November 2005

Get in line

November 21, 2005

I would be very suprised to not see people standing in line already at local stores in an effort to score one of the few Xbox 360s available either at midnight or first thing tomorrow morning. I wish everyone who goes that route a lot of luck. Don’t forget your blankets or your GBA/DS/PSP because it is going to be a long wait.

On an unrelated topic, I made a few slight changes to the site this morning. I changed our urls from /reviews/# to the format I use at Movie Thunder of /r#.html I think it makes things a little easier. You will probably see a mix of the two as I parse the code and change them all. Rest assured I won’t be killing the old links. We will simply have duplicates for now.

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/welovekatamari/cover.jpg[/floatleft][i]We Love Katamari[/i] is the sequel to the quirky and hugely popular [i]Katamari Damacy[/i] from Namco. It is important to note that Keita Takahashi, the creator of the original [i]Katamari[/i], was reluctant to make a second [i]Katamari[/i] game. In fact, the only reason he was involved at all was because Namco was proceeding with or without his involvement. Takahashi is currently looking to pursue a dream in playground design. A slightly different path than most game developers choose, but that is neither here nor there.

The [i]Katamari[/i] games are based on the simple concept of rolling-rolling things up to make a larger ‘clump’ to be precise. The concept is almost so simple it makes you wonder how it flew under the radar for all these years. As you progress through the game, the scale of things that you roll up increases dramatically. You start out rolling up items only a few centimeters in size and end up rolling up incredibly large objects measuring hundreds of meters.

[floatright]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/welovekatamari/ss03_thumb.jpg[/floatright]The King of All Cosmos and his son the Prince return to exchange wacky, off-the-wall dialogue. These exchanges from the first game were downright strange but entertaining. In this game, it almost seems like Namco tried to force the humor and instead came off as annoying. To date, I have skipped past the vast majority of the dialogue in the game. After all, it’s all about the rolling isn’t it?

The replacement of the previous ‘planet’ for selecting which level you want to play has been replaced with a meadow. In this meadow, you will talk to characters who request a katamari. I found this new method of selecting levels to be cumbersome and downright confusing. I think the simple concept of the first game had it perfect, and I have to wonder what Namco was trying to achieve with the meadow. Either way, I don’t like it one bit.

The actual gameplay in [i]We Love Katamari[/i] is virtually identical to its predecessor. Namco had a winner on their hands the first time, so there is no reason to change it. The game is still as quirky and strange as it ever was. One major addition though is that [i]We Love Katamari[/i] features underwater levels where you can go above or below the surface of the water. It really adds to the immersion of the game.

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/welovekatamari/ss05_thumb.jpg[/floatleft][i]We Love Katamari[/i] is more of the same great, simplistic fun that made the first game a cult hit. The lower price point of $29.99 makes it an attractive buy for even the most frugal of gamers. There are some things that I really didn’t like about this one, but they are things that you can ignore and still enjoy the game. Fans of [i]Katamari Damacy[/i] will undoubtedly find themselves enjoying this one. Skeptics should probably check out the original [i]Katamari Damacy[/i] to see if this will appeal to them.

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/dynastywarriorsadvance/cover.jpg[/floatleft]I have never been shy in professing my love for the [i]Dynasty Warriors[/i] series. The immense combat and action is enough to keep me playing for hours on end. I was thrilled to learn Koei was putting out a GBA version of [i]Dynasty Warriors[/i], with a DS version to follow later. Given the graphical intensity present in the home console versions of the game, the obvious hesitation has to creep into your mind of just how well this game will translate to the small screen of a portable unit like the GBA. The short answer is that it depends on whom you ask.

The storyline in [i]Dynasty Warriors Advance[/i] is just like its console counterparts with you filling the role of a bevy of different Ancient Chinese Generals, each with the intention of ultimately gaining control of China. You can select a number of your favorite characters from Wei, Wu, or Shu to embark on Musou mode.

You can’t go into [i]Dynasty Warriors Advance[/i] expecting an experience anything like what you have been spoiled with from the console versions or you will be sadly disappointed. The graphics are standard-fare GBA, and you are limited to six characters on the screen at any given time. This is a huge problem for a game like [i]Dynasty Warriors[/i] that typically has an immense battle with hundreds of enemies at any given time. Koei created a ‘solution,’ if you will, to enable a game of that caliber to appear on the GBA. [i]Dynasty Warriors Advance[/i] is a somewhat hybrid turn-based/real-time hack-and-slash. As you begin a battle, you are presented with a map that shows the locations of your allies as well as your enemies-this is called the Movement Phase. There are a number of different spaces on the map that you can move to when it is your time. You select the space you would like to move to and then end your turn. If there is an enemy present, you will engage in battle. This is where the real-time action happens but only five enemies at a time. In this Battle Phase, your action is timed. Defeating the required number of enemies within the time required for a Triumph, when the timer is white, you will gain an extra turn in the Movement Phase. Defeating the enemies while the timer is red earns you a Victory but no bonus move. If you fail to complete the battle within that amount of time, you lose your next move in the Movement Phase.

[floatright]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/dynastywarriorsadvance/ss03_thumb.jpg[/floatright]Your B and A buttons deliver blows from your weapon of choice. B delivers a Regular Attack while A delivers a powerful Charge Attack. Holding L and pressing A will begin the powerful Musou Attack, assuming your Musou meter is full. Musou comes in very handy against powerful enemy generals. L button alone will block.

During a battle, you have the ability to power up your abilities. As you fight, different abilities will begin to fill up in the Ability Console. When one of these begins to flash, you can press R to enable that power-up. You can power up the same ability two times, but it only lasts until you clear the stage. Be careful as continuous hits from an enemy will remove these abilities.

