Golf Story (NSW) Review

Following the announcement last week of Sidebar Games' Sports Story and the following disappointment from fans from that announcement, I wanted to finally check out the developer's first game, Golf Story, and see just what all the aforementioned disappointment was about and what I've been missing all of this time. Now that I've played the game... darn it, now I'm disappointed about the delay of Sports Story, too! See why with my review of Golf Story for the Nintendo Switch. 

A solid time on the links

As a famous Rolling Stones song goes, "You can't always get what you want." And boy, do many Mario fans know that. Between the lack of traditional Mario RPGs nowadays and the lack of Mario sports RPGs in the vein of the Game Boy Mario Golf and Mario Tennis games, Nintendo has left a massive hole in many fans' hearts. Thankfully, Sidebar Games is more than happy to provide a solution to the latter with its own original take on Mario Golf-style sports-themed RPGs with Golf Story. I'm pleased to say that the developer mostly succeeds here, nailing its first shot off the tie with fantastic results.

Golf Story's... story sees you playing as a golfer who wishes to make it to the pros, but first he must find a coach to teach him the ropes and get his game in working order. From there, the golfing adventures takes players across a world map filled with unique courses, characters, and quests to take on and complete. In all, the campaign of Golf Story lasted me just over ten hours to complete, and most of it kept me entertained from beginning to end. The story itself is humorous more often than not, taking you through a colorful world of kooky characters where your golfer pretty much plays the straight man to the insanity of their world. That said, the game does have a nasty habit of being a bit verbose to the point of annoyance at times, occasionally trying a bit too hard to make the player laugh and becoming long in the tooth in the process.

The world map in Golf Story connects all of the game's courses together.

A major piece to Golf Story's Story Mode is exploring the many courses that open up one by one in your golfer's adventure. Along the way, you'll encounter numerous NPCs which task you with completing various quests that mostly have to deal with golf-related objectives that instill the fundamentals of the game to you. Whether it's learning how to hit fairways, make difficult chip shots, play out of bunkers, practice proficient putting, or a myriad other important concepts, you'll need to take on a heavy number of challenges if you want to make pro. Many of these occur on the links themselves, while others bring some more creativity into the mix, such as having you need to hit bait into specially marked areas of water for fish to consume, which helps teach you precision driving and chipping.

Use Precision Mode to more accurately aim your shots in this chipping-intensive quest.
Just mind the slope and the wind!

Then there are other types of golf like Disc Golf and Mini Golf introduced to keep the fun coming. Other quests remove golf entirely from the equation, having you take on fetch quests, engage in foot races, and even control certain machinery to complete the quest offered. The point here is that the variety is strong in Golf Story, giving players enough to keep the experience fresh enough to remain enjoyable. Additionally, the bonus of being able to tee off anywhere in a given area to complete certain challenges and further progress makes for a gameplay mechanic that is oftentimes cleverly used throughout the Story Mode.

Completing quests not only progresses the game, allowing you to compete in more significant challenges like Match Play events against characters and full-fledged nine-hole rounds on courses, but it also gives your golfer experience points as well. Like a traditional RPG, once you earn enough experience points, your golfer levels up, granting you points to use to increase various stats, such as power, accuracy, control, and spin. 

Words to live by for this old man perhaps, but not for THIS golfer!

When it concerns the actual golf in Golf Story, what you get is a simple yet engaging three-click system (or I guess in this case, a "three-press" system). Pressing the button once starts the gauge, a second press will set the power and distance of your shot, and the final press of the button will set the accuracy. It's nothing that players of modern arcade golf games like Mario Golf and Everybody's Golf won't feel accustomed to or familiar with right from the beginning. Making Golf Story's system an easier time is the ability to utilize Precision Mode, which grants you the ability to adjust the distance of your shot in order to visualize where it will land by manually sliding the distance marker of your shot. While this does help set up your shots more easily, it's definitely not an "instant win" feature, as you still need to factor in other variables such as wind velocity, hazards like trees, rocks and bunkers, and when it concerns the green, its slope direction and surface speed. 

