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Kids Corner NDS Review: Silverlicious

By
Chris Scott
– April 19, 2012Posted in: Kids Corner, Nintendo DS, Reviews

Little girls love pink. As stereotypical as it may sounds, it is also generally true. Authors Elizabeth and Victoria Kann took this simple stereotype and have built the successful Pinkalicious franchise of children’s books. The books, while celebrating the color pink, also attempt to teach children a good lesson. The latest in the line of books is Silverlicious, a story about Pinkalicious losing her sweet tooth, has also made the transition to the handheld gaming space with a DS game of the same name.

Adult Review

While I know my daughters’ book shelf has Pinkalicious on it, and they know the character, that is where my knowledge of the series ends. So going into Silverlicious I had no idea what the core concept of the game would be other than it looked like a simplistic platformer directed primarily at little girls. There is little denying that the game is in fact those two things but it also something more than that.

Silverlicious is a platformer and like many kids games there is seemingly no fail state to the gameplay, however Silverlicious is story driven, telling the story of how Pinkalicious lost her sweet tooth and her quest to get it back. Nearly every level is preceded by some delivery of the story, setting up the context for the next fantastical area that is to be explored. With so many kids games just throwing its players into the world with very little context, it is nice to see a game take its story delivery seriously.

Another aspect that separates Silverlicious from other kids games is that, despite not having a fail state, it still requires the player to learn the game mechanics in order to progress. Instead of making Silverlicious a straightforward experience, like so many other kids games, Silverlicious’s levels are filled with platforming puzzles that can only be solved by utilizing a particular power, activated by changing into the appropriate costume. Changing costumes is as simple as a button press and the fun of the game comes from figuring out when to actually utilize the powers.

Even with these positive aspects, the game is really nothing an adult gamer would care about unless of course they are directly playing with their child. And that is the primary issue with Silverlicious, it is a great game for a five year old but not for anyone that has played more than a couple platformers in their time.

2 / 5

Kids Review

In the past with these reviews I have utilized my oldest daughter and my son to help with these pieces. This time I offered up the opportunity to my four year old daughter, who also happens to be a lover of all things pink. She loved being able to help me out with the review, while also playing on her sister’s Nintendo DS, but her experience with Silverlicious was a mixed one that did not start out very well.

Having been playing games for so long, I often forget there was a time before games for me, a time when I had to learn how to work the device and figure out the game mechanics on my own. Silverlicious was that game for my four year old. That is not to say that Silverlicious was her first game but it was the first game that made her learn the device and the game mechanics to progress, as opposed to just having them handed to her always, and let us just say that it was a bit of a struggle.

However, where most kids games do not offer a reason to keep playing once you hit a wall, Silverlicious has the story to drive it forward and my daughter wanted to know what happened next and so she kept plugging away at it. Early on when she would get stuck, she would hand the DS over to either my wife or myself asking for some help but towards the end she was figuring out that she needed certain costumes to reach certain areas and was beginning to get the mechanics down. It was still a little tough for her, especially considering the DS is a bit big in her hands but there was a noticeable evolution of her abilities.

When asked if she enjoyed it she said she did quite a bit and her favorite part of the game was collecting the items on each level. Ultimately, it ended up being a learning experience for her and thanks to the game’s personality it had enough draw that she saw it through to the end.

5 / 5

As a reviewer, I hate dealing with qualifiers. Good should be good regardless but sometimes that just is not the case. Silverlicious is a good game for little girls learning to play games. It is not designed for anyone else and honestly that is OK.

Pros

  • Story driven platformer
  • Engaging platforming mechanic
  • Educates kids on gaming basics without being overly hard

Cons

  • No fail state
  • No appeal to anyone outside of target audience

4 / 5

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Kids Corner NDS Review: Xia Xia

By
Chris Scott
– April 13, 2012Posted in: Kids Corner, Nintendo DS, Reviews

When a new toy hits it big everyone wants one. Two years ago, there was a rush on cute mechanized hamsters, called Zhu Zhu Pets. This past Christmas all the rage was about cute little hermit crabs, called Xia Xia’s, which had customizable shells. Building off that popularity, Game Mill has brought young gamers the DS platformer, Xia Xia, based on the imaginary world these little crabs live in.

Adult Review

There was a time, not too long ago, when I knew what all the hot new toys were. Recently though, toy trends come and go so fast it is hard to keep up. As such, until last Christmas I had no idea what a Xia Xia even was. I understand the Pillow Pet phenomenon, after all kids love stuffed animals and one that transforms into a pillow is cool. But toy hermit crabs? Really, kids think this is cool?

