August 14, 2012
Megaman and the Three Laws

So apparently Asimov’s Laws of Robotics were mentioned in Megaman 7 and X1. I don’t rmember it at the time, but now that I have been reminded, I do seem to recall that they were mentioned at some point. It’s not that important to the series, especially the X series, because basically everyone that appears is a Reploid, but I guess you never fight humans. X and the Maverick Hunters are supposed to be fighting for the humans, after all. Of course, you confront Wily at the end of every Classic game, but never kill him. They explicitly call it out in 7, and apparently in different localisations there are different outcomes.

The reason I mention it though, is I just realised the significance of a major plot point of Zero 4. Weil “reveals” at one point, very dramatically, that he is in fact a human! Aha! So there! He brings it up more than once, as I recall. However, I was very underwhelmed by this supposed revelation. Firstly, I already figured that out, but also so what? What does it matter if he’s a human—apparently Zero was led to believe he was a Reploid? So now I get that Zero must have at some point been bound by the Three Laws, and so could not harm humans.

The guy has a mostly cybernetic body anyway, but I guess that’s beside the point. And by the time of ZX the lines have been blurred so all that goes out the window. But at this time, he is banking on the fact that he can rule all Reploids because they’re not allowed to hurt him. This really could have been explained better by the game, I feel.

Zero’s response, incidentally, is along the lines of: “I don’t care if you’re human or Reploid, you are a Maverick, and so it is my duty to destroy you either way.” Like Classic Megaman in English MM7, he is now “more than a robot” and able to make his own judgements, no longer bound by the Laws. X attained this state through 30 years of rigorous morality testing, but presumably Classic MM and Zero have also achieved this level of human-like decision-making due to their life experiences (these are my own speculations). I may be misremembering some details in this post, but sometimes it’s just fun to be a fan.

9:44pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuROcVDi
Filed under: curiosities fandom megaman 
August 14, 2012
Journey (PSN)

I’ve been sick the last couple of days, and so have just been playing lots of Shantae (GBC) and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (DS). But I haven’t finished them, and I generally like to review games I’ve finished. So I’ll talk about a game I finished a few weeks ago, one of the main reasons we got our PS3.

Journey has been talked up in a lot of places, but it was seeing the footage in ABC’s Good Game review that convinced us. Since then, John Siracusa has also been raving about it on his podcast Hypercritical, that me and my wife listen to together. The way he talks about it, you’d think it was the only game that ever mattered.

I don’t think that this game changes the face of the industry or anything, but it certainly is one that should go near the top of developers’ to play lists. I think that is why most people see it as important, because it represents a design philosophy inconsistent with major sections of the industry that are going astray. In other words, it’s really good and other people could learn something from it.

But how is it as an actual game? It’s a statement, certainly, and arty enough. Perhaps not as arty and more gamey than Flower, the previous game from these developers. Or is it? Maybe it’s the type of game that invites this kind of meta-analysis, or maybe that’s just been done so much that I can’t help but associate the game with these kinds of debates. I decided long ago that I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like. I don’t pretend to know that much either about what makes a good game, but I know when I like a game. This is one I like. (I don’t think it’s art, by the way, or at least not more than other games. Eh, maybe it is. Oh God now I’ve brought up whether games r art ABORT)

This is the sort of game that, well, my wife and I played through once each and haven’t touched it since. I think you don’t want to play it too often because that would dilute the experience. Related to this is: it’s short, and on my playthrough I was helped by a big pro with a white robe, who helped me find all the symbols so now we have a white robe if we want it. This is a game to be played multiple times, and we will. But not right away.

This is also the type of game that people go, “Ooh, I won’t say anything about it. It’ll spoil the experience.” Bugger that. Spoiler time! The pacing of the game is fantastic, it introduces elements one at a time while changing the environment. You can then identify these elements and environments (like the cloth birds, the underground tower etc.) in murals that you find or are shown in cutscenes between areas, which is cool and adds to the world-building. Getting to the snowy windy mountain and slowing down makes you feel vulnerable after you’ve been through the liberating tower, leading to the lowest point on the mountain. You collapse, but are then revived by the big white guys who are presumably the previous keepers of the magic you have inherited. You then become a superscarf flying magician in a huge expanse, it feels great and all very natural. Then you get to the end, and go back and start again. It’s not an unsatisfying ending; after all, the journey is the important thing I guess.

