Super Monkey Ball is one of those odd games that, these days, feels like it should be on a phone. It’s good for quick bursts or to beat your high score, but that’s about it. SMB is all about tilting the world around to get a monkey stuck inside a ball to a goal. It harkens back to Marble Madness and the days when motion control was a new thing. However, simulating physics and tilting on a GBA with a D-pad seems rather impossible, but it’s not. SMB Jr. looks pretty darn good and feels natural with the D-pad. It feels like the game was hand-tailored for the GBA.
My only concern is that there’s no goal or challenge mode. You can select from sets of 10, 20, and 30 courses; you get two lives per level and five continues per set. The goal is to try to collect all the bananas while also getting to the goal before the timer runs out. Some levels are easy, some are hard, and some feel nearly impossible. Tilting the world around to get the ball inside the goal is a lot of fun at first, but then it starts to wear thin fast. After you beat all 30 areas, there’s not much else to do.
I won’t say SMB is a bad game; it’s just shallow and lacks depth. It was more like the Gamecube version; it may have been better, but understandably, you can only fit so much on a GBA cart, and the hardware is extremely limited. What is here is impressive for a little handheld.
If you missed this little gem, pick it up cheap on eBay. You will have a fun and frustrating afternoon.
While Nintendo may have dominated the handheld market before smartphones were even aforethought, there was something about them that made them just seem…ugly. Bulky, low-end specs, battery suckers—these are just a few names that early handhelds received, from the original GameBoy, the Atari Lynx, all the way to even the GameBoy Advance. Handhelds required large casings as CPUs hadn’t quite been perfected yet and were large and bulky, not to mention screen technology was still being used in Texas Instrument calculators. LCD was extremely expensive and not cost-effective for small devices yet. The same went for battery power. Lithium-ion batteries were extremely expensive and not ideal for handhelds. Then came the GBA SP. A sleek fold-up GameBoy with a rechargeable battery. It was the first of Nintendo’s handhelds to shed disposable batteries and improve on-screen technology.
The first thing you will notice is the sleek form factor. The GBA SP is an awesome-looking device. The original model was bulky and didn’t quite fit in your pocket, so you had to walk around with those dorky GBA bags. The button placement was perfect, and the battery lasted for an amazing 10 hours on one charge (15 if you didn’t use the backlight). There was just this perfect square in your hands, and it would amaze schoolyard kids and gaming fans alike. I actually remember having one of these in junior high, and the original model owners were extremely jealous due to the form factor and the backlight.
Speaking of backlight, it was a huge deal. Self-lit LCDs were quite available yet, so Nintendo stuck a backlight in the screen to brighten it up, as the original model needed an actual flashlight clipped on top. While the screen is still quite dark, it made a world of difference and was so much better in the dark. Kids who stayed up late playing their GameBoys were grateful as they no longer needed a flashlight to see the screen and catch their parents’ attention. Later on, however, Nintendo releases a newer model, the SP, with an even brighter screen. These models are harder to find and were released towards the end of the GBA’s life cycle.
One major downfall of the SP is the lack of a headphone jack. The speaker is hard to hear in noisy areas with the volume all the way up, so headphones would be ideal. An adapter was required and went to the Link Cable port as an actual output would not have fit into the casing.
Aside from those issues, the GBA SP was the portable gamers’ dream. A strong library with backward compatibility for the GBA Color and original Game Boy—what more could you want?
The GBA SP also came in several colors, which weren’t seen too often in the States. Flame Red, Onyx Black, Cobalt Blue, and Silver were among the colors available, while a pink model and a retro NES-style model were released later on. However, due to the GBA SP’s age, it really shows its teeth. Let’s take a look at the actual specs of the machine.
Powering the entire system is an ARM7TDMI CPU at a whopping 16 MHz. Yeah, it’s ancient tech, even for 2003, but it got the job done. It had 128 KB of VRAM and 256 KB of DRAM. Yes, that’s kilobytes. The resolution was 256×160 and displayed an astounding 512 colors. However, those dinky specs were home to some of the greatest games of all time; it just goes to show that power isn’t everything.
