4847 replies to this topic

[Eddy]

Time to revive this thread (kinda)!

 

I'm not really playing much recently besides replaying Oracle of Seasons Linked on my 3DS and some random bad ZC quests (starting from Mario Quest up). Besides those, nothing really.

[Orithan]

Welp, it's about time I posted my thoughts on Pokemon X.

Pokemon X is definitely a groundbreaking entry into the Pokemon series. Revamping many features we are all familiar with, including making the complete graphical change from 2D to 3D and giving much needed adjustments to the type chart, and including many more features like Pokemon Amie and Mega Evolutions makes for an earth-shattering generation for pokemon and one which Gamefreak should never go back from. I liked almost all of the new pokemon, particularly the Fennekin and Honedge lines, while IIRC the only pokemon I really hated the design of was Armoatisse, which I felt GF really overdid on the perfume concept (which was quite original, despite what many would think). I would have liked to see more pokemon, but the massive Kalos dex makes up for more than that.

Kalos was also a well designed region in general, though it had a few low points *glares at Lumiose City and its wonky camera angles*, that brought in a wide variety existing of biomes and places. Kalos also arguably had the best pokedex in the entire series, encompassing of at least 350 Pokemon split up into three separate sections, and also had the most balanced selection of pokemon, especially in the early game where you can obtain at least one decent pokemon from every single type before you get to the second gym. The story didn't disappoint either, if very dark and depressing.

However, this game has several low points. One of which was the awfully-handled Lumiose City. I hated that place, especially on my first few visits after I exited Lumiose Badlands. First you have the awful "Blackout" excuse that the workers make when you first get there to restrict you to a small area of the city. After I fixed the blackout at a later point and got access to the rest of the city, I was truly hit with wonky camera angles. Often you couldn't see what was going on properly and had to rely on a narrow field of vision to get to your destination. I had to hire an expensive taxi cab to get to Lysandre Cafe for the first few times getting there.

Another low point, and is a problem I had with B/W and B/W2 as well, was the fact that you could not rematch trainers. This means that you will have to grind on the Elite Four to get money after you've beaten all of the trainers, which I feel is quite unfair. At least in B/W you had the opportunity to rake in big money from places like the ocean ruins, so it didn't affect me that much then.

Next, we have a tiny amount of postgame content, at levels that are similar to that of Red/Blue. There is not much else to do, other than the obvious level up your pokemon to 100 and complete the pokedex, is to capture Mewtwo, the Z legendary and the three Kanto legendary birds and to fight in the Battle Mansion in the postgame. A shame too.

Finally, and this doesn't directly relate to the game itself, is that this was released earlier than Pokemon Bank. Unlike the earlier generations (Except Gen II-III), which had ways to directly transfer pokemon in game, there is no such way of doing so for Gen V-VI. Instead, you have to back them up to Pokemon Bank then to X/Y. However, as Pokemon Bank isn't out yet, you have no way of doing so at the moment, which really sucks for me.

 

Final rating: 7/10.

 

This doesn't come anywhere close to Diamond for me. I, honestly, put this lower than Black/White.

 

Edit: Overall rankings of what I played:

• Diamond/Pearl (Haven't played Platinum).

• Black/White

• X/Y

• Fire Red/Leaf Green

• Heart Gold/ Soul Silver (Or G/S/C)

• Black/White 2

Edited by Orithan, 02 November 2013 - 07:43 PM.

[Dawnlight]

Reached World 7 of New Super Mario Bros U. Man this game gets brutal. This is probably the one of most difficult Mario games in the series. I could just imagine how difficult Super Luigi U is.

[coolgamer012345]

I assume that if mario Bros U is hard, Then Super luigi U would be slightly harder, Larger pits for the player to jump over.

[Nicholas Steel]

I assume that if mario Bros U is hard, Then Super luigi U would be slightly harder, Larger pits for the player to jump over.

Luigi U emphasizes hard gameplay/challenges. Each level only gives you 100 seconds to complete. It will be a lot harder.

Edited by franpa, 07 November 2013 - 01:37 PM.

[Ventus]

Reached World 7 of New Super Mario Bros U. Man this game gets brutal. This is probably the one of most difficult Mario games in the series. I could just imagine how difficult Super Luigi U is.

I figured it was going to get brutal almost all the New Super Mario Bros: Games are freaking unforgiving, like that NSMBW <.< I hate that game... Man it drove me insane getting it completed.

 

Luigi U emphasizes hard gameplay/challenges. Each level only gives you 100 seconds to complete. It will be a lot harder.

It does... Jesus that makes everything even more hard... Why is Nintendo making this type of game so hard?. 

[coolgamer012345]

Cuz they already used up all the ideas they had.

[Ventus]

Cuz they already used up all the ideas they had.

Sounds about right... xD

[Nicholas Steel]

It does... Jesus that makes everything even more hard... Why is Nintendo making this type of game so hard?. 

People surprisingly seemed to like The Lost Levels on the SNES so I gues Nintendo figured "What the heck" and did something similar again.

