Category Archives: Video Games

February 7, 2012

Circle Pad Pro: Revelation or Ruination?

By Joe

Today Nintendo released a new peripheral for its handheld system, the 3DS.  Dubbed the Circle Pad Pro, this attachment adds additional buttons to the 3DS along with an additional circle pad.  To make things slightly more annoying for gamers, it’s only available through Gamestop and will set you back $20.  Me, being the curious person I am (and since I received a gift card to Gamestop for Christmas), I hit the store and picked one up for myself.

The Circle Pad Pro, the best friend of the 3DS or hungry parasite? You decide.

An additional analog stick, or circle pad, is something many gamers wanted on the 3DS from the start.  While it certainly wasn’t a make or break feature, it’s nice to have.  Ever since Sony released its first version of the Dual Shock controller for the Playstation, the dual analog setup has become commonplace on controllers.  Often one stick controls player movement and the other manipulates the camera.  Other games, like first-person shooters, use one stick for movement and the other to aim.  A genre that was once cumbersome with a controller now has gamers feeling right at home.  And going from that setup to a non dual analog setup can be a bit odd, which is probably why upcoming Playstation Vita sports two analog “nubs.”  As I played through Ocarina of Time 3D I sometimes would find myself feeling for another analog stick out of habit to move the camera, and finding none.

Even though an additional analog input is something I would like to have, my initial reaction to the Circle Pad Pro was muted.  Peripherals often never work out well for consumers.  They’re often expensive, cumbersome, and lacking in support beyond an initial batch of games.  Very few end up being worthwhile.  Then again, no one has really tried to release something like this for a portable.  I’m trying to come up with something similar and the best I can come up with is the Gameboy Printer and Camera.  Neither was worth owning.

It looks like it's trying to swallow the 3DS.

The Circle Pad Pro almost looks like it could be a stand-alone device.  It’s much bigger than the 3DS as it’s meant to house the system like a cradle.  The 3DS fits into it snugly without any locking mechanism that could scratch the system or wind up broken.  The fit is tight enough that there’s really no worry about the system sliding out, but just in case Nintendo did include a wrist strap.  The Circle Pad Pro runs off a single AAA battery (included) which is a good thing because the battery life on the 3DS is bad enough as is. For some reason Nintendo decided to fasten the battery cover in place with a non-removable screw.  It’s good that the screw can’t fall out and get lost, but why was that even necessary?  It’s annoying.  The Circle Pad Pro does add considerable weight to the system, making it weigh just about as much as a first generation PSP.  It’s also quite bulky and definitely detracts from the portability of the system. This isn’t something that fits in most pockets.  And as far as I know, the Circle Pad Pro only comes in matte black, so if you have a blue or a pink 3DS it’s going to be quite the eye sore.

The peripheral may be bulky, but how does it feel?  Pretty nice, actually.  The 3DS is small and the rectangular shape may be efficient but it’s far from comfortable.  Often my hands are pretty tired and cramp after 45 minutes with the system, especially after some Mario Kart.  I’ve spent roughly the same amount of time with my first play session with the Circle Pad Pro and can report little to no discomfort.  The attachment makes the system feel more like a controller and the added weight is actually a welcome thing when it comes to the ergonomics of the device.  The second circle pad feels just like the one on the system, which means it’s a tad loose for my taste but it certainly gets the job done.  In addition to the additional circle pad, the Circle Pad Pro also adds two additional shoulder buttons to the 3DS.  They’re clicky buttons, not triggers, but feel fine.

Rear view, for those who like that sort of thing.

It’s not all gravy though.  The peripheral does cover up the game card slot so the 3DS needs to be removed from the Circle Pad Pro to switch out games.  It also covers up the wireless switch and stylus port, which is kind of annoying.  The added plastic on the right side of the system also makes reaching the face buttons a little awkward.  That will definitely take some getting used to.  Nintendo at least wisely left space for the AC input so you can use the Circle Pad Pro while the 3DS is plugged into a wall outlet.

The Circle Pad Pro could be a flawless addition to the 3DS but it would be terribly useless without software that supports it.  That’s why Nintendo held it back for today which just so happens to be the day Resident Evil: Revelations arrived in stores.  Some of you may have already read about that one and how Capcom released it with an embarrassing typo on the game case’s spin, and if you’re wondering, yes it appears every copy is like that.  Apparently anyone who picks up a copy of the game with the typo can get a free replacement insert but I have no idea why anyone would be bothered to go through the trouble.

Oops.

I picked up a copy of Revelaitons (sic) alongside the Circle Pad Pro.  I was surprised to see that there’s no mention of the device on the game’s packaging.  I figured there would be a tell-tale graphic of some kind alerting would-be consumers that the software supports the Circle Pad Pro but I guess not.  Worry not gamers, Revelations does indeed support the Circle Pad Pro and firing up the game with the Circle Pad Pro attached will cause the game to ask if you wish to make use of it.  I obviously haven’t played enough of the game to render a verdict on how good or bad it is, but I can report that the Circle Pad Pro works, for the most part.

The left circle pad controls your character, Jill, and the right circle pad pivots the camera and makes her turn, pretty much just like a first-person shooter.  When a baddie appears on the screen, pressing the new ZL button causes Jill to draw her firearm and the ZR button shoots.  The regular old R button (actually, that’s kind of new too as the Circle Pad Pro replaces the R button on the 3DS with a new button) causes Jill to bust out her knife or other equipped secondary weapon.  When running around, the ZR button appears to function as the action button which feels kind of odd but I imagine I’ll get used to it.  The face buttons do not appear to be used much though one uses herbs to restore Jill’s health when prompted.  I actually didn’t try the game without the Circle Pad Pro, but I can’t imagine the control scheme working better.

Ready for action!

Visually, Revelations appears to be a stunner.  It’s comparable to Resident Evil 4 or some of the best looking games on the PSP.  A lot of time was definitely invested in Jill as she looks noticeably better than some of the scenery.  The backgrounds I’ve seen have been a little drab but there was some nice lighting on the first scenario which takes place on a darkened ship.  The game immediately places the player in some close quarters which is an uncomfortable feeling, a good thing for a survival horror game.  There’s a lot to take in on the 3DS’s rather small screen and I did experience some minor eye strain after a little while.  And if you’re curious, most of that was spent with the 3D featured turned off (I mostly hate 3D).

I’m pretty optimistic for Revelations.  It feels like Resident Evil and it’s pretty nice looking.  I do find aiming kind of cumbersome as hitting the ZL button immediately brings you into a first-person perspective.  Jill feels kind of slow but the enemies seem pretty quick.  I’ll have to see if that becomes frustrating or not further into the game.  As for the Circle Pad Pro, it does get the job done but if no one supports it then it will just collect dust.  Metal Gear Solid 3D figures to make use of it, and there’s rumors Kid Icarus might as well.  We’ll just have to wait and see.  If it doesn’t bother you to spend the extra dough to get a little more out of Revelations, then I say go for it.  At least it’s not as expensive as the 32X.

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February 4, 2012

Requiem for the PSP

By Joe

The Sony Playstation Portable was first released in the US in 2005.

I was shocked when I realized that Sony’s Playstation Portable (PSP) has been on the market for nearly 7 years.  That’s quite a long time for any hardware to remain relevant, but then again portables have always had a longer shelf life than their console cousins.  The original Gameboy was around for a decade or so before Nintendo finally added color to it, and longer still before a true successor was released.  Handhelds do benefit from redesigns though.  The original bulky Gameboy was originally replaced by the Gameboy Pocket just as the PSP received multiple updates, including one radical re-design in the form of the PSP Go.  This post wouldn’t exist though if it wasn’t for the Playstation Vita, which is set to replace the PSP in less than two weeks.

I have always felt like the PSP was viewed as a failure by the gaming community, or at least only a minor hit.  It was crushed in sales when compared with its nearest competitor, the Nintendo DS.  The two systems have always been intertwined, and even though the DS beat the PSP to market it felt like Nintendo’s retaliation towards Sony.  Nintendo has always dominated the portable landscape.  While systems like Sega’s Game Gear and Atari’s Lynx failed to win over consumers Ninendo’s Gameboy steadily found homes in the back pocket of gamers across the world.  The Gameboy was not a technological marvel by any stretch of the imagination.  Even when it was first released it seemed little better than one of those Tiger handheld games.  When I was a kid, the only people who had Gameboys were those who had parents that weren’t willing to spend a bunch of money on a Nintendo Entertainment System or Super Nintendo once that came out.  It really didn’t become a truly viable system for me until Pokemon in 1998 and the Gameboy Color.  That’s when I jumped on board and I’ve owned every Nintendo portable since.

The PSP has not been a failure, but the redesigned UMD-less PSP Go sure as Hell was.

Sony has been the only real threat to Nintendo’s portable dominance.  Even though it failed to beat out Nintendo’s handheld, it’s actually done fairly well for itself.  Sony has sold approximately 17 million units in North America since 2005, but it’s in Japan where the system really did well as its sold 15 million units there.  It goes without saying, that Japan is much smaller than North America and its rare to see sales figures that are so close when comparing the two territories.  For the sake of comparison, the Nintendo DS has moved nearly 58 million units in North America, and around 33 million in Japan.  It’s those staggerring numbers for the DS that make the PSP seem like a failure.  The PSP has always been the more expensive piece of hardware, debuting at around $100 higher than the cost of the DS in the US, and it has mostly appealed to traditional gamers.  The DS also appealed to gamers, but Nintendo also had great success reaching the non gamers and children as well.  That and the Nintendo brand definitely helped move units.  And for the sake of objectivity, I’ll even go out on a limb and say the DS has the better software as well.  While I actually didn’t get a ton of milage out of either handheld, I did get considerably more out of my DS.

Despite that, I still have great affection for the PSP.  Technologically speaking, it’s the most impressive handheld I’ve ever owned, even more so than the 3DS.  Visually it’s quite the looker, and the weight and feel of the device just give it a aura of high quality.  And I have the original model, now referred to as the PSP-1000.  The subsequent redesigns have slimmed the unit down some and even increased the power of the screen, which to me is borderline shocking as the screen on this thing is beautiful.  Even when I fired it up for the first time in years last week to play Tactics Ogre I was impressed by the clarity of the image.  I never did watch a UMD movie on my PSP, but I imagine they looked just fine.  Sony wisely incorporated analog control for the PSP in the form of the analogy “nub” located under the D-Pad.  If there is one design flaw though, it’s that the nub wasn’t placed in the more prominent position as most games make use of it as the primary means of control.  Nonetheless, it’s textured and grips your thumb as you play and there’s plenty of resistance.  Because of its size and placement, I do consider the circle pad of the 3DS superior but this one gets the job done.

