The addition of Yoshi into Super Mario World was a new kind of power-up; aside from the fun to be had eating enemies, I was more amazed at how the music changed slightly whenever Mario was riding him. Yoshi was cute and immediately liked by players of Super Mario World; perhaps this was the excuse Nintendo needed to give him his own adventure. My first experience with Yoshi’s Island was the GBA version that was released in 2002 as Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi’s Island, which forms the basis of this review.

The set-up is a variation on the rescue theme prevalent in all Mario games: two babies, who will grow to become the most famous brothers in the Mushroom Kingdom, are separated before they are brought safely home by a stork. One of them is kidnapped by the evil sorcerer Kamek, and carried off to an ominous looking castle. The other falls to the ground on an island populated by “Yoshis”, one of them being Mario’s friend from Super Mario World which essentially tells of their first meeting. Yoshi and his multi-colored friends (also named Yoshi?) must work together in reuniting the twins, each of them relaying Mario along between levels to provide safe passage.

Yoshi’s Island is a game that could have easily maintained the gameplay of Super Mario World, and still turned out a decent game. But Nintendo decided to change the presentation of its established characters and environments. Mario is now a baby riding on Yoshi’s back, who will float off in a bubble if Yoshi takes damage. The thickly drawn lines, pastel colors and comedic sprite animations all contribute to the game’s lighthearted tone, and clearly inspired the visual style of the Paper Mario series. The “?” blocks have been replaced by clouds and the coins have been complemented by stars and flowers. There’s no on screen display showing your progress or how many lives you have left. Collecting the coins and stars and flowers is only optional. There are no power-ups or bonuses that are required to advance comfortably – all of Yoshi’s abilities are available from the start and it’s up to the player to learn how to use them.

Yoshi’s Island was the first Mario game to introduce the “Ground Pound”, which sees some use in removing obstacles. Jumping again in mid-air causes the flutter jump, effectively allowing Yoshi to float for a few seconds. Though it won’t save you, as much as it may seem that way. It takes practice to time it right – to dodge enemies, to land on a floating platform, or to add a little extra to that long distance jump. Yoshi also has the ability to create his own ammunition in the form of eggs (in some weird variation of an ultra-efficient digestive system), but he is limited to carrying six of them. And you’ll find that when you need creatures to eat, they never seem to be around. This isn’t like Fireball Mario – ammunition must be managed. There is also a series of “Bubble” powers, which allow you to change shape into a vehicle for a short period of time to traverse parts of a level, but these have only limited use and feel more like a gimmick than anything else.

Though the game never loses its feeling of whimsy: the storybook visuals and ability to roam relatively freely through each level gives the sense that there is no real pressure to perform. The player has time to experience everything; to take their time in completing each level. You don’t have to collect items or have certain powers to be able to complete a level, but make sure that Baby Mario doesn’t get away from you. And beneath this soft and cuddly exterior the challenge is cleverly presented.

Take the most important part of the game: protecting Baby Mario. If Yoshi is hit by an enemy, or is wounded by spikes or other obstacles, Mario will fall off of Yoshi’s back and float inside a bubble. At that point a 10 second timer starts, and you have that amount of time to retrieve him before he is taken away by Kamek’s cronies. Often he will be floating backwards – away from you – so you have to backtrack, requiring more coordination and skill than getting there the first time around. Throughout the game you are not only watching out for you own well-being, but that of Baby Mario. It’s a dymanic that doesn’t seem important at first when the levels are more open and Mario can be recaptured easily, but the timer seems to decay a lot faster when the screen is densely packed with obstacles and enemies. Once you get Baby Mario, the timer doesn’t instantly reset – it happens slowly. As a result, successive hits will usually result in Baby Mario being captured. The timer can be increased by collecting more stars, to a maximum of 30 seconds. This doesn’t help as much as it sounds.

The level design gradually increases the difficulty by introducing areas that require more than one technique to surpass. It’s subtle enough that you don’t realize it until you start dying more frequently – usually a result of jumping towards a chasm chasing after Baby Mario on pure reflex. Similarly, boss battles were straightforward at first, but they soon began to employ more complicated egg aiming and deflecting maneuvers. Though some levels are made unnecessarily difficult because the edges of the screen feel constantly out of view, as if the SNES version wasn’t re-sized correctly for the Gameboy Advance’s screen.

Nevertheless, when the two brothers that have come to represent the embodiment of 2D platforming are finally reunited, there is a feeling of satisfaction. Not the kind that is felt after rescuing the Princess at the end of every other Mario game; that’s just a reflex. There was a playful quality about the whole thing, as if to say that you were ensuring the course of Mushroom Kingdom history. Yoshi’s Island presented the familiar gameplay and aesthetic of its predecessor in a new way; it was probably hurt more by being called a sequel. This isn’t so much a rescue as it is an escort mission; you’ve already saved one baby. The safety of Baby Mario is in your control throughout the entire game, creating a selfless objective that isn’t as annoying or aloof as the typical missions in action games where you have to protect a faceless hostage or useless public figure. The strength of Yoshi’s Island lies in its departure from what was expected of a Mario game, ensuring its position as a landmark in the series – and in the 16-bit generation.

