Gallery: Year 1

Kuru Kuru Kururin

Developer: Eighting
Publisher: Nintendo
Release: 2001
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Genre: Puzzle

Summarizing Kuru Kuru Kururin as an anti-‘wire game’ (one where the wire itself navigates through passageways, not the other way around) could be a poor attempt at coining a lazy punch line, but not that far from the truth.

Eastern hardcore stuff as that may sound, it goes a long way in easing accessibility to players from any background—often through unexpected routes. The most superficial one—presentation—is nailed from the charming intro cutscene on; the nicely paved difficulty ramp is very well thought, such as the almost completely self-explanatory level design, which demands mastering techniques at a good pace. Other solutions merge with the gameplay unusually well, like the ‘wire’ (an Arkanoid-esque ship, actually) shortening in easy mode in order to keep the carefully put together hazardous environments intact.

But it’s in its simple yet clever control scheme where Kuru Kuru Kururin truly shines. If the task of controlling the ship alone wouldn’t require anything other than the very D-pad (rendering a plethora of extra buttons useless) on the other hand the same GBA D-pad had an inherent built-in issue: not being analog. So this was one of those “a good idea is something that can rather solve multiple problems at once” (quoting Miyamoto’s later statement for the ages) cases, and Eighting delivered: the A and B buttons were used for an incremental speed control, creating another quasi-analog mechanic that made up for the lack of a proper input.

The ship's auto-spin must be used in favor of traversing the environment

As with other Japanese games/tech from the early 00s (Sega’s swan song, the Dreamcast, as an unbeatable example) Kuru Kuru Kururin was a bit too ahead of its time for its own good: the perfect platform for it, the mobile market, was still toddling around at the time. But it still holds up quite well today, even within its elegant limits.

Nervous Brickdown

Developer: Arkedo Studio
Publisher: Eidos Interactive, Success Corporation
Release: 2007
Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: Breakout clone

“Rise of indies” era games often suffered from the “pre-casual market” syndrome: they usually had the potential to appeal to wider audiences due to their out-of-the-box thematics, artsyles, content, etc. but usually missed the mark because their developers’ classic hardcore mindset was still there when it came to structuring gameplay flow. Gorgeous and human as Braid is, funny and intuitive as World of Goo is, even such games couldn’t possibly be “beaten” by casual players on their own traditional “progress” terms.

The talented guys behind Arkedo Studio could easily fit that classification, and Nervous Brickdown is a classic debut case on the matter.

Presentation is solid in both graphics and sound fronts, and their gimmicky, idiosyncratic twists in the ol’ Breakout formula inform/get informed by the artstyle in a pleasant, organic feedback loop. But the traditional game design rules start to get in the way when they throw more and more tricky situations even when the physics can’t quite cope with the custom bat made by the player with the stylus, or when the mic isn’t a reliable input for controlling the ball by blowing gusts of wind into the play field.

Most of those are passable issues, but the final world (properly called “Retro”) takes away any chances of a persevering casual gamer beat the game. Soon enough the double-pad independent control in the touch screen coupled with a platform game running in the upper screen AT THE SAME TIME will exhaust—if not give a stroke to--even seasoned players.

It surely looks the part, but you better get a friend and an extra stylus if you want to beat this.

Arkedo’s subsequent game, Big Bang Mini, is a better rounded attempt in mashing new gameplay concepts and a more lighthearted presentation together—in fact it’s much more unique mechanics-wise—but it’s still far from being “casually beatable”. Not to say that Arkedo itself messed up, but it was—like pretty much everyone else at the time—mired in the conundrums of its era.

Wario Land II

Developer: Nintendo R&D1
Publisher: Nintendo
Release: 1998
Platform: Game Boy, Game Boy Color (played)
Genre: Platform

It was rare to see games giving the possibility of letting some useless archaic score system out some thought in 1998 (for certain genres it’s still true today), let alone ditching death altogether; but Wario Land II did exactly that when digging deeper towards the identity of a recently-born series—and helped the whole genre to expand while at it.

Of course, it was a bit early for targeting some “casual player” demographics, so removing death didn’t end up making the task of completing the game any easier. Setbacks take some of the only thing that really appeals to Wario—namely, money—and that can get to frustrate the player too since collectibles are locked behind paid minigames, and reaching a well-hidden treasure room deep into a mazy level without the resources to tackle it can make the softhearted more empathetic.

