Enjoyable for all Audiences: Klonoa and House of the Dead: Overkill

April 29th, 2010

house-of-the-dead-overkill

This is something of a special take on my regular ‘Play Impressions‘ feature. Klonoa and House of the Dead: Overkill, despite their differences in content, are great examples of games which channel the ethos that the Wii was founded on: accessible gameplay that breaks down the barriers between beginner and seasoned players. Both of these titles are of genres of relatively low complexity which further adds to their expansive appeal. I will focus on how their designs are logical to players and ultimately very successful games.

Klonoa

Klonoa is a remake of the 2.5D PSone platformer Klonoa: Door to Phantomile for Wii. The platforming borrows mechanics from Yoshi’s Island and Wario Land, but alters and combines them in a refreshing way. Like Yoshi, Klonoa has a flutter move where he can temporarily keep himself afloat in mid-air and like Wario, Klonoa can pick up enemies and launch off them to gain extra height. When these mechanics are combined in succession, Klonoa comes into its own, offering an emergent technique for more capable players which allows Klonoa to travel great horizontal and vertical distances without touching the ground.

Klonoa can also toss enemies in front of him or at objects in the back and fore grounds, allowing for some nifty puzzles. In fact, I’ve never played a game which has so dynamically implemented 3D environments on a 2D plane. It’s all quite impressive the way paths spiral around and Klonoa shifts to layers which were previously a part of the back/fore ground. As with the combination of jumping mechanics, it’s when the backgrounds and foregrounds interconnect and loop around to create multilayered puzzles where Klonoa excels.

It’s the bridging of separate, easy-to-understand constituents which make Klonoa a joy to play for experienced and inexperienced players. In fact, Klonoa is an ideal game for children; I would have loved to play his game growing up. The story in particular deserves special mention in this regard. Unlike Jak and Daxter or Rachet and Clank who play on youthful, adventure-seeking archetypes, Klonoa and his blue-ball sidekick Huepo are adventurous but reserved, displaying a natural pure-heartedness rarely seen in video games. The sense of friendship shared between the two is heartfelt and the conclusion to their tale is one of the most touching I’ve experienced a video game—less we forget this is a production made for children. Playing Klonoa had reminded me of the importance of developing games for a young audience. However, even if you’ve long since past primary school, as a fan of 2D platformers, I can’t recommend this under-appreciated gem enough. The best platformer on the Wii bar Mario.

House of the Dead: Overkill

There is surprisingly very little to say about House of the Head: Overkill from a mechanical standpoint. As I mentioned in my rail shooter guide on Racketboy, Overkill employs a simple combo system where flawless, no-miss kills tally a tiered combo system with each multiplier assigned to over-the-top names like like ‘psychotic’ and ‘goregasm’. Shots are divided into head shots and body shots.

Players can now choose a two weapon loadout prior to each mission, supported by a shop system where players can tweak and add weapons to their arsenal. In many respects, the two weapon loadout—arguably the only “new” addition to this installment, if you’re into series progression and all—injects a strategic dynamic into the core gameplay since players can switch weapons to conserve ammo or for tactical efficiency. There’s a degree of strategy in pairing up clunky, rapid-fire or standard weapons depending on your strengths. It quickly becomes apparent though that the shotgun, with its wider target area—as represented by the large reticle—awesome power and lack of ineffectiveness when shot into the distance, is the most efficient weapon for high score chasing, and once you’ve maxed it out, you’ll almost never use the other weapons. Personally, I’m hardly a high score chaser, but the scoring system in Overkill, due to it’s simplicity and prevelance in the UI, is more apparent than in prior games, which piqued my interest. High scores are rewarded with cash, so it all ties back to the upgrades system which is scrimpy at best, ensuring that you’ll need to play every level at least 3 times before you earn enough dough to max out all the weapons.

