Chris Ingersoll

Elite Beat Agents

November 20, 2006

The popular rhythm/music genre has never really had a representative game on the various handhelds, as they often require their own specific wacky peripheral, whether it is maracas, bongos, a guitar, or a dance pad. Of course, the argument could be made that the Nintendo DS [b]is[/b] a wacky peripheral, so perhaps it was inevitable that the twin-screened device would receive some rhythm gaming before long. Sega actually dabbled in it a bit with its [i]Feel the Magic: XY/XX[/i] launch title, which featured a [i]Space Channel 5[/i]-style “repeat the pattern” minigame as one of the stages. However for most hardcore gamers it was Japanese import Osu! Tatake! Ouendan!, released by Nintendo earlier this year (and developed by the same team that gave Gitaroo-Man to the PS2… via Koei). That was really the first such title on the system. [i]Elite Beat Agents[/i] is the westernized version of that game.

The titular [i]Elite Beat Agents[/i] are (essentially) a team of male cheerleaders that motivate people to get through extremely tough spots in their lives via the power of music and dance. The situations you will encounter in the game range from helping a babysitter handle three rowdy children while trying to convince her football-obsessed boyfriend to go steady to assisting a washed-up baseball player in repelling an attack from a bizarre lava golem at an amusement park — and then there’s the final stage in which your dance moves just might save the world from a music-hating alien invasion. There are sixteen stages in the single-player game, plus three additional stages that are unlocked as you accumulate points and ranks, for nineteen stages/songs total. Each scenario is colorfully presented in a comic book style prior to the gameplay, and each completed segment of the song yields a development in the plot that will be either good or bad depending on how you performed; if you clear all the branches successfully, you will see a better ending than if you merely survive the song before the game gives you your final score and grade (along with other statistics, like longest combo).

There are three specific actions you need to master in order to show off your awesome moves. The first is the basic tap: you use the stylus to hit a numbered button on the screen when the ring closing around it reaches its edge. The second is the phrase bar, which starts like a basic tap but has a long path connected to it: you must keep your stylus on the screen and drag it along the path as the on-screen ball rolls along it. Some phrase bars u-turn back the way they came once you reach the end (indicated by an arrow), and later on they oscillate back and forth several times before finishing. Finally, there are spin targets: you have to circle your stylus around the screen often and fast enough to fill up the meter glowing behind the target before the ring closing around it reaches the center; if you fill the meter with time to spare, extra spins earn you bonus points. These three targets are usually grouped in like-colored “beats”, and if you manage to hit every target in a beat with good timing, you’ll get an additional bonus to your always-decreasing life meter — and if you nail all targets with perfect timing, you score an “elite beat” which brings an even bigger life-boosting bonus. Meanwhile, every target you hit sequentially increases your combo score, which in turn yields higher and higher points. Every target you miss, however, resets your combo to zero and causes your life bar to take a major hit; obviously, when your life bar is empty, you lose the stage — and get to witness the results of your failure. You’ll also get the option to review the last five seconds of gameplay to see if you can figure out what went wrong, which is a useful feature.

The songs themselves cover as wide a range as the stories that accompany them. Classics like the Jackson 5’s “ABC” and The Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” stand alongside rhythm-genre mainstays like The Village People’s “YMCA” and David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance”, along with more recent titles like Avril Lavigne’s “Sk8er Boi” and Good Charlotte’s “The Anthem”. While all nineteen songs in the game are covers, many are very good soundalikes (I thought that the cover of “Canned Heat” was actually being performed by Jamiroquai, for instance), and only a few fall flat. Many could even be considered improvements — I’ve never heard Ashley Simpson’s version of “La La,” but I don’t think it could possibly be as good as the cover in the game*. Also, the songs are nearly all full-length, with only a couple being abbreviated to “radio edit” length; only one stops abruptly about 2/3rds through, but that’s part of the story associated with it. Even if you can’t stand the original tunes, the simple but engrossing gameplay [i]will[/i] keep you replaying levels often enough that you will have these songs stuck in your head for a while. Well… the engrossing gameplay, combined with the at-times brutal difficulty.

