"Battle Against Masked Man" from Mother 3 for the Game Boy Advance
Composer: Shogo Sakai
Game Developers: Nintendo, Hal Laboratory, Brownie Brown (music)
Publisher: Nintendo
I stumbled on this track when I was listening to video game songs on youtube. I left it running so it could 'free associate,' and wasn't really paying attention to what was playing. But when this song came on, it grabbed a hold of my attention! Now I really want to play Mother 3 (which could also be called Earthbound 2).
This is a seriously disturbing track. The core of it is just a really weird bassline, but on top of the bass someone is having a coniption at the keyboard and effects unit. And during the breaks in the weird sounds, I hear the bassline, and I want to latch onto it for comfort, but there is no comfort to be found there. I'm a sucker for disturbing music in proper doses, and this really takes the cake. I'm going to go take a shower now.
If this song interests you, or check out starmen.net for the complete soundtrack, over 3 hours long! There are also fan remixes, which is cool, too! Also available on itunes.
-D
Read the First Impressions
When talking about Anodyne, I can't help but say a little more about the ambience. I want to compare it to a free-to-download indie favorite of mine: Eversion. This is a little indie game that isn't afraid to get creepy. It also vibes a bit Earthbound, for the SNES. It's visually like Earthbound as well: Anodyne is just between 8-bit and 16-bit style. It sort of plays like the Game Boy version of Zelda: Link's Awakening.
Like Zelda games, there is a great variety of puzzles to solve. Unlike Zelda, there are not a lot of equipment upgrades, however, the designers do a great job innovating new and different puzzles as the game progresses. They also take care to make each stage or region look substantially different from the last, keeping the atmosphere strong, and reducing a sense of repetitiveness.
The designers were ingeniously courteous in the way they designed the world maps. They corral you into different winding corridors on the map by the use of locked gates. However, as you progress, you double back and unlock the gates from the other side. I don't know if you can beat the game without unlocking the gates, but that would make for one hell of an achievement. The game itself seems to be only vaguely exploration based. That is to say, I feel like I am covering every inch of the map in order to progress. However, that said, I beat the game with 12 undiscovered Cards.
The game comes with a charming little Card System. You collect various cards throughout the game, which correspond to the different characters and enemies. Each card contains a caption and an image. It's pretty cool, I mean, pointless cards are nothing new, but this game has such a strange storyline, that I'm always very eager to see what the caption is on the cards, even if it's just a throwaway non-sequitur. Also, the programmers decided not to make the cards pointless: there are locked gates that you can only get through if you have enough cards.
I beat Anodyne in 5.2 hours. A little underwhelming by the end, that is my only complaint. And hey, it might just be my attention span. There are 12 remaining cards and a secret stage that I haven't yet been to. I always love these little easter eggs, however, I have not held myself to 100% completion before writing this review.
Is it worth ten bucks? Well, that's like a trick question, since I got it in a Humble Bundle and also - I generally try to get games on sale, so I usually pay about 7.50 for a game, or even 5. So, with that context, I still think it's probably worth ten bucks, but I recommend getting Anodyne, or any game, when it's on sale. Bottom line is that this game is a labor of Love from a tiny team of 2 designers, and it shows.
-D
P.S. Okay, now I went and reviewed it on Metacritic. I gave it an 8. My username is FeaxPotts. Always nice to have a typo in your username :P I think I want to go back through all my game reviews and review them on meta critic. Especially those ones with metacritic scores that I disagree with.
Note: This game came with an Android version as well. I gave it a shot on my smart phone -- I don't like it. Maybe I need time to adjust to having touch buttons. The biggest problem is the control pad. It's so slippery, and it's located on the lower left-hand side of the screen, and I'd like it a big higher. I find that when I lift my thumb, I always set it down on the top of the pad, rather than the center.
Listening to the Big Ideas episode of A Life Well Wasted podcast, and reflecting on an episode of the Experience Points podcast, Taking Action in Open Worlds episode.
In the Exp Podcast, they talk about the size of the world of GTAV, and all the mini games, and how many hours people can dump into this game. And then, on the other hand, they also talk about how the mini games are okay, but not that great. But apparently there are a whole ton of them. I wholeheartedly endorse the inclusion of bunches of mini-games. Okay, so combine the idea of an open world game, with an idea for a 3d browser I'm lifting from my friend Ghost, with another idea I had when I played Earthbound and went to the Arcade, and I have a new nifty idea.
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So, the Earthbound idea was that I wanted to be able to play games in the town arcade. I thought that would be so rad. Like, to move my character to a pinball machine and then play pinball. Or Tetris. Or Ninja Turtles or a clone of those games. I don't know why, but I really really liked this idea. And I know it exists somewhere in that era... maybe Legend of the Mystical Ninja...No, that's not it...Oh, the Gold Saucer did this in FF VII.
This combines well with the game mechanic article I posted the other day. The mini game is a game mechanic I always wanted to see more of. Here's another article on mini games. Looks like I got my wish, too! Animal Crossing lets you play NES Games. But this is a different idea.
Okay, so here's the idea. It's for Console makers, Sony, Nintendo, Valve or Microsoft. So, the browser in your console -- is a game. Right? So, you boot up your Wii Z (fictional game system from Nintendo) and you control your little Mii around in some funny in-game world. Perhaps like Animal Crossing. Yes. Exactly like Animal Crossing. So, in your Animal Crossing world, you can set up your sweet living room with a TV, console and a bunch of games. Or you can set up an arcade room, where all the games are represented by arcade cabinets. And you just have to pull up to them, and play the actual games in your library.
But-But-But, the game is also Wii-Sports, and you just have to go to the bowling alley if you want to play bowling. And, of course, it's the magic inter-dimensional Bowling ally that allows Miis from all over the world to bump into each other online and bowl. Of course, you can have your own private alley to play with your friends who are actually physically with you.
Right? This makes sense, right? The file browser is a game, with its own mini-games a-la Wii sports and Animal Crossing. But on top of that, you can access and play the games you own from within the browser.So yeah, there's the idea: Animal Crossing is preloaded into the Game System firmware, and you can access your video game library through it. All the Social Media of Animal Crossing, combined with your Console Browser. I'm surprised Nintendo hasn't done this yet, especially with the huge success of Animal Crossing.
-D
P.S. Also, here's a goofy Animal Crossing/Sim City game idea: It would be hilarious if one of the disasters in Sim City was that a Katamari would come rolling through your city, snatching up pieces of it. Same for Animal Crossing... But like, if the Katamari was big enough, you could just walk around like normal, because it would have taken your whole town as a single piece.
