ZombieU: When It Makes Me Start Again

If you haven't played ZombieU on Nintendo's Newest Console just yet, I really don't want to spoil anything, but try to not die.  This may seem like pretty obvious advice when it comes to video games and life in general, but this game is a little different.

When you play Call of Duty or Halo or Resident Evil or Gears of War of any number shooter/survival games, you die... a lot.  In fact, players die so much so that many of these games keep a running kill/death ratio as a mark for how good you are and the ratios are never high.  I don't play a lot of Call of Duty, but I don't think my Kill/Death is much higher than 0.  Then again, I'm awful at it.

In ZombieU, however.  My Ratio is much higher.  It isn't because I'm better at this shooter than others.  It isn't because the game is easier, though it does have a more forgiving learning curve than jumping into an online multiplayer match.  But the reason my K/D is so high in ZombieU, is that I'm afraid to die.

Wrap your head around that.  When were you ever afraid to die in an online shooter except for when your team is one kill from losing?  And even then, the kills happen so fast that it's hard to tell how many kills any team needs at any given time.  These other games are based on the desire to jump right back into the action after a death, essentially making death, not meaningless, but without punishment.

When I die in ZombieU(all 12 times), I start over with 6 bullets for my pistol and a cricket bat.  Yes, I can store up materials in a chest that carries over from survivor to survivor.  I can even hunt down my previous survivor(now zombie) and kill them to loot their body, but every time, I wake up on a bunk in my safe house with minimal supplies and even less hope.

I'd love to say that it gets easier.  But I'm 7 hours in and every time I get comfortable or confident, something awful goes wrong.  Sometimes the undead attack my safe house.  Other times I take a hasty step forward and find a room full of awoken, angry zombies.  Every decision I make has instant and very measurable consequences as the time survived, K/D, and other statistics fade from the screen after a death.

This game isn't for everyone and it's probably better for it.  I hope you give it a shot.  I hope you get to feel the same fear and panic I have felt.  Mostly, I hope you don't die.

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.

And The Winner Is...

Me.

I'm the winner.  When Nintendo branches off and does their own thing, I am the beneficiary of the experiment.  I get to experience game types, styles and ideas of which I've only dreamed.  All because Nintendo refuses to do what the economy, strategists, and competitors tell them to do.

I've owned my WiiU for 4 days and only played 2 games on it and I'm already convinced that it is the system for me.  How can I possibly know this soon?  How are 2 games and several hours anywhere near enough time to make a judgement call on a system that, admittedly, has many bugs and kinks to work out in the coming months?  3 Words: New Gaming Experiences.

Lets take a look at what new things I've done on my WiiU in the last 4 days.

1. Local Multiplayer with a twist.  The Multiplayer suite of ZombieU is far from impressive.  5 Maps, 3 game modes and limited number of weapons with no customization should add up to a mediocre experience.  And the hook brings me back: Because of the separate handheld screen and asymmetric(different for 2 players playing the same game) style, I get to test the mettle of my nephew's first person shooter skills by throwing zombies of multiple types and styles at him in a poor-man's RTS manor.  I get to see him backing up into the strategically placed sleeper that will jump him when he gets close enough.  I get to take control of the survivor and let him throw zombies at me.  Simply put: I can't do this anywhere else.  Therefore, I will do it on my WiiU and laugh out loud every time my spitter covers my opponent in zombie-pus

2. A Sandbox I want to play in.  I've played Scribblenauts on the DS.  I played Super Scribblenauts on the DS, but now I've played Scribblenauts Unlimited on the WiiU and I can't go back.  The puzzles are entertaining and appropriately silly(Yes, this fireman can build a mech for you to fight off the zombie horde), but the strength is in the more, bigger, best mentality of these items.  Each item is liberated by the adjectives introduced in Super Scribblenauts, but now, I can take those items and make them my own.  I can literally make them my own.  I summon them to my item editor, change every characteristic imaginable, give it a new name and it is now mine, my own, my precious.  It is without a doubt the best item editor any console has ever seen.  I don't know why I would want a stick that grant's me invisibility and shoots grenades that don't explode, but that isn't the point.  The point is that I can make it and it's mine.

3.  Investing in the Community.  You won't find me on forums or comment sections or chat rooms about games.  This may be to my detriment.  I'm not much for the anonymity of the internet.  On the WiiU, however, I found myself commenting on people posts. I reached out to people asking for help.  I found people with similar thought processes and taste in games and I friended them out of the blue.  There is something about the way that Nintendo set out to integrate the Miiverse into the game experience and into the DNA of the WiiU itself that makes me want to contribute.  Add in the fact that their filtering software and community driven tools for reporting poor behavior not just work, but work well, and I'm in a community of gamers that I'm not ashamed to introduce my family to.  It's a brand new world of interaction for me in a gaming community.

