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.
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.
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.
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.
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!).
As part of a rewatch of Avatar: The Last Airbender, I’m playing video game associated with the show. Of course I had to wait until Book 1 was finished to start this one, and finish the game before Book 2. Yes, most versions of the first tie-in game bar the PC version share a unique plot. It’s a nice little sidestory, with some inconsistencies to be sure, but greatly enhances the value of the game for fans. Note that the PS2, GCN, and Xbox versions are mostly identical, and this Wii version is a port of that version with some motion controls added.
I would tell you to go back to my review of the DS one for a rundown of the new plot, but I’m always embarrassed by my old writing so I’ll tell you again now. The setup makes you think it’s a Mechanist situation where a gifted engineer is making machines for the Fire Nation against her will. You find out though that Lian, aka The Maker, has a grander plan to replace benders with analogous constructs and end the war by having a better army of robots. You also discover benders from every nation are in on the conspiracy. Tracking Lian takes Team Avatar (plus Haru, so that you can play as an Eathbender too) from the North Pole to several Earth Kingdom villages, Omashu, a hidden island with a lost history, and the Southern Air Temple before you confront Lian in her fortress in what has become a desolate wasteland due to her machinations.
Some parts feel familiar, taking cues from the show, but mostly it’s fresh and exciting to see new places and talk to people, even if they don’t have much interesting to say. Lian is a great character, and evocative of themes that are brought up later in Korra. Zuko has a scant few scenes: he captures Katara but is detained himself as a traitor, then has a few brief cameos. Really he could have been cut entirely without losing much; this game is about the new independent mechanised threat, and the Fire Nation just gets in your way in a few levels.
Zuko’s reintroduction in the first chapter seems to ignore his state at the end of Book 1, but at least the game then goes on to acknowledge his banished status. Lian’s plan to destroy the Avatar statues in the Southern Air Temple was, as far as I can recall, treated seriously in the DS game. The console version gives Aang a line to say that this wouldn’t actually do anything, but they should protect them anyway—salvaging that moment for me in terms of the order I played them. But Omashu is still regarded as the Earth Kingdom capital, remaining as a niggle for me. Nitpicks aside, the plot is fine for a video game, although chapter transitions can be a little narratively clunky.
Anyway let’s talk about the game. Each chapter has a pseudo-open world structure, with a hub town. You get quests, visit shops, then venture out along narrow paths to other hotspots, fighting groups of enemies in real time. There’s usually backtracking involved and fights are generally very easy once you have the full party, as long as you take the time to do sidequests and get the best set items. Yes, there is also phat loot. Combat gets more challenging and interesting on the few occasions the party is forcibly split. Unfortunately once you leave a chapter there is no returning. Doubly unfortunately, I think there might be a bug because after doing everything (so I thought) in Chapter 6 it was stuck on 98%, so I never unlocked the character gallery. Boo. According to the guide I occasionally used, it’s good to watch out for quest order, because due to bad design certain things become cut off even within a chapter. I never encountered this though.
I did however have problems with the game crashing, but that may just be due to a damaged disc. Either way, my play experience was occasionally fraught but despite this I had a better time than with the gruelling DS version. The sprite art there is more appealing than the wonky 3D models here, but I did like the lush environments here better. It’s also more quick and fun to play, and much more fully-featured. It does frequently make you stop to play a drawing minigame with the Wiimote to pull off environmental bending moves though.
Two more quick highlights of this game. The incidental dialogue heard just by standing around villagers adds both humour and world-building, which I appreciated. And as with all Avatar adapted material, I’m on the lookout for new animals, as the series is known for its fun hybrid animals. In fact this one was pretty lackluster for new hybrids but it does have some rarely-seen vanilla animals, with wolves and feral cats as enemies. A different kind of wolf with some perhaps armadillo traits is a common enemy, and the final chapter has a “deer” with some alpaca and rhino traits. Item names also reference minksnakes and whales. There’s also several spirits in the story: a forest guardian in the form of a horned bear who transforms into a man, a normal-looking badger mole who guards the lost history of the people of the hidden island, and a large owl connected with a sacred place next to the Air Temple. I liked seeing these spirits more than the animal offerings, although the game did also bring back many animals from the show as enemies, not to mention the variety of intriguing elemental machines.
Well I’ve gone on long enough. For now I’d say this is the best way to experience the new story that Flint Dille created for this project, but we’ll see how the GBA and PSP stack up later on. Keep an eye on the home page for my Avatar reviews if you’re interested.
