October 30, 2012
Pokemon Dream Radar (3DSWare)

I have been playing other games amidst this Pokemonning and comicing. However, one of them is a Pokemon game. I got to the credits screen, so I guess I finished it, but I’m still using it. It’s a useful tool to get some different Pokes, and also very good for elemental stones.

I suppose in that sense I’m not treating it as a game, more as a task in order to enhance my White 2. Same with the Dream World, but everything’s really cute there so it has that going for it. Dream Radar, on the other hand, represents all Pokes apart from the Kami trio as flying spheres. And AR games are really more interesting when virtual things actually interact with your environment, like the surface warping in the “?” AR card games. Here your surroundings are just a static backdrop.

I seem to have got through it fairly quickly, but I think if it dragged on too long it could get old fast. I have played it almost every day though. It’s quite good for the small price you pay, there’s a nice ramp of upgrades and unlocks and such. The new Pokemon professor has kind of a silly design, like many characters from Gen V and indeed most Pokemon games in general.

Eh I don’t feel like structuring my paragraphs too much because there’s not much to say. Don’t get this game if you don’t have B/W2, it’s not the successor to Pokemon Snap. Nowhere near. It’s not even a successor to the Pokewalker because that was more varied and a much lengthier proposition, whereas I’ve already got most of the Pokes out of this that I can (and overdosing on Bronzors). But as a distraction, like Face Raiders, it’s nice for a while but it can also give you a head-start for your team. Also, transferred Pokes’ levels scale with your progress so you can use one right away. Also also good for elemental stones, like I mentioned.

I’m the collecting type, so completing the Pokedex is actually a major goal of mine. For this reason, I’m glad I got Dream Radar. It’s got original art too and I wanted to get a more full Pokemon experience here. If I’m getting a new main series game on day one, I wanted the whole deal. So yeah. Ok, back to Pokemon! I just beat Skyla so I’ve got a tower to explore! Smell you later!

8:43pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuWG33n7
Filed under: review 3ds pokemon pokemon dream radar creatures inc. 
October 29, 2012
Comic editing

Since I’ve been working on these comics—translating, cleaning, editing, typesetting—I wanted to write a little something about my process. Self-indulgence is one of the purposes of this blog after all.

The translation is the most collaborative part. I try my best with Google translate and dictionary apps, but I’ve also had some help. With Japanese, my sister-in-law (a linguist who has studied Japanese for many years) has been a great help. I also used the iPhone app “imiwa?” extensively for kanji recognition. With German, I managed to secure the assistance of a German speaker from the DKVine forums, Caramelman, who is doing most of the translation work on my current project. My parents-in-law also lived in Germany for several years, so they have answered some of my questions. This is usually the first step, and I put it all in one or several text files using TextEdit.

The step I refer to as cleaning usually just involves whiting out the speech bubbles, although for the Kirby comic at least I had to do some image compositing. This is easier with some scans than others. The Super Mario-kun scans were very clean with great contrast so it was easy to just draw white boxes over the text and leave it at that. The Club Nintendo scans are not as nice, so I have to go around each speech bubble with the paint brush tool while zoomed in. They are somewhat pixelated at that level of zoom, so the granularity of editing makes it easier. I try not to edit or change any of the actual art outside the speech bubble, that’s an obvious decision on my part. All of the image editing is done in Seashore app, which I settled on after trying many different painting apps.

The editing and typesetting phase occur simultaneously, and sometimes require retranslation on my part. I type out the contents of the next speech bubble, change the wording if it needs to fit better, sometimes change the size. After all that, I usually ask my wife to proofread what I’ve done to make sure it sounds natural and flows well. The font I use throughout the speech and narration of a comic is SF Toontime. Again I tried various programs to find the best way for this process of positioning text boxes, and none of the paint apps were any good at it. Finally I hit upon OmniGraffle, a professional tool for making flowcharts and stuff, which I used during Honours at university to make diagrams for my thesis. It works great, and now I have a workflow for each stage of the comics process.

Oh there is a final step. After cleaning I try to save as raw an image as I can, to import to OmniGraffle. I then export, and finally use the export options in Preview to make the final product as close to the original in terms of data size. This usually involves saving to jpeg and adjusting quality, which I’ve found doesn’t make too much of a difference visually. The image size is the same throughout.

Well that was fun. See you next time.

8:41am  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuW9Jxmz
Filed under: comics scanlation 
October 28, 2012
Kirby’s Biggest Case comic from Club Nintendo, page 19. Another small mini-project, to complete an unfinished comic on the web. Kirby’s Rainbow Resort has a great page on various Kirby comics and manga, with a very nice design. The only thing it was...

Kirby’s Biggest Case comic from Club Nintendo, page 19.

Another small mini-project, to complete an unfinished comic on the web. Kirby’s Rainbow Resort has a great page on various Kirby comics and manga, with a very nice design. The only thing it was missing was the translation of the other CN Kirby comic, printed during the regular run, and half of one page from their translation of this comic, which had been corrupted somehow.

This comic, by the way, is from special edition #3 of the German magazine, and unlike most of the special issues, isn’t based on any one game in particular. Instead, there is a framing story about Kirby being a private eye with his assistants, Dedede and Bluefish, with interstitial dream sequences and so on to exhibit brief plugs for the spinoffs Kirby’s Dream Course, Kirby’s Ghost Trap, and Kirby’s Block Ball.

Anyway, this was a very quick job to add the lower third of the page just to make it complete, as well as retranslating the section that I had added. Font doesn’t match but meh, like I said it was a quick job.

I tried to post a topic on KRR’s forums about this, but it hasn’t been approved yet so if anyone’s involved over there, get on this! I can’t stand seeing things like this incomplete.

Speaking of which, here’s the links for the only Kirby comics I know of:

KRR’s nice page with lots of manga (mostly 4koma and a small bit of the CoroCoro comic, Dedede who lives in Pupupu, which is even cuter than usual) and the two Club Nintendo comics. There’re a few 4koma translations but it’s mostly the native Japanese. http://www.kirbysrainbowresort.net/multimedia/manga/

The English translation of Kirby and the Secret of the Glibber (ie the other CN comic) is included as part of the CN translation project by Opentrain. This has not been brought over to KRR either, so you spies get onto that too! It’s in the 1994 edition, here: http://opentrain.199xchan.org/?p=223

Of course, Kirby also featured fairly regularly in other comics during Club Nintendo’s run, in crossover situations. Highlights would be the Wizard of Oz parody wherein he is evetually turned into a toaster, and Die Nacht des Grauens (The Night of Horrors), in which he, Link and Mario become demon hunters. To see these and other comics, check out Opentrain’s site. They’ve done 4 years of comics so far, but also provide a link for the (almost) complete German raw collection.

