August 24, 2014
[Review] Lego The Hobbit (Wii U)

Since this is a Lego game, let’s again look at the ways it differs from other Lego games. It’s much like Lord of the Rings, with a large overworld hub filled with quests. It’s a less fun hub than Batman 2 because it’s harder to get around without the power of flight, and it’s a bit buggier; objects will disappear when your co-op partner moves between areas.

The game seems optimised for single-player, and I’m not just talking about the frame rate. You have issues like the one I mentioned, and a glaring fault in the very first level where the second player invariably and irreparably gets stuck behind a door.

The Gamepad features are good, with a handy map for the overworld and even the ability to shunt one player’s screen down there. This is good because it gives both players widescreen, but the Gamepad user may feel a bit bad for having a lower-res screen. It also disconnects the two players, so it’s harder for each to know what the other is doing. Implementation of the map is also horrible, as every time you go in a cave or travel somewhere or you cough lightly, the Gamepad kicks you back to the feature select screen. I hate this. Leave the map on, please.

New aspects are the building minigame, stolen from the Lego Movie Game where it made more sense conceptually; and collecting loot, which is fine in theory but a bit unbalanced. We ended up with 999 stone and hundreds of gold fairly quickly, but were always low on copper.

The game suffers from poor visibility and some hard-to-use controls and mechanics. Quicktime events and frustrating contextual demands slow down the experience, especially when one person is left out. Chase sequences are as unfun as ever but quite short in this game. Also, wizards may seem cool but this game makes you hate them because their staff attack is so achingly slow to use.

There are so many faults in the implementation and feel of this game, but that doesn’t mean that the basic concepts aren’t still competent. It also doesn’t mean you can’t have fun, and my wife and I enjoyed it enough to get to 100%, which doesn’t always happen. The game itself has a sense of fun and silliness, with one extra giving you a banging techno song with soundbites of movie lines.

Finally, I remain baffled at the timing of its release. I would much rather they had waited until the release of the third film, and included that in the game. As it is, we’re left here with a game now completed but only telling two thirds of a story, and wondering whether they’ll release the rest as DLC or not bother, and if so whether it will even come to Wii U (apparently there’s character DLC, but we didn’t get that). This was a source of concern for me before we got it, and if and when the BOFA DLC issue comes up, I can see it causing me angst again. Just plain odd.

12:00pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1P28j24
Filed under: review traveller's tales lego lego the hobbit wii u 
August 23, 2014
[Review] Game & Watch Gallery (GB)

I’ve showed a few screenshots here from my playthrough of this game. I found playing through it kind of a chore, because my motivations were mainly to see the content for an article/feature I’m working on. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, but I didn’t pick it up to have fun.

The point of this series is high-score chasing, which I’ve never been engaged by very much. I got through as quick as I could, with copious use of savestates and looking up strategies in case there were particular scoring quirks (for example, in some Classic modes you can get double points for a time by getting to 300 points with no misses).

I did find value to myself in the content though, whether it was unlocking little summaries of titles in the Game & Watch library, or seeing the Mario elements they chose to use in the Modern versions of games. I love seeing my favourite characters represented in different styles, and get excited when I see a sprite I haven’t seen before. For example, Toads can be very cute in this game, because their head is so small.

In the end, I found what I was looking for (the DK Jrs in the different games), and got a few surprises too, such as the different animations in Oil Panic. Classic mode is a bit of a slog, but I’ll admit it felt good to get into the rhythm of the beeps and static frames… on some of the games, anyway. Definitely play it in a Super Game Boy, though. It’s got good palettes that really enhance the game, and a cool Yoshi’s Island-inspired border.

12:00pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1OyoVCy
Filed under: game & watch gallery gb nintendo review 
July 19, 2014
[Review] Donkey Kong Jet Race (Wii)

AKA Donkey Kong Barrel Blast. I actually prefer that title, as the acronym is less ambiguous. I could be talking about 1982’s arcade classic, DK Jr!

So this is that waggle-tastic racing game that was overshadowed by Mario Kart Wii. It’s an odd duck, being intended for the Gamecube bongo peripheral along with Jungle Beat. Delays forced it to adopt Wii Remote and Nunchuck flailing instead, but it also meant I actually had a chance to play it. Motion control haters have every reason to look down on it, but DK fans have reasons to love it, as it was made by the good folks at Paon. Like the peg-swinging King of Swing and Jungle Climber before it, Barrel Blast is full of DK fanservice. Lanky Kong is even playable!