As I’ve said, the Avatar Book 1 game tells an original story set after Book 1. To experience the story at the same time as I watched the show, I played this game; M. Night Shyamalan’s movie is an adaptation of Book 1. There’s two angles here: how this game adapts the movie adaptation, and how it follows Halfbrick’s previous effort, the Into the Inferno DS game.
I still have not seen the movie but I know a lot of details by reputation. From what I can tell, there are a few tweaks here to make it a more playable game that also coincidentally (or not) bring it closer to the show, the most prominent being that firebenders are able to create their own fire.
I kept being put off by the character designs, although they have their own consistency. Just because they’re different, they’re not necessarily bad. The Fire Nation army look is pretty cool and I do like Aang’s redesign even if he’s a very dour child now instead of a happy-go-lucky tween. But there’s still dissonance which can’t be helped.
The game frontloads some exposition that is not revealed til later in the show, which bogs it down a bit. But there’s also at least one new “event”, Zuko being trained by some kind of martial arts master called Jiu Jiao (not to be confused with Zhao or Jeong Jeong). That’s the kind of thing I look for, even if it’s simply a tutorial level for Zuko’s abilities.
Speaking of Zuko, he appears to be the primary protagonist, or if not it’s close. Levels alternate between him or his Blue Spirit guise and Aang. The focus on the game as being this dual story is welcome, with Zuko as a sympathetic character rather than a stock villain, just as the show portrays. However, there are a few downsides to the way the story is told, both due to alterations the movie made and cutbacks due to the scope of the game. But on the other hand, the added touches of humour in incidental dialogue are much appreciated.
Still, the game is competent enough as an abridged Book 1. But how is it as a game? Well, I had fun, although it is easy and brief. As I said, it very much builds on its immediate predecessor, the DS Into the Inferno game based on Book 3 of the show, but without the chibi style. As before, it’s entirely stylus-controlled except for the shoulder buttons to enter bending mode, but there’s a bit more of an emphasis on combat than puzzles.
It makes up for having only 2 playable characters with a sort of RPG progression system. You find chi orbs as a collectible or receive them for doing tasks, which can be spent on upgrading the characters’ skills. Don’t bother saving up though because they throw them at you, especially towards the end. There are also health and mana upgrades to find in the levels (there’s no backtracking, but the game actually contains more than you need to max them out). I felt invested in the characters because of this, and despite their abundance these collectibles were a better motivator than the lotus tiles in Inferno.
So it was a fairly breezy time, but I enjoyed the situations the game put me in, even if they were sometimes contrived in a game-y way. Maybe it helped to play along with episodes of the show. The enemies were mostly Fire Nation soldiers of various types, but there were also a kind of spider, as well as a memorable boss battle against Katara as Zuko! It is short but not bad by any means, and it’s the only way to play the Book 1 story on a handheld (if that’s appealing?).
EDIT: I have now watched the movie. So I can say that like the film’s comic adaptation, the game takes aspects or scenes of the movie and handles them better than the film itself did. And indeed tweaks the story in a slightly more show-like direction. Also Zhao in the film stabs Tui in the bag. In the game he hilariously punches the bag. That’s all I wanted to say.
I’ve started playing all the Avatar games. As I’ve said before, the first round released for Book 1 have an original story set after Book 1. The PC version is the one exception. It has 6 chapters based on episodes in the first season. The game itself is obviously cheaply made and not very good, but I want to talk more about its content because it’s not widely acknowledged. By documenting it more thoroughly I can perhaps save you from playing it but still bring it to light.
Apart from the show’s animated intro as an opening cutscene, you’re dumped straight into The Kyoshi Warriors, episode 1x04. The main gameplay is a simplistic Diablo-like clickathon; you’ve got 3D models, isometric view, painted backgrounds, and mouse-only controls. Each of the clicks has three skills which are unlocked through the plot: attacks on left, and on the right are the air scooter for mobility, an air shield, and a mist technique to hide from enemies. Other gameplay modes are inserted between small arenas of this type. In the first chapter we see the meditation minigame (click the distracting thoughts to keep Aang’s mind clear) and an Appa-based flying shoot-em-up.
We move on to 1x05, The King of Omashu. The game is fully voiced, with all the actors reprising their roles for the cutscenes, an abridged mix of slightly rejigged lines and new dialogue that gets the same points across as the show. The lunchbox key test has been replaced by fighting a bunch of hog monkeys, and the Flopsy test shows a new “chase” gameplay style which controls like the Appa stages but just avoiding obstacles. Then there’s a one-on-one battle with Bumi, which has the standard controls but feels different due to duelling single opponents with a range of skills. The difficulty is very forgiving; if you run out of health you instantly respawn and enemy are not reset. The other modes are bit less lenient but still easy.
