goin’ down the alleyway

i rather enjoy game boy games in all their greeny grayscale glory, but since i never had one growing up there are so many that i’ve never played. i took a step back to the white plastic brick’s earliest days with alleyway which was actually one of the launch titles, way back in 1989. (that reminds me, a lot of places commemorated the game boy’s 20th anniversary with retrospectives. you can find gamespite’s series of articles here.)

alleyway seems to get universally panned and dismissed as a decidedly inferior clone of arkanoid which came out in the arcades in 1986 and on the NES a year later. in many ways this game seems like a huge step back as it doesn’t feature any powerups whatsoever, or even much level variety: each level repeats 3 times (with variations due to moving blocks). there are eight of these trios of levels, and each group is followed by a bonus board featuring a mario character, ending in a showdown against the king of the koopas, bowser himself. the game does get somewhat harder since the ball travels noticeably faster in later stages, but for the most part there’s not a whole lot to keep your attention. the sprites are small and undistinguished (much like its fellow launch title super mario land which i reviewed last year). even the physics seem a little stiff: according to wikipedia “the ball will only travel at 15°, 30° or 45° angles”. this leads to some extremely repetitive patterns, although “the ball cannot be locked in an infinite loop of ricochets. … the ball will travel at a slightly raised or lowered angle depending on its current trajectory, and will break out of the loop.” the game also includes different speeds for your paddle (faster if you hold the A button and slower if you hold the B button).

despite all of these shortcomings (i seem to say that phrase a lot), eventually i rewound my mind to the game boy’s early days and began to enjoy the game for what it is instead of what it isn’t. as a launch title it definitely had major limitations, but it provides enough entertainment and challenge to make it worth playing, and the mario cameos and variations within each set of levels provide just enough personality to distinguish it from similar games. i found it interesting to compare this not to arkanoid, but to atari’s arcade classic breakout from 1976 (which in turn was directly influenced by that granddaddy of them all pong from 1972). this video of the atari 2600 version of breakout made me think of alleyway as coming before arkanoid instead of after, which it didn’t, but given the technical limitations of games for the game boy at launch the comparison to breakout seems a bit fairer. in any case i’m looking forward to trying out more old-skool game boy games sooner than later.

psst. want some cheap alleyway links?
- gamefaqs has GIFs of all the levels
- text of the manual at world-of-nintendo.com
- this fan review at retrogamer.net will make you want to play the game. this review at meanmachinesmag.co.uk will do just the opposite.
- video of the less-than-thrilling ending
- yup, this is another one from nintendo R&D1
- the game had a cursory mention in nintendo’s game boy player’s guide, receiving scores of: graphics and sound: 3.3, play control: 3.9, challenge: 3.3, and theme and fun: 3.2. i’ve archived the scan here.
- the game also got a brief mention in nintendo power #9. scan archived here.
- the official nintendo page (in japanese) doesn’t have much info, but here’s the google translation if you’re interested.
- bit of trivia, also according to wikipedia: “Years later, the game’s designer Gunpei Yokoi would reuse much of Alleyway’s source code (such as paddle behavior and adapted physics engine) for the Game Boy game Kirby’s Block Ball while working with Shigeru Miyamoto’s team.”

wario’s secret castle

finally played through pretty much all the levels in wario land II for game boy (which was also released a bit later as a colorized version for game boy color). i really wanted to like this game more than i did, because i had quite enjoyed the first two wario land games i had played (as recounted here and here). the first sequel, on the virtual boy, was extremely similar to the original wario land game, but this game offers a new twist. here wario, perhaps due to his brute strength, somehow acquires invincibility, and instead of hats his rasputin-like powers come from his ability to transcend death and other ailments. when he gets struck by a hammer, he becomes a spring; when he gets squished by a heavy weight he becomes as thin as paper; and during the course of his adventure he also survives getting burned and frozen and even eating too much cake. the powers aren’t really anything new and they’re generally underused, but the looney-tunes-cartoon-like aesthetic (carried over into the sound effects and music) is entertaining, and in his third solo outing wario is still a fun, greedy-yet-somehow-also-lovable, character.

