Date Acquired: Rented 10.28.10
Date Completed: 11.4.10
Thoughts: In what appears to be part of a 2 D retro-revival plan that started off with last year's New Super Mario Brothers, Nintendo has decided to release 2 new iterations of classic titles as 2 D co-op side scrollers with one game being aimed at the casual and younger gamers, and the other at the more hardcore. The forthcoming Donkey Kong Country Returns will be the hardcore platformer, tales of it's insidious difficulty are already filtering in. Insidious difficulty are not words one would ever use to describe Epic Yarn. The game was seemingly developed with the idea that anyone who wants to finish a video game should be able to. It's impossible to die in Kirby's Epic yarn. While we've seen this before to some extent in games like Prince of Persia where you can't fall to your death, in those games you could still die in combat. You can't die at all in Epic Yarn. You proceed through the game collecting jewels as you go. If you get hit by an enemy you lose most of your jeweles Sonic-style, but if you're quick you can get them all back. (Side note: That always used to annoy the hell out of me in Sonic, I'd have 150 rings, get hit, collect every ring that appeared after I was hit, which would bring my total up to...20? What the hell happened to my other 130 rings, Sega?!) The inability to die is most glaring during boss battles. They offer no challenge at all since you know you are going to win no matter what you do. At least in the stages leading up to the boss you encounter platforming, some fairly difficult at times. Invincibility doesn't help you when your enemy is gravity.
That's not to say there's no challenge at all in Kirby, or value to more experienced gamers. When I initially finished the game it said that I was at 55%. I of course went back and bumped that way up to a respectable 60. Each stage offers 3 treasure chests to find (reminding me or Wario World: Shake it! in this way) Every stage has 2 pieces of furniture and the sound track to that level hidden in those three chests. That's right, furniture. In Epic Yarn you maintaint an apartment for a NPC by furnishing it with the items you find throughout your quest, as well as those purchased from the store with the gems acquired in the levels. After completing each stage you are awarded a medal: gold, silver or bronze depending on how you did. While I could find no real consequences of getting a bronze vs a gold in the regular levels, the boss levels provide great incentive to finish with a high score. A Bronze medal gets you a piece of furniture, silver the sound track to the boss's level, and a gold score unlocks another level in the world you're playing in. Finishing that new level opens up a second level. So if you don't beat the boss with a high score, you are missing out on 2 levels per chapter. Pretty significant IMO.
Pros: Some of the individual worlds stood out. The Snow world mesmorized me. I know ice worlds are very cliche these days, but this one was done right. A Christmas theme was targeted here, the gems you have to collect are used as decorations on Christmas trees, the music is festive and Christmas-y. instead of turning into a car when you press the Right arrow twice as you do in every other world, Kirby turns into a sled. The Toy level would probably be my second favorite. Overall the game is inventive and unique.
Cons: While I enjoyed the game, it does very much seem aimed at younger gamers. No where is this more evident than the plot which moves along by a narratar reading a fairy tale, complete with providing the voices for all the characters himself. Much has been made of the graphical style, but in a post-Little Big Planet World, they didn't seem that out of the ordinary or remarkable to me.
Overall: A good, solid game. The co-op would probably add some fun to the game (though likely not as much as NSMB does since you get half as many players and nobody has to worry about dieing). Given the easy nature of the game, I personally wouldn't spend $50 on it, prefering to save that money for the forthcoming Donkey Kong Coutry Returns, but I did buy it for my sister for Christmas this year, so you get my money in the end as you always do, Nintendo.
"That always used to annoy the hell out of me in Sonic, I'd have 150 rings, get hit, collect every ring that appeared after I was hit, which would bring my total up to...20? What the hell happened to my other 130 rings, Sega?!)"
ReplyDeleteUm, because it was on the 16-bit Genesis and it probably wasn't capable of actually having 130 seperate animated sprites on-screen at once. Even in a post about a Nintendo Wii game developed and published by Nintendo you find an excuse to take a dig at Sega :P
I don't think it's fair to put the visual style of this game in the "cons" section just because Little Big Planet did the whole handmade thing first when it still looks more creative unique than 99% of the games out there right now. Besides, it isn't like this is an exact bite off of LBP - one looks like cardboard and paper cut-outs, one looks like yarn and felt. It's like saying a sculpture made out of toilet paper tubes can look indentical to a knitted sweater. If you showed videos of the two games side by side to someone who hadn't seen either of them before, I don't think too many people would say "These two games look pretty much the same." Regardless of how similar the two games do or don't look, I just can't imagine how Kirby's visuals can be not "out of the ordinary or remarkable" to you when compared to the glut of Unreal-powered games out there right now that DO all look sort of the same. It shouldn't just be all or nothing - either you look completely and utterly different from ANY game ever made, or you are unremarkable, with no room to fall anywhere in between. I just looked at a video of it again, and it blows my mind how dismissive you are of the visuals and can go an entire write-up without mentioning them except to call them nothing special.
ReplyDeleteJust out of curiosity, what have you heard about DKC Returns that makes you so confident that THAT is going to be worth your $50 when this and Wario Land weren't? I know why you said they weren't, and I can't see any reason to disagree, but you seem so sure that DKCR isn't going to be that way even before playing it or seeing any reviews and I'm just curious as to why. Is it just that you think it'll offer a greater challenge? While having to replay levels and dying a lot because a game is hard may technically make it last longer, I'd rather have 5 hours of pure fun that ends after that than 5 hours of fun interspersed with 5 hours of wanting to break my controller. As far as the monetary value of one vs. the other, to me, I'd just as well wait for them BOTH to drop in price then to happily pay full price for the "hardcore" one but wait for the bargin bin on the cheap one.
Answering the second part first: A few things. For one I have a much fonder association with DKCountry than I do with Kirby or Wario. For another, yes I do fully expect the game will take me longer to finish. Keep in mind Kirby and Wario were easily finishable in a few hours, a very easy rental. DKCR Likely won't be that fast. It is supposed to be much harder, but also if you get too frustrated, there is always the super guide that will actually play through the part you are stuck on until you're ready to resume. That seems like a fair compromise to me. I won't get frustrated knowing I can end the pain at any time. Since neither this nor Kirby is ever likely to see a real price drop, might as well get it now. Also I think the co-op will be better than Kirby's, the second player will have to agree to be a hover platform once in a while, but it should be fun, hopefully approaching the crazy fun that NSMB on the Wii is. I'm not sure Kirby will be that much fun in co-op since nobody dies, there's no suspense.
ReplyDeleteAs to the first part: I just wasn't really impressed with the graphical style. Up close you can see that everyone is made of yarn, but when the game actually plays, it just looks like all the characters are hollow to me. The little graphical touches they put in there are hard to notice. There are occasional things that work well, pulling a string once unravels the enemy, holding it rolls them up into a yarn ball. Some of the graphic environments work really well like the snow level, but some just come across as generic.
ReplyDeleteP.S. and as for the 'Sega dig' they could have gotten around the ring thing, put different sized rings in there to represent groups of 10 or 100 or whatever. It's just annoying to get hit by something cheap, gather up every last ring, and still lose 100 rings because they didn't give you any chance to collect them.