warioware meets wii sports in rusty’s real deal baseball

for my last game of the year, i decided to wrap up my experience with rusty’s real deal baseball for 3DS, one of the few games released this past year that i actually played through, and one of nintendo’s first forays into free-to-play gaming. the game has a unique hook: although the 10 individual minigames supposedly have a base price of $4, the game features in-game haggling whereby you can reduce the price of the set from $40 down to a much more reasonable $16. the frame story involves a middle-aged dog trying to revitalize his business as well as repair his family life, and although it serves as a cute device the “story” such as it was didn’t really increase my compulsion to buy more minigames.

the minigames themselves have a very warioware type of aesthetic (apparently totilo at kotaku thought so too), which i enjoyed, and each one (approximately $2 each) distills some aspect of baseball (hitting, catching, even umpiring) and presents a set of 50 basic and 50 advanced mini-challenges plus two endless modes. i played through the majority of three of the minigames (bat & switch, quick catch, and feel the glove), and there’s a good amount of variety within each set, there’s a uniformly high level of polish, and the controls in general feel pretty good (although some take getting used to). because of the arcade nature of the challenges, there’s a distinct feeling of pointlessness of achieving them since given enough time you’ll get it eventually (a classic case of “i could be learning to be a pro basketball player in the time it would take to complete this challenge”). with games like wii sports of wii fit i’m more willing to waste time on pointless challenges since i’m also at least burning a few calories, but in this case without a compelling story or goal my need to be a completionist just wasn’t enough for me to want to finish all the advanced challenges (some of which will have your blood boiling and rage quitting in anger, and apparently i’m not the only one who felt that way). i found the challenges were also not really suited for short “pick up and play” type bursts, due to the amount of concentration required.

i didn’t feel the need to pay for the rest of the minigames (especially since some of the ones i was more interested in were the ones that didn’t unlock more of the story), so i’ve set this one aside for now. if i were more interested in baseball i could imagine this would’ve been an easier sell to me, and although i didn’t end up seeing the game through to the “end” i enjoyed the time i did spend with it overall. nintendo would’ve gotten more dollars out of me if they had just released this as a single package, but i love that they tried a different and completely unique approach to micro-transacations, and i can definitely see myself picking up a couple more at some point in the future.

haggle your way to victory with these rusty’s real deal baseball links:
– this post at gamefaqs has the exact combination of discounts to use to get the lowest possible prices for the four non-story minigames, although i haven’t verified it
– miiverse page
– official site with videos of each minigame
– complimentary fan review at kotaku
– review at nintendolife.com
– list of unlockables at gamefaqs including info on streetpass bonuses
– a look at some localization changes at tinycartridge.com
– entry at wikipedia

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steamworld dig dug

last year i played a ton of games downloaded from the 3DS’s eshop, not even counting virtual console titles, and this year i’m already on track to follow a similar path. there’s a great variety of unique offerings, and after hearing rave reviews i picked up steamworld dig. the game has been pretty much universally described as dig dug meets metroid, and, being fans of both, it was an easy sell.

the description doesn’t describe how fantastically polished the game is. every aspect of the presentation gleams and makes every movement enjoyable, even if the rest of the game were a bore. which it’s not. the game does take on the core dig dug mechanics, but being the main mode of movement it also has had to incorporate game mechanics to ensure you that you aren’t ever stuck and can’t climb back up, along with hugely beneficial power-ups that make navigation and loot collecting easier.

the game itself feels a little constrained by its scope (basically three areas and only one boss) since it feels like the world is so lively and the mechanics are so solid that an even more-epic game is just aching to get out. but even with its relatively short gameplay (roughly 5-6 hours if you don’t rush) this is a wholly enjoyable game. the real highlight of the game, though, beyond the dig dug-like (and at times drill dozer-like) gameplay and the metroid-like exploration and power-ups, is the 8 mini-caves. these are rooms you enter off of the main areas and house essential power-ups, and each is self-contained but easily provide the game’s most interesting and satisfying moments. these caves include unique setups, such as routes that require specific timing or levers that have to be found and activated, and provide a great break from what gets to be routine digging and exploring. i would’ve preferred more of this type of gameplay and a bit less of the routine digging, but that’s a small nit-pick in what is otherwise an almost uniformly enjoyable experience.

