A Minuscule Year in Review

Ah! The old "same old same old" - fewer games, fewer raves....

As usual, 2013 was a pretty depressing year in games beaten. Likewise, the continual acknowledgement of annual completion diminishment is equally depressing. But so it goes. To make the usual 10's list would pretty much equate to listing every game played this year alone. As a compromise, I suppose I'll just list a minuscule five. All a bit trivial really, but then so is this post as a whole - consider it forced output for the sake of remaining true to the spirit of Beat All Games.

And so, my top 5 takedowns of 2013:

5. Vay
-A solid RPG, but a little too linear and bare-bones to bear the mark of excellence in my opinion.

4. We ♥ Katamari
-Fantastic follow-up to the original although at times I felt like it lost its way ever so slightly, especially in the music department.

3. Final Fantasy II
-Although I found this game to be a confusing mess when I started out, I found this to be one of the best entries in the Final Fantasy series by game's end. If anything, Final Fantasy II was a perfect example of why relying on others' reviews is no better than judging a book by its cover. Of course, that statement pretty much nullifies the vast majority of this site. Meh.

2. Super Mario World
-Straight up, a classic game that should be in any gamer's arsenal of choice picks.

1. The Bridge
-As usual, some miscreant game out of left field has come and dethroned the obvious picks. I found myself absolutely enthralled by The Bridge and as I said in my post, I want more.

XBLA - The Bridge

Haiku-Review:

how Newton's "folly"
awakes the strand of nightmares;
validates the bridge

Additional Comments:

The Bridge is easily one of the best games I've come across in a while. Like a few other games that garnered my complete adoration: VVVVVV and Katamari Damacy, to name but two, The Bridge relies on a sole mechanic. Using the triggers, the player rotates each of the stages either to the left or right, up to and beyond a full 360°. Essentially, the game is nothing but a nightmarish stumble through a series of demented tilt-a-whirls somehow encapsulating the works of M. C. Escher and Edgar Allan Poe.

The game came as a recommendation thanks to Limbo. Immediately, the whole black and white presentation grabbed me. I don't know what it is, but the lack of color in some of these modern games adds so much value to the overall experience. For the brief moment we get to see The Bridge's countryside radiate the full spectrum of the rainbow, it's stunning for sure, but breaks the maddening emotion of the game. But then, it's obviously the point as the nightmare fades into the familiar domestication that is reality. A definitive dividing line between despair and comfort must exist, and so exists the bridge between grayscale and beautiful chroma.

While the color, or lack thereof, drew me in, as though I fell under the sway of flagrant advertising, the gameplay played the part of a hard-sell salesman. Despite the obvious ease of The Loft, the very first room in the game, I was hooked. I didn't even have to see that the game was a series of logic puzzles. I didn't care what it was. I was sold. Maybe it took The Library and The Menace to truly lay down the blueprints for what was to come, but it was nothing more than gravy by that point. Shades of VVVVVV crept into my mind even though I knew these two games were worlds apart. It was that gut feeling that The Bridge was going to take a single premise and run it through a wringer until every imaginable application can be established over the course of the game. And the Quantum Astrophysicists Guild managed just that with flying colors.

Even when The Bridge begins introducing additional nuances such as x-axis/y-axis reversal teleporters, positive/negative variants of certain objects including the player, dual personas, or temporal gravitational distortion fields (which I still had a hard time wrapping my head around at times), the game never deviates from its core mechanic. Each additional layer of complexity meshes perfectly with the initial gameplay, unlike most games where a multitude of ideas can lead to muddy or awkward gameplay, not to mention a torturous set of controls. The Bridge, however, keeps it clean no matter how much stuff gets thrown at you: rotate, activate, and if necessary, some time reversal.

