Pikmin 3. Wii-U

I played Pikmin 1 on the gamecube oh so long ago, and boy i hated the heck out of it. It was annoyingly hard to get the best or even a good ending. Heck i couldn't even finish it. Granted i don't remember how old i was, but nevertheless. You had to collect 30 parts of you ship in 30 days for good ending, i believe 22 for O.K. ending and if you missed even one, bad ending. Which can be really disheartening.

This box just showed you what you were getting into, A giant lady bug that's what. 

Never played Pikmin 2, but i don't think it matters.

Giant lady bugs are so last year, GIANT CRUSTACEAN!

But Pikmin 3, Hot diggity damn. Good reviews aren't entertaining because everyone on the internet wants to see some trash talking about games, and especially this year for nintendo because they're wii-u seems to be flopping. But let me say this! Pikmin 3, while it won't be the console saver, it definitely will keep it afloat until that game does arrive. Let me begin.

And now, peace, no giant monsters in this scene. Blissful peace.

Now most of you understand the premise of pikmin games, grow pikmin, use them to collect and ect ect. Now im strictly comparing Pikmin 1 to 3. This game does not have a game limit, you can go exploring as much as you want, but you still have the daytime restriction like morning to dusk, but that is not a problem, timed games increase the thrill, least with this game.

The game uses a fruit timing system in which when you collect fruits during the game, similar to treasure, and in turn depending on the fruit it turns into various amounts of juice. At the end of each day you spend 1 thing of juice, like a life force of something. Theres enough fruit in the game that if you are diligent you will never have to worry about not having enough. 

This is how i imagine the game when it squeezes all the juice from the fruits i've collected

The two new pikmin types are definitly interesting, and they, at least to me, dont feel gimmicky. The first newest one you meet are rock-pikmin, they destroy glass like structures and when initially thrown, hit really hard. It's surprising how many places they actually come in handy and the times they do blend into the illusion and doesnt take away from the game. 

"Idgaf" 

The second newest one is flying pikmin. They are like Blue pikmins cousin. Take these guys over the water, over anything really. The only disheartening thing is the stage they're introduced, is the same stage spiders are introduced, and if you're not careful, they'll fly right into the spiders web, and die. Fly pikmin, Flies. Flying pikmin are the only pikmin i think are a real thing, Fruit flies. Eugh.

You know, most people seem charmed with these ones, i think they're kinda creepy, big blue bug eyed creepy things that fly. Eugh.

Now since you have 5 kinds of pikmin, and only 100 pikmin capacity at any time, it all depends on how you want to get things done. the 20 per group normally works, but it later becomes situational for you to use rock pikmin or flying pikmin.

During E3 they talked about how the game would have 3 interchangeable characters and how you would be able to access more things with more captains. At first i thought i'd hate this idea because i want to love only the main character, but in pikmin, they divvy up the spotlight quite well.

I don't really got anything clever, these were great characters. 

One thing that really struck me as a nice touch was whenever you found a new onion, the home for the pikmin, it fused with the other onion, continually each time you found a new one, this way saving space and time when you want to just get all the pikmin you want. It really shows that small touches really make a game. 

The FUSION ONION! MULTI-COLOUR GLORIOUSNESS

Lastly a feature i like but have not yet enjoyed to the fullest is the camera function. Anytime in the game, as long as its not a cutscene, you can take a picture, bosses, monsters, drowning pikmin, ANYTIME. Because this is a first party nintendo game, of course it's crucially linked to the Mii-verse, even though the naming of the mii-verse sucks, i really quite enjoy the place, but this is a pikmin review.

Pikmin 3 might not be a system seller, but damn mii-verse is. Not kidding. Srsly its the shit.

Now normally I post a spoilers section and go into depth of the storyline, but the game just came out, and quite frankly, i'm not gonna go shouting how snape kills dumbledore. Or maybe i should. Naw. But i'll say this about the story, it does the first two games justice, least it does the first one. Maybe it does for the second who knows. The three characters are unique enough that i feel like i really don't hate either of them. Maybe thats just an opinion. But hey.

Now like all pikmin games ( i think, still havent played 2) the ending is all dependent on how well you did, and i just beat pikmin 3, and hoo boy i did shitty. But i beat the game! So i can tell you this, Pikmin 3, has replayability, maybe until you get a perfect completion, or maybe its a personal thing. But remember, i hated pikmin 1, and for me, buying pikmin 3 was a chance, and i am glad i took it. 

