Wii

Fluidity

January 11, 2011

Reviews / Wii / by Chris Ingersoll Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Fluidity‘s title is somewhat misleading. While a lot of the game does in fact revolve around guiding a pool of water through a series of storybook-like environments, that only covers one-third of the actual action. As you progress through the game’s four worlds you quickly earn the ability to transform into ice, with a cloud of vapor being added to your options not too long after that. Each form has its own unique unlockable abilities in addition to its inherent properties. Shifting between states is a vital part of solving the various puzzles, and with the exception of vapor to water (think precipitation) you can only do so at specific locations, so plan carefully. 

Your overall objective is to collect Rainbow Drops in order to restore power to the mystical tome Aquaticus, which has been contaminated by a dark inky Influence. There are other collectables — water drops to increase your health/reserve lives, puzzle pieces to unlock optional skill-testing “playrooms” — but Rainbow Drops (and, at times, items that reveal additional Drops) are your primary focus. Certain thresholds of Rainbow Drops are required to open various doors, a mechanic that will feel familiar to any platforming veteran. What probably won’t feel familiar is the play control, which consists mostly of tilting the Wii Remote (held sideways) to let gravity move your collection of H2O appropriately; the cloud can also move up or down without having to worry about being pulled back to the ground — although I recommend switching from the default inverted controls for this in order to keep things intuitive. The 1 button handles most of your other skills, be it gathering your water to keep it cohesive (and build up some explosive pressure), sticking your ice to a surface to defy gravity for a limited time, or sucking in air (useful for carrying balloons); your other skills will require use of the D-pad or 2 button, but the controls are never complicated.

The puzzles, on the other hand, can be quite devious. You will have to navigate unusual terrain — some of it dangerous (and different states are affected by different hazards) — and deal with various agents of the Influence in addition to various obstacles, walls, switches, and other nuisances. Often puzzles will require locating a missing gear in order to return functionality to machinery (some hazards can even destroy gears, which costs you a life), returning some lost goldfish to their bowl (fish can be frozen, but need to stay wet or they’ll die — and so will you — so no flying), putting rubber duckies in a tub, putting out fires, or whatever. The variety definitely keeps things interesting, and the difficulty increases feel natural as you progress.

There are almost 90 Rainbow Drops to collect in all; you only need about two-thirds of them in order to gain access to the final boss. That task will occupy a decent chunk of your free time, and tracking down all of the hidden nooks and crannies will require borderline obsession. Fluidity is well worth the 1200 points, but if you’re still not sure, there might still be a demo available that you can take for a test-splash.

 

Raving Rabbids: Travel in Time

December 15, 2010

Reviews / Wii / by Shawn Vermette Make a comment! / Tweet it!

When the Wii first launched, there was only one third-party game series that was worth purchasing: Rayman Raving Rabbids. Since then, the Rabbids dumped Rayman and are now gallivanting around in their own series of games, with Travel in Time being the latest. Unfortunately, it is also the worst of the series. 

The barebones storyline in Travel in Time is as follows: the Rabbids have somehow turned a washing machine into a time machine, and, by traveling haphazardly through time, are responsible for a bunch of the crazy things in our past such as the Sphinx’s missing nose, the creation of fire, and Arthur pulling out Excalibur. This story serves one purpose, and one purpose only: to give you an excuse to play 20 minigames in all periods of history, from prehistory up until 2012 AD.

After the opening cutscene, which is funny and worthy of the series, you’ll begin playing in a museum in the year 2012. You then have to find your way, with little in the way of instructions, to the various areas the minigames are hidden in. It has a few hidden easter eggs throughout the museum that are fun to search for and work on at first, but it quickly becomes obvious that the museum is simply an overly extravagant menu, and one that gets in the way of the fun, rather than enhancing it. 

The minigames have always been the highlight of the Raving Rabbids games, and the Rabbids are just as crazy as ever. Unfortunately, the minigames just don’t have the same charm this time. There are 5 different types of minigames, each in their own hall of the museum, not counting the dancing and Rock Band-style games. There’s the bouncearium, which includes a number of side-scrolling minigames, the shootarium, which involves a number of shooting minigames, the flyarium, which has flying minigames, the runarium, which has a bunch of racing minigames, and the hookarium, which has a few motion plus minigames. None of them, though, bring the fun and craziness that they have in past installments of the series. Sure, the cutscenes are funny and appropriately off-the-wall, but if the games aren’t fun, there’s just no way to salvage the title.

