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[An excellent Castlevania clone with some smart updates.]

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TalkBack / Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Switch eShop) Review

« on: May 30, 2018, 05:48:00 AM »

An excellent Castlevania clone with some smart updates.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/47326/bloodstained-curse-of-the-moon-switch-eshop-review

While we all wait for Igarashi’s much-anticipated Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, he and Inti Creates collaborated on an NES-style appetizer for fans to digest while they wait for the main course. Curse of the Moon is essentially a modern take on the NES Castlevania games (which is a smart choice, since Ritual of the Night will be a Symphony-style Castlevania game). If you liked the old level-based Castlevania games, this will be a welcome treat. If you didn’t, well, this might not be your cup of tea.

The game plays almost exactly like Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, as you quickly recruit a party of four characters that can be switched between at any time. Your starting character, Zangetsu, is a swordsman with high HP and a short attack range. Miriam, who will be the protagonist of Ritual of the Night, wields a familiar-looking whip for a long-range attack but can also jump higher than everyone else and can slide. Alfred, a magician, has extremely low HP and can’t really engage in melee combat to any helpful degree, but at least two of his spells are extremely helpful. Finally, Gebel is this game’s Alucard stand-in. He has a short-range attack but he can transform into a bat to get into areas other characters can’t.

Every level features multiple paths to the same boss fight. Certain paths hide permanent stat boosts to HP, magic points, attack, or defense. Each of your characters can die, either by running out of HP or falling into a bottomless pit. Should they meet an unfortunate end, they will be unavailable for the rest of that level, which can limit your ability to explore or even, in some cases, continue at all. Thankfully, if you find yourself unable to move forward, you can activate the “Curse of the Moon” from the pause screen. This allows you to go back to any previously completed level and essentially restart. This becomes handier the farther you get into the game.

Curse of the Moon isn’t especially long or difficult if we’re going by NES Castlevania standards. You can make things harder on yourself by turning on “Veteran Style” when you start. Doing so gives you a limited number of lives and provides that old Castlevania knockback you know and love. If you’d rather stay sane, you can go with “Casual Style,” which gives you infinite lives and no knockback. When you beat the game, you get Bravely Default’d back to the start with one critical difference.

There’s not a lot to criticize about the game. I kind of wish that backtracking to levels you’ve previously cleared gave some indication of what item you’d found and where it was so that you can knowingly try a different path. In general, I like the look of the game but some of the boss designs and their attack patterns exhibit Inti Creates’ worst tendencies. The final boss in particular looks absolutely ridiculous and would make way more sense in a Gunvolt or Mega Man Zero game. I wish Alfred was more useful than he is; you basically keep him around for two of his spells. Finally, Miriam is very overpowered—you can get through essentially any combat situation with her long-range whip and overhead sword throw subweapon. Zangetsu need not apply, and Gebel becomes useful only for his bat ability.

All that said, Curse of the Moon is a very enjoyable old-school Castlevania homage that’s well worth the price of admission—as long as you have nostalgia for those games. Those of you who have no patience for the first three Castlevania games in particular may want to give Curse a wide berth, but I daresay there are systems in place here that may tickle your fancy.

[The legendary Treasure-made shoot-’em-up returns to a Nintendo platform.]

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TalkBack / Ikaruga (Switch eShop) Review

« on: May 25, 2018, 10:11:24 AM »

The legendary Treasure-made shoot-’em-up returns to a Nintendo platform.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/47294/ikaruga-switch-eshop-review

Here’s an interesting factoid to start things off: “Ikaruga” is the Japanese name for the masked grosbeak, a finch that lives on the eastern seaboard of China and the surrounding islands (including Japan). It’s not a particularly noteworthy passerine so I remained unsure of why Treasure Games decided to name their seminal vertical shooter—now praised as one of the best in the genre—after said bird. Ikaruga (the game) got its start in Japanese arcades before being ported to the Dreamcast in Japan, and then later to the GameCube in all regions. Here in North America, Ikaruga launched in 2003. Now it finds itself on the Switch, and Ikaruga brings a lot of expectations to the table.

While the core gameplay of Ikaruga is still vertical shooter bullet hell, Treasure implemented a unique “polarity” system that makes things simultaneously more approachable and more stressful. Your ship can change colors from black to white. This is key because every enemy ship is either black or white, and their bullets and lasers are color coordinated. If you’re the same color as the bullets, your ship can absorb them and build up energy towards a missile barrage attack. If you get hit by the opposite color bullets, though, it’s curtains. Critically, enemy ships are dealt double-damage by your opposite-color attacks, so Ikaruga becomes an exercise in risk/reward gameplay.

You’re not just avoiding enemy ships and their attacks—Ikaruga gleefully throws you into tricky situations where you’re avoiding environmental obstacles too, and the game seems to enjoy funneling you into tight spaces while also dealing with bullets and polarity. Boss battles are typical Treasure fare: big, complex, often multi-stage, and always stressful (but in a good way). I haven’t experienced that old giddy feeling during a boss fight in a long time. Interestingly, if you take too long to destroy them, bosses actually LEAVE and you get a bad grade for that level.

This is a punishingly difficult game, even on Easy (learn to love your missile barrage). Thankfully, a number of features let you tailor the difficulty to your ability somewhat, like setting the number of lives and continues you’re allowed to have, although doing so may void your ability to set a high score. You can change the visual layout as well, including flipping your TV (or Switch) into “Tate” mode, changing the text and icon size, and choosing where certain icons are displayed. You have the option of unlocking “Extra” content the first time you turn the game on (usually locked behind beating it), which is something I eagerly did, as there’s a very good chance I’ll never beat Ikaruga without nerfing it as much as possible. The Extras don’t amount to much—a gallery of concept art, a music player, and a “Prototype” mode in which you must absorb bullets in order to gain ammunition.

The game features online leaderboards, though this is one thing I dislike: after you inevitably die, it takes a weirdly long time for your score to update. Some might criticize Ikaruga’s short length—there are only five levels. However, each level is an order of magnitude more difficult than the one before, so you’ll be spending a lot of time practicing by selecting a level from the main menu before diving back into Arcade Mode to try and get through to the next level (you must live to see a new level in Arcade Mode before you can practice it in Level Select mode). Ikaruga also features two-player co-op, which is about as frenetic as you might expect!

Despite everything being one of two colors, every ship looks distinct and every background is beautiful in its complexity. And the music, my god, the music. Turn the volume up!

Ikaruga is great—everyone should play it unless you’re fundamentally opposed to the genre. It can be frustrating but I found that I got a little farther almost every run. Maybe someday I’ll even try to get through Arcade Mode with the default settings (on Easy) so that I can actually post a high score!

[All of these games have their share of problems.]

128

TalkBack / Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 (Switch) Review

« on: May 21, 2018, 08:01:00 PM »

All of these games have their share of problems.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/47272/mega-man-legacy-collection-2-switch-review

I won’t pretend that Mega Man 1 is a good game, but the rest of the first volume of the Legacy Collection is top-tier NES goodness. The four games included in this second volume, however, are a bit more divisive. The overlay has also changed, and not necessarily for the better. For the completionists among you, having both halves of the Legacy Collection on your Switch is probably a no-brainer. For the rest of you…well, read on.

There are just four games in the second Legacy Collection and, unlike most of those in the first collection, I cannot give a full-throated endorsement to any of them.

Mega Man 7 is the main series’ first and only foray onto the Super Nintendo. In North America, at least, it launched almost two years after Mega Man X did and the differences between the two games are severe. The game features very large, chunky sprites but the camera is zoomed in way too much, making everything cramped. Mega Man also moves with all the speed of a racehorse that broke its legs and is about to be put down. Seriously, after zipping around in Mega Man X, this game is a plodder. It also doesn’t help that Mega Man’s charge shot is slower than it’s ever been. There are some interesting Robot Masters in here, including a vampire and an off-brand Transformer, but this is by far the weakest game of the four.

Mega Man 8 is very obviously a PlayStation game, and in fact looks a lot like Mega Man X4 (they were both released in North America in 1997). Unlike its predecessor, the big sprites actually fit into their much larger environments this time around and the gameplay is quite good. Master Weapons actually have uses outside of boss fights, and it pays to revisit stages to find Bolts that you can use to build new parts (this is also in Mega Man 7 but it’s more elegant here). What makes Mega Man 8 infamous, however, is its use of anime cutscenes in which Mega Man is voiced by a 10-year-old girl and Dr. Light sounds like Elmer Fudd. They’ve changed a lot of core Mega Man tenants here, including how Rush works and introducing new shot types for the standard buster. I like Mega Man 8 a lot; aside from the cutscenes, it’s a good balance of new and old.

Mega Man 9 was originally a WiiWare game. Developed by Inti Creates, it promised a return to the old school games, and indeed Mega Man 9 looks and plays like Mega Man 2. Our hero cannot use a charge shot or slide here. This is by far the most difficult Mega Man game in the collection, and possibly in the entire original series. The music is not up to par with the older NES games and backgrounds tend to be static black rather than having any images at all, which I found distracting. Beating the game unlocks Proto Man as a playable character and a few new gameplay modes. Proto Man’s moveset differs considerably from Mega Man’s. Also, screw the Black Devil.

