Multiplayer bullshit is being shoved down your PSP’s gullet
Before we begin, let’s be clear: It’s absolute madness to get fussy with a game just because it includes features that don’t feel built specially for you.
I still remember the Internet chaos incited by Sony fanboys when they learned that DEVIL MAY CRY 4 would be coming to the PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360. The franchise had long been identified with the PlayStation brand, and by these malcontents’ logic, a 360 version of Devil May Cry 4 was tantamount to betrayal.
The entire episode was ... unseemly.
So it’s with some confusion that I confront my feelings for the PlayStation Portable and what Sony has been allowing to happen to it.
There's some magical Disney / Square crap happening in this image. I love the way Kingdom Hearts games play, but I cannot stand their broken, impossible-to-care-about stories.
To varying degrees, the last few AAA games on the handheld have been sold on the backs of their gamer-to-gamer functionality. These titles still offer brilliant and complete single-player experiences, but their multiplayer components skulk about like snakes in the grass, coiled and ready to strike at your gnawing completionist instinct.
Why does it have to be “snakes,” huh? What's my deal? Well, it's because these features weren’t built specially for me. That’s really the long and short of it.
In Japan, Sony is in a rough-and-tumble fight with Nintendo for market share in the portable gaming sector. They’re fighting Nintendo stateside and elsewhere, too, but with much less success.
On the Japanese front, then, developers are going with what works, and what works is MONSTER HUNTER — an explosively popular series of games that pit bands of adventurers against, well, monsters.
Hoping for a piece of that sweet monster money, game-makers are cramming tons of multiplayer functionality into historically single-player franchises. Worse still, these features often are strictly ad-hoc, which means they can be played only with somebody who owns a PSP, who also has a copy of the same game and who’s in close physical proximity. (There’s an online workaround for this mess, but it’s spotty and complicated.)
This approach works well enough in Japan, where everybody uses public transit and people proudly play their PSPs and DSes on the train.
But in car-obsessed America, where we do things on couches and toilets and nowhere else? Not so much.
The worst offender here is Konami’s METAL GEAR SOLID: PEACEWALKER. In so many ways, the game shrewdly condenses what worked in its living room forebears. But an unhealthy number of its optional missions are multiplayer-only, effectively locking most Americans out of that content. And while every mission necessary to complete the game can be undertaken by a single person, they’re often wildly difficult and clearly designed for several people.
Less intrusive but equally grating are the cooperative and competitive missions in SEGA’s incredible VALKYRIA CHRONICLES II. Most of the game is meant to be played solo, but the multiplayer missions are presented alongside the single-player ones. More snakes, teasing you with snake experience and snake gold that you’ll never see.
(Never, unless you have a nearby friend with a PSP and a hankering for the sequel to a brilliant but criminally overlooked PlayStation 3 strategy game.)
In Square Enix’s KINGDOM HEARTS: BIRTH BY SLEEP the multiplayer setup is mostly secondary to the main game, and I actually have a friend who has both a PSP and his own copy of the game. I might try it!
But the cooperative and competitive modes have left dirty pawprints in several places, and I cannot abide this. The game’s “Command Board” — a Monopoly-like mini-game that powers up your hero’s abilities — is clearly meant to be played with other humans. But when played by one’s self, the PSP populates the board with computer-controlled opponents armed with no discernible strategy.
These aren’t the only PSP games to pull these shenanigans, nor is the PSP the only console that allows them. The DS’ DRAGON QUEST IX, charming and addictive though it is, swims in anonymity because of its multiplayer focus.
The games discussed here really do offer fantastic single-player experiences. They’re simply dulled by the impact — either real (Peacewalker) or suggested (Kingdom Hearts) — of the multiplayer cash-in component.
Am I making sense here? Or do I sound like one of the Kool-Aid-guzzling Sony fanboys who flip out every time a Sony exclusive goes multiplatform?
This article originally appeared in the York Dispatch.
Gimme more to review: "Kurulin Fusion"
As stated on our most recent episode of Jurassic Radio, I downloaded this surprisingly cheap PSN title because it was being touted for musical involvement from Nobuo Uematsu. When I first downloaded it, I didn't care what the content of the game was, I just wanted to hear something different from Uematsu.
Turns out, the music was actually synth-arranged J.S. Bach music, and the individual who did the actual arrangement was Kenichiro Iwasaki. So Uematsu is listed as the "sound director" of KURULIN FUSION. What does that mean? Did he pick which Bach songs should be arranged? Did he do synth manipulation? I have absolutely no idea. And I don't really care; this game shouldn't be sold on the laurels of its soundtrack. It's good music, but it turns out my misguided purchasing habits allowed me to stumble into a decent puzzle game.