Paon have always done well by us fans, and here we have a very nice-looking racing game with unorthodox mechanics and some weird and wonderful stages in DK’s lush world. Sure there may not be such a variety of tracks, but at its core you’ve got an interesting game if you’re willing to master it.

The challenge mode is the highlight for me, with various tasks to do and juicy character unlocks the prize. It gets really quite, well, challenging too, but in a good way much like the extra levels in Jungle Climber. Of course I wish there was more, but I feel that thinking of it as more of a budget game may help with such expectations. It really isn’t a Mario Kart killer, it doesn’t have that mass appeal, but it has a unique flavour and like I say, perfect for a DKC fan.

There’s a loose theme of Kremling vs. Kong rivalry, with the character selection having pairs of characters on both sides with similar stats. We get old favourites like Cranky, K. Rool, etc., lesser known faces like Ghost Wrinkly and Kopter, and new faces to fill out the Kremling side, including our first explicitly female Kremlings. Their personalities are fleshed out in the PAL Brawl’s trophies, if you want to have a look at that.

I feel very engaged by the mechanics, which include waggling to get up to speed and move side to side, attacking, jumping, boosting (and setting up obstacle smashing combos), collecting bananas, and using items. There’s a lot going on in races and on the courses that keeps you on your toes, especially if you’re going for those combo chains to get ahead. I feel that this complexity puts it above Mario Kart in some ways (again the obvious comparison).

Thinking back on it, despite frustration at times (I think it’s normal for racing games), I have happy memories of this game. Keep in mind I finished it only this morning. It was very hard to find a copy, but I’m glad I did. And if you enjoyed Jungle Climber or the unusual mechanics of Jungle Beat, you should give this a go… again, if you can find a copy.

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1LtQVSU
(Notes: 2)
  
Filed under: review wii paon donkey kong donkey kong barrel blast donkey kong jet race 
July 18, 2014
[Review] Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (DS)

You probably don’t want to read yet another Lego review. I don’t particularly want to write another one either. I’ll just say that it was a novelty to go back in time as it were, to a more basic Lego game.

What the heck, I just played this to chill out anyway. It was fun. There you go, there’s your review.

12:00pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1LnoPRB
Filed under: review lego lego star wars: the complete saga ds traveller's tales tt fusion 
July 17, 2014
[Review] F-1 Race (GB)

Well, I didn’t play this game by choice. I’m (slowly) working on an article for DK Vine about all the games tangentially related to the DKU that the site doesn’t cover per se but could still be considered when thinking about that universe. You may remember my long-ago post about the Honourable Mentions thread I started. Site staff have approached me to expand it, which means lots of writing, and lots of screenshots.

To get a single screenshot of Arcade DK, I had to play through almost all this game. I recently posted the results of that, with screenshots showing the full animations of each cameo character, in GBC palettes. I’m proud of that, especially because the game was pretty hard.

Without savestates, I don’t know how I could have done it. I can imagine kids getting good at, especially with the multiplayer mode which is apparently not bad. But I’m a busy adult with lots of games to play, I can’t focus on this one. It was ok though, the game is well put together and nicely presented. With the hardware they were working with, it’s a competent enough racing game. The cameos by beloved characters sweetens the deal (and of course is the only reason I would ever consider playing it).

At home we had for our Super Nintendo a copy of “Nigel Mansell’s World Championship Racing”. I always found the game boring, the only fun to be had was getting up to speed then crashing into a barrier and there weren’t even any damage mechanics. Even the name meant nothing to me, as he’s popular in Britain but not really over here. It was more in depth than this though, with customisable parts and pit stops.

I didn’t really have fun playing F-1 Race. I’ve also now obsoleted its main draw by posting those screenshots, if I can give myself that much credit. The world of racing sims is pretty alien to me, so I don’t know if this is a good example, but it’s a Nintendo first-party title so it’s a quality product. I just know I’m never touching it again.

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1LhzJ12
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: review f-1 race gb nintendo r&d1 dkvine 
July 2, 2014
[Review] Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (Wii U/iOS)

As part of Batman’s recent anniversary, all of the Batman games had a massive sale. What a great idea, except the only ones I can be bothered with are the Lego ones. Don’t tell me again how good Arkham is supposed to be, ain’t nobody got time for that. My wife and I once again teamed up for the co-op Lego experience, and meanwhile I played the handheld iteration on my iPhone.

First of all, the platforms. The Wii U seems like the best fit for Batman 2, because the Gamepad gives you the neato second screen. In this version, you can’t put the second player on the second screen, but you can have a character switcher in levels, a godsend in free play levels. In the hub meanwhile you have the most powerful tool, a map with location pinpointing.

