Super Meat Boy

Video games have come a long way since the old-school sidescrolling platform games of yore. Most games these days are developed to be more streamlined, more forgiving towards players. We live comfortably selecting our difficulty setting and knowing that we’ll reach the end of the game. If that’s the kind of game you’re looking for, then it’s doubtful you will find it here. Super Meat Boy is one of the most unforgiving and infuriating games I have played in recent memory. And I love it.

Don’t get me wrong, the game is most certainly playable. In fact the controls are some of the most balanced I’ve found in a platforming game since the original Super Mario Bros. Super Meat Boy harkens back to a time where gaming was reliant on skill, rather than cinematic experiences. It’s a game that tests your reactions to see if you’re worthy of that 65G achievement bounty.

You play as Meat Boy, an anthropomorphic wad of meat whose girlfriend, Bandage Girl, has been kidnapped by the evil Dr Fetus – a newborn inside a monocle-wearing robot suit. Your objective is simple: save Bandage Girl. The execution however, is not. Super Meat Boy features some of the most robust and well thought-out level design I’ve seen in an old-school platformer. The route to the goal is often obvious at first glance, however it will usually be followed by an “Oh crap…”.

 Old-school game, new-school look.

The first thing people will probably notice of the game is its cartoony charm. Despite the humour being gratuitous and often crass (which suits me juuust fine), it shows personality in its style. The vibrance in colour help overlook the grim outcomes of some of Meat Boys failures – of which there will be many. As Meat Boy runs and clings to walls he leaves a trail of blood on the areas he’s touched, and will remain on the environment until the stage has been cleared. Once a stage is cleared a replay of all your Meat Boys’ efforts will be played immediately afterwards – it’s funny seeing 25+ chunks of meat running and failing simultaneously on one screen. Throughout the game you may encounter warp zones which are usually inspired from classic 8 and 16-bit games and feature a graphical style akin to it. Also I found myself literally laughing out loud at the ridiculousness of the cutscenes. Though there’s no voice acting, it definitely delivers more charm and personality than some recent efforts to include them. *coughMetroidcough*

The controls are minimalist; you run and you jump. In addition to this is a plethora of unlockable characters with unique special abilities such as The Kid from I Wanna Be The Guy’s double-jump and Commander Video from the Bit.Trip series’ hover. Other honourable guest mentions go to Ninja from N+, Tim from Braid, Pink Knight from Castle Crashers, Jill from Mighty Jill Off and Alien from Alien Hominid to name some. Each character has their own distinct feel and you’ll often find that some are better to use for certain stages than others. The characters are unlocked by either finding specific amounts of bandages or completing warp zones, both of which are hidden inside certain stages.

The level design in Super Meat Boy is nothing short of intelligent. There is a supposed total of about 350 unique stages, which I believe to be true since I have only completed around 210 and can still see so many more to even start yet. There are five chapters dedicated to the main game and three unlockable chapters, one being a sort of epilogue featuring Bandage Girl. Alongside the five main chapters are its Dark World parallels; a kind of alternate collection of stages that have been dynamically altered compared to their Light World counterparts. The game does well at easing you into a rhythm during the first couple of chapters with various gameplay techniques and challenges. As the the game goes on you’ll notice a considerable amount of change in terms of difficulty by the final chapter, and it only gets harder from there. For the most part you won’t encounter any enemies until the later chapters; you’ll become much more familiar with environmental perils such as spikes, spinning razors and piles of salt. However once you find your mojo with the environments you’ll find yourself breezing through them. The stages were designed to be beaten in under a minute; most have a target time between 15-30 seconds, though attaining those times will depend on your level of skill.

Poor guy just wanted to smooch.

One of my most notable pleasantries with the game was the soundtrack. Team Meat has put together a great collection of tunes that are both catchy and not annoying (which is important when you end up having to replay some levels a hundred times… literally). Like the rest of Super Meat Boy the music is a hearty nod towards 8-bit and 16-bit music, usually using the same types of sound bites. Each chapter has its own theme that plays throughout every stage, and the Dark World ones are almost remixes of their parallels. The tunes featured in warp zones inspired by classic games are particularly enjoyable to listen to. Also, the sound effects are crisp and add that extra layer of immersion; at first I found Meat Boy’s bloody pitter-pattering footsteps and wall-clinging squish disturbing but soon warmed up to it.

For a downloadable title there is an incredible amount of content here. The game is currently running at 800 Microsoft Points until the 1st of November, from then on being a fixed price of 1200. The game has replayability coming out with the wazoo with competitive leaderboards for people to try their skill at speed runs in over 350 stages. Then there’s collecting bandages and finding warp zones to attain the hidden characters. The game is well worth its 1200 MS point price, and at 800 it’s an absolute steal. Do yourself a favour and at least try out the demo; this is the best XBox Live Arcade game to come out since Castle Crashers.

