Team Flare & What's the Point of Plot

Pokémon X and Pokémon Y are the arguably the best Pokémon games to date (though I'm sure the upcoming AlphaSapphire and OmegaRuby will happily claim that title soon enough). Why wouldn't they be, right? They're the most recent editions in the long-running franchise, so they obviously include the latest and greatest in all aspects. Well, almost all aspects.

The mechanics are delicately refined and revamped, particularly with the new Fairy-type inclusion. Oh, and Mega Evolutions. The presentation is actually gorgeous -- which I still surprise myself by saying, since I'm referring to a Pokémon game. There are new levels of character customization, new ways for obtaining and training Pokémon -- everything feels better for a good while in the game. That is, until the villains show up and bring their plot with them.

I hate Team Flare. Team Flare is stupid.

A lot of you are probably nodding your heads right now. Some of you are wondering why I'm even bringing this up. "It's a Pokémon game. They all have to have their useless villain team for you to defeat in order to advance the plot and learn the mechanics." I would mostly agree with that statement. However, Team Flare wins the "Most Useless Villain Team" award too easily. Team Flare nearly pushed me to quit playing Pokémon X.

Let's go back to some fundamentals about game design. Why do games have stories? To introduce the player to the world, add to immersion, guide the player, give context for events, create memories, facilitate emotional responses, and, sometimes, tell us something really excellent or profound -- to name a few reasons. Most of those are pretty basic, some of them are unnecessary, and a few aren't the goal of every game. I don't expect Pac-Man, Super Smash Bros., or Pokémon to try and tell me something emotional and profound. I'll leave that to The Last of Us or Journey. However, some of the points in that list, while not necessary, go incredibly far if delivered well.

Remember when you ran from a helicopter while charging down a wave of enemies on a train navigating the Himalayan mountain range in Uncharted 2? That chapter stands as one of my favorite moments in a video game.

Remember the opening scene in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time? The sky was dark; rain fell all around; a draw bridge lowered slowly. Suddenly, a horse bearing two riders dashed by. The mystery, the drama, the suspense! It was captivating.

Let's try one a little less cinematic: remember the first time you entered King Koopa's castle in Super Mario Bros., jumped over lava, evaded fire balls, and finally cut the bridge out from under the foe? That was thrilling.

One more: remember when Lance showed up while Team Rocket was harassing the Red Gyarados in Pokémon Gold/Silver? He summoned his Dragonite to use Hyper Beam on one of the grunts -- on the trainer, not the Pokémon! Or how about this scene...

I get chills looking at that image. That was 15 years ago. I sort of remember Team Magma from Pokémon Ruby. I think the plot of Diamond/Pearl had something to do with creating a new world. Pokémon Black and White had a guy named N in them. That's all I could tell you.

Then there's Team Flare, and their ingenuous plan to wipe out all of humanity. Why? Because there are too many people in the world and making them all happy is too hard! So we'll just kill 'em. That'll solve it.

Oh, and if you're playing Pokémon X, they decide to do this by revive an eternal life-granting legendary Pokémon. (A legendary Pokémon I caught with one Ultra Ball.)

*deep breath*

Here's my point: if you're going to make me run through plot for hours, give me a reason to care. Sure, it's written for younger kids -- give them a reason to care. Make them feel like heroes. After beating any member of Team Flare, I felt I had only wasted time; after foiling their plans and decimating their leader, I felt like I'd accomplished no worthwhile feat. I got more excitement and emotion out of my first (and eighth) encounter with King Koopa in Super Mario Bros. because I felt like something was on the line -- the battle looked perilous and there was a princess to save.

Team Flare even tried to up the ante by announcing their plot to the entire populace -- and none of them really seemed to care. Where are the gym leaders? Where's the Elite Four? Professor Sycamore takes pride in your accomplishment for "saving us all" but no one really seemed to be worried about it if they just assumed some 14-year old kid would handle it eventually.

