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megaman-r · 8 months

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Hello! Welcome to my rather extended effort to make a classic-style-ish Mega Man game. My name's Nevi, my main is @afniel, and I'm here to be everyone's problem. I used to be tracking progress for this on Twitter, but we all know how that went, so now I'm here instead.

First, the top 3 questions I tend to get:

What is this?

A fan game, created in the NES style. Well. Eventually it will be. Making a game is not a quick or easy task.

What's it about?

When I was young, I always thought it was boring of Capcom to not give Roll her own game. I got older and I still think that, but I've also thought other things along the way, like, why do these games always raise such alarming existential questions and then completely forget they happened? How long would it take to learn a functional amount of music theory? Is it Metool, Mettaur, or Metall? Whatever they're called, why aren't there a lot more of these little guys in the games?

Basically, I'm giving Roll the game I always thought she deserved.

Can I play it?

Currently, there's really nothing to play. I've got the basic engine functioning quite well and a good chunk of the visual assets finished to a working degree, but refining everything, getting the gameplay as tight as it needs to be, and making sure nobody's AI breaks or sucks is a pretty big job. That all said, my first real roadmap goal is to have a single-stage playable demo. While I don't have any notion of a release date for that, I am working steadily towards it, so please stay tuned!

The rest of the FAQ is long and maybe less interesting, so I'll stash it under a cut to save you a little scrolling.

The Game Itself

Is it going to be girly?

Probably not as girly as you're imagining, if you're asking that. After all, there's still explosions, boss fights, insta-death spikes, a ton of weapons to choose from, and quite a lot of shooting. Just because the main character is in a dress won't change the core feel of the game, nor will it be easier than other MM games.

Also, a thing being girly isn't bad anyway. It's just a style.

What makes this different from any other MM game/fangame?

Fair question! I'm going to be a little secretive about it though and just say 'choice.' It's a thing that the MM series isn't known for giving players, outside of what order you want to explode the robot masters. I think it could be more interesting than that.

That said, the mainline classic MM games don't have a whole lot to distinguish them from each other, and they're still fun and each one of them is someone's all-time fav game, so even if it just ends up being Another MM Game, that's still not a bad crowd to be in.

Are we fighting Dr. Wily? What's the plot?

Some of that will come with the eventual demo release. The rest will be on full release. I don't want to spoil it up front, you know?

You will get to see some familiar faces for sure, I'll say that much.

Will this game be accessible?

I want it to be! I think games in general have a lot of work to do to become more accessible to disabled gamers, and as a disabled gamer, I want to try and do my due diligence in that.

It is playable on both keyboard (not comfortable) and controller (a lot more comfortable), and while the controls are fairly simple, there is already a fully-functional option to switch between classic MM style down+jump to slide, and MMX style dedicated single button slide.

Remapping buttons is somewhat beyond the scope of the engine I'm using, which is unfortunate, and all the more reason for me to learn something more flexible like Godot.

I'm trying to choose palettes for things that should be eyestrain-friendly. Flashing will be kept to a minimum in the default game mode, and I plan on having a sensory-friendly mode with no flashing whatsoever and certain other effects lessened/changed/removed. Of course, I can't guarantee that certain patterns won't affect sensitive people regardless, but I'm going to give it a good try.

Depending on how easy the game engine makes sensory-friendly mode, it may end up being a separate download version, but I hope not, that's just not as good.

Alternate difficulty modes are also something I want to do! I just haven't looked at implementation yet, but it should be pretty easy.

Game Development Stuff

What are you using to make MMR?

The engine itself is in Pixel Game Maker, which is kind of an underdog DIY game engine and if I'd really been thinking I'd probably have started it in Godot or something, but I'm already here and honestly, I like how it works, so I'm keeping it. The assets are entirely made in Aseprite, and the music is entirely Famitracker, with a little use of Audacity to make sure tracks loop properly and to get things into the right format.

Very few visual assets are taken from the games directly, mostly some enemies and all of the sound effects (because those are not something I want to try to recreate using only Famitracker—I only have so many hours in a day).

How NES-like are we talking, here?

I'm aiming for NES-like in the way that Sonic Mania aimed for Genesis/Master System-like: the style matches, the limitations are mostly observed, but certain limitations are disregarded when it would be extremely awesome to do so.

Some examples: I'm very fastidious about color palettes per tile and per minor enemy sprite; I'm less fastidious about color palettes onscreen at a time and color palettes per boss sprite. I'm not trying to replicate the sprites-per-scanline flicker. Number of frames per animation isn't something I'm really considering as long as it looks visually appropriate. I'm sticking with 2A03 music, except for where I mean business, and then I may whip out the VRC6 channels instead.

So no, this wouldn't run verbatim on an actual NES, even if you recoded it in 6503 Assembly, but you would be able to get quite close.

How did you learn to make pixel art?

Well, when I was a wee little neurodivergent child, one of my favorite hobbies was making tiles and characters in MS Paint and building big collages out of them. I made a lot of beehives, for some reason...

Then I became a medium-sized neurodivergent teenager, got really into RPG Maker 2000, and the sprites and tiles were not to my liking, so I started editing them and eventually making my own from scratch.

I'm now a fairly normal-sized neurodivergent adult, and making pictures out of little dots is still a lot of fun, especially with a harshly constrained palette. Doing NES-like graphics just kind of comes naturally after all that.

How did you learn to make music?

Honestly? I just began throwing myself at it. My first attempts were unabashedly bad. When things didn't make sense and I couldn't get them to sound right, which was all the time, I looked them up. Starting with general chord theory was what really made it begin to click. The first thing I composed and kept was the Lagoon Stage music, and not coincidentally it's been through the most refactors as well. Coming from an art background where I'm very used to the Ugly Painting Stage of any given piece has definitely helped with patience, too. The important thing is to just keep beating your head against it. It's frustrating, but you only learn to make music by making music.

Every track on the OST represents about two days of feverishly slamming notes together for four-six hours a day, preceded by one-four whole months of tapping and humming random things until one of them ignites something in my brain that goes, "Oh, I know how the rest of this should go!"

How did you learn to code?

Well, honestly, I didn't; PGM is a visual scripting engine, so everything pretty much looks like flowcharts, and the number of functions is kind of constrained. Every object in the game is a state machine, so that's pretty much the paradigm I understand. I could not code my way out of a paper sack in any actual language.

That being said, I do understand the core concepts of what programming is, and most of that I learned by watching Retro Game Mechanics Explained on YouTube until I suddenly understood what 6502 Assembly was all about and everything else just kind of made sense. I don't know either! It's a little weird. But it did work, so I can't complain.

Is this related to [Other Fan Project]?

Nope, it's not part of or related to any other fanworks. I'm a solo dev working on just this one project right now. (However, if you're making a classic or MMX-style game and need pixel art assets, I'm open to talk about that!)

Your robot master has the same name/concept as [Other Fan Character].

Sorry if that's the case! There are so many really stellar MM fan characters out there that a little name/concept-sharing is basically unavoidable. No infringement is intended, no profit will be made from this game, and I'm uninvolved enough with the general fandom that I can pretty confidently say I didn't even know about your character. Take it as a case of Great Minds Think Alike, if it happens.

Do you have anywhere else I can keep up with this?

I sure do! I've got a Discord specifically for it where I toss a lot of WIP sprites and such, and that's where eventual playtesting will happen too if you're into that sort of thing, and a Trello that I don't always remember to update, but it exists at least!

Mega Man R Secret Gamedev Clubhouse Discord

Trello Roadmap

#mega man #rockman #mega man classic #mega man fangame #game dev #game development #fangame

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acquired-stardust · 7 months

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Game Spotlight #9: Mega Man Legends (1998)

It was the year 1998 and my parents took me to Blockbuster after I begged them to allow me rent a video game. The game that I picked out would be my first experience with the Mega Man games and arguably the most atypical title in that series. Hey it's Larsa here and this time I'll be discussing the very first 3D Mega Man game: "Mega Man Legends" also known as "Rockman DASH" in Japan.

Before some of the other major titans of gaming in the 1990s went in completely new directions another iconic series led by a mascot already reinvented itself years before the larger competition. Though in the shadow of these colossal series while still being iconic itself, many the world over knew about the series of video games "Mega Man" aka "Rock Man" (ロックマン ) in Japan. Mega Man series starred Mega Man, a chibi robot who now should need no introduction. After several years of success eventually Capcom's beloved Mega Man franchise went in a bold new direction with "Mega Man X" in 1993. This new Mega Man X featured more gorgeous detailed sprite work supported by the more advanced technology on the SNES console, it told a more cohesive story, and featured more fast paced action-oriented gameplay than the original main series. Capcom's 'Blue Bomber' was successfully reinvented for the Super Nintendo but Capcom did not abandon their original blue boy and in fact Capcom continued developing titles for both series of Mega Man games side by side throughout the next several years. While Capcom had two separate main titles of Mega Man games they treated as big deals, they were looking to release Mega Man 8 and Mega Man X4 on the new consoles that came out after the SNES. These two titles would be developed for both the Sega Saturn and PlayStation putting their flag down with two strong titles on the newer consoles of the mid-1990s.

