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Feb 1st, 2007 at 22:56:29 - Kirby's Adventure (NES) |
For one reason or another my first entry for this game did not submit. I guess I will try to recreate it quickly. I played Kirby many moons ago when it first came out and it was instantly a game that I reveled in. I remember playing it over and over and still enjoying it. For a 2D platformer it is a game that gives itself alot of space in terms of Kirby's ability to fly around the screen - yet at the same time he still has the limitation of staying within the box of the screen. Regardless it still adds awhole different dimension to the game that can either give you an easy out to one situation or another, but also leaves itself to be useless in others - forcing the player to be adept in all kinds of movement.
But where Kirby makes it self most appealing is in the wide range of affordances that you can gain from enemies. It seemed fun to be Mario with fireballs, or a racoon tail, but Kirby really ups the antie - allowing you to wield swords or become a tornado or a wheel. These affordances are crucial for easy manuvering and intern are a blast to play around with.
Kirby really brings to life the adventures of a pink blob in a dreamland. It really lends itself to the experienced and causual beginner. Allowing exploration to be interesting with trying out powerups and wandering around, or allowing some challenge given with points and speed that one can get around the sometimes open and sometimes closed spaces that Kirby's dreamland has to offer.
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Jan 31st, 2007 at 03:56:24 - Kirby's Adventure (NES) |
After my second session with the game I have found some more interesting parts of Kirby. One nice tidbit is the mini-games that branch off of the game - they are a nice break from the normal game and they can give you some useful powerups that can propel you into the next levels. Speaking of the levels, as far as the level design in kirby, it seems to lack some imagination. Given it is nice to be able to fly around them, but each level is very short, and generally similar throughout. It just gave me the sense that the levels were not very important, and that I could run through them very easily - though maybe there is a difficulty level you can raise.
On the other hand the enemies do not lack any imagination. There were quite a few more than I really remembered, though the images of using their powers slowly permeated into my brain as I played more and more. Each level almost seems to have different enemies with different power ups, and they are all fun or incredibly useful, both in completing levels and sometimes making boss fights almost too easy.
Touching on boss fights, so far they have been very simple. Challenge can sometimes come with not having power ups, but otherwise I found myself just mashing an ability over and over and quickly taking the boss down with no real effort involved. Granted I have no completed the game - and I do remember the last boss being very drawn out and difficult - but still I would like to see more effort involved in the early stages of the game as well - if just to give a better sense of accomplishment.
All in all Kirby is still an enjoyable classic, and as far as making a game of emergence, it does spark ideas. Power ups and innovative gameplay are indoubtely things that can add some complexity and remove the mundane quality of just jumping from platform to platform. Plus the playful quirky world that is Kirby Land or whatever is irresistably fun to explore.
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Jan 19th, 2007 at 03:52:02 - Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) |
Upon playing Mario 3 for the second time, I defiently had alittle more exploration and understanding gained than I did on my first fresh start. There are certain nuances that you have to pick up to get through levels efficiently. Namely how far Mario skids when he stops running, and the height and bounds that the two different jumps give. This kind of seemless and consistent detail is what gives the game lasting appeal and some color - without that kind of detail and 2D platformer can be dry and boring. With these acquired skills and observations I found myself doing levels that I was forced to do over again, much faster. I had a kind of anticipation for what was coming next. Oddly enough I could not name for you the positioning of enemies and platforms, but if I were to start running through the level, I would be jumping in certain places because in the back of my head - unconsciously - I would know what was coming next. Kind of a tangent, but being a psychology major those are kinds of things I notice when I play games, and they have interesting implications for what skills come with being good at 2D platforms, and how many of them we are not consciously aware of.
So my revisitation of Mario 3 was an interesting one. I got some insights that I never would have gotten at the age I first played it - and of course got some retrospective feedback from comparing it to games that exist now. I think it more or less laid ground work for most gaming, as it started in a time where gaming was becoming much less primitive. And also in that sense I think it is solidified as a great game of the ages - as even coming back to play it after drudging along in games ingulfed in crisp graphics - the enjoyment of seeing that little pixely Italian jump around the screen still exists and is still widely appreciated.
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Jan 11th, 2007 at 21:12:19 - Metal Gear AC!D (PSP) |
After my second session of playing I have gotten a better feel for the game as a whole. Entering instances with many more enemies makes things more difficult and interesting, and gave me a finer view of the strategy attached with the card system. In light of that at this point in the game it seems pretty easy to know which cards to keep and which to discard because of their currently useless atributes, and moving through the levels has been pretty simple. Though I either do not understand the implications of being seen by the enemy, or they are not consistent - obviously being detected by the enemy in MGS games is something readily avoided and an aquired skill to do efficiently, but in this game I have found myself walking infront of an enemy to kill them and sometimes sounding the alarm, and sometimes just having them be ready to call for help.
One thing I have found myself being alittle put off by is that the game is kind of slow and it seems alittle clunky (though that may change as I gain more fines in my play style). The virtue of a turn based game like FF Tactics was that the field of play was straight forward and open, and even though it would start slow as people went into position that was not a very long process. Whereas in AC!D, I found myself running through the maze like maps, turn by turn, having to wait for the turns of other soldiers patroling to decide to move 2 feet, before I got to go again. So if you are looking to play a fast paced game with lots of parallel movement like the other MSG games - AC!D is not the one - But it's style could be good when the opposing mood is felt.
Another side note - The characters are itneresting and well developed in AC!D, but much like some other MSG games, I am annoyed by the 5 minute conversations that commence multiple times inbetween missions.
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FrogMcJones has been with GameLog for 17 years, 10 months, and 26 days |
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