Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1142https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3935One aspect of 3D Tetris that makes it stand out from an ordinary Tetris games is provided by the inherit isolation of the VB. When playing, I found myself very much drawn into the game and I was able to better concentrate on completing game objectives, without distractions. For example, when playing I cannot see anything but the game, there is visible clock to let me know how much time has passed and the lack of multiplayer interface allows me to stay focused. Granted, this observation is true for all VB games, however, I found this quality valuable to solving difficult 3D matrices. The music in 3D Tetris is noticeable repetitive even after 5 minutes of game play. Something that immediately stands-out able 3D Tetris is that the environment is always "wiggling", or rotating back and forth on its own. The player can also optionally press the left button underneath the controller to switching the viewing angle. There are 3 viewing angle possibilities and can be cycled through by repressing change angle button. Even after changing the viewing perspective, the environment continues to wiggle, back and fourth providing a good sense of the whole cube environment without becoming a distraction. Time played: 15 minTue, 29 Sep 2009 17:39:40 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3935&iddiary=7404https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3934Mario Clash offers a very simple starting menu consisting of only three options: “Game Start”, “Top Sore” and “Brightness [adjustment]”. Next to the “Game Start” option, the player can adjust the starting level, between 1 and 40. Mario Clash is very, very different from any Mario game I have played. For example, the game is a non-“scroller”. Instead, the entire game area is contained within the visible window frame, with wrap devices on both sides of the screen. The player can warp between two platforms, or screen layers: the foreground and background. Unfortunately, Mario Clash makes little use of the VB stereoscopic capabilities making it a mellow experience. To experiment, I played with only one eye and little was left to be desired from a dual-eye experience. As a mater a fact, using one eye made the display appear sharper and places seemingly less strain on the single eye than what otherwise two eyes would experience individually. What this suggests is that Mario Clash could be played on a traditional 2D interface and offers little, if any, benefits on a stereoscopic device such as the VB. I was more intrigued by the “Game Over” screen than any other 3D aspects of the game. Mario Clash displays a sharp, overbearing picture of Mario’s face on a background of clouds. Then the player’s score is overlaid at the center of the screen and is projected forward, giving the impression that numbers are being pushed to the player’s face. Unfortunately the gameplay does not offer any similar or impressive stereoscopic effects. Honestly, Mario Clash is a little disappointing. I successfully cleared only the first three levels. I was unable to get further without a better understanding of how to kill the more robust turtles. Mario Clash includes a count-down timer requiring the player to complete the level in a certain amount of time or fail, I suppose – I never ran out of time. Assuming the level is cleared successfully, the player can be rewarded bonus points for “Technical” and “Time” merits. To get a better understanding of what other, more advanced levels have in store for the player; I manually invoked the level selections, in no particular order. I quickly realized the game offers very little variety in map designs aside from more difficult enemy obstacles to overcome. I suppose even if I mastered the techniques the game would likely becoming repetitive anyway for the remaining 36 levels. Time played: 15 min + 15 min (5 min break in-between) Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:34:23 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3934&iddiary=7403https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3933Stage 4 in Vertical Force is graphically intense. The floating land barriers and large spaceships resemble PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards), like a motherboard layout for PC. Although at times it seems there is too much on the screen at once, I appreciate the level of detail the designers put into designing the nice, sharp graphics. I didn’t mention this before, but I also like how the sound intensity changes depending upon the altitude of my spaceship (high/how). The change in sound amplitude reinforces the idea of the (true) 3rd dimension, namely depth. I have really enjoyed playing Vertical Force. In fairness to other games, I do need to criticize the storyline behind Vertical Force, or the lack of. Seriously, I have not seen any mentions of a story / plot in the game. However, I do not have the original box / game manual, which is where the story is printed sometimes. Storylines matter to some people, but honestly I don’t care to read much about a game. I appreciate the pick-up-and-go nature, and easy to learn to controls. Instant action is perfect for me. Time played: 15 minSun, 27 Sep 2009 18:12:23 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3933&iddiary=7372https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3933In my previous entry I commented on how I had trouble distinguishing between certain spites that appear similar on the display. The VB is really the first system I have played that offers a single color output, expect maybe for some old DOS games I played when I was really young, but I never I really invested any significant time into them. Although color