Beach Buggy Racing (NS) Review

Released a couple of weeks ago on the Nintendo Switch eShop, Beach Buggy Racing is a game in one of my favorite genres, the arcade kart racer. Here's my take on the game.

Handles as well as an overturn beach buggy

Some games make a great transition between mobile devices and consoles. Others, however, do not. Generally some improvements need to come into place, as what may be serviceable to play on mobile devices won't exactly cut it when it comes to consoles. This is the case with Vector Unit's Beach Buggy Racing. The games feels like a carbon copy of a mobile game ported over to the Nintendo Switch with little in the way of improvement.

Beginning with the positive, Beach Buggy Racing's Career Mode is an engaging one where you complete chapters of racing events before completing enough to take on that chapter's boss. Beating the boss unlocks that character as a playable one to race about with. Racing events in each chapter include things like winning races, elimination-style events, point-based weapon challenges, and time trials. Each event can net you up to three stars depending on how well you performed, adding some longevity and replay value to this mode. You can use the currency provided from completing events to buy new rides and upgrade them to boost their overall performance in races.

The racers are on their marks and ready to ride.

Outside of the single-player Career Mode, there is the ability to go against a friend via split-screen, race in a Grand Prix championship where the racer with the most points at the end of the series of races wins, a quick play option allowing you to race on whatever track you want, whenever you want, and Daily Challenges where each day you play against a varied racer and attempt to beat him or her for a reward.

As for the racetracks, while they aren't anything to be wowed about over design-wise, each one is distinct enough that there is a nice feeling of variety going on. This continues with each tracks' shortcuts, offering alternate paths to either whittle away from a precious millisecond from your total time or to create some very short distance between you and the other racers. However, these shortcuts seemingly are more trouble than they're worth, giving you such a mild reward for a massive risk most of the time, which ended up with me mostly ignoring them.

Most of the time, shortcuts such as this one prove to be more trouble than they're worth.

Comparing a kart racer made for mobile like Beach Buggy Racing to something built for a console like Mario Kart isn't particularly fair, but between a mobile-first racer and a console-first racer, the discrepancy between controlling and handling your kart is quite pronounced. Being based off a mobile game, Beach Buggy Racing has extremely loose and floaty controls to it, something that does not feel satisfying by any stretch of the imagination to control on a standard console controller. It seems as if the port team just took the mobile original's handling and made no adjustments to make the experience work well with the Switch's analog controls. Thus, what you get is a racing game that plays insufficiently and disappointingly because the handling is overall junky.

Screens don't really do Beach Buggy Racing justice, as the game looks much more pleasant in motion.

Furthermore, Beach Buggy Racing just isn't a deep racing game. Even casual arcade racers like Mario Kart contain advanced techniques in some form to get ahead of the competition and add some complexity to the gameplay foundation. For Mario Kart, it's the use of drifting and gaining boosts the longer you drift around a turn or corner. Sadly, Beach Buggy Racing has nothing of the sort. It's merely race after race of driving, staying on track, and hoping not to get screwed over by a wanton weapon on a given lap.

Here, too, becomes another issue with Beach Buggy Racing. The items in the game are for the most part full of offensive items. This means that you get very little to protect you while up in your first place. Since you can't use offensive weapons to shoot backward to block oncoming items, you're stuck with just a shield item that doesn't even come up consistently in the item roulette while in first position. When you do have a shield, it lasts for a limited time, making it difficult to time when to bring it up when an item is forthcoming. It also doesn't help that you basically just have to guess when the item is about to hit you as there's no visual signal whatsoever. That's not even discussing how CPU players can use their special abilities multiple times in races while you can only use yours once, or how the AI magically can come back to the race much faster than you can when they are hit by a weapon. It all just leads to one absolutely aggravating experience.

Get ready to see a deluge of item usage in each of Beach Buggy Racing's races.

And that is what Beach Buggy Racing is in its Nintendo Switch form, an aggravating experience. When one considers its unsatisfying controls and handling, "buggy" experience (ironically so given the title of the game) concerning how many times the BBR crashed on me during the review process, and bland presentation, what is acceptable on mobile platforms is not on the same degree as to what is acceptable on a full fledged console like the Nintendo Switch. Better sit this particular race out.

[SPC Says: D]

Review code provided by Vector Unit.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions (3DS) Launch Trailer

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions releases in just over a week for all territories (though Japan gets it a day earlier). With that, Nintendo produced a special launch trailer for the game's upcoming release, and it goes in-depth on the gameplay and new Bowser's Minions mode. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions launches October 5 in Japan and October 6 in North America and Europe.

SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs - "Game On, Game Boy" Edition

After last week's themed Mario Kart edition of SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs, I wanted to do one more special edition before returning to this weekly, recurring SPC segment of articles' standard format.

This week, it's all about the Game Boy and its successor, the Game Boy Color, which threw a new dimension of visual prowess into games with its addition of color.

Since this is a themed week, every game featured must be on the Game Boy or Game Boy Color. That's exactly what I accomplished with the tailoring of this edition, starting off with The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Donkey Kong Land, and Pokemon Red / Blue. Then, we dive into less well known, less produced games in the form of Dragon Warrior Monsters and Trip World. (Don't feel bad if you're a North American who has never heard of the latter. There's a good reason for that.)

Click on the VGM name to hear a given song in YouTube form, and as always, the VGM Database houses every last, past VGM volume showcased on this weekly fixture of SuperPhillip Central's posts. Now, let's get on to the music!

v1476. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (GB) - Face Shrine (Level 6)

One of my favorite games in The Legend of Zelda series is Link's Awakening, the first Zelda game to appear on a Nintendo handheld. It blew my mind, along with many other players at the time, that the size of a world compared to the original Zelda and A Link to the Past could fit inside a smaller cartridge and be played on the tiny Game Boy of all things. Every notable feature from past Zelda games was tucked away within Link's Awakening, like the dense overworld, intricate dungeons, and repertoire of items. Link's Awakening is truly a fantastic entry from the past and will continue to be one for future players, too.

v1477. Donkey Kong Land (GB) - Ancient Beaver Bop

Rareware was never a slouch on any hardware the company worked with and designed games around. This is no truer than with the amazing work the studio put into Donkey Kong Land, a take on Donkey Kong Country in visuals but a completely different game otherwise. The visuals are crazy in how Rare managed to create prerendered models on the Game Boy hardware (how ever hard to see compared to the background and oncoming enemies notwithstanding) and the music from Dave Wise is just as sensational now as it was back then.

v1478. Pokemon Red / Blue (GB) - Cerulean City

My middle school self was so enamored with Pokemon back when the games first debuted in North America. From playing the games, watching the anime, collecting the trading card game cards, buying up as many figures I could find, and even drawing my own comic, Pokemon fully enveloped a young SuperPhillip in its charm. Nowadays, Pokemon Red and Blue are way too slow in gameplay and archaic in design compared to future entries, but the games will always be nostalgic for me. It helps when you have simple but catchy tunes like this one, for the second Gym Badge city in Kanto that you encounter, Cerulean City.

v1479. Dragon Warrior Monsters (GBC) - Beautiful Starlit Night

Fresh off the success of Pokemon, which just so happened to be the game featured before this one, a whole ton of monster-raising games followed, whether having already been in development or not before Pokemon. One of these was Dragon Warrior Monsters, a charming and engaging monster-finding, capturing, and battling game for the Game Boy Color. Several sequels would arrive on both the Game Boy Color and later on the Nintendo DS.

v1480. Trip World (GB) - World 1

1992's Trip World from Natsume is our final game featured in this all Game Boy edition of SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs. Trip World is an interesting case as the game never officially released in North America. Instead, the game only released in Japan and Europe, even on the Nintendo 3DS' Virtual Console it remained exclusive to those territories. Regardless, if you're looking for peppy music, Trip World has you covered as evident by this happy-go-lucky first world theme.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS) Review Redux

Little by little The Legend of Zelda series has moved along with progressing the formula, but none so pronounced as what the gaming world saw with this year's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. With a brand new open world setting and structure, as well as its moving from series norms, Breath of the Wild dawned a new era in The Legend of Zelda franchise.

However, Breath of the Wild wasn't the first Zelda game to try something new to shake up the formula after Twilight Princess (where the series started to sort of go through the motions). The Zelda game I'm referring to is the subject of this Monday morning's Review Redux, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.

A link between tradition and progress

After playing the delightful Nintendo Switch launch title The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (also on Wii U as a swan song for the system), I wanted to play some older games in the Zelda series. I didn't really have an idea on which entry I desired to replay, but then I thought about things from a deeper viewpoint rather than "which game will bring me the most fun".

The idea came to me, entering into my mind as if the thought came through my ear canal, that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was a bold new direction for the Zelda franchise as it completely eschewed series conventions and traditions for the most part. However, this change to rework the conventions of The Legend of Zelda didn't begin with Breath of the Wild. It began with the Nintendo 3DS game, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. I believe that A Link Between Worlds serves as a real link between the foundations and traditions of older Zelda and the all-new take with Breath of the Wild.

