Super Mario 3D Land

Super Mario 3D Land is a strange beast.  I wasn't keeping a lot of tabs on it because I had played New Super Mario Bros and NSMB Wii,  and while they were fun, it didn't really do anything for me.  The gameplay was polished, but it was like playing all the old games I've already played .  Multiplayer in NSMB Wii was a fun, hectic addition, but overall, there wasn't a lot there to keep me playing after I beat the game.  In fact, it mostly made me want to play the old Mario games again.  The diffuculty in the Mario games had tapered off remarkably, and while I'm not one of those Nintendo fans that demands that everything be as difficult as Castlevania on the NES, I do like some challenge.  It didn't help my impressions of 3D Land when I saw this video:

Despite what I wrote about loving really difficult games in this blog, I do not consider myself a 'hardcore' gamer, because it carries a connotation with a lot of really stupid qualities.  I don't triumph over those worse than me, and in fact, I love co-op games because I can help my partners if I am better than them.  I don't teabag in Halo ( I mean I'm not saying I haven't done it in the past, but you know...), I don't swear at the twelve-year-olds playing with me, I just normally play to have a good time. That video, though.  He's on the second level.  And while I didn't jump on a Koopa shell for infinite lives, I was getting coins and lives like they were just handing 'em out.  Because Nintendo just started handing out coins and lives in Mario games.  In general, Mario games start you out with about 4 lives.  I think I was in the double-digits by the end of the second level, and if not then certainly the third.

In very few levels did I end with fewer lives than I began.  Since Nintendo has long abandoned points in Mario games, the time leftover in each stage becomes coins; you get one coin for every ten seconds left on the clock (so finishing with 247 seconds lands you 24 extra coins at the end of the level), plus coins or 1-ups based on where you land on the flagpole at the end of the level.  You can easily get 30 extra coins just for finishing the level.  I don't think I ever got below 99 seconds in any given level, even the really difficult ones; no one but the most insane gamers will search every single corner for some extra coins and begin to run out of time.  And in case you ever thought you might run low on a long level, these seemed to pop up: 

Look at those watches up there.  Each of those blue watches adds 10 seconds to the clock, and there are green ones that add 100.  And those green ones would often pop up at the end of a level, making me question why they were even there, besides adding more coins to the game, of course.  (Note: having beat the game, I have still not figured out why they were placed where they were.)  And if you do start to lose a lot of lives on a level, you'll be greeted with the Golden Leaf.  It's like a combination star and leaf, turning you invulnerable and letting you float down from all your jumps.  But because you have to do so poorly to get it, I saw it as a mark of shame.  The guys at Penny-Arcade saw it that way too.  In my playthrough, I finished the game while seeing it three times, and I never took it.  That would mean admitting defeat.

Remember: click for full size.

But despite all my complaints, I loved Super Mario 3D Land.  It's still an incredibly polished game, even if it does kind of like to point out how much inspiration it took from Super Mario Bros 3.  The 3D is used very well, too.  It adds a nice layer of depth, and Nintendo avoids getting too gimmicky with it.  The main gripes I had with it were that it was incredibly easy, and that there were only four or five playable levels on each of the eight worlds.

So here's the part where I spoil something that might come as a really nice surprise if you are interested in the game.  It's nothing huge, and in fact, it's a very nice selling point for the game.  But it came as a very pleasant surprise on my end, and I would hate to ruin it if you plan on getting the game.

If you want to get Super Mario 3D Land and not have something good spoiled, go ahead and skip the rest of this and get the game.  Everything below the break is just going to say why I like this game and why I highly recommend it.

I'm not going to say anything jaw-dropping like Bowser becomes a playable character or something.  But it's nothing I would want to spoil for you if you like surprises.

Making sure there's enough space here.  Okay.  So you beat the game.  You beat Bowser's castles (the only kind of difficult parts of the game anyways), and you were treated to a pretty epic ending.  The credits roll, and there's some pretty dumb little 3D pictures that show up.  Then you see that Luigi's been kidnapped instead of the princess!  Is it sequel time? Nope, it's time for more worlds.

You take a pipe down to World Special 1.  And as the saying goes, shit gets REAL. Real quick.  Special 1-1 introduces you to the special tanooki suit that (again, like Super Mario Bros 3) lets you turn into a statue and avoid enemies.  But as you explore the rest of the level, something become obvious pretty quickly: there are no goombas.  The easiest Mario enemy ever has been replaced by spiky-backed turtles and some other spike-helmeted enemies.  In addition, there are a lot more jumps that will lead you to your death.  In general, all the levels have become remarkably more challenging, and a lot more fun to play.

