First Time Completion: Mole Mania (Game Boy)

Mole Mania was one of the many impulse purchases during my childhood years. I got it from some electronic store in my neighborhood that's not defunct or at least don't carry games anymore. I really liked the game, and I found only found out a year or two ago from hardcoregaming101 that it was developed by sir Miyamoto (of Mario and Zelda fame). The game is about a mole trying to rescue his wife and kids. In order to do so, he has to use his wits as he goes through room after room of puzzles and beat a boss at the end of a level.  I enjoyed it since I'm still a biased Nintendo fan at heart, and respect Miyamoto's work. However, I did never manage to finish it. For a cutesy kind of game, the puzzles are hard, and eventually got stuck on the last levels. I tried and tried for hours, but my little brain couldn't figure out the solution, and was not aware of gamefaqs back in the late 90s. Even if I did know the site, there was no complete FAQ of it until late 2004. Back in May, I felt like starting again, and get to the end. I managed to do complete this feat, and you know what, the game is still hard.

Playing Mole Mania at my age worked to my advantage at least where I can see and picked up the solutions almost instantly and blazed through the first half with relative ease. The puzzles were real simple in the beginning, but they gradually get harder, and towards the end, get very brutal. The puzzle themselves consist of rooms where Mr. Mole need to bring an iron ball towards the gate that blocks the next room. (As shown in the screenshot to the right) There are various tricks and tools at your disposal such as digging, underground travel and throwing. The task gets increasingly harder and complex as more obstacles get thrown at you. By the last 2 levels (out of 7 total plus a boss gauntlet), some puzzles were major headscratchers that can take me 30 minutes - 1 hour to figure it out. Many of the later puzzles require digging specific holes, move objects to certain positions, and/or have to do a series of steps in exact order. Sometimes, perfect timing is needed for certain objects needing to be in place at the precise moment. Messing up in any way makes you restart the room over, and some puzzles require a lot of very careful steps to get to the solution.  Occasionally, some puzzles thrown at you are stupidly easy in between the nightmare ones, but I guess the intention to give players some break from the nasty puzzles. There is an item on each level that lets you skip a puzzle once, though marked as incomplete, but felt compelled to finish all of them. I still did wind up using a FAQ for some of the puzzles in the last level because they were that evil to me.

I struggled with the game even as an adult, but I've beaten it, had fun and felt great satisfaction beating the puzzles. It just was a bit surprising that it is hard even as an adult, let alone for kids. It's just one of the many instances of how hard older games, whether artificially or not, back than compared to know, but that's a rant for another time. The game aged quite well, and is easy to hop right in and enjoy. Just don't expect it to be a cakewalk after a while. The game is evil in spite of how it looks, and is interesting how deceptive games like this or Little King’s Story can look simple and innocent, but is brutal games that can make some adults cry.

First Time Completion: Earthbound (SNES)

I lost count how many times I attempted to complete these games. It's one of those games that I keep starting, but never sticked to it long enough to reach the end. Furthest I been was up to Fourside once, otherwise I kept getting lazy by the third town or so. This cycle kept occurring over and over again. It began when I was 12, and lasted until the tender age of 25. Finally, I manage to recently complete it for the first time, and conquered what is perhaps THE JRPG I tried the most attempted playthroughs on. The only other JRPG I can think of that I attempted to playthrough many times is Final Fantasy VI, and I beat the GBA version for the first time last year.

It's tough pointing out exactly why it was difficult for me to play through this game. Sure, I am a lazy gamer that does not often finish a game that I started, feeling usually content with just playing it. Even so, there are not many games, at least with JRPGs, where I took that many tries to finally beat a game I wanted to beat. At most, it takes probably three or four attempts to not be lazy and finally push through the end, even if the gaps in attempts are between years. After this last attempt, I felt that the rough gameplay, some pacing issues and not much of that mysterious x factor is what made it hard for Earthbound to grab me that long.

Gameplay wise, it felt rough. The combat is a fine, standard, Turn-based RPG that I do wish more games incorporate an auto-win feature against weaker enemies. The problem stems more from the interface and some other stuff. The hoarder in me really disliked the limited inventory and hated the ordeal of managing items between party members, and stressing out on which items I should keep on me. When it comes to things like uncommon/rare healing items and special one-time use ones, I tend to be reluctant to use them. It's not because I want a greater challenge, but it's rather because I wonder if this one item I used early would be needed about 30-40 hours later kind of worry. It's also obnoxious that the equipment and key items I need at all times take up part of the inventory space. I guess it's kind of realistic in that regard, but in a bad way. Granted other games around that time and before had the same issue, but it varies from game to game on how it affects me.

