by Wolf Bird » Fri Feb 26, '16, 5:11 am
Just beat Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D. It was a good game, but it unfortunately made a few things stand out to me that I wish Nintendo would just STOP in its games. But good stuff first - controls were generally good and responsive. Only exception to me was sometimes trying to pivot was a slower affair than it needed to be, and the precision of timing jumping on an enemy for an extra boost was STUPIDLY precise. Level designs were great. No complaints there. The rockets were fun to use, but some of the rocket sections were also absurdly hard.
Now the not-so-good, some of which I wish I would beat Nintendo over the head with a rolled-up newspaper to make them stop doing if I could.
1. Life system - Nintendo, stop it with the life system. Just STOP. We're long past the arcade days. Ok? There are no quarters to get from people. Losing all your lives anymore, just leads to undue frustration. Just STOP. There's a reason most developers have moved past the lives system. Time for you to follow suit.
2. Mid-level checkpoints - In some newer 2D platformers, like Rayman, if you die, you quickly respawn right where you died. Each attempt flows into the next. It allows you quickly practice a section that you're having trouble with without having to go back through a section of level, which feels like wasted time, progress and frustration. It allows a game to hit that elusive sweet spot between being challenging without being frustrating. Nintendo, as much as I hate to say it, you can learn something from Ubisoft there. It really is the best way to deal with player death and respawn in 2D platformers. Game flow is important, and breaking it is bad.
3. One hit kills - I hate hate hate hate hate hate HATE 1-hit kills in platformers. The reason is because platformers take a combination of reflexes, precision, patience and practice. 1 hit kills can screw most of those up, especially the practice, precision and patience - 3 Ps, if you will. There were several scenarios where all it took was 1 screw up to send you back to the last checkpoint, losing progress and denying me a good chance to actually practice a bit with a section that was hard, or with a new mechanic like the mine carts or rockets, and creating more trial-and-error than I think is necessary. It also just breaks game flow to have to go back, especially on particularly difficult levels.
4. Requiring precognition to get past a segment - oh, I'm so sorry that I didn't have the clairvoyance to know that that platform would crumble under me as soon as I landed on it without giving me the chance to perform the next stupidly precise jump. Oh thanks for sending me way the crap back to the beginning of the level. Better luck next time! Seriously, there was a lot of this and like item 3, led to trial-and-error gameplay and broke game flow, which feels more like the game getting a cheap laugh than being legitimately challenging.
Also the final boss can burn in the deepest, darkest, hottest bowels of hell. I died at least 70 times on it, and again, I feel like it was frustrating and hard for the wrong reasons. It had two attacks that were very hard to dodge, and it felt like luck whenever I did manage to dodge them. Did not feel like the timing was in anyway consistent. Not a feeling that is good to be having - if I do manage to dodge, I want to have some understanding of how/why, because that's where learning and getting better kicks in. When it feels entirely random and up to luck (or requiring precognition) it is not a good thing. Now, I'm sure that the timing is probably just stupidly precise and I never quite got down how precise, but again, there is a line between challenging and frustrating, and this crossed into the latter.
All that said, though, I still say it was a good game with the good far outweighing the bad. Just go in knowing that it is very hard, and may be extremely frustrating. It doesn't take very long for the difficulty to ramp up. Take it slow when you can, but sometimes the game will require you be very quick and precise at the same time. There are some sections that I don't think it is possible to pass on your first try. There were a lot of levels that ate my lives, but I still got through to the final boss. Persistence is key. But if you get frustrated and put it down, I wouldn't blame anyone.
Do note that I did not try to collect all the collectible widgets and I have no desire to. Just seeing where some of them were located as I just played through the levels was enough to make me say no. Maybe I'll go back someday, but I have more than enough games to get through that I feel no need to frustrate myself for 100% on this one.
Yes, I am fully aware that I have just criticized Nintendo quite a bit in this post (and my last brief game review in this thread) while my avatar is a Nintendo character.
Last edited by
Wolf Bird on Fri Feb 26, '16, 5:11 am, edited 3 times in total.
Next Pokemon game(s): Pearl
Last finished Pokémon game: Shield
Other games: Skyrim Special Edition (Switch), Spyro Reignited Trilogy (Switch & PS4), Okami (Switch & PS4)
Other gaming goals: completing a Living Pokedex (minus some event Pokes) and going through at least 1 game per generation
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