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worm-man-gaming · 3 years

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My top 10 list for who I WANT as DLC in Smash

We’re reaching the end of an era. Smash Ultimate’s DLC is going to end eventually, with four more characters to be announced. They could release some kind of ‘Echo Pack’ in the future, which I would be hyped about (They didn’t really do much with the echo fighter mechanic), But I have a feeling that after this, there won’t be any more. So I wanted to post my list of who I, specifically, would like to see in the game.

This is not based off of likelihood, as some of these characters probably don’t even have a chance of making it in. I just think they would be neat.

Full list under the cut, counting up from #10

- Papyrus (UNDERTALE)

Okay, so hear me out.

We got the Sans mii skin, and that was by far one of the most popular mii skins since Geno, probably. People were more excited for the Sans mii skin than Terry Bogard and maybe even Banjo. They probably made a lot more money than expected from it. So why not try it again?

And while Sans is the popular character, he definitely is not a fighter. He’s a lazy, laid back character that just wants to have fun, but he’s far too weak to go into an all-out battle without risking his own safety.

HOWEVER!

Sans’s brother, Papyrus, is the polar opposite. He’s dedicated, hardworking, and can take quite a few hits. He’s got plenty of moveset opportunity. And it would be another indie rep, which is really really good for someone like me, who wants to go into game design.

Another thing: When we got the Cuphead mii skin, we also got Cuphead Spirits. They could have easily done that with Undertale, there’s enough characters. So maybe they’re saving it for a DLC Spirit board? I don’t know, just a theory.

He would be primarily a ground-based fighter, with projectiles that could crawl across the stage like that one sparky item. He could also use his blue attack, which could be good for an easy spike on airborne characters. And, who knows, maybe for his final smash we could finally see his special attack.

I really enjoy Undertale, and seeing Sans as a mii skin made me super happy. Getting a whole fighter from the series would be even cooler.

- Paper Mario (Super Paper Mario)

Nintendo, we’ve got three whole Links in this game, but only two Marios? Preposterous!

With that being said, Super Paper Mario was one of my favorite Wii games (Although I didn’t play it until very recently) And it’s a very popular series. He’s essentially his own character separate from Mario at this point. The games have so much lore put into them, and we already have a Paper Mario Stage in the game, so maybe we could get Dimentio’s dimension, or the Origami Palace or something.

He’s been in enough games and done enough crazy things to earn a pretty diverse kit for himself. He could use Pixils, the 1000-Fold arms, or even summon Paper Bowser, Peach and Luigi for some attacks.

I think he would be super fun to play. I’m terrible at vanilla Mario, but I think Paper Mario would be a good fit for the game AND be a super good-feeling character. However, this comes from a G&W main, so take from that what you will.

- King Boo (Luigi’s Mansion)

I 👏 want 👏 more 👏 villains 👏 in 👏 Smash! 👏

King Boo is a staple of the Luigi’s Mansion series as well as being an enemy for Mario in some games like Sunshine. He’s the Big Bad Evil Guy for Luigi.

And I DEFINITELY want him in this game.

It’s not so much the character himself, although King Boo is really good, I want him in for his kit. Think about it. A large character but with floaty jumps like Jigglypuff and an aerial based moveset AND a teleport? He’d be ruthless. And really fun. And that’s what I’m looking for in a character.

- BOTW Zelda (Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity)

Yes, I know. “But Worm, the Zelda we have now is annoying and awful, and you say you want ANOTHER one?!?!?” Well, you’re half right.

Yes, Zelda is known for her darkness-sealing powers in BOTW, BUT, in the recent Age of Calamity game, her moveset for almost have the game revolves around the Sheikah Slate. She uses it creatively, hopping around on ice and whirling metal slabs around with a magnet. And I think that would be a SUPER cool moveset for Smash Bros.

And who knows, maybe they would call back to older games and allow her to switch to using her powers, like Zelda used to change into Sheik.

She would be very technical, with her attacks being powerful but with some startup, almost similar to Snake of all characters. And for her final smash she could use a Weak Point Smash or they could bring back Bow of Light (Which was MUCH more fair than the current one, by the way). She’d be fun, and that’s what I want.

- Maxwell (Scribblenauts)

Maxwell is from Scribblenauts, a game where you have to solve puzzles by writing words in a notebook and those words coming to life. So he’s work in the same way in Smash, although much more randomized.

For his neutral special, maybe he could write a random item and it shows up in his hand. That would be funny AND cool, and it’s possible (because Peach does the same thing with Turnips!). He could use projectiles but also have plenty of close range options, and for a Final Smash he could use the Meteor, which in the game clears the screen of living things. Brutal! He also uses Adjectives on both his creations AND himself, so maybe for some moves he could effect the other opponent with a poison or freeze effect.

Would he be banned in competitive play? Yes. Would he still be fun? Definitely!

- Jibanyan (Yo-Kai Watch)

I may be in the minority here, but I REALLY liked Yo-Kai Watch as a game. It may seem like a cheap Pokemon ripoff, but the gameplay is nothing like it at all. You’re given a map to explore and various objectives within the map, and the battle system is really creative and fun. It’s actually the inspiration for some of my own games. Yo-Kai watch deserved more credit than it got.

Jibanyan is the poster boy for the series (and also has the saddest backstory of any cat-based character ever), and mainly attacks with both his paws and fire attacks. He could have fire-based moves and would almost play similar to Pichu. His final smash could be Paws of Fury, his soultimate move, that would hit like Donkey Kong’s final smash as a flurry of blows.

This series is really well made and thought out, and it deserves more than it got. So please put my boy in Smash, I’m begging you.

- Specter Knight (Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment)

Okay, yes. I know Shovel Knight is the main character of this series. But again, hear me out.

Specter Knight is either the first or second boss you encounter in the main Shovel Knight game, and he’s already got some moveset potential from that alone. However, he also had his own story mode, Specter of Torment, ad let me say, that is a phenomenal game. I’d go so far as to say it’s better than the main Shovel Knight game itself. His controls are quick and easy to pick up. And he has a whole bunch of special abilities you can get as the game progresses, such as a boomerang or even a shadow clone.

His smash moveset would pull most of the specials from the unlockable items he can get, leaving room for an incredible spacing game as well as a good aerial defense, as Specter Knight can both float and do a Dash Slash through enemies for some extra air time.

Shovel Knight is the main character, but Specter Knight obviously has the most soul put into him (Pun not intended). And, again, he’d be fun to control.

- Master Hand / Fighter Hand (Super Smash Bros. Series)

This is mostly me just being mad at the game for giving us a playable Master Hand, but only once. We couldn’t have even gotten a Master Mode in extras, huh?

Yes, yes, I know Master Hand is the staple boss character for Smash Bros. He’s been in every game, for crying out loud! I’m honestly surprised it took them this long to give us a playable Master Hand. But this leads into my idea:

A new hand, made specifically to fight in Smash Bros, called Fighter Hand.

Yes, it’s cheesy. Yes, it’s stupid. But hey, it would be fun.

He would have scaled-down versions of Master Hand’s moves, with mainly projectile-based specials and tilts. He would be floaty, although introducing a flying character would be interesting to see how they balance it. For a final smash, maybe they could bring back Master Core from Smash 4 for a Giga Bowser-esque punch.

- The Knight (Hollow Knight)

Hollow Knight is an Indie Game that I never finished (I’m working on it, okay?) that’s kind of like Metroid in the way it’s played. It's also a very popular game, and I like bugs, so they get the number two spot because I like him.

And the special Soul moves you unlock translate well into Specials. Platformers always translate well into Smash, so he would work very well in the game. I don’t know what their moveset would be (as I haven’t finished the game yet), but I know they would be a small, fast character that mainly uses their nail to attack like a sword.

And my most wanted character in Super Smash Brothers: Ultimate is...

- Beatrix LeBeau (Slime Rancher)

Okay, look. I’m aware this has zero chance of happening. Slime Rancher was never the most popular game, and Nintendo has never mentioned it ever. But it’s one of my favorite games, and I just think Beatrix would be an incredible character in Smash Bros.

She would use her jetpack to recover, she would shoot plorts as projectiles, use he vacpac to suck up both fighters and projectiles, and maybe shoot a boom slime as an explosive and unpredictable bouncing hazard. Her smash attacks and aerials would use the various slimes you can vacuum up and feed in the game, like the Rad Slime and Rock Slimes. She would be really good offstage and onstage with her weakness being her speed.

She could bring a LOT to this series, and it would be another inspirational indie rep. And, hey, Minecraft Steve got in. Who knows at this point.

Anyway, there’s my list. Feel free to argue with me or explain why Geno should be on my list (I will not care) in the comments or reblogs, this list is not changing unless I play some new game that I feel should be represented.

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aotopmha · 3 years

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Sonic the Hedgehog turned 30 years today.

In celebration, I downloaded all 3 classic games available for mobile and tried to get as far as I could before getting a game over.

For Sonic 1 it was Marble Zone Act 1, for Sonic CD it was the Collision Chaos boss and for Sonic 2 it was the Chemical Plant Act 2 boss.

I'm much better at these games on an emulator/PC, using the arrow keys rather than a controller (or apparently with the android touch controls) because that's how I've played them the most.

Sonic is probably the franchise I've (on and off) followed the longest and I remember fairly precisely when I played my first Sonic game: it was in my second year in school, but I stopped because the crusher section in Hydrocity terrified me and I couldn't get past it.

I also have vague memories of both of the most famous old cartoons and briefly trying the PC version of Sonic CD and Sonic 3D Blast.

My next notable experience with a Sonic game is actually the old Newgrounds game Ultimate Sonic Flash.

This is what opened the Sonic floodgates with other stuff for me, too.

Besides that game there were the flash animations like Nazo Unleashed and Super Mario Bros Z that also appealed to the Dragon Ball fan in me.

Through that stuff, I got into the Sonic Advance games and I was particularly drawn to Sonic Advance 2.

It's strange because Sonic Advance 2 seems to be considered the most "hold right to win" game in the Sonic Advance series, but I find the stages in that game to be the most satisfying to perfect and play.

