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Category: Opinion
Thoughts on Mario Kart Wii
05/11/08 10:03 am
Yes I know, I haven't updated in over a month. I'm [slowly] working on a piece of art in Illustrator, at which I'm still something of a newb... but I quite like the style of art you can make with it, so I'm tryin'. There's still a Shakugan no Shana skin pending, and possibly a new Okami one too. I've also gotten a lot of Google searches for "Smash Bros Brawl skin," so I might give that a shot as well. In the meantime, let's talk about...
Mario Kart Wii
It's not bad, but it's not terribly impressive either. First off, the Wii Wheel? If you've any interest in precision control, you'll dump it. This was somewhat surprising to me, since the Wiimote controls in certain levels of Mario Galaxy were markedly sensitive. But, oh well, it's a gimmick.
Moving on to gameplay... Having gotten the game with Rirath, we tried out the multiplayer modes first. From the start, about half of the total tracks are missing, and must be unlocked through single player mode only. This was kind of disappointing - not that the content had to be unlocked, but that there's no means of unlocking it through multiplayer. The concept of "Cups" is somewhat borked in multiplayer, since you can pick and choose tracks and the order you want to play them in; it's really just four separate races in an arbitrary grouping. Battle mode has suffered most from retooling: you can no longer play one-on-one, but must play in teams with CPUs, and when you lose your balloons, you simply respawn with a new set, as the game keeps a running tally of cumulative hits for each team. I've read the argument that this was done to facilitate a better WiFi battle experience, and maybe so, but why must the offline battles follow the same rules?
The game's AI has also been improved, which at times is frustratingly merciless, like when you get bombarded by numerous items in succession. In fact, items in general feel a bit broken - if you're in back, you can always count on a star or a bullet bill to propel you to the front, and if you're in first, it's only a matter of time before a blue shell is upon you. As such, the first two laps of the race are essentially meaningless - you can be in last place going into the final lap and easily score 1st with items. It's more to your detriment to hold onto first position, as you'll simply get pounded down again and again.
So those are the highlights of what's broken in the game, how about what's good? The visuals and music are both laudable, and it's fun to see some of the series' previous tracks renewed in Wii-goodness. The new tracks are well-designed too. The addition of bikes provides more depth when choosing your vehicle, with varied abilities like drifting, drafting and tricks under consideration. I've yet to try the online play, but people say that's fun too. :P
All in all, it's a good game, but not a great game. Which is a shame after seeing such wonderful first-party franchise titles like Brawl and Mario Galaxy.
Filed under: Games Mario Kart Wii Opinion
Smash Tactics
03/23/08 12:27 pm
Ah, Smash Bros Brawl... we've been waiting for you for months, and what do you give us? ... A pretty great game, actually. I'm typically not one for fighting games, but I like the Smash series for its combination of beloved characters, relatively simple attack execution, fun battle items, and knock outs that are based on getting flung from the ring rather than having your life meter emptied. Brawl builds on its predecessor's already strong foundation with updated graphics, more items, more characters and more ways to play.
My first move was to play through the adventure mode, "The Subspace Emissary," since you can unlock all of the "secret" characters in it (a preferable method to doing things like Target Smash or completing some number of Brawls in the triple digits). If Brawl is your first venture into Smash, it's also a conducive way to find a character you like, since you'll have to use nearly all of them to get through it. It becomes frustrating at the end however, when you must re-fight every boss while traversing a maze of enemies that continually respawn. The final boss also seems to have a one-hit kill attack that can't be dodged(?). I consider the whole adventure mode as an extra though, and a good one for what it's worth.
