shuffling through away: shuffle dungeon

i mentioned that nintendo power is going to be soon shutting down, but it’s been a great way of finding out about games that i would’ve otherwise overlooked. one such example was away: shuffle dungeon for DS. i first heard about it in a preview in the magazine, and although it received only average reviews i thought i’d give it a try since i’m always interested in games that seem to be trying something new (not to mention that you can get it pretty cheap nowadays and that it has some major names attached to it, including final fantasy grandfather himself, hironobu sakaguchi).

the aesthetics of the game make it feel reminiscent of phantom hourglass (which preceded it by almost a year and a half) and animal crossing. the core of the game has you making your way through split-screen dungeons where the top or bottom half shuffle every few seconds. the gameplay is certainly novel, and although the creators did try to add new elements in each new dungeon, the core gameplay just isn’t interesting enough to sustain the whole game. getting caught in a shuffle sends you back to the beginning of the floor and gets to be an annoyance, but you’ll soon learn to play cautiously and wait for the area you need to shuffle back into view instead of risking a heedless dash to a switch or treasure chest or exit. the combat is simplistic and the powerups are minimal (they take the form of four creatures called “fupongs” that you train up that provide fire, ice (shield), lightning, and healing powers), so that aspect of the gameplay also wears thin. there are a few boss battles that shift from the 2-d dungeon crawling into a 3-d perspective, and they provide a nice break, although each boss is repeated (understandable, given the limitations of the hardware). the regular enemies are repetitive, and although the dungeon visuals aren’t fancy they work well, and the music throughout is consistently good.

part of what kept me playing, though, aside from the need to finish the game, was the story’s potential. the bulk of the story has you rescuing villagers one by one from each of the game’s many dungeons, and each opens up a different shop varying in usefulness. the characters have a boxy, mysims-like design but are otherwise personable enough, and the game includes short audio clips for each character that help bring them to life. (the game also features a good amount of nicely animated cut scenes.) from reviews i had read on gamefaqs it sounded like the story was going to develop into unusual directions once all the villagers had been saved. the story does develop in a fairly unique and more-or-less satisfying way, although not enough to distract from the repetitive dungeon-crawling of the last half of the game.

it’s nice to take a break from just playing nintendo-published games (something i’m trying to do more of), and i appreciated the game’s attempts to try something new. although the game dragged on for me it has a polished presentation that makes it enjoyable overall for at least a partial playthrough.

shuffle through these away: shuffle dungeon links:
- official site, includes trailers and screenshots
- this guy posted about the game as he played through it, which is the closest thing to a walkthrough that you’ll find online (although be aware that it reveals all the spoilers about the story)
- page at rpgamer.com, has some promo artwork
- entry on wikipedia
- i never did find out what the hammer was for, but here’s the info on what the horn shell and whale whisker (which i never came across) are for
- information on the game is scarce, but if you’re wondering how to cycle between fupongs just use the L and R buttons

zzzz … pokemon trozzzzei …

i was in the mood for something brainless, so i played through pokemon trozei for DS. by now i’m a pretty big puzzle game snob, and although trozei has some charms it just doesn’t come anywhere near the elegance of such classics as the panel de pon, aka tetris attack, aka puzzle league series or the the puyo puyo series.

the main deficiency is that the combo system is unsophisticated, in that for a chain you first have to match 4 vertically or horizontally, then 3, but from then on a match of 2 will continue the chain. this greatly oversimplifies chains, which makes them far too easy to do and far too likely to happen just through chance, leaving you with very little motivation to try to set up really high-scoring chains. the gameplay itself is about on par with mindless match-3 games such as bejeweled, and unlike the bejeweled-esque puzzle quest the added-on trappings of the game add very little to the game mechanics. in this case, rare pokemon appear randomly and it does take a bit more finesse to capture them as part of a chain (i.e. line them up with the wildcard ditto piece), but not enough to offset the dullness of the game as a whole. the pokemon game mechanics have been successfully shoehorned into other genres, such as pinball and roguelikes, but here the “gotta catch ‘em all” mechanic feels underdeveloped; a little more consideration could have made this a much more fulfilling pokemon spin-off.

