miffy495 (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} miffy495) wrote,@ 2006-09-11 00:29:00 |
|
Recess is over...
So school starts up again tomorrow and this is my last chance to do some gaming this summer. What's that you say? Star Fox came out on monday for the DS? Sounds like a fucking plan. I haven't played any of the new Star Fox games since the N64. So, I've booted up a game of Star Fox DS, as well as taking about an hour to blast through Star Fox 64 again. (hey, it's a classic.) Impressions on the DS version? OK.
Star Fox DS has some really cool new additions, some frustrating, some awesome. Of particular awesome note is that the game controls everything except for the firing with the touch screen. Want to do a barrel roll? Draw a circle. Want to turn right? Move the stylus to the right. It's all very intuitive and responsive. U turns and loops are a bit more complex, so the touch screen has little icons that you can tap to do them. Very simple stuff. Also, bombs can be placed anywhere on the map by dragging a "B" icon from it's regular point on the touch screen to a spot on the mini-map where you want an explosion. Firing is the only thing that you use the buttons for. Because of this, you can use any button for it. No matter what you press, you're firing. I love these controls, and I can't wait to have developers catch on and start releasing ports of things like Privateer, Crimson Skies, (hey, they're bringing Mechassault, and it's the same company, so why not?) and Secret Weapons Over Normandy to the system. It really is amazingly good control for a flight combat game. However, it's not all flight combat...
Between all the combat you have a map show up on the touch screen. On this map, you draw what you want each character to do within the turn time allowed. Once you've got it all set up, you double tap the screen and both you and your enemies play out their orders. This works far better than I'd expected, and I'm quite a fan of this new layer of depth. The only downside to this part is that the amount of turns given to you is incredibly low. You get two more turns every time you take down an enemy base, and you'll soon spend your time hunting frantically for bases to capture so that you can get a bit more time to finish the mission. Any turns that you have unused on the completion of your mission are added to a counter. Every 5 turns on the counter gets you an extra ship. The number of turns that you have are your main enemy, as dogfights usually are not too much of an issue.
Dogfights happen whenever you contact an enemy on the map. You then go head to head with them in the manner that I described earlier. Again, very intuitive and very smooth. Usually not too challenging, but when they are, they are brutal. This leads to a level of frustration, as most maps have a bunch of enemies that are no problem and then one that is skull-fuckingly difficult. And you have no idea which one this will be until you try to fight it. It's taken me about 7 tries to beat the level on Aquas because of a fight against two giant fish things that really pound your fighter hard. I finally figured out how to beat them, and can now handle the level, but again: 7 tries. It's only the 5th-ish level as well. The other enemies in the level were a snap, but for whatever reason, those fish raped me through the pants.
While we're on the subject of things that make an otherwise too-easy game really fucking hard, missiles. They take about 3 turns to cross the entire map, and if one hits the Great Fox (your mothership) you lose instantly. This means that you usually get only one chance to take down a missile, and if you blow it, it's all over in a second. No matter how well you were doing with anything else. I've started favoring the use of Slippy Toad to take down missiles, as his ship has plasma cannons on it instead of the regular lazers that everyone else that I have on my team so far has. These cannons enable you to take down a missile quickly, and as taking down a missile involves flying through hoops while firing at it (missing a hoop = death) it means that once you're in range you only need to worry about one or two more hoops rather than trying to concentrate on flying around all over the screen while shooting. Slippy makes the whole process a bit easier, so I recommend going with him.
So yeah. Star Fox Command for the DS. Good, but fucking hard. SO fucking hard. Yet I can't stop playing. It's like Resident Evil 4 in that respect. No matter how many times I died, I just had to see the fucker through. *sigh* I'm going to go now. I'm gonna go to bed, I think. First though, I want to take a second try at that asteroid field level.
And I promise I haven't forgotten about those reviews of the import games. They're coming sometime. Sleep now though. School in the morning.
Edited at 1:45 AM, right after replay of Asteroid Field level: FUUUUUUUCK!!!! Goddamn missile. I got every enemy on the map, EVERY ONE, and then had only Falco to take out this one last missile with. I failed with him. TWICE. Then bang. Three turns for the missile to hit, you lose, despite there being noone else alive to win. Shit.