I also dig Advance 1 and 3, but I remember having the most frustration with 3.

Discovering the Advance series lead me back to the Classic series. Sonic 1, CD, 2, 3 and Knuckles.

Somewhere around here, I also remember the demo for Sonic Adventure DX.

After that I got to the Rush games (which I also found satisfying to complete despite, again, being called "hold right to win" games).

I just found doing as good runs as possible to be satisfying to pull off.

Then I got to Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2.

I think I spent hours replaying and perfecting the Sonic Adventure 2 speed levels in particular. I think those games were absolutely worth it for just the replay value of Sonic's/Shadow's stages. Any frustration with the other gameplay styles was worth all of the play time I got out of those stages and I think the only truly bad gameplay style was Big's fishing stages.

Even then, in Adventure 1 all the other campaigns were also pretty short.

In Adventure 2, I think the only source of true frustration for me were some of Knuckles/Rouge stages.

I think the reason why the other gameplay styles are so frowned upon is that they're not what you come to Sonic for, but I think only Big actually controls badly in terms of the fishing mechanics – the frustrations really come from level design.

After those two comes Heroes, which I think could've been my favourite out of these "adventure style" games, but the controls just were too stiff to not get in the way of enjoyment.

The long stages would've actually been awesome instead of frustrating if I didn't have to fight the controls (and occasionally camera) along the way.

It had some great level design with some really good level themes.

But it just wasn't as responsive as I would've liked it to be and movement over-adjusted really often, leading to deaths and a bunch of frustration not of my own making.

If any game deserves a remake with better controls, I think it is 100% Heroes.

But I still did get some fun out of it when everything worked as well as it could. I kind of love the Haunted House level and all of the interesting things it did.

This is the point where I no longer could play the games for a while.

Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic 06 and Unleashed HD are the games I've never gotten to play in this gap. But the only bit I'm truly actually interested in are the day stages of Unleashed.

I feel like they have the Rush games effect that despite some of the cheap stuff in those stages, they are very satisfying to complete.

The next games I got to play were Unleashed and Colours Wii (though I never got to finish Unleashed Wii). I like Colours Wii more than Unleashed Wii.

Colours might be mostly 2D and more "generic" blocky stuff, but I still had fun blasting through it.

Unleashed Wii's day stages didn't really have that satisfaction of perfecting the stages like the Advance or Rush stuff. The Werehog was okay and I think sometimes actually better than the day stages, so the game as a whole was just okay.

But I think Colours DS is my favourite of the "Rush-style" games. The Wisps are really satisfying to use and the level design is more involved and less "cheap" than in the other Rush games, where sudden spikes and death pits are much more common.

Somewhere in here is Sonic Chronicles. I actually liked executing the moves with the characters for a little bit, but not much else about it. I think it's the only game in the series to this point I truly dislike.

There are more like okay games, good games and great games in this series for me because it looks like I've managed to avoid the biggest duds.

The final two games in the series I've actually played chronologically are the PC versions of Sonic Generations and Sonic Mania.

And I think both are really good!

Generations still wasn't 100% there with the controls, but I think it was the closest to Adventure series controls. Probably my favourite 3D Sonic game next to Sonic Adventure 2. I spent ages replaying all of the stages. I adore all of the open space and alternate routes there.

Sonic Mania is the best game post transition to 3D to me, though and would maybe even tie for my favourite Sonic game with Sonic CD if it was completely new.

It fixed some of the dated level design of the classic games – unfair spring and spike placement is at an all-time low, it evolved the usage of shields in a really cool way and added some really interesting level-specific mechanics, my favourite is probably the bouncy gel in Chemical Plant.

I 100% want a completely original Sonic Mania 2.

I have not played Sonic Generations 3DS, Lost World, any of the Boom games or Forces.

All of which are supposedly okay/terrible, too and honestly even don't have anything interesting going on to catch my eye in footage. Forces especially looks frustrating to me because it just looks like hallways and doesn't even look to have the satisfaction of perfecting a stage the other boost games have.

I really seem to be in a position where I've missed all of the worst stuff.

I actually probably find Secret Rings and 3D Blast to be the worst Sonic games because I remember being the most frustrated with them. Chronicles is still just mostly boring.

Black Knight has the really satisfying spin slash attack and you can keep the flow and control Sonic much, much better.

In-between all of this I've tried some of the 8-bit games which I liked just fine, but which all really blended together.

I've also tried the Sonic 4 parts, which I also find okay. Not good Genesis-style games, but okay, functional enough Rush-styled games.

So I can say that I don't think Sonic has ever "jumped the shark". There are good old games and good modern games.

From leaks, the upcoming game at least sounds much more ambitious than some of the previous games like Forces or Lost World.

I predict something like Unleashed where there is a sound foundation in there, but it is unrefined, as there seems to be talk that it's another really big switch-up – it possibly being an open world game.

I think I really appreciate the series' willingness to switch things up even if it doesn't always work out.

The Classic, Adventure, Advance, Rush/Boost games all are very different styles.

I've had a lot of fun over the years with this series and I hope I'll have more fun in the coming years.

I think the Adventure + Heroes remakes are 100% overdue. Also please, Sonic Mania 2 with all-original stages.

#Sonic #Sonic the Hedgehog #Sonic Adventure #Classic Sonic #Sonic Advance #Sonic Rush #Boost Sonic

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bltngames · 4 years

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SAGE 2020: Fan Games

I’d hoped to have this article out a little bit sooner, but I overestimated how long it would take to write about some of these games. Whoops! Like I said when I outlined the posting “schedule” on the first day, we’re playing it fast and loose, so this is just what you get.

Today is the day I talk about fan games! And even though SAGE has “Sonic” right there in the acronym, it’s always hosted fan games from all types, so today we’ve got Mega Man, Mario, Rayman, and even fan games of fan games, if you can believe it.

Sonic Pinball Panic!

Pinball is one of those things where I’ve always been obsessed with it, but never very good at it. And now, with access to digital pinball collections like Pinball Arcade and Pinball FX, I don’t actually find myself playing as much pinball as I thought I would when I was 14 years old. Still, I find myself fascinated by a good pinball table, and this honestly caught me off guard. This could very easily be an official DLC release for one of those aforementioned pinball collections and I wouldn’t even bat an eyelash (in fact, if you ask me, this is better than Pinball FX, which has always had weird ball physics). This looks, sounds, and functions exactly like a real pinball table should. My complaints are minor: for starters, the table feels kind of easy. I’ve never been a pinball wizard, but I was losing balls left and right here and it still took a good 15 minutes before I finally got a game over. Score accumulation is also pretty slow; most pinball tables will dump millions and millions of points on you, but here, it felt like a struggle just to reach the 379k I finished with. Both contribute to the fact that the table feels a little flat, like it’s missing a spark to really put it over the top. And, third, it would be nice if it had controller support. The keyboard works just fine, here (it’s just pinball, after all) but I find that the triggers on a controller feel really good with pinball flippers, and mapping the plunger to the right stick is great, too. This is a Unity game, so I wouldn’t think it’d be that hard to hook it up to the controller mapper. Still, I came away impressed.

Mega Man: Perfect Blue

There are two things out there that always give me pause: fan-made Doom level packs, and Mega Man fan games. Fan made gaming content generally has problems when it comes to difficulty balancing anyway, but these games have earned a certain reputation for their difficulty, which creates a problem when you have content made by fans, for fans. This insularity means these things are usually way too hard for what I would consider “normal” people (read: casual fans and outsiders). Add on to the fact that I’d even say that there are official Mega Man games with bad difficulty balancing, and you have a recipe for frustration. Sadly, this is how I’d characterize Perfect Blue: though this introductory level isn’t impossibly hard, it’s definitely pushing that edge where it’s not very accommodating to someone who hasn’t played and finished every Classic Mega Man game ever made. It almost immediately throws you into scenarios where you have jumps you can barely reach, insta-kill spikes, and enemies that not only actively dodge your shots, but invincible enemies that launch counter attack homing missiles. And then it starts making you juggle all of this stuff, together, at the same time. None of this is insurmountable as long as you’re paying attention, but as a very casual Mega Man fan, it’s an unfriendly first impression and makes me worried about what the rest of the game is going to be like as the challenge naturally ramps up. For those hardcore Mega Man fans among you, the rest of this is solid, at least. The presentation and controls are excellent, and the new sprites are beautiful. It’s a game I’d love to enjoy when it’s done… but I’m assuming I’ll be left out in the cold. A shame, really, because there’s so much promise here.

Sonic and the Mayhem Master

There’s a lot to like about this game, but there’s a part of me that really wonders if this should even be considered a Sonic fan game. Mayhem Master’s depictions of Sonic and Amy Rose are atypical to put it mildly. Here, Sonic seems to be a bookish nerd of sorts, a sidekick to Amy Rose, who has been turned into a burnt out, cigar-smoking detective. Most of the game plays out as half an adventure game, half an RPG, where you roam around the world talking to NPCs and gather clues while being assaulted by random battles. The battle system is super off-the-wall, too, perhaps taking inspirations from games like Mario & Luigi and Undertale. This means that battles aren’t passive -- you spend most of each fight dodging or nullifying incoming attacks with simplistic action-based commands. It’s weird, and different, and occasionally even a little bit overwhelming. That’s kind of the whole game, really. It’s the sort of thing that really doesn’t feel like a Sonic game at all, but it also doesn’t feel bad. The artwork is very charming, I’m interested in seeing the characters develop, and there’s plenty of worldbuilding and mystery. Would this still be as intriguing if you removed the Sonic connection, even if it’s so threadbare? That’s a hard question to answer. I know that some of my interest in this game is seeing how it spins more familiar Sonic elements into something that’s completely different. Worth checking out, for curiosity’s sake if nothing else.

