Song of the Day (Volume 17): Toxic

I don't care if she can't sing. This track is a banger that even she can't ruin. And she is a good dancer, if nothing else!

-TRO

What I'm Playing (Volume 14): Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3

Itsa me, Wario (?)

Wow, two What I'm Playing in two days?!?!?! In truth, I finished the Shantae game on Friday, and started up Wario Land on Saturday, so it wasn't really two days. But it was definitely the quickest turnaround yet!

Were it not for the incredible Pokemon Red and Blue, Super Mario Land 2 would likely be my favorite Game Boy game ever. A true masterpiece of handheld platforming excellence, SML 2 is beautiful, fun, long, and an excellent counterpart to Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES. 

I've played the first Super Mario Land, and found it to be quite boring and terrible, particularly in comparison to the brilliant SML 2. But I'd never really played Wario Land, with its curious subtitle of Super Mario Land 3 before, and I was in the mood for a bit more platforming after the very fun Shantae and the Pirate's Curse. So how does Wario Land stack up against its brilliant predecessor?

Wario Land picks up the story of SML 2, which concluded with (spoilers!) Mario defeating his new enemy Wario, destroying his castle, and sending him packing. Wario then has to go on a new adventure to gather enough treasure to build himself a new castle, and that's about as deep as the story goes.

The game has an excellent visual appeal to it, with well designed and very large sprites, including the hideous and hilarious looking Wario. The tiny version of Wario when he gets hit is particularly funny.

The music is surprisingly minimalist for a Mario game, but is pleasing nonetheless. At times, you'll hear distorted echoes of songs from SML 2, which is a nice touch back to its ancestor.

Wario Land is seemingly built on the engine of SML 2, but takes a different approach in its platforming, as well as game aims to differentiate it. Wario's primary attack is a shoulder charge, which he can use to break blocks and destroy enemies. He also can't run, which encourages you to slow down, plan your path across the levels, and explore! There are far more branching paths in this game, some of which lead to priceless treasures that will aid you in getting a more lavish castle. You can also get new hats which give Wario new powers, including a Bull hat that lets you stick to the ceiling, charge longer and more powerfully, and do a butt slam on the ground, a dragon hat that breathes fire, and a winged hat that lets you charge in mid-air and run faster. Each of these power-ups is necessary to find new and different treasures, so getting them can make a huge difference.

The most fun differentiation in this game from SML 2 is the use of coins and treasure, based on Wario's character. Wario is, at his heart, a greedy villain, meaning that coins and treasure will have fare different meaning to him than the more virtuous Mario. 

In Mario games, getting 100 coins simply means an extra life. Greedy Wario wouldn't necessarily want that, though, so his coins have far more varied uses, and choosing wisely among the uses can change your outcome significantly. One use is to play a bonus game at the end of the level, which lets you gamble your coins for the chance to double them, or half them. Another use is another bonus game that lets you trade them in for a chance to throw bombs at innocent enemies, with more lives being given to you based on your aim. Lastly, you can simply choose to save up your coins, trading them for a castle at the end.

The treasures are seemingly ordinary, yet shiny objects (including a baseball glove) hidden in chests around the world. Trading them in nets you tens of thousands of coins, so hunting them all down is vitally important to your success. Or you could just finish the game and be rewarded with a little hovel.

Hunting for the treasures and trying to improve your castle is the best part of the game, both playing to the character of Wario in a believable way, but also giving the game replay value as you play levels again and again looking for these rare treasures, and trying to get a playthrough in which you are rewarded with a massive castle at the end.

The controls are very good, and levels are designed in such a way to make your adventure fun and rewarding. There are coins and secrets everywhere, which makes each level fun and entertaining.

On the downside, Wario Land is very short, and very easy. At 40 levels, about 5 of which I found challenging, you can easily beat Wario Land in an afternoon. But the replay value from the treasures means that I found it well worth the $3.99 I paid for it on the 3DS e-shop (I used to have the cart, but my son lost it on an airplane...I'll have to get it again). It did feel shorter than SML 2, though, which is kind of indefensible seeing as Wario Land was a later release on the same system.

I found Wario Land a fun, if too short, experience, and will definitely check out Wario Land 2 when I have a chance to pick it up. I'll give it a 8.5/10.