4.  The Controller is Enough.  This is a silly, stupid,  mediocre feature that really shouldn't be mentioned, except for how amazing it is.  "Hey, can you turn that down?  We can hear those brains exploding in the kitchen!"  "Yeah, sure."  We've all had that conversation before, but now, turning down the volume requires no additional effort or searching for remotes or reaching for the "right" remote.  The WiiU Gamepad is the right remote, for the TV and cable box.  This isn't about me being lazy; this is about Nintendo wanting their console to be a part of every interaction the living room and I commend them for it.  No, this isn't some amazing new and crazy feature and no, it won't revolutionize gaming, but I love changing the input to the Blu Ray player for my wife when I want to make more hover tanks that shoot exploding sheep on my Gamepad.

The WiiU is far from perfect.  The load times between standard menu selections are a little ridiculous.  The friend system isn't quite as intuitive as it should be in Fall of 2012.  There isn't a "Halo" or "God of War" to drive sales yet.  There is, however, a strong pulse and piles of creativity in Nintendo's WiiU.

A Tale of Two Purposes: Skyward Sword and Skyrim

I’m playing through two game simultaneously right now, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.  First a closer look at what those two titles are about, just so I don’t ramble on and lose those that have no idea what those games are.  

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, I’ll refer to it as Skyrim from here on out, is a fantasy Western RPG.  All that means is that you assume the role of a character and play through the game as that character.(RPG =  Role Playing Game)  This genre was once a very narrow description of games, today, RPG’s cannot be defined in a thousand words because of their variety and evolution.  So I’ll just say that Skyrim is a game where anything within the game’s universe is possible.  

It is set in a world of knights, kings, assassination, magic, demons, dragons, elves, orcs and anything else Tolkien has ever written about.  It isn’t based off of Tolkien by any means, but is certainly derived from the basis of fantasy that he set years ago.  You enter the world as a supposed criminal crossing the border into the land of Skyrim.

The game is a sequel(the fifth in a line of games) that explore this world and lore created years ago.  The way you play is completely up to you.  You can be a sneak-thief, you can be a mage, you can be a knight, you can be a conjurer that raises the dead to your defense, you can be a blacksmith, you can be an assassin: literally anything you want to, as long as it fits into the universe at hand, you can do.  You don’t even have to play the story, the world itself is filled with content outside of the story that actually drives the game.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which I’ll refer to as Skyward Sword, is also a fantasy RPG, but it is pretty obviously eastern.(you’d have to see the game to understand, but just accept that if you were to play it, you would see imagery and lines of dialogue that make no sense to a western population, but within the eastern canon, make perfect sense i.e. cats with giant ears that fly)

Skyward Sword lacks everything open and free that Skyrim embraces.  There are a few side stories, but they are all fluff to the main event.  Within Skyward Sword, you will play as Link and Link will be the same person no matter who plays him.  He has a destiny and must complete his destiny to save the world and, in this case, his girl, Zelda.  Instead of a fully realized world with options and choices, it is much more linear, more like reading a book.

These two games represent a very interesting crux in the world of gaming right now.  They are both single player games(as opposed to multiplayer games where you play with other people) and they are both RPG’s, but they are as different as Pac-Man and Street Fighter.  The crux is this: are games better when they allow for choice and freedom or are they better when they tell a linear story and limit the freedom of the player.  Most people I know, or more specifically, most of the people I talk to about games, prefer the freedom of Skyrim.  

I’ve put about 20 hours into Skyrim and I’ve spent, literally, as little time as possible on the story, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.  I’ve killed dragons, forged armor or all kinds of types and styles, I’ve destroyed necromancer dungeons that were threatening small towns, but I have no idea what is happening in the story, meaning, there is little to no weight on the quests I’m involved in.  Bad things happen when I fail, but the world moves on.  

There is weight in the story.  On the other hand, in Skyward Sword, I’ve played through just over half of the story and have enjoyed every minute of it.  Each part of the world is filled with puzzles and tasks for me to overcome in order to find my childhood friend and love of my life, Zelda.  She was kidnapped and I have to find her.  There are temples where I find tools to help me in my quest and Zelda is persistently kept out of reach as I move forward.  The character of Link has shifted.  I once was looked down upon as just a boy, but now, I’ve proved myself as the hero, chosen by the gods and I am on a mission.  There is a strong cinematic story that arcs through this game.

The most interesting thing that I find between these two experiences is that I kind of wish they were combined:  Skyward Sword employs awesome motion controls that mimic my sword strikes exactly, the combat and story are some of the best I’ve ever experienced in game, but the world is narrow and limited when I compare it to Skyrim.  Skyrim is wonderfully realized a world.  You can literally get lost in this sixteen digital square miles and just live as a hunter-scavenger in the woods and mountains, but the story is less compelling and less important because of the huge world it is in.  The button pushing combat is weak when compared to Skyward Sword.

The beauty is that both are phenomenal, but they address different drives within my mind: open freedom vs concise storytelling.

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.

Fighting Games: A Legacy

My first fighting game was Street Fighter II on Game Boy. Needless to say, some of the nuances of the genre were lost on a 5 year old, but even then, the importance of not letting your opponent hit back was more than clear. Juggling, ranged attacks, spacial awareness, memorization, adaptation, improvisational combos would all come to pass as I grew in age and wisdom.

