, and the different FLUDD nozzles. Swimming sucks. The enemies are both ugly and not effectively used. They removed the long jump, while making the slide slow you down more often than speed you up (due to collisions), and the camera focus button makes you ground pound in the air, which I inadvertently activated too often. The levels are too small and repetitive with many missions in the same area, doing similar things.
One of the few good points that stuck with me while playing was the dynamic that having FLUDD around enabled. Traversal was fun, using the hover nozzle to get some hang time or maneuever. Sideflipping then hovering was extensively used in my playthrough and felt good. It’s too bad the other nozzles were so bad and replaced the good one. And then many of the secret stages take away FLUDD altogether, negating the advantage this game has and replacing it with basic wonky platforming in very unforgiving stages. They also negated the ambition of world-building. You can’t have it both ways.
It seems the game has a lot of ideas jammed into it, but very few of them are followed through on and they just aren’t done well. Some do work, like having Bowser Jr. recur as Shadow Mario or having you clean up an area (I found pleasure in that, although I found aiming the normal nozzle awkward).
I dunno, my expectations were too high here and although Sunshine tried a few nice things, like a greater character focus and a consistent setting, those baby steps didn’t make it to the level that other 3D platformers already had such as Banjo-Kazooie, while the flaws make it not reach the gameplay level of other 3D Mario games. So it’s stuck between the two extremes, not quite as good as either. And subjectively, I simply didn’t have fun with it overall, and that’s the most damning thing. I’m proud to be a Mario hater (trololol) and this didn’t turn me around, but if you like Mario I don’t know if you would like this (assuming you haven’t played it and made up your mind already). It’s probably worth a go, especially for the bargain basement price I found it at.
Halfway through this review I found that my favourite Australian Nintendo site, Vooks.net, had done a podcast critique of Sunshine. I’m only halfway through it, but I agree with what they say so far. Check it out too, why not?
I was excited to see this pop up on the App Store. I have good memories of these games on our PC and friends’ Playstations, but it took me a while to figure out my strongest memories are of the second game. The first is really quite similar though, especially with some of the little tweaks they made in this rerelease.
Of course, it’s a game about destruction and murder, but the reason I love it is the traversal of the game’s environments via the medium of car. I also like being able to respawn yourself and repair damage at any time. Other highlights are the powerups, smooth controls, and unlockables. It’s really a great formula, but sometimes people can’t see past the inherent violence of a premise to enjoy the gameplay mechanics. Maybe I’m just desensitised.
I’m still playing it actually, I find it compelling enough to achieve all three objectives (racing through checkpoints, destroying other racers, and killing all pedestrian bystanders) in every race. It’s just easy to do, relaxing.
Sometimes it’s too slippery and I can see why they removed cops from later games. Still, it’s a classic in my eyes and deserving of a rerelease like this. I don’t know if I’ll go for the full-blown Kickstarted PC sequel though. I’ve kinda gotten my fix for now.
Recently I was gifted a copy of Dream Team (Bros), the 4th Mario & Luigi game. Having already played the third, Bowser’s Inside Story, I decided I should go back and catch up on the others before playing the latest, which apparently references the previous installments. I think I made the right choice in playing the older ones before the newest one, because I’ve done both 1 and 2 now and they seem to be improving with each one (in my opinion, common consensus seems to be first is best).
But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. The series has carved out a niche very distinctly from Paper Mario, which has quite gone off the rails in its last couple of entries. And unlike the latter, it seems to retain a core through each one, not changing too much at once. This may seem a classic Nintendo recipe for stagnation, but I say there'senough each time to keep it relatively fresh, and refinement of a formula can be rewarding—evolution as opposed to Paper Mario’s contentious revolution.
Er, more getting ahead. I can’t help but make these broader comparisons though, going from the third back. And I can’t help but feel hard done by on the still clunky design aspects of the first installment. For example, there are a ton of different modes and configurations for actions in the overworld. You get jumps, combo jumps, front and back hammer options, hand powers, and they all change depending on which Bro is in the lead. The difficulty curve is also a little wonky in places. We also have a lot of mandatory minigames that aren’t much fun, but at least break up the grind a bit.
