Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga

Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga - Gameboy Advance

The Mario and Luigi titles are a series of RPGs starring the most famous brothers in gaming history. Each entry in the collection features Nintendo's Mario and Luigi teaming up and embarking on a Princess-Peach-saving journey employing a surprisingly rich turn-based battle system, tons of puzzles, and an expansive varying map. This series is still seeing entries to this day, and while asking my close friends what they thought of the latest installment on the 3DS, they informed me that the original was certainly the best. Normally, I don't get much into turn-based combat systems, but fond memories of playing (albeit never finishing) this game as a child had me wondering if there really was something to be said about the original title in this beloved franchise.

You know me- I'm not one to beat around the mustache: Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga is incredible. Not completely without flaw, but still a phenomenally great game.

For an RPG, Superstar Saga is definitely on the short side, taking me, a highly experienced and really good-looking gamer, around 18 hours to complete. The short length ensures that the game doesn't overstay it's welcome, as the main plot seems to end the moment it begins to feel boring. Essentially, the game takes place in a large interconnected world, and the Mario bros. must travel to each town and region to discover new secrets, gain new abilities or talk to new characters all in the effort to thwart Bowser's and new-comer Crackletta's attempt to take over both the Beanbean and Mushroom Kingdom.

On the way from town to town, the Mario Bros. will often be faced with puzzles whose solving of will allow a way forward, or they'll be faced with assortments of different enemies, whose defeating of will grant the way forward. The puzzles are usually solved by utilizing recently acquired abilities, meaning that while puzzles themselves may get old, their solutions stay as fresh as your abilities are. Moreover, the abilities that double as attacks in battle will prevent the battle system from getting old. New abilities are acquired often, constantly maintaining a perfect pace. However, while switching back and forth between each ability to solve more complex puzzles is mostly fun, having to toggle between them all individually by pressing either L or R several times can be frustrating when it is necessary to act quickly.

The main complaint is how the game ends. Without wishing to spoil anything, the last bit of work to be done in the overworld before taking on the final bosses is a large fetch-quest similar to that seen in Zelda: The Wind Waker. The quest actually didn't take as much time as I thought it would, but it still felt like a lame way to extend the length of the story.

With the exception of the game's last few hours, Superstar Saga is exceedingly good. The constant acquisition of new abilities keeps the entry from becoming boring or stalled, while the bright colors and varying aesthetics are strong enough to keep one hooked while the game might otherwise feel like a bit of a grind. Even for someone like me who doesn't normally jump to turn-based combat, Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga is a highly addictive and thoughtfully-crafted RPG that deserves every single sequel it ever got.

Super Mario Strikers

Super Mario Strikers - Nintendo Gamecube

Lists of top-ten best Gamecube games are usually comprised of about 9 first-party Nintendo titles, and Resident Evil 4. You always have Metroid Prime and The Wind Waker in the top 3, but after that I've seen Pikmin, Pikmin 2, Wave Race, Twilight Princess, Luigi's Mansion, etc. And sometimes, every once in a blue moon, hovering at around the 9th or 10th spot is a third-party title featuring first-party characters shoving and checking each other in pursuit of a soccer ball. This title is Super Mario Strikers.

Super Mario Strikers is a soccer game with slight modifications to the traditional rules of the international sport. The goal is still to kick the ball into the net of the defending team, but this wouldn't be a Gamecube game without some re-imagining of sorts; Super Mario Strikers is the only Mario-sports game I can think of to place this much emphasis on violence. During a match, you are encouraged to switch back and forth between each of the 4 players on your team to score as many points as possible. Normally this would mean good teamwork and skilled playing, but Strikers cares much more about the instant-gratification that comes with punching and slide-tackling your opponents than it does about adhering to classic soccer techniques. It's super fun and easy to knock the members of the opposing team into the electric walls surrounding each soccer field, and combining these attacks with Perfect Passes, Super Strikes, and dekes is the best way to ensure you have an extremely exciting Mario soccer match.