It’s important in this game to find a companion who will stick around for a bit and stay close to them. The limited interaction mechanisms forces you to be creative and playful with the other, and it’s fun jumping and singing with them. Co-op is generally good for me anyway, in fact I even considered playing TF2 again for the first time in ages because they just announced a new co-op mode.

Anyway Journey is really good. It’s short but beautiful. As long as you play it a few times it’s probably worth the cost, especially if you want to “see what everyone’s talking about” but not talking about cos they don’t want to spoil you or whatever. Sorry, I find it annoying if someone will venture zero reasons for the quality of an experience and insist you just do it. Please, try and articulate people. It’s a fun little runny jumpy explory story game, but quite subtle. Maybe wait for the retail disc, with their other two games.

Wife’s comment: It was fun! I think Flower will be more fun though, because some bits of Journey were a bit scary. And hard.

So it does engender an emotional connection, although some of the platforming was a bit challenging for the proverbial inexperienced gamer. Sorry felt like expanding that comment. Ta ta.

8:32pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuROVUdR
Filed under: journey psn ps3 review thatgamecompany 
August 11, 2012
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (iOS)

iOS has rapidly become a major platform for mobile gaming, and is a big part of the reason the 3DS and PSVita are not getting as much traction as Nintendo and Sony would like. That’s how I see it anyway. I of course am a big Apple fan at this point, so I have been doing a fair bit of gaming on my iPhone 4. It’s really disrupting my perspective on pricing, at least for handheld games. I find myself unwilling to spend money on the eShop or even on retail games when $1 or $2 can get you so many quality titles on the App Store. But then the quality and the IPs of the dedicated gaming handhelds wins me over eventually. Point is, I use both. Obviously my iOS games tend more towards the casual, as is the nature of the platform, but I have played Rayman 2 on there and I have Final Fantasy 3 (DS version) queued up to play soonish.

The App Store is great because of how flexible pricing can be. It’s set by the developers and they hold sales for any old thing. In this case, I managed to pick up the latest successful Mario Kart competitor (or at least the mobile port) for free. There’s obviously in-app purchases I have no desire to partake of, but it feels a little weird playing through a game like this not having paid for it (hypocrite, you use emulators)(yeah, yeah ok, I’ll post about that one day).

So most of my life I’ve been a NIntendo fanboy. I really only know about Sega from acquaintances’ consoles (most of my friends had Nintendo as well) or, later on when they dropped the hardware game and started bringing their software to our platform. I didn’t know that we’d won that war, in my little zone there was no war. There was only Nintendo. So I’d read about a few interesting looking games in N64 gamer—it wasn’t until my family bought an Xbox (for the DVD player) that I actually played a Sega game. We had the double set of Sega GT 2002 and Jet Set Radio Future. Both great, great games. We later bought the super Sonic collection from the bargain bin, and played about ten minutes of it and got bored. More recently I also picked up ChuChu Rocket and Ecco the Dolphin on, yes, iOS for a buck each. And that, apart from a short turn on a department store Dreamcast and a rented copy of NiGHTS into Dreams, is my Sega experience.

Having said all that, this game interested me. Maybe because the 360 version is DKU due to Banjo and Kazooie appearing. Maybe it seemed like what Mario Kart could have been if it was a more interesting crossover game. I don’t know why ROB and the Blue Falcon in MKDS excite me so much; I am a huge Smash Bros fan though. Crossovers are just interesting, especially when you have such a stable of creative characters that Sega does. Even if I don’t recognise half of them.

Well, the game was free and there were enough characters I knew, I couldn’t not give it  a try. And it was quite fun. The simple pleasure of earning points after races, saving up and buying new characters is a compelling incentive for me to come back. The missions were fun, if a little imbalanced in difficulty between each other. The weapons are ok, nothing too special (although I may have missed some references they were making). The individual super weapons were silly though. They all seemed the same and just were underwhelming. The tracks were varied and very much had the flavour of their originating series, although that Eggman casino one was just too hard.

By the way, I should say here that the mobile version of this game is very stripped down compared to the console. I don’t really know what elements they have in common, but the mobile one has many less characters and tracks, for all I know the modes and mechanics are very different, the controls are certainly different. I don’t think I ever played a racer with no accelerate button! It’s automatic, you just brake and slide. Steering is either tilt or on-screen slider (I used that, tilt controls can be annoying if not implemented well). For what it is though, it’s a fairly significant little piece of game, and there was a content update recently so that’s cool.