However while this console transition was happening it did not stop Capcom from reinventing the wheel yet again when they re-imagined Mega Man for three dimensional gaming. "Mega Man Legends " was a big departure from either previous two established ongoing series featuring Capcom's then-favored mascot. Instead of sprite based artwork we were now officially going to see Megaman in the world of polygons which was an exciting fresh prospect for many gamers of the time. Even though it bore the same name as a notoriously difficult franchise, this new series would be forgiving and more aimed at players of all ages according to producer Keji Infaune. For this title the Mega Man series would be focusing less on an intensive gameplay challenge and more on seeing and experiencing the world. Instead of being a challenging platformer the game would be an action-adventure title.

The new tone of "Mega Man Legends " is immediately communicated with one look at our new lead, "Mega Man Volnutt". Volnutt is a new cuter take on Mega Man than the then-newest interpretation featured in "Mega Man X", who is an inexperienced kid looking for the world's treasures known in this setting as a "digger". You see he is not a 'Super Fighting Robot' or a hunter of dangerous virus-infected robots bound against their own free will. Our boy Volnutt is a part of a traveling family searching for secrets of the world from ages long past. His family is made up of his dependable sister Roll Casket, a dancing monkey known as "Data", and lastly his grandpa Barrell Casket all living aboard a ship by the name "Flutter". The game starts off right away setting the stage for its brand new location "Kattelox Island" and why you the player will be staying there. At the time of your arrival a group of pirates known as "The Bonne Family" have been spotted scoping things out on the island which has made the denizens of Kattlelox anxious. Teisel Bonne, Tron Bonne, and the Servbot army serving them are real scene stealers without giving away too much. "Mega Man Legends" is an ambitious game with an emphasis on the world being a sandbox in which Volnutt can travel to a various points at essentially any time. There would be much to do on Kattlelox Island and even merely talking to the various townspeople would become interesting as they change location and gain new dialogue as the events of the story progresses. As a player it makes the world feel that much more alive when NPCs potentially talk to you about the giant robot you thwarted recently.

The entire game formula has changed in this new 3D title with an emphasis on exploration. "Mega Man Legends" has more in common with "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" than any previous game in it's own series. Many people compare Volnutt's adventures to "Ocarina of Time" naturally but it is important to note that "Mega Man Legends" actually game out several months before Zelda's debut on the N64 console. Unlike the other "Mega Man" games which were divided into stages this new take on the series featured a town that acted as a hub and underground ruins. The winding underground ruins are vast and they all connected through various obstacles that Volnutt can knock down to create new routes connecting locations which he can do as he gains new special weapons throughout the game. Speaking of weapons, you can utilize over a dozen special armaments in addition to the traditional Mega Buster which Volnutt can equip one at a time as a "Sub-Weapon". You don't need to defeat bosses for these weapons like one would normally expect in this franchise, instead to encourage exploration you discover weapon parts from various locations on the island. Likewise Volnutt can discover parts through the mass of ancient scrapped parts that enhances his armor in various ways giving the game some light RPG elements. This game was very experimental with the things it attempted to do. A hard to notice feature of the game is a morality system that changes the color of Volnutt's armor depending on your choices on the adventure though this feature is woefully underdeveloped but it does show the dev team were shooting for the stars with this game.

The character designs feel like they would be right at home in the late 1970s animations and overall the artstyle of "Mega Man Legends" heavily resembles old Tasunoko cartoons. I feel the inspiration is obvious for any who is familiar with series such as " Yatterman ". As a result of putting focus on such a highly stylized designs the game's look doesn't feel as aged as some of the other titles released in this time period. I believe the original musical score still sounds great to this day the music can go from whimsical to heroic depending on the scene. The songs associated with the Bonne family are my favorite tracks in the game in part because they are just plain awesome and additionally because of how much they compliment the current mood of the scenes they play during. Now with that said at times some classical scores such as " Waltz of the Flowers " for example by legendary composer Tchaikovsky make it into the game. No offense to one of the greatest musicians of all time but hearing songs like this can be a little disappointing and distracting when you enjoy the original sounds so much and feels like it undermines the setting a bit. This is the most minor of nitpicks though and it doesn't truly detract from the game. At the same time it poses an interesting question for us all to ponder over while playing this game: Such as is Tchaikovsky actually still alive in "Mega Man Legends" and producing musical bangers on Kattlelox Island?

"Mega Man Legends" has some flaws and can come across as slightly primitive even for the time. Thankfully the game gives you a very endearing experience which does not overstay its welcome by becoming a game that is overly long. You could feasibly clear this game in under ten hours which is a good thing in this case because by the time you finish the game you may kind of miss it. It is the kind of game that leaves you wanting more without feeling like it didn't give you enough in the first place and the lovable cast that play role in the story stay with you as well. Capcom would eventually create a sequel title and it would also get it's own spin-off that we may discuss someday.

A gem hidden among the stones, Mega Man Legends is unquestionably stardust.

-- Larsa

#gaming #video games #retro gaming #retro games #playstation #ps1 #psone #psx #capcom #megaman #mega man #mega man legends #megaman legends #acquired stardust #game spotlights #Larsa

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bigblueoctoling · 2 months

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I still have a lot to say about Palette Colors so I'm saving that for another post, but before I go make that post [it'll be a long one] I gotta talk about the choices for the weapons themselves.

Pearl, Marina, 4, Callie, and Marie are all pretty much locked in place. Easy choices, they all track.

Why the fuck does Shiver have the tri-stringer and Frye have the splatana

They literally explicitly use splatana iconography around Shiver, it's what the attacks Master Mega does are based on. I don't like saying this kind of thing but it literally feels like they just Forgot that Shiver was the splatana one. Kinda ties in with them in general barely giving Deep Cut any attention in this game (I'm still gonna make a post about that, too). I would also argue Frye's combat style is more accurately represented by the tri-stringer, considering she fires multiple projectiles [the eels] at you.

Why does Big Man use a bucket? He's a caligrapher, shouldn't he use the paint brush? It's not like the paintbrush is an especially Sheldon-y weapon. For that matter I would argue the bucket suits Sheldon better, if only because he's a horseshoe crab (like a little bucket).

I suppose Octavio using a splatling makes sense from the angle that he tends to fixate on big oversized weapons. Murch getting the luna blaster feels like a very "we've got nothing else in particular in mind" sort of choice. Which is fine I guess but I have no strong feelings about it.

Eight's weapon being the Octoshot is stupid and genuinely pissed me off a lot. Like- from a strictly lore perspective, I would've given her a charger, it's the only weapon she explicitly mentions in the mem cakes and it's, you know, The Amiibo Weapon. In my mind Eight's main weapon will always be an E-Liter. That being said, gameplay wise, I understand not making it that because obviously Marie has to be the charger one.

But the fact that there are 11 palettes, one for each weapon, and they save the 12th, Eight's, for the veeeeery end, REALLY sets you up for disappointment. Like I would've figured it'd be like, you can make the palette yourself (main, sub, special, and colors), since it's (Your) palette. Or, to coincide with Eight's palette being Weird, that it would be a Random Weapon, maybe per run or even per floor. The latter would absolutely make it harder, but I think making it just A Second Splattershot is the most boring choice possible.

...All that being said, it bugs me a lot less than Shiver and Frye having swapped weapons. Like why even give shiver the sword motif if she uses a bow and frye uses a sword. Absurd.

#bluetext #splatoon #side order

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pinchraccoon · 1 year

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Pinch Reviews: Spark The Electric Jester (1,2 and 3)

In an unusual fashion for me, I'm choosing to review the entire Spark series in one fell swoop. Somewhat recently I decided to play the entire series with my friend and cohost Space Buffoon. They proposed playing the series with me on stream as we're both fans of the Sonic The Hedgehog series, and Spark has very clear shared inspiration and DNA.

Over the course of three weeks, Buffy and I played the three titles in the Spark series, opting to play them in order. I'm choosing to cover the three of them today because I feel that comparing and contrasting the games to one another can shed some light on their strengths and weaknesses.

Spoilers, of course, for the entire Spark series!

Spark the Electric Jester, the first one, is a 2D platformer focused on speed and using powerups to creatively remove enemies from the optimal path. Notably, Spark differs immediately from Sonic while maintaining the core gameplay loop in that, far different to 2D Sonic's shield powerups, the powerups in Spark act much more like they might in a game like Mario, or like the different weapons in Mega Man.

The multiple different powerups in this game serve to further diversify an already diverse gameplay loop, finding alternate paths, by granting the player significantly different abilities and movement tech with which to maneuver through levels and carve out the path the player would most like to take. Whether it's removing specific enemies from blocking a path, or something as simple as an extended jump, the powerups allow players to express themselves really effectively. The powerups are also complimented by the stage design itself, which gives all the powerups that they contain a time to shine within them, and occasionally rewarding creative exploration with different, rarer powerups as well.