The main issue with Super Mario Strikers is the dearth of variety between game-modes. There are Cup Battles, Super Cup Battles, and Grudge Matches. Cup battles are your beginner-level single player mode. Beat all the cups, with the teams (in this mode) set to Rookie difficulty, in order to unlock Super Cup Battles. Super Cup Battles are the same thing with higher difficulty, and beating each of these tourneys unlocks different "cheats", such as Field Tilt and Explosive Power-ups, to be used in Grudge Match (man, remember cheats?). Grudge Match is simply your multiplayer mode, where up to 4 people can join in on the gnarly soccer fun. This being said, your friends can actually drop in and out from game to game to play all of the single-player modes Co-op. Each Cup can last anywhere from 5 to 15 matches total, so it's really nice for a friend to be able to join in for 3 or 4 matches, then drop out without having to change modes or exit menus or anything. The point is that completing the single player modes awards nothing more than enhancements to the multiplayer experience. This makes Strikers a perfect party game, but very little more- it just doesn't have enough content to hold up as a single player experience.

The unlockables in Super Mario Strikers, not including the cheats, also leave something to be desired. There are 9 playable teams in the game, and only 1 of them has to be unlocked by playing Cup Battles. You will also unlock different stadiums by completing certain cups, and although I do have my preferences now that I've unlocked them all, each are barely more than color-swaps, and none of them change the gameplay at all.

Super Mario Strikers is sincerely addicting. Even in the single player modes, you can adjust the length of any match to be 2 - 15 minutes, making them an awesome way to kill 15 - 20 minutes. It's also a great game to liven-up a party, or just hang out with a couple of friends and some snacks on a Thursday night. Unfortunately, Strikers suffers the most when those friends leave and all you've left are the single player modes. Playing the game alone is fun for a little while, but when a title is this silly and this violent, it can have the tendency to leave you with an itch that can only be scratched by shoving your friends into electric walls. If you have friends to play this game with and you collect for the Gamecube, buy Super Mario Strikers; if not, don't.

Gunman Clive

My experience with Gunman Clive started as one of those rare times when I actually purchase a game on a friend's recommendation. Shout out to my friend Andrew for suggesting this one to me. The game's price of $2 on the Nintendo 3DS E-shop was also a large contributor of why I went ahead and bought it. Turns out it was worth all 200 pennies, because Gunman Clive is actually pretty damn great, so let's talk about it.

Gunman Clive - Nintendo 3DS

Intro / Summary
     Gunman Clive is a side-scrolling shooter platformer that combines the best platforming elements from Rayman Origins with the best shooting elements from Mega Man II. You move from the left side of the screen to the right side of the screen shooting anything that is A) alive, and B) isn't you. Complete each level by jumping on platforms, climbing ladders and trying not to die as much as you are totally going to die. There are 20 levels each taking about 75 seconds to complete if you don't die, and something around 3 minutes each if you die as often as I did. All together I beat the game in about 65 minutes on a long car ride my band and I took from Long Island to Washington D.C. last week, and I did continue to play it on a harder difficulty once the game was beaten which believe it or not is something I don't normally do. The fact that I took the time to replay this game immediately after having beaten it means the game was either too short, or the game was really fun to play; I am going with the latter on the grounds that I feel a game can really only be too short if you paid $20+ for it, and beat it in 65 minutes- Once again, this game cost me $2, so I consider myself to have gotten exactly what I paid for, and I was pretty down with it.