This is a "pieces drop from the top, make awesome formations" kind of puzzle game, akin to TETRIS or DR. MARIO. I specifically mention Dr. Mario because every piece you're given is a rectangular block with a split down the middle (essentially, two squares). Now, in Dr. Mario, the goal was to throw colored pills at viruses, which already existed in the field of play, and match up virus and pill color to defeat the viruses. Extending the Dr. Mario analogy, the two types of "things" that can be on either side of a piece are orbs and blocks. Orbs are like the viruses, and blocks are like the pills. Except, in Kurulin Fusion, all it takes is one pill to kill as many viruses as are adjacent to it, or to another virus that is adjacent to the pill (i.e. -- possibility for massive chains).
Let's drop the Dr. Mario analogy, because the similarities end here. The orbs and blocks come, sometimes in the same piece, but sometimes orbs are paired, or blocks are paired. Statistically, you are given more orbs than blocks. Different modes of play determine how many colors appear, but the max is four: red, blue, green, yellow. Every possible combination of piece imaginable will be given to you, except for one: putting an orb and a block of the same color in one piece is never done. You can get two orbs of the same color, or two blocks, but never the two types thrown together when they're the same color.
The rules of the game are simple. You're dropping pieces in a contained space, and clearing orbs by sucking them into blocks earns you points. If your pieces spill out over the top of the field, it's game over. Also, after a certain number of pieces drop, a row of randomized orbs and blocks will appear at the bottom and push everything up one row. In arcade mode, every 15 levels goes in a speed cycle: start slow, then speed up, til at level 15 (or 30, or 45), you've reached "pieces drop instantly" speed. After clearing this, at the next level, the pieces drop slowly again. However, the rate at which new rows of random crap appear at the bottom continues to accelerate with each level.
The game looks like this: a 9x12 grid and lots of color.
Keys to becoming an expert player essentially involve playing big risk/reward games. You see, the "block" pieces can be fused. Put two blocks of the same color next to each other, and they become one rectangle. You can have blocks that take up one, two, four, six, and nine squares total. The larger the block, the more points you get. And the massive nine-block will destroy all orbs of the same color, regardless of positioning. Also, setting up chains (block sucks up orb, pieces above drop, more block/orb destruction continues) is a way to earn big points.
My favorite form of the game is the mission mode. There are 30 stages in mission mode, and each one has a different objective. Sometimes it's as simple as "don't lose in a given amount of time." Other times it's "destroy so many orbs," or "build a fusion block of a particular size," or a variety of other objectives. And each of them comes with a time limit. The challenges get harder and harder, and they are tons of fun. Unfortunately, a skilled player (such as myself) can clear all 30 challenges in an afternoon. After that, there really isn't much left to do with the game. Except play multiplayer, which doesn't have random match setups... you need to have friends also playing the game. What a shame!
For its price, it's a great game. I just want more objective-based challenges. And hey, maybe add a fifth color that corresponds with a larger field of play? There's plenty of room to expand, and I'd be fine paying more money for it.
Played: 4 hours, no multiplayer
Platform(s): PSP (PSN)
Price: $4.99
30-Second Review: Half-Minute Hero
HALF-MINUTE HERO is a PSP game from Marvelous Entertainment that boils jRPG tropes down into easily digestible chunks. Looting and level grinding are still here, they just take seconds instead of hours. It's based on the freeware game 30 Second Hero, and playing that gives you a good idea of what to expect from the game's title mode. When it sticks to the formula of short, self-contained RPGs, it works beautifully.
Unfortunately, the game deviates often, breaking up play into four separate modes. It tries to simplify the RTS, shoot-'em-up and escort styles the same way it does with the RPG, but with varying degrees of success.
Hero finishes off a dark lord.
Each mode has a goal that must be completed in 30 seconds. The hero has to defeat a dark lord. The knight has to make sure nothing distracts the sage while he casts a spell. The evil lord and the princess both have curfews for some silly reason. Each mode ranks you by how fast you're able to complete the level. If your overall rank is high enough for the mode, you unlock a harder enemy in a later mode, sort of like the Weapons in the Final Fantasy series.
A tale of two portables. And four games.