The Gameboy Advance saw three Castlevania adventures in as many years after its release: Circle of the Moon (2001), Harmony of Dissonance (2002), and Aria of Sorrow (2003). Aria of Sorrow was my first experience with the remodeled portable Castlevania series, and still remains the finest (excluding last year’s fantastic Dawn of Sorrow on the DS, of course). At the time of Harmony of Dissonance‘s release, the step up in visuals combined with a simpler brand of gameplay made it stand out as a worthy successor to the two-dimensional masterpiece Symphony of the Night. The RPG/Castleroid adventure style it adopted and familiar main character made for an easy comparison; whether it deserved the subsequent praise it received is debatable.

Dissonance sees you in the fancy vestments of Juste Belmont, the latest in the famed bloodline to take Vampire Killer in hand and explore Dracula’s castle. The adventure begins when Juste and companion Maxim have stumbled upon a mysterious castle while looking for mutual friend Lydie. Maxim is wounded, and Juste must proceed alone. Such is the life of a vampire hunter.

It’s easy to fault this game in hindsight, because Konami really accelerated the quality of the series with Aria of Sorrow. Though at the time its simple blend of action and upgraded powers was a throwback to the Castlevania games of old. Though this simplicity is the reason why Harmony of Dissonance is the weakest in the portable Castlevania series.

Most of the shortcomings in Dissonance are revealed through comparisons to Aria of Sorrow, and make it stand out as a transition between what the series used to be, and what the portable Castlevania series is today. The last portable adventure before Circle of the Moon � the much maligned Castlevania Legends for the Gameboy in 1998 � was definitely a recipient of the design traditions from the NES and SNES Castlevania adventures. There were no experience points, and no additional weapons � simply a series of power ups to be collected, and a life meter to maintain. The popularity of the gameplay model used by Symphony of the Night made Konami reconsider the direction of the series. Where Circle of the Moon may have confused matters with the innovative card-collecting DSS (Dual Set-Up System), Dissonance went back to being an action game first and foremost.

Special abilities in Dissonance are made up by the traditional sub-weapons (such as the Axe, Holy Water, etc.) and spellbooks that can be found around the castle. The spell book system in Dissonance is an add-on to the sub-weapons that can be picked up. Equipping a Fire spellbook, for example, will create brand new fire attacks that are different for whatever sub-weapon you’re holding at the time. The limitation in this approach is that the spells available are directly related to how many spellbooks you happen to be carrying, since you can never hold more than one sub-weapon. Using these spells depletes your mana pool, not your heart pool. This results in a balancing act between hearts for using the sub-weapon, and mana for using the associated spellbook attack. By including two different systems for special attacks, the game ends up feeling very inconsistent. Was this a traditional Castlevania adventure, or was it pushing the series forward with a complex spell system?

There are a limited number of spellbooks to collect, and it doesn’t approach the same amount of possibilities as Circle of the Moon‘s DSS based on randomly dropped cards or Aria of Sorrow‘s soul collecting system. I found myself listless in most parts of the game, because there was no real overarching goal pushing me forward beyond the token experience points to level up. Knowing that there was always another special ability to obtain, at least made wandering through Dracula’s castle a little more rewarding in Aria of Sorrow.

As a melee weapon, Juste will only be using Vampire Killer. There are a series of whip upgrades to collect that add types of elemental damage or alternate attacks to the whip. It would be tough to expect the same variety as the weapons in Symphony of the Night or Aria of Sorrow because of the weapon limitation, but the whip power ups were disappointing in their lack of variety and uniqueness: elemental damage and some base damage modifiers are all you have to look forward to. Relics are mostly passive abilities, or enhance existing abilities like Double Jump and Slide to gain access to new parts of the castle.

The Boss battles don’t pose much of a challenge, and simply act as roadblocks to new areas of the castle (sometimes literally). Beating a boss will only occasionally yield a Relic, and as such the sense of real reward wasn’t there as it was in Aria of Sorrow. Overall I didn’t find the game very difficult; it was the save points spread far apart that artificially extended the challenge.

I’ve said previously that this is the only portable series that has real, noticeable enhancements to the visuals through each new game. An addition to Dissonance worth mentioning is the ghostly blue trail that Juste leaves behind while jumping and moving. The original Gameboy Advance didn’t have an integral lamp, and Circle of the Moon was a very er�brown game. To alleviate this, the developers enshrouded the hero character of Dissonance in a blue aura, to make him more visible in low light conditions. Because I only ever played this game on a Gameboy Advance SP, I thought the blue aura was some kind of power-up. It’s distracting for the first 3 minutes of playing the game.