Score: 10 out of 10

 

(Super Meat Boy will also be released on WiiWare and PC in the near future, though prices are yet to be announced.)

Metroid: Other M

Other M is the latest installment of one of video games’ most iconic sci-fi adventure series of all time, Metroid. Since its debut in 1986 on the Nintendo Entertainment System, it has spawned numerous sequels across handheld and home consoles in the forms of side-scrolling adventures, first-person shooters and even a pinball game. Team Ninja’s interpretation of the bounty hunter Samus Aran’s saga is a completely new spin (morphball pun intended) on the immensely beloved franchise. Now a 3rd person action-adventure – with first-person and sidescrolling elements – do Team Ninja’s latest efforts pay off?

The game kicks off with a cutscene depicting the end of Super Metroid, where Samus defeats Mother Brain with the aid of a baby Metroid’s self-sacrificial defense. Soon after she awakens in one of the Galactic Federation’s infirmaries and receives a distress beacon from a GF vessel, so naturally she embarks to investigate. Upon arrival she encounters a squad of Federation soldiers who have also come in response to the beacon. She realises the squad consists of her past military comrades before she left to work solo. One of these soldiers is her ex-commanding officer Adam Malkovich, a man she looks up to with great admiration as a sort of father figure. However Adam shows coldness towards her for having left the military years ago, calling her an “outsider” and refraining from allowing his squad mates to reveal what information they have to her. She soon earns their trust however when a giant purple tentacle monster attacks, by destroying it. From there on Samus works alongside this elite group to find out what sent the distress beacon and why.

For the most part I love the game for being so completely different from past entries, however that is also its biggest downfall. The gameplay is much more fast-paced and action oriented which differs from the ambience and adventure of usual Metroid fare. The game controls by holding the Wiimote sideways to emulate a classic game pad, frequently requiring you to point the IR sensor at the TV to enter first-person mode. It’s understandable why the developers added this element to the game – they wanted to hint towards the previous successful efforts of Retro Studios’ work on the Prime trilogy, however constantly having to switch between two different control methods just completely interrupts a lot of the immersion (especially in boss battles). In game pad mode the D-Pad is used for movement, the 1 button is used for firing arm-cannon blasts and the 2 button is used for jumping. To fire a missile you’re required to enter first-person mode which hinders your movement and to look elsewhere from in front of you requires holding down the B trigger. You can see how this would make frantic battles and boss fights much more strenuous since you’re switching between two different control methods and view modes.

3rd person combat on the other hand works for the most part; since actions are practically mapped to only two buttons, to dodge you have to utilise the ‘Sense Move’ mechanic by pressing in a direction when an enemy makes an attack towards you. It takes a little getting used to, but once mastered it feels comfortable and rewarding. Another interesting automatic mechanic is the Lethal Strike/Overblast where if you charge your beam or jump on top of an enemy you can initiate a special close-range attack to either heavily damage or destroy them. A huge diversion (that a lot of people may not realise is such a big thing) from past Metroid experiences, is the inclusion of a regenerative health and missile system instead of item pick ups. If you’re running low on rockets, just pull the Wiimote into an up-right position and hold the A button to make Samus recharge for ammo. This also works for health when you’re on your last tank of energy; just charge up to switch on your reserve tanks.

 
The gameplay in Other M for the most part is fun. Having to fire missiles in first-person though sometimes breaks the immersion.

The level design in Other M is brilliantly crafted with the standard backtracking methods we’re used to seeing in this series. Since the game bounces between third-person and first-person it makes looking for hidden power-ups as challenging as ever. Just like Super Paper Mario you will have to combine these different perspectives to find secrets within certain levels, and it’s often a great feeling of accomplishment when you do. Another thing to mention is that usually when I play a Metroid game there are moments that I get stuck and frustrated for not knowing where to go next/what to do – thankfully not once had that occurred this time around, due to quite straight-forward level design. If you sometimes have this problem like I do, rest easy knowing it’s unlikely to happen. As for audio, the soundtrack is amazingly crafted and full of nostalgic tunes along with new ones. It’s obvious Team Ninja took a lot of care with creating a soundtrack that appeals to the core Metroid fans and newcomers.

