March 30, 2016
[Review] Avatar: The Legend of Aang (GBA)

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Time for another Avatar game. See previous reviews. This one also uses the new storyline, albeit abbreviated by removing the “Earthbender training camp” and “Southern Air Temple” chapters. Haru still shows up, in Omashu, but doesn’t join the party. As I expected of Halfbrick (having played their two DS entries) the gameplay is more puzzle-oriented with some RPG elements. Aang, Sokka, and Katara move as a group and you can cycle between them to use their abilities. They all learn new tricks as you go on, to overcome environmental obstacles and the occasional combat.

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The spritework is lovely; clean and fluid, with plenty of colour variety. I dare say it’s the best looking of the bunch that I’ve played so far. There are fewer enemy types, both because of cut chapters and the chapters themselves are much shorter. I believe I’ve covered them all in these screenshots. I did notice Yu Yan archers, which do not appear in the other versions. Boss battles also play out differently, more strategic and hence more fun.

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While the storyline is the same, it’s cut back significantly. They left in Bumi’s excellently lame joke and most of the important plot points, and there are still some civilians to converse with, but it’s pretty stripped back. It’s a concise way to tell the story and certainly a quicker game to play to experience that story, but missing two locations is unfortunate. However, it does uniquely have a large section set in the Omashu sewers.

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I was surprised how similar it felt to the later DS games despite using more traditional controls. The puzzles are thoughtfully designed and can get challenging, especially the brutal chase sequences and final boss. There are also hidden health upgrades off the main path which aren’t too necessary outside said boss, but are a nice bonus to find.

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Despite lacking voice acting, sidequests, and some locations, I might recommend this as the best way to play this story. It’s the most polished and fun game experience. I still think fans should seek out the console version though, for its more fleshed out story, and additional characters (and spirits!).

4:22pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu24CM1j9
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: avatar avatar the last airbender avatar the legend of aang halfbrick review gba 
September 13, 2015
[Review] Rayman Raving Rabbids (GBA)

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The Rabbids are resented among some Rayman fans. For a while they “took over” the series with overly juvenile humour, minigame collections rather than platformers, and a shifting focus away from Rayman, his friends, and his world (after the first one, I think they’re mostly set on Earth, and Rayman himself disappears after the third). For the purposes of my series playthrough, I’m covering the first instalment only, as I think it’s still in the Glade of Dreams and its handheld iterations are platformers.

And if you’ve been following the series, there’s no way you’d want to miss this. The minigame focus of the first main Rabbids game was the result of a drastic change in design partway through development. This small GBA game is the successor not only of the original Rabbids platform adventure, but combines that with concepts from an unrelated cancelled prototype for “Rayman 4”. Not only is RRR GBA the closest thing to a “proper” Rayman 4, it honours the whole series.

Firstly, it follows closely on the heels of Rayman 3 GBA. A similar art style and feel, borrowed sprites and gameplay, even the Mode 7 3D racing levels (although on the whole it’s a bit less polished those bits are at least done better here, I feel). Rayman also starts with most of the abilities he gained over that game, which are supplemented by costumes, albeit more like personas than the implementation in Rayman 3 proper. Again we have undefined creatures in cages, yellow Lums (along with red, blue, and green), and even Ly and Murfy along to help (Globox and R3-type Teensies have cameo appearances). Certain sound effects and jingles are (like both previous GBA games) carried over directly all the way from Rayman 2. Finally, thanks to the Rayman 4 concept, the environments are either new to the series or updates to Rayman 1 worlds, complete with classic and classic-feeling enemies. So we’ve come full circle.

All this together made it feel nostalgic as I played. It plays well too, with secrets tucked away but not too hidden, and strategic combat. Levels are broken up occasionally with a shooting gallery minigame (hosted by a Rabbid with a Magician hat!!), or a timed speedrun-type level. Boss fights are varied in goal, but between the cool first boss (a large Antitoon replica) and the last, a giant robotic Rabbid, you fight the same buff Rabbid multiple times, which is a bit lame. The costumes are generally underused and a bit awkward to switch to, but not an inherently bad idea.

