Postmortem Review: Ben 10: Alien Force - How I Would Have Written It

Introduction
   Ben 10: Alien Force is a Nintendo Wii game that is loosely based on the cartoon series by the same name. Developed by Monkey Bar Games, published by D3 Publisher, released on October 28, 2008, and thrown in the bargain bin shortly thereafter, Ben 10 was a quick cash-in on a semi-popular cartoon franchise. Following is a postmortem review that describes how I would have felt about the finished product of the game had I been on the development team. I start with the trailer.



The Good
Well Targeted
   We had one goal above all others with Ben 10: Alien Force; quickly make a game based on the license to cash in on the opportunity while the license was still popular. This went very well. The obviously intended target was young children, so we knew that we did not need to add much by way of diversions or complexity. We had a simple battle system which used only basic combos that was implemented across all characters. This kept the combos from becoming confusing to the younger audience. The game was short, but did follow a storyline. All in all, this game was perfect for the time frame we had to make it and the audience it was intended for.


Tight Controls
   There was not much to the battle system or other controls in the game, but what was there worked perfectly. There was some initial complaining about mapping the jump action to the "Z" button in the left hand of the player; however, after playing for a short while, the jump became natural. Fighting was simple, yet responsive. The moves were easy enough to execute. Choosing to keep the moves the same from alien form to alien form was a good choice for our audience.


Bug Free is the Way to Be
   All the hours I spent playing Ben 10: Alien Force during and after production made me proud at how cleanly the code executed. These days, big name games regularly release filled with bugs. It is shameful that this is an accepted practice in the industry. Everybody on this team should look back and be proud that they released a bug free product.


The Bad
Too Linear
   Nobody has to worry about getting lost in Ben 10. The whole game; in classic brawler fashion, is basically move from the left side of the stage to the right side of the stage. While this works well for kids, I have a hard time denying that even my own kids would be bored by this game.


Who Wrote This?
   The voice-overs were awful. The story was worse. While we wanted this to be its own story within the Ben 10 universe, we did very little to step outside what the audience already knows about Ben 10. To top off the ho-hum story, the ending was left wide open for a sequel. If we really wanted to do an independent story, we should have written a full story. We would have been much better off following the events of a couple or few episodes. The voice-overs that happened every time an alien change occurred was also a bad idea. The aliens say the same thing over and over again. Every time I hear, "Freeze...I always wanted to say that," I cringe just a little.


Very Short
   Part of not having a good story was also not having a long enough story. Total play time in Ben 10 was maybe a few hours. We could have easily extended it by making more puzzles which challenged the player to use different aliens to make it through the environment. We kept this to a minimal though, which I think was an awful mistake. We also could have had some sort of collectible system, but this was not added in due to budget and time.


The Ugly
Two Player or Not Two Player?
   Probably the worst thing we did in the project was add in two player play in which the second player plays the exact same character as player one. We did not even change the colors of the clothes or aliens on player two. This led to some confusing battles. Over and over in play-testing, we saw players randomly jump or turn a circle. When we asked why they would do this, they told us that they were trying to figure out which one they were. This would have been easily fixed. There was no excuse for it being left the way it was.


Can We Add Some Color?
   Ben 10: Alien Force had no shine to it whatsoever. There was nothing that looked good about it. Most of the alien forms were so darkly colored that you could not make out the detail. The very bland and dark colors did not help the gameplay in any way. Even the cartoons had more vibrant colors than this game. For a hand-held device, the color scheme would have been appropriate. However, this was the Wii. The colors and amount of detail we used made this game a disgrace to any high-definition television.


Uninspired
   This game was completely uninspired. We could have dropped in any character models, kept the basic brawler mechanics, and called it anything. It would have been the same game and probably sold just as well. The levels were not thoughtful. The gameplay never went beyond a Nintendo-age brawler. There was nothing extra. Playing as the different alien forms was not fun or rewarding. It is clear from the first time the player turns the game on that this is nothing but a generic knock-off of Double Dragon or Battletoads, only using a better known to today's kids license. We could have taken any handful of mechanics and made the game infinitely better. Unfortunately, the bottom line was the publisher wanted the game out on short order. We did what we were paid for, but even we find the game incredibly boring.

