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[She forgot enjoyment.]

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TalkBack / She Remembered Caterpillars (Switch) Review

« on: March 27, 2019, 04:41:00 PM »

She forgot enjoyment.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/50124/she-remembered-caterpillars-switch-review

She Remembered Caterpillars, from developer Jumpsuit Entertainment, is comprised of a series of logic puzzles that can only be solved by guiding impish little creatures around small mazes until they reach their designated goal. Once each of these colourful creatures (known as “Gammies”) has reached its destination, they take flight and you’re moved on to the next stage.

To begin with, this process is an absolute pleasure. Watching the Gammies frolic and skip around merrily at your behest is sure to endear all but the coldest of hearts. As you'd expect, the puzzles increase in complexity as you progress, and initially this gentle ramp-up serves its purpose of keeping things fresh and interesting. However, the new gameplay elements, whether it’s Gammies of a different colour or new obstacles, soon stack up to perplexing proportions. For example, only red Gammies can walk over red bridges, while red gates block red Gammies (stay with me here). Okay, now let’s throw a purple Gammie into the mix. Cast your mind back to art class and you’ll recall that purple is of course made by combining red and blue, meaning purple Gammies can walk over both red and blue bridges, but can’t pass through gates of those colours. With the tap of a button you’re able to separate secondary-coloured Gammies into their primary constituents, perhaps then combining a red and a yellow to make orange. Factor in other obstacles beyond bridges and gates, each with their own rulesets and functions and it quickly becomes an overwhelming amount of information to remember, particularly when some levels require you to plan out the solution several steps ahead. With all the forward planning and rules to remember, She Remembered Caterpillars doesn’t exactly offer the relaxed escapism its dream-like appearance suggests.

Unless you’re possessed with limitless patience, then the charming art style will undoubtedly be the biggest draw here. The mixture of organic-looking backdrops and those brightly coloured Gammies is vaguely reminiscent of Pikmin, albeit with a more washed-out, sombre palette. With the visuals perfectly complimented by a soundtrack full of texture and nuance, it really is expertly presented, to the point where it's almost worth brute-forcing through the latter levels in order to see the strange beauty that awaits in the next chapter.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see the game through to completion though, due to a bug preventing me from progressing beyond level 35 (there are 40 levels in total). When I reached out to Jumpsuit Entertainment they were reassuringly responsive, confirming that a patch would be released as soon as possible. Though it was annoying to be so close to rolling credits, I’ll admit I was a tiny bit relieved to have an excuse to take a break from the gruelling puzzles.

Some respite is offered between chapters, which are introduced along with a snippet of text, seemingly derived from conversations between a terminally ill man and his daughter. Heavy stuff for a puzzle game. The link between these story fragments and the actual gameplay is entirely open to interpretation and cynics might even argue that it’s arty-farty nonsense, but I was genuinely moved by some of the passages, despite never fully understanding their relevance within the context of the game.

It’s a great shame then that these moments of enchanting brilliance are completely at odds with gameplay that quickly becomes off-puttingly frustrating. The addition of some sort of hint system would certainly broaden the appeal, but as it stands this is likely to appeal to only the most hardcore of puzzle fans. A game that masters the intricate balance between challenge and fun is a beautiful thing, so it’s unfortunate that a beautiful game like She Remembered Caterpillars falls squarely on the less favourable side of that equation.

[Caution: Speed Bumps Ahead]

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TalkBack / Gear.Club Unlimited 2 (Switch) Review

« on: January 15, 2019, 12:24:10 PM »

Caution: Speed Bumps Ahead

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/49389/gearclub-unlimited-2-switch-review

Gear.Club Unlimited 2 is a reviewer’s dream. Not because it’s a particularly great game, but because the loading screens are so ridiculously long that they provide a golden opportunity for note-taking. In fact, it would probably be an ideal game if you were writing a novel—complete a race; write a chapter; repeat. I’m exaggerating of course, but I really can’t stress enough how much both the duration and frequency of the loading screens detract from what would otherwise be a fairly solid, if not spectacular, experience.