And then there's these levels: 

You see that clock up there in the corner? That guy isn't playing the game poorly; the game starts you out with 30 seconds for the level.  It's pretty intense.  In these levels, you have to collect those ten second watches to keep the clock going until you can finish the level.  Another kind of challenge level has a Shadow Mario chasing after you as you complete the level.  He gets in your head.

I've got a lot to say on Nintendo's desire to fit a coin into every available space on the screen, but that's a discussion best saved for another day.  For now, suffice it to say that Super Mario 3D Land is very, very good.  Sometimes it tries a bit too hard to please its raving fanbase, and the first playthrough is way too easy, but the endgame saves it.  Providing well-designed, challenging levels in addition to 100% extra content?  Nintendo, you shouldn't have (except yes you really should have and should continue to do so).

Free Fallin'!! (A Skyward Sword Review)

Okay.  I just beat Skyward Sword. Just... let me get myself gathered up in order to write this.


HOLYCRAPTHATWASSOGOOD I CAN'T EVEN BELIEVE ALL THE THINGS THAT HAPPENED...GAAAAHHHHH


Okay now that that's over.  When I brought the game home and played it, I wrote down some of my reactions to some of the moments in the opening part of the game, and I'll be peppering them through this review as the become appropriate.


Before that, though, I'm going to cut right to the chase. A lot of people have been throwing things around along the lines of Skyward Sword being the single greatest Zelda game ever.  Now look, this might change in the coming years as the newness of the emotions presented by this game fades, but I might call this the single best Zelda game ever made.  The ONLY game that makes me question that title is Wind Waker, which up until now, was by far my favorite in the series.  Now the two are very, very much on the same platform with each other, and at the moment, I think Skyward Sword edges it out because of the system it was made for.

Quote from First Day #1: "Okay, I just did the obligatory practice training for the game.  Combat feels great.  I can’t wait to try it on some monsters."

No you cannot wait, past-Freddie, because fighting monsters feels great.The motion controls are spectacular.  Fighting with the Motion-Plus is unbelievably satisfying, because you are doing so much more than just hitting A to swing your sword.  YOU are swinging your sword.  You have full control over the direction that you swing it, and this is important because your enemies know how to block your swings.  Not only that, but they can counter if you don't strike them properly, and that prospect is terrifying for someone just learning how to fight.

Quote from First Day #2: "Oh my God I am way too impressed by looking around.  This is my first Wii Motion-Plus game, but I feel so in control of my every movement that it’s hard not to get ridiculously excited."

Maybe that needs a little explanation...  When the game first starts, you wake up in Link's room at Skyloft's Knight Academy.  As i got out of bed, I acquainted myself with the speed of Link and tested some of the basics out.  I entered the first person looking-around mode that we have seen in many third-person adventure games since Super Mario 64, where you stand and look at your surroundings with a 360-degree camera..  Using the Wiimote to look around the room, I found myself subconsciously wanting to use the Nunchuck to look.  I tried it out, and Link started moving while still in the first-person mode.  I was floored.  So much so, that I wrote this down.


Quote from First Day #3: "WHAT I AM MOVING AND LOOKING AND MOVING AND LOOKING."


Note that I also said that out loud.  I was discovering this incredible game little by little, and the more I think about it, the more I realize that I was learning a completely different playing style than I was accustomed to.  See, many of the Wii games I have played, even the greats like Super Mario Galaxy, could have been Gamecube games.  They had some new features, like Galaxy's way of collecting the star bits, but the core of the game was running and jumping the same way that we have been doing since 1985.  Even Wind Waker, the game I previously held as my favorite Zelda game, played very much like Ocarina of Time before it.  In short, if we took graphics and processing power out of the equation, I could have played those games on any system which came before this generation.  Skyward Sword changed that for me.

And not just because of this BITCHIN controller.

The combat was the core of this game.  Remember in just about every Zelda game ever where you used the item you got in that dungeon to kill the boss of that dungeon?  I think that happened once, maybe twice in Skyward Sword.  You seriously have to brush up on your combat skills, because the focus has shifted away from Link's gadgets and made its way to Link's constant companion: his sword.  You better hope that all the fighting you're doing makes you better, because even the bosses can and will block most of your strikes.  Flailing isn't an option; you need to make precision strikes.


