MadCap's Game Reviews - "Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island"

I've spoken fondly of games from my past that shaped me into becoming a gamer in the past right here on this very blog. For me, it's been games like Pokemon or Banjo-Kazooie or the Super Mario series that were some of the first I ever played as a child.  But some of my earliest memories were in playing two particular games.  You see, I came into gaming at a time after the Super Nintendo, but before the Playstation, and my parents actually had a NES and got me a SNES, so I got the chance to play many different games from that era.  Like the original Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt.

...and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game.  Let me be frank - me screaming obscenities for nine paragraphs is not a review, so no, I won't review this.

Then came the SNES where I played games like Jurassic Park, Scooby-Doo Mystery, and Super Castlevania IV, among others...like Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.  If you've read my review of Yoshi's New Island on the DS, then you know all about my lavishly described backstory in which my mother would play the game and I'd observe for some time until I developed the fine motor skills necessary (give me a break, I was four) to master the big, green dinosaur with a bizarre digestive tract.  After all, even then, I could play Super Mario and pretty well, but this was just something else. Yoshi could do so much more than just the running and jumping that Mario could do.

I can't even tell you how many hours of my life I gave to this game once I was playing myself. It has pretty much all you'd expect from a Mario title. Fun, addictive, and with fair challenge.  At least, that's how it was to me when I was in my...younger youth.  So does the game still hold up to what the rose-colored glasses say it is? Or have I allowed myself to think something is good for all this time only to return to it and find it isn't remotely what I thought?

The Yoshis learned from the Muppets how to travel by map, you see...

Let's begin with the story.  This is the earliest story in the Mario series chronology (no, seriously), beginning with a stork trying to deliver the adorable babies Luigi and Mario to their family in the Mushroom Kingdom when it gets attacked by Kamek, a "Magikoopa" who has foreseen the great trouble that Mario and Luigi will cause for Bowser in the future.  While his attack manages to net him Luigi, the stork drops Mario and the little bundle of joy falls all the way to the eponymous Yoshi's Island.  There he is taken in by the natives, taught their ways, and grows up to be a fine young man who is a great warrior and friend to all animals as the Beastmas-

...oh, wait.  That's that other guy.

Instead, the Yoshis decide to reunite Mario with his brother and go on an epic, multi-colored quest to do just that. With Mario on their back, each Yoshi will take on one level as they move through six worlds of madness in order to reunite the brothers. On the way, Yoshi gets the standard Mario powers - that is to say, running and jumping (along with a flutter jump to give a few more seconds in the air). However, each Yoshi can swallow most enemies whole and...err...eject them as an egg that can then be thrown as a projectile to either interact with the environment or as a weapon.

Crashing all those hopes (of getting an extra life) down the drain...

More than that, the Yoshis can use the power of Morph Bubbles that allow them to transform into various vehicles so they can traverse the environment in different ways for a limited time, as well as being nigh-invincible in this state. The trade off is, again, the limited time. If the player doesn't reach a "Yoshi Block" in time, they're sent right back to the area with the original morph bubble after the aforementioned limited time. There's also the Super Watermelons that come in red, green, and blue varieties that cause Yoshi to spit fire, seeds, or ice in addition to the eggs that can be thrown.

The Yoshis can also collect stars (not the Invincibility Stars of previous and later games) that play into the time-based health system. Yes, time-based as would be used in later games. Yoshi himself is virtually unkillable barring some of the more obvious deathtraps (e.g. giant spikes or falling down a pit) but when a Yoshi is hit, it causes him/her to buck, sending baby Mario flying into the air in a protective bubble.

From there, Baby Mario begins to wail in the most annoying noise ever.

More annoying than the Guild Leader telling you your health is low...more annoying than Sumter claiming that "Green Knight needs food badly!"...more annoying than the sound of Link's heart meter when he's about to die...actually, it's amazing how many really annoying sounds in video games are related to health, isn't it?

So Yoshi either has to catch him within a pre-allotted time or Mario will be captured and the player will be dealt a "Game Over". How do you up the time? By collecting stars, of course. The stars can be collected from Winged Clouds, from defeating certain enemies, and from completing some challenges found in the levels. However, the timer won't go above thirty seconds.  And after thirty seconds of hearing the incessant wailing of Baby Mario, you'll definitely want Kamek to take him...if not just hand him over yourself...

Little known fact, Kamek's mentor was Rita Repulsa

On the plus side, if you get a Super Star, then Baby Mario becomes Super Baby Mario, donning the cape from Super Mario World (the first one) as Yoshi regresses into a giant Yoshi egg and then is able to run through the level with invincibility and reckless abandon...for a limited time, anyway. Still, used properly, a limited time is all you need.