As far as characters go, fortunately the ones I liked had fairly good stats. The ChuChu mouse was a powerhouse with low acceleration, and Beat was fairly all-round. I couldn’t give two tosses about the Sonic cast, who as in most Sega crossover games seem to be over-represented. The Jet Set tracks just made me want that HD remake of the original sooner. I can’t wait, after having so much fun with the sequel. I don’t know or care who that douche on the motorbike was, probably Generic Fighty Game 2000. Every studio has a franchise like that, or several. Two different monkeys was amusing, with me having no experience with their source. Pretty solid cast all round I think. If only there was an Ecco track (don’t know if Sega actually has the rights there. Oh well).

Not sure what else to say about this game, I just played it pretty casually, and the mobile version at least seems to encourage that style. I mean, I didn’t try to master it, and I essentially stopped playing after beating all the GP cups on easy mode. I quite liked it, I just didn’t have the Sega history to appreciate all the details. But the parts I did get made it much more rewarding. I haven’t actually played any handheld Mario Karts to compare it to, but I played the free trial of Konami Crazy Racers for 5 minutes. Compared to that the controls and gameplay were way better, the characters and licenses were more interesting, so I guess it’s pretty close to the top of mascot racers on handhelds, at least for me. Glowing endorsement I know. Definitely worth it for free, probably worth the $2, especially if you’re not a sheltered Ninty boy like myself.

Man, I love crossovers. If only we had Captain Rainbow over here. Well, soon I’ll be playing Yoshi’s Island DS, that’s close to one. Still really enjoying Melee too. And I should unlock Indy in Lego Star Wars….(mumbling continues)

Wife’s comment: “Oh yeah, I tried that game. It’s ok, but it was a bit slippery. And I didn’t know any of the characters, so I didn’t care.” Wise words. We need to care, or we won’t play. The characters are all informed, like the game doesn’t attempt to set anything up, it assumes Sega literacy. Well, what can you do. Until next time.

10:48pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuRByoiG
Filed under: casual friday SASASR iOS review sega 
August 6, 2012
Did you know that in the entire robots continuity of Mega Man, there is more than one robot based on Sun Wukong from Journey to the West? Also known as Son Goku (yes, THAT Son Goku was also based on this character). Two of the distinguishing traits...

Did you know that in the entire robots continuity of Mega Man, there is more than one robot based on Sun Wukong from Journey to the West? Also known as Son Goku (yes, THAT Son Goku was also based on this character). Two of the distinguishing traits of this character are the distinctive crown, and the magical extending rod. And he’s a monkey.

On the left we have Buster Rod G, from the Sega Mega Drive port of the first three Classic games. Wily Wars (or Rockman Mega World) was the Mario All-Stars of Mega Man, if you will. This game had an extra mode after the three main games that was a new Wily fortress, into which you could take any weapon or item from the three games. The bosses of these stages were based on characters from the ancient Chinese story, including this guy, who you fought twice.

The monkey on the right is named Hanumachine, referencing the Hindu god Hanuman, although he’s not fooling anyone. The elongating staff and crown give him away as another Sun Wukong look-alike (his nickname is the Super Monkey of Knowledge). He appears in Mega Man Zero 1, attacking the Resistance base, wielding fire powers but actually in the stealthy Hidden Phantom’s personal army. He is revived by Dr. Weil in Zero 3 as Hanumachine R, and leads one of his armies.

The Wily Wars is self-contained, so the three new Robot Masters are at least internally consistent. However, most Robot Master in the Classic series are simple human-shaped affairs, with only a few that stand out as based on mythology (Tengu Man, Centaur Man and Splash Woman). On the other hand, the Mutos Reploids that are the bosses throughout the Zero games often reference mythological beings and creatures, so Hanumachine fits in very well.

10:03pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuQsXvcp
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: curiosities megaman 
August 6, 2012
Pikmin NPC! (Wii)

Recently I had kind of a bad time for about a week and a half. I sometimes have anxiety attacks or feelings of inadequacy that go through stages. I guess it happens to lots of people. Fortunately, I have things that can help me out in these times. Faith, loved ones, and video games.

So for that reason and general tiredness, I didn’t play much games for a little while. But this weekend I jumped right into some stuff with a vengeance. I played through a few worlds of Little Big Planet 2 (still on loan), but mostly this weekend was Pikmin. I clocked half the game in one day.

