Category Archives: Gaming

Assorted Reviews and Initial Thoughts

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After two weeks of mid-terms, I can finally write in my blog again! Unfortunately, because I’ve been working on schoolwork a bunch the past two weeks, I really haven’t had time to play anything. I did, however, purchase the DLC for New Super Mario Bros. 2 (NSMB2), Pokémon Black 2, and Code of Princess. I also started playing Minecraft (which is way more fun than I thought it would be). So, I’m just going to do little short reviews of the stuff I’ve played and my initial thoughts on Black 2 and Code of Princess.

Let’s jump in!

Minecraft:

Minecraft is, in a word, addicting. Last winter, I played Terraria with my friends for hours. Minecraft is basically a 3D Terraria, so I got hooked really quickly once I started building. I decided that, for my very first building project, I would construct a castle. It’s main body is 50×50 squares, and it’s got two living areas that are 50×15 squares that is 10 squares to the left and right of the castle. I’m not finished, yet, but once I am, I’ll be putting up a video. It’s nothing too impressive, but I thought I’d capture my very first Minecraft project once it’s done. I wish my friends hadn’t shown me it, though – it’s hard to stop once you get going. I do have to say, though, that it is much more difficult than Terraria, and I have found myself wanting to stop more than a few times because I died and was unable to retrieve all the stuff I had gotten and forgotten to put into chests. Learning the hard way sucks sometimes.

Either way, it’s really fun, especially with friends. Just don’t get it during school. Wait until you have some downtime.

New Super Mario Bros. 2 DLC:

The DLC for NSMB2 is actually really good. All three packs are awesome, although I haven’t tried setting any records for the first two. By the way, the “leader boards” are only the top 5 for the week, and they have no name next to them! I wish the leader boards were cumulative and showed their name – then I could see my record (which I don’t even know if the any of the top 5 are mine) up there. The nerve-rack pack is incredible, and is definitely my favorite of the three. Golden Mario and the paratroopa level is the best. The BEST!

Pokémon Black 2:

I gotta hand it to Game Freak, they’re doing the sequel right for now. I’ve only gotten 1 badge, but I’m liking all the connectivity with the Dream Radar (which I also bought), and the whole Memory Link is cool, although my character in Pokémon Black is named Kappy…and so is my character in Black 2, so now I’ve got two Kappy’s running around (LOL!). The achievement system is…cool, I guess. I can’t really formulate an opinion on that, yet.

And why is Cheren the first gym leader? I get that he’s the new one, but he literally has a Patrat and a Lillipup! I understand why he has to have those in order to be a new gym leader and so that the first gym isn’t impossible (because if he had his old team it would be). Still, I wish he could’ve been later so that he would’ve had stronger Pokémon.

Oh, and wild Riolu is mad swag, but in the whole day I spent last Wednesday looking for him, I only found 5. That’s insanely rare!

Code of Princess:

The first character (who is wearing way too little to be ready to battle against monsters) is broken. In the ten minutes I played the game last Tuesday, I found an infinite loop with her →→B. It’s hilarious. The gameplay is fun, the voice acting seems solid (so far. I’m impressed, Atlus), and the co-op is awesome.

The co-op is really the hook for me. Unfortunately, my friend and I had only a few quests unlocked last Thursday when we played multiplayer, but it was really fun. I have yet to try versus, though.

REVIEW: New Super Mario Bros. 2

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New Super Mario Bros. 2, according to most reviews that I was reading online, was sub-par compared to its predecessor, New Super Mario Bros. So when I picked it up and started playing with my brother, I wasn’t expecting too much, and what I got was something that, to me, was just as good as – if not better – than New Super Mario Bros.

Atmosphere (Music/Graphics):

This is the worst part of New Super Mario Bros. 2. The graphics and music are exactly the same as New Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros. Wii. While those worlds, models, backgrounds, and music are all passable and allow you to enjoy the game, I was hoping for something a little different. Maybe a different song here and an entirely new level there. If you look at New Super Mario Bros. U, you notice that the style of the game is completely different in backgrounds and in actual models (except for Mario), and I was hoping they’d do something like that with New Super Mario Bros. 2. I mean, would it have killed Nintendo to put in a monochrome or all gold/silver world? That would’ve been cool!

