Tim Morris

Candy Crush Saga Review

It seems that the hot mobile game right now is Candy Crush Saga by King. The game is free to download on the App Store and Android Market. A few of my co-workers play it, talk about how they’re at such and such level with three stars on all previous boards, so I thought I should try it out. No harm in a free game, right?

If you’ve ever played any of the Bejeweled games, you should know what to expect here. Candy Crush Saga is your typical “match three” puzzle game that has become so overdone that I wonder why anyone still bothers to make them. The one added twist in this game is that each level comes with a specific goal or challenge that you must meet to proceed. So far I’ve encountered three of these: obtain a certain score, clear the “jelly” off the board by making matches inside of it, and move ingredients to the bottom of the board. Unless stated otherwise, all of these challenges must be completed in a set number of moves (some of them have a time limit instead). Sounds simple enough, but once you dive a little deeper in, the evil of this game truly rears its ugly head.

You start your journey into… wherever you are (the game has an attempt at a story that quite frankly I don’t understand at all) with five lives. Every time you fail to complete a level, you lose a life. Run out of lives, and it’s sort of a game over. You have three options once you are out of lives. You can:

A) Wait out a timer that will give you one life per cycle. Usually the wait isn’t too bad, the most I’ve had to endure is 20 minutes per life.
B) Send some of your Facebook friends a request for them to give you lives. I’m not sure how this works; since I hate getting game requests on Facebook I feel bad burdening my friends with them.
C) Instantly buy five lives for $0.99.

See the bold? There’s where the satisfaction of getting a game for free ends. The game is only free if you have lots of patience and don’t mind harassing your friends on Facebook. In fact, there are a good number of microtransactions in Candy Crush Saga that are almost as infuriating as the game’s surprisingly steep difficulty. Failed a level and want more moves? 99 cents. Need lives and don’t have the patience to wait out the clock or your friends? 99 cents. Want a power-up? 99 cents. Want a permanent boost to the number of lives you can have at any given time? How does $16.99 move you? There’s another permanent power-up that will cost you a whopping $39.99 to get your hands on. I don’t know about you, but $16.99 to give myself three more chances to pass a stupidly difficult level before inevitably buying more lives is nothing short of diabolical.

Indeed, there is a business model in place here and it’s so devilish that I’m almost proud of King for coming up with it. In effect, the game preys on the human race’s need for instant gratification, as well as the lack of willpower and the want for “one more try” at something we feel we can conquer. Candy Crush Saga will take your money without you even realizing it. I’ve probably spent about $10 on the game already just buying more lives, because the game’s frustratingly hard levels are a challenge that I want to beat badly enough.

When generating new blocks, the game does you no favors. At least in Bejeweled, you stand a pretty good chance of getting the gems you need to either begin or continue combos, no matter how far into the game you are. In Candy Crush Saga, it almost seems like the game is seeking to screw you just to get more money out of you once you lose and rage. One of my aforementioned co-workers told me that she’s been stuck on level 50 for weeks now, which I haven’t gotten to yet. I completed level 35 a little while ago, and for my efforts I was greeted with a prompt that asked me to either invite Facebook friends or pay $0.99 just to keep going through the game. To be quite honest, I find this appalling. In a way it isn’t false advertising, because technically the game is still free, but if I’m going to be putting a game on my phone, I want the full game. I don’t want to jump through hoops (or worse yet, pay) just to unlock content that is in the package I got from the App Store. A great example of how to make a game that includes microtransactions but doesn’t try to force them on you is Angry Birds. Mobile game developers should really take some cues from Rovio, maybe then consumers would be happier with the products out there right now.

All that said, the game is still fun and addicting, which are the two qualities that puzzle games are required to have in order to be considered worthy of playing. I can’t consider Candy Crush Saga to be a bad game, because it simply isn’t; it takes the “match three” formula of puzzle games that everyone is familiar with and adds objectives that are sensible and enjoyable. I cannot, however, forgive the exploitative business model at work here. There’s no getting around the fact that this a free game designed to take your money little by little until you wonder where $20+ went. If you don’t have willpower or patience, stay far, far away from this one. I give Candy Crush Saga a C+.