So previously, my bro (hi bro) had bought me Pikmin 2 a few birthdays ago. Great present, as was Donkey Kong Country Returns from my other bro the previous Christmas. Both of these came at a time when I wasn’t super interested in video games at that stage, and they along with some other notables (SSBB and Okami) brought me right back in, to the point where I’ve been in the thick of gaming culture since. So I’ve completed Pikmin 2, I think. But importantly, I’d played a lot of it and developed skills.

That was a necessary preface because I thought Pikmin 1 was quite easy. I think going about it the other way around would be a really great experience, as Pikmin 2 (although not one of the sequel games that picks up near the top of the difficulty curve of the previous, and assumes the previous as a prerequisite) builds on a lot of the concepts developed in 1. Playing them in order would also give you a good introduction to the world and characters, particularly Olimar. His introspective musings on his situation and the things he encounters are truly one of the highlights of both games. More on that later.

So it was easy. I sort of expected that I would find it so, so I was very supportive of my wife having a go. She played through the first few days, maybe a week I guess in game until it got to the point that it was too hard and stressful. I don’t blame her, the Forest Navel was quite hard compared to later stages, it might have been better swapped with the spring. And the final level was just a puzzle-type thing, I would have liked to see more areas like that actually.

Anyway, I took over at that point, and played a bit more and polished it up in a marathon on Saturday. My impressions were good, but it shows that it was such an early title, and perhaps could have used more content? The execeution was brilliant, though. And even the plot was handled very well, for Nintendo. It’s a fine game, worth buying for the low price it is now, but perhaps not the high initial price. The sequel is leagues better and as I can attest, stands on its own.

I was playing the New Play Control! version, which from what I can tell had loads of improvements, unlike a few games in that series that were apparently simple control updates, or like Jungle Beat which radically changed gameplay (and was apparently the worse for it). Improvements like yellow Pikmin holding bombs when whistled, and throwing them at enemies. Or Pikmin surviving longer on fire. And the day rewind system. Not to mention widescreen support. This is good, and in my opinion that rerelease brand should have lasted much longer. On the other hand, another way to fix things is sequels—in this case, the whistle was better in Pikmin 2, although the first game seemed a little better at handling extracting lots of dudes at once from an Onion.

Now seems like a good time to talk about the Pikmin series as a whole. It’s not just two games, you know. The NPC! versions of both games are greatly improved, as I mentioned (and the US is only just getting 2 that way, without NPC! branding. So slow NOA!). Also, Pikmin 2 has lots of brand name products and other treasures that are different between regions. So there are different iterations of the same 2 games. The 3rd is also on the way for WiiU, and looks great. However, there are 5 other additions to the Pikmin universe that I, as an avid completionist, consider important.

1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl. This game did a huge service to many Nintendo franchises, by remixing songs, making stages, showing off artwork in stickers (trophies were slightly less impressive, they were only existing renders which led to over-representation of some series), and of course making new, highly-detailed character models for the fighters. Brawl also took some liberties with characters for playability, so Pikmin & Olimar are much larger than they really are, and also Reds & Yellows were granted the ability to produce fire & electricity, instead of just surviving it. On the music side, Pikmin tends to be more atmospheric in that regard so Brawl also included the Japanese pop singles released alongside the two games (and a French version). Incidentally, did you know they also bred a new flower species and named it after Pikmin, as part of the marketing? Oh, and Brawl had an awesome model for Olimar, way more textured and interesting than his model in his own game. I don’t blame Pikmin for that, it’s meant to be zoomed out. But yeah Brawl Olimar looks amazing, and he’s high on the tier list. Thanks Sakurai! He’s my main by the way, but people get annoyed cos he’s too good. ;p

2. The Pikmin 2 e-reader game. Oh, Japan. When will you share your goodies with the rest of us schmoes? The Gameboy Advance add-on that read barcodes off collectable cards was incorporated with the GCN-GBA link cable, but only in Japan. So if you get a lot of different cards and scan them in, you can play levels of 3 different puzzle minigames! Apparently. I’ve only seen 1 shaky YouTube video of this, but it looks kinda cool. Since I love obscure stuff like this, I wish they would release it on the DSi store. *sigh* A fanboy can dream. Worse, e-readers can’t be emulated at this stage as far as I can tell.