10:05pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuW75fEd
(Notes: 4)
  
Filed under: kirby comics scanlation club nintendo comic 
October 23, 2012
Lylat Wars (Star Fox 64) comic from Club Nintendo, final page. Small follow-up comic project while working on a larger one from the same magazine. This is the final page of a comic printed in special edition #6 of the German magazine Club Nintendo. I...

Lylat Wars (Star Fox 64) comic from Club Nintendo, final page.

Small follow-up comic project while working on a larger one from the same magazine. This is the final page of a comic printed in special edition #6 of the German magazine Club Nintendo. I only did this page because the rest of it (or at least as much as anyone has scans of) has already been translated, and is hosted at the Arwing Landing gallery. Can’t figure out how to contact them about it… But now, all the pages I know about are available in English. If anyone can get them to put this up, let them know!

Other Star Fox comics:

1992 Star Fox comic, Nintendo Power

1997 Lylat Wars comic, Club Nintendo (German, translated)

2002 Star Fox Adventures prequel manga, Japanese Adventures website (Japanese, translated)

These three are hosted here: http://arwinglanding.net/gallery/index.php?cat=5

2002 Star Fox Adventures 4koma collection, translated: http://s127.photobucket.com/albums/p138/sfamanga/

1993 Nester’s Adventures comic featuring Star Fox, Nintendo Power (courtesy of Retromags): http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5774303/Nester%2047-035%20Star%20Fox.jpg

1994 Star Fox mini-comic on back of Corn Flakes box, with Game Watch giveaway: http://www.anthrofox.org/starfox/watch/index.html

Random 4koma strip I found somewhere, looks legit: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5774303/StarFox4koma.jpg

UPDATE: Arwing Landing has disappeared from the Internet, taking all of its galleries with it. Also Dropbox sharing doesn’t work any more. Basically, ignore all the links above and just go here for where I uploaded all these comics.

10:37pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuVq7N4D
(Notes: 15)
  
Filed under: comics scanlation star fox star fox 64 lylat wars club nintendo comic 
October 16, 2012
Howard & Nester missing episode

I recently went through the back catalog of Nintendo Power, thanks to Retromags, to catch up on this shared history other people have but I don’t by virtue of being born too late and in the wrong country. I found every comic, special comic, and mini-comic pertaining to Nester, except for one. The Nester’s Adventure strip was missing from the scan of Issue 52, September 1993. My completionist bones ache for not having this one comic. I realise this is a long shot, as likely no one will read this, but does anyone have a scan of this comic? It apparently is based on Zombies Ate My Neighbors.

By the way, I don’t wish I was an American 5-10 years older than I am. I’m happy as I am.

9:38pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuVOq7VW
Filed under: howard & nester nintendo power scans zombies ate my neighbors 
October 16, 2012
Little Big Planet 2 (PS3)

Well, I’ve been busy with a few projects lately. After I posted that last comic, I’ve been working on another one. It’s fun, and rewarding. I also picked up Pokemon White 2, and have been playing through along with my wife who has Black 2. I’m falling right back into the Pokemon groove after many long years. That’s for another day, though. Now I’ll address Sony’s family-gaming poster child.

When we bought our PS3, we borrowed LBP 1&2 from my brother’s friend, and I’ve finally managed to finish them both to my satisfaction. I’ll mainly talk here about the second, as I see it as mostly an upgrade and evolution over the first. Through both games, what impressed me most was the developers’ willingness to continue updating the game with fixes and content, some of it even free! The other impressive thing was the community levels, which are very often spotlighted by the Media Molecule team. I played some clunkers but some very interesting ones too.

So Little Big Planet is a series that Sony, or at least game journalists, are trying hard to set up as a Mario rival, I feel. I’m not sure if this is accurate, but I gotta say the feeling is very different. It’s a platformer, sure, but the similarity ends there. The focus in LBP is on customising, community, and gimmicks to modify the gameplay beyond run'n'jump. All these are successful to varying degrees. Overall it tries to do a lot of things, and does them fairly well, but it is also flawed.

My main annoyance with the game was with the community aspect. Frankly, I’m not a social person, and much of the game encouraged multiplayer. I did try to play multiplayer for most of LBP2, but was blocked from a truly great experience by the often bad lag (probably my crappy Australian internet), and other players. I’d say half were as good as me or better, but those with much worse skills were frustrating to play with, and some were downright obstructionist. Often I’d just be denied my requests for multi though, so I’d play levels by myself. Many levels are easier this way anyway, as “lives” are too finite and divided among players, so repeating levels from the start was a too common and frustrating experience. The main levels should have taken a page from many of the best community levels, and used infinite life gong checkpoints throughout.

Community levels, as I’ve said, were also hit and miss. Long loading times leading to a very barren and disappointing level discouraged discovery, but going by number of likes gave greater success. I also played a great series of Donkey Kong Country-themed levels with an original plot. These types of levels were amusing as they tried to recreate certain gameplay styles in the not always suitable LBP engine.

Gameplay in the main game itself was servicable, the highlight being interaction with the environments and objects. However, I feel that the heavy momentum made precision platforming difficult, the jump was too short, and the three-plane 2D movement was often poorly implemented. This was disappointing, but the grappling hook sections were very good, and other twists and gimmicks could be interesting. Once I was used to the physics and conventions, the variations often made for fun levels.

The collecting aspect was a big part of the game, and I always enjoy this. Every level is packed full of little prize bubbles, with stickers, costumes, and decorations. I took joy in creating new outfits for my Sack thing often, but didn’t use stickers much except to unlock things in levels (rarely). I also neglected the decorations for the most part. Personally I don’t have a taste for creating content in games, it’s just my nature I suppose. But since that was emphasised here, I felt I was missing out. Still, I liked finding objects to use in that mode, even if I didn’t use them. The other thing with cotumes was the obnoxiously high prices demanded for simple costumes as DLC. I don’t care how cool the IP you’ve licensed is, $10 for some clothes is way too far! *sigh*, that’s just the way the world of gaming is now.

