Tag Archives: Nintendo

Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2 Bush Rescue HD Review

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Ty 2 starts off with a bang and felt a whole lot like a Ratchet and Clank game at first. After that it dials things down a bit and so it isn’t automatically better than the first. It’s a close one as it easily wins in some areas and loses in others. I’ll answer the question of whether it was the better game or not at the end of the review. Either way it’s a solid sequel to the original adventure and does Ty proud.

The game starts off with Ty’s arch nemesis breaking out of prison. Ty tried to stop the villains with his mech suit but Ty’s friends get away and so that puts a damper in his plans. Fortunately, Ty has formed a rescue operation within the city so that he and his friends will always be around to help those in need. If any villain decides to appear in spite of this, Ty will take them down. All we know for now is that the villains want to build a device of some kind.

The gameplay is similar to the first in some respects like the boomerang throws. It still makes for a unique weapon and you get several versions of it. That said, it’s been streamlined quite a bit so that it’s more in an action context as opposed to being a platformer element. You can now take down dozens of enemies as you’re running through the level and blasting the enemies. It’s part of what made the first level so much as you may as well be holding an energy gun with how quickly the boomerangs shoot out. It was impressive to be sure.

A new element here is that Ty has his own battle mech suit. It’s very powerful as you can spam punches, hover, and one even has an an infinite laser beam. See, there are several robots that you get throughout the game. You can only use them in certain levels but when you have one it’s always quite a bit of fun. The best robot is saved for the final level which makes sense since it’s so incredibly powerful. It would break any older level if you were able to use it. The final level gives you a boss rush of all the guys you had to take down throughout the game and it’s fun to see how fast they go down to the mech suit. Clearly Ty should be using this all of the time. Even his friends get their own mech suits for the ending.

The stages are quite varied so you will get to battle in a whole lot of different environments. Most missions are actually rather small but occasionally you will have a long one. There was one fire level for example that surprised me because it just kept going on and on. At one point I fell through the exit by mistake and when that reset my progress I just skipped it. The game uses a mission system where you get to play a story event every 6-7 completions worth. So you don’t have to complete every mission to beat the game. Given that this is the case, you can certainly choose to skip any level that you don’t feel like playing. Most missions are very short so you might as well beat a few of those instead of a randomly long one.

Unlike the first game, the map is always active which is a very good thing. This is one game where you will never get lost. The map is very specific and always shows you where to go. On the flip side, the hub world is huge and you can only use the car when you’re outside. Be prepared for a whole lot of running and driving from place to place to the point where the journey can sometimes be longer than the actual mission. Pro tip though, if you have a mission that takes place at home base, just save and exit. When you re enter the game you are always taken home and it’s a big shortcut compared to what could be several minutes of driving from your location.

The graphics here are good as you would expect. The colors are still dynamic and I like how the levels look. The mech suits look like something out of Adventure 2 battle and Ty no longer has his face looking like he is permanently upset. These aren’t graphics that will win records but they look good and the cinematics still help to really make the game pop out at you. We get more snappy dialogue in this game which I like to see. Ty and one of the villains even get some banter going. As for the soundtrack, well once again I wouldn’t say that it is very memorable but it does the job while you are playing through the game. There is a very good chance that you just won’t remember the songs afterwards.

It was good to see Sly return too. At this point he is totally a good guy though so we are far removed from the days of being an evil Ty. He’s a good enough side character but like the rest of Ty’s friends you never feel like he is actually useful. In a way they all just hold Ty back but maybe one day he can train them. Then he would really have a solid squad that is ready for any kind of situation. In the meantime, Ty just has to count on his own abilities.

In terms of length, the game felt a bit shorter than the first. In part that’s because you just don’t have to beat a lot of side missions here. After a few you have enough to challenge the story level and so you can beat the game at a rather low completion percentage. Still, that means there is more replay value here. If you beat all of the levels and buy every kind of boomerang from the shop, that should buy you a few hours. Maybe with everything combined this would be a 10-12 hour kind of game. The main story I’d say’s probably closer to 6.