Seahawks in the Playoffs

   It is hard to be a Seahawks fan. Not! I love it. People hate it. I love it more. I wear my jerseys proud every weekend. Everywhere I go, I get dirty looks from the haters. Every once in a while I get somebody brave enough to speak up and say something like, "You must not be from around here." I am from around here and I am proud to say Seattle is my team.
   It takes a real fan to stand by a team that hardly ever makes it to the postseason. I had no idea that the winner of today's game would be going to the playoffs. It was a real nail-biter to the end too. One touchdown would have forced it to overtime and my ears kept ringing with these fatal words from Hasselbeck's mouth a few years ago, "We want the ball and we're gonna score!" I still ask myself why he had to go and say that. Anyway, I do not think we would have won it in overtime. I was really hoping that after that pick, we would have scored a touchdown to seal the deal. We ended up with just a field goal. However, with a ten point lead and under two minutes on the clock, we knew we were going to the playoffs.
   We might not make it past the wild card game. If we do, it will be a hard battle against the Bears. The opportunity for a Super Bowl seems to be slim to none. However, this fan will be holding his breath for another shot at a Super Bowl win. If we can make it to the playoffs even after losing seven of ten games, a Super Bowl ring cannot be far off.

Review: Donkey Kong Country Returns - I Love the Way it Hurts

Title:        Donkey Kong Country Returns
Platform:     Nintendo Wii
Release Date: November 21, 2010
Developer:    Retro Studios, Inc.
Publisher:    Nintendo
My Rating:    8~8.5ish I loved it, but there
                       was nothing new.

