Video Games

Ready For Adventure!

/ skoce / 2 Comments

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker flew somewhat under the radar among Nintendo’s more high profile releases this fall. With all of the Pokemon, Smash Bros and Amiibos, Captain Toad comes off as something of an afterthought. Still, a lot of care clearly went into the games creation. Much like Super Mario 3D World last year, Captain Toad just bursts with joy, creativity and fun. Captain Toad is like an indie game, with a simple core concept blown up into a full game, which has been given the full Nintendo polish. It may be a small game, but it is nearly perfect in its smallness.

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The Captain Toad stages were highlights even amidst the whole game highlight that was Super Mario 3D World. Playing as Captain Toad in a Mario style game was an interesting challenge. He has none of Mario’s athletic moves, thanks the weight of his backpack the little guy can’t even jump. Instead of hopping and bopping their way through the levels, players had to move carefully and study their surroundings. The player’s abilities are pared down to running and picking plants. Each stage is a little puzzle that the player must solve. With Treasure Tracker, the simple concept of those stages is explored to its fullest extent. The core never breaks down, but it is pushed. The game adds power ups, including 3D World’s Cherry doubler. There are touch screen blocks to move and wind-blown platforms and the majority of Mario’s usual baddies to fight. With Captain Toad’s limited skills, even a simple enemy like the lowly Goomba poses a threat.

Stages start out simple, to beat if not to get all the gems and complete the extra challenge, but before long the game starts to show its teeth. Players must learn how to exploit Toad’s capabilities they will die, repeatedly. The few bosses the game throws in, really only two bosses repeated a few times, are wonderful, tense challenges. While the game looks childish, it soon provides a moderate challenge.

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What really sets this game apart is the wealth of detail is shows. It looks great, like 3D World, but there are so many little touches that really make this game memorable. Like the bed in the train level. If Captain Toad stops on it, he will lay down to take a nap until the player moves again. At one point the two toads, Toadette is a big part of the game, are in a minecart that is rocketing down a hill. Captain Toad covers his eyes while Toadette throws her hands in the air in joy. There is a stage in the later part of the game where you ride a dragon. While Toad sits on its head and cheers, the player controls the dragon taking out hordes and enemies and tons of blocks. There is no threat, no danger or puzzle. It is just a victory romp, pure joy. Near the end the game also tosses up a few stages that are homages to other Mario games. The whole game is just a delight.

One neat trick is the story. It starts on pretty well worn footing, with Toadette being kidnapped and Captain Toad setting out to rescue her. After a dozen or so stages through, they flip the script and it is then Toadette setting out to rescue the Captain. After a section like that, the two are split up and looking for each other, alternating every handful of stages. It doesn’t really matter which one is used, they both play identically. It paints a picture of two mostly competent adventurers who are in slightly over their heads. Another big draw to the story is that there is no real incentive to their quest other than adventure. Yes, they are both trying to rescue the other at times, but they got “kidnapped” by going after stars in the first place. It is less a kidnapping that an unfortunate fall. The big bad bird takes the Toads away because they won’t let go of their prize that was stolen.

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The whole game is adorable like that. In gameplay, it feels like an indie game, like VVVVVV, built around a single concept and just going all the way with that. But there was clearly a level of money put into this game that most indies can’t match. Instead of simplistic, if possibly stylish graphics, Captain Toad looks as good as or better than Nintendo’s biggest offerings. It is also a unique look into the Mushroom Kingdom. Rarely does Nintendo give a glimpse without the plumber around and most of those are about the other plumber. This is a chance to see the world through other eyes, and it helps make Mario look all the better. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker may be a somewhat simple game, but it combines simply perfected play mechanics with loads and loads of sheer charm make it a winner.

Smashing Once Again

/ skoce / 3 Comments

I’ve now spent a lot of time with the WiiU version of the new Smash Bros. At its heart it is the same game, but there are some significant differences between the two versions. Both are worthwhile, but the 3DS game is a fun distraction, the WiiU one is Smash Bros the way it is supposed to be played. It looks great, plays great and introduces some great new additions to the series.

The 3DS game’s exclusive Smash Run mode was a fun time waster; it wasn’t the best thing ever, but it grew on me the more I played it and was a decent way to change things up. That is replaced on the WiiU with Smash Tour. Smash Tour is a terrible single player mode; it is absolutely no fun without other players. As a multiplayer game it plays like something between regular Smash Bros and a very limited Mario Party. It makes it much less entertaining than Smash Run. If you have a group around to play Smash, then you likely want to play Smash, the other modes are for when you have to play alone. Smash Tour fails utterly as a single player experience.

