Mike Clark

Jam City Rollergirls

February 8, 2011

Reviews / Wii / by Mike Clark Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Roller derby is sport where two teams of roller-skating athletes attempt to score points by having the point-gaining player, the jammer, pass members of the opposite team while the three defending teammates attempt to block the enemy jammer. A match lasts for ten minutes and is divided into two-minute segments called jams. When a jam begins, the first jammer to pass the six defenders becomes the lead jammer and can end the jam early if they wish. This all is the core of Jam City Rollergirls, the first roller derby video game.

The sport converts into a game well, and feels like a racing game at times. Unlike the actual sport, the player has access to a selection of powerups not unlike those found in a Mario Kart game. A single boost, a trio of boosts, the invincibility-granting fireball, the homing water balloon and the ultimate Pink Reaper are all part of the player’s arsenal.

The main mode of the game is a single-player career mode where one of five real roller derby teams is chosen by the player, who then creates a character to play as the jammer in all matches. Winning matches and performing tricks works up money to be spent in the game’s store. All the items in the store are appearance-changing, and many adjust the player character’s stats.

Beyond that, the game falls flat. It does have quick match and two-player modes, but you will essentially be doing nothing but playing with the same five teams on the same five stages over and over. The matches themselves feel a bit too long at ten minutes and having the ability to either adjust the time or just have them shorter would have been a reprieve. As it stands, this does nothing but pad the length of the modes, especially the career mode wherein once you finish 11 matches and become the champion, the game will infinitely loop seasons under the guise of having you “defend yourself as champion.”

And that’s not the worst of it. The visual presentation of Jam City Rollergirls looks like something out of a late PS1 or early PS2 game. The character models are fluid in their movements, but they and the stages just seem to fall flat and feel devoid of emotion. The audio presentation in its entirety is nothing more than one short song put on repeat throughout the entire game. Menus, matches, everywhere you will hear this short series of guitar riffs and shouts ad nauseum. 

While it creates a foundation for future potential roller derby games, Jam City Rollergirls falls far from the $10 asking price. Within two hours, you will accomplish everything the game has to offer and more.

Pros: Controls are user-friendly, gameplay is easy to pick up

Cons: Game is very short, visuals are bland, audio just hurts

The Committee: Parallel dimensions

January 26, 2011

Features / The Committee / by Mike Clark Make a comment! / Tweet it!

The Committee is in session. We’re taking on various issues in gaming, and our word is final. This week, we look the growing 3D trend and settle an old argument about platformer titles.


In support

Shawn Vermette: 3D is the future of gaming graphics because people are always looking for the biggest and best and newest technology they can get. 1080p is just about the maximum level of fidelity that the human eye can discern differences at, so improvement can’t come from that angle. What’s left? 3D or holographic graphics. In my mind, 3D is a step toward the holographic ideal, thus it is inevitable that 3D will become the standard of gaming, rather than a novelty.

Another reason is the standard process of technological adoption. Whenever a new technology, such as HD or 3D is introduced, it takes a while to get set, but when prices drop, adoption rates soar. 3D TV is just beginning to get a foothold in homes, and will skyrocket in adoption rates as soon as prices drop, which should happen within 3-5 years. By then, glasses-free 3D will finally start becoming viable for home TVs, further increasing adoption.

In opposition

Andrew Passafiume: 3D technology is not something I’d consider a fad as much as a gimmick. It’ll still be around for a long time in some capacity, but for video games it adds nothing to the experience. I see the purpose of motion controls and touch screens for games, but 3D does not enhance your gaming experience at all. I haven’t had a chance to try the 3DS yet so my experience is limited, but I fail to see how it can be used for anything more than a cool special effect every now and again. An game with 3D is still a game. It may look cool, it’s a gimmick that might grow old rather quickly and one I find that doesn’t enhance gameplay at all. 

 

In support

Gerry Pagan: Normally, I wouldn’t really care much if something forced me to use glasses or not to watch any kind of media. However, due to the fact that I myself wear glasses and can’t make out things that are closer than a few feet in front of me, wearing a pair of 3D specs on top of my regular glasses is something that usually neither feels right, or hampers the 3D effect on the glasses.

