I almost poked myself in the brain with a spoon when I saw the first poster for this movie.
The trailers have at least left me hoping that they'll do the book justice.
Hopes for the game? Not so high.
That being said, I'm still confused as to how you turn 20 pages and maybe 200 words into a 90 minute movie. Are they just trying to recreate the charm of the illustrations and keeping this really light on dialogue?
I remember renting this game when I was little and being disappointed that I couldn't beat the first area after falling into a hole. It was one of those rentals that didn't come with the manual and I had absolutely no idea what to do. I've played it on an emulator since and did have some fun. Didn't play it enough to beat it, however.
This is so much closer to selling me on picking up a Wii than anything else releasing this year that it's not even funny. The visuals are astoundingly charming.
To Majesco: Don't bother screwing with the difficulty either. I find triumph over a difficult puzzle to be incredibly rewarding. A proper solution, if one is in fact desirable at all, would be to introduce difficulty levels.
so is it frustrating or is it difficult? if there really are too many blind jumps and poor level design decisions that make the player essentially have to take a lot of leaps of faith to make progress then that might suck. but if it's more that there are genuinely 'tough leaps' or hard to time puzzles etc.. then one would guess that they genuinely are trying to make the game hard which isn't necessarily a bad thing if they just come out and say that's what they want it to be.
@Mykie Gunderson: I was just a kid when I had it and I didn't beat it for almost a decade. When I finally did beat it, I realised I was about a screen away the whole time.
Part of what made it so difficult, especially for an NES kid, was that the game didn't exactly go out of its way to put you on the right track.
@bialia: I used to love that about NES games. No in-game tutorials, no explanations, no arrows pointing you the right way. Just you and whatever you can figure out.
@Mykie Gunderson: The original had basically one amazingly infuriating level. It wasn't very long, but you had to work for every single inch. The beans and responses had to be mapped out, if you fed your blob a bean earlier than you needed it you might as well reboot, you never knew if your route through the level took a bean that you were going to need later...
It was definitely crushingly hard by today's standards. Sure, you might have beaten it in a few days, but that's still a long time to be stuck on one level.
@seishino: No doubt, accounting for which jelly beans to use when was a challenge, but I might have cheated by writing down which order to use the jelly beans, since I always kept a notepad next to my NES controller for things like passwords anyways.
@bobtheduck: Agreed. There are other things that are awesome, or seem like they're going to be awesome (Muramasa, Captain Rainbow, WarioLand: Shake It!, NMH)... but for my money, this remake is the number one thing on my Wii must-play list. The original is one of my favorite games to this day.
As far as difficulty in this sort of game, it seems like people are never satisfied. It's either too easy or too hard.
Wario Land: Shake It! for Wii did an excellent job of balancing the difficulty. As you played the game, the difficulty grew smoothly from "easy" to challenging "challenging". And then after you clear the game, you get some murderously difficult stages for the people who want them.
I wouldn't mind if more games followed a formula similar to that.
@Zorantor: Games should be like that, or hard, but not easy, having games that are too easy just ruin them completelly. Hard games tend to make people try to beat them, but of course lets keep them from being contra or battletoads hard.
Seems that when you want a 2D game to be hard...you must turn to WayFoward xP I am glad they kept the difficulty like the original but added checkpoints.
Nothing like seeing someone play a game that 'looks' cute and child like thinking is going to be easy and then cursing at it for it being super hard xP
@Ornithopterx: To each their own...I just miss the sense of accomplishment I felt when I finally finished one of those games as a kid. That's why I've been devoting much of my game time lately to doing crazy things like attempting to 1cc DoDonPachi. It may be hell getting there, but the reward is awesome...even if no one gives a shit but you.
@hot_heart: I disagree. If you can beat it, it isn't unfair. Skill should be rewarded. Ninja Gaiden Black on the Xbox kicked my ass, but beating that game felt awesome. One of my favorite games of the last gen.
@ex_nihilo: That's different though. I never felt the difficulty in NG was cheap. Working your way through that you felt pretty good. Besides, you could choose different levels.
It's the old-school platformer stuff that bugs me. It's when it just seems unfair that I get the feeling it's being used to extend the game.
I'm not saying it's wrong to appreciate a challenge. I just suspect this is a lame one.
@hot_heart: I understand what you mean, but I find that a lot of games we could deem unfair now had other problems...like horrible controls and bad collision. It wasn't a case of cheaply extending the length of a game, it was a case of a game being poorly programmed and barely tested before it shipped. Case in point: the Simpsons games for the NES. They just sucked.
@ex_nihilo: Ninja Gaiden Black should NOT be the standard among games. If it were, the game industry would not be multi-billion selling.
Ever since I got into RPGs, I've started looking for stories in my games, and it is quite possible for the difficulty to get in the way. I don't want to feel like I've "accomplished" something insane, necessarily. I just want to experience a great story that I took part in.
I don't want to spend my time just trying to get good enough to beat one level anymore... That was something I could do when I was 7, but not now.
I hope there will always be an "extreme" mode to please people like you, but I hope that doesn't again become the standard and ONLY way to play through a game. I agree with hot_heart, in that a lot of those old platforming games were cheap. You beat cheap games with a great memory. Memory isn't skill.
@hot_heart:
So a 2d game can't be hard to extend length but a 3d game can? I don't understand this (not being rude, literally confused and hope you can elaborate.)
