Very little talk about this game I must say, especially considering how big a title it is for Nintendo. Why is that? We had like, a whole bunch of threads when the first one launched.
Was it really that revolutionary then, and is it really that old hat now?
I personally believe the answer is "no" to both, yet surely this title deserves more talk than what we've had so far!
I'm only as far into the game as to try to recover the boost ball (not very successfully I might add), but from what I've seen so far, graphics is generally a step up. There's a fair bit of TEV effects ("pixel shadery thingies") this time, though curiously the programmers chose to cause surface glimmers to respond to when the player's head turns and not when the player itself moves, which is just completely wrong compared to how things work in real life.
The most apparent effect is of course the light bubbles in the dark world, which have what looks like a bumpmapped outer surface, and even seems to blur what's inside when looking at distant bubbles. That may be an illusion though, I'm not sure. There's also a bunch of reflective metal-like effects, and reflective cloth (!), and the water actually looks WORSE than it did in the original MP, with no surface interaction anymore.
Granted, the waves looked pretty pap, but still, they were ACTUAL waves.
Static level detail generally seem to be about on par of most rooms in the original game, but also a bit less than the most complex rooms (such as that huge temple room with the rotating pipe section in the floor). Perhaps this is so because of the slightly more impressive pyrotechnics, or maybe because the game didn't get rediculously delayed so level designers could sit there and twiddle with every room and add tons of little extras nobody would ever see unless they went over every square centimeter with the visor pressed towards the wall (like I did, haha).
Enemies are lots more dangerous now, at least the larger ones. There's still plenty of pointless junk enemies, but space pirates can really kick ass now, and the crocodile things are real meanies etc. The Ing are more of an annoyance so far though; they typically take lots of damage to kill, but don't cause that much damage, with the exception of the minibosses. The boost boss nearly made me put a hammer through the top lid of my cube. I've disconnected it now so the game won't aggravate me any further...
Atmosphere-wise this game doesn't reach up to the lofty heights of its forefather. Dunno, but these lightbulb guys just don't hold my interest like the Chozo did in the original MP. Also, the music isn't as suggestive either, the remixes of the original soundscapes and melodies aren't as good, and the new, original stuff also isn't quite as cool either. Maybe it's hard to be original when the first game was so very original in that respect.
Anyway, I don't know how much I'll be able to play of this game. If the bosses are going to continue being complete bitches, then I won't like it at all. The boost boss didn't want to be in solid form at all after the first few shots I pumped into him. After that he just kept bouncing along like a pinball or floating in his slime form, going up into solid form for just a few seconds at most, it was impossible to get off any shots into him. Grrr...
Was it really that revolutionary then, and is it really that old hat now?
I personally believe the answer is "no" to both, yet surely this title deserves more talk than what we've had so far!I'm only as far into the game as to try to recover the boost ball (not very successfully I might add), but from what I've seen so far, graphics is generally a step up. There's a fair bit of TEV effects ("pixel shadery thingies") this time, though curiously the programmers chose to cause surface glimmers to respond to when the player's head turns and not when the player itself moves, which is just completely wrong compared to how things work in real life.
The most apparent effect is of course the light bubbles in the dark world, which have what looks like a bumpmapped outer surface, and even seems to blur what's inside when looking at distant bubbles. That may be an illusion though, I'm not sure. There's also a bunch of reflective metal-like effects, and reflective cloth (!), and the water actually looks WORSE than it did in the original MP, with no surface interaction anymore.
Granted, the waves looked pretty pap, but still, they were ACTUAL waves.
Static level detail generally seem to be about on par of most rooms in the original game, but also a bit less than the most complex rooms (such as that huge temple room with the rotating pipe section in the floor). Perhaps this is so because of the slightly more impressive pyrotechnics, or maybe because the game didn't get rediculously delayed so level designers could sit there and twiddle with every room and add tons of little extras nobody would ever see unless they went over every square centimeter with the visor pressed towards the wall (like I did, haha).
Enemies are lots more dangerous now, at least the larger ones. There's still plenty of pointless junk enemies, but space pirates can really kick ass now, and the crocodile things are real meanies etc. The Ing are more of an annoyance so far though; they typically take lots of damage to kill, but don't cause that much damage, with the exception of the minibosses. The boost boss nearly made me put a hammer through the top lid of my cube. I've disconnected it now so the game won't aggravate me any further...
Atmosphere-wise this game doesn't reach up to the lofty heights of its forefather. Dunno, but these lightbulb guys just don't hold my interest like the Chozo did in the original MP. Also, the music isn't as suggestive either, the remixes of the original soundscapes and melodies aren't as good, and the new, original stuff also isn't quite as cool either. Maybe it's hard to be original when the first game was so very original in that respect.
Anyway, I don't know how much I'll be able to play of this game. If the bosses are going to continue being complete bitches, then I won't like it at all. The boost boss didn't want to be in solid form at all after the first few shots I pumped into him. After that he just kept bouncing along like a pinball or floating in his slime form, going up into solid form for just a few seconds at most, it was impossible to get off any shots into him. Grrr...