My only complaint, which I should note was only an initial complaint, was that The Bridge lingered on the easy side. That is until I opened up the mirrored chapters. I knew they were coming, but wondered what they were actually going to bring to the table. After all, when I see the term "Mirror" I think of the Mario Kart series. It's not exactly an increase in difficulty - more that it feels difficult only because what's familiar is no longer familiar. Naturally, I could only assume padding at this point as it was difficult to imagine some of these levels, especially those that are symmetrical, mirrored. I couldn't have been any further from the truth in my assumptions. The levels start as such, with a minor tweak or two - The Loft for example - but the difficulty quickly ramps with a interesting assortment of tricks thrown together in a diabolical hodgepodge of agony. Chapters Six and Seven were especially nettlesome as there were a couple of rooms in each hall that definitely put me through the paces.

Where some real aggravation sparked, however, was in the wisp collecting and the Inverter achievement which took place on Mirrored Garden. I must have spent a good hour or so attempting completion with only five inversions. Thing is, when I finally managed it, I was dumbfounded by how simple the solution actually was, but for some reason, I just couldn't envision it. Same situation happened when trying to collect the wisp on Mirrored Menace, which I think might have taken top prize for giving me the most grief only because it had to be done without time reversal. Although, when it came down to it, that turned out to be the least of my worries. The first time I did the level, I exited with relative ease. However, when I returned to retrieve the wisp, those five menaces annihilated all hope to proceed. I couldn't even manage the exit door anymore and I think it took me somewhere between 30 minutes to a hour just to pull off that simple feat again. With that much trouble, having to dump all those toothy grins on one side of the triskele proved impossible, or damn near impossible. Still, the difficulty of these tasks never reached the point where I found it unbearable. Perhaps the whole logic aspect kept everything in check which is often the case in puzzle games. No matter how hard a puzzle may get, logic dictates there's always a solution. Same can be said for any game, but health, life or other gameplay mechanics can add multiple variables that often twists black and white scenarios commonplace to puzzle games into experiments in luck. And although The Bridge adds its own dastardly web of variables, it's still just a simple traverse from point A to point B puzzle game. Then again, those gravitational fields possibly add far more variables then necessary when starting to deal with positive/negative menaces. At that point, up, down, left, and right seem to revel in complete chaos.

I have a pretty good idea The Bridge isn't for everyone, but for anyone into puzzle games, or more accurately, platform-ingrained puzzle games, it's a must play. It demonstrates taking a simple mechanic to its extreme with gusto and dresses it all up in some sort of creepy mathematical nightmare. I love it! In fact, I'd love to see a followup. To help enhance the mood, the game is blessed with a perfect melancholic soundtrack. Chance of finding examples are slim to none, so it's all the more reason to just check the game out instead.

Rating: 5 Konami codes out of 5

SNES - Super Mario World

Haiku-Review:

a magical thrill,
or just a broken menace?
Feather? Yoshi!? Fie!!!

Additional Comments:

I feel there are two points I must state before I carry on:

1. Having, for the past four years, remarked on the Mario franchise come Christmas Day, I've found myself to be at a crossroads for next year. Where exactly does the Mario franchise go from here? Do I continue on with the Super Mario World nomenclature, i.e. what's commonly dubbed Yoshi's Island, or do I bound into the realm of 3D with Super Mario 64? Or, as a radical diversion, do I forgo several years of Mario madness and tackle New Super Mario Bros. on the DS? SMW2:YI seems the logical choice only because it's obviously meant to be a sequel if numbers are to be believed, however, from there, my next game would end up being Yoshi's Story - and so I've fallen out of the core franchise. I've never viewed Super Mario 64 as the sequel to SMW, at least in recent years, only because a definitive schism between the 2D platformers and the 3D free roams now exists. As such, Super Mario 64 feels more like an origin game. Of course, the Nintendo 64 botched all sorts of franchises when it came to sequels. NSMB, to me, seems the appropriate choice only because it follows the logic of the original 2D platformers. Sadly, NSMB Wii has already been commented on. Maybe I'll disregard all logical conclusions and play something from left field like Mario's Time Machine. Ugh.

