Getting my money’s worth: the $5 Viral Survival (review)
I follow NIS America like a hawk. Why? As a publisher, the games they bring to us tend to be one (or both) of the following:
a) quirky
b) awesome
In the case of VIRAL SURVIVAL, a $5 WiiWare title developed by Peakvox, we get a lot of a, but only a bit of b.
Much to my surprise, this game actually does come from Japan (original title, "Escape Virus"). It feels like an indie game developed in a basement. That's not meant to be a damning statement -- plenty of great games have had such a humble origin. But it does feel... small, and unrefined.
If you play this game for more than 30 minutes straight, your eyes will hate you, and the color orange, for days to come.
What is Viral Survival? It's a fast-paced action game that thrives on short busts of play and intentional limitations. You control a virus in a square-shaped petri dish. While swimming in a sea of orange goop, you can run into any of the following: other viruses, two or three varieties of bad guys (presumably anti-viral agents), and rockets. Grab a fellow virus, and he tags along. The more you grab, the longer your tail becomes. Hitting a rocket means rocket(s) go out and hit bad guys. If you, as the "head virus," make contact with a baddy, you're dead. Game over. If someone on your tail hits a bad guy, that segment of the tail and all segments after it go loose, like Sonic's rings.
You've fought segmented bosses in games before right? Remember every boss in 3D WORLD RUNNER, or those giant serpents that appear in every fantasy action RPG (up to and including YS SEVEN)? Yeah, well you're playing as one of those bosses. Except your form of regeneration is to find virus pals and grow longer, and you have no armor for your head.
And that's about it. The game comes in five modes: Normal, Progressive (up = forward, left/right = turn), Horde (lots of bad guys), 128 Zoom (um...), and Shooter. 128 Zoom mode is very specific: the camera is force-zoomed very very close so you basically have no idea where anything is. You have to collect 128 viruses and then the round ends. Shooter mode is my favorite, because you're equipped with missiles to shoot loads of bad guys and there are no viruses to collect. The drawback is that it's not twin-stick like, say, SUPER SMASH TV. You must face the direction you're shooting in. I think I could survive longer in shooter mode.
Horde mode = find power-ups, bowl through the enemies Pac-Man style (complete with inverted colors!).
The longer you play, the more you notice little quirks about the game. For example, your head virus has a little eye that will always look in the direction of the nearest "good thing" (either a rocket or a fellow virus). But I don't recommend playing this game in long spans of time. It will hurt your eyes.
All told, I'm not sure I can recommend this game. A part of me says "look at the price point: $5 really isn't that bad." But then I think about what else I can get with $5. In the land of XBLA, particularly in the "Indie" section, I can get games of equal or greater quality for less money (anywhere from free to $3). It's nice having an oldschool-style "run away!" arcade title on WiiWare, but then again, I'd just as soon play a free flash game on my PC.
If the game had more than one song, visuals that didn't make me want to hurl, and perhaps some sort of story/level/campaign mode, I'd be willing to rate it higher. As it stands? Nah. Only get this if the Wii i's the only console you got and most of your friends are too ADD to play anything that requires more than 45 seconds of concentration.
Played: 3 hours
Platform(s): Wii (WiiWare)
Price: $5.00
Review: ‘Sin & Punishment’ sequel squeezes sweet science from the shmup
I’d love to tell you that I’ve curated a complete library of games from celebrated shoot-’em-up developer Treasure, but I’d be lying.
I’ve struggled through all five stages of IKARUGA, played a couple levels of GUNSTAR HEROES and rented GRADIUS V once, and that’s the long and short of it. The games are famously hard, and I’m a wimp.
So I can’t really tell you whether it’s strange for Treasure titles to attack you with pods of homicidal dolphins and bionic hamsters, as SIN & PUNISHMENT: STAR SUCCESSOR does.
What I can tell you: If you like lasers and a stiff challenge, you’ll like Star Successor, released exclusively on the Wii earlier this summer.