The real content is of course, the Brawls! Having a full group of four to fight with is great, and Nintendo's finally starting to grasp the idea that we like digital networking - so if you can't gather a crowd in person, now you can go online. It's a shame however, that the big N must always bend over backward to ensure a sterile environment; while playing with strangers, there's no chat, no nicknames, no taunts, no options to add someone to your buddy list, nothing of an interactive nature. Surely we can't have any of that, lest some poor child be exposed to heinous four letter words or unwanted pictures of human anatomy! [/sarcasm] That's a whole 'nother topic, really... If you're a fellow online Brawl player and you'd like to exchange friend codes, send an email.
Also if you're obsessive, there's this big wall of stuff to get for completing certain challenges... but I know I'm not going to do 'em all... nope...
At other times - portable times - I've been playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance as well (seriously, name too long). I played Tactics back in the day and enjoyed it, but it was certainly flawed in a few places - sloppy translation of the story, places where you could get stuck in unbeatable battles with no means of reset, the annoyance of wait time between selecting and actually casting a spell, and former guest units who would then join your team permanently and ludicrously overpower those units you'd sunk hours into training. Tactics Advance gets rid of these, and adds more races, new and different jobs, and other improvements. The law system... I don't really care about; it's simple enough to avoid violations if you have a varied team, and then they're somewhat pointless once you can change and revoke them. In any case, it's a fun game, and also quite long for a portable title.
And that's the shpeel about my gaming life - thanks for humoring me. As for skins, there are currently two in the works: Resident Evil 4 and Shakugan no Shana.
Filed under: Games Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Super Smash Bros Brawl Opinion
RE4 Wrap Up & Apollo Justice
02/25/08 7:38 pm
When we last left our hero, he had infiltrated the enemy headquarters on ... some island. There are some rather eerie settings here, particularly the run-down hospital where you meet your first regenerator. And those minigun toting commando enemies? Ouch. It took me several attempts to beat Krauser, since I kept trying to shoot him and the time limit would run out. Use the knife? Bah.
On the other hand, I defeated the final boss on my first attempt ("what? All I have to do is shoot the eyeball, then use a context-command? ... Hmm."), after which I was disheartened to die several times on the jet ski escape from the island. I realize I must be simply awful at it, but it felt so out of place to begin with: I just beat the boss... game is over now - gimme a cut scene and some closure, not an opportunity to instantly die 10 more times before you roll credits.
All in all though, I had an unexpectedly great time with this game. I feel a good part of the credit for that must go to the Wii remote controls - for some reason I am near-incapable of simultaneously using one analog stick for movement and one for aiming. The Wii remote makes aiming far more intuitive and comfortable, especially for a n00b (of the genre) like myself. On that note, I can't wait to try out Metroid Prime 3...
But when another Gyakuten Saiban comes to call, nary an objection can be made.
Apollo Justice is the first game in the Ace Attorney / Gyakuten Saiban series to be made for the Nintendo DS rather than being a port of a Gameboy Advance title. However, several of the "new" features actually premiered in the fifth case of the first game - "Rise From the Ashes" - which was added on to the DS version of the title. Fingerprinting, video analysis, 3D evidence inspection and blood detection all return in Apollo Justice, in addition to "perceiving," foot printing, x-ray scanning and sound analysis with a mixing board, to name a few.
While I like these features, I couldn't help but wish for more freedom with them. Why can I only dust for fingerprints when I'm led to do so? Why can't I put any piece of paper in the x-ray scanner, even if it comes out blank? Giving us free reign on the gadgets might have drawn attention away from the stark linearity in the plot, but instead it's reinforced by "only when I say so" access.
And then there's the 3D rendering of evidence... okay, it looks nice, but feels pointless when an examination yields no additional information; this was implemented better in Ashes, where an object was only visible in 3D if a 3D analysis would reveal something special.
However, as usual, Gyakuten Saiban delivers an immersive, intricate story that had me hooked 'til the end. While I liked Trials & Tribulations for its interweaving of stories through three cases, Justice intertwines all of its cases. Since the series dropped most of its regular faces in favor of a new cast, character development was essential, and the game does a satisfying job of bridging the past and present, always revealing things in bits and pieces as you go, of course. Personally I wasn't so enticed by the new breed of smiley, polite prosecutor (it's more fun when they're being smarmy and mean... and cyborg!), but he plays an air guitar in court... how can I not be amused by that?