Gameplay:

Where New Super Mario Bros. 2 excels is in its gameplay. I haven’t really played the game solo yet, instead opting to complete the game with my brother, but I would assume it’s still as fun as the rest of the New Super Mario Bros. series. The amount of coins is the only difference you’re going to see in gameplay, and while you’ll probably be obtaining a ridiculous amount of lives, the levels aren’t drop-dead easy, and trying to get as many coins as possible is harder than you think. But let’s talk about the co-op.

The co-op is, simply put, fantastic. Not only do you get a x2 coin bonus when both Mario and Luigi are on-screen, but the levels are just begging to be played in co-op. So far, there is only one level my brother and I found ridiculously difficult with two players, but other than that, every level has been awesome for co-op. In reviews, I heard that the camera is a gripe, but I disagree. My brother and I have been able to stay on-screen for most of our time playing, and when we haven’t, there’s the ever-omnipotent bubble to bring us back together. Many of the harder challenges in single-player (like getting to a specific warp pipe) is made simple in co-op, but it still requires a degree of skill to learn how to bounce each other around (especially when moving forward).

The camera itself will not only focus on Mario. If Mario dies, Luigi is the first to go through a warp pipe, or Luigi reaches the checkpoint first, the camera will switch to him (and vice-versa if the camera is on Luigi). Also, you can take the camera away performing a ground pound on the bro with the camera. Sometimes, the bro without the camera will fall behind and be caught in a bubble loop, but this has happened so few times that it’s negligible to really talk about. If you and your friend are roughly the same level of player, you shouldn’t be having any problems with the camera.

Aside from the co-op, there’s one extra feature that I am currently addicted to, and that is Coin Rush. Coin Rush is very simple – you are randomly selected 3 levels (the last always being a mid-point or ending castle), and you have 100 seconds for each level to get through it as fast as you can and collect as many coins as you can. As a gamer who loves to speed run, this mode is right up my alley, and I love it.

The best part is the ability to play as either regular Mario or White Raccoon Mario (which is a Tanooki Suit and Star combined). This lends itself to some rather interesting strategy – should you play as regular Mario or White Raccoon Mario? I’m sure some of you are thinking White Raccoon Mario, but you’d be wrong – regular Mario is usually the better choice, and here’s why: golden hoops. If you go through a red hoop, you have the ability to get 8 red coins – if you go through a golden hoop, then every enemy becomes golden and has different properties to earn coins (Koopas leave a trail of coins behind them, Lakitus throw coins, Boos spawn coins behind them and run away from you, etc…). As regular Mario, you can take advantage of jumping on Goombas and earning more coins with every consecutive bounce or following a golden koopa shell as it spawns coins after being kicked. Regular Mario has access to the Gold Fire Flower, which makes Mario’s Fire Ball turn everything into coins. White Raccoon Mario does not have access to those, and that really makes the difference in the amount of coins you can get. However, there are certain levels where White Raccoon Mario outperforms regular Mario.

Now, since it’s random when playing normal Coin Rush, this isn’t really something to think about – but when you start using Street Pass to pass along your best record (which you can save), you can challenge those records (meaning you play the same three levels they did), and that’s where picking which Mario to play becomes important.

New Super Mario Bros. 2, while really lacking new graphics and music, makes up for it with its incredible co-op and surprisingly deep Coin Rush mode. If you’re a fan of the New Super Mario Bros. series, definitely pick this game up.

Score:

Atmosphere: 5/10

Gameplay: 10/10

Overall: 7/10

Just sayin’

REVIEW: The Last Story

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A week ago, I finally got my hands on The Last Story. For those who don’t know, The Last Story was one of the games that was made out to be a Japan exclusive, but a couple weeks ago it was released to the states, much to the happiness of many a gamer. But does The Last Story live up to the hype it had before it was released to the US? I think so. Let’s jump in!