Nevertheless, the environments lack variety in colour, and appear to be constructed of overly repetitive tilesets. There are also many rooms that don’t serve any purpose, or are wide open with only a few monsters wandering inside. To its credit, exploration is stressed in Dissonance, as it was a lot less linear in the way the castle unfolded. About a third of the way into the game, you will find a portal that seemingly only transports you to another part of the castle. But this is a mirror image of the castle you were in – with a number of subtle differences that open up more avenues of exploration, while increasing confusion. I’ve never used the automap so much in playing either Metroid or Castlevania. Incidentally, the music gets irritatingly loopy when you’re lost.

Probably the strangest additions to the game are “collectibles”: pieces of furniture scattered around that can be gathered to decorate a room on one of the lower levels of the Castle. I couldn’t figure out the purpose of this exercise; I’d almost consider it a mini-game for the completist. Actually, I think it makes a perfect metaphor for the entire game: wandering Dracula’s castle searching for items of no consequence in an attempt to fill the voids of wasted potential in this adventure.

I see Harmony of Dissonance as more of a turning point for the series than a fully realized Castlevania game. It was clear where Konami wanted the portable series to go, but they had a hard time leaving the traditions established by the previous eight years of similar games. Additionally, Dissonance provides an excellent foil for Aria of Sorrow, entrenching it as one of the best games to be released for the Gameboy Advance. Though it also serves as a reminder of the towering achievements of Symphony of the Night in the Castlevania lineage; it just took Konami a few years to reach a new equilibrium in design.

My initial skepticism was rightfully deserved, as the wounds of disappointment I sustained while playing Guardian Heroes Advance continue to bleed to this day. That games are still being published for the GBA is a revelation in itself; the fact that an excellent 2D side scrolling shooter has been made available at this point in its lifespan is doubly surprising.

What initially gripped me was the game’s speed. Gunstar Super Heroes runs smooth. Actually, forget that – the game runs as smooth as my fondest memories of Gunstar Heroes. It made me remember the days where we convinced ourselves the term “blast processing” actually possessed technical weight. Compared with my experiences with Guardian Heroes Advance – a game that single-handedly made me question the existence of a special hell for gamers – this was reason enough to embrace the game immediately. But.

Similar to Metal Slug Advance, the game is limited by its number of levels. Someone proficient in the 2D side scrolling shooter arts will likely surpass the game’s extremely diverse levels within an afternoon. Once you complete the first mission, the four following missions are available to be completed in any order, though it does completely obliterate the game’s forgettable storyline. A “final” stage and giant boss battle are encountered at the end of these four missions. Once again Treasure has produced some legitimately challenging bosses, complete with their over-the-top appearances and attacks. In a bid to prolong the game, you’re dumped to the menu screen every time you die, forcing you to continue from the beginning of the level. As usual, pattern recognition becomes the only gameplay strategy.

Disappointing was the lack of cooperative multiplayer, which is how I got most of my enjoyment out of the original Gunstar Heroes. The game lets you begin as either Red or Blue, offering a different selection of starting weapons and moves and a slightly different perspective on the same story, but it’s no replacement.

I was bothered by the need for Treasure to lead off every level with some kind of “vehicle” or “flying” sequence, where you’re on a jet or flying a helicopter over a cityscape replete with skyscrapers. Because each sequence is so different, they require a brief learning period to adapt to the change in controls and environment. Still, when it got down to the actual running and shooting, I was appeased. All the weapon power-ups from the original Gunstar Heroes – including some new ones – are available, and for a few moments it felt like I was playing the same game, familiarity clouding my ability to judge quality. Nevertheless, I remained most impressed with the style of gameplay that was so effortlessly maintained throughout the game.

As the DS continues to gain momentum in the portable gaming market with its many holiday releases, it’s heartening to see that simple affairs like Gunstar Super Heroes are still worth pursuing by developers. While I can understand the need to supply games for the GBA given that Nintendo’s official position on the DS is that it is not the follow-up to the GBA, the release of Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow and Lunar: Dragon Song has shown that traditional 2D titles can offer something more than a pushbutton experience. That being said, a game like Gunstar Super Heroes would almost certainly fail in any context other than the GBA. As the shift towards graphical prowess permeates the handheld market, it becomes harder to determine who plans to sustain this genre.

I found that essence rare

Intelligent Systems has returned this year with another Fire Emblem, entitled The Sacred Stones. Dropping the tactician approach, the game follows the main characters, Prince Ephraim and Princess Eirika, who have been ousted from their homeland by a treacherous neighboring kingdom and must gather an army to take it back. It’s your typical adventure story where a ragtag bunch must come together and fight the forces of evil, and there’s nothing wrong with that. What I don’t like, however, is the lack of any new features. Everything is exactly the same.

