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Feb 9th, 2008 at 00:39:05 - No More Heroes (Wii) |
GAMEPLAY
This game still stays exciting even if you don't play through the storyline. I found the odd jobs to be very fun to play. I could collect coconuts from trees, mow lawns, or even pump other people's gas for them. Each of these jobs had an interesting way to use the controller since it was the wii remote. The jobs were challenging but were also very fun to do using the wii remote in the many different ways. I earned copious amounts of money performing the odd jobs.
The two lead characters in this game are very unique and have odd personalities. Travis is one guy that likes to have fun with his job as an assassin. All he really cares about is becoming number one and hooking up with the girl. The girl is Sylvia and she works for he United Assassins Association. In the first cutscene after the 10th assassin, Travis asks Sylvia if she would hook up with him if he becomes number one. Not every guy would be this forward with someone and Sylvia doesn't exactly say no either. Throughout this game I thought it was fun see how these characters interact with one another.
Fighting the bosses can be fun but also frustrating at times. The very first boss is very hard for a first boss in any game. He has a huge amount of health, is really good at blocking, and my Beam Katana only does minimal damage. Since the players health is so very small, I had to use a lot of strategy in order to defeat this boss. It took me a couple of tries, but each time it was a learning experience. As the game progresses, there are more bosses and each one has a certain strategy that I had to use to defeat them. Even though I died many times fighting bosses, it did not frustrate me. I enjoyed learning about each boss and developing new strategies that might or might no work. I found this strategy exploration more interesting than just constantly fighting the same types of bosses with just some more health.
DESIGN
The controls are a very crucial, unique, and fun design element in this game. This game utilized the wii remote very well. Using them in the odd jobs is one fun way, but I found other parts it was used in ways I didn't take into account. The most surprising thing about this game is it uses the speaker on the wii remote as an ear piece on a phone. I didn't find this out until the remote started ringing so I put it up to my ear. Then Sylvia started talking and I couldn't believe it! No other game I played on the Wii had used the speaker to this extent. It was very fun listening in and before every boss, I would hear another one of Sylvia's phone call conversations.
Another great thing about the wii remote is the way I used it for combat in the game. I had to press the a button hitting the enemy until I could finish him with a final slash. Then with the remote I had to slash it in the direction that was displayed on the screen. This made the player finish the enemy with a blood gushing swipe. I enjoyed this because it made me feel like I was really using the Beam Katana to defeat the enemies. I could also grab the enemies with the grab button and then I had to move the remote in the direction displayed on the screen so that I moved the controls like I was actually grabbing something. This was very fun because it was different than the constant mashing of buttons. This also made the game feel like it was more realistic and that I was really a part of the action instead of just a button mashing observer.
The artistic style in this game is very surreal and it never seems over done. I love games that think of everything bizarre and put it into the game. There is no shortage of unique art styles in this game. This game is highly cell-shaded so it sort of looks like a 3-D comic book world. When the player runs, clouds of dust get kicked up and follow behind him. Some of the vehicles look outrageous in proportions and there is some weird reason why there are Easter Island states scattered throughout the city.
Other artistic parts of this game are styled like 8-bit arcade games. The health is a heart with large square pixels. The pickups are pizza and batteries with square pixels. Even the mission entrances are symbols with huge square pixels. The most exciting artistic object in this game is the assassins list. After you defeat a ranked assassin, an arcade style high score ranking list pops up to show that you have gained a rank on the assassin's list. There is even dorky midi music playing in the background to congratulate you. No art element or any other element was not enjoyable in this game.
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Feb 8th, 2008 at 23:58:50 - No More Heroes (Wii) |
SUMMARY
In No More Heroes the player controls Travis Touchdown, the 11th ranked assassin who's goal is to become number one. The object of the game is to defeat all ten of the assassins and their goons so Travis can be the number one assassin. The main weapon used to achieve this goal is a Beam Katana.
GAMEPLAY
The game instantly starts the player into action with the arrival at the 10th ranked assassin's mansion. The first level starts off with a very helpful tutorial that can get you used to the unique way of using your weapon. Immediately, I could defeat the many goons coming at me. Each one was easy by themselves, but the more enemies on screen made this difficult. I enjoyed getting into the action and I was able to learn the controls and get through the beginning without having too much trouble.
I enjoyed the fact that this game was progressive and it also had emergent elements. I enjoyed being able to explore the town between the storyline missions and being able to purchase new clothes and upgrages. The player is given a gnarly motorcylce that helps you move around town so you can complete odd jobs and assassin missions. I love the fact that this game gives players a break from the storyline and allows you to do whatever you please around the town. If you wanted, you could play the game without ever finishing the storyline.
