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Jan 16th, 2007 at 16:02:08 - Super Mario 64 (N64) |
During the first hour of gameplay in Super Mario 64, the majority of time is spent getting used to the world of this 3D platformer. The game throws you out in front of a castle with only an invitation to go inside to eat a cake. With a turtle on a cloud as your only companion, you venture inside. Once again, Nintendo throws us a curveball with a friendly little announcement from Bowser telling us that he has taken the princess hostage. I think that he probably ate that freakin' cake.
With no time to waste, I scrambled about looking for something to challenge my mustached wits. The game shows a linear side by allowing us to go into only one of the many numbered doors. After diving through a gravity defying picture of liquid on the wall, I arrived in the first world of star challenges. Apparently, Bowser has cleverly placed all these stars in worlds that require physical controller skill and puzzle solving smarts to recollect them.
I think that this level design is absolutely genius. It was the first of its kind by allowing us to have freedom to explore pleasently sized worlds that are full of life and cute little challenges. The first level seemed to do a wonderful job at introducing the variety of star challenges and the moves that Mario can perform that are nessecary to complete the tasks.
While the first level is easy enough to give a huge sense of accomplishment, the second and third stages make it more challenging. It is not possible to complete all the challenges in any of the levels without unlocking the "wing hat" which allowing for another dimension in the sky. This, once again, makes the game loosely linear which, I think, is absolutely essential to the integrity of this new level design.
The first session of this game that I have not played since I was very young left me wanting to go back for another...
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Jan 11th, 2007 at 17:04:00 - Harvest Moon 64 (N64) |
After a second, closer look at many of the paticular aspects of Harvest Moon 64, I became aware of a very addictive quality that could pertain to all of them. At first glance, I couldn't get over the amount of laughable conversation held with the majority of the characters. This included the girls that you were intended to goofily persue. However, after another few hours of gameplay, I became severely addicted to the persuit of friendship and status within the world of the game.
When developing a friendship in the game, you are often suprised with a visit from the character and given an exclusive invitation or a gift. This quickly becomes very exciting and keeps you glued in order to recieve more special visits. Occasionally, a major event will occur, such as, a wedding, the building of a bridge, or a huge festival.
The holidays in the game, seem to be the most exciting aspects. After visiting a few festivals, you realize that they are the most crucial times to gain some real headway on the social side of the game. If you have a love interest, They will usually have some sort of special event with that girl.
Farming is fun but only for a short period of time. I found myself begging the month to come to a close so the crops would die and I could start on a new vegetable or fruit. Raising animals is exciting soley for the huge increase in money flow that you start to aquire. However, forget about the animals even one day, and you will not recieve any kind of monetary feedback on the next.
I started the game out with a lot of skeptical notions but as I grew fond of the huge amounts of minigames I am very excited to continue playing the game.
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Jan 9th, 2007 at 15:25:34 - Harvest Moon 64 (N64) |
From the moment I began playing Harvest Moon 64 I could tell that it concentrated on depth of gameplay and story as opposed to a game that would focus on visual integrity. Within the first hour of play I could tell that I would not even come close to experiencing the games full potential without a serious investment of time.
It begins with a series of prompts that ask you to name the key components of life in the world of Harvest Moon. The story is not very strong initially but as you are introduced to all the NPCs in the town, the history that led up to this point begins to unfold. I could tell that this game would also take some serious time to understand the full story.
After being introduced to everyone, you are left to your own mess of a farm. Since the game is centered around you establishing a sucessful farm, I figured I should begin with cleaning up the ranch. After getting bored with the tedious cleanup fairly quickly, I decided to explore the town. A few chats with the people in the town quickly brought the cheese of the game to view. Every person has some dumb ass expression that loosely relates to the pacing about of their designated areas. The best part of social interaction is the wide array of girls that you get to woo. All of them don't appear to be any older than eight.
Maybe with more play, the game will unravel into something a bit more engaging.
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goaker has been with GameLog for 17 years, 10 months, and 14 days |
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