You could accuse this of the Golden Sun series as well: after all, The Lost Age was just the same game following the adventures of a different set of characters. Though as an RPG/Adventure, Golden Sun allowed the player to participate in the story as it happened, whereas Fire Emblem is unfortunately limited to telling you the story through cutscenes with talking heads. While the art may be very appealing, the dialogue is as campy as ever and rarely was I surprised about what transpired. This is nothing against the gameplay itself, however, as it remains a highly competent turn based strategy game (and vastly different from the previously mentioned Golden Sun). You’re just looking at the same tilesets, character avatars, and battle animations. Since the battles are the core of the game, they should at least appear fresh and interesting. What would have made this outing of Fire Emblem a little more palatable is the inclusion of a map editor, something that Intelligent Systems put into Advance Wars 2.

The storyline, then, should be the one aspect of this game that makes you want to continue playing. For me, though, it wasn’t. The enormous cast of characters lends itself well to some interesting situations, and a wide spectrum of personalities that eventually make up your army. You may even grow to love certain characters, playing the game to see what happens to them and ensuring they survive. The permanent death of your characters was one of the best features of the Fire Emblem series, because it made you value each character’s contribution to the campaign. Pegasus Knights may be weak, but they are usually the only ones able to rescue another character from immediate danger – an ability that allows you to save your most powerful troops. Despite all this, the big picture is lost amidst the story arcs and flashbacks in some kind of fantasy soap opera, and I began to get agitated waiting for each cutscene to be able to play through the next map.

Fire Emblem is certainly one of the best turn based strategy games I’ve played, coming close to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance in terms of its addictive qualities. However The Sacred Stones feels more like an expansion, not a sequel. This should be great news for fans of its predecessor, but it doesn’t really offer much except more of the same. It makes me wonder why this game was even made, given the DS will be seeing Advance Wars DS this August. Why not just make a version of Fire Emblem for the DS, introducing the use of the touch screen that we’ve heard so much about? I find it hard to accept that Nintendo is trying to extend the life of the GBA when their latest handheld is capable of so much more. The Sacred Stones may have a different ending, but if getting there requires viewing all-too familiar scenery it hardly makes the voyage worth travelling.

I believe I can see the future

Treasure’s involvement was also confirmed in the article, creating a significant amount of buzz for fans of the original Genesis game. However instead of losing control like so many others after hearing the words Sega, Treasure, and Gunstar in the same sentence, let me be straight with you.

Advance Guardian Heroes sucked. In fact, it was the worst game of 2004. It should also be known that Treasure developed Advance Guardian Heroes. Even though Treasure only assisted in the development of Astro Boy: Omega Factor, it was undoubtedly the better game, and one of my favorites from 2004. Omega Factor shared the same visual and gameplay style as Gunstar Heroes, and in hindsight was probably its true successor. My reluctance to accept Gunstar GBA lies in the sprites and backgrounds that are too reminiscent of Advance Guardian Heroes. I’m afraid to get excited because it would be too easy for Treasure to use the same engine that made Advance Guardian Heroes completely unplayable.

I like that classic titles are being retooled for the GBA: Zero Mission and Metal Slug are just a couple of other recent examples. It lends credence to why the GBA remains such a wonderful outlet for 2D gaming. What I don’t like is the dependence on a brand that seems to give developers and publishers some kind of license to abuse the unconditional love of the fans that made these titles successful in the first place.

The first thing I noticed when I started playing The Minish Cap were the graphics. It’s easy to be distracted by them when the only other Zelda game available for the GBA was simply a faithful remake of a game that came out 13 years prior. The Minish Cap blends visual elements from the GBA multiplayer adventure The Four Swords, and the storybook charm of The Wind Waker. Though the game will introduce you to a few new magic items, everything about it feels comfortably familiar. You’ve seen these puzzles before, and the entire meta-concept of searching multiple dungeons to complete a set of trinkets to make things right again is nothing new for the Zelda universe.

The Minish Cap begins with Link and Princess Zelda taking a leisurely walk through Hyrule Town. Events transpire, and once again Zelda is held captive by being turned into stone and it’s up to you to rescue her. You might recognize the evil wizard Vaati from previous Zelda adventures, but the Minish Cap is set during Link’s younger years and so it is assumed that this is your first encounter with him.

Link’s age is actually an important part of the story. See, The Minish or “Picori” are a race of tiny people who used to have an alliance with the residents of Hyrule. Things went sour, and now only children can see them. In fact, it got to the point where everyone thought the Picori were just a fairy tale. But after Zelda’s unfortunate curse the King requires the help of the Picori, for only a Minish smith is able to re-forge the Picori blade with the Four Elements and free Zelda from her stony prison. So it’s up to Link to enlist the assistance of the Picori, in the process gaining a talking hat that bestows the ability to become small, unlocking an entirely different world.

The first dungeon makes you appreciate this microscopic aspect of Hyrule, because the dungeon’s boss is simply a common monster you would find in your normal size. Some of the areas you wander through – such as a forest floor where you walk under leaves, or a mountain top where you’re dodging rain droplets further these impressions. Solutions to many of the game’s puzzles also require you to shrink yourself, revealing some of its most creatively designed environments.