These gripes are pretty minor though. As I said, the core is there and it is strong. The mix of isometric 3D puzzle platforming and RPG gameplay is a winning formula. Making it feel like Mario with these unfamiliar elements is an accomplishment. In fact these RPGs are my favourite Mario games, filling out this colourful world with imaginative settings and fun writing and characters. That skillful execution of these aspects is a big part of their appeal, and fortunately pretty much all the RPGs have it, despite some design shortcomings at times.
The Beanbean kingdom is an odd choice for location, taking us out of the Mushroom Kingdom. Ultimately it’s a great idea, fleshing out this world and playing with bean-related variants on familiar drones and such, as well as bringing in an interesting political dynamic at times. The antagonists and secondary characters are memorable, with recurring rogue agent Popple amusing and Fawful especially stealing any scene he shows up in, leading to his prominence in the third game. Cackletta is not as great as Fawful unfortunately but she gets the job done. Prince Peasley is fun too.
What really sells the game though is the Bros. dynamic, with Mario and Luigi playing off each other both in battles and the adorable cutscenes (not as adorable as the second game’s babies, though). Pulling off special moves is satisfying, but hard to do (so I didn’t use them often at all, except boss fights…). Their animation is wonderful, very fluid and expressive with plenty of cartooniness.
Anyways with this game apparently coming soon to Wii U Virtual COnsole of all things, it’s worth checking out for sure. But I do feel that the sequels build on the formula, as well as streamlining certain things to improve the experience. Now that I think of it though, this one probably edges out the others in its cast of characters and its immersive interconnected world (the second’s world is quite segregated and the third’s is too complicated). So I’d dispute the general feel that the first is best, but it does have its strengths and is in itself a great game. So if you just write it off, I will have fury! (it’s something Fawful says guys)
Ah, here we go. This is the closest thing to a “serious” game I’ve played in a long time. You know the ones, the mature, the big-budget, the “hardcore”. I’m not sure those labels really would apply, but it’s further up on that spectrum than the Avatar games, you know. It’s a Western action RPG and all that.
The real reason for playing this was the LOTR connection. The wife and I are big fans, and even if this wasn’t exactly penned by JRR (we’re on a first three initials basis), it’s at least in the cinematic universe and it explores corners of Middle Earth we don’t often see. I was just interested in being in that world.
As a bonus we got a game that we didn’t mind playing together. We picked the easiest difficulty, which I think was a bit easy for me but to be honest l didn’t want it to be more than breezy, it would have been frustrating. Doubly so for my wife. We had enough issues with the bugs and the clunky UI, I’m not sure the game would have handled loading from a checkpoint. One of the more amusing bugs was a persistent chain-rattling in an Orcish fortress that steadily grew louder until it overwhelmed all other sound effects, even when we left that room far behind.
There was also a heavy Uncanny Valley element, along with environments jam packed with invisible walls. It’s clear that this is one of those games with more vision than budget, although having said that in terms of ambition it wasn’t overly creative. But again, we weren’t there for an amazing gaming experience, we were there to play around in Tolkien’s world and laugh at the cheesy voice acting. Actually a lot of the voice work was quite good, but any character who has appeared in the films (Elrond, Gandalf, etc) was a pale imitation.
But yeah it was just fun shooting orcs, finding phat lootz, meeting new folks, getting a bit lost, levelling up. Because we were doing it together. There’s a new LOTR action game in development that looks kinda interesting, Shadow of Mordor. But it’s single player only. You just can’t forgive as many flaws when you’re playing alone. I was excited thinking we could play that together too, but nope.
But oh, I just loved meeting Radagast, finding a hidden dwarven fortress, learning the history (which is canon) of places like Gundabad or Fornost, interacting with eagles and dragons and Black Numenoreans. I’ve said before that I don’t care what the general consideration is whether something is canon or non-canon. It’s all canon to me, as much as I can make. I just can’t learn and remember details and characters and then dismiss them as not real. We had this experience, it’s real to me.
I played the ranger Eradan, and Everbloom played the elven sorceress Andriel. Local co-op ftw baby! We had fun poking fun at Farin, the AI third wheel. You also get in your party a personal eagle taxi who flies you all over the north like an obedient Pidgeot, and can do Sky Attack to enemy formations. I got pretty attached to these characters, and they in particular are voiced very well.
