One day I’m going to include at least one screenshot or image in these reviews, but this is not that day! Ok fine, here:
Trials Evolution is the sequel to the cool motorbike with cryptic hidden secrets game, Trials 2. As far as I currently know, Evolution doesn’t have weird hidden clues but it does have multiplayer. I’ve heard it’s good and it’s kind of a posterboy for XBLA, but it’s also on the (much better) Steam platform. Now, I can’t normally play this game as 1) my computer kinda sucks and 2) it’s not Mac-compatible. But lucky for me, I have a cool family.
So I actually played this game while visiting my family back in my home town. My little brother, this blog’s #1 fan, is a huge PC gamer. I guess you could say that after our childhood playing Nintendo consoles and PC games, he took one path and I the other. The PC is his only gaming device, his phone is even still a monochrome brick. Last year he managed to ditch the aging shared family computer and built his dream gaming rig. As such, many games on the old Steam catalogue that had been purchased and waiting were finally able to be downloaded and played. I’ve enjoyed watching some of these while on visits, such as Europa Universalis 3, Serious Sam, Just Cause 2, and lots of others too, including Minecraft and League of Legends.
But enough about his gaming habits. Often I’m content to watch him play games that I would normally never pick up, but occasionally we’re able to play co-op or take turns. This game supports both, which was much easier due to the wired controller he also picked up at Christmas (he’s been known to emulate Smash Bros 64 and fit 3 guys on one keyboard).
For those who are unfamiliar, the game is an extension of many older games that used the concept of a bike and a reliable physics simulation to pull off tricks and stuff, whether for racing, doing sweet jumps, or exploring a strangely-deisgned level. A few that I’ve played are Bike or Die on the Palm Pilot (exploration) or the more recent Mad Skill Motocross (racing). Trials has elements of the spectrum of these games, especially with the user-created content which can cater to different tastes. Obviously, being a modern game, it does it with sweet graphics and 2.5D presentation (2D play in a 3D world, sometimes with curving tracks etc).
My experience with this, as with those other games, was really fun until the difficulty starts to ramp up, and it gets to be a pretty steep ramp (the game also features literal steep ramps), at which point it becomes very frustrating and you need a break. Having the co-op experience and egging each other on really enhanced it though, whether in direct competition or taking turns.
I could say that there’s maybe not enough multiplayer tracks and content, as we seemed to get through most of it quickly before resorting to the taking turns in single mode, which wasn’t as fun an experience, even if the levels themselves were more varied in that mode. The “challenge” levels were a highlight as they used and abused the mechanics of the game to get you to do some wacky stuff, but the straight biking race challenges which often involved traversing obstacles were very solid.
I’m kinda rambling; the game was lots of fun, but when we tried to explore some of the user-made tracks it got complicated, as we seemed to keep coming up with excruciatingly difficult levels. Apparently you can find some amazing stuff in there though, but I dunno. I wasn’t sold on buying the game myself (even if I had the means to play it) because it seemed to reach that frustration level too quickly, which would likely be even worse when playing by yourself.
I suppose if you found some levels that really suited you, you could have tons of fun replaying them with friends. I tend to like completing content, and moving on to other content but we did replay some tracks and just the act of getting through the track, and bailing before the finish line to try and cross just in front of the other person was a really great experience.
I have on more big nit to pick: for some reason, at a certain point in tracks (we theorised it was when the finish line was “in sight” or one checkpoint away or something), if you crashed you wouldn’t respawn and you got a DNF while the other person kept going. I suppose that’s fair enough, but on the really hard levels when it took ten or fifteen tries to clear an obstacle, it meant we slowly got through most of a track but because of the final or even second-final obstacle were never able to cross the finish line, which to some extent invalidated the progress. The point system could have been tweaked or tweakable in this regard too. That brings up that in a game where users can create tracks with such detailed tools, the gameplay itself wasn’t very customisable. Just a niggling point.
The main thing is that the game just allowed me to have a really fun experience shared with my brother. For that I love it dearly and give it twelve ragdolls gyrating through the floor geometry. Some games can be used as a means to facilitate human social interaction or experiences or relationships; yeah anyway that’s gaming theory from Milo right there. Before I overthink it too much, I’ll bail and flail.
It seems like most of my family love Picross. I certainly do. It’s more interesting than Sudoku because there’s more variety possible, while still being purely logic. Once you really get a handle on the rules and intricacies it becomes very satisfying to smash through a puzzle while you’re in the “Picross Zone”. The other great thing about it is you get a cool picture at the end, with either nice, awkward or heavily stylised pixelart. Depending on your game, this will also be colourised or even animate at the end.
Another big draw for me in Nintendo-licensed Picross games is the Nintendo-themed puzzles. Picross NP did that so much better than other ones I’ve played, as instead of the lazy and boring way of replicating 8-bit sprites on a puzzle grid, they featured new, original pixel art renditions of characters, even ones that were already pixel sprites.
I’ve played through the Normal mode of Picross DS, to get to the Extra section with the 8-bit sprites. Too much Mario. 3 rows of it to be precise! Leaving only one row for Samus, Link, Ice Climber, and Excitebike. Getting there was awesome fun, though. Having said that, often what you filled in was very hard to distinguish until they colourised it for you, meaning you wouldn’t know until the very end what it is you were making. From my experience, the older games in the series had puzzles that were simpler in shape so you could guess.
Let me get the angry part out of the way. The PAL regions’ version of Picross DS was abysmally under-supported compared to the US and Japan. I’m talking downloadable puzzle packs. We got 2 packs of 5, they got 100 and 60 packs, respectively. I felt so cheated.
So I emulated the highlights of what they got. First, recap.
Mario’s Picross for Game Boy, 1995. All regions got the cart release and later 3DS VC release.
Mario’s Super Picross for SNES, 1995. Japan only for cart, Wii VC release for Japan and PAL (untranslated, and they charged more for it. The cheek!)
Picross 2 for Game Boy, 1996. Japan only for cart and 3DS VC.
Picross NP for SNES, 1999. Japan only, released in 8 volumes via the Nintendo Power cartridge rewriting service.
Picross DS for DS, 2007. All regions got it, PAL got shafted in the DLC department. DLC, for reference, included many puzzles from Mario’s Picross, Mario’s Super Picross, and all 8 volumes of Picross NP.
Picross-e and Picross-e2 for 3DS eShop, 2011-2012. Japan and PAL.
So the USA has had less games released, but a much better version of DS. The reason for that (and less for PAL too) is poor sales of the first game outside Japan.
Ok, so what I decided was the touchscreen interface was best. If I had to use the inferior button interface, I would only bother with the puzzles that were really interesting to me, namely the Nintendo IP puzzles in NP. The other 3 have some too, but mainly sprites—NP, as I’ve said, had 12 puzzles in each of 8 volumes with redrawn Nintendo characters, animated after solution. Awesome~!
The properties were covered with one per volume: Pokemon, Yoshi’s Story, Kirby, Lylat Wars, Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, Wario Land 2, and Donkey Kong Country. For more information see here. (They erroneously claim the games were distributed via Satellaview, but their puzzle lists are accurate.) The last 3 volumes had slightly different presentation in the menus, and of course all had many more puzzles apart from “Character Mode” but that was the only mode I concerned myself with.
It was, as I predicted, totally cool. As you go on, you could try and guess who it would turn out to be based on the theme, and then at the end the whole thing was coloured and the characters started doing a little animation loop. Very cool. I tried to make a gif, but it was so hard and it didn’t work and it got blurry and distorted.
As I said, the button interface was inferior. Much easier to make mistakes and just less natural. There were other interface issues, or rather, the DS and 3DS versions have made many improvements over these older ones. Like automatically greying out the row numbers when you fill a row, you had to do that manually here. This version also counted down and failed you after half an hour, instead of counting up and just not registering a completion after an hour (they let you finish the puzzle but it didn’t count). So actually doing the puzzles was a worse experience and just made me wish I’d been able to do the same puzzles, but with the improved interface, rules, and controls of DS. Sigh. I got used to it though and was soon racing through them.
Of course, the interface of NP was not without its charms. Its different presentation was novel and colourful, compared to the rather flat DS one. The puzzles were presented on book pages, with a character-approproate background for the NIntendo puzzles (in vol 1-5), and the cursor was alternately a crayon or pencil. Of course, DS had a series of themed puzzle tiles (although the Mario brick one for Extra was unintuitive and hurt my eyes!), and its DLC packs (I assume) all used the Mario’s Picross-style archeological chipping at stone theme. So they each have their unique features.
