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Retro Review: Kirby's Dream Course

Archive — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 05:41:00 +0000

I love golf games. I love Kirby games. But the question is, would a Kirby golf game be any good? I think the answer would surprise you. Originally released on the SNES in 1995, Kirby's Dream Course combines the ascetic of Nintendo's Kirby series with gameplay that combines the elements of golf and billiards. This fusion of styles may sound a bit strange, but it works astonishingly well.

The goal on each board is to knock Kirby into all the enemies on the field and then into the hole that the last enemy turns into. For each stroke that you take, you lose one tomato (Health Pip in 2-player mode), and you gain one back for each enemy you take out on the field, and if you manage to get a Hole-In-One, an automatic 1-Up would be your prize. Kirby can be putted or driven much like in golf, but he bounces off many obstacles in a similar fashion to a cue-ball on a pool table. Because of this, careful planning must be employed to ensure victory.

In classic Kirby fashion, specific enemies grant Kirby certain powers that may help improve your chances of winning, but if you don't know what each ability does, it may actually make matters worse. Some abilities include Spark (destroys roadblocks), Stone (halts all movement), Hi-Jump (launches you into the air) and Wheel (skims across water hazards). These powers are often extremely helpful in certain courses, but like most Kirby games, it is usually pretty forgiving when it comes to mistakes.

In 2-Player mode, you compete against a friend in a series of 8 courses while you try to collect as many stars as possible. Stars are collected when you defeat enemies or by stealing your opponent's stars on the field. The player with the most collective stars at the end of last course is declared the winner. It is also a lot of fun messing with your opponent in this mode as you can knock your Kirby into theirs to swap copy abilities and/or to force them off the course reducing the number of times they can act before their inevitable 1-turn penalty.

I had a ton of fun with this game. It's creative, the controls respond really well and VS mode is a great way to pass time with friends. If you want to purchase this game legitimately, it is also available for Virtual Console on the Wii and Wii U. You may even enjoy it as much as I had. But until then, I'll be seeing you.

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Retro Review: Cybernator

Archive — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 07:43:00 +0000

I didn't have many SNES games growing up. For the longest time, I had to go over to a friend's house if I wanted to play anything from the 16-bit era. Then one day, I got a SNES of my own along with a small handful of games. One of those games was the surprisingly good, but frustratingly difficult Cybernator which is not to be confused with the 1991 film of the same name.

Developed by NCS Corp and released in the United States on April 4, 1993, Cybernator is a run and gun platformer in the Assault Suit series. You play as Jake Brain, a United States marine who pilots one of the aforementioned assault suits. His platoon is tasked by the Federation with locating and destroying the Bildvord, a massive war mech built by Axis, the government opposing them in a massive war for control of the Earth's remaining fossil fuels.

The controls for the game are fairly simple, but also complex enough to require a fair amount of skill to be good at it. B is Jump, Y is Shoot, A is Dash and X cycles through your weapons. Holding L locks the position of your gun in place so you can move without readjusting your aim. Hold R to use your shield and this is quite critical to know as your shield can block almost everything in front of you. If this control scheme doesn't suit you just right, you can change the controls in the options from the title screen.

Now the game is actually pretty difficult, as most games from that era were. You are given a limited amount of life, and health pickups are few and far between, and if that wasn't hard enough, you have only have one life and three continues to work with making the challenge exceptionally high. Not all is lost though as there are ways to improve your chances of winning. Hidden in a couple of levels are two fairly powerful weapons, the Missiles and the Laser. The Missiles are strong and have a bit of knock-back, but what makes it shine is its auto-targeting feature. Don't use it too much though, unlike the other weapons, the Missiles have limited ammunition. The Laser is much different. It fires a single unrelenting beam that deals moderate continuous damage as long as it's being fired. These weapons are much better than what you start with, so be sure to find them, but sometimes even finding better weapons isn't enough. Don't fret though, there is one more strategy to be employed.

Throughout the stages are red Power Chips which slowly increase the strength of your currently equipped weapon. With the exception of the Missiles, collect Power Chips to reduce the number of the weapon in use to zero to upgrade its strength and range. This will make it fairly easier to destroy the bosses found in the levels, many of which actually have an unseen time limit that will alter the way the story will play out should you happen to fail. Failing too many times will actually change the outcome at the end of the game, so if you want the good ending, don't let that happen.