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Really, the single player side of Smash Bros WiiU is severely limited. All-Star mode is still All-Star mode. The same goes for Home Run challenge and the Multi-man Smash modes. Those are all familiar and fun. Event mode is also back, and the varied challenges found there are excellent, though somewhat brief. I completed all of them after just a few hours. Nintendo did add coop play to almost all of the single player modes, making them worthwhile when there are exactly two players. The new target mode is now some Angry Birds knock off that I don’t quite get. I don’t enjoy it at all and would rather have the old individualized courses from Melee back. They also screwed up Classic. I’m not sure how to describe it, instead of the simple choices and series of matches from even the 3DS version; it is now just an asinine mess. I kind of hate it. Maybe the real fun is to be had with Master/Crazy Orders, which I’ve barely touched. Still, even more than on the 3DS game I miss the Subspace Emissary. As goofy and unnecessary as that was, I still really loved it. It is now the only reason to keep Brawl around.

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As disappointing as that stuff may be, it is all just a distraction from what really matters: the fighting. It is pitch perfect, looks, sound , controls, everything. There are only really slight tweaks from the previous games, but Smash Bros has played about perfectly since its inception. It has always been deceptively simple. This game’s (I really wish they had come up with a subtitle like Brawl or Melee) supersized roster seems, at least through a few dozen hours of play, to much better balanced that the earlier games. I ranked the fighters based on the 3DS game and even though it is the same roster for this one, if I did that list off the WiiU game it would be significantly different. I loved Jigglypuff the first time around, now I can’t use her at all. But Dark Pit, a character I quickly dismissed before, has fast become a favorite. The classic Smash fighting is h=just as broad and chaotic and addictive as ever.

The big revelation is 8-player Smash. Smash Bros has always been chaotic, but doubling the number of fighters just makes things insane. To account for this, Nintendo added a handful of supersized stages. It is amazing how much a fight can change just based on the stage chosen. 8-player in a small arena like Yoshi’s Island is just pure madness, with little to no way to control the battle; there are just too many variables. It is great. But a map like Palutena’s Temple is completely different. That map has more than enough space for eight fighters to find space and terrain suited to every character. It is about choosing your battles and battle ground. It takes a lot longer and is a completely different game, but it is still a lot of fun. No matter the map, the craziness of 8-player Smash is awesome.

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Like the rest of the series, Smash Bros WiiU is crammed to the gills with content. To go along with hundreds of trophies, there is also equipment and alternate specials. The equipment is not big deal, they are much like Brawl’s stickers and just as useless. That is not really true, there are a lot of things you can do with them, but it is fiddle and uninteresting. The alternate specials are a different matter. Each character has three versions of each of their special attacks, most only a slight variation on the normal take on it. I haven’t come close to unlocking all of them, but they can really change how a character works. For example, some attacks add a wind effect that pushes enemies away but doesn’t actually hit them. It is not effective for racking up the damage, but it great for pushing players off the edges. All of the alternate options let’s players customize characters within reason. It doesn’t completely remake them, but it can do enough to completely reshape how to go about using that character effectively. It is great.

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I don’t know that Smash Bros is my game of the year, but it is the game from this year that I am sure to continue playing for the longest. I am a little burnt out now, after putting 40+ hours on the 3DS and nearing that again on the WiiU, but I would guess that I’ll keep returning to Smash for years to come. That is how it has been for every other game in the series. Melee was the first Gamecube game I purchased and the last one I played. It is a similar situation with Brawl and it will be the same with this one. I love Smash Bros and this one is the best one yet.

Now Playing in November ‘14

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I didn’t play a lot of video games last month; my time was spent with NaNoWriMo, and other than that just general wasted. So this will be a short entry.

Beaten

Demon’s Crest – I almost forgot entirely about Demon’s Crest.  It is the final game in a spin off of the Ghosts and Goblins series from Capcom, playing as a red demon of sorts.  It is kind of a Mega Man style game with aesthetics closer to that of Castlevania.  It is an excellent, oft overlooked SNES gem.  It looks great and plays even better.  Though the difficulty curve is kind of out of whack, some stages are all but impossible until you get certain upgrades and other upgrades make the large parts of the game a cakewalk.  Still for the most part it is a really great game.

Ongoing

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Super Smash Brothers 4 WiiU – It is even better than the 3DS version, which basically stole the month of October from me. It looks amazing, 8-player Smash is mind blowing and Smash Tour is a lot more fun than Smash Run, assuming you have people to play it with. One thing that has stood out about the WiiU version is that the characters I excelled with on the 3DS aren’t the same. I dismissed Dark Pit pretty quickly on 3DS, but I’ve really enjoyed using him on WiiU, while I have fallen to being completely inept with Jigglypuff after loving her the first time out. Rest assured I will have more to say about this game soon.

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Pier Solar – This game really wants to be a 16-bit RPG and it succeeds, but it doesn’t quite hit the top of the 16-bit RPG pile, landing instead somewhere near the middle. It is occasionally clunky and obtuse, like its inspirations were, but twenty years later that stuff is less acceptable. I still like the game, but through the first few hours it isn’t quite as good as it inspirations, like the Lunar series. Hopefully it gets better and really fulfills the promise it shows.