Anyways, annoying as they can be, paywalls here testify in favor of the developers when it comes to a rare case of making a character’s background really spring to life through gameplay itself, not only being used for generic contextualization—that’s true on Wario’s greediness overflowing into the player, and even more about his badassery keeping him from dying (and making Mario pale in comparison as a bonus).

Found a treasure? Pay for it!

Another bold decision was to evolve tested and proven power-ups (usually sported in the form of “outfits” in the Land series) into a new “state” system. Wario itself is modified by certain conditions—like being burnt, turned into a zombie, or simply getting fatter after having a piece of cake thrown at him—that can offer him new ways to reach otherwise-forbidden areas within the levels. Beyond their original simply humorous take, such mechanics made room for even more experimentation on the gameplay side.

Unfortunately the crammed tiny screen generated some innate overly-punishing hit detection—and those moments coupled with some small bad design here and there keep Wario II from being a better rounded game than its predecessor. But when it comes to innovation it’s a terrific blueprint for entries to come—or platformers all around for that matter.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate

Developer: MercurySteam
Publisher: Konami
Release: 2013
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Genre: Metroidvania

Being a Nintendo portable spin-off of the high-end Castlevania subseries Lords of Shadow, Mirror of Fate is a beast of its own. High production values are crammed into the 2.5D metroidvania layout, as the traditional tactical/exploratory gameplay is overruled by some straight-forward action. Anyways, throughout the game its pros and cons come from the same place: a cinematic approach.

It brings an unprecedented (in Nintendo platforms, mind you) level of gore and horror to the series, and its flair for spectacle delivers. Regular skirmishes are as satisfying as bosses ones, the camera ensuring you’ll get the best seat while at it; the same goes for presenting new environments or showing off the gorgeous, eerie vistas—especially when strolling outside the castle.

Unfortunately its metroidvania-for dummies (or God of War players) level design has nothing of “Mature” in it and would serve a younger audience better. So would do the Quick Time Events triggered in certain situations, the player helplessly travelling back to 1983 for an involuntary taste of Dragon’s Lair.

And the double-edged sword thrusts on. Almost an interactive movie as it is, lore and fan service go terribly well together—while the same can’t be said about the controls, for the sake of not dropping presentation (and a few animation frames in the process) over gameplay.

Cutscenes are beautiful and work well due to running on the game's engine--but with cel-shaded textures.

Ups and downs here and there, the real game breaker still stems from that very same root. Bosses battles are preceded by seamless cutscenes, and even though they pump the upcoming battle up they grow plainly annoying over fail-and-repeat. Worse, they are unskippable. Worser, they can even glitch in preventing you from reaching areas where you fought a boss before, thus rendering a proper completion status unattainable without starting a new game—with the very same unskippable cutscenes along the way.

The later patchable HD version can rid it of some bugs, but not of the breed of such diverse creatures.

CRUSH3D

Developer: Zoë Mode
Publisher: Sega
Release: 2012
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Genre: Puzzle

Shovelware probably was the biggest adverse effect from Nintendo’s Blue Ocean strategy of expanding videogames demographics beyond known frontiers in the Wii era. Akin to Atari’s (and thus everyone else’s) crash in the 80s it still was lucky enough to get away with it (sorta) due to the inability of that very audience in distinguishing gourmet from junk. Having nothing to do with it, CRUSHED suffered some collateral damage in that scenario.

After putting a small amount of time into it CRUSH3D’s personality starts to come through naturally since its plot, dialogue and game design testify a team of thoughtful developers behind it. Unfortunately it painted itself in a corner when picking up some a-bit-too-generic art style for dressing it all. Despite being likeable (and even cohesive) the trendy models/palette possibly sent the wrong messages for both casual and hardcore audiences—that it was an easy time killer to the first and cheesy to the later. That’s a real shame; it’s neither.

I personally like it, but still could see it coming.

The “crush” mechanic of shifting 3D levels to 2D back and forth was novel in the first PSP iteration—and it makes a lot more sense in 3DS’s 3D display—but it’s not only about gimmickry: level design is smart, challenging and satisfying.

Not that it hasn't its share of downsides. At times it may communicate shadily when it comes to surmountable walls, for instance; or crank the knob too high when ramping the difficulty; but CRUSH3D is meatier and more solid than anyone would expect from seeing its cover in shop shelves.