i wasn’t a fan of the cartoon network-style presentation either, but it’s a change of pace from the usual pokemon trappings. incidentally, the game was developed by genius sonority, who were behind the enjoyable gamecube games pokemon colosseum and pokemon XD, instead of the series’ creator and main developer game freak. all in all the game could work as a “my first puzzle game” for young pokemon fans, but hard-core puzzle-game fans should pass this one up even if they’re fans of all things pokemon.

try and trozei these pokemon trozei links:
- great scans of an official trozei sticker book that includes all the pokemon from the game
- barebones official site that basically just includes some artwork
- entry at bulbapedia
- comprehensive FAQ at gamefaqs
- the game generally got pretty good reviews, although jeremy parish at 1up.com shares my opinion that the game is just too easy

readvancing upon the original advance wars

i finally finished the long game i’ve been playing, which was a replay of what has become a classic, the original GBA advance wars. i had first played the original almost three years ago, and although it was a little slow in coming i eventually grew to love the series almost as much as i love the fire emblem series. [most of this review is going to get into minutiae, but if you're interested in info on the original game mechanics check out this review at edge.]

when i had first played the game i had just finished playing all four (up to then) US-released fire emblem games and one of the japan-only titles, so i was a bit disappointed in AW‘s lack of plot and the focus on battle tactics over levelling up a set of characters. coming back to this after having played the rest of the AW series was a pleasurable rush of familiarity and appreciation for how perfect this game truly is. the characters are lovable and their CO powers distinguish them well; the battle mechanics are absolutely top notch; the graphics and music are excellent; and there’s an enormous number of maps with a fully satisfying level of variety among them. although i adore dual strike and in many ways consider it to be the pinnacle of the series (well, the US series at least, as i haven’t yet dipped into the japan-only titles), the original makes a strong case for not injecting the core game with steroids and in some ways overloading the game with a glut of extra features.

a lot to love, so it seems churlish to have any complaints. this time through i did an S-rank run of the normal campaign mode, and chose my route in order to unlock the rest of the COs. it didn’t end up being too difficult, although i chose sami the whole way through and her missions are probably harder than andy’s or max’s. i also S-ranked the first war room maps and tried out the hard campaign mode, and here’s where things started to get dicey. a large part of the reason i like the fire emblem and advance wars series is that, unlike a game like chess, the emphasis isn’t on planning far ahead and instead a general strategy will suffice. but when trying to S-rank maps and in what i’ve experienced so far of the hard campaign this isn’t always the case, and although i enjoyed the “puzzle” aspect of some of the maps, at times it feels like there’s too much “try and die” gameplay. the game feels less cheap overall than other games with more-egregious cases of such gameplay, because as this article at edge puts it: “It’s not so much trial and error as trial and education, each mistake teaching you a little more about the impeccable clockwork that powers the game’s simple, stunning mechanics.” although oftentimes the lessons learned from a particular map do feel like they’d be applicable to others, the amount of memorization that can get to be involved and working out the timing of where your units can be on what day compared to the enemy’s can really make the game feel like a chore. also, although in the war room you can choose from all the available COs, because of the strict speed requirements if you’re trying to S-rank you more often than not have to rely on sami or max, which makes that section of the game feel more repetitive than it could have if it had had more varied objectives and conditions (as another example, sonja is completely useless in this mode since none of these maps feature fog of war). the fact that the war room maps also don’t include any pre-deployed units also make them feel too same-y.

despite my mild complaints, the game is clearly still a grade-A (or should i say “grade-S” ?) classic, and although i don’t think i’ll be tackling the hard mode any time soon i’m definitely looking forward to returning to this at some point in the future, as well as replaying the others in the US series. although since playing this i’ve had an overwhelming desire to play a fire emblem game again …

roll, tanks, roll! readvancing some advance wars links:
- this is still the best FAQ overall for the game’s campaign modes, although it misstates the requirements to unlock nell, which is that you have to beat the advance campaign
- advancewarsnet.com has some great info including a guide to the war room, guides to the campaign modes, the soundtrack, and sprite sheets and animated GIFs
- the similar-sounding site advancewars.net also has some great content, including CO sprites and a damage chart
- text of the entire script
- war room guide at gamefaqs
- this look back at the making of the original advance wars at edge from a year ago doesn’t have any great insights, but it’s one of the few interviews with the creators that i’ve seen

retro mario kart: super circuit

even though i’m not a huge fan of racers, for the most part i’ve been enjoying working my way through the mario kart series. the games provide fairly worthwhile challenges while allowing you to recover from mistakes through the use of items, which generally makes the experience more fun than frustrating esp. when compared to other racers. i had skipped over mario kart: super circuit for GBA and played the gamecube entry, but then i realized the DS and wii games include some courses that originated in super circuit and felt i should backtrack to it before continuing on.