Mario and Luigi: Dream Team – I have generally enjoyed this series, but they can sometimes be too talky. This game is kind of like the rest of them. It does have a new visual style, and I’ve played enough now that I can say that I really enjoy it. It looks really good in motion. It has some good change ups to the series that aren’t as intrusive as the Bowser stuff from the last game. I would estimate I am about a third of the way through this game, but I will be hard pressed to finish this before the end of the month with Persona Q taking my time away.

Persona Q – This game combines two of my favorite RPG series, and through the first floor of the first dungeon it is everything I hoped it would be, even if it spends way too much time chatting. So far it seamlessly combines the dungeon crawling of the Etrian Odyssey series and the fun stories of Persona. I chose the Persona 4 side of the story, of course, because that game actually had good characters. Hopefully I can get through this before too long.

Yakuza 4 – I only played about 20 minutes of this last month. I will keep plugging away.

Earthbound – miniscule progress, but I’ll keep hacking away at it.

Upcoming

Captain Toad Treasure Tracker – This looks so good, and I loved the Captain Toad stages of SM3DW. I’ll be jumping on this next week.

Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword – This is the last game standing between me and the end of my Zelda replay. I will beat it, I swear this.

Okami HD – I don’t know if I’ll have time to get to it, but I really want to play this again.

Having Fun with Bayonetta 2

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Nintendo scored quite the coup when it was announced that Platinum Games was making two games for the WiiU and one of those games was going to be a sequel to their much lauded action game Bayonetta. That news got even better for Nintendo fans with the addition of a port of that game. Bayonetta 2 has more than lived up to the hype. It is an excellent game. It is not a revolutionary game; it is merely a revision of the original. Considering how good that first game was, that is not such a bad thing. Also, Bayonetta 2, as well as the port of Bayonetta, takes full advantage of the Nintendo connection to make a game that is all about bonkers fun.

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While Bayonetta 2 plays much like is predecessor, it also smooths things out considerably. I must admit that a lot of that smoothing might come from the fact that my previous experience with Bayonetta was playing the PS3 port, which by all accounts is flawed to say the least. That doesn’t change the fact that Bayonetta 2 plays perfectly on the WiiU. There are also some changes to the combat. The Bayonetta combat system is all about narrowly dodging attacks to activate “Witch Time,” where time slows and attacks to more damage. It is some combination of that Matrix influenced “bullet time” and Viewtiful Joe’s slow motion ability. Activating that is easier in Bayonetta 2 thanks to more clearly cued enemy attacks. It is a lot easier to judge exactly when to dodge than it was in the first game. It also removes most of the QTEs that the first game had, making for many fewer cheap deaths.

For the most part, the game is just more of the same. It is Bayonetta, but with more weapons, more enemies, just more in general. I love how the different weapons change how the game plays entirely. Using the bow is a completely different experience than using the scythe. The beast weapon is undoubtedly Salamandra, which is a chainsaw sword. It is supremely satisfying to use that weapon. The other part where the fun really comes in is the Nintendo fan service. The game is loaded with Nintendo themed fun. There are a bevy of costumes themed like Nintendo characters. You can dress Bayonetta as Link or Samus or Peach or Fox. It doesn’t end there, though. When dressed as Link, the halos you collect as currency become rupees. When you’re dressed a Peach (or Daisy) Bayonetta’s wicked weaves – attacks when her hair becomes demon fists or feet – become Bowser themed. As Fox anything that can be replaced with an arwing is replaced with an arwing. It sets the tone as a game that is all about fun. The actual game is as hard as ever and the game doesn’t coddle the player, each victory must be earned, but it is carefully designed so that even failure will be enjoyable.

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The big elephant in the room is what exactly to make of the game’s main character. It is hard to tangle out what Bayonetta is. Is she a powerful character with positive sexuality or was she created just to pandering with her frequent near nudity and playing to the leering, lingering camera? This has inspired a delightful debate, assuming one can ignore the gang sub-literate hyenas currently shitting up any sort of conversation about video games on the internet especially if it touches on gender. It is not a question with a clear cut answer. The game absolutely does provide ample opportunity for players to ogle Bayonetta, the camera lingers on her ass and chest every chance it can. The game devotes an almost disturbing amount of time to extended crotch shots. However, in the game Bayonetta holds all the power. Her flirty, sexual antics are to amuse herself. The other characters and even the camera to some extent exist to serve her needs. Is the condemnation of Bayonetta just slut shaming? Or is she just another in the long line of “Strong Female Characters“? I fall more to the positive side of that debate, though I am careful of whom I play the game in front of. Bayonetta is entertaining, but it is slightly embarrassing.

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Bayonetta 2 just works. It doesn’t take itself seriously and it defies the player to do so. The story is just an excuse for every escalating conflict between Bayonetta and everyone who stands in her way. While the combat is intense and has an astronomical skill limit, the rest of the game teeters constantly on the edge of silliness. Sometimes it steps away, and is nearly genuinely moving at times, others it gleefully jumps into a pool of silliness and splashes around. Even the most grave moments the game manages are undercut by Bayonetta being dressed in an ill-fitting Princess Peach costume. Bayonetta 2 is certainly a unique experience.

