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Mar 5th, 2008 at 17:51:04 - Snowboard Kids (N64) |
GAMEPLAY:
The more I played the game the more interesting it became. The levels are well made and each have their own unique characteristics. One part of the sand level which I found very funny was the penguins. There is a field of maybe 10 penguins pacing horizontally across the level. If you hit the penguin then you get flipped over and it makes a funny penguin noise. This heightens the intensity of the game due because you see the penguins but it is hard to avoid them. This is somewhat of an equalizer because everyone has the same probability of hitting the penguin and same chance of lagging behind. Another level has a bunch of spinning tea cups, symbolizing the ones from Disney Land. These are almost impossible to avoid or dodge. This results in all the characters getting stuck in the same place, bouncing off these tea cups. Everyone gets to share the frustration.
The flow of the game is really fast paced and easy to play. You can see a large distance of the level in front of you, unless you are going off a jump. If you go off the jump in a straight line, you will not hit any walls or objects on landing. You have to acquire coins through the level so you can get weapons. Another way to acquire money is through tricks, so if you are able to land enough tricks it doesn't matter if you don't get coins. If you don't have money it is devastating because when you hit an item box you just bounce backward, losing all momentum. That is a big factor in this game you have to keep your momentum because the acceleration is very slow.
DESIGN:
This game is one of a kind, I haven't seen a game combine snowboarding, tony hawk, and mario cart into one game before. It also has a special way of separating items. There are two boxes on the top of the screen, one for red item boxes and one for blue. They cost the same, 1 coin, but serve as different functions in the game. The red box is for shooting items, weapons used to knock the player over or inhibit him from keeping his momentum. There are various items as weapons: you can shoot them with a parachute and knock them into the air, turn them into snowman, blow them up with a bomb, freeze them, or hit them with a hand. They each have their own method of stopping the player, which leads to different strategies for using them. The parachute boosts them in the air and makes them slowly float down back onto the level. The best time to use this weapon would be on a jump, because he will have the maximum amount of falling distance allowing for you to make your pass on him. The ice weapon is also good right before a jump because they lose all their momentum and are not able to do a trick.
The other kind of item, the blue item box, are weapons that alter the game play but do not actually shoot at specific players. Some are even just for your advantage, for example the fan which boosts you and the invisible board which can protect you from incoming fire. You can also set rocks on the snow which cause people to trip over them, but it is also possible for you to run over them. This is were the coin rat can be obtained. You can steal everyones coins and become filthy rich. This item would best be used right before a player is about to run into an item box. So not only would you steal their coins, but they will run into the box and bounce back.
Another interesting part of the game is the way you make laps. It is somewhat realistic in the perspective that you have to go on a ski left to go back to the front of the level. The way you do this is by running into the lift entrance at the end of the level. The lift only allows one person in at a time, and it takes a while before the character actually enters the lift. So, two people are rushing toward the entrance, the first person there will be let on while the other person is knocked backward and looses all momentum. During this period another person can pass and take the next spot on the lift changing the character's placement in the race. This can be very frustrating at times.
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Mar 5th, 2008 at 16:31:24 - Snowboard Kids (N64) |
SUMMARY:
This game is a cheaper, but fun version of a snowboarding game. You don't have to press anything to go forward, you just start boarding down hill. It is not at all like real snowboarding because the point of this game is to gain the most speed possible, loop around the track the required amount, and reach the end first. There are many jumps throughout the levels, some trick jumps which are there for the character to do flips and tricks off of. The way you do tricks is very interesting, it is like tony hawk pro skater controls. You have to hold down the jump button A and press a direction, when you release the button he will flip or spin in that direction. It also has qualities of Mario Cart because it has item boxes, which allow you to attack the other players.
GAMEPLAY:
I had tons of fun playing this game, and everyone that has played it has loved it. The simplicity of the game allows for a steep learning curve and even battles. One thing thats easy about the game is the home seeking shooter items. Almost every single one of them are home seeking and you don't have to lead off the character or shoot directly at them. The characters are very interesting, they only have 3 characteristics, and 3 stars for each. So there are not many variations, but they are very distinct. Each character has the same sum of stars, just in different permutations. Not only are you able to choose which character you want, but you get to choose what kind of snowboard you want to use for the race. Each snowboard also has the same sum of stars and different permutations, allowing for you to choose the smartest combination of character and snowboard.
The narrative is very simple but catchy, especially to people that like to snowboard. The story is that it is just a bunch of kids racing on snowboard for fun. This game has a surprising amount of social interaction. This is due to the creativity of the weapons and obstacles throughout the levels. One level in particular there is a giant snowman that shoots the snowman weapon, which if you get hit by it, you turn into a snowman onto your snowboard. Not only do you look hilarious but you are not able to turn. This means you can go straight into a wall and lose position in the race easily, or get lucky on a straight away and not lose your place. There are weapons that allow you to steal every characters' money supply, which is needed to acquire weapons. This in turn sparks a lively conversation of trash talking throughout the players and can be game turning.
