Late to the Party Video Game Review: Captain Toad, Treasure Tracker

                I have never played Super Mario 3D World, the game where Captain Toad got its start, but I can understand the idea behind making this a game all its own.  Captain Toad is incredibly addicting.  The graphics are great, the gameplay mechanics are relatively easy, though having to rotate the world you are on while trying to walk can be difficult at times, and the difficulty level is perfect.  This is a great puzzle game with short enough levels that you can start and stop whenever you want.  I continuously find myself say “okay, one more level, okay, just one more” and on and on. 

                The premise behind the game is simple, you collect stars to advance in the storybook (each page is a new level) until you reach the end and rescue your companion (Toad or Toadette, depending on which book you’re in).  There are also other collectibles in each level, such as the three diamonds you need to gather to advance in the book (certain pages are only accessible when you have gathered the requisite number of diamonds – kind of like the stars in Super Mario Galaxy).  There are also coins to be collected, and the always illusive Gold Mushroom.  The game starts off simply enough, and honestly, the first book, where you’re Toad rescuing Toadette, is fairly simple.  As you go along though, the difficulty ratchets up, not just in the gathering of collectibles, but the completion of the stages themselves.  This makes for a better experience because, while I was able to breeze through the first book, the second book (where you play as Toadette) and the third book (where you play as both) push the difficulty up quite a few notches.  There is a fourth "bonus book" which includes missions that you can unlock by gathering the gems that are hidden throughout the main levels, just to keep the replayability, which is already fairly high, at a maximum rate.

                This is a great game if you love the Mario Bros. Franchise but are a little tired of the side-scrolling, jump on Goombas and save the Princess kind of adventure.  It’s a nice change of pace, much like the Luigi’s Mansion games, a new twist on a popular character.  I hope to see more of this kind of stuff from Nintendo in the future instead of the same old rehashing of a tired plot and gameplay mechanic that has become many of their Mario games of late.

Late to the Party Video Game Review: Super Smash Bros. WiiU

                I’m old enough to remember the first iteration of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 64, and while I am no connoisseur of fighting games, I enjoyed seeing Mario versus Donkey Kong, etc.  Personally, I thought Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii was the perfect fighting game.  It had great characters, the fighting game aspect was everything you remembered and loved about the series and the sidescrolling adventure that mixed in classic gameplay with bouts of fighting was the perfect addition to make it a fun game for the single player.

                Nintendo smartly decided to create a new Smash Bros. for the WiiU, adding more characters and beautiful graphics to go along with their new system.  Unfortunately, they replaced the sidescrolling adventure mode with a Mario Party-esque digital board game.  I played it, and I have to admit, for 90% of it I had no idea what was going on, until it was time to fight.  That was the biggest let down of the game, because at that point, there’s not much left to the game for the single player.  Is it fun to fight against your friends (or in my case, my son, who always has to be Little Mac for some reason)?  Of course it is.  Beyond that though…there’s not much to keep me there.  It’s fun to pick up every once in awhile and try out a new character, play through the game with a new set of moves, maybe even try to master the Duck Hunt Dog or Wii Fit Trainer, but beyond that, it doesn’t hold a lot of replay value.

                The graphics are great, as expected, the controls are relatively easy (though easier with the WiiU pad than the stick controller) and the amount of and variance of characters is awesome.  Unfortunately, as fighting games are expanding to add longevity to their “shelf life” Super Smash Bros. U to a step back.  Even Mortal Kombat added different modes of play to keep things interesting. 

                One final word about the Amiibos, Nintendo’s “Toys to Life” game companions:  they are completely and utterly useless.  In Skylanders, you can play as the toys you collect, in Disney Infinity, you can play with the toys you collect, with Amiibos, you bring them in to the game to earn experience…and that’s it.  There have no utility in the game itself.  You can fight against them, sure, but why would I go out and buy a Donkey Kong Amiibo only to fight against it?  I want him on my team!  This, plus hearing that any progress made with the Amiibos in Smash Bros. needs to be erased before you can use them in the upcoming Marioparty 10 makes me wonder what the hell Nintendo is thinking.  The sculpts are great, they all look beautiful, for the most part, but where Skylanders seems to have perfected the genre from the get-go, Nintendo seemed like it threw something together to avoid being left in the dust.

                All in all, Super Smash Bros. WiiU is about what you’d expect from a fighting game, but not enough to make it a good next-gen fighting game.  I still love kicking ass and taking names as Bowser, but it’s nothing I would do with any real regularity.

Late to the Party Video Game Review: New Super Mario Bros. U

                I would venture a guess that 95% of people that have ever played video games have played Super Mario Brothers in some iteration.  This is not a bad thing, the Mario Brothers games are awesome and were many child’s “gateway drug” to video games.  They are incredibly fun to play, with enough of a challenge to keep even a serious gamer busy (and frustrated at times).  The main problem is that once you play one Super Mario Bros. game, you’ve pretty much played them all.  Don’t let Nintendo try to tell you any different either, because their definition of a different Mario experience apparently consists of new suits that do the same things as before (seriously, a leaf, a feather, an acorn, they all make you float).