So I feel this game had highs and lows. I had some very nice multiplayer experiences when latency was low, and some of the directions the game went were better than others. But other segments, such as the sidescrolling shooters, were buggy and less fun. The aesthetics of the game were very creative and made for beautiful levels in worlds with strongly cohesive looks. Overall there was an arts-and-crafts theme that carried throughout, and was very effective. Good voice acting too, in the cutscenes, although the plot was necessarily a bit silly. To be expected.

The extensibility of the engine to many gameplay types was definitely a strength, but I feel the basic controls were a little awkward. I think what stopped me playing it more often was the slow menus, lag and loading times. I wonder if people in Amurrica have a much better experience with games with a strong online aspect. Well, it makes me prefer offline games like Nintendo’s stuff, and retro games. They’ll drag me kicking and screaming into modern gaming over my dead body!

Wife’s comment: “It looked cute, but it was too hard.” I tried to play local multi with her, but unfortunately the difficulty ramped a little too quickly and later levels were sometimes downright brutal. Final boss was pretty easy though, just long.

9:22pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuVOol3g
Filed under: little big planet little big planet 2 ps3 media molecule sony review 
October 8, 2012

DKC2 gag manga translation

I’ve posted a few times on here about the official Japanese manga “Super Mario-kun”. Well, for a while now I’ve been planning on scanlating a small bit of it, for practice and to see if I could do such a thing on a larger scale. I already have scans, so it’s more like translating and editing—I’ve never owned anything rare worth scanning. I chose to start with these because they’re very short, only a few panels on a few pages; they’re very simple, being a children’s manga they have simple language and plenty of furigana over the kanji; and the scans I had were very clean, well aligned, very high contrast, which made the typesetting and all easy.

What I’m presenting here is a series of 8 4komas (4-panel gag strips), and 2 picture puzzle activity pages, that went in between chapters in a volume of Super Mario-kun. This volume was a recreation of the story of Donkey Kong Country 2, except with Mario and Yoshi, because they’re the main characters of the manga. You’ll find they tend to visit a few places they’re not supposed to, like Wario’s Woods, and their past selves in the Yoshi’s Island volume. Only natural, with these 3 sub-series being part of the greater Mario Universe.

Don’t expect any heavy themes here, especially from the spot-the-difference page. The nature of this manga is visual jokes, occasional toilet humour (not in these, though), and over-the-top comic violence. But, and this is the reason I translated this at all, it is a contribution towards the overall Donkey Kong pseudo-canon. I’m not sure what to call it actually, the body of work of DK-related materials, not all of which are strictly in continuity but which are still important (at least to me). Anyway, I’m a fan so I was interested in a comic about silly monkeys.

Give them a read, and if you’re a true fan like me, save them to your computer and spread them around. Although I intend to post this on DKVine and DKC-Atlas myself, so I’m not sure where else you would go with this.

EDIT: By the way, credit to my sister-in-law for translation help. There’s only so far you can get with online dictionaries and apps. Also thanks to my wife for helping to make some lines more natural.

11:47am  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuUpWm0s
(Notes: 31)
  
Filed under: scanlation fandom donkey kong comics donkey kong country super mario kun comic 
October 4, 2012
Yoshi’s Island DS (DS)

Haven’t been here in a while, I’ve had other things on. My brother’s wedding, and I was reading comics instead of playing games (they were game-related comics, though—I’ll post about that later), and yesterday I marathonned the first half of Dark Harvest. The “big 3” Slendervlogs, which I follow, are kind of in a lull so I decided to expand my horizons. Plus the Marble Operator discussion podcast is starting to cover the series so I watched it. Had to figure out the order things came out in from the two or three Youtube channels, two blogs, two Twitter feeds. Par for the course in a SlendARG, really, and most of them are active for only a short time anyway. Unfortunately, unlike EverymanHYBRID, there isn’t a well-maintained wiki with a handy timeline. And I’m kinda off Unfiction at the moment, so i did the legwork myself. Anyway, how about some games!

Yoshi’s Island was a huge game of my childhood, very high in my estimation of gaming joy. I have a lot to say about the series consequently, but I’m aware of post length getting ridiculous so I will save some content for two extra posts later: words about redesigns and character interpretations, and an overview of the Yoshi series as a whole. For now, let’s talk about YIDS!

Since I found out about this game, naturally I’ve been interested. Similar to how Jungle Climber interested me, it was another developer making a latter-day sequel to a series I love on a handheld. But unlike Jungle Climber, a lot of what I read about YIDS was quite negative. Words like “romhack” and “awful soundtrack” got tossed around, which quite put me off. In the end I decided screw it, I’m going to play this game and love it anyway, it’s the only unambiguous sequel to the great original. And I did!

The original game was made by Nintendo EAD, the main first-party studio with many sub-divisions. I guess they were too busy with NintenFerrets or New Super Mario Bros 15 or something,(NOTE I wasn’t too far off, the team that previously made Touch&Go on the DS now make NSMB and the only director for YI not now a General-type Manager is Hideki Konno, who heads the Nintendogs & Mario Kart team) so it was outsourced to Artoon, who have previously been caretakers of Yoshi with a tilt-based thing on the GBA. I’ve played Universal Gravitation (or Topsy-Turvy as you might know it), and since I was expecting a spinoff and not the second coming of Island, I though it was ok. It’s a bit odd but I just like any little thing in a great series.

