Man Solatorobo. It has to win for best DS graphics. It's just absolutely stunning at times. The plot is lighthearted until it gets 26 episode anime like a 26 episode anime would. It has a battle system based around throwing things. You "fish" by shooting harpoons at hermit crabs with battleships on its back.
It's just too easy too breezy. You do things and then you did them. There's no challenge and so no sense of accomplishment. The battles become more about how to do that as absolutely fast as possible so you can advance the plot. Wait you can't advance the plot until you raise your HUNTER LEVEL. That means you have to do sidequests with the end of the world looming. It's the largest momentum killer in a game with a severe lack of momentum. I wish I could like it more. It has so much detail to the world and the cutscenes and the controls are pretty good. It's just there isn't the spark that is "entertaining to play." It might have been surgically removed so you feel this emptiness where joy at playing it should be.
I'm not entirely convinced making it harder would have helped. It took 10 years to make supposedly and it almost feels like the opposite of games that take a long time to make. Instead of becoming harder and harder and harder and more precise (Super Meat Boy yo!) you have it being challenging to no one.
Otomedius Excellent is uninspired. I mean yeah we got anime girls as spaceships and that's pretty creepy but that's also it. The first and second stages are alright I guess? then it's just a parade of boring bland space areas and pretty much the same boss all the way through. You have that speeding part that is kind of neat but then it's over and you have a boss rush of what might be the same bosses you fought in the previous stages or new bosses I COULDN'T TELL.
Showing posts with label Super Meat Boy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Super Meat Boy. Show all posts
Monday, February 6, 2012
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Steal Princess (DS)
So I guess we're never getting Landstalker PSP. Oh man Landstalker with it's death screaming slimes and kobolds. With it's gloriously difficult platforming things to the isometric viewpoint. With music like this. Please ignore the terrible american boxart. Instead look at the awesome Japanese boxart. I was super excited for that remake around 2006.
Climax Entertainment's games after Landstalker aren't so hot. I've only actually played Dark Savior (Saturn) and that was briefly because the language barrier got in the way. Now if I saw it, I'd pick up Time Stalkers (DC).
I was in Tokyo for Steal Princess's release, but it was 6,000 yen and the knowledge that it might suck held me off. As I practically never looked at DS used games it slipped my mind. Looking at it now, I'm surprised at the scores it got in Famitsu ( 8-7-6-7). I honestly didn't expect it to be that high. There was another reason I didn't buy it, this video.
The game is like Adventures of Lolo. Small one screen puzzle stages. You might have to defeat enemies in a specific order, or just flip a switch. I fucking hate Lolo. They are terribly boring. I feel the fun being drained out of me as I play them. Steal Princess is sort of the same feeling. Do the thing, do the thing, okay do the thing. It gives you a close up everytime you pick up a jewel and everytime you unlock the exit. Our Steal Princess isn't even fun to move around. Using her whip to swing across things is frustrating. As she's a sprite on a bland 3D background and isometric, depth perception doesn't exist, and more than that when you need to swing "up" 4 glowing balls the prompt for each ball is so small that I had to give up.
Oh I can get jewels to buy PARTS to make my own insipid levels, don't sign me up. In fact get out of my house. I'm going to play the game a bit more but...
Super Meat Boy exists. SMB has perfect, exacting, exciting control and environments that challenge you to use it. SP has me defeat the blue kobold before I get the red sword to hit the red kobold before I get the yellow sword to kill the yellow kobold. Then in the next level I fight a "boss" kobold that's just a normal kobold but bigger and it's not like I'm dodging it's attacks or that I even could.
Man, Super Meat Boy is great.
Climax Entertainment's games after Landstalker aren't so hot. I've only actually played Dark Savior (Saturn) and that was briefly because the language barrier got in the way. Now if I saw it, I'd pick up Time Stalkers (DC).
I was in Tokyo for Steal Princess's release, but it was 6,000 yen and the knowledge that it might suck held me off. As I practically never looked at DS used games it slipped my mind. Looking at it now, I'm surprised at the scores it got in Famitsu ( 8-7-6-7). I honestly didn't expect it to be that high. There was another reason I didn't buy it, this video.
The game is like Adventures of Lolo. Small one screen puzzle stages. You might have to defeat enemies in a specific order, or just flip a switch. I fucking hate Lolo. They are terribly boring. I feel the fun being drained out of me as I play them. Steal Princess is sort of the same feeling. Do the thing, do the thing, okay do the thing. It gives you a close up everytime you pick up a jewel and everytime you unlock the exit. Our Steal Princess isn't even fun to move around. Using her whip to swing across things is frustrating. As she's a sprite on a bland 3D background and isometric, depth perception doesn't exist, and more than that when you need to swing "up" 4 glowing balls the prompt for each ball is so small that I had to give up.
Oh I can get jewels to buy PARTS to make my own insipid levels, don't sign me up. In fact get out of my house. I'm going to play the game a bit more but...
Super Meat Boy exists. SMB has perfect, exacting, exciting control and environments that challenge you to use it. SP has me defeat the blue kobold before I get the red sword to hit the red kobold before I get the yellow sword to kill the yellow kobold. Then in the next level I fight a "boss" kobold that's just a normal kobold but bigger and it's not like I'm dodging it's attacks or that I even could.
Man, Super Meat Boy is great.
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