Play Impressions (25/2/10)

February 25th, 2010

katamari

Geeze, it’s been roughly 6 months since the last Play Impressions article. You can hardly call it a regular feature anymore, can you?

Sonic Rush

The quality of a 2D Sonic game hinges largely on the level design. Controllability and presentation tend not to really matter since the games follow an established template. Level design, on the other hand, is a huge point of contention. The main reason why we still crawl back to our Megadrives (/console of choice) to play the original Sonic the Hedgehog is because the levels are so richly layered with branching paths. Each level was seemingly intended to be enjoyed multiple times over, offering players a great deal of replayability. Furthermore, Sega motivated players to explore by 1) distinguishing alternative paths from the main route and providing a fair window of opportunity/sufficient scaffolding to reach them 2) occasionally slowing down the pace (in cramped areas, for example), giving players room to mine for secrets. Exploration gave Sonic shape and dimension, and is ultimately what propelled him up with the likes of the Mario series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeyK4M_vFlY

Sonic Rush is perhaps closer to a series reboot than anything else, since it largely forgoes the exploration elements in replace of high speed spills and thrills. Alright, alright, I lied. Exploration is still present, however it plays the role of rewarding macho, elite players who enjoy rote learning the stages, more than anything else. Sonic Rush is a much faster game than the original Sonic, and unfortunately the means to exploration haven’t been adjusted to match. There are fewer slower-paced exploratory moments in Sonic Rush and the prompts to branching paths (springs boards, jumps, and the race track construction as a whole) zoom by before you even notice them, offering minimal opportunity to diverge. On top of this, the number of huge leaps and dual-screen drops rule out any possibility of backtracking, and the number of branching paths have decreased too. Overall, the frequency and means to exploration are made so narrow, that the point is almost moot and, as a result, Sonic’s original sophistication has been cut to a single dimension (the run fast and be cool one). You see, this Sonic Rush is exclusively about speed, which means that most levels play out like roller coasters, where the best method to success is to hold right on the d-pad and watch the fireworks go off. There are some new moves adapted from the 3D titles as well as mid-air tricks, however, for most holding right and jumping occasionally will prove suffice.

When it’s all done and dusted, this new Sonic is fine, it’s just kinda shallow, I guess. Fans could rightly argue that the new move set replaces the exploration elements and rightly sustains the sophistication, and maybe they’re right. However, there’s only one instance in the game where the new moves are mandatory (World 2, Stage 2) and not enough leg room elsewhere for them to be all that useful, honestly. Actually, I didn’t even realise that these moves existed on my first play through and had no problems, so the mechanics are superfluous in my mind. In anycase, Sonic Rush only validates my comparison to Unirally, by heading further in that direction, and that ain’t half bad.

We Love Katamari

Rolling up a snowball of commodity items to wacky Japanese music certainly has its charm, yet I wonder, how long it’d take before the magic runs dry? Fortunately, we don’t ever get to find out in We Love Katamari as it’s surprisingly varied throughout. This variety in the mission-per-mission gameplay and the overworld of quirky characters wrapping it all together keeps the concept feeling suitably fresh. It’s ironic then that such a repetitive game can feel so new and exciting. I mean, every level requires the player to partake in what is fundamentally the same activity (push giant sticky ball to roll up random objects), yet there’s enough spin on the parameters and gameworld itself that each level, mission, you might say, is prevented from feeling overly familiar. In this regard, Katamari reminds me of Burnout Revenge, where each track/level is re-used multiple times over, sometimes reversed, sometimes with different parameters or objectives, and sometimes you’ll just venture down one of the track’s different routes/shortcuts. The same content is repeatedly farmed for gameplay and you’re primarily doing the same thing, it’s just that the individual approach of each “mission” gives the game a continually new angle.

katamari-screenshot

What bugs me about Katamari is the king and his delusional legion of fans. After almost every level, the king and whoever he has on his shoulder will complain that you didn’t roll a larger katamari. I could deal with this criticism, if not for the fact that it doesn’t necessarily require more skill to roll up more items, just the luck of being in the right place at the right time. Most “skill”, the kind the game is dissing me over, one would think, would come from rote memorisation of the areas most densely populated with roll-upable (?!) goods. In which case, it feels like Katamari is taking cheap shots, which works against the relaxed nature of the game.

