Crash Bandicoot 2, Cortex

OK, full disclosure here. Sonic wasn’t my Mario, not really. He never stuck around long enough to become my Mario. Crash was actually my Mario. I met him a bit later, but we hung around for a long, long time.

You see, the only mainstream console I owned in my early years was a Genesis (or Mega Drive II over here in Europe). The console was expensive and way above my budget, and so were the games. This is why I only ever owned a single 6 in 1 cartridge and Sonic was the only high-profile platformer I ever got to play on the console. To make things worse, I didn’t even have the console for more than a year. It brook relatively soon and I wasn’t able to fix it.

In the late nineties, though, I got a PlayStation and that one stuck around for a long, long time. The first two games I got were Rascal and ReBoot and both were complete crap, but soon after, I got Crash Bandicoot 2 on a discount. I loved that game and played it to the point of my disc becoming unreadable.

Crash Bandicoot 2, Cortex

Cortex is the big-headed, comical baddie of the game.

So after completing Final Fantasy IX, I started sorting through my PlayStation backups (legal, I swear) and stumbled upon this one. I really, really intended to play Grandia next, but when I saw Crash, I just felt the urge, so I copied it to my PSP and started it up. It’s still just as fun as it ever was. I played through a big part of it in my very first session, but this time, I’d like to write a bit about something I noticed in the design of the game.

First of all, I should probably say there’s a hidden intro level you can get access to if you decide not to skip the starting sequence. This intro level really shows how a game can teach the player how to play, without using tutorials. The game uses this method mostly abandoned in modern games through its entirety, but the intro level really paints a clear picture. Well, it will be more of a series of pictures, with subtext, but you know what I mean.

How Crash Bandicoot 2 handles tutorials

Your sister, Coco, wants you to go get her a battery. Immediately, you see two crates. One of them should be jumped on, while the other can be smashed from any side, as indicated by their markings. You can figure this out now, but you don’t have to. It’s all OK.

Crash Bandicoot 2, Intro, Part 1

The first two crates.

Next up, you see your first pit, but it isn’t a danger yet. You can fall in, but you can also practice jumping over it. In the background, you can see a crate containing your first protective mask.

Crash Bandicoot 2, Intro, Part 2

The pit and the mask.

Now that you got the mask, you see your first enemy. You might not figure out it can hurt you, but that’s OK, because the mask will save you, once.  If the enemy hurts you, you’ll see it’s bad, mask or no mask. In the background, you can see your first surprise crate, which has special goodies – an extra life, in this case.

Crash Bandicoot 2, Intro, Part 3

The first enemy and the first surprise crate.

Here comes the first real pit. This one is obviously way deeper than the last one, so I hope you figured out your jumping by now. Actually, If you haven’t you’re still stuck in your first hole, so it’s all good.

Crash Bandicoot 2, Intro, Part 5

The first real pit.

Wow, this crate bounces me around when I jump on top of it! WOW! This other crate gives fruit if I hit it from the bottom to! Oh, wait, I could’ve hit that other crate from the top to get fruit to. Shame I just destroyed it from the side. Oh well…

Crash Bandicoot 2, Intro, Part 5

The first “up” crate and the second “special” crate.

And that’s it. That was the first intro level and it taught you all the basic mechanics without any explanation, reading, pushing through annoying conversations or anything of the sort. The same thing happens throughout the game. Sure, your main goal is explained to you through the story, but the mechanics are left for you to figure out, with the game designed in a way that subtly guides you into figuring it out.

I’m sad to say that it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen such design. It’s only recently that I started appreciating this, though, mostly thanks to egoraptor, a known youtube gamer and his Sequelitis series, especially the Megaman episode.

In short, Crash is a beautifully designed classic platformer, which I greatly enjoyed as a kid and intend to enjoy just as much now.

As expected, I was done with Rochard today.

We got through the temple, realized it’s all somehow connected and got all we needed to get to and deal with Maximilian. He was at the casino and he managed to snatch Skylar during all this so I also had to rescue her. Once that was done, there was a final battle, and that was it.

What an amazingly fun game!

It just does things right. The mechanics are fun to play with, it doesn’t get dull or repetitive and it’s constantly expanding on what you can do with the toys you have. The story is shallow, but interested enough to keep your attention, the style is pleasant and everything just works well together.

Rochard Game Won

YES! I DID IT!

It took me close to six hours to complete the game and I’m nowhere near being done with achievements, sadly, but this will need to wait, since my backlog is still huge.The only slight downside is that you get the funnest toy right before the game ends. In the final area, you get to upgrade your gravity gun so it’s able to grab living enemies. Of course, there’s a good reason you get this late in the game, since it’s extremely powerful, but it’s just so fun I wish I  had more time with it.