Speaking of appealing to fans, the production values in the CG and in-engine cutscenes are nothing short of stunning. Only in the Super Mario Galaxy games have I seen a Wii game come this close to blurring the line between Wii and current-gen graphics (see what I did there?).  Performance-wise the game runs smoothly a majority of the time, only having hiccups in framerate when things get massively intense (such as destroying multiple enemies with a charged Plasma Beam shot). All cutscenes are voiced acted, meaning even Samus herself has been given a voice, which is a first in this series. The in-game scenes feature a lot of motion capture, which helps bring more humanity into these characters. Speaking of characters, the cast of Other M were a breath of fresh air for this game. Despite some… interesting personalities (coughAdamcough) they all bring drama to the story and help develop Samus as a character, giving her stronger purpose as a heroine. Which brings me to the biggest and most important point of the game…

Samus Aran’s character choice really doesn’t depict her to be the Intergalactic Bounty Hunter that we’ve all come to believe in. This is an incredibly strong and independent woman who performed extinction over one of the most feared parasitic life-forms in the universe, the Metroids. So it comes as a huge surprise that instead of losing her abilities and weapons like in previous experiences, Team Ninja instead decided to have her wait for her ex-commanding officer Adam to give her approval of using specific weapons after certain situations. That’s right, instead of being the independent one-woman-army we’ve all become accustomed and appreciative of who does what’s necessary to save lives, she waits for the okay of a man she hasn’t seen in many years to use her powerful arsenal of weapons because she wants to earn his respect. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t wait for some guy to say “yes” so I can wear my heat-resistant Varia Suit while running around in lava pits. It may seem like such a small thing to pick at since losing gaining your arsenal is a long-running characteristic of the games, but the circumstance it represents is an issue that crops up every time you “earn” a new weapon and it completely changes the vibe of our heroine.

 
The cutscenes are gorgeous and this rendition of Super Metroid’s fight with Mother Brain proves that.

As for the story, it’s quite well written with an interesting plot twist. Despite the Prime series being more about saving the universe, this one was more focused on the characters and situations regarding only what was happening within this Bottle Ship, as it were. Which doesn’t make it any less engaging or unfulfilling. Ridley makes an explosive, seemingly out-of-nowhere, entrance (and exit) to the story during an adrenaline-inducing cutscene and boss battle. Another character named Anthony is brought into the spotlight as one of Samus’ past platoon buddies, who helps to slightly add more to our heroine’s back story (whether that is good or bad is up to you). Though I really liked the story and cutscenes I should mention that in case you’ve never played a Team Ninja game before – such as the recent Ninja Gaiden series – you should know that it is sports some heavy Anime/Japanese story/character/action themes (which unfortunately is what makes me dislike Aran’s portrayal in this game). Thankfully despite many (if not all) of Ninja Gaiden’s female characters being depicted as scantily clad and overly sexualised, it is not so much the case this time; she’s occasionally shown in her tightly-fitted Zero Suit and this is also the most erm… fully figured she has ever been in a video game.

As I said earlier, for the most part I do love the game and I did have a lot of fun playing it. However there were just some development choices that I can not help but disagree with, being such a huge Metroid fan and having grown up with the games. Though Metroid fans may be turned off by a change in key aspects that make the games so important, it’s still a great, intense and story-driven adventure that will appeal to fans and newcomers alike. Definitely one of the technological spectacles of the Wii.

Score: 8 out of 10

A recount of the first half of 2010 – May and June

May: Super Street Fighter IV, Dead Space, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, de Blob, Perfect Dark.

Okay, so the next two months were pretty busy for me gaming-wise – which probably wasn’t such a great decision considering I had exams in June but whatevs. First up was Super Street Fighter IV. I’ll start this off by admitting that when I was younger I was a Mortal Kombat kid, since those were the only fighting games my uncles had (a lot of my childhood gaming sessions were spent with those guys). The first time I really started giving the former a crack was late last year with Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, and I’ve been a little hooked since. That aside, SSFIV is a great update to the original Street Fighter IV since it features extra characters (both new and old), extra online modes, new ultra moves and the inclusion of rival battles. Along with the addition of rival battles are animated introductions in arcade mode for each individual character (which I personally believe are rather lackluster and don’t really have any point). Other than that the game is practically the same to its prequel, which isn’t a bad thing at all – both games sport a beautiful art-style that make them look like water-painted anime. One of the only problems I have with the game(s) is that though the animations look great and transition seamlessly, the characters’ movements and controls are considerably slower than the original 2D arcade games which threw me off a bit after having just come from SSF2THDR. Perhaps “problem” was too strong of a word for it, but it’s definitely something to remember when adjusting between the two series. Regardless, this game is an absolute blast and I highly recommend it to any fighting fan.