Quote from First Day #4: "Link, I believe you will be friendzoned for eternity. But D’aaaaaawwwww Link and Zelda are adorable.  Seriously, the characters are so full of expression, it’s great."


The entire world of Skyward Sword is one of the most compelling game settings I have played in.  Skyloft, the main hub of the game, is a lovely little community, and each of the characters has a lot of personality.  There is so much detail that it really reminds me of Majora's Mask, a game which was almost 90% side-quests for the people of Termina.  Even the shopkeepers had prominent roles in side-quests, and Skyward Sword continues that in a slightly less overemphasized fashion.

Skyloft is no Clock Town, but they are similar in all the best ways.

Every character is visually unique, too.  I noted in my E3 Blog that Zelda took me aback a little: 

But the art style gives these characters a great array of emotions.  Link carries a lot of expression in his face, which really carries his role as a silent protagonist.  One character that seems like a throw-away bully in the opening keeps a larger role than you would think, and eventually becomes a welcome sight.  Fi, your new companion, carries zero emotion, but is visually striking compared to the dots that normally represent your companions.

She's also like, a robot spirit thing, so the emotionless thing is excusable.

Quote from First Day #5: "Okay I have to stop talking because I want to stand and play this game.

[2 minutes later]… Okay minimize talking.  I love the music."

This should be no surprise for Zelda, a series with such a beloved soundtrack that my special edition came with a 25th Anniversary Symphony CD.  The music still carries the high standard set by Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess.  

Quote from First Day #5.5: "…and the phrase 'slickest pompadour in town.'"

Comedy and ridiculousness are in full effect, and there are a couple of moments in the introduction of the game that almost break the fourth wall.

If your first response isn't "OH NO THE OWL'S BACK!" you need to replay Ocarina of Time.

Thank you for reminding us again, Nintendo.

I could keep going about how great an experience this game is for much, much longer, but I'll try to hit all my other points quickly for the sake of article length.  The flying feels very nice, especially when you figure the damn system out (I missed an important line of instruction, but found what i was missing anyways).  Jumping from your bird and going into a free-fall to the world below is exhilarating.  The set-pieces of the game are amazing, too.  When you stand back and reflect what you have just done, it's hard to not be amazed.  The final battle blows away any other final battles I have been a part of, in terms of what I did and in terms of the set-ups leading to them.  The story is incredibly well-paced and moving.  At one point, I welled up about as bad as I did to the opening sequence of Up.  Well maybe not that bad, but pretty damn close.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword might be my favorite entry in the series.  It has so many moments that had me floored that it's hard not to compare it to a game like God of War or Bayonetta in terms of amazing moments.  The difference, I found, was the way that I connected with Link because of the Motion-Plus.  I fought the monsters.  I found the Triforce.  I braved diabolical dungeons.  I saved Zelda.  If Skyward Sword had come out at the beginning of the Wii's cycle to show developers how it's done, I feel like we may be looking at a very different world of gaming for this generation.

30 Days of Video Games Day 11

Gaming System of Choice: Nintendo DS.  In my case, specifically a red-and-black DS Lite.  

Why yes, internet.  That is correct.

I used to have the original DS.  It was a tank, definitely made of pure Nintendium.  There were some superficial scratches on it, and even though I had bought it used, it was a great machine.  I did, though, upgrade to a DS Lite about a year later.  Some people have said that the DS Lite is made of impure Nintendium, and I have started to see signs of age in my DS Lite; the top screen goes blank occasionally due to a pinched wire or something.  However, the years of play I have in that machine are a testimony to how strongly built these little Nintendo machines are; my DS Lite has lasted me four years, and any electronic device that lasts me four years deserves a medal.

Pic related.

But the entire DS series has been great.  Even though it has more variations  than some games have sequels, the DS has had a pretty spectacular run.  It paved the way for strange video games that many would never consider, like Phoenix Wright and Trauma Center: Under the Knife.  It sells better than proverbial hotcakes, and showed that you can run an entire adventure game like Zelda or Metroid on a touchscreen.  But even more prolific than the DS's successes is the third-party support that it received.  Unlike its console cousins, some of the best DS games came from non-Nintendo companies.  Sure, it also had Mario titles all over the place, but some of the aforementioned weird games and creative ones like Scribblenauts and Drawn to Life had moderate to great success on the DS.  It really is one of the better successes to come out of Nintendo.  If for some reason Nintendo ever goes out of the console market, I hope that they can stay in the handheld one.  Either way, I hope that Nintendo's handheld systems continue to do their great history justice.