By far the most enjoyable aspect of this game was the fighting. The battles in this game are completely unrealistic and this is what makes them so fun. Using the Beam Katana, you can shred through dozens of enemies in just a few seconds. Nothing is left up to your imagination, because this game shows every bloody bit. If you cut off an enemy's head, it comes off and a fountain of blood squirts out. You can cut enemies completely in half and blood bursts out. If you can think of it, it is probably in this game. Deaths are performed so unrealistic that it makes it more enjoyable than one might think. Eventually if you kill enough enemies, you get combos that enable you to kill even more enemies. It will take a lot for this gameplay to get boring.
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Jan 25th, 2008 at 23:17:54 - Super Metroid (SNES) |
GAMEPLAY
By this point playing through this game, I have seen many things. There are many levels and places to explore. There are also a great amount of upgrades to get. These upgrades have neat features that are added to your suit so you can go further through the game. I found it fun to find new abilities that I could use in areas that I wasn't able to reach before. Gaining the ability to jump high was very helpful as well as getting the super missiles to fire. All of these upgrades are put to great use in this game and you cannot get to the end of this game without using them all. This gave the game a variety of ways to play it and made it worth it to continue playing.
I enjoyed playing through the many levels and areas. Every time I got to a new level, the background would change and the enemies would be different. This made me want to keep on playing because I wanted to see what levels were to come next. There were levels above ground and below ground and even levels with lava. Some games there are very little difference between levels. Sometimes the next level is just like the first except the colors have changed even though the enemies are the same. In this game this is completely untrue. I found a great amount of different types of enemies and the levels were completely unique from each other. I wish other games were as creative and more diverse.
DESIGN
The levels were large and there were many ways to go and explore. Exploring was a big part of this game. I found myself going far distances and getting stuck at dead ends or doors that I needed a new weapon or ability to get past. I enjoyed the free roam capability of the game, but I wish that some times I was given direction to go somewhere. At one point I went so far ahead in the game that I had to backtrack to the beginning to get an upgrade to use in the level I had gotten stuck at. Sometimes I would get new abilities that I could use for certain areas that I had seen before. This meant that I had to backtrack a great amount in this game. I found this irritating about the level design because not only did I have to backtrack, but I also had to fight my way through all of the enemies that I had defeated before.
The controls in the game were straight forward and I was able to figure them out in the first few minutes. Moving through the levels was simple for the most part, but I found that some of the controls got irritating. Some of the enemies that were on the ground or flew could only be shot by a diagonal shot easily. The only problem was getting the character to shoot diagonally. It took me a while to figure out when to shoot the enemies and then I had to hit them with the laser blast. This took a lot of time and damage.
The most irritating control in the game was the Jumping control. You could either jump straight up, then move a little to each side or you could use the diagonal jump that enabled you jump further. The only problem about these two jumps is that you ended up doing the wrong jump when you wanted the other type of jump. This got very frustrating at certain rooms where you had to jump up many platforms. I found myself spending more time jumping and falling instead of progressing through these rooms. I guess the programmers added this to require more skill, but it only made the game frustrating. Luckily all of the rooms weren't like this.
After all of these aspects of examining this game, I still think it is worth a try to beat. It may not be a perfect game, but it is still decent enough to keep my interest for the time being.
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Jan 25th, 2008 at 22:32:41 - Super Metroid (SNES) |
SUMMARY
In Super Metroid you play as Samus Aran exploring planets and defeating aliens and other creatures you encounter in a 2-D sidescroller.Your character has a space suit with an arm blaster that you use to shoot laser blasts and missiles from. The suit also allows you to roll into a ball and lay tiny bombs. The object of the game is to defeat all of the bosses on the planets that you explore to save the day.
GAMEPLAY
I started exploring the planets and finding creatures to fight and upgrades to collect. The suit your character has is pretty cool. I mainly use the laser blaster arm attachment since it was the first weapon given and I had infinite shots. It worked pretty well in the beginning and I was able to take down the enemies with one or two shots. Eventually I got missiles and this helped me access new areas, but since I stared out with only five shots I didn't use it to kill many enemies. The most enjoyable thing about the character is the ball that you can morph into. The ball helps you maneuver around small areas that you can't reach normally. I was able to find my way past a few dead ends and I also found some hidden areas as well. The ball also comes equipped with a bomb that does little damage to enemies, but breaks rocks.
There were a few save points in the game. This made it difficult to go far with the small amount of life in the beginning. I died many times before I got more energy to move further through the levels. The enemies were scattered well throughout the game and there were plenty to fight. Every time I went through a room and went back the enemies would reappear. This kept me busy when I was heading back and forth between save points. Since the enemies stayed, there was never a point where I had to travel back from a save without meeting enemies on the way. The enemies were varied and some required certain techniques to destroy. This increased the difficulty of the game and made it so you couldn't just run through this game quickly.
The gameplay was pretty fun and I think that it might keep me interested for a while longer.
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