ninja gaiden: the prequel

so in the end i did manage to squeeze in one more game before the end of the year, finished this morning. i’ve been playing ninja gaiden: shadow off and on for a while, but hadn’t sat down and played through to the end. so i finally picked it up again yesterday. it’s one of those platformers which, as this good walkthrough so aptly describes it, consists mostly of “try-and-die gameplay”, i.e. it’s not too challenging, but you’ll have to play through it more than once to figure out the enemies’ patterns, etc. … although i suppose all platformers are like that to varying degrees.

there’s some interesting info about the origins of the game itself, a supposed prequel to the ninja gaiden series on the NES. in particular, the game was one of many game boy “sequels” that nintendo put out that have only a tenuous relationship to their NES counterparts (compare final fantasy on NES and “final fantasy adventures” on game boy for a classic example). like those games, this was apparently originally a completely different game and little other than the name was changed. (the review at 1up.com gives more detailed information about this.)

but enough about the trivia, how’s the game itself? it seems that most people agree that the game, while not really a ninja gaiden game, is a fairly solid little release. it had been a while since i’d played a completely straightforward platformer like this, but i found it to be enjoyable overall. the controls, visuals, and music are all satisfying, and the gameplay, while not particularly distinctive, was hard enough to keep me paying attention. although there are no saves (there are only 5 stages), you have unlimited continues, so all in all it’ll prob. take you some time and not too much frustration to completely master it. not quite a keeper but worth a playthrough if you come across it, especially since it has one of the coolest lines from the opening sequence i can remember ever encountering (transcribed and punctuated verbatim):

An evil messenger suddenly appears
“MY POWER IS THE FEAR OF MANKIND”
with destruction and terrible death
There’s despair in the skyscraper.

awesome. haven’t played any of the NES games yet, but will def. be doing so … sometime!

and i bet you’d like to have more links (grumble grumble):

- game page at ninjagaiden.classicgaming.gamespy.com which also has the code for the sound test
- screenshots of the ending at vgmuseum.com
- box art of the european version (where the ninja gaiden series was apparently released as “shadow warriors”)

one hot mama: f-zero GX

i started f-zero GX a few weeks ago. part of my interest, i’ll admit, was b/c i’m still tracking down all the games w/ characters from the excellent game super smash bros. melee, but i’d also read a lot of great reviews and was looking for something new to play this year. i was also interested b/c everything i’d read said how hard it was, and i have to admit after wind waker and kirby’s dream land 2 i was looking for a challenge.

you can laugh, but my previous racing experience up to now had been mario kart 64, so this was pure adrenaline in comparison. i def. wasn’t prepared for how *fast* this game really is, or how addictive it would become. i’m taking my time, and although i still haven’t even attempted the third cup i wouldn’t say it’s “insanely difficult” so far, although i can def. see how perfect you’d have to drive to beat the hardest levels. practice definitely makes perfect, though. my first time through the last track of the second cup was completely pitiful, but after a lot of trials now i can get through it pretty regularly. of course, getting through it and placing in the top 10 is another thing entirely … i was glad though to see in this excellent walkthrough that the writer mentions this course as being one of the most difficult in the game.

this is a game that, like metroid prime, has so much polish everywhere it just gleams. from the visuals to the music to the tight game play, everything is so well developed it really makes every moment a purely pleasurable experience, so much so that even if you crash your last racer at the last millisecond of the last race, just a hair away from getting 1st in the whole cup (as i just did tonight), you don’t really mind too much. (although of course i’m sure this will get more and more problematic as i reach higher and higher levels of difficulty.) the game also has enough depth beyond just simple racing that i still haven’t mastered some of the finer points of the game (particularly attacks).

and like metroid prime, i’m looking forward to playing this one for a good long while. in the meantime, links!

- official site: actually looks pretty cool and has some wallpapers
- ign.com: also has a nice guide (as usual)
- incredibly thorough fansite with audio, emblem patterns, and more
- nice review at nintendojo.com

long-winded wind wakened

just finished zelda: the wind waker. man, this game just got tedious. i’d gotten to the part where you have to collect the 8 triforce pieces, but it literally took more than 8 months before i was able to bring myself to pick the game up again to finish it. i came across this article where even miyamoto and director aonuma acknowledged that this section was dull. everything from then on was fairly dull as well, and thinking back it’s really hard for me to remember any of the good parts of the game, although i’m sure there were some (particularly some of the dungeon sequences). my biggest gripe with the game is that although the visuals were great (the much-debated cel-shaded animation, while not my favorite, was novel and eye-catching), there just wasn’t enough of the “cool” factor. the game was too easy, the characters and situations all fairly generic, and more than that a game that devotes more than 50% of its time to sidequests has got to be relying too much on the satisfaction of completist fanboys and not enough on gamers just looking for a good time. from everything i’ve read, though, nintendo got it right this time w/ the new twilight princess. i’ve actually not played ocarina of time yet, so next time i get my zelda jones i’ll def. be picking that one up. not sure when that will be, though, after the disappointment of wind waker. i’m tempted to sell it, i was that bored, but i hate to break up the zelda collection so i guess i’ll keep it around for a while at least.