2. Any reasonable comments I can dare make on this particular addition to the Mario franchise are sadly spoiled by my time within the SMWC community and urge to break its raw assembly code to bits. That is, at least those strings of code which I could manage to bust up on my own accord.

And so, without further adieu...

Super Mario World is a fantastic game - it's a broken game, but it's a fantastic game. I find that it often pops up in heated debates over which is better: SMB3 or SMW. It's a tough call - it really is. For me, SMB3 edges it out, and I think that's only because I managed far more replayability out of it over the years than SMW, although my time with SMWC would prove otherwise as I came to know the game as far more than just a game. I recall long nights pouring through its disassembly trying to figure out how this routine worked or other such nonsense. This may have both hindered and helped kindle my love for the game all the more. While I became far more intimate with the game than any other - even SMB3 - I also learned about all of the ugly programming Nintendo swept under the rug that not only made SMW a brilliant game, but an interesting romp through twisted malfunctions and botched tomfoolery. In short, this game suffers from some serious glitches, however, much like corrupting a game with say, a Game Genie, most, if not all of the glitching adds nothing but smiles and laughs. And wouldn't you know, most of the flawed gameplay is a direct result of either the feather or Yoshi. Heh.

But enough of the game's gremlins and their somehow amazing lack to cause detriment to the experience. Seriously, it's such a joy whenever I can pull off some of the unintended tricks with the feather. The game would have been well to do to be called Mario Air Show. Hmm, has that hack been made yet? If not, it should. I know how much people would detest it, as would I, but still worth the agony it would induce. Sheesh, an entire hack of levels similar to VIP's (^O^) Smooooth? No, thank you.

Being that it was the pack-in game, Super Mario World was the first game I got for the SNES. But my initial forays into the game took place on demo machines at various Sears. I remember one in particular where the game save had Mario exploring Chocolate Island and I was absolutely enthralled by the levels populated by running herds of Dino Rhinos and Dino Torches. But of course, like most, that one stand out moment was when I first stepped into Yoshi's Island 1 and saw a ballistic behemoth flying across the screen. I think it's great that Nintendo decided to drop an unexpected Banzai Bill in right from the get go as it allowed the SNES to show up the NES for what it really was. Never before had Mario faced such a magnificent menace, and I'm certain I can speak for so many of us who were lads in the 8-bit/16-bit era - our jaws were left hanging.

Super Mario World easily toppled all of those Mario games before it by sheer ingenuity. SMB3's overworld was awesome; seeing some of the various themes further expressed by localizing certain level icons added to the wonder of each world, such as the desert/pyramid levels in Desert Hill. SMW took the overworld a step further and compressed all the worlds into one giant map. Utilizing secret exits within numerous levels, the world quickly becomes a spider's web of available routes to Bowser. And while SMB3 also allowed for multiple pathways at times, it didn't exactly have the free-roaming feel that SMW dished up. Free-roaming may not be the best term, but there's definitely a feeling of personal freedom which up until this point has never existed in a Mario game. The only thing that's ever bothered me about SMW's overworld, however, is the lack of distinct world themes such as those found in SMB3, the Super Mario Land series or the NSMB series. Sure, it can be argued that themes exist: Vanilla Dome equates to cave levels; Twin Bridges, bridge levels; Forest of Illusion, forest levels etc., but it's not quite the same. When you take a step back and look at the whole world, the overlying theme appears to be generic grasslands with some spelunking thrown in here or some aquatic excursions thrown in there.

Moving into the levels themselves, there were some great ideas thrown about. I remember the first time I saw the fencing in Iggy's Castle and thinking how cool it was to flip from the foreground to the background. Too bad it never carried out its full potential; it was more a gimmicky aside. However, there were numerous other lifts, layer 2 gimmicks, and tricks that kept most all of the levels feeling fresh, even by the time you ticked off exit number 96. Add to that some interesting new abilities and Super Mario World is a solid platformer.