I think this was the first Lego game to do the “massive hub” thing, and it’s really great! The amount of stuff to do makes up for the levels, which are generally short and few in number. You also get to traverse it really quickly if you want, with vehicles and flying heroes (mostly the latter), to then drop down anywhere and collect some stuff. The map really helps this process, just roaming around and finding things.

On the other hand, iOS once again seems the worst (but cheapest, hence me choosing it) platform for the game. You have the dodgy touchscreen controls, the massive file size on your device, and worst of all the microtransaction garbage. From what I’ve read, the iOS port has less stud multiplier bonuses, which I suspect is a cheap way to inflate the value of studs, and hence to encourage you outright buying things with real money rather than playing the game. It also throws up ads for its own DLC between levels. Blegh.

As for comparing the two platforms, well as expected the handheld version has much simpler models and graphics, which is not always bad. In this case, all the lighting effects and rain and stuff on the console gives a final product which is overly dark and laggy. The smaller one avoids this problem with level elements that stand out more against the backgrounds, and a constant perspective rather than a dodgy player-controlled camera. Sure there’s less detail but I preferred the more basic look.

Of course, the camera is only in effect in the hub. An annoyance is the shift in controls and how the game plays between hub and levels, it makes it less seamless. More seamly, you could say. On the other hand, the handheld one has no hub at all, apart from the Batcave! Just levels, which as I said are short and few. There’s an arena mode to pad it out a bit but I feel the hub really is the whole of the game and without it, the small version really suffers in terms of content. It does make in-level collectibles more worthwhile as you get characters that way, but then you don’t get to play around with those characters as much, especially as everything is so expensive.

So I’d say the console version wins out, due to the fun we had dicking around Gotham City. The character choice is also worse in the console one (without DLC anyway, which is not actually present in the Wii U version), but I still enjoyed what was available. Hawk Girl, Martian Manhunter, and so on. Although it has the usual bugs and crashes, it’s still in that “old-style” Lego type thing where it’s not as integrated in the license’s world, so it feels more Lego-y, and it’s more wacky… I can’t really explain it but it made me feel nostalgic for Lego Star Wars in a way the LOTR and Harry Potter ones didn’t. So that’s Lego Batman 2, and we already have the Hobbit to go on with, so on to more Lego! Oh, also this is the first one we’ve bothered to get 100% for a while so that should tell you something.

12:00pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1KJ01Dj
Filed under: review lego lego batman 2: dc super heroes traveller's tales tt fusion ios wii u 
July 1, 2014
[Review] Trials Frontier (iOS)

I believe my first exposure to the trials-style biking genre was Bike or Die on my friend’s Palm Pilot. I found it fun to overcome the inventive obstacles by manipulating the balance and speed of your bike. Trials of course has a big name recognition, and I believe I’ve talked about Evolution here before. Unfortunately for me, the newest game was released on seemingly every platform except the ones I own. Fortunately, I like the idea of this companion mobile game more.

It’s got a story, an adventure mode. You get missions form NPCs, collect parts, and upgrade your bike. I love that stuff, and although I don’t actually know much about the structure of Fusion, I assume if it’s anything like previous main Trials games it doesn’t have that stuff, and just has a load of insanely hard levels to frustrate me. In this game, if something’s too hard I can come back later with a better bike and do better.

The basic gameplay too is really fun. Good controls, it feels smooth and the levels are well designed for you to breeze through them once you’ve learned the layout, and even take a different path if you do jumps right or whatever.

The problem of course is the bane of mobile gaming, free-to-play mechanics. There’s a fuel (energy) system that limits how many tracks you can play at once, but recharges all the time. Of course, you can pay up to play more! You can also pay to have your upgrades complete instantly, or get new costumes! The chance mechanic for getting parts can also be gamed at the cost of premium currency. It’s a little scummy at times, but I got through the entire game without paying anything just fine, so I decided to make a purchase afterwards to boost myself a little for the end-game stuff.

I felt I owed it anyway because I played this game a lot. The fuel mechanic at least kept me coming back many times for short bursts, which felt like a good way to play. In fact I finished all the missions, just before a big update that added extra content that would have been good to unlock as I played through. Oh well.

I’ve played a few other BMX or like platform motorbike games on iOS, but this one is my favourite. Not only does it feel nice to play, the setting and artwork are engaging too. You can even play it for free, so highly recommended.