   I always said that the time for me to buy a Nintendo Wii would be when the release of a new Donkey Kong Country was imminent. A couple of years after the Golden Age of the Wii, I got my wish. I purchased my Wii in October, mostly in anticipation of Donkey Kong Country. A little more than a month later, Donkey Kong Country Returns came out.
   Needless to say, I had very high expectations. I had replayed the Super Nintendo DKC trilogy over the summer to review the state of the franchise at the last 2D entry. I understood DKC Returns would be a retro-throwback. However, as with all classic video game revivals, I was anxious to see what was new and exciting. I will revisit this thought towards the end of the review.
   Fans of the DKC series will instantly know the story. A mysterious tiki god stole a hoard of bananas. Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong go through the island on a quest to recover the stolen goods. Something I really appreciated about this game was the complete lack of dialogue. There were no voice overs and very little text to read. All of the story was relayed via short cut-scenes, which left me free to do what I wanted; play some DKC.
Here is an E3 trailer for DKC Returns from YouTube:
   The gameplay is pure Donkey Kong Country platforming. All of the original barrel blasting, baddie stomping, banana collecting is back. The levels are as frustratingly difficult as anybody can remember. Many of the later levels will make you throw your controller at the television, so be sure to wear your wrist-strap. The rail-levels returned. There are also levels in which you navigate a barrel propelled like a rocket. There are eight areas in all; nine if you count the endgame temples. Everybody should remember the collecting of the KONG letters, which is present here. Also, each level has puzzle pieces that can be collected. There are bonus rooms sprinkled throughout each level in which the player must collect all of the items within thirty seconds to obtain a puzzle piece. Rambi the Rhino is back; unfortunately, only in a couple of levels with very limited use. Also, there are no Rambi-specific bonus levels. I was very saddened by that. The only other animal character is Squawks, but he only works as a purchasable item that helps locate puzzle pieces. Some of the boss fights are incredibly hard, while others will be easily beaten without wasting a single life. They were all fun though.
   I have mixed feelings about the graphics in Donkey Kong Country Returns. The bottom line is that the Wii generally fails when it comes to impressing graphically. I believe Donkey Kong Country has always been the shiniest game on any Nintendo platform it has graced; even the N64. However, this is a far cry from where graphics in games are today. Also, the way it runs that disc in the console is shameful. To have moving backgrounds behind living scenes is really a standard. Nintendo does not even do it in high-definition. That said though, this definitely looks like a throwback to Donkey Kong Country, but the whole scene is just underwhelming in comparison to the Super Nintendo predecessors. Another graphical problem I saw was collision detection with a few of the baddies and obstacles. There were many times when I felt the collision was off by a centimeter or more. Even my wife said something about it at one point, which really highlights the point.
   The audio was anything I would have wanted from Donkey Kong Country. Already mentioned was the complete lack of voice-overs. My experience so far with Wii and video game narratives is either they have none or too much. After a long day, gameplay always wins over video game narrative for me. Spare me the talking and let us play! The music never strays from the classic, straight down to banana collecting and the boinks and bongs. I would like to hear some new mixes in the future; however, it was a good choice not to stray too far from the original soundtrack.
   Donkey Kong Country Returns offers two control schemes; with nunchuck and without. I chose the without scheme, but my kids really liked the nunchuck layout. Holding the Wiimote like a classic controller works best for me. Yet, I cannot help but feel like I am playing a Nintendo game when using the Wiimote as a classic controller. It is small, only has a couple of buttons, and you get blisters on your thumb from needing to jam down the directional buttons. The whole thing is just archaic and I wish we could move on to a real game controller. The implementation was perfect though. My jumps always landed fairly. I never felt as if I did not have good control of Donkey Kong.
   All in all, I love Donkey Kong Country. This franchise will always be known for some of the funnest, purest, challenging platforming available. This entry was true to the originals. We definitely need more DKC soon. However, I really want Nintendo to know that is time for something new. I really missed the ridable spider, ostrich, and swordfish. Water levels in general were absent from this edition. When things like this happen, it feels like players are getting less for their money. Please do not be afraid to go outside the box when bringing back a franchise. You might not go so far as to go from 2D to 3D, but you can still do something new. Love Donkey Kong Country Returns for what it is, but do not be afraid to ask for better next time.

Free/Indie Game Review: Paper Venture - Quick and Simple Fun

Title:        Paper Venture
Platform:     Flash - Plays in browser
Release Date: November 18, 2010
Developer:    Arcade Armory
Site:         http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/553931
My Rating:    8. Pretty fun and will not take
                 long to beat.

   Paper Venture is a cute little Flash game that most people will be able to beat in a single coffee break. The game challenges you to guide a basic figure through thirty levels without hitting any saws, hitting your head, or going off screen. This is a platformer in the simplest terms of platforming. It will take you back to the days of Super Mario Bros. The story is very basic: the character fell down a hole and you are guiding it back up.
   The controls are all mouse, which is refreshing for a Flash game. Your mouse cursor is the rectangle thing shown in the picture. You use it as a moving platform to help the character work around saws and get to other platforms. The character can also hit the side of the cursor to turn around. Seems pretty simple, yet there is enough of a challenge to make you have to repeat several levels many times over.
   I was a fan of the visual style from the very beginning. It is a basic layout. Everything is pencil sketched on paper. The mouse cursor looks like an eraser, to the point where I expected it to erase things as I went. It does not. There will never be so much that it will not be immediately obvious as to what to do. Avoid saws, hit walls to turn around when needed, make it to the door.
   The soundtrack for Paper Venture drew me in. It is a simple looping track. However, it makes the game feel like the platformer it is. I would have liked some sound effects. Saws should buzz and the character should scream when dying. However, for this version, the only sounds comes from the soundtrack.
   If you are looking for a quick, easy, fun, and free way to dispose of about fifteen minutes, head on over to NewGrounds Flash Portal and give this game a try. I promise, it is worth your time.

