The 'Shroom:Issue LXXXI/Critic Corner
Director’s Notes
Happy December everybodyyyyy! You know what this means, it’s Christmastime! So naturally, as the butt of fat jokes, I guess I am inclined to say ho ho ho! Jerks. :’(
As part of our festivities, let’s see what a few of my Facebook friends have to say about this holly and jolly time of year of the end of 2013 Year of Luigi and of Christmastime!
Well… okay, not as jolly. Anybody else?
Oh… okay… hooray for Steam sales!
…Thanks for those words of wisdom, Beta!
…W-what?
As we come to the closing of the year of Luigi, we can begin to look forward to the year of Jorge.
Have a merry Christmas, and a happy new years! And Salisbury bless.
November Section of the Month
Dropped a bit in votes, but last month’s was a close one! Congratulations to New Super Mario (talk) for slightly edging Pyro (talk) with his NSM’s Review Corner section by ONE point! Both sections were great, so kudos to the both of them!
MCD explains his life’s story (or something like that) – ‘’Animal Crossing’’ style!
[read more]
NSM discusses the return of a vet and the surprising reveal of a new character!
[read more]
Hottest Reviews Around
The first thing you'll probably notice is that in this section there's no side bar thing, and there isn't one for a reason! This isn't any normal review section...these are my first impressions on what games I want for Christmas. If you didn't like the Pokémon first impressions I did earlier, turn back. Otherwise, stay here, because let the fuckery begin.
First on my list is Super Mario 3D World, and I expect it to be on many more lists as well. I've gotten to play the game twice - once at the Nintendo Best Buy thing, where I only got to play one level, and another at a mall, where there was nobody wanting to play the game so I was able to play like ten fucking levels. The mall really showed off the game to me, and that's why it's first on my list.
The part of the game that screamed at me when it was first announced was that Peach was playable, therefore is not being captured. In general I love the fact that there's playable characters that are actually different, unlike Mario U's, which had Mario and three failed clones of Mario. There's also a fifth unlockable character that ISN'T Luigi for once, because in recent years Nintendo's definition of "unlockable character" has solely been "Luigi". I personally liked Toad the most, as I love to run around and finish levels quickly - same goes for when I play Mario 2.
But holy shit I can't believe the new powerups - the Double Cherry is ridiculously fun and for once I loved to have an army of Marios running around frying swarms of enemies. And to think that the entire powerup came from a glitch in the programming. Nintendo also "fixed" the right thing in that they brought back Boomerang Mario, which combined with the Double Cherry is going to generate tons of fun. I hope that those two powerups are synergized in a level I didn't play. Also there's the cat bell but fuck the cat bell.
The levels were surprisingly well-designed from what I remember - it wasn't just a mashing of floating platforms all over the place with a flagpole at the end. That is what's called "Galaxy Syndrome". Stop trying to get a piece of Galaxy's cake, Nintendo. If the cake is already eaten, there's no more fucking pieces of cake, no matter how much you drug yourself. They were enjoyable and mostly fair, and I never noticed any strange things outside of those platforms that require you to blow into the microphone, and since I like playing on the GamePad like I'm playing on an inflated DS with one screen, that means that every time one of those platforms appear I have to stop playing and set the pad down so I can blow into it. The touchscreen platforms in that disco level weren't as much of a problem since I have two hands, but the microphone is positioned just out of my reach so I have to lean over.
Next on my list is Mario Party: Island Tour, and I just asked for it because it was a Mario Party game that didn't use the terrible new formula of 9. I honestly don't know much else about it.
The third is Scribblenauts Unmasked, which I will hopefully get on Steam. I've never been a big fan of comics in general, and I know little about them anyways, but I love the Scribblenauts games so much that I have to have all of them. The superheros bring some funky object parts to the table, so I'll have quite some fun making ridiculous mutant demon pregnant butler koalaroos or something fucking stupid like that. With a Green Lantern ring!
The Batcomputer in the game will also help me familiarize myself with all the DC Comics heroes, as I can barely think of any off the top of my head and I'll probably mix a bunch of them up with other franchises, because as I said, I never have been a big fan of comics...
