deKay

Hyrule Warriors (Wii U)

Posted on 21/09/2014 Written by deKay

For many years I’ve lamented how the the 3D Zelda games (that is to say, those that aren’t top down rather than those you play with glasses) are, well, pants. Over my time as a gamer, I’ve never got into the Samurai/Dynasty Warriors series. I’ve played a few, and even bought the 3DS one, but stopped there.

So why did I have a moment of weakness and buy a download code for Hyrule Warriors, a combination of all that is bad about Zelda games and a game series I couldn’t be more meh about? I don’t know. But I’m glad I did because it’s bloody awesome.

Fans of games known as “Musou” (at least, known as that to nerds who propagate the idea the series is niche and, well, non-Japanophile gamers wouldn’t like it) will see this is little more than a Zelda skinned example of the genre. Battlefields filled with forts, allies, and more enemies than a feeble little Nintendo console should really be able to cope with – let alone with no slowdown, and generals to defeat.

Only with Zelda clothes on, these battlefields are areas like Hyrule Field and Death Mountain. The allies are Impa and Sheik. The enemies are ripped straight from Zelda games, and the generals, instead of being historical samurai warriors, are bosses Link has previously defeated in “normal” Zelda titles. Massive bosses, in some cases. And cuccos. Yay!

Gameplay is just like in Warriors, where you take ground by capturing forts and regions, lose ground by not paying attention to what’s going on elsewhere in the map, and your allies run round doing the same with not the best AI in their heads. Ultimately, you can’t rely on them to do anything, so sometimes you need to abandon your current objective to save their hide – again – before returning to the task at hand.

A Zelda twist is that you can pick up secondary weapons from treasure chests (complete with obligatory DA DA DA DAAAAH). These are instantly recognisable: Bombs, Boomerang, Bow, Hookshot, and so on. You can probably guess the rest. You can also play as any of your allies instead of just Link, and you recruit more warriors as you progress in the game. Additionally, there’s a crafting part to the game where you can upgrade and enhance your weapons, and choose new perks and abilities, for the price of some materials that enemies drop and a bag of rupees.

Somehow, it manages to feel just like Zelda without actually playing anything like any Zelda game before it. Which is A Good Thing, as far as I’m concerned.

Of course, I’m only about 4 or 5 hours in at the moment, so there’s still time for everything to head south, but what would appear to be a repetitive button masher is actually an addictive and surprisingly varied action title. More of this sort of thing with your game serieses, please Nintendo.

Assassin’s Creed: Liberation HD (PS3)

Posted on 20/09/2014 Written by deKay

On the PS3, you say? Am I mad, you ask? Yes, and possibly yes. In my defence, I had a load of PSN credit and it was on sale. And I’d been playing and enjoying Assassin’s Creed IV. So it made a bit of sense.

Currently, I’m about half way through the game (just returned from Mexico, for those in the know), and I’ve noticed that the game seems about half finished. No, those are two different things. What I mean is, it’s ugly and broken and they forgot to include a load of stuff. Missions are disjointed, with little reason or backstory (bar the odd loading screen info box). There are so many bugs where events don’t trigger or targets vanish completely, making progression impossible and a reload necessary. The graphics are muddy and blurry, like this is a Wii version of an Xbox 360 game.

Yes, I know it’s a port of a Vita game, but it’s supposedly an enhanced port with HD graphics. What they seem to have done is upscaled everything and applied a blur filter. Aveline’s three personas are unnecessary and stupid, and making one of her first missions literally a trip to buy a dress from a shop? Team AC don’t like women, do they?

Still, there aren’t any boat bits (well, no driving boats anyway, unless a canoe counts) and I love the modified return of the rope darts. I can’t really cope with the PS3 pad though, especially QTEs (this is not a new issue for me, though) and holding up on the stick for more than three seconds physically hurts. I’ll be glad when it’s all over, frankly.

Mega Man 4 (Wii U): COMPLETED!