                I do understand Nintendo releasing a new Mario game with each new system, obviously you want to keep your flagship character relevant.  What I have an issue with is the fact that I have played this game before, and not just a game like this one, but this exact game.  Pretty much every side-scrolling Mario game is the exact same since the unheralded success of Super Mario Bros. 3, and while sticking to a formula is never a bad thing, making the exact same game with better graphics is.  This is not to take away from the fun of the game, it was a good time, but it offered nothing new at all. 

                The game starts off easy enough and gets progressively more difficult as the “worlds” progress.  The individual stages are what is difficult though, not the bosses, those are still incredibly easy, jump on their head three times and they’re dead.  It does seem like this version of the game took a page out of the book of New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the 3DS and made the acquisition of 1ups and extra lives that much easier (and boy do you need it in certain spots).  I was damn-near ready to give up at one point after dying multiple times in a row and getting stuck on a random stage for a good forty minutes.  My perseverance paid off though and I made it to the next tough stage before eventually beating Bowser and saving the princess (yet again). 

                The graphics in this game are downright beautiful, fully utilizing the HD capability of the WiiU.  The controls are still the same as they ever were, except the jump button and the “run” button have a strange configuration (to me at least) which led to a few painful deaths.  The controls are easy to get used to, especially if this isn’t your first Mario game, and do not really take away from the game at all.  The addition of Yoshi, even though it is few and far between, is nice as well.  The “worlds” you have to traverse are similar as well: traditional, desert, ice, water (ugh, water), giant, cloud, Koopa castle, etc., and while they are fun in their own right, are way too similar to anything else we’ve played over the past twenty years when it comes to this series. 

                In short, if this is your first Mario game, or your first in a while, you’ll be happily surprised that this franchise has stayed exactly the same.  If you are not new to the series, don’t waste your money (it’s still nearly $50) when you can just download Super Mario Bros. 3 from the Eshop for $10. 

Late to the Party Video Game Review – Pikmin 3

                The WiiU is pretty sparse when it comes to titles in general, especially titles created specifically for that platform.  Pikmin 3 is one of the only non-Mario WiiU exclusives out there that has received any kind of acclaim.  Was it worth it, or was it just like any girl at the Kubert School…pretty by default.  Let’s see.

                First of all, even though the characters themselves are cartoony in nature, the backgrounds are completely realistically realized, and they are stunning.  In fact, the backgrounds look even more realistic because they are populated by cartoony monsters and characters.  The fruit that you need to collect is completely realistic as well and everything environmental effects abound.  When it rains, everything looks wet.  While that may sound like a “no shit, Sherlock” statement, the fact that no stone is left unturned in that respect is incredible.  The designers could have easily made it so that the ground looked wet, or there was some “water” on the screen so you got the impression of rain, but no.  I actually feel wet while playing it, it looks that real. 

                The story itself is a pretty basic one.  You are pretty much on one giant “fetch-quest”.  Something that would take up only a small part of a larger game like Skyrim or Dragon-Age is the entire game here.  That could be why the game itself is fairly short.  You mission is to find fruit for your home planet because (social commentary alert) your home planet mis-managed their resources.  A good amount of your days are spent finding and harvesting fruit, while you also look for the other two members of your party.   Once you have all of your party together, you turn your attention to finding Olimar (who I believe was the star of the first few Pikmin games, right? I never played them) as well as your cosmic drive key so that you can actually take the fruit back home.  All of this is done in fifteen minute “days”.  At the end of each day (literally from sunup to sundown in the game) you retreat back to your ship with the Pikmin you have amassed, only to pick back up where you left off the next day.  Each day, you drink one bottle of juice (regardless of whether you have one, two or three people in your party) so you need to make sure you have enough juice, and have thereby found enough fruit in your daily travels.  This makes a big part of your day revolve around resource management.  Do I advance the story?  Do I stock up on fruit and/or Pikmin?  You have to make that decision almost on a daily basis.  Completists may want to get all of the fruit, but you can’t always access the fruit locations until later in the game, and *spoiler alert* once you’ve beaten the game, you’re done.  The game is so tied in to the story that once you have beaten the final boss, rescued Olimar and gotten your key back, that’s it.  Game over.  If you thought (like I did) that you would do all that and then be able to go back through and collect the fruit you were unable to get before (because it was underwater and you didn’t have blue PIkmin, or it was behind an electrified fence and you didn’t have yellow Pikmin) you are sadly mistaken, that is unless you want to beat the final boss again (you don’t, he’s a pain in the ass). 

                That is the one drawback to Pikmin 3.  I loved the graphics, the gameplay worked pretty well, I could have done without the gibberish that  they speak, but that’s just me, and even the length of the game was adequate, short but adequate (though if I had actually paid full price for the game I would have been a little pissed – luckily this was the Mario Kart 8 add-on).  Being handcuffed to the story and completely sabotaging the replayability of the game because of it left a sour taste in my mouth though.  I liked everything else about it so much that I looked forward to going back through and collecting the fruit I had neglected during the initial playthrough.  Now, not so much.  Will I pick the game up again at some point?  Maybe.  But a good game, with good replayability wouldn’t even leave me that choice.  I would be drawn to play the game again after beating it, like Pikmin 3 was on the way to doing until the twist ending came along. 

