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.

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.