Super Mario Galaxy
We'll start off with the Wii, and you can't possibly talk about the Nintendo Wii without mentioning Super Mario Galaxy. Mario games, as of late, have not exactly been my cup 'o' Tea. Super Mario Sunshine (GameCube) did not exactly strike a chord with me; not only did I not collect all the shines, but I didn't even beat Bowser. I borrowed "New Super Mario Brothers" from a friend hoping to see if it was good enough to warrant purchase, and while I can say I enjoyed the game on some level overall I felt it lacked any real pizzazz and never did finish it or buy it. So when Super Mario Galaxy was first announced, I approached it with a certain level of trepidation. Being burned by the last two 'true' Mario games instilled no sense of loyalty in me and I couldn't even imagine how the Wii Remote could be used to "enhance" a game like Mario. I was content to love Mario 64 and, perhaps eventually, pick up Mario Galaxy. The Intention was to purchase my most desired game - Smash Brothers Brawl - and once Galaxy reached "player's choice" status or whatever they call it for Wii, finally give it a whirl. After all, even Sunshine was fun to a certian extent, and a Nintendo game generally has enough Polish to be worth a purchase at some point, regardless of being "Game of the Year" quality.
So here I am, 120 stars later, and willing to admit that I should not question what a plump, platforming plumber can do to a grown man. Galaxy grabs you and hooks you into simple, addictive gameplay so refined that it's almost impossible to convince yourself to put down the Wiimote for anything. You really get that "Just 1 more star" mentality and pretty soon it's 1am and you're wondering when the sun went down and why you haven't eaten dinner yet. In an era where First Person Shooters and RPGs seem to rule all the sales charts and be the apple of every critic's eye, this little gem goes down as the game that just might be able to top Mario 64 in my opinion as the best Mario game.
Hands down, the best feature is the crazy use of gravity. The clever gravity puzzles, the ability to jump off of a high tower and "fly" all the way around the planet to the other side, the gravity changing fields and "oh wow" factor of running upside down on the roof or straight up the wall. It's all there, everything you could possibly image (and more) and it isn't limited to a few over used "see-saw" puzzles (see: Half Life 2). Sure, the gravity is not "logical" or even physically plausible, and it is true that on more than one occasion you'll become disoriented and have no idea how to corectly move mario in the direction you want him to go. These are but small flaws in a system that genuinely takes an old, tired game genre and - no pun intended - flips it completely upside down. Has it been done before? Probably. Is it perfect? No. I found more than one time where I died because I wanted to run left but Mario instead ran right, or couldn't see around corners or in tight areas due to some 'iffy' camera controls, but overall the game delights in so many ways that you do not account much for these.
I've already completed the game (and by complete I don't mean beating the last boss, which can be done with only 60 stars, but having collected all 120 stars) and simply cannot wait to play the game over again. The only complaints I really have for the title lie with it's potential, which may be somewhat unfair. When I say it could have been better, it is not because it was bad or lacking, but because suddenly I can see even MORE they could have done. Perhaps the biggest tease (warning, SPOILER!) is the fact that near the end of the game you can gain access to a "flying" cap similar to that in Mario 64. Unfortunately, this never seems to be utilized in the actual levels and instead is completely limited to the "overworld" area. What gives, Nintendo? Some of the most enjoyable levels from Mario 64 were the stars that required using the flying cap! Shooting yourself out of a cannon and then flying around the level always felt amazing and was loads of fun even without the necessity to have a set "goal" to accomplish. You even went so far as to add it into the game, so why not make use of it? Perhaps I just missed it, but I've collected all 120 stars and still have not seen it available in any of the normal levels. Obviously the hat couldn't be used in several places - ones in outer space that you generally "flew" around in anyway with pull stars or bubbles and the like - but even one measly "observatory" filled with 5-10 "bonus" or comets that would visit some of the bigger planets would've been enough.
I also missed the 100 coin stars and 'collect 8 red coin' stars, which were replaced with 'collect 100 purple coins' stars. The 100 purple coin stars were my least favorite because they generally involved exploring levels down to the most detailed of nooks/crannies, and while 95+ would be easy to find those last few would always take several minutes of not-so-fun backtracking to find. 'Hunt for the 8 red coins' was by far a better system, focusing on exploration combined with innovative or unique collection (flying, climbing, sliding, jumping, fighting, etc) rather than a laundry list of holes and corners to hide things behind. While these levels were generally still "fun" and I'd often find myself discovering new areas or "secrets" within each level I would revisit, overall it was always haunted by this fear of "great, how long will THIS collection take?".
"Comets" were a great way to "up the ante" for more hardcore gamers looking for a challenge, and generally were handled very well. I especially liked the daredevil challenge, as you faced the familiar while being required to not lose a single life. Sure, it could be frustrating at times, but you always knew it was because of something you did, not because you were "unlucky". Cosmic races weren't quite as fun or unique as the N64 versions that inspired them but still added a bit of variety to the challenges.