Review: Angry Birds - The Only Reason You Need to Buy a Smartphone

Title:        Angry Birds
Platform:     Android (also on iPlatform)
Release Date: September 28. 2010
Developer:    Rovio
Publisher:    Rovio
My Rating:    10. Seriously, get a smartphone
                  and play this game.

   Very rarely is there a game that hits its target so well that it deserves a perfect score. However, Angry Birds is definitely one of those games. Developed originally for the iPhone and eventually making it ways to the Android, Angry Birds is a game that is quick and easy to play, but addictive enough to keep you coming back for more. Get a smartphone, it is free on the Android OS, and be prepared to be taking half-hour bathroom breaks. This one will keep you coming back for more.
   There is not much of a story in Angry Birds. However, for a cellular device game, this is perfect. What story there is is passed along in the few cut scenes. Basically, green pigs stole eggs from birds with amputated wings. Actually, nobody says the birds have amputated wings except for me, but they cannot fly, so I will explain it away by claiming the green pigs amputated their wings while stealing their eggs. Of course, birds do not like it when their eggs are stolen. Now, they are sling-shooting their way through the pigs' hideouts in an all out war to recover their eggs.
   Each stage in Angry Birds challenges you to slingshot through a fortification made of wood blocks, ice blocks, and stone blocks to kill some green pigs. There are a handful of different birds that all come with their own ability, strength, and weakness. You usually get four or five birds to destroy all of the pigs with. As you break the different blocks, blocks around the one also fall or otherwise take damage. In many of the stages, taking out the pigs is the easy part. Finding the correct way to destroy the blocks in order to get at the pigs is the challenge. You must kill all of the pigs to advance to the next stage. Bonus points are awarded for causing damage to the blocks. You can get up to a three-star rating on each stage. Getting all of the stars in an episode unlocks a bonus level. Also, some stages have golden eggs that can be collected to unlock bonus levels. Check out this trailer on YouTube for a look at the simple but fun gameplay.
   For me, the visual style in Angry Birds is pleasantly refreshing. I love 2D video games, always have, always will. Angry Birds takes full advantage of the high-density resolutions on smartphones while keeping it simple. Everything about it looks like a high-definition Nintendo game. The color palette is small, simple, and fitting. The blocks come in three varieties. It is very easy to tell them apart. The birds are colored and shaped appropriately to give a visual clue as to what they do. When blocks are hit, they break apart, fall appropriately, and even cause damage to obtructions below. The whole thing is very entertaining to watch.
   The sound effects in Angry Birds are great. The birds go "weeeeeeeeeee" as they fly through the air. You can hear the blocks breaking and pigs getting hit. The whole experience with the sound effects will keep you cracking up.
   The controls were very clean cut on the phone. Put your finger on the slingshot, pull back to line up your shot, and release to go. Quick and simple. I did sometimes slingshot a bird backwards while swiping across the screen to look at the pig/block arrangement; however, you can quickly restart the levels, so you mostly just feel dumb for doing it.
   Angry Birds will easily be one of the top five memorable games of 2010 for me. This game is a well-targeted time killer that hit its mark dead on. The first experience is great, the seasonal version is fun. Not only that, but I can see many opportunities for added gameplay mechanics if and when they decide to make an Angry Birds 2. If you have not yet made the jump to a smartphone, now you have the only excuse you need. Well, that and fart-sound ringtones, of course.

