deKay

Super Metroid (Wii U)

Posted on 05/05/2014 Written by deKay

To my eternal shame, I have never completed Super Metroid. In fact, I’ve never played it for more than the first five minutes. I don’t know why I decided to rectify this situation now, but I did.

Maybe it’s the fun I had with of-the-same-era Earthbound, or maybe it’s a Backlog Fighter/OCD Unplayed Home Screen Games combo prompting me. I’ve always intended to play it, and I’m a big fan of the two GBA Metroid games so I was pretty sure I’d enjoy it. It just never happened. Until now!

So far, it’s been pretty much what I expected – similar to the GBA versions only with bigger and slightly worse looking sprites. I’ve never really played the original Metroid, or the Game Boy Metroid 2, so the intro to Super Metroid was a little lost on me as it (I presume) replays the ending to one or the other of those.

The controls are a little odd, specifically pressing L and R to aim diagonally down and up respectively, but it didn’t take too long to get used to. Not having the map always on the Wii U Game Pad, although never going to happen, is a shame – especially after relying on it so much in Knytt Underground recently.

There’s very little signposting as to where you need to go, so I’ve found that if you’ve not unlocked the map you’ve no idea what lies in each direction so you’re exploring blind. Which is the point of an exploration based game, I suppose, but I get get somewhat lost for ages.

Well, not so much lost, more stuck. I’d descended into Norfair, picked up the high jump, and then couldn’t find anywhere else to go. I couldn’t backtrack as I needed the ice beam to freeze baddies to create steps, I couldn’t go another way because the room was too hot (I later found I needed the Varia Suit here), and another route was blocked as I couldn’t run fast enough. In addition, there was at least one yellow door which I didn’t have a weapon to open. Stuck.

Until I found that bombing (literally) everywhere revealed a few extra areas – netting me the “Spazer” weapon and eventually access to Kraid, who was a lot easier than I was expecting once I saw he/she/it was three screens high. In fact, the enemies have been surprisingly easy so far. Knowing where to go, less simple.

After leaving Norfair though the overheated area, I found some new bits to explore which gained me the Speed Booster and, utilising this in Norfair where I previously couldn’t run fast enough, lead me to the Ice Beam and then another new area – leading me back to the planet’s surface via the Power Bomb, which can open yellow doors. Excellent.

Super Mario Bros 2 (Wii U): COMPLETED!

Posted on 03/05/2014 Written by deKay

Super Mario Bros 2 appeared on the Wii U Virtual Console months ago. I think it may have been one of the 30p games from a year ago. Either way, I’ve not played it since it came out, although I had reached level 5.

Spurred on by playing NES Remix 2 recently, of which Super Mario Bros 2 is a part, I thought I’d best finish up the full game properly, and so did.

It was much easier than I recall from the last time I completed it, which was on the NES soon after release, actually. This is probably because all the hard bits (in particular, the bosses) were part of NES Remix 2 and in some cases were trickier there due to additional rules or being unable to use my character of choice (Mario, obviously).

As a result, I cleared the remaining few levels in about half an hour and saw Wart off without any problems.

NES Remix 2 (Wii U): COMPLETED

Posted on 01/05/2014 Written by deKay

I loved the original NES Remix. Even though several of the included games were, er, not of the best quality (Pinball, Clu-Clu Land, Urban Champion, Golf), the package was fun and the challenges were great. Getting Remix 2 was always going to happen.

And it happened! And all was good.

The selection of titles this time round seems much better. That’s not surprising as Nintendo have picked some later NES titles for this sequel – Metroid, Super Mario Bros 2 (and 3), Zelda II, Kirby’s Adventure, and what I believe is what the final official NES game, Wario’s Woods.

If you’ve played the first Remix, you know what to expect here. The bulk of the game is made up from playing short sections of the NES games, often with different rules (take no damage, collect X coins, you can’t jump, etc.). The rest of the game is taken up with remix levels.