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Every level in Spark is really satisfying to complete, and despite being longer than the typical level within the genre, it's rare to become bored with the levels as their visual themes as well as the gameplay gimmicks and powerup swaps keep them interesting. The levels are also a phenomenal example of this game's lovely visual style. It's this charming pixel art that really grants a lot of character to the world, it's locales and it's people.

The story in Spark the Electric Jester is a fun, simple romp that calls upon a cute cast of side characters and recurring villains, although I would have liked if the Shadow the Hedgehog-esque "Fark" or "Fake Spark" were better executed in the main game. Otherwise though, Spark has some really clever and somewhat self-aware writing that knows what this game is and what it's trying to be. Spark wisely doesn't seek to do more than it's earned in this game, and I applaud it for knowing its limits. Also, I really like Spark as a character, particularly his grounded nature and apathy toward the situation at hand. He's a good person, but at the end of the day the guy really just want to pay rent more than anything else. His presence in the story makes for a really fun juxtaposition to some of the more serious elements that it tries to pull, and grounds the story through him.

Really the issues I had with the game were incredibly small, primarily that the final boss felt extremely underwhelming due to the unique "Super Spark" powerup that the player is given feels supremely underwhelming, and being able to die far easier in that fight kinda kills the tension of what could otherwise be a really cool moment. I wish to stress, though, that my issues with this game are minute, almost inconsequential, even, and I only feel a need to bring up my issues with what is otherwise an extremely solid and consistent title because I had a great time with the game and just wish it was *that* much more improved. It is very close to being a game I could call a modern classic, but something like the final boss and other, very minor quirks do stick out to me because I *want* this game to be excellent. As it stands though, it's a really great experience that I would absolutely recommend.

Spark The Electric Jester 2 brings the series in a bold, new direction compared to its predecessor, which is to say, Spark is fully Not in the game. Also it's in 3D now.

Spark The Electric Jester 2, or as I'm choosing to call it because I'm spiteful, Fark2, is a 3D platformer with some of the same combat elements as the first game, but with the notable change, of course, of being a 3D game.

I won't beat around the bush here, I don't think this game is very good whatsoever. There is genuinely nothing notable that I liked about my time with this game. Because I will surely go off on tangents about every minute instance of failure on which this game underperforms, I have opted to segment this part of the review, so as to maintain concision, and make my point as clearly as possible. I am going to discuss Fark2's gameplay, story, and presentation separately from one another.

Gameplay

Fark2 controls about how you would expect it to, you have a fast character who has a homing attack now, attacks that can help deal with enemies that cannot be dealt with by the homing attack, as well as a parry. Similarly to the previous game, Fark also has access to his own powerups, but not even close to the same amount as Spark had. Additionally, Fark has access to a few "special" moves that can be performed by holding a button and then pressing an alternate input.

With this core kit in mind, the tools given to the player would imply that the usage of all of the items within Fark's arsenal would be used, much like how Spark 1 heavily encouraged and featured the varied use of abilities and powerups to reach the end of a varied and interesting level. This implication, however, is wrong. In reality, very little of the kit given to you actually does end up being used, as the most effective tactics available could not possibly be simpler. I mean it without a shred of irony that every challenge that this game poses to you, outside of a boss fight, can be trivialized by simply running and jumping. This is because Fark is genuinely too fast for the levels, and the amount of space that he covers means that enemies, many jumps, and in some cases major portions of levels can just be ignored. By just running and jumping with the occasional homing attack, players can ignore 90% of Fark's auxiliary kit, including the special moves, the parry, and perhaps most damning, the powerups.

Levels in this game are often very open, and enemies do not populate enough of the space within the levels to actually be able to pose a threat to a player who is, literally, just running and jumping. Normally, I don't have an issue with level design that allows and encourages the player to speed through the level and even in some cases ignore mechanics for the sake of that speed, but I want to emphasize that this is The Entire Game that is like this. It almost feels as though, combined with the extremely generous health system, Fark2 makes genuinely no effort to actually try to kill the player, or worse, makes no effort to make the player adapt. The player creativity that was present in the first game is completely gone in this game, thanks in large part to the fact that the most effective tactic available is also the easiest tactic available.

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A quote from Soren Johnson and Sid Meier, creators of the Civilization series, comes to mind, and I feel that this quote and the information that it presents can aptly highlight the issues present within this game's gameplay loop.

"Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game; One of the responsibilities of designers is to protect the player from themselves."

I find this quote to be particularly important in discussion of this because, well, the devs are blatantly not attempting to challenge the player enough to encourage them to engage with anything other than what works immediately, and the result it an uninteresting slog through a collection of straightaways with nothing of interest to break them up.

This game is not entirely a platformer, however. This game has a combat system and it would just *love it* if you were to engage with it, so it does throw you into several combat scenarios with bosses so as to not waste the effort made to animate punches and kicks. Unfortunately, while it is an instance in which the player has to do *something* other than run and jump, every boss encounter can also be trivialized, this time by spamming the attack button mercilessly until the opponent falls to the ground in about 45 seconds. Now, I played the game on normal difficulty, and I don't always think that games should be super super hard all the time, but I do think that a boss encounter of a kind shouldn't go down in 45 seconds in a third person action game-style combat system on the baseline difficulty of the game. Because of how absolutely spineless the bosses themselves are, they feel pointless and kinda pathetic, really.

To conclude the section on gameplay; Fark2 does not make enough of an effort to actually make the player use any of their advanced tools, regardless of how success within the game is defined. Because of this lack of interest in making a player engage with the game, the game is boring and feels meaningless to play.

2. Story

Fark2's story fails to captivate, or even begin to intrigue me for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which being that I find Fark, the middling "edgy version of the MC" from the last game not particularly interesting or compelling. Fark2 doesn't actually do much with any of its story beats, and creates countless plot hooks that are never resolved, such is the case with the majority of the game's bosses, Float, Flint and Double, all of whom the player learns next to nothing about except that they're working with a somehow edgier clone of Fark named E.J. and that makes them bad, because of course it does.

The story culminates in a predictable and uninteresting "I was created by the enemy" notion, the likes of which we've seen countless times, notably, in the series' influence. I am not kidding when I say it, Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) does Fark2's core story better than Fark2 does.

Of course, a lot of games have predictable, or otherwise simple larger plots that are saved by good or writing that has a lot of character, so does Fark2 have that?

Absolutely not, not even a little. Get a look at this line, to see what I'm talking about.

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The overly edgy, completely ironic way that this game plays itself is not only annoying to try to make sense of, but also refuses to go all the way with it. Every character comes off as edgy, but not edgy enough to where I can even begin to see the cheesiness that they're going for. After a certain point you begin to just tune out as secondhand embarrassment begins to set in.

The writing style that was so endearing about the few instances in the first game where dialogue would happen, particularly the tongue-in-cheek tone, is completely missing from this game, and comparing the two's writing styles to one another feels like night and day. It's dissonant to play these games one after the other, as they feel completely unrecognizable from one another.

It's so obvious that the writers want you to like Fark really badly, but they don't give him anything to latch on to as a character to actually make him likable. Comparisons between Spark and Fark as protagonists are unavoidable, but the most notable point in which the two diverge where Spark succeeds and Fark doesn't is that Fark fails to provide almost any input into the story itself, getting pointed in countless different directions for one reason or another, or for no reason at all. Fark feels like an engine to move through a story that he both is and isn't the center of, whereas Spark feels intentionally disconnected to events at hand because he doesn't particularly care about them.

Speaking of Spark, where is he? They mention him once as "being off enjoying a blank check" but that begs the question, why didn't they name the game "Fark the Electric Jester?" It's just supremely weird to me that in a game named after a specific character, that character has actually NO on screen presence. In some way, it feels like false advertising. And, considering that the devs are billing it as the *same series* the writing inconsistencies seem even more dissonant. If this were a spin off I would get it but it's not! Why is it named after a character who isn't in the game? This is like if the next Shantae game was called Shantae: The Curse of Driftwood, and then the game has no appearance of Shantae herself, and you're locked into playing as Rottytops.

The story of Fark2 fails on so many fundamental levels that I can't say that it's worth it to watch any of the cutscenes. It suffers issues on several fronts, from unsatisfying conclusions, plot contrivances, pointless characters, an attempt at intrigue that fails spectacularly, and a protagonist who is extremely easy to dislike.

There's one thing I didn't hate about this game's story, and that's that it does do the super form better than the first game did, but only because it wore a sickening amount of Dragon Ball on its sleeves.

3. Presentation

First, to get this out of the way, this game has some fun butt rock songs to play in boss fights, despite how lame those fights themselves are. I appreciate the attempt there, but music choice in this game is really quite odd.

There's no way I can put it politely, this game is not satisfying to look at. The textures are passable at best, the area design is really quite same-y and the model work for many characters is butt ugly. The two former problems I can pass, they're still problems, but I feel that the issue of the models cannot be as easily forgotten.

