KIRBY’S DREAMLAND 2

Saving Popstar mouthful by mouthful

Played on: 3DS

Also available on: GameBoy

Genre: 2d Platformer

Developer: HAL Laboratories (Adventures of Lolo, Earthbound 2, Pokemon Ranger…)

Publisher: Nintendo

Players: 1

Played for: around 4 hours

hello everyone and welcome to my new review! :D Today I’m gonna tackle and review the second installment of the Kirby series for the GameBoy: That’s right, Kirby’s Dreamland 2!

I don’t know if you know this, but Kirby’s Dreamland 2 is the first title in the Dreamland series to have given Kirby its power-absorbing abilities…that’s right, Kirby’s Dreamland, the first title, had Kirby being simply able to suck in and either swallow or spit enemies out without being able to absorb any power and had to rely on power-ups found around the stage (the spicy curry power up from Brawl had its roots in the first Kirby title). Kirby’s Adventure for NES had the honour to give Kirby it’s amazing absorbing powers. But enough talking about the past titles, let’s talk about Kirby’s Dreamland 2 now;

King Dedede seems to be at it again in trying to rule Dreamland, so Kirby is off to save the day again, this time with the help of its new absorbing powers and three animal friends who will aid him on his quest, also being the core gameplay reason of this title…but let’s get deeper into it!

GRAPHICS

The game features a very similar graphical quality to the first game, though more polished and with added details, making the levels more appealing to the eyes. The cutesy style is, of course, a charm for the title, asl well as the funny animations of Kirby and his friends between a level and another, depicting quite cute cutscenes showing the shenanigans of the group.

beside that there’s not much else to say, really. The game makes good use of the GameBoy hardware and also depicts a cutesy art direction wich fits well with the style of the game as well as offering a quite wide array of locations and powers to use and admire.

GAMEPLAY

While the first Kirby’s Dreamland was a more straightforward platform game, this new title features a save system for the first time, given how longer and bigger it is. It features actual worlds with different levels to explore in each, as well as a secret, true ending,w ich can only be obtained by getting star shards, hidden within every world of the game.

Kirby’s power absorbing abilities are of course quite fun to use, going from being able to turn into a heavy rock, a flaming meteor or being able to spit out ice or use an umbrella as a weapon. Another element is added into the mix though: Kirby’s friends. They’re three…a hamster named Rock, an owl named Coo and a quide derpy fish named Kite. Kirby can pretty much “ride” them by finding and rescuing them by minibosses in the levels of the game and they provide, not only an additional health bar, but also modify Kirby’s powers according to who he’s riding. Rick can use the fire power to spit out flames, while Coo can use the boomerang power to fling sharp feathers at enemies.

This adds quite a bit of variety and fun to the power-based gameplay and they’re also implemented in the simple, yet clever puzzles that hide the star shards, wich will need specific powers and, in most cases, specific animal friends to be solved and obtain the star shard. Puzzles get harder and harder along with the game progressing, wich also has an overall nice difficulty curve, resulting challenging enough for more seasoned gamers who want to get the shards, but also easy enough for beginner gamers to get into the game.

Kirby’s Dreamland’s gameplay is fun, simple and addictive and added enough to the series to feel quite fresh even to people who played Kirby’s Adventure. It still holds up well nowadays :)

STORYLINE

Not much of a story here, if you don’t count the secret ending and the funny cutscenes each time you enter a world for the first time…so yeah, no go for plot lovers XD

SOUNDTRACK

Kirby’s style is all over the soundtrack of course. Mostly happy, quick and upbeat music makes the full track of this game, as well as the quite particular boss battle themes, wich are strangely “badass” for a game about a pink marshmellow-like thing XD a couple of examples here as usual:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f7qgrZ32SA

grass land, the first level of the game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE5lSQ0SRFs

my favorite of the “animal themes” :)

FINAL RATING

Kirby’s Dreamland 2 is not only a very good sequel to the first title, but also a much much better game and one of the best GameBoy portables out there…charming cutesy style, simple and compelling gameplay, fair challenge and nice soundtrack, all for ya :D Wich is why I give this game a…

8.8/10

get it on the 3DS VC if you can :)

VVVVVV

In another dimension no one can hear you flip gravity

Played on: 3DS

Also available on: PC

Genre: 2D Platformer

Developer: Terry Cavanagh (Don’t look back and other indie games)

Publisher: Nicalis

Players: 1

Played for:  Around 4 hours

Hello everyone, welcome to my new review! Today I’m gonna review an indie game, a quite popular one, wich I recently had the chance to play on my 3DS, even though it’s also available on PC :) The game I’m talking about is VVVVVV! Yep, quite the weird name, but once you play it you understand why it’s named like that ;)

So, anyway, this indie game has a simple start, with a group of weird, coloured space people having an incident with their ship and ending up in another dimension, wich is quite unstable too if that wasn’t enough! Captain Viridian is left stranded somewhere in this dimension, separated by his other crew members and using his ability to flip gravity he’ll have to make his way through the game world and find everyone as well as going back home with their ship!

I have to say that I absolutely loved this game to bits, both for the visuals and the gameplay, as well as the concept, wich is simple, yet very effective and addicting! Let’s dwelve deeper into it though!

GRAPHICS

The graphic style of VVVVVV is really distinct, trying to be a sort of tribute to the very old games of the Commodore64 age and using very basic shapes for the sprites of the characters, but at the same time it feels very polished as look. The art direction is simple, yet it does its absolutely fine job with portraying an unique look for the game, giving it its own identity.

There’s not much else to say about the graphics. They’re simple, effective, charming…A little work of game art :)

GAMEPLAY

Like I mentioned earlier, Viridian, the main character of the game, is able to flip gravity. If he has his feet on the ground, that is…That way he’s able to simply flip between floor and ceiling, wich makes him able to make his way through spike-filled traps wich pretty much are scattered through the entire game world, wich is surprisingly quite open for being a 2d game.

