[Glyph Phoenix]

{Some of this refers to the other, complete topic. I don't reply in that one because it'll probably be locked and this one updated. Or this one locked. But because all of you punks thought it was a good idea to reply to the incomplete one, I figure it's best just to write it here. You know which topic I'm talking about.}

This is one of the ugliest N64 games I've seen. The N64 should be able to take sprites better than this. But instead, we've got characters who look like they were drawn with a child's blackened markers on thin art paper, then torn out of the paper instead of cut. I hardly noticed any of the sceneries, except for the clouds in Flower Fields which looked like a painting (though I guess I was trying to something to bearable because the music was making me want to ram a car key into my ears).

I don't know what your problem with the graphics is. I think they looked fine. The whole paper cut out thing was obviously the look they were going for, but they were rendered nicely. "Blackened markers"? That's not what the game looks like at all. They were stylized, and while they sure didn't make total use of the system's abilities, they looked fine.

(it's also pretty retarded, because in real life Bowser would probably realize that I could just break the spell).

No. Geez. Which Bowser are you thinking of? The Bowser we all know wouldn't get it unless someone like Kammy spelled it out. And she was incapacitated at the moment.

The only N64 game I've played with a worse soundtrack than this is Yoshi's Story. All of the decent songs in this are remixes of some earlier Mario song. All the new stuff ranges from blah to needing work to downright irritating. Who the hell composed the Flower Fields song? And that racket that plays while the train is moving in Shy Guy's Toybox? Or the friggin' final boss piece of crap?

The Flower Fields music was pretty bad. I'll give you that. And I don't remember the Shy guy train music, so it must be forgettable at best.

But the final boss music was awesome. And so is Bowser's theme. And Peach's theme is much better than Paper Mario 2 Peach's theme. And Mt. Rugged. And while the Yoshi's island music was remixed from Tetris Attack it is just too awesome not to mention. That game had so many rockin' soundtracks... Flower Fields and some train music are the ones you single out?

The only person who doesn't feel the need to put on a little show and dance before attacking is Mario. Those Crazee Dazees (or whatever they're called) in the Flower Field are by far the worst offenders, as they feel like they take twenty seconds to attack.

No. They do take a long time, but that's just so that it's harder to use A to block them. Sure, the A button became less useful as the game progresses, but the designers figured that out with the superguards in PM2. (Hopefully when PM3 rolls around they'll fix it so regular guards are more useful, and superguards aren't the only ones worth using.) It's not about whether it'll do damage or not--guarding just makes it more fun. If you're not even trying to guard you're not playing the game right.

The action commands were just something to liven up the action. Sure, they may be a little on the tedious side, but I'd rather have a couple A and Control Stick < commands tossed in there than the crap menu systems of the other 90 percent of RPG's. But that's what this was. It was something different, a gimmick. Besides, they did a better job when it came to this than SMRPG. SMRPG basic attacks consisted of the A button. Laaaaame.

The star system is fine. I'd rather have a simple 100 star system than a bunch of exp statistics.

The ending credits scene was a complete ripoff of Super Mario RPG, only not as cute.

I think the ending credits scene is a lot better than in SMRPG (there's a lot more stuff going on), but the fact that they stole the freaking parade idea still sucks. I hate that.

Speaking of the shooting Kooper into the hole in the wall, what was up with those clone "puzzles" in the ice area (especially the last one where we had Luigi, Kolorado, Goompapa, and some old Koopa saying they were Kooper)? Has anybody ever actually lost to those?

Ugh. That was a joke. The whole damn game is full of this kind of thing. No one is supposed to lose to it. We all know what Kooper looks like. It's just making fun of the whole clone puzzle by giving you a ridiculously easy one after a really tough one.

In fact, the whole game is seriously lacking in the challenge department.

Bah. Some games are just easy. Better a game you go through without a single game over than a game you stop at the first level because you got a thousand game overs. As long as the game is long and rewarding enough (which I found it to be) to play, difficulty shouldn't be a problem.

Smithy could kick Bowser's ass, and you all know it.

Yeah, but Smithy sucked. While it was a welcome change to the whole "Bowser kidnaps princess" theme, nobody knew what he was. He was just a metal thing. He hit himself in the head with a hammer. He had a major speech problem. I remember him saying something to the effect of "GUUGUOOOGUOO" when he got hurt enough. I didn't like him much. But then there's Bowser. Everyone's favorite failure. Now there's a villian I could get used to.

But Smithy's music is all kickass.

[ May 20, 2005, 10:56 PM: Message edited by: Glyph Phoenix ]