Category: Racing

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Game Ramblings #44 – Runbow Pocket

More Info from 13am Games

  • Genre: Platformer/Racing
  • Platform: New 3DS
  • Also Available On: Wii U, Windows, Xbox One

This is a strange one in a lot of ways.  Runbow is the second retail title I’ve seen (and own) in the US that is specifically New Nintendo 2DS/3DS exclusive.  Despite platformers being entirely dependent on good physics, the weak physics also ended up being something I could ignore because the core mechanics of the game were simply good enough to ignore the problems I was running into.  The short format of the levels also ended up being a significant draw to playing this in a portable fashion.

I suppose it’s worth getting the physics problems out of the way because it really is the main drawback of some of their design decisions.  Jumping itself is generally pretty stiff, and while it’s predictable, doesn’t have the same smooth variable feel that a lot of better 2D platformers end up having.  Because of this, I was becoming more dependent on overcompensating my jumps, then air dashing to adjust my landing positions if I under or overjumped my intended landing area.  However, dashes in general have an awkward pause at the end of the action.  While this wasn’t generally a problem, the inherent core idea of getting to the end of the level as fast as possible is negatively impacted by the loss of momentum, even just from a feel perspective.  The act of landing on platforms also had some issues.  I was never really able to pinpoint whether it was the small size of the screen or simply a game feature, but it felt like platforms had some amount of magnetism if you were “close enough” to landing on the edge of one.   This combined with the stiff jump meant I was second guessing a lot of precise jumps that were over more significant gaps.  For most platformers, this would all combine to be the death of the game, but luckily the core mechanics of the level progression were good enough to let me ignore a lot of this.

From a high level the core mechanic across the entire game is that the platforms, traps, and in some cases shields around enemies in the foreground and the level’s background are made up of a handful of primaryish colors.  If they match, the platform effectively disappears.  This right there is what elevates the game to something fantastic, and the amount of depth that the devs pulled out of a seemingly simple idea surprises throughout.  Each level has some way of playing off this system to actively change what things can be collided with.  This can run the gamut from the entire background changing in rhythm with the music to waterfalls of flowing color to shapes moving across the scene seemingly at random.  You’re simply dropped in and given a few seconds at the start to figure out what’s going on and react to it so you don’t lose time running through.

The format also worked fantastically as a portable experience.  The longest levels typically hit goal times around 1:15 or so, but were typically only in boss levels.  Most standard levels fit into the 20-40 second range.  The idea of grabbing my 3DS, hitting a couple levels while waiting on something, then putting it away has always been a draw of the platform, and this fits the bill nicely.  The fact that there’s a ton of content (nearly 200 levels in just the core game) means that I can be poking at this for a long time, even ignoring the replayability of going for low times across all levels.

This is definitely a bit of a unicorn.  It’s a New 3DS exclusive, a platformer with awkward physics that I didn’t hate, a game experience suited for portables that shipped last on a portable, and despite it all is a fantastic time to play.  A lot of that goes into a great style that is wrapped directly into the core mechanics of the game, giving a lot of mileage to what is at the surface a really simple idea.

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Game Ramblings #22.1 – Forza Horizon 3: Hot Wheels

See original post covering Forza Horizon 3

  • Genre: Open World Racing
  • Platform: Windows 10 (Microsoft Store – Digital Only)
  • Also Available On: Xbox One

This screenshot is the best quick peak I can really give to describe this expansion.  There’s a loop in the back left, some obligatory fire in the right, and an entire mountain covered in looping track in the center.  This is as close as you’ll get to your childhood fantasy of driving a full size Hot Wheels car in a full size Hot Wheels universe, and damn is it a lot of fun.

This is the second expansion released as post-release content for Forza Horizon 3.  The first one, Blizzard Mountain, added a bunch of snow-focused rally events that were solid but didn’t stray too far from the core gameplay established in the base game.  Horizon Hot Wheels throws the idea of the base game out the window.  All of the expectations of a Hot Wheels theme are there.  There’s brightly colored blue and orange track (with the all important little side walls) built in impossible angles to drive around on.  There’s soaring banks and loops that seem impossible to drive on (and yes, you can fall off if you’re going too slow at the top of a loop).  There’s gigantic jumps everywhere, most of the time preceded by a little black boost pad to really get you up to speed.  There’s even an occasional T-Rex there just to make sure things stay grounded in reality.  Despite it all, this still works as a solid Forza experience.

