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Jan 14th, 2008 at 17:52:08 - Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (PS3) |
Second Gamelog Entry
Gameplay
So its been at least 12 hours since I played the game yesterday and needless to day today's gameplay experience was similar. Today I didn't have my roommate or girlfriend to play with, so I decided to explore some of the other aspects of the game. To begin, let me reiterate that the game isn't as fun when playing by one's self. Because of this I decided to play online. In SPF2 there are 4 game modes. X*, X, Y, and Z. X* is what I played last night. The only difference between X* and X seems to be the inclusion of the diamond wild card. Without it, you need skill to win and cannot rely on luck. So to recap X* = with diamond, X = no diamond. Modes X and Y are similar to what I played last night, except the way the game is played is slightly different. Y mode doesn't seem to use diamond and instead asks that gems of the same color have to be touching. This touching can in include diagonally, horizontally, and vertically. Z mode is like X mode, except it it is played in reverse. Instead of gems falling from the top, they push up from the bottom.
So what do I think of this game's overall gameplay? Well like I said before, I am not a big fan of the puzzle genre, however this game was addictive. I say "was" because after playing it a second time around, it seems to have lost its original appeal. Playing the different modes made it a little bit more interesting, but the gameplay gets old fast. I guess the original appeal came from playing the game with friends. If you play the game against the computer, or strangers online, the game seems a bit hollow. Granted, there is an option to play with friends online, but I'd much rather have them come over and play face to face. That said, there is also no reward or major motivation to keep a person playing for long periods of time. No reward, no unlock-able content that I could find. Perhaps I just haven't played long enough.
Design
To begin, the game reminds me a lot of tetris. Falling gems, classic music, high scores, what is there not to love? Well the truth is the music in SPF2 does get annoying but is actually necessary to keep the excitement and adrenaline going in the game. It seems to be composed of upbeat japanese video game music that makes you feel strangely upbeat and annoyed. Another design characteristic is the use of Capcom's 2D sprites. The game itself looks like its structured like a classic Capcom 2D fighting game fused with tetris. In the starting menu, you start by selecting which mode you would like to play. X*, X, Y, or Z. Then the screen takes you to character selection. In the character selection, Capcom has included many of its well known characters from Street Fighter to Night Stalkers. In this section there is some strategy to picking characters, but in the end it doesn't really matter if your skilled enough. After picking characters, the game begins. This is what Iv been writing about of the majority of this game log.
The actual game play has the two characters in the center of the screen fighting. On the left and right side, are the playing areas for the players. Every time a player explodes gems, uses an orb, or diamond, the sprites on screen attack each other. There are also indicators on the screen to help the players with upcoming damage and gems. I believe that this basically covers the design and feel of SPF2. There are, however, a few other things to note. The game itself was originally an arcade game that recently became available on the PS3 and Xbox360. When playing this game, its important to remember how this game was originally meant to be played. Side by side in a dark noisy arcade.
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Jan 14th, 2008 at 02:37:51 - Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (PS3) |
First Gamelog Entry
Summary
Essentially, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (SPF2) is a two player puzzle fighting game. This goal of the game is to beat your opponent, whether its a friend or the computer, by filing their screen to the top with an array of colorful gems. This is achieved by getting rid of gems on your side of the screen by grouping them by color and then exploding them with a matching energy orb. It is also important to note that the gems and energy orbs fall from the top of the screen anyways, so if your not careful they can pile up to high. Another important element is the diamond. The diamond acts as a "wild card" that explodes all the gems of the color it lands on. Other elements, such as the 2D Capcom sprites, different game modes, Online-Play, and World-Ranking also part in the game experience, however, what SPF2 essentially boils down to is how fast you can get rid of your gems.
Gameplay
Being that this was the first time I played the game, and that am not a big fan of the puzzle genre, I found this game surprisingly addictive. During the first 20 minutes I tried to get oriented with the controls and rules. The game itself is a lot like Tetris in terms of controls and style, however, the rules and graphics are completely different. So after about 20 minutes of fooling around I got good enough to beat the computer repeatedly. There seems to be no major reward for winning other maybe ranking online. The next thing I tried was playing online, which needless to say was a completely different experience. Playing this game online was incredibly fun. Im not exactly sure why, but it was probably because of the idea that I was playing against an actual person. I played about 12 rounds, each lasting 3-4 minutes. Some of the best and exciting rounds where when the game completely changed in the last second. A lot of this has to do with the diamond "Wild Card". Regardless if your losing, you can come back and win if you get that diamond. I played online until my girlfriend and my roommate came over. Needless to say, I tried to teach them how to play, and even more fun ensued.
Playing with my girlfriend and roommate was even more fun that playing online. Because the game is a two player game, we took turns trading off the losing player. The reason the game became more fun was because we could actually hear each other shouting and getting aggressive as we played. Also the diamond allowed for everyone to at least win once. It was also around this time that we discovered that there are strategies to winning. Some of the strategies were stacking the gems so that they could explode in a chain reaction, as well as patterns in the falling gems and orbs. Another thing that i didn't really get into earlier was that there are 2D Capcom sprites on the screen that represent the players. When the game starts, you can choose which character/sprite you want to be. When I was playing with my roommate and girlfriend, we began to have loyalty towards the characters that we selected. My character was Ryu from the Capcom series Street Fighter. My girlfriend was Morgan from Night Stalkers. Lastly my roommate was Chung-Lee from Street Fighters. As we played more and more we would identify as the characters being extensions of ourselves. If one of us won the round, the winning player's character would display a victory messages. On a funny/random note, some of these messages seemed random or poorly translated. Overall our gameplay experience was awesome. On a more personal individual level, the game was fun online and so-so playing against the computer. The truth about this game is that its best played against a person sitting next to you.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Jan 14th, 2008 at 02:49:15.
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