GameInvaders

Released in 2010, Good Feel’s Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Epic Yarn delivered an experience unlike anything we’ve seen in gaming since, well, ever. Taking away Kirby’s ability to consume foe’s powers and replaced with yarn abilities was a nice mix up for the franchise. Return to Dream Land takes a step back to the traditional Kirby formula and simply, perfects it.

On a casual day in Dream Land, Kirby and the gang witness a mysterious ship crash land nearby. Curious to know what’s going on, they race to the crippled ship. Upon entering it, a mysterious character in front of the mother board appears. His name is Magolar and he needs to get back home but unfortunately his ship is missing vital parts, so it’s Kirby’s duty to return Magolar home.

Every level is laid out differently than the last. Comparing it to its previous installments almost feels unfair; another addition is the power ups that have more moves and combos than ever before. Certain previous power ups are removed such as the UFO and Wheelie, though at the same time all of the new abilities and old abilities are used thoroughly throughout the game.

Super Abilities allow Kirby to cause destruction to seemingly indestructible enemies and obstacles. After inhaling the designated enemy, rather than acquiring its everyday ability, you acquire its Super Ability which is used constantly throughout the adventure in multiple ways. Unfortunately, barely any of them use motion controls, or even any button presses outside of the 1 button.

Like Kirby 64’s crystal shards, every level has multiple Energy Spheres to collect. Collecting them will unlock mini-games and an overall surplus of content; this surplus includes motion controlled games like Ninja Dojo and Scope Shot. Ninja Dojo is a simple mini-game where you throw ninja stars at a moving target whereas Scope Shot is a rail gun shooter and an armored robot character is your target.

Kirby has always been easy for gamers to play and beat in no time. Its easiness is symbolic in the sense that Kirby is fun and enjoyable rather than challenging and frustrating. Even though Return to Dream Land is more difficult than the average Kirby, its difficulty is fair and can provide a nice challenge to fans who find the series too easy.

2009’s New Super Mario Bros.Wii  won the hearts of millions with its unparalleled multiplayer offer. Until today that is. Dream Land offers a rivaling experience that flows better than Mario’s adventure. You can’t sabotage your friends or accidentally take their lives away. To add to that you can actually work more as a team than oppose one another. Sucking up your friend to then use as a projectiles for the boss is one example though, when Player 1 dies, you have to restart at your latest checkpoint.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn may have had an amazing art style to it, but Return to Dream Land’s art style stays true to the series through and through. The atmosphere portrayed feels like a mixture of Kirby Super Star, Kirby 64 and Kirby Air Ride, all in one. Nothing is tweaked to the point where it looks radically different. And with it being on the Wii, Kirby has never looked better.

The soundtrack is immense. Every tune from old school Kirby games return along with a behemoth amount of new tunes that I hope show up in future titles. I can’t remember the last time I let a game idle just to listen to the soundtrack. Simply amazing.

Conclusion-

Overall, Kirby’s Return to Dream Land is the pinnacle of the series with more going for it than any of its predecessors. The soundtrack is amazing, with a difficulty I’m already adjusting to and with the nostalgic factor cranked to an unreal level, Kirby’s return to consoles was well worth the wait in the end.

9.5/10

Charm. One of the many words to describe this creative, fun puzzle platformer. Back in 1989, Majesco brought us, beloved Nintendo Entertainment System owners, a jelly bean worthy treat with A Boy and His Blob. It was an underrated game for its time and known for its stellar difficulty home to a majority on the NES’s library. A rebirth of the NES classic for Wii was a never expecting thing. As the Nintendo Wii gains more 2-D games in this 10+ year strong 3-D gaming world, the quality doesn’t seem to be depleting at all. Will this rebirth of an NES classic live up to today’s standards?