The game world is composed of open areas and more linear areas, wich pretty much work as levels in wich Viridian will have to make it through. The “levels” or areas themselves are quite various in nature. Most of the dangers involve pits and walls filled with spikes to go over using the flipping abilities of the main character, but there also are examples of very odd and random enemies, like 8-bit ghosts, rotating squares, a bus that tries to ram you…pretty random stuff :D

beside that, there are also different elements varying the situation, going from lines that automatically flip the gravity for Viridian, who’ll have to constantly flip through incoming threats or spike-filled walls, or an ever-moving tower, wich forces Viridian to run for his life to survive and not end up in the spike-filled bottom. Everytime Viridian dies he spawns at the last checkpoint and there are quite a lot of them scattered through the game world. This doesn’t make the game any easier, if anything it’s a signal of how hard it is! several deaths will be achieved during many sequences of the game, wich is quite brutal in difficulty but also somehow addicting, managing not to be frustrating, but instead encouraging the player for “one more try”.

Also cute how the rooms of the levels are named, sometime in very hilarious or ironic terms to describe the room itself or what it represents. Plus, scattered around the world there are hidden shiny trinkets to find, wich are needed to complete the game. Believe me, it’s very satisficatory to do so, and encouraged ot enjoy the game sequences to the fullest!

VVVVVV is addicting, brutal and downright fun, with a very simple gameplay that uses a single button and yet it gets to have a level of depth that few games achieve to have. Only downside is the lenght as completing the game roughly takes about 4 hours…but they’ll be some of the best 4 hours of your gaming life :)

STORYLINE

despite the game being light on story, it does have an interesting concept to follow with the origins of the weird dimension and the strange messages scattered around the world. Very simple and light story, but it works in creating an interesting setting for the game.

SOUNDTRACK

The soundtrack is another strong point of the game, wich uses chiptunes to make one of the most charming 8-bit soundtracks I’ve ever heard. The tunes are all upbeat, pumping and absolutely catchy, from start to end. old strumentation with modernized tunes, works really well :) here are a couple of examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYANYGCgRz4

“Pushing Onwards” the first theme of the game :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0Jk94ri3W4

“Predestinate fate” another very nice one :)

FINAL RATING

VVVVVV is an exceptional game. Short and yet really addictive and fun, a worthy experience to play from start to end. It uses a very simple concept and controls and yet shows a very nice depth of variety and gameplay, as well as having a very particular art direction, a very good soundtrack and an absolutely fun and brutal level design

I give this game a…

9.0/10

Recommended to everyone, PC and 3DS owners!

RAYMAN ORIGINS

Lums, Lums everywhere!

Played on: Wii

Also available on: PC, PS3, X360, Vita, 3DS

Genre: 2d Platformer

Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier (Rayman series, Beyond Food & Evil, Rabbids Go Home…)

Publisher: Ubisoft

Players: 1-4

Played for: around 15 hours

I know that due to the latest news of Ubisoft executors acting like jerks (especially to their developers) you probably aren’t in much of a mood for Ubisoft reviews…But hey, games are games and I recently finished Rayman Origins and it must be judged for what it is, not for where it comes from :P

Anyway! Rayman Origins! I finally got to play it and I have to say…I’m totally mindblown. Rayman’s return to its roots is an amazing game! In this title, Rayman and his friends have to yet again start gathering lums and bring peace to the land of dreams (Kirby would be so proud <3 ) this time able to band all together kinda like in Super Mario bros. Wii/U. So let’s go into detail and see how it went!

GRAPHICS

Rayman Origins is a piece of artwork. There’s no other way to say it. The characters are drawn in a sort of Flash-like style, with the animations being absolutely goofy and toony as they should be, for both enemies and main characters. The animations and the expressions depicted are absolutely hilarious and the smoothness of the movements is top-notch.

And should we talk about the environments ? I wish I could draw that kind of backgrounds. They’re colourful, luscious, full of life. You could pretty much take a screen of the game, take off the characters and pass it off as a piece of art. it’s just THAT good. Kinda makes you wish Sega and Nintendo went for those routes for their Sonic and Mario 2d games XD 2d graphics can still be absolutely impressive, no matter what vthe naysayers say :P

So, not much else to say here. The game looks and moves impressively and every bit of it is just a pleasure to the eyes of all gamers…unless you’re one of those who’s scared of colourful games XP

GAMEPLAY

Rayman Origins’ gameplay is fast-paced and addictive. I must really say that the developers did an astounding job with making the level design look always creative. Levels are various and challenging, full of traps and enemies as well as lums to pick. Lums play a key role in this game, as every level will have cages of them hidden around, You can easily found them by being careful and following the cries of help of the cute lil guys. At the end of every level, depending by the normal golden lums you got (wich are like rings or coins in sonic and mario games), you’re given the chance to get even more caged lums, with an additional one to get by replaying the level within a certain time frame, wich will really put the skill and speed of the player under heavy pressure in certain levels ;)

The game also features quite a few chasing sequences in wich Rayman will have to run at crazy speeds among death traps and enemies to try and get either a fairy that will give him new powers (and make him even more acrobatic for those chase sequences) or a chest that contains a tooth gem, wich can unlock a very special secret level at the end of the game.

There’s just so much stuff to do and the game pushes and encourages the player to get all the “lum badges” in each level. it’s really satisficatory to just complete all the levels and also a helluva fun doing it! The challenge is very high, so platform veterans will certainly be happy about this.

The choice of keeping boss fights until later in the game is interesting, but I can assure you that it’s worth it…the boss fights, even if few are very fun and very well implemented with the spirit of the game, as well as various in concept and battle pattern.

In the end…Rayman Origins has a fantastic gameplay, a high challenge and a lot of stuff to complete…the lenght of the game is quite good for a 2D game…only little nitpick ? some of the hardest levels depict certain moments in wich the player may lose for an element of the level “screwing him up” rather than him having jumped in the wrong way…luckily it didn’t happen in more than 2/3 levels for me!