it’s a bit hard to identify why this game didn’t quite make my list of all-time greats, because there’s so much i enjoyed about it. backtracking to the surface can get a bit tedious, but that wasn’t a major problem. even though i played through it all in just a few sittings, it just didn’t quite have the elusive “it” factor that made me feel it was a “life-changing” game-playing experience. my bar is pretty high, though, so there’s no question about me whole-heartedly recommending the game, as i’m sure once you play it you too will be left waiting impatiently for the sequel (which apparently is in the works, along with another title set in the same universe).

dig these steamworld dig links:
– official site
– the game is also available on steam
– apparently there was a speedrun contest a while back. if you’re curious about the requirements for all four gold stars, they are: 20000 gold, 150 orbs, zero deaths, less than 2.5 hours
– community on miiverse
– unanimous praise at metacritic
– interview with creators at nintendolife.com
– if you’re curious about their previous steamworld game, here’s a review at nintendolife
– and if you want to go back even further, here’s the official site of their first game, anthill

nostalgic attack of the friday monsters! a tokyo tale

direct from tokyo crash mobs i jumped to another game on 3DSware and set in tokyo, but otherwise completely different: attack of the friday monsters! a tokyo tale. i’ve been keeping track of the level-5’s guild series, which, as i’ve noted before draws upon major talent to create indie-sized games. in this particular case the developer millennium kitchen isn’t well-known in the states, but apparently their boku no natsuyasumi series (“my summer vacation” in english) is popular in japan. anyway, reviewers generally agree that the game is short and more of a visual novel than a game, but what caught my interest (other than the generally higher ratings than others in guild’s second set) were the comparisons of the game to the films of studio ghibli (more specifically, the slice-of-life films as opposed to the epic fantasies), which i pretty much adore. nintendolife’s review is typical of what most reviewers said about the game:

…it’s more appropriately classified as a light adventure game/interactive novel. The gameplay itself doesn’t go deeper than a card game (which is really just a glorified “Rock/Paper/Scissors” exercise) but to criticize the game for its simple gameplay would be missing the point; Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale is a lovely, memorable experience that captures the essence of classic coming-of-age films…

for the most part i agree that the game does share a similar tone to the studio ghibli films, but the direct comparison is a bit unfair since its scope is so much smaller. i would say that kit from nintendo summed it up well when he said, “i got a great sense of nostalgia from this game, and i did not grow up in tokyo in the 1970’s”, i.e. even more than the story and characters, such as they are, what’s really engaging about the game is its ambience. i agree with him that the game’s relaxed pace is its big draw, and i can easily imagine how indebted the game must be to millennium kitchen’s my summer vacation series. the game also walks an interesting line between story elements being part of the child protagonist’s imagination and his view of the world, versus an actual fantasy on a cosmic scale.

anyway, all of this was a nice change of pace and the game nicely captures the freedom and wonder of childhood, but i wouldn’t say this was a “great” game per se, or even that it had a “great” story. i’m certain that a lot of people would find this to be way too cute for their taste, and it (as well as other recent japanese media) sometimes feels a little bit too enchanted with childhood and nostalgia. the game’s card battles feel superfluous and the simplicity of the mechanics ensure that they’re never a focal point, in which case it’s somewhat surprising that they become a focus in the post game, so much so that i gave up on completing all the remaining goals because it would require way more card battles than i was willing to put up with. all in all it’s great that we got a localized version of this game and it was a nice way to spend a few hours, but more than anything it left me wanting to re-watch all of those great studio ghibli films.

nostalgic attack of the friday monsters! a tokyo tale links:
– official site
– succinct summary of the game’s setup at lofi-gaming.org.uk
– glowing review at destructoid
– some discussion of the ending at gamefaqs

tokyo crash mobs: surreal and manic hijinks in a sequel done right

i’d played early DS title magnetica about a year ago, and although i enjoyed it overall and played it somewhat obsessively, it didn’t really leave a huge impact on me. however, tokyo crash mobs, for 3DSware, which features similar gameplay, immediately caught my eye with its visuals. its premise is that the pieces are people and that your character throws people at them in order to get rid of them in order to either try to be the first in line for an event or to try to prevent them from hitting a mysterious red button. the game uses photos instead of sprites and includes tons of silly videos.

i’m a big fan of wacky, idiosyncratically japanese humor, and your interest and enjoyment of the game will in no small part depend on your attitude towards it. if you’re like the reviewer at nintendolife you probably already know that this game is not for you. he had little more than tolerance for the presentation and astoundingly says:

