January 15, 2014
Rayman Legends (Wii U)

My backlog is so big at the moment. My wife and I polished off this game a few months ago, but I think that will help me summarise more to keep it shorter.

This review really cannot exist outside of my opinion to Rayman Origins, and comparisons constantly came up as I played. I actually recommend playing Origins first, as this game is a progression in so many ways. You feel that when you play the recreated Origins levels in Legends—which, by the way, do not render Origins invalid. First of all, I don’t think it’s all the levels, and second, they have put in Legends mechanics in Origins level designs (for the most part), giving them a different feel, especially when playing Legends as intended.

By that I mean that Murfy is integral to the Legends experience, and I just cannot picture playing the whole game solo. Having my wife on Gamepad while I flex my platforming muscles was a very well done mechanic, although the dynamic fell apart when she was forced into 2D mode at a boss battle or when doing a challenge level. So the ancillary bits, anything apart from the core platforming levels, didn’t work so well with that asymmetric co-op stuff (and hence our playing together). So it’s 2 games really, amazing skill gap co-op core and the awesome and varied single player fringe elements (namely bosses, challenges, music levels, and Moskito).

At least, that’s how we played it. For ages I booted it up daily for the Challenge mode, and it did a good job encouraging the quick daily trips. Competing against the 2 or 3 friends who were at around my skill level was a blast, and slowly racking up points and junk was satisfying. Once I got to the full 100% I’d had enough anyway, so I tied a happy ribbon in it.

To me, Rayman Origins was platforming perfection, so it was hard for me to admit that Legends is a better game. But as I hope I’ve communicated, it’s trying to stretch in a few different directions, making it less pure but arguably more fun. I love them both but the improvements to graphics, developed ideas, and more ambitious levels and designs make it a good sequel overall.

I have nitpicks of course: the music is very slightly less memorable overall despite some astounding tracks, the plot is a bit more nebulous, and the thing that rubbed me the wrong way the most was the main menu thing. You run around in a tent to select levels or modes. It’s good for keeping consistency between movement in levels and in this upper area, but the lack of a proper world map that you move around really hurts the feel of being in a world.

Overall though, this is an essential game, probably my best of the year. Certainly the Wii U version is the one to get, seeing that the others are hack jobs for a game designed around the Gamepad. As with Origins, a joy to play and experience, every side of it: music, art, game design. I particularly cherish the fact that it so involved my wife, who is at an obvious skill and enthusiasm handicap for this genre, and that we could share it so much. I fear that there will be no follow-up considering how much the clueless Ubisoft suits jerked around Michel Ancel and co. But I feel happy having got this much. You may recall that it was the main primary motivator for my Wii U purchase, and although late it was well worthwhile.

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Filed under: rayman ubisoft rayman legends wii u review 
December 7, 2013
Sonic Lost World and Lego Marvel Super Heroes demoes (Wii U & 3DS)

In more recent news, the demoes for both of these games came out for both of these platforms on the same day. I downloaded and tried all of them. There’s a theme here because these particular games do not represent my usual forte. My oeuvre, if you will.

I never got Sonic, I find the classic games frustrating and the movement system is just wrong to me. The 3D games, according to popular opinion, I should just not bother with for the most part. But for me, free is the right price and I gave the demoes a spin. Get it? Because he spins.

Yeah, they didn’t win me over. Basically it’s like Mario Galaxy but all slippery and confusing. I did find that the 3DS version agreed with me much more than the Wii U one did, I mainly chalk that up to a much better presented demo that actually taught you mechanics and showed off different things you would be doing in the game. Also the more general trend of big console games being overdeveloped and valuing style over substance. This was represented subtly here, really the two were pretty similar.

But yeah I have tried a few Sonic games and they never clicked with me. This one blunders all over the line between smooth and fiddly, difficult platforming and the feeling of not being in control. I think that’s my general assessment of Sonic really, and I can’t go any more in-depth on this one just from a demo. So thumbs down.

As for Lego Marvel, well it’s a Lego game. I’m intimately familiar with them by this point, but it’s the Marvel side that I’m not big on. I’ve really only been exposed to the “cinematic universe” and all those other cinematic universes that they don’t have the rights to. Come to think of it, I’ve probably seen more Marvel movies than DC, but that’s probably because DC movies that aren’t Batman have been notoriously bad. But, I have more DC experience what with Sandman, borrowing some Batman comics from the library, watching the Justice League cartoon (and the Teen Titans one… one of them anyway). I’m not super invested in either of them though.

Anyways this is just another Lego game really, and if you’re not interested in the paerticular IP attached then you should just play Lego Star Wars again or something. It is the newest and hence shiniest one, and I guess it could have some new ideas? I don’t know, I just saw old ideas really. I’ve said before that I have more faith in TT Fusion (the handheld division) than TT to make a stable and interesting game, and for the second time I’m siding with the smaller iteration of the two games.

The 3DS has more new ideas with the rewards system and the super moves, although that seemed quite useless. But the sub-chapters thing with just one character at a time seems nice and less fiddly, with the little quest things inspiring quick replays. Sure it may be less ambitious and impressive than the console one, but I dunno I guess I’m once again feeling that I prefer the tighter experience than the bloated one with a million lighting shaders or whatever and the crashing.

Realistically though, if my wife was interested at all, the console one would be the only way to go with its big screen co-op mode. At least until the miniature version eventually goes on sale in the iOS App Store. So yeah it is just another Lego game, and I’ve played lots and have a few more to play still (just iPhone ones). In fact I’m doing Harry Potter 2 handheld now and it’s fairly alright. Ah, demoes. They don’t come often enough.

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu10Tprlv
Filed under: review sonic lost world lego marvel super heroes traveller's tales sega wii u 3ds 
December 6, 2013
Rico (iOS)

Usually I don’t review every little iOS game I play, but this one was kinda an encapsulated experience and I decided not to be so lazy. It’s one of those spritey pixelly retro-style games, an action platformer this time. The controls were quite good unlike a lot of iOS platformers. It’s kinda like uh the stage-based Castlevania games? I haven’t played those but it’s got a whip as a weapon so I thought it might be a reference. It’s fairly linear most of the time, you go from checkpoint to checkpoint dealing with the occasional enemy but it’s mostly platforming in an explore-y kind of way. There’s a ton of gold-like things for you to collect if you want more challenge.

I’m explaining this pretty boringly, aren’t I? Well It’s just before lunch, so… Seriously though I had fun, it kept me coming back and the music was super great, although there’s only a few tracks. It has the quality of quickly returning you to the last checkpoint when you die so it’s easy to try again. I love games that do that in a streamlined way, no fanfare, no life counter, just go back and try again.