[The Satellite]

Beat Dual Destinies a few days ago. It brings some great music and story to the table, though I felt the game itself was pretty easy compared to its predecessors. I also miss some of the features they removed, like presenting profiles or examining pointless things for random tidbits of info. They nerfed Perceive so that you only analyze one statement instead of having to find the right statement, and whenever Psyche-Locks come up, you already have all the tools you need to break the locks so there's no fun in finding the info to break the locks. The Mood Matrix, though, is quite fun, even if it's impossible to fail during a segment. And the game is still quite enjoyable, if not a bit too streamlined. Still worth the wait and was really fun in the end, despite the shortcomings.

 

Meanwhile... I went back to Fire Emblem Awakening again. Starting my third file with a female avatar this time. What? I love this game.

[Orithan]

Just completed Kirby 64 for the Wii Virtual Console.

 

This is one of the gems for the Nintendo 64, along with other treasures like Banjo-Kazooie, Starfox and Paper Mario. As this is Kirby's first venture into the world of 3D, I was very impressed about how well it was done. Nearly all of the levels were well-designed and memorable while presenting their own unique challenges at the same time. I loved Shiver Star in particular for its collection of fun, memorable levels and challenging boss. I also loved the clean, toony graphical style, which works well for Kirby, considering its nature. The bosses were a mixed bag. We get threatening (and challenging) foes like the three mysterious crystals from Rock Star and Miracle Matter, to rather easy battles like Whispy Willows and the Orca battle on Aqua Star. I was really disappointed about how easy 0² was, especially for a "true" final boss. I beat it in just one attempt, whereas it took me several to beat Miracle Matter. Though 0² was really creepy (blood? in a Kirby game?!? How did they get that past the censors, considering it is rated G) and it has one of my favorite OSTs ever.

 

One of the things that was changed for this game, which I had a mixed opinion on, was the new Copy system. In this game, you have 7 (8 if you include Normal, which is just default Kirby) general attributes that Kirby can copy by swallowing enemies; Spike, Cut, Fire, Bomb, Rock, Electricity and Ice. Kirby can combine up to two of these (including two of the same attribute ie. Spike and Spike) by swallowing two different enemies, swallowing one and then spitting it at another enemy and swallowing the resulting elemental star or, most commonly, throwing an elemental star (with just one attribute) produced when Kirby is manually reverted to normal at an enemy and then swallowing the resulting elemental star. This lumps all of the enemies into 8 general groups, considerably reducing their variety (but yet still managing to produce 72+ different enemies, as shown by the enemy cards accessed from the options menu on the files). I love this concept, which is arguably the best in the Kirby series, but I am not too fond about how it was handled and how much time was put into each combination. On one end, we get really powerful and reliable combinations like Fire/Bomb (which I gimped the majority of the game with) and Cut/Rock. Electricity/Ice receives an honorable mention because it turns Kirby into a refrigerator that spits out food which he can use to heal himself. On the other hand, we get some pretty useless (and even dangerous in one case) combinations like Spike/Electricity and Bomb/Rock (if you use it all, expect to get hurt... a lot). You could argue that I never took the time to use them properly, but I gave them some chance and didn't like them.

 

The story is rather simple but works: The fairies from Ripple star are attacked by Dark Matter and their most valuable resource, a magical crystal, ended up being shattered into many little pieces as a result of their carrier, a fairy known as Ribbon, being attacked as she tried to flee. She then landed on Pop Star, where Kirby lived and told him about her unfortunate turn of events and he must go on an adventure spanning many planets all over space to collect these crystals and defeat the Dark Matter. I like how it played out, and the fact that former enemies like King Dedede and Waddle Dee eventually join him on his quest (after a little battle, ain't spoiling the circumstances on it).

 

It is safe to say that it is currently my favourit... *glances at Kirby Super Star/Fun Pak and Super Star Ultra* ...err, second favorite title in the series. The best place to get it is on the Wii Virtual Console right now, but I applaud you if you can get it on the original system.

 

Final score: 8/10.

 

Edit: Pure ZC borked my formatting. Fixed

Edited by Orithan, 07 November 2013 - 10:26 PM.

[Russ]

Though 0² was really creepy (blood? in a Kirby game?!? How did they get that past the censors, considering it is rated G) and it has one of my favorite OSTs ever.

So, this is nothing new. Kirby games are infamous for final bosses like this. 02's predecesor exploded in a pool of blood, for example.

 

But yeah, 64's copy mechanic was great. I wish Squeek Squad had done it too. It had the perfect system for it, with his stomach on the touch screen that you could combine stuff with, but it just did nothing. Oh well.

[Evan20000]

Pokemon RNGdium 2.

[Dawnlight]

Final World in New Super Mario Bros U. World 7 was surprisingly easy.

[Moonbread]

Orin: You know you can press down on the d-pad with the Dynamite (bomb+rock) to prevent taking any damage?  I didn't figure it out either except by accident

 

Anyway, been slowly getting back into TF2, and can't wait to start ALBW in a couple weeks.