What are you currently playing? 4.0

[Foggle]

From what I can tell (I saw an article on this weeks ago), anime, manga, and video games featuring violent and/or sexual content are only banned in Tokyo (meaning, production and distribution). The video game companies themselves can move to other parts of Japan and citizens of Tokyo can get their stuff from stores on the border between prefectures.

I don't think foreigners have anything to worry about, really.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I feel sorry for the lucrative body pillow industry.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Okay, LBP is starting to irritate me. The platforming physics are pretty lame, but for some reason the artstyle is just getting on my nerves worse. The presentation feels like some coked out hipster designed the whole thing and it just doesn't look right, the music is all licensed which makes no sense for this genre, the narrator constantly interrupts everything like a Dr. Seuss narrator and explains everything in the most boring way possible. It feels like when they were making this game they forgot the game and just shipped out a stupid looking shell of an art style.

It's like; here's all this crap now go make your own fun game because we couldn't be arsed to.

I'm glad I got this as a present with an extra controller, because this is not holding up for me at all. All the problems with this game are exactly all the problems I have had with Sony this entire generation.

[talonmalon333]

From what I can tell (I saw an article on this weeks ago), anime, manga, and video games featuring violent and/or sexual content are only banned in Tokyo (meaning, production and distribution). The video game companies themselves can move to other parts of Japan and citizens of Tokyo can get their stuff from stores on the border between prefectures.

I don't think foreigners have anything to worry about, really.

I learned that about ten minutes after posting it, and just didn't say anything afterward.

[Angus]

Hmm, is that like how prostitution is banned in Las Vegas?

[Angus]

Kirby Epic Yarn is suitable for little kids and it even speaks out some of the storyline so those who can't read can kind of understand, although it still has some platforming skills to be learned. Two player seems good.

Donkey Kong Country Returns is a more serious platformer. The two-player is good if the main player controls Donkey Kong and the casual gamer can be Diddy Kong and help out, although balloons (lives) get drained very quickly when that happens, but at least they can group up in those hard areas.

[talonmalon333]

Kirby Epic Yarn is suitable for little kids and it even speaks out some of the storyline so those who can't read can kind of understand, although it still has some platforming skills to be learned. Two player seems good.

Donkey Kong Country Returns is a more serious platformer. The two-player is good if the main player controls Donkey Kong and the casual gamer can be Diddy Kong and help out, although balloons (lives) get drained very quickly when that happens, but at least they can group up in those hard areas.

Yeah, to be honest I get the impression that you die far more in coop mode then in single player. I've been playing through it with someone else and lives drain quickly. Same thing happened with New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I haven't even the faintest idea why. Maybe different people play these games differently? Maybe they get in each others way? Maybe it's less focused? Whatever the case, I'm sure I'd be able to get through levels using fewer lives on single player... however, that wouldn't be as fun. Despite constantly losing lives, these games are much better on coop!

[Spark Of Spirit]

I think 2 player NSMBWii is a fun experience. I played it with one friend and we made it to the end of the game while taking our time through everything. It's a much different experience than when I play alone, or when 4 people are involved and it just devolves into chaos since there's always one person who doesn't listen to anyone else.

[Angus]

On the flip side, Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands (Wii) has very little for Player 2 assist. You can slow down the traps/obstacles and regular monsters a little but otherwise you just draw on the screen. That's good for a little kid to "help" but might be boring for the regular player who isn't like the quarterback in those NFL games.  Fortunately you can take over driving the main character by syncing circles.

[Daxdiv]

I've been working on a Nuzlocke run on my LeafGreen, which I have been posting over at toonzone, and sometimes my personal Blog. Right now, I have 2 badges, no deaths, and only one missed capture. I'd say I'm doing pretty well for myself.

[talonmalon333]

So today I've started Kirby's Epic Yarn and got through the first world...

...

... Was I the only one who got insanely bored by it? I mean, like, SERIOUSLY bored? I appreciate what they are trying to do, and the game looks lovely, but oh my goodness is it so... sleepy! The game moves slow, and every song sounds like a lullaby, even the first boss theme.

I'll keep playing it and try to finish it, and I truly hope it gets better. But so far, they are pushing Kirby's cute image to the extreme with this one.

[Rosalinas Spare Wand]

My time has been occupied with Chime, Donkey Kong Country Returns, my Hard Mode run of Valkyria Chronicles, Bowser's Inside Story and Metroid Other M.