As far as collectibles go, there are also five Flowers in each level. On their own, they do nothing except grant points. On each level, there are thirty stars, twenty Red Coins, and five Flowers that all contribute to your final score. The highest score you can get, as you can imagine, is 100. If you manage to get all five stars in a level, then the end of the level's roulette wheel may land on one, which gets you better odds at trying a mini-game.

Needless to say - unless you're incredibly dedicated - you aren't going to get a perfect score on your first time every time, particularly in the later levels, where it's near-impossible unless you have the mad platforming skills.  Needless to say, I don't.

And the sidekick is recovered. All is well...

However, I will say that I find this game just as enjoyable as when it came out twenty years ago.  Going back to it now, it's nothing but fond memories brought back to life before my very eyes once again. It's one of the first games that brought me towards wanting to play games as a regular form of recreation, one of the first games I ever really played, and so I think it was the perfect choice for my ninety-ninth review.

...wait...ninety-ninth?! I've done ninety-nine reviews?! Really?! Holy moly!  I can't believe it! Ninety-nine reviews?! That means next is the Big One! The one double oh! Stay tuned, Madmen! For next time I come back with a review of a game, we're going to hit the one hundredth review! Stick around!!!

...oh, and Mom? Thanks.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is brought to us by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Super Famicon.

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.

...many falls, but one remains...

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Far Cry 4"

Remember when I reviewed Far Cry 3? Yeah, it was a hoot! A lot of the press releases at the time called it "Skyrim with Guns", which I found absolutely hilarious when I actually got my hands on it. Sure it had the open world experience and graphics that were all kinds of damn pretty, but it didn't really have the political situation or the same feeling of adventure.  Skyrim was another in Bethesda's wonderful sandbox adventure games.  Far Cry 3 on the other hand, is a very tight, interesting plot dealing with themes of insanity and free will versus destiny, among others that happens to have a sandbox added on.

And for that, I dare say that Far Cry 3 was actually far deeper than Skyrim.

Yes, you read it here (so stop staring at the screen like that), I'm actually choosing another game over a Bethesda game.  Clearly I'm going batty. However, back to my original statement, Far Cry 3 was an excellent first person shooter with a surprisingly deep storyline that made you feel for not only the main character, but bothered to make the villain somewhat sympathetic.  But it is not, however, "Skyrim with Guns".

...Far Cry 4 is Skyrim with Guns.

Elephants are awesome!

I'm not kidding.  There's a civil war brewing between the established social order and a ragtag band of native rebels, and a hero comes into the picture at an opportune time to have to pick a side and forever change the destiny of the nation they have been placed into.  Oh, and he has the power to command and ride a mythical creature into battle.  To anyone who disbelieves that statement, get the skill that lets you mount and ride elephants.  You will believe that elephants are magic.

But more to the point, Far Cry 4 forgoes the theme of insanity for much different one this time around - taking apart the Messiah cliche. However, this game goes for the Dune approach and pretty much - spoiler alert! - has no real right answer, it's all based down to personal preference.  Do you go with Guerrilla Leader #1 who wants to help the people but will create a Knight Templar-run religious state in the style of the "old ways", or do you want to go with Guerrilla Leader #2 who is the more pragmatic, wanting to use the nation's only natural resource - opium - to keep the country afloat while bringing it into a more progressive world-stance? Or do you just throw them both under the bus and take over the whole thing yourself? It's all up to what you want to do.  Anyway it goes, somebody's gonna get screwed over and the status quo will never be the same.

Min 2016!

That, of course, brings me to the main villain of the piece - Pagan Min.  Or, at least, that's what you're supposed to think.  In reality, outside of the homicidal killings out of nowhere, the dude is actually really, really awesome.  When the main character, Ajay Ghale (who I'll get to in a minute) comes to Kyrat, Pagan outright murders one of his men when he thinks he might have killed him.

 When he finds out he's not, he's immensely glad and apparently cleared his calendar just for him so they could party! Even when Ajay starts killing off his soldiers and traipsing through the jungle causing chaos, he's all too happy to call him up to chat about his future and about the Twitter of Kanye West (which is apparently hilarious).

The guy kinda sounds awesome, really.

Okay, so major spoilers follow from here, so I'm going to actually put up a warning before I continue. Past this point, if you haven't played this and don't want spoilers...turn back now.  Go watch Keyboard Cat and then go finish the game.

...okay, done? Good. Welcome back. Now we can move on.

