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I take it you don't play a lot of games by WayForward, or other small developers that routinely get shafted to assuage allegations of grading on a 7-9 scale?
How about finding a few smaller reviewers that you trust and listening to what they have to say? Decide for yourself if you might like the positives of a game enough to offset any negatives.
no, but i've just glanced over their video games and it's almost exclusively movie or animated show tie-ins and given that this category of game has been god-awful for as long as I remember I'm hesitant to believe that 'Despicable Me: The Game' is in fact an excellent game that has been denied the praise that it deserves by a seedy underworld of reviewer corruption
Speaking of WayForward and animated show tie-ins Adventure Time for the 3DS is one of the best games I've played all year, only close behind Double Dragon Neon. WayForward are one of the best game developers at the moment, and are only just now getting the cult recognition they deserve. After years of making very well crafted tie-in games to stay afloat, they are getting more and more free reign to work on their own IPs like Shantae or on awesome game revivals like Double Dragon.
Your stereotype in this case is absolutely ignorant and you are only proving my point about how critics slam smaller companies just to offset their rating scale because people who haven't played their games won't think twice about it. Do yourself a massive favor and get Adventure Time.
Speaking of WayForward and animated show tie-ins Adventure Time for the 3DS is one of the best games I've played all year, only close behind Double Dragon Neon. WayForward are one of the best game developers at the moment, and are only just now getting the cult recognition they deserve. After years of making very well crafted tie-in games to stay afloat, they are getting more and more free reign to work on their own IPs like Shantae or on awesome game revivals like Double Dragon.
Your stereotype in this case is absolutely ignorant and you are only proving my point about how critics slam smaller companies just to offset their rating scale because people who haven't played their games won't think twice about it. Do yourself a massive favor and get Adventure Time.
I haven't seen more than a single Adventure Time episode (the MtG parody) - would you still say it's a worthwhile purchase for me as a lover of JRPGs and other story-based games?
Alright, I beat VLR a while back on a borrowed 3DS, but I figure i'll talk about it now because why not?
Everyone who's played 999 should get this game. Hell, everyone who owns a 3DS or a Vita should get this game. It's a puzzle / visual novel game, but you'll really only want to play this game for the story. Even if you don't like reading, I suggest you get the game anyway since it'll turn you into a reader, I swear. Everything from the music, the voice acting (the voice director for this game is genius) and the concept of the AB game (aka the prisoners dilemma) is just... perfect.
But PK I hate puzzles
It's still worth it. The game lets you cheat in game by switching the difficulty to easy, and if that doesn't suit your fancy just head on over to gamefaqs and check out the spoiler free ending.
If you get the chance, play the game and stay the hell away from the internet, unless you want to get spoiled. If it weren't for Kid Icarus, this game would get my GOTY pick (it's definitely in my top 5 though).
I know Pushmo was mentioned earlier in the thread, but its sequel, Crashmo, was released about a week ago. The mechanics are essentially an inverse of Pushmo's--you pull blocks in order to make others fall. Anyone who liked Pushmo should probably check it out!
We don't have a general 3DS buyer's guide, do we? I figured we could use one to put in the OP.
GREAT / DEFINITELY The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
Super Mario 3D Land
Mario Kart 7
Kid Icarus: Uprising
Resident Evil: Revelations
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask
Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward
GOOD / MAYBE Harvest Moon 3DS: A New Beginning
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
New Super Mario Bros. 2
Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Rhythm Thief & The Emperor's Treasure
StarFox 64 3D
Tales of the Abyss
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
Nothing against you Woodsy or anyone else in this forum who likes SF64:3D, but I would buying this game.
Buying Star Fox 3D is a very bad idea, even if you haven't played the original. That game won't last you a day if you're actually serious about finding every path... It'll last you 2-3 days at most if you play it on an on again off again basis. If you have money to burn and you're a huge star fox fan... I'd still hesitate on buying this game.
It's a game you should rent if it's available.
---
With that out of the way, have you considered adding a *maybe* category? You could put games like Sticker Star (I'll admit I actually kind of liked sticker star after finally getting to own it, but I would never call it a must-own)
You can stick Harvest Moon 3DS: A New Beginning in Good / Maybe. It's definitely worth it if you are a fan of HM, but it isn't exactly a game for everyone.