For that reason, I’m glad I played the Nintendo puzzles in their original form. I still feel cheated but ha! I emulated your games for free! How do you like that, Nintendo! Ugh, I’m a bad person aren’t I?
Yeah so Picross is loads of fun! It’s relaxing to just follow these logic rules for puzzles. There’s plenty of versions of it on the iOS App Store, so go pick one up (there’s even free ones). I was introduced to the concept by “Shady Puzzles” for iPhone. Or get Picross-e, it’s quite good. In that case, if you’re unlucky enough to be American, well nuts to you! Now you know how we feel about Earthbound and countless other games! (Quick note about -e compared to DS: smoother interface, less puzzles, non-animated solutions.) It was so nice to see these cameos, it’s the same reason I like Tetris DS. Enhance the concept with IP dressing. Recipe for success. Ok thanks for reading guys!
I recently had brief experiences with both these games, so I think it’d be fruitful to compare them. I’m certainly no expert on Castlevania but even I could see the differences here. I played DoS for a couple of hours when my sister-in-law borrowed it from a friend. I previously played through all of Aria of Sorrow (GBA) via emulation, and this was a direct sequel. The other, MoF, was a demo on the 3DS eShop that I got the gist of with one playthrough (about 10 minutes).
For being not so far apart, the two games are radically different. DoS is an extension of what the series has always been, more exploration-based but with a new “soul-capturing” system where you can collect abilities from every enemy. This was introduced in Aria and I like it as a motivation for defeating as many enemies as you can and changing up the combat however you want (even if I only ever used a few abilities once I found ones I liked). But the combat was tight, with responsive controls (accounting for lag of your actions) and highly defined pixel art. These factors are, from what I can tell, typical of classic Castlevania games (except for the soul ability thing).
On the other hand, MoF is more centred around combat, doing combos on enemies with high health and moving linearly through 2.5D environments (ie. 3D modelled backgrounds, 2D playing area). I’ve heard it’s an attempt to bring the mechanics of 3D Castlevania games to 2D gameplay, and that makes for a very different feel and mechanics. The areas may look very nice, but they are very small and flat compared to DoS’s sprawling castle. You may have a lot of moves in MoF, but they’re all pretty samey and not better than mashing the same button, plus they seem very slow and laggy, the comboing being at cross purposes with the need to avoid attacks. It may be I’m not used to that style of game and I’m not, but it is certainly very different to most Castlevanias, insofar as they are represented by DoS.
MoF is reviewing very badly, and I tend to agree. In addition to the gameplay criticisms I’ve noted, there are serious framerate issues and the game is constantly switching between three characters, undermining progression in the traditional exploratory sense in favour of plot-driven linear set pieces. It doesn’t seem that mashing the 3D style into the 2D world works very well, especially if people are expecting traditional Castlevania. To be honest, the demo was maybe not enough for me to see all these issues, but I found it frustrating. And too many Quicktime events, seriously why are we still doing that?
I guess it’s part of the modern vs retro thing. DoS evokes classic games that were well tuned, and simple in presentation (ie pixels) but deep in mechanics. MoF seems indicative of modern games that are big on flair but shallow in gameplay and half-baked in execution.
I don’t know a whole lot about Castlevania lore so I don’t think I should go into it, but I’ve said the important part I think so this one’s short and sweet. You can thank me later.
I don’t remember if I’ve written about this before (my blog’s been going for a while now! woo!) but I went back and cleared Jungle Climber to 100%, so I’m writing about it now. (To reiterate, a game is “finished” when the story is cleared, or I see the credits. “Completed” is 100%, most often according to the game’s metrics.)
This is one of those games that the DS seems to have a lot of; an IP revival of sorts that seems built around a new mechanic. Most of them were trying out features of the DS itself, but this one isn’t actually reliant on the hardware, except for tall stages that span both screens I guess. Anyway, the “difference” or you could say “gimmick” about this game was the peg-swinging central mechanic.
Based on the old NES game Clu Clu Land, the idea is of controlling a character’s arms independently to grab things and use your momentum to change direction based on spinning and swinging. This idea was used in 2004’s DK: King of Swing combined with gravity and physics to make a hybrid platformer-style game, of which this game is a sequel. Compared to KOS, JC fleshes out and expands on a lot of gameplay stuff, and brings the artstyle more in line with the Country games with its 3D pre-rendered sprites, compared to the bright, cartoony flat sprites of KOS (which are very appealing in their own way too).
These two games, developed by Paon, kept the light alive for the Donkey Kong series in its dark years. They were somewhat maligned at the time for their nontraditional gameplay, but at least they were faithful to the characters and spirit of the franchise. This is compared to what we got on the home console, with Jungle Beat throwing the series’ history under a bus and 3 bongo rhythm games with terrible licensed music. And on the handheld front, the Mario vs. Donkey Kong games were muddying the identity of the franchise and DK himself, not to mention the strange gameplay tack that series also took after its first installment. So seeing Paon treat the characters and setting with such respect is something I really appreciate about their games (the third of theirs was Barrel Blast/Jet Race on the Wii). They tried something new, but they made an honest attempt to make it fit in.
And that’s why I like Jungle Climber. The reason I stopped playing for a while, before getting to 100%, was the DS-breakingly frustrating difficulty of the extra challenge stages. Also I was trying to get good ranks on the minigames, which was also infuriating. But getting any rank was enough to score the completion percentage, so I have a C in some modes but I don’t mind! Finally beating those extra stages was satisfying, and I got a cool cutscene!
The peg-swinging mechanic is strange, yeah. And maybe it’s not a “true” platformer. But like any new control mechnism, like when I first started Metroid Prime or Katamari, once I got the hang of it it became very natural. And mastering a new skill is one of the fun things in life, even if it’s so minor as a variation in player control.
The plot of this game is silly (wouldn’t have it any other way), but it’s great how it takes you to so many different places. Each world (island) has its own identity, and the weird dimension stages are also unique—but they can be repetitive (too many mirror stages, not enough farm stages) and their reuse of some environments on islands that have interesting environments is an annoyance. JC handles the progression well though by having cutscenes at the end of each island, where the protagonist group catches up to K. Rool and they have a chat, with sufficient ham and cheese. The world map is really cool too, DK smoothly jumps around the island’s geography between stages, like an extension of the Country’s world maps.
That’s a point where we can compare this to Donkey Kong Country Returns. Returns was an awesome game with totally interesting levels and backgrounds, and smooth platforming gameplay that was quite similar to the Donkey Kong Country series, but pared back in some respects, was a bit lacking in characters and the world map was just tokens on paths (that’s totally a legitimate complaint!). Compared to this game, whose actual gameplay was quite unlike the Country games but did the characters and world very well. Ok I think I’m exaggerating here but there’s aspects of each that are great for a Donkey Kong Country fan.
Compared to the previous game, King of Swing, Jungle Climber is super-tightened up in mechanics and gameplay, it’s a bit less floaty which is good and I think the collectibles are better. Better music too. One factor it falls down on though is the boss battles. KoS by comparison had very interesting boss fights with cool, flavourful characters, whereas JC’s bosses were mostly transformed Kritters which I found disappointing. They also reused a few in JC like the giant robot. Another lesson to be learned: don’t imitate DKC1 on everything, its boss fights were dull and shallow. I just don’t get how they took a step back between the two games—of course, that’s only my opinion.
Well, anyway I had heaps of fun with this game. It has lots of other odd mechanics involving Diddy that are used only a bit, but I guess they don’t overstay their welcome you could say. I think it does a lot of fun things, and there’s plenty to replay levels for with the collectibles.The difficulty is quite steep at times, especially in the final boss battle, but stock up on stuff and turn on the “cheats” to make it a bit easier. The swinging and pegs can actually be frustrating when it doesn’t go your way, but it’s so unique. I’m really glad I could experience it, I think it was my first pick for DS game when my wife got her DS and I borrowed it from her. I don’t regret that decision at all. Actually cos I played JC so much she made me get my own! So yes, I bought a 3DS for Jungle Climber. Anyway, goodbye for now. Jump in my jet and jive, Clive! Ha, Funky Kong.