Overall, Galaxy was an incredible experience and one I cannot emphasize enough for any Wii owner. In all likelihood, though, you already knew that. So let's move on to...
Zack and Wiki
The game doesn't have a lot going for it from a "mass market" standpoint. Cartoony visuals combined with rather bland or uninspiring titles aren't exactly the one-two punch for a best seller, given the target market for Zack and Wiki is not going to be pre-teens. Whatever funding was lacking in marketing, however, must have been because they diverted all of their attention to gameplay, and it shows. Zack and Wiki is a "point and click adventure" which in this day in age has been relegated to "niche" status, barely holding it's own and scraping by as a genre. Games like Sam and Max and Phoenix Wright keep the genre going almost exclusively through well written (and often times humorous) plots more than the sense of "exploring" or puzzle. These games are good in their own right (I can only speak for Phoenix Wright, having never really played Sam and Max) but they fall very short of the genius that is Monkey Island.
So when Zack and Wiki was announced, quite a few heads turned... especially since the Wii platform offers such a unique opportunity to really push the game to a new level. And let me tell you, Capcom didn't just push, they SHOVED. The first few levels may be easy, but the difficulty quickly ramps up and each puzzle offers a unique solution (sometimes even two or three) that make full use of all of the Wii-motes many unique features. Gesture based actions (pushing/pulling), IR sensing (moving/blocking), position based actions (turning keys, attacking with swords) - just when you think you've seen it all, Campcom finds some other way to astonish and amaze you. Wiimote speaker? Wiimote Balancing? Wiimote Shaking? It's all here. And they don't feel "tacked on", either. Each one is deliberately and lovingly thought out to the point that many solutions could not simply be boiled down to "pressing a button". I can't go into too much detail without giving away some of the puzzles in the game, but with any other controller this game would more than likely have to rely too much on it's graphics and story (neither of which are really anything to write home about), and the game would lose quite a lot of its charm and character.
Speaking of which: personally, I enjoy the way the game is presented. It's not quite up to "Galaxy" levels, and the art style is definitely something that will be just as limited by personal taste as it was by artistic direction, but the more anime-inspired cartoon look really gives the game a life of its own. I will admit that I am a fan of the sort of "over the top" emotional response that come from these anime-like visuals, but everything from Zack's little "Victory Dance" to Captain Rose's "Angry" animations will almost always elicit a chuckle, if not an outright laugh. The character interaction is it's strongest point, showing off an impressive set of "emotion" responses that, while canned never seem to get old despite their overuse. There's no real "Voice Over" work, aside from a few simplistic "cheer" or "grunt" sounds (like, say, Mario or Zelda) which is both sad and good at the same time. Generally, new IPs offer the best option to adding Voice to a character because that character has yet to truly be "defined" in the minds of gamers. Zack and Wiki could have reached above and beyond, giving their already strong character line-up an extra level of "depth" with some quality voice work, but at the same time I can see how sticking to text was a better choice. Given the art style, the setting, and the select "voice" already available in the game, I can see how having to listen to this for prolonged periods of time would really start to grate the nerves and serve as a detraction from the overall experience, and not as an addition to it.
Despite it's flaws, Zack and Wiki remains a very solid title with beautiful presentation and ingenious gameplay. The lower price point ($40, and perhaps already dropped to as low as $30) only add to the value packed into this highly overlooked title. While I can safely assume that most Wii owners know about Galaxy and have made up their minds about it, Zack and Wiki seems doomed to be lost forever to almost zero marketing and stylized graphics. For your sake, as well as mine (I want a sequel!), please go buy this game. I can guarantee you will NOT be disappointed (if you are, there is something definitely wrong with you). It's not hard to miss this game when walking through the store, but it's hard not to fall in love with it once you pop it into your Wii's disc slot.
While we're on the topic of Nintendo, let's move to the Nintendo DS:
Final Fantasy XII : Revenant WingsMost people know that I have an unnatural love affair with Square. In my younger, more naive years, slapping "Final Fantasy" on just about anything would have me immediately place it as a "Game of the Year" contender regardless of having ever even seen or played the game myself. $50 for "Final Fantasy: Cooking with Cid?". SIGN ME UP! But after a punishing myself on Final Fantasy X (who, as a game, I loved, but as a story I despised) and refusing to even acknowledge FFX-2 and FFXI as real games (a true sequel and an MMO? What was Square thinking?) and having my bank account nearly shattered by the release of Crystal Chronicles on Gamecube (loved the idea but could never get enough people/Gameboys/cables to complete it), I've become more skeptical of Square games. Tactics Advanced helped to woo me in a time of betrayal and abuse, but Square no longer gets the automatic seal of approval that it used to from me (This is left to Blizzard and Nintendo, it seems...). I had no chance to play Final Fantasy XII (I finally got my PS2 back, and now own a copy, so I'm working on that fact) but when it was announced that Square would make a "spin-off" of FFXII on the DS I simply groaned out my usual "who cares, another sequel" and went on my merry way. Then, I heard it was an RTS... and I started to pay a bit more attention. An RTS? On the DS? Can it be?!?