on the VB Virtual Boy would be a “nice to have”, the absence of color does not subtract from the game play experience. The artists crafted some really neat graphics with only 32-levels of pixel intensity. I am also content with the graphical output in Virtual Force. Despite the underwhelming 384x224 hardware resolution limit, each pixel is sharp, the screen outputs a consistent brightness and it never flickers. Something that is clearly lacking in Vertical Force is smarter opponents. For example: the bosses are not very intelligent and function in a predicable manner. The “smartest” agents I have witnesses so far are missiles that follow the spaceship. The missals appear to use a simple shortest line-of-sight algorithm; however, they can be difficult to dodge nevertheless. Considering the hardware era the VB was conceived in, I am not at all disappointed with the lack of AI. I figured it would be a noteworthy to mention in the context of today’s games and how far things have come along. Time played: 10 minSun, 27 Sep 2009 17:16:55 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3933&iddiary=7371https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3933Usually, at the start of each level power-ups show up on the screen for limited amounts of time. Power-ups are important to the player because they offer features, such as: better weapons. One problem that I keep having in Vertical Force is that the power-ups look very similar to small enemy spaceships. Consequently, I sometimes collide with an enemy spacecraft with the false understanding it was a power-up. Upon closer examination, the two sprites are very different but the frantic space and high density of moving objects on the screen often times forces the player to make split-second decisions. On a side-note: it’s a very good idea to grab all the power-ups at the start of each stage as they are not offered once further in. I have also noticed the game offers no incentives for destroying enemy spacecraft, aside from point gains. For this reason, I usually defensively navigate around hostiles and wait for them to veer off the edge of the screen and disappear. Avoiding engagements with enemy spacecraft increases the chances of a retaining life bars and weapon upgrades (weapons get downgraded when the player gets hit) which is important when it comes to fighting the boss(s) at the end of the stage. The bosses are tough to beat and I want to have as much health available as possible when I face them. It is also somewhat disappointing that Vertical Force offers no “health packs”. The only time health points are restored is when the player dies and starts again at the last stage, the last checkpoint. As far as I know, there is no way to save the last checkpoint to persistent memory. This means that when I power-off the VB, all of my progress will be lost. Time played: 15 minSun, 27 Sep 2009 16:36:02 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3933&iddiary=7370https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3933After several attempts, I now know how to kill the bosses effectively. The strategy is to aim at the boss’s guns and not the body. As far as I can tell, Vertical Force projects 4 layers. The two foreground layers can be manipulated by the player; the two background layers are game managed and usually display a moving starfield and/or something that resembles space debris. After completing “Stage 1”, the 3D stereoscopic capabilities of the VB began to stand out. Players must traverse a multi-layer map level by toggling between the two altitudes modes (low and high). Although changing altitudes was possible in Stage 1, the technique must be properly applied to survive in Stage 2. The multi-layer space battlefield is a really neat concept and I do not believe it could be sensibly implemented on a 2D display. I initially had issues playing the game because things look fuzzy and out-of-focus. Normally, when I look at a 2D display, everything is always in focus (such as a TV or computer screen). With the VB, however, the eyes must focus on one of the 4 layers. At first, this paradigm change was not will received by my eyes and made it confusing. I just had to accept that that background layers won’t always be sharp, especially when I am focusing on something at the foreground layer. I think my eyes are starting to “understand” how to interpret the VB display. Time played: 10 + 15 minSun, 27 Sep 2009 15:28:11 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3933&iddiary=7369https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3933When first starting-up the VB unit, the screen flickers horizontally and really confuses my eyes. Best not to look into the device for the first few seconds. For the first 10 minutes I messed around in level 1, evading the enemy spaceships. However, I couldn’t figure out how to kill the enemy. I consulted the settings menu and I was presented with two sets of button configurations (A / B). I opted to keep the default (A), but I still didn’t not see any reference to the “fire” control. I was beginning to wonder if my assumption was even correct, but what good is a spaceship without guns? Finally, a breakthrough! I discovered the two button *underneath* the VB controller, which in Vertical Force provide fire control. Both buttons underneath the controller appear to be wired to do the same thing – fire – the rate of depresses does not affect the rate of fire unfortunately. After about 20 minutes, my left thumb began to get sore. The left 4-way pad is a little awkwardly positioned and I suspect the controller was designed for people with hands, ie. kids. Time Played: 10 min + 10 min (2 min break in-between)Sun, 27 Sep 2009 11:29:05 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3933&iddiary=7365