Also! The side-scrolling shooter sequences are absolutely fun, though getting all the lum badges may mean tiring your thumb out quite a bit by quickly spamming the shoot button :P

STORYLINE

Well, don’t expect much of a story here, being a 2d platform and everything…expect a few interesting and hilarious cutscenes toward the end though :P

SOUNDTRACK

The music of Rayman Origins is…really “happy” sounding in most cases, also using a bit of acapella tunes here and there wich are, of course, hilarious like most of the games. Many tunes did just make me smile as soon as I heard them, so expect to do that a lot :)

Here are a couple of examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_m-50qXcLc

the main theme of the game already depicts the happy-go-lucky nature of the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGvdfpkJVyM

the theme of the shooter sections is also pretty nice and distinct :D

FINAL RATING

Rayman Origins is an absolutely spectacular game, on all platforms. Astounding hand-drawn 2D graphics, fast-paced and challenging gameplay, crazy level designs and concept, toony and colourful art direction, a happy and crazy-sounding soundtrack…all of this makes for a very compelling experience from start to end, alone or with friends.

this is why I give this game a…

10/10

Let’s hope Rayman Legends is just as good…and that Ubisoft learns to treat its developers a little more respectfully, because they’re clearly talented :P

WARIO LAND II

Captain Syrup’s greedy revenge!

Played on: 3DS

Also available on: Game Boy, Game Boy Color

Genre: 2D Platform

Developer: Nintendo R&D1 ( Wario Land series, Super Mario Land series, Kid Icarus…)

Publisher: Nintendo

Players: 1

Played for:  around 15 hours

Welcome to a new review, gamers! Today I’m gonna review the second title of Wario’s adventures, Wario Land II. This time, our fave treasure stealer, will find himself in quite a pinch, as Captain Syrup, the villain of the first game, decided to get revenge on Wario, stealing all of his gold, causing ruckus in his castle and flee as fast as possible.

Wario, of course, won’t have any of this, so the player will have to lead him in levels full of coins and secret treasures to find, as well as facing a game with multiple endings and routes to follow, wich makes for quite the unique approach for an old-school 2D platformer. let’s see how it came out!

GRAPHICS

This is the first title to make the jump from Game Boy to Game Boy Color (still having a Game Boy version though). So the result is quite the leap in graphical quality, not only in regard to having colours, but also in terms of better spriting and animations.

The sprites are all well done, looking a lot more polished than the ones in Wario land, Wario being more refined as character design and the animations being better than ever. Boss design improved too as well as the overall looks of the levels, wich are now a lot more various-looking if compared to the previous title, helped by the fidelity of the colours but also by a better handling of the art design.

So overall, Wario land II is a nice big improvement over the first Wario land, as well as being one of the most polished “Land” games ever made graphic-wise. Kudos for the variety of the settings too, as well as the toony looks of the bosses.

GAMEPLAY

Wario Land II keeps being a platformer like its predecessor, but also adds a lot of emphasis over making the levels full of platform-themed puzzles to solve, as well as making the levels more open, full of secret rooms, walls to smash down and similar where to find hidden stashes of coins and giant coins or secret rooms, leading to more coins or even treasure rooms wich, instead of just containing a chest, will start up a minigame in wich the player will gamble a certain amount of money to change the difficulty of the mini game, adding a bit of thrill to this element.

Another big change is in regard to how Wario plays, being a little less clunky than in the first title and not being able to die…instead, when he’s hit he’ll be bounced backwards, losing a little amount of coins and, given how coins are needed to complete the game, you could see how the consequences of being hit are just as bad as dying pretty much :P

Boss battles, infact, don’t kill you, but they simply push you out of the room and, believe me, they’re quite challenging and creative in concept and design, one of wich will have the boss and Wario try to turn each other into a basketball to score and win a basket match…a very fun idea, if you ask me ^^

Another big change is in regard to the power-ups. The hats are gone and instead Wario proves to be quite resistant to certain abuses like being squashed, zombified, put on fire or stung by a bee, wich will give him particular powers such as floating around, flat like paper, be able to break certain fire blocks or float around inflated like a balloon…all of the results of the physical abuses are quite hilarious and each power up got its own pros and cons of course, being specificly used for the platforming puzzles scattered around the game rather than real power-ups to keep and use.

As a result of all of this, the gameplay, qhile being quite different from the first tile is also quite more varied and quirky, taking its own real identity as platformer and detatching itself from the Mario Land series even more, wich isa good thing in my opinion ^^ The Mario land titles are good, but it’s also good that the Wario titles got their own way to do things.

Ah, another important fact…The game features different courses…there are secret exits in certain levels, changing the course of the game, leading to different “worlds” (called chapters, like in a story) wich can, in most cases, lead to a whole different ending. Once clearing the game the first time, the courses will be all shown, but it’ll be up to the player to find all treasures and map pieces, the latter of wich are unlocked through another minigame at the end of each level, still gambling money on it. this adds a lot of replayability to the game and the reward for it is a real final level, wich is pretty much the hardest level of the game (by a big leap too), wich will need all the skills of the players to be cleared..quite the nice reward for more seasoned players if you ask me :3

STORYLINE

As usual with “Mario” titles, not much story is shown, but some of the endings are quite cute, as well as the cutscenes between each chapter, showing the endless chase of wario after Syrup…still, not much story, you know the deal with those games :P

SOUNDTRACK

The soundtrack of the game keeps its “distorted” and clumsy style from the first game, but in a way, it polishes it, making for a better range of tunes to listen to…the main theme will be stuck in your head for sure and the themes for the “power-ups” are quite fun too…here are a couple of examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqhYgVQPDuY

this tune will be remixed in different ways through the game, but every time in very nice ways

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqdRrf1En8M

always loved the underwater tunnels theme for some reason, it’s very melodic ^^

FINAL RATING

Wario Land II reinvents itself, polishing the formula it started in Wario Land and adding a lot of new elements, as well as multiple endings, way better and more open level design, lots of secrets and a high replayability. I took around 15 hours to get everything and mostly just because I also remembered stuff from when I played this game as a kid, so it may take you a little longer than that.

