warioware: moves smoothed

[i got behind posting due to a game that turned me from the regular gamer that i usually am to an obsessive gaming freak. if you've been paying attention to the blog it should come as absolutely no surprise what the game was, but more on that in the near future.]

i’ve been strategizing about what games i should take home this christmas to accompany my new wii; i’m looking forward to seeing how my family reacts to it, esp. my 5-year-old nephew. to that end i picked up a copy of warioware: smooth moves which i’d heard good things about, to see how it might fare with the clan.

the game immediately sucked me in with its quintessentially nintendo brand of zany humor. it’s rare that a game makes me laugh out loud, but this was a notable exception and even had me at the point where i was shaking my head in disbelief at how wacky some of the scenarios were. a fair amount of the wackiness felt distinctly japanese as well, which makes me think it would be interesting to see how non-japanese families would react to it, although japanese culture has def. become more and more mainstream in the US.

as my first entry to the series the game lacked a little more depth than i’d expected, but since then i’ve already gone on to play through a fair amount of the original warioware game, warioware, inc. from that i’ve gained an appreciation for how perfect the wii controller is for this type of game and how great a job the warioware team at intelligent systems did in taking all the disparate ways to use the wii remote and presenting them in one cohesive package. there’s a fairly interesting interview with the developers on nintendo’s site where, perhaps unsurprisingly, it sounds like they had a great time making the game. in the interview iwata also says, regarding the warioware games, “We had no idea at the start that the games in this series would become milestones of sorts.” it’s rare nowadays that new genres are created, and warioware is def. an exception.

anyway, i’ll def. be posting about how it goes over after the holidays, but i’m fairly sure that it’ll deliver more than a few rowdy sessions. and of course i’m def. looking forward to playing the other warioware games.

some wario-made links:
- guide at IGN
- gamespot has a bit more detail on the unlockables than the IGN guide
- bozon’s review at ign
- entry at wikipedia

super mario bros.: lost levels found

nintendo made a lot of people happy (including me) when for the first time they made games previously unreleased in the U.S. available through the wii’s virtual console. in an interview for wired w/ nintendo rep perrin kaplan re: the import titles, she says: “Everything’s been doing fantastic. It really has exceeded our expectations.” so it’ll be very interesting to see what else they’ll be releasing.

i’ve been interested in trying out the lost levels for a while now, and since i have them on both the SNES’s super mario all-stars and the game boy coor’s super mario bros. deluxe i decided to first tackle it on the SNES. particularly since i’m a wuss and the SNES version lets you continue from the current level, whereas the original makes you start at the beginning of the world.

there have been a lot of reviews of this game of late, and lucas thomas’s review at ign is fairly accurate, particularly when he says:

The layout of platforms, bricks and pipes and the placement of enemies in The Lost Levels all pick up at about the same difficulty setting as the last few worlds in Super Mario Bros., and then get increasingly tougher after that. Skills that were secondary before become required here …

the review at racketboy.com goes into a bit more detail and is also an interesting read.

so the question on everyone’s mind is, so how tough is it really? the answer? well let me put it this way: i haven’t had sweaty palms and nervous twitches from gaming like this since i played through f-zero GX. unlike that game, however, the goals seem rather more attainable here, more tantalizingly out of reach, although the original version is prob. rather more frustrating. i did finish all the way through to the end of the D worlds (four extra, even harder, worlds that come after level 8-4) and only warped a couple of times. (i confess, i skipped past a few levels. just a few, honest!) it is interesting to note that once you figure out how to get all the way through a tough level it’s way easier to get through the same level a second time. in fact, after being stuck on the very last level (D-4) for a while, once i beat it i was able to immediately beat it again.

anyway, next time i get the urge to tackle this again i’ll have to work my way through the SNES version without skipping any levels. and when i’m really feeling up for getting my butt kicked then i’ll have to pick up the virtual console release. after all, as w/ many things in life there’s no substitute for the original thing. or pretty darn close to the original thing anyway!

super mario lost links found:
- endings at vgmuseum.com
- entry at wikipedia.org
- detailed guide at strategywiki.org
- insane super mario world fan-made level video at youtube.com. this is exactly what playing the lost levels feels like at times.

dawn at hotel dusk

went home the other week, which of course means i got to play through some handheld games. in this particular case, cing’s hotel dusk: room 215 on the DS. i’ve enjoyed the few point-and-click type games i’ve played, and although i’d read about how much reading there is in this game i was looking forward to seeing more of the uniquely awesome art style (often compared to the classic a-ha music video “take on me”, although it also has a similar feel to the movie waking life). overall the game, although not a classic for the ages, didn’t disappoint.