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1KCyAxN
Filed under: review trials trials frontier ios redlynx 
June 21, 2014
[Review] Pokepark Wii: Pikachu’s Adventure (Wii)

More Pokemon! This one has always been alluring to me. The promise of exploring a 3D environment, interacting directly with Pokemon, certainly has appeal. When I saw that you could play as Surfing Pikachu, I (having got on at the Yellow floor) knew I had to try it.

Unfortunately, it seems I didn’t do enough research beforehand. The game I ended up with seems targeted well below my demographic. What I mean is it’s essentially a baby game for babies. Very simple mechanics, a lot of repetition and boring music, and the rough edges you come to expect in a game for those with low expectations. That’s not to say I didn’t have fun. In fact, I’m trying for 100%.

You could say I myself have low expectations. All I want is to run around and meet some Pokemon. This game delivers that. I find it interesting to see them wandering around their chosen environment, calling out their names. It’s all a bit stiff, but I can forgive it because it’s really quite charming. The Pokes all have their own personalities and dialogue, although I get the feeling it was more distinctive to each one before getting the translation treatment. Always a tricky problem when you’re stuck with just text.

The main part of the game is doing minigames. The framing context is reasonably solid, but it is just a series of repetitive tasks when you get down to it. You have interactions with each Poke you come across as Pikachu, either battling them or chasing them as they run away, which is done in the world as you come across them. You also then have Attractions, which are segmented off into their own little loading zones and more structured. They’re mostly different, and use unique control schemes, and you also get to choose to play as any of the other Pokes you’ve befriended.

The way I play Attractions, by repeating them with each Poke I have to get the bonuses, makes it a bit tedious. There’s some variety between them but not much between Pokes in the same event. I find it the most efficient to do it that way though because of the loading screens and such. Oh well.

I’d like to mention the control scheme, because normally holding the Wii remote sideways is terrible. “Oh it’s like a NES controller” well phooey. The NES controller was terrible and both it and the Wiimote dig into your hands uncomfortably. The button layout is also inconvenient, and when used on modern games, like Metroid Other M, you find that they jam too many functions on the same button and it just sucks to play. Pokepark is not so bad in this respect because of its simplicity, but I do talk sometimes when I want to jump. The simple one remote set up though allows them to switch it up easily for the Attractions, so I reckon it gets a pass overall, especially because like I said, it’s easy for kids I suppose.

I had to toss up whether to get this game or the sequel, but if the second one is anything like this, I’m ok with getting the cheaper one. If what I’ve said sounds appealing, then it has been reprinted recently, or otherwise maybe get it for your kids. But it’s not the ultra 3D Pokemon experience that us adult fans sometimes say we want.

12:00pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1JHVoOr
Filed under: review wii pokepark wii: pikachu's adventure pokemon creatures inc. 
June 20, 2014
[Review] Pokemon Link Battle (3DS)

Simple puzzle games can be fun, especially when they involve something you love, like Pokemon. Actually the reason I played this was motivated by my wife. She’s probably a bigger Pokemon fan than me, which is saying something considering how many hours I’ve put into Pokemon Pinball on the GBC. We both got this game so we could play the co-op mode. We hadn’t seen the DS original, but it’s not really connected too closely anyway.

For example, the DS one had a plot with humans and stuff, whereas this one just has locations to catch Pokemon. Normally I’d prefer a plot, but in this case it’s fine, since we played together most of the time. It’s focused more on unlocking new areas and Pokemon, doing certain conditions to find rarer Pokemon and so on. They also seem to have refined the gameplay in this one from what I’ve heard. It’s quite satisfying to move your little icons around freely to set up massive combos, especially when it pays off in a big attack.

It does get super hard later on though. We probably wouldn’t have made it to the end if we hadn’t been doing it together. There must be something we’re missing about the pace of the game or something because trying to find some of the secret Pokemon or just finishing some later stages was really frustrating at times. It does seem better with two of us though.

To me the game appealed because it had really cute representations of all known Pokemon, all mixed up together, hanging out in the wild, and you could catch each one and use it yourself. The match-3 stuff gets its hooks in though. Yeah I dunno, there’s not much to say. A fun diversion.

Oh yes, one more thing, the title exhibits that annoying feature of differing between America and everyone else (not counting Japan). They experienced the phenomenon of the untranslated title, a whole nother beast entirely, like Ni no Kuni or Tomodachi Life, or even Katamari Damacy. I don’t think this game or the word in particular has the cultural cache to pull it off, but on the other hand as a title Pokemon Link is very bland. So I’m conflicted.

