Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3)

Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3)
Pub: Eidos/Dev: Rocksteady
ESRB: T/Players: 1

Batman has had better luck than most of his superhero cohorts in terms of starring in some awesome games. Developer Rocksteady continues that trend of awesome Dark Knight gaming with their first effort, carefully melding one of the finest 3D interpretations of the Metroid-style format yet.

Batman is an amazingly fluid combatant in this game. He’s able to leap into full-on scraps with several criminal toadies and hold his own thanks to the game’s Freeflow combat engine. Batman is able to smash multiple opponents with ease, counter incoming blows and bob and weave his way through the horde. These are thrilling to take part in, but this is only half the equation. Batman is also able to utilize stealthy maneuvers and covertly eliminate threats as well in some sections of the game. These too are incredibly fulfilling to conquer. Rocksteady gave players a surprising amount of ways to take out Joker’s goons, and as his toolset deepens the possibilities increase. Challenge Mode allows you to relive this glorious setpieces over and over again, and they are definitely among the finest stealth moments in any game I’ve played. Boss fights do creep in from time to time, and luckily, most of them are pretty engaging. The final fight was the only one I felt was a little weak, but the others were all solidly executed. Scarecrow in particular is a standout.

So the gameplay is amazing. The game is fully bolstered by an stunning group of voice actors and actresses and a topnotch script. Mark Hamill’s performance as the Joker powers the game’s plot, and his skillful rendering of the character is masterful. It’s clear Hamill relishes this role. Despite some repetition, there’s little question this is one of the better overall dubs in a game. The game’s visuals are dark and appropriate, although the character design is more on the “steroid” and “sexy” side of things. Commissioner Gordon’s a little too pecked out, for example. Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, the two visible female characters, also suffer a bit from oversexualization. Ivy is understandable given her character history, but Quinn should have kept some more semblance of her original design than she does here. The nurse getup doesn’t quite work for me, I guess. There’s also plenty of awesome cameos and nods to other Batman bits of lore all throughout the game, with the Riddler providing the incentive to find them all.

Beyond a disappointing final boss, slight vocal repetition and the occasionally awkward character design, Batman: Arkham Asylum is a brilliant piece of software. It captures the essence of a Metroid-style game in three dimensions like few others have, and also throws in some ingenious gameplay. It’s a remarkable experience well worth considering.

Impressions: Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii) # 2

Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)
Pub: Nintendo/Dev: Monolith Soft
ESRB: T/Players: 1

Yes, I did do impressions for this before. You’re not crazy. That was for a very brief hour and a half. I’ve put in several more hours (42 if I remember right) since that write-up, and wanted to update you on how I’m feeling about the game as a whole.

I think I can just let loose and say this game is astounding. I’ve been completely wowed by the quality and gloss Monolith Soft applied to every facet of the gameplay. Combat is invigorating and requires more attention than you might think, given that your standard attacks are automatic. Between proper positioning to best utilize your Arts, rallying your comrades, dodging attacks and landing critical strikes, linking up chain combos, and occasionally getting whomped by some massive brute of a foe, I’ve gotten my fair share of rewarding gameplay goodness engaging in battle. The game throws enemies way outside the player’s league in many of the areas, which is quite novel. I’ve had battles with run-of-the-mill foes go south once some monstrous baddie notices the fray and decides to participate. The overall lack of punishment beyond backtracking makes this style of enemy encounter work, and I hope more RPG’s consider doing this in the future.

Even more enjoyable than the combat is the overall pleasantness of wandering around. Xenoblade is enormous, and part of the reason I’ve logged in 42 hours is through side-quests, exploration experience bonuses, and the sheer thrill of poking around such beautiful locales.The Colony 6 subquest manages to make tedious item hunting worth doing, and the extensive sidequest list per village is staggering. You won’t be without things to do in this game. The game’s soundtrack is incredibly suited to each area, with day and night themes that vary up the instrumentation but maintain the melody of its opposite. The writing is overall top-notch, and the voice over work by the British cast hasn’t gotten old. Visually and aurally, this is a lush, positively riveting game. Ignore people who poo-poo on the game’s look, because they are blind. This pushes the Wii hardware and it does it with class. Occasionally slowdown will rear its ugly head, but it’s trivial thus far. Any inconveniences like being slaughtered or a nasty plummet are easily negated with fast travel and the ability to freely save anywhere on the field.  Do I have any complaints? Not really, no.

