Odolwa's game reviews

[Odolwa]

I'm gonna save us all a lot of time by keeping my reviews in one topic. That way, I don't have random topics about old games and can just make a new post about any game I've finished.

So, first...


Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Will Turn ToT into a Pottymouth.

All you guys who have played it know it's true. It's inescapable. Echoes is one of the most cuss-out-able games of all time.

From the zombie invasion at the beginning (holy shit is this really going on) to the game's final duel with Dark Samus (damn, will you ever DIE) and all the Dark Pirate Commandos in between (any swear will work here), Echoes is unbelievably aggravating. And fun.

It works like this: for difficult-to-understand reasons, the game's setting, Aether, has been divided into two dimensional presences. Throughout the game, these are referred to as Light and Dark Aether. The residents of Light and Dark, called the Luminoth and Ing, respectively, are locked in a long and perilous war. The Ing are winning, so Samus takes the side of the Luminoth. I mean, otherwise, would this game be so aggravating?

The nature of the war is this. Both faces of Aether are powered by a unique form of energy (referred to, of course, as the Light of Aether). If either planet runs out of Light of Aether, it will be destroyed. Dark Aether has four at the beginning. Light Aether has one. So it's your job to turn the tables by stealing the Light of Dark Aether.

The act of stealing the light is pretty simple, and the act of getting it back to Light Aether is almost as simple. It gets difficult because you need three keys to get to each of the first three light sources. To get those Temple Keys, you have to have the proper power-ups. To get these power-ups, you have to fight a series of rough bosses. And then, in the temples themselves, before you get to the Light of Aether, you fight Amorbis, Chykka, and Quadraxis. Three unusually difficult bosses.

And that's how Echoes stands out. For all of the laudable puzzles, weapons, and enemies, the true difficulty comes out in the boss battles. Boss difficulty is something usually absent from Nintendo games, but not here. The bosses tend to be massive, obnoxious, and truly what any gamer should get out of bosses. Game designers should look at Chykka in particular as an ideal boss. Massive health in both of its phases and the capacity to absolutely murder you for a single bad move should be present in every boss in every game.

Perhaps the only major disappointment about Echoes is the total lack of Ridley. Echoes is one of two games in the Metroid franchise without a single Space Pirate General appearing to fight Samus. In spite of the strongly in-your-face presence of the Space Pirates, there is certainly room for Ridley in this game. And if it did have Ridley, it would make Return of Samus the extreme oddball of Metroid. After all, it's not only the other game without a Pirate General (if you're about to say Hunters, it's Weavel), it's the only game without any Space Pirates.

In summary, this game's real good. I'd go further, but I'm having a serious Metroid fix right now. You guys understand.

9.3/10

[Odolwa]

Don't have a review here, just decided I'd post my scale for reviews.

0.0: This game is E.T.

0.1-2.9: This game is of poor quality. I found myself not enjoying this game. Which doesn't happen much.

3.0-5.9: This game is not recommended. Though I enjoyed the playing experience, it wasn't worth my time and money. The game may preach to a very specific fanbase, may be generally clunky, or may have a feel of rushed production.

6.0-8.9: This game is recommended. The quality of this game was acceptable. The game has a real capacity to entertain, and though it isn't altogether preachable, it makes an experience that's hard to regret.

9.0-9.9: This game is outstanding. I thoroughly enjoyed myself while playing this game. At least one concept of this game far exceeds the standard in quality. I came home looking forward to playing this particular game. I tend to pick these up again (which means you'll be seeing a few of these).

10.0: This game is Majora's Mask.

[Odolwa]

A few days ago, I was rifling absentmindedly through a GameInformer when I found a review for Picross 3D. A highly positive review, I might add, that praised this game for the daring but successful twist on one of the two "perfect" puzzle formulas, Picross and Tetris.

Memories flooded in. There was another game that had a similar twist on the other of the perfect puzzles, and it was one of my old favorites. At the whim of my nostalgia, I picked up Tetris Blast of the original Game Boy today and started playing.

The unorthodoxy of Tetris Blast is its charm; when you fill a row, the row doesn't disappear. That's just too easy. Instead, all the bombs in the row explode. And the explosion doesn't necessarily work out for you, either. It's difficult to explain in text, easy to understand in practice, and impossible to pull yourself away from. The formula is just far too charming.

Tetris Blast has three modes: Contest, Training, and Battle. Obviously, those of you unfamiliar with this formula would start with Training, which puts you in a blank field with slow block-dropping speed, and leaves you to the rest. Contest is a beyond-addicting mode wherein you start with a field of blocks and must completely clear the field. This will probably be what you spend most of your time on, but Battle is the source of my very childhood, the fountain of fun for the game-addicted kid in me.

Battle places you in a similar situation to Contest at first glance, with a simple field of blocks. However, in each of the 8 stages is an enemy you must defeat. This can be done either by clearing the field entirely or depleting the foe's health by hitting it with explosions. Both of these are far easier said than done. Each enemy has a different skillset and varying amounts of intelligence (Squidly, the fifth enemy, has the same basic abilities as Cubit, the first, but also has an absurd amount of intelligence and kills me at least once every time). This means that each battle has an entirely different experience to it. Which is addicting.

So (and I can't believe I'm about to say this) go pirate it, everybody. Train yourselves for five minutes, battle 'till B-Boy (enemy 8) has B'd his last, and then Contest for a few hours. Trust me, you will love it.

9.8/10

[Yitik]

I don't know why people have so much trouble with Metroid Prime 2. To me it's perfect: difficult, but not "GODDAMMIT THIS GAME IS SO CHEAP ARRRRRGHHHHHH" difficult. If you lose, you know it's because you didn't do as well, and if you think a bit, you know how to change your strategy when you retry.

Also, I'm glad for the break from the "Space Pirates have Metroids" storyline. Ridley's recently died; it'd be difficult to assume he'd be back so quickly. And yes, Samus' archnemesis buzzing around would certainly detract from the real problem. Space Pirates were only on Aether because of Phazon, and obviously that didn't last too long .

Other than that, though, agree a hundred percent. This is one of my favourite games of all time, and this review does it justice.

[Yitik]

Er, the member's name is Odolwa. He writes reviews. Get it?

Geez. Some people's kids.