kirby’s star stacker stacked

i suppose i was in a puzzle mood, because even though i’d recently played a fair amount of puzzle league recently, via planet puzzle league, i spent some time checking out kirby’s star stacker for the original game boy. i suppose you could think of the game as a sort of expansion on the core mechanic of yoshi for NES. in that game you stack pieces vertically and are tasked with putting enemies in between two pieces of an egg in order to clear them. in this game you try to put stars in between two matching pieces, where instead of eggs you have kirby’s three buddies from kirby’s dream land 2. like many such puzzle games this game also has a combo system, where not only do pieces drop and make chained matches, but after the second match stars rain down from the top of the board to fill in blank spaces and keep the chain going. this addition works quite well, and does add a unique twist to the otherwise shallow combo mechanics.

the game itself is otherwise fairly bland. the game is easy since you can make combos with two of the same character pieces with no stars in between them, and so making huge chains is often just a matter of filling up the board and then making one move to start the chain. perhaps it’s not surprising that both this game and pokemon trozei both have a simple combo system since both series skew towards a fairly young demographic.

the game has the usual range of modes, and adding to the mindlessness is that in the regular mode the game actually shows you the first move, which in the early stages often clears the entire board. the regular mode does inject a little personality in that after you clear all the rounds at a certain difficulty level you’ll get to see a little image of the characters in a cute pose, but otherwise even the kirby trappings are pretty minor.

it was nice to check out this bit of kirby and nintendo history, but this game is definitely not a high point in the history of puzzle games. the core mechanics are solid, though, and it may be that a more-worthwhile game is buried in there waiting to come out some day (for example, just adding a fourth animal friend would make the chances of making a combo much less, thus requiring more skill from the player).

stack these kirby’s star stacker links:
– as usual, kirbysrainbowresort.net has everything you’d want to know about the game and then some
– ending images at vgmuseum.com
– entry at wikipedia
– review at nintendolife
– information on its japan-only SNES sequel, at kirby.wikia.com

Advertisement

smooth landing for kirby’s pinball land

it’s been a while since i’ve played a pinball video game, so i decided to tackle kirby’s pinball land for the original game boy. the game was actually the first of many kirby spin-offs, and as with the original game boy title he appears white in the box’s artwork instead of his now-familiar pink.

the game’s setup is highly reminescent of revenge of the ‘gator, also by HAL and for game boy which preceded it by four years. like that game, in kirby’s pinball land each board is made up of three main screens and includes bonus stages. kirby’s pinball land adds boss battles into the mix, as well as three different boards and a final boss battle (against king dedede, naturally). although each screen of each board has very similar objectives (generally, hit an object a certain number of times), it’s fun to play through them all to find out how each piece of the board operates. for example, in one screen hitting the on-screen kirby on the left will make it spit out an object, while hitting the kirby on the right will make it inhale it. and in another screen you have to hit a cloud three times which will cause it to rain on the on-screen kirby, who will then pull out an umbrella; landing the pinball on the umbrella will push it up to the next part of the stage.

the review at nintendolife complained about the boards being cramped since they’re focused on being made up of single screens as opposed to having continuity between them, but i didn’t find this to be a drawback at all. that reviewer strongly favored the breakout-style game kirby’s block ball instead, whereas i have the complete opposite opinion, which is that kirby’s pinball land is fast-paced and fairly enjoyable, whereas kirby’s block ball is slow and tedious. once i’d seen all the different parts of the stages and beaten all the bosses i didn’t bother trying to master the game enough to beat the final boss, but i enjoyed my time with the game. the game controls well and makes good use of the kirby trappings, and it was fun to see all the familiar enemies. not a particularly surprising game, but casual without being completely mindless like the majority of the main kirby series, and so one of the more enjoyable kirby games i’ve played.

