Final Game Update

Well Shitty Shuttle Shervish has had a rough run, but I am happy to say that we will have a game to present on the final day. I feel kind of strange trying to write an update now, especially since we haven't met yet to determine how we will present, and everyone will know everything soon anyway. Well it has been especially tough recently because we have of course been busy with other projects and tests besides this game. But by splitting up the work we were able to find times to work on it that fit into our own unique and crazy schedules. I just hope that everyone enjoys the game, I know my boss is waiting to run over some freshmen walking in the street.

Mario Kart Wii

So I wasn't sure if we were supposed to do a blog for this week or not. I thought we were done but it is on the schedule as being homework for last week. I guess it can't hurt to do one more game review right?

But then again, it was the week before/of finals. Luckily I happened to play Mario Kart with my roommate one night.

Mario Kart is of course a classic Nintendo racing game featuring mostly Mario related characters and is known for having pretty fun and interesting tracks and items that can be used.

Let's look at what the Wii version does right. The Wiimote in a steering wheel holder makes for a fun and engaging game experience. It may bot be just like driving, but it is a lot closer than using a joystick. This version also doesn't overkill trying to be more innovative than the other entries. This may not sound like a good thing, but too many crazy items or just strange tracks could ruin the game. The original did a lot right, and what this franchise does well is to make gameplay improvements, but doesn't try to drastically reinvent a game that isn't broken.

The not so good would include a few new obnoxious courses. There are simply just some tracks that are not as fun as the others. There are also a lot of tracks that are the exact same, or at least very similar, to their older counterparts. I would prefer a few more unique tracks and maybe have some older ones in a special extra place. The more tracks the merrier.

My theory is that if a game is fun both sober and drunk it is a solid game, so this gets a well deserved 4.5 out of 5 mushrooms, mostly because I finally beat my roommate!

Batman: Arkham Asylum

So I failed my one goal for my blog, to finish this game by the end of the semester. But you know, life happened and I kept having to play other games for the blog. However, I did get some enjoyable playing time in.

In Arkham Asylum the Joker has been arrested and is transported to the prison. Harley Quinn takes control of the security system, which allows the Joker to escape. Well not escape the prison, he has far more fun plans, guiding Batman where he pleases in the prison. I do recommend playing this game so I don't want to give away too much about the plot, but I will say that there is a good reason the Joker wants to stick around in Arkham.

The game is third person over the shoulder, not my favorite, but the game is so cinematic that I can live with it.

In this game there are a variety of puzzles to figure out, but also a lot of awesome fighting. I really like the blend, because I love both puzzle and action games. Some games that try to mix the two do not blend them well, and the puzzles seem like they are there just for the sake of having a puzzle. But in this game the puzzles are incorporated into the story and sometimes you have to figure out a puzzle while fighting, or the fight becomes a puzzle in itself. Yeah most of the time I was fighting I was just button mashing, but the visuals made it feel like much more. Did I mention this game is gorgeous?

Arkham Asylum also gives Batman some cool tools to use. I must admit that this is the only Batman game that I recall every playing, but I just assume at least most of them don't have a detective mode where smaller clues become visible. Yeah that is kind of BS, but when you are in the game it makes you feel like an ace sleuth. That and some of the clues aren't that easy to find anyway. There are also a number of cool gadgets. The best way to utilize gadgets is to hand down from a statue, grab a goon, and leave him hanging in the air upside down. Well it's between that and gliding down and tackling one.

There is also a way to silently take down goons. This game does a great job of allowing the player to decide how they want to go about completing their objectives, and even how to win a fight. The game uses the security system to guide the player by blocking off certain areas at different times, but the player has great freedom in deciding how they will play the game. Do you just power through everything, running around haphazardly? Do you sneak around trying to obtain information to one up the opponents?

I think the only thing I didn't like about the game was the intro that couldn't be skipped. The first time I started playing, back before my XBOX officially died, I had to restart after a while because my console froze. It wasn't redoing the gameplay that bothered me, it was having to watch the Joker be taken through Arkam again that bugged me.