I had a look at some PC videos afterwards and oh my goodness that version looks so much nicer than the PS3. I would have thought that by 2011 developers could have worked out the kinks in developing for the console, but I guess that whole graphical creep issue had come into effect. Loading times were pretty long, but for all I know that’s normal. Like I said, not really into playing the newest hottest games on the scene, dudebro.
Well I think I’ve said what I wanted to. This game was a real novelty, it had a lot to like, but mostly for the lore and the co-op play. As a game apart from that it’s competent but not amazing. It’s also different to my usual forte so familiarising myself with that style was fun. Just don’t compare it too closely to Skyrim or whatever you kids are playing these days. Any LOTR fans though should definitely check it out, and set it to easy if you need to.
Who likes Yoshi? If you’re like me, you’re looking forward to the release of Yoshi’s New Island next weekend. We don’t know whether Arzest’s work this time will be as flawed as Yoshi’s Island DS, but either way I’m getting excited for it. To celebrate the first new Yoshi game in 8 years, here’s a huge comic release from my scanlation division, the first English release of these previously German-only comics.
These two comics were published in 1995 and 1998, for the releases of Yoshi’s Island and Yoshi’s Story, in special edition supplements to the official German Nintendo magazine, Club Nintendo. The first, Yoshi’s Island, is a directly game-inspired primer for how the gameplay works, although obviously with a lot of chatter and humorous moments. If you’ve read my DKC2 translation, you should know what to expect (although there’s even more explanation of game mechanics in this one). The Island comic also includes a little preview page from the magazine before the main thing starts.
By the time of the Yoshi’s Story special, the comic supplement style had changed to include multiple short comics that, in this case, are pretty tangential to the game itself. More silly and surreal, closer to a lot of the comics printed in the magazine itself.
Story is the stronger package, because it’s more amusing and has new, wacky storylines. But Island is still good and focuses on the singular main Yoshi and his reactions to the various challenges that crop up on his journey. They’re an interesting contrast on how the style changed over the years.
This was a lot of work to put together. Both comics are quite long, and were done over a period of time (with a break in the middle). But I knew I wanted this done in time for the new Yoshi game. My old collaborator Caramelman started to help me translate Island, but got busy and I struggled through the rest. Later I got in touch with the coordinator of the awesome Supper Mario Broth, who is familiar with German. They translated Story very well for me, and even provided fresh, high-quality scans! They also provided some tips for improving Island. As always, my helpful wife did a spot of proofreading and drew the credits page art for Island. A part of Story also calls back to a previous Club Nintendo comic, which had been previously translated by Opentrain (now at opentrain.theyear199x.org). I pulled their translation pretty much verbatim for that part, so thanks very much to them.
Said part brings up some inconsistencies, like how the Yoshi in question was an adult but is now a child(?). Bet hey it’s just a comic, you should really just relax. You may also notice if you’ve ever played Island that the Chatterbox that plays the role of secondary character who advises Yoshi spouts some blatant lies about game mechanics. You can’t grab floating coins with your tongue, and coloured eggs won’t just break on a wall and release items! So don’t listen to him all the time.
If you’re playing the Holerö game at home, look out for a couple of examples here. It’s the secret word for these comics, essentially a kinda made-up greeting that is often said by various characters. If you haven’t noticed it before, look out for it.
Well that’s it, this is the biggest translation project I’ve released so far. A gift for Yoshi fans everywhere. If you like it, send me some appreciation here or at my twitter, twitter.com/Miloscat. Also check out www.suppermariobroth.com for some sweet Mario (and spin-offs) content. Thanks to them, and to Caramelman and Opentrain for making this possible. Share it around and enjoy!
UPDATE: I found new scans of the Yoshi’s Island comic. They’re not massively better quality so I’m leaving the originally translated pages, but there were also extra pages not present in the first scan. So now there’s 11 extra pages in the YI special!
Here’s a little game I played on my iPhone recently. It’s a sidescrolling action platformer, quite floaty, with a fair bit of combat but also exploration. You get a sword and a changeable magic attack, and you level up as you go along.
The game is fairly polished apart from the slightly slippery controls. The art style is very chunky and low-poly, reminiscent of early 3D games. I think it’s intentional and it’s cool to see something calling back to this style that is seldom referenced. The explanation is that the game was literally made by three people: one for art, one for programming, and one for music. It’s obvious it was made by a small team, and it has charm.