So I picked this up again after a long hiatus. Originally the reason was that I had borrowed Wind Waker and Paper Mario 2 from a friend, and wanted to get those awesome games back to him ASAP. So I put my playthrough on hold (halfway through Torvus Bog, I think), which stretched a long, long time as I put off restarting that. But I finally did and finished it.
My initial impression of the game was that it seemed like a mod, or expansion pack, of Prime, rather than a fully developed sequel. The engine is obviously the same, the interactable objects are mostly quite similar, certain enemies are reskins of Prime enemies, the beams are quite simple reskins. It differentiates itself a bit more as you go on though, with some stunning environments, new items and concepts, and a more active plot (rather than mostly inferred through scans, although it has that too).
That’s not to say that building so closely upon Prime is a bad thing. Prime was a fantastic game, still recognised today as a classic and a brilliant extension of the Metroid franchise despite some pre-release concerns. The sequel is less accoladed, but to my mind it’s probably just as good and different enough to be worthwhile playing. Also, similarly to Majora’s Mask, a few changes can go a long way toward the atmosphere, especially in environments. The comparison is apt as both are lesser-liked sequels that share many assets and mechanics, but with a darker tone and new ideas.
Echoes is a little less experimental than Majora’s Mask though, although carrying the Zelda link further, designers who worked on A Link to the Past apparently consulted with Retro to develop the Light World/Dark World concept. It’s well-executed here, with familiar structures but twisted and a dangerous feel to Dark Aether, although the portal loading screens were a little long and annoying.
I realised as I went on that Echoes was a bit smaller in area than Prime, but the dual worlds added to the size, and I feel bactracking was handled a little better. The smaller size and interconnectedness helped this aspect. As I got to know this little world, I felt good moving around confidently.
This feeling was hampered in the long run by a lacking “sense of progression”. Progressing meant collecting items and upgrades, getting MacGuffins, and opening new areas—all well and good, and staple to Metroid. But adding cutscenes and a major NPC (and Dark Samus scenes) was ultimately futile as it was not followed through enough. I didn’t feel as if my efforts were hindering the Ing or helping the Luminoth. I suppose the Dark Samus subplot was handled well, but due to all the explicit scan lore I expected some reflection of the conflict I was currently carrying out on the game world or dialogue with U-Mos, for example. Prime also felt a bit strange in this respect, as everything was implied and I didn’t feel as if I was accomplishing much until the end, which then felt a little flat.
Then again, the restrained and laid-back storytelling (for the most part) is refreshing in this age of Quicktime events and dull cutscenes. Echoes’s cutscenes were snappy and light on text, leaving some more lore/audiolog-type scan stuff for optional finding. This also applies to more retro stuff, but the comparison is more appropriate for this, a 3D first-person action-shooter. Just the tone and pace was so nice and slow and subtle. I liked that.
Combat is, well, it’s ok. At first you have to be careful, as threats are unknown and can do much more relative damage, but as you get to know everything’s patterns and capabilities—and your health increases—you tend to just rush past most creatures. Thus I think the start of the game and new areas that you venture into are more effective in building tone so on. Of course, once you get the Annihilator Beam there’s another shift because it makes it so much easier to just blast through things. So the tonal shifts are a little strange in that way but cool.
I like the sound design in this game. Sound effects are not too loud most of the time, the compositions for the different areas are nice, and part of the soothing change back into Light Aether after a stint in the Dark.
Another positive was the interactions of different groups. The Luminoth built everything, then the Ing corrupted it. The Luminoth then lost the war and went to sleep, waiting for a redeemer. The Federation showed up later and promptly got slaughtered by some Ing. Space pirates also make the scene (with Phazon), but are mainly possessed by more Ing. Finally, Dark Samus wrecks some stuff. Then Samus arrives and has to figure all this out by scanning stuff. It’s a fairly rich world, although the Federation and Pirate stuff is pretty much just in the first quarter of the game, I guess.
Oh by the way, there was a manga produced for this game which the Metroid Database has translated (except the last chapter) here. It focuses much more on the Federation troopers, and Samus arrives before they all die. It’s not bad.
Not sure what else to say, as I actually finished the game a little while ago and (appropriately to my playthrough) put off the review. But yeah it was a sweet game, and on the strength of it I bought Hunters for the DS too, which I will play before starting Corruption as they were developed in that order, although Hunters is set between Prime and Echoes. I really respect Retro at this point, they should hire a bunch more people so they can work on more than one game at a time! Anyway that’ll do so, see you next mission!
A note first about the name here. I can’t be arsed with the pretentious use and pronunciation of the “cross” symbol. It has no place outside vector maths, and I am generqally annoyed by its widespread use recently. However, I find amusement by pronouncing it as “X”, ie. “ex”. Namco ex Capcom, Street Fighter ex Tekken, Project ex Zone. I refuse to say this the way those marketing suits want me to. So now we have Rockman ex-over, supposedly a great celebration of 25 years of Rockman history. Pffffttplhplhplhphhhhffffrttthhtttthhhhhhhhh. Not to give away my feelings too early or anything.
Similarly to Animal Crossing, I’ve been playing this game daily for the last month. It’s somewhat addictive and I like to fire it up for a little bit, use up my energy points or whatever then quit. Progress has really slowed recently though and I missed the 8-bit event it seems, so I’m nearing my limit I think. Can’t beat the World 5 Shooting Star bosses either, there was a huge “difficulty” jump there.
I say that in scare quotes because there is nothing whatsoever related to skill, reactions, etc. in this game. There’s barely even what could be called gameplay. Stages are extremely basic flat autorunning affairs with random baddies at two levels: ground, and a flat plane above you, for you to jump n’ shoot at. You pick up cards and auto collect money. The only strategy really is sometimes if you’re not careful you have to choose between picking up a card or jumping to shoot a flying enemy.
Boss fights are a completely different gameplay style, violently shifting to a turn-based RPG battle system, and using the stat points that you’ve been collecting all those cards to enhance. I found all the bosses of the first four worlds’s stages very easy, except maybe the final world bosses, and then as I said the curve shoots up to impossible, as if the game is saying “go grind for a few weeks, loser”. Except it doesn’t say that, or maybe it does because I haven’t bothered to translate all the Japanese it comes out with.
Did I mention this game is not available anywhere except the Japanese App Store? I found it was quite easy to make an account there and get the game, although having that account with an app installed from a different region store causes some minor App Store problems every now and then. The game itself is very unforgiving to non-Japanophones, although (as with my long-ago playthrough of Zoids Saga 1) I figured most of the functions out fairly easily.
There’s also social features, with friending, chat, and team battles. People just friend you automatically, as you are often shown random players and given an option to send a request. So getting partners to team battles is never a problem, but I’ve never had a chat request (not that I would understand them anyway—my formal written Japanese is vestigial but present, but colloquialisms would defeat me).
This game was advertised as a “social RPG”, a genre that is much bigger in Japan than in the West. I think this fulfills the promise of that kind of game, as far as I understand them. It has all the hallmarks I would expect, along with copious in-app purchasing, limited play, premium items, and “community” features. Not as cynical as some, but not as well executed as others.
The game is kind of a mess to play. It feels like it was thrown together in a few days. So many buttons, menus, dialogs, loading screens. Things aren’t explained that well and viewing your cards is janky as heck. The two play modes have no pause button. There is lag, especially between menu screens. It asks you to optimise your cards (a process that leaves them most assuredly non-optimal) every time you view the equip screen, and before every boss fight—ie. way, way too often. (Although I may be missing an elemental bonus effect that it accounts for, but I doubt it.) It’s playable despite the horrible interface stuff, but I don’t know how much longer I can stand it for the very little content I get for that.
And so we come to that. As a “social RPG”, it’s passable. As a tribute to 25 years of Rockman, it fails horribly. It, uh. I can’t even. There’s just. Ack. Ok, I read an interview, and the guys who made it sounded so passionate and authentic. How is there such a big disconnect between their attitude and this pathetic scrap? What characters are used have new, fairly nice sprites, but they are used so badly. There are 7 sub-series to Rockman, and some are woefully underutilised in the cards. Others (X) are overused in the worlds and bosses. I don’t think I’ve even seen a Zero series character yet. The new armours are cool, but literally the only characters that appear aside from the bosses are Over-1 and Kalinka (at least she has a new portrait!).