Posted on 20/09/2014 Written by deKay

And so the steamrollering of Mega Man games continues. Once again, eight evil robots stood between Mega Man and Dr… wait – Cossack? Not Dr Wily? That can’t be right?!

Spoilers: No, it isn’t right. Turns out rubbish Russian stereotype Dr Cossack was merely Dr Wily’s pawn, working for him as Wily had kidnapped Cossack’s Ushanka-wearing daughter (more stereotyping). Tch.

Robot ideas are running low now. Toad Man? Pharoah Man? Dust Man?! Rubbish. Oho! That’s a joke by the way. Dust Man is literally a vacuum cleaner who shoots rubbish at you. Pharoah Man is the easiest baddie of any kind (minion or boss or otherwise) in any game ever created ever, once you use Bright Man’s weapon, which freezes him allowing you to just keep hammering shoot. Also: “Bright Man”? Terrible name.

Mega Man 4 follows three Mega Man trends that I’ve noticed. The first is “add more stuff”. In 4, Mega Man’s Mega Buster has a charge shot. Something I thought he’d always had, until I started this adventure into playing all of the NES titles.

Secondly, Mega Man 4 is even bigger than the previous game. Again. As well as the main robot levels, you then have Dr Cossack’s castle, followed by Dr Wily’s castle.

Finally, once more the game has become significantly easier. Specifically, in the bosses. Ring Man was hard, but every other boss was waaay easier than those in the earlier games. The final bosses were a laugh to beat too. I don’t even think it’s just that I’m getting better either.

Onto 5 then. Scores so far: 4 > 3 > 2 > 1. Nice to see constant improvement, Capcom!

Mega Man 3 (Wii U): COMPLETED!

Posted on 12/09/2014 Written by deKay

Three down, three to go. Well, NES Mega Man games, anyway. They just announced the SNES Mega Man 7 is in the pipeline for the Wii U Virtual Console, so it won’t be over so soon.

Mega Man 3 adds some new stuff to the series. The main thing, which had me stumped in a room until I realised, was you can now slide. This lets you squeeze under stuff, and is useful for avoiding certain attacks. The vaguely named items (1, 2 and 3) from Mega Man 2 have been replaced with the Rush devices – a dog who can be used as a spring, a moving platform, and a submarine, the latter of which is used for all of about twelve seconds in the entire game.

The game is also quite a lot longer than previous ones. There are still 8 Robot Masters, but once you beat them you have to replay remixed versions of four of their levels, complete with cloned robot masters from the older Mega Man games. The “Dr Wily stages” are next, and they’re longer too. That golum thing reappears too.

In general, it’s easier again than Mega Man 2, with the final boss being a complete walkover. I do wonder if the decline in difficulty is going to continue in the series?

Anyway. 3 > 2 > 1, if you’re keeping score.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (Wii U): COMPLETED!

Posted on 05/09/2014 Written by deKay

And with what seemed like a dash for the finish, the story blundered to a close. The second half of the game consisted mostly of actual assassinations, thankfully, but the boating was still there. Another rubbish element was introduced too – the diving bell missions which controlled horribly and you had to hide in seaweed from sharks. No, really. Rubbish.

Luckily, there was just one of those, and the rest were optional. I optioned not to bother with any more. Very few of the side missions attracted me at all, truth be told, and there were too many small locations rather than a few large locations which meant item collecting was more travelling and less rooftop running, so I couldn’t be bothered with that either.

The “modern day” plot reveal was seen from a billion miles off. “John from IT” indeed. And NO ACTUAL WAY! Edward has a son called Haytham? SPOILERS! The Observatory was a little like the area Desmond and Co set up in during ACIII but more rubbish. And somehow someone I actually killed managed to survive his wounds? Despite being dead? Stupid.

Having said all that, and as I mentioned before, the actual real proper Assassin’s Creed bits were pretty great. Overall, I enjoyed the game a lot more than III, but I hope Unity is more a return to earlier games in terms of missions and stuff. It certainly looks it. Not that I have a machine I can play it on. As for Rogue, which seems more of the same as shown in III and IV, I’m not convinced I want it. We’ll see.