Finally, Mega Man 10, also by Inti Creates, is much more fun than Mega Man 9. You still can’t slide or use the charge shot, but level design is more forgiving, the bosses are ridiculous (Sheep Man, Strike Man) and bolts are easier to come by. There are also more play options: you can play as Proto Man from the start this time around. Beating the game unlocks Bass (who was originally downloadable content) who has his own moveset, and three bonus levels based on the Mega Man Game Boy games, complete with Mega Man Killer bosses (Enker, Punk, and Ballade).

(There might also be a code you an input in Mega Man 9 and 10 that will unlock the DLC content right off bat but I leave the internet sleuthing to you good readers.)

As with volume one, each game comes with concept art, a music player, and unique challenges. You can turn on a new “Legacy Mode,” which increases the number of hits you can take in each game (which I found critical in Mega Man 9). However, you can no longer save whenever you want or rewind. Saving now occurs automatically throughout each game, and you can only return to predetermined save spots if you screw up. Otherwise, your overlay options are largely the same as in Volume 1, though you have four framing picture options per game instead of one.

Overall, this second Legacy Collection is weaker than the first. The game are not as rock(man)-solid and losing the ability to save anywhere or rewind dampens their appeal. I can certainly recommend Mega Man 8 and 10, but that’s just two games—half the collection. And, again, it’s a shame that there aren’t any bonus games included that could round out the selection. As it stands, this is not a strong collection of Mega Man games compared to the first. If you want all the Mega Man games on your Switch, you’ll obviously need this volume, but if you don’t feel that need, you might skip this one.

[Amiibo not included.]

129

TalkBack / Mega Man Legacy Collection (Switch) Review

« on: May 21, 2018, 08:01:00 PM »

Amiibo not included.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/47271/mega-man-legacy-collection-switch-review

You don’t have to wade too deeply into our humble website’s archives to find that I tend to spend too much money on Mega Man games that I already own. Behold my mini reviews of Mega Man 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 when they were released, individually, on the 3DS Virtual Console. When the 3DS version of the Legacy Collection hit, I figured I didn’t need it seeing as I already had the individual games on my 3DS already. But then it hit a flash sale on PSN, where I snapped it up. Not long after that, it hit an eShop flash sale and the inevitable happened. The best part, though, is that I saw the physical version of the 3DS Legacy Collection on a Target clearance endcap and bought that, too. Listen, you. I can stop anytime I want to.

Of course, I appreciate having the first six Mega Man games on my Switch, too. The games remain the same as they ever have: MM1 is interesting from a historical standpoint, MM2 is one of the best NES games ever made, MM3 is nearly as good, MM4 is better than you remember, MM5 is a technical marvel on the NES, and MM6 is super interesting. This version of the Legacy Collection is essentially the same as the one you have on 3DS but with two interesting additions. First, there’s a new setting for the engine speed which can be toggled between “original” and “turbo.” This essentially removes any slowdown in the games. If you, like me, have gotten used to playing these games with some amount of sluggishness, playing in turbo mode is something of a revelation. The other new option is a rewind button. At any time, you can press and hold the L button and correct that poorly timed jump or careless mistake during a boss fight. The rewind button largely makes save states a thing of the past, although I still save my game between stages.

Otherwise, this is the same Legacy Collection you probably already own, including the Amiibo challenges, which must still be unlocked via Mega Man Amiibo, which might not be practical anymore. I will say that the overlay runs a bit quicker than it does on 3DS, especially saving and loading games. I can’t help but wish, though, that they’d toss in one or two obscure Mega Man games to round this package out. Back on the GameCube, the Mega Man Anniversary Collection also featured The Power Battles and its sequel The Power Fighters. The X Collection, likewise, featured Mega Man Battle & Chase, an almost comically terrible kart racer. There’s also Mega Man Soccer out there somewhere. Including one or two of these side stories would go a long way towards getting folks to double-dip on these legacy games.

If you already have the Legacy Collection on 3DS and are happy with it, I don’t know how badly you need this Switch version. However, both volumes in addition to the upcoming Mega Man X collection, on a single console is awfully tempting prospect, right? It’s like the GameCube all over again.

[And Knuckles, featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry series!]

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TalkBack / Nintendo News Report: Let's Go! Star Fox And Eevee

« on: May 18, 2018, 02:04:57 AM »

And Knuckles, featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry series!

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/video/47242/nintendo-news-report-lets-go-star-fox-and-eevee

Hey everyone! It's been a while, so we've got a lot to talk about tonight at about 10:15 Eastern. Donald, Justin, and Zach will be tackling subjects including (but not necessarily limited to) E3 rumors, the return of the NES Classic, Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, and some caution regarding Runner 3.

Don't forget to grab the audio version of the show on iTunes (also, throw us a review and Alex will address it live),  Google Play or in your podcatcher of choice!

[After the 24-karot diamond that is Runner2, Runner3 is a cubic zirconium.]

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TalkBack / Runner3 (Switch) Review

« on: May 17, 2018, 08:01:00 PM »

After the 24-karot diamond that is Runner2, Runner3 is a cubic zirconium.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/47241/runner3-switch-review

Let’s set some context for my fevered anticipation of Runner3: Its predecessor, the aptly named Runner2, from Choice Provisions (formerly Gaijin Games) was one of my favorite games the year it came out and is likely one of my favorite games ever. So you might understand when I say that my expectations were high, but also measured. Choice Provisions had done this before—nearly flawlessly—so they clearly knew what they were doing. How could Runner3 be anything other than a surefire success? Unfortunately, that’s not the case as Runner3 takes everything that made Runner2 so magical and throws it, bodily, out the window. The resulting corpse is recognizable but horribly malformed.

Initially, things seem pretty much the same: Commander Video and his daring band of derring-dos jog merrily through an elaborate set of obstacle course stages set to the tune of enjoyable music, their footfalls keeping in time with the beat while avoiding roadblocks and collecting precious gold bars. The overall structure is the same, with three worlds consisting of nine stages, a boss, and some bonuses. And that’s where the similarities end.

Runner3’s stages are stretched out into interminable lengths. For comparison, a very long stage in Runner2 might have you collecting between 50 and 60 gold bars, whereas every single stage in Runner3 teases you with 100. The longer stages don’t benefit from any added accessibility though as only one checkpoint sits in the middle.  As the stages are now absurdly long, Choice Provisions had to find ways to keep you engaged. They do this in many ways, some of which are successful.

For one thing, they added vehicles. Commander Video ‘n’ Friends can now commandeer cars, planes, rocket barrels, a giant caterpillar, and even (this is my favorite) a bowling ball, among others. I found the majority of these sections very enjoyable, though the rocket barrel gave me troubling flashbacks to Donkey Kong Country Returns. The vehicles give Runner3 an opportunity to tweak the perspective and it’s surprising how well the change of pace works.

Other additions are not quite as successful. Runner3 alters the language of the previous two games, as obstacles appear seemingly out of nowhere, requiring preternatural knowledge of the stages. While the other games have a consistent logic with certain types of enemies and obstacles requiring a jump, slide, or a kick, the challenge here often feels cruel and vindictive. Platforms fall out from under your feet. Obstacles rain from the sky directly in front of you. Enemies miraculously appear along a path laid out by gold bars just to mess with you. Unexpected events destroy any sense of fluidity you’ve achieved thus far and keep you from getting in “the zone.” Some stages, which would only last about two or three minutes to complete in one go,  took me the better part of an hour to get through precisely because random, uncontrolled stuff kept popping up. Runner2 succeeded in part because you did not have to memorize the path in front of you—you simply reacted.

This ties into Runner3’s masochistic difficulty spike. While Runner2 has variable difficulty settings, Runner3’s levels are merely split into two paths: the initial gold path and the alternate gem path, only unlocked after beating the level once. The gem paths are generally harder, but the difficulty is somewhat inconsistent. Both skew towards very challenging and often I had better luck getting the gems and gold on the supposed more difficult gem path. Still, the game’s difficulty starts harsh and just gets brutal. If you don’t have prior Runner experience, it can get maddening--I quickly abandoned any hope of getting 100% on this one, which is a disappointing because I’d 100%’d previous Runner games.

The game looks very pretty, generally, and the music is usually excellent. When you have the volume up sufficiently high, the music syncs with all the actions and gold bar-grabbing and that produces a joyful response. The writing is phenomenal and always worth a chuckle. Charles Martinet (the voice of Mario) is, as usual, a delight as the Narrator. And Runner 3 does do something I genuinely enjoy: Hero Quests. It’s the other big addition to the formula: certain stages contain large NPCs who will task you with…something that usually involves finding things in other stages…and when you find those things and come back to the NPC, you unlock a new character. Yes, this means there are lots of characters to unlock. It also encourages you to be observant on your traversals when you aren’t busy avoiding being sent all the way back to the beginning of a three-minute stage because you didn’t anticipate the floor falling away. It’s not a perfect system, but I appreciate the intent.