If the game could have made the day to day missions feel a little more relevant I think that would have been really good to tighten up the story. It loses a bit of steam there compared to the first game where it all felt focused. There are also a very small amount of sounds for the characters so prepare to hear the townfolk saying the same thing over and over. Beyond that I wouldn’t say the game has any big weaknesses. Certainly nothing that would hold it back for very long.

Overall, Ty 2 is a fun sequel to throw into the mix. I’ve left you in suspense for a while so it’s time to answer the question of whether this beat the original or not. Did it? Well, in the end I would say it did. While the first game may have won in some areas like the levels being a little more thorough and packed with content, the sequel improved on the gameplay and action. It was more exciting and most of all, there was no forced collectibles here. That’s a big win right out of the gate. It may be a little longer until I play the third game but we’ll see if it keeps up the positive trend. If you haven’t played this game yet then this is a good time to change that.

Overall 7/10

Ty The Tasmanian Tiger HD Review

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Remasters are a fun way to bring along hype titles from the past. Ty is one of those platformer series that got a little overshadowed by the other big shots like Mario back in the day but he had a full trilogy to himself. That’s definitely impressive and after playing through the game I can say it holds its own. It’s a good all around title that you should have fun with.

The game starts with Ty finding out that the rest of the Tasmanian Tigers were taken down by an evil bird a long time ago. This includes his parents so Ty is all alone in the world now. To try and survive, Ty must gather all of the relics. This will prevent the bird from taking over the world and will also have the added benefit of bringing all of the tigers back into the world. These relics are all in dangerous places though so Ty must keep his wits about him or he will be doomed. So begins the most dangerous adventure of Ty’s career.

The gameplay is your standard 3D adventure. You run and jump across and through obstacles to get to the goal. Each level has the main objective which is to get to the end and then 7+ other missions inside. Each level has a few missions that will be the same across the game like getting all collectibles in a level and others will vary with requests from characters inside. The game is part collectathon so you will want to complete most side missions before going to the next level. This will ensure you don’t get stuck by not having enough Thunder Eggs (You get 1 egg per mission) and have to go back to replay the level. It’s worth noting that each world has a Thunder egg requirement to get to the next world and it doesn’t roll over. So if you need another egg to unlock world 3, don’t bother going back to world 1 to get an extra egg as it won’t count. It must be from word 2.

By and large the requirements for unlocking new worlds are not very large. You should be able to easily beat enough sub missions per level where you don’t have to go back and do any replays. What helps is that you can see the total needed to unlock the next world as soon as you enter it. That’s certainly handy. I’m not a fan of collectathons in general as I think that should never be required for the story. Make that a post game challenge and then everyone’s happy. That said, the game at least makes this one not as punishing once you know that it’s coming so I’ll give the game some credit there. It’s not ideal but I’ll manage.

Now I should mention the biggest unique gameplay element to Ty, which is your boomerang. It’s your main method of attack as well as activating buttons throughout the levels. You fire it off and the boomerang comes back to you. You can also use it to glide which is very handy. The controls are basic so you should be able to master this quickly. Some of the jumps require really good precision so expect to fall a few times but usually there is solid ground under the tougher jumps so you don’t have to worry about dying. As you go through the game you will unlock more powerful boomerangs like the fire and ice ones which are very handy. It’s a fun gameplay style and boomerangs make for a good weapon. The combat is also fun and doesn’t get old.

As for the story itself, Ty gets props for having full cinematic cutscenes here. You’re not going to get any of that plain text box stuff. The Bird is a decent villain and while you might have a hard time remembering some of the names pretty quickly, you will at least remember the designs. It’s a rather standard platformer plot but the cutscenes help take it up a notch. The battle with Ty’s ancestors and the bird’s mech was a really good one after all. Ancestors may be misleading since it seems really recent but it was a lot of tigers at the very least. We get a dark Ty which was a very interesting concept but while I was expecting someone like Shadow the Hedgehog, this guy turned out to not be on that level. The most surprising thing about Sly (Dark Ty) is that he doesn’t even seem to be a match physically which is really rare. Usually the shadow version is at least equal or a bit stronger but Ty takes this guy out whenever they meet with ease. I suppose it works as a twist but you end up feeling a bit bad for Sly if anything because he lost all of his mystique. I’m rooting for the guy to do better but from this game I don’t think he would be getting a lot of fans.