Pagan Min was apparently giving it to Ajay's mother back in the day, when she was an agent of the Kyrat resistance movement known as the Golden Path.  However, she was also slinging leg for Ajay's father, who was the leader of said resistance.  However, if Ajay can learn that his father was not exactly the archetypal hero that the Golden Path makes him out to be, and murdered your half-sister, a child of Pagan and Ajay's mother.

As it turns out, and is evidenced very much by his behavior and actions towards Ajay, Pagan loved Ajay's mother deeply (they even had a daughter together, Ajay's half-sister) and sees his return to Kyrat with her ashes as the one chance to reconnect with his lost love and the only family he sees himself as having.  To Ajay, he's not a cruel overlord who wants to crush his spirit and command him entirely - he just wants to be an awesome stepdad who takes you out shooting guns and just having a grand old time.

After all, he's a violent murdering psychopath, but he treats his loved ones well.

"I can see my house from here! No, REALLY!"

You can even pick an alternate ending where Ming takes Ajay to where his half-sister (the "Lakshmana" she requested to have her ashes spread with) has been laid in state, then Min says they can now go "shoot some goddamn guns". There's no post-campaign gameplay after this, but here's hoping that Ubisoft will make some DLC based off this ending. I'd personally love to play the side of the Empire for once and crush some rebel scum (word of mouth is that they are).

Unfortunately, I can't really give the same praise to any other character outside of Longinus (the weapons dealer for the Golden Path, really awesome dude) and Rabi Ray Rana (the voice of Radio Free Kyrat). Both the leaders of the Golden Path (again, seeing a lot of Dune parallels) are rather dull, Sabal and Amita both being two sides of a coin as a mentioned before - one going towards the old ways and another towards progress.

Most damningly, Ajay, who says surprisingly very little throughout the game and is bizarrely easy going about joining up with a resistance movement and screwing up the power structure in the country ruled by a guy who has really been nothing but nice to him. Compared to Jason Brody, whose character and development was not only well done, but integral to the plot of Far Cry 3. It's just rather disappointing to see them dropping back into a character who is almost a blank slate and doesn't seem to operate by any sort of logic.

We know some things about Ajay, but we get very little in terms of who he is and what his motivations are beyond wanting to bring his mother's ashes back to her native country. Why exactly is happy to just drop everything to join a resistance movement against his psycho stepfather really doesn't make that much sense (yes, I know how that sounds, but it's really not that simple).  And unlike the rather colorful cast of Far Cry 3 (Vaas, Hoyt, Citra, Buck, etc...), few individuals stood out to me.

Oh, and Willis came back. And I still wanna shank him in the groin.

As for the gameplay itself, it's not that different from Far Cry 3.  Ajay traverses Kyrat with a single weapon at first, but can later craft holsters to allow himself more weapons in the style of the walking death tornado that was Jason Brody.   Crafting comes back, both with animal skins to create various holsters and packs, as well as syringes that Ajay uses so he doesn't have to heal himself after being gored by a leopard by tugging on his thumb.

Seriously, I'm pretty sure decapitation in the Far Cry universe can be cured by lightly tugging one's thumb.

Working for Pagan Min can give you such a crick in the neck...

Regardless, Far Cry 4 adds some new features that 3 had no, including player housing as mentioning in the inset picture right above.  Ajay gets the Ghale (pronounced "Gah-Lay" by the natives) Homestead and - along with bizarre trips into the mystical land of Shangri-La thanks to a magic (maybe it's magic, maybe it's weed) - it can be upgraded and added to using Kyrat's native currency as you go along through the game.  If you didn't have to climb a mountain to get to it, I'd call it prime real estate, though it does help to explain why it isn't a smoking crater in the ground.

The level up system is back in full force, experience points granting skill ranks that can be put into either the "Elephant" or the "Tiger" skill trees, which pretty much cover all the skills the Tatau gave back in Far Cry 3 plus a few tasty extras.  Like the ability to ride an elephant which is, to reinforce an earlier point, awesome!

My few complaints about it can be dismissed, alas, because this game really is awesome. Like it's immediate predecessor, it's clear that Ubisoft put a lot of work and care into it. Also, any game that lets me fire off an automatic machine gun from the back of an elephant that I'm using to charge into an enemy compound is absolutely going to get a gold star from me, no questions asked.

Mind you, I would still like them to go the extra mile and get us a jetpack in these games, but I'll take the wingsuit and now riding on elephants any day.

Seriously, I rarely outright give recommendations here, but if you happen to have not played this game yet, go play it.

Far Cry 4 is now available from Ubisoft and Ubisoft Montreal for Microsoft Windows, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.

...Many touchstones try the stranger...

MadCap's Game Reviews - "New Super Mario Bros."