It’s impressive that the developer has managed to include so much full motion video in this release, but to be honest the videos themselves are rather creepy, and eminently skippable. Aside from raising a wry smile the first time you see them, they add nothing to the overall experience.

wait, what? the visuals, esp. the videos, are a huge part of what make the experience! the reviewer at destructoid appreciated the game as much as i did and basically hits on everything i enjoyed about the game in his review. he says:

Regardless of what it all means, Tokyo Crash Mobs shows that Nintendo is willing to get weirder than ever. I couldn’t be happier about that.
…While the game’s FMV portions are clearly the star of the show, the underlying game here offers an admirable attempt to make a relatively tired puzzle formula feel fresh and fun again.

i was pretty impressed with the variety of gameplay they packed into this title. there are three basic forms of gameplay: one (grace’s mode) in which you “throw” people and thus can position pieces exactly where you want on the board; one (savannah’s mode) in which you “roll” the pieces and thus have to wait for people to jump out of the way before moving a piece behind them; and one (boss mode) in which you physically move the 3DS around to aim and dodge attacks by brightly colored ninjas by quickly tilting the 3DS to the left or right. the game makes great use of its central conceit both with its power-ups as well as some completely unique hazards, like “line cutters” who will try to insert themselves unless you throw a person at them to get them out of the way. at some points the people will also fidget and shift into new positions, which keeps the game feeling fast-paced.

in my comments on magnetica i had said that “the gameplay focuses attention on your ability to put a piece where you want it to go, which takes away from the immediacy and tactility found in almost all other puzzles games of this type.” that game has controls like bust-a-move, aka puzzle bobble in that you have to flick the ball where you want it to go. tokyo crash mobs has a different control entirely. instead of having the controls and the board appear on the same screen, the board appears on the top screen and the controls are on the bottom screen. instead of flicking balls, you use the stylus to move your cursor to the position you want to throw (or roll) and then release.

at first the game felt awkward since the controls were separate from the board, but the game shows a silhouette of where the piece will land and once i realized the touchscreen was really functioning as a controller, like a computer’s mouse, it made perfect sense and felt perfectly natural. having the board on the touchscreen with the same mechanics would have made the game a little too easy, not to mention force it to lose out on the glasses-free 3-d visuals. positioning pieces exactly where you want them is only slightly more awkward than if the pieces were balls instead of sprites of people and the “rolling” mode is definitely more challenging than the “throwing” mode, but otherwise i had zero complaints about the controls.

the game features your standard story (which alternates the rolling and throwing modes and has only a few boss fights) and endless modes. one thing most reviews don’t mention is that after you beat the story mode, a harder story mode unlocks featuring much tougher time constraints. all in all this has been a definite highlight of the 3DS’s eshop, and for people familiar with the puzz loop series, a definite evolution and a nice example of a worthwhile sequel that introduces a significant number of new (and fun) elements.

surreal and manic tokyo crash mobs links:
– official page at nintendo.com
– a look at some cutscenes (spoiler alert!), at youtube
– gameplay footage from gamexplain

addictive and varied streetpass mii plaza games

looking back at 2013, it might surprise people to see what my most-played games of the year were. yes, fire emblem awakening (65:10) and animal crossing: new leaf (52:43) are up there, but streetpass mii plaza clocks in at 43:07, and is my most-played 3DS game overall with a whopping 71:53 of play time and rising.

i blogged about the two launch titles in streetpass mii plaza, puzzle swap and find mii in late 2011, 3DS’s first year, and at that time had praised the cleverness of streetpass in general. i hadn’t gone into great depth on the games themselves, but find mii was a nicely tuned, casual take on an RPG with different miis providing different benefits based on the color of their shirts. shortly after that post a second quest was added, find mii ii, that not only included a more-complex and involved adventure (including a host of new mechanics including: being able to hire previously met miis, create combo attacks, and purchase potions), but also included a “secret” quest as an additional third adventure, in addition to a range of useless achievements and new hats. these additions really tipped the experience over the border of “entertaining diversion” to “dangerously addictive” territory, and after finally getting the last puzzle swap piece somewhat recently and thinking about how adroitly the designers have balanced the streetpass mechanics with a casual yet still engaging basic RPG and how much time i’ve sunk into the games i’ve had to somewhat belatedly induct this along with puzzle swap (the pair of streetpass mii plaza games) into my all-time greatest games hall of fame.