There are also new retro stages. Unfortunately, they’re not aping any particular older console style, instead going for kind of a “cheap Flash animation” vibe—of which they’re successful. Commander Video isn’t running anymore as the retro stages are action platformers with no directed running of any kind. It just doesn’t fit. There’s nothing particularly Runner about it.

There are also boss fights, which are usually quite good in that the bosses are ridiculous (gotta love those giant owls) and feature multiple checkpoints—so they have a leg up on the normal stages.

I don’t know how much else I can say about this, but I imagine you get the point. Runner3 is a massive disappointment. A couple days ago I wondered if maybe I’d misremembered how good Runner2 was. Maybe it also had these irritating flaws and I was blocking them out? I sat down and played the previous game for almost an hour straight, completely enchanted. Replaying Runner2 just cemented why I don’t like Runner3: it is a frustrating, inconsistent mess of a game that feels like work—a complete misfire.

Second Opinion by Neal Ronaghan:

I didn’t expect to walk away from Runner3 so disappointed. I hold Runner2 as one of my favorite games in recent memory (I gave it a 10/10 at launch!) and Runner3, while still fun in spurts, tore down so much of what I loved about the previous game. The biggest problem is in the cruel, “gotcha!” level design. Obstacles appear almost out of thin air. Camera shifts hide enemies. Platforms inexplicably fall. Levels stopped being fun rhythmic experiences and quickly turned into rote memorization. Making it worse, the longer levels and singular mid-level checkpoint make it so that the repetition gets exasperated as you redo chunks of levels after getting continually goosed by out-of-nowhere enemies and barriers. It’s positively maddening.

The saving grace for the levels is that I found that the Hero Quests added some fun replayability. Three characters are hidden in each world, each asking for you to find three items in other levels, all leading up to unlocking a character. This emphasized the better aspects of the level design - the criss-crossing alternate paths and relative malleability. Searching for those unlockables is fun because they mostly didn’t emphasize perfect play; all you have to do is get to the item by any means necessary. They were shorter chunks of the too-long levels that you had to get through.

I wanted to love Runner3, but it’s too frustrating of an experience to ascend to any higher commendation. I’m confused as to how the response to the eminently accessible Runner2 was to make its sequel bitterly hard with no recourse. My enjoyment was consistently interrupted by too much frustrating repetition, an aspect that soiled my affection for the overall style and excellent character selection (Dave, Shovel Knight, Charles Martinet, and Eddie Riggs!). The only people I’d wholeheartedly recommend this game to are the ones who thought Runner2 was too easy. This one’s for you. It sure as hell isn’t for those who want a gentler stroll or don’t have experience with the series.

[Good luck finding it on disc.]

132

TalkBack / Nintendo News Report: Tropical Freeze-out

« on: May 04, 2018, 12:05:08 PM »

Good luck finding it on disc.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/video/47155/nintendo-news-report-tropical-freeze-out

Hey everyone! Tonight around 10:15pm, join a full slate of Nintendo News Reporters for this week's insanity. Tropical Freeze is out on Switch, but it seems to have pulled a vanishing act on Wii U, our frothing demand for Nicalis increases, and more!

Don't forget to grab the audio version of the show on iTunes (also, throw us a review and Alex will address it live),  Google Play or in your podcatcher of choice!

[Have you ever thought "I wish Super Metroid was a roguelike?"]

133

TalkBack / A Robot Named Fight! (Switch eShop) Review

« on: May 01, 2018, 08:31:48 AM »

Have you ever thought "I wish Super Metroid was a roguelike?"

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/47141/a-robot-named-fight-switch-eshop-review

A recent study [citation needed] found that 87% of Switch games are roguelikes. For reasons I can’t begin to fathom, the genre is experiencing a major revival on the platform, but with so many choices, it can be difficult to stand out from the crowd. Enter A Robot Named Fight, which Nintendo fans in particular should get a kick out of: it’s a 2D Metroid game, but in roguelike form. Like most entries in this category, A Robot Named Fight is at once intriguing and infuriating. It does not rise to the hallowed heights of The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth+ but it still manages to be a fun time.

The story is simple: a planet of robots has been decimated by the arrival of a moon-sized orb of flesh that has produced a vast array of gross meat-based enemies. You play as a robot named…Fight (I really don’t like this game’s title) as it attempts to single-handedly stop the fleshy invasion. You start things off with just a normal arm cannon that’s not particularly powerful. You can run around, jump, and aim up or down with the ZL/ZR buttons. Rooms are randomly generated but the zone-by-zone flow appears to be fixed. A minimap in the upper right corner of the screen looks a whole lot like the minimap from Zero Mission. Rooms occasionally harbor upgrades to your speed, health, rate of fire, etc., much like the upgrades from Metroid.

Those upgrades are, of course, randomized, as are the major movement and weapon upgrades that make up the backbone of any halfway decent Metroid imitator. Sometimes you’ll find a rocket launcher, which is a great alternate weapon but can also open certain doors. You may also, instead, find a lightning gun or flamethrower. There’s a device that lets you shoot through walls. There’s a slide move and a surprisingly imaginative Morph Ball analogue. Most environmental barriers can be overcome by at least two separate upgrades, and although the rooms are randomly generated, they do seem to work with the upgrades you find along the way.

You will also find bits of scrap left by enemies and colorful relics that can be traded to infrequently encountered robot oracles who will either be pleased with your offering, offended by your offering, or won’t care either way. I haven’t worked out how their mood is determined—if they’re happy, they sometimes give you a useful item. If they’re offended, you tend to get a temporary or permanent stat drop in one or more areas. In general, I learned to ignore the oracles because the cost of displeasing them was too high. You’ll also find item and weapon-building allies and the extremely rare one-time-use save room.

One thing I do appreciate about A Robot Named Fight is that you are constantly unlocking new equipment, which is then added to the item pool. This is one of the main reasons I fell in love with The Binding of Isaac as I always felt like I was being rewarded for playing. It’s a similar feeling here, and motivates me to continue playing, fighting (sigh) to get farther. However, this game is missing something that Isaac does extremely well: the incredible feeling that comes from becoming an unstoppable force of destruction in maybe 10% of your runs. Maybe I just haven’t unlocked the right items yet, but I never feel especially powerful in A Robot Named Fight. I have yet to go into a boss fight knowing that the battle will be over in five seconds. It’s a feeling I miss.

One problem is that game is not balanced very well. Health upgrades are woefully rare so I agonize over every hit. Boss encounters are rare, but I usually feel like I’m going in underpowered. And truthfully, I die a lot, not just from boss fights but also hard-to-see enemies, spikes, rooms with high temperature, that one bullet that I didn’t notice, and my personal favorite—complete darkness. Certain rooms are completely black, and trying to move through them just results in a lot of unavoidable damage and (eventually) death. Now, there is an item you can eventually find that acts like a lantern in these areas but if you don’t have that lantern, you’re kind of screwed, so maybe turn around if you enter a blackened area.

The game looks great, with a similar aesthetic to an SNES game. The robotic protagonist, who I refuse to call “Fight,” changes a bit with certain upgrades, which is cool. The meat monsters are interesting and generally gross, but their designs tend to repeat before too long (with minor differences). Bosses are a real highlight—typically large amalgamations of body parts. Thankfully, each zone has its own pool of bosses, again like Isaac, to keep things fresh. The music, while catchy, isn’t on the same level. Tracks tend to have short loops and since zone-specific music doesn’t change, you’ll be hearing the same tracks more often than you might like.

A Robot Named Fight is an interesting roguelike, combining that genre’s pros and cons with what’s essentially a Super Metroid framework. While I suspect your mileage may vary, I can’t deny that it’s a fun, if imperfect, experience.

[#TeamDonatello looks well represented]

134

TalkBack / Nintendo News Report: Earnings And A New President

« on: April 26, 2018, 12:29:52 PM »

#TeamDonatello looks well represented

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/video/47104/nintendo-news-report-earnings-and-a-new-president

Hey everyone! Tonight at roughly 10:15 Eastern it's a fully fiscal edition of Nintendo News Report. There might still be news breaking as Nintendo will have an investor's briefing right before showtime, but we'll definitely kick around the announcement of a new company president and the return of "Nintendo-like profits". Plus, if there's time, a Ninja Turtles throwdown.

Don't forget to grab the audio version of the show on iTunes (also, throw us a review and Alex will address it live),  Google Play or in your podcatcher of choice!

[The Doom table makes me want to play Doom real bad.]

135

TalkBack / Pinball FX3: Bethesda Tables Review

« on: April 20, 2018, 08:48:33 AM »

The Doom table makes me want to play Doom real bad.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/reviewmini/47051/pinball-fx3-bethesda-tables-review

I like that my Switch has become a pinball machine, though I’m becoming less and less enthusiastic about playing it on anything but my TV. Handheld or Tabletop modes are fine in a pinch, but these pinball tables are detailed and should be displayed on your TV for maximum enjoyment. This point was driven home by the new trio of Bethesda tables, which need to be played on the biggest screen you can find. This is kind of a downside, but to be fair all three tables are gorgeous.

