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The Wonderful 101 (Wii U)

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tumblr_n13xy1n5qk1svmpf2o1_1280I’ve not played this in quite some time, mainly because Mario 3D World happened. For the last couple of days, though, I’ve been back on it to try and finish it up. Not that I dislike it and want it over with – not at all – more that I do like it and think it’s only fair to finish it off before I forget about it and move on.

Previously, I’d reached some point in Mission 005, and since then I’ve ploughed on through and I’m now near the end of Mission 008. I don’t know how many missions are left, but I’m guessing there can’t be many more – the guy I have to beat now seems to be the right hand man of the head of Geathjerk, so once he’s done, there’s just the big boss left. Probably.

tumblr_n13xylfwbj1svmpf2o1_1280I’m still really enjoying it. I had a few issues with not being able to draw some of the shapes but only really in confined areas where there’s not much room to draw, so nothing to ruin it like I had previously (where the game was actually broken and a reinstall fixed it). It took a while to get back into the swing of things, having forgotten most of the moves, but it’s all good again now.

Except for one bit. There’s a mission inside Prince Vorkken (er, spoilers, I suppose) and part way through you have to Unite Whip to grab a hook. The game explains that if you draw a bigger whip, you can grab things from further away. However, the hook kept vanishing whenever I went near it, and I couldn’t get a big enough whip from far enough away that the hook didn’t vanish. Eventually I seemed to fluke it and progress, but I was stuck there for a good 20 minutes.

Super Mario Bros Deluxe (3DS): COMPLETED!

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Thank_you_Mario__now_why_not_do_it_all_againNintendo lovingly gave lots of 3DS owners a free copy of this GBC game (on the 3DS Virtual Console) for Valentine’s Day. Ah, bless them.

Seems that all that play on NES Remix recently has really paid off, as a I stormed through SMB Deluxe without losing a single life. OK, yes – I used the 1-2 to 4-1 and 4-2 to 8-1 warps, but I’ve never managed to do World 8 this easily. And that’s with the GBC version’s cramped level design as the screen resolution is too low…

To the Moon: upsetting

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Man, this is really quite a difficult game.  Not because of the gameplay, but because of the story.  As you go further back, it's clear why River experienced problems in later life, why John has been left with so much trouble in his mind.  The meaning of the paper rabbits has just been revealed; I've just seen John and River get married, with River saying that nothing felt different and John saying the difference was responsibility.  Did he know of River's condition at that point?

It's a beautiful game.  I was welling up as they danced at the top of the lighthouse, after (or, rather, before) naming it.  The cynicism of the researchers seemed ill-placed that point.



And my first bug ... pretty sure they shouldn't be standing in mid-air ...



To the Moon: affecting

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It's hardly the most stunning of games from a technical point of view.  I've encountered no bugs, but the slow text and stuttery animation are initially difficult to get past.  The graphics, while basic, are atmospheric, and at times feel rather foreboding.  And the story ...

You start the game arriving at a house where two kids are playing the piano.  It's a really lovely tune, and variants of it continue throughout the game.  You learn why it is you're there - to go back in time and change things to ensure that your client gets to visit the moon.


The script is well written and funny at times, and while at the start there are lots of little details that are easily overlooked, these tend to be expanded on later.



I've taken quite a few steps back in time now, but according to the timeline I'm still only a fifth of the way through the game.  The story is already getting to affect me though, as I know how things turn out when I learn about promises made, news being shared, and  feelings exposed.



You see, ordinarily that last screen would be a massive spoiler, but you know she dies from the very start of the game - in fact, at the start she's already dead, but you go back in time to find her.  That's where the spoilers lie.

I'll continue this sometime soon.

Stacking: completed!

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Woah, where did that come from?  Nothing about the game at all, then suddenly completed?

Stacking is sort of an evolution of the point-and-click adventure game, except rather than using objects you find in the world, you use the individual abilities of the characters you meet instead.  You do this by stacking inside them - you play as Charlie, the smallest Russian doll in the world, and the other Russian dolls are of varying sizes.  To control a doll of size 3, you need to first stack into a doll of size 2.  You directly control Charlie (or the doll which Charlie is inside), and at times this was a little imprecise, with at least one instance of the doll getting stuck on scenery.


That was a minor annoyance though, and the game has plenty of charm to overcome it.  Presentationally, it's well thought out, set in the 1930s with a silent movie art deco feel to it.  It's very clever, as well, as most of the puzzles have multiple solutions, and you only require one to continue through the story.  On the first level I did just this, but by the time I was running around a Zeppelin, I was intrigued as to how to solve each puzzle in as many ways possible.

Not only that, but there are additional challenges and special characters to collect and amusing things to do.  I'm not one for repeating things over and over again, but this game was amusing, charming and (maybe most importantly) short, and I found myself at the end of a few hours seeing the ending with the majority of collectibles from levels three and four in the bag.



I still went back to those levels though.  There are some really funny bits of dialogue throughout the game, and some of the animations on dolls is ingenious.  The Widow Chastity manages to sway her hips, even though she doesn't have any hips.


Other dolls have their own personality.




So enamoured was I with the game, that I immediately went back to the first levels and found all the collectibles there as well.  I completed the game by wrapping five dolls in bandages aboard the ocean liner, which seems a fitting end.





There's some additional content available for about £3.50 (causing the locked achievements above); I may well buy that one day when I'm tired of playing a gritty brown adventure game.