I enjoy checking out demos for new games, even if I'm pretty sure that I won't buy the game. I find that you can always learn something from playing a new game, and you can often learn the most from terrible games. However, I can count on one hand the number of demos that actually made me want to buy a game. Fortunately, I had that exciting experience this weekend. I raced to the computer and bought Mini Ninjas shortly after finishing the demo.

I had heard about Mini Ninjas several months ago and I was charmed by the cute teaser trailer. Yet I remained skeptical, as the cutest games often are often rushed out the door with the assumption that kids won't know the difference between a good game and one that needed more time. Mini Ninjas is being marketed as a family game, but seems strong enough to please more discerning gamers.

Mini Ninjas reminds me of a cross between two of my favorite games, Spyro the Dragon and Okami. It has the same strength and charm as Spyro, from the well-designed 3D levels to the
enemies who require more skill than strength to defeat. It is also like Okami, as it appears to have roots in Zelda-style adventures and it is very centered in nature. In addition, the aesthetic is clearly Japanese, which once again appeals greatly to my love of Japanese art and culture.

Combat feels light and fun. There are many tactics you can use to defeat the enemies, which allows for customization in what would otherwise be a fairly simple game. It's a nice change to see a game with solid combat that doesn't shed a drop of blood. Enemies simply turn into animals (as the animals were enchanted), leaving a frolicking bunch of critters at the end of each fight. If you find an animal that you particularly like, the main ninja, Hiro, can temporarily possess the animal. I couldn't get over the novelty of being able to see an adorable animal (such as a kitty), running up to them, and then POOF! I was suddenly controlling a kitty. While many of the most adorable critters are relatively ineffective in combat, some of the larger animals can be used offensively. Fortunately, the developers accounted for those moments when your prancing kitty gets unexpectedly attacked - the ninja will return to fight seamlessly.

Mini Ninjas is filled with other delightfully charming details that make it irresistible for me. You can free animals trapped in cages along the path, which gives you experience points. This reminded me of feeding animals along the path in Okami, which also gave you experience points. Also, when you enter water, you can ride in a large hat (like a boat). You can steer through rapids or, as I saw in a video, ride down snowy passes. You can even fish from the boat, which gives you health-restoring sushi. Even the animations and movements are adorable without hindering the mechanics. The ninja can deftly jump up a narrow space between two rocks, a feature that feels far more natural than any wall jumps I attempted in Mirror's Edge.

I have been looking for a game like Mini Ninjas for a long time. The most recent 3D platformer/adventure game that truly satisfied me was Okami, and I played that years ago. Despite the short length of the demo, I bought the game, optimistic that it will just keep getting better. I hope that Mini Ninjas will prove to be the adventure game experience that I have been craving. In the meantime, it's great to be excited about a new game again.  

Whether it’s on a PS2 or a PSP, Ratchet and Clank feels fantastically the same. I admit that the original PS2 game didn't draw me in like Insomniac’s other popular series, Spyro the Dragon. However, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters is a well-rounded PSP experience that seamlessly translates the ideas of the original games into a portable experience.

I was surprised to hear that Size Matters was not developed by Insomniac. It was the first project created by High Impact Games, which seems incredible given the level of polish. This is easily explained by the fact that High Impact is partially composed of former Insomniac developers.

While I have not had extensive experience with the Ratchet and Clank series on traditional consoles, I really enjoyed playing through the first couple of hours on the PSP. The Ratchet and Clank series consistently demonstrates solid 3D platformer elements, from the intuitive level design to the clever use of gadgets.

Gadgets were a fun and essential part of many levels. The challenges of the levels encourage the use of different weapons, which creates a fun puzzle feel. The hack-and-slash method doesn’t work due to the limited resources, such as the rarity of ammo for the most powerful weapons. Not all weapons are used for fighting, such as the grappling hook. While it’s obvious when to use a grappling hook for crossing gaps, the weapon can be used to move objects in the level as well. This lends a realism to the world and makes the game more fun.

One particularly strong moment in Size Matters was when I got to take play as Clank. He gained control of a small team of mini robots, which I could then control with basic commands. These robots were too short to climb up to certain platforms, so there was a launching device to fling the mini robots to higher ground. I really enjoyed being able to command a small team and then fling them around without fear of harming them. I would feel terrible launching a cat or some other living animal, but these endearing robots felt no pain and bounced around without even getting a scratch.

My only complaint about Size Matters is that some parts felt much more difficult than others. I'd be progressing just fine and then I'd get stuck at something trivial for several minutes. With a limited character improvement system, it became frustrating; I felt that certain parts required more luck than skill to advance. Perhaps I just need to get more familiar with platformers.

