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Jan 31st, 2007 at 19:25:19 - Kirby's Adventure (NES) |
I played some more Kirby. It's really frustrating to see how much better this game could be if they provided some more purpose to the game, or some more variety in the levels, or more challenge. The funnest part for me right now are the somewhat more difficult boss fights and the occasional mini-game.
The hardest challenge I've had so far was a run-in with MetaKnight's subordinates that I had to retry several times before passing. Interestingly enough, I'm not sure if it actually took away any of my lives, or maybe I had just gotten some extras so I didn't notice. Anyways, it got harder since I lost by weapon ability the first time I died. I had no choice but to just eat everything, which actually made it easier to pass.
I moved through a few more zones but I barely noticed because it all looks and plays exactly the same, with the same enemies, abilities and items. I think I'm around the 4th or 5th world-zone thing but I'm not sure.
Playing this game has made me remember playing Kirby All-Stars on SNES, which has several Kirby games included in it. These games have much better designs in my opinion, as there are games that are exclusively the fun mini games that I mentioned before, there is one in which you just look for secrets and ways to collect treasure, and one in which you have to race to clear the game as quickly as possible, adding challenge. There are also a wider variety of abilities. Since I know about this game, I won't go so low as to say that the series has no redeeming qualities, but in this first installment the best things that you can enjoy constantly are the base gameplay and the charm of Kirby and his world, though these get bogged down by the repetition of the game.
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Jan 31st, 2007 at 19:09:37 - Seiken Densetsu 3 (SNES) |
CS 80K TA's and Prof: The classics list is too short and lacks variety and ignores the SNES, Genesis and PS1 entirely. What the hell? It should include games the library can get, but shouldn't be *limited* to those.
Anyways, I'm writing this log just for the hell of it.
I love the Mana / Seiken Densetsu series, even though I personally own only a few of them. They're kind of like a dumbed-down Zelda game challenge wise but with a more compelling story.
I've been playing SD3 for a while now since looking at its sprite work for our upcoming game project inspired me to revisit it. I don't know why it was never released in the US, but I wish it had been.
My recent play experience was finishing up putting down the 2nd-to last god-beast that was released when some vampire bastard named Jagan stole the Mana sword from me in exchange for the life of one of the Mana tree's guardian faeries. This led me all over the world on the back of Flammie, a dragon who is a consistent ally in the non-portable Mana games.
The last one I fought, the god-beast of wind (I don't remember it's name) had the most interesting fight "room" so far. Rather than just walking into a room where the boss appeared, my party spotted it in the sky and then jumped on Flammie's back to pursue the god-beast. My party fought the god-beast from Flammie's back, flying over clouds, with the camera angle occasionally changing. The fight wasn't particularly difficult since I've already got the hang of the fighting system and my characters have abilities to boost their own stats while lowering enemies' stats all while pumping out some heavy damage thanks to Angela, the game's main offensive spell-caster.
After beating that god-beast, I flew to an ancient destroyed city that had reappeared because of space-time fluctuations caused by the weakening of the world's Mana power. In this city I got the final armor for my characters (until I get their "ultimate" equipment that can only be had from weapon/armor seeds). Outside the city are a few screens of jungle with enemies of various difficulty. More importantly these enemies are the first to drop "???" seeds in the game, which grant items that allow the second class change.
After a loooooooong time hunting for these seeds and encountering a bug that makes the item from them be the same, I used a code to give me 99 of the seeds so as not to waste any more time on them. Finally, equipped with these I went to the Mana holy land to change my characters' classes to Ninja Master, Grand Divina, and Star Lancer. These three classes specialize in targeting either all enemies or all party members, to attacking and defending en masse will be no challenge after a few more levels when they upgrade their spells.
Before stopping I peeked into the first few rooms of the Cave of Darkness where the last god-beast is hiding out. I didn't go very far because it was getting late and I ran into enemies like ninjas and werewolves that can instantly take off about 500 hp from all three of my characters if I don't kill them within a few seconds of entering the room. At least the game has challenges!
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Jan 31st, 2007 at 18:36:57 - Kirby's Adventure (NES) |
So I sat down to play the ancestor of the many Kirby games. My first impression was that it is exactly like all the others, with very little difference between this first episode and some later version that I played years ago on my Super Nintendo. The main change is just graphical updates.
Anyways, this game, while fundamentally very fun and relatively fast paced with good controls, gets repetitive after the first level. It's cool to play around with the various abilities that you can take from enemies, but there isn't that much of a difference between some of them. For example, the "needle", "spark", and "freeze" abilities all cover an area near Kirby, and the "beam" and "fire" abilities both attack in a cone in front of Kirby. Since there doesn't appear to be any kind of "this element is stronger against this other element" kind of thing, I don't see any reason for using one of these substitutes over another one.
The game progresses through these levels that are accessed by entering doors in the "over-level". You can also get to mini-game rooms and mini-boss fight rooms from this over level, which, as far as I am into the game, are the main source of interesting challenge. There are games where you try to catch eggs in Kirbys mouth but not bombs, and games where you have to hit the A button fast enough to beat your enemy to the draw in a western-style shootout. These minigames are pretty fun and it would be more interesting if they played some larger role or were at least more frequent in the game.
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Jan 18th, 2007 at 23:47:06 - Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) |
I played for another hour and a half today, this time bringing in two of my friends who happened to be eating their dinner in their kitchen while I played in their living room. I asked for help finding some of the secrets since I don't remember / never learned where the magic flutes are. We quickly got two whistles and where whisked away to world 8 which was interesting, because I'd never actually played there before. The continuous mini-boss challenges were and interesting test of skill and a decent break from the basic levels found in world 1.
I realized that my Mario Bros. 3 skill isn't honed enough to get through world 8 yet without significant frustration, so when I got my second game over I decided to restart the game. This time I got another flute but went to world 4 instead, another world I had never seen before. Before tonight I hadn't played nearly as much of this game as I had thought I had. I beat world 4 before long and moved on to world 5. The variety they included in this game is surprising, since they work off a very simple base of gameplay and can create varied and different challenges just by adding a new enemy or item and arranging them in different ways.
I also discovered that this game is one that is far more enjoyable when played with another. For me, this kind of game gets boring quickly without someone else taking a turn. Perhaps this is because the base gameplay is relatively simple and requires more reflex and instinct than it does strategic or problem-solving thought, since games based around those kinds of challenges are generally more engaging for a solo player.
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Awesome Juice has been with GameLog for 17 years, 10 months, and 13 days |
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