Pretty much the reason why I got a PSP to begin with, Twisted Metal: Head-On, which was basically a remake of the super popular Twisted Metal 2: World Tour.

The medium that the PSP used for games is one not likely to be seen or heard from ever again.  While Nintendo has always stuck with cartridges of some kind for its handhelds, the PSP used an optical disc format that Sony dubbed the Universal Media Disc.  UMD actually worked better than expected.  Yes there are load times, but aside from a handful of early titles, they’re not that bad.  Sony tried to get production companies to put movies out on UMD which mostly failed.  While a UMD disc can hold nearly 2 GB of data, that’s still far short of what a DVD can hold.  This meant most UMD movies came with fewer special features and yet still cost about the same as a DVD version.  Most studios abandoned the UMD format within the first year of the system’s life and never returned.  Utilizing UMD also meant that games lacked a save function and owners were forced to purchase memory sticks for game saves and any other media they wished to put on their PSP.  And since Sony loves going rogue with its devices, it forced gamers to use its own brand of memory sticks called the Memory Stick Pro Duo, instead of allowing gamers to just use any flash card.  Not surprisingly, Sony’s memory sticks were always more expensive than traditional cards which made the entry price of the PSP quite steep.

The UMD format proved adequate for games but never caught on as a film medium.

Short-comings aside, I still love my PSP.  I never acquired much of a gaming library on it, mostly because it just came at a bad time for me.  I really got into portable gaming in the last couple of years, and even though I’ve had a PSP since 2006, I rarely found a reason to play it.  Because the system was so powerful most developers just spent time porting their console games to the device as opposed to making new titles.  There was definitely a lack of truly compelling software to pull me back in.  Square-Enix tried pretty hard though with Crisis Core and the Dissidia franchise.  I have both, but never got into Dissidia’s frantic style.  I did play a lot of MLB The Show on my PSP, and though it wasn’t as good as the PS2 version, it was certainly playable.  I also never took advantage of Sony’s download service that allowed you to download PSOne games and put them on the PSP, though I was tempted to do so with Final Fantasy VII.

The Playstation Vita will arrive on February 15th for those who want the bundle version out there, and a week later for those interested in the stand-alone unit.  Like the PSP, it’s going to cost a lot.  When Sony first unveiled the $250 price point (the same price the PSP debuted at) most were actually pretty happy as that’s the same price the 3DS came out at.  And just like how the PSP far outclassed the DS in terms of raw power, the Vita wipes the floor with the 3DS.  The Vita should be a technological beast and the games we’ll see on it should be comparable in terms of visual quality with what we’re seeing on the PS3 and 360.  The Vita also adds a second analog nub, something gamers were disappointed the 3DS didn’t include, and even has a gimmicky touch pad on the back.  The Vita has also ditched the UMD medium and is opting for flash cards instead.  Prices range from $30 to $50 for games, with most looking like they’ll settle in the middle at $40 a piece.  The memory issue though is the big kick to the crotch that most gamers hate.  Just like how they did with the PSP, Sony has opted to use its own memory card device with the Vita and the prices are outrageous when compared with a standard SD card.  A 4GB card for the Vita will set you back $25.  I have no idea how big a game save figures to be, but 4GB seems awfully tiny considering my PS3 at 60GB is far too small.  A 16GB card will set you back $60 and a 32GB card a whipping $100!  Again, I have no idea what the ideal size will end up being, but if you’re looking to get a Vita with a 16GB card and one game in a couple of weeks that will set you back $350 which is a pretty step entry fee.

The Playstation Vita has obviously adopted the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach in terms of its general design.

And since it’s going to cost so much to be an early adopter, it’s a damn good thing that the launch games actually look pretty awesome.  There’s some first-party favorites like a brand new Uncharted game and the latest Hot Shots Golf game.  The following month Little Big Planet and MLB 12 The Show arrive with a new Resistance game following in May.  On the third party front, ports of Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 and Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus arrive alongside new titles like Army Corps of Hell and Ridge Racer.  The Vita is basically the opposite of the 3DS when it launched, as the immediate future looks awesome but I don’t see anything truly compelling on the horizon (not that I expect future software to suck, there’s just nothing comparable to Super Mario 3D Land set for the fall) and I expect a lot of the game’s software to consist of ports.  That’s not the worst thing in the world as ports of sports games are worth owning alongside their console counterparts and some games, like Rayman Origins, almost feel better suited for on the go gaming.  The Vita will also (finally!) incorporate more cross platform features allowing players of The Show to take their franchise from the PS3 to the Vita when leaving the house.  For me, this is something I’ve always wanted out of a portable making it basically a new way to interact with my console.  I also want original content too, and hope the Vita can deliver.

Gameplay shot of Army Corps of Hell on the Vita, a Square-Enix strategy-action hybrid that figures to be interesting, if nothing else.

Because of the cost to be an early adopter though, and the fact that I currently have plenty of gaming to do on my 3DS and PSP, I won’t be getting a Vita this month.  I’ll hold off for now and maybe benefit from a future price drop or something as the Vita has failed to gain much traction so far in Japan and may meet a similar reception in the US.  With the economy the way it is I can’t see the Vita getting off to a great start here.  It will move some units, but probably won’t have a better launch than the 3DS which was pretty slow to start off (again, probably because of cost though the lack of games certainly didn’t help).  When I do eventually get a Vita, I’ll be a little sad to say goodbye to my PSP.  Even though it probably has been a commercial success for Sony, I feel like the PSP has been the most under-appreciated gaming device of the last 7 years, maybe even the most under-appreciated ever!  The device, in its original release, still holds up from a technological standpoint when compared with the 3DS and I think it was a great thing that Sony entered the handheld market and forced Nintendo’s hand.  Sony raised the bar and brought console gaming to a portable device, something even Nintendo and other developers have been more willing to adopt recently.  The soon to be released Resident Evil Revelations for the 3DS is basically a console experience on a handheld, and I find that awesome.  For a long time portable gaming did not interest me because it just seemed like a watered down version of what I could experience in my living room.  I didn’t care to do that and wanted a truly rich experience.  Portable gaming has finally caught up with consoles and it’s no surprise I’m playing more portable games now than I ever have before.  I plan to treat Tactics Ogre like a great encore for my PSP, and I’ll enjoy every minute of it.

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January 29, 2012

Greatest Games: Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

By Joe

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (1996)

In the early to mid 90’s Nintendo was still king.  Sega had carved out a very nice, and in some parts of the world larger, fan-base but Nintendo was still the first word that came mind when video games were brought up.  By the end of the 90’s Sony would establish itself as the new leader of the pack, but that didn’t really weaken the Nintendo brand too much.  At the same time, Squaresoft was killing it with the Final Fantasy franchise and beyond.  When it was announced that Nintendo and Square were working together on a role-playing game expectations could not have been set higher.

That collaboration would give birth to Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, one of the Super Nintendo’s final acts of brilliance.  I, to this day, still feel like I missed out a bit on how great the SNES was.  I had one, like just about everybody.  When I first heard that a Super Nintendo was coming to market I wanted it without ever having seen it.  I didn’t have a subscription to a game magazine or anything, and not many of my friends did either.  I think the first time I saw what the SNES even looked like was at a cousin’s house.  I begged for one but would have to wait a little while until one Christmas where I had my Ralphie moment to find it hidden behind a kitchen chair.  It was awesome, but by next Christmas I wanted a Genesis because it had Mortal Kombat with blood.  Pixelated red stuff was really important to a 9 year old.  I received a Genesis the very next Christmas, one year after I got my SNES.  From there I never received another SNES game.  I think my mother and grandmother (the two most likely to buy me Christmas and birthday presents) assumed the Genesis was superior or something and would just buy me Genesis games.  As a result, most of my SNES play was through rentals or much later on through ports on the Playstation or other means.

Mario was able to jump and avoid enemies on the "world map" areas. Contact with an enemy would take the player into battle mode.

Super Mario RPG was a game I experienced in a limited fashion when it was first released.  On the surface, it was kind of an absurd title.  Mario, the plumber, in an epic Final Fantasy style adventure?  It had an interesting visual style though, a pseudo 3D engine that kind of looked like claymation, and an isometric 3 quarters perspective.  I rented it with a friend, multiple times I think, though we understandably could never beat it in one night.  I had another friend who owned it and showed me the ending since he beat it.  I never thought to borrow it and play through it myself, probably because by then I had a Playstation and was at that age where it didn’t make sense to go backwards from the more powerful console to the lesser.  When emulation started to rise in popularity on the internet I downloaded it and played through it.  And then once the Wii and its Virtual Console came along I downloaded it again and played through it from start to finish, this time seeing everything the game had to offer.

The antagonist for Super Mario RPG; Smithy!

Super Mario RPG is one of those games that’s just plain fun to play.  It would be easy to credit that to the Mario charm but I give most of the credit to Square.  Square could have taken the easy way out and just palette swapped Final Fantasy VI with Nintendo characters and called it a day.  Instead, they took the essence of what made a Mario game a Mario game and incorporated that into an RPG formula.  Mario is the premier platform hero, and Square wisely identified that and incorporated something that’s fundamental in most games into a genre where it’s completely foreign:  the jump button.  Mario could jump, which added a new amount of depth to the world.  Mario traverses a world not completely unlike his usual Nintendo adventures.  As he encounters enemies he can jump on them which brings the game into battle with Mario scoring an early hit.  He also has platforms to traverse and jump across.  These challenges are fairly limited and there’s nothing as challenging as the hardest Super Mario Bros. levels were accustomed to, but it does add to the experience and help make it decidedly “Mario.”

The battle system also received an overhaul to best suit the plumber and his pals.  It’s still turn-based like the majority of RPGs at that time, but it incorporates more button presses.  These commands take the form of either button mashing or timing based.  Hit the attack button at the proper time for just about every attack and the character will score an additional hit up to a certain point.  It’s possible to ignore these extra commands if one is so inclined, but it’s far more rewarding to make use of them.  The more powerful attacks were suitably more difficult to pull off but also more rewarding.  This also worked on defense as well, as characters could avoid taking full damage on some attacks with a well-timed button press.  The game does a good job of changing things up at the right time as well so that just when you’re getting comfortable dodging the para-kooopa’s attack or timing Mario’s mallet strikes just right, a new enemy comes along or a new weapon.