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The way that these characters are executed in 3D is, disappointing to say the least, exacerbated by the fact that are that you see *in game* has every one of these characters looking far better than they do here! I'm consistently left confused about what happened here to make all of these characters look like they have all of their features stickered onto their face, which is genuinely just a sphere.

I genuinely like all of these character designs! I think that everyone here looks cute or cool in some degree, but to have such an uncanny representation of them in-game does a legitimate disservice to these characters. I know 3D modelling is hard, I get it, but there should be a point, I feel, where a product isn't ready to be implemented into a build of the game, and none of the models of these characters were ready yet.

In Conclusion about Fark2:

Fark2 fails at just about everything it sets out to do, it's largely uncool, uninteresting, boring, and I don't feel that it is worth your time, and especially not your money. It's gameplay, story and presentation aren't anything special, and it isn't even "so bad it's good." This game is painfully mediocre, and I would believe it if this game were something of a demo for the following entry in the series. Clearly, someone felt that this game is as pointless as I feel it is, because every one of its levels were used as late game extra content in Spark the Electric Jester 3.

Spark The Electric Jester 3 is another 3D platformer, but makes significant improvements to everything that Fark2 tries to accomplish.

First and foremost, Spark the Electric Jester 3 manages to provide fast-paced, fun core gameplay that actually necessitates challenge to the player in both combat and platforming sections. Spark, as the rightful playable character in this game, has access to a large arsenal of combat and movement abilities, which are unlocked from an ingame shop, which serves to naturally encourage the player to learn each move as they can afford it. Spark can also double jump, as well as charge a dash forward that can be used in midair. Despite there not being much more than there was in Fark2 from a platforming perspective, the platforming of this game is far more satisfying as the levels themselves are actually made with Spark's movement and abilities in mind. Levels will frequently push back against you, and require that you at least manage a degree of skill to succeed.

On the combat of things, everything has been revamped to allow combat encounters to feel like anything more than a spam fest. In Spark3, players are encouraged to earn stunlocks against opponents in order to maximize the amount of damage that they can pull off off of one option. Additionally, use of the parry is more difficult, but no less required, making each combat encounter with lots of enemies into a test to see if the player can manage their combo strings while avoiding or parrying enemy attacks simultaneously. Again, compared to some of the action games that this gameplay loop is commonly accredited to, it's a bit more barebones still, however as it isn't the whole focus of the title, and the sections where the pure combat sections are used are somewhat far between, the combat doesn't get old and remains a welcome refresher when platforming could risk getting monotonous.

twitch_clip

Spark3 sees the return of powerups, again, however the player doesn't actually get many of them at all in a normal intended playthrough, really only getting maybe one of them for certain. I got to play with the Reaper powerup during my playthrough as I managed to defeat a certain boss who was supposed to beat me on my first attempt on him, and I think that this is a really interesting way to handle the powerups. Each powerup has much of the same fundamental kit, so players are never left wondering how to input something compared to Spark's normal moveset. I found this powerup implementation to be rewarding, but I felt myself wanting more upgrades to unlock in more apparent ways throughout one playthrough.

Level design in Spark 3 is extremely varied, and consistently visually and mechanically engaging the whole way through! This game works on the basis of certain "worlds" that unlock as the player progresses, sorta like how more rooms of Peach's castle will open at certain amounts of stars in Super Mario 64. Each level within these "worlds" are themed around a specific concept, like a city in a state of riot, an airport/rocket launch facility, or a militarized jungle. The theming of these areas doesn't just account for visuals, however, as each of the areas themselves are also considered for what could be interesting gameplay-wise. For example, one level in the airport level sees a plane crashing and Spark having to escape, in a rare timed level with strong wind mechanics attempting to throw the player off. Or, in the rioting city level, players can jump off of crowds of protestors for a boost, and use a helicopter in brief, but consistently solid vehicle sections. Speaking of, I adore the car sections. Spark3 starts in a car section and I adored every second of it. It's a thunderous, no-nonsense beginning to the game that served to really effectively set a tone that had me down for anything as soon as it started.

twitch_clip

Despite being "down for anything" Spark 3 does lose me in one area. I don't think that it's story is very good, really. My primary issues with the story are that, despite far better writing, this game fails to actually deliver on any of the hooks that it puts out, and seems far more interested, for some fuckin reason, on fleshing out characters from Fark2, specifically the main bosses from Fark2, at least two of which are presumed dead at the end of that game. While there is *a degree* of plot relevance that there could be, in that Float, one of the presumed dead bosses from the previous game, appears to have returned, and seems sad about having dead friends. I take issue with the notion of how this is done however, because Float doesn't actually tell Spark anything, and instead this information is exhibited through stylized 16 bit cutscenes, which while looking cool, take up significantly more runtime in the story than is necessary, especially considering how this story ends.

My BIGGEST issue with Spark3's story is its *egregious* ending, which I will warn prospective players about spoilers for if they're averse to that sort of thing, BUT the rest of this paragraph will concern these spoilers. Spark3 ends in a way that couldn't have been seen from three feet ahead of you. Spark3's ending is, no joke, comparable to NieR Automata and Neon Genesis Evangelion. There's nothing wrong with an ending like that art has, I quite like endings like that, but mostly because art like NieR or NGE EARN their endings, by laying consistent plot threads the whole runtime about something mysterious. Spark3 does *not* do this, and instead pulls it out as shockingly as possible. The entire game is predicated on "Spark has to go and remove Fark, who has become something of a dictator, from power, as he's militarized most of the world using the Fark Force." Now, this is a novel concept, cute even! I really hate Fark, so I'm down to bring him down a peg! But upon reaching the end of the game Spark reaches Fark, who doesn't want to fight him, and instead explains to Spark that both of them have been in a simulation for 3000 years, and Float, a character who's past we learned a lot about in this game, was actually a fake created by the simulation arbitrator, Clarity, in order to lure Spark toward it's own goals. Notably, there have been ABSOLUTELY NO notable clues that the world was a simulation. Additionally, in a near final boss moment, they make you play as Fark, which pissed me off personally, but that's not empirical it's just something I didn't like. The issue with Spark3's story is that it spends five hours of runtime satisfied in the status quo of it's normality, while it attempts to end with something that would have been far more effective, and far less jarring if there were ANY foreshadowing AT ALL. Because Spark3 doesn't have an interest in actually encouraging the player to think about how the game outside of the typical "big simple punch off" fare, it doesn't work to implement something as left field as the ending that is in the game. Additionally, the game ends on a discussion between Fark and Spark, who are dead, and have been dead, about the importance of keeping moving forward, really played pretty straight, no jokes, no irony, then immediately after the credits roll is a Friday Night Funkin reference. Tonal inconsistency is *so* rampant throughout this ending.

The ending, regardless of if you did or did not read the previous paragraph, left me so dissatisfied with the game that my opinion on this game soured significantly, to the point where on stream I actively did not recommend the game to viewers because of the ending.

To conclude, Spark3 is a game with a really excellent gameplay loop that doesn't leave a lot to be desired, and consistently seeks to challenge the player while also giving them opportunities to experiment with new and fun toys that consistently spice up the gameplay loop whenever present. Despite the quality of the gameplay, this game's story is not only unfulfilling, but also useless within the context of the game itself. There are two cutscenes that matter, and they're the ones before and after the final bosses. I would recommend Spark3 to someone looking for an exemplary gameplay experience, however I wouldn't begin to recommend the game to someone who wants a deep or interesting story.

twitch_clip

Now that I've discussed each game at length, I'd like to conclude with a short review of the series as a whole. S

park, when the direction accounts for potential shortcomings, is extremely fun, however the series' writing is consistently passable at best, with some egregious exceptions that make it hard to not skip every cutscene after a while.

Spark 1 is a really fun and interesting romp through a variety of interesting levels in 2d, with an overall fun atmosphere that doesn't seek to take itself too seriously, much to it's benefit. Complete with a multitude of gameplay styles and extreme encouragement of player creativity, it's an excellent way to satisfy a 2D speed platformer itch.

Fark 2 is awful.

Spark 3 takes consistent points from Spark 1 regarding player creativity, visual diversity, wealth of content, and attention to fun and engaging experiences that makes it easy to recommend for it's gameplay and visuals. However, the game's story takes itself far more seriously than it earns, much like Fark2 did to no avail, and the story becomes worse because of it.

If you'd like to watch these playthroughs for yourself, they're all up on my YouTube channel linked below! Thanks so much for reading!

#game review #pinch reviews #indie vtuber #spark the electric jester #twitch streamer #youtube #pinch raccoon #envtuber #spark the electric jester 2 #spark the electric jester 3 #sonic the hedghog #vtuber #game reviews #raccoon

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miloscat · 5 months

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[Review] Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures (3DS)

What if Pac-Man was Mega Man but also slow and boring?