 I think I got to the final level of Rochard today. I didn’t have much time to play, but the couple of hours I did have were enough to get there. As expected, the shifty looking boss of Rochard and his friends betrayed him, so I’ve been spending most of my time trying to beat his goons and figure out what’s going on.

Apparently, the asteroid Skyrig was mining on was home to a temple belonging to an ancient civilization. Even more interesting, the ancient civilization seems to use the writing system that some of the Native Americans used. Conveniently, Rochard’s lady friend Skylar has an uncle who is a descendant of this tribe and even has an object needed to translate the writing.

Rochard Pun

A lame pun, but it was bound to happen.

Now we’re back at the temple, to see what we can learn and why it’s so important.The evil boss is interested in translating them, so he left the mining company for dead and went after the uncle. Of course, Rochard managed to escape death, follow him to Skylar’s uncle, save him, get the item, and even infiltrate the Skyrig base to steal the rest of the data.

The game is fun. It provides a challenging level of difficulty, but the puzzles are interesting and the action happens often enough so it doesn’t get dull. It took me a couple of hours to get through a large chunk of the game today, but the time just flew by. It’s very likely I’ll complete it tomorrow.

However, some of the achievements require me to play through the game more than once, so I won’t be aiming for 100% right away. It’s not that I wouldn’t enjoy it; it’s just that there are other games I have yet to even try.

I decided to mix it up a bit and try a game recently added to my backlog, via the latest Humble Bundle.

Rochard is a puzzle platformer based on physics. Your character uses a gravity manipulator/gun that allows him to shoot enemies (eventually) and manipulate physical objects such as crates, droids, explosives, etc. Quite early in the game, you also learn how to manipulate gravity itself, reducing it to a fraction of the one we usually work with. This allows Rochard to jump further, lift heavier objects, throw them further, etc. It also allows him a special move where he throws an object and uses the counter force to propel himself further.

Rochard Cut Scene

The story is told in real time.

The basic story is that you’re part of an asteroid mining company looking for an extremely valuable material. In one of the digs, you stumble into something weird which is followed by an accident and a raider attack. Pretty soon, all hell breaks loose.You use all of these abilities to progress through the game. There are, of course, preferred solutions to any puzzle, but the general rule is, if the physics allow it differently, you can do it your way. This is why I like physics puzzles. Even if you get stuck and don’t see the proper solution, you can always build a tower from local debris and advance that way.

The story isn’t deep or amazing, but it works with the game and its style. The graphics are cartoonish, somewhat Pixarish, even, and the voice acting is decent. Overall, the game has a nice and enjoyable style which can last for many years to come. If you combine this with the fun mechanics, you get a pretty damn good game.

The first area of the game I played through was a sort of tutorial, but the instructions weren’t really getting in the way of what I wanted to do, which I like. I was slowly getting through the story, past the initial accident and the raider attack, all the while upgrading my tool to allow shooting, gravity manipulation, and most recently, explosives. The game also introduced new minor mechanics every now and then, which keeps things very interesting. I’ve played for a bit over an hour total, so I assume I didn’t get very far, but then again, there’s a “Complete the game in three hours” achievement, so I’m thinking it shouldn’t take more than five to six hours on a regular playthrough.

It’s getting late now, though, so I’ll play again tomorrow.

If I keep up at this pace, I might run out of games in a couple of years.

And Yet It Moves is a puzzle platformer, I’d say. It’s another game I got in an ancient bundle. Unlike the few others I’ve played recently, I actually already had some experience with this one. You see, one of the holiday sale achievements from a year ago, I think, required me to complete the first world of this game.

There’s three worlds total in the game, meaning I was already one third of the way there when I started today. The remaining two worlds were completed quickly enough, taking me around two hours total to complete the entire game.

And Yet It Moves Credits

You rarely get to play through the credits of the game.

It’s entertaining enough, but it’s obviously short. I can’t really hold that against the game, though, because I think the mechanics and the gameplay would have gotten old soon enough. This way, the game kept me entertained long enough for me to finish it, and no longer.

The mechanics are simple. Your character can walk and jump like in a regular platform game, but you can also rotate the entire world around him, allowing you to reach areas you couldn’t otherwise. The mechanic takes a bit of getting used to, but it’s not too complex and it doesn’t require too much mastery to get through the game. Every once in a while a new element is added to the game, such as parts of the level which respond differently to rotation, enemies, puzzles, etc., which keeps things going and stops the game from getting stale.

In short, And Yet It Moves is somewhat fun and definitely innovative, but it’s not something I’ll be returning to. It has a certain charm, but it’s not extremely memorable. I won’t be getting the achievements of this one any time soon. They aren’t to annoying to get, but do require repeating levels and getting through other game modes that I’m not interested in.