In addition to being problematic for people who already wear a set of glasses, it’s also an extra addition to keep track of and properly store. Unlike a big guitar or drum set peripheral, it’s easy enough to misplace something like a pair of glasses when they aren’t constantly being used. If you were to lose them, it’d hamper your ability to enjoy or even use the product they were intended with, as looking at 3D media that requires glasses looks even worse without them. I personally believe that if 3D is going to expand further in the market, it needs to do something about the shades. They’re more of a liability than they are a good selling point.

In opposition

Lillian Harle: With increasing technology, the days of the old red and blue 3D glasses are long gone. Though you might still see them in the theaters as a cheap way to pander to large audiences, in the home market, where most of gaming would occur, the technology is such so that the glasses are electronic devices in and of themselves, nearly as complex as the actual television sets they’re set to work with. As this technology becomes more and more a part of the market, the high price they are now will drop, just as high definition television sets did.

 

In support

Justin Last: 2D platformers are wonderful. Super Mario Bros. 3 and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will always hold a special place in my heart. That being said, the 3D platformer has iterated on all of the best concepts from 2D platformers while creating more immersive, impressive, and challenging environments to play in. Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2 take everything I love about 2D platformers and crank it up to 11. Items can be well hidden without feeling cheap, power-ups like the ice flower can completely change how a level feels and plays, and the scenery available to the player puts 2D games to shame. I will never forget the first time I saw the MeltyMolten Galaxy, and that aesthetic just wouldn’t have had the same gravitas in 2D.

With the advent of 3D platformer developers have been able to introduce concepts from other genres to breathe new life into platformers, and the genre is better for it. Sucker Punch added stealth to the Sly Cooper series, Insomniac added excellent gunplay and RPG-style progression to the Ratchet & Clank series, and developers like Realtime Worlds and Sucker Punch added platformer gameplay to what should probably be classified as action games first (Crackdown and Infamous respectively). And then you’ve got games that just couldn’t work in 2D like Tomb Raider and Uncharted. Both are action-platformers, and neither would work anywhere near as well when viewed strictly from the side. When I think of my favorite games from the last two generations, one theme stands out more than any other, and that theme is 3D platforming.

 

In opposition

Mike Clark: I like both types of platformers. There’s great things to be found in both, but after reflecting over all the games I’ve played in each I have to say 2D is better. The percentage of good 2D platformers I’ve played is much higher than 3D, and bringing the game into three dimensions allows for the developers to mess things up a lot more than in a 2D game.

Some of the biggest problems in 3D platformers, like cameras, don’t exist in 2D ones. Even though you can still end up making a game bad, there’s fewer things to worry about in a 2D one than a 3D. Take for example Super Castlevania IV and Castlevania: Lament of Innocence. Both are second-generation in their 2D or 3D, and both were launched shortly into their system’s lives. But there’s a clear winner here, and it’s not the 3D title. It’s a time-honored format, a comfort zone, and people know how to make them great.

 

We’ve weighed in. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

Auditorium

January 24, 2011

PSP / Reviews / by Mike Clark Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Ambient, relaxing, improvisational and free-flowing. Auditorium is filled with these qualities and uses them to deviate from your average puzzle game. And now you can take this experience wherever you go by snagging it from PSN directly onto your PSP. 

Each of over 100 different stages all give you a layout containing the same items: streams of light particles, color-coded containers, a selection of tools to use, and various gimmicks. Your goal is to manipulate the light streams and fill the containers. Upon filling the containers pieces of the musical track behind the stage play and your efforts are rewarded with great songs.

The stages are divided into musical sets that introduce various concepts and build on them. The first stage will just show you that there are black holes present, while the final will leave you puzzling how to keep the particles safely away from the black holes. The best part of this gradual difficulty and stage progression is that there are no definitive answers. Cipher Prime gives the player a challenge and a set of tools and all the time needed to figure out a way to solve the puzzle.