The weapons and skills also have a lot of Mario charm incorporated into them.  Mario has his fire power to make use of and his jump attack.  He can also wield a mallet at times like he did way back in his debut in Donkey Kong.  My favorite weapon is probably Bowser’s chain chomp which he wields like a bolas by spinning it over his head and then tossing it.  Oh yeah, this game also pairs up Mario and Bowser!  Such a pairing would repeat itself, but this is the first time it happened in a game and it was pretty cool.  Not only was it fun to pair Mario and Bowser, but it’s also nice to give Mario a different antagonist.  And since the Princess joins the party as well, this makes Super Mario RPG the rare Mario game where the plumber isn’t out to rescue the Princess from Bowser.

The "star" of Super Mario RPG? Geno certainly was a hit with fans, and many would like to see a return engagement with Mario.

Square would jointly create additional characters with Nintendo to flesh out Mario’s party.  In battle, only 3 characters can be used at once but up to 5 were selectable by the game’s end.  In addition to the 3 mentioned before, Mario was also teamed up with a cloud kid named Mallow (who thinks he’s a frog) and the toy come to life Geno.  Geno has since become a fan-favorite and often comes up whenever a new Smash Bros. game is mentioned as a potential player character.  Despite the fan reaction to him, he’s yet to make another appearance in any Nintendo game.  Square actually holds the copyright on Geno (or at least holds it jointly with Nintendo) which is why he is unlikely to ever surface again as a playable character (he does have an item cameo in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga).  The party Mario ends up forming contains the usual assortment of offensive-minded characters, healers, and so on.  It’s nothing too deep, but the variety is solid enough.

If there’s room for improvement it’s with the story-line and difficulty of the game.  It’s standard fare for an RPG to have a big, dramatic plot, which is something Mario has never been known for.  The story here is rather simplistic and not a driving force of the game.  Square wisely interjects humor wherever it can giving this title a different feel from most of the genre.  And considering Nintendo didn’t give Square much to work with in terms of plot depth based on older Super Mario Bros. games, they did a pretty admirable job.  And while the gameplay is complex enough to separate the title from introductory RPGs such as Mystic Quest, it still feels like Square made it as accessible as possible for Nintendo’s audience.  There’s some challenge to the game but nothing crazy.  There’s no point in the game which requires the player to go out and level grind to get through a certain dungeon or any white knuckle boss encounters.  Even the optional, hidden boss Culex (a Final Fantasy themed boss) isn’t very difficult to best.

The game is by no means perfect, but it offered a fun and refreshing take on the RPG genre when it was first released.  The charm of the title was infectious, and it’s approach to battle would show up in both future Nintendo titles and future Squaresoft games.  Because the relationship between the two companies soured shortly after the release of Super Mario RPG, a true sequel has never been created.  Instead fans have received several spiritual sequels in the form of the Paper Mario series and the handheld Mario & Luigi games.  Both franchises borrow heavily from Super Mario RPG, but neither is a copy and paste affair.  For the most part, the humor has been carried over and made an essential part of the game’s story-telling.  Bowser is also rarely the ultimate foe and is sometimes a playable character as well.  Timing based attacks are the norm for the battles and for the most part the games have been a lot of fun.  Turning Mario into an RPG star seemed like a pretty crazy idea in 1996, but it worked out better than probably anyone could have hoped for.  The current games have been fun, but I still think the original Super Mario RPG is the best.

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January 28, 2012

Overwhelmed by Games

By Joe

The last 6 months have been pretty spectacular for gamers.  It’s safe to say, if you have even a passing interest in video games you’ve been pretty busy.  I’m not sure I can recall such a period ever occurring before.  There’s been some excellent falls before where several quality titles were released, but I can’t recall one like this where that epic fall carried over into the new year so strongly.  I’m looking at the upcoming releases and looking at the games I have that I’ve yet to play and wondering how I’m going to get to everything.  I suppose it’s a good problem to have, but some things are going to go missing.  There’s already been one casualty for me, WWE 12, as I just didn’t have the time.  I very nearly bought it anyways as I wanted to do a follow-up on a post I did last year but the reviews I were reading just did not excite me.  I passed on it, better luck next year THQ.

I have begun organizing, in my head, the games I have yet to play.  This is what I’ve come up with:

Games I own But Have Yet to Play

I’ll probably finally finish my adventure in the land of Skyrim this weekend.  I’ve played through every

Soon, my friend, soon.

major quest, save the final one, and even acquired every trophy on the Playstation Network which is something I never do.  When I do finish with that I have a decision to make.  Two other games have been sitting on my coffee table since Christmas unplayed; Batman: Arkham City and The Legend of Zelda:  Skyward Sword.  My plan has been to dust off my much neglected Wii and settle into the land of Hyrule once again but I am wavering a bit.  Skyward Sword may be a very different adventure/RPG type of game than Skyrim but the same sense of grandeur still applies.  I also just finished The Minish Cap on my 3DS, and combine that with several other Zelda games that I played through in 2011, and I’m bordering on Zelda exhaustion.  I don’t want an over-exposure to Zelda to impact my impressions of Skyward Sword any, so a break may be in order.  Plus the alternative is Batman, and Batman kicks ass.  On the other hand, It’s likely to be a long adventure and maybe I should just get it started.  I also bought a new Wii remote and am eager to test out Wii Motion Plus.  I also have Infamous 2 from last summer that I’ve only played once.  Even though I really liked the first one, and the second is pretty much more of the same, I’ve had a really hard time finding the motivation to play it.  I’m not sure if I’ll ever go back to it.

Following my write-up on Final Fantasy Tactics, I found myself really eager to go check out the original Tactics Ogre.  I recently was able to find a used copy of the PSP edition and have that for play during my morning and evening commute.  I’m currently spending that time playing Mario Kart 7, but I just finished unlocking everything in that so I may be ready to make the switch from 3DS to PSP soon.  If not this week, then probably next.  I still have a bunch of those Gameboy Advance downloads as part of Nintendo’s Ambassador Program.  I really want to play through Fire Emblem at some point, but it looks like that will have to wait.

Games Set for Release Soon

This is where things get complicated.  February and March are loaded with new game releases.  It’s almost to the point where I’m rooting against some of these titles and hoping the review scores come in low so I can just skip them with little regard.  That seems unlikely though.

Tight corridors and zombie-like creatures, now THIS is Resident Evil!

First up on February 7th is Resident Evil Revelations on the 3DS.  Revelations represents a return to the more survival horror roots of the franchise as opposed to the run and gun mechanics of Resident Evil 5.  This is a welcome development for me and it’s been a long time since I’ve played through a true RE game.  The first reviews are starting pop up and they’re pretty positive, though not exemplary. Released alongside Revelations will be the Circle Pad Pro, an attachment for the 3DS that adds additional shoulder buttons and a second circle pad.  It’s being sold exclusively through Gamestop.  I hate Gamestop and as a result never shop there, but someone gave me a gift card to there for Christmas so I’ll just use that on the Circle Pad Pro.  That attachment should also enhance the gameplay experience of another February release, Metal Gear Solid 3D: Snake Eater.  This is a port of MGS 3, my favorite of the Solid series, for the 3DS.  It looks every bit as good as the original and is actually a port of the Subsistence version of that title which added a better camera angle amongst other additional content.  I never played that version which just makes me even more interested in this title.  My handheld gaming is looking quite busy!

Not to be undone, the home consoles are fixing for a crowded release schedule as well.  I made an entry on the Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning demo last week, and that gets released in February.  I wasn’t blown away by the demo, but the various gaming media outlets seem pretty high on it.  Regardless, it’s looking like I’ll pass it over for now and maybe pick it up at a later date when things have settled down (if they ever do).  Also being released in February is the latest entry in the Twisted Metal series, simply titled Twisted Metal.  This is the first true TM game since 2001’s Twisted Metal Black, one of the best games released for the Playstation 2.  I was an early adopter of the TM franchise, and save for the shoddy 989 releases, have long loved the series.  This one has me a bit concerned though as it sounds like the developers have focused more on the multi-player aspect at the expense of the single player one.  The various stories in TM Black were what made the game for me, and it’s really disappointing to know that only 3 characters are receiving such treatment.  They’ve also, for the first time, allowed the various drivers to be paired with different vehicles, kind of like the latest entries in the Mario Kart franchise.  This should add more customization to the experience, but it just sounds lazy to me.  I should be super excited for this game, but I’m not.  If it wasn’t called Twisted Metal, I wouldn’t be making a post on it.  We shall see.

March and Beyond

I'm not sure how I feel about this development.

There’s potentially two big console releases in February, combined with two 3DS releases and the games I already own but haven’t played.  March is proving to be no kinder.  The 3DS will continue to get new software including a first-party release; Kid Icarus Uprising.  Kid Icarus has long been neglected by Nintendo since his first and only console experience from way back on the original Nintendo Entertainment System.  He showed up on in the last Smash Bros. game but Uprising will be his first solo title in over 20 years.  Early returns show promise, as Uprising combines on-rail shooting with conventional platforming elements.  The controls are what has garnered the most attention as aiming is controlled with the stylus and has received mixed reviews.  It’s possible the game will support the Circle Pad Pro as an alternative intended for left-handed gamers, but that may be preferred by all.  To help combat the cumbersome controls, Nintendo is including some kind of stand for the 3DS that’s supposed to help alleviate cramping.  This kind of detracts from the portable nature of the system, but whatever.  I’ll be checking in on this one to see how it fares in reviews.

Looming large for console gamers is perhaps the early favorite for Game of the Year: Mass Effect 3.  This is a must play title for me.  Anything less than amazing will be a disappointment.  All of my gaming in the interim will be done with the idea of having a clean slate for when this game hits.  There’s no way I can get through Zelda and Batman before then, let alone any games released in February, so I have no idea how I’ll fit this one in.  I like to only have one game going at a time, and it’s possible the games I have are so good that I’ll be okay with putting ME3 on hold for awhile, but that seems unlikely at this point in time.

Less than a month after ME3 is released Xenoblade Chronicles arrives on Wii.  This figures to be my final Wii purchase but if early indications are to be believed, it should be a memorable final outing.  The struggles to get this one released in the US have been well-documented, and for that reason alone I almost feel obligated to purchase it.  Hopefully the game ends up being worth the wait.

Oh Hell yeah!

