Justin Archive

At Last, Mutant Mudds Realizes the Potential of the Virtual Boy

By
Justin
 – January 31, 2012Posted in: Blogs, Featured Article, Justin

At the risk of losing all credibility in a single blog post, let it be known that I had fun with my Virtual Boy years ago. The eye-searing red display and neck-cramping visor design ensured that the fun never lasted too long, but for all of Nintendo’s colossal missteps, it at least got one thing right: Virtual Boy Wario Land. As an un-numbered entry on a forgotten system, there’s a good chance that you never were able to play it, and that is a true tragedy. VB Wario Land featured the same clever level design and antihero charm as the GameBoy entries. More importantly though, the game was the most successful (and possibly the first) to ask the player to jump back and forth between the foreground and background. This innovation gave a sense of depth that many “2.5D” platformers only dream of, and until Mutant Mudds launched on the 3DS last week, VB Wario Land remained unmatched.

Sure, there have been some developers that toyed with the idea along the way. The Paper Mario series often features pipes that bring you to hidden items in the background, and Donkey Kong Country Returns features some dynamic set pieces that make frequent use of the temples and trees in the distance. Last year’s Shantae sequel for the DSi and iOS also springs to mind, though the layered levels are too confusing for their own good. I’m sure that you, the reader, can rattle off a few examples as well. However, to see Mutant Mudds in motion is a thing of beauty, and that’s largely because of the way it uses the 3D display and alternating planes.

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Pushmo Review

By
Justin
 – December 16, 2011Posted in: Blogs, Featured Article, Justin, Review

You probably wouldn’t expect it out of a 3DS eShop game, but Pushmo is one of the most satisfying and thrilling handheld games I’ve played this year. At times, it’s the puzzle game equivalent of scaling Everest, or this genre’s take on the epic boss fights of Shadow of the Colossus. The simple presentation and mechanics belie Pushmo‘s uncompromising difficulty and a fantastic level editor that has already spawned hundreds of intricate user-created levels. The game begins with your avatar pulling out basic staircases to reach the top of a small wall; by puzzle 100 or so, you’re moving entire towers and leaping along narrow ledges high above the ground.

As the title implies, pushing walls in is a major element of Pushmo, but just as important is pulling them out. Each levels starts off with a flat surface, and the challenge lies in figuring out which colored segments to move in what order, keeping in mind that there are three different planes along which you can move. Early on, this push/pull technique is used to make basic stepping stones leading to the goal (and a random living puffball in need of your aid). It’s fun, but you’ve seen similar block puzzles in games like Catherine and Cuboid, among many others. However, as the puzzles get taller and wider, the stakes become much greater as well. A handy rewind feature ensures that Pushmo is never too frustrating, but you’ll need to be patient and methodical when climbing up a multi-screen Christmas tree.

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Freakyforms Review

By
Justin
 – November 20, 2011Posted in: Featured Article, Justin, Review

Freakyforms: Your Creations Alive has very modest ambitions. While most games with creation tools hope that you’ll use said tools to serve the play, with Freakforms, there’s very little play to be found at all. Instead, the game is entirely focused on giving life to any creature, inanimate object or idea you can imagine, often in the crudest and goofiest way possible. It doesn’t matter if you create an ordinary, normally-proportioned dog; the moment your “formee” is in motion, he’ll be stumbling and bumbling as if he wet noodles for legs. This is the video game equivalent of Dumpy the Pumpkin or that awful sputtering ketchup bot or any of the other inane-yet-lovable things we frequently bring up on our podcast each week. Freakforms aims to please so much that you can’t help but forgive so many of its failings.

To be fair, the actual creation mode, in which you’ll spend a good deal of time, is incredibly versatile. As you play through the adventure, you’re offered dozens of parts, all of which can be stretched, shrunken, rotated and thickened to suit your needs. As long as your formee has a mouth and a body, the game will find a way to put it into motion, and there isn’t an advanced physics model or anything like that to get in the way. I love LittleBigPlanet as much as anyone, but sometimes I just want to slap some wheels on a brick and call it a car. Freakyforms lets you make things as rudimentary or as complex as you’d like, but you’ll never be punished for ever making something “incorrectly.”

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You Got Your Blockbuster in My Social Media Games

By
Justin
 – October 13, 2011Posted in: Blogs, Featured Article, Justin

A couple weeks back, we had the pleasure interviewing Ryan Schneider, one of the key people involved in building Insomniac brands such as Resistance. You might have assumed that we brought him in to talk about the developer’s latest big shooter, but that evening, we had bigger matters to discuss. There was a battle taking place on browsers throughout the world, a Global Resistance with a player count that far surpassed even the gigantic scope of Resistance 2. Unfortunately, a bad Skype connection cost us most of that interview, but there was one clear takeaway – social media games are no longer exclusively shoddy cash-ins, and developers are only going to get more ambitious in the future with their Facebook/browser tie-ins.

