Nintendo Consoles

Super Mario Odyssey

Posted by binarymessiah on 07/16/2019
Posted in: Editor's Choice, Nintendo Consoles, Switch. Leave a comment

141694bPublisher: Nintendo

Developer: Nintendo

Release Date: 10/27/2017

Rating: Everyone 10+

MSRP: $59.99

Available Exclusively On

switch

 

 

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Nintendo always has a knack for making one huge innovation to their franchises per console cycle and the Switch is no exception. Odyssey is a well-crafted game taking many years of experience and gameplay honing and creating one of the best video game experiences in the last decade. Odyssey is massive with dozens of hours of content and a variety of things to do.

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Like all Mario games, there’s not much of a story, just your typical Bowser kidnapping Princess Peach story again with no cut scenes or anything else, but that’s fine as Mario is all about the gameplay. The main gameplay hook in this Mario game is his hat. He can throw it to take control of enemies, for combat, and to get out of reach items. The hat works so naturally and feels great to use that I never had any issues. Once you arrive in the Cap Kingdom you will be leaping and bounding similarly to Super Mario Galaxy in the way Mario moves and jumps. Taking control of certain enemies give you special combat abilities or allows you to access certain areas Mario can’t. It’s so much fun and I always looked forward to the next thing I could control.

Another element is the new 2D levels. These are hidden throughout the game and give you moons which are needed to power up your Odyssey ship to get to Bowser. There are 880 moons in the world. I know it’s a monster of a task, but it’s so much fun. Your first playthrough allows you to get the first batch, then after you beat the game, there are meteor rocks that you can smash in each world and they send the rest of the moons flying. Anyways, these 2D levels are just like the 8-bit games with Mario wrapped around the 3D world jumping and hopping along.

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Mario can also swim, fly (with controller enemies), and pretty much do anything you can imagine as the game is so varied and there’s so much to see and do. Not one world is alike and each one has new things to do and discover. Mario can also change his hats and outfits this time around by buying them with coins or using special world-specific coins. Some outfits are needed to access bonus areas. These bonus areas are actually the most fun and challenging, but well worth it for the moons.

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There are boss fights with Bowsers minions the Boonals which are evil bunnies. The boss fights are really easy and so is Bowser at the end of the game. It’s clear that the game doesn’t rely on bosses for challenges as some bonus areas had me stuck for over an hour restarting until I got all the jumps right. Thankfully most of the game is a perfect challenge and some of the challenges are just figuring out how to get to the next moon or bonus area. Some are in plain sight while others require you to think a little bit and do certain things. There are music note challenges as well as scarecrow timer challenges. All of these things combined make for an exciting game that is incredibly hard to put down.

I really can’t find anything negative to say except that all you do is collect moons and there’s no other end goal. There are at least fast travel points in each world so even that isn’t a problem. The visuals are fantastic and the entire games just feel alive with character and personality. It’s hard to hate a game made this well, 30 years of perfection really shows with zero control issues, framerate problems, or anything else. No matter how you slice it this is essentially a perfect game. The amount of variety just boggles my mind and I don’t know how the developers managed to make every bonus area, challenge, and the world completely unique, especially to house 880 moons.

Overall, Super Mario Odyssey is a must-own for Switch fans and a good reason to buy one. There is no other platform that offers this kind of gaming perfection other than Nintendo. They are masters of video games and it shows in every one of their unique main title games.

smo

Rogue Trooper Redux

Posted by binarymessiah on 07/07/2019
Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 4, Sony Consoles, Switch, Xbox One. Leave a comment

91eicFlNDnL._AC_SX430_Publisher: Sold Out6.0

Developer: Rebellion

Release Date: 10/17/2017

Rating: Teen

MSRP: $19.99

Also Available On

xbone

windows

switch

 

 

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When playing Rogue Trooper I kept asking myself “Why?” to everything. Why is there no plot? Why was this game even considered good enough to remaster? Why did this game exist in the first place? It’s not all bad, definitely playable and has some challenging gameplay, but it could have been so much more, right? Well, meet Rebellion! Famous for some of the most mediocre games in the early to mid-2000’s that weren’t horrible, but barely passable and very forgettable. I played the original on PC back in 2009 and it wasn’t all that great back then either.