I've also got Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I Don't Know on my list, but the only reason I have it on my list is that the trailers look good and that Ice King You Fucker Why Are You Stealing Our Garbage was fantastic. I do know that it's a top-down dungeon crawler and not the action-platformer that Garbage was, but it's the same show, so I can expect the same type of unprecedented humor of hypno-worms and atomic bombs.
Boy, is this section short, but I've already ran out of games to talk about - this is what you can cite for what happens when you don't learn about the games you want enough. Merry Christmas to all, and...wait, I could extend this with a few notes about Spelunky.
I actually got the PC version to work, and congratulations, me, I've beaten Olmec! All hail Eskimos.
Merry Christmas to all, and don't get poked by your tree! All hail Eskimos!
| The 'Shroom: Hottest Reviews Around | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
| 2013 | |||||||||||
 Scribblenauts Unlimited |
 Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?! |
 VVVVVV |
 Pokémon X and Y First Impressions |
 DLC Quest |
 The Basement Collection |
 Mario and Luigi: Dream Team |
 Spelunky HD |
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Caiman Gamin'
I don’t know how many of you reading this know me, so I’ll reintroduce myself. My username is Xluidi (even if most people would call me Xpike) and for a small period of time last year I was part of the review staff for the Shroom. Well, technically I never left, but the conditions of my life outside this community had forced me to put priorities, and it just happened that completing new games was not one of those, meaning no new reviews could come out.
But right now its winter break, meaning I actually had time to play games! So, instead of giving one small, weak review of a single game, I’m going to try and review most of the games played over the break in one or two paragraphs. To top it off, you won’t even need to actually read the review, since I’ll provide a score out of 10 for each game reviewed. So, ready? Let’s start, then.
| Game | Brief comments | Score |
| Rayman Legends | I decided to start off with this colorful platformer since I was still tired and was looking for something to lift up my spirits. First thing anyone will notice is that this is a beautiful game, and using the term colorful for it is selling it short. All levels look marvelous on my HDTV and on the Wii U’s Gamepad, a treat to the eyes that is perfectly accompanied by the game’s marvelous soundtrack. But graphics are not everything, ja? Don’t worry, hopefully potential buyer so Ubisoft won’t destroy the Rayman franchise, the actual gameplay is tight, with responsive controls and extremely well designed levels that take full advantages of all the abilities they’ve given Rayman and his friends, while also being varied enough to not keep boring. Sadly, most of the game is easy even by modern standards, and if you’re bothered by the length of a game, I should also tell that it could be beaten in some hours. | 8/10 |
| The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD | Moving on, I decided to continue with the game my Wii U is modeled after. Keep in mind, I’ve played the original Gamecube version, but had to quit at the halfway point, so part of it was new for me. The game itself is more or less how I remember it: it’s the middle child of the Zelda series. The dungeons are not challenging enough to make you quit, but still interesting enough to keep you playing. The story and characters are decent, but not enough to make me remember the name of any of them. The only outstanding part of it is Ganondorf, who gets an actual character beyond “evil overlord” and can even be considered a tragic villain in this statement. As for the changes in this remake, they’ve added the Swift Sail in order to make navigation…swifter. It certainly does that, with the speed of your boat being doubled and the need to change the wind direction manually being completely gone. It certainly makes exploration better and less of a chore, but sailing the Great Sea can still get boring at times. Other change they made was the streamlining of the Triforce quest at the end. Instead of having to go to Tingle all eight times, you now only have to go three times. I do wonder why Nintendo didn’t just destroy the Tingle part of the quest entirely, but what do I know. However, the best improvement they’ve made is the use of the Gamepad. Now you can switch items and look at the map without pausing the game. This makes sailing way faster, so props to Nintendo for it. | 7/10 |
| Wonderful 101 | Next in my quest was the next game by probably my favorite game designer, Hideki Kamiya, whose previous work includes Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe, among others. This is the main reason I got my Wii U, so don’t really expect an objective review here. So the game consists of you controlling a sentai-themed superhero team (think Power Rangers) called the Wonderful 100 that can combine in order to battle the alien force that has invaded planet Earth. Pretty straightforward. The actual gameplay consists of what you can expect from Platinum games: high-paced, non-stop action. The heroes are controlled as one entity, with you drawing shapes be it via Gamepad or right stick in order to make the various weapons, meaning you have to be creative and link these shapes and different weapons in order to create long and varied combos in order to defeat the alien force. Sadly, describing the game with words doesn’t give it justice, but it is the spectacle my inner ten year old has been waiting since watching Power Rangers on TV years ago. There’s giant robot fights, a space pirate prince from outer space, a giant dragon, among others in the first few missions. And the slick gameplay is only accentuated by the shiny graphics and heroic soundtrack. In conclusion, it’s a really tight package that keeps on giving. | 10/10 |