Part of that is what occurs about a third of the way through A Link Between Worlds. After you've gathered the three MacGuffins to remove the evil force field surrounding Hyrule Castle and take care of the guards inside, you wind up within the realm of Lorule, an ominous kingdom coated under a dark and dreary sky and filled with powerful, horrifying monsters and creatures. This is where there is some freedom to be found in A Link Between Worlds, as a new batch of dungeons is unlocked. In most of the Zelda games prior to Worlds, you had to complete each dungeon in a linear fashion. Sure, there were times where a choice could be made, but those were few and far in between. With The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, you can opt to complete each dungeon in Lorule in any order.

A theme with this review is how A Link Between Worlds bridged the gap between
traditional Zelda games and the new kind seen with Breath of the Wild. So... here is a literal bridge!

Generally in past Zeldas, a given dungeon would provide you with its own unique item waiting within the monster-filled, puzzle-heavy rooms and corridors of its boundaries. With A Link Between Worlds, this is different, and this formula alteration assists in letting you reach and complete any dungeon in whatever order you wish. Instead of gaining Link's tools like the Boomerang, Bow and Arrow, Hookshot, et al within the dungeons themselves, you can rent them from a jolly character named Ravio who takes the phrase "make yourself at home" literally by turning Link's house in Hyrule into his own shop. All of the items to be used in Link's dual kingdom adventure are housed here, and can be rented for a price. The catch is that if Link falls in battle, Ravio's faithful bird companion will retrieve the rented items and return them to its master. Though that isn't really a threat in the standard difficulty as Link can take lots of hits and can gain tons of extra hearts. When Hero Mode is available (which sadly requires you to beat the initial game to play) with its damage multipliers to Link, the rental system is more pronounced and more of a game-changer.

Lorule is already rather inhospitable, unfriendly, and dangerous as is, but in Hero Mode? Even more so!

Eventually you'll be able to buy items for good rather than just rent them. This is where collecting Rupees in both Hyrule and Lorule become prominent within A Link Between Worlds' design. Items from Ravio cost anywhere between 600 to 1200 Rupees to keep. Thankfully, the game encourages exploration to find chests within the two overworld maps as well as within the dungeons. There are even puzzle rooms sprinkled about Hyrule and Lorule in hidden and/or hard-to-reach locations within both kingdoms' maps. These generally require a specific item or combination of items to solve the puzzle or challenge and acquire your Rupee reward at the end. Exploration is also encouraged by all of the Heart Pieces in the game to find or earn as well as cute creatures called Maiamais that when ten are collected, the creatures' mother gives you an upgrade to an item you currently own. With 100 to find spread across Hyrule and Lorule, it seems like an insurmountable challenge, but thankfully, the bottom screen shows how many Maiamai are remaining in each section of both kingdoms.

Whether it's the Ice Rod in Turtle Rock...

Dungeons in A Link Between Worlds require one particular item from Ravio's shop. While this is how Link can complete most dungeons within Lorule in any order (save for the Desert Palace which cannot be done first as it requires the Sand Rod, only available after beating the Thieves' Hideout), using only one item per dungeon means that you seldom truly get stuck in these labyrinths. Hit an obstacle that you don't quite know how to pass or overcome? The dungeon's required item will work by using it in some way. This is the same with bosses. They're defeated by using the weapon required for the dungeon as well. You just have to come up with how to utilize it for victory.

...Or the Hookshot in the Swamp Palace, each Link Between Worlds dungeon
needs one specific item to complete it.

Dungeons have the Zelda tradition of housing keys, Boss Keys to reach the dungeon boss' domain, treasure chests and more to acquire while the Compass reveals all treasures, locked doors, and boss locations on the bottom screen map, a lovely and convenient use of the Nintendo 3DS' second screen. While I said you don't get Link's traditional arsenal of weapons from special treasure chests in dungeons like in previous Zelda games, there is one special chest in each dungeon. These optional chests are well worth the rewards in finding them, ranging from added defense with new tunics, ore to give to a blacksmith who will create a more powerful sword for you, and more.

Feel free to come up with your own rock-related joke here! Tonight's an off night for me with puns!

