I’ll be back tomorrow with my regularly scheduled update, but for now, here’s a video of my Remix II replays from NES Remix 2:
Full disclosure: I had a big mug of coffee before recording this, and humorously, you can tell I’m kinda wired throughout. I’m talking way too fast, and I run out of breath a few times as well!
I do like the energy, though, so hopefully I strike that happy medium next time.
For a couple of weeks now, I’ve been recording gameplay footage and providing running commentary for each of them. Although I really fumbled my way through the first couple videos — which took countless takes to finally get right — they’re becoming a lot less painful to do, which is a good sign.
My first one, which is already kind of difficult to watch, can be found HERE. Just listening to it, I can tell I was very distracted by the sound of my own voice in the room, and I was also likely trying to be quiet since family was on the other side of my closed door. Focusing through distractions I surely wasn’t.
For my second attempt, I tried something a little different, opting to do a preview of the game I’m currently playing, NES Remix 2 for the Wii U:
I wanted it to be slightly more formal, but still feel casual, and I think it turned out OK. There are, of course, a lot of things I would change, but instead of iterate endlessly on the same thing and risk it losing any sort of spontaneity (and me getting burnt out in the process), I decided to stop with what I had and publish it.
One of the most important bits of advice I ever heard was from one of my favorite YouTubers, boogie2988, who said to just keep creating content and get it all out there, no matter how you’re feeling, and eventually you’ll build up a base of fans, subscribers, and new friends. Check him out if you haven’t; he has a lot of great things to say. He also partially inspired me to start this whole GHG journey.
Anyway, I like the overall flow of that video, and I’m glad I was able to squeeze in the parts about Super Luigi Bros. and Championship Mode, which I still haven’t really spent any time with as I continue through the main game. One thing I do regret is not getting the information about Championship Mode right. A little pre-recording research would have made me sound less like an ignoramus! Oh well, c’est la vie.
My third video was a singular set of NES Remix 2 replays for Zelda II: The Adventure of Link:
What I wanted to do with this one was showcase a single, focused theme, going through all of the game’s challenges in order. I was also admittedly pretty proud of some of my times, so it’s a mildly selfish opportunity to show off a little bit, which is tough, since I don’t like bragging about much.
My voice still sounds a bit hesitant, with odd pauses, mixed-up tenses, phrases that don’t go together, and the dreaded “speaking from the throat”, which is a clear sign of nervousness.
This took me quite a few restarts to get going, and after about the tenth fail, I almost gave up. Good thing I didn’t, because about 95% of the audio here is from the final take that followed.
Today, I did my fourth video, which walks through all twenty of the first Remix I stages from the same game:
I feel like I’m starting to catch my stride here. Not only did I get this in just two takes, but I think I’m sounding more comfortable and relaxed.
Much like my blog posts, I need to work on better word variety, stamping out fillers like “you know”, “uhh”, “yeah”, etc., and like the First Impressions video earlier in this post, doing more research and preparation prior to hitting the record button would really help. It’s a small detail, but it’d be nice to be able to call out the actual enemy names and such instead of falling back on generics like “that guy”, “those baddies”, and “the boss”.
This is also my longest video at just about 12 minutes. That’s a lot of talking from someone known for being a pretty quiet guy.
Anyway, I’m having a blast doing this, and apologies again for everything being so NES Remix-focused recently. It’s such a fun series that I hope we see more of in the future. Just between the Game Boy Color, Super Nintendo, and Game Boy Advance, the possibilities are endless!
When you’re tired, it’s tough to get in front of the microphone. However, I bought one for a reason, so today I did a Let’s Play — or Let’s Replay, rather — for the Zelda II section of NES Remix 2:
A lot of my posts and social media updates lately have revolved around this game, and for good reason: It’s a lot of fun, and its short bursts of gameplay that focus on achieving the lowest times possible is highly addicting. It’s hard for me to think of another series — besides maybe the license tests from the Gran Turismo games — that have made me so obsessively replay stages over and over like this.
As I mention in the video, I’m currently working my way through the Kid Icarus levels, and for me anyway, this particular title feels like the Ice Climber of NES Remix 2.
The controls are slippery and seem almost broken at times. There is a very specific way that you have to do things in order for the controls to work correctly, so I suppose it’s just a matter of getting used to them.