You control one of two tween warriors — Isa, who has a jetpack, and Kachi, who has a hoverboard. Aside from a few mechanical differences, that’s all you need to know about either of them up front. They journey forward in three dimensions, switching occasionally to side-scrolling 2-D, and shoot everything that moves using rapid-fire laser weapons, melee attacks and a charged shot that can dispatch multiple enemies at once.
There’s a story of sorts, but if you play the game, I beg you to skip as much of it as possible. It’s nonsense of the lowest order, and even if it were Shakespeare, you’d be tempted to blow past it. The gunplay is the main attraction here, and it’s sublime.
By pinning the movement controls to the nunchuk and the aiming and firing to the remote, Treasure has developed one of the tightest action games to use Nintendo’s novelty controller. Thanks in part to a largely flawless frame rate, everything feels fluid, precise and incredibly responsive. When you get hit in Star Successor, it’s usually your fault, not the hardware’s.
Played start to finish on the easiest difficulty, the game takes only a few hours, but if you stop there, you’re missing the point. The real thrills come from mastering the many, many bosses, each with its own tricks and shortcuts, and eventually clearing the game without dying (or, if you’re nuts, without getting hit at all).
And the differences between Isa and Kachi are substantial enough to warrant playing through Star Successor at least twice. Isa’s lasers and charged shot are meant to be blind-fired for extra damage, though he can lock on to an enemy when things get hectic.
Kachi locks on to enemies automatically — a handy feature when you’re trying to boost your multiplier by killing every one of the hundreds of smaller monsters that swarm you, but an occasionally frustrating when you’re trying to select a strongerr target.
Her charge shot, however, is much more fun to use. While holding the A button, you sweep your on-screen reticle across each enemy you want to hit. Release, and voila. Lasered dudes.
There are a couple of wrinkles, particularly where those terrific boss fights are concerned.
Because you’ll be dying at the bosses’ hands quite a bit, it would be nice to be able to skip some of the cutscenes involved in fighting them. The end boss of the fourth stage, for instance, shouts “My blood is on fire!” after taking enough damage, shrieking as she morphs into a kind of winged jungle witch.
The process takes a few moments, and because this boss’ second form is exponentially tougher than her first, you’ll likely have to start over a few times, which means sitting through the entire sequence again and again.
Hammering on the Wii remote’s plus button will get you past most of the ridiculous story moments. (Pro tip: It even speeds up your Gameover screen.) But not the bosses. We’re talking about just a few seconds here and there, but when they’re repeated every time you die, they can make a stubborn boss all the more frustrating.
The game’s other major design hurdle isn’t necessarily a dealbreaker, though it might scare off more casual players.
Most of the challenge in Star Successor is impossible to anticipate if you’re brand new to the game. You’ll be struggling through impossible bullet patterns and boss attacks that seemingly cannot be dodged on your first go, and though this all becomes second nature with enough repetition, it can feel cheap up front.
If you’re a once-and-done kind of gamer, or one who’s easily set off, this might be a problem. For example, that same fourth-stage boss — the one who enthuses about her fiery blood — eventually unleashes a flock of blue and red birds that she calls her “ravens of time.” Once the ravens reach your character, they turn into circular blobs that appear to be unblockable.
Only through experimenting (or reading this review) will you learn that you have to use your melee attack on the blue raven blob, which will explode nearby red blobs and slow down time so that you can get in a few extra hits.
If you accidentally touch one of the red blobs instead, time speeds up, giving said boss a few free hits on you.
It’s one of hundreds of unpredictable risk-reward scenarios littered throughout the game, and it isn’t unique to the bosses. Do you use your melee attack on an incoming missile to fire it back at your target, or do you dodge the missile to keep your score multiplier safe?
How this sort of thing rubs you could decide whether Star Successor is your kind of game. I found it exhilirating and well-crafted, but I’m a patient, nimble masochist. Your mileage may vary.
Review: ‘Mario Galaxy 2′ has universal appeal
As Americans, we’re rightfully choosy about which mass-media entertainers we allow to use single names.Think Madonna.
Beyonce.
Chyna.
Gallagher.