Team Rocket was causing a mess and Lance, the Champion of the Indigo League, got involved. Even Stephen showed up from time-to-time to lend a hand and react to the goings-on of Ruby/Sapphire. That made those events feel important; it made me, the player-character, feel important. I was accomplishing something meaningful.

Team Flare bumbled around in dumb outfits with no real cause. If you're going to give plot, make it worthwhile for the audience.

Kyerannosaur Pot Luck: Sonic, Mickey, Nintendo Land, & Scribblenauts

I've bit into a few games recently that had less distinct tastes from others I've found. Not too surprising, really, since not every game is going to get flavor right or even be trying to present a flavor at all. In light of this, I offer up a Pot Luck. Here's a blast of quick impressions from games I've crunched that didn't have enough to really crunch about.

Keep in mind this doesn't mean the games all tasted bad; this doesn't mean the games didn't have a taste -- these games just don't qualify as a full meal (kinda like a composgnathus). On with the multi-crunchinating!

Sonic Generations
Tastes like FANSERVICE!

This game tastes like it falls somewhere between nostalgic fanservice baked up with old (read: not fresh) ingredients. It's full of remixed levels from previous Sonic games, each presented in 2D and 3D varieties for classic Sonic and modern Sonic. The idea is cool and the nostalgia is great -- seeing Chemical Plant Zone remade in 3D is very cool. The remixed tunes are also fantastic! Yet the gameplay and controls didn't hold up for me. Steering modern Sonic along his high-speed routes felt like steering a barge or a Y-Wing, instead of being a nimble, agile, quick bipedal mammal. The requirement to complete challenge modes in levels is also a big momentum killer, which ultimately prevented me from exploring more of the game's content. The first boss felt like an older Sonic boss fight and was decently designed. The game had good level design, hearkening back to the beloved Sonics of yore, but lacked the polish or controls to properly enjoy what was available.

This title was developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega; prior to this post I played for about 2 hours on the PlayStation 3.

Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion
Tastes RAW!

Being drafted from the design ideas and presentation of the classic Castle of Illusion, I was excited for Power of Illusion. Unfortunately, I enjoyed nothing that I bit into. Within my short experience, I encountered a number of design dilemmas that left a bad taste in my mouth:

• Tutorials are presented after the taught action is necessary. The game contains a number of pop-up tutorial panels, seemingly one for each of the game's mechanics. However, these are presented after the actions are necessary. For instance, a pop-up panel explains how to jump on an enemy to defeat it (which, by the way, is not implemented intuitively, as I'll explain) after the first enemy is met and must be jumped over. The same goes for super-bouncing and many other mechanics throughout the first level.
• Why do I need to press 'Jump' twice for a jump attack? Mickey can jump on enemies to defeat them, à la Super Mario Bros. However, the jump action itself is not enough. Instead, players must press the 'Jump' button a second time, while in mid-air, to turn the "jump" into a "pounce" else take damage from the collision. This is unintuitive, an unnecessary obfuscation, and causes many problems with enemy encounters and level design.
• Writing is poor. These are established, recognizable, generally well-known and beloved Disney characters. They each have their own mannerisms and language. This game fails to account for that and the text comes off as overly simplified and poorly explanatory.
• Enemies on every ledge. I played at least two levels in a row which had ever ledge marked with an enemy. Anytime that I needed to jump near the peek of my jump (which requires holding the 'Jump' button) to reach a higher platform, an enemy would be waiting on the platform -- and I could only attack by double-pressing the 'Jump' button (as explained above). This is flat-out annoying.

Beyond these issues, everything played and looked like a rudimentary platformer.

This title was developed by DreamRift and published by Disney Interactive Studios; prior to this post I played for about 2 hours on the Nintendo 3DS.

Nintendo Land

Tastes like NEAPOLITAN!

