Hype: Chocobo's Crystal Tower

Ever since my computer broke and I'm forced to browse the web using either the DSi or Wii browsers I've been pruning my daily online routine. At one point I seriously considered quitting Facebook altogether, until I found out that Square-Enix is bringing their most popular franchise, Final Fantasy, into the world of social gaming. Chocobo's Crystal Tower (CCT) and Knights of the Crystals (KotC) are now open for Beta testing.

I know I've bashed FB gaming before, but this is different! We're talking Square-Enix here! I'm not going to go into a full review, since these games are still in beta testing, but the word needs to get out as soon as possible.

Both games are terribly simple and don't stray too far of the classic social game formula. Some even compare KotC with Mafia Wars and CCT with Farmville… meets Mafia wars. The only difference between these and the millions of FB games out there is the use of the popular franchise and an obvious increase in production value in terms of graphics and music. I expect there will be better customer service and less glitches.

I tried KotC and I didn't really dig it, but if you like Mafia Wars and its clones the upgrade in graphics might make you want to switch. It's just not my cup of tea.

I did, however, fall in love with CCT. The chocobos are so freaking adorable! In this game you are in charge of your own chocobo ranch. You raise chocobos from eggs and are in charge of keeping them well fed and clear of dust bunnies (no chocobo poo!) Once they reach adulthood you equip them and send them on dungeon raids, if successful they come back with a reward. You use these rewards to get better food, equipment and decorations for your ranch.

The social aspect comes in when you start breeding. You need to keep new chocobos coming because old chocobos won't go on raids, and to avoid in-breeding you always have to mate one of your chocobos with someone else's. The "Farmville" part is when you're encouraged to visit your friends' farms and tend to their chocobos. You get paid and gain experience just as if it were your own farm. But that’s where the similarities end. I believe you actually get to see the farms as the owner left them whereas in FV your friends' farms always are always in an embarrassing crisis situation. You are also encouraged to leave (some of your precious) lucky feathers on your friends' (or even a strangers') chocobos to boost their "luck" stat, hoping that a true friend will return the favor.

The only things that I didn't like were that there was no auto-save and that the different screens aren't too intuitive to navigate.

As for the beta testing, yes, the games are still glitchy and go offline occasionally. If you're not familiar with the process I suggest you wait for the final release. Otherwise, by all means, give them a try! The games are free and better that what FB currently has to offer! Even if you don't enjoy them as much, please play for a while and try to get as many friends as possible to become hopelessly addicted. Consider this: every player that you manage to "turn" is a player that you take away from Zynga and a player that may be experiencing the world of Final Fantasy for the very first time (and subject to banner ads for the latest Square-Enix games!). What could possibly go wrong? So, check 'em out and be sure to come post a comment to tell us how it went.

Diskinect

As a professional video game journalist, I like to keep my promise of "the hottest trends in videogames as soon as they become available to me" to my loyal readers. This time, though, I went a little out of my way to get you the scoop on the latest in video-game technology. Yes, I WENT to Best Buy and gave the Kinect on display a try. I even took a small focus group (my kids) with me.

Just in case you live under a rock (that would explain you reading this blog); the Kinect promises to abolish controllers by having a camera interpret your movements.

If I were to describe our experience with the system with one word, it would be FRUSTRATING (in all caps). The smaller kids had no idea what was going on and we had to constantly shout instructions from the sidelines. The oldest knew what was going on thanks to the system's constant nagging: "Stand back" "move left" "move forward" "clean your room" "eat your vegetables". The system constantly reminds you that it's YOU that has to adjust to IT. In the end the kids and I were frustrated because we kept "losing" regardless of how hard we tried, simply because the avatars took their sweet time before deciding to follow our commands.

To be fair we only tried one game, Kinect Adventures. However, this is the pack-in game for the device; I can judge the system based on this one game's performance alone. Pack-in games should be the standard for a piece of hardware. Much like Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt, this software was developed together with the hardware and should fully take advantage of every feature.

I keep reading that "it takes a while to get used to the controls" on most reviews, and it's probably a good way to describe it. I mean, it would also take a while to get used to being raped by an elephant. You just have to relax and embrace the pain until your body becomes numb! So, are you going to let Microsoft shove a lascivious pachyderm into your living room and tell you to like it?

Sure, jumping around and swinging at the TV is fun, but that's because of the novelty of the whole situation, and because, DUH, you're freaking jumping around! Whee! Eventually you realize that all the fun is taking place on your side of the screen and the game is trying to keep up, and failing.

Remember buttons? What was the response time on those things, a millisecond? How did our grandparents manage? OMG I'm so glad I live in the future, where there's Kinect! The game has a one (1) second lag between what you do and what your avatar actually does. Say "one Mississippi" out loud; that's how long it takes for your "guy" to swing at that ball, and they expect you to get used to this. I read someone mention some players may have troubling adjusting to the "timing based" controls. I suppose one could eventually, subconsciously, begin moving ahead of time to anticipate for the lag, just as long as they keep making games in which things come at you… ever… so… slowly…

Just when things are starting to get interesting, a sign takes 15% of your screen to warn you that you're getting too close… or too far… or that maybe you're having too much fun. Then there's also the fact that your living room may not be large enough for it, or that it may not like the color of your walls or what you're wearing.

To add insult to injury, when you're done (more like when it's done with you) you're shown a couple pictures how much you look like a total assclown, flailing and jumping in the middle of a living room with a clueless look on your face.

Even though the Kinect is supposed to have an excellent voice recognition system, they opted to have you "reach" for on-screen buttons to navigate the menus. Again you find yourself looking like an assclown, reaching for something that doesn't exist, with no clue as of where it is in relation to you. Instead you have to rely on your "reflection" on the screen. Just when you can't stretch and tiptoe enough and kind of stumble forward, then it expects you to hold the pose for a second to interpret it as a click.

Going back to the Virtual Reality games of old; I must admit that I've always thought it'd be stupid playing videogames with absolutely NO tactile feedback. I felt it'd be awkward. At least with a controller, you feel something in your hand. You push the button and you know how far it can go. You know the pressing of the button stands for the action and its imminent consequences. You press A to jump, then you watch as the plumber goes up and eventually down into an endless abyss or onto a helpless goomba. When I heard of the Kinect I thought all my questions would finally be answered. If you played a kung fu game, and you threw a fist, what would your character do when you hit? Would the fist keep going through its foe's body, ignoring the excess force? Would it keep pushing forward in complete disregard for the laws of physics, sending the polygonal dummy into orbit? If you play a driving game, how does the game know how far have you pushed the pedal? How would you know? How high do you have to lift your leg to make sure you're not stepping on the gas still? Looks like I still have to wait for a few more decades for my answers. I'm disappointed with the "future of video games".

In conclusion, the system has great potential and I'm pretty sure it'll get better. What bothers me is that it is simply not ready for the market, and instead of fixing it, Microsoft is somehow convincing the media (hence the consumers) that they should deal with it and learn to love it. This concept is fairly new and is still evolving, and I'm sure in a few years Microsoft may iron out the wrinkles and make the experience as life-altering as they claim, right out of the box. In the meantime, treat this game like a novelty arcade machine; play it at someone else's place until the novelty wears off.

Hype: The Last Story

Hey, guys, have you heard about Mistwalker Studios' The Last Story? Well, I'll tell you about it anyway!

The other day I was browsing through my RSS reader and found a story about The Last Story. The writer advised the readers to keep an eye out for this game. I quickly realized why; this was the next great Final Fantasy.

If you're anything like me (or most hardcore Final Fantasy fans) you may feel like the last great FF game was IX. The recent ones, though more technologically advanced, never really reach that epicness that once characterized the series. This is because IX was the last FF game in which Hironobu Sakaguchi was directly involved. He assumed the role of executive producer for following iterations and eventually just quit Square-Enix altogether.

Square-Enix has been milking the franchise ever since Sakaguchi went to establish Mistwalker in 2004 and the result is just not the same. Chocobos and moogles alone do not make a Final Fantasy. While I was inanely hyped over Final Fantasy XIII (wow, 13 already?) the more I learned about it, the more I lost interest. Today it's all the way down to 0. I really don't care about it anymore. I felt I was destined to play pointless casual games for the rest of my life.

This announcement, however, fills me with joy. The prodigal son is back. The REAL Final Fantasy will rise from the ashes like it just used a Phoenix Down. Let me tell you why. Mistwalker has made it very obvious their intention is to write a proverbial love letter to the players who made them famous and felt like they had been abandoned.

The first sign is the title; a direct synonym of the former. Final = Last. Story = Fantasy. Even the title logo uses an art stile very similar to titles of the FF series. Every true fan knows the tale of a desperate video-game company that after a series of unsuccessful games decided to blow its entire (remaining) budget in one (ironically titled) final attempt before they closed their doors for good, and how it not only saved them from bankruptcy but set a standard for the genre. Sakaguchi has made various statements that he is treating this game "as if it were his last" even though all signs point to this game being a huge success.