Here's a quick teaser for my next handheld What I'm Playing. This one should take longer than a week to beat, although we'll see. I'd anticipate that the console What I'm Playing should be out before the next handheld iteration.

-TRO

What I'm Playing (Volume 13): Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Va va voom

I had never before played a Shantae game, which makes sense. The only two previous games in the series are the unbelievably expensive Game Boy Color game Shantae (over 200 for a Game Boy game? Whatttt.) and the DSi exclusive Shantae: Risky's Revenge. I have an excellent collection of handhelds and retro video games, and I still don't own a DSi, although this gives me half a reason to own one. Its subsequent rerelease on the PS4 and Wii U, however, takes this reason away.

I picked up this one in a Humble Bundle for 3DS about a year ago, and played it a bit and enjoyed it. I got sidetracked by other games, though, and wandered back to it after feeling like a break from RPGs and go back to some platforming.

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse is the story of Shantae, an adorably curvaceous half-genie who has lost all of her magic, and has to save her native Sequin Land from the Pirate Master. Teaming up with the similarly curvy Risky Boots, her former rival and villain of the previous games, Shantae must retrieve pirate gear to give her the powers needed to defeat the Pirate Master and save Sequin Land. Getting this gear gives the game some slight metroidvania elements, although it felt a bit more like a Mega Man X game, and less like Metroid or Castlevania to me.

Visually, the game is gorgeous. It's one of the finest looking games on the 3DS, has beautiful sprite work, environments, attack animations, and enemy designs. The bosses are large and detailed, and all have satisfying animations that sell the danger they pose to you.

The game controls perfectly, with jumps all performing as you expect, and each subsequent upgrade you get having a dedicated button press to perform that is very respondent and predictable.

The music is good, although I was a bit disappointed in it. As the soundtrack is composed by Jake Kauffman, who did the Shovel Knight soundtrack I adore so much, I was hoping for more memorable tracks, but the game's soundtrack is a bit more pedestrian, offering pleasing backtracks that suit each level, but never matching Shovel Knight's high standards.

The game has a delightfully playful level of cheesecake fanservice in it, as all of the main characters have pretty sexy designs, and the game's designers correctly balance the ratio of fanservice: character development: gameplay. For example, you have one level in which all four of the main female characters (Shantae, Risky Boots, zombie babe Rottytops, and blonde bombshell Sky) get captured by a tribe inside of a pyramid, all get mistaken for their missing princess, get dressed up in Princess Leia-style bikinis, and you have to rescue all of them. At the conclusion of this little adventure, the real princess returns, only to find that she is rather fat and hideous looking, which makes the mistaken identity plot all the more hilarious. The service never gets racier than the bikinis, but remains a fun diversion during an excellent game. 

The humor in the game is excellent and provides accurate mockery of gaming and platforming tropes, still showing the playful side of the game. For example, one of the bosses says something about how he was made to be a boss, as he loves intense music, repetitive patterns, and closed quarters (Ha!). 

The bosses are all very well done, providing an appropriate level of challenge, and each demanding that you correctly use the most recently unlocked pirate gear in order to defeat him.

The level designs and big and beautiful, but not so sprawling that you'll get lost or lack things to do. There were a few moments in the game in which I pondered using a guide, but a little backtracking and exploring were usually able to solve the problems fairly quickly.

The levels are also well designed so that they ramp up in difficulty, with easier spots early, and more challenging spots later. There are also excellent opportunities immediately after obtaining new pirate gear to test it out and practice in a spot with little to no risk. The final dungeon in particular is a master class in producing difficult but fair platforming, and you need to stick it out to experience it.

Speaking of backtracking, the game game gives fun and ample opportunities to return to earlier levels using your new abilities to find new cacklebats and heart squids, which is a nice feature. These aren't essential to beat the game, but the heart squids will increase your maximum life, and the cacklebats release dark magic, and you'll need to retrieve it all to fight the final boss' last form and see the ultimate ending.

The game wasn't perfect, however. The backtracking got a bit silly at times, and felt like you were simply being forced to return to previously explored areas to bump up the play time, which is short. I 100% completed the game in under 9 hours, which is definitely on the short side, particularly for a metroidvania style game. I was happy with it, as I got it in a Humble Bundle, probably for 10 bucks or so, but at retail this game costs $30. I'm not sure I would have been pleased to get less than 10 hours of game play for $30, so you will probably want to get this one used or on sale.