Dead Space is another one of those I-hated-at-first-but-later-fell-in-love-with games. The first time I played it was in November of 2008 when I was house-sitting, so it was played on a 50-inch rear-projection flat screen TV and was displayed in standard-def widescreen. Playing on that kind of kit makes the game look butt-ugly and with the tank controls (which I’ll come back to soon) it was a real deal-breaker for me. However when I saw the game going for around $30 at my local EB, I figured it was worth another shot especially since I’m back at home and now have an HD set with surround sound. And holy crap I loved it this time! The game is incredibly ambient, the atmosphere is tense and the visuals are breathtaking. Contrary to my statement earlier about controls, I somehow managed to enjoy them this time also, however it’s disappointing that horror games seem to disregard the ability to run and shoot at the same time. If I were in situations like the protagonists in these games, I sure as hell wouldn’t be moving so slow or stopping to aim and I don’t see why they should either. That aside this is only the second horror game I’ve found myself being completely involved in, this first being Silicon Knights’ Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem for the GameCube. And it’s practically for the same reason – the setting(s), the atmosphere, the cinematic sequences and the story. Absolutely can not wait for Dead Space 2! (look to my upcoming E3 thoughts for more on that)

Ah Oblivion… I want to like you, but I just find you way too boring. Don’t get me wrong, I respect Bethesda’s work very much (I really enjoyed Fallout 3) but I can just never engulf myself in open-world fantasy adventures (like World of Warcraft). There’s just something about these kinds of games that give me no real purpose to pursue the story/quests. Perhaps it’s the overwhelming nature of open-world fantasy games – pick your race, then your class, attributes, and now you’re off to explore this incredibly vast world at your leisure. If there’s no real urgency to continue playing, then why does it matter what I do or who I help? Oh the world is doomed? Okay, let me just sort through twenty fetch quests of finding peoples’ belongings so I can finally come across one that has to do with saving the world. See I think what I liked about Fallout 3 over Oblivion is that for the most part I wasn’t trying to save civilisation – it was slowly getting by without me – I was just trying to find my father. It gives me a much clearer purpose for helping others because most of them were more desperate than I was. Going from that it makes the Fallout story much more personal and makes me care more about the world because I am slowly shaping the way it’s being rebuilt, without really noticing it. In Oblivion the world is established, therefore the kingdom already has its share of civilians and warriors to look after themselves – why do they need me? I don’t know, this argument makes sense in my head but probably isn’t coming out very well so instead we’ll move on to…

de Blob. Aussie developer Blue Tongue Entertainment really did a top-notch job of creating a fun, vibrant platformer out of this title. The game takes place in Chroma City – a town that celebrates its colourful lifestyle and jazz/fusion/funk music. However the INKT Corporation ends up invading the city and removing any and all forms of colour, leaving shades of black and white. Working against this hostile take-over is a small team of blob-like creatures who operate as a band of vigilantes, calling themselves the “Colour Underground”. Blob (the titular protagonist) arrives on the scene to save them from being captured and put into sort of concentration camps, then works to restore colour to this once vibrant town.
What I love about this game is how its three main elements – music, colour and story – all work to complement each other. Painting the now-dreary buildings progresses the background music to more lively and upbeat tunes, to the point that when you’ve painted most of the area you’re in including its central park and rescued the citizens (called Raydians), they hold they’re own little concert to celebrate as you continue to restore life to the setting. There’s also a lot of nice little challenges to complete as you go along to keep the game not-so repetitive, such as collecting a certain amount of paint to colour a particularly important structure for points or to timed challenges remove INKT propaganda from billboards and replace it with art. It’s an interesting mix of child and adult themes; in terms of children they get to restore colour to a now monotonous looking city, and for adults the story involves pushing back at an invading dictatorship and sort-of slavery (much like what has happened in certain countries/cities around the world). It’s a fun little game that’ll have you grooving along to some really funky tunes.

Aaaaand then there was Perfect Dark for Xbox Live Arcade. It’s basically just a port of the original Nintendo 64 game by Rare with improved graphics and now it finally works without the framerate dipping to something like ten frames per second when more than two enemies are in the room. Why it took them ten years to release an improvement is beyond me, but hey it’s finally out.

 

June: Mirror’s Edge, ModNation Racers, Red Dead Redemption.

Remember how earlier I said there are a lot of games that I hated then eventually loved? Well, Mirror’s Edge was the complete opposite. Since playing the demo almost two years ago I was always interested in giving the full game a try. I’d read reviews that placed the game between “good” and “okay”, but in my honest opinion, good lord this is one hell of a frustrating piece of work. I luckily managed to pick it up for a mere $10 at a Dick Smith store, and rightfully so – the idea is good, the art style is great but the level design and controls show almost no mercy. The first few levels hook you in with very open and obvious paths to follow, which is how most games should start off, however by the end you feel as though you’ve lost any sort of freedom whatsoever. I’ll give you an example; at the beginning of the game Mercury (or Merc for short, he’s the voice in your ear giving you objectives and information) gives you a warning along the lines of if you come across enemies, don’t engage them; run away. Well… In the second half of the game, the developers decided to make that practically impossible, especially in the last couple of levels where you’re constantly fighting off soldiers. Also, since it’s a first-person platformer, you can’t really see or judge yourself in relation to the game’s environment. As in, you will try to hide behind cover but get shot and die a lot; you will fall off a building/platform and die a lot; or you will try jumping to a ledge but miss and die a lot. The game sports a bunch of great ideas, however the execution just gets worse and worse. Like I stated once on either Facebook or Twitter, Mirror’s Edge is like a post-1994 Sonic the Hedgehog game – you think the game is all about running and jumping, but instead it’s just full of obstructions and awkward platform design.