Good Things: Also the title of a great Reel Big Fish song
     One of the first things to be noticed about Gunman Clive is the visual style and the musical score; both are beautiful. The game employs a visual effect that makes it appear to have been hand-drawn frame by frame, complimenting the game's ol' western style. Gunman Clive looks like the music video for A-ha's Take On Me meets an old western film. Swag-tastic.
    Gunman Clive prizes itself on the classic easy-to-play, hard-to-master technique. All you are able to do in the game is jump, walk, and shoot, but the level design is so clever that even these old-school moves won't get boring before you finish the game. The game is pretty tough, being at about "diamond" on a hard-scale from Vanilla pudding to Dwayne "the rock" Johnson, but it is never frustrating because of a combination of different video game staples being removed from Gunman Clive. First, there are no lives in the game, which means no Game Overs. Live are outdated and dumb for reasons that have been discussed infinitely by gamers who aren't me, so if you need an explanation on that, go somewhere else and come back. No lives in Gunman Clive. Without any lives, checkpoints aren't really necessary either, because the threat of being thrown back to the start of a 55 second level in which dying has no penalty really isn't that scary, so those are removed as well, which would only be frustrating if the levels were long, but they are not. The game presents a challenge intense enough to make sure that it won't be completed in 20 minutes, but it is not so unfair that it frustrates the player. I believe "sweet-spot" is the proper term here, but I've always found that term to be suggestive (made worse by the pink-colored text), much like how utilization of the word "moist" suddenly begins to make me feel sticky out o....sorry, lost my train of thought there. Difficulty curve is just right.


The game has a very modest length. Games these days (or at least the ones I have been playing) have the most aggravating tendency to last about 6 hours longer than the amount of time for which I care to play them. I always think it is rather cocky of a game to assume that I will refuse to quit playing if it gets boring just because I'm already 10 hours in and I might as well finish it. Well, those games are fucking wrong, and they're the games out of which I take the most pleasure in ripping apart. Gunman Clive, like I said, is only about an hour long if you only play through it once. Honestly, the fact that this game is so good, while being so short makes me fear that the developers lost confidence during development and in the voice of an insecure 13 year old mumbled at some point "aw shucks, no one is gonna wanna play this game!", so they made the game an hour long assuming that no one would ever want to play it for more than an hour any way. Now don't get me wrong, I am glad that the game was only an hour long because it means I have more time to play other games, but honestly, this may be the first time ever where I wish a game was longer, but perhaps only by or hour or so. Also, you can play as a duck after beating the game once. This mode is called "Duck Mode" and it makes me giggle.

Short-Comings: "Homecoming" is a great Green Day song that sounds similar to "Short-Comings".
          Hmm...the game is short...but like...that is a good thing when playing simple games...I mean, Pac-Man is a great game, but does anyone want to play that for more than 20 minutes? I got nothing for short-comings. Gunman Clive is a great game, and it is so short that it ends before fucking anything up. So I am going to use this space to quote something profound I read on Kotaku: "The longer a game is, the more it has to justify its length." OR a different quote by Ben Yahtzee Croshaw of Zero Puntuation: "Madworld is a 6-8 hour game with enough unique ideas to fill a 3 hour game." I isolate these points because they have to do with length, which is a HUGE fucking problem with games nowadays. To all game developers everywhere: If you only have enough good ideas to keep me entertained for 5 hours, then your game should be 5 hours long. BAM. That's all folks. Gunman Clive has enough unique ideas to keep me REALLY satisfied (another sticky phrase) for 1 hour, and so the game is 1 hour long. And for that, Gunman Clive, you get my virtual glad-hand.

                                                                                                 Conclusion:

This game is $2 and is one of the best games I have played in a long time. You can beat it in a single lunch break and get right back to playing Super Smash Bros. afterwards, so just do it. I'm serious. I know I am just a computer, but seriously, buy this game and play it. Recommended to everyone.

Playground Series: What the Hell Am I Playing?

I'm sure by now, you guys are sick of hearing me say things that aren't about video games, so fuck me apologizing for not writing in a while. Let's just roll the next review out.

Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg


I've recently acquired about 20 new Gamecube games. So, where do you start playing? I figured I would start up 1 or 2 long games and 1 or 2 short games at a time, and just collect other games to save for later in between. One game that I wound up playing during all of this gaming madness was Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. I only read a little bit about this game in Gameradar's list of top 50 Gamecube games http://www.gamesradar.com/best-gamecube-games/ before I decided to never think about it again, simply because I could not imagine what I was reading actually being a real game. Well I am here tonight to discuss how I formally withdraw my original opinions of this game, and replace them with a whole new perspective on the concept of hatching eggs.

Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg is an addictively ridiculous platformer developed by SEGA Sonic Team shortly after they released Sonic Adventure 2 in 2003. You play as a young boy named Billy who is thrown into a world ruled by chickens after he displays "great courage" by punching a small bird in the face in order to save his friends. Almost as soon as Billy arrives in Morning Land, he equips himself with a sacred Chicken Suit. This suit allows Billy to arm himself with giant eggs. Without an egg, Billy is pretty worthless, but WITH an egg, Billy is able to jump really high, ground pound the floor around him, ride on tracks meant to move eggs, and take out the evil crows by rolling the egg into them. The eggs, although are fragile, easily broken, and easily replaceable, utilize a basic upgrading system. It's nothing immersive, but it is important to know that when enemies are destroyed, they drop fruit. Roll an egg over the fruit, and the egg will grow. Eggs do more damage with each size-increase and a fully matured egg can be hatched by Mr. Billy Hatcher himself. A quick cock-a-doodle-doo will pop the egg open and potentially reveal 1 item from a large collection of possible egg-inhabitants. Different colored eggs hatch different items. More commonly found eggs can contain extra lives or collectables, but rarer blue or red eggs can contain animal assistants whose powers become yours to command upon hatching them. These animals help you solve puzzles or attack enemies once you befriend them in the ever-classic quest to reach one side of the level to the other.

The story is...well...it's a god damned kids game so who cares? There's an evil crow who wants to cast Morning Land into an eternal nighttime. Stop the evil crow, and do whatever everyone else tells you to do in order to beat the game. But if there is one thing everyone knows about kid's games, it's that they're fucking stupidly difficult. Unfortunately, poor game mechanics are responsible for a lot of the difficulty that this game has to offer, but they are not so plentiful that the game becomes unplayable (*coughSonicTheHedgehog2006cough*). So with any platformer, you really only have to consider a few different elements. Platforming video games date all the way back to 1981 Donkey Kong in the arcades, so when looking at modern platformers, you have to consider the factors that separate the games made today from the games made 30 years ago. You must consider graphics, originality, music (I guess), playability, and most importantly how much fun the game is to play. Well in my opinion Sonic Team spared very little cheese or tomatoes in this egg-wise adventure. Ill discuss each element separately.

Originality. So I don't know if you guys heard when I said it before, but your weapon...is an egg. A giant egg. It is important for those holding magnifying glasses to this game to note that the abilities you gain while holding an egg are not very original, as we have seen the ground pound/ butt bounce/ whatever you want to call it for years, but if rolling an egg into enemies in order to vanquish them isn't creative enough for you, then stop letting Stephen King set your creativity bar too high. You could say that this game is original because you roll an egg around in order to play, or you could say it's unoriginality is disguised by an egg, but either way, someone over at Sonic Team was ballsy enough to suggest that a game whose main attraction was rolling an egg would sell, and it did...at least...to me. Moving on.

Graphics. Let's see, 2003 graphics. Well we got Metroid Prime, F-Zero GX, and The Legend of
Zelda: The Wind Waker. Okay so the bar was set pretty high for graphics even in 2003. The visual importance of video games really became most noticeable upon the arrival of Playstation 2 games during the climax of it's career. Graphical legacies were also continued by Microsoft's Halo and Gears of War series, but if I had a dollar for every time someone mentioned how the graphics in Metroid Prime could rival those of modern games, I wouldn't have to go to college. That being said, graphical feats were not easily attainable in 2003, and unfortunately, it seams that Sonic Team missed the frying pan in this area. However, having average graphics will never mean that the game looks bad. Average graphics are a great canvas for a great art style. Wind Waker is the perfect example. While Billy Hatcher doesn't feature graphics of any impressive quality, it is a delightfully bright and colorful game, complimenting it's playful, light-hearted gameplay, and REALLY catchy music. You're god damn rolling an EGG. Does anyone really need goodgraphics for this?? What was really necessary for this game, were bright colors, and Sonic Team nailed that.

