 |
|
Mar 10th, 2008 at 19:45:26 - mario 64 (N64) |
GAMEPLAY
The second time around, the game was a lot more fun. None of its control aspects became boring because they were woven into the fabric of the game so well. The levels were reasonably challenging, but not too difficult. It was good that you could skip some levels from a painting and come back to them later rather than having to play the whole thing all at once. That kind of linear gameplay would not have been fun.
The game was interesting because it provided such a diverse gameplay experience. Every painting level was very different from every other painting level. Also, within each painting level there were different quests that encouraged you to explore the area in different ways.
DESIGN
The game’s reward structure provided a great incentive to continue playing for a long time. There are 120 stars in the game. They vary greatly in the difficulty that is required to get them. Some have interesting cut scenes that go along with them and other do not.
The game makes use of space in a very innovative way. There is a hub castle world that has portals leading to all of the other worlds. Some of the portals’ worlds contain buttons that unlock abilities or areas in other parts of the castle. Eventually you can launch up onto the roof of the castle and fly around it.
read comments (1)  - add a comment  - read this GameLog  |
|
Mar 6th, 2008 at 01:12:21 - mario 64 (N64) |
SUMMARY
In Super Mario 64 the player controls a character in a three dimensional world. There is a “hub” castle, which has picture-frame portals that lead to other worlds. The end goal is to defeat the evil Bowser and save the princess.
GAMEPLAY
While playing this game I stayed consistently happy. It had a kind of cartoon-animation feeling to it, which made me feel like I was watching a cartoon. The levels were not too hard and not too easy, so they stayed enjoyable. The controls were very well designed as well (this contributed greatly to the enjoyableness of the game).
There was very little character development. The purpose of the characters was to further the fun of the gameplay rather than develop as individuals. There was a small amount of textual dialogue at certain points in the game, but I would not go as far as saying that the game had a plot. Toad appeared in random places throughout the castle, and Bowser somehow had big painting-portals of himself in three places in the castle.
add a comment - read this GameLog |
|
Mar 3rd, 2008 at 06:13:06 - Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) |
GAMEPLAY
After getting the horse, the game got a whole lot better. I spent a lot of time just riding around out on Hyrule field. That really made the game for me.
Some of the conversations with other players were strange and out of place, which made the game humorous. The characters’ clothing complemented the setting nicely as well. It was good to meet characters who offered to sell things because then you could refill on items.
I experienced flow while playing the game in a slower way than I do usually while playing other games. Flow requires constant challenge that is not too difficult. It’s true that this game provided a constant challenge and that it is not too fast-paced or difficult overall. I think that because it was so slow-moving it may have had some gaps in time where not a lot happened. It was not quite boring though.
DESIGN
The game was innovation. The item equipping function was of particular interest. It was fun equipping various items to the C buttons. I found myself doing that often. Also, the dungeon design was very good. Its fundamental structure was copied from the original Zelda games, but the new graphics and 3Dness made it much more fun. There was a whole new strategy to it.
The tone of the gameworld was friendly and moderately bright, while having monsters appear sometimes. There was never a strong feeling of being threatened, however, even when the monsters appeared. In a word, the tone was lighthearted.
This game gave me the idea of uniformity for my own game project. That is something that I was seriously lacking in my game design. In terms of the setting, enemies, ammunition, power ups, and the ship you control, the whole thing is kind of a hodgepodge of different things that I thought would look good together, but none of them are actually what they’re supposed to represent. The spaceship is an icon that does not look very much like a space ship. The ammunition is a collection of randomly colored pixels. The background should be space, like a regular SHMUPS game, but it is a brown and black image instead. It is possible that will implement some kind of uniformity to create cohesion in my game like Zelda does so well.
read comments (3) - add a comment - read this GameLog |
|
Feb 19th, 2008 at 04:33:06 - Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) |
SUMMARY
In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time you control an elvin character named link in a magical feudal world called Hyrule. Link has a fairy that follows him around and talks to him as he collects rupees for currency, hearts for life points, and a variety of other items. The goal of the game is to pass through dungeons, towns, and areas as well as side-quests in order to ultimately defeat an evil character named Gandalf and save the princess Zelda.
GAMEPLAY
This game inspired a wide range of emotions in me. I think this was because each of the areas had a very different tone. The water dungeon, for instance, had magical fish creatures with dark, ethereal undertones, while Kokiri forest, where you begin the game, had a happy, fairytale-like feeling to it.
The game was fun to play because it was not like most platform games. In terms of the controls, there was no jump command; jumping happened automatically. Furthermore, it seemed like the game was more about solving puzzles than it was about reflexes and other real-time skills. It made me feel unclear about what genre game it is.
The most interesting part of the game was the battle system. It was particularly entertaining because you could lock onto enemies in order to automatically target them. This created a dynamic in which you walked a circle around enemies when you were fighting them. You didn’t have to worry about targeting with projectile weapons, and when performing sword attacks, you only needed to pay attention to the distance. During boss fights this was something that was not constantly used because half of strategy in boss fights was to maneuver outside of the target mode.
add a comment - read this GameLog |
|
|
 |
| roboticalien's GameLogs |
|
roboticalien has been with GameLog for 16 years, 3 months, and 5 days |
view feed xml
|
| Entries written to date: 9 |
|