Xenoblade Chronicles may be the perfect hybrid of RPG design philosophies of the east and the west. It addresses so many nitpicks I’ve had with RPG’s of old, and has yet to disappoint me in any substantial way. I’ve got a long way to go before I reach the end, but I eagerly await seeing what else this lovely game has waiting in the wings.

Impressions: Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)

Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)
Pub: Nintendo/Dev: Monolith Soft
ESRB: T/Players: 1

Before I begin proper, let me say that it’s surreal having this game.  I didn’t expect to be able to play Xenoblade without importing and modding my Wii, and I had just about given up on its announcement when Nintendo suddenly dropped the word that it was indeed coming to America.  I haven’t quite shaken off the awe that it’s in my hands.

Anyway, I’m sure you’d rather know what I think about the game instead of what I felt getting it. :p  Xenoblade so far meets up with the hype.  It’s gorgeous for the Wii, stunning in its environments and its fluid animation.  The music is incredible and perfect for the game’s actions.  The English voice work is sharp and awesome (save one line of Fiona’s concluding a battle, which should have been cut short.  I don’t quite remember the whole line, but she tacks on “and on and on” when it wasn’t necessary.  Otherwise she’s golden), and it works so well with this game’s well-translated dialogue.  The battle engine takes some adjustment to get used to, and I’ve succumbed a few times in battle to some tough baddies, but I do like it a lot and want to master it.  The menu system is a little convoluted, but once you become accustomed to it the design makes sense.  Lastly, the ability to freely save, alter time at will, fast travel and pause cutscenes shows great appreciation to the player.  I put in about an hour and a half last night, and I was really invigorated by the game’s quality.  I hope it continues…on and on and on (GAH).

Impressions: Shadow Hearts (PS2)

Shadow Hearts (PS2)
Pub: Midway/Dev: Aruze/Sacnoth
ESRB: M/Players: 1

Shadow Hearts is among the more memorable JRPG’s I’ve played.  It’s got a catchy soundtrack, a gripping battle system, some insane monster designs, quirky characters (Margarete is freaking awesome), and offers a fairly compelling story.  However, it does suffer some unfortunate nuisances, too.  So far, though, I’ve been really engaged by the game.

Let’s get my griefs aired first.  The English voice acting isn’t spectacular.  Margarete gets a pass because the voice is somehow perfect for her, but nobody else seems to be relishing their parts or the script.  For some wacky reason, Midway only dubbed the cutscenes and maybe a line or two in the battle engine (Margarete, for example), so the hodgepodge of languages and voices merging into one incoherent whole is a little jarring.  Secondly, the cutscenes are…mostly awful.  The introduction wasn’t bad (although those models look a lot like mannequins), but the Sea Mother speech?  Dear god, was that necessary?  I may have nightmares of that one thanks to the vocalized sound effects of a corpse splatting its way around (SPLAT…), narrated by a woman who can’t quite commit to being an elderly woman.  It’s terrible.  And that particular example was partially explained in the game’s text before it even started.  Why reiterate if you don’t have to?  The third problem is there’s a frequent bunching of boss encounters with no save point to be found in between.  The game isn’t too tough, mind, but it’s really aggravating to have to sit through the same dialogue more than once, fight the first battle you previously won a second time, and then tweak your inventory so that instant death effects don’t ruin your efforts to bypass the final boss of the sequence.  I hope this is remedied a little in Covenant and From the New World.