Here, the games are modified more severely, such as being all in black and white, or the screen is upside down, but some are mashed up with other games. Collect all the coins in a Mario level, as Samus, for example. Disappointingly, and like the first game, these mash up levels aren’t as frequent as you’d hope. There are more in this outing, but still very few.

It is great, and technically – due to the better game selection – it should be better than the original, but it falls a little short. One reason is that it is generally a lot harder. Perhaps some people wanted this, but I found the first game just about hard enough. Here, I’m struggling to get even two stars on some challenges, whereas I got three stars without to much difficulty (comparatively) on most of Remix 1. A Kirby challenge where you can’t deflate, and a Punch-Out!! one where you have to beat a super powered Glass Joe (quickly!) almost caused the death of my gamepad.

Another reason is there doesn’t seem to be as many games. I’ve not counted, but I’m sure there aren’t. Certainly, in the unlocked Bonus section, there’s just one – the terrible Ice Hockey game. I’m sure the original had more.

Finally, there’s the many Mario challenges. We’ve already done Super Mario Bros, so adding The Lost Levels here doesn’t really feel like adding a new game – it’s just a retread.

Having said that, there are two pretty big additions to this iteration. Firstly, despite just missing out on The Year of Luigi, is the inclusion of Super Luigi Bros. Sure, it’s just Super Mario Bros, but mirrored horizontally so you now run right to left instead of left to right. Luigi’s physics more closely match his strange jump movement of more recent games too.

Secondly, there’s Championship Mode. Here, three challenges are thrown at you and when you complete them you’re put on a worldwide leaderboard. It’s supposedly set up to resemble ye olde Nintendo Championships, and works well. There’s only one set of three challenges so far, but I presume others will follow.

As you can see from the title of this post, I’ve completed NES Remix 2. I don’t have all the stars (I’ve about 410 overall, I’m not sure how many there are in total – I’d guess around 500), but I’ve completed every challenge in the game and unlocked all the Remix and Bonus challenges (and beaten them, too).

It’s definitely worth a purchase, and certainly a lot of fun, but some better challenge choices and more work on mashups would have bumped it up the “needometer” a little. The replay option (you can even replay how people who posted on Miiverse played, which is nice) is a great addition but ultimately doesn’t fix the few slight issues.

And the challenge where all you have to do is watch the “how to play” demo on Kirby’s Adventure? What? Who thought that would be a good idea?

Nintendo Pocket Football Club (3DS)

Posted on 28/04/2014 Written by deKay

Those of you who know me are well aware of my level of love for football. The world’s most popular sport. The beautiful game. It’s all rubbish, innit. 22 overhairdressed pansies kicking a bit of pig around for 90 long minutes. Have you seen Robbie Savage? Good lord.

My forays into football games have been short and infrequent. I’ve booted a ball about variously over the years in PES and FIFA and so on, but nothing has ever held my attention since Sensible Soccer. And not even the XBLA remake – the original, on the Amiga, in the early 90s.

I did once get slightly addicted to a football manager game, which may or may not have been Football Manager (not the Kevin Toms seminal classic for the Spectrum), but that’s it. Until now.

Some months ago, perhaps years, Nintendo released shots of Calciobit. A 3DS update to a GBA game of the same name that I’d never heard of. It looked a lot like Sensible Soccer, but it appeared to be a management simulation. Interest pique++, but the chances of it ever appearing outside of Japan were slim to none, and so I was disappointed. Disappointed about a football game that might not come out in the UK. I’ve changed, man.

Then some astounding news – Nintendo were translating it and punting it onto the eShop as Nintendo Pocket Football Club. And I was there, virtually queuing up for a Day One purchase. That was about 10 days ago. I’ve sunk over 30 hours in already. Hooked.

Things started out badly. My squad simply couldn’t play. I lost almost every game in the bottom league for the first half of the season and although I’d then figured out how best to obtain and use training cards (protip: play online lots) it was by then too late and I finished in 3rd place. My first, and only, Cup match ended with my pink boys (home strip is rainbow, away is pink, because reasons) suffering 7-0 loss which I couldn’t bear to watch after five minutes. Shambles.