All in all, while the game is hard, it is also very rewarding. Since the controls are tight and responsive, it is YOUR fault if you mess up, not the game's. Its music also gives the game a sense of actual accomplishment if you happen to do well. I personally felt very pleased with myself when I finally beat the game almost fifteen years after getting it as a child. So, if you want a difficult but rewarding game with tight controls and badass music, then Cybernator is your game. It is also available on the Wii's and Wii U's Virtual Console service. But until then, I'll be seeing you.

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Original VS Remake: Final Fantasy IV

Archive — Sat, 22 Apr 2017 22:09:00 +0000

With the unexpected rise in the number of HD re-releases and remakes of certain games, it got me thinking about one of my favorite games for the SNES and how many re-releases and enhanced ports it had over the years. The game I'm referring to is Final Fantasy IV, one of the better games in the series. One particular remastering of it especially stood out due to how much effort was put into it, so I'll point out the differences from the original release on the SNES and its updated remake on the Nintendo DS and see which one is better worth your hard earned cash.

Graphics

When the game was first released on the SNES back in 1991, it was considered quite the step up from the previous Final Fantasy game(s) released on the NES a year (or so) prior. It had a great art style that really set the tone for how the game was going to play, how the story would play out, and the overall feel and color of the environments that you would traverse. It was quite impressive for a 16-bit game that could only display around 256 colors at a time.

Now the DS version released in late 2007 was much different as it has fully polygonal characters, enemies, and environments which made everything feel much more alive and vibrant. Plus it allowed for much more detailed character animation which was shown quite prominently from the game's many dancers scattered around the world's many towns and kingdoms (I'm quite partial to the City of Troia myself). Overall, the DS version a much better visual treat than the SNES version.

Music

If Final Fantasy's spinoff series Theatrhythm has shown anything, then the music is just as iconic as everything else in the game. The music in the SNES version is especially good, ranging from atmospheric, to intense, to melancholy and even climactic. It certainly does its job considering the hardware limitations imposed by the console's specifications.

The DS version however is honestly not much different. Aside from having some slightly better audio files for the game's midi tracks, the music is virtually identical. There are a couple of songs in the game where the music is noticeably higher quality than its SNES counterpart (Most noticeably Fabul Castle) which is I guess a pretty nice bonus if you happen to remember what the orginal sounded like. All in all, I'd say the DS version wins this category, but not by much.

Translation

Because of the SNES's strict hardware limitations, some corners were cut when this Japanese RPG was translated into English. As such, many lines of dialog had to be simplified, changed or even censored before it was released for a western audience. One such censored line was, "You spoony bard!" which was spoken by the sage, Tellah when he was trying to kill the bard, Edward. This line had reached an unusually high amount of fan support and had survived even into the many remakes of the game.

Now because the DS had a much more memory, a more accurate and faithful translation of the original story could be used in the game allowing for a much better understanding of the plot which was also accompanied by cut-scenes with stellar voice acting. In addition to this, more of the story that had been left on the cutting room floor during the SNES version's development period was able to be re-added allowing for even more back story to be told on the game's antagonist, Golbez. Gonna have to give the scoring point to the DS version here.

Gameplay

As with most Final Fantasy games, gameplay is mostly just customization, strategizing your attacks and memorizing how certain enemies react to certain actions. However, when the game was released in other territories for the first time, the difficulty was dumbed down to make it more accessible for American and European audiences. Many items and pieces of equipment were boosted in strength and several enemies had their power cut so they would be easier to defeat. It worked, but it also made the strategy kind of dull and uninspired.

Now if you want a REAL challenge, the DS version is where it's at. The enemies are much more threatening and items and characters can actually be customized further to better suit your needs. The boss battles are also require much more thought involved as well as many of them either counter half of what you throw at them, or they they are immune to everything else. Also, exclusive to the DS version are special side missions with Namingway, and a special little Eidolon that you can also customize and have fight in place of your summoner, Rydia. This Eidolon can be trained to become stronger through minigames that are played with the touch screen and can also be used in a special one-on-one battle mode with another player a la Pokemon. The DS version is definitely the way to go here.

Overall

The DS version is hands down the winner of this contest. It just has so much more to offer than the original and it really shows. While the SNES version has a special place in my heart, it just can't hold a candle to this exceptionally well made remake. Plus, since it is a DS game, it can be played on 3DS systems without any problem. Don't have a 3DS either? Well there is also a PC version available that is basically the same version as the DS one, minus the special Eidolon and the associated minigames. Not really a big loss, but I like to have my games with as much content as possible. Maybe you do too, who knows? But until then, I'll see you next time.

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