VC Look: Super Metroid

Although we are all familiar with what is considered one of the greatest games of all time I would be lying if I told you I was worried about the game when it was first announced. I've already talked about the first Metroid which is at least in my opinion a fascinating experiment but really too poorly designed to be considered a great game. Metroid 2: Return of Samus evolved some aspects of the series but I thought it was simply too linear and the level design was much to bland. It also happened to grow quite repetitive since in order to progress you had to clear ever level of these Metroid mini-bosses. When Super Metroid was announced I was worried that without a clear direction to establish itself the series would be doomed to failure. Little did I know that Super Metroid would not only become one of the best games ever made but it would become the blue-print for all future Metroid titles.

Alright did anyone really believe all that? No when Super Metroid was announced I immediately hated myself for sticking with the Genesis and I very well nearly crapped my pants when I saw maybe three seconds of footage on a local news station. Though I was twelve or thirteen at the time I hadn't really developed a notion of what could be considered good game design(in fact it could be argued that I'm still trying to figure it out). Thus I loved both of the previous Metroid games.

So what can be said that hasn't already been said? Super Metroid follows the events of Metroid 2. Samus locates a Metroid larva and takes it to a research center for testing. Before Samus can take off to seek out a new bounty(which'll never happen, Poor Samus needs Metroid like Batman needs the Joker) the research center is attacked by Ridley and the larva is stolen. After a brief encounter and a harrowing escape Samus arrives back at Zebes(the planet where Metroid 1 took place) to find the larva and so on and whatever.

Super Metroid is perhaps one of the most important games in terms of telling a story. Outside of the intro there are no cutscenes, bits of text, dialogue, or anything the our medium is known for. The story practically tells itself through innovative usage of background elements. From the remains of the first encounter of Mother Brain to the discovery of the escaped Metroid larva every bit of the story is told simply through intelligent use of object placement. Though some elements are forced upon you can you can't progress until they're completed you are in full control throughout, giving an almost interactive element to the story-telling.

Controlling Samus is a bit troublesome at first. She's a bit floaty and isn't terribly good at dodging attacks. Thankfully this is made up for by her flexibility. While jumping and falling she can morph into a ball to become a smaller target, jump off of walls to reach out of reach areas, and gain an incredible assortment of power-ups that can be turned on or off at will. Her firepower has also increased dramatically over the past two games now that any weapons she picks up will combine into each other for increased strength. She also has access to a ton of hidden techniques(most of which are shown in the demos at the title screen).

All of Samus's tools may or may not be useful but thanks to the level design of this game players have more than enough opportunities to test out her many attributes. While the first games had fairly mediocre area design, Super Metroid blows them both away by linking all of the various worlds so that going between them is smooth and exploration is constantly rewarded with shortcuts and/or items. 

Many of the foes will be familiar to Metroid fans and what makes them interesting is how they're used to supplement the levels. Sometimes a hidden area will be given away by enemies crawling out of it, other times frozen enemies can jumped on to reach items. Very few of the foes that Samus encounters are actively out to kill her. It's a very impressive tool in developing the world.

While prior Metroid games have doled out better endings(better in that they showed more of the protagonist's skin at the end of the game....yeah) neither of them really made an effort to design a world that helps move things along. All of the best times in the original Metroid were gotten by only beating one of the bosses and leading an enemy into the room with the statues to freeze and get a boost to the entrance to Mother Brain's lair. While genius it is also rather game-breaking. To alleviate this Super Metroid makes it impossible to enter the final leg of the game without defeating a certain four bosses. To compensate a charge beam is available early on so even without missiles bosses can still be destroyed. So while one very large door was closed a ton of windows were opened. Gamers could play through the game normally and collect everything as they progress while others could attempt to go with getting as few items as necessary. It definitely helps that Super Metroid is a relatively short game and thus gives quite a bit of replay value for players seeking out new ways to complete the game.

