Earthbound and Dune 27.10.15

I finally wrapped up on Bowsers Inside Story (DS), initially the game was meant to last a week at most, but somehow its taken me a summer to complete, weirdly the play counter is almost exactly 17 hours whereas its felt a lot longer. Thats not a slight on the game though, i've had a great time with it, the humour is where the game really shines and thats consistent from start to finish. Every team of Bowsers minions I rescued offered respite in the form of humour, and it plays with the conventions of a traditional Mario game in some fun ways, whether that being what you expect, Bowsers a thug but his hearts in the right place, or some unexpected twists (who knew Monty Moles where such dicks?), and with Broque Monsieur and the fat toad mistakenly diagnosed with the blorbs illness, two of my favourite Mario characters have been added into the Mushroom Kingdom. Another thing which is consistent throughout the game is the introduction of new mechanics, even entering the last section of the game it added something new and never resorted to the Zelda trope of throwing everything you've learnt into the last dungeon. Some elements worked better than others, avoiding bombs on conveyer belts and moving a platform through tight spaces with a stylus where frustrating tasks made more so by the controls not being tight enough. Special attacks like Luigi's Snack box (or whatever its called) and using an army of Kameks where inventive and satisfying to use. The world was small enough to traverse quickly, which is good because I was finding that I'd forget my task between playing the game and wander aimlessly between the two castles. I found the section with the laid back surfer squid thing in space and learning a new attack to be the only bit of unnecessary padding in the game, which is impressive for the time I spent with it. The use of three protagonists in the game, and separating them at various points made returning to areas two or three times bearable because I was always finding new paths to explore with the individual characters abilities. It also helped keep enemies fresh throughout, where there wasn't a massive variation of things to fight, fighting a walking tree as Bowser rather than Mario and Luigi was tactically different and helped keep the game from feeling repetitive. Adding a skill layer to traditional RPG turn based combat was a great design choice, for me it felt like the evolution of Earthbounds rhythm based attacks (I don't play a ton of RPGs so this may be in other games) and instead of combat feeling like the roll of a dice I was working out a course of action to fight most enemies, even the frustrating star things which cloned themselves where beatable when I thought it through.

I don't know if I'd rush to play another Mario RPG, as much as I've loved my time with this game it was an investment of time made much more pleasant by the unique story (for a Mario game) the fact they now seem to make these titles exclusively for the handheld Nintendo systems puts me off a little bit too certainly I hope they iron out issues with save points a bit in future titles, a few times I'd have to give up on sections of the game because I needed to jump off a train. It's still one of the most unique, funny and enjoyable things I've played this year. 

Just a quick disclaimer about all the nonsense I've written above about Blorbs, Monty Moles and Snack Boxes, if it doesn't make any sense I apologise.

I had to watch the credits in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4) one final time, the mission I did after the final mission (which sees one of the lead characters exit the game) was by far the best storytelling I've watched in the game (and probably any game) wrapped up in one of the most irritating missions i've played (in any game) I'm so glad I've done it though, as a few times after being killed by one hit off a tank I considered not returning to this mission, it was well worth struggling through the mission and it's lack of checkpoints to see where it goes.

Finally I put Splatoon (WiiU) on for the first time in months to see what the countless patches and additions have added to an already great game. Pleasingly its still a load of fun, although I managed to enter on a rotation of two levels which where in the original release and I stuck with my weapon loadout which has served me pretty well, so I can't say much about whats been added really. The playerbase is still really high, I never struggled to get into a match and even though everyone is now at a level pushing 40 (compared to my 17) I still felt useful to my team and like I wasn't underpowered, I want to jump back into it a few more times to see some more of the new content, or at least some of it!