The second sign is that the game is a Wii exclusive. Back in the day all FF games were Nintendo exclusives on the NES, Game Boy and SNES (Later they jumped to the Playstation apparently because of a perceived need for CD-ROM technology). Even though the Wii has limited graphics the trailers already look amazing, and many critics hail it as the best-looking game for the console.

The third sign was recently revealed. Mistwalker has confirmed that Nobuo Uematsu is composing the music for this game. For those of you who only play FPS games; Uematsu is the musical genius behind all final fantasy games up until IX and a collaborator in most later entries (even as a freelancer after he quit Square-Enix on 2004… hmmm).

The only missing component is the character design. It appears neither Yoshitaka Amano nor Tetsuya Nomura are involved in this project. This worries me because I'm not particularly crazy about the characters I've seen in the trailer. To me they just look like a squad of generic anime characters; the one thing that discourages me from playing other JRPGs (this could be in part due to the original Japanese dialogue). I hope these characters turn out to be as interesting as their predecessors.

Now that we've settled that this game is indeed the Final Fantasy Messiah, let's move on to what's new. The game will feature both online cooperative and competitive play, a first in the "series". Some say this will be a lot like Monster Hunter's online play, which is awesome except for the matchmaking. The combat appears to be very tactical, with everything happening in real-time and players ducking for cover or hiding from large foes.

Besides that, there's no telling what else will change until I see it in action, but I would rather they weren't that obvious with the similarities. I'm afraid that one problem with the excessive subliminal links to the FF series is that this could bring forth the curse of the sequel. Besides, players may be constantly bewildered by any new item, job/class and spell naming conventions (and a serious lack of chocobos).

I haven't been this exited about a video game since the Dreamcast days. I'm very glad some of the minds behind the some of the greatest videogames ever are stepping away from an old, beat-up franchise and starting anew, knowing that if they stick to the original "recipe" the fans will respond, and I certainly hope the success of this game makes more great artists realize this before it's too late.

Paper Rock Scissors (Lizard Spock)

Good morning, class. Today we will be discussing the ancient "paper, rock, scissors" mechanic and how it is applied to video games. Please leave any questions for the end of the lecture when you will be able to post your comments.

The essence of his mechanic is choosing a "weapon" from a limited selection. Ideally, when there is odd amount of weapons each has a "stronger" and a "weaker" counterpart and ties are only possible when both players use the same.

We'll start with a few examples of games where this concept is applied incorrectly.

The first example is the origin; that game you play with your hands. This game is imperfect because, unless you cheat or are too predictable, the probability of wining, losing or a tie is the same. The game is ideal for conflict resolving where both parties are at even odds. The real fun is in trying to cheat by "dealing" a fraction of a second after the opponent without him or her noticing, trying to find a pattern or "tell" to predict their "move" or using faints or distractions to manipulate your opponent; all of these elements being very human in nature. One can easily conclude a game will be very boring when played against a computer.

My most recent experience was with a browser-based game titled "Legends of Zork" in which a player had to choose a fighting stance and a type of equipment (if my memory serves me right). When added together the result is a double PRS mechanism that would be turned into a bonus or penalty to the regular combat mechanic (+2, +1, 0, -1, -2). If your character is significantly stronger the mechanism would be negligible, but in tougher dungeons you really had to pay attention. The system is flawed because one could not change equipment while adventuring, therefore requiring the player to become familiarized with the different types of creatures (and the odds of appearing) that would randomly appear within an area. Say eventually you figure out most creatures are "scissors", you equip a "rock" and hope you don't find too many "papers". Keep in mind this game is played in short intervals, so finding a pattern is even more difficult.

The second example that comes to mind is Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. The game was an RTS/Tower defense hybrid in which you summoned different creatures to defeat incoming waves of monsters. While stronger creatures could easily defeat weaker ones, when the action got intense it was all about assigning the right units to the right wave. Melee units were strong against ranged units, ranged units were strong against aerial units and melee units had a hard time hitting aerial units. This made the strategy too simple at times but very frustrating if the next wave was too strong for the units used on the last one and you had spent many resources on them. Also you gained access to different types of units at different rates, so sometimes you just didn’t have the right guy for the job.

A more global example is equipping "elemental" items in RPGs. You find this really neat piece of fireproof armor and then after you notice most of the creatures you find use Ice attacks you decide to switch to regular armor with lower defense as long as it's not weak against ice.

Next I present a few examples in which the mechanic has been used effectively.

Sega's Alex Kidd in Miracle World (1986): At the end of every level you'd challenge a boss to a game of PRS. It would show its choice via a thought bubble and there was a certain strategy as some of them had tells, would "shoot" early or even throw some feints at you. The example is effective because they found a way to mimic the "human" factor.

Another great example is the black mages in the Final Fantasy series. A black mage will always start with three offensive spells: Fire, bolt and ice. These spells will improve at the same rate. Eventually you learn spells for the "rare" elements: water, aero, gravity, holy and darkness among others. But just as the spells are rare so is the rate in which a creature is strong or weak against it compared to other elements or physical attacks. This is good because the elements aren't balanced in a straight-out paper-rock-scissors fashion, and at all times the player has access to all elements

Based on these examples I've come up with a simple formula for how to make it work. One simply has to follow these rules:

• The player must be able to tell what the opponent shot (so as to clearly understand why he lost or won).
• The opponent must have a certain degree of predictability.
• Both player and opponent may try to deceive each other.
• The player must be able to switch "weapons" freely before each "shot", the player must have equal access to the different weapons and plenty of ammunition.

There is also a fascinating article in Wikipedia regarding this subject that you may peruse if you require further reference.

Review: Crystal Defenders R2

I love it when a plan comes together. I think this is the main reason I wanted to be a computer programmer. There are very few things as satisfying as having an algorithm always return the expected result.

This is probably why I fell in love with Final Fantasy XII. The gambit system was designed to help minimize micromanagement so the player could concentrate on the overall strategy of the battle. One could for example automate healing and attacking and manually control the use of items or stronger attacks. I remember being advised to turn off gambits during boss battles when I read the reviews for the game. I took it to the extreme. I seldom entered commands manually, even for the group leader. I just loved moving across the "world" facing every kind of creature without having to alter my gambits. Sure, I'd have to make small tweaks for some bosses, but that's how Final Fantasy works. Good think they were no monster spawn points and the ones that were already there would stick to their territory, because otherwise I'd have reached level 99 on all my characters overnight (like I did on FFVII when I taped the "attack" button down and let the Midgar Zolom repeatedly attack me)

My first experience with this kind of mechanic was with Final Fantasy Tactics for the Playstation (1). As the name implies this game was all about tactical movement and planning. It had a feature in which you could set a character on "auto pilot", mostly intended to reduce tedious tasks (like healing). As soon as I learned of this feature I turned ALL my characters on auto. I'd carefully select which skills to teach my units, skipping the unnecessary ones to intentionally limit their arsenal. I beat the last boss with all my characters in auto.

Imagine my delight to find Square-Enix had released a tower defense game based on the Tactics franchise. I wonder how this game had managed to fly under my radar for over a year. Two episodes (R1 and R2) were released, but as far as I've read R1 is basically the first 30% of the full game and most missions are exceedingly easy. I suggest you go straight to R2; the game doesn't really have a narrative and you get more diverse units and more complex maps.

The game's mechanics may appear overly simplistic at first. Wave after wave of enemies march over a set path, and if enough of them get to the other side, you lose. You try to stop them by placing units around (never on) the trail that will take swings at the enemies that walk across their set range (it is hilarious when in motion). The enemies keep walking and never fight back, so your guys never die. The problem is that each wave is composed of more creatures, each faster, stronger or immune to certain attacks. Eventually one of those critters will survive the ambush and reach its goal, your stash of crystals.

That’s where the game stops being simple. All units cost money and you only gain money by defeating enemies, so you have to keep a tight budget (overspending in the first few waves will make it harder to acquire better units later) while keeping an eye on what kind of monster is next in case you need to adjust your defenses. After every round you need to decide whether to get more units, upgrade or place crystals nearby to make them more powerful. The "wave" does not start until you're ready and you can always place or upgrade units on the fly or by pausing.

I breezed trough about 4 maps (with about half a dozen missions, each), getting perfect results at times, until I hit this one map that always seems to burn through my crystals at a different point (so I never know what it is that I did wrong). I've spent all day at work thinking of different strategies and drawing maps on post-its for when I get home.

The graphics and music are all straight from FFTA2, but I don't mind because they're nice and the game was cheap.

I suspect the experience will be short but sweet, with some pauses on tougher maps. In order to stretch it out I'll try not to advance until I get a perfect rating.