To further spite those that thought multiple Links running around in The Four Swords (GBA) and Four Swords Adventures was simply a gameplay contrivance, The Minish Cap goes out of its way to enforce the reasoning behind why Link can clone himself to complete particularly challenging pushing or lifting exercises. With each new element you forge into your sword, you will gain the ability to create a ghostly version of yourself to aid you in completing some of the puzzles.

The Minish Cap makes an amusing addition to the Zelda gameplay oeuvre with kinstones: pieces of medallions scattered across the land. As expected, Kinstones are very lucky indeed, and “fusing” them with the game’s many NPCs will unlock secret areas where rupees or pieces of heart are held, but mostly just more kinstones. It’s actually pretty useless in the game’s overall scheme, because it’s not like the developers can predict who you’ll fuse with or which kinstones you’ll uncover. One dungeon requires you to fuse kinstones with guardian rocks to open the entrance – but those can be found within the dungeon area. It’s not like they pull a Metroid Prime 2 and make you wander the fucking planet.

The Minish Cap’s definitive triumph lies in the presentation. It takes elements of Link’s previous adventures and makes the entire concept feel fresh and exciting, to the point where it possesses your waking thoughts. Probably the only valid complaint I’ve heard is the game’s length. By comparison A Link to the Past is epic, and playing only the first third of the re-release of Ocarina of Time on the Gamecube shows no end in sight. Though like Link in the Minish Cap, there’s something to be said about a pint sized adventure in such a beautifully rendered world.

let the travel begin

The premise behind Chain of Memories is that you are trying to recover lost memories, taken away by the shadowy figure seen in the opening cutscene. The path to your objective lies in the ominous looking Castle Oblivion, a place where nothing is what it seems, and everything revolves around cards. Each room in the castle, your party members, and every one of your special abilities is represented by a card. I was fascinated by this concept, because the way the rooms are generated is simply using one of the many cards you find on your journey. My mind tried to comprehend the infinite replayability this game would have.

Castle Oblivion is set up as a series of levels, going up. Before each level, you have the option of using one of your “World” cards based on Disney’s films such as Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin or Hercules. Square even included Halloween Town from The Nightmare Before Christmas, which was a lot of fun to play. After you’ve established what will be contained in your current level of the castle, you now have the ability to create the actual rooms of the level. When you reach a doorway, you will use one of your “Map” cards to create the room beyond it. This method is used until you’ve created an entire floor. The story is picked up with a series of special map cards, with the doors you will use them on being pretty obvious. You will get more “story” map cards after completing each story room, and because the location of each of these special rooms is random, it keeps players from skipping through the level prematurely. This would probably be a stupid tactic anyway given what usually waits for you at the end of each level.

A casual review from a friend told me how great the original Kingdom Hearts was at creating unique worlds based on each of Disney’s beloved films. However, while each world in Chain of Memories is clearly inspired by the source material, they look more like a series of tiles with randomized doorways. The castle feels like a patchwork; there is no real flow to each level. The concept seemed sound in theory, but I suppose the unpredictable method by which game content is created is at fault. It would be next to impossible to create a seamless game world when the player is left to make decisions about its arrangement. I can forgive the level design’s transgressions when the card system is really intended for combat.

When you start the game, you are given a rudimentary deck containing a few melee moves and a healing spell. You also start with a set number of “Card Points” (read: mana) that put a limit on how many cards in your deck you can have and the potency of each. You can add the cards of spells or passive abilities to your deck gained from killing enemies. You also earn special attacks after killing the game’s many “boss” characters, like Hades from Hercules or Jafar from Aladdin. Again, this seemed like a great concept in theory, but when it came time to actually use this system in fast paced combat it became more irritating than novelty.

Like Tales of Symphonia, you see wandering monsters on each map that can be avoided if necessary. Battles consist of Sora or the opposing monster using cards to perform attacks. Cards with higher value will win of course, but a zero card can cause what is called a “Card Break”. Card Breaks are important to combat, because as the name implies, they nullify (“break”) the attack or series of attacks your opponent was performing and allow you to move in with a spell or powerful combination. After a certain number of cards have been played, you must “shuffle” your deck, which leaves you vulnerable. Depending on how many cards you’ve put in your deck, you will start to lose cards after each shuffle, though they are restored once combat is finished. Once you’ve slain all the enemies on screen, who sometimes even respawn a few times, you are awarded with a map card.

Now if combat had been turn based this probably would have been a lot easier, though presumably less of a challenge. When you start fighting the more powerful enemies and boss characters, however, you’ll find your deck just doesn’t stack up. As a result, combat in Chain of Memories becomes less interesting and more about loading your deck with zero cards, healing spells and high-numbered melee attacks. Real time combat just doesn’t suit this method of play, because it allows no flexibility to flip through your deck to find the right cards or card combinations when you’re faced with multiple enemies at once. In the more difficult boss battles you may even run out of cards (yes, this does happen).