Earthbound and Dune 20.10.15

A rougelike shouldn't really work on a mobile phone, controls need to be precise and movement fluid. Somehow Downwell (iOS) manages to not only make this genre work on a touch screen device, but also creates something close to the best in the genre in my opinion. The way it does it is making it a more vertical experience, where you play a boy with gun boots (boots that shoot guns) as he descends down a well. As you're controlling a character in free fall it also strips out a lot of platforming, you can jump but its fairly limited by the fact the game plays with height a lot of the time. The jump button is shared with firing your gun boots, and ammunition is reloaded every time you touch down on solid ground, meaning a successful run in the game is carefully balanced by the amount of time falling down the well being broken up by interludes of landing. The selection of enemies you encounter range from floating blobs and worms which are easy enough to kill by landing on they're heads, bats who chase you about, tortoises which take a bit more firepower and balls of fire which cause you damage by landing on them. At no point so far has the amount of enemies been overwhelming, and my failure has always been self inflicted. Action is aided by a selection of weapons hidden in caves, normally coming with some health boost, a clever way of forcing me to try out a wider selection of weaponry, otherwise the stronger weapons like the laser would be a little overpowered, no gun i've found has been completely useless either.  The whole package is the perfect fit for the mobile market, whereas the likes of Rouge Legacy require far more precision and a bit more time to get deep into the game, this game seems to encourage dropping straight into it (literally) and playing a few quick games. The graphics look really nice for what they are, three colours and I assume help to make it run smoothly as well, not too much more to say about this great little game.

I played a bit of The Crew (PS4) as well, in scope its really ambitious, giving me an approximation of the United States to freely drive around, and thats what I did straight after I started to get entwined into a story involving Detroit, my brother being killed and gangs, I took to the open roads, attempting a drive down to Miami then getting sidetracked and heading through the Badlands toward Vegas. Luckily the pleasant lady who's waiting with my next objective at my garage in Detroit doesn't seem to bothered by my extended road trip as i've not got any intention of returning to the story. It looks good, certainly for the scale of the game. At times I wish there were a few less cars on the road, even going to some of the more remote parts of America the freeways seemed pretty crowded. If nothing else its helping me with geography, although i'm not too trusting of how true to real world it is, every route I take seems to take me through Little Amsterdam (a place I'd never heard of until this week) its got a lovely windmill though. The cars (or car which i've driven so far) don't really feel like they are gripping the surface of the road, the whole game feels quite slippery which is a shame, but its not game breaking, just took a bit of an adjustment in my playing of the game. Hopefully more cars become available as time goes on to me even though i'm avoiding the story, it would be good to see if there is anything thats got a bit more grip. The online components seem interesting, other (from what I can make out) real players appear every once in a while zipping down the motorways and i'd be keen to give the game a go with someone else I know, the idea of a point to point race across America seems pretty cool. Theres not too much wrong with it and i'll tinker with it a bit more over the next few weeks i'm sure.

Bowsers Inside Story (3DS) might as well be called Bowsers Inside Neverending Story, I've got to be close to the end surely? I had to watch two Toads have a cup of tea for about 5minutes in Bowsers lower back so that was something.

Earthbound and Dune 13.10.15

The internal clock on Bowsers Inside Story (3DS) continues to tick on, standing at thirteen hours as I edge toward the conclusion of a game I wanted to finish in a week. I still intend to finish and quantify my thoughts on this charming game at some point, just not this week.

Standing at a more impressive fifty hours or so was my playtime to get to the (real) ending of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4). I say the real ending, I've watched the lengthy credits twice and have a conclusion to the story of Big Boss circa 1985, but at the same time i'm back in my helicopter with one more important side op to complete (I think I did two missions out of sync which could lessen the drama of the way things play out). Without going into the final events of the story I really liked it, it was powerful, even to me who hasn't played that much of the other games. From my understanding this game was meant to be building toward Big Boss being the villain of later games, and it certainly does that while also angling toward what will happen with Solid Snake. One aspect of the finale I found really frustrating but could understand why it played out that way, perhaps it didn't need to go on that long though. On the whole its a fantastic game, which I've had so much fun with, I've got a bit more clearing up of side ops to do, but once thats done it would take me a while to return to it as most of the joys I had from the game were from either discovering an inventive way to complete my objectives or attempting to unravel what was going on in the story.

I played a small amount of the Battlefront (PS4) beta over the weekend, and while it looks and sounds pretty much exactly as i'd have hoped I found the other players were already at such a higher level than me that a lot of the enjoyment was sucked out of the game pretty quickly. Especially the battle of Hoth gameplay, which is a fantastic recreation of the second films opening battle, I wanted a chance to have a root around the world but sadly I was being picked off with ease (whatever side I was on), sometimes it was humorous, either being stomped on by an ATAT or coming head to head with Darth Vader in a trench but more often it was being sniped from miles away by someone at a much higher level. I found the loadouts and weapons seemed to benefit the higher level players too much, and the idea of getting to they're level seemed like too much of a grind for me (thats because I'm inept at these sorts of games though) other issues I had could well be ironed out in the full release though like every time I found a vehicle, the glee of taking control of it was taken away from me as I tried to fudge the controls, the training mode offered in the full game will help with this. For a beta I guess this did what I'd have wanted it to do, get me interested in the final product as there was more promise in the hour or so I spent with it than I was expecting. 