Additionally, the item system was a bit cumbersome. In order to use your items, you have to use the touch screen, which can get challenging during boss battles. While you can reuse your last used items by pressing zl + zr, this doesn't account for needing to switch between different items, and can cause you to waste valuable time looking at the screen for your desired item, all while the boss is wrecking you. Additionally, only the New Nintendo 3DS has these zl and zr buttons, so you're really sunk if you don't have one. I'll share my thoughts on this system at some point, but for the first time, I was really glad I had the "new" variant.

All in all, I'd recommend the game. While the short play time and awkward item system are irritating, the charm of this game, and the high quality of its levels and controls make it well worth acquiring, particularly around a 15-20 dollar price point. Try to grab a used copy, or wait for it to go on sale, and you'll enjoy it. I'll give it an 8.8/10

-TRO

Song of the Day (Volume 16): Serenity Painted Death

One of my pet peeves is people who whine about how they want bands to go back to the "old stuff", and that's another blog for another day. But sometimes I REALLY miss old Opeth. This track from Still Life manages to be brutally heavy and beautifully melodic all at once, and really exemplifies the majesty of old Opeth, despite the truly awful production. It's still better production than Orchid, at least.

One of the best things about the track are the pinch harmonics in the chorus. My friend and I always joke that there's no song with too many pinch harmonics, but there's something to be said for a band that doesn't usually use them, and then throws in a bunch of incredible ones on a track, and this track is exhibit A of that principle. Anyway, check out old and new Opeth. Old is unbelievably good music, and the new albums are the enjoyable output of a man who's either past his creative prime or bored with his strengths (my money's on the latter), but is still putting out pretty good stuff.

-TRO

Beloved

My first book review! It's really hard to review books, as I don't get as much time to read as I used to. Reviewing a video game is fairly easy for me, as even going back and playing it for a few minutes can remind me a lot of why I love it so much. Books, on the other hand, need to be read in full again to remind me about its greatness, and that is mostly true.

But not with Beloved.

One of my favorite books, certainly the best American novel I've read from after 1950, and perhaps even the foretold Great American Novel, Beloved is the story of Sethe, an escaped slave. She runs from her master with her two children, and ends up leaving her husband behind in the escape. She makes it safely to Ohio, but her master finds her and attempts to bring her back. Based on a true and grisly story, Sethe kills her baby in order to show that she won't go back with him, and will go to any length to maintain her freedom. She then goes about trying to have an ordinary life with her remaining daughter, despite the horrifying trauma in her life, and the judgment of the community around her.

Her dead baby, however, won't leave her alone. She haunts the house where she and her daughter, Denver, live. One day, the ghost is exorcised from the house, but soon after a mysterious young woman shows up at the door, and I'll try not to spoil the rest.

Beloved is a beautiful piece of literature that uses language expertly to craft a gripping and sorrowful narrative that anyone can empathize with. While this book has a political and social message, it's the best kind. Art that tells a message is great, a message that masquerades as art is horrible *cough Fahrenheit 451 cough*. Beloved communicates with passion, soul, and a light touch, rather than with the heavy handedness of one who wants to convince you of their point of view. Even for those from differing political viewpoints, Beloved's message of racial inequality, the damage of slavery, and communication of the unique challenges faced by women across all cultures and societies will make you think hard without feeling bludgeoned by an ideological zealot.

Saying too much more would spoil the book, and that's the last thing I'd want to do. So go get it, ASAP. It's a truly excellent read, and a magnificent accomplishment for America's finest living novelist and one of the most excellent novelists of all time. I give it a 10/10.

-TRO

Song of the Day (Volume 15): Birthday Cake (Remix)

These two have a horrifying past, but really sizzle on this track that, purely musically speaking, deserved a much higher place on the charts than it got. Enjoy!

-TRO

What I'm Playing Teaser

So I finally decided what I'm playing next on handheld, and here's the teaser! Can you guess it?

At the current rate, I'll probably be putting out a review in a week or so, perhaps a bit shorter or longer.

-TRO