The graphics are solid. The colors all stand out and I like the level designs. Ty always looks like he is really upset or scowling due to where his mouth is but it makes for some amusing moments. The soundtrack is a little more in the forgettable side, I can’t really remember any tracks in particular which isn’t really a good thing. I do think it worked well enough while in the game though so while it isn’t remarkable, it isn’t bad either.

The game length is fairly decent at 5-7 hours. I’d consider that the standard platformer length at least. There is a good amount of replay value with the collectibles and gathering all of the boomerangs. That should take you a decent amount of time. You should also be able to get Ty for a good price so it all balances out. If you want an extra challenge on top of everything, try to beat all non bosses with just the normal boomerang and bite attacks. That said, I did that for most of the game anyway since the other boomerangs don’t have a huge boost in attacks I’ll or anything like that.

Overall, Ty The Tasmanian Tiger is a solid game. It’s certainly a nostalgic kind of platformer that looks and feels like the ones you would have played back in the day. It’s got a nice plot with decent characters and strong gameplay. Those are all the fundamentals you need to have a good experience and so Ty pulls that off. This remaster brought a code for the second game so you can bet I’ll have a review up for that one shortly as well. You can never have too many adventures with Ty after all. If you haven’t played this game yet then I would definitely recommend picking this game up. It’s the kind of game that’s really accessible to anyone and so I would recommend it to any gamer.

Overall 7/10

Pokémon HeartGold SoulSilver: Go! Go! Pokéathlon Review

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Pokémon’s certainly had a lot of different titles over the years. Pokémon Adventures is easily the most well known one but there are countless stories you can tell through manga and we have seen a nice variety. You have action titles like Reburst, heists, comedies, trading card manga, etc. Well, this one is a sports one shot and the premise is good enough where you wish it could have been a true ongoing. There’s a whole lot you could do with Pokemon and sports after all. It would end up being one of the big time Pokemon manga titles.

The story follows a kid named Takashi who is really excited to enter the Pokémon Triathalon. He just barely makes it in time but knows that this should be a complete win on his part. He has Onyx, Chikorita, and Pigeotto. His childhood friend Lyra warns him that this competition won’t be easy and he should think things through. Unfortunately that’s not Takashi’s strong point so things start to go south. Takashi has to question if he really stands a shot here. Can he make a comeback or is time to go back to being just an ordinary Pokemon trainer?

The story is only about 20 pages so there isn’t a whole lot of time for events, but we do get to see 3. The first is the hurdles where you have to jump over the stick like in the Olympics. Chikorita would probably be the best pick here right? Well Takashi doesn’t seem to think so and he decides to go with Onyx. I can tell you that at this point I was starting to get a little concerned. Still, maybe he just didn’t think it through… It was a rough loss but you really can’t blame him, I don’t see how you can expect the guy to jump a large distance like that. It’s just not the Onyx way.

Takashi keeps making questionable choices to the point where a bully shows up to mock him. Problem is, Lyra points out that even the bully is taking this more seriously and has put himself in a position to win. He brought berries and drinks for his Pokémon. Takashi admits that he forgot. Now this is already bad but the next scene is easily Takashi’s worst. Lyra says she thought this might happen and so she brought him a Poke smoothie from home. All right, this should give him the edge right? Wrong! As Takashi is walking to the arena he forgets why he is holding a smoothie in the first place and ends up drinking it himself. The guy either has the memory of a goldfish or he just really wanted a smoothie. Either way, it’s an awful look and he doesn’t really deserve to win now. That said, the only other competitor is the bully and we don’t want him to win either so that makes this a tough proposition.

Well, the final event is a classic Pokémon battle only there is a ring out feature this time. The first team to have all of their Pokémon knocked out loses. This event goes really fast which makes sense since the story was ending. I’ll give it kudos for having a decent way for Takashi to compete here even if the Pokémon did all the work. The bully is redeemed and we get a happy ending to end off with. It’s a solid ending and that wraps up our journey.