In my opinion this game provides an excellent balance between casual and hardcore play. The mechanics are simple and gameplay in general is relaxing, yet it requires a certain level of skill; perfect for relaxing after work. So if this sounds like your kind of game and you have 8 bucks to burn, give it an try and drop me a line so we can exchange strategies.

The next generation

I was born in the twilight of the golden era of videogames. Unlike older "Generation-X-ers" who witnessed the dawn of videogames, I came along just in time for the second generation of home consoles to fade into obsolescence. I really consider myself lucky in this aspect because, seriously, man, text-based and monochrome games are only fun if you are emotionally attached to them. My memories of the Atari 2600 are really blurred as I was just a baby (it was probably my cousins or maybe even uncles playing). I first owned one of these when I found it left behind in my grandfather's house after his death (which supports my uncles/cousins theory). I find its beeps and bloops as soothing as the metallic ping of a wind-up mobile over a baby's crib.

Awareness gained, the different stages of my life can be practically defined in bits. I was an 8-bit (third generation) kid, a 16-bit (4th) preteen, and a 32/64-bit (5th) angsty teen. I reached adulthood right on time for the sixth generation (where bits no longer mattered). Now, if we're currently living on the era known as the seventh generation (of video game consoles), what comes after adulthood? I guess its old-age.

If you take a look at recent posts in this blog you may have noticed a trend towards classic or retro games and a shy approach to this next generation of games. Doesn't that sound like the kind of thing an old man would do? And while, sure, I'm dying to try out all those new games that are coming out, on a limited budget (and schedule) I opt for the classics. Probably because in my sub-conscious I think it's a safer bet even though logic dictates more advanced games are bound to be better.

Depending on how you define the next generation, the self-denominated Generation Y known as the Millennials, I might also fit in that category. So chronologically the shared experience is the same. Again, the only difference being the involvement in the first couple of generations of videogame consoles.

By the end of this year the youngest of Generation X will reach the age of thirty (the oldest being at the ripe old age of 50), but considering how fast things moved and how much change we have seen in terms of culture, it makes sense we start developing a crotchety attitude towards culture in general earlier than our parents. And when it comes to videogames, we're a collective bunch of old farts.

Generation Z (also known as "those darned kids", "kids nowadays", and "get off my lawn") was born into a world of 3D gaming. Unlike X and Y, these are the offspring of gamers. Their parents want them to get involved in gaming; their vision on games in entirely different. I don't know many kids that age except my own and those of close friends and relatives.

When I was a kid the constant marketing of new technologies made us believe that once a new console came out our old games were outdated and looked crappy. While I refused to throw away my old consoles I also refused to use them once I acquired a new machine, even if I was bored of the software on it. It was all about the pretty graphics. Later on, with age, came the realization that old games are art, and if anything they should be more respected considering it took more talent to make them look fairly decent.

My kids had figured this out since the beginning. They were used to seeing me play nice-looking games on the PS2 and then switch to emulated SNES games and they never asked me why these other games looked ugly. To this day they don't know the meaning of the word "graphics". They enjoy games for as long as they're fun. I'm really proud of my kids. While other kids may not be as awesome as mine, and might have grown a bit spoiled by parents who don't really appreciate retro games (namely younger GEN Y) I suspect they would be a minority. Whenever I see a child playing with a handheld system, 90% of the time it will be a Nintendo DS, 50% of which are actually using the GBA port.

So, why do guys my age hate classic remakes?

Take your dad (or grandpa) to one of those "tribute" shows for their favorite band/artist. Chances are he'll sing along and tap his feet (even dance) all the way through, with a big smile on his face. Ask him if he liked it on the way home and he'll complain about everything they did wrong (worse or better than the original). If you take your son (or younger brother) along, there's a 50% chance he'll enjoy the show, depending entirely on how close the music is to what he normally likes.

Whenever a remake or a sequel for an old franchise comes up, along comes the horde of elderly gamers, swinging their canes and pointing their power-gloved fingers. When you read the reviews on the Internet or in magazines (written, of course, by old gamers) they will bash these games, complaining about how they got it all wrong and how they're repeatedly raping their favorite characters. Then you read the whole thing and eventually they say something along the "well, the game was fun BUT it wasn't what I wanted" line. The game gets a pathetic score; doomed forever. In the end, it is only judged by how much it's like the classic. Even if the game is more fun, or looks better than the classic. If it's different, they hate it. For example I'm having a blast playing Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 1. Sure, they got some things different, but it really does capture the essence of the classic, and I love that. My kids have never played a Sonic game. They loved it. My wife only played it a couple of times (she's more of a Mario fangirl) and still loved it. She was actually exited when she first played it because of how it felt so much like the original.

I remember hearing a film critic say that Speed 2: Cruise Control would be a better movie if it had just been titled "Cruise Control". I'm not even kidding, guys. The success of a sequel is entirely linked to how close it stays to the original formula. Any changes, for better or worse, will ruin it for those who expected the original to continue right where it left off.

The only way to make it the same is to make it the same. Game developers and publishers must be aware of this (check out Mega Man 9, 10 and Final Fantasy IV: The After Years) but why do they stick to the old Hollywood sequel mentality? Sure, sequels are profitable since people expect more of something they already like, but in this day and age that kind of thinking is obsolete.

Are classic games doomed forever? No. Not for a few more generations, but the developers of these games have to really start re-thinking the entire process; because no matter how close you stay to an original when making a remake or a sequel, it will never be the same. Developers should consider their games as a form of sub-genre. Whenever they want to make another one, they can re-use the aspects that made it successful, but develop a whole new presentation, especially new characters and story.

I think the best example for this mentality is the Final Fantasy Series. Instead of recycling the same story and characters to capitalize on the success of the original, they decided to make an entirely new game that was a lot like it, but at the same time was entirely new. Every iteration of the franchise turned out to be an entirely different game, the good features stuck, the not so good were left behind, but in no way could a player feel disappointed by the latest version. Whether they liked it or not depended solely on the content of the game, but they had a clear idea what it would be like when they got it.

What if Sega had done all those weird Sonic games with another character? I can guarantee you they would be hits, and the characters starring these games could potentially be the marios and sonics of the next generation.

Endgame Review: Metroid: Other M

Welcome to the second in a series of endgame reviews (don’t get too used to them because I probably won’t buy any more games until the 3DS comes out). The subject this time is Metroid: Other M. I beat the game, beat the epilogue with 73% item collection and went back for a 100%.

This is an awesome game, and if you’re wondering why I always give good reviews, it’s because these games actually cost me money. I actually have to research a game and see if it’s worth it before I go get it. I won’t buy a game if I’m not sure I’ll love it. So my reviews will normally be either "love it" or "slightly disappointed". Just in case one of you decided to post a comment and call me biased or anything.

What I liked the most about this game is how it went back to its roots (I know you’ve been getting that a lot from me lately) and brought some innovative concepts forward at the same time. This, my friends, is what I had in mind when I was a kid and I would daydream about the future of video games. It plays like a 16-bit masterpiece, and while it sure is prettier; none of the bells and whistles take away from that feeling. The story is good enough to keep me coming for more (and to motivate me to beat some tough bosses), the graphics are just beautiful and the sound is perfect. In conclusion, Metroid: Other M is an all-around great game. There were a few details here and there that sort of annoyed me, but ever so slightly, so when I point them out it’s not because they ruined the game for me, but you might want to be warned in case it’s the kind of thing that would ruin it for you.

The story was good but not great. At times I found myself seeing right through it. Then there was the voice acting, a first in the Metroid series. During an interview I heard they wanted the actress to speak as herself. The result is hard to explain, but it definitely works. Her speech is almost expressionless, paused and cold. Sometimes to an extent that you wonder if she was actually reading straight off the script. Some picky gamers might criticize this, as they usually expect Oscar-worthy acting. But this is a good thing, though. I mean, what else would you expect from a chick whose parents got hacked up in front of her and got her genes messed with by aliens as a kid and now commits genocide for a living? Nah, it was just fine, in fact the scenes in which things get more intense can feel a bit overacted simply because you don’t expect her to be so emotional. But then again, women, am I right, guys?

Speaking of femininity, another issue that came up during my first review was booty so I wanted to let you know what the rest of the game was like, booty-wise. Yes, on almost every scene in which she is in her zero suit the camera will slowly drift down and almost subliminally focus on her rear end. But these scenes are scarce; Nintendo didn’t want Samus taking off her armor just because. Besides, even when they did, it was all in good taste. I never felt uncomfortable playing with my daughters in the room. Normally she just "clears" the helmet’s visor to reveal her eyes and this gives her all the expression needed for the narrative.

Another issue that came up was Samus being submissive. I find this preposterous because people are seeing her following orders as some sort of weird Japanese sex slave fetish thing. You got this all wrong you sickos! First, the following of orders is just a very clever plot device to justify Samus not starting up with all the sweet power-ups she just got in Super Metroid. I’d rather have this than have all her cool stuff taken away like everyone else does in sequels. Second, Samus clearly states she sees the man giving the orders as a father-figure, and that she decides to stay because she cares for the security of the soldiers on board, one of them a close friend. She’s not trying to get into their pants, she just happens to care! SHEESH!