Another point that made this system frustrating is the way it handled party members. From the beginning of the game, Donald Duck and Goofy are your companions. Though they don’t wander the game world with you, they’re delegated to cards in your deck. The same goes for people you meet along the way, such as Aladdin or Jack Skellington, each bringing a special attack into the fray. But these cards aren’t intrinsically part of your deck, you have to earn them. See, while all the action is going on around you, the cards representing your party members are dropped randomly onto the battlefield. And they don’t stick around forever, either – you have to chase after them. Moreover, taking a page right out of my “I Hate Experience Orbs” book with Fable and Advance Guardian Heroes, Chain of Memories makes you run after those as well. Oh, the humanity.

Once you proceed to a new level in Castle Oblivion, the entire preceding level is “erased” and will have to be “built” again with new cards. I guess this is good for people that want to build up their character with experience. Even though the rooms don’t differ that much, there’s no shortage of enemy encounters. The game does its best to push things forward, though, and I think that players intent on building a high-powered deck, or more than one deck, would gain a lot from going back through the castle and replaying areas.

Once you finish the game, you have the option of replaying as Riku, the friend you’re looking for during the game. You also unlock a vs. mode that you can link up and challenge friends to card battles with, and I guess see who’s deck is stacked with the most zero cards.

I don’t like Disney cartoons. I find them repetitive and uninteresting. Young outcast searches for their place in the world, finds love and/or true friendship, insert Oscar-nominated song, etc. Give me more cartoons like Secret of Nimh and I’d be happy. Anyway, the point is that I wasn’t dry-heaving while playing this game; it was actually very amusing to interact with all the characters and Disney-inspired worlds for a while. But the entire game is centralized around Sora’s memories. Are the characters real? Are they imagined? Why is Sora forced to do battle with the Heartless again, meeting up with old friends from Final Fantasy that don’t even remember that they fought together before? I couldn’t help but feel Chain of Memories was meant to be filler; Kingdom Hearts 2 has already been delayed and from the developer’s standpoint perhaps they didn’t want this GBA title to mess with the storyline. So instead of providing an interesting story to offset the imbalanced combat, you have a game that basically lays a trap door under your feet, giving the story the option of completely turning on you with “Whoops! It was all a dream…”. I hate that. The card concept in Chain of Memories feels like the beginning of a new lineage of games to use this feature, and as such I can give it some credit. But considered as an RPG it feels only half-realized, and in the end, falls short of an unreserved recommendation.

like memories they have disappeared

After Resurrection of the Dark Dragon, Metal Slug Advance was to be the next major event on the Gameboy Advance for me. Its first delay from a summer release gave me the excuse to pick up the thumb-numbingly good Astro Boy: Omega Factor, which I killed time with while travelling around Hong Kong. Also a side scrolling action game, Omega Factor reminded me why 2D platformers aren’t dead, and in fact can still feel fresh and interesting while dipping into fond memories of gaming’s collective subconcious. Metal Slug Advance is not one of these games.

You can’t expect much of a story going into a game like Metal Slug, and so it comes as no surprise that there isn’t one in this incarnation. At the beginning of the game you choose from two new characters to the series: Walter or Tyra. Though it makes little difference, unless you’ve been waiting all these years to play Metal Slug as a woman. Why not make this a co-operative multiplayer affair? Two players blasting away on-screen would certainly lower the difficulty later on, but at that point the game would need at least another five levels.

Still firmly baked in the mold of past efforts, Metal Slug drops you into a series of familiar-feeling levels, gun in hand, and politely asks you to destroy everything in sight. You’ll have various power-ups at your disposal – whether found in crates or given out by rescued hostages, as well as the series’ namesake, a sturdy tank with a sizable complement of weapons. The difficulty that the series is known for is also here, and though the first two levels lull you into sense of security, it only gets harder from there. What annoyed me the most were the respawning enemies – no matter who you cut down in your path, changing screens will redraw those enemies and you’ll have to kill them again. This essentially makes the strategy “run and gun” in the purest sense – you really can’t stop without taking damage. One thing I would have liked is the ability to shoot diagonally, like in the Metroid series. While you can run and shoot upwards, it’s impossible to shoot at someone on higher ground on the opposite side of a chasm or long drop.

The seemingly random distribution of weapon power-ups echo the feel of whenever you stumbled upon a power-up in Contra; the excitement of getting spray fire knew no bounds. But as soon as you died, you lost it and were reverted back to the basic rifle. Problem is, power-ups in Metal Slug Advance are finite – and you can thank the addition of the health bar for that. Instead of the “one shot death” traditional to Metal Slug, you have hit points. When a weapon power up runs out of ammo, you revert back to the basic pistol regardless of how many hits you’ve taken. Forcing you to use a power-up until its gone seems wasteful – especially when there are much tougher and bigger enemies that you could be saving them for. CT Special Forces, a game mostly dismissed as a Metal Slug knockoff, has an equally varied arsenal that you can switch between as needed.