System: iOS, Android, Facebook
Genre: Puzzle
Players: 1
Price: “Free” (I use that term VERY loosely)

Classic Titles: .hack

by Tim Morris

The PS2-era was saturated with RPGs of varying quality. We had Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XII, Kingdom Hearts (and its numerous remakes and spin-offs), Baldur’s Gate, Digimon, Grandia, Persona, Suikoden, and Xenosaga. Somewhat lost in all the big names of that generation was a little JRPG that could, and it was called .hack.

.hack//Infection, the first game entry in the series. Source: http://dothack.wikia.com — .hack//Infection, the first game entry in the series.
Source: http://dothack.wikia.com

Describing the .hack games is difficult to do with words; it’s really better to become acquainted with them through playing. In a nutshell, the .hack games simulate an MMORPG, or “massively multiplayer online role-playing game”. There are multiple MMO elements present here: mounts, trading with other players, the ability to ask your party members to perform certain actions, and a short mail system for forming parties. In this simulated MMO called The World, anomalies in the game cause unforeseen effects on its players, most notably that some players become comatose as a result of playing the game.

It’s worth noting that there are actually two separate series of .hack games for the PS2. There is Project .hack, which refers to the first four games: Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, and Quarantine. These games tell the story of Kite, who on his very first adventure in The World watched in horror as his friend Orca was killed by a bugged monster and rendered comatose in the real world. After his traumatizing experience, the game follows Kite’s investigation into Orca’s demise and his experiences with other player-characters. The second series, known as G.U., consists of three games: Rebirth, Reminisce, and Redemption. G.U. chronicles the adventures of Haseo, who seeks revenge on the mysterious Tri-Edge for killing his friend Shino in-game and causing her to become comatose. Both sets of games rely heavily on their stories to hook players, but the gameplay is not to be overlooked.

Gameplay from .hack//Infection Source: Gamespot — Gameplay from .hack//Infection
Source: Gamespot

When it comes to game mechanics and the like, if you enjoyed Kingdom Hearts, you’ll probably enjoy .hack‘s seven offerings. Fans of turn-based RPGs need not apply, as .hack is a real-time, action-based effort. However, the control afforded to players in .hack was unparalleled for its time. There are general commands that will tell your AI-controlled party members to use their skills, heal, only attack with magic or physically, or use an item to warp you out of a dungeon. That sort of control is nice enough, but then it goes far deeper. You can tell a particular teammate to attack a specific enemy and even dictate to them which skill or spell you want them to use. Ultimately, the system allows you to approach a battle in any number of ways and rarely are you shoehorned into using a single method to take out a monster.

The timeline of the .hack franchise actually begins with a novel, called Epitaph of Twilight. There are also a number of manga, anime, and OVA works in the series to seek out. As far as which of these you need to experience (in addition to the games) to get a better understanding of the universe, the two major anime series, .hack//SIGN and .hack//Roots, are required viewing. You really need to see both of them to get a better understanding of what’s going on in the games, but also because they’re quite entertaining, and this is coming from a guy who isn’t much for anime.

Without spoiling too much, each series of .hack games is full of twists and turns, new friends and enemies, and a noticeable rise in activity as the games progress. Even though each game takes only 15-20 hours to beat, there’s a lot to do; there are numerous side quests and optional adventures that will keep the series feeling fresh long enough to finish. The one problem this series has nowadays is the price point. Since the games have gotten hard to find in game stores, one must resort to the likes of Amazon and eBay, where prices have skyrocketed over the last few months. When I re-purchased .hack//Quarantine a few months back, it cost me $80, as it is the rarest of the seven existing titles. However, the other games all cost me less than their original price of $49.99 when they were released, so the price wound up being more than worth it.

I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that the Playstation 2 was the golden age of the RPG. With so many good ones out there, it’s tough to narrow your collection down to only a few; unless you’re rich, in which case more power to you. However, if you want a truly deep gameplay experience with an epic story, look no further than .hack to satisfy your needs.

