Super Mario 3D World review.

Super Mario 3D World Review.

Not to be mistaken with Super Mario 3D Land on the 3DS, Super Mario 3D World is the first Mario game on the WiiU that isn’t 2D; not that there’s anything wrong with the 2D games, it’s just that the ‘New Super Mario Bros’ games can only carry you so far, so it was up to Nintendo to put out a fully 3D Mario game, akin to games like Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. At this stage in their lifespan, and given the unprecedented amount of success and high accolades the previous 3D Mario games have received; Nintendo would have to do something pretty substantial in order to mess things up now. Thankfully, they haven’t. What they have managed to create is not only an excellent game in its own right, but possibly one of the best Mario games period.

Story is typically not what you think of when you play a Mario game; standard procedure is ‘Bowser kidnaps Peach, go rescue her, maybe she’ll bake you a cake’ and it’s not really different here except that instead of Peach being kidnapped, Bowser has gone after fairies and imprisoned them in bottles, and now its up to Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toad to go and rescue them. So essentially one damsel has been swapped out for 8 smaller ones; but nobody really plays a Mario game for in-depth storytelling, so lets start talking about what makes the game great.

The overworld maps in Super Mario 3D World are setup very much like the maps in Super Mario Bros 3 for the NES; in that they look “open” (note the very heavy air quotation marks) but are actually as linear as the world map in Super Mario World for SNES. The way this is achieved is that levels are dotted around the map area and you have to walk to the next level, but while you aren’t being forced down a set path, but there is really nothing to do on these world maps as they are fairly barren save for Toad houses and special levels (which I’ll get to later on). To actually make progress in the game, you’ll need to collect green stars to unlock later levels. Each level has 3 of these stars either in plain sight or hidden away in the environment, needing a power-up in order to collect it.

I find that there are two main pulls for any Mario game, one more important than the other but both are still factors into how much you’ll enjoy the game. The first major pull is level design, no matter how high the production values in a game are, if the levels aren’t fun to explore then it’s all resources wasted. The other pull is power-ups, this clearly isn’t as important as level design but how you can change your character can greatly impact how you play the game, and therefore how you explore the levels. So in terms of level design, Super Mario 3D World is just a fantastic place be to and the various worlds/levels are just plain fun to run around. Of course you have the standard world types like the grass world and the fire world, each world presenting more challenges and enjoyment. For example, in one level you might be in inky darkness and you’ll have to use a Fire Flower to light torches so you can see, and another level is basically a homage to top-down shooters. Of course as you might expect the late-game levels can be on the higher end of the difficulty curve, resulting in a more than a few deaths, but this is definitely a case of blame the player not the game when you die so you can’t be too mad when you encounter a level you find particularly difficult. Of course the WiiU GamePad had to be utilized in someway, and while you will have to use the touchscreen and microphone features to advance in some levels, these segments are few and far between so when they are used, they don’t feel very forced of gimmicky, which was always the danger. If for some reason you want to try something else in the game, there are special ‘Captain Toad’ levels which task you to collect a set number of green stars before time runs out; the catch being that Captain Toad only moves/turns in a grid based fashion and you can’t jump. Given these restrictions, the levels are a lot of fun and it’s a shame that there aren’t more of them.

Another major part of every Mario game are the power-ups; there’s always the standard Super Mushroom and Fire Flower, it wouldn’t be a Mario game without them, but it’s the inclusion of new power-ups which grabs peoples attention. One power-up has garnered more attention that any other this game; the bell, which dons Mario in a catsuit. This allows him to run on all fours, climb a certain distance up walls, and also dive from a jump to cover more ground. It’s easily the most prominent power-up in the game, and I found myself finding it constantly throughout the game. Another new power-up in this game is the Double Cherry, which as the name suggests, creates another character; so you’ll be in control of two Marios, and if you pick up another cherry it’ll be three Marios and so on. Bosses are another key part of the game, and while they may not be the most difficult bosses to defeat, they’re still fun to battle. The only real challenging fight, appropriately, is the final boss fight with Bowser as it has multiple phases which will most likely test your endurance as well as your platforming skills.