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Irrelevant question on stylisation: if I shorted a title (ie. the original Sonic, Katamari), do I still italise it? :$

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Play Impressions: Revisiting Wrecking Crew and Wii Play

August 11th, 2009

I really did wish I had something to write here, but it doesn’t seem to be the case. I want to say that I’ve been busy with my final semester of uni, but I know that’s not true, besides attendance, of course. I just don’t particularly have a lot to say, nor have I made sufficient progress with anything I’m playing to say anything concrete. I’m not sure where the time is going, I’m just floating in liquid here. There are some minor commentaries that I’d like to air of two games which I’ve recently revisited.

Wrecking Crew

The first is Wrecking Crew; the NES puzzler which involving Mario as a demolition man knocking down slabs of cement and ladders in a screen-clearing puzzle format. I bought and played this title for the first time when re-buying my old NES stuff a few years ago and originally spent a solid 2-4hr play session joyously banging through the first 40 odd levels of the totalling 100.

Since then it’s been sitting on my shelf as I hit a slump at around the level 44 mark. Several of the preceding levels constituted a ditch of broken and/or incredibly irksome levels, so I stopped playing. Picking it up again though has taught me a few things about the game which I don’t believe I reported on the first time.

I originally felt Wrecking Crew to be a breezy, under appreciated puzzler, it’s still under appreciated but perhaps I understand the reasons for that now. The most severe problem with Wrecking Crew’s design is that there are multiple avenues to complete each level (as a whole, each level can be regarded as an individual puzzle), yet, particularly in the later levels, only one avenue is ever the right one. Therefore in many cases the game will lead you down the garden path as you unknowingly make your way towards the wrong direction. This is exacerbated by the slow pace in which Mario both walks and knocks down structures and the superfluous number of items he has to destroy. For many levels it feels as though Nintendo cared more about making the design look pretty by cramming it with destructible objects, rather than showing consideration to the player who must individually destroy all said objects to much repetition. Additionally, it’s not always clear from the outset how one should approach each level as original ideas may fall apart once the enemies start moving around the levels, blocking pathways and obscuring outlets. Toss in a few broken levels and Mario’s jerk of a construction manager who chases him around some levels and it grows tiresome quickly. I just ended up sampling the final 50 levels as it never seemed worth the effort of nailing down that one series of moves to solve each puzzle. It’s an arduous task, with little reward.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMnhcuDyePk

Still, I like Wrecking Crew. It has the stylistic charm and simplistic design of the early R&D1* games, plus a generous serving of 100 levels, most of which are decent, a handful excellent. It’s a shame that the later half had to take such a nose dive as I was seriously engaged for my first time around.

Wii Play

The other game I re-approached recently was Wii Play. Sure it’s the generic experimental offspring of Wii Sports, but it did only cost $10 with a Wiimote and many of the games are steeped in hardcore gamer sensibilities – why do people whinge over this game? I have an ultra skilled friend who has managed to attain platinum medals for pretty much all of the individual games, something which I find completely baffling as I can only muster a couple of platinums total, the rest varying from bronze to gold.

The assortment of mini-games each demand perfect precision and an earnest level of concentration to crack; the kind of abilities that can sometimes get the best of me. While I aced the Duck Hunt redux game in one fellow sweep, I didn’t fair too well in the other titles. The problem is that the games require complete concentration to the degree that you stop thinking about the game and allow the natural twitch sensation to take over. Doing this consciously on a whim, when you’ve got a ticking score displayed on screen can almost be sickening as I found was the case with the Ping Pong game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SglVSylIcl4

The rules of this game are incredibly simple, move the pad to hit the ball, try to keep the rally going as long as possible, in this case up to 200 rallies for a platinum medal. As mentioned though, said score tally builds in the top right hand corner of the screen which ultimately caused me to notice and constantly fail once I knew that the pressure’s on.

Always being weary of the scoreboard, I would notice when it came close to my previous high scores of about 160 and upon hitting that mark I would attempt to hit the subconscious zen. The problem is that hitting this mental slumber is difficult to do in a conscious state, yet the scoreboard almost forces you to notice. Trying despite this knowledge almost made me sick in the stomach. A very interesting game experience nonetheless.

*can’t quite put my finger on the internal studio, can anyone provide a point of reference?