 A Touch of Personal

Since I wrote about how great Sonic Generations is, I should also probably write about how it relates to me. It might even explain why I find it so great.

I already said something about gaming in the Balkans. You see, out here, actual original consoles like the SNES or the Genesis were rare, extremely so. Most people could not afford one, so instead, we were buying last generation clones like the SuperCOM, which looked like an SNES, but actually was an NES clone that used weird, but cheap, yellow cartridges. There was also a version that used the original NES cartridges, but those were 2-3 times more expensive than the yellow ones.

SuperCOM Pirate Console

The console of my childhood. Cheap, sturdy and unknown. It’s an NES, don’t let it fool you.

Anyway, I got lucky and got my hands on an actual Sega Mega Drive II, or Genesis for you US folks. It was way out of my price range, but I wasn’t the one paying for it so I didn’t mind. Compared to a clone of the NES, and let me remind you – an actual SNES was extremely rare, this was future technology. Advanced graphics, advanced gameplay, advanced sound. Suffice to say, even though I only ever had one 6 in 1 cartridge, I was the friend of everyone.

Sega Mega Drive, Genesis - 6 in 1 Cartridge

The only Genesis cartridge I ever owned. Columns, Super Monaco GP, Streets of Rage, Revenge of Shinobi, Sega Soccer and Sonic.

The 6 in 1 cartridge contained Columns, Sega Soccer, Super Monaco GP, Revenge of Shinobi, Streets of Rage and last but not least, Sonic the Hedgehog. So while everyone around me was getting familiar with the first Super Mario game, I was enjoying the company of an extremely fast blue hedgehog. I played this game daily, never got too far with it, but loved every moment.

My experience with Sega was short-lived, though. Pretty soon, the antenna cable broke and I couldn’t get a replacement anywhere. Soldering was out of the question to, because the material was extremely brittle. All in all, I owned the console a bit over a year, but it was one of the most memorable experiences I had. Soon after that, I got my own NES clone, which was great to, and a couple of years later, I god a PlayStation and a PC soon after. I never forgot my SEGA, though. I actually still have it stored somewhere.

Yellow Pirate Cart

These yellow NES pirate carts used to cost me about 5 bucks. I never got any mainstream game such as this one.

Since then, I discovered emulation, so I could return to my childhood through that. I also discovered the sequels to Sonic, which, although most of them were solid, got more and more different to the original. But Sonic Generations changed that. It took the old model, almost unchanged, and gave it a fresh new look. This is why I love the game so much – it gives me my childhood experience, but with modern graphics. The atmosphere is there, and the feel is there, and that’s all that matters.

Where I am in Sonic Generations?

Up to now, I finished all the levels, finished all the challenges and got all the red star rings on the first few levels. I also managed to snag a lot of the achievements, though some of the hard ones are still locked. Sadly, though, it’s time for a forced break from it. My gamepad, which served me well for 6 years, started acting up. It locks up and causes the game to crash often, and when it doesn’t, it makes Sonic strafe to the left almost constantly. Basically, the game is unplayable for me now. I hope to get a replacement soon, but I’m thinking about getting the official X360 gamepad, so I need to save up some money first.

For now, on to other games.

 

…or Sonic Generations, if you prefer to call it by its regular name.

First of all, I have to write some words on the side. There’s this great place on reddit called Pay It Forward. It’s full of a great bunch of people that give games to other great bunch of people and all they ask is that you give a game to someone else for every game you received. It’s there, that I got this awesome game. For now, I won’t name the generous person who gave it to me, because I’m not sure of his wishes, but suffice to say, I am extremely grateful to him/her.

Sonic Generations Logo

The official (I guess) logo of Sonic Generations

Anyway, Sonic Generations. Is it good? Short story – yes, it’s extremely good. It’s good enough to make me firmly believe Sega is making a comeback. It’s everything that a modern platformer should be.

Generations is split into a total of 9 different zones which have all (I believe) appeared in the previous games. Each zone is split into two acts, one of which you play with the classic Sonic, while the other is played with the modern Sonic. Classic Sonic plays like he used to on the early Sega consoles, or on the handhelds. It’s a 2D platformer, but with gorgeous 3D graphics and fun little parts where the perspective shifts a bit and you jump into another 2D plane, or the whole level rotates 90 degrees. The classic music is there, and the classic controls are there.

Modern Sonic is different, closer to the other newer games with the hedgehog. Most of the time, you are running forward, “into the screen”, using your boost to execute some insane moves and get to the goal as fast as possible. You also have moments of shifted perspective where you move classically sideways, but even there, you still have your boost and other modern moves. The controls can get a bit clunky in the modern acts, but this is offset by the ability to strafe, and more importantly, to home, mid jump, to enemies or gameplay elements such as platforms, sliders, springs, etc. It’s also offset by the absolutely amazing experience you get. You really do feel like Sonic while playing the modern acts. The experience of speed is absolutely incredible.

