Was It Really That Good? Super Mario RPG

Super Mario RPG was the first Japanese RPG I ever played at the tender age of eight. And what better way to introduce a young gamer to Japanese RPGs than a pre-established mascot character? Yes, Super Mario RPG was a very big part of my childhood gaming career and tons of fun when I was young. But does it hold up?

SMRPG was revolutionary in adding timed hits to its turn-based combat. While that's a great idea, the damage numbers often feel inconsistent. I'm still not sure if it's a factor how close a button press is to the “epicenter” of the timed hit, but it feels awkward anyway. One of the game's biggest problems is that you get no actual feel of strength when it comes to damage numbers, at least later on in the game.

Battles are further hindered by the spell system. The heroes share FP (magic points) and while that's a cool idea on paper, it doesn't serve as a cool mechanic in gameplay. Most will find a lot of spells useless, and there's no way to gauge how effective any spell generally is because there's no consistency to how enemies take to certain elements.

There's also a level up system that serves no real purpose aside from feeding min-maxers. The bonuses you get each level up are so minuscule there's no real point in having them.

Okay, so I just tore this game a new one. What's good with this game? Lots of things, actually. First, the level design is fantastic, some of the best in JRPGs (although JRPGs aren't known for their level design). SMRPG separates itself from other RPGs by including action elements on the field map like platforming including enemies appearing on the field that chase after you if they see you. But even better, the level design is just interesting and well-thought out. Levels don't feel too big or too small and they make use of height. Brilliant.

The graphics are great too. Pre-rendered 3D graphics is very gimmicky, but on these older system like the SNES, they had smaller colour palettes so they had to choose their colours carefully. And in Super Mario RPG, the colours are great. The use of tone and diversity is masterful. Items and sprites leap off the map while not looking alien. SMRPG has some of the best graphics out of the whole SNES lineup.

What about the music? Excellent. Yoko Shimomura, known for the Kingdom Hearts soundtracks and many other titles, took a lot of classic Mario themes and put a new spin on them (although I'm not entirely sure which ones are completely original since I haven't played all of the older Mario games). The soundtrack takes bouncy Mario themes and puts an epic spin on them, while still being charming. There are also a lot of tense songs. The tone is perfect.

The story isn't anything interesting but the journey is what a lot of these collect-X-number-of-thing plots are about. The characters and the pacing make this story. Classic villain Bowser joins Mario in his adventure and he's great. Peach (or “Toadstool”) joins the team as well. Two original characters (that sadly haven't had much a presence outside this game) are Mallow- a crybaby cloud humanoid- and Geno- a wise life-sized puppet. There's lots of cool characters you get to meet along the way like wise Frogfucius, the villainous Booster, and the Axem Rangers- fundamentally the coolest characters to ever grace the video game medium.

The pacing is pretty good. I like the wait you have to go through before you get your first Star Piece (the story-focused treasures you have to find). You're hunting for the sixth Star Piece the longest- the time it takes to get from the fifth Star Piece to the sixth is a good third of the game. However, you never feel like you're not doing something, so it wouldn't bug ya.

My favourite part of this game is the finale (spoilers!). Basically, everything after getting the sixth Star Piece. After asking King Nimbus permission to use the Royal Bus, Mario and Co. ride to Bowser's Keep, where the game began. Now overrun by the mind-controlled minions of Smithy, the player has to fight through legions of some very toughs monsters. This dungeon is huge and throws quite a bit at you. The most famous part is the middle where the player comes across a room with six doors. Each door leads to a special stage where the player has to either fight through wave after wave of enemies, do some challenging platforming, or complete a short series of mind-testing puzzles. After completing three of these six mini-stages, the player can continue.

Bowser's Keep is finished with a double boss-battle. After beating the two bosses, Mario enters the Factory. Now this very final dungeon is just brilliant. The level design is full of jumps, narrow platforms, and conveyor belts. Enemy clones of previous bosses fall from the sky. It's the boss clones that make this place feel really final. I also like the music. It's very neutral, in that it could just be any theme for any special place. However, because the theme doesn't sound like any other song, it's pretty dynamic. There's a few more boss fights before Mario finds himself in at the core of the Factory (the part of the location that actually looks like a factory).