When you first start up [i]EBA[/i], you have two choices of difficulty: Breezin’ (easy) and Cruisin’ (normal); completing Cruisin’ earns you access to Sweatin’ (hard), and completing that level gives you the right to access Hard ROCK!(called “Insane” on the Japanese original — that’s a fair warning). But even on Breezin’, the last few stages are incredibly challenging, with whip-fast beats arranged in tricky (and sometimes lengthy) patterns piling on top of you, putting both your rhythm and your reflexes to the test. If you don’t own a DS Lite, I recommend picking up a larger stylus before you play [i]EBA[/i], as you will appreciate being able to keep your hand from covering up part of the screen and possibly hiding crucial targets from you until it’s too late; the game is hard enough without having to overcome physical obstacles [i]outside[/i] the software. Oh, and you may occasionally need to remember to blink and/or breathe, as things tend to get intense.

Outside of single-player mode, there are a couple of other options. Multiplayer can be done either cooperatively, competitively, or on teams; single-card play only features a sampling of songs, but multi-card play allows all players to access any song unlocked by the host system. You can also play Vs. mode against ghosts of your saved runs; you can save one replay per song, and whatever difficulty that replay was saved at will be the performance you play in Vs. The multiplayer stages themselves have their own unique scenarios, usually a head-to-head competition, even though they use the same songs as the single-player mode. Other options include the ability to watch your saved replays and send them to other players, a record of your high scores per level, and your current ranking (which includes how many points you need to reach the next rank). There is no online component to [i]EBA[/i], however, nor is the microphone used for anything (which is fine by me — the less I have to blow and/or shout into my DS in public, the better), but neither capability is missed much (lag while playing online could be devastating).

Overall, [i]Elite Beat Agents[/i] is a title that anyone can play and just about everyone will enjoy. Simple gameplay, catchy tunes, and a great sense of humor all combine to make this title nearly perfect, with only the sheer difficulty bringing it down at times, but even then the frustration generated is more of a “one more try” and less of a “screw this”. [i]EBA[/i] may very well be the best DS title of the year and is easily among the best ever on the system.

*[size=9]Before I submitted this review, I looked up the video on YouTube and started playing it. I was right.[/size]

Contact

November 14, 2006

DS / Reviews / by Chris Ingersoll /

The DS has experienced a recent surge in RPGs of late, the last handheld genre to really make an impact on the two-screened system. There have been a ton of RPGs playable on the DS via the system’s GBA compatibility but not too many that it could call its own until the last couple of months — and fewer still that were considered “must-own” titles. That is with the possible exception of [i]Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time[/i]. [i]Contact[/i], developed by Grasshopper ([i]Killer 7[/i]) and published by Atlus ([i]Trauma Center: Under the Knife[/i] and tons of other hard-to-find cult favorites) could have been the first third-party “must-own” DS RPG, even after a lengthy delay.

Unfortunately, it looks like Square-Enix’s [i]Final Fantasy III[/i] will ultimately earn that honor, as [i]Contact[/i]’s unique features make it a hard game to love.

For starters, you (the player) don’t even have a well-defined role in [i]Contact[/i]. Unlike more traditional RPGs, you do not assume the persona of a character in the game, but rather that of someone who has a DS and can interact with the world you see through those two screens — a stretch, I know. This is a step further outside the box than even the Namco(/Bandai)’s [i]Baten Kaitos[/i] titles for GCN, and one that unfortunately takes you [i]too far[/i] out of the game’s narrative. Further complicating the matter is that the Professor with whom you “made [i]Contact[/i]” doesn’t want you to reveal yourself to the young boy (default name Terry) that he has inadvertently conscripted into service for reasons that he will not explain until after the closing credits roll.

Terry, then, is theoretically the main character of the game… except he’s not. The main plot centers around the Professor, who never leaves his lab/ship, and a group of musicians(-slash-interstellar terrorists?) referred to as the CosmoNOTs. The storyline is theoretically bizarre and off-the-wall but in practice just seems slapdash and poorly-explained. The fact that I was effectively a third-party observer to it instead of an active participant didn’t help matters either.

