There's a vast array of puzzles found in Breath of the Wild where you use your abilities to move, manipulate or destroy the environment. It can be very simple like destroying rocks with a bomb to unblock a cave entrance. Or it can be fairly complex, requiring you to rotate and connect massive platforms, move stone orbs through an area filled with obstacles, and create pillars of ice on a waterfall to cross a bottomless pit. Regardless of the type of puzzle you encounter, they motivate you to think creatively, making it a delight when you arrive at the solution, especially because there's always a treasure waiting at the end.
Most open world games follow the same pattern - they give you a map that's full of blips, forcefully guiding you to marked locations, causing you to ignore everything along the way. Breath of the Wild steps away from this design choice by having a map where only you can mark points of interest. It's up to you to survey the land from high vantage points, choose a direction of heading, and find interesting locations. As a result, exploring and paying attention to the world actually matters, making it a really enjoyable and refreshing experience.
When you attack enemies, your equipped weapon quickly loses its durability, breaking when it reaches zero. This can force you to switch to new weapons multiple times during a battle, adding a micromanagement aspect that can disrupt the flow of combat. You're not just fighting enemies, you're also fighting the flimsiness of your arsenal.
On top of that, most weapons can't be repaired either. This can diminish the joy of finding new weapons, since that cool sword you just found will be gone thirty minutes of gameplay later.
Being the first Mario Kart in HD (720p) there are many graphic details that really add to the experience making for one of the best presentations of the game made.
There is no real communication methods to invite friends to games, meaning outside communication will need to be used, which is inconvenient. there is also no party chat other than in lobbies with friends, so during races there is no way to talk to one another. Overall this feels dated as all of these features have been a staple in online games for years.
The game modes are not your standard kill everyone to win game modes. you can kill other players, but completing the the game modes task is much more important. This makes for a different experience from the normal FPS as the objectives are quite different.
The game eases the player into the action, with early levels being easy to grasp. Slowly the game throws more mechanics at you, making for a nice learning curve that never feels overwhelming.
Being that this is a Nintendo game (geared towards children), there is no available voice chat in the game, which makes communication and forming strategy all but impossible through the game.
A lot of thought and effort went into the level design in Tropical Freeze. The massive side-scrolling forests, jungles, mines, underwater zones, and many other locations are filled with spectacles that naturally fit into the gameplay. There are gigantic sea monsters following your every move with platforming obstacles, intriguing animal-like creatures who float around as possible pillars and ledges for you to grab onto, and parts of the environment that come crashing down unexpectedly that you have to react to in time. Each of the platforms you encounter are way more than simple, random blocks sticking in the field, helping you feel like you're traversing actual living, breathing locations.
Platforming is a challenge without feeling cheap. The game will push you sometimes, especially with all the moving parts in each levels where you have to quickly adapt to new obstacles. As you run up to a gap of some kind or a wall you have to scale, you might see the solution as you approach, only for the environment to suddenly change on-the-fly. That ledge you thought you could reach is now too high, or the stones you're standing on start to move, or the camera might even shift to cut off your usual side view of the level. The difficulty is fair since it encourages you to think on your feet, meaning you naturally get better as you keep trying to get the timings down just right.
The look and feel of Tropical Freeze is very reminiscent of the original Donkey Kong Country game for the SNES, offering plenty of nostalgia. The 2D view and traditional platformer play is in-tact, with modern updates like polished graphics, cinematic camera angles, and tight, responsive controls. Everything feels familiar while still improving on the old school ideas. Anyone who loves retro gaming will probably enjoy Tropical Freeze.
The optional areas in the game are pointless and boring. They're pretty much a single room with a bunch of floating platforms with bananas on them. All you have to do is reach all of the bananas to "complete" the bonus area. Compared to the huge, creative levels in the rest of the game, these are way too flat and repetitive in design. Thankfully, unless you're going for 100% completion, you can avoid these rooms altogether.
There's no way to use the touchpad as a second screen while playing Tropical Freeze. When playing on your TV, the touchpad goes blank. You have to specifically play with the Wii U gamepad instead of the TV in order to see the screen at all. Since plenty of other games utilize the second screen in some way, it would have been nice to see some Wii U touchpad interactions built into the game.
The action combat in Bayonetta 2 is less about arcadey hack-and-slash fighting and more about precise button inputs that are incredibly satisfying to perfect. Mastering combos allows you to string endless attacks to constantly put out damage in between dodging. Dodging attacks at the very last second rewards you with Witch Time, where enemies slow down while you attack freely at normal speed, keeping your combos going even further. It'll take some time for you to get these techniques down, but once you do, you'll find yourself toying with enemies as you practically dance in circles around them.
Bayonetta 2 has a constant stream of gigantic boss fights set in amazing locations that are memorable because of how over-the-top they are. The enemies you fight against are huge in scope, with level designs that are creative and outlandish.
For example, the prologue of the game is impressive, showing off a massive demon protruding from the side of a skyscraper that Bayonetta fights against while flying through the air. There's also another fight where you battle against a single enemy with multiple forms, where you have to jump from one crumbling building or arena to the next.