zeldaelements.net has the best WW section i’ve come across so far, with a good walkthrough and a good wallpapers section. i’ve got a couple of other almost-finished games also, so i’ll hopefully be able to squeeze in another one or two more reviews before the end of the year.

kirby landed

i finally finished kirby’s dream land 2. i haven’t really come across many negative comments about it, but i found it to be mostly tedious. i’d played a bit of kirby’s adventure on the NES a while back, and from what i remember i enjoyed it, but this game was just too mind-numbingly easy. the levels were fairly well constructed, but the vast majority of them required practically no effort other than holding down the right button and jumping every once in a while. there were def. some worthwhile challenges near the end, including a pretty rad boss fight at the very end, but it was a case of too little too late. the game def. gets points for style (inc. a great trio of animals in the supporting cast), but along with the easiness, one of the other gripes i had about it was that the few “puzzles” near the end were of the arbitrary kind where they don’t really require any logic, just too much time spent on endless trial and error (e.g. finding the last rainbow drop on level 7-7). other games do this as well (eternal darkness, i’m looking at you yet again) and to me it’s a sure sign of poor design. compare those to the puzzles in the zelda games, which are clearly presented but still challenging. i finished at 100% though, which was nice. does anyone out there know what happens if you get perfect in the post-game win bonus mode or completely through the boss mode? i’m sure someone out there knows.

i happened to get the original kirby’s dream land at the same time, but apparently it’s short and you don’t even copy enemies’ abilities in that one. i’ll prob. hold off on that one and go back to the NES or SNES game first (eventually!).

two links fer ya:
- awesome site devoted to the game including screenshots of all the powers, the instruction manual, music, and enemies. i love the names of these enemies. “scarfy”, “sir kibble”, “squishy” haha. i also like their description of crack tweet: “This little chick is cute and is hatched from an egg. Unfortunately he’s not on Kirby’s side.” haha. i think it’s unfair of nintendo to make the enemies so cute.
- FAQ at ign

everybody was balloon fighting

i’ve been playing animal crossing off and on for a while. the game was enjoyable and there were def. some surprises, but overall it just didn’t have much longevity for me (esp. since i don’t have anyone to play with!). when i get a DS (and the subsequent connection to the global community) i’ll prob. give it another go, but these days i only check up on it when i want to play some emulated NES games. the NES games within animal crossing were actually one of the biggest draws for me in the first place, and they didn’t disappoint.

it was nice to get to play clu clu land again which has been a long-time favorite. i’d played balloon fight before, but this was the first time i really gave it much time. a joust clone to be sure, but it def. has its own charms and a great sense of style. i found that the regular mode, in which you progress through a series of stages, didn’t hold my attention for very long (although it is def. more fun w/ a second person), but i found myself surprised at how addictive the “balloon trip” mode was. in this mode (with slightly differently layouts each time) the screen constantly forces you to progress through obstacles which are stationary at first, but soon become drifting mazes. it’ll def. give you a memorable rush as you hold your breath, squeezing through what might or might not be a too small opening between electrocuting stars.

apparently there’s also a spinoff called balloon kid that plays more like a side-scroller. here’s a review i found about it. i’m intrigued enough to try it out, so stay tuned for that one.

although this blog is supposedly focused on 8-bit games, i think this is the first old-school NES game i’ve really written about! expect more in the future, esp. with all the virtual console games coming out that have gotten my attention.

and the requisite links:
- apparently there’s still a lot of affection for this game. nintendojo gives it a whopping 9.5 out of 10.
- here are some people dressed up as the main characters
- here’s a toy you can import where you can use pins to make the balloon fight characters … and also one where you can make all the characters from ice climbers! awesome.
- the text of the instruction manual
- a FAQ at ign that includes board layouts. the author suggests using minimal movement for the balloon trip mode, but i found that my method of darting through clear openings and then hovering to wait for the screen to catch up worked better for me.
- ign also has an interesting article that specifically covers the GBA emulation you can transfer from animal crossing.

picked min

i finished pikmin last week, with a few days to spare (i was on day 27 out of 30 i think) which was fun. my thoughts about how i prefer pikmin to pikmin 2 still hold (so far, that is, since i haven’t finished pikmin 2 yet), so i don’t really have much to add to my original post about it. even though a lot of what pikmin boils down to is the fairly rote “pick up key, put in lock” kind of mechanics that i’ve come to hate (e.g. eternal darkness), its actual gameplay is so fun that you (practically) never notice. it’ll be interesting to see how pikmin 2 develops, although what i’ve played through so far has seemed to be even more of the rote mechanics than the first game. i am looking forward to more boss fights w/ pikmin 2 though. and as far as i’ve been able to tell, there hasn’t been any official word about a pikmin 3 for the wii, but it’s prob. a fairly likely thing.

a coupla links:
- ign has a nice guide as usual.
- a guide to the monsters of pikmin 1 as well as a guide to beating the game w/ no deaths in the smallest amount of time possible (9 days!) … w/ all the games out there i really doubt i’ll ever be so obsessed with one that i attempt anything as crazy, but it’s interesting to read about.