[VIDEO] Top Ten Winter Mario Kart Tracks

'Twas the day before Christmas, and a list of my favorite (not necessarily the best) winter-themed Mario Kart tracks appeared! From Mario Kart 64 all the way to Mario Kart World, they may give you the cold shoulder at first with their tricky turns and trials, but once the learning curve's taken, you'll most likely warm up to them! 

Note: If parts of this top ten sounds familiar, a fair amount of it was featured in my written list several years back. This is a revised one with inclusions from Mario Kart World, as well!

[VIDEO] Top Ten Arcade Golf Games

We're taking to the tee with ten of the best arcade golf games, in my humble opinion, courtesy of this video top ten. These golf video games certainly give me love for the links, whether they're full of great gameplay, sound controls, charming personality, clever design, or a whole slew of other aspects that you won't need to call a mulligan for!

Princess of the Water Lilies (PC) Review

A new review saunters onto SuperPhillip Central for a game that released just under a month ago: Princess of the Water Lilies. This currently PC-exclusive game takes players on a short and mostly sweet puzzle-platforming adventure. Let's sink our claws into the game with the SPC review.

Cat's Quest, Too.

 

It's generally agreed upon that the AAA space in gaming typically sticks to the tried and true, while indies do a lot more in the way of innovation. Part of that is out of needing to in order to survive on the market--for both big publishers and indies. Take Princess of the Water Lilies, for example. It's an artistic adventure featuring puzzles and platforming, environmental storytelling, and a beautiful game world to explore. It's something that fulfills a niche that isn't a road already well traveled by other games. That's commendable, for sure, but does it make for an engaging game? Good question!

The story of Princess of the Water Lilies begins with an unassuming cardboard box drifting along a river, upon which a grey kitten pops out. She slowly climbs over to the shore before collapsing from exhaustion. Fortunately, a nearby frog stumbles upon the tired kitty and carries her to safety. The aforementioned amphibian is part of a larger family of frogs who not only nurture the kitten back to good health but also take her in as part of their family. Eventually what follows is an attack on the forest that the frogs and now the kitten call home, as well as abductions of animals throughout the world by strange mechanical beings.

Throughout the game, Princess of the Water Lilies uses no dialogue to tell its tale, going for a "show, don't tell" approach that works well overall. It's not an especially complex story, but it's one that is riveting enough to see it through to its conclusion--despite some gameplay frustrations here and there.

Right away you'll notice the beauty possessed by Princess of the Water Lilies.

Princess of the Water Lilies is a 2D puzzle-platformer utilizing limited combat. Really, the only true battling is done against the handful of bosses--and I'll get to those in a little bit. There are five main zones within the game world, and each offers different environmental challenges as well as new mechanics to keep the experience fresh from beginning to end.

While this purple mushroom moves about, the vines in its close 
proximity will become platforms to safely stand on.

For instance, the Caverns contain strings of web that our kitten heroine can climb up and slide down (though this is a bit clunky in execution, particularly when trying to let go of said web string) as well as moving mushrooms that can either be used for bouncing with the brown variations or used to appear and disappear vines and ivy from the path. Meanwhile, the Mountain features special cactus that climb up walls and on ceilings, which can be held onto. It also has dandelion puffs that can be grabbed and used to soar and sail into the air.  

These cactus squares are purr-fect to sink this cat's claws into and ride!

Despite the different mechanics used in each area of the game, Princess of the Water Lilies basic gameplay loop remains similar across them all. You go from--for lack of a better term--room to room, and in each room you are need to find a "key" to open a locked "door". I put quotes around each term, as the form of the "keys" and "doors" change with each area. In the first area of the game, the Forest, you take Beetles (the keys) to Frogs (the doors) to have them allow you to pass and progress. 

For our feline's frog friends, nothing beats a beetle!

Our feline friend doesn't have a huge repertoire at her disposal, but it does the job for what the game world requires of her. She can swipe her paw to interact with characters and switches, she can purr to stun enemies that would otherwise defeat her in one hit, and she can climb up mossy walls, vines, and the previously mentioned strings of web. 

Being that it's one hit and kitty no longer sits pretty--instead she essentially perishes--you might think that this is a recipe for frustration. The answer is contextual: yes and no. With generous checkpoints in both exploration and the boss battles, there's seldom too much progress lost upon death. That said, boss battles do feel out of place by virtue of their difficulty. While veteran platforming fans shouldn't have too terribly much trouble taking down each beast thrown at our feline heroine, less skilled players may see themselves needing a lot of patience, constant redoing and repeating albeit short segments and sections of battles, and getting aggravated by the difficulty jumps that these fights possess. 

Most are alright, but some boss battles are a particularly strong part of this game... in annoying me.

Whether it's scurrying from a pursuing camel that breathes flames and launches fireballs in your path, scaling up spider webs all the while evading balls of silk shot from a gigantic spider chasing you, or attempting to swim safely through patches of toxic bubbles blown out from a huge mechanical seahorse in an almost bullet hell-like fashion, these battles definitely up the ante in challenge to what is otherwise a relatively breezy game. At times, I was enjoying the level of challenge, but other times I felt I was having fun despite these fights. It seemed like RNG was a factor in whether I succeeded or failed a section of battle.