so what was the problem? unfortunately, the game suffers from one huge design choice that i just couldn’t accept, which follows directly from the fact that wario is invincible. since nothing can hurt him, instead of losing life when wario gets hit by an enemy, most of the time he loses coins. this works out fairly well because each level includes two simple mini-games that cost coins to play and yield the game’s two types of useless collectibles. so the more money you have the easier it is to collect everything in the game. all that is fine and good, but the problem comes when, instead of losing money when you make a mistake, the game punishes you by forcing you into an area where you have to backtrack to where you just were. this particularly happens during boss fights (where in general you can’t get hit once, because otherwise you have to schlep your way back to the boss room), although it happens in other places as well where in other games there would have been a certain amount of “try and die” gameplay. this backtracking happens all too often and makes the game quite annoying and dully repetitive at times. i’m surprised the game seems to have gotten such a good reception given this huge limitation in the game design.

the other main problem is that many of the stages have “secrets”, such as the previously mentioned useless collectibles and also a handful of alternate exits and also just secret stashes of coins. some of the “secrets” are a simple matter of picking the right power to apply to the situation, but some of them are just trying wario’s various powers at every dead end in hopes of uncovering a hidden room. this reminded me far too much of the complaints people had about milon’s secret castle, and at many times finding the secrets in this game felt even more arbitrary (and tedious) than in that one.

all in all this was one of the more-disappointing first-party games i’ve played by my beloved nintendo. apparently WL3 is very similar to this one, and i’m sorely tempted to skip it. i played a bit of WL4 and it also feels pretty similar, so i may have to make an exception to my usual OCD habit of playing games sequentially and instead skip forward to other entries in the series. we’ll see.

wario’s secret links:
- good FAQ at gamefaqs.com
- nice history of wario (and waluigi) at kombo.com: part 1 and part 2.
- recent article at gamespite.net
- entry at wikipedia
- endings at vgmuseum.com
- PDF of manual at replacementdocs.com

zeroing in on metroid: zero mission

it’s actually been a bit longer than i thought since i’d finished a metroid game, although i’ve been playing bits of some games off and on for a while. i sat down and finished metroid: zero mission a couple of weeks ago, which as you probably already know is the remake of the original NES metroid for the GBA.

the general response to the game was overwhelmingly positive when it came out, with critics praising the rehauled parts of the game as well as the new content, which introduced us to our heroine samus’s now-famous zero suit form. overall zero got slightly lower scores than the previous GBA metroid game, metroid fusion, although personally i preferred zero mission. i know i’m not alone in that, although it’s not immediately obvious why i would prefer it since zero mission is definitely the easier game. but i think i felt the same way as i felt when i played super metroid a while back: what it boils down to is noticeably superior map and room design. the elements of all three games are incredibly similar in terms of gameplay, but zero mission is definitely a case where the cumulative attention to detail makes the experience as a whole more compelling.

one of the things that struck me when i played super metroid was how much slower the pace was than fusion, which led to a more atmospheric and memorable game overall. zero is in many ways an even faster game than fusion: samus is more sprightly and easier to control than ever. although oftentimes you can zip through room after room in zero, the pacing is better than fusion overall in that there are plenty of places where you have to stop and get your bearings, plan your route, or puzzle your way through what seems to be a dead end. the new zero suit samus content has a different feel than the rest of the metroid series, but for the most part that section meshes fairly well with the game and points to some possible new directions for the 2D metroid games to go in (although it’s been more than 5 years now since zero was released with no new 2D metroid game in sight, alas). with zero i was amazed yet again at how in spite of so much similarity each individual game in the series is a lot of fun. i’m almost surprised at how much i enjoyed this game, although i think the next iteration will have to include even more novelty to keep the series from feeling stale.

the original NES version of the game (included in zero mission as an unlockable after you beat the game) forms a stark contrast to all the other games, as samus moves much more slowly and routes take much longer to uncover. i played through it when i was a kid and again years ago, but it’ll be interesting to play through it again at some point to compare it to zero. and i’m definiitely psyched to see how the original NES’s sequel, metroid 2 for the game boy, compares to the other games both in terms of gameplay and pacing. since it’s the only 2D metroid game i haven’t played at all, i’m probably going to tackle it sooner than later. definitely looking forward to it.