Those are just the big titles, the ones I expect to be must buys.  I didn’t even mention the others, the ones that may prove worthy of both my time and money.  I’m talking about games such as Soul Caliber V, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, MLB 12, Street Fighter x Tekken, Final Fantasy XIII-2, and more!  Those are all games I’m interested in, but may be forced to bypass.  MLB 12: The Show seems like the most likely to be purchased because I love MLB and haven’t bought a new game since 2009.  I just hope the new game finally makes the changes I’ve long wanted to see from the franchise.  And just to amke things even more crowded and uncertain, Sony is launching the PSP successor at the end of February as well.  Called the Vita, it very much resembles the PSP but with a ton more power.  This thing is practically a portable PS3 and the launch games actually look pretty damn good.  I’ll have a hard time resisting the urge to check it out, though I know I should.  What is absolutely guaranteed is that I’ll have no shortage of games to play.  If I ever find myself sitting on my couch with nothing to do I’ll be sure to scold myself.  Happy gaming everyone!

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January 22, 2012

Kingdoms of Amalur Demo Impressions

By Joe

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (2012)

As a Red Sox fan, I was made aware of future Hall of Fame pitcher Curt Schilling’s video game obsession early on.  Perhaps not as early on as Diamondbacks or Phillies fans, but certainly well before the formation of 38 Studios (at one point, Green Monster Games), the developer behind the latest RPG Kingdoms of Amalur:  Reckoning.

Schilling was a noted EverQuest junkie.  For those unfamiliar, EverQuest was World of Warcraft before WoW.  It wasn’t the first massively multi-player online RPG, but it was certainly the first one to reach a large audience.  Schilling was not at all embarrassed by his nerdy obsession, and why would he be?  He was a multi-millionaire athlete with a hot wife.

It’s been a good, long while since Schilling decided to stop just being a fan and decided to create games for himself.  When that announcement was made I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I thought maybe he’d get into developing on a small scale with iPhone type games, and if he got into the big boy stuff, it would be a MMORPG for the PC, which seemed to be the only game he was into.  Or, as is often the case with this kind of wishful thinking announcement, I figured I’d never hear about 38 Studios again and the company would be dissolved before Schilling lost too much money.  When the first trailer for Kingdoms of Amalur surfaced over a year ago I was both surprised and officially intrigued.

In 2009, 38 Studios made a big acquisition when it acquired small developer Big Huge Games.  Big Huge Games is mostly known for its work with the RTS game Rise of Nations, but it was allocated to Reckoning in an effort to create a single-player experience.  Schilling also brought on board noted fantasy scribe R.A. Salvatore to help design the game world and create a robust history.  Todd McFarlane was also brought in for character designs giving 38 Studios an almost all-star quality.

Suddenly, Reckoning had a lot going for it and the first reveal only made fans more interested getting their paws on a finished product.  Just this past week a playable demo was released for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 and I gave it a test run.

First of all, Reckoning is a third-person western style RPG.  If you don’t know what that means (you must not read this blog regularly) it just means the game is more like Skyrim than Final Fantasy.  You’re given control of one character and right away you get to customize him to your liking.  You can be as detail oriented as you wish or go with a randomly generated character produced by the game.  There are four base races to choose from that each are more suited towards a particular play style (one makes for an obvious mage, the other warrior, and so on).  The game then lets you pick a deity for your character to follow which incurs some bonuses to certain stats, or you can go atheist if you wish.  The level of customization is pretty much on par with recent entries into this genre such as Dragon Age and Skyrim.

Reckoning places a lot of emphasis on combat, and mostly succeeds in crafting some fun gameplay mechanics.

The demo has you play through an introductory level of sorts.  It gives you some context and, as expected, lets you know that your character is unique and somehow really important to this game’s world.  It’s pretty standard stuff.  From what I gathered from the giant opening cinematic, is that the game is focused on war between mortals and immortals.  These immortals (they have a special name that I forgot) are not immortal in the literal sense, it would be seem.  They die when you fight them, and during the cinematic one gets stabbed through the chest and appears as dead as anything else.  I’m going to assume their immortality comes into play after “death” and that they’re resurrected or something.  Regardless, the story has potential but doesn’t seem all together different from the first Dragon Age when you get right down to it.  It’s good vs evil and the evil guys are way cooler and more ferocious looking.

The introductory dungeon does a good job of giving you a chance to try out seemingly everything.  It encourages you to give melee a try and even throws in some stealth and magic play.  When it comes to an end you select your character class and start customizing it the way you want to play.  The game breaks everything down into three parts where character class is concerned:  warrior, rogue, and mage.  They have their own unique heading instead of that, I know the rogue abilities are called finesse and the warrior ones might be maul or something.  Each one has its own tech tree and at each level up you get 3 points to spend however you wish.  Even if you’re playing a mostly warrior type character you can invest points in the other two schools.  Considering you get 3 points at each level, it seems like it won’t take that long to fill-out a tree but we shall see.  As you spend points in each one the game keeps track which allows you to open up class advancements in each one.  For example, the base finesse class can become a thief or an assassin as more points are invested in it.  You can also dual and triple class if you like variety, which definitely has me intrigued.  I suspect few will play one dimensional characters.  Apparently, as part of the game, you’ll be able to meet characters that (for a fee, I assume) will wipe away all of your point allocations and let you reallocate them from scratch.  This means if you’ve played the game for 30 hours as a warrior but decide you want to switch it up and be a mage/thief, you can!  That seems pretty cool to me and is a good way to let your players experience everything the game has to offer without starting over.

While Bethesda tries to make their creatures seem plausible, Reckoning just wants them to look cool.

Visually, the game is a pretty solid looking title.  It reminds me a lot of EA’s (the publisher for Reckoning) other RPG series Dragon Age.  Both go for a clean look with a rich color palette, which is in contrast to Bethesda’s Skyrim which has a gritty feel with a muted, gray palette.  The character designs also follow a similar philosophy in that they’re straight-up fantasy fare.  Where Skyrim tries to take these creatures and make them seem realistic, Reckoning just throws them in.  This gives some characters, like the gnomes, an almost toon quality to them.  Structurally, the game is also similar to Dragon Age in its approach to the environment.  The map is huge, though in the demo I was obviously restricted to a small piece, but it looks like Reckoning will favor condensed but connected areas as opposed to Skyrim’s wide-open terrain.  This makes sense considering the game’s focus on combat.

How is that combat?  Quite good actually.  At first, it feels like Reckoning may be another button masher like Dragon Age 2 or (gulp) Dynasty Warriors.  Instead, there is importance placed on blocking or parrying and there are time-sensitive special moves you unlock as you advance in levels.  I was concerned when I first started playing that combat would be too simple but the longer I got in the more varied the opponents became.  I could probably approach it like a Diablo and just keep attacking and spamming potions but I found myself dodging and weaving amongst my enemies always trying to avoid being ganged up on.  There’s also a special slow motion type attack that’s triggered by a meter.  When activated, it slows everyone down but your character and you can deal out some serious damage.  It’s player activated so you’ll find yourself saving a fully charged meter for a tough encounter, at least I did.  Main attacks are done with one button, while special abilities and spells are mapped to a trigger.  The game makes liberal use of the radial menu popularised by BioWare for easy access to potions.  There’s also always a secondary weapon mapped to another face button on the controller letting you change things up on the fly.  And like with Skyrim, you can also enter a stealth mode and try to sneak up on enemies to deal massive damage.

Reckoning looks pretty nice, and the combat seems fun, but I’m not sure where I stand on the product as a whole.  I like its ambition, I like pretty much everything I talked about, but there’s stuff I don’t like.  For one, the game’s camera is way too loose.  I liken it to the inFamous series as it has a similar feel.  The camera also feels like it’s too close to my character.  I found myself constantly spinning it around with the right analog stick to get a look at something.  The character also has a floaty feel and landing hits on enemies just lacks something that I can’t quite place my finger on.  The game just doesn’t feel as fun to play as it should, given all that’s gone into it and all that it gets right.

Downloading this demo will also score you some sweet armor in Mass Effect 3.

This game is ultimately going to be compared to Skyrim because both fit into the same genre and will be released relatively close together (Reckoning hits stores February 7th).  The experience of the two is vastly different though.  Skyrim is more an exploration, sandbox kind of title.  Reckoning has a large map, but exploration seems like it will be more tedious than wondrous.  There’s some emphasis placed on free will in Reckoning as well (you can pick pocket, target civilians for attacks and so on) but some of the world’s real feel is dampened by archaic video game conventions like breakable boxes strewn about.  I can run into some guy’s house and just start smashing things for loot and he doesn’t give a shit, which is disappointing.  This game reminds me more of Microsoft’s Fable series than Skyrim, though I think the finished product will be superior.

In the end, I feel like I can’t offer a fair assessment of Kingdoms of Amalur because I’ve just been playing too much Skyrim.  I’m nearing 150 hours with that beast and playing something different just feels too foreign right now.  I have legitimate concerns about Reckoning, enough that I know I won’t be a day 1 purchaser.  That was unlikely anyways as I have too many games I have yet to play as is, but I’m definitely holding out for some full reviews.  And after my experience with Skyrim and its stability (terrible) I’m a little gun-shy to jump right into a new, massive game before knowing how well it runs.  I do recommend that people try this demo out.  It’s quite generous and after the tutorial dungeon you’re given 45 minutes to do whatever you want.  They closed off some areas and I think they removed a lot of the NPC audio to make the download smaller, but you get a good test run.  What will make this game a success or not is how well player’s enjoy the gameplay mechanics and quest variety.  Skyrim offers the same quest over and over but gives it unique context, plus the world is just fun to explore and I’m not sure Reckoning’s will have that same feel.  The story-telling and NPC audio in Skyrim is often times less then stellar but if the quest has me doing something interesting I can overlook it.  If Reckoning just has the player fetching items and clearing dungeons endlessly it may get boring pretty quickly.  We’ll just have to wait and see.  My expectations after playing the demo though are that it probably won’t eclipse Skyrim as the definitive fantasy RPG experience, but should at least top my pick for 2011’s most disappointing release, Dragon Age 2.  And if so, that’s a pretty nice spot to occupy.

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January 8, 2012

Why I’m Not Excited for Diablo III

By Joe

Blizzard Entertainment, the developer for the upcoming PC game Diablo III, has earned a reputation over the years as one of the best, most consistent developers in gaming today.  Once called Silicon & Synapse, Blizzard was an American developer in an industry still dominated by the far east.  It focused on game ports at first, before going on to developing its own titles in the early 90’s.  The company had some minor hits on consoles with games like Rock n’ Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings, but the developer really became known when it released a real time strategy (RTS) game for the PC titled Warcraft:  Orcs and Humans.  Warcraft was an example of great timing on the part of Blizzard.  It wasn’t all that unique from a gameplay standpoint as the RTS genre had already been firmly established by the Dune series from Westwood Studios, the other big name in the RTS genre.  Blizzard and Westwood would have a rivalry through-out the 90’s with the two producing big name franchises like Blizzard’s Warcraft and Westwood’s Command & Conquer.