This was a fun story although I think it was a bit exaggerated with how bad Takashi was. It gets to the point where you seriously can’t root for him. He massively squanders every possible opportunity. The smoothie scene was certainly inexcusable. He’s a nice kid but ultimately I can’t say I liked Takashi. If you’re going to enter a tournament I expect your best. Whether you win or lose doesn’t matter as long as I know you tried your best. Takashi didn’t seem to be trying his best though which is a bit much.

Lyra did her best at least. She came prepared after all but I would have liked to have seen her in more events since if seems like she did enter. I suppose she just happened to be in different events most of the time which is reasonable. It seems like a big enough event where you had a lot of different sports going on at the same time so you couldn’t enter all of them. Even as the story ends we’re not done with the triathlon and more events are to come. I never got to try any Triathlons in the games since I don’t own HeartGold yet, but it sounds fun enough. Sort of like minigames so if the controls are on point this could be really solid.

The artwork is on point as well too. The pages are very clear and you can always tell what is happening. It makes for an easy read and you’ll be blasting through the chapter. The writing’s good and it’s just a pleasant light hearted adventure to read through. It’s probably not going to be a super memorable one that you go back to every few years or anything like that but it’s a good read. If you enjoy it enough perhaps it will even convince you to buy HeartGold so you can try it out for yourself. Now that would be a real win for the story.

Overall, There’s certainly nothing really negative to say about the manga. It’d be nice to have had some more pages so we could really enjoy the actual events though. Here it’s more like we see the start and end but don’t get a whole lot beyond that. With another 10-15 pages I think we would have gotten a whole lot more action which would have worked out really well. Pokemon will continue to get more and more manga though so I look forward to seeing which one shows up next. The franchise is vast and I doubt we’ll ever run out of new ideas to create manga for. The series just has too much potential.

Overall 7/10

Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling Review

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Bug Fables is a fun story about a group of bugs that must ultimately band together to save the world. It’s fairly common knowledge that this was inspired by the Paper Mario series and the game does a really good job there. It does feel like the classic paper experience with no gimmicks to hold the title back. The story is definitely fun and there is quite a lot to do here so this is the kind of RPG that can really last you for quite a while.

The story starts with Kabbu and Vi both trying to convince the kingdom to let them become explorers. The thing is, both of them aren’t exactly qualified for this. Still, a concession is made and they can do this if they team up so they at least have a 2 man squad like everyone else. They reluctantly agree to this and head off to the first dungeon to prove themselves. That’s when they meet up with a guy named Leif who seems like he may have time travelled or something as his descriptions don’t match with the current reality. There is little time to think about this though as the Wasp Kingdom continues to make moves against the Ants. The only thing that can stop them is to find the Everlasting Sapling to give to the queen and we will need to find some relics to locate that. It is a race against time!

As you gather the relics in the game you gradually begin to learn more about the kingdoms and exactly what is going on here. Think of it like Dynasty Warriors where you have multiple warring countries and nobody gets along due to grudges passed on through generations. Vi is a bee, Leif’s some kind of cricket, then you have Kabbu the beetle. The kingdoms are run by a bunch of different insect tribes and none of them get along very well in part due to the current Ant Queen not being a great diplomat. As the game goes on all of the kingdoms start learning to work together against the wasps.

It’s a fun story and the main villain is solid as well. His fire abilities are impressive and he has some solid lines like when the heroes say “Think we’ll fall for that again?” to which he responds “Yes” as he one shots them with his fire abilities. As the characters are all insects you can imagine how useful a fire technique would be. Most fighters go down in a single hit to that kind of move and it’s what makes the main villain such an impressive threat. The cast is fairly memorable here and the adventure is long enough where everyone gets to have their moment.

There are even some rivals at the ready like a famous singer and her bodyguard who tries to keep up a tough image while he is in her presence. Ultimately he is always ready to put up a tough fight although it’s safe to say that the main characters are the strongest ones around. From the 3 I would say that Vi steals the show. Vi’s always talking tough and is the most aggressive of the 3. If anyone tries to talk the team down then Vi will set them straight. Kabbu is also solid and he’s the wise mentor of the group. He doesn’t jump into action as quickly as the others but has enough power to defend himself.