It’s no secret that I’m a kart racer fan (I grew up with Mario Kart 64, and DS is my favourite racer) so it was a no-brainer for me to pick up ModNation Racers. United Games Front did a fantastic job of crafting the same amount of fun Nintendo does, and adding an easy-to-use level and character (called Mods) editor. ModNation is just pure kart-racing hysteria, allowing players to race at incredible speeds through some ridiculously detailed courses. Very rarely have I come across framerate slumps or screen-tearing, which is quite the feat considering the amount of craziness often occurring all at once. I only have two problems with the gameplay – the overly sensitive default steering controls and the often cheap AI rubber-banding. In quite a lot of circumstances I found myself happily maintaining 1st or 2nd place until towards the end of a race when out of nowhere I am barraged with missiles or other weapons leaving me to finish 5th or 6th. I’m all for challenge, but to have it all of a sudden near the end of a race is just too cheap. However as annoying as that can be, I still find myself enjoying the races despite having to restart. Also, since the game is geared toward community involvement under the Play Create Share motto, you can bet that there is an astronomical amount of content that has been been by many players around the world. Already I’ve downloaded a few re-created levels from various Mario Kart games and they all look almost identical to the originals. As with the amount of Mods, there are many characters spanning a host of different games, movies, television shows and cartoons/anime. So if you’re like me and lack imagination when it comes to level design, don’t feel discouraged about not taking advantage of the track editor since there are thousands of other people out there who have you covered. Plus the cut-scenes add a nice layer of story and humour – especially the banter between the two television hosts of the racing tournament. An absolute must-have for any kart racing fan!

As for Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption… I don’t know. I appreciate the idea of a sandbox Western and have had fun with a lot of the missions thus far but (please excuse the obviousness of this statement) it’s just so barren. It’s something that I didn’t take into consideration when anticipating this game. In GTA IV Liberty City felt alive, pulsating with things that always caught your eye no matter what you were doing or where you were going. But since RDR is set in a desert there’s just nothing to really look at or even really feel like you were anywhere until you reach the next town – which could be anything between a one to eight minute (probably even longer if you die on the way) horse ride. Speaking of horse riding, I also found the horse mechanics to be slightly off-putting especially when riding off-road and you come to slight mounds or ditches to then have your horse stop entirely. I just don’t remember having those types of problems in something like Zelda: Twilight Princess for example, but perhaps there just weren’t any of those types of obstacles in the way – I don’t really remember. Also, you can’t swim. Walking into water on either on foot or horse will result in death rather than achieving buoyancy. The story seems interesting (despite being the cliché guy-tries-to-make-new-life-for-himself-but-gets-caught-up-in-more-turmoil template) and the graphics and locales - though barren - are stunning. I’m not hugely far into this game (just a handful of missions into Mexico) so perhaps things will get better and I’ll come to appreciate it more. At least I hope so.

 

So that’s covered most of my gaming experiences over the last six months. Next entry: E3!

A recount of the first half of 2010 – March and April

March: Plants vs Zombies, Beat it!, Pokémon: Soul Silver.

This month was mostly spent playing portable games. Plants vs Zombies is yet another great game from developer PopCap Games (the same folks who made Peggle). I bought the iPhone version since I don’t really play PC games anymore, and it’s just so much fun. The idea is simple; protect your home with defensive plants to fend of waves of zombies. It’s another simplistic tower defense game, but the humour and surprisingly vast amount of defensive options are enough to make this game feel completely fresh. It’s also surprisingly long, making the $3.99AU charge well worth the price.

Beat It! by Glu is an absolutely fantastic new take on music/rhythm games, and is my personal favourite in the genre thus far. It features the two things I love about video game music culture – 8-bit art and electronic tunes. The point of the game is completely different to most music games; instead of pushing buttons in time with some sort of on-screen representation to allow the song to progress, you listen to the tune and try to transcribe an exact copy including all of its instrumentation. Having studied music in school and university, I can tell you that this is a thousand times more preferable than sitting in an aural class (which I hated, by the way). If it’s not enough to just play through the game’s single-player mode, you can opt to write your own tracks using the in-game editor. And if that’s not enough, you can share your beats with or download new ones from others through Facebook via share mode. The game is equipped with a great amount of content plus a community to strengthen its replayability. The app was worth the price when I bought it for $4.99AU, but now it’s available for a mere $1.19. If you’re a musician and/or you love music games in general, do yourself a great favour and nab this one.