the main reason i had wanted to skip over MK:SC was because i knew that it was going to be similar to the SNES version, so it’s not surprising that when i started playing it i really rather disliked it, particularly because of the flatness and sameness of the courses. the majority of the courses are riffs of the original SNES courses anyway, and i found myself missing the variety of the N64 and gamecube versions. but by the time i’d gotten 1st on all the cups i was able to appreciate, although still not quite love, the limitations of the hardware and somewhat enjoy the retro (GBA) on top of retro (SNES) feel of the game. the ranking system definitely adds to the replay value and makes the game much more worth playing (i’m still not quite convinced that collecting coins is more than just a tiresome chore, but i do like that it forces you to drive different routes through the course), and the inclusion of all the SNES courses is a great bonus. while replaying the SNES courses i was amazed at how extremely short they are; no wonder they require five laps instead of what has become the customary three. since the SNES courses are so short, even though they’re extremely similar to the new GBA tracks those cups have a distinct feel.

incidentally, for anyone wondering, i used wario throughout the game. usually i don’t use heavyweights, so either the game is easier than the others or my skillz have improved, because he turned out to be a good choice for me, despite his weird voice (apparently the same as the japanese N64 mario kart voice). another bit of trivia: the game was developed by intelligent systems, much better known for their work on some of my favorite series of all time, namely fire emblem and advance wars.

in the end mario kart: super circuit turned out to be a step back in more ways than one. aside from the ranking system (it’s with mixed emotions that i note that ranking appears in the DS and wii versions as well) and the first appearance of retro cups (oh, and a 180-degree move you can do by pressing the A and B buttons simultaneously), the game didn’t really introduce much that was really new to the series. still, i suppose as the first portable mario kart it’s great for what it is, namely a sequel instead of just a straight port, and it was nice to revisit the original SNES experience. definitely looking forward to the DS and wii versions, though.

vroom! these mario kart: super circuit links are leaving you in the dust!
- a lot of good info at mariowiki.com: also includes a lot of the official artwork
- good page at themushroomkingdom.net: includes screenshots and wallpapers
- here’s a good FAQ at gamefaqs that includes detailed ASCII maps and character info
- this FAQ has detailed info on the ranking system
- and just for fun, here’s a video of a driving simulation system for the SNES mario kart (that i first read about in nintendo power haha)

mapping out etrian odyssey

my ears seem to perk up whenever i hear about a game that seems to polarize players, because that usually indicates that a game has taken some sort of risk. one that i played a fair amount recently was etrian odyssey by atlus for DS. this review at gamezone.com has a fairly detailed rundown of the game’s setup, but basically the game uses the tried-and-true, typical classic turn-based RPG battle system paired with a unique gimmick which is that you can make maps of the dungeons yourself using the in-game mapping system. the DS’s touchscreen makes this an intuitive, entertaining, and new experience, but the novelty quickly wears off as you slog through floor after floor of the entirely story-less quest (although apparently a semblance of a story does get incorporated about a third of the way through the game).

the game is often cited as being quite difficult, but my main problem with the game wasn’t the challenge. i don’t mind a challenge in general, although i agree that the game starts off being quite “difficult” in that you’ll have to return to the town to heal often at the beginning and you’ll be short of cash more often than not. but a few floors in, the difficulty evens out a lot and the “challenge” such as it is lessens considerably. the game also seems to get praised by reviewers for its “deliberate” pacing: the game only enables you to obtain better weapons, armor, items, or accessories after you reach a certain floor of the dungeon, and the gains you receive are palpable and really feel like upgrades, as opposed to all the filler equipment you find in other RPGs.

