2010-01-xx

by Iron Knuckle

Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii)

Or "How to design a game with a lot of appeal and potential that is ruined by myopic focus on visuals."

This game looks fantastic, but its aesthetics are the main focus; very little work was put into properly balancing visuals with mechanics. The core combat system, difficulty curve, level design, and everything else are compromised for the sake of looking pretty.

The biggest flaw in the combat system is the inability to tell when you're in danger. The game features very exciting, fast-paced battles where the entire screen is filled with busyness. You'd better be mashing the attack button, or you won't be able to deflect the projectiles coming from off-screen. It's difficult to react to each enemy's attack in time or even detect them -- especially when using a slow sword -- so enemies will often get in what feels like a cheap shot. Just a couple of these cheap shots can kill you. It's clear that the designers saw this as a problem, since the game provides two "solutions" to the unfairness of battle. First, there's no penalty to dying. You go back one screen and receive full health. This trivializes health items and keeps the game from truly feeling tense at any point in time. The second solution is the laughable easier difficulty setting (which can be toggled at any time) that simply makes your character auto-block. This allows you to win battles no matter what you do, and its inclusion ensures that a player will never be forced to deal with any type of challenge.

When I play, I imagine that every development decision was made for the sake of visual appeal. "Does the attack look cool? Great -- keep it in, don't worry about anything else." "Man, I spent so much time making this pretty background. We need to make sure the player has to pass by this point 4 or 5 times."

Verdict: while the game looks beautiful, it does not feel nearly as tight as any number of 8-bit or 16-bit classics in all other areas of design. Would-be players should know that the art alone is where this game gets its worth. It fails in other areas that define a game.
(thumbs down)



Mirror's Edge (X360)

Or "A perfect simulation of being a superb athlete that is completely numb, has no depth perception, and limited field-of-vision."

This is a game like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, except in first person with cinematic aesthetics of an Esurance commercial.

It's no mistake that until now, all 3D games with heavy emphasis on acrobatic movements have been 3rd person, usually with a strategically placed camera. Without a full-body sense of feel, having an excellent view of your avatar helps to judge your exact position before leaping off a platform/wall/chandelier.

With that said, translating modern 3D acrobatic mechanics to first person isn't a worthless endeavor. The main gimmick of the game is its method of stringing actions, like the jump-turn-jump pattern of the wall-jump, performed by alternating presses between the left and right bumper, and it's a very satisfying action that wouldn't work any other way. Other actions are heavily context sensitive (vaulting over a fence or a box versus scrambling up a wall), and the areas where this doesn't work well is more a fault of the level designer than anyone else.

Being a numb athlete with limited field-of-vision leads to an overwhelming number of embarrassing deaths relating to jumping at the wrong moment, back stepping off a building, or punching the air. The designers realized this, and as a result the number of checkpoints makes things very forgiving. The resulting game is much more trial-and-error than you might expect, but reaching the point of being able to blaze through an area is rather satisfying and exhilarating. It's possible to disarm enemies and use their weapons, but this feature is very limited and rightly so, encouraging players to jump off walls and kick their opponents in the face instead. This game is not recommended for those who are expecting your average FPS.

Verdict: modern game technology is inadequate when it comes to supplying players with a realistic feel of what it would be like to literally run in the shoes of an amazingly agile and graceful individual. But Mirror's Edge is as close as we're going to get with your standard dual-analog game controller.
(thumbs up)

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