Let’s start with the heavy hitter: Doom. This is the most traditional pinball table of the trio, featuring lots of looping paths, pop-up enemies to knock down, a cool spinner target, and maybe the most unique bumper trap I’ve ever seen (use L2/R2 to rotate them). The Doom soldier casually stands on the left and the Cyberdemon sits atop the table, looking as badass as possible. This table emphasizes a mission structure: hit the pinball into a yellow portal and choose one of several missions, some of which are tougher than the others. These often result in trying to hit the ball through certain loops but one of the weirder missions has you playing, essentially, Arkanoid on a tiny sub-table, trying to knock over demonic rune stones by guiding your paddle with the L2/R2 buttons. The music and voice samples of the DOOM table are keys to its success—I feel this is the most exciting table and the one I spent the most time on.

Next up, Skyrim. Both this table and the Fallout table share a feature in common: they try to meld RPG mechanics with a pinball table. I was reminded of that NES classic Pinball Quest, though here things are obviously more complex. In Skyrim, you start the game by creating a character using the L2/R2 and A buttons. This process is fairly painless, however you’re using the table’s LED screen to do so, and reading it can be a pain, even on the big screen. You’ll spend a surprising amount of time on the LED screen for equipping items, managing bonuses, opening treasure chests, accepting quests, staying at the Inn, etc. The table itself is deceptively simple-looking and hides a lot of complexity. I had to play around with the view (X button) to get a good idea of how big the Skyrim table actually is.

It’s not a bad table, but the RPG mechanics kind of drag it down. I can see a certain kind of player, or possibly a big Skyrim fan, getting into this but as a man who prefers traditional pinball action, I wasn’t too enraptured. I appreciate that it’s trying to be different (your character progress is even saved from game to game) and I do enjoy the table but it’s nowhere near as good as the Doom table.

Finally, the Fallout table tries to find a happy medium between the two. Again, you create a character (using the LED screen, which is embedded in a Pip-Boy arm band) at the beginning and you’ll revisit the LED screen for certain activities, like buying items at the store or choosing an alignment. However, the RPG trappings aren’t as prominent as the Skyrim table. The Fallout table is quite large but, again, you have to mess with the View button to get a good idea of the layout. This table has maybe the worst secondary flipper position of all three tables in that they’re both hard to see and it’s difficult to judge where the ball is in relation to them. In general, the Fallout table is too busy, visually, and it can be tough to figure out where you’re supposed to be shooting the ball. I don’t want to say I straight-up dislike the Fallout table, but it’s far and away my least favorite of the three.

In general, I think the Bethesda tables will appeal largely to Bethesda fans. However, the Doom table should be enjoyable to most pinball aficionados, and I daresay it alone is worth the price of admission.

[This is a weird one, but it's a good kind of weird.]

136

TalkBack / Super Daryl Deluxe (Switch eShop) Review

« on: April 12, 2018, 09:16:35 AM »

This is a weird one, but it's a good kind of weird.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/46979/super-daryl-deluxe-switch-eshop-review

At a certain point in Super Daryl Deluxe, a difficult-to-categorize game from Dan & Gary Games, our plucky hero faces off against a living xylophone while Beethoven and a music producer watch from a balcony above. Upon seeing his instrumental invention defeated by a lanky teenager, the music producer leaves in a huff, allowing Beethoven to take back the music department and replace the producer’s damnable beatbox with his beloved piano. If you think any of that is weird, you should know it’s not nearly the weirdest thing I’ve experienced during my time with Super Daryl Deluxe.

When newcomer Daryl transfers to Water Falls High, he finds it in a bit of a transition period. Students and teachers have been disappearing for weeks, classes have been cancelled, and the school administrators become more suspicious by the day. Textbooks in particular are in such short supply that two enterprising young students—Alan and Paul—have set up a business in which textbooks are a form of currency. Daryl, a lanky Napoleon Dynamite-type, is quickly roped into this new business venture, running errands for his colleagues, which eventually take him into some very surreal places.

Super Daryl Deluxe is essentially a side-scrolling RPG with brawler combat. Daryl takes on quests from a variety of sources, many of which lead to new quests or feed into other quests you’re already pursuing. Quests go from blasé (“find a hairbrush”) to bizarre (“bury this dead rat”) to increasingly surreal (“get Leonardo de Vinci to cough up the money he owes Beethoven”). Completing quests gives Daryl experience points, textbooks, and/or equipment, and it is here where the game’s RPG trappings really come to the fore.

Daryl can earn standard level-up experience but also skill experience. Skills are attacks that you buy from Alan and Paul with textbooks. A surprising variety of attacks are available to buy and they can all be upgraded via skill experience. You can have four attacks on hand at any one time, assigned to the face buttons and one to a shoulder button (you do the assigning). There’s your standard three-punch combo, but then there’s a camera flash stun, a mop uppercut, a rubber ducky slingshot, and many more, some of which include status effects. All skills have level requirements so that you’re not too powerful right off the bat. Each skill also has a cool-down. Half the fun is experimenting and finding an attack combination that you’re comfortable with.

Your enemies tend to be very strange things, like ambulatory maracas, tuba-playing ghosts, derpy chemistry beakers, and knife-wielding rats dressed in stereotypical French outfits. Did I mention this game is surreal? Depending on where you are in the school or what quest line you’re attacking, you wind up doing a lot of combat. I was surprised by how careful you have to be—enemies that are even a couple levels higher than Daryl can wreck you so it pays to be cautious. Thankfully, the game throws equipment at you like it’s going out of style so you can wear numerous things that will increase your health, defense, attack power, and more. You can win equipment from completing quests or you can buy it from shady-looking students who typically take up residence in the bathrooms.

The brawling can be a little tiresome and there are times where your quest log is full but you’re not totally sure of where you’re supposed to go, but Super Daryl Deluxe is hilarious, charming, and gorgeous, and that pushed me through a lot of minor complaints. The writing—good lord, the writing—is excellent. Quick-witted and with a wonderful sense of character, I never stopped smiling and chuckling while reading the dialogue. It’s the little things that get me the most: I laughed out loud, scaring the dog, when I tried to talk to Beethoven and his response was “PARDON?” He’s deaf! It was so perfect.

The game looks great, too, with a comic-book style filled by a minimal use of color. Every single object is gorgeous, and a huge variety of art styles crop up for the different zones of the school. The characters are also lovingly crafted. One of your classmates is a bear! Just watching Daryl animate is entertaining in itself. His cartoonish walk and run cycles are great, but I love how he ducks and the huge variety of animations for his attacks (I love his lightning bolt pose) is endlessly inventive.

My complaints about the game are few. First, there are a lot of kill rooms. That is to say, a lot of quests come down to killing a bunch of enemies, either for the sake of killing them or because they might drop certain items. The combat is inventive but it’s ultimately repetitious brawler fare, so your mileage may vary. Second, despite having a bunch of quests going at the same time, it’s not often clear what you’re supposed to do or where you’re supposed to go. I often stumbled across solutions while doing something else. Third, and this is maybe my biggest issue, leveling up takes a really long time, and there will be times you’ll want to grind before going into the next enemy-filled area. Now, there are plenty of places to grind (just revisit any dungeon) but grinding for experience in a brawler is not always great.

However, Super Daryl Deluxe is fantastic despite those minor inconveniences. The story becomes increasingly strange, the locations increasingly surreal, and the dialogue increasingly funny. I can’t say I’ve played too many games like this, and I’m very happy to have had the opportunity.

[The Vita is dead; long live the Vita.]

137

TalkBack / Gal*Gun 2 (Switch) Review

« on: April 11, 2018, 06:08:33 AM »

The Vita is dead; long live the Vita.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/46966/galgun-2-switch-review

Remember the PlayStation Vita? I sure do. It was Sony’s half-assed attempt to level-up the PSP, but it failed for many of the same reasons—first and foremost among them, Sony left it on somebody’s doorstep and ran in the other direction. The spunky little handheld received almost no first-party support and eventually mutated into a bastion for weird Japanese waifu games, like Hyperdimension Neptunia, Senran Kagura,  and, of course, Gal*Gun. Now that Sony has stopped producing Vitas and memory sticks are not just prohibitively expensive but harder and harder to find, one wonders where waifu games will end up. The answer is that they’re going to end up on the Nintendo Switch.

Gal*Gun 2 is, counterintuitively, the third game in the Gal*Gun series, which has, until now, only made it to Vita and Steam in North America. All three games are, shall we say, whimsical first-person shooters in which you are approached by amorous female high school students and must shoot them with a “Pheromone Shot” until they collapse in a heap of ecstasy and disappear (where they go is not made clear). In between missions, you maintain chatty relationships with several female students and your choices affect the flow and ending.

In Gal*Gun 2, the setup is largely the same. A cute female angel, Risu, gives you the “Pheromone Goggles” and matching gun and asks you to hunt down little Chibi demons that have run amok at your high school. Thanks to the goggles, only you can see angels and demons. During most missions, you move between several spots in a single location, aiming in all directions to shoot girls and more importantly, the demons they potentially harbor. Once you shoot the demons off the girls, you suck them up in a vacuum. The goggles however, also attract normal girls to you, and they will mindlessly flock in your direction.

