Kid Icarus: Uprising

More like Kid Icarus: Uprising to My Top 5 Games List!

Look, I know the joke was bad, but throwing things is only going to get your monitor dirty, not mine.

Really, though, Kid Icarus: Uprising is a very, very good game, and I'm surprised I haven't heard a lot about it.  I didn't even get it because I had heard any strong recommendations or anything. I was just looking up a sale Best Buy was having because I heard Paper Mario: Sticker Star was on sale.  I checked the website and noticed that Kid Icarus was only $15, so I picked up both games.

When I booted up the game, my first impression of the game was, "Why am I playing Super Smash Bros Brawl on my 3DS?"

Masahiro Sakurai, director of Super Smash Bros Brawl, was the head of Project Sora, the development team for Uprising.  The menu definitely takes a cue from Super Smash Bros Brawl, but in no way do I mean that in a bad way, because if you copy anything from a Smash Bros game, you're doing it right.

...maybe

So I played the single-player portion of the game first, because if I ever play online multiplayer, I need to have every move and control mastered beforehand, lest I bring shame upon my family.  I was ready for a strange control scheme, because that was what I had read in many of the reviews for the game (and don't get me wrong, flicking the stylus across the touch screen to rotate the camera does feel a bit strange), but everything actually flowed very nicely for an adventure game with only one control stick.

The game has two main modes, a flying mode and a ground mode.  The flying mode actually plays a bit like Starfox 64; the goddess Palutena controls your flight path, since Pit seems to be the only character who is unable to fly on his own in this game, and only for five minutes at a time.  You fly on a preset path through surprisingly diverse environments and fight with a ton of different weapons, each with different abilities as far as close- vs long-range combat.  Visually, it's kind of beautiful, and this is where the gameplay shines the most, but mostly if you're using a long-range weapon.  The close-range ones can reflect incoming fire and do massive melee damage, but have very little ability to hurt any enemies sniping from afar.

On the ground things get more complex.  The gameplay can get muddled here, because there is a lot of exploration to be done in every level.  Pit's base stats are pretty low, so a good amount of your chances for survival depend on the weapon you choose.  Each weapon has unique stats that increase things like your health, speed, and power, and sometimes getting as specific as only aiding certain kinds of attacks or walking speed vs running speed.

What surprised me most about the game was the story, though.  The ads for this game depicted Pit as a generic angelic hero, which is more or less forgivable, but I'll be damned if I wan't bothered by Pit's generic "PREPARE TO MEET THE LIGHT!" line.  You kind of have to remember that this universe had not existed for a couple decades, and those decades happened to be the most crucial ones in forming voice acting and dialogue as we know it today.  With that awful commercial in mind, I was  very surprised to see that when they named one of the first bosses of the game, Hewdraw, they showed a picture of him in 8-bit form from the original Kid Icarus!  Then when the three-headed Hydra shows up, each one of them (with a unique voice and personality) just bickers at one another about who gets to attack Pit first and in what way in goofy voices (one has a British accent!).  I think that's about the moment I had this reaction.

And it just got better and better.  The music is incredible, ranging from your typical Battle-of-the-Gods orchestral fare to the Spanish guitar theme of one of the main characters.  Every level is memorable in its own way, and I don't think I noticed any environments recycled at all.  This is especially noteworthy in regards to the game's length; I was stunned that there was more and more story to play through.  The voice acting is above and beyond what I thought I would encounter, too.  I swear that Thanatos, the god of death, sounded like Choose Goose from Adventure Time.

The online multiplayer is pretty cool, too.  It always takes place on the ground, which is slightly unfortunate, but multiplayer would be difficult with fixed-rail shooter.  There are two main modes: Dark Vs Light and Free-For-All.  You get to use the weapons you unlock in single-player in this mode, but the more powerful they are, the more points the other team or individual gets for beating you.  It's an interesting take on balance; you want to use those weapons you worked so hard for, but you better know how to use them!

Things can get hectic on the small screen, but for the most part it's a nice kind of hectic.