Plot:

The plot is your standard JRPG. I’m not going to go too in-depth, but to nutshell it, you’re Zael, a mercenary who finds a mysterious power and uses it to accomplish missions and strive to fulfill Zael’s dream of becoming a knight. Along the way, Zael encounters typical themes like corruption, power, following your heart, being the ‘chosen one’, worldwide disaster, etc… And while it may be typical story fare, it’s pulled off well. There are a few twists (although can be seen if you’re looking for them), but the plot paces itself nicely and it’s always interesting. The best part is the plot is almost entirely character-driven, with very few plot-driven elements. I found myself really enjoying it. The only part that was iffy is the somewhat rushed romance between Zael and Calista. There was so much potential for it.

Characters:

The characters are all great. They all have personality and definitely clash with each other because of it, and that’s great, because the dialogue is fantastic between the characters. And, they all grow by the end of the game and go through complete arcs, which is (sadly) pretty rare these days. The NPC characters in the hub world also have some personality, which is pretty surprising, but they’re all very cookie cutter in the way they act. Still, it’s better than them being ridiculously bland and being the same over and over.

Atmosphere (Music/Graphics):

The Last Story is your typical atmosphere for a JRPG. A little bit of a steampunk, a lot of medieval, and plenty of ancient technology and magic. Still, like the other elements of The Last Story, these are represented really well. Lazulis City (the hub for the game) is awesome, and it really feels like a city. Stuff is always happening, and the entire city moves with the plot, so you’ll always see people talking about something different. The caves, Lazulis Castle, and the many other levels all are nicely detailed. I never once found myself bored with how the game looked.

The music is great. I have a thing for violins, so hearing the violin in the title screen music was already awesome, but the music in-game is also great, and it always feels like it’s supporting the mood rather than being completely intrusive. I got the soundtrack for preordering the game, and already have most of it on my iPod.

Gameplay:

The gameplay is interesting and incredible at the same time. It’s interesting because combat is, literally, running up to an opponent and attacking. You don’t press a button to attack. Now, I find that weird, and I still find it weird, but thankfully the designers thought, “Hey, most people use the A button!” and they give you the option to attack with the A button. That’s the only bad part about combat. Otherwise, combat is fantastic.

While some encounters are random and you fight, most of them are a sort of preview where you get to see the formations of enemies and you see the characters discussing a strategy. Sometimes they’ll tell Zael to decide what to do, but other times they give out orders and if you don’t follow them, the AI do get obliterated because they’re expecting you to do what they told Zael to do. And to lead into AI – they’re smart. They’re the best AI I’ve ever played with. They heal if they’re low on health, they take cover during stealth missions, and they try to cover you when you’re being attacked. Of course, you can command your allies if you want them to do a specific spell or unleash a special movie, but it’s really awesome to have competent AI that you don’t need to babysit. Even the enemies are smart; they take out mages first every time, and to combat this, you have a special power that makes every single enemy focus on you exclusively. However, having every single enemy focus you means that you die faster and it can be overwhelming, so you can’t just rush in every time with it, making it an interesting balance between using and not using the power you have. It’s a very tactical game for a real-time RPG, and pulling off tactics that you’re ordered to do and see it work perfectly is awesome!

Non-combat wise, the side quests and missions are actually pretty good, even though some of them are pretty lame (one of them is literally buying ingredients from a market), but a lot of them are awesome and are actually mini dungeons, which is really cool and helps you to prepare for the later levels. You can also revisit dungeons to get bonus stuff and face much harder enemies.

The actual flow of the game is nice. I never once had to legitimately grind in order to proceed. Tactics win the day over that, and that’s really nice. There are a few places where you can grind, but the focus is on progressing the story, so those are very few and far between.

Overall, The Last Story delivers, and I’m very happy it came to the states. If you enjoy JRPGs (or real-time RPGs), get this game. It’s worth every single penny!

Score:

Plot: 8/10

Characters: 9/10

Atmosphere: 9/10

Gameplay: 10/10

Final Score: 9/10

Just sayin’

REVIEW: Beat Hazard Ultra

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I really didn’t want to write a review this week, but I’m having the hardest time finding something to write about and I already missed last week’s post since I was with my girlfriend all week, so I’m resigning myself to writing a review. Here we go!

Beat Hazard Ultra is, literally, a top-down shooter (think Asteroids) with music. It’s similar to Audiosurf in one very crucial way: you can use your own music, and that’s one of the main hooks of this game. Combine these two qualities and you’ve got yourself a great time killer!