You take care of this by shooting them several times until they joyously collapse in a heap of ecstasy and disappear. Each girl in the game has a “weak point” on her head, chest, torso, or legs. A single shot to that spot (which highlights as you pass your reticule over it) is an instant KO. Otherwise, girls take several shots to put down. Girls with demons stuck to them are shielded from your Pheromone Shot until you pop the demons off, at which point you can hit the girl in her weak point and suck up the Chibi demons. Once your vacuum gun is sufficiently powerful, you can actually just hold down the "suck" button and inhale both Chibi demons and the clothing of your targets.

You do this repeatedly until the mission ends. Two variations on this theme are included: in one, you must simply defend some girls from waves of incoming demons by either shooting or sucking them up. If the girls run out of HP, the mission fails. In the other, you are looking for specific objects, Metroid: Other M-style, within a short amount of time, and you’re usually attacked by girls at the same time. These pixel-hunt missions border on frustrating and I tried to avoid them whenever possible. The objects you’re asked to find are often downright tiny and the time limits are too short to include scouring an environment and shooting down girls.

In between missions, you’ll have lengthy conversations with four characters: your angel buddy Risu, neighbor Chiru, classmate Nanako, and Kurona the Demon who’s apparently been in previous Gal*Gun games. She seems to be the cause of the Chibi outbreak at your school. Dialogue trees tend to stick with a good, bad, and neutral response, which is fine, but a few times you are given “pervy” and “not quite as pervy” options, which I didn’t like. The main mission types and the story sequences make up the bulk of gameplay. As you progress through the story, you’ll constantly accrue candy (more on this in a second) and decorations for your room.

Completing optional side missions reward you with the phone number of the girl who requested it. You can call her up at any time, which acts largely as a character model viewer but you can give her candy to make her like you, change her outfit (there’s apparently DLC coming) and…fantasize about her.

We should probably talk about the fantasizing. Hold on, let me pour a shot of Fireball.

*gulps it down* *pounds table*

At various times during the main story, you will be asked to exorcise Risu, Chiru, Nanako, and Kurona of demons that have managed to get into their bodies. This is also what the “fantasizing” option is when meeting up with classmates (although there it doesn’t have any story consequences). In this mini-game, you have a certain amount of time to poke around at her body, and when you find an area that houses demons, you shoot it like crazy while she moans until all the demons are out (you’ll know when that happens). You continue doing this until time runs out. Yes, kids, demons have a tendency to gather on the bust, rear, small of back, and lips. For some reason they also like hands, feet, and knees. If you do this enough on any particular girl, her clothes disappear and she’s reduced to a bra and panties.

This is weird enough on its face, but when you consider that all of the students at this high school—all of the students—are underage teenage girls, your teeth start to grind. Kurona is a straight-up loli character and Chiru isn’t much better. It’s difficult to describe how uncomfortable these sequences made me. If only the screenshot button could be used to memorialize by face reflected in the screen—it would be an expression of abject horror. The classmate meetups are totally optional and you don’t have to do them, but the four main characters’ exorcisms are story sequences. It’s bad enough that you’re creeping on schoolgirls, but their jailbait dialogue and ecstatic vocalizations is just too much.

This is a line in the sand I’m not comfortable crossing. “But Zach,” I hear you say, “you love the Senran Kagura series, which is totally about ridiculously busty schoolgirls tearing their clothes off each other.” I wondered about this too. In Senran, it’s the girls who are shredding each other to pieces. They have agency; they’re the ones doing the deed. In Gal*Gun 2, it feels completely exploitive. I should mention that all of the Senran games have mildly pervy dress-up modes where you can poke at a character’s body to elicit different reactions—this is a mode I always avoid because, again, it strikes me as exploitive.

If you can get past the underage ogling thing, Gal*Gun 2 is a fun, if short, game. Once you beat it, you can start a New Game+, which keeps all your phone contacts and goggle/gun upgrades, but the only real motivation for replaying Gal*Gun 2 is to pick different responses and see where the story winds up. Otherwise there’s not much meat on these underage bones. I don’t know if I can recommend Gal*Gun 2. I’m not trying to be a social justice warrior here; I’m just saying that poking at the half-naked bodies of minors is creepy. The rest of the game is fine, and maybe there’s a dialogue tree that avoids those creeper parts; I don’t know. If that stuff makes you uneasy, I’d avoid this waifu game.

[No Dropkick Murphys on the jukebox tonight.]

138

TalkBack / Nintendo News Report: The PAX East Home Team

« on: April 05, 2018, 11:31:44 AM »

No Dropkick Murphys on the jukebox tonight.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/video/46909/nintendo-news-report-the-pax-east-home-team

Hey everyone! We'll celebrate night one of PAX East tonight at 10:30 Eastern with the News Report crew that didn't ship up to Boston - Donald, Zach, and Justin - hitting the big stories of the week. There's some interesting games announced for Switch to talk about, but the biggest news may be something that hasn't been confirmed for Switch. Yet.

Don't forget to grab the audio version of the show on iTunes (also, throw us a review and Alex will address it live),  Google Play or in your podcatcher of choice!

[Just pretend you've never read or seen Sin City.]

139

TalkBack / Metropolis: Lux Obscura (Switch eShop) Review

« on: March 28, 2018, 12:41:59 PM »

Just pretend you've never read or seen Sin City.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/46860/metropolis-lux-obscura-switch-eshop-review

Metropolis: Lux Obscura is easy to describe: it’s a motion comic interspersed with Puzzle Quest-like fight sequences, all set to the tune of a thinly-veiled homage to Sin City. The protagonist is kind of a combination of Marv, Hartigan, and Dwight (if you’ve seen the movie) and is freshly out of the slammer trying to track down an old stripper friend named Goldie. He visits a strip club where a dancer named Bliss helps track Goldie down. Meanwhile, there’s a violent, womanizing senator’s son threatening a woman and her daughter who Lockheart can try to save. In all this, Lockheart battles street thugs, bouncers, an Elvis impersonator, actual dogs, and the fuzz on his way to four possible endings.

For what it’s worth, the art in Metropolis: Lux Obscura is gorgeous. Hundreds of separate drawings form the backbone of the game’s characterizations and atmosphere. The art has a J. Scott Campbell feel to it, if J. Scott Campbell were to take a swing at Sin City. Being a motion comic, there’s minimal animation but it works. The game also has impressive voice acting (for the most part) and the storytelling is usually good. There’s definitely a “best” ending, although I can’t say it’s very uplifting.

You can usually select what part of town Lockheart visits, which influences the story’s progression, and there is the rare occasion where you get to choose what to do during a story sequence. The bulk of the gameplay, however, takes place during brawls, at which point Metropolis turns into Puzzle Quest.

It’s a typical match-three tile game, where the icons represent attacks, stat boosts, health, or police encounters (avoid that last one). Most enemies give you several turns to rack up damage before landing their own blows. This is fun in theory but it is not Panel de Pon. Here, you can only move one tile per turn vertically or horizontally, which counts as a single turn, and you have to make a match every turn. This effectively means you can’t set up chains or get your tiles in a strategically favorable position. When chains do occur, it’s thanks to providence, not skill. You’re going to lose a lot. Restarting the match happens quickly but if the tiles aren’t cooperating you’re just beating your head against the wall.

Metropolis’ solution is to offer you a choice of permanent modifiers for future brawls every time you win a match. You can make more health tiles appear, increase the damage done by fist-based tiles, potentially turn police tiles into stat boost tiles, etc. These are great but almost always based on an invisible D10 dice roll—stacking the same mod just widens the success window. Mods are not going to help you if you need to match some damn health tiles but they’re nowhere near each other on the board. I eventually got used to the flow of combat (it helps that there’s no timer) but it often feels like you don’t have much control.

However, the game is very short, and you shouldn’t have much trouble seeing all four endings within a few play sessions. The art and voice acting carried me through the Puzzle Quest bits. I should mention that the game is loaded with adult content. Oh sure, there’s drinking, smoking and cursing, but there are also topless strippers and at least one surprisingly graphic sex scene. How graphic? Well, Lockheart might want to think about manscaping. I will say I’ve never played a game like Metropolis: Lux Obscura and I’m glad I did, but I think it has narrow appeal. If you like Sin City, it’s worth a look.

[A game so nice I reviewed it thrice.]

140

TalkBack / Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (Switch eShop) Review Mini

« on: March 21, 2018, 07:51:23 AM »

A game so nice I reviewed it thrice.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/reviewmini/46776/shantae-and-the-pirates-curse-switch-eshop-review-mini

Here it is, folks: the best Shantae game. Yes, Half-Genie Hero—which I’ll be buying later this year when it comes to Switch physically—is a fantastic game that improved over time thanks to a healthy amount of DLC. However, for my money, it really doesn’t get any better than Pirate’s Curse, which neatly summarizes everything I like about Shantae: witty writing, gorgeous spritework and animation, an interesting moveset used to explore large environments, and a big dose of cheesecake. If you haven’t played Pirate’s Curse previously on 3DS or Wii U, it’s now available on Switch. If you have a 3DS, I recommend that version because its use of 3D is inspired. If you have a 2DS or you can’t see 3D, then you should get it on whichever system you’re more likely to play it on. Here, I’ll briefly discuss what sets the Switch version apart from earlier iterations.