earlier this year nintendo had one of its out of the blue releases, an additional four streetpass-based adventures released in NA in mid-july in the form of mii force, flower town, warrior’s way, monster manor. although different people will have their favorites the general consensus is that mii force, a streetpass take on a shoot ’em up, and monster manor, a hybrid tetris-esque puzzle and very light RPG game, are the highlights. my money’s definitely on monster manor b/c to me it better captures the essence of the streetpass mii plaza experience, which is brevity, and which mii force‘s breaks due to its fixed-length stages (so much so that now whenever i play through my latest batch of miis i play all the games except for that one).

it’s impossible to avoid comparing them to the perfectly balanced experience of find mii and find mii ii, and after having played the set of games for months now, as a collection i’d definitely have to rank them below the initial streetpass offerings. as a group they still manage to make it near the top of my list of games of the year, and there’s no question that i’ll continue to be coming back to them again and again as i work my way bit by bit towards completing each game’s objectives as i have done since they were released, made even easier than ever thanks to increased 3DSes in the wild and the streetpass relay functionality that nintendo rolled out a few months ago and that provide streetpasses in bulk at fixed locations and which i’ve never taken advantage of (to find your nearest location, see this tool at nintendo.com). all in all streetpass continues to be, in my mind, a big part of my enjoyment of the system as a whole. the little green flashing light that indicates a streetpass is always a pleasant reminder that everywhere i go there are people who are enjoying nintendo’s unique experiences just as much as i am.

some addictive and varied streetpass mii plaza games links:
– nintendo.wikia.com has a lot of good info on the various streetpass mii plaza games
– the wiki on gamefaqs is the best reference for the games
– this thread at gamefaqs has info on the exact, completely non-obvious method for getting the final key in find mii ii’s secret quest
– and for other games games have streetpass functionality, check out this list with details, at nintendo.wikia.com
– impressions at nintendolife

compact crimson shroud

although i’m not a big fan of RPGs, i’ve been intrigued by level-5’s guild series, which draws upon major talent to create indie-sized games. a couple of months ago i played and enjoyed liberation maiden, one of the games in the first collection, and based on the glowing review at nintendolife i picked up crimson shroud, also from the first collection.

the game ended up being more like a typical RPG than i had expected. its main designer, yasumi matsuno, was the director and writer behind the enjoyable final fantasy tactics, and there are some things the two have in common, including a plot revolving around a religious organization and a typically final fantasy active time battle system.

from the official site for the game, matsuno said:

It’s fairly normal these days for an RPG to have a massive scale, even when presented on a hand-held platform. Those games are certainly fun, but I wanted to create a compact game that didn’t require such a time investment, more geared toward adult players.
The game is best enjoyed while relaxed, as though you’re sitting down with a short story.

the game is nice and compact, clocking in at around 7 to 9 hours, with a much more difficult new game plus mode unlocked after beating the game for the first time (more on that later). the three characters fit into standard RPG archetypes (warrior, archer/red mage, and mage/healer), and along with attacks (weapon or magic), each turn characters can also activate a skill, which is pretty much just another magic attack, mostly centered around “buffs” (e.g. increase in weapon accuracy, defense, etc.). each skill is associated with an element (fire, lightning, etc.) which play into the game’s only rather-simplistic combo system, achieved pretty much just by stringing together skills of all-different element types. doing so earns you dice, which feed into the game’s supposedly biggest hook, the “tabletop RPG” design.

i haven’t played a tabletop RPG, but the influences are clear. instead of fully animated 3-D character models, the characters are represented as figurines that don’t move at all. also, as this person on gamefaqs succinctly puts it, “most of the story is narrated to the player rather than told through cutscenes” (so much so that hardcoregaming101.net goes so far as to call the game “half RPG, and half interactive novel”).