The PSP and the PlayStation Network have come a terribly long way in the last year, and if their progress keeps pace, the PSP might supplant the DS as my favorite portable. I submit the following as evidence by way of anecdote:
Calamity befell me last week. And by "calamity," I mean a minor annoyance that almost ruined my Thanksgiving Eve.
Giant Bomb posts a new Giant Bombcast each and every Tuesday. It's one of the highlights of my week and something against which I compare our podcast often.
So you can imagine my disappointment when I noticed Wednesday, Nov. 25, that my iPhone hadn't traded the Nov. 17 episode of the Bombcast for the Nov. 24 episode. Maybe I forgot to sync it Tuesday night, I thought, or maybe I synced before the episode downloaded, in which case the podcast wouldn't have transferred unless I manually synced afterward.
When I tried again Wednesday night, I learned the awful truth: my iPhone wouldn't sync at all, despite multiple reboots of the device and my computer. I would have to restore, a mostly simple process that involves wiping your iPhone's hard disk, reloading the OS and reinstalling all of your applications and personal data. If all of your apps are backed up on your computer, it's a no-loss scenario.
No, but what choice do I have?
But not all of my apps had been backed up. Based on the 38 that did make it, I'd say my phone stopped syncing apps with the computer in September or so. Which means I lost ROLANDO 2, the two GEODEFENSE games and a handful of other portable treasures for good. If I want them back, I'll have to buy and download them again, and even then, I won't have the save data and high scores I had logged beforehand. In a nutshell, that means I'll probably never play those games again, let alone finish them.
See what I mean? Calamity! But the drama throws into sharp relief the wonderful (if expensive) experience I've had downloading games to my PSP over the last few days.
Ramblomatic Review: "Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII"
Remember when "Zack" was just some random dude that Cloud had psychologically switched identities with? Back when we thought there was a real love triangle between Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith?
Those were simpler times.
CRISIS CORE: FINAL FANTASY VII was supposed to be Square Enix's killer app that pushed the PSP to reluctant gamers. The Action RPG takes place five years before the events of FINAL FANTASY VII, centered around the famed "Nibelheim incident," wherein (spoiler alert?) Sephiroth goes insane.
But Crisis Core is, surprisingly, more than just a history lesson for overzealous fans (though it is certainly that as well). It's an Action RPG with a system unlike any I've seen. Before I make a judgment call on whether or not that's a good thing, let's start by reviewing that history lesson. Again, spoilers aplenty, so don't read any further unless you don't care about the fate of Zack and his cohorts (hint: you shouldn't care that much). Also, non-spoiler warning: this review is way too long for its own good. Expect detailed plot and gameplay analysis.
Reviewing A Game In Its Sequel's Clothing: "Star Ocean: First Departure"
One of the last RPGs to be released on the Super Famicom (aka "Super Nintendo") was tri-Ace's STAR OCEAN. The tri-Ace team was formed after TALES OF PHANTASIA, the first game in the Tales series, was released on the same system. Both games didn't come to America on this original platform, in this original time frame (1996). But even then, word was out in America that these incredible late-era 16-bit RPGs existed, and their existence was like something of a legend for poor little American boys like myself.
The full story is that Namco took the first game in the Tales series and basically ruined it. Or at least, that's how Yoshiharu Gotanda, the man who wrote the original plot for Tales of Phantasia, felt. So he went on with some colleagues to form tri-Ace, and their first game would launch what is a fairly well-known sci-fi fantasy epic. Gotanda also wrote the story for Star Ocean, and his team made a game that played and looked in almost every way like Tales of Phantasia. There was time travel, there was a strong emphasis on character interaction and building a sizable party, there was the action-based battle system, and... yeah. The only new thing brought to the game was the skill / skill points system, something that has forever defined the Star Ocean series as something truly special.
A time must come when the things of the past re-surface. More specifically, that time comes when Square Enix decides they want more money with minimal effort. However, with Star Ocean, they knew that this outdated SNES title wouldn't hold well in today's market. So they re-tooled Star Ocean, from the ground up, and put it in the form of the second game in the series (STAR OCEAN: THE SECOND STORY for PlayStation, which did come to America). Both of these games were released on PSP as STAR OCEAN: FIRST DEPARTURE and STAR OCEAN: SECOND EVOLUTION respectively. The company TOSE worked on the remake of the first game, and the port of the second game, in tandem with tri-Ace and Square Enix. But it was mostly TOSE.
This is how the game looked back then...
