The Clan of the Cave Bague

Good grief. Well, I’ve rescued a princess, got a ship, have some vague idea that I have to find some crystals from somewhere and that one of the is northish.

So, I’m leveling up, slowly but surely. My party are all crap at the moment, but I daresay they’ll be uber before long.

Mehh.

Now this is what the current and next generation of handheld gaming should be all about. Forget trying to squeeze first person shooters, racers and whatnot onto platforms where they just don’t fit. This is Castlevania as it was meant to be – difficult, fast gameplay in a two dimensional environment, with the power of a modern handheld used to add beauty to the graphics and effects without trying to foist a 3D engine onto a 2D game.

I’m pretty sure there are some polygon-rendered environments under the hood, but the 2D gameplay masks them very well. The effects are gorgeous, the use of the top screen for map / status prevents the stopping and starting which marred earlier games, alowing you to have a quick peek at your location without breaking the flow of the gameplay.

These static shots really don’t do the game justice – there’s a huge amount of detail and atmosphere in the environments and everything moves and animates incredibly smoothly – or as smooth as Castlevania games get.

Like The Rev, however, I had my arse handed to me on a plate by the first boss and I hadn’t saved. That’ll teach me I’m so used to games leading me gently in by the nose that I forgot that Castlevania has traditionally started with a drop-kick to the spleen. I’ll know next time.

This is my new daytime game. The reason I’m making a distinction between daytime and nighttime games is because the other title I’m playing is Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow on the DS and I only get access to the DS when I can prise it from Debbie’s clutching grip of doom. At least until she’s over her Meteos addiction.

Anyway, I’m currently playing Final Fantasy I on the GBA during the day. I never actually meant to, it’s just that I stuck the cart in and switched on, just to see how it looked, and that arpeggio started. So I can’t be blamed, really.

Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II were originally released on the NES and then remade a few years ago for the WonderSwan. This cart is a port of the WonderSwan remakes, so the games have an almost SNESish look to them. I’ve only played for an hour or so so far, but initial impressions are that this is going to be a life destroyer.

Ok, so the sweeping storylines and pre-rendered cutscenes are missing, but the games have obviously been tweaked to make them more accessible to the generation that discovered Final Fantasy via X and X-2.

The interface itself is very close to FFVII, with a few notable differences. For starters, there are a couple of features that every other Final Fantasy game has just got wrong, while the humble handheld versions has spot on. When you’re in a shop, if you position the cursor over an item of armour, clothing, weaponry or magic, a symbol will appear next to any characters who can use the item to indicate whether it’s an upgrade, downgrade, or no change. Similarly, when working in the inventory, you can see the stat effects the item will have before equipping it. This sounds pretty obvious, but having it all there on the one interface makes things so much easier.

So – initial impressions – its Final Fantasy! But with pokemon graphics! In yer hands!

This is my new daytime game. The reason I’m making a distinction between daytime and nighttime games is because the other title I’m playing is Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow on the DS and I only get access to the DS when I can prise it from Debbie’s clutching grip of doom. At least until she’s over her Meteos addiction.

Anyway, I’m currently playing Final Fantasy I on the GBA during the day. I never actually meant to, it’s just that I stuck the cart in and switched on, just to see how it looked, and that arpeggio started. So I can’t be blamed, really.

Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II were originally released on the NES and then remade a few years ago for the WonderSwan. This cart is a port of the WonderSwan remakes, so the games have an almost SNESish look to them. I’ve only played for an hour or so so far, but initial impressions are that this is going to be a life destroyer.

Ok, so the sweeping storylines and pre-rendered cutscenes are missing, but the games have obviously been tweaked to make them more accessible to the generation that discovered Final Fantasy via X and X-2.

The interface itself is very close to FFVII, with a few notable differences. For starters, there are a couple of features that every other Final Fantasy game has just got wrong, while the humble handheld versions has spot on. When you’re in a shop, if you position the cursor over an item of armour, clothing, weaponry or magic, a symbol will appear next to any characters who can use the item to indicate whether it’s an upgrade, downgrade, or no change. Similarly, when working in the inventory, you can see the stat effects the item will have before equipping it. This sounds pretty obvious, but having it all there on the one interface makes things so much easier.

So – initial impressions – its Final Fantasy! But with pokemon graphics! In yer hands!

‘Tis ended! Mecha-Ridley is a rusty bag of nuts and bolts. The expected Predator moment (Get to da Choppa!) happened and I had a short amount of time to leg it. The lack of access to a save point worried me a little, but as it happens I escaped with over a minute left on the clock.

The end result wasn’t a great efffort, I have to say, with completion taking 7 hours, 23 minutes and 33 seconds and an abysmal item score of 54%. Pretty poor, really, given that I scored 98% on Prime. So, my head is hung in shame.

So – an ACE little game which I didn’t do justice to. Somehow, I think I’ll be revisiting this one to do something about that item score. In the meantime, I think I’m going to spend some time with something a little less nerve shredding – and I know just the game…..

Gnaargh! Another boss! Mecha Ridley is a dirty great thing that takes up half of the screen and has a vulnerable spot about zero pixels across which is only vulnerable to missiles and is two high to hit from a standing start. So, you have to hop in the air and hit it with a couple of super missiles to break the shield and then another five to beat the boss.

Trouble is, ol’ Ridley isn’t taking this lying down. He starts by claw swiping you, then progresses to fireballs, lasers and missiles. Space jumping is the only way to avoid these and it’s very innaccurate. It’s a hard boss. What a surprise, eh? I had it on the ropes on the last attempt but then it pulled a fast one on me and gubbed me. So, back to square one. And I just *know* it’s going to be followed by a “three seconds to escape” thing. Hopefully, it’ll let me save.

We’ll see. Nearly there……

Well, after an annoying but mercifully short stealth section, I now have FULL POWAZ! And I spent the first fifteen minutes or so revisiting all the annoying bits that’s driven me nuts for the past forty five minutes and blown the bejeebers out of the Space Pirates there.

So, it’s now back to the surface I expect. And I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a little Ridley-shaped surprise in store.

Did I mention I detest stealth games?

And that I have a special loathing for stealth in a game which doesn’t really need it?

People buying Metroid games are buying them because they expect a lot of running around blowing stuff up. They don’t expect to be buying a hiding simulator.

Seethe.

MOTHER BRAIN DEFEAT0RED!

About two seconds after I sent a spleen venting email to DeKay, I gave it another go and turned that doggone brain into spongey morsels. Immediately following this is a rather tense dash up a vertical arrangment of collapsing platforms. This latter is done against the clock with much booming and shaking and BIG NUMBERS COUNTING DOWN.

Fortunately, all went well and I reached what is effectively the end of the Metroid bit (the second half of the game is based on Super Metroid I think). So, there I was, basking in TEH VICTORY when NO! Pirates! Aaargh! They’ve stolen my power suit(?)! I AM NAKED AND ALONE!

It would seem.

Ho hum. So now I’d better get down to infiltrating that Space Pirate ship and nick back all my hard earned goodies.