If you're looking for critique on the downsides of this game, you have to understand that this is one of my favorite games.  I wasn't prepared for it in the same way I wasn't prepared for Chrono Trigger.  And I love it in the same way.  Seriously, if you have a 3DS, I will loan it to you. I'm not even kidding.  This is a game that I want everyone to play, because I enjoyed it that much.  The ground portions can be difficult to get used to, and I often took more damage from the environment than the enemies, but I love this game.  It's flawed, but it has so much character that I have no problem looking past them.  Get a 3DS and buy the game, or at least let me loan it to you.  I am honestly very surprised that I don't see this on more "Top Games" lists.

30 Days of Video Games Day 29

A Game I Thought I Wouldn't Like but Ended Up Loving:

Chrono Trigger

I'm going to run out of pictures for Chrono Trigger soon.  Internet, come to my aid!

Okay, maybe next time we find a more exciting battle.

As I may have said before, I found Chrono Trigger on a SNES 9X CD.

THAER BE SPOILERS AHEAD.

So I was browsing the contents of the CD looking for a new game to play on my computer.  I had played Super Mario RPG over and over and over, so I thought I'd give one of these other games a shot.  I made it down the alphabetical list into the Cs and saw a file name called CHRONO_TRIGGER.EXE (or something along those lines).  I remember thinking, "Okay, with a name like Chrono Trigger, this is either going to be a waste of time or an awesome waste of time."  I was kind of waiting for a so-awesome-it's-bad scenario.  

AGAIN, THAR BE SPOYLURS.  If you haven't played it and have thought even for a moment that you might kind of sorta want to think about playing it, I will loan you my DS and my copy of Chrono Trigger so that you can play it.  I mean that, even after my current lessons in not loaning things to people.  This game is too important to ruin even a shred of plot, so if you want to play it, don't read on.

All right, so I turn on the game.  The title screen confirms my allegations: the C in Chrono is half of a clock.  Sweet.  So then I start playing, and I'm lead to the "choose your character's name" screen, where I swear I thought I saw a leftover character from Dragonball Z.  The suggested name is Crono, and I decide to leave it like that.  Next, I go to this Millennial Fair everyone is talking about.  As I talk to vendors and see what's happening, a girl runs smack into me.  "Who are you, mystery chick?" I ask myself.  I go and grab the shiny thing that she lost and give it back to her.  Oh neat, she wants to be my friend.  I leave her name set as Marle.  So we go along, and I'm told my friend Lucca is going to demonstrate a new invention.  Eventually, we get to go there.

Then you learn that Lucca is your inventor chick friend who has a knack for messing up some of her devices.  But it's okay, because you are a loyal friend, and probably kind of dumb.  You step into her teleporter, unaware that this is pretty much how Half-Life started, and boom!  Everything goes fine.  :AWESOME," says Marle, "it's my turn!"

So at this point, I'm enjoying the world and this Millennial Fair thing, having fun with the music.  Marle goes up, and she'll come back in the other exit.  Incorrect.  The pendant I gave back to her starts reacting weird to Lucca's machine and makes it malfunction.  A portal opens and swallows Marle into it.

Me: Uhhhhhhhhh, what the hell?

Then Lucca and her dad pull crowd control on this whole thing, and it's apparently up to me to go rescue this girl who still means nothing to me.  

Actually, this is appropriate because this is the first battle I had.

I wind up in a place that looks like the one I was just in, but darker.  I was talking to NPCs because I had no idea what to do, and one says, "Millennial Fair?  Have you been drinking!? It's 600ad!"  And I was like WHAAAAAAAAAA?

Chrono Trigger is such a good game if you don't know what you're in for.  I loved it.  Playing that stupidly-named file on the SNES 9X is still one of the top 5 decisions I have ever made.

30 Days of Video Games Day 17

Favorite Antagonist:

My favorite non-traditional antagonist hands-down goes to the antagonist of Braid.  I don't want to say anything further for those who have not played the game, because I recommend that everyone play Braid.

But as for a straightforward protagonist, there's a lot of really good examples out there.  Bowser is classic; he's powerful, persistent, and (depending on the game) pretty damn funny.  Lavos (from Chrono Trigger) is probably the coolest parasite ever, drawing enough power from the Earth to destroy it if left undisturbed.  Magus was also cool when I thought he was the main antagonist (and to be fair, he was also cool after that).  And for a fighting game, I'm a fan of Galactus in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.  He's just on the level of beatable while still maintaining the correct level of bullshit overpowered moves.