I fully recommend Wario Land II, you can either get the old GBC cartridge or simply download it on the 3DS Eshop, it’s worth it, believe me! wich is why I gave this game a…

9.5/10

fully deserved!

SPY HUNTER

Played on: 3DS

Also available on: Playstation Vita

Genre: Racing/Shooter

Developer: TT Fusion (LEGO games series, Tle Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest)

Publisher: Warner Bros.

Players: 1

Played for: around 6 hours

I’m quite in a nice “finishing games” spree lately, it seems ^^ don’t worry though, I’m not slacking on drawing, most of my time goes toward that ;D

So, today I’m gonna review Spy Hunter, the 3DS version, precisely. What’s Spy Hunter ? Well, the original title was an Arcade game by Midway. The concept was really simple: the player had a view of the road from above and he had to play as an advanced spy car, making his way through enemy cars and copters and other enemies, using gatling guns and the good old oil puddles to send its foes off the road. It was your typical arcade game, where rather than completing levels, the point was to resist as long as possible while scoring as much points as possible.

The new reboot seems to take the concept of the spy car and extend it, adding proper missions and levels, a story and a lot of customizable equipment for the Interceptor, as well as making it able to transform for off-road and sea-mode .

So, how did it go ? Well, let’s just say…very good concept and ideas but poor execution…let’s see why…

GRAPHICS

We aren’t starting on a good note. Both on 3ds and on Vita, the game doesn’t really do much to impress the player with high-quality graphics or a nice art direction…The Interceptor itself is well-designed and the transformations look nice, but the game looks pretty much like an early PS2 game and even the PS2 had better-looking games early in its life.

Models are quite poorly-done and, like mentioned, beside the Interceptor itself, the rest of the game just doesn’t have any visual charm, the art direction being relaly bland. The only nice-looking thing I can mention is the water effects, wich are “kinda” nice, nothing special, but not a punch in the eyes either.

I should also mention the repetitivity of the settings used for the game…the game very rarely tries to use different-looking assets for the levels and the missions and overall the game just doesn’t look nice…it’s blandness  all around, with the exception of the car that, again, stands out enough, with all the weapons coming out of it and stuff looking cool enough to at least give a little bit of a good thing graphics-wise

GAMEPLAY.

The gameplay concept is quite fun in itself as we have to play as this absolutely amazing spy car running through the roads and decimating cars, trucks, copters and doing other badass things. The array of weapons unlockable for the cars is quite varied too…it’s nice how the buttons are mapped in a way that they represent the area of the car they activate. X is for front weapons, A is for side-weapons, B is for back weapons and Y is for weapons on the roof of the car. There are gun turrets, flamethrowers, mines, stun guns, shotguns, razor blades, exploding rosters, they were creative with it and finding the perfect combination is quite fun.

The problem is that the game itself has a lot of technical problems…bad collisions, messed up physics and the controls for moving the car around re REALLY floaty, so that you have the constant feeling of racing on ice. The floaty controls are somehow manageable after a bit, but sometime it’ll happen that the game problems will get into the way, making you lose for something that wasn’t (not fully at least) your fault.

The missions themselves are varied enough for being a spy car game…simply reaching a spot before time runs out, fighting against invisible cars, transporting a nuke and being sure not to get too much damage. Another nice thing is how the game slows down to show whenever you get rid of an enemy in a quite nice and cinematic way…quite a cute addition, yep, but doesn’t get rid of the other problems.

Don’t get me wrong…the base concept is fun and despite the clunky controls there’s still quite a bit of enjoyment to find in the game, but the blandness of it all as well as the glitchy and technical problems hinder the game quite a bit…it doesn’t help that completing all the missions takes quite a short time, around 6 hours or so.

It’s a real shame, because the idea IS fun, but it wasn’t executed that well.

STORYLINE

The story is pretty much just an excuse to push things forward, don’t expect complex plots or twists, though I have to mention I liked the presence of a villain with a cloaked voice, wich gave a feeling similar to the one of Claw from Inspector Gadget, this super powerful villain who always tries to get you, but you always get to outsmart…cute stuff :)

SOUNDTRACK

Not much to say about the soundtrack…there’s a nice remix of the classic Spy Hunter theme, but beside that, the musics are quite forgettable and get repetitive quite fast…can’t even show you an example of the remix because no one put it on youtube XD

FINAL RATING

Spy Hunter has a really fun premise…the armed spy car idea is something I’d like to see in a more polished game, because it has a lot of potential. And it does show through this game, but lots of problems like collisions, bugs, floaty car physics, repetitive settings and music, as well as bland art direction doens’t make this a recommended purchase, unless if found at a REALLY low price. Wich is why I give this game a…

6.5/10

a wasted opportunity. let’s hope Warner Bros gives the Interceptor another chance…from what I know they’re working on a movie, so maybe that’ll be a nice chance to change things around.

PAPER MARIO: STICKER STAR

Played on: 3DS

Genre: adventure/RPG

Developer: Intelligent System (Fire Emblem series, Advance Wars series, Pushmo/Pullblox…)

Publisher: Nintendo

Players: 1

Played for: around 25 hours

Hello everyone and here I am with yet another review for you! XD

So, today I’m gonna review the new title in the Paper Mario series, wich this time, has been moved onto handheld. The game is quite different from the usual outings of the series, but it’s also different from Super Paper mario, wich was still a fantastic game in my opinion, by the way. But enough of that, let’s see what the guys of Intelligent System cooked up this time around!

We have the overall theme of the game being Stickers this time around, as a legendary Sticker Star wich seems to be able to grant wishes, comes to visit the Mushroom Kingdom every once in a while, Bowser takes this chance to steal the Star, kindp Princess Peach and gain a great power to make an entire mess of the Mushroom Kingdom! So, let’s go into more detail!