Let me assure you now that it most certainly does. The storyline is simple: Blobolonia is threatened by an evil emperor and Blob arrives to receive help. The game begins with the Boy in his bed sleeping; outside the window of his tree house a meteorite seems to be heading right at him and crash lands nearby, waking the Boy up. As soon as that happens the adventure begins. As soon as you walk up to the meteorite, Blob comes out of nowhere, startling the Boy, then making it aware he just wants to be friends as he needs his help.

Each level has their own assigned abilities for the player to figure out how use them to their advantage in order to progress. Feeding Blob jelly beans allows him to transform into the designated object the player wishes to be used. There’s a variety of transformations such as a manhole, a parachute, a ladder, and a trampoline to name a few. Every level has evil black Blob minions around every turn. They can be crushed, smashed, and dismantled with most of Blob’s transformations. Touching them or falling from a great height will result in “death” which looks more like a knock out than death in this case.

To balance the challenge away from the mind boggling puzzles, you have unlimited lives to use, so no aggravating “Game Over” screen will appear, fortunately. Three treasure chests are scattered in each level to collect, or to eat in this case since Blob literally eats them. Fully completing each level unlocks challenge levels; after completing the challenge levels, unlocks bonus content of the making of A Boy and His Blob (Wii). The game is very linear. From point A to point B and everything in between. 

A main complaint I’d love to point out is the fact that Blob has very poor AI. Throwing the jelly bean for him to eat in a very interesting manner (like throwing it through vines for him to eat it or if you’re at a high height), he will sometimes just ignore it or take forever to eat it (at times the bean will disappear right before he gets to it). Better yet, when I’m ahead of him he takes forever to catch up which irritates me to a boiling point. He even gets lost when I’m only ten feet above him or a little bit ahead of him. The lack of any form of multiplayer is disappointing as I would have loved going through separate co-op levels with a buddy. Another thing, A Boy and His Blob on Wii has only one save file, which is disappointing to say the least.

Though the icing on the cake isn’t even the game play itself for me. It’s the great art style in this game that blew me away. Night time wilderness, to swampy landscapes, this game is beautiful. I literally stood in most levels just staring at the backgrounds, in awe. The atmosphere is captured in such a memorable and nostalgic way. The boss sequences are not only beautiful, but the bosses look threatening, yet appealing while the puzzles within those sequences are creative and neat. The character designs for Boy and Blob are very simplistic if you think about it. The music is very, okay to say the least. Nothing ground breaking. The sound effects are a little different especially when a dark blob explodes.

Conclusion-

Great graphics with such classic atmosphere, fair challenge with a surplus of replay value, fun puzzles and decent music, A Boy and His Blob for Nintendo Wii, overall, is an experience found nowhere else this generation. The bad things weigh this game down due to poor AI from the Blob, the lack of any kind of multiplayer and the fact there’s only one save file is a shame. This is definitely an adventure every platform lover should experience.

8.5/10

Racing games on the Wii console are scarce. Barely a handful to even recommend. The WiiWare service is no brighter in this department and with High Voltage Hot Rod Show as one of the few games available on the service, it doesn’t do much to showcase the genre overall.

Let’s just take it slow with this review. Unsurprisingly Hot Rod Show has no storyline. Three difficulty settings to choose from include: Easy, Medium, and Hard Mode. That’s it. Within these settings are 3 tracks to race on. Rather than racing on cups after selecting the preferred difficulty like most racers allow, Hot Rod Show makes it short and sweet. Like old school shooters, you can add your initials so your time can be recorded for online leader boards.

Selecting a character is as disappointing as it is pointless. Each of the five characters have one distinct vehicle with a limited amount of skins to choose from. Only five uninteresting characters that should never be together. A Sasquatch looking fellow, a sheriff, and a hill billy to name three of the five. No statistics, no balance just pure skill. Some may prefer this while some may not.

Like every other racing game out there your goal is to place first at the end of each race. Performing stunts to gain boosts, and driving over boost arrows are the keys to winning. That’s it. No items to use to your advantage, no shortcuts, just a linear race filled with repetitive stunts. And that is exactly what bothers me. Every track is linear and there is no creativity or life to it whatsoever. Adding insult to injury there are only five tracks to race on. Three cups of three tracks, believe it or not, doesn’t equal nine tracks. So you’ll find yourself racing on the same tracks as you did in the other difficulties rather than new ones. Laziness is inexcusable High Voltage Software.