Why would gamers want to play through the game so many times? Well it helps that this game is masterful in its execution. The Mechanics are top of the line and every bit of the game is sensible, creative, and most importantly open. The open-nature of Super Metroid is its' greatest strength as there are so many ways to go through the game. Most of the aliens Samus encounters can be rushed past, while others can be used to her advantage. Still by mastering a few techniques entire parts of Zebes can be ignored entirely(the grappling beam for example is entirely optional). Every part of Super Metroid is practically flawless.

Believe me if I could I would find something about this game that doesn't hold up well but it's simply one of the best games ever produced. The sequels on the other hand...we'll see about those at a later date.

PS1 Look: Breath of Fire IV

Capcom's Breath of Fire IV is in many ways a direct sequel to Breath of Fire III. The gameplay aspects like the Mentor/Learning system(where you learn abilities from various NPCs & Monsters) and unique approach to overworld exploration have been carried over as well as the basics of combat. You can still go fishing and you'll still help raise a fairy village. While part 4 does simplify a few things it's still for the most part a seamless jump.

It's not all the same as Breath of Fire 4 does tell a different story. Series regulars Ryu & Nina are caught up in tale of destiny as they work their way around the world to find a mysterious man by the name of Fou-Lu(who is actually playable at some parts of the story, giving you his perspective). Without spoiling anything I can assure you dragons are involved as well as lots of talk about Gods and fate. 

The differences extend further in the gameplay. Exploration still has the same three-quarters perspective but the dungeons have been shortened quite a bit. The dungeons usually have some theme or gimmick(maybe you'll ride a vehicle, run through a forest, etc) and have only a few treasures. This helps with the pacing as you'll go through a much larger variety of locales. Unfortunately none of the dungeons are particularly impressive nor are they really much of a challenge. 

Combat has also undergone a number of changes. First off is the new party system. The six party members you can attain are situated into front and back rows. The front row takes on the brunt of the fighting and handles all of the actions while the back row recharges ability points and occassionally offers support. The characters can be swapped out at any time and the battle is only truly lost when all six are defeated. 

Also new to this entry is the combo-system. By using similar-abilities(like casting a bunch of spells or doing a bunch of physical attacks) the player can chain attacks together and gain a number of bonuses. Having two characters cast a certain combination of spells can result in more powerful spells and by chaining the characters can do additional damage. This system is an interesting way to keep players from relying on the "fight, heal" doldrums that pervade most RPGs. 

Probably the most welcome aspect of Breath of Fire 4 is that while the constant mini-games have made their return they don't seem as bad as in the last game. Most of them are short and to the point(no exploring the world for cooking ingredients!) and doing well in them can reward the player with items or strengthen some of their abilities. This is definitely an improvement over the original as they're better designed to supplement the pacing instead of help to kill it.

Unfortunately this is the last traditional game in the Breath of Fire series. Part 5 also known as Dragon Quarter took on a very different approach and as such divided many of the fans who have been enjoying the series since the Super Nintendo. While personally I think Dragon Quarter is the best of the series I also think part 4 isn't bad at all(it's certainly an improvement over BoF3 and holds up well next to the second game). 

It should be noted that over the years the Breath of Fire series has changed quite a bit. The early games relied on long dungeons and a number of character-specific abilities to unlock previous areas for new items but the newer games have gone towards shorter dungeons and the character abilities being only useful for certain situations(this is excluding Dragon Quarter which is different altogether). Depending on your tastes you might get more mileage out of the first two games. Unfortunately the first Breath of Fire isn't available on the Virtual Console(due in part to Square publishing the first game in the US) and part 2 has an absolutely horrendous translation. I'm just mentioning this here because I don't plan on ever looking at the first two Breath of Fire games.

VC look: The Legend of Zelda

One of the most important aspects of game design is balance. When most people think of balance in videogames it's when talking about fighters. Balance is essential to a fighting game certainly since even the most remarkable fighter will fall apart if there are only a handful of certain characters or moves that are truly useful. However balance transcends genres and is a requirement for any game one is developing.