What Blizzard is often most credited with when it comes to the RTS genre is adding plot to the game.  This goes beyond merely setting up the conflict but extends to in game missions.  Where Dune was comfortable to have the player focus on annihilating the opponent on a given map, Warcraft added purpose.  There were many straight-forward kill the enemy missions, but there were also rescue missions or establish a satellite base type of thing.  It seems like a small thing, but it did help break up the monotony of the game.  And Warcraft’s setting did go a long way as well as the medieval/fantasy theme worked well within the game and the major conflict of orcs v.s. humans proved surprisingly dramatic.  It wasn’t high brow kind of stuff of course, though the plots would become more complicated in later games, it was basically good v.s. evil but that worked well enough at the time.

Most people today know Warcraft more for the World of Warcraft franchise than anything else.  Like with the RTS series of games, WoW came at a great when the massively-multiplayer online (MMO) role-playing genre was taking off.  Blizzard again didn’t do much to rock the boat from a gameplay perspective, but the Warcraft franchise worked well in this setting and Blizzard made everything easy on the new comer.  This made WoW the most accessible title in the genre and a main reason why it has become the studio’s biggest cash cow.

Of course, Blizzard didn’t just make money off of the Warcraft franchise.  Also paying out dividends was the massively popular StarCraft.  As most would suspect given the name, it’s basically Warcraft in space.  The conflict is new, and has now been expanded to three parties instead of two, but the basic gameplay is still the same.  StarCraft did prove more complex.  While Warcraft and its sequel established a pretty basic strategy, StarCraft’s game challenged players a bit more.  Resource management was more complex and simply overwhelming the opposition didn’t always work as the factions waging war against one another were now quite different.  In Warcraft, the orcs and humans were practically palette swaps as they were so similar.  There were a couple noticeable differences (mainly in spells earned by higher level units, which actually proved to be a pretty big difference as the Ogre Mage’s bloodlust was ultra-powerful) but for the most part each side had its own main melee unit, ranged unit, siege unit, etc.  StarCraft’s humans (Terrans), Protoss, and Zerg each came with their own gameplay strategies that the player needed to exploit in order to win.  A Protoss player would not approach a fight the same way a Zerg player would, nor would he attack a Zerg enemy the same way he would a Terran enemy.  This helped make StarCraft hugely popular online and in competitive settings.  Strangely, StarCraft wouldn’t receive a proper sequel for over 10 years.

Diablo (1996)

Blizzard’s other big franchise, and the one this post is supposed to be about, is the Diablo franchise.  First released in 1996, the Diablo franchise is your basic dungeon crawler.  It’s the most straight-forward and simple title in Blizzard’s catalog.  The first one was especially basic.  It only included three characters: the warrior, rogue, and mage.  Each one had its obvious strengths and weaknesses. The player took the character through the game’s lone dungeon of 16 levels with the main goal of destroying the game’s antagonist, Diablo.  There were quests along the way given out by the game’s townspeople or just stumbled upon while journeying through the dungeon.  None were of the head-scratching variety and merely added a little back-story to why you were killing a certain enemy.  The game’s narrative was mostly non-essential, the real drive was to simply level up and make your character as strong as possible.  Finding loot was the main goal as you never know what the next monster would drop or what would be in the next destructible barrel.  Each level of the dungeon was also randomly generated which encouraged replay.  Once the game was beaten it didn’t end there as the player could continually take the same character through the dungeon again and again until boredom set in.

Diablo was quite successful, and its sequel Diablo II even more so.  Diablo II arrived in 2000 and carried over the same point and click mechanics but added more variety to the character classes.  Where there were once 3, now there were 5.  There was also a skill tree implemented to make each class feel different.  Now the warrior class wasn’t just stronger, he could do special attacks or leap (he was also now called the barbarian).  The game’s expansion would add more classes as well giving gamers far more variety.  The game was also much bigger and more challenging, but was still mostly just a dungeon crawl with the main goal of the player to create the most powerful character possible.

The theme for Diablo II: more is better.

I was hooked on the original Diablo.  I beat the game with each of the three classes multiple times.  My favorite was the rogue, though the mage character ended up being the most powerful if enough time was invested.  His magic was so strong that I rarely had to equip him with a weapon.  In Diablo II, I found myself suitably addicted once more but the game’s massive size cut down on my willingness to play through it again and again.  As such, I only really played through it twice; once with the necromancer and once with the amazon.  By the time I was nearing the end with the amazon (and truthfully, I can’t remember if I beat it or not with her) I had had enough.  By this time I felt Diablo had been eclipsed by Bioware in the dungeon crawler genre.  Baldur’s Gate, and later Neverwinter Nights, offered a more rewarding experience.  Diablo could be boiled down to the fact that you just clicked on the enemy you wanted dead and spammed potions to stay alive.  Diablo II did liven up the experience with the skills system, and some characters introduced supporting characters as well but they weren’t as tactile as the multi-person party found in Baldur’s Gate.

This sort of leads into the main point of this post:  I’m not excited for Diablo III.  Diablo III is set for release this year, and maybe as early as next month, for the PC and Mac.  Whether or not I’m excited to play it is actually irrelevant, as I don’t think I own a machine that could run it.  My laptop can run StarCraft II in the low settings just fine, but I suspect more muscle is needed to do the same with Diablo III.  Even if the game was coming out on Playstation 3, I don’t think I’d have much desire to play it.  It’s possible I’d end up getting it at some point, but unenthusiastically.  That’s fine and all, but I feel like I’m in the minority.  I feel like Blizzard has created a reputation for itself that includes amazing games.  Blizzard notoriously takes forever to release anything with a focus put on quality.  It’s in some ways kind of ridiculous considering it now has powerful financial backing from Activision which means the development teams are much larger than what they once were.  It made sense for a small developer to take awhile to get things to market, but now it just seems like a marketing strategy.  Blizzard cried about not having enough time to get out StarCraft II, so it removed the Zerg and Protoss campaigns in order to make its release date.  It was announced in 2007, but work basically had begun in 2003, and yet the game was released in an incomplete state in 2010.  The not enough time excuse just rang hollow and it sounded more like a money-grab than anything as now gamers will have to buy two more games to complete the story.

Gameplay shot from Diablo III. As one can see, aside from looking better, not much has changed.

Diablo III has had a more quiet release schedule.  Perhaps Blizzard has learned to better manage its resources or just wisely has kept its mouth shut until the game is within a couple of years of release.  Still, I was surprised when I looked up the game for this post that it was announced in 2008, nearly 4 years ago.  I suppose it just feels like it hasn’t been that long because my interest has remained low.  Diablo offers a fun, but shallow gameplay experience and one that just doesn’t work for me anymore. When I was in my teens I could play these dungeon crawl types with more enthusiasm but now they’re just boring for me.  A lot of them seem to receive similar critical reactions to my own, but I suspect Diablo III will be a critical darling despite not doing much different.  Blizzard will deliver a solid narrative, something the company has become well-versed in doing, which will go a long way towards giving the game greater purpose.  Gameplay wise, I suspect it will be the same experience just with a different lens.  For fans of the first two games, that will probably be good enough as Blizzard’s long development windows does help to create an increased interest.  If Diablo had an almost annual release schedule like some franchises it would have died a long time ago.  The same could really be said of StarCraft and Warcraft as the RTS genre really became over-saturated in the last decade to the point of nearly killing it.  Spreading out the releases helped keep things fresh, though Blizzard did justifiably change and enhance the gameplay experience when moving from Warcraft II’s straight-forward approach to the hero one of Warcraft III (which is why I consider Warcraft III Blizzard’s finest hour).

Diablo III will be released at some point, probably sooner rather than later (though one should never hold their breath where Blizzard is concerned) and will probably be a commercial success.  I won’t be among those purchasers though as I feel like I’ve already played it.  This post isn’t meant to slam the franchise, the company, or its fans.  Just the ruminations of one gamer who can’t help but look at Blizzard and wonder what all the fuss is about at this point.  It’s been a long time since Blizzard really did something unique, and if it wants to be considered one of the best developers around, it’s time to see the company do something different.  Diablo III is, without question, anything but different.

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January 2, 2012

Nintendo Wii: 2006 – 2012

By Joe

I was recently checking out a list for upcoming video games in 2012 over at ign.com.  I don’t usually look at such lists, I prefer to live in the moment, but I wanted to see when the new Resident Evil title was being released on the 3DS.  As I browsed the list I noticed several games I’m looking forward to:  Twisted Metal, Mass Effect 3, Kid Icarus Uprising, and so on.  It looks like my consoles will be well represented, but there’s one notable console with a severe lack of new software:  Nintendo Wii.

2012 figures to be a transition year.  2011 marked the end for the Nintendo DS as it was replaced by the 3DS.  There were a few notable titles released on the old hardware, and there figures to be a couple of stragglers in 2012, but for the most part the DS is dead.  The Sony PSP also, more or less, died in 2011 as its successor was released in Japan at the end of the year, the Vita (and it should be noted, that despite a pretty impressive batch of launch titles it’s off to a terrible start sales-wise).  The Vita’s release state-side next month will all but end the life of the PSP.  2012 figures to include announcements for the successors of both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 with new consoles arriving sometime in 2013 or early 2014.  Even though the current hardware still seems totally viable to me, there’s always this need to be the first to market with the next best thing.  That’s Nintendo’s strategy with the Wii’s successor, the Wii U, scheduled for release this fall.

The Wii U was announced last spring.  It created some buzz around the gaming community for its unique controller which basically is a Nintendo DS with twin circle pads.  It remains to be seen what kind of impact it will have, but it, and the list I was looking at yesterday, got me to thinking about the Nintendo Wii and what its legacy will be.

It's almost hard to imagine anyone viewing the Wii as a holy grail of sorts today, but pre-release...

Nintendo did take a risk with the Wii, banking on its motion controls as the system’s true selling point since graphically it wasn’t much better than Nintendo’s previous console, the Gamecube, and under-powered when compared with Microsoft and Sony’s offerings.  It was also cheaper though, which no doubt helped turn the thing into a retail juggernaut.  When it launched in the fall of 2006 I was a day one purchaser.  When South Park worked the wait for the Wii’s release into an episode I empathized with Cartman as I was dying to get my hands on one of those wii-motes just as badly as him (well, maybe not quite as badly).  And unlike the 3DS, the launch went pretty well for the Wii.  I purchased just two titles, but one of them was a brand new Zelda game so I wasn’t needing much else.  Wario Ware soon followed which was like a glorified tech demo and a surprising entry in the Dragon Ball Z line of fighting games proved to be a blast.  And with some major titles lined up, such as a new Mario title and another entry in the Smash Bros. series, things were looking pretty nice for Nintendo.  Parents struggled to find units around Christmas time for their kids, and anyone with a Wii could make a killing on eBay (I resisted the urge to do just that).