One thing I really appreciated was the attention to detail. In Iwata's interview Yosuke Hayashi mentioned how he coordinated the in-game sounds and graphics with the ones in the in-game and pre-rendered cut scenes. This creates a great sense of immersion. If a window breaks in a cut scene, next time you run by you’ll hear the glass crunching underneath your feet. Some scenes will play seamlessly during game play and in many cases the camera will even switch to a 1st person using the same HUD you’d see and hear when you’d point your Wiimote at the screen. You will see the Wiimote reticle scanning the characters on screen and the health bar will still display YOUR health and how many missiles you actually have at the moment. The only problem with this is that sometimes you have no idea that you’ve lost control, and then don’t know when you’ve regained it. This can be very frustrating when it’s done during a boss battle or very annoying when you’re left (or you think you are) in “scan mode” until you find the one clue. Again, I absolutely love the immersion this brings, but some sort of cue would be nice.

Speaking of frustration, the difficulty levels in this game are weird. Some times it feels too easy and sometimes it feels too hard. My hypothesis is that since they did such a great job at emulating the old-school controls and game play I was already good at in when I picked it up. My constant search for power-ups probably helped, too. Platforming and treasure finding were easy, but just enough not to be boring, and I only found some bosses difficult enough to make me smash my Wiimote through the TV. With these you have to be killed a few times over until you've had enough time to observe their behavior and their reaction to your different types of attacks. Only then, when you have a plan, they’re a piece of cake. The final (the penultimate if you consider the epilogue) boss had me so frustrated I had to take a two week break! But then after thinking about it for a while (and googling up some tips) it was pretty easy.

Part of the Metroid tradition is finding items to upgrade your suit, some essential power-ups are revealed as the game progresses (like hidden behind a door you had to open to get to a new area) while the more optional items are hidden (none of the scientists on the Bottle Ship owned Chozo Power Suits to upgrade so it didn’t make sense for them to have these ancient artifacts taking up valuable shelf space). Some items give you visual clues (an open ventilation panel!), others appear as a dot on the map (and then you try to find access to it) and some are just hidden in ridiculous places you would never check under normal circumstances. When you beat the game you get to come back for a short epilogue, this time around the game will tell you the percentage of items you?ve collected, overall and within each area. All items will be revealed as dots on the map as well. It is kind of amusing backtracking and finding something in a weird place you absolutely overlooked. At the same time it can feel less rewarding since they’re practically given away, so make sure you?ve looked EVERYWHERE before you go for the final boss (you’ll know when you see it).

Previous Metroid games would offer better ending sequences based on how fast you beat the game or on how many items you collected. This time around the ending is always the same, only at the end of the epilogue a screen will show you your item collection percentage and a voiceover congratulates you accordingly. I got an enthusiastic "excellent!" with my 73% and a dull "Perfect… Congratulations" from my 100%. In my opinion, once you beat the game you've probably found all the "good" items. Anything you may have left behind is probably either missile tanks or energy tanks. You can recharge your missiles anytime with only one split second of regeneration, so the extra missiles are practically pointless. Regular monsters rarely only take away one full tank between save points and bosses either obliterate you before you know what’s going on or you figure them out fast enough to find a weak spot and an occasional opportunity to regenerate. So the replay value is there but only if that’s your kind of thing.

When you reach 100% you unlock "Hard mode". I tried it for a while and it looks like the little bugs loitering in the hallways could have killed me if I was not careful, but only because they did more damage. As soon as I realized all my power-ups were gone I turned it off… You know that sensation you get when there's a power failure and you have to start all over from your last save? In this game you have to slowly adjust your play style as you gain more powers, then when they're stripped off it feels like you're learning to play a new game. Besides, you also unlock "theater mode" when you beat the game so you can just watch it if you think you missed anything (like I did). I may try to play again when Sonic 4 gets old, if I don't trade it in first. There are a couple WiiWare games I've been wanting to try.

Also, a word of warning: There is a glitch in this game that may render your save unplayable by locking a door forever. I don’t know if Nintendo plans to recall the bad software or at least correct the glitch in disks burned from now on, so just in case be careful (it can be easily avoided). It happens when you backtrack to a save point after defeating a certain boss. I got used to finding timely save points so I never backtracked after any boss battles (especially since I could always regenerate) and never triggered the bug. I really hope Nintendo learned their lesson: either allow games to patch or hire better testers. Maybe they could launch a free WiiWare "app" that patches your save file.

This game is freaking awesome and I sure as hell hope Nintendo makes the next sequel using this format. I can only imagine the wonders they’d accomplish using this control scheme while not being limited by the game being a sequel and a prequel at the same time.

Review: Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 1

SONIC 4 IS HERE! I gotta tell you, man, I almost missed it! I came home after a long day of work, browsed through my RSS reader and lo and behold there was a review for Sonic 4! I was kind of shocked though, because it was the Joystiq review, probably one of the harshest critiques the game got. Anyway, I convinced my wife that it was a good investment (what would happen to my reputation if I didn’t provide my loyal readers with a timely review?), grabbed my debit card and rushed on to the living room to purchase 1000 points. Then I realized the game was worth 1500; a bit pricey if you ask me. I bought the 2000 points and kept the extra 500 for when episode 2 comes out.

Perhaps I would have enjoyed my game more if I hadn’t read that review (and that review only). As soon as I launched it I couldn't help looking for those faults they mentioned, and indeed I found them. Many of those defects, thought, were things that I probably wouldn’t have noticed or cared about.

Now, before I go into detail there’s one thing I want to clarify. Whether you love or hate this game is going to be directly linked to how much you liked the 16-bit iterations of the series, how much you liked the 3D versions, and how much you love Sonic the Hedgehog as a role model for humanity. Take, for example this Joystiq review: in essence their reaction was “dude, they got it all wrong!” I, myself am a total absolute Sonic the Hedgehog nerd. I know, in the bottom of my heart, that one day SEGA will rise from the ashes and obliterate Sony, Apple and Microsoft and leave Nintendo badly wounded (probably limiting themselves to release third party titles for SEGA consoles). I am POSITIVE beyond any doubt that Sonic would whoop Mario’s ass in a fight, in any setting, regardless of power-ups. That being cleared I’ll try to review the game from both points of view.

Consider what you expect from any other WiiWare title: A short, simple game with limited production value intended for casual audiences. This game clearly surpasses this. The graphics are in compliance with current standards for top-tier downloadable games. The music is catchy and the sound effects are appropriate. You get different saves and a leaderboards function. Controls are d-pad based, therefore extremely responsive. Use of motion controls is integrated in special levels, tilting the remote like a steering wheel emulating an analog joystick (to stop movement you have to return the remote to a horizontal position). This may take a bit of getting used to. You can opt to use the d-pad as well but you’ll probably appreciate the subtlety of analog control in harder levels. Gameplay itself is textbook platformer, you move left until you reach a goal, jumping to avoid obstacles and destroying any enemies that get in your way. If you’ve never played a 2D Sonic game then this is the end of the review, I recommend you try this one and then check out the classics. Goodbye.

If you have played any of the classics, consider what you would expect from a game titled Sonic The Hedgehog 4: A mascot-grade game that promises to return to the formula that made 1, 2 and 3 famous and shun anything implemented in further iterations (mainly 3D gameplay). Now that you have a very specific standard, it’s easy to see where the game does or doesn’t deliver. In essence the game IS good: It is fun and it made me happy. From the traditional title screen to the catchy tunes and familiar graphics it really is a heartwarming experience. Upon closer inspection you start to see some cracks.

Level design, sound effects, items and enemies are nearly identical to the previous games, especially in the Splash Hill Zone. But if the first three iterations had very similar levels, why shouldn’t this one? The tradition is to have the more original, perhaps darker levels later in the game, so I expect the next episode to start deviating from the cookie-cutter levels. Besides, you’d expect for them to intentionally pick the most popular levels and try to revisit them; this is a fan service game after all. In the end I was pretty satisfied and even though I have not played the game to the finish I expect a few surprises.

Sonic himself was a big disappointment. I had already prepared myself to the fact that SEGA refused to use the classic design and opt for the more “rad” version of Sonic designed for the 3D games. You know, long legs, more serious look, less cute? They claim they have redesigned the character and can’t go back. I can dig that. I was only mildly annoyed by the use of cel-shading (in-game and not in the title screen). What I didn't expect was the animation to be so crappy. When you press forward on the d-pad Sonic begins… walking. Seriously, SEGA, not even a light jog? A power-walk even? Sure, he speeds up in eventually (the fast-running animation isn’t perfect either), but since when does Sonic walk? This kind of walk/jog/run mentality only works when you’re working on analog stick movement! Take Metroid: Other M, for example, you press forward and Samus just sprints like her life depends on it! They sure know how d-pad movement works! Sonic only has three speeds: Static (and looking bored), running fast and running helluva fast.

