My Month In Games: August 2014

Shovel Knight - Wii U

Blah blah Kickstarter blah blah 8-bit throwback blah blah DuckTales blah blah Mega Man. People, this is a fine game. If you're a fan of retro gaming or have any love for Mega Man, DuckTales, or games of their ilk, then you could really do a hell of a lot worse. Any complaints that I may have had while playing this haven't stuck with me. I loved it.

Oh, alright, I'll say this one other thing. I don't usually like to engage in any old man "back-in-my-day" kind of talk, but it's just a fact that games were generally much more challenging in the 80's and 90's than they are today. No great revelation, sure, but it's a thought that I often have while playing these kinds of retro-styled modern titles. Unlimited lives, copious level checkpoints, auto saving after every stage...your average game today is just designed to be easier. I'm not saying things were better back in the day, just different. And I get that many developers now add achievements and other in-game challenges as a way to satisfy hardcore gamers (as is the case with Shovel Knight), but sometimes I think that maybe some new games just don't achieve the right balance between what we're now calling "casual" and "hardcore" appeal. I understand that developers, for obvious reasons, want as many people to play and finish their game as possible, but I think that when a game is too easy it sometimes feels disposable, and you don't feel the nearly same level of achievement when you beat it. Also, at least for me, once I finish a game (that is, beat the final boss and see the ending sequence) it has to have been REALLY fun for me to want to go back and play it some more.  I understand that I might be in the minority on this, but there's this psychological factor that says, "Well, that's it. You can go back and play on a harder difficulty or do some achievement hunting, but you're not really going to see anything new from this point." Now I'm not factoring any of this into my grade for this game, of course, just throwing it out there. I still loved my time with Shovel Knight.

One of my favorite details is the appearance of animal people like the "horse lady" pictured above. I don't know why exactly, but I find that so cute.

Grade: B+

Game & Wario - Wii U

For the most part, I'm a big fan of the WarioWare series of "microgame" collections. I didn't care much for the Nintendo DS entries in the series, but that's another story. Truth be told, while Game & Wario does resemble the WarioWare games in many ways, there are two main differences between the series as a whole and this latest entry for the Wii U. For one thing, most of these minigames are more substantial than the blink-and-you'll-miss-them kind seen in most of the other WarioWare titles. Whereas most WarioWare microgames might take between three and five seconds to complete, the minigames in Game & Wario typically last two to four minutes apiece and generally require a bit more skill and finesse. The other major difference is that there are far fewer games to play. The typical WarioWare game might have between 30 and 50 microgames, while Game & Wario only has 16 main games as well as a handful of smaller, unlockable titles. Anyway, I've played all of the main single player games and here's what I thought of each of them...oh, and I've placed them in order from best to worst:

• Bowling - No complaints here! Hold your Gamepad vertically, swipe to launch your ball, and tilt the controller to add spin. There is a traditional 10-pin mode as well as a slightly more wacky challenge mode that tasks you with clearing out random pin placements. You can play alone or with a friend. Simple, classic, fun.
• Ashley - Though you might think so from the title, this game is not actually about becoming a basic bitch. Tilt your Gamepad left and right to guide the witch Ashley as she rides her broom through three unique stages. This is one of the stronger games in the lot: simple and fun with a good level of challenge.

Ashley

• Design - Follow directions by using the stylus to draw lines and shapes on your Gamepad. This one is surprisingly addictive, or rather, it would be IF YOU WEREN'T DRAWING THE SAME FIVE SHAPES EVERY SINGLE DAMN TIME! Seriously, I don't know why there's so little to do in this game. It's pretty fun, but WAY too light on content.
• Arrow - In this game you hold the Wii U Gamepad flat and use the touchscreen to fire arrows at various targets. It's a bit like playing a 3D version of Angry Birds from a first-person perspective. There's not a whole lot to it, but the control scheme works well and it can be fun to try and top your best scores.

Arrow

• Taxi - This combination driving/shooting game might be the most in-depth of all the games in this collection. Zip around the city collecting passengers while blasting body snatching alien UFOs out of the sky. This one's a lot of fun. Aiming your Gamepad in the direction you want to shoot can be annoying at times (especially when you're holding the thing over your head to aim at the sky), but the game's pretty forgiving and it gives you plenty of time to line up your shots and readjust as necessary.

Taxi

• Ski - Players hold the Gamepad vertically and tilt it left and right to guide their character down a ski slope. It strikes a good balance between accessibility and overall challenge, though you'll do better if you can memorize the twists and turns on each of this game's five slopes. Occasionally frustrating, occasionally exhilarating.
• Gamer - Play the microgames from the WarioWare titles while avoiding the watchful eye of your mother! You have to keep one eye on the Gamepad to play the microgames while keeping the other on your TV so you can see your "mother" approach. It sounds wacky (and it is), but it works surprisingly well. Fun and funny.

Gamer

• Kung Fu - Jumping/platforming game with an overhead perspective. Fairly satisfying and fun, though the tilt controls and limited visibility of the levels gives the gameplay an imprecise feel. It's aight.
• Shutter - This photography themed game makes you hold the Gamepad up like a camera and tasks you to snap pictures of specific characters while they move about a gathering/street scene. It's fairly easy to do well on this one, but it can be challenging to nail the timing and composition requirements on some of the "assignments". Cool enough, but not the kind of thing you'll want to play over and over. 
• Pirate - There's an intriguing gameplay mechanic at the heart of this game, but its slow pace makes for a rather dull experience overall. Hold the Gamepad at eye level to "shield" yourself from incoming arrows, then lower it so you can "shake off" the projectiles and hear where the next volley is coming from. There's a rhythmic element to the sequence of shield-shake-listen, but that extra dimension does little to spice things up.

Pirate

• Bird - Super catchy title, ultra compelling gameplay. Oh, by the way, I'm being sarcastic. Actually, this isn't a bad little diversion. It plays a lot like one of Nintendo's classic Game & Watch titles. Move your bird around a single play field using your long tongue to grab fruit as it falls from the sky. Not the most impressive title gameplay-wise, but I'll give it points for being a functional throwback.
• Patchwork - Use the stylus to move puzzle pieces around and complete a picture. It's just as lame as it sounds and way harder than it needs to be. 

As a Wii U tech demo, Game & Wario is quite effective. I wish there were a few more truly compelling games in the collection, but there's enough going on here to keep you going for a while. In addition to the games themselves there's a whole mess of unlockable strangeness that can be obtained by trading "tokens" earned by playing games. Some of the unlockable items include game hints, art, character dossiers, and bizarre cutscenes and interludes. Overall, I wouldn't recommend paying full price, but if you can snag it for $20 or less then it's totally worth a purchase.

Grade: C+