Video Game Blog 015: Triple Feature
I love my Wii U. I know the critical reaction to the console was poor, but I love mine and have no regrets about buying it. Sure, Nintendo didn’t do enough with the console, and the Gamepad was a little wonky and way too big, but overall I think it’s a solid system. It was a nice intermediary between the Wii and the Switch, the latter of which took ideas from both systems that preceded it. My ex-girlfriend took the Wii with her when we broke up since I got it for her as a gift. I didn’t bother getting another one, since I was planning on buying a Wii U, which in a move fairly rare for Nintendo, actually has backwards compatibility. So it’s like two consoles in one… even without a wealth of good Wii U games, you still have the vast library of Wii games, not to mention everything you can download onto it.
Which is exactly what I’m here to talk about in this post! (Skillful setup, huh?) See, although I love my Wii U, I was a little lazy with it. I got a shiny new PS3 as a gift, and then later went half and half on a PS4, both of which took my attention away. Also, I had a huge backlog of older games to play, and my tendency is to play the older ones first unless a game is so new and shiny that I just can’t wait to play it. So sadly my Nintendo console and games were mostly neglected. My Wii U has gotten a lot more use in recent years, as I’ve been playing through Mario games and Animal Crossing. (First Wild World and then City Folk.) Not to mention my near-daily Just Dance sessions. (The recent games I have on Switch, but most of my JD collection is on Wii and Wii U.) I also downloaded a few N64 games so that I wouldn’t have to spend a lot on the cartridges. (Also my N64s keep dying, which is irritating. Seriously, I’ve owned four of them.) I always intended to go back and buy up more old N64 games, but time got away from me and I was saddened to learn that the Wii shop was closed down.
I thought I was out of luck, but one of my brothers let me know that it was only the Wii shop… the Wii U shop is still functional. Well, I learned recently that the Wii U and 3DS shops would soon be closed… I believe they’ll stay open for another year as of the writing of this, but will no longer accept credit card payments in a month or two. (I could be wrong on that and plans have a way of changing. Anyone with a Vita knows that.) Anyway, I had a lot of open space on my Wii U and 3DS… see, at the start of our recent plague I swapped out my 3DS memory card for a bigger one so I could download Animal Crossing New Leaf and some other stuff. The prospect of the shop closing meant that most of that memory card would be empty and there was a lot of real estate left on my Wii U. These facts felt like a waste to me. And I DID just get a nice bonus at my day job…
This is all a long roundabout way of saying that last weekend I went on a digital shopping spree. I searched around on the shops and found a bunch of reasonably-priced games that I’d delayed getting and are now hard to find, at least cheaply. I practically filled the storage on both systems. (And probably saved hundreds of dollars against if I’d bought them when they were new.) I’m pretty happy about my selections, and I’m going to spend this post talking about three of them.
For those who are curious, on the Wii U I got Mario & Luigi Partners in Time, Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass, Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks, the Super NES Harvest Moon, Metroid Zero Mission, Wario Land 4, Mario Kart Super Circuit, Mario Kart DS, Mario Party Advance, Mario Party DS, and Pokémon Pinball Ruby & Sapphire. On the 3DS I got the first three Wario Land games, the three GameBoy Color Harvest Moon games, the remakes of Mario & Luigi 1 and 3, and best of all? The Legend of Zelda Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages. (Neither of which I thought I’d ever get to play because those carts are really hard to find, at least around here.)
So yeah, it was a big shopping spree, but these are games that I’ll get a lot of enjoyment out of. The three I’m going to talk about here are all GameBoy Advance titles. I’m going to start with one I didn’t even realize existed: Pokémon Pinball.
Pokémon Pinball Ruby & Sapphire
This one has been a blast so far. I played the original Pokémon Pinball a bit back in the day, but never got very far with it. (They don’t seem to have a Virtual Console version of that one anywhere.) I was thrilled to see there was an updated version of it that took them up through Generation 3. This was actually my first buy and the first one I tried out of all of my new games. It’s also the one I’ve played the most so far.
I’m no expert at pinball by any means, but every time I visit the arcade I typically start at the bank of pinball machines. (I especially like the Deadpool and Iron Maiden ones.)
Gameplay: If you’ve ever played the original Pokémon Pinball, you know how this one goes. You bounce the pinball around— which is, of course, shaped like a Pokéball— and try to keep it from falling in the gutter at the bottom. Getting a high score is not the only objective. Since this is a Pokémon game, you’re also striving to complete your Pokédex by catching the little monsters during gameplay. There are three ways to do this: Catch ‘em mode, which requires you to uncover the Pokémon's picture by hitting the bumpers and then hitting the Pokémon itself three times. Hatch mode, where you have to hit the egg until it hatches and then bounce the Pokéball three times on the baby to catch it. (Which sounds meaner than it is.) And then there’s Evolution mode, where you have to gather materials on the board like EXP symbols and such. To evolve, you have to have caught an evolvable Pokémon in that game session.
The game is played on two boards, Ruby and Sapphire. (I’ve mainly stuck to Ruby so far.) There are coins to spend on power ups at the Pokémart, ways to upgrade to a Great Ball and Ultra Ball, ball savers, a travel function to take you to different areas, and more. There are bonus games too. I’ve only found three so far: one where you have to hit an invisible Kecleon, a cute minigame where you play basketball with Spheals and Sealeo (see above), and a boss battle against Groudon. (I’m assuming there’s a Kyogre battle on the Sapphire board.)
