Are you gnome enough? A review of 2 Fast 4 Gnomz (Nintendo eShop)

Watch the trailer here!

The kingdom of Gnomia needs a hero! A hero who can find a princess and collect as many socks as possible on the way!

Such is the very basic storyline of upcoming Nintendo 3DS download 2 Fast 4 Gnomz, an action platformer from developer QubicGames. Or perhaps a more apt description of the game would be running platformer. For those of you who've played WiiWare title Bit.Trip Runner, 2 Fast 4 Gnomz is very much in the same high-speed vein.

In 2 Fast 4 Gnomz, you'll traverse more than four worlds with several platforming levels apiece. Because our intrepid gnome is in constant motion throughout each level, it's up to you to use a slew of abilities to avoid obstacles. These abilities include jumping, gliding, crushing stuff, and more. An impressive array of environmental elements will put your all of your skills to the test, and when the challenge gets steep, finding the right flow can feel very rewarding.

Speaking of challenge, the game's difficulty curve hits a pretty good balance. Each world introduces you to a new ability, giving you ample opportunity to get a feel for it in the first level or two. By the time you've reached the final level, however, you've been challenged with not only the newest skill, but all of the previous skills as well. Thankfully, frequent checkpoints keep the game from being overly frustrating.

The graphical style of 2 Fast 4 Gnomz is appropriately cartoony, if a bit generic. I was glad of the visual variety amongst the four main worlds, which are based upon the four seasons. It's just unfortunate that they don't add anything gameplay-wise, like ice in the winter levels or piles of leaves in the autumn levels.Though I'm not a huge fan of stereoscopic 3-D in general, the game pulls it off well. Like I mentioned above, the story is minimalistic, but fairly entertaining. The game certainly has a strange charm to it, which I like.

If there's anything I would add to 2 Fast 4 Gnomz, it would be, well, more game! I enjoyed what the game had to offer, but I found myself wanting more. For example, there are no boss battles to speak of. And I had the entire thing beat in less than a few short hours. For $4.99, I would expect a little more bang for my buck. But if you're itching for a reflex-driven, running platformer, 2 Fast 4 Gnomz might be just the game you've been craving. It arrives for North American gamers on November 1st.

Donkey Kong Country Returns, but it's not as welcome as I had hoped - A Review

Back in the SNES days, the three Donkey Kong Country games were pure gold. If there is a gamer out there from that generation who somehow missed out on all of them, I am frankly shocked. Even many of my non-gamer friends can relate dear childhood memories stemming from one or more of the original Donkey Kong Country games.

Fast-forward to E3 2010, when Donkey Kong Country Returns was announced for Wii. I would bet I wasn't the only gamer who became ecstatic over the shiny trailer Nintendo had prepared. However, after finally beating the game, I must say it failed to deliver in more than one way. Read on to find out why.

Donkey Kong Country Returns adopts the simple Wii remote-turned-sideways control scheme that has come to be easily recognized in the Wii's rather extensive library of platform game revivals. As fans of the genre have come to expect, this works just fine, even in the more challenging levels of DKCR.

What I'm not so happy with are the levels themselves. Platforming is a precise art. However, it feels clumsy and imprecise in DKCR due to an abundance of uncertain jumps and a sluggish feel to Donkey Kong's movement. A feeling of inconsistency persists throughout. I admire and praise the fact that each of the game's levels offers something different than the last. But in this way, the game often throws unpredictable and unfair obstacles into the player's face, causing many levels to be an exercise in frustration. Where vine-swinging, barrel-hopping, and mine cart-riding were all extremely fun in the original Donkey Kong Country, the charm has disappeared in Returns.

Speaking of charm, the music in Returns doesn't capture the trait nearly as well as its SNES counterparts. With so much inspiration readily available, one has to wonder how the music in Returns falls so flat.

The worlds in DKCR are pretty generic, particularly the last one. I compare the worlds in Returns to the worlds in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, which I see as being the golden standard in geographic variety. Part of the Donky Kong Country charm comes from the offbeat and often outlandish worlds, like the carnival, haunted, and beehive settings in DKC2. I think Returns missed the mark in that regard.

Though I don't put much weight on a game's visuals, I have to admit I was very impressed with the graphics in DKCR. My admiration only goes so far, however: unnecessary clutter on the game screen often detracts from gameplay in DKCR. While playing, I was frequently left puzzling over where safe platforms were or why I just fell into that bottomless pit because it didn't have the safe platform it seemed to.

There was a definite charm to the short little cut scenes scattered about in DKCR. That's about the only redeeming quality I could pick out in the whole experience. And, as you may have already guessed, it wasn't enough to fully redeem the game.