Other than that, this game is awesome gameplay wise and visually. I just hope I have time to finish it up next semester.

I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Game update 5

Just a reminder, I'm part of Team JJKJKJKK whose game is, of course, Shitty Shuttle Shervish.

So after a time of appropriately being very worried about the game, we are now on track to having a complete game to turn in during finals week. We have simplified just about every aspect of the game to make it more manageable. We will have a good representation of what our game will be like for the formal play testing.

That being said, we will still have a lot of other things to add for the finalized version on top of adjusting the game for the comments that we receive. For the final version we will continue to improve the opening, add sounds, add visual effects, and find a good way to make the obstacles generate randomly.

Quite a bit of work but very manageable.

NFL Blitz 2000

So this week being a break week I was sans a current console system almost the whole time. But thankfully I was able to dig out an N64 and a copy of Blitz 2000. Yeah I know, very fitting for Thanksgiving week.

This game is nothing like the Madden games, and thank God. Those games get really detailed and I don't really like sports games all that much. There are some basic plays to choose from, but there is a lot of room to freestyle in this game. Also, there isn't this whole lame 10 yards for a first down, try 30. This is because the plays are more dramatic and often result in lots of yardage. This game is all about excitement. And to heighten it there are only 7 players on each team. This not only makes the game more simple to control, but also allows for runners to get by defensive players a lot more ease.

But who really cares about all that? What really makes this game awesome is that you can pound your opponents, even after the play has stopped. It is really easy to vent frustration when you can jump on your opponent even after they have scored and not be penalized for it. This game is a more violent and fast paced version of football. Pretty much it takes everything boring about football and gets rid of it. They don't even do extra point field goals, you can take the automatic 1 point or go for 2 points.

The game also makes it more difficult for the team in the lead to make the games more exciting. Yes it can be frustrating when you want to destroy a friend's self-esteem, but games are more thrilling when the result is uncertain until the end.

Maybe it is just my nostalgia talking, but this game earns a solid 5 out of 5 stars for its entertainment value alone.

Game update 4? Or 3? Whatever.

So unfortunately we could not get a reschedule for our appointment with the powerhouse people last Monday and no one in our group could  make the meeting. That will be rather costly as the time we have left to get this done grows ever shorter. Hopefully we can have something substantial for the digital prototype play testing.

We did get some good feedback about our character designs. Not necessarily about the designs themselves, but people asked questions that made us think about other parts of our game.

So there isn't much to update at this point, but there should be a lot more to talk about next week.

Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour

So for silly reasons I own a gamecube. I don't like it very much because the controllers were very silly and I found most of the games inferior to those of XBOX when it was actually a relevant console. But this is one of the few games that I have and got some amusement out of it. I brought this game out only because I recently watched Funny Games (the original one, maybe I'll watch the remake after we finish Shitty Shuttle Shervish so I can actually participate in making it without hating myself) so I don't feel that it is appropriate to review a game with lots of violence. Violence is not entertaining.

But back to the review. This is the sequel to the N64 game. I never played it, but thought it should be mentioned. I usually don't like sports games, unless they involve soccer, hockey, or snow sports, but the Mario sports games are usually pretty fun. This is an example of a fine Mario game. It's still golf, and golf is golf even with a giant ape. As frustrating as it can be I think I would prefer to play the Wii Sports golf game over this. The motion controller makes the gameplay more involving. Did I mention golf is pretty boring? I'm not really willing to spend much time playing a golf game where I just hit a few buttons every few minutes. At least with the Wii game there is a bit of action in between the boring bits.

There is one huge negative part to this game. It is really hard to make short puts because the way the power meter works. It involves a very quick "tap tap" but even then it can easily power over the hole. What is worse than a boring sport? A frustrating boring sport.

As much as I like playing games with friends, this is one of those games I'd rather play with just one other person or go solo. I don't have the patience to wait a long time until it is my turn. Again, golf games are fine to play, but watching them is really boring.

This game is fine all around, the courses are fun, the controls are fine except for that putting, but it isn't anything great. So for a very middle of the road game I give an average score of 2.5 stars out of 5.