Mario and Co. fight a few more rather uncomplicated boss fights in a straightforward hallway. I like the straight hallway because it serves as a warm-up to fight against Smithy at the end. At the end of the hall Mario jumps down a pipe and the gang confronts Smithy. The final boss battle begins.

The first stage of the Smithy fight is a little intimidating because of all the whole-party attacks Smithy has. Smithy also has a smelter ally that produces minions to pester the heroes. Smithy's HP amount is rather low, so if you focus on damaging only Smithy, the first stage will end quick. In the second part, Smithy has a lot more HP and switches between forms with differents strengths and weaknesses. This is a long battle and for some players, a difficult one. Unless you have Peach in your team, you will spend several turns dishing out healing items, which are limited. However, there's that moment of relief when you land a final hit on Smithy and the ground begins to shake. You won.

The denouement is as long as any other RPG at the time. However, I think SMRPG's denouement focused on the most important things- like what sort of homes the heroes went back to. And then there's the parade which acts as a casting call. The parade segues into nightfall and we get a nice starlit sky to end the game on.

Maybe it's nostalgia, but I think the ending chapter to SMRPG to be one of the best. Its pacing is great, but that goes for the video game as a whole.

In conclusion, although the battles and mechanics are poor, the game makes up for it in just about every other department. This was one RPG I feel holds up after the years, and I think I'll try this one again in the future.

Was It Really That Good? The Adventures Of Lolo Trilogy

You know, I once heard that Adventures Of Lolo 3 goes for high prices on eBay. I'm quite sure I had that game as a kid before my parents packed away my Nintendo into storage and then lost it when they couldn't afford the payments. I digress, though.

Ahem.

The Adventures Of Lolo Trilogy is part of the Eggerland franchise and the only games translated into English (although the NES trilogy games contain a lot of reused puzzles). Like all Eggerland games, Adventures Of Lolo is a puzzle-action game. While the games test your brain first you'll also find yourself needing quick reflexes and accurately-timed button presses.

For the most part the trilogy is the same- room after room of block-pushing, enemy slaying, and treasure grabbing fun. The first two games are quite similar. They both share the same graphics and the same enemies and tiles. While the difficulty curve in the first game rises gradually, the second game feels like the Japanese Super Mario Bros 2 (known as the the Lost Levels). It's difficulty level starts higher and the puzzles are real challenging. Now, it's the third game actual feels like a sequel. It has a few new enemies, new gameplay mechanics, and other surprises.

The graphics in all three are rather good, if not repetitive. Standard Nintendo stuff- the third game has a better use of colour than the first two. The music and sound are good too. Despite the games only having one song for every gameplay room, I never found myself annoyed. The song is on your side. It tells you, “You can do this, there is an answer”.

The level design is incredible. You must understand, the game makes use of limited amount of tiles and monsters to produce a large amount of game rooms (about 100 in the first two games alone). However, the game never feels repetitive or sluggish. That's really impressive. And you'll really have to get creative to finish some of these puzzles. One thing I liked was how the games force the player to use half-points between tiles to complete puzzles. The level design makes use of every exploit in the game's system to complete the game. It's truly magnificent.

However, there are a few parts of the gameplay I disliked. First off, the 'B' button is completely unused when there are a few places it could be used for. For example, the game gives you special powerups on many levels that are activated with the same button the egg shot is. Not all the time, but a few times this was a problem. In the third game, one level makes uses of this exploit as part of the level's challenge, but one level making use of how both egg shot and special abilities are configured to the same button doesn't justify the obvious idea of putting special abilities to the 'B' button.

