We don't always like being nonplussed

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Rockman 2, Part 13: F-ING DRAGON!

I fear that, like Quick Man's stage, the wee bit of latency our capture setup generates may be too much for this to work.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Frivolous Fridays: Fix-It Felix Jr. (A.K.A. The Wreck-It Ralph Game)

Disney's got a fun-looking new movie coming out this fall: Wreck-It Ralph, about a video game villain from 1982 who decides to quit his day job and enter the modern videogaming workforce. It looks like it could be decent, and the fact that they've actually licensed existing video game characters leads me to believe they're hoping for a video-gaming equivalent of Toy Story. And I hope they can pull it off!

Naturally if you're going to do something like this, you'd want to create the "classic" video game that you're basing your movie on. And so they did- Fix-It Felix Jr. can be played here! 



It's a pretty simple affair: Wreck-It Ralph wrecks windows, and Fix-It Felix (Junior, presumably) fixes them while dodging falling debris and birds. Once you've fixed a full screen, Ralph retreats farther up the building and you pursue him onto a new board. As you progress, obstacles appear to restrict your movement, and Ralph can break new windows as he pounds the building to drop bricks on your head. Occasionally, people will poke their heads out of the windows and will sometimes leave pies on the windowsill. Each pie gets you bonus points and an extra life.


It's a pretty simple game. In fact it might be just a bit too simple for 1982- not by much, but there feels like there should be a bit more to it. Some of the issue is in presentation, which both takes it out of the retro time period they're going for and makes it feel cheap (quality-wise, not gameplay-wise) compared to arcade games of the period. Multiple styles of board would be a nice touch- Donkey Kong Jr, clearly the inspiration for the name, had two different boards. Donkey Kong had four. The music is a problem- the piano synth pieces that begin and end the game don't sound quite right for the period, while the main game's theme is too NES-like in its tone. More bass would've helped. Likewise the sprites seem too sophisticated and yet not sophisticated enough. The pixels are finer than I'd associate with `82, but the animation for a given action is maybe two frames and not at all smooth. Felix's movement in particular seems more like a Game and Watch game than an arcade game. The game could also benefit from some kind of congratulatory Stage Clear music as Ralph climbs to the next screen. And lastly, the game is too generous. Every pie you eat gives you an extra life if you've lost one, and every ten levels you get a bonus screen with two pies. There's no way a classic quarter-eater would be that nice to you.

And yet... they're onto something here. The game does have a little bit of the addictive spirit of its inspirations- I went to play it one last time before I began writing this, and wound up playing until I beat my high score(somewhere around 123,000 on Level 28). With polish, this could be what Disney wants it to be- and the words "Beta Code" on the title screen make me hope that it may be further refined before Wreck-It Ralph is released to theaters near the end of the year. It's a decent effort, but a little more attention to detail would benefit it greatly.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Ogre Battle 73: Everybody Must Get Stoned (Part 1)


Here we meet Taruto. Or Talt. Or Tult. Who gives us the final of the three Mystic Thingies we need to retrieve the Tablet of Yaru and collect Zodiac Stones. So now it's back to Shangrila!


Where the goddess Fellana presents us with the Tablet of Yaru. Or Yar Or Yal. Or Yul. Or...

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Ogre Battle 72: Perhaps We Should Call Him CAN'Topus.

The enemies, as usual, are all streaming down towards home base and FLAIL. I pull Saradin just to preserve the hero's Alignment!

We pulled a Moon card earlier, and we're actually looking like we may lose money when payday comes around. And Canopus has a clear shot. There's a lot left unliberated, but... let's see if he can do it.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Ogre Battle 72: Ryhan Styles


Back in Dalmuhd Desert briefly we visit this town.


And this man. He wants the Quicksilver we got a while back, and in exchange he gives us the Gem of Doun, the thing we need to get the thing we need to get the thing to get the things to get the best ending. Yay...? So after that we head back to Pogrom Forest and pick up the Olden Orb, or Orb of Auld, or something along those lines, which is the next item in the chain. Suffice to say it's round and not new.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Self-Promotion Mondays: Minecraft and E3 Edition

First off, Minecraft! Isstvan82's been working on a ridiculously elaborate treehouse for I don't know how long now, which makes my top-to-bottom tower in Minecraft 360 seem a little small and plain. I'll have to come up with something new...



Isstvan also plays a multiplayer map with AngeliqueDaemon where they've put together an underwater house- considering how much glass was in use, I assume stone-throwing is strictly verboten. AngeliqueDaemon's been posting her side of that playthrough as well, which you can see here:




And lastly, the most recent episode of New Soundwave, where Peter Van, ExVee, our host John DeLuna and I all commented on Nintendo's Pre-E3 WiiU presentation as it happened! I maintain that Nintendo's goal with the Miiverse is "We're making our own internet! With blackjack! And hookers!" But great fun was had by all, even if it wasn't always the fun Nintendo might've hoped we'd have. Check it out!

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Rockman 2 Part 12: STUPID DRAGON!

That damn dragon. Pain in the ass until you get the jumps down, but still one of the most impressive boss sprites on the NES. That and Guts Tank, who is the next stage I think.