Editorial: The Curious Case of Crowdfunding

The Curious Case of Crowdfunding

          I’m sure by this point, if you’re involved in the gaming community, you’ve heard about Mighty No. 9. How could you not have? It’s quickly become one of the most infamous games released this year for several reasons. I personally haven’t played the game, partly because I have better things to do with my time, but mostly because the game has a known track record of destroying PCs and consoles, and I don’t want to sacrifice a $250+ piece of hardware just so I can play a garbage game.

          In case you missed it, I’ll give you a brief recap. Mighty No. 9 was set to be a spiritual successor to the Mega Man games, helmed by people who worked on the originals. After years of delays and shady behaviour by both the people running the Kickstarter and developers, the game finally released in June as an ugly, broken mess, leaving backers furious that the 4 million(!!!) dollars they funded went to waste.

          The biggest issue Mighty No. 9’s brought to the table, however, is the age old question: is crowdfunding a good idea when it comes to video games? Kickstarter and other similar platforms have been used in the past to create some excellent games, but we’ve also seen a lot of disasters.

          Major gaming successes like Shovel Knight and Undertale have come from the platform, but we’ve also seen disasters like Yogventures, Star Citizen, and now Mighty No. 9 coming out and throwing mud on Kickstarter’s good name. Since the release of Mighty, I’ve seen several people debating whether it’s a good idea to pitch in to a crowdfunding campaign at all, and I wanted to throw in my 2 cents.

          From an outsider’s standpoint, it’s incredibly hard to tell what’s going to be a success, and what’s going to bomb. I remember back when Mighty No. 9 was first announced, people were so excited. This was going to be the Mega Man spiritual successor they’d been waiting for that Capcom wasn’t going to make, and it was being piloted by Keiji Inafune, the character designer for the original Mega Man! What could go wrong, right?

          As I write this, a second retro-inspired spiritual successor game helmed by people who worked on the originals is due for release next year, in the form of Yooka-Laylee. Since Mighty bombed, I’ve heard countless amounts of people saying that Yooka-Laylee is going to succeed where Mighty failed. My response to this is simple: how do you know that?

          I’m just as excited for Yooka-Laylee as the next guy, but there’s still no telling whether it’s going to join the ranks of Kickstarter legends, or be shunned like so many others. It helps that a lot of original Rareware developers and people who worked on Banjo-Kazooie are working on the project, but there’s still a chance it might turn out exactly like Mighty No. 9.

          Which brings me back to my original point: it’s incredibly hard to tell what’s going to be a success and what’s going to bomb. You’d think an RPG made mostly in GameMaker with MS Paint sprites would be a complete failure, right? Well, now it’s one of the most popular games of the last few years. And remember how quickly people wrote Mighty No. 9 as an unqualified success, only to wind up with something that even the people who didn’t completely hate it called it mediocre at best.

          So in the end, Kickstarter is more like a gamble than a stable investment. You never know whether your money will wind up in a good product, or if it’ll just be left forgotten deep in the Steam store. I doubt that yet another failure like Mighty No. 9 is going to kill the platform, but it’s definitely brought back the question of whether or not it’s really worth paying for something that might never come to fruition.

Song of the Week

          This week I thought I’d go with a song from a Kickstarter game: Strike the Earth from Shovel Knight. This is probably the most famous song from an excellent soundtrack, so if you’re a fan of 8-bit music and you haven’t heard it yet, I’d fully recommend checking it out.

Pokémon Go Review

Team Instinct for life

(This review is spoiler-free!)

          To say people were hyped about Pokémon Go would be the understatement of the year. This game was advertised as something we’ve wanted since we were little kids: being able to capture Pokémon in the real world. I’m sure by this point you’ve heard everyone and their mother talking about how much they love the game, but there’s also been some criticisms on how little content the game packs overall.

          For me, while it’s not really something you can play for hours at a time, there’s really something that keeps bringing me back over and over again. I already walk a lot during the day when I take out my dog, but now I’m going out even more by myself often just to see what’s lurking around my house. Sometimes I’ll find utter junk, but every once in a while something like Beedrill, Scyther, or Kingler will appear out of nowhere.

          So how does Pokémon Go work? You walk around the real world, and randomly-generated Pokémon will jump out at you, and you catch them. That’s the basics of it. There are also Gyms that you can challenge in an attempt to take it over for your team, but we’ll come back to that later.