Nine levels may seem on the low side, but they are lengthy, contain alternative routes and you have to collect five hidden red star rings on each of them, as well as finish fast enough for an S rank in order to get all the unlockables. Additionally, there are 90 different challenges, which, while not as long as a level, mostly still take a couple of minutes to complete. The challenges also give you more unlockables, like music from the old games, character bio, artwork and the most important ones – skills.

Yes, you can unlock additional skills by collecting red star rings and finishing some of the challenges. The skills vary from passives ones like better acceleration or faster recovery from hits, to completely new ones like the water shield which lets you bounce or the fire shield which lets you air dash. You can even unlock the homing attack for the classical Sonic. You can then equip these unlocked skills at the skill shop or before entering a level, and use them to get the secrets, or to break speed records. Both the classic and modern Sonics get 100 points to fill up, with each skill costing between 10 and the full 100.

With all of this, you also get online mode, which allows you to compete with your friends and the rest of the world for speed and distance records on levels. Additionally, if you get the console version (though I’m not sure which consoles have this), you can unlock one of the classic Sonic the Hedgehog games for play. Again, I’m not really sure which one it is. As for steam achievements, there’s plenty of those and they basically cover what you need to do to unlock everything in the game. Nothing special, but it serves well as additional motivation.

In any case, if you’re a fan of Sonic, you finally, after to many years, have a great modern Sonic game to play. Go get it! Now!

The Story of Emberwind

The kingdom of Grendale is being invaded by gremlins and it is up to you to save the day. You are Kindle, the only fire gnome amongst the gnomes of Grendale and the local watchman. With the help of your inventions and your snow owl friend, Wick, you can achieve this.

The Review: What is Emberwind?

Emberwind is an action platformer that has Super Nintendo written all over it. You go around and whack gremlins with your staff, unlock new moves and abilities, collect gems and other treasures and save the people of Grendale by lighting lamps and fireplaces to scare away and destroy the gremlins. As you progress, you increase your health by acquiring treasure and your strength by finding and freeing hidden fairies on each level. Every now and then, if you look hard enough, you can also unlock a new move which will allow you to jump further or higher, avoid taking damage, discover new ways to deal damage, or move faster.

Emberwind is incredibly polished. The graphics are old school and if I didn’t know better, I’d swear the game is from the Super Nintendo. The sprites are drawn nicely, the characters have great animations and there really is nothing about the look of the game you could complain about.

The music of Emberwind is orchestral and atmospheric, and it makes you feel heroic from the beginning to the end. The sounds fit the characters well, and none of it is bothersome like in some other games. Again, the game sounds like it should belong on a 16-bit console and this is a major plus for me.

The basic premise of Emberwind is simple. You get an objective for each level which you need to complete while scoring as many points and finding as many secrets as possible, and then you return to your owl and leave the level. At the end of each area, there is a boss, and you also get a flying level here and there. It’s really worth it to find as many secrets you can, since points give you extra health bubbles, while other collectibles increase your strength and other abilities. The game also tracks your time for each level, and you can revisit previous levels to beat your old records, which will also grant you extra points.

The Verdict

All in all, Emberwind is a great and polished game, definitely worth playing.

Score: 9/10

Hardware issues, exams, Cataclysm released… I’m sorry to say, but this time, the only reason I haven’t been posting on this blog is because I really haven’t played anything other than WoW for ages.

Two days ago, I finally tried one new game – Super Meat Boy. It’s pretty cool and fun, extremely funny, but not something I intend to finish to fast. The levels are short and fast-paced, so the game is perfect when you have a few minutes to kill. I managed to complete one world and a few levels on the next one, but that’s about it.

Super Meat Boy Character Art

It’s Super Meat Boy!

Other than that, I played nothing, really. I tried a few games, but nothing of note or worth writing about. Since I also won’t be seriously playing anything for a while, I’m thinking about adding some other content to the blog. Maybe I will do some reviews or info on various indie games not many know about. We shall see…

This one is interesting. It’s a platformer in which the character (a little girl) moves by herself and you put items in front of her to help her avoid and pass obstacles. You put stuff like planks, stairs, jumping shoes, fans and slingshots. Each level has a number of fireflies that you can collect, and when you get a total of 100 of those, you unlock a bonus level. You don’t need to collect any to get to the next story level though. It’s an interesting game and I managed to complete about 15 levels, but I’m not sure if it gets repetitive or tedious after a while. For now I give it a four out of five.