Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=284https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1412The controls feel a tad clunky today, particularly the camera. It works well enough to play, but the N64 only had one analog stick which is used to move Mario, that leaves only digital left, right, zoom in, zoom out controls. Sometimes this makes for camera angles that just wouldn't be acceptable in today's games. Also, the primary analog stick feels very sensitive when it comes to aiming cannons. Maybe this is an artifact of mapping a Gamecube stick to an N64 stick? Maybe it's my imagination and it was like that 10 years ago. Also, playing with a Gamecube controller reminds me of what I liked about the N64 controller: the Z button was for the left trigger finger, not the right. Another fun thing about this game, that I can't remember any game doing previously, is the castle hub also has things to do other than lead you to the main levels. This was a great idea and it makes the setting of the castle more immersing, because the same general rules apply in both the hub and the main levels. Older style games, like say the Megamans or Mario 3 and Mario World, had hubs where you pick a level, but they were basically a very pretty menu you made a choice from. A 'real' hub like in Mario 64 is a pretty nice development. Yet more good design, though it was pioneered in Mario World if my memory serves me, is the unlocking of different blocks for such as the winged cap and the metal cap. Mario World had those switches to turn on bunches of blocks. Mario 64 makes it a little better because the blocks you turn on give new power ups. Each one effectively turns the standard level into a new level because you can reach new places. And it makes you want to go back to older levels because you can do new things there with a new cap.Fri, 23 Feb 2007 13:56:34 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1412&iddiary=2995https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1412The first thing I noticed about this game is how it is showing off its 3D-ness. It was a big deal at the time it came out. The whole game is full of toys to make use of it, like cannons, turtle shells, slide levels and the wing cap. The star system, and multiple stars per level, was also a good design choice. It's good from a design perspective because they are getting a lot of playtime out of each base level with only a few things added or scripted differently based on the star chosen. It's good from a player perspective because with each star the player gets to know the level a little better, finding things they hadn't found before. And even though the set of stars take place in what most people would call the same level, I think it's fun because most stars send you to a different place inside the larger level, which almost turns each star into its own sub-level. The graphics have held up better than I expected. A little bit of it is due to playing it on the Wii instead of the N64 (component video instead of composite). Most of it is due to the low poly count yet surprisingly effective character models and animations. There are also some clever uses of sprites like for the giant metal balls that roll at you in the first level. The textures are the worst looking part, very low resolution by today's standards.Fri, 23 Feb 2007 13:56:22 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1412&iddiary=2994https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1244Even though the graphics are all sprites, this game still looks great. Each level has about 10 unique enemies. Enemy shots are bright and easy to see. Explosions are very satisfying with little chunks of metal flying out. There is only one background, which gets a little old, but most of the time you aren't looking at it. It has an excellent powerup system: when you defeat a powerup-holding enemy, three boxes float in a ring. One box powers up your gun, one box gives you another bomb, one box gives you a shield (you can only have one shield at once). If you are REALLY GOOD, fly your ship into the center of of the ring for a few seconds, and you can pick up all 3. I've only been able to do this once, on the first stage, when enemies weren't shooting at me. Make sure to use your bombs. If you can do well enough to completely power up your gun and shield, it's very much worth it to use a bomb instead of lose your shield. This is because when you die your gun goes back to normal, and when you're not powered up it can be very tough on the later levels to clear out enemies as fast as they appear. That's probably my least favorite part of the game: once you die once you tend to die again quickly.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 14:27:13 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1244&iddiary=2653https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1244I don't even know what the name of this game translates to so I just copied the japanese text from its website. But this game is a WONDERFUL shooter, and you can download it for free here: http://www2.tky.3web.ne.jp/~yosshin/my_works/download.html Download, unzip, and run LATEST.exe. Use a joystick or arrow keys, Z and X. It seems to be purposefully designed to feel like a classic shooter: it runs in 640x480, the graphics are all sprites, and the music sounds old too, like a SNES. The music is wonderfully arranged, and you can listen to any of the tracks in the options menu. The gameplay is just as classic. Move, shoot, bomb. The enemies are always challenging, and yet different on every level. Bosses are huge, with multiple forms, and they will make you sweat. And it has a Hard mode where every exploding enemy sends a few extra shots at you. There's also infinite Continues if you want to see all the levels. I've been playing this game on and off for months but still haven't beaten it on a single credit.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 14:26:38 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1244&iddiary=2652https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1069The hitbox for your ship seems pretty big. I think it might be the whole box that encloses the ship sprite, not just the visible pixels. Double is terrible and I don't know why someone would take it. You're limited to two shots on the screen at once, and firing them both at once means you can't fire again until one hits. It seems like a sidegrade, not an upgrade. The volcano thing near the end of the first level is stupid. I tried a few times to survive in other places, but the only place I can live is the upper left corner. And I only learned that from watching the guy play it during the lecture. It seems like the enemies shoot more as a function of how powered up the player is. I'm not sure how much I like this choice, since the game also gets more difficult with time, no matter how powered up the player is. I'm going to try making the difficulty dynamic in my game, based on how well the player is doing.