          If, like me, you aren’t too interested in the Gyms but are really excited about catching ‘em all, Pokémon Go is a blast, albeit a bit frustrating at times. Nearly all of the original 151 Pokémon are hiding in the world somewhere, and it’s your job to walk around to find them. It’s really fun when you come across something new or rare, but oftentimes all that your tracking device shows is a lot of Rattatas and Pidgeys. I really wish there was more variety in the “super common” tier of Pokémon, because less than a week into the game I’ve exhausted all need for these basics, and it’s annoying to have the phone alert me to a Pokémon nearby, only to find the thing I’ve already caught 100 times. If the game could implement something like Repels to keep these critters away, that would be great.

          That being said, when your tracker locates a new Pokémon nearby and you’re on the hunt, Pokémon Go is at its best. I’ve been walking around every nook and cranny of my hometown searching for these rare monsters, and it’s really improved my stamina in just a few short days of playing. You usually run into something special at least once if you go on a long walk, and it’s really exciting whenever it shows up on the radar. A good tip to remember is to keep an eye on how many footsteps are under the silhouette of the Pokémon the radar is picking up. Pick one direction, and see how the footprints react. If they go down, you’re going in the right direction. If they go up, try going in another direction.

          The other aspect of Pokémon Go are the Gyms. They’re fun, albeit a bit archaic in the battling system. As it would probably be a bit difficult to port the complex Pokémon battling system of the real games over to a mobile game, the Gym battles are little more than tapping on your monster until you or your opponent falls over. It’s nothing crazy or something you really want to do that often, especially when compared to catching Pokémon, but for what it is, it’s fun.

          The best part of Pokémon Go, however, is something not even included in the game. The social aspect of Pokémon Go is fantastic. I’ll often run into at least one another player, and we often exchange a brief conversation about what we’ve found today. It’s excellent, especially in the way it’s getting geeks like me out of the house and meeting other people with similar interests.

          Pokémon Go exceeded my expectations in every way. Not only did it fulfil the prospect of catching Pokémon in the real world, it accomplished it in a way that is a lot of fun if you really take the time to go searching for something you don’t have yet. And while the abundance of Rattatas can get frustrating, and the game isn’t exactly bug-free yet (prepare for a lot of game crashes!), Pokemon Go is fantastic in every way. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, what on Earth are you waiting for!?

FINAL SCORE

8/10

Great

Amaama to Inazuma Episode 2 Review

Going through the motions

(This review contains spoilers!)

          Now that we’re two episodes into Amaama no Inazuma, I feel that the show hasn’t quite gotten comfortable with what it is yet. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a good episode from a show that is really trying to be a sweet, relaxing watch. It’s just that this week episode is, for all intents and purposes, a repeat of what happened last week.

          Everything that was good about the first episode is still here: The art is fantastic, Tsumugi is still the best character in the show, her relationship with her father is believable and fantastic, and the cooking is surprisingly fun to watch. The animation remains choppy at times, with some weird facial expressions, but overall it’s still good.

          The thing is, aside from a few important plot developments (which I’ll get to in a moment), the show follows the exact same pattern as last week. We open with Tsumugi and her father at home, then we see them at school/work, and then they go to the restaurant to cook with Iida. There’s nothing wrong with sticking to a pattern, at least for a little while. I’m just worried that if it goes on like this, the show will become stale very fast.

          Speaking of Iida, she is where the true meat of this episode lies, and her character development is why it’s not just skippable filler. Whereas in the last episode she was just kind of there with nothing really memorable about her, this week we saw more of her personal fears and exactly why she keeps bringing Tsumugi and her father back to the restaurant.

          So, all in all, a decent episode, and one that’s worth watching, even if it is too similar to last week in terms of plot threads. I hope that next week we’ll have something a little different, or this cooking show might grow bland really fast.

FINAL SCORE

6/10

Okay

Editorial: Does every game need an open world?

Does every game need an open world?

          It seems that with every new generation of consoles, there’s a new trend that everyone seems to follow. In the days of the N64 and the PlayStation 1, we had colourful mascot platformers. A few years ago, everyone was drooling over grim and gritty first person shooters. And nowadays, all the companies have come together under a single umbrella, each with their own take on the genre: open world games.

          If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, an open world game basically can be any genre, be it action-adventure, shooter, platformer, sports, you name it. The overworlds are massive, and would take hours upon hours to explore in full. You can go wherever you want, whenever you want, with little to no limitations. Now, this can mean two things. Either the worlds are filled to the brim with different and unique stuff to do, or it’s just the same content you’d get in a usual release, just spread out a bit more.

          Already, we’ve had tons of high-profile releases in the genre, such as The Division, The Witcher 3, Fallout 4, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, and more. Even Uncharted 4 had a few open world segments, such as the now praised segment driving around a massive Madagascar savannah. And we saw even more coming at E3 this year, like Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and nearly every game at the Ubisoft press conference.

