Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Azhdarchids are a group of pterosaurs that rose to dominance during the Late Cretaceous period. They alone were the rulers of skies once flooded with the membranous wings of vast swaths of other pterosaurs. But azhdarchids were special: they arose during a time of great upheavel in the flying vertebrate biosphere. Birds, little upstart theropods with small beginnings in China, were quickly overtaking the niches once held by such specialist pterosaurs as Pterodaustro and Dsungaripterus, as well as filling gaps apparently never filled by those bat-winged archosaurs. In time, only the azhdarchids remained. Enormous, long-necked creatures, the azhdarchids produced the largest flying vertebrates the world has ever seen. Hatzegopteryx had a 40-foot wingspan. The greatest pterosaurs were also the last, and at the end of the Cretaceous period, they left the skies forever. The decline of pterosaurs is, oddly enough, strikingly similar to the decline in the platforming genre in video games.
2D platformers pulled gaming out of the slump of the 1980's and singlehandedly revived the industry. Were it not for Super Mario Bros., this website probably wouldn't exist. 2D platformers dominated the market, in fact, during the NES, SNES, and Genesis years. There were other, more experimental games, like The Legend of Zelda and Star Fox, but for the most part, when we think back on that golden age, we think of Mario, Metroid, Battletoads, and Plock.
Well, maybe not Plock.
Anyway, the 2D platformer began to lose importance during the beginning of the 3D era. The N64, PSOne, and Saturn all boasted polygonal, 3D games. Most of them were still platformers, sure, but the world was changing. Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie were the logical next step from the 2D platformers of yesteryear. On home consoles, genres expanded as the technology improved, and in fact, virtually all of the 2D platformers were eventually replaced by 3D platformers and their offshoots.
Castlevania: Symophony of the Night is one incredible exception to that rule. Released on the PSOne in 1998, Symphony proved that through wonderful art direction and ingenious level design, the 2D platformer can remain relevant in a next-gen landscape. Alas, not many other developers or publishers saw it that way. Even Nintendo largely abandoned the 2D sidescroller on the home console front. Luckily, the form was not altogether lost.
2D platformers lived on thanks to handhelds. The Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and PSP all kept the genre alive, although none moreso than the GBA. The system is awash in excellent 2D platformers, from Metroid to Mario, Castlevania to Gunstar. The DS kept things alive as well, but was more reluctant to do so. Aside from the Castlevania series, straight 2D platformers are surprisingly hard to come by as more developers try to cram 3D gameplay onto the system. Even New Super Mario Bros. used polygonal models instead of hand-drawn graphics. The PSP did its part to keep 2D Mega Man games alive, as well, but for the most part, it specialized in 3D platformers like Ratchet & Clank and God of War.
It was with great surprise that I played Wario Land: Shake It, a modern, 2D, hand-drawn platformer. It is a beautiful marvel of a game. The controls are simple, but the gameplay is surprisingly deep. It returns to the old standard of linear stage progression, but each stage is packed with alternate routes and secrets galore. The real draw is the art direction. All of the characters brilliantly animated--it really does look like a cartoon. Watching Wario squirm down a pipe is so wonderful! The backgrounds are multi-layered and never repeat--each stage is ridiculously detailed but never busy. And each element looks like it was drawn by hand in Photoshop or Illustrator...and it might have been!
Wario Land: Shake It! is an old-school game with new-school sheen. It demonstrates that as technology increases, old genres can improve just as much as newer ones. Wario Land looks, in some ways, better than Super Mario Galaxy, and it's just as charming. Art direction is the key here. Wario Land probably isn't breaking the Wii, but does it have to? Considering the 2D platformer aesthetic, Wario Land: Shake It! is one of the best-looking games on the market today.
I hope that people notice Wario Land in droves so that the 2D platformer picks up steam again. It's such a wonderful genre, one that is lost on newer gamers who grew up on N64s and PSOnes. But it's what modern gaming was built on. Gamers like me cut our teeth on 2D platformers, and it makes me sad to think that they are so forgotten.
Hopefully, Wario Land is not analogous to Hatzegopteryx, a wonderful giant, the last of its kind, about to be dethroned by its competition. Rather, let's pray that 2D platformers go through an adaptive radiation and flourish, and azhdarchids will rule the skies once more.
As MM9 opens, Mega Man’s hometown is under attack by rampaging robots, even though Dr. Wily has been put behind bars. Dr. Light, Mega Man’s good-hearted creator, is blamed for this new threat. Mega Man, Roll, and Axel take it upon themselves to clear their creator’s name and restore peace to the city. Naturally, this involves choosing one of eight new Robot Masters and battling through brilliantly designed, but punishingly difficult, levels with the Blue Bomber.
