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Feb 22nd, 2007 at 21:36:10 - Super Mario 64 (N64) |
As I was playing through several of the levels on Super Mario 64 I found myself getting bored with them fairly quickly. There were some bouts of fun game play, but they are interspersed with long periods of walking, running, and swimming. I realized that this was why many videos of players online show the player jumping frantically around the screen, in addition of it being faster to moving around, they are trying to add some excitement to the game as they move between different dull parts of the game. I was trying to figure out a reason what causes these periods of unexciting game play in games and I came up with the idea of “Null Space.”
In my view, Null Space occurs when the player is not being challenged, at any level, by the game or is doing a task repeatedly unsuccessfully. Examples of Null Space would be having Mario cross a large open field, such as in the first level, without encountering any kind of obstacle, scenery change, or variation in movement. An example of the first part of my definition is when Mario is simply walking from one place to another without encountering anything or doing anything. From the players prospective, the avatar in the game has stopped progressing through the game and the game no longer is fun. The second part of the definition stipulates that games such as Shadow of the Colossus, where the player rides for long distances over open plains, are not considered, by my definition, to have Null Space. The reason for this is because the player uses their sword to catch the suns rays to point them towards the Colossi. The player is actually doing something to progress the game forward. In addition, the backgrounds and foregrounds are lush in detail, rocks, cliffs, bushes, and animals populate the open space and provide plenty of changing and interactive things to do, creating a fun environment.
Mario fail to provide fun in several places on the game because of Null Space. If the player is unfamiliar with the game, they may start out with a high energy start, as the animations in the game are quite good, but this will quickly dissipate as it is unclear what the player is to do much of the time. They is a lot of run up and down hills looking for tiny red coins and walking to the beginning of a level and encountering absolutely no enemies. If the developers had tightened up the game play a bit more, I think I could have had a lot more fun with this game than I did.
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Feb 22nd, 2007 at 20:37:09 - Super Mario 64 (N64) |
I vaguely remember playing this game back in the late nineties when it first came out. However, I never really got into the game and do not remember getting very far in the game. After coming back and playing Super Mario 64 again close to 10 years later, I can see why I did not get very far. The game itself is a great set forward from the 2D platformers that came before it, but the controls are just awful, and this contributes to the game not being much fun for me.
Firstly, the Analog Nub of the N64 controller has possibly the worst control of any controller I have ever played with. It stands tall and proud from the awkwardly placed middle handle of the N64 controller. This has several consequences for the player experience. In order to play Mario 64 the player must hold the controller by the side and at an angle. I found this uncomfortable to say the least. The analog nub also has little to no control as to how far it it pushed forward. This leads to many delicately timed jumps turning into Mario running full speed off of a cliff.
Secondly, if the actual controller was not bad enough, Mario seems to have become much more slippery since last we left him. For example in the first level, the player must jump onto a wood pole and butt-smash it into the ground. Simple, I will just run up to the pole and jump then stop moving forward, just like in every other platformer I have played. Mario arrives at the pole, I stop, and he begins to slip away from where I want him. Meanwhile, goombas are attacking and I am running around in circles trying to get on a wooden pole. This happens to me a lot in the game I find it very frustrating.
The final nail in the control coffin is the camera. I realize that this is one of the first games to actually have a camera, but the camera controls are so bad that it affects gameplay. I have found myself falling off ledges because the camera turns unexpectedly, and Mario veers off in a different direction because of the change in his orientation to the world. The developers have tried to alleviate this problem by giving the player control of the camera via the C Buttons. However, the player can only rotate the camera 270 degrees and then they must rotate it back.
All together, these three elements of Super Mario 64 make even the simplest moves, such as jumping from moving platforms, intensely difficult. This leads me to say that I could see good players having a fun time with the game, because they are used to the controls, but beginners just picking up the game having a not so fun time.
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Feb 9th, 2007 at 12:20:48 - Eliminate Down (GEN) |
I really enjoy the music in this game. It may sound similar to a lot of the other music in games at the time, but to me it seems more polished than the others. The main theme is catchy and energetic making it perfect for a shmup, and every boss has their own battle music that is suited to their fighting style. It really brings the player into the mood of the game. There is not much of a story, but it is quite clear that it is the classic aliens vs. humans save the world plot. The variety of enemies and enemy weapons also make Eliminate Down unique. For example, a weapon that I had never seen before was a cannon firing 1 pixel width homing lasers. Much like the game Snake, which came out in the early seventies, if the player touches any part of the laser they explode. This might sound simple to get around, but in the third stage there are literally five or six cannons shooting at the player, boxing your ship in. I still have not been able to get past this part of the game because of the homing lasers, along with the insane number of enemy ships that are swarming the screen.
Another interesting aspect of the game that I forgot to mention last time is the weapons system. The player chooses between a front firing gun, a rear firing laser, or top/bottom firing missiles. This decision, especially in the middle of battle, creates conflict in the player. Knowing which weapon to use in which situation, takes a lot of practice, and memorization of bullet patterns and ship patterns. It took me a little over a half hour to get a full handle on the weapons system. Many enemies come from the left part of the screen and fighting them off along with the ones coming from the right, all while dodging asteroids can be a real task sometimes.
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Feb 9th, 2007 at 01:36:00 - Eliminate Down (GEN) |
While the title might suggest that this is a poorly executed remake of Space Invaders, this game is a shining example of an innovative and polished shmup. Eliminate Down takes all of the good aspects of previous shmups such as Gradius, R-Type, and similar titles and does them all one better. Many of the levels are quite reminiscent of the Gradius series, for example, the enemies attacking pattern is almost identical to that of the beginning of Gradius. This occurs in many shmups, probably because it is one of the easiest ways to introduce the games mechanics and controls quickly to the player. In the second stage your craft must navigate through an asteroid belt as enemies attack from all sides. This was the second or third stage of Gradius II but I felt that Eliminate Down executed it much better. One of reasons for this brings me to my next point. The graphics in this game are gorgeous. Eliminate Down takes the idea of the three-dimensional sprites found in the R-Type series and combines it with beautifully parallax scrolling backgrounds. The first taste of these backgrounds comes in the transition from the first part of level one to the second. Your ship begins in the middle of a battle above a planet. There are many ally cruisers shooting enemy fighters and also being shot at and shot down. The background has, at least, 5 different scrolling backgrounds which make it look amazing. Your ship then transitions and starts gliding down through the atmosphere as missiles come from the planets surface. The effect is so convincing at times that you are almost lead to believe that it is actual three-dimensional.
The aspect of the game that I feel was most successful is the power-up system. One of the great frustrations of the Gradius series is that once you die once, you lose all of your power-ups, all of them, all the options, missiles, and speed that you spent collecting from the beginning of the game. Gone. The creators of Eliminate Down have fixed this problem by linking power-ups to health and lives. As the player gains a power-up, it takes five [P] tokens, they essentially have that many more lives. When the ship is destroyed, the player only loses a power-up level and not a life, unless they do not have any power-ups to begin with. I feel that this makes the game a lot more enjoyable because it keeps it very difficult without making it don't die or you are totally screwed difficult. It also makes passing bosses after you die once easier and keeps the pace of the game quite fast. In Gradius, it might take a good 1-2 minutes to beat the boss with your dinky little blaster if you were hit by one of the bosses attacks.
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TranceJunkie has been with GameLog for 17 years, 10 months, and 14 days |
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