Kirby & the Amazing Mirror

Developer: HAL Laboratory, Capcom, Flagship, Dimps, Arika
Publisher: Nintendo
Release: 2004
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Genre: Metroidvania

Picture yourself playing Metroid. You dig down through a big deal of planet, surviving tricky menaces along the claustrophobic way, until you hit a missile hatch sealing the path. That’s when you realize you need to get back to grab some since you could only carry one equipment at a time, and you’ve chosen the Morphing Ball. In a less dramatic and more colorful way, that happens a lot in Kirby & the Amazing Mirror.

Of course, the backtracking is diminished by the very enemies you find getting to places since Kirby’s copycat ability can be put to use at (almost) any time, but needed abilities are often too far for bothering—or you can easily get lost in the pure chaos of the world’s map and don’t even know how to get back.

Anyways, that’s part of the problem of a Kirby built from ground up to be a multiplayer experience. There is a clever “cellphone” system (with battery life and all) for making it up to a lonely player—it allows you to call reinforcements in the form of other kirbies—but the friendly AI is too dumb to rely on. That can render particularly frustrating moments when it comes to simple environment puzzles like standing on a button to open a door or helping moving a heavier stone, for instance.

Bosses pose a decent challenge to a lone wolf as well, and the final boss stretch is borderline absurd. Kirby’s unruly physics don’t add up well either—he can even climb ramps faster than he threads regular terrain—and the short (at start) health bar bring the Zelda syndrome up (that meaning “dying happens more in the beginning than towards the end”).

But Kirby is charming as hell, and the presentation delivers that in spades. One of the best pixel work to ever grace GBA can be found here (despite the heavy slowdowns when the screen gets busy), and that’s no small feature given the competition.

SNES³

In the end this Kirby should be approached more like an adventure sandbox than a proper action platformer. It just doesn’t go that well when it takes itself too seriously.

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

Developer: Sculptured Software, Bits Studios
Publisher: Virgin Interactive
Release: 1991
Platform: NES (played), Game Boy
Genre: RPG

Learning that Sculptured Software actually had to strip down Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in order to release it was a shock. There are so many ideas thrown into it already, and they are so decently realized that the game should be praised at least for its technical achievements.

Kicking off as a top-view action-RPG with PC-like menus and inventory management (weird on a console per se), it soon starts to bare its teeth. Bumping into specific enemies transmutes the game into a 1-on-1 sidescroll action duel, and not a barebones one: huge sprites do regular and somersault jumps, crouch and roll dodging enemy attacks and stance defensively as something that could have been sold as a standalone game by a greedier publisher.

Still, it goes on. Being ambushed brings up a wide team battle perspective, in a quasi-RTS mini-game; scavenging bodies for goods, wearing a disguise to enter a certain location… even a horse escapade was put together for a small bridge segment.

RPG, fighting, RTS... you name it

It’s almost like it’s too ambitious for its own good since it walks the line between being varied and lacking personality, but in fact everything works fine enough: combat is weighty and satisfying, the soundtrack kicks ass, etc. What’s missing then?

Well, mainly a better “save” system, since it hasn’t a proper one. Passwords are only available through code, so chances are a player must beat the somewhat meaty RPG in a single sit. Using digitized art for portraits and story segments didn’t help either since there’s no resemblance to the movie’s actors to begin with—yes, tie-ins often produced good pieces of gaming back then.

What is left is to imagine what it could have been with more development time or a console generation ahead.

Great Dungeon in the Sky

Developer: LordTim
Release: 2010
Platform: Browser
Genre: Action

Almost 20 years into the 21st century terms like “rogue”, “random”, “collectible” or “unlockable” can range from eye-rolling to cringe-worthy to some hardcore gamers, especially those with a soft spot for indies. But 10 years ago the indie scene was bursting with nouveau concepts derived from these very words, not necessarily because they brought something quite new to the table, but often for the apparent more feasible prospect they imbued a project with.

So we’ve come a long way until reaching Spelunky, and—groundbreakers like Braid and World of Goo aside—chances are we owe a good deal to Kongregate and Newgrounds Flash pioneers. Great Dungeon in the Sky falls into that category; it may not be a masterpiece of its time, but it sure packs a punch in every front it decides to show up.

