Advance Wars 1 (Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp) (Switch)

 

It ain't nothing but a heart-breaker
(War) Friend only to The Undertaker
Oh, war it's an enemy to all mankind
The thought of war blows my mind

Another remake, the first GBA remake I can think of (well, beside the Ace Attorney-games). I've played all of the Advance Wars game released in the west (not finishing them all, but one day maybe). As traditions with this game it was off course delayed. First to fine tune some parts of it from its originally release in December 2021 so it was moved to March or April 2022... and then the Ukraine-Russian War started. Kinda ironic since the original was supposed to come out the week after 9/11 back in 2001 in Europe and they delayed it to the spring of 2002 instead. Well it's finally out and it was a breeze playing through the first game again. 

Story is that Orange Star, a country pretty much appearing like USA/Europe is suddenly attacked by Blue Moon by CO Olaf, a country modelled after... Russia.... Oh Boy! Orange Star only have you, the player, as an Adviser freshly sent from HQ to learn the works with Commanding Officer Nell. After some tutorial levels she hands you over to Andy, a relative new CO as you start to push back Olafs assault and push him out of Orange Star territory. During the journey Andy stumbles upon a pluton of Green Earth Soldiers (modelled after Germany I would argue, with the WW2 hats and blitzkrieg tactics) led by CO Eagle that after taking a beating accusing Andy for some war crimes. 

After that Andy gets reinforcements with CO Max, the strongest CO of them all, but lousy in indirect battle. Both of them push Blue Moon back to their own land so they continue hounding Olaf and his second in command Grit. After beating the Blue Moon army they meet up with Sami, the infantry specialist CO of Orange Star. They are again attacked by Green Earth and... for some reason heads over Yellow Comet (Japan pretty much) and constantly gets attacked, all the while the cutscenes tells us that they also have been attacked by Andy in the past. After beating Kanbei and Sonja it's over to Green Earth and meeting with Drake and Eagle. And during the battles it is revealed that there exists a clone of Andy that have attacked the other nations while Blue Moon was lead to attack Orange Star to keep them busy. All this is orchestrated by the Black Hole Army lead by Sturm, who likes to throw meteors on my most valued troops. You defeat him and all is well.

The new coat of paint is rather nice, although the pixel art has its charm, and the small changes too characterisation they made for some of the CO doesn't add up to me. Also, the quality of life improvements are wonderful. Restarting just a turn makes it so easier if you just did a wrong move (although it can be used to save scum through Fog of War maps). The casual mode (which was the mode I played through it in) is rather nice with a bit more soldiers and getting rid of fog of war in some maps (although I feel it makes it easier for the AI as well since I can't hide as well). And finally, the ability to pick and choose missions after finishing the campaign instead of having to replay the whole thing as well as getting rid of some of the criteria to unlock certain CO:s, as well as being able to chose the CO for the final battle however you want. No more playing X turns on the Kanbei missions to unlock him at the final mission, or playing Max stages to get Grit or Andy against Drake or Sami against Eagle. 

The biggest problem I have is that everyone said this was pretty much a 1 by 1 recreation of the original. Lo and behold my surprise that they cut out most of the tutorial levels. Now, some might say that it went on too long and that the tutorials still pops up when appropriate, but the story and the ability to delve into the POV of the Adviser gets lost. What do I mean? Well, the tutorial levels is where you work together with Nell for 14 missions. She is your CO, she lambast Olaf for his betrayal and gives hint on the relationship between the two and all that. Olofs overconfidence and blunders that he shows throughout the story. And Nell talks to you, congratulate you for your tactics and how fast you can beat certain stages like the mission Dogfights and Air Defence. Now, you pretty much disappears after the first missions. It could be that they wanted 1 and 2 feel like the same game and the advisor roll disappeared in the sequel and I didn't like it then, and don't approve of it now. It felt more immersive in the old game and it's sad it disappears. If they continue like this I hope they don't remake Fire Emblem for the GBA that released in the west since it will feel worse there. But overall it's a fun game and just nitpicking with my preferences. 

Shantae and the Seven Sirens (Switch)

 

Where entry is by seaweed gate
And plan the plan of dreams

The latest game in the Shantae-series. 5th game in the series. Feeling they had it for a while Shantae and friends go on a vacation where Shantae is invited to join in the half-genie festival... where the other half-genies gets kidnapped, so Shantae has to travel across the island and its sunken city to rescue them from the seven sirens. That ends that vacation. 

Standard Shantae fair, find dungeons, get upgrades, save half-genie and defeat boss, get items to get another upgrade repeat ad nauseam and in-between get heart squids to pummel to new heart containers and new for the game is collecting monster cards that will give you bonuses if you equip them. Reminds me a bit of the card system from Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. In every dungeon you fight Risky Boots as a mini-boss before rescuing the half-genie that give you the dungeon upgrade and Squid Baron shows up in places. Small references here and there.