The idea is that you and your evil brother are in one of those eternally-locked-in-battle scenarios, but he gives you a cosmic nerf so you have to crawl through these caves and stuff and get your powers back one at a time, like double jumping! I like the ability progression, slowly empowering you but not overpowering you and any game with a double jump gets a pass from me.

Part of the reason I want to review this is because I got it in one of those free promotions that are constant in the App Store, and it was quite good so I hope I can convince someone to buy it to support Maximilian Csuk. There’s a free demo too so go try it out. It doesn’t do that much to stand out from the aforementioned pixelly retro crowd but it’s well put together, short and sweet and of course cheap.

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu10O3SMl
Filed under: review ios rico indie 
December 5, 2013
Avatar: The Legend of Aang (DS)

Here’s a game I was very interested in as a fan of the show Avatar: The Last Airbender (apparently in some regions at some times, the show was marketed as Legend of Aang instead. I know my Book 1 DVD has that title, but I don’t think the others do). The reason it was appealing was that it presented an all-new story within that universe, set between Books 1 and 2.

Now, you won’t actually know this from the box, the manual, even the game itself. I started the game thinking it would be a retelling of Book 1 with extra plot elements and levels added in to make it more game-friendly. It starts with a choppy rendition of the show’s opening (if you’ve played any DS game with an FMV, you know the quality we’re talking here). You start, and see Aang standing next to Appa. He wants to go penguin sledding with Katara. Ok, I say, I know what’s going on here. This is the same as like Episode 2, but we’ve been given no introduction or background aside from the stock show opening.

I start exploring and find a Water Tribe village. So far so good, some stuff happens and Zuko attacks. But a few details start to bother me. There are adult males here, when all warriors should be away fighting. There’s waterbenders! Then someone mentions they’re in the North. A typo? I start formulating a theory that this is some kind of wacky alternate universe retelling of Book 1. Then everything changed when a robot attacked! This was getting simply bizarre.

I realise of course at some point, that this is set after the end of Book 1. That waterbending master (that they call Master Wei in the DS version) is supposed to be Pakku. But if this world is anything like Earth, there shouldn’t be otter-penguins in the North. Oh well, there’s polar bear-dogs in the South so that’s fine. Apparently the small village I’m in is a special waterbender training town, not the North Tribe capital. Ok, I can see that. It all comes together. Of course, the game really should have explained itself better.

Let’s skip ahead. I had the chance to play the PS2 version later, and while they’re both produced by THQ Studio Australia (although this was actually developed by TOSE), the difference is night and day. The DS one is really skimped, gimped, and rushed compared to the console one. There’s also a GBA one I hope to play soon, and a PSP one, and a PC one, which are all different but cover the same plot. The console one at least has more mechanics, voice acting, equippable items, explanations, and isn’t as brutally hard.

It’s basically an action RPG with instanced battles. But it’s missing basic mechanics like a place to rest and recover health. There’s a few items that give you a stat boost, but there’s loads of herbs everywhere that fill your inventory and can be crafted to make useless potions and expensive, slightly useful ones. And apart from food for health and smoke bombs for escaping battle, that’s all. And items don’t stack. Money is also hard won and each battle will sap your health so for a long time I was on a tightrope between my health, EXP, money, and progression. That tension didn’t make for a fun experience.

Other dodgy mechanics include the lame minigames, locking you out from each area when the chapter finishes, and the awful camera control. The shoulder buttons rotate your view, but more than half of the available angles are grossly unhelpful, so you’re constantly shifting around just to see where you’re going. There are others, but the basic fundamentals of RPG balance not being well developed results in a game that is just tough to get through. Grinding is not viable at the start and once you get over the hump (and Katara gets the revive ability) it’s too easy.

So as a game it’s not great, but the other versions have potential. Let’s get to the whole reason I played it, which is the story and characters. I’ll say the writing is pretty great, at least for our main characters. Between chapters is a fully-voiced cutscene, with the original show’s actors reprising their roles (this was produced concurrent with the series, although obviously after Book 1 aired). I found myself laughing at Sokka’s usual antics and so on, so they captured that stuff well. NPCs are very dull though, with small text boxes and not much to say.

Your party climbs to 4 when you reunite with Haru, you know that earthbender kid form Book 1? He turns up later with a mustache? Yeah, him. I guess they wanted that element represented so they brought him back. It’s cool, and of course I put this game in my own canon as Book 1.5 Robots or something so any element that fits is fun. Of course, there are problems with the continuity of this game. They regard Omashu as the capital and “heart” of the Earth Kingdom, with Bumi as its king. This is just wrong, and Omashu looks all wrong. It’s all yellow sandstone. I’m playing the second one right now and they did Omashu much better there.

Anyway they also claim at one point that destroying the Avatar statues at the Southern Air Temple (which they call “the Air Temple”) will sever Aang’s connection with the Avatar spirit. Now that’s also wrong, although this could just be construed as Lian’s misguided theories. It’s also a little strange in general with the Gaang jetsetting around on Appa through the Earth Kingdom and elsewhere, instead of doing Book 2 stuff which seemed fairly pressing. Aang needs an earthbending teacher: they meet Bumi face-to-face here, and travel with Haru. He also displays no waterbending skill. You gotta forgive it some things though, for trying to do something new here.

The reason for basically ignoring any other matters is due to the appearance of mechanical monstrosities that are terrorising towns and I guess killing benders or something? Not sure but Lian, the mastermind of these machines, has a vendetta against benders and their warmongering and so is replacing them with her artificial creations. There are shades of Amon and the Equalists from Korra here with her plans and the idealists who follow her, which is cool as this came first. It’s also interesting that you rescue her from Fire Nation prison, but it’s revealed that they were keeping her for her ingenuity and machine designs (I think?), kinda like the Machinist in the Northern Air Temple. You think you’re saving her but by freeing her she goes rogue with her robots, which is a bit of a twist.

This whole plot isn’t given a whole lot of justification though, and there’s a few tenuous connections. I feel like the console version probably fleshes it out a bit more. You get to visit some cool locations though, like the aforementioned North Pole, Southern Air Temple, and Omashu, as well as an Earth Kingdom village with forest and scared cave with a bear Spirit, a Fire Nation prison, a hidden island with a lost civilisation, and finally a blasted wasteland with Lian’s doom fortress. Don’t know how she built that so quickly but fine.

