Post — Page 135

Attack of the Friday Monsters (3DS): COMPLETED!

Posted on 31/12/2013 Written by deKay

This is another one of those “Guild” games – short, experimental titles that were originally in a compilation in Japan, but were released in the UK as separate digital only games. I’d been interested in getting it for a while as people had said it was a fun little story in a slightly bizarre setting, and I’m a fan of strange and obscure Japanese games. However, when it came out I had lots of other games to play and no eShop credit.

It’s currently on offer, so a couple of days ago I bought it. And, within three hours play, it was complete – not that the shortness matters, as I went into the game knowing it was short.

The plot is a bit confusing, consisting of a quiet 1970s Tokyo suburb, its residents, and giant 70′s style monsters that appear each Friday night, which somehow doesn’t really concern any of the locals. Coincidentally, or not – you decide – the local TV station films their show about giant 70′s style monsters on Fridays. But then there’s some other plot about aliens, and how they may or may not be controlling, responsible for, or fighting the monsters.

You play as a young boy who has recently moved to the area, and much of the game is his interactions with other children from his school, his parents who run the local laundry, and other local residents – some of whom are a little… odd. You help solve minor incidents, riddles and relationship issues, all the time collecting “glims”, which you exchange for playing cards. You use these cards to “battle” the other kids in a variant of scissors, paper, stone. If you win, you get to be their “boss”, and they open up more information for you.

Anyway, the story is sort of gentle and sweet in a Ghibli sort of way, and certainly kept me hooked. Once completed, the game lets you continue to tie up a few loose ends and finish your card collection, but there’s no obvious way to solve all of the remaining side stories and a search of the internet shows pretty everyone else is also stuck, so I’m not sure I can proceed. Still, at least the main story is done.

Super Mario 3D World (Wii U): COMPLETED!

Posted on 30/12/2013 Written by deKay

By completed, I of course mean I have beaten Bowser. Like New Super Mario Bros U, from around this time last year, that’s only the first half of the game. The post-game mop-up of stars, flags and stamps will continue for a long time, I’m sure.

Apparently, it took me just under 5 hours to get this far. That’s shorter than NSMBU by some way. It certainly felt shorter, and was certainly easier. Yes, I found a warp (by accident) which skipped most of World 4 (this is why there’s a fairy missing in that screenshot), and no, I’ve not done every single level, but then I didn’t do all of NSMBU before Bowser either.

Being easier was a surprise. NSMBU had some tricky levels, and a few really hard ones, but the vast majority of those were in the special post-game worlds. NSMBU was a very easy game, but getting to Bowser in 3D World was a complete walkover. There is just one slightly hard level en-route – Grumblump Inferno, near the end of the game – and that was much easier once I realised you’re supposed to walk on the blocks as they rotate (as the mice do) rather than jump.

I know that 100%ing the game will be much harder, but I’m still amazed as how easy this has been so far. It’s the easiest Mario game I’ve ever played, by a considerable margin.

But that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter because the game is fantastic. It oozes charm, quality and variety. Every level has something new, or a twist on something that came before. The graphics and the music are some of the best in any game ever, and the gameplay is nigh-on platforming perfection. But only nigh-on. Somewhere in the transition to 3D, the platforming precision of NSMBU has slightly veered away from perfect. The controls are not as tight. The into and out of screen jumping is a little vague in places (and some of the swimming levels are a little broken with this extra plane to deal with). These are very minor complaints, however, and it’s only because NSMBU was so recent that the comparison has to be made. 3D World is still a masterpiece, it’s just there’s another Wii U Mario game that stands a little taller.

Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara (Wii U): COMPLETED

Posted on 29/12/2013 Written by deKay

Firstly, it seems this is just half of the “Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara” game on the Wii U eShop. It’s a conversion of the 90′s coin-op, and is the sequel to D&D: Tower of Doom, which is also included in the package but isn’t selected by default and isn’t actually obvious that it’s there at all. At some point I’ll be playing that.

The main reason, aside from it being on offer this week, for getting D&D:COM at all when I’m not a D&D fan was down to other people enthusing about it, and saying it was a sort of Golden Axe game with almost Guardian Heroes type RPG-lite levelling. Sold!

It was fun too, insofaras the smacking things with swords goes. I’ve no idea what else was going on half the time, since the inventory system is never explained and I’d got half way through the game (as an Elf – Gauntlet favourite, y’see) before I realised you could change which magic spell you’re using, and I was almost on the final boss before I accidentally discovered I had a bow and arrow. No idea what the daggers and hammers and oil I could buy in the shops did. I’m not even sure how the levelling up works either, and I started on level 8, was told three times I’d levelled up, but finished the game on level 10. I’ve “bought” a load of unlockable things with… some sort of currency or points I’ve accumilated which look like they’ll make a second run through easier. Which I might do – there’s a load of branching paths through the game which would make repeat plays different.

NES Remix (Wii U)

Posted on 22/12/2013 Written by deKay

Well this was a lovely surprise from Nintendo. No idea it was coming at all, and then suddenly at the end of last week’s Nintendo Direct, Iwata went all Apple and said “Take a look at this…” and “It’s available now!”.

There used to be a game called Game Centre Challenge, which had longer-than-Wario-Ware but still short challenges based on retro games. Except those retro games didn’t actually exist – they were fake retro styled titles. This is real, with real NES games replacing the not-real NES game clones. And, I believe, it’s by the same developers.

You’re given a set of NES titles, broken down into short challenges. Like, collect 20 coins in Mario before the time runs out. Or smash 5 barrels in Donkey Kong. Or beat the first boss in Zelda without losing any health. You’re rated up to three stars depending on how fast and well you manage this, and as you gain stars you unlock more games and challenges.

In addition to the breakdown of old games into what is essentially boot camp for game skills, there are various remix levels which make things different. Like, how about playing Mario like an endless runner? Or Ice Climber with just a spot of light following you, while everywhere else is dark? Or Pinball with invisible flippers? Or Donkey Kong as Link instead of Mario – and Link can’t jump?

Also as you play, you get some sort of score called B. I’m sure it’s a reference to a game but I can’t recall which. The symbol is like that for Bitcoins so I’ve been assuming it’s that. Every thousand or so B you obtain, you unlock stamps of characters and other sprites from the games, which you can use in Miiverse to make hilarious (well, mine are hilarious) pictures. I’ve found unlocking these stamps to be more of a draw to play the game than the stars, actually.

I’ve heard there are about 200 challenges in total, so 600 stars up for grabs. I have just 250 so far, but I do have 3 for most of the challenges I’ve attempted. I’ve not got that many Rainbow Stars (for being even better than 3 stars), although I have fully Rainbow Starred all the Pinball challenges.

Scribblenauts Unlimited (Wii U)

Posted on 19/12/2013 Written by deKay

And I’m done! I’ve mopped up the final few shards, and done every single puzzle in the game.

It was a lot of fun too, and just messing around or trying to complete the puzzles the ‘wrong’ way never ceases to entertain.