Sonic and the Dreamcatcher

This is a fairly brilliant little game with two unfortunate quirks. If you didn’t know, the special stages in the original Sonic the Hedgehog were inspired by an arcade game of the era called Cameltry, published by Taito in 1989. Now, Sonic’s special stages were different enough from Cameltry that it wasn’t a case of Sega outright stealing the gameplay, but there’s a clear lineage there, and it only becomes clearer when you compare the special stages in Sonic 4 Episode 1 to Cameltry (spoilers: in that game, they’re nearly identical). Dreamcatcher is also from this lineage, but is infinitely more charming than either Sonic 4 and maybe even Cameltry itself. The idea is that you must collect a specific number of blue spheres in order to reveal the Chaos Emerald, after which you have a limited amount of time to find and collect it. It’s very simple, but the presentation really sells the game’s charm. It’s just a game that looks good and sounds good, with an interesting premise executed very well. Also, you get a dedicated “& Knuckles” button to spawn infinite Knuckles to help you collect blue spheres and bash enemies. Being able to have unlimited numbers of these guys sounds like it would break the game, but once that countdown clock begins, the last thing you need is 20+ echidnas clogging up the route back to the emerald. The first quirk this game suffers from is that there’s only two levels. Parts of this have a very “game jam made in a weekend” vibe to it despite the rock-solid music, sound, and gameplay, and only having two levels contributes to that. Hopefully more are coming in the future. The other quirk? You can’t actually download this game -- it’s embedded in a webpage. I’m sure this is to make it easy to play on any platform with a web browser (phones, PCs, etc.) but I find myself greatly desiring a hard copy of this game that can live on my computer forever.

Sonic Galactic

Now here’s just a good old fashioned Sonic fan game. Though it clearly takes inspiration from Sonic Mania’s aesthetics in some places, it’s clearly doing its own thing, featuring not just the core cast of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, but also Fang the Sniper, and even a brand new character named Tunnel the Mole. Unlike a lot of Sonic fan games at SAGE, this appears to be using something besides Clickteam Fusion, Game Maker, or Unity. Here, it’s the “Hatch Game Engine,” whatever that is. Whatever the case may be, the game runs very well and is basically indistinguishable from just playing Sonic Mania. Visuals are sharp, music’s good, the two included boss fights are surprisingly fun to fight -- everything seems to be in order. As a result, there’s not really a lot to say. This is just a good, fun game. Anything else I’d say would come off sounding like nitpicks. For example, there’s no way to set graphics options yet, so the game is stuck in 2x Windowed mode. Fang and Tunnel are cute additions, but I wonder how much utility they have as characters. Unless I missed something, Fang’s pop gun is mainly for a weak double-jump ability, and Tunnel’s ability to dig and ricochet off floors, walls and ceilings is cool, but it doesn’t have quite the universal utility of Tails’ flight or Knuckles climbing and gliding. It’ll be interesting to see how or maybe even if their abilities have a chance to grow into something special. Anyway, like I said, those are nitpicks, so try to give this a shot if you can.

Sonic Robo-Blast!

Remasters seem to be a bit of a theme this SAGE, between Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit, Sonic 2 SMS, Sonic 1 Revisited, but this is perhaps the most surprising of them all: a loving remaster of the original Sonic Robo-Blast. SRB1 was perhaps one of the first true “landmark” fan games, given that it was basically a whole entire game that people could play. It's not a stretch to say that SRB1 probably helped kickstart the fan gaming community that still survives to this day -- I certainly owe my involvement in the community to seeing SRB1 for the first time. The problem is, as historically significant as the game might be, it’s nearly impossible to go back to nowadays -- it’s much, much too dated to be any fun. This remaster completely re-envisions SRB1 as a regular Sonic game, while also pulling in gameplay elements from Sonic Robo-Blast 2. It’s a bit of a time paradox mindwarp, but it helps give it a bit more personality than just making a bog-standard 2D Sonic. It works, aided by the fact the sprites, music and overall presentation are fantastic. The only downside is the Act 2 boss, which commits the cardinal sin of taking away player agency and making you wait around far too much. Here’s hoping this gets finished, because it’s definitely on my radar now.

Super Mario Flashback

This has been floating around for a few years now and I’m glad to see it’s finally starting to get some more substantial content as it moves towards becoming an actual game. That being said, this is also one of those games that’s kind of hard to talk about because it’s just… really polished. The art is incredible, it controls exactly like a Mario game, and there’s already a decent mixture of ideas at play in the demo. Anything else I’d say would sound like nitpicking -- like, for example, the backseat game designer in me wonders if maybe the game is prioritizing aesthetics a little too much. This is a wonderfully animated game, absolutely gorgeous, but some actions, like the butt-stomp and the wall kick, feel a bit sluggish, and I think it’s because they show off fancy animations. Even if it’s a split second, waiting for Mario to attach to a wall to kick off of it feels slow. Really, though, that’s an insignificant complaint. This demo is still well worth checking out.

Sonic Advance 4 Advanced

This game seems like a greatest-hits of Dimps best ideas, spanning the first Sonic Advance all the way to Sonic Rush. There’s just one problem: the game seems broken. Now, my desktop PC is starting to show its age. I built it four and a half years ago, and though it can handle game like Gears of War 5 on high settings at 60fps, slowly, newer games seem to be leaving it behind. That being said, I don’t think a game like Sonic Advance 4 here should be running at what appears to be half its intended speed. It also originally launched in a teeny-tiny window (we’re talking, like, smaller than a postage stamp) and even though the options menu has a toggle for full screen mode, it doesn’t want to work. Something about this game under the hood seems to be struggling very, very, VERY hard. It’s a shame, because if this actually played at the proper speed, it seems like it might actually be an alright game, if a bit complex and busy.

Sonic 2 SMS Remake

Here’s a game I was all buckled in expecting to enjoy. Like it says on the tin, this is a remake of Sonic 2 for the Master System (and Game Gear), but with wide screen visuals and huge expansions to the mechanics, roster of playable characters, and levels. On the outside it seems really impressive, and to a certain degree it is, but something about the controls feel a little off. Sonic’s heavier here than he is on the Master System, perhaps to simulate “real” Sonic physics a little more accurately, but you can also pretty much stop on a dime, and the combination of the two feels awkward. The camera also needs a lot of work, as it’s basic at best and does a poor job of letting you see what’s below (to the dev if you’re reading this: there’s actually video tutorials out there on how 2D scrolling cameras work, it might be worth looking a couple of them up). It also leans into some of the tech limitations of the Master System, like how you aren’t given any rings for boss fights (and even hiding the HUD, a move done to save on resources for the large enemy sprites). I could be picky on a bunch of other little stuff, too, like how the flight mechanics feel, but there are other games to play at SAGE and I’ve got at least two more articles to write. Needless to say, this is a solid (impressive, even) foundation but it’s missing a lot of late-stage polish to clean up the tiny little rough edges.

Rayman Redemption

I tell this story every so often, but it was about three quarters of the way through Rayman 2 on the Sega Dreamcast when it struck me, suddenly: I love this game. I was being chased by a pirate ship through some rickety bridges and even though I was dying over and over and over again, I realized I had been enjoying Rayman 2 enough that I might put it in my top ten Dreamcast games. But that was 2002, and the years haven’t been so kind to ol’ Rayman. From the strangely celebrity-infused Rayman 3, to the tragedy of Rayman 4 (eventually becoming Raving Rabbids) to the endless, careless ports of Rayman 2 to every platform under the sun, one gets the impression Ubisoft maybe didn’t know what to do with Rayman. Especially now, when most of Ubisoft’s games are some form of online live service or cookie cutter open world experience (or increasingly both). But the fans know what they want. Rayman Redemption takes the original 1995 Rayman game and lovingly gives it a fresh coat of paint. The results are akin to what Taxman and Stealth did for Sonic CD in 2011, with wide screen visuals, improved controls, touched up level design, but gameplay that still feels faithful and accurate to the original experience. Except that Sega charged money for that, and here, fans have released this for free. Ubisoft’s loss, I guess. I didn’t play Rayman 1 until well after I’d finished Rayman 2, and I’ll admit, I kind of bounced off of it back then. It felt slow, and awkward, and when the difficulty ramped up, it got very hard, very quickly. Now, admittedly, I’ve only put about 30 minutes into Redemption here, but just the addition of a run button is incredibly welcome, and the retooled level design and powerup mechanics helps the game feel way less obtuse overall. It’s just a cleaner, tighter, more accessible and more polished version of Rayman.

Stay tuned for the next article: Indie games.

#sage #sonic amateur games expo #writing #review slew #rayman redemption #sonic pinball panic #mega man #perfect blue #mayhem master #dreamcatcher #sonic galactic #sonic robo-blast #super mario flashback #sonic advance 4 #sms remake #sonic the hedgehog #sega #sonic team #review

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tokiro07 · 4 years

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Okay...

So the theory goes that Jumpman, the Mario from Donkey Kong, is actually the father of Mario and Luigi (based on the fact that the original DK is supposedly now Cranky Kong and the current DK, who has faced off against the current Mario, is the son of DK Jr.)

If that is true, then Jumpman is likely the same Mario that worked as a demolition man in Wrecking Crew, given both the era of the game and the fact that Jumpman could easily have been a generalized construction worker (as he was stated to be a carpenter in DK). There is a Luigi in Wrecking Crew, though, so maybe not, but who knows, twins could easily run in the family and maybe Jumpman named one of his sons after his brother

Either way, that would mean that Jumpman, the father of the Mario brothers, worked with Foreman Spike, who for some reason hated Jumpman and his brother. Depending on the game, Foreman Spike bears a striking resemblance to either Wario or Waluigi. Now, we already know that Wario and Waluigi are canonically not brothers, so I’m not saying that Spike is both of their dads.

Just one of them.

(Long post under the cut. This whole thing really got away from me, but I think it ended pretty nicely, so I hope y’all enjoy it)

Probably Wario’s, if I had to bet, given that we know Mario and Wario have known each other since childhood (stated explicitly in the instruction manual for Six Golden Coins), so it would make sense for them to know each other if their parents were work “friends,” and it would especially make sense for Wario to be as hateful of Mario if his dad, Spike, were hateful of Jumpman. Hell, it would even explain his name. Jumpman has a kid and names him after himself, and then Spike has a kid around the same time and decides to invoke some nominative determinism and labels his kid “bad Mario.”