Atmosphere (Music/Graphics):

Beat Hazard Ultra has a very modern-day Asteroids feel to it. None of the models really stood out, but what does stand out are the effects. The game pulses to the beat, and whenever you destroy something sparks fly from it and pulse as well. Really, I could call this game Asteroids: Club Edition and you’d get a good feel for how this game looks. Now, the cool thing is you can set how intense the pulsing is: from 50% to 200%.

Don’t use 200%.

The only problem with the effects is seeing the enemies can legitimately become hard when you’re on higher difficulties and the pulsing sparks, the ships, and your ships fire (which, by the way, also pulses) all blends together in one huge mix of lights and enemies. It’s cool to look at, but not only does it increase the difficulty, but it will seriously strain your eyes thanks to the strobe-like effects. In fact, the game’s title screen even warns you that it has some serious strobing in case you’re prone to seizures. I’ve gotten a headache a couple times when I had it on 100%, but at 50% it’s much easier on the eyes.

The music is a not really something I can write about because you can use your own (except for one of the achievements which requires you to play all of the built-in music), but for those wanting to complete said achievement: I liked some of the music, but I’m heavily biased towards house/electro/etc… so the rock and metal songs were really unpleasant when I played them. I haven’t touched them since I got the achievement (even the dance ones), though, because I can play anything off of my iTunes library.

Gameplay:

As I’ve said before, this game is very much like Asteroids. You’re a ship that flies around shooting asteroids and enemy ships. Sometimes you’ll get a boss, which is a beefed up version of an enemy ship, which are fun, and there are ‘mines’ which prevent you from shooting for a few seconds. As you play, you gather “super bombs” that clear out the entire screen, multipliers for score, and POW and VOL power ups, which increase the volume of the song and the power of your ship’s bullets. If you max out both, you reach ‘Beat Hazard’, meaning you’re at max power and the effects are maxed out. It’s a very simple game.

There are perks which can be unlocked by collecting money (like an ultra beam or shield), as well as unlockable difficulties, which are, unfortunately, pretty easy once you get a sizable number of perks, but that doesn’t take away from the fun because the more difficult it is, the more the screen explodes with lights and sparkles.

There’s also a survival and boss rush mode. The boss rush mode is really fun because at some point you find yourself with 5 bosses on-screen, and they’re all huge – it gets really hectic.

There’s also multiplayer, but I haven’t actually played that mode, so I won’t talk about that.

All in all, Beat Hazard Ultra is a one of those games where you play a couple songs and you’re satisfied, but you’ll keep going back because you’ll want to play to new music you get! If you’ve got some cash to spare and love music, consider picking up Beat Hazard Ultra!

Score:

Atmosphere: 9/10

Gameplay: 7/10

Overall: 8/10

Just sayin’

What makes a “good” game?

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Last night, I played a game called Metagame, which is literally a game about debating about games. It’s a little like Apples-to-Apples, where you place a card down and pick a game that most suits it. Then, you have 2 minutes to argue your stance. The worst gets knocked out and becomes a judge (alongside other existing judges). But this isn’t a post about Metagame, it’s a post about something that stemmed from me playing it with friends. It’s a topic I’ve constantly thought and rethought about: what makes a “good” game?

I think a good game is a game that is playable. That may sound a little weird to you, but let me explain.

This is a hard topic to wrestle with, and it’s not because of our opinions of games. I believe it’s a difficult topic to discuss because of how we individually perceive what a “good” game is. It’s an interesting topic to cover because we all have different views on various subjects, but on things that are subjective (such as this), it’s hard to reach a solid conclusion because of just how subjective those conclusions are.

Let me dive a little deeper into that with an example: If I like role-playing games and dislike platforming games, I may, on reaction, state that a platformer such as Super Mario Bros. or MegaMan is bad. Obviously, it’s hard to deny the success of both franchises and those two games, specifically, but why would I say they’re bad? Because I don’t like those kinds of games. To me, platforming games aren’t enjoyable, and since I don’t enjoy it, it’s bad.

Now, that’s an impaired thought process because it’s inherently subjective. Someone else may love platformers and say those two games are incredible, and they think those games are good. But that is, essentially, the same line of thinking.