Everything in Golf Story is done in this top-down perspective--putting, driving, chipping, etc.

The courses of Golf Story run the gamut of both locales and challenge. You have the starting Wellworn Greens, featuring wide open fairways, minimal hazards, and easy-to-reach greens; and then you have more fantastical courses such as the prehistoric Lurker Valley with tar pits to lose one's ball in, the high cliffs and steep chasms of Cheekybeak Peak (also featuring the titular birds which will scoop up your ball and transport it to a usually less than stellar lie if your ball stops near them), and the winter wonderland of Coldwind Wastes, complete with slippery ice and snow that will stop a ball dead in its tracks if it lands inside. 

Golf Story is a gorgeous game with splendidly done sprites and colorful environments. While the music didn't impress me at first, with its flatulating brass and uneventful tunes, as the game progressed, I became a fan as tunes became catchier and had better sounding instrumentation. The game's music simply didn't leave me with a good first impression, but by the end, I was in love. Another part of the presentation that I loved is something I don't go into much with regard to Nintendo Switch games, and that's the HD Rumble. If you can, play Golf Story with the Joy-Cons, and specifically with them detached. The way the rumble accents text bubbles, whether they're expanding or contracting based on the way a character speaks and the emotion they exude is impressive, but more so is how the controller vibrates with an ebb and flow as you sink a putt into the cup or make strong contact with the ball. It's amazing and one of the best uses of HD Rumble I've experienced with the Nintendo Switch--obviously so for me to mention it in one of my reviews.

Even without its Story Mode attached, I believe there would be enough here with Golf Story to make for a good game of top-down golf. Thankfully, however, there's no need to be concerned with that, as not only do you get a good game of golf with Golf Story, but you also get an overall well done Mario-style golf RPG as well (though not without its issues, of course)! With its strong mix of rewarding exploration, creative scenarios, and solid golf mechanics, Golf Story, for the most part, comes off of the golf course and into the clubhouse a champion.

[SPC Says: B+]

Shinsekai: Into the Depths (NSW) Review

SuperPhillip Central's next review for August arrives from deep beneath the ocean blue. It's a former Apple Arcade-exclusive game that recently arrived on the Nintendo Switch. It's Shinsekai: Into the Depths, and if you haven't yet tried this game out, "water" you waiting for?

Not unfathomably great, but still a game worthy to take the plunge on

Originally released as an Apple Arcade exclusive, Capcom's Shinsekai: Into the Depths puts players in the role of one of the last submariners in an iced-over world. As the ice has utterly decimated the world, humans retreated to the briny deep below, but even there, the ice has started to penetrate into the waters. This is where Shinsekai's story begins, with the submariner being forced out of their underwater safe house due to encroaching ice. Now, they must journey through the dangerous and mysterious waters of the world to find a new place to call home.

The story of Shinsekai: Into the Depths is an understated one, featuring a total lack of dialogue. Instead, the game prefers a show and not tell approach, offering myriad pictograms and slides to view, leaving it up to the player to decipher them and the story as a whole themselves. Still, even if you wish to shut off your brain completely when it regards to the game's tale, you'll still get an enjoyable underwater adventure. It's just that Shinsekai: Into the Depths' experience is heightened through better understanding the overall narrative... I imagine. I'm dumb as a box of rocks, so the hell if I know what was going on most of the time. That's okay, though, because I bet you, reading a review of mine, probably care more about the gameplay of Shinsekai: Into the Depths than my boasting about my eighth grade level of media literacy anyway.

Rather than eat this submariner whole, how about a spear to tide this overgrown creature over?

