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 
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 
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