Like the console versions of [i]Dynasty Warriors[/i], you can collect and find new weapons and items to beef up your character. Different weapons have different strengths, so choose your weapon carefully.

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/dynastywarriorsadvance/ss02_thumb.jpg[/floatleft][i]Dynasty Warriors Advance[/i] does allow you to save your game in the middle of a battle since they often take close to an hour to complete. A quick save is reached from the pause menu; however, only one quick save is allowed at a time. A quick save in Musou mode will erase your quick save for Free mode. Upon completion of the battle, you can do a full save.

Many of the reviews I read about [i]Dynasty Warriors Advance[/i] cited negativity about its translation to the portable world, but I found it highly appealing. My newfound interest in turn-based games may be partly to blame for this, but I really like [i]Dynasty Warriors Advance[/i]. I would advise anyone with a DS to play it on there over the SP. After long amounts of time with my SP, my hands would cramp from being in such close quarters. Button mashing is a staple of DW games, so it’s wise to be comfy while doing it. With that said, this is a definite rental since the change in gameplay can be devastating to purists of the [i]Dynasty Warriors[/i] line, but can be equally appealing to gamers that had not otherwise considered the [i]Dynasty Warriors[/i] franchise.

So you might be wondering what a link to a gift store is doing on our front page. I am here to tell you that you should click it. My mom, who has a store in the quaint town of Boerne, TX has launched an online store. So, if you need to find a gift for someone check there first. I’ll even link to it from here so it is easy for you. [url=http://www.allthewayhomegifts.com] All the Way Home Gifts[/url]

Reviewing launch titles for a new game console, especially one as anticipated as the Xbox 360, is a precarious prospect that is oftentimes not as fair as it could or should be for the title in question. Do you base your opinion solely of the merits of what the game brings to the experience, or do you look at the title with a more discerning and critical eye given the fact that it is coming to retail with much more potential and resources available to it than those games that came before? Rare’s Kameo: Elements of Power is a perfect example of this. The story of how Kameo finally made it to retail could fill volumes. Having originally been planned as a GameCube title before switching gears alongside the company’s purchase by Microsoft in 2002, it wasn’t long before development was transferred to the Xbox. However, numerous delays and the inevitable scope creep kept the game from being much more than a pretty fantasy. It wasn’t until Microsoft announced the coming of their new platform did everything begin to align regarding the game’s future as a launch title for the Xbox 360.

In this game, you play as Kameo, an elf princess with the unique ability to harness spirits in order to transform in a variety of creatures at will. Right from the onset the game throws you into the action, and in so doing it forces you to become acquainted with how to switch between the various forms, as well as what situations call for which abilities. For example, at one point your actions cause a water tower to rise up into the sky, and you quickly learn that you must somehow reach the top of said tower by transforming into a rolling armadillo, rocketing yourself toward the tower, and then quickly shifting forms into an ice beast so that you can scale the side of the tower using your monstrous claws. These sorts of puzzles abound in Kameo, and while few, if any prove difficult or confounding in any way, the majority are thankfully implemented in such a way as to not feel tacked on or otherwise superfluous.

The same, however, cannot be said for the forms themselves. In total the game features ten separate creature transformations that can be used once they have been found. However, only three forms may be equipped at any one time, with each one assigned to a different face button for quick transformations as needed. These various creatures offer a much broader ability set than one typically finds in a run of the mill action adventure. The problem, however, is that the lion’s share of the abilities are, in fact, unnecessary. Even by the end of the game you never get the sense that these abilities have been utilized to their full potential, and sadly many forms end up being forgotten altogether.

One of the things that has been pushed since the announcement of the Xbox 360 is sheer horsepower in its ability to display nearly limitless on-screen characters at once without slowdown. This game gives an example of this early on by putting Kameo in the middle of a raging battle between elves and trolls. Upon horseback, you quickly grasp the enormity of the situation as you reach the top of a nearby hill, only to see a wave of trolls spilling toward you like a sea of green and red. As you ride onto the outskirts of the conflict, it is something to behold seeing the throngs of warriors tearing into each other as far as the eyes can see. Before this current console generation, this sort of event would have been resigned to taking place as part of a pre-rendered cutscene, but now the potential for a fully interactive world seems to be at our doorsteps.

As with every new leap in technology, the first thing that is noticed is the presentation, and, more specifically, how it compares to the generation prior. While certainly more colorful than those games that have come before it, Kameo‘s visual aptitude is not what one would consider groundbreaking. Perhaps this is just a case of smaller gaps in what can and cannot be done on the hardware as compared to, for example, the upgrade from the SNES to the Nintendo 64, but Kameo does not look the part of a game that serves to usher in a new era of gaming. The whole experience exudes a sort of rendered, glossy feel that harkens to that first time you got hold of Photoshop and couldn’t help but use every available filter at your disposal on a given picture. The result, while interesting, was altogether garish, which is how Kameo comes off as well. Thankfully the sound design helps to cover up for some of these visual shortcomings, with an epic score and voice acting that is more than adequate.

Considering Kameo‘s storied past, and the fact that it is one of the first titles for this much-anticipated platform, it perhaps isn’t as surprising as it would be otherwise that the game suffers from a number of noticeable shortcomings. A relatively short-lived experience lasting only ten or so hours, this is a game that, in typical Rare fashion, positions the entirety of its gameplay upon a single gimmick that, sadly, fails to carry to experience on its own. Kameo is a good game, but it reeks of missed potential, which is unfortunate especially considering how many hurdles it had to jump through in order to see the light of day. If we know Rare, there is little doubt that we will see Kameo again someday, and perhaps the kinks will then be worked out and the end result will be much more memorable than this initial outing.

Score: 78%