Star Fox Zero

Yes I'm late to the party and yes I know that there are many things that would need to be covered, but for now let's talk about Star Fox Zero, it delay and what it means for the game.

Like you probably already know Star Fox has been moved from it's original release date of November 20^th to first quarter of 2016. This robs them of their big holiday title, altough they still have a pretty good line up with Project Zero 5, Mario Tennis and Xenoblade Chronicles. Still it also proves a chance to improve some of the criticisms of the game.

First let's talk about what they can (and should improve), before later talking about some of my gripes with the game and some Nintendo games in general.

When Star Fox was first shown at this years E3 it got a lot of flak for it's lackluster graphics. And while I didn't think that the game looked bad, I did notice the lack of detail. Just look at the Corneria gameplay. It all looks very sterile and devoid of life. Still the game looks like a lot of fun, so not everything is bad about it. But I hope they polish the graphics and breath more life into the scenery. This is one of the things they should tackle in the extra time they got. And looking at Super Mario 3D World, I'm pretty hopeful.

The other thing I hope they work on is an online Multiplayer. When Miyamoto announced that there isn't any online feature planned for Star Fox I couldn't help but sigh. This was, sadly, very Miyamoto like. But I hope that the success of Splatoon has helped change his mind. Of course they can't develop an entire mode in such a short time, but a similar model to Splatoon seems possible. The game launches with only a handful of maps, but through steady updates (Free!) you increase the content and keep the game fresh. A 4 on 4 squad battle mode would be a huge draw for the game I bet.

Well this are the two thins they hopefully add to the game, but honestly I only think that Number One is likely. Still I expect them to use the extra time to provide us the Nintendo experience we expect and make Star Fox a truly great game.

But now let's talk about my gripes with the game. Especially the ones they aren't going to fix.

First off I'm not all too happy about the Game Pad integration. The dual screen is obviously perfect for presenting the action from two different angles, but is it really necessary? Couldn't the same be achieved by a simple button press two switch the perspective on the main screen? While playing you will only look at one screen anyway. This isn't a good integration of the GamePad, because the two screens are competing with each other. A good integration should complement the main screen. Let's take a look at one of the best integrations for the Game Pad. Zombi U. Here the Game Pad screen didn't contend with the TV, but enhance the horror experience. By forcing the player to look away from the actual screen the developers enhanced the feel of horror and threat. You could never feel safe. In Star Fox you will probably look on one screen most of the time, because there is no incentive to switch.

The other thing I'm not to happy about is that Star Fox Zero, at least for me, shows that Nintendo lacks ambition with their titles. Now let me explain. From the previews and interviews it looks, and sounds, like Star Fox will be just a retelling of Lylat Wars, which was practically a retelling of the original Star Fox. For all the talk that they first need a good ideat that justifies a new entry (I'm looking at you F-Zero) they barely showed anything that validated Star Fox Zero. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy that they make this game, but it could have been so much more. I'm not saying the game will be bad. It will be a lot of fun probably, but it really shows that Nintendo likes to play it safe with their IPs. I just hope that the success of Splatoon may change that view in the near future. They should take some risks, also with established series. Like they did with Metroid Prime during the Gamecube era.

I'm still looking forward to Star Fox and the delay didn't hurt me in the slightest. Gives me more time to enjoy Xenoblade Chronicles X. But what are your thoughts about the delay and the game in general?

And as always

thanks for reading

Source of all pictures: Nintendo

Super Mario Maker Review

Overview:

After Little Big Planet showed the potential User generated content holds, Nintendo finally decided to join the fray. And for starters they picked their most prominent franchise with the release of Super Mario Maker. Anyone can make it, everyone can play it. With this slogan Nintendo markets the game as the ultimate Mario experience. A Tool, where only your imagination is the limit and everything is possible. But is the game the ultimate Mario experience? Is it worth it's price tag? Or does it bite off more than it can chew?

Gameplay:

Super Mario Maker can be segmented into two parts. Build and Play. The game does so itself on the title screen and I'm not one to argue with that. So first let's take a look at the main part of the game. Building your own Mario courses.