I hate fighting so much with a game, though, and hopefully it clicks before too long. It’s highly regarded in the pantheon of classic NES titles, but one that I’ve never quite been able to get good at.
At any rate, sorry for the short update today, but I’ll have a new entry in my Industry Memoirs section by the end of the week. It’s been a while since I’ve written one of those, so I’m looking forward to diving back in!
In the meantime, here are a few more Miiverse sketches that I quickly did last night and this morning while finishing up my Zelda II stages:
It doesn’t look anything like the Master Sword, but without any reference material handy, this is about all I could come up with off the top of my head. I’ll draw a proper one soon!
For this one, I “increased” the resolution of the Link stamp, added some more detail to him, and attempted to make it look like the bolt was cutting through the numbers. I reduced the number of bits flying off of them since it was starting to look surprisingly gruesome.
Here’s an extreme close-up of the Triforce, or maybe it’s just a rock monument to the actual Triforce? Whatever the case may be, I made it look aged, with cracks and other rough details.
Finally, this is another one using stamps with the addition of a sunset, stairs from the alter, and other little bits. Hopefully the time on the sign — which is from one of the Kirby stamps — is readable on the small screen when it displays in-game.
Who would’ve thought that Nintendo’s latest console would be responsible for getting me back into art again? While many people — included myself — scoffed at and cast doubt upon the GamePad, in my opinion, it’s more than proven its worth.
Games like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD really benefit from it with its nice quick-access inventory/menu functionality, and off-TV play is fantastic for the games that support it. However, I think it’s the Miiverse — Nintendo’s social network for the Wii U and 3DS — where the GamePad truly shines.
It’s nice to type up messages like you would on Facebook and Twitter, but it’s the handwritten notes, hints, and pictures that you can leave for the community which I find the most fun. There are so many amazing artists out there, and many of them have inspired me to dust off my stylus and take a crack at drawing again.
I haven’t created much for the better part of 17 years. I loved doing anime-style work traditionally with Tria/Prismacolor markers on Letramax paper, and I took it pretty seriously at the time, dumping lots of money into supplies. Honestly, I don’t know why I stopped for so long. Doing it again now, I realize how much I missed it.
All of the sketches I did initially were for NES Remix. I drew little pictures here and there earlier this year, but I decided to jump in with both feet and sketch something bigger every time I got full rainbows on any of the games:
This drawing for Mario Bros. was first up. It’s become one of my more popular ones on the Miiverse. I don’t like the way his hat looks, but for a first attempt, I think it turned out OK. At this point, I was just getting used to the tool set, which is very light, but I think they work great.
Balloon Fight turned out to be a fun game, similar to the old arcade game Joust. For this one, I tried to make it look like his hand was stretching out towards the viewer, but I’m not sure it was all that effective.
I hated — and I mean really hated — Ice Climber when I first started playing it. It was one of the few games I honestly thought was broken! Over time, though, I learned how to play it well enough to get all the rainbows in it.
What do I think of it now? It’s OK, but I don’t know if I’ll be rushing out to play it again. For this sketch, I created an original character based loosely on the female second player from the game. The hammer inadvertently turned out looking like the mallet from Donkey Kong.
Here’s a Wind Waker-style Link to celebrate getting all the rainbows in the original Legend of Zelda. I loaded up a picture via Google for reference, and this is what I ended up with. Most of the shading is true to the original image, but I added more to give it a three-dimensional look.
My Simpsons-inspired Luigi that I drew shortly after starting NES Remix 2. I forgot to add highlights on his hair, and I totally got his mustache wrong. However, after several drawings in a row, I was starting to feel really comfortable with the sketching tools, trying new techniques with shading, and spending more time touching up my handwriting to give it some additional style.
As I’ve been progressing through NES Remix 2, I’ve been taking time to share some of my times as simpler, less time-consuming posts. Since this game doesn’t have leaderboards, this is the only way to share them in-game, which is unfortunate.
Anyway, I started off with this one using a Tanooki Mario stamp and more experimentation with hand-drawn motion effects and fonts. These only take a few minutes, but they’re still fun to make.
A “remix” of my own using Punch-Out!! and Super Mario Bros. 2 stamps, along with some hand-drawn elements to show motion and depth.
This one’s just silly, but I wanted to mess around with changing the look of the stamps themselves. Little Mac’s about to go Super Saiyan!