Secondly, this game is really touchy. When you're speeding through block puzzles and you push one block a half a tile in the wrong direction and it screws up your whole level, it can get pretty annoying. Especially since in the first two games the player has a limited amount of lives (the third game gets the right idea to give the player infinite retries). I don't think the Nintendo hardware would be capable of anything really, really advanced, but maybe the 'B' button could have been used for some sort of slow-down feature, or a single step feature.

Thirdly, in Adventures Of Lolo 2, there's a particularly unfair mechanic called “warp holes”. Basically, after any monster has been slain, wait awhile and it'll respawn in it's original spot. However, if there is something in the way, like a block or another monster- the slain monster will instead respawn in a designated spot (if the level was designed that way- otherwise the monster will disappear forever). I don't know if the player's handbook explained this, but to anyone without a guide, it comes out of nowhere and can only be discovered through wild experimentation. This mechanic is in the third game as well, but it's introduced using the tutorial levels, so it doesn't feel so unfair. This mechanic becomes increasingly frustrating since the only way to find out if the level has warp holes and where they are is to experiment with killing enemies and block their spawn points. This can get frustrating when you have limited lives to squander on experimentation, at least in the first two games.

Fourthly(?), there are some problems with water. If the player pushes and egged monster onto the water, that monster will temporarily become a single-tile bridge. However, some levels have currents programmed into their water that pushes these egged monsters along like rafts. The problem? Well, there's no telling if a water tile has a current until you push a monster in there, which makes for some trial-and-error gameplay. You have to experiment a bit to figure it out, just like the warp holes mentioned above.

Finally, some heart pickups reward the player with egg shots, which are used to navigate the puzzle. But there is not telling which heart pickups give shots. Like warp holes and water currents, this is another trial-and-error mechanic, and probably the most notorious. I found myself taxed with figuring out which heart pickups give shots more than warp holes or water currents. I don't know if the game's memory was limited to a certain about of blocks or graphics, but there should have been some sort of marker of the egg shot pickups.

The game's story is... very NES era. It's your typical “save the princess” fare, at least in the first two games. In the third game it's more “save the petrified kingdom” and you get to play with Lolo and Lala. However, in the final few levels, the story takes a stupid turn. Now, I don't usually complain about misogyny, but I think this is a notable case. About three-quarters of the way through the game, the player is faced with an unwinnable boss battle- if you fight the boss with Lala. If the player goes in with Lala, Lala won't be able to beat the boss. Lala must lose. Lolo attempts to rescue her, but she's whisked away by the Great Devil, similar to the first two games. The last few levels of the game must be completed with Lolo alone.

Okay, so what the hell was the point of that? Did the developers think a game with no damsel in distress wouldn't motivate the player? Or maybe they needed a reason to introduce five more levels? I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say “excuse plot”. There's also the possibility that if you go in with Lolo first, the boss battle will be unwinnable for him and you'll have to finish the game as Lala. I don't have the time to check that possibility out, but if it's true, then I take back my misogyny argument.

Although I complain a lot, I think this game trilogy is great simply because of the level design. It was a very tough challenge finishing all three of these games with no help, but I feel accomplished. This game pushed it's own gameplay mechanics to their limits, which is always admirable. It definitely holds up a lot better than other Nintendo games like the Legend Of Zelda or Metroid- which both suffer from dated controls and action.

Frankly, I'd say this game holds up. If you like puzzle games, then give this one a shot.

Was It Really That Good? A Look Back At Jill Of The Jungle

It's very fashionable for the internet masses to scrutinize newer games and glorify older ones, but it has been a goal of mine since I started this blog to look back on a lot of these older games and see if they hold up to the praise they get. While a game like Super Mario Bros holds up with great controls and level design, some games aren't as good in hindsight. Today we are going to take a look at the PC game trilogy Jill Of The Jungle.

Jill Of The Jungle is a 2D sidescrolling action platformer from Epic Megagames, the same folks that brought us Solar Winds and Kiloblaster. Their games generally aren't excellent, but they're entertaining if you can look past a few things. Jill Of The Jungle is no exception. While all three episodes contain great level design, they're hindered by touchy action and controls- and in episode 2 and 3- sound problems.

