While Super Mario Run allowed Mario to jump into a pool of gold coins...
The final month of 2016 brought six reviews to SuperPhillip Central. It was mostly a month of platforming with some very big stars and some very big disappointments (well, one). Starting off the month of December was Review Redux of New Super Mario Bros. 2 which earned a B grade. A disappointment came soon after when I finished Mekazoo, a game which had a rocky second half, giving it a D+ grade overall. Then, we traveled to the LittleBigPlanet with LittleBigPlanet 3, hopping happily about with a B-.
Moving forward, the lone non-platformer this month, Aqua Moto Racing Utopia, amazed with its tight controls and its rivaling of Wave Race, earning itself a B+. Next up, two former rivals had two different games, each on the opposite sides of the sales success spectrum. First, Super Mario Run successfully converted 2D Mario to mobile in a smart way, getting a B+ for its effort. Secondly and lastly, Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice improved on the foundation laid by the first Nintendo 3DS Sonic Boom entry, Shattered Crystal, and it slid into a C+ for being a competent but not-too-special platformer.
Here's to a new year with new reviews for some awesome games!
I used to house a lot of hostility towards the industry and gamers in general in the past with SuperPhillip Central. Over the 8+ years of the site, I've since cleaned up my act, as hey-- there's enough hostility in the industry and the hobby already, so why add to it! That doesn't mean I'm sunshine and happiness each and every day, as this awards category for the SuperPhillip Central Best of 2016 Awards shows. We're talking about the games that disappointed me the greatest from those I had the honor (or dishonor?) of playing.
5) Street Fighter V (PS4, PC)
Despite its core gameplay being anything but a disaster-- instead, just as good as ever-- the disappointment from Street Fighter V came from how little content the game had when it originally released in February worldwide. The lack of modes, including a traditional arcade and story mode, meant that for players who weren't that interested in seriously investing in the competitive portion of the game didn't really get their money's worth. The launch was also plagued with connection issues as well as rage quitting problems. While some of these problems have been fixed, to say that they didn't affect Capcom's bottom line and the interest of both beginning and middle-of-the-road players would be foolish.
4) Mekazoo (PS4, XB1, PC)
This entry on my list is one that is very much a personal disappointment. Mekazoo is a 2.5D platformer where you switch between different animals to solve challenges and progress through the various levels of the game. It's actually a well designed game, but the biggest issue which comes blatantly apparent in the latter half of the game is how many bugs, glitches, and performance problems the game currently has. While these have been promised to be amended and soon, it absolutely ruined my fun for an indie game that I was very much hyping. Until these problems are patched, Mekazoo is a game I won't be returning to.
3) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan (Multi)
Platinum Games can be hit or miss with their licensed projects. While Transformers: Devastation was an awesome action game set in the Robots in Disguise universe, a game like The Legend of Korra wasn't so special. Sadly, Platinum Games' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game, Mutants in Manhattan falls in the latter "not so special" category. With four Turtles on screen at the same time and some bizarre camera angles, it is challenging to see what is going on. This makes dodging and evading attacks, something that is of the utmost of importance to survive, something immensely difficult to do. The randomness of the mission design, boring level design in general, and less-than-stellar action makes for a Turtles game that is about as appetizing as Turtle Soup.
2) Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness (PS4)
One of my favorite JRPGs of all time is the incredible Star Ocean: The Second Story and its PSP enhanced port, Second Evolution. Since then, the series has seen another appealing entry with the PS2's Till the End of Time, a not-so-great fourth entry last gen, and now, this year's Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness. Between the inability to skip most scenes (just standing around or walking about with impatience, since for the most part there are limited "true" cutscenes to be found), the difficulty to see what's going on in battle, tedious backtracking, and vanilla characters, Star Ocean's latest is far from the greatest. The lack of a sizable budget definitely shows and certainly hurts the overall product. Though I completed the game, I really have no desire to return to the world occupied by protagonist Fidel and his bland companions.
1) Mighty No. 9 (Multi)
It took approximately three million dollars to make... this?! Mighty No. 9 is a lesson in Kickstarter of not spreading yourself too thin, which is exactly what Keiji Inafune did with Mighty No. 9 by wanting to put the game on seemingly every platform under the sun. Plus, I don't think starting a completely different Kickstarter while your first one hasn't even launched a final product is a good idea... Regardless, Mighty No. 9 suffers from various performance problems, but its main issue is that it just doesn't do anything special. The controls work well enough, but the level design is unimaginative at best and is pitiful at worst (looking at you, museum level with no checkpoints until the end, and you, level with the pink spinning turbines). Waiting so many years, hearing so much PR speak, and it all led to this... unacceptably bland game is why SuperPhillip Central picks Mighty No. 9 at the biggest disappointment of 2016. (Well, gaming-wise.)