dice supposedly also play a prominent role in the game, in that at various points you’re called upon to make a decision (e.g. try to dodge an arrow in a story segment or activate a skill in battle) and then roll dice to determine if your action succeeds or fails. the penalties for not succeeding in your dice roll are minor, though, so that mechanic doesn’t seem very well integrated aside from adding to the tabletop RPG flavor. the more-interesting mechanic from a gameplay perspective is that in battle you can build up a store of dice and then add them to actions such as weapon attacks, which basically means you have a pool of extra resources to call upon when you want. building up your pool of dice and deciding when to use them makes battles feel slightly more interesting than more-generic RPGs, although not enough to make the overall experience feel truly unique, i.e. you’ll still be attacking with swords and shooting arrows, counteracting poison and other ailments, quaffing potions and revives, and casting plenty of fire and heal all spells. the game also includes a forging mechanic where multiple copies of the same weapon can be combined and where spells can be grafted onto an existing weapon, which is nice to have but also fairly standard RPG fare.

the story is interesting enough, and not having played an old-school RPG in a while i didn’t mind the fairly traditional battle mechanics given the game’s short length, but i definitely wasn’t motivated to play the new game plus despite the promise of a significantly increased challenge. apparently the NG+ also offers new rooms and battles as well as a better ending (for a discussion of both endings, including the somewhat curious/confusing first ending, see this discussion on gamefaqs). on the site matsuno mentions that “characters grow stronger by finding new equipment instead of grinding for levels as the story unfolds”, although in practice it sounds like for NG+ in particular you’ll end up having to grind for the best equipment instead. as it is, in the main game there’s a particularly notorious part (level 2 of the dungeon, specifically the gerseym waterway) where an essential item is only obtained via an item drop, which has been frustrating for many.

all in all i enjoyed the game despite being less unique than i had hoped, and its short length ensured that it didn’t overstay its welcome, while still enabling its mechanics to be reasonably well explored. although screenshots look cluttered, the game looks great in glasses-free 3D and has a polished presentation. not one of the best games i’ve every played, but it’s reminded me that i haven’t played an old-school RPG in a while and has whet my appetite to tackle one of the classics, so hopefully i’ll get to that before too long.

compact list of crimson shroud links:
– official site where you can also find the game’s stylish trailer
– spoiler-free walkthrough for new game and new game+ at gamefaqs
– the japanese-language version (included in the NA release) apparently has all-new dialogue in new game++ not included in the english version. it looks like it’s a self-referential comedic edit, which would have been amusing. you can find a sample of it at this thread on gamefaqs.
– abandoned fansite for the game with an incompete walkthrough but a fairly detailed list of obtainable skills
– incomplete table of items at gamefaqs
– review at gameinformer
– entry at metacritic

liberation maiden liberated

another short game. i played through the normal mode of suda51’s liberation maiden for 3DS, which is apparently also available on iOS (although the touchscreen controls look way more awkward than the 3DS version). the game has been compared to zone of the enders, which i haven’t played, but in both games you pilot a mech, i.e. giant robot. liberation maiden has very high production values, with anime cut scenes, artwork by yusuke kozaki (who also did the artwork for no more heroes and fire emblem: awakening), plenty of voice acting, and good graphics and music, although the story is completely nonsensical (the female president has to save japan by piloting a battle mech).

as for the gameplay itself, i started off feeling like the game was too easy and mindless because you simply steer with the analog stick, move the stylus to lock on to targets, and lift the stylus to release a barrage of bullets. scribbling away at the screen will do the job most of the time, but the game has a timer and a combo system that rewards more finesse, and both make the experience more worthwhile. the game has a unique mechanic whereby your offense (the number of shots in a single barrage) and your defense (your shields) are from the same pool, so you could take the easy and slow route and just never let your defenses get too low, but that’s not going to earn you the highest scores.

there are 5 levels, each with 3 stages, plus 5 bosses (one for each level, although they’re somewhat same-y). stages also may contain sub-missions, i believe made available when certain conditions are met such as completing part of a stage quickly. although i was fairly bored at the beginning, by the time i got to the end of the game i was enjoying myself much more. although overall the game is pretty short and can be completed in just a couple of hours, the action is eye-catching and the gameplay is pretty solid and fun. after beating normal mode i started in on the hard mode, which looks like it’s going to be much more of a challenge, and you can also replay a single level in a score attack mode. the game is on the pricier side at $8, but it ranks near the top of the games i’ve played from the 3DS’s eshop thus far.