Now Playing for October ‘14

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This was a month of Smash Brothers, at least until the last week of the month when I got both Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse and Bayonetta 2. Next month should be pretty free until near the end of the month again. That at least will clear some time for me to complete NaNoWriMo.

Beaten

Bayonetta 2 –

I’ll have a full post about this sometime in the next week or so. It is a great game, but that is to be expected from a PlatinumGames title. It doesn’t quite reach the highs of its predecessor, but it is overall a slightly better game. It is a much more even experience; while it doesn’t reach the astounding highs it also doesn’t have the lows. By which I mean the instant death surprises and QTEs. I think the team at Platinum knew they weren’t likely to get another chance at this series (fingers crossed that I’m wrong) and they went all out to make this the best game they could. It is polished and inventive and just damn great.

Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse – wrote about it here.

Smash Brothers 4 3DS – wrote about it here and here.

The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks – wrote about it here.

Art of Balance –

This is a puzzle game, with previous versions releases for Wiiware and the 3DS, where the player stacks oddly shaped blocks, trying to keep them from falling off the platform. When the game starts adding special blocks, like breakable ones or blocks that reverse gravity it starts to get really intense. I really enjoy puzzle games, I can zone out for hours solving things like this. Art of Balance is a damn fine puzzle game. It doesn’t quite have the presentation of PushMo, but it is much easier to wrap one’s head around, though not necessarily easier to solve. This is a good game.

Ongoing

Yakuza 4 – I’ve played a few chapters of this, but I couldn’t make much more progress. I expect it is the last Yakuza game I’ll get to play in English and I want to savor the experience.

Mario and Luigi Dream Team – I started this up when I was sick of Smash Bros. I don’t know what I think about the new graphical style, it looks different from the previous Mario & Luigi games but I’m not sure it’s a bad thing. The rest of the game seems to play about the same as the rest of the series. Honestly, I didn’t stick with much past the prologue, but this is what I have to play on my 3DS until Persona Q hits.

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I’m not finished with this yet, but I am ready to call it the definitive version of Bayonetta. I’ve never played it on 360, but it certainly runs much better than the PS3 version. And the 360 version doesn’t have Nintendo themed costumes. This is a great game on any system, but the silliness of Link and Samus costumes make it even better.

Tomb Raider Underworld – wrote about it here. I haven’t managed to finish it, but I am still playing it.

Cursed Mountain – My attempts to clear out my Wii backlog started with this survival horror game. It isn’t a great game, the controls are clunky and some of the motion controls are awkward. But it does have some great atmosphere and a unique setting. I haven’t made it too far into the game, I had planned to play it on Halloween but ended up playing Bayonetta instead, but I will come back to finish it. It is a solid 7 of a game, flawed in many ways, but interesting nonetheless.

Earthbound
– I ambled around Fourside for a while this last month. I think I know where I’m supposed to be going now, but I’ve got distracted by other things. I’ll get back to it.

Upcoming

Persona Q – This is the only big 3DS game I am buying the rest of the year. My budget won’t allow for me to get this and Fantasy Life and Pokemon. I am going with the Atlus game. A combination of the Persona and Etrian Odyssey series, this looks like exactly the sort of game I’ll love.

Smash Bros WiiU – I spent 40 odd hours with the 3DS game already; I expect to double that with the WiiU pretty quickly. It looks so good.

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword – This is the last game in my Zelda replay, assuming I can’t track down 4 Swords Adventure, (I am baffled about what happened to that game. I’ve searched everywhere) and I will get it finished before the end of the year.

Okami HD – I picked this game up cheap at the same time I got Tomb Raider Underworld, but I played that first since I was fresh off of the Tomb Raider reboot. I am eager to play this again.

Rating the Smash Bros Roster

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At first I intended to write something like a review of Smash Bros 3DS, but since I’ve covered a lot of my thoughts in my previous two Smash Bros posts I don’t really have any more to add right now. Any additional thoughts about how this version of Smash Bros stacks up can wait until I get my hands on the WiiU version. Then I will write something more complete. However, I have been playing almost nothing but Smash for the last couple of weeks. I have been exhausting myself trying to complete all the challenges that are part of the game and I’m close.

While some of the late challenges are more tedious than difficult, they have helped me get used to the whole of the roster. Challenges like complete Classic or All-Star Mode with all fighters or complete the 100-Man Smash with the same. It isn’t hard; it just takes a long time to complete. Now that I’ve mostly conquered those challenges, I have a few more fighter to do 100-Man with, I feel like I have a handle on every fighter in the game. So I am going to rank them using a complicated formula known only to me. Mostly just a combination of how much I like them mixed with how effective I think they are and how much I like or dislike fighting against them.

