Go Vacation (NSW) Review

Rather than spend an exorbitant amount of money on a vacation, SuperPhillip Central spent a fraction of that for Bandai Namco's Go Vacation on the Nintendo Switch for its review. See why this activity collection is worth your time and money.

A perfect game for a summer "staycation"

The original Go Vacation released on the Wii way back in 2011, and out of all of the games from the Wii era that I expected to get reincarnated in HD, Go Vacation was certainly not one of them. That said, I can't say I'm disappointed, as Bandai Namco's answer to Wii Sports Resort was one of more thrilling and enjoyable games of its type on the system. Perhaps a little too ambitious for Nintendo's under-powered system, but enjoyable nonetheless. Now, Go Vacation makes its grand return from the Wii to the Switch, offering new bonus features and the same party and family-friendly gameplay that the original brought to players. Is this the type of vacation you'll have fond memories of or recurring nightmares over?

Go Vacation starts you off in style with a skydiving descent to Kawawii Island.

Go Vacation provides players and their custom avatars (either Go Vacation models or their Miis) a ticket to Kawawii Island, home of four resorts that can be fully explored as they're unlocked one by one through filling out your stamp book. This stamp book is filled as you participate in the various activities that each resort has. Alongside completing activities, each resort allows you to traverse it by foot or by one of its many means to get around, such as the Marine Resort's Marine Bikes and ATVs or the Mountain Resort's horses and off-road vehicles, for instance. Outside of finding each activity a resort has to offer, there are plenty of places to exercise some excellent exploration--from chatting with the locals, taking photo ops, finding treasure chests in each resort, and taking photos of the wildlife for your collection.

Wave Race this is not, but Go Vacation's Marine Bike races are still riveting all the same.

The activities in Go Vacation run the gamut of things to do, and while the game leans more towards "quantity over quality", a great number of the activities in the game are winners. There are races and time trials across a plentiful amount of vehicles and things to ride, such as marine bikes, ATVs, Ridge Racer-like vehicles, rally cars, horses, kayaks, snow tubes, snowmobiles, and much more. Then, there are non-race activities such as tennis, beach volleyball, skydiving, mini golf, table hockey, scuba diving, paragliding, and many more. Most activities have several different modes to them, such as horseback riding that contains both races and a mode where you collect as many coins as possible within a time limit, or snowboarding that has you pull off as many successful tricks as possible either in halfpipe or grinding form.

It's another day at the beach for my partner and me as we challenge these AI scrubs to a game of beach volleyball.

When starting out an activity for the first time, Go Vacation defaults to the easiest control method available. What I mean by this is that in tennis, for instance, your character moves automatically to the ball with your job merely being to swing and select the appropriate shot with the right timing. However, once you complete the first stage of the mode and return to it again, you have the option of free-roaming and whether or not you use traditional controls or motion-based controls.

When first playing tennis, your character moves on his or her own.
It's not until you replay the activity that you get the choice of full movement.

The latter controls were pretty much a requirement for the original Wii version of Go Vacation, so it's nice to see an option here. That said, some activities like performing certain tricks in skateboarding, for instance, still require you to shake the controller to pull off a trick, or in the case of bailing, motion controls are required to get back up.

Activities in general are easy enough to learn regardless of what type of controls you're choosing to use. In case you forget what each button does or how to perform a certain maneuver, you can pause the activity at any time and enter the "How to Play" menu, which is a tremendous help for those who aren't as familiar with playing the Switch or playing video games in general.

In ATV races, you'll certainly be using the "All-Terrain" part of "All-Terrain Vehicle."

Completing all of the stages in a given mode in a given activity of Go Vacation rewards you with experience points that has you gaining levels. Each level you gain grants you a key to unlock one furniture set of your choice to customize your villa in an Animal Crossing-like way. You have multiple rooms to work with, multiple house designs at your leisure, and you can share your creations online for others to "heart" or "like" depending on how impressive your creativity shines. I found myself absolutely addicted to plopping down furniture in such a way to make my villa the envy of the block.