liberate these liberation maiden links:
– official site
– entry at suda51.wikia.com
– review at nintendolife.com
– entry at metacritic
– list of the in-game achievements (although i’m still not sure how to earn a high approval rating)
– apparently a follow-up is in the works, although it’s going to be a “visual novel” instead of another action game

virtual and “original” NES donkey kong

the NES version of miyamoto’s first hit, donkey kong, was the last in a series of promotions on wii u’s virtual console celebrating the 30th anniversary of famicom (i.e. the japanese NES). the game was one of the ones i’d owned growing up, in the form of donkey kong classics which paired that title with its sequel, donkey kong jr.

i hadn’t really played the game for years, so it was nice to revisit this, the debut of mario, aka “jumpman”, and donkey kong (and pauline). the game was groundbreaking for its time and although simplistic by modern standards is quite enjoyable. i was able to breeze through all three stages pretty easily, but i’d forgotten that the game gets harder the more times you cycle through the stages. the wii u’s restore points helped me get back up to speed with minimal frustration (at the cost of only a small amount of guilt), and the first stage is particularly memorable, with its combination of jumping and climbing and tense split-second decisions.

after playing through the wii u version of the game several times i still felt up for more, so i went ahead and also checked out the 3DS version subtitled “original edition” which was available a while back as as a limited edition promotion. this version of the game restores the missing “factory” level, which i’d only played via donkey kong on game boy. the level felt noticeably more difficult than the other levels due to the conveyor belts, somewhat unfairly so, which made me wonder if it was left out of the NES releases on purpose, rather than due to memory limits as seems to be the conventional wisdom. regardless, the 3DS’s version’s restore points also expedited mastering this stage and made the experience less frustrating, although i found myself preferring the original NES version (although of course this could just be due to being much less familiar with that stage).

anyway, it was nice to revisit this classic and find that for the most part it’s still engaging, particularly the first and third of the three stages. this is where mario’s reign began, and so it’s nice to see that the game, particularly its first level, continues to stay in the public eye thanks to numerous tributes.

some virtual and “original” donkey kong links:
– apparently the NES donkey kong‘s kill screen takes much more effort to get to, something on the order of 5 hours and 44 minutes (that video also includes tips on beating all the stages)
– a design for donkey kong shelves
– if you haven’t seen it already, 2007’s the king of kong was an entertaining look at the world of high-score competition, specifically for donkey kong
– a huge pixel-perfect stop-motion version of the game
– a mechanized version of the first stage

watery mutant mudds

i’m always up for a good platformer, and i’d read a lot of good things about mutant mudds. the game plays like a sort of cross between gargoyle’s quest (where firebrand’s hovering mechanic is recreated as max’s jetpack) and the virtual boy wario land in that you’ll be jumping to and from several layers of foreground/background. i’d played and enjoyed the two other games (as recounted here and here), but mutant mudds was definitely a disappointing experience overall.

it’s not immediately obvious to me why this should be so, however, because the game has a lot going for it, and i can see why it’s gotten a lot of praise. overall the title is extremely polished: the retro-style graphics and music are all well done, and the controls provide pixel-perfect level of precision. at first i was put off by the high level of difficulty and it took me a little while to get used to the timing of the disappearing platforms (which form a core component of the levels), but once i realized that this was one of the game’s selling points i enjoyed it for what it is.

the problem is that the game isn’t particularly creative. the levels are all very repetitive with nothing much to relieve the monotony. there are no boss battles, and the three power-ups are all minor upgrades and don’t change the gameplay at all aside from generally making the game slightly easier. the game includes the standard set of worlds (e.g. ice, lava) but, again, this doesn’t lead to significant changes in the gameplay. enemies look good but are your standard fare (with the exception of the pig enemy which drops bombs that explode in a unique pattern), and once i mastered the hovering mechanic there wasn’t anything that was keeping me motivated to finish other than for the sake of finishing.

from a design perspective there are some details that could have helped make the game feel more fun and less cold. max and grannie aren’t given any characterization, not even a “yeah!” when you beat a level. similarly, the enemies don’t react in any way when they’re defeated, other than just disappearing in a burst of mud. adding fun little touches wouldn’t have improved the gameplay, but they would make the experience more memorable and more like a game as opposed to, say, doing your taxes.