The graphics and sound are as good as any other Rabbids game, but a minigame collection lives or dies on its minigames, and unfortunately, this one dies on them.

If you’re interested in a minigame collection with a crazy and somewhat demented sense of humor, go with the original Rayman Raving Rabbids or Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party, as they are vastly superior in almost every way.

Pros: Cutscenes are entertaining; Fun for a short while

Cons: Minigames aren’t that fun, even with 4 players; Museum gets in the way of the game, rather than enhancing it

Pac-Man Party

December 8, 2010

Reviews / Wii / by Justin Last Make a comment! / Tweet it!

I don’t understand how Pac-Man Party and Pac-Man Championship Edition DX came from the same publisher at around the same time. The difference in quality and fun between the two titles is staggering. Pac-Man CE DX is a fun step forward from the reinvention of the original Pac-Man that was Pac-Man CE. Pac-Man Party, on the other hand, is Namco’s attempt to make Mario Party but just different enough that the folks over at Nintendo don’t threaten legal action.

Pac-Man Party’s three modes are single-player, party, and mini-games. Single-player has you, as Pac-Man, playing through each of the game’s five boards in an attempt to collect cookies and make Blinky give you back the cookie recipe. You roll the die, move the set number of spaces, and build castles on free spaces. When your opponent lands on your castle he owes you rent and then you have a battle mini-game to determine who owns the castle from there on. The mini-games all feel like rehashes of Mario Party mini-games with Pac-Man characters subbed in for Mario ones. 

Multiplayer is the single-player game on a single board (instead of a progression through all five boards) with friends instead of AI ghosts. Play takes too long, and the mini-games are repetitive which makes the whole experience drag on. To complete the “short” game one player needs to collect 12,000 cookies. You only get about 200 for winning a mini-game so this takes a good, long while. Combine that with rehashes of mini-games you’ve already played, and the uninteresting Monopoly-inspired mechanic of paying one another rent and you’ve got a game you’ll only really want to keep around for the classic arcade games.

Pac-Man Party’s saving grace, if it has one, is the inclusion of three Namco classics: Pac-Man, Galaga, and Dig Dug. These three classics are emulated well and play just like you remember. Granted, if you want Pac-Man, Galaga, and Dig Dug there are far cheaper ways to obtain them that don’t come with a party game you’ll never choose over Mario’s own offering on the Wii. Pac-Man Party is a pass on all fronts. If you want to support Namco and Pac-Man I can’t recommend the two Pac-Man Championship Edition titles available on Xbox Live Arcade enough – that is what Pac-Man ought to be doing and what you ought to be playing.

Pros: Includes classic Pac-Man, Galaga, and Dig Dug in case you don’t already have them.

Cons: Repetitive mini-games, Games take too long, power pellets have been replaced by cookies for no good reason.

 

Sonic Colors

December 6, 2010

Reviews / Wii / by Gerry Pagan Make a comment! / Tweet it!

The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise hasn’t exactly had a great track record since the jump to 3D. While the Sonic Adventure series was decent, every other follow-up has been a complete wreck, culminating with the Werehog fiasco of Sonic Unleashed. So it comes as a surprise when it’s not Sonic 4, the hyped-up title that was supposed to bring the franchise back to its roots, but Sonic Colors that sets the franchise running in the right direction. 

Sonic Colors pretty much does away with most of the complaints that have plagued the series for the past 8 years. You only play as Sonic, there is actual platforming as opposed to watching Sonic run forward automatically, stages don’t drag on for more than 15 minutes and there are no Werehog-like gimmicks to be found. But, most importantly, the game is actually fun.

Sonic controls similarly to how he’s done in the past. While he’s lost the traditional ability to spin dash, he can now perform a double jump, as well as a multitude of power-ups gained by combining with the game’s Wisps. These range from a drill that lets you burrow under the stage to a crazed alien that destroys everything in its path. Each of the game’s stages has multiple ways of reaching the end goal; all varying on whether you just run through a stage or use the Wisp powers to your advantage. It’s a design that reminds me of the stage layout for the original Sonic games, as opposed to the completely linear paths in most of the 3D titles. While there are still some issues with field of vision, these are minor when compared to the horrific stage-design problems of titles like Sonic Heroes or Sonic ’06.