To understand the basics of balance one has to look no further than Nintendo's Legend of Zelda for the NES. As Link you must explore a large overworld finding dungeons and various secrets. Upon discovering these dungeons he must seek out the pieces of Tri-force and important items that'll help him explore other dungeons. After collecting all eight pieces he goes to the final dungeon to defeat Ganon and rescue Princess Zelda. Gamers are already familiar with the concepts this game has brought to the series. Multiple dungeons, important items like the bow & the boomerang, and so on.

Where the original Legend of Zelda differs from its contemporaries is its emphasis on combat over solving puzzles. Sure there are many secrets to figure out but mostly they involve bombing this wall, setting fire to that tree, or in some rare cases pushing through that wall to find a secret passage. It seems almost quaint in comparison to future Zeldas, where dungeons tend to revolve around whatever item Link collects within.

Most of the challenge in Zelda 1 comes from the fact that every room you enter is filled with enemies of varying abilities. Most foes have a projectile of some sort(and they pause for half a second before firing) and the ones that don't usually have some other sort of characteristic that can make dealing with them a pain(like the Darknuts, enemies who are only vulnerable from the sides or rear). The average dungeon consists mostly of these enemy-filled rooms and while you can by-pass some, important items tend to spawn after killing every foe or you're allowed to push certain blocks to reveal passageways. Furthermore at the end of each dungeon a boss(what else?) awaits. These particular foes are more likely to require a particular item or weapon to kill them(Ganon of course requires the silver arrows, while another needs a flute, and so on) and late in the game tend to be the easiest thing about the dungeon. 

How does one deal with the almost constant combat? This is where balance comes into play. Link will gain a number of useful weapons and items over the course of his adventure and all of them have strengths and weaknesses. His trademark sword(which can be upgraded twice by collecting enough hearts and finding the right old man) has a short reach and a poor range(he only thrusts it here, no swinging it around like in future Zeldas) but is integral to most every encounter. Also when Link has full health his sword fires a projectile which is useful in nearly all situations. The bow is another very useful weapon but firing it costs rupees(currency) and some enemies are entirely invincible to it. The boomerang can stun a handful of enemies, grab far-away items, and even kill weaker enemies like bats but it's useless for many dungeon encounters. The wand is very powerful but again, useless against certain enemies. The candle is important for lighting dark rooms in the dungeons and setting fire to bushes however it can only used once per room(you get a better candle by the 7th dungeon which has infinite uses per room) making it frustrating for finding secrets. The bombs are similar and are required for certain bosses but they're limited. The bridge is useful for crossing chasms but only the equivalent of one-square. Meat can be used as bait to lure monsters away but is also required for a handful of dungeons to bribe hungry guards. The blue ring halves damage but is expensive while the stronger red ring is found at the very end of the game. Link's shield can block some projectiles(and even more by buying a better shield) but he can only block what he's facing and when not swinging his sword. There are also some projectiles he'll have to dodge anyway. As you can see Link's arsenal does not provide a weapon that is useful in most every situation except for the sword, which is the most difficult to master due to its poor reach & range. There are also no truly useless items as everything Link can get a hold of has its importance at one time or another. This is just one of the many facets of videogame balance that should be accounted for.

The enemies are similarly balanced. While most foes fire projectiles they pause for a brief moment before firing in whatever direction they're facing. Also most enemies die in 1 to 3 hits(if it takes several more you're probably in need of a sword upgrade) and between the blue ring, additional heart containers, and even life-restoring potions the player can survive a lot of damage the foes inflict. While this is still one of the more challenging Zelda titles -- with Zelda 2: Adventures of Link taking the top-spot for hardest -- most players shouldn't have too much trouble with it. Even the nasty Blue Wiz-robes can be handled through constantly moving and staying just out of their sight(as they don't have a pause for their projectiles). All of the foes are clearly marked by color to show how difficult they are so it's clear what the player should look for whenever they enter a room.

