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Feb 8th, 2008 at 20:36:01 - Picross (DS) |
Game Log # 3 (Picross DS) - Part Two
Game Play:
The second time around I played multiplayer and tried out some of the other play modes Picross had to offer. Right off the bat I liked the multiplayer because you only need one game card to play most of the games. There were tree games that you could play with one card. All the games were a picross twist on old games. One was like pictionary, one was like hang man and one I don’t remember so it probably was not as fun. In the pictionary game one person would draw a picture and it would be translated into a picross puzzle – the other person had had to solve the picross puzzle up until they could guess what the picture was. You would think this game would be more of a turn based thing and that the person who drew the picture would have nothing to do while the other person solved it, but this was not the case. In some ways it was more fun to be the drawer because first you got to draw a picture and then you got to see how the other person was doing on the puzzle and you had the option of drawing on their screen. You had a lot of freedom to draw whatever you wanted and you could choose different colors. You could be nice and give the person hints and write them notes or you could be a jerk and draw stuff on the screen so that they couldn’t see the puzzles. One of my favorite things to do was to shade in the grid boxes or fill them with Xs, sometimes I used this to tell the people were to fill, but mostly I used it just to confuse them.
The Hangman game had much of the same mechanic except for that each letter of the word had its own little puzzle and once you got enough letters done you could solve it. Solving the puzzles could also be fun because in order to solve it you had to write down what you though the answer was and the other person could accept or reject the answer. It was fun to reject all but the most specific answer, unless you were on the receiving end of the rejection.
I also played the create a Picross mode which could be played in two ways. One way was just to make a picross puzzle that looked like something and the other way was to draw a picture which the game would then translate into a picross puzzle. The classic way was kind of hard because if you didn’t make a puzzle that was solvable, then the game would make it solvable and that would screw up the picture. The other way was easier and you could use color in drawing your picture but the puzzle translation usually didn’t look like the picture. It was kind of different from the regular game because the picture you drew is not really inherent in the puzzle, but you still get to see the original picture as a reward for solving the puzzle. Ultimately it was more fun just to use the second method because even thought the puzzle didn’t look right you had more freedom to draw whatever you wanted and didn’t have to worry about weather or not the picture made a solvable puzzle.
Design:
Picross has a very nice design which has both emergent and progressive aspects. When doing the game guide test you would immediately think this game was emergent because the key to solving the puzzles is having a strategy in which solve them. In addition there are a small amount of rules and many possible puzzles to create. However this game also has strong progressive aspects because the puzzles are specifically designed to have only one final solution. Potentially you could have a game guide for this game that just showed you the final answers to the puzzles and that would be similar to a walk through. Of course that would put all the fun out of the game, but it shows that this game is much more progressive than it first appears. This game does a good job of blending emergent and progressive aspects because you have to rely on strategy and you could make an almost unlimited amount of puzzles, but the designers of the puzzle still have a lot of control over how difficult a puzzle is or what the puzzle ends up looking like.
One of the games strongest assets is its amount of replay value. For one the game has a lot of built in puzzles but beyond that you can download a seemingly endless amount from the internet (for free). In addition you can make your own picross puzzles and if you want you can share them with others. The one draw back is that you can’t save many puzzles, but since they don’t take very long to create, most people wont be too attached to the puzzles or have qualms about deleting them. There are even a few action based mini games to keep you busy. They aren’t so amazing and it seems like the designers just wanted to add some light action and additional rewards for solving puzzles, but they still add more value to the game. And of course the multiplayer modes open up the tremendously amount of gameplay.
Picross does not impress much on an aesthetic level but that could be a good thing. Sure the graphics won’t blow anyone away but the important thing is that the screens are simple and clear rather than cluttered with distractions and hard to read. If you wish you can change the background patterns for the puzzles, but in my opinion that just makes the screens harder to read and it’s often preferable to stick with the default patterns. The music takes the same simple approach as the graphics. There are only 3 songs to listen to (4 if you count turning the music off), but just like graphics, complicated music would not necessarily add to the game. The music in the game is very mellow and simple which is good because when trying to solve a puzzle you don’t want to get swept away by the music: In a way you almost want to be able to zone out the music or take it in without recognition so that you are not distracted. However, it is also important that the designers included more than one music track because even if you are not really paying attention to it, a single song playing over and over can slowly suck your soul away (are just annoy the crap out of you). The game also has satisfying sounds and animations for filling in the grid. Overall the games aesthetics are simple but effective.