So school starts up again tomorrow and this is my last chance to do some gaming this summer. What's that you say? Star Fox came out on monday for the DS? Sounds like a fucking plan. I haven't played any of the new Star Fox games since the N64. So, I've booted up a game of Star Fox DS, as well as taking about an hour to blast through Star Fox 64 again. (hey, it's a classic.) Impressions on the DS version? OK.
Star Fox DS has some really cool new additions, some frustrating, some awesome. Of particular awesome note is that the game controls everything except for the firing with the touch screen. Want to do a barrel roll? Draw a circle. Want to turn right? Move the stylus to the right. It's all very intuitive and responsive. U turns and loops are a bit more complex, so the touch screen has little icons that you can tap to do them. Very simple stuff. Also, bombs can be placed anywhere on the map by dragging a "B" icon from it's regular point on the touch screen to a spot on the mini-map where you want an explosion. Firing is the only thing that you use the buttons for. Because of this, you can use any button for it. No matter what you press, you're firing. I love these controls, and I can't wait to have developers catch on and start releasing ports of things like Privateer, Crimson Skies, (hey, they're bringing Mechassault, and it's the same company, so why not?) and Secret Weapons Over Normandy to the system. It really is amazingly good control for a flight combat game. However, it's not all flight combat...
Between all the combat you have a map show up on the touch screen. On this map, you draw what you want each character to do within the turn time allowed. Once you've got it all set up, you double tap the screen and both you and your enemies play out their orders. This works far better than I'd expected, and I'm quite a fan of this new layer of depth. The only downside to this part is that the amount of turns given to you is incredibly low. You get two more turns every time you take down an enemy base, and you'll soon spend your time hunting frantically for bases to capture so that you can get a bit more time to finish the mission. Any turns that you have unused on the completion of your mission are added to a counter. Every 5 turns on the counter gets you an extra ship. The number of turns that you have are your main enemy, as dogfights usually are not too much of an issue.
Dogfights happen whenever you contact an enemy on the map. You then go head to head with them in the manner that I described earlier. Again, very intuitive and very smooth. Usually not too challenging, but when they are, they are brutal. This leads to a level of frustration, as most maps have a bunch of enemies that are no problem and then one that is skull-fuckingly difficult. And you have no idea which one this will be until you try to fight it. It's taken me about 7 tries to beat the level on Aquas because of a fight against two giant fish things that really pound your fighter hard. I finally figured out how to beat them, and can now handle the level, but again: 7 tries. It's only the 5th-ish level as well. The other enemies in the level were a snap, but for whatever reason, those fish raped me through the pants.
While we're on the subject of things that make an otherwise too-easy game really fucking hard, missiles. They take about 3 turns to cross the entire map, and if one hits the Great Fox (your mothership) you lose instantly. This means that you usually get only one chance to take down a missile, and if you blow it, it's all over in a second. No matter how well you were doing with anything else. I've started favoring the use of Slippy Toad to take down missiles, as his ship has plasma cannons on it instead of the regular lazers that everyone else that I have on my team so far has. These cannons enable you to take down a missile quickly, and as taking down a missile involves flying through hoops while firing at it (missing a hoop = death) it means that once you're in range you only need to worry about one or two more hoops rather than trying to concentrate on flying around all over the screen while shooting. Slippy makes the whole process a bit easier, so I recommend going with him.
So yeah. Star Fox Command for the DS. Good, but fucking hard. SO fucking hard. Yet I can't stop playing. It's like Resident Evil 4 in that respect. No matter how many times I died, I just had to see the fucker through. *sigh* I'm going to go now. I'm gonna go to bed, I think. First though, I want to take a second try at that asteroid field level.
And I promise I haven't forgotten about those reviews of the import games. They're coming sometime. Sleep now though. School in the morning.
Edited at 1:45 AM, right after replay of Asteroid Field level: FUUUUUUUCK!!!! Goddamn missile. I got every enemy on the map, EVERY ONE, and then had only Falco to take out this one last missile with. I failed with him. TWICE. Then bang. Three turns for the missile to hit, you lose, despite there being noone else alive to win. Shit.