With that said, the GBA SP is a must-buy even today. We have smartphones that are nearly as powerful as laptops now, the 3DS, and the Vita that trump the GBA in every aspect, but it’s the games that those devices cannot bring back. While the $130 price tag was well worth it back in 2003, you will pay close to that or more for one in nearly perfect condition. Honestly, they don’t exist. They are scratched up, dinged, and chewed on. I had to buy my new one with a refurbished third-party shell. If you’re a collector, go this route on eBay. $60 will get you a new-looking GBA SP. However, if you just want the games and don’t care, they run as low as $30 in pawn shops or on eBay.
The driving category was pretty weak this year, however, we did have a vast variety on nearly every platform. From racing simulators to arcade racers; there was something here for everyone.
Mario Kart 8
Yes, I am aware this is the eighth installment, and yes I am aware that it’s a Nintendo game. However, that doesn’t make it bad. Mario Kart 8 not only looks fantastic and controls well, but it appeals to fans of every age due to the vast amounts of tracks from every Mario Kart since the SNES. The new power-ups, online play, and addition of flight only make it that much more exciting.
Call of Duty has come a long way since 2003. From World War II to the Afghan War, there’s a lot going on with this series. While it has had its ups and many downs, Ghosts seems to have picked the series up a little bit, and the transition to next-gen consoles may have helped that.
The story in Ghosts is actually quite interesting and probably the only story in the series that’s even somewhat memorable. This is a huge feat for the series in itself. You play as a ghost named Logan, who is following his brother Hesh around trying to stop a global crisis. I think the reason the story is so great is because it’s fictional. This is a made-up apocalyptic scenario that seems too close to being real. A former ghost named Rorke is using a satellite weapon that can destroy entire continents in minutes. The game starts out with Logan and Hesh talking with their father when these missiles start hitting. Later on, you learn more about ghosts in flashback missions and then eventually become one yourself. The voice acting and character modeling are fantastic and help hold the story together and keep you interested.
One of the many reasons why Ghosts‘ campaign is so interesting is that each mission is completely different. Sure, you are always shooting bad guys, but the entire campaign is constantly turned up, whether you’re driving a tank, mounting a mini-gun in a helo, or fighting underwater. New ideas and better pacing are brought to Ghosts, which is exactly what this series needed. One addition is the dog, Riley. You would think this would get overused, but he’s used it just right. He’s only available for maybe 5 missions through the whole game, but that’s the way he’s used. New gameplay elements are introduced to Riley with each mission, and after the first third of the game, he’s mostly absent, which is a good thing. This makes you care for Riley and really appreciate his role as a soldier.
With that said, the shooting itself is solid, which is expected from any Call of Duty. The guns feel heavy and have weight to them, and the sound and action on-screen are crisp and really pull you into the drama going on. There’s a good mix of stealth and action as a whole, along with the other change-ups the game throws at you. There are quite a few memorable scenes, such as the firefight in outer space towards the end and the underwater level as well. However, we are still missing an organic feel that a slower, more deliberate pace would bring out. The game is still the same at its core. There still isn’t any gore, the enemy AI is still off, and everything still feels rushed and too in your face. Call of Duty can be more intellectual and less ham-fisted with macho violence and action.
With that said, multiplayer is nothing short of fun and has the same core suite as Modern Warfare. The biggest addition is being able to play a female character and customize the clothing. Of course, the customization for weapons is even deeper than before with balance tweaks and menu changes, but if you have played Call of Duty in the last 5 years, you know what to expect. I feel that the maps are a little better than past CoD games, but I have yet to play any that are as great as Modern Warfare 2.
With all that said, Ghosts is a fine shooter and was given a little too much harsh criticism. The visuals are fantastic, and the campaign is a huge step in the right direction toward pulling the series out of the stereotypical rut that it has been in for years.