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1JBlXli
Filed under: review pokemon pokemon link battle 3ds genius sonority 
June 13, 2014
[Review] Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (PS3)

Stop me if you’ve heard this, but this is the game named for the words that are spoken most frequently in the duration. My wife certainly tired of the Orks’ tendency to shout “Space Marine!” and “Kill the Space Marine!”. It gets better when the Chaos dudes show up halfway through though.

I don’t have a strong attachment to the Warhammer/40k franchise, but from having a local game store growing up and several friends with armies of their own, I have a familiarity with the setting, especially 40k. I like the richness of the lore even as I have little interest in playing and collecting the tabletop game itself. Therefore this game represents a way to experience some of that world without the exorbitant cost of entry, not to mention storage space.

As a device for delivering lore, a game is perhaps one of the better media, and this example especially so. Although the setting employs only a handful of characters, three races, and a single planet, you get a very good feel for the culture of the Imperium, by exploring different locations on one of their factory worlds under siege. You also get audio logs of its citizens, giving insight into their daily lives, which are ruled by the ever-present warfare of their culture and the oppression of their society. It’s very evocative stuff, and the architecture you traverse is simply amazing, a blend of massive sci-fi structures and gothic cathedrals. Your main characters also demonstrate the themes and common interaction among the classes of the Astartes. Fascinating stuff.

The game is a third-person shooter, fairly standard as I understand it. I’ve said before that I rarely play this sort of game, but as far as I can tell this is a serviceable example. You have a few weapon slots that you can switch out, and some hard-hitting melee combat to supplement it. There are gradual upgrades through the game, and as you progress you also find a set of weapons you’re comfortable with, even knowing when to switch out some for a given situation. Even when I died several times in a row, I mostly felt good about going back to reassess my approach.

The enemies ramp up as well. I was initially disappointed with only having Orks to fight, but as you get familiar with them it helps to recognise what it’s throwing at you so you can respond. Then the Chaos came along, which was a great upset and added a new dimension to the type of fights you get, especially at first when you’re stumbling into fights between the two.

The Chaos element adds a lot to the plot, as it’s an underlying aspect of the whole mythos and the Imperium is very paranoid about it. You get some nice tension between your Captain Titus and the Inquisitor you meet on the planet, as well as suspicion from your own comrades when you find that you’re resistant to the energies of the Warp. (This was a bit of a mystery in the game, but I did some research afterwards and found that Titus may in fact be a member of the Illuminati, which in this universe consists of folk who’ve been possessed by Chaos Demons but have freed themselves, and have to keep it a secret for fear of persecution.) The ending is also a bit bleak, which totally fits the setting in which there are no winners.

Overall I had a great time, I’m not fatigued by playing too many shooters like this so I do enjoy the occasional one. I found it fun to play, and well made. And the story and setting were very compelling to me as well. I tried the multiplayer mode too, which was a bit meh. You need to put some time into it to get the good weapons, and everyone else already has them.

I should mention too that this was made by Relic, who made one of my all-time favourite PC games, Homeworld 2. They became stewards of sorts for 40k games after that, which sucks for Homeworld but if they make things as good as this, I can’t complain. I hope they continue to produce at this level after the collapse of THQ. Actually, looking a bit more they made Impossible Creatures too, a wacky strategy game where you put animal parts together to create strange killer hybrids. In fact, this is like their only non-strategy game. I can take or leave dull WW2-themed games, though. Well, as the Orks say, “Humans to kill!”

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1IYZGNz
Filed under: review relic entertainment warhammer warhammer 40k: space marine ps3 
June 8, 2014
Star Fox Command (DS)

And so I finally got around to playing the final Star Fox installment. I bought it a while ago, but waited until I’d played them in chronological order. I’m glad I did, because they do share continuity and build on previous events.

This game has been criticised, just as Adventures and Assault have, for not following up on “classic Star Fox gameplay”. I share the sentiment to some extent, but then again trying new things can be good and we can always just play Lylat Wars again. What a lot of people also fail to realise is that this game, unlike the 64 one, was made by the people behind Star Wing/Fox and the unreleased Star Fox 2. Additionally, it carries over many gameplay features from the latter, as it never had a chance to be released.

It’s surprising actually, how different Star Fox 2 is, and by extension this game. We have strategy maps, with your ships planning movement and taking simultaneous turns with the enemy. When the two meet, you enter instanced battle arenas in which you complete repetitive objectives and destroy enemy ships. There are a variety of characters, whose ships all have different attributes. All these qualities are shared between 2 and Command, which gives it a heck of a lot of legitimacy even as it differs so much from the scrolling stages we love.