Now it must be said: the game is very short. For me, it was over in an afternoon. As I’ve said before, it doesn’t automatically lose points for that, but I do wish there were just a few more levels, or something to do in the village hub between worlds. It’s obvious after reading about the origins of the project that this represents a fundamentally cut-down version of the Raving Rabbids/Rayman 4 vision. But, it is the only version we have of it and for that I cherish it.

It’s interesting how you can draw a line through Rayman 1 to Rayman 3 GBA to Rayman Raving Rabbids GBA, and get in a fairly consistent tone a 2D platformer experience of the whole pre-Origins series: 1, 2, a bit of 3, and what 4 could have been. The other thing I noticed was the concepts that would work their way into the revitalised Rayman series: the Organic Cave is similar to the parts inside the giant dragon in Origins and Fiesta Run, and the Rabbids’ Lair world looks so much like Legends’ castle archetype. Cool stuff! Although it’s short this comes highly recommended, if only for the concepts, the synthesis of series elements, having a real platforming adventure against menacing Rabbids. Don’t overlook it!

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1u6elfC
(Notes: 4)
  
Filed under: rayman rayman raving rabbids gba review visual impact productions ubisoft 
September 10, 2015
[Review] Rayman: Hoodlums’ Revenge (GBA)

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And here we round out the Rayman 3 era of games; it’s much shorter than Rayman 2 with its many spinoffs. And even this group can’t shake a deep connection to Rayman 2, despite my feelings that each numbered entry was fairly distinct. For example, Hoodlums’ Revenge once again bases its soundtrack mainly off of Eric Chevalier’s R2 score (for the fourth unique game since R2 itself). Make no mistake, it’s in the R3 mold through and through, but it also reintroduces Yellow Lums as a collectible (they also replace yellow gems as the low-value pickup ideal for starting a combo) as well as Green Lums as checkpoints, and Blue Lums as they appeared in Rayman 3 GBA, but now paired with the Throttle Copter powerup can. As with R3GBA, it enhances the connection between the games and makes the world feel more full and alive.

Unfortunately the game itself is mediocre at best. It’s ambitious as a pseudo-3D isometric platformer on a system not powerful enough to do true 3D satisfactorily, like Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge, but it just doesn’t work too well. I guess Backbone felt it necessary to restrict the levels to right angles to aid the platforming, but it makes the world feel artificial in the process, a problem none of Rayman’s games have had so far. Even then, it’s difficult to determine your position and height relative to the ground, which coupled with the somewhat dodgy hit detection makes the game frustrating to play.

Water is now deadly to Rayman apparently. There’s a mercy in that you take only minor damage from landing in it once and can bounce back out, but the second or third bounce will invariably kill you. This does let them introduce the new mechanic of the coracle-style boat, as well as the fire immunity can for running on lava. Speaking of new gameplay, Globox is playable here, either solo or in some levels you can switch between them to solve puzzles. It’s a nice addition and gives that same feeling of buddies on an adventure that Rayman 3 had (the plot rehashes R3 pretty shamelessly). But Globox is slow and gets spooked by Hoodlums; you must drink plum juice to hit them. It’s not as fun playing as him since he has less options, but at least he doesn’t have to make tricky jumps and can’t fall into water.

Despite this appearance of variety, the game is quite short on content. Few levels, few music tracks, and short on visual variety in its too-bright environments. Shortness can be a virtue but the repetitive music is much less so. At least the Teensies you rescue from the requisite cages have a plethora of amusing one-liners (and they even have an unused Teensie tribe design from R3 as one of the randomly picked dialogue portraits, although the sprites are all palette swapped Minimuses).

The plot is ridiculous. Globox is possessed by Black Lum powers (for the third time), only this time it’s some kind of residual essence left by Andre from Rayman 3. As you progress he gets more belligerent as Andre influences his mind directly (which is a bit different to R3) until finally you find out that he’s been transformed somehow into a clone of Reflux. Which makes no sense. There’s also a lava monster boss that looks exactly like a Knaaren for some reason. There is some amusing dialogue between a temporarily-aggressive Globox and an unobservant Rayman but there’s little explanation for the Hoodlum activity, etc.