One feature that I haven’t been able to test out is the multiplayer portion of the game; essentially it’s a drop-in/drop-out style where a player can choose a character and start playing. After watching videos of 4 players trying to play, it looks like mayhem and also a lot of fun. Unfortunately the multiplayer is local only, but if you’re only buying this game for it’s multiplayer component, then clearly you don’t understand that Mario is primarily a single-player experience. Another cool feature is that you can choose to play as any character you want; Mario, Luigi, Peach or Toad. Each has their own special abilities that make them better than other characters, Mario is an all-rounder, Luigi has a higher jump, Peach can float for a small amount of time after jumping and Toad can run faster than everyone else. The controls in Mario games are nearly always spot on and the same holds true here; the only gripe I have is how running works. To run, as in all games, you hold the run button then your character gains momentum before reaching top speed. However in this game, when you hold the run button you speed up to a jog, then a few seconds afterwards you’ll break into a full run.

In terms of presentation, it looks and sounds great. Not only is it one of, if not the best looking game on the WiiU, however it can easily hold its own against games on more powerful systems like the PS4 and Xbox One. Obviously the WiiU can’t match the technical prowess of the other two, but it still looks amazing. The soundtrack is also fun to listen to, although while not as grand and fantastic as the orchestral soundtrack to the Galaxy games, there will definitely be a couple of tunes you’ll find yourself humming even when you shut off the game.

Overall, Super Mario 3D World is a great experience and easily one of the best games of the WiiU. This game reminds us that Nintendo is capable of amazing things when they put their minds to it, and can also make some of, if not the best first-party games around. Now if Nintendo could just make a new online F-Zero…

Super Mario 3D World is available through various retailers for around £34.99-£39.99, or you can download it though the Nintendo eShop for £49.99.

Crystal Catacombs Beta First Impression.

Crystal Catacombs Beta First Impression.

Before I start, please bear in mind that this game is still in beta and aspects of the game are subject to change, and I still don’t understand fully how the game works as I’ve only played roughly 2 hours so take my thoughts/criticisms with a pinch of salt. With that formality out of the way, let’s begin.

Crystal Catacombs is best described as an action-RPG with roguelike elements; this is due to the worlds/levels being randomly generated every time you play, ensuring you get a different experience with every playthrough, similar to games like Risk of Rain and Rogue Legacy. The visuals are somewhat reminiscent of another roguelike action-RPG; Legend of Dungeon, except here you are restricted to a 2D plain rather than being given free-reign of all 3 dimensions. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as one thing I found cumbersome with Legend of Dungeon was lining up hits in 3D when all of the characters are 2D 8-bit sprites, whereas you won’t have that trouble with Crystal Catacombs.

The story of Crystal Catacombs is fairly simple but gives a reason as to why you’re exploring these worlds; you play as a treasure hunter who is travelling in his airship, when suddenly a malevolent alien that looks oddly familiar to a Beholder from Dungeons and Dragons appears and captures you. This alien then forces you to explore these dangerous worlds that it has captured so you can defeat the bosses and find treasure. 

It won’t come as a surprise to roguelike fans that Crystal Catacombs puts up quite a challenge, you will die constantly until you eventually power through with items/XP points or just blind luck. The draw of roguelike games is this promise of challenge; that you have to earn your victory and that it feels rewarding when you defeat that one boss that has been killing you over and over. The player gaining XP points for killing monsters and leveling up represents the RPG portion of the game; but with my experience leveling doesn’t work as normal. In a regular RPG, traditionally your character levels up then your attributes increase by a set amount or by an amount chosen by the player. However here, unless I’m being totally ignorant of character changes (which is entirely possible) nothing really seems to happen. You won’t even be able to increase one of your attributes (HP, Attack, Defense or Mana) until you hit level 3-4.

There are 3 bars at the top right of the screen that represent your health, mana and XP. However I’ve never found an item that uses mana in anyway so far, but that might be me being unlucky with item drops. There are also gems you can collect which act as the games currency, although you’ll be lucky to find a shop before the last level of each world. There are item rooms on every level, and these can contain anything from a map for the entire level, which is very helpful, to a mystery potion that can do anything, and I mean anything. I drank a potion in one game that turned the entire world upside down and reversed the controls for a certain amount of time. Another pressing matter in the game HUD is the hourglass, which acts as the games timer; unfortunately this doesn’t actually tell you how much time you have left in the level. If the time runs out, then the Beholder alien will appear, chase you down and kill you instantly. But to soften the blow somewhat, every time you play you are given three lives, you can find more in shops and from killing tougher enemies but once you run out of lives, all of your upgrades are gone for good and you’ll have to start from square one.

