It’s been almost a week since the arrival of my Nintendo 3DS, a handheld which has been generating quite the buzz both positively and negatively. During the course of the week, I have been able to play three releases : Super Monkey Ball 3D, Pilotwings Resort and Steel Diver.
Since I’m lazy, 3DS image grabbing isn’t yet my forte, video quality of the games I see played on Youtube look like shit and this is gonna be a short article anyways, I’ll spare the images this time or throw in a few boxart shots. Like always, I’m going to try to take the middle-ground.
While I won’t entirely call the naysayers full of shit, it’s ridiculous to encourage the necessity of a “killer app” at a system’s launch. Of course the games are going to vary from mediocre to garbage with a couple of gems in between, but hasn’t it been like that for the release of plenty of other consoles? From the negative testimony it seems that reviewers need to pull their head out of their asses and give credit where it’s due : sure we’re not looking at grade A material, nor are they entirely shitty. They do what they have to do and that is to showcase the early power of the 3DS.
Hanging around with some friends on campus, my boy DJ Sebbyseb calls me over to our club’s computer with a game (actually a series) he wanted me to check out. Being an old game for a Japanese computer system, he loaded up an emulator with the rom for Highly Responsive to Prayers, the first of a series of games that many of you should be familiar with.
Not very flashy title screen, but I love the red swirl!
The gameplay is simple : You’re a shrine maiden running on the floor, usually some eerily still outdoor area, and there’s a ball that you can interact with (shoot or slide into) so that it destroys cards similar to Arkanoid or damages bosses. If anything touches your character – bullets, boss sprites or even the ball, you die. Lose all your lives and you continue from the level you were on, which is great since there’s unlimited continues, but you get the bad ending for doing so, making an incentive to do your best.
Two hours, twenty seven minutes. That is how long it took me to finish all 8 worlds in Super Monkey Ball 3D, including failed attempts to beat the worlds using one continue each according to my 3DS activity log. That’s 80 levels.
I shouldn’t be this disappointed after finishing a launch 3DS game. After all, it’s a new system, and the first games are always a hit or miss. Typically features are a little on the weak side and that really doesn’t bug me. So what is it about Super Monkey Ball 3D that leaves me unsatisfied?
Ever since the Gamecube’s launch, I have been a fan of Super Monkey Ball. The first has hours upon hours of possible playing time between the challenge levels and the minigames (which at the time were lacking). A sequel was quickly released that added more levels, gimmicks and minigames and maintained the charm while adding different environments and a story of sorts. Then came the forgettable Super Monkey Ball Adventure, after which Sega apparently learned their lesson and went for only one game per console, around launch time (with subsequent releases losing gradually more fans). There was the DS one, a Wii version that boasted 50 or so minigames, and to be honest wasn’t bad at all. The music was awesome, especially for the bosses… in short, I have nothing but fond memories of the first two for the cube and the wii game.
Part of the magic was that it appealed to the many facets of myself as a gamer. If I just wanted a relaxing environment to chill in and just roll around like an idiot or play random sports games with monkeys, there were tons of options even in the earliest of the series. If I wanted something a little more hardcore… then I was in for a treat, aiming for the incredibly hard to access master levels (still haven’t made it to any set of those sadly). There was more than enough material to keep me entertained while having that seemingly impossible goal to constantly aspire for.
Have my not perfect, but also not amateurish skills in the series carried over to the 3DS? Maybe it was only easy because of that, otherwise I might have enjoyed the steady learning curve like any older Super Monkey Ball…. but I doubt it.
Level design is where this game falls flat on its face. Sure it gradually becomes harder and worlds 5 to 8 are pretty/borderline fun, but they are all essentially the same thing with a different color or design. Obstacles range from small bumps on the floor to bumpers that bounce you off stage to super bumpers that propel you into the damn background. That’s it. They look different for each world, but there is no other imagination put into the traps. Floors might curve and bend, but most have guardrails. The floors are also much less dynamic than the earlier games with less moving platforms, less rotating platforms and no disappearing/reappearing platforms or anything slightly more advanced. But at least there are some cool 3D effects like the lasers flying around in world 8.