zeroing in on samus’s zero mission links:
- guide from IGN, including info on 15% completion, a mode that i’m not particularly interested in but which gives different endings.
- screenshots of all the game’s endings at vgmuseum.com
- game page at classicgaming.gamespy.com, including maps
- entry at wikipedia
- 1up posted a history of the metroid series a few years ago that also looked at the backstories presented in official sources. IGN also posted a history of the series last year.

i-s-z-t-j-l-o spells tetris

what is there to say about tetris that hasn’t already been said? even though i’ve become a big fan of such successors as puyo puyo and panel de pon in more recent years, the original tetris is every bit as great almost 20 years since it appeared on the original game boy. although its descendants have become full of such added bells ‘n whistles as chains and items, the original is so beautifully pure, elegant, and classic. like my recent revisit of the classic game galaga i had a great time revisiting tetris and just being reminded of how perfect it is and enjoying how much the gameplay still holds up.

in terms of specific thoughts, this time around i was really struck with how tetris provides such different aspects of gameplay within such a simple framework. previously i’d been mostly focused on the satisfaction that you get in neatly fitting pieces together, much like the satisfaction one gets when filling in a sudoku grid. this time i found myself noticing how there are other emotional triggers as well. at the center is the constant feeling of gambling, where you’re constantly having to decide if you can afford to wait for the long piece to get a much higher score by clearing four lines at once. there’s also the strategy involved in always keeping a backup plan in case the piece you’re waiting for just isn’t coming. i also found myself personifying the pieces in a way i hadn’t really thought of much before, with the “s” and “z” shapes soon taking on the roles as my nemeses, and the “t” and the “i” pieces becoming my saviors.

another thing i noticed more this time around was how different the gameplay becomes when you’re focused on high scores versus when you’re focused on just surviving (e.g. at the later speedier levels and in the “game b”, garbage-clear mode), and i was also surprised at how much getting a great score in the game is based on the luck of the pieces that you get. this seems particularly apparent to me in the most difficult “game b” mode, level 9 height 5. i’d be fairly surprised if there are tetris masters who can beat that level every single time. but i also felt this way in the regular mode, b/c you only have a finite amount of time to score the maximum number of points you can before you hit level 20, where you have to be pretty fleet of finger to stay alive.

as a completist it will def. be interesting to me to see the variations, sometimes minute, in other versions of the game (e.g. size of the well, the differences in the frequencies of each particular piece, the speed the pieces drop), but it’ll be tough for anything to even come close to challenging the place the classic original game boy version holds in my, and i’m sure many others’, little gaming heart. (awww.)

tons of tetr-links:
- the entry at wikipedia has a lot of interesting info, including the controversy over the copyright, the “tetris effect”, and some info on the mathematical probabilities of being unable to win at tetris
- list of tetris variants, which includes another of the creator’s games, hatris, which in this video just looks wretched.
- tetris doesn’t really need a FAQ, but here’s one from IGN that includes info on the scoring system. the FAQ doesn’t seem completely accurate, though, w/ regard to the diff. endings you get in endless mode. there’s a comment on this youtube video that mentions there are diff. rockets for 100-150k, 150-200k, and 200k+ points, and i’m pretty sure s/he’s correct.
- tetris mastery video clips to make you feel inadequate at racketboy.com, including some guy’s video of game b level 9 height 5 in the hard (i.e. heart) mode. that guy’s skills will amaze you. the same guy also has a great half hour-long video getting the maximum number of points (999,999). yes, my choice in heroes is unbelievably dorky.
- great tetris comic you’ve prob. already seen at perry bible fellowship

mediocre mario landed

i took a break from a long game to play one of the few mario games i’ve never really touched, namely that game boy classic super mario land. the game is pretty noteworthy for being one of the first game boy titles, and in that light it’s def. worthy of respect. but from a modern-day perspective the game is really pretty average in almost every way.