Filed under: Games Apollo Justice Phoenix Wright Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition Opinion
Moar RE Foar
02/12/08 7:05 pm
My escapade through Resident Evil 4 Wii Ed continues - I've reached "the island," which follows in the series of simply named locales such as "the village," and "the castle."
Defeating Salazar (or "squeaky voiced midget Napoleon" *link content not suitable for children) took a couple of tries, for a single reason: the one-hit kill. Whatever game it appears in, this really gets on my nerves; I've been fighting this boss for some five minutes, repeatedly dodging flailing tentacles and spider-like creatures, waiting for those few brief moments when I can hit its vulnerable spot, and then it lunges with a many-fanged mouth and a roar that will be your death knell, if you don't run away quickly enough. Worse are the chainsaw-wielding fellows amongst the villagers, or the zealots carrying head-chomping parasites; these guys will show up while you're already occupied fighting off a crowd of enemies, get close to you and then BAM, "You are dead" (I love how the game over screen so flagrantly informs me of this - as if I didn't know that decapitation was fatal).
It's a violation of good faith in gaming. You enter the game with [or progressively acquire] an understanding of the rules that bind you and, supposedly, the enemies as well; you cannot take down your foes in a single hit, but nor can they do it to you, so you have a sense of fairness in the game. A one-hit kill is a violation of this would-be mutual understanding, and thusly feels like cheating. Of course, games try to compensate for this by making killer attacks slow or inaccurate, providing a margin of safety through successful reaction or sheer good fortune. I suppose out of those two, I'd prefer the former, which at least has something to do with my ability in the game, rather than the latter where there's nothing but a coin flip between success and epic fail. Still it doesn't make it any less frustrating when a challenge you would've won is usurped by a tiny mistake that will cost you everything. If I were emo, perhaps I'd muse, "such is life" (...but I'm not... I like bunnies).
I understand though, that the "survival horror" genre is apparently not supposed to be like this in the first place. I'm told that RE4 is an anomaly in that it gives you the means to fight back against the hordes, whereas you'd normally need to turn tail and run for the hills, I suppose. But what fun would that be? As mentioned in my previous post about the game, this isn't my typical gaming fare; it's the first I've played in the genre, really. Because I like it, there's a decent chance I'll give its predecessors a shot at some point, but if a zombie is trying to eat my sweet sweet brains and all I can do is run walk slowly backwards while still facing forward, it doesn't sound like a fun time.
At the very least, Rirath has predestined that I will play Umbrella Chronicles on co-op, however.
Filed under: Games Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition Opinion
Super Mario Galaxy @ TG
12/6/07 8:45 pm
My thoughts on Super Mario Galaxy over at TwiddleGeek.com.
Filed under: Games Super Mario Galaxy Opinion
iPhones & Hype
06/29/07 12:19 pm
Ya know, I don't understand the appeal of Apple products. Today's the release of their latest "must have" gadget, the iPhone, so there's a lot of buzz floating around. Don't get me wrong, the iPhone in particular looks pretty snazzy, but there are at least two reasons I wouldn't buy one even if given the chance.
First and foremost is the price. This isn't just the iPhone, but seemingly all Apple merchandise that is shamelessly overpriced. You can always find the same thing - or something better - for much cheaper by another manufacturer - this will be true of the iPhone as well, in due time.
Secondly, early adoption of hardware is generally not beneficial. The first generation has a tendency to not only be rife with bugs, but to have less features than future models which will arrive sooner than you realize. When everyone has one, no one is going to remember or care that you got it first.
And finally... something that always baffles me about hyped product releases: who are these people who will wait in line for a week to purchase something that will soon after become an easily obtainable commodity? I can understand waiting a day, perhaps two... but a week? All I can imagine is that they must have no job, no family, no responsibilities... no life, really.