Beside the animations, I have to agree with Joystiq on the physics being screwed up. If you were to determine the one thing Sonic games are about it’d definitely be speed, acceleration and inertia. The original formula is that you need to get from A to B as soon as possible. You are vulnerable while running but not if you curl up into a ball so it’s good thing to build up some speed if you’re uncertain of what might pop up on the way. You also need to build momentum to get through some obstacles like steep hills, loop-de-loops and even running up high walls at times. This is why they implemented the spin-dash move in Sonic 2; sometimes you didn’t have enough space to build up the necessary speed or it would just be no fun walking back for another running start.

Why on earth, then, does Sonic suddenly have enough force to accelerate even while walking STRAIGHT UP A WALL? My experience in casino zones tells me any “room” with no apparent exit, a flat floor and rounded corners is to be approached like a half-pipe. You run back and forth, gaining momentum until you’re able to run all the way up a wall and then you proceed to treat the rest of the room like a pinball table. I found myself in such a room, and seeing there wasn’t enough room to the left to get a good running start, I ran right (I chose not to spin-dash to keep control of my movement, just in case). Imagine my surprise when the blue hedgehog just kept running up and over a wall about 4 stories high. That is not just messed up, in a way it defeats the need of almost every other game play mechanic. No need to negotiate the terrain, just press forward!

Speaking of defeating game play mechanics, how about that homing attack? They thought it would be neat to include this move implemented in 3D games to facilitate jumping on enemies when there’s no real depth perception. Having this on the 2D version just makes it completely unnecessary to measure your jumps at all. Just press 2!

If you thought these would make the game ridiculously easy, the game now has a “world map” that lets you select any zone, and any of the acts you’ve already reached, including the bonus levels. There are some places where the platforming gets ridiculously tricky. Maybe they could have a feature in which Tails appears and beats the level for you!

Anyway, all these details can be justifiable to SEGA trying to make the game more accessible to both non-gamers and young children (I’m pretty sure my kids will have a blast). And, with the exception of the increased force, all other features are actually optional (you don’t HAVE to use the homing attack, and you can just tap A after finishing an act to go straight to the next in order) So, really, unless you’re the ultimate Sonic Nazi (or you work for Joystiq), there should not be any real issues so far.

Another aspect that was heavily bashed is the graphics. Allegedly the high-definition computer-generated graphics lack artistry and personality. I don’t know what they’re talking about, tough. I’m playing the Wii version on an old CRT TV. On a low-resolution screen the graphics look just as lovely as the classics: bright colors, 16-bit-ish parallax scrolling, dancing flowers and a sparkling ocean in the horizon. I remember reading some of the old school interviews with Yuji Naka, creator of Sonic The Hedgehog. He said when he came up with Sonic the idea was to make players happy. This game’s graphics made me happy. I say they got them right. If you ask me, classic games are just like porn, so I can imagine how too much detail could possibly ruin it to those unfortunate enough to own a big screen high-definition TV.

The sound effects are very loyal to the series and that made me happy too, but the music… I don’t now about the music. I feel just like with the music in New Super Mario Bros Wii, it’s good but not memorable. Maybe it’s because I already associate certain tunes to the brand. One thing I hated was the Dr. Robotnik Eggman (blegh) theme; it might have worked for a bonus stage or an ice cream truck, but it made me lose what little respect I had left for the good doctor.

I really liked the game and I know in my heart SEGA will iron out those little wrinkles by the time Episode 2 comes out.

Endgame Review: Monster Hunter Tri (3)

Welcome to the first in a series of endgame reviews. What I want to achieve with these is to give some deeper insight of different games I’ve played as soon as I am entirely done with them, either because I “finish” them, get tired of them or something happens to them.

I’d like to start with Monster Hunter Tri (click for the original article) . This one I traded in for Metroid: Other M. In story mode I never really beat it but I got pretty far. In online mode I got to the exact middle of the “ranking” spectrum.

I really liked this game, and I still recommend it. Sometimes I think I traded it in out of impulse, only because I was REALLY hyped about Other M. It was fun to play and I still had a lot I could do.

The only issue I had was with online matchmaking. It was truly frustrating at times. I simply don’t know what the hell they were thinking when they set the servers up like that. I can think of a thousand ways they could have made finding a good group to play with a lot easier, especially when they already had a ranking system.

You literally have to log in to one “server”, log in to a “gate” and look through all of the “cities” for a suitable group that is close to your ranking and not in the middle of a quest. Then you have to convince them to go hunting whatever it is you’re hunting. Sure, there were “recruiting” servers that allowed you to specify, in a city you opened, what your immediate goal was; but each “gate” within was entirely separate so you still had to do the in-out search, and of course, most players were in the regular servers anyway.

The connection to a server and then a gate is done via the game’s main menu, but from that point forward you have to navigate the gate as your avatar which adds the game’s loading to the wait. There is no point really to being in a “gate” except that you could chat there or use the in-game messaging, which is done via menus, anyway.

There is a “friend roster” function but it is a pain in the butt. The navigating through menus and asking for permission… You could only send messages to your friends if they were standing by, not when hunting (basically barely ever). Then, when you finally get a hold of them you can’t join them because there are already 3 more people in their “city”, or they’re busy doing a specific quest. There was no offline messaging, either, even though the Wii supports an in-console inbox. That was just stupid.

This system would have worked if this were another kind of game, but not for a game in which groups of no more than 4 players go on an epic battle that could last about an hour and requires some minutes of getting ready. That’s a lot of waiting.

Part of the blame for this actually goes to the game community (or to the game designers relying too much on player cooperation). You see, in this kind of game there are no experience points, you earn the experience yourself, and you can share it with new players. Even when you’ve reaching the “endgame” content where you have the best weapons and armor, the first monsters are still fun to hunt and, while not terrifyingly challenging, they can still kill you in a few hits if you don’t apply the same strategy you learned as a newbie. Also, there are usually sub quests and sometimes even (tougher) monsters not involved in the mission running wild that you could hunt for fun and profit.

What I’m trying to say is that if experienced players didn’t mind playing with newbies, everybody would always have a group to play with. But the old players are too selfish, only hunting creatures that would give them decent rewards or even concentrating in one specific monster for the parts they need for an upgrade. It takes a good deal of begging to have them join your hunt. On the other hand, some newbies will literally go gather herbs and mushrooms and let the experienced players do the killing, only to show up at the last minute to carve parts out of the cold carcass. Too bad you can’t PK them.

Maybe Japanese players have figured this out over the course of many iterations of the franchise, therefore not needing a more complex matchmaking system, but a more refined matchmaking system would’ve been of benefit to hardcore players or newcomers from across the pacific. When I applied the mantra I just mentioned I’d always find a party. I’d always make an amount of cash relative to the amount of effort (I could always sell the parts I didn’t need) and it was fun showing off in front of the newbies, especially when a tougher monster showed up and I was all like “We’ll keep the Rathian busy while you n00bs hunt the Qurupeco!” It was also fun when tougher players joined us n00bs and showed us how it was done. Players like these I’d add to my roster, and they’d often add me, we were among the few that really got it. But one cannot play like this all the time. Eventually we all want to rise through the rankings and to get the best weapons and armor, and it’s really frustrating when you’re the only one cooperating.

Review: Metroid: Other M

Remember what I said about New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Sonic 4? About making sequels to 2D platformers that still manage to feel like they belong in this generation? Well, looks like I found the game that did it right!

But first, a little history! Back in the 8 bit era I never really got to play Metroid. I was familiar with the character and thought it was neat, but the game wasn’t appealing enough for me to go out of my way to play it. A couple of years later, a friend of mine was completely hooked on Super Metroid. I decided to sit down watch and I guess that first impression, entirely out of context, completely threw me off. All I remember was my friend running along a tunnel, stopping at a random spot, placing a bomb and crawling into the hole it made to go to another passage. I thought “are you expected to place bombs on every single floor tile in order to find stuff?” That sounded horribly boring, and the suspenseful music was not helping.

Skip a decade or two and I am playing the original Metroid on an emulator. I liked the game, but I have a very short attention span for 8 bit games. A couple years later I rented “Zero Mission” for the GBA. That’s when I decided I liked Metroid. Even though I didn’t play the original that much, the nostalgia was so intense! The ability to shoot diagonally made the game a lot more playable. I rented it over and over until I beat it and found most (if not all) of the secrets. Later on I tried the sequel, Super Metroid, but a slow emulator and the downgrade from 32 bit graphics threw me off once more.