3&4. Warioware microgames! 9-volt and 18-volt’s stages are the best part of these games for fans like me. Warioware DIY had a game in the non-Japan version (so I guess we got something they didn’t after all) where you throw a Pikmin onto a rock for nectar. The fun part about this microgame was the pixelated painterly art style, one of the best looking games in DIY. The other is featured in Smooth Moves for the Wii: you control the Empress Bulblax from Pikmin 2, rolling to crush Piks on either side of you. This not only let you control an enemy creature, it established that there exist Pikmin of giant size, almost as big as the Empress herself. Canon? Sure, why not! How either of them got into that cave, though, is beyond me.

5. Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (GCN). Interestingly, hitting a ball in the rough sometimes caused Pikmin to burst out. How did they end up in the Mushroom Kingdom, since Pikmin ostensibly takes place in a future Earth? Iuno, magic? Mario and logic are essentially incompatible. Canon? Eh, maybe.

Well, I’m glad my review of this gem of a game let me splurge out some obscure stuff like that. So I’ll reiterate that it’s worth playing at least one Pikmin game, but if it was only one, go for the sequel. It has more features and content, as well as more fascinating little quotes from Olimar, and some interaction that wasn’t possible with only one stranded character. But I’m glad I’ve played both. If I main Olimar I should know his whole story I guess. Until next time, friends.

12:37pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuQr8H2L
Filed under: pikmin review Wii nintendo 
July 30, 2012
Many people probably know that in Donkey Kong Country 2, in Cranky’s Video Game Heroes room, you see Mario, Yoshi and Link’s only physical appearances in a DK series game (apart from the unavailable Diddy Kong Pilot alpha). Many of these people...

Many people probably know that in Donkey Kong Country 2, in Cranky’s Video Game Heroes room, you see Mario, Yoshi and Link’s only physical appearances in a DK series game (apart from the unavailable Diddy Kong Pilot alpha). Many of these people probably know that also in that room is a rubbish bin, with Sonic the Hedgehog’s shoes and Earthworm Jim’s raygun next to it (with the label No Hopers).

What perhaps not many of these people know is that this snipe at the competition may have in one case been a retaliation for a previous snipe. Specifically, in Earthworm Jim: Special Edition for the Sega CD, an enhanced rerelease of the original Earthworm Jim game, there are cheat codes to put amusing masks on Jim or change his head. One of these transforms his head into DK’s, complete with a comical arrow running through’t. A pretty ugly sprite if you ask me, which just adds to the insult I suppose. So maybe Rare knew about this and maybe put in their own game their own little friendly jab at a rival platforming series, maybe as a direct response.

Maybe.

NOTE: I made this picture myself, from a screenshot I took. Glowsquid then uploaded it to Super Mario Wiki at my request, as I didn’t have those privileges. Thanks to that guy.

9:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuQOdx6d
(Notes: 11)
  
Filed under: Donkey Kong Earthworm Jim rivalry curiosities 
July 30, 2012
The DKU Honourable Mentions thread

I spent a long time today writing up a monster of a post, so I thought I’d chuck a link here with my other monster posts about gaming. It’s in a Donkey Kong fansite called the DKVine.

To understand the post though, you need a bit of context about the DKU. The central concept of DKVine is the DKU, a shared universe of game characters that is built on the foundation of the Donkey Kong Country trilogy. Thanks to Rare’s admirable devotion to building a shared universe around all their characters, the site has a broad range of covered games, not just DK ones. Many companies have cameos and the occasional crossover game, but Rare implicitly linked many of their series together which is part of the reason they had a devoted fandom that they have now all but abandoned. (Many Internet commenters would leave it at that, but I will add that the company still has the saving grace of Leigh Loveday, who wrote much of the in-game and extra-game plot, instruction manuals, etc. and now manages the company’s Twitter and irregular Q&As. He, at least, still cares for the company’s IPs and the DKU—the problem is Microsoft doesn’t.)

Anyway, the DKU really took off with Diddy Kong Racing, where among the characters introduced, Banjo the bear and Conker the Squirrel (capitalised cause that’s his name) went on to star in their own game series. Therefore, since the Donkey Kong series was important, these were also important. It gets a little trickier when you want to ask why Star Fox is in it, or Viva Pinata, but the answer is it’s mostly because of Rare. Some people wish the site covered the Rare Cartoon Animals Universe instead as that would be less complicated, but then it may have gone the way of other Rare fansites such as MundoRare which shut down with the decline of the company.