Unfortunately, over the years, certain aspects of the game have grown tiresome, but that's to be expected in any game. However, there's one aspect of SMW that seemed to take a bigger hit than most games and that's the boss fights. As a kid, I had no issue with them. I had no real reason to have issue with them as we had been given an assortment of boss fights that upped the ante on those found in SMB3. But there's something about the boss fights in SMW that instills a feeling of exasperation or boredom. Even with the Mode 7 effects, the Koopa kids feel hokey even though, fundamentally, they're really no different than the battles found in the various airships in SMB3. The Bowser battle is where the real eye-rolling happens though. Even today, when I play SMB3, the Bowser battle exudes excitement and a certain sense of anxiety. In fact, I still think it's one of the best Bowser battles out there. SMW's battle however is agonizing; not in it's difficulty, but how much waiting around takes place. Mario spends more time loitering than he does chucking Mechakoopas. I fully understand why Brutal Mario is (or was - not sure if it still has the same allure that it had circa 2008, but my guess is no) so appealing to so many noob ROM enthusiasts as it was one of the first hacks, if not the first, that ditched all the regular bosses for new, improved overlords.

And finally, there's the feather and everyone's beloved dinosaur, Yoshi. I love the feather. It's an incredibly overpowered item, but I love it nonetheless. It allows Mario to topple the world with total chaos in his hands. If you're inclined to disagree, watch any TAS of SMW and behold the unbridled power of that one item. Heck, just go watch an RTS to see what's capable by an actual player. Complete and utter anarchy! The downside is that it makes the game far too easy, however it's a blast exploring the levels and performing stunts Mario was never meant to perform. Yoshi, on the other hand, I don't care much for him. Never have. I know most people would decree blasphemy, but he's...just awful. I especially hate when certain secrets are reliant on him - actually, offhand, I can only think of one, but I know a number of hacks have increased Yoshi reliance tenfold. That more than anything may have led to my repudiation towards the reptile, but I know I've always been rather cold towards him. To me, he comes off as an annoyance. It's like Yoshi and baby Mario's relationship in Yoshi's Island - I have to do everything in my power to ensure that stupid infant is on my backside. Same here. Whenever I get Yoshi, my priorities become far more dino-based than they should be. Even though he's nothing more than a walking springboard with some extra life insurance, I feel as though I must ensure his safety for as long as humanly possible. Instead of letting him run free through the fields, I find myself scampering after him. Just let him go. In my opinion, Yoshi can be summed up in two words - two words eloquently spoken by the long-running Mario aficionado: Raocow.

"Stupid horse!"

All that remains, I suppose, is the music. Honestly, I can go either way with the music. The soundtrack, like all the Mario games that came before, is fantastic. And although they're short, the overworld themes have always had the most poignant melodies - hmm, much like SMB3. In fact, Forest of Illusion and Vanilla Dome may be two of the best tracks in the game. However, much like the boss fights or a few other certain aspects of the game, the music has grown dull over time, which again can be attributed to my time at SMWC and having to hear the same themes over and over again. If I had never stumbled across the ROM and/or hacking communities, the likelihood of becoming so disinterested in the soundtrack would have diminished exponentially, or even be consider moot altogether. I suppose there's pros and cons to modifying a game in hopes of extending its shelf-life. Eventually, even some of the much loved aspects of the game will become nothing more than cause for bellyaching. C'est la vie.

Nevertheless, Super Mario World is an amazing game and an incontestable must play for any avid gamer. It's one of the best Mario games out there, although I will always tout Super Mario Bros. 3 as the.superior title. So, go out, rescue those eggs and bring Bowser crashing to his knees!

Rating: 5 ameliorated hillocks out of 5

SCD - Vay

Haiku-Review:

shalt we cross the sea
upon yon maiden's ill wind -
ships are so passé

Additional Comments:

I can't believe I managed two games in a row that placed needless emphasis on breaking wind at one point or another. At least Vay was at worst a little cheeky while Fable was flat out immature. But I digress....

