Level Up: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

Without a doubt, calling any Super Mario platformer game underrated would be idiotic, but there are some that stand out and other that just aren’t are popular. While most people would be quick to say Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64 or similar games are their favorite, you don’t meet many people who say either of the Super Mario Land games is theirs (not counting the third, which was really a Wario game). And I don’t know why that is because they can definatly stand their own. So today I’m going to talk about my favorite Mario platformer, Super Mario Land 2 for the Game Boy.

The game play is pretty much the standard Mario platformer game play. And if you don’t know what I mean by “standard Mario platformer game play”, please stop listening to random video game based podcasts and go actually PLAY a video game. Most of you should know what I’m talking about though: the jumping, the coins, the pipes, the power ups, etc… But, also like every Mario game, this has its differences. The most noticeable one this time around is the map. Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World did have maps, but still kept things pretty much linear in their levels. In this game, you have access to all 6 levels right from the start, and you can tackle them in any order. This is really cool, though something has to be said about this messing up the difficulty curve, but this means if you’re having trouble with a certain level, you can go someplace else and come back later, while in the others, you weren’t given as much of an option.

The other most noticeable difference is the carrot upgrade, which gives Mario rabbit ears. This is the equivalent of the raccoon leaf or cape feather for the game, but you don’t get to fly, it just slows you’re decent. Though both of the other items could do the same, this one does it at an even slower pace, which I honestly like a lot more then flying.

Other than this, differences become pretty much cosmetic, like hearts instead of green mushrooms for extra lives, and standard changes between games, ending level bonuses and new enemies that do the same things the old ones do. The only other thing I feel like mentioning is that enemies and coins do something different. The amount of enemies you kill are kept on a counter, and once you get 100, you get a star. The coins never go away and are saved to use in a roulette type game to get lives. Otherwise, like I said, pretty much standard Mario gaming, so if you like that, you should still enjoy this game at the very least.

The story starts up right after the first Super Mario Land. Without giving away any spoilers from that game, we learn that all the events were just a distraction so that the mastermind could come in, take over Mario Land and put all its inhabitants under a spell to hate Mario. Who could this evil genius, who made an entire game just to distract our hero and is making his grand debut in this game possibly be? (WARIO! HAHAHAH!) Yes, this game is the grand debut of the future iconic Wario, who did all this out of jealousy of Mario’s fame and fortune. To stop him, Mario has to collect 6 golden coins across the land to unlock his castle and face Wario mano a mano. The places you go through are as follow; a forest level, the inside of a turtle, a horror zone, a giant clock-work Mario figure, THE MOON and a regular house where Mario is shrunk to the size of a mouse. I’m sorry, I think this is the most creative variety of places Mario has visited until Super Mario 64, and that’s saying a lot with only 6 zones. As I’ve said before, once you have all 6 coins, you can face Wario, but you better not lose, because once its game over, you lose all your coins and need to face all the bosses again. You don’t have to do the entire worlds, but you will need to do the level the boss is in. This may seem inconvenient to some, but I really like it: it’s a serious punishment for letting your life counter reach zero. Besides, it’s not hard to keep collecting lives, so don’t let it keep you from getting this game.

This game is Mario at his prime! I’m sorry for saying that about a game that wasn’t created or even directed by Mario’s creator Miyamoto, but it’s really how I feel. It took everything I like about Mario, improved on it, gave me options on it and made the game feel more organic in a way. I also think it should be placed right by Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros. 3 in the great Mario game category. It should also be noted for being the first game to feature Wario, who is now a staple in the series. It was also the second Mario game to save (first one being Mario World), the second game in the Mario Land series and now the second game I give a perfect score to. I give Super Mario Land 2 for the Game Boy 10 out of 10 levels.

Level Up: Xiaolin Showdown

I have to admit, Xiaolin Showdown was a guilty pleasure for me, mostly since when it came out, I was a little “too old” for the show by society standards and because most of my friends thought it wasn’t that good anyways. None the less, I liked it, with its different settings, interesting villains and kid friendly kung-Fu. The magical items, the Shen Gong Wu, just tied it all together, making me look forward to seeing what would be discovered and how it would be used. One day I saw in Nintendo Power that they were going to make a game based on the series. “Cool,” I thought, “can’t wait to see how they use the Shen Gong Wu in it.” Somehow, that was the last I heard of it, until I saw it in a discount bin and picked it up for 10 dollars. So, let’s talk about Xiaolin Showdown for the Nintendo DS.