Running out of ideas, I tried something a little different with the bounce/impact effects, but besides that, there’s not much going on here…
…and so, I decided to detail out and stylize some numbers, which I loved doing back in high school.
When I got to Kirby’s Adventure, I went back to drawing the characters again. I’ve never tried to draw him before, and it’s harder than it looks! I took some liberties with his face design, but I like the way he turned out overall.
Another one of Kirby. Keen observers will notice that he’s actually blowing out instead of sucking in, but I guess in the context of displaying a score, it still works.
Anyway, as much fun as Miiverse posts are, I wanted to try my hand at getting back into color work too. I downloaded Art Academy: SketchPad on the Wii U, which is cheap at only $4, but it’s pretty limited in terms of functionality and drawing options.
I’ll write up a full review at a later date, but here’s my first piece: Finn the Human from the great cartoon Adventure Time:
All in all, I’m having a great time getting back into drawing, and again, I owe it all to the Wii U. It’s not only been a surprisingly good console for games, but it’s proven its worth on the creative side as well.
Please add me as a friend if you’d like to see more and follow my doodles. I’m ghibli99 on the Nintendo Network, so I’ll see you online!
I cannot tell a lie: I’m all sorts of addicted to this game.
Now, as much as I played the heck out of the first NES Remix, the sequel does just about everything better this time around, providing an experience that is more fun from the get-go.
First of all, the selection of games on display here is arguably better, mostly because they are newer and more refined in their gameplay and controls. Some, like Kirby’s Adventure and Wario’s Woods, were originally released in 1993 and 1994, respectively.
This is quite impressive given that the 32-bit PlayStation came out in 1994, two generations removed from the 8-bit NES. I always like seeing the differences between launch games and those from the end of a console cycle. It’s like night and day.
Anyway, another area that has seen noticeable improvements is the Miiverse. You can now watch replays from your friends — which are prioritized — and other players to see just how they got those low Clear Times. This is a terrific addition, and one of the best features of NES Remix 2. In my opinion, it’s always best to try figuring out how to get as low a time as possible on your own, but once you’ve hit a wall, watching ultra-fast runs really opens your eyes to shortcuts and other tricks.
Knowing what you need to do and actually doing it, though? These are two very different things that can be very difficult to replicate. I’ve retried stages many, many times in order to shave off a tenth of a second or two. It can be infuriating when you can’t seem to improve upon or even match the best Miiverse times, but it’s so much fun, and I find it nearly impossible to tear myself away from the game until I’m successful.
My mentality and approach to playing this has also changed. In the original NES Remix, I was perfectly satisfied and would move on if I just got 3 stars. I would eventually go back and rainbow star everything, but that wasn’t until much later. In NES Remix 2, I find myself almost obsessing over each stage, wanting to beat the lowest Miiverse times that appear for each one.
Doing things this way has made forward progress in the game a lot slower, but it has also given me a very deep appreciation for each individual title, and it underscores how well these old Nintendo games were designed. Even the ones that are just OK are elevated when the element of time comes into play.
Getting back to the Miiverse, another addition that makes a huge difference is that now the individual game and stage names are tagged in Miiverse posts. In the first NES Remix, if you were viewing updates outside of the game, you wouldn’t have any context, unless the person who wrote it put it in their post. Here, you can see which game and stage a post pertains to, so it’s a lot more helpful now.
I’ve been having a blast comparing times and doodling pictures for other Wii U players. I’ve mentioned it before, but the Miiverse is by far my favorite implementation of a console social network. It’s smooth, easy to use, and a lot of fun.
In terms of the actual Remix stages, I’ve barely scratched the surface. As I did with NES Remix, I’m going through all the individual games first before I take on the wacky and unique challenges to be found there.
I also haven’t really messed with the modes outside of the main game, namely Super Luigi Bros. and Championship Mode.
Any gripes so far? Yeah, one thing I’ve never liked in this series is that you can’t just forfeit a life and retry the current sub-stage you’re on. It’s annoying when your only options are to (a) restart the entire thing from scratch, (b) waste time trying to lose a life, or (c) wait for the sub-stage timer to end. Depending on the circumstances, this can take a long time, and a slight tweak in design could have made this so much more streamlined.
Another quibble is that occasionally, you’ll run into a challenge where one of the sub-stages is simply a long, drawn-out, non-interactive demo. I’m looking at you, Punch-Out!! and Kirby’s Adventure. Why they decided to put these in the game baffles me. If you replay these to improve your times, you will learn to hate them quickly.