So if I can’t say a game is bad simply because I don’t like it, I can’t say a game is good because I like it. Fair enough. Let’s dive deeper.

I could say that the modern-day music, graphics, and gameplay mechanics are simply more advanced, and therefore better. I could also reverse that thought process and claim that the “old-school” games are superior because of how simple, yet compelling they are to play. They defined what games are today.

This is a bias towards a certain era of games, which boils down to, “I enjoy this era of games more than another era.” And ultimately ends up subjective, which does nothing to help us answer the question at hand.

So I say that I enjoy the gameplay of a game more than another, or the music of a game more than another, or the writing is better than another game’s writing. While writing can be objectively defined under certain constructs, music and gameplay cannot. Why? Because they’re both very subjective topics. How is rock better than alternative? How is death metal worse than hip-hop? Why is country better than dance? You can try to fit them under a construct that may give way to an objective conclusion, but ultimately, it falls when it comes to games. Gameplay itself is another way of liking or disliking a certain genre and subgenres.

So how does this all come together? Let’s pit two games – say, MegaMan and MegaMan Battle Network. MegaMan is a platformer with 8-bit style graphics, chip-tunes as music and sound effects, and a very linear story with not a huge amount of background and no dialogue, no twists, no modern-day story-telling elements. Battle Network has a linear story (although has side quests, dialogue, and twists), RPG-style gameplay, 8-bit and more modernized techno music, and Game Boy Advance graphics. So which is good and which is bad? Most will probably claim MegaMan is the good game, but why? Because they like nostalgia? Because they like the music, sounds, graphics, or story better? Do they prefer platformers to role-playing games? How does that prove anything except what you like and dislike?

But wait, there’s more: what if graphics or music is what’s important to you in a game? What if MegaMan Battle Network is better than MegaMan game simply because it has more modern graphics, despite MegaMan having “better” gameplay? (just assume it does for this example, there’s no need to debate that right now.) How do you determine what’s good and what’s bad with someone who may think music isn’t important, while you do think it’s important? What if a certain style of game (like a fighting game, for example) is deemed to need only certain elements (writing is really the only thing I can think of, but you get what I’m saying) to make it a good game?

This is why determining what makes a “good” game difficult.

So let’s circle back to my original statement: “Good” games are games that are playable. What does that mean? It means it’s a game that can be played. “Can be” is important. It doesn’t matter whether or not you enjoy it, if it has the potential to be playable, it’s a good game. It’s a game with music that someone can enjoy, a story (if needed) that is passable and allows the game to logically continue, and no bugs or glitches that break the game and render it unplayable or exceedingly frustrating. It has the potential to breed subcultures (like a fighting game creating a competitive community for it, or how Portal finds its way into other games via cameos).

So, under that definition, both MegaMan and MegaMan Battle Network are good games.

Now, you might be thinking, “Kappy, you must not think a lot of games are bad, then,” and you would be correct. There are very few games that I, personally, think are bad. One of those few is Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic ’06). Sonic ’06, to me, is bad. Why? Because when I played it, the controls were unresponsive to the point where I got a game over on the demo. I played the actual game and would randomly glitch through the floor and die, sometimes multiple times. The first boss fight in Sonic’s story against SIlver found Sonic being stuck against a table, invincible and unable to move or take damage, which guaranteed a restart. The story itself plays through and then resets itself so it never happened (which, by my standards, is awful). The loading times were obnoxious. I could go on, but I won’t, because this isn’t a rant about Sonic ’06. This is simply an example of a game I find bad, and I find it bad because, to me, it is unplayable. 

Just sayin’

P.S. Before I end, I just want to point out that my way of judging whether a game is good or not does not judge how good a game is (which I think some mix together accidentally). It just judges whether a game is good or bad. With that said…

What do you think makes a “good” game?

REVIEW: Bastion

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After Steam’s Summer Sale (my poor wallet!), I came to the conclusion that I have way too many games to play, and so, after beating Pokémon Conquest, I jumped right into a new game that I should’ve played a looong time ago: Bastion. Bastion solidifies my belief that indie games, while shorter than most big console games, can be so much more satisfying when you take care to empower the strengths of your game.