But I was always a fan of Skull Kid from Majora's Mask.

Even if he is kind of a cocky fuck.

By the end of the game, you see the power that Skull Kid and the mask are capable of, and it's pretty crazy.  Hell, he gives the moon a damn face that stares at you the entire game.

YOU CANNOT HIDE.

And when you get sucked into the inside of the moon, you get to see one of the best WTF moments in gaming.

30 Days of Video Games Day 16

Game with the Best Cut Scenes

This is a troubling question because I have a million answers due to the lack of an answer to the question, "What makes a cut scene?"  So what better way to solve this dilemma than to answer all of my hypothetical solutions?

Cut Scenes that Involve a Lot of Gameplay: Chrono Trigger.  Before the final fight with Lavos, you have the option of taking on like twelve side quests, and they have really deep story elements for the backgrounds of some characters.  You can even change the events of the "present" on one particularly emotional cut scene.

Cut Scenes with Minimal Gameplay: God of War 3: Killing the gods of Olympus is a spectacular experience.

This particular scene, ripping the head off Helios, was really cool.  Killing Poseidon was a very close second place.  And if you count quick-time events as Minimal Gameplay cut scenes, then you really can't go wrong with God of War 3.

Straight-Up Movie Cut Scenes: Okay, I personally guarantee that I will think of another game eventually, but I have been having trouble all day with this one. At the moment, the game that comes to mind is Super Smash Bros Brawl.  It's not that the game has particularly wonderful story-telling, but it's the reason the Smash Bros games are wonderful: it's a bunch of awesome characters crossing over into a single universe.

Pardon the low-res, but Samus's ship, the Blue Falcon, an Arwing, and a pink thing I can't really recognize: awesome.

Also, I find it hilarious that Diddy Kong has to fight Rayquaza.

30 Days of Video Games Day 13

A Game I Have Played More Than Five Times:

I have to start with the game I would have played five times over if I still had it: Metroid Fusion.  Actually, pretty much any Metroid game.  It's this strangely perfect balance of exploration, action, and puzzle-solving.  Plus, the aheer amount of skill it takes to get to some secrets can drive you crazy.  Until you actually succeed, of course, and then it's awesome.  But yeah, Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, and Metroid Prime each are awesome games.  Maybe the only exception I hold could be the original Metroid, because I need at least a little prodding in the right direction.  Plus, by the time you have a ton of upgrades, you feel like The Juggernaut.

I could do this fight all day.

Much the same thing could probably be said about Portal in the next few years.  It's short, it's wonderful, and I think I've put the count up to at least three play-throughs.

But the winner has to go to Chrono Trigger.  I found it on a large emulator collection I was given.  I thought, "Hmmm... Chrono Trigger.  This could either be retarded, or it could be pretty cool."  So I started playing, and IT WAS AWESOME.  The story was sooo much cooler when I didn't even know what would be on the back of the box.  Ugh, it was too damn cool.

So I played it again and again on my emulator when I found out there were multiple endings.  Then, I got the game for Christmas on my DS, and the number of times I've played it has been increasing somewhat steadily.

30 Days of Video Games Day 7

Best Gaming Couple:

Just kidding.  Kind of.  They do make a great team.

I dunno much on this one.  I do like the idea of Mario and Peach, but only when Peach actually does something to further her getting out of the situation, like in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door.  It's kind of the same with Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey; Maya's a fun character, but Phoenix carries most of the investigation.

I guess I'd go with Crono and Lucca.  Crono isn't a particularly great character, what with him hailing from the silent-protagonist tradition, but he's very offset by the awesome characters around him.  Lucca is definitely my favorite for a couple with Crono, which is saying something considering most of the teams you make end up with Crono looking like a pimp.

 A 32-bit pimp.

But Lucca was a machinist, and she complained a lot less than Marle.  She also spoke regular damn English, something Ayla could never comprehend.  Also, judging by all of the fanart and cosplay on the internet, I'm not the only one with this opinion.

This is notable because Lucca isn't naked in this picture.