Otherwise, this game is a gem.  I adore the battle system with the Judgment Ring.  It makes each attack matter.  It can make or break an effort to win.  It makes each battle, even trivial, much more entertaining than merely hammering a button and sending in the drones to perform your actions.  I always tend to prefer having a little more involvement in my RPG fights, and Shadow Hearts delivers it in spades.  Hell, it even uses the Ring in shops to discount bought items and raise the price on sold items.  This is the most fun I’ve ever had shopping in a RPG.  So gameplay wise, Shadow Hearts soars.  Each character brings their own special attacks to the table, and protagonist Yuri has a plethora of forms he can transform into.  With the Ring backing each command, I have to reckon this is one of the finest engines in the genre.  Another facet that makes fighting fun is the horrific enemy designs you run up against.  There’s some disturbing shit in this game, and it flaunts its “M” rating with pride.  I’ve really been stunned at how incredible the enemies look.  I’ve never seen anything quite like it before.  Corpse dogs with a human’s arm emerging from their mouths which support their weight, creeped out frogs with skulls for eyes, and so many others that would take sentences to describe…these devs knew how to design, no doubt about it.

I’ve put it a fair amount of time into the game, and so far I am mostly digging the ride.  I’m looking forward to seeing where the game takes me from here.

Impressions: Blast Corps (N64), Jet Force Gemini (N64), Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (N64), Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space (Wii)

Time to start detailing out some of these games I recently acquired and tested out (beyond Batman, anyway, which I plan on doing an opinion for at some point). Alas, Space Station Silicon Valley is freezing up on me, so I don’t know if I’ll get the chance to try it out. I hope a cleaning will help it last long enough for me to try its gameplay at least. Anyway, onto what I could play:

Blast Corps (N64)
Pub/Dev: Rare
ESRB: E

This was among Rare’s earliest N64 efforts, but it remains one of the more engaging titles the console has in terms of immediate gameplay satisfaction.  I only dabbled with a stage or two briefly (I needed to reset the whole game over to play it proper), but I had recollections of joy flood over me as I zoomed around with my bulldozer and tore apart the landscape the prior owner failed to mow down in their playthrough.  In short, initial impressions seem fairly close to my joyous memories, and now that I know how to reset the game data, I doubt I’ll be selling it off again (the time trials are not as fun as the core game for me).  More as I get time to properly replay it.

Jet Force Gemini (N64)
Pub/Dev: Rare
ESRB: T

Jet Force Gemini is a colorful game – I forgot how vibrant it looked.  The controls are a little nitpicky – I wish it had an inverse setting for the control stick’s vertical aim.  I’m running with the “simple” controls, but I think that they’re more troublesome than the “expert” variant. XD  At any rate, my initial hour or so reminded me of the pleasure I had playing this as a kid, but it’ll take more time to rediscover that sense myself.

Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (N64)
Pub: Acclaim/Dev: Iguana Ent.
ESRB: M

I forgot how over-the-top the violence is in this game. XD  Man.  And I haven’t even gotten any of the gory weapons yet!  Thus far, I am enjoying this revisit quite a bit, although it suffers the same inverse issue that JFG does – I would be even more engaged if I didn’t have to fight with the vertical aim. XD  Jumping is a little wonky, but I’m sure I’ll come to grips with it in the near future.  I like the enemy AI and the occasional “BOO” moments the game throws at you, and it looks pretty nice for a N64 game as well.  So far, so good.

Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space (Wii)
Pub: Atari/Dev: Telltale Games
ESRB: T

Let’s get the complaints out of the way first, and it’s a hefty one – this is a terrible port.  The game is choppy, the frame rate skips all over the place, the Wii pointer is nowhere as functional as the PC version of earlier Sam & Max adventures I have from Telltale, and ultimately it ruins the overall greatness the game has thanks to its shoddiness.  It’s tragic because Sam & Max is so well written, so well voiced, and so well crafted that seeing that hard work so poorly implemented is a tragedy.  Luckily, I only paid $7 for it, but if I paid full price I’d be pretty irate.  I imagine that the Wii is up to the task of the game’s engine – it’s nothing that spectacular.  I just feel that Telltale didn’t optimize the engine for the hardware, and it shows.  Shame, really.  Unless you can get this for cheap, I’d suggest enjoying this series on the PC.