I dunno, this game is just a massive wasted opportunity to me. The mechanics are just executed so badly, and Rockman series representation is so, so limited. A brief cutscene of that Legends airship is not really good enough! Stages only have two bad guys and a Met, for the whole world! And did I mention the loading screens! This is not an adequate Rockman celebration game. It’s not an adequate Rockman game. There’s been a lot of weird Rockman spinoffs, but a lot seem to have more effort involved than this.
Rockman Online looked way more exciting than this, although had it been released I probably wouldn’t have been able to play it. That game looked like a crossover done better. It didn’t claim to represent all 7 series, but it did 2 (Classic and X) very well, with new character designs, nice environments, loads of characters appearances, and proper gameplay.
Anyway, as I said, the game is mildly addictive and it is somewhat gratifying to see something of a wide range of minor characters in the cards, and the occasional more important one showing up. It also familiarised me with some characters and enemies from the Battle Network series (or at least their name and picture, which is all you get with the cards), so it has that. And I must say, the gameplay is unique among Rockman titles. There are small consolations and additions to Rockman canon here, but on the whole it’s pretty disappointing. The customisable equipment/card system surprised me at first with its depth, but ultimately there’s not much point to it.
So I’d say my reaction to this game has been mixed. I’ll keep it around and maybe try to beat those hard bosses, but it’ll take a while. They seem to update with content every now and then too, but some of it is time-limited, very frustrating. I must say, Capcom better have some tricks up its sleeve for Rockman’s “anniversary year” because the fanbase is pretty angry already, and Xover hasn’t done anything to help matters in the West. In fact, fan reaction was so negative that Capcom America promised not to localise it for now. (Insert they’re happy [i]not[/i] to make a game when the fans demand it comment here.) Me, I don’t mind so much, I’m not so short-sighted about these kinds of things, but I’d hate to see this get worse. Although if anything, the way the suits upstairs in Japan are treating the franchise, if anything it’s making the fanbase stronger in its support. Unfortunately they are allied in hostility towards Capcom, so that could get ugly.
Personally, anniversaries don’t mean too much to me (love you honey), but if it means the game companies take the excuse to make more games, then I’m all for it. And any game game in a beloved franchise is important to me in its own way. So in a way, I’m glad Xover exists. I just wish it was better, and I hope it doesn’t preclude further crossovers. Anyway time to end. For those who mind, sorry about writing another Rockman post. To my fellow Rockfans, Rock On! (so lame, I am so lame.) Ok, let me try again: pray for a true peace in space! No wait, wait that’s Metroid. WHAT AM I WRITING FOR!?!?!? Heh, much better.
A while ago, out of the blue, a friend presented me with the original Animal Crossing (ok, it’s not actually the original, as it’s the third of four versions of Animal Forest for the Japanese N64… long story). She’d found it in the course of her work at the op shop (that’s the thrift store for you Yanks) and set it aside for me, as a renowned game nerd. I was pleasantly surprised but actually had no interest in the game really.
Seems callous to say that, but it seemed a little pointless to me. I finally booted it up this year, for one reason: to unlock the playable NES games that you could buy for your house. This was partly to stick it to Nintendo’s overpriced and under-featured Virtual Console, as I had essentially got this game for free (my friend paid $5), scoring more than 10 NES games which would cost quite a lot if I lost my mind and bought them for my Wii.
But then, as I’ve mentioned before, a funny thing happened. I named my town and myself, I moved in. I took on a debt to Tom Nook and set about paying it off. I endeavoured to earn more money to upgrade my house, to make room for all the NES games (the basic house can’t contain them all), by doing jobs for villagers and finding things to sell. And somewhere along the way, I became hooked.
I found myself playing the game every day, and forgetting all about the NES games. Eventually I remembered them and, as I’ve chronicled, was disappointed. But for over a month, I played almost every day and got a lot out of it. I found the game charming and compelling. The simplicity of it made it very accessible to me, it was just easy to boot it up after work and mooch around the village for a bit.
For those who don’t know, Animal Crossing is a kind of “life simulation” game, where you directly control a single avatar and do various tasks in an environment with no specific goal. Like the Sims, but with cute cartoon animals and stuff. There’s a lot of calendar and time-based events too (it’s all real-time).
Getting to know each villager, discovering new ones moving in, witnessing some random events, fishing and digging up fossils. It was fun just living in this simple community, and I developed a routine for each day. The goals of upgrading my house and Tom Nook’s store kept me motivated.
After a while, I began to lose that motivation, especially after I learned that the store couldn’t be further upgraded without another player visiting. This kind of mechanic in games is very frustrating for a “Forever Alone” such as myself. I also got all the NES games (all the Universal Code ones, anyway), and fit them in my house, so that motivation was gone too. Collecting stuff was fun, but the general lack of Nintendo-related memoribilia compared to later games left me with little desire for continuing that (I fortunately got Kafei’s shirt very early and loved it, got the Master Sword too).
I also felt that I was reaching the limits of what the game had to offer me. Perpetual winter was getting me down, and the way the villagers seemed to not have any sort of continous relationship to me made the social interactions seem hollow. I’d found almost all the fossils, and bugs weren’t showing up for another few months. I unlocked the extra bridge, and experienced New Years. I felt like I wasn’t getting much further, so I stopped.
I feel that the game was too simplistic, a little barebones. I feel that the sequels may have the added features to keep it compelling longer, to get me to the next holidays, but there wasn’t much to this. However, those later games don’t have the killer feature of NES games (which I think is genuinely cool, aside from the emulation video output issues I had). Even the later Animal Forest e+ release Japan got had some extra features that sounded cool, and playing a game with e-Reader support always makes me feel like I’m getting a compromised experience. Not to mention the Island, reachable via GCN-GBA link cable (cursed peripherals I don’t have!). Oh and the whole not having friends thing (at least not ones who own this game).
Having said all that though, for that one month I had heaps of fun with this. Plus now I know about the series, it helps me get stuff other people say and references in Smash Bros or NIntendo Land. I hope to play games from every Nintendo series eventually, a very nebulous goal at this stage that I may act on more purposefully one day. Yeah so it was fun but a little simplistic. I’m not planning on getting New Leaf or whatever it’ll be called here (can’t count on NOE) but I think the evolutions developed between then and now could make it a much more compelling game (although I don’t like the less chibi body shapes).
I give this game 1 month out of 12. Oh yeah and it got annoying running around trying to find villagers for errands, sometimes I swear they were hiding from me. Thanks much for reading, chimp!
Wife’s comment: It was ok for a while but got very repetitive. Finding the balls, ah!
As you may remember, I picked up the Donkey Kong Country trilogy before it vanished from the Virtual Console. I played them back to back, which was a good way to compare their differences. I grew up with 2 and 3, and I still greatly prefer both to the first, especially now after my retrospective run through. Many people consider DKC1 the best, but as I’ve said I find it clunky and unpolished.
One of the biggest strengths of the series is atmosphere. All three do it very well, but each has a unique tone and character that is quite different from the other two. In the case of DKC3, the character designs are a little more wacky, but the environments are rich, beautiful and mysterious, although there are echoes of previous archetypes (not enough for it to seem stale or derivative though, everything is fresh). The impression is of traversing new territory (although all three achieve this). There is also a noticeable theme of nature vs. industrialisation, with the former represented by many level types and wildlife, and the latter by the Kremlings’ factories and pipes.
The music varies between lively, tranquil, and oppressive, similar to DKC2 in those variances but again with a completely different feel. Eveline Novakovic (nee Fischer) did the music, unlike the previous instalments which were scored by David Wise. This soundtrack proves the dominance of this series in great video game soundtracks (my opinion, of course).
An interesting side note to this, however: when the DKCs were being remade for GBA, at some point someone decided that instead of just inserting new, horrible mini games and new collectibles (DKC3 GBA has the former but not the latter, strangely), this one would get a more significant makeover. A whole new world with new levels was created, and the entire soundtrack removed and replaced by a brand new one composed by Wise. Thus DKC3 is one of the rare games (also Rare games) with two soundtracks. The new soundtrack radically alters the feel of many of the level archetypes (and includes remixes of DKC1’s Aquatic Ambience and Jungle Groove). On the whole I don’t like it as much, although to be fair it suffers from the GBA’s sound chip and speakers.