smooth landing for these kirby’s pinball land links:
– as usual, kirbysrainbowresort.net provide all the info you might need, including a handful of codes and the text of the instruction book, which has gems such as “It is every Kirby’s dream to play soccer with a squid.”
– entry at kirby.wikia.com
– entry at nintendo.com
– entry at wikipedia

bouncing around kirby’s block ball

it had been a long time since i’d played a breakout style game, so i recently played through kirby’s block ball for the original game boy. (in terms of the timeline, the game was released in mid-1996, after kirby’s dream land 2 and before kirby super star on SNES.) i’d played alleyway, also for game boy, quite a few years ago, and at that time i’d mentioned that 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.” the game has a completely different feel, though, and the games don’t share much in common beyond them both being successors to ye olde breakout.

kirby’s block ball adds several key mechanics included, no doubt, to try to distinguish itself from other breakout successors such as arkanoid. like arkanoid, block ball adds powers, although not to the paddle itself but to the ball, activated by pressing the B button. the powers are inspired by the kirby games and are required for destroying certain blocks, although there are only four and they don’t feel particularly necessary. one of the bigger differences is that in some stages instead of controlling one paddle that moves across the bottom of the screen as in the other games you control as many as four paddles, one on each side of the screen. another big difference is that some bricks can only be broken when kirby does a “power bounce”, achieved by pressing the A button right as kirby hits the paddle. the power bounce also grants kirby extra speed, and invulnerability if he hits the spikes that border the stage. having to control more than one paddle and constantly press the A button to do the power bounce makes the game’s controls much fussier than other breakout-type games. others may enjoy the extra engagement, but i found the power bounces to be repetitive and tedious.

the game features ten stages each comprised of three normal stages, a sub-boss battle, and a boss battle. boss battles are exactly what you’d expect without much in the way of surprises, and each level has a high score target (called a “borderline”). in order to see the final stage and the actual ending you have to achieve the high score on every level, a feat that i quickly gave up on. the main reason for that is in order to get the high score you pretty much have to execute the bonus rounds in the levels perfectly. these are triggered by hitting a certain item and then clearing the rest of the level within a short amount of time, which proved to be overly difficult. of course a more-motivated player would actually try to improve her/his control over the ball, but even after playing through all the levels i didn’t feel particularly adept at making the ball go where i wanted it to. the game also features four mini-game type bonus levels that were more enjoyable, but don’t appear very frequently. so all in all, despite the always-cute kirby trappings, this wasn’t a particularly fun or memorable take on breakout. hopefully some of the other kirby spin-offs will impress me more.

bounce around these kirby’s block ball links:
– review of 3DS VC release at nintendolife.com
– page for the 3DS VC release at nintendo.com
– entry at kirbysrainbowresort.net, which includes scans of the instruction manual
– entry at kirby.wikia.com
– screenshots of the ending, at vgmuseum.com

easygoing kirby’s epic yarn

after the frustration that was goldeneye 007 i ended up finishing kirby’s epic yarn for wii. like most of the series the game is fairly mindless but genial overall. this particular entry sets itself apart in both its visuals (an arts-‘n-crafts-aesthetic similar to the one seen in yoshi’s story) and its gameplay: instead of kirby’s usual swallow move which allows him to “steal” the abilities of his foes, in this game kirby transforms with each of his movements, such as turning into a parachute to drift down from a jump or into a car when dashing. kirby can also undergo “super transformations”, such as turning into a snowboarder or a dolphin, or one of the more entertaining ones, a fire truck.

the look is unique and eye catching and executed extremely well, and although it would seem to be almost overly “kiddy”, since the gameplay is rock solid (as you would expect) it doesn’t feel too cutesy, or at least not distractingly so. the visuals are charming and contribute to plenty of unique level designs, although there’s not much in the core gameplay that feels really brilliant. the game offers a fairly good balance between being too easy and being too hard: it adopts a very sonic-like approach where you can’t die, but get hit once and you temporarily lose all your loot (“beads” in this game). the number of beads you have by the end of the stage determines your medal (none, bronze, silver, or gold), and although medals don’t earn you anything (except in the case of boss battles) it does serve its purpose of giving more-experienced gamers more motivation to play more carefully. there are three treasures hidden throughout each stage as well to increase replayability, and the local co-op mode is also a welcome addition. the game also includes an extensive mode featuring different categories of bonus missions and an overly designed feature to decorate kirby’s apartment including the ability to customize your furniture with different fabrics.