How Waluigi fits into the picture is ambiguous, but with a number of simple solutions. While some early sources indicate that they are brothers (strategy guides, official websites, etc.), while later sources refer to them as either cousins (Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games) or as friends (Mario Sluggers, voice actor Charles Martinet). They could be adoptive brothers, but this wouldn’t really explain the visual similarities, unless Waluigi explicitly modeled his appearance after Wario or Foreman Spike. This wouldn’t require that they be brothers at all, though, as Waluigi could have done that even if he was just a friend. The cousin aspect works best at explaining the visual similarity and even the name, as that would mean that his name was chosen to spite Luigi just the same way that Wario’s was chosen to spite Mario. The only issue there is that we’ve never heard of Spike having any siblings. He’s had multiple conflicting designs, so MAYBE there’s multiple Spikes and Spike is a family name, but I doubt it.

Personally, while the cousin angle wraps everything up the most neatly, I’m still a fan of the idea that Waluigi is some kind of shapeshifted disguise for Tatanga, since the two are both purple misanthropes with an unhealthy obsession with Princess Daisy, a hatred for the Mario brothers and an odd friendship with Wario. This would also of course explain why the exact nature of their relationship is so unclear, since it would imply that they’re outright lying but can’t keep the story straight. I would rather the cousin thing, though, since I would like Tatanga to be able to make a comeback, but that would still be a really fun twist.

The one major hole in all of this, though, is that Pauline appears in Mario Odyssey and gives no indication that she’s not the same Pauline from Donkey Kong, implying that Mario and Jumpman are, as they’ve always been presented, the same person. However, there is surprisingly an explanation for this. You see, in the original Donkey Kong, the damsel in distress was a blonde woman referred to as Lady. It wasn’t until the remake for the GameBoy that she was redesigned to be the brunette Pauline that we know today. While particularly damning sources (Shigeru Miyamoto, Smash 4) have claimed that Pauline and Lady are the same person, various extended Mario media present them separately (The Cat Mario Show, a 1994 encyclopedia, various Mario manga), and even present them as having opposing personality types. Naturally, Shigeru Miyamoto should be considered the most credible source here, but that’s no fun, and he also said he was Bowser Jr’s mom, so I’m going to ignore him.

So.

Jumpman’s pet Cranky Kong kidnaps his girlfriend, Lady, and he has to save her. Sometime later, Jumpman orders two children from the stork with Lady, whom he names after himself and his twin brother, Luigi, after a somewhat delayed delivery. His work rival, Spike, and Spike’s brother...Stanley the Bugman, why not, maybe he blames Mario for DK getting into his green house, both have children delivered around the same time, and name them Wario and Waluigi to spite Jumpman’s children. The Mario brothers and Spike children grow up to hate each other, and DK Jr. has also grown up and decides to kidnap Mario’s girlfriend, Pauline, just as his father did to Lady all those years ago. Mario saves Pauline, but unlike Jumpman and Lady who were brought closer together by their trauma, they break up, although they remain friends. Some years later, after Mario has established himself as a recurring hero to the Mushroom Kingdom, gets a toy line which DK III becomes weirdly infatuated with, leading to Pauline’s second kidnapping by a DK (or this is the first time, and Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 was just a remake of DK on the GameBoy to give more context, the specifics aren’t too important here). Sometime after this, Pauline becomes mayor of New Donk City, which is adorned with references to Donkey Kong and his family’s crimes as if it’s all one big joke to these people. But I digress.

Somewhere in all that, Mario is given a castle for some reason, which is the last straw for Wario, who I imagine is working on a farm at the time, given that his best friend is a hen named Hen. Deciding that back breaking labor doesn’t satisfy his ambitions while his rival lives it up as a hero, Wario enlists the help of the alien Tatanga (who now that I think of it, he may well have met on his farm during an attempt to abduct a cow or something) to trick Mario to leave his castle so that Wario may steal it.

After Mario foils Wario’s plot and reclaims his castle, Mario extends an olive branch and invites Wario to play tennis with everyone, as that’s just the kind of guy he is. Wario, realizing he doesn’t have a partner, either a) invites his cousin Waluigi, who has gone into construction like uncle Spike (evidenced by his excavator in Mario Kart), since he loves sports and hates the Mario brothers as much as Wario does, or b) recruits Tatanga and has him disguise himself as someone who could ostensibly pass as a family member to lay low in case anyone tries to hold him responsible for his crimes (which they wouldn’t since they never try to arrest Bowser or Wario, but apparently he doesn’t know that)

As far as I can tell, the only thing we’re missing is where Waluigi was when Wario and the other Star Children were being delivered by the Stork and intercepted by Kamek. Perhaps he got passed over since he didn’t have a star? Maybe Bowser captured him and found he didn’t have a star, then discarded him.

Actually, what if...

Waluigi was SUPPOSED to be delivered to Spike.

Waluigi was SUPPOSED to be Wario’s brother.

But when Bowser went back in time to find the seven Star Children, he messed up the route that Waluigi was supposed to be on. When the Stork got Waluigi back, he accidentally delivered Waluigi to the wrong house, the way he did to Mario and Luigi at the end of Yoshi’s Island (as shown in Yoshi’s New Island). Unlike with the Mario brothers, though, the Stork didn’t catch this mistake, and Waluigi grew up in the wrong household. Maybe it was even Stanley’s, and Waluigi’s inherently nasty personality clashed with Stanley’s kindly personality, but he still inherited his adoptive father’s love of plants! Can’t believe I was able to work that back in.

That’s why no one knows if they’re brothers, cousins or strangers! Because they don’t know who he was supposed to be delivered to, but they can’t deny the visual similarity! That’s why Waluigi’s so misanthropic, because he wasn’t delivered to the right house and he felt out of place!

That last bit could easily be explained by being raised under Spike’s influence, though, since Spike is apparently the kind of jerk who would sabotage his own employees to get a bigger paycheck for himself.

Either way, I think that lends to a really solid idea for the story of a Waluigi game.

A long time ago, I suggested a game where Waluigi somehow travels through time and goes through levels themed around various Mario franchise titles (Waluigi’s Time to Shine), but now I know how to frame it! Waluigi, feeling odd about his family situation, asks Bowser how he travels through time so he can see where he comes from. Bowser throws him through a wormhole and Waluigi witnesses the events that lead to the Stork delivering him to the wrong house. He decides this is either Bowser or the Stork’s fault (Bowser makes more sense, but it would be super funny if the Stork ends up being the final boss) and journeys to exact revenge. The spell or technology tethering him to the past messes up, however, resulting in Waluigi being in flux and going through all of the Mario franchise.

It’d be really funny if when playing through the Yoshi’s Island section he becomes his baby self and knocks Mario off of Yoshi (resulting in Mario’s capture by the Toadies), giving Yoshi some weird new ability the way the Star Children did in Yoshi’s Island DS, but I’m not sure that having one level have a completely different control scheme would be the best idea.

It could also be that Waluigi rides Yoshi as a full grown adult, which would also be pretty silly given his lanky proportions.

A Wrecking Crew level near the end would also be a fun way to bring the story full circle, revealing Waluigi’s relation to Spike and Wario, and establishing that Mario and Luigi are the children of Jumpman and Lady.

Waluigi, Nintendo’s ultimate loose end, would be the catalyst through which all of the loose ends of the Mario franchise are tied.

Get on that, @nintendo

Edit: This ended up having a couple of revisions, but rather then amend this post, I just ended up making two others. You can check those here and here

#super mario #waluigi #wario #foreman spike #mayor pauline #stanley the bugman #pauline #long post #speculation #my theories #game ideas

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wordsablaze · 6 years

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Serendipity

When the cat is away, the mice will play. When the Avengers are away, Peter will introduce Loki to Bowser, plan a magical prank, and figure out how to unite the team with the world of Mario. Enjoy!

A/N: I'm sorry, I just really love these two and basically could not function until I wrote this. Plus, I saw the new Infinity War posters and my brain went 'yup, we're going to obsess over marvel again' so that's that...

Peter has prepared himself for many things in life. For example, he's always prepared for a science pop quiz or a new lego challenge or even changing into his Spiderman suit within half a minute. What he's not prepared for, however, is to be assaulted by an unprecedented display of magic that seems to be a dangerous combination of magnificence and malice.

His head jerks up as the hairs on his arms stiffen in warning so he dives behind the counter just in time for debris to fly over his head in what's possibly the worst mockery of rain in the world. The falling glass and plaster more or less remind him of destructive snow, actually. Waiting until the sound of crumbling infrastructure fades, he peeks over the top of the counter and watches as the levitating stranger transforms the windows and doors into solid metal before turning the ceiling into something that looks like it's been plucked out of a Tim Burton film, then picking up the nearest object and turning it into ash without even blinking.

Instead of being worried or anything else remotely sensible along those lines, Peter's eyes widen in awe. "That's so cool!"

Instead of continuing to take advantage of an otherwise empty Avengers' tower, the stranger stills as he hears the compliment, his sceptre resting on the ground as the blue light fades.

"I mean, it's really impressive and it looks so easy! But I bet it's actually pretty difficult, right? Oh, uh, I'm sorry if you were expecting someone else, by the way... I love your crown helmet!"

"Crown helmet?"

"Yeah. I'm sure it has, like, a more sophisticated name but I can't think of one. Crown helmet works pretty well to be honest because it looks royal and ready for battle..." he pauses. "Wait, is why you're here? There's not really anybody here to fight you. Except me, I guess. But I don't think fighting someone with such cool magic is a good idea, even for me... Wait, you can't be here for a battle, can you? FRIDAY wouldn't have let you in if you were so you have to be a friend, right?"

"Who exactly are you?" the owner of the crown helmet asks eventually.

Peter grins and springs to his feet, ignoring his spidey sense entirely and hoping that the other man is indeed a friend. "Peter Parker."

It's only when Peter sees the man smirk with that iconic glint in his eyes that it dawns on him who he's talking to so he curses himself for getting carried away and not noticing before. "Oh my algorithms... You're Loki, aren't you? I've heard so much about you and all the stuff you've done! Actually, maybe I shouldn't have told you my name... Please don't hurt my friends or family!"

