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Quick Message posted by Jer on November 30, 2011 @ 05:10 |
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Quick Message posted by Jer on November 30, 2011 @ 05:10 | [x] |
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I'm moving into a new apartment and will be without internet for a while. I am hoping against hope that when I return I will be able to start updating fairly regularly again. We'll see. | ||
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Kirby Comments posted by Jer on November 23, 2011 @ 22:26 |
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Kirby Comments posted by Jer on November 23, 2011 @ 22:26 | [x] |
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Well I seem to have severely underestimated how busy the month leading up to Black Friday would keep me in my retail job. I haven't been able to get anything done that I want to. And now I am moving into a new apartment next Thursday and will probably be without internet for a little while. Just can't seem to catch a break; even though things are technically working in my favor. I know a few people have been waiting for me to do a review on the new Kirby game; me being the Kirby connoisseur and all. Actually, though, I've been avoiding doing any sort of review for exactly that reason; I felt I was going to go all fanboy on it and either biasedly defend it to the death or do nothing but complain about it. However, even without doing a full-fledged review, I do want to pass along a few thoughts about it: (TL:DR readers: jump down to the second line divider) I feel that the main fault with this title might not actually be so much the fault of the game designers themselves but rather an issue with the current state of the video game industry in general. What I'm talking about is the current trend of making "Nostalgia" titles. Mario, Sonic, Donkey Kong, hell even Micky Mouse; all of these characters have had titles in the last couple years that have focused on either creating new games in an "updated" style of classic nostalgia, or have games that take actual content from the past in order to get a "Hey, I recognize that!" reaction. And for the most part this has worked out really well. The problem is that now they feel that now Nintendo decides they want to try this with the Kirby franchise. Playing through the game, it is really easy to tell (at least, for people that are well versed in Kirby games) that despite including the movesets that were popularized in Kirby Super Star, the creators of this game were trying their hardest to make the game as much like Kirby's Adventure (NES) as possible. Hell they even emphasize their attempt at nostalgia by putting the forced "Returns" into the title; a blatant attempt to cater to the demographic that enjoyed the most recent Donkey Kong title. None of this specifically is an issue in itself. The problem that comes in is the fact that the Kirby games have never traveled very far from their roots in the first place. So in their attempt to make things more nostalgic, what we end up with is a game that is overly simplified for essentially no reason. Is the game bad? No, it's really good. It's just that in the end it feels very ... lacking. There is simply a lack of ambition here, a lack of creativity. Essentially everything in the game is tried and true, like the game designers were afraid of stepping out of bounds. (On a side note, for a three dimensional platformer, I am fairly disappointed in the lack of taking advantage of the perspective, like they did quite a bit in Donkey Kong Country Returns. Hell, Kirby 64 took advantage of the third dimension more than this game did. It's like the designers completely forgot it was there.) The game does have a lot of good points though. The abilities are really fun, and if you're someone who knows how to properly enjoy a game and not just complete it, I'm sure you will find yourself toying with them quite a bit. The bosses in this game are *EPIC*, especially on Extra Mode; and as a bonus if you play through the game's hard mode and boss rush hard mode you will discover two "secret" bosses that will make the most hardcore Kirby fans squeal like a little schoolgirl. The most brilliant part of the game has got to be the Challenge stages, which put your skills with specific copy abilities to the test; this is a feature that should have been implemented in Kirby games years ago. My only disappointment is that only six of the twenty abilities get their own challenges; I would have preferred a challenge level for each one if not at least the majority of the abilities. Likewise, the portals to Another Dimension that appear throughout the game challenge the player's ability to use a power-less Kirby; you have to race through areas as quickly as possible with only Kirby's inhale, flight, and slide at your disposal ... with the constant threat of instant death looming over you the entire time. The Super Abilities turned out to be a lot more interesting than I thought they were going to be; I was under the impression that they were basically glorified Hyper Candy ... that is, they show up in specific locations only to assist you in plowing through that area as quickly and recklessly as possible. It turns out that in most of the cases they are involved in tests of timing and accuracy. Is the game easy? Yes ... I blame this mostly on the lax enemy AI. Like in the 8-bit Kirby titles, there aren't many enemies that actively seek to harm you and most of the threats stem from you simply colliding with them. I make this sound more simple than it actually is, though; keep in mind that this is no different than how enemies act in every single Mario platformer ever. I would say this game is, at least as a single player experience, at least slightly more challenging than New Super Mario