A nice aspect of Go Vacation is that any activity you've already played is available to select from the main menu without the need to enter a resort, track down the character who hosted the activity, and then play from there. Being able to choose from the main menu cuts out a lot of the hassle that would otherwise be given to players. One unfortunate aspect of this, however, is that if you want to jump in to any activity you want right at the beginning of Go Vacation, you cannot do that. You have to play most activities within resorts in order to unlock them in the main menu. Did your friends really want to try out rafting ASAP? Well, sadly, you have to unlock it first, and that's in the last of the four resorts that unlock within your Go Vacation experience.

Bust out your inner Tony Hawk in the Grind Master activity.

The Switch version of Go Vacation adds remastered textures, but all in all, the game is very much underwhelming in the visual department. It's literally a higher resolution Wii game and not much more. Also included in the Switch version are daily rewards in the form of new furniture, gear, clothing for your avatar, and new dog breeds to pal around with on Kawawii Island. During play on resorts, sometimes a plane will arrive overhead and drop some cargo in the form of a present that can be collected for a special reward. This feature is also exclusive to the Switch version. By far, though, the thing that makes the Switch version so special compared to the Wii original is something that I've already touched upon in this review, and that's the option (well, for the most part) of choosing between motion controls and traditional controls.

Though, speaking of controls, it's a bit bewildering that the right analog stick isn't used in the game for camera control. Instead, you have to hold a shoulder button and use the left stick to move the camera around your avatar. This was how it worked in the Wii version, if memory serves correctly, so it's like Bandai Namco just brought the same control scheme to the Switch game despite an opportunity to change things up for the better. I wouldn't say it's lazy, as it's more of an oversight that I wish would have been rectified now that the Switch controller has more buttons and inputs to it.

Paddle till your heart's content as you ride the raging river of the Mountain Resort.

Multiplayer is strong in Go Vacation, whether you're playing with someone who has never picked up a controller before, someone well versed in gaming, or anyone in between. You can not only play any activity together with up to four players, but you can also explore Kawawii Island's four resorts together as well. All of this can only be performed locally with no online play to speak of, save for ghost data of other players to compete against once the credits have been viewed. Still, if you've got family and friends nearby who like a good time, Go Vacation will give them just that.

Go Vacation succeeds at bringing a compilation of appealing activities and events, as well as some truly engrossing exploration to the Switch. It improves on the Wii original while offering plenty of new content to make a second look at the game worthwhile. While this particular vacation won't replace a trip to the Bahamas or Italy, it is cheaper than a round-trip ticket and won't put you at risk for a nasty sunburn.

[SPC Says: B]

An Update from Yours Truly on SuperPhillip Central

Hello, everyone! Long time no see (other than last night's Review Round-Up)! If you've been wondering where I've been hiding for these past few weeks, I actually haven't been hiding at all! In fact, I'm happy to announce that I have a new freelance writing gig at TouchArcade for its Switch news coverage! You can check out my SwitchArcade Roundup articles that I've written so far here.

At any rate, I want to talk about the future of SuperPhillip Central. It's been hard trying to find time to write for TouchArcade, play the games required of me, and do this site all at once. However, I'm still in the process of getting accustomed to my new schedule and hectic life now. Despite this, I want to continue to provide articles, features, reviews and all other kinds of content on SuperPhillip Central to keep this site booming with its current momentum.

Thus, I wish to offer this promise that I will continue to write for both SuperPhillip Central and TouchArcade as long as possible and as long as it makes sense for me to continue doing so. I don't really make any income from SPC, as the ads on the site don't do anything but clog up the page with Best Buy promotions and sales (at least for me anyway) instead of offering a small source of income.

This is why I have revived my Patreon for the purpose of being able to better support myself. You can find details about my situation at my Patreon page here.