Regardless, moving around the underwater world of Shinsekai sees our intrepid submariner using the pack on their back to jettison through the water, and that involves having you, the player, keep an eye on their oxygen tanks. The more you propel the submariner through the water to gain height, the more oxygen is used. Hostile creatures and even things like falling from painful heights will damage your oxygen tanks, resulting in them becoming cracked and eventually unusable. Fortunately, there are extras aplenty throughout the game world to pick up, though you can only hold a small capacity of tanks at the start of the game. When all of the oxygen and air are used up, it's game over due to asphyxiation.

There is a plethora of spots to excavate minerals from,
so intrepid explorers will want to be on the lookout for them.

The major gameplay loop of Shinsekai has you slowly but surely being able to survive higher areas of pressure, aka reaching deeper and deeper levels of the mysterious ocean abyss. This is performed by acquiring the right amount of resources to build new suit upgrades on the fly, and that is done through finding materials in storage containers and mining points, both sprinkled throughout the game world. Smartly, while the resources required for you to level up your suit to reach deeper portions of the ocean change with each upgrade level, the resources you need to find never require you to backtrack; that is to say, they're always in the general area of where you need to go next. Excavated resources and materials found underwater can also be used to craft limited use weapons, helpful items, and permanent upgrades that increase your oxygen capacity and strengthen your suit's defense when it concerns extreme temperatures.

The red line on the mini-map in the corner of the screen (and this uninviting red water)
show depths that house too much pressure currently for our submariner friend's suit.

Thus, Shinsekai: Into the Depths is a clever Metroid-structured game, where the main method of progression isn't item or ability-based (though those are used here and now, of course), but instead, it's based on upgrading your suit to tolerate higher underwater pressures, thus allowing you to access and explore new areas of the game world. That's not to say this aforementioned "clever Metroid-structure" is perfect. The foundation certainly is there, but it can be frustrating to traverse underwater, having the submariner cling to walls when you don't want them to, stumbling around areas to find specific materials, and learning to come to terms that even the shortest of falls can result in damage to your character. The latter point is a bit annoying, especially early in the game where you lack a plentiful amount of oxygen tanks, resulting in one or two cracked tanks leaving with you with little health to work with.

Later in Shinsekai: Into the Depths, you come across your own submarine, which allows you to access to new areas completely, using its drill to serve as the "key" to power through the ice "gates" that separate major unique areas of the game. It's also used in combat, particularly well done in one boss battle. Speaking of those, encounters in Shinsekai can be intense to the uninitiated, but each have a method and weakness to defeating them. The part that can be difficult is figuring that out.

While some areas can be quite claustrophobic, others are wide open to explore. Great for one's submarine.

Shinsekai: Into the Depths isn't a terribly lengthy game. I completed it with most of the in-game achievements in tow in just over seven hours. However, a second run mode, the potential for players to miss certain collectibles, and the simple joy of replaying the game make an argument for some more longevity. That and the game being a general and genuine pleasure to play and being a poignant experience adds to that aforementioned argument as well.

As a game originating on iOS devices via the Apple Arcade initiative, it didn't take much housekeeping for Capcom's game to arrive on the Nintendo Switch in a positive manner, but Shinsekai: Into the Depths is a successful port of a sublime and creative take on the Metroidvania genre. Aquaphobics may feel some unease playing this particular title, but for everyone else, Shinsekai: Into the Depths delivers an engaging, if not short-lived underwater adventure worthy of diving in and enjoying.

[SPC Says: B]

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 (PS4, XB1, PC) Launch Trailer

A couple of weeks ahead of its launch on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC is the launch trailer for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2, an absolutely killer trailer if I do say so myself. It's all in-engine, showing the game in all of its skating glory. Familiar locations and skate spots have been re-imagined to great effect, and as a player of both THPS classics, this trailer does a fantastic job of hitting my nostalgia right where it needs to. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 manuals onto PS4, Xbox One, and PC on September 4th.

Bomberman Jetters (GCN, PS2) Retro Review

It seems like it's been ages since we've had a retro review on SuperPhillip Central. With a slower release schedule of games--for obvious reasons--it seems like a good time as any to look back and dig into some older games! We'll do just that with this Majesco gem, Bomberman Jetters. Here's the SuperPhillip Central review!