Conclusion
After devoting so much time to Donkey Kong Country Returns, I wondered whether the original DKC games were actually as good as I seemed to recall. Imagine my surprise when I played the original and it was actually fun! On the surface, DKCR has everything that the original has: vines, mine carts, rhinos, barrels, and the like. What it lacks, on the other hand, is the same spirit and charm. The platforming gameplay, the music, and the settings all drag this game down to what I would call mediocrity, to be perfectly frank.

How Super Mario 64 has passed the test of time with flying colors: A Review

Nintendo has a really excellent past. And the Nintendo 64 game Super Mario 64 is undoubtedly a huge part of that past. Super Mario 64 launched alongside Nintendo's groundbreaking system and served as the blueprint for all 3-D games to come.

Super Mario 64 was an innovation back then, but how does the game hold up today, 16 years later? Read on, my friend, to find out!

In Super Mario 64, Peach's castle is your gateway to a slew of fully explorable worlds. Returning to these worlds again and again turns out to be necessary, as each contains up to 6 power stars, and power stars are used to open up new parts of the castle. You might think that coming back to worlds would be a bad thing, but it isn't in this game: the levels are well designed and fun to explore. Nintendo didn't include the timer that is a staple of Mario side scrollers, and this works well, promoting players to explore to their content.

As for level variety, Super Mario 64 doesn't lack in that department. In addition to standard themes like ice, water, and lava, players will be treated to a mountainous level, a level with a hidden city, a dank underground level, a level inside a clock, and much more. Once you've unlocked the entire castle, you'll hardly know where to turn or which incredible world to visit next.

Just as you'd expect from a Super Mario game, the controls in Super Mario 64 are tight and hold up surprisingly well today. But when you realize that each successive 3-D Mario game has used essentially the same control scheme, it's no surprise. Mario added a fair amount of new tricks to his skill set during his first foray into a 3-D world, and once mastered, they are a joy to perform.

Do I have any complaints at all? Admittedly, yes. The camera control in Super Mario 64 is one thing that hasn't aged so gracefully. Sometimes it feels like the game is trying to put the camera in the most inconvenient position possible. But the rest of the game is just so awesome, this turns out to be pretty nit picky.

Conclusion
Super Mario 64 has passed the test of time with flying colors. The worlds are a lot of fun to explore and the controls have endured well. If you own a Wii, you have no excuse to miss out on this classic: it's well worth the $10 admission price.    

Mario's Many Moves: Flight

Through the use of a variety of power-ups, Mario has taken flight many times over the years. This began with the ever-famous Tanooki suit in the NES game Super Mario Bros. 3. The Tanooki leaf turns Mario into a raccoon-like form. The key feature of the Tanooki suit is the tail. Mario can spin the Tanooki tail to put the hurt on enemies and also fly into the sky. Infinite flight would destroy the integrity of a Mario platformer, so the Tanooki tail's power is limited.

As Mario moved from 8- to 16-bit, he maintained his ability to fly with the feather power-up in Super Mario World. No, the feather did not grant him wings: instead, it adorned him in a bright yellow cape. Though it grants him the same ability as the Tanooki tail, the cape feels and controls entirely different. Mario can soar into the sky with enough momentum, but maintaining that flight turns out to be a tad more tricky in SMW. I would love to tell you exactly how it's done, but I'm afraid I don't know myself!

Flight in a 3-D Mario platformer turned out even more different. In Super Mario 64, the wing cap is the power-up of choice for flight. To lift from the ground to soaring heights, Mario need only perform a consecutive high jump with the wing cap on. After that, it's a matter of alternately diving and reaching for the sky again in smooth, sweeping motions.

So there you have it! Not all of it, of course, but I hope you'll play all the Mario you can to discover the secrets of flight for yourself! Have a splendid weekend!

Mario's Many Moves: The Jump

The time has come to post on something other than Kid Icarus: Uprising. I cannot tell you how much I love this game, so I'm really looking forward to the big review!

And now for today's topic! Mario's jump is legendary. Mario, after all, defined the platform genre, to which jumping is essential! It's easy to take Mario's jump for granted, but it is really outrageous.

Mario's amazing jumping skills have evolved over the years. Nowhere is that change more pronounced than in Mario's first 3-D adventure, Super Mario 64. Before this groundbreaking game, Mario's jumps were fairly straightforward. They could be manipulated to some degree, but there are many varieties of jumps in Super Mario 64. One of those variations is the consecutive high-jump. To pull this off, a player must jump three times in quick succession, without losing momentum. The first is a normal jump, the second a little higher, and the third even higher. Since Super Mario 64 was released, the consecutive high-jump has stuck with the series, even appearing in Mario's side-scrolling adventures.

Next, Super Mario 64 added the long jump to Mario's skill set. The long jump is undoubtedly harder to pull off, but well worth mastering. As Mario runs, he can duck, then quickly jump for an impressive long jump. Again, this maneuver has become a staple of successive 3-D Super Mario games.

