eden found

i finally got around to officially finishing my first SNES game a couple of weeks ago, the enix RPG e.v.o.: search for eden. the game is fairly unusual for an RPG. the basic premise is that you start off as a fish and as you gain experience (by chomping on other animals in platformer-like stages) you gain the option of upgrading various body parts, such as jaws, a tougher skin, horns, faster fins, etc. the game has quite a few nice ideas, but ultimately they just don’t add up.

one problem with the design is that there’s not really much sense of choice. it becomes pretty clear that only one set of jaws or one skin is “the best”, and there’s not much opportunity to experiment and create really outlandish creatures. (the main exception is that it’s best not to evolve into a human as the human is much weaker than the best mammal.) also, the stages are all fairly ho-hum. there are a few maze-like levels thrown in, but most of the stages are completely horizontal with few or no obstacles. it seems more of the effort went into the enemy design, and for the most part all the enemies’ graphics and movements are well done, including the bosses. but there’s just not enough variation in the gameplay to make it worth playing through a second time.

there are some nice touches though. the maps for the main sections trace the progression of the continents from pangea to our current configuration, and there’s a subplot involving the appearance of some unnaturally evolved creatures. one of the more puzzling aspects of the game is that enemies that are clearly based on real animals are called something slightly different (e.g. “segosaurus” instead of “stegosaurus”). was enix or their translators intentionally trying to remove any remote possibility of the game having any educational value? also, why is the name “e.v.o.” written with periods? what does it stand for? anyway, there’s also a feature where you can save previous forms and at certain points revert back to them temporarily, but while potentially worthwhile it’s never really necessary and thus completely underused.

all in all this was an interesting game to play in terms of deviating from the more generic RPG fare, but it seems with some more time or effort it could’ve been a lot more interesting. it would def. be interesting to see a sequel, although that’s not likely to ever happen. too bad. apparently sims’ creator will wright has been working on a PC evolution game called spore which looks interesting and is supposedly due out sometime this year.

and now … yes, virginia, there are some links:

- rpgclassics.com hosts probably the only site for this game. lots of good info there.
- wikipedia provides some pretty good general info as well. (and “plot” spoilers so beware.)
- this french site has lots of great screenshots.

pokecomposer

another quick soundtrack review from another game somewhat recently finished, pokémon colosseum, with music by tsukasa tawada. tawada is not among the team of composers of the handheld games, but his score is definitely enjoyable.

to accompany the desert setting of the game, tawada’s score has a strong country and western bent with some nice tunes for the harmonica. he effectively uses jazzy/bluesy music for the baddies (complete with fingersnaps) which gives them a kind of superior, aloof characterization that adds a lot to the game. there’s also some salsa-flavored music thrown in for some of the zanier bosses. and perhaps most importantly the battle music not only fits the mood well, but it doesn’t get old (which given how much you’ll be hearing it is definitely a good thing).

you can find the tracks at the great galbadia hotel at this page. rock on, rock on.

dracula whipped

i finished castlevania 64 a couple of weeks ago but am just now getting around to collecting my thoughts (and links!). i’m quite familiar with the original NES castlevania, so i was interested in playing the 3D version despite reading people’s complaints about it. the game does have its faults, but i actually ended up rather liking it, definitely enough to play through as carrie and pick up the “sequel”, legacy of darkness (eventually).

most people will probably mostly agree with the reviews posted at vgmuseum.com and ign.com. i appreciated the storyline, such as it was, but my biggest complaint is that the gameplay gets a bit too repetitive. it may just be me, but endlessly jumping over pits and whipping medusa heads and candles gets old. in the center of the game are a villa and a castle that you get to explore which make the game much more interesting.

one thing that people consistenly complain about is the game’s camera. i’d recently read this feature at 1up.com about the differences between japanese and western approaches to game design, and so i was much more accepting about it. if you keep the mindset that the fixed camera is part of the challenge of the game, then you shouldn’t be too disappointed. it’s not too problematic anyway, and at times it even makes the game more effective. for example, at one point you’re being chased around by a baddie with a chainsaw, and if you had complete camera control you could always just turn around and see exactly where he was, which would be a much different experience than never quite knowing how far behind you he is.

not much more to say. i’d previously said that it was interesting how franchises reuse the same elements over and over (enemies, weapons, etc.), but in this case i found the reuse to be a bit stale; not quite sure why that was. anyway, i’ll have to see how the next castlevania game i play fares.

lotsa links:
- vgmuseum.com: best cv64 site, with scans of the instruction book, all the dialogue transcribed, screenshots of all four endings, and more.
- nice guide from ign.com
- castlevania.classicgaming.gamespy.com also has some good info, including concept artwork and a comprehensive timeline
- about.com has some good bios on carrie and reinhardt.

pinballed

this is a game i “finished” today, so while i’m thinking about it i’m going to post this even though there was another game i finished earlier.