Finally, I wish there were traditional leaderboards, with sorting options for friends, regions, and time periods. Currently, the only way to know what times your friends achieved is if they manually post them in the Miiverse. A more automated leaderboard system would have been so much better for a game like this.
Besides those things, however, this is one fantastic game. It takes the addictive formula of NES Remix and polishes it into a better experience. I look forward to playing through the rest of it, and I’ll keep my fingers crossed that SNES Remix isn’t far behind!
For more first impressions of NES Remix 2, check out my YouTube video HERE.
When I was in high school, memorizing and reciting poetry was a big part of my junior year English class. I distinctly remember Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken, which now, over two decades later, not only remains in my memory, but the content resonates with me more strongly than it ever has. Age and life in general have a tendency to do that.
After standing up in front of the class for the first time to deliver it, my teacher made a passing comment about how he thought I had a good speaking voice. Teens don’t have a reputation for ignoring the older generation for nothing; I got embarrassed, shrugged it off, and quickly went back to my desk. He would go on to say this a few more times throughout the school year, at one point saying I really needed to be on the radio. I would just smile uncomfortably and try to forget about it.
Why do we do this? I’ve never taken compliments well, and my first reaction — instead of doing the polite thing and saying thanks — is instead to downplay them. I mean, who knows? Had I instead taken my teacher’s words to heart, I might have gone on to study Media Communications or Broadcast Journalism in college, like my best friend did. I think he has a terrific speaking voice, and he went on to do great things on the TV news channels down in Florida.
Those words from high school stuck with me over the years. I never particularly cared for the way my voice sounded, and as a result, I never pursued anything in that realm. It’s like Werner Brandes (Stephen Tobolowsky) said in the terrific film Sneakers about his own voice, “I always thought it was kind of nasal and pinched.”
But as they say, one of the worst things you can do is have regrets in your life, so with one of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2014 being to face my fears, this week I decided to tackle them both by bringing my own voice to YouTube.
After doing considerable research and of course, talking myself out of buying the most expensive microphone available on Amazon, I picked up a Blue Snowball USB microphone. With good reviews and an inoffensive price point, I bought one along with a Nady MPF-6 pop filter. I was going to buy a small acoustical microphone shield, but it’s an expensive addition, so for now, I’ll likely just buy a piece of foam and create a do-it-yourself one, or use a small pillow.
The microphone itself is of very high quality and is available in a variety of different colors. I went with the brushed aluminum finish, which has a beautiful, classic look to it. Packaging is nice, and although the microphone housing is plastic, it has substantial heft and does not feel cheap. It sits on a sturdy, folding desktop stand, which the pop filter can be conveniently attached.
PC installation is simple: Just plug it into an open USB port, Windows auto-detects it, and you’re ready to start recording.
There are three settings on the microphone, which are designed for speech, live music (activates a -10 dB pad), and environmental (omni-directional). Mine shipped in position 3, so if you pick one of these up, be sure to select the appropriate setting before you begin.
The pop filter came in a somewhat cheap and flimsy blister pack, and the flexible gooseneck has a disappointing tendency to float and not stay in place during adjustment. However, it’s one of the cheaper options available, and if you’re going to be doing a lot of talking, this is a wise investment. Additionally, the stand mount is very solid, and once it’s in place, it stays put.
On the software side, for recording and editing, I have the open-source Audacity, which is easy and very comfortable for me to use. In many ways, it’s similar to one of my old favorites, Cool Edit. Still image, video, and audio integration is all done in Adobe Photoshop and CyberLink PowerDirector.
So with those details taken care of, it was time for the real work to begin. I sat there at my desk earlier this week pondering what exactly I wanted to talk about. Yeah, it would be related to gaming, but how exactly? My mind raced, thinking about the massive amount of current YouTube videogame content creators, and what — if anything — I could possibly bring to the table.
Feeling intimidated, I watched some of my favorites for some inspiration. The most important thing I realized is that the ones that I really like and keep coming back to are incredibly passionate people. They don’t just regurgitate what’s been said before, and you not only learn about the games they’re playing, but you gain meaningful and lasting insight into them as human beings. Sure, some of them do it more loudly than others, but there are just as many who are quiet and introspective. For every expletive-weaving Rageaholic there’s a mild-mannered Pete Dorr, and I like that. I like that a lot.
