Good morning Pixlpeeps and it is a chilly (43 degrees) here in sunny Southern California. I hope you good people had a wonderful weekend and are ready for the big Christmas week. I'm excited for Christmas and I already bought my gift for the gift exchange game. It's something that I like and even though the new rule of no gift cards (BOOOOOO) I'm ready and hopefully I can swipe something good. Anyways let's get started with the stuff I played.
Chris Plays...
Star Wars Battlefront – PS4:
I continued my quest of padding everyone's kill stats I am now a level 4 player. I don't know what that means but I seem to do be doing ok and I'm finishing in the middle of the pack during every 40 on 40. Of course my kill/death ratio isn't good but again I don't play this game that often. Since I bought a 3 month Plus subscription I really should download some of my game saves.
Ratchet & Clank – PS4:
I finished the story mode and then I went back to play it on Challenge Mode and finished that, and currently I am playing my third go around in Challenge Mode and the question is, do I really want to play through it again? I mean it's fun to level up the weapons, and I already got the trophies I wanted (all golden bolts, challenge mode, finding all weapons), what is there left? I mean the Platinum is nice and it seems easy enough to earn (I peaked at the hidden trophies and they sound easy enough) but do I want to sink that much time into this game? I still have the Batman Telltale game to start was well as the rest of Mount Backlog. Anyways we shall see.
Grand Theft Auto – PC:
I upgraded to the latest version and thank goodness the good people in the mod community already updated their program so I can still use add-on cars. I added the cars available in multiplayer into the single player universe but I don't know the names to access them. I also have no idea how to get the low rider feature to work, I must have installed in the wrong area. Anyways eventually I'll get back to searching for items within the game.
X-Box Stuff
I do have achievements for the other games.
I finally powered up my X-Box and after a quick update (hey Playstation, quick updates are better than whatever you make me do) but it turns out I needed to use some special password that Microsoft connected with my windows account. After figuring this out (it took a couple of minutes because I didn't read the prompts) I was back in my account and I always get a kick to see my PC games being listed on my achievements page.
Super Mario Run – iOS
So Thursday was the big release day for Super Mario Run and even though I signed up for a notification, I never got one, I visited the App Store anyways
Of course during the download I read on Twitter that Nintendo was charging $10 for the app. I thought it was crazy but I decided to give it a try anyways. After playing the first world you are hit with this window
Yeah thanks Nintendo. I bet this game will be the pack in game for the Switch. Anyways I dropped the $10 on this game instead of an actual game like Lego Star Wars Force Awakens on 3DS which I believe is $8 at Best Buy right now. Anyways I got all six worlds and promptly played through them in one day
Now the control for the game is simple, your character runs, you tap or double tap on the screen to jump. When faced with an enemy your character will automatically hurdle them but if you tap on the screen you squish them and get a coin. The levels are laid out like a typical SMB game, including finding special coins (this time there are five) but the levels are short and at the end you are greeted by the flag and castle.
Within the levels there are new features like a brick that you stand on that will pause your runner so you can time jumps by tapping on the screen, as well as bricks that if you tap on the screen while you are running it will send you backwards or forwards depending on the direction the arrow is pointing. The boss battles are the same except you don't have any of the special power ups (I might be wrong because I never actually found a fire flower or any other advantages) and you get the usual message at the end of the level.
After playing through the story mode you unlock the ability to upgrade your version of the SMB kingdom. Also you can either replay the story mode to earn some extra coins, and collect the three versions of the special coins and compete against people on your friend's list to see who has the best times. There is also a new feature called Toad Rally Mode where you spend tickets that you earned by playing the game.
In Toad Rally Mode you play against another user's character and the goal is to play through a level side by side trying to earn the attention of the little mushroom guys by jumping and then tapping the screen again to stomp on enemies, and do little tricks. The winner of this level is determined by who earned the most coins and attention from the little mushroom people. It's a winner take all (kind of like how you earn humans in Primal Rage.) You collect enough of them and this unlocks their houses to purchase to add to your kingdom.