my main problem with the game is that, as with most RPGs, 90% of your time playing the game will be in battles and the battle mechanics themselves are just too dull to maintain your interest. as i’ve said before, there are only so many times a person wants to cast “fire 2″ and “cure all” in one lifetime, and i’ve passed that point quite a while ago. the game did keep my interest for a while with its other key feature which is the character customization, where for every level up you’re given one skill point to allocate as you choose among your character’s class’s available skills. although this gives a definite sense of decision making, i found that it didn’t feel like enough of a unique feature to offset the fact that the majority of the classes and their skills are ones we’ve seen countless other times (fighter, check; white mage, check; black mage, check; geomancer, check). without a unique battle mechanic, story, characters, or even unique enemies or graphics (which are clean but minimal) to make up for it, exploring the dungeon just becomes repetitive once the gimmick of map-making wears off. and to top it all off, you can only warp into the labyrinth every 5 floors, so for 4 out of every 5 floors you play through you have to go through the same route over and over again fighting the same enemies to get to new areas.

although i played it obsessively for the first few floors, by the time i got to the 7th floor i felt like i had seen everything the game had to offer, so although i don’t usually do so i’ve decided to set the game aside indefinitely. it seems the second game is more of the same with a few new classes, but i’ve heard better things about the third iteration which features completely new and more-unique classes and some sailing mechanics to provide some variety. i’ll probably give that one a try at some point, but i don’t think it’ll be anytime soon.

mapping out some etrian odyssey links:
- entry at wikipedia
- PDF of manual at replacementdocs.com
- fansite with interactive maps. also includes the comics and much more easily downloadable access to the wallpapers featuring all the character portraits found on the official site.
- good FAQ at gamefaqs including a rundown of the skills and a ranking of the classes
- positive review at gamespot.com

swingin’ through donkey kong jungle beat

i’m not sure why, but this year has really felt like a mixed bag so far, and my playthrough of donkey kong jungle beat for gamecube was pretty disappointing. the last DK game i’d played, DK: king of swing on GBA, was a fantastic experience, and i suppose i’d been expecting at least as good a game since jungle beat seems to be well regarded and is by the same team at nintendo that had done mario galaxy.

unfortunately, even after playing through the whole game i find myself trying to figure out what people like about it. the bongo controller works reasonably well and i’m glad i have a use for them outside of the donkey konga games, but the game mechanics don’t ever quite transcend the core gimmick and the clapping movement in particular gets to be a chore (and tapping on the sides instead doesn’t feel quite responsive enough). there’s a decent amount of variety in terms of the gameplay, including some punch-out!!-esque fighting sections and some balloon fight-esque flying sections, but the game doesn’t come anywhere close to matching either of those games in terms of the level of sheer fun or sophistication. the central platforming gameplay relies on a lot of walljumping and manic pounding to pummel enemies, both of which get dull fast, and stages lack personality. there’s a distinct lack of variety in the boss battles as well, of which there are only three types, and no one seems to mention the fact that the majority of the time the screen is so zoomed out that you can barely see our hero DK at all. the game is incredibly short and achieves its longevity through the combo system that you have to master. the combo system, which relies on a lot of clapping, works reasonably well, but the stages are so dull that i had absolutely no motivation to explore them much. as a side note, i was surprised to see that the level that the smash bros. brawl stage is based on has pretty much nothing to do with the brawl stage other than the fact that there’s a waterfall in the background. also, an odd thing i noticed was that my memory card had all the stages unlocked, perhaps because i had started the game and then set it aside for a few years.

not much more to say, other than i’m glad the game was so short, otherwise it would’ve been really tedious to finish. the game was one of the few that was slightly remade for wii, and it might be interesting to try that out. otherwise i’m looking forward to DKC returns which looks amazing, although i really should go back and play through the rest of the original DKC games first.

jungle beat‘s jungle links:
- great entry at mariowiki.com including character artwork
- good FAQ at gamefaqs.com
- entry at wikipedia
- glowing review of the original version at nintendojo.com
- glowing review of the wii version at nintendolife.com. “incredible level designs” — wha-??

kirby’s colorful canvas curse

after the great disappointment that was other M i was in the mood for something a bit comforting, so i picked up kirby: canvas curse for DS. although i’m not a huge fan of kirby games in general, they’re so genial and cute that you somehow can’t help but enjoy them on some level. the last game in the series i had finished was kirby super star for SNES, but i decided to skip over a few entries that didn’t seem to add much to the standard formula and instead play canvas curse which is notable for being entirely stylus controlled.