It does get difficult at points, but if you seek everything out in each area the most trouble you’ll have will be the platforming. Some areas are also quite dark, making it difficult to appreciate your surroundings. The important thing though is that it feels good to play, if you can get past the floatiness I mentioned. Just remember to double tap the move button to run. Recommended.
Oh, I had this magazine! Their in-house artist’s work was a bit spotty at times. There’s a larger version of that pic on the poster of that issue, he’s playing paper-scissors-rock with Wario.
Here it is, the last Avatar game. But guess what, I got one of the Wii ones in a bargain bin so there’s more to come! Haha! This game, unlike the previous two DS installments, was developed by Halfbrick, an Australian studio subsequently responsible for iOS hits such as Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride. They did the first two Avatar games on GBA but the console generation cycle bumped the GBA out of the running and I guess bumped these guys up to DS. Bumped out were the RPG gameplay and the spritework, to be replaced by a stage-based isometric puzzle platformer rendered in 3D.
The comparisons to the DS Zelda are very easy to see. Mostly stylus controls, super deformed art style (although there’s precedent for that in the Avatar franchise), the early 3D polygon look. There’s less combat though and more using bending to solve puzzles in the environment. Much more, in fact, which is welcome after the limited interaction in the last two DS games. As I said, the structure is also level-based, with collectibles to find so you can go back and do it again better. Each is based on an episode, with many skipped of course. Each one also gives you a unique pairing of two characters to use, who have their own skills.
Between levels we have delightful little cutscenes. No voices but some very amusing bits of written dialogue with some visual humour and expression on their huge faces. The collectibles I mentioned are used to unlock characters and costumes exclusively for a volleyball minigame that can be played by DS Download Play (I heard you could use costumes in levels but couldn’t get it to work). It’s not the best motivation for completion but seeing those characters in the cute chibi style was almost worth it.
It’s just so strange to have this game (which is admittedly pretty quality) come after two games in the completely different, more serious, RPG style, especially when the second was bulding well on the first. The shift in gameplay and art style is very jarring, but hey if it gave them the chance to do something interesting with the Avatar license (which it did), then it’s not such a bad thing.
So it was fun. Not too hard to get through, which is refreshing after some bits of the RPG ones which were frankly a slog. Actually some stages were quite long but it tried to gradually ramp up the puzzles as you went on to keep it engaging. I miss wandering around and talking to townspeople but realistically they never had much to say. It’s a tradition for developers to ape Nintendo but this spin on that DS Zelda style worked out well, and its heavy focus on spatial puzzles seemed to fit. It’s certainly pretty unique and that chibi style is cute (I love how the boxart is a takeoff of its console bigger brother. I found a copy for $8 and at that price it’s great for fans of the show. So until I get to the Wii game, I’ll say flameo, hotman! (Yes that’s a greeting but I’m using it to say goodbye ok)
Pikmin 3! Another good reason for the Wii U to exist. As any long-time readers will know, I started with the second one on Wii and went back for the first one. After finishing this one and enjoying the mission mode immensely, I went back for the missions of Pikmin 2 to see if they were as good. The comparison was a little painful, with slightly wonkier controls and greatly blurrier visuals. So although it wasn’t too evident as I played it from memory, a direct comparison in that way just shows what an improvement Pikmin 3 is.
First of all, it looks beautiful. I never used the first-person screenshot thing because it was dumb, but I’ve heard it makes textures and whatever look crummy. That’s ok, the game is meant to be played zoomed out. Everything looks so great, it looks real. You don’t have the Gamecube’s plasticky feel, and there’s sparklyness and it’s just nice to look at. The music gets annoying though, what with all the repetition. I needed auditory feedback on gameplay though, so I was stuck with that.
The plot is interesting, if a little short. It’s about the same length as the previous ones though so I guess it’s ok. The missions really lengthen your enjoyment though. I was worried when hearing about it that there wouldn’t be any amusing writing as there is for 2’s item descriptions. But there’s the new data files, and tons of incidental dialogue that wasn’t there previously, as well as interplay between characters. Previously, Olimar has either been alone or with an arguably autism spectrum/self-absorbed crew members (Louie and the President, repsectively). This time, we have three characters who have different opinions on each other and quirks, plus Olimar’s logs. Certain incidental dialogues did repeat unpleasantly often in either content or gist, though. Overall it’s a plus.