The 3DS is still going strong and this year there were many great games for this little system. Nintendo shows that it can still dominate the handheld market with its first-party games and a number of loyal third party developers.
Shovel Knight
Shovel Knight isn’t just any old 8-bit platformer clone. Shovel Knight does it exactly like we all remember back in the day but with a touch of today’s better controls and level design. Shovel Knight is very hard, but just the right amount of hard that only a few areas require constant restarts but they are oh-so-satisfying.
Watch Dogs is supposed to be the next Grand Theft Auto III! The next-gen revolutionary open-world game! Well, there’s one big flaw in all that hype. Watch Dogs was developed for last-gen consoles. We will never get a truly next-gen experience until a game is made specifically for next-gen consoles, is no longer ported to last-gen consoles, or has those consoles in mind. With that said, Watch Dogs is a solid open-world game, but it feels limited due to the scope that it tries to create.
You are Aiden Pearce. A vigilante hacker is trying to exact revenge on his niece’s death. You get involved in a huge blackmail hacking/drug ring while operating Chicago’s own connected grid. This online grid is called CTOS, or Citizen Operating System. Chicago has cameras everywhere (even in places they aren’t supposed to) and is storing all the data on servers. Hacker groups are battling for the data, while some have blackmailed city officials. It makes for a pretty twisty story, but that falls flat due to the story being dragged out for too long. One thing that an open world needs are strong characters, and Watch Dogs is lacking that. Each character has potential, but they are missing that certain something to make them more than generic, or they don’t get enough screen time.
Outside of the so-so story is the so-so gameplay. Now the gunplay is solid, with a great cover mechanic and a weapon wheel. You also get the electronics on your side, such as the gimmicky “camera hopping” ability. You can hack cameras around an area to stealthily blow up stuff and distract enemies. It kind of felt like something similar to the Batman Arkham games. Some enemies have grenades that you can explode remotely that are on them, disrupt their communications, disable reinforcements, etc. This stealthy way of combat is actually pretty fun but gets old in the end because it becomes predictable and almost too easy. Gunning it all the way is tough because you die so quickly. A few shots, and you’re dead.
Most GTA-like games have wanted levels and cops that come after you. Watch Dogs does something rather unique in the sense that you can use the city against the cops. With the push of a button, you can raise bridges, activate blockers, blow up underground pipes, change traffic lights to block intersections, etc. I just found that the cops can find you way too easily. You are able to craft gadgets to stop enemies. One such item is the JamComms. This is used when the police are trying to find you. When this happens, yellow circles will appear on your map, and you should avoid them until the search is called off. I only ever avoided this once in the whole game. My only option was to be found and then escape the police.
Another gameplay element that open-world games have are mini-games. Watch Dogs is full of them, but neither of them is interesting, including the side missions. Being able to prevent crimes, AR time trials, online contract hunts, etc. These were all interesting the first time, but after that, I lost interest. I have yet to talk about what caused Watch Dogs to get such hype, and that is the profiler. When you pull out your phone, every citizen’s information is displayed. Their job, income, and what they currently do are dark secrets, and sometimes you can hack their phone conversations or steal money from them. Now, this may seem like a big deal, but it’s all randomized, and after a few minutes of exploring it, you just won’t care anymore.
That’s the main problem with Watch Dogs at the end of the day. You just stop caring about more and more things as you play. When you start off, you’re completely confused about how to use this new hacking and profiling ability. It all seems overwhelming. Once you play for a few hours, you start checking off what’s interesting and what’s not in your head. That’s usually not a good thing for a game. Watch Dogs brings a lot to the table, but none of it is outstanding or memorable. The graphics are also decent, but even for PC and next-gen consoles, there are some ugly spots, the character models are dated, and it all just feels like a last-gen game with a next-gen coating of polish slapped on top.