On that note, recently OverClocked Remix released the long-anticipated DKC3 remix album. It’s massive, and apparently very good, but I decided that before I listened to it I wasn’t familiar with the Advance soundtrack, so I should hear that first before I hear it remixed. I downloaded Cody’s rip from here, and while I played my SNES VC DKC3, I muted the TV and played the corresponding GBA level music through my phone. It was certainly a different experience, and I learned to appreciate a few tracks more than my initial impression. Some also got on my nerves, like the yodelling new Frosty Frolics.
So what about the game? Well, there’s a lot to say but I feel it’s been said better elsewhere. That elsewhere is probably lots of different threads on DKVine though, so I’ll summarise a few main points here.
More than the first two, the game uses gimmicks in new stages, which changes the gameplay feel from one that can be run through quickly with basic jumping or climbing mechanics to sometimes slower and more complex interactions. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it results in a different style that you need to know about. Series staple gimmicks of course return, such as swimming stages, dark levels, and mine carts (roller coasters in 2, toboggans in this one). The boss fights are also more interesting and strategic, with some quite unconventional methods needed. The animal buddies too are on the whole more complex, with tricky abilities rather than just making you stronger or better at jumping. So complexity is increasing through the series to here.
It’s also been said that in this game you can see the seeds of the 3D platformers that were becoming all the rage (and have since sadly quite died out). The more freely explorable open world map, the heavier emphasis on collectibles, the fetch quest items, the secret world and worlds that do not have to be completed in order, many NPCs like the Brothers Bear (also known as Mindless Idiots Who Ask For Your Help or MIWAFYHs). Of course, this game was being developed alongside Donkey Kong 64, as well as Banjo-Kazooie (and Super Mario 64, which Wrinkly Kong is playing on her own N64 at one point) so some design elements crept in. I think they enhance the game though, and make for a more compelling experience in a lot of ways. There are lessons they can teach each other.
The other consequence of this late development is that the game, when it came out, had to compete with the N64, much like Paper Mario as one of the last N64 games was competing with the Gamecube. This has contributed to its relative lack of popularity compared to DKC2 (awesome) and especially 1 (overrated). It has become a bit overlooked and is also criticised in the mainstream for “not having Donkey Kong”. I say, screw that guy! The new characters were heaps of fun and the gameplay was super solid, the atmosphere was absorbing, and there was loads more to do than in Donkey’s own game (DKC1). He isn’t needed, as far as I’m concerned, to make a game great.
Of course, the game is nowhere near as influential on the greater DK series. Kiddy never showed up again, although Ellie the elephant and the Banana Birds had cameos in the Donkey Konga games (Barnacle Bear is also apparently in the 3rd one, but I haven’t seen evidence of this apart from a promotional artwork). Barrel Blast, a haven for fan service if not particularly good apparently, featured toboggans, Kopter, and the purple parrot who is alternately known as Squeaks, Flapper or Quawks. The unreleased Diddy Kong Pilot also featured Buzzes alongside Zingers, which is cool. This also has the dubious honour of being the last Donkey Kong game in which Wrinkly Kong is alive. She dies soon after, despite being a fitness nut in this game, to become a ghost in DK64.
So, DKC3. Underappreciated, I see it as pretty much one of the last great 2D platformers before the “retro revival” stuff recently that gave us great stuff like DKCR and Rayman Origins. It also builds complexity on top of the very solid gameplay and physics of the DKC series up to that point. Besides this, the music, art, characters, etc are all top notch, typical of DKC, but with their own flavour that tells you this game was designed by a different team. (Sidenote: disappointing that almost all enemies are all-new, a discontinuity from 1 and 2 which shared enemies with new designs and roles). Another great game of my childhood that was lots of fun to revisit. I give it 5 bananas/Bear Coins/Bonus Coins/Banana Birds/DK Coins/extra life balloons.
There’s been a lot of stuff about comics recently, but don’t worry! I’ve been playing games too. Specifically Paper Mario Sticker Star, a Christmas present, and I also picked Metroid Prime 2 back up after a long break. Almost finished both of those now, but first I have to talk about some games I got through earlier.
I played the Zero series games in a weird order. I think my first was Zero 2, then Zero 1. Those were in Japanese, then I got Zero 4 in English. When shopping for DS games I chose ZX Advent (the sequel) over ZX because of the purported improvements, especially to the map system and voice acting. Then I eventually got a copy of ZX, along with Zero Collection, and had my first play of Zero 3. And now finally I’ve got around to playing ZX.
Overall, before I go any further, my impression of this game is better than its sequel, Advent (ZXA). There are a number of reasons for this. Its characters were more memorable, playing as Model ZX (who plays just like the Zero I’m used to) from the third mission instead of the third last was great, and it had a more manageable number of transformations. On the other hand, the mission handling was clumsier here, they improved the rewards and economy in the sequel, and the Model transformations seemed better utilised there. But enough comparisons.
The ZX series seems a bit maligned, at least from traditional Megaman fans. I don’t see any good reason for this, as it retains the smooth but challenging gameplay of Zero, and seems a natural extension of it as well (although the new characters I see may put some people off, with many of them being whiny kids). There’s also tons of fanservice if you’re looking. Plus I think it maintains a high standard of quality, unlike certain installments of the Classic and X series. I guess if you didn’t like Zero as much, ZX and ZXA are even more out there. But me, I love Zero.
So it’s only natural that I loved this game, too. I played through it twice in a row, and I wouldn’t normally do that. You choose between playing Vent and Aile, so I did both. There are very few differences between them: minor story points and dialogue changes, and slightly different attributes, but so slight hardly anyone even notices. They even have the same backstory and relationship to the major NPC, Giro. One might think they are interchangeable. The animated trailer however shows both of them double Megamerging and using ZX’s powers, so it’s possible that alternate playthroughs are in a way half the story, with the “true” events involving both, which is hard to portray in a game with a single player I guess. (The dual protagonists is something the sequel executed much better, also).
So I can’t really escape comparisons, I don’t think I have a way of judging this game outside my frame of reference. I also think it’s worth judging games compared to similar ones, after all I didn’t play it in a vacuum. Ah, this is getting too meta.
I think I’m a bit out of practice with these reviews. Ok, well, the storytelling is fine, but the animated cutscenes are a little jarring with their heavy compression artifacts and Japanese-only audio. That’s not too much of an issue, as the whole Zero series had Japanese boss barks, but keep in mind I played ZXA first which had a whole English speech track over most cutscenes, animated and otherwise. The characters in the game were quite memorable, most of the major ones had ties to the Zero series, which I appreciated, and the NPCs all had unique appearances and personalities (a problem with ZXA was too generic appearances in NPCs).
The levels were well designed, I think- I’m not an expert on that kind of thing. Enemies often required a bit of strategy to beat, although some parts were just annoying, like the radars that reversed the controls. A commonly cited criticism of this game is that once you get Model H, there’s little reason to use any other form. True to an extent, although I like Model ZX enough to switch between the two often. Model OX (Omega Zero) was awesome too, but you only get it after you beat the game unfortunately.
There were lots of collectibles and so on, but there wasn’t much to spend the E-Crystal currency on. I liked how all the areas were connected, it felt like a cohesive whole (although the environments were quite different, it was just nice to be able to move through it all smoothly). The map is quite useless, though. I had a walkthrough’s map open on my iPhone the whole time I was playing.
The plot is interestingly linked to the Zero series, and now I see where all the plot threads of ZXA came from too, so it ties together well to the other games in the “greater Zero series”, which includes ZX and ZXA. (They’re totally the same. Art style, gameplay, developer, pickups, font, everything).
The bosses were all interesting and different. They unlock extra attacks for the forms, but I didn’t use the special abilities of any Model form hardly at all. I only used them to get around levels, and faced bosses almost exclusively as ZX. This may be due to my own familiarity with the strictly Zero fighting style.
I mentioned the world map, but it would have been a lot easier to get around if there were more tranceivers. Anyone who’s played the game will know what I mean, but I guess it makes you more familiar with the layouts and all. The tranceivers also dispensed missions, which brings up that you can only bloody do one at a time! This means that cutting grass or stopping a rogue robot from killing civilians have the same priority, and if you go somewhere to do something but forget to activate the mission, you’ve wasted the trip there and the return. And you can’t do multiple things on one trip out, plus if you are asked for something, the request is in the tranceiver, but it can only hold two optional requests at a time as well! The whole mission thing is a mess and they thankfully fixed it up in the sequel.
