Tank! Tank! Tank!

I decided to give Tank! Tank! Tank! a try try try. It was originally a Wii U launch game, but they recently converted it into a “free” game. And by free game, I mean a skimpy demo that wants to charge you money for DLC for practically everything. But first, I had to download it. You need to have 2,121 MB (over 2 GB) free in order to download it, which is ridiculous when you consider how little content the demo actually has. I had to delete both of my Rayman demos and Wii Street U to make room for it. Once you start the game up and enter your name and choose your icon, you are presented with an option of playing story mission or multiplayer.

Tank! Tank! Tank!I chose story mission. After choosing a support character and watching a short video, you are taken to a screen where you choose your mission. Only one is listed, so naturally I chose that one. I clicked the mission, but nothing happened. Do I need to pick a different tank or something? I scroll through the list of tanks, and only one is available. I re-select it, yet I still can’t start the mission. At this point, I’m wondering if I’m overlooking something really obvious so I look up a video on Youtube, only to see someone else confused by it as well. The story mode is not available in the demo. So why isn’t that clearly stated when you try to start it up? Wow, what a waste of time that was.

The other mode is the multiplayer mode, and that does have three modes you can try: Monster battle, free-for-all, and team versus. In monster battle, everyone teams up to destroy a common enemy. It may be 100 big spiders or one gigantic monster. The action is okay, but there’s nothing particularly captivating about it. And it has this annoying habit of popping up huge notices, telling you a teammate has been killed or showing the monster’s health level. I can understand why it would want to display that information, but must it be in a gigantic window smack-dab in the middle of the screen? It blocks your view and it makes no sense to put it there when there’s all sorts of free space in the corners.

Tank! Tank! Tank! Gameplay screenshotAs for the other two modes, they’re your standard deathmatch battles (but in tanks, of course). Free-for-all is every man for himself and team versus is a team battle. I was just playing against computer opponents, but I could see how this could be fun if you had three other friends to join in the action. And that is probably the ideal crowd for Tank! Tank! Tank! If you often have a group of friends over to play multi-player games, you might want to give this game a try. But if you primarily stick to single-player games like I do, this isn’t even worth the free download.

Tank! Tank! Tank! Gameplay screenshot

Wii U Panorama View

Today I gave the Wii U Panorama View demo a try. Panorama View is an app where you are essentially watching a video, but using the Wii U GamePad, you can turn and look in any direction. The eShop categorizes it as an “interactive video.” The demo is a short trailer (under two minutes long) that gives you a brief sample of each of the video tours available. This includes:

  • Double Decker Tour, London, UK
  • Kyoto Sightseeing, Kyoto, Japan
  • Bird’s Eye View, Ancona, Italy
  • Carnival in Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Wii U Panorama ViewThe concept is cool, I’ll give it that. Based on the demo, it is fun to immerse yourself in the various locations and have the freedom to look in any direction. Unfortunately, the video quality isn’t all that great. The videos are available for $2.00 each in the Wii U eShop. This leaves one question: Well how long are the videos? Curiously, the eShop doesn’t even say! A quick web search shows they range in length from 5-8 minutes. I was hoping the videos would be longer than that, but you’re really paying for the novelty.

Personally, I don’t plan on buying any of these video tours, but I may consider any future video tours. Imagine one of an astronaut going on a space walk. Now that is something I would buy. Or maybe a day at an amusement park, going on roller coasters. An undersea journey could also be impressive. This idea has potential, so I hope Nintendo will continue to provide new content for this app.

Wii U Panorama View Kyoto SightseeingWii U Panorama View Bird's Eye View

Rayman Legends – Challenges App

Ubisoft’s latest Rayman Legends demo, called the “Challenges App,” is now available on the Wii U eShop. As I started it up, I thought the level seemed familiar. And there’s a good reason. This new demo has the same three levels as the old demo! The new part consists of two new online challenges available where you can compete for the best time with players from around the world.

rl-ca1The first of those is called a Daily Challenge, so it presumably changes each day. Today’s challenge was called The Neverending Pit. The object is to collect 150 lums as quickly as possible. You’re basically falling the entire time, though you can slow your descent or grab onto rings and hang there if you wish. But you don’t want to spend too much time on any specific lums, because there are always more lums further down the pit. It shows the ghosts of other players’ previous runs as you play, so you can see what they may be doing differently. After your run is complete, it will show you your time and list some other players who you’ve beaten. Even though it’s nice to improve your best time and beat some other players, this daily challenge isn’t all that fun to play.

rl-ca2I then tried the Weekly Challenge, which was called Murfy’s Dungeon. While the object was the same (collect 150 lums as quickly as possible), the gameplay was completely different. In this challenge, you don’t control the character directly. You use the stylus and the touch screen on the GamePad to raise and lower platforms, pull levers, slice ropes, and eliminate some enemies that are in the way. This challenge is much more difficult than The Neverending Pit. It will take some repetition just to figure out what needs to be done at certain points. It also has ghosts that shows other players’ movements, but in this challenge it’s much less helpful and more distracting. Fortunately, you can disable the ghosts though. I thought this challenge was okay, but a bit annoying actually. I’m not sure a timed challenge is the best fit for a level where you don’t directly control the character and have limited interaction with him.

Overall, I have to say this Challenges App is a big disappointment. The challenges aren’t that fun and they certainly don’t make me want to buy the game when it comes out later this summer. Besides, the focus of a Rayman game should be on the main platforming levels. And the lack of any new levels in this demo is mind-boggling. Yeah, Castle Rock is still awesome, but are there going to be other levels that cool in the game? This demo makes me think they’re content spending their time and effort making falling-into-a-pit simulators instead of working on more fun, innovative levels like Castle Rock.