Snowpack Park Impressions

Club Nintendo coins expire on June 30th, so I logged into my account to use up my last remaining coins. I wasn’t sure what I wanted; I initially considered Fluidity for Wii. I played the demo of that game before, and I enjoyed it…but still, I wasn’t really in the mood for it. So I looked at the other available titles; many of them were games I already owned, and so many of the others were generic looking puzzle games. Sometimes it takes a really unique (even weird) game to capture my interest. And one game, Snowpack Park for Wii, certainly fit that description: It’s a penguin simulation game! Not something you see every day. I spent my 250 coins and downloaded the game.

Snowpack Park Title ScreenYou start out by choosing your Mii, or you can use the default eskimo (like I did). A tutorial teaches you how to greet penguins, how to pet them, how to feed them fish, and how to pick them up. Each penguin has a mood, ranging from a loyal penguin that will follow you around to a skittish penguin that runs away from you–even to its own death. If you get too close to an angry penguin, watch out. You will get slapped!

Snowpack Park: Slapped by a penguin.Once you’re familiar with all the basic moves, you can take a balloon to another area. There, you will literally set a trap to kidnap more penguins to take back to your base. You will gain friendship points, collect hats for the penguins, and play a variety of mini-games. You can even play basketball…using a penguin as the ball! I can’t decide if it’s cruel or funny to see a penguin smack against the backboard.

Snowpack Park: BasketballIn a small way, the game reminds me of Pikmin in how the penguins follow you around. But unlike Pikmin, you need to continuously keep these penguins happy. Ignore them too long, and they will wander off to another area, out of your control. So take the time to pet them, greet them, and feed them. You’ll need groups of them to follow you to overcome some of the obstacles in the game.

Snowpack Park: Line of penguins.

So far, I’m still not sure I understand the object of the game (if there is one). It seems like I’m wandering around aimlessly, just grabbing all the penguins and trying to please the moody little birds. Most the mini-games don’t appeal to me much. It is somewhat fun just to explore, but each area is pretty small and doesn’t have a lot to see. I do enjoy the atmosphere, with relaxing music and gently falling snowflakes. But so far, I can’t really recommend the game. It’s certainly unique and a bit bizarre, but the gameplay seems mediocre at best. Perhaps it will grow on me as I progress further…or perhaps not.

I’ll try to review the game once I’ve put enough time into it, but that might not be real soon. If you’re interested in giving the Snowpack Park a try, it’s available from the Wii Shop Channel for 800 Wii points ($8.00 U.S.) or for 250 Club Nintendo coins. And remember, all Club Nintendo coins expire on Tuesday, June 30th, so use them quickly.

Splatoon First Impressions

Splatoon for Nintendo Wii U came out today, and I picked it up and gave it a try. If you don’t know, it’s a third-person shooter where you play as characters known as inklings; they have a human-like form and a squid form. Two teams of four players each shoot ink around a level, trying to cover as much ground as possible with their color of ink. The players can also kill (or “splat”) players of the opposing team. There’s also a mission-based one-player mode.

Splatoon - One player gameplay.The game starts out with a tutorial, where you have to shoot balloons as you learn the basic controls. The first thing I noticed is that the game uses motion controls by default. You move the gamepad up and down to aim your weapon. I’m not a fan of motion controls, so I wanted to disable that ASAP. I also wanted to change the horizontal direction of the camera stick, but I couldn’t access the settings until after I completed the tutorial. You can then adjust your settings in the plaza, but you’re not holding your weapon there, so that’s not extremely useful. The only place you can adjust the settings while you’re holding a weapon is in the weapons shop. The entire settings menu disappears when in gameplay areas such as Octo Valley; I really wish the settings were more accessible.

Once I made my initial changes to the settings, I tried out the one-player mode. Here, the focus is on defeating enemies and overcoming obstacles. There are also some platforming elements, even though your character isn’t much of a jumper. In some areas, you’ll need to find a key to unlock a launchpad that takes you to a new area. There are also bosses to fight. Your weapons use ink as ammo, and it gradually runs out as you shoot. To reload, you need to press ZL to change into squid form while standing in ink of your own color. You can also swim while in squid form, allowing you to move around quickly–but again, only through ink of your own color. I played about four or five levels of this mode, and I had a good time.

Splatoon - One-player gameplay.I then decided to try out the online battles. Each time you start, you have to wait for a total of eight players to be added to the game. You are assigned to teams of four, and you have to spread your ink across as much of the level as you can. It was honestly quite frustrating at first, because you only have the basic gun and you’re playing against players who use giant rollers, big bombs, and other advanced weapons. They can kill you in one hit, and it’s hard to make much progress until you’ve leveled up at least a few times and purchased new weapons and other upgrades. Heck, even after I upgraded my weapon, I was still getting killed far more often than I was killing other people.

Even though victory or defeat is decided by the amount of ink on the ground, some players will focus on taking you out–so you have to keep on your toes. Even after a dozen online battles or so, I’m still pretty bad at it. I need to learn how to use the special weapons more effectively, and I need to start paying attention to the gamepad. It shows a map of the level, complete with the current ink coverage. It’s hard to take your eyes off of the action, but it seems to be a necessity to get good at the game.