I think I’m running out of things though, so in all I had lots of fun here. That old feeling of hining your skills against specific bosses by replaying them a few times, and doing two runs in a row- it was good. I should say that the Zero and ZX games are quite hard, they’re not for everybody. But when you’re a gamer like me, you relish the feeling of mastering this art. I don’t feel that way about a lot of genres but 2D platformers and jumpy shooties have enough precision, as long as the game is well constructed and quick.
So this game is absolutely essential- for me, who loved the Zero games. You might like it too, who knows. I don’t really know which to recommend more, this or its sequel, though. But I’m glad I was able to play them both, with their strengths and weaknesses and their linked plots. It’s sad to see this series fall out of favour recently as Capcom is bringing Megaman back to basics or whatever it is they’re planning, I’d love another installment. It’s just, so nostalgic for me but also new, with fresh twists. And it advances the overall robot continuity so far, but the roots are still there. Ah. Good stuff. So I guess for me this game is signifcant as it fits into the greater whole of the Zero/ZX series, but it probably stands just fine on its own. (I wouldn’t know, like I said, I’m so ingrained in my little world :p). Anyway that’ll do. Tata for now.
So when Nintendo apparently decided to remove the DKC trilogy from the Wii Shop (WHYWHYWHY, they answered my emails with weaselly non-answers)(at least we got warning in this country, unlike USA), I bought them before they disappeared. Good decision. Especially for 2 and 3, the ones I actually owned on the SNES, my muscles practically remember the moves for every level. I have had very little trouble getting through anything so far. And it’s just so fun doing that, running through again like a boss.
Anyway I don’t know how much I can say about this game. It’s one of my favourites of all time, a common stance for many gamers. I can make lots of comparisons, how it’s so much better than DKC1 in lots of ways, how there is no comparison between it and the comparatively bland Super Mario World, how it and Yoshi’s Island took different branches that are both excellent.
I don’t need to say too much though. This game is so very special to me, and I mean ideally its quality will come through to anyone who picks it up, but my eyes are so heavily tinted towards it. I just don’t feel I can say much meaningful commentary, you know?
So as I played this game, it all came flooding back. I remembered where every secret was. I slightly misremembered the instant 75 Kremkoins cheat so had to look it up (I used it to open the Lost World so I didn’t have to get all the bonuses- hey I know I can do it!). The physics and mechanics just feel so right. My absolute familiarity with this game makes it feel like the epitome of videogames. Since I know it so well, it seems like the best because it feels right.
Some levels of course are still just hard. Bramble Blast, Screech’s Sprint and Animal Antics all spring to mind as ones I died many times on in this playthrough. When I did play this as a child, there were levels I’d avoid as they were hard or less fun (the two haunted forest levels also come to mind). On the other hand, Rattle Battle, Rickety Race, Castle Crush, these are all levels I loved to replay many times, so I know them the best. And yes, I got to Krocodile Kore both as a child and now.
In fact, I managed to beat the secret final boss on my first time, as Diddy, without getting hit! I am so proud of that. :D
So let’s talk about the non-mechanics things about this game that make it great. The atmosphere is utterly wonderful, each new environment is vibrant, iconic, and yet tense and moody. The music is, oh, so good. The character designs are full of personality and charm, and the mostly-consistent pirate theme of the Kremling Krew makes for a cohesive collective identity for your foes. Especially good are the returning enemies with updated costumes.
Also, the bosses are leaps and bounds ahead of the original (both designs and the battles themselves). Speaking of comparisons, I think Rare were brave to turn the tables and put Donkey Kong - THE Donkey Kong, mind you - as the kidnapped victim you need to rescue. This meant he was not playable, and not even seen until the end of the game. This apparently was the source of some controversy, at the time and later from idiots, especially at major gaming publications. I didn’t mind about that in the slightest (still don’t).
Diddy is just so much more relateable for a kid. Dixie too, although obviously she’s a girl and I’m a boy. But I loved both of them. For many years Diddy was my ultimate Video Game Hero (that’s the subplot of this game by the way, him proving himself).
Anyway it’s probably this game that started my love of the DKU, Nintendo, and even videogames in general. Pure platforming gold, with heart. I give it a flablillion bananas out of 10. Emulate it now! It’s less immoral than ever! Oh and the GBA remake is good too, although the overly bright colours, chirpified soundtrack and smaller screen make it a diminshed experience (and the new minigames are not good), but the extra collectibles added that extra element for me to make it worthwhile to play (the map screens are also new, but uglier)(oh and there’s one extra boss).
Well Pokemon X and Y were just announced, so good time I suppose to talk about my latest Pokemon experience. Oh and I hate the acute accent on the “e”, makes things difficult so I will go on record as never planning to use it in this blog. Before I start though, briefly I was a little disappointed with the comparatively cold reception of the DKC2 comic compared to all that Rockman stuff I posted. I guess people like Rockman a lot more than old comics about B-list Nintendo franchises (or Rare). It’s just I put so much more effort into the comic, and I was certainly happier with it than my rushed Rockman posts. Anyway no-one’s to blame or anything just wanted a little grump about “oh everyone hates Donkey Kong muh muh”. Let’s move on, shall we?
Back in my Game Boy Color days (I think the official international name lacked the “u”…) I was a huge fan of Pokemon. The craze had taken off, all my friends at school were into it. It was big. My first ever game system to call my own was my Pikachu Yellow Game Boy Color. Soon afterwards my parents realised I would need some games to play, so I got Yellow version as well. And I was set. I loved my Pikachu, the rest of my team was pretty lacking.
Anyway I also watched the show before school, picked up the trading cards (for collecting, the game wasn’t much fun), and loved to play Stadium or Snap when I got the chance by renting or at friends’ houses. Soon my brothers were into it too, and we all had Game Boy Colors and Gold/Silver each. We were trading and Mystery Gifting all over the place, it was great. I also played the everloving Pokeheck out of the Pinball game with the rumble feature, which made the cartridge amusingly huge. My best score was I think 4 billion, I normally only managed half that.
This fervour cooled off a bit as I discovered other great game series, but we still shared a Ruby version when we upgraded to Advance. That was unfortunately stolen along with all our portable games and we didn’t replace it, instead getting heavily into the Final Fantasy Advance series (better when we only had one system anyway). Since then I’d viewed the whole thing with nostalgia, not really following the subsequent installments or spinoffs. Mind you, I’m not a 151tard- I recognise that the series is advancing, albeit slowly, and I welcome new additions to the Pokeverse, especially the more they tie into older ones.
Therefore when my wife started getting interested in Pokemon, I supported her buying HeartGold. With my fond memories of Gold I enjoyed it through her, even myself playing the more tedious parts she didn’t want to touch such as the Safari Zone. We both came to an appreciation for the new series then, at a time when Black and White were new. When the sequels were announced as paired versions, a first, we decided to get one each to celebrate that together.
Now I’ve talked a lot already and I’m not up to the game itself, but that’s ok. This blog is not just game reviews, it’s remembrance and celebration of games, and my own personal history. But let’s move into the review section, shall we?
I loved White 2. I’ll just get that out of the way. It had been too long and it was great to fully embrace the Pokemon formula again. Formula, of course, being the watchword. I don’t think I’d appreciate this quite as much if I had been following the main series, playing each game and comparing them. That way madness lies. For I found that although everything had a shiny coat of paint and many new mons, it was still essentially Pokemon.
This may not be such a bad thing. I feel that in many ways, the iterations have produced a superior product at the end, not something you can say about every game series. In this case, they know what they want and it’s what sells, I suppose. You could say I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t different enough, but really at this point I liked being reminded of my memories, with so many bells and whistles attached.
Perhaps the bells and whistles were a little overwhelming. The game encourages you to do all this side stuff, the Battle Subway, the World Tournament, the Movies, the Musicals, Join Avenue, the Dream World etc. But truthfully it’s totally ignorable. I just feel a little bad having a lot of content in the game that I know I will never look at it, it feels weird. Plus I probably prefer the Safari Zone anyway, although it was too complicated in HeartGold.
That’s another thing I noticed about this game. It is just so complex. I had to spend a long time before I really got my head around what the C-Gear actually is and what you use it for. Naturally, being a modern game, the manual is complete shite. Yellow’s manual was awesome, it even had a mini-Pokedex in the back with Ken Sugimori’s strange but wonderful Gen 1 artwork. But White 2 has all these systems that present a high learning curve, especially for beginners.