I really like that they made a whole new plot here. It allows them to explore a few new ideas and characters, revisit old ones, and add a bit to the “continuity” while avoiding simply rehashing the show. Unfortunately the next two games do exactly that, and just retell Books 2 and 3 (as far as I know so far). This one is also considered non-canon generally which is a shame but yeah I can see the point that just adding things willy-nilly can dilute the importance of the show’s events. But hey the comics are canon, and they’re not slowing down. It’s most likely because Brike were not directly involved (“Flint Dille, Union Entertainment” is credited with Original Storyline).

Anyways the game isn’t really that good so if you’re interested in the story, try and get the console one. It was ported to Wii from the Gamecube/PS2 version with some motion controls and some minigames I think, that’s probably the one to get. The GBA one (developed by our own Halfbrick studios) is also supposed to be quite good, I’ll try that one some time. Like I said, highlights are the writing of the leads, maybe the robot designs, although the sprite work is a little shonky. The music is also really horrible. No no positives! Um, er, the bending? No that’s underwhelming and hard to control. The fan service? You do meet the cabbage merchant, and there’s a few animals that appear which is always fun, and a new spirit bear/man. Really the plot is the main reason for this game, but this isn’t the best way to deliver it. I’m glad I had the chance though. I do savour every game experience, yes even Donkey Kong Jungle Beat and Metroid Other M. You’ll hear about those later ;)

So until next time, yip yip! Or even Avatar State, yip yip! (obligatory Ember Island Players reference)

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu10IMivn
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: review avatar avatar the last airbender game THQ TOSE ds 
December 4, 2013
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)

Time for some quick-fire reviews! First up is a game I borrowed from a friend. I previously played Galaxy 1 and it was pretty fun I guess, so I gave the sequel a go to see what they added that was worthwhile.

The answer is not much. It’s pretty much the same thing again, with a few new bells and whistles and tweaks and so forth. For some reason though, I actually 100%ed this one. I guess it strung me along and kept me going better than the first one. Could be the new level select mechanism. At first I was against it as a menu-driven NSMB-style surgical removal of flavour, but the Starship Mario was a reasonable “hub” on its own, especially with the extra friends you accumulate as you go on. Plus it just made your progression easier to grok quickly, and after all this is just a Mario game. Better that they drop the pretensions of ambition and be honest to the relentlessly gameplay-driven design.

You can see my SMG1 review I guess for the basics, although I don’t remember all the specifics of what I said. SMG2 changes up things very often, so it’s stimulating but there’s no consistent theming except within a galaxy.

Uh, I didn’t like Rosalina’s reduced role, her character as presented in these games doesn’t deserve all the fan attention she gets, although personally I think she’s cool and I’m glad she’s part fo the “main” cast to some extent now. She really is just another princess though. Lubba is pretty cool, I suppose. What is he, like some Luma that just kept growing but decided not to turn into a planet or something? Sure.

I liked the wide availability of Luigi, and I used him as much as I could. Speaking of green things though (themed paragraphs wahey!) I hated the green star idea. Only after you completely finish the game and get everything, thus being satisfied and experiencing everything it has, it makes you go back and do it again and search the levels for secret stars in areas that you’re now bored of. The secret stars should have been obtainable from the beginning, that way you can find them while searching for regular stars. I think this was a dumb choice and so ignored that post-game stuff entirely.

I also found a curious thing. I unlocked the boss rush galaxy of the SMG1 bosses, and realised that I’d missed some of them while playing that game. Funny how so many are technically optional, since you can just do levels in any order.

Now even more than before I’m trying to do really short reviews so I’m not so daunted by this blog, so I’m leaving it at that. I think if you’ve played the first one, this one is more of the same so take that as you will. Which one I would recommend depends on your tastes. This is more streamlined, maybe some level themes are more underdeveloped but others are more so, and it has Yoshi. The first is somewhat more of an open experience, edges out this slightly in the plot department, and I suppose the gameplay is more focused? I dunno they’re running together in my mind at this point.

Oh and it didn’t change my mind on main series Mario in general. In terms of the whole series and its progression, I’m very apathetic. It’s fun and all for a while but you should know that I’m not running out to buy 3D World. Regardless, thank you so much for to reading my blog.

12:02pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwu10CW8fA
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: review super mario galaxy 2 mario wii nintendo 
October 29, 2013
Conker’s Bad Fur Day (N64)

Well, so much for me writing more often. Well if you read this at all, you’d be used to irregular updates. So here’s the last game I played before packing away my N64 again. Fitting, as it was released so late and seems a culmination/subversion of a prevailing genre at the time, the 3D platformer.

Bad Fur Day is often lumped in with the other Rare collectathons, but that’s an unfair association. It lampoons them, yes, but many other genres as well. Its rewards are the humorous excuse collectible of cash and more importantly simply getting to the next cutscene, seeing what happens next, the next joke or the next setpiece, is the reward for progress.

Importantly, the humour is very central to the game, being a driving force, rather than a sweet secondary focus as it is in Banjo. You just don’t get that many humour games or comedy games, especially not ones that actually have good gameplay too. The gameplay here is classic 3D platformer stuff, but with a heavier emphasis than normal on changing it up. We get thrid-person shooter segments (war-themed and horror-themed), flying, pitchfork-riding, first-person turret sections, races, arena combat, and quicktime events among others, in addition to the standard jumping-climbing-swimming challenges. Some of these can get quite frustrating but it’s all worth it to “get to the next bit”.

About the humour though, it’s a little dated. A good example of late 90’s “mature” immature humour, like early South Park. Swearing and poop are funny. Of course, at the time and at the ages we were, they really were very funny. There’s quite a few pop culture/movie reference jokes too, which tend to date. I think there’s a lot there that holds up though, and has value, even if it’s simply as a historical item. The main point underscoring it all though is that the world is initially so cutesy and the characters being talking animals and objects, which is constantly subverted.

In a lot of ways, it’s rooted in its time. You have to understand something of its development environment to truly understand it. Rare’s development teams were separated into barns to foster a competitive atmosphere. Chris Seavor’s barn was working on Twelve Tails: Conker 64, Rare’s first(!) 3D platformer. Another team was working on Project Dream. When they saw Conker, they reworked their game, taking cues from Seavor’s project. Meanwhile Conker suffered several delays while Banjo, then its sister project DK64, and finally Banjo Tooie, were released. Seavor saw that they would have to do something drastic to differentiate their project from those that beat it to the punch. Their answer was to subvert that style, subvert Nintendo’s kid-friendly image, subvert even the game itself in its past stages.