Loki doesn't even know how to react and that's a first for him. "I'm not always out to hurt people, you know?"

"Nor is Bowser but people peg him as the bad guy all the time..." Peter nods understandingly, even though he's internally thinking about how he doesn't really understand. Then he realises he does understand because he's in the same position. "And people think Spiderman's a bad guy but he's just, like, trying to help in his own way, you know? It's not his fault if stupid journalists label him as a vigilante and everyone else just goes with it."

"Who?"

"You don't know who Bowser or Spiderman are?" Peter looks so crestfallen that even a God out for vengeance has to take pity on him.

"I haven't exactly spent much time on Midgard?" he offers as an explanation.

Peter's eyes light up in understanding. "Oh, of course, right, okay... I can show you who they are if you like? We have to fight our way to Bowser though... We can even fight Bowser together! Wait, have you heard of video games? You must have, right? They're pretty much universal, aren't they?"

Loki has never so lost in the face of a Midgardian before. "No?"

"In that case, it's practically my duty to explain! Come on, uh- Lord Loki, you don't even know what you've been missing out on!" Not that anyone can ever know exactly what they're missing out on since, if they did, they wouldn't really be missing out, but that's not the point.

Despite having originally arrived to create chaos, Loki finds himself following the excited teenager, trying to convince himself he'd not been persuaded solely by the title he's been given.

He's led into the next room where a rather large television is mounted onto the wall and a small collection of boxes lies beneath it. Peter, only briefly glancing behind him to make sure nothing is on fire, selects one of the boxes and pries it open, removing a circular disc that he then feeds to a bigger black box. He watches as Peter uses one of the oddly-shaped black objects to navigate his way through a menu and selects one of the options that then triggers an opening scene with an odd man who seems to be Italian and Mexican at the same time.

"How does this show me who Bowser is?"

Peter shrugs. "Bowser is the final boss. We have to play our way to him."

"Play?" Loki scoffs, "I do not 'play' anymore."

"Well, I suppose you can watch me play instead if you prefer?"

"Watch...? You expect me to sit here and do nothing while you fight?"

Peter has nothing to say so he shrugs again.

"I will observe as you battle your way to my enlightenment," Loki finally settles on.

"Sounds like a plan," Peter agrees and starts on the first level on single player mode because a certain someone had accidentally deleted his progress in an attempt to reboot the device with lightning but he was only trying to help so he couldn't really be blamed. He flies through the first set of levels but gets stuck when he's all out of spare lives and can't figure out how to kill three mushrooms without sacrificing his progress.

"Jump over the secret bridge thing."

Startled, Peter jumps so high he drops the remote and accidentally releases his hold on a button, turning left in the game and subsequently causing Mario to fall off the cliff.

"No!" he cries, whacking the controller on his head. "Now I have to start over..."

"Next time, use the bridge."

"What bridge?" Peters asks as he restarts the level, then biting his upper lip to concentrate.

"The one that was above your head- wait, stop," Loki says, throwing an arm out as if he can communicate with Mario.

Peter, not wholly surprised this time, stops in a safe place and looks to Loki, a questioning look on his face.

"You see that wall?"

"Yeah?"

"Do the spinning leaf tail move on it."

Peter stifles his laugh and nods, doing as instructed. Immediately, he discovers a secret passage he hadn't seen before. Leaning back, he whistles. "How did you know that was there?"

"Wasn't it obvious?"

"Not really, no..." Peter mumbles.

Loki's smug expression softens just a little. "Perhaps we should take it in turns?"

Peter nods thoughtfully. "We can't both play because we're too far into the single-player mode... but I don't mind watching. Here!" he passes the controller to Loki, who takes it with his free hand.

After a moment of thought, he asks, "Would you like to hold my sceptre?"

Eyes widening, Peter gasps. "Can I?"

Loki smiles and holds it out, almost laughing as Peter tentatively reaches out, freezing as his hands touch it and slowly pulling it closer, practically stroking the chilled gold body.

"It won't break if that's what you're worried about."

Peter grins, euphoria in his eyes, "Thank you, Lord Loki."

"Now, how do I make this little man crawl through the wall?"

"Press the back butto- no, no, not that one, the other back button! Stop!" Peter warns just as Mario bursts into flames.

"That was beautifully violent."

"Maybe, but it means we have to redo the level now so..."

"Again?" Loki groans, handing the controller back to Peter with a dramatic twirl of his wrist.

Peter, to his credit, doesn't complain at all, simply keeping his eyes glued to the screen and getting Mario to squeeze through the wall before handing the controller back to Loki.

"It's this button, by the way..." Peter lets Loki test it out before he resumes the game and so Mario doesn't randomly burst into flames this time.

And thus, the level is completed.

And the next one.

And the next.

And so on.

Until the two of them, after Loki accidentally makes Peter fly in his annoyance of dying - to which Peter had responded by doing a cartwheel and making a note of the experience so he can retell it to Ned later- and various curses of several degrees, finally encounter Bowser.

"We did all that for a spiked turtle?" Loki huffs immediately.

"He's the king of the Koopas! And it's not like I forced you!" Peter argues.

"Oh, shhhhhhhhhhhhh-" Loki groans, "He just killed us."

"Are you serious?" Peter props the sceptre on the sofa, takes the controller from him and deftly retries the level, then progressing a couple more in his excitement. He doesn't fall even once but obviously, Loki has other ideas or he'd just gotten bored because he pokes Peter and causes the teenager's attention to waver, resulting in an exposed, defenceless Mario and an instant, completely boring death.

"Looooooooh-hokiiiiiiiiiiiii!" Peter whines, letting himself flop onto the sofa backwards, his feet draped over the back and his head hanging upside down, just a few centimetres off the ground.

"I'm sorry, little spider."

Peter doesn't think anything of the nickname until he does, at which point he rolls backwards and lands on his knees, breathless and slightly red. "What did you just say?"

Loki grins. "I might not have known who Bowser is but, since the whole invasion ordeal, I've spent enough time with Thor to learn some things from his frequent rambling about the Avengers."

"And?" Peter raises an eyebrow, his heart hoping that he'd been included in those tales but his head telling him Loki had probably seen his mask lying around or something.

"You fall under that title in his books, young spider."

Peter beams, his eyes positivity radiating joy and gratitude. "Thanks, Lord Loki!" he says and, without even thinking about it, he springs to his feet and wraps his arms around Loki, his face pressed to the not-so-surprisingly silky, green material.

"Oh, we're hugging now?" Loki asks, but not unkindly, awkwardly pacing his arms around the excited teen and trying not to let his smile through; it'd been a while since he'd been hugged and, if he was honest - which he rarely is - he'd missed the feeling.

Peter pulls away with a red face and wide eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't even think- I hope you don't mind hugs? Uh..."

"Untangle your anxious webs, young spider, I have nothing against embraces."

Loki smiles and Peter can feel his face heat up in a mixture of bashfulness, relief, and some kind of honour he can't quite decipher.

"You know, I definitely prefer Spiderman over Bowser."

"Really?" Peter's voice is at least two notches too high.

"Webs are so much better than stolen fireballs... His fireballs are not even nearly as impressive as mine anyway."

"Thank you!" Peter grins. "I prefer yours too..."

"May I inform you that the Avengers will be back in no more than three minutes?" FRIDAY alerts them, sounding way more amused than and an AI should ever be able to sound.

Peter hums in acknowledgement then grins and turns to Loki. "I have an idea."

"And I have a sceptre," Loki says, basically already having agreed to whatever Peter can ask.

Which is why, two minutes and forty seconds later, Tony walks in and abruptly stops, causing Steve and Bruce to crash into him and Thor to barrel into them, resulting in four stumbling men and a very exasperated Natasha and Clint.

"What on Earth?" Clint asks as they see Peter standing on the table with Loki's sceptre glowing in his hands.

"That's where you're mistaken, Mister Barton, the world in question is Asgard, not Earth." Peter has to fight with himself to avoid letting his amusement leak into his words. He ends up scowling at the Avengers, internally apologising but outwardly positioning himself to appear as angry as he possibly can.

"Is that Loki's?" Thor asks, frowning.

"It was," Peter corrects, smirking.

Tony narrows his eyes but it's not hard to tell he's just super worried rather than actually irked. "Pete, where did you get that?"

"And why are you on the table?" Steve asks. "Get down, you're going to hurt yourself."

Fleetingly glancing at Loki, who gives him a surreptitious thumbs up, Peter shrugs. "I got bored of waiting and decided to explore my options."

"Explore your options?" Natasha repeats blankly. "Out of everything you could have done, you chose to attack the Avengers with trickster's sceptre?"

Schooling his features into an expression of condescending scorn, Peter nods. "I am, after all, more than worthy of such a weapon."

That happens to be Loki's cue to clear his throat, effectively diverting their attention to where he's sat in the corner, wrapped up in webs. As they turn to him, he grimaces. "I wasn't aware you'd adopted someone worse than myself."

"Loki?" Thor's voice rises an octave as he glances at the same man who'd unleashed the tesseract supposedly defeated by a teenager with a radioactive spider bite and perhaps too much time on his hands.

"Well, obviously, moron. Aren't you going to, I don't know, kill him or something?" Loki asks, gesturing to Peter with his head.

Sharing a quick, confused but decisive look with Clint, Natasha steps forward. "Kid, I think we need to talk."

Peter shakes his head. "I think we need to stop talking and start giving me all the… Actually, we didn't plan this far so I guess we can just stop and leave it at that."

There's a moment where everybody opens their mouths to argue but finds themselves too shocked to say anything before Loki stands and walks towards Peter, brushing the webs away as he does, and Peter jumps off the table, standing in front of Loki so nobody shoots him in their confusion.

"What in the name of shawarma?" Tony exclaims finally, never having walking into something so strange.

"No, you iron idiot, it's called magic and theatrics." Loki smiles and, to everyone's utter bewilderment, ruffles Peter's hair.

"Did you guys finish an entire game of Mario?" Clint asks incredulously, obviously the first to notice the image of Bowser's bones on their television.