The first thing you'll probably recognize is the missing tools. Because Nintendo once more decided that their customers need to be taken by the hand for everything. You'll start with only the bare bones of tools for level creation and after spending some time with them (roughly 10 minutes) you'll get notified that a new batch of tools will be ready soon. And with soon they mean the next day. Now Nintendo quickly applied a patch, which turned the one day waiting period into 30 Minutes, but for me this simply didn't work. However you can still use the oldest trick in the book and simply adjust the date setting of your Wii-U manually. This is a time consuming move, but still better than waiting a full week till you can start building decent levels.

But once you managed to bypass this restriction, you're finally free to build your own dream course. First of you can choose between four iconic graphic settings. The original Super Mario Brothers, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World and the New Super Mario Bros. Series. Each graphics setting looks just like it did in the original and even new additions like Baby Bowser in the older settings fit in perfectly. Each graphics setting also comes with the things that made I unique. For example Mario can only perform his wall jump in the New Super Mario Bros. setting and cannot pick up items in the original graphic style. This of course also means that some levels only will work in a specific graphic style.

The next thing to choose is the levels setting. Plains, Cave, Underwater, Ghost House, Airship and Castle offer different possibilities in designing your course.

The actual designing is very intuitive and you'll grasp it in a split second. Super Mario Maker is also one of the games, where the Wii-U Gamepad truly shines. Simply drag and drop enemies and blocks onto the screen. Create obstacles, ground and warp pipe in a matter of seconds. In other games the editor often was very convoluted and you needed a long time to actually master it, but in Super Mario Maker everyone can grasp the foundation in a matter of seconds. Everything is kept simple. You change objects by simply shaking them. This turns a green Koopa into a red one for example. Want to make something bigger? Just give it a Super Mushroom. Dragging enemies or objects into pipes, will make them spawn from that pipe and by doing the same thing with Mario you can create a Warp Pipe that takes him to a second screen.

Super Mario Maker also allows you to combine things, which you would have never dreamed of before. Bowser riding in a clown cart, with Wings and Hammer Bros on his head? Possible. Terrible to play against, but possible. In that regard Super Mario Maker truly holds his promise. The only limit is your imagination.

But that is not the case everywhere. Because Nintendo implemented some real limitations. Apart from the seven days waiting period there are also some other things that will halt you in your dream of creating your ultimate Mario Course. Some of these limitations are understandable, to make sure that the creations don't get too out of hand. There is, for example, a limit on how many blocks you can place in a level. This can be very frustrating if you want to fill a level with a ceiling and different plattforms, which shouldn't hang freely in the air. The other things I miss are checkpoints, the ability to create water sections (not underwater), more enemy variety, the possibility to make rising lava stages and more than two screens height for creating courses. All of this may seem trivial at first, but only when you really get into creating levels you feel this restrictions. And then they hurt even more.

As it is the level creation is intuitive and easy enough for everyone to understand, still it manages to provide enough depth for some truly great custom courses. It sill could have more depth however. But still the creation of your own Mario courses is a lot of fun and extremely addicting. It's at least as much fun as playing levels, if not more.

And if you're done with your own custom Mario course, then you can share it with the world. You just need to complete your own level once to ensure that no impossible challenges are created. After that it's ready to be played by people from all over the world. Each player can upload up to ten levels at first. However this number increases when you gather a lot of stars, which are way of rating levels. When playing a level from another person you can give it a star, even if you didn't finish. This way gifted level builder can share even more ideas with the world. It's a simple but effective system that works perfectly.

Well then now that we covered the Build aspect of Super Mario Maker, what about the actual gameplay? There is not all to much to say honestly. It's classic Mario Gameplay with perfect controls. Each graphical setting just plays like the real game it comes from. Physics, controls, moveset are perfectly recreated. If you have played a 2D Mario before than you will feel at home from the first button touch.