While I'll continue to look at game balance throughout this blog I'd like to turn my attention towards the identity of Zelda 1. Identity is in my opinion the most sorely-lacking aspect of videogames today. For example take three random first-person-shooters like Half-Life, Halo, and Quake 1. While all three games have the basics of the genre they differ in everything from weapons and locales to design philosophy and control. The identity that each of these games create is what the player connects to over the course of the game. It can be the difference between a good game and a great game. While I'll be the first to admit that the Xbox 360/Playstation 3/Wii generation has no shortage of good games I think there is a lack of great games.

How does one create an identity for a game? Possibly the easiest way is by having a very small development team. The First Legend of Zelda had maybe less than ten people working on it. Thus for various design aspects one person likely handled all of them, creating something very unique. With the bigger budgets attached to games today much larger teams(even in the realm of hundreds) are put together. These larger teams tend to distill the identity of a game since so many people are working on various aspects of the game. Sure this results in less awful games but that also means less great games.

As I mentioned earlier even the genres with the most similarities can maintain their identity through varying aspects of the gameplay. For a platformer this might mean the arc & height of the jump, the advantages that could be gained from performing certain actions, how the levels are designed and played out, and so on. Every little facet of a game can become so much more with a good identity. It's the difference between Super Mario Bros. 3 and High Seas Havoc(remember that game?). 

Zelda 1 maintains its identity despite the sequels and clones that followed it through its level design and various gameplay aspects. All of the dungeons rely on familiarizing the player with particular elements and then adding in new ones as they progress. Many dungeons in later games have some sort of theme attached to them(water dungeon, desert dungeon, etc). The dungeons in Zelda 1 also have elements of non-linearity as through the use of bombing secret passages or by buying keys instead of finding them in the dungeon(if one can stand the challenge they could go straight to the 8th dungeon to find the unlimited-use key).

The gameplay pushes the identity of Zelda 1 even further. When an enemy is hit they are pushed back a certain distance(same for the player, which can be very useful in some situations). When the player attacks with the sword they can actually strike in multiple directions if they move the d-pad quickly.  The range of bomb explosions, how many seconds it takes to push a passage-revealing block, the number of ways the boomerang can be thrown, these and many other facets are governed by the Zelda 1's identity. They are all exceptionally designed and thus make the game an absolute classic. Over the course of this blog I'll continue to talk about the importance of identity and games that feature great usage of it.

While it's obvious by now that Nintendo has no intention of revisiting the gameplay elements of Zelda 1 there's still the fan-made project Zelda Classic. This interesting piece of software allows fans to create their own games using the rule-set and game design aspects of the first Legend of Zelda. It's quite an expansive project and very impressive. It's definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of the original.

VC look: Secret of Mana

Many gamers are familiar with Square-Enix's Mana series. Starting with Secret of Mana a large number of titles spanning multiple genres have been released over the years. Though the gameplay may change and very rarely are elements shared between multiple games there are a few constants: The storyline somehow involves a giant tree, the art is good and the music is excellent, and an utter lack of good game design. 

Secret of Mana is perhaps the first Mana title most everyone is familiar with. Known as "Seiken Densetsu 2" in Japan(Part 1 was a Gameboy title and Part 3 was a Super Famicom release) this game is a multiplayer action-rpg. Up to three players can get together at any time to take on the fell-beasts and evil rulers that threaten the precious Mana tree and the world. While most multiplayer action-RPGs today are more akin to Diablo in that they feature minimal story, maximum dungeons, and loot galore, SoM is more in line with traditional RPGs with its "town, dungeon, town, dungeon" manner of pacing.

