Wii U review: NES Remix

The premise of NES Remix is simple enough – the objectives of classics like Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, Excitebike, Balloon Fight and more are revisited with slight twists. The earliest challenges for each game are little more than tutorials, and while perhaps some younger gamers may not be so intimately familiar with the NES era of gaming, the controls of each of these titles are both simple and intuitive that it makes these early entries seem unnecessary. Leading Link into a dungeon, having Mario jump over a couple of barrels, or even leading the Excitebike rider up a ramp hardly seem worth congratulating players for.

They are also a stark contrast to the often faster-paced and less forgiving challenges unlocked by achieving a certain number of stars - the game's ranking system, which are in themselves dependent on the speed each challenge is successfully completed with. This results in NES Remix’s greatest flaw – the lack of a staggering of difficulties. Either you play laughably easy scenarios, or you take on thoroughly challenging ones, the latter of which are split about fifty-fifty between demanding precise twitch timing or offering a more fair test of a player’s skills. These later stages incorporate more interesting concepts, like platforms that fade in and out of visibility or having Link climb the ladders and ramps of Donkey Kong. They also sometimes fail to convey proper objectives to players, which (understandably) may only further feelings of frustration.

There is plenty of variety in the play styles of games offered, from the platforming antics of Mario and his brother Luigi, to the hammering and lunges of the Ice Climbers, to exploring the fields of Hyrule with Link’s medieval arsenal, and even blowing up concrete walls in Wrecking Crew. NES Remix is inadvertently a display of which NES titles aged the best, with some games offering as tight of controls as they did during their heyday, while others fall short of the glory they were once touted for. Some of these games see ten or fewer challenges, yet others are in for the long-haul, pushing further into the double-digits.

There is no single ‘correct’ way to go about unlocking the many challenges of NES Remix. Often, even a valiant, yet unsuccessful attempt at a stage will result in the next one being unlocked, and reaching certain milestones in your star collection or overall numerical score will unlock new titles altogether. Miiverse stamps can also be earned by reaching these milestones, each depicting 8-bit versions of characters and enemies from the slew of titles represented in NES Remix. It’s not that NES Remix lacks replayability – far from it – it’s just that the stages offered are so inconsistent in both their degree of challenge and fun factor. A greater sense of adventure in crossing over these characters and environments might have also benefited the final product.

My rating: 5 (out of 10)

3DS review: Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D

A port of the Wii resurrection of one of the giants of the platforming genre, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D is Retro Studio’s take on the series that Nintendo and Rare crafted twenty years ago. Cartoonishly-proportioned crabs, birds, and pigs mark the island backdrop, which is divided in many separate ‘worlds’. In the vein of both its DK predecessors and Mario Bros., these worlds include multiple stages, some of which are accessed via keys that can be purchased from Cranky Kong’s shop, along with health bonuses, temporary invincibility potions, and extra lives. Each stage focuses on the simple goal of reaching the opposite end, while throwing a decent number of foes and environmental hazards in the path of DK and Diddy.

With a handful of exceptions, Donkey Kong titles have never been revered for their stories, and this 3DS port follows in that tradition. A group of tiki masks have hypnotized some of the local wildlife into doing their bidding and attempting to stop DK and Diddy. Aside from Cranky’s advice and power-ups, Pigs providing checkpoints within each stage, and the occasional assist from Rambi the rhinoceros, the Kongs are effectively on their own with setting things straight on the island paradise. The break from relying on King K. Rool is certainly welcome, and allows Retro’s personal artistic vision to shine through more brightly than if they had simple opted to retread said territory.

The soundtrack offers solid updates to classic DK tunes, though they tend to be recycled frequently in the many stages. Each stage includes at least one or two hidden areas where players can bounce around or climb up moving platforms to try and gather up bunches of bananas, puzzle pieces, and extra lives. These aforementioned puzzle pieces, as well as the ‘KONG’ letters, are the game’s sole collectibles, but do extend the replay value of the game by a decent margin. Boss fights cap off each world, and become progressively more challenging due to both their mixing up enemy attack and defense patterns, as well as their speed, range, and quicker responsiveness. Some bosses require a direct approach, while other fights will ask that DK and Diddy make use of the environment and its hazards to quash the opposition.

The game’s greatest misstep lies in the one gameplay aspect it opted not to update, but rather take a couple of steps backwards in time with – that being the reliance it has on twitch-based memorization patterns. While these were a common occurrence during the 8-bit and 16-bit eras, they effectively nullify a game’s learning curve in the modern era of gaming, asking less that you play the game, and more that you follow its instructions in the most direct way possible. This aspect is not strikingly apparent during the first couple of worlds, but as DK and Diddy forge deeper into the game, this pattern of merely ‘going through the motions’ drains much of the fun factor from Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D.

The 3D effects are handled in a manner that works for a game that is being ported from a home console to a handheld, adding an extra degree of depth perception, but in truth are really nothing to write home about. The 3DS’ internal gyroscope, which perhaps could have been utilized sparingly for mine cart or rocket barrel segments, is left an untapped resource. While perhaps not the weakest platforming experience on the 3DS, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D feels decidedly lackluster in the company of Kirby: Triple Deluxe and the recent Super Mario titles.

My rating: 6.5 (out of 10)