Archive for the ‘WiiWare’ Category
Manic Monkey Mayhem
Posted by Ian | Filed under Portfolio, Review, WiiWare
Our primate friends are well known for their dexterous abilities, as well as their love of a certain yellow fruit and more recently their territorial disputes. The developer Code Monkeys have taken a lot of inspiration from these traits for their latest WiiWare title – Manic Monkey Mayhem.
As a WiiWare title, Manic Monkey Mayhem could be hindered by the limitations placed on file size with all WiiWare titles. At a glance, Manic Monkey Mayhem seemingly avoids these inherent issues, as the presentation is brilliant. The graphics, although a tiny bit dated, are smooth, vibrant and the textures are all unique. There’s a simple and easy to use interface throughout the options process as well.
The single player mode is divided into four different areas: Tutorial, Greatest Ape, Minute Monkey and Ape-Team. The tutorial is extensive and allows the player to become familiar with the basic and the finer aspects of controller their monkey minion. Great Ape is the crux of the title and is basically a war of attrition, Minute Monkey follows this same basic premise but adds a timer to the proceedings and Ape-Team splits the players and NPCs into teams and then it’s the last monkey left standing that is the winner.
Each monkey stands on their own platform and throws bananas and avoids being killed; there is no freedom of movement – which is something that takes a lot of getting used to. Even for fans of “on-the-rail” titles, there’s a degree of movement in terms of the character “railing” through the levels, whereas with Manic Monkey Mayhem, the character is entirely still.
In the single player mode there is no story that ties each level together, you simply play one level, complete and move onto the next level. There’s a gentle difficulty curve, so the first campaign shouldn’t take long to complete but as the single player continues, the difficulty increases and in some areas are frustratingly hard to complete. Although at some points it feels more like luck than skill when a level is over.
The controls do require a level of Wii Waggle, especially in regards to throwing the bananas at your opponents but fortunately the Wii Waggle doesn’t require a player to flail their arms and cause ABH to the nearest person in the room. There’s additional methods of controls available, such as the D pad for dodging or curving the trajectory of the throw and the Balance Board support, which is used in the same method as the Wii Remote is available throughout the single player mode.
Unfortunately something that should feel as natural as throwing a banana doesn’t always register well with the game. There’s definitely sensitivity with the Wii Remote, it’s just nearly impossible to guess how hard the player needs to flick their wrist to get the banana flying correctly. As this is a critical part of the game, the luck aspect does feel more prevalent than skill of the player.
Unfortunately regardless of how many hours are put into the single player mode, no extra characters, weapons or levels are unlocked. It really is as simple as you get what you see. However, the multiplayer is really where Manic Monkey Mayhem earns its points.
With a wide range of multiplayer modes available offline, it’s already standing up well against the single player mode. With individual and team play modes available, with score challenge games, pass the parcel and many other enjoyable, fun, almost mini-games. Although on a lot of the multiplayer games there is no scoreboard, so tracking who’s winning what is fairly difficult after several games or a night out on the tiles.
The best aspect of Manic Monkey Mayhem is it’s online multiplayer mode. Unlike many “AAA” titles, there’s an effective and usable online mode available through the Nintendo WiFi Connection. There’s very little lag, the controls remain the same and the presentation still remains top notch. In many respects it feels like the game is still offline. There’s no friend-code system, which his more than a blessing. Unfortunately there is no leader board system though, so playing online is simply for the player’s enjoyment and not for bragging rights.
Manic Monkey Mayhem has managed to squeeze an awful lot into the WiiWare package. With some incredible gameplay available, the biggest problem with Manic Monkey Mayhem is that the mantra of keeping things simple has gone too far and there needs to be more tracking of scores and a revisit to the controls of the main game.
Tags: Review, WiiWare, Zentendo
Pirates: Key of Dreams
Posted by Ian | Filed under Portfolio, Review, WiiWare
Pirates are a dying breed. For many years, people believed them to be non-existent. Then, suddenly, off the shores of Indonesia, pirates reappeared. Causing mayhem, death and mischief to all who they encounter, this resurgence of something that was once considered deceased has caused pain and mayhem to various people around the world. In the past, pirates would simply just steal from any passing sea vessel, and in a lot of cases it would have been from the British Navy.
This is no different in the second part of Oxygen Games’ latest franchise: Pirates. Pirates: The Key of Dreams is the WiiWare counterpart of the DS Pirates: Duel on the High Seas and they each have interconnecting storylines that will help explain the overall story to the player.
The famous Port Royal’s governor has sent the player on a dangerous mission to find the “Key of Dreams” which is said to make its owner a master of battle. This becomes necessary as the number of pirates across the world has risen rapidly and it’s time that they were culled a little. So that no one is aware of the top-secret mission, the player has been disguised as a pirate in a pirate ship. As a result, not only are there pirates to be fending off, but there’s also the entire British Navy to deal with, as well.
There are only two modes of play in Key of Dreams: Single Player and Multiplayer. The Single Player mode will take the player through the story of the game and is where the majority of the action takes place. There’s a three tier difficulty setting, and depending on the difficulty selected, the choice made with determine the size of the craft. The easy setting will allow access to the largest, quickest and strongest boat. Medium is exactly that and the hard setting will give the player the smallest, weakest and slowest vessel.
The gameplay in Single Player involves just sailing around the various ports and seas that the player finds themselves in and navigating their way out of the usual maze. This may sound a little dull, but the variety of enemies brightens things up a lot. There are many different smaller boats to destroy, and these are fairly easy to deal with. A few shots from the cannon and they have been sunk, often leaving behind a little bit of treasure. With the larger ships that are unfortunate enough to come across the player’s path, they require a little more firepower but will sometimes leave behind a crew member. If a crew is left floating around, the player has the option of giving them a new home. This will make the ship better by some degree, be it speed, firepower or defence.
Then there are the watchtowers to destroy. Without the special weapons, these can take a long time to be rid of; fortunately, there are various special weapons like rockets, mines, flamethrowers and a few others. These are helpful, but ultimately it doesn’t matter which the player may come across as they’re all the same in strength, and there’s usually lots of them, anyway.
There are ten different objectives throughout the Single Player mode, and each of them are pretty much the same. The entire point of the game is to get away from the enemy and find the Key of Dreams. Towards the end of the game, there’s a big surprise and this boss will require a lot more thinking, and this really is the highlight of the Single Player game. The multiplayer mode is essentially a free-for-all. A melee of attacks from various CPU or human players for goals like control of the area, “balloons” and many other missions that make the multiplayer a brilliant experience.
The game is presented in a traditional “piratey” theme, with lots of “Arr” sound effects and with plenty of naval music. The graphics themselves are a little weak, but they look good for a game that’s a top-down pirate game, especially as it’s meant to tie in with the DS counterpart. The cut-scenes are brilliant; they have some very distinctive and individual artwork and are really top-notch. The music throughout the game is good and many of the tunes will burn their way into your skull, such as the completion of a level.
Final Verdict – 7/10
A short single-player mode makes the 1,000 Wii Points price tag a little on the high side, but the multi-player mode makes up for it. A solid start into what will hopefully be a long lasting franchise.