Besides boss battles and searching for "keys", there are a fair amount of secrets within the game--chiefly optional animals that can be rescued from cages, usually placed behind secret walls with telltale signs of their hidden nature. Now, these are generally not too taxing to find if you're keeping an eye on your surroundings and little "hints" in the environments, but they're also not exactly easy peasy to find, either.

Princess of the Water Lilies is not a lengthy game by any stretch of the imagination. It took just over three hours for me to complete the game with every discovery found. An additional hour-and-a-half of playtime was dedicated for me to a speedrunning achievement--beating the game in under the three hours that I barely missed out on my first run--as well as some miscellaneous tasks that one wouldn't think about doing in any playthrough, really. (Seriously, who would think about slapping a cute and precious seal 100 times?)

This area of the game features currents, toxic water, and other lots and lots of swimming.

What Princess of the Water Lilies lacks in duration, it definitely makes up for in its presentation. It's a gorgeous game with beautifully drawn visuals somewhat reminiscent of Rayman Legends, which if you know my love for that game's art direction, that's a hefty compliment by virtue of comparison! The music, too, is impressive, offering a superb symphonic sound that can hit the heartstrings occasionally with its stirring moody melodies. 

Whether it's tacky of me to try to make a value proposition on an artful game like this or not, in the end, Princess of the Water Lilies is a relatively short experience that might be best to wait on a sale before delving into. Taking less than five hours to complete all of its achievements and factoring in its modest amount of frustrations gameplay-wise (but when they hit, they DO hit hard--looking at you, bosses), and you do have some negatives, for sure. On the opposite side of the spectrum, it is also worth noting how the game offers a great deal of charm, rather clever ideas in its puzzles and mechanics, and how it kept me engaged from start to finish, as well. All this amounts to is a title in Princess of the Water Lilies that is worth at the very least experiencing--anyone's playtime versus price proposition notwithstanding.

[SPC Says: C+] 

A Steam code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.

[VIDEO] Top Ten LEGO Party! Mini-Games

It's been a bit since I've shared some video content with you all! LEGO Party! is very much Mario Party but with a LEGO twist, and it does enough to distinguish itself from its inspiration too, I do believe! I hope to have a review of the game later this month! In the meantime, check out this video featuring some of my absolute favorites of the 60 included mini-games featured with LEGO Party!

Scurge: Hive (Multi) Review

A new review is here, though it's of an old game that recently re-released! Make sense? Excellent! And even if it doesn't make sense yet, it hopefully will with this review of Scurge: Hive, as seen on all current gen platforms.

This Retro Cult Classic: Is it Infectious or Defective?

The original Scurge: Hive released on the Game Boy Advance as well as the Nintendo DS in 2006. It received acclaim for its highly engrossing atmosphere, especially for a sprite-based portable game of its time. Now, ahead of its twentieth anniversary, Scurge: Hive is back on modern-day consoles and PC courtesy of publisher Ratalaika Games with added features for an entirely new generation to [hopefully] enjoy.

Scurge: Hive begins with a Samus Aran-like bounty hunter character named Jenosa Arma, who enters a research lab on the planet Inos in hopes for a successful rescue mission. However, things go awry quite quickly when upon encountering the source of the lab's problems, the titular Scurge parasite, infects her. Now, without immunity and an infection slowly eating at her suit, Jenosa Arma must continue her mission, as the fate of the planet and perhaps the entire universe is in her hands. 

Don't mess with a woman on a mission.

Most of Scurge: Hive's story is told through transmissions between Ms. Arma herself and her ship's AI companion. Occasionally, computer consoles can reveal further lore regarding the story. What's here is serviceable enough and even opens up the path for a sequel (while thankfully not ending on an obnoxious cliffhanger). 

Skewed height and depth perception can make for a lot of jumping errors.

One of the aspects of Scurge: Hive that is immediately noticeable upon entering gameplay is that everything takes place in an isometric-esque perspective. While this is cool indeed to look at, it oftentimes makes judging jumps and especially depth quite troublesome. Missed jumps because of misjudging the distance or heights between platforms was a common occurrence during my playthrough. That said, that usually meant that only some seconds were wasted, sometimes minutes at worst, especially in the latter quarter of the game.

Another somewhat annoying quirk, though one that makes sense for the story but makes for a headache for the gameplay, is that again, Jenosa is infected with the Scurge parasite. There is a meter that accrues percentage points, starting from 1% to, of course, 100%. When the gauge is full, Jenosa's health will automatically start to deplete, and at a somewhat steady clip, too. The only way to buy Jenosa time is to head to one of the game's decontamination stations that have a secondary purpose of serving as save points. It can be frustrating to contend with enemies wanting to kill you as the infection slowly tries to do the same. A watchful eye is needed to ensure that Jenosa doesn't stray too far from a decontamination area, though fortunately, these are generally always marked on the map shortly upon entering a new zone.

