25 Years of NES Part 20: Contra
Video Games
I’m Finished!
25 Years of NES Part 19: Kid Icarus.
Gotta Catch’em All
I spent most of the last week or so playing the newest Pokemon release (White for me because I’m racist). I love it. Pokemon has lost nothing in the 13 years since it landed on American shores. Amazingly, the Pokemon “fad” seems to have diminished slightly or not at all if the record first day sales are to be believed. For the first time since I bought Red on a whim, I went into this game virtually blind. I knew how the game worked, it doesn’t change drastically from game to game, but other than what the starter Pokes looked like, I knew almost nothing about this version. Playing it blind has made me absurdly nostalgic for the old Game boy days of Pokemon.
As I said, I bought Pokemon Red on a whim way back in October of 1998, about a month after its release. I was a newly minted teenager, flush with a small fortune in birthday money and in control of the family Game boy Pocket. But the Game boy was a tired system, especially in the Skocy household. The system was closing in on 10 years old at that point and while we hadn’t had it that long, we had definitely had it long enough for me to extract all the fun possible from Super Mario Land 2, Kirby’s Dreamland and Wario Blast (a Bomberman/Wario crossover). A fortuitous Wal-Mart stop allowed me to glimpse a commercial for some game called “Pokemon.” A kindly older, animated gentleman, who I later learned was called Professor Oak, told me how you catch monsters and force them to fight in virtual cockfights. The screens reminded me of the Final Fantasy series, which I was already enthralled with. I had to have this game. After wheedling my mother for permission, as I hadn’t actually brought that birthday money with me, I became the owner of a copy of Pokemon Red.
I got in somewhat before the craze, but I soon learned that a cartoon was already airing in the morning. So I set my VCR to record it. Because even if I had the desire to wake up early to watch it, my mother did not allow us to watch TV before school. To this day I have several tapes full of Pokemon cartoons. But the cartoon was always a side attraction. The game was where it was at. There was so much to love about the game. It took the gameplay of Dragon Quest and combined it with the fun of pet raising, a truly addictive combination. The similarity to Tamogotchi and other similar virtual pets probably helped fuel the fad talk, though Pokemon has surely outlived that. The trading aspect was the game’s crowning achievement. There was something great about trading on the Game Boy, though I certainly do not miss the hassle of the link cable.
I can still remember my first team, the one that I first used to curb stomp the elite four into submission. My starter was Bulbasaur. I gave him a nickname that it kills me to not remember; he never left my party. I used a Mankey who fell back near the end of the game, but that little pig-monkey has always been a favorite. I had a Jigglypuff I used quite extensively despite its near uselessness. I had a Pidgeot, the first Pokemon I caught. My ringer, the Poke who pulled the other’s bacon off the fire when things turned south was a Gyarados, the one that an unscrupulous hiker would sell at the start of the game. The joy of Pokemon, especially the first generation, was in the discovery. Each of the Pokemon was a revelation. Now everyone knows that the useless Magikarp evolves into the all-powerful Gyarados, but when I first started, I had no idea. I hoped, guided by an already sharp grasp of video game logic, that that little fish couldn’t just be useless, but I did not know. Each new area of the game unveiled new monsters to tame, with new abilities and skills to master. It perfectly captured the feeling of stepping into a new world that as a player it was your job to explore. It is no wonder it was the phenomenon that it was.
After the first game, though, the series lost some of its luster. I played Gold and Silver, but the magic was gone. I think a big part of that was the fact that I had scoured the internet in the months preceding the release for information about the game. I had nothing to discover. Then I skipped Ruby and Sapphire entirely. I wasn’t really up on the release at the time, I had just moved on. But when Diamond and Pearl came out for the DS is was itching for some Pokemon fun. And Pearl scratched that itch, but it still lacked the magic of Red and Blue.
But White has recaptured that magic. I think the key is that as soon as I decided to buy White, I stopped checking out information on it. I made a point of knowing as little as possible about the game before I played it. Nintendo and Game Freak helped me out by limiting the available Pokemon during the main game to only the new ones. While many of the Pokes fall into the same archetypes as the original 150, there was enough new for it to be fresh. I don’t think I’ll have quite as fond memories of White as I do of Red, I’m not 13 anymore, but I’m having just as much catching them all as I did back then. The fact that it is still going strong makes me hope that there will be many future releases that rekindle this joy of discovery and collecting.