About five years passed until I saw this video titled Metroid and Me: By Samus Aran on the Wii’s Nintendo Channel. They did such a great job at narrating the first games through Samus’ voice over actual gameplay video from the original games that I felt like the world’s greatest Metroid fan. I looked it up and watched the other videos and decided to go and buy it for myself on my birthday.

I am so glad I did, let me tell you why. Right out of the box the game sets the mood that makes Metroid games so awesome. The first few pre-rendered and real-time cutscenes not only do that, but they are also great at revising the story and giving you a quick tutorial of the game. Once you gain control you know it’s the real Metroid, none of that FPS bullcrap... but then, it IS 3D! Most of the time the camera will be aiming at an angle reminiscent of classic beat-em-ups, although zooming in and out and turning ever so slightly to enhance the ambience or to show a clue. You move left or right through a narrow corridor and you can move “up” or “down” to dodge projectiles or avoid obstacles. Of course the environment is not composed of ONLY corridors, there are open fields, elevator shafts, tunnels… yet the camera always seems to go where the gameplay feels natural using the d-pad. There is an auto-aim system that helps the 2d feeling, so even when the monsters are swarming from any and all angles, you only shoot up, down, left or right. Only in a handful of occasions the camera follows behind you, and it’s only for dramatic purposes. At any moment you can point your Wiimote at the screen to switch to 1^st person view from the point you were standing, just keep in mind you can’t move like this, only turn. This is useful to scan the room for clues, power-ups or hidden enemies. It is required, though, if you want to use missiles, as this is how you “lock on” to your targets, but after some practice you’ll be shooting missiles intituively as part of your run-and-gun routine. You can shoot and charge tour regular arm-cannon like this, using the cursor to aim manually which is actually fun when you’re not surrounded. There are times when you are forced to look for clues this way, and the game will stay on 1^st person mode until you find and zoom in to the clue, so far half of the time I never see it until I accidentally move the cursor over it and it beeps.

Besides the regular running, jumping and shooting they have added a couple of melee attacks. I’ve heard many hardcore fans complain about this but to me these are added tools and you don’t have to use them if you don’t like them. I love it when I accidentally pull one off and the game plays the scene in slow motion. BAM! Take that, space mutant!

Also, monsters no longer drop health and ammo, (which is totally absurd) instead you use something called “concentration” which is, I presume, based o the same technology that makes the suit appear out of thin air. As for health, when you’re about to deplete your last tank you can fully recharge it the same way, all you need is a relative safe place (nearly impossible to pull of during boss battles) so you’re NOT immortal. To heal ALL your extra tanks you need to find a save point.

What’s entirely new is the storytelling. Samus now has a voice, and this implies a personality. Many hardcore fans find it offensive that she turned out to be more girly than they expected. It didn’t bother me although I did notice it. Others complain about how she is now following orders to the point of being submissive. I believe this is a huge exaggeration; she decides to help a group of soldiers she already knows and respects because she cares about their safety. She follows orders in the exact way a (very smug) soldier would, in turn the other characters are clearly aware of her martial superiority and always turn to her when the going gets tough. Besides, the team of squishy soldiers with a “divide and conquer be killed attitude” actually helps the suspense and sense of isolation.

Another complaint I’ve heard is about how Samus has been sexualized. Yes, many admired the character for breaking the stereotype of the princess in peril or the bikini-clad barbarian. Yes, I think that is neat too. But no, this is no Bayonetta. As far as I’ve gone into the game she isn’t even nice to guys and barely even appears without her armor. The image of the young, voluptuous blonde in a blue skin-tight suit has been around for a while now, and while at times it seems the camera is placed a bit lower than necessary, it’s not done in a distasteful manner.

In conclusion, if you're already in love with the Prime series this may feel as a bit of a downgrade, but if you have any respect for Nintendo, Metroid, or classic gaming in general, you owe it to yourself to give this one a ride. You will have fun.

Nintendo 3DS: My thoughts after the E3 announcement

I find it really weird I have not written anything about the Nintendo 3DS, considering I’m a total nerd over it. I blame work. Anyway, at this point you probably know everything there is to be known about the Nintendo 3DS since it was announced in E3 this year, but what I want to share with you (as I generally do in this blog) is my thoughts on the subject, particularly some ideas that (I’m pretty sure someone from Nintendo will read this) I know will make the difference between this machine turning out to be the next Game Boy or the next Virtual Boy – in a convenient outline format!

1. Take advantage of new media – Given that the 3DS will be the first commercially available 3D camera Nintendo should be the pioneer in this type of media just like Sony did with the DVD , UMD and Blu-Ray
   1. Establish a standard format for 3D images and videos among all platforms
      1. Include a means of sharing 3D images with non-3DS users
      2. Emphasize in social networks
      3. Allow users to upload 3D videos to YouTube or other video sharing services
   2. Sell movies through the 3DS store
1. Killer Apps
   1. In order to compete with the iPhone, the 3DS will need a vast library of free or cheap software besides games
      1. The 3DS store should be ridiculously accessible to both owners and developers
      2. Developers should be enticed with the ability of making 3D applications for everyday use
   2. New games
      1. Besides the already obscene launch lineup, Nintendo should continue to bring forth popular first and third-party franchises as new installments rather than 3d remakes
      2. Until other 3D handhelds come into the market, seize the opportunity to score as many exclusives as possible
      3. Enhanced Reality
         1. I
         2. Want
         3. It
         4. NOW
   3. 3D-ified Classics – sell them cheap in a 3D Virtual Console of sorts
      1. 16 bit + enhanced parallax scrolling
      2. 16 bit + enhanced Mode 7 graphics
      3. SNES FX chip
      4. Virtual Boy
      5. Early 32/62 bit era games that didn’t work that well due to lack of depth perception but would’ve otherwise been awesome (Jumping Flash! comes to mind)
1. Full online potential
   1. No more friend codes
   2. Absolutely NO friend codes
   3. In-console friend roster
      1. Mii support
      2. Instant messaging
      3. Automatically detect and connect to WiFi
      4. Live notifications of who’s online and what games they’re playing
         1. Ability to join instantly
   4. Get rid of those damned friend codes
   5. Online 3D Mii-based worldwide Pictochat

That’s all I can think of for the moment. While most of these concepts are pretty obvious, it’s only a matter of time until we see if Nintendo will take advantage of the full potential of this amazing device. What do you think? Go ahead and post a comment or two! In the meantime I’ll be saving money to preorder mine.

Review: New Super Mario Bros Wii

I just came to a terrible realization: I don’t really like Mario games… that much… I know, I know, I hate myself too. You see, Mario’s been like a father to me!

I remember reading the Super Mario Comics, watching the cartoons and even enjoying the live action movie as a kid, but I also remember sucking hard at the Mario Games. More often than not I’d get killed by the second goomba in level 1-1. I’d have a blast watching my brothers and friends play through the games over and over again, but it wasn’t fun enough for me to develop the hand-eye coordination required. When I was by myself I’d rather play Duck Hunt.

Still, when I heard of New Super Mario Bros. Wii I couldn’t resist it. I made myself believe I’d have a blast playing with the kids and bought is as soon as I could.

The game packs insane amounts of nostalgia, which makes it a lot more fun when you’re just watching. They took elements from all previous “true” Mario games and mixed them in perfect harmony, carefully shifting the influence towards the most popular titles while still feeling like a separate entry in the series. Level design is absolutely delightful. Control-wise the game feels very tight. My wife, who is a hardcore 2D Mario gamer, kept complaining they felt awkward at first but she eventually got used to them and proceeded to kick ass. Music was pretty good but I don’t find myself whistling any of the tunes like I still do with the classics.

I had lots of fun the first few weeks when I played with the wife. It was easier for me than the average Mario game and she was still getting used to the controls. On the other hand, playing with the kids was a pain as this is their first true Mario game; multiplayer requires a lot of patience although they did take some measures to avoid the weakest link slowing down the team. Eventually I was too slow to play with the missus and too fast to play with the offspring, but that’s ok because by then I was already tired of the game altogether. They all still play occasionally, so I guess it does have some replay value.

In retrospective, what I believe happened was that Nintendo was successful in turning Mario into a game selling machine for our generation, and that didn’t have much to do with the games he starred. So if you really love 2D Mario games, this might be the game for you. If you love Mario (search your feelings, hey may not be your father) maybe you should rent or borrow first, better yet, drop by a friend’s and get some multiplayer on.

Update: Monster Hunter Tri, Layout

Hello! The article titled Monster Hunter Tri has been updated! Just some stuff I forgot to mention.

Also, I totally revamped the site layout and template! I personally think it kick ass. Please comment!

Monster Hunter Tri

A few weeks ago a friend posted about this game that’s supposed to be really neat on an internet message board. Besides the fact that he seemed pretty exited for it, what really caught my attention was the fact that it was for the Wii.