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You play as a GI named Rogue (how original) who is a blue alien dude stuck in the middle of a war with a race called the Norts. There’s your story, have a nice day! I’m not kidding at all. This game has more plot holes than a screen door and it boggles my mind as to why they even bothered. These GIs are immune to every poison known to exist, okay…but why? Then there is a single poison that was found to work and the Norts want to mass produce it to wipe out the GIs, again, why? There are no answers just lines of dialog that needs a lot of back story to explain what is even going on. The characters are paper thin, don’t have much screen time, and the voice acting is atrocious. So the only reason to play Rogue Trooper is for the shooting and that’s average at best.

Rogue has a gun that is “smart” as well as his backpack and helmet. He installs chips that are cut out from dead comrades and it gives his equipment an AI. That’s a pretty neat idea and it’s the only thing in this game that seemed to have been fully fleshed out. Rogue gathers salvage from dead bodies and piles and uses these to craft ammo, new weapons, and upgrades. You don’t pick up any ammo in the game as you can only craft it. You do have a pistol on hand that has infinite ammo in case you run out, but there’s a constant challenge of keeping your supply up and looting dead bodies. There are a few on-rails levels to mix things up, so the game isn’t boring ever, and the challenge is quite nice as standing out in the open for too long will get you dead and there’s a halfway decent cover system in place.

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Rogue can also equip a silencer to his machine gun and sniper rifle as well as use a decoy and attraction tool, but I never actually used these. The game even has a stealth mechanic in place, but after I got the silencer I didn’t bother sneaking around as sniper shots are one hit kills. You can also place your Gunnar as a turret so it can cover doors that get unlocked, but again, this seemed like a wasted mechanic as the game isn’t quite sure if it wanted to be a tactical stealth game or a run and gun shooter. This game is a living breathing embodiment of early to mid-2000’s third-person shooters and it hasn’t aged very well. Extremely linear level design, awkward animations, barely manageable aiming, and lots of on rails and scripted events.

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At least the game had a marginal graphics update and looks decent enough but you can still see the age of the game behind the shiny new surface. There’s also a multiplayer mode that is basically pointless since no one is playing this online, and never really did, and the entire game can be beaten in just 4 hours. There’s absolutely no reason to go back either. So I go back to my original question, why? Why should you play a dated 15-year-old game in 2019? Maybe to experience a type of shooter that was incredibly popular at the height of the PS2 era? Maybe you have curious memories of this game and want to relive them? The answer is, you’re not missing out on anything if you skip this, and you don’t gain anything from playing it. Thankfully it’s dirt cheap, and I can only recommend this to the curious.

rtd

Mortal Kombat: Deception

Posted by binarymessiah on 05/16/2019
Posted in: Gamecube, Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PlayStation 2, Sony Consoles, Xbox. Leave a comment

37546-mortal-kombat-deception-premium-pack-xbox-front-coverPublisher: Midway

Developer: Midway

Release Date: 10/04/2004

Rating: Mature

MSRP: $49.99

Also Available On

ps2

ngc

 

 

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The very first game I ever pre-ordered. I have never been more excited for a game in my life. Watching gameplay trailers on a PC from 1997 on a 19″ CRT monitor while I stash away allowance bit by bit to get the Premium Pack for PS2. 2004 was an exciting year for gaming and for Mortal Kombat. With Deadly Alliance receiving mostly positive reviews, but a lot of criticism from reviewers, Deception turned everything to 11 and added interactive arenas, more game modes, online fighting. Yes, the online part was the biggest selling point of Deception.

This is the direct sequel to Deadly Alliance. Quan Chi and Shang Tsung have failed to take over and Onaga The Dragon King has decided to rise from Outworld and claim everything as his. A man named Shujinko is now the game’s lead (the first of many to come in later games) who must stop the Dragon King and reverse the actions he made during the Konquest mode that helped give Onaga his power.