For some of us gamers growing up, we are now finding interest in looking back behind the scenes of games we loved. Apparently the developers of those games are doing so too, reflecting on their careers. Chris Seavor’s development commentaries (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbRUl7dkRVPKlYiUq4TmEaQ) with some others of his team are an invaluable look behind the curtain, as well as being very entertaining (they’re so bad at their own game!). You also get them on Twitter sometimes, or in interviews. Conker’s story has many twists and turns, and that’s before you even get into Microsoft…

So given that it’s so unique, I’m pretty comfortable giving Bad Fur Day my “Favourite N64 Game” award. I just loved having a game that engaged me on the game level, but also made me laugh, that ended up being very emotional. On completing my recent playthrough, I admitted on Twitter that I shed a tear at the ending. There’s an abrupt and very hard-hitting turn that in itself is another subversion of what came before in the game itself, while also being a moral that Conker was leading up to in some ways. As I said before, this dual identity of the game itself is reflected somewhat in its ending, if only in a tonal sense.

Also it had a bunch of kickass multiplayer modes that occupied us for many a Saturday morning. While the campaign is the main focus, as was the case for many games the tacked-on multiplayer greatly extended the longevity and made it not only suitable for party occasions, but a must-have. There’s a lot of variety but inevitably Beach and War are the most frequently played.

Ah. It was really good, despite all its flaws. I’m also playing Conker’s Pocket Tales (slowly)… they’re really nothing alike. But that’s all for now. Oh, did I mention the memorable characters? The paint pot, Chucky Poo, Professor von Kripplespac, Conker himself, Gregg the Grim Reaper, the army sergeant. Classics all, and every minor character also has something to make you laugh. Oh… now I’m thinking about the ending again and feeling all sad and bleak. See, this is what the game does to you. But then you remember the scouser dung beetles and smile. Mm. Marvellous. ting

6:39pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuyx98cD
(Notes: 2)
  
Filed under: conker conker's bad fur day n64 rareware review 
October 10, 2013
Donkey Kong 64 (N64)

So many 3D platformers. Ok, this one is infamous for being the very hieght of the collectathon genre. The sheer amount of goobers to pick up, that are colour-coded no less so you have to pick the right one of 5 characters to even collect them, is a big source of frustration for a lot of people. But on my recent playthrough, I didn’t find that so bad. I just treated it as a leisurely relaxing process, going back and forth, switching up, piling up little tasks to complete one after the other.

I was helped immeasurably by having an open strategy guide next to me for the second half of the run. It prevented frustration and fruitless wandering. Plenty of maps and checklists. Without it the game really is a confusing mess, especially levels that get you lost easily, like… all of them. These huge areas with hubs, a lot of places look similar, doorways that arbitrarily lead to areas that you mix up.

But enough about game design. I want to talk about the character of the game. In style and structure it’s quite similar to the Banjo series, but there are important differences. I read that it was made by a different team to those games, which means that Rare had three 3D platformers developing simultaneously. Wacky. One thing that stood out to me that set them apart was the humour and personality. Banjo has a few little amusing animations, but really shone in its writing. On the other hand, DK64 had very dull writing but has tons of characterful animations and physical humour. It’s a distinction that leads in to the next point.

This game has not aged very well. From the downright embarrassingly 90s DK Rap that opens the game to the game design to the visuals. They wanted to show off the dynamic lighting system but the game just ends up too dark a lot of the time. They wanted to push the hardware but there’s a lot of lag as a result. They wanted it to be funny but it’s a little lame.

Still, there’s an undeniable charm to it. Having this world and especially the characters fleshed out so much. Just watching the Kongs’ antics in the tag barrel says so much about their personalities. And while a lot of the tasks are mindless or pointless, there’s satisfaction in hunting them down and performing them. The music is a highlight, Grant Kirkhope at his best.

It’s invaluable as a Donkey Kong game because of what it brings to the series. Having said that, its wackiness doesn’t fit too well with the Country games that preceded it, it’s not quite as grounded. Well they got a little crazy at times too. But, as a game it’s clearly not as good as either Banjo game, just my opinion of course. Having so many 3D platformers in such a short time was pretty mad, but it’s just cool to have 5 playable Kongs in their wild world. And I’m so glad I was able to finally get 101% after all these years. Ok Cranky, take it to the fridge!

8:47am  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuxE9juI
(Notes: 2)
  
Filed under: donkey kong donkey kong 64 review rareware n64 
September 15, 2013
Lylat Wars (N64)

As I mentioned earlier, before I went away and between bouts of 3D platformers, I popped in the classic Star Fox installment on the 64, known for legal reasons in the PAL territories by the (admittedly more imaginative, less lazy) title, Lylat Wars. I also mentioned something about Mega Man lore, but that didn’t pan out in retrospect. So don’t expect that. Expect this!

Lately I’ve noticed that my tastes tend strongly towards platformers, so I feel good when I play something decidedly different. The Star Fox series has been many things, but only two installments (plus the 90%-done-but-cancelled Star Fox 2—there’s a ROM online) are autoscrolling rail shooters. And yet, because they’re the original and popular ones, everything else is derided as not really Star Fox. Anyway this one’s a “real” one so we don’t have to worry about that until I get around to Command later.

This is one of those games I played so many times in childhood, during that impressionable time, that I can practically play stages by muscle memory—especially on the more fun tracks. You see, each run through takes you on a varying track through the system, visiting certain planets and skipping others. However, I was finally defeated by the unlocked Expert mode, where Fox dons sunnies to resemble his dead/black hole’d father, oh and his wings break off in the slightest breeze, removing your laser upgrades. It’s extremely frustrating.

I found that I was only around 5 Expert medals short of 100%ing it, thereby unlocking the on-foot mode in multiplayer. We never played it much, it wasn’t much fun, and said mode turned out to be pretty lame. But y'know, it’s the principle of the thing. Accomplishing that goal was surprisingly intense and exciting! It, again, as I’ve said before, tested my memories and my new skills, sometimes to the brink of nasty angry feelings about stupid dumb games. But damn if I didn’t blitz Sector Z on my first try! Great feeling.

So why do I love this game? It wasn’t just that I had to try to love the few games we had, because we had some real duds (Superman 64, that SNES cricket game, I’m looking at you guys). I think in a lot of cases the superb, tight play control has to do with long-lasting enjoyment. Of course, the content has to be there too and the fact that multiple runs can vary so much is a big plus there. There’s also little spots of charm that can add so much: the little waggling portraits, the campy voice acting, the impressive boss designs.

The essence of the game is score attacks and trying to better your runs. But the levels are so dynamic and interesting that you just love to replay them. The frustrating bits just make victory sweeter, although I can’t say that I didn’t dread some levels much more than others—certain ones are definitely more fun. But they did stitch it together with some cool plot, stated and implied.