If you want a breakdown of the story and gameplay of Pirate’s Curse, check out that link to my review of the 3DS version, above. The Switch version is a port of the 3DS physical game card version. That boxed copy received a bonus feature, although I can’t say how much of a bonus it was: in the game’s item shop, you could find an arcade machine upon which you could play Super Shantae Nab! Which is—I’m not kidding—a slightly-altered WarioWare DIY microgame. In it, you try to line up Shantae (in Monkey form) as she scoots up and down a palm tree, then press A to zip across and hopefully nab a floating gem.

This is an easy way to rack up gems, but there are quicker ways (like repeatedly visiting the Tan Line temple), so Super Shantae Nab isn’t particularly compelling. It’s a cute inclusion but not worth the price of admission. The other new feature is HD rumble, which happens with surprising (but welcome) frequency. Again, not a game-making change but an appreciated one. Otherwise, this is the same Pirate’s Curse we’ve been playing since 2014. Back then, I called it one of my favorite 3DS games and I maintain that opinion today. Get it in whatever form is most convenient for you (but seriously the 3D effect is ridiculous).

[This game's reach is longer than my patience for it.]

141

TalkBack / The Long Reach (Switch eShop) Review

« on: March 19, 2018, 05:42:42 AM »

This game's reach is longer than my patience for it.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/46735/the-long-reach-switch-eshop-review

The Long Reach is a 2D sidescrolling adventure-type game where your character wanders around gathering things and then using those things to get other things and then, slowly but surely, progress. This game also has the distinction of being a horror game (hey didn’t I just play one of these?), but the tension evaporates somewhat due to the obtuse puzzles and easily missed items that are critical to your path forward. This is one of those games that’s good in theory but not great in practice.

Some terrible event, seemingly caused by science run amok, is causing people to hallucinate, go crazy and slaughter their friends and colleagues. Your job, as a junior researcher in a secret laboratory, is to survive, escape, and maybe find help. You do this by wandering through impractically dark hallways, straining your eyes to see if certain items are highlighted with a yellow outline, which means they can be interacted with. Sometimes, your character will just say something snarky about it, other times he’ll pick it up and add it to his inventory. Then, it’s off to another dark hallway to “click” on every interactive object and hope something happens—an unfortunate staple of the genre.

The game is too dark. Not just the color palette, but in terms of lighting, The Long Reach struggles with even basic visibility. It’s particularly vexing when you go into a room in which the lights are off, find the light switch to turn them on and the result is barely any better. The darkness constantly obscures items you need to interact with (the entire object should turn yellow, not just its outline), and in at least two instances, I simply could not see an object I needed to use in order to solve a puzzle. I more or less accidentally activated the objects by pressing “A” repeatedly while moving forward because there was nothing else I could do. Even with the game’s “gamma” setting pushed to its limit, the encroaching darkness was just too much. This problem is magnified if you’re playing The Long Reach in tabletop or handheld mode.

Aside from the darkness, I like the game’s pixel-based aesthetic; this is what an SNES point-and-click adventure game would probably look like. The nature of the game’s plot brings with it some spooky visual effects that reminded me of my beloved Eternal Darkness, and I wish there’d been more of that. The sound design is also effective, but the music doesn’t loop. The track ends and immediately restarts, but there’s a mismatch between the end and the beginning, which I found distracting. The game’s dialogue is filled with grammatical, spelling and word-choice errors, which made the English major in me wince. Despite all this, the game’s storyline is bizarre (and Lovecraftian) in all the right ways and I found myself pushing through frustration in order to find out what happens next.

Two more things that I should mention: First, you randomly lose control of your character. That is, button inputs stop working for several seconds. This is a bug, and it’s not a game-breaking bug, but don’t be surprised if it happens to you. Second, the load times are severe to the point where you start to wonder if maybe the game hard-locked on the loading screen.

All told, The Long Reach could have used some more time in the oven. It presents issues that seem readily solvable—lighting, object highlighting, proof reading—but in its current form, the game is frustrating and not particularly enjoyable. Maybe some of the problems can be patched out, but until that happens, I can’t recommend The Long Reach despite its intriguing storyline.

[This is not my kind of game.]

142

TalkBack / Membrane (Switch eShop) Review Mini

« on: March 02, 2018, 03:21:16 PM »

This is not my kind of game.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/reviewmini/46585/membrane-switch-eshop-review-mini

Membrane is a trippy puzzle platformer with a unique art style and the physics engine of Little Big Planet. I think most of us can agree that Little Big Planet was a great game except for that wonky physics engine. Jumping, in particular, never felt particularly precise. This was frustrating, but the rest of the game was so charming (the soundtrack is still amazing, by the way) that we suffered through it happily. Membrane has physics akin to Little Big Planet but lacks everything surrounding it.

You control a little yellow man who has a triangle for a head. Triangle Man can run around, jump, and fire little red squares from his noggin. These squares stick to black walls, certain environmental objects, and each other. You can aim by holding the L or R buttons, at which point a handy arc will appear to help you line up shots. Triangle Man can create bridges, ramps, support structures, etc. with his red square shots. If you feel the need to destroy one of your creations, you can also fire triangles, which knock red squares down and turn them yellow, where they return to Triangle Man’s body.

Triangle Man must deal with many environmental hazards like giant green balls that break green walls, poisonous water, actual water, icy walls that deflect your red squares, switches, spikes, balance beams, and a host of other things.

The problem is that Membrane is extremely freeform, but at the same time, it’s not. You go from puzzle room to puzzle room and have to figure out how to get from beginning to end with nothing but your wits. This is usually not terribly difficult, but there are some rooms—even fairly early rooms—that gave me way too much trouble because the solution was surprisingly constrained. This is also where the physics engine can give you trouble; difficult puzzles become more difficult when things like jumping and balancing on red blocks is inconsistent. One other thing that bothers me: Membrane goes by from room to room—you have to solve one before moving on to the next, which means that if you’re stuck in a particular room, there’s no way around it.

Overall, I just wasn’t enjoying the game, which is a problem. There’s definitely some inventive puzzling here, but I found the experience more frustrating than fun.

[Finally something good comes out of Jurassic World.]

143

TalkBack / Pinball FX3: Jurassic World Tables (Switch eShop) Review

« on: February 26, 2018, 03:20:01 PM »

Finally something good comes out of Jurassic World.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/46554/pinball-fx3-jurassic-world-tables-switch-eshop-review

This was my first experience with Zen Studio’s excellent Pinball FX3; if you want a refresher on what it is, check out Neal’s review of the shell around which these pinball tables are gathered. You get three unique pinball tables with the Jurassic World pack—one based on Jurassic World, one based on Jurassic Park, and a third, Pinball Mayhem, that’s based on Jurassic Park Builder (not really but that’s the closest comparison). The first two tables are great, the third is okay, and I’m rediscovering my love of virtual pinball.

The Jurassic World table is the most traditional licensed pinball game of the three—it is a long table with several loops, flashing lights, sound effects, and voice samples from the film. In fact, the table boots up with maybe the worst voice sample in the entire film—that bratty kid whining “I don’t wanna wait anymore” but all the words blur together because he can’t be bothered to enunciate. Otherwise, the voice samples are mostly from Star Lord (aka Chris Pratt) and High Heels Redhead (aka Bryce Dallas Howard). For all of the tables, I recommend reading the detailed summaries because each has a lot of things to do. After that, I found the 5 Minute Challenge to be the best way to learn each table (Neal was right). Of the three, the Jurassic World table is both the most interesting and the most intuitive thanks to the board being clean (though it’s rather dark).

The Jurassic Park table is a little more old-school. It’s a shorter table with more “gimmick” set pieces, like a sequence involving the Tyrannosaurus chasing a jeep on a little treadmill, or raptors standing guard by the flippers, ready to snatch up the ball. The table has a strange ball launch: you’re supposed to “get the ball in the nest” by feathering the launch and bouncing the ball into a moving receptacle. I’ve never done this successfully (the ball just bounces over it) and it eventually becomes kind of an annoyance. The voice samples here are much better overall, featuring a lot of Robert Muldoon, John Hammond, and somebody trying real hard to sound like Mr. DNA. The Jurassic Park table arguably provides a better 5 Minute Challenge, but overall I didn’t like it as much as the Jurassic World table.

The third table is called Jurassic Park: Pinball Mayhem, and it is completely original. The backdrop is building and repairing the park and corralling the animals. It features a Tyrannosaurus facing down a Stegosaurus towards the top of the table, which ends up being more distracting than anything else. This table seems wider than the previous two and is fairly short, length-wise. A big focus is on hitting specific targets quickly and it features a Stegosaurus tail-whacking minigame that I have yet to really figure out. All three tables have mini-games to some extent, and none of them are particularly intuitive.