i wasn’t expecting too much since the game was released early in the DS’s life and the novelty of touchscreen mechanics has largely worn off since then, but i was pleasantly surprised. the game is a robust platformer, and due to the touchscreen focus the developers had to largely dispense with the typical kirby mechanics (and those of platformers in general). in their place they came up with a design centered on drawing rainbow lines that is completely solid and enjoyable. the levels have enough variety to keep you playing, and although the game is over quickly, finding the three medals in each stage and getting the best rank for the two types of trials for each stage definitely give incentive to keep playing. for a full complete the game also requires you to beat the game with four more characters who lack kirby’s copy ability (which feels underutilized anyway, no doubt as a result of the levels having to be completable without it). these four characters have slight differences to kirby’s weight and bounciness, but those modes don’t really add much to the experience. replaying stages does still somehow manage to be enjoyable, due to the fact that drawing lines with precision is such an active task. it’s not hard to get through a stage with badly drawn lines, but to get through a stage with perfectly drawn lines that send kirby exactly where you want to go instead of continually trapping him between a line and a wall (a common occurrence, as anyone who has played the game will attest) or sending him off in the wrong direction, is gratifying. so much so that it kind of made me wish that the time trial mode was more reliant on this type of skill rather than simply spamming the dash move to get to the goal, especially if collecting all the stars in the level were part of the challenge. in any case, i can’t think of many other games where the difference between just getting through the game and sailing through it with aplomb is so large that there is a distinct pleasure in executing the “elegant” solution.

although canvas curse has rocketed to the top of my list of favorite kirby games, it didn’t quite break into my top games of all time list. like DK: king of swing, canvas curse doesn’t just introduce a new game mechanic, it explores it thoroughly and continually provides twists on the central premise. just a bit more level variety and more substantial differences in the locales beyond the differences in background images would have helped a lot. still, this is definitely one of the better games i’ve played in a while, and although it’s only february this is already likely to be one of the best games i play this year.

kirby’s canvas links:
- kirbysrainbowresort.net has some great stuff on the game, including official artwork and a catalogue of all the enemies
- entry at kirby.wikia.com
- entry at wikipedia
- FAQ at gamefaqs
- sketches from HAL labs. the link to HAL labs’ official site has a lot of great canvas curse concept art.

you never forget your first … replaying fire emblem 8

[note: this post is more ruminative than a typical review, seeing as how my love for FE burns bright and this post is about a replay of a game. consider yourself warned. ]

it’s been several years now since i first played fire emblem: the sacred stones for GBA. since then i’ve played all the other games in the series that have been released in the US (and am waiting impatiently for the US release of FE12 which was released in japan 5 months ago). but although i haven’t mentioned it since then, i’ve actually been playing it off and on over the past few years. one of the unique things about FE8 compared to the other games in the series is that after you beat the main quest, there are two areas, the tower of valni and the lagdou ruins, that you can torture yourself by trying to complete. i say torture, because both of them provide significant challenges simply due to the fact that you have to defeat multiple maps (8 for one and 10 for the other) without being able to save, i.e. if you lose a character due to one stupid mistake, due to the game’s central permanent death mechanic if you want to keep him/her you have to START THE ENTIRE DUNGEON OVER AGAIN. the lagdou ruins aren’t a walk in the park as it is, and i’ve spent way too much time trying to make my way through the ruins with absurdly underpowered characters.

and that brings me to my next point, which is that one of the things i love about the FE series is that you can always choose how difficult to make the game for yourself. in RPGs in general i suppose you can make the game harder by going out of your way to not use certain equipment or certain characters, but since you can always train your characters up through random battles there’s not really any sense of really being able to limit yourself. in the FE games, the majority of which don’t include random battles, you can place limitations upon yourself to such varying degrees that the same game constantly feels fresh, helped in no small part by the huge cast of characters you can choose from, each with his/her own distinct personality. of course the games are challenging enough in and of themselves, but advanced players can always find some new twist to make things more fun, such as limiting yourself to only magic users or unmounted units or characters who appear with the lowest base level or even something as arbitrary as characters with green hair. other games in the series have more challenges within the game, such as being graded on how quickly you finish each chapter, but FE8 has the advantage of being shorter than other games in the series, and thus perhaps a more likely candidate for challenges among fans. one of the things i find particularly worthwhile myself is using the characters who start off being the worst. since virtually all the characters become worthwhile once they reach the higher levels, it’s quite gratifying to carefully train up an egregiously ignored character and then have him/her blaze his/her way through the remainder of the game (see my 2nd playthrough (PT) of FE10 for a prime example ).