So, that's my little take on all that. Now begins the real wait: for a better, cheaper iPhone copycat.
Filed under: Opinion
Re:CoM Wrap Up
04/17/07 2:38 pm
A few words (hmm, actually it turned out to be a lot of words...) after having finished up the Re:CoM disc of KHIIFM+. In general, the game exceeded my expectations for it by lasting a good 30 hours (though people more skilled at the card battling system could probably go considerably faster ^^;), providing fun, if a bit flawed gameplay, and, in my opinion, deeper supporting characters than those found in KHII.
Maybe it's just me, but I didn't find myself very enthralled by [most of] the Organization members in KHII; they're standard villainry, not a whole lot more. Re:CoM, on the other hand, reveals more character in them through in-fighting, manipulation, varying loyalties and the like. Riku also gets far more character development in this title than any of the others, which also fostered a greater liking of him. And of course, if you'd never played the original CoM (as I have not), the connection of story between KH and KHII is far more clear now. ^^;
The gameplay of Riku's story was, however, a bit shallow. In total, his story took me about 6 hours, and that's being generous. Losing in battle was a rare event, limited to incidents of personal inattention (or stupidity), basically. It was also frustrating not being able to edit my deck - I would never intentionally suffer the shame of having such low-numeral cards in my deck - and not being able to heal unless you had a Mickey card with a high-enough number not to be broken; though, presumably as compensation, it was fun having nearly every black card available, and especially helpful not having to charge to reload.
As for specifics on Sora's side, I thought the last couple of battles were not very difficult; what trumps in this game is speed - if the boss isn't fast, it isn't that hard. At least that was the case for me anyway, so I typically had the most trouble with Riku and Larxene. Marluxia, on the other hand, only got tricky when he started throwing down stock techniques at a-mile-a-minute (...and when he scattered my cards around the battlefield T_T "An edge got bented!").
Although it did grow on me a bit, I still never felt great about the card-and-real-time fighting thing. As explained in an earlier post, the two forms just don't mesh all that well. Still, the fact that I kept on playing through to the end, means an A for effort for Re:CoM. For those of you hoping the game will be released in English... good luck with that (or if you start studying Japanese now, you'll might obtain effective comprehension in time for Kingdom Hearts IX!).
Just for fun, I wanted to add a video of a cut scene along with this post... but couldn't achieve an acceptable balance between file size and quality :/ And video editing (or the attempt to do so) on my computer makes it choke on its tongue. So, instead, you get a single frame from that video.
And I'll work on my video production skillz.
Filed under: Games Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix + Opinion
Final Mix
03/31/07 4:32 am
So I try out Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix Plus, the first disc, and am surprised to be hearing "Sanctuary" rather than "Passion," and English dialogue once the game's started. "Hm, maybe this isn't the right game... No, the subtitles and all the other text is in Japanese..." I suppose most Japanese players would not have played the English version, and thus the English voice track would be considered an "extra" in that context. Incidentally, I haven't played the English version either, but I don't really want to. ^^; If that's all that's different about it (and different colored Heartless and Nobodies), I can't say I'm terribly interested.
Though, the main draw of the game, in my eyes, was Re: Chain of Memories. Off I went to disc two. After getting past the title screen, I was immediately struck by the appearance of reduced visual quality - compared to the first disc I'd just seen, this one looked notably fuzzy. No points for a snazzy opening - it was just scenes of the first KH with credits and "Hikari" overlaid. So my feeling so far is an ominous, "sloppily tacked on?" On we go to actual gameplay, where things seem alright, but... I never played CoM, but it seems like that card-based battling system never earned many fans... and it still won't, I think. Still, I will be playing this rather than the KHII disc.
We'll see how things pan out.