The Scar of the World, as the manual calls it, is 1x7 The Winter Solstice part 1. After an Appa stage against a new kind of bird (”spine hawks”), you fight out-of-place canyon crawlers and later the also-new tiger bees/wasps. The new creatures are a great part of this game to me. The Avatar world has lots of interesting hybrid animals so seeing brand new ones for this game was really fun, such as the boar-coons in the Kyoshi stage. There’s a Heibai chase and another meditation here, but also a nice story moment that’s not in the show; meeting repentant Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom soldiers who regret their actions destroying the forest in the name of war and industry. The fight with Heibai requires the use of the dedicated Avatar State button on the interface, which is used only the once.
Part 2 of the Winter Solstice is the basis for chapter 4, The Crescent Isle. Just like the show there are scenes with Zuko and Iroh, mostly just repeating lines from the show. The Appa level that starts this chapter is not tacked-on like the others feel, as it recreates (poorly) the desperate flight through a Fire Navy bombardment. It was in this level I discovered the tactic of using the air scooter to skip right past all the bad guys to the next cutscene trigger instead of tediously fighting them; the game’s controls and hit detection are very unsatisfactory. Amusingly, the temple is stacked with Fire Sages, rather than there just being 5.
Chapter 5 is mainly based on 1x13, The Blue Spirit, although I was pleased to see it enriching its presentation with elements of 1x09 The Waterbending Scroll (pirates to fight, and the scroll teaches Aang a new move) and 1x15 Bato of the Water Tribe (Bato shows up for exposition). Sokka and Katara sometimes accompany you, throwing boomerangs and water whips, to help with fighting sections. But both they and the enemies often just wander around or lag behind, so it’s not very dynamic. The stealth section is very tedious but at least the new “croco beasts” in the swamp gave something to look at. The “scoot past all enemies” technique helped again to escape the Pohuai stronghold.
The final chapter adapts the last three episodes of Book 1. You fight some “frostbats” on Appa, then a duel with Pakku, infiltrating Zhao’s ship, a duel with the chain hammer guy, meditation in the spirit oasis (no Spirit World level unfortunately), and finally an epic beatdown as the ocean spirit (which in fact looks and plays pretty poorly, as does most of the game).
It’s too bad the game is not very fun, because it does have its commendable features. Being the only Book 1 adaptation (apart from the movie tie-in games) gives you the opportunity to play favourite moments from the show, and the few new plot elements and new creatures are worthwhile for fans. It also has some nicely drawn backgrounds, but just as many bland or muddy ones. It tries to vary the gameplay but each mode is pretty lousy. Finally, there is a section of the credits devoted to showcasing concept art for the project that could be of interest to fans. It’s baked into the credits movie so I’ve captured the video of it which you can watch here. So, now you don’t have to play this game. Unless you want to, of course.
X is a Japan-only game notable for two things. One is its impressive tech, rendering 3D vector-like graphics on the underpowered Game Boy. While there is still frequent slowdown, showing that it’s pushing the hardware almost past its limit, I still found it surprising… for the Game Boy. The primitive visuals do look very dated now, but that’s no reason to turn your nose up at the game.
Anyway the second thing is that this is Dylan Cuthbert and Argonaut’s first collaboration with Nintendo, which would evolve into the seminal Star Fox series. I was watching out for points of contact within the game, but beyond a few minor details, there’s not much in common. I’ll just headcanon it into the Metroid series somehow. (Adam Malkovich’s ship in Other M has the same name as the player’s tank in this game… there’s something there.)
X is like nothing I’ve played before. I think maybe that it takes many cues from Battlezone, the 1980 arcade game that pioneered 3D vector graphics with an open-world tank battling style. However much they were inspired by it, X evolves the concept with many fun gameplay innovations and level concepts. There’s different loadable weapons for different situations, the ability to launch your tank and become a low-altitude aerial fighter, warp tunnels with a flying minigame (the closest thing to Star Fox here), and many different enemy types.
In the space tank VIXIV, a big floating head briefs you before each mission. Being only in Japanese, a separate walkthrough helped, but the neat animations give you the gist. Your tank is then dumped in a huge world. The playing area is the same for each mission but they get a lot of mileage out of it by varying the objectives. You generally have to roam around, getting hints by docking with radar stations, trying to locate whatever it is you need to blow up or rescue. Your display has a number of dials and navigational tools to keep track of; fuel, ammo, and health, as well as a radar and minimap. The game is about keeping track of all these, managing your resources and time, and not getting distracted too much.