When I got bored of challenge mode and went to look at the minigames available, I was shocked to see only two : Monkey Race and Monkey Fight. Monkey Fight immediately reminded me of a cheap knockoff of those Shonen Jump DS games. Monkey Race reminded me of a poor man’s Mario Kart – if you hold the accelerator while the race is beginning you spin out of control and there’s items to use too! I don’t remember the minigames being so lacking.
See, I’m trying to defend the 3DS launch lineup while other people are crapping all over the games. I really want to say that these are great games the way I said Pilotwings 64 and Wave Race 64 were awesome launch games despite being lighter in content. I can’t defend this horribly mediocre game. Even watching these videos as I link them to parts of my text make me sad to watch the gradual decline.
Hope Pilotwings and Steel Diver don’t disappoint when they come in tomorrow.
Final Team : Braviary (55) Reuniclus (50) Zekrom (50) Chandelure (56) Scolipede (50) Seismitoad (50)
Pokemon removed from my final team but still get an honorable mention : Zebstrika, Simisage, Emboar (Thought Zekrom was mandatory, otherwise, he’d have been on the final team)
Still enjoying the boxart!
If you want to see my initial impressions of Pokemon White, look at my article comparing and contrasting that and Okamidenwhere I gush about how awesome it is. Do those original feelings remain, or did the second half of the game ruin the magic?
This time on Game Music w/ the James, I bring an assortment of tracks that I can’t stop listening to. Most of these games deserve individual attention that might come over time, but for now they’re in an assortment of tracks that I can’t get out of my head for one reason or another.
What better place to start than… Mega Man 10?
I’ve run a game music presentation arguing with moderate success that Mega Man 10 has a superior soundtrack to 9 and deserves a little more attention than it seems to get. Not only is there a lot of good music, but it seems to have more variety as well. Take this track for instance, it has that little bit of heart put into it that gives it luster.
Our old friend, the high square wave with its flute-like timbre naturally gets the soprano treatment and almost feels like a vocal-soloist, especially in the last passage of the loop where it’s just gushing in its high notes and stealing the show. The accompaniment in lower register is brilliant, and while it never overpowers the soprano or tries to steal the spotlight, it provides a great counter-melody of its own. The same passage where the soprano is going all out has the accompaniment taking a more rapid, guitar like presence. The precussion/bass are cool, but what really shines is the interaction between the two top voices.
Typically I dislike remixed video game music. It loses a lot of the original flavor in the conversion and sometimes the new music sounds dull and lifeless. Then again, I’ve never really been an orchestral music kinda guy either until understanding it better. Regardless, this track, formerly in the SNES version of the game is given an amazing orchestration and is also part of one of my unforgettable gaming experiences.
The first time you hear this track on the battlefield is in the middle of a thunderstorm. When played connected to my TV, the thunderstorm with its loud booming and flashing made the battle more dramatic than it needed to be, but I loved every second of it.
The brass is what really sticks out, setting the flavor of the overall piece as well as dishing out the main melody, with phenomenal support from the strings. The woodwinds play a bigger role in the parts that bridge the main theme such as in the mysterious flute section, but what really gets me pumped is whenever the brass comes in, main melody and between.
My game of the year last year, Nier was great in story, presentation and especially the music. I remember the first time I heard this song, I was still measuring whether I loved or hated Nier. I had no expectations for it and only bought it because Kmart had a really good sale going on for the game. It was the middle of March and I just caught the flu. Somewhere in my fluctuating consciousness, I came across the area where this song played and I drifted off in sickness, thinking I was dying or something. I came back to Earth shortly after, but whenever I hear this it feels like my soul is slowly drifting away and… blah, this ain’t the place to get poetic.
The layered presentation of this piece is amazing. Beginning with light then heavy percussion, then adding in either a cello or a double bass and an electronic instrument before bringing in the Ooooo’s in the vocals and finally the main vocal melody where the entire ensemble stays in until the end. The soundtrack version kinda cheats by taking out the percussion for the final iteration of the main verse and giving it a proper ending, but it doesn’t happen like that in game.
Enjoy, and See you next Video Game Music w/ The James!
As you might notice from my recent posts, handheld gaming has taken an increasingly large portion of my coverage. All the good stuff just seems to be coming out this month in particular, and between running Tactics Ogre : Let Us Cling Together with Prota just after finishing Final Fantasy Tactics : The War of the Lions and the race to finish Pokemon White and Okamiden continuing, I haven’t really touched any of the big consoles this month.