Up until that moment I had been on a quest to find a worthwhile “hardcore” (click here if you’d like to know why I use quotation marks) type game, mostly because pretty much every game I’ve owned for the last 10 years or so has been pretty “casual”. Well, there was the Force Unlashed fiasco, but that’s a blog post of its own. Anyway, I became very interested in the game and, being flat broke and actually unemployed at the time; I decided to carefully research the game before investing.

Game play videos were easily available from people who uploaded themselves playing the demo on YouTube, however streaming and compression make it impossible to tell if the graphics were either good or great. Also, they were all talking about how much fun the game is, but it’s just no fun watching someone else play. I also, for the first time, went to Metareview to gather information. While I don’t trust their weighted average calculation, I found it really handy to quickly scroll down a lit of reviews from all over. There were a few bad reviews, in the sense that they gave the game a low score, but then after I read them I’d still buy the game. It also reminded me a bit of Phantasy Star Online, which I own but couldn't afford online play at the time.

The concept is pretty simple, take your regular fantasy game, remove all the story and pointless stuff, and focus on combat… no, wait, focus on BOSS BATTLES. Yeah. Every quest in this game feels like an epic boss battle. As for character progression you get rid of skills and experience points and make it all about finding the right stuff for your next weapon or armor upgrade. Most of these items you carve out of your foes’ twitching bodies with a hunting knife.

Translate this into game play terms and what you get is loads of fun. Just like in a boss battle in an RPG you have to save your game, fight, die, reload, prepare and try again. Besides learning the creature’s attacks, movements, weak spots, and “tells”, it’s also good to know what kind of items to bring along or if your current armor/weapon will be effective. All quests have a 50 minute time limit (some may have less). You are given a handful of “supply items” and a goal. There are different places quests take place in, each with its own climate and ecosystem where different creatures interact differently. Also each creature has its own personality and they don’t always come in the same exact size.

There are different weapons from which to choose, each with its own strengths, weaknesses, moves, combos and general control scheme. They are all very balanced, for example the hammer (my personal favorite) has the highest damage rate, but has no blocking and the attack animations are pretty slow (it's pretty big), thus requiring more strategy. Whereas the sword and shield have the least damage, but you can block, attack a lot faster AND use items without sheathing the sword. It's really important you find the weapon that better suits your style as you learn the ropes. Try switching weapons once you’re used to your favorite, it’s like playing a brand new game.

Graphics and sound are beautiful, just keep in mind this is a Wii game. Landscapes are gorgeous and animations are smooth. Lots of tiny details here and there, too; I still find myself looking at new things in the very first map. Character gestures are lots of fun; and one thing I found especially clever was that the running animation turns into a hilarious “HOLY SHIT IS IT STILL BEHIND ME?!?!” panic run when you are running away from a monster.

Control-wise the game is pretty tight, the camera is ideal for the kind of things you will be doing and you can browse through your stuff and find that potion while running like hell. Some features in the menus, though, seem tacked on just to justify the wiimote + nunchuck controller scheme, which is not that bad, really. I have no issues with the classic controller, but I’ve read about people complaining about it and strongly recommending the new Classic Controller Pro.

When playing offline you are assigned an AI partner that will teach you that no matter how much your teammates suck, it’s still a WAY LOT better than being by yourself. Cha-cha will help with some things but generally he is just a good decoy. Your base of operations will be a village that you are meant to save from a few huge beasts. There’s a bit of a story but mostly it’s about how you learn the rope while hunting progressively tougher monsters until you're ready to face the terrible leviathan terrorizing the village. You have the option of stepping outside into an island while not on a timed quest to practice or gather stuff. Some people complain about the slow learning curve, It was OK for me, just keep in mind this is no easy game. Also, the few hours you spend training are nothing compared to the time you will be spending with this baby.

When playing online the game will be divided into servers, then gates, then cities. There are four types of servers: Open (everybody can play), Rookie, expert and recruiting. If you ask me all servers should be recruiting servers, where you either join a group that is doing something you want to do, or open a “city” and wait for others looking for what you’re looking for to join.

There are four players to a city, where you pick a quest and go hunting together. You can use gestures, WiiSpeak, a USB keyboard or preset “shout outs” to communicate. After a few deaths the quest is failed. Otherwise, there aren't many ways a bad player could ruin your quest. Finding friends is still a big annoyance because of the “hunter ID” system which is nothing but a glorified Friend Code, but you’ll probably have tons of fun with strangers anyway.

Finding the right group can be tedious at times because of the way the servers are divided, but that is mostly because sometimes higher-ranked (Hunter Rank is a system that measures your experience) players refuse to pick quests accessible to the least experienced players in the city. The truth is that f you're doing a lower rank quest, the game will sprinkle a few surprises around to keep the tougher players entertained while the newbies pick mushrooms.

In the end, ask any player and most will agree that the best part of the game is the sense of satisfaction you get from finishing a quest. I don’t recall feeling so exited and relieved after beating a boss in any other game. It is very rewarding.

If you’re ever on, drop me a line, my ID is ngkyf5.

click here to read my endgame review.

Flipnote Studio + Flipnote Hatena = Awesome

Here I am, thinking “I haven’t played any new games lately, what can I write about?” Well, I have been spending a great deal of time with the DS, but not with a game. Let me tell you about this underrated killer app that is Flipnote Studio. This application is freely available to all DSi owners, I know, this article is intended for those who do not own a DSi or have not bothered trying the application.

The first thing I liked about FS is the price. It’s abso-freakin-lutely free! Heck, if I’m not mistaken, it was free back when the web browser was at 500 points! So I download it and give it a shot. What I found brought me tears of joy. I could fulfill my childhood dream of being a cartoonist/animator! Not skipping a beat I threw together this little piece:

The interface is ridiculously simple and the basic animation tools are pretty intuitive. Again, I drew the animation above right after downloading. The more advanced tools take some practice, just as with making a complex animation by hand; so the learning curve seems well proportioned. The built-in instructions (just like every other DSi Ware title has) along with the packed-in animations will help you through this process. Besides drawing with the stylus you also use images from the Nintendo DSi Camera application (be warned – the pictures will be turned to monochrome) and use the microphone (or previously recorded/edited bits from the Nintendo DSi Sound application) to add sound.

Graphics-wise the application has a simplistic, elegant layout composed of straight lines, smoothed edges, solid colors and pixelated frogs. This style prevails when using the online client and can be seen on the PC counterpart of the website. The elegance of this design helps you acclimate to what a flipnote is.

The flipnotes, or animations, produced always have a rather “artisan-ish” feel to them; they never show more that three colors on screen at the same time (from a choice of four), and sounds and music experience some loss as they are always recorded through an open microphone in a room that probably isn’t a recording studio. Now, to me this is a good thing; with all artists using a standardized tool, talent plays a key role in what constitutes a good flipnote. A few cheats can be seen here and there, but they are easy to spot.

Another rather awesome feature is that the software acts as a client for the Hatena web page. Think of it as YouTube but everything’s hand-drawn. That’s where I found the little gem at the header of this post. They have this form of currency – stars – that is used as a mean as showing one’s appreciation for a particular piece of art. You can throw yellow stars around with reckless abandon, but a star of any other color will actually cost you, so when a piece of art has a red, blue or green star, you know it’s that good. The only downside of this online community is that it’s littered with preteens… which can be a bit annoying for us older folks (mostly because their tendency to meddle around one’s lawn). Every once in a while a creative kid comes up with a new fad like a roulette animation that you pause to determine how many stars to give or a single-frame animation that says CHAT ROOM where kids rush to post comments (therefore making the animation ridiculously popular while not being an actual work of art). There are supposed to be “channels” to keep these grouped but still kids will abuse this by submitting these to EVERY channel. In the end, the really good stuff always makes it through to the headlines and together with being able to keep tabs on your favorite artists and built in suggestions, browsing around their site is still a generally pleasurable experience.

At the moment I’m working on this really awesome short film (almost 200 frames so far!) for a new webcomic I’m working on. Click HERE For more info about my current projects. If you wish to follow my Hatena work, my search code is: You can add me as a favorite author if on the DSi or subscribe to my RSS feed if watching on your PC. If you have an account and want to post your search codes go ahead and leave a comment!

Scribblenauts and Metagaming

Metagaming is a broad term usually used to define any strategy, action or method used in a game which transcends a prescribed ruleset, uses external factors to affect the game, or goes beyond the supposed limits or environment set by the game. Another definition refers to the game universe outside of the game itself.

In simple terms, using out-of-game information, or resources, to affect one's in-game decisions.

-Wikipedia quote

There are two separate instances in which I’ve seen this term used. The first being when players use knowledge obtained outside a game’s narrative to gain an advantage in-game. For example, imagine an FPS that takes place in your hometown, you would have an advantage over other players, especially right after the game’s launch, because you already know the “maps”. In a less realistic scenario, Imagine a fantasy game based on a book in which those who have read the book may have an advantage. In role-playing games it is considered metagaming if a player says or does something their character should not know about, this is usually considered cheating.