Review time, go!

GRAPHICS

It looks like in this Paper Mario title, the developers gave their best with trying to make the game world look like made of real paper, any kind of paper, really, even cardboard, you know, the one you use to make boxes and stuff.

Art Direction is the keyword here as the game looks like a carefully made papercraft, with characters being flat sheets of paper, houses and constructions made out of paper or cardboard and even going as far as having powerful enemies shown as shiny paper, like the one you find on rare Pokemon cards wich are, infact, more powerful than the usual ones.

The paperish art direction doesn’t stop here though. Many puzzles, when triggered or solved actually cause absolutely fun and pleasant paper-related shenanigans that will make the player smile all the way until the end, going from having a simple flat piece of ground unfolding to reveal an entire construction to  in-battle stuff like enmies having a “crumpled” status wich makes them look all ruined and, in return, weaker to attacks.

Absolutely gorgeous if you ask me. Plus, the implementation of real life, non-paper items used as some sort of mythical objects and summons to use in puzzles or battles is a simple, yet absolutely awesome concept, showing a great creativity on the developers’ part.

The animations are quite basic for the characters, but being made of paper, that’s something that won’t bother you.

GAMEPLAY

Like I mentioned earlier, Paper Mario: Sticker Star isn’t your typical Paper Mario title. While it still is an RPG instead of being a platform with rpg elements like Super Paper Mario was, the differences are of other nature. First of all…There is no experience.

The battle system of the game is structured to be based on coins and sticker alone…what does this mean ? It’s simpler than it sounds. Playing the game, the player will be able to find or purchase stickers around the entire gameworld, taking them from shops, pulling them off walls or even winning some by defeating enemies. They pretty much work as “ammo” in battles and there are different kinds, with the main types being the Jump and Hammer stickers, for different types of enemies. There are, of coruse, other kinds too, like flower types, healing mushrooms, multiple types of jumps and hammers and all of them are organized in an album with limited pages, wich means the player will need to put a lot of thinking into the battles to better organize and strategize his moves and the room in the album, as there also are stickers of varying sizes depending on their powers. Also, rest assured, the battles still have the feature of attacks being more effective and powerful if one presses the A button at the right time ^^

The coins are instead used, not only as currency in the game, but also as a gambling currency in battles to trigger a slot machine, wich can unlock more attack slots, letting Mario be able to use multiple stickers in one turn…the slot machine also rewards you with a special effect depending by wich tris of items you got (three coins will make a rain of coins go down on Mario for extra income).

I also mentioned real life objects earlier: They can be found in the different levels of the game (yes, it’s structured in levels, rather than a full world…the thing works surprisingly well though, with a very cute world map and all) and can be turned into stickers to use either as very powerful summons in battle or as solution to certain puzzles in the game.

This is where the bad part comes. The game is absolutely amazing gameplay-wise, the battle system is quirky and fun, making the player think before acting and manage his stash of stickers well…luckily the game is also balanced in a way that, if he plays well enough, he won’t run out of stickers to use. Anyway, this is about the way the puzzles and hints are managed…it doesn’t happen everytime, but sometime, to overcome a certain puzzle you’ll need a specific sticker of a real life object (called Things in the game). The problem is that the game doesn’t give you any idea of where the Sticker is, in wich part of the game or even in wich level. Wich makes the player wander around aimlessly unless he gets lucky or reads a walkthrough.

A similar problem comes with boss battles…Bosses have a very specific weakness, wich is suggested just after three times the player loses against the boss…too much if you ask me. Sure, the bosses are still defeatable without knowing the weaknesses, but it just triggers a “trial and error” process that may come as annoying to some players, making the game kinda unbalanced in difficulty in certain parts…so, be warned, if you get stuck, don’t feel ashamed to read a guide, you won’t be the only one who did XD

It’s a shame becaus ein some parts it can be quite a problem and yet the rest of the game is so much awesome and wel-polished that it makes you wonder why they didn’t put in a better hint system…After all, your partner in the game can be asked for hints, but they rarely help you with what you’re looking for.

This hinders the game quite a bit, because without this problem, it’d just be a great game, but this “calculation error” makes the game harder than it was meant to be unless you use a guide.

STORYLINE

The story in this Paper Mario title seems to be a lot simpler than the usual. It was confirmed that Miyamoto suggested to cut down on the story, since the team wanted to opt for a plottier plan, instead. This, in my opinion, was a mistake, since it’s true that the story doesn’t make a game, but since the mario RPGs always had quirky, nice plots within them I don’t see why cutting on them. I love you, Miyamoto, but I’m of the opinion that this time around you didn’t take the right choice.

Still, everyone can take a mistep sometime, so it’s funny seeing enraged PM fans insulting him and demanding that he gets fired for a mistake :D criticizing is alloweed, overreacting is retarded, my friends ;D

Still, the game does still have a couple of interesting characters and quite a few interesting and Paper Marioish situations to enjoy, so it isn’t a tragedy, unless it becomes a trend of the next titles.

SOUNDTRACK

The soundtrack is, as usual, top-notch. It features many nods to classic tunes as well as lots of original tracks. This time around, the soundtrack seems to be quite Jazz-styled with lots of trumpets and other details of this musical genre, though it also touches other styles.

another gem to put among the best Nintendo-related tracks, if you ask me :D a couple of examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yVOxni0aO0

The theme of the main city of the game :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftXlVwzsjWc

and the battle theme, catchy and upbeat as usual!

FINAL RATING

Paper Mario: Sticker Star features great art direction graphics-wise, a step up compared to the previous series, a fun and unique battle system and many levels to explore, full of secrets and paperish shenanigans. The story isn’t as thick as previous titles, but still nice to follow. The only real drawback is too much of a lack of hints dropped at the player to solve puzzles or deal with certain boss fights, especially the final two.