the game makes decent use of the mario universe, with items including the power-up mushroom, starman, and fire flower (the latter providing a slightly diff. ability) making their appearance, along with variations on classic characters including goombas, koopas, and piranha plants. but aside from the mario trappings the gameplay is pretty uninspired all around, perhaps unsurprising given the fact that mario master miyamoto didn’t work on the title. there are no secret areas aside from underground coin rooms like the ones that appeared in the original mario bros., and the stages just don’t have anything we haven’t seen in hundreds of other platformers, with the exception of two fairly dull anomalous shooter-like stages in which mario pilots a submarine and an airplane. the gameplay is also hampered by the small sprites, which means landing on enemies often requires pixel-perfect accuracy. at the time of its release, though, it must have been great for players to get to revisit the classic original super mario bros. gameplay and esp. to take it on the go. the second playthrough, which features many more enemies, is much more entertaining, but it still doesn’t hide the fact that the game is easily among the least compelling of the entire series.

the one great contribution to the mario universe that the game did provide though is the introduction of princess daisy, who although virtually a visual twin of princess peach with colors swapped has much more personality and instead of being a maiden-in-distress is much more of a tomboy and provides a nice partner for luigi. she’s been a favorite in the various mario sports and party titles she’s appeared in, and it was nice to see her debut (albeit completely generic and characterless) in what was otherwise a fairly forgettable game.

reading back over my review it does seem unusually harsh, but i suppose this is in large part to the high standards the mario series maintains in general. fortunately the team did a much better job with the wholly enjoyable super mario land 2 (which i played and reviewed a while back). so with that one finished, i think this means i pretty much just have two more games in the main mario series to beat, which are the most recent two, new super mario bros. and mario galaxy. and i’m def. looking forward to spending more time with both.

mario land links:
- PDF of manual at replacementdocs.com
- music from the third world of mario land reworked for brawl
- a good walkthrough at gamefaqs.com
- maps at vgmaps.com
- entry at mariowiki.com
- entry at wikipedia

wario’s virtual land

another gaming first, i finished my first virtual boy game: wario land. i’d gotten a virtual boy a while back b/c it’s just way too cool and b/c i’m a nintendo fanboy, even though there wasn’t much i was itching to play on it. but i’d played and enjoyed the first wario land game (on the game boy) last year, so i was interested in delving deeper into the series. although the VB wario land is the second game in the series, the “wario land 2″ moniker was actually given to the game that followed VB wario land, when the series returned to the game boy.

VB wario land is an enjoyable game, despite being extremely similar to the previous game and including virtually the exact same powerups. the game generally makes good use of the 3D perspective, and the treasures are hidden well enough that you’ll be scratching your head more than once as you search for them. another plus is that there’s a harder version of the game unlocked after you beat the game, which apparently includes more spikes and other hazards. and although i haven’t found anyone else that mentions it, the second quest also gives you different treasures, e.g. instead of a lucky cat statue as the treasure for the first level it’s a raccoon statue.

all in all this is a solid platformer, and despite some weak boss battles overall this one’s as entertaining as the first wario land game. prob. not worth going out of your way to get a VB to play this game unless you’re a hard-core nintendo fanboy like me, although it remains to be seen how far the next games in the series evolve.

wario’s virtual links:
- there are some great VB fan sites, including virtual-boy.org and www.vr32.de which has a nice page on wario land VB including scans of the instruction manual
- TV commercial and a video of some gameplay (no sound), on youtube
- entry at wikipedia
- IGN AU had a nice VB retrospective earlier this year, including mini-reviews of some of the best games
- a FAQ at gamefaqs and one from IGN
- endings FAQ for all the mario games, inc. the wario land games
- general VB FAQ

superior metroid

one more game to round out the year. i had played through metroid fusion earlier this year, but having read so much praise for its predecessor, super metroid, i was interested in how that game would compare. since i had played the two games out of order and the upgrades are almost exactly the same i was somewhat worried that my experience would be marred, but i’m glad to report that super metroid was a completely memorable experience and distinctly superior and worthy of its place among “the greatest games of all time”. in my review of fusion i mentioned that the pacing in that game seemed rushed and that it wasn’t until near the end that i felt there was the real sense of the exploration that was at the core of the original, but throughout all of super metroid the pace is pretty much perfect, with upgrades and areas opening up in a much more satisfying way. it’s amazing to see the difference between the two games: even though they both have virtually all the same gameplay mechanics, because of the superior map and level designs super metroid is an almost entirely different, and clearly superior, experience. it’s pretty amazing that nintendo is able to repeatedly create such memorable experiences with its core franchises, and i’m def. looking forward to working my way through the rest of the series. and here’s hoping another 2D metroid comes out before too long.