Thanks, everyone, and stayed tuned for some special reviews all month long! Now, back to business!

- Phil

Review Round-Up - July 2018

Have an appetite for a fast-paced, thrilling party platformer? Then, taste the Runbow!

July was a month that turned out to be dedicated to games from indie developers, and you gotta love it when there isn't a stinker in the bunch for an entire month of reviews! This special month began with Runbow, which brought colorful razzle and dazzle to the Switch and PlayStation 4, getting an A-. Alongside that A- was Yoku's Island Express which got the same letter grade of its own, having these two games be SuperPhillip Central's Games of the Month!

Following our GotMs was Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles (B), which delighted with its expansive, mystifying world full of materials to collect and characters to help out. 20XX (B+) brought Mega Man X-like action in roguelite form to all major platforms as well as SuperPhillip Central. Finally, two iOS games received Switch ports, both featuring flight: Picomy's charming Heroki (B) and N-Fusion Interactive's mission-based Air Mail (C+).

Runbow (NSW, PS4) - A-

Yoku's Island Express (PS4, NSW, XB1, PC) - A-

Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles (NSW, PS4, PC) - B

20XX (NSW, PS4, XB1, PC) - B+

Heroki (NSW) - B

Air Mail (NSW) - C+

For even more reviews, check out every past game critique from SuperPhillip Central in the SPC Review Archive, sporting over 830 reviews.

Have a ball with Yoku's Island Express, joining Runbow as SPC's dual featured games of the month!

Air Mail (NSW) Review

Kicking off your new week with a new review, Air Mail previously launched on iOS devices all the way back in 2012. Now, Air Mail makes a landing on the Nintendo Switch. Let's take to the skies and see how this enhanced mobile game fares on Nintendo's console/handheld hybrid with the SuperPhillip Central review!

Score some frequent flyer miles

Air Mail originally released on iOS in 2012. In gaming years, the game is considered ancient. Now, like many mobile games, Air Mail has now touched down and landed on the Nintendo Switch. With vastly improved visuals and analog controls available, do these changes make the pricing discrepancy of the mobile and Switch versions less of a shock to the system (and the wallet)?

There are three main modes within Air Mail, the first being the campaign, told through cleverly done, semi-animated scenes. The characters you come across in Scoop's adventure are fully voiced, giving you a briefing before each of the game's 25 missions. The actual variety of the missions leaves a good deal to be desired, offering very similar "go here, fetch this, bring it back to a specific location, and then land" objectives. It isn't the latter half of the game where Air Mail presents more challenging missions, such as having Scoop fly his plane through a war-zone, evading enemy bullets that can take him down, or collecting a specific number of diamonds or fruit before landing.

Don't mind Scoop here--he's just enjoying the sights of Domeeka.

What would otherwise be breezy missions to complete are made more challenging (though, slightly so) with Air Mail's point system. Depending on how well you perform during a given mission, you earn points that add up to a score out of 100, with obtaining 95-100 points presenting you with a five-star ranking on the mission. In order to do well, you have to fly with precision--hitting the absolute center of rings, or picking up cargo from the ground perfectly--as well as complete a mission quickly enough and without taking too much damage. In addition to just scoring well on missions, the campaign mode also has 25 Golden Monkeys, one in each mission, to find as a fun, optional task. Doing so will unlock one of Air Mail's seven or so paint jobs for Scoop's plane.

Look out below!

The mode to unlock the majority of Scoop's plane's paint jobs, however, is Explore Mode, a much more easygoing, exploration-based flying affair. Locations unlocked via the story mode allow you to fly around them, spotting points of interest and collecting one of 20 scrolls in each locale. In doing the latter (specifically collecting all 20 in a location), you unlock a brand-new paint job for Scoop's plane. Most scrolls are simple enough to find, but others require some fine sleuthing to uncover.

You may have 16 out of 20 scrolls, Scoop, but those last ones are always the hardest!

