For Great Justice

I've already talked once about the 'Ace Attorney' series (see this post), so a summation of this review is quite simply "more of the same". If you liked any of the previous Ace Attorney games, this one is definitely worth investing in. If you didn't, if you've never played one, or if you're still interested in what I've got to say, please, continue reading.

Ace Attorney got its start on the GBA in Japan with the Phoenix Wright series (although they don't call it that) but was never brought over to North America, presumably due to the high cost of translation and waning interest of the point and click adventure genre. With the introduction of the DS and the wave of popularity it was riding, Capcom saw fit to port the game over to the system since the touch screen capabilities basically screamed for it. When they did so they gave the game a chance in the NA market and it was such a hit that it sold out in stores after almost every shipment. This helped to revive the series and bring all 3 current games to the DS as ports, but also paved the way to 'reboot' the series and give it a new protagonist: enter Apollo Justice.

While much of the game is set in new places and introduces new characters, you'll also find your fair share of familiar faces and scenarios as you work your way through each case. While the older games are not intimately tied together (i.e. you can play Apollo Justice as your first game without fear of being lost or confused) there's a strong enough connection that I would suggest that you go play through the Phoenix Wright series first. It's not enough of a reason to highly discourage someone from playing this first, though; you'll end up having just as much fun without spoiling *too* much from the earlier games should you decide to play them later.

In the opening paragraph I mention that the game is "more of the same", and by and large this is a true statement. However, while Apollo Justice does play in the same manner as the original, the focus and difficulty is shifted enough to give each game its own unique feel even though gameplay is generally the same. The Phoenix Wright games tended to focus a large amount of time and story into the more 'detective' portions of the game, using items and information to break "Pysche-locks" on different characters who were witholding information or lying. The overall story, general investigation and plot twists largely occured around these events and set up the game to present court cases that, while they might have also included a few twists, were mostly a check to see if you could piece together the information in a (mostly) straightforward manner. You rarely 'died' in court because by the time you got there if you even linked a few things together you could put the rest in place before it required any serious commitment.

Apollo Justice, however, takes this method and flips it almost completely on its head. Apollo's power isn't in seeing Psyche-Locks, but in "perceiving" nervousness or lying. Instead of having the story play out in the investigation phases, most will play out in the courtroom as you unravel the witness's lies and the reality of the situation starts to become more clear. This makes the investigation portions much less important, so they end up acting as a sort of exposition for the case or a plot device for finding new evidence that your characters wouldn't have thought to collect on the first pass. This makes the court room portions a bit more challenging and dangerous that the rest of the game is just a narrative for. Or it would be, anyway if the game were difficult enough.

Perhaps Apollo Justice's greatest flaw* is that the game plays more like an interactive novel than it does a true point and click adventure. Since the meat of the game occurs in the courtroom - where you know you have all the evidence and all the characters in place - a large number of the "challenges" pan out to be nothing more than fairly simple deductions or, at worst, determining the improbable by removing the impossible. The 'challenge' in the Phoenix Wright series occurred during the investigation portions, where you were never really sure if you had all the information and you could always be missing a key piece of evidence or have not talked to someone thoroughly. It is true that it did suffer from the occasional frustrating or seemingly illogical conclusion you had to draw, but it is not as though we are talking about Myst here.

* I feel somewhat ill-at-ease for pointing out that it is "too easy" because this is something that is largely open to personal interpretation. Adventure games are notoriously difficult to "tune" because you either give the puzzle away in an attempt to placate a frustrated customer or you create an entire section of bald gamers who have pulled their hair out trying to solve your impossible-to-interpret-without-a-PHD riddle (i.e. the aforementioned Myst). How many hints do you give? When do you give them? Are they so big that they trivialize the puzzle or do they help them think about the problem in a different way? Different players will approach the game from different angles; some may never stumble and others might not make it past the first case. While other genres have concrete values that can be tweaked to adjust difficulty - health, damage, speed, ammo, etc - adventure games do not. What was "an interactive novel" to me might be "an interactive Sherlock Holmes novel" to someone else. Others may have been turned off by the frustrations of the first games but love the pacing and challenge level in this one. Let personal experience - and not my own - determine how difficult the game is, I'm merely noting that the game is noticeably easier than its predecessors.

