golden sun sunny side up

this week i finally finished golden sun. for a while i’ve been under the impression that i rather like RPG’s, based on my great fondness for the original final fantasy, but i’m starting to think i must have somehow been mistaken b/c this one pretty much had me bored throughout. i guess it’s been a while since i’ve played a really old-school RPG like this one, and my opinion of RPG’s in general may be marred by this game b/c it was just way too easy. so easy that i never had to use items, it didn’t really matter which weapons or armor i had, and the turn-based fights were esp. boring b/c i never had to strategize. the last battle was literally one of the only battles in the whole game where i had to think, and that was easily one of the most enjoyable parts of the game. and i know i’m not the only one who found the meager story hard to follow and the characters completely generic. and i’m def. not the only one who’s bored w/ villages chock-full of NPC’s who are just there to take up space.

about halfway through i started trying to focus on the things the game does well, namely some good, albeit generally cartoony, graphics and a somewhat unique special attacks system with the djinn. because the game is so easy the djinn are somewhat superfluous, but despite their pokemon-like presence they’re the most interesting thing about the game. the sequel seems to focus on them a bit more, which makes me somewhat more interested in playing it, although it’s going to be quite a while before i feel like signing up for more weeks of such brain-dead gaming.

i haven’t completely given up on RPG’s yet, though, and i have some SNES classics lined up, but after this one it’s going to be a while before i feel like tackling another. there do seem to be a lot of fans of this game though, hence some great links:

- good walkthrough at ign
- fansite at gamespy.com: has lots of good info and images
- goldensun-syndicate.net: another good site; includes images of all the sceneries and summons
- maps at vgmaps.com
- info at wikipedia.org

elite beats beaten

i finally crawled out of my retro gaming shell and broke down and entered the 21st century of gaming when i bought a DS lite (onyx) a few weeks ago. i’ve been getting more and more interested in new gameplay experiences, so with the unique interface and the fact there are more than enough games out that interested me, not to mention a color that i liked, i just couldn’t resist. i won’t gush too much about how great the DS looks and feels, in a way that the game boy and game boy advance (as much as we all love them) never did, and how sleek it is. but this article is an interesting look at the changes between the DS and DS lite.

the game that pushed me to the point of no return and made me want to take the plunge was elite beat agents which i encountered on youtube where someone had posted a playthrough of the first level. the quirky story, humor, and the new game mechanics immediately drew me in, and as i’ve worked my way through all the levels i find it amazing that i still haven’t gotten tired of the songs or the game. this is easily one of the best games i’ve played ever, let alone all year, and after the disappointing donkey konga this has restored my faith in rhythm games in general. for me this is the game that has had the most laugh-out-loud moments ever, which if for nothing else would have immediately placed it among the greats. as it is, the controls are tight, the challenge (something i’d been worried about, given the marketing towards “casual” gamers) is wholly satisfying, and virtually every moment is enjoyable. this is a game that i’d buy extra copies of in order to force others to play it.

you can bet that i’ve already started looking to get my hands on copies of ouendan (the original japanese version of the game) and ouendan 2. the only question i have is: when is there going to be a sequel?? according to this article at 1up.com: “sales were still ‘personally disappointing’ to Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime … ‘The developer has been fantastic to work with and our hope is maybe this could become a new franchise,’ he concluded.” here’s hoping!

elite beat links:
- good walkthrough at ign
- fansite that’s setting out to translate ouendan.
- scans of the instruction manual
- good info on the game at wikipedia.org

prince of persia sanded down

finished prince of persia: the sands of time a week or so ago. yet again i find myself disagreeing with the popular opinion. i enjoyed the game elements that others have praised the game for, including good graphics, fluid animation, well-designed controls, decent story, and good gameplay mechanics. and i didn’t mind one of the main complaints people seem to have, which is that the fight mechanics (which, with their “finishing move”, reminded me a lot of eternal darkness) are too repetitive.

what most people don’t seem to find fault with, however, is how utterly repetitive the game is in general, and how it’s not enough of either an adventure game or a platformer to maintain much interest. the game, with its fluid controls, feels like it could’ve been a great platformer, but it lacks most of the things that make platformers interesting. instead the game is set up to be a sort of hybrid “puzzle” platformer, in that you’re supposed to figure out how to progress from one place to another. however, because there’s only one way to progress and there’s such a tiny number of things to try, it’s pretty much always immediately clear what to do. so most of the gameplay actually boils down to typical “pick up key, put in lock” mechanics, but as a platformer, where it’s “run along this wall to that ledge” or “climb the ladder” or “swing from this pole to that one”. where’s the puzzle in that? the majority of the rest of the “puzzles” are of the mind-numbing “push block to fit in this slot” variety and are hardly worth mentioning. in true platformers like super mario bros. at least you get to collect coins and powerups along the way, interact w/ enemies, and, more importantly, actually have to have some skill and good timing to get to the goal. in this i rarely felt like there was such skill required, although there were moments scattered throughout where i felt there were glimmers of the brilliant game this could’ve been.

so all in all not really a keeper, despite the high scores i’d seen. apparently the second of the trilogy wasn’t as well received, but based on what i’ve read the third might be more worthwhile. i guess i’ll have to work my way through the second before starting the third, although it’s going to be a good long while before i’m willing to pick it up and have to suffer through pushing more blocks around. may give the original game a go some time though (included as an unlockable in this version). oh, and apparently there’s going to be a movie from disney??