| Super Metroid | Game of the forever. Go and get it, be either on Wii, Wii U, or SNES. Everything about it is perfectly designed to teach you where you need to go, and advanced skills are taught via the levels themselves. Skilled players can do some crazy shit on it, but non-skilled players can still enjoy this amazing game without any worried. Amazing enviroments and music. Seriously, you can’t go wrong. | 11/10 |
| Earthbound | And to finish it off I decided to play probably my second favorite RPG ever, for the first time on an actual TV in a legal matter. What can I say? This game is still a one of a kind experience. It has charm coming out of every angle, with memorable characters, enemies, locations, items. Heck, even the character naming screen has its own charm. Don’t worry though, the game is also a solid RPG in its own right, I’d even say more RPGs need to copy some of the games’ systems like insta-winnning the fight if your enemy is too weak, and having all the random encounters be actual sprites on the screen instead of invisible whooshes. It is a bit difficult, but don’t let that spoil the experience. | Score: 8/10 |
Should Have Been
Hey everyone, welcome to Should
What should have been in this game?
I do really like this game, but, at the moment, I still like City Folk and the Gamecube one more. However, I'd say this is probably because I played them for a longer amount of time, and I guess partially due to nostalgia as well. But it's still a great game nonetheless, and the fact that I like two other games in the series more shouldn't change your opinion in any way. At least we can agree that it's better than Wild World - then again, anything's better than Wild World.
In previous Animal Crossing games, when you donated an item to the Museum, Blathers would ramble on for a while about the object you had donated. I thought this kinda brought out his character quite well, and they did have some funny parts, even though they were quite long. In New Leaf, he doesn't do this. He just has a few different lines for each group of exhibits. On the plus side, if you do need information on the whatever you've donated, you can view it anytime. While I like being able to view information on the exhibits freely, I would've prefered something original for each donation to the Museum - I know this could've taken a while to implement, and probably a lot of work, but it's not my job to be realistic it's something that would've been cool if they could've done it. The way Blathers just repeats the same thing is still really long, so it's not like it's a better alternative to something that's likely much wittier and more original. I would've also liked it if the game went deeper into the backstory of some of the characters, like the last game did with the Able Sisters, or Wild World even did to an extent with Blathers. As far as I've seen, which I'd say is rather far, there isn't any of this is New Leaf. Or, at least, it's too hard to find, though I guess that could apply to Wild World too, as Blathers would only open up to you in that game on, like, a few days over the whole year. But either way, I think it would've been good if there was some backstory.
I think it'd be great if the game could've done something to stop villagers moving in on top of flowers or patterns or stuff. It's really annoying when you've got a nice look for your town, and then somebody moves out and the next day somebody moves in right in the middle of your path, or right on top of your Gold Roses, which Crash gave to you and you're likely not going to get any more of because no more roses are going to die because you enacted the Beautiful Town ordinance! Damn it, you're such an idiot! And by "you" I mean "me". And by "idiot" I mean "incredibly attractive guy"...no, not really, I mean "idiot". I accidentally ate my perfect fruit. That's how dumb I am. I'm sorry if this section has recently gotten a little out of hand. I blame this Coca-Cola I'm drinking. Full of sugar. Poison, that is. The point I'm trying to make here is that the game should've had some kind of mechanic to stop villagers moving in on top of flowers or patterns you've put on the ground - I understand that, in some towns, this would mean villagers would have no space to move in, but still, if there is enough space for somebody new to move in without disrupting any of the aesthetic work you've done, why not just automatically put them there? The game stops villagers moving in on top of Public Works Projects, so I wouldn't say it's entirely out of the question for it to do the same for flowers, valuable trees (i.e. those with fruit) and patterns. This does beg the question of what would happen to anyone trying to move in and there not being enough space - I wouldn't see any trouble in just postponing their moving in until there's enough space in the town.