I’ve been loyal to Inti Creates ever since I fell in love with Rockman Zero (I played a Japanese import first). They kinda lost me with Gunvolt and I find Gal Gun deplorable but they usually seem like they’re really trying to make compelling action games. I’ve wanted to try this handheld companion game to the 3D platformer console tie in to the modern animated series since I learned they were behind it, and after seeing this reboot’s debut in Dimensions it seemed like a good time for it. As for the game, well, I guess every studio has their phoned-in contract work.

This setting has a surprisingly dark backstory but the actual stories are light and stuffed with “action show for kids” tropes. Pac is a teenager always talking about burgers, grimacing, and hanging out with his hideous friends. He also might secretly be a superhero? Either way, he is “the only one” who can save Pactown in Pacworld or whatever, by eating ghosts which regularly invade via the schemes of their boss Evil McEvilface, er excuse me, “Betrayus”.

A lot of familiar Pac elements are repurposed in occasionally tortured ways: the classic ghost foursome have new designs and are your double agent friends, the fruits exist as transforming vehicles that assist with certain platforming sections, and pellets are central. The small ones, called cookies for some reason, give you lives (again, why have these in a game that you’re intentionally making easier for kids?) and spawn in fruits for points. Power pellets, here berries of the “tree of life”, have elemental alignments that act as your Mega Man powers.

You can pick from a set of six stages, and the action plays out as a sidescroller. Certain stages unlock new abilities, four in all: fire, ice, magnet, and… chameleon. Collectibles can increase your stock of berries, or unlock art or entries in the model viewer. The powers of course can help you in combat and to interact with your environment to find goodies; replaying stages with new powers is encouraged but I opted out, thanks very much. Chameleon is the most fun when given a chance to shine, as its tongue lets you grapple around and best plays into the combo system.

The most interesting thing the game does is this mid-air mechanic. You can multiply your score by eating successive ghosts without landing. Well, score didn’t matter much to me but just pulling off strings is satisfying and sometimes lets you reach new areas. Pac has a single-use Yoshi-like flutter jump and a chomp attack that gives you a horizontal boost and can home in on ghosts. This all could add up to a dynamic and fun movement system but in truth it’s quite stilted and never reaches its full potential.

The combination of mid-air mobility and the powers giving you alternate attacks again could make for really exciting boss fights, and occasionally when you find a specific interaction between a power and a boss weakness there’s moments of brilliance. But most of the time these fights just plod along, waiting for them to become vulnerable. The late-game boss rush only hammers this home.

Inti Create have shown that they can make world-class Mega Man games, whether it’s the slick Zero games or Mighty Gunvolt Burst with its classic vibes and novel customisation. You can see a little tiny bit of that expertise being applied here but it’s not enough. Amusing as it is to meld that gameplay structure and its recognisable characteristics in with this ridiculous setting and its weird try-hard updating of a gaming icon, it just doesn’t amount to much. And that’s a shame, because this could have been something special.

#pac man #pac man and the ghostly adventures #inti creates #review #3ds

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transirisreal · 1 year

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mega man (1987) - review

also known as: rockman

release date: december 17th, 1987

played on: nes (mega man legacy collection)

have i played this prior to the review?: yes

mega mans first game!!! does it hold up??? lets find out!!!!

i assume i dont need to go too in depth as to how mega man gameplay works. you likely already know but ill explain a bit anyway. u are given the choice of 8 robot master stages (6 in this game) and after beating those, a few more linear stages after those referred to as the fortress stages, with a final boss at the end who is (almost) always dr wily. after beating one of the 8 (6) robot masters, u get their weapon, certain weapons are strong against certain enemies and bosses, etc.

the popular consensus regarding this game is that it isnt very good, and to a certain extent, i agree. this game is pretty clearly their first attempt. only 6 stages, passwords werent invented yet (meaning if ur playing on an og nes and need to leave, youll have to start the game all over), and a bad game design moment that ill talk abt a bit later.

despite it being the first game, its graphics have aged pretty well, and still look pretty nice today. of course later games would have better graphics but mm1 still looks damn good

the music in this game is pretty good and memorable! my favorite tracks are elec man's stage, guts man's stage, wily fortress 1 and wily fortress 2, and the ending theme.

the special weapons are pretty good, the thunder beam (elec mans weapon) is the best but everything else is still pretty good, my least favorite is the super arm (guts mans weapon), as you can only pick up specific blocks...

this game is known for its hard difficulty. its one of the hardest in the series, though theres a pretty infamous glitch that cuts the difficulty down by about half. its known as "the pause glitch" and basically involves you constantly pausing the game to abuse the bosses invincibility frames. unless ur a Super Ultra Pro Hardcore Gamer™, ur gonna need that pause glitch bcs bosses like fire man, elec man, and yellow devil are way too friggin hard without the pause glitch or any other fancy tricks.

theres a moment a bit later on in the game thats quite infamous for being badly designed...so in elec man's stage, theres an item called the magnet beam, you cant miss seeing it but u need either guts mans weapon or elec mans weapon to break the blocks and grab it. heres the thing: the magnet beam could have easily stayed as a fun little bonus utility if you went through the effort of obtaining it.

instead, theres a section in the first fortress level that you cant pass without the magnet beam. since "exiting the stage" wasn't invented yet, if you dont have it, youll have to lose all of your lives, get a game over, go back to elec mans stage, grab the magnet beam, and finish the rest of his stage or get another game over, and go back to the fortress to finally pass through. incase you couldnt tell...

in conclusion, this might be a hot take but i think mega man 1 is a lot better than people give it credit for. did it age perfectly? no. are there better mega man games? yes. is this game even good? thats debatable! however, i think out of the 716 licensed nes games, this still outclasses a good majority of them. good controls, good music, good graphics, a lot of aspects of this game still hold up today.

mega man 1 gets a 3.5/5 from me :)

so anyway, if u made it this far tysm for reading my silly goofy ramblings! likes/reblogs would seriously be appreciated, as my goal is to get more people to see my dumb little reviews! i plan on doing a review for mega man 2 soon, but dont be surprised if i get bored and forget my tumblr account exists :3

#mega man #megaman #megaman classic #capcom #nes #art #ms paint #beginner artist #review #game review #silly little mega man reviews

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mothuary · 1 year

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Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance

Ok! so this review is for the first game that I actually started and finished in the new year. Yay! When I stumbled upon the last game I wrote a review for, I had actually been looking for this one:

Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance was one of the first video games I’d ever touched in my life. I didn’t even learn it was a spinoff until I’d accidentally bought the mainline game two years ago and was supremely confused. Needless to say, I was really excited to see if this held up to my expectations. Now, this game is part of a kind of set of very similar games that were released by snowblind studios all around the same time, so BG:DA2, as well as the two similar games that take place in the Everquest universe, the first and second Champions of Norrath games. But this one is all D&D 3e babyyyy. Now Im not going to spend this review sucking up to WotC obviously, but it is very charming to re-play a game and see all the references I had been missing as a kid. I thought beholders were as well-known as dragons, lol.

Now I know that the game has been, in recent years, re-released, so lets talk about what I like about it and see if it’s a worthy way to go on a little early 2000s fantasy nostalgia trip.

First lets talk about your characters. You get a quite limited selection of three characters with pre-selected names and classes. You can also unlock Drizzt Do’Urden in the character select screen but i didnt know so I played as the elf Adrianna, and my 2P played as... human archer. whose name I forget. each of them has the stats and abilities you would expect, ie. the sorcerer starts with high int and low str, and can cast magic missile. Part of the great fun of the game is finding new weapons and armor to upgrade your character with, but seeing as the game is locked to the basic loot tables in D&D 3e, the loot is a lot more boring than I remembered. You’ll mostly get a couple of weapons worth clinging to over the course of the game, and sell everything else. But hey! at least the woman armor looks respectable. (image source cause its from someones letsplay but mega spoilers in there!)

Before I get started rambling about the gameplay, you might be interested to know that the music is done by the infamous jeremy soule so if you want some very morrowind-esque vibes, you can always give it a listen: ( x | x | x )

Okay so gameplay stuff. The game is set up in a bunch of dungeons where you look down from above and you go from “room” to “room” (they arent all literal rooms) and you clear out all of the enemies. Its quite cute, it does remind me of a miniature in a model set. Enemies dont respawn, so there IS a limited quantity of experience in the game. You can load characters from past playthroughs if you want to start out beefier, and this is recommended if you want to play the harder difficulties. Its also important to keep that in mind when youre playing with more than one person, because if youre always getting the kills, your player 2 will fall behind quickly.

The game has some kind of clunky controls, I really hate how difficult it is to switch spells (you have to use the D-Pad and they give you like forty empty spell slots lol). This issue is especially bad compared to the way that champions of norrath handles it (basically offers you hotkeys, its way better). We also found that the archery was a lot less.... fun than just melee bonking bc there are really limited projectiles. by which I mean its just arrows. plain ol arrows. Also there arent any rings around the feet of your character to help differentiate P1 from P2 so i kept walking into walls. Its not helped by the fact that the gameplay is v simplistic hack n slashy so your eyes kind of glaze over sometimes.