The AI is an entirely different story. Up until Hard Mode, you will find yourself lapping your “opponents” without hesitation. As I lapped the 6th placed computer I witnessed it mindlessly failing stunts and purposely driving off the track. On the hardest difficulty I found myself lapping computers, while I was in second place. The first placed AI was a mile ahead of me and no matter how hard I tried to catch up to it, I never came close. So with the AI either being either too easy or too hard, makes it an unbalanced headache.

As for the controls, it’s safe to say that the Wii Wheel is broken. Running into walls and constantly failing stunts; whereas I found the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to be quite entertaining until my arm started to hurt. In order to perform a stunt you have to shake the remote fiercely and after around 10 minutes it eventually does it’s tole on you. I personally recommend to use either the GameCube Controller or Classic Controller.

Drifting is busted as well. Your better off turning with the analog stick alone, rather than using the drift button. Drifting is implemented into racing games so it can retain the pace of the game and add that sense of skill in order to use it to your advantage. Hot Rod Show takes away that skill with a much more needed slam into the wall. And unless you can find use of the broken physic, stay far away from it.

Time Trials are virtually pointless. If you have a score you want to show off, online leader boards are the only way to do so. No playable ghost data for you to send or be sent. Splitscreen multiplayer is a give or take situation. If you can find enough people who even want to try this game out, Hot Rod Show doesn’t last long. With no online there’s not many options to sink your teeth into unfortunately.

Annoying character noises that sound cheesier than a 1970’s Kung Fu movie. Unless you turn your audio all the way up and the sound effects all the way down, the score is fairly hard to hear over your unnecessarily loud engines. Even with the music on full blast, you’re bombarded with the most repetitive beats known to man.

Graphically Hot Rod Show looks okay. The lack of textures, water effects, ecosystem traits (like wind, and ocean waves crashing along the shore), and an overall feel that we’re actually in a living world drags this game down. No audience cheering us on, no voice overs when we do something good or bad, nothing. Rather we have a lifeless, dull world that fails to impress even the slightest. Even your vehicles look like cheap micro machines prior to looking like actual vehicles. Though I will say the bright colors look nice. For what that’s worth.

Conclusion-

For the $10 price tag, High Voltage Hot Rod Show is way too overpriced as it fails to impress in any aspect. Lack of a storyline, dull score, linear tracks, no online multiplayer and so much more, I don’t see any reason anybody should go out and purchase this title.

4.5/10

Defend Your Castle is a little more complex than it may seem. Sure the lack of any given storyline and the cutesy kindergarten arts and crafts look is adorable but behind that adorableness is a very fun and strategic tower defense game.

Waves of enemies pursue the task of taking your castle down. Using your cursor you can toss, slam, and throw your enemies at any given time. And, really, that pretty much sums up the core game play mechanic. After every level your overall stats are shown which transfers over to money, which allows you to buy a variety of tools. Fortifying your walls (increasing your overall health), and repairing your walls (healing yourself) are very helpful tools. But there’s a catch: Even though you can heal yourself and increase your walls, none of this can be achieved in real time. So if you want to heal, you better do it after the level or you pretty much lost your opportunity. As for the Pit of Conversion, once activated, it allows you to take a normal enemy and drop him in a paint can. After a few seconds that enemy is turned into a blue button which can be used to upgrade your towers.

The stereotypical castle has four towers right? Well Defend Your Castle allows you to have four special weapons via the four towers. Once acquired enough money you have the option to purchase these somewhat helpful weapons. The archer tower randomly shoots arrows at your foes and with it’s level increased, it frequently shoots more arrows. Using your blue buttons for a suicidal bomber is very helpful for crowded areas. The eraser and spray can are two different weapons but in reality they do the same thing: erase the selected enemy. Like the archer tower, these weapons take a little while to use over and over. The more you upgrade them, the more frequently you can use them. Whereas the suicidal bomber cannot be upgraded.