Aside from the addition of a health bar for your character, Metal Slug Advance’s unique feature is a series of 100 cards found throughout the levels that can enhance your abilities, or in some cases unlock some hidden “dungeon” areas within a level. The catch is that you have to finish each level with them in your possession, because that’s the only time your progress will be saved and you can use the benefits of the cards in later levels. Any death and subsequent restart of an area will negate any card-collecting you’ve done up to that point. As it was with Resurrection of the Dark Dragon, the addition of a card system to a port of an old game achieves minimal results.

The levels certainly appear to be part of the Metal Slug lineage, and since the game takes place on a nondescript tropical island you don’t expect much in the way of varied terrain. From beach fronts to ancient underground ruins, though, the game still suprises in some respects. Metal Slug Advance has five levels in total, each increasing in size and difficulty. The levels are in turn broken up into smaller sections, allowing you to continue from those points if you die. It isn’t the same as a save point, though – for that you have to finish the entire level. This becomes a problem later in the game when the boss battles become longer and drawn out. I turned my GBA off in frustration after many failed attempts at beating the game’s bosses, and for doing that you have to start the entire level over again.

It’s probably unfair to call it a rail shooter – I mean it is a side scrolling action game after all. I just felt like I was on a conveyor belt with my thumb constantly pressing the “Fire” button. And with the amount of enemies on-screen at any given time, that’s basically the way you’ve got to play it. You only have to look as far as the “Options” menu – there is a choice to turn on Auto-fire or you’ll find yourself repeatedly tapping the fire button. I can’t help but contrast this against CT Special Forces, which coaxes you along, but you still feel like you’re exploring the levels. There are occasional obstacles that require backtracking, or the scaling of a mountain cliff only to parachute to safety below. Not to mention the inclusion of a few top-down helicopter flying missions reminiscent of Desert Strike. The gameplay felt more varied, instead of the obvious repetition and course memorization that you’re subjected to in Metal Slug Advance.

In the fall, SNK Playmore announced it would be taking Metal Slug to 3D on the PS2. Though they aren’t the only one – Hip Games revealed that CT Special Forces would be given the same treatment in a behind-the-shoulder 3D action game. While it may seem like a good idea to push these franchises into the third dimension, I’ve said in the past that this does not always result in a successful game. Why the Gameboy Advance has been delegated the position of holding fast the traditions of 2D gaming is a wonder; I honestly believe that extrapolating the success of Viewtiful Joe should be pursued by other developers.

Like Resurrection of the Dark Dragon, Metal Slug Advance is visually a faithful recreation. Any fan of the series would be hard pressed to argue that. But in terms of new gameplay additions, I wouldn’t classify this game as anything other than a cash-in on a well known franchise. The game length is artificial, extended through the difficult, enemy-packed areas and no mid-level saves. And once you’re done, the bitter taste of the heart rending boss battles will make you cringe at the thought of picking it up again. Metal Slug Advance’s card system may provide some extended play for obsessive completists, but I’m reluctant to recommend it for anyone’s holiday playlist.

he slept through half the show

1. Contrary to popular belief, the city of Baldur’s Gate is really, really small. Consisting of the Elfsong Tavern, a Weapons/Armour dealer, a cemetery, and, most surprisingly, a shitload of sewers.
2. Barrels in civilized parts of the city cannot be broken. Perhaps this is from some enchantment put on them to keep the city free of debris, or to maintain the integrity of all storage repositories. Step into a dungeon, though, and you can smash barrels until you’re blue in the face.
3. You can’t carry more than two duplicate items at a time. Don’t even try. I guess the vendors are worried about you flooding the market.
4. There will be an unavoidable bug at the end of the first act that prevents you from finishing the game. If you do not complete the quest in a particular fashion, charted by some unknown satanic ritual, you will break your save game and must begin again. Did I mention you get only one save slot?

Along with the faceless, unchanging character models, the indistinguishable monsters, and the completely bland environments that should embarrass the beautifully hand-painted backgrounds of Baldur’s Gate, it was reason enough to go back and play Link to the Past again. At least there I can kick some god damned chickens.

I don’t remember saying

So here I am in my local EB and this guy is talking to me about the copy of Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon I bring to the counter.