The content provided with the base game is really sparse, but one could argue that this isn't surprising with a game that relies on it's community this much. Still it's a bit disappointing. The 10 Mario challenge sends you against a set of 8 courses, which you have to beat with only 10 lives. After that the next set of courses unlocks, till you finally get the courses that where shown at the Nintendo World Championship 2015. This pretty much is all there is on Content that is on the disk. After that you'll have to play the levels provided by the community.

They can be tackled in two different ways. Firstly you can just play them regularly. For this the game provides you with different search options. You can either search specific levels via a 16 digit code or do a more broader search for newest levels, levels that got the most stars, etc.
The 100 Mario challenge pits you against 16 random courses from other players. It functions like the 10 Mario challenge, but it comes in three different difficulty settings and if you encounter a particularly unfair course you can swap it with another random course.

All in all Super Mario Maker is at barebones as it gets. Apart from the user created levels there is nothing that will keep you entertained, gameplay wise. However the build aspect is extremely addicting because of how simple it is to use.

Presentation:

Presentation wise this game is top notch. The four graphical styles are recreated faithfully and perfectly. Super Mario World levels look, like they came straight out of the original and that is the biggest compliment you can give. Even Enemies, that never appeared in that specific game, are recreated faithfully to fit the style. Also the switch from one graphical setting to another works seamlessly. Couple all that with a smooth 60fps framerate and your Eyes are in for a perfect nostalgia trip.

The same can be said on the audio front, although not as thorough. The soundtrack of the game includes some iconic and nostalgic Mario tunes, but far less than I had hoped, and nothing new. It's just the same soundtrack you have heard (and loved) countless of times. This would be ok, if you could at least choose with song to play with your level. This is not possible. The background music is tied to the background of the level. So if you make a castle level, it will always have the same background music. This is another wasted opportunity in a game that completely thrives on the ideas of it's community.

Conclusion:

Super Mario Maker is (nearly) everything Nintendo promised it would be. It's neither the ultimate level creating tool, nor the ultimate Mario experience, but it comes very close. It's a game that is completely dependent on the creativity of it's community, because the package you'll buy comes with nearly no content, except for the tools to make your own. It is a level creator after all. But it's a damn good one. All the tools are extremely easy to use and intuitive. There are a lot of possibilitiest. And the Gameplay is classic Mario.

Still there are several things missing, which dipped my enjoyment of the game a little. Things like the standard music and no checkpoints feel like missed opportunities to make this the definitive Mario experience. Still the possibilities are extremely diverse and playing levels from other people all around the world is a lot of fun. (And sometimes very nerv wracking if it's one of the Kaizo courses)

All in all Super Mario Maker is a great tool to make your own Mario courses, but it has some flaws, which become obvious after you delve deeper into it's content. There is also barely any content to play on the disc, because the game entirely depends on its buyers to provide courses. With all of this the pricetag of the game seems a bit too high.

Conclusion (One Sentence):

Super Mario Maker is a great tool for creating your own Mario courses, that lacks some important features, but overall is the perfect way for anyone to go wild and create the level of your dreams.

Authors note: As I mentioned in an earlier post I won't end my reviews with a score anymore, which probably destroys my chances of getting on Metacritic with it, but whatever.

Source of all pictures: Nintendo

Who is Bowser Jr. Mother?

Oh God Miyamoto what have you done. I can already see thousands of Fan Fiction getting writen.

Well that's a short and nonsensical post for today, because I'm currently ill and can't concentrate long enough to write anything substential. But my Mario Maker review will be coming soon and I think Pokemon Go also deserves it's own post.

and as always
thanks for reading

(even if it's nonsensical^^)

The Myth of the objective review

Logo property of Metacritic.com

I'm back from the Holiday and looking forward to Mario Maker. So lets talk about something completely different.

After reading a not so warm review of Metal Gear Solid 5 and the expectable backlash that followed I thought about it. I have already talked about reviews, not taking them personal, but I think it's time for it once more. With Gamergates one year anniversary just passing and their crusade for a more ethical games media still underway, it's a topic that is as fresh as it was one year ago, when the whole movement started.

