Gunman Clive 2 (3DS eShop) Review

It's already time for the first review of February, and as stated last week, SuperPhillip Central is now on a new grading scale system. My first game using this new letter grade review system is Gunman Clive 2 for the Nintendo 3DS eShop. Grab your six-shooter, pardner, and get ready for a good time!

Yee-Haw!

Gunman Clive was an unexpected hit and success story on the Nintendo 3DS eShop, one of the most prolific victories for the marketplace yet. It outsold the release on mobile devices and did well for the developer. What makes the story even more fascinating is that the game, other than the music, was created by one person, Bertil Hörberg. Rather than just resting on his laurels, Hörberg returns us to the world of Gunman Clive with a full-fledged sequel with amazing additions and spruced up mechanics, making Gunman Clive 2 a must-own for action fans.

Gunman Clive 2 contains the similar formula of the original. It is a retro-styled shooter and platform along the likes of games like Mega Man, only set in a Wild West world. Clive can shoot (picking up power-ups that can expand his firepower), jump, and crouch through the 25 levels in the game that contain a myriad of trials and challenges for him to overcome. From a castle with its own areas of directional gravity, sending Clive walking on walls and ceilings, to a Donkey Kong Country-inspired trek aboard a mine cart, riding through hazardous sections of track, Gunman Clive 2 offers plenty of level variety. They display a grand amount of evolution compared to the original.

Those varmints picked the wrong day
to mess with Gunman Clive's town.

This evolution continues into the boss encounters as well, showing off more complicated bosses, attack patterns, and means to defeat them. Whether it's a massive Tyrannosaurus Rex that chases our hero or a distinguished gentleman with requisite top hat and monocle, utilizing the game's gravity mechanic to dodge and defeat him, these bosses are definitely a step up from what we saw in the original Gunman Clive. Heck, the final boss is not only a great encounter, but it's also one of the more creative battles in years in how you scale the robotic beast to beat him.

Open wide for Gunman Clive!

Outside of standard 2D run-and-gun left-to-right affairs, Gunman Clive 2 splits up the action with special levels. For instance, one has Clive on an aircraft with a behind-the-back view as he shoots down enemy balloons and flies through rocky archways. Another level features Clive on horseback, riding through along a desert road, dodging boulders, dealing with fellow horseback riders, and leaping over obstructions in the road.

Ah... Sunglasses! I knew I forgot to pack something!

Gunman Clive 2 offers three difficulties, which alter how much health you are given to work with. There is no lives system in the game. When you die, you start from the beginning of the current stage. As levels are mostly short, death isn't that huge of a penalty. It's only later levels that are more lengthy that this can become annoying, especially levels with several "gotcha" moments, where you'll die simply because of a lack of reaction and response time to a specific obstacle. One such case is a falling platform that drops into the abyss. You have to have the reaction time of Sonic the Hedgehog to leap to the necessary platform in order to survive. There are more moments like this than I would have liked, but once they have been learned, the levels become easier to complete.

Gunman Clive's adventure takes him
all around the world.

There are four playable characters in Gunman Clive 2. The titular hero is the first, with Ms. Johnson being the second. Her Princess Peach-like ability to float in midair temporarily makes otherwise very challenging jumps more plausible. Then there is Chieftain Bob, who is the most difficult character to play as, as he can only utilize melee attacks via his spear. This takes learning enemy attack patterns a must in order to get close enough to take the appropriate number of shots on a given foe. The final character needs to be unlocked, and those who played and enjoyed the original Gunman Clive can probably guess who the character is and how much it changes up how Gunman Clive 2 is played.

Like Gunman Clive, Gunman Clive features a very satisfying art style that is reminiscent of an animated wanted poster, full of squiggling lines on the foreground and background. Unlike the original, however, Gunman Clive 2 isn't relegated to one color scheme. Instead, each level presents a different scheme, showing off an abundance of color used rather than the orange, brown, and beige that the original game only offered. The character models are a sight to behold, and the animations are fantastic as well. The music is also quite impressive, featuring a wealth of engaging music that you can catch yourself humming to. Overall, Gunman Clive 2 is a delight presentation-wise.

It's total panda-monium here!

Gunman Clive 2 is just wholly a plain delight. The side-scrolling 2D run-and-gun action is executed beautifully, the level and boss designs have evolved to be more interesting from the original, and the presentation is simply put, dazzling. It's astonishing that one person did the lion's share of development for this game. Gunman Clive 2 isn't a perfect game-- it's short and has some frustrating "gotcha" moments in its level design-- but it's a magnificent display of pure action gaming with a wondrous coat of paint.

[SPC Says: B]

Review copy provided by Hörberg Productions.

