April 15, 2014
[Review] Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)

Ah, my most anticipated game of the last six months. I think that was a problem, actually, as it turned out I’d hyped the thing beyond all reality. The game is fantastic, but little details disappointed me, which I think reflects poorly on my own attitude.

Being a hardcore member of the DKVine forums, home to the Internet’s biggest Donkey Kong Universe fans, we of course had been overanalysing every scrap we could find since the announcement at last E3. I eventually disengaged from watching every gameplay preview, because going so far in really would spoil it for me.

Reception has been overwhelmingly positive (I agree with it), and I’ve seen more than a few comments indicating that this game was toppling previously-held beliefs on which is the best, or second-best, DKC game. For me personally, among others, my list is now DKC2>DKCTF>DKC3>DKCR>DKC1.

Let me get the niggles out of the way first. The lag on the loading screens disproportionately annoyed me. The swimming controls are not as smooth as Rayman Legends (which they are based on). Bonus rooms are boring. The final boss was a little underwhelming and a little too reminiscent of a certain reptilian monarch, who once again is conspicuous by his absence. Aquatic Ambiance is remixed far too much. The setup and payoff generally aren’t as impactful as they should have been, although progression feels very good. Still too many rocket barrels. And finally, dramatic underuse of Animal Buddies (partially offset by multiple partner Kongs).

So Retro seemingly took on many of the complaints from DKCR, and attempted to address them. They whiffed a few points, but gave us more charismatic antagonists, ways to change up the gameplay with the partners and swimming, and really just ramped up the execution on graphics, presentation, environments, and music.

Let’s give music its own paragraph because it’s a big thing. David Wise is back in glorious form, with excellent tunes. Not always totally appropriate, but nicely varied. Also not enough DKC2 remixes, but the remixes and references to DKC3 GBA were very cool to my relatively recently educated ears. The guy is just great, and the unqueness of the styles he brings makes for a soundtrack like no other game. Getting jazz flute and heavy metal just a few levels apart is totally cool.

Apart from the new features I mentioned and the coup of securing Wise’s involvement, this is really heavily built off the foundation of Returns. All the mechanics are the same, with Miyamoto’s boneheaded blowing mechanic replaced with the more intuitive pulling, piggybacking on another button which also is used for the more extensively implemented throwing of objects, and of course swimming added. The physics, the collectibles, the feel are all the same and that’s fine, really. It’s just been toned up and polished. Maybe they should have shaken it up a little more, plus I wasn’t used to the heaviness and finality to your actions of this engine, as opposed to Rayman and Mairo Galaxy which I thought of as I was starting as they allowed you some recovery wiggle room. I got into the groove though.

Nintendo’s hyping up the difficulty of this game but I don’t see it. In Returns I used many more lives in co-op though, and this has been solo only for me, so similarly I quickly reached 99 lives and stayed there. I used more coins on the new items this time, though, which is good, but they’re not very good. Especially the one-use only items which are gone after use, but then you have to carry on as long as you have lives. Makes them feel less useful. The long loading times also discourage exiting and entering levels often.

Basically the game is just a much better version of Returns, with more imagination and ambition. It’s not perfectly tuned though. For example, it seems to me that Dixie is the most powerful partner and I used her heaps more than the others, but maybe that’s a choice thing—how much of a crutch do you want? Oh and of course the motion controls are no longer compulsory, as the button layout from Returns 3D is now an option on Gamepad or Pro Controller. I found it much better that way.

I feel a little conflicted about this game, because in certain ways Rayman Legends stole its thunder, being an excellently produced 2D platformer that was very fun and had it all together. But despite borrowing a couple of mechanics, they do go in different directions, and it very much has its own identity. Definitely an essential Wii U game, one of if not the best so far. And I’ve already expressed how wonderful it is compared to other DKC games (I really do love DKC3). If you like platformers and have a Wii U, you need this game.

Oh, one more thing. I wish the collectible counters would increment after they appear on screen, not before. See what I mean about my attitude?