I'm still kind of disappointed by the 3DS' library of titles (not for long though - Fire Emblem Awakening and Animal Crossing New Leaf will probably consume most of my life in 2013). Honestly, assuming I had no 3DS games right now and someone offered me a choice between every 3DS game and 10 of the 20 Ambassador's games, I would hardly consider the 3DS games. Most of the 3DS' current best games (except KIU) are games that I bought, played either until completion or I got bored, and haven't considered picking up since. I do still need to play VLR, so there's still some hope.
You should go stick Sonic Generations into the Good / Maybe category. It's not as good as its console counterpart, but it's not bad at all. You can get some enjoyment out of it if you liked the Sonic Rush games.
I haven't seen more than a single Adventure Time episode (the MtG parody) - would you still say it's a worthwhile purchase for me as a lover of JRPGs and other story-based games?
It isn't story based or a JRPG, and I myself was just getting caught up on AT when I played the game but it was still fine. It's largely an homage to Zelda II, and it's definitely worth playing but being both short and easy I'm not certain I can recommend it yet at $40.
Now on the other hand in the 3DS store you can get the DSi game Shantae: Risky's Revenge for $12 and that is a steal. It's very similar (being made by the same people) but without the Zelda II overworld.
But PK I hate puzzles
It's still worth it. The game lets you cheat in game by switching the difficulty to easy, and if that doesn't suit your fancy just head on over to gamefaqs and check out the spoiler free ending.
Acklow already hates me for this so I might as well get it out in the open.
VLR is worse than 999. Like, way worse. I played 999 about 4 months ago too so, it's not like I'm being overly nostalgic or anything. Now PK I do hate puzzles. However the original was so fresh and innovative, it integrated the puzzles into concepts that would have story relevance, taught you concepts that would be used for the difficult puzzles later, had other characters use reasoning to help the player, and was generally very light on the sort of obtuse shit that killed the adventure game genre.
999's puzzles were actually outsourced, so I have to think that someone else handled them this time around because everything I just said is no longer true. Sliding puzzle minigames litter the escape rooms, bad puzzles are reused lazily, the 2nd safe password (which by the way more often than not involves approaching the puzzle in the most illogical manner possible) gives you mostly useless info that your character is not privy to anyway, and yeah maybe I would have enjoyed it more on easy but I'd have missed out on more useless info and the extra ending. It was just a chore.
The only room I came close to the enjoying was the PEC until my game crashed five times so that I had to spend four hours dealing with that room. I'm just lucky my game crashed before I even tried to save, as it turns out that if you save your game in the PEC or Crew Quarters your save file is corrupted. Which the developers knew about but shipped anyway.
So at least the story is great. It is, and the voice acting and music are just perfect. However the story is much more poorly paced than the original. 999 had nuggets of character development in each puzzle room. This was removed in VLR, and as a result as far as 20 hours in I felt like I knew nothing about all but one character. While I had 5 endings only one was a "real ending", and the many endings come off more as a consequence of the plot than a feature of it. Even among the real endings some are definitely much more substantial than others.
Also, VLR is the middle part of a trilogy or longer series. While it spent a good fucking hour at the end drilling into my head the idea that they had accounted for all possible plot holes timeline wise, we still finished the game knowing almost nothing about Phi and Free the Soul, to name two of the glaring omissions.
All in all I would say to play 999 first. If you love 999, and you will, you'll probably play VLR just like I'll definitely play the next Zero Escape game. I just hope the next one is a bit better.
You should go stick Sonic Generations into the Good / Maybe category. It's not as good as its console counterpart, but it's not bad at all. You can get some enjoyment out of it if you liked the Sonic Rush games.