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 16:47:25 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1069&iddiary=2303https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1069I never played the first two Gradius games much. The first one I really got into was Gradius 3 for SNES. I can remember liking shooters before that game... specifically River Raid on the Atari 400. Anyway, Gradius 1 feels a lot like Gradius 3, but without nearly as much customization. Like a lot of NES games, this one is tough. The challenge of the first level feels like it starts at medium and never lets off. It took me about 3 or 4 credits before I could clear the first level without being hit. I feel like the laser upgrade is neccessary to have a fighting chance against the enemies, simply because your shots move so much faster. But most of the time the only sound you hear is your own shooting, and the laser sound is just annoying. I think for my game I'm going to make the shot noises almost silent. Ikaruga is like that, and just about every game could stand to be more like Ikaruga.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 16:47:15 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1069&iddiary=2302https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=828The eatable powers in this game were also quite surprising, both in their quantity and quality. There's quite a wide selection of abilities: projectiles, hand held weapons, area effects. Many of them are good enough that you are reluctant to give them up for another ability. All of them are good enough that you could beat the whole game with any one. Furthermore, you could also beat the game (or at least all the enemies) with none of them, because Kirby's innate eating and spitting power is quite strong as well. That brings me to another good point about the level design. Many of them have branching paths, secret doors that you need a certain ability to reach, or shortcuts. And yet you can also just go for the obvious path and beat the level that way. Also I like that not every level is going from left to right, the direction changes up enough to keep it interesting. Getting extra lives in this game is very easy, and it's not too challenging to stay alive. You can win an extra life after every level, you can win them from minigames, and of course there are 1UPs to be found within levels. I would have made extra lives less common, or maybe added a Hard mode.Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:52:52 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=828&iddiary=1836https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=828I remember getting this game when it came out, back in the day. It was one of the last NES games to be released. I hadn't played it in quite a while because Kirby Superstar for the SNES has the same sort of gameplay as Kirby's Adventure, but better, and plus a lot of other game types. And it has two player co-op mode... such a good game that it pretty much eclipsed my memories of Kirby's Adventure. Adventure is still pretty good however, and it was amazing at the time it came out, amazing for how it put the NES to use. It's also the game that established Kirby's power stealing gimmick - he didn't have it in his first game on the old white brick gameboy. It's easy to say this game is 'a platformer.' And yet this game has some qualities that are uncommon (or at least were uncommon when it came out) to the genre. For starters, Kirby can fly, for as long as you like, but it's slower than running. So, bottomless pits are only a challenge to jump if you are trying to move quickly. Another uncommon aspect is the option to revisit any previous level. This is important because some levels have secrets which can only be found with an power from a different level. There are other doors for optional minigames and 'Museums' where there powers free for the taking. Traditionally in a platformer, once you finish This Level, you go to The Next Level, with little or no choice about replaying previous levels.Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:52:41 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=828&iddiary=1835https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=543Whoops, that should have been in two separate log entries. Anyway it's pretty obvious which part of the text belongs to which session... and they were 2 days apart if that matters. Also it would be nice to be able to edit posts instead of making P.S. posts like this.Fri, 12 Jan 2007 00:42:27 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=543&iddiary=1270https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=543I am saved right outside the Sky Dungeon or whatever it’s called. I figure I have about 2 more dungeons left in the game, this one and Ganon’s dungeon. Dungeons are the best part of a Zelda game; I like to savor each one because new Zelda games only happen once every few years. Inside the dungeon I found a room that required me to defeat two lizard-men. One of them I shot with my bow, unopposed. I fought the other one up close, but he fell (tripped?) off a cliff. The enemy AI isn’t very challenging. I like the puzzles of the dungeon better, where I have to use the right gadget for the task. Twilight Princess has had a lot of enjoyable new gadgets as well as old mainstays like the bow, boomerang and bombs. My favorite new ones are the ball & chain and dual clawshots (you have one for a while then you get another and can Spiderman around). Lots of the new items use the pointing function of the Wii controller. Pretty much anything you have to aim – boomerang, bow etc. That’s probably the best use of the new controller. The accelerometers are used for sword controls, and feel like two more buttons – left hand and right hand. It’s alright, but not really great like Wii Sports. I think I heard about a Star Wars game in the works with ‘true’ lightsaber control – that is, your awkward jabs with the wiimote translate into awkward jabs of your lightsaber. OK, now I’m stuck inside a section of this dungeon. Can’t go forward, can’t go backward. Saving and coming back later with fresh eyes. --------- Figured out where to go next – lots of times in this game you need to look around from the first person camera, it’s easy to miss things without it. There’s vines you can climb on throughout this game. They feel awfully clunky: Link is slow to climb around on them, sometimes he’ll climb in the wrong direction from where I push the joystick, and they are ‘sticky’ – if you brush up against a wall with vines on it Link will start climbing. I found a piece of heart. For some inscrutable reason, Twilight Princess pieces of heart are 1/5th of a heart container. In every previous Zelda game (that I can remember) they were 1/4th! You don’t take damage in fifths of hearts, that’s still fourths of hearts. I guess they wanted to hide more pieces without giving you too many heart containers? Who knows. Finished the Sky dungeon. Overall it was great… lots of puzzles requiring you to think in 3D. As usual, beating the boss requires using whatever gadget you found in the dungeon. The boss was rather easy, even compared to previous bosses in this game. I hope Ganon is a good challenge.Fri, 12 Jan 2007 00:31:20 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=543&iddiary=1266