Like most games back then, the level design was inspired and interesting (most of the time). The developers utilized a very basic mapping engine to create some great levels to explore and fight through. In some of the larger levels with bigger rooms, clever little secrets are usually hidden and satisfying to discover.

The controls and action, however, are lackluster. Jill does not move across the map pixel by pixel like on Commander Keen. She moves a half of a game tile with every tick. Combined with a sticky jump height, this becomes a nuisance when doing any tricky platforming. Now sometimes the game uses its stiff jumping mechanics to the level design's advantage, but generally it's a problem.

Fighting isn't that much better. Now, the game is cool in sometimes you'll go an occasional level without a weapon, but trying to use weapons and avoiding traps is often a pain. Some traps are glitchy in that you'll run past a timed flame trap, but will receive damage even as the torch is dormant. The game is prideful in that Jill has infinite lives, but I can't figure out if that's a good or bad thing. It's bad because that makes the game too easy. It's good in that some levels you'll die a lot because of frustrating challenges and you want whatever progress to the level you made to be saved.

When it comes to sound, this is where the game gets interesting. In the first episode, you get great sound and enchanting music. Guitar riffs, bassy thumps, and other genuine sounds make up the sound board. One of my favourite effects is the “Get key” sound, which might be an eighties rock star going “Yeeeeah!” or “Gal!” or a mix of the two. The second and third episodes, however, have terrible sound effects. The first episode only had one or two annoying sounds, but the next two are filled with awkward synths and annoying screechs. My question is, why did they switch the sound effects? The first episode's effects were great. They couldn't have been unaware of how annoying Jill's death sound is in episode 3.

Luckily, the music is consistent throughout the game. The music in the first game, though, is the most atmospherical. The engine they use for music, I believe, is the same engine Epic used for the rest of their games from that era like Kiloblaster and Solar Winds. It's a joy to listen to regardless.

The graphics are okay, but nothing to write home about. While most of the game has a consistent simplistic yet colourful look, every once and awhile you'll come across an enemy that will either look really cartoony or like the artists tried for a 3D rotoscoped look like Donkey Kong Country.

The first episode is easily the strongest of the three. Of course, developers commonly put the best stuff of their games in the shareware episode to trick you into buying the game full and only to be disappointed. If you're up for some older sidescrolling platforming with some great level design, try out the shareware episode. If you really enjoyed yourself with it, you might want to check out the rest of the game. I played through all three parts several times during my childhood and although I loved the game back then, it hasn't aged well for me.

Them Scaaaaary Eighties Movies

There are certain types of people who annoy me more than others. One of those types are the "Old Rock n' Roll is better" kin. Whenever old animated movies are brought up in a conversation, you can bet there's one guy who will jump in and say "Eighties movies were so dark and edgy, so much better than new animated films". I hate this sentiment. In fact, I despise it when people focus on a film or a game's darkness like it's some never-fail element of quality. But how often is a film's darkness a positive trait? Darkness is frequently abused. In the case of the Brave Little Toaster, it's use of darkness if frequently debated.

The movie starts off with a chilling atmosphere. Long shots with no music- it's effective. Unfortunately this is a kid's movie, so what the hell are you doing setting up the movie like a horror flick? Oh, that's right. This is an eighties film and filmmakers thought kids were into Little Richie and getting the crap scared out of them.

Within the first ten minutes or so of the movie, we are introduced to our characters, a heating blanket goes on an acid trip when he hears a car approaching, and the air conditioner has an aneurysm and dies. All of this intermixed with pessimism and melancholy. Things turn around when the titular Toaster bands everyone together to head out and find their neglectful Master in the city.

There's not a lot of time to breath in this movie. The movie has a very fearsome atmosphere throughout. It's unforgettable and being so freakin' scary, but it's dark. There's the infamous nightmare sequence with a creepy-ass clown chasing Toaster with a hose- hoping to water down the Toaster and causing the hero to short circuit and die. Following that, the heroes wake up to find Blanky drifting away on nighttime storm wind. Aaaand then Lampy- the desk lamp- purposely gets struck by lightning.