Then there’s Leif who is a lot more sarcastic compared to the other two and isn’t quite a people person. That said, you can certainly count on him in a pinch. Even the Ant Queen gets some solid development by the end of the game and isn’t just some figurehead that you don’t see until the end of the game. She does contribute in the game when needed instead of staying in the shadows the whole time.

The graphics are good and are certainly Paper Mario inspired just like the gameplay. The worlds are colorful and quite memorable. The towns can be a bit large though and there is no map so you really have to find everything out through trial and error. If there’s one thing the game lacked, it’s a better map system. Something to let you know where to go and what to grab. It took me a while to find one of the shops for example but at least once you find a place you are unlikely to forget where it is.

The soundtrack is also good. In particular there’s one danger track that I liked a lot and it shows up whenever a boss is approaching. The main campaign is also fairly long so you’re going to get the full RPG treatment here. On the whole I wouldn’t say the game is too hard but there will likely be one or two times where you may need to get an extra level up. As far as RPGs go I would consider this to be one of the ones on the lower rung in terms of grinding. You don’t need to worry about spending hours fighting minions or anything like that. If you’re really in a pickle, just buy some recovery items and you’ll be all set.

After each level up you can decide if you want to increase your health bar, magic meter, or badge space. Personally I recommend focusing on magic meter and badge space since those are crucial. You can use badges to increase health as well so that’s why I rarely went with Health. Maybe upgrade that 2 ties but the rest you can pour into the other attributes. There are only around 37 levels in the game so you want to choose where you allocate everything pretty carefully so you’re in a good position.

The gameplay is a turn based system where you use your reaction times to maximize the damage and how much you shield from their attacks. For example you may have to input commands as shown on the screen or tap one button repeatedly. The more you master each skill, the better you will do in a fight. When you’re not in combat there are some puzzles you will need to solve by using each character’s signature move. The puzzles here are well done though and you shouldn’t worry about them being unclear or cheesy. Each one can definitely be solved with the knowledge the game gives you.

Overall, Bug Fables is a solid RPG. It’s a good bit of fun throughout and the characters are likable. The story gradually raises the tension throughout to the climax so you get to end off with a bang. There’s a decent amount of replay value here as you take on the side missions. It seems like doing so will allow you to learn more about each of the characters as finishing up their stories is like a post game to each of them. It’ll be cool if the game gets a sequel, there’s definitely more you can do with this world for sure.

Overall 7/10

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies Stats and Records

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Stats time!

Play Time 34h 26m
Battle Wins 977
Alchemies 3
Accolades Earnt 36
Quests Completed 1
Wardrobe Completion 11%
Item List Completion 30%
Defeated Monster List Completion 455
Different Monsters Defeated 141

Character Levels

Terry

Warrior Level 12
Mage Level 18
Thief Level 22
Priest Level 14
Martial Artist Level 14
Minstrel Level 40

2

Warrior Level 15
Mage Level 8
Thief Level 43
Priest Level _
Martial Artist Level 6
Minstrel Level 9

3

Warrior Level 14
Mage Level _
Thief Level 13
Priest Level 13
Martial Artist Level 43
Minstrel Level 8

1

Warrior Level _
Mage Level 8
Thief Level 13
Priest Level 42
Martial Artist Level _
Minstrel Level 3

The Legend of Zelda Oracle of Seasons Review

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Legend of Zelda is a series where the main games tend to be terrific but some of the older ones don’t work as well. It’s a little bit like Metroid to that extent where I didn’t care for the first couple much but then they got better. This game plays out like a very old school LoZ title where you are really left to your own devices. It ends up making for a game that is pretty annoying to play.

So someone has decided to mess with the 4 seasons. The global climate is out of whack now and nobody really knows what to do. Fortunately Link is on the case. He will have to use the staff of seasons in order to put the world right again. It’s the only way to bring peace and prosperity back into the land. We don’t know exactly who the villain is, but he will certainly regret getting in Link’s way.

The main gameplay style here is that of an overhead adventure. You travel across the world as you look for different essences as well as the 4 seasons themselves. You can use various weapons in the hub world like your sword, boomerang, and other weapons. Talking to civilians will help you get past obstacles that can’t be overcome by brawn alone. There are also portions of the game that simulate the Mario experience as the game turns into a side scroller. It’s always pretty fun to go through those segments as a change of pace.