Following Street Fighter II, I actually didn't really get into a fighting game again until Super Smash Bros. While it isn't a typical fighting game, the keys were there. While it didn't use the same skill set at Street Fighter, it still embodies all that makes fighting games great on a competitive level. Followed up by Melee and Brawl, I couldn't help but love the style of this fighting game.

After Melee, I was dragged into a new gaming scene: Tekken 5. The Jump into 3D was a fair shock. Now I can avoid those pesky ranged attacks by a simple side step! At the end of the day, however I was never as drawn into the 3D fighting as I was the 2D. There are probably several reasons, the main one being simply preference. I have nothing against the gameplay at all. The combos were just as satisfying and the combat just as smooth, I just prefer the 2D.

Since Tekken 5, fighting games disappeared from my typical lineup. I like to have a solid rotation of multiple genres in my gaming. I think it is good to have a lengthy RPG to be working through, one or two local multiplayer games for parties and game nights, one or two online multiplayer games for when I don't have anyone around, and then a platformer. Now fighters can fall into both of the multiplayer styles, but for whatever reason, I had games in those voids but no fighting games.

Well all that to say, I've returned to form with fighting games. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 currently resides in my Xbox 360. I love it. All the twitch of Street Fighter II, 2D visuals, and enough depth that I'll never run out of things to learn(unless I go on a binge, let's hope I don't do that again...) I can't keep up online, but I enjoy the single player arcade and I have a couple friends who love to play. It's good to be back.

Console Wars: The Next Generation

There's been a lot of talk about the next-next generation of consoles. The PS4, the XBox 720, Wii 2, all of these concepts and ideas have been floating out there for the better part of 2 years. The irony being, of course, that the Wii and PS3 are only a little over three years old and the XBox 360 is closer to six.

When I look around, however, I don't know that I need a next generation of console. I have a Wii, and while it isn't the most powerful system out there by any stretch, There haven't been any games that have pushed it to its limits. Super Mario Galaxy came close as for visuals and unique gameplay experiencs. Super Smash Bros. Brawl is the best local and online multiplayer experience on Wii. World of Goo is one of the pinnacles of story telling in modern gaming and one of the best puzzle games ever. Even the controls on the Wii are continuing to be perfected. I know that the Wii can do more.

XBox 360, even having been out for nearly six years hasn't been eclipsed in its abilities. Every year it seems that there are new games coming out that push the graphical boundaries on the 360. With Natal coming out in the next two years, a whole new collection of ideas and gameplay options will be attempted. If you don't know what Natal is, do some quick research. It's an interesting idea that could really do some neat things in the world of gaming, particularly in the advent of 3-D gaming.

It's hard for me to even talk about the PS3. I almost want to chalk up the first year and a half of the PS3's lifespan as a mistake and maybe that it didn't happen at all. It hasn't been until this second half of this past year and now into this year that there are games that even play on the same field as the abilities as the PS3. The PS3 was designed to last about ten years on the market because of the way the hard drive and processing cores were built. To this day, no one has even pushed the PS3 even a little bit. Not that there haven't been great, even excellent, games for the PS3, only that there haven't been any games worth the initial $600 price tag. The hardware was worth that much, however it is software that sells hardware.

With all that said, I'm pretty sure that Nintendo will be the first to upgrade. It will be a similar style to the Wii, but it will have quite a bit more processing power. They would be foolish to change the controls, I think that the Wii-mote with the Wii Motion + and the accompanied nunchuck is perfect for most gaming, if not all. They will adopt a new button layout, but only to make buttons more accessible. Next will be the XBox 720, but only after Microsoft can't keep up with the abilities of the PS3. All I'm saying is that it may be a while.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii: Is It Really That New?

Rachel and I just played through New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Awesome game. No doubt in my mind that it is the best 2-D Mario game to come out... maybe ever. Ultimately it is the same game that I've been playing since I was 4 years old, but... bigger, more forgiving, multiplayer, and implements some really cool platforming puzzles.

So coolest thing about this game is that up to four people can play at the same time, it gets a little hectic, but it so much fun. The best thing about four people being able to play is that just about everyone who's ever played a video game knows how to play this game, it's just like the old game. Objective: save princess. How do we save her? Find Bowser and beat him. Where is Bowser? I don't know, just keep running to the right and we'll find him eventually. Simple, difficult, but so much fun.

I really have few complaints about the game. Some people were upset that it didn't really reinvent 2-D platforming. They said it was too much like the old games. To me, that is this game's greatest strength. I love that Dean and Debra(in laws) played this with me. I love that even Gwendolyn(sister-in-law) played; even Isaiah(4 year old) was able to pick it up and play along. It was kind of funny, they all started by asking: "How do I play? What do I do?" until they realized that this was no different than the game they had played before.

Now, this isn't all to say that all these people can play the game so it is too easy. Don't get me wrong, there are some platforming challenges in this game that make me nervous. I died a bunch, I had to practice and try new things. Then after the main levels just trying to survive, there are three giant star coins per level that you have to find to unlock the final 9th world and that's after there are around 6-8 levels in the first 8 worlds. All that to say, it's a long, moderately difficult game.

So to answer the first question: Is it really that new? No, but that's it's best quality to me.