Nintendo's E3 Showing

After a lot of searching of the internets, I have finally located a video of Nintendo's full E3 conference (sadly, minus the trivia that they showed at the beginning like cinema previews).

So can I be the first to say that I never really expected the next iteration of Zelda to look the way she did?

The answer is no, because I'm writing this like an entire day after the press conference, and three hundred people have probably beat me to the punch. But still.  I do like the visual styling, though.  It does look like Toon Link grew up, which is way cool.  Some of the new bad guys look pretty neat, too.  Nintendo is being huge on Zelda's 25th anniversary, and a lot of Zelda games are being re-released on several systems.

The 3DS lineup is also looking good.  Mario Kart will still be Mario Kart, and that can only ever be a complement towards the game.  And because it will still be Mario Kart, insanity has been incorporated into the games with hang gliders and tracks that will go underwater.

Starfox 64 in 3D looks really intriguing, but frankly, they could have re-released it with no 3D and it would still be a portable Starfox 64, which would still be spectacular.  There are two newer features that make me hesitate, though:  It has the option to use the 3DS itself as a motion controller for the game (thankfully an option, just in case that doesn't turn out to work well), and multiplayer features the faces of your friends so you can see what they look like as you dominate them.  The videos make it look like they give away the position of enemy aircraft a little easier, though, but it might not even be a problem.

Super Mario 3D is apparently coming out, too.  It looks like the same art-style as Skyward Sword, but that might just be me,  Watching the trailer, I can see influences from a lot of Mario games.  Also, this is back:

Oh yeah.  That's Tanooki Suit Mario.  In a 3D game. (Both in virtue of 3DS and 3D like Super Mario 64.  I wonder how they'll differentiate those 3Ds when it becomes relevant.)

Luigi's Mansion 2 and Kid Icarus: Uprising were also announced.  Both look pretty cool, and Luigi's Mansion 2 apparently has several mansions to explore.  Nintendo then announced a lot of third-party titles, including Snake Eater 3D and Tekken 3D.  I can't be the only one who sees this and prays for Street Fighter X Tekken to come to the platform.  Nintendo also announced that the Virtual Console will be coming to the 3DS, so if you haven't pirated all of the handheld games you've ever wanted, you can look forward to that.

So then the big news.  Wii U.

Yes, that's the name of the new system.  It consists of a very-similar-to-Wii console:

And a fancypants new controller:

Oh yes.  That's a touchscreen you're looking at, ladies and gentlemen.  Through a process most scientists call magic, the Wii U can transfer a game from the TV to the controller if someone wants to come in and watch TV on their TV.  It has all the goodies from the Wii controller, too, like speakers, motion controls, four shoulder buttons, and everything you see in the picture.  That big black area on top is a camera.  Nintendo has also joined us in the twenty-first century by giving a lot of new features involving transference of pictures and videos from the controller to the TV.  There's a lot of internet functionality in the works for the new system, including video chatting.

The Wii U is also supposed to be backwards-compatible, too, and supports all of the peripherals that could function on the Wii.  So just as the Wii made your Gamecube relatively useless, so too will the Wii U make your Wii useless.

If the video Nintendo showed at E3 about 3rd party developers holds true, it means a lot of people seem to be excited about the new controller.  Then again, people were excited for the Wii-mote, too.

I just have to list games now, because it got real during the 3rd-party developer video:

• Tekken on Wii U.
• Batman: Arkham City (so much happy)
• Assassin's Creed (they didn't specify which, but I think it's Revelations)
• Ghost Recon: Online
• Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge
• Darksiders II
• Dirt
• Battlefield 3

And a few more.  Things are looking bright for Nintendo at this point.

Oh, and I guess one tiiiiiiny detail might interest some of you gamer-types reading this:
A new Super Smash Bros. game has been announced for the 3DS and the Wii U, and they will somehow allegedly interact.   That feeling you just got was joy, ladies and gentlemen.

All of the videos I referenced (including Nintendo's entire E3 presentation which had Shigeru Miyamoto being delightfully weird) and pictures I used can be found at Nintendo's E3 website.