Best of the best, right?
But one diminutive Italian dude towers above them all.
Since he arrived on the princess-rescuing scene in 1981, Mario has needed no introduction. You know this guy. He wears blue overalls and jumps on stuff. He likes mushrooms and coins and warp pipes and, above all, shiny things. His best friend is a dinosaur.
And perhaps it’s that universal familiarity that has prompted some videogame writers to pepper their otherwise exclamatory praise for “Super Mario Galaxy 2,” the latest title in a franchise that has sold more than 220 million units, with hints of fatigue.
“Superfluous,” “unnecessary” and one of the best Mario games of all time, declared Kotaku’s Stephen Totilo.
“We should, by rights, be well sick of (the Mario formula) by now,” said The Escapist’s Susan Arendt, “but it’s hard to be cranky when the level design is this good.”
If the cognitive dissonance sounds weird, that’s because it is.
We’ve become such a preening, entitled bunch of babies that most of us can’t bring ourselves to start by saying what ought to be said: “Galaxy 2″ is one of the very best platformers ever made, and it’s certainly the best game on the Nintendo Wii.
There are blemishes — those chintzy star bits from the first “Galaxy” return, for one — but they’re wee ones, and we’d be lucky to get titles this good five times as often.
Pretending as if the first “Galaxy” (and every other game in the Mario canon) never existed, “Galaxy 2″ begins with a five-minute tutorial to establish the ounce of narrative context you’ll need for the next 20 hours or so — Bowser is as big as a planet and steals Princess Peach, but Princess Peach has promised Mario cake.
Time to jump on stuff!
The game cuts you loose with the quickness. In the first 10 minutes, you’ll have careened around asteroids, leapfrogged black holes, hopscotched across disappearing elevators and slaughtered a baby piranha plant.
To the races: And you’ll have driven the laws of physics into humiliating exile, such are the gravity-defying heroics you’ll pull off in “Galaxy 2.”
The sequel keeps the spherical levels of the first game, but just as often, it stretches, perforates and bedazzles them with grouchy turtles, rope swings and other sundries from the Mushroom Kingdom.
These worlds — you travel between them on a spaceship styled after Mario’s face — are the most hazardous, creative, candy-coated obstacle courses ever
And fortunately, they bear revisiting. As with the first “Galaxy” and other 3-D Mario games, “Galaxy 2″ has you tromping about 40 or so stages in pursuit of 120 stars. Collect all of those, and you’ll unlock the privilege of finding 120 more.
Collect all of those, and you unlock a final world — something I’ve not accomplished yet — for a crack at two final objectives, bringing the total star count to 242.
Yoshi, Mario’s anatomically puzzling dinosaur companion (he lays eggs), appears in “Galaxy 2,” and he’s in fine form. By eating special fruits purposefully strewn through certain levels, he turns into a blimp, a lantern or a red-hot bullet that can scale vertical walls and run across water.
The fruits are fun, easy-to-use additions to the game; it’s just a shame that you’re given little license to experiment with them. Each power-up is placed conspicuously close to the section of the level where you’re meant to use it.
That makes some sense — unlike the fire-flowers of Marios past, each fruit expires after 15 seconds or so — but you’re never at a loss for what you’re supposed to do.
The same goes for Mario’s four new power-ups. The best of them is a suit that lets you conjure three clouds mid-air, bridging otherwise un-jumpable distances.
You’ll also play with a rock suit and a giant drill; ice flowers, fire flowers and the ghost and spring suits return from the first “Galaxy.”
Again, little room for experimentation, but the mechanics are so tight that you likely won’t complain. The game challenges your fingers more than it does your brain, which will be plenty busy chewing on the finer points of jumping upside-down or running inside a sphere.
There’s so much more to love — the outstanding orchestral remixes of old Mario tunes, the streamlined world map, Yoshi’s heart-melting repertoire of grunts and squeals — but it’s best left to discover on one’s own.
Trust Nintendo, and trust Mario. If you’re looking for a reason to put down “Red Dead Redemption” or “Alan Wake,” you’ve found it.