"No-"

"Yes-"

Peter and Loki glance at each other, trading glares that hold no malice whatsoever.

"You know what, this isn't even the craziest thing I've seen Peter do." Steve shakes his head and anyone who didn't know better would have cooed at the fondness in his voice.

Loki, sensing the tension in the air, coughs. "I'm no longer here to tear you all apart if that's what you're worried about."

Thor beams at him, moving forward to embrace him and totally forgetting about Peter, who gets trapped in the middle of them. Everyone watches as he protests quietly and manages to stick an arm out of the brothers' affectionate barrier, his head soon following as he dramatically crawls out to the side. Loki's remorseful and slightly irritated apology is muffled by Thor's unwanted but nonetheless comforting, congratulatory hug, which gives the rest of them a reason to laugh, except Tony who's quick to pull Peter away from the two Gods lest he gets squashed or injured in any way.

None of the Avengers can relax completely, which is only to be expected considering their history with Loki, but the anxiety in the room fades to negligible after a little while, the gang either retreating to their respective rooms to freshen up before they return or grabbing a snack and slowly accumulating in the living room, eventually being roped in to a game of Mario Kart by Peter, who's figured out exactly how to tick them all off enough to ensure their exasperation leads to them joining in to prove a point or using their annoyance as an excuse to succumb to their intrinsic desires of playing and winning a competative video time. Ultimately, when they're all squashed onto the sofa or the beanbags, personal space long dismissed, either actively controlling the characters with hilarious expressions of concentration or cheering each other on, their way of playing is a whole new experience and Peter has never felt so at home with them.

All in all, even though Peter wasn't prepared for such an eventful day - not that anyone can ever be prepared to fake a hostage situation with a God - he's more than glad to have been thrown into it. More often than not, he decides, strange parts of life are better encountered with an open mind instead of a meticulous itinerary that leaves no room for spontaneous craziness. He might technically be a superhero but, at the end of the day, he is also a teenager...

like/reblog but don’t repost, thanks!

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megacatstudios · 3 years

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THE HARDEST RETRO GAMES WE'VE GROWN TO LOVE

Glide on the Pain Train The hardest retro games we’ve grown to love there is plenty of nostalgia to be had when it comes to retro games. Some of it might come from the times of your life when things were simpler due to how young you were when you played them. Or maybe some of it was because these retro games were some of your earliest forays in terms of video gaming experiences. After all, the reasons for nostalgia vary from person to person. However, this also means that someone out there will have nostalgia for games because of how insanely hard they were. Video games have had leaps and strides when it comes to handling difficulty, with more accessibility options than before. But during the retro gaming era, developers were limited by both hardware and development experience. Since there was limited space to do things, games tended to be hard so that there would be more replayability, even though this was artificial in a sense. And since plenty of game development back then usually stemmed from arcade experiences, developers came with the mindset to make games harder to increase penny munching. Despite these limitations, however, players have increasingly grown fond of these absolutely difficult games, accepting their difficulties as gauntlets were thrown at the face of their gaming expertise. So join me today as we walk through some of the hardest retro games that have been thrown at us by the video game developers of yore.

GRADIUS 📷Not quite bullet hell, but hellish nonetheless Let’s start with one of the few games on this list that I have actually finished without using save states or cheat codes. Usually cited as one of the most important shooter games due to popularizing the horizontally-scrolling shooter genre, players are seated into the cockpit of Vic Viper, blasting their way through levels filled with enemies trying to ram you and plenty more that shoot bullets at you. At the end of each level, you will be confronted with a boss, and you’d have to shoot their weak points to defeat them. However, a lot of these points are actually protected by an additional layer that you have to destroy before being able to shoot at the weak point. The creativity of these boss battles is a highlight of the original game, as is the difficulty of each one. My favourite part of Gradius has to be the power-up system, though. Unlike most other shooters, Gradius only has one kind of power-up, and when you pick it up, it will advance a power meter at the bottom of the screen, and if you reach a point in the meter that you would want to obtain, you can do so anytime by pressing the power-up button, but doing so would reset your power meter to zero, creating a mini push your luck game of trying to survive as long as possible with a weak weapon to reach as far as you can on your power meter.

GHOSTS ‘N GOBLINS 📷Jumping in your boxers debut game of one of the most underrated franchises from Capcom, Ghosts ‘n Goblins sees a knight named Sir Arthur try to rescue Princess Prin-Prin from Astaroth, the king of the Demon World. While that plot is pretty thin, it is often referred to as one of the most difficult video games of all time. Unfortunately, much of that difficulty is either a love it or hate it kind. Sir Arthur can only withstand one hit before losing one life, and each life is also timed. What’s more, once Sir Arthur jumps, he can’t change directions until after he lands, which is maddening if you’ve played literally any other side-scroller. What’s worse is that each level only has one checkpoint, and that checkpoint is always smack dab in the middle of the level. If you die before reaching that point, you’ll be thrown back at the start of the level! Sure, there’s plenty of additional weapons that you can pick up along the way, and the game is still pretty much beatable, but right when you thought you’ve gotten the hang of it, a very nasty surprise will meet you at the end of your playthrough because now you need to do everything all over again with a higher difficulty to reach the true ending of the game! Sure, it’s nasty, but it wouldn’t be notorious for its difficulty if it was any much easier than this.

CONTRA: HARD CORPS 📷The bad news that the title is not just a silly pun. This entry to the popular Contra franchise is actually very hardcore. If you thought the original Contra for the NES was hard, the first and only Contra game released for a Sega console is even harder. Despite the prettier graphics, it has more things to master with its multiple characters, each with its own different sets of weapons. The Hard Corps also features multiple branching paths, with each providing a different ending. While that may all seem like an enticing ride, at the end of the day, multiple endings will only have players trying to finish the game multiple times. That wouldn’t be much of a problem if it’s not a Contra game that we’re talking about, especially one that is already considered one of the hardest entries in the franchise.

CASTLEVANIA 📷Don’t let go of your holy water! While not the most difficult game on this list, the original Castlevania will still take you by surprise, especially if you were able to play future entries into the series. Unlike the newer games, Castlevania doesn’t take an entire map and let you explore it to your whims. This was way before the series popularized the Metroidvania genre, and is instead a classic linear side-scrolling platformer. Like Ghosts ‘n Goblins, part of why this game was hard was because of how it handles jumps. You can’t change your trajectory in the middle of your jumps, and while that is absolutely realistic, none of the other aspects of the game is chasing for realism, so this seems like a design choice that is made to make your play sessions harder. However, this game has one neat trick that you can keep to heart to make things easier. When you acquire the holy water, hold on to it like your life depends on it. It will make quick work of most enemies within the game. All that’s left for you to do is to practice your jumps. You’ll be beating Dracula in no time.

SUPER MARIO BROS.: THE LOST LEVELS 📷When both launch and landing are problems only game in this list that was both difficult to finish and difficult to acquire, this Japan-only release is the actual sequel to the original Super Mario Bros. The reason why Nintendo never gave this game an international release was because of how absurdly hard it was, to the point that one of Nintendo’s consultants in the west back then called the game an undeserved punishment. However, this spike in difficulty was by choice, as the game was sold with a label that said it was a game “For Super Players” and plenty of tricks for infinite lives were included in the opening levels to provide additional room for players to breathe in the latter levels with insane difficulty spikes. Obviously, none of that helped in easing the game’s difficulty, and up to this day, The Lost Levels remains one of the few blotches of the Super Mario franchise. Still, there are people who regard the game as fun and clever and view it with fondness. While there’s no denying Nintendo’s excellent level design is at work here, there’s also no doubt that this is one of the hardest games in their entire catalogue.

MIKE TYSON'S PUNCH-OUT!! 📷He’s the least of your problems while not as notoriously difficult as The Lost Levels, Nintendo also had you reeling in terms of recovering from its punches with this game, later changing its name to “Punch-Out!!”. This is the easiest game on this list, with the different opponents that you face having distinct patterns that you need to figure out in order to beat them. However, people still remember it as one of the hardest Nintendo has ever released due to how you would need to restart the entire game from the beginning if you get knocked out in the middle of a fight against any of the fighters. Besides, if you experienced this game at a younger age, would you even think that boxing is a cerebral experience? You probably wouldn’t even think to see if your opponents are fighting with a pattern. You’d just mash the punch button in hopes of getting a hit in. That would most likely be the reason why people remember Punch-Out!! as one of the harder games to have ever existed. Still, I wouldn’t count out the times when one was able to identify Mike Tyson’s pattern and still be hit with one of his uppercuts that will instantly knock you out. That kind of experience is infuriating, and even so when it brings you right back at the beginning of the game.

BATTLETOADS 📷Prepare to crash over and over again And finally, we come to the one game on this list that is definitely considered by many to be the hardest game to have ever existed. Battletoads’ main problem is not in its controls or how friendly fire is enabled throughout the game, but in how it was designed. If you have noticed, most other games will give you an idea of what’s coming before it happens. For example, enemies would appear at a significant distance from your character, which gives you an ample amount of time to react appropriately before they do some damage to you. The problem with Battletoads is that it skips all of that. Enemies and obstacles inadvertently appear at a near-instant speed, which turns the game less of an exercise in hand-eye coordination and more of an exercise in memorization.If you’re absolutely convinced that you can finish Battletoads, though, you’re in luck. The game itself is fairly short, so memorizing the patterns of each level is easier than, say, memorizing all the names of stars within Capricornus. You just need to prepare yourself to lose some hair in the process.

HOLY ROLLER While people play games for different reasons, there are a certain magic too difficult games, especially when you are able to overcome the seemingly insurmountable odds associated with them. There is a reason why difficult games have been on the rise recently, with games like Cuphead or Celeste taking centre stage. These modern games are now unhindered by the technical limitations of the olden times. So with plenty of ways to adjust these games’ accessibility while also keeping true to their word for the gluttons for punishment, these games have truly transcended the barriers between being a game only the hardcore can muster and a game for everyone. However, despite the inherent difficulty that comes so often with older games, the design practices have evolved along with them, paving the way for all of the newer games in terms of designing for a larger audience in mind, and in turn, growing the industry. Which of these games have you finished? Or maybe we missed out on something harder to finish than any of these games? How about you let us know via our Twitter Page or head on over to our Youtube Channel to see more retro gaming goodness.