So where does that leave Terry? As a tool, more or less, of both the Professor and you; he never talks, he never makes decisions, and he never exhibits any sort of personality until the latter portion of the game, when he starts to behave strangely. While you technically control Terry via the various DS interfaces, in reality you are very much a spectator watching the game nearly play itself, with only the Professor occasionally directing any comments towards you personally from the upper screen.

It all combines to create the unfortunate paradox of an RPG [i]without the role-playing aspect[/i]. Without personal involvement in the story, all that is left to the gamers is the nuts and bolts of the game itself and a vague disinterest in what is actually going on. Sadly, [i]Contact[/i]’s “nuts and bolts” aren’t much to write home about, just like many RPGs (would anyone play a [i]Final Fantasy[/i] title without the narrative?). You don’t even directly control Terry in combat; you switch him to Battle Mode, and then he swings when he damn well feels like it, all the while moving slow enough for you to be unable to avoid the enemies’ counterattacks and to take some pretty hard hits. You will eventually learn to handle the imprecise combat, but there are still more problems waiting for you.

The [url=http://www.gamesarefun.com/games/ds/Contact/8-2-06/boxart.jpg]back of [i]Contact[/i]’s box[/url] makes some hilarious claims, including “Things you will NOT find in [i]Contact[/i]: A dull moment.” On paper, this sounds like a teaser for a seat-of-your pants thrill ride. In reality, someone needs a dictionary. [i]Contact[/i] is potentially [b]full[/b] of dull moments, thanks to employing a stat-leveling system rather than a more global-leveling system. It moves along quickly at first, but once you reach level 10 in a stat/skill, things begin to [b]crawl[/b], as the experience needed to advance to the next level seemingly becomes exponential; combine that with approximately two dozen trainable stats/skills (ten of which have rewards of new techniques), and you begin to see where the dullness seeps in. If you want to improve your abilities, your only choice is to grind like crazy. By the time I finished, I had given up on ever finding out what powerful abilities were lying in wait for those with the patience to grind past level 42 (which I only achieved with weapon skills — gaining me a mere three techniques of I think eight available), because it was just taking too damned long. This is especially true for the three “vocational” skills of fishing, cooking, and thievery, which cannot be effectively trained via combat like everything else.

Even more frustrating, however, is the “costume” system. Like other RPGs, [i]Contact[/i] features a sort of job-swapping system that features seven costumes that you must find (all but two are essential to complete the game, and those two are a huge help), using the unique skills of each to get past obstacles and enemies. Here’s the first catch: you can’t use a costume’s skills if you aren’t wearing it; if you need to pick a lock, for example, you had best be wearing the Shadow Thief costume because Terry doesn’t actually learn those skills like he would in other games. The second catch is probably even more backbreaking: you can only change costumes in your room on the Professor’s ship, forcing you to re-fight your way through screen upon screen of respawning enemies every time you think (or worse, discover) that you need a different skill. There are no shortcuts in the dungeons (ok, one has a shortcut… out of the approximately ten islands you ultimately visit), although you will at least eventually gain the ability to warp back to the ship (a one-way trip) at a moment’s notice via [i]Contact[/i]’s final distinguishing feature, decals.

Decals come in two varieties: “? Decals” and “Trick Decals”. “? Decals” are random pick-ups that Terry finds along the way that can lightly goose some of his stats; there are several types of these decals, and Terry can wear four of them at any given time, although the effects bestowed by them are generally minor. “Trick Decals”, on the other hand, are something the Professor invented for you (meaning the player holding the DS) to use to help Terry out. There are eight of these total, with the last one being hidden (I stopped caring and didn’t even look for it); each has a specific effect, although one of them is just a glorified plot device that’s only useable once you defeat a boss and find one of the Professor’s power cells. You can only use these once before they need to be recharged by revisiting the Professor (and thus effectively restarting the entire stage).