The game also makes good us of the DS’s features and ends up with a satisfying control scheme. For example, it is nice just to be able to fill out the puzzle using the touch screen. It is nice to be able to tap the square you want to fill and to drag the stylus if you want to fill in more than one in a row. The only draw backs were that it wasn’t very hard to accidentally click in the wrong box and if you wanted to switch to a different tool like the magnifying glass you had to tap it’s icon on the side of the screen. It would have been nice if you could cycle through them with the shoulder buttons (I actually just found out that you can use the d pad to change the tool, but you have to hold it down during the tools entire use). Even with a few slight fall backs the touch controls were very effective, especially compared to some of the online versions of this game. In addition the designers made good use of the upper screen by using it to show you the whole puzzle. This is very effective in the bigger puzzle in which the touch screen is usually focused on only one section of the overall puzzle.
In addition to features unique to the DS this game also had some general features that were very beneficial to the gameplay. For one, the Xs were very effective for marking empty spaces or just for trying things without the risk of getting a penalty. Also the fact that numbers gray out when they are filled in is very useful because it reminds you of which sequences you have filled in and which ones you haven’t. Another aspect I like is that even though you are supposed to use the numbers and logic to solve the puzzles, you could potentially solve some of the puzzle just by looking at symmetry and figuring out what the rest of the picture should look like (this is sort of an artistic logic).
Finally, the game does a good job of accommodating players of different difficulties. For one the game explains the rules very clearly and gives you some simple puzzles to ease you into the game and teach you some basic strategies. However if you are experience you can skip the instructions and go straight to the harder puzzles without any delay. In general the game just does a good job in upping the difficulty every few puzzles, which creates a nice challenge and learning experience. On top of this if the puzzle are getting too hard you can choose to get hints and if you fill in the wrong box the game will tell you, which is like an additional hint. Eventually you can get too many wrong but the game gives you a generous safety net. In this way you don’t really have to worry about losing, just about competing against the clock.
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Feb 8th, 2008 at 20:34:32 - Picross (DS) |
Game Log # 3 (Picross DS) - Part One
Summary:
Picross DS is a rather unique puzzle game in which you fill in a grid of squares to form a picture. The grids vary in size from 5x5, 10x10 and 15x15 (at least as far as I’ve gotten). On the top and left side of the grid numbers are displayed that indicate how many squares should be filled in the corresponding column or row and in what order. For example 2 3 2 means that somewhere in that column you must fill in a sequence (meaning all squares connected) of 2 squares then 3 squares and then 2 squares again. There must be at least one space between each sequence, but you don’t know how many spaces are between each sequence or where each sequence starts. The challenge is to figure this out by comparing the numbers which correspond to the rows and the numbers which correspond to the columns in order to fill in the boxes logical. Once all the boxes are filled a picture is revealed and a short animation is played.
Gameplay:
My first time playing the game I didn’t really have any strategy and just followed the basic instructions, but as I continued the game I picked up on many little techniques that helped to solve the puzzles. It was fairly easy to get through the first few puzzles and I felt pretty good about myself until all of a sudden the puzzles doubled in size. I was defiantly intimidated by the change in size, but I soon found out that the difficulty level had not been raised too far. And shortly after that I found that the difficulty setting had been raised pretty high, and the first couple of puzzles were just to ease the transition.
I had finished quite a few puzzles on level one and then decided that I would try level 2 because level one just consisted of puzzles which ended up being fruit and level two consisted of animal puzzles (which are obviously so much cooler). This is when I first encountered a 15x15 puzzles. If I thought I was intimidated by the 10x10 puzzles I really don’t know what I was thinking because these new puzzles were just down right scary. The puzzles were so big that I now had to use a zoom button so I could focus on specific sections of the puzzle. Of course my fear of these puzzles has since worn off, but it is clear that these puzzles do take more time than the puzzles of the first level and I had to use the quick save function if I didn’t have a good 15 to 20 minutes to work on the puzzles. The quick save function is good because it allows you to come back to the same puzzle, but it would be nice to have another save slot. Though, at least you can start another puzzle without erasing the quick save file, unlike some other games. One good thing about the bigger puzzles is that the end pictures look better and more like what you would expect from looking at the puzzle. In the smaller puzzles some of the pictures are really a stretch; I thought one was a penguin and it ended up being a pineapple.
I also tried one puzzle in free mode that added another twist to the game. It worked the same as the other modes except for the game didn’t tell me if I made a mistake. At first I thought this was good because there would be no time added if I accidentally taped on the wrong square and so I wouldn’t have to be to careful with the stylus. Soon of course I found a mistake that I had made and I realized that I would not know when I made a mistake and therefore if I didn’t recognize it quickly I could end up doing the rest of the puzzle completely wrong. I also realized that sometimes when I was alerted of a mistake in the regular mode it would actually help me solve the rest of the puzzle. As a result of all this I was even more cautious and got less help from the computer so it actually took me more time to solve a puzzle on free mode, even though I couldn’t get any time penalties.