*: Mii Swordsmaster, Brawler and Gunner – I haven’t used these three enough to rank them.

48: Wario – Remember, this list is largely based on how much I like to play as the characters. And as much as I love Wario and his motorcycle and his farting, I am terrible with him. I die so often and so quickly that I can’t ever play as him. Bottom of the list.

47: Meta Knight – Meta Knight I simply don’t like. He annoys me when I play as him or against him. Screw Meta Knight.

46: King Dedede – Another Wario case. Dedede his hilarious, but I just can’t play as him.

45: Mr. Game and Watch – I have softened on Mr. G&W since I forbid his use on my Gamecube back in the day, but as amusing as flipping sausages at foes is ,I don’t really like to play as him.

44: Olimar – He is too weird for me to have any fun with. I like his games, but that doesn’t really translate to Smash.

43: Yoshi – My hate for Yoshi has lessened greatly from the Melee/Brawl days. Him and his baby voice still annoy me, but I actually have some fun with him now.

42: Pit – I like the character, but try as I might I can’t figure out how to get a KO with him. He is too weak.

41: Sonic – A slippery fast jerk with a bunch of annoying fans. Not using him.

40: Ganondorf – He is basically the opposite of Pit, all I can do with him is get KO’s. I can’t move or fight, just randomly punch around to occasionally knock people out.

39: Fox – Better than Brawl, but still no fun.

38: Captain Falcon – I want to like Captain Falcon. But I am so very, very bad with him. Still, I can occasionally manage competence using him.

37: Diddy Kong – I’m actually not bad with Diddy, but that doesn’t mean I don’t find him annoying. Another character I find too weak.

36: Charizard – He was the worst part of the Pokemon Trainer trio, but he still isn’t terrible. I just find him awkward to use.

35: Lucario – He’s fine, but I don’t ever really want to use him. I do like gimmick of getting much stronger as he takes damage.

34: Shulk- I like the character, but I haven’t been able to crack using him. So he ends up pretty far down the list.

33: Kirby – My eternal nemesis. (i.e. my brother’s favorite character) He’s fun to play against, but I am just no good with him.

32: Mario – From here up are characters I generally enjoy playing as, where below are the ones I kind of don’t. Mario is neutral.

31: Dark Pit – He’s like Pit, but just enough stronger for me to get KO’s with him.

30: Zero Suit Samus – Too fast for me, but a generally fun character to play as.

29: Sheik – See ZSS, Sheik is the same deal.

28: Greninja – I’ve fiddled a little bit, but he kind of falls into that same ZSS Sheik mold.

27: Falco – He’s a little better than Fox, that’s about all I can say with him.

26: Villager – I suck as this guy/gal. But his attacks are all so weird that I can’t help but love him/her.

25: Pikachu – Probably my favorite of the small speedy characters.

24: Dr. Mario – He is Mario, but fun to play as. Plus, he’s got the Tornado Spin.

23: Palutena – Another weird new character. Her moves are strong, but awkward.

22: Wii Fit Trainer – I really love the new characters. WFT is just as amusing I’d hoped s/he would be when announced.

21: Zelda – This is basically the same as she was before, except with a new down special. I really like her.

20: Donkey Kong – This is the last character that I am terrible with, but he’s so much fun. He is strong and slow and I lose and lose and lose while playing as him. I don’t care; I’m going to keep using DK.

19: Marth – My old favorite Melee character, but I can’t quite use him as well as I’d like, though I’m better than I was with him in Brawl.

18: Pac-Man – Weird newcomer? You bet. He is such a fun love letter to Namco arcade games.

17: Peach – She’s the floatiest and has some fun moves.

16: R.O.B – This robot is a tough character to deal with. I’ve got nothing else to say. I’m glad he’s here.

15: Samus – I hated Samus in Brawl. She had not power. Here she is nearly back to being the beast she was in the original; she is just hard to KO.

14: Luigi – Luigi is my boy, but I’ve lost a lot of my skills with using him. He is still the best, but I’m no longer the best with him.

13: Rosalina – She is like Ice Climbers lite, with the Luma echoing Rosalina’s attacks. Plus, she is pretty heavy.

12: Little Mac – Strong on the ground and nothing in the air. I like him a lot, but you best not end up off the edge, he’s got no recovery.

11: Duck Hunt – Biggest surprise in the game. He has a lot of medium range attacks and a great hook.

10: Link – Link was terrible in Brawl, but I love him this time. His move-set has a few changes, like his hopping running attack, but for the most part it was just small tweaks to make him fun again.

09: Robin – Another character with a kind of high concept hook. Robin is the first Fire Emblem character to use that games breakable weapons or magic. It makes for a fun, versatile character.

08: Ness – The original weird character. His recovery is still chancy, but he still has an excellent array of moves.

07: Mega Man – He has the most versatile move-set, a great KO move and is just generally a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I haven’t used much since I wasted all my time with him on the demo.