Bomberman Jetters vs. Bomberman Generation: A study in con-blast... er... contrast.

It was three years ago that I originally brought you a review of Bomberman Generation, the first of two Bomberman games to blast its way onto the Nintendo GameCube. Now, several years older but perhaps not any bit wiser, I have returned with the second GameCube entry, Bomberman Jetters, based off an anime of the same name. This gives me some understanding as to why I had no idea who a good portion of the characters in White Bomber's corner actually were!

Regardless, Bomberman Jetters opens up a calamity in the making--the HIGE HIGE Bandits are back to their nasty tricks, but this one is on a much more explosive and dangerous level. They've armed a giant bomb and launched it towards Planet Bomber! As White Bomber, your objective is to shut off all four engines of the bomb before it can detonate and destroy its intended target.

Right away when you start Bomberman Jetters and get into the game itself, you'll notice an obnoxious amount of starting and stopping in the form of gameplay interruptions. Every new level gimmick, whether obvious to figure out or not, results in one of White Bomber's allies radioing in to stop the gameplay completely in its tracks. This wouldn't be so awful if it didn't occur as much as it does! Even in late game levels, the amount of interruptions made me beyond aggravated and just wanting my "allies" to just SHUT. UP.

In each world, the HIGE HIGE Bandits love to dress up in different costumes,
 and with each world and each new costume, they obtain new attacks.

When you're actually playing through Bomberman Jetters, it's not nearly as awful an experience. You move through 3D environments, planting bombs to defeat enemies and destroy obstacles, as well as solving simple puzzles along the way. White Bomber can also kick and/or throw bombs into enemies to daze them, making them sitting ducks (or sitting bandits, in many cases) in the process. Otherwise, it's more of a challenge to take down baddies as they're moving targets.

Levels themselves aren't as enjoyable to play around as Bomberman Generation. They're much more maze-like in structure and design, often leading to frustrating situations where getting lost and racking up level runs that take upwards of 20 minutes all but a guarantee. Part of this is due to a lack of a cohesive feel or design in levels, but another major part is due to the how zoomed in the camera is, even when it is at its farthest away. It's far too easy to have one's view obscured by level geometry and take cheap hits. Additionally, being forced to use the L and R shoulder buttons to spin the camera around takes getting used to as well, and trying to properly line the camera up so White Bomber can, in turn, line up his bomb kicks or throws is also more difficult than it should be.

Sharkun rips through these waves with ease.

The Pokemon-like Charabom creatures from Bomberman Generation make their return in Bomberman Jetters, though there are no Rock, Paper, Scissors-like mini-games to acquire them and add them to your roster of helpful characters. Instead, they appear in levels, ready to be snatched up, saved, and able to join White Bomber's heroic cause. When equipped, Charaboms bestow White Bomber with various effects. Some allow him to travel along water, some gift him with the ability to kick and throw bombs farther, while others provide various other offensive, defensive, and traversal capabilities.

Charabom Pommy Dragon can float off specific platforms to give
White Bomber access to new areas of levels.

White Bomber can stumble across numerous items along his journey to save his home planet. There are various fruits that are used to level up the aforementioned Charabom creatures, boosting their usefulness. There are also gold heart pieces that add health to White Bomber's supply of hearts, as well as numerous uniquely colored HIGE HIGE cards, which unlock new characters in the tried and true multiplayer portion of the game.

There are five major worlds in Bomberman Jetters, and they have 4-6 levels each, with two of the levels being boss encounters. The first pits White Bomber against a similarly bipedal elemental-themed Bomber in one-on-one confrontations, a true highlight, while the latter battles have White Bomber face larger foes. A final world opens up once players have acquired every Lightning Card in the game, two from each elemental Bomber battle.

What, not even a courteous "Look out below" for White Bomber?