I was also not all that big on the pacing. There were moments where I felt bits of the game felt pretty dull, and parts can feel a bit too dragged on. The low points for me was primarily all of Threed and some of Fourside, and the amount of backtracking felt too excessive in combination with the slow moving speed. The gaming music junkie in me also didn't like Earthbound's audio, but it's no longer the case. I'm a gaming music fan that likes something very melodic, and memorable enough to hum to outside of the game. Earthbound does not really have that sort of music to me, but is still good in a different way. The music, especially in the dungeons, can get very abstract and alien that I thought poorly of this approach. However, it does work well with the quirky nature of the game, and there are some cooler songs later on. I remember years back when I was saying to some online friends on saying I disliked Earthbound's music; I used the Dungeon Man theme as an example, despite never getting that far. That was premature on my part to make that song an indicator of a weak soundtrack and having no idea of the context on why the song sounds that way.

Other than these factors, I guess it was one of those games that don't seem to have that much staying power with me, and can't really rationalize on why that is the case. I've been through my share of JRPGs and games in general that can have such similar issues, but were far more faulty and painful to get through. Yet, I did finish some of those games for reasons even I don't understand. I guess Earthbound is just one of those games with me that don't hold my full attention along with all the hype my peers give it that made me didn't fully get what's the big deal about it.

Now, in spite of all the negatively I've been spouting in the last few paragraphs, it really did feel worthwhile to finally play this all the way through. I most definitely loved the setting and concept, which is what this game, and the Mother series in general, really shine on. It's such a quirky, imaginative world, full of surprises and feels so refreshing to venture through amongst all the fantasy and sci-fi realm x's out there. The NPCs were very amusing to talk to and each time I enter a new town, I take the time going through all the houses and shops to talk to them, and see what kind of absurd or amusing banter they would share. That's an aspect of the game I didn't seem to care for or remember much beforehand, but I greatly appreciate the silliness of it all now. It is a shame that Ness' whole crew is such flat, quiet characters, and it bothered me for a while. Even now, I find a bit jarring to me when Poo suddenly came back to the party at the end of a boss fight after a fairly short absence and no one said anything. I don't really care about that anymore though since the setting, supporting cast, NPCs and such all more than made up for it.

In spite of the faults I had with the game, there is no denying it has quite a few memorable moments both big and small. Here is a listing of some moments or things in the game on the top of my head that stood out to me:

-Pokey in general

-Those trippy battle backgrounds

-Onett police force

-Buzz buzz's demise

-Colorful array of enemies like New Age Retro Hippie and Abstract Art

-Orange Kid and Apple Kid
-Pencil Eraser

-The Happy Happiest cult

-Runaway Five crew with their cool theme song and nifty performances

-Mr. Saturn

-The trippy coffee bits

-The five third strongest moles

-MOONSIDE!

-Billboards

-That $7500 "dream home" with a funny snippet

-Unconventional status effects like homesick

-Dungeon Man!

-Magicant

-That final boss (man, talk about a nightmare fueled mind trip)

There may be some other stuff I'm overlooking, but I guess they are not all that memorable. Writing this list makes it more baffling that it took me this long to beat it. I love weird and quirky stuff, but I guess that alone was not enough of a staying power for me with Earthbound. In comparison, I've beaten Mother 3 in about a week or 2, shortly after the English patch got released. It has less overall zany or out there moments, but I felt engaged by it and managed to stick that through. I recall that it remedied the rough interface woes, and has a more interesting story that made me wonder what will happen next. Even now, it feels hard to forget the final chapter where it has a hilarious final dungeon, followed by a very heart wrenching finale. I understand those who do prefer Earthbound since it's a bigger classic and has great moments, but Mother 3 felt better to me. Maybe I should do a 2nd playthrough of that to see if the point still stands.

I certainly sounded harsh about Earthbound despite the things that bug me and didn't click. It's a bit too hyped up, but it is still unique. In spite of my negatively, it is still a game to try out at least once, and felt worthwhile to finally make it through to the end. It's a one of a kind JRPG experience that I don't think will ever get an English rerelease due to all the license issues with it. What a shame.

Some Random Game: Ys III Wanderers from Ys (Turbo CD)

To those who know me, I'm quite a bit of a Falcom fan, or at the very least, a Ys fan, but it was not always the case. I played and beaten SNES version when I was a teen. It was ok, but nothing special, and thought the rest of the games were like that. Years later, I played the 6th game, Ark of Napishtim, on a whim, and enjoyed that quite a bit. At that time, I heard word about how this game, Oath in Felghana, uses the same engine and is even better. I eventually played the import and thought it was fantastic. It turns out that it's a remake of the third game, and is interesting how the circle from sort-of-hater to fanboy would be complete. Heck, I love that game so much that I imported a copy with a sweet, compilation soundtrack when it was on sale, then the localized PSP version... and later the Steam version as well.