Nintendo Land is explicitly the "let's try Wii U" game. It's a showcase of the Wii U GamePad's potential; it's also a showcase of how much fun asymmetric gameplay can really be. Here's a quick rundown:

• Luigi's Ghost Mansion: One player snickers to himself while tracking down his friends who are all shouting every time their Wii Remote vibrates.
• Mario Chase: One player runs like a madman while the her friends scream code names to track her down and catch her within the 2-minute time limit.
• Animal Crossing Sweet Day: Players scurry about to scoop up as much candy as possible while their friend mercilessly hunts them down with two watch dogs.
• Team Attractions: Players battle together through a series of challenges in games modeled well after The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and Pikmin.
• Solo Attractions: This is everything else the GamePad can do. Practice now while developers plan on including some form of these mini-games in future releases.

All in all, the variety keeps this surprisingly fun. It's not a full-course meal, but more like a package of ice cream to pull out at the next social gathering.

This title was developed and published by Nintendo; prior to this post I played for about 5 hours on the Wii U.

Scribblenauts Unlimited

Tastes like CREATIVITY!

The Scribblenauts IP is built on creativity and sandbox experiences. The puzzles are there not so much for directing the experience but for encouraging more creative thought. It's very much like a coloring book, in that you take your drawing utensils and create something vibrant, expressive, and fun. These works aren't judged but simply enjoyed. 

This title was developed by 5th Cell and published by WB Games; prior to this post I played for about 1 hour on the Wii U.

Kyerannosaur Crunches Paper Mario: Sticker Star

Tastes like...PAPER!

In a good way! Nintendo is really good about polish, presentation, and character, and the latest Paper Mario installment is no exception. The game is also a strange blending of genres, not quite following any rules, so I'm just going to say it tastes like a well-baked 'sticker adventure.'

Paper Mario: Sticker Star is all about the stickers. I feel like Intelligent Systems has taken the "everything is paper" meme even further this time -- impressively further.

Kyerannosaur Crunches Pokémon White Version 2

Tastes like...POKÉMON!

Okay, so maybe that's a cyclical definition, but really, is there any other way to describe a new Pokémon game? What was the iPhone 4S like? Well, it's like an iPhone 4, but better. I can't think of a better descriptor: Pokémon defined their own flavor in 1996 (1998 here in the US) and they've stuck to it like McDonald's has stuck to their fries.

And since I've been playing Pokémon since I got Blue Version back in the summer of 1999, I can't very well say this qualifies as a "first impression." I can, however, describe my reactions to some of the changed ingredients and say that White Version 2 tastes the best out of the series.

Kyerannosaur Crunches Rhythm Thief & The Emperor's Treasure

Tastes like DISPARITY!

Rhythm Thief & The Emperor's Treasure breaks out of the standard rhythm game mold. It seemingly aims to take the rhythm game fun players are so used to and inject it into the frame of a mystery/adventure game. The idea is sound -- like mixing peanut butter and bananas on a croissant -- but creates too conflicting tastes in my mouth.

Kyerannosaur Roars: Credits in Games

Caution: The following post contains minor spoilers for various games, particularly Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance. Continue at your own discretion.

Beating (or completing) a game is a big deal: viewing the ending cinematic, watching the credits, reflecting on the adventure, basking in challenges overcome, gaining achievements. The credits sequence, in most games, is naturally an end goal of the player. Generally, games will feature clips or content from the game, calling forth fond memories for the hours you have sunk into this title. Since the final boss fight is typically a big push of adrenaline, the ending sequence gives the player a chance to sit back and enjoy. In short, this is the closing ceremony, a celebration of the player's accomplishments.

It seems this notion either isn't shared among all developers, or that some forget it entirely. From most recent experience, I will take Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance as Exhibit A.

Kyerannosaur Crunches Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy

Tastes like FANSERVICE!

I want to get something very important out of the way before I say anything else: fanservice is not a bad thing. It is not a derogatory statement and it does not mean that your production is void of all things that are good and pure and lovely and tasteful. Super Smash Bros. is fanservice. Every new Pokémon release is fanservice. Actually, just about everything that Nintendo, and Square Enix, and Capcom, and Kojima Productions, and almost every other major studio does includes fanservice. We clear? Good. On with the crunchinating.