Despite the change in difficulty, the game still delivers beautifully in most areas. The characters are all great and very fleshed out; even older familiar characters are given new roles or have changed significantly since the last installment. Each case is intriguing, and by the end they are all tied together in a very interesting way. The art is great and the 3d CG movies, while not amazing, are a nice touch. The writing is humorous and spot on for each character, only rarely feeling forced or uninspired. Even the gameplay itself is solid and offers a nice change of pace from the last 3 iterations. Actual use of the DS's functionality - mic, touch screen, etc - are especially welcome additions after being teased with the extra case from the first port. Of course, the game "suffers" from being one of the least replayable genres available, but it more than makes up for it by being a very solid, enjoyable first time experience.

While the game is worth playing overall, it is important to note that unless the series starts to introducing some new life into the gameplay, it might not remain fresh enough to allow for 2 more Apollo Justice games. The ending promises some interesting changes in the future, so let's hope that they can take those ideas and run with them while maintaining the high level of story quality and humor we've come to expect. The "Perfect Prosecutor" spinoff that's coming up should also help add some much needed variety to this otherwise stagnant series. That being said, Apollo Justice is a fine addition to the series and comes highly recommended for fans of the Phoenix Wright series, or fans of detective point and click adventures as a whole.

Dualing Banjos

Despite single handedly bringing the video game industry back from the verge of death and helping to firmly entrench the 'console' into the world of gaming in the same space as the all mighty PC, Nintendo hasn't exactly always been on top. Beginning with the introduction of the N64 in the late 90's, a series of miscalculations on Nintendo's part left the company in a downward spiral that continued into the Gamecube days and saw the once mighty giant knocked down to 3rd place behind two new contenders, Sony and Microsoft.

When you look at the N64's lifetime sales numbers and compare them to the Playstation 1, Nintendo sold only a third as many units as a company who had just released their first console. How does something like this happen? Was it the choice to stick with the more expensive and smaller storage cartridges over CDs? (Go read the wikipedia articles on the history of the CDi and the Playstation, by the way. Very interesting stuff) Lack of third party support? Poorly timed first party releases? The eventual explosion of the Final Fantasy series? It's hard to know for certian, but one thing we can be sure of is that people seemed to prefer the PS1 to the N64 almost 3:1.

That's not to say, however, that the N64 was a total loss. While Nintendo may only have itself to blame for it's spectacular failures, it has equal right in taking the credit for their monumental successes. The N64 brought us several classics that will surely stand the test of time, many if not all of which were first or second party choices. Ocarina of Time is constantly tagged as one of, if not the, the greatest game(s) of all time. Super Mario 64 gave the platformer life in 3D and developers today are still trying to surpass its greatness. Games like Star Fox 64 and F-Zero X each took on new life in their 64 bit days and received quite the cult followings even if they were not spectacular critical or commercial successes like Zelda and Mario.

The N64 era was also unique, though, because it was perhaps the first (and only) era where 2nd party developer Rare really showed what it could do. While Rare did have several 'cult' hits during the NES days (my personal favorites being Snake Rattle 'n' Roll and Battletoads) and some bigger hits on the SNES (Donkey Kong Country series, Killer Instinct), their N64 games are probably what they are most remembered for. Who doesn't remember the first time they played Goldeneye multiplayer, racing a pig in Diddy Kong Racing, playing counter-operative in Perfect Dark or blowing up buildings in Blast Corps? Even their more 'average' games - Donkey Kong 64 - were fun and enjoyable despite their weaknesses.

By now, of course, you've probably noticed the missing link to this puzzle (P.s. if you don't, read the post's title again for a hint). It is certainly a difficult call to make, but I believe if anything has been able to capture the magic and fun that is locked away deep inside Super Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie was it. Both are experiences in their own way and should not be missed, but while Mario 64 is simply the application of a known 2D formula in a 3D world, Banjo Kazooie represents something completely new altogether. New characters, a new world, a variety of moves and abilities, unique locations and a large helping of cartoon humor really helps Banjo Kazooie not only stand out from Mario 64, but excel in its own way.

---Banjo Kazooie---

Banjo Kazooie starts out like any other Mario game does - a female character has been kidnapped and it's up to our protagonist to save them! - but the stories couldn't possibly be any more different. Tooty, Banjo's sister, is taken by the evil witch Gruntilda (who only speaks in rhymes, mind you) because she is the 'fairest' and it is Gruntilda's wish to have Tooty's beauty as her own. As you start out you know the basics of platforming (jumping) but hidden within many of the worlds that you visit are new abilities that you can learn to increase your arsenal and tackle new challenges. Things like flight, invulnerability, shooting eggs, double jumping and walking up steep ramps help to break the usual tediousness associated with platforming (jump to win!) and adds quite a bit of variety to the gameplay.