all in all although, or because, this entry differs from the usual formula, it was one of the more enjoyable in the series. i wouldn’t say this ranks among the best of the genre, but this is a good option for younger players, fans of co-op, fans of the character, or people looking for an easygoing platforming experience.

some easygoing kirby’s epic yarn links:
– nice entry at kirby.wikia.com, which includes a complete run-down of all the transformations
– iwata asks interview
– the official site includes wallpapers
– entertaining commercial
– entry at wikipedia
– just for fun, “Check Out These Kirby Drawings from Nintendo’s Bosses” from 1993

pokemon ranger circled

i’ve played a fair number of pokemon spin-offs, but i still have a ways to go. the DS era saw the greatest number of pokemon spin-offs, and pokemon ranger is notable because it spawned two sequels. the game was the fourth pokemon spin-off to appear on the DS (after pokemon dash, trozei, and mystery dungeon), all of which were to tide fans over until the release of the next entry in main series, diamond and pearl.

i knew that the reviews had been lukewarm, but i went in with low expectations and came away reasonably satisfied. the core gameplay mechanic sounds simplistic since it involves drawing circles around pokemon to capture them, but the game explores this basic premise fairly well. you can use different pokemon to assist you, and their types alter the behavior of the capture (e.g. you can use a water pokemon helper to enclose the pokemon you’re trying to capture in a bubble). the gameplay also proves to be less shallow than on first impression. most of the time madly circling a pokemon with your stylus will get you through, but the game certainly isn’t completely mindless: planning out when to use your assists, using their type advantages, executing them, and also planning your circle-drawing strategy based on your target’s movements (sometimes seemingly random and erratic, but oftentimes unique) all play a part in getting through the game.

the game paces itself by gradually introducing new types you can capture as the story progresses, but the story itself is simplistic (about on par with the main series). the gameplay outside of battles is your standard RPG town and dungeon setup, although the game succeeds pretty well at providing a natural, stylus-only interface. in the end, though, the gameplay, while more interesting than i expected, still isn’t quite enough to sustain the entire game and as a result it ends up dragging on a bit too long. there’s a post-game mode to complete your “browser” (this game’s version of a pokedex), but it’s just more of the same so there’s not much motivation to do so.

i can see why pokemon fans would dismiss this game since all the core mechanics of the main series, namely collecting and levelling up pokemon, are missing (in this game you’re continually capturing pokemon because they automatically get released once they’ve assisted you). still, it does provide a nice change of pace and the pokemon character designs are as lovable as ever, and the game features a good cross-section of the critters from all three of the first main games. as a one-off experience i had just about enough patience to see this game through, but even though it sounds like the sequels added more variety in the game mechanics i’m not in much of a hurry to check them out.

circle these pokemon ranger links:
– as usual serebii.net and bulbapedia are the first places you should check out for info on the game. the former has a handy guide to finding all the rarer pokemon, most of which you can’t capture until after you complete the main game.
– info on the post-game special missions as well as the wi-fi downloadable missions (including the manaphy egg mission, which is the only pokemon you can transfer to a game, namely diamond/pearl)
– if you’re wondering what happens after you complete the browser, check out this page
– entry at wikipedia

headache-inducing kirby tilt ‘n’ tumble

of all the nintendo series, the kirby series continues to be my least favorite by a fair margin (though there was a notable exception in the form of kirby: canvas curse which i played and enjoyed early last year). it’s taken me some effort, but i finally finished another entry in the series, kirby tilt ‘n’ tumble, and overall for me it ranks the lowest among the kirby games yet.