Filed under: Games Opinion Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix +
TV, Anime, Quantum Mechanics
03/14/07 9:22 am
So I ran out of unwatched episodes of Arrested Development on the DVDs my brother lent me. I am very out-of-touch with shows on TV; I don't have cable, but even when I did there wasn't much I wanted to watch anyhow. So when I watch such a show, it's usually something my brother recommended and/or lent me episodes of.
Anyway, Arrested Development - character-driven, cleverly written comedy. Unfortunately Fox has a penchant for canceling shows prematurely, so this one's already over. But if you've never seen it, give the reruns a shot.
It's been nice having something I actually want to watch... anime seems to be losing my attention lately. There just doesn't seem to be anything too special out there at the moment (and if you want to argue otherwise, you're free to leave comments).
The most recent anime I really liked were Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu (seriously, three u's) and Ouran High School Host Club. Both character-driven, both comedic but with a dramatic undertone, and Haruhi in particular was quite unique in its plot, narrative structure, and cast of characters. I think Hataraki Man deserves a mention for trying something different as well, but for the most part it fails the "enjoyment" test - I think the stake out episode was the only memorable one for me (all hail Nakai Kazuya). Wait, that reminds me - Noein was exceptional as well: ya got your mix of thought-provoking sci-fi, drama, action, Nakai Kazuya, and an interesting "gritty" looking animation style. Hey wait, weren't Noein and Haruhi somewhat of the same idea in different tellings? Someone's trying - consciously or not - to collapse parallel worlds to keep the one they like? There you have it, unique shows canceling each other out! I shall call it, The Theory of Unique Collapsability, and if I put it in a box with Schrodinger's Cat, it'll save both his lives!
Filed under: TV & Movies Anime Opinion Random
A Little Discourse - ASP
03/13/07 1:54 pm
I have to use ASP for the site I work on (the site I am employed to work on, that is - not this one, of course). This was not my choice; in fact, this was the first time I'd ever used it. Though I am glad for the chance to have learned it on the job (perhaps the best way that I learn code: through analyzing, modifying and eventually wholly taking over a complex working example), I must say... I dislike it.
I think my main gripe is that it doesn't follow normal syntax structures. It tries to be "user friendly" with a more "human readable" syntax (or that seems to be the rationale, anyway). I, personally, have never known a code writer who complained of their choice language being syntactically hard to grasp, whereas conversely I've heard nothing but displeasure over languages that try to pull this sort of "easy to follow" nonsense. But maybe I've only known more-experienced coders? Is this sort of things supposed to be good for beginners? ... Wait a minute, why would a beginner start with ASP?
Which brings me to my next point - if you search for ASP-related questions, you're likely to turn up few [useful] results, or a lot of results for ASP.NET instead. It's not hard to understand why you can easily find so much more help on a language like PHP: people use it! *ahem* This is not to say, "no one uses ASP," but whereas PHP often comes standard on any decent hosting package, encouraging its increased usage, ASP tends to be a pricey add-on that only businesses want for no inherent reason. Yeah, that may be a bit too far for me to speak, as a n00b of the language. But bringing it back around to my point - your typical web scripting beginner is going to use what's at hand, and that is not likely to be ASP.
And even if that were so, is it a good idea for beginners to learn with what will become "bad habits" if they go on to any other language? Admittedly, after weeks of nothing but ASP, I'll turn back to PHP and write an if statement with a single = sign, or end a line without a proper ; delimiter. Oh the shame, the shame of it all!
Alright, I'm done here. Hooray for Asian Kung Fu Generation! Oh, and an aside, some new skin site links added recently: Shadows of Deception has a Clover skin that I've had for the longest time and was surprised to so suddenly find its owner. INERTiA is pretty small so far, but has good stuff - particularly some Death Note skins, which can't be found here ^^; (maybe later...)