There’s a lot to take in, but once I got the hang of it I found it quite compelling. Escorting the truck convoy, or hunting alien cocoons before they hatch into evil butterflies, the final climactic showdown with the mothership. It’s amazing what they managed to wring out of the concept, although it helped to have savestates and a turbo button for the searching around phase. I did buy a copy of this in Japan, and was playing it that way until I nudged the cartridge during play and lost my progress. That is a fine way to play though; there’s a pretty fair continue system that rewards you for doing better in missions and there’s no Super Game Boy palettes.
It’s a shame they never localised this game, and there are no translation patches either, but it’s pretty playable anyway if you use a resource like this to help (the hardest part is fulfilling the specific requirements during the tutorial). It’s got that recognisable Nintendo touch from a time when that really meant something. Thumps up from me. Space tanks.
Ni no Kuni was marketed as a Studio Ghibli product, and that’s certainly what got me interested. The artistry and subtle worldbuilding in their movies has always enthralled me, and this was notable as their first* video game collaboration. (After Miyazaki was reportedly very disappointed with early PC adaptations of Nausicaä, there have been no Ghibli-related games aside from Ghibli-adjacent Lupin and Future Boy Conan adaptations, and some of their designers freelancing on various projects.)
The game delivers on that premise, partially. The almost painterly look of the overworld and the character designs are unmistakably Ghibli-like. It also boasts a Joe Hisaishi score, which is suitably grand but not broad enough; you hear the same tunes so many times that they will leave you gritting your teeth by the end.
This is a fairly typical JRPG. It can be slow and grindy at times, but it captures a sense of adventure and scale and the sidequests feel worthwhile. Each monster you fight can be captured, like Pokeymans, which means most of them have the same scale. I was hoping for more with visual appeal but only a few of the monster designs really grabbed me so I had a few of the default ones all the way through. They also evolve which resets their level to 1. This can feel unfair but it just encourages you to swap around so it’s not a bad thing.
Ni no Kuni was a DS game first, with a physical book to refer to, drawing runes on the touch screen, and turn-based battles. The PS3 version has extra plot and some revamped stuff (and more importantly, was actually localised), but loses some of the “point” of the original by making spells merely selectable in a menu and including the book in a clumsy digital viewer. The battle system is now more freeform, roaming around with skill cooldowns and AI-controlled partners. Unfortunately the AI is pretty shocking, with limited customisability, and again hampered by clumsy menus. I also found that simply mashing the attack button would get me through most battles. They just didn’t feel exciting for the most part.
So the game has a lot of flawed systems, but I generally felt positive after play sessions. I took the game at its pace, taking my time to explore, and enjoying the writing and surprisingly good English dub. Drippy steals the show with his Welshisms and loveable accent, of course. The plot is built on cliches but I still liked meeting new characters and seeing it unfold; besides, I guessed wrong on the twist so there were surprises!
The game can feel disjointed, pulled in different directions: the result of a movie studio helping with a game, and the game being reworked for a different platform and market. Cutscenes are sometimes animated but mostly rendered, and dialogue occasionally is voiced before dropping back to text. It can feel that the strongest aspect of the game is its fantastical world, but as you backtrack more the novelty fades and it becomes more video game-y. There’s a Ghibli-like experience in here, but stretched out and paced very differently. Once again I’m criticising but I’m fighting it because I really did enjoy the game on the whole (but I feel like I’m talking myself out of it!). The fact is, you can’t just enjoy this as a Ghibli fan, you have to be prepared to get through a whole JRPG in the process, and all that entails. Also the final boss is cheap and the credits underwhelming… I suppose it’s the journey that’s important, not the destination.
It’s another Lego game. I’ll try to be quick! The handheld version of this game has some fun additions compared to the console one, most of which I’ve experienced before playing Lego The Hobbit on 3DS: level-specific tasks, more smaller levels, character-specific super moves. All these make for snappy play that doesn’t drag. I liked controlling the giant characters like Metalbeard or Emmett’s mech; compared to console, they more effectively portray a fun rampage of destruction. You also get to control the motorbike on the highway chase, and there are even a couple of vehicle-based levels set in Middle Zealand.