It opened my eyes. I stopped thinking about it too much, and decided to simply talk about the game I was ready to 100% complete: NES Remix for the Wii U. Now, as I’ve said before, I didn’t really like the game all that much at first, but later on it became one of my favorites. Even looking at that re-review today, I feel the game is even better now, with fantastic replay value and very fun Miiverse integration.
I should have know this next fact beforehand, but yeah, deciding to do something and actually doing it are two very, very different things. While I knew I wanted to discuss the final stage of NES Remix, exactly what I wanted to discuss was difficult to figure out. Would I need an intro? Would I just talk while I played? Would I write a script? Would I edit out the bad stuff? Would I just do a play-by-play of what I was doing? The questions in my mind went on and on.
To get the easier part out of the way, I wrote a script for the brief intro, which went pretty smoothly. Recording it took a good number of takes, as I experimented with different inflections and emphasis, but it was more so because I kept messing up!
For the actual gameplay, I would end up trying every approach. On my first attempt, I immediately gained a new-found respect for people who can play games well and talk coherently at the same time. It’s really hard to talk when you’re trying to concentrate on not dying in a game, and after several failures, I stopped and decided to save that one for later.
Next, I recorded myself playing, and when I was finally happy with the footage, I jotted down notes and scripted out the framework for what I wanted to cover during each segment. This too ended up being a failed style for me since as I was talking about one thing, my eyes would scan ahead, tripping up what I was trying to currently get out. Similarly to what I said above, folks who can read scripts, anticipate what’s ahead, and make it all sound natural have a great talent.
Finally, feeling a bit frustrated and on the verge of quitting, I decided to just do it commentary-style on the fly. I worried about this approach since I’m not the most talkative person on the face of the planet, and am an introvert by nature. However, I set out to get this done, and get it done I did. It took a few tries, but it ended up being the most natural and comfortable technique for me.
After finishing recording and getting everything tidied up in post, here is the result:
For a first attempt, I think it turned out OK. Of course, all I can fixate on are the little mistakes, long pauses, weird choice of words, and other such nitpicks. That’s the double-edged sword of being your own worst critic, right?
In any event, it feels good to have finally broken through this long-standing sound barrier in my life, and I appreciate the comments and suggestions I’ve already received from my friends, readers, and now viewers. I look forward to creating more of these, and as always, if you have any game or topic requests, please let me know. It’d be tons of fun to cover games I would have never thought to play otherwise.
It only takes a few moments to see influences from NES classics like the Super Mario Bros. series, DuckTales, and the Mega Man series in Shovel Knight‘s DNA. You’ll also be hit with other waves of nostalgia, being reminded of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Konami’s Castlevania series, Sega’s Golden Axe, and other favorites of a bygone era here. Whether references are intentional or not, it’ll feel like the late-’80s again, and in all the best ways possible.
Now, retro-style games have become rather cliched in recent years. The style is very popular for indie and mobile titles, and while I understand the opinion that not utilizing the latest cutting-edge graphic technologies doesn’t move things forward, I personally love it. It’s fascinating to see what modern artists are capable of pulling off with big pixels and limited color palettes. It’s that whole mentality of doing more with less that can potentially yield results even more impressive than the latest blockbuster on the newest consoles. Yes, I love the way Muramasa Rebirth looks on the Vita, but I can equally appreciate the lovingly crafted spritework in Daisuke Amaya’s Cave Story. Don’t let the 8-bit style turn you off, though; Shovel Knight‘s graphics are superb — borderline 16-bit at times as the best 8-bit games were — and animation is detailed, smooth, and brimming with character.
The same can be said about music in games. While I absolutely loved the work of Gustavo Santaolalla in The Last of Us — one of my all-time favorite PS3 games — I equally enjoy what Jake Kaufman and Manami Matsumae have done here in Shovel Knight. Much like oldschool graphics, music that has to be created without the use of real instruments and limited sound channels often produce stunning compositions that transcend the technology itself. One of Shovel Knight‘s first tracks, “Strike the Earth! (Plains of Passage)”, is so inspired and sounds like it could have leaped from the very best of the 8-bit era. In fact, so much of Shovel Knight is of the highest quality that if it had actually come out during the NES era, it would no doubt be regarded as one of the best games of all-time.