Another thing of note, which I never really noticed as a kid, is how front-loaded the game is. In the beginning of the game, youre completing a questline attached to the Elfsong tavern, and every once in a while, when you stop at the tavern to buy new weapons, someone will show up to give you a new quest. The quests were always part of the linear plot, so they didnt change the shape of the game at all, but they made the world feel more interesting. By the time you step into the second chapter of the game, the world begins to feel more flat and less and less named npcs pop up to chat with you. It ends up making the game feel really lonely. The NPCs that DO exist are animated quite well for a 2001 game, though, and I was really struck by their individually moving fingers which really helped them feel very emotive, which was underlined by the way that NPCs take up the whole screen when you talk with them.

having a sexy bartender in the first five minutes of your game helps keep the audience engaged.

Its a quite short adventure, it took my partner and I about a week to play all the way through and honestly? By the end I was mostly just kind of excited that I can move on to the second game now and see how much better it is. I think that the game is OK, but should you pay $30 new for it? NO. you can get ps2 copies used for $10. and if youre interested in playing BOTH of the games (and/or the champions games as well) i’d just.... buy a ps2. This game is very imperfect and leaves a lot to be desired. I would not recommend it to everyone, but I would recommend it to anyone craving a classic campaign but doesnt have a party. It does scratch the D&D itch but its not the best of it’s kind. That being said, if your time is limited, I’d say that most people would prefer the Champion’s games to this one.

#Baldurs Gate #Baldur's Gate #Dark Alliance #Game review #ps2 #video games #moth reviews #moth speaks #forgotten realms

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stinkywormynoob · 10 months

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Thoughts on Worms games from someone who didn't grow up with any

Worms: Armageddon

I barely played this one, I didn't even know how to jump and gave up at the tutorial because I found it to be too unforgiving. Hearing about its popularity seems to have a reverse psychology effect on me, but I want to try it again at some point. I don't find it visually appealing, but the gameplay must be good if people praise it?

Worms 3D

Feels like Mayhem with janky movement physics. The worms in this game are cute, but they tend to look like they're either sad, drunk or have a case of Resting Bitch Face.

Worms Forts: Under Siege

I feel like this game is a spin-off but also not? I played through the tutorial, felt bored and confused simultaneously, didn't want to touch the game for a while afterwards, and just started the campaign yesterday only to feel that way again once I got to a level where I had to actively build. I wished I was doing something else. It was more fun watching the worms' animations than actually playing. I also hate how the camera controls feel. I probably would've liked the cancelled kart game better.

Worms 4: Mayhem

I got this one after WUM, initially to try out the free camera thingy, then test the OpenSpy patch (I haven't tried much, but I heard it doesn't work well, maybe I should just try LAN instead). Maybe I could try modding something oneday, since WUM seems to be modding-unfriendly. I don't want to play the campaign here because I know what kind of "voice acting" it has.

Worms: Revolution

This game makes me feel like an idiot. I like the worms' designs in this though, they have to be my 2nd favourite. I also recognize a lot of animations borrowed from Mayhem.

Worms: Ultimate Mayhem

This was my introductory Worms game. A friend suggested trying it back in February. We played it together via Parsec and it was funny experience. Wormpot helps spicing up the gameplay a lot. Worms flying high and far from overpowered explosions is a type of comedy. In rare occasions worms may get stuck in unexpected places, which is also funny. My first team was one with blue hair and I became attached to it, hence why that detail appears in my art a lot. The worms' design in this game has really grown on me and become my favourite.

Worms: Crazy Golf

I'm far from great and I just don't vibe with it overall.

Worms W.M.D

I'm pretty sure this was my first 2D game. I felt lost (and still do to an extent) with the amount of crafted weapons. Things tend to go wrong, but that can make it fun at times. This was also suggested by a friend, we played it together, and they used some mega destructive weapon (don't remember the name), and... let's just say it didn't always go in their favor.

Worms Rumble

I happened to be fortunate enough that a veteran player gifted me a code, so I bypassed Steam's regional restriction AND didn't spend any of my own money. There are a lot of maxed out players who can casually kick my ass, but there still are middle level and even new players I have a better chance against. As someone whose judgment isn't clouded by nostalgia, I want to say this game is... enjoyable. I only played one Battle Royale type game prior, but I didn't stick with it, maybe I chickened out. I recognize there's a problem with the number of active players: Quick Search rarely gives me Last Worm Standing and Last Squad Stading matches because they're always getting a single digit number of players. I heard there've been no updates lately and suggestions to make the game F2P. Regardless I've passed Level 25 (max is 50) and I'm certain I want to keep playing.

#text #worms #team17 #game

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bikwin5 · 1 year

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At 40 hours and 95% completion I have finished the second installment in the ever so critically acclaimed Mario + Rabbids series. I wanted to do a quick write-up about it and then it spiraled very quickly into a very long post about analyzing every thing I liked and didn’t like about it, including characters and plot. So the result is this mega post with multiple sections that’s not quite a review but is also sort of one.

this post is spoiler-free up until a certain point

THE IMPROVEMENTS

The predecessor to Sparks of Hope, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (which I will now call kingdom battle for short) is an excellent game with two major issues I had with the gameplay. The first is that Mario is always in the team, and he’s not a bad hero but is kind of boring after using him for so long. The other problem is that you get new heroes way too late in the game, in particular the Yoshis hardly get a chance to do anything. Sparks of Hope immediately fixes both these problems, letting you use six whole heroes after a series of tutorial fights with any team configuration you want. The last hero is unlocked around the halfway point of the plot, allowing you to use just about everybody a fair amount.

“Versatility” is a good way to describe where Sparks of Hope’s gameplay shines. Kingdom Battle had less situations where I wanted to change up my team, but the sequel had me picking and choosing different heroes almost every battle. There is a breakdown of all the characters later on in this post but I’ll just say I managed to get a fair amount of use out of everybody. And since there are nine heroes to choose for a three-hero team, there’s a lot of options.

Another element of Sparks of Hope that adds to its versatility is right there in the title, the sparks. The freaky looking rabbid-luma hybrids can be equipped on each hero, up to two at a time. The effects these sparks have on heroes act as replacements for a lot of the techniques the first game had, for instance many of them will guarantee a super effect on your next attack when used. Some are super effects attacks themselves, and some will summon enemies, similar to some sub-weapons from Kingdom Battle. I have some complaints with this system I’ll get into later but I do think sparks are a very neat way to customize heroes the way you want them to. In addition, the skill tree is back, and since you can’t fill up the whole thing you can try different “builds” for your heroes with different combinations of skills and sparks. It makes for a more customizable, varied experience overall.

Outside of combat, Sparks of Hope takes a larger-scale approach to the overworld. There are five huge planets to explore, and the areas are much more wide open than Kingdom Battle’s series of hallways. The battles are no longer located in the overworld but in something they justify as the “Darkmess dimension,” which is really just a RPG-style transition to the battlefield. The main story is only a fraction of the total battles you encounter, as side content is everywhere. There are also tons of NPCs to talk to, which was something that Kingdom Battle seriously lacked. The huge jump in scope might be overwhelming to some, but I really enjoyed having worlds to explore and find all sorts of secrets to encounter. Except for Pristine Peaks, the layout for that world fucken suuuuuuuuucks

THE NOT-SO-IMPROVEMENTS

This might be nitpicky but the one thing I miss the most from Kingdom Battle is the general personality and style that game had. I suppose the art style is probably the first thing that comes to mind. For a bit of comparison, some screenshots I found from The Google:

This does not mean that Sparks of Hope looks bad by a long shot!!! They are both very nice looking and some of the most visually striking titles on the switch. But Kingdom Battle has a style that stands out to me a lot more, with its surreal environments with vivid colors and weird objects strewn about everywhere that really make it stand out. Sparks of Hope ups the detail a bit but I think it loses something else in the process. Kingdom Battle treats the world as chaotic and confused from the arrival of rabbids while its sequel treats the Ubisoft creatures as if they have been in the Mario universe for a long time. Again, it’s really just a personal preference but the environments in Kingdom Battle would have been much more interesting to explore free-roam than the planets in Sparks of Hope.

Earlier I said the sparks were a great thing because they allow for more customizable heroes, and that is true. But I also find them a bit of a detriment in other ways, specifically because they replace a lot of things. When fighting in Kingdom Battle, each hero had a weapon and a sub-weapon, movement, and two techniques. In Sparks of Hope, sub-weapons and second techniques are gone and each hero only has one. This is probably why I switched up teams a lot, it’s very easy to run into a problem your current setup can’t solve easily. While there are some sub-weapons I do not miss at all, there are others I do miss dearly, see the character breakdowns for more.