Sure, maybe Heroes of Mana did it first, but now we're talking an RTS with the story of an RPG on a system with a touch screen and a rather large world to build off of (FFXII received very high reviews, so I was hopeful here). Not being able to contain my desire for Phantom Hourglass gave me the perfect excuse to add FFXII: Revenant Wings to my Christmas list, and I can safely say it was a good choice.
The game plays sort of like WarCraft III, in that you have "hero" units with abilities and stats above and beyond your normal units. There is no real "resource management" in this game, so the gameplay is much more focused on the battles. The battle system is, overall, a positive for the game. Gambits help to remove the monotony of having to continuously watch all 5 characters and cast their magic spells without completely overpowering them (you only choose 1 spell to auto cast, so any others you still have to go and select manually). The diversity in level design is an added but possibly unnecessary bonus (it's not always "kill everything", although that usually works to complete the level, too) and, aside from the last boss and last few "free missions", you don't have to "grind" out levels. Controls can be somewhat frustrating, especially when trying to select just 1 specific unit/hero. Too much on the screen can make the slightly-imperfect touch screen stand out as a limiting input factor, but overall the touchscreen does a very good job of bringing RTS games to a platform that otherwise would have never worked.
The "Synth" system does quite a bit to overhaul the standard fare "buy better items" syndrome that tends to plague RPGs. You are offered the chance to purchase low and sometimes medium grade "ingredients", or go on a scavenger hunt to find that "high" quality piece that will really give you a big boost in stats. You can also "customize" the weapon to place a bit more emphasis in one area over another (say, stamina over speed, defense over damage, etc) through the use of cleverly worded (but sometimes rather ambiguous) "questions" about the characters or what you might do in certain hypothetical situations. It adds much more "strategy" to actually upgrading your weapons, considering you will have to share ingredients among several different units. So, if you use "high" quality on 1 or 2 characters, several others will be forced to use "medium" or "low"... or perhaps not get upgrades entirely until the next recipe book comes along. It would have been nicer if the game was a bit more forgiving on telling you where you could go to "find" these high quality materials, but perhaps that is a part of the "exploration" elements.
Overall, the game was quite enjoyable and offered a few dozen hours of impressive story telling, character development and, of course, it's fair share of large-scale battles. The last boss and free missions are more an excercise in annoyance than seems fair, but I suppose they are more the "Omega" weapon of this game. Having my level 50 units under constant and relentless attack from level 90 units was neither fun nor encouraging, but I'm sure someone sees this as a "challenge" and will try to grind it out until they can defeat them... but unless I become woefully lacking in games, this option does not seem likely for me. My units did not have enough HP to take on the last boss, so it did take grinding out 5 or 6 levels (and a few weapon / armor upgrades) to finally put an end to him, but if you find yourself focusing more on a core set of units (I tended to try and level them all equally) and play around in the "free battles" more (I only did 2 or 3 free battles up to that point) I'm sure things will go much easier for you.
Overall, the title comes recommended. It is hard to outright name it a sort of "MUST BUY" title, especially given that the DS has a HUGE library of amazing games, but if you like RTS or Final Fantasy I'm sure you can easily become engrossed in this game. My heart will always lie with more "turn-based" strategy games (Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced 2, where are you?!?!) but Square certainly deserves some credit for pushing their AAA productions outside of their established markets and into new territory.
To make this easier on me (and you, the reader) I'm going to break this one up into a few parts. Despite having "finished" or played enough of these games to write about them now, I'll leave it up to my next "rant" to give myself more time to prepare for it, and to not just hit you with a wall of text. Also, it leaves me a nice buffer zone in case I start to get behind in my games (which will probably start happening once I hit all of these 40+ RPGs I've got lying around.)
Left to do: Title (System)
Assassin's Creed (360)
Crackdown (360)
Call of Duty 4 (360)
Gears of War (360)
As you can see, the next post will probably be a little Xbox heavy (although AC and CoD4 are on the PS3/PC as well), so for the curious here's what I am currently chipping away at. You can expect to see mentions of these coming up in the not too distant future:
Upcoming: Title (System)
Blue Dragon (360)
Phoenix Wright 3 (DS)
Brain Age 2 (DS)
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (Wii)
Marvel Ultimate Alliance (360)
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