BattleBlock Theater: A True Thinking Man’s Game

by Tim Morris

Gameplay screenshot of BattleBlock Theater. Source: http://www.battleblocktheater.com/ — Gameplay screenshot of BattleBlock Theater.
Source: http://www.battleblocktheater.com/

Released on April 3rd, The Behemoth’s BattleBlock Theater is a game that fuses platforming and puzzle gameplay to create an experience that is full of fun trial and error sequences and delightfully challenging, precision jumps. If you’re familiar with either of their previous efforts, Alien Hominid or Castle Crashers, then the zany story and graphics of BattleBlock Theater won’t come as much of a shock to you. You play as one of many “prisoners” who was shipwrecked on an island and taken captive by technologically-advanced cats. The game’s all-around good guy, Hatty Hattington, has been brainwashed by the feline enemies and forced to run their theater, which showcases the prisoners attempting to make their way through the various levels of the game. Each level comes with different flavors of enemies, death traps, puzzle elements, and power-ups. There are cats who will try to punch you into the water (hint: you can’t swim), spike traps, teleporters, and much more within each stage.

Progression through the game is simple enough; you must collect three of the gems that are strewn about the level and then find the exit. Most levels (called acts) in the game have seven gems to collect, and your grade at the end of an act is largely dependent on how many gems you finish with. There are a good amount of gems that can be collected simply by progressing through a given act, but the remainder of them are either hidden or require skilled puzzle solving or jumping to obtain. You can also improve your grade by finding the hidden ball of yarn in each act and/or completing the act quickly. Unrelated to the grade system is the golden hat that will occasionally appear. Finding the golden hat and then completing the act with it in your possession yields ten gems for you to spend. Dying with the hat will cause you to lose it, sometimes for good.

Perhaps the best part of the game is the narrator, who not only provides the backdrop for the game’s story through hilarious cutscenes, but also both commends and heckles your performance as you go along. His witty lines and critiques never get old, and there’s a one-liner for just about everything you do. One death will yield a shocked comment like “Oh my goodness gracious!”, while the next could be met with “That was pretty funny.” Thankfully, there are no lives to lose in the game, so you have as long as you want to try every possible solution and die every possible way before advancing.

The controls in BattleBlock Theater are as tight as you’ll find in any platformer. I never felt like I would miss a jump because of my character sliding off an edge. The characters really stick their landings well, and the ability to slightly change direction in mid-air allows for true precision jumps; which is perfect, because you need to be accurate to complete each chapter’s finale and encore acts. These stages are quite challenging and unlike the normal adventures in the game, you’re on a timer. Failing to complete the act in time kicks you back to the level select.

The amount of customization in BattleBlock Theater is nearly endless. Characters are divided into five categories, by the shape of their head (sphere, cube, pyramid, cylinder, and star, which contains bonus unlockables). New faces for the heads are unlocked by collecting gems and spending them in the Gift Shop. There are some truly wild faces to choose from in the game, such as Elvis, an eyeball, a house, a devil, and an elephant. You can also earn weapons for your character, which range from an exploding frisbee to a vacuum and many more, though only one may be used at a time. Weapons are purchased in the Gift Shop using balls of yarn. You can also pick one of nine colors for your character, which will help you tell yours apart from a friend’s if you happen to be playing the game’s co-op mode. Better yet, you can customize your character while in the middle of a level, should you want to change weapons or faces.

BattleBlock Theater Logo
Source: http://www.xblafans.com

BattleBlock Theater isn’t short on multiplayer versus modes, either. Eight different gametypes await you, each with more than a handful of different layouts to enjoy them on. Soul Snatcher, Muckle, Challenge, King Of The Hill, Color The World, Grab The Gold, Ball Game, and Capture The Horse. All of them offer different styles of gameplay and are sure to entertain for hours on end. These modes can also be played online against other users in ranked or quick matches. The online play is smooth, with little to no latency detracting from the mechanics.

Another awesome feature about this game is the ability to create your own levels to wreak havoc on. I personally am no good at this sort of thing, but given the creations that more creative people have been coming up with in games like Halo 4 and Minecraft, I’m sure that BattleBlock Theater will have a lot of nice content for users to throw down with.

With tons of unlockables, a nice assortment of game modes, and a story mode with enough meat to it for any gamer to be entertained for more than a few hours, BattleBlock Theater really hits the mark. This is one of the few titles that I have no complaints with, and at only 1200 Microsoft Points, this game is an absolute steal. You’re getting about $40-50 worth of game for $15. I’ll take that every time. I’m very happy to award BattleBlock Theater an A. Nice work, Behemoth.

System: XBOX 360
Genre: Side-Scrolling/Platform/Puzzle
Players: 1-4 co-op or head to head, local or online
Price: 1200 Microsoft Points ($15)

Tim Morris

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