Retro Game Friday: Cooking Mama

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m covering a game that I really didn’t care for all that much. It’s Cooking Mama!

Gameplay: The gameplay is a series of Mini Games, and features heavily the usage of the touchscreen on the Nintendo DS. Honestly this was one of those games that were meant to utilize the gimmick of a system more than anything else, and while it sold pretty well, I still can never really be a fan of this game.

Art: The art is okay, it’s not amazing, but given it’s 2D nature it’s aged much better than most games of it’s time. Still it looks old and weary now a days.

Music: This was a portable game, which meant that I didn’t get to listen to the music of it. So I can’t remember anything of it. Sorry.

Overall: This is a game that is easily skippable. The only noteworthy thing I remember about this game was PETA protesting it by making a Flash game parodying it.

For those who like: Touchscreen Gimmicks, Mini Games.

Not for those who don’t like: Either of the above.

 

Video Game Tuesday: What’s Going On With F/GO?

This week for Video Game Tuesday I’ve got an open question to the people at both Aniplex of America and Delightworks. I’m asking What’s Going On With F/GO?

Huh?: So for my readers here’s a brief explanation. In the past few months, the Fate/Grand Order community in North America has been growing more and more upset with the handling of the game by Aniplex of America. In particular Albert Kao, the Localization director for the NA Client has been getting a ton of flak, not least of which occurred very recently when he handled the Anime Expo panel incredibly poorly and unprofessionally.

If you want some proof just go to the Grand Order subreddit and look at all the posts complaining about Albert and his absolutely unacceptable behavior at that panel. In addition many fans are upset at being treated like crap compared to other servers, like China, not to mention the blatant favoritism shown towards the JP players. The latest insult in a series going back to Thanksgiving is the fact that the playerbase was screwed out of 20 Saint Quartz, the in game currency that you can pay real money for, for the recent Anniversary. The issue with this is that the anniversary was pushed back from the actual anniversary date of June 28th to be announced at the Anime Expo panel. Another inflammatory move that makes no sense to many players of the game, including myself. There are possible reasons, but those reasons all come down to a series of events that could have been easily avoided if they didn’t do a certain thing. And that was announcing things at Anime conventions. But that’s a topic for next week.

So here’s my question to Aniplex of America, what the hell are you doing? Many people understand how poorly Japanese companies can treat foreign markets, the whole Gaijin bigotry plays a huge role in this. But this has gone on many times and frankly it’s insulting to not only the playerbase, who you ought to be keeping very happy, but also the people who you invited to your panels who were subject to a man who looked like he had just shown up after panhandling for a day in the seedier neighborhoods of Los Angeles heading the panel. Do I expect an answer to my question? Nope, because at the end of the day I’m just a small time gaming journalist who can be very acerbic at times.

That’s it for this week’s Video Game Tuesday.

Retro Game Friday: Bastion

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m back with a real classic. It’s Bastion!

Plot Synopsis: In the immediate aftermath of the Calamity, a catastrophic event that suddenly fractured the city of Caelondia as well as the surrounding areas into many floating pieces, disrupting its ecology and reducing most of its people to ash. The Kid awakens on one of the few remaining pieces of the old world and sets off for the eponymous Bastion, where everyone was supposed to go in troubled times…

Plot: The plot is pretty great, not super intense or deep, but good nonetheless. Along with the fact that the constant narration is pretty freaking hilarious at times.

Characters: The cast is rather small, but it’s not bad. Though I have to admit I like Rucks the most, if only because of his voice.

Gameplay: The gameplay plays a lot like a Diablo game, with the player defeating enemies from an isometric view. That being said it also is a bit like classic 2D Zelda games in that you can only choose to use two weapons at a time, although unlike Zelda you can’t choose to switch your two weapons except at specific areas. All the while you hear the narrator speak about what you do in the game, which is pretty funny sometimes.

Music: The music was awesome, and that’s really all I’ll say about it. I enjoyed the hell out of it and the voicework, especially the narrator.

Art: Being somewhat 2D and cel-shaded the artwork has aged rather well, which is always a plus for me.

Overall: If you’ve never played Bastion, you ought to go do so as soon as possible.

For those who like: Action, Adventure, Drama, Awesome Narration, Good Plot, Fantastic Gameplay, Great Cast of Characters, Excellent Artwork, Spectacular Musical Score.

Not for those who don’t like: All of the above, but how can you hate all that?

Video Game Tuesday: Launch Day Madness

Hey all for this week’s Video Game Tuesday I’m going to cover a topic most of you will probably be familiar with after last week. It’s all about Launch Day Madness!

What’s Launch Day Madness?: Well it’s just a made up term I use when talking about a launch of a particular game and the breaking of various things that occur on that day.

Like what?: Well, for one and probably the one most people are familiar with after last week’s launch of Pokemon GO, the servers are down, or busy. The reason behind this is fairly obvious, too many people at one time. Even if some people get in just fine it’s more due to their own luck, or foresightedness at logging in early, rather than you just being unlucky. If a game can’t handle the massive amount of people logging in when brand new content launches than the IT team behind the game has severely miscalculated the anticipated user base, or it’s increased influx. That was the case with Pokemon GO for most people that I know, and myself personally. I still haven’t caught a single ‘Mon myself yet. The server went down before I could catch my first one.

What else?: Well it could also be the website used to register users can be down, another thing people are probably familiar with after last week’s launch of GO. Sane reasoning, although not to the same extent, probably only up to 80% of the user base if it’s a new game. It can also be that certain parts of the game don’t work, like Instances in World of Warcraft’s The Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Lich King expansion launches.

Even if it’s not people having issue logging in, the servers might be unable to handle a certain amount of players in one area and that area’s server might go down. Like the Eastern Kingdoms going down during the Wrath launch.  Or it may cause server restarts causing people to quit the game and stop playing for up to a few hours.

That’s it for this week’s Video Game Tuesday! Do you have a favorite Launch Day Madness story? Share it below!

 

Retro Game Friday: Infinity Blade

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m covering one of the first games for the iPhone! It’s Infinity Blade!

Plot Synopsis: The game follows a cyclical narrative structure in which the player-character and his descendants individually explore a castle in a quest to battle the primary antagonist, the immortal God King. In the game’s introduction, the player-character has just finished this quest, but is slain by the God King. The player then assumes the role of the dead character’s descendant as he starts his own journey at the beginning of the castle.

Plot: The plot isn’t amazing, in fact it’s pretty much a gameplay device, but hey at least it has a plot! Sort of.

Gameplay: As a touchscreen game I don’t really enjoy the game all that much, but it was a lot easier to control than most touch screen games. However the difficulty in progressing after failing multiple times was daunting and it definitely wasn’t conducive to new gamers. That being said people who enjoyed Dark Souls like games will enjoy the difficulty scaling. One bad thing however is that this was definitely made during the days of Pay to Win being a business model, and you could spend tons of dollars getting godly equipment to break the game.

Art: The art is okay, but it’s definitely aged.

Music: Don’t remember much, as I played it on the bus on my way home from college so I rarely if ever had the music on.

Overall: If you’ve never played the game, feel free to give it a download if you have an iPhone, but it’s not necessary unless you’re a bit of a masochist.

For those who like: Punishing Difficulty, Pay to Win, Cyclical Plots.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.