Road to the next reviews

Hey there! I know I haven't been posting anything in a bit. Well, here's why. First off, straight and simple, I needed at least a week without worrying about posting anything. The cycle of "Gaming Memories, full review, Gaming Memories" was fun but didn't leave me a lot of time to actually enjoy games, so I set aside some time for myself.

Second, I've run into a bit of a conundrum with the game I was hoping to cover - it's a fair bit more difficult than what I expected, and it might take me a while to actually get through it. That usually means I'll need more time to get the review done. It's a game that plays unlike what I'm used to. Doesn't help that in the meantime, I also wrote (and basically finished) my anniversary review, on a game which since has seen a massive update. Hopefully, I can work around that, as that review won't be published until July, which means I'll have some time to work on stuff while it gets posted on here.

However, I also bought a couple more games lately, so I'm actually going to re-edit my Year Plans 2024 to include them, as most games I got are pretty quick and I'll get through them at a decent pace. For the next few months, I imagine I can do a few Quick Reviews at the end of May and throughout June, post the big review in July, and then go back to the next Quick Reviews. The review of the game I'm currently struggling with? It's not clear when I'll post it, but I do hope it gets posted as soon as it's done; but I can't give a time window. Editing my Year Plans might take me a little while, as well. But no worries, hopefully something will be out Friday next week.

That's it for now. Stay tuned!

Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Kirby, my old friend! Long time no see! I remember when I reviewed every game in Kirby's Dream Collection on the Wii. I didn’t know if I’d ever return to the franchise – but I heard about today’s game a lot, so it was on my wishlist when I got a Switch.

Something happened here, you just know it.
P.S. I got the screenshots from RetroArchive's playthrough.
Go check it out if you want to see the full game.

I have a soft spot for the pink puffball’s adventures, because they’re so much more than they appear. They’re generally easy if your only goal is to get to the “final boss” (big air quotes), but if you want to fight the real final boss, you’ll face challenges that are much tougher. And that also applies to story: Kirby games are the cutest damn things ever but past the cozy, cutesy tone of Dream Land, there are nightmares on the sidelines. And it’s weird, but I’ve grown so accustomed to it that I now play these games knowing the other shoe will drop. It’s so well-known that the trick for this franchise now is to think up a good twist.

And of course, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is no exception. Developed by HAL Laboratory and released on March 25th, 2022, this new game features the core cast of the series in yet another major adventure, Kirby front and center as always. This is, notably, the Star Warrior's first adventure fully in 3D. What’s going on this time, and what IS the Forgotten Land?

For the record, since the game is recent, have a spoiler alert; I reveal the whole story.

We’re not in Kansas Popstar anymore

It was a normal day on Popstar when a vortex opened, creating a windstorm. Enemies and Waddle Dees getting sucked in left and right. Kirby fails to escape and winds up in the vortex as well. Weird things happen in the space between worlds, and the puffball awakens on a beach. Always jolly and eager for everything, Kirby sets out to explore. He meets the local wildlife, and winds up in the middle of... a city???

Carby.
That is all.

While inhaling doglike creatures known as Awoofys in an empty store, Kirby accidentally sucks up a car and, since it’s too large for him, it just... gets stuck in his mouth, with his body molding over its form. This is the new mechanic, “Mouthful Mode”, where Kirby can “inhale” a huge item and gain temporary new skills. The car goes fast and rams into enemies, the traffic cone can smash the ground, the pipe can roll down hills and break through walls, the lightbulb can light up dark areas... When in that mode, Kirby can no longer use his current copy ability, and the next level portion is designed for your Mouthful form.

Gaming Memories: Road Runner's Death Valley Rally

Road Runner's Death Valley Rally

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

November 1992

Bllbllblllblll- beep beep!

...I had to.

In this one, we control Road Runner as he speeds and jumps through five worlds while avoiding Wile E. Coyote's ACME-powered attempts to capture him. Contrary to the classic Looney Tunes cartoons, the focus is on the bird, not on the coyote's schemes. Gameplay could, as a result, feel like a Sonic game, since we control another famed fictional speedster. Emphasis on "could".

This adventure takes us through five worlds: The southwest American Desert, at first, but afterwards we explore giant construction sites, long trains, deep underground mines, ending the chase in space, the final frontier. In every level, the dastardly coyote attacks with a different plan, most of them pulled directly from the cartoons; examples include the wingsuit, the catapult, or the Wile E. Robot. Our carefree bird has two means of attack; the main one is his beak. The second is turbo speed, which you can use by holding down the Y button while Road Runner has some energy left in a gauge, which can be refilled by pecking at bird seed conspicuously left on the road. Each world has three levels, followed by a boss battle. These larger contraptions' weak points can be damaged by the beak attack.

A point brought up by other reviewers, which makes sense now when I think back to my own experience, is that levels aren't designed to take full advantage of Road Runner's speed, being filled with a lot of traps that are too easy to fall into if you run the whole time, as you won't have enough reaction time to avoid them. This also applies to level design, with some stages being labyrinthine - owing to a side-quest involving colored flags, which Road Runner can run by to raise, with each flag found netting a bonus to your score at the end of a level.