The player also has a substantial health bar which on depletion offers the option of sacrificing half your score to continue. Branching paths have been removed entirely which give more focus to the narrative—and with plenty of health packs, slow motion prompts, grenades and ‘save the civilian’ moments, Overkill is quick to orientate the players concentration towards accurate shooting and the rewards subsequently accumulated from the combo system. The novel grindhouse presentation may appear to distract from possible lacking amenities, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. All components of House of the Dead: Overkill: the linear progression, health bar, cash system, in-game trinkets, UI, all work to consolidate accurate shooting: the game’s core gameplay premise. In addition to the excellent production values and comedy-driven narrative (the latter of which, I think anyone could enjoy), Overkill, just like Klonoa, is a fantastic game for both seasoned and new players alike. I think that it’d also be a good introductory game for players wanting to further explore the rail shooter genre as it focuses so heavily on accurate shooting: an integral skill required in these games.

Overkill also provides incentive for players to keep working on their accuracy with a standard story mode, the option to add more mutants and a final “director’s cut” version which adds a significant amount of content per level. The final pay off is the ability to dual wield with too Wiimotes which is a rather handsome reward. Again, this plugs into the accuracy element of the game.

Additional Readings

The Making of the House of the Dead – British Gaming

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Tags: House of the Dead, klonoa

Differences Between House of the Dead II and III

December 19th, 2009

house-of-the-dead-goldman

I’ve been meaning to chat about the differences between House of the Dead II and III since I finished the Wii “remake” a few months ago. Basically there are two fundamental differences between the games:

Player Routes

House of the Dead II employs a more organic progression system than the series’ third installment. By saving civilians or shooting important props (such as keys) the path branches off to a divergent stream which runs parallel to the main path. These “triggers” will also turn up on the alternative streams and if they’re not activated then they’ll send the player on another course, often back to the main path. Each level in House of the Dead II is therefore a tree of branching routes which shoot off and intersect with one another. Since activating the “triggers” is skilled based, the respective path which opened up are often scaled to the corresponding difficulty. That is, if the player reacts quickly to the situation, then they’ll be diverted to a path which increases the challenge. Alternatively, if the player misses a “trigger” then they’ll remain on the same path or revert to an easier course. What this means is that a novice and professional player will likely have different experiences through the same levels. As such the experience unfolds dynamically in real time, catering to needs of the player.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkSi8TTTbKw

House of the Dead III on the other hand is mostly linear, instead offering the player to choose their path at two select points in the game. The first point (the car park) only allows the player to follow a single route from a selectable two for the duration of the level. The other point though simply asks which order the player wishes to complete a set of three levels. In this sense, House of the Dead III is a more rigid game.

From my perspective, part of the joy of House of the Dead II comes in discovering new routes and secrets, even 10 years after its release I’m still finding new content in the game and that itself is rather worthwhile.

Health Rewards

In House of the Dead II rescuing civilians is the only way to regain health. Some generous civilians hand out health packs just after you’ve rescued them, otherwise the game will reward you with a health pack at the end of level if you’ve rescued a certain quota of civilians. Often though I’ve found said quota to be beyond my reach.

Besides the cast themselves, House of the Dead III’s setting is completely void of hapless civilian fodder and as a result the health system has been slightly altered. House of the Dead III, even during single player, features two protagonists, so instead of saving innocents the player must save their partner in a series of fixed sequences throughout the levels, by which case they’ll receive their bonus health pack. The contrived nature of these sequences, whereby they interrupt regular gameplay, isn’t as natural as rescuing civilians. House of the Dead III is sure to separate these parts from the rest of the game, yet in House of the Dead II they’re seamlessly interwoven with the fabric of the core gameplay.

Health packs can still be gained at the end of a level, but this time the requisites lead into a sub-system unique to House of the Dead III. The player receives a alphabetic ranking at the end of each level which is determined by accuracy, head shots and whatever else, along with time. The enemies in House of the Dead III now have two levels of death, so to speak. The first level is that a zombie will die straight away if you target their weak spot. The second level, being that if you just shoot them enough, they’ll die but take longer to clear the screen, sucks up precious time. Players can then save time by either attacking weak points or quickly dispel zombies with another round of led after the initial blast.