New Kingdom Hearts Skin! ... Ha, Made You Look
01/20/07 5:05 pm
New Zelda skin up; gradually getting better at and more comfortable with making Modern skins. Also added a new page - the site's Top and Bottom (that is, Most and Least Popular) Skins - from which we can conclude, Kingdom Hearts and Ed Elric are ridiculously popular, and Reboot is not. Shame on you all. :P The link to said page is in the left-hand column.
On a random note, .hack//GU vol 3's villain has taken on a markedly FFX Seymour air... This displeases me. Also not pleased by the fact that the game thus far can be described simply as "quest, tournament round, repeat." But what can I say, it's the third in a series of three - gotta see the end.
Merry [Post] Christmas
12/27/06 4:51 am
With the busier part of Winter break over (the part where you run around buying gifts and decorating, that is), it's time to get back to my recreational activities. As usual, I have a number of half or semi-done skins lying around. Here're the ones I'm letting you see.
The top two are based on Asian Kung-Fu Generation CD case art (I like Ajikan and the art's neat, that's why... and seriously, what's cooler than a chimp with a telescope?), bottom left is a requested Takuto, bottom right is Twilight Princess [which is super early in development here; wanted to use the image, but it just wasn't working out on a classic... so it ended up Modern].
And now, a short and pointless rant about flash drives and similar portable USB devices. I got one such device for Christmas, and it's the second one I own now that has its strap loop on the USB cap rather than on the device itself. I find this rather foolish - if I'm going to attach this thing to a strap and carry it around, if by chance it comes apart, I'm not gonna be too thrilled that, although I've lost my flash drive, thank goodness I still have its cap.
Yeah, pointless rant like I said, but I'm a designer - I notice these things. :P
In other news, the site is running out of available disc space on its host's server. But I was already looking to migrate hosts anyway. It's just a matter of when I'll be able to get it done... But, updates should continue regularly; if I run out of space, I'll compensate.
Filed under: Skins Previews Opinion Site Related
Plug & Sunday Soapbox
09/17/06 11:04 am
Plug for a friend's new site - TwiddleGeek.com, an anime n' gaming blog. Give it a visit why don't ya? There's a lot more updatin' going on there than here ^^;
And, in the spirit of game discussion... or.. just cause I want to... A word on the soon-to-be-released in North America PS2 game, Okami. I tried it out because it was getting rave reviews, and looked like something I might enjoy. Well... I will say that, as far as visuals and music go, Okami is a delight. In fact, you can probably get all the best aspects of this game simply by watching someone play it (assuming you're not watching it over a poor webcam feed).
The gameplay, however, leaves me wanting. There's really no challenge to be had in this game; enemies are easily smacked to death by button-mashing. The fudewaza ["brush techniques"] can be amusing - paint your enemy black to cripple his accuracy, or if that flying creature's out of reach, use the "cut" stroke to slash his wings off - but they get old as they're rather unnecessary on the whole [in minor battles anyway, which seem to comprise most of the battles you'll be encountering...?].
My other main complaint is tooooo muuuuch dialoooogue. It's kind of ironic that, while some character is blabbering away, the camera will cut back to Ama-kou, who has fallen asleep, and this is supposed to be a joke. Well, it is funny, and Okami offers some amusing character interaction, if you're willing to sit through the over-long exposition for it. Also, who in their right mind thinks that those Banjo Kazooie style animal murmurs instead of actual voiced dialogue are a good thing? Please no more ^^;
So, essentially, I'd say Okami is a rental; worth playing for awhile, but underneath all the visual hoo-ha is a game that gets dull too soon. You can play it until .hack//GU comes out.
Edit: Eh, maybe that's too harsh. ^^; It's just hard not to expect a lot from a game that gets upper 90s on nearly all of its reviews. It is a very good game, it just has some persistent annoyances ("Issun, can you keep your yap shut for more than 5 minutes?"), and I still retain that there's little challenging about it ("And here we draw another circle..."). At present, I like it better than FFXII; how's that?