As a father of little girls and as a reviewer of video games, my inability to understand why little girls would like brightly colored toy hermit crabs is something that makes it hard for me to relate to the primary draw of the game. However, as someone who grew up playing the likes of Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog, I can relate to the core mechanics of the game as a platformer and Xia Xia is a platformer.

In fact, Xia Xia is a very simplistic platformer, obviously designed with the core audience of the toy in mind. The main goal of the game is to traverse each level searching for lost hermit crabs. Finding these crabs unlocks additional levels with some levels needing to be traversed multiple times in order to advance. Even so, the core game can be completed in less than two hours.

None of this posed any sort of challenge to me as there is seemingly no fail state and aside from some simple platforming puzzles, the game is pretty straight forward. Xia Xia will most likely not engage any adult gamers that give it a try although it could be far worse in its design and implementation. That said Black Lantern Studios is obviously not targeting lifelong gamers like myself for Xia Xia, but rather little girls that might want to own a plastic hermit crab.

2 / 5

Kid’s Review

There is a rule in my house, if you see it on television you cannot have it, so my wife and I were lucky enough to escape the Xia Xia toy phenomenon. Despite this fact, when I asked my eight year old daughter if she wanted to help review the Xia Xia game, she jumped at the opportunity.

Having played some platformers previously, my daughter found it easy enough to jump right in and begin progressing through the game. Early on she had no problems navigating the levels in search of the missing crabs but this changed as the platforming puzzles got slightly harder and on more than one occasion she had to ask for help progressing. This did not diminish her desire to play the game though and over time she even began to figure out the puzzles on her own.

Surprisingly, the one aspect of the game I thought she would enjoy the most, the ability to customize the crabs, was somewhat of a bust for her. Where she spent hours dressing up her pillow pets in the Pillow Pets game, she had very little desire to change the shells of her hermit crabs. When pushed as to why, she said she just didn’t feel like it. Eight year old girls, right?

Overall though, Xia Xia was a game that she enjoyed and one that she will probably come back to quite a bit over the next little bit, or at least until the next big craze comes along.

4 / 5

Xia Xia is a competent, if rather simplistic platformer. It is clearly designed for little girls but at the very least, it will not offend adult gamers when their child asks for a little bit of help during the “hard” parts.

Pros

  • Competent platforming design
  • Colorful

Cons

  • Overly simplistic
  • Extremely short

3 / 5

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Vagary.TV’s 2011 Game of the Year Awards

By
VTV Staff
– January 10, 2012Posted in: Editorials, Guides, News, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, PC, PS3, Vagary.TV, Xbox 360

You don’t need to listen to some of the podcast deliberations on the site to realize that 2011 has been one of the finest years for gaming in a long while. The year had downloadable titles like Bastion sit next to or above high profile retail games like Portal 2 and surprises like Rayman: Origins and Saint’s Row: The Third. The seldom appreciated and often dust ridden Wii was graced with the latest Nintendo dungeon adventure of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

With all of those games in mind, we locked ourselves in a Google Document and threw emails at each other until we came up with a list of Vagary.TV’s games of the year. Enjoy.

 

The Don Parsons Award for Best Flying Game: Ace Combat Assault Horizon

Don comes down from his mountain to review flight games. In his spare time, he reviews flight games

By: Don Parsons

2011 was a stellar year for flight combat game enthusiasts (see: Me). From the great story-telling of Air Conflicts: Secret Wars to the fantastic plane modeling and dog-fighting of Jane’s Advanced Strike Fighters, there was one that really stood out. Ace Combat: Assault Horizon exceeded all expectations, and not only delivered some great combat in the skies, but also gave us an epic and cinematic story. As if that wasn’t enough, it actually had people playing the game online. Both other games had online modes but, sadly, not a soul could be found playing them. Assault Horizon blew me away with its presentation and deserves to be called the Flying Game of the Year.

 

Best Xbox 360 Exclusive: Gears of War 3

Marcus' du-rag finally comes off. 'Nuff said.

By: Chris Scott

No other series, sans Halo, means as much to the Xbox brand as Gears of War. Knowing that, developer Epic Games had a lot of weight on its shoulders for the finale of the Gears saga to begin with, and Microsoft’s first party lineup of games in 2011 was oddly devoid of many big name games.