Handling and a sense of speed are important components in a racing game, so when I jumped straight into the impressively lengthy career mode, I was disappointed to find that my car felt slow and heavy, meaning that races aren’t much fun to begin with. To be fair though, I’d put this down to the developer’s attempt at realism—after all, you start off your career with a humble Mini; a car favored by real estate agents and hairdressers. Once you graduate to beefier models from the likes of McLaren and Pagani, things get faster and decidedly more interesting, but the heaviness of the handling remains and even bleeds into the sluggish controls of the UI. There’s adequately enjoyable gameplay to be had here, but arguably too many frustrations get in the way of it.

When you get past those potholes, there’s a good degree of variety in the gameplay, from the traditional race format to the slightly more exciting elimination races where every 20 seconds the car in last place gets eliminated. Driver assists make the racing pretty accessible too, with the easy-to-use rewind function being a particular favourite of mine. Rather than a lapse of judgement costing you the race, errors can be erased from history, allowing you to find the correct racing line and approach speed to make it round a tricky corner. In fact, if Gear.Club 2 would have included more “gamey” touches like this and relinquished their pursuit of realism, the appeal of the game could have been broadened considerably. The impending addition of online multiplayer will no doubt help on that front, too.

The original Gear.Club outing on Switch started life as a mobile game, and although the sequel is a Switch exclusive, it bears all the hallmarks of a mobile port, from the crisp but relatively bland graphics to the generic music and sound effects. Again, I can imagine that having no in-game music during races is perhaps a concession to realism and allows you to fully appreciate the roar of your engine and the screech of your tires, but the flipside is that it makes the experience less exhilarating than it could have been.

Overall, Gear.Club Unlimited 2 is a half-decent attempt at a big-budget style racing sim, but falls short in too many areas to be considered a serious contender. Whilst it offers moments of enjoyment in between those pesky loading screens, the game’s greatest strength is the lack of competition it faces from other racing sims on the platform. So, if Nintendo Switch is your only console and you happen to be a massive petrol head, then Gear.Club Unlimited 2 is worth considering. Everyone else should probably steer clear.

[Set phasers to whatever tickles your fancy.]

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TalkBack / R-Type Dimensions EX (Switch) Review

« on: December 17, 2018, 01:46:39 PM »

Set phasers to whatever tickles your fancy.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/49223/r-type-dimensions-ex-switch-review

Alongside the obligatory Super Mario World, Super R-Type was the first game I owned for the Super Nintendo, and the series has held a special place in my heart ever since. Needless to say then, I was excited to see what R-Type Dimensions EX had to offer and whether Irem could successfully preserve R-Type’s hardcore legacy while also broadening the appeal of the franchise.

Let’s not beat around the bush here: the two games in this collection, R-Type and R-Type II, are ridiculously hard. Proudly showing their arcade roots, these are games that were designed to keep you mindlessly pumping coins into the cabinet after each failed attempt. And there will be many, many failed attempts when tackling these remakes, at least when playing in Classic mode. Dodging enemy fire while blasting through the onslaught is pure, white knuckle fun of course, but it’s difficult to the point where if you told me that you’d completed R-Type or its sequel, then I would call you a big fat liar. Or at least mumble it inaudibly.

Thank the gaming gods then for the inclusion of Infinite mode, which allows good, honest humans to see the game through to completion by bestowing you with the gift of eternal life. After each death you’re plonked right back into the action to continue your progress - no starting the level from scratch or any of that old school nonsense - with the only punitive measure being the loss of any weapon upgrades you’d picked up during your previous incarnation. Another helpful inclusion in Infinite mode is the ability to slow down the onscreen action by holding ZL, providing yourself with an extra few nanoseconds of reaction time.

Purists might scoff at this level of mollycoddling and it must be said that most of the adrenaline-pumping tension is lost without the risk of failure, but these options are just that: options. Classic mode is there for the hardcore; Infinite mode is for the rest of us. There’s even score-chasing fun to be had as the game tallies up how many lives you’ve used during an Infinite run, and these stats are posted to online leaderboards. If nothing else, this provides some impetus to at least suck a little less than your friends. For me though, the greatest payoff was in finally seeing the latter levels of two games that had until now remained a mystery.