The Yoshi series is one of those B-list series that gets shipped around to lots of different developers. Fans of series like DK, Wario, Star Fox, Metroid, F-Zero, etc can be very bitter and resentful towards Mario and Zelda who get rampant sex parties thrown for them by Nintendo every other week, while they get shared between teams or developers and shifted around like a semi-popular show on a commercial network. Artoon (who also made the pretty bad Blinx the Time Sweeper) are competent enough I suppose, but I feel their games lack polish. They put a fair bit of fanservice in YIDS, but also added their own things that are weird or jarring. Some say they mishandled the development of this game. I think it could have been done better, but I’m just happy it exists really. I guess I’m just a few steps away from abandoning real games and only playing fangames and truly good romhacks. :-p

So the main difference between the original and this sequel is the baby-swapping mechanic. This is a cool idea, which allows the Mario continuity to become even more twisted and impossible, especially when you add that adult Bowser travels back in time, and Kamek may or may not have. But it also allows each baby to give different abilities to Yoshi. It’s cool and you use each one often, but like many things here it could have used some work. Some of the abilities are underused, like DK’s shoulder-barge. Peach only has one advantage that is context-dependent, and her eggs are worse, so she seems nerfed compared to the others. Wario is also very situational, but his specific sections are interesting, puzzly bits. Baby Bowser is just bad. His fire breath is annoying to use and is made redundant by placing fire pots in a level you can eat. The three heavier babies also make your jump worse, so there is a trade-off for their advantages and often Mario is just the go-to pick for many levels (but DK’s mixture of abilities make him very useful too). But switching can’t be done in a map screen and if you’re in a harder level where there is no stork drop-off for a while, or they are few and far between, it can get very frustrating. You have to go back to World 1, play through an easy level and finish with the baby you want.

There are only 5 worlds compared to the original’s 6, but there are 2 extra levels per world. The original had a sceret level in each world, and the Advance remake also added an extra level per world, so this is a slightly shorter game. But I didn’t mind about that really. What I minded was the removal of all inventory power-ups. They were cool, and they were an extra help if levels got tough, especially for some quick stars before the end. YIDS is overall a much easier game, I blazed through with tons of lives. However, near the end the difficulty spikes in a few stages, and the extra levels are especially brutal, made more so by the lack of items to use. Getting 100% on all levels is also very tricky, but I think that is no different to the original. I enjoy the challenge of the secret levels though, and they are optional, but I don’t know if I will 100% them. There are also extra collectibles in the form of big coins for specific babies to find, one per stage, which was good. I also liked the museum feature where you can run through and view all the baddies you’ve egged in their natural habitat.

Let’s say something about the graphics & sound. I’ve looked at spritesheets for this game so I believe when people say that Artoon blatantly ripped many sprites from other (Yoshi) games. Koopas and others from YI, Yoshi’s sprites are from Touch&Go, adult Bowser is from their Universal Gravitation. And their new enemies and elements for this game look out of place often, with different styles and even differently done outlines! It adds up to make for a quite inconsistent presentation. After a while you get over it though, you just have to accept it and try not to dream too much about what could have been. Say what you like about Yoshi’s Story (I will play it soon), but its visual style was internally consistent. The sound design for this game was also just, just bad. At first I minded the new “hup” “yow”, etc sound effects of Yoshi’s voice. But that’s just because he didn’t have that in the first YI, and he’s consistently used them since YS, so that’s fine. But the music is the truly awful part. Boring tunes, short loops, massively overused main musical riff. Have some variety! The main theme is ok, they used it in Brawl and it’s not too bad, but it gets old real fast. I would have preferred if this game just ripped the whole soundtrack from the original. I normally play handheld games with the sound turned off anyway, so I guess I didn’t have to endure it.

Ok, stream of consciousness time. Bosses were pretty good, a lot of gimmicks were underused, interesting level archetypes and combinations, some very cool twists on level design and some pretty boring or confusing levels. I liked the cutscenes and the fact that certain babies joined and left, so you don’t have to play all levels with Baby Bowser on rotation. General gameplay was just like the original, big plus for my nostalgic bones. Many returning enemies, new ones were kinda weird, but the return of those Klaptrap-type guys from DK Jr that aren’t Klaptraps. Museum was cool but not well explained (need to throw egg at enemy for them to appear there). Each baby had their time to shine, and were made to feel useful, except maybe Bowser. But Peach should have had at least one more thing to recommend her. General plot a bit off and confusing, but an interesting addition to Mario canon with the concept of the Star Children. Yoshi series should get away from Bowser as the bad guy so much. Nice length and good replayability. End-of-level bonus games not as interesting with only lives on the line, no items. Also in-level minigames not as good as original and nothing at stake there as far as I can tell. Two-screen mechanic interesting and cool, levels were generally designed around it too so that’s a plus.

All in all though, I liked YIDS. If nothing else it reminds you why the Yoshi series is so great and makes you want to play the original again. But it has its own charms and benefits too, which in some ways make it unique to the original and worth playing, such as the babies and the dual-screen. Unfortunately I haven’t gotten to Yoshi’s Story yet so I can’t compare it. But I had a lot of fun, and I’m still going improving my scores and unlocking extra levels so I’d recommend it for anyone who’s played the original. If not, play that one (SOMEHOW—it’s not available on any download service so you have my permission to emulate either version for now). In fact, you could emulate this one too as (aside from no touchscreen or microphone use) there is zero chance of reprints, there is no DS download service and Nintendo (and Artoon) makes no money from second-hand sales. I am still not entirely convinced that anyone gets data from second-hand sales either. I bought this second-hand because it’s a complex game, which is easier to play on the proper hardware, and I enjoy things better on the real console, especially for handhelds. But anyway I shouldn’t talk about this so much. Fun game, but hey I say that about pretty much all the games I play. Also I’m a Yoshi fan.

Wife’s comments: My paragraphs are too long, it makes my reviews hard to read. Erm.

10:25am  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuUbO8Sm
Filed under: yoshi yoshi's island ds ds nintendo artoon review 
September 18, 2012
Things that are not Lego themes that should be Lego games

Ok, this is just a pie-in-the-sky wishlist for great franchises that I personally, as a fan, would love to see made into a TT game. They should have a varied cast, plenty of action (although this is not strictly necessary), and a lot of narrative content. Some of these may have to have narrative improvised for the game, also, so I guess the main criterion is a large cast of interesting characters with different abilities.

Doctor Who!

Donkey Kong Country!

Lost!

Mega Man!

Studio Ghibli films!

The HItchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy!

Firefly!

The Zelda series!

The Mother/Earthbound series!

The Slender Man Mythos!

The Matrix series!

Heehee, ok some of these are a bit silly. Reply or reblog or whatever with your own top wishes, or if you want to challenge me to outline what a game in one of these themes would be like. Yes, I’m talking to YOU! Do it, now! It’s fun!