Like I said before, the game feels a little underdeveloped. Perhaps it is Sonic Team tradition to leave dumb mechanics in their games, or maybe it is the fact that Billy Hatcher is run by the same engine that ran Sonic Adventure 2 - a game whose glitches are almost as famous as it's level design, but like I said before, the difficult sequences of BH:GE are the result of a few poorly designed game mechanics. Some enemies are just too annoying, maintaining control while moving with your fragile egg is about 20% harder than it should be, and small mistakes are often extremely unforgiving to the point where you question why you're playing this game even more than you are intended to. The game is still very much playable, as these annoying mechanics are not found in every level, but when they do show up, you will die in your heart a little bit for every time Billy dies as a result of their bullshit.

Overall, Billy Hatcher really is a fun game. The level designs vary greatly from stage to stage, and are always a pleasure to look at. Sometimes the game can be too hard for all of the worst reasons, but in the end, you never really did expect a game that featured weaponized eggs to be 100% solid, did you? This game is 15 dollars on Amazon. Considering the fact that 15 is enough to get Metroid Prime, Resident Evil 4, Viewtiful Joe, SSX 3, Wave Race: Blue Storm, Mario Golf Toadstool Tour, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time or F-Zero GX, I would say that it may not be worth getting immediately, but if you ever run into it at your local Play N Trade like how I did, it may be destiny telling you to either play this title, or grab an omelet.

81/100
-10 Points - occasionally clumsy controls
-5   Points - occasionally dumb stupid mechanics
-4   Points - sometimes the game feels a little boring, as levels tend to be a bit too long, resulting in the witnessing of the same music and visuals for up to 15 minutes at a time
50  Points - originality
10  Points - visual appeal
6    Points - Audio appeal
10  Points - the game is not very long, but the amount of optional levels, in addition to the main story, makes the game feel like it is how long you want it to be
5    Points - the multiplayer is EXACTLY what you want it to be

To Hold You Over

I can't believe I forgot to mention this.
http://www.gametrailers.com/shows/pop-fiction/videos-clips
http://www.gametrailers.com/shows/pop-fiction

Gametrailers.com features a show called Pop Fiction. I've tried to tell my friends about it but I remembered today that I could also use the good ol' reality to advertise. Pop Fiction, the way I describe it, is essentially Myth Busters, but for video games. The show's team of gamers investigates rumors or secrets within video games to find the truth about their existence. Gametrailers also has a much younger sub-series called Pop Facts. Pop Facts is basically the same thing, but the episodes are much shorter. I HIGHLY recommend these shows. A new episode of Pop Fiction is released monthly, and Pop Facts are released weekly. Enjoy!

The Next Big Step

So because I feel so bad for blue-balling you guys when it came to my list of Gamecube games, I decided I am simply going to build a playground out of this blog. This time next week, I am going to upload at least 5 new reviews of games that each fit a certain qualification. These 8 topics are, in my opinion:
Most Overrated Gamecube Game
Most Underrated Gamecube Game
Overlooked Gamecube Game
Hidden Gem
Best Game Under 10 Dollars
Best Game Still Over 40 Dollars
...What The Fuck?
Wild Card

I am truly excited (and this time, capable) when it comes to approaching these topics. Keep in mind, the Wild Card will be one game that I choose from my collection at random. It could be anything from Super Smash Bros. Melee, to Mary Kate and Ashley, so brace yourselves.

Also remember that I will from now on be using a grading system, and a pros and cons list when discussing each game. I feel like this will contribute to a more accurate description of my feelings of each game. Remember to click that shit this time next week.

Finally, I've decided to occasionally post other relevant video game things among the archives of my blog in addition to my reviews. In case you missed it, I highly recommend a website I discovered recently. Be sure to check out http://www.howlongtobeat.com/ in order to figure out where your money is best spent.

