Believe it or not, Mario is now 25 years old. To celebrate, Nintendo is releasing Super Mario themed red Wii and DSi XL bundles on November 7. The Wii bundle includes New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Wii Sports, and the new Wii Remote Plus for $200. The DSi XL bundle comes with Mario Kart DS and two Brain Age Express games for $180. READ MORE
October 2010
Last year developer 5th Cell unleashed perhaps the most ambitious title of the year for the DS in Scribblenauts; its tagline was “Write anything. Solve everything,” and for the most part the innovative dictionary-come-to-life system delivered on that end of the promise. Where the game fell far short of expectations, however, was in an awkward user interface when it came to moving Maxwell (your avatar), haphazard physics, and a par system that was meant to encourage you to maximize your efficiency but instead wound up stifling creativity and essentially forcing multiple level restarts. In my review I called it “a hard game to recommend, and equally hard to dismiss.” A year and change has passed since then; I would like to revise that statement to “don’t bother with the original version; get the sequel instead.”
The team at 5th Cell, because they are awesome, actually listened to the complaints; their recent release of Super Scribblenauts addresses just about all of them. You no longer move Maxwell with the stylus (unless you want to for some reason; they included the option for both), the camera no longer snaps back on Maxwell after a period of time, objects no longer bounce off each other like they were all made of galvanized rubber, and there are no more “attach points” on each object to hunt for when trying to connect one with another. There is no longer a par on any level, allowing you to plumb the depths of your imagination more freely when it comes to finding a solution (and not penalizing you when an object does not appear as you might have expected), and the stages themselves unlock naturally without needing to spend Ollars (now basically only used to purchase new avatars). It’s worth noting that everything that “worked” the first time was mostly retained, including the sandbox title screen.
But Super Scribblenauts isn’t just about releasing a “patched” version of its predecessor. As somewhat implied by the title, the major addition this time around is adjectives. While the original recognized a few (mostly size-related), Super Scribblenauts recognizes approximately five hundred. And you can chain them — so if you really want, say, a “giant purple fire-breathing zombie cat,” go right ahead. The bulk of the game is the type of level formerly labeled “puzzle” in the original game (there are two stages of bonus “action” levels), some of which are designated specifically to flex some adjective muscle via abstract math (e.g., “funny man + rainbow wig = clown”). Only specific levels are available for “replay mode,” which challenges you to complete the level three times without repeating words. Without the frustrations of the original title, the levels in Super Scribblenauts seem to fly by; I completed all of them in the space of a few days, and there are over 100 of them all told (I replayed about half of them, too).
This is the game that 5th Cell valiantly tried to deliver last year. This is the game that fulfills almost all of the impossible, bottomless promise of the original. It’s still not quite perfect, especially when it comes to what is and is not an acceptable solution for certain levels, but it will do. The slogan may have changed slightly to “Create anything. Solve everything,” but the potential for fun remains the same.
Pros: All of the complaints about the original? Pretty much addressed, including and especially the controls and camera.
Cons: Sometimes cryptic about what is and is not an acceptable for a solution to some puzzles.
2K Sports went all in with this year’s installment in its basketball series, NBA 2K11. After last year’s blowout tenth anniversary edition, with its retrospectives, limited edition lockers and sky-high review scores, the team pulled out its trump card: Michael Jordan.
Who knows what they could possibly do next year that won’t be a disappointment, but that’s a topic for a different day.
Everything from last year’s edition is here, from Association Mode to the My Player campaign. The NBA Today feature, which integrates real-life events and lets you play the day’s games with accurate records and rosters, has been polished up. But what’s really worth talking about in 2K11 is the suite of additions related to His Airness.
The main mode here, Jordan Challenge, allows players to recreate MJ’s famous games, from his Finals against Magic’s Lakers to the flu game against the Jazz. 2K licensed the entire opposing teams as well as the Bulls for all these match-ups, and each has its own specialized commentary interspersed throughout. These challenges are tough: after all, these are the best games of the best player of his time, and you have to be that good to recreate them. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, though. Beating all the challenges gives you access to MJ: Creating a Legend, a modified My Player mode where you place MJ on any current team and play through his career in the modern league.