For those of you bombarded with updates about how many times my Sim has gone to the bathroom today (apologies!), it might be tough to see the appeal. These games are traditionally less interactive and more compulsive than typical console fare, and there’s no shortage out there of uninspired puzzlers with popular licenses attached. But I’d argue that just being able to access some part of your game from the office or morning commute is a powerful motivator, and a recent batch of franchise tie-ins actually seem thematically appropriate and ambitious.

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The Sims Social Review

By
Justin
 – September 1, 2011Posted in: Blogs, Featured Article, Justin, Review

I love The Sims, but I just don’t have time to mop my virtual house anymore. While the series has sunk its hooks into me numerous times throughout its run, satisfying my families of Sims had become such a daunting experience in subsequent sequels that I just had to get away. The Sims 3 in particular, with its gigantic town and dozens of challenges cycling in and out, was just too much of a good thing. (I don’t know how EA expanded upon such a stuffed package.) Thus, this overwhelmed gamer decided to place his hopes in a proposed Sims game for Facebook, one that promised more reasonable expectations but the same household adventures I had enjoyed over the years. What we ended up with, The Sims Social, is an entirely different beast.


The Sims Social throws out many of the series’ conventions in order to make it work within a browser. Job trees have been reduced to in-home art projects, the town has been reduced to a single “street” of friends and managing a Sim’s needs is no longer the give-and-take tedium it once was. In order to make the experience more manageable for the casual set, energy limits have been put in place so that you’re only doing menial tasks for 15 minutes at a time – Animal Crossing comparisons aren’t too far off. However, while I’m totally in favor of making the experience more approachable, all of the little tweaks mean that suddenly this take on The Sims has lost its creative spark. Social has been reduced to a game of keeping up with the Joneses.

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One Million Steps in My Shoes: A Veteran StreetPasser’s Take on the 3DS

By
Justin
 – August 25, 2011Posted in: Blogs, Featured Article, Justin

Five months into the 3DS’ life cycle and we’re already hearing rumors of a drastically reduced emphasis on its eponymous glasses-less  gimmick. Yikes. 3D handheld gaming was supposed to be the future, and now some are predicting it won’t last beyond another year. As we and many others have discussed, Nintendo’s scrambling to turn its 3DS fortunes around this holiday, and thanks to that pesky iOS platform, a massive price drop and Mario might not be enough this time. Even as an ardent fan, when I’ve got a few minutes to kill, I’m more likely to turn to Cut the Rope‘s froggy creature than I am the famous plumber, and that’s a reality that Nintendo can’t ignore any longer. But short of a hardware relaunch – and again, that’s supposedly on the table – how exactly is the 3DS to compete? I still say that the secret weapon has been available since the beginning: StreetPass.

When the 3DS debuted, you may recall that most reviewers were more taken with the numerous bells and whistles than they were with early software like Pilotwings and Steel Diver. Between the AR Cards, Face Raiders, 3D photos, SpotPass and more, the general consensus was that these apps would offer limited replayability but maximized laughs. However, the one feature that seemed like it could have legs beyond the novelty phase was StreetPass. Because this function is always on, and because developers can tailor it to fit all sorts of game types, there’s a lot of potential for passive interaction between users. Street Fighter IV and Nintendogs + Cats used it in pretty meaningless ways, but like the old Game Boy’s link cable port or the Xbox 360′s achievements, StreetPass seemed like it could end up being the most integral feature you never knew you needed. Luckily, as someone who has used it extensively during my daily commute, I think it still can.

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Where Everyone Knows Your Name: A Few Additional Thoughts About Catherine

By
Justin
 – August 10, 2011Posted in: Blogs, Featured Article, Justin

**The following post contains very minor spoilers. If you’re already planning to pick this up and want to go in completely blind (like I did), then come back here once you’ve completed the game. For anyone on the fence though, I hope the following might sway you towards a purchase.**

Anyone who’s still bemoaning the stagnancy of the Japanese gaming scene hasn’t been paying attention this summer. From El Shaddai‘s beautifully bizarre take on the Dead Sea Scrolls to Child of Eden‘s kinetic synesthesia, there’s been more creative output from that country lately than its likely to get credit for. But perhaps most outlandish of all would be Catherine, Atlus’ not-exactly-an-RPG experiment that broke the publisher’s own sales records last month. Sure, it may feature a weird puzzle game at its core and an art style familiar to any Persona fan, but Catherine‘s greatest feat is that it finds the perfect sweet spot between the linear, cut-scene-driven narratives of Japanese games and the more expansive, open-ended worlds of games like Mass Effect and Fall Out. It’s a game that features well-drawn characters and tight plotting without completely sacrificing player influence and interactivity.