And things remained pretty solid for a little.  Super Mario Galaxy ended up being an all-time great, Metroid Prime 3 proved the Wii had something on first-person shooters that even a mouse and keyboard couldn’t duplicate, and other first-party titles gave Nintendo fans exactly what they were looking for (and Sonic made an appearance in Smash Bros., imagine that!), but cracks in the armor were starting to show themselves.  The motion controls were unique and different, but gamers soon took notice that the movement wasn’t true 1:1.  A lot of third-party developers were taking their titles and simply adding some “waggle” controls that proved more monotonous than fun.  The much maligned (by me) EA was surprisingly one of the few third-party developers willing to take the time to tailor their games to Wii, but they were the exception.  It became clear early on that Nintendo would have to be the ones to innovate and lead the way for the Wii and hope the other developers would follow suit.  The problem was, Nintendo was coming up short in that department.  Super Mario Galaxy was awesome, but it succeeded in spite of its waggle controls which really added nothing to the experience.  Twilight Princess wasn’t clearly any better on the Wii than it was on the Gamecube, and fans would have to wait 5 years to truly experience what it was like to control Link’s sword thrusts.  The Mario Kart and Smash Bros. games didn’t do much of anything to advance motion controls, and the most obvious franchise that would benefit from the scheme, Pikmin, was missing in action.

MotionPlus could have served as a catalyst for innovation on the Wii, instead it went mostly ignored.

It became clear after only a short while that Nintendo needed to do something to freshen-up the Wii experience, which lead to the release of Wii MotionPlus.  Bundled with Wii Sports Resort, MotionPlus was released in 2009 and finally offered true 1:1 motion controls.  Sports Resort, like Wii Sports, was basically a tech demo that had little lasting appeal, but it did demonstrate effectively what the peripheral could do.  Unfortunately, little arrived following the release to justify the purchase.  Again, the only developer to really take advantage was EA with its Tiger Woods franchise, but Nintendo was shockingly slow to utilize its own peripheral.  It could be argued that MotionPlus wasn’t even worth owning until 2011’s Skyward Sword, which requires the use of MotionPlus.  With every Nintendo console since the Nintendo 64 gamers have come to expect a lack of third-party support, but they could always count on Nintendo.  Now even the Big N was coming up short which left most scratching their heads.

I received Skyward Sword as a gift this past Christmas which necessitated the purchase of MotionPlus for me.  I had never bothered with it so I went out and bought a new Wii Remote since I couldn’t even find the stand-alone attachment.  The new Wii Remotes come with the MotionPlus technology built into them which is definitely nice for new adopters of the console, but I wonder how many are rushing out to buy Wii’s in 2012?  Before Skyward Sword, the last new game I got for the Wii was Super Mario Galaxy 2 in 2010.  Galaxy 2 is a good game, a very good game actually, but it doesn’t add much to the experience offered up by its predecessor.  I actually never finished it, which is surprising to me because I loved the original.  My Wii has mostly been a dust magnet for the last 3 years receiving only sporadic use at best.  It’s probably been more than 6 months since I last used it, and while I am looking forward to sitting down and taking Skyward Sword for a spin, I am left to ponder the question “Was the Wii a success?”

Financially, there’s no question.  The Wii, more or less, saved Nintendo.  Had it failed we may never have seen another home console from Nintendo again.  The Gamecube was a nice machine, but its lack of quality third-party support really hurt.  Nintendo has also seen its own stock as a first-party developer take a few hits over the years.  I’ve found myself becoming more and more critical of Nintendo over the years as they seem content to just do what makes the most money and are shunning innovation.  By most accounts, Skyward Sword is a great game and I’m pretty optimistic it will be, but I am concerned it will be too similar to the last several Zelda games.  I’ve also played a ton of Zelda this past year so if there isn’t enough new elements added I’m concerned I’ll get bored.  The last really interesting Zelda game was Majora’s Mask, as it did something new and different that worked.  Twilight Princess was a fun game, but it was basically Ocarina of Time 2 with a gimmick that hurt more than it enhanced the experience (yes, I’m talking about wolf Link).

The next big thing or just another gimmick? Only time will tell.

Nintendo did start something with motion controls.  Like they did with touch screens with the original DS, now motion controls are showing up everywhere.  Sony shamelessly ripped off the Wii with its Move peripheral that, as far as I know, has bombed commercially.  Microsoft tried to one-up Nintendo with the Kinect, which offers motion controls without the controller.  It’s done quite well commercially and has tapped into the casual crowd Nintendo has milked the last 5 years, but it has yet to be embraced by the “hardcore” gaming crowd.  Most look at Nintendo’s innovation as a negative, as we now just have annoying waggle games that are hard to fit into today’s modern living room.  I think I’d enjoy the Wii more if it was still 1992 and all of my video game playing was done on a 20″ television set in a small room in the house.  In a wide open living room though where I’m 10′ away from my television it can be a pain in the neck to lounge in a chair and have the sensor bar pick up the remote’s signal.  It’s a far cry from the PS3’s Blu Ray controllers that send a perfect, delay free signal from almost anywhere in my house.  I can basically sit or lay anyway I want and enjoy a video game on my PS3, I can’t say the same for the Wii.  I’m actually dreading on how I’ll have to adjust my playing habits to accommodate Skywayrd Sword.

I’ll give credit where credit is due though, Nintendo’s Virtual Console has been a great success.  I haven’t take advantage of it as much as I probably should have, but it’s been awesome to have almost every great game from Nintendo systems’ past at my fingertips.  Sure, the pricing can be off on some, especially the third-party games where more people need to get paid, but it has been nice to have.  My only hope is that the current Virtual Console for the 3DS is expanded.  Currently, Nintendo is content to just release old Gameboy games on it, but I want to see Super Nintendo and Gameboy Advance games added as well.

"Xenoblade" should at least keep 2012 from completely sucking for Wii gamers.

Which again, leads me back to the question of whether or not the Wii was a success or failure.  As a gaming machine and entertainment device, I feel like I have to rate the system a D+.  That may seem harsh, but I’m holding Nintendo to high standards.  The system has been dead the last few years with only a game or two worthy of attention released each year.  2012 looks extremely bleak for the Wii as only one notable game on the horizon, the eagerly anticipated and almost cancelled Xenoblade Chronicles, which figures to be the last game I purchase for the Wii.  Perhaps I’ll be inclined to bump my rating up to a C- if I come away feeling Skyward Sword is the best Zelda title of all-time (an argument some are willing to make), but a C- is still a pretty poor score for a Nintendo console.  As a result, my level of interest in the Wii U is miniscule.  I simply do not trust Nintendo at this point with home consoles.  Portables sure, but I have a hard time viewing a Nintendo console as the centerpiece for my living room set at this point.  I hope I am proven wrong come the fall, but that seems unlikely at this point.

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January 1, 2012

Greatest Games: Final Fantasy Tactics

By Joe

Final Fantasy Tactics (1997)

It’s been stated multiple times here at The Nostalgia Spot, but it will be said at least one more time:  the RPG landscape in America was dominated by Squaresoft in the 90’s.  Mostly, it was dominated by one franchise, Final Fantasy.  Ignoring the absurdity of a franchise titled Final Fantasy spawning over a dozen sequels, there seemed to be little room for other games in the RPG genre in America.

Things would change on the Playstation.  Suddenly, gamers were embracing the genre more than the franchise.  This was only a recent development in America, but in Japan gamers were consuming every RPG under the sun.  Enix was perhaps the biggest developer, or it at least had the biggest franchise, Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior in the US during that time), and Atlus was also around with its Megami Tensei series.  For all of these games to compete they had to do things differently.  American gamers were used to only one kind of RPG at the time, the turn-based medieval type, but other developers were popularizing a different take on that genre.  The developer leading the charge was called Quest, and found a nice niche for itself with the strategy RPG genre popularized by its Ogre Battle franchise.  Ogre Battle was released in small quantities in the US making it very hard to come by.  Those who did play it seemed to enjoy it quite a bit and this small developer was attracting a lot of attention for itself.  When its head developer Yasumi Matsudo left the company, Square was there to scoop him up which lead to the development and release of Final Fantasy Tactics for the Playstation in 1997 (’98 in the US).

Square basically had Matsudo take his critically acclaimed Tactics Ogre game and dress it up with the Final Fantasy franchise.  This wasn’t anything new for Squaresoft as was noted in my write-up on Seiken Densetsu 3, Square loved taking lower profile franchises and slapping the Final Fantasy brand on them to garner more attention and sales.  There are similarities between the traditional Final Fantasy games and Final Fantasy Tactics, making this one branding a little more genuine than some of the others.  Both follow traditional RPG conventions of hit points, magic points, experience points, and so on.  The job system featured in Final Fantasy III and V is also used here with most of the jobs, or classes, being directly lifted from those titles.  There was even a cross-over between Tactics and Final Fantasy VII as users could find Cloud and recruit him to their army.  Later games in the Final Fantasy series would return to the setting of Tactics, most notably Final Fantasy XII.

The battle screen.

Where things change though is when the player takes control.  In a traditional Final Fantasy, a lot of time is spent roaming the plains, mountains, and other scenery as well as frequenting towns and conversing with the locals.  Tactics cuts all of that stuff out, and instead the player really only moves from one battle to the next.  The other major difference is how those battles unfold.  They’re still turn-based, meaning the characters do not attack one another in real time, only now battles unfold on a grid-based map.  Each character has a speed and movement rating that determines when they attack and how many spaces they can move in a given turn.  In a lot of ways, the gameplay is what happens when one takes a traditional turn-based RPG and combines it with Chess.  Placement of enemies becomes important, as attacks are more deadly from the side or behind as opposed to face to face (Tactics rewards cowardice).  Magic users are particularly frail and should be kept away from direct combat.  Their spells also often strike in a set pattern so players are forced to be careful about how they arrange their units as a bunched up group is more vulnerable to spells.  This also leads to risk VS reward scenarios where you may have to hit one of your units to strike at an enemy with a potentially devastating spell.  Another big change is death, which can be permanent if you aren’t careful.  When a unit falls in battle, the player has a set number of turns to revive the unit before death becomes permanent.  It sucks to lose that character you’ve been building up for hours upon hours.