high on my list of NES games to play are all the orig. NES games available in animal crossing, almost all of which i think are now available for purchase on ye olde virtual console. i have to say whenever i pick up animal crossing again i always enjoy spending a few days getting back into it, squishing bugs in my dusty house, picking some of the forests of weeds that have grown, getting reacquainted with the townsfolk, and checking out what holidays are coming up. good times. (although, drat, i realized today i missed totakeke last night.)

after my previous escapade with balloon fight (previously recounted here), i tackled pinball. a lot of people have reviewed this game since it came out on the virtual console, including ign.com and 1up.com. although the ign review mentions that this was the 1st effort of nintendo’s HAL laboratory (responsible for the kirby and smash bros. series), both of the reviews lament the limited gameplay and the simplicity.

the user score on ign (currently 7.2 vs. the ign editor’s 5.0) show that the game has its fans, though, and after playing it for a while i def. count myself among them. i’m not turned off by simplicity in games if the game is fun, and even though i have a higher tolerance for repetitive games than some (as must anyone who truly loves NES games) i think the game has a lot more to offer than these reviews give credit for.

granted, this was a game released in 1984, but it’s def. on par with its contemporaries, such as donkey kong junior or the orig. mario bros. (both from 1983). the excellent guide on strategywiki.org describes the game well: “Just when you think you’ve discovered everything the table has to offer there’s usually one or two surprises hidden for you to find later on.” and for that reason i highly, highly recommend you don’t read that guide until after you’ve played the game for a good while.

i hadn’t really played pinball machines, virtual or otherwise, but i enjoyed all the touches that the video game version adds that wouldn’t be possible in a real board, including a bonus round. after some haphazard flipping, i settled down and figured out how to score better, and i’ve gotten to the point where i can break 100,000 pretty regularly (although there are def. a lot of areas where my skills could be improved). there’s something that changes in the game after that that makes the game much harder though, so it’ll take some effort to get much higher.

all in all this is def. a keeper and def. worth a look, and it def. has me psyched to play the other pinball video games out there. my high score prob. isn’t that high, but for now i’m satisfied w/ my top score of more than 110,000. next time i pick this up my goal will be to break 150,000. hahaha.

pokemon gladiators

finished pokemon colosseum a week or so ago. i was looking forward to seeing pokemon in 3D, so even though i’d only completed pokemon yellow i skipped over the other handheld games which of course isn’t really the most ideal progression. as it was, the vast majority of the pokemon in this game were ones i’d never seen before, which was a disadvantage, especially since i also hadn’t encountered steel or dark types.

nevertheless the game wasn’t that hard. the funny thing about RPG’s in general is that if there’s a “hard” enemy you can pretty much always just take more time to level up your characters before fighting it again. in pokemon yellow i felt like i didn’t have to spend much time doing this which makes me think the game did a better job of pacing the game than pokemon colosseum. but perhaps in pokemon colosseum they assumed people would be trading in pokemon they’d already spent a lot of time with from the ruby/sapphire/emerald games. in contrast i can remember spending loads of time levelling up my team in the orig. final fantasy which makes me remember that game as being “hard”, although time spent doing grunt work doesn’t quite seem like the right way to judge the difficulty of a game.

anyway, i appreciated the differences the game added to distinguish it from the handheld games. i thought the idea of “shadow pokemon” you had to snag from other pokemon trainers who were “bad guys” instead of catching wild pokemon was novel, but having to purify each of them and reset every time you missed one (if you wanted a complete collection) quickly grew tedious. i remember in pokemon yellow there were only a few battles where you only had one chance to catch a particular species of pokemon, but having a game that consists of only these types of battles, while understandably an effort to make this game more unique and more of a challenge, just ended up slowing things down and causing frustration. particularly since it’s so easy for the enemy pokemon to knock itself out w/ its shadow moves. as it was i didn’t bother beating the last (bonus) stadium and purifying the rest of the pokemon to get ho-oh, but of course i prob. will someday.

seeing the pokemon battles in 3D was fun though. although (if i remember correctly) the ign review said that watching the animations take up the majority of the time of the game, they’re still quite entertaining. the “faints” are particularly amusing, with zangoose getting my vote for the most theatrical faint, and granbull getting an honorable mention.

i also enjoyed the game’s attempt to offer a bit darker experience, with its anti-hero and its mostly desert setting. the storyline was pretty weak, but i don’t think most people are playing the pokemon games for the story anyway. and i know some people dislike the double battle setup, but i liked it for being something different, although it might have been nice to have a bit of both.

once again to commemorate my win, here are the 6 pokemon i ended up using (images thanks to the indispensible serebii.net).

plusle ending up being pretty weak. the MVP turned out to be octillery who naturally learns bubble beam, ice beam, and hyper beam, and who i had learn psychic and sludge bomb. it was kind of a pain to have to train her up from remoraid, but it turned out to be well worth it.

anyway, not the greatest game and as i said, def. slower and more frustrating than the handheld games are, but still worth playing through for any pokemon fanatic. i don’t plan on getting the sequel, pokemon XD: gale of darkness, any time soon, but i’ll def. play through it eventually.

and heeeeeere’s the link to the guide from ign. i actually finished another game a couple of days ago, so i’ll be posting about that this week as well. w00t.