Firstly let me say once more, don' take reviews personal. Especially not the scores. The score is the thing that's the most irrelevant in a review. It's just a number, without any meaning. I would love it, if it disappears all together. But this is a vain dream. The vast majority of people still wants an easy way to compare Super Mario to Call of Duty, even if the two aren't comparable in the slightest. And it's a lot easier to only see the 9/10 GTA 5 got and fuss over it, instead of reading the whole review.

But enough of that. There are no objective reviews, because there is hardly any objective press. It's always to a degree subjective. Even with things like tech news, where just the specs of a new device are reported, there is a certain degree of subjectivity. The room you give a specific feature, above some other, is a subjective influence on an objective report. Some reporter may think that the backwards compatibility deserves more room than the online features or the shop, while other think the exact opposite. Not because of malice, but because different people have different viewpoints. Because of that a review of, for example, The Evil Within from a writer, who is not a huge fan of horror games, will be completely different than one from a Shinji Mikami enthusiast. Both are ill suited for writing a review, but because of completely different reasons.

And this doesn't only apply to reviews. The recent Jimquisition talked about this in detail.

Everything around us influences us. So even if you try your best to go to a review or preview event with an open mind it will influence you. This events are carefully crafted spaces to provide you with an optimal experience and later, when you write about it, you will associate this with the game.

Ok so there are no objective reviews and previews. What shall we do then? Forget about them all together? Well of course not. The answer is simple. Ethics and honesty. This not only applies to the classic games media, but especially for Youtubers. Just be honest with your audience. If you were invited to a special preview event for Just Cause 3, which started with a sky dive from a plane onto a luxurious island resort, where you played the game for 3 hours and then relaxed a the pool (this is extremely exaggerated of course) then tell this to your audience, either in front of your Video or article. And not only hidden in the descriptions or at the end. Even the, excuse my words, dumbest idiot in the galaxy and beyond shouldn't be able to miss the information. Hiding it only makes you look bad in the eyes of everyone, when it inevitably comes to light, while telling outright gives your audience a valuable information, which may lead them to have a more critical approach to your piece, which is totally fine. Sponsored content, exclusive preview events and such things are all fine. It's how the industry works (even though I would prefer otherwise). Just don't hide it. Your audience isn't dumb. They'll understand it.

And now lastly lets return to the review in detail. I already told you that I don't really like scores at the end, even though I also do it myself. (Which may or may not change in the future. Still undecided.) A review is always an objective piece from it's author. Some may like the art style of a game, while others call the graphics outdated. Still the goal of every review should be to give a complete as possible overview of the game. Detailing the aspects of gameplay, sound, graphics, controls, design, story and characters. Of course every reviewer will weigh things differently. I, for example, don't delve all too deep into the graphics aspect of a game, because the gameplay is much more important to me. But this is ok. As a customer you should, and can, find the review site, which is most suitable for you in terms of style and weighing of factors, but not certainly the one that agrees with you the most.

And lastly I wanted to share with you the review style I would find the most appealing. It's probably not really feasible, because it takes a lot of time and space. I like the concept of the Famitsu, where four people review a game. I would tone it down a little though. Two people should review a game. Not together, but each for him or herself. They both write a review and can give up to five points. After both reviews are written they come together and have a talk about the game, where they discuss it thoroughly. After all that the reviews are both published, along with the discussion and the score (adding both 5 point scores to create a traditional 10 point one). This kind of dual review, while still not objective of course, would give readers a varied outlook on the game.

In the end there is only this to say. There is no such thing as an objective review. But we still should try to be as objective as possible, while reporting. And we should be honest with our audience. Because our respect is the least they deserve.

And as always

thanks for reading

Mario Maker and the future of 2D Mario

Image Source: Nintendo

I'm pretty hyped for Super Mario Maker, and judging by the reception on the internet, I'm not the only one. Combining the perfect controls of a Mario Game and the limitless creativity of players around the world, will surely create a great selection of memorable levels. (And at least the same amount of junk, but whatever.)

I have often thought about delving into game design and Mario Maker offers me an easy opportunity to try myself as a level designer. The Wii-U Gamepad also offers an easy and intituive way to create levels. One thing I always found off-putting in Little Big Planet was how clunky its editor often felt.