It’s always disappointing when a sequel cuts things from a previous installment instead of expanding on them. It’s the Nintendo way, but the systems here are streamlined and well executed, which is their intention behind those practices. The basic mechanics are tuned from previous games, so the basic play experience is better. It’s good to have control options, but the Gamepad option is garbage (I assume it’s similar to the original GCN controls?) so like a lot of people I opted for Wii remote with Gamepad on lap for a map and whatever else it does. It works well, and the Gamepad is used very well on this occasion. No more treasure, but fruit was satisfying to find and had different classes so you knew what to expect for carrying it.
This leads to the juice mechanic, where your time limit is based on the fruit you find. I found the game was tuned way too easy, I quickly built up a good stock and stayed consistently very high (until it’s abruptly taken away at one point for some real tension). Otherwise though, a great idea, better than a hard 30 days or the vaguer Pikmin 2. It brings up the end-of-day schtick though. Juicing the fruits introduced a surprising amount of lag for what’s a simple white screen with some fluid effects. It’s what I’ve come to expect on the Wii U unfortunately. Anyway that bothered me, and it happens every day so you see it a lot.
As I’ve alluded to though, the missions are great fun and while they didn’t grab me in 2 (and were non-existent in 1), here I was hooked. Using the skills you’ve gained to clear out a small area quickly is a very different experience to the exploration and longer-term planning of the story mode, so both coexist peacefully. Boss rush mode can just go away though, the bosses weren’t much fun for me and doing them again was not something I was into. Plus, there was a cool co-op mode for missions (why doesn’t story have co-op?!). My wife surprisingly got really into it and we’ve been having tons of fun getting platinums, more often on the collect treasure as opposed to fight enemies. Micromanaging multiple captains is hard work for me, but having a human to communicate with we can get much more done. But seriously, give us a co-op story why not?!
I liked cutting white and purple Pikmin in favour of rock and flying, and the different abilities that were swapped or introduced, with new mechanics to learn for us veterans. But then, having white and purple come back in the missions was nice, like an old friend returning and it added more complexity which can be fun.
I don’t know what else to say. I was constantly impressed by the mix of cuteness and strategy gaming. It’s a true Nintendo game. Just a bit more content would have been nice. Buy the DLC missions, it’s worthwhile if you enjoy the mission structure (especially the second pack). I dunno, people say the Wii U has no games but here’s one. Although I have finished it now, but ooh Donkey Kong’s here. (Actually I’ve 100%ed that by now but you’ll see that review later). Anyways this is the best Pikmin game yet, very fun.
I’ve been sitting on this for a while, because I’ve been trying to gradually track down the final Nester comic that was missing. But thanks to a generous Retro Mags member, the colleciton is complete! And so I present to you, the Internet, the ultimate Howard & Nester collection!
This is the only place where you can find the entire Howard & Nester run, the Nester’s Adventure run, and the special mini-comics from other sections of the magazine in one place. The otherwise excellent Howard & Nester Archive at hn.iodized.net/main.htm lacks the Nester solo comics, as well as a few particulars and the most recent anniversary comics.
I decided to take this concept and ramp it up to its final conclusion: putting together these main comics with any and all appearances of the characters elsewhere in the pages of Nintendo Power, along with coverage of Nester’s appearances in Pilotwings 64 and Nester’s Funky Bowling, and Howard’s more recent revelations and projects. That makes this collection the best source currently on anything textually relevant to the characters of Howard and Nester. I don’t have quite the personal experience to go into detail on the context, but that’s beyond the scope of this project.
For example, within this collection you’ll find out all about Howard and Nester’s adventures together, their parting, and their solo projects afterwards. You’ll meet Nester’s whole family: his mother, father, twin sister, and even his son eventually. You’ll also see their association with the magazine itself and something of their roles at Nintendo.
I’m sure what’s in here will be far more than most people will care to know about, but that’s me. I love to see things to completion, find every scrap and collect it. If you just want to read the main comics, they’re here. But if you’re bored and want to see a few further shenanigans with the public faces of Nintendo of old, you can go deeper.