Mega Man X4 (PS1, SAT, PSN) Retro Review

Cap off your Saturday night with some more Mega Man action! This time around we're going to take a look at one of my favorite entries in the franchise, Mega Man X4! How much do you guys and gals think I like this one? I've never written about my love of Mega Man X4 in such depth as tonight.

Your knowledge on what you are

fighting for may vary.

In Mega Man X4, humans and sentient robots known as Reploids live together. Of course, it's never really in harmony, as that would make for a boring premise. A strong militant army known as the Repliforce wishes to create their own colony after being deemed Mavericks, out of control robots, by their human counterparts. Little does everyone know that a sinister figure lurking in the shadows casts a wide smile, seeing that his plan is coming to fruition. It's X and Zero's desired duty to not just prevent this tense situation from blowing up and out of control, but also to save the world in the process. 

Mega Man X4 comes packed with much more power thanks to the wonders of the compact disc the game is printed on. Not only does this allow for traditional text-based story progression, but it also opts for full motion video cutscenes to display important scenes in all of their still impressive animated glory. The voice acting is a definite step-up from what was available in Mega Man 8, but there's still some chintzy lines and delivery. I'm looking at you,  Zero's "what am I fighting foooooor". 

Outside of cutscenes, Mega Man X4 delivers amazing 2D artistry. It's not at the level of 2D art available today, obviously, but it still pleases the eyes. Sprites animate wonderfully with plenty of different animations to them, levels have an intricate and detailed design to them visually, offering breathtaking vistas and areas, and special effects like explosions delight. 

A definite upgrade in visuals from
what the SNES offered.

On the music side, Mega Man X4 has extremely memorable and catchy themes. Even the worst sounding tracks would be considered the best on other video game scores. 

As for how Mega Man X4 plays, if you've played a game in the series in the past, then you know what to expect. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing depends upon if you've had your fill of Mega Man action. That's because the basic structure of the Mega Man series featuring you tackling eight stages in any order, running through trials and traps, overcoming obstacles, defeating enemies, making your way to the stage's boss, defeating him, receiving their special weapon as a reward, and then moving onto the next remains uncharged. The only difference is an interlude level thrown in midway through that is purely a fight against a story-related character.

Beware the scariest-named Maverick
ever devised-- Split Mushroom!

The bosses in Mega Man X4 take the shape of many animals, such as the always aerial Storm Owl, the brawn over brain Frost Walrus, and the lover of transportation Cyber Peacock. Sure, they don't always have the coolest names to them-- hello, Split Mushroom-- but getting down their patterns, learning when to go on the offensive and when to evade attacks, as well as mastering each fight takes a fair amount of practice. This is especially so if you're just using your standard weapon like X's buster or Zero's saber. 

Hey. Some of my best friends
are Mavericks.

When not wanting to go the path of most resistance, you can take solace in the fact that every boss has a weakness to a specific special weapon. Split Mushroom's Soul Body can easily take out Cyber Peacock, which in turn, Cyber Peacock's Aiming Laser does a number on Storm Owl. The biggest challenge to overcome in this regard is finding out which boss has what weakness. Thankfully, you have the Internet at your fingertips for this information.

While their levels are the same,
their stories differ.

In Mega Man X3, Zero was playable but was extremely limited in where and how he could be utilized. Mega Man X4 ups his usefulness completely by having him as a separate character from X with his own special moves, abilities, dialogue, and cutscenes. The levels that he goes through are designed the exact same way as X's, but this doesn't actually come across as a negative. Instead, it just made me marvel at the level design even more. There's certain sections of levels that Zero can get through more easily than X can, and that makes you appreciate how each level was constructed and tailor-made for both characters.

For the first time in series history,
Zero is 100% playable.

With a new generation came a new leap in technology, and Mega Man X4 held little back in taking advantage of the PlayStation and Sega Saturn's beefier tech. Level concepts and features that would have been impossible on the Super Nintendo flourish on the new hardware, such as Slash Beast's level that takes place on a moving train, Jet Stingray's stage which has X or Zero on a speeder bike, roaring through tunnels and onto the sea, and Split Mushroom's level that has two segments of it that have you running up a spiral staircase. 

The chase is on!
Don't get your circuits wet, X!

Like the Mega Man X games before it, Mega Man X4 comes with its staple of optional collectible items and rewards for thorough explorers. Most levels house one of Dr. Light's hidden capsules, allowing X to equip a new piece of upgraded armor. These can give X more mobility options like a mid-air dash, the ability to charge up his X-Buster, or the benefit of having special weapons not use up energy. Mighty handy, no? Since Zero cannot acquire Dr. Light's upgrades, his campaign can be viewed as a hard mode for Mega Man X4.