The jump from Star Ocean to Star Ocean: First Departure was big. Graphically, all environments were changed to gorgeous pre-rendered scenes (a common thing for PSX RPGs). And the battles switched from a top-screen 2D to the 2.5D of Star Ocean 2. In other words, Star Ocean: First Departure was the plot of the first game put into the skin of the second game. Truth be told, it was a really great idea.
And, in my humble opinion, this game needed the boost. Because, despite all the myth and legend about this "incredible" Super Famicom RPG I'd heard as a youngster, it's really not a great game. The brief experience I've had with the original version was that it a) wasn't as good as Tales of Phantasia, 2) had a really awful encounter rate, and iii) would have sold terribly in the US.
The game took me about 40 hours to conquer. And by "conquer," I don't just mean end credits. I mean absurd level-grind in secret dungeon, evil secret last boss, and another insanely-hard enemy you can summon on the world map. The only thing I didn't do was play the game a second time to get all the characters. The game limits your party to 8 characters (4 of whom are mandatory in SO1), out of a total of 12 playable characters. I witnessed something crazy, by accident, in my own playthrough: a character died. It was an optional scene that you can avoid in one of two ways, and they actually added a special anime cut scene just for this event. I was sort of glad to get rid of her, because with the free space, I picked up Welch Vineyard, the secret character they added to the PSP ports, who was first introduced in STAR OCEAN: TILL THE END OF TIME (aka SO3) for PlayStation 2. And all I have to say about her? "Nibelung!!! something-or-other..." hilarious!
...And this is how it looks now.
Spoiler alert for brief plot synopsis. Some humans with tails (Saiyans?) from the planet Roak start turning into stone one day. They think it's from a naturally-occurring illness, but it turns out it's a biological weapon being used by some crazy folk. The people on planet Roak are "underdeveloped," in that they've yet to make contact with outside planets. Some very Star-Trek-style people from Earth show up (seriously, Ronyx looks and acts like Spock). They explain the situation to two young adventurers: Roddick and Millie. Roddick, Millie, Ronyx, and Ilia go through some lengthy exposition, and then decide to fly to the Planet Styx and beg the acorporeal "gatekeeper" of the Time Gate to let them go 300 years into the past to get a tissue sample from the evil creature "Asmodeus," who seems to be the original host of the "turn-you-to-stone" disease.
(aside: there was something in the game's exposition about Roakian blood being copper-based instead of iron-based, and how their blood looked invisible to everyone except other Roakians, and that blood could be used as a cloaking device. This plot point goes nowhere by the end, but it would've been a cool thing to work with...)
So you end up in the Roak of the past, where 90% of the game takes place. After kicking butt there, going through all manner of quests and picking up a full party, you defeat Asmodeus, then find out about a sinister third party. And then there's something about the continent of "Mu" (it's like Atlantis, but in the Pacific instead of the Atlantic), and how a meteor that destroyed the continent sent humans to planets all over the galaxy. It isn't as interesting as I made it sound. So that's a bad thing.
Music is by Motoi Sakuraba (of course). You either love it or you get tired of it really fast. Me? I switch my opinion of the guy like I switch underwear. So I won't say anything more about him.
So, outside of the plot, virtually everything about the game feels like Second Evolution, which I've already reviewed. Having played both games, I'm going to cut this review short (at 1000 words...short?) and just say the game gets a 4 out of 5. Great gameplay formula, great remake, but the original plot and characters just don't sell themselves as well as those in SO2. That's an opinion right there. I have a few of those.
Playing Friday: Dhampirs, Heroes, Blobs and Metal
I picked up a used PSP this week, so I spent a good portion of the past seven days experimenting with the system. Word of warning: Don't buy a game on the account of the guy who owned it before you and then reset the settings so you can set up your own account.
The first thing I did was download Castlevania: Symphony of the Night from the PSN store. I had been playing through Dawn of Sorrow on my DS, but the PlayStation classic takes precedence over any of its spiritual sequels. It is just as awesome on a tiny screen as it was on the television in my brother's room in high school. Or Benji's room at college. Or in the other four or five places I've played through it.
Then Brutal Legend, A Boy and His Blob and Half-Minute Hero came out on Tuesday and halted my Castlevania retrospective. The only one of them I can recommend without reservation is Half-Minute hero.
HALF-MINUTE HERO is an absolute joy to play. It's divided into various games that breed traditional RPGs, shooters and RTSs with WarioWare titles. It all started with a flash game called 30 Second Hero, where you have to discover your purpose, level up, buy weapons and save the kingdom from an evil lord in less than 30 seconds. And that's basically what you do in the Hero 30 mode.
