Decided to revisit Donkey Kong Jungle Beat on GameCube for a couple of hours on the evening of New Year’s Eve.
It’s a good reminder that DK often meant exploring new frontiers whenever Nintendo was directly involved. 1994’s Donkey Kong is perhaps the best video game remake ever released, and Jungle Beat still feels like a very fresh platformer devoid of obvious influence from previous works in the genre.
The bongo controllers necessitate a new approach to character physics, where momentum is controlled by bongo taps and DK has real weight to his movements to allow you to clap and tap the bongos in time and pull off new moves.
I like how the game encourages you to climb, swing, and jump about as much as possible through its combo system. Once DK lands on the ground your combo ends and any accumulated points awarded, but one hit while you’re continuing a massive stream of points ends it all. Despite the game generally giving you a lot of forward momentum there are often moments in levels - like when you’re stuck on a flower stem or swimming in water - where you’re given a chance to plan ahead to best continue your combos.
I will one day grab enough medals to hit 72 and unlock the hidden world. You can tell this is a game designed to be played and mastered for high scores. There is very little here which you could describe as being superfluous, if you only saw the game’s levels as content designed to be played through just one time you’d be disappointed.
In a way this game has parallels to Sega’s NiGHTS, as I get the impression it was largely ignored by fans despite being designed as a premier and unconventional platforming title developed by some of the finest minds in the business.
The presentation is superb too, right through to the menus!
I finished Fatal Frame 5 which is strange because now my Wii U is done?? Like, I’ve never finished a console before, there’s always something worth playing on it that I’ve yet to discover, but the WiiU doesn’t have a single game left on it that I would like to play or discover…
it has Tokyo Mirage Sessions which I do wanna play, but the Switch version means I can play that instead. And it also has Car Battler Joe on the virtual console, except I’m actually proactively hunting down a reasonably priced copy of that game so no need to play the VC version…
O_o
anywayz, I got my physical copy of River City Girls, which means I finally need to sit down and play through this game:
I actually beat it last night with Scott on the middle difficulty. It was very grindy and tough >_< I’m trying to replay it a few more times on the easier difficulty with other characters just so I can milk this game for all it’s worth. Considering it does not exist anymore I need to make the most of my time with it lol.
I’m still grinding Apex Legends, which for me is the game of the year for 2019. It’s a brilliant mix of co-op and competitive online gaming that simply never gets old for me. I’m Platinum IV in ranked play for the current season and I’ve almost completed the battle pass. I’m really excited to see where they go next in 2020 with it.
The new TV has remained amazing. I’ve also been “playing” with YouTube TV and Hulu Live trying to figure out what I can do to lower my cable/tv bill.
I’ve been playing Wind Waker too, GC version on the Wii with the kids.
I found a female pronoun patch, which changes (most of) the references to Link to she or her. A bit of aspirational fun for my daughter (she’s already decided that the pink blob, Kirby, is a she).
The game itself is surprisingly difficult for my small people. Coming from NES and SNES controllers to the GC one, with its 5 extra inputs + analogue stick, and the extra hassle of managing the camera, they really struggle to get anywhere or do anything easily.
Wind Waker is arguably one of the easier 3D adventure games, with lock-on aiming, automatic power slash, and no jump button, but there’s still a steep learning curve to train small fingers to just do stuff.
They love the atmosphere and the adventure story though, and as their first foray into a Zelda game, it will be pretty memorable.
I’ve taken a slightly (for me) unconventional detour into the grand strategy genre with Crusader Kings 2.
It became free on steam a little while ago, and I took the plunge a week or 2 ago.
There’s about a gazillion paid DLC add-ons, but I’ve started with vanilla, and there’s still a heck of a lot of game to solve into.
I’m about 100 years and 5 generations in on this dynasty, and despite a fair amount of wiki and guide scouring for information on game mechanics, it’s been a pretty manageable learning curve.
I’m playing Dragon Warrior 1 on the NES for the first time. I grabbed the game for cheap a few years back and never played it because it seemed so punishingly difficult and sparse on content when I first booted it up.
Now, years later, and about 3-5 hours in or so, I realize that the game is actually a lot of fun. It’s a very “pure” JRPG experience - you have one character, fight one enemy at a time, level up just a few key stats, have only three equipment slots, can go anywhere on the map as long as you’re strong enough without much arbitrary gating, and there is a ton to explore.
As you gradually build your character, you gradually get more comfortable getting further and further from the starting area, and the further away you get, the stronger the enemies, yet higher the rewards in the form of exp and gold, and the faster you can build your character even stronger. It’s a fantastic risk/reward system of gameplay that sort of builds in momentum slowly at first, then gets faster and faster the further you go.
They nailed the feeling exploration. In some ways, it reminds me of hitting the same emotional feeling as BotW - leaving the starting area of Dragon Warrior is a lot like leaving the Great Plateau in BotW. It’s not a clean comparison because, of course, they’re very different games in different genres. But the feeling of going on adventure it leaves you with is very similar.
And the moment to moment gameplay of the game is actually very relaxing since it’s so simple. You just kind of turn off your brain and it’s a calming experience.
Yeah, it can be nice to play a JRPG without the excess of many modern ones.
Have you played the original Phantasy Star? That has an excellent remaster on Switch with options for built-in maps and increased walking speed, and it’s on sale right now.
Not yet. I’ve never played any Phantasy Star games.
They look cool though. If I was to play it, I’d probably opt to do so by acquiring the actual cart though. It’s the type of thing I’d want to see on OG hardware.
That is definitely one I’m going to consider picking up at some point. The artwork looks incredible in it too.