Everything else about [i]Contact[/i] is basically true for most other action-ish RPGs, so I won’t go into boring details there other than pointing out one final annoyance: someone thought it would be a good idea to force you to buy/sell items [i]one at a time[/i]. Having played the original [i]Final Fantasy[/i] and other RPGs of that era, I can assure you that it wasn’t a good idea 20 years ago, and Grasshopper didn’t even have the excuse of limited technology.

With all that bile out of the way, [i]Contact[/i] does have its merits that save it from “Don’t Bother” status. The graphics are an odd blend, with the Professor and his upper-screen environment being reminiscent of titles like [i]Earthbound[/i] and Terry’s touch-screen world more closely resembling something like [i]Golden Sun[/i]. It’s an interesting mix, and somewhat strange when an inhabitant from one world momentarily steps into the other (Terry chats with the Professor, while the Professor’s pet can be “summoned” to help you out using a Trick Decal); there’s also a couple of levels in a later dungeon that see Terry actually enter 8-bit video games, even if only briefly. The BGM and sound effects are above-average for a handheld and generally never become obnoxious. There’s also a limited WiFi function that lets you exchange data with other players; I have not yet utilized this function, but apparently it’s a good way to find rare items.

[i]Contact[/i]’s greatest strength, ultimately, is also its greatest weakness: it’s just too different for its own good. There’s a lot of outside-the-box thinking and clearly Grasshopper enjoys taking unconventional paths (as with [i]Killer 7[/i]), but I just felt no personal interest in the game, its characters, or its story, which made me wonder why I was even bothering to play the game in the first place, especially once the combat and training mechanics started to wear out their welcome. Give it a rent, and if you want, you can probably blow through it in about 15 hours just to give it as much of a chance as it deserves, but this is definitely not a “must-own” title for the DS.

Baten Kaitos Origins

November 8, 2006

GameCube / Reviews / by Chris Ingersoll /

One of the few exclusive, original RPGs available to the GameCube, [i]Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean[/i] brought several unique features to the genre. Most noticeably is its card (“magnus”) based inventory and combat systems, as well as a plot twist or two that had not yet been beaten into the ground by its predecessors. Though the “islands in the sky” setting reminded me very much of Sega’s Skies of Arcadia (Legends) at first, the game’s unique charms and decent plotline let it eventually stand on its own merits. [i]Baten Kaitos Origins[/i], as you might have guessed by the title, serves as a prequel to [i]EWatLO[/i], set twenty years before the events chronicled in the original. [i]BKO[/i] corrects several nagging problems that plagued its ancestor (descendant? stupid prequels…) while sadly retaining a couple, but it at least brings forth some fresh ideas of its own as well.

The game’s plotline centers around Sagi, a fifteen year-old employed in the Dark Service, a special branch of the Alfard Empire’s military. The Dark Service use semi-autonomous devices called paramachina to aid them in combat; Sagi’s “paramachina” is actually a sentient, magic-wielding puppet named Guillo, who has been Sagi’s companion ever since he unearthed it (Guillo’s gender, if any, is never defined) at a young age. Sagi is also what is called a spiriter, meaning his heart has bonded with that of a spirit — in this case, that means you, the guy (unlike [i]EWatLO[/i], you do not get to input your own gender; its masculinity is part of the narrative this time around) holding the control pad. Spiriters are said to contain the potential to change the world… but so do politicians, and the latter are the main source of conflict once again.

On his first big mission for the Dark Service (assassinating the Emperor, no less!), things go horribly wrong for our heroes and they wind up being blamed for the Emperor’s death even though they were beaten to the punch by someone else, then attacked by a huge monster. After defeating the beast, strange things happen involving some massive headaches, before they finally manage to escape the Emperor’s mansion. They’re still on the run from the Imperial Army, however and just when it looks like they’re about to be captured, a young girl (a couple of years older than Sagi) named Milliarde (“Milly”) makes the scene and helps Sagi and Guillo escape. She then joins you as your third (or fourth, if you want to count the spirit you represent) and final playable character.

