Category: 3DS

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Game Ramblings #34 – Goodbye! BoxBoy!

Info on the first two titles from Nintendo

  • Genre: Puzzle/Platformer
  • Platform: 3DS (eShop)

So ya, technically speaking this isn’t out in the US yet.  However, that fancy triple pack is out in Japan, so I had to jump at it.  The TL;DR on this series is that you play a Box…Boy that is able to spawn chains of blocks connected to his body.  You use these chains to traverse puzzle-based levels, with each world tending to be built around a series of levels with one new core mechanic.  While the gameplay of this third title is still built around that core, HAL Labs has again managed to bring a lot of new mechanics in to give another 20+ worlds of damn good puzzle solving.

If there’s one core theme that this game was built on, I’d say it was motion.  Sure, the core box chain puzzles from the first two games are there, but a lot of the new mechanics are all based around exploiting motion in some way.  Just a few of the many examples of some of the smart ways they used motion:

  • Forced movement through the use of conveyors, moving platforms, velocity-adding volumes, and water meant that timing became a lot more important puzzle-solving mechanic than just setting up chains of blocks.
  • The inclusion of things like explosives allowed for some fantastic puzzles based around blocks falls.
  • AI-based levels added secondary characters into the mix.  In particular, there were a number of escort levels that were actually fun (I’m being serious here).  There were some smart decisions in the use of AI, in particular the fact that the AI will not move forward if its path is dangerous.  It simply waits for you to makes things safe for it.
  • Gravity-based mechanics also came through a lot, with some really smart levels based around reversal of gravity, as well as levels based on weight through scales.

Each of the first 15 or so worlds tended to have one new mechanic in it.  The last 10 or so worlds and challenge worlds are where things really got interesting.  The final handful of worlds did a great job of taking the individual mechanics, and mixing them into multi-mechanic levels that test both a late night sleep deprived brain, as well as my patience in a lot of areas.  That said, this is some of the best puzzle-platform gameplay that the 3DS has seen.  Of particular note, the challenge worlds offer some mischievous changes, such as not being able to jump, or not being able to fall more than 1 block’s height.

There’s really not much to say here if you’ve played either of the first two titles in the series.  The core of the game is the same, and the new mechanics are fantastic.  If you’ve got a Japanese 3DS, it’s definitely worth picking up the triple pack if you’re a collector.  Otherwise, until this gets to the US, 3DS owners have another great title to look forward to.

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Game Ramblings #26 – Pokemon Sun & Moon

More info from Nintendo/Game Freak

  • Genre: JRPG
  • Platform: 3DS

So one of the things that was continually talked about pre-release for these games was how much the 7th generation was going to change up the formula for Pokemon.  Having now finished the game, I’m not that convinced they really changed much at all, and in a lot of ways they seem to have stripped out features to get to a simplified base to start the generation.  While I’m pretty comfortable saying that as usual, this was a fantastic game and is the best Pokemon entry that’s been released, it feels like another iterative step in the series, and not at all a big change to the formula.

So, I guess to start, let’s look at what actually is new.  We’re in a new region, Alola, this time taking place on a bunch of islands.  The theme of a lot of the new 80 or so Pokemon in the Gen 7 Pokedex revolves around this, particularly in the large amount of legendaries available in the post-game content.  In addition, there’s a handful of Gen 1 Pokemon in new Alola forms, such as the Dark/Normal Rattata or Ice/Steel Sandshrew.  In all you’re talking about 100 or so new entries into your overall strategy.  There’s also a replacement to Gen 6’s Mega Evolutions called Z-Moves, super powered moves tied to type- or Pokemon-specific Z-Crystals that are found throughout the main story.

So all that is well and good, but is largely comprised of expected changes.  From there we have to get into the kinda sort asterisk changes that were really claimed as the big steps forward, as well as some features that were removed from Gen 6 games that are definitely to be missed.

The big one here is the change associated with gyms.  Gyms are gone! You aren’t collecting badges! …kind of.  Gyms were effectively replaced by a new captain challenge system.  Each captain challenge is a special area on each island in which you take on a type-specific challenge.  As an example, in one you are tasked with researching a series of disturbances in a lake, culminating in a series of water Pokemon fights, with the reward being a water Z-Crystal.  Long story short, they technically aren’t gyms, and technically aren’t badges, the functionality is effectively the same, going from area to area to fight type-restricted fights.  Alongside the gym changes, there’s also some big asterisks associated with changes to the Pokemon League that are effectively covered in the story.