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Jan 26th, 2008 at 02:28:30 - Super Mario 64 (N64) |
Gamelog # 2 – part 2 (Super Mario 64)
Gameplay:
I’ve played Super Mario 64 two times now and I find that the more I play it the more I want to play it. At first I just figured I would play a few levels and then return the game to the library because I really don’t have enough time to play it, but I just can’t bring myself to return it. There is just something about the gameplay that makes Mario games so addictive and I don’t really know why, but I can hold testament to it. I would speculate that it definitely has something to do with collecting stars and achieving goal that are not too far out of reach. It seems similar to the satisfying feeling one gets when crossing something out on a to-do list. Of course there is also the atmosphere and the gameplay that are very important. Anyway, I’ll try to talk more about that later.
This time around I entered a couple more worlds and played the first level for a second time. I was surprised at how much harder the second world was because I thought that I had gotten a handle of the controls. Something about the new enemies and obstacles made Mario want to run off the side of the cliff about ten times. I also enjoyed how each world had a distinct feel to it. I liked the ice world just because for some reason I like the idea of snowy places and because I was fun to slide down the hill (at least it was fun when I intended to slide down the hills).
Playing through the fist world a couple more times I realized that the world changed a little bit and I realized that some task were much more difficult then others. It’s was interesting to see how many different task there were to do in the world and things that seemed to have no purpose in the first run through were suddenly keys to unlocking stars. I thought that this added a lot to the replay value of the game and I could see myself trying to get all the stars on each stage.
As far as general gameplay goes I did have some more experiences. For one thing it seemed like the enemies became more of a challenge. Another cool thing was that I learned that I could dive and snatch up small enemies, it didn’t mean much but it was fun. Also I found that if I paused the game I could get a good zoomed out view of the surrounding area.
I did have some not so exciting experiences the second time around. For example, I constantly found myself accidentally sliding and not being able to get out of it and my joystick had sensitivity issued because it is old and worn down. Also I still found the bosses and most of to be fairly easy to beat
Design:
Most gamers would agree that Super Mario 64 has excellent game design but it is hard to pin point exactly what makes it so good. I would argue that the key elements to the games success are its atmosphere and its gameplay.
One of the game strongest attributes is its ability to set up and maintain a powerful atmosphere or tone which ensnares the player. One of the ways the game does this is with its graphical and audio style. For example the game immediately starts off with a positive tone by showering you with color and familiar upbeat music. In addition, through having slightly less detailed and unrealistic art the game gives off the feeling of a surrealism and fantasy. Believe me when Mario is drawn in full detail it is really creepy and so by not including creepy details the game designers are able to make Mario’s world feel light hearted and charming. The style of the artwork generally stays the same throughout the levels, but through exaggerated colors and shapes each level is able to pull of its own unique atmosphere. For example, the ice world is showered in blue and has very steep inclines and sudden drops which can’t help but give you the feeling of being high on top a mountain; even though a real mountain would look nothing like that.
The music is just as important if not more important than the graphics. The music can make you feel happy go lucky like it usually does, but it can also give you a feeling of urgency and importance, like it often does in boss fights. The sound effects are also very good as conveying atmosphere and emotion, whether it is the diabolical sound of Bowser laughing, the simple sound of you sliding down a slope, or the pleasant sounds related to getting a star, all the sounds put you deeper into the world.
Other key parts of the atmosphere are the story and the characters. The story is one part of the atmosphere that his mixed results. On the one hand its simplicity allows for it to be understood and followed by a large audience. On the other hand you could argue that the story is to simple and subsequently not very engaging. I feel that one way the game could improve on this would be to put some more story based cut scene into the game and to at least make the text bubbles more readable by using a bolder font and a solid background, if not spicing up the contents of the text. Of course just because the story is not very engaging it does not mean that the characters are not, in fact the characters are very engaging. The characters are able to show a great range of emotion through facial expression, body language, and sound effects. All of these aspects add up to create very realistic characters which have personalities other their own. Ultimately this game makes great use of graphical, audio, and character design to create an engaging atmosphere.
But of course if atmosphere was all Super Mario 64 had it would just be a movie. What make Super Mario 64 a game is its superb gameplay. One of the best aspects of Mario’s gameplay is that it has very simple control mechanics in that it only uses a few buttons, but when you combine the buttons you are able to create many different outcomes. The simplicity makes the game accessible to people who are not very apt at gameplay and the possibility for complexity gives experienced players more to learn from the game and more options for play style. Another factor that leads to a wide audience is that many of the obstacles require both mental and gameplay skills to overcome.
Along with the gameplay comes the gameworld design. The gameworld often feels free and wide open because of the 3D graphics and the seemingly extra areas of land, but when you examine the game closely you realize that there is really one route to progress through the game. However more freedom can be seen within the path in that the player can get past obstacles in more than one way. This gameworld approach has multiple benefits because it gives the player a feeling of freedom and choice, but the game designer still maintains most of the control on the overall gameplay experience.