(Chrono Trigger, Snes)

Be glad nintendo isn't as cruel as it was back in the day of Snes

Nintendo, This ain't the game you need to save the wii-u and beat up everything in it's way, but it's the one that's resuscitating it after it drowned. And that's equally as important. I recommend this game to all wii-u owners. If you don't own one, well this wouldn't be a console seller, but it should lean in favour of it. 

Well i'm off to play Earthbound,

Beat up some hippies.

Hide yo kids, hide yo wife... 

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. Wii-U

Hoo boy, this game is amazing.

Let me just start out by saying, I had no idea what monster hunter was. I Thought "Monster Hunter" was the show "Monster Rancher" that aired in the 90's. When i was told they were different, i was a little bummed out and wasn't too sure about getting this game.

They both have the name monster in the title, and both games involve hunting monsters. 

Except one has monsters that'll rip your face off. 

But i put that aside and still decided to get the game (really too bad though, i wanted to make a steam bun monster and a giant eyeball too), and boy was i exceptionally pleased with the game. 

The graphics are stellar and the controls, after getting used to, are very well done. Personally i used my Wii-U pro controller and didn't bother with the Wii-pad because i don't want to have to look down and up and down when fighting things like this

Those things there, pretty much like giants.

As i said the controls take getting used to, If you, like me, are not a veteran monster hunter, you may accidentally use an item when trying to swing you sword or giant club.

This game is not so much a stat game but a skill one, granted you need armors and weapons to have exceptional stats to tackle bigger and scarier things, but if you have no idea how to avoid attacks, it ain't gonna do much.

A common thing i heard of this game prior to playing was, "You hunt monsters to craft better armor to hunt bigger monsters", and when hearing that, it sounds tedious, but it is not so. It makes up for that in the vast online world. It is so easy to jump in, fight and jump out. There's a voice option to chat, and if you're like me, a easy text option with the wii-pad (too bad its a maximum 30 chars). People seem to be generally friendly (granted the games been out for 3 days now) and there are tons of lobbies to play on. 

There are about 10 different weapon types (i may be wrong, going off of memory) and each weapon type has tons of different weapons dealing different types of status effects and even brute strength.

Now each weapon has it's own learning curve, for myself, a hunter newbie, i use the dual swords. They're fast reliable and deal ok damage. The farther down the weapon weights you go, the more damage and slower you swing, and believe me, if you can't aim properly with a slow weapon, all that damage will miss, because there is no lock-on.

This is something that has both pros an cons. The lack of a lock on. While there is an auto camera ajust to large monsters, it does not keep the camera "Locked on", The lack of this forces the player to actually require skill and know when to swing the weapon. When confronting a large monster, the one thing you don't want to do is miss, simply because that gives the monster an opening to tear you a new one. 

But each game has it's flaws. When you start hunting bigger things, in a group or alone, you will die. Not like Dark souls die, but pretty close. Whether you're in a group or alone, if you or your teammates die, the bounty of the hunt goes down by 1/3 each time. So if you die 3 times, it's game over; not only that but if your teammates die 2 times and you died once, It's game over. You get nothing from the hunt, you lose any materials you used in the hunt and you're sent back to town feeling a little self pity.

Least this is a gesture in the game...Show your comrades how much you're in pain

 The other thing is when you want to craft new armor, you'll most likely want to go after the whole set, and sets take time. You'll normally have to hunt the monster countless times to get all of it's resources it drops, and sometimes the drop rate of a specific item is no more than 12%. The better the equips, the harder it is to get the items. 

The biggest letdown i've faced so far, is the online multiplayer with 3ds to    wii-u. The game boasts 3DS multiplayer and how you can play with people on the wii-U with the 3DS, but in game there are 3 types of play. Solo, Multiplayer and online. So the keyword being used is Multiplayer. Yes you can play with people who own the wii-u version with the 3ds, but they gotta be sitting next to you, which is kinda disappointing.

"Wii U players are able to enjoy the hunt with Nintendo 3DS players via a local wireless connection."-IGN

I understand they weren't hiding that fact, but it couldn't have hurt to implement online for both.

Overall, this is an astounding game. If you take the time to learn how to fight properly, and are ok with no hand holding in combat, then i reccommend this game. It is hard, fun monster fighting, pretty nice cut-scenes and the online is well put together. 



...Hopefully more nintendo titles will have online as similar as this...







Really wanted this to be monster rancher

One of the best shows of the 90's....