However, overall I think this is a weaker version of the game. The in-game graphics don’t go as far to representing the all-Lego world of the movie, and it’s missing the all-important newly recorded character dialogue that occurs during gameplay in the console version. It’s a fun game and a good instalment in the Lego series, but capturing the feel of the movie was a great strength of the console game and this doesn’t do that as effectively. But it’s not one or the other; the two complement each other. After all, everything is cool when you’re part of a team. (Sorry.)
The original Lylat Wars (as it was known in PAL territories) forms part of my childhood core. As such, to me it is perfect, and happily the general consensus seems to also be that it is quite good. I’m not going to hold myself to being critical about it. This review will mostly focus on the differences in this port and what I thought of them.
The good: Being able to play any mission at any time (after doing it once in story mode) is great, the caveat being that medals earned in this mode are separate to story mode medals. Textures and models are improved so it looks better than ever! There’s now an added easier mode that disables friendly fire and gives you more wing health, although the game doesn’t tell you that’s what is different. Menus are improved and the tutorial instructor now has a voice, although the tutorial is now mandatory (boo). All cutscenes can now be skipped, including the credits. The multiplayer has been revamped; no more Landmaster or Pilot options but much more customisable, new stages, and powerups.
The bad: All the voices are rerecorded. They all try to go for the same feeling as the original lines, but this just means that they all universally end up being slightly off. Fox is more dweeby, for example, and Andross’s laugh doesn’t match his animation at all. The Lylat voice option has also been removed.
The useless: Being an early 3DS game, they tacked on gyro controls which is not only an inherently bad idea (ugh Star Fox Zero) but also is at odds with having to hold the system relatively straight for the 3D to actually work (less of a problem with the New models though). The messages telling you to take a break are only a minor annoyance but they exist.
The positive points far outweigh the negatives, albeit with some minor tradeoffs. If only there were multiple selectable voice tracks… Maybe a new level or some extras would have been amazing… The most important thing to me though is that the game feels and plays just how I remember it, which makes it a very successful port job. Plus this remake, being handled by Dylan Cuthbert’s Q-Games, now gives him some involvement in the most successful instalment in the franchise after he helped birth it and developed the first Star Fox/Wing, the cancelled Star Fox 2, and the underrated Command. Yippee! You did it!
My mega playthrough of the Rayman series last year has deepened my appreciation for the series. The previous two smart device games, Jungle Run and Fiesta Run, were great and good respectively. My expectations for this game were therefore very high, especially when I found that it would contain new characters and concepts.
The wait after the game had soft-launched in New Zealand was painful. Then, it launched worldwide, but exclusively for the new Apple TV, in a weirdly skewed version of the Rayman Legends release. Turns out that the game can be played as an auto-runner like the last two, but using an Apple TV controller remote thing changed it into a free-moving style. I played it on iPad and got along perfectly fine.
Adventures really pushes the free-to-play model hard, but somehow it comes out less obnoxious than Fiesta Run. It’s been more thoughtfully designed to keep players coming back and with lots of unlockables, rather than just milking them for powerups. I still prefer Jungle Run’s simple and pure model, where I can play as many levels as I choose and perfect them, but Adventures feels fresh, plays well, and isn’t too annoying.
Excitingly, the game has an original plot. There’s something about a magic tree, and these friendly blobby creatures, and an enthusiastic ship captain guy with a flying boat. So it’s not super deep but a game like this introducing new lore is a nice bonus. The nebulous goal is to collect many creatures to restore the tree, which feels like it would require months of constant play to achieve, and I’ve started to see repeated levels so I probably won’t sustain that long.
The game has a strange and restrictive play system: you travel to one of the 5 primary worlds from Legends, do 2 or 3 levels plus an optional harder level, then get an egg and have to wait several hours for it to hatch before you can do more levels. It’s frustrating to adjust to this new “short bursts” play style but that’s what the game demands if you want to enjoy the new levels. These are the highlight of the package, coming in several varieties. For example, you may need to collect Lums, race to the finish, or defeat enemies. But the way the game uses the conventions of Legends and its own tasks to design imaginative and fun (though short) levels is the reason to play.
The blobby thingamajigs help you by scouting secrets, sucking in Lums, or giving you a damage shield. It’s not often necessary to use them; in fact I feel that their usefulness doesn’t live up to their promise. Filling up your collection of them is satisfying though, akin to Legends’ “creatures” but more fleshed out and with an unfortunate “rarity” system. As the big new gameplay mechanic they do a good job building the game around them, but I just don’t feel the need to use them most of the time.