Finally, the last mode is a Time Attack mode, which pits you against the clock to perform one of two basic tasks. This is all the while being on the lookout for clocks that extend your time, allowing you to aim for an even higher score. Some Time Attacks have you flying through as many rings as possible before time runs out, while others have you nabbing cargo from ground or sea level and delivering it to its proper location, again, while the timer is ticking. This mode is rather fun to play in order to improve upon your highest scores, but if you're not the type of old school player who enjoys doing such a feat, like in the arcade days, Time Attack might leave you twisting in the proverbial wind.

Hopefully, this means that Scoop's future is bright,
because he'll definitely need to wear shades to battle this sunrise!

Air Mail is not a combat-based flight game. Scoop's plane has no weapons to speak of, except his own plane, used to collide into support cables holding up the nefarious Verakai forces' airships and precious cargo for some story mode missions. Flight is easy to control, but it's also incredibly simple. There aren't any barrel rolls or loop-the-loops to come from Scoop's plane. Instead, you have the analog stick to pilot the plane (which the controls can be inverted, if you prefer), ZR to accelerate and to take off into the wild, blue yonder, and ZL to brake and to get ready to land.

The titular air mail of... well, Air Mail!

I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about the graphical improvements of Air Mail's Switch version compared to the mobile original. Not only has the graphical fidelity improved, but so have building and environmental textures. The dynamic lighting is a sight to behold, delivering some beautiful vistas and scenes on display. Sometimes I would get lost in the plentiful sights that I'd forget about forgo doing the current mission in the campaign. It's a bit astonishing to think that Air Mail was a mobile game from 2012 considering how great it looks on the Switch today in 2018.

Even unfriendly skies don't scare Scoop.

That said, Air Mail doesn't really rate highly when it comes to delivering a challenging experience, and in addition to that, the mission variety could stand some more mixing up. While not a crash-landing, Air Mail on the Nintendo Switch has first-class pricing for economy class gameplay, making it a little tough to recommend for those with access to an iOS-compatible device Otherwise, maybe you'll want to take flight with Air Mail's Switch version.

[SPC Says: C+]

Review copy provided by N-Fusion Interactive.

Heroki (NSW) Review

Releasing this Friday on the Nintendo Switch, the formerly mobile-only Heroki gets the review treatment this morning. Scope out why I wholeheartedly recommend the game with my review.

Fun takes flight... this time on the Nintendo Switch.

Over two years ago, I covered Heroki on my iPhone. The game was an absolute joy to play, and it reminded me of the classic types of gaming experiences that were offered by SEGA in the publisher's golden years. Now, Heroki is being self-published by the developer Picomy, and being brought to the Nintendo Switch. With analog and physical buttons being standard for this version of the game, Heroki manages to deliver and delightful time once again on an entirely new platform.

Heroki is a side-scroller where instead of running and jumping, our hero hovers and flies around the labyrinthine levels in pursuit of Emerals and other collectables, all the while reaching each level's goal. Levels consist of some mild and modest backtracking, usually comprised of hitting buttons to open gates and doors in other parts of levels.

Checkpoint markers aren't overly common in levels, but since you're usually returning to past areas in levels, it's not as much of an issue. This is because when you activate one checkpoint and then activate another, the most recent checkpoint is the one turned on while the first one returns to its original state. This means you can return to the first checkpoint to reactivate it and it will serve as your place to continue if Heroki's perishes mid-flight. In theory, you can merely switch between activating a level's two or three checkpoints to constantly record your progress in a level.

Take aim, Heroki, and then bash that enemy with that box!

Our hero doesn't have the strongest disposition to him, so Heroki has other means to take out enemies that stand, fly, hover, etc. in his way. Heroki can carry boxes and boulders, transport them through levels, and by holding the throw button, he can aim where he wants to chuck his cargo, in a fashion similar to Yoshi's egg-throwing in Yoshi's Island. Many times it's to smack a box or boulder into an enemy to defeat the dangerous creature blocking Heroki's way, but other times it's a TNT box to throw at a destructible wall or to carry crates from one section of a level to another to weigh down a switch. Heroki also has the ability to quickly descend, sometimes used to avoid pursuing enemies or hazards, while used more frequently to bash through clouds platforms which can block his progress.