So here I was thinking this game was going to be something completely new and exciting when I realized it was pretty much a port of A Link to the Past. That’s not really a bad thing, since many younger gamers have never played that game before. What I also didn’t like was just how easy and short the game was. The dungeons themselves aren’t really all that hard, but they are more confusing, and some puzzles are really hard to figure out. With that said, the game is enjoyable, but some may not like it.
It all comes down to feeling like every other Zelda game out there. There’s not much to set this apart, and when you’re done with it, you will just shrug and move on to the next game. The dungeon layout and the bosses are clever and fun, but I just wish there was more to this game. One thing I also didn’t like was having to buy the equipment to keep it. If you rent equipment and die, it will be sent back to Rovio’s shop, where you have to go back to your house, rent it again, and return to the dungeon you were in. At least there are warp spots, which are a serious lifesaver. In all honesty, if these weren’t here, I doubt most people would be able to stomach getting around.
Most dungeons involve a certain element or weapon. The boss in each dungeon also requires this weapon to defeat it. The sand rod, fire rod, ice rod, bomb, and various other weapons from past Zelda games make an appearance. However, the story involves sages being turned into paintings, and that’s where the whole “Link Between Worlds” thing comes in. This feature is actually quite gimmicky, and the game would have been fine without it. It’s used as a segue between puzzles or just briefly to get around. Flattening against a wall and shuffling side to side isn’t exactly a game-selling feature, and I felt it was poorly used here.
The game’s 8 dungeons may actually be enough for most people, especially Zelda fans. The most frustrating part was how to get to each dungeon since you can easily get lost or spend hours just wandering around aimlessly. The lack of direction has been abundant in the Zelda series, and I feel it needs to change. However, once again, some fans may be happy with this, and that’s fine.
Overall, A Link Between Worlds is one of the best games available on 3DS and a fine Zelda game. It’s the only issue that it’s the same type of Zelda we have played numerous times, not the revolutionary Zelda we have come to expect from games like Phantom Hourglass. The 3D effects don’t really do much for the overall experience (like 99% of 3DS games) and can be just as enjoyable with the 3D turned off.
Luigi’s Mansion was a cult hit on the GameCube but didn’t see much commercial success. The 3DS seems like a perfect home for the sequel, so Nintendo went for it. You play Luigi, who is tasked with dispersing a small town of ghosts with the help of Professor E. Gadd. You take your Poltergust 5000 and suck and blow anything in your path. Be it cloth on walls, rugs, pulleys, or using your other powers to reveal hidden objects or even your flashlight to help battle ghosts, There are quite a few elements in play here, and they are done fairly well. Ghosts don’t just stand around and let you suck them up. Some are protected by objects or are inside other objects and require coaxing out in various ways. This, with the inclusion of puzzles, makes Luigi’s Mansion a fun trip.
It isn’t without its problems, and there are more than meets the eye, like most recent Nintendo games. Sure, the game looks great and plays well, but it gets repetitive halfway through and gets frustrating. You’d expect tougher ghosts to come into play at some point, but instead, you get the same ghosts with bigger life bars and more thrown at you. As you progress, you find cash throughout the game to upgrade your equipment, so this isn’t a problem. I was nearly maxed out towards the end of the game. The issue is redundancy and constantly revisiting the same areas just to fight different ghosts. Some puzzles are hard to figure out, and some require insistent backtracking that gets very dull. The game had the Mario charm thrown in, but I expected more variety. After the third area, you really start getting tired of the game, but that doesn’t mean it’s terrible.
There are some hidden items in each area, and they aren’t too hard to find if you explore every little area. These range from gems to cash to a hidden boss in each level. It feels less like a collectathon and more like exploring an area. The objectives are clear, and your map is useful. With that said, many objectives are also repeated throughout, like chasing down a ghost dog to find a key and getting back parts from various ghosts. It just got old, and I just kept telling myself, “Not this again!”