Despite most of the boss battles being entertaining, between the constant interruptions to the gameplay, the obnoxious mazes that are the levels, and the annoying, impractical camera, Bomberman Jetters' story mode didn't give me the same level of enjoyment as its predecessor's. While I wouldn't call it a dud, I certainly wouldn't exactly call it a blast, either.

Apart from the relatively breezy and disappointing story mode, it wouldn't be a Bomberman game without an explosive multiplayer mode. Fortunately, Bomberman Jetters does not disappoint here. Featuring an abundance of unique modes, stages, and a nice array of options to boot, the multiplayer allows up to four players (human or AI) to take on one another and blast each other to smithereens. (Or, of course, if you're like me, find a way to blow yourself up.) The stages have some smart gimmicks to them, such as an arena set in a boxing ring where bombs and Bombers that run into the ropes will bounce back, causing some enjoyable insanity. Overall, Bomberman Jetters' multiplayer is a highlight of the game, and one that will last a long while--maybe even longer than the main story.

Bomberman Jetters doesn't make the case for itself a much-needed sequel to Bomberman Generation or make the case that the GameCube needed a second Bomberman game to begin with. By no means is it terrible, but a lackluster story mode really hurts the overall package despite Jetters having a rather entertaining multiplayer component. If you are still in possession of your Nintendo GameCube, have it still hooked up, in working order, and REALLY need a Bomberman game for it, take a look at Bomberman Generation instead.

[SPC Says: C]

Rank Up! - Ranking the Paper Mario Series

Yesterday, August 11th, saw the 20th anniversary of the original release of Mario Story in Japan. For most of us on this side of the world, however, we know it fondly as Paper Mario. After pouring through the contents of the latest Paper Mario game, The Origami King, and holding it in rather high esteem as my review shows, it seems like an ample time as any to give the Paper Mario franchise the Rank Up! treatment. Let's do just that!

As always with Rank Up!, I'll be counting down the list of every game in the Paper Mario series, starting with my least favorite of the bunch and slowly working my way down to the very best. After you've checked out my list and rationale for this order, why not share your thoughts and possibly your own ranking!

6) Paper Mario: Sticker Star (3DS)

My least favorite in the Paper Mario series greatly changed the formula of the franchise, and to start off, it was not for the better. While far from an awful game, Paper Mario: Sticker Star failed to live up to previous installments. After being teased with early screenshots featuring partners and the traditional turn-based battles of the series--all typical elements of the series--the final game saw a removal of nearly all of the things that fans of the franchise adored. The turn-based battles were still present, but now one-time use stickers were used for attacks and no experience was gained from battles. Both really undermined the need for players to engage with encounters altogether. Then, there were the dreaded Things, one-time use objects that needed to be used to turn the tide in specific areas of the game. The problem here was that in battles, most of the time the right Thing to use was so unclear that it made boss battles aggravatingly obtuse. Fortunately, Nintendo would use this decidedly shaky foundation to fine tune the concept for future, better installments.

5) Super Paper Mario (Wii)

The start of the shift in Paper Mario's gameplay concepts, Super Paper Mario on the Wii was quite the sizable shift to say the least. Really, one could call the game more of a spin-off due to the complete lack of turn-based battles altogether. Instead, everything was done in real-time via jumping and hammering in this platformer/RPG hybrid. The story of the game went in some truly bizarre and dark (at least for the series) places, offering new foes to face and numerous original characters to encounter. The main gimmick to exploration and world traversal was the ability to shift the camera to a new axis to reveal paths and hidden objects in a 3D perspective that were obscured when viewed from the traditional 2D perspective of the games. It was a novel idea but did lose its luster over the duration of the game. Super Paper Mario was an interesting and mostly successful experiment for the Paper Mario series, but it would lead to a future for the franchise that is quite different from its origin, and one that plenty of fans have and continue to adamantly oppose.