Plot:

The plot is actually fairly straightforward. The Calamity, an event that turned the world upside down and inside out, has just happened, and you, The Kid, go to the Bastion, which is where everyone agreed to go in case something terrible happened. When you get there, you find that only you and a lone stranger have survived, and you’re tasked with building the Bastion. As you go looking for the cores that will power the Bastion, you find Zulf and Zia, two Ura who survived the Calamity, and learn some history of the world. The Ura and humans (or Caelondians, as they’re called), were once in a war, and after the Caelondians won, the two races worked for peace. However, the Mancers (a higher council in the city of Caelondia), didn’t like that there was even a chance of war, so they started working on The Calamity. I won’t spoil all of it for those who haven’t completed the game, but there’s a few surprises thrown in there. A very solid plot, and something that definitely moves the game along at a nice pace.

Characters:

The four main characters are all very interesting. You really only hear The Stranger (real name Rucks) talk, as he narrates, but you hear about everyone through “dreams” your character has. While you don’t interact with  them aside from hearing Rucks talk about them briefly while you’re at the Bastion, the dream sequences provide from backstory for each and ives you a picture of what they were like. In that sense, you do see the characters change and grow as the game progresses, especially once you hit the halfway point. I don’t want to spoil anything since it makes the dream sequences that much more satisfying, but they all have personalities despite not really interacting with them during the game itself.

Atmosphere (Music/Graphics):

Bastion’s music is fantastic. It’s atmosphere is fantastic. Everything involving these two things are fantastic. The enemies, the world, the history – it all blends together so well. All the little things about the game where Rucks tells you the history of every level before the Calamity struck is fascinating, and really immerses you into the world of Bastion, and the music just makes it better. It goes along with every stage almost perfectly, and it’s one of those I highly recommend you purchase and give a listen to even if you haven’t played the game.

Gameplay:

There’s something to be said about, “choose your own difficulty” games. Most of them offer you really deep gameplay, and this is no exception. In Bastion, there comes a point where you find a shrine and can invoke various idols to change the difficulty. These idols range from enemies moving faster to them them becoming invisible for a short time, and the beauty of the system is you can mix and match any idols you want for a unique difficulty every time. And the more difficult the game becomes, the more experience and money you earn. It’s a satisfying system, especially since none of them (except maybe the one that causes enemies to reflect attacks) are ridiculously hard. Having all 10 idols on is definitely a challenge, however.

Now, let’s talk about weapons. You get to choose from a myriad of weapons, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and the best part is they’re all balanced – you can use almost any combination and come out victorious, which I think is fantastic. You find the weapons as you go, showing you their strengths and weakness throughout the level. And to make sure you really see how good each weapon is, there are proving grounds for each weapons that grant you special skills for that particular weapon if you reach first prize.

And of course, the weapons can be upgraded. You can upgrade each weapon 5 times, and they’re all pretty ridiculous once they get maxed out. The BEST part about upgrading is there are two upgrades per level, and you have to choose one or the other (an example: more critical hit chance or more flat power), which makes you think about what kind of upgrades you want for the current level you’re going into.

There’s an in-game challenge system that gives you money for completing them, and that’s nice. Some of the challenges are difficult, and some you achieve as you progress. The small ones add up, though, and since the upgrades can get a little costly, it’s good money to have. Plus, it helps you master each and every weapon!

And the final part about the gameplay that I LOVE are the spirits. They’re drinks that, when consumed, grant you abilities (such as more health, life steal, etc…). Some of them grant you huge bonuses while also giving you a bad side effect, and the versatility of them allows you to mix and match spirits (you can only have so many equipped at one time) with your weapons, giving you a really unique way of fighting.

All of these things comes together to create a truly deep combat experience. I enjoyed every second of it!

If you’re looking for a game that offers you deep gameplay alongside great atmosphere, get Bastion. Get it right now since it’s only $15, which is a steal considering how great this game is. You won’t be disappointed!

Score:

Plot: 7/10

Characters: 8/10

Atmosphere: 10/10

Gameplay: 10/10

Final Score: 9/10

Oh, and the DLC for the game (a new mode and a new dream sequence) is completely free.

Just sayin’