This article originally appeared May 31 in the York Dispatch.
First hour: Monster Hunter Tri
(It goes without saying, or it should, but the video embedded above comes courtesy of the fabulous Giant Bomb. The text below comes from me.)
As promised, my revealing and contrition-inducing first hour of MONSTER HUNTER TRI for the Nintendo Wii.
0:00 Never have I felt sillier about booting up a new purchase. The whole franchise conjures nothing but disgust in my brainmeat, but several reviews have compared this to Dreamcast-era "Phantasy Star Online." If that's even remotely the case, I'm onboard.
0:01 Well-animated and surprisingly brutal opening sequence, wherein monster gets eaten by monster gets eaten by monster, a la that miserable Looney Tunes underwater sequence from "The Phantom Menace." But cooler.
0:05 The character customization options are pretty great, and it must be said: MONSTER HUNTER TRI has some of the best hair presets of any game I've played since SAINT'S ROW 2.
0:07 So I'm in the single-player game, and the main hub (Moga Village) is pleasant and populated enough, but seriously, the first order of business: pants. If you're a dude, you start the game in hot pants.
0:08 With chainmail leggings and a giant bone hammer suspended from my dude's back, my masculinity is secure.
0:10 So the character dialogue is rife with really intentionally bad puns, and there's a twirp in the middle of the village named "Future Alpha Male." I may be smitten. It's clear that somebody at Capcom gets how people like me feel about Monster Hunter.
0:12 I'm out in the field, and moving about feels pretty good. So does whacking things, which really surprises me. And while you can tell this is a Wii game -- there ain't even the faintest whiff of high definition, or definition of any kind -- it's pretty nonetheless. The design of this first zone is beautiful, and there are some nice environmental effects.
0:14 Load times suck though. And they come pretty quickly and furiously.
0:16 The game just ordered me to kill this harmless herbivorish dinosaur-lookin' thing. Savage. But I skinned the carcass for raw meat! The village chief's son will be so pleased!
0:18 The translation is thick on kitsch, but I continue to dig it. "Me plus BBQ equals BFF."
0:23 I just ate a haddock filet. In real life. Omega-3-alicious. 'kay, back to the game.
0:30 The game just introduced me to most of its basic features -- upgrading weapons, picking up quests, where to find crafting items, what to do with raw meat, etc. Take notes, SquareEnix! I'm not overwhelmed! I can learn to do multiple things all at once!
0:35 I believe I'm on my first real quest! The village folks have dispatched me to collect "resource points" so that I might restore our base camp. That means clobbering these harmless deer things — harmless, that is, until you bludgeon one of their friends to death. Then they harass you until half of your health and all of your pride are gone.
0:40 Just cleared my first room of what I'd actually call monsters, and it felt damn good. Nasty, dilophosaur-looking things. I BLUDGEONED AND SKINNED THEM.
0:48 Back to the village. Murdered another one of those pacifist monsters on the way, but hey, I needed the meat. Cooked a burnt steak and a rare steak; burnt food reduces your stamina, properly cooked food raises it. Duh.
0:52 Turned in my first quest! Got ... loot? Pittance fang? Funky pheromones? I suspect that stuff is for crafting, but for now, it's burning a hole in my item pouch.
1:00 Okay, feeling the groove now, official-like. Unearthing iron ore with my mega pickaxe, beating the brains out of Jaggis, checking in with the village chief ... I've got the bug.
The Newest Oldies Round-Up: March '10
After months of writing about painfully bad lineups on the "Virtual Console Round-Up," the revamped monthly article "The Newest Oldies" has demonstrated that there are still plenty of good titles on the way for the Virtual Console. Meanwhile, PSOne Classics lags behind, and XBLA gives us the occasional gem.
The Fatal Fury (Garou Densetsu) series makes me feel simultaneously more and less masculine compared to its cast of characters.