We conclude the week with a brand-new review. It's for a game that I was quite looking forward to. To say I'm disappointed after my wait would be underselling things. Here's my (hopefully fair) take on The Good Mood Creators' Mekazoo, reviewed on PlayStation 4.
Consistently Inconsistent
There are some games that come out that I absolutely want to love. They have a lot of effort put into them, they scream "charm", and they have the look of something terrific. Mekazoo was one of those games that I did indeed want to love, but for every good thing that came from it, something horrid got in the way of my enjoyment. Mekazoo was developed by a team calling themselves "The Good Mood Creators." Ironically, on many occasions with my time with Mekazoo, all the developers and the game actually created for me was a bad mood. A real bad mood.
Mekazoo is a 2.5D platformer that has five hub worlds connecting all of the levels together. You start off as playing as a small armadillo, able to charge up and roll along floors, walls, and ramps to reach new areas. By the end of the game, you have five different animal companions on your side: the aforementioned armadillo, a frog, a wallaby, a bear, and a pelican. Each animal buddy has its own special ability to them. For example, the frog can use its tongue to lash out and defeat enemies, as well as grab onto special poles, enabling the frog to swing from them. Meanwhile, the wallaby (though a bit unwieldy) can bounce, jumping between walls.
In Mekazoo, you begin with but a tiny armadillo, but even then, the game is quite interesting.
There are approximately four main levels in each of the hub worlds, taking place in colorful forests, frozen tundras, cactus-filled deserts, futuristic cities, and sci-fi settings. Each level has a checklist of five tasks that you can complete to earn gears. Gears are the means to open new levels, so replaying levels is not only recommended, but it's also required. The first objective in a level is merely to clear it. You have an unlimited amount of lives to you, but checkpoints aren't as plentiful as I would like. It becomes monotonous and highly irritating to have to replay significant sections of levels due to the lack of checkpoints available. Other objectives include eliminating all of one type of enemy in a level, beating a level under a specific amount of time, clearing a level without dying, and finding a secret switcher.
The direction you point the analog stick is the direction the frog's tongue will strike.
The latter challenge presents a gameplay mechanic that I'd like to talk about. Despite being able to unlock five animals in Mekazoo, you can only have up to two animals to switch between at one time. The game makes it so you're given the right combination of animals to take on the next series of a given level's challenges. Many times with the "secret switcher" tasks, the switcher gives you an atypical duo of animal companions that make you rethink how you get through the level. One extra level is quite easy with the bear companion, allowing you to climb walls and such to reach the goal all the while a pool of muck rises under your feet. However, by using the secret switcher, you have to utilize the armadillo and wallaby, meaning that this otherwise accessible challenge becomes much more difficult. This requires learning how to charge the armadillo to roll up vertical walls and have the wallaby wall jump with extreme precision to avoid the black goop hot on your trail.
Levels also possess gems to collect: four placed in usually hidden or hard-to-reach locations and four earned from collecting a specific amount of smaller gems. Finding and acquiring the gems are a lot of fun, and they make you explore the levels much more than you might otherwise do. These gems aren't just for collecting purposes either; they're used to purchase special costumes and themes for the various animal buddies of yours.
Pounce from a high spot as the wallaby to destroy this floor.
For the first few worlds, Mekazoo is a joy to play (for the most part). Then, myriad issues come to a head, almost like they were buried deep in the game as to not ruin impressions, word-of-mouth, and sales. In the fourth and fifth world, the frame-rate is absolutely atrocious-- As in, "no excuse that it is this bad" atrocious. It's compounded by the fact that trying to accomplish the challenging and precision-based platforming required to beat later levels is really difficult with said horrid frame-rate.
Between the lackluster frame-rate and whatever the hell this bear is doing,
the latter half of Mekazoo is underwhelming at best.
Then, there are a multitude of glitches and bugs, many of which I've recorded and interspersed in this review. From not being able to grab onto poles that are clearly in reach to falling under a level, thus being stuck to restart the entire level, the glitches present in Mekazoo make for a frustrating experience on top of an already hard game. Don't get me started on the times when the camera is positioned horribly so you find yourself dying because the angle was off or if the camera even follows the action at all-- getting stuck on geometry for whatever reason.
That's okay. I didn't want to finish the level anyway.
Other than these issues, on many occurrences within later levels, I just didn't find myself being in full control of the animals. The controls feel loose to a detriment, and the physics aren't exactly perfect either. Many times there would be problems with character movement, clipping problems, and tough slow-down to deal with as you try to make precise maneuvers.