First off, I can't believe it's taken me this long to get a Sega CD title up on Beat All Games. I was floored when I bought one a couple years ago and couldn't wait to start playing some games on it. Growing up, I had a friend that had a Sega CD - bought it right about when it came out. I remember he had a few games, but the only one I vividly recall was Sewer Shark. What a horrible mess that was. Even with Sewer Shark as my only point of reference all these years later, I was still utterly fascinated by the system. A majority of the games seem to be nothing more than crap, FMV-based crap, or ever-so-slightly enhanced versions of Genesis games. There's really nothing to get excited about, not to mention the system itself is pretty dodgy - especially the Rev. 1 which is what I have. However, there is a treasure trove of gems mixed in there if you know where to look. Looking around the net, I kept seeing Vay pop up as one such title. First thing that caught my eye was the Working Designs logo as they've often picked up some genuinely amazing titles and brought them to the US. Unfortunately, like most Working Designs games, they're not exactly cheap or easy to come by. Yea, still trying to track down an SCD Popful Mail for a fair price.

Popped in the disc and instantly I felt like I watching some old Ralph Bakshi production. The narrator's exasperated, almost decrepit tone brought back visions of Wizards and while the animation is more of a montage of choppy stills with clearly pixelated imagery, a certain semblance gave merit to the game's cutscenes as a long lost relative of Bakshi's design. Sadly, like most games in the early "real audio" days, the voice over work leaves much to be desired. Even the initial narration, despite it's ability to cull old movies from memory, allowed for some eye-rolling. It works, but there's an obvious call for overacting thrown in the script notes. Although it's nowhere near as outrageous as any of the later scenes, especially anything involving death.

As for the game itself, it's a basic turn-based RPG. The key word here is basic. This is one of the most stripped down, bare-boned RPG's I've ever seen. Vay makes the original Final Fantasy look complex. That's not entirely true - the two games are pretty comparable as far as depth and detail. If anything, Vay has a much more engrossing story, even if it's completely predictable, but the gameplay is broken down to the absolute essentials and is reliant on linear progression. I'm not saying linear progression is necessarily bad, as I'm not the biggest fan of games going gung ho with side quests, but Vay felt like it was on rails. For example, having just come off Final Fantasy II as well, that game is completely linear, but it never felt like I was being guided involuntarily every step of the way. A little exploration could have benefited this game greatly. The continents are essentially corridors barring any real freedom of movement. The only area void of any sense of claustrophobia was likely Penan, where in fact it took a good while to find Vaygess and then somehow lost track of it after my first explorations into the cavern of the Maytake. But given how necessary grinding is in this game, I welcomed these two strayed excursions with open arms.

After wrapping up Final Fantasy II, it was so refreshing to play an RPG where grinding wasn't the prevalent theme. Sadly, the idea that an RPG should be properly balanced was eviscerated beyond recognition as Vay championed grinding tooth and nail. However, it didn't rear its ugly head until Raxaal, therefore leaving me to believe I was playing another fairly balanced RPG. And I'm not referring to RPG's where death is an impossibility; where I should be able to sweep every floor clean on my first excursion. I expect death, but I don't expect to fall into the usual infinitesimal heal cycles that plague so many other RPG's, at least not on common dungeon cretins. I'll give some slack for bosses, though even there I disagree with the mechanic, but it's ridiculous to blow all your mana on heals after every single battle. The obvious answer is the characters are too weak for that particular point, but up until that point the difficulty grade has been a constant diagonal. Suddenly, it's a giant awkward step, and this happened numerous times throughout the game which resulted in tedious grinding. On a few occasions, namely Treefall, Sentinel, and Danek, I spent anywhere form several hours to a couple days just battling random encounters so my characters were at an acceptable level to take on the required foes ahead.

On a side note, I also spent a few hours grinding after the Danek Base near Mortyr, but did so voluntarily as I hate having all my characters level up at the same time. That's just something that's always annoyed me in RPG's. Essentially, I purposefully killed off half the party or all but Sandor and wrestled a variety of monsters on the overworld until I felt the levels were staggered enough. I know it sounds like I'm just handicapping myself, but trust me, it's not. If anything, it's additional free experience for one or two characters.