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(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: review donkey kong donkey kong country donkey kong country: tropical freeze retro studios wii u 
February 15, 2014
Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)

Here’s another one I played to completion a while after finishing it. My reason for leaving this off was because I’d almost only played it in co-op with my bro (hi bro!), so when we’d finished it and I’d moved away I just didn’t play it solo. But to wash out the taste of Jungle Beat, I started a new file and got to 100% completion (but not Mirror Mode or Time Attack… bugger that).

It was really great, although a few differences I’d noticed from co-op to solo was that I was accumulating a lot more coins (because I bought less lives to use in levels) and that it was much harder, especially the secret levels. I had to buy powerups, which we hadn’t done before. It’s a hard game, man! But so lovingly made. (Not enough love if you ask some people, at least love for DKC—some fans are big purists). This time I was able to take it slower, really take in the music and the backgrounds. The game looks great and sounds great, despite the over-reliance on DKC1 remixes and mediocrity of most new tracks. There’s also too many rocket barrel levels that are too unforgiving.

Fortunately the follow-up, Tropical Freeze, seems to be addressing every single major complaint people had. Yes even that one. David Wise is back now to bring us awesome music, level environments are even more imaginative and lively, water levels and more Kongs are back with the gameplay variations they bring. A few tweaks have been made to make things more forgiving, despite the levels seeming to be no less difficult. Also, it has new antagonists that have a lot more character than the Tikis: alright, they’re not the Kremlings but they are superior to Tikis in the same ways the Kremlings would be, so although I love them in this case nostalgia has to give way.

Well, I talked about TF a lot there. Anyways DKCR is pretty damn awesome, along with the new Raymans 2D platformers are going strong right now. Sure it falls short in a few ways but it’s very polished and just fun to play, and well executed on its aims. Let’s keep this short and cut it off here. Play DKCR, it’s on 3DS now which is supposedly an even better version (despite some slight graphical compromises). Bring some patience for the harder levels though.

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Filed under: review donkey kong donkey kong country returns wii retro studios donkey kong country tropical freeze 
May 14, 2013
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii) & Metroid Prime Hunters (DS)

Whew. My big Metroid rush is over for now. Or is it? Tomorrow, the new Famicom sale game is going up on the WiiU and it’s (you guessed it) Super Metroid. I’d been considering picking that up with the last of my Wii funds, but this is much better. Anyway let’s talk about these other two games, shall we?

What’s interesting to me is how many similarities these games have. MP3 was made by the same developers as the other Primes, Retro Studios. It really changed up the formula that had been established by the revolutionary first game and the evolutionary second. It did this not only with its control scheme that made heavy use of the Wii remote, but also in terms of structure, conventions and scope. It’s the first Metroid game with proper voice acting (MP1’s unused spoken intro aside), it involves moving Samus’s ship and travelling to other locations, planets, and even systems, it brings in a large amount of NPC interaction, and it has a dynamic plot. In most other ways it’s an extension of the first two games, but even then a lot of gameplay things were tweaked: stacking beam weapons instead of selectable, the new Hypermode which introduces a different type of strategy to fights, using the ship to affect the environment, and all the grappling.

When I looked into Hunters though, I found it had got there first on a few of these. Taking your ship between different planets, encountering other Bounty Hunters, a redesigned control scheme for new hardware. On the other hand, while it had a lot less suit upgrades, it actually added a ton more weapons, some a lot less useful than others (I’m looking at you, Volt Driver). The two were developed alongside each other for part of the time, and Retro were consulted on many things by the developer of Hunters, NST. But I’m wondering which company had these ideas first, especially the other Hunters and the planet-hopping. In any case, it was cool to play them together as they had these common elements—it also highlighted how different the execution of them was.