the game deserves significant credit for being the first motion-controlled nintendo game, which was achieved by an accelerometer included inside the game cartridge. at the time it must have seemed like magic to move kirby while moving your game boy color, but now that it’s a familiar game mechanic the novelty isn’t enough to redeem the tedious and slow gameplay. it’s a bit hard to pinpoint why the game is so dull. for starters, being forced to regress back to the dimly lit GBC screen was painful (while the game does play on the bright-screened GBA SP, since the cartridge’s orientation is opposite of the GBC’s the controls are reversed, rendering the game pretty much unplayable). that’s not a fault of the GBC itself since for GB and GBC games in general you can find a good enough angle with a steady light source that it’s not too much of an issue. but in this game since you’re constantly moving the screen around, seeing the GBC’s screen becomes much more difficult than usual. adding to this frustration is one of the game’s central mechanics, which is to “pop” kirby up by quickly tilting the GBC up and back down to make him jump. this requires even more-extreme readjusting of your eyes back to where on the screen you were, leading to headaches and motion sickness even under the best of conditions.

on top of these issues i found that there’s just not that much variety in the levels or level design. the boss battles are pretty much all the same, and one of the prominent level elements is a donkey kong country-like rotating container that you have to jump out of at the right moment, and those sections were just as annoying here. the game could probably be most closely compared to super monkey ball, a game that i had actually enjoyed overall. on the surface it seems both games would receive a similar reaction since their core mechanics, tilting the world to make a ball move, are pretty much the same. perhaps that game succeeds because instead of finicky navigation through levels filled with elements that just slow you down, it instead limits its game mechanics so that you can focus on the challenge of speeding through a bite-sized level. the arcade experience of super monkey ball with its high degree of challenge gives the game a “one more try” and quick-shot appeal that balances out the precision required, whereas there’s little sense of progress or reprieve from the snail’s pace of tilt ‘n’ tumble.

the cute factor of the kirby games continues to be its biggest draw, but as this game doesn’t really introduce any new characters or surprises to the universe there’s really nothing to redeem the aggravating gameplay. i’m hopeful that yoshi’s foray into motion-controlled gaming, in yoshi topsy-turvy, fares better, and that the remaining entries in the kirby series are more worthwhile.

tilt ‘n tumble these kirby tilt ‘n’ tumble links:
– entry at wikipedia.org
– entry at kirbysrainbowresort.net, which includes scans of the manual, screenshots, and locations of all the special (red and blue) stars
– game informer included the game at #23 in its “25 best game boy games of all time” list. that page also includes a link to an entertaining commercial for the game.

3-D faces from outer space

i haven’t mentioned this yet, but i’ve been the proud (?) owner of a 3DS for the past couple of months. although i’m a nintendo fanboy i’m far from being a “buy at launch” kind of person when it comes to hardware, and i was tempted to wait until the 3DS gets a redesign to fix some of the issues that people have been griping about such as the short battery life (not to mention the slim launch library). i have to admit the ambassador program is what pushed me over the edge, although i would’ve ended up getting it around this time anyway since the release of super mario 3d land is just around the corner (although it’s just too cruel that skyward sword is being released at almost exactly the same time).

anyway, although i’m intrigued by some of 3DS’s launch titles, i was perfectly content to spend my initial time just playing around with the pack-in titles. the game i ended up first exploring the most was face raiders, developed by HAL laboratory. the game provides an intro to “augmented reality” gaming, and in it you use the 3DS’s camera to take pictures of people (or yourself) who then become an army of flying helmeted enemies invading your actual current surroundings. you have to actually physically move the 3DS (and yourself) around to shoot tennis balls at them, being careful, of course, to avoid smacking into furniture.