          But in the aftermath of the conference, I’ve heard several people worried about open worlds. Ubisoft seems to be taking the majority of the criticism, as they seem to be hooked on the idea of open worlds. Between the new Ghost Recon game, Watch Dogs 2, Steep, and several others, they seem content to give each and every one of their forthcoming releases an open world to call its own. The problem is, as we’ve seen in games like the previously mentioned The Division and the original Watch Dogs, Ubisoft has a habit of being the bad side of open worlds: giant expanses of nothing but dirt and mud, with the same amount of content you’d find in a regular release, except it’s spread out a bit.

          That just begs the question: does every game need to have an open world, or is a linear experience better? Do we really need an open world skiing experience like Steep when we already have the SSX series? Will Breath of the Wild be a breath of fresh air for Zelda, or will it be just as mixed as Skyward Sword was?

          There really isn’t a definite answer yet. Some games, like Witcher 3 and Uncharted 4 handle their open worlds really well. You can explore, discover, and have fun at your leisure, doing unique missions and finding secret treasures. I loved the open world in Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, despite it being filled with similar missions like races and delivery missions. And then there are other games, like the ones Ubisoft showed off, where there’s nothing to do except walk around this giant plain filled with a lot of nothing until you find the next repetitive mission. It’s no wonder people are getting sick of them.

          So how do we fix this problem? Well, I think there will come a time when game developers are forced to come to terms with the genre, the same way that gritty, brown hued modern warfare fps games phased out with the new generation. Now we have games like Overwatch and the forthcoming Battlefield 1 that are showing the shooter genre in a new light. One is colourful and cartoony with an iconic cast of characters, another is set in a time period so rarely explored by video games.

          Perhaps, somewhere down the line, open world games will meet the same fate. As game developers discover new and exciting ways to pull in gamers, we may be seeing less of what’s so commonplace today. And when an open world game does pop up again, it’ll have a new and unique take on the concept, making it stand out from the rest. And for that, I am truly excited.

Song of the Week

          This week I’ve chosen the Credits theme from Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, a game with (in my opinion) an excellent open world and a phenomenal soundtrack accompanying it. If you haven’t played the game yet, don’t worry, there are no spoilers in the video or audio!

Mario and Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Review

Mosquito escape minigame not included

(This review is spoiler-free!)

          To this day, I’ve played every installment in the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games series. It’s been a few games since I’ve actually bought one, but I usually rent them for a weekend just to see what’s new. Then, a week later, I forget basically everything that was in the game, and move on with my life.

          I thought that it was going to be the same old story with this year’s installment, with Mario and Sonic arriving at the 2016 Rio Games. But boy, was I ever wrong. Not only are the games unmemorable, but this time they’re also really bad.

          Let’s start with the good. This new game boasts the largest roster of playable characters in the series history, so you can really choose anyone you like. The problem is that a lot of them are locked, and I couldn’t figure out how to unlock them for the life of me. It’s too bad, because I was really looking forward to trying out some of them. Secondly, the game looks really good. Nothing mindblowing or game changing here, but for a minigame collection, it’s impressive.

          Some of the minigames are pretty good as well. Rugby and soccer/football feel like a sort of dumbed-down version of the Mario Strikers games, and they can be a little too easy to win for my taste. Still, they’re really fun, and if you miss the days where we’d get a Mario sports game what felt like every other month, I’d highly recommend them. Boxing and gymnastics are also good, just for how silly they are. I never thought I’d see Bowser and Dr. Eggman dancing together, but here we are.

          As for the rest of the games, each and every one of them feels like a complete disaster. Motion controls have been removed entirely, replaced by the excitement of quick-time events and button mashing. Hooray.

          Nearly every game can be summed up by this: mash the A button to win, and then press B sometimes. That’s it. And there are several games that follow this model, including the 100-yard dash, swimming, triple jump, equestrian, the list goes on. Needless to say, the game becomes a slog really fast.

          At first I thought that this game would just be boring at worst, but it gets even worse. I don’t know if it was me, but there were times when the controls seemed really unresponsive. I still don’t know what happened during the triple jump. I pressed all the buttons when they told me, but I failed every single time.

          Dream Events, another staple of the past games, have also been removed, and that’s a shame. Those were always the best parts of the original, as it let you leave the realistic Olympic setting and explore the more wacky worlds of Mario sports, complete with items and hazards. But no, in the Rio Games it’s Olympics or nothing. Without that random element, and alongside the boring controls, each minigame grows stale alarmingly fast.

          If you’re looking for a minigame collection to play on the Wii U, I’d say save your money and buy a used copy of Mario Party 10. If this is what the future of the Mario and Sonic series is going to be, I think I’ll be jumping off this sinking ship pretty fast.