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Gaming at the MoMA: A Look at Kill Screen’s “Arcade” Exhibition

By
Justin
 – July 28, 2011Posted in: Blogs, Featured Article, Justin

For considerably better pictures of the event, I suggest that you head on over to Joystiq’s gallery.

This past Wednesday, the editors of the magazine “Kill Screen” helped put on a show at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. This isn’t the first time that video games have been displayed in a museum, but the MoMA’s a pretty ritzy place, and so it was seen (by me, at least) to be a pretty big deal, a means to bring some of the industry’s more avant-garde fair to the masses. And for the most part, I think the evening could be called a success.

Starry Heavens

Admittedly, if I were curating that shindig, my list of games would have looked a lot different. Kill Screen’s selections seemed to be more about the beauty of mechanics, while I tend to prefer a little more graphical splendor when I’m gripping a controller. On the other hand, the event tied in beautifully — probably intentionally so — with the incredible “Talk to Me” installation, which compiled dozens of modern technologies that humans potentially use to communicate with one another. Some of the wackier devices on display like animal-sensory simulations, a fifth dimensional camera and a metal pair of underpants that simulate menstruation for folks who don’t menstruate (like guys) will get the most buzz, but the entire collection as a whole was just awe-inspiring. It’s so cool to see such technological innovation in one room, and I’m glad that video games could be lumped along for an evening.

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Crossing Paths with Terraria

By
Justin
 – July 15, 2011Posted in: Blogs, Featured Article, Justin

According to our Steam stats, the Rumble Pack somehow managed to put 108.6 cumulative hours into Terraria in just a single week. Granted, that’s split among half a dozen people, but still – that’s a lot of time devoted to digging holes in the ground. The Minecraft influence is pretty clear, but everyone has brought their own reasons for playing this wonderful little sandbox title. I’ve heard comparisons to LEGO sets, Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, Dig Dug and more; with a game so expansive, it’s only natural for it to evoke memories from a bunch of different sources. For me, though, Terraria offers everything I always wanted from Nintendo’s Animal Crossing, fulfilling that game’s potential for amazing social interaction whether your buddies are playing online or not.

Back in 2001, when Animal Crossing was a non-gaming novelty, I had these lofty dreams of maintaining a village with my entire family. There were four houses available for my parents, brother and I, and we were to usher in a new era of peace and prosperity for those furry chatterboxes that populated the game. Though Animal Crossing doesn’t offer simultaneous co-op, you can take turns with the upkeep. Anything that one player does – either good or bad – will have consequences for anyone else who boots up the game. And when you’re not playing, the game “plays itself” – plants grow, villagers leave and mail arrives at everyone’s doorstep. If I were to leave a note for my dad or plant a tree next to my mom’s house, they’d  eventually discover my good deeds on their own time.

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Justin’s Favorite DSiWare

By
Justin
 – July 6, 2011Posted in: Blogs, Featured Article, Justin

If you’re one of the few early adopters of the 3DS, you’ve probably racked up a massive pile of play coins, street passed dozens of commuters (or not) and maybe even conquered Donkey Kong ’94‘s 100 levels by now. What more could a cool guy or gal like you want out of your handheld? Well, some games would be nice. Though Ocarina of Time 3D was a welcome addition to the 3DS library, the early months have been especially rough for Nintendo’s latest hardware, and I wouldn’t hold it against you if you decided to hock yours on eBay.* But before you make any rash decisions, let me ask you this: have you checked out any DSiWare?

*(glaring menacingly…)

Believe it or not, a surprisingly high percentage of DSiWare is not horrendously bad.** In fact, as we’ve said on the podcast a few times, the service is one of Nintendo’s best kept secrets, since the company refuses to advertise it at all. Games like the Art Style series and Shantae have earned accolades from both ourselves and the big sites, but the problem here is that only a very small audience has had access to them — that is, until now. The vast majority of DSiWare is compatible with the 3DS and can be found on the eShop, making this the perfect time to check out what you’ve missed. And to help you get started, I humbly suggest that you direct your attention to the following.

**Even if most of it is!

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