The back flip was also an important jump that Mario learned in Super Mario 64. The back flip is considerably easier than the long jump, yet the only difference between the two in controller command is Mario's movement. The long jump requires a running start, while the back flip requires stillness. When still, Mario can duck and then jump. Voila! A back flip! Mario's back flip will propel him into the air more than a regular jump, but not more than a consecutive high jump.

So there you have it! It's gospel truth that playing a 3-D Mario platformer is easier and more fun when you have mastered Mario's various jumps. Hope you have a great weekend!

Favorite Wii games countdown #4: Wii Sports

For those of you who don't know, the game Wii Sports was the original pack-in game for Nintendo's brand-new Wii console. I don't know about anyone else, but this game had me pumped. It was the way Nintendo would show the world how motion control could be integrated into video games.

And I'll never forget the first time I played it.

It was a feeling unlike any I had ever felt. Here was a piece of content in my favorite medium that actually responded to my movement. It did so with polish, for that matter! Wii was a success! And the funny thing is, Wii Sports remains to this day one of the best examples of motion controlled gaming out there. I still play it once in a while, and I'm always surprised at how well it holds up. Long live Wii Sports!

Honorable Mention: Kirby's Return to Dreamland

To at least rent this game was a no-brainer for me. And that's just what I did. I had Mary over on the day that it came. I thought to myself, "What better time to break it out than while I'm playing video games with Mary anyway?" So I played Kirby's Return to Dreamland with Mary and my little sister, Ivy. It wasn't long before I knew I had to use Gamefly's "Keep" feature on this one. Kirby's Return to Dreamland is a great little platformer that is fun for anyone, but will especially charm the young 'uns.

A Game I Should Have Played: Super Paper Mario
The unfortunate thing is that I've never so much as laid eyes on a Paper Mario game before. I have, however, taken the first step towards playing these mysteries Mario RPG things: I have downloaded the game Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars onto my Wii console. I'm on my way!

Favorite Wii games countdown #6: New Super Mario Bros. Wii

If you've been keeping track of my list of favorite Wii games, perhaps you've realized that today's game, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, has officially trumped another great Super Mario game from yesterday, Super Mario Galaxy. I have to say that I do love NSMBW just a smidgeon more than SMG. You see, the classic, side-scrolling Mario style holds a special place in my heart. Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo is one of my childhood (and all-time) favorites. NSMBW is everything great about that classic formula all rolled into one.

And dare I forget to mention the multiplayer! Up to four people can gather for local multiplayer in NSMBW. You wouldn't think it could work, but it does in this game! Players can interact with each other any way they want. You can help your friends by picking them up or giving them jump boosts. Or you can hinder your friends by throwing them at enemies or into lava pits. New Super Mario Bros. Wii has served as a great little social tool for me and my friends on countless occasions. Simply put, it is a must-have for any Wii owner.

Honorable Mention: Wii Sports Resort
This game turned out to be a superb showcase of what Wii MotionPlus could do. Personally, I grew to love sword play and archery as great examples. After playing this game, I feel it's a shame that Wii MotionPlus has gone largely unused since.

A Game I Should Have Played: Wario Ware: Smooth Moves
I gotta tell you the story of my first go at a Wario Ware game. I had this friend in Junior High who had Wario Ware on her GameCube. Well, we played it one day. She let me go through a series of what are called "micro games", and I was phenomenal! I wasn't making any mistakes at all. I kept glancing back at her in between games, hoping to see that she was awestruck at my incredible gaming skills. Before long, however, I began to get suspicious. Something wasn't right about this. Finally I found out that this friend of mine had swapped the controllers while I wasn't looking: she had been controlling the game the whole time.

That and about fifteen minutes of Wario Ware on GBA have been my sole experience with the Wario Ware series. I would love to try out Smooth Moves for Wii some time.

So ya wanna know about video game genres? Let's start with the platfomer!

When I first subscribed to Nintendo Power magazine many years ago, I was an ardent gamer, yes, but there were a few terms that frequently came up in the magazine that I didn't have a clue about. Most of them related to video game genres in one way or other. FPS, RPG, platfomer...what?!

Nintendo's most famous franchise being Super Mario and all, I thought it prudent to begin with the category that Super Mario belongs to: the platform genre. Even though we all know what a platform is, the idea of a platform video game is a little vague. Why can't Mario games just be "save the princess" games or something like that? Well, video games are different from other mediums because they can be controlled, right? So video game genres revolve around how the games are controlled. Platform games involve platforms. The player controls the character and uses jumps or other forces to land on platforms and avoid pitfalls. It's really important that platformers have some way for the player to jump at will, otherwise you'd be hard pressed to correctly identify a game as a platformer.

And, really, it's as simple as that. Super Mario games are of the platform genre. Some other examples include Rayman Origins, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kirby's Return to Dreamland, and Mutant Mudds. Play a platformer for yourself today!