While a large portion of today’s gamers are too young to remember the NES, many of us grew up with the classic 8-bit system and its now-legendary roster of games. Being able to download these pieces of our youth via the Wii’s Virtual Console has been as enjoyable for us as it has been lucrative for the games’ publishers. While the games may be timeless, they are also familiar; we did all the heavy lifting and trial-and-error as kids, decades ago, and today we can coast through them on little more than muscle memory (after shaking off a little rust, perhaps). Nostalgia carries a certain amount of weight, but rediscovery is not as enjoyable as a new discovery.
Enter Mega Man 9. Capcom and developer Inti Creates have bestowed upon the gaming populace an 8-bit style Mega Man title that looks and feels like the games from our childhood, but offers totally new challenges while doing so. All of the classic Mega Man gameplay hallmarks are there: jumps requiring pinpoint accuracy, disappearing block puzzles, deadly spike obstacles, surprise enemies meant to knock you into bottomless pits, shielded Sniper Joe, Hard Hats, and of course eight new robot masters and their special weapons. Players with 8-bit Mega Man experience (either via their youth or thanks to recent Virtual Console tie-in offerings of the original title and its first sequel) will know what else that means: punishing difficulty. You will die. You will die cheaply. And no matter how much you may curse and scream, you will love it and keep coming back for more until you stop dying.
Thankfully, Mega Man 9 is not all new twists on old tricks and hair-pulling frustration. The old password system has been abandoned for a more modern (and much welcome) multiple-slot save file. The ability to charge up the Mega Buster, first introduced in Mega Man 4, has been removed as well; this returns the player’s focus on the special weapons, which had been lacking ever since the charge shot became commonplace. Finally, the developers have put forth 50 challenges to test your Mega Mettle, ranging from simple time attacks to hardcore demonstrations of skill; online leaderboards even offer bragging rights to the fastest of the fast. As if that was not enough, some downloadable content is also available to provide further challenges.
In an age where it seems unusual for a year to go by without a half-dozen new games bearing some sort of Mega Man title being released, the sprawling franchise has finally returned to its roots with Mega Man 9. Two-button 8-bit action gameplay may not be everyone’s favorite genre, but Mega Man 9 is an experience every gamer should have. It is a labor of love from its creators (including the father of Mega Man, Keiji Inafune), and a testament to how basic gameplay elements can still produce an exceptional gameplay experience.
Playing MLB Power Pros 2008 feels strangely familiar.
Okay, so maybe it’s not so strange. For all intents and purposes, 2008 is exactly like the previous Power Pros installment. Similar things are said about Madden and other sports series, but at least with those versions there are incremental graphics updates and a few extra modes.
The only things really changed besides updated rosters are the storyline of Success Mode and MLB Life mode. Now, instead of working your way through a college team to the pros, you work your way up the minor leagues. Unfortunately, this plays almost identically, so it’s mostly cosmetic. MLB Life is essentially Success Mode that allows you to play out the rest of a current major leaguer’s career.
That said, the original Power Pros was a solid title, earning a stellar 5/5 here at Snackbar Games. It continues to have the depth of its predecessor. It continues to have a deceptively steep learning curve in the one-player modes, and it continues to be highly accessible in the multiplayer ones. We could rehash last year’s review, but it all is still true, so go ahead and read it for yourself.
If you have the first Power Pros, don’t get this one unless you want the new rosters. If you don’t have it, get either one. You shouldn’t miss both, though.
Last year’s Transformers: The Movie was one of those that had the potential to spawn a decent tie-in game. After all, giant fighting robots…what could go wrong?
Apparently a few things. The in-game camera never shows what it should be, and the point-to-look scheme makes it difficult to move and aim. The campaigns seem shorter and much less epic than the film. Also, if you want to do something that doesn’t involve shooting a beam at robots or hitting robots, you’re out of luck.
Developer Traveller’s Tales took care of these titles, and their recent success with Lego Star Wars and other Lego games caused the expectations for this game to rise. Unfortunately, the bar is just not met. The base of this game has a GTA-esque feel. Players can transform to either car or robot to travel around the city, reaching destinations and chasing down enemy bots. Unfortunately, it’s hard to make a city feel realistic and interactive, and Rockstar continues to show up the rest of the industry on this front.
The game includes two campaigns: the boring, goody-goody antics of the Autobots and the destructive, slightly-more-interesting escapades of the Decepticons. While the Autobots must protect civilians and property and are more generic car-bots, Decepticons have no such restrictions and have more interesting transformations, such as helicopters. Most missions still consist of finding robots, running up and waggling for a few seconds before moving to the next target. Either way, it ends quickly, and there’s no real replay value.
Things aren’t all bad. Transformers is one of the better looking games on the system, and the voice acting isn’t completely horrible. Regardless, if you like Transformers enough for those to redeem this game, you already own it.
As a long time gamer, I am no stranger to flying controllers. In fact, some games have driven me to the brink and that has occasionally resulted in purchasing additional controllers. When the Wii was released, controllers continued to be slung through the air, but for a different reason.
Replacing a $40 or $50 controller hurts, but not nearly as bad as replacing a $2000 television. The epidemic became so widespread that a website was launched to let everyone share in the pain of those that either didn’t heed Nintendo’s warning to use the wrist strap or were stung by the first generation straps that were apparently not strong enough to actually keep the remote from leaving your hand.
I recently felt that same pain as my 4yr old sent a matchbox car sailing through the front of my LCD. After doing some research, I found a product that would save us all the pain of experiencing this first hand, TV Armor.
TV Armor is a A
Cocoto is something of a mascot for Neko Entertainment. He races go-karts, he goes on platforming adventures, and in Magic Circus he goes on a target-shooting spree in order to save his fairy friend from an evil clown. The story serves as a device to get Cocoto to the circus where, in order to advance, he must beat shooting mini-game after shooting mini-game.
The package claims there are 40 mini-games included in Cocoto Magic Circus. In reality there is one minigame with numerous skins. Everything you do will be some variant of the old carnival standby, target shooting. Some challenges have you shooting living critters. Other challenges have you shooting at moving pictures of those living critters. Still others require the use of only one bullet or taking out a primary target with a secondary target behind it. Each mini-game also has balloons in it. Shoot the balloons and the screen shakes or turns upside-down.
Cocoto Magic Circus, in addition to bing the same mini-game over and over, is painfully short. Most players can complete the game on normal in about an hour. Multiplayer lengthens the experience a little bit, but if you’ve played Link’s Crossbow Training then there is no reason to pick up Cocoto Magic Circus.
If Cocoto Magic Circus is anything then it is straight-forward. There are no unlockables, no hidden game modes, and no originality. Point, shoot, lather, rinse, and repeat. Unless you’re really hurting for a Wii-remote powered shooting gallery pass on Cocoto Magic Circus.