The Crystal Bearers
If there were ever a game that was more than the sum of its parts that game is Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers. This Square-Enix action game–if you are being generous you could call it an action-RPG–is a spin-off of a spin-off of that revered RPG institution Final Fantasy. Being a double spin-off is not the best pedigree that a game could have, especially when it strays from the original series’ genre. Released in December 2009, The Crystal Bearers, despite its exceedingly popular parent title, landed with a wet thud on the gaming scene. The genre, the system, the buzz; it all worked against the game. Even as staunch supported of the Wii as I am (best console of the generation, no contest), the game fell off my radar for most of the year, but good fortune and the clearance rack worked in my favor.
Despite its original, and not wholly unwarranted, poor reception The Crystal Bearers is at the very least an interesting game. It is one of the most inventive and original games not only on the Wii, but also of the entire console generation.
The game’s reception is no surprise when one takes a closer look at who made it: Akitoshi Kawazu. Kawazu is the man behind the bulk of Squaresoft’s, now Square-Enix’s, most obtuse and reviled games. While the hate for his games is not entirely unfair, it is somewhat small-minded. Kawazu’s games, most notably the SaGa series in its myriad forms, ply by their own always complex rules. Mostly they look and play like regular JRPGs, but the underlying mechanics are usually different enough that playing them as though they are just another Final Fantasy game results in an awkward and unsatisfying experience. If the player takes the time to properly learn the game’s systems, they can be some of the most satisfying games. It is not easy to do so, though, because the games are usually obtuse and unintuitive and downright unfriendly. Moreover, as his games are often experiments, some of those experiments are failures–I’m looking at you Final Fantasy 2. The best way to describe Kawazu’s oeuvre is that it is an acquired taste. While The Crystal Bearers is very different from most of Kawazu’s games, it still fits that acquired taste mold.
The Crystal Bearers is two different games jammed together. There is the story mode, a sequence of partially controlled scenes and events. The events are not exactly mini-games, but they do usually use unique mechanics specific to that one event. They are similar in concept to QTEs but with more player control. Some of them even use the central mechanic of the other game, grabbing and throwing things with the Wii remote. The story takes about 8 hours to play through and as far a JRPG stories go (I know that Crystal Bearers technically isn’t a JRPG, but it is still Final Fantasy) it is pretty solid. It is not particularly well written or original, but it has its own unique charm. The Crystal Bearers’ story doesn’t take itself too seriously, moves quickly and keeps the action coming. Comparing the pacing to an action movie is accurate. It doesn’t hurt that the game is darn pretty. And I do not mean that backhanded compliment “pretty for a Wii game.” On a pure technical level, it is not particularly astonishing, but the artistry and the design of the world are outstanding. The story part of the game is a thrill ride with plenty of fun, though not too deep, gameplay.
The real meat of the game is the open world parts, which are everywhere that is not a story scene. The player only has one ability, the aforementioned grabbing and throwing. Despite the simplicity of this core mechanic, the game has tons of ways to utilize it. If you throw a skeleton’s head, he will stop attacking to chase after it. If you throw two long time Final Fantasy enemy Bombs at each other they will explode fantastically. Enemies are not just focused on the player, but they react to each other. The King Behemoth chases other monsters around his map. There are tons and tons of different reactions to get by throwing enemies different places or at other enemies. Similar to the joy people get from tooling around in a Grand Theft Auto game, The Crystal Bearers gives you an open world with tons of possibilities. I spent tons of time messing around and ended up with about 30% of the game’s medals.
True to its predecessors, The Crystal Bearers has some baffling choices in game design. Like the fact that everything non-story is optional. You do not have to do anything outside of the short storyline. So all that emergent gameplay in the field areas is easy to miss. The player is given little incentive to explore the game, outside of sheer curiosity. I was halfway through the game before I started really messing around with all of the field parts. The two different games are put together, but they do not mesh very well. The player will get out of the game what they are willing to look for. Except for at the very end. The last boss takes the gameplay of the field segments and uses them for the basis of the battle. It is suitably epic and enthralling, but if the player has not kept up with the optional parts and increasing the quality of their gear, there and only there will they have a problem.