Scroll down to see if you've missed anything, and of course, contact me to recommend a review or game. PEACE.

Hang In There

Hey guys. This post is more of an apology than anything. Maybe I'm being too hard on myself, but I fear I will not be able to post my next review for a little while longer. I have been very busy with my band recently and I haven't had much time to get my Gamecube on. What I do have, however, is a website I just discovered. If you didn't already know about this site, I suggest you check it out.
http://www.howlongtobeat.com/index.php

Ever wonder if you're going to get the best deals on your games? Ever fear that you are going to pay up to 60$ for a game that you'll finish in a week? Well fear no more! http://www.howlongtobeat.com/index.php is a website where numerous gamers from all over can submit how long it took them to complete any video game you can think of! Simply type a game into the search bar, and BAM you have everything you need to know about how long any game will take you to complete. Separate times are provided for those who like to beat a game quickly, or for those who like to 100% a game. This site is the best way to make sure you're getting the most game for you buck.

Top Ten Favorite Gamecube Games Countdown: Number 9

When I first started thinking about this list, I knew that the number 1 spot would be difficult and I knew that the number 10 spot would be difficult. What I didn’t realize at first was how difficult spot number 9 in my Top Ten List of Favorite Gamecube games would be to fill. Telling a game that it made number 9 is like saying “I love you, but I love 8 things more than you”. Either way I figured it out, and I can only hope that this classic title will keep this list on track, and not swerving out of control.

9) Mario Kart: Double Dash

Ahh this classic series of games is known to be responsible for loud screaming and fierce rivalries between friends. This superstar racing game features Super Mario and all of his friends and foes in their own karts flinging items from banana peels to turtle shells in order to prove who is the fastest on the track. The catch to this game is not how many characters you can play as in total, rather how many characters you can play as at the same time. In this game, you get 2 characters for the price of 1 kart. The duality of this game exists in the 2 characters that you choose to play as, as they each assume different responsibilities on the kart. Although pressing the Z button will cause your characters to change roles during the race, you initially choose 1 character to drive and 1 character to throw items. The controls remain the same as any other Mario Kart game, despite having to control twice as many characters at a single time.

So here is the grand question: If gameplay remains the same, what the hell is the point of choosing 2 characters instead of 1? And the answer to that question is not very obvious, but is very important;
Strategy.

This Mario Kart game is the first one to feature the idea that certain items are exclusive to only 1 character. This means that in addition to weight, the difference between selecting to play as Mario or selecting to play as Bowser is the difference between throwing fire balls and throwing a koopa shell.  Character selection now involves memorizing the capabilities of the items exclusive to each character. But remember, you have 2 characters to pick. This means that you have to incorporate the potential of up to 2 exclusive items into your strategy. It is also important to know that although Mario and Luigi, for example, are 2 different characters, their “special items” are almost exactly the same. The pairing of 2 characters, each with a unique “special item” is crucial to developing the perfect racing duo. My favorite combo? Mario and Paratrooper.

Next we discuss the soundtrack and level design. I mean, it’s a Mario game…this is their specialty. Just like any other game that features the famed plumber, Mario Kart: Double Dash has incorporated only the brightest of colors and memorable musical scores in order to create the perfect family-friendly racing environment. There are 16 different tracks in total and in order to unlock every character and kart, you have to pretty much complete each track once on all 4 difficulties. That creates a game where you have to compete in 64 races total in order to experience it completely, not to mention the dreaded yet perfect solution to killing time with awkward cousins, ALL CUP. 1 circuit. Every track. 40 minutes. Damn. Despite the occasional feeling of déjà vu, the levels really never get old and the fun is prolonged depending on the amount of friends you have to play with.

Everyone has their favorite level, and of course Rainbow Road is reserved strictly for the ultimate Mario Kartists, but all-in-all, Double Dash keeps the bright and cheerful look of Mario alive through the clever color arrangements, memorable track designs, catchy and not annoying musical scores, and the placement of faces on EVERY single bit of scenery.