Anyway I think the game’s aged well, which I guess is good news for the remake. Although I heard the extra detail made the (retained) short draw distances jarring. Plus, then they lose the polygonal models which they made seem intentional, and ended up being quite iconic. Either way, it’s a true classic of the 64, and I finally beat it down. Now you all know it’s coming, say it with me: “Press Z or R twice!” Ah, so quotable. Ok, real ones: “Yippeee! You did it!” “My Emperor! I’ve failed you!” So good. Ok, Mission Accomplished. It’s time for us to go now.

10:20pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuv5detb
Filed under: review nintendo n64 star fox argonaut software lylat wars 
July 29, 2013
Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge (GBA)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

12:19pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuqsCdVx
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: review banjo-kazooie: grunty's revenge rareware gba banjo 
July 27, 2013
Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story

I’ve been knocking some games down quickly, so I need to catch up on blogging! M&L RPG 3 was a game I bought back when my 3DS was new and I wanted some games for it. I’d heard good things about the series, so I picked up the latest one when I saw it pretty cheap at one of those shops that doesn’t know how to price good games sometimes. Also I’d played Super Mario RPG for the SNES… somehow… and that was pretty fun.

I ended up starting this game at the same time as Paper Mario 2, so there were lots of comparisons invited. At the time, I wavered for a while before deciding I preferred Paper Mario, and dropped this for a while. The main reason for the hiatus was the game’s difficulty. I got to a bit that I was underleveled for and was getting killed too much (I never had similar problems later, for what it’s worth), and I also had endeavoured to beat the special move challenge minigame things. The minigames are just gruelling if you’re trying to get a high score.

Eventually I decided to return, give up on the minigame and power through the part I was at in the story. I don’t like letting a game languish, unfinished. It really picked up after the bit I was up to, as well. Now the comparisons with the Paper series has shifted, especially after Super and Sticker Star which were on the whole pretty disappointing. I ended up preferring the M&L battle system in particular.

There are a lot of unique and very interesting things about M&L. You control the Bros, and Bowser in this game, with different buttons. So A is always Mario’s action button to jump, etc, B is Luigi’s, and Bowser uses X and Y. It’s cool, but can be limiting when you have three different action modes to swap between for different actions. It’s not oo complicated either since swapping between Bowser and Bros changes the focus. Unfortunately this means you only sometimes get a simultaneous map on the opposing screen. I wanted that map all the time!

The battles are really cool. Every enemy attack is telegraphed in a unique way and you have to react differently to avoid them. It’s a very dynamic system, and makes you feel involved to a much greater degree than the Papers, which are overly simplistic in comparison and only use timed hits (which M&L also has).

Of course, the “good” two of the four Paper Mario games have a range of characterful partners. M&L takes the Tippi/Kersti route of the one guide-type character who tags along. Contrary to popular opinion of such characters, I liked Starlow/Chippy. She didn’t take any of Bowser’s crap and for that I really admired her. That is to say, I think she was characterised well and didn’t get in the way too much.

The other characters are pretty good too. There’s a very memorable villain, and some good secondary antagonists, the supporting characters are fun and all have their distinctive looks and catchphrases. It’s basically the opposite of your standard main series Mario game. But, this one has callbacks and references to Mario games too. That’s what I like, more than actually playing them because they’re a bit boring. I love the universe though, especially when it’s actually used and explored a bit.

To compare a little further still, the advancement system here, in terms of levelling up and also plot, feels good. You sometimes need to go back to old areas, but with new abilities to explore further. It feels cohesive too. And levelling up is kind of a big deal. I feel it edges out ahead of the Papers in these respects, but I guess there isn’t quite the variety of wacky locations those games have.

Even now it’s very hard to decide which sub-series of Mario RPGs I prefer. But I’m glad that their differences in gameplay and presentation let them both exist, and even for the same system now! I guess you could say M&L is a little more “serious”, at least in terms of mechanics. But the writing is just as strong, full of humour, and the character animations are expressive, silly, and just fun. The teamwork-based gameplay of the Bros is very compelling, too, and highlights their relationship and their strength as characters, in a way pretty much unique among the Mario series. I give Bowser’s Inside Story much chortles.

10:00pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuqjbpAf
Filed under: review mario & luigi: bowser's inside story ds alphadream mario 
July 21, 2013
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

My way of playing this game went like this: I started playing concurrent with Twilight Princess, then stopped this so I could focus on that. I went back to this later, spent a while trying to get a feel for the game. Then I decided to do all the plot first, and get the good sword. Then do sidequests. I got bored of the sidequests so I went straight to the finish.

I feel like my playthrough isn’t exactly the intended way to play. But still, I’m happy with how it went. I really wanted to know what sort of direction they were taking the Zelda series on DS, since they were quite different to any other title. It turned out to be quite simplistic, and getting around the overworld by train (or boat, in Phantom Hourglass) was a big focus. This is one of the reasons I wasn’t always totally enthralled. As it went on, the oft-stated tedium of this travel became more apparent to me. And when the sidequests were always about ferrying things and people around in the same way, and were sometimes a bit vague, I got sick of them when I made it my task to do them.

I mentioned that the whole thing was quite simplistic. Not always a bad thing, there was less getting lost in areas (the good maps on the other screen helped), and the control process was streamlined. My feelings on the controls really picked up when I realised that you could hold L instead of tapping the touchscreen button. I have all these fingers and buttons, might as well use them in an action game! But the dungeons did steadily ramp up in complexity as the game went on.

As for the Zelda formula, it was fortunately diverted from a fair bit here. There was a progressive intermediary central dungeon, for example, and Zelda was even with you the whole time, even if her body this time had been kidnapped. Your standard MacGuffins this time were Force Gems, a cool callback to Four Swords Adventures, of all things. There was also some experimentation with items, with the blowy wind thing and the whip.

I don’t want to get too mad about this, but the translations differ between regions in an absurd way. NOA and NOE did mostly completely different translations, changing names and plot details willy-nilly, resulting in lnaguages with two official translations (English, French, and Spanish). What does this mean for canon? How can a fan reconcile these differences? It annoyed me because I’m OCD and stuff. Bleh. Whatever.

Finally, I should mention that the final boss inventively uses many of the tricks of the game in a multi-stage fight, but the second-last stage was annoying. You have to deflect all these rocks in a row in a very long pattern, and if you miss one you have to start again. The whole phase has just one pattern, but with the controls it’s hard to do. But like I said, the rest was good and a good culmination, and the last section of the Tower tests all the other stuff you’ve done that isn’t covered here.