In particular the levels of the game maintain the same core gameworld foundations and gameplay, but somehow every level seems fresh and varied. Part of this is due to the different atmospheres of the levels, but a lot of it has to do with the fact that in every level there are new obstacles and enemies introduced that challenge the player and require them to learn more about the game. The levels also do a good job of pacing the difficulty, each level seems to get harder at a steady rate and there are no huge jumps in difficulty. The only problem I did have with difficulty was that the bosses seemed a little too easy, and therefore more of an afterthought than an actual challenge. Another good aspect of the level design is that each level has multiple goals that have to be accomplished this is definitely a good economic use of the levels and adds to the replay value of the game. Also when you see how many different things there are to accomplish in a world it makes the world seem very large.
The game also has an excellent reward system which makes you feel good when you succeed and reinforces you with consistent victory animation and sound. The reward system also keeps you hooked because you want to keep getting stars and unlocking new stages. Also you get smaller rewards such as coins for smaller task such as defeating an enemy which makes it seem like almost nothing you do in the game is unproductive.
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Jan 26th, 2008 at 02:26:12 - Super Mario 64 (N64) |
Gamelog #2 – part 1 (Super Mario 64)
Summary:
Super Mario 64 takes the idea of a 2D Mario platformer and make it 3D. Similar to the 2d games Mario is required to run and jump past many obstacles. He may have to jump from one platform or another or he may have to run under a falling block. Mario also encounters many enemies which can be dispatched in a variety of ways, like jumping on their heads or punching them. You first have to make it to a certain point in a stage, which is usually straight forward and then you have to fight a boss. After you clear the stage you get a star and you can then reenter the stage to face another challenge to get another star. The more stars you get, the more worlds you unlock and the closer you get to saving Princess Peach. I haven’t gotten to the end but I assume there are a limited amount of stages and a particular final boss fight with Bowser.
Gameplay:
This was actually the first time I played Super Mario 64, which is surprising to me because it is know to be one of the best N64 games and I love the N64. Despite my sin of never playing Super Mario 64, I have played many other Mario games 2D and 3D so I am not a complete Mario newbie. One of the fist things I noticed about the game was how similar it was to Mario Sunshine for the Game Cube. It has very similar controls and graphics and this gave me the impression that Super Mario 64 was way ahead of it’s time. The other thing that struck me right of the bat was that even though the game was in 3D it still felt like it’s 2D platformer predecessors. I was pretty amazed at how a game could feel both traditional and ahead of it’s times.
Now let’s talk about the actual gameplay: So I’ll admit that I really am not the best Mario player and I didn’t make it through many levels on my first run through, but I was still able to experience a lot. I spent the first 20 minutes just exploring the area in and around the castle. The area around the castle felt very serene and I was drawn into the game by the bright colors and the familiar sounds. I like how the tutorial basically consisted of signs that you could read if you wanted some instruction or hint. This open ended tutorial system allowed me to experiment with the controls and to take things at my own pace. I spent a lot of time just jumping around and was caught off guard when I jumped up and then started climbing a tree. The tree climbing ability didn’t seem very useful at the time, but it had an oddly pleasing mechanic in its motion and sound effect. Another thing that seemed rather useless, but was fun to watch was Mario falling asleep when I didn’t play the game for a minute. It worked out pretty perfect because as I was making a note about how climbing the tree was fun Mario went to sleep against the tree and then as I was writing a note about Mario falling asleep he then fell to his side and went into an even deeper sleep. I know that the last two things don’t seem very important to the game, but I really enjoy it when game designers put in those little details. I feel that the little details add a lot to the game and make the game world feel more real.
The First Stage: Eventually I did get board of just wandering around and I started the first world. I wasn’t very impressed by the enemies and found that you could easily dispatch them with a simple punch, but the obstacles turned out to be much more challenging than I expected. I figured that I could just run through the stage full speed but it proved more difficult to avoid rolling balls and cliff edges than I had previously thought. Once I got a hang of avoiding the obstacles I was surprised by how many more options 3D game gave me. It is true that there was still really one main path, but there were many different ways you could avoid the obstacles. For example, in a 2D game you would have to jump over a ball rolling at you but in the 3D game you could jump over it, run around it, or just hug that wall as it passed you harmlessly.
The First Boss: When I reached the first boss I was at first unsure how to fight him. This was probably because I had stopped reading the full contents of the text bubbles, which actually revealed how to fight the boss. There were two reasons that I did not read the text bubbles. One reason was that they were hard to read; it might have just been my TV, but the text seemed like small white scribbles. The other reason was that I know from experience that the stories of most Mario games don’t really mean that much beyond the overall concept of save the princess. Anyway I figured out that you had to throw the boss and from there on out the boss battle seemed fairly easy. And then of course I got my first star and it is always fun to watch the animation of success (it’s a good example of positive reinforcement)
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