At its core is your standard Mario 64 inspired platformer, complete with multiple worlds featuring various exotic locales (Gobi's Desert, Freezeasy Peak, Mad Monster Mansion, etc and so forth), tons upon tons of items to collect, plenty of pesky platforming perils (plus puzzles!), and endless supply of unique and entertaining enemies, health and lives and bears, oh my! Worlds are generally static levels that you explore all at once (in Mario 64, the level could change substantially depending upon which star you were seeking), allowing you freedom to work on multiple goals simultaneously without having to exit/re-enter after each mission. +1 for convenience.

Notes are the 'common currency' and 100 are strewn about in each level, but instead of being used for health and extra lives (or a 100 coin star) they are used to unlock deeper areas of Gruntilda's lair. Jiggies, aka Jigsaw Pieces, allow you to open new worlds, which means that you require both jigsaw pieces and notes to make it to the final showdown with Gruntilda. This may seem a little strange or even perhaps annoying, but I think it is a clever idea to require both a bit of exploration and a bit of platforming before you're allowed to move on to the next area. Since you will trip over notes left and right on your quest for each world's many jiggies, it is highly unlikely you will even need to go out of your way to collect enough to advance. Each world also has 5 Jinjo's for you to find, and while their inclusion in the banjo universe might seem strange or even bizarre at first - then again, what isn't - I assure you that they rightfully earn their place by story's end. Rare has taken collection to a whole new level and has completely gone all out to make each nook and cranny of the levels filled to the brim with items. It is even an inside joke in their future games that all platformers must involve "pointless collection mechanics". For those of you who are born completionists and love collecting, exploring and achieving, you just struck gold. Or maybe oil. Actually, you struck goldoil.

I've already touched on Banjo and Kazooie's vast array of useful abilities, but something that deserves its own special mention is that in many levels you can visit Mumbo Jumbo (resident Shaman) and have him transform you into something. Each level has it's own transformation, most of which are both necessary for completion of the level and hilarious. Examples would be the termite (climb up really steep walls), bumble bee (fly, and mingle with the honey bees who are otherwise aggressive towards bears), and even a pumpkin (who is small, bouncy... and probably delicious). You don't get a whole lot of use out of them and having to go back and forth to Mumbo's hut is sometimes aggravating (see: Mad Monster Mansion) but overall it adds just another layer of diversity to and already impressive list of gameplay features. Every now and then, Mumbo will accidentally turn you into a more 'novelty' form and is always willing to offer up humorous one-liners after he has completed his magic. Just one of the many area's that Rare's humor really adds to the atmosphere of the game.

If you have the game memorized backwards and forwards it might not take you long to beat it - 6 hours maybe, assuming you picked up just enough to unlock Gruntilda - but like Mario 64 the real length of the game is in being as OCD as possible and running around collecting everything. Notes, Jinjos, Jiggies, honeycomb pieces. A good 20 hours or more for those in unfamiliar territory, maybe 10-12 if you're doggedly determined and wielding a gamefaq's sheet. Completing the game at 100% Jiggies (and notes, maybe? I always did it anyway) will give you a sneak peek at some of the secrets that lay hidden deep within the game, tucked away for over 10 years under the joke that we all know as 'Stop 'n' Swop'. Oh, sure, now it actually does something and has meaning but to those of us who grew up not knowing, it was perhaps one of the more cruel failings of the series, especially considering how much coverage it received. They finally added it in with Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, but 10 years of hype and anticipation means that the only thing they could possibly do with it was disappoint (which it certainly did, by and large). Maybe when they finally finish the port of Banjo-Tooie, we'll see what Stop 'n' Swap was really supposed to do.

Overall, Banjo Kazooie is one of those games that made the N64 almost impossible to live without, despite the system's misgivings and general lack of third party support. If you were willing to accept original ideas and didn't need your platformer's main character to be an overweight red plumber to enjoy it, the game offered more in terms of innovation and design than perhaps even Mario 64 did. It gave Rare yet another successful franchise and paved the way for sequels (Banjo-Tooie), character crossovers (Diddy Kong Racing), GBA releases (Banjo Kazooie GBA and Banjo Pilot), ports (Banjo Kazooie on XBLA) and last but not least... reboots (Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts). The game was incredible and certainly worth the $15 price tag on the XBLA, assuming you don't have an N64 somewhere you could dust off. The new high res textures and actually implemented Stop 'n' Swop feature are enough reason to purchase it again anyway. I'm not one to try and reward companies for taking older games and attempting to make money off of them again simply by repackaging them and placing them back onto the market in a newer format, but with a game as good as Banjo Kazooie - with new features and textures to boot - I'm willing to make an exception.

--- Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts ---

So when Rare announced a new Banjo Kazooie for the Xbox 360, I was both excited and worried. Since its split with Nintendo and purchase by Microsoft, Rare has not been capable of creating the same caliber of product that it is known and loved for (some say this started during the Star Fox Adventures development, too, as it wasn't exactly received well). Which is sad, because Rare seems to have been punished unfairly for attempting new things and creating new IPs (Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Kameo, Viva Pinata), although their poor attempts at ports (Conker: Live and Reloaded) and buggy launch titles that are prequels of their beloved classics (Perfect Dark Zero) didn't help their reputation at all. Could the company overcome its recent missteps and create something worthy of the Banjo-Kazooie name, or would it turn into another disappointing continuation of another one of their once beloved franchise? While the former may not have happened as much as one would like, I would not call the game a failure by any means.

While essentially a 'platformer' at heart, Nuts and Bolts is unique in that most tasks are performed not through jumping, but through the use of vehicles. If you limit the term 'platformer' to being a game entirely dedicated to jumping and the timing thereof, then no, this is not a platformer... but neither is, say, Mario 64. Mario 64 also included new elements like swimming, flying and boss battles to provide their own unique challenges different from - yet still similar to - jumping. Basic platforming is still in Nuts and Bolts, but the usefulness of this is mostly limited to note collection within the hub world 'Showdown Town' as most challenges require the use of some type of vehicle. You may not be solving challenges exclusively with jumping, but performing tasks with a certain degree of precision and timing is the foundation of the game and is the most obvious reason you can call it a 'platformer'.

It makes more sense with an explanation of gameplay. The essence of Nuts and Bolts is that you create and use vehicles to perform a variety of different tasks with a number of constraints. This can include things like time limits, following a certain path, racing other characters or vehicle choice restrictions. Overall the game is a very large mixture of different playstyles and environments, ranging from on-rail shooters, flying planes, racing boats or item collection and transportation. The real beauty is that many (if not all) challenges have more than one unique solution so instead of being forced to perform a given task in a specific way you can instead find clever ways to solve the problem using creative or 'out of the box' solutions. Do you need to heat up an egg to make an omelet? You can create a vehicle that carries the egg to a nearby volcano or you come back later and use the flamethrower to whip something up on the spot. Trying to throw basketballs into a hoop? You may find it easier to bring the hoop to the ball.

The nicest thing about the vehicle creation system, however, is that each part you use has an actual impact on performance and is not merely a cosmetic difference. My biggest disappointment with Spore was actually how neutered the creature creator felt once you understood how it worked. 'Stacking' items onto a creature would not increase that item's power, so there was no reason to add more than 1 of anything because the only difference was the aesthetic look. Having six level 1 claws actually made your creature less dangerous than having one level 5 claw because you would be limited to a level 1 attack. This was very foolish for several reasons:

1) Adding extra units still ate up 'DNA' units, so you were essentially paying a hefty price for cosmetic features.
2) This also meant that a creature could be level 5 in every category if you were willing to create it in such a way that it only needed 1 of any item (1 foot, 1 claw, 1 mouth, etc). This meant that creativity and uniqueness was punished by being inferior to ones that were built solely to exploit the DNA available to them.
3) Creatures had hard caps that could not be exceeded, going against the basic premise of the system. You couldn't create a vicious killing machine that would fight his way through all problems and have no social skills or speed whatsoever, because there was no point. It offered no benefits because you couldn't stack items to gain additional benefits at the cost of others.

Nuts and Bolts solves this problem by allowing additive stacking to actually confer a benefit. Using 2 small fuel tanks will give you more fuel than just 1. Using 5 small engines will go faster than using 1 medium engine. If you have a large engine but just want a bit more power you can add a small one. You can add as many weapons and ammo boxes as you prefer to make it look like something out of the Twisted Metal series and it will definitely kick the pants off of someone with just a puny egg shooter. Basically, every change you make will have some affect on the vehicle's performance and when you are spending time customizing and fine tuning your own creations, that means a lot. It not only gives your work a greater sense of purpose but also encourages you to finely tweak everything to get the best performance, making the creator a much more integral part of the game than just 'eh, let's throw something together real quick and be doe with it".