You should go stick Sonic Generations into the Good / Maybe category. It's not as good as its console counterpart, but it's not bad at all. You can get some enjoyment out of it if you liked the Sonic Rush games.
seconding, the level design is the best in years, the bosses are great fun*, the soundtrack is a great remix that somehow feels both nostalgic and new and there is sooo much cool stuff to unlock including 50 songs from throughout Sonic's history (ugh when will i unlock Live and Learn) and some awesome original art dating right back to 1991.
not sure what game the pugilist was playing if he feels the 'controls are miserable' - it's a Sonic game and controls exactly the same, and just as well, as every other 2D Sonic game. Press forward to run, tilt down whilst running to roll/slide, A to jump and then A again to homing attack, Down+B to spin dash - my 8 year old niece knows these moves. The only remotely unfamiliar addition is that Modern Sonic can boost for short periods by pressing Y and execute a stomp attack by pressing Down+B from an airborne position. i have just summarised the entire control system of the game. Simple, effective and traditional but not miserable.
criticisms are the way in which you have to acquire Play Coins to unlock the missions (and in turn unlock the bonus material) so i now seem to spend most of my time shaking my 3DS rather than actually playing the game. also, Modern Sonic's boost power seems a little broken as it's far too easy to fill so sometimes levels become a bit like 'hold down Y and you win.' i'd have liked a little more variety in his levels too - there's some cool grinding set pieces that break things up nicely, more of them next time would be great. perhaps a little short at only 14 levels but you have 7 special stages and 7 boss battles on top of that plus 100 'missions' such as 'beat [boss] with only one ring' plus an online versus mode to pad it out.
was a little unsure at first but no regrets whatsoever now - a must for Sonic fans and even if you're not a fan, this game is going pretty cheap nowadays so it's worth the gamble. can't wait to go home over xmas and play the console version (i ordered the collectors edition version for like £100+ because i'm a huge dork like that but it looks soooo pretty ~)
i lost my shit when i saw biolizard and egg emperor
I'd bump New Super Mario Bros. 2 up into Definitely, I absolutely love it. Maybe it's because I didn't play New Super Mario Bros. or New Super Mario Bros. Wii?
Can't wait for Luigi's Mansion 2 and I'm going to get Kid Icarus quite soon. Anyone played the new Paper Mario?
Acklow already hates me for this so I might as well get it out in the open.
VLR is worse than 999. Like, way worse. I played 999 about 4 months ago too so, it's not like I'm being overly nostalgic or anything. Now PK I do hate puzzles. However the original was so fresh and innovative, it integrated the puzzles into concepts that would have story relevance, taught you concepts that would be used for the difficult puzzles later, had other characters use reasoning to help the player, and was generally very light on the sort of obtuse shit that killed the adventure game genre.
999's puzzles were actually outsourced, so I have to think that someone else handled them this time around because everything I just said is no longer true. Sliding puzzle minigames litter the escape rooms, bad puzzles are reused lazily, the 2nd safe password (which by the way more often than not involves approaching the puzzle in the most illogical manner possible) gives you mostly useless info that your character is not privy to anyway, and yeah maybe I would have enjoyed it more on easy but I'd have missed out on more useless info and the extra ending. It was just a chore.
The only room I came close to the enjoying was the PEC until my game crashed five times so that I had to spend four hours dealing with that room. I'm just lucky my game crashed before I even tried to save, as it turns out that if you save your game in the PEC or Crew Quarters your save file is corrupted.I actually never had that problem, haha Which the developers knew about but shipped anyway.
So at least the story is great. It is, and the voice acting and music are just perfect. However the story is much more poorly paced than the original. 999 had nuggets of character development in each puzzle room. This was removed in VLR, and as a result as far as 20 hours in I felt like I knew nothing about all but one character. While I had 5 endings only one was a "real ending", and the many endings come off more as a consequence of the plot than a feature of it. Even among the real endings some are definitely much more substantial than others.
Also, VLR is the middle part of a trilogy or longer series. While it spent a good fucking hour at the end drilling into my head the idea that they had accounted for all possible plot holes timeline wise, we still finished the game knowing almost nothing about Phi and Free the Soul, to name two of the glaring omissions.
All in all I would say to play 999 first. If you love 999, and you will, you'll probably play VLR just like I'll definitely play the next Zero Escape game. I just hope the next one is a bit better.
I don't hate you. I don't hate anyone. I may get annoyed or pissed at what you say but I don't hate. I'm not like that bro. haha
I agree with you about the hide tags. Hehe, I was like: "Wtf, I was excited to learn why "you know who" has that semblance to another character I will not mention, and they don't explain why?"
However, I have good reason to believe that'll be explained in the final game
To anyone who had achieved obtaining all gold files, has anyone figured out that riddle in one of the last files? I am really confused what they tried to mean in it...