The graphics and music are indeed terrific, and Shovel Knight shines in the gameplay department as well. Its closest relatives would be Castlevania and DuckTales; just think of your shovel as Simon Belmont’s whip or Uncle Scrooge’s cane. Mechanically, it works quite similarly in terms of being a short-ranged melee weapon and a tool for bouncing on enemies and other environmental obstacles. However, chalk it up to the influence of modern gaming to have the greatest effect where it matters most: controls. Shovel Knight‘s controls are perfect, and I can’t think of a single death that occurred because the controls weren’t responsive enough or didn’t do what I wanted. Tight controls (or lack thereof) will make or break platform games, and to its credit, Shovel Knight absolutely hits the nail on the head in this regard.
At its heart, Shovel Knight is a tried and true action platformer with some RPG overtones in terms of armor, weapon, and subweapon upgrades, each having their own set of strengths and weaknesses. Levels are long, and full of branching pathways and hidden alcoves. Discovering them is a joy, and much of Shovel Knight‘s challenge is in finding them all. Writing is also a strong point, with excellent dialogue and a surprisingly poignant and personal story. I had goosebumps by the game’s final scenes, which is a testament to the developer giving every facet of Shovel Knight equal attention.
There are modern conveniences like auto-saving and numerous level checkpoints, but Yacht Club Games changes things up a bit to make its death and continue system have actual consequence. I think one of the game’s neatest feature is how you are given the option to destroy the various level checkpoints. By doing so, you’ll collect extra treasures, but as a result, you’ll no longer be able to continue from that point if you die. This creates scenarios where you have to make it through an entire level in one life or be sent back to the very beginning.
Keeping the checkpoints in place doesn’t give you a free pass, though. Dying separates you from a good chunk of your loot, and if you want it back, you’ll have to collect it from where you died, which is sometimes impossible depending on where exactly you bit the bullet. This is a nice change from most modern games, where death carries with it no ramifications.
The one area of the game that feels slightly undercooked are a few of the boss fights. They are all beautiful to look at and have interesting and learnable attack patterns, but many of them can be defeated rather easily on your first attempt. Being able to carry multiple items that fully refill your health and magic meters further diminishes the challenge if you choose to utilize them. In some cases, though, I appreciated these battles being a little easier after taking a serious beating through some of the level trials preceding them.
Between all of the great action are these wonderful, quiet moments full of reflective calm and other surprises. They’re a great inclusion that very much reminded me of Golden Axe‘s intermission campfire scenes where you can stock up on health and magic potions. However, these brilliantly build a strong bond between the game’s key characters in haunting and meaningful ways. I always looked forward to these after defeating one of the game’s bosses.
The game’s achievements, or “Feats” as they’re called here, are definitely worth mentioning. There are some truly challenging ones that will give trophy hunters a run for their money, extending the life of the game for those who want to extract the most out of it. A number of them run completely opposite to one another, so don’t expect to get them all in one shot. Speaking of the game’s length, it took me about 7 hours to finish it the first time (the in-game clock had me at around 6 hours and 40 minutes), and even though I took my time, I only found about 65% of the game’s hidden Music Sheets, which unlock music tracks inside an in-game sound test. There were also some other important items I missed along the way, so the game definitely will take more than one playthrough to see and do everything.
Not only that, but a New Game+ mode is also included, which ups the challenge for those seeking a more difficult playthrough, but lets you keep all your upgrades from your first time through.
And last but not least, I have to point out the game’s humor. I mentioned earlier that the writing in the game is excellent, and while that applies to Shovel Knight‘s serious dialogue, it equally enhances the more lighthearted exchanges as well. It’s full of puns and other high-energy, exclamation point-filled zingers that make all of the NPCs interesting to talk to.
Shovel Knight is a special game. It represents the pinnacle of 8-bit sensibilities with the refinements of modern game design, wrapped up in a beautiful package that will remind you of all the things that drew you to videogames in the first place. Also available for the Nintendo Wii U and 3DS, Shovel Knight is not to be missed and is an easy contender for Game of the Year.
June hurt. A lot. Although I didn’t spend a lot of money ($63.75), I only finished 2 games worth $20.00. With the year already halfway over, heading into July with only a +2 advantage isn’t the most positive of omens. Let’s hope the rest of the year turns things around! Anyway, the format, as with previous updates, is Game Title (Platform, Purchase Price, Play Time).