Fortunately for both Epic and Microsoft, Gears of War 3 not only delivers on the expectations for the series, it handily exceeds them. The single player campaign, which is also playable in four player co-op, is the best in the series and actually delivers some emotional characterizations to characters many people thought had none. Horde mode was drastically remodeled and delivers one of the best co-op experiences this year and is complimented by Beast mode, an incredibly fun reversal of the Horde formula. The competitive multiplayer is deeper, more balanced, and more fun that it has ever been. Additionally, the game controls better than ever, the new weapons are a ton of fun, and it’s more visually improved and diverse than any Gears game to date. Everything about Gears 3 feels incredibly polished. No game offered the complete package that Gears of War 3 did but, most importantly, it was a hell of a lot of fun to play.

 

Best Playstation 3 Exclusive: Uncharted 3 Drake’s Deception

Drenched in hopelessness and vulnerability without a drop to drink

By: Kyle Baron

Uncharted 3 had plot holes and some contrived sequences that existed in service of gameplay, but none of that even entered my mind when I was playing it. Nathan Drake’s latest and possibly last venture on home consoles is a technical marvel that has you travelling across the world through acrid tombs, under the glaring suns of deserts, and through the often exploding and crumbling action set pieces of ocean liners and ancient castles.

Beneath all of that, Uncharted 3 tells a subtle yet pervasive story of Nathan as a man who is always close to what he wants while he’s about to lose everything else in the process. In and out of all of the gunfights, we see that his love for adventure and treasure is threatening to take the ones he loves away from him; it might be a narrow escape by a friend or the love of his life mumbling about her wedding ring, but that underlying battle is what stuck with me until the end of the game. Uncharted 3 beat out Infamous 2 for this award by one measly vote, and that really speaks to the level of emotion that both games subtly meter out with great effect.

Sure, the Playstation Network outage was an absolute mess, but Playstation 3′s had a great year for great exclusives.

Runner Up: Infamous 2

 

Best Shooter of the Year: Battlefield 3

It's best to just vault over single player into the rest of the game, really.

By: Don Parsons

The battlefield for modern shooters was rough in 2011. There were two camps split down the middle, with a small margin enjoying both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3. After our staff voting, there was clearly one winner: Battlefield 3. While not a bad thing at all, most people feel like Modern Warfare 3 is just “more Call of Duty,” whereas Battlefield 3 took what made Battlefield: Bad Company 2 great and expanded it.

Everything that makes the Battlefield series great is here. The Conquest and Rush game modes, developer DICE-designed maps [that are always amazing], squad-based teamwork, and epic vehicular combat are all great. There’s also been a few changes that are just grand enough to stand out and make this feel like a step forward instead of the “same old thing.” The biggest of those changes is to the weapon progression system, which has kept me personally invested for dozens of hours. Smaller things like jets and being able to go prone also enhance this beautiful collective package.

Runners Up: Gears of War 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Game of the Year:  The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim

Not all of our staff were psyched about Skyrim being our game of the year

By: Tony Odett

Over the past few years, I’ve developed what I like to call “video game restraint.” When I was younger, time seemed to disappear when I put a game in my console. I’d forget to eat and sleep. I’d think about the game I was obsessively playing while at work that day, while of course trying to function on the three hours of sleep I had gotten because I had needed to beat just one more level, complete one more quest, or take one more city.  But then I became an adult with a wife, kids, and a big boy job. My gaming obsession was curtailed, and those feelings of addiction were forever lost. Even Mass Effect 2, which I thought was the best game I had ever played, found itself chopped into two hour increments, and never played past 1:00 a.m. I was until complete control.

Until Skyrim.

The real crux of a game, the thing that really matters, the most important factor for anyone isn’t storyline or graphics. It’s not even gameplay. No, the most important quality a game has, deep down, is how playing it makes you feel. Skyrim makes me feel like a kid again. It takes me back to a place in my life I had thought gone forever, where time melts away and I am lost in a new, amazing world.  Skyrim has moved me from jaded disillusionment to utter gaming joy. With deep lore, an addicting leveling system, loads of quests, and the deepest, most populating gaming world I’ve ever seen, I give you Skyrim, Vagary’s 2011 Game of the Year

Runner up: Super Mario 3D Land

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Kids Corner NDS Review: Pillow Pets

By
Chris Scott
– November 12, 2011Posted in: Kids Corner, Nintendo DS, Reviews

Children love stuffed animals and the idea to transform stuffed animals into a transforming pillow was a capitalistic stroke of genius. Since their humble beginnings Pillow Pets have grown to be a very big deal in the toy market, with them selling in a lot of major retail outlets. Still despite their ever increasing success, I never thought I would see a game based on the stuffed toy pillows but that is exactly where we now stand.