There is some limited scrolling-type gameplay in missile chases and some bosses, but most combat is in All-Range mode. This is my less preferred gameplay style but the greater focus on charge shots makes it more forgiving. There’s no tanks or submarines, ships just fly underwater when they need to.

It’s also one of those DS games that does everything by the touchscreen, all buttons being identical in function as the shoot button. You move, boost, bomb, aim, and do the strategy stages by touch. It works pretty well, although the boosted usefulness of the roll belies its slightly awkward swiping activation. I didn’t have any major troubles with it, it’s just another control scheme to get used to.

The big draw of this game to me was the plot and characters. It has a familiar path-choosing system but ties it to the plot and decisions, giving you the potential not just of different stages to play but different combinations of characters in coversation and eventually different endings. The breadth of these branches makes many mutually exclusive, but the fun is figuring out what aspects of which branches are “most canon”, or at least canon to you, and which are compatible. For example, maybe Star Fox defeats the bad guys, or maybe Star Wolf does, with or without Krystal. If Slippy’s on Aquas then Falco can still be with Fox on Solar, etc, etc.

It does a great job though of involving many beloved characters. No Tricky unfortunately but many previous antagonists show up, either aligned with the new Anglar guys or with their own agendas. The new characters also mesh well, with each one having dialogue to involve them and make them feel right in that world. Said dialogue is well written for the most part, although I find Krystal’s characterisation confusing, a tradition of Star Fox I guess. It did make me laugh though at other parts. They also bring in Octoman from F-Zero as an enemy, which along with a couple other nods cements the connection between those series. Great stuff.

The mechanics of the game are relatively simple and as I said you repeat them many times, especially if you’re replaying for more endings. But I don’t mind that so much as long as the game has other factors to keep me playing, which it does, plus those mechanics feel good enough moment to moment to carry me through. Despite its lack of bombast and fidelity compared to Assault, I think I prefer it. It’s allowed to explore smaller, more personal stories in amongst the conflict due to the branching structure, and look at consequences and relationships rather than a series of big action scenes.

I’ve really enjoyed Command, it’s a fitting end to the Star Fox saga (for now!), there’s a lot of closure in there amongst some silliness with all the endings. There’s also a strange sense of fulfillment as it delivers on all the concepts introduced in the unfortunate Star Fox 2. Sure, it’s not the scrolling shooter we really want but for the DS that might not have worked so well anyway. I do want more but I concede that this game seems to end things well. Unless they do a continuity barrel roll, or else go the next generation route like Golden Sun or Sin & Punishment (I don’t have the confidence Nintendo will do that, it’s not safe enough). Well Nintendo, trust your instincts. Or not, whatever.

12:00pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1I53i7C
(Notes: 2)
  
Filed under: review star fox star fox command ds q games 
June 7, 2014
Picross e2 (3DS)

Uh. What can I say? It’s more Picross. That is a good thing.

Picross e was good, and now I’ve figured out how to activate the auto-greying numbers I enjoy the gameplay a lot more. The macro painting mode was really cool, the individual puzzles are very different in style to normal ones and building up the picture is rewarding.

It still has the drawbacks compared to Picross DS, such as non-animated solutions (although the pixel art does look very nice), and lack of Nintendo-themed puzzles, which was a highlight for me. It also again ran out of content quickly, because I played it so ravenously. But that’s the style they’re going for, short and cheap, and frequently released. It’s like episodic gaming!

I also wish there were more harder puzzles, because the hardest ones began to really test me and forced me to strengthen my MIGHTY PICROSS SKILLS. I really love all of Jupiter’s Picross stuff. It won’t happen, but I wish they ported their old Mario Picross games to stylus controls, I would be all over that. It’s very hard to go back to moving a square around when you have such direct control on the DS.

I’ve also bought e3 and e4, and they to some extent replace Micross (the painting thing) with Mega Picross, which uses numbers over multiple rows, giving you a new technique to learn. I still enjoy Micross better though, so for the number of such puzzles in this game I’m tentatively awarding Picross e2 “best Picross e installment”.

