Archive for February 24th, 2010
4 items.
We usually try to avoid the big news and stick to a path less traveled by juggernauts. But there are certain situations when we must deviate from that prime directive. In this instance we are doing so for the sake of a plumber and a woman in a fancy suit.
Metroid: Other M is slated for a June 27th release, while Super Mario Galaxy 2 is penciled in for a 23rd of May launch.
There see Nintendo news handled, now watch the trailer and muse aloud about how much you wish it was in HD. Then head on over to Joystiq for a whole lot more images from both.
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Bullet hell shooters are a strange beast for me. I’m hideously embarrassingly terrible at them, yet I love them to death.
Vatn Squid by Ted Lauterbach is no exception to this.
Gameplay
Vatn Squid features your standard modern vertical shoot-em-up fare. You are a ship at the bottom of the screen, you shoot at things at the top of the screen until they explode, and then move on to the next thing to shoot. In this case, however, the levels consist purely of a single creature firing ornate bullet patterns in the hopes you will collide with one and die. Unlike most other which feature powerups however, Vatn Squid follows in the footsteps of Ikaruga by allowing your ship to absorb bullets and fill a “power” meter which, when filled, lets you unleash a powerful homing blast.
The game is intended to be a sort of middle ground between and entry level and a hardcore shmup experience, and it shows when most of the patterns are easily avoidable and in some cases avoidable completely by hunkering down in a safe spot. But this belies the fact that for this game it isn’t just about getting through the game, the real challenge is to see how FAST you can do it. To achieve this, you have to learn to constantly be absorbing bullets, building up the power meter, and pushing out the super blast. All while balancing the fact your shield meter is on a fairly slow recharge.
Visual
The game graphics are splendid. There’s a nice blocky 8 bit feel, while still utilizing some higher resolution for effects like the floating background and the bullet glows. The underwater theme works nicely for the genre, and ties the game together by making all the bosses quirky pixel art sea creatures. The bullets vary in color and shape by pattern which changes things up nicely as you go. I also love the bubble particle effect which trails your ship, as well as emits from enemies as you hit them.
Audio
While the game does feature some standard shmup sounds (firing, hitting and dying), it’s the musical track composed for the game which make it shine. Even though it’s on a loop, I never seem to tire of its smooth techno-ey goodness. In fact, it reminds me in part of the Serpent Trench theme of Final Fantasy 6, another dreamy aquatic soother. Even better, you get it in .ogg format so you can loop it for yourself!
Summary
If you’re a shmup master, you’ll find no challenge here. But for everyone else, it’s a nice short introduction to the playstyle. In spite of my handicap with the genre, it only took me 4 attempts to beat it, once I had a handle on the shield/blast mechanic. At any rate, there’s no reason NOT to give it a shot, it’s FREE! (Windows only. Works great with an xbox controller!)
You are a bird, of sorts. A little yellow, bridge building, stone throwing, freeze ray shooting, slug sucking, ghost trapping, flightless, bird. Toki Tori, a puzzle game created by developer Two Tribes, features four unique worlds consisting of twelve stages and multiple difficulty levels. It’s currently available on the PC through Valve’s Steam, WiiWare, and the iPhone, and it will set you back $4.99. As an important note to the readers, I played the PC version using an Xbox 360 control.
Gameplay
Toki Tori is a puzzle game start to finish. It ranges in difficulty from simple to quite difficult, but in an effort to alleviate the frustration that can build through the course of the game, you are granted one free pass to skip a stage and continue progressing.
The stages themselves utilize various sets of obstacles like; gaps, drops, spikes, attack slugs, lava, and even a ghost or two. These obstacles are overcome by using an array of various tools that can do things such as build bridges, freeze adversaries into ice cubes, or set traps. To further complicate things the use of these tools is limited by a unit count, usually there are just enough units total to solve a puzzle in one or two ways.
The game does a nice job of introducing the tools to you gradually over the course of the game. It will typically give you a paragraph or so of description and then have a level immediately following that is designed specifically to teach you the tools mechanic.
My only complaints regarding gameplay were centered around two of the items. To be honest they are pretty minor, but given some of the inherent complexity of certain levels they can very quickly become the scapegoat for a considerable amount of built up frustration.
The first of which is the Slug Sucker. This item is used, much like its name implies, to suck up slugs. When the device is introduced it mentions that the device can be used in such a way that it redirects slugs at no expense to your unit count but this specific function seems more or less abandoned and forgotten about until late in the world. To be fair, it really feels like the mechanic in question was more of a design consequence rather than an intended function to which they designed a whole level around.
My second gameplay complaint involves the Bubble Suit. This item allows you to freely float in the underwater stages of the game. The suit itself works fine and isn’t all that bad. My issue is mainly concerning its charge system, it receives a certain amount of charges, these charges were then expended by moving a certain number of spaces. The problem was it was very easy to make a false step which sometimes resulted in a complete fail.
Audio Visual
Looks good, sounds good. The game resides in 2D but uses 3D graphics with bright and bold primary colors that give a cheerful feeling to even the slime covered stages. The animations are all polished and Toki Tori is pretty adorable while you are idle thinking about that next move of yours. As far as the user interface goes it is polished and clean, all the information you need regarding available tools and their quantities is presented in an easy to glance at way.
Audio for Toki Tori could have been a disaster. If a crappy song had been looping the whole time you were on some levels it could have made you hate life. Fortunately that is not the case and your life can remain unhated because the music is quite pleasant and suits the character of each world adding nicely to their respectively unique atmospheres.
Sample Audio Tracks:
A Brief Side Complaint
I have to admit guys, I got stumped. I got really freaking stumped. I ended up having to tune in to some YouTube video’s on a couple of stages and what I saw was disheartening. For the first time in my adult life I felt old, real old. There they were, two prepubescent lads giving me the secret sauce to Toki Tori, cracking voices and all. The worst part was what they then went on to show me was so blatantly obvious that I had begun to wonder if my brain was becoming completely incapable of non-linear thought processes. Time makes fools of us all, I suppose.
Summary
Toki Tori is $4.99 and is available on WiiWare, PC, and iPhone. The game is challenging and offers a good deal of first play through playtime and solid replay value. There are frequent moments of frustration do to game difficulty, but that is kind of the point of the genre. To puzzle game lovers it’s an easy game to recommend, so I do. To those who aren’t necessarily fans of the genre but are looking for a good value it may be something you should look into.