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Let’s talk about Konquest mode first as most people will dive into it right away. It’s awful and should never have existed. It’s an expansion on Konquest from Deadly Alliance in which Raiden just walks along a path and each “level” is a training tutorial for all the characters. This is an adventure mode where you get quests, find the treasure for the Krypt, hidden secrets, and find out the back story to Deception, as well as meet many MK fighters and surprises. Sounds great on paper right? Well, it’s horribly executed as one of the worst attempts at a free-roaming RPG/adventure hybrid I’ve ever seen. Shujinko runs around in supersonic fast forward motion, the realms are void of any life, they are terribly laid out, and the worlds rely on a grid system to figure out where every secret and item is. The problem is that the map is useless with no actual grid on the map so you run around for 10 minutes trying to find D2 or H8 only to realize it’s locked away and you can’t go there until you complete the Konquest.

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That’s the main downfall of Konquest. Quests aren’t logged and the entire game has to be played with a guide. It would take dozens and dozens of hours to figure everything out yourself as locations to solve quests and even chests are incredibly cryptic or specific. Some chests with Krypt keys only appear at certain days of the month and times and you would never know without a guide. You can meditate to make time move by faster, but this whole entire game mode is just frustrating, messy, and irritating. Doing the actual main quests are fine as there’s always a large green pillar of light pointing where to go, but talking to a random character and getting a one-sentence quest saying to find a gem is not how quests should be done.

On top of all this, the worlds are terribly laid out. They try to force a look onto each realm such as Chaosrealm having magic portals that project to you various little floating islands that are “chaotically” made up and don’t make sense. Orderrealm is just a giant circle floating in the sky with “order” to the layout and it looks nice and dystopian. It’s a little corny with the way the worlds are represented, but it’s kind of cool to finally explore these areas despite there being nothing to do in them. The visuals are also abysmal as this looks like an early PS2 game that launched, even a little worse than that. Horrendous textures and models, awful voice acting, and laughable animations. It looks like an amateur game developer made this in a weekend.

Outside of Konquest is when things are much better when you actually get to fighting. If any game were to use realistic martial arts it’s Mortal Kombat. This fighting system and this era of games aren’t most peoples’ favorite. The realism is nice with some good animations and each character having two martial arts and a weapon style. You can branch into these styles with long combo strings, but that’s where the issue lies. This realistic slower fighting style is in contrast to the fast-paced action of the 2D games. The characters look like stiff plastic dolls and the combat is all about memorized combos. It’s fun, and it works with Mortal Kombat, but it’s also not the best way to play these games. The slower fighting pace means more strategy is involved and a new Breaker system has been added to quickly get out of combos.

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The interactive environments are some of the coolest features of Deception as they are basically fatalities within a stage. There are yellow lines that indicate when a player can get knocked out and take damage to a new tier and red lines that will kill the player. The arenas are large enough to where a game of tug-of-war always ensues and it makes playing tenser, especially online. Do you just knock them into the trap or play with them so you can do a fatality? Speaking of fatalities, each character has two unique ones and some are great and some are lame. Li Mei, for example, has two fatalities that are just boring. Super punches to the chest and you explode? Yawn. Kick your head off? Seen it before. Some others are rather runny and unique, but there are also Hara Kiris that allow the loser to do a fatality on themselves taking the glory away from the opponent. Whoever inputs there code first gets to take the fun.

Outside of combat, you can play Puzzle Kombat which is just Street Fighter Puzzle with MK characters. At the end of each round there is a fatality unique to the player, but getting your power level up means you can perform a special move that each character has. It can be played online as well and is super addicting and can be a game on its own. The last mode is Chess Kombat which is one of the most unique modes to ever grace a fighting game. Just like a game of chess, you can pick which character is what piece and you play chess, but instead of just knocking a piece over you fight it out MK style. Each piece gets a certain amount of health so pawns of the least amount of health. It’s a great twist that adds more skill to the game and can also be played online. It’s a ton of fun and I hope this mode returns to future games.