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1H-XjDj
Filed under: review picross picross e2 jupiter 3ds 
June 4, 2014
[Review] Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS)

Ah, Zelda. I’ve been playing them since Ocarina, of course. The three “big” entry point games for those of my generation are the original, Link to the Past, and Ocarina of Time. Unfortunately in the style of Nintendo at the moment, everything seems to be jamming on the nostalgia button HARD. Obviously this game leans very very heavily on LttP, which predates my own entry point. In fact I played LttP a few years after Ocarina, but it’s not “my” Zelda game, if you get me.

Consequently I don’t have the blind rush of giddy nostalgia juices for this game. Looking objectively at it though, I can say that it’s a very good game and I enjoyed it. I just feel weird playing it, because it’s so heavily based on a game I don’t have such a personal connection to, and indeed have only played once. There’s some lipservice to other games in the canon, but they’re a bit tacked on and feel out of place. Basically what I’m saying is it feels like the wrong way to do nostalgia.

Anyways the few improvements to the LttP formula, like having main character counterparts in the Dark World, having individualised Sages, shaking up the item acquisition and dungeoning, are very good decisions. Generally it’s good at giving you the things you need and want but still being challenging. Well, I say challenging because some rooms, tasks, and dungeons were tricky moment-to-moment but overall it’s an easy game.

It might just be my super skills, but I never died, and I always had boatloads of rupees. I never got lost or stuck, because there’s lots to do, which is a good thing. Not a good thing is the balance, although I have said the same about other Zelda games, and maybe Hero mode would have suited me better. It’s just that the things people have been saying about the risk and reward of the item system ring false to me, because I rented everything straight away, never died to have them taken, and just sunk rupees steadily into buying the items so I could upgrade them. Not very risky, and the rupees kept flowing in so when I’d bought everything it went straight to 9999 and I’m like “what now?”. So I bought a golden bee.

Anyway I had a great time finding all the things, collecting stuff and getting mightier. I liked interacting with NPCs, but ultimately that was pretty shallow and although the writing was good, it wasn’t a more personable experience than your standard Zelda game, and worse than several of them. I liked the Sages being people from the world that you’d met, but that’s ripped straight from Ocarina and like that game (and to a lesser extent, Wind Waker) they are removed from the world by the plot, making it a more dull place.

I didn’t want to get this game at first because it seemed like just another Zelda game, and that’s not what I wanted. But my lovely wife bought it for me, and so I had to play it. At which point I realised that playing just another Zelda game was something I could get behind. Especially when it’s as fun, addictive, and accessible as this one. Not exactly groundbreaking but it had some cool new features that will apparently inform the future direction of the series. I think they could stand to shake up more aspects of the experience (after all, Majora’s Mask is one of my faves) but this installment is perfectly solid. Yep.

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1HkY7OE
Filed under: review zelda zelda: a link between worlds nintendo ead 3ds 
June 3, 2014
[Review] Yoshi’s Panepon (SNES)

I like to play other related games to coincide with getting the new latest game in a series. In this case, I knew Yoshi’s New Island was on the way so I went after the number 1 most Yoshi’s Island-style game, the very inaptly named Tetris Attack. The name seems to be cashing in on the Tetris craze that sweeped the world, despite the fact that the Panel de Pon/Puzzle League games are nothing like Tetris besides being dynamic puzzle games. This title (and the Western boxart) also give no indication of the Yoshi branding, which makes the game insanely colourful and fun to look at. So badly named all around.

You may be aware that this game is a reskin of the Japanese original, Panel de Pon. It featured flowery fairies that I guess wouldn’t fly with the young male demographic. Yoshi’s still cute, but not that cute. They ported it to Game Boy too, which is nice and retains the same gameplay and features, with its own visual flairs that are still nowhere near the colourful frenzy of the SNES version. The GB one retained its Yoshi-ness when returned to Japan, and gained the name Yoshi’s Panepon, which is probably the most correct title, which is why I used it on this post (even though I played the English version). The Yoshi SNES version made its way over there eventually too, on the SNES satellite addon the Satellaview.

Unlike the other two Yoshi puzzle games, Yoshi/Mario & Yoshi/Yoshi’s Egg (NES and GB), and Yoshi’s Cookie (NES, GB, SNES, and SNES rerelease with extra stuff to promote some oven or something…), this game is Yoshi’s Island through and through. No adult Mario, no Mario enemies, just pure Island stuff. I couldn’t be happier to just take in all the framing. You get cute little sprites and more lavish backgrounds of Poochy, Raphael the Raven, Prince Froggy, all the favourites.