the game succeeds in being a fun and funny diversion. the gameplay itself isn’t particularly deep and there aren’t any unlockables to speak of (except for some short diverting animations featuring your collection of faces), but it’s a good length and doesn’t overstay its welcome. it’s fun to show off (and it even has a separate “show a friend” mode that features a shorter version of the first level) and the way it adds silly expressions onto the people whose pictures you’ve taken is so novel and well done that it’s still entertaining even after you’ve been playing for a while. although the game doesn’t make much use of the 3D capabilities of the platform and its basic camera-capture functionality would have probably succeeded as well on the DSi, its use of the 3DS’s gyroscope makes for a new experience and i appreciated that its enemy-creation features work equally well with pictures from cartoons or photographs as it does from actual people. there are five levels, each featuring distinct enemies and bosses, and a final level that recaps all the levels and bosses at a harder setting (with unlimited continues thankfully). no-miss multipliers and “mouth shots” (as opposed to headshots) are needed for achieving high scores, although for most people there’s not a whole lot of incentive there since there aren’t really any unlockables. the game also includes two features that seem to be becoming standard in nintendo games, namely in-game hints or guides and the ability to take screenshots. both are unobtrusive and optional, and although a part of me still resists in-game help it really isn’t any different than getting help online so i should just get used to it. the only real complaint is that you can’t save a picture you’ve taken until you finish a stage, but this is only a minor inconvenience.

as for the 3DS itself, my impressions are cautiously optimistic. i’ve been enjoying the streetpass and spotpass features (although again the connectivity doesn’t seem like anything that couldn’t have been done on the DS), and although i’m not focused on graphics (as opposed to gameplay) in video games in general, i definitely appreciate the upgrade in graphics over the DS. i haven’t played a game for the system in which the 3-D graphics were really essential yet (mostly because i haven’t played much for the system in general yet), although there have been moments where the 3-D really did enhance the experience and it did feel new and unique. i’m not sure that it will ever approach the revolution of wii or even the original DS, but there’s no question that this is just the beginning and as its library grows this little console’s capabilities will be more fully explored and maximized.

links invading from outer space!
– entry at wikipedia
– some discussion about it on the iwata asks about 3DS feature
– short guide at IGN

flippin’ through revenge of the ‘gator

although i’ve never really played a pinball game in real life, i’ve enjoyed playing various pinball video games over the years, the most recent being the enjoyable pokeball pinball for GBC. i’ve been meaning to play through the well-regarded kirby’s pinball land, but i thought i’d tackle revenge of the ‘gator first, which preceded it by 4 years and was also developed by HAL laboratory.

i suppose i’m becoming somewhat of a pinball video game snob, because although the game is enjoyable it doesn’t feel very distinctive. the alligator theme is entertaining despite being fairly random, and although there’s just enough variety to the game mechanics i couldn’t help wishing that there was just a little more to keep me engaged; this is understandable as the game was released close to the game boy’s launch. the game features four screens and 3 bonus levels, although progressing from screen to screen gets a little tiresome. in particular, of the four screens you’ll end up spending most of your time on the one 2nd from the bottom, as progressing upwards from that screen takes some effort. also, the bottommost screen is the hardest of the four, so there’s a definite sense of resignation as you try to save yourself and get back to the 2nd screen. in the four main screens there’s a heavy emphasis on hitting certain blocks to get the “savers” that block the holes at the bottom of the current screen before attempting to progress upwards, and this also gets repetitive. the game features a 2-player mode that looks somewhat interesting, but lacking game boy buddies i didn’t get to try that out.

i’m always down for retro games and so i didn’t mind giving this game a try and playing until i earned a respectable score, but like many early game boy games it’s not a classic for the ages. hopefully kirby’s pinball land will be more engaging.

snap up these revenge of the ‘gator links:
– positive review at retrogamer.net
– good FAQ at gamefaqs
– scan of the box
– entry at wikipedia
– some random but cool colorized screens of the game