Trophies

   For most people that know me, it is no surprise that I am a PlayStation fanboy. PlayStation and I have been a happy couple since my early teenage years. When PlayStation 3 came out, my wife was wonderful enough to buy me one; even though the price tag was rather exorbitant. The early life of the PlayStation 3 was filled with turmoil. There was not much of a library. Nobody knew for sure whether or not the Blu-Ray format would catch. I stood by my PlayStation though. Slowly but surely, functionality was added and the library caught up to match. Then, the final push towards widespread acceptance was the death of the HDDVD format. With following price cuts, it was no longer a large gamble to develop a game for the PS3. Instead, it became known as the standard. One idea that Sony undoubtedly "borrowed" along the way to current-generation fame was the achievement system out on the XBox 360, called trophies. Everybody that plays PlayStation 3 earns at least a few trophies in the course of gameplay. Here, I present my ideas on trophies, trophy collecting, and trophy hunting.
   In basic terms, a PlayStation trophy is an indicator of a completed objective. Some of these objectives are completed during the course of normal gameplay. Others require extraneous gameplay. Some objectives are defined in the trophy list. Other objectives are hidden; only discovered after being completed. The trophies come in four flavors: bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. All disc-based games have at least one platinum trophy, which is usually awarded for obtaining all other trophies in the game. Most PlayStation Network games offer a gold trophy instead of a platinum, due to their smaller nature. Trophies are great in general. They offer immersion into games on different levels. First, you are able to show your trophies to all of your PlayStation Network friends; as well as post your PlayStation ID with trophies on various websites. This lets people see how well you are doing. If they feel so inclined, they can check out which games the trophies were earned in. On another level, trophies really add to the gameplay experience. They act as a set of secondary objectives to all games. For the people that are obsessed with earning trophies, this can mean many more days of play time per game. I believe that everybody feels at least a little excitement from earning trophies, regardless of the degree of which they actively go collecting.
   Trophy collector would definitely describe my level of trophy obsession. I go into a game with a very specific purpose: game completion. However, I will go out of my way to earn the majority of the trophies along the way. As you can see though, (in my sidebar), I do not hold a single platinum trophy. This is because earning all the trophies in a game requires a level of devotion that I simply do not have time for. Some games have trophies that are easier or more fun to collect than others. Therefore, in some games, I have a great majority of the trophies, while in others, I may have less than half. Some games, I actively continue playing after completion to earn some of the trophies. Other games go straight to the shelf. I will sometimes even cross the lines to trophy hunter and do things such as keep multiple save states for the purpose of returning to an earlier point in the game at a later time to try to get trophies that were maybe easier to obtain earlier or not possible to obtain later. I would love to earn some of those platinum trophies; however, due to my ever-growing game library and current backlog of games to play, it is highly unlikely you will see my moniker with a platinum trophy for some time.
   I have a deep admiration for the trophy hunters. Whenever I see somebody that has several platinum trophies, I know they worked hard for it. Even in the games that are known for being easy to collect trophies in, there is always at least one that they make you work for. No matter which game these guys play, trophy collection becomes much more than just a secondary objective. Collecting all the trophies actually becomes the point of playing the game. They will work for hours just to collect a single, seemingly impossible to obtain, trophy and the thought of shelving the game would be an act of heresy if they had not yet accomplished the task. They will even sink to low levels, such as playing the kid games, just to earn some easy platinum trophies. Again, while I would like to earn some platinum trophies at some point in the life cycle of the PlayStation 3, I simply could not fathom putting in the time needed to do this. Most of these people are the same people that were online the last time you turned your PlayStation 3 off and still logged in when you turned it back on the next day. Not only are they dedicated, but they have very little going on outside the world of PlayStation.
   All of us that own a PlayStation 3 earn trophies. Some of us feel the experience of earning trophy is more rewarding than others. No matter if you just earn the trophies that you get from playing the game, you actively go trophy collecting from time to time, or you are a true trophy hunter, it is hard to deny the pleasure you get when you hear the little ding associated with the unlocked trophy in any game.

Review: PixelJunk Shooter - A Pleasant Waste of Time

Title:        PixelJunk Shooter
Platform:     Sony PlayStation 3 (PlayStation Network)
Release Date: December 10, 2009 (US)
Developer:    Q-Games
Publisher:    Sony Computer Entertainment
My Rating:    8, very fun to play, 
              but not much going on. 

