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Nintendo is concerned we cannot process all the falling block games we are getting.
BTUACD!!!
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/24647
At first glance, it may be hard to imagine that anything resembling a decent game is inside the packaging of Ben 10 Ultimate Alien: Cosmic Destruction. Anyone thinking this, myself included, is probably not part of the game's intended audience. Ben 10 caters to the younger crowd that follows the (assumedly popular) Cartoon Network cartoon series, and is content with creating an enjoyable adventure for the less sophisticated gamer.
Despite being geared towards a younger audience, Ben 10 has all of the trappings of a game that should be fun for just about anyone. At its best, Ben 10 is an action platformer filled with a wide sampling of playable characters and settings. The focus of this title is transforming into one of Ben's multiple forms, and using their unique powers to combat different enemy types and solve environmental puzzles.
Even if one isn't invested in the Ben 10 universe, it is hard to deny the initial joys of beating down hordes of enemies as a giant purple spider gorilla, or blasting baddies with radiation as an over-the-top soviet. A large portion of the game, however, is spent solving simple puzzles and fighting run-of-the mill enemies using the same moves over and over. The game's boss battles can be challenging, but most scenarios in and out of battle require little thought from the player.
Augmenting the repetitive and simplistic nature of Ben 10's moment-to-moment gameplay are curious design and production hiccups. The game's spoken dialogue ranges from fantastic to segments that have obviously been edited together from several clippings. The actual quality of in-game sounds varies, at times sounding like it was recorded for a handheld version of the game, and there are even instances of spelling and grammar issues in the game's subtitles. Ben 10's graphics and level design also suffer the same ups and downs; some characters and levels look outstanding, while others are poorly rendered and bland.
Some gamers will immediately notice that the game feels that it must hold the player's hand through most steps of the adventure, pointing out which powers to use when and on what objects. Oddly enough, some things go unexplained, which is how I ended up stuck at the beginning stages of the game because I wasn’t told that the turtle character can double jump. At times, when the answer to a puzzle is obvious, the player is held back by the game's sometimes rigid need for the character to interact with the puzzle from a very specific angle.
While Ben 10's apparent flaws are enough to lose the interest of gamers such as myself, the ties to the cartoon and overall decent mechanics should be enough to hook fans of the series. The game does do a good job of playing up each character's unique aspects, and the story is presented in cartoon-like fashion between levels. Even as someone that has no interest in the Ben 10 cartoon, I did catch myself having fun during some of the game's more elaborate set-pieces, and even paying attention during the silly story segments.
The best part about Ben 10 is that children who receive it because of their interest in the cartoon won't be disappointed with a stinker of a game, as is the case with many television-to-game translations. There are certainly better action-platformer titles on the system, but this one doesn't stand out as being particularly offensive.
(Were the last 9 minutes blank, though, or is my iPod dying?)
I think if the Zelda series took on the form of the Uncharted games, that would be a game changer. Replace Nathan Drake's guns with Link's sword and bow, but keep all of the environment traversing (which fits PERFECTLY well with Zelda's puzzle solving), and you have the next game of the year contender.
It's simple, really.
EDIT: Also to add, I'd love to see a duck and cover system used in the world of Hylia. It'd work incredibly well with Link's bow/boomerang/hookshot/wands/etc.. There's just so much more that could be done with this. I imagine that The Last Story is gonna feel a bit like this with its cover system. Pretty excited about that.
Nothing we saw at E3 indicated that Skyward Sword would be a significant departure from what Zelda has been for quite some time. I think the Zelda series needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. Keep the mythology, the focus on combat and puzzles, but do it somewhere else and mix up the game design.
On the other hand, they didn't really show anything that indicated it wouldn't be a change. This is Nintendo's big showpiece for full motion control in a quote-unquote hardcore game, and so they focused the demo on showing off the control mechanics, and the control mechanics alone. I'm not saying it will be a big change; I wouldn't be surprised at all if it kept the same form as the previous games, but it's far too early to jump to that conclusion based on what we've seen so far.
Like all the negativity for Skyward Sword when only one person played it and when we all don't know much about the game.
I'm fine with the DKCR controls except for that damn "blow" move, I don't think the game would be missing anything if that had been removed altogether.
The Farce is strong with this one.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/24589
By and large, I enjoy the portable versions of Star Wars games. Granted, I may be biased, judging by the electronic R2-D2 that sits in the corner of my room (just next to the Yoda cut-out). Yet ever since the Game Boy Star Wars games, I have felt that the handheld renditions of Star Wars were crafted well - and yes, I enjoyed Star Wars Episode II: The New Droid Army. Star Wars the Force Unleashed II, however, is the video game equivalent of Jar Jar Binks.