Conclusion

Based on these observations I guess it’s easy for one to assume that House of the Dead II is the superior game—and truth be told it probably is—but I don’t necessarily think so. Rather House of the Dead III is a more controlled experience that House of the Dead II, however that’s interpreted depends on the player. I personally adore House of the Dead II, but both games offer different interpretations of the genre and therefore worth playing.

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Tags: House of the Dead

The Best Upcoming Fan-Service Games of 2008

January 31st, 2008

death spank header

Many gamers would agree that 2007 was a landmark year for video games largely due to a momentous barrage of quality software releases throughout the second half of the year. But this momentous line up of games would have been nothing without a set of strong ‘fan service’ games.

‘Fan service’ games are games designed with the intention of one thing; to feed the loyal fan base of a particular franchise or brand. Now sure, 2007 had some great games of this nature such as Halo 3, Contra 4 and Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles but 2008 looks to blow the lid of the all previous expectations of fan service games. So let me present to you ten of the best, hitting your favourite systems in 2008:

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Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix

Capcom knows their fans and understands exactly how to please them which is why this game is arguably the most important game on this list. ~~SSF2THDR~~ HD Remix is as it sounds a reworked, high definition version of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. Don’t be fooled by previous fake HD games though HD Remix isn’t an upscaled version of the original game rather all of the sprites are being redone by the legendary Udon Comics.

street fighter hd remix

The high definition aspect is only one part of the deal though HD Remix’s also contains a slew of new content and modes several of which have been included by fan requests. I’m talking wide screen support, a remixed soundtrack and a training mode. But all of these pale in comparison to the online features that Capcom is planning to dish out.

Voice chat, spectator matches and indepth statistics are a few of the key features of this new oline mode. An example used by Capcom’s Christian Svensson on the game’s online statistics is that you will be able to find the best Cammy player in Canada or the person who has thrown the most projectiles in the world. So its not hard to see why Capcom are leading the way for fan service games of 08.

Super Smash Bros Brawl

Nintendo fans are ~~arguably~~ the most loyal and dedicated bunch of gamers around so when Nintendo announces a new installment of its franchise heavy fighting game message boards everywhere light up and fans clench their Wii-motes with new found pride.

smash bros brawl pit
The inclusion of Kid Icarus’ Pit pleased fans of the NES classic

Knowing this, Nintendo has added to the almost out of control anticipation by dishing out the fanboy love in droves. Cameo characters such as Solid Snake and Sonic now join the extended character roster, a new level editor is included and content is filled to the brim. But much like Street Fighter the most anticipated new feature for the new Smash Bros is online play. Every since the broadband (and dial up) adapters were released along side Phantasy Star Online on the Gamecube Nintendo has been dodging the prospect of true online play. So Super Smash Bros isn’t just an important game for the fanboys, its also a time for the industry to see if Nintendo will finally step up to the plate and deliver on a true online experience.

Sega Superstars Tennis

Much in the vein of Mario Tennis, Sega have decided to develop a tennis game set around the expansive Sega universe. With a release date set for early March, Sega have already shared plenty of interesting details including a list of playable characters. The list of characters is what particularly has sparked a sudden stronger interest among fans as characters include Alex Kidd, Beat (Jet Grind Radio), Ulala (Space Channel 5), Amigo, NiGHTS as well as your typical set of Sonic characters.

sega tennis

This stage is from Jet Grind Radio

Sega Superstars Tennis is set to come out on all major consoles excluding the PSP. Each game will feature its own console specific strengths. For example; the Wii version will take advantage of the motion controls while the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions will have online play.

DP’s Random Note: Notice how the first three games all have the word ‘Super’ in the title?
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Tags: Bionic Commando, duke nukem, fan-service games, final fantasy, House of the Dead, street fighter