Nintendo Land: What I Didn't Expect

When you pick up and play a Nintendo Mini-game compilation, you have certain expectations.  You think of playful versions of Nintendo's already playful franchises.  I imagine repetitive actions that must be performed at lightening speeds.  I remember always having four people in a room dying with laughter only to be screwed by some die roll or whim in the end.  These are the things that I expect.

This post is about what I didn't expect from Nintendo Land and why it impressed me.  We'll start from the top:

Single Player Experiences: If there is anything I don't expect to do with a Mini-game-fest is play alone. Historically the whole point is to encourage single couch multiplayer wrapped in a package of hilarity and fun.  Imagine playing Mario Party or Rayman Raving Rabbids by yourself.  You'd be competing with no one in a room with no one because the value is inherently tied to the multiplayer.  Nintendo Land on the other hand has 6 games, half of the games, that are single player only.  This strong emphasis is strange to see.  Did you ever sit around(or stand when appropriate) playing Wii Sports or Wii Play by yourself?  No, those games, once again, revolved around the multiplayer and barely offered the chance to play single player.

I think the part that really sold me though is that these single player offerings aren't bad.  In fact, some are even good!  While Takamaru's Ninja Castle and Captain Falcon's Twister Race bottom out my personal ratings, the rest of the options are not only worth checking out, but worth investing some time into.  Octopus Dance is a competent ape of Rhythm Heaven.  Yoshi's Cart is a puzzler that offers something I've never seen before in terms of translating from big to little screen.  Donkey Kong Crash Course is the kind of thing I can play for days, not unlike those labyrinth boxes or apps you can find on your phone.  Then Balloon Trip Breeze may be the best in the bunch in terms of replayability and fun.

Engage the Living Room:  All the single player experiences lead me into my next point of interest.  Historically, Nintendo has always been about same couch multiplayer and getting people of all ages and skill level into the games.  With Nintendo Land, they also seem to be giving those not in the game something to watch.  They're putting on a show.  Most of the mini games have an option to see the camera's image streaming the player's face from the game pad.  Even the single player games offer something to watch when I'm not playing.  I enjoy planning out the route for Yoshi's Cart and watching as the player's trail plays out.  People not playing the game, have a reason to watch and, for me at least, it's pretty engaging.

Replayability:  Once you figure out exactly the broken, awkward bowling swing that get's you the best scores, Wii Bowling looses it's luster.  Once the new wears off, Mini Games get returned to the used game shop.  This is where Nintendo Land borrowed a couple ideas from other major blockbusters, namely, unlockables.  As you play through the multiplayer and single player games within Nintendo Land, you will stumble across, find, and reveal all kinds of secrets including new maps and attractions.  While the "tutor" computer-thing is annoying and unable to be skipped, it does point out some really neat stuff wrapped up in this collection.  Essentially, Nintendo Land set out to make people want to play their silly little games again and again.  With me, it worked.

Nintendo Land doesn't reveal motion gaming to the masses like Wii Sports did.  It doesn't create a competitive yelling fest like early Mario Party's did.  It does, however, introduce the strengths of the game pad, asymmetric multiplayer(I'll spend some time on this later) and engage a watching audience like few games have tried before.  It does all this while being a really entertaining game with a lot of options.

Battlefield 3 and the Perils of an Open Beta

I am of the opinion that public or at least a large private multiplayer beta testing is border line required for the successful launch of a multiplayer game.  Now the definition of a successful launch is far from objective, but to me a successful launch does not include heavy tweaking to balance issues, reworking crashed servers, and a host of launch bugs that make the online experience more trouble than it is worth.  The high traffic with a huge cross section of people playing in public betas is a great opportunity for developers to learn and tweak before a games launch.

The Battlefield 3 Beta has been supremely effective at nailing down the necessary data for their designated servers.  What it hasn't done so well is advertise for the upcoming blockbuster.  I get the feeling from the blazing internet that people are unhappy with the performance issues in the Battlefield 3 Beta.  That may have been an understatement.  I've read about 10 blogs and articles concerning the issues(graphics, glitches, and host connection issues) and most of them seem to think that the upcoming entry into an established franchise is going to be complete rubbish based on this beta.  People are citing cancelled pre-orders and disappearing vehicles as proof that this game doesn't have what it takes to be a great game.

I'm not quite as militant, mainly because I didn't experience the same issues.  I played for about 4 hours and was booted from a game once, and never experienced any of the vehicle glitches.  The graphics were obviously rough around the edges(the character models weren't as crisp as I've seen in preview videos and there were some textures that popped in a little late, nothing life altering) and some of the animations seemed a little twitchy.  On the whole, however, I really enjoyed my time with Battlefield 3.  Rush Mode was as compelling as always, the ebb and flow of combat as attackers gained ground or the defenders pushed back felt good, and, even though I was on an XBox 360, I enjoyed the number of players in the matches.  I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the much larger battles of the PC arena, but my PC was occupied at the time so I'll take what I can get.

There was a time that if a game was plagued with issues at release, it was dead in the water, but now with patches and updates, a lot of issues can be solved post release.  I don't think that this is a bad thing.  I'm glad that developers have the opportunity to rectify issues with their games post release, but it is a little irritating when the first impression isn't up to par and patches take time to prepare and release.  During that time, I just spent money on a product that is far from satisfactory.

I'm glad that DICE decided to run the beta.  This gives them the chance to prepare their servers, maybe tweak a little balance, and iron out any bugs that occur when their systems are stressed by high levels of traffic.  I would rather a developer let me try their game for free to help them solve issues than to fix them post launch, post payment received.  At the same time, I hate the bad press Battlefield 3 is getting because they gave us a free opportunity to try their game.

Castle Crashers: an RPG For Everyone

I've become quite well known in my groups of friends for finding games that everyone likes. I actually go out of my way to find local mulitplayer games that my gamer friends and non-gamer friends alike can enjoy. I've often resorted to the Wii for these games. Things like World of Goo, New Super Mario Bros, Tetris Party, Dr. Mario, Boom Blox, Mario Kart, Geometry Wars, and NBA Jam. I search out the games that fit that transcend that metaphysical barrier between the "casual" and "hardcore"(I try to not use those terms, but it fits). One particular XBox 360 game seems to have taken the cake.

I've had Castle Crashers for a couple of years at this point, but I stumbled upon a sub-group of my friends that likes RPG's, so this was just perfect. I decided I could easily use one of my stronger characters and act as a buffer to keep them alive as they work through the game and we could have a good amount of fun. 2 weeks later I have a total of 12 people playing Castle Crashers at various times. It seems that I've found the perfect game. My wife plays, my friends' wives play, a Final Fantasy Veteran plays, a FPS fanatic plays, a PC gamer, a nanny, a photographer, everyone it seems will play this game and love it.

Well it got old being the strongest character while all these different groups are playing through the beginning levels. Then I realized the true genius of the simplicity of the leveling mechanic of Castle Crashers: it can be played so many different ways with so many different characters who all have different magics and characteristics. While at the same time, it is a simple 4 player brawler with a great sense of humor. I just want to keep playing... I want to level up every available character just for the heck of it. I now have 3 characters who are my main investment characters and they were all leveled up differently, one with all magic, one with all speed and one perfectly balanced between all stats.

It was just quite refreshing to rediscover this little gem. Thanks Behemoth, couldn't have done it without you...