Not completely abandoning the gameplay changes that accompanied MM7 and MM8, MM9 features "screws" as currency, which some enemies drop. You can save them up and spend them at Axel’s shop, where interesting items like the Energy Equalizer and Damage Shield are found. Some items are kept for the entire game (like those two), while others, like the Shock Absorber (survive falling on spikes) or Beat Rescue (survive falling in a hole) are one-use-only items. Axel’s shop is also where you’ll get most of your E Tanks and extra lives, although certain stages are liberally sprinkled with 1-ups. You can even purchase the option of playing the game without your helmet. Unfortunately, Axel’s shop ties into the game’s overall plotline. Yes, aside from an opening scene and an end scene, MM9 has a formal story. I found the story pesky and unfulfilling. Mega Man games have never been known for their strong writing, and that’s the one place where MM9 doesn’t feel like an old Mega Man game. This could’ve been remedied by some less-than-perfect "translation," but the writing is spot-on and uses big words. Unfortunately, this is uncharacteristic of the old games.
The rest of the game is identical to previous NES Mega Man games: Choose a stage, battle your way through, and end up fighting a boss. More than ever before, figuring out the boss order is tantamount to success—especially for speed runs—because many of the Robot Masters are brutally powerful and mucho challenging to survive with your Mega Buster (pea shooter) alone. Just like the best of the old games, each stage has its own unique properties. Jewel Man’s stage has swinging platforms; Tornado Man forces you to fight wind, rain, ice, and deadly rotating platforms; Magma Man requires you to dodge quick-beam-like lava flows; and perhaps worst of all, Plug Man’s stage features those cursed disappearing blocks. Like the MMX games but unlike the NES Mega Man games, almost every stage in MM9 features a mini-boss. These mini-bosses can be easy (the flower droid), brutally difficult (the rock monster), or just plain awesome (use Tornado Man’s weapon on the fire dragon). Most of the expected Mega Man level trappings are still here, including precarious jumps or lava or spikes, enemies that suddenly pop out of bottomless pits, enemy spawn points in the worst possible places, and sections that require ridiculously precise timing.
New to the series are achievements—lots of ‘em. Doing specific things, like speed runs, beating the game without your helmet, or firing over 500 shots with your Mega Buster, net you achievements, which as far as I can tell don’t unlock anything. They’re more for bragging rights than anything else, although this is one area I wish the Wii version of this game (it’s also available on the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network) featured a gamerscore. This is ironic, considering that you might get the most out of a version of the game not originally targeted for it! One wonders if the achievements were thrown in there specifically for the XBL/PSN crowd. They’re still fun challenges to complete, though, even if you can’t really brag about them online.
Inti Creates has certainly succeeded in making MM9 look like the old games. They built the entire game from scratch, without using an NES emulator or mock-up engine. This is a stunning achievement, folks, because MM9 is so well thought-out that it really feels more like a Virtual Console game than a WiiWare game. It’s like Capcom finally got around to releasing a Mega Man game that never made it Stateside. All of the sound effects, musical tracks, and even general pixel mappings are stunningly well done. Considering what Inti Creates was trying to achieve, one cannot help but admire the graphics. And as I said before, they even added screen flicker, graphical pop-up, and a few instances where the framerate skips around. These are not poor design consequences—Inti Creates had to program those bugs into the game itself. We’re talking a sick level of dedication, here, and it pays off. While the music never rises to the brilliant crescendo of MM2/3, it’s certainly among the best in the NES series.
Capcom will be bombarding us with a hoard of DLC specifically for MM9, including the ability to play as Proto Man, extra difficulty settings, and even an extra stage. My gripe here is that it’s all going to cost a little extra. Proto Man, for example, will cost $2 to play as. Some of this is warranted, some of it not. The extra difficulty settings should’ve been in the core game. Even Proto Man could’ve been an unlockable character. But at least we’ve got options, and a way to expand on an already-awesome game. Merely as a technological achievement, MM9 is kickass. Gamers who’ve never played a Mega Man game before might be crushed under the sheer weight of the game’s monumental difficulty, so they might want to grab the Mega Man Anniversary Collection for training. Nostalgic gamers and Mega-fans should pick it up immediately, though, because it’s well worth twice what Capcom is charging.
Pros:
Lastability: 9.0
All those achievements will take awhile to accrue, and speed run times are ranked online. And the coming onslaught of DLC will keep you busy, too.
Final: 9.0
Mega Man 9 is a fantastic game that recreates a Mega Man game from the NES era that’s tough as nails. This is both the game’s biggest strength and greatest roadblock. The difficulty level will push many potential newcomers away, but old-school gamers will relish the challenge.