06: Bowser Jr. – This should actually read any of the Koopalings names, because I don’t use B Jr. here, I use Ludwig or Roy. While he lacks a good KO move, his clowncar has a lot going on.

05: Bowser – I hated Bowser before this, but now they’ve got the heavy right. His power is scary and he now he doesn’t die before he can bring it to bear.

04: Jigglypuff – She’s a Kirby clone without his signature move. Her singing, falling asleep combo is impossible to pull off against an opponent with a brain. But I love to clown people with Jigglypuff. Rollout and spike kick and constant taunts.

03: Lucina – She is the return of Roy. Same moves as Marth, but a little stronger and with a different focal point on the sword. I liked Marth more back in the day, but I am much better with Girl Marth this time around.

02: Ike – Ike is still a beast, though a little less of a beast that before. He is still a KO machine, but he is a little easy to take out now. I still love him.

01: Toon Link – He seems to be the sturdiest of the light characters. Plus he has Link’s wide variety of attacks. Plus he’s Toon Link.

Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse

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This has been quite a year for 2D platformers, seeing the release of such titles as Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze (technically 2.5D, but the play style is the same), 1001 Spikes, Shovel Knight and Guacamelee Super Turbo Championship Edition (I know that one is not technically a new release, but close enough) among others. It has simple been a great year, with several more due over the next few weeks. Even though I was greatly anticipating Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, I am shocked about how good it is. I wanted it to be this good, but I really didn’t expect it. Wayforward’s original forays are almost always worth playing, but they also tend to be flawed. Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse is their original masterpiece.

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I love Wayforward; they make good games. Most of their output is licensed titles of variable quality. There is an underlying level of competence to even the bad ones that makes any Wayforward game worth giving a look. Their Adventure Time games are pretty good and their superhero games, Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Thor, are solid beat-em-ups. They are good, but not great games. Then they have a handful of remakes and re-imaginings; which is largely their best output. Contra 4, A Boy and his Blob and Double Dragon Neon are all excellent games. But those are all built upon pre-existing works. They are refinements of existing templates. That is not meant to diminish them, again they are great games, but they feel in a small way like they are not Wayforward’s games.

Wayforward’s original titles haven’t been bad, only small. The original Shantae is a fine game, but it chafes against the limitations of its platform. The GBC is not a great system for action games. While Shantae looked good it was an uneven title. The difficulty is frontloaded and Shantae’s sprite, while great looking, is a little too big for the small screen. The loosely tied Mighty series of games a delightful, but they are also bite-sized. Shantae: Risky’s Revenge was just short of being great. It is very, very good, but there are a just too many small problems. The game can be a chore to navigate and it, like the Mighty games, is just too darn short.

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Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, though, irons out all those flaws. It is a meaty game, a good ten hours long the first time through and never tedious or repetitive. It finally becomes the true Metroidvania that the previous two games hinted at, though it still somewhat level based. The individual areas do not connect like the areas of Super Metroid, but it does nail that free roaming exploration feel. In practice it feels like Monster World 4, but with the ability to backtrack. It is just a finely tuned game. Shantae’s hair whipping attack always looked good, but this time it actually feels like the attack has enough range. The heroine has lost her transformation abilities, but the new pirate themed skills she acquires more than make up for it. The transformations were great, but the pirate skills are smoother. It is easier to flip between them. The whole game just feels perfectly honed.

It is impossible to talk about this game without mentioning the graphics. Many 2D games go for a stylized self-consciously retro look. Shovel Knight does its best to look like an NES, 1001 Spikes looks like something older. Anything that tries to look newer inevitably goes 3D. Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse is 2D, but it isn’t trying to look old, it simply looks great. It looks like a 16-bit game on steroids. It also uses the 3D capabilities of the 3DS to make the sprite layers look great. Everything just looks great. It also sounds pretty good as well.

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This game is seriously the best case scenario I imagined when Wayforward announced that this game was coming. But it kept getting pushed back, the release date was constantly uncertain and they did a kickstarter for a new Shantae game in between the time this game was announced and when it released. I never really thought the game was in trouble or anything, but I expected it to be a little flawed. They seem to have taken the Nintendo philosophy with delays, that it is better to delay a game and fix it than release a flawed game on time. That is unusual, only Nintendo has my faith to pull it off, but Wayforward did it with this game. Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse is the best possible game it could be.

There are Tomb Raiders and there are Tomb Raiders

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I recently played two Tomb Raider games, last’s years Tomb Raider reboot and Tomb Raider Underworld. The differences between them are a prime example of why I am feeling increasingly disconnected with so called AAA video games. Tomb Raider 2013 (from here on just called Tomb Raider) is easily the better made game, but I enjoyed Underworld more despite its flaws. There is a fundamental difference to the way they approach things that, even though Underworld’s execution is flawed, I still find it to be the superior experience.