The achievements are a good incentive, the new costumes for the four characters are neat, and the levels have nice variety. But the controls can be finicky with an expanded moveset reduced to taps or swipes. The reuse of Legends material is well done, along with introduction of unused concepts from that game such as Dracula’s Castle, ghosts, and flying pigs. You may get annoyed at the slow trickle of crystals, the game’s premium currency. As you can see, my feelings are a little mixed but my takeaway after some time of playing is positive. I heartily recommend giving it a go for as long as you can stand it.
I’ve reviewed so many Lego games now, I like to think myself something of a connoisseur of them. But it’s a type of game that my wife and I can really enjoy together. The Wii U is the best platform for playing them too, since it allows both players a full wide-screen view at once with the Gamepad.
This one is unique from other ones in a few ways. Firstly, it’s based on only one movie. Some of the superhero ones have a single story but it’s a new one for the game so they can design levels for it. What you notice about this is that they have to insert extra happenings in between scenes of the movie, to make up more of a playable experience. This is not a bad thing; one of the strengths of adaptations is fleshing out the source material in various ways. However the result is that the game is quite short compared to pretty much every other Lego game. There are several hub areas with things to do but nothing like the expanse of Middle-Earth or Gotham City. There’s a fine line between the game feeling focused or self-contained and feeling brief or lacking.
Of course, this game is also different in that its source hasn’t been Lego-ised for the game. The source is Lego in every way. This means that scenes from the movie can be played directly as cutscenes, which works very well at making you feel like you’re playing the movie, and reminded me how good the movie itself is too. Newly recorded audio material for all the characters is also used over gameplay which is cool. The movie’s Lego-only aesthetic is embraced in the game too and well delivered on. The game isn’t quite as universal an IP mash-up as the movie is but there’s a fun range of characters of different types and origins. Near the end Gandalf shows up individually, and I think you can see the hints of Lego Dimensions there.
Despite its brief length, TLMV was one of my favourites yet. Part of this I think is due to its smaller scope, letting them polish it more instead of rushing out a gigantic buggy mess, although I will also chalk that up to this being developed by TT Fusion, who predominantly helms the handheld games which I view as more stable. Partly it’s also the bright, fun aesthetic of the world, it gives a happier mood than the pervasive dim gloom of Batman’s world or the Middle-Earth games. It’s also just easier to see when it’s light and colourful and there isn’t constant rain. Another part is it being based on a comedy movie where everything in the movie and the game is geared towards fun. Its biggest weakness is some levels seeming inconsequential due to being inserted in the movie’s events, as well as being over too quickly, but if you expect a smaller game you won’t be disappointed.
EDIT: Upon spending more time in Free Play, several bugs and glitches have come to light. So never mind what I said, it’s about on par with the other Lego games.
I want to believe that licensed games can be good. But the more Evacuation Earths that come out the harder it is to make that argument. Or should that be Evacuations Earth?
Playing only one minute of this game will tell you almost everything you need to know about it. It’s a fairly blatant Professor Layton clone, and not a very good one. They’ve lifted the structure of those games without investing in good puzzle design or slick presentation, hoping that a layer of Doctor Who theming would be enough to make a compelling package.
The Matt Smith era isn’t my favourite Doctor Who but it is pretty good. Having him and Karen Gillan doing the voices is a nice idea but they sound tinny and you only hear the occasional soundbite outside of the occasional cutscene. And the game’s 2D likenesses are not exactly flattering. The writing can be amusing for sure, although Amy is suddenly a lockpicking expert for some reason. It’s also undermined by lines sometimes appearing out of order, a symptom of the slipshod construction of the game.
Evacuation Earth is not put together well. The menus are perfunctory, tap targets are unclear, and there is a frequent flickering in the screen during dialogue that is highly distracting. The music is bland and extremely repetitive. And as I alluded to earlier, the puzzles are a pale shadow of Layton’s brainteasers. They’re often so easy as to be boring, and puzzle types are often tediously repeated. The only time I had trouble was with a sliding panel puzzle, a notorious blind spot of mine that eventually had to be resolved by my wife. All you can say about them is that, unlike Layton, they are integrated into the game world as things that other characters need doing or are related to your environment.
As with other licensed games I’ve sought out, by far the most appealing part of the package is having new material based on the license. In this case it does feel like an interactive episode of the show, which is helped by the writing and environment design. The plot is vaguely linked to the episode The Beast Below, with people fleeing Earth due to solar flares or something. I liked the junkyard, with a scrappy (ha) group putting a ship together, giving you lots of opportunities to fix things for their launch and meet some quirky characters. A nice twist arrives with some Silurian stowaways. Good conflict, and a chance for Doctor-ish peacemaking. Unfortunately the implications of an alliance are immediately shoved under the rug with the intrusion of (of course) Daleks, who boot the Silurians out of the plot. Then there’s a series of door-unlocking puzzles and you beat the Daleks. It’s rather a lame third act, although it does pay off a few things that were set up earlier including the long-term goal of retrieving the TARDIS which had been built into the ship.
