Earthbound and Dune 10.03.16

Broforce came out on PS Plus this month, and I played and liked it a lot more than I was expecting. Two disappointing things about it, one it suffers from performance issues quite a bit, slowdown and loading times are erratic and for a game invoking 16 bit charm on a Playstation 4 thats surprising and later missions which require more fiddly platforming are annoying purely because the controls aren’t that precise. Forgetting these though I had a ton of fun with it, it made me smile with every new character I unlocked, some are nods to films I wasn’t expecting like Rocketeer and Timecop and others are predictable. Each character has two unique weapons, and as your given the characters on a random loop it benefits learning each characters traits. The explosives expert I hated at the start, but got used to him as the game went through its odd story of aliens and demons, to the point where I was enjoying playing as him the most. No one character feels overpowered, but a tricky part of the unlocking of characters as the game progresses meant that the ones I got toward the end of the game I had little time to familiarise myself with. The levels themselves are short affairs (most can be completed in under 2 minutes) but because the terrain is completely destructible my approach to each level varied, sometimes I’d sneak through paths in the dirt I dug with a shotgun and others I’d take a more straightforward journey. The end goal of each level tended to be killing one character, but every once in a while a new objective would pop up and that made the slog a lot more interesting. The game isn’t anything new or spectacular but its refreshing in its basic approach and schoolboy humour, it probably took me about 4 hours to get through but I had a blast doing it. 

I played and really didn’t enjoy The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess HD (WiiU) as well. The issue of pace at the start of the game I forgotten, or perhaps I had more free time when this game came out and forgave this. The early part of the game is a lot of going over mechanics of Zelda which I’m familiar with, crawling through tunnels and annoying horse riding controls. I hearded a bunch of goats (twice) and went through a load of interactions with characters to get a cat home so I could get a slingshot. Its all set in the same village which doesn’t help the feeling of being constrained early on, running up and down the same path countless times. In about 2 hours I’ve finally got to the first dungeon, and my motivation to carry on is waining. Its not helped by the look of the game, whereas The Wind Waker looks gorgeous in all its cartoon glory, the design (which seems to have taken a lot of influence from Victorian paintings of fairies) of the Twilight Princess is odd, some characters are horrible constructions of exaggerated features and most you meet straight away, it got better when I travelled into the Twilight realm, Minda’s got a cool vibe to her and the lighting and music is eery and works well. I’m hoping to continue through as much as a can bare, I remember later dungeons being fantastic, and some great set pieces later in the game too (a horseback chase involving a wagon at one point?) Its just such a drag early on. Maybe I’ll be inspired when I finally step out into Hyrule Field.

Earthbound and Dune 03.03.16

I got Streetfighter V (PS4) there's not a lot to it. At the moment I can fight online, play a really easy story or play an almost as easy survival mode. I've got the game, but i'm not sure I get it. I'm certainly no good at it, my fights online have proven that. Starting off I went with what I thought was the coolest and most interesting character, R Mika. I really sucked playing as her though, her variation on the fireball action was limited in range and the new feature (her V trigger) was a bit hit and miss. R Mika's cool but doesn't suit me. So I tried Charlie Nash, I wasn't feeling his look, but I could do a large chunk of his moves, or at least against brain dead AI. Taking him against other real people I was still loosing more often than not, invariably to Cammy. Loosing was also becoming more of a pain, I wasn't just loosing I was being destroyed in some fights, a couple of combos and i'd be on the floor. As well as not very interesting I wasn't getting much of a chance to get a feel for how Nash played, so I went for a more tried and tested character, Ken. Presumably I'll be able to buy his original costume at some point (its in the story mode) and I'll be happier then, if his hairs sorted too that would be great. As Ken I still loose, a lot but I can do a couple of moves, and sometimes lead into a combo. Theres a lot I like about the game, it plays really well and looks lovely with some nice variations on music i'm familiar with from past titles. A lot I don't like about the game will presumably be sorted in the coming months, they'll be more characters and game modes. I'll still have the issue that i'm bad at Streetfighter (and most fighting games) but at least i'll have more ways to be bad at the game. 

At the same time I continue to work through A Link Between Worlds (3DS). I'm three dudgeons into the dark world and can see the forth on the horizon. Whats remarkable about this and a lot of the other Zelda titles is they manage to make me feel cleaver. Environmental puzzles are so well designed, and now with a greater array of items at my disposal from the start I don't feel like the solution is glaringly obvious. The dungeons themselves seem tighter than say Wind Waker or Twilight Princess. A couple of them have fallen victim to me having to get off a train and power off my 3DS without saving, but because they're more compact and I'll have worked out the solutions darting through them doesn't seem like a chore, instead everything clicks into place and feels satisfying. The inclusion of renting items doesn't seem overwhelming like I thought it might, mainly because even with this new mechanic it still reverts to Zelda tropes, dungeons revolve around a single item (or maybe two). Basically I'm really enjoying the game, the look feel and especially the sound which plays on Zelda songs I know while adding new music which is just as catchy.