Then there was Pokémon: Soul Silver. Everyone knows when the next installments of the Pokémon universe get released, everyone pays attention. Pokémon Silver from 2000 was my most favourite in the franchise, since it introduced me to my favourite Pokémon Totodile and Lugia (fun fact: I named one of my cats Lugia), however this is not the only reason. I remember my mind being absolutely blown upon collecting all eight Johto gym badges, and then being sent back to freakin’ Kanto to collect the original eight badges again with an entirely new storyline! For those who for some reason never played a Pokémon game before, this was huge considering in Red/Blue/Yellow the journey was long enough to sustain about thirty to thirty-five hours of just completing one region. I’d been anticipating SS since buying Pearl back in Christmas of ‘07 when I was getting back into the Pocket Monster universe, and this re-make definitely does not disappoint. If I was to list every new feature of Soul Silver this blog entry would last forever, so if you do want to know I suggest running a Google search for a real review and have a good read. However, I will talk about the inclusion of the Pokéwalker, which is basically a Pokémon pedometre. You can upload a captured monster to the device via infrared on the top of the game cartridge to level it up by walking/exercising. I love this feature since I used to walk to the train station everyday (a good 1.5 kilometres), and not only does it help to gain experience but you can also find items and catch more critters. As I mentioned earlier, Silver was my favourite entry in the Pokémon franchise; but Soul Silver easily takes the cake now.

 

April: Final Fantasy XIII, Heavy Rain, God of War Collection.

Okay, so let me start this off by saying that even though I have begun, but never finished, many Final Fantasy games before I still had a lot of respect for the franchise and for Square Enix. That’s right – had. Final Fantasy XIII is one of the most boring and ridiculously repetitive games I have ever played. I don’t care what any FF loyalist says – to play through twenty to twenty-five hours of absolute linear garbage just to get the “good bit” where the world finally opens up is just plain ludicrous. The reason why I’d never managed to complete a previous game was because I eventually no longer found myself engaged in the story/characters/gameplay after perhaps 80% of the journey. In FFIV I gave up because I took a break for a few weeks and found myself no longer connected to what’s happened; in FFVII I hadn’t leveled up my party quite enough to defeat a boss (don’t remember which one anymore); and in FFX I actually reached the final boss Sin, but by this point was completely drained of effort to even bother trying to finish. And despite all this I was still fond of the experiences and stories of all of these games for some reason. Perhaps the gamer inside of me just wanted to like these games because everyone else did. I don’t know where I’m going with all of this, so I’ll bring it back to the case in point – FFXIII had me bored since the first hour of gameplay, and I’ve managed to pull myself through nineteen hours into the excruciatingly dull and non-sensical adventure (just finished attaining Sazh’s Eidolon). Also, for those of you who might flame me for calling it non-sensical, here’s a short list of things that have not made any sense to me so far, with me filling in some blanks using the power of assumption:

- Why is Lightning such a bitch? [‘coz she was born a bitch]
- Why is Hope such a pussy? [‘coz his Dad is rich]
- Who the hell is Snow? [some douchey surfy guy in a trench coat who leads some resistance against some faction for some reason]
- Who the hell is Sazh? [a black guy with two guns. He also lets a bird live in his afro]
- Who the hell is Fang? [some chick with an Aussie accent]
- Who the hell is Vanille? [jailbait with an Aussie accent]

These are things that should have been cleared up within an hour or two of introducing each character. If there’s supposed to be some sort of plot-twist in relation to the backgrounds of each character that’s fine, but I would at least like to know their agendas for either their personality or role in the game, and why the hell I should even care about them for that matter. Also, battles have been re-designed to control badly. An RPG should utilise a fair amount of strategy to overcome your opponents – this game hardly does that. I can tell you now this’ll probably be my final Fantasy hurrrrr.

On a total up-swing on the topic of character development, understanding, caring and interaction, Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain is a great thriller based around emotional engagement and intense action. What surprised me the most about this title is the use of quicktime events felt incredibly fluid and natural. Having followed this game for quite a while leading up to its release and watching various videos of gameplay, merely observing the action packed moments are enough to make you feel almost intimidated to play it due to the quicktime controls. However if you played this game for perhaps just an hour you no longer find yourself even thinking about having to push and hold a combination of buttons – you find yourself just doing it instinctively. Also the amount of choices, mistakes and possibilities of killing off certain characters is quite daunting considering the impact it has on the story and endings you’ll create. One of my complaints about the game is that controlling your characters’ movements make you feel like a tank almost like the Resident Evil games. Though unlike the RE games you’re not forced to run-away from hordes of undead so the movements can be overlooked. This game was great while it lasted.