All in all, Spirit Tracks is quite interesting. It’s a bit more experimental than most Zeldas, appropriate for a handheld game. Like other portable titles in the series, there’s no Ganon, no Triforce, no Master Sword. It (and Phantom Hourglass) have a unique control scheme. It’s not dependent on other games, but takes a few elements from them that are fun to notice. Spirit Tracks never got a whole lot of attention, as Phantom Hourglass was a bit divisive and its separation in plot from the series probably harmed it in popular terms. I was glad to play it though, even if like I said I had to decide to finish it rather than do 100% of everything, because the training around was tedious. But now I can move on to other things, and there’s a few in the old DS backlog here. So long!

3:04pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuqBAdp9
Filed under: review nintendo ds zelda: spirit tracks 
July 13, 2013
Banjo-Tooie (N64)

Why, hello everyone! I’m enjoying my holidays and playing lots of video games. I found the time to finish Banjo-Tooie, right after doing Kazooie earlier. The Super Banjo cheat helped it go faster, and made the whole thing less frustrating. It was still annoying in parts, but I’ll get to that.

Banjo-Tooie is a good sequel. It expands on the original and follows on from it in most ways, and has a very different feel. It’s not retreading the same ground at all, really, apart from obviously the core mechanics. Everything builds upon Kazooie, starting with the plot which picks up two years after the previous game’s ending. Grunty is still under her boulder and Klungo is still trying to move it. B-K, Mumbo, and Bottles, now firm friends, are hanging out playing poker. Everything that happened happened and now their lives have moved on.

In terms of mechanics, it’s similar: our heroes still have all the moves they learned last game, and this one simply expands on what they can do as they progress. Of course, when we look at the list of moves they get we start to see why this approach has flaws: this game has 5 types of eggs, the ability to split up and for Banjo and Kazooie to get seprate abilities apart from each other, and Mumbo is now playable. My point is that the new moves and stuff add options, but as you go on the options become very numerous. It becomes an extremely varied and complicated game.

The worlds this time around are much bigger. And you can’t just run through and do everything in turn. Many items or areas are locked until you get abilities from later worlds, and there are now connections between the worlds. It’s a different approach, almost getting a bit Metroid Prime-like, but it gives a very different play experience to the first game’s “do a world in one sitting then never go back” style. This is not a bad thing, but the sheer size and complexity of these worlds can be daunting. I like being forced to revisit the worlds, as they have a lot of character, but if you don’t have a walkthrough it’s just so much aimless wandering.

I did use a walkthrough with this game, and the BK wiki. I remembered how much of a pain backtracking was if you didn’t have the prerequisites. I made it my mission to get the bare minimum Jiggies to unlock new worlds, prioritised new moves and actions that would affect other worlds, then backtracked later on. I liked this approach, there were less moments of feeling useless. Having guides was also very frustration-averting in the labyrinthine levels like Grunty Industries or, well, most of them really.

Having just come off the back of Kazooie (not literally), I readily noticed all the differences this game brought. Things are less shiny, and less permanent. Items disappear and enemies respawn. The text looks different, and characters and locations are more detailed. The biggest difference was the amount of slowdown. All that extra detail and massive worlds really makes the hardware chug at times. More often than you’d like, too.

It really is necessary to play these games in order though, not only because of the evolution of the mechanics but all the callbacks too. Many characters return and will refer to the previous adventure. It’s so great to see old faces in new places, and the dialogue is perhaps even better than the original (except for the loss of Grunty’s rhymes. At least that is referred to in-game, as her sisters demand she stop because it annoys them). Even older faces turn up too, in cameos that I totally didn’t get at the time. Captain Blackeye, from the project Dream that became Banjo-Kazooie, shows up, and Sabreman of Rare’s old MSX games is a significant character. I appreciate these much more now, and it really helps build the Rare Universe. Great stuff.

So I talked about the complexity of the mechanics. This game also succumbs to something DK64 fell much more foul of, that of introducing many “mini-games” and bits with totally different playstyles. It’s common in these 3D platformers to step outside their core gameplay—it’s overused in DK64 but perhaps not quite here. But apart from the one-off minigames, new abilities help you aim in first person to shoot eggs while swimming, flying, and even walking (while in specific shooting arenas). These arenas are interesting as they ape the gameplay of Rare’s bestselling Goldeneye quite closely. I find this cool too, and the way they make it fit in this world with holding birds like guns is amusing (it’s a multiplayer mode too). But when a minigame has unique controls and is very hard to do, the frustration is at maximum. I’m glad to say that happened only a few times in this game.

So I liked Tooie, it’s so important to the Banjo series. But, it’s still obvious that Kazooie is a much more tight, focused experience and a better game overall for it. Tooie is sprawling, messy, and flawed, but ambitious, evolutionary, and more varied. Things like real bosses and more involved tasks are a mixed blessing but overall much of what it tried to do worked well, and the bits that are more of the same are actually more of the same cool, fun, things.

So I liked playing Kazooie better, but this was still good. Now I have to slog through DK64. Hrm. See you in six months, I guess. No, actually, I have more updates to do. Also I will start on Grunty’s Revenge very soon, the midquel of the Banjo series on GBA. Never played that, so it should be interesting. Yay Banjo!

1:38pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwupWtszs
Filed under: banjo-tooie review n64 Rareware 
June 10, 2013
Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)

I’m taking a break from refreshing E3 speculation sites to write a blog post. Who cares about new games when we have great old ones we can still enjoy! Well, Twilight Princess is only 6 and a half years old, but it is (kinda) 2 generations ago now. I got this game for my birthday, from my older brother. At the time I was trying to decide between it and Skyward Sword. The contrasts are interesting, but not something I’ll go into here as I’ve developed something of an irrational aversion to that game, for a large amount of small reasons. Having not played it, I also imagine the worst about the experience—a mechanism that helps me cope with not owning and playing every game I lay eyes on. On the other hand, here’s a game I have played: Twilight Princess, and I did enjoy the experience.

Approaching this game as I did probably gave me a very different set of expectations to those players who seized it brand new, full of expectations and concerns about the direction of the franchise and the new hardware that the game had been accommodated to (it was developed for Gamecube originally, then ported to Wii with added motion controls and released simultaneously on both). I mentioned earlier that my first impressions were occuppied with the jagginess of the visuals. That’s one factor of revisiting slightly older games that were still striving for what has arguably been executed better since with more experience. However, it is true that this quickly becomes a non-issue as you play and adjust.

