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Feb 9th, 2008 at 02:35:09 - Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (DS) |
Gameplay: Further into story mode they introduce factories, ports, and airports which greatly expands the emergent behavior of the game. The first few levels serve as a buffer so that new players can learn the attributes of the different units without having to worry about which units to produce. You commonly started out with a standard force with no factories on the map. Now that the story and gameplay have really picked up I'm completely hooked. The map creator is extremely well made and easy to use. I really enjoy the sound effects too, bullet shot every time you put down another tile. The main objective that kept me going, personally, was the rank at the end of levels and trying to get the highest score possible ('S' rank). Online play is great, in the past Advanced Wars games they had multiplayer functions, but you would have to find another person with a game and Gameboy. With online play I was able to verse real people with leads to harder battles and more rewarding victories (due to the difficulty). Unfortunately, a lot of the unsuccessful changes to this game series were to facilitate the online feature.
Design: Though the emergent game play was innovative of its original release (back with the original Nintendo), it surely has grown stale for many players. With only four new units and a different CO system, there is a lot to be desired. But when you buy a sequel you know what you are getting into. The story content was the only major improvement, which is the main focus of their advertising scheme. Another good element is the level design, each different mission gives you the sense of different gameplay, even though the emergent behavior restricts you to a very finite set of inputs. I love the war tone too, the last few games have been very 'happily ever after-esque.' The game focuses around a demented professor testing the human element, by making clone armies and recording your raggy tag armies heart pulse and vitals. It is the classic case of civilization v. anarchy and for most people it is an awesome premise. The cutscenes may not be very well made but mostly the whole idea is text based anyway, they play both before a mission and after, providing a narrative reward structure. And for those who don't like storyboards, the other reward system is unlocking new COs and your score at the end of a successful mission. Try to get all 'S' ranks! I know I am. Great standard design that has proven good in the past, why change it?
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Feb 8th, 2008 at 19:35:28 - Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (DS) |
Summary: In this game you are a survivor of a horrible apocalyptic meteor-struck Earth. You are rescued by a Commander and join his ranks to find other survivors. Along the way your group faces many challenges such as starvation and demoralization by The Creeper (a disease). The main gameplay focus around the control of your army, taking advantage of cities, factories, docks, airports, and various terrain in order to destroy the opposing army or capturing their main base. The main objective of the story changes, but the level objects usually do not.
Gameplay: I've always love these games ever since my neighbor introduced me to the series with Advanced Wars 2. Like many of its predecessors, Days of Ruin focuses on a turn-based emergence game where you control an army (much like a variant free-form chess). The story was where this game made some big improvements of the earlier games. In the past, relevant characters were limited only to commanding officers, and the story was all the armies hate each other, then they find a common enemy and try to destroy that enemy. Days of Ruin includes a whole cast of characters and a story based around 'the human condition.' While playing I always wanted to find out what would happen after the next big battle; I'd relate this experience to reading a good book. But it does have its disappointments. The music was not as intense as the other two games; half the fun used to be using your Super CO Power to get a turn of total destruction and awesome music. They also got rid out the CO bar in this game too. Instead of gaining special charge from killing enemies or taking damage to get your CO Power, you must put your CO in a unit and have that unit and all within the 'CO Zone' kill enemies. Halfway filled bar increases you CO Zone by 1, and a full bar increases it by 2 and allows you to use your CO Power. If that unit with the CO dies you lose all the special charge and must start again; making it much more difficult to pull it off. And in addition to making CO Power harder to get, they also dramatically decreased their usefulness. I found that with making these changes this game became less fun to play (but perhaps more balanced for when you play other people online, this is probably what this change was intended for). So far, those have been my main complaints. It seems like most of the changes I find annoying where implemented for balances the new online play feature.
