Livin' La Vida Loca

I'm channeling Ricky Martin when I play Disney Universe.  Sounds like a jump, right?  Spend 5 minutes in the Universe and you will see why.

The video gives you a little indication of what it's like.  I just watched the trailers and they don't indicate the extreme madness that this game offers, so I had to link the actual gameplay to show you what you're going to get.  There is always 800 billion things happening on screen.  There are puzzles which are usually extremely simple to complete, especially with the assistance of the blue helper arrows (they guide you exactly where you need to go) but trying to solve the puzzle with A) thirty spastic bad guys stomping all over you and B) the "assistance" of a 4-yr-old player two is not easy.  When the kid and I play this there is a lot of this happening:

     "K, go over there."
     "Where?"
     "Over to the arrow.  Step on that button.  DO NOT MOVE."  (I go to required location activated by button, she moves, I die.)  "AGgggghhhhh I said don't move."
     "Well can I go there?"
     "Umm..not yet."  (Because it is a step in the required puzzle to move forward in the level and if she tries to complete it it'll take 10489208 hours longer than I am eager to spend for her to drag a wheel to its location etcetc...)   "Now, step on the button.  Don't move."
     I complete the step.  Bad guys spawn.  She jumps off a cliff 12 times.  

It is maddening to say the least.  I have yet to play this single player, but I'm hoping that I can get through some of the levels easier and get the achievements I so desire by playing alone.  But it is a blast to play with the kid, since dying has little to no consequence (you just lose some of your gold) and she thinks it's a really fun game.  I don't know if she could play this one on her own just yet... I think it's a little too advanced as far as the puzzle solving requirements go.

The graphics, sound, and levels are all fun and cute, but they do add in to the general chaos.  For example, we played the Lion King levels earlier today and there is all the crazy stuff going on already, plus the level around you is on fire and everything got kind of wavery looking.  For a minute I thought my Xbox was trying to give me 3D graphics.  I was very confused and got a little nauseous, but luckily that has only happened in the one section of the one level.  And I seem to be extra sensitive to video-game-induced motion sickness so it might not even be a problem for the general public.

There are tons of items to find and unlock in each level, and each suit can be leveled up by finding and collecting stars in the levels.  It definitely has replayability based on just having to level up all the suits.  And kids would totally find a favorite level and play it to death, because that is how they roll.  If you have young'ens who love Disney, make sure you have this one wrapped up under the tree.

Kirby Kills with Kuteness

Hmm...Alliteration gets risky when you start with a K...

As I mentioned in the last few blogs I've posted, my love affair with the Wii is going stronger than ever.  Today I'll regale you with tales of my new-found love: Kirby's Epic Yarn.

This is another Wii title that I wanted to play from when I first heard of it, but it's taken me this long to actually get around to buying and playing it.  Quite frankly, I have been missing out.

My very first impression of this game was that if Paper Mario and Little Sack Boy (as a girl, obviously) could have a baby, this game would be it.  The graphics are on par with LittleBigPlanet, meaning that everything is very textural.  All of the environments look like they are stitched together out of a variety of cloth.  Kirby & Prince Fluff, along with all of your enemies in the game, are all created out of pieces of yarn, and move over the backgrounds in a way very similar to Paper Mario.  They're basically 3D looking, and interact in the background in very simple 3D ways, but have a 2D appeal.

The game is a right to left platformer, with hidden elements above and below the straight path from beginning to end.  In each level you collect beads which act as the game's currency.  There are also three hidden items, two stickers for decorating apartments for game characters, and one music CD which apparently changes the song on the level after you find it.  At the end of the level you are awarded a medal based on how many beads you collected, and you can go back and replay the levels as you want to find all of the hidden items and collect enough beads for the gold medal.

The apartments you decorate increase the type of gameplay options, by opening up characters which want to play mini-games with you in levels you've beaten.  For example, one character wants you to get through a level and collect X amount of beads in X amount of time.  Another wants you to find him and 4 of his friends hidden throughout the level in X amount of time.  They are fun, quick games that add a lot of variety to the typical platformer game play.  Gameplay is also shaken up in levels when Kirby and Prince Fluff become some kind of vehicle to complete a level.  I've played as a UFO, a train, a car, a giant yarn-bomb shooting tank... Every single one has been fun and creative.

Overall I have to say I really like this game.  It's a blast to play, and it's visually interesting.  If you've been a fan of Kirby in the past, or if you just like platformers, or if you just like things that will make you say, "Seriously how cute is this game?" then Kirby's Epic Yarn is for you.  And don't worry, it's not too cute for you manly men out there.

Getting My Kong On

So about a month ago I had a coupon for Gamestop to buy 2 used get 1 free.  I tried to use it time and time again to pick up some Kinect titles but failed out since people apparently aren't returning them used yet.  Lame!  In a "before this coupon expires" panic, I picked up Halo: Reach (about time!!), Kirby's Epic Yarn (review forthcoming) and Donkey Kong Country Returns.

First off, I have to say that this is NOT the remake of Donkey Kong Country 2, with Diddy and Dee Dee Kong.  I obviously could've known this if I had, say, looked at the cover.  Or paid any attention to detail at all...but I didn't.  And the funny thing is that I have been looking forward to playing this game ever since I heard of its release: thinking it was Donkey Kong Country 2.  So when I plugged it in I was like, "This looks different... Where's the little girl monkey?"  And then the *facepalm* set in.

So I can not compare this to the original, because I didn't play the original.  I played a helluva lot of Donkey Kong Country 2 though, and I can tell you how much fun that game would be remade.  But I'm here to tell you that with the minor history in Donkey Kong that I do have, this game is an awful lot of fun.

It's always interesting to play a game that is a remake of an old title.  You have all those great glory memories of plugging the originals into your SNES or N64 (or PS1, I'm not splitting hairs), and then you put in the new one and, sometimes, it is just as awesome.  Donkey Kong comes through in that way.  The graphics look sensational - just like I remember them looking on the SNES.  Which is hilarious, because obviously the SNES graphics would be pretty bad compared to what we have now with the 720s and the 1080s and the HDs.  The game manages to make the whole world interactive - with events happening and affecting your gameplay from the background into the foreground.

During this segment, you will drive that cart off the track and both die.
And it will cost you 2 lives. And you will be eternally frustrated.

The one thing that has stood out?  This game is brutal.  I forgot how incredibly FRUSTRATING it is to play a game where you have two health, and when you die, you die.  That's that.  Yes, the levels have checkpoints, but sometimes it's darn near impossible to get to them without having to replay the first parts of the level time and time again.  I asked my husband how gaming ever got popular when old-school gaming was so difficult that I can't play for more than half an hour without wanting t  o chuck my Wii-mote through the wall.  The situation gets even worse when you're playing with someone else, because your pool of lives is only 3-4 (until you gain more on your own) and when you have 2 players going, you're using the same pool.  So if you both die, that's 2 lives down the drain.  Let's just say when you're playing with a 4-yr-old, those lives go fast.

Donkey Kong has all the fun of platformers of our youth.  You have X amount of items to find in each level, including tiles that spell K-O-N-G and a  number of puzzle pieces, usually ranging from 5-7.  Having items hidden throughout the levels gives the game a nice amount of replayability.  Not to mention these platformer style games where a level will take just a few minutes of your day to complete always seem easier to go back and replay for kicks when you need to kill time.  All in all, I would say that Donkey Kong Country Returns is definitely a good buy if you're nostalgic for the gaming of yore, or just looking for a good Wii title.