In fact, it’s the most realistic Zelda that exists, as I believe SS went back a bit on the cartooniness spectrum. Not that that’s a bad thing, but being of the generation that reveres Ocarina of Time, the increased fidelity of the world and the detail were very helpful to the immersion factor. I’m sure Miyamoto would say the motion controls helped too.

Since I bring it up, the comparisons with Ocarina of Time are inevitable and apt. I think since its phenomenal success, so groundbreaking and different at the time, subsequent 3D Zeldas have spent perhaps a little too much effort trying to recapture it, and in popular opinion this one most of all. I think though that there is enough to make it unique while being in recognisably the same world, the balance was struck very well here.

Where to start. How about the shipping, get that out of the way. While Wind Waker mercifully avoided it, this game embraces pairing Link up with different gals over the course (again, like OoT). Ilia, Zelda, Midna, oh and Hena too. The ambiguity and the confusion was very well summed up in the final sequence, though. This didn’t carry through too much in the game, though. A very tricky problem, developing relationships in a subtle and effective way through gameplay. I must admit though, I did have a little fun filling in the blanks in my mind. I haven’t made up my mind about it one way or another, which is for the best I think. I prefer not to be a rabid single-minded ship captain.

Now that I think of it, the game did a pretty good job conveying emotions most of the time. They worked hard on the faces to bring that through, and it really helped. There were a lot of memorable characters, like the Resistance for instance. They even had a few scenes actually doing stuff, although to me these brief cutscene-only events only served to highlight how static they were functionally. Still, it’s a step forward.

While playing I was helped by reading stuff on zeldawiki or elsewhere, about connections, small details, or fanservice-type stuff. By which I mean it helped with my appreciation of the world I was inhabiting in this game. Knowing that the Yeti mansion probably belonged to Ashei and her father; or the fact that Fanadi, Agitha, and Telma were references to the Sheikah, Kokiri, and Gerudo races despite those races not being represented much otherwise; these facts had me making connections and thinking about the world when not playing the game, which was fun and good. I thought up backstories both for the absence of those races and the presence of those individuals, for example. I’ll tell you all about it sometime.

As for the game itself, it made a good use of motion controls, I thought. You didn’t often have to be too precise, and I wasn’t resentful of the requirement like so many seem to be. I actually prefer it for aiming, which most of the subweapons required. Oh, with one exception (aside from curse you, ROLLGOOOAAAL!!!): thrusting the nunchuck to shield bash never worked for me, it doesn’t work. I always did the spin attack instead. That made some of the sword techniques seem useless, a factor also contributed to by the difficulty in scoring hits on some of the tougher enemies. Fighting them just wasn’t very fun when you only have one or two techniques you can use. Link’s vast array of equipment he always amasses makes it seem like you might have options, but often they only have specific uses which makes half of them seem like junk most of the time.

So the enemies weren’t that impressive, although I liked the Twilight versions. Dubstep birds, I called those Twilit Kargorocs, because they made unearthly sounds when attacking. It was a cool effect, and the visual effects were cool too. Slight tangent here, the pacing of the whole game was a little strange, with the twilight areas being resolved pretty quickly and then a long time without them, and then… oh I don’t know. And the wolf’s abilities weren’t utilised for a long time so i forgot about them. Well, I’m rambling so let’s talk about one of my favourite aspects: the dungeon design.

Specifically, some of the dungeons were absolutely awesome, a couple were a little bland. I loved that after so many Zelda games that had “X Temple” these ones were very flavourful, tonally internally consistent but not externally consistent and just explored some interesting concepts in ways that made a lot of them seem fresh. Of course, again living up to OoT, the Water dungeon (Lakebed Temple I think it was called) was poorly designed and frustrating. But the Snowpeak Ruins just blew me away. It’s an actual mansion, and there’s Yetis squatting there, and you get the map from the Yeti, and there’s snow coming in through holes in the roof! The presentation really impressed me, it felt so natural. Ok this paragraphs a bit all over the place, let’s start a new one.

No wait, I’m not done gushing. Going through those doors in the ruins of the Temple of Time into the sepia-toned splendour of the ancient Temple was breathtaking. The Hyrule Castle courtyard had a great sense of scale, even if it was annoying to get around. The City in the Sky had chicken men everywhere! Meeting the Gorons in the mines was great! Anyway most of the dungeons were great. Great everything is great!

Oh let’s whiplash back to a huge negative which I’ve mentioned before, the money. I was too often at max Rupees and putting them back into chests. There wasn’t enough to spend them on and they gave you too many in a too-small wallet. Other games since (and even before) have spread out rewards with treasures and other stuff, and more things to buy. I feel like the Magic Armour was added later to suck up some money that you always have. I liked seeking out hidden treasures and stuff but too often the reward was just more Rupees I didn’t need.

Anyway next thing. Oh there’s no more next thing? Wrap up? Ok. Well there’s certainly a lot to say about Twilight Princess, I haven’t even mentioned how cool Midna and Zant are as characters yet (super cool) or how the concept of the Twilight stuff is introduced so well but kind of peters out while you’re collecting Mirror Shards, then jumps right back (part of the pacing thing I mentioned earlier). It’s also interesting to examine it as part of the greater Zelda series, but I don’t feel I have the space to do that any more justice. Suffice to say, overall I feel it’s my favourite Zelda yet. Ok, I say that about a lot of games I finished recently but this game is damn good. It takes lots from Ocarina but also brings in so much new stuff, and it does both of these very well. If you loved Ocarina and let’s face it, everyone does, this is great as a follow-up. Ok that’s enough. TP gets 3/3 Fused Shadows, 4/4 Mirror Shards, and one flustered chicken from me.

10:33pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwun0Zw6V
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: wii review zelda zelda twilight princess nintendo 
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!)

2:16pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuky1ZrZ
Filed under: metroid metroid prime metroid prime 3: corruption metroid prime hunters ds wii nintendo retro studios nst review 
April 29, 2013
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (GCN)

So I’m playing through some games at the moment, haven’t finished any in a while. Loving the Rayman Legends Challenges App too. But I did recently finish watching a Let’s Play of Zelda Four Swords Adventures, or Four Swords+. I can’t decide which title is less generic. I don’t watch Let’s Plays that often, usually just small parts, but sometimes it’s fascinating to go through the complete experience and get someone else’s take on it at the same time.

I had to choose between two here, and ended up going with Goron50’s one—it had the best quality video, he didn’t talk too much and his voice was ok, and he was doing single player so it was easier to follow when he did everything. In single player mode a GBA connection is not required, and anything that would normally be displayed there is but up on screen in a GBA border. It’s an interesting accomadating technique, and made it very easy to follow in Youtube video format, unlike the other LP I considered which had four players and was confusing, especially as only the main screen was shown and not the GBAs. I did, however, switch to ShadowMarioXLI’s 4-player one afterwards, for a look at the Tingle Tower minigames and Shadow Battle deathmatch mode.