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Jan 26th, 2008 at 02:16:48 - Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES) |
Gameplay:
The next area is the Kero Sewers. It isn't a very imaginative area, with the most interesting part of it being its maze-like quality. To get through it entirely I had to make it past a bunch of rats and fish to reach a button to drain the water. At the end you are confronted by Bellow who Mallow was warned about by his grandfather. He looks like a fat deformed troll dog and it obsessed with tasting my characters, the gimmick for the fight was that he could eat one character (you only have two at this point) temporarily and spray them with poison that inflicts different ailments. After Bellow is defeated a short humorous cutscene is played where Mario and Mallow try to shut the flood gates and are unsuccessful and swept away by the current. Mini-game TIME! Another Mario trademark is their mini-games, and this waterfall challenge is no exception. You get to navigate tunnels and springs that send you elsewhere on the waterfall as you collect items and coins. If you go in tunnels you get to watch a "It's a Small World"-esque cutscene and possibly get items. When it is all done you can pay to be teleported to the top and start the mini-game again for additional coins and prizes. The game starts to pick up right about now, Mallow is informed that he is adopted and joins you to find his real parents, a doll is possessed by Geno who was sent from the heavens to retrieve the Seven Stars, and Mapletown is being showered with poisonous arrows. Geno goes commando and tries to stop Bowyer, the evil entity that is attacking Mapletown. In order to get there you have to follow Geno in the right direction or you get lost in the woods, this can be quite annoying. For some reason there are Donkey Kong clones in the forest that can almost one-hit you at this point in the game which also made this area a colossal nuisance. I finished with one of my favorite boss fights, Bowyer. He can mute a character from casting and shut off whole branches of moves: A = Attack, X = Items, Y = Spells. The best part is Bowyer truly looks psychotic. Great art.
Design:
The artwork of this game is its best feature, vibrant and imaginative; all the characters feel alive. And if the artwork wasn't enough to bring the characters to life the quirky japanese story line and music really adds to cutscenes. Booster's Tower is one such point in the game, Booster is trying to marry the princess and is doing all sorts of crazy stuff to stop you (i.e. hiding behind paints, throwing bombs off a train, and having his Sniffits search curtains to find Mario). Nintendo even has Mario be mute, he never says anything except affirmative and non-affirmative grunts; to communicate he reenacts events or has other people talk for him. Another thing Nintendo retained from previous Mario games are the characters such as Peach, Toad, Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Bowser, fireballs, goombas, spineys, koopa troops. As for the gameplay it is extremely basic, you have attack, item use, defend, run away, and spells. The only way to upgrade is weapon, armor, and gaining levels. Standard stuff. Once again, the saving grace is the artwork and quirkiness, your weapons can range from a giant turtle shell all the way to a frying pan. Spells include having a mecho-koopa stomp enemies or a smiley-faced star ground pound the field. Perhaps it simplicity is part of its charm and appeal. While the main story has much to offer players that designers offer unique side-quests that can yield spectacular items. The currency system is two fold: normal coins and frog coins. The normal coins are unlimited where as the frog coins are almost finite (save for a casino). Using normal coins you can buy normal goods but with the special frog coins you can get really ridiculous items that make the game way easier than it already is. All and all if you want a colorful single-player RPG that doesn't really challenge this may be a good pick. Great art, great story, classic Nintendo.
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Jan 25th, 2008 at 16:33:45 - Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES) |
Summary:
This game begins with Bowser kidnapping the princess, which is the premise of most Mario games. However, it takes a twist after you save Peach when a giant sword falls from the sky and takes over Bowser's castle. You then set out to save the Princess who has disappeared again. As you progress you learn about the Seven Stars and Smithy, the main antagonist. You enlist Mallow, Geno, Peach (once you find her) and even Bowser to help return the Seven Stars and reclaim Bowser's Castle. Other than that the rest of the story elements aren't important, yet very entertaining.
Gameplay:
The first part of the game is the introduction with Bowser's Castle and learning the controls. There are two main differences that I noticed right off the bat compared to other RPGs of its era, bonus timing and button pressing with attacking, defense, and spells/special moves in addition to the free roaming monsters. Take the Final Fantasy series, for example, battles would occur randomly while in dungeons which became frustrating since there was nothing you could do to prevent them. Also, when in battle the only thing you had control over was which moves to utilize. While this made fighting the first boss significantly easier (less challenging) it was more fun than only selecting 'Attack' over and over again. One of my favorite parts of this game was the music for battles (I'm a big fan of 16-bit music) and the various areas. The further I got the more I noticed how much this game managed to retain of previous Mario games: items and coins could be gathered from boxes (some are even hidden), familiar characters (toads, frog people, bloopers, cheep cheeps, spineys, laktus, etc.), and classic moves and weapons such as 'Fireball' and Mallets.
This game also avoided some classic Mario flaws. In previous Mario games I had only to jump on bosses to kill them, with the only differences being with the speed they could move or the distance they could jump. Crocko (one of the first bosses) steals items from you and can throw them back at you to damage you, the pogostick boss could summon minions and shoot fire, the arrow boss can disable your various button layout. This brought a little taste of strategy to the Mario RPG, which I find key in these types of games. Vivid characters and even some character development made this game all the more fun to play. Mallow, a cloud person, joins you to bring his Grandpa some Frog Juice only to find out that he is not actually his grandson once you arrive there. So far I've just obtained the first star.
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thenah has been with GameLog for 16 years, 10 months, and 7 days |
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