The game would have been stronger if its stages were more often designed with the Road Runner's speed in mind. But if we disregard that point, and barring a few annoying moments, we have a decent game here. It's great seeing all these references to the cartoons, and it's even better seeing Wile E.'s plans fail in spectacular fashion - as usual. It's a Looney Tunes game, it would be missing something without the usual slapstick humor! And yes, it IS hilarious. I have good memories of this one, as you can tell. Revisiting these has gotten me itching to retry some of them...

Mario Party Superstars

This one was, and remains, one
of my favorite DS games of all.

I would say I have a love-hate relationship with the Mario Party series... but to get there, I’d need to have played more than three games in the series. I absolutely love Mario Party DS, I am not a huge fan of Mario Party 2 despite it being a fan favorite... and the third was Mario Party Advance, on an emulator, but talking about that one is like talking about the Sonic franchise by bringing up Sonic Chronicles (a turn-based RPG, yes, really).

This sub-franchise went through an awkward period in the 2010s. In its ninth and tenth entries, characters travelled together on the board in the same vehicle. Whatever happened to competing for Stars? It feels like something’s missing if you can’t be cruel to the others on the board as well as in the minigames. This led to an uphill climb, which I’m not entirely sure the Mario Party series has finished – newer entries work to win back the crowd, whether it’s the minigame-only “The Top 100” for the Nintendo 3DS or the back-to-basics “Super Mario Party” for the Switch.

Also back to basics is today’s entry, Mario Party Superstars, which features five boards selected from the first three games in the franchise, as well as 100 minigames. Developed by NDcube and released on October 29th, 2021, Superstars is a celebration of the subseries’ long history, perhaps the best yet. Let’s see how that goes.

You are the superstar!

Ten characters come to the Village Square, formerly known as Mushroom Village in the first Mario Party, to duke it out on boards and in minigames. The classic six present since the series’ inception (Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, Wario and Donkey Kong), two regulars who joined early on (Daisy and Waluigi) and two later additions (Birdo and Rosalina).

Only 10 come to the party? That's rookie numbers!

I envy the Yoshi sleeping in the melon slice.

There are five boards: Yoshi’s Tropical Island and Peach’s Birthday Cake from MP1, Space Land and Horror Land from MP2, and Woody Woods from MP3. Would it have been too much to have a second board from MP3? Several items from the franchise’s history have been added, and some boards were updated. As an example, items weren’t in MP1, so its boards are revised to include them, as well as an item shop. In a few cases, a board’s path was modified, with one example being Peach’s Birthday Cake.

Gaming Memories: B.O.B.

B.O.B.

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

June 1993

No, not the flat-earther rapper.

I said before that when I got my SNES, it was a gift from cousins leaving for university, so I inherited their collection as well. Some classics, and some stuff I had never heard of. Heck, stuff that's barely heard of. Like today's game.

B.O.B. is a part of the run-and-gun genre - same genre as Contra, but this is the funny cousin in the family. B.O.B. is a teenage robot taking the family car to go on a date. However, the teen gets distracted while driving in an asteroid field and crashes the car, landing on a large asteroid with alien bases and enemies on the way. He makes his way through, finds a new car, and heads onwards to his date. Guess what? Another crash, another landing. This happens a third time, poor guy. Oh, he does get to his date in the end. But he's gonna be a few hours late.

Our protagonist has access to six different weapons, and you can cycle through them with the L button of the SNES controller. All guns have ammunition, and you can run out of ammo... though if you do, B.O.B. can still use his fist to attack. The standout mechanic here, however, may be the Remotes, six items you can pick up and use. One's a trampoline, one is a mini-helicopter, one is a protective force field, one is an umbrella that slows his fall... These add nice variety to gameplay, and when necessary to beat a stage, they'll be plentiful. You can cycle through Remotes with the R button.

You run and shoot your way through 45 stages. It's been a long time since I last played this game, so I don't remember all of it, but I do know there was a nice variety in terms of dungeon types. Further down the line, stages can get downright labyrinthine. Some levels have memorable moments, and I recall the use of a floating ship to get through some of them, so gameplay changes now and then. The bosses all look friggin' cool, as well: Robots, aliens, fire elementals, ghosts... Also of note is the comedic tone from the story, retained in the many ways in which B.O.B. can die. Exploded to bits, melted into a puddle, disintegrated... 

The game worked with a password system­. When you finish some stages, you got a password made of six digits, and you could input that password from the title screen to get roughly where you were at. I don't remember ever beating the game in a single sitting, I do remember playing through its stages and eventually beating it thanks to the passwords. Because, damn, was it really tough. It's a difficult game. I still consider it a point of pride that I did win in the end. Critics consider it average, and maybe with the added time since I would think so as well, who knows. I probably should get an emulator and play it again... But I have fond memories of it, so maybe you'll enjoy it too.