Let's start with Virtual Console. On March 1st, SNK's FATAL FURY SPECIAL hit the VC store. This Neo Geo originally costs 900 Wii Points, for reasons unknown to me. This is an enhanced/updated version of FATAL FURY 2. You can play as the "boss" characters, plus they brought on some cast from the first game. Known as GAROU DENSETSU in Japan, this series of 2D fighters never really grabbed my attention. If I want to rock some SNK action, it's usually via KING OF FIGHTERS. Nonetheless, it's quite the rarity, and fighter-fans might want to check it out.
So the good news here is that Fatal Fury Special is the least interesting of March 2010's four VC releases. Next up, we have FINAL FANTASY II on SNES, released on March 8th. That's the one that's really FINAL FANTASY IV "Easy Type" in Japan. So, do you want to play the inferior version with whole sections of script cut, abilities and items "dummied out," etc? Well, if you are like me and you played the game in 1992, maybe the nostalgic experience will make it worthwhile. But it is a solid $8 to download; and as I said in my review of the DS version, the DS version is a great way to experience the game. And you can probably find that used for $20. Your call. Super-old 2D original or thrice-remade 3D DS version. Or any of the other remakes in-between.
CASTLEVANIA: RONDO OF BLOOD for the TurboGrafx is the game that paved the way for Symphony of the Night (which in turn started the Metroidvania craze). The game is a lot like SUPER CASTLEVANIA IV, but with a rudimentary inventory system, but lacking 8-directional whipping. Whipping straight-forward only? "That's no good!" Much like FFIV, this game is available in all kinds of random places, most prominently on DRACULA X CHRONICLES for PSP. The game itself is a 3D upgraded version of Rondo of Blood, but the original game (as well as the complete version of Symphony of the Night) can be unlocked while playing the game. For 900 Wii Points? Eh... I guess I'd say it's worth it. It's a fun game to be sure. This one was released on March 15th.
"Only for Nintendo 64" ... until now!
Finally, and most importantly, Square Enix very recently (March 29th, to be exact) published the old Quest-developed Strategy RPG OGRE BATTLE 64: PERSON OF LORDLY CALIBER. I saw a dude at Anime Boston this past weekend selling a used, but boxed, copy of the N64 cartridge for like $80 or something. This is one rare frickin' game. And, apparently, it's also a great game. I'm behind on my "Ogre" goodness, but the general verdict from RPG fans is that this game is a rare treat, one of a fistful of worthwhile RPGs for the N64 console. So yeah, for only $10 (1000 Wii Points), this is pretty much the best thing ever. I'm probably going to buy this and play it.
One "PSOne Classic" hit the docket in March. I actually played this one to completion as a kid, and I tentatively recommend it to people who remember the game and say to themselves "hey, was this a good game?" The game is ONE. It has no relation to the Metallica song. Instead, you play some sort of military enhanced-soldier guy with a gun-arm and a barcode on your neck. Right from the start, you're being chased down by hostile police forces and stuff. This 3rd-person, 3D run-and-gun platformer/shooter spans six levels, forces you to conserve ammo, and pits you against some mighty intriguing bosses. Very hard, but if I recall, pretty cool concept as well. It's also from some (in my mind) no-name companies: developer is Visual Concepts, publisher is ASC Games. The PSOne Classics version hit the store on March 18th.
In the land of Xbox Live Arcade, developer 4J Studios did a visually upgraded remake of Rare's N64 classic PERFECT DARK. Improvements outside the graphic realm include online multiplayer and added voice acting. We already mentioned this one on The Jurassic Hour, but I thought I'd plug it here too. I'd much prefer they take this same approach to the game's engine-based predecessor, GOLDENEYE. I'll mess all you Odd Job players up. You can't karate-chop my ankle when I'm rockin' prox mines.
Joanna, do you play mind games? I play "mine" games. GOGO REMOTE MINES!
Finally, and this is slightly outside the scope of this series of articles, MEGA MAN 10 is out. That's not to be confused with MEGA MAN X. And it's out on like, every current-gen platform. It was a "timed exclusive" from one week to the next, with Wii getting the first shot. But yeah, this is just a direct follow-up to MEGA MAN 9, which was what brought the "intentionally retro development" scheme into the forefront of chic gaming. I haven't really sunk much time into this one yet, but I loved 9, so I will almost undoubtedly love 10 as well.
