Category: games

Skyward Sword was the only home console Zelda game I hadn’t played, so I was pretty excited for a Switch port, especially since it meant getting to play the game without the original’s off-putting motion controls. Unfortunately, the non-motion controls feel more like a “here, are you happy now?” half measure. Nintendo took the laziest way out and just mapped the motion controls to the right analog stick. This works fine for some things, though it creates a direct conflict with the camera. It doesn’t mitigate the finickiness of situations that require immediate (and correct) directional input, either, like in pretty much any sword fight. I also hate how clunky it is just to switch between items, but that’s not even a motion/non-motion issue.

The thing is, Skyward Sword is inherently flawed, regardless of which control method you use. There are just some really poor design decisions at play here. For instance, you have a very limited stamina meter that can never be upgraded. The overworld feels really empty, and not in a good way a la Wind Waker’s realistically vast ocean. There’s so much backtracking and recycled gameplay, too. Like, every new dungeon requires you to return to a central hub to reveal its location. You have to go through the first temple twice, and you have to fight two different bosses multiple times in almost identical ways. It doesn’t help that those are the worst bosses in the game.

All things said, this is probably the least I’ve enjoyed a Zelda game. In fact, the only reason I bothered to keep playing it is because I have so much respect for this series. If Skyward Sword were a new IP by a different studio, I would have given up on it hours ago. That’s not to say the whole game is bad, though. There are some really memorable dungeons here. The Ancient Cistern and Sandship dungeons are both cool locations that you normally don’t see in a Zelda game. And while the Lanayru Mining Facility is annoying (mostly because you’re still struggling with the controls at that point), the timeshift stones are an interesting gimmick. Alas, this is one Zelda I don’t think I’ll ever be tempted to replay.

I played the first Guacamelee game a long time ago, but I do remember really liking it. I’m pretty conflicted on this sequel, though. The main thing I was looking forward to was the co-op mode, but this game is not co-op friendly. There’s just too much tricky platforming that ends up falling on only one player to do. My wife gave up after the first hour, because she felt like she wasn’t contributing. And it’s a good thing she dropped out, because the difficulty ramps up very early on. I get that you want to provide a challenge for people who’ve already perfected the first game, but it often feels like too much. Arena fights grow increasingly convoluted with monsters and hazards, and a lot of the platforming sections require split-second use of several skills at once.

To the game’s credit, it never feels impossible. I’m pretty used to difficult platformers and only got stuck in a retry cycle a few times. Even then, it was usually an arena fight that was giving me trouble versus a platforming section. The combat feels fine when you’re up against smaller enemies and manageable crowd sizes, but the flaws in the controls become all too apparent as the difficulty scales. It doesn’t help that the dimension-swapping power—which came pretty late in the first game as far as I recall—is introduced almost immediately and relied on heavily for the sequel. A typical platforming challenge ends up looking like this: jump, swap dimensions, grab an eagle hook, swap dimensions, grab another eagle hook, power dash, uppercut, swap dimensions, etc.

While it can be rewarding to execute these command chains successfully, it’s also annoying how frequently moments like this pop up. I could never decide if I should feel empowered for navigating a difficult room or annoyed at the developers for putting so many hair triggers in there in the first place. At times, you wonder if maybe the purpose of this game is just to troll you. The Guacamelee series gets a lot of flak for its humor that relies mostly on memes and references. In Guacamelee 2, it was still lame but didn’t bother me that much… until you find a cave where the NPCs literally complain about things people said about the first game. It came across as incredibly tacky and served as one final reminder that the first game is the better experience overall.

What the Golf? is a really funny game… for the first five minutes. It does a great job of initially subverting your expectations when different objects fly towards the hole instead of the golf ball you thought you were aiming at. But that’s the game’s only good joke… and they use that “joke” a lot. Well, that and video game references. Referencing another game is like the laziest form of humor, especially when it’s things like Portal references. We haven’t grown sick of those yet, have we? The sound design also tries to be very Katamari Damacy but ends up more annoying and repetitive than anything. You will get so sick of hearing “Waaaaah” every time you fail a challenge.

