Category: 3DS

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Game Ramblings #52 – Metroid: Samus Returns

More Info from Nintendo

  • Genre: Action/Adventure, Metroidvania
  • Platform: 3DS
  • Originally Released on: Game Boy

TL;DR

  • Fantastic re-imagining of Game Boy’s Metroid II: Return of Samus
  • Additions to game break some of the expectations of the genre, but allow for a much higher challenge level of the base game
  • Core loop of 40 effective mini boss fights keeps action high, but doesn’t get stale due to increasing power level of the Metroids
  • Random note since it gave it to me, but my clear time was 8:38:13, which seems a bit on the low side of average to my surprise.

Nintendo is having one hell of a year.  Breath of the Wild and the Switch in general have been a runaway success.  Mario + Rabbids showed they could give control of their games to someone else and still maintain the high quality Nintendo feel.  Now with Metroid: Samus Returns, they’ve shown there is both life remaining in the 3DS, as well as some new ground that can be explored in one of their storied IPs.  This re-imagining of Metroid II is another fine example of what can happen when this series is given to outside developers, much like Retro and the Prime series, and also shows that 2D Metroid games don’t have to stick to their conventions and still be fantastic on their own.

Since some fans of the Metroid series are going to find these controversial, let’s start with some of the little changes and additions that this remake brings.  Fights against Metroids start and end with checkpoints, allowing you to not have to trek all over the place to guarantee save locations.  Along with some more generally helpful abilities, you have a rechargeable map scanner that also acts as a way to show blocks that can be broken.  In addition to the usual save points and ammo/energy recharge stations, there are also now teleport stations as a means of fast travel.  All of these things in general break some of the mold of exploring every little bit of land in Metroid games, and also break some of the re-traversal expectations of the series.  However, the actual end result is that the developers have been able to drastically increase the difficulty across the board, much to the game’s advantage.

Traversal in most Metroid experiences has usually brought relatively little danger outside of boss fights.  Enemies would do damage if you got hit, but more often than not the health drops they left behind would more than suffice to heal you back up.  This one definitely doesn’t follow that pattern.  It’s not unusual for a melee hit from a normal enemy to do half an energy tank or more of damage, and that’s just on normal difficulty.  Once you get to the Metroids and eventually bosses, multiple energy tank loss from one hit is expected.  The short version here is that even by end game, I could expect to maybe take 4-5 hits in a boss fight before I was dead, so being able to respawn in a checkpoint next to the boss room was particularly appreciated while I was learning fights.

This is particularly important, because the combat system in place definitely had some things that have to be learned for Metroid veterans.  On the smaller side of things, Samus can now root herself in place and aim 360 degrees with the analog stick.  While this does offer up significantly better precision for attacks, it also leaves her extremely vulnerable to quick attacks.  This is balanced by the new melee counter attacks.  If an enemy flashes, Samus can activate a melee swing to counter an enemy, leaving them open for high impact damage.  For boss fights in particular, this activates a little mini-cutscene where you can unload missiles without repercussions, which ends up being the biggest damage dealer against Metroids.

In general, these changes were a much larger positive than I was expecting.  The 360 aim opened up a lot of possibilities for much more dynamic boss fights, where they would hover around the room in spots where I had to play a balance of moving to avoid projectiles vs. stopping in place to get off a few precision shots for damage.  Once the enemy then came in range, the timing skill behind watching for opportunities for melee counters gave the game a feel more typical of heavy melee action games, which Metroid typically has not been.  Given that the developer MercurySteam was also behind the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow games, this perhaps isn’t that surprising, but it was very welcoming.

I think the best way to wrap this up is that I’m pleasantly surprised.  The studio behind this has released some great games, but it’s been a while since a 2D Metroid came out (seriously, Zero Mission was in 2004) and I was surprised they were being given so much of a chance to take liberties with the core gameplay.  By and large they’ve also worked really well.  The studio has been on record saying that they had originally pitched a remake demo of Metroid Fusion and been turned down, which led to this project.  It’s clear they had a lot of passion for the franchise anyway and it’s evident in the quality of the game they’ve released.  It’s also worth noting that a post-credits scene shows the rise of the X parasite from Fusion, which makes sense given it also takes place on the planet SR388 of this game.  Whether or not that’s just there as a tongue in cheek reference to their original hopes or the sign of something else, I can only hope that this and the upcoming Metroid Prime 4 are the beginning of more for this franchise.  It’s been on the side lines for way too long.