There's a lot of spectacle and scope to the boss battles that constantly makes you wonder how the next fight will top the last one.
The music in Bayonetta 2 fits perfectly with the huge boss fights, the demonic locations you explore, and Bayonetta's own bombastic personality. While fighting against demons in some of the game's hellish environments, the chorus and violins are sinister and foreboding, giving you a sense of urgency to press forward. The huge fights in these locations are powerful with the accompanying soundstrack, like how the very first boss in the game has an explosive song with an impactful chorus and wind instruments. By contrast, Bayonetta's main battle theme is completely different, mixing sunny female vocals with jazzy pianos that matches how much fun she has while fighting enemies. The variety is great and always matches the tone of the moment, making the game feel a lot more fun to play.
There is an alternate control type that uses the touch screen instead of the game pad. This is great for anyone who wants to switch things up from always having to press the buttons on their controller.
Bayonetta 2's story is confusing to keep track of at times, and the plot points grow increasingly more ridiculous and over-the-top as the game progresses. The plot starts off fine enough with Bayonetta on a quest to save her best friend, but then other characters and motivations get thrown into the mix. These other plot points are huge distractions and take away from Bayonetta's personal story of going after her friend who's in danger. If you feel like everything goes over your head as you try to follow the story, then it's not just you.
While not all of the humor is bad, a lot of it is over-the-top, and some of it lands flat in childish ways. Some of the characters feel like mere caricatures with the way they're constantly presented as comic relief. Depending on your tastes, you might find the humor charming, or it could bore you instead.
Each online mission is a bite-sized piece of action, which means they are all over withing a short time frame. For those looking for lengthier online missions, there are sadly none to be found.
From the original Super Mario Bros. to the new New Super Mario Bros the graphics contained in those games is available to use to create any type of level you want.
One can spend hours making a level, to then upload it only to see almost no one play it. The reverse of that is also an issue as browsing for levels is not that intuitive, which makes finding good user made levels to download and play difficult.
nintendo has stated that any level that is uploaded online may face deletion if found to be "unpopular" after an amount of time. How much time this is or what specifically "unpopular" means has never been defined by Nintendo, leaving users to see their content deleted at random.
Mario Maker is about the user creating their own levels of Super Mario through the use of design tools and assets that can be found in a wide array of Super Mario games. This means one can mimic or expand upon ideas found in pretty much any Mario game that exists.
The first four worlds are pretty easy for anyone who has played a Mario game in the past. This makes for a pretty boring segment of the game, though it does get more difficult after that.
When all four players are on one screen it can get a bit confusing as to who is doing what, which can lead to unnecessary deaths. While this chaos can be fun in the beginning, it can wear thing as the game progresses.
Not every game supports this feature but users can play the game mirrored to the screen on the Wii U controller, leaving the TV free to display anything anyone else wants.
Alien creatures based on nature give a look to the game that is original but feels fitting to the gameplay. The level of detail in the design shows a good level of polish.
The controls for the game work well, switching characters as well as just keeping an good view on who you are controlling at the time is intuitive and easy to perform, making for an enjoyable experience control wise.
By allowing the use of many different kinds of controllers as well as finer controls with those controllers the Wii U version of the games is the preferred version for pros.
There is no in game way to message friends to set up a match. This is inconvenient as outside methods of communication will have to be used for those that want to get a group of friends together at the same time.
The whole of the games main story mode can be played with co-op. This is done with one player manning the flight controls of the ship while the other manages the guns of the ship, basically a co-pilot. This co-pilot mode adds a lot of teamwork mechanics to the game as you both will need to communicate and plan successfully in order to win.
The game akss the user to control their ship in two different ways, one with the view on ones TV or monitor, this is the outside ship vies which will be controlled with the thumb stick. The second is the cockpit view, which is viewable on the controllers screen. This is where the user concentrates on operating their weapons through moving the whole of the controller around with motion controls. It is through this combination of two control schemes that the user needs to interact in order to correctly steer and shoot with their ship, which is an interesting and new way to go about a shooter.
Older Star Fox games can usually be completed in under an hour and tended to be pretty easy for the most part. Star Fox Zero has upped the difficulty (especially when taking branching paths) which means the player will have to spend more time with the game in order to be successful.
Each level has different direction one can go in that leads to different outcomes like hidden or secret boss fights. This mixes up the gameplay and allow for one to explore and search out different story elements.
There are many different vehicles in the game, each of which that has a different control scheme. This makes for a situation where things can stay fresh due to how much the gameplay and strategy changes on a per vehicle basis.
While the Wii U is only on par of the PS3 or Xbox 360, the graphics for Star Fox Zero look pretty basic. There is not much in the way of great textures or particle effects. While it may be the aesthetic the developers were shooting for, there is little in the game that visually impresses.
The learning curve for controls of the game may take some time, as they are in combination not something anyone will be used to, which may cause some frustration.
There are select sections of the game that put the gamepad's screen to good use. Certain mode where you can fly a spaceship on the screen as well as a maze section where the player must traverse their player through a crowd of enemies. This makes for a fun time as it implements the hardware well and does not feel forced.