The game starts up, and you have the choice of selecting one of the four monks. What’s the difference? There pretty much seems to be none other than cosmetic. Attacks do pretty much the same damage, but look different, and any difference you might notice is probably psychosomatic. Other that, or the differences are so small, they can be mistaken for psychosomatic. The first level you’re thrown in is pretty much the mandatory training level, where you’ll see what you’ll do most of the game; move around, jump, kick and punch. In this game though, there is the chi meter; the more you attack your enemy, the more it fills up, letting you launch an elemental attack or use a Shen Gong Wu. Most of the Wu are just projectile attacks, but different kind, and the few that aren’t don’t seem to last long enough to be useful.

If it sounds like I’m disappointed in this game’s game play, it’s because I am. With all the Shen Gong Wu there was available and how they’re used this could have been a great adventure game where you could use the Wu to get further, as in games like Zelda. This would of probably also made for more interesting boss fights then the bland ones of “trigger an event, then punch”. Seriously, this subject is prime for a Zelda rip off, but instead we got a copy paste beat-em-up, which just really let me down.

To talk about the graphics, this game looks weird. There are some jagged edges at really random places and some of the colors just off, with some skin tones looking very gray. Probably doesn’t help that the camera looks oddly framed and you can’t change the angle. However, some of the enemies are really well done, and the 2D cut scenes and random images are perfect remakes from the cartoon, but since you’ll be mostly looking at your character fighting on the 3D area, it’s not really worth it. The music left no real impression on me. I can’t say I found it bad, only because it was so ignorable. It’s bland to say the least. The other sounds are pretty standard for beat-em-up, with the addition of the voicing while challenging each other or launching attacks. I gotta say, I thought it was cool that every character actually said whatever item they were holding, like in the show. Final point: the audio visual of this game is as disappointing as the game play.

This game was a disappointment. But hey, I shouldn’t be surprised; buy a cheap game, and don’t be shocked to get a cheap game. For a bit, this game made me question the subject in itself; was it lame enough to deserve a game like this? I mean, back when I watched it when it was new, it was good, but I also didn’t see that they used a different spelling of “Shaolin” (… poor literacy) (I gotta stop stealing Linkara’s jokes). But then I kind of looked at it again; it’s not all that bad, just not good as it could be. I mean, nothing prevented me from beating it (other than one glitch one time) and I didn’t feel like I was suffering while I was playing. I think that if (publishers) Konami would have released a similar game for the SNES in 2D, it would have been one of those “underrate games” for the system. But now, we have higher standards for our graphics, game play and mini games, and expect more than one easily erasable save file. I can’t say this game is good, but it’s not all bad, just severely disappointing. I give Xiaolin Showdown for the Nintendo DS 5 levels out of 10.

Level Up: Hogan's Alley and Virtua Cop

I feel like talking about a special breed of games today: peripheral gun games. Now a days, you mostly see them in arcades or on the Wii, since first person shooters are more popular (though technically, this is shooting in the first person). A while back, it seemed every system needed one, but now, this quote unquote gimmick’s time has passed (Guitar Hero proves though, peripheral games will never die). So let’s take a look at some of these games that put the gun in your hand with Hogan’s Alley for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Virtua Cop for the Sega Saturn.

Hogan’s Alley uses to iconic Zapper gun, which most people would remember playing Duck Hunt with. The way it worked was pretty cool: when the trigger is pulled, it gives a command that changes the current screen to black and white ones (you probably noticed a flash when you shoot, this is it). White squares will replace the objects you can shoot, one on each frame for each target. The white light should be received by the zapper if you were aiming properly giving a signal to the game. There are issues though: this doesn’t work on LCD or plasma TVs, at a certain distance, it sometimes stops working and if you aim it at a light bulb, it can mess things up, probably in your favor.

The game was pretty much a shooting range for the NES. In the main mode, three cardboard cut-outs would appear and you’d quickly have to asses which ones to shoot before time runs out. There is another mode where tin cans come on screen and you have to shoot them to the other side for points. That’s pretty much it though, and I can’t see much fun in it, outside getting together with your friends and seeing who has the best draw. Though, for such a simplistic game, its legacy lives on: it has been referenced in the Wario Ware series and part of Wii Play. I guess there’s something about it that people just enjoy.