okay, now on to the particulars. as i mentioned, i’ve made my way through both the tower and the ruins a couple of times each successfully (and many more times unsuccessfully for the latter), but i’ve also been playing the hard mode off and on. this is the first hard mode i’ve played in an FE game, and as FE8 is pretty much unanimously considered to be the easiest of the lot i didn’t mind easing myself into a greater challenge. it wasn’t overwhelmingly difficult, although there are a couple of chapters here and there that will make your blood pressure rise. it was nice to get to play through the second of the two main characters’ quests (which differ by 5 of the 21 chapters), and support conversations (short sequences of dialogue between characters you use together) are as much of a draw as ever.

ah, support convos! in my first PT, as with the other FE games, i stuck with pairings that the game makes obvious, which are pretty much all romantic pairings between a male and a female character. but the game has many more pairings that trigger support convos, and it’s fascinating to me to see what conversations the game’s writers have come up with for characters who would seem to have very little in common. sometimes this leads to unexpected romances or friendships, but oftentimes it also makes the world of the game feel more alive as the two may discuss the events that are happening or talk about one of the other characters. these insights into each character’s personality are painstaking to uncover and are spaced out over the course of a PT, and although one could easily just read them online it’s much more satisfying for a completist like myself to unlock them one at a time by actually playing the game. which isn’t too much of a chore, since the game continues to be as enjoyable as ever.

five FE games later it’s interesting to look back on the first one i’d played. the game itself can be much easier than any of the other games simply by virtue of the aforementioned random encounters you can use to train up your characters, but the small cast of characters and its post-game objectives make it unique and still an easy favorite. the color palette is bolder and more striking than the other two GBA FE games, and although it’s hard to assess objectively how i would rank this compared to the others, i’ll always have a soft spot for this, my first fire emblem experience. awwww.

oh, and in case anyone similarly FE crazy is reading this and wondering, my final team was: ephraim/l’arachel, lute/ross, gerik/tethys, colm/kyle, moulder/vannesa, and eirika/seth, with neimi/gilliam, joshua/artur, and cormag/natasha as backups. i don’t remember why, but i trained my group really unevenly. on average only about half of them reached around level 12 promoted while the rest were around level 1 promoted or hardly used at all and just hung around for the ride (and the support convos). ross was the MVP, but vanessa (who i hadn’t used last time) turned out to be the star player. ephraim, lute, kyle, and tethys were as reliable as ever, and cormag was shaping up to be pretty useful also. moulder was surprisingly useful. although he’s not nearly as strong offensively as the other magic users, his high defense and HP make him uniquely durable. gerik turned out to be kind of weak, which was surprising since he had dominated my first PT. and yet again i seem to have avoided all the latecomers to the team (mostly prepromotes) like the plague.

i started a 3rd PT and am sorely tempted to continue with it, but i really should move on to other games. for now at least!

some sacred links:
- as usual serenesforest.net is the go-to source of info for all things FE including official character art
- the serenesforest forums are quite active, and include such relevant topics of discussion as FE8 tier lists
- hard mode enemy stats
- entertaining video compilation of characters’ critical hit animations
- most of the links from my previous FE8 post are outdated now, but this promo chart is still extremely useful (although i have it pretty much memorized by now. ha.)

street fightin’ man

although i’ve played a few of the spin-offs, i’ve never actually played the classic, original street fighter II in the arcade. one of these days i’ll have to track down a machine, but in the meantime i did the next best thing, which was to play one of the three versions of the game that hit the SNES. it was a bit confusing to figure out which SNES game corresponds to which arcade version, but once again wikipedia proved to be quite helpful with its listing of all of the various ports to home consoles. although i usually like to start with the original version of a game, in the case of SFII i figured the differences aren’t that significant, so i skipped over SFII: the world warrior and SFII turbo (aka hyper fighting) and dove into the version i had on hand which was the third and final release for SNES, super street fighter II: the new challengers. as with SFII turbo, in this game the four bosses are playable and there are selectable speeds, and it had several other additions, most notably the inclusion of four new characters (in particular, cammy who went on to become a series staple), as well as new colors for all the characters and the usual moveset tweaks.