Besides the Krypt where you can unlock various stuff for fans like promo videos, behind the scenes art, and various goodies, there’s not much else. Online play is incredibly smooth with a full lobby that you can talk to other players in, challenge players, and you have a win/loss ratio next to your name. I never had any connection drops and playing online extends the longevity of the game tenfold.

I also want to talk about the new characters. Since MK4, Midway has had trouble adding interesting new characters and that trend continues for the third time. Dairou and Havik are just boring awful characters that don’t have any personality or soul. They feel forced and I’d rather have a classic character put in than these two.

Overall, MK: Deception is a fantastic fighting game that is only hampered by slower combat, and a horrible Konquest mode that must be played to unlock half the game’s roster and extra costumes. Puzzle and Chess Kombat are excellent modes that add dozens of hours of fun, and online play is always welcome.

Note: As of May 31, 2014, you can no longer play Deception online due to GameSpy servers being shut down. Even then, not a single person played this online past 2006-2007. As Armageddon and other fighters came out Deception’s user base quickly fell after the first 18 months and never went back up. Get a buddy to play next to you instead.

mkd

 

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

Posted by binarymessiah on 05/07/2019
Posted in: Dreamcast, Gamecube, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation (PS1), Retro Consoles, Sony Consoles. Leave a comment

!!eD()2Q!2M_$(KGrHqZ,!g4E0eb5LOR4BNSyJd5bNw___62Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Capcom

Release Date: 11/17/2000

Rating: Mature

MSRP: $49.99

Also Available On

ps1

windows

ngc

 

 

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Resident Evil has been more about tense action, inventory management, and puzzles more than horror. RE3 polishes up the already not so smooth gameplay of Resident Evil and ports it over to the Dreamcast to make another buck off of it. RE3 doesn’t really have much of a story, but the tense action, puzzle solving, and always looming Nemesis boss make this one of the tensest games of the era.

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You play as Jill Valentine (the star of the first game) and are back in Racoon City this time to try and find out what happened during the outbreak. Being a direct sequel to the second game, you visit a few familiar areas and some Easter Eggs are tossed in. Outside of running around collecting ammo, healing items, documents, and various things of that nature you solve puzzles and mow down armies of the undead and genetically modified. New enemies crop up that are freaky and challenging and the only boss in the game is Nemesis who is a tough monster and choices are thrown into the game on where the story goes. These choices impact where you start in locations and how you approach fighting the Nemesis. One choice kept the Nemesis from chasing me around town, but I was going to have to fight him early on. You can totally avoid fighting him in most cases, but he becomes stronger the less you fight him.

I honestly recommend playing this game on easy mode the first time as you get tons of healing items and weapons at the start as well as infinite save ribbons. This mode should be used first for another reason and that’s to learn the layout of the game. Resident Evil is a game where enemy location, map layout, and puzzle solving are a must before attempting harder modes. Now with all that said, I do find earlier Resident Evil games tough outside of just combat as without a guide you can get lost and frustrated quickly as puzzles are obtuse, there might be objects you saw hours ago that you have to go back and get such as the Downtown/Uptown maps in this game. It’s imperative to write things down if you don’t have a guide as you will run around for hours trying to find that one item that you can’t remember. 

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The story and characters are nothing special but the voice acting is surprisingly decent for its time. We don’t learn much about Umbrella outside of someone going in and trying to pop off the supervisors throughout the city and cover up the T-virus outbreak. There’s no character development or anything like that so you’re mostly playing for the action. The visuals are rather nice, but at this point, the pre-rendered backgrounds were getting tiring and the Dreamcast version is a slightly smoother PlayStation version, but there’s not much of a difference. I would have liked to have seen more modes, better visuals, and new content for a new $50 release, but what we get is mainly for newcomers.