Besides Jordan, 2K has tweaked the dribbling controls and allowed for a bit more improvisation in shooting. The series already had a polished game system, but the new elements do help somewhat. The Association mode supposedly has smarter trades, but the system is still easy to exploit. What is helpful, though, is the new Trade Finder feature, where you can get dozens of offers for a player and choose your favorite. (Most of them aren’t exactly even trades, but it’s still useful when you’re dumping a player requesting a trade or trying to see what you can get for a draft pick.) Also added this year is a White House visit for the champions, which even in 2019 includes President Obama. That’s not a big deal, really, but we thought it was amusing.
Is this the next big thing that finally appeals to those who didn’t like previous games? Certainly not. There is, however, much more content added than we usually get in a yearly update, and the core gameplay is still solid.
My kids aren’t old enough yet for this to be a big concern for me (unless I’m scarring them for life by playing Halo: Reach while they sleep), but it will be in the future. Looking over my game shelf here are the best three games I could find for some quality time between Dad, one of the kids (or maybe more), and a video game console.
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (360, PS3, Wii, PC): I love the Lego games regardless of who I get the privilege of playing with, but it’s hard to not notice that Tt Games designed the games with a younger player in mind without making the experience boring for an adult. The humor is cute, the controls are simple, and lives are unlimited. Combine these three things and you have the perfect storm of adolescent game design. Kids can have fun no matter how many times they jump in the lava, and parents can still feel like they’re accomplishing something because episodes are fairly short and forward progress is always possible. Being able to control your favorite characters and introduce a whole new generation to the wonder of Star Wars is a nice bonus as well. Other Lego games are certainly appropriate, but as more games have been made they’ve gotten a bit more difficult and lost a little bit of their charm. If you’re hurting for another Lego adventure when Star Wars wears thin, however, Lego Indiana Jones 2 should be your next stop.
Lego Rock Band 2 (360, PS3, Wii): Everybody likes music, and with songs that only last a few minutes a Rock Band session doesn’t need to last multiple hours to be worthwhile. With five separate difficulties, the addition of a no-fail mode and the addition of a filter that only lets you play family-friendly songs (these reasons are why I’m recommending Lego Rock Band vice the original Rock Band or RB2) and the ability to set up a player on drums and then turn off the need for a bass pedal makes Rock Band 2 a great choice for the whole family. It is also possible to get four people playing simultaneously, and letting your players choose songs (that can be sorted by difficulty) round-robin style means that all four kids can play a favorite within 20 minutes of sitting down. Lego Rock Band also has a kid-friendly story and a great Lego aesthetic.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii): New Super Mario Bros. Wii is another title that lets four kids play together. Younger kids probably won’t see the end of the story mode for many years (it took my wife and I more lives than I’d care to admit to beat the final level). NSMBWii artfully combines cooperative multiplayer with competitive. Sure, the big goal is to reach the end of the level and save the princess, but along the way it’s great fun to fight over helicopter hats, throw your teammates into pits because they stole the aforementioned hat, and use one another as bouncy blocks. Unlimited continues ensure that nobody will get too frustrated, and an easy save feature means that when things get too hectic it won’t be an ordeal to turn the game off with a promise that everybody can come back later.
It was harder to find child-friendly games on my shelf than I thought as most games, even those with child-friendly themes and stories, seemed to difficult for kids to play and have fun with. Ratchet & Clank is a great example of this. I love it to death, but the guys over at Insomniac have clearly made an adult’s game with a child’s veneer. Anybody who has attempted the time puzzles (which, admittedly, are skippable) in R&C Future: A Crack in Time can attest to that. The combat sections aren’t exactly a cakewalk either. I know that I love the game for those things, but it would spell nothing but frustration for a new player. It can be difficult to find fun games for kids, but they’ll play them long enough (thanks to rationed video game time) that a small supply of high-quality games is all that’s really needed.
Fans of both Phoenix Wright and Professor Layton have reason to cheer today, as a collaboration between Capcom and Level-5 was announced today that will bring them together in a game that is scheduled to be released on the 3DS. READ MORE