Nevertheless, Mekazoo's overall presentation outside the highly disappointing frame-rate and bugs is rather fetching. The environments are bursting with color, vibrancy, personality, and brimming with character. The lighting is tremendous, offering an even greater sight to behold in the game's levels. The sound is also quite nice, delivering a heaping helping of terrific tunes, many of which I found myself either humming along with or bopping my head to.
It's rare nowadays that I try to force myself to like a game, but Mekazoo was one of those. Despite all of its problems-- all of its immensely disappointing problems, I still find little specks of goodness within Mekazoo. The level design is well done, the charm is definitely present, and the longevity is clearly there if you have the patience to deal with everything else. As of now, though, I cannot in good conscience recommend Mekazoo until its multitude of technical problems get fixed. Mekazoo starts out as a highly enjoyable platforming romp that eventually just comes crashing down on itself. In this regard, it feels unfinished, and sadly, not worth buying at this moment.
Gaming is heading towards digital more and more as each year passes by. It's fantastic that developers are able to create mid-tier games that last generation were all but endangered in the retail space. Now, we have genres that wouldn't fit into the AAA-line of thinking that this industry continues to lean towards readily available on many digital marketplaces. The titles that I'm most excited for this year are but some of the incredibly hype-worthy games coming from developers both small and large.
I passionately encourage you to please recommend to me other digital games that are coming out that I may not even know about. It would be with great thanks from me for you guys to do that. Also, after you're done reading my picks, let's chat about digital games in the comments section!
5) '90s Arcade Racer - Developed by Antonis Pelekanos and Nicalis
A lot of the games on this list are inspired by retro classics. This next indie title, '90s Arcade Racer is one that can thank Daytona USA for its inspiration. I have been wanting a modern racer that is less simulation and more about crazy drifts for the longest time. It's gotten so bad for me that I was honest to goodness willing to pull the proverbial trigger on Ridge Racer... for the Vita. Let that sink in how deep my desperation goes. However, '90s Arcade Racer is a game that seems to scratch my itch for thrills, chills, and drifting goodness. Of course, since the game is being published by Nicalis, we will probably have to wait until 2020 to see the game released. Perhaps I'm being hard on Nicalis, but the publisher does not have a good "track" record on releasing games in a timely fashion. Still, I'm sure the wait will be definitely worth it!
4) Midora - Developed by Epic Minds
Midora has an art style highly reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, and in addition to the art, the gameplay is similar to the legendary franchise its inspired by. Currently, the team at Epic Minds is planning 12 unique dungeons full of insane traps, enemies, and obstacles. Furthermore, we're bound to get a high number of secondary items aside from Midora's main means to attack to open up the possibilities for different combat strategies and puzzle concepts. Midora may seem too heavily inspired by The Minish Cap, but I think that is what draws me to this game. It's an ode to 16-bit Zelda, and despite not being overly innovative, I still feel the need to play this game.
3) Mekazoo - Developed by The Good Mood Creators
If you see a theme on my five selections for downloadable games that I have the most excitement for, it's probably that all of the games here are in genres that are my favorites or games inspired by favorite franchises and games of mine. Mekazoo is a 2.5D platformer which has you switching between one of a handful of different animals, such as an armadillo, a frog, and a kangaroo, and platforming with great acrobatics through multiple tiered levels. It's an exciting prospect and the trailer for the game shows this action beautifully. With a release period for late this year, I cannot wait to see more footage and imagination shown from The Good Mood Creators and their greatly interesting game.
2) Mighty No. 9 - Developed by Comcept
A project led by the driving force behind the Mega Man series, Keiji Inafune, Mighty No. 9 definitely has its roots greatly inspired by the Blue Bomber's games. With a formula just like the Mega Man games, eight bosses that strike a resemblance to Robot Masters, and similar gameplay, Mighty No. 9 might as well be considered an all-new Mega Man game. While the Kickstarter campaign is a bit dubious in how much money it continually wants and how the mock-up for the project is nothing close to what the actual work-in-progress looks like, I am still drooling over the prospect of playing a Mega Man-like game from the man most closely tied to the franchise.
1) A Hat in Time - Developed by Gears for Breakfast
A Hat in Time satiates my hunger and thirst for a traditional 3D collect-a-thon style platformer akin to classic games like Super Mario 64 and my favorite of the bunch, Banjo-Kazooie. The game is set to feature fully explorable worlds; the ability to battle enemies and bosses with either Hat Kid's umbrella or an ode to Mario, a jump to the noggin; collectibles aplenty like badges that can be equipped to change the player's play style; cooperative gameplay; and an art style similar to what was seen in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. A Hat in Time is such an exciting project to me, someone who is a huge fan of Nintendo 64 era 3D platformers, and I am chomping at the bit to see this game released to the public.