Nintendo has been often scolded by fans for too much hand-holding, but in my opinion, a lack of instructions or hints on what to do next on a modern game may be even worse, with absolutely nothing in the game being able to tell the player how to solve it, not even by simply logical thinking. This hinders an otherwise awesome game, wich still has a lot of many very good points to back it up and make it a worthy game to play, not without a guide though…that’s why I give this game a…

8.0/10

could’ve been one more vote without its big drawback, but it still can’t be rated as a bad game at all :)

EPIC MICKEY: POWER OF ILLUSION

Played on: 3DS

Genre: 2D puzzle/platform

Developer: Dreamrift (Monster Tale, Henry Hansworth…)

Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios

Players: 1

Played for: around 9 hours

Hello everyone and welcome to this new review from yours truly! 8D

Today I’m gonna review Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion, the first portable spin-off of the Epic Mickey series, wich had a quite nice title on Wii, with its few flaws, but a nice and epic experience indeed!

Now there’s a sequel, wich I got for Wii U, but I’ll cover that further down the line…For now, let’s review this portable title, wich is slightly detached from the story of the mainline games, having Mickey being called back to wasteland to help Oswald get into the Castle of Illusion (the same one from the 16-bit games) to defeat Mizrabel who’s kidnapping cartoons for her own gain, but this time, rather than having the appearance of the Evil Queen from Snow White, she got the appearance of Maleficent and is planning to get her revenge on Mickey.

The premise of the game is certainly a nostalgia trip for old-school gamers, but how does this game hold against those immortal classics ? Unluckily…it doesn’t…but let’s go into detail about it…

GRAPHICS

Graphic-wise there’s nothing bad to say. The game actually looks gorgeous. The sprite work is absolutely excellent, as well as the animations being very fluid, above the average sprite-animated game…Mickey especially moves very well, his sprite being a little work of art and the sprites of the enemies, bosses and of the other disney characters aren’t half-bad either.

The backgrounds aren’t any less beautiful and actually depict very impressive works of background art, some of wich may as well be fitting as actual paintings on a wall! So yep, Dreamrift shows its skill at sprite works, like it already did with its previous games.

The graphics are vibrant, colourful, well-animated and do their best to impress the player and throw him in the very nice-looking disney worlds…the problems come with the other elements of the game though…

GAMEPLAY

The game takes the simple commands of the Illusion series, with Mickey being able to run around, jump and butt-smash his enemies, just like in the old games, but the magical paintbrush of Epic Mickey is added to the mix, with Mickey being able to throw paint and thinner balls at the enemies, who give items depending by what they are defeated with.

There are also “puzzles” to solve, wich are pretty much the player using the 3DS stylus to draw along some simple lineart to bring out secret characters to free, use special items, make stuff appear or disappear by deleting them with the thinner. Problem is that, not only all of the puzzles involve the player simply drawing along simple lineart, but the game is filled with them to the point that the gameplay pace is slowed down to awkward levels.

Now, don’t get me wrong, a slow gameplay can be good for me, wich is why I like pokemon and strategy/rpg games like super robot taisen and final fantasy tactics, but when a game is slow, it must be slow for the sake of the game itself. Power of Illusion, unluckily, is unbalanced in this and has the gamer stop too many times just to draw a few lines. If the puzzles themselves had more variety, it wouldn’t be a problem, but being just the same thing over and over, they are just an annoying chore to go through. And it’s a shame, because the actual platforming, while not being mindblowing is mildly fun and the challenge curve is good too, starting from the first simple levels before going to levels filled with many death threats to avoid and fight. Everything is slowed down by the puzzles though.

The game could’ve been so much more, but it’s like it has been plagued with bad ideas, not something that is a habit of Dreamrift, so the game was either rushed or someone put an unwanted hand into it. Another problem is with the side quests…freeing Disney characters will unlock rooms in the castle map where the characters stay and can give you side quests…completing them can make the player upgrade their room…the thing would’ve been cute, but unluckily, the side quests are pretty much down to the same three things…either look for a chest or another character in the levels (wich lead to a lot of level replaying and backtracking), draw a puzzle (again) or go talk to another disney character that can help the quest-giver…there just isn’t the push to finish and I did do all the quests just to see if there would be a reward…wich isn’t there at all.

The boss fights are also VERY few and still plagued by puzzles, wich is a shame, because the concept ideas behind them were quite nice too. And to top things off ? completing the game 100% took me barely 9 hours. Wich means that simply ignoring side quests and playing the levels will take very few hours as the game pretty much has just three worlds to explore…too short for a game like this. I get that the main target of the game may have been the kids, but then why reference the Castle of Illusion games from 15 years ago ?

STORYLINE

Forget about the story, it’s as relevant as the story of a Super Mario 2D game…wich would have been good if the gameplay wasn’t as flawed as it is :/

SOUNDTRACK

The soundtrack can be called a mixed bag…Some tracks are forgettable, some are REALLY nice (just 2/3 of them though) and the rest is all reused music from the first Epic Mickey title…wich is a shame because due to the graphic look I would’ve expected nice music too and the Epic Mickey tracks kinda feel out of place in a 2d platform game.

FINAL RATING

Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion is a missed opportunity…It can still be enjoyable for young kid gamers, but more mature platform fans may prefer to wait for a better chance, as Power of Illusion does have a hint of a good thing within its gameplay, but the pacing is broken, the puzzles are the same thing repeated over and over, the side quests are useless and repetitive and the game lenght just isn’t worth it. it’s a game that just doesn’t leave you with anything…a real, real shame, I must say, especially since the game did look great graphics wise…wich is another example of how graphics don’t make a good game :/ this is why I give this game a…

5.0/10

WARIO LAND: SUPER MARIO LAND 3

Played on: 3DS

Also available on: Game Boy

Genre: 2D Platformer

Developer: Nintendo EAD (Super Mario Land 2, Donkey Kong, Super Mario 3D Land)

Publisher: Nintendo

Players: 1

Played for: around 6 hours

Hello everyone and welcome to my new review! So, today I’m doing yet another retro review, reviewing Wario’s first ever adventure as the “hero” of the game!