having played previous SFII spin-offs i didn’t have to spend any time mastering the usual special attacks (although i fondly remember the time spent learning how to do a hadouken way back when). i spent most of my time with the classic ryu, and although i was familiar with his moveset and some of the other more well-known SFII characters, there were plenty of characters that i’d never really encountered in other games before. in particular i’d never really played against the bosses before, and although balrog and m. bison were pretty straightforward, vega and sagat required a bit more study. i didn’t play enough to really pwn the game and learn combos, and i somewhat missed the flashy super attacks that were added later, but i enjoyed the trip to the past and at some point i’ll definitely have to work my way through the sizable roster. there’s definitely no underestimating the impact SFII has had on the history of gaming, though, and even though capcom continues to churn out sequels year after year (which i have little to no interest in, not being a huge fan of fighters in general) it’s nice to go back and appreciate where it all began.

some street fightin’ links:
- review at vc.nintendolife.com
- entry at strategywiki.org including movesets
- PDF of instruction manual at replacementdocs.com
- random list of “10 things you didn’t know about street fighter II“, including info on the great boss-name switcheroo
- good series retrospective at eurogamer.net, including info on the original game, the little-known numberless street fighter
- first in a series of combo strategy videos from youtube that seem to have been put out by capcom way back when
- there’s a huge supply of SFII fanart and cosplay online, but two particularly worthwhile links are: this guy’s collection of “sesame street fighters” (which includes “pig li” and cookie monster as e. honda) and a ridiculously cute baby chun li

game boy’s stubborn kong

donkey kong (aka game boy donkey kong and donkey kong ’94) is a classic game boy game that seems to be highly regarded, so having played through all the main mario games i thought i’d check it out. this review at nintendolife and this entry at gamespite both heap lavish praise on the game, and the former even goes so far as to say “it’s easily one of the best Mario games ever made”.

i think i’ve been suffering from video game fatigue in general lately, but even still there were several reasons i wasn’t a big fan of this game, despite all the things i did enjoy about it. i definitely liked how the game starts off with a reprise of the original four levels of the arcade donkey kong, esp. since it includes the stage that was left out of the NES version. i also enjoyed how those same gameplay mechanics get used through almost 100 additional levels, inc. a large number of boss fights against the big kong himself. i also really enjoyed the reappearance of the vine-climbing mechanics of donkey kong jr., a game i’ve been a long-time fan of. the kid kong makes a reappearance as well, which was a nice surprise, and although i still wholeheartedly disapprove of mario’s two-timing it was also nice to see mario’s original damsel in distress pauline make a return. (i can only hope that all of pauline’s appearances are canonically set before mario met princess peach and that the two had an amiable breakup.) mario also debuts some gravity-defying gymnastic moves in this game that would prove to become series staples, inc. the side and the triple jumps.

as for what i didn’t enjoy, my main problem with the game is that it’s meant to be a puzzle-platformer hybrid, but to me doesn’t feel like nearly enough of both. apparently i’m in the minority here, but the platformer parts just weren’t very challenging, and only the occasional puzzle was truly puzzling. most of the game was fairly mindless, and too many of the puzzle “solutions” merely required hitting a switch and then making a mad dash to some other part of the stage. the overall design (backgrounds, settings, and enemies) didn’t feel particularly unique, and despite mario’s arsenal of moves the stages feel a bit cramped since everything is crammed into just a few screenfuls. the game succeeds in capturing the feel of the original donkey kong, but that game was designed at a time when it was revolutionary enough to have a game that had more than one level. almost 15, let alone 30, years later, having different boards, even a hundred of them, isn’t enough to distract from run-of-the-mill core gameplay.

as i said, i’m sure i’m in the minority here, but despite my general boredom with this game i’m still open to playing through its sequel, mario vs. donkey kong for GBA. i’ve already tried some of that game, and although it’s very similar and similarly mindless for the most part, it already looks like there’s a bit more cleverness with the puzzles. it definitely doesn’t look like it’s going to be on the same level as games like the fantastic toki tori, but i’m optimistic that it’ll be more enjoyable than this one.

a barrel full of game boy donkey kong links:
- entry at wikipedia
- official page on the japanese nintendo site
- some FAQs at gamefaqs, although you’ll hardly need them
- while we’re on the subject of the original donkey kong, this post-it note rendition got a fair amount of attention a while back, and here’s another group that created an animated version