It has its moments. Turns out that the sunken city is actually a sunken ship (I suspect alien since when you open it up it contains enemies with crab and fish design which together with the sirens seems akin to some Lovecraftian monsters from the stars) and Risky is behind the kidnapping with a faustian bargain with the Sirens to get the ship and the Sirens to be released from their imprisonment by a genie back in time. Of course Shantae saves the day since Risky built in some failsafes if the Sirens would backstab her together with one of the Sirens helping Shantae. 

Played it twice, the second time on New Game+ with the magic mode. First time took 9-10 hours and the second time just beyond 7 hours (and 100 % at that). New Game+ was more fun with the fact I could use dances and weapons much more, but the game overall felt rather small. Just 6 dungeons total and maybe that's the problem, missing a 7th dungeon and battle with a Siren, since the game title promised me that. Agree with SomecallmeJohnny that waiting for a price drop might be justified (which I did this time).

Shantae and the Pirates Curse (Switch)

And I bought the game for a third time... help me.

And yet again I bought and played through the third game in the Shantae series. Not much to say than that it still holds up, but it feels that it was 3 years ago since I played it last. Many things still felt unfamiliar and it took me some time to figure out some puzzles. All in all it took me less than 7 hours to speed through it, and afterwards I played through the pirate mode just above 3 hours so I can probably cut some time, but I don't know if I will do it anytime soon. And when I do I probably will be as lost and confused starting this up, but it is fun to run through a game I at least know some things of when playing.

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

Christmas game of 2016

4th game in the series and after 1 day I finished it. Even though I haven't played any of the games since the last game come out I can feel the reflexes still kick in while playing. And I gotta say, after the high-note of the last game which... basically threw out everything that was a Shantae game (transformations and magic) it felt rather nice and double fun to see old transformations like harpy, mermaid and the monkey return. And at least they got rid of remembering the combo to activate the transformation. Story is that Shantae's uncle once again have unearthed a blue print for a machine and... as usual Risky Boots is there to steal it. Stop her and begin constructing the machine that will protect Sequine land forever with the energy boost.

And your off, visiting 5 main levels until you can defeat Risky once again. In between finding the next map you have to travel back and forth between the areas to gather certain items to unlock the next part of the story and doing so get's you more money to upgrade your equipment or find extra hearts or gallery keys. And if you are good enough you can find an item long before it's needed which will spare you a trip and the headache to remember where it was. They also brought back the map overview of watching the different maps and see what they have left to find skipping the irritating wander all over the maps like the first games. What they did get rid of was the world maps... and I find it rather irritating. Usually you could look at the map and learn where you haven't gone. Often that it wasn't fully explored due to missing some ability and with a new move set you think "maybe I can get past with this?". I would assume the reason they got rid of it is due to the stages being rather short. 7 hours total gameplay and then the first playthrough was over, unlocking the hero mode which I haven't started yet since as of writing it's the day before christmas and my sisters are home causing all trouble so I can't play (except finishing the game right as they arrived home for the holidays).

Overall the best traditional Shantae with magic and such of the four existing. And I feel they get easier, but with some of the platforming required I would like to think my platforming skills have been improved by playing. As I jump from platform to platform and instantly switches to the right transformation to continue. Feels like... a Sonic game with the speed. I recall the Pirate's Curse final level to the boss and I feel that it trained me very well for platformers. Overall a good game, now only I could kick out my sisters so that I can finish Hero mode and unlock what I suspect is either Risky's mode or Shantae in Risky's equipment like in Pirate's Curse. Lucky I got a long holiday this year since I was forced to use up all my vacation days I had left.

Ducktales Remastered

Ducktales Woo-Hoo

My sister got the original game for the Nes and obviously it was always a struggle to get to play it. We weren't much for sharing between siblings. But who cares when I got the remastered version instead for the Wii U. Original was made by Capcom while this version was made by WayForward, the same company behind Shantea. Confession first, never finished the original, I got to the final boss, but never got the rhythm to beat him. And people say this is an easy game, I must really suck. Well, lucky for me there is an easy mode so I could finally beat it... and then I played it all the way to hard since that is the best way to unlock all side things. Guess I just have to get good.