Ok, so the DKU as presented by the DKVine has a set of rules, rules that include many games we wish it didn’t (such as Mario Party 9 or Star Fox Command), include games we are thankful for (such as Mario Golf Advance Tour or It’s Mr. Pants!), games that are a little unexpected (such as Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition or Punch-Out!! Wii), and unfortunately excludes games we wish it didn’t (such as Sabre Wulf or Kameo: Elements of Power). It is this latter category my post addresses, for while at least some attention is given on the main site to the Mario & Sonic at the Olympics games of the world, there is nary a mention of what Sabreman did after making his first major appearance in almost 15 years in Banjo-Tooie or why Greenwood Village of Diddy Kong Racing is available in Jet Force Gemini’s multiplayer.

While my post doesn’t actually attempt to go in depth about these issues, it seeks to compile a comprehensive list of small DKU aspects of non-DKU games, or games that were almost DKU but then weren’t. Games we wish were DKU but aren’t. Games that most likely are somewhere in the shared universe of our favourite talking animals, maybe even on the next island over from the DK Isles or Willow Woods, but don’t quite fall within the formal DKU structure.

DKU Honourable Mentions. I love the DKU. I just want to get the ball rolling on expanding its boundaries a little. It’s always been a subjective matter, so a few grey areas will let us delve deeper into games we love, while everyone continues to ignore Fortune Street.

Well, if all this means very little to you, you may not get so much out of my post, but it is at least interesting as a study of the depths obsessive fans can go to. Every fan has to be a little bit obsessive though, it’s kind of the definition of a fan.

8:38pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuQObfAD
Filed under: DKU Donkey Kong fandom 
July 25, 2012

gameandgraphics:

Scans from a Nintendo Power Star Fox comic (1992).

[ Read the entire comic here ] 

I went through a big phase of tracking down old video game tie-in comics, especially Nintendo ones. I’m really happy with the stuff I managed to find. The Nintendo Power originals were among the best, although they couldn’t beat the German Club Nintendo for sheer wackiness.

(via gameandgraphics)

12:10pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuQ3dXM3
(Notes: 599)
  
July 24, 2012
Sexism in video games

I’ve been wanting to write a post about gender stereotyping in games, after seeing about Feminist Frequency’s new series and the disgusting responses to it. I particularly wanted to highlight games I thought did well in portraying woman characters.

However, I was reading Super Mario Wiki’s regular newsletter, The Shroom, and someone had already written a great article on the subject, and now that I’ve read it, I’m just going to link it instead of repeating all the stuff Crocodile Dippy says.

http://www.mariowiki.com/The_%27Shroom:Issue_64/Critic_Corner#Dippy.27s_Matilda

Maybe I will write that post one day, even if it’s just examples of those doing it right. Because this stuff is important.

9:02am  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuPyxGcE
(Notes: 3)
  
Filed under: feminism gender stereotyping video games 
July 20, 2012
Megaman Zero Collection (DS)

Well I just finished the easy scenario mode of the Zero Collection. This won’t be a full review, there is too much game and too much love to go over it all.

When I found this game, I was ecstatic. I have mentioned that the Zero series is my favourite Megaman iteration, because of its depth, pacing, plot treatment, and smooth-ass gameplay (when you get good), but most importantly, because I played loads of it during my developmental years. In this case, during high school me and a friend had Japanese copies of the first two and pretty much knew them back to front. We had our own names for the characters that turned out to be different to the localised ones, names I think are superior (we called Harpuia and Elpizo: Hyperia and Elpis, for example). Later, I bought the 4th installment in English, which was a very different experience. But now I’ve played them all in a row and got the complete overview.

Well, I say complete. Easy Scenario mode drops you in Ultimate mode automatically, which normally requires you to totally clock the game and rewards you with ultimate power-ups, after you’ve struggled through the hard way. This means you can breeze through it, and I did. The game ranks you at the end of missions, and I usually scored very high, except in damage. I got damaged a lot. I had loads of health, I could take it. Need to work on that in normal mode. It’s not really the Zero experience to breeze through like that. People shouldn’t buy this game and just play that mode. The games are about dying a lot, learning patterns, honing your reflexes. When you play it as much as I did, you get good at that.

So which games emphasise this feeling? I think maybe 2 is the hardest, 4 is the easiest. But all are rewarding in this way. To really judge that, I probably need to play again in normal mode. But I can say other things comparing them all.