4) Paper Mario: Color Splash (Wii U)

Released in the final years of the Wii U, it's no surprise that many did not get to experience Paper Mario: Color Splash, either due to not owning the dismally selling Wii U or looking ahead to Nintendo's next console. Those that did would discover a mostly improved sequel to Paper Mario: Sticker Star. While Things were still a part of the game, their implementation was much less of a frustration and cause for headaches. The paint mechanic of coloring in the world brought an abundance of entertainment with regard to exploration, and the personality and humor of Color Splash when compared to its predecessor were much more apparent. This was a hilarious at best and humorous at worst game. It wasn't without its caveats, though, as battles still didn't feel worthwhile to engage with, as attack cards had limited uses. Worse, you had to use the Wii U GamePad in a needlessly convoluted manner to "paint" the cards into more usable forms. Still, I quite enjoyed my time with Paper Mario: Color Splash, and between the sensational presentation (both beautiful graphics and catchy music), exploration, and humor, it's a game that I do recommend... as long as you're not searching for a traditional Paper Mario experience.

3) Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (GCN)

Often noted as many a Paper Mario fan's favorite game in the series, I don't have as much of a fondness for the sophomore entry in the Paper Mario franchise. By no means is it a terrible game--well, that much is obvious due to the game being number three on this countdown--but Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has just enough elements that detract from the overall game that it somewhat sours me on it over the other two titles in the series. For one, there is a massive amount of backtracking in multiple chapters, which makes revisits to the game a chore... or at least more of a figurative headache than I would like. Secondly, there are some leaps in difficulty that could have used some more ironing out--particularly the super-challenging final boss. That said, everything else about The Thousand-Year Door is a delight. The humor, writing, and story are on point; the battle system is as engaging and enjoyable as ever; and the worlds are a ton of fun to explore and discover items and badges in. If you have yet to play this classic and have access to both the game and a functioning GameCube, (prepare for an awful pun...) do X-"naut" skip this game!

2) Paper Mario: The Origami King (NSW)

With the direction and approach of the modern Paper Mario games, I certainly did not expect one of the games to give me such a sensation of excitement and pleasure from playing--much less be number two on my list of favorite Paper Mario games. But, lo and behold, Paper Mario: The Origami King, the latest in the Paper Mario series, has achieved that feat. Well met, Origami King. The battles still don't reward experience for completing them, but not only are the puzzles fun to solve by turning and sliding rings to assemble enemies in nice groups to attack, they're also worthwhile this time around. Why? Because coins are more important than ever in The Origami King. They're used for purchasing new attack cards (which don't break after just one use), items, and all-important accessories. Exploration has never been more fun and engaging in a Paper Mario game due to how mesmerizing each location is, how lovely it is to uncover the myriad secrets in the world, and how delightful it is to discover hidden Toads, item boxes, and collectibles. Really, some lackluster moments in the game aside, Paper Mario: The Origami King made me a true believer of this new direction for the Paper Mario series, after just "liking" its two predecessors.

1) Paper Mario (N64)

Sometimes the first things are the best things. ...Is that a saying? I hope not, because it doesn't really roll off the tongue as well I'd like. Regardless, the game that continued the tradition of Squaresoft's Super Mario RPG arrived late on the Nintendo 64 with the original Paper Mario. (Heck, even the tentative title for the game was Super Mario RPG 2!) Paper Mario wasn't overly reliant on the foundation set by Squaresoft's classic SNES Mario game, but it did have several concepts in common, such as turn-based battles that feature context-sensitive button inputs as the main one. The game brought several new ideas to the table as well, and I don't just mean the paper/storybook aesthetic--though that was a big one. The addition of partners with both in-battle and out-of-battle skills that could be switched between to both attack foes and solve environmental puzzles added a fun element to the game. Another new addition was that of badges, which could give Mario and his partners various helpful bonuses in and out of battle. What puts the original Paper Mario over the top when compared to the other entries in the series, most notably The Thousand-Year Door, is that it has great pacing, worthwhile battles, and less aggravating points in it than any other game on this list. Plus, it's just overall the best game for me.