The other instance would be a videogame that is extremely flexible in what the player can do to achieve a certain goal. The truth being this instance is the same as the former as the players’ knowledge gives them an edge when offered so many possibilities. It seems to me, though, that the word was assigned to this phenomenon as a need to name this trend which is a necessary step in the evolution of video games, another fad just like the term “sandbox”.

In Pac Man, you control the hero and are given a goal to devour all the pills in a maze without being caught. However you are limited to moving up, down, left or right at a steady pace. Stopping isn’t even an option, unless you keep walking against a wall. The only tools you have are power pills, which enable you to defeat the guardians of said pills. This is the base from which most games evolved from. You are given a character, a set of moves, enemies, a level and a goal to reach.

This impending evolution forced game designers to expand all of these options. More heroes to choose from including power-ups, more moves, more goals, more enemies with more ways to defeat you or to be defeated, greater goals and even optional achievements.

Now take a look at this here game called Scribblenauts. A game made popular by its claim of having limitless possibilities. You have the hero, Maxwell. The moves? Well you can walk and jump, initially then there are the power-ups… thousands of items and creatures you can summon as long as you can spell their name correctly. The goal? Find the Starite; some levels have sub-goals you need to accomplish before the Starite appears.

Put this way it sounds horribly simple, right? It is just another side-scrolling platformer, but with a whole lot more power-ups! Just like the (back then) groundbreaking Grand Theft Auto… why, just another top-down adventure game with many goals (missions), many power-ups (weapons, vehicles) and huge levels!

If you have not played this game I certainly recommend you try it. Scribblenauts developed a ridiculously large database of items and characters with such detailed descriptions that the game basically knows what everything is just like the player does, so when the player tries something, the output will be the very close to what the player expects. While solving the puzzles is lots of fun, the best feature is definitely the “sandbox” title screen. While on the title screen, you are allowed to summon stuff, but there is no real goal or time limit. You just put things together and see how they interact. This tickles your brain in a certain way that causes great satisfaction. Try digging up those really obscure words you think will not be there, and make them interact with something completely unexpected. The result will be just what you expected.

Summon a vampire and a priest. The priest will freak out and run away, unless the vampire catches him first and turns him into a ghoul… unless you summon a cross and hand it to the priest, who will proceed to righteously smite the vampire until it is turned into a pile of ashes.

The puzzles range from the obvious to the ridiculously impossible. I find myself putting the game away from time to time just to take a break either because the games the puzzles have gotten too easy and repetitive or because I just can’t figure out how to beat one (I could always resort to my list of fail-proof items, but the idea is to be creative). The sounds and music are just OK, and the controls… well the control sucks. Why didn’t they make the character controlled with the D-Pad so the touch screen could be used exclusively for scribbling and placing items? Having the two things controlled the same way will make your guy suddenly dash into a mine you just set and were trying to move. This happens a lot.

It is fascinating how the game knows what everything is. Imagine now if your favorite game “knew” all this about everything on it.

My point being that terms such as “sandbox” and “metagaming” should not be turned into “genres”, but they should be a model for all videogames to come. While I don’t expect every new videogame hero to be carrying a magical notebook that allows it to summon stuff, I certainly hope game developers learn from the way Scribblenauts manages each and every item, character and place. The task would be simpler to integrate into another game, as there is a set list of items, characters and places. Say there’s a FPS that has guard dogs, well if the player picks up a steak from the mess hall, he could use it to distract the dogs, but the same would happen with every other item that can be carried and happens to be of interest to a dog. What if I grab the dog and release it in the mess hall? What if I take some dog poo and…

Let the player experiment. Have them put the gun down and start looking for creative ways to get through. Let every character have a personality and a set of priorities, even that dumb grunt. What if I leave a dirty magazine here, will the guard stop to look at it? What if I cut down a tree and leave it there, oh, he would definitely freak out… but carrying that tree around is gonna be a pain… I need a plan! Let every item have physical properties. What if I set the enemy base on fire? What if I knock down this wall? What if I drive this tank into a swimming pool? Let every game have a realistic physics engine. What if I load this fridge into the catapult? What if I load myself into the catapult? What if I load the fridge then get inside?

Every game would be a “metagame”, every game would be a “sandbox” but they don’t all have to be Grand Theft Auto Meets Scribblenauts. You still get a character, a set of moves, a goal and a level, only that furniture would not be bolted to the ground, and a gun would not be glued to your hands.

DSiWare: Cheap Gaming FTW

Recently, because of a very busy schedule (being a successful blogger and all) the DSi has been my prime source of gaming and general entertainment (well, then there’s my iPod too). One day I was playing Sudoku via DSiCade (a DSi-web-browser game site) and though it sure is a good time killer and doing it on paper sucks, I thought maybe I should buy a copy for the DSi that didn’t depend on a Wi-Fi connection (not very portable now, is it?).

Luckily for me I was given $20 as a gift a few days later and I decided I was going to splurge and spend it all on videogames. Now, if you spent $70 on your latest game, please don’t jump out the window. I’m talking about DSiWare, downloadable games for the Nintendo DSi.

I browsed through their “store” a few times and made a “shopping list” of items I could get for a total of 2000 points ($20). On the Nintendo DSi shop they organize their games by price, that being: Free, 200, 500 and 800+. On the free section so far they only have the DSi Browser and Flipnote studio and there aren’t any games worth more than 800 in the 800+ section, so the math is very simple. I decided I’d get 2 500s and 5 200s. The 800 point games look like they’re trying too hard not to be “softcore”, and well, there is no such thing as an eight dollar hardcore game.

More specifically my choices were:

• Puzzle League express: A puzzle game formerly released for the DS. I recalled playing the demo before and I figured it was quite a bargain to get it for $5.
• Bookworm: Classic word-finding game I had played on PC. Again, a bargain for five bucks.
• EA’s Sudoku: There are about 1000 Sudoku games in the DSi store, but this is the only one that included all levels of difficulty for 200 points. El cheapo!
• Touch Solitaire: This one was the opposite as Sudoku, other games for the same price had more features, but this one is a first-party title.
• Mario Calculator: More of an app than a game, for those times I find myself reaching for a calculator. Also, it’s got classic 8-bit Mario! Yeah!
• Mario Clock: See Mario Calculator. A bit more useful as it has an alarm and promised to include some level of 8-bit Mario playability.
• Spotto!: I had 200 points left and went for this one. Game play looked OK and it’s also a first-party game.

And now the verdict!

• Puzzle League Express: Very generic puzzler, pretty good background graphics and music, although the bricks and their animations are extremely lacking. The game play is extremely simple to the point it only becomes challenging when it starts moving ridiculously fast. You can try to arrange some combos and stuff, but the result isn’t satisfying enough to risk filling your screen with bricks.
• Bookworm: Plays just like the PC game, the touch controls make it even better… but somehow this is the one I play the least, it kinda gets boring. I also find it irritating how it doesn’t allow different player profiles. I share my DSi with my whole family, and having someone quit your game sucks hard.
• EA’s Sudoku: Works like it promised. A bit too easy, though, especially if you lean on the error checker. Turn the music off, it’s a 4-second loop I kid you not. When the puzzles start getting easy you can input puzzles from a newspaper or Sudoku book. I finally broke out this book I had that had ridiculously tough puzzles, one of them took me 64 hours WITH the error checker on! This implies the game auto-saves and you can pick it up later.
• Touch Solitaire: Just what I needed! A game you can pick up and let go just like that. The interface is ridiculously clean, music is null except for a few jazzy fanfare-y bits and it keeps a time, volume and battery power display on top. More games should do this.
• Mario Calculator: Easy to sue, neat old-school graphics, an occasional Easter egg and a unit converter that even converts age (as in, dog years to hamster years).
• Mario Clock: Whenever I plug the DSi unit in to charge, I leave the clock on. It features a “screen saver” not unlike the Mario-themed visualization. Mario will walk forever and there won’t be any obstacles on his way. You can press B to jump or A to speed up in order to catch coins and power up mushrooms. After you grab enough coins it unlocks a different “level”. The level changes every 15 minutes or so. On the hour Mario will reach the castle, the fanfare will play and fireworks will announce the hour (8 explosions at 8 o clock). Pretty neat for a clock.
• Spotto!: Ah, Spotto, you crazy bomb chucking duck! It’s like one of those old school 2D artillery simulators in which you aim and shoot, but feels more like shooting hoops as the bombs are thrown instead of shot, bounce and you’re expected to use ghost’s mouths for baskets. The cuteness is way off and as you play you unlock more difficulty levels. Kids love it. Not bad for 2 bucks.

I find it disappointing that I find myself playing the 200 point games more than the 500s, but maybe it was because of my specific choices? I definitely plan on buying more, I’ll keep you posted.