Bros. Wii; and a hell of a lot more entertaining. (Not to mention way more beautiful; my God was NSMBWii ever bland!). Is the game short? Well ... it's 30 levels long, not including boss stages and the challenge stages. By Kirby standards this is average length for a game, so in that sense no, but yes it is short in comparison to most other game titles on the market. I think the pacing of the game actually makes it feel shorter than it is, though; it will probably take a player considerably longer to complete this game than they would Kirby 64, however it might feel shorter simply because the pacing of the game is so much faster. My thoughts on the game can be best summed up like this: Should you buy this game? Unless you are a diehard Kirby fan or have a large disposable income, then the answer is "No". At least, not right away. Like I said, the game is short compared to most games on the market, and it feels lacking. It might be better to wait a bit for either the price to go down or to buy a used copy, otherwise you might feel like you aren't getting your money's worth. But that is not the only reason. The other reason is because there are so many other titles being released this year that easily trump this one. If you are only going to get one game this Christmas, get Batman or Zelda. And if you really insist on a new Kirby game, get Kirby Mass Attack instead. Seriously, I know it doesn't look it from the previews, but Mass Attack was incredibly entertaining and is easily much more worth its price out of the two titles. | ||
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Almost there ... posted by Jer on October 22, 2011 @ 23:32 |
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Almost there ... posted by Jer on October 22, 2011 @ 23:32 | [x] |
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(<== still need a new avatar) I was hoping that this week I would be posting the comic archives for a couple of my older comic series, but unfortunately I need another day or two for that yet. Still, I didn't want the entire week to go by without me posting anything, so here are some sprites that I've ripped recently from Kirby Mass Attack: http://forums.drshnaps.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=10098 Not finished yet obviously. And I can't really take all the credit; a fellow by the name of Barubary made a program that does most of the work; all I have to do is fix things here and there. Of course this coming Monday is the release of the BIG KIRBY GAME which I have been waiting years for and I'm sure I'll be completely obsessed with that for the next few months. Good luck getting anything particularly productive out of me for that timeframe. Of course, I am hoping to create some sprites based off said game. In fact I've already started experimenting ...  [work in progress] Well, see you next week anyways. | ||
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Bloggin posted by Jer on October 11, 2011 @ 17:58 |
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Bloggin posted by Jer on October 11, 2011 @ 17:58 | [x] |
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Hello hello. If you are actually seeing this on the day it's being put up, I'd be very surprised as I'm pretty sure nobody checks the front page of this site anymore. Most likely you are someone who was (un)lucky enough to have submitted to our RSS feed a long time ago and just never bothered to take it off when the updates stopped happening. If so, then thank your lazy hinder! You get to be first in line to watch me fail yet again. Okay okay, self-depreciation aside, let's talk about what is going on here. (By the way I apologize for the Waddle Dee placeholder avatar, I haven't gotten around to making myself a proper avatar for myself yet). First of all what you should know is that, due mostly to me getting tired of the lack of overall updates around here, I'm turning the front page of the site into a personal blog. What I'm going to talk about I have no idea, as my life is pretty much as dull as dishwater and I doubt I could tell any exciting stories, but at the very least I can guarantee that I won't waste your time with my sob stories; as I don't want to write them any more than anyone wants to read them. I'll do my best to keep these blog posts interesting; possibly with video game reviews, sprite projects that I've worked on, and of course tell you whenever I've actually updated a comic. Whatever seems interesting enough that I can at least use to post on a weekly basis. On that note I'll be keeping these posts color coded so that you can easily glance at the page and find the posts that actually interest you. I haven't quite figured everything out yet but I'll probably use this blue here for miscellaneous stuff, red for actual comic updates, and purple for posts that are comic related but not actual comic posts. Something like that. On that note I should mention that even though I am posting this message now, I wouldn't expect anything big-project related from me any time soon. I am super busy in my non-internet life at the moment and doubt I could provide much actual content until around the beginning of December. But even though it will take a while, I do have some big BIG projects on the horizon, so don't give up on me just yet. On a side note I really need to change the appearance of this front page. Although I've gotten pretty good at coding, I still suck when it comes to being artistic. Really need to think of something more visually appealing. BUT ANYWAYS enough yammering for now. If you are somehow actually seeing this post I would appreciate it if you would drop a comment, even if you don't have anything interesting to say; I merely am curious about how many people will actually notice this. The comment link is over there ==> | ||
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