Now we could easily talk about how crummy Hunters looks as an early 3D DS game. I looked past that for most of my playthrough—I guess I’m good at ignoring visual shortcomings when I want to (I played on my 3DS for at least 6 months in power-saving mode—not recommended). Just accept that the textures are super-blocky and play the game. There were other limitations on the smaller system though, such as a noticeable lack of enemy diversity and especially boss diversity. The scans were also very laconic compared to its console counterparts. Everything is just a lot smaller in scale, but again the limitations of the system understandably imposed this to some extent (would it have killed them to make one or two more boss designs though? There’s 2 reused 4 times each!).

So obviously the fidelity of Corruption was much higher. The production values were very high for the most part. Perhaps for such a cinematic game, I was starting to see the long-whined about visual limitations of the Wii, but for the most part it looked and felt excellent. Comparing it also to the other two Prime games in such a short time, it was a big step up. I also loved the variety of environments, and how each planet had a completely unique and at some points beautiful visual design, right down to the style of doors giving a sense of place for each area.

Some complaints: Ship Missile upgrades were useless, the final boss battle was underwhelming, and the Wii remote movement stuff was overused in some parts and underused in others. While we’re here, Hunters complaints: too many arbitrary force fields, not enough weight behind the rival Hunters, I got lost a lot.

But let’s talk about some good parts! I loved those two key differences to the other Prime games that these brought: the planet-hopping allowed a more convincing and interesting reason for different environments, and more unique places that gave a more frequent sense of exploring a whole new space; the greater presence of NPCs reduced the usual lonely feeling of Metroid games, but that was still there—more importantly, it gave the world a lot more depth.

Of course, the heavier emphasis on setpieces in Corruption undermined the usual Metroid thing of wandering around, exploring and backtracking. I think they still managed to incorporate those feelings and experiences very well into this new structure, though. The appearances of Hunters randomly in levels also gave a deeper feeling of sudden excitement and peril, plunged back into cool, steady exploring afterwards. So both found very effective gameplay hooks in there while shaking up the Metroid formula.

Speaking of the Metroid formula, Hunters had no Metroids or Space Pirates. Weird. Still, a compelling story with perhaps not enough justification for when there was an appearance of common enemies such as Geemers (how did they come to a whole other galaxy?). In fact, the stories of both games were fantastic (although obviously the story was a lot more “there” in Corruption).

I’m trailing off a bit so once again I will intentionally end my post before I get really out of hand. But I will say, having now experienced all of the Prime series (except Pinball), um it was fun. Sorry don’t know where that sentence was going. I’m definitiely a bigger Metroid fan now. Luckily not enough to feel bitter about the zero 25th Anniversary acknowledgments. It’s just a B- or C-lister now, oh well. But I’m glad I gave Hunters a chance, it was a very neat little game that was an adequate translation of the Prime gameplay to the system. Curruption was a very enjoyable conclusion to the series, easily my favourite of the three at this stage (maybe after replaying I’ll join the prevailing opinion of the first being best by far… not at the moment though). Really, all the added elements made it such a great experience, a real sci-fi epic. I just hope NIntendo aren’t too discouraged by Other M’s reception, and pull their finger out and make some more great games! Give them to the West again if you have to! And Retro, hire more developers! So that’s that, Mission Completed! (If you read this post in under an hour and picked up all of my references, you’ll now see me in my underwear. Enjoy!)

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Filed under: metroid metroid prime metroid prime 3: corruption metroid prime hunters ds wii nintendo retro studios nst review 
March 23, 2013
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Wii)

So I picked this up again after a long hiatus. Originally the reason was that I had borrowed Wind Waker and Paper Mario 2 from a friend, and wanted to get those awesome games back to him ASAP. So I put my playthrough on hold (halfway through Torvus Bog, I think), which stretched a long, long time as I put off restarting that. But I finally did and finished it.

My initial impression of the game was that it seemed like a mod, or expansion pack, of Prime, rather than a fully developed sequel. The engine is obviously the same, the interactable objects are mostly quite similar, certain enemies are reskins of Prime enemies, the beams are quite simple reskins. It differentiates itself a bit more as you go on though, with some stunning environments, new items and concepts, and a more active plot (rather than mostly inferred through scans, although it has that too).