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I highly recommend RE3 on the Dreamcast. At this point is the definitive version of the game and the best the series has to offer up until this point. Don’t expect a deep story, have a guide ready, and you’ll be in for a good 8-10 hours of intense action and fun.

re3n

WarioWare: Smooth Moves

Posted by binarymessiah on 04/14/2019
Posted in: Nintendo Consoles, Wii. Leave a comment

81142-warioware-smooth-moves-wii-front-coverPublisher: Nintendo

Developer: Intelligent Systems

Release Date: 01/15/2007

Rating: Everyone 10+

MSRP: $49.99

Available Exclusively On

wii

 

 

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WarioWare has always been about showing off the capabilities of Nintendo’s systems, usually in the controls department. Each iteration has been 100% unique to that system starting back on the GameBoy Advance. Smooth Moves uses the Wii Remote and Nunchuck in really unique and fun ways, but just like too much fun, it only lasts as long as a snack.

Just like every other WarioWare game you play small microgames that last 5 seconds each and are only given a single word clue on how to complete that mini-game. It goes by in a flash and requires quick reflexes to complete. The main map of the game consists of 8 different mini-game stories that are just little hand-drawn cut scenes to make some sense of the crazy sense of humor. Games range from opening a door to weird men, picking a nose, shaving a beard, and whacking people with bats. There are probably 30 some odd mini-games here, but sadly you can go through all of them in less than an hour.

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That’s about how long this game lasts fun wise as well. There are some side games like can shooter, stack the blocks, and a few others, but they get boring quick. Honestly, this is a good entry game for new Wii system owners as you have to hold the Wii Remote in certain ways such as on top of your head, on your nose, and like a steering wheel. There are various “positions” that flash before each microgame on how to hold the Wii Remote making this probably the most unique WarioWare game ever made. It’s super silly, incredibly funny, but also frustrating.

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Some mini-games take several tries to understand what you’re supposed to do and I got a game over many times because I just couldn’t figure out the microgame fast enough. It’s not a big deal because each “story” only lasts about 3 minutes and you quickly go through all 15 micro games to reach a “boss”. This boss fight lasts 10 seconds and is just an extended version of the microgames. This includes driving around corners without hitting anything, playing the original StarFox, and a dancing mini-game.

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I honestly would have been made to pay $50 for this game when it released as it’s easily a $20 game at best. It feels like a budget game, but it isn’t bad at all just incredibly short and more fun to play with people around. I would have liked a party mode where other players have to jump after each microgame to make things crazy or even some 2 person mini-games. There’s a lot of missed potential here, but what we get is a lot of fun.

Overall, Smooth Moves lasts about as long as a large bucket of popcorn and it’s all over leaving you wanting more. It shows you how unique the Wii controls are, but doesn’t offer anything meaty to satisfy this unique playset.

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The Last Story

Posted by binarymessiah on 04/14/2019
Posted in: Nintendo Consoles, Wii. Leave a comment

518uq9OjX4L._AC_SX215_Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Mistwalker

Release Date: 08/14/2012

Rating: Teen

MSRP: $49.99

Available Exclusively On

 

wii

 

 

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You’re a mercenary who wants to become a knight in a far off land with two races at war with each other. On top of that, you accidentally fall in love with the princess and end up in a political war and the savior of the world. Sounds like a typical JRPG doesn’t it? Well it kind of is, but the story is incredibly engaging and I can’t give more away without spoiling it. It takes a little while to pick up, but there were some unexpected plot twists and turns in the story that had me blow through this game in 3 days. That’s how engaging this game is. I wanted to play more and keep going further because I cared about the characters and what they were going to do next.