Wario Land is fondly remembered by many gamers as one of the best platformers for the classic Game Boy and for good reasons too, I can say, now that I played it! But let’s talk more about it!

Wario, since his defeat in Super Mario Land 2 still didn’t give up on his dream to have his own castle, but instead of trying to get a revenge on good old Mario, he decides to go after the crew of Captain Syrup’s pirates, to steal their wealth and get closer to his dream…with this incipit, let’s get deeper into the details of the game :3

GRAPHICS

Wario Land pushes the Game Boy quite well, being even slightly above Super Mario Land 2  in terms of graphics, wich, as usual in the GB Mario games are pretty cute and feature nice themes for the levels. There’s also an improvement on the sprites being slightly more detailed than in SML2, especially for Wario and the boss sprites.

So, overall the game looks nice, has a nice art design, a bit darker than Mario’s games„ hilarious-looking or creepy-looking bosses, as well as a nice stage design and Wario’s demented grin looks absolutely hilarious, in a good way. The game also features a nice looking world map, even if it’s less in-detail, compared to the prequel, even if it is because the island is shown in a much bigger scope than Mario’s island.

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay, while being, as usual about jumping on platforms and over dangers, is quite different in feel. Playing as Wario means playing as a much less agile character, so the gameplay is all focused on Wario’s sluggish and heavy movements, wich in turn permit to be more powerful. Wario can shoulder-bash enemies, grab them and throw them at other enemies, going for a more rude approach than mario, even if the good old jumping on enemies work too.

Wario’s power ups are really fun, even if a few, with Bull Wario bing able to cling to ceilings and butt-crash enemies, Dragon Wario being able to breath fire through the nostrils of the Wario-shaped hat and Jet Wario being a very fun power up wich makes Wario able to fly for long distances and be overall faster.

The game is also quite more challenging than the previous Land titles as, even with being a platformer veteran, I ended up dying quite many times during my playthrough, though not to frustrating levels.

Boss fights are also short, but fun and also challenging enough. I also like how they added a lot of secret routes and even a whole secret world and also added the quite fun idea of giving the player the choice if to use the halfpoint checkpoint of the level spending 10 coins on it or to keep the money for yourself but risk having to do all the whole level again in case of loss.

The game is also filled with secret ways leading to keys and locked doors to open to reveal treasures, wich play a lead role in getting the best ending of the game. Finding them all will be challenging, I assure you ;3

So, very good and tight gameplay, with a fair level of challenge, wich features just a very small bug problem of enemies and coins ending up stuck in walls if knocked into them now and then, but just in one occasion it prevented me from getting a coin, so no big deal in my opinion.

STORYLINE

The story is as relevant as in other Mario games, pretty much…though the ending of the game does give quite the nice surprise wich will at least make you smile, I’m sure ^^

SOUNDTRACK

Wario Land does share a bit of style of music of the previous Land title, but in a way it feels…kinda distorted…not in a bad way of course, but more akin to Wario’s style, so that rather than outright happy, it feels happy, yes, but also kinda goofy and “weird”, following the style of the heavy and fat nemesis of our fave plumber. here’s a popular example of the game’s music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylc8A3JYMic

FINAL RATING

Wario Land feels quite different from the previous Land title, sharing just the use of a world map and the basic platforming gameplay…for the rest of the stuff, wario Land gets to be its own thing and a great addition to the Game Boy library…it features a catchy tune, tight and heavy gameplay, nice challenge and good Game Boy styled graphics…platform lovers will dig it ;) that’s why I give it a full…

9.0/10

get it, folks! It can be found on Virtual Console!

MUTAND MUDDS

Played on: 3DS

Also available on: Steam

Genre: 2D Platform

Developer: Renegade Kid (Dementium: The Ward, Moon, ATV Wild Ride…)

Publisher: Renegade Kid

Players: 1

Played for:  around 7 hours

Hello everyone and welcome to a new review from yours truly! 8D

Today I’m gonna review Mutand Mudds, a quite nifty title from talented developers called Renegade Kid! They’re already known on Nintendo platforms due to titles such as Dementium and Moon on DS, quite good 3d survival horror and FPS respectively.

For this title, though, they took a different approach…Mutand Mudds started as a 3d title on DS before shifting on 3ds as a more traditional 2d platform to release digitally on Eshop. The game puts a lil nerdy boy armed with a water gun and jetpack to go around levels, picking up water sprites and defeating mud monsters…let’s see how it came out!

GRAPHICS

Mutand Mudds goes for a graphic style that pays tribute to the 8-bit age of gaming, with very cute sprites featuring quite nice animations and the art style of the levels is quit ethe top-notch result to be something that is supposed to look “dated” on purpose, featuring vibrant colors and blocky shapes as well with an amazing sense of depth given by the 3D.

The 3D effect works surprisingly well on 2D games and seeing the sense of depth change as the main character jumps through different layers of the level are quite a nice sight!

The environments are quite varied between each other, featuring classic themes such as grass, ice, fire and sky and with some areas wich even pay tribute to the graphic look of the Gameboy and the Virtual boy. The enemies, while of not many types look quite cute and well-made.

Overall, the game features some impressive sprite-work on the environments, while the sprites of the characters and enemies are simple, yet very effective in style, wich is helped by the good level of the animations.

GAMEPLAY

Mutand Mudds isn’t your typical platformer as, while being structured in levels to go through and end, it lacks things such as boss fights. The only goal of the game is to get through the levels getting all the water sprites scattered around, all while surviving all the traps and threats that are just waiting for one simple mistake of the player.

While the game starts off easy enough letting the player take a habit to the controls, soon enough it’ll become obvious how getting through the game and, especially completing it, will take quite a few tries! the absolutely nice level design, mixed with the abilities of the character, who can just shoot water bubbles at a slow rate and hover for a very short time with his water jetpack make it for a quite nice challenge ahead of the player, especially coupled with the fact the player can be hit just three times before dying, with no way to get any health back.