Please enjoy this, whether you remember the 80s, or 90s, or just want to know what your weirdo elders were exposed to. Share it around. And keep playing those games!
Once again, we have a handheld Lego game. I was on the hook with these recently on my iPhone as you might notice. This one’s brand new, so hey a thin veneer of relevancy! This one will be really short because come on.
My first impressions were that compared with Lego Harry 2, this was a lot more polished and clean. I certainly found it more fun. It is still a lite version of the console one, but in this case the implication is that load times and scale are much smaller than its big brother, which is a good thing for the bloated console version with its interminable load screens. It’s also a good example of TT Fusion’s handheld ones being more streamlined than the main events.
The quest and treasure system is similar to the console, but easier to work with. Sometimes I couldn’t tell whether I was in a level or a hub, which is a good thing: it’s immersive and seamless, more like exploring a world. You don’t have to change equipped items (or spells) all the time, but you get duplicate characters with different equipment which, coupled with the awkwardly implemented character switching system, makes it frustrating to get access to the abilities you need. I like the menu system generally though, as it keeps a lot of functions together and easy to access. Unfortunately it pushes its in-app purchases on you annoyingly.
They seem more needed in this game, too, as the studs you get don’t seem enough to unlock an appropriate amount of stuff even after you beat the game. It’s a frustrating dynamic, you feel like they’re gouging you as there’s so much stuff but you can’t afford it.
But, it’s a cool game in general, they’ve adapted all those great LOTR scenarios and setpieces in interesting ways, but quite differently to the console version, so it’s very much its own experience. All the areas are much smaller, but this is both good and bad as they seem cramped but you don’t have to endlessly traverse huge empty areas as on console. It’s part of the streamlining again. It’s also been ported to iOS very well. Probably the best handheld Lego game I’ve played so far. But now, they’ve ported the console version of Lego Star Wars Saga to iOS, which just throws everything off! Wacky! It’s also too expensive, and I’ve played it before with a co-op mode, so I won’t be getting that.
Here’s a nice one. At Christmas I found the time to play through a whole game in co-op with my bro, on his PC. And what a good choice for it! Short and sweet.
Guacamelee is basically a Lucha/Latin-themed Metroidvania-style affair, with great progression, really cool areas and art design, a physical combat focus but still really well done exploration, funny and deep characters, challenging platforming, fun secrets and upgrades, and yep it’s good. There’s so much to love.
Stay away from the keyboard though! Poor bro was forced to use it because I claimed the USB controller, and had a hell of a time. Like Super Meat Boy, the gamepad is the way to go.
Having fun in co-op gameplay can excuse a lot of flaws in a game, so I can’t say with certainty what faults this game may have. Some parts may have dragged and there may have been more frustration with the challenging parts in solo, but it’s more bearable with two. We didn’t use alternate skins very much because their benefits weren’t obvious, but in the extra challenge bits at the end we used their specialised properties at times. Also the music got annoying but we did play it in marathon essentially, it was good for a while.
I’ve heard complaints about the overuse of meme humour and references, but this is just in posters in the towns, it’s no big deal. It’s smooth and fast-paced, with plenty of techniques for traversal to keep it engaging, as well as pretty deep combat for when that comes up. It evokes old-school charm while also being modern and slick. It’s just such a polished experience, made with so much love. It’s a perfect example of an indie hit. I think I can leave it at that, because I don’t know what I can say—like many great indie games, I wasn’t convinced about it until I played it. And like many great co-op games, the real draw is the shared experience with loved ones, but this is an excellent game to have those experiences with.
Who likes Yoshi? If you’re like me, you’re looking forward to the release of Yoshi’s New Island next weekend. We don’t know whether Arzest’s work this time will be as flawed as Yoshi’s Island DS, but either way I’m getting excited for it. To celebrate the first new Yoshi game in 8 years, here’s a huge comic release from my scanlation division, the first English release of these previously German-only comics.
I’ve been sitting on this for a while, because I’ve been trying to gradually track down the final Nester comic that was missing. But thanks to a generous Retro Mags member, the colleciton is complete! And so I present to you, the Internet, the ultimate Howard & Nester collection!