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The Last Story plays a lot different than any other JRPG out there, so much so, I have yet to play one that is like it. The combat system is both real-time and pause based with deeper strategies slowly unlocking as you progress through the game. What’s great is the game starts off super easy and simple, and I honestly didn’t really get a game over until two-thirds through the game, but then it got really tough and challenging, but just enough to make me think a little and really decide my next decision rather than hacking away blindly. The main mechanic around all of the combat is Zael’s Gathering ability which makes all enemies go towards him. This is needed for strategic reasons as you have magic party members that cast spells on a timer. If they get hit that timer resets, so you need to have all the enemies come towards you and your other melee fighters. This seems like instant death, but their movement slows down and the magic fighters’ cast speed increasing double so there are benefits to this. You can also use your gathering as a burst weapon if you get hit enough times.

You can also snap to walls and take cover as well as peak out and hit enemies with your crossbow. This also lets you see enemies weaknesses which are mandatory later on when trying to figure out how to kill enemies. Sadly, this isn’t as smooth as it sounds. The controls are really sticky so if you don’t face the wall exactly head-on you won’t get the prompt, and this includes using the wall-run move which is hindered by the camera that uncontrollable. I also had issues when attacking an enemy by just pressing forward on the C-stick I couldn’t quickly back out or dodge. I would snap the stick back and I would still be attacking and this was usually the main reason why I would die. Speaking of dying, you get 5 lives and then it’s game over. This sounds like it’s easy, but it works well with this combat system and there were plenty of times I ran out of all 5 lives pretty quickly. You can get more lives during combat with a Revive skill or an item.

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Outside of whacking enemies you can pause the battle by pressing up on the D-pad and choose your main skill, regular skill, retreat to a healing circle, or guard. Your main skill requires a meter to fill up before using it, and to command your party members your command bar must have all bars filled so you can’t abuse it. You can also use these bar segments to use your Gale move which lets you dash around the battlefield knocking enemies over. It’s a very interesting and intricate combat system that you end up mastering by the end of the game or you won’t pass the tough bosses in the last few chapters. They require all of your knowledge of the combat system and learning each party members moves and all their strengths.

Every so often the game does change things up by throwing an enemy at you that can only be killed on dry land and heals in water, there are throwables scattered some times, and destructible environments to make killing groups a little easier. Once a battle is over you level up and can collect items. These items randomize as you approach them with a slot machine-style spin and range from weapons, armor, and crafting items.

Weapons and armor work a little differently here as you won’t really buy weapons after the first 10 chapters and instead just upgrade the weapons you pick up, and same goes for armor. I always found a more powerful weapon from a boss or tough enemy and never had issues with that. Thankfully there’s an auto-equip feature, which I love in JRPGs, and does a good job making sure everyone gets what makes them the strongest. I never really had to manually equip anything.

Outside of combat there are some optional chapters you can complete, but honestly they’re a complete waste of time as the items you get aren’t much better from what you will get during the story and there are no extra plot paths or anything like that. It’s literally just to level up a little bit, but even grinding isn’t needed in this game as you level up so quickly during the story. Most of the story is progressed by entering rooms, talking to people, or leaving and coming back to the main castle, most NPCs give you clues as to where to go so that was never a huge problem. There really isn’t much to explore here as many areas repeat a few times and the castle area is rather small equaling to the size of a market center in most games. I wish I could have traveled around more, but the story explains why you don’t really go anywhere and it makes sense.

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Let’s talk about the production values a bit. The game looks fantastic for a Wii game with lots of detail, good lighting effects, and huge vistas, but it comes at a huge price. The game slows down to single digit frames constantly whenever the camera pans out too far or you get a vista shot. Even during combat when there are a lot of effects on screen the game crawls and makes things frustrating as the controls then don’t respond during these times. There’s tons of horrible aliasing and the textures are muddy because Mistwalker tried pushing the system way too far. It still looks great but also looks bad because you can see the Wii struggle so hard just to render a single face on the screen and it looks like a GameCube game at best. The voice acting is actually pretty decent for a localized JRPG and like I said earlier, the story is just amazing and memorable.