#blog #article #blogging #retrogames #hardgames #original photography blog #megacatstudios #mega cringe #gamingculture

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theclarkystuff-blog · 7 years

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Yoshi's Wooly World

In 2011 when courting with my wife, we enjoyed a summer of various games with co-op options, which for most part ended on the Wii, one of those games which brought us the most joy was Kirby’s Epic Yarn. I found this to be a beautiful game with its quilt and patch art style and combined with the usual high quality found within Kirby games. While I had a great time with this game alongside my wife, the game was met with its critics, feeling the game was either too short or easy, despite these views Kirby’s Epic Yarn would go on to be one of the Wii’s highlights during its lifetime and Good-Feel was already talking about making another game but with Mario taking the starring role this time. Fast forward to 2013 and during a Nintendo Direct we are given an unveiling of Yarn Yoshi, a new Yoshi adventure coming out on Wii U, this game would remain on the quiet side for the best part of 2 years before re-emerging as Yoshi’s Woolly World, employing a different look based on woolly toys and art & crafts the game bore a similar appearance to Sony’s own Little Big Planet. Yoshi in his own respective of games has gone through highs and lows, ranging from Yoshi’s Island, released during the Snes twilight years powered on the SuperFX2 chip which made this game look like it could have been an early PS1 or Saturn game. The series has had several successors on N64, DS and 3DS, I always felt that the series had not managed to capture the charm nor challenge of the original until now.

In 2015 Nintendo would finally release Yoshi’s Wooly World with a 3DS port released later in 2017, renamed now as Poochy and Yoshi’s Wooly World. With the new port released I decided it was about time to finally finish the game after picking it up and dropping it various times. Booting into the game we are told that Baby Bowser has sent henchman Kamek to turn Yoshi and his friends into bundles of yarn and hidden them around neighboring islands, leaving it up to you and Yoshi's abilities to conquer obstacles and foes in which to take the battle to Baby Bowser personally. Getting control of the game you are thrown into a hub world, connecting all the islands you will explore and displaying various highlighted posts from the Miiverse, a feature also used in the loading screens to showcase art made by its players and provide hints like what to look out for. There are various tents found in this hub world which allow us to change the look of our Yoshi to another design which can be unlocked in game or the ability to scan certain Amiibo’s which will unlock various Yoshi’s based upon a look of whichever one you scanned, so if a Sonic or Pac-Man coloured Yoshi ever appealed to you, this would be your moment. While a lot of people have found Amiibo to be a new form of DLC locked behind a toy I was comfortable with the Amiibo support in this game as it was more merely a cosmetic bonus rather than a paywall holding back any game play based content like levels, the only other use they seem to have in game is making a second Yoshi appear during story mode to assist.

In game has support for various controllers ranging from the Wii U Pro Controller, Wiimote and Classic Controller, I ended up mainly playing with a Wiimote Motion Plus controller due to the extra control option found in it to aim eggs using the gyro for quick and accurate aiming. Before loading out for a level you can decide if you would like the assistance of a badge power, these badges can grant you temporary stats to help you either complete or find secrets in levels, while I can imagine these skills could maybe enhance a second play through or help younger or inexperienced players, I never really saw the appeal of them for my play through. In game we play through various islands containing levels which will require you to explore, defeat enemies and make your way to a goal post, dotted throughout the levels are jewels, flowers, wool and stars which will increase your health, finding all of these in a level will unlock features such as new Yoshi’s or a bonus game. The bonus games found in this tend to be based around small timed events which see you trying to collect fruits or jewels or overcome obstacles, while I found bonus rooms in the middle of the levels to be more fun, due to them mainly being vehicle based levels or new forms like becoming a mermaid, I found the bonus game at the end of each level to be a bit boring, as the bonus jewels feel somewhat redundant. The worlds vary on theme traditionally seen in platform games such as forests to tropical islands, lava worlds and ice domains, all of which contain there expected obstacles such as slippery surfaces, underwater caverns and wide pits. With previous Yoshi games I have found the difficulty to never quite be right, either being too easy or for some entries having certain levels which were either designed bad or just with weird difficulty spikes. Woolly World however manages to capture a balanced difficulty, very similar to the original Yoshi’s Island, from the every start the game is easy and forgiving while it allow you to become comfortable with your skills but the end you will need to master the flutter jump and various other skills to complete levels and defeat boss battles later on.

The co-op mode in this one I found to be better implemented than the likes of New Super Mario Bros Wii which I have found a bit too chaotic with the game moving usually at a fast pace and having 4 players on screen at once was just a bit too much for me, but with this game encouraging players to take things a little bit slower and to explore your surroundings to find collectibles or hidden areas, I just felt this game benefited more from that however there is no online play, while this may have been a great option for many I honestly think this game would be better played with someone beside you. Being able to work with a friend to unlock get to hidden areas which may normally require more skill is always great fun and can cause silly moments where you may eat your partner but this can provide an easy way to carry an ally over a tricky platform section which may give your partner problems. If the game proves to be too challenging for maybe younger or inexperienced players a Mellow Mode option exists which makes Yoshi invincible and gives him unlimited flight, a similar feature seen recently in New Super Mario Bros series and Donkey Kong Country Returns, while these options are maybe controversial to certain “gamers” I found no problem with these options being in the game, if these help players enjoy the game and be able to see all the levels, fair play, I never needed the option so I can’t really pass any comment on it.

Good-Feel has managed to take what made Yoshi’s Island into a great game and stitch it together in a game which I feel is good enough to stand up alongside the original, with its varied and challenging level design, well placed secrets and easy accessibility while leaving out various elements which may have dragged it down like character gimmicks or crying babies tied to a health system. This game was never going to save the Wii U but it did become one of the few shiniest gems the system offered, while it is now one of the many gems of the 3DS it is a game I was very happy to experience due to its wonderful art-style and fantastic level design, I enjoyed it enough that I would be happy to try the 3DS port one day just to experience the game again in 3D and that I am curious to see how the 3DS handles Wii U ports, as I felt a little disappointing in the ambitious port of Hyrule Warriors to 3DS. This comes highly recommended by me if you need a break from mainstream gaming or if you want to just have simple fun with a friend.

#nintendo #wii u #yoshi #yarn yoshi #nintendo 3ds #3ds #nintendo 3dsxl #n3ds #new 3ds #nintendo 2ds #2ds xl #new 2ds #wii u games #kirbys epic yarn #good-feel #wii

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barbosaasouza · 6 years

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Kirby Star Allies Review: Friendship is Magic

There are fewer games that are more wholesome and fun than the Kirby series. His side-scrolling adventures always prove to be bright and colorful, while also holding up as exquisite platformers. Kirby Star Allies doesn't reinvent this wheel in any significant way, but it does address the question of "Wouldn't this be more fun with friends?"

That answer is indeed a resounding yes. Kirby's official Nintendo Switch debut proves to be every bit as fun as its predecessors, adding enough wrinkles to the formula for a satisfying journey alone or with friends.

Band of Brothers

Kirby has seen a lot of weirdness hit Dream Land over the past three decades. So waking up to see dark hearts raining down and corrupting the world's denizens isn't entirely treading new ground. Nonetheless, Kirby is the right puffball to set things right.

Anyone with even a remote familiarity with Kirby games should know exactly what to expect. Kirby can flutter jump, swallow baddies, and steal powers from select foes. Many powers from Kirby's previous efforts make their return, as do a handful of new abilities. The variety in abilities has always been a highlight of this series and Star Allies is no exception. It's fun to experiment with different powers, like Kirby's old-school sword and parasol, but it's even cooler to play around with more recent abilities, like the ESP ability from Kirby: Planet Robobot.

But while Kirby is probably more than capable of flying solo, that's not the point of what this game is.

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The Buddy System

The hook for Star Allies is the ability to make friends, creating a party of up to four characters. Almost any enemy can be turned into a friend and part of the challenge in this game is finding a team of four that works. It becomes more interesting as certain powers can be mixed together to create more powerful abilities. Weapons like Bonkers' mallet or the Kirby sword power can be buffed up by elemental enemies.

This not only makes boss battles easier, but most times these combinations are used to solve specific puzzles. In fact, Star Allies' design is often generous in pointing out which specific abilties Kirby needs to either have at his side or absorb himself. Some secret doors will contain a specific enemy or stages will start out with a specific batch of foes to indicate what players will need to proceed forward. It's not overt hand-holding, but it is a good way to encourage players to try out as many powers and partners as they're offered.

There's one issue I had with friends and that's that the AI isn't always cooperative. There were several instances where I wanted to recruit or swallow a specific enemy to utilize their power set, but my AI teammates would get far too overzealous and go straight for the kill. More difficult platforming sequences also don't prove great for AI teammates, as they're more prone to set themselves on top of hazards, like spike beds, and take unnecessary damage.

Fortunately, one of the best aspects of Star Allies is the ability for human friends to drop in and out at any time. This includes in mid-level or even during boss battles. Couch co-op makes the Star Allies campaign a lot more fun, since friends can work more cohesively and also power each other up as needed. Friends don't even have to settle for being grunts. The Dream Palace allows Kirby to recruit bigger names, like Meta Knight and King Dedede, allowing other human friends to take control of a big-name Kirby character.

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Chug-A-Lug

The other reason Kirby has friends around is for numerous "Friend" abilities. Certain stages will require Kirby and his three allies to band together to create a tandem ability to get through to the next area. This includes the Friend Bridge, which sees Kirby and company creating safe passage for a key-holding buddy, and the Friend Wheel, which has Kirby and friends barreling through walls as a giant wheel and avoiding traps along the way. One of the few complaints I have is that this feature wasn't utilized as much as I'd like. In particular, the Friend Train was a blast and was sadly one of the most underused of Kirby's Friend abilities.