Four player co-op is a very nice addition as well. The more people your playing with, the more difficult it becomes. Starting the game it dawns on you how slow paced it is at first. With only a handful of stick soldiers walking towards you mindlessly slapping your castle walls it dawns on you how boring and repetitive it can be. By the time you reach level 20 your faced with hordes of enemies faster than you can imagine. By that time your arsenal should be fairly good but unless you have speedy reflexes and a strategy, your hopeless. And don’t get me started on the hardest difficulty. (Heroic.)

Throughout your playtime with Defend Your Castle you’ll rarely hear music outside the title screen. Actually, I don’t think there is music beyond the title screen. Unless you count the childish beep bops throughout the menu screens there’s not really a score to judge here. Laugh out loud screams and intentionally cheesy sound effects create a childish yet fun world to experience.

Stick people with Popsicle sticks, a paper mache castle, cotton clouds glued to bendy wire, and fabric, are not only just a few materials found in a kindergarten art class but also a few materials found in Defend Your Castle. The cutesy graphics really suit the game’s intentional feel, which isn’t saying much, but what we have here is something that stands out on the WiiWare service. Which is good.

Conclusion-

XGen Studios has made a neat little game here. Gathering friends to play an easy to learn tower defense game is what any Wii owner should want. Sure, the game play gets repetitive quickly, the music is mainly absent, sound effects may become obnoxious to some and the lack of really any content is a bummer, but when you are having fun, Defend Your Castle stands tall amongst most of the other WiiWare multiplayer games. Oh, and did I mention it was only $5?

7.25/10 

From today’s standards, racers have a wide variety of content, online modes and graphical achievements. Alongside that most racers have fluent controls and a decent replay value. There’s nothing wrong with reviving such a high profiled NES racer with 3-D capabilities and marketing it as free. But at the same time there is.

3D Classics: Excitebike is very similar to the original game. Starting up the game your introduced to a very catchy opening that allows you to either play the game, check your best records, and options. In options you can adjust the controls to your liking. In 3D options you can adjust the intensity of the 3D portrayed; as well as the option to watch the credits.

Starting the game on the 3DS is like starting the game up on your NES back in 1984. Your approached with the same three game modes: Selection A, Selection B, and Design. Selection A and B are more alike than different. The only difference is A is more of a Time Trials mode (where you solely race against the clock), while B is where you verse multiple racers while maintaining the goal of beating the time.Whereas Design is an entirely different game mode and (at least for me), made the game for many NES owners back in the day. In Design mode your given 26 obstacles to place however you desire. When your done you can edit it, race on it solo, or race with AI computers (a la Selection B).

Now the best for last. The 3D feature. I have to say without the 3-D, the graphics look like they’re at a high resolution and that’s saying a lot because they look good. With the 3-D feature it adds more depth to this. It not only make the 8-bit graphics look attractive but it also adds a much welcomed sky (which changes depending on the track). This adds a lot of character to ExciteBike and I haven’t been able to play the game on other consoles the same since. Highly recommended.

Conclusion-

For being free (at the moment), I can’t find anything wrong with this classic. Sure I could nitpick and say there’s really nothing new, no multiplayer, no leader boards, but in all seriousness, how can you even begin to complain about something when its free? A childhood favorite brought into 3-D is what I’m talking about and if Nintendo can hear me, bring on the rest!

7/10

As a gamer, seeing Nintendo come from nowhere with New Super Mario Bros. was a pleasant surprise. Re-imagining the game that started it all was a brilliant idea all its own and releasing it on the Nintendo DS system was even better. Years later, I sit down to see how well this behemoth has aged and to see if this re-imagining of a timeless classic can follow in its foot steps.