Thankfully, my second season following an intensive summer of training couldn’t have been more different. Just five matches in and I’m top of the table with a 5 point buffer. The problem I have now, though, is I’m overworking my best players. I’ve had Jaimie – my star striker – injured twice already due to playing him hard, and I’ve been needing to introduce fallow weeks in the schedule to stave off player-death. Frustrating when all I want to do is train them and train them and train them.

Pansies.

Oh, and if you want to see my stats, click here.

Earthbound (Wii U): COMPLETED!

Posted on 26/04/2014 Written by deKay

It took around 30 hours, and there was a break of about eight months between the first six and remaining 24 hours, but finally, Giygas has been defeated, Ness has saved the universe, and everything is perfect and wonderful again.

Which is lovely, and the game was utterly superb, but there’s a darkness there. Behind all the sunshine and happy box of Crayola, I realised that this Giygas wasn’t just the end of game boss. He wasn’t only the terror from the past set to destroy everyone and everything. There was something more. Spoilers follow.

The main task in Earthbound is to reach eight “Your Sanctuary” locations across the game world. Most are at the end of some sort of dungeon, and can only be accessed by defeating a boss at the end of each dungeon. When entering each Sanctuary, as well as your party getting healed and having their PP fully restored, Ness records a sound from the Sanctuary with his sound stone. This triggers vague memories for him too, from when he was a young boy, a baby, and even before then. This is quite sweet, until you make the connection to Giygas that I did.

It is hinted multiple times that Giygas only exists because of Ness. In fact, it could well be interpreted that Giygas is Ness, or more likely, the evil part of his psyche manifest as a world destroying demon who lives in the past. From the Sanctuary memories, things that Pokey (who starts off as your bullying neighbour but ends up as Giygas’ powerful henchman) says, and the spoilers given to you when you drink the dodgy coffee provided by Mr Saturn and the little green thingies all reveal a little about how Giygas came to be. Ness’ mum says some pretty odd things too.

Then there’s the point where you reach Giygas itself. Some more exposition from Pokey, and your face appearing in Giygas’s “eye”. The way the final path to the end boss seems to be inside a living being.

This all points to one explanation, which I can scarcely believe I’m writing.

Ness’ mother is also Giygas’ mother, and Ness has travelled back in time to go inside his own mother’s womb to destroy Giygas.

It sounds horrific, and bonkers, but if you’ve played the game and paid attention, it all makes perfect sense. I’m less convinced about some of the specifics about exactly who or what Giygas is, whether Ness’ evil twin, a manifestation of his evil side as I’ve mentioned, or something else – Ness from another dimension, perhaps. It isn’t clear.

Pokey says something about how he was friends with Giygas, and in another conversation it is mentioned that even though Pokey bullied Ness, perhaps it was only so that Ness played with him. Perhaps this is why – because Giygas is the friend Ness could not, or would not be, but was still Ness in a way.

Even one of Giygas’ forms resembles a foetus. I told you it was dark.

But that’s the story. “Just” the story, if you like. It’s not the game. 99% of the time spent playing it had little bearing on this dark side of things, and in a way that only makes the dark darker. Thankfully, the rest was all very enjoyable. The fights were mostly fun and not frustrating. Unlike many JRPGs (which this is, no matter what your eyes tell you), especially those from this era, there’s no grinding. Defeating feeble enemies is done instantly without even entering a battle, and dungeons (not that most of them look like dungeons) aren’t huge complicated mazes where you need a pencil and a stolen school maths exercise book to get through as unscathed as possible.

Everything is done to please the player, streamlining where possible (for example, you’re told who can use new weapons and armour, and if its better than the current kit, before you buy, and you can equip it when you purchase and instantly sell what it replaces), and introducing a teleport power that allows you to warp to pretty much anywhere in the entire world instead of tedious backtracking.

It was a pleasure to play from start to finish, but it was only a few hours after it has finished that I realised the real tale behind the game. If you’ve played it and come to the same, or different, realisation as I did, I’d love to know.