So Hoodlums’ Revenge is an attempt at a handheld Rayman game that’s not simply a 2D platformer, but it’s flawed in almost all areas of execution. The best I can say is “it’s fine”. Trying to keep a combo going is still engaging and combat is… well, fine, as long as you use the lock-on. As expected, it’s ultimately derivative of R3 but has its own small flourishes. It’s not good, but I guess that’s OK.

And that’s it for Rayman 3 stuff (R3GBA, R3, this, and that one Flash game). You can keep track of my Rayman Quest here. Up next we’re starting on Raving Rabbids stuff, stay tuned.

12:00pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1tvwqnF
(Notes: 3)
  
Filed under: rayman rayman hoodlums' revenge backbone entertainment review ubisoft gba 
August 27, 2015
[Review] Rayman 3 (GBA)

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Despite the name, Rayman 3 GBA is almost totally based on Rayman 2, but it also plays very much like Rayman 1. As such it goes a long way toward making the series feel cohesive and bridge some gaps. The speculation is that the team at Ubisoft (the Rayman PC wiki claims it was made by Ludi Factory, but I don’t think that’s true after reviewing names in the credits) was working on a 2D iteration of Rayman 2 for GBA when Rayman 3 was in development, and at the last minute added a few enemies and design elements from 3, along with the name and boxart for branding purposes.

As I said though, the gameplay very much makes it a sequel to Rayman 1. The large, detailed sprites also help it to look and feel like an extension of it, although as with the Rayman 1 GBA port (and Tonic Trouble GBC) they leave the playing area feeling cramped. (Another quick similarity to TT GBC: unused content from the main game makes its way in here in the form of Scaleman the Hoodlum boss who appears in R3 concept art.) You have Band Land-style sliding, swinging from Purple Lums, telescoping fist attacks, etc. Ly of course takes the place of Betilla to give you new abilities, some of which are unique to this game. Funnily enough the map screen is a hybrid of Rayman 1′s world-level overview and the 2D traversable screen of Rayman 1&2 GBC. Most of the environments (which look pretty nice) and setpieces though are taken from Rayman 2.

The plot involves the Black Lum (possibly Andre, although that doesn’t sit perfectly with the theory that this is a prequel to 3) inhabiting Globox as in 3, but Globox is not heard of again after that. Razorbeard seeks the power of the Black Lum and apparently joins forces with it at some point, and you have to fight through Robo-pirates, Black Lums, Zombie Chickens, and the occasional Hoodlum to stop him and his Grolgoth (again). The usual cages must be smashed, but it’s never actually established who is in them. Teensies appear in Rayman 3-style guise only at the end of each world.

R3 GBA also follows R1 in terms of its difficulty. Extra lives are scarce and deaths come easily. Without savestates I might even have ragequit as I did with the original game, where I didn’t have such conveniences. Luckily I was able to complete it, as I found the meshing together of series elements to be fascinating. Hint for finding yellow lums and cages: in each section, try walking left from the starting point. You’ll be surprised how often that grants rewards.

I couldn’t test the multiplayer modes, or the extra minigames from connecting to Rayman 3 on the Gamecube via the special Link Cable. The multiplayer seems to be expansions or competitive versions of existing gameplay; I haven’t mentioned the Mode-7 car racing levels, which control pretty badly. The GCN link though supposedly does some cooperative stuff using both screens, which sounds interesting.

I should mention that this game was ported to the Nokia N-Gage. It ends up looking better, with slightly smaller, cleaner spritework which may actually expand the visible play area, despite the horizontally smaller screen. Not sure about that, but it probably sounds much worse. There’s no way to emulate N-Gage games though so the GBA will do. There was also a version for Symbian that’s greatly cut down compared to this version, which I’ll talk about later when I cover other mobile games.

I have to reiterate how much this draws from the 3 main classic Rayman games to make something that feels cohesive. For that reason it’s essential for Rayman fans and really deserves its place as a “Rayman 2.5″. It looks really nice and has great conversions of Eric Chevalier’s Rayman 2 score to sound good as well. Just be prepared to use savestates if you’re going for 100%, especially on the kart racing or waterskiing levels.