In other news, FINAL FANTASY IX is on its way to the Japanese PS1 archives. We're waiting anxiously for its North American (re)debut.
A hit, a rogue, and a book: an introspective look at my gaming habits
So, as you may have read if you've been following the posts on Gameosaurus, we took a break from our weekly podcast, and will soon be slowing down recordings. There were a number of reasons for it, but chief among them was this: I, the Gameodactyl, was awful at keeping up with our self-imposed schedule.
We planned on discussing a book, Steven Johnson's 2005 Everything Bad Is Good For You, on last week's podcast. The idea was actually mine. A friend of a friend suggested the book to me after I recounted an embarrassing story, when I got into a debate with a theology professor about the pros and cons of gaming in the spring of 2005. I was so psyched about the book that I ordered three copies and demanded that we discuss it on a recent podcast. And of course, the only guy to not read the book in time is yours truly.
The hit.
We will be discussing the book in further detail in our upcoming podcast, as all of us have now read it. It wasn't at all the book I expected it to be. The subtitle of the book suggests that popular culture makes us smarter, and for some reason, I was expecting it to also address how it makes us "better" in a more well-rounded sense. But no, the argument has everything to do with cognition and intelligence. Johnson addresses the "moral degradation" arguments, and actually does a half-decent job, even though he relegates that argument to only a mere ten (or less) sentences of the book.
I'll talk about this more on the podcast, but suffice it to say, the book was marvelously eye-opening. For years, I've been lying to myself about why I enjoy games. The determinist argument Johnson provides is too compelling to be false. In short, the "reward" system of the brain is the reason games are popular. The positive side effect is that they teach us how to think: pattern recognition, systems analysis, etc. But the reward system is what brings us back for more; it's much the same experience as food, sex, exercise (for habitual athletes, not noobsauce weaklings like myself), or drugs. The "seeking" function applies especially well.
More importantly, Johnson argues that the content is secondary, perhaps even tertiary, to the gaming experience. And here's where I've been lying to myself. I've enjoyed RPGs above all other genres for years, and I've told myself and it's primarily because RPGs were the text-heavy story-centric mammoths of gaming that I enjoyed them most. I appreciated the plots, the character development, etc. Story is what kept me coming back for more.
The rogue.
In truth, while some RPGs have had decent stories, none of them can compare to literary classics. Ever. They're different forms, and games simply cannot afford a strong story. I hate admitting that. but they're right. And the last two weeks of gaming prove it.
The two games at the top of my list to play right now are FINAL FANTASY XIII (duh) and SHIREN THE WANDERER (huh?!). Here's the really cute part. FFXIII has been out for about 9 days now, and I'm 2 hours into the game. Shiren, the rogue-like game with a challenge level rivaling DEMON'S SOULS (another Atlus publication), I've sunk nearly 50 hours into. I haven't told anyone until now. Granted, I've had it since the end of February, but that is still a ton of time to put into a game that is so short.
When you start a game on Shiren the Wanderer (a Wii-exclusive game and third part of a series that generally hasn't seen the light of day in North America), you can play on Easy or Normal. Easy gives you the rogue-lite option: when you die, all you lose are the things you found in that particular dungeon. It's a restart, but it's not a real loss. There are over 20 dungeons in the game's main plot, and none of them exceed 30 floors. Play on normal, and you get a true "rogue" experience. While you do retain experience points and levels, you will lose all items, save those you kept back in a storehouse. I chose to play on normal, and that's been what's killing my time.
I'm at the end of the game, and due to my own compulsive behaviors, I won't stop playing the game (or write the review for RPGFan.com) until I reach the ending. The other day, I built up fantastic equipment, with a lot of good fortune and skills that I've picked up while playing the game), that afforded me the opportunity to reach the final boss. If only I'd read a walkthrough to know that the final boss had two forms, and I should save all my big guns for the second form. I didn't come with enough defense or restoratives, and I died. Ridiculous sword and shield equipped on Shiren that took 8 hours to create? Gone.