Adult Review

Pillow Pets takes place in the magical world of dreamland where everything is cute and cuddly. Despite the happy aesthetic, things are in a state of panic. It seems that many of the pet pillows have gone missing leaving Miss Lady Bug the task of finding them and bringing them back to the playroom. She will do this by embarking on a platforming adventure throughout the realms of Dreamland.

Anyone who has played a side scrolling platforming game before will be familiar with the basic concepts at play in Pillow Pets. Unfortunately, for players that have played a lot of these types of games, those basic concepts are executed in the most simplistic of ways and there is no sense of potentially failing a level.  In addition to the lack of difficulty, the game just is not very long. I finished all the levels and got about 75% of the collectibles in a little over an hour of playtime.

Padding out the game a bit is the ability to dress up the pets in a variety of different accessories. These accessories are gained by finding a variety of collectibles in each of the platforming levels. While there is a definitive cuteness factor to dressing up your pet frog in sunglasses, there is no in game benefit and the customization is all purely aesthetic.

As a longtime fan of platforming titles, I found Pillow Pets to be rather unsatisfying.  However, it was obviously not designed for me.

2* out of 5

Kid Review

Like many kids, my eight year old daughter loves her stuffed animals and has a Pillow Pet of her own (the purple Unicorn) and she eagerly jumped at the opportunity to play the Pillow Pets game for this review. Having played New Super Mario Bros. on both the DS and Wii, she easily acclimated herself to the game and by her own admission, she really liked it.

While discussing the game with her she mentioned three things she really enjoyed about the game. The first was the difficulty, what I found overly simplistic she found to be fun.  She explicitly mentioned that while it reminded her of Mario, it was not as hard and she enjoyed being able to progress through the game because of that. In addition to her feeling the difficulty was just right for her, she really enjoyed customizing her pets and exploring the levels to hunt down the collectibles to unlock other dress up accessories.

However, while she thought that game was just right in terms of difficulty she did point out that some of the levels could be a bit hard. When pushed on the issue she mentioned that some of the pets she had been tasked to find were hidden in “secret” locations on the level and she had trouble finding them. This issue though did little to setback her overall enjoyment of the title. After explaining the five point scoring system to her she immediately professed it as a “5, its awesome”.

5* out of 5

While some games are broad enough in scope that gamers of all ages can appreciate them, Pillow Pets sadly is not one of them. Outside of the overall cuteness factor, there is very little to engage an adult gamer. However, on the flip side, the game will more than likely put a smile on a child’s face as they attempt to rescue their favorite Pillow Pets. As a budget title for the Nintendo DS, one could do worse than picking this game up for their child.

3* out of 5

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Review: Pokémon Black and White (Nintendo DS)

By
Gregory Hutto
– March 7, 2011Posted in: Nintendo DS, Reviews

Have you been looking for a totally awesome, totally new Pokémon experience? Well, Pokémon Black and White is almost totally awesome and somewhat totally new. Pokémon Black and White may be the best Pokémon game to date, in fact. Though, that statement may not be worth its face value. While Black and White have yet again elevated the series with new features, greater detail, and more of those beloved creatures, it suffers from its own 15-year proven formula. That’s not to say there aren’t tons of redeeming qualities that make Pokémon worth playing for the 7th time.

The game takes place in the Unova region, a far departure from the Japanese-like islands of the previous titles. The region is loosely based on New York City and sports a fancy new PokéCenter/Pokémart one-stop joint. This setting is extremely refreshing in presentation and detail and also touts a more diverse representation of culture. Throughout this new journey, pokémasters to be will battle Team Plasma, a misguided pokémon rights activist group. The story follows the trend of the last few games in that Team Plasma is an idealistic bunch of miscreants who want to bring forth a new era via a mysterious legendary pokémon. All of this is set to the all too familiar tune of yet again getting all eight badges and defeating the Elite Four. Perhaps the story isn’t the revolution some were looking for. Now, to be fair, the story is executed in a slightly more mature and developed fashion. With memorable characters and a stronger sense of direction, the story really ups the notch a few clicks. For those who don’t mind the formulaic approach that the games take on, the story can be quite satisfying.

With the story merely being pretty good, the adventure itself almost needs to stand on its own. The good news is it does, as always. It is worth mentioning that some of the smaller nuances make Black and White possibly the most interesting Pokémon game to date. For example, the first gym leader the player challenges is dependent on which starting pokémon was chosen. Savvy players will have a chance to receive a unique pokémon, also based on their starter, for the sake of an extra advantage. Toss in some interesting puzzles and rollercoasters, and players are in for quite the voyage. In addition to Black and White’s main game, there is plenty to do after the story is complete. There are new areas to access in which players can collect pokémon from previous generations, or go to the black or white world depending on the respective title. The Black City is a metropolis where trainers are no-nonsense and money hungry, where as the White Forest is filled with hippies and happy thoughts. All in all, the adventure plays out the same, but feels more unique and developed.