The look of a fully upgraded X.

In addition to those helpful finds, each stage possesses one health-increasing Heart Tank. Unlike past Mega Man X games, however, only two Sub Tanks are available in X4. As usual, these serve as a health reserve for you to fill up X's life gauge when the going gets tough. Finally, there's two new tanks to acquire, a Weapon Tank that stores weapon energy, and a special life tank that adds more lives to X or Zero's starting supply of lives when a continue is used. 

X can shoot, dash, wall jump,
and speak 12 foreign languages.

Mega Man X4 isn't a long game, and for those who are familiar with the franchise, you probably already knew that. Mega Man games in general from the classic and X line of titles aren't overly long experiences. However, these games encourage multiple play-throughs, not to unlock anything new, but just because they're so rewarding to play. These are masterful games in their design and gameplay mechanics that multiple plays are a must. Of course, with Mega Man X4 you have the luxury of having two stories to play through, X and Zero's, to help with longevity anyway. 

I don't know. Do you think this ride
armor makes X's butt look fat?

From a purely presentation standpoint, Mega Man X4 impresses. That's no doubt a factor in me liking this game over many others in the franchise. However, X4 also nails the level design, the tightness of the controls, the boss encounters, the story, the localization, and so much more. It's one of the top titles in the Mega Man series as a whole, and it definitely deserves your attention whether you're a newcomer to the game or have already beaten it dozens of times.

[SPC Says: 9.5/10]

Mario Kart 8 (Wii U) New Gorgeous Screenshots

Mario Kart 8 is shaping up quite nicely, as today's Nintendo Direct trailer has already shown. Here are some screens to show you what the game looks like in still form. Mario Kart 8 has a planned release date for the nebulous time of Spring 2014.

Animal Crossing Journal: New Leaf Edition

This past Sunday, Animal Crossing: New Leaf finally reached North American shores, and Nintendo 3DS owners couldn't be happier. Much like Phil did with Animal Crossing: City Folk, he is going to be writing a weekly journal talking about his adventures in the town of Central. If you're ready, Phil's ready.

On June 9th, 2013, I became the mayor of the town of Central. A gathering of animal locals surrounded the ceremony, cheering me on as I took up my new mayoral duties. My first act as mayor was planting a tree in Central Plaza. The animals that congregated around me seemed to enjoy themselves. I was taking over the duties of a longtime mayor who I've heard retired to a tropical island, so I had a hefty job ahead of me.

I was able to designate a space for my house for Tom Nook to build, but it turns out all I started out with was a tent. After the 10,000 Bell total was paid, I finally got something that looked like a house to live in instead of something to camp in.

This is how my house currently looks like on the inside. Sahara came by and fixed me up with a new wallpaper and flooring. I like this oriental look like going for, don't you?

As mayor, I have taken care of three public works projects thus far: a second bridge to cross Central's river in the western part of town, a fountain in front of town hall, and a bench overlooking where the river falls into the ocean. My next goal is to create a third bridge, in between the two current bridges, so that the peninsula between the two bridges has a way to cross to the other side of the river. I also wish to have some street lamps in Central and even some bushes to make the town even more spectacular to visitors.

In addition to the official public works projects, I decided to create a system of sidewalks and paths in Central. At first the pattern I used wasn't very detailed (as might see in the photos below), but I added more specks to the sidewalk to give it a textured appearance. After getting an axe today, I managed to cut down trees that got in the way of the paths I wanted to create. We at Central are very pleased with how they turned out.

We also have a welcome sign for those who visit Central.

It was here...

Now, it's here.

In addition to that, in Main Street, Central now has a gardening shop. It took a day for it to be constructed (unlike construction on I-64...), and the proprietor of the shop, Leif, assists in selling flower seeds and tree seeds to spruce up Central.

I even have the backing of the denizens of Central.

Of course, every mayor needs to have some "me time." That's exactly what I did. I opened the city gates to outsides, and what do you know, some came in to party Central-style! From unwinding after a long hard day with some fishing to exploring the beach and island together, there's plenty of things to do in order to relax at Central.

Finally, after all the fish I have caught, I now have a badge to prove that I have caught over 50% of the fish and sea life varieties. Not pictured here, but I have also nabbed 50% of the insect life in Central.

So as my first week as mayor, Central has already turned into bustling village, more so than it was when I first arrived in town. I still have plenty of tasks ahead of me, such as expanding my own home and the museum, adding a third bridge to town, construction some streetlamps, and making sure I keep Central a thriving community. If you ever wish to visit Central, make sure you post your 3DS friend code here, along with your 3DS name. Until next week, this has been Phil's Animal Crossing Journal.