first impressions Archives - Page 4 of 12

Snowpack Park Impressions

Club Nintendo coins expire on June 30th, so I logged into my account to use up my last remaining coins. I wasn’t sure what I wanted; I initially considered Fluidity for Wii. I played the demo of that game before, and I enjoyed it…but still, I wasn’t really in the mood for it. So I looked at the other available titles; many of them were games I already owned, and so many of the others were generic looking puzzle games. Sometimes it takes a really unique (even weird) game to capture my interest. And one game, Snowpack Park for Wii, certainly fit that description: It’s a penguin simulation game! Not something you see every day. I spent my 250 coins and downloaded the game.

You start out by choosing your Mii, or you can use the default eskimo (like I did). A tutorial teaches you how to greet penguins, how to pet them, how to feed them fish, and how to pick them up. Each penguin has a mood, ranging from a loyal penguin that will follow you around to a skittish penguin that runs away from you–even to its own death. If you get too close to an angry penguin, watch out. You will get slapped!

Once you’re familiar with all the basic moves, you can take a balloon to another area. There, you will literally set a trap to kidnap more penguins to take back to your base. You will gain friendship points, collect hats for the penguins, and play a variety of mini-games. You can even play basketball…using a penguin as the ball! I can’t decide if it’s cruel or funny to see a penguin smack against the backboard.

In a small way, the game reminds me of Pikmin in how the penguins follow you around. But unlike Pikmin, you need to continuously keep these penguins happy. Ignore them too long, and they will wander off to another area, out of your control. So take the time to pet them, greet them, and feed them. You’ll need groups of them to follow you to overcome some of the obstacles in the game.

So far, I’m still not sure I understand the object of the game (if there is one). It seems like I’m wandering around aimlessly, just grabbing all the penguins and trying to please the moody little birds. Most the mini-games don’t appeal to me much. It is somewhat fun just to explore, but each area is pretty small and doesn’t have a lot to see. I do enjoy the atmosphere, with relaxing music and gently falling snowflakes. But so far, I can’t really recommend the game. It’s certainly unique and a bit bizarre, but the gameplay seems mediocre at best. Perhaps it will grow on me as I progress further…or perhaps not.

I’ll try to review the game once I’ve put enough time into it, but that might not be real soon. If you’re interested in giving the Snowpack Park a try, it’s available from the Wii Shop Channel for 800 Wii points ($8.00 U.S.) or for 250 Club Nintendo coins. And remember, all Club Nintendo coins expire on Tuesday, June 30th, so use them quickly.

Splatoon First Impressions

Splatoon for Nintendo Wii U came out today, and I picked it up and gave it a try. If you don’t know, it’s a third-person shooter where you play as characters known as inklings; they have a human-like form and a squid form. Two teams of four players each shoot ink around a level, trying to cover as much ground as possible with their color of ink. The players can also kill (or “splat”) players of the opposing team. There’s also a mission-based one-player mode.

The game starts out with a tutorial, where you have to shoot balloons as you learn the basic controls. The first thing I noticed is that the game uses motion controls by default. You move the gamepad up and down to aim your weapon. I’m not a fan of motion controls, so I wanted to disable that ASAP. I also wanted to change the horizontal direction of the camera stick, but I couldn’t access the settings until after I completed the tutorial. You can then adjust your settings in the plaza, but you’re not holding your weapon there, so that’s not extremely useful. The only place you can adjust the settings while you’re holding a weapon is in the weapons shop. The entire settings menu disappears when in gameplay areas such as Octo Valley; I really wish the settings were more accessible.

Once I made my initial changes to the settings, I tried out the one-player mode. Here, the focus is on defeating enemies and overcoming obstacles. There are also some platforming elements, even though your character isn’t much of a jumper. In some areas, you’ll need to find a key to unlock a launchpad that takes you to a new area. There are also bosses to fight. Your weapons use ink as ammo, and it gradually runs out as you shoot. To reload, you need to press ZL to change into squid form while standing in ink of your own color. You can also swim while in squid form, allowing you to move around quickly–but again, only through ink of your own color. I played about four or five levels of this mode, and I had a good time.