Overall, The Last Story is a must play for any Wii owner. It strays far enough away from JRPG tropes to be unique and has enough action gameplay to keep people from getting bored. The lack of grinding needed, engaging story, great characters, and interesting combat is enough to get you through the 20-25 hour story. You do have to forgive the visuals and some minor control issues.

tls

Cursed Mountain

Posted by binarymessiah on 04/11/2019
Posted in: Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, Wii. Leave a comment

220px-Cursed_MountainPublisher: Deep Silver

Developer: Koch Media

Release Date: 08/25/2009

Rating: Mature

MSRP: $49.99

Also Available On

windows

 

 

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Climbing a mountain can be tough, but climbing one of the highest and most remote is even tougher. You play as a man named Eric who is destined to find his brother after he went missing during a mountain climb to find a secret Tibetan treasure. What he finds along his journey is a dark past and strange company, but mainly finding the strength within himself to complete his journey.

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The story is decent at best but has many plot holes, awful storyboard cut scenes, and terrible voice acting, but still enough to keep you trucking along. The game plays a lot with the supernatural and Tibetan history and lore which is nice, but it’s easily forgettable. You never know what the secret treasure is ultimately for, who the expedition company is that’s involved, and many other questions that are never answered.

Nevertheless, you basically walk around various buildings and ruins as you slowly climb this giant mountain. The game changes slowly as you reach the peak with different gameplay elements tossed in, and I have to give the game some credit for mixing things up, but it doesn’t do any of these things very well. Let’s start with simply moving. Eric moves like he’s constipated and the controls are pretty bad. Bump into a wall and he sticks to it, the camera will get stuck behind objects as you can’t control it, and combat is pretty bad as well.

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You have a pickaxe that has ancient items attached to it with powers that allows you to access your “third eye” and see ghosts so you can kill them. Each encounter is arena based so you’re stuck in a small room with these things. Holding down C allows you to enter this mode, but you can’t move and Eric’s shoulder blocks the entire left half of the screen as the FOV is too low and it’s hard to see. You can see the reticle through Eric, but not the enemies. The ghosts have various attacks and powers, but overall they mainly mob you and attack you the same. The goal is to shoot the projectiles from the pick to weaken the enemies enough to enter a quick-time event of aimlessly flailing the Wii Remote around to kill them. Miss the even and you have to attack them one more time to make the prompt appear. This is by far some of the worst Wii controls I’ve experienced as the prompts require a punching and swinging action, but no matter how well I did them – either fast or slow – It would only register half the time. To make matters worse, this is the reason why I died half the time. Then there’s the fact that you can’t move while aiming so these are 1997 tank controls in a modern game. There isn’t even a quick turn button so I can quickly run away and swing back around. I have to aim and fully turn all the way around and then the enemy is back on me again. It’s the worst.

Let’s also mention the two areas where you have to meditate and swing the Wii Remote around. I spent 10 minutes just trying to find the spot where the game wants me to be and then hold that position and keep swinging until the screen faded. I’ve never experienced such unresponsiveness and inaccuracy in the controls. Were these even tested? As you progress further into the game the enemies get harder and there are more of them. You fight probably 100 ghosts just in the second half of the game…that’s a lot of unresponsive Wii flinging.

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With all of that aside, the game is poorly paced with minutes of endless walking and climbing that is slow and tedious and the checkpoints are placed poorly. I would die during a boss fight just to fight the ghosts leading up to the boss again instead of the checkpoint is right before the boss. Dying isn’t really an issue if you’re quick as killing an enemy gives you health, but there are incense you can pick up to use at healing stations if you need it.

Outside of this, the visuals are pretty decent while pushing the Wii way too hard with slowdown that is frequent and runs in the single digits it still looks decent. The audio sounds like a PS2 game with the same footstep sound through the whole game and low-quality audio bites. I honestly feel like this was developed for the GameCube and was pushed to the Wii last minute.

Overall, is Cursed Mountain worth playing? Yes, and no for many reasons. If you are running out of games to play on your Wii then go for it, or if you’re just getting into the Wii then it’s a good pick-up, but what experience do you get out of it? Just to kill time really. The story isn’t memorable, it’s not scary, and the controls suck, so mainly get it just because you need another Wii game to play.

cm