the review at ign is pretty representative of what most reviewers seemed to say, namely that this really is more of an interactive mystery novel than a video game. the few puzzles are all fairly straightforward, and there’s generally little sense of freedom, a bit too much handholding, and a general sense that the text could have been streamlined a bit. but the big draw is that this novel has a story that by novel standards may not be that remarkable, but by video game standards is unusually compelling. the even bigger draw is that the characters of hotel dusk, which in a novel would only reach a certain level of immediacy, are completely brought to life here through the fantastic artwork and the script’s spot-on characterizations. this cast of characters is easily one of the most engrossing and memorable i’ve encountered in a video game thus far, so much so that i’m sure i wasn’t the only one who got to the end and immediately wished for a sequel with more time to spend with even the minor characters. not to mention the fantastic atmosphere (an adroit blending of classic film noir with america in the late 70’s that works amazingly well, especially given the fact this was created in japan), great game interface, and perfectly synchronized music, along with masterful little touches like the timing of camera angles, the lingering closeups, and the looks exchanged between characters that all add tangible amounts of polish to the game overall.

the game’s ending is open-ended enough to make a direct sequel a possibility, and if the gameplay opens up to expand the intrigue of the first game to bring it to an international level it could have loads of potential. in an interview on nintendo’s european site the creators hint at a sequel: “As for Mr. Hyde – we think that he is also looking forward to meeting you again.” here’s hoping!

looks like hotel dusk is a game that inspires fan worship, as evidenced by all these links!

- unofficial soundtrack: RAWK
- fansite: one of the funniest fansites i’ve ever come across, includes sections on characters and items. also, be sure to reload the “important notes” page to see all of hyde’s notebook.
- the entry at wikipedia has some info on the endings, as does this forum’s thread
- discussion at the hotel dusk board at gamefaqs.com
- community at livejournal, full of not-so-secret kyle hyde admirers
- someone typed up the whole script! yeah, there’s always someone out there more obsessed than you
- FAQ at ign
- another FAQ at ign: this one includes transcripts of all the in-game chapter summaries
- video of the ending, at youtube
- official blog (in japanese, drat)
- official site: includes a coupla wallpapers

ooh my aging brain

been playing brain age for quite a while now, and brain age 2 since it came out (buying games as soon as they come out?? what is this world coming to??). i suppose i got the first game as much to see what all the fuss was about as the allure of self-improvement, but i was pleasantly surprised to find that despite its simple presentation and simple tasks the original game is thoroughly addictive and entertaining. whether or not it actually staves off alzheimer’s is one thing, but i enjoyed pretty much every section of the game, had virtually no problems with either the voice or the handwriting recognition (unless i was being sloppy), and found myself fitting at least a quick session into every day for more than a couple of months without getting sick of it.

unfortunately, the same cannot be said of its sequel. a lot of people seem to like the difference in the activities with less emphasis on math overall. it took me a while to pinpoint what i preferred about the original. what it boils down to is the fact that the activities in the sequel are much less intense, much less about racing against the clock. instead, a lot of the games, like player piano, word scramble, and word blend, take a significant amount of time to complete. one of the things i like about the original is that even if i wanted to go through all of the exercises in one sitting it wouldn’t take me that long, but going through all the exercises in brain age 2 always seems like a dragged-out affair to me.

despite my less than ecstatic reaction to brain age 2 i’ve still found myself playing both games every day. having gone through all 60 of the reading aloud selections in brain age (complete list here), i’ll prob. stick with brain age 2 for a while before switching back to brain age. it’ll be interesting to see how long i’ll still be playing these two games and whether i’ll still be playing them when the inevitable release of the third installment comes around. i’ll def. still be keeping them on hand to finish working my way through all the sudoku puzzles. once you do a sudoku with the brain age interface you’ll never be able to go back to pen and paper. i don’t know why people complain that there’s only a finite number of sudoku puzzles. after you’ve gone through them all, what are the chances that you’ll remember anything about the first one you did? anyway, here are some brainy links:

- interesting interview with the localization team (which includes an easter egg i’d missed even after having played it for ages)
- recap at gamespot.com of a media briefing more than a year ago in which they include a graph showing brain age’s startling longevity. amazingly enough the game still continues to be a best-seller.
- review at IGN
- brain age entry at wikipedia
- brain age 2 entry at wikipedia