Another thing with Sparks of Hope is that I found it much easier than expected. With all due respect I was playing on normal mode and there is a hard difficulty. Part of me regrets not turning up the difficulty at any point, but maybe it’s ok that I didn’t make a 40 hour game even longer. A lot of this difficulty reduction has to do with the new movement system. Heroes can now move anywhere within their allotted range, free from the tyrrany of the grid. I don’t hate this movement system per se, but it was a bit difficult to get used to at first and it makes a LOT of things super trivial like casting techniques and sparks on allies. The catch is that you can no longer move after doing a regular attack, and the same goes for enemies, but everything else benefits the heroes way more than it does the foes.

This next point is and isn’t a complaint at the same time. Critical hits were a big factor in Kingdom Battle, as most mid to late-game weapons had a random chance to not only do more damage but also apply a super effect. In Sparks of Hope super effects are now relegated to sparks and specific enemies, no longer do you have a random chance to ink an enemy (ink is gone anyway, that was OP as hell). I felt as if this really diminished the effects of critical hits, like they’re still good but it doesn’t feel quite as satisfying when you have a random chance to apply an effect. Maybe this is a really stupid and trivial thing to complain about but I do think strategy RPGs do have an element of luck that can pay off very well, but also I’m not even that familiar with the genre so maybe I have no idea what the hell I am talking about.

My last (minor) complaint is the soundtrack-- it is still a very good soundtrack, but I still prefer Kingdom Battle’s OST overall. To be fair it hasn’t had 5 years to grow on me yet. Grant, Yoko and even Gareth all did a very good job at conveying a very epic grandiose sort of RPG but I feel that they made less room for other styles as a result. I guess it’s the fact that I know these composers can do more diverse stuff then epic orchestra fight song. Basically the best way I can describe it is that they should have let the composers go more stupid like this:

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THE HEROES

Mario - I said he was pretty boring in Kingdom Battle, and he is still the all-arounder in this one, but I think he’s actually a lot more fun to use this time around. No longer are boring-ass regular blasters a thing-- Mario now dual wields, as he should in every game he’s in. This allows him to hit two targets on one turn, or just concentrate his damage on one. Mario comes equipped with hero sight-- His technique from the previous game that boosts damage is now a spark power, which is a big improvement. In Kingdom Battle his movement range sucked, but here it’s a bit better now that he can stomp enemies more than once. He comes equipped with Hero Sight once again, which is always a good move and he can even be upgraded to get another charge on it for every kill. Overall I think Mario is a solid improvement over the past game and one of the few returning heroes I have no complaints with.

Rabbid Peach - This is where things get controversial. Rabbid Peach was super good in the last game and still is. While she loses the ability to shield herself, she can still heal allies and her new triple troll weapon can unleash hell on enemies behind cover, giving her less of a need for her remote mine sub-weapon from KB.

My complaint with Rabbid Peach is not that she’s bad but that she is too good, and a bit boring at that. I mean she was already boring in the first game being able to stall forever with the shield but my biggest problem is that she can now be upgraded to have Heal Jump in her skill tree, something previously given to Peach. With that Rabbid Peach is not only the best healer in the game but now the only healer. Everyone else has to rely on either items or vamp sparks, which are self-healing only. I feel as if giving Rabbid Peach 5 different ways to heal herself is their way of trying to make up for the lack of shield but it just feels redundant and they should have given a more passive group healing option to one or two other heroes instead. But overall using her is ok if boring, and she even feels essential in longer boss fights.

Luigi - Luigi is god tier always. Well in Kingdom Battle he was, being able to deal tons of damage to a single target, using his sub-weapon to snuff out anyone behind cover and having insane movement range made him a force to be reckoned with despite his poor HP stat. So of course they nerfed him in SoH. And despite all this, he still manages to be extremely good, in fact if this game had usage stats he would probably be #1 for me.

Luigi is nerfed in the sense he can no longer just wreck anything he sees- His longbow has major falloff depending on how close he is to the target. The lack of a sentry mine also means he can’t dab or do much to targets behind cover, and needs to rely on another hero’s support. Despite this, Luigi can still do crazy amounts of damage to priority targets at long or even mid range, especially if you give him a guaranteed super effect. He is once again equipped with Steely Stare, a technique whose name is a bit dated by now. His now-missing technique (which I had to look up) used to increase his range of movement, and there is no spark equivalent for that because WOW, that would be even more busted in a game where movement is ridiculously strong. Still, Luigi’s reduced moveset can’t keep him down and his affinity for long-range targets still makes him very useful and VERY fun to use.

Rabbid Luigi - This guy got hit pretty hard. Not to say he’s bad, but Rabbid Luigi is a LOT more situational than he used to be. No longer possessing a shield, rocket launcher, or even vamp dash, Rabbid Luigi has been overhauled, and that doesn’t just apply to his outfit. Vamp dash is now weaken dash, and weaken has the ability to be upgraded to reduce enemies’ defenses as well as their attack. The change to his weapon is what bothers me the most. He is now equipped with a frisbee that can chain between enemies, sort of like Donkey Kong’s banana boomerang from his adventure. While the frisbee can absolutely wreck shit on smaller maps with clusters of enemies, it has a pathetically short range for the initial hit and does hardly a scratch when focusing on single targets. Again, Rabbid Luigi is not bad, but he shines way more in some situations than others.

Rabbid Mario - This is a hero whose true potential I never realized until near the end of Kingdom Battle, and somehow it happened again in this game. Rabbid Mario has ditched his hammer and shotgun for a pair of dukes, literally called The Dukes, and can deal a ton of damage to enemies at a short range. This is as welcome change, as I thought him having both a shotgun and melee was redundant as both are most effective at close range regardless. Unfortunately the new movement system doesn’t do him any favors. Having to attack and be stuck in the same place means that in most cases Rabbid Mario can and will get hurt. He does have the HP to take it and a counterattack, but I felt as if he was super situational for smaller maps and didn’t have much use otherwise.

Or so I thought. It tuns out, at the top of his skill tree, you can unlock the power for Rabbid Mario to move after attacking, effectively just letting him break the biggest rule of combat in SoH. And my god, does he become a beast. Not only can you upgrade his movement range to be bigger, but being able to do dashes and a five-hit combo and run away all on the same turn makes him an even bigger threat to anything that can’t hit through cover more than a few meters away. I almost want to replay more battles with him just to see what other wild shit he can do.

Peach - I think Peach is sort of bad. Sorry. OK maybe she has her uses and is fun to use sometimes. My problem is that her weapon sucks. I mean it still sucked in Kingdom Battle and arguably is better in the sequel, as it no longer has friendly fire. But most of the time I feel that smashing every bit of cover in an arc in front of you is not as useful as it sounds. To be fair they gave Peach a new technique, team barrier, which is like Rabbid Yoshi’s shield except actually really good. So team barrier alone still makes her good enough to have on the team in situations, usually ones where the state of the map doesn’t matter that much. The “caveman tactic” of destroying all cover on the map and putting up team barrier works well enough sometimes. My last complaint that I already made before is that they got rid of her heal jump and gave it to Rabbid Peach, they did not need to do this!!! idk I think Peach already has it bad enough with the shotgun that causes more harm than good. But I will say it is very funny to equip a super effect and apply it to a ton of guys at once.

Edge - I will ignore gameplay for a moment to say Edge is maybe one of the funniest characters ever made. She is normally the kind of trope I would not care for but since she’s a rabbid it makes everything 1000% funnier. Ok now that I’ve said that I think Edge is pretty good once you start to upgrade her. She’s completely different from anyone else in the first game and her weapon can only deal multiple hits based on some unknown factor (distance? idk) so it was a bit hard for me to grasp what she’s good at. Then I found out Edge can dash up to 4 times and expand her movement range with each one so I just did that. To me she’s basically taken over Rabbid Luigi as The Movement Guy, and equipping a spark like gust dash makes her very good at dishing out damage at close range. Movement is super strong in this game, letting you dash the same enemy as many times as you want, and that’s where Edge shines the most. I think I actually used Edge more than anyone else other than Luigi, she is pretty fun to use overall!

Rabbid Rosalina - This is a character I initially did not care for and then after watching a few cutscenes I decided I would do anything for her. Rabbid Rosalina is core representation of one of the most important archtypes in our society: Sleepygirls. Anyway the way I would describe her gameplay-wise is that she’s a bit situational but she’s EXTREMELY good in those situations. Sure her weapon range sucks and her movement range sucks and I kept making her break her own cover by mistake and she seems like a Rabbid Yoshi replacement at a glance but all of that does not matter when you have the power of Ennui

Ennui is her technique btw. It has a long cooldown but it can be applied to all enemies in range and also through dashing. Ennui is an all-new technique that makes enemies unable to do anything for the next turn, or two if you upgrade it. The catch is that the enemies get un-ennui’d if they are attacked but the fact Rabbid Rosie can just deny entire groups of enemies from doing anything makes her extremely good for survival missions, missions where you have to focus on a single target, or just about anything beyond the standard “Defeat all,” and even then she’s not too bad. Ennui is my favorite thing to think about now. Get ennui’d idiot

Bowser - Bowser is Yoshi from the first game but good. It’s not hard to see how they’re similar, he has the rocket launcher, the massive HP pool, even an attack when he lands from a team jump. There’s a number of things tweaked that make him better than Yoshi, notably that the team jump attack isn’t as fucking massive and no longer does it break cover. What DOES break cover is his Bowzooka, which can be upgraded to shatter it in one hit. Unlike my complaints about Peach this is great for revealing small groups of enemies behind cover, opening them up to things like Luigi’s fury. Bowser can also summon mechakoopas, which is the closest thing to the sentry mine from the first game. I find the results of them more amusing than helpful, but they do serve as a good enemy distraction in a pinch. Despite the fact that Bowser is Bowser, he works best when cooperating with other heroes. Overall solid and fun to use, if not the best in every situation.