From there the plot continues on much like in [i]EWatLO[/i], hopping from island to island as you progress through the roller coaster-like story, twisting and turning in unexpected ways until finally reaching its conclusion. All of the locales from the first title return here, save for the bizarre continent of Mira (currently “phased out”, as it does every few years, although there is one town in [i]BKO[/i] that would be right at home there) and the spoiler-ish continent of Wazn; in their place are the thorny island of Hasseleh and the Coliseum, plus an occasional minor area. Oh, there’s also a strange, somewhat familiar second world that Sagi and company find themselves in — but not quite a part of — at certain times for reasons that don’t become apparent until well into the game’s second disc. The shifting storyline will both provide new insight into the plot of [i]EWatLO[/i] as well as turn a few aspects of that story on their ears, all while giving you a look at the previous generation of this series’ world. If you remember the ages of several characters (mostly NPCs, with a couple of exceptions) from the first title, then you should be on the lookout for their younger selves as you play through [i]BKO[/i] — you won’t be disappointed.

Graphically, this game is identical to [i]EWatLO[/i], which while not a bad thing (the first game was very pretty), is meant literally in many respects. All of the major game locations use the exact same gorgeously pre-rendered backgrounds that the first title used for them (and the corresponding BGM as well!); while this was a great nod to continuity and something of an advantage/Easter egg to those who had played the first title, it really stunk of laziness at times, as the designers only needed to come up with a handful of new settings. It also invites the same problem I had with [i]EWatLO[/i], namely that the backgrounds are completely static, resulting in your character scaling as you progress further away from the camera (Sadaal Suud’s main town of Pherkad is a great/horrible example of why this doesn’t work in an RPG). Additionally, the detailed backgrounds make locating NPCs difficult, as the character models don’t really stand out too well (and may suffer from scaling as well), and there’s no on-screen indicator that you can talk to one of them, unlike the “!” balloon indicating an object you can examine. Many of the palette-swapped enemies are also recycled from the previous game, but that’s been an RPG tradition dating back to Dragon Warrior/Quest, so it can slide. At least the characters are well-designed and unique, just as the Kalas, Xelha, Gibari, Lyude, Savyna, and (The Great) Mizuti were in the original; it could be argued that the three playable characters in [i]BKO[/i] are just amalgamations of the six from [i]EWatLO[/i] (Sagi = Lyude + Kalas, Guillo = Mizuti + Gibari, and Milly = Xelha + Savyna), but that doesn’t make them any less solid. The animations sometimes seem stiff and robotic, especially during cut scenes (which use the in-game models, like most GameCube titles), but it’s not a large issue. The special attacks are as eye-popping as usual, although there’s a good chance that you will be too busy selecting cards to even see them initially.

Where [i]BKO[/i] really departs from [i]EWatLO[/i] is in its combat system. While still card-based, the system has received a complete overhaul and will need to be relearned by series veterans; fortunately, I think [i]BKO[/i]’s system is superior. Instead of each character having their own deck, filled with weapons, special finishers, and items, this time around the entire party shares one deck, containing both generic attacks and items along with individualized specials and equipment. You can save multiple decks and swap between them as you see fit (outside of battles, naturally), allowing you to adjust your strategy to your surroundings much more readily. Also, while [i]BKO[/i] retains the use of “spirit numbers”, no card ever has more than one number on it; as a result, you no longer receive bonuses for setting up X of a kind and/or ascending/descending straights. Numbers in [i]BKO[/i] can only increase numerically, starting from 1 or 0 (all 0’s are equipment that modify your attacks/defense) and reaching a maximum number of 6 or 7, depending on the character. All numbers from 1-3 (minus four special cards that only Milly can use) are your generic attacks, in increasing potency as they increase in number; numbers 4-7 are super-powered special attacks that demand a certain amount of MP to use. MP is built up simply by playing cards, so the longer you can make your chains, the more MP you build up, to a maximum level of five. Also, if one character is ready to receive commands immediately after the previous character ended with a special, you may chain the character’s attacks together with a weak (#1) attack to create a Relay Combo and jack up the amount of Technique Points (used to upgrade your deck class) earned from the battle; equipment marked with an R may also be thrown in before the follow-up weak attack without breaking the Relay. Items and strategies (like Escape) do not have spirit numbers and cannot be used in any part of a combo. There is no reshuffling, as used and discarded cards are simply placed back into the deck immediately, eliminating the breaks in action from the first game. Finally, there is no longer a defensive portion of combat — if you have a defensive item equipped, it will soften the enemies’ blows for a set number of hits/time without you needing to do anything.