In Princess 30 mode, you fetch items for your sick father and shoot bad guys with a crossbow. In Evil Lord 30, you summon monsters and throw them at bad guys. Hero 30 is the most fun, probably because that's the concept that launched the game, and the other modes are afterthoughts. The Evil Lord 30 mode is cool, but it's very hard to tell what's going on, and Princess 30 suffers from a lot of repetition, but they're both still quite a bit of fun.
There are three other modes I have yet to unlock. If the rest of the games on the PSP are this good, I'll shoot myself for putting off the purchase for so long.
A BOY AND HIS BLOB is adorable, but it's also surprisingly thin. I played the original way back when, and it was inscrutable and frustrating and virtually impossible for a small child of my age to play. The remake is a game only a child could play. The game holds your hand through all of the first world's 2D platforming stages, telling you what jellybeans to feed your blob and where to do it. Hopefully things will change after the first world, and the platforming and puzzles will become more interesting.
I would never have thought to use the parachute to fall down that cliff safely without that sign.
And finally, BRUTAL LEGEND is a joy to watch someone else play. It has a great story, mediocre controls and an RTS component where you play as a general on the ground. I think that mode has a lot of potential, but I handed off the controller to my roommate right before the first of those missions. So I need more time Brutal Legend's to determine for myself if that works.
Eddie Riggs prefers not to suffer the heretical practitioners of hair metal.
Some of the news we'll be talking about this week:
A gamer's wife describes the benefits of being married to a console slave and living in an entertainment hub.
Mario is dead.
Gamefly has been having some trouble with the USPS lately. And a lot of trouble with the USPS lately.
Ported Portables Review: "Strikers 1945 Plus Portable"
You may have hundreds of little bullets, BUT I HAZ LAZORBEEEEAM!
When I saw STRIKERS 1945 PLUS PORTABLE on PlayStation Network (PSP), I thought I recognized the game. It looked like a remake of any number of vertical scrolling shooters I played on my NES as a child. But apparently, I had my series names confused. The "Strikers 1945" series, developed by Psikyo, didn't have much exposure outside of Japan. The original arcade game, published in Japan in 1995, had some naughty bits; all the pilots are female, and if you could beat the game earning all gold medals, you got to see them topless. This feature was cut from all subsequent versions of the game and was not included in its sequels.
STRIKERS 1945 PLUS is an alternate version of STRIKERS 1945 II released for arcade, later ported to PSX. Add "Portable" to the title, and you have the PSP version, which was released on UMD in Japan, but came as a download-only title in America via PM Studios (a small publisher whose previous experience includes DJMAX games). By the time this game reached American PSPs (about six weeks ago), a bunch of other companies had also gotten their names on the title screen(s).
Title screen to the original arcade version.
So here's the game, in brief. Start the game, pick a plane (10 second time limit!), shoot stuff, die a lot. Beat eight levels (technically seven, two levels got mashed into one for the Portable release), beat it again with harder enemies, THE END, high score. Rinse and repeat with different planes if you feel like it.
This is a standard bullet hell shmup, using an alternate history post-WWII as the setting. The graphics are clear and crisp, so you can usually tell what's going on. The audio is decent, more for the sound effects than the music (the soundtrack can't touch most other shmup soundtracks I've heard). The gameplay shines because each of the six planes are completely different.
Each plane has three attacks. There's your standard, hold-down-attack-button-for-rapid-fire attack. Hitting the SQUARE button sends out a "bomb" attack, which is a complete misnomer: it's actually a shield. The actual effect varies from plane to plane, but essentially, what happens is that a much larger plane (or planes) slowly fly across the screen and shoot stuff for a few seconds. Meanwhile, they also block all bullets headed your way. When you're in a bind, it's bomb (SHIELD) time!
Finally, all planes have a super attack that is "earned" by shooting and killing a certain amount of enemy planes. The gauge fills at a different pace for each plane, and the super attacks can be stored in different amounts based on each plane. One plane has a missile that, upon contact, creates a black hole explosion that will do MASSIVE DAMAGE and also suck up enemy bullets. Another has a lightning bolt that only fires short range but can really pack a punch. One plane just drops a bomb that leaves a vertical path of destruction behind it (somehow the bomb hits stuff in the air too...?).
I have to say that the game is a ton of fun. I've beaten the game at least once (and often, twice) for each of the planes (I haven't played with the "secret" seventh plane, because I haven't bothered looking up how to unlock it). And I did so not out of necessity for writing this review, but just because the game is truly addictive. The boss battles at the end of each stage are great.