I think the philosphy for this game was to give something to longer-time players and fans, especially those who played Black/White. That would certainly explain the reliance on plot and mechanics from those games to carry this one. But I didn’t play those because they looked boring, so there were times when I felt a little lost. They feel like a package deal, and I’m missing out by just playing this.
Incidentally, the main reason I avoided Black/White was its strange insistence on being a soft reboot. They must recognise that people stay fans of this series and have played previous ones, and therefore want previous Gen mons. They’re all in the game, but you can’t access them til endgame. Introduce new mons, sure, but I don’t think you lose anything by sprinkling in older ones, and integrating them to make it feel like a cohesive world. Black/White 2 did exactly this and it’s great!
Part of me still feels though that I’m not getting all I could out of this (partially due to living in a second-class country with bugger-all events/distributions). That part now looks towards X and Y with regret. But screw that part, that’s no way to live. So I enjoyed what I did have. (Really though, announcing a game 9 months in advance? And only 3 months after shipping the last installment (in the West, anyway)? Is that any way to do business?)
So I’ve got through all the gyms with my super-cool, totally non-optimised team, and beat the Elite 4 (thus seeing the credits and completing the main story). But it seems the good thing about these newer Gens, compared to Gen 1 and 2 anyway, is the huge amount of endgame content. There’s still like 4 or 5 towns I haven’t visited, new Routes, new optional plot events, all the side stuff I mentioned, not to mention catching them all.
Let me just mention a few of the things that made me happy here. I loved naming every Pokemon I caught with silly or ironic names. I loved reuseable TMs. I loved discovering new places, with the unexpected graphical or weather effects, and each town having a distinct personality. I loved finding old friends in the long grass (hello Ampharos!), and being introduced to new ones through the (no longer) free Pokedex 3D. But I think most of all, I just loved playing Pokemon again. It had been so long. It was like… coming home (lol sappy and ok that’s really overstating it, but it was familiar and was good.) I also liked being able to compare notes with my wife, trade with her and just experience the same thing at the same time. They make Pokemon for sharing (hence paired versions), and it is better like that.
I don’t really know what the Internet thinks about BW2, but I know there’s a lot of Gen 5 backlash and also a lot of anti-backlash backlash. I would say from what I’ve played, Gen 5 is fairly safe but the iteration has served it well. I will very tentatively say that Game Freak is able to make every new Pokemon the best yet, at least in terms of mechanics. I still love HeartGold because of the familiar but revamped setting and retold plot (nostalgia). HGSS also had a huge thing over any subsequent or previous game barring Yellow, and that is your leading Poke FOLLOWING YOU EVERYWHERE. Easily the best feature you can point to and say “Why are they not still doing this”.
This feature really helped you bond with your Pokes, and added an element of verisimilitude to your journey. It was just really cool. Personally very disappointed they are still not adding it back with Gen 6 (at this stage). I just, I really think after HGSS had it everything should have it. The Pokes are the stars after all, at the end of the day I don’t really care about the Gym Leaders, Team Plasma, N, Hugh, or even the silent protagonist. I care about my team and finding friends for them. I know some people really are “into” the human characters but frankly they bore me to tears.
Anyway, rant over. After I finished White 2 I put it down for a bit to play other stuff, but I’m looking forward to picking it up again soon to do all the post-game content, and visit new towns. Pokemon still has the power to grab me after all these years, and the first few weeks I had White 2 I played it constantly. Then I played it regularly, and now it’s on hiatus. But I really enjoyed the experience. I give it some Master Balls out of some. (No scores on this blog!)
I’d like to talk about these two games at once because my backlog is filling up, and I thought a comparison of these was apt. Why?
Well, two of my favourite games growing up were Donkey Kong Country 2 and Yoshi’s Island. Those probably stand out to me the most before we got our 64. These two games, then, are related to these, being the prequel and a sequel/spin-off respectively. Also, I never really played them at the time or at all until recently. The other way I can talk about them together is that they are both ground-breaking platformers that tried new things in the market at the time, but had differing levels of success.
There is a quote from Miyamoto at the time about DKC: “The success of this game proves that people will put up with mediocre gameplay if the graphics are good.” I’m paraphrasing, but the gist is that DKC was being hyped up a lot for its graphics (even though the gameplay and other aspects were great too), and I think old Miyamoto was bitter that it was outselling his project, Yoshi’s Island. I think both games have beautiful visual styles and great gameplay, although they are very different on both counts. Both were, in a way, responses to Super Mario World but they took the 2D platformer concept in very different directions.
I can tell this is going to be long. Bear with me, folks. DKC’s sequel refined further everything that made it great, and is superior in most ways. Yoshi’s Island on the other hand had a sequel the next generation which pushed even further away from the basic SMW style, off the wacky deep end. This is my opinion, of course.
So I guess the main thing I took away from these playthroughs is that sometimes you have to try new things, and sometimes they don’t work. DKC had a few mechanics that are dropped completely in the sequel, as they were awkward or not useful. That just may be my DKC2 familiarity talking, but I feel that the designers learned a lot from DKC to make the second one a much better game. Segue to YS, which introduces a buttload of things done differently to YI, and ends up even more awkward than DKC in comparison to my childhood favourites.
They are opposite ends. That’s not to say either is bad, they just frustrate me a lot more, especially when I can see what they’ve done wrong.
To give a bit more detail, there’s a lot to love in DKC. The atmosphere, the personality, the controls feel good. My main complaints are with the hit detection, the pointless bonuses, and the badly flow-breaking animal bonus levels. These are minor though, and the reason I tend to overlook it is I prefer the sequels, the new heights they reached, how they played with the formula, plus they have more internal consistency with each other than either has with DKC1. Each installment has its own different atmosphere that gives them unique feelings, which is a great thing and more than you can say for the Mario series (ok, no more cheap potshots). The music and backgrounds play a big part in this.
YS has less to recommend it on face value. It’s a little slow and wonky, the controls are a little weird and there are also a few hit detection issues here. Also, unlike its predecessor YI the music is less memorable and tends to reuse arrangements of the main theme for most areas (in this way it resembles YI’s true DS sequel). I find this boring, personally. The aesthetic is both overly cute but also a very interesting crafty style, with newspaper, cardboard, felt, etc backgrounds like Little Big Planet but low-res.
Unlike the more precise YI, the platforming and egg-throwing is more forgiving or loose, although if you miss a jump I found it very hard to recover. The game is quite short but it is built for multiple playthroughs, with each of the 6 worlds having 4 possible levels with one being played each go through. This gives it a lot of variety, and each run will be different. The structure is also unique, mostly left-to-right or down-to-up but some more complex structures with branching paths and the level ends when you eat 30 fruit, not reach a certain point or anything.
Speaking of structure, I guess I didn’t structure this review so well but I saw some commonality there. Basically I regard both these games as lesser installments in series that I adore, and therefore worth playing on the strength of their brethren alone. But I was pleased with each when I actually got to playing them, and with YS I appreciate its radically different style. I can look past DKC’s faults to see the germ of the great series it spawned, but its more abstract features that carry through are fantastic. I just think it’s popularly overrated. YS on the other hand is slightly underrated.
The Yoshi and DK series as wholes are way too big to include any of here, so maybe one day they’ll get the proper MiloScat treatment. I’m glad I’ve now experienced these as they’re so important and influential to the overall series, DKC in its design and music and YS in its contribution of sound effects to all subsequent Yoshi material, and the aesthetic that was adapted in many Mario sports games. But now I want to play the actual games I grew up with, so I’m gonna do that. Toodles.
I have a bad habit of getting to the last stage or boss in a game and then putting it down. In this case, I was brought back to Shantae 2 by learning of a 3rd one coming soon to the 3DS eShop.
Let’s start by comparing it to the first one, on the GBC. Instead of finite items, you purchase spells with the same effects and then use your magic bar to cast them. I approve, I tend to never want to use numbered items but I like abilities. The traversable world is a bit more complicated, but I think easier to navigate due to a simple in-game map. It seems smaller, because there’s only one town and I got lost less often. The collectible system is very different, but I think I prefer it as it seemed easier to keep track of what you had and the rewards were less necessary for completion.
What I really liked about it was how it kept the feeling and details of the original but with a huge graphical improvement. Having said that though, the frame that the iOS version has makes it painfully obvious how direct a port that version is from the DSi one. A bit jarring, and they even kept this one building that detects other WayForward games you have installed in your DS that is useless now. Still, can’t complain too much, in general the game is very compelling and polished, plus it was cheap and we didn’t even get the DSi version here in Australia!