Virtua Cop, on the other hand, is a different story: I found it fun on my own and had a point to it, but seems to be forgotten despite having 2 sequels. The big problem here would have been the system: the Sega Saturn (not counting for the arcade versions in this review though). To talk about how the gun works, when I pull the trigger, I did notice a flash of white, but then I saw on the “name input” screen that it knew where I was pointing without having to pull the trigger. I can only assume (since I can find how it really works) it took the technology of the zapper, and improved on it. It actually feels a lot more accurate: I can normally always get my shot while in Hogan’s Alley, I sometimes miss for no reason. But what I really like about this game is that you don’t NEED the gun to play it! You could play Virtua Cop with a just the regular controller, unlike Hogan’s Alley and other such games. However, moving your cursor around to shoot can sometimes just NOT be done quickly enough, and I strongly recommend getting the gun. It helped my game.

To explain the story as Fairly Odd Parents would put it, you are (a loose cannon cop who doesn't play by the rules) . You go around shooting bad guy who will shoot at you given the chance (green circle around them) to eventually get to their boss. You’ll move rail-shooter style through three locations depending on your difficulty: the docks, a quarry and business tower, all very typical action cop movies. I guess that’s why I like this game, it has a Die Hard feel to it, and taking out six bad guys with six bullets makes me feel like I could be John McCain.

Well, I hope you liked this look at two peripheral gun games. They seemed to have disappeared outside of the Arcade, seemingly sometime during the last generation of gaming. The Wii seems to keep this notion alive, but it’s diluted to say the least. Both games have good graphics for the system they’re on, but I really dig Virtua Cop’s music and it feels more like a game then a toy. I give Hogan’s Alley for the NES 6 and Virtua Cop 8 Levels out of 10.

Level Up: Mario Kart Double Dash

The Mario Kart series is something to be admired. No offense to all of those who like the other types of racing games, but before Super Mario Kart came out in 1992, a lot of them seemed rather boring a too realistic. Mario Kart changed that with wacky weapons galore, more emphasis on the racer and not the car and just simply the fun that comes with Mario, it wasn’t long before it not only took off as a series, but was also getting copied left and right. Mario Kart 64 took all of that and ironed out what the Super Nintendo couldn’t quite do, but today, I’m talking about Mario Kart: Double Dash for the Nintendo GameCube. Why? Cause it takes it a step beyond. Also, because it’s the only one I own…

The controls are pretty much the typical ones for the Mario Kart games: A accelerates B brakes or backs up, L and R drift and X and Y use your items. But wait, doesn’t the GameCube controller also have a Z button it can use. Well, that’s where the Double Dash comes in. In this game, you play as two characters at once; one drives the vehicle and the other uses the items. Z switches both characters’ positions, and since each character can only hold one item as a time, it makes it so you can have two, or if you already do have two, you can just switch to the one you want. I found this skill easy to master and crucial for the more difficult settings. The one down side is that this gives people new to the game a huge disadvantage in most modes, unlike previous games, which were pretty easily mastered from the get go.

As mentioned before, you play as two characters, and this gives the game most of its personality (the rest is contributed to the Mario Kart series in general). As you’re picking your characters, keep two things mind: each character has different weight class and special items. The special items are something new to the series and are pretty much self-explanatory: every time you hit an item box, you have a chance to get said item, whether it is Mario’s fireballs, Yoshi’s homing egg or DK’s giant banana peel. The weight class is nothing new to the series, but affects the game in a new way since you not only chose what characters you want, but also which kart you’ll use. Weight limits your choice and to put it simply, you pick a kart in the weight category of the heavier character (i.e. if you have a light character and a heavy character, you will need to pick a kart to suit the heavy character). This means the only way to get the lightest karts is to pick two light weight characters. Beyond that, each kart has its own unique states in the categories of top speed, acceleration and weight. I’m really glad to say that unlike other games with similar differences, it’s really noticeable in this one, and you’re selection of kart can make or break your victory.

Now, I could talk about the graphics or the music right now, but neither are all that special. Graphically speaking, it’s not the worst game, but probably not the best. It’s smooth in a way, but has its obvious polygon corners. I will say though, that I am impressed by the how well the characters hanging off the back looks and sways when you move left and right. The music is pretty much par for the course for the Mario Kart series, which means it’s fun, energetic and suiting while not distracting or over powering. What I do want to mention though is the secrets in this game. This is really the first Mario Kart game with a noticeable amount of unlockables, and that’s because almost every circuit on almost every difficult will unlock something. What you can get includes new characters, new cars, new circuits and new arenas for the 2 player mode. I really like that, because it gives incentive to play the game all the way through, and not just attack the more difficult modes and call it a day.

