Date: 2008-11-02 11:52:02 Created: null
For Nintendo DS
For me, playing a game is above all about going through the single player experience. Metroid Prime Hunters is in many ways very much about the multiplayer mode, and the multiplayer has recieved a lot more acclaim than single player. But I have only tried multiplayer once, so, at least for now, this text has nothing at all to do with that side of the game.
So, Hunters is the first installment of the Metroid series on the DS. Like the previous two Prime games it's in nice 3d, and the stylus based control scheme works great once you get used to it. (It also has a lot of nifty multiplayer features I haven't even looked at.)
Yes, controls are nice and all, but how are you supposed to hold your DS while using said controls, without pain and stiffness in your arm? With the stylus in one hand, the other hand has to both use the face buttons, the shoulder button on the same side and support the weight of the system. With my standard configuration five-finger set that gets awkward and tiring rather fast, and even more so when there's a boss battle and I get too focused on playing, grip gradually detoriating even further.
This is the way I usually end up holding it.
With more hands I could have included the stylus as well. But that part is comfortable. I've thought a little about trying to use the pinky of my left hand to support the DS too, perhaps that could work out nicely with some practise.
Suppose it encourages regular breaks, if nothing else ...
With only four main worlds/levels to explore they should have been able to avoid it if they didn't want it. So I have to assume that they did want it, and that they possibly despise me as well.
That's right, there's a lava world.
It's complete with an entertaining section of "dodge the moving walls in morph ball shape, getting pushed into the lava (or squeezed to death) if you fail".
I figure it should be entirely possible to design a game including platform jumping elements completely without lava levels. It may require breaking with some kind of ingrained tradition, handed down from generation to generation of game designers, getting thrown out of the backrubbing laval-level-design club, but it'd be totally worth it. Trust me.
The sequence above might actually be part of a somewhat larger theme in the game. The theme, according to my current theory, is this:
The more difficult parts of the game are also the least fun parts.
For example, it seems there are two main bosses, who come back with increasing difficulty a whopping four times each. They're not fun the first time, and getting harder hasn't helped me enjoy them so far.
There's also the timed evacuation sequence after each boss battle, during which new enemies appear and require dispatching before you can move on. Martin and I discussed as recently as yesterday that time limits normally suck and should be banned from games, and I stand by that today too.
Fortunately, the game is generous with restart points, and the challenges so far haven't been too tough. But I just have more fun when I'm moving around, taking out regular enemies and exploring.
Okay, so what snot-brained idiot got to plan the last parts of this game? Who let him put in a "puzzle" where you have to scan one computer, run over to another with, at most, a second or two to spare, scan that one too and then run to a third place and pick up an artifact before a second, almost as tight, timer runs out? Adding to the fun, the little (unskippable, I might add) sequences showing you the computer turning on and off put you back in control in the combat visor, which means you always, always have to switch to the scan visor during the timer as well. Whopeee.
In some utopian places, a masterstroke like that would have you very carefully removed from the game and locked away somewhere soft and safe. But no, not here. The same wicked brain (I almost hesitate to call it that) also got to put in a just as freakishly timed jumping puzzle! No, wait, it gets better! If you fail, you die! Great, isn't it? You get right back to the start of the puzzle, but it adds another bloody unskippable little sequence to the fun. Also, once you do finish the rush you still have a nice, wholesome possibility to fall down and die if you're lucky. This will put you back to right before the timer starts, again.
I don't know what that says of the rest of the design team. But at this point the only upside is that it only wastes a minute of my life at a time.
Seriously, the single player mission is pretty decent when it's just rolling along, so why shoot the fun in the foot with completely un-fun, un-Metroid shit like this? Why not just shoot yourself instead? Would have been much better for everyone.
Today I beat the final boss, finishing the game to about 74% according to the official count. I know there's another boss battle to unlock, but I doubt I will ever be able to work up any enthusiasm about it. After all, it's not like the previous boss battles have been the heights of gaming excitement. The last one was at least different from the rest, and kind of nice. Except somebody decided to make part of the floor damage-dealing (at least it didn't have a lava texture ...), and plenty so to boot. I lost much more energy to that than to the actual boss. I take it as another attempt to raise the challenge by annoying means instead of entertaining ones.
I think I'll give multiplayer a shot though. Some day.