Kirby Super Star: You Are What You Eat

Kirby's Dreamland 2 is one of the first games I ever owned.  I don't remember it that much anymore, but it was the kind of game I'd play for hours and hours.  I must have drained well over a hundred AA Batteries into my Game Boy playing it.  It was pleasant and refreshing to go back to that feeling with Kirby Super Star.

The game has more to it than I expected.  There are three story modes, a gigantic exploration mode, a samurai duel minigame, and more.  But the main thrust of the Kirby games has always been the enemies.  Not because their AI is revolutionary, but because it doesn't have to be.  Kirby obtains different powers and control schemes by swallowing his enemies, but can only have one power set at a time.  So the game is designed around small puzzles that involve having specific enemy powers, and varies the placement of those power granting enemies to create challenge.

This isn't to say the design is perfect, or even the best it could be.  Enemies have a habit of already have attacks fully charged when you enter a room, so you get blindsided by massive damage, and forced scrolling sections speed and slow unpredictably, meaning you will be crushed by the side of the screen at least once.

But this idea appeals a lot to me.  It seems like a really impressive game could be made around it.  And Kirby Super Star is impressive.  But like Yakuza 3, it may have too much.  There are 25 different powers and over 50 different enemies.  That's a lot to try to program uniquely in the 16 bit era.  Remembering the Game Boy and Dreamland 2 (and looking it up on the Kirby Wiki, there's a wiki for everything), there are only 7 powers.  In Kirby 64 The Crystal Shards, each power can be combined with each other for a second tier effect.  You can't design around those kind of numbers.  Not equally.  Somethings are going to be useless garbage and a scant few become cream of the crop.  It's like if Magic: The Gathering endeavoured to make even a single format where every card was at least playable.  Never happening.

Again, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it means that a lot of time and energy that could have been spent on refining base elements was put into elements of the game you don't like.  Having more time to understand, play, and master would have been greatly appreciated.  Kirby has a steep difficulty curve around the midpoint.  Where the first 3 modes are all easily doable, The Great Cave Offensive is bananas, and the kind of bananas that doesn't draw me in.  I can't deal with the constant barrage of attacks and enemies as well as I can in a Souls game or even in a modern shooter.  Yes, design principles have developed a lot from where Kirby started and even owe something to the little pink puffball, but the real power of the game, the fun of wacky powers and mastering all their moves, gets a touch hazy when I'm trying to keep lava and spikes out of my face.

Next time on 100 Games 2015: To The Moon, available on Steam.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon: Practise Makes Vacant

The Castlevania series is something I wish I'd grown up with more.  I've played most of the older ones, and enough of the newer crop to see the appeal, but it's the kind of history and experience I wish I could track in relation to my maturing.  The original Castlevania is a shining gold star of level design and understands how powerful the simplicity of 2D linear gameplay can be.  And even with that, the game still manages to be full of secrets.

Castlevania is a lot like Dark Souls.  Or perhaps Dark Souls is a lot like Castlevania.  Mastery of the game comes from understanding the limits of your character, and relying on a set of distinct rules you base your play around.  Rules like You can stop small fireballs with your whip or If you can see an enemy from where you are, you can kill it from there.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon takes the newer approach to the series, popularized by Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.  Instead of linear action-platforming, the game takes a sprawling, non-linear style and adds RPG elements such as equipment, consumable potions and other items, magic spells, and a leveling system.

I won't pretend I'm not a perfect target for this kind of game.  Satisfying control, distinct advancement and player empowerment lots of secrets, challenges, unique bosses... it's targeted squarely at my joy department and massages with gentle grace.

But there's an itch this kind of game doesn't scratch.  Circle of the Moon is a large enough game to keep me entertained, but it's the kind that doesn't leave me with a strong feeling of satisfaction.  The original Castlevania, Dark Souls, Vanquish to an extent, these games are frustrating and difficult, they leave me beating my head against my controller.  Sometimes I make the mistake of going to these games for light enjoyment and some basic abnegation.  Circle of the Moon is that kind of game.  It's not easy, but it's not so complex that I can't just tune out and wade through halls full of skeletons, whip out, spells flying.  The secrets and upgrades the game has are almost never so interesting as to make me reconsider my play style, and the few that would be are found so early that it feels like I'm deliberately crippled without them.

Again, the game isn't easy, and it is entertaining, but it doesn't have that sense of mastery that the original could manage.  And this isn't just Circle of the Moon's problem, either.  Symphony of the Night has the same issues.  When I am so powerful that enemies basically explode if they step into my country, I can't go back to that original dis-empowered beginning without feeling a sense of annoyance at how much work I need to do to have fun again.

 Castlevania: Circle of the Moon will entertain, and to its credit , beating the game unlocks new play styles to vary the experience which is great.  But I don't see myself returning to it.  Or maybe even returning to this style of Castlevania game.  I feel there are better venues to tune out and do nothing, and while I respect the difficulty of designing all this game to work with so many varied styles, I don't ever find myself trying tactics more complex than "Whip it and jump away."  I still think Symphony of the Night is the better example of the style, but I haven't played all the myriad of games in the style.

Next up on the 100 Games: Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.