It is odd and unique and definitely not for everybody, but The Crystal Bearers is a flawed gem. All of the wonderful emergent gameplay that the game is built for is sidelined for a focus on the trite if somewhat entertaining story. It shows the best that Square can do, but also how they are still stuck on the recreating the success of FFVII. At the very least, it shows that the experimental and odd Square from the PS1 days is still around; it has just been branded Final Fantasy.
You Mean Samus is a Girl?
25 Years of NES Part 18: Metroid
It’s a Secret to Everybody
The Best Games Ever
Recently, this conversation and this blog post gave me the idea to post my own 50 favorite games list. The forum thread asks, “When was the last time you played you 50th favorite game?” (Now it has been revised to better reflect the true nature of the question; how often do you play that games you liked but did not love?) So, I thought I would list my 50 favorite games. While some thought did go into this list, it is off the top of my head, so it is very possible there is some oversight and I left off some game the should be on this list. Of course, if I liked it so much then I probably would not have forgotten it. Here is the list, in mostly alphabetical order:
- Beyond Good and Evil
- Chrono Cross
- Chrono Trigger
- Dragon Quest 4
- Dragon Quest 5
- Earthbound
- Final Fantasy 6
- Final Fantasy 9
- Final Fantasy Tactics
- Final Fantasy XII
- Ico
- Kirby Super Star
- Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
- Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
- Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
- Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
- Lunar 2: Eternal Blue
- Mega Man 2
- Mega Man 3
- Mega Man 9
- Metal Gear Solid 3
- Metroid Prime
- New Super Mario Bros. Wii
- No More Heroes
- No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
- Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber
- Okami
- Persona 3: FES
- Persona 4
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All
- Professor Layton and the Curious Village
- Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
- Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
- Resident Evil 4
- Retro Game Challenge
- River City Ransom
- Shadow of the Colossus
- Soul Caliber 2
- Star Fox 64
- Suikoden 2
- Suikoden 5
- Super Mario Bros. 3
- Super Mario World
- Super Mario 64
- Super Mario Galaxy
- Super Mario Galaxy 2
- Super Metroid
- Super Smash Brothers Brawl
I’m happy with this list. It is an accurate representation of what I like and what I play. Lots of Nintendo classic franchises, Mario and Zelda etc., and lots of RPGs. (Now that I look at it, I realize I completely ignored computer games, which would have added at least a few games, like The Sims 2, Red Alert 2 and Baldur’s Gate 2.) These are not the only games I play, but they are the ones that tend to resonate with me.
How often do I replay these games? Most of them I’ve played through multiple times. The shorter games, like Star Fox 64 or any NES game on the list, I play often. If I can sit and beat a game in less than 2 hours, I am more likely to come back to it. With the exception of the Persona games, I have also played all of the RPGs at least twice, although for some I haven’t played them in years. The only games I do not see myself replaying are the Professor Layton games. Don’t get me wrong, I love Professor Layton, but the whole game is based on solving puzzles and I’ve already solved them. Maybe one day I will forget the solutions, but if I went back now it would be rote and boring. I haven’t, however, played most of these games in the last couple of years. I have played tons of new games, but my old favorites have sat on the shelf. Which is a big change from how I’m used to doing things. I rarely bought new games in high school; instead obsessively playing the ones I had. I think I’ll fire up my Wii and play through Star Fox 64 or Mega Man 3 tonight.
Clinging Together
Tactics Ogre is a remake of a SNES game, but it still has plenty of progressive features. Tactics Ogre has always been an ambitious game, but the limits of both the previous systems it has been released on, the SNES and an apparently borked PS1 port, and of it adherence to some frustrating design choices has held the game back from it greatness. It is the predecessor to Final Fantasy Tactics, and the similarities are apparent. They play almost identically. While Final Fantasy Tactics largely improved and refined what the game did, Tactics Ogre is actually more ambitious in one category: the story. One of the draws, or flaws, of Final Fantasy Tactics is its plot, a political drama that plays out like a Shakespearian tragedy (This is not meant to mean that there is a similarity in quality, only in tone). Tactics Ogre’s story is largely the same, but it gives the player to ability to choose his path through the game, resulting in 8 different endings. Unfortunately, to sees these ending you would have to play through the game 8 times. There is also a progressive leveling system, unlike any I’ve encountered before but so simple a change that I’m surprised I’ve never seen it before.
