Earthbound and Dune 18.03.17

Night in the Woods distracted me momentarily from the launch of the Nintendo Switch a few weeks back and now I've had almost two weeks with this curious little console I thought I'd write my impressions. 

The good news is that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch) is as wonderful as all the impressions I'd read made it out to be. From the awakening scene where Link is presented with a sandbox of things to fight, climb, swim around and eat almost instantly the game then repeats this trick after about an hour of messing about and presents a much larger, almost overwhelming area to wander in. I've heard the go anywhere/do anything pitch numerous times attached to games and this is a rare occasion where it rings true and I did just this. The straightforward nature of the first task "Defeat Ganon" offered little direction but was a tantalising goal. There are a few conventional markers to follow but I was quick to get lost in the massive world. I walked the coastline for a good few hours, building ice stepping stones out to areas I was really underprepared for and quickly returning to the shore. Taking in all the time the amount of variety in the creatures, enemies and plants. When I decided to venture inland again I was in a lush jungle like place, as I ascended the cliff to enter this new world I heard the screams of a pair of truffle hunters being attacked by Moblins, the worlds intricate building feels lived in and almost unlike any other game i've played. There are things I'm seeing like a giant dragon looping the horizon at times which are mysterious and I can't wait to find out more about. The amazing thing being that I'm not being gated, I could just spent hours chasing beasts or sailing a makeshift raft. I did in the end follow the path I was being led down, which leads to the Zora domain, beforehand though there is a great approach which at first seemed to be too hard, the enemies swarming and much stronger than me. Through the language of the game though by the end of this section I was more understanding of the combat systems and weaponry in the game and much better at dealing with enemies. I've now completed the first traditional dungeon, which was a little underwhelming compared to other Zelda games. The blow of this softened by the fact the world is filled with shrines, which act as mini dungeons so it doesn't feel lacking. The main dungeon leads, as ever, to a boss fight which was great and once this was over I was given some cool new items then thrown into the world again.

It's a real wow factor of the new console being able to play a sprawling game like this on a train or at home. It wasn't until I played it on a commute that I really got what makes this machine so special. Somehow Breath of the Wild feels right in short bursts as well, aided by the fact I can save anywhere. Chalking off a dungeon in the 30minutes i'm on a train, or just getting a few steps closer to whatever goal I've set myself. I'm sure I'll be playing this game for a long time.

1-2 Switch acts as a demo of a lot of the new features of the controllers and while I like some of the mini games, like the Ball Count, Liar Dice and Safe Cracking (anything which utilises the HD Rumble really) others feel like an unwanted throwback to bad Wii mini games, a lot of blind waggling. Snipperclips is a much better demo of what the console can be and the accessibility of have a pair of controllers ready to snap off at any time and play multiplayer. Some of the puzzles are delightful, especially the variations on basketball.

Finally Super Bomberman R is a strange throwback to a game I really like. Multiplayer it adds nothing to the traditional Bomberman experience, and thats great. Again its a great proof of concept of a machine which allows multiplayer anywhere (I imagine when Mario Kart releases this crown will be taken). The single player campaign is a bit of a different story, It's got well acted cutscenes which are nicely put together but the actual game is a bit of a mess, its hard to see whats going on and when an enemy kills me (which happens a lot) there isn't too much of an impact, its all feels a bit airy. I might put some more time into it once I'm done with Zelda and I'm certainly pleased the game exists.

So thats about it really, I think the Switch is a curious little console. It looks nice, really quick to use and what I thought looked gimmicky about it, playing games on the screen and on the go and the tiny controllers which snap off, are actually great features. Its also really cool the rather small number of games out on it has been bulked up with a load of Neo Geo titles. Once there are more games in place and Nintendo announce whats going on with the Virtual Console I think that it could be a fantastic machine.

Earthbound and Dune 08.03.17

NIght in the Woods (PS4) was a game I've been anticipating for a few years now. Images I'd seen of the game in development showed an art style which was right up my street and as gameplay footage started to come out I got more excited for it. I played a bit of Lost Constellation, a free demo of sorts which was a precursor to the game itself and this tempered my excitement a bit. It looked lovely but I wasn't blown away with the game itself. With my expectations lowered though I was absolutely blown away with what a strong game that Night in the Woods is. A bit of context straight off the bat, I tend to read books that deal with a lot of talking and the mundane nature of suburban America, authors like Jonathan Franzen and Paul Auster. This game takes on a lot of these issues and is brave enough to have a protagonist (Mae) who is honest in her creation. She's unlikeable a lot of the time, her actions seemingly selfish. Especially toward her parents, who like every character in the game perfectly balance humour and a serious tone. There was one scene between mother and daughter late on which was particularly harrowing when a few revelations came out. I stepped back from the game an realised than it had subtly building to this moment, as I'd been messing around hanging out with my old school friends and making mischief there was a bigger, sadder story being told and it was right in front of me. To go back to what the game is, it's a platformer with a lot of dialogue, interspersed with some choices but the bigger choice is what you do each day. Or more specifically who you hang out with each day out of the small group of characters Mae calls friends. This choice is all the harder as each of this small group again are written so wonderfully. I tried to balance things out between Gregg (a rebellious fox) Bea (a goth alligator) and less time with Angus (a quiet bear, who's also Gregg's boyfriend). The things done vary from smashing up lightbulbs, building robots and hacking water fountains. The game gates the story in such a way that I could only hang out with one character each day so the idea that another play-through would give me another bunch of dialogue and stuff to do is really enticing. Things move along toward a few key moments where the story reveals more, leading to a few set pieces I assume have to be completed, an embarrassing party and an alternative to Halloween. These moments reminded me how fragile all the characters are, I took such care picking the lines for the Halloween play, not because I wanted a high score or an achievement but because it actually seemed to mean something to Bea. Her story was the most harrowing to me, and the revelation of the life she's leading toward the end was especially painful but then in a moment of genius this is broken up with joyful little dancing mini game (along with even more charming dialogue).

 

The other element of the game is a lot of the nights, would at bedtime lead to a dream sequence which was a bit more surreal. This was when the game is most stylish, beautifully combining illustration, lighting an music. A few of these moments went on a bit too long for me but the issue I tended to have was that I wanted to return to the next day and see where the game would take me next (in the confines of a small town). The meaning of these sequences became apparent as the game wore on but weren't too forced. The games deal with a lot of big issues, death, cancer, suburban decay, depression, the economy, god and it never feels pretentious or preachy. The choice of designing the game like a Richard Scarry book gone wrong is key to this, had the game presented a lot of these subject matters through a more realistic eye it may well have fallen short. Everything builds toward a conclusion, a mystery runs throughout the game and I was concerned that it would suddenly be forced to the forefront of everything I was doing. The conclusion of it though was satisfying and had the slightest hint of The Wicker Man which is always going to be good in my book.

 

By the end of the game I knew everything I wanted to know about Mae and could understand every one of her decisions, however harsh they seemed. I was worried as I always am that it wouldn't nail the ending, that it would go on a beat too long and wrap up one issue that I felt should be left unspoken, possibly the biggest in the game. I needn't worry though because like everything in this game its timed to perfection and left me feeling like everything will be okay. Maybe.