Saturday 26 January, 2008

Gameplay

During the second hour of game play I was still in the mood for mindless fighting so I did not get bored of the game, but as a single player I can see how the game can get boring. At some point I started to repeat some of the levels and characters that I had already played. No matter how you stretch it the only thing there is to do as a single player is whip the computer.
One of the downsides to the game is the items that are periodically dropped for character use. The problem with these items is that some like the pokeball can cause instant K.O. while some of the other items are completely useless. This normally causes a mad dash to the items and gives the victor a perfect chance to kill his opponent. The game flows well because the game does not run on life but on percentage of damage taken. This means that a skilled player can continue a game for much longer than it would normally last with a set fixed health bar. All and all it was a load of fun and just what I needed.



Design:

The game is one more in a line of trademark 3D looking games. The characters have substance as do the surroundings but you are still limited to a 2 dimensional area to play in. This makes it necessary to jump and use objects both higher and lower in order to get around an opponent. The levels are tailored to each character but because there are only so many characters and thus so many levels at some point pretty quickly you run into old levels a lot. One of they ways that the game can be made more interesting is by increasing the difficulty level. That could mean decreasing the amount of lives that you have and or increasing the ability of the computer. Because the game centers around fighting and most if not all the characters are from other series’ there is no story or character bio driving the game. In multi player mode the game will tell you once a match is over who won and who lost but it will also tell you who did best on an individual basis. Thus several people can play as a team and still compete with each other. This allows the game to remain interesting and keeps people competitive. One aspect of the game that I do not like is that there are two characters that are able to fly to some extent. While I tend to use these characters a lot it does give a terribly unfair advantage to the person who can fly. A hit that would normally kill Mario will not kill Kirby. While this does not detract from the enjoyment the game gives it does tend to make it an unfair contest when you are playing against your friends. For its time the game was very impressive to look at but simple to use this is a very useful concept that many gamers myself included seem to like. This might be something to incorporate into my own game.

Good this is exactly what we are looking for, but when looking at the different design aspects try to separate them into separate sections. Levels should have one, music, and so forth, they don't have to be longer it just helps to separate your thoughts and concentrate on these things separately.