Overall, Size Matters was an enjoyable experience. The graphics were strong and the game successfully utilized some of the best mechanics from the console games. It was a near identical to a console experience on the small screen, proving that size doesn’t matter when it comes to making a strong Ratchet and Clank game.  

For several months, one of my coworkers has insisted that I need to play Ratchet and Clank. I put it on my game rental queue and forgot about it until recently. I was able to borrow it from a friend and finally began the famous platformer.

As a fan of the Spyro the Dragon games, I was hoping that Ratchet and Clank would deliver the same solid gameplay. Fortunately, I was right. The game was clever and fun, filled with characters that were quirky without being too annoying. Unlike Spyro, which seemed geared toward a younger audience, Ratchet and Clank was a little more gritty. Enemies exploded and you got to shoot with a gun. It felt more like a PG movie rather than a G movie.

I breezed through the first few levels. There was not quite enough story to compel me to play past two hours at first, but that two hours was a lot of fun. I didn’t seem to have too much trouble with the jumps (a common trouble spot for me) or locating necessary items. Ratchet can glide like Spyro, helping the game to feel familiar simply through its mechanics.

I had a lot of fun playing Ratchet and Clank today. Compared to games like Jak and Daxter, where the voices grew annoying and the game had some ridiculously hard required tasks, this game felt very well-balanced. Diligence in collecting the currency around levels would help you get the best weapons. It felt rewarding in all the right ways.  

Five months ago, in that basement classroom we Interactive Entertainment majors can call home, I had my first taste of Zelda. I wrote about it on this very blog last October and how impressed I was with the puzzles and charming fantasy world. I thought about buying a GameCube to play it, but it was good thing that I didn’t. Two months later, I had a Wii.

My excitement with Wii games temporarily made me forget that the Wii had backwards compatibility. I had forgotten about playing Zelda until I stumbled upon the Wind Waker strategy guide in a used bookstore for $3. This guide is hard to get for under $30 these days, so I was very excited. I then bought a used GameCube remote and memory card. Now I could play Wind Waker again.

I wanted to savor my return to The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. I sat down on a Friday night and played to my heart’s content. With the help of the strategy guide, I felt like I got a lot more out of the first hour of the game (which is how far I had played before without any help). I already knew what to do for the most part, but it was neat to know certain things, such as which spots to avoid if you don’t want to trigger events yet.

I also discovered some new content in previously-visited areas of the game, such as a mini-game. There was a pig-herding side quest on the island. When I first played, I simply thought it was fun to run around with a pig over my head. However, I now knew that there was a purpose to this silliness. I usually don’t care for mini-games, but I found this one to be fun because of the novelty factor. Some games, like Spyro, have silly herding games with creatures you kick and then make annoying noises. You have to do mini-games like this to move forward. In Wind Waker, this herding game involved pigs that would run away from you but were never too hard to catch if you used your brain. The pigs were believable and not aggravatingly stupid. I felt like I had accomplished something simply by being able to catch the pig, especially since I was rewarded with the amusing animation of a plump pink piglet squirming above my head.

Despite my appreciation for this game, I did learn one important things: I should really spend more time practicing jumps. There is one portion where you must swing on lanterns to get to platforms in a pirate ship. I had a lot of trouble with this thre first time I played, and my previous attempts provided no help when I had to do it again last Friday. Fortunately, I made it through by telling myself each time that it would be the last time. Then, I discovered that all my time spent jumping on lanterns was actually meant to help me. The pirate ship drops you off on an island fortress that also has several lantern jumps. Usually it was only one at a time (and not a string of them). I was glad I had some practice because it significantly reduced the number of times I fell.

Even if I do have a little trouble with jumps at first, I do learn eventually. This is no fault of the game and I actually appreciate a good jump now and then. After all, it’s much more fun to virtually rope jump for me because I’m way too scared to perform many of those stunts in real life. I really enjoyed my experience in Wind Waker and I look forward to playing it more again.  

As an aspiring game designer, I knew that I had to play Zelda sooner or later. Embarrassed not to immediately associate the name “Link” with happy childhood memories unlike many of my peers, I decided I could avoid Nintendo no longer. I had always had a PlayStation and never bothered to play Nintendo games (due to the seemingly limited options available for games on their consoles) and had never been a big fan of Mario. Yet the Zelda series kept coming up in class discussions and casual conversations. As an RPG fan as well, I was long overdue to play Zelda.