11:10am  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuTbTW5O
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: lego third drawer down things that should be lego games fandom traveller's tales 
September 18, 2012
Lego themes that should be games

So I was looking on the Lego wiki at what properties had been licensed by the Danish company, to make sets out of. Turns out there are all sorts of strange and cool licenses that have only turned out one or two sets. I know not everything is a Star Wars or Harry Potter, but I wanted to list a few licenses Lego already has (or had) that I think would make awesome video games if turned over to Traveller’s Tales (maybe they should hire a few extra teams).

Avatar: The Last Airbender. Need I say more? If you are a nerd you already love this show. It’s got eventful episodes, arcs, three convenient seasons, a diverse cast of interesting characters with different abilities. All the ingredients for a great TT game. Only two sets got made 6 years ago, but come on! Avatar! Plus, there’s sequel potential for a Korra game down the line.

Spongebob Squarepants. The other Nickelodeon Lego theme. Not as much arcs, but there’s a movie which has slightly more plot. Although this series has potential to make a different sort of game, maybe just vignettes, more minigame focus. Maybe an original story, like in the Batman games, although this would be plot-light. Again, many characters, I guess the environments don’t vary too much. But there have been several Spongebob games before, including a Drawn to Life spinoff based on that one episode with the magic pencil. Plus, Viacom (owners of Nick) also licensed Indy, and Rock Band to Lego. Rock Band had a unique gameplay style (ok, it was the Rock Band gameplay style but still) with the Lego visuals.

Jurassic Park. Another big franchise, ok maybe it was bigger in the 90s, but I feel like there’s been a bit of a revival recently with the DVD box set and the Telltale adventure games. Importantly, it also has a series of movies (seems to be an important factor in Lego games, to flesh them out I guess), and many characters, including the potential to play as dinosaurs. May suffer from the Pirates problem of not too many truly distinctive characters, but there’s a few different environments, especially if you take some liberties with the story and the Isla geographies.

Toy Story. Great franchise, lots of different characters, although most may have shapes that are too weird and not suited that well to Lego. Films have good setpiece moments for a game. Films already have a strong theme of cooperation and friendship, works well for a co-op game.

Winnie the Pooh. I’m not sure if this would have the necessary strong narrative throughline (see Spongebob), although the Lego games tend to butcher that anyway. I just have a soft spot for Pooh from my childhood. There may be a potential for even kiddier games than what TT already makes, although the appeal for “all-ages” would then drop. Ah, oh well.

Marvel Superheroes. This is a brand-new theme. Both this and DC are now sub-themes of “Super Heroes”, which is strange to see these brands that compete in a big way together in Lego. I’ve always been a more DC fan than Marvel, but there’s some strong characters and things in there. Spiderman has also been a theme for a longer time, so I could see a Batman 2-style Spiderman game with other Marvel dudes dropping in more and more. Or an Avengers game where you play through the individual hero’s movies (briefly) then build up to the Avengers portion. Perhaps not enough variety in protagonists there, you don’t get the esnemble til Avengers proper. Eh. X-Men, on the other hand… That could work.

The Hobbit. I think it’s obvious to make a follow-up to the upcoming LOTR game after the Hobbit movies are out. This one is probably coming.

Star Wars Expanded Universe. There are a few sets not based on the movies or Clone Wars, but I guess the whole thing is not as popular. But hey, they’ve done all the rest of Star Wars until the new TV show comes out, and there’s buttloads of material to choose from. It doesn’t tie together in the same way but if you still want to scrape the Star Wars barrel…

Chronicles of Narnia. Ok no sets but stay with me here: there is a set based on Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium. I know, right? So Walden Media owns that and also the Narnia movies. And it hasn’t happened yet, but when you think of epic franchises with big casts, after Star Wars, LOTR and Harry Potter surely this is the next logical step!

Prince of Persia. The sets here are based on the movie. No thanks. How about a game based on the, er, games? But Lego? Sure, no precedent but it would be better than basing them on the movie. Although I guess you would play as the Prince and… the Prince. Ok maybe not such a good idea. It leads to my next point, though.

Other brick company (such as Mega Bloks) licenses. Man, for third-rate knock-offs with cheap-looking manufacturing, the other guys get some licenses that could make for great games. Most of them already are games, but simplified Lego versions would be great! It’d be like Nintendo Land, but better! Let me run through a few licenses other brick companies have that should be in Lego’s hands for more awesomeness: Narnia… oh, that’s where that license went. Damn. Halo! Star Trek! World of Warcraft! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Angry Birds! Transformers! Starcraft! Mario Kart! Pokemon! Ok, so maybe not all of these would make good Lego games, but I know Halo would. I love Halo!

Lego is hoarding lots of great IP, not seeing fit to give us, THE FANS, what they want. Ok I’m obviously joking, Lego do a fantastic job at what they do. Their video games could use more quality control but they have a good formula and stick to it, I think if they applied a few more licenses to this formula they could make for some very happy kids and fanboys alike. And they are doing just that. I can’t wait to see what TT does next! (Hint: it’s Lord of the Rings next. Squee! But after that? Who knows?)

10:41am  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuTbKpwO
Filed under: traveller's tales third drawer down lego 
September 18, 2012
Lego Harry Potter (iOS)

With all the games I’ve been playing on and off, I managed to finish one of them. Sometimes I’ll play one game for too long and run out of steam, then come back and pick it up later. In this case, I was playing on my wife’s iPad, since it’s a Universal app. After I got about ¾ of the way through though, it started crashing all the time. And hardly any games take advantage of iCloud saving. Luckily, I’m a nerd. Using a program called iExplorer (it’s not Internet Explorer), you can look at a horribly organised list of apps on your device, open them up and check the contents. It’s easy to do through Finder with apps in your iTunes library, but if you want the saves made on the device you have to use this program. It’s ugly and not optimal in a lot of ways but it works. So I copied the saves, installed the game on my iPhone, used the program again to dump the save in the game’s proper folder and bingo, works perfectly. I also use this program to back up my saves when I’m done with a game and want to delete it, because I’m always running out of space on there but I don’t want to lose the save forever.