Impressions – Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3), Rayman Origins (PS3)

Batman Arkham Asylum (PS3)
Pub: Eidos/Warner Bros. Interactive/Dev: Rocksteady
ESRB: T

I’ve put in three hours or so into Rocksteady’s first interpretation of the Batman franchise, and so far I’m really digging the quality.  The controls are incredibly smooth and flow like water (sorry, Steve Blum’s voice is in this, and I was suddenly inspired to make a Spike Spiegal reference), which makes combat, exploration and stealth an absolute joy.  The game looks very sharp as well, with a twist to the Batman regulars that give them their own unique vibe but keeps them identifiable (I, like most, however, would have preferred Harley Quinn to be in an outfit more like her original one – she looks a little too…oversexualized here).  The music is fantastic and moody, and the voice acting is phenomenal.  Mark Hamill in particular is deserving of incredible praise for his portrayal of the Joker.

In short, I’m really enjoying this game, and I am looking forward to getting further into it when school reading isn’t quite so heavy.

Rayman Origins (PS3)
Pub/Dev: UBI Soft
ESRB: E10+

The demo was a decent barometer into how awesome Rayman Origins actually is in full – three (well, two and a half) stages gave a tantalizing glimpse into Michel Ancel’s latest endeavor, but the full game is infinitely better than those fragments could convey.  This is a high-class, gorgeous, fun platformer with a lot of replay and a ton of charm.  It’s packed full of secrets, neat visual and audio moments, and it controls very well.  The level design is also incredible, especially in the second world you explore.  And the music is just mindblowing.  I don’t know how you keep doing that, Christophe Heral, but you need to be hired by more people to do music.  No joke.

If you like platforming games, you should look into this one ASAP.  I need to dive back in myself.

Nester’s Opinion on The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

I’ve written up my thoughts on the latest Zelda game, Skyward Sword, and posted them at my poor, neglected blog, Lark’s Island. In short, I loved it. Here’s a sample:

Do you believe in destiny? Is there a predetermined role we were meant to play regardless of any efforts to deviate? This seems to be the eternal theme for our green-clad hero Link, even if this particular one is the first in the line. In the latest entry to the Zelda saga, Link has been inexplicably chosen by the goddess to be the legendary hero, just as Zelda is locked to her own fate, as are other characters. And throughout the game, they rigidly follow their roles.

So, too, does Skyward Sword seem to have its own destiny; one which it does not deviate from, but yet heroically lives up to. It is as enjoyable as any of the main console-based Zelda titles, and while it does not extend far beyond what is expected of it, it manages to reinvent itself within its established framework.

Check out the full article at my blog, and give it some love: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Impressions: Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)
Pub/Dev: Nintendo
ESRB: E10+

For some bizarre reason, Skyward Sword didn’t really trigger my interest in its development phase.  I love the franchise, that I do, but I had to remember this was in the works, and that’s unusual for me.  I think the news Nintendo put out on the game was far too minimal until like two months before it came out, and then it went insane.  Spread it out a bit more next time. :p

Anyway, I’m sure that’s not what you’re reading this for.  So far, my time with Skyward Sword has been a bit mixed, although now things are looking up.  Why do I feel mixed about it?  It’s because the tutorial aspect of the game is way too heavy handed.  It’s almost as if Nintendo themselves forgot how Zelda games work, because they are all a bunches about repeating unneeded information like “Heal yourself when you get low on hearts”, “There’s a map, you know – let’s remind you how to use it”, “Hey, remember that map?  It’s still here, and we want you to have to look at it!”, and so on and so forth.  I would highly suggest in the future that Nintendo consider the fanbase.  It’s been through Zelda games before, it knows the mechanics, and even though there’s some radical shifts in gameplay…there’s no need for Fi to assail players every time the map updates, questioning their knowledge of the controls or reminding players their health is a tad low.  It’s obnoxious.  (Fi is an interesting design, too, but the nagging aspect of her character is not doing her any favors in terms of likability).

The Wiimote Plus 1:1 controls are nice, although there are times that it would just be nice to push a damn button and get an action done with.  Bombs in particular.  The novelty of rolling and throwing bombs with the Wiimote gets old when the instinct to press a button kicks in and that press leads to a drop in front of Link, and the odds of that bomb blowing up his tootsies are quite good.  The swordplay is fun, but, again, sometimes the waving around doesn’t quite work right (or, in my case, I bang my hand into the fan because I couldn’t rotate the sword well enough to solve a puzzle).