super metroidian links!
- fantastic fansite w/ great map and screenshots of each item’s location
- good game site at mdb.classicgaming.gamespy.com w/ maps, the nintendo power comic, instruction booklet, and more
- some metal versions of super metroid songs at metroidmetal.com
- retrospective of the series at ign.com

wario landed

zipped through the first wario land game (for the original game boy) this week. as you may know, the game is sub-titled “super mario land 3″ but has pretty much nothing to do w/ super mario land 2 (which i reviewed a year ago here). wario land features the newly-minted nemesis from that game in the starring role, and although it’s a fairly typical platformer, it’s a breath of fresh air from the regular mario series. instead of jumping on enemies as with mario, here wario uses brute force to charge into them and flip them over. powerups are provided in the form of three hats, a dragon hat (which enables you to shoot fire), a bull hat (increases charge ability and speed), and a jet hat (for flying).

the gameplay, as you’d expect, is tight, and there are several moments of brilliance scattered throughout. there’s also an increased emphasis on exploring, more so than in super mario world (1990) or mario land 2 (1992), which is enjoyable. this game (from 1994) has 15 treasures hidden among its 40 levels which really adds to the gameplay in a way that collecting dinosaur coins in mario world didn’t, along with a handful of second exits. the different endings, dependent on how many coins and treasures you have, do a good job providing additional motivation to not just rush through each level. all of this along with entertaining enemies and graphics and good music make this one worth playing, despite its only mild difficulty. like sml2, wario land was also developed by nintendo’s R&D1. i’ve inadvertently played a lot of their games, so i’m going to have to work my way through the rest of them. and yes i def. have wario land 2 lined up for next year.

la la la, la la la la la links:
- text from the instruction booklet, where you’ll learn the crucial info that up+A jumps will allow you to jump higher
- good walkthrough at IGN
- page at wikipedia
- screenshots of the six endings

of myths, monsters, and angels

i’ve been out of town on vacation, which has been an opportunity to set aside the gamecube game i’m currently working my way through and instead pick up some handheld games i’ve had lying around. the first one i finished was kid icarus: of myths and monsters, a game boy game from 1991. i’m def. one of those nintendo fanboys who dreams about the day we get a new kid icarus game and like them i’m completely psyched about pit’s appearance in the upcoming smash bros. so i was def. looking forward to playing through this one.

a lot of people, including myself, have great nostalgia for the original NES kid icarus. i’ve played it through somewhat recently, and the game is def. enjoyable with its colorful protagonist, setting, items, and characters, which includes the infamous eggplant wizard. as a sequel this game doesn’t add much at all, which is rather disappointing, but as a game boy conversion there’s a lot to enjoy. the game includes some notable differences from the original, in particular the ability to backtrack to any part of the level. this eliminates the need for the original game’s feather item and also makes the game much easier, as previously death by falling was by far the most prominent method of losing lives.

some may think it’s unfair to give low marks to a game because it’s a sequel that lacks originality and is easier than the original, but in the final analysis the game’s charms just didn’t keep me engaged to the end. i got bored encountering enemies that blurred together and/or didn’t even fight back, and there were too many rooms (shops, training rooms, etc.) to visit, much more than the original. the last level def. beats the original’s hands down, though, with its balloon fight-like control and its much more challenging and entertaining final boss fight.

anyway, overall this wasn’t the most ideal sequel, and i’m sure there are many others like me who are glad that this wasn’t the last word on our favorite @$$-kickin’ angel. here’s hoping that pit’s appearance in smash bros. is just the harbinger of even greater things to come.

l-l-l-links:
- kid icarus shrine: a nice fansite that has some info on the game boy game, including scans of the instruction booklet and related nintendo power articles and mp3s and MIDIs
- text of the instruction book
- pretty good walkthrough at ign.com
- article 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