The games form a cohesive, complete story. Not all of them are strictly necessary, though. Each game could be the end of the series, some more open-ended than others. They do build on each other, though, so playing any of them requires the ones before in terms of plot (and sometimes gameplay). The way they are connected is really gratifying, as we see characters return and in some cases grow. The threats reveal larger threats behind them, which develops over the course of several games.

This developing threat comes to a head in 3, where early on you confront a terrifying robot from the games’ backstory, Omega. (Later you find its true identity, which makes it more significant.) It is then joined by the Dark Elf, the antagonist of 2; Copy X, the antagonist of 1; and Dr. Weil, who becomes the antagonist of 4. This combination of strong enemies makes me think of Zelda 4 Swords Adventures, wherein you fight Vaati, Ganon AND Dark Link. Imagine if Mario fought Bowser, then Donkey Kong comes out, Wart jumps up behind you and Wario starts laughing at you. It’s awesome.

Which brings me to 4. When you defeat three of these threats during Zero 3, the 4th installment only has Weil, which makes its scale seem a little smaller. Its design aesthetic is also very different, as it had a different lead designer than the other three. All in all it feels different, a little tacked on. It makes sense when you find out that a bit like the X series which was supposed to finish with X5 (and thus continue to the Zero series), the original plan was for a trilogy. I’m not complaining that they added another, and it certainly rounds out the story in a conclusive way, but it is somewhat different.

The Four Guardians are major characters in the first three, but are conspicuous in their absence in 4. Official word was they were elsewhere during these events, but later statements retconned this, saying they died during the climax of 3. This ties to the artwork featured in one of the soundtracks (although labelled “fanart” officially, it was produced by the developers of the game) which depicts *SPOILER the Guardians as Cyber-Elves with X, watching the fall of Ragnarok.* Anyway, whatever happened, they are great characters and lend some continuity to the series as they return for revenge, and eventually sort of join your side. They are also very important to the two ZX games.

The other characters are also unique, especially unique in the fact that this game HAS characters, unlike some other Megaman series games (although I haven’t played the later ones with cutscenes). A cast of varied Resistance members, even some humans in 4. The important ones though are X, Ciel, and to a lesser extent Cerveau the engineer. They don’t interact all that much, but they have personality, especially when you read into it.

This brings me to the issue of supplemental materials. I love the style of the official artwork of these games, it’s very beautiful and in addition to the manual and many examples on MMKB wiki, there are unlockable galleries in the game. A cool feature, and it even includes the gameplay-modifying e-Reader cards for 3 that never made it to Australia. The Japanese advertisements for this game were wonderfully animated in anime style, even if it’s only 15 second spots. And developer Inti Creates very lovingly constructed multiple soundtracks for the series, with great art, remastered and arranged tracks, and even spoken drama audio tracks that flesh out the story. However, the manga produced for this series is utter tripe. A dull, watered-down story, ugly art, butchered and maimed characters, dumb Mary-Sue little boy protagonist (an unfortunate trend in shonen manga). It’s pretty bad. Granted, I haven’t read the 3rd volume, which seems like it takes itself less seriously.

Anyway, the best part about these games is the games, and I loved playing them again, and 3 for the first time. I look forward to playing them in normal mode (Ultimate mode already has the collectibles, so you literally just rush through). Before that, I might play ZX first as I acquired it at the same time. Haven’t decided yet.

I might finish up here, this wasn’t a complete review or anything, as I didn’t exactly have a full game experience in easy mode. But it reminded me why I love Megaman, and it’s because of Zero. It actually made me want to play more X series, at least the ones with playable Zero. Anyway I recommend the Zero collection for those who like the X series if you haven’t given it a go, it’s available for those in the US on Capcom’s online store (if you’re inlcined to give Capcom money, which many people aren’t at the moment for good reason). It’s a hard series though so keep in mind that you need the skillz that pay the billz. (The z is for Zero.)

10:02am  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuPiSYPe
Filed under: megaman zero ds review capcom 
July 17, 2012
suppermariobroth: “ The End. Sleep tight. ” DKC GBC. Was it worth playing the whole thing for Necky Nutmare, this screen and GBC-res versions of official renders in the scrapbook? …Maybe.

suppermariobroth:

The End. Sleep tight.

DKC GBC. Was it worth playing the whole thing for Necky Nutmare, this screen and GBC-res versions of official renders in the scrapbook? …Maybe.