Dark Moon is one of the best-looking 3DS games out there. The game has high-resolution textures, great-looking models, and some impressive lighting effects and physics. I almost felt like I was playing the Wii U. The 3D effects are nice, but they don’t add anything to the gameplay. I loved the attention to detail from Luigi’s voice to his animations. The game has great production values but could have used a better variety of gameplay elements.
Final Fantasy has had some strange offshoots like Chocobo Racing, Kingdom Hearts, and the TBS Tactics. A rhythm game is probably the only genre Final Fantasy hasn’t touched on, and it’s one that the game belongs in. Final Fantasy is full of some of the best video game music ever created. While the later titles aren’t exactly up to par, there are plenty of songs here that fans will love across all 13 core titles.
The basic gameplay is broken up into three stages that are randomized. BMS is the Battle Music Stage. Usually, one song from each game is picked that was used in a battle, usually a major boss fight. Your four characters stand in front of bars similar to a horizontal guitar hero. The entire game consists of only three tap types. Hold, tap, and slide. The speed and combination of these three can make things really difficult on the Ultra mode, but the standard model is just way too easy, even for beginners. EMS, or Event Music Stage, is a song picked during some sort of popular or well-known cutscene, and the said scene plays in the background to the music. It’s great seeing Rinoa and Squall waltz in Final Fantasy VIII or watching Aerith’s death scene in Final Fantasy VII. The game is mixed up a bit, where the ring you tap flies around the screen as you follow it to complete the required taps. The final stage, FMS, or Field Music Stage, has your leader character walk down a re-rendered field from each game, collecting chests, and the field music from each game accompanies it. This stage consists of one bar that you can move up and down to follow waves. There’s a third boring stage where you tap a crystal in the center of the screen as bubbles fly into it; these are for the opening and ending themes in the main mode, which are as boring as ever.
This may sound simple, but the other half is leveling up your cute chibi FF characters and equipping items and weapons to last through the harder difficulties. Characters with higher HP won’t die as easily (meaning you can mess up more), and this includes their armor (they won’t take as much damage when you do mess up). Characters with higher luck in the infield stages will find more items. This is a unique twist on the rhythm genre and helps push it forward in a way that’s never really been done. Thanks to the many extras, such as fully rendered trading cards and DLC, there’s a lot to be had in this package. If you like the lesser-known songs in these games, the Dark Notes mode will help you here. You can acquire new songs via StreetPass or battle friends in multiplayer for the highest score. These are all set to the hardest difficulty, so practice is needed.
With such a content-heavy rhythm game, it begs the question as to who this title is for. Rhythm game fans will appreciate the mechanics and use of the touchscreen, but may not care for the orchestra and chiptune heavy music. Final Fantasy nuts may love this game but not really like the fast-paced rhythm action. It’s something that can appeal to anyone who even hates RPGs, but the Final Fantasy-only music may turn Rock Band and Guitar Hero fans away. Despite who this game is made for, whoever picks it up will enjoy a simple yet rich game full of detail, content, and attention to detail that hasn’t been seen since the earlier days of Final Fantasy.
I have a confession. I’ve never beaten a 3D Mario game. And I’ve never gotten a game on the first day that it came out. Super Mario 3D World changed both of those things, and I’m glad that it was the game to do that. You see, Mario 3D World is not the best 3D Mario game. That trophy belongs to Super Mario Galaxy or Super Mario 64, which both have much more “open” gameplay. Instead, Super Mario 3D World has the best level design ever seen in a Mario game. Every single secret location is ingenious. Enemy locations and patterns were created with care, and platforms are always placed in locations so that they aren’t too easy to jump to, yet every missed jump is a user error.
I don’t think I’ve ever smiled so much at a game. Even when I was mad, I was smiling. Smiling during local multiplayer is commonplace for most video games, but I don’t think I ever smile when playing by myself. Super Mario 3D World made me smile even during single-player. The game is just so much fun that I could hardly get myself to put it down while playing. The story is… well, no one plays a Mario game for the story. The first new addition to the franchise is that there are 4 characters (spoilers, I guess if you can call it that: there is a 5th character you unlock as well later in the game) to choose from, and player one is not locked to Mario, unlike the New Super Mario Bros. games. Mario is all-around good; Luigi can jump extra high but has clumsier movements; Peach (yes, you get to play as Peach this time around) can float (giving her a longer jump time) but is much slower than the rest; and Toad is very fast yet a little more difficult to control.