In his review of the Wii version of Force Unleashed II, Neal Ronaghan noted that the game was crippled by poor controls, weak storytelling, and pervasive monotony. The DS version manages to bring all the flaws of its console big brother onto the portable system, without having to shrink them down to size. In fact, with the exclusion of the Wii version's multiplayer, the game loses what Neal described as its only saving grace.
The DS version is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up with very simplistic puzzle elements. The player is given several force powers, each of which corresponds to a unique color. When the player sees an object highlighted in one of these colors, the corresponding force power must be used on that object to solve the puzzle. This portion of the game can hardly be considered puzzling, unless of course the player is color blind.
The game tries to pad out its extremely brief storyline with some poorly implemented cut scenes. These are told in comic-book fashion, with occasional four-second 3D clips thrown into the mix. I cannot stress how poorly these are presented; at one point I laughed out loud as the only difference between frames was a character's head abruptly rotating a full 90 degrees.
To accompany the shoddy visual presentation is audio that always sounds as if it is coming through a walkie-talkie. The story never quite makes sense, either, which is strange because the game could have really used some padding for its several-hour long campaign. Most cut scenes feel rushed, and a good deal of the characters are simply never introduced properly.
With both puzzles and story out of the picture, the player is left only with the game's combat, of which there is plenty. In fact, most of the player's time with Force Unleashed II will be spent swiping madly at the screen, or tapping furiously to spam force powers. The enemies are often dumb and have very little variation, meaning that the same winning strategies can be used ad nauseam. The game has little in terms of combos, which is unsurprising considering its limited controls.
All interaction with the game is handled via the d-pad, or the touch screen. Movement, jumping, and dashing are all mapped to the d-pad, and all attacks are done with the stylus. Because the touch screen is so heavily implemented, players lose access to the system's extra buttons and are forced to hold the DS in a claw-like position. This means that after playing through the blessedly brief storyline, your hands will hurt. Much like the recent Donkey Kong Country Returns, the choice to use a system's unique interface in favor of a more logical button option does not benefit Force Unleashed II.
Early on in the game, I reached an escape segment during which I repeatedly died because of the fact that running and jumping were both mapped to the d-pad. A bit after that, I reached a segment during which I died simply because the game would not register my input on the touch screen during a boss battle.
Force Unleashed II on DS then, is a short-lived side-scrolling beat-'em-up with poor presentation, miserable controls, repetitive combat, and a confusing story. The game did have one genuinely cool moment, where the player gets to fight a gigantic boss in a rather enjoyable battle, but that was the only highlight for me. Even Star Wars fans should avoid this outing, lest their hearts and hands be broken as mine were.
Quote from: Dirk Temporo link=topic=32948.msg647267#msg647267I already have Osmos (and it's a lot better on the iPad than on PC anyway)
What?
I just think it works better with the touch interface than with a mouse, same as Plants vs. Zombies and (from what I've heard) World of Goo.
Player One Podcast reference?
How about a Worst Of 2010 podcast?
Everyone'll get off their minds what made those games suck, and why people should avoid them.
It'll be very entertaining for your audience to listen to.
Nathan and Karl join Greg and James to fill out their Wii Report Cards.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/24574
It's not often that you can say fate itself seems to have something against a podcast, but such was the case for this week's episode of RFN. With our usual host Jonny already scheduled for a week off to cap his decade-long college career, disaster struck when James fell ill and Jon suddenly had to board a flight to an unspecified location. But never fear, for two special guests offered to step in for their fallen comrades: Nathan Mustafa of the NWR Newscast and former RFN host Karl Castaneda. Then, at the last moment, James found the inner strength/medication to join fill-in host Greg for a rather unusual but no less bro-ey show (OK, maybe a bit less given Jon's absence).
New Business gets underway with Nathan sharing some of his recent iPad games of choice, including World of Goo and the oddly Punch-Out!!-like Infinity Blade from the makers of Shadow Complex. Next, Karl shocks the world with a return from his years-long review exile for THQ's uDraw tablet for Wii (drunken Pictionary ahoy!) before James dusts off his regal robes to reconnect with his favourite WiiWare game, FFCC: My Life as a King. Greg brings an end to the first segment with some stern words for Nintendo and an outburst of joy at his conquest of Ghosts'n Goblins and the long-awaited arrival of his copy of Kirby's Epic Yarn.
Part two of the show kicks off with your Listener Mail, which continues to add to the medical lexicon with a discussion of "The Metts Condition." Then it's time for the main event: our Wii Report Card, not just for 2010, but for the lifecycle as a whole. In a throwback to RFN 78, Karl takes the reins as we grade Nintendo's revolutionary console in four categories in addition to our overall personal satisfaction with the system. It's a big discussion covering big topics - let us know your thoughts and send us an e-mail!