Lego City Undercover (Wii U, $5.00)
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (PC, $3.75)
NES Remix (Wii U, $15.00, 15 hrs.)And with that, we head into the second half of 2014! If E3 is any indicator, it’s going to take some serious willpower to make it through the rest of the year in positive territory.
I stopped the bleeding (somewhat) in May. I bought 7 games and finished 6, so I was pretty happy about that. June is not looking pretty by any stretch of the imagination though — 9 bought and 2 finished with only 3 days left this month! — but I’ll hopefully be able to squeeze in one or two more before the year’s half over. Do or do not, there is no try, right? Anyway, the format, like before, is Game Title (Platform, Purchase Price, Play Time).
Child of Light (PC, $12.00)
Rogue Legacy (PC, $3.75)
Tearaway (Vita, $40.00, 10 hrs.)
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse 1990 (PS3, Free, 3 hrs.)A -1 finish overall for the month, and I ended up $25.25 in the hole, which isn’t too bad. If I just had to pick one or two games to recommend to my readers, it’d be Tearaway and Monument Valley, two very unique gaming experiences that you won’t soon forget.
I gave NES Remix a B- earlier this year, after losing interest in it rather quickly. When I bought it, I was expecting it to be similar to the WarioWare series, with quick, bite-sized challenges of increasing difficulty. In a way, that’s exactly what I got. However, instead of just a well-timed button press here or a tilt of the GBA there, these challenges required more effort and patience. In other words, you have to be good at these games. Did I really want to be devoting valuable time to games like Balloon Fight and Wrecking Crew, after not really caring about them in the ’80s? Those opposing forces really conflicted me, and before I knew it, I was getting frustrated trying to relearn these old 8-bit games.
But as I’ve learned time and time again, stepping away from games can often bring me back with a more open mind. After spending more time with it, digging deeper into its many challenges, my appreciation for it has definitely grown. While I still think that the game selection itself runs the entire quality gamut from poor to excellent, what the developer Indieszero has put together here is really quite impressive.
It’d be easy to say that they just wrapped a NES emulator inside another game engine, but when you stop and think about what it took to make all of this function the way it does, it’s pretty amazing.
As a sidenote, I think one of the best features of the Wii U is the Miiverse, with its individual game communities, excellent player interaction, and what was introduced first in Super Mario 3D World: stamps. NES Remix‘s implementation is cool in that you not only earn stamps and can use them in Miiverse posts, but they are displayed to other users, including best times and star ratings. Some of the scores I’ve seen from other players have been very impressive, as is the artwork I’ve seen. There are some incredibly talented artists out there, and I love discovering them.
My meager attempt — like the one pictured here — is just a tiny example of how you can blend hand-drawn pictures with stamps. It’s a lot of fun, the community seems to do a good job of policing itself, and the Wii U GamePad works surprisingly well for drawing.
I still have a considerable ways to go before I get 3 stars on everything, but even at this relatively late point in the game, I keep running into little fun surprises. For example, you can buy the old games featured in NES Remix on the eShop. That’s not the cool part, though. What’s cool is they created this fun Legend of Zelda-themed screen before taking you to the store. It’s a great touch that they didn’t really need to put in there, but they did anyway.
NES Remix also does a really good job of rolling out new content and challenges to the player constantly. Every time I think I’ve unlocked the last game, a new one pops up, or more Remix stages appear, and there are surprises beyond that. I loved the way Turn 10 did this in Forza Motorsport 4, and it’s just as effective and rewarding here.
I also like that there are embedded curve balls thrown into the Remix stages, so just when you think you know what you’re going to have to do, you’re asked to do things that you’ve probably never done in these games. Those moments are the most memorable, like the one above where Luigi not only has to get through one of Donkey Kong‘s stages that has been flipped horizontally, but then make it all the way back to the beginning. Some of the other stages seem borderline unfair at times, but you can tell that the designers had a blast coming up with all sorts of ways to really mess with our decades-old muscle memory.
In closing, this has been my go-to game for the past week. Whenever I have a few minutes, I’ll immediately turn this on and collect several more stars. It’s great being able to do everything from the GamePad too; this is precisely the type of title that’s perfectly suited for it. Although I still can’t get over how bad the controls are in games like Ice Climber, Urban Champion, and the original Mario Bros. (non-Super), this is still a great compilation that will make you look at the NES era in entirely new ways.