Oh, it's no joke. This frog is about to croak.

In each level, there are five Emerals to collect, and these are the most important collectable in the game to gather, as at the end of each world, of which there are three with eight levels each, it's required of you to have a specific amount of Emerals in order to progress onward. It wasn't a roadblock for me, as I personally enjoyed going through Heroki's levels and thoroughly exploring every corner and area possible, but if you're merely rushing from the start of a level to its goal, not only will the adventure be a breeze but you also will have to return to levels to get more Emerals to proceed to the next world. Understandably, this can get quite irritating when you just want to get to the next world, destroying the pacing of Heroki in the process.

"My, what big teeth you have!"
"The better to guard this Emeral with!"

Other than Emerals, levels in Heroki have two others types of collectables. One of these are six gold letters that spell out HEROKI, as well as a hidden treasure chest that contains anything from more currency to special presents that show up in Heroki's home back in the hub town. Everything is hidden well with plenty of secret alcoves and areas in levels that require you to keep an eye on your surroundings for suspicious-looking walls, floors, and ceilings.

In order to 100% a level, you need to get every Emeral, spell out HEROKI, and find and open the treasure chest in one run. It can be vexing occasionally, as sometimes you're gated from returning to past parts of levels, meaning you're potentially locked out of a perfect run. Regardless, 100%-ing a level is merely an optional task to create more replay value in Heroki's relatively short campaign.

Heroki is about to make sure this particular puffer fish puffs up for the last time.

Outside of Heroki's 24 levels, the game has a hub town where you can do a variety of tasks and small quests for its denizens. Since there aren't any achievements in the Switch version, doing most of the quests in the town doesn't really serve a purpose other than earning lives and more currency, which is a bummer and confusing why in-game achievements didn't travel over from the iOS original. Currency collected in levels can also be used to purchase a wide assortment of items, such as lives, power-ups, and even new colorful trails that follow Heroki upon flight.

The ability to use an actual analog stick and physical buttons on the Nintendo Switch version of Heroki instead of touch controls like the mobile version makes it so there's a greater sense of precision in Heroki's movements. Touch is still possible for menus, but for everything else, there's more accuracy in using analog controls. Well, that's save for using a power Heroki learns after the first world, where holding down the X button allows the player to draw a line of any type on the screen to activate a gust of wind. There aren't too many calls for precision with this power, but when there are, the speed at which the cursor moves in addition to how imprecise the analog movements are make for a more difficult control setup than what was originally found in the mobile version. Trying to push a ball through a curved passage by guiding it through with gusts of wind can be an effort in utter frustration.

Heroki is a gorgeous game to look at, and part of that can be attributed to the jaw-dropping lighting on display in the game. Flying through a vine-filled vista while in the distance, the sunlight peaks out through a flower in the background is just an amazing sight to behold. Heroki is a beautiful game, and it manages to stay a relatively steady frame-rate the entire time as well, which is a great bonus. The music is suitably catchy and gels well with the flying, floating, and box-toting gameplay Heroki possesses.

Alley-oop! This cactus enemy is about to have a blast--literally!

While the analog controls bring both a blessing and a curse in some regards to Heroki, it was an absolute pleasure to return to Picomy's game with the Nintendo Switch version. The lack of in-game achievements cuts away some of the game's longevity, and locking progress behind collecting Emerals can be a bit of an annoyance if you aren't already hunting for them. That notwithstanding, for its relatively inexpensive price and the amount of entertainment I got from the game, Heroki takes flight and soars high with one immensely enjoyable game.

[SPC Says: B]

Review code provided by Picomy.