I played this game as a virtual console port on the 3DS. I can say right now that I can’t imagine playing this game without the access points. I use those quite a lot. Without them there are obstacles that will take you back to the beginning of a dungeon. If you make a wrong step you may find yourself in a room that you can’t back out of and you have to take the long way around. The game has many anti quality of life features that stack up.

On the plus side, I do like the graphics. They’ve aged well and this is a colorful style that just really works well. It’s why a lot of people like sprites since they transition into the future really easily. The soundtrack’s also pretty decent. It’s all catchy and works well for the various dungeons. So on a technical level this game was on the money.

The actual gameplay is pretty smooth as well. You never feel like the weapon is hitting too late or you miss something that you’re aiming for. The core gameplay is solid so I don’t expect you will really come across any issues. So this pretty much wraps up the good parts of the game. They are considerable of course but the negatives do outweigh them this time.

First off, there’s not much of a story. It’s not the kind of thing that will lower a score but when bosses show up without any dialogue or cutscene, you know something is up. Yeah there is still a story overall but it’s fairly barebones. I will give the game credit for having a cliffhanger ending though. It flat out tells you to go and buy Oracle of Ages as the game ends. There is a caveat to that though.

It looks like you have to buy both games to effectively link them and unlock the true ending. If you just buy one then you will really be playing through almost the same story. So…this seems like a really crafty way to get people to buy both titles. I also wonder how that would work through virtual console. I’m guessing I wouldn’t be able to transfer save states like that and if so that would be awful. I don’t know for sure though so just keep that in mind if you want to see the true ending.

No, the real issue with the game is the puzzles. LoZ loves its puzzles but the problem is that the series is often not as good at it as the real puzzle titles like Professor Layton. Half the time you are given no clue as to what to do next or have to use your weapon in a new way that was unexplained. I spent 20 minutes blasting one enemy with elemental attacks only to find out that it wasn’t actually causing damage. (Why have the boss glow as if you landed a hit when the hit didn’t work?)

Between dungeons you often have to do tasks in the hub world but there is no way to know what you are supposed to do. Additionally the hub world is huge so running back and forth is incredibly time consuming. The game took a lot longer than I expected it would in order to conquer it and this was why. I spent hours just spinning my wheels when I could have been at the next dungeon already.

I never cared much for that aspect because if I got a game then I want to be playing it. I want to feel the gameplay and just go all in but this really slows things down. I ended up needing a guide for many parts and I don’t see how I would have ever guessed what to do in some of these cases. There are some places you can teleport to in order to save time but not nearly enough of them. You still have to walk large parts of the world map on your own which is not ideal.

At the heart of it, the game just isn’t very fun to play for this reason. Sure, some of the dialogue can be fun, you can enjoy the boss battles but anytime you’re having too much fun the game slams you down with a dead zone where you have to figure out where to go next. It leaves you in a tough spot but not a fun one as you’re running through areas you’ve already been to a million times already.

At least because of that the length is considerable. If you get this game for the going rate of $10-$15 bucks then this is really not a bad deal. There’s also the replay value of getting the true ending but if you do need two copies in order to get to it then that may not be applicable in the virtual console version anyway. Definitely do your research before buying the game.

Overall, The overhead Link games aren’t really my style and this one was no exception. If it focused on more combat and less wandering around then I think it would have fared a lot better. Link games always have solid combat after all and that would have aged really well. So if you’re in the mood for a Legend of Zelda game, I’d recommend checking out Skyward Sword, Ocarina of Time, or Breath of the Wild instead. At the end of the day this one just wasn’t fun and is best left to history.

Overall 4/10

The Island of Dr. Frankenstein Review

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When you venture onto the Island of Dr Frankenstein you figure that you are going to be in for a pretty hype experience. Well, at least the concept of it. When you actually see the cover of the game you will probably begin to have some doubts and they will only continue to grow as you play through the game. It ultimately had a good idea of two but ended up squandering it all away.