All of that looks a lot more complicated than it is in practice, especially since the game highlights which cards are legal to play next as you select each one (including specially-indicating which ones can enable a Relay). Also, your guardian spirit may help you out from time to time by placing the exact card(s) you need on top of your deck, allowing you much smoother “draws” and more devastating combos. This is especially true once you gain access to the “MP Burst” ability, which can turn your maxed-out MP meter into an infinite resource for a limited time, allowing you to potentially chain together up to 25 cards for a spectacular beatdown; my record was 23 cards, to the tune of 50 hits and a massive 20,994 points of damage to a group of 3 enemies — and yes, the game keeps track of your longest combo to date, along with a few other statistics.

Other than the combat, the other major advantage [i]BKO[/i] has over the original game is that the voice acting — or more accurately, the recording of that VA — in [i]BKO[/i] doesn’t suck. One of the first things most players did during [i]EWatLO[/i] was to turn off the voices in the cut scenes (you were stuck with the in-battle sound clips either way) because of a horrible echoing that slipped through quality control and made the voices painful to hear. [i]BKO[/i] does not have this problem, and the actors perform well enough to be enjoyable this time around (although they do start out a bit wooden). There’s still a noticeable hiccup when the dialogue is supposed to reference you (Sagi’s guardian spirit) by whatever name you entered, but that’s the nature of the beast. As for the rest of the game’s sound, the score is just as good as ever (of course, as I mentioned, in some cases that’s because it’s the same track), and the sound effects more than get the job done.

One major aspect of the original that has also been tweaked for [i]BKO[/i] is how you create new magnus. In the last game, you needed to include bizarre, often useless magnus in your decks and use them in a specific sequence in order to obtain certain items; this was a needless chore that has been more conveniently divided into two separate functions in [i]BKO[/i]. Your equipment magnus can be upgraded at various shops if you have the proper Quest Magnus, and you can mix certain Quest Magnus together once you acquire an item called a “Magnus Mixer,” which will combine their essences while you battle without taking up valuable deck slots. Of course, your Quest Magnus can and will still change over time and may even be affected by neighboring Magnus in your inventory, but I don’t believe any of your Battle Magnus are affected this time around. Finally, don’t worry about having to use any stupid cameras to earn cash; enemies in [i]BKO[/i] drop money just like in any other RPG, and there are even a ton of “Magnus Pack Coupons” to be found that can be redeemed for ten random Battle Magnus at any store.

The loss of Mira means that [i]BKO[/i] doesn’t have the surprising variety in “dungeon” areas that [i]EWatLO[/i] eventually brought forth, and the re-treading of old stomping grounds might actually cause veteran BK fans to feel like there isn’t as much newness to be found in this title. This is largely superficial, as a lot of this feeling is rooted in this game’s being a true sequel/prequel to the previous title and not just a game having similar mechanics and the franchise name with a new number slapped on the end. After players have grown used to the new combat system, the top complaint is usually that the enemies in [i]BKO[/i] hit a [b]lot[/b] harder than in the previous game, which is the by-product of the revamped equipment system and the fact that you never need to heal outside of combat; your party is automatically restored to full health and status after every encounter (except for a few gauntlet-style fights) without demanding any consumable items from your inventory.

