released June 2004, purchased July 2004
click here for my review written in July 2004!
Spider-Man spends 90% of his time retrieving lost balloons for kids.
Although this was a huge improvement over the previous Spider-Man movie game, it still has some weird angles to it that you can either spin as "unfinished" or "ahead of its time."
The true-to-scale New York City that never you can roam at will, top to bottom, without hitting a loading screen is wild... but it looks like total crap and has too few landmarks to help you navigate. Web-swinging is almost perfect, a zen experience that makes you feel like you're actually the -Man... but street-level brawling is a mess of impossible combo moves against burly no-name thugs who consistently dodge your super-heroic attacks. There's plenty of GTA-esque side missions and item hunts to keep you occupied... but they repeat to infinity, it just looks weird to have Spidey constantly standing on the sidewalk talking to pedestrians, and the boss fights are all terrible. (One of which, the Mysterio battle, is enough to make you swear off video games forever.)
You have to play it for the web-swinging. Seriously.
Memory Score: Just because humankind has invented ragdoll physics does not mean they must be employed every time.
| Pokemon Box: Ruby & Sapphire |
released July 2004, purchased July 2004
What an odd little thing: this is a utility that allows you to save your extra Pokemon overflow to a GameCube memory card.
You could only get it through Nintendo (online store or NYC store) and it came packaged with a GBA/GameCube Link Cable and a custom original-flavor memory card. Priced to move at $20, which is not bad, considering the cable alone sold for $7 or $8. Probably rather collectible.
Of course, the ability to page through your GBA Pokemon save files and transfer excess characters to the Cube for safekeeping should have been built in to the dull-as-dishwater Pokemon Colosseum. Pokemon Box additionally lets you play Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire on your TV without the need for the Game Boy Player, which is also something that Colosseum could have and should have handled.
If you needed an extra Link Cable and had some pokemon to stash, this was an interesting add-on. Even if it mainly served to remind you how awful Colosseum was.
Memory Score: The collection display mode was horrible and hopefully resulted in somebody getting fired.
released August 2004, purchased August 2004
The big complaint about the first Pikmin is that the day/night cycle introduced an obnoxious timer to each level that actually inhibited you from exploring the game. Note that: People bitched because they wanted to play the game more. That's a high-class problem.
So one of the sequel's hype points was that you could play without the timer. Which is kind of a lie.
The only time that you're not under the ticking clock is when you explore one of the claustrophobic underground levels... but the game screws you by giving you a finite number of pikmin that can go underground. Let all of them die and you lose your treasures and have to start the dungeon over.
Which is a fine challenge for the advanced player, but it still avoids the issue that you can't take your time and leisurely enjoy Miyamoto's underappreciated masterpiece in the pastoral, relaxing way the game world seems to demand.
This is a great, clever, unique game. I want to play it without some arbitrary difficulty-meter putting my balls in a vice.
In other news, the game's multiplayer modes are surprisingly beefy, and the game proper ends with only half of the buried items discovered... so it has plenty of playing value. This one definitely needs to make the leap to the Wii.
Memory Score: Plus you can kill hours throwing carrots at beasties in the interactive zoo exhibit mode.
Next time: the thousand-year door, the million-Morlock march, and one bad Fred Schneider impersonation