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This is not about Tomb Raider changing what the series is really about; honestly I don’t care much about that. After playing these two games I’ve now played 5 Tomb Raider games and beaten 2 of them. (I have not yet reached the end of Underworld) I spent some time with Tomb Raider 2 way back in the day, but never played it enough to really gain an appreciation for it. I understood the importance of the series; along with Mario 64, Tomb Raider was essential to the development of 3D games. However, while games like Metal Gear Solid and Ocarina of Time built off of that foundation, Tomb Raider never really advanced. For all of the PS1 generation, it was stuck much the same as it started. That sort of design bottomed out early in the PS2 days, and then the series rebounded with Tomb Raider: Legend. I liked that game because it took many cues from the Prince of Persia games from the same time. I beat that game and dabbled with Anniversary before the change in consoles left me out in the cold. So while I do have some experience with the series, it has never really been one of my favorites. While I wasn’t particularly thrilled with the direction that Tomb Raider when in, it has nothing to do with any delusions of it abandoning what came before it, a threat I’ve seen leveled as other popular games from long running series like Resident Evil 4.

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As I’ve already said, Tomb Raider is in most ways a better game than Underworld. The graphics are a big step up. Underworld has some nice environments, but Lara’s character model is grotesquely cartoonish. The environments look real, but Lara simply doesn’t fit in. Underworld also fails at times with its controls. No matter what I liked or disliked about Tomb Raider, I can’t think of a single situation when the controls did not work as intended. Within the first hour of starting Underworld it had already had its context sensitive inputs fail or misinterpret what I was trying to do a half dozen times. There are times where the camera doesn’t cooperate in giving you a useful view to maneuver through the environments, another thing that as not a problem with Tomb Raider.

What I like more about Underworld than Tomb Raider is that Underworld is a game about exploration with some shooting while Tomb Raider is a game about shooting with some exploration in it. The focus of Underworld is in exploring various environments. They are obstacle courses, mazes and treasure maps; the point of the game is to look around and find what’s out there. Sometimes the obstacles in Lara’s do involve shooting, but that is far from the focus. In Tomb Raider, the shooting is the main point. The exploring that is in the game is there for contrast with shooting. It ratchets up the tension with gunfights and set pieces; then lets the player cool down with some relaxing exploration. It is an effective combo, but it mostly succeeds in taking all the importance out of the exploration. The exploration is just the extra stuff.

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By itself Tomb Raider is a fine game, but it is also an example of a trend with big budget games. On the PS2 Ubisoft made Prince of Persia games about navigating a series of complex traps, but those gave way to the Assassin’s Creed series, which have similar, in some ways, gameplay but shift the focus onto killing people. The kind of platform and action games I like have given way to a cavalcade of shooters. Many of them are good games, but they are just not for me. Which is fine. Luckily, despite the myopia of big publishers, we are living in a golden age of new and different types of games. Sure, they might not have the production values and polish that games from big publishers might have, but the variety is astounding. As long as the indie game scene keeps cranking out new and interesting experiences, I don’t mind missing out on the big stuff.

Some Early Smash Thoughts

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So I’ve has Smash Brothers for 3DS for a weekend now and I feel like I am just scratching the surface of what this game has to offer. I had already spent a ton of time with the demo before the game came out, but the whole game is much different and more robust experience. It is Smash Bros, at its heart the same game that it’s been since the N64 but as always stuffed to the brim with love for Nintendo.

The accepted narrative is that Smash Bros 4 rights the wrongs of Brawl. I disagree with that, Brawl was a fine game, a better one than Melee by a country mile. There were flaws, the character roster wasn’t that well balanced and tripping, while amusing, was not a good addition. But despite its unbalanced nature, the roster of characters was expansive and varied. The single player experience was by a wide margin the best thing the series has ever seen. Smash Bros. 4, though, does improve on Brawl in several ways. Despite the loss of a few fighters, the stable of fighters is even more impressive. The game is also sped up from Brawl’s leisurely pace. Not back up to Melee’s uncontrollable speed, but it is faster than it was. There are some problems as well. The single player seems somewhat barren. There are several different single player modes, but not a one of them is as substantial or entertaining as Brawl’s Subspace Emissary, as flawed as it was. Still, it makes up for it by having a worthwhile online mode.

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all pics taken from Nintendo’s website

That online mode is much better than Brawl’s. Brawl was of Nintendo’s earliest forays into online play and they didn’t quite get it. I played a few matches without lag, but unplayable lagginess was the norm. I have had some laggy games on the 3DS, but mostly it has been a pleasant experience. Other than the fact that I am getting beaten pretty regularly, that is. The local multiplayer is a little less spectacular, since the game doesn’t feature download play. I can understand why not, but it isn’t ideal.

I am in love with this games character roster. Not only are there a ton of new character, but a lot of the old characters feel drastically different despite not having their move sets changed up all that much. No matter how much I play, I can’t seem to choose a character, or even three characters, to be my main. There are plenty of interesting characters here. I’ll break them up into a couple of different categories: best newcomer and most improved returning character.