12:00pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1swJYLx
(Notes: 6)
  
Filed under: rayman rayman 3 ubisoft gba review 
June 24, 2015
[Review] Lufia: The Ruins of Lore (GBA)

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I’m now playing the Lufia games in chronological order, so the last game made in the previous continuity is actually the second to play (I played Lufia 2 a few years ago). It’s supposed to be around 20 years after Maxim & co’s initial confrontation with the Sinistrals. This event is alluded to in Ruins of Lore’s intro but is barely ever brought up in the game; the only thing that places it is the presence of Dekar. This game is a sidestory and named as such in Japan, and it shows.

The plot has no bearing on the overall series; fair enough too, as it’s a different team to the one who made every other Lufia game. As a result it feels a little off, like it was made as a cash grab. A lot of elements are here: enemies, items, adventure aspects in the dungeons, a few songs. But it also tries several interesting new things, which is not a detriment in itself.

Any monster can potentially be captured and used as a party member; I never used them much because they replace a regular member, and why would I want that? The mechanics around using the monsters are very confusing, and were left largely untapped by me, but I didn’t feel the loss. It sometimes feels like party members are forced out in the early stages simply to leave you with an open spot to fill with these—boo!

Speaking of poorly explained things, again the plot. I had no idea what was going on half the time, we traipsed around half the world, seemingly happening upon magic stones that we then used at the end to get to some ill-defined magical realm to confront a vague threat. The cliche anime-style set-up of ten year olds passing a test to get a monster hunter’s license also put me off. Much of it was not in keeping with what I expected in a Lufia game, unfortunately.

Traversal is fairly unique, as each route between towns is a kind of dungeon in itself, and once completed becomes a fast travel location from the world map. Since you hop around so much it works well.

This game implements a job system to acquire skills. I picked one for each of the three who could get one (why not Bau?) and stuck with it for the whole game. So another mechanic that seemed unnecessary that I didn’t fully utilise. I had no trouble with difficulty by the way, except for the very final boss which takes a huge spike upwards. So there are some balance issues. Battles are also very slow and without my emulator’s turbo button (this game has never been released in my region, as with the first Lufia) I would have given up on the whole thing. Add on to this a clunky menu system and you can see how it approaches mediocrity.

Which is a shame, because there’s a fair bit to like. The areas, towns, and enemies have colour and character (despite a lack of recurring antagonist apart from the vague evil empire which you infiltrate no sweat). Dungeons are decent with each character having skills to help you through. It’s just that it doesn’t hang together so well.

All in all, I’d only recommend it if you have a turbo button. The Lufia-ness is about half of the game’s identity, with the other half being a range of other good and ill-formed ideas and tropes. It’s a decent RPG in its own right, but on a system overflowing with great ones like Golden Sun, the Final Fantasy remakes, and even Mother 3. Plus Dekar was a little underused, and they set him up with a young dancer girl! Quite a rude shock after the lovely relationship with Tia in Curse of the Sinistrals. Poor Dekar, he should get his own game that’s not this one.

12:00pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1nvgGpK
(Notes: 4)
  
Filed under: lufia estpolis lufia: the ruins of lore atelier double gba review 
March 21, 2014
[Review] Metroid Prime Pinball & Mario Pinball Land (DS/GBA)

I’m always thrilled to spot a Nintendo game for cheap at the shops. Metroid Prime Pinball was a real breath of fresh air, bringing back the Prime sensibilities in some small way to clear away the feeling I got from Other M. But that wasn’t why I bought it, just a nice side effect.

The game I probably played the most in my childhood was, oddly enough, Pokemon Pinball for the GBC. Pinball resonates with me even if I rarely ever had the chance with an actual table. It had been a while and I’m actually close to beating every Metroid game, since there aren’t too many. I’m glad I picked it up, even if it’s really short. So short in fact that hungry for more pinball content I emulated Mario Pinball Land, the previous pinball game Fuse had done for Nintendo, not willing to wait for the VC release.

The two games are surprisingly different. Mario is more like an adventury Mario game, while Metroid hews a bit closer to the aesthetic of a physical pinball table. In Mario, you go through single GBA screens in an interconnected area, accomplishing a simple task on each screen to get a star, while also collecting powerups and coins. It’s a very different take on a pinball game, with secret entrances to new screens, roaming enemies and boss fights, and a persistent story, of a kind. You can even continue progress in the adventure if you lose all your balls, the focus is less on the score attack. It’s like if Super Mario 64 was pinball-based.