As an introduction to Pinball FX3, the Jurassic Park tables have been wonderful and provided an excellent reminder of how much I enjoy video game pinball. They’re not perfect (what pinball table is?) but I really enjoyed them.

[Half of this game is really fun.]

144

TalkBack / Aqua Kitty UDX (Switch eShop) Review Mini

« on: February 16, 2018, 07:54:20 AM »

Half of this game is really fun.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/reviewmini/46462/aqua-kitty-udx-switch-eshop-review-mini

Let’s get something out of the way: despite its title, Aqua Kitty UDX (which must mean Ultra Deluxe) has very little to do with cats. Cats are the protagonists, sure, but nothing you do is particularly cat-specific. You’re manning (“catting?”) a submarine, defending your feline compatriots from being kidnapped by hostile marine fauna so that they can mine milk from below the ocean floor. Yes, none of this makes sense. If you’ve ever played or are in any way familiar with the 1981 arcade game Defender, that’s about the gist of Aqua Kitty UDX.

This is essentially a horizontal shooter. Enemy fodder consists of cybernetic sea creatures that flood the battlefield in waves. Some of them try to shoot you, others try to catnap the miners. Survive the waves and go on to the next stage (I feel like I just did this). Every fourth stage provides a boss encounter. You only have two methods to deal with the robofauna: shooting an unlimited single shot or a meatier triple shot. You only have so many triple shots, but they are restored over time. Power-ups exist in the form of color-changing drones that, when destroyed, leave behind color-specific enhancements, like more health, drone assistance, or a new shot type.

The whole thing is very ho-hum. Aqua Kitty UDX has a nice difficulty curve, but both Normal Mode (which I just described) and Arcade Mode (which gives you a single life) are kind of rote. Eventually I was just going through the motions, but aside from in-game achievements, I found little reason to keep playing. If online leaderboards are your thing, they may provide some motivation but not for me.

However, a third mode, unique to UDX, salvages the entire game. It’s called Dreadnought Mode. In it, you rescue captured kitties while trying to destroy increasingly complex mechanical monstrosities within a certain amount of time. Each new stage is more devious than the last, and Aqua Kitties UDX is suddenly transformed into a proper bullet-hell shooter. You have to deal with cannons, passing robotic wildlife, and the occasional barrage of torpedoes raining from above. Power-up drones appear more frequently (thank god) but the biggest barrier to success is your health bar. I really enjoy Dreadnought Mode—it puts the other two modes to shame. I will say that its difficulty curve is nearly vertical, though; be prepared to die a lot.

The game has a surprisingly enjoyable soundtrack, too. The spritework is also quite good but everything is way too small. As a result, I recommend playing Aqua Kitty UDX on your TV. There’s also a two-player co-op option, which is nice. In the end, I enjoyed Dreadnought Mode but found Normal/Arcade Mode to be uninspiring. If you need an underwater bullet-hell shooter, Aqua Kitty UDX should scratch that itch.

[No, not ten million copies sold. Yet.]

145

TalkBack / Nintendo News Report: Splatoon 2 Gets The Inevitable

« on: February 15, 2018, 11:36:00 AM »

No, not ten million copies sold. Yet.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/video/46460/nintendo-news-report-splatoon-2-gets-the-inevitable

Hey everyone! Join Alex, Donald, Zach, and Justin for this week's Nintendo News Report. On the show this week; Splatoon 2 gets what we all knew was coming - plus some more, a whole bunch of Switch games got announced, and probably a lot of what we're playing.

Don't forget to grab the audio version of the show on iTunes (also, throw us a review and Alex will address it live),  Google Play or in your podcatcher of choice!

[It's good to be the king.]

146

TalkBack / Mercenary Kings: Reloaded Edition (Switch eShop) Review

« on: February 06, 2018, 04:25:00 AM »

It's good to be the king.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/46369/mercenary-kings-reloaded-edition-switch-eshop-review

Once in a great while, a game I know absolutely nothing about comes across my desk for review and absolutely floors me. Shovel Knight was one of those games, and Mercenary Kings is another. Interestingly, both were Kickstarted. The latter was released in 2014 for PC and PS4 but this “Reloaded Edition” will hit the Switch, Xbox One, and Vita this week. It contains new characters, quality-of-life improvements, and more things to craft than in the original game. Trailers make Mercenary Kings look like Metal Slug, but that comparison isn’t quite right; this is a unique animal that I fell madly in love with.

The Mercenary Kings are a band of paramilitary action heroes out to stop Commander Baron and his evil CLAW organization (Inspector Gadget not included). Baron has set up shop on the mysterious Mandragora Island and is bent on using its magical properties to create super soldiers to take over the world. You take control of one of the Kings—King, Empress, Frigg or C-Zar—and get sent out on dozens upon dozens of missions to take out the villains. The setup is simple: pick a character, select a mission, and then head out to the field. You have a certain amount of time to complete one or more goals. Once the primary goal is fulfilled, you warp back to your base camp.

Gameplay might best be described as Mega Man-esque: you run around surprisingly large 2D platforming levels shooting baddies, finding materials, blowing things up, and rescuing hostages. Your character has four inventory slots, though it’s really just two: your gun and radio transceiver are always there. The other slots can be used for a number of other useful things, like med kits, C4, or grenades. There’s a respectable variety of enemy types that includes humans, robots, and animals. The rare boss encounter typically involves a mech of some kind with easily-discernible attack patterns.

Throughout each mission, all kinds of materials in crates can be found or dropped by fallen enemies. Once back at camp, this loot can be utilized to craft new gun parts, knives, armor, etc. This is an addictive process largely because the loot is so casually strewn about and I never felt like I had to go hunt for a specific item. Gun parts can be swapped around to create a wealth of firearms, though I appreciated that not all parts of compatible with each other, thus keeping my OCD min/max tendencies in check.

Missions are short enough that I can complete a healthy number every time I turn the game on, but a few seem more tailored towards multiplayer. Mercenary Kings encourages multiplayer, either couch co-op or online. Couch co-op involves splitting the screen into four quadrants. Online play is easy to set up: you turn your status from offline to local/public/friends and then sit for a couple minutes. There is no lobby. There is no list of people playing or trying to get a game going. You sit at base camp and wait for other players to pop into existence. It's unclear how the game decides who's hosting, but it was never me, and thus I couldn't choose the mission. However, when playing with friends, I could create a room and choose the mission. I did not encounter any lag, drops, or other hiccups; online works pretty darn well and populating a game is very quick. This could be the next great online Switch game, folks.

Graphically speaking, Mercenary Kings is essentially a sprite-based cartoon. It looks great, with expressive characters and really nice environments. If the aesthetic looks familiar, it’s because Tribute was the developer of that Scott Pilgrim beat-em-up from a few years back. I was initially surprised by the fact that human enemies bleed when killed, but it’s always kind of over-the-top (one dude’s head blows up like a balloon before popping) and I quickly moved past it. The music is phenomenal with a couple earworms that I can’t quite exorcise from my brain.

Mercenary Kings is a great time by my lonesome and online, both with friends and rando's. It's definitely worth checking out.

[This game is ridiculous but I like it a lot.]

147

TalkBack / Earth Wars (Switch eShop) Review

« on: February 03, 2018, 09:51:58 AM »

This game is ridiculous but I like it a lot.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/46357/earth-wars-switch-eshop-review

If I had to break Earth Wars down for you, I’d say this: it is a sci-fi take on Muramasa with a loot system and a really questionable art style. Most of the game works really well, but the parts that don’t really don’t. It delivers some surprisingly robust gameplay that I genuinely enjoy.

The Earth has been attacked by a cabal of aliens called the E.B.E. and it’s up to you—a soldier who has been modified with enemy technology or something—to turn the tide of war. You will do this by shooting, slashing, and pillaging your enemies through a post-apocalyptic United States, upgrading your gear by crafting new stuff from the organs of your fallen enemies, and trying really hard to understand the skill system before giving up and just going with what works.

The first thing to do is customize your soldier, though no combination of options creates anything other than a hideous marionette (female) or a giant block of armor with a head (male). The character designers are trying to do that Vanillaware thing where each character is made up of several different layers, and they all move independently to some extent. But while Vanillaware has mastered this technique, developer One or Eight Inc. has not. To be fair, every enemy in the game looks really cool and the Vanillaware effect is pulled off more successfully there. But the human characters? Jesus, man, if this is what humanity has been reduced to, let ‘em go.

Thankfully, once you get out into the field and start playing the game, Earth Wars comes together quite well. Your character’s moveset is roughly similar to that of Muramasa except that you’re carrying two weapons: a sword in one hand and a gun in the other. Enemy encounters are brief affairs and you’re graded on your performance (you’re also graded at the end of a mission). Missions consist of running through a 2D landscape that is just stunningly gorgeous until you fight a boss, rescue a dude, find a specific item, or collect so many specific alien organs. Plot-driven missions are often interrupted by a significant amount of downtime where you can take on extraneous, lower stakes missions that generally provide an opportunity to get more loot and money.