So why do I go back? It's the whole reward-center thing. I know how to make that sword again, and with luck, I might even make something better this time around. I've learned the tricks, the exploits, the nuances of the system in this game, and I'm excited to conquer it. And while this game has a much stronger plot than almost any rogue-like in the world (including previous Shiren entries), in truth it's little more than a quirky re-telling of some Japanese folklore. If I actually was drawn to games for their story-telling, wouldn't I just throw Shiren out the window and get started on FFXIII?
You see, I started FFXIII, and while I am annoyed with some of the characters already (see: Hope), I am definitely interested in the sci-fi/dystopian plot. I'm definitely attracted to it. But the battle system? At least from the start, there was nothing to learn, nothing to master. Everyone agrees that game has a slow start. So hey, it doesn't have me hooked. But some poorly-selling rogue-like RPG on the Wii has me hooked? Madness. Except, according to Johnson, it makes perfect sense.
The book.
So that's where I stand. when Podcast-recording time comes, I hope to be done with Shiren and ready to get back into the game that's a best-seller due to strong branding and eye candy. I hope to thoroughly enjoy it, as my fellow G'saurs apparently have. But we'll see. In the meantime, I think I will now be approaching each game I play with a totally different outlook, and it's thanks to Johnson's book.
(Also, I really want to read Johnson's latest, The Invention of Air, which focuses on the points of agreement and tension in science and religion in the last few hundred years of the Western world. Has anyone read it? Does anyone have any other recommendations for reading?)
The Newest Oldies Round-Up: February '10
(This time with no images, because I think my clever writing trumps screen shots.)
February had one classic-ish game on XBLA, three good ones on VC, and a ridiculous load of PSOne Classics (only one of which is worth talking about).
Starting with the XBLA release, DARWINIA+ (released Feb. 11) is a repackaging of two games: DARWINIA and MULTIWINIA. We mentioned it on a recent episode of Jurassic Radio. The original Darwinia was released in 2005, so this really is a newer "oldie." But it's worth mentioning, if only because developer Introversion Software deserves the love for making such a strange hybrid of RTS and Tactical goodness. Darwinia+ was released a few months ago for PC on Steam, but now Xbox 360 owners can pick it up for 1200 MS points (that's $15).
Among the PSOne Classics, the one that's really gettin' me feeling nostalgic is GRANDIA. This classic RPG from Game Arts (the developers who also created the LUNAR franchise) deserves attention and accolade. Again, this was mentioned on a recent episode of Jurassic Radio. Even though the protagonist is an annoying kid, and the voice acting is all-around awful, the battle system, art, music, and sense of grandeur from the game's world all make it a worthwhile RPG. For $10? Yeah, it's a worthy download, right up there with FFVII and VIII. And it just came out a little over a week ago (Feb. 25). Go get!
King of crossovers review: "Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom"
Capcom has never shied away from crossover titles. Though there are examples before it, the first significant example was the crossover fighter MARVEL VS. CAPCOM and its sequel. Some fighting fans also will remember CAPCOM VS. SNK, released about the same time. After that, there was a strategy RPG called NAMCO X CAPCOM, followed by more crossover strategy RPGs with Capcom characters, including the recent CROSS EDGE for PlayStation 3 (published by NIS America).
Clearly, Capcom has no problem pitting its intellectual property against that of other companies and seeing who comes out the winner in the heat of battle. The latest in the trend is TATSUNOKO VS. CAPCOM: ULTIMATE ALL-STARS. It is best understood as the Japanese equivalent to MARVEL VS. CAPCOM. While the Japanese aren't entirely clueless about the Marvel franchise, they acknowledge that it is an American company and the average Japanese person is probably more familiar with homegrown fantasy heroes, including those from Tatsunoko.
The reverse relationship holds true as well: some of us know Gatchaman and Casshern because we're big-time anime otaku nerds, but we're much more familiar with Marvel characters.