As far as removals go, Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby extended the gameplay of Gen 6’s post-game in some smart ways that no longer exist.   The first big one of these is the Soar feature, where you could fly on the back of Latios or Latias over the Hoenn region, giving you access to both battles against flying Pokemon, as well as a larger number of Soar-exclusive legendary Pokemon areas, and post game content.  In addition, the DexNav feature is completely removed.  This has two important consequences.  First, the per-route visual indicator of what Pokemon are available is gone.  Second, the entire hidden Pokemon feature is gone.  In general the second-screen experience is effectively only restricted to combat inputs and an always-on Town Map, which fairly heavily simplified the count of non-essential mechanics available to the player.  In addition, the removal of Mega Evolutions is at the very least curious given the amount of marketing push it received throughout the entirety of Gen 6.

All that being said, overall I still think the game is a step forward.  In shedding some of the old mechanics, they have definitely simplified the game back to a much cleaner slate, giving them a good base to start with looking forward to the probable move to the upcoming Switch.  It also provides some questions as to how they are going to handle the assumed Gen 4 remakes when they’re ready to move in that direction.  The team at this point seems to have caught up to a lot of the type mechanics added within the last couple of generations, with a lot of the new Pokemon adopting dual-type combos never seen before.  The addition of region-specific forms also gave us curious new type combinations, lending a bit of mystery to what kind of Pokemon is coming up next when you’re told that you will be facing a Sandslash.  If they really run with some of these features through the rest of Gen 7, we could be set for a huge jump in the quality of the Pokemon games from this point forward.

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Game Ramblings #18 – Kirby: Planet Robobot

More info from Nintendo

  • Genre: Platformer
  • Platform: 3DS

Let’s be realistic here.  The mainline Kirby platformers haven’t really changed that much in the nearly 25 years the series has been going.  Sure, there’s been the more experimental games, some entirely touch driven like a number of the older DS titles, or motion driven like Tilt ‘n’ Tumble.  However, the platformers all effectively have the same gameplay; a bunch of pretty standard platformer levels where Kirby can suck up the enemies to gain powers, ranging from archer abilities, to fire breathing, and more.  Robobot doesn’t make an attempt to change that, but it both succeeds at not screwing up the formula, and bringing in some nice touches to make this a great entry nonetheless.

So, the question then I guess is what this one does that’s different from the standard formula.  The biggest obvious difference is the Robobot part of the game’s title.  In most of the levels, Kirby can takeover a big ass robot frame, and truck around the levels in that, rather than on foot.  While the core gameplay is still the same (the robot also sucks up and gains powers), the implementation of the powers between the robot and Kirby on foot is entirely different, and the robot being large also allows for destruction of areas in the level that Kirby alone can’t get into.  What this does is enforces a larger sense of exploration than is typical in a Kirby game, as getting a robot frame can allow you to get into areas you previously had to pass up.  It’s also worth noting that like most games with robots, punching things in the face is still satisfyingly great.

Robobot also brings back the multi-plane gameplay from Triple Deluxe, and uses it to great effect here.  In particular, some of the robot sections have you jumping back and forth between both level planes based on power ups.  For example, the wheel powerup turns the robot into a motorcycle, and allows jumping between the near and far plane with the press of the button, allowing for much quicker traversal through the level without having to stop.  Some boss fights also take advantage of the depth, with freely rotating circular arenas, or the robot punching projectiles in and out of the screen towards the enemy firing at you.  The depth also ties into a lot of the collectible aspect of the game, with stamps and collectable cubes hidden all over.  In general, it took a good feature from the previous title, and expanded on it in ways that really made sense given the game they were developing here.

That being said, the game has some issues, but they aren’t any different than a typical Kirby game.  By and large, this is an easy game, and the difficulty is more in trying to be a completionist, not missing any collectibles.  I don’t think I ever died in a way that wasn’t self inflicted due to missing something and needing to force backtrack, even on the final boss.  The game was also relatively short, clocking in at something around 6-7 hours.  That said, I didn’t play through the included minigames, which seemed like they were probably 25% or so of the included content.  Had I been going for a 100% collectible completion, you can probably clock in another 3-5 hours, depending on how nice RNG is treating you in the collection of the in-game stickers.

Realistically speaking, there’s no mystery to whether or not to play this one.  If you like Kirby games, you’ll like this.  If you haven’t liked Kirby games, you probably wouldn’t like this.  If you’re looking for something new, that’s definitely not here either, and you’re probably better off playing Rainbow Curse on the Wii U.  Regardless, this was another fun Kirby game, even if not much has really changed over the years.

As an aside, Nintendo’s website for Kirby has an adorable Kirby sprite.  Nice touch guys.

kirby_site