Fortunately, my professor brought The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker to class today. I jumped at the opportunity and sat down to play. I was engrossed in the game and found the island strikingly similar to that in the original Kingdom Hearts. I played for a good twenty minutes before noticing that a few people had gathered around to watch. I offered to let them play, but was glad when they declined. I was finally getting the hang of the controls and the style of the game.

When a mystical bird flew in with a girl in its talons, I was quickly reminded an article on Shigeru Miyamoto. It talked about his sense of exploration and fun. The colorful world of Zelda held the distinctive, imaginative style that has defined Miyamoto’s games since the original Mario series. I began to see why such a fan base has grown.

An hour later, class was over. Sadly, I could not save my progress or return to play Zelda later. However, I was excited to play again. I even considered buying a GameCube. I would not mind playing that hour again because it was a lot of fun.

When I returned home, another game in the same genre was waiting in my mailbox: Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. I had an opportunity to play it later in the day. After feeling stressed from the week, I was glad to have a fun game to play (after having rented so many games exclusively for my school project).

This game started out with a lengthy cinematic process. Once into the game, however, it was mainly platformer action. I enjoyed the playful style and friendly characters. One particular task, herding creatures resembling water buffalos into a pen for a farmer, reminded me of a very similar task in the third Spyro game. I player for a couple hours.

However, I ran into much more frustration in Jak and Daxter. I was continually dying, but there wasn’t a limit on the number of lives. Toward the end, I believe I spent about ten minutes trying to beat a boss. I kept dying, but about 80% of the time I died was from carelessness during the simple jumps to get to the boss. I was so angry about losing that I lost my focus. I was so stubborn that I kept at it over and over again, and finally beat the boss. I played a little bit longer after that, and got stuck. I was still upset from beating the boss and quit around 1 a.m. to get some sleep.

After playing both platformers, I began to wonder why one had appealed to me so much more than the other. Both games were made into best-selling series. Both had whimsical creatures and bright, playful levels. The characters and stories were rich. It seemed to come down to the puzzles and difficulties. The Zelda game felt more intellectual and charming, such as when you could discover that you can hide under barrels to avoid getting caught unarmed. The Jak game had more meaningless mini-games, such as catching 200 fish (catch only two of the three types and the speed at which they swim increases) or the animal herding. It reminded me of Kingdom Hearts II and getting frustrated with ridiculous tasks.

While both games may be strong, I believe that they do appeal to different types of players. Zelda requires more of a puzzling mind, where you have to ask yourself how you can use what you know to solve the problem. Jak and Daxter gave less initial guidance but left the world so open that you had to discover things for yourself that had less bearing on mental challenge and left more to chance or physical skill. While both games satisfied my need to run around and collect items, I found that Zelda was more fun, simply because it was crafted like a puzzle; all the pieces were there and you just had to figure out how to use them. I felt like I was respected as a player to solve simple challenges that were attainable with a little thought. With Jak, the action was there, but the cleverness and subtlety was not.

I am not sure whether the fluidity of Zelda was due to the countless iterations and since the beginning of the Zelda series or simply more compatible elements (simple puzzles as opposed to mini-games in the same game type). However, I do think that the Jak games would appeal to players who are less inclined to want to think through a puzzle and simply win by pushing through the incidents of ridiculously menial tasks.  

A few days ago, I received a rental in the mail. This week, it was Tomb Raider: Legend. I have never been a huge fan of the Tomb Raider series; I had only played Tomb Raider II briefly. While I enjoyed the earlier game’s Croft Manor training level (and was amused to no end when I discovered how you could shut the butler in the freezer), I had lost interest once the real adventure started. I didn’t like the one-hit death policy as a beginner. However, after hearing rave reviews of this game and its relatively short completion time (10 hours), I was excited to check out this game. After all, it was supposed to be the Lara’s comeback.

I started up the game and saw an interesting option on the menu: Croft Manor. From my previous Tomb Raider experience, I assumed that it was a training level. If not, I thought that it would at least help me to get a feel for the controls. It turns out that Lara can run around a large, open hallway and un up to her friends. However, she cannot talk to them or enter any doors until the first level was completed. So much for a training level. I exited and began a new game on beginner mode (since I rarely play this genre).

The opening cut scene was simple enough: a cute younger Lara gets in a plane crash (part of her history which I knew from other media). The graphics were only as good as the in-game playing graphics, but those are decent. It wasn’t RPG-quality, but it wasn’t meant for that audience.