Anyway, I moved to the smaller screen and finished the story mode. Now I’m doing Free Play, trying to at least unlock Snape. Our dream team for the other iterations of this franchise is Neville and Snape, for whatever reason. It’s one of the most fun parts, teaming up all your favourite characters. Like imagine if in Empire, Vader and Boba Fett went on adventures in between trying to capture the Rebel scum. Well you can do that.

So speaking of other games in the Lego series, this particular iteration is, as far as I know so far, unique to most others. It has a fixed isometric perspective rather then the moving 3D of others (although handheld versions are usually more fixed than console ones, and the older GBA versions were isometric), it features many more but shorter levels, rather than the usual 6 levels per episode. It has RPG-ish qualities of collecting items in an inventory and doing small tasks for people. There are gameplay elements that require use of the touchscreen, such as Cooking Mama-style potion making and drawn symbols to cast spells. And perhaps most significantly, there is a large amount of written dialogue in this game, which allows greater clarity of what you are to do, and interaction between characters and NPCs. While the silent recreations of famous scenes and expressive grunts and expressions has always been a core part of the Lego games, the two newest installments (Batman 2 and LOTR) have introduced spoken dialogue. This game was the first, however.

Traveller’s Tales have always made the console games, and I have noticed that in some ways the quality or perhaps polish has dropped off a bit in more recent games. This may have to do with playing Wii ports of games primarily for more powerful consoles. The Wii version of Saga was a port of the two Star Wars trilogies from the PS2, with the PS3 and 360 versions getting a graphical upgrade from this. After that, games were developed for the PS3 and 360 then downgraded for the Wii, which may explain the drop I noticed.

On the other hand, the handheld versions are developed by a subsidiary, TT Fusion. Now I haven’t played that many of the handheld ones, but most ape the console ones, being mainly stripped-down conversions. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as the formula is so solid. But HP1-4 portable represented a big departure from this formula, and its inventiveness and willingness to try new things must be applauded. In fact, I think it is a much better game for it, having seen parts of Star Wars Saga and HP5-7 portable. It just seems like it’s more suited to the platform as it was made from scratch, not beholden to its console brother. Instead of inviting comparison in which it would most likely come up short, it differentiates itself.

So I’m a bit of an aficianado of the Lego series, having played Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (PC), Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Wii), Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Wii), Lego Pirates of the Carribean: The Video Game (Wii), and Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 (Wii). Also demoes of the two Batman games. I also rented Indy 2 with my friend once, but that was only to hack his Wii and install homebrew. My first one though was one of the Star Wars ones on PS2, I don’t remember which. So it may be a little late for this, but they work like this. Lego licenses a good IP, and makes some physical sets. I guess the popular ones then get handed over to TT, who makes a game out of it, mostly following the same formula: recreate the plot of the media which was licensed, abbreviated and with humorous touches. Set levels in the most significant or most gamey segments (sometimes having to make things up to add, to make for a whole level). Fill the levels with collectables and destructable objects. Include an appropriate hub (the Cantina or the Leaky Cauldron). Finally, make just about every character from the series playable, with some abilities shared between them.

The strength of the formula is its simplicity for novice gamers, making for family-friendly gaming sessions; the ubiquitous co-op, which means that you can have fun together; and the worlds and characters attached to the strong IP they have licensed, which let you relive your favourite stories in amusing Lego style. Of course, handheld games have less reliance on co-op. They do multi-cart multiplayer apparently, but not this one (at least, not on iOS). So no family together gaming, but the rest of the formula is there, along with the strong collectathon focus (a favourite genre of mine, having grown up on Rare’s N64 3D platformers).

All this adds up to an enjoyable game, and especially in this case the novelty of its mix of familiarity and differences to other Lego games made it fun for me. It can be a little rough around the edges, but frankly all of TT’s Lego games are like that and aside from some awkward controls there’s not too much to fault it for. Many faults can be forgiven because the gameplay is simple and doesn’t rely on strict timing or precision. It’s just exploring, puzzles, some light action. The faults are also of lesser magnitude than the console’s, which more often than you’d like could lock up or glitch objects or characters very badly, forcing you to either restart the level or in some cases power off the console.

But I should wrap this up. This game was great value (on sale for $1, sure beats the $50 DS version), and its uniqueness within the Lego game family is appreciated, makes it stand out. It’s unfortunate that Fusion seems to have gone back to their previous model of cut-down console remakes. This style could have developed to give handheld iterations their own identity. As it is, there’s not as much motivation for people to get both if they’re too similar. So if you like Lego games, this is worth checking out more than any other portable version, especially with its easy availability on the App Store. I love digital distribution, you don’t have to deal with stupid stores, it’s all the same price. Ahem, anyway, having said that there are many portables I haven’t played, I’d especially like to try the GBA ones since they’re also in a different style. But it’s a fun little game, not too hardcore, and could still probably be played together with a kid on an iPad perhaps. Nice little time-waster. Ok, until next time then.

9:33am  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuTb1LxO
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: ios lego lego harry potter: years 1-4 traveller's tales review 
September 10, 2012
bowonbirdo: “ Early-era Mario and Luigi in the jungle. It looks like it’s Nintendo-sanctioned, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what this might be from. Anyone? ” New Information: This art appeared in Issue 5 of Nintendo Power (Mar-Apr...

bowonbirdo:

Early-era Mario and Luigi in the jungle. It looks like it’s Nintendo-sanctioned, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what this might be from. Anyone?

New Information: This art appeared in Issue 5 of Nintendo Power (Mar-Apr 1989).

image

On occasion of Nintendo Power’s death, I was flicking through the old issues, courtesy of Retromags. I was stopped by this image, which I recognised from your post. In the credits section of this issue, Yukio Sawada (the author and illustrator of the Super Mario-kun manga) is credited for art.

Now Super Mario-kun did not begin publication until August 1991, two years later, according to Super Mario Wiki. The sort of hidden object puzzle panel thing represented here in NP was common in SM-kun between stories, along with 4komas. But this art, made possibly for this magazine, possibly first for a Japanese one, may have been the predecessor and progenitor of the manga.

Hope this helps/is interesting!

8:21am  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuT5SSQf
(Notes: 18)
  
Filed under: super mario kun 
September 4, 2012
Katamari Forever (PS3)

Still working away at several games at once, but I managed to finish the plot of this one the other day. That’s by no means the end of the game, of course, and I will still enjoy playing it for a while.

