'Minish Cap' Scores Big, 'X-men Legends' Fills Co-op Needs
So even though I have been steadily writing and reviewing titles here I have still only made a small dent in the backlog of games that I haven completed during and since picking up World of Warcraft. As it gets farther from the time I played the game I obviously forget more and more of why I liked or disliked the title, so in the best interest of trying to come up with the best reviews possible I have decided to just do a quick recap of the games that I beat awhile ago and have begun to forget. There are still a few titles that I have beaten in recent memory that I will get back to though.
First up is something that I played in two parts, separated by nearly 4 years of time and to be honest I can't believe the length of time it took me to get back to it. You see when The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker hit stores I bought it the first day. I mean I do own every single Zelda title produced for a Nintendo console so you may call me something of a fan of the series. But after playing up to the water temple I put the game down for some reason I can't remember. Maybe another game came out, or I got busy with school, I honestly don't know. What I do remember from way back then is that I absolutely HATED that boating aspect of the title. I don't mind dungeon crawling and figuring out ways into every single room, but man did I hate boating. Little did I know that just an hour after finishing the water temple I was able to defeat a god who taught me how to port around the world instead of sailing. Finally I was able to play and enjoy Wind Waker to its fullest extent now that I got around that pesky game mechanic. Anyone fond of the Zelda franchise should certainly give Wind Waker a go. Yes the boating may be incredibly annoying to you, but if you can stick it out there is a solid title in there with a good story, awesome cel-shading complete with emotional cues and solid combat. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker doesn't live up to The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past but in my opinion, no game does.
I guess this would be a good time to discuss another entry into the Zelda franchise, The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap for GBA. I have always been a sucker for Link's 2D adventures over his 3D escapades mainly because in the 2D world things seem not easier but better to explore. Its hard to explain exactly what I mean but either way Minish Cap had a lot to explore. The main gameplay mechanic here was the fact that your could shrink to tiny proportions which would open up a whole new world where raindrops became bombs and puddles turned to oceans. That mechanic along with the great level design made the title very engaging, setting up for some very memorable dungeons and areas. Another aspect of the title were Kinstones, pieces of coins or tokens that when fused with the matching piece opened special areas, functions or just made treasure chests appear. The Kinstones added replayability to dungeons you had already cleared and to the title as a whole if you wanted to perfect the game. Although I didn't bother getting every possible fusion I certainly kept the little trinkets in mind in hopes of garnering another piece of heart or some other secret. The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap was so enjoyable for me that when it was stolen (along with my old-school Nintendo DS and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time) just hours before I completed the game I actually borrowed a friends copy and started over, from scratch. And yes that means I enjoyed it more than Wind Waker, at no time did I put the title down for any reason.
Let's head back to the little cube that could,and more specifically the Gamecube's edition of X-Men Legends. Any game that I can co-op in is a huge draw for me, I love having friends over and just beating the crap out of NPCs or each other. Any game that I can play as Wolverine is another draw, so mixing those two possibilities together would generally be a lock for me. But unfortunately for Activision I was more or less flat broke when this title dropped back in late 2004. As such a friend of mine bought it for PS2 and we tried co-oping but out schedules never worked out, ever. We played that one time and then never again. Fast forward two years, and after completing X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse I just had to get the original to check out the differences, continue the co-op binge and get ready for the soon to be released Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. As you may expect, playing the sequel before the original spoiled me a bit. The game was still good and enjoyable but the spell and ability trees weren't as deep and the combat was a bit shaky. But since we understood that we were more or less going backwards in time we were able to enjoy the game thoroughly. If you enjoyed this title at all be sure to get the sequel, as X-Men Legends was a fine start to what I hope is a series that continues on.
Stay tuned as I will probably do one more of these little recaps before I get back into full reviews. The games remaining that will be getting the full review treatment are all newer as well including the aforementioned Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. Therefore we shouldn't be seeing any throwback reviews for a little bit. Now I just need to get a monitor that has RCA or component hook-ups so I can take some screenshots of all the console games that I keep reviewing. Donations anyone?