Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Bit by Bit: March 2015

Let's address the elephant in the room.  I know I promised to have things back to normal by the end of March and it's now three weeks into April.  I am sorry for the delays, but school consumed my entire life until last Wednesday.  Between writing close to 20 pages for final essays and studying non-stop for exams that involved copious amounts of writing, I wasn't in much of a mood to write anything else at that point in time.

Although I originally wanted this edition of Bit by Bit to be the first post back from the hiatus, I am very happy that I got the Launch Station for Xenoblade Chronicles 3D up in time for its release this past Friday, especially considering my reverence for the Wii original.  Since school is winding down for the year (only one exam left!), I will be able to once again post to Silver Bit on a regular basis.  With all that being said, let us rewind the clock to last month and look back at the best and worst of March 2015.

Shame of the Month
Typically, I highlight the best game I played in the past month, but I think the game I am talking about today deserves an exception.  While I critique games, I don't usually review games I find middling or bad because I don't spend enough time with them to justify a review.  Personally, I like to experience everything the game has to offer before writing a review, including playing through the single-player portion and spending a good amount of time with the multiplayer.  It is a time-consuming commitment that I don't usually make for a game that I despise playing.  Now, I want to start playing a greater variety of games, in both genre and quality, to widen what I talk about on Silver Bit.  Although too much time has passed for me to give a full review justice, I will still honour this game as the very first Shame of the Month.

In the middle of all the craziness that was March, I decided to download a little free-to-play game that was popular among everybody I met through StreetPass—Pokemon Shuffle.  At the core of Pokemon Shuffle, there is an okay match-three puzzle game.  Sadly, that core is wrapped in frustrating gameplay mechanics that are only in the game to make players shell out their hard-earned cash.

Unless you have a gripping need to spend real money to play Shuffle for hours on end, it is best to play for the short amount of time offered through the five regenerating hearts.  You will see everything Pokemon Shuffle has to offer in the first 30 to 40 stages, leaving you over 100 stages of recycling the same challenges with increasing difficulty.  What makes the game even worse are the mechanics, such as the catchability meter and enemy disruptions, that are tweaked in such a way that it forces players to pay money in order to advance in the game.  Yes, there are ways around these frustrations by hording jewels until absolutely necessary, but the game continually tempts the player to use them for five more turns or 20 more seconds to catch their desired Pokemon.  These deceitful freemium practices just put a bad taste in your mouth.

Hopefully with Nintendo producing games for mobile platforms, these cash-sucking titles will be exclusive for those markets instead of infecting the 3DS and Wii U eShops.  Pokemon Shuffle is pretty much the exact same game as last year's Pokemon Battle Trozei with new Mega Evolution screen-clearing combos and tons of devious ways to steal your money.  Pokemon Shuffle may not be that fun, but it is perfect start to Silver Bit's Shame of the Month.

Most Anticipated Game of the Month
This past March, Nintendo pulled the curtain back on Splatoon and does it ever look good.  About midway through the month, Nintendo brought video game journalists from media outlets like IGN and Gamespot and Youtube personalities like ProJared and The Completionist to play the game at their American headquarters.  The onslaught of videos and articles that came from this event highlight Splatoon's various single and multiplayer modes.

Back when the game debuted at E3 2014, I initially thought Splatoon wasn't anything special as it looked like a neat little downloadable title.  I can say now that I was totally wrong and I am glad to be wrong in this case.  Splatoon looks to be a very comprehensive game with a Mario Galaxy style Octo Valley single-player campaign and fully-fledged suite of online multiplayer modes like Turf Wars and Ranked Battles.  I am especially looking forward to spending lots of time in Octo Valley launching from floating island to floating island, using ink in unique ways to battle enemies and finding interesting ways to traverse platforms with some cool ink-squid combinations.

If you would've asked me about Splatoon at the beginning of the year, I would've shrugged the game off as Nintendo giving the third-person shooter genre the good ol' college try.  Now, all I want to do is play it.  I know I overuse this saying, but I seriously can't wait until May 29th to play Splatoon.  I am that damn excited.

Video of the Month
In 1987, Hironobu Sakaguchi was a young video designer for Squaresoft that just wanted to finish the final game in his contract to pursue the greener pastures of hip hop.  Unbeknownst to Sakaguchi, his "final fantasy" spiraled into the long-running franchise many gamers know and love and a seemingly never-ending extension to his contract.  How did the success and popularity of Final Fantasy affect the legendary game designer?  Watch Mega64's totally real behind-the scenes look at the making of Final Fantasy to find out.

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