Overall Super Mario Run is a lot of fun, but not $10 worth of fun. I think Nintendo overpriced their app by giving us a game that really is half finished and threw in a multiplayer that really isn't multiplayer. For $10 I would have expected a Mario game with at least eight full words, and a multiplayer that doesn't require use of tickets to take part in. It's like Nintendo took their number one property, slapped it into one of those Mii games you buy on 3DS, and decided to price it like a Mii game instead of what it really is, a glorified freemium app with the Nintendo license. If this game was $5 I would have said it's at the perfect price point for what they offer but at $10 Nintendo is absolutely crazy. It's great to link your account to this game but for this price I wanted to see some added features but Nintendo failed to deliver. If you are a huge fan of SMB and have $10 to burn give it a spin, if not save your money and wait for a sale. $10 is not worth it for this game.
Alright Pixlbit I am off. Have a good week!
That's all for now, more later!
-Chris
Super Mario Run is OK. Not great, but not bad either. I only bought it because I had a 15 dollar iTunes gift card lying around that I needed to use. I posted my friend code on your last blog if you want to add me in Super Mario Run.
interesting you guys don't like it. I haven't tried it yet but I'm getting to it.
If the game was cheaper my view would change. Its simply not a $10 game. I am starting to enjoy the "multiplayer" portion of the game but not enough to justify the price.
It could have been so much more. If the price was lower it would change my perception. And thanks for adding me to your friends list.
Upgrading your kingdom sounds neat.
I like some of the features with it especially unlocking the mushroom houses that offer bonus games.
I have been wanting to play Battlefront and Ratchet and Clank for a while now, but hadn't had the time during the year. They look like fun.
Is that PC GTA different from GTA V?
Yeah, PS4 updates can take WAY too long. It became really noticeable a couple weeks ago when I finally got around to hooking it up again and EVERYTHING needed an update, including video apps. I don't want to know how long it took me to download that Doom demo, but then again my roommate has the lowest possible Internet speed, so I'm sure that doesn't help.
I heard Super Mario Run is now the top selling iPhone game or something; or at least that it surpassed Pokemon Go in sales? I dunno, I saw something about it doing really well. Honestly, I think $5 is my cutoff for any kind of gaming phone app. Heck, the ONLY game I've ever paid for on a phone was Sonic CD ($5).
The PC GTA is the same as the console except I think there are more songs on the radio. Usually I have it off or I listen to the rap station.
PS4 needs to see how Microsoft does it, because their updates are quick. Sony on the other hand wants you to download huge updates for everything. New game? Update. Turn on the console? Update, Hell they even made an update where I had to change my password. Get your sh*t together Sony.
If Super Mario Run was in the app sweetspot of $4-5 for a full game then it would be a great game. I'm glad they didn't go the route of microtransactions because those are a pain and I feel will eventually hold back tablet gaming.
Super Mario Run seems to me to be an incredibly dummied-down Mario game gimped to fit within the limitations of mobile gaming. I'm not too nuts about runners. It's the best one there is, but that isn't saying much. I'd rather play any Mario game on a 3DS, Wii U, or Switch. At best, I hope it has the same effect for Nintendo that Pokemon Go did. The 3DS is sold out everywhere thanks to Pokemon Sun/Moon, not bad for a six year old system. That game probably got a huge boost from the Pokemon Go fad.
The statements about people not wanting to pay more than $5 for Super Mario Run really illustrate a big problem with the mobile space. When companies got people used to "free" as a price tag, they kneecapped mobile gaming. If you can't talk people into paying for apps when they're used to free, there's no real incentive for quality. Despite mobile chips becoming more powerful, the games are as simplistic as ever. The only thing that does well on mobile are Skinner boxes that rely on "whales", the people that get addicted to the point of spending thousands of dollars on microtransactions.
Agree but at the same time I don't think Nintendo would ever let their big star have his own full on game on a system not made by Nintendo. I have a feeling this will be a packaged game for the switch and the folks like myself who bought it are the guinea pigs.
There are so many possibilities for mobile gaming but devlopers are stuck in the freemium rut. I wish it were different but that's how they make money especially like you said on the few who spend a ton to play these games. I used to love trying new games but now on the iPad I only play one and that's Disney Emoji Blitz. It has a leaderboard made up of friends from Facebook, and I can unlock emoji's that I will never use but I get something for playing the game. SM Run could have been a lot of fun as a runner but Nintendo didn't offer enough content to justify the price.