(via suppermariobroth)

10:18am  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuPVIqgI
(Notes: 11)
  
July 17, 2012
Loving your tumblr Beta. Where did you get this picture? I’ve been looking for it for ages, and never seen it this large before. I first saw it in an old N64 magazine.

Loving your tumblr Beta. Where did you get this picture? I’ve been looking for it for ages, and never seen it this large before. I first saw it in an old N64 magazine.

(via suppermariobroth)

8:20am  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuPUqWh1
(Notes: 71)
  
Filed under: dk concept art 
July 16, 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? ” It’s got the seal, that’s good enough for me! Loooks a lot like Super...

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?

It’s got the seal, that’s good enough for me! Loooks a lot like Super Mario-kun style, although why that would feature the game branding I have no idea.

In fact, I’m sure it’s from Super Mario-kun. Either a repurposed panel for a game advertisement, or an ad done by the same artist. Or a shop. Games on NES with bros in the jungle….?

10:15pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuPSrcbc
(Notes: 18)
  
Filed under: source unknown super mario kun 
July 16, 2012
suppermariobroth: “ Super Mario-Kun is a series of 44 volumes of Japanese comics chronicling almost every major Mario game from Super Mario World up to Super Mario 3D Land, including even the games from the Mario & Luigi and the Paper Mario series....

suppermariobroth:

Super Mario-Kun is a series of 44 volumes of Japanese comics chronicling almost every major Mario game from Super Mario World up to Super Mario 3D Land, including even the games from the Mario & Luigi and the Paper Mario series. Sadly, the art of the only source in the world to unite all these games in one canon does justice to none of them.

It also covers Mario Kart 64, Donkey Kong Country 2, Yoshi’s Island, and even Wario’s Woods (among others). It is aimed at very young Japanese readers, so the art and jokes are quite immature.

(via suppermariobroth)

12:29pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuPRMHQe
(Notes: 7)
  
Filed under: super mario kun 
July 12, 2012
My wife the non-gamer

Since I’ve been putting my wife’s short opinions at the end of my reviews, I feel I should explain what sort of gamer she is.

She identifies as a non-gamer. This is not really true, she plays many games. But she doesn’t have all the skill and love that I do for the medium. I share with her a dislike of “hardcore”, shooty-type games, but so do many in this modern age, especially those of us who remember a friendlier time. She is a casual gamer.

By this I mean she is somewhat of a gamer, casually, but she does play many casual games, mostly on her iPhone or iPad. Tetris clones, puzzle games, a card battle game, Scribblenauts, a jigsaw game, Aqueduct and Blockwick (very pretty), Cut the Rope, Draw Something, Wordfeud (like Words With Friends but better). She prefers games that are well constructed and look nice, she is very much a design geek.

Her first proper game on the Wii (after Sports and Play, like everyone) was Okami. Fantastic game, but she found it too hard. Okamiden, on the other hand, was just right. She recently played the first third of Pikmin 1, but it started getting too stressful so I took over. Right now, as I type, she’s playing Picross DS. We’re both quite addicted to that one. She played some of A Boy and His Blob on Wii. We bought Just Dance 2 for her, and had some fun with it. We play many of the console Lego games together and with her sister, those are fine. And she loves Pokemon. We’re really looking forward to Black & White 2, we’re going to play them together. Professor Layton is another series she’s completed most of, she loved that, and London Life too.

So not all of those are strictly casual games, but there’s a skill barrier—that I realise exists for many people—that restricts the games she can enjoy. That’s not a barrier for watching games though, and she often likes watching or half-watching me play many games such as Paper Mario or Pikmin. And I often talk about games and gaming with her. So while she is not too serious a game-player, I would say that she is very much a gamer. She has a lot of knowledge from me, and we watch Good Game (a game review show on our public TV channel ABC), and Yahtzee’s Zero Punctuation reviews. She has connections to gaming culture. And she likes to encourage me in my hobby too. In fact, it was her idea for me to start this blog, probably so I didn’t yammer on about games to her too much.

So this blog is an outlet for me to be serious about games, but I find it helpful to include the perspective of someone who is a little more of an outsider. It’s also amusing to defuse my intense nerdery with a short simple statement.

Incidentally, I asked her for comment. She said: “Flower is the best game ever!” I forgot to mention that, but I’ll save it for another post. We played the demo several times the other day. It’s cool!

9:46pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuPC2pLh
Liked posts on Tumblr: More liked posts »