                The final verdict for Pikmin 3 is, like many Nintendo games unfortunately: It’s good but not something I would willingly pay full price for.  Pikmin 3 is a fun game, one that may not be suitable for kids based solely on the game mechanics, but is fun to play nonetheless.

Late to the Party Video Game Review: Mario Kart 8

                Generally I wait until I have beaten a game to give you the review, which is why you have yet to hear anything about Darksiders 2 and Wonderful 101 (I’m working on them, I promise).  With Mario Kart 8, I feel like I have played enough of it, despite just recently purchasing it, to do the game justice with a review.

                I love Mario Kart, my kids love Mario Kart, and while I wanted this game from the moment it was announced, sixty dollars is a steep price to pay.  Luckily, my brother brought to my attention that if you bought Mario Kart 8 and registered it on Club Nintendo by July 31, you got a free game (a $50 value!).  This was something that I found hard to pass up.  Not to mention the fact that I was able to knock twenty-five dollars off the price by cashing in some of my Gamestop points, and I was sold.  Two WiiU games for thirty-five dollars?  I doubt I’ll ever see Mario Kart for that much, much less two games (I chose Pikmin 3, that’s on the list for review as well).  I jumped at the opportunity.

                I went home and fired up the game and it was like an old friend greeted me.  I had Mario Kart for the Wii, though that was stolen from me along with the system last year, and I have the 3DS version as well (one of Logan’s favorite games).  Hell, I remember when I was younger, Mario Kart on the SNES was the only game my father would play with us, so to say that Mario Kart and I have quite the history would be an understatement.  Nintendo games in general and Mario games specifically are the kinds of games that are perfect for families, perfect games to share with your children, and because of that I would have recommended this game before I even started playing it.

                Now that I have played through a good portion of it (six different “cups” totaling twenty-four races) I can easily state that this is some of the most fun I have had playing the WiiU.  Now, I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t played the WiiU much, and I sure as shit haven’t explored much in the way of its full capabilities yet either, but Mario Kart 8 might just wake me up in that respect.  I have only played New Super Mario Brothers WiiU and Wonderful 101 on the system and while both were nice games, they didn’t really overwhelm me in any way.  Mario Kart 8 did that in spades though.  I was blown away from my very first race in terms of the graphics and the gameplay.  The graphics were beautiful, taking full advantage of the WiiU’s HD graphics to make every bit of the scenery as vibrant and breathtaking as possible.  The controls are easy to use and respond well regardless of whether you are using the traditional joystick method or the motion sensor (both options available on the gamepad). 

                The major difference (selling point?) of Mario Kart 8 is the inclusion of “hover craft” mode.  Unfortunately I didn’t see this utilized to any great degree within the races I participated in.  There are some instances where you can drive along the walls, usually collecting coins or speed bursts along the way, but more often than not, that mechanic is utilized along the general track, and because you are looking at the race from the perspective of being behind the racer, it doesn’t change much.  The initial view of the racetrack is impressive, seeing the track go from horizontal to vertical and back again, but beyond that it doesn’t give you a different feel when you’re actually racing.

                The courses in Mario Kart 8 are interesting and inventive.  They feel similar to other Mario Kart courses but only because of the amount of tracks I have raced on since the inception of the series.  The construction and slight nuances in the new courses are wonderful to behold (I’ve run into more than one wall while marveling at my surroundings).  As in every newer Mario Kart, the tracks are split between brand new tracks and old tracks, reimagined for the new system.  This is one of the first times I have seen those tracks completely reimagined.  Usually it’s just a matter of updating the graphics and making things a bit smoother for the new system.  With this edition of the game it looks like Nintendo upped their game and recreated the standard tracks, using the same premise as the old tracks but completely reinventing them so they feel brand new.

                Mario Kart 8, like all of the Mario Kart games is chock full of replayability.  Beyond just the standard of there being no real end to the game, no end boss or something of that nature, Nintendo gave you goals, things to unlock as you progress within the game.  The inclusion of coins on the track give you ways to unlock parts for your carts (as well as giving you a speed boost on the track itself) making the customization of your ride a constant thing.  In order to see how this customization effects the attributes of your kart, just hit the + button.  The ability to unlock other characters is fun as well.  My wife and I, even if we didn’t want to race the next race, couldn’t wait to see who we unlocked by beating the previous “cup”. 

                I’ll have to admit, the best part of this game was that I was able to bring it home, pop it in the system, give a controller to my wife and five minutes later, after choosing our characters and some cart customization we were literally off to the races.  We played for a good sixty to ninety minutes and had a great time doing it.  She even won a couple races!

                Whether you have kids or not, Mario Kart 8 is a perfect addition to your WiiU collection.  If you don’t have a WiiU yet, this is the game you were waiting for, trust me.