While Horizon has always leaned distinctly more towards arcade than the core Forza titles, it still had a relatively realistic feel to driving, and that’s maintained here.  The best times are still going to be had by paying attention to your breaking lines and properly hitting corners.  However, the track designs greatly changed how I approached racing.  My preferred setup has always been the cockpit view, and the ability to see where I’m going in a standard car on standard roads was never a problem.  What I didn’t take into account is the fact that I may be turning UP, instead of left and right, and that’s the biggest gameplay change that the Hot Wheels expansion brings to the table.  Because of the significant inclusion of things like loops or Immelmann loops, I tended to heavily lean on cars that either had significantly large windshields, or cars that were roll cage only, giving me a lot more ability to see where the corners were approaching in a completely foreign direction from what I was used to.

That said, not everything worked out fantastically.  The Hot Wheels cars themselves were unsurprisingly bad at being cars.  The designs have always been hilariously impractical as actual car designs, but having the cool looking toy and actually trying to drive the cars are two different things.  This is especially bad when you can’t actually see where you’re going:

Yep, that’s a big ol engine block in the way.  The designs that are there are definitely authentic to the originals, but I tended to stick with normal cars when I could just for playability.  The AI also was having some significant problems adjusting to the strange track designs, particularly in high speed banks where turning really wasn’t that important.  I can’t recall more than a handful of times where I really saw the AI ever flip over in the base game, but it was pretty routine to see multiple cars in a race go flying off the track to their doom here.  The AI also felt like it had some adjustments to its rubberbanding since I last played, because the AI was often pulling off impossible feats in acceleration to pass me.  I’ve never driven the Halo Warthog, but I king of suspect it can’t out accelerate a Jaguar F-Type.

However, the things I found wrong were at best minor nitpicks.  They’re immediately forgotten the first time you go off a blind jump through a fire hoop, see the car tilting up, and just watch the sky for seconds at a time not really knowing when you’re going to land.  It’s those kinds of outlandish moments that make this feel like playing in a giant Hot Wheels set, despite still feeling like Forza.

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Game Ramblings #22 – Forza Horizon 3

More Info from Turn 10

So, I like Forza.  Of the now 11 games I have for the Xbox One, 4 of them are Forzas.  It goes without saying that I was looking forward to this one.  This was also a bit of an experiment for me, as it’s the first of the new Xbox Play Anywhere titles I’ve gotten, so it was going to set the tone in how I considered those purchases going forward.

Let’s get this out of the way.  The PC port was rock solid.  Visually it didn’t look that incredibly different than the Xbox One version, but that was already a fairly solid looking title on its own.  What it did get right are the details.  It has really solid 21:9 aspect ratio support, which a lot of PC games still don’t get right.  It has both really solid quick configure video settings for more casual users (including a really solid dynamic visuals system to keep framerate steady), as well as highly configurable settings for your higher end users.  Even on ultra, getting 60 fps was not a problem.  Also of note, they added a bunch of wheel support with promises to continue adding more.  Having played some with the Logitech G27, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it, but it was definitely worth a laugh.  So, that out of the way, the question then is how good is the actual game?

The racing itself is about what is expected of a Horizon title.  The cars still have a pretty solid feel to them, with the actual steering, breaking, etc still feeling relatively realistic, even if it tilts more towards the arcadey side of things when it comes to drifting.  Different classes of cars are very obviously in different performance tiers, and it’s obvious to tell the difference between the handling and acceleration dynamics of various vehicles.  To some extent the amount of damage that vehicles can take, even with simulation damage on, is somewhat outlandish, but given the gameplay it feels pretty appropriate without being completely over the top.  That said, AI drivatars are still somewhat rubberbandy, and definitely exist purely to provide a mark of in-race progression, because they generally have a tendency to run their line to a fault, even if you are already in the middle of the race line.  Overall though, the speed of races, and continued hilarity of the cross country events provides an experience that stays fresh as you proceed through each event.

The progression system of Horizon 3’s meta game has definitely seen some improvements over 2.  Whereas 2 had you going through a fairly linear path of championships back to back, 3 really pushes the open world to the forefront.  The name of the game is gaining fans, and gaining more fans allows festival locations to be upgraded, unlocking events, PR stunts, and ultimately the Horizon showcases.  Because everything you do inherently gains fans, you are much less locked into a core path.  One minute you may be doing a race, then hopping to a Bucket List, or looking for speed traps and jumps.  You also aren’t locked to vehicles for non-championship events, so I was changing vehicles at a much higher frequency than in 2.  Overall the game provided a much better play as you want it experience than past games, despite the fact that the first 2 titles were already fairly open in their progression.

I guess if I were to end it with anything, it’s that this is probably a good game to jump into if you’re at all a racing game fan.  If you’re purely a PC gamer and haven’t played a Forza game, this would fall in line with recent Need for Speed games, or the older Burnout Paradise as comparable games that have made it to PC.  If you’re a console gamer the list is pretty similar.  Really, if the idea of plowing through a field doing 180 in a Ferrari, all while mowing down bushes and jumping off a cliff into a river sounds at all appealing, you’d probably dig this one.  Yes, that happens.  Regularly.