The main mechanic in A Link Between Worlds is magnificent and one of my favorite twists to the gameplay of any Zelda game. It's a mural mechanic, where Link can use a ring handed to him by Ravio to literally merge into walls, resembling a Link mural, walking along the wall to reach otherwise impossible to access locations. It really opens up the world and dungeon designs of the game to make you think in a spatial kind of way that you may not have thought about before. There are obvious methods of crossing short chasms with Wall Link, but when you need to circle around as Link in an extended length of a room, switch between both forms on the fly like in the Tower of Hera with its moving platforms, or figure out which level of height will allow you to cross a gap and reach a certain platform, things get a bit trickier.

The many uses of merging with walls and the like are immensely cunning,
but what else is there to expect from the Zelda team anyway?

You can't just perpetually stay in mural form either. That would be too easy. Instead, many of the dungeons and areas in Link Between Worlds consist of sections where you have to manage your energy meter well. This meter is a new feature in the Zelda franchise. It empties while in mural form, and if it depletes fully while you're inside a wall, you're tossed out. With that Tower of Hera example where you have to navigate around a jutting piece of wall as Mural Link that blocks regular Link from continuing to ride a moving platform, you need to manage your energy meter carefully so it doesn't run out while hanging over a pit. Not only is the meter spent from being Mural Link in general, but it also serves as ammo for all of Link's items. So instead of having to pick up arrows and bombs from defeated enemies, you just wait a little bit for Link's meter to replenish to continue bringing destruction and carnage to enemies.

Wall merging as Link isn't just used to solve puzzles or to get from location to location. It's the whole basis upon which Link travels between Hyrule and Lorule. There are myriad magical cracks or rifts within the walls of Hyrule and Lorule, and as being Lorule is heavily segmented, it's crucial to find rifts within Hyrule to reach the various sections splitting up the kingdom. Better yet, if you find these, they are put on your map on the bottom screen via icon so you never have to 100% remember where they are.

Rifts like these allow Link to travel from one world to the other.

Apart from traveling between worlds, backtracking is also prominently done with Link Between Worlds, but it's done in a way that doesn't feel tedious or repetitive. This is greatly helped by the inclusion of bird signposts that not only serve as save points but fast travel locations. Even still, Hyrule and Lorule are so well made, especially Hyrule, a kingdom filled with so much in such a little space, one might worry that areas wouldn't blend in with one another naturally. After all, when you have deserts, towns, mountains, forests, rivers, lakes, marshlands, and more in such a small area of space compared to the open world spaces of larger budget games, it's a little bit of a concern to a tyro of Zelda. Fortunately, that is not the case at all. You feel like you're playing in a wholly complete world that exudes personality, flows effortlessly from segment to segment of Hyrule, and the feeling for that reason is because Hyrule is a complete kingdom and has no design oddities within it.

Places with multiple sprawling platforms like this Ice Ruins section look fantastic in 3D.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds remains one of my favorite games on the Nintendo 3DS with one of the best implementations of 3D around next to Super Mario 3D Land. The way Link bounces towards your face when being jolted up a floor in the Tower of Hera is one notable moment where the 3D slider needs to be turned up all the way. While sharing many familiar themes to A Link to the Past from the Super Nintendo -- the game Link Between Worlds is essentially a love letter for fans of the game and pretty much a sequel to -- the music in this 3DS classic is phenomenal with its new renditions of old faves and completely new compositions such as Yuga's theme.

Nonetheless, some issues are present with A Link Between Worlds, but they didn't really harm my viewpoint of the game even with my fourth play-through of the game. I'm talking about things like dungeons requiring only one item each, making them less challenging -- and speaking of difficulty, the overall difficulty of the game is low. Despite these issues, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds served as a nice preview of how Nintendo EPD would change Zelda series even further and to a much more extreme degree with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Those looking for a bridge or better yet, a link between traditional Zelda and the whole new world of Zelda, seek out A Link Between Worlds.

[SPC Says: A]

Top Five Rare-Developed Games Since Being Purchased by Microsoft

It was exactly fifteen years ago today when the studio of Rare, known for its close partnership with Nintendo, officially was bought by Microsoft, thus making Rare a 100% Microsoft-owned studio to help a budding new Xbox brand build, grow, and gain momentum right out of the starting gate.

Throughout Rare's continued and close relationship with Nintendo, the Stamper brothers, the founders and then-primary owners of Rare, sold more and more of their stake in the company to Nintendo. By 2002, the Stampers wanted to sell Rare and turned to Nintendo first to fully hand over their stakes and ownership of their company. Nintendo did not agree to purchase the Stampers' stake, so the bidding war for ownership eventually came down to Activision and Microsoft with the latter becoming the purchaser of Rare for $375 million.