I then decided to try out the online battles. Each time you start, you have to wait for a total of eight players to be added to the game. You are assigned to teams of four, and you have to spread your ink across as much of the level as you can. It was honestly quite frustrating at first, because you only have the basic gun and you’re playing against players who use giant rollers, big bombs, and other advanced weapons. They can kill you in one hit, and it’s hard to make much progress until you’ve leveled up at least a few times and purchased new weapons and other upgrades. Heck, even after I upgraded my weapon, I was still getting killed far more often than I was killing other people.

Even though victory or defeat is decided by the amount of ink on the ground, some players will focus on taking you out–so you have to keep on your toes. Even after a dozen online battles or so, I’m still pretty bad at it. I need to learn how to use the special weapons more effectively, and I need to start paying attention to the gamepad. It shows a map of the level, complete with the current ink coverage. It’s hard to take your eyes off of the action, but it seems to be a necessity to get good at the game.

One other thing I want to mention is the shop. It allows you to buy new weapons and clothing items to customize your character. For example, you can buy new shirts and shoes that give you new abilities. An item may increase your defense, give your bombs a larger range, or allow you to swim through ink faster. But you can only access the shop once you’ve reached level 4…and it seems that the only way to increase your level is to play online battles. So you may want to keep that in mind before buying the game if you don’t plan on playing online (or if you don’t have a decent internet connection). Nintendo is preventing offline players from fully customizing their characters, which seems a bit harsh if you ask me.

Overall, I had a very good time on my first evening with Splatoon. The one-player missions are pretty fun, and the online battles are particularly enjoyable. Even when I lose over and over, I keep wanting to come back for more. I’m actually enjoying the game more than I thought I would. So it definitely gets a thumbs-up so far.

In case you’re interested, here is a picture of the game disc.

And here is gameplay video of an online turf war battle: (view on Youtube)

Buy Splatoon at Amazon.com

NES Remix Pack Impressions

I received NES Remix Pack (for Wii U) as a Christmas present. It’s a combo pack of NES Remix and NES Remix 2 (which were previously only available in the eShop) together on one Wii U disc. From the title screen, you can choose which one you want to play. I would have preferred if they were all integrated into one interface, but it’s not a big deal switching from one to the other.

Each game provides a collection of old-school challenges taken from classic NES games. Many of the challenges only take a few seconds, but they’re often presented one after the other in quick succession. In that respect, it’s reminiscent of Wario Ware.

NES Remix features many earlier NES games, starting out with Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Mario Bros., Excitebike, Balloon Fight, and Super Mario Bros. NES Remix 2 has some later NES games: Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, Dr. Mario, Kirby’s Adventure, and Wario’s Woods. Other games can be unlocked as you progress through the game; I’ve already unlocked Punch-Out, and I’m looking forward to seeing more.

There are several challenges from each game, and they start out very simple. For example, you may need to jump over three barrels in Donkey Kong or do a wheelie in Excitebike. Even if you’re not familiar with a certain NES game, you’re taught what to do one step at a time. There are also short demo videos that show how each game is played, in case you have trouble getting the hang of things. Of course, the challenges gradually get harder as you advance to higher levels.

But the highlight of the game is the remix stages. The remix stages may take elements from one game and place them into another, or it may add completely new challenges. For example, Kirby may need to collect coins in a Mario level, or you may need to race on an Excitebike track in the dark. Each challenge has a time limit, and you can earn 1-3 stars depending on how fast you complete the task.

I’ve spent nearly two hours with NES Remix Pack so far, and I’m not blown away or anything, but I am enjoying my time with the game. I particularly like seeing each new spin on the existing NES games, although the regular (non-remixed) challenges feel a bit like filler. And you’ll have to clear a number of regular challenges before you can unlock each new remix level. Granted, these challenges don’t take long to clear (especially if you’re familiar with the game already), but I wish the remixes made up the bulk of the gameplay.

Between challenges, you may see some general hints displayed. But some of these “tips” are just common sense. Really, Nintendo?

One other note. I know Miiverse can be helpful and fun at times. But I’ve long questioned why Nintendo feels a need to actively display other people’s comments within a game. I mean, is this really necessary?