That said, I’d like to discuss the next wave of handheld systems : the 3DS and the “NGP” along with my concerns for each.
On Nintendo’s side, I can’t complain about the amount of quality games coming out. We’re getting great stuff, a couple of disappointments, but overall enough to keep me coming back for other games. If only the same treatment went toward the actual quality of the console, it would be perfect. Currently I own the original gray model, two DS Lites that have torn out L and R triggers from trying to figure out why they would stop working and a 3DS that not only has busted triggers, but shuts itself off randomly wasting hours I’ve spent on games not taking into account that I typically use my DS as my alarm clock so I can make it to class on time…
For me, this March is all about two things : The 3DS and the lovely RPGs coming out that also happen to be sequels : Okamiden which I’m halfway through and partially reviewed, Pokemon Black/White – my next review in progress, (Tales of) Ar Tonelico Qoga which I might get time for if I can finish the first two, The 3rd Birthday and the upcoming The Legend of Heroes : Trails in the Sky.
Original games also came out this month to great reception, but I’m here to talk sequels, and in this case, the two for DS and which of the two is more worthy of a purchase.
Getting both games on the same day, I was biased. As great as the last generation of Pokemon was (I beat one of every generation up to now, so the battle system has been growing a little stale), White and Black looked like it would be the same style with a little of that 3d effect, while Okamiden happens to be the successor to one of my top 5 PS2 games. The plan was to spend 80% of my time on Okami and 20% on the new Pokemon which surely could not achieve the magic of the old games…..
Current Status : 7 hours in, 3 major bosses defeated
It’s so awkward whenever Chibiterasu moves into a new screen, jumps into the portal and the camera zooms into his butthole…
Okami was quite possibly my favorite mid-life PS2 game. Ar Tonelico 2 was good, Persona 3 was fun (I was going through a big RPG phase at the time), but Okami is the game that I always swear to my friends blows even the Zelda games that came out around its time : Wind Waker and Twilight Princess out of the water… and more memorable than AT2/P3 for that matter.
It had everything I wanted : a nice variety of weapons (always was fond of the beads myself), one hell of a soundtrack/atmosphere, a beautiful art-style, a memorable cast and most of all, it had a lot of meat to it – plenty of dungeons and huge areas to explore and purify… and explore again. There were secrets all over the place and unique abilities to use on the canvas were abundant. Viewtiful Joe might be the series most people remember Clover for, but I was not a huge fan. Instead I’ll always remember them for one of the best adventure games I’ve played.
The second game, development switching to Capcom this time around had me skeptical for the longest. Intentionally I had not looked at any news or details until my copy came in. Chibiterasu is cool and all, but the way the first game ended, it looked like Amaterasu was going to move on to bigger things, different places. At first I was thinking that Chibiterasu would explore brand new regions in his stead, but I spoiled myself when I bumped into a track listing for the soundtrack… it was the same places you go through as Ammy!
Not sure what they're jumping at, but the boxart seems to give off the impression of great battles to come.
Our title character is voiced by a certain Laura Bailey, who has voiced a number of my favorite characters. Hewpoe from Klonoa and Kaine from Nier are the first to come to mind… but I’m weird.
Oh and she was Oboro from Basilisk, one of the few well dubbed anime I’ve encountered. I was not extremely hyped for Catherine at first, but now I’m really starting to look forward to it!
I doubt you caught my Brave Fencer Musashi run parts 1 and 2, which is a bummer — there go a few opportunities to make fun of how much I suck.
Expect me to die a great many times.
I didn’t progress too far into the game thankfully, so there is still plenty of chance to watch and bust my balls about how much I suck. My keyboard will be right next to me, so if you have an account, feel free to chat about the game! I have no problems pausing a sec to respond XD.
-Update-
Stream done! Expect chapter 5 and probably 6 next Tuesday since I don’t have a dentist appointment. Also I’m calling a vote between FB and here, so I’ll fill any reader in : Taking open votes for my next game stream after Musashi’s finished. Anything between SNES and Gamecube are eligible. Give me your worst.