Thoughts: I’m really having fun with this game. It’s a nice go-to game to put on when I have a few minutes to kill and just want to destress. It had a bit of a learning curve… figuring out how to unlock evolution, getting better at catching and hatching Pokémon, how to bounce the little Spheals up the ramps, etc. But the more I play, the better I get at it. I still haven’t played much of the Sapphire board, and I’m not sure how to catch the legendaries (probably a super high score in the bonus stage?) but I’ll figure it out. This is a fun and easy game with smooth controls. Now I really wish they’d do a new Pokémon Pinball for the Switch and include all 900+ Pokémon. That would be the best. I would buy that new, full price.
Mario Party Advance
This one is a weird one, but it’s been fun. I really love Mario Party, and so I always wanted to try the handheld editions. Single-player has never been Mario Party’s strong suit, but that’s pretty much what this game is. They do have options to play minigames against others using multiple carts and a link cable, but that of course is not an option on the Virtual Console version that I have.
Gameplay: This game plays a bit differently from normal Mario Party games. Sure, you have your die roll, the board, and the minigames, but that’s where the similarities end. For one thing, you’re not collecting stars. You’re doing quests and collecting minigames and something called “gaddgets”. (These are little simple games you can play in another game mode.) Rather than being forced along one path, you can backtrack if you choose to and stop wherever you want along the path, even if you don’t use your whole roll. The goal is to travel to specific locations to do simple quests for NPCs. These seem to consist of fetch quests, logic puzzles, and such. Do enough of these and you get to battle Bowser for one of the minigames he’s captured. The die rolls are controlled by your stock of mushrooms. One roll consumes one mushroom and when you run out, its game over. You can get more die rolls by landing on green spaces, and more mushrooms by winning minigames.
The minigames, which are usually the main draw of any Mario Party game, are interesting. They’re all relatively simple, and I haven’t had any trouble with the ones I’ve played so far. There are only four playable characters: Mario, Luigi, Princess, and Dinosaur Jack. (I’m kidding, I know his name is Yoshi.) Like with any Mario Party game (except for Super Mario Party which has special character dice) there are no real differences between characters. The only real difference is that each one starts at a different spot on the board, which means you can reach different quests. I’m thinking with the limited number of die rolls you get, the only way to unlock all the minigames is to play multiple times as each character.
The other game modes allow you to play the minigames and gaddgets you’ve unlocked, and earn coins to buy new gaddgets. So far the only one I’ve unlocked that awards coins is a scratch ticket memory game that requires a wager to play. I’m not partial to gambling mechanics, so I don’t think I’ll get those gaddgets. (Especially considering how expensive they are. One was 10,000 coins! I have… 7.)
Thoughts: As Mario Party games go, this one is pretty weird. Taking out most of the multi-player modes was a strange choice, but I’m sure it was done due to the limitations of the GameBoy Advance. It’s a bit repetitive, but it’s charming and cute. It actually looks pretty big stretched out on the big screen. I doubt I’ll collect everything, but I’ll definitely finish all the quests and try out all the characters. It’s so far my least favorite of all the Mario Party games, but it’s not a regret. It’s just a different type of game. Variety is good.
Mario Kart Super Circuit
Generally I’m not a fan of racing games, but Mario Kart is always the exception to that. I love me some Mario Kart, especially when I get to race against my brothers, my sisters-in-law, and my wife.
Gameplay: There’s not much to say here. You steer your kart along preset tracks with increasing CPU difficulty at higher race levels. You can collect coins to go faster (and lose them when you get hit) and items to use against your opponents or generally give yourself some sort of advantage. (Red shells are my favorite. Little homing missiles. Sure, blue shells are better, but they’re rare.) Each kart handles differently, with some being faster but harder to control on turns, while others are slower but sturdier.
There are a variety of tracks and different cups to compete in. The first three places award points and the racer with the most point at the end of four races wins. Pretty easy concept. You just have to learn the tracks, get and utilize the items, and do your best to fight your way to victory. So far I’ve only tried the 50 cc Mushroom Cup, which is the easiest one, but I want to try all the karts before moving on. (So far Luigi is my favorite one in this edition.)
Thoughts: Overall, this is a great game. It’s very reminiscent of the original Super Mario Kart. The graphics look awful on the big screen. They were certainly pushing up against the limitations of the GameBoy Advance with this one. The main downside for me is the inability to play multiplayer on the version I have, but that doesn’t kill the game for me. I’m still glad I get to experience it, even single-player. (Which, honestly, is mostly how I have to play Mario Kart games except at family get-togethers.) Like all Mario Kart games, it’s fast and fun, cartoony and cute. I’m going to be playing this one for a long time to come. (At least until I move on to Mario Kart DS.)
So there you have it! These three games are a lot of fun and I don’t feel guilty about playing them because they’re casual and won’t take too much time or attention away from my game list. So far this year I’ve finished 3 out of the 27 games on my list. I’m also very close to finishing Pokémon Ultra Moon and I’ve been scrambling to finish Lego Batman 2. (I have 100% and should get the last of the trophies today.) I’m going to start Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga tonight, and that will be its own post at some point. I’ve been waiting so long for that game and I’m really excited for it.
Thank you for reading my latest video game post. I appreciate you all. Let me know if you liked this format and if you want to see me cover any of the other games I bought during my shopping spree. Maybe I’ll do a sequel to this post! Either way, I’ll be back soon with more. Keep gaming!