Metroid, on the other hand, also has a story but plays out more like a pinball machine. There’s different boards but each one covers just the DS’s two screens. You are trying to re-enact the story of Metroid Prime mostly, completing a series of pinball table-like tasks to advance to a new area. It has bosses and enemies too, but a bit more modular. I love the liberties it takes though, doing things a real pinball table would never be able to do, like when Samus suddenly stands up and starts shooting bugs that are coming her way.

Metroid is really great, a well-tuned pinball experience with a goal and an adventure along the way. Mario is a bit less focused, with a sprawling world unlike a traditional pinball experience, with many secrets and actually a lot of accuracy required, not to mention trial and error and persistence. Yeah it’s hard but in a less fun way than Metroid. I preferred the DS offering, it seems a better crafted game, not to mention the subject matter. That’s not to say that Mario didn’t try interesting things with the pinball formula and gave a unique experience. It’s too bad Fuse has parted ways with Nintendo for now, maybe Jupiter (the developer of the three Pokemon pinball games) can take some time off Picross, and take another franchise to the table. Kirby’s had his shot… Donkey Kong Pinball, anyone?

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1AjGsQ_
Filed under: review fuse games gba ds metroid mario metroid prime pinball mario pinball land 
March 17, 2014
[Review] Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (GBA)

Recently I was gifted a copy of Dream Team (Bros), the 4th Mario & Luigi game. Having already played the third, Bowser’s Inside Story, I decided I should go back and catch up on the others before playing the latest, which apparently references the previous installments. I think I made the right choice in playing the older ones before the newest one, because I’ve done both 1 and 2 now and they seem to be improving with each one (in my opinion, common consensus seems to be first is best).

But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. The series has carved out a niche very distinctly from Paper Mario, which has quite gone off the rails in its last couple of entries. And unlike the latter, it seems to retain a core through each one, not changing too much at once. This may seem a classic Nintendo recipe for stagnation, but I say there'senough each time to keep it relatively fresh, and refinement of a formula can be rewarding—evolution as opposed to Paper Mario’s contentious revolution.

Er, more getting ahead. I can’t help but make these broader comparisons though, going from the third back. And I can’t help but feel hard done by on the still clunky design aspects of the first installment. For example, there are a ton of different modes and configurations for actions in the overworld. You get jumps, combo jumps, front and back hammer options, hand powers, and they all change depending on which Bro is in the lead. The difficulty curve is also a little wonky in places. We also have a lot of mandatory minigames that aren’t much fun, but at least break up the grind a bit.

These gripes are pretty minor though. As I said, the core is there and it is strong. The mix of isometric 3D puzzle platforming and RPG gameplay is a winning formula. Making it feel like Mario with these unfamiliar elements is an accomplishment. In fact these RPGs are my favourite Mario games, filling out this colourful world with imaginative settings and fun writing and characters. That skillful execution of these aspects is a big part of their appeal, and fortunately pretty much all the RPGs have it, despite some design shortcomings at times.

The Beanbean kingdom is an odd choice for location, taking us out of the Mushroom Kingdom. Ultimately it’s a great idea, fleshing out this world and playing with bean-related variants on familiar drones and such, as well as bringing in an interesting political dynamic at times. The antagonists and secondary characters are memorable, with recurring rogue agent Popple amusing and Fawful especially stealing any scene he shows up in, leading to his prominence in the third game. Cackletta is not as great as Fawful unfortunately but she gets the job done. Prince Peasley is fun too.

What really sells the game though is the Bros. dynamic, with Mario and Luigi playing off each other both in battles and the adorable cutscenes (not as adorable as the second game’s babies, though). Pulling off special moves is satisfying, but hard to do (so I didn’t use them often at all, except boss fights…). Their animation is wonderful, very fluid and expressive with plenty of cartooniness.

