12.23.08
Posted in Demolitionist, Gaming
at 7:59 pm
Square-Enix’s first foray into the world of iPhone gaming brings us this wonderful little gem, a port/compilation of three DoCoMo games that we’d never see otherwise (since DoCoMo is a Japan-only cell phone standard). While it’s primarily a simple tower defense-style game (at least in the W1 chapter provided in the demo), it does it with the charm and style familiar to players of the Final Fantasy Tactics Advance games, borrowing most heavily from the recent A2. Bear this in mind: I had never, to this point, played a tower defense game for more than ten minutes, thinking they were largely boring; the implementations of the genre that I’d tinkered with were atrociously hard or too simplistic. I’m still not entirely sold on the concept, but at least I know it’s not as boring as I’d expected; while the gameplay limits the kind of strategy involved, it’s still very fun.
Many folks who’ve played the demo have complained about the control scheme used; the game divides the screen in two, with the top screen being the display and the bottom screen being a virtual cross-pad as one might find on any recent traditional cell phone. This seems kind of clunky at first, but you can still touch the top screen to jump the cursor as you see fit. I think it works pretty well, given the game’s roots, but at the same time I think the controls could have been made a bit smaller to provide more real estate for the main graphics.
I didn’t buy the game– not yet, anyway; it’s on my list for a future date. Still, I have to say that it’s a recommended purchase if you dig tower defense, and if it prompts Square-Enix to port over more of its cell phone games (or, heaven forbid, prompts other companies with significant mobile divisions to consider the English-speaking market; I’m looking at you, Capcom), all the better. It’s a good first foot forward for S-E’s mobile division.
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12.10.08
Posted in Demolitionist, Gaming, Rants
at 8:06 pm
When I reviewed the original Meteos way, WAY back in 2005, I said that it was quite possibly the DS’s first killer app. It was a clever and inventive puzzle game that used the stylus controls to great effect. It still is a good game, but in transitioning to the big screen and a traditional controller, Meteos Wars loses a great deal of its charm. The core game itself is unchanged: match three blocks vertically or horizontally to launch them skyward and assault your opponents. In concessions to the drawbacks of the controls change, the action is a tad slower and a bit more lopsided (in that stacking blocks to the ceiling can sneak up on you and trigger a loss before you can react to it at all). Overall I think it’s a good try at the game, but unfortunately it’s just not suited for traditional controls. If you don’t have a DS you might be able to enjoy it, but try the demo first for an hour or so. If you do have a DS, hunt down a copy of the original (or if you absolutely can’t find that, the Disney edition works in a pinch too)– it’s worth the extra outlay of cash.
I honestly have nothing terribly good to say about PowerUp Forever. It’s a good try at being a frantic shooter along the lines of Super Stardust or Geometry Wars, but the rules for the special weapons are unclear and unintuitive, and it’s just painfully generic otherwise. Shooter fans should give this a look at least to see if they can figure out what differentiates it from the aforementioned games, but I think I can safely skip this one, too.
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11.17.08
Posted in Demolitionist, Gaming, Rants
at 9:47 pm
(Doing something new, folks: any time a demo strikes my fancy, I’ll write up impressions here. I’ve done it enough for other demos, might as well give it a formal name. Anyway, enjoy.)
RPGamer broke the news about the Neverland Card Battles demo today, and it was almost as an afterthought that I gave it a spin. I kinda wish I hadn’t, though; while the game’s mechanics are sound, and a bit more intuitive than Culdcept’s, the execution is quite a bit lacking– due mostly to the utter uselessness of the online help and the excruciating sound effects. I skipped over the story under the impression that I wouldn’t want it spoiled for me; and I’m not about to go back to find out what I missed.
The game’s mechanism for obtaining mana is based on the number of squares on the playfield colored in with your color; you color squares by walking over them with your units. This brings a strategic element to the combat– or at least that’s the intent. Instead it makes the game entirely a turn-based strategy game hamstrung by a patently ridiculous and severely broken card deployment mechanism. Whereas Culdcept had you winning based on an accumulation of points, NCB requires you to annihilate your opponent’s Dominator unit to win. It’s broken because the enemy can just sit back and flood the field with cheap monsters which you have to hack through agonizing square by square. The only thing stopping you from doing the same is that you will always get crappy cards.
Ordinarily I would give the game the benefit of the doubt given that a demo, without the ability to customize the deck, isn’t a fair assessment of a game like this; but the problem is that I see just so much wrong with this game that I am grateful I had the chance to try it before wasting money or more time on it. The only thing this has produced, really, has been the name for a new feature on the site, and a desire to fire up Culdcept once the writing is done.
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