Unfortunately, there are other, more serious problems lurking within [i]BKO[/i]’s coding. Obscure glitches that slipped past testing can result in you being shut-out of certain sidequests if you accidentally trigger them (this is why I was unable to become Champion of the Coliseum, for instance); some sidequests seem impossible to complete even once you do receive them, and many require an insane amount of backtracking and errand-running, which is not a good thing when travel is just as slow as it was in [i]EWatLO[/i]. The new “wing dash” feature helps a little, but not much, as exceeding your time limit results in you moving slower than your normal walking pace until you recover. The wing dash is also a source of great frustration in the final dungeon of the game, as finicky controls will cause you to fall victim to a stupid trap more times than any competent player should normally.

Perhaps the most devastating problem with the game, however, is a [b]very[/b] difficult boss battle that hits [b]immediately[/b] after switching to Disc 2; because the game forces you to save before switching discs, you might find yourself trapped in a no-win situation if you save over your file unprepared. Be aware of this and save to a different slot when you make it to this point, in case you feel the need to level up some more. I took the thing down on my fourth try after radically altering my deck-building strategy, but I never avoided combats at any point and made sure to upgrade my deck class regularly. There was only one point in the game where I felt I needed to level up before taking on a boss, and it came at a point where I had several other missions to complete anyway, so I just made that one the last on my “to do” list.

Overall, [i]Baten Kaitos Origins[/i] is a worthy successor to [i]Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean[/i] in just about every respect, while also standing on its own fairly well. Unlike the [i]Star Wars[/i] movies, I believe that this is a prequel that may actually benefit from being experienced [i]before[/i] the original rather than giving away all of its secrets in advance. It means taking some “downgrades” if you want to continue the story, but both plotlines are independent enough that playing through them in either order will feel “right”, with the references made in [i]BKO[/i] being treated as foreshadowing instead.

LEGO Star Wars 2

October 16, 2006

GameCube / Reviews / by Chris Ingersoll /

[i]Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy[/i] ([i]LSW2[/i]) is a difficult game to review. I keep finding myself trying to reconcile my need for well-designed, challenging problems with my appreciation for simplistic gameplay and Just Dumb Fun; my mature gaming tastes are both at odds with and acting in concert with my childish glee. It’s as if I’m trapped between two worlds — somewhat fitting for this “your-chocolate-in-my-peanut butter” sequel, which is every bit as bipolar as its predecessor.

At its core, [i]LSW2[/i] is a basic platformer with strong collect-a-thon elements for you obsessive types. You proceed through the three episodes in the original Star Wars trilogy, each comprised of six sub-chapters, collecting Lego studs (the game’s currency) and blasting pretty much everything that moves and, to be honest, just about anything else you feel like blasting as well. There’s no real strategy to it; it’s barely even beyond base button-mashing at times. Occasionally you’ll have to stop and figure out how to bypass an obstacle, but generally the answer is lying in a nearby heap of Lego bricks waiting for you to assemble them into a platform, cannon, or what-have-you — and if you don’t see a heap, then you probably have to make one by blasting stuff. If you’re not concerned with acquiring True Jedi Status (by collecting a set number of studs per chapter), then you have all the time in the world to experiment and muddle your way through somehow, as you can respawn indefinitely without caring that you probably lose a couple thousand studs each time. There is literally no pressure and frankly not too much challenge either.

With that being said, I don’t want to meet the kind of gamer who is unable to enjoy this game. If you can honestly say that you’ve played through a couple of levels of either this game or the previous [i]LSW[/i] and didn’t have a smile on your face as you gleefully (and probably systematically) dismantled every wall, barrel, console, and enemy with repeated application of a plastic lightsaber, then you’ve lost all sense of your childhood (or possibly never had one to speak of). This is exactly the same type of gameplay that makes Rampage so popular, and it has a much better presentation and (licensed) storyline than any of the titles in Midway’s Godzilla/King Kong homage.