This also leads to one of my other gripes with Star Allies and that's the frame rate. There were many instances in this game where I experienced some noticeable frame rate lag. When it happenned during an average stage, it was annoying. When it happenned during boss battles, it got more irritating, especially when there was a lot of action happening on the screen. Then there were the instances where the frame rate lagged during Friend Wheel sequences, which actively caused deaths. The several lag instances weren't enough to make Star Allies a bad game in my view, but it was hard not to cringe whenever they popped up, especially on Nintendo's flagship console.

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Play Dates

The Star Allies campaign isn't a particularly long one. It clocked in at somewhere between eight and ten hours for me. There is a lot to keep Kirby players going, like finding numerous puzzle pieces scattered throughout every stage. Giant switches also open up new levels and new challenges. On top of that, there are more things to do after the story is over.

There are also a couple of mini-games: Chop Champs and Star Slam Heroes. These are two Mario Party-style mini-games that are good for a quick diversion, but won't be something that many players turn back to later. The meat is in the story and, fortunately, there's enough to do there to keep players engaged.

Star Recruit

Kirby Star Allies is a brilliant Nintendo Switch debut for the pink puffball, bringing his accessible and lovable brand of side-scrolling platformer to a new console. The friend mechanic adds to the formula tremendously, especially when human friends are involved.

The amount of room for experimentation in regards to mixing powers, the tandem abilities, and the tried-and-true level design are enough to make this feel like one of the better Kirby games in recent memory. But it's the drop-in, drop-out co-op that makes Kirby Star Allies truly stand out, making it one of the best couch co-op games to grace the Switch in this early life cycle.

Kirby Star Allies Review: Friendship is Magic published first on https://superworldrom.tumblr.com/

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seganerds · 7 years

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A few days ago we reported that Sonic Runners Adventure had received a ‘soft launch’ in certain countries, such as the UK and Russia, for Android devices.

To access game, players from the chosen countries need to access the Gameloft store via their smart device and pay for the app either via PayPal or their phone bill. This type of soft launch isn’t uncommon, as it gives developers a chance to refine their games, as users test them out on various devices, before its worldwide launch.

Well, lucky for you, we got our hands on Sonic Runners Adventure and want to bring you our impressions so far. I should note that this is a ‘preview’ of the game – as it’s not been officially released and no doubt it’s not the final release build that we have been playing.

Tapping in:

Anyone who listens to the Nerdcast will probably know that I’m not a big fan of mobile games, especially endless runners – I feel they have no real purpose and I enjoy games that have end-goals.

So, I’m happy to see that Sonic Runners Adventure is not an endless runner, players are treated to various levels across different zones and boss battles.

Building on the original Sonic Runners and, I assume, hoping to gain some better success on the back of Nintendo’s well-received Super Mario Run, SEGA (or rather Gameloft) has created Sonic Runners Adventure to be more like a classic Sonic title, mixed with typical mobile phone runner games.

Like the original Sonic Runners and Super Mario Run, Sonic runs along automatically and it’s up to the player to tap the screen at the right moments to avoid obstacles, kill enemies, collect rings and reach their goals.

I didn’t get much of a chance to play the original Sonic Runners, but I can instantly tell this game is an improvement, at least in concept.

As mentioned, rather than running endlessly, you now have levels, each with their own goals (i.e. pickup X number of rings or kill X number of badniks) – you receive up to three stars per level, depending on how well you do with your goals. To me this feels much more satisfying than just trying to ‘get as far as you can’ in a typical runner game.

Adventure time:

Along with the levels, there is a story to this game too – told through speech boxes next to still characters. You (Sonic) receive a scrambled message from Tails telling you that someone (obviously Robotnik, I mean c’mon) has kidnapped the animals and for you to come help. Well you then go through various levels trying to find Tails, save the animals and get Robotnik.

Yes, it’s flimsy, but it’s a classic Sonic story and it serves its purpose – I don’t think anyone complained about Super Mario Run’s story where Peach was once again kidnapped by Bowser (along with a cake she was baking for Mario) – so I can’t see why they are going to complain about Sonic’s story.

At the time of playing, the game features four worlds/zones: Green Hill, Desert Ruins, Lava Mountain and Sky Sanctuary – each with 10 levels, plus a boss battle and bonus stages – which are unlocked through pickups during levels.

As you progress, you see Sonic make his way across a map of hexagons and you are free to return to earlier levels to try and beat your previous score, or earn more stars – which go to help unlock new zones.

The downside is that during the brief moments of story progression, where Sonic and friends are commenting on the events in the game, they will make refences to things around them like a factory where the badniks are being built, or a fortress – but these never appear in the levels. The levels remain very much ‘Green Hill’ or ‘Desert Ruins’ etc. and the backgrounds and platforms you run on never stray from their initial designs.

In fact, the further you progress, the more often you will see repeating sections of levels. Not just ideas from a level being reused but literal carbon copies of one section of a level being plastered into another, maybe with a lick of new paint to pretend it’s a different zone. It’s a shame, because It just feels like lazy programming.

The heroes return:

As you progress through the game, you also unlock new characters across three ‘teams’, similar to those found in Sonic Heroes. Each team has three playable characters who have slightly different play styles: Speed, Fly and Power.

Team Hero: Sonic (Speed), Tails (Fly) and Knuckles (Power)

Team Chaotix: Espio (Speed), Charmy (Fly) and Vector (Power)

Team Dark: Shadow (Speed), Rouge (Fly) and Omega (Power)

So far, I haven’t earned enough rings to buy Team Chaotix or Team Dark, but I can assume they all play very similar to the Team Hero counterparts.

Tails is a little slower than Sonic and he can’t jump as high, but he can fly for brief periods. The flight is something you need to get used to you – because it’s not like the old Sonic games where you keep tapping jump for flight, you have to tap to jump and then tap again and hold, but it’s awkward to always get the right height and instead of dropping to the ground when you want him to, he will glide down, until he’s tired and then drop like a stone – usually into a pit for me.

At the time of writing, I have only progressed far enough to unlock Tails and the second zone, Desert Ruins.

If you’re wondering why I haven’t gone further, let me explain…

Not a final build:

So, as I said above, this is a first impressions or preview, because the game is not in its finished state. By the looks of it, all the content is in place, but the game is far from perfect playability-wise.

I’m running the game on my Asus Zenpad, which should be able to handle the game well, but I’m receiving varying frame-rate issues.

At times the game is running so damn fast it becomes jerky and it hurts my eyes – I can’t really keep up with what’s happening and neither can the game at times it seems. There are moments where it looks like there’s a bottomless pit, only for the ground to suddenly pop-up just as you are stepping on it.

There are also times that the game literally throws you into obstacles, such as certain spring boards and boost rings – that you have no control over – and they fling you into the sides of spikes or enemies, causing you to lose rings.

On my first play, I got to level 5 pretty quickly and I was really enjoying my experience, even with the dodgy frame-rates. But level 5 seems to be a bit of a bitch and the worst example of the bugs I found so far in the game; I’m constantly being thrown into obstacles, or the game gets so jerky that I’m missing things and falling into pits: ultimately resulting in my death and the need to restart the level. I played the level 10 times before I gave up – each time I felt as though I was getting better, but would suddenly die and (usually) it felt like it was not my fault. The level is virtually unplayable at times.

Obviously I progressed further than level 5, but the bugs continue and on some levels Sonic will be running so fast, frames will be skipping as the game tries to keep up with the action. Tails’ levels appear to have fewer bugs though – I think it’s because he tends to run a little slower and the game is more able to keep up with him – but there are still issues of being forced into obstacles and enemies against your will. And there have been the odd level when even Tails’ gameplay will speed up causing framerate issues.

Also, the load times are a little longer than I’d like – varying from 10 seconds up to 30 seconds. But, at the moment, they are manageable and by far not the worst problems in the game.

Signs of hope:

The good news is, that despite the game’s current buggy state, I do see signs of this being a really fun game!

The levels are enjoyable and while they aren’t as complex as the classic 16-bit Sonic levels, they do offer multiple routes (yay!).

When the game is running smoothly, Sonic is very easy to control and (I’m so happy about this) the game has no ‘lock-on’ attack and I feel there is more skill involved in this game than other Sonic titles. If you successfully jump on one enemy, Sonic tends to bounce along across other enemies – but you have that initial jump that requires some skill.

The way levels play out is different too, adding to gameplay variety. Some levels you go from point A to point B and need to achieve a goal in order to earn stars and unlock the next level. But some levels have you run laps, where you repeat the level 3 times – now wait – on paper it sounds bad, but it works really well, as it offers you a chance to explore new routes on each lap and any rings you previously picked up are no longer there, making it more of a challenge to seek out the different paths a level might take.

Another plus are the unlockables and upgrades. As mentioned you can unlock up to 9 playable characters and along the way, upgrade your teams and use special booster items: such as invincibility or lining all bottomless pits with springs, so you don’t die.

Final thoughts:

Ultimately, I’m impressed with Sonic Runners Adventure. I don’t tend to like mobile games, but this is one that I can see myself playing, enjoying and completing.

Right now, though, the game is far too buggy to be released commercially. I’m not sure when SEGA/Gameloft intends to officially launch the game, but I do hope the team is able to fix the frame-rate issues and unfair deaths that I experienced.

So far, it’s definitely a title to watch out for and has the potential to be a thoroughly enjoyable Sonic the Hedgehog experience.

Expect a full review of the game when it is finally released worldwide.

Could @gameloft's #SonicRunnersAdventure be a great #Sonic #mobile game? Watch our preview & find out! #SEGA A few days ago we reported that Sonic Runners Adventure had received a ‘soft launch’ in certain countries, such as the UK and Russia, for Android devices.

#Android #Gameloft #iOS #Sonic #sonic runners adventure #Sonic the Hedgehog

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barbosaasouza · 6 years

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Kirby Star Allies Review: Friendship is Magic

Band of Brothers

But while Kirby is probably more than capable of flying solo, that's not the point of what this game is.

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The Buddy System

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Chug-A-Lug

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Play Dates

Star Recruit

Kirby Star Allies Review: Friendship is Magic published first on https://superworldrom.tumblr.com/

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