Finally I've been playing through Gauntlet (PS4) with a friend online, and it's been a really enjoyable experience (and also the perfect antidote for all the Metal Gear seriousness i've had going on) it takes itself really lightly, perfectly illustrated by the commentary from both the narrator and the characters we're playing. Whats most impressive about it is how it strikes the balance between arcade nostalgia and more modern games, there is a surprising amount of finesse to the combat and different attacks that can be purchased, and so far we've not found a level which has overwhelmed us or seemed impossible. So bits have been tricky, but after a few attempts we've got through everything thrown at us. It looks lovely, lighting in places especially shines (bad pun). Character design is pretty generic, but every once in a while a boss like an anthropomorphic crocodile is thrown at you which looks better than it should. It's taken us about 20 levels to release the cash we've been accumulating can be used to buy other attacks and armour, which led to a spending spree then a less harmonious approach when we see treasure in caves from then on. The end is in sight, which is another design choice I really appreciate (you can see the path to the conclusion mapped out for you) on the whole i've loved my time with it since joining up to play with someone else.

Earthbound and Dune 06.10.15

I made a promise to myself to finish Bowsers Inside Story (3DS) a few weeks back, but i’m still struggling toward the end, its not such a struggle, and i’m enjoying my time with it, hopefully i’ll finish it soon and be able to talk about my final impressions.


Another RPG I’ve picked up on (and finished in half the time) is Undertale (Steam) its a novel take on a modern RPG, the combat system is still turn based, but it adds rhythm and skill based elements in defence of an enemy attack, and this is made even more joyous by the commentary by your foe as he attacks, explaining why sweat is pouring down on you or bombs are falling. The writing of the game throughout is awesome, each character, although a monster, feels human and natural, its humour borrows from games like Earthbound in places, which is never a bad thing. Its a relatively quick game to get through (about 4-5 hours) and the ending you get is very much dependant on decisions you make through the game, I don’t know if i’d play through it again, not that I didn’t love my time with it, the end “twist” which plays on your expectations from an RPG was both funny and a surprise so I wouldn’t want to go through the game knowing how to cheat the system, it wouldn’t feel right. In places the game plays with light really well, and it looks really pretty at these points, the rest of the time its an 8-16bit look which a lot of indie games adopt, but it continually feels individual purely by the look of the characters and the feeling of the world they live in. Steam as a platform I find difficult to find things I want to play, and though the fault of having a mac sometimes find it hard to find things I can play, but Undertale is a game i’ve loved from beginning to end.


I’ve got to the end of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4), I say the end, I’ve got to the halfway point, but I’ve seen the credits. As much as I’ve enjoyed it so far, the final moments of Skullface in the game really didn’t sit to well with me, he never was fleshed out as a villain, and I didn’t really feel that much hatred for him (perhaps I should have listened to more of the tapes) so when Big Boss is dealing out his revenge it just felt uneasy, having no control over the scene as well was strange. Its one of a few times I feel what is an essentially a fantastical world of floating boys and giant robots gets caught up in trying to shock or create a brutal realism and it just didn’t click for me, it feels more like its doing it because its "cool" to be gory or hyper violent, in the end though its a great game, flawed in places but still better than pretty much anything I’ve played this year. I’m slowly battling through the post credit material (which looks like another 40hours of gameplay) and some of the variations on missions offer a neat twist on the objectives.


Built a few more Super Mario Maker (WiiU) levels too, I’m particularly pleased with Panic on the Titanic.


Owlman Vs the Bowser Snake: 0150-0000-004F-7CAB
Burger Babies Boozer: 1FAD-0000-0051-CA19
Panic on the Titanic: 4840-0000-0061-CF26
Bowserbot 5000: D2F6-0000-0069-7495
Bowser Towers: 1E4C-0000-007D-0991