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Jan 18th, 2007 at 23:49:09 - Kirby's Adventure (NES) |
So far I have been playing Kirby's Adventure for around 45 minutes. This took me just past the second level in the third section (Butter Building). So far the game has been enjoyable, with some rough edges associated with NES games.
Previous to this the only Kirby I had ever played in earnest was Canvas Curse for the DS, which was a radical departure from the traditional mold. (And I wish they had followed up on it instead of making Squeak Squad. Damnit HAL, CC made me break down and get a DS!) As of such, going back to Adventure was...different.
In many ways Kirby's Adventure doesn't seem to know what it wants to be in terms of platformer genres. It has a hub-like access to the levels, which then tend to be fairly straight-forward Mario-like romps until you find the occasional expansive one with extra doors that might owe a bit more to Mario 2 than 3. In addition, the straight-forward levels are all linked together until you get back to the hub, with no way out. This tends to prevent me from wanting to take advantage of the hub-like design and go back; there's rarely anything there to warrant doing so. The game is reasonably generous with 1ups and ablities, so there's no real need to farm paticualr levels (especially with the bonus viewing rooms), so unless you find you like playing through a paticular set of levels it seems a little pointless to use the ablitiy to go back.
The level design itself is also fairly basic so far, but the addition of the more exploratory and vertical-orientated stages help mix things up quite a bit. One of the odd things is that Kirby can fly, but there are hardly any bottomless pits and insurmountable walls anyway. So far I've only been forced to fly a few times, and the main one was in a bonus bit. Enemy placement was rarely frustrating, and could generally be taken care of with quick and able application of abilities. Medicine and Tomatoes also come along only after a tricky bit or just after a boss, but the game isn't too hard anyway. Boss placement DOES seem a little random, however.
The controls occasionally feel a little sluggish, and pressing up to make Kirby fly feels a tad unnatural, like it should be jump instead. It also makes it too easy to accidentally hit up and fly when you didn't mean to, turning a well-timed jump into an awkward bit of puffing around. No danger, of course, but it is an irritation. There is also some slowdown when things get hectic, which is only to be expected for the poor little NES.
The slowdown does help to show off the great amount of animation that is present in the game, however. (admittedly, in a bad way, as there's only slowdown when things get TOO animated, but it's a segue) The graphics themselves aren't something to particularly write home about, they're no Mario 3 or Little Nemo, to be sure. The backgrounds especially feel constant and recycled with the never-ending pale blue, pale green, and sand colours. However, the sheer amount of sprites everything has makes up for it. Kirby's range gives him more personality than most NES heroes, and this helps draw players in with the animated charm.
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Jan 8th, 2007 at 23:37:53 - Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation (GBA) |
SRW:OG entry, part 2. (Yeah, technically it abbreviates to SRT in America, but I'm used to SRW)
Not as much to say here, since I already gave most of the background in my previous post. Played a few more missions and got into space. The game is really wordy at points, but it all feels like a real giant robot anime. (they do tend to spend a lot of time talking in those...) A few of the plot twists feel like that too. It's awesome if you love the genre like I do.
Now in just about every mission reinforcements show up and you have to fight several waves of enemies and sometimes extra bosses. Fortunately the cannon fodder enemies go down to our heroes as easily as they do in the cartoons, though since this has to be balanced they can get you hurting before they die...which softens you up for the bosses pretty well. By the end of a drawn-out battle some units will definitely be sliding towards death. I've managed to keep my casualties fairly down, but since I'm not really very good at tactics (besides GANG RUSH) I've gotten a few game overs.
One useful thing is spirit commands, one time (usually) special abilities that offer boosts in battle for one round. Stuff like perfect evasion, hit, extra money/exp, all that nice stuff. They become really nessessery against bosses, but if you use too many too early you'll run out of points. Figuring out when and where to use them (hint: bosses) adds to the depth.
The one thing I wish this game had was a way to skip all the story sequences and get to the action. Like I said, it can get really wordy, which is annoying when you die and have to start over. It's a good story, but when you're continuing, you just want to get to the action.
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Jan 8th, 2007 at 23:27:00 - Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation (GBA) |
The Super Robot Wars SRPG series has a long-running history in Japan (from about the days of the Super Famicom), but has never seen light in the US. The reason for this mostly comes down to the fact that the main draw for the series is that it is, in effect, a gigantic crossover of nearly every robot series in Japan. Mazinger Z, any given Gundam, Raideen, Evangelion, Giant Robo...all of them have been in a SRW game. As a result, it's impossible to bring over to the US, due to the massive licensing problems.
However, in each SRW game there was a cast of original characters which were eventually collected into two games for the GBA: Super Robot Wars: Original Generation, and Original Generation 2. As the anime robots were taken out, the series was able to be brought over by Atlus, changing the name to Super Robot Taisen (Taisen being Japanese for battle, war) in the process. Though it's sad to not be able to SHIIIINING FIIIIIIIIINGEEEEEEEEEEER the enemies, the game is a remarkably solid strategy game under the appeal of seeing your favourite robots duking it out.
The game is somewhat like Shining Force and Fire Emblem, though without the latter's perma-death and no true limited-use weapons. (while gun-type weapons have limited ammo, they are refilled between battles along with your health, along with items that can be used during battle to the same effect) You move your robots around the map, and when you come in range of an enemy you can attack with a variety of weapons determined by what robot you are using. The fight sequences are nicely animated, but skippable (a welcome addition). The attacking robot will attack, then if possible the attacked robot will counter. If you're being attacked you can pick the attack to make in return, to evade, or defend. This give-and-take action, where you have to balance damage versus hit chances, nicely spices up the gameplay.
I started playing the game a bit ago, but didn't get very far. This play session took me through a couple of missions and a few game overs. While most of the time it was fairly standard 'run up and hit the enemy' battles, there was one sequence where my 'super robot' (characterized by "screw the laws of physics, this looks awesome" attacks, rather than 'real robots' general deference to reality. Think Gundam Wing/G Gundam versus any other Gundam.) ran out of ammo and couldn't attack the boss, leaving my other pilots, all of whom had barely any chance to hit to gang up and try to take the guy down. It took some gambling, raising hit percentages with skills, and a few people getting their mechs exploded before he went down, but eventually I damaged him enough to make the plot take over.
...and then my super robot ran after him. Damnit.
Overall, Super Robot Taisen is a great strategy game, with plenty of save anywhere for days on the road and some darn satisfying tactical gameplay under it all, which is something you wouldn't really expect from something that originally came from a series that made its name on having a bunch of licensed characters. The story is deep and complex, sometimes a bit too much (there are a ton of characters, and you're pretty much thrown straight into the story), but with its excellent localization it doesn't feel too confusing. All in all, it's a very good game.
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Jan 8th, 2007 at 22:41:24 - Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation (GBA) |
Edited to remove duplicate entry.
This entry has been edited 2 times. It was last edited on Jan 21st, 2007 at 00:08:05.
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MarsDragon has been with GameLog for 17 years, 11 months, and 10 days |
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