FINAL SCORE

3/10

Bad

Kiznaiver Review (Full Show)

Feel my pain!

(This review contains spoilers!)

          Show of hands: How many people have seen the anime Mekakucity Actors? If you’ve never heard of it, it’s basically a hodgepodge mess, taking all the best parts of several other anime and trying to make them work together. It featured the dark, gothic art style of Madoka Magica, the cast and character backstories of Angel Beats, and a story that vaguely resembled Charlotte, except it was even more nonsensical than that disaster, all mixed into one really bizarre package that had about two good episodes overall. What Mekakucity Actors did have going for it was an exceptional use of colours to set a scene.

          Since watching Space Patrol Luluco, I’ve been making my way through Studio Trigger’s entire lineup, catching up on what I’ve missed. I’ve already finished (and loved) Kill la Kill, and Kiznaiver was next on the list. My first impressions, seeing how the show used colour similarly to Mekakucity, I was hoping that Kiznaiver was going to be a better version of that show.

          When all’s said and done, it’s definitely a better show, although it’s plagued with so many character and plot issues that it’s hard to recommend.

          The story is about a group of teens who are linked through something called the Kiznaiver system. Basically, this is a system that forces them to share their pain. If one gets hurt, they all get hurt. They learn they have to endure this for the entire summer, and decide to try and become friends during all of this.

          My first problem with the show is this: none of the main characters are likeable. After 12 episodes, I can only remember 4 of their names off the top of my head, out of 8 major characters. They’re all one note personalities (tough guy, adorable goofball, ladies’ man, the list goes on), and the only ones we seem to get any background on are the worst of the bunch. Right off the bat, I picked out my least favourite character, a closed-off girl who seems to have nothing but contempt for everyone. Guess what? The next 3 episodes are all about her! And this is at the expense of the other characters, some of which never get the spotlight all to themselves!

          It’s a shame, too, because Kiznaiver tries really hard to get you interested and attached to these people. I’ve heard stories of people straight-up crying at some episodes. I never quite felt that way, but it’s clear there was a lot of effort put into this storyline.

          Speaking of the story, it’s actually a really interesting premise! I love the idea of a group of people who would normally never speak to each other forced to spend time together because of something they can’t control. And for the first half of the show, it really works! Their friendship is slowly but surely built up, and while it’s never the most believable relationship I’ve ever seen, I really felt that I wanted to see where it would go next.

          But then, it’s revealed that alongside sharing physical wounds, the characters share emotions such as sadness. At this point, the entire show falls to pieces. After this, all of the main characters fall into a depressed slump, and they all just sort of mope around for the rest of the series. Any likeability they had to begin with vanishes in the instant. Then, to make up with the lack of character development, the writing goes completely off the rails.

          New elements are introduced such as an underground organization, a monsoon, long-lost friends are brought into the mix with little to no payoff, and it all culminates in one of the most cringeworthy finales of all time, featuring the characters yelling preachy speeches at each other that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Care Bears movie, all while they’re atop an exploding drawbridge. How we went from such a clever premise to this is beyond me.

          The other problem Kiznaiver has is that, at the end, the characters are more or less the same way they were back in episode 1. There’s no real growth, or change, they all just relax back into their familiar tropes. Think of any protagonist from a really good anime. They all leave their shows having learnt something or changed in some way. In Kiznaiver, the show ends with things more or less returning to the norm, making it feel like you just wasted a lot of your time.

          However, I wouldn’t exactly consider Kiznaiver to be a complete waste of time. There’s worse anime out there, without a doubt. Being animated by Studio Trigger, the show looks absolutely gorgeous, and the colour is exceptional as well. If it seems interesting to you, give it a shot. Just don’t expect the next Kill la Kill.

FINAL SCORE

4/10

Mediocre

Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review

Building a better game

(This review contains spoilers!)

          For the most part, Lego games are a hit or miss for me. I really enjoyed the original Lego Star Wars games, and to a lesser extent, the Harry Potter games as well. But recently, I feel they’ve fallen in a bit of a rut. Lego Lord of the Rings and Lego Marvel Superheroes were both fun, albeit unmemorable, Lego The Hobbit was agonizingly boring, and Lego Jurassic World holds the distinction of being, in my opinion, the worst game I played in 2015.

          Keeping that in mind, it’s clear that lots of heart and hard work was put into the latest Lego game, an adaption of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It’s by far the most enjoyable Lego game made in the last few years, although the problems of its recent predecessors still linger on.