Before long your party will consist of three characters. The boy has the highest attack & defense ratings but no magic. The girl has medium-tier ATK/DEF and uses defensive(healing) magic. The sprite has low-tier ATK/DEF and uses offensive magic. Each party member is capable of wielding eight different weapons that can be crafted to gain strength and special properties through the collection of weapon orbs(which are dropped by most bosses and found in some chests). Swords, spears, axes, javelins, whips, boomerangs, knuckles/claws, and bows are all at your disposal. As your weapons gain in power(and you gain in skill through constant usage of them) they gain additional levels for the charge-attack. By holding down the attack button the player will notice a meter growing next to their HP. Once it hits the level of charge-attack they wish to use they can release the button to deliver a special attack that does quite a bit of damage. Some of these weapons are required to traverse obstacles like going across cliffs & cutting down rocks but weapon-switching is a painless affair thanks to the ring system.

The ring system extends to all menus in Secret of Mana. With a press of the Y button you bring up your ring menu(X to switch between the other two party member rings) and by pressing up or down you can switch between the weapon, spell, item, and options/inventory/commands menu. Your last choice on the ring is temporarily saved so if you have a favorite spell it's always a couple button presses away. It's a bit off-putting for those used to picking their way through boxes and lists but over time it works out to be quite well done.

When not actively controlled by a second and third player your party member is taken over by a pretty basic AI. Though you can control how aggressive they are when dealing with foes as well as the level of charge attacks they use you can't command them to cast certain spells when necessary(None of FFXII gambits in here). In fact this A.I. tends to be a little too basic as they'll try to attack anything even enemies that can only be harmed by magic. Also when setting them to use charge attacks it's a bit of a crapshoot as they could miss entirely or simply drop the charge if you move around too much. Worse still there's a small chance they can get caught in some scenery and become trapped, potentially forcing a restart. 

Combat is an interesting beast in this game. Though it resembles an action-RPG more often than not it takes on properties of a real-time standard RPG. To start with when you swing your weapon a guage next to your hp will start from 0% and quickly make its way to 100%. You'll hear a tell-tale chime and will be ready to attack again. Though you can attack at any time if you aren't prepped you'll do little to no damage. Also though it looks like you hit enemies still have an evade stat and in some states(like knocked down) they can't be attacked at all. Thus it's beneficial to know the behaviors and attributes of every foe. Charge-attacks are a risky endeavor and honestly outside of a few scenarios they simply aren't worth bothering with. The strongest ones take a very long time to charge leaving everyone open to attack. Also if the player gets attacked just as they're about to perform the charge they'll lose it. The game really should have given an invincibility period or some way of ignoring the damage unless it was fatal as it would really make the charges more useful(shrinking the charge-time required would also be helpful).

Magic in Secret of Mana is divided into eight spirits which represent water, earth, wind, fire, dark(sprite-exclusive), light(girl-exclusive), moon, and mana. When spells of a certain spirit are used repeatedly they can gain levels(which are limited by the number of mana seeds sealed over the course of the game) and thus become more powerful. Most of the sprite's spells are self-explanatory as they involve killing the enemies with fire, ice, or whatever else works best. While the girl has access to a large variety of spells that give weapons elemental properties, raise defense, or provide a wide-range of shields and stat-buffs all you'll really need to know is healing and curing. The only way to benefit at all from buffs is to gain enough magic levels so that they'll last more than a few seconds. In order to gain magic levels you have to progress the story enough to reach the seeds and then spend a long time at the inn casting spells on your party repeatedly. In the end unless you're a completionist it's pointless to bother with the girl's magical abilities because outside of healing they're useless.