This game was a great addition to the Mario Kart series. The ability to mix and match your racer was great: there’s just something about taking Birdo and Wario to race in DK’s car on Luigi’s track. The courses are also really fun, each unique with interesting elements to them. But of course the main reason to get this game is the doubling up of the characters, a great game play element. The only down side is that it limits the ability to play two players, since you’ll need to give other players a chance to learn the controls before playing. This is a minor detail, but in a series like Mario Kart, it’s a big deal. None the less, this game is worth finding and playing through and through, even if you’ll only do the 1 player mode. I give Mario Kart: Double Dash for the Nintendo GameCube 8.5 Levels out of 10.

Pac-man parody lyrics

First off, sorry for not upload the other Level Ups yet. Its because I have yet to take pictures of the game and didn't feel like uploading it seperatly. I have taken most of the ones for the previous weeks and upcomming ones, I now just have to upload them. Be patient.

Now, on to the topic. If you're subscribed to Level Up, then you'll get a special episode today for Pac-Man's 30th anniversary. I figured I would be generous enough to post the full lyrics up (it's a parody of The Beatles "Sgt Peppe's Lonely Hearts Club Band")

It was thirty years ago today,

Namco released out a game to play

It soon became the latest style

And drove all of the masses wild
So may I introduce to you
After gaming all these years

My musical tribute to the game pac-man

So happy birthday to you pac-man
30 years of running ‘round a maze
I can start up any version of the game,
Sit back and play for days and days.
Wakka Wakka Wakka, Wakka Wakka Wakka,
Wakka Wakka Wakka Wakka Wak

Getting cornered by the ghosts
Is certainly a thrill

You get to the power pellet

Then you can eat some of the ghosts,
Then you can eat all of them.
I pretty sure that everyone knows

How the gaming of Pac-man goes
You eat the white pellets up
Keep going and he never stops
You think by now he’d need

After only eating all these years
A super-duper, diet weight loss plan

Level Up: Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat 2

bwahaha

Sorry everyone. It’s just that SUPER Street Fighter IV came out this week. This just proves 90% of video game web comics right when they said that given any success in the Street Fighter series, Capcom will milk it for all its worth. Coming in the next month, Street Fighter IV Campion Edition, Street Fighter IV Turbo Remix and Super Street Fighter IV This Is The Last One Wink Wink. Don’t believe me? Well I’m gonna activate another “Capcom time” to look at Street Fighter 2 CHAMPION EDITION for the Sega Genesis.

So, you’re probably asking “What does the Campion Edition even mean?” Well, a quick bit a research tells us that it’s like the original Street Fighter 2, but with the 4 boss characters become playable. Really? You needed to rush a new title for it for that? Furthermore, a later edition would add more characters, so why not wait a bit, and release just one new game, new character and all of them playable. And heck, why not just call it Street Fighter 3 while you’re at it? Was the title “2” really that great? This (and the system it was released on) just made people not care once the REAL Street Fighter 3 came out.

Now, I have said it many times: I don’t like fighter games, but every time I say that, it comes with a game I really like. Well, time for me to talk about a fighting game I don’t like. The big, main reason I don’t like them is because most moves are hard to pull off. This system actually makes it worse, since there are only 3 buttons. This means to switch between punches and kicks, you need to press start, making some moves near impossible now. But for some reason, even if I read how to do moves, no matter what I do, I can only pull them off like 5% of the time, and just don’t know what I do different than the other 95%. This is made all the worse by the fact that the computer can pull off any move it wants no problem and that you don’t have a move guide in the game.

I have to say it, the characters are bland: half of them can be described as “a fighter”. And since most of the stages are in streets, I guess we have our title. Forget that, I don’t want just fighting in the streets, give me something more if I’m gonna be able to do anything spectacular. I want more then fighting, I want kill. I want to know that there’s death at stake in this combat. I’ll take some Mortal Kombat. Here’s Mortal Kombat 2 for the Sega Genesis.

I know, it might be cliché at this point to put these two against each other in a review, but they were actually heavy competitors at one point, like Mario and Sonic, and when I picked a team, I said Mortal Kombat. Why did I enjoy playing this game? Exact reason I introduced it: blood lust. Yeah, this is one of the games that lead to the creation of the ESRB rating system, and with good reason. Every punch sends blood flying and some of the hits are brutal. And we can’t forget the Fatalities; a wicked finishing move that violently destroys your opponent in awesome ways. Sometimes I’m still happy I lose if I can die by Fatality.

Graphically speaking, Mortal Kombat was just amazing. Sure Street Fighter’s ones look good and were smooth and all that, but I remember turning on Mortal Kombat 2 and thinking “Holy crap, real people!” The sounds are also superior from Street Fighter 2, but that’s by comparison. Just the thought of realistic people fighting like that was what I enjoyed. Though honestly, most of these are far from real people. Though most are “human” to start with, their skills list, training, appearance and other attributes suggest otherwise. A lot are just fun to play as.