Splatoon - Online gameplay.One other thing I want to mention is the shop. It allows you to buy new weapons and clothing items to customize your character. For example, you can buy new shirts and shoes that give you new abilities. An item may increase your defense, give your bombs a larger range, or allow you to swim through ink faster. But you can only access the shop once you’ve reached level 4…and it seems that the only way to increase your level is to play online battles. So you may want to keep that in mind before buying the game if you don’t plan on playing online (or if you don’t have a decent internet connection). Nintendo is preventing offline players from fully customizing their characters, which seems a bit harsh if you ask me.

Overall, I had a very good time on my first evening with Splatoon. The one-player missions are pretty fun, and the online battles are particularly enjoyable. Even when I lose over and over, I keep wanting to come back for more. I’m actually enjoying the game more than I thought I would. So it definitely gets a thumbs-up so far.

In case you’re interested, here is a picture of the game disc.

Splatoon discAnd here is gameplay video of an online turf war battle: (view on Youtube)

Buy Splatoon at Amazon.com

Mario Kart 8 – DLC Pack #2 Impressions

Mario Kart 8 received a new update today, which takes the game to version 4.0 and adds a speedy 200cc mode. The long-awaited DLC Pack #2 also became available today, featuring eight new tracks in two cups, three new characters (Villager, Isabelle, and Dry Bowser), and four new vehicles. The new tracks are the main attraction of course, so I’m going to give my first impressions of each of them.
Crossing Cup

mk8-crosscupThe first track of the Crossing Cup is GCN Baby Park, from Mario Kart: Double Dash on GameCube. Set in an amusement park, it features a small oval track. The track is quite short, but races consist of a whopping seven laps. I wonder why they can’t make SNES tracks with five laps as they were originally intended, yet this one can get seven laps. It’s a pretty fun and frantic course, though. Even if you get way out in front, you still have to deal with other drivers as you lap them, thanks to the short track. It takes place entirely in anti-gravity mode.

Next up is GBA Cheese Land, a retro course from Mario Kart: Super Circuit. The track is made out of cheese, including cheese craters–do some tricks for a speed boost as you jump out of them. There are a couple of chain chomps here, one of which can reach across almost the entire width of the track. About two-thirds of the track takes place in anti-gravity mode. This may be my least favorite of the eight tracks in this DLC pack.

The third track is a new course called Wild Woods. This cool course takes you through a forest, where sunbeams shine through the treetops. You’ll ride on a boardwalk through a village of Shy Guy homes before going down a river, Koopa Cape style. You then cross a pond by racing across lily pads before another boardwalk takes you to the finish line. It’s a beautiful and enjoyable course.

The Crossing Cup wraps up with the Animal Crossing track. It features many characters and sites from the Animal Crossing series, including power-up boxes that are held up by balloons (like the balloon presents in Animal Crossing) and Resetti pops up out of the ground like the Monty Moles in SNES Donut Plains 3. Since I’m a big Animal Crossing fan, I decided to make a video just exploring the track for a while to see some of the details (such as K.K. Slider singing and watching the train cross a bridge). Here is the video: (view on Youtube)

The Animal Crossing track takes place in different season each time you play (unless you play the Time Trial, which will always be summer). Each season has its own look: Winter has snow, snowmen, and northern lights; autumn has piles of leaves you can drive through; spring has pink cherry blossom petals falling down; and summer has green grass and sunny skies. I think the winter season is especially gorgeous. I made a video showing one lap of each season to give you a taste of what it’s like. (view on Youtube)

Bell Cup

mk8-bellcupThe Bell Cup starts off with 3DS Neo Bowser City. The neon-filled city is quite appealing visually, and you race in some fairly heavy rain as well. There is a short anti-gravity section towards the end of each lap. This is one of my favorite tracks in DLC Pack #2.

GBA Ribbon Road is next; it takes place on a miniature track in a child’s bedroom, oddly enough. Some mechanical wind-up Koopa toys are on the track as obstacles to avoid. True to its name, the course takes place on a ribbon track, and in certain parts, the track undulates in the breeze.

Super Bell Subway naturally takes place in a subway station (and on the tracks). You’ll actually drive alongside trains at some points. All in all, it’s a pretty cool track.

The Bell Cup ends with Big Blue, based on the F-Zero franchise. This anti-gravity course has some Toad Factory-style conveyor belts, which can speed you up or slow you down, depending on which one you’re on. The track doesn’t have an overabundance of speed boosts like the Mute City track from DLC Pack #1, so it lacks the extreme speed that made Mute City really feel like F-Zero. Big Blue isn’t a bad track, but it is a bit disappointing in comparison.

200cc Mode

Even if you haven’t bought the DLC packs, a free update brings a 200cc mode that you can enjoy. The 200cc races are fast…very fast. Some tracks are a lot more fun with the extra speed. However, the extra speed makes it hard to control your vehicle (and/or stay on the tracks) on some courses. Even vehicles with tight controls can have trouble making it around corners at that speed. It may take some practice (or even some braking?!) to keep things manageable. But the 200cc definitely makes for some wild, frantic races.

I’ll be uploading more videos of Mario Kart 8, so subscribe to my Youtube channel if you don’t want to miss them. Or if you don’t have the game yet, you can still buy Mario Kart 8 at Amazon.com or elsewhere. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you all next time!

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