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? 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.

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.