At some point or another, I did feel like messing with one of the old versions for the fun of it to see how it is. In particular, I wanted to play the Turbo CD version, which I assume is the best of the bunch. I did want it to come on the Wii's virtual console like with Ys I & II (which was pretty damn fun), but sadly, that never happened. I eventually played the game by some "other means" and recently finished it.

Now the thing you probably wonder is why the hell would I even want to play this version of III when I have three copies of the completely superior remake? Well, it's partially out of curiosity and wonder what I think of this version of the game after all these years. The primary reason is actually because of the music. The Turbo CD version is fantastic, and heavily indicates how innovative Falcom were with the audio back in the day. Sure, I can listen to the music of Turbo CD Ys III somewhere, but I wanted to experience the game along with it too.

The game is still pretty underwhelming as I remembered it to me, but still kind of fun in its own way. The dungeons are completely straightforward, especially after going through the mazelike dungeons of I, II, and recently, IV. II is especially noteworthy where I got lost in the final dungeons for hours each time I've played it. Granted, Felghana's dungeons are linear too, but they're designed better and at least have more substance. It's also kind of jarring how different the translations were from what I was used to, even in the SNES version. In the Turbo CD version, Felghana is Kanai, Redmont is Sarina, the final boss, Galbalan is called Demonicus and a few other extreme differences. There are a few other little issues and nitpicks, but they're not really worth noting upon.

Though the game is faulty, I still did enjoy the most recent romp through it and kind of has its own charm. The pacing is good, and was fun blazing through all the dungeons, killing the enemies in one strike. The Turbo CD version also has some terrible voice acting, but of the totally hilarious kind that could only be done from the 90s. To me, when voice acting in modern games is bad, it feels bad because the actors certainly tried and took it serious, but botched it. 90s voice acting: A lot goofier and seem to be having fun with it at least. Chester's voice is especially bad since it just does not fit his character at all, but is part of the fun. At the end of the game, one of the weaker Ys games, but still pretty good, at least for its fantastic soundtrack.

First Time Completion: SNK Vs. Capcom Card Fighters Clash (NGP Color)

Card battling games are a total guilty pleasure of mine. I used to delve onto them a fair lot as a kid like Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic the Gathering and such, and greatly enjoy video game variations of them. Even now, I occasionally buy and mess around with whatever is the latest Yu-Gi-Oh game with the latest card roster. SNK Vs. Capcom Card Fighters Clash is a game I tried out on a whim when I was trying out a Neo Geo Pocket emulator with some games. I certainly did enjoy it at the time, but only played a little bit of it, and moved on to some other game. Recently, I got myself a plethora of Neo Geo Pocket (Color) games to mess with once more, and jumped on this game. I managed to beat it the second time, and was certainly hooked.

There is certainly something compelling about the fun with card battle games. The notion of beating the same opponents repeatedly, collecting better cards to slowly build up your ultimate deck, and beating the top, card fighting fellows to get to the championship league. I like all of that, and this game delivers. It also helps the actual card battling is quite good. The goal is to simply lower the opponents life points to 0. At your disposal are fighter cards to attack your opponent and defeat other fighters standing in your way. Several fighters have passive or manual abilities, and also have action cards that can do various kinds of effects. That's all the game really has, but it works because of it. It does not do too much, nor gets convoluted, so more effort was put into the few, established mechanics. The game can really get deep and strategically with all the various means to try winning with all the different abilities and action card at your disposal. Some things I did in the game was weakening other fighter cards, and get them stuck on the field purposely to prevent the opponent from summoning stronger ones or deliberately taking a hit so the opponent is left wide open to be dealt a heavy blow. Perhaps these strategies are simply the norm for most players, and the best means to win is good old fashioned brute force. I could simply be admiring all of the fancy maneuvers and strategies that the AI pulled off on me.

The only real frustrating aspect I had with the game is the grind and difficulty balance. When I win, I only get 3 or 5 cards, depending on the opponent, and most of them tend to be crap. I don't mind the grind in general, but it feels annoying to get the good cards, and get nothing at all if you lose. I felt getting 7 or 10 cards would've been better when winning, and throw in 1-3 for losing, but being a good sport about it. The issue really arose towards the end when the difficulty took a massive spike. I did relatively well for a while, then all of a sudden, the opponents have all these superior, rare, strong cards I have no access too, and getting constantly floored. It took me a few hours to get enough good cards to win, and still struggled in the last battle. I only managed to win where I manage to get the ride cards to beat the opponent in one shot while I barely hanged on by the thread. It didn't feel like a clean, well done victory, and just got lucky.

Still, it was fun, and still mess around, getting better cards to kill time during my train commute to work. There are more cards to get post game, but the opponents I beat easily before kicked up too much of a notch. I would have to overcome that too. There is a Japanese only second game released, but it does have an English patch. I'll mess around with that installment at some point. There is also a DS version that I did play, but I forgot why I did not really like that particular version. The Neo Geo Pocket games seem to be good enough anyhow.