That’s not to say that building so closely upon Prime is a bad thing. Prime was a fantastic game, still recognised today as a classic and a brilliant extension of the Metroid franchise despite some pre-release concerns. The sequel is less accoladed, but to my mind it’s probably just as good and different enough to be worthwhile playing. Also, similarly to Majora’s Mask, a few changes can go a long way toward the atmosphere, especially in environments. The comparison is apt as both are lesser-liked sequels that share many assets and mechanics, but with a darker tone and new ideas.

Echoes is a little less experimental than Majora’s Mask though, although carrying the Zelda link further, designers who worked on A Link to the Past apparently consulted with Retro to develop the Light World/Dark World concept. It’s well-executed here, with familiar structures but twisted and a dangerous feel to Dark Aether, although the portal loading screens were a little long and annoying.

I realised as I went on that Echoes was a bit smaller in area than Prime, but the dual worlds added to the size, and I feel bactracking was handled a little better. The smaller size and interconnectedness helped this aspect. As I got to know this little world, I felt good moving around confidently.

This feeling was hampered in the long run by a lacking “sense of progression”. Progressing meant collecting items and upgrades, getting MacGuffins, and opening new areas—all well and good, and staple to Metroid. But adding cutscenes and a major NPC (and Dark Samus scenes) was ultimately futile as it was not followed through enough. I didn’t feel as if my efforts were hindering the Ing or helping the Luminoth. I suppose the Dark Samus subplot was handled well, but due to all the explicit scan lore I expected some reflection of the conflict I was currently carrying out on the game world or dialogue with U-Mos, for example. Prime also felt a bit strange in this respect, as everything was implied and I didn’t feel as if I was accomplishing much until the end, which then felt a little flat.

Then again, the restrained and laid-back storytelling (for the most part) is refreshing in this age of Quicktime events and dull cutscenes. Echoes’s cutscenes were snappy and light on text, leaving some more lore/audiolog-type scan stuff for optional finding. This also applies to more retro stuff, but the comparison is more appropriate for this, a 3D first-person action-shooter. Just the tone and pace was so nice and slow and subtle. I liked that.

Combat is, well, it’s ok. At first you have to be careful, as threats are unknown and can do much more relative damage, but as you get to know everything’s patterns and capabilities—and your health increases—you tend to just rush past most creatures. Thus I think the start of the game and new areas that you venture into are more effective in building tone so on. Of course, once you get the Annihilator Beam there’s another shift because it makes it so much easier to just blast through things. So the tonal shifts are a little strange in that way but cool.

I like the sound design in this game. Sound effects are not too loud most of the time, the compositions for the different areas are nice, and part of the soothing change back into Light Aether after a stint in the Dark.

Another positive was the interactions of different groups. The Luminoth built everything, then the Ing corrupted it. The Luminoth then lost the war and went to sleep, waiting for a redeemer. The Federation showed up later and promptly got slaughtered by some Ing. Space pirates also make the scene (with Phazon), but are mainly possessed by more Ing. Finally, Dark Samus wrecks some stuff. Then Samus arrives and has to figure all this out by scanning stuff. It’s a fairly rich world, although the Federation and Pirate stuff is pretty much just in the first quarter of the game, I guess.

Oh by the way, there was a manga produced for this game which the Metroid Database has translated (except the last chapter) here. It focuses much more on the Federation troopers, and Samus arrives before they all die. It’s not bad.

Not sure what else to say, as I actually finished the game a little while ago and (appropriately to my playthrough) put off the review. But yeah it was a sweet game, and on the strength of it I bought Hunters for the DS too, which I will play before starting Corruption as they were developed in that order, although Hunters is set between Prime and Echoes. I really respect Retro at this point, they should hire a bunch more people so they can work on more than one game at a time! Anyway that’ll do so, see you next mission!

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Filed under: metroid metroid prime metroid prime 2 echoes retro studios nintendo wii new play control review 
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