So I give the game a pass on the story, but it’s difficult to enjoy it with how bad the game is. Unfortunately there’s not much going in Doctor Who games, and all are critical flops. At least this one doesn’t have super uncanny 3D models?
I’ve just finished another rewatch of the whole series of Daria. The two related books being hard to come by, and not owning a compatible GPS for the navigation voice thing, I checked out the other significant piece of spin-off material, this PC adventure game from 2000.
Daria’s Inferno does a fair job recreating the look of the show with appearances by many characters, all of whom are voiced by the show’s actors. The script is also authentic, with a writer of several episodes doing the honours. As a source of many new sarcastic quips, the game pretty much aces it. Not to mention new alter egos in the credits, which also features the full version of the theme song with extra verses.
Unfortunately the game can’t just be fan-pleasing, it has to deliver a compelling game experience, which is where it falls down. The game is a series of fetch quests, with dodgy pathing and hit detection from roaming mooks. You’re required to constantly click on wandering characters with a particular item, and if they touch you a few times you have to start the room again. This means getting kicked back to the room select screen and listening to the same sound bites again and again, which is the dark side of having the characters make amusing comments. The game likes putting you in maze-like areas where you have to find the right way by trial and error, and pick up items while being harassed by wandering irritants. It’s just not that fun.
Mercifully the game is short, and it’s worth struggling through the mediocre gameplay to hear what Daria has to say about all the objects she finds and the situation her dream puts her in. Yes, canon snobs: this game was all a dream, much like “Murder, She Snored”. It’s an elegant device for the purposes of the game, and it’s fun to see Mr. DeMartino’s classroom reimagined as a torture dungeon, as it is to walk around Daria’s oddly expansive house, or explore seldom-seen locations like Dega Street. And don’t forget to check for hints on every screen, as they take the form of little Sick, Sad World clips.
So while the art may look amateurish at points and the gameplay is more of a chore than a selling point, the Daria-ness of it all leads me to recommend it to fans as a sort of “lost episode”. As long as you can get it running, and I leave that part up to you; I used Virtualbox and a copy of Windows XP, but still encountered frequent crashes. Now, this is my stop. Got to get off. I may go pop. Excuse me.
PS. I just learned from reading the manual that you can use the arrow keys to move. That might have been easier in certain parts.
This is the fourth Mario & Luigi game. Hmm. Unlike Paper Mario, which often reinvents itself and not always for the better, this series is reliable but can feel safe. Sure it’s been beefed up (pardon the pun) and had extra bits bolted on, but it’s still following the formula established way back in Superstar Saga. But it’s a good game nevertheless, and often manages to overcome staleness or bring a smile.
These games are JRPGs with a platforming element. As always you control both Bros, Mario always using the A button and Luigi being assigned B. You jump around, hammer stuff, learn new ways to jump or work together to get around the environment and collect stuff, and then there are turn-based battles. They try to keep these fun and dynamic with timed hits and the ability to dodge and counter any enemy attack, which requires observation and reflexes. This is successful, but towards the end I found my favoured special attacks and just used those to make the battles go quicker.
A significant portion of the game’s mechanics are recycled to some extent from previous games, but presented in new ways or at least tweaked slightly. For example, Bowser’s Inside Story had Bowser growing to giant size and fighting with the DS held sideways. This game has Luigi becoming huge instead. The big new idea of this game is the dream world, where Luigi will sleep and Mario will enter his dream. This isn’t executed in a way that develops his character though unfortunately (except in a couple of instances), as it’s more like an alternate surrealist 2D version of the environment you’re in. It does give lots of fun gameplay opportunities though with Luigi gaining many bizarre abilities, and battles in the dream world being taken on solo but with flashy group attacks on swarms of enemies.
As always with this series, the script and characters are very pleasing and funny. Silliness abounds and fun new characters are introduced along with a fanservice parade of returning ones too. Popple, Kylie Koopa, Broque Monsieur, Starlow, and Bowser’s three minions Goomp, Paraplonk, and Guy all make welcome returns from previous games, along with a world populated by Beanish, Toads, Yoshis, and Hoos acting as tourists on Pi’illo Island. The island itself has new NPC races as well as instant standouts such as the Zeekeeper, the Massif Bros (pictured above), Britta, and others. The antagonist Antasma is mostly just cheesy and new helper partner Dreambert has his moments despite being played mostly straight, especially when he loses his composure. It all works together to create a quite busy world that feels good to run around in and interact with.