Luigi was my favorite character of the four, as his higher jump was very useful in some situations. I know most people have a preference for Mario, however. This game is fantastic in multiplayer and in single-player. While the Mario platformers have often been criticized for having too chaotic a multiplayer, 3D World is the perfect balance between chaos and teamwork. Also, unlike the previous Mario games, 3D World is not ridiculously easy to play with multiplayer. While most secrets are a breeze when with friends, death will also be more commonplace, which balances the two out.
I do have a minor gripe with multiplayer, though. I do not understand why the person on the gamepad cannot stray away from the rest of the group, especially when only two people are playing. It’s annoying that the game does not take advantage of the Wii U’s asymmetrical multiplayer features. Also, the gamepad is almost completely useless in the game. It can be used to highlight invisible secrets, temporarily stop enemies, and also as a camera, but it’s much easier and more intuitive to use the right analog stick as a camera. The only levels that take advantage of it properly are those where you must tap on platforms to make them pop out. Those levels are few and far between, but they make the best use of the gamepad throughout the whole game.
Of course, there is also off-TV mode; however, the graphics are much crisper and clearer on a television screen, where the game is meant to be played. Speaking of the graphics, this game looks absolutely breathtaking. The lighting effects are extremely well done, and the rain levels, in particular, look stunning. 720p or not, this game is beautiful, and it runs for the most part at sixty frames per second (only the keenest observers will notice the occasional frame rate drop). The soundtrack is also excellent and makes use of one of my favorite Wii U features: playing the part of the beat of the gamepad and the other part off the TV.
The gameplay itself, burnt down to its core, is extremely similar to Super Mario 3D Land; however, the level design is so fresh that I never felt like I was playing the same game again. I’m probably not the best person to comment on that, though, considering I only played through the first two worlds of 3D Land. Also, those only interested in the next Mario Galaxy game might want to stray away, as Super Mario 3D World shares more in common with the 2D platformers than its 3D counterparts.
The controls are pitch-perfect, as to be expected from a Nintendo game. Every movement feels right, and all errors were my fault and not the game’s fault. I didn’t really make too many errors though, as the main worlds are unfortunately very easy, and that is coming from someone who usually sucks at video games (you don’t even want to know how terrible I am at some games). It’s also not too long, but that’s okay because there is tons of extra content once you’ve beaten the game.
Completely new to the game are the Captain Toad levels. They’re kind of like Fez if Fez were an actual 3D game. There are only a few, but this prevents them from getting stale, and they provide quite a challenge sometimes. Also, something I was surprised this game had was depth perception issues. The 3D effect really helped the original game, and it shows in the sequel, as I often had to pay attention to shadows to tell where my jumps were going to land. It’s a shame Nintendo didn’t add stereoscopic 3D support.
The two major powerups added are the catsuit and double cherry. The catsuit allows you to climb up to secrets and attack enemies, and it is one of the most creative powerups in a Mario game ever. The double cherry creates clones of yourself, which in turn can cause hectic fun during multiplayer. It’s too bad that the double cherry is level-specific and very uncommon to come across. There are also a bunch of other temporary powerups, like a goomba disguise and a coin-shooting block, which are fun to use.
Super Mario 3D World is one of the most fun games I’ve ever played. It’s polished and fun, and those waiting for a reason to buy a Wii U have no better reason to jump on. I’ve been disappointed with the Wii U the whole entire year until now, and Nintendo has proven that in the end, the one thing they have over their major competitors are first-party titles that are fun no matter who they are played with and will withstand the test of time.
thebinarymessiah.com 
Try multiplayer. A lot of fun !