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Feb 20th, 2008 at 23:44:56 - Mario Party (N64) |
GAMEPLAY:
The more I played this game the more I began to notice how unique it is. The gameplay that is set up like a gameboard allows each player to "roll the dice" by hitting a block that randomly cycles through numbers. It has a very limited range of where you can walk. sometimes you have to choose between a fork in a road to follow the path to the star. Sometimes you can buy an item, or a win an item by landing on a green item space. These are another aspect of the game, which only one player plays. It is like the 1v3 except that there are no other players involved. The one I liked the most was the barrel switch, where it shows all the items, covers them in barrels and switches them around to try and confuse you. These don't really take time or a unnecessary skill like most video games.
The controls are usually uniform throughout all the mini games. The player usually only has to use A B and or Z along with the joystick. Usually these games consist of jumping up platforms, pressing A and B repeatedly, and or timing the buttons at the same time. At the rare occasion that there are more buttons needed, there are instructions before the game. There is also a very nifty option that allows you to play a "practice game". You can theoretically play the game as much as you want with no penally to any of the players, just beneficiary practice time for everyone to become more acquainted with the game.
DESIGN:
This game was very well designed and I can see why it is on the classics list. There are many different levels, and each level has its own special secrets. But the one consistency throughout the levels is the mini games. The same mini games, 2v2 games, and 1v3 games are present in every level. Yet each has their own ending when the level finishes. There is a sequence of events that lead to a "mystery hero" which is then unveiled as the winner of the game.
A big challenge of the game, which is somewhat out of the user's control is the random dice block. When a 2 characters are really close to a star, it is eminent that you get the larger number that makes it all the way to the star or it can mean the difference between being a winner or loser. Another frustrating part is when you don't have enough coins, so you want to get a number low enough to stand right in front of the star so you can try and acquire more coins in time.
There is so much social interaction in this game it is ridiculous. After every round of board play, you face off with every other player with usually only one winner. A lot of the time you are chasing after another player trying to hurt them in order to pull ahead, but this can lead to other players intervening and messing you up. In the case that there are teams, then it creates social ties with the teammates, and an enemy team which allows for a lot of trash talking. This is intense because you have to rely on your teammate to pull through in order to be able to win the mini game. Both of your coin counts are at stake. In the event of a 1v3 this causes so much tension between the players that it almost starts a riot. Usually the 1 player has some type of advantage, but still a very hard obstacle to overcome. So if the 1 player makes, he has full bragging rights over all the other players, and if he loses; all the other 3 players gang up on him and he is the only person out of the 4 not to get coins.
The game does exhibit emergence complexity due to its simple controls and simple goals in each of the mini games. There is also a lot of technique involved in these games. Sometimes you have to wait and learn the most efficient way for accomplishing the task at hand. Sometimes the task is to press Z and R. But this doesn't necessarily mean who can press it the fastest. Other instances are to jump in the air with A and press Z to pound something into the ground. With experience you see that the game puts in subtle differences in how high you jump when you press Z and how far the object you are pounding goes down.
All in all this game is very fun and one of the most unique ideas for a video game I've seen in a while.
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Feb 20th, 2008 at 02:35:34 - Mario Party (N64) |
SUMMARY:
This game is one of a kind. It has an overall game goal was similar to monopoly, due to the fact that you wonder around a board. But the game is also constructed from smaller very simple games (mini games) to acquire more coins. The purpose is to by as many stars as possible with your coins given. There are tons of variations of levels and secret passages ways you can choose from. They even have more than just mini games; like duels and battles. These are high stake games and can easily change the balance in a game. The game also seems to have a lot of lucked involved with where you land on the board, what spaces you hit, and what happens during the level's special event. The event is unveiled when a character lands on a (?) space.
GAMEPLAY:
This game was made very well, due to the balancing and random probability put into the game. This intensifies the game play and allows for easy change of position in the game. There are even more variables called items, which can allow you to move many spaces, switch with a character, steal another person's item, and many other things. Also, there is a ghost whom you can pay to steal other people's coins and or stars. This creates a lot of room for back stabbing and tearing apart people's alliances. The characteristic that makes the game the most interesting is the mini games leading to buying stars. Mini games may not seem that important, but they are vital in winning the overall game. The entire game can come down to who wins a particular mini game for a star.
These mini games are very original, and easy to play which makes the game so fun. The games usually don't use too many different buttons and don't require any independence. They are all usually timing, estimation, and or luck. The only frustrating part of these mini games is that you have no control over which game you choose. There is a random bar that cycles through a selection of 6 to 7 certain games, and stops randomly on one of them. What is so frustrating about this is that it can lead to many instances of the same game, and or all games that are not liked by everybody. This also allows for people to have their own special game, and when presented with the right game, they will always excel above the rest. Another aspect and completely different part of the gameplay is team mini games. There is a whole new set of mini games for this, both 2v2 and 1v3. These can influence the game in many ways, and sometimes are the most fun out of all the other mini games. The way the game decides this is if you land on a blue space or a red space. The green spaces just randomly choose blue or red before the mini game.
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eazya has been with GameLog for 16 years, 10 months, and 5 days |
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