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Play Impressions: Kirby’s Dream Land 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One

June 25th, 2009

half-life-2-episode-one

Kirby’s Dream Land 2

There’s honestly very little to say about Kirby’s Dream Land 2. All you need to know is that it’s a black and white skinned Kirby title using the same template as Kirby’s Adventure. Because of this Kirby’s Dream Land 2 feels more like a sequel to the polished NES classic than the Game Boy original, and manages to individualize itself well by introducing three peripheral characters. Those characters – Rick the Hamster, Kine the Ocean Sunfish and Coo the Owl – cut in and out of the adventure and work as appropriate substitutes for a number of consumable abilities absent from Kirby’s Adventure. Since your animal friends layer on top of whatever ability Kirby has on hand they do add another tier of complexity to the title. Team this with a series of hidden rainbow pieces in each level (which open up an alternative ending) and despite it’s loftier hardware, Kirby’s Dream Land 2 is expanded enough to form a more than competent sequel to Kirby’s Adventure which, considering the polish of Kirby’s Adventure, says a lot. Other familiar tropes of the series are kept in tact such as the wonderfully characterized introductions preluding each world and mix of familiar characters.

kirbys-dream-land-2

The one thing that Dream Land 2 lacks (colour) can be compensated for on the Super Gameboy. Like Pokemon and Donkey Kong, whacking Kirby’s Dream Land 2 into your Super Game Boy will give the game a unique colour scheme different from the default swatches. Supposedly there’s some added spiff elsewhere too, not a bad deal if you prefer playing it on a TV. I played it on both.

Lastly, it’s nice to see Nintendo fix the disparity between the boxart graphic and in-game designs with this title. Kirby’s Dream Land 2 in this regard matches the game wonderfully, instead of appearing like an attempt at realistic abstract.

Half-Life 2: Episode One

If Half-life 2 were put to VHS, then Episode One would be the extended long-play. In a nutshell it’s more of the same gameplay from Half-life 2’s later half, delivered in a remixed fashion with greater emphasis on set pieces and Alyx who now accompanies you throughout the 5-6 hour experience.

One might think that her part as a co-operative buddy might work in as another gimmick to colour the vanilla base of the series – in the same way that vehicles, ant lion bait and the gravity gun operated in Half-life 2 – unfortunately her presence surprisingly affects the core gameplay very little. You don’t need to babysit her much at all. She rarely dies, always follows you and can hold her own in a gun fight.

So what exactly is it that makes Episode One all that great? As discussed previously, the framework requires some sort of gimmick to make itself interesting, so what is it this time? Well…there isn’t really any prominent tricks, per see. What Valve deliver is a greater emphasis on improved moment-to-moment confrontations, teamed with a remix of some old mechanics from Half-life 2. Fundamentally the game offers very little new material, yet it’s approach to general gameplay is greatly overhauled. In Half-life 2, the game gave you an instrument (antlion bait, vehicle, gravity gun) and then pushes you out into a landscape largely composed of filler – it’s like you have to make your own fun. In Episode One, the wide lose-yourself-in-them landscapes are replaced with tighter quarters which is mostly dominated with more interesting segments of gameplay. Filler is now the glue between the action sequences rather than the other way around. Examples of these sequences may include a scenario where the lights go out while you need to survive an onslaught on zombies, where Alyx covers you as a sniper while you barge on ahead, where you see the gravity gun to grab falling debris there’s even a similar set piece to the cascade resonance from the original Half-life. Compare this to walking/driving around for extended periods of time to stumble upon an enemy camp, shoot a handful of Combines, zombies or Combine zombies and then continue walking around in the middle of nowhere. It’s easy to see in which game the fun lies?

halflife-episode-one-elevat

This new found emphasis on moment-to-moment gameplay also serves to break down the chapterized feel of the game. In Half-life 2, each chapter sported a gimmick and stuck in the player’s mind as a series of compartments which the game organized as such. In Episode One, that structure shifts to a more scattered approach, relating to individual moments more so than instruments. This makes the title, although short, feel more endearing and continuous. Unlike Half-life 2 I have a difficult time ordering the events of the game. Valve have in this sense changed to way we consume the game.

Overall though, it can be seen that Episode One should be evaluated on the moment-to-moment action. While it does provide an assortment of interesting sequences which maintain a high enough pace, Episode One flounders in the end with a lame squad shifting exercise and a shortsighted boss battle. Furthermore there’s nothing much in Episode One that wasn’t in Half-life 2, which is disappointing. The best part is ultimately the re-evaluated approach, by spreading emphasis between gimmicks and confrontations, this gives Valve greater design leverage. Episode One does a good job at capitalizing on this, but not enough so to overcome what I believe to be Valve’s persistence to make these games realistic to the point of uninteresting. It’s a more accomplished and organised title, no doubt, but it’s a game in transition.

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