As for the game itself, it was actually very interesting to me. It’s often overlooked, not least because of its peripheral-heavy and exclusionist control scheme. It feels like a game not worth getting unless you have 3 friends with GBA connection cables. Goron50 taught me though that the game is perfectly playable with 1, and in that mode it’s pretty similar to other 2D Zelda games, but with a very different stage-based structure. You can’t help but feel that you’re missing out on all that the game is trying for, though. Seeing parts of ShadowMarioXLI’s run showcased a lot of shenanigans and fun co-op/competitive tension—not to mention those two whole modes that require multiplayer.

Speaking of missing modes, the Japanese version included, in addition to Hyrulean Adventure (the main mode, in which a post-TP Child Timeline Hyrule has to deal with the scheming of a reincarnated Ganondorf releasing Vaati and numerous “Shadow Links”) and Shadow Battle (a multiplayer competition, with coloured Shadow Links fighting amongst themselves), a third mode called Navi Trackers (originally intended as a standalone game called Tetra’s Trackers). As the beta title suggests, this mode is set after Wind Waker with Tetra and her pirate crew playing a treasure-hunting game with Link, who apparently and without explanation has split into four (even he seems confused about it in the intro). This mode supported multiplayer and single player against Tingle, and featured voice acting, including Tetra and other NPCs voicing a customisable substitute name made up phonetically of two morae (ie characters). This is speculated to be the reason for its removal from international releases of the game, as it would be hard to do outside of Japanese. Pretty lazy, huh? Could’ve just removed that feature, instead of cutting 1/3rd of the game modes out entirely.

This makes the Japanese release, the original intent, seem more like a “Kirby Super Star”-type game, with sub-games that are smaller in scope and more variety. Having that Wind Waker setting included also adds to the feel of the game being a total Zelda mashup—this is one of the most fascinating aspects to me. The menus, some sound effects, some visual effects (eg explosions), some enemies, and the bosses in the main mode are taken from Wind Waker. Many environments, sprites, enemies, and plot details are from Link to the Past. The appearance of the Links and the GBA-displayed graphics (not to mention the gameplay) are from the original Four Swords, and these graphics were repurposed for Minish Cap. The plot involves Shadow (Dark) Links (Zelda 2, Ocarina of Time), Vaati (Four Swords), and Ganondorf (Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess) who transforms into pig Ganon with trident (Link to the Past, Zelda 1). This game, much more than others in the series, takes elements from other Zelda games in a good way.

Also the NPCs. As an actiony arcadey stage-based game, they did well incorporating dungeons and towns. You find such people as Deku Scrubs (Majora’s Mask), Gerudos (Ocarina of Time), and Gorons. More important NPCs include the Six Maidens (Link to the Past), Kaepora Gaebora the owl (Ocarina of Time), Great Fairies in their Wind Waker appearance, and Tingle (Wind Waker). It just seems that it has a larger amount of reused or repurposed elements and characters from other titles, rather than making its own. In this case, I really liked that as a Zelda fan. Sure, they can’t do that all the time but for this game to have that role makes it totally sweet.

After talking about that, the best part to me, I’ve lost enthusiasm for the rest of the game. If I get bored and stop, sorry! I’ll try. So the game obviously relies heavily on the difference between the TV screen (the main area you’re in) and the GBA screen (for sub-areas such as a cave or building). It’s based around the four people in the same area but doing different acitivities. Now it might seem obvious to ask why this wouldn’t work on the WiiU, but each person needs their own screen to be equal, so they can all be in sub-areas or have information the others don’t to encourage co-operative sharing (or competitive taking all the loot). So a single Gamepad is good for asymmetric stuff as they’ve shown and talked about, but this experience is very symmetrical.

It’s a rather inventive use for the GBA-GCN connectivity, but one of the big problems with this stuff is Nintendo has these wacky ideas that never really go anywhere. So you’ve got maybe 2 or 3 games that use this cable in a really cool way, but man that’s not worth buying four of them! So it’s a good idea, but there wasn’t a widespread use of it and it was optional. But now there’s all this stuff built into the WiiU, and you know they’re not going to use it when everyone has it! Ok, now I’m stereotyping Nintendo.

My point is, this is a very niche game. Which is a shame because it’s got cool ideas, it just has so many requirements to get into it—including being a big Zelda nerd to get all the references and stuff, just another requirement kinda. But having acquired all the necessities, is there really enough game here to justify it all, especially with Navi Trackers missing? I mean, maybe there’s not enough content given all the hoops you have to jump through for it. It is a different kind of content to your standard Zelda game, with menus into stages and minigames rather than exploring a world. But what is Hyrule Field but a big menu anyway?

I digress. The fact that there are two ways to play this game is cool. Many gameplay aspects are unique and interesting. The sheer amount of Zelda stuff mashed together is a total delight, even when they don’t mesh together perfectly (eg the Wind Waker boss art style clashes with other sprites). I regret not having the hardware/friends to be able to play the game myself, but the amount of conditions makes it impractical. The way the game feels so much like Link to the Past but with upgraded graphics and sound, and cool zooming effects makes me wish Nintendo or others would try a 2D revival-type thing like this with more polish and utilising modern stuff to expand on that experience, instead of going whole-hog into 3D or new control schemes or whatever. People like retro games, you could make some great stuff by shooting for that feel but enhancing it in other ways. Not like Megaman 9 and 10, though.

Ugh, I’m not getting my point across. I guess stuff like Donkey Kong Country Returns is kinda like that, but this game is all (mostly) 2D sprite art, but more high-fidelity, with zooming out in large areas and sweet water effects and stuff. I feel like you could take some great ideas from this game, and I haven’t seen them done that much elsewhere. Or maybe I have I don’t know. I guess the really specific instance of explicitly Link to the Past-style graphics but enhanced without overblowing them into 3D or something is what I’m talking about. The new 3DS Zelda is an example of that, not that I’m saying it’s bad, it’s just another way to do it.

Sigh. Anyway I should end this rambly, incoherent post before it gets, uh, too ranty. This game is cool, watch a Let’s Play some time. You don’t have to watch all of it. Sorry I went off the rails there. I’ll get this writing stuff down some day. Until next time, may your sword always be filled with the power to repel evil.

5:20pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwujoV9EC
Filed under: review zelda nintendo gcn zelda four swords adventures 
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