All of this makes for a game that may not stray too far from action-RPG or even roguelike conventions, but it is still a very fun ‘come back for more’ kind of game. The only way to buy the game currently is through the developers website, you can pay $10 which gets you a DRM-free copy of the game on release, $15 gets you the game on release, a manual and the soundtrack (which I forgot to mention is really good), and for $20 you get all of the above as well as access to the latest beta builds of the game up until release. You can also vote for this game on Steam Greenlight, so if you want to see this game available on Steam in the future, go to their Greenlight page and give them a vote. I know I’ll definitely be keeping my eye on this game and how it’s progressing, and I hope it gets more attention, as it really deserves to.

Crystal Catacombs is available for $10/$15/$20 from the developers website: http://levelsorlives.com/

You can vote for Crystal Catacombs on Steam Greenlight here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=211648956

You can follow the developers on Twitter here: @LevelsorLives

If you enjoyed my first impression of this game, please feel free to have a look at my other reviews and let me know what you think, what’s good and what’s not. You can also follow me on Twitter at @itsmattwilmott

Jazzpunk review.

Jazzpunk Review.

Developed by Necrophone Games and published by [Adult Swim] Games, Jazzpunk is almost certainly unlike anything else you’ve ever played, for better or worse. The best way to describe Jazzpunk is as a first-person adventure/exploration game; the adventure aspect relates to the games primary story, you play as a secret agent who is tasked by your director to carry out missions like infiltrating a consulate and stealing a data cartridge. The secret agent profile is definitely more Austin Powers than James Bond however.

It might not look it, but this man is The Director and his office is in a train.

The exploration factor is the real meat of the game however, you can easily just follow the path the game gives you and complete the objectives until you see the end credits, but if you explore you’ll find so many objects and people to interact with, they might give you side-quests, talk nonsense to you or in some cases even take you into a new game entirely. Side-quests include tasks like shooting pigeons out of the sky with an electromagnetic device, beach combing with a metal detector and even squeezing cheese into a billionaires mouth; however these quests don’t have a direct impact on the storyline and usually serve as nothing more than a distraction, but nevertheless they are really good fun.

That doesn’t sound like a very good time. Unless you’re into that sort of thing.

The graphical style of Jazzpunk is very colourful and bold in regards to its character portrayal. NPCs you can interact with have details like eyes/clothes/facial hair etc. while other NPCs are essentially shadows that seem to only be there to fill up space. When you talk to an NPC white subtitles will appear in front of them explaining what they are saying, although they may actually talk for quite a while longer that you anticipate. The environments again are a breath of fresh air with its vibrant colours and cool settings. The music, while not what I’d call jazz punk, captures the mood of each location perfectly.

Well, at least you’re open about stealing them…

Depending on whether you fully explore the environments, Jazzpunk will take you around 2-3 hours to see through to the end. That might seem like a raw deal to some people, seeing as though the game is $15/£12 (or $11.99/£9.59 for its opening week sale) and I will agree that the price is maybe a bit steep for what you get in terms of length, the content and comedy you get from it alone will make it a good purchase.

However I might suggest if you are interested in picking this game up, try and refrain from watching gameplay videos before you buy it as it will almost certainly ruin the experience for you. In this regard Jazzpunk is similar to The Stanley Parable. In that game, the player had to make choices to progress, whether it was to win the game or break it entirely; the magic of self-discovery is lost if you watch something like a Let’s Play before playing it, and I think the same goes for Jazzpunk. If you watch a full run of the game before playing it yourself, you’ll know where all the jokes are and it won’t be as fun as if you’d discovered it yourself.

To summarise, I think Jazzpunk will definitely divide the crowd; some people will love its referential humour and oddball characters while others won’t be able to see the funny side to any of it. I had a great time playing this game mainly because this humour is exactly my sort of thing. The price point may be an issue for some but if that’s the only thing holding you back, just wait for a Steam Sale.

Jazzpunk is now available to buy on Steam for Windows/Mac/Linux for $11.99/£9.59 in its opening week sale, and $15/12 after that.