Aug Together Retro: Animal Main Characters

[BoneSnapDeez]

This is a replay (to put it lightly) but I rolled through the first Donkey Kong Country last night.

Didn't consciously attempt to look for bonus levels. Finished with about 65% in about an hour-forty total. Died an embarrassing number of times, but still finished with 45 lives or so.

Such a sublime game. Just a beautiful flow and varied stage progression. Looking forward to the sequels.

[BogusMeatFactory]

I’ve already beaten the more obvious Rareware animal mascot games previously XD

So you beat star fox adventures???!!!!

[Exhuminator]

Such a sublime game. Just a beautiful flow and varied stage progression. Looking forward to the sequels.

I too love the original DKC. However I've never been able to make myself finish DKC2 (and thus haven't played DKC3). It will be interesting to see what you think of DKC2.

[MrPopo]

I’ve already beaten the more obvious Rareware animal mascot games previously XD

So you beat star fox adventures???!!!!

I assumed he beat Snake Rattle 'n Roll.

[Gunstar Green]

Solatorobo

I'm interested in this, but am hesitant to play it for this TR. It's only eight years old, so not quite old enough to be "retro" by my personal definition. And I still need to beat its predecessor first. (Which I may just do for this TR.) But it's certainly an ideal candidate for handheld gamers.

Tail Concerto is a really charming game. I played it when I was in college having a particularly nasty bout with depression caused by declining physical health. It was definitely the right game at the right time, it's a little ray of sunshine on a disc. It's a memorable game for something you can very easily hammer out in an afternoon.

Solatorobo I have mixed feelings on. The game's world is beautiful and interesting but it's packaged with a pretty bizarre story and mindlessly simple gameplay. I don't not recommend it though as it's certainly unique.

[Exhuminator]

it's a little ray of sunshine on a disc

Well you sold me, I'll check it out after Klonoa's done.

While we're on the subject, there's a third game in this series: Little Tail Story

[dunpeal2064]

I spent most of last night playing



This is a fan translation of the first E.V.O. game on the PC-98. Its themes are very similar, playing out your creature's evolution through time, but in turn-based RPG fashion, rather than the sequel's side-scrolling action.

I'm about 4 hours in so far, and have just started the 3rd Act (Reptiles), and also just had to swap discs for the first time (To disc 3 of 5). So far the game has been pretty good! The combat is pretty simple and repetitive, but taking those Exp and using them to evolve in different ways is fun, and the general presentation has been great. Interestingly, this game doesn't have random encounters, and instead puts enemies on the map, similar to Earthbound.

My only complaint so far is that its a bit too easy to cap out your creature in an Era. Up until that happens, battles are fun because you get to evolve and see noticeable improvements in your stats, but once you max each stat in that Era, battles end up having no purpose, other than to waste time. While they are avoidable, the maps can have too many enemies to actually do so. These are the only moments I've run into that aren't so fun, though, the majority of my time spent so far has been solid.

Some stills from the sceneries shown thus far, for any other CG pixel art junkies:

[pierrot]

The Wii Klonoa is really good.

I put two hours into it tonight, and I'm inclined to agree... so far. I'm now on stage 10 out of 14 stages (if I understand the world layout correctly). The Wii version has very nice graphics and tight controls. So far it's been super easy though, no challenge at all. Maybe that will change towards the end, but this game seems targeted towards young children.

The difficulty would have been ramping up a lot around where you are in the game, if you were playing the PS1 version, but apparently the Wii version adds 4 extra health per life, for whatever reason (probably just to make the game easier). It seems there are a few other tweaks to how Klonoa controls in the Wii version that could potentially make the game a little easier, as well.



I started Klonoa 2 last night, and made it the 4th, "world," I guess I'll call it. The first couple Visions gave me some feelings of trepidation about whether this game would be as good as the first. Those feelings were assuaged by the time I got to the second world, though, which takes place in an amusement park, and was wildly enjoyable. There's a significantly different tenor to Klonoa 2, I feel, but it's quite a good game, so far.

I'm reminded of a lot of different things while playing Klonoa 2. It has the placid, serene sense of calming gameplay (in most Visions) that reminds me of Kirby. (It also just seems a lot like Kirby 64 in general.) It also reminds me a lot of playing Napple Tale, in all of the little mechanics going on in each stage, along with just how the levels feel to play, and while they don't necessarily look that similar, the visual styles still feel vaguely reminiscent of each other, to me. Lastly, Klonoa 2 reminds me a lot of some of the 3D Sonic games: Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Unleashed, specifically.

For anyone concerned that Klonoa 2 might not do as much juxtapositioning of a light and jubilant world, with dark, painful aspects of the human condition, fear not. After the amusement park area, I was sent to a country that is in a constant state of civil war, and focusing on the backgrounds during the above ground Vision can be painful.

I think I have about three Visions left, and I'm in the snow stages now, so I'm looking forward to finishing it up. I think I might actually make sure I open up the extra Visions in this game, which I never actually bothered to do in the first game. I'm still unsure about exactly how I feel Klonoa 2 compares to the original, but either way, I have been enjoying it tremendously.

Also, special shout out to the manual, which had a ridiculous amount of energy put into the art, and paper stock. (This is the Japanese version, though. I should mention that.) It is positively stunning.

[Sarge]

I don't know that it ever gets too hard. Since I haven't played much of the PSX Klonoa, I really don't know how they compare. That's okay, though, because there are some Wii-exclusive bonus levels that will make you pull your hair out. Lots of precision platforming there. Enough so that I'd decided I was done with it.

[Exhuminator]

The difficulty would have been ramping up a lot around where you are in the game, if you were playing the PS1 version, but apparently the Wii version adds 4 extra health per life

I didn't know the Wii version adds more hearts, that's interesting. Though honestly the few times I've died have been from falling into pits or lava. Dying from heart loss isn't really a thing for me here, the enemies are easy to avoid. Klonoa 2 sounds pretty good. I do remember it reviewing well when it released.