links! times three!
- good walkthrough at ign
- cool fansite that has artwork, screenshots, and the screenplay of the entire game
- info on the original game at wikipedia.org

metroid fused

finished metroid fusion a week ago. i know these recaps tend to get long, but for once i don’t have too much to say about this one, although once again i disagree with popular opinion. i haven’t played the much-revered super metroid yet so i don’t have any comparisons there, but compared to the original NES game i found this one to be an experience that was designed to be rushed and not savored. the game element that most people seem to complain about is the fact that there’s a computer character who at every point directs you to the next task, although the great metroid prime featured a similar, although slightly more subtle, setup. i wouldn’t have had a problem with that here so much if the areas hadn’t felt so straightforward. the original had a slower and much more atmospheric pace, with a much larger emphasis on exploring, whereas in this game i felt i could sprint through every area. there were some moments near the end where the pace felt slower which were much more enjoyable, and which made the rest of the game pale that much more in comparison. overall a fairly solid game with an interesting story line, but rather too easy and not much opportunity to linger over any of it. i’m definitely interested in where the story goes after this chapter, though, which is more than you can usually say about nintendo franchises.

not a whole lot else to say. if you’re reading this and you haven’t finished the game, be aware that after you get the last powerup you shouldn’t go into a navigation room b/c then all the doors to all the areas become locked, forcing you to finish the game. post-win the doors unlock and you can explore any areas you missed, but it would be much more fun to explore them before you beat the last boss (which incidentally is much harder than the rest of the game).

one other thing that i wish the game had was the ability to see all of the places on the map that have hidden items. i think i got all the open circles on the maps but i was still at only 67% or so completed, so either there are a lot more rooms w/ multiple hidden items (in which case that would also have been nice to know) or not all of them are showing up on the map. since i hate using walkthroughs i’m not really motivated to search through every room to find the rest, but maybe one of these days if i’m really bored and i’ve finished the other games in the series i’ll give it another shot.

here be links!

- best game site, at mdb.classicgaming.gamespy.com w/ maps, guide, and more
- pretty good walkthrough at ign
- vgmuseum.com has screenshots of the american version endings as well as the japanese version endings.
- coupla wallpapers at the official site
- tricks and sequence breaking at metroid2002.com
- list of games nintendo’s R&D1 has developed at wikipedia.org

kirby avalanched

to change things up a bit i started playing through the SNES puzzle game kirby’s avalanche, which is apparently heading to the virtual console very soon. the game has an interesting history in that it was the 2nd version of puyo puyo (created in japan in 1991) that was released in the states. the first was dr. robotnik’s mean bean machine for the sega genesis and released in 1993. kirby’s avalanche followed two years later, and apparently both are modelled after the original version of puyo puyo instead of the updated version puyo puyo tsu (a.k.a. puyo puyo 2) released in japan in 1994. [isn't wikipedia helpful? what did we ever do w/out it?] this distinction is noteworthy, as i’ll get into below.

anyway, history lesson aside the game itself was probably one of the first tetris-like games to feature chain reactions, which i’d gotten to really enjoy through playing a similar game, super puzzle fighter 2 turbo, on the PSX. my sister and i used to play puzzle fighter head to head for hours, but after a while we found out that in most cases throwing blocks down quickly but fairly haphazardly yielded better results than playing carefully, and so the game became much less interesting.

avalanche proved to be a more challenging game overall, in part b/c a random approach usually won’t give many chains. with unlimited continues it’s not too hard to play through to the end, but i set myself the challenge of playing to the end with no continues. this turned out to be harder than one might think, mostly b/c the game is designed so that once you get a lot of enemy blocks on your screen, it’s fairly difficult to get rid of them. as the original version of puyo puyo, the game doesn’t have some of the more convenient features added to the second version, and in particular it doesn’t include the rule of sousai. this is a simple feature where the garbage blocks you’re about to send over to the other player are subtracted from the amount that s/he’s about to send over. this means that rounds last much longer b/c it’s common to have cases where both players are negating the others’ garbage blocks and bouncing small sets of garbage blocks back and forth. when you don’t have that feature, as in avalanche, once either side builds up a long chain the other side is pretty much bombarded and doesn’t have much chance to recover, so kirby’s avalanche forces you to play quickly and accurately. after spending way too many hours trying out various strategies, i decided the best thing to do is really just build as many chains as possible, and have chains working side by side so as they fall they chain with two colors instead of just one.

avalanche is one of those puzzle games that don’t really have much to do w/ the franchise except that the characters are featured, but the characters add color and some of the dialogue is pretty hilarious. all in all it was def. fun to play the relatively primitive version of the game, and i’m def. going to be playing through the subsequent iterations. i’ll prob. also track down the sega genesis version (which is available in the sonic mega collection disc which is on the gamecube and the other platforms) just to see if the gameplay’s exactly the same or not. yeah, i’m a geek.

linkies:
- the great kirby site at classicgaming.gamespy.com has the definitive guide to the game, with sprites, screenshots, music, instruction book text, game dialogue, and more.
- wikipedia’s page on the original version of puyo puyo describes the gameplay and shows examples of how to make chains
- and here’s wikipedia’s page on the game