Lots of other fun things happen, like Kirby- the vacuum cleaner- having a seizure and choking on his cord (tongue), drowning in quicksand, and being brought to an appliance shack to be gutted for parts. One of my favourite scenes in this movie is when the gang comes across a pond. Toaster, annoyed by all the frogs staring into her(?) mirror-y surface, walks off into a meadow. She meets a flower- an almost sentient flower- but gets uncomfortable with the flower's advances. Running off and hiding, she spies on the saddened flower as it withers dead- it had died of rejection. Yeah.

The ending at the junkyard is the part people seem to like the most. The heroes get dumped into a junkyard and are chased by a demonic magnetic crane that just wants to seem them on the conveyor belt and crushed into tiny block of scrap. A nice little musical number starts- "Worthless"- and a dozen cars sing their farewells before they are crushed dead. Oh, and one drives into the crusher as a suicide reference.

The film's climatic scene is Toaster sacrificing herself by plummeting into some gears and jamming them up to stop the crusher from squashing her master. I guess suicidal thoughts are contagious. Don't worry, though. The film has a happy ending that feels almost too happy and sunny for such a dark story.

This brings up my point. How dark is too dark for a kid's movie? Now, this movie is one of the darkest kid's films I've ever seen. However, it feels like it hasn't gone too far, so it gets a passing grade. And it used its darkness well. The bright and sunny parts of the film really resonate with the viewer because the rest of the film is so macabre. The ending feels truly earned for the heroes- like a real victory. You can't say the same with all dark kid's films.

Since the nineties and the rise of Pixar and Dreamworks, kids films have gotten a lot more... pop. There's better jokes in the scripts- kids movies nowadays are just a lot more aware of adult viewers, or so it seems. Some movies take this too far (like Shrek 3) but that's another rant for another time.

Top 10 Favourite Final Boss Themes

 10. Final Fantasy VIII

Uematsu is a man who does well to be unleashed. Although his work on the NES Final Fantasy games is great, his genius really started to show off on the SNES with better sound engines. And then the PSX came around and his soundtracks blew the doors off of gamers everywhere. Final Fantasy VIII, which could be considered his best sountrack. The final boss has four stages but contains three original tracks. Each of them is excellent, but Maybe I'm A Lion is a great callback to the final boss sound of FF6's Dancing Mad. And the last boss theme employs a very ambience sound- uncommon for Uematsu's final boss songs.

9. Donkey Kong Country 3

Some soundtracks are against you. Some boss themes want you to lose. The final boss theme to Donkey Kong Country 3 wants you to lose. And it wants you to lose at the most disappointing time. And it wants you to dread the futility of trying to beat K. Rool. It's not laughing at you, but it's taking pleasure in your folly.

8. Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest

I don't rate Mystic Quest too highly in the gameplay department, but I do love the soundtrack and find it pretty stand-out. The final boss theme is even more so, as it sticks in your head. Its composition- you could put this on for a total stranger, and they'd know it's a final boss song. And even though it reuses many of the same elements as the rest of the soundtrack, it's still authentic.

7. Super Metroid

This one is particularily great. There's not a lot of story or character in Super Metroid, so to get a feel for the world you have to rely on atmosphere, like music. With Mother Brain's theme, we get the sense that Mother Brain is a very bad person- tyranical even. I seem to slight favouring for music that's loud and annoying, and Mother Brain's theme might fit under that label. The organ just screeches, just like Mother Brain herself.

6. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Snake Eater's ten minute fight in the flower fields is one of the best moments in the franchise's history. Use up enough time in that fight, and the game's theme song begin's to play. I'm cheating in picking a song that is used beforehand in the game, but it's usage in the culminative fight is so powerful- it's just like a scene in a movie.

