Tagged: metroid other m

Shitty platforming in Ninja Gaiden Black (Xbox)

These past few weeks I’ve become very intimate with the Game oveR screen in Ninja Gaiden Black on the original Xbox. I was already aware of its reputation of being hard as nails. What I wasn’t expecting is the plaforming, which is… utter shit. It pains me to say it, because platforming is not a huge part of this game – 10% of the levels? 5%? – but so far I’ve come across several platforming challenges where the game has taken more than its fair share of the piss.

Look, I get it. It’s trying to look cool, to be Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, which came out just a few months before Ninja Gaiden. And there are moments when Ninja Gaiden pulls it off. But there are moments that are just plain awful. Continue reading →

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii) is awesome

Colour me surprised, I’m enjoying Skyward Sword immensely. OK, rewind. Skyward Sword feels like two games in one – and it is! Half of the game is lifted straight out of Wii Sports Resort. The other half is an original Zelda title. The combination sounds like it should be clunky, but it’s not – and a lot of that, I have to say, is testament to just how robust the mechanics of Wii Sports Resort were in the first place. So on the control and item control side of things Skyward Sword is sorted – catching bugs in a net has never been so much fun. How about the Zelda side?

Well it’s as if the folks over at Nintendo read my mind back in 2006 when I was playing Twilight Princess and not having a whole lot of fun! Pretty much all of my complaints about that game (and some of those apply to Wind Waker before it too) have been dealt with in Skyward Sword. As the post title says, it’s awesome. Maybe in part it has to do with low expectations? After being disappointed by Twilight Princess I wasn’t getting my hopes up for a new Zelda game again any time soon, and then the reception of Skyward Sword “on the ground” so to speak (i.e. on message boards as opposed to professional reviews) seemed pretty lukewarm with complaints about the limited overworld, the small number of areas to explore and copious padding. That explains in part why I’m only playing Skyward Sword now, five years after its initial release. Continue reading →

The best games I didn’t blog about in 2015, part 2

Back again, and it’s the same deal as last time. After the last post, I felt even more strongly the importance of putting out these posts given some of the gems I experienced this year. Part two has arguably fewer interesting titles than part one, but I know I’d regret it if I failed to report on Disaster: Day of Crisis at least. Let’s go and save that girl! Continue reading →