The job system was wonderfully utilized for this game.  In fact, it’s almost always utilized well but here it’s particularly strong.  A lot of the jobs are interesting and useful, which makes mixing and matching a lot of fun.  Though if there’s one super job it’s definitely the ninja.  Ninjas are perhaps famously over-powered in Tactics.  They’re fast, can dual wield katanas, and have a large range of movement.  Their only downside is they’re fairly weak defensively and start off a bit weak offensively as well.  Invest enough time though and they become a destructive force to be reckoned with.  Early on it’s suicide to send one straight into the fray because of their weak armor rating, but once they can dole out enough damage, it doesn’t matter.  They’ll take out their target in one attack and counter-attack anyone who tries to hit them.  I never tried it, but I bet a team of mostly ninjas could take out most anything.

Despite playing very differently, there were some familiar sites in Tactics for Final Fantasy veterans.

That wouldn’t be much fun though, as the other classes are interesting in their own right.  Magic users are particularly lethal, but a challenge to use because their spells take a while to cast.  There’s a lot of trial and error with them as you get used to how long it takes a given spell to charge and then discharge.  The summoners are even tougher to use but can be rewarding if enough time is invested.  There’s also the seemingly weak chemist who’s basically a medic, until you realize they can utilize rifles later in the game and become deadly snipers.  There’s a ton of options for mixing and matching and that’s a big part of the fun.  Beyond the customization options though, the battles are just a blast to play through.  Which is a good thing because they’re not short and sweet like a typical Final Fantasy battle.  A random encounter with some monsters in the woods can take a good 20 minutes to get through, sometimes longer.  There’s a lot that goes into each one and it’s extremely rewarding to see your plan executed to perfection.  It’s also rewarding to see that plan fail and find a way to troubleshoot what your opponent is throwing at you.  Winning with only one unit standing at the end has its own kind of reward when compared with a route.  As a result, “level-grinding” in this game is a lot more interesting than in other Final Fantasy games.

Another aspect of the game many cite as feeling fresh is the plot.  In truth, the gameplay is so engrossing the game could have easily overcome a weak plot (that’s basically what all of the sequels have done) but it manages to turn that into a strong point.  At it’s heart, it depicts two friends on opposite sides of a war; protagonist Ramza, and commoner Delita.  Ramza is of noble birth, and Delita a commoner but they became best friends as kids.  Their world of Ivalice has a strong class system and is in a state of turmoil following its king’s death.  This results in The Lion War, which is the main conflict but through so many twists and turns it becomes muddled.  There’s treachery, deceit, heresy, murder, and everything you can think of.  It’s incredibly dense, so much so that it can become hard to follow.  Most of that is due to the technical limitations of the Playstation.  Long cut scenes full of text can be tiresome to read following a long battle, and the battles are so good sometimes there’s a temptation to just mash the X button to get to the next one.  If one takes the time to really read and digest the story line though it’s quite rewarding and perhaps the best one out of every Final Fantasy game Square has produced.  The original localization kind of stunk though, I’m not sure if future releases have remedied it or not.

The PSP re-release from 2007.

Final Fantasy Tactics was released shortly after the mega hit Final Fantasy VII.  It kind of got overlooked, especially because it was so different.  I remember a few of my friends at the time not liking it because it was so different and not what they expected.  That’s the risk a developer takes when it pastes a familiar franchise name onto a different game.   Those that went in with open minds though found something truly engrossing and memorable.  Even though it didn’t move a tremendous amount of units upon release, Sony chose to re-release it as a Greatest Hits title and Square-Enix would later port the game to the PSP as Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions.  Because so many gamers skipped out on it in 1997-98, it’s become one of those games that has seen its reputation improve with age.  If you’re one of those gamers and enjoy strategy RPG’s, go back and play this one.  The more recent entries in the Tactics series can’t hold a candle to it.

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December 20, 2011

Greatest Games: Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 2)

By Joe

Seiken Densetsu 3 (1995)

Back in the early 90’s the RPG genre was just starting to take off in America.  The king of the RPG was undoubtedly Squaresoft, often referred to as just Square (and now Square-Enix).  Square’s flagship title was and is the Final Fantasy series and I’ve already made a few posts on that one.  And while I selected Final Fantasy VII as my pick for best of the series, it won’t be appearing in my Greatest Games feature.  Why?  For the same reason you won’t see Ocarina of Time, it’s just been talked about too much.

Now I’m purposely going for obscurity with my picks because that would be dishonest.  I’m going with my favorites of all time and just avoiding a couple of the token titles.  It just so happens that Seiken Densetsu 3 happens to fit the obscure mold.

While Square was carving out a niche with Final Fantasy, Nintendo was smoking the competition with Zelda.  Square’s games usually stuck to the mold of what we now call the Japanese RPG.  Which is to say the gameplay was turn-based, the player attacks and then the CPU attacks.  There were hit points, experience points, magic points, and probably other types of points.  If you’ve ever played a Final Fantasy, Draqon Quest, or even Pokémon game then you know what I’m talking about.  And even though this was Square’s bread and butter it wasn’t the only thing they could pull off.

I don’t know if the original Seiken Densetsu was meant to mimic the original Zelda, but that’s how it felt.  It was released for the Game Boy as a Final Fantasy spin-off because Square felt it’s only chance to succeed was to brand it as a Final Fantasy title.  It wasn’t released in the US until 1998 (as Final Fantasy Adventure) though so by the time American audiences were playing it they didn’t know they had already played its sequel.

Secret of Mana (1993)

It’s sequel, was of course, Seiken Densetsu 2 but American audiences know that one better as Secret of Mana.  Secret of Mana was released in 1993 for the Super Nintendo to pretty positive reviews.  It’s a game that still has a loyal following to this day.  I remember Square put some muscle behind this one too with a lot of TV spots advertising it.  It sold fairly well, though it didn’t do huge numbers.  Like its predecessor, it’s an action RPG similar to Zelda.  The player controls one of three heroes at any given time as they traverse the world fighting typical fantasy type enemies.  There was magic, dragons, and an epic tale that was probably hard to follow (I really don’t remember the plot, it’s been awhile) and overall it was a fun package.  As I mentioned, you controlled one of three characters at any given time while the AI controlled the other two.  A friend could even plug in a second controller and take command of one of the unused characters at any time, something Zelda didn’t do.

Secret of Mana is a great game, but I happen to prefer the sequel.  Most people refer to it as Secret of Mana 2, but since it never received a release outside of Japan it was never officially given that title.  I’m not sure why it never saw release in the US.  Certainly the first game did well enough to warrant a sequel, and the new game was received quite well by critics and press alike in the Land of the Rising Sun.  Rumor has it the game had some bugs that Square was concerned about getting past Nintendo of America’s testing.  I’ve never seen reports of the Japanese version having bugs, and never encountered any myself, so that sounds a bit fishy.  I’m thinking it was a cost/benefit issue.  The game was released in September of 1995 and was a pretty big game with an expensive cartridge.  It’s safe to say, that if a full localization was done on the title it wouldn’t have been made available until spring of 1996 which was pretty late in the SNES life cycle.  Square also had a number of other titles in the pipeline and they likely just felt that it didn’t make sense to slip this one in.  It’s tough to say if they made the right decision or not from a commercial standpoint, I certainly could see the game getting a lukewarm reception in the market place.  Creatively though, it’s a shame because American gamers missed out.

My preferred team: Angela, Kevin, Hawk.

Suffice to say, if you live outside of Japan and want to play this bad boy you have few options.  One is to import it.  You’ll either need a Japanese Super Famicom to play it or you’ll have to rig a Super Nintendo to accept Japanese carts.  There’s also the illegal route which is emulation.  Some devoted fans took the time to translate the game to ROM and released it several years ago.  Don’t ask me where to download it because I have no idea nor do I know if it’s even still widely available.  Needless to say, if you want to play it you’re on your own.

That said, if you do take the time to track down a copy you will be well rewarded.  Secret of Mana 2 plays a lot like the first Secret of Mana.  You still have control of up to 3 characters, you still travel the world in the same manner killing stuff and the magic system is basically the same.  Everything is just bigger.  The first game had 3 playable characters, but the sequel has 6.  You pick which 3 you want right from the start and they’re all worked into the plot of the game.  You start with one main character and then the other two will get introduced.  This means the game’s plot changes a little depending on who you select which adds some replay value.  All of the character’s have their strengths and weaknesses.  Some are melee heavy while others are magic heavy.  In general, the game goes for a 2/2/2 system.  There are two warrior types, Kevin and Duran; two rogue characters, Riesz (Lise in the fan translation) and Hawkeye (Hawk); and two magic users, Charlotte (Carlie) and Angela.  I’ve played through the game with every character, and I prefer the team of Kevin, Hawk, and Angela.  Kevin is a beast-man and has the cool ability to transform into a werewolf at night which earns him lots of style points.  Everyone has their uses though.

The game also added a neat level up system.  At certain levels your character could evolve, kind of like what Pokémon would end up doing, in a chosen way.  The first one let you go in a Light or Dark selection, and then again a second time.  This not only affected how the character looked but also what abilities they learned.  You had four possible outcomes for each one, again adding a lot of replay value, and they were pretty balanced.

Mechanically, one of the big changes was in the combat system.  In Secret of Mana, your character could charge their attack to unleash better moves.  In this one as your character attacked a meter would fill up.  Once full, a special attack could be unleashed.  These attacks were much flashier than the ones in Secret of Mana though the overall mechanic was slightly less strategic.  Battles do get repetitive at times, especially because enemies re-spawn after you leave and return to a screen, though the night and day cycle livens things up a bit.

Visually the game is quite nice to look at.  It’s a step up from the first and I’ve always loved the SNES sprites.  There’s a nice color palette as well and the magic effects provide some flair.  Even today, this one still is pretty nice to look at (if you grew up on these kind of games, not sure what the younger crowd thinks).  The boss battles are numerous and lively and present a nice challenge.  I honestly don’t remember much of the game’s plot, but I don’t recall it being bad so I guess that’s a plus.

This one is still nice to look at 16 years after its release.

Ever since Secret of Mana arrived on US shores the franchise has been supported by Square.  The original Seiken Densetsu was re-made for the Game Boy Advance as Sword of Mana in 2003 and Secret of Mana has seen release on the Wii’s Virtual Console.  Other Mana games have been released for both home consoles and handhelds to varying degrees of success.  For me, none of the newer games have come close to matching Secret of Mana or Secret of Mana 2.  Considering how easy it is to get a game to market these days, either via material or digital means, it’s surprising to me that Square-Enix has never taken the time to localise Seiken Densestsu 3 for a global release.  With how fond of remakes the developer is, it would make sense to dress it up a bit for a release on a handheld at least.  It seems like every Final Fantasy game has been released 2 or 3 times at this point, how about showing some love for Secret of Mana 2?