Speaking of zones, while the game does feature some interconnected aspects, most of the time you're relegated to one zone or area per excerpt--the game's naming convention for its chapters. Most of the time once you are finished with a chapter, you're done with a given area completely. While this might seem harsh for a Metroid-like game, there are no character upgrades to speak of--at least of the optional variety. Instead, an RPG-like leveling system, where defeating foes and siphoning their cells serve a dual purpose of acting as experience points and health, to boot. 

The basic flow and structure of Scurge: Hive is one that remains similar throughout the length of the game. You enter a new area--you're tasked with finding and pulling six large nodes into their proper sockets to power up a transporter that leads to the chapter's boss. Along the way you get new abilities to access previously unreachable or inaccessible portions of the zone's map, as well as see Jenosa tasked with collecting these turquoise key cards to open gates. More than one is always required, with the late-game gates requiring up to nine. Sometimes this can feel like looking for needles in haystacks, as it necessitates careful combing of each room, side area, and section of the map as to not overlook a card. 

When all six beacons are lit by inserted nodes, the way to the boss reveals itself.

Jenosa starts out relatively weak, but in true blue Metroid-style fashion--and as just mentioned in the last paragraph, of course--she does earn new abilities. Most of these come in the form of firepower. What Jenosa starts out with is a relatively weak pea shooter, but as her mission progresses, various types of weaponry are introduced. Different weapons produce different results on different enemies. One of the earliest examples includes the electromagnetic pulse--EMP--which works wonders on destroying enemies of the mechanical and robotic persuasion, but energy-based foes only get stronger and more powerful when they're inflicted with EMP blasts. 

All manner of infected frights and horrors await Jenosa on her mission.

This weakness-for-some, power-for-others weapon mechanic is rather novel, but like some aspects of Scurge: Hive, it can grow really tedious and annoying. The game loves to pit Jenosa against a multitude of enemies at once, and a lot of the time they're of different strengths and weaknesses. It never failed to frustrate when encounters saw Jenosa face two completely differing enemy types: one weak to the weapon that the other type essentially laughed at when she fired it at them. Of course, both enemies would bum rush Jenosa, meaning that attempting to damage the correct foe was a fool's errand--and yes, I played the part of the fool a great deal.

The latter half of the game sees loads of enemies loving to gang up on Jenosa.

Outside of the myriad weapon types, which can be switched between on the fly through a radial menu, there are upgrades for Jenosa's suit and incredibly helpful tether. This tether can be utilized to pull objects (such as those aforementioned nodes), enemies, and later on in the game, grab floating orbs which can then be used to catapult Jenosa across otherwise impossible-to-cross chasms. 

Each excerpt (or again, chapter) concludes with an epic boss battle. These encounters are some of the most exciting parts of the game, featuring creatures that fill up a sizable portion of room real estate. Generally, patience, well timed shots, and plenty of deft dodging work to defeat these foes, but I will admit that quite a few took me multiple times to take down and out. Still, they're nice breathers in between the slight amount of tedium and large doses of repetition that tracking down keys, nodes, and abilities can deliver to players.

Jenosa's about to show this grotesque creature who's really the boss.

Scurge: Hive on modern platforms isn't just the same game without any bells and whistles added. Save states for both manual and auto saves are supported, a wide supply of graphical filters are included, and one of the better aspects of this repackaged port is that of cheats. These range from invincibility and the contamination gauge never filling, to infinite energy for weapons and auto-healing. Shamefully, I could not withstand the tedium of searching for the final key card I required in the absolute final excerpt of the game, so I happily turned on the infinite key card cheat so I could enter the last gate without scurrying around well-trodden territory ad nauseum. 

All blown up on a big screen, Scurge: Hive isn't the greatest to look at--but obviously it was meant for handhelds and portable play. That said, some of the graphical effects, chiefly the flashing upon using the ice weapon, are way too strong. Otherwise, effects like smoke and mist covering over the screen in trace amounts accentuate the atmosphere and ambiance within this technical and graphical marvel of a game. To ponder and then realize that this was originally a Game Boy Advance game just floors me. The incredible character, enemy, and boss sprites, as well as the highly detailed environments make for a truly impressive experience for the eyes.

Scurge: Hive may not have gone viral back when it released in 2006 as a late GBA release, nor will it most likely light up sales charts nearly 20 years after the fact, but it's great to see more preservation to these types of games performed--much like how Ratalaika Games brought back Aero the Acrobat, for instance. Despite its occasionally repetitive and sometimes tedious gameplay loop, I am certainly glad I was able to experience this game for the very first time. I can see how it was a bit of a cult classic on the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS, and I definitely can appreciate both its tech wizardry and just the game in general. Though even with this re-release's added quality of life upgrades like save states, graphical filters, and cheats, I just don't see myself returning to Scurge: Hive. It was a fun game to play, but I don't foresee a reason for me to want to RE-play it. 

[SPC Says: C] 

A PlayStation code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.