i also wasn’t a fan of the pacing of the game. each level contains a secret level that is supposedly more difficult but just felt like more of the same to me. to access some of the secret levels you have to collect enough diamonds (there are 100 in each stage) to unlock the power-ups, which you can only hold one of at a time. this restriction is fine, but it’s annoying that you can only switch power-ups outside of a level so more often than not you’ll be halfway through a level before you realize you have the wrong power-up to get to the secret level, leading to a lot of unnecessary repetition. also, to access the final 4 levels you have to collect every diamond in every level of the main game. then to access the bonus “grannie level” content you have to also beat every secret level in the game. as a side note, the 3-d effect in the game seems a little off to me as well. maybe it’s just me, but i found that the slightest tilt made the images blurry, unlike other 3DS games i’ve played, so i played with the 3D turned completely off. this wasn’t a problem for the most part, although people have complained that the wii u version of the game suffers from the lack of the 3D effect.

it’s interesting to me that the reviewer at nintendolife, who had enjoyed the 3DS version of the game, found that the wii u version “begins to grow tedious, especially if you’re also working your way through the other hidden levels, because they’re not challenging you in unique ways. … It all begins to feel like too much of the same, and a fun short adventure with some challenging levels starts to feel like it’s ballooned into a repetitive slog that doesn’t want you to leave, but also can’t think of any unique ways to keep you interested.” i’m somewhat surprised he didn’t feel that way about the original, since i was already getting bored by the time i’d finished even a fourth of the main adventure’s stages. anyway, even though this wasn’t a particularly memorable platformer, its high level of polish made it much more enjoyable than it would’ve been otherwise.

watery mutant mudds links:
– official site, which includes the full soundtrack
– entry at nintendo.com
– review at nintendolife.com
– renegade kid answers reader questions at nintendolife
– some details on the grannie stages
– entry at howlongtobeat.com

spruced-up 3D classics: kid icarus

i’d played the original kid icarus on NES when i was a kid but didn’t really remember anything about it when i played it on an emulator about 8 years ago, before i started this blog. i started playing the 3D classics version (downloadable on the 3DS) this week for just a few minutes, but then got sucked into it and finished it all in one sitting.

i hadn’t really realized it at the time, but the game features two different controls, “classic”, which is more like the original, and “custom” which is a more user-friendly version that makes the game’s platforming sections easier overall (see this page for more details). i played through the game with the updated controls, and then went back and tried the classic controls and didn’t find them too hard to adjust to, but it’ll be interesting to go back and replay the NES original to see how they compare. aside from the controls the other main differences are some 3D effects; some odd painted backgrounds that replace the single-color backdrops of the original; and a save-slot feature, which the original famicom release had, as opposed to the password system of the US release. there are also some minor adjustments to make the gameplay smoother, which you can read about here.

okay, enough trivia, how was the game itself? overall i enjoyed my time with the game, although it does feel less polished than its contemporaries that became huge franchises, namely, super mario bros., the legend of zelda, and its sister series metroid (which was created by basically the same team and features basically the same game engine). the game has a unique pacing in that the first few levels are much harder than the rest of the game, mostly because your life bar is so short. the game gets much easier, esp. once you master the specknose rooms and the training rooms. i was stuck on 1-3 for a while, but once i gave up on trying to get through the training area at the end of that level i pretty much breezed through the rest of the game.

the game provides a lot of variety: in the first section you climb from the bottom of the level to the top; at the end of every world (i.e. every fourth stage) is a fortress, i.e. a maze with a boss; and the second section consists of fairly standard left-to-right horizontal stages. not to mention the final level of the game, which is a basically an auto-scrolling shoot-’em-up. i didn’t find the platforming or the fortresses to be difficult, and although i remember the eggplant wizards being fairly annoying before, this time around i found them to be pretty easy to defeat and only got pegged once due to carelessness. the power-ups you earn from defeating the training rooms are pretty great (esp. the shield), although it’s frustrating to have them stolen from you by some enemies.

but all these little frustrations add up to make the game a unique and mostly fun experience overall. despite enjoying the game for the most part, though, the lack of variety in enemy types and its shortness made it more of a diversion than a true classic. i’m still hoping we see a new entry in the series in a form more like the original and its sequel as opposed to the completely new gameplay of the recent 3DS release. here’s hoping!

spruced-up 3D classics: kid icarus links:
– page at nintendo.com
– nice walkthrough with maps at strategywiki.org
– review at nintendolife.com
– kid icarus fansite that includes scans of the NES manual and mp3s of the music
– entry for the original at kidicaruswiki.org. it’s interesting to compare the enemies to the ones that appear in sakurai’s game for the 3DS.
– screenshots of the different endings at vgmuseum.com