Anyways with this game apparently coming soon to Wii U Virtual COnsole of all things, it’s worth checking out for sure. But I do feel that the sequels build on the formula, as well as streamlining certain things to improve the experience. Now that I think of it though, this one probably edges out the others in its cast of characters and its immersive interconnected world (the second’s world is quite segregated and the third’s is too complicated). So I’d dispute the general feel that the first is best, but it does have its strengths and is in itself a great game. So if you just write it off, I will have fury! (it’s something Fawful says guys)

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1ALkQeQ
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: review gba alphadream mario & luigi mario mario & luigi: superstar saga 
July 29, 2013
Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge (GBA)

While finishing up DK64, I started on the handheld follow-up/sequel/midquel/side-story to the Banjo series. It’s set between Kazooie and Tooie, but quickly travels decades into the past. A few aspects make this premise a bit screwy, but that’s the way with any prequel or time-travelly shenanigans.

It was very exciting to play this strange little game, because there’s a lot of new and fresh stuff in here which was a change after playing through both N64 games again. But they also reuse enough to keep it familiar. For example, the structure and moves are basically the same, the characters are just an extension of Tooie, complete with new mole tutor.

The funny thing about this though is that it’s not a 3D platformer, the GBA just couldn’t handle it. But it’s probably the closest thing, an isometric platformer. The gameplay is still 3D, but there’s a fixed camera so all the backgrounds and stuff are just premade and everything is sprites, obviously. This introduces some perspective-related issues, of course, as there’s no distinction between further south and higher up, for example. This can get to be a problem in the later levels that have a lot more hazards.

But it’s impressive that they basically reproduced the Banjo formula on a limited system, and did it pretty well (they even improved a couple of mechanics). Of course, I’ve always said that the Rare handheld team makes less polished products than the console teams, and that’s still true here. The minigames are pretty bad, the art is a bit crude in places (blame the GBA too if you like), and you can see the seams, if you get what I mean. And the Comic Sans! Apparently that team is in love with the world’s most hated font, although this was made at a time when it was pretty much ubiquitous. I think the hate came later.

The game’s really short too. Apparently it suffered some cuts in development, but what they have it a fairly neat package. I did finish it in 4 hours, though, and that’s with 100%. But the worlds they have (5 in total, plus the hub) are fun concepts. They’re also quite small, but I guess if you accept the compactness as a feature they play very well. There’s enough NPCs with dumb names to make the worlds feel alive, and a nice flow of new moves. The Mumbo transformations can also be used in any world now, which I think was cool.

Speaking of the worlds though, most of the archetypes seem to be combinations of previously used ideas. Spiller’s Harbor=Rusty Bucket Bay+Jolly Roger’s Lagoon. Breegull Beach=Treasure Trove Cove, essentially. Freezing Furnace=Hailfire Peaks+Grunty Industries. Bad Magic Bayou=Bubblegloop Swamp+Mad Monster Mansion. Cliff Farm is the only really new one, and it’s similar in some ways to Spiral Mountain anyway. Of course, they do new things with all of these, and it’s not such a bad thing when you think how it can inform you on how the Isle of Hags fits together. So that’s a fun exercise, especially with the time travel involved.

I’m running out of things to say somewhat. I guess because the game is so small. In a way, it didn’t outstay its welcome, because it did get quite hard towards the end, everything seemed to do so much damage to you. There was no real penalty for dying, thank goodness—unlike Banjo-Kazooie. It would have been a slog to do another world with even tougher enemies.

I just love how it revisited all the great Banjo elements, such as Grunty’s taunts, the collectibles, lovable weirdo NPCs, there was even quiz segments between phases of the final battle. A final note before we end, though: with the help of a mobile phone emulator, I tried the mobile port of this game (yes it was ported to cell phones, people… I give you the early 2000s). It’s pretty awful. Everything’s scaled back: short music then silence; boring, bare versions of levels; awkward movements and controls. It’s hilarious that it exists, but it’s badly done. It makes the GBA version look much better by comparison, in fact. So I’ll rate the GBA version 600 notes. Nah, that’s too much like a number. On a scale of blue to yellow Jinjos, this one is a pink.

12:19pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuqsCdVx
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: review banjo-kazooie: grunty's revenge rareware gba banjo 
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