The dungeons in Secret of Mana are very linear and don't offer anything in the way of traps. This probably shouldn't matter too much since so much of the game is spent in combat but the lack of variation aside from the locales can grow rather dull after awhile(especially if the enemies you face happen to be more powerful clones of prior enemies). The bosses for the most part are very easy(except for the third boss "Spikey Tiger" who can be a serious nut). Main reason for this is because after a short time the Sprite gains access to attack magic. From then on if a Boss is weak to a particular element the fight is usually over before it even begins. Like the enemies, some bosses suffer from "hit-stun". For those who play fighting games hit-stun takes on a variety of properties and most of them lead to the possibility of combos. So in Secret of Mana you'll find that a number of bosses can be spell-comboed into oblivion, making a good percentage of them rather trivial. I guess this is somewhat balanced out by the fact that there's somewhere close to 50 bosses in the entire game with some dungeons consisting of two or more but most fights are over before they even begin. Even without magic most fights become too easy after a certain point as bosses tend to do too little damage to the party in comparison to what they can dish out. You could limit yourself further by choosing not to buy the best armor or level up your characters/weapons as much but again there's little merit in doing so.

Overall while Secret of Mana offers an excellent soundtrack(one of the best on the Super Nintendo) there's little reason to play through it as the game is too easy and has too many bugs. The game also suffers from a poor translation that borders on incomprehensible at times. Furthermore this game came out over 15 years ago and it offers nothing that hasn't been bettered by newer action-rpgs. The only way one could justify a purchase of this game today if it was purely through nostalgic reasons. In fact that's the reason I bought it. 

On the bright side there's little truly awful about this game(aside from the bugs). Unfortunately as the Mana series progressed the series continued to go downhill. It's a shame because while these developers have some good ideas their execution leaves a lot to be desired(though the art and music remain quite good...shame this blog really doesn't care about that).

Next Month: Genesis

This June I will start talking about one of my favorite systems the Sega Genesis(or Mega-drive if you prefer). I'll start off with a review of Sonic's Ultimate Genesis collection which is a great jump-off point for getting into the world of Genesis but from there I'll have to go with a combination of Virtual Console and Actual Console reviews(cause you'll miss out on a ton of games if you don't own the system itself).

Seeing as how this site really hasn't mentioned anything about multiplayer-focused games like online shooters, MMORPGs, and so on I'd also like to address that next month. It's not that I don't play these games it's just that I'd prefer not to talk about them as this blog needs some level of focus. So next month you'll see my "First and Last Word on Multiplayer". In these posts I'll write up short impressions on every multiplayer game and why I stopped playing. Main reason I don't go back to these games is that I simply like to play as many different games as possible. If I spend too much time on a single game I become complacent, my senses dull, and next thing I know I'm lost to the ether. 

And as usual there will be write-ups on the assortment of Virtual Console, Arcade-Appreciation, 3DO, and well whatever the heck other game I manage to finish up over the course of this month.

Games/Movies for Sale

Got nothing at the moment.

Websites to check out for May '09

You know how it goes. If you've managed to reach this blog before checking out any of the following sites then shame on you.

http://www.subspacedownloads.com/ - Home of Subspace/Continuum. Essentially this is a free online multiplayer shooter. Using an overhead view and a wealth of mods this game seeks out to suck up all of your free time. I've put several hundred hours into this game. No harm in checking it out right?

http://www.giantbomb.com/ - Giantbomb - I've heard several good things about this site and not surprisingly it lives up to the hype. There is a wealth of content here to check out for all types of gamers. Definitely recommended.

http://www.genesiscollective.com/ - Genesis Collective - The Genesis is one of my favorite game systems. Thus I find myself liking websites that focus on it. This site provides basic information on practically every Genesis/Mega-drive to ever come out. A fantastic way to spend a lonely Saturday night.

http://www.vgmuseum.com/ - Videogame Museum - Endings, scans, and all of that other good videogame-related stuff can be found here. Not much else to say.

http://www.archive.org/details/gamevideos - Archive.org's Gaming video section - Can't get enough videos of people playing videogames? Check this site out. Tons of speedruns in here.

http://www.letsplayarchive.com/ - Chances are if you've paid a visit to Somethingawful.com's gaming section you'll find people doing "Let's Play XXXXXX" threads. This site archives all of these Let's Plays in a handy, easy to read format. Hosts video LPs as well and just an absurd amount of content in general.