Lastly this brings us to the God of War Collection. The collection consists of the first two GoW titles for the PS2 with the inclusion of trophies (up to a Platinum for each game) and high definition up-scaling. Despite having some of those “ugh” moments that most action-adventure titles (I’m talking more about the puzzles and the spiked spinning columns in Hades in GoW 1) the game makes up for it in gorgeously vast locales that still look great even by today’s standards. Also even though the combat is quite shallow (face it, it’s mostly just button-mashing) it’s still satisfying taking down the larger foes like Minotaurs, Cyclopes and Medusa demons. And then there’s boss-battles… Good God (no pun intended). These fights are incredibly epic, especially the moments you engage in quicktime events to ultimately smite them. I personally found the storylines to be well thought-out and entertaining, however the same can’t be said about the protagonist Kratos. Sure he’s been ultimately betrayed by the Gods of Olympus and sure he’s seeking revenge against them, but after all he is human. There just isn’t enough to show it. Though with a game that’s all about kicking ass and doing it in epic fashion, the fact Kratos sounds like a disgruntled case of testosterone (oh wait…) is a small downer compared to an ultimately fun series of games.

 

Next update: May, June and my thoughts on E3.

A recount of the first half of 2010 – The New Year

Wow, okay, so far this year has had a butt-load of great games. I’ll do my best to give my thoughts on everything I’ve played (includes games from previous years that I’d only gotten recently) up ‘til now:

January: Bayonetta, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Assassin’s Creed, Shadow Complex, ‘Splosion Man.

I really enjoyed Bayonetta. I’m not usually into frantic 3rd person action games, let alone the crazily over-the-top Japanese ones, but holy crap this game was fun. Apart from the over-use of Bayonetta’s sexuality at times and the rather statically boring cut-scenes, this game had me completely engaged. Though you can pretty much just button-mash your way through, provided you stick some well-timed dodges in between, the game controlled like a breeze and the amount of combos/moves were close to overwhelming. Also, the storyline was interesting despite being utterly confusing.

I was skeptical about Arkham Asylum. The game received great reviews from all over, but I’ve never been a fan of stealth titles (I can’t stand playing the MGS games the “right way” – I’m the type of douche who just runs and guns). However this game absolutely blew me away! Not only did I utilise the stealth mechanics when necessary, but I also used them at every opportunity. This game made you feel like an absolute bad-ass hiding in the darkest corners of a room, hanging from a gargoyle waiting to prey upon the next wave of Joker’s hulking thugs. Also the level design of the island itself was brilliant – Arkham is perhaps only a square kilometre in diametre, but the amount of places and content was so cleverly crafted together that the setting seemed almost real. There’s also incredibly fluid fighting mechanics – despite the characters looking like bulked up masses of meat, none of the characters ever felt so heavy. Oh, and Kevin Conroy voicing Batman? Hells yeah! Literally my only gripe with this title is the use of generic Unreal Engine lighting effects. But that’s probably a different blog-post for another time…

As for Assassin’s Creed… Meh. I appreciate the effort put in to try something new, and in regards to character animation and interaction, it was impressive. However I found the stealth mechanics too cumbersome, the enemy AI cheap (running down an open street makes dudes want to kill you. WTF?), and the mission objectives were far too repetitive. On an up-side though, I do enjoy a ridiculous religious conspiracy, so there is that.

On the downloadable front, Epic Games’ Shadow Complex and Twisted Pixel’s ‘Splosion Man on Xbox Live Arcade are two fantastic and radically different takes on the side-scrolling platformer genre. Shadow Complex pays homage to classic 2D action-adventure games like Metroid and Castlevania. And does it well.
Much the same can be said of ‘Splosion Man, though I like to affectionately think of it as more the love-child of the classic 2D Sonic and Super Mario games. This game features demanding platforming skills and pattern memory, at a much faster pace. Also it’s hilarious.

February: Mass Effect 2, Shatter, Super Stardust HD.

If you follow video games at all, then you may have heard about this little game named Mass Effect 2, made by some garage developer called BioWare. This game easily took up most of my entire month. On my first play through, it took roughly 30 hours to complete the campaign, and that’s including a minimal amount of side-quests. Major improvements have been made since the first including a streamlined inventory system, smoother framerates and significantly less texture pop-ins. Also the game sports the ability to carry over information from your save file of the previous game such as choices and character customisation to expand upon your tale within the Mass Effect universe. Then there’s the story. My goodness… The only way I can describe it is epic. If you thought that of the original game, then you’re in for a real treat with the sequel. Also if you haven’t bought ME2 then get off your ass and do it now.