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The best newcomer is a tough call. Most of the really interesting characters are new. Like Palutena, who is fun despite the fact that I can’t quite figure her out or Little Mac, who is powerful but lacks good recovery moves. There are surprises, like Xenoblade’s Shulk and Duck Hunt Dog. I love Duck Hunt Dog, even if I don’t love playing as him. My favorite is, shockingly, Bowser Jr. Bowser Jr. is a stupid character. His existence lessens the importance of the more interesting Koopalings. Seeing that he was going to be in the game was a little disappointing. But not only are his alternate costumes the Koopalings, making him essentially 8 characters in one, but he is a ton of fun to use. He has decent power and movement. His unorthodox set up, being a small character in a machine, gives him an interesting hook.

The most improves returning character is also hard to choose. A lot of the old standbys were kind of awful in Brawl. Link and Samus were just north of jokes and both have seen a significant bump up in power. Both of them are legitimate combatants this time around. Like in the early Smash Bros games, Samus is a chore to finish off. No matter how hard you hit her, she just floats back in. Link is capable of a ton of feat, with both solid ranged and up close abilities. The most improved, though, has to be Bowser. I hated Bowser in the last game. He was strong, but he was too slow to be that serious of a threat. He is still just as much of a beast, but now he has some much needed agility. He actually moves around decently. He’ll never be anything but a lumbering giant, but now it is not such an insurmountable flaw.

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I guess what I’m saying is that new Smash Bros is great and you should be playing it. I feared this game might lessen my desire for the WiiU version. Even though this game is great, it is hampered enough by its platform to make me yearn for the solid heft of a real controller, instead of contorting my hands to hold the 3DS. Time to get back to Smashing.

Stopping at Fourside

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Like any right thinking person, I was elated last year when Earthbound finally hit virtual console. I don’t know what caused Nintendo to hold it back for so long; maybe it was the rumored problems with some musical sampling, maybe NOA President Reggie Fils-Aime loves to feast on fans tears. No matter what held it up, the game’s digital release was a cause for celebration. I quickly purchased it and got to playing. I didn’t finish, though.

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I have finished Earthbound before. My brother and I borrowed it way back in the summer of ’98 or ’99. I was about fifteen, he was a year younger. We each had our own files and we took turns as best we could. I mean, we fought over who got to play and who got to play first, but we each got roughly the same amount of play time. The two of us play games differently. I am all about the experience. I like to explore, but I am generally about pushing the game forward. I want to get to the next area, to beat the next boss. I have no problem experimenting with strategies or different skills, but I don’t tinker just to tinker. If I have a strategy that works, I see no reason to change it. My brother, on the other hand, tends to master games. He loves to experiment with the game. If he gets a new attack, he will try to find a use for it, even if it doesn’t appear immediately useful. That also means that he has a tendency to grind. He will find out how everything works and how to game the system. What does that have to do with Earthbound? When we played I rushed ahead, speeding through the game to Magicant. There I promptly got stuck, dying repeatedly against Ness’s Nightmare. My brother was a little behind me, but he was also several levels higher. When he got to Magicant, me being the inconsiderate teenager I was, I played off of his save to the end of the game. I only saved once, but it was enough to rob him of some of the enjoyment of playing the game. I was an asshole, but an asshole that had beaten Earthbound.

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Since then I have not been able to beat the game. It is not some sort of Karmic justice, just the reality of not owning the cartridge. I didn’t have the game, so I couldn’t play it. I did make several attempts at emulating it. The first time I spent a few leisurely weeks meandering through the first couple of areas of the game. I got to Fourside, and then my save disappeared. I don’t know what I did, it was just gone. I tried again a few years later, but my laptop died right around the time I reached Fourside. A few years ago, right around the time that the Mother 3 translation came out, I tried once more only to get distracted about the time I got to … Fourside. Just last year, when Earthbound finally reached Virtual Console, I played it right to the point where I got to Fourside.

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I know the first half of Earthbound as well as I know any game. I could play through Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger or Suikoden II in my sleep. The same goes for Earthbound up to Fourside. After that, I am less sure. I remember parts of it, a desert, Magicant, Poo’s Cloudy home, but I am not sure of the order or the exact trials the player faces. The memories are there, but they are foggy. I feel like I’ve failed somehow for not playing this game more; like I am a poseur only pretending to be a fan. Especially now that I actually own the game. Now that I do own the game, I really should beat the game again. That is what I am trying to do before Bayonetta 2 hits later this month.

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As for Karmic justice, that hit me as well. About five years ago now that friend that I borrowed Earthbound from was selling all of his old video games. He needed some cash. While he was more than happy to take the game shops offer for games like Ultraman or Eye of the Beholder for SNES, but their offer for Earthbound was insultingly low. My brother, who just happened to be with him at the time, offered him twice what the store was for the game. So he is now the owner of the copy of Earthbound we played as children. He deserves it.