I don’t mean to be so down on this game, though. While it’s certainly not as funny as it thinks it is, the actual gameplay isn’t bad. It’s a series of fast-paced, golf-like challenges that span a multitude of styles and gimmicks. Some are in 3D, others 2D. Some are puzzles, others straight-up races. The variety is definitely fun, but it barely qualifies as golf. And yeah, I get that was the point. However, the game often feels like a platformer with wonky controls instead of any sort of golf game. What’s even weirder is that you can play most of the game with a controller, but a handful of challenges at the end can only be completed by switching to a mouse.

I did like that every level was broken up into three increasingly difficult challenges, and you only need to complete the first one to proceed through the campaign. Naturally, I wanted to 100% the game, though, and that’s where a lot of the frustration lies. The second challenge is almost always to get par, even if you already got par the first time around. And why does completing the first challenge kick you back to the overworld but the second challenge leaves you in the selection menu? The overworld is a pain in the butt to navigate, because you still move around as a golf ball. Like everything else in What the Golf?, it’s a cutsey idea that wears out its welcome super fast.

Obviously I wouldn’t have bought this game if I didn’t think I was gonna like it, but it turned out to be a surprisingly good puzzle platformer. Granted, I was hoping for more of an adventure game. Elli has strong Legend of Zelda vibes, not only in its screenshots but in the actual gameplay. You’ll frequently enter a room where the door slams shut behind you, and the only way to proceed is to figure out how to find something that you can put on a switch to open the next door. While that probably sounds pretty rote, there are some clever puzzle moments throughout, and the platforming is more involved than what you would get in a typical Zelda outing. I also love how the whole game has zero combat, though there are enough other hazards that I wouldn’t necessarily call this a casual or relaxing experience.

That said, the game is still fairly easy overall. I only died a handful of times, and you’re never put very far back when you do die. The only section of the game I struggled with was the dark dungeon that takes places at the halfway mark. It’s a little too purposefully dark, making it hard to see the next ledge. I was also disappointed with how linear the game ultimately is. You’re given no allowance to backtrack, so if you didn’t collect enough money to buy every wardrobe upgrade along the way, then… sucks to be you. But there’s no achievement for doing so, anyway, which is another thing this game is sorely missing. These are nit-picky complaints, though. Elli is a great “budget” platformer that’ll actually last longer than most $15 games of the same nature.

I’ve been eager to find the perfect “first person grappler” to add to my list of no-combat adventure games. I’d played two similar games not that long before this one—Valley and A Story About My Uncle—and was really hoping The Free Ones would finally fit the bill. It certainly has the best grapple mechanics of the three. It’s much more about leveraging your momentum, because you often have to propel yourself towards a target and then let go early so you can sail above/past it. There’s a great sense of height and speed as you whip yourself through the game’s environments. When the levels are open and forgiving, it’s a lot of fun. Alas, that’s not always the case.

The thing is, the level design is really repetitive and obnoxious. Large stretches of the game have you making your way across bodies of water or traveling downstream, where your only aids are tiny floating wooden boxes. These stupid boxes are difficult to aim at, easy to fall off of, and constantly crash into other obstacles. It’s infuriating how many rivers there are in the game. And then they basically do the same thing with little bridges and mine carts suspended above deadly chasms. You have so little room for error that it really sucks the fun out of it. I know grapple mechanics naturally escalate to difficult challenges, but trust me, you will be so sick of looking at tiny wooden boxes by the end.

Developer Hazelight has a knack for mixed gameplay co-op games. I’d played their previous game, A Way Out, not that long before It Takes Two and was really impressed by the variety of gameplay mechanics. The game overall, though, was kinda lackluster in its story and co-op elements. It Takes Two feels like the game they wanted to make but they had to appease EA’s mature marketing first. That’s not to say It Takes Two is childish, because it does tackle adult themes like divorce and has a few grim scenarios like when you have to throw a stuffed animal to its death. But the game is very whimsical, which justifies the huge shifts that take place in the gameplay.

If you thought A Way Out had variety, It Takes Two triples it. The game is still a 3D platformer 95% of the time, but it frequently drops gimmicks altogether and introduces new ones that could have been their own complete indie game. And it’s all done with co-op in mind, so the two characters rarely have the same capabilities and need to work together. My only complaint is that there are just a few too many boss battles that almost always overstay their welcome. The best chapter in the game was the snow level, because, thematically, it was about the two characters having fun again, and the total lack of boss fights helped solidify that for the players as well.