This is the first time using my long intended First Taste section, so to introduce it and elaborate on its purpose, many games I play don’t actually get completed for one reason or another. Writing a full review for a game that I’ve only played half of is just plain wrong, which is where the first taste section comes to play. It’s a temporary space where I can write my opinions between points of play without finalizing which will be periodically updated until the time of completion for the final review, if it ever gets to that point. Call it an incomplete review, I plan to have multiple of these going on simultaneously in the near future, and whether or not the Review in Progress becomes a full Review is up to the game in question.
Oh I get it, They're making the same pose...
Part 1 : First Taste
My first impression of Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom : Cheap Zelda knockoff where you have a buddy constantly follow you and you command him to do stuff while together you work to solve puzzles and save the day. Kinda sounds like Star Fox Adventures.
Star Fox Adventures? Wait a second, I used to shit on that game as a kid all the time until I gave it a random second chance last year and fell in love with it! This is awesome!
Next Update : Covering my Echoes mode and multiplayer experience.
Nothing says good boxart like a foot in the face (if you got the limited edition)
Part I : Bulletstorm at its hardest.
Fucking Ishi, if you block my slide one more time, I’m going to strangle you.
Before anything, I gotta admit, I hate games like Halo and Gears of War when it comes to fps games. Growing up on the old wad based games like Doom, Heretic and Hexen and the early games that used 3d models (Unreal Tournament before the awful sequels and Quake 2/3) along with many of their custom mods and maps, I did not really enjoy the sluggish nature of either game whenever I would gather with some friends to play… Nowadays I just say “No thanks, give me a call if you put on Timesplitters”.
Bulletstorm’s claim to fame is that it is different than every other boring fps on the market today. I didn’t know what to think, coming from People Can Fly and Epic, the company responsible for both Gears of War and Unreal Tournament. Nowadays, I don’t know what the fuck my computer can run when it comes to gaming, and since I have enough modded games to go back to on the PC, I ended up getting the PS3 version of Bulletstorm.
Before everyone starts reaching for their shotguns, let me make it clear that I am quite fond of Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (999 for short). A good friend of mine wrote a review for the game not too long ago on Facebook, which I was going to link to before realizing you probably have to be registered as a friend in order to read it. I will promptly update with a link if he establishes a more static place for the blog. Like most reviews for the game, there is nonstop praise for the storytelling and the atmosphere, which, admittedly has the suspense factor going for it.
You can expect a serious tone just by giving the logo a look.
This article probably would not exist if it weren’t for an unplanned event. I looked at many reviews, even listened to testimony from friends who were in love with the game and at the beginning of January, I decided it was time to finally purchase my copy of the game from Amazon. By this time, the game’s reputation had caught up and Amazon estimated a couple of weeks before I would be able to get my copy. I was devastated, not to mention impatient!
Another good friend, and source of many juicy bits of information I usually skip over pointed me toward a PC game written by the same author that could hold my interest until 999’s delayed arrival. Published by KID, Ever17 -the out of infinity- looked nothing like the gory fun I was expecting out of 999. To be honest, I was reluctant to give it a chance.
Current Status : Main Game and Soul of Rebirth complete. Will touch on bonus dungeons down the road if I get the time.
Clear Time – Main Game : 29:38 Soul of Rebirth : 09:09
Review table of contents :
Part 1 – Covers the main campaign
Part 2 – Soul of Rebirth
Part 3 – The Wrap-Up (for you impatient readers)
I kinda like the purple theme going on in the boxart
Part 1 : Final Fantasy II’s Main Quest
Ah, Final Fantasy II, considered one of the bastard children of the series. Before I get to the game proper, it must be mentioned that a good portion of the time between the 15 and 27 or 28 hour mark was spent grinding spells and getting the party to reasonable stats for the run through the final dungeons… while it’s possible to spam cure on the field (poisoned characters required to abuse) everything else had to be upgraded in battle…. I stopped after getting Firion’s Ultima to level 10 and Maria’s Flare to 10.
Thankfully, spell grinding isn’t entirely bad (at the higher levels). Since you can set commands to memory in the psp version, it becomes a simple matter of holding down the X button with something heavy and going on to do personal business such as using the bathroom, sending a text message, taking some hot potato skins out of the oven… grinding here rocks because it doesn’t tie you to the screen/controller. The only issue is that spells can only level up once in a given fight, so at a certain point, no spell xp is awarded.
The Wired Fish Network 