As for the gameplay though, I struggled to get the hang of it. Compared to other tile matching games I’ve played, the control is quite limited. You are only able to switch two tiles horizontally at a time, and try to create lines and combos. Combos are essential as the difficulty climbs in later stages, and it’s just something I just found got too hard too quickly. The learning curve seemed very steep: I was all easy, easy, easy, UGH I lose so quickly now! Luckily there’s lots of modes so when one part got too tough in the clear stages mode, I could switch to puzzle or versus and continue there for a bit.

Ultimately the difficulty and limited control meant the game’s appeal didn’t last that long for me. I absolutely love the Yoshi’s Island style and this game does a great job of bringing that across. But I got frustrated at the gameplay, which made me stop before really reaching the ending. I came for the Yoshi but didn’t stay for the gameplay. Is that a good soundbite? Eh, probably not.

But it does bring up a problem I have with some more recent sanitised Nintendo releases: the next Puzzle League games were a paired Pokemon set on N64 and GBC (based on the anime actually, a tradition of sorts in games after Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine co-opted Puyo Puyo Pop with branding from the Sonic cartoon… but I digress). And the GCN’s Puzzle Collection featured a straight-up sequel to Lip’s Panel de Pon. But since then there’ve been two releases for GBA and DS that are basic and bland, without any series stamped on them. This means the game is forced to stand on its gameplay alone which as I asserted is not that compelling. There’s a reason I bought Tetris DS and not Tetris Party, and it wasn’t the online multiplayer. And with that, I’m off!

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1HebXkq
Filed under: review snes yoshi's panepon yoshi tetris attack intelligent systems 
May 29, 2014
[Review] Star Fox Assault (GCN)

So having played Adventures, I could finally continue the Star Fox saga in order. The current canon anyway, which goes Lylat Wars-> Adventures-> Assault-> Command. The original Star Wing was retconned by 64, and Star Fox 2 was never canon anyway but I still intend to play them as well, as Command’s multiple endings gives a good excuse to explore the other non-canon corners of that universe.

My friend Scraps helpfully lent me his copy of Assault, another borrowing for which I’m glad, as it doesn’t feel like Assault has quite the staying power of other Star Fox games. It’s another experiment you might say and like Metroid Prime Hunters seems to have been built around the multiplayer, with the campaign added afterwards with the existing mechanics. This may be related to the never-released arcade adaptation, much like F-Zero GX/AX.

This one’s a Namco production, and its strengths, especially as a fan of the series, are its adherence to the lore and continuity and how it builds on them. It does a great job expressing this cool world in an impressive way, with developed settings, characters, and sci-fi concepts. It also manages to ccapture a very epic feeling to the events of the game. It adds explicit FTL travel by warp gates, new characters Panther as a member of Star Wolf and Slippy’s dad Beltino, as well as the game’s major antagonists, the hivelike Aparoids. No new planets aside from the Aparoid homeworld but it gives a new level of realism to many established locations such as Corneria and Fichina.

The characters are a strength of the series, and Assault gives them lots of chances to converse between and during missions. They even bring back Tricky, which made me very happy so soon after Adventures. The relationship between Fox and Krystal is developed a little clumsily though. There’s also a little problem with Fox in that his voice actor and model don’t convey much emotion, so as the protagonist he didn’t hold up too well.

Let’s talk about the gameplay though. As I alluded to the missions are mainly in multiplayer maps, with objectives to do. You can hop in and out of the Arwing or Landmaster when you need to, and there’s a lot of on-foot running and gunning. The controls for this mode can be customised but are generally a bit awkward, which sucks because you spend so much time like that. The maps are often a little small for proper Arwing All-Range action too. The first mission fools you into thinking this game will be a scrolling shooter like everyone wants after Lylat Wars, which makes all the pilot stuff a rude shock. They do try to mix up the pilot gameplay though. There’s lots of weapons to use in different situations, and terrain varies from mission to mission.

So you have three different control schemes to master that need to be switched between in many missions, and things like laser upgrades for the Arwing or a pilot’s weapons don’t affect the other mode. It feels a little bolted together.

On balance the game doesn’t top the Star Fox charts, but it remains the most modern-looking and with an in-depth plot, which definitely counts for something. It’s just a shame that the campaign (which is uniquely linear for the series) pushes the roaming on-foot structure so much, because the few Arwing scrolling stages were good fun and work better, for my tastes anyway. It also has lots of impact plotwise on Command, which I’m now playing, which makes me appreciate the continuity the whole series has kept up with (since 64 anyway). As for whether you should play it? Trust your instincts.

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu1HB6X2A
Filed under: review gcn namco star fox star fox assault 
Liked posts on Tumblr: More liked posts »