          Starting with the graphics, this game isn’t exactly remarkable by today’s standards, but compared to other Lego games, its leaps and bounds beyond the rest. Characters like Chewbacca and Yoda are no longer rendered as featureless plastic. Now they have faces and expressions of their own.

          The best part of this and every other Lego game before it are easily the cutscenes and characters. I’m still sort of on the fence about having the characters talk in these games. While it’s a lot easier to understand the story when it isn’t told through mime, it robs us of a lot of classic moments. Does anyone else remember how the classic “I am your father” scene was redone in Lego Star Wars II? That made me laugh for days the first time I saw it.

          Despite whatever your feelings may be on the Legos talking, the cutscenes are still hilarious to watch, and full of loads of slapstick and visual humour. Between Han constantly acting like a cocky scoundrel, Kylo Ren hanging out in his Darth Vader themed bedroom, and a recurring ice cream vendor in Supreme Leader Snoke’s room, there’s a lot of memorable moments.

          Another new addition is that, for what I believe to be the first time ever in a Lego game, the characters chat during the levels. The entire cast from the movie reprises their iconic roles, including Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Anthony Daniels, and yes, even Harrison Ford. It injects a lot of life into levels that can, at some times, be either too long or too easy. A lot of the game’s jokes lie in this new dialogue as well, as the cutscenes mostly use voice clips from the movie. The Stormtroopers have a lot of goofy remarks, and Adam Driver even gets a few laughs in during the final battle with Kylo Ren.

          While this is all fine and dandy, how is the actual gameplay? I’m happy to say that this is easily the best Lego game since Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga from all those years ago. Since I haven’t played the original in a while, I can’t say for sure if it’s topped it as the best ever, but it comes close.

          Some levels, such as escaping Rathtars on Han’s freighter and invading Starkiller Base with Finn are some of the most fun I’ve had in a Lego game in years. They blend puzzles and action perfectly, so you never get tired of one or the other, just like the old games did. Not all the levels are winners, but we’ll come back to that later.

Each character feels unique, and are all immediately recognizable. Playing as BB-8 is just as much fun as you’d hope. There are also new boss fights, and while none of them are quite as good as the fights against Maul or Vader from the original games, there are some fun ones. I especially found the battle against Captain Phasma to be a complete blast (pun intended).

Another new feature added is Uncharted-like segments where you hide behind cover to shoot. While some of these feel like they’re slowing down the momentum of the game, I really enjoyed them. It almost felt like an arcade style shooter at times.

          The true star of the gameplay, however, is the flying segments. I’m not exaggerating when I say that this is the best and most fun I’ve had flying a ship in a game in a really long time. It’s so weird to think that a Lego game surpasses both Battlefront and Star Fox in this regard. It controls perfectly, with no clunkiness or need to take time to learn. The best parts are when you and a friend are working together to pilot a single ship, with one of you flying and the other gunning. The opening scene with Poe and Finn escaping from the First Order in a stolen TIE Fighter is my personal favourite from Force Awakens, and it’s my favourite level in this game too.

          One thing I’d like to mention is that, just like every other Lego game, Force Awakens is best experienced with a friend. If you can find someone else who wants to play with you, your experience will be 10 times better.

          Still, Lego Star Wars isn’t without its faults. While it’s certainly the most polished Lego game in ages, glitches are still abound, although rarer than they were in Lego Jurassic World. While my brother and I were playing, we encountered several noticeable framerate dips throughout the game, accidentally got Han trapped inside a wall with no escape at one point, and finally, our game crashed during a cutscene, forcing us to replay the dreadful Maz Kanata’s castle level.

          Speaking of that level, it brings up the biggest problem with some of the levels. Several of them are filled with so many puzzles, a Zelda dungeon would be jealous. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem, but when you’re stuck for around 30 minutes because the level is taking forever to finish because of the sheer number of puzzles, it can drive you crazy. The Maz Kanata’s castle level is especially guilty of this, because it throws a volley of uninteresting, time-wasting puzzles at you in rapid succession, culminating in the worst room in the entire game. Whereas some levels juggle the action and puzzles perfectly, never slowing down, several of the levels can feel like a slog, because of just how often you need to make a pit stop at Point C and D just to get the characters from Point A to Point B.

          Besides the occasional glitches and bad levels, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens is still one of the best Lego games in years. I’d say it’s worth a look for the amazing flying segments alone. If you know a young Star Wars fan who’s itching for more Force Awakens action, this game is perfect for them. It’s also great for a rental if you’re spending a weekend with a friend and want a game to play. And even if you aren’t interested in this game at all, you should still check out the cutscenes on YouTube. They’re absolutely worth it.

FINAL SCORE

7/10

Good