You don’t have to be Nostradamus to predict the storyline of any Mario game. Peach is captured by Bowser and Mario has to save her. Throw cake in the formula somewhere and there you go. The world map layout is comparable to a board game, with secret levels to find, cannons to use and Toad’s power up houses to reach.Traveling from world to world can be achieved by touching which world you desire to travel to via the touch screen.

While progressing, you will notice signs spread throughout each world requesting a certain amount of Star Coins needed in order to proceed to secret levels or save points. Sort of like Super Mario World’s Yoshi coins, New Super Mario Bros.’s Star Coins are required to find and collect. Though there are some tricky coins, the majority are flat out easy to reach.

New Super Mario Bros. introduces three new power ups to the series: Mega Mushrooms, Mini Mushrooms and Blue Shells. The Mega Mushroom turns Mario into a indestructible behemoth, enabling you to demolish anything that stands in your way, while the Mini Mushroom turns Mario very tiny, allowing you to reach secret areas, run on water and jump drastically higher. The Blue Shell, however, is drastically different from the mushrooms. Taking form as a blue shelled koopa, Mario can now take out enemies with a fierce, runaway shell.

Throughout the game I found a great majority of the levels rushed as they feel short and oddly feel the same. Level designs begin to show their rust spots the further you proceed in the game. The difficulty doesn’t extend as you progress either, rather it jumps and falls depending on the level. Castle levels become boring and repetitive. The boss fights are more original and appealing, even if they are easy. Ghost Houses are… uninteresting? I don’t feel the classic ghost house feel from Super Mario World or Super Mario 64. Rather I find them atrocious with the layout and gimmicks to be mediocre at best.

The score in New Super Mario Bros. is a combination of remixed classic songs and incredibly catchy new ones. Bowser’s castle is creepy and dreary; beach levels have a Jamaican jazz to the rhythm; while underground levels have a catchy, mild techno beat.

Getting a few friends together and playing multiplayer (which is pretty much racing to the Star Coin), can be fairly fun for awhile. Nothing to really recommend. The mini games on the other hand can get very addicting for casual players. With the stylist you can whack the mole, pop balloons, guide a giant smiling snow ball down a hill and even poker! The mini games are also multiplayer which provides some fierce competition with friends and family. Though they’re cut and dried from Super Mario 64 DS which is disappointing as nothing has been added whatsoever.

Conclusion-

Overall New Super Mario Bros. has aged and it’s only going to get worse. Setting a standard for handheld Mario games is a great thing but when compared to its console brethren there’s no competition. Rushed level design, easy difficulty and lack of original atmosphere other Mario games seem to retain just fine, weigh this game down.

8.5/10

The Super Mario Advance series jumped around a lot. Going from Super Mario Bros. 2 to Super Mario World and it’s sequel, back to Super Mario Bros. 3 is a bumpy ride. Thankfully, with the fourth and last entry in this Mario heaven mini-series, Nintendo saved the best for last: Super Mario Bros. 3.

If you never had the chance to play Super Mario All Star’s updated version of Super Mario Bros. 3, this port will amaze you. For those of you that have, this is the exact same game we all played back in 1993. With the addition of voice acting, an unnecessary back-story, local multiplayer and the ability to play it on the go, isn’t much of a bribe.

But there’s a catch. You see, Super Mario Advance 4 is the only entry in the mini-series that takes advantage of the e-Reader peripheral. With that (as it costs money to do it), is completely optional as it acts like downloadable content for the Game Boy Advance/Gamecube. With a plethora of content, it’s debatable whether this is recommended and with it being so outdated I’d have to say it would be hard to find usable e-Cards.

The time I’ve spent with the additional levels, I have to say, they’re amazing. Sure, they’re not as fun as the original levels, but it resembles Super Mario World in more ways than one. Collecting five Yoshi coins (or so they look like them), the option to use the cape instead of the Tanooki tail, familiar enemies return, along with some old tunes all make the e-Reader levels feel like a nostalgic slap in the face.