“Have you played the original?”
“Would I be buying this if I hadn’t? Look at the fucking cover.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty hideous isn’t it. This is more than just a port, though – some of the battles have been tweaked to make them easier, and there’s this new card bonus system…”

I stopped him before he could continue. After all, I’ve pretty much been waiting for this game since I got my GBA. I figured I would ask him about Four Swords Adventures while I was there, because the price tag seemed a bit steep (I guess from the “free” GBA-GCN link cable included in the box). He had not played, but we got on the subject of the Gamecube. The only thing worse than a non-gamecube owner is a reformed Gamecube owner. “Oh, I sold mine. There aren’t any games for it.” I’ll skip over that and move along to the next part of the conversation, because frankly it made me want to punch him in the face. Like any true game geek, opinions are worn on sleeves, and so he proceeded to give the thumbs down to both Wind Waker and Metroid Prime. Now Wind Waker I can understand to some degree – the makeover wasn’t for everyone, and the storyline may have added to the perceived childishness of the title. But Metroid Prime? I asked why (politely of course), stating that I was a devout PC gamer and it made me even question the validity of most FPSes post-1999. The guy claimed it was “unexciting”, complained about unwieldy controls, and an overall sense apathy towards the title. Slightly perturbed, I left the store with my new purchase trying to focus on why Shining Force is so fucking awesome.

I can’t help but reiterate the disgrace of the cover – I really wasn’t kidding. Any new gamers that didn’t have the opportunity to play the original will be immediately turned off if they happen to see it while browsing. This deeply troubles me, because these same people might not even look at reviews after this initial visual assault.

The most noticable difference to players of the original game will be the graphics. Back in its day, the Genesis was pretty hot, but they definitely needed an update. The world and battle maps still smack of tilesets, but on the smaller screen the poor quality isn’t as noticable. The character portraits have also been redrawn, giving them a distinct anime feel, instead of the saturday morning cartoons of the original. The close-up battle character models were also redone, looking softer and more three-dimensional, kind of like the battles in Golden Sun. A few of the game’s battles were tweaked a little, as some may remember them getting excessively hard after only the second chapter. What comes to mind is the battle with the Laser Eye superweapon at the crux of the Runefaust army – I remember having to replay the mission constantly, because no matter how much I strategized as soon as I got near the Eye itself my forces would be annihilated with one blast.

The turn based combat system is elegant in its simplicity: surround your enemies and attack, repeat as required. The menu interface is straightforward to navigate, and it’s clear where Camelot’s influences were when they designed Golden Sun‘s. Very little effort was spent detailing the weapons and equipment part of the game; most of the time character skill improvements alone will make all the difference in battle. Every 100 experience points a character earns they level up. However the most experience is gained when killing a monster. Like in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, it becomes apparent very quickly who your strong characters are, as the gap between your seasoned squad and backup characters grows wider. You can upgrade a character’s class every 10 levels by Promoting them, which brings with it increased attributes, attack and defense bonuses. I will remember not to promote Zylo, though, as he is much more useful in his untamed state. I learned that the hard way when I first played Shining Force; upon being promoted Zylo gained this really lackluster magic attack that didn’t do nearly as much damage.

What some players might find useful is a new card system, that uses cards you can find scattered in dungeons or town buildings. They will either have a specific action or a member of Shining Force on them. This new system is controlled by Mawlock, one of the game’s new characters that does not start in the party. Instead, chapter epilogues contain a parallel storyline with Mawlock and Princess Narsha of Runefaust, who eventually join up with the Shining Force halfway through the game. Only then can he actually use the cards that you’ve been finding up until that time in battle. Each card can either provide Mawlock with a character’s ability (using their respective card), create a clone of that character to fight on the battlefield, or give temporary power-ups to a character. In theory this should balance the field later in the game, because most of the end battles are still pretty hard. With that said, I still feel that the new system and characters feel forced into the original game’s flow, kind of like seeing the new material in A New Hope: Special Edition.

With all the noise everyone is making about the NES “classics” being re-released on the GBA, Shining Force should recieve as much, if not more, criticism. The game is essentially the same as the original. Which is fine for me, because as soon as I started playing my strategies of the past gently bubbled to the surface, allowing me to get through a good portion of the game before I stopped for the day. I suppose there’s a bit of nostalgia at work here as well, as I was able to look past many of the game’s faults. Yes it is a remake of a game that was great in its day, but with the new subtitle I expected a bit more, at least enough to justify the cost of the game. I suppose that’s Metroid: Zero Mission talking again, but it’s true. Nintendo has set the standard.

I couldn’t help comparing Shining Force with FFTA, because without Shining Force I doubt the genre would exist in its current form. But when you’re faced with the choice of a game that is based on a deep character upgrades system, and combat mechanics that make me want to bathe in their complexity, it’s hard to accept Shining Force as analagous. The graphics are dated, the combat is simplistic (I kept trying to approach enemies from behind for better attacks) and the theme music is extremely limited. If you want this game to rekindle fond memories of the Genesis version, by all means get Resurrection of the Dark Dragon because it’s a fine port. And anyone who hasn’t played Shining Force, but considers themselves a fan of the genre, might be interested in this bit of gaming history. Otherwise, you’d be better off spending your money on Fire Emblem or Tactics Ogre. I may have been waiting for Shining Force on the GBA, but I can’t say it was worth my own hype.