But enough about praising a game that isn't even released yet. I'll leave that to gaming websites and commercials. I want to talk about the impact that Super Mario Maker will have on the Mario Series. At least its 2D iterations.

Like I said above, Super Mario Maker offers nearly limitless opportunities to create levels and the creativity of the community will make sure that this actually happens. That is great and what's even better is, that this will force Nintendo to innovate the series again. Just releasing another game, that essentially is nothing but a level pack, won't cut it anymore. New Super Mario Bros. U was great, and probably the best modern 2D Mario, but it still felt stale. The new Super Mario Bros. Series is reaching a point of franchise fatigue, just like Assasssins Creed or Call of Duty. And now with Super Mario Maker, this won't cut it anymore. Why should I buy a new game for full price, when I can play dozens upon dozens of levels in Mario Maker?

That's why Nintendo will have to shake up the franchise if they want to keep it going. And looking at the sales of these games, they most certainly will. For the first time in over 8 years we may get more than just some new power ups and a world map.

Let's take a look at some of the possibilities. Super Mario 3D World already offered some refreshing alternatives from standard Mario courses. The circus levels, even though I didn't like them, were a great addition. The same goes for the japanese castle theme. But I want to take a look at an older game. A game that really offered fresh worlds that we've never seen in a Mario Game before and ever since.

Super Mario Land 2: The Six Golden Coins for the original Game Boy. It's currently available on the 3DS e-shop so take a look if you want. For anyone not familiar with this game, let me explain. It marked the debut off Wario, who took residence in Marios Castle, while he was away saving Princess Daisy during the events of Super Mario Land. Yes apparently Mario has castle. I guess in the end Peach gave him more than just a cake. But let's return to the game before we drift to far into Rule 34 territory. To regain access to his castle Mario has to find 6 Golden Coins scattered across the island. This takes him to six distinct worlds, which are unlike any he has seen so far.

Image source: http://tibots.deviantart.com/art/Super-Mario-Land-2-323274559

First of we have the Turtle Zone, which starts with a standard beach level, before entering a sunken submarine and finally the belly of a giant whale.

Then there is the Mario Zone, which basically is a giant Mario robot. You'll enter through his foot and fight your way up to his brain, avoiding screws, tin soldiers, cranes and conveyor belts.

Next up is the Pumpkin Zone. After besting a graveyard full of walking strawberrys with knives int heir heads, japanese Demons (Oni) and other dangers, Mario enters a witch's cottage.

There is also the Makro Zone. This is a simple, normal house. However, Mario is shrunk to the size of an ant. The first level even takes place in the garden outside the house with lot's of ant enemies. Then you'll battle yourself across the ground floor, before ascending to the attic through the chimney.

And if you're too bored down on boring old earth you can take a trip to space. First you have to deal with reduced gravity, while walking on the surface of the moon, before jumping into outer space and float towards victory. Even the final boss of the previous game returns for a brief intermezzo.

And finally there is the Tree Zone. Ascend a giant tree. First through it's branches and then either across it's leaves or through a beehive.

All of these Zones offer other gameplay ideas and different enemies, never before seen in a Mario game. Also Wario was a nice change from the usual Bowser monotony. He was even the first to use Marios Power ups against him in a pretty cool boss battle.

Image Source: Nintendo

The World Map was another strong point of the game. You didn't need to beat the 6 Worlds in any prescribed order. You could freely choose which one to tackle next. Some levels even had hidden exits, which let you skip some or took you to a bonus level. And in the Tree Zone you could choose which level you wanted to play to reach the top. All this combined offered a amount of freedom, which I truly found refreshing.

Of course there were problems, like the overall simplicity of the game. And it was pretty easy. But for me Mario (at least 2D) never reached this kind of variety ever again.

And that's what I hope Nintendo will return to after Mario Maker. Just giving us the same Grassland, Desert, Water, Snow, Forrest, Mountains, Clouds, Lava Word Design again and again won't cut it anymore. They really need to come up with some crazy new designs to justify another entry in the New Series.

