Gaming Diary — Page 312

Lego Batman 2 (Wii U): COMPLETED!

Posted on 30/07/2014 Written by deKay

I actually started this over a year ago, but I don’t seem to have made any mention of it. What happened, was that I played the first three levels in co-op with my daughter, but because it didn’t support the Wii Classic Controller I had to use the Wii Remote which is terrible for this sort of game. I wasn’t enjoying it, so I intended to play something else for a while and come back to it to play solo or when I bought a Wii U Controller Pro. Other games happened, and it got put away.
Evil_receptionist Then it came back out a few days ago, and, since I have a Wii U Controller Pro now, I thought two player was back on! Only it doesn’t support the Wii U Controller Pro. Player 2 is Remote and Nunchuk ONLY. Which is rubbish.
Thankfully, in this case, my daughter mainly just wanted to watch, so I flew through the game in single player while she was back-seat driver.

Like most Lego games, it’s a lot of fun. The voice acting is great, and the tasks and levels are suitably silly. The best bit, however, is the huge open world hub, which is even more impressive than Lego City Undercover, despite that game coming out later. Yes, Lego City is more fun and there’s more to do (and there’s traffic too), but Gotham is seemingly bigger and the loading sequences are virtually non-existent – especially in comparison. The music is lovely too, especially the Superman film theme triggering each time you take off as Superman.

As always with these titles, completing the story is just the start. I’ve still almost 200 gold bricks left to find for a start, and haven’t managed a single full minikit yet. I have found most of the red bricks though, which should make collecting enough studs to buy every character and vehicle a bit easier. Not that they cost very much in Lego Batman 2, and I was surprised at how cheap the red bricks themselves were as well – 500k or so for the 8x multiplier? I’m sure that’s been 8 million or more in other games.

Armillo (Wii U): COMPLETED!

Posted on 23/07/2014 Written by deKay

When this was shown in some eShop roundup a while back, I was only slightly interested. Since then, I was less and less interested as the screenshots I’d seen looked pretty poor and, well, I had too many other games to bother with it. However, when it was released last week (or the week before?) it was on special offer for just £4. The videos made it look a bit more impressive than the screenshots, so I thought, yeah, OK.

I was pleasantly surprised. It isn’t a fantastic game by any means, but it’s fun enough. Rolling Armillo around feels a little like games such as Kororinpa and Mercury to start with, with some Mario Galaxy “on a planetoid” inspiration. Sadly, it’s no Mario Galaxy in gameplay, although it does have a similarly huge number of ideas in one game.

Whereas Mario Galaxy’s levels were all different, with many throwaway (as in, used once) ideas that the levels were based around, Armillo’s ideas mostly feel shoehorned in. Few of them are truly bad ideas, but there are too many, with hardly any of them fully realised.

For example, there’s a powerup which turns the game into a twin-stick shooter for a few minutes. Another which makes you big to squash things. Keys to find, switches to press, buttons which duplicate your ‘dillo. Even a whole timed section in each level. There are bonus levels (some of which aren’t optional) which are side-on platformers – again with several unnecessary ideas.

It’s also pretty short, although I haven’t found all of the bonus and secret (yes, it has both) levels. There’s also a really nasty screen freezing bug which almost pauses the action for a couple of seconds – which happens at least once on most of the levels.

Perhaps with some more polish – on the bugs, the presentation, and the puzzles – and with some of the fat trimmed so fewer ideas were included but they were fully developed, this could have been great. As it is, it’s well worth £4, but it’s by no means a must-buy.

Gaming moments: D

Posted on 22/07/2014 Written by Xexyz

Dear Esther (Mac)

The end sequence will probably stay with me for a long time - but only when combined with the crash scene and hospital bed at the bottom of the cave.

Dancing Stage (arcade)

I only played this a couple of times, at the Trocadero. The machine felt huge, and even before getting on the platform you felt energised by the lights and colours. I had seen someone playing already, so knew what to expect, but the first time that two arrows came up the screen at the same time still threw me off guard. Unfortunately none of the home versions quite hit the same spot, partially because of crappy dance mats.

Daytona USA (arcade)

A four-player cabinet at the bowling alley in Bexleyheath. I had just learnt to let the back drift out and powerslide around the corners, and overtook my friend John doing so. He shouted at me that it wasn't a powerslide, just a lucky skid. So I did it again the next race.

Desert Strike (Mega Drive)

I actually remember this more from my playthrough on the PSP, given the use of save states which allowed me to actually complete the game. There were a number of memorable points, but the best was chasing the madman across the map in his speedboat at the end of the penultimate level. I was raining missiles on the speedboat the whole time and it didn't explode. Of course not; where would the last level come in if that happened?

Donkey Konga (GameCube)

The instructions speeding up a few bars into Don't Stop Me Now. We played this again recently, and it's still great.

Doshin the Giant (GameCube)

I played this when it was first released, back in 2002, to completion. I can remember very little of it now, other than the moment when I first realised you could pick up and throw villagers. I did it many times and they all hated me, so I had to restart the day.

DLC Quest (PC)

Three points:

Being unable to move left at the start of the game, and audio cutting out. I thought the game was broken; evidently not.
Meeting an NPC called Phil at the end of a long cave, who informed me that he was just there to fill space.
The ending of the game not actually being the ending of the game unless you buy some DLC and finish it.

Driver (PS)

I have never completed the last level because it was just too hard.

Angry Birds Epic – Legendary Weapon

Posted on 22/07/2014 Written by gospvg

I managed to fill up the Legendary bar from friends using my birds for missions.

I don't bother using the golden coins on roll, saving them for buying a golden cauldron instead.

I'm Level 14 now and in the Winter Wonderland area which has some very tough enemies who can also heal themselves during fights.

Going back to my roll I unlocked a Golden Pistol for Pirate bird to use.

Considering it is a free to play game, I have not yet hit any paywall.

Time Gentlemen, Please (PC): COMPLETED!

Posted on 20/07/2014 Written by deKay

When I made a start on this, almost two years ago, having just finished the previous game, I didn’t expect to just stop playing. In fact, I’m not really sure why I did, but having reached what turned out to be about a third of the way through the game, I put it on pause.

Then I played it some more over the last few days, and completed it.

Like “Ben There, Dan That”, it’s utterly ridiculous and the plot is nonsensical. It’s witty, dirty and downright silly – like many of the best point and click adventure games are.