Another reason grinding stands out in this game is that the experience gaps between levels are absurd, yet the experience payout never really increases until the very end of the game. Holy shit, kill a Flea Bag and you'll score one hell of an incredible payout. Too bad 99% of those things flee from battle all the time. This is one reason I initially staggered my character's levels and collected experience. Instead of having all four characters wait 100k XP before they level, I have a character leveling every 25k or what have you. For me, there's a greater overall relief if I can have a character level at fairly regular intervals, especially in this game since both the character's HP and MP are reset. I found I could suffer dungeons for far longer because I knew that at least after every 10 or 20 battles, someone's going to level. This additionally helped with battle strategy as far as spells were concerned. Do I really need to cast Restore or Panacea? No, cast a couple Balms if necessary and feed all that MP into a series of Malybu's. By the time I run out of MP, Bam!, leveled up. Otherwise, I'd be counting a long succession of turns before I can improve the party's outlook. Either that or epic usage of Alakazam. Ugh. I hate using any sort of teleportation in any game I play although I'll admit that I succumbed to Alakazam about a half dozen times in Danek as I was grinding out experience. Just another odd quirk about how I personally play games. Heh, if the game made better use of treasures, I would have followed my no shopping rule as well.

However, for having at best an elementary presentation and deliberately focusing on endless grinding, I enjoyed the game thoroughly. Whenever I'm tasked with leveling chores, I typically grow bored and throw the game aside - main reason I steered clear from RPG's for so many years. But here, it never overwhelmed me with needless tedium. Somehow, the game managed to keep my interest going no matter how menial my play sessions became. In some respects, I found this game comparable to 7th Saga - sort of a "fun for all the wrong reasons" experience. And by the time I reached Danek, I felt rewarded for keeping at it just to behold the dark and twisted imagery of that castle alone. Maybe it was the grinding itself - having to toil through throngs of evil denizens for so little gain - that helped keep the interest alive. After all that hard work, I felt a sense of accomplishment every time I tackled the next monstrous obstacle. I know this was especially true for Sentinel and Danek. Hmm, perhaps grinding is a necessary evil after all, but I hesitate to make such a claim as I still feel the idea to be complete bollocks.

Would I recommend the game? Maybe as a worthwhile title for any Sega CD fans, otherwise, no. Vay's a great game, don't get me wrong, but there's no real sense of innovation. There's nothing there that hasn't been seen before in your Final Fantasies, your Dragon Warriors, your Phantasy Stars or countless other 8-bit/16-bit turn-based RPG's. For a fan, sure, why not? Otherwise, it's best to spend that Working Designs size chunk of change elsewhere.

There is some wonderful music tucked in there though. Personal favorites include the Village Theme and Welcome to the Caves (love the digital analog growl at the end of the song). Top honors, however, would have to go to Freak You Out. This song fits perfectly with the nightmarish aesthetics in and around Danek. In fact, I often found myself resting among the bones and horrifically mutilated wall faces just to take in the chilling music the emperor consistently pumped through his castle's halls. Not to mention, it had a kitschy Michael Jackson motif that kept kicking in every now and then. Come to think of it as I find myself listening to all of the music on offer again, I have to say the entire soundtrack is pretty damn solid, which again appears to be a common theme among Working Designs' games.

Nano-Rant:

I was gravely disappointed that I couldn't make use of the casino in Vaygess despite so many NPC's talking the place up. Under most circumstances, I wouldn't even care, but given that some local proprietor's magic chest suddenly defunded my entire wallet, it would have been a nice change of pace to help alleviate my sudden bankruptcy woes.

Nano-Relief:

After about four hopeless turns against Sadoul, thank goodness I suddenly remembered Thyxaal's purpose. I foresaw that battle going south real fast.

Rating: 4 Eediots out of 5