Mario, Mario. The Italian plumber known throughout the world as the savior of the Mushroom Kingdom. Constant menace to Bowser, a man with a love of daring adventure, everyone knows who he is and what he's all about.  Nintendo certainly isn't afraid to put this guy on everything.  From go-carting, to music, to paint, and even full blown party games, Mario is everywhere and has done everything.  The guy's even been a doctor!

But, of course - and everyone knows it - Mario is most well-known for his platformers. And why not? The original Super Mario Bros. stands today as a standard by which all other platformers are judged even to this day, thirty years later. If not by that game, then by Super Mario 64...which is also in the series. So it's fair to say that the Mario series is the definitive platformer in gaming. If games don't outright copy it, they at least owe their existence to it. And many will complain that Nintendo is just wringing every last penny they can out of what is a fairly simple and braindead concept.

...say what you will, it friggin' sells!

So it is once again time for Mario to put on his bright red cap and go save Princess Toadstool (yes, I know they call her "Peach" now) once again, through eight worlds of deadly dangers to stop the most evil plot of Bowser and Bowser, Jr. In a surprising show of confidence, Bowser, Jr. takes the reins of most of the kidnapping and stalling Mario throughout the game. This is largely because you fight Bowser  in the first castle and then outright murder him by dropping him into liquid magma.  Yes, you did this at the end of every level in the original, but we never actually saw death.

Now you're thinking, this is a Nintendo game.  Surely death isn't a thing! Let me correct you not once but twice with A) the story of a child gone mad going out dealing drugs, burning down buildings, and engaging in piracy, and B) the fact that at the end of the final castle in World 8 that Bowser, Jr. brings up the bones of Bowser and throws them into a cauldron to resurrect his father from the dead for the final fight.  However, this does mean that the other boss levels can actually be unique to the various environments.  Yes, Mario defeats them by jumping on them, but that's how Mario always solves problems, so we really shouldn't be expecting anything else.

Not that those can't be awesome...

After all, the last time that they tried to do something unique with Mario, they gave him a glorified water gun.

Mario has the standard armament when dealing with Bowser's goons - the Red Mushroom that makes him grow to normal size, the Starman that gives him a brief bit of invincibility, and the Fire Flower that allows him to feed his urge to burn everything to the ground with fireballs. But this time around, Mario has even more at his disposal such as Blue Mushrooms that make him shrink down so he can jump insanely high and get into secret areas, though it comes at the expense of being a bit of a glass cannon due to his size.  Then there's the Super Mushrooms which make the Mario grow! For a limited time, he's invincible and can literally walk through anything, including the flagpole at the end of levels (which is hilarious). Last, but not least, is the Blue Koopa Shell.  Like his longtime enemies, Mario can hide in his shell for protection and aids in swimming.

So new window trimming, but basically nothing that you wouldn't expect from a Mario game. Go on the epic adventure, save the princess, save the world.  After all, Mario does have the most braindead simple plot in video gaming besides "hit this ball between these two sticks". As for this? It's a good game. I very much enjoyed it, and I did find the challenge appropriate as it got into the upper levels. So, for the 200th rendition of Super Mario Bros., very well done.

New Super Mario Bros. is now available from Nintendo for the Nintendo DS.

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.

...The stranger's fate...the curses' bane...

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Banjo-Tooie"

When I spoke of Banjo-Kazooie nearly four years ago, I spoke of it as a game that changed the fundamental way I saw gaming and altered my entire perception of what gaming was for the rest of my life. If I can be frank, this is just more of that, because Banjo-Tooie is just more of the same, and I mean that in the best way.  Some people tend to look down on a movie or game sequel as a desperate money grab by the studio or developer to wring every last penny they can out of the property. While that is the case all too often, it's not in the case of Banjo-Tooie.

No, they waited for the third game to do that...

But enough about games that we'll be getting to later, now is the time for a game I genuinely enjoy.  Banjo-Tooie is a continuation of the story of loveable bird and bear duo Banjo and Kazooie. Riding high two years after they rescued Banjo's sister Tooty (not appearing in this game...sort of) and defeated Gruntilda the Witch and trapped her under a rock - spoiler alert - the two have the shaman Mumbo Jumbo and Bottles the Mole over for a game of poker, unaware of trouble being very much afoot in idyllic Spiral Mountain.

Drilling through the wall that cordons off Spiral Mountain from the rest of the Nintendo world (well, not anymore, I guess) in a giant tank come Gruntilda's other sisters - Mingella and Blobbelda - who use a magic spell to destroy the rock that has imprisoned Gruntilda for two years to reveal that she'll have to bone up on a few things - now apparently having become a lich in her spare time.  Because she's feeling particularly spiteful, Grunty whips up a nasty spell to turn Banjo's house into a big pile of rubble and succeeds...killing Bottles the Mole in the process.