So I guess that's all for now in terms of what should have been in this game. None of the things I've brought up are terribly groundbreaking in terms of importance, and what I've said should not impact your opinion on buying this game at all. Especially that stuff at the start about how I liked some other versions of the game first - it really depends on what game you play first in the series (or which game you really get into - pretty sure Wild World was my first, and I hated that one), and keeping up to date is always good.
Beta elements
These new games are really boring. No beta elements. Oh well. Doesn't mean I can't go over some of the stuff that was left out of the older games:
Animal Crossing (GCN)
- There are quite a lot of unused graphics, and some unused text too, from the island. Most of the unused graphics are of Japanese text. In the unused text, there's some talk about a "tailor shop" and a couple of lines about a "Cuckoo's Egg".
- An unused villager exists - he's a squirrel with a Cranky personality, dubbed as "Blazel" due to his similarities in appearance to Bliss and Hazel. His official name is "(key)ù«–•B¡ ¡", though he soon changes it to "Jambette" realizing he'll never get along with the other kids with a name like that. Funnily enough, he talks like Kapp'n, though whether he shares the same hobby of shivering timbers remains unknown as of yet.
- There are four unused NES games - Mario Bros., Ice Climber, Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. Yes, you can play NES games in this game. It's a pretty cool feature.
- There's quite a lot of unused clothing, among these robes and kimonos, and the special outfits villagers wear in the Sports Fair and Fishing Tourney.
- Among other unused items are a blue fish with a hook in its mouth, Paper Airplanes and a "Sickle".
Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)
- Paint Cans appear as unused items. Presumably they would've played some role in changing the colour of your roof, which, in the final game, is done by Tom Nook himself.
- Other unused items include Beehives (which actually become an item in New Leaf, Sold-Out signs and cardboard boxes, though all of these do appear in the game somewhere or other, so their inclusion makes sense.
City Folk doesn't include anything too important. Still, that's more of an effort than New Leaf made... *tuts in an unforgiving manner*
And that's all from me for now! I'll see you in February. If you've got a game you want me to cover send me a PM on the Super Mario Boards and I'll see what I can do about it. Thanks for reading, and have a great Christmas!
Smash Time
Hey guys, it's NSM, welcome to Smash Time! You didn’t see me last time because nothing happened! Anyway, that’s okay, because now we have a newcomer reveal! Along with veteran Marth and now Rosalina and Luma. Let’s begin!
Marth is back, and his moveset looks primarily the same, which I’m fine with, because I loved using him. However, his appearance is updated so he looks. Well. Less girly. Which I mean, that’s always a plus.
But now let’s get to the big stuff. ROSALINA AND LUMA! It’s amazing. While as I said earlier, I did want Toad as a Mario series newcomer, Rosalina seems really cool in how she attacks and her overall playstyle. Kinda like an Olimar and Ice Climbers combo, which seems to me like a match made in heaven! What we know so far is that the Lumas will aid in Rosalina’s attacks and can be projected away from Rosalina, so kinda like a mix between Pikmin and well, Nana. One of Rosalina’s more specialized moves is the ability to use a Launch Star to shoot her in the air (which my guess works as a recovery move that can also attack). Another one lets her use the Star Cursor to bring nearby items towards her (which should be quite useful if you play with items anyway). So yeah, I think Rosalina is a really neat character and will be really fun to play as.
Also I’m taking a poll this time so I have something to talk about next time! Please answer this question by sending me a PM on the forums. What Zelda character should be a newcomer for the game?
And if you give an actual reason to your answer I might feature it in next month’s issue ^_^
Well, that’s all. Talk to you all later!
| Issue LXXXI | |
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