Time is running out! Quick, select the FLYING PANCAKE!
But I can see why this was originally an arcade game. It's a real "quarter pounder" (that is, you pound the quarters into the machine). You have two lives, and then you have to continue after losing two lives. In my best plays, I die at least three times per stage. Playing through this game in arcades would easily cost me $10.
That said, some people might consider it a good deal to have a home version for only $12 (the current price of the game on PSN). But I don't think this is a good price for the game. The newly-developed SHATTER for PS3 was only $8, and that game had a far more interesting premise and was developed from scratch. Perhaps with a few more touch-ups, some bonus levels, and the removal of having to "continue" every two lives (just give me infinite lives and punish me via decreased scores for each time I die!), it would've been worth the price. But, in my opinion, they should only be charging half the price for this game.
With price point in mind, the game gets 3 out of 5 stars. Shmups are great, but I've played better for far less money.
Console-Comparative/Informative Review: "Space Invaders Extreme"
I'm generally wary when developers remake a game, or add an entry to a game's series, by merely tacking on a buzz word like "Super" or "Extreme" and then running said franchise into the ground with lackluster improvements and game-breaking mistakes. It's happened many, many times. But for every bad Super/Extreme/Ultimate version of a game, there's a good one too. So you hedge your bets and give these things a try, hoping for the best.
Indeed, during the '80s and '90s, the original 1978 arcade hit SPACE INVADERS was ported and graphically enhanced for nearly a dozen different platforms. Despite making huge waves in the early world of arcade gaming, Taito allowed their classic arcade shooter to lie dormant for some time. But after Taito was bought out by Square Enix, the good folks at Square Enix did what they do best: milk all the possible potential out of a franchise. SPACE INVADERS EXTREME is an example of how you do the whole "remake" thing right, particularly for classic arcade titles.
Boss fight! (Stage 3 boss, hard version)
To mark the 30th anniversary of the classic game, Square Enix released two versions of their fully upgraded Space Invaders Extreme to the public in late 2008: one for the DS, and another for the PSP. Six months later, on Xbox Live Arcade, a third version of the game was released, featuring four-player online modes and optional expansions. The game was a big enough hit that Square Enix and Taito have already released a sequel, SPACE INVADERS EXTREME 2, exclusively for the DS (arguably the most interesting platform for the title, due to the two screens and the tall orientation).
The reason the remake is so successful? There is no one reason, but in my time playing the game, I've been able to observe a few reasons why the game is addictive enough for today's audience that you'd want to keep going back to it, the same way it was once such a wonderful novelty 30 years ago.
The basic gameplay is the same. You're a little space ship stuck to the bottom of the screen, only able to move left and right, and you shoot vertically at waves of alien ships, grouped in different formations. You shoot up, the enemy shoots down. You avoid their shots, and you hit them. That's the basis of Space Invaders.
DS version does boss fights and bonus rounds in double-screen, super-tall mode.
Extreme adds a whole bunch of fun stuff. For starters, there are the power-ups. The four basic power-ups are a bomb (area of effect explosions on contact), a broad shot (five vertical beams instead of one), a laser (persistent, death-dealing blue beam of awesomeness), and a shield. These four power-ups are generally obtained by killing four enemies of the same color in a row, with different colors corresponding to the power-ups. The three offensive power-ups also have "super" versions that can be obtained in bonus rounds: bigger bomb explosions, wider broad shots, and an undeflectable giant blue laser (this last power-up is undoubtedly the coolest thing in the game). Each power-up has an ideal situation for use between each wave of enemies, as the waves are scripted per stage and are in no way randomized.
(Also know that there are a few more special guns to obtain in bonus rounds; they're hard to describe, but generally, they're quite destructive.)
Then there are the boss fights. These are most fun (and most complicated) on the DS, because the action takes place across both screens. In one fight (stage 4 boss), you have to ricochet your bullets on regular enemies in front of you, have them bounce back, dodge the bullet, and have it hit the boss (who is behind you). It's the only time in the game that your ship is positioned on the top screen. Genius idea? Yes! But also a frustrating and difficult boss, to be sure.
The game's presentation is another strong point. Visually, the game retains its pixelated roots by intentionally designing everything in pixelated blocks. But the animation is incredibly smooth, and the graphical effects are fantastic. In the background of each level, a continually-looped movie plays. It's faded dark enough so that the action on the screen takes prominence, but this colorful addition to the game really helps to make it stand out.