Wait wait wait wait wait, what?!

This may not seem like a big thing, but considering how death is so often shied away from for good guys in Nintendo products, this was a big shock as a kid. Especially to later see the halo-clad ghost of Bottles rise up from his own corpse later on.  After all, the mooks we kill off are a dime a dozen but for something like this to happen to a main character? It was unsettling to my nine year old mind and still, even now that I know the ending, is.

"Honey...you got real ugly..."

Not to be dismayed, and vowing to avenge the Root Muncher, Banjo and Kazooie set off to follow the witches and find the "Isle o' Hags" is where they call home.  Finding the Jinjo Village, they make the acquaintance of King Jingaling (Songaling? Dingaling? Wringaling?), setting up the need to collect Jinjos once more in the game and to show off Grunty and her sister's new weapon the "B.O.B." which can apparently drain the lifeforce completely from any target. This ends up with Jingaling becoming hideous zombie, and anyone within range of the "Big Ol' Blaster" being in danger of the same fate.

So, we've got one hell of a set up and a massive threat that needs to be taken out. Even more so than before.

Mechanically, the game runs almost identically to its predecessor.  Banjo and Kazooie run, jump, peck, and so many other ways to move their way through the worlds collecting Jiggies, Musical Notes, and other memorabilia to be sold in their old age as souvenirs (from the resort "Banjo-Casino"). This time, musical notes are used for Jam Jars - the militaristic brother of Bottles - to teach the bear and bird duo brand new moves - such as how to split up the duo into two separate controllable characters, new varieties of eggs to shoot, and how Banjo can use Kazooie as a gun to fire said eggs in certain areas.

On the magical end of the spectrum, we have a new ally in Humba Wumba - a Native American shaman who uses her magic to transform Banjo and Kazooie into various creatures (including a motherfluckin' T-Rex) to aid them in their quest.  But what purpose, you may ask, does Mumbo Jumbo serve in this game, if not to do as he did in the previous one?

You play as him.

I'm not kidding, you give him a Glowbo (little pink things that can be found in various places in the worlds) and Mumbo will jump up from his chair and go out to perform his magic at specially marked pads within the game worlds, things ranging from making a massive, golden, indestructible statue come to life for a brief time to putting a train back on its tracks and beyond.  Really, I'm very much underselling it.  For all he has to do, to set it up, it's pretty cool.  Also, he has the magical bug zapper he calls a wand, which is always funny to hit enemies with.

"We have a T-Rex..."

Puzzles to open worlds are a little bit different this time around.  Instead of using Jiggies to fill in portraits with pieces missing, Banjo and Kazooie have to collect a certain amount to be allowed to play a puzzle game not dissimilar to those that one could play in Banjo-Kazooie by standing on Banjo's rug in his house and looking at the picture of Bottles at the right angle.  Once the player has completed a puzzle, the mighty Jiggywiggy will open up the door to another world to them.  This does come with the unfortunate time waster of having to go back to Jiggywiggy's place every time you want to open a world up, but with the addition of Jam Jars's silos, this does cut down on time a fair bit.

In fact, the Silo system allows the duo to go to anywhere in the Isle o' Hags that they've visited previously. As I stated above, this saves a lot of time, since the Isle o' Hags is massive and getting around can be a real pain if you haven't found the Silo entrances.  It serves as the Hub world, and is a great deal more varied than Gruntilda's lair with forests, cliffs, and swamps.  The worlds themselves are also varied. From a Mayan temple to a massive underwater world to a world of ice and fire (no, really, and no cutting off of penises, either!) to an entire world that's an amusement park, this game has quite a lot to offer and expands on the first quite well.

And that's the idea - expansion. This game offers more, but without changing what made the original awesome.  Some people may take issue with it being so similar, but I'm not one of them.  Some changes have occurred - such as a few of the moves and the addition of boss fights among others, but not enough to completely detract from what was one of the greatest platformers of N64, but what is still one of the greatest platformers of all time. Even to this day, I can put it in my N64 and still have a grand old time, just like the first one.

...and unlike the one that follows. But as I'm not ready to deal with the atrocity known as Nuts & Bolts quite yet, so I'll sum up. Great game, should have reviewed it earlier, you can get it on Xbox Live if you don't have it on N64. Really, nothing that I can say here is remotely adequate. Go check it out!

Banjo-Tooie is available from Rare and Nintendo (Nintendo 64) and 4J Studios and Microsoft Game Studios (Xbox Live Arcade version).

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.

...Many trials make manifest...