Conclusion-

Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 is the only way for gamers who have yet to play this masterpiece. It adds much more than any other version of the game to date. Though paying for extra content that could of easily been on the cartridge for free and is obviously outdated and rare, should make any buyer feel robbed.

9/10 

You would think Nintendo could easily fix all of the problems with Super Mario 64 after nearly a decade with entirely new hardware and experience. With Super Mario 64 DS, the problems you may have had with the original may be gone but there are new ones to contradict the fixed issues.

Nothing about the entirety of the original has been changed. A few enemies have been moved around, smaller platforms are bigger and some layouts tweaked for reasons unknown, are three examples off the top of my head that truly help the experience feel more polished than the first time around.

Super Mario 64 DS adds thirty additional stars to the overall total making it 150. New missions appear such as collecting five silver stars and star switches. Star switches are switches you press down in order for a star to appear in a floating glass dome. Having a time limit to reach it provides a slight challenge.

What boggles my mind is the fact that some missions are missing and replaced with “new” ones. Tiny-Huge Island is missing its sixth mission where you have to find five hidden secrets throughout the level as huge Mario. A few other worlds suffer from this too and playing both versions side by side makes this little tweak very noticeable.

The new levels, while limited, are fairly fun to say the least. Finding Mario, Luigi and Wario was very fun and added some substance to this ultimately shallow remake. Outside of their levels were a few more short little bonus levels that did nothing to satisfy.

Comparable to Super Mario Bros. 2’s roster, Super Mario 64 DS features the exact concept but to a greater deal. Instead of starting off with every character at your disposal, the further you proceed through the game via stars, the sooner you will have access to the rest of the roster. All of which is essential to completing the entire game.

Backtracking is a huge part of your adventure, too. You won’t be able to gather every star in every world if you’re only playing as Yoshi and Mario. Luigi and Wario also play a huge role and provide two entirely different play styles. Yoshi is the most neutral of the four as he can throw eggs, jump high and breathe fire (as well as wear everyone’s hat). Mario can fly, wall jump and use the special flower to become bloated which allows him to float to higher areas a la Super Mario World.

Luigi can jump extraordinarily higher than the rest and can turn invisible to reach through impassible objects such as walls and glass. Wario, on the other hand, is completely useless if it wasn’t for his overpowered strength. Turning metal is his special ability but it isn’t used enough to be truly significant. He’s slow and terrible at jumping which is unnecessarily frustrating.

A surplus of mini games are available to unlock and play for high scores amongst your friends. There’s so much variety in terms of game play such as bouncing Mario on a trampoline and rolling a snowball via the stylus, that it will provide a good amount of replay value.

Holding down the Y button to run, the awful D-pad to move and the icy physics, all make for a clunky experience. Compared to its original counterpart, it’s embarrassing. Performing simple moves like long jumping and backwards flips are a hassle to perform and sometimes result in death. The touch screen controls are the only alternative option to the awful d-pad.

The updated graphics do little justice overall. Sure, everything looks better with more detail and appropriate backgrounds, but what are graphics if the game is still mediocre? The soundtrack is still poor. With a few new songs and some classic tunes in the mix, makes the soundtrack grow from limited yet great, to adequately acceptable.

Conclusion-

From my perspective, taking nearly ten years to remake a beloved classic and it to turn out like this, is very disappointing.Fixing problems is a good thing but not when you make other problems in the process. Updated graphics and soundtrack do little to impress fans of Mario and bringing Luigi, Wario and Yoshi into the midst of things doesn’t help bring creativity and replay value.

The additional stars don’t really provide much replay value either. If the new stages aren’t short, the stages are totally overshadowed by the original worlds. Going as far as to switch out certain missions with gimmicky, repetitive collect-athon missions or running to the star in the glass dome is highly disappointing.

I hope the next time Nintendo decides to remake a main series, 3-D Mario title, it comes to a conclusion that the remake actually needs to have some substance to it.

7/10