   PixelJunk Shooter is an original take on a 2D space shooter game from the people that brought popular PlayStation Network games such as PixelJunk Monsters and PixelJunk Eden.
   The story in PixelJunk Shooter is that you are on a rescue mission to save stranded miners on an exotic planet. An exoplanet was found to have a rare, but valuable, mineral. Many miners were sent there to drill for the mineral, but after digging so far, their equipment turned on them. When trying to retreat, the planet came alive, with monsters attacking them on the way out. Your job is to get in, save as many miners as you can, and destroy the awry machinery.
   As a rescue mission, the gameplay is quite a bit different than what you might expect from your typical shooter. Much of the play in throughout the levels in the three areas is based on clearing obstructions to get to the miners. The obstructions can either be cleared using the guns equipped on your ship; fired with the right shoulder buttons, or using the various liquids that appear in the levels. For example, you will see a lot of ice that can only be cleared using lava. Normally, lava will cause your ship to heat up. If you heat up too much, your ship will explode. However, there are parts of the game that give you the ability to withstand the heat, and at times, actually be impervious to heat while taking damage from cold. Items; including miners, can be picked up with a grappling hook attached to the ship, using the left shoulder buttons. As you progress through the levels, you will encounter some enemies. These come both before and after reaching miners. Therefore, you might think a room is all clear, but will be surprised with some extra monsters popping out on the way to the exit.
   The slower-paced gameplay will definitely not prepare you for the boss battles. There is one for each area; three in all. I found them to be frustratingly difficult, which slightly dampened my view of the game. The bosses are; as you might expect, somewhat tough. This is in disproportion to the rest of the game, which is fairly easy. Because your ship will usually be destroyed in one hit, if you get to the boss without a shield, you will likely find yourself dying time after time while attempting to defeat the boss. Luckily, the boss fights are few and far between. Before you know it, you will figure out the boss and be advancing to the next area.
   As we have come to expect from the PixelJunk brand of games, the visual style in PixelJunk Shooter is pleasantly unique. The surroundings in the levels very much make you feel as if you are in underground caverns on an alien planet. I hate to make this comparison, because the visual style is very different, but I could not help but be reminded of Super Metroid in the thought that you are in a world very different from your own. The color palette is somewhat flat, mostly earthly. There is a lot of blues, browns, yellows, reds, and oranges. The monsters are not like any you have seen in other games. They are mostly mechanical in nature, popping out from the walls to shoot at you as you pass by. As mentioned, this is a 2D game. The background that the sprites and level are drawn over give hint that there is more cavern to explore. To get a full idea of the visual style, I would recommend checking out this E3 trailer available on YouTube.
   The audio track in PixelJunk Shooter adds to the aesthetic appeal of the game. It is a very basic track, but it feels right. The music is very calm, which matches the gameplay. When there are monsters on the screen, it picks up a little bit, but quickly quiets down when the action is over. The sound effects also seem to match with the visual style. They are different enough to set this game apart from other shooters, but are very appropriate for the gameplay and artwork.
   The controls are simple enough to quickly figure out. The left shoulder buttons are used to grab things in the environment. The right shoulder buttons are used to shoot. The left analog stick is used to move around. The right analog stick is used to change the orientation of the ship. For the most part, this all works well. However, I was not a huge fan of some of the physics. At times, it seemed the ship could not move quick enough; even when holding both analog sticks in the same direction to move more quickly. When you did get moving, the little bit of momentum would keep you going a little bit after changing direction. This is to be expected, as we know from basic physics lessons. However, what I did not like was how the orientation of the ship would adjust. Sometimes, I would have the perfect shot lined up, but as I would shoot, the ship would change its angle slightly. I am sure this was done purposefully; perhaps to simulate the recoil of shooting a gun. I just did not care for it much.
   All in all, I would say PixelJunk Shooter will make for a great afternoon for anybody looking to dive into one of the many experiences offered on PlayStation Network. The game is short, so it will not take up too much time from your busy gaming schedule. However, you will instantly fall in love with how the gameplay, visual style, and audio track come together to create this unique shooting experience.