Your spoils go towards crafting newer, better weapons, armor, and accessories. You can also simply upgrade your current armament if there’s nothing available that you want to craft. You can break down old stuff into component parts, too. What’s nice about the armor, especially, is that most of it has a unique look and gives you some customization options for your soldier’s body.Once you’re done crafting things, you can head to the skill setting area, which I cannot even begin to understand. There’s this giant vertical shaft and on one side you have blue attribute bonuses and red on the other side. You can turn each bonus on or off, up to a certain number. You learn new skills organically by leveling up in the field (oh yeah, you level up). You can also radically alter your character’s stats by changing from offense-focused to defense-focused or balanced. And each of these builds has its own skill tree. Oh, and there’s a system in place where you can “tie” skills on one side of the tree to skills on the other side, but I have no idea why you’d want to do that or what the effect is.

The skill management system is a broken, confusing mess is what I’m saying. If any of you figure out how it’s supposed to work, please let me know.

And that’s pretty much the whole game. Go on missions, kill some aliens, grab some loot, and craft your way to victory. Everything except the human characters looks great and there are some nifty graphical effects here and there. Control is smooth and combat is fun, especially the bonuses you get for random things like attacking from behind, destroying enemy shields, etc. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I like the loot/crafting system largely because it happens organically and you’re not hunting anything down. Earth Wars is a fun game, well worth the ridiculously cheap price (five bucks). It’s not perfect but it’s a spirited attempt to imitate Muramasa.

[I can dig it.]

148

TalkBack / SteamWorld Dig Dig: A Fistful of Dirt (Switch eShop) Review Mini

« on: January 31, 2018, 01:54:06 PM »

I can dig it.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/reviewmini/46337/steamworld-dig-dig-a-fistful-of-dirt-switch-eshop-review-mini

Many, if not most of you dear readers probably played SteamWorld Dig several years ago when it came to the 3DS. If not there, then perhaps one of the ports released on just about every other concurrent digital store at the time. I liked, but did not love, SteamWorld Dig back then, and I have not gone back to it since that initial release. But now, inevitably, Image & Form's original subterranean platformer has been released on the Switch. Have my feelings changed?

Well, sort of. The game’s “overworld” is a vertical shaft which you must dig through via pickaxe or (later) drill bit. The gameplay loop is pretty engaging: pick your way down to a goal area while collecting gemstones of varying values and avoiding or killing enemies. Eventually your bag will be full or your lantern will run out of light, so you’ll have to find your way back up the shaft and emerge in a dusty desert town in which you can trade gemstones for money, and trade money for better equipment. And then back down the shaft you go, using that equipment to carry more gemstones, smash harder rocks, and generally stay down there longer.

Special rooms switch things up from time to time, giving you a puzzle to work through. Many of these shafts include a brand-new part, like running shoes or the aforementioned drill arm. SteamWorld Dig gets some of its DNA from Metroid, but not as much as I’d like. Journeying back to previously-explored rooms will occasionally reward you with a previously-inaccessible gemstone but very rarely more than that.

Getting back up the shaft can be kind of tiring, but well-placed teleporters make the journey back to town less arduous. Your part upgrades will cost more and more, and most will eventually require blue orbs (rarely found) as well as cash. I would warn against spending your hard-mined loot on anything disposable or limited use, as you may wind up short on funds for the best stuff later on. The game looks and sounds great on the Switch screen and my TV, for what it’s worth.

My main problem with SteamWorld Dig is that, apart from the puzzle rooms, there’s not a lot of meat on these bones. Second, I recently played (and perhaps you did too) SteamWorld Dig 2, a game that blows its predecessor out of the water in every possible respect. However, it’s interesting to go back to the original after playing its sequel, because you can see how the core gameplay evolved. I like SteamWorld Dig; I just like SteamWorld Dig 2 more and that fact, maybe unfairly, winds up hurting the former. It’s definitely worth playing, though, on whatever system you have that it runs on.

[Your mileage may vary.]

149

TalkBack / 80's Overdrive (3DS eShop) Review

« on: January 31, 2018, 01:46:29 PM »

Your mileage may vary.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/46336/80s-overdrive-3ds-eshop-review

When I look back on the 3DS years from now after they’ve stopped producing systems and the collector’s market starts to pick up, I will fondly recall the SEGA 3D Classics games which introduced me to a library of games that I had rarely or never experienced. There’s a subset of SEGA 3D Classics that are adaptations of seated arcade cabinets: After Burner II, Galaxy Force II, Out Run, Space Harrier, Super Hang-On and Thunder Blade. Of that group, Out Run remains a perennial favorite. Most of these games, Out Run included, make use of a unique graphical effect that simulated speed and forward movement. An easy comparison is to Mode 7 but it’s not really the same. Anyway, it’s a cool effect that went the way of the (non-avian) dinosaur once those arcade cabinets faded into memory.

So you might imagine my excitement when I heard about 80’s Overdrive, a spiritual successor to Out Run by Insane Code that came out at the tail end of 2017. Finally, a racing game even I could enjoy. Well, uh, remember how insanely hyped I was for Metroid: Other M and then I actually played it and felt the painful sting of betrayal? While my feelings towards 80’s Overdrive were not quite as strong, I was similarly disappointed with the outcome of this Out Run homage.

Oh, things start off very promising. This is Out Run with a goal: rise up the ranks by entering increasingly-challenging races featuring a variety of terrains, road styles, and distances. Each race has a small entry fee but the winnings far exceed it. Once you win a race and the cash prize, you can translate that cash into upgrades for your current vehicle. If you’re feeling spendy, you can fork out the cash for a brand new car that is hypothetically better from the get-go and will put your current car to shame.

The game looks incredible, kind of an Out Run meets Miami Vice in terms of aesthetic. You’ll drive through cities, deserts, forests, and along the coast. New to the Out Run formula are hills, which actually look really cool while you’re on them. The cars control well and I never really had to worry about oversteering. For the most part, small corrections will keep you going. The music is wonderful. The core racing component of 80’s Overdrive is solid. Some races contain bonus missions that will net you more cash, like coming in 3rd or damaging this specific rival’s car or collecting items strewn along the road. These missions are generally fun and there’s never a penalty for not completing them.

BUT…and you knew there would be a “but,” the game layers on additional complications that sully the experience.

First, your car takes damage now every time another car bumps into you or vice versa. As damage adds up, your car’s performance starts to nosedive. Second, you now have a tank of gas that slowly depletes over several races. Both of these things can be remedied by spending money between races. At a certain point, you’re spending most of your money on this sort of routine maintenance and you have less and less for upgrades, much less new cars.

In fact, it’s never really clear when you should buy a new car rather than continue pumping money into maintenance and upgrades to your current car. Upgrades are expensive, but so is fueling up and body work. I felt like I was being encouraged to save my money for better stuff while simultaneously being penalized for attempting to keep my car from exploding or running out of gas in the middle of a race. “Look at this shiny new car!” the game says. “But you can’t buy it because you took a hit in that last race, bucko.” Not cool, 80’s Overdrive.

The races themselves are fine as long as you’re willing to put up with a few things. First, if you crash, you may as well restart the race because you’re never going to catch up to the other drivers. It just isn’t possible. Thankfully, you can restart races with no penalty except your time. Since most races are just a few minutes long, it’s not a big issue. The police, however, present a larger problem. Many tracks will have police cars that, once you pass them by, will attempt to ram you off the road and you have to outmaneuver them for a certain amount of time before they give up. Police encounters are never fun and always a pain: they slow down the action and don’t let you concentrate on winning the race, which is the whole point. On narrow roads, outmaneuvering is risky and frustrating.

You can buy two upgrades for your car that should, in theory, make these problems less severe. First, you can buy nitrous, like in The Fast & The Furious,. Activating it (twice per race at top speed) essentially gives you the Super Mario Kart version of a Super Mushroom, but the effect is so short that you won’t make up any significant distance between yourself and the next few racers. The second upgrade is a Police Scanner, which doesn’t really do anything. It tells you, on the bottom screen (which you’re not looking at anyway) when you’re approaching a police car, but it does nothing to help you during the ensuring scuffle.

Eventually I learned that, if I wanted to stay competitive, I’d have to essentially grind for money by repeatedly entering (and winning) races I’d previously completed. Because the game looks so nice, I didn’t mind too much, and since the pre-race info screen tells you the course difficulty, length, and whether The Man is patrolling, I could pick and choose my races.

80’s Overdrive is a very pretty game with really good core mechanics and some really questionable and frankly unnecessary complications layered on top. The take home here is that I really liked it until I didn’t anymore. I still pop in from time to time, but this is not a game I’m particularly compelled to play long-term.

150

TalkBack / Re: Super Meat Boy (Switch eShop) Review Mini

« on: January 25, 2018, 01:33:20 AM »

Probably not, no. And don't click that link to the original soundtrack either, lest your eyes be opened.