exp.

Subscribe

Tag: 2006

  • LocoRoco (Japan Studio, 2006)

    LocoRoco (Japan Studio, 2006)

    Developed/Published by: Japan Studio / Sony Computer Entertainment
    Released: June 23rd, 2006
    Completed: 28th August, 2015
    Completion: Beat all the levels. Didn’t collect everything though.
    Trophies / Achievements: n/a

    LocoRoco is… I think this is illuminating. When I started working on Sound Shapes, I can’t remember how it came up, but I remember LocoRoco came up. Because I’d played, like, one world of it and hated it so much I put it down. In a conversation with Jess Mak, we agreed LocoRoco was an example of how not to do interesting/whimsical level design. Why?

    Well, the game is about collecting 20 berries, while also finding three “Mui Mui” (wee guys that give you new LocoRoco house parts) and, if you want, collecting Pickories (coins, basically) and/or doing the level as fast as possible.The thing is though, 90% of these collectables, even the main ones, berries, are totally hidden. Not in a “this wall has a crack on it” way but in a Wolfenstein 3D-style “rub yourself against fucking everything bashing the space bar” way. There’s absolutely no joy in LocoRoco’s level design. It’s just horrible. Basically, everywhere you go you have to try all walls and potentially every bouncy pad or whatever to explore every single space of the screen or level you can. And, to make things better, levels are often designed so you can miss something and not be able to backtrack, usually by falling into a lower part of the level, or just straight up being moved to another part of the level via a feature (some blowing wind, or something.) With the “tilt the world” controls (you don’t control your LocoRoco directly) this is maddening—not to mention the enemies/spikes, who easily strip off your gained berry-weight in a way that, again, can never be fixed. You have to finish levels perfectly.

    Getting to the end of a level with 20 berries is, if not impossible, so unfair that it’s just absolutely hateful. So, going back to this because I was like “man, I have a lot of PSP games” (and I just bought some more) I tried to play it properly for a while but just gave up and roasted through the levels as quickly as possible. And if you do that, they’re utterly dull!

    Never play this.

    Will I ever play it again? Fuck no, plus will never touch any sequel with a barge pole.

    Final Thought: LocoRoco… it’s supposed to be really charming, you know? Like, you just like being with the LocoRoco, so wobbling through the levels is fun, really taking your time and “playing” around with the tilting. But it’s just frustrating and shit. If you want to play a charming Japan Studio game on PSP, it’s got to be Patchwork Heroes.

  • Ultimate Ghosts ’n Goblins (Tose, 2006)

    Ultimate Ghosts ’n Goblins (Tose, 2006)

    Developed/Published by: Tose / Capcom
    Released: 29th August, 2006
    Completed: 23rd August, 2014
    Completion: Rescued Princess Prin-Prin.
    Trophies / Achievements: n/a

    I’ve been watching Game Centre CX again! I’d fallen out of the habit, but recently I got off my arse and organised my collection of Iron Chef episodes and started watching them in order (can you believe they made fifty-six episodes of Iron Chef in 1994? That’s more than one a week!) and it put me in mood for some Game Centre CX too. And after watching the Kacho valiantly battle his way through Ghouls ’n Ghosts on Megadrive, I thought I might as well give this a shot, because it’s been in my collection for donkeys.

    You probably know the drill with the Ghosts ’n Goblins series: it’s absurdly difficult, and it changes from “Ghosts ’n Goblins” to “Ghouls ’n Ghosts” and back again confusingly. Most of the games are incredibly similar, differing only vaguely in terms of hero Arthur’s abilities and enemies. But then, plenty of series are even more restricted than that (you know, look at any side-scrolling shooter series) and it’s not like we complain about them (unless we do? We might!)

    Probably the most interesting thing about the series is that the very first hit right around the time of Super Mario Bros., so you have to remember that this didn’t come from a context where that was what platformers were. In fact, it kind of feels like a series from an alternate dimension where Super Mario never really happened.

    It’s a dimension where a locked-in jump is the done thing. It’s also one where randomly spawning and aggressively player-seeking enemies are the done thing. So while your jump is completely predictable, the enemies aren’t.

    Can you tell where this is going?

    I mean, you obviously can if you’ve ever played the series. The games just aren’t fair. You can do your best to deal with these enemies—and I’ve seen players far above my abilities perform absurd feats—but you’re going to commit to a jump, or throw a weapon at the wrong time, and you’ll die (usually by being knocked off a platform.)

    It’s not good! Or fun! In fact in level 3-2 of this—a level where you have to survive on a small moving platform for quite some time, while attacked from all sides—I was pretty close to breaking my Vita in half. I had to beat it twice, too (and in fact, to “fully” complete the game I’d have to beat it at least once more). The game doesn’t even really offer much in the way of the kind of streamlining we’ve come to expect from our masocore; no quick restarts, limited lives meaning you have to continue from the start of the level at some point and often struggle on with a lost cause number of lives, etc.

    The worst thing that Ultimate Ghosts ’n Goblins does however is that rather than previous games, where you just have to survive the levels, in this one you’re supposed to find all the hidden nooks and crannies (and I do mean hidden: a large amount of the game is about triggering chests by jumping in certain, totally unmarked, parts of the levels) in order to gain enough gold rings, or witch ingredients, or magic spells, to complete the game fully. 

    The game chooses just about the most uncomfortable twist on the unlock abilities design possible, by making sure you can’t collect plenty of stuff until you have magic spells that do things you don’t expect (the turn-things-to-stone spell that causes gravestones to explode is… alternate dimension logical I guess?) or very specifically have this one shield that allows you to fly.

    The shield’s a weird one, to be honest, considering the Ghosts ’n Goblins franchise has basically never involved this level of control in-air. It changes the game almost entirely from the minute you get it into one that’s not about the inflexible jumping but the much more flexible (if temporary) flying. It doesn’t make you die any less (well, maybe a bit less) but you’re much more in control. It’s an odd twist that the level design works around, and that doesn’t make you feel better about the levels you’ve struggled through to that point (and it doesn’t come until very late in the game…) In a game that’s otherwise A to B linear being asked to jump back and forth in insanely difficult levels that you feel, by rights, that you’ve completed, just to collect some things because you can now fly… it just doesn’t work.

    It explains why they re-released this in Japan with all of that stuff removed, though!

    Will I ever play it again? Uhh… I really did sort of want to collect all the rings and “fully” finish it. But the hidden bits are so annoying that life is just too short. If you could download the Japanese version to Vita, I would maybe consider it. But… no.

    Final Thought: I’m not really sure what excuse I have for, ultimately, not having a bad time playing this, though. Not that I liked it, but that I didn’t feel that it was a total waste of time. The nice PSP-era graphics, which are maybe in that sweet spot of dated for me right now? That as stiff as the game is and unfair the enemies are, there’s this responsiveness that means that it feels good, and you want to succeed even in the face of frustration?

    Probably that stuff?