Again on the downloadable side are Shatter and Super Stardust HD attainable via the Playstation Network. Both titles are great examples of modern arcade style games. Shatter works like the classic Break Out which is pretty much a single-player version of Pong, however instead of just returning the ball you destroy blocks for points. The real kicker in this though is the suck (L1/2) and blow (R1/2) mechanics, which vary the control you have over the ball’s trajectory and are critical for success.
Super Stardust HD is a top-down shooter that works like the XBLA classic Geometry Wars, in which the left analogue stick controls your movement and the right analogue stick controls the direction of your fire. What sets this apart from GW (and in my opinion, far above) is that Stardust is set on a 3D spherical field, rather than a 2D rectangular grid, and utilises real-time destruction on the asteroid models. The asteroids crumble from the exact point you fire at them, causing rubble to fly in all directions that you must clean after. Though this game gets rather crazy and hectic from all the debris, followed by the inclusion of enemies, completing a single stage feels incredibly satisfying and always leaves you wanting more.

On my next update, March and April.

My review on The Conduit.

The Conduit by High Voltage Software is one of the most anticipated Wii titles to date. Sparking oodles of attention across the internet since its announcement last year, it has been every hardcore Wii owner's wet-dream. Since its official release in Australia on Thursday, there is only one question left to ask: does it live up to the hype?

Yes and no. High Voltage Software boasted incredible achievement in regards to its Quantum 3 Engine - the engine that runs The Conduit and HVS's own code that renders almost next-gen quality graphics, lighting and physics on Nintendo's little white box. In this, it is very hard to disagree that they succeeded. The Conduit features top-notch particle effects, clear textures and incredibly detailed character models and environments. For the most part the game runs smoothly, only taking a slight hit in frame rate during battles when things get hectic.

My small problem with the development team putting such a huge emphasis on graphical detail is that it seems as if it limited their environmental design to mostly corridor-based quarrels. Of course, this doesn't necessarily make the battles any less engaging - quite the opposite really, as there is less room for mobility and forces you to think strategically and take cover. However, even by last generation's standards, most popular First-Person Shooter titles feature more open environments for the more intense fights. Hopefully HVS will look into that in a possible sequel, or their next FPS title The Grinder.

The second most talked-about feature of this game is controls - more notably, the customisation. IR control in The Conduit feels great and being able to have complete control over its sensitivity makes it even better. The customisation options include IR/motion sensitivity, bounding box (area on-screen that once pointed at will turn the player's view to that direction) and button mapping. The amount of freedom you're given to alter the controls to your preference make it the second-best control method for FPS titles, next to a keyboard and mouse. However, with the controls as good as they are, I still had a few issues.

The first is aiming high/low. Oftentimes you will come across enemies that are above you, or find an ammo crate at your feet that you are not able to see properly. For some reason the player is restricted from looking directly above or directly below, which for some may not be a big problem, but it made relatively simple situations a hassle. It was quite often that in the heat of battle I'd run out of bullets, find an ammo crate, and would end up jumping over rather opening it because I would aim too low forgetting about the restrictions. Just something to bear in mind.

The second issue is melee attacking. In theory it might sound cool to thrust forward with the Wiimote to bust the chops of some chump with the butt of your gun. However I found it really awkward since my IR sensitivity was fairly high, when gesturing a melee attack my character's view will accidentally shift due to movement of the pointer. It is possible to re-map this gesture to a button press, however I didn't find a comfortable combination. It could just be my bad coordination, but it is still something to keep in mind.

Voice acting in the game is very well done. Apart from Mr Ford's - the main character's - voice (who sounds just a little too cliché action hero-y for my taste), the characters sound quite believable. The soundtrack could do with a little more variety, as it is mostly used to depict intense action rather than intrigue or atmosphere. As for sound effects, they're great as far as sci-fi go. Think of the sounds of some of the weapons from the Star Wars movies.

As for story - not bad. Not Emmy Award-winning material, but pretty good compared to a lot of other action games out there. Something that people might dig at about the story is that it's not very deep and pretty straight-forward. Which to me works, since the game only lasts about six to eight hours. With the amount of story that the player is given, if the game was fleshed out just to add content to appease gamers who judge games by gameplay length, then it would make some moments feel like a chore, which I did not find at all throughout the campaign.

And finally there's online multiplayer... Yeah... Perhaps the game's network settings doesn't like my internet set up (though Xbox Live and PSN work just fine), but whichever the case, I did not have one enjoyable experience. Sometimes just searching for a match would take over seven minutes, and even when one was found, it was very laggy. Which is a shame because given the amount of precise control that one attains, it would make for some very good times. And something I should mention was that I was only searching for games within my region (Australia) - I don't want to know what things would have been like had I tried international. Hopefully it's just my connection and that at least a large percentage of people are not experiencing these problems.

Overall I really enjoyed High Voltage's efforts on The Conduit, apart from the online portion. The Conduit strongly reaffirms what the Wii is capable of in terms of detailed graphics and fluid FPS controls, something that Nintendo fans have been asking for since before the console's release. I highly recommend this to any Wii gamer looking for a more mature, action-oriented experience. I'm sure that at least some people will agree that this is the game Perfect Dark Zero should have been.

Score: 8/10