The first thing I noticed about the game though in trailers was how amazing it looks. AlphaDream have become absolute masters of 2D spritework, with wonderfully drawn characters that are so animated and shaded as to appear 3D. They can’t hack actual 3D though apparently, so the Giant Battles which appear with polygonal graphics were outsourced to Good-Feel! The graphics are definitely a selling point for this game, and this bright and colourful world is captivating.
Apart from the many small improvements to the game formula (quick example: selectable perks on ranking up), I just want to applaud this game for, like its predecessors, making the Mario world feel expansive and interesting. The newly released Paper Jam Bros looks to be following in Sticker Star’s doomed footsteps and adopting the tired, basic New Super Mario Bros aesthetic. Getting to know this new setting of Pi’illo Island was nice and the range of characters felt like a celebration of the quirkiness of this series. Its slow pace may have felt a drag at times but Dream Team (Bros.) can stand with the best of the Mario RPGs, a nice solid entry.
Pokemon is great. Picross is great. How could this game be anything but great? Is what I thought to myself. The doubts set in when the free-to-play business model was revealed. An energy system? Crypto-currency via in-app purchase? Recharging timers? These aspects already grated and got in the way for the last two digital Pokemon releases, Shuffle and Rumble World, so I had to roll my eyes.
And indeed those things are annoying to the play experience. It very quickly becomes apparent that the amount of Picrites you get is nowhere near the amount you need to get very far. But I had to quell the outrage. To enjoy this Picross game with very competent theming, I changed perspective. You get a lot of puzzles and some tidy bonus mechanics. So if you see it as a Picross game that costs $39, it doesn’t seem so bad. (The cost is a little high compared to recent eShop Picrosses, it’s true.) It must be a psychological thing to get upset when something is presented as free but then restricted, compared to paying upfront and enjoying it without further hassle. I dunno, I’m not a brain doctor. But I do know microtransactions are sucking the joy out of the whole gaming landscape.
Melodrama aside, how’s the game? Pretty great! Pokemon are super cute especially in pixel form, and the mission system is good for replayability (I ignored them the first time I did any puzzle so I could conquer them without hints, then went back for them). There’s a ton of puzzles that unlock in a fun little world map, and they’re playable in normal and Mega Picross modes. The missions then give you tablets which unlock a Micross-like mosaic of Primal Groudon & Kyogre. So between all that and the party of Pokemon you build up with different hint skills, it’s a much more game-ified Picross experience.
And it’s just as addictive to me as any previous Picross game. Maybe the simplicity of those is more relaxing, without worrying about missions or who you have equipped in your party, but I wouldn’t mind at all seeing more Picross games like this with other themes than Pokemon. Bring back the themed puzzles of Japan’s Nintendo Power SNES games. And while you’re at it, localise the two Club Nintendo Picross games you goons!
Lego Star Wars kicked off the Lego games, and it’s still one of the best. It even seems to have become its own sub-franchise, with several runs of short animated movies. This is a game based on one of those movie series, or tying into it somehow, I don’t know it’s confusing what they’re doing with these cross-media initiatives.
I was eager to see if this attempt went anywhere towards capturing that addictive gameplay of the other Lego games. There was a previous Yoda Chronicles game for iOS but it got boring quickly because of its half-assed execution on simplistic strategy gameplay. Turns out this one uses no more ass but at least switches up what you’re doing between levels.
There’s very basic autorunning 3D combat levels, quite basic free-falling levels, boringly basic space combat levels… I began to get a picture of who this game is for. Small children with no standards. Of course, they also want to make it simple so it can run in web browsers. It’s just that the game is not really very fun to play and so imprecise.
Half the time you don’t know when your attacks are going to land, or if you’re going to be hurt by falling into a bridge. And if you do, then there’s very little impact communicated. The level ends when you collect enough holocrons, which in this interpretation of the universe are strewn around everywhere, the most common object in the galaxy. Handfuls just fall out of crates. But this end can come at any time, resulting in a feeling of anticlimax.
To cut a long story short, this game is nothing like Traveller’s Tales’s (now that’s a confusing possessive) Lego games. It’s a quick and dirty cash-in for a mediocre kids’ cartoon series. Happy belated Life Day!