The game itself looks great. While the animation during the cutscenes can be a bit silly at times, the in-game visuals are vibrant, fluid, and colorful. Each of the game’s areas are based on themes, such as one made out of cake and candy. The audio is typical Sonic fare, though I did appreciate that, outside of the traditional ring-collecting and Sonic-jumping sound effects, the themes aren’t recycled. 

The game’s writing, while it’s nothing special, feels like an episode taken from the original “Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog” cartoon. I’d much rather have Sonic and Tails cracking jokes over “Baldy Nose-hair” than exploring the complexities of life, love and death. In addition, the change in voice actors works this time. Any voice actor that can actually make me like Tails is perfectly fine.

To say that Sonic Colors is a step in the right direction for the franchise is an understatement. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come from Sonic Team.

Donkey Kong Country Returns

December 1, 2010

Reviews / Wii / by Gerry Pagan Make a comment! / Tweet it!

With the series missing in action since 1996, the reveal of a follow-up to Rare’s acclaimed Donkey Kong Country games was met with much excitement, as well as skepticism. Could Retro Studios, responsible for the successful revival of the Metroid franchise, also work their magic on Donkey Kong? The results are in, and the answer is a resounding yes. 

That said; if you’re looking for an experience that’s identical to the old Rare games, you might want to look elsewhere. Donkey Kong Country Returns does its best to recreate the feelings one felt when first playing Donkey Kong Country, but unlike New Super Mario Bros. before it, it constantly experiments with new tricks and changes to the old formula. Whether or not you like the changes done can greatly vary depending on how much you liked the original titles.

Unlike Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, DKCR returns to traditional platforming. Donkey Kong has his traditional roll attack, as well as the ground slam. In addition, DK can now blow on things to either exploit enemy weaknesses or reveal items and collectibles hidden in the background. Diddy Kong works differently this time around, as he hops on DK’s back and uses a jetpack to slow DK’s descent for a second or two rather than serve as a second character you could tag-in at any time.

While the stage design is tough, the game does have accommodations for the more casual players. The infamous Super Guide makes a return in the form a white DK, which will show you the basic method of beating a stage without actually showing you any of the hidden collectible locations. You can also buy lives, heart boosts and even invulnerability potions from Cranky Kong’s shop, though they’re all entirely optional for the player looking to challenge himself.

The gameplay is smooth, but not without its faults. The blowing and ground-pound mechanics severely break the flow and speed of the game, needing to completely stop to be able to perform them, which is necessary in most of the game’s stages. Rolling, blowing and the ground pound are all mapped to shaking the Wii Remote. While it’s easy to get used to, an unresponsive shake is enough to send someone leaping to their death, which happens a lot more than one would expect. It’d be simple enough to map these functions to button presses, or let people choose between the two.

Some of the later stages are downright awful when playing them in co-op. While DK and Diddy can play independently of each other, Diddy can hop onto DK’s back like in single-player. This is just about the only way two can finish some of the later stages, as they’re clearly designed for one player to go through.

The game’s aesthetics are nicely done. While the classic Kremlings are nowhere to be seen, the Tiki and the animals they control fit well with the game’s look and feel, as do the worlds selected. New enemies are constantly being introduced, all vibrant and colorful. I really liked how Retro makes up for the Wii’s visual shortcomings by making everything as vibrant, colorful, and alive as they possibly could. Ruins come crashing down and enemies react to DK as he explores vivid landscapes on his quest to recover his banana hoard. The music has a few original tracks, but the redone tunes from the original Donkey Kong Country are the real show-stealers, always matching the mood of whatever stage they’re played in. 

DKCR boasts a nice bit of replay value as well, as there are plenty of puzzle pieces to collect in every stage. These unlock artwork, concept art, music and other items. In addition, every stage has a time attack feature that challenges you to beat the stage as fast as possible, as well as a secret mode for those who thought the base game wasn’t challenging enough.

While DKC purists might be put off by the change in the formula of the traditional games, Donkey Kong Country Returns is an excellent comeback to what is considered one of the best game series of the SNES era, as well as a nice entry point for people who never played the original games.  It combines just enough difficulty to make it satisfying, without making it completely frustrating, and it reminds us what the originals were all about.  If Nintendo will let Retro Studios work on to the franchise for a while longer, it could turn into something great.

 

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