This one is unusual though, in that I’m not the only one in our household playing it often. Most of our games are primarily for me, except for the Lego games which we all enjoy. In this case, I bought this game with a few others using my tax return money. I was interested, as Katamari obviously is well known for innovative gameplay, and I hadn’t played a proper entry as yet. This particular game won me over, as it was touted as a sort of best-of of the series, containing many past stages and remixes. The Japanese name is even Katamari Damacy Tribute. Anyway, I expected to enjoy it, but what I didn’t expect was for my sister-in-law to enjoy it as much or even more.

The hugely wacky presentation was a factor, but I think it’s mostly the simple but deep gameplay that makes it addictive. It’s also so unusual among games, and just very satisfying. This game in particular just grabs you though right from the start. After the obligatory Playstation updates & installs (I don’t mind this as much as others seem to), the opening cutscene is just mind-blowing. Equal parts baffling and fabulous, full of bright colours, ducks, dancing pandas, it’s distinctly Japanese.

This theme carries through the game. While the text itself has been translated (except in one egregious example near the end), much of the aesthetic, environments, objects, signs and packets are all so Japanese. It helps that we are familiar with the culture, I feel that might be a roadblock for some people. But I find it very evocative, especially since I am such a fan of Studio Ghibli and pre-Ghibli Miyazaki and Takahata films. It makes me feel somewhat nostalgiac for a culture I am on the fringes of, but is so engrained in my chosen medium and so must know about. Some games bleed Japanese much more strongly than others, and once you’ve played Okami you start to recognise mythological and cultural references in many other games. But this one is very strongly flavoured, and I’ve had a lot of fun just reading descriptions of all the items I’ve rolled up, much like in Pikmin 2.

Anyway, it’s been fun playing this game but also fun watching. The last few years I lived at home I gradually dropped off being a PC gamer and toook to just watching my brother play games, and that was hugely fun. Gaming together is better than gaming alone, most of all on a large screen. So now my sister-in-law and I take turns, and we can give each other advice and get a better understanding of the game, but mostly it’s good because it’s something we can share. Finding common ground is a basic human joy, and it makes me glad I picked this game.

I said before I hadn’t played any main Katamari games. My first experiences in the genre were a few cheap knockoffs, but I knew they were copying and I had so much fun that I knew I had to play the real thing. So I bought the first Katamari game on iOS, I Love Katamari. This is before the second one came out. It was fun, but I had big problems with the controls which made it very hard. It also was a bit glitchy, the menus were poor and there were few levels. So a bit disappointing overall but the basic concept and presentation were good enough to warrant me forking over for an even more genuine experience a few years later. Don’t regret it at all, the console game is so much more polished and smooth and fun. Many more levels and modes keep it varied too, and more characters and costumes. Great music too, but it can get annoying when you have to repeat levels several times.

So a big feature of this game is apparently the graphical filters you can apply, but I haven’t figured out how to unlock them. This, coupled with the extremely condescending remarks of the King and Robo-King when you finish a level, make me feel that I’m always just scraping by, but hey I get to play the next level so screw you, King! I was stuck on the first proper level for a while, but I think that test honed my skills enough to get me through most of the game. The most troubling levels are of course the gimmicky ones, like rolling up flammable things to make a flaming Katamari or the “first bear or cow ends the level”. But like I said there’s lots of variety so if you get stuck there’s plenty of others to do.

Since I did the research, I have to finish this review with a general look at the extent of the series as a whole. Each new installment adds new cousins so they build on each other in a way. The first two games on the PS2 started the whole thing, and they weren’t intended for international consumption until people got interested and pressured Namco. I don’t think exporting them changed the series itself though, as I have indicated it’s Japanese to the core. The original creator, Keita Takahashi, has not been involved in the series since these two, but the caretakers at Namco have done a good job as far as I can tell keeping the formula but also putting some twists on it. There was the PSP one, then the next console one which after some confusion turned out to be 360 exclusive. They made up for that by making this a separate game, and now the Vita has a new one at launch. In between these 6 main titles, there have been a few Japan-only mobile phone games. But don’t worry, we’ve received most of them in one form or another. Katamari Damacy-kun was included as a minigame in the PSP version (actually, this came first, they spun it off into a mobile game). Katamari Damacy Mobile, for a strange Japanese cell phone with motion controls, was ported with improvements (especially in music) to iOS (and Android and Win Phone 7) as I Love Katamari. This has been followed up with the iOS-exclusive Katamari Amore, which adds a virtual thumbstick for more accurate control. Another mobile game, Rolling with Katamari, has been released in English. It’s an isometric take on the series, but don’t ask me how to get it, cell phone game distribution is weird. Speaking of which, in 2010 a Japanese cell phone service came out with two Namco-Hudson collaborations, Pacman X Bomberman and Takahashi Meijin X Katamari Damacy. This would take too long to explain. Suffice to say it’s a crappy cell phone game where a fat dude rolls bananas (from what I gather from two screenshots). The Japanese DSi store got a tetris-style puzzle game with a Katamari skin. There has also been an official 2D flash game, and the obligatory Korean MMO version. There’s some nice Youtube videos of this, but don’t expect to ever play it.

And that’s the Katamari series. It has a very distinct and unique character, which along with the gameplay is the strongest characteristic of the series and the reason it has become so well-known. I don’t know how the games sell, but I think it at least has widespread recognition, if only on the Internet. I certainly knew about it without playing it, and now that I have, I love it. I’m happy with just the PS3 version, there’s certainly enough replay value for ages.

Having said that, there is a footnote worth mentioning. I mentioned Keita Takahashi not being involved since the second game. He’s apparently quite the eccentric guy, but Namco kept him around for his good ideas. He’s since left to work on indie games and designing playgrounds, but before he did he made one more game for them, Noby Noby Boy. It shares much of the strange atmosphere and strongly playful design of the Katamari series, with very different gameplay. I picked it up and it’s simple, crazy fun. Probably not as deep as Katamari but worth checking out. There’s also an iOS version that’s also different but contributes to the community goals of the main game.

Anyway, that’s it. Keep rolling! Do your best!