Now, an argument regarding whether or not Microsoft got its money's worth from Rare happens to this day, but that's really not the focus of this special article. Instead, SuperPhillip Central turns to Rare's output post-Nintendo and in the Microsoft era. Which five games from the new Rare shine as brightly as a Jiggy from Banjo-Kazooie or are as sensational as a strike in Kinect Sports' bowling? Let's find some answers (well, SuperPhillip Central's answers at least!). Note: As Rare Replay is a compilation title, it is not eligible for this list.

5) Perfect Dark Zero (360)

We begin with one of Rare's two launch titles for the Xbox 360. Perfect Dark Zero might not have lived up to its predecessor as many would have liked. After all, Rare went from cool and sophisticated British secret agent in the original PD's version of Joanna to American brat Joanna with Perfect Dark Zero. Regardless, the solo campaign remained similar to the N64 game in that missions contained plenty of objectives to complete before being able to finish the mission, albeit many levels were much more linear in design. The multiplayer remains to this day a fantastic experience with massive maps, an amazing amount of players (whether real or bot), enjoyable modes, and kill streaks that will have the announcer screaming "Killharmonic Orchestra!" It's by no means the Perfect Dark sequel that fans and gamers wanted, but all to its own self, Perfect Dark Zero didn't really miss the mark all that badly.

4) Kameo: Elements of Power (360)

If there is one game from this list that I really want to see a sequel for, it's the other Xbox 360 launch game from Rare, Kameo: Elements of Power. This action-filled adventure packed a memorable punch when it debuted alongside the Xbox 360. Looking at the impressive depth of field, textures, and other amazing visuals was one of my first HD generation moments, and it's one that sticks with me to this day. There was so much going on visually, but more importantly, the gameplay and design involving a fairy named Kameo, who can transform into various creatures (with the amount rising throughout the journey), was exceptional whether if it was the astonishing set pieces, the incredible boss battles, the clever puzzles inside the intricate dungeons, or the excellently crafted controls. Kameo: Elements of Power was Rare's original character in Rare's Zelda-like epic.

3) Conker: Live & Reloaded (XBX)

Continuing on from Rare's first offerings on the Xbox 360, we turn to one of Rare's first offerings while being under Microsoft and the Xbox brand entirely. Conker: Live & Reloaded began development at the drop of a hat -- just as soon as Microsoft purchased Rare. The single player campaign is a remake of the Nintendo 64 game, Conker's Bad Fur Day, although a more censored version curiously enough. While the single player pretty much remained untouched, the multiplayer received a serious upgrade thanks to Xbox Live functionality, allowing up to 16 players to blast one another in to bloody blobs of fur across a range of well made maps. There's a good argument over whether the Nintendo 64 game's original multiplayer or the Xbox game's multiplayer is superior, but forget that! Conker was back and was in beautiful, excruciatingly good detail. So good that the game is visually impressive to this day.

2) Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (360)

Ah, another franchise of Rare's that debuted on the Nintendo 64! Just to clear up any possible confusion, if you recall just over a week ago, I mentioned that Banjo-Kazooie's most recent entry, Nuts & Bolts, was one of the most disappointing video game sequels of all time in SuperPhillip Central's third edition of the recurring segment of articles. That was merely due to the game not being a traditional Banjo game which at the time of release, the 3D collect-a-thon platformer was a rarity. However, as I further explained in the article, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts otherwise is a fur-frickin'-tastic game. The primary game had Banjo and Kazooie creating contraptions out of various customizable parts to assist them in completing goals in the game's five major worlds to earn Jiggies. While many of the goals within the missions were a bit samey and repetitive, the different tactics you could go about accomplishing them was really terrific. Not just a great game, but Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is certainly an underrated one in the Xbox 360 library.

1) Viva Pinata (360)

Of all of the new franchises Rare created under ownership from Microsoft, Viva Pinata is the one with the highest quality under the Xbox branding. Viva Pinata is not just the best new franchise from Rare during the company's Microsoft era, but I argue that it's the best Rare game period post-Nintendo. The main goal of Viva Pinata was to raise and grow a garden to lure new pinata animals in to. For example, a firefly pinata would be attracted to a torch placed in the player's garden. Through satisfying the second condition, the firefly pinata would then make its home in the garden. However, the happiness of each pinata was necessary, and one would have to be careful upon which pinata are in the same garden at the same time, lest fights break out and cold, cold death was the end result for one pinata. With so much to do, so much to accomplish, so many pinata to befriend, and just that Rare calling card of having an incredible presentation, Viva Pinata is SuperPhillip Central's pick as Rare's best game as a first party of Microsoft.