It’s clear to see that Irem have gone all out to make the R-Type experience more palatable to the modern gamer, and they’ve attempted to perform the same magic on the look and sound. Whether they’ve successfully managed that or not will largely be determined by your personal taste, but again the real genius here is that they’ve provided an option to flick between the original sights and sounds and a cleaner, more modern version. I found myself enjoying both, alternating between them on a whim with a quick tap of the X button. It’s a nifty little feature, and as was the case with Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap, it’s fascinating to compare the two iterations in real time. Personally, I found myself opting for the updated looks and soundtrack more often than not and enjoying the fact that there were now impressive background details where once was an empty black space.

If anything, Irem may have gone slightly overboard with the options available - the “Crazy” angled 3D and arcade cabinet views will probably never be used again, as they don’t really serve a practical purpose beyond fun-for-five-seconds gimmickry. Again though, they’re there for people who want them.

Ultimately, if you like super challenging shmups and especially if you’re old enough to still call them shoot-‘em-ups, then you’ll find a lot to love here. Likewise if you’re a newcomer to the genre then R-Type Dimensions EX is a great place to start and will hold your hand until you’re ready to let go.

[The ultimate pea shooter?]

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TalkBack / The Walking Vegetables (Switch) Review

« on: November 29, 2018, 11:55:00 PM »

The ultimate pea shooter?

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/49036/the-walking-vegetables-switch-review

With the Nintendo Switch playing host to some top tier roguelike twin-stick shooters, the giant-mutated-broccoli-sized question is: does The Walking Vegetables do enough to rival the likes of Enter The Gungeon and The Binding of Isaac? Well, if you’re pressed for time, the short answer is no, but it does give them a run for their money in some respects.

The silliness of the premise - defend earth from zombie vegetables - is on par with the big boys of the genre and ties in with the ‘80s B-movie shtick developer Still Running shoots for. HD Rumble is also used to great effect to convey the recoil of popping off a few rounds into a tomato (not a vegetable) and it’s far stronger here than the somewhat feeble implementation in The Binding of Isaac. The Walking Vegetables also makes a notable quality of life improvement over Gungeon by not requiring the player to reload their weapon. Having one less thing to remember amidst the frantic action makes the combat feel a little more fluid and a lot more forgiving.

There are also nice twists on roguelike conventions, such as the occasional appearance of Bob “The Ghost of Runs Past” who grants you a chance to grab a random item unlocked during previous attempts. Portals to Bonus Dimensions also appear sporadically, providing a fun distraction by offering rewards for taking down waves of enemies.

Sadly though, everything beyond that is a little formulaic. It’s all completely functional and the gameplay is enjoyable but eventually begins to feel a little “roguelike-by-numbers.” Sure, it’s never not fun to run around shooting stuff and the option for local multiplayer adds to that, but a lack of charm in the character and level design, as well as a dearth of enemy and weapon variety, ultimately holds The Walking Vegetables back.

Aesthetically, the game brings to mind the neon-splashed tennis gear Andre Agassi wore before baldness robbed him of his cool points. The word garish doesn’t feel strong enough. Although that’s undoubtedly the look they’re going for, it veers a little too close to cheap and cheerful for my liking. Of course, pixel art can be downright beautiful (Hyper Light Drifter, Celeste) but everything looks distinctly unspectacular in this game; the buildings and objects are samey and even the biggest boss characters, like the wonderfully named Broccoliath, aren’t particularly expressive.

The same can be said for the music and sound effects - both the stock noises and the electro MIDI-rock soundtrack get repetitive to the point where a change of track is almost the biggest incentive to progress to the next stage.

All in all The Walking Vegetables doesn’t seem to have been made with the same level of imagination and expertise as its closest competitors. As such it’s a tough one to recommend, particularly when it’s on the same system as the superb Enter The Gungeon.