5. Final Fanagay VI

There's no denying that FF6 contained one of the most revolutionary soundtracks for its time, pushing the SNES sound hardware to its limits. The multi-tiered final boss themes was a very ambitious idea. From start to finish, the composition is magnificent. But just when you think the music couldn't get anymore awesome, the final part with Kefka comes and it's the most outstanding utilizing some advanced effects most people were unaware the SNES soundchip could even do. Possibly the best final boss music on the Super Nintendo.

4. Super Mario RPG

Is there anything more villainous sounding than an organ? The answer: not a whole lot. Actually, even after this song's intro, the organ really makes this song. The first part of the final boss theme still sounds like part of the Super Mario RPG soundtrack with its use of several electronic drum beats. The second part of the final boss battle has a much more intense darker theme. Although it uses many instruments frequently featured in the Super Mario RPG score, it's composition is unlike the rest. It's especially charming to hear the marimba in such a tense song. One of the most standout tracks on the soundtrack, for sure.

3. Yoshi's Island

The first stage of Yoshi's Island's final battle reuses an earlier boss theme. Whatever, it's a warm up. But then comes the real boss battle with the real boss music. The song begins with a creeping guitar track echoing across the black abyss as two red eyes appear in the darkness. The beginning of the song is synced up well to Big Bowser's introduction- it's pretty effective and menacing. After the song takes off, you got two electric guitars going- one as rhythm and one as lead- in a fast-past rock anthem. Most importantly, this final boss theme still stands out from the rest of the game's music.

2. EarthBound

When you start the final battle with Giygas, you're treated to a nice little chiptune boss theme. It's a little unsettling when compared to the fullness of the rest of the game's soundtrack. But let that battle go for more fifty seconds and the boss music flipturns into a thrashing metal jam. Not only does the electric guitar sound pretty realistic (compared to the guitar in a Mega Man X game), but it's well-composed and gives off the feeling of menace. It doesn't loop quickly, and really jumps out at you.

Despite EarthBound having a very diverse soundtrack, the ending final boss themes still stand out from the rest of the score, which is very important. Granted, three of the four tracks serve more as noise than music, but it's fitting for Giygas. The first track is really good though. I wouldn't have EarthBound on this list without it.

1. Paper Mario

The first part of Paper Mario's final boss battle is an unwinnable battle. It doesn't seem that way at first, but there's no beating Invincibowser. There's a desperation in the lead horn track that sings for the futility of your struggle. Despite your attempts, Mario falls in battle. It's futile to think you can win.

The second part is a little more typical. The song opens with a lovely organ bit. It then goes into choir vocals, more organ, thrashing drums and some sitar. It's pretty great. But the best part of the song is the four bar-long organ bit at the end of the loop that's quickly echoed with an electric guitar, and then followed up with organ and choir. It completes the song.

Let's Review Violinist Of Hameln-- Part 2

This update will include the next two levels from Violinist of Hameln. Let's see...

 
The second level starts out with a puzzle that requires you to either direct Flute into climbing up a ladder at the end of the a short tunnel or just jumping up the ledges with Flute's frog costume. 

The whole first part of the level makes uses of Flute's frog form. The first level was great because escoring Flute required you to clear paths for her, but now that she has her frog costume, she can hop over ledges, and I think the first level dynamic could have been played out a few more levels.

The final part of the second level (I'm starting to think each level has three parts) features a long path with many spike obstacles. The game practically asks you to do the whole part with Flute serving as an ostrich mount. 

 
It's a good level dynamic, and is easily the funnest part of the level and the only part that felt graceful enough for a second level.

Keep Flute happy and collect some stars and you get treated to a nice bonus stage where you can nab some sweet bones like extra lives and musical notes. 

At this point in my review log, I'm not even sure what the notes do yet, but I'm sure it's some music-related.

Low on life, I make use of the village's inn service to heal myself up. It's RPG elements like that that help make the game feel more alive.

The third level is the dreaded Castle Entrance. 

 
Before entering, our two heroes have a little dialogue before walking in the door. 

 
It's not translated that well, so it's hard what to make of it. Seems like typical anime banter.

Not before long, you find Flute's next costume- the robot costume.