Which is good, because each task you complete is given a sort of 'grading' based on the limits given. You can fail (obviously), do OK and receive notes (currency in the game to buy new parts and blueprints), do well and receive a jiggy (unlock new worlds and ultimately the boss) or do very well and receive a trophy (4 trophies = another jiggy, not very creative I know). As an example, timed events tend to reward you for doing more of something in the given time, like collecting more items or killing more enemies. Another example would be that if your goal is to perform a specific task, you will be rewarded for completing it in a faster time. Since you do not need the maximum number of jiggies to beat the last boss (in fact you need just over half), you are free to skip tasks that are aggravating or prove to be more difficult. This gives you plenty of choices on how to move forward, allows you to play challenges you prefer or ones that you've already built vehicles for and even come back later to do something when you've gotten better vehicle parts or newer items to use. The only exception to this rule is Grunty battles, which you need to get specific parts to open new areas in Showdown town. Overall, this non-linearity actually helps to prevent you from feeling bogged down or stuck while rewarding creativity, ingenuity and platforming.

Unfortunately, you must approach Nuts and Bolts with a very accepting attitude for the first hour or so because the beginning of the game is very tedious and limited. You start out with a tiny number of parts to work with and most early challenges (beyond simple "tutorial" ones) will be frustrating to complete, especially if you are going for Trophies. Early vehicles are about as sturdy as an egg, handle about as poorly as wet soap and go as fast as a sloth but, over time, you can really start making some nice contraptions. As you earn money, collect your first few jiggies and open up new areas you will slowly unlock new parts and blueprints that beef up the vehicle editor. If you can push yourself past the initial 'it's impossible to drive these vehicles' phase and start to customize your own, the fun will really start to kick in and the rest of the game will be great. Unfortunately for Rare, demos are short and attention spans are even shorter, but make sure you give this game just a bit more time than normal before throwing it to the dogs.

While achievements normally do an excellent job of extending the life of a game you enjoy, I found this especially true for Nuts and Bolts. They are very well spaced out over the course of the game, meaning that usually when you sit down to play you can earn an achievement or two before you're finished for the night. This is good because it gives you small goals to aim for outside of the 'real' game and also rewards you for going above and beyond (earning trophies), being a completionist (collect every jiggy) or doing some of the other unique things available in the game like Klungo's Arcade. Speaking of which, try not to let Rare's terrible sense of humor get in the way of enjoying the otherwise delicious 2d platformer minigame tucked away there. Sorry guys, but the "oh sorry I thought I fixed that bug here let me restart the whole level for you" isn't funny with you're constantly dying and were doing well for once.

While the singleplayer is nice, the multiplayer could use a bit of work. Online matchmaking generally takes forever, often times just outright fails and even if you do get into a game teams will be unevenly split, occasionally punishingly so (i.e. 5v2). Custom vehicle matches would be fun except there is not a way to determine the 'class' of a vehicle (i.e. is it using early game parts or is it decked out in all the super items?) so unless you've 100%'d the game and really focused on building the perfect vehicle for a specific course you can almost be assured to lose to someone half as good as you rocketing around the arena with 4 super jets. "Log's choice", where everyone uses the same pre-built machines, is better but they aren't tuned to handle as well as you'd like and cannot be customized... which is a large selling point for the game. If the audience was large enough they could do interesting things like have vehicle 'classes', where you could race against vehicles with similar sizes or part quality, but I think if you fractured the online community any more than it already is you'd never get into a game. Local multiplayer shows more promise, but that would require finding 3 other people like yourself willing to take the time to make custom vehicles and race them against you. Pretty heavy setup cost for a multiplayer game.

Despite my initial dissatisfaction with Nuts and Bolts not being a traditional platformer, the vehicle customization and gameplay eventually won me over (even though the inside jokes about losing their moves stung a little). I went on to complete the game as much as possible, leaving only multiplayer achievements undone due it being almost impossible to get into a game, let alone win it. As long as you are willing to give the game a chance, it will provide you with dozens of hours of vehicle buildin', witch shootin', jiggy collectin' fun that is as unique and entertaining as you are willing to invest your time and creativity into each vehicle. It may not be the instant-classic that it's predecessor was, but at $40 or less Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts is quite the deal.