The audio is also fantastic. The soundtrack is a great blend of electronica (with an emphasis on blending chiptunes and modern synth), but the real treat is that every single shot fired has a sound effect played in time with the music. Depending on which beat, or whether you're on the beat or hitting in-between beats, a different tone might play when you fire. If your bullet hits a shield, you hear a cymbal crash. And if the bullet is deflected, you'll hear a different sound. If your bullet hits an enemy's bullet instead of an enemy, that makes a unique sound as well. But no matter what, the sound effects are processed alongside the rhythm of the music playing. Whoever programmed this was a genius.
Never thought I'd associate high-end graphics with Space Invaders. But the XBLA version is stunning.
My two complaints about the game are as follows: the difficulty curve gets a little ridiculous, and the game could offer more content. There are only five stages in the game, but stage 3 has an "A" and "B" version, stage 4 has A B C, and stage 5 has A B C D. This branching path for stages can only be traveled based on high scores. If you stick to the "A" Path, the game is tremendously easy. But if you get a high enough score (and thus, rank) for the stage, you have the option to proceed down a harder path. And let me tell you, 5-D is just absurdly difficult. I've been playing the game for months and still cannot beat it. Even 5-C was a huge challenge that took me over a dozen attempts to complete.
But if I did beat 5-D, that would be the last thing I have to do. I've played the same stages over and over, in basically the same modes. The setup is great, but we need more content! The XBLA version of Space Invaders Extreme offers some remedy with the downloadable content and a great multiplayer mode, but even that isn't enough. Hopefully, SIE2 will save the day with all of its new modes and additional stages.
Taito and Square Enix set the framework for a great casual shooter. Now just tweak it, balance the difficulty, and throw tons of content in, and we'll have something that nears perfection. But Space Invaders Extreme, even with these complaints, is a super-fun game that utilizes a classic arcade title in the best of ways. So, whether it's the two-screen DS version, the wide-screen PSP version, or the extra-content XBLA version, you're in for a 4-out-of-5 experience.
Review: "Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?"
Better question: do you really want to be the hero? Many painful deaths await you, my friend.
Ah, Prinnies. Cute, lovable, demon-penguins from Nippon Ichi's DISGAEA franchise. Reincarnated from the souls of criminals, low-lifes, and other social misfits, prinnies are best remembered for saying the word "dood!," wielding two sharp knives, and exploding upon contact. Now, NIS has seen fit to use its adorable mascot as the "hero" of a new platformer for the PSP that's sure to challenge your preconceptions of the genre, in the same way that Disgaea challenged our vision of strategy RPGs a decade ago.
PRINNY: CAN I REALLY BE THE HERO? presents a relevant question: can a no-name creature with zero defenses embark on an epic quest? The answer, as I soon found out, depends on how good you are at platformers. And you have to be really good to make significant progress in this title.
THE SETUP
This PSP platformer makes no pretense of having a serious plot to accompany the gameplay. NIS, as a company, makes it their goal to put together the most hilariously irrelevant plots for their games. This particular scenario takes place over the span of 10 hours (one hour per stage), and it involves sending 1000 prinnies on a quest to reclaim "The Ultimate Dessert," which was stolen from their master, Demon Lord Etna. The first six missions make up the bulk of the game, and like a MEGA MAN title, these six missions can be played in any order.
The checkpoint is so close! Don't get hit, or it's all over!
Unlike Mega Man, however, Prinny adds a new feature that significantly enhances replay value. As time passes, and night falls, things change in each of the six stages. The basic mechanism here is that, whichever levels you play first, they will be easier, but the later levels will be far more difficult at the end than if you had played them at the beginning. Some stages are elongated, have new sections put in place of old ones, or add more monsters and opportunities for "pit death" (example: in one level, the "water rises" after dark, and areas that weren't pits now are). After completing those six stages, there's a special boss fight, then a special stage, followed by a "round-up fight" stage (where you re-fight the six bosses you faced in the main stages, with increased difficulty). At the end, there is a ferociously difficult final stage, as well as a two-part final boss fight.