And, maybe you can use examples of games which have been released. I would say not to take this one persons experience as the game being unfair, because he may just suck at playing games overall.
If you know HOW to beat a hard game (or section of it) and can beat it on your first try every time, it isn't a hard game, it's more of a puzzle solving thing. So trial and error, and memorization. But if you know how to beat a hard game, and have a hard time beating it, but can, it is challenging gameplay. Which is what I am gathering is the experience Mr. Totilo and this producer had with this game.
@IvanDashSmith: I'm thinking of games like Ghosts 'n Goblins (clearly a money-gobbling arcade port), Prince of Persia and some weird one I can't remember that involves a gate that crushes you without warning (among other little tricks). I think there's some the AVGN probably showed as well.
That may not be the case here, but Stephen seems to have a problem with it.
And I wasn't saying NG was allowed to be difficult to extend its lifespan. I said it was different. I never felt overwhelmed playing it, just that every fight was for my life... But as has been said, your mileage may vary.
I think ex_nihilo hit it on the head otherwise. Could be more to do with poor design, programming, controls and/or no testing. Recent case in point: Star Destroyer section of Force Unleashed.
@Ueziel: Yep. I can imagine a Mega Man game where for every spike you touch or shot you absorb, the screen just gets a little bit red and heals the player after a couple of seconds, or a Shadow of the Beast with a checkpoint saved every few steps.
@Ueziel: This game looks great! I really enjoyed prinny and Ghost and Ghoblins for that very reason. I'm loving these old-school remakes (except for bionic commando for some reason).
09/01/09
Kiddy platformer movie tie in, it will not work as.
09/01/09
The trailers have at least left me hoping that they'll do the book justice.
Hopes for the game? Not so high.
That being said, I'm still confused as to how you turn 20 pages and maybe 200 words into a 90 minute movie. Are they just trying to recreate the charm of the illustrations and keeping this really light on dialogue?
09/01/09
09/01/09
08/01/09
07/31/09
07/31/09
07/31/09
To Majesco: Don't bother screwing with the difficulty either. I find triumph over a difficult puzzle to be incredibly rewarding. A proper solution, if one is in fact desirable at all, would be to introduce difficulty levels.
07/31/09
07/31/09
I don't recall it being THAT hard to beat, certainly not "Sadistically hard" as mentioned in other comments.
I'm also not saying I'm some genius gamer where everything comes naturally and the challenge of videogaming is lost on.
Just that the original NES game isn't that hard.
07/31/09
Part of what made it so difficult, especially for an NES kid, was that the game didn't exactly go out of its way to put you on the right track.
07/31/09
07/31/09
It was definitely crushingly hard by today's standards. Sure, you might have beaten it in a few days, but that's still a long time to be stuck on one level.
07/31/09
07/31/09
07/31/09
07/31/09
Wario Land: Shake It! for Wii did an excellent job of balancing the difficulty. As you played the game, the difficulty grew smoothly from "easy" to challenging "challenging". And then after you clear the game, you get some murderously difficult stages for the people who want them.
I wouldn't mind if more games followed a formula similar to that.
07/31/09
07/31/09
Nothing like seeing someone play a game that 'looks' cute and child like thinking is going to be easy and then cursing at it for it being super hard xP
07/31/09
07/31/09
07/31/09
But yeah, I'm looking forward to the game and that article was a great idea.
07/31/09
07/31/09
07/31/09
By this point in our lives we should be mature enough to know it's just a game and not to get upset.
07/31/09
07/31/09
07/31/09
I can appreciate difficulty, but if it's unfair then it's unfair.
07/31/09
07/31/09
It's the old-school platformer stuff that bugs me. It's when it just seems unfair that I get the feeling it's being used to extend the game.
I'm not saying it's wrong to appreciate a challenge. I just suspect this is a lame one.
07/31/09
07/31/09
Ever since I got into RPGs, I've started looking for stories in my games, and it is quite possible for the difficulty to get in the way. I don't want to feel like I've "accomplished" something insane, necessarily. I just want to experience a great story that I took part in.
I don't want to spend my time just trying to get good enough to beat one level anymore... That was something I could do when I was 7, but not now.
I hope there will always be an "extreme" mode to please people like you, but I hope that doesn't again become the standard and ONLY way to play through a game. I agree with hot_heart, in that a lot of those old platforming games were cheap. You beat cheap games with a great memory. Memory isn't skill.
07/31/09
So a 2d game can't be hard to extend length but a 3d game can? I don't understand this (not being rude, literally confused and hope you can elaborate.)
And, maybe you can use examples of games which have been released. I would say not to take this one persons experience as the game being unfair, because he may just suck at playing games overall.
If you know HOW to beat a hard game (or section of it) and can beat it on your first try every time, it isn't a hard game, it's more of a puzzle solving thing. So trial and error, and memorization. But if you know how to beat a hard game, and have a hard time beating it, but can, it is challenging gameplay. Which is what I am gathering is the experience Mr. Totilo and this producer had with this game.
07/31/09
That may not be the case here, but Stephen seems to have a problem with it.
And I wasn't saying NG was allowed to be difficult to extend its lifespan. I said it was different. I never felt overwhelmed playing it, just that every fight was for my life... But as has been said, your mileage may vary.
I think ex_nihilo hit it on the head otherwise. Could be more to do with poor design, programming, controls and/or no testing. Recent case in point: Star Destroyer section of Force Unleashed.
08/01/09
07/31/09
07/31/09
07/31/09
07/31/09