I’m glad I got to play through it, multiple times at that, as I’ve stopped holding my breath for a true release.  As far as 16-bit action/adventure titles go, this one is right up there with A Link to the Past.  If you get the chance, check it out.

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December 18, 2011

Ambassadors Get Advanced

By Joe

Nintendo makes good on its promise with 10 free GBA games!

It was a few months ago when Nintendo decided to cut the price of their new 3DS system by nearly 100 bucks less than 6 months after the system’s debut.  To combat the anger they were sure to receive from early adopters, they offered 20 free games to current owners of the 3DS whom they dubbed “Ambassadors.”  The first 10 of those games were released in September and all were downloadable versions of old NES games.  I went over them here.  These 10 NES games are set for a release to the general public sometime in 2012 for a small fee but will include all of the usual Virtual Console features other old releases benefit from (right now, they’re pretty bare-boned).

It wasn't a big hit, but I still have my GBA Micro and consider it a neat little device.

This past Thursday, Nintendo delivered the rest of the games it promised.  These 10 games are all from the Gameboy Advance platform (well, one is a port of a Super Nintendo game) and as of right now, there are no plans to make any available to non-Ambassadors.  I’m not sure if that’s supposed to give me and other Ambassadors a sense of pride, but it seems stupid to spend the time to emulate these titles and then not release them.  Anyways, this latest round of releases is much better than the NES games.  The NES games were of varying quality and a few were obscure releases given a new chance to shine.  They’re okay time wasters, but few kept me coming back either because they were too simple for my taste or because I already played the Hell out of them decades ago.  About half of these Gameboy Advance games I had never played and thus my impressions are some-what incomplete as a result.  I was a day one purchaser of the Gameboy Advance and have actually owned all three styles (the original non-backlit device, the SP, and the Micro) but didn’t really take advantage of the console.  It came at an awkward time.  It was basically a powered-up Super Nintendo but developers were mostly still focusing on simple, Gameboy type games, or were making ports (even Nintendo was guilty of this as many of their initial releases were ports, sound familiar?) and had a hard time pulling me away from my Playstation 2.  Now that I’m a working man in a commuter’s world, I think I’ll get more out of these titles.  Enough with the overview, what are the titles you say?  They are:

F-Zero:  Maximum Velocity – A solid addition to Nintendo’s flagship racer.  Well, I suppose Mario Kart is the new flagship racer, but F-Zero is a more straight-forward game.  Known for high velocity and punishing difficulty, this one isn’t too bad.  It’s kind of like a portable version of the original SNES game in terms of tech  The 2D and small screen add a bit of extra challenge to an already difficult game.  I’m not a big race fan, or even a fan of this franchise, so I probably won’t dabble in it much.  Those that did like the original though will find few faults here.

Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3 – This one is a direct port of the SNES game Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario World 2.  In it, you play as Yoshi with the task of guiding baby Mario through the Mushroom Kingdom to safety.  Baby Mario is awful, this game will make you want to kill babies as any contact with an enemy causes Mario to wail and scream as he floats around in a bubble until Yoshi catches him or an enemy snatches him (causing you to lose).  Good news though, baby Mario is the game’s lone negative as the gameplay is a blast.  It’s a clever platform title and Yoshi’s new morphing abilities add some spice and variety to many levels.  The visual style is interesting (though it’s not as crisp as it was on the SNES) and suits the tone of the game well.  Unfortunately, the 2-player is useless for this port so a part of the game is missing to those experiencing it on their 3DS.  Still, if you missed this one on either the GBA or SNES now is a good time to experience it.

Kirby and the Amazing Mirror– Kirby, Nintendo’s small-screen star, arrived late

You may have missed this one when it came out in 2004, but it's a solid little title starring everyone's favorite pink puff thing.

on the GBA so this is a fitting port considering many gamers probably missed out.  Kirby is kind of Nintendo’s B mascot.  His games are usually pretty fun, and he adds different play mechanics than Mario, but rarely is one of his games heralded as anything special. Amazing Mirror kind of fits that bill as well.  It’s tried and true Kirby: he floats around, sucks up enemies, and copies their powers.  This time he has a bunch of clones that can be called upon to aid Kirby in his adventure, but they’re mostly a gimmick.  I will say, this one feels a little more challenging than typical Kirby games which is welcomed, and it’s good enough that I’ll play through it and finish it.

Mario VS Donkey Kong – This one’s title implies a far greater game than it really is (though I guess any of the old DK games could have bore that title) as this one is a puzzler.  Mario is once again the protagonist, and he has to get some mini Mario’s through each level to advance.  Apparently this has worked well for Nintendo as this game has spawned many sequels, all on their handheld systems.  I don’t see the appeal, but I’m not a big fan of puzzle games so this one isn’t for me.

WarioWare Inc: Mega Microgame$ – The original manic title that has spawned many similar sequels, WarioWare is an odd title that doesn’t sound very interesting on the surface but ends up being perfect for pick up and play gaming.  The game is a collection of mini, or micro, games that individually last less than 10 seconds each.  They’re usually really quirky like picking a nose and only involve a button press, but somehow it works.  They’re delivered in a rapid succession and after a dozen or so a “boss battle” commences that’s usually only slightly more advanced than what you were already playing.  This is a great title to have on the go, and the original is still the best (well, the Wii one was pretty good too so maybe it’s tied at worst).  Nintendo would be foolish to not release this one on the Virtual Console down the road, though I’m sure there’s a new one in development.

Wario Land 4– Wario, until very recently, basically took over the Super Mario Land

Visually, it gets the job done, but makes up for it with gameplay.

franchise in the mid to late 90’s with a sequence of games.  All were pretty good and received quite a bit of praise with Wario Land 3 perhaps representing the peak for the franchise.  Wario Land 4 is still pretty damn good.  Visually, it kind of lags behind some of the other games released here but it’s fun and differentiates itself enough from the other platformers put out by Nintendo.  Wario has moves unique to him that Mario or Yoshi do not possess like his shoulder tackle and ability to throw enemies like a baseball.  He also has a different feel as there’s no run button, making the transition from Mario to Wario feel kind of odd.  It has its own charms though, and this is another quality release.

Mario Kart Super Circuit – The handheld debut for Nintendo’s cash cow, Mario Kart Super Circuit was a welcomed release when it first debuted in 2001 though it has aged noticeably.  When it came out though, it was my favorite Mario Kart yet.  It’s kind of funny how time has chosen to view Mario Kart 64 with rose-tinted glasses, because at the time of its release it was kind of a disappointment.  Super Circuit better captured that manic feel of the original Super Mario Kart and returned all of the classic racers.  The only downside was the reduced tech which does affect how the karts handle.  This game also wasn’t as balanced as future installments, as the lighter vehicles have a distinct advantage over the heavy ones which is why seemingly everyone would use Toad or Yoshi and stay the Hell away from Bowser.  As an added bonus, the original tracks from Super Mario Kart are unlockable giving the player a lot of incentive to play through the single player mode, which is essential since this release won’t benefit from any 2-player mode.  Maybe that’s why Nintendo didn’t mind releasing this against the recently released Mario Kart 7, as Mario Kart without 2-player feels like only half a game.

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones – For a long while, Fire Emblem was a franchise only enjoyed by Japanese gamers as Nintendo didn’t think it could be commercially viable in the States.  Thankfully, they had a change of heart when the GBA was released and The Sacred Stones was actually the second Fire Emblem release for the GBA.  Fire Emblem is a fantasy themed, strategy RPG that should be familiar to those who have played Advance Wars.  I prefer Fire Emblem to the Advance Wars franchise and this is a welcomed release as a VC title.  The gameplay is dense, and while it isn’t the best in its genre, it still proves quite rewarding.  Visually, it’s nothing special but since I never played this one I’m looking forward to spending time with it.  This should provide several hours of entertainment for me and other Ambassadors.

Metroid Fusion – Since release, this one has been retro-actively titled as Metroid 4 making it the most recent entry in the series from a story-line perspective.  Metroid Fusion takes the formula established by the original and refined for Super Metroid and points it in your hands.  For most fans of the Metroid series, the debate over which game is the best includes this one, Super Metroid, and the Metroid re-make also released on the GBA, Metroid: Zero Mission.  I’m partial to Super Metroid, but the fact that this one is even in the discussion is a good thing.  This is a great and challenging run n’ gun game with memorable boss battles and timely power-ups.  I still have this game on GBA so I almost didn’t download it but I figured, why not?  It’s a great game and if you missed this one years ago it may end up being your favorite of the 10 games released last week.

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap– This one was a nice surprise.  I figured

Bright and colorful, this one is still a treat for the eyes.

since Nintendo has been selling us all on Zelda’s 25th anniversary that another Zelda title would get released, but I expected it would be the GBA remake of A Link to the Past.  The Minish Cap is a forgotten and overlooked entry in the Zelda franchise.  Stylistically, it resembles Wind Waker but plays like the classic top-down games.  Link has always had great success with Nintendo’s handhelds, and this title may be his best for any of them.  It’s not as gimmicky as the DS games, but more advanced than the Gameboy ones.  I would have easily paid 5 bucks to download this one, maybe more, and had been considering buying this for my GBA as recently as this summer (when the 3DS games kind of sucked).  I missed this one on the GBA, but it’s nice to know I won’t miss it this time around.

I consider it a great thing that Nintendo chose to reward the early 3DS adopters with free content.  I would have been disappointed initially at the price drop, knowing I could have just waited and not really missed out on anything, but that’s the price one accepts when buying new tech.  Often times, that tech is improved upon and made better, cheaper, or both not too far down the road.  In fact, I fully expect a new model 3DS will show up probably within the year that will have better battery life and a second circle pad.  If Nintendo had stopped with the 10 NES games it already released free, I would have been thankful for the gesture, but that’s all.  In truth, I’ve played very little of those games and they fall into the “nice to have” category.  These 10 GBA games though are games that I’m truly excited to have.  While I’ve already beaten or even owned some of them, there are others like Fire Emblem and The Minish Cap that I’m experiencing for the first time and am sure to spend dozens of hours on.  Nintendo, in my eyes, has more than made up for the difference in price between what I payed for my console and what current consumers are paying.  Not only am I getting some kick ass, free games, but I got to enjoy Ocarina of Time 3D during the summer and other freebies.  I’ve never been a Nintendo fanboy, but this is the kind of promotion that does create some brand loyalty.  Well done, Big N!

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