I could talk about all of those, but I feel like focusing on Other M at the moment. I haven't gotten very far in it because I've become completely engrossed in Returns, and when I'm not playing that somebody is usually using the Wii to stream Netflix, but I've played for a fair amount of time and I've got to say all those complaints about the game are completely misguided.

First off, Samus characterization is quite reasonable. I dislike how fans have built her up as being a stoic badass simply because she never says a word in the previous games. Her background is very tragic, and I doubt being raised by aliens is going to give you enough emotional control to function perfectly with other humans. Her relationship with Malkovich here is of a student/mentor relationship, with the parental figure part playing an underlying role in her reluctance to accept herself with the Federation. some have compared it to an abusive boyfriend complex, but it seems more like Malkovich is getting less accepting with age and is closing himself off in an attempt to hide his weakness.

I'll continue this later after I've played some more tonight.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

While I haven't played the game myself, some people I know claim that its the very flat voice-acting for Samus that kind of huts Samus's character more than the story itself actually does. Its not that a voice with very little emotion to it is not fitting for someone like Samus who wasn't really raised around other humans, but the actual voice acting for her in this game is pretty poorly done, as there are much better ways to voice act for a character like that without showing emotion.

At any rate, I can't comment on the story, and I haven't played too much of other Metroid games before, so I can't really say what I think Samus's character really should be like, but from what I've seen of the game, I just notice that the gameplay looks quite fun. I wonder why people don't talk about that more. All I ever here when it comes to criticisms for the gameplay is that its too linear, which I guess is a legitimate complaint for a Metroid game, but I would hardly say that it makes it a bad game, especially since I don't here anyone complaining about any of the other aspects of the gameplay. Every other complaint is rooted to the game's story, which I can't really comment on, but one thing that kind of ticks me off a little bit is that Team Ninja gets blamed for both the story and overly-sexualizing Samus, when in fact they only dealt with designing the gameplay portion of the game. Yoshio Sakamoto was responsible for writing the story, and D-Rocket was the team that designed the in-game cutscenes where you see the more sexualized Samus, so I don't see why Team Ninja is the one who always gets blamed for those aspects of the game.

[Rosalinas Spare Wand]

I honestly think the voice acting complaints are also very exaggerated. In all the cutscenes I've seen so far, Jessica Martin does a fine job of conveying a broken soul with a spine of steel. I do have a problem with the actual script though, which sounds more like a manuscript for a book than actual dialogue. I guess that's supposed to be the point, that Samus is narrating her life to this point, but it just seems very awkward to hear narration in the 3rd person and such. Perhaps Treehouse should've had a little more freedom with the script, and spruce it up a bit ike they usually do to Mario RPGs or even Fire Emblem.

Gameplay is also very well done. The Wii Remote set up takes a few minutes to get used to, but it works fine with the way the levels are set up. Additionally, the focus gimmick, the one that restores missiles and health, is implemented much better than I thought. You only recover as much as your depleted missiles allow, so you can't abuse the system. Not to mention the enemies are numerous in the game. At any point you can get stuck in a hallway with enemies surrounding you from all sides, and even after a certain power-up, you can still die very quickly. I've had about 5 game overs at this point, although one was a stupid mistake I made where I accidentally blasted a roof that crushed me and my enemy.

And the linearity? Yeah, you're told where to go and given a full map there, but getting from room to room still takes some investigating. It can get stupid hard with some enemies staying in the same room and refusing to die as well. Personally, I like being told where to go because I've gotten completely lost too many times in Super Metroid that I spend more time wandering around than actually making progress. I guess it could be a little more vague, but I'm not one to complain about having clear goals.

As for the sexualized Samus stuff, I still think its ridiculous people are arguing over this when Samus has had fanservice moments since day 1, but that never takes a big role in the games with the exception of maybe her appearance in Brawl. The beauty mark is stupid though, but hardly distracting. What is distracting is how D-Rocket completely inflated her butt in the cutscenes. It's hard not to notice either since a few of them have the shot directly behind her, which results in ass taking up 1/3rd of the screen.

[Angus]

So today I've started Kirby's Epic Yarn and got through the first world...

...

... Was I the only one who got insanely bored by it? I mean, like, SERIOUSLY bored? I appreciate what they are trying to do, and the game looks lovely, but oh my goodness is it so... sleepy! The game moves slow, and every song sounds like a lullaby, even the first boss theme.

I'll keep playing it and try to finish it, and I truly hope it gets better. But so far, they are pushing Kirby's cute image to the extreme with this one.

That might hold true for any games that's targeted for kids under 8. It might get better though.