Original game cover

Plot is that after the beagle boys tried to steal a map from Scrooge McDuck he himself goes out looking for the treasures hidden in the map. You go to the Amazon, Transylvania, some African mines, the moon and the Himalaya. Turns out it was a ploy by Magica de Spell and Glomgold Flintheart to summon a vampire Count... I wanna say Duckula, but that is another animated series. You defeat him and Duckburg and the world is saved. Apparently several people didn't like this remake. The game lost a lot of it open levels since it forced you to search the whole level often for items to go to the next part of the level, be it map pieces, relics or armour parts. Some people also complained about the voice acting which gave more story to the game compared to the original. I personally liked it since as far as they could they used the original voice actors from the TV-series and that makes it even feel more like the series. A pity they didn't make localisation for Sweden and used the Swedish voices... well, the Swedish voice of Scrooge McDuck had already been dead for several years so that is probably for the better they didn't. And now they are bringing back the series for 2017. How come that the older I get, the more things from my childhood still sees to be on the TV?

Edit 2016-05-23: Well, that was a bit sad since a couple of days ago Alan Young, the voice of Scrooge McDuck, passed away. As stated, to me the voice of Scrooge was the Swedish dub (or both of them since Mickey Mouse Christmas Carol had another voice), but we had one episode of Ducktales and that was the Valentine episode. And Remaster now of course. But to me the most distinguished role was as Haggis McMutton from Curse of Monkey Island and it took me a long time to realise that he also was the voice of Scrooge. Young become 96 years old and still probably will be greatly missed. Of course now everyone will dread who might be the new Scrooge in 2017.

Mighty Switch Force 1+2

  

So during the 25 year anniversary of  WayForward (the company behind Skylanders and Shantae) they had a sale on these games and since they were fairly cheap I picked them up (the strange thing might have been getting them on both the 3DS and Wii U) and they were rather fun puzzle platformers. First game you play this police officer apprehending these five criminal sisters, in the second you are instead a fire... woman protecting the city from spontaneous fire while saving the reformed sisters again. Rather addicting. First one is a bit easier, but not much re-playability after mastering the time trails on each level. The second game gave you also an objective in finding a baby in each stage... and proceed to kick it to safety. Also the difficulty is increased with your weapon is changed from a buster to a water hose (a la Mario Sunshine). Both game have great music, looks great and have that WayForward look to it. Level 16 is the last level and it really test your skills, a bit unfair, but beating them feels so satisfying. The thing is that before you have control of the environment with your flashing helmet, but this level it blinks red three times than the environment changes, meaning you need to time every move to reach the end and the one and only boss. Now the sale is over and gameplay contra price might not be worth it, but try it for a challenge.

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

So what was I doing instead of watching Melodifestivalen? I played Shantae and the Pirate's Curse on the 3DS. You might not believe it, but I think I made the right choice. It was a really fun game, but I mostly picked it up since I had the two first games (also on the 3DS if you were curious) and I'm a OCD on collecting sets. Which mostly was the reason I got it for the 3DS instead of the Wii U. Other things was that I had more room on the 3DS as well. Bonus was that the 3D is amazing, the depth is fantastic although, I can't help notice that they seemed to put some real work into a certain area of the character portraits in story segments. Especially around the chest area.... I'm talking about their bre... How old is Shantae again? No one knows, but appears to be 15-16? Alright I'm staying out of this one. What about Rottytops? Age unknown? But then she is a rotting zombie which makes this rather awkward. Alright, Risky Boots then? Unknown age, but much older than Shantae? I can go with that. Of course, besides the sexy fanservice the environments looks awesome in 3D and if you want some dis-fanserive you can always go talk to the mayor of Scuttle Town. His stomach really pops out in 3D I tell you.

The story then, it continues from where the last game ended. Shantae has lost her genie powers, but still try to protect Scuttle Town from invaders. This time it's the Ammo Baron, but for some reason you get summoned to the palace where they will cut your hair. At the same time Risky comes by and need your help in finding her crew and weapons to stop the Pirate Master from re-awakening. So you set out looking for the den of evils to find maps to the Pirate Master's grave, at the same time finding Risky's crew members and capture the dark magic that cursed them.

Which brings us to the gameplay, it's basically a metroidvania game where you go to a den of evil, look around until you get a pirate weapon like a cutlass, pistol or cannon which gives you a way to reach new places in the dungeons and the overworld. For example the cutlass gives Shantae a down-thrust so that she can destroy blocks below her, the pistol makes it possible to hit switches far away and the cannon gives you three extra jumps. And these weapons can also work as... weapons. Which makes the game easier and more fun than the original games. There you had very limited long range weapon meaning every enemy was close up with your hair whip, here I can stand and shoot them with the pistol or jump on them with the cannon or cutlass, making it easier to dispose of hard enemies. Great plus in my book... what brings it down a bit is that I can't shake the feeling that it is the same game over again. It's the same enemies, the same environments... but done better I guess. Instead of getting lost running back and forth on a singular overworld map you go to Risky's Ship and go to a special island. The boss fights are fun... although maybe a bit easy when you get the pattern down. Still, fun platformer that is worth a shot. Maybe more for you who have played the first games to see these characters again. Best news is that the forth game can't be that far behind.