Random dungeons aren’t as important here as random enemies, the meat of the collection/unlocking mechanic: kill anything and it becomes playable the next round. No lucky number, no dice rolling, no microtransaction (it was a bit early for that), no strings attached. Hundreds of characters—each with its own traits, moves, specials—lurk deep inside the dungeons waiting to be found, slain and then controlled.

Yup, IP break is also available.

Seeking out powerful avatars to inhabit could be, as far as gameplay goes, compelling per se; but here the “gotta catch ‘em all” appeal reaches higher levels mostly because of the terrific minimalist pixel work by ORYX—later featured in the more acknowledged Realm of the Mad God. Through that GDitS becomes more an interactive sticker album than simply an action game, and that’s for the best: bosses and weaklings (or even blatantly derivative characters) are loveable all the same.

A mobile expandable update could do the developer’s pocket wonders, but maybe we shouldn’t ask for that and just leave it where it is.

The Legend of Kage 2

Developer: Taito
Publisher: Square Enix, Ubisoft, Taito
Release: 2008
Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: Action

The original Legend of Kage felt weird in the mid-80s when it was released. Truth to be told it wouldn’t make any sense to Westerners until 2000, when Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon swept audiences and the Oscars alike by properly portraying Eastern warriors not only fighting each other with their usual slickness but also flying gracefully while at it.

Of course, it was too late for the game. But giving it another shot under that light may raise an entirely new interpretation of the game’s so-called flaws: those awkward physics were actually faithful wuxia implementation; the simple palette swap represented seasons flying by.

All that makes the overlooked sequel even more significant to play today. Being a 20+ years later NDS-exclusive following a non-cult classic The Legend of Kage 2 would surely go under the radar, but a bit of context could have gone a long way in garnering the game more interest.

Modern as it is, it never loses sight of the original one: the sword-and-shuriken meat of the action is still here, coupled with several unlockable techniques; power orbs—which appeared in the Famicom port of the original arcade—are back as collectibles, not only raising the game’s replay value but also serving as customizable ninpo magic fodder; and the quirky vertical action sported in the first game here benefits from dual screens like almost no other retro title in the system.

Portraits are cheesy but still beautiful.

Unfortunately The Legend of Kage 2 never excels in any front to be considered a Ninja Gaiden of sorts. But it still makes for some decent tribute, decent action and decent NDS library. And as far as Nintendo players go it’s as close to a portable Muramasa one could get.

Pac-Attack

Developer: Namco, Now Production
Publisher: Namco
Release: 1993
Platform: Genesis, SNES, Game Gear, Game Boy (played), several late compilations
Genre: Puzzle


When Namco decided to reskin their arcade title Cosmo Gang the Puzzle and sell it as a multiplatform, worldwide Pac-Man release they weren’t just being lazy; they were being downright insidious. Milking started taking roots by the 90s and such releases could easily get away with it because consumers weren’t as aware as they are today—aren’t they?

There’s a game behind market decisions anyways, and that game is… well, average. But let me take the mediocre part out of the way before getting to the point.

Pac-Attack had a shot at finding the next Tetris Holy Grail, but it failed like everyone else since mid-80s. (Even master Alexey Pajitnov—Tetris’ father—himself wasn’t up to the task, but some of his’ breed were quirky enough and may appear at Magnificent 7s at some point.) Falling pieces here may come with ghosts or a Pac alongside the regular blocks, and that’s the twist: using it to clear ghosts and rack points down the way. Eventually a special bar fills up, a fairy purges the screen from enemies, and that’s it.

But things (good or bad) often come from where they’re less expected, and Pac-Attack is a 7 game due to some fortuitous production outcome. Whoever decided to raise the game’s value by crafting a Puzzle Mode has breathed life into it.

In Puzzle Mode a new mechanic (inexplicably absent from the main game) raises the strategy bar a good notch; the ability to change the direction Pac is facing before landing alone make up for smarter moves and optimizing pieces placement to work better. But the real deal lies within an area usually despised in puzzle games of this kind: level design.

These surprisingly elegant handcrafted creations offer a bit of everything: levels with room for improvising as strict, one-way-out ones; some have plenty of resources, some are airtight; overcoming hair-pulling levels often is rewarded with a few breezy, palate cleanser ones; and so on. The one hundred levels coupled with a simple password system lend the mode as much immediacy or depth as the player desires.