The game starts off immediately with a kid named Franky being woken up by a pair of legs that are not attached to anything. The legs can’t talk of course but Franky can understand them anyway because he is just that good. Basically the mayor wants to see us because the island is sinking. We have to fix it fast or everyone is going to die.

I should add a little context here. So the main characters all live on a floating island which is powered by 50 generators. This is the land of monsters so all of the inhabitants are popular creatures like Dracula, The Mummy, Werewolf, A Floating Head, Frankenstein’s monster, and more. This is a way for them all to live in peace but the problem is that none of them are particularly tech savvy which is why Franky is around.

He fixes the generators so that the island doesn’t end up falling down on everyone. So that’s the setting and the main issue is that someone appears to be sabotaging the generators/engines so everybody is doomed. We have two missions, fix the various generators and also find out who the traitor is.

The game isn’t nearly as epic as that might sound though. The gameplay is really just about walking around the island and talking to people. You find out what they all want and get it from someone else. There is no way to run and the island is fairly large so be prepared for a while lot of backtracking and going to the same place like 20 times or more.

The characters add new demands at random points and you have no way to know this except to talk to everyone again after each mission you complete. It’s definitely not very efficient but you will have the island memorized by the end. There is one action you can take while moving around which is to use your Luigi’s Mansion vacuum cleaner. You suck up these little cosmic dust clouds which you then give to people when they ask for them.

It also leads to the game’s “danger” mechanic. If you let the dust clouds pile up too much then the island will crash. So you have to be sucking these things up the entire time as you go through the island. It adds an extra task to you just walking which is okay I guess but I don’t like mechanics like this where you are forced to just waste time and do something you wouldn’t do otherwise. It feels like it was just tacked on to mask the fact that there isn’t much to do.

Finally, there is the puzzle aspect of the game. Characters want you to fix their equipment so they’ll launch you onto a board of two pipes. One of them shoots out a laser and the idea is to add gears onto the map which will redirect the lasers to hit the other nozzle. This part could actually be pretty fun at least. It’s the kind of puzzle that I can get behind as it’s really about problem solving and you don’t have to worry about the game forgetting to give you context clues.

Here’s the issue though, you can only complete these puzzles by putting gears into it. To summon a gear, you have to use 10 cosmic dust clouds and 1 meteorite. The way to get meteorites is to open chests around the island or to dig them up. It costs 30 clouds to dig up a meteor so you can see how even now the game is trying to really wring some extra play time out of you. It makes you wish that the game would relax a bit and let you do your own thing. Don’t even attempt a puzzle if you don’t have enough gears since any that you use in the puzzle will be destroyed if you leave. Also be careful of how you spin the gears because if the laser hits you then you also lose all of your gears.

The motion controls are pretty difficult on that front so you can expect it to happen at least a few times by accident. Unfortunately at the end of the day that means that there is really no escape for you. Even the best part of the game has annoying mechanics which speaks volumes about the game as a whole. It’s not as bad as it could be since most of it is pretty harmless but I still expected better out of this one.

As far as the graphics go, the game certainly doesn’t hold up. I’m not sure if it was intentionally trying to look bad but that might be giving the game too much credit. There are only 2 musical themes in the entire game so you’ll be hearing them on loop for a long while. Definitely could have used more music but what is really missing here are the sound effects. There are none so when the characters are talking it’s like they are lifeless.

The only part of the game that shines through would be the writing. It’s very disjointed but the game is certainly going for a parody type of atmosphere for the most part. None of the characters are heroic and even Franky just wants to go to sleep. Even with the end of the world right around the corner, the characters can’t really dredge up the motivation to do anything. It’s pretty surreal but really works when you get down to the meat of things. At least it adds a little humor to the game or it would truly be soul less otherwise.

Overall, The Island of Dr. Frankenstein plays out about as you would expect. It’s a very short game with absolutely 0 replay value. You have to 100% complete all missions and collectibles in order to beat the game so there is nothing left to do. The game itself is around 3-4 hours tops so it won’t last you very long either. You can get this game for around $1 not counting shipping so it’s not a bad one to check out. That being said, you can definitely find better games on the Wii or basically any other console. This is an example of a title that really could have been so much better with some quality of life updates.

Overall 4/10