Also it doesn't have to be restricted to just Level scenery. They also can change up the gameplay, which in return will have a huge effect on the level design. They could, for example, make the background more interactive, have Mario shift between two planes of existence or something we couldn't even dream off.
Of course there is the danger of loosing the Mario essence of great level design and perfect controlls a long those lines, but I trust Nintendo enough for them to not let that happen.

All in all I think that Mario Maker is a great package for Nintendo fans. Not only do we get a great game, with nearly limitless potential, but it also forces Nintendo to refocus and innovate the 2D Mario franchise. In the worst case the just won't do new 2D Marios, but at least that frees capacities to work on other franchises.

So for me Super Mario Maker is a complete win on all accounts. But what is your opinion? Do you share my hopes for the future of 2D Marios? What new features or scenarios would you love to see in New Super Mario Bros. NX?

And as always

thanks for reading

Zelda U Ideas

So there was an interesting leak about Zelda U on Zelda Europe the other week. And no matter if you believe it or not, it got me thinking. What do I expect from a next gen Zelda game?

Well if you want to get up to date on the leak then you can read it here in german:

http://www.zeldaeurope.de/news.php?newsid=1434

http://touriantourist.blogspot.co.at/

also did an excellent English translation.

Everything in this leak sound good, and more important, believable. Even though a Q4 2016 release sucks, it makes sense. This way Zelda U will be a last swan song for the unappreciated Wii-U and an port for the NX (if the system launches in that time frame) is also possible.

But this leak also got me thinking. It seems that they are still facing the empty world problem from Twilight Princess and (to a degree) Wind Waker and I truly hope the can fix it. A believable open world it something I'm still missing from many games. And I hope they leave some loneliness. I think I said it once in an earlier post. The Gerudo Desert in Twilight Princess is perfect the way it its. The loneliness creates a great sense of immersion for me. The Problem is just that the rest of the world feels the same. But this empty world syndrome is a problem, which can't be really discussed. Either they solve it or they don't.

I want to focus on something different. Earlier this year I read an interesting ''leak'' for Zelda U. It was obviously fake, but it had some nice ideas, which I thought would have some potential, if expanded upon.

The leak was mostly talking about the story. In this iteration Link would be an adventurer and tinkerer that explores a mostly uncharted Hyrule. There wouldn't be a kingdom, only some small self contained village communities. Zelda would appear as leader of a gang of Gerudo mercenaries with Ganondorf as her second in command. The game should revolve around the theme of destiny and what we can do to change it. It was a nice read, but only posted on an anonymous image board and all in all not very believable.

However the part about Link got me intrigued. I'm a huge fan of the item System in a Link between Worlds, and this tinkerer approach could help recreate this in Zelda U. Aonuma said that the intend to start the puzzle solving with the decision of your next objective. How do you get there? How do you solve the challenges the destination confronts you with?

An item system like in a Link between Worlds could immensely help with that. But how would the integrate it? Just another Shop like Ravios?

Well that is when the tinkerer idea comes into play. Link builds his weapons himself this time. Each weapon needs different materials to craft. So in this case you'd have to choose if you build the Hammer, which needs a forge, steel and so on, or the Hookshot, which also needs steel, but also oil and other components. By having some items need the same materials, you'd force the player to choose. This way you couldn't craft all weapons at the beginning, but really had to decide which one fits your playstyle the most. Gathering these materials creates an incentive to venture out int the world and explore.

Upgrading could also be done in a similar way. Across the world, in dungeons, towns and caves Link could find blueprints, which allow him to upgrade the weapons, creating another layer of individuality. Do you want to upgrade your Bow or craft the Boomerang.

I tremendously enjoyed the freedom in a Link between Worlds, but it also was to easy to get all items early. There should have been a little more difficulty to it, thus creating the need to choose your items carefully.

This is what I hope getting from Zelda U.

Apart from that everything the leak from Zelda Europe sounds believable. Zelda U as kind of a best of makes sense, and I hope they utilize the longer development time and create a great open world.

What are your thoughts about the leak or Zelda U in general?

And as always

thanks for reading

source of both pictures: Nintendo