The more the player scores on water sprites, the more he’ll unlock certain power ups wich can help through the levels, but with a big limit…the player can use just one at once. While the main game is challenging enough, to get all the water sprites the player will have to find secret entrances, most of wich can be accessed just with the use of a specific power up…Those areas are eve harder and crueler than the normal game, wich makes for quite a very nice final challenge…wich isn’t final though!

As after that there’s an even harder final surprise challenge for the player to face! so the game is longer and harder than it might seem at a first look, wich in my opinion is great, because, while hard, the game is appealing enough to make the player keep trying to try and reach that last water sprite and finish the level in safety.

The only thing I disliked is the variety of enemies being a bit scarce and not really changing much between levels, so that at a certain point you’ll know every ind of enemy, though admittedly, their placement in the levels is just perfect enough to make things as hard as they should be!

So, tight controls, simple and alluring gameplay and high level of challenge, a nice recipe for success!

STORYLINE

The story is pretty much non-existant and the only hint of story are the cutscenes at the start and at the end of the game…just focus on the great gameplay, kay ? ;3 the games to be played for the story are other ones ^^

SOUNDTRACK

As you may expect from a title like this the game makes use of Chiptunes of the 8-bit age, wich are skillfully used to create quite catchy melodies for the levels of the game, feeling retro and modern at the same time for the use of the instruments and the style of the tunes…a couple of examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHy3Lcg4Rlo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QakJ0fh5Dig&feature=relmfu

it’s quite the nice soundtrack, if I must say :)

FINAL RATING

While short in lenght (took about more than 7 hours to complete the game), Mutand Mudds is an absolutely fun and compelling experience from start to end.

Pure platform goodness with tight controls and gameplay, an excellent level design, nicely-composed soundtrack and a quite high level of challenge…only downside is the lack of boss fights and low variety of enemies, wich can be easily ignored for the level design itself that uses the few enemies very well through the entire game. I give this game a…

8.5/10

Absolutely suggested to every platformer fan out there…go get it!

THE GG SHINOBI

Played on: 3DS

Also available on: Sega Game Gear

Genre: 2D Action/Platformer

Developer: SEGA

Publisher: SEGA

Players: 1

Played for: 3 hours

Yet another review is here, it seems! :) Don’t worry though, I AM drawing stuff, just working on quite a big project and coupled with little free time, well…you can see why I have been inactive art-wise, lately ^^;

Anyway, this time I decided to play and review my first Game Gear title: The GG Shinobi! One of the first experiments for the unlucky SEGA handheld, that despite the commercial failure, deserved quite some attention for some of its valid titles :)

The GG Shinobi is the first portable adventure of Joe Musashi, the main ninja of the game series and, while being a small-scale adventure, much like Super Mario Land was for the Gameboy, it manages to be a quite solid and fun experience, especially for challenge-loving players.

GRAPHICS

The Game Gear is pretty much a portable SEGA Master System in terms of power, wich is a halfway point between the NES and the SNES. This means having quite a bit of power for one of the first handhelds and SEGA uses it well enough, featuring quite detailed sprites for the characters and the environments, even if the game does fall short here and there with repetitive or super simple textures, but it’d be nitpicking to judge the game bad-looking based on those.

The game does look good and vibrant and the graphics are never confusing. It’s quite the nice showcase of the power of this portable and it looks quite good on the small screen of the 3DS (I don’t have a 3DS XL yet XD; ). So yeah…graphics are well-depicted and detailed, enough to look nice even today :)

GAMEPLAY

Being one of the first action titles on handheld, the gameplay of The GG Shinobi is quite simple, but it has its fun quirks…for the most part, it plays like a normal action title, but it does take a few elements from Megaman, like with how you can choose from wich level to start from, but instead of simply taking the boss’ power, you pretty much obtain the boss itself after defeating him, as every boss is simply one of Joe’s former companions under the influence of a curse, so defeating them, gives you the ability to switch ninjas mid-game. Every ninja has its own different weapon and ability, as well as a special move (wich can be made available by finding Kanji items, that are used as ammo for the moves), wich is not only useful to damage enemies, but in the last level will be crucial to get through special rooms designed after the abilities of specific ninjas of your group.

The gameplay is tight, jumping and attacking work flawlessly, wich is absolutely needed given how certain parts of the game are quite challenging, especially the last level wich is pretty much a sort of maze to get through little by little, surviving traps and enemies and even using the good old Megaman formula of reusing the game bosses before the real final fight, even if in a different way.

The boss fights are simple, but fun and, while they can be feeling quite overwhelming for unprepared players, once you get the pattern down it’ll be quite pleasant to get rid of the last challenge of the level.

About the challenge, the feature of the 3DS to save one checkpoint wherever you need it is a godsend for people who doesn’t like to get too frustrated at such games, especially during the last level wich involves a lot of exploration and survival as well as all of the abilities of the ninjas to get through…make sure you read the digital instruction manual before you play, it’s how we did things in the old days ;)

STORYLINE

The story is bare-bones like all of early titles…Joe finds his village in flames as well as his companions gone and he has to go save them and defeat the threat of Neo-City….like I said, reeeally bare-bones, as what mattered in this title was the gameplay and challenge itself :P

SOUNDTRACK

I was quite impressed by the soundtrack, since it has quite a few catchy 8-bit tunes, some of wich have that style of old games I love so much where the point is simply telling the player “you’re an awesome ninja doing awesome things, go and kick some ass!” kinda like the Highway theme:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq0aupZRe7k

tell me that it doesn’t rock :P

FINAL RATING

The GG Shinobi is a quite fun and simple retro title…it doesn’t want to achieve too much beside just being a good and challenging action title and, while falling on the short side, like all early attempts on portable consoles, I recommend action fans to try it out, for being a fun game and also to see how things used to be in the good old days ^^ I give this game a…

7.8/10

while not being anything of special or reaching awesome lenghts, it’s fully recommended as a fun title for the Virtual Console ^^