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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 #42 – Ever Oasis

More Info from Nintendo

  • Genre: ARPG
  • Platform: 3DS

TL;DR

  • Simple, but entertaining combat reminiscent of developer’s previous work on Mana series
  • Nice city management/maintenance systems based around shop upkeep through resource gathering
  • Tedious party swap system made questionable by ability to warp back to town at any point

This is the latest game by Grezzo, a studio let by the the creator of the Manas series.  It’s easy to see the influences of those games when playing Ever Oasis.  Ya, it’s in 3D, and ya there’s a city management layer there, but the core of the game is still killing things and gathering resources in real time.  The battle system is a simple affair, based largely on minimizing damage instead of doing flashy combos, and it generally works really well.  While there’s definitely some tedious problems when swapping in and out characters for specific skills while exploring, the game largely ends up being a fun affair throughout.

Since this is an ARPG, combat itself is the obvious focus, and it’s here that a lot of the connection to the Mana series shows up.  Like that series, the actual combat is pretty simple, in this case having (effectively) only a weak and strong attack button.  Ya there’s some basic combos to throw, and some passive skills that can be gained, but the core is based around just laying in some attacks.  Where this really separates from its base source is the addition of lock on and dodge rolls, both things that are to be expected in 3D games at this point, but add a lot of life to the game.  Particularly in boss battles, it becomes a quick job of learning the handful of attacks, then consistently executing on the appropriate attack->dodge sequences to minimize damage taken, while maximizing how far into your combo you get for the best damage.  In that sense, the combat is more about reducing damage to a optimizing DPS while keeping damage to a minimum, rather than just simply wailing on enemies like a lot of ARPGs tend to go.  While it is ultimately simple, it’s a hell of a lot of fun, and each little fight has its own nuances to learn.

Killing enemies and finding resources in the environment via this system then feeds back into the second core part of the game, the oasis management.  This is a pretty hefty system that players can either dip their toes into for progression purposes, or really get deeply involved in as a main task.  This basically breaks down into three sections; finding new residents, opening new shops, and growing the shops through resource gathering.  The systems in place here end up in a pretty satisfying loop.  You’ll gather a clue about the whereabouts of a new potential resident, find them while out exploring, have them visit your town, hit some checklist of things for them to move in, then in many cases working with the resident to start and grow and maintain the shop.  Where I really dug into this was in the eventual use of non-shop characters to maintain my resource gathering.  Groups of non-shop owners could be sent out of monster kill or resource gather missions, supplementing the exploration I was doing and allowing for me to rapidly grow my oasis without falling behind on maintaining the shops that already exist.

The resources also supplemented the gear system, which is entirely based around crafting.  While there are some options to purchase some base weapons from merchants, the vast majority of gear is crafted via specific resources.  This further positively reinforced the need to invest in the shop and resident systems, giving you more potential AI explorers, more reason to keep resources, and most importantly more reason to be out exploring new areas.  Unfortunately, the exploration is where the biggest flaw of the game came into place, specific to the party management.

The short version here is that other than the main character you can only bring 2 residents out of the oasis at a time, and the party can only be changed while in the oasis.  The problem here is that each character has a skill that allows them to take a specific action in the field.  There’s ends up being about 10 different skills that can be used, ranging from resource gathering (mining, digging, etc), traversal (clear cobwebs, hammer through boulders, etc), or puzzle solving (turn into a ball to fit through holes).  This means you often have to pick between having practical traversal groups over resource gathering groups.  Unfortunately, it’s often the case that you need more than the two skills allowed.

The fact that the party swap mechanic is in place is questionable given the main character has a teleport back to town that can be used at any time.  This is further confusing in the fact that the player can then immediately warp back to the exact location they just left once the party swap has been done.  While there are benefits to returning to town at any one point (Ex: XP is only gained when returning to town), the party swap could have been something done at any time, eliminating a serious drag on the game pace, while still keeping the other benefits to returning to town in place.

Fortunately the tedium of swapping party members did not present a huge barrier in completing the game.  Combat was still fun.  The oasis building mechanic and areas around it were still engaging.  The fact that I had to actively go after resources to build out my gear set also meant that I was actively engaged in exploring for specific things while out in the field.  Overall it seems like a fairly natural progression to the gameplay present in the Mana series, even if there are some things to be smoothed out in the next title.