(side note: I kind of want a "Marvel vs. Tatsunoko" game now.)
She's a man, baby, yeah! A Yatterman!
The original version of this game was, of course, an arcade cabinet, released in 2008. The console port, exclusively for Nintendo Wii, came to Japan at the end of 2008, then to North America at the beginning of 2010, despite the difficulty of licensing issues.
The Gameosaurus Rex noted in a previous podcast that this game is a competent fighter. And it is definitely that. But is it anything more than that? I think it is.
First of all, Capcom continues to refine the "give and take" formula of on-the-fly swapping and tag-teaming within a fighting game. It is hardly a new concept for a 2D fighter to allow "team battles" and character swapping. But in TvC, it's a necessity not just to use this game mechanic, but to learn to use it well. Also, I know this may sound trivial, but the whole two-person team thing has a very different feeling than MvC's three-person team. Also, those two "giant" characters that you can learn to play as, forced solo, are truly fascinating. One of them is a giant robot built off of a golden cigarette lighter. Silly Tatsunoko!
Gold Lightan, you have no idea how much I love you.
Second, you get to play as Viewtiful Joe. That's a very serious selling point. Viewtiful Joe is awesome, and he plays extremely well. I love having a short, agile, male character to play as for once. And though we don't get to play as an OKAMI character, the final boss of the campaign mission is a villain from Okami. So that makes for two Clover franchises represented in this game. Instant plus.
But, perhaps most importantly, this is a competent fighter that manages to work on the Wii's ... unique input system. There's a long-standing debate among fighter-fans about whether or not having a classic arcade stick will make you play better than a console control pad. Most experts would argue in favor of the original arcade stick, and many casual gamers will argue it doesn't matter and they're happy to be using the default controller. But the Wii controls? It's like trying to elect a third-party president in the U.S. It just ain't happening!
Yet, it did happen, and it works. I'm not saying it's great. But I can use it, and I don't mind using it. Yes, you can also plug in a classic control, and I'm happy to play using this setup. But if you want to use wand and nunchuck, you can. And it feels fine. Not "natural," per se, but certainly workable.
It also looks decent graphically, which is something I wasn't expecting on a Wii title. Smooth, crisp animation for the win.
Summary: Viewtiful Joe, good graphics, obscure Tatsunoko characters (that might turn you on to classic anime!), surprisingly smooth transition to Wii = four stars. If you liked MARVEL VS. CAPCOM, you are almost sure to like TATSUNOKO VS. CAPCOM. Give it a try.
Played: completed story mode with some characters, 5+ hours, no multiplayer
Platform(s): Wii
Price: $49.99
The Newest Oldies Round-Up: January '10
This monthly article used to be the "Virtual Console Round-Up." But you and I both know that old games are being directly ported to all kinds of current-gen platforms. The Wii doesn't exclusively hold all the good stuff. PSN, XBL, even iPhone / iPod touch has "new" releases of old stuff, including HD remakes of classic games. The point of this whole monthly article was to help you, dear reader, re-live some excellent oldschool gaming experiences. That, or, discover something excellent for the first time.
So that's what we're doing from now on. In the immortal words of Five Iron Frenzy, we hope you hate it.
Virtual Console Round-Up: December '09 (with some *actually good* games!)
I gotta say, I'm shocked. I guess Nintendo was saving some of the "big-name" downloadables for the Holiday season. There was some great stuff released in the month of December. And I'm going to talk about every release, in descending order, from what I consider the best release of the month on down to the stuff that doesn't matter quite as much.
Ah, PILOTWINGS. We love you so much. We love you so much that we personally entreated Shigeru Miyamoto to make a new version of the game for the Wii. And by "personally," I'm talkin' about Facebook stalking.
I could devote a whole article to the original Pilotwings. But since I have six other games to cover in this article, I'm not going to touch on it now. If you haven't played this game, though, you should. It's worth the $8 to download and play it. Though, personally, I much prefer PILOTWINGS 64. The point is, it's a really strange objective-based "flight sim." Quotation marks used to loosen the definition of the genre.