Truly, the biggest changes in Pokémon Black and White are the pokémon themselves. This happens to be one of the least impressive changes. Nintendo/GameFreak seems to believe that adding new Pokemon is necessary. That may not be the case and in fact, may be only hurtful to the series. It is quite clear that they are running out of ideas. Being at a loss for satisfying new pokémon is dangerous business, as Black and White only allow trainers to catch the new 156 pokémon until the game is completed. Many of the new pokémon seem like rehashes, if not poorly designed. Where most pokémon of ole come off as practical re-imaginings of animals found in true nature, these pokémon come off more as random fantastical musings of a particular art style — a whimsical and childish one at that. That’s not to say that they are all lame, as there are a few truly awesome ones, but I subjectively feel as though the return of older pokémon in lieu of construction working pokémon [see below] would have been better. Perhaps it’s worth giving Nintendo/Gamefreak respect for taking a risk with their pokémon this time, but I have a hard time believing the majority of these pokémon will be appreciated en masse. From there, the next big change from the previous HeartGold and SoulSilver series is the level of detail across the board. The game uses a new viewing angle that presents itself in a top down 3D perspective, while retaining the engine of the previous iterations. The tiles still behave like they do in all preceding games, but the new take on perspective does make the game pop quite a bit. Not only that, but everything seems to have its own unique animation. The pokémon sprites still look junky; however, all the sprites have their own movements, the battles show more depth of field, and the fighting animations have been changed – in many cases, spruced up. Also, cut scenes make a larger and more impressive presence. All of this is quite extraordinary, despite some returning flaws, and makes it seem as though the technology of the soon to be replaced DS is actually being utilized (interesting timing, huh?).

There have been tons of changes and features added in this generation, many of them being tweaks for the social experience. There are not just a few new social mechanics, but many. The most important addition is the networking interface called C-Gear. It brings together IR and Nintendo Wi-Fi features. C-gear allows trainers to battle and trade outside of the PokéCenters – FINALLY! Transferring over pokémon from previous titles is now a mini-game in which trainers launch pokéballs at their pokémon using touch controls. It’s far less satisfying than the transfer park from previous titles and seems a bit gimmicky. Also, there are features like the Miracle Blaster, a way to receive various items from other players, pass-by stuff, and standards like IR battles. A lot of these smaller features will be unrealized by many players, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

Black and White also boasts a few new impressive additions in gameplay. While not all of them translate so well, most are welcomed. There are simpler changes, like the ability to reuse TMs, and additions that are more impactful. Day and night, as first seen in the Gold/Silver series, is restored as a game affecting feature. Black and White marks the introduction of seasons. The game’s appearance will change in very impressive ways based on a one month cycle. It also affects pokémon and the areas that may be explored. Though the awe of this feature wears off over time, watching the seasons change will be interesting and give trainers a good reason to come back to the game and explore new areas. Another addition is rotation battles and triple battles.  In rotation battles, pokémon battle one on one and switch each turn between the two available pokémon. In triple battles, three pokémon are sent out on both sides and can attack Pokemon that are either right in front of them or one to either side. While the rotation battles are more interesting and provide an added sense of strategy, neither of them are all too exciting being that they all attack independently from each other. It just feels a bit unnecessary and would be remedied if the pokémon’s attacks were somehow synergized.  Doubles, two on two battles, can now be found in the wild — even less interesting.

Overall, Pokémon Black and White are sure to be pleasers for those who want to pick up the series or desire yet another adventure in the world of Pokémon. For the most part, things are improved. Despite using the beat into the ground formula the series has built itself up for the past 15 years, these titles freshen up things quite a bit. It would seem as though the positives and negatives of the game could be said about any of the previous titles, but the little things really do matter. Sure, it may not be that leap of faith some may have been hoping for, but Nintendo isn’t exactly known for taking risks. At least fans can take solace that the series does what it can to stand out with unique animations, a new perspective, and some fine tweaked features that have been missing far too long. Many of the new pokémon are lame, but luckily all 600+ can be caught later on. For those completely tired of the series, these games won’t be that breath of fresh air; but for those who are ready for another pokéventure, it’s never been better.

4 out of 5.