I personally don’t mind the on-screen button thing, I just love having “proper” games on the super-portable and convenient iPhone. The interface and software distribution platform is also leagues better than any dedicated games system I’ve ever played (not counting my old GBA, only online systems with apps and stuff).
The returning characters made me smile, it’s especially fun to see familiar people and settings with more detail. The dialogue was also very good, very funny. WayForward is very high in my personal estimation of developers, and they’re real small too. I loved the Boy and His Blob reboot immensely. There’s a great level of polish and love I can see, which is why I’m now looking forward to Shantae 3.
I think this game benefited a lot from me playing the GBC original first, it put the mechanics and plot in context so I’m very glad I did. It’s improved mechanically, as I’ve discussed. Also it got rid of the overcomplicated dance system.
So in all it’s a nice little game, and I would support WayForward developing a new 2D Metroid as has been rumoured. Shantae has rightly earned its status as an indie favourite. I think the best part is that it’s so full of character, it reminds me of a Rare game or a Paper Mario. Until Shantae 3 then.
There’s a few things in the backlog right now but I’m pushing this to the front because it’s DKR’s 15th anniversary! Link! DKVine sprang a surprise forum skin redesign, and I decided to get back to this little gem and push on a bit.
When I last set it down, I’d just figured out where Dragon Forest was, having finished the other 3 worlds, so it didn’t take long to get through that and a few tries to beat Wizpig’s foot race. This got me the credits, although there is another world and many more challenges that I’m doing now. But my rule is I can review a game when I see the credits, so here we are.
I first played DKR many years ago, maybe even 15, on my friend’s N64. The hovercrafts impressed me, if I recall, though I mainly played battle mode at that time and it didn’t stand out so much from Mario Kart 64, its main competitor and comparison. The interface did stand out though (better), and the bright colours and kiddy feel also set it apart. That’s what I remember at the time, but also for a long time I’ve had a bias against games I don’t own so that I don’t feel bad about not owning them. And I love most things I do own.
Anyway, I digress. What I didn’t realise was how important DKR was to the shared universe concept of the DKU, an idea I was not cognisant of. I made up my own shared universes in my head, with no regard for explicit crossovers and shared game worlds. I used to imagine space ships filled with different video game protagonists, with stockpiles of their respective collectibles; or Fox, Yoshi and Diddy (my 3 favourite characters at the time, due to DKC2, Yoshi’s Island and Lylat Wars) teaming up and having adventures.
Of course, officially sanctioned shared universes are exciting in their own way, especially as we grow older and lose our imaginations. Plus, DKR was widely regarded as one of the best mascot racers, and I love Rare. So I bought it, wanting to experience this classic and also the last Rare game on a Nintendo platform, and the only Rare DS game (the Viva Pinata DS port being the exception to both these statements…shh).
So yes, DKR is a great game. But DKRDS is a bad port of a good game. Firstly, the interface is just janky and off-putting. Having seen the credits now, the handheld team was apparently very small and it shows. The whole thing feels rushed or watered down. I guess the interface is the main sticking point, but there were arbitrary changes that didn’t improve the game too. The touch-screen challenges which are now a big part are just plain not that good. And they made Taj’s voice less hilariously stereotypical.
What it comes down to (generalising here) is the Rare handheld team makes much less polished games than the console team. That would broadly cover all the great, smooth console Rare games I’ve played versus the somewhat awkward handheld games (mainly just the Donkey Kong Lands and Country Advance remakes). That is a gross simplification, but it’s the way I think for whatever reason. I’m not going to give up on Rare games and I’d like Grunty’s Revenge, Sabre Wulf 2004 and Conker’s Pocket Tales to prove me wrong when I get around to them.
Well, I guess I’ve been influenced by a lot of people’s opinions on DKVine. I actually had a lot of fun with this game, and not having experienced the original too much, I’m not that fussed about what I’m missing, especially with the handheld convenience. Plus I like some of the things they added, like the vehicle customisation, currency for unlockables, the admittedly weak icon designer mode, a few extra tracks (on DK Island!) and most importantly Dixie Kong! She makes up for any flaws I’ve perceived. And much of the presentation is so charming, you can’t stay mad at it.
Sure, they removed Banjo and Conker. Sad. But it’s still a great game, and I am very glad it exists. Because emulating N64 is tricky, it’s not on the VC and my 64 is at my parents’ house. So I can play it! It’s good because it’s cute, it has loads of character, the racing takes real skill, the mechanics are interesting, and heck it gave birth to the DKU. Don’t listen to the haters, the DS port is not as bad as they say. But that’s just me talking, and I’ll love any video game. Especially if I’ve decided to buy it.
The good things I heard about Ico, especially from John Siracusa on Hypercritical, was one of the factors in finally breaking down my Nintendo wall and buying a PS3. So I was very pleased to find it a rewarding and engaging experience.
I guess you could say that in some ways it’s in the “art game” category, but I tend to think of it as Zelda but more realistic, with a tighter focus and more emphasis on immersion and atmosphere than I dunno finding items or whatever. I love Zelda but as a variant on that formula and a change of pace (warranted for a series that, like many Nintendo properties, is getting oh so slightly, shall I say, stale?), it was a best game. Maybe not the best, but a best.
Seriously though, compared to other Zelda-likes I’ve played and also loved (such as Okami), it just goes in a different direction. I can’t call it the best because that’s not what it’s aiming for. This may be the first sense it’s an art game: it’s not comparing itself to big games and trying to be a flashy super game.
The second sense is the style and aesthetic. The whole setting is very muted and oppressive, but also dignified and other adjectives, then there are moments that open up or secluded, beautiful spots. It really draws you in just by the places you visit and the climbing over huge things that you do.
The main mechanic of the game, I’d say, is the relationship between Ico and Yorda. You meet Yorda early on, and she’s *sigh* a princess, but it’s not like that really. You’re just two kids trying to escape shadow demons in an empty castle. Everywhere you go, you drag Yorda along by the hand, and that really reinforces your personal connection to her as a player. It’s probably the best case of developing real caring for an NPC that I’ve experienced, and it’s a great strength of the game.
The other bits are a lot of fun, too. The aforementioned climbing, exploring each new area as you find it to locate the switch you need, protecting Yorda from waves of shadow creatures. Conquering each area may take a while, but that makes it really rewarding.
Oh before I forget the manual (the PS2 one anyway) is full of spoilers, and I found it much better to read it only after I’d finished. There are a few reasons I found this. One is that it goes into too much detail and ruins the interpretive aspect. I preferred to develop my own ideas about the plot and my own conceptions about how the game was structured, rather than having it all laid out plain. The other reason is the game has very minimal interface—no on-screen interface during gameplay, ever—and “gamey” things about it, so that trophy notifications became jarring (they weren’t in the original spec), and the process of saving (by sitting on stone couches) quite abruptly takes you out of the world (appropriate enough I guess, for the end of a play session). In the same sense, the manual devalues this from whatever it is into a mere game. (I blame marketing for American audiences.)
Whatever it is, then, is something more. But what to call it? Art, or interactive experience? Sounds pretentious. More like, this is what a game should be. What other games should aspire to be like. Sure, it doesn’t suit every genre, style or developer, and I don’t think everything should be a lot more Ico. But maybe more things should be a little bit more Ico.
Anyway, I had a blast playing this great game. Hmm, well blast is the wrong word, my playthrough was more ponderous than that. I had a slow burn. But a good one. Anyway I had fun. And there’s more to look forward to! See I bought the Ico&SotC Collection, so soon I’ll start on Colossus, and there’s much more widespread praise for that so it should be good, but I have different expectations for it. Plus, there’s the New Game + option, with co-op. I think I’ll call it here. Not a long game but so good, concentrated quality.
Wife’s comment: “It made me feel dizzy when you moved the camera.” Yeah that feature was a bit sensitive.
Trials Evolution is the sequel to the cool motorbike with cryptic hidden secrets game, Trials 2. As far as I currently know, Evolution doesn’t have weird hidden clues but it does have multiplayer. I’ve heard it’s good and it’s kind of a posterboy for XBLA, but it’s also on the (much better) Steam platform. Now, I can’t normally play this game as 1) my computer kinda sucks and 2) it’s not Mac-compatible. But lucky for me, I have a cool family.