RetroActive will conclude soon -- if you've played The World Ends With You and haven't yet posted your thoughts in the official forum thread, please do so!
Which of the EA games are worth playing? I don't feel like wasting 99 cents on something that's not worth my time.
I wanted to wait, I just wasn't strong enough to do it. I caved and bought it for the DS less than two days after vowing to wait for the iPhone version.
I wanted to buy Puzzle Quest 2, but I couldn't justify the price or making the space for it when I've got it for DS.
I've heard of Dokapon Kingdom and it looks interesting, but it doesn't seem like the kind of game that anyone I know could get into. I might still try it out someday, though.
Especially love how a well timed jump in SMB allows you to jump over the tall pipes even with the fire flowers sticking out.
Have either of you tried Dokapon Kingdom?
It's a shame to see the company go from basically creating a whole genre to now releasing the worst games in it (which is really saying something).
This time, the prank's on you.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/24533
A bucket of water poised menacingly above the door, once triggered, will fall and bathe its target in an icy, unexpected wash of embarrassment. This prank and most others involve elements of surprise and shame. Players who purchase Oops! Prank Party are in for quite the prank, but as you may have guessed, not in the way the developers may have intended.
What Prank Party thinks is a grin, is actually an uncomfortable grimace. The game revolves around a collection of mini-games, with players facing off against one another in an effort to out-prank their competitors. Now, what the game considers a prank is that the in-game avatar of the loser will possibly have to wear a silly costume. That is it, the core concept of Oops! Prank Party is that your character may have to wear a kimono, or a chicken suit. As one can imagine, this is a poor motivator to act as the game's driving force.
Oops! Prank Party offers up several modes in which to play its 100 mini-games. Players can face off in a series of games against an AI 'game master', or play with up to three friends in the free mode and the board mode. None of these modes feel very robust, with the free mode and game master challenges just being slightly different ways to get to the same games. Board game mode comes the closest to feeling like an enjoyable party game experience, but the boards are so bland, and so much is left up to chance that it is easy to lose interest. Imagine the look on a friend's face then, as they attempt to enjoy a game of Oops! Prank Party with you. You have just finished a series of minigames, the first one involving shaking the Wii Remote violently to eat corn rapidly, but they unfairly lost because their motions weren't detected properly, and the second involving picking a chair at random, with the winner being the person who chose the "correct" chair. Unsurprisingly, your guest is not amused when their character is then forced to wear a purple leotard. Not only have they been punished for the game's bad motion detection or elementary-school level of game design, they now have to suffer the tedium of having the game laugh at the "prank" happening on screen.
Indeed, Oops! Prank Party feels as if it were manufactured to convince the player that what he or she is experiencing is fun. Mind you, many games go about this simply by actually being an enjoyable experience. Instead, Prank Party feels like a bad sitcom, using cheesy music and a seemingly unending laugh track to constantly reinforce the idea that there's no way someone could play this game without grinning from ear to ear.
"One more game," I said, "I have to review this, you know." The third game in the series revolved around picking a diving board, with the winner being the person who chose the "correct" diving board. Sound familiar? In fact, most mini-games are replicated multiple times within Prank Party, one particular game type recurs no less than six times, and they're often something you wouldn't want to experience again in the first place. This is partially due to the flawed controls.
In games that require the player to perform a repetitive motion rapidly, there is often difficulty detecting the player's movements. Some games are centered around timing, but don't have a consistent feel for when or what motion it takes to perform the necessary action, and do not let the player practice before a mini-game that hinges on the perfectly timed use of said action. One game feels as if there is no connection between the player's input and what happens on screen, and oddly enough the game's description reads, "The controls are a little tricky, but give it your best!" The repetition across game types only serves to highlight the recurring flaws with each of the mini-games.
To use another analogy, playing Prank Party with multiple players is akin to listening to a family member at the Thanksgiving table tell a horrible story that only they find hilarious, while everyone else in the room cringes as they detail the mishaps of their most recent colonoscopy.
There is no meta game surrounding Prank Party's minigames, there are no real goals to work towards, and by and large the games are either broken, boring, or both. The game itself seems like more of a prank, or just a severe miscalculation of what the gaming populace would actually enjoy. Oops!
There's one other thing: when the hosts talk about high-profile games of the past (e.g. FFVIII), I notice that the conversations are sometimes unbalanced...some of the hosts just had a natural tendency to focus on the things that make them hate the game, despite Phil's best efforts to keep the discussion objective.
Is part 2 up yet?
Not to be rude, but isn't this one of those questions that answers themselves?
I meant the podcast.
