Gaming! I haven't played all that many games outside of my current obsession: Guild Wars 2 and Avengers Academy. Yes, this totally says a lot about me...But anyway, this week we have a choice of playing Metroid, Legend of Zelda, or Castlevania. I'm gonna be totally honest with you; I've only ever heard of the Legend of Zelda out of the three mentioned, and YES, I will also totally admit that I thought the guy plastered all over the front of the game covers was actually called Zelda. This is wrong...His name is Link...(Don't be a doof like me...)
Right, so we're gonna jump into playing Metroid first, just because it's on the top of the list. I have NO CLUE what the game is about so I'm going in completely blind. It's an adventure game that looks a lot like Mario and Pokemon and that sounds pretty awesome so I'm gonna go ahead and try for at least a couple of hours of actual game-play before moving on to rescuing Zelda.
Now, first impressions. THIS IS SO RETRO. Really reminds me of Mario and growing up in the mid 90's with these kind of games. I'm an 80's kid but I didn't actually get to start playing around with games until I moved to New Zealand when I was about...8ish years old. The music is also funky. I wike it.
So, 5 seconds into the game, I am lost. Yay...I couldn't quite figure out the keys of how to play it...I know the arrows work and enter but that's it! I actually thought I died when I hit the START button because everything stopped moving. Little did I know, I simply paused the game...
I changed the keys to the ASDW format and the A and B buttons to something else but, uh...I only confused myself a bit more and that wasn't cool. I'm gonna have to change it again because I JUST DIED...Far out, this brings back memories of frustration.
What does this password even do? Can I continue from where I last was? Is this like a save point? There's only one way to find out...BACK INTO THE FRAY.
--
4 DEATHS LATER
--
Okay, so I figured out how to DUCK! You push the down button twice...Yay...
I honestly couldn't figure it out and I didn't actually manage to get past that first couple of rooms without dying. Stupid monsters...
Also, the character reminds me a lot of Samus from those Mario battle games. (After a quick google, it turns out it IS ACTUALLY SAMUS. Wow, I suck.)
--
Quick Q & A for Metroid. (Time for some serious business.)
1. How would you describe the genre of the game? How is this evident in level design, storytelling and gameplay?
This is an action/adventure game where the goal is to go from one end of the dungeon to another until it is completed. Along the way, you can defeat monsters, pick up items, and open doors by shooting at them. The design is very simple and the world is very flat and 2-dimensional; typical of most games within this generation. Take Super Mario for example.
It's not overly complicated; the only way forward is...well, forward. There is only one route in which you can lead your character to the end of the room/dungeon and it's impossible to get lost. Winning the dungeon and completing it is an entirely different subject. Getting to the next part contributes to the storytelling and narrative, although it would certainly help if the game started off with some actual exposition. I'm not a big fan of exposition but going in blind is just very silly, and asking us to die a many violent death.
The game-play itself is easy enough - you have your arrow keys, you have your A and B buttons as well as your SELECT AND START buttons. Each key does it's own thing and it's easy enough to figure out which is which. Of course, making sure you shoot at the monster rather than jump towards them is another matter. The endgame is easy enough to figure out, but I still don't know how Samus' particular story actually starts. This is something that either the game within the website is missing, or it was left out either by accident or purposely. In any case, I'm a confused game player.
2. How does your chosen game(s) tell its story? Is it successful?
Currently, I don't feel that it's very explanatory. As soon as I clicked ENTER, I was thrown into the game without any backstory. I'm in a cave and I don't know why or how I got there. I have a gun and there are monsters all around me and they are definitely not the friendly type like Yoshi is for Mario. Most of the games I've played will at least tell you a little bit of what's going on but for Metroid, I am completely blank as to what I'm supposed to do, where I'm supposed to go, and what my objective is for being where I am. In terms of exposition, the game mostly failed, although that would be either of our faults (maybe the game on the website didn't load properly and the starting story is missing or I rushed the STARTING MENU SCREEN too much).
With Mario, you KNOW WHY we're traversing the world, squashing mushrooms, kicking turtles back into their shells or throwing fireballs at man-eating flowers - it's all for the sake of rescuing Princess Peach! But with Metroid? I have absolutely no clue where I am or why I'm there. I simply...am.
3. Does your game encourage exploration? How does this affect the pace/meaning/structure of the narrative?
Yes, indeed it does. It wasn't evident at the beginning of my play-through, but after the first few attempts at trying to understand the mechanics behind the game, it became easier to stop thinking about which keys and buttons to push and more on the question of; what will happen if I go to the left instead of the right? The answer was that I found a sphere or perhaps a power-up on the left side of the first map I was thrown into. I'm not sure what it does for my character but it shows that exploring the map does help, in some way.
The fact that you don't immediately spawn at the beginning of the map says a lot; you need to think about exploring; you can't simply shoot and keep moving forward and hope for the best. Exploring opens up new possibilities (and items?) for your character to use and take advantage of as well as the use of strategy. It's not like with Mario where the only thing you can do is go from point A to Z.
--
Thanks for tuning into my play-through of Metroid. Catch you all next time when we try to attempt Legend of Zelda!!
No comments:
Post a Comment