At the heart of [i]LSW2[/i] is simplicity, much like the plastic building blocks from which the graphics take their unique look. You never need any more than four buttons in Story Mode: jump (some characters can double-jump), attack/defend, switch characters, and build/special; for “Free Play” mode (unlocked for each chapter after you complete it in Story Mode), you also need one or two for changing your current character. Using those simple commands and the unique abilities of each character (class), you have all the tools you need to progress through the game. This is literally gameplay so simple that a child can master it. In fact, with no frustrating limiting factors, this is a great title for less-experienced gamers (both young and old); every mode also offers cooperative play for two players, meaning you can play right beside your child, younger sibling, parent, grandparent, boy/girlfriend, specially-trained monkey… whatever. Why should you hog all the fun for yourself, after all?

In addition to the Free Play modes, there are unlockable bonus levels for each Episode once you complete all six chapters and have enough Gold Bricks. There are also some additional levels that you can unlock as you progress through the game. All those studs you collected can be used to purchase additional characters for Free Play as you encounter them in the game, as well as to buy cheat options (powered-up blasters, invulnerability, mini-kit detectors, etc.) that you unlock by finding each chapter’s red Power Brick — often fiendishly hidden away in the most out-of-the-way locales. You can also mix and match certain character “pieces” to create your own characters for Free Play, either combining various abilities or just creating your own distinctive look. Finally, for the price of 200,000 studs, you can unlock the ability to import your [i]LSW[/i] save file and most of the characters and mini-kits you’ve obtained in the first title (although some characters won’t be carried over due to their inclusion in [i]LSW2[/i]), assuming you played it on the same platform; Xbox360 owners can purchase an equivalent file from the Marketplace, since that system didn’t get [i]LSW[/i].

Visually, the game combines basic plastic bricks with 21st-century gaming technology to both simulate an actual Lego play experience and improve upon it, adding reflections, lighting, facial expressions (Lego Han’s smirk is awesome) and some rudimentary physics to the distinctive blocky construction. In-game cut scenes advance the plot in the finest pantomime traditions (plastic bricks don’t talk, but they do occasionally laugh and otherwise audibly emote) at fairly regular intervals. In the audio department, the usual top-shelf Star Wars score accompanies most scenes, with LucasArts sound effects providing authentic lightsaber swings and blaster shots along with the ever-present explosions.

The game is not perfect, however. The most annoying aspect is the usual bane of 3rd-person platforming titles: the camera. You can pan it a bit to look around, but there is no zoom or free-roaming ability, which can and will be a pain for some jumping puzzles. Additionally, those cut scenes I mentioned are unskippable, so you’ll have to sit through them each time you hit them. Finally, vehicle-based missions like the Rebel Attack on the Death Star (Episode IV, Chapter 6) can be difficult to control, as they moved from being “on rails” in [i]LSW[/i] to more free-range in [i]LSW2[/i]. I would also be remiss if I didn’t at least mention that there have been reports of the game locking up on a couple stages, across all platforms; fortunately, the game’s auto-save feature minimizes the losses caused by these occurrences, but they can still be aggravating if they strike near the end of a long session.

And so I find myself back where I was at the beginning of this review, unsure of how to actually score the game (at least as far as our ratings here at Snackbar Games go). The game’s absolute lack of difficulty means that you’ll probably beat the main Story Mode in the space of a rental, and you could probably unlock everything in an additional day or two if you devoted yourself to it. On the other hand, this is such a feel-good, play-anytime (with anyone) title that it almost deserves a full purchase just to have it in your library. I could go either way on this one, but in the end I think I’ll bump it up to a full purchase; despite the shortcomings, this is a quality title and you should easily get your money’s worth out of it — especially if you play co-op with a friend and/or someone you love.

Summon Night: Swordcraft Story

August 25, 2006

Game Boy Advance / Reviews / by Chris Ingersoll /

Like many other titles from Atlus, [i]Summon Night: Swordcraft Story[/i] quietly sailed in under most gamers’ radars (and in low quantities), but its quirky charm swiftly earns it a warm spot in the hearts of those who discover and play it – usually via word-of-mouth. It’s nothing revolutionary or world-shattering, and the box art and unwieldy title might actually turn some gamers away; it’s simply a solid (if brief) action-ish RPG with some interesting twists that make the game feel unique enough to stand out from the usual crowd of Square-Enix cookie-cutters or [i]PokA

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