THE PLOT

This is the part with spoilers BTW. You should probably stop reading if you haven’t finished the game yet. If you don’t want to go any further then thanks for reading, please rate 5 and subcribe

Ok the cool people can continue now. I think criticizing the plot of a Mario RPG is a fruitless endeavor, despite what many people online seem to think. But there are some things I wish were handled better.

Even though Sparks of Hope is presented as an epic massive sprawling adventure across the galaxy the plot is very straightforward. There is an evil (Cursa) spreading across the galaxy, and Mario & pals have to stop it. The basic premise of this never changes much, there aren’t really any major twists and turns in the story. A lot of plot instead focuses on the problems each individual planet has, like an eternal blizzard or withered forest. And with all due respect I think this is fine, a Mario RPG doesn’t need a massive storyline and focusing on the planets really fleshes out the strange rabbid world that’s not quite Mario but not quite Rayman Raving Rabbids either, it sets out to do its own thing and I like that.

What I do NOT like is the way the other side was handled, the Mario side. The worlds are still full of occasional Mario references and creatures but the problem I have is with the characters. For some reason, Ubisoft went the Nintendo route of having characters in your party not speak at all, something that doesn’t even apply to past Mario RPGs. Luigi, Peach and even Bowser get a few lines each, but the moment you start playing as them they shut up forever in dialogue. Strangely enough this does not apply to their Rabbid counterparts. A friend of mine has expressed sentiment like “Beep-O and Jeanie’s dialogue could have been cut in half to let the other characters speak” and I agree with that 100%. They might be the only fully voice acted characters in the game but I feel like they could have let room for anyone else. Also speaking of voice acting there are a number of characters I wish weren’t only partially voice acted, particularly the wardens, who I think are pretty fun and interested characters for a bunch of rabbids.

Meanwhile on the other side of the galaxy there’s Cursa. And Cursa is really not much of a character by herself-- yeah she brainwashed Rosalina and everything but when you remove that there’s really not much other than being the Megabug 2.0. And I totally called that Cursa would be some sort of reincarnation of the Megabug BTW. But what I do like are the spark hunters, Cursa’s minions who are all weird online sexywomen but as rabbids. Even if they don’t have a lot of lines, they still have a lot of personality and made for interesting fights. The first game didn’t really have a “bad guy team” so this is a welcome change. However I do think Sparks of Hope had a lack of really grand boss fights, there’s nothing that feels as impactful as The Phantom for instance.

Ok what else can I complain about. Ummmmm ok I think the last part of the game felt a bit rushed similar to how Kingdom Battle was. Not that it was bad but it felt like it had less polish than the rest of the game. Particularly Cursa’s hideout just being two fights, and they modeled the comet observatory and put it there but you don’t even get to walk around it!!! Come on man, that would have been perfect even if there wasn’t much to do. Super Mario Odyssey tapped into the wealth of Super Mario 64 nostalgia five years ago so why not start sucking the Galaxy nostalgia well dry. I think I’m out of minor spoiler complaints now.

CLOSING THOUGHTS I think Sparks of Hope is pretty good overall. On paper it feels like it should be a straight upgrade to Kingdom Battle but it ends up being better in some ways and worse in others. Still a game worth getting, but also if you want to wait for it to drop in price that’s also ok because most switch exclusives don’t do that. And also Ubisoft is kind of a bad company so you can steal it if you want to. Maybe I should have mentioned that earlier. I hope the DLC stuff ends up being good.

#mario + rabbids #mario + rabbids sparks of hope

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slade-neko · 1 year

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Against my better judgement, I played the new Pokémon game! ~ My Initial Thoughts

I wasn't feeling Pokémon Scarlet & Violet before release. The games just looked off to me. The art style, the gameplay, the characters, the world design, all of it really. Now that I some hands on time with it well... ehhh, I kinda feel the same way haha. I'm typically a pretty easy going dude that can have fun in about any game I play, but I dunno, this game just doesn't do much for me. It doesn't feel like a true Pokémon game. I've been playing since Gen 1 and yeah sure Sword & Shield wasn't perfect, but I still had an enjoyable time with them. Here's the key points I noticed in my time with the game.

Character Customization:

Character customization is a HUGE driving factor for me in video games. Pokémon SwSh had amazing trainer customization aside from the gym battle uniforms. Now imagine being forced to wear the gym uniform through the entire game! That's Scarlet and Violet. In SwSh I could dress my character up in so many cool outfits and that was probably my favorite aspect of that game. In Scarlet & Violet, you can only change accessories and shoes, no changing your outfit... you're stuck with that ugly school uniform the ENTIRE game! All you get is 4 seasonal styles of the same school crap. I just want my leather biker jacket and ripped jeans, darn it!

Character Designs & Art Style:

Pokémon games always had hit or miss characters for me. Typically there's more characters that I like than dislike in a game, but not really the case for Scarlet & Violet's characters. Nemona's pretty cool though, I do like her, but lotta of them feel boring and fall kinda flat for me. And to be completely honest some of them give me nightmares...

Then there's the actual art style. I don't really think Pokémon needed alpha transparency hairstyles. The solid meshed style fits better in my opinion. Feels like they tried adding some realism to the graphics with alpha hairs and more detailed skins & eye textures, but its still kinda toony looking, so its like this off putting in between style.

The World:

From what I saw, the world didn't really feel very believable or all too well designed. Just tons of huge mountains and steep cliffs. Not necessarily the prettiest scenery in a 2022 video game. None of the towns or anything really stuck out to me neither. Again, the whole thing feels kinda bland.

The Pokémon:

Not much to say on the Pokémon as every generation has had some weird designs after all. Heck even 1st Gen had some weird Pokémon that I still question today. For the most part, I did like majority of the new ones. Wish the cat starter didn't stand on TWO LEGS though! Lets please try to keep them animalistic and less humanoid GameFreak. Oh, also I played Scarlet. I wanted to play Violet with the Tron bike Pokémon, but instead I had the Flintstones one... still don't understand why does it have wheels if it just runs with it's legs instead?

Terastallization?/ The Gimmick:

Every Pokémon game since 6th gen has to have a gimmick these days. 6th Gen had Mega Evolutions, 7th Gen had Z-Moves, 8th Gen had Dynamax/ Gigantamax, and now 9th Gen's got Terastallizing? Basically your Pokémon goes into a crystalized form... boring! My personal favorite is still Mega Evolution. Having your Pokémon transform into a powerful 4th evolution temporarily was awesome. It was basically Pokémon's version of Super Saiyan 4 and I loved it.

Rushed development?!

The game was rushed and the internet's been tearing it to shreds because of that. Bugs, glitches, a complete mess. Not much I can add to that. I don't put all the blame GameFreak for that, since I'm sure there's factors out of their control for pushing the game out within the given deadlines, but seriously I feel like Pokémon games are coming out too frequently. As Miyamoto once said, "A delayed game is eventually a good game, but a bad game is bad forever."

The Good/ Open World & Multiplayer:

Lotta negatives, but hey, some positive things too! The open world, I loved it. I love being able to immediately pick where I want to go right after I start my journey. Which Gym do I challenge first or if I even want to do Gym battles or pursue a different goal entirely like hunt down the Titans or wipe out Team Star. Now that I like! Also the Multiplayer! While I didn't get to check it out myself, I know how it works. Being able to form a group with friends and explore the world together. That's a huge step in the right direction and how I wished it was in Sword & Shield.

Final Thoughts

All-in-all, I wanted to give the game a chance and I'm glad I did, but it just doesn't hook me personally. I'm not trying to sound negative with the game, but I do feel like Pokémon is losing itself as a series. A trend I've been noticing more and more with each passing year. Not just Pokémon in specific, but tons of series that go on too long begin to weaken and water down with time. Ideas run stale, monotonous, and begin to lose their luster. Too many IPs are being milked these days until there's nothing left. That's why there's been so many remasters, remakes, and even reboots happening now. They need more spacing/ time between releases.

TL;DR Game's a bit of a mess, but knowing that it's still worth trying for yourself. Maybe you will enjoy it. I have friends who are and I'm glad they're having fun. For me though, I'll be passing on this one.

#Pokémon #Pokemon Scarlet #Pokemon Violet #Pokemon #my thoughts

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