Lastly, there’s been a time or two that despite all that tutorial pandering and dead-obvious commentary…there’s been no concrete explanation of what exactly I need to do to progress somewhere.  This happened early on in the beginning when I wasn’t quite sure what I needed to do to find my Loftwing (finding a sword may seem straightforward, but the old man by the gate confused me with gem talk nonsense for a nearby statue with red eyes, and my bird is red, so I thought there was some connection) or to rescue the little girl (apparently I needed to roll into the tombstone to trigger its lock mechanism, but the game didn’t state that as necessary), which can cause unnecessary frustration.

Those are my nitpicks.  Now that I’ve moved into the second major phase of the game, the motherly nagging of Fi has quieted down (and I hope I can enjoy her computer-esque personality now), the tutorials are fading out, and I’m beginning to appreciate the game’s mechanics and design choices.  It feels good to wander around and explore these lands, to fly the skies on your Loftwing, to feel like I’m finally playing a Zelda game.  The artistic design is gorgeous, colorful and perfect for this world, the cast is fairly likable (when they’re not lecturing you, anyway), the gameplay is solid (when the Wiimote doesn’t wack out), and the enemies are actually a threat and are engaging to fight.  The music is sensational, too.  So despite my initial apprehension towards the babying of the player it begins with, it’s starting to soar into awesomeness.  And I hope it continues to rise.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PS3)

DANGER – Spoiler alert!  Do not read ahead if you want any aspect of Skyrim ruined for you.  I will attempt to keep major plot details out of this piece, but I will not refrain from talking about my exploits in the game, so there may be bits you may want to discover yourself in this article.  Also note that I may add in additional comments later on as I continue to delve into more of its parts and try out different characters.

Impressions: Super Street Fighter IV (PS3)

Super Street Fighter IV (PS3)
Pub: Capcom/Dev: Capcom/Dimps
ESRB: T

I spent some time in between Skyrim marathoning with Super Street Fighter IV, tackling Arcade Mode with Cody, Cammy and Juri.  I didn’t intend on pushing myself much, preferring to focus on understanding the new mechanics and learning a new character (Juli).  So, from a novice’s point of view, I enjoyed the game to a point.  I surprisingly breezed through the Arcade mode with Cody (perhaps all that training in Street Fighter Alpha 3 GBA paid off?), not losing a match and breezing past Seth, even in his obnoxious second “full-power” phase.  I was struggling with the new super/ultra moves – it may be the PS digital pad causing my slides to not register properly, but I could not pull off a single super/ultra whenever the match truly called for it, which was a little annoying.  It would either drift into a special move or not fire off anything of consequence (but would leave me in an unblocking state open to rebuttal).  That I’m not digging too much. And I don’t fully buy into it being the pad’s fault, as my experience with PS2 fighters hasn’t made me feel this inadequate at fighters.  Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, a fellow PS3 fighting game from Capcom, also didn’t give me this issue.  So maybe it’s not quite my fault or the game’s, but it’s something to figure out in time.  The choice to use three buttons for ultra moves kind of sucks, too.  But that’s a personal beef. :p

So, as I said, Cody went through the game without much sweat.  I tried out Juli next, and I had more problems with her, which I expected due to not knowing her playstyle.  Seth in the end proved to be too much for me to conquer with her without further practice, so I gave up on that and decided to see how Cammy worked here.  I’m fairly good with Cammy in Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 and Alpha 3 (note – I am NOT a professional player or tournament guy, so when I say I’m “fairly good”, I mean that I know what her moves are and can react well enough to the match at hand to not lose horrifically to the CPU), so I didn’t predict I’d have too tough of a time with her.  And beyond her Hooligan Combination being tweaked control-wise, I felt pretty at home with her, but I still had difficulty with certain opponents and didn’t quite click with her moves the way I expected to.  Again, I chalk this up to not being fully competent with the new system, but it is a tad annoying to have matches not pan out the way they could have if I wasn’t so baffled. :p

Anyway, as of now I’m digging the game and it is nice to have this finally at my home, but I’m not 100% sold on its new features and flow quite yet.  More to come.