 
Unfortunately, it's not sexy in the least, but it allows you to ride Flute across the spiky pits while occasionally jumping on her head to punch obstacles over.

Later in the level, the game introduces the classic “stand on this switch to open the door and I'll walk through and stand on another switch so you can walk through behind me”. 

 
You can get Flute to stay put with the 'X' button. It was at this point while playing when I pondered how hard the game was going to get with the puzzles and action.

Speaking of classic devices, we're introduced to the classic “reviving” enemy in this level. And of course he's a skeleton. Actually, he looks like Dr. Nefarious from the Ratchet And Clank games.

This part of the level might take a retry because some of the puzzles take time to get just right and you have a 99 second time limit. It took me a little while to figure out I was suppose to throw Flute at the stony top of a column blockade. 

 
Oh well. Beside the level's mandatory key pickup you find the Curling Puck costume, however it doesn't serve its use in that level.

Let's Review Violinist Of Hameln-- Part 1

Before we begin, let's do some research on this Violinist Of Hameln manga. Wikipedia says:

Violinist of Hameln (ハーメルンのバイオリン弾き, Hamerun no Baiorin Hiki^?) is a fantasy adventure manga created by Michiaki Watanabe. Its premise is that a group of adventurers are traveling north to the Northern Capital (a.k.a Hameln) to prevent a catastrophe. In this world, music has magical qualities. The manga and the anime are very different. The manga tends toward a lighter, more comedic tone, whereas the anime is darker. The manga eventually takes a darker tone itself though. No official English translations exist to date for the manga or its adaptations. 

 

Now the video game was released on the SNES in 1995. It's a puzzle platformer. When you turn it on, you get a nice Mode 7 graphic of a village and the camera pans down to the Violinist playing in a wood's grove.

Start a new game, and the opening cinematic plays. Some giant lizardmen are attacking a village. Flute, one of the main characters in the game, does her best to stand up to the bullies, but the monsters are unphased. 

Luckily, the Violinist Of Hameln shows up and makes all the monsters start dancing without any clothes on. Flute's impressed!

Each chapter of this game is called a 'movement' after musical terminology, sort of like how each episode of Cowboy Bebop was called a 'session'.

Flute asks the Violinist to save the village. He agrees to, but wants Flute to come along with him. And this is how the greatest platformer mechanic was made, but we'll get into that shortly. You start with 100 Gold so you can buy maybe one or two items to help you out. You can talk to the villagers, but they don't say anything really useful.

The first level is great. Flute's following behind you, but you don't have a use for her yet. Patience now. 

 

She has difficulty following you- she can't jump like the Violinist- so you have to clear paths for her. While Violinist has a traditional life meter, when Flute takes damage, the player's gold decreases. Far better idea than say, give Flute her own life meter and frustrate the player when it depletes and starting the level over.

Now Flute's usefulness comes shortly after picking up an Ostrich Costume and making way to a spiky pit. 

 

Flute has the ability to dress up in animal costumes and exploit the costumes' powers. The ostrich costume allows Flute to walk over spikes and the Violinist can hop on for the ride.

Later on in the level, there's a platform on the top of the screen that can't be reached without stepping on Flute to give the Violinist an extra boost. That's right- the Violinist can use Flute as a stepping stool. But the fun doesn't stop there! You can also pick up and throw Flute for whatever reason need be! To get Flute on top of that platform where Violinist needs a stepping stool, you first must throw Flute up there, then jump on top of her to grab the prize.

In her ostrich costume, you can control which direction Flute walks by turn the Violinist. 

 

 

Near the end of the level, you get a frog costume that serves only to scale the last wall and complete the level.

 

Like the ostrich costume, you can control which direction Flute “hops” with the Violinist.

Up the cliff, walk into the 'Goal' sign to finish the level. 

A great opening level, with excellent music. However, there's a part on the end that requires the player to be very adept in controlling Flute while the Violinist explores the level above. That part felt more like a Level 2 sort of challenge.