Midway Games may not be the greatest game developers, but they kick Capcom’s ass in the fighting game department. Both games are good two players, have good button response, hit detection works right and all that, but Mortal Kombat makes you enjoy everything, even while you’re losing. I’m not saying Street Fighter 2 is flawed, no, they did everything right and pretty much became the basis for fighting games from then on. But I have 2 comments for that arguement: I’m not a fan of fighting games and you shouldn’t be celebrated for not screwing up, you should be celebrated for taking it a step beyond. Also, didn’t appreciate being jerked around with the rereleases, even though they’re doing it again… I give Street Fighter 2 CHAMPION EDITION 6.5 and Mortal Kombat 2 8 Levels out of 10.

Level Up: Pokemon Puzzle Challenge

When you think about Nintendo franchises, what comes to mind? Mario? Zelda? Kirby? A bunch of big names that you would see in Super Smash brothers. Well, a quick visit to the Wikipedia page for it and you’ll see a few more titles that just seem a little different. One in particular caught my attention, the “Puzzle League” Franchise. I happen to own one of those games, so I thought I’d not only take a look at the game, but a bit about the franchise itself. So, let’s look at the Puzzle League series, as well as Pokémon Puzzle challenge for the Game Boy color.

This series is a puzzle game series, but not like Dr. Mario or Yoshi. This one is more along the lines of Bejeweled: you have to connect 3 blocks of the same color to make them disappear by switching two blocks at a time. That being said, there are many differences. First off, the blocks don’t come back and you have no time limit in most modes. Instead, the blocks keep going up, and when they reach the top, you lose. This also means that the entire screen isn’t full of blocks. Another thing that separates this from most versions of bejeweled I’ve played is that you don’t have to switch two blocks: if you want to move a block to an empty space go right ahead. What makes this more even though is that you can only move blocks horizontally, and not vertically. This requires sometime having to be creative.

Beyond the “marathon mode” of playing until you hit the top, most version of puzzle league also came with a challenge mode. Here, you’d have to eliminate all the blocks in a set number of moves. You can say that one mode trains you for the other or vice versa, but either way, they complement themselves rather well. We also can’t forget the two player mode, which is like marathon, but whenever someone makes large connections or combos, they send blocks over to the opponent’s side. This mode is both fun, and a little frustrating.

Now, the reason you may or may not have heard of this game series before is because of its naming. In Japan, Panel de Pon (sorry if I mispronounce anything by the way) and when it came to North American Super Nintendo’s, it was called Tetris Attack. Though it carried the name Tetris, probably to get more people to play it, it was obviously very different. After its eventual port to the game boy, we reach the generation I’m talking about, the Pokémon Puzzle League. I find it odd that we jump to a Tetris branding to a Pokémon plug in. Eventually, most versions of this game would simply be called “Puzzle League”, even if it’s molded directly after the game known as Tetris Attacks. This is just to let you know: Tetris Attacks, Pokémon Puzzle Challenge, Puzzle League or Panel de Pon, it’s pretty much all the same game.

Now, Pokémon Puzzle Challenge works pretty much the same way as the gameplay I described to you. There’s a puzzle mode and a few marathon modes, but there’s one mode I really like, the challenge mode. In here, you’ll go from gym to gym from the Gold and Silver games, and fight their leaders. This works similar to the two player style I described earlier, but different. This time, you don’t have someone playing against you; you just see an enemy health bar. All you have to do is keep making specials, and it’ll go down. This encourages the player to think more strategically, unlike before where you could just aim to survive and hope the enemy sucks enough he just loses. But still, you’ll somehow be getting blocks dropped on you.

The Pokémon add NOTHING to this game. Sure, you pick Pokémon as avatar while you play, and there are unlockable ones that you can challenge yourself to get, but really, the title was just a tie in. And… I guess it worked, considering I bought the game because it had the name Pokémon on it. But, whether it does or not, Puzzle League is a great series, and anyone who likes these types of puzzle games (I’m looking at you casual gamers) should check it out. As for this particular version… Well, that game play was kept in tack with an extra neat mode added. Everything looks really good, but the music jumps from too slow to too fast sometimes. But, there is one thing I really like about this: it’s portable. I know it’s weird to say the best thing I like about it is the system it’s on, but these kinds of games were made for travel. Yes, I did play the N64 Pokémon Puzzle League; still think this is better just because it’s nomadic. I give Pokémon Puzzle Challenge for the Game Boy Color 7.5 Levels out of 10.