With the new PSP remake, this is no longer the case. In the Warren Report, the games ludicrously detailed repository of world history and character profiles and information that is entirely unnecessary but largely interesting, there is a feature called the Workd. In battle there is the Chariot, this allows the player to rewind the battle in case things go badly. The World works along similar lines, it allows the player to go back and choose another path, changing the response the player made when it first occurred. Therefore, instead of multiple playthroughs, now you can play to the end, then go back and see each branching point to see how it played out the other way. While some progress may be lost–I haven’t reached the end and unlocked it yet so I don’t know–it allows players to see much more of the game easier.
The leveling system is brilliant and removes much of the hassle of grinding from the game. Instead of each character leveling independently, the classes gain levels and every character in that class is that level. Characters must still learn skills, with skill points that are accumulated separately from experience. So new characters may be the same level as the old hands, allowing them to function in battle, but the will lack the accumulated skills of the others. This allows the player to get characters quickly up to speed, but rewards them for smart use of skill points. The new system is not perfect, though. When each new level opens up it starts at level one. Just like when raising to a character to match other established ones, the new classes will be mostly useless for several battles. This is exacerbated by most random battles allowing only six units on the battlefield instead of the 10 allowed in story battles. But this is a minor speed bump in an otherwise terrific system.
These two features make Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together more than a musty old SNES game with a facelift, but a new and original experience. And an early favorite for game of the year.
He’s Probably Named after the Vacuums
Riding into the Sunset
The 3DS is hitting soon, so I guess it’s time to say goodbye to the DS. Not that mine is going anywhere for a while, but I expect releases to dry out quickly with new hardware on the market. It is sad that possibly the best video game system ever created is now entering it final months of relevance, but I was definitely a good run.
I’m not going to do a ridiculous series of posts like my 25 Years of NES undertaking, because that it time consuming and Jeremy Parish at 1UP has beaten me too it. I do want to list some of my favorite games on the system, list some I missed but am anxious to get my hands on and highlight the glorious send off it is receiving.
I was just going to list my 10 favorite DS games, with a brief explanation why I liked them, but picking only 10 games out of the DS’s expansive library is no easy feat. So I’ll combine some series into one entry and try to avoid the games in the previously linked articles. They are in no particular order.
- Chrono Trigger: Yes, I know it is a slightly “enhanced” port of a SNES game, but it is a great SNES game. This is probably my favorite game, and this port is really good. Having Chrono Trigger on the go would blow the mind of 12-year-old Scott, and 25-year-old Scott was only slightly less impressed.
- Etrian Odyssey series: These 3 games from Atlus are hard to recommend to any but old school JRPG players. They are unfriendly, frustratingly difficult and purposefully ignorant of 20 years of progress in the genre. Still, I play them. Because there is nothing quite as satisfying as conquering the series dungeons and mastering their depths.
- Ace Attorney series: This series of 4 (5ish) graphic adventures are what sold me on the DS. They are well written, with have likeable cast and plots only slightly crazier that the usual cop drama on TV. Screaming “Objection!” into the DS’s microphone is equally embarrassing and enjoyable (and optional). I don’t think anyone needs to hear anything more than “playable courtroom drama,” though.
- Professor Layton series: Like the Ace Attorney series, the Professor Layton games are graphical adventure games. However, they dispense with the gaminess of the interweaving the puzzles and just sort of drop them in there. The story parts of Professor Layton are just gravy, delicious animated tales put on top of the real meat and potatoes of the game: the brain busting puzzles. I sure do hope the rest of the series makes it over here.
- Dragon Quest 4: Chapters of the Chosen: There are tons of Dragon Quest games on the DS, and DQ4 is probably my favorite. This NES remake is not too different from DQ5 or 6, but it has the best cast. The varied group of heroes that you gather in DQ4 is one of the best parties in any RPG.
- Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime: Since it is a spin-off, I am glad to allow this game in addition to DQ4. Rocket Slime is basically a Zelda game starring the weakest enemy from the Dragon Quest series. With giant tank battles. And puns, lots and lots of puns. It is joy on a DS cart.
- Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: I may not have been completely enthusiastic about this game in my recent review, but it is terrific. It doesn’t match the home console Zeldas, but as a handheld title, it is hard to match. And it fixes most of the problems with Phantom Hourglass.
- Pokemon Pearl: My save on this game has more than 300 hours on it. Do I really need to say more?
- Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin: Many, perhaps most, people would call this the weakest of the DS Castlevanias. With its flaws notwithstanding, and most of the flaw’s people point out are accurate, I really like this game. Maybe it the times when the two character mechanic echoes The Lost Vikings, maybe it the use of the iconic whip; whatever it is I like it a lot.
- Suikoden Tierkreis: Another title that got at best mixed reviews. I hated it a little at first, too. Because this spin-off, reboot, whatever it is probably signals the death knell for the Suikoden franchise and I loved the Suikoden franchise. Once I got past this games un-suikoden like parts, I realized that it is a very well made RPG in its own right. Many characters and if you can ignore the execrable voice acting not a terrible story.
While I have managed to play many DS games, there are quite a few that I’ve somehow managed to miss. Some are big name titles that I just could not afford, some are obscure little niche titles that flew under my radar. So Part to pf my DS farewell is a list of 10 potentially great DS games I missed.
- Contra 4: It’s Contra. I have meant to pick up this title for a long time, but it always is one of the last games I put down before I buy something else. I know it is near perfect run and gun gameplay.
- Bangai-O Spirits: A puzzle/shooter that I had one chance to buy, choose not to and haven’t seen again. All reports say it is terrific.
- Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure: Platformer on top and puzzle game on the bottom, this game looks to be an interesting mix of genres. I’ve heard it has some balancing issues, but I’m still intrigued even if the game has fallen to the backburner.
- Puzzle Quest: Another puzzle hybrid, this time with some RPG elements. It has two sequels and I’ve failed to pick up any of them. I was barely even aware of them for a long time. This is the kind of addictive game that could be stuck in my system for months.
- Knights in the Nightmare: Yet another genre blender. KitN is a curious mix of RPG, Strategy and Shooter. It is part of the loose series from Sting that included Riviera and Yggdra Union. If I ever find it, I will buy it.
- Infinite Space: A space-sim RPG that hit and disappeared in the blink of an eye. By all accounts, it is good, but I have never seen it in the wild. You put together a space ship and a crew and do stuff in space, I guess.
- Super Princess Peach: According to Parish’s retrospective, this is the best Nintendo plat former on the DS. Like Infinite Space, it is very hard to find. You play as Peach has she attempts to rescue Mario using her wild mood swings.
- The Legend of Kage 2: This is just a straight-up hack and slash action game in the style of Ninja Gaiden (NES). I have no reason not to have already played this, just like Contra 4 it is exactly the sort of game I like. It is the sequel to a terrible NES game.
- Lost Magic: An early DS game that tried to be something of an RTS. Reviews were quite varied, but it looks charming. It helps that I enjoyed Revenant Wings, which had similar gameplay.
- Lost in Blue: The Lost in Blue series has always intrigued me, ever since I heard about it early in the DS’s lifecycle. The concept, guiding one or two castaways through life on a desert isle, sounded good but the reviews indicated that Konami never got the formula quite right. Still I’d like to try it out.
A system as great as the DS deserves a glorious send off. That glorious send off has already started. Two weeks ago, Nintendo and Square Enix dropped Dragon Quest 6 in the US. It is the first time the game, which his more than 10 years old, has been made available outside of Japan. This week, Radiant Historia hit, courtesy of Atlus. On March 6, Nintendo is putting out their probable last big DS release, Pokemon Black & White. Two weeks after will see the release of Okamiden, the sequel to the much loved but little purchased PS2 and Wii title Okami. And the week after that, a much smaller but still interesting title hits: Monster Tale, a metroidvania style game from the makers of the creative but uneven Henry Hatsworth. All of these titles come out in just over a month. While the slate is titled toward RPGs, this is a nice exit for the DS. I do hope that the quality titles do not dry immediately. They’ll slow to a trickle, but there are tons of games that never made the trip over and still some life in that beautiful clamshell.
Skociomatic 