2:13am  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuSjcg9w
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: review katamari damacy PS3 namco-bandai katamari forever 
August 25, 2012
A screenshot I took of Rayman 2: The Great Escape for iOS. As far as I know, this was based on the Dreamcast version, for what that’s worth. Apparently the DS versions are quite buggy. This is in the Land of the Livid Dead, in a small graveyard...

A screenshot I took of Rayman 2: The Great Escape for iOS. As far as I know, this was based on the Dreamcast version, for what that’s worth. Apparently the DS versions are quite buggy.

This is in the Land of the Livid Dead, in a small graveyard section off the main path. One of the graves houses an ambushing robot pirate. At the far end are two graves with identical images, or skeletons.

This picture illustrates an interesting bit of fanon I’ve constructed. My theory goes like this. The figure, to me, resembles the Magician from Rayman 1, despite his arms. You see, the original Magician was a Rayperson, as were several of the cast. This was retconned later. In my theory, instead of being retconned into a Teensy, the original Magician died and was interred here.

A separate Teensy, perhaps his apprentice or similar, then took on his mantle. Unfortunately he also took on another mantle. *SPOILERS* Rayman Origins’ Teensy Magician is also the new Mr. Dark. Unused dialogue in Origins fleshes out Mr. Dark 2’s background, but I can’t find it online. The lead writer, however, stated that Origins’ Mr. Dark was a copycat, confirming this aspect of my theory. If he’s copying Dark, he can copy the Magician too.

The existing theory for the graves is that they are for robo-pirates, but my weird theory explains why the Magician is different between 1 and Origins. And the second grave? Why, it belongs to the Magician’s English brother, Andrew, of course! They are identical, apart from their clothes. Andrew appeared in the French-only educational title, English with Rayman. Nobody replaced him, of course.

I may not have explained this too well, but it fits together in my mind. And it’s way better than a straight retcon, as it keeps the universe consistent. Rayman’s actual origin, on the other hand, is much harder to keep straight between games. But that’s fanon for another day!

8:48pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuS5xrsy
(Notes: 4)
  
Filed under: rayman rayman 2 iOS curiosities 
August 25, 2012
Shantae (GBC)

After my huge work week, I finally have the energy to write a post. I actually finished this game late last week, and in the meantime some games I ordered arrived. New Deus Ex and Katamari for PS3, old Yoshi’s Island and Lego Star Wars Saga for DS. Explaining all these would take so long, but I was giddy with excitement for YIDS, and it turns out my sister in law really loves Katamari. I love sharing my games.

So onto the real issues with playing Shantae. I think the used game market is very sleazy, and the App Store has trained me to view the Virtual Console as a bit overpriced. I still use it though, except I have a big problem with the 3DS one in particular, for this reason: the games they sell are incomplete. Game Boy games were originally in B&W, yes, but hello Super Gameboy? My favourite emulator can reproduce the conditions of a SGB, so the handheld VC would be a hell of a lot more appealing if it did too, even if it was optional (if they’re somehow concerned about the purity of the experience or something). In the case of Shantae, it is not on the VC. Would I buy it if it was? Tricky question. You want to support small developers, but the best transformation would not be available, as you unlock it (and an enhanced palette) by playing the game on a GBA (or an emulator with a GBA simulation switch). Another example of incompleteness.

I did buy the sequel, though, which was why I wanted to play the original first. Incidentally, the developer’s blog pretty much says that the original is extremely hard to find (it is), so you should watch a Youtube Let’s Play before playing the new game. Of course, many people interpret this as implicit permission to emulate. The original did have a very small print run, and the sequel being digital is not limited in this way. I bought the iOS version, as the DSi version is not available in my region (grrrrrr), another problem with mainstream distribution channels.

Anyway, on to the game. I actually had to fiddlequite a bit with the emulator settings to make it look better. I should have done this several games ago, as it did look much better after I removed the simulated LCD motion blur and discrete pixels. Also, before starting I read the manual from the Internet, it was great. I miss the manuals of the old days.

Ok, so the game. Fun game. At first I had trouble distinguishing foreground and background, platforms you could jump on and walls. You get used to it, but it takes a while. Fighting can also be tricky, and you can lose health quickly if you’re not careful. I guess the items are supposed to help with that, but I didn’t use them much, I often don’t in games. Once you get the transformations, they are useful but also add more complexity to the movement system. The aforementioned Advance Tinkerbat transformation is so liberating, it has the basic powers of 3 other forms, and a decent attack. The combination of various factors results in some slightly awkward gameplay that I associate with certain games of this early generation.

It absolutely oozes charm, though. The game world is so well crafted, getting around is very natural. Some of the environment transitions are abrupt, but the areas are organic and the characters look great. Each small background NPC is different and interestingly designed, and their dialogue is at times funny and informative. I did use a walkthrough to find some of the hidden items, but much of the fun here is finding your own way around, figuring things out. It does take a while to get places though, even after you get the warp dances.

It’s a great little game, especially as a prelude to the new game (which I haven’t yet started). I just love delving into a series’ history if I’m going to get into a game. It helps if the history is short, too! Oh, one thing I forgot. Matt Bozon, the creator of Shantae, also made a Warioware DIY microgame that was featured in the famous creators download section. It was based on GBC Shantae. So yeah, that is also part of Shantae’s video game history (it had a unique background). The DSiWare version also has some small connectivity to WayForward’s other games on that service, but again most of them are not available in our little hole in the world.

All in all, it’s almost like a Metroidvania, but with less vertical movement I suppose. You do end up flying by the end. It’s a neat action platformer, and its obscurity despite its relative quality appeals to me. It’s also an important part of indie gaming history. I would recommend it for anyone looking to branch out into some third-party stuff, who isn’t afraid of a little piracy. Buy the iOS sequel if you do though, it’s only a couple of bucks.

Wife’s comment: “It’s good to see a woman in a starring role.” I agree. I even saw Shantae mentioned as a possible Smash contestant (near the bottom of the list) when people were thinking of female characters for the next installment. Strong female protagonists are so rare, and Shantae is a great example with an interesting personality and design, who experiences growth over the course of this game. Not only that, the antagonist and two of the major supporting characters are also very unique females. It’s another reason I wanted to play this game, and another reason I endorse it.

7:59pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuS5tqHV
Filed under: shantae gbc wayforward review 
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