Sunday, September 26, 2010

9/26/10 - So Many Games...So Little Time and Moolah

Hello everybody, SlimKirby here!

That's right! I'm actually hoping to get the blog out on time this week....mostly because I actually had time to work on it today. Anyways, another week has come and gone, and my fall semester is already 1/3 over. For those wondering about my classes and how I'm doing; let's just say I'm hanging in there. It's a lot of hard work, but I'm getting it done.

I don't really have anything to talk about or complain about this week, so I will save you guys from having to hear about it. Besides, things have been going pretty well for me regardless. My sleep schedule has been kind of messed up *glares and smiles at someone*, but it's cool. I'm still getting things done, and getting them done right.

In other news, the release of Wii Party is coming very, very soon. Unfortunately I don't currently have a Wii I could use, which I finally did get sent in for repairs (or at least tomorrow when I go by the post office), so hopefully I get that back before too long. Besides, I still have to play Metroid: Other M, purchase Samurai Warriors 3, and hell, even Epic Yarn might be out by the time I get it back. There are really a lot of games coming out in this one month period. Money for them isn't really a concern or anything, but still, it's a lot of games.

Anyways, I did want to talk about Wii Party specifically, because I've been looking at a lot of information about it, and being the Mario Party guy of Youtube, people have been interested in what I think about the game so far (from previews obviously), and the possibility of whether not I'll have a Wii Party video series on my channel. So far from what I have seen about the game, I can say for certain that it is definitely not going to be like Mario Party (besides the obvious similarities). However, I wouldn't say that is necessarily a bad thing. The game seems to be more oriented to the board game aspect, which I think is cool. I like board games after all. From what I've been hearing from reviews, it hasn't been scoring very highly, but neither have the other Mario Party games, and I've enjoyed them. Sometimes I think people put too much emphasis on the review scores rather than what is actually said in the reviews themselves. After all, there was that one case of a Twilight Princess review where the Gamecube version scored higher than the Wii version, despite the review telling everyone to get the Wii version because it was better. Anyways, I am very much looking forward to Wii Party despite all the criticism it has been getting. Not to mention I still don't see why Nintendo completely refuses to put online in these mainstream titles. It's really gotten to the point where it's not that Nintendo Wifi is bad...it's just that they refuse to use it, which kinda makes me mad. I don't think online play makes a game, but I do think that it enhances it for more playability, and it just doesn't make sense to why they refuse to put it in. As for a possible Wii Party project in the future, I'm definitely not going to count that out. Just let me finish the Mario Parties first! :P

Moving on Youtube, things are still going smoothly with Donkey Kong 64. At the time of this blog, I'm up to Episode #15 being uploaded, and in recordings I'm up to #23. In comparison with my old project, I'm about 7 videos ahead, which isn't that surprisingly given the time limit and such, but still, I'm glad that I'm making a pretty smooth progression through the game. I'm also having a lot of fun with it.

For future projects, these are still things I am thinking about. I have a few ideas at this time, but again, the big thing is figuring out when I want to bring them out. Right now, the only thing known for sure is Mario Party 7 which can be expected by the end of the month (assuming I get my Wii back ok). The same could pretty much be said for CSS as well. Don't expect anything right now, but once we get things figured out, we'll be sure to get moving on that as well.

I think that will about do it for this week's entry, but since I promised you guys a Game of the Week, I'll do that now.

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Game of the Week:

This game of the week has been something I've been meaning to do for awhile now, but I was unsure of whether or not it would be a project I would do in the future, since one of the things I try to do in these sections is talk about future project possibilities. However, a good friend of mine has recently started a project of a game that fits the same bill, so I figured that it might be a good time to talk about. So...in other words.....WELCOME TO MARIO GOLF!

Mario Golf (N64)


Next to the Mario Parties, and maybe Mario Kart, Mario Golf is probably my favorite sub-franchise, and I'm ticked they haven't brought it to the Wii yet. Either way, that's not the point, the point is I love Mario Golf. A lot of people wonder how Mario Golf could possibly be that much fun, just because it's Golf, but for some reason, it works....and it works well. Obviously, being Mario, you can't really expect a lot of realism, but when it comes to the gameplay, it feels authentic, which I think is a big charm of the game. Even though the sequel, Toadstool Tour (which is what ShadowMarioXLI is currently playing on his channel), improves on the formula of the series, I wouldn't say it really does that much extra to take away from the original. The original is definitely more challenging as your shots have to be precise, and you don't have the advantage of seeing your shot in action all the way. Plus you don't have the rather cheap "super topspin" or "super backspin either. Anyways, for awhile, this turned me off from the original since i got really into Toadstool Tour for a period of time, but recently in the last few years, I gave the original another try, and I got instantly hooked and had a really good time with it. Now I ironically think I'm better at the original than Toadstool Tour. XD

Now for those who haven't played Mario Golf, there really isn't that much to discuss. It's Golf with Mario characters and that is basically it. However, if you are only expecting just normal golf, that's not completely true. There are a variety of different modes you can play in addition. There is Speed Golf, where you are timed on how fast you can finish the courses, Ring Attack, where you have to hit your ball through rings scattered across specific holes and then score the par, Club Slots, where your club set is limited to just 3 clubs before you tee off (chosen via a slot machine), and even a fun little mini-golf mode (which I found kind of disappointing when they didn't bring it back for Toadstool Tour). So yeah, the fun doesn't have to stop at just the tournaments.

One of the biggest challenges of the game is unlocking all the characters. To unlock the characters, you have to play against computer-controlled versions of those characters and beat them in Match Play. From the get-go, you can probably expect how difficult these can be, especially since the characters are generally expected to hit the fall further than you and are programmed to at least play competently. You won't see them hit it out of bounds or in the water very often. They also have the ability to randomly get super long putts and ridiculous chip-ins that you normally wouldn't expect them to get so easily, but that's the downfall of playing against a random AI. Unlocking all the characters, I think, is one of the most rewarding challenges of the entire N64 library of games (not because of the characters, just the feeling of getting everything). Obviously it's not THE most rewarding, but still, when I did it for the very first time, I was very happy because of how difficult it was. Because of this, if I ever do a playthrough of the game, I won't be stupid enough to delete all the data (on my N64 cartridge or Virtual Console copy), so I will not unlock them all again....let's make that straight right away. =P

Overall though, for what the game is, it's really fun, and despite what it may seem, I think it has quite a bit of replay value. I often find myself playing a round or two just out of boredom. Of course though, if you aren't into golfing games, you might have trouble getting into the game, but you don't have to exactly be a golf enthusiast to enjoy it either. That's what I love about Mario games. They can make anything a lot more fun. =P If I had to give it a score, I would probably give it a 4/5.

Future Project Possibility: I will say right now that I am very interested in doing a Mario Golf project in the future (possibly this one), but it definitely won't be for awhile. I'm thinking that after I finish Mario Party (and Wii Party -_-), I might try to advance to some of the other Mario subfranchises, and Mario Golf will probably be one of the first ones I do.

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Ok, that's about it for this entry! See you guys next week! Later folks!
- SlimKirby

1 comment:

  1. Considering that these party games BEG for online play with other people, Nintendo has been successful despite that. The only reason I would see for Nintendo to refuse online play is to return to the old style and creativity the Mario Parties and games like it had.

    We have the opportunities to take advantage of online today, why not try? Also, Mario Golf, boss game. (+4).w00t

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