Anyone who wants "the full experience" will need to play through this game a minimum of two times. However, there's enough content in the game to warrant many more play-throughs than that. Alongside the variance of the main stages, there are bonus items to find, bonus enemies to kill, additional "bonus" scenarios, as well as the ability to save replay footage to share with anyone who cares to watch you conquer (or fail) a stage/boss. There's also the difficulty level, which you can change at any time. The only difference here is the number of times you can get hit. During the game's introduction, a special red scarf is given to the "hero" (who, technically, changes with each subsequent death, as the "1000 lives" you're granted are actually 1000 different prinnies who just so happen to sound exactly the same). On normal difficulty, this scarf can ward off up to three hits taken. Upon the fourth hit, your prinny does what prinnies do best: explode. On the "hard" difficulty level, the scarf is only there for decoration. One hit = death. If you want to punish yourself, joining the prinnies in their purgatorial existence, feel free to make use of the hard mode.
The order in which you complete the stages matters a great deal in this game. Choose wisely!
The basic controls are suitable, though jumping is frustrating. Basically, you cannot control your direction in a jump anytime other than the initiation of the jump. It's realistic, but again, it's frustrating. Fortunately, prinnies can stop their jumps mid-way by doing a ground-pound (D-pad "down" plus jump button to go straight down, something we've all been doing ever since MARIO 64). You can also become stationary, mid-air, but executing attacks in the air. Other than that, prinnies can spin (in preparation for a dash), during which time they are immune to taking damage. You can also pick up and throw bombs and stunned enemies, and a few levels have simple "vehicles" that may or may not be required to progress in the level. It's a limited arsenal of abilities, but it's all you'll need in this simple, difficult platformer.
Bosses make up a significant portion of the challenge. If you think the 1000 lives granted per playthrough is excessive, allow me to enlighten you. Basically, each boss has a certain set of attacks, and there are some small aural or visual cues to let you know that they're about to execute one particular attack. During the span of the attack, there may or may not be a weak point to exploit, and there may or may not be a stationary "safe point" to return to. Even on normal difficulty, it's quite challenging. Most bosses are taken out by first stunning them (the ground-pound, and/or bombs, if they're available in the boss's arena), and then going nuts with button-mashing. The "re-use" time between attacks has to be something like, one thirtieth of a second, and no bosses have any blinking "invulnerability" time. So, when stunned, the key to victory is being able to mash the attack button. It hearkens back to the days where your best friend was the one who owned the third-party NES controller with the turbo buttons.
THE PRESENTATION
Nippon Ichi's in-house composer, Tenpei Sato, can be described as one part Danny Elfman, two parts George Michael, and three parts fill-in-the-blank Japanese VGM composer. All games in the Disgaea universe take on a "perpetual Halloween" feel, as the Netherworld is as much about childish mischief as it is about torture and death. The game's score only re-uses a handful of old tunes, and is mostly an entirely new soundtrack in the same vein as Disgaea and its sequels. I like it quite a bit.
NIS America has a spotty track record with English dubs, but everyone loves prinnies, right dood? It's really not hard to sell the prinny, and NIS America deserves a lot of love for "re-inventing" the aural and textual presentation of the prinny, since there are big differences between the Japanese and English versions of the creatures. Another win for NIS America was their version of a character that they decided to name "Darth Moab" (due to the shape of his head looking like Vader's helmet). When prinny is told by Moab, "I find your lack of taste disturbing," you know you're in for a parodied quote-a-thon, and I give props to NISA for the jokes, and for having prinny break the fourth wall at the end by acknowledging the Star Wars reference.
I've beaten the game twice and not yet seen this cutscene. Perfectionists and completionists, be prepared for the long haul, there are plenty of hidden goodies.
The game's visuals are perfect for a simple 2D game. However, the background environments have a small semblance of 3D, showcased best when prinny does an aerial attack, and the camera shifts 30 degrees to show off a 3D perspective. Had they wanted to, Nippon Ichi could've attempted a "multi-layered" 2D platformer, like LITTLEBIGPLANET. Then again, maybe that would be a bad thing to add, given the backlash we've seen on that particular gaming mechanic.
Many of the game's sprites are lifted directly out of older Disgaea titles, but there was plenty of sprite animation that brought the cast to life in a way that the strategy RPGs never did. Also, I love the homage to Mega Man when Prinny jumps into a gate before a boss fight, and he freezes in that position with the legs up, it looks exactly like Mega Man. That's good stuff.
THE JUDGMENT
Not every game manages to sink its talons into me like this one. I was only partially interested in the game from the start, but by the end, I didn't want to put it down. I think that's a sign that this is a decent platformer. Challenging, yes. Rooted in "oldschool" paradigms like limited lives and zero character growth, yes. But I was worried that NIS would totally fail at pulling off a game in a genre with which they have virtually no experience. With that point in mind, I think they did a great job. 4 out of 5, dood!