While it doesn’t have the HD visuals that the PS3 version has, Auditorium still shines in a standard definition that you can bring anywhere with you. An immersive musical puzzle experience that doesn’t force you to figure out their answer but rather discover your own, Auditorium is a great game to have on a PSP.

Pros: Incredible visuals and audio, immersive puzzle experience

Cons: Lack of a hint button or stage tips

 

Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood!

January 10, 2011

PSP / Reviews / by Mike Clark Make a comment! / Tweet it!

A high-fatality action-platformer where you play as a demon penguin with peg legs charged with recovering the stolen panties of your succubus master? Prinny 2 delivers quite the wacky premise and seems to promise a fun time. Actually playing it, though, falls short of expectations. 

Challenging platformers like Super Meat Boy, N+, VVVVVV and The Deep Cave share a common quality that Prinny 2 lacks: good jumping mechanics. It’s practically expected that when you go into one of these games, you have tight jumps that both work and feel right. You’re given great tools to try and beat the game with, so it comes down to player experience and skill.

Prinny 2‘s jumping mechanics instead work much like Ghosts ‘n Goblins and the NES entries of the Castlevania series: you can’t move in mid-air. If you jump while holding right, you’re stuck going right. Make a slight error? You’re dead, or at least taking damage. This frustrating mechanic is somewhat alleviated by the player having a thousand total lives for the course of the game, but only seems to bandage the situation instead of remedying it.

The jumping mechanics were the only real negative thing I could find about Prinny 2, though. Each of the stages are very detailed and look great, with the time-of-day system giving a ton of variety to each of them. The music is incredible, and alongside that is superb voice acting. It set my expectations high with what it advertised, but only met them partway.

Prinny 2 is a great game in every area except the most fundamental of gameplay mechanics. That jumping style can make or break the player having a good time, and I spent too much time being frustrated at missing jumps that could have been made in many other platformers. While everything else about it is easy to digest, that core mechanic is a very bitter pill to swallow.

 

NeoGeo Heroes: Ultimate Shooting

January 6, 2011

PSP / Reviews / by Mike Clark Make a comment! / Tweet it!

For years I’ve been at odds with bullet-hell games. The high-tension twitch-based gameplay entices me, yet with every new game I’ve picked up I’ve been let down. What I’ve been looking for is for fullfilling gameplay where the focus is to beat the game, much like the Gradius and R-Type games. Instead, I’ve found short experiences where the goal is to memorize the stages and get high rankings. NeoGeo Heroes: Ultimate Shooting ends this disappointment. 

The second bullet-hell, (or “danmaku”) game released by SNK Playmore recently, Ultimate Shooting sets a lofty perception of itself with that name. Yet in contrast to most of this genre’s games, which only have a single set of stages in one mode to play, this game has a ton of variety. Instead of one character or ship, how about ten with a large variety in attack types? And instead of one linear path of stages to just replay constantly, how about 15 total stages for the main Story mode with 5 end-bosses and endings for each character? That’s 50 potential playthroughs filled with variety and that’s just the Story mode.

There’s also the Challenge Mode, where the player can do a survival-based boss rush, or Subject Mode, where the player is tasked with achieving certain objectives during the course of gameplay. Thought just surviving a stage was bad? Now try to beat it while not dying, collecting 30 of the best score-raising items in a row and staying in the top two-thirds of the screen!

In addition to the main game, the arcade version of KoF Skystage is also packed into the game. Two games for the price of one, both with a large cast of characters who come from fighting games and bring all of their special attacks and taunts with them. A variety of gameplay modes, a large Museum to fill out with unlockables, and full control over the game’s options right down to changing the display size and style on your PSP. Is holding it normally making the screen too small? Shift it sideways and play on a larger screen with all the controls appropriately remapped to the d-pad and analog stick.

NeoGeo Heroes: Ultimate Shooting has finally provided to me what I’ve been looking for in a bullet-hell shooter: tons of characters, variety, play modes, and unlockables all wrapped up into a gorgeous package.

 

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