I first gained control of Lara on a cliff. The path to follow is fairly easy to find – there is really only one way to go (usually up or out, depending on the level). Lara is fairly forgiving (aside from as incident when she died after falling 15 feet) and has excellent agility. She can grab ropes and ledges if you get her within a reasonable vicinity, making the game less stressful. She can also take out enemies easily; you barely have to aim. Both made for an ease of gameplay that allowed me to move fairly quickly and focus on the adventure rather than the details. Also, there is a tutorial, but it is integrated into the first level (another friendly feature). While some of the moves took a couple of tries, there was really no penalty if you did die over and over practicing (it appears as if the lives are not limited).

However, I easily got past my first onslaught of enemies without having to use a single medi-pack. I had to leave two to go to waste on the ground, as I could only carry three. Perhaps the enemies were easier because I was in beginner mode. At any rate, I entered my first temple and died a couple times over some spikes. The 15-second load screen after death is little penalty; it’s just a bit annoying if you die multiple times in a row (but you usually regenerate at certain “checkpoints” that are located conveniently near particularly challenging obstacles).

I was having an okay time running through the game until I got through the first puzzle. It is confusing and complex, especially compared to the rest of the game. This is the part where I usually diligently follow a strategy guide so I can continue on my merry way. I looked up a guide online, but soon realized that I didn’t really care about solving the puzzle. Why?

First of all, the game felt a little too easy. Also, I was running through Bolivia for apparently no reason. The witty comments didn’t catch my interest and there was little character to speak of. The NPCs I shot were so flat that I felt less guilty shooting them than the animals. I naturally avoid games that will stress me out (since I am very jumpy and a little bit neurotic, so my life is stressful enough). While this game was low stress (and thus very playable for its genre to someone like me), I still could not get into it. I had little interest in the affairs of Lara and did not want to take the time to solve the complex puzzles. I decided to send it back.

When I think about the game now, I would still rate it as a good adventure game. I think that the standard or advanced modes would provide a more even challenge in the game (and the puzzles would match those difficulties better). It just didn’t capture my interest, and I believe that that is mainly because of the type of player I am. I really love the Spyro trilogy and RPGs like Final Fantasy. Both have pretty colors. The RPGs I have really enjoyed are not only beautiful but also have complex, engaging stories. I like games that don’t try too hard to seem cool (unlike Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft) and kill creatures that are hurting the world (such as mythical or silly monsters, not beautiful leopards in Bolivia). If a game has puzzles, I want to be able to solve them within a few tries or have a strategy guide for the hard ones. I think it is good for me to play these other genres for inspiration and gain an understanding of mechanics. However, I think I will continue to send them back after a couple hours simply because of my nature.  

Crash Bandicoot 2 arrived in my mailbox a couple of weeks ago from my online game rental service. Tonight, I finally got around to playing it, hoping to discover the next 3-D platformer that could hold my interest as the Spyro the Dragon series had earlier this summer.

I played a few of the early levels, trying to get a feel for the game that had spawned so many sequels and spin-offs. As a fan of Crash Team Racing, I enjoyed familiar character voices and the knowledge of which hazardous boxes to avoid. However, I found myself quickly disappointed.

I got off to a rocky start when I suddenly died after running over an armadillo’s tail. I played through the short intro level, collecting fruit from the benign boxes and avoiding the various hazards. Unfortunately, I ran into a lot more trouble on the first full level when a rocky column fell out of the sky, shocking me as another life disappeared. After touching a couple of seals accidentally a few times, I was faced with a mad scientist leering, “Game Over.”

I was pleased to discover a continue option on the “Game Over” screen. I was now determined to try a little harder and not to be so hasty. I entered another level, this one involving platforms over water. I soon discovered that falling into the water meant death, and barely moved twenty feet in game space before dying again.

At this point, I was frustrated and upset. The plot was shallow and weak; I had been sent off to collect mysterious gems for an unexplained reason. This created little motivation. Lives were difficult to acquire yet I could barely hang on to them. There was no friendly “three strikes and you’re out” philosophy after getting hit as in Spyro. Instead, the philosophy was to learn the lessons the hard way (yes, even touching the tip of the armadillo’s tail meant death). Even the controls were less rewarding: the jump feature was rigid and offered no slack, unlike Spyro’s hover and jump options.

The Spyro series is not without it flaws, however. The fourth game, A Hero’s Tail, was created by a new company and doesn’t fit within the context of the first three games. The new developers changed character voices and personalities. This helped me to realize that the jump features and storylines cannot create the game, but instead help to enhance a solid underlying gameplay. When returning to the old classics of the PlayStation, I find that my patience with the less advanced graphics and sometimes less sophisticated controls wears thin if the core of the game is not forgiving in the beginning to pull me in.