In times of procedural generation seizing level design for good—be it by the developer’s decision, be it for budget restraints—is nice to be reminded of how human brains can be put to decent use.

de Blob

Developer: Blue Tongue Entertainment
Publisher: THQ
Release: 2008
Platform: Wii
Genre: Platform

de Blob was criticized by its release time for the unruly camera it casts and the tricky jumps that follow. But what 3D platformer doesn’t have those? If even the modern pinnacle of 3D exploration, Super Mario Galaxy, still has some… Well, maybe having jumping mapped to a shake of the Wii Remote instead of a button has really made it worse after all.

Criticism was even higher on the “lack of checkpoints” issue, since the levels are behemoths which can take more than 2 hours to complete when you’re tackling them for OCD awards. (Now that’s a real problem.) But how could such a game keep track of each and every tree, light post or bench you have painted—and with which color—when the Wii is already suffering with drawing distances and such?

Joking aside, no wholehearted love for de Blob could let its flaws go overlooked—and they were actually game breaking for some. But de Blob is so unique in its premise and that same premise is so vividly realized that anyone who enters its world put a smile in their face right off the bat.

Art direction is slick throughout the entire game, from the Pixar-esque terrific CGI vignettes, to the loading screens disguised as interactive comics, to the world full of character begging to be explored. Or putting it better, “the world that bursts with character the more you mess with it”, since the place only truly blossoms through player agency.

Reviving places is not as cinematic as in Ōkami but doing so still packs a punch

Yes, it has some “challenges”, “objectives” and other stuff that make for calling it a “proper” game; but those are entirely optional and gladly they don’t necessarily get in the way of the real meat: wandering around splashing the city with colorful stains and being a jazzy soloist while at it—each color is tied to a musical instrument and “painting” also means messing with the terrific live band soundtrack, turning de Blob into a real synesthetic experience.

de Blob is a modern, more laid-back Ōkami; its death-and-resurrection tale is painted—literally—in less epic fashion than in its Eastern counterpart, sure, but that is for the better here. Perhaps it’s the case that very feel-good mood has kept a well-deserved cult following from rising since not even the game takes itself too seriously.

Solar Striker

Developer: Nintendo R&D1
Publisher: Nintendo
Release: 1990
Platform: Game Boy
Genre: Shoot 'em-up

Solar Striker could easily be—as it was at the time—dismissed as just an average, anachronistic vertical shooter. But producer—and creator of the very Game Boy hardware—Gunpei Yokoi had much more in store for the title: alongside the game itself Yokoi laid guidelines for his peers on how to properly develop for the new hardware. Unfortunately his message never quite reached the audience it was intended for and the platform suffered with the console being downright misunderstood in its early years.

Developing for the Game Boy brought up two complementary (or “detrimentary”) issues that were first ignored altogether and then struggled with by old-timers from the industry: graphics and gameplay.

It was the classic form/content conundrum art always have faced, but worse: technically one stood in the way of the other here.

Of course, the initial problem was the 4-shades-of-grey/green color palette limitation; but that gets even darker (no pun intended) under the small dot matrix display’s resolution.  Initially titles suffered from the “flea syndrome” resulted from the straight-forward big screen modus operandi being crammed into the system; afterwards slowdown became more frequent as bigger sprites were hard to handle.

Evolution from first to second installments of Super Mario Land and Batman

Yokoi solved both problems with Solar Striker. First, by making a sharp distinction between the actual playfield and the background through the use of good contrast and clear tiles, both together helping the sprites to pop-out naturally; and most importantly, allowing the game to manage big sprites without hampering the action speed by NOT showing the entire playable area at once. Despite being a vertical shooter Solar Striker has some spare screen on the sides where you can go as the “camera” follows smoothly, and without the need to “render” the entire scene it has got some extra flops to burn with the action.

Solar Striker next to contemporary shooters: Galaga, Nemesis and Sagaia.

Still, there’s more to it. People back then—and even nowadays—regard Solar Striker as cheap due to its lack of continues. The game per se is not that hard, but getting to its end within some 3-misses limit could be challenging indeed. But that perception falls apart when you realize the intricate risk/reward system behind the so-called artificial toughness. You can earn extra lives at a decent pace by scoring high; but doing so demands a more aggressive stance on tackling enemies’ formations. So, the way to go here is not to simply avoid losing lives altogether; is to raise the risk bar when in need of the very same lives.

Solar Striker remains one of the best shooters to ever grace Game Boy, aside being a living lecture on game design.