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Welcome to the second installment of Backlog Summer! Last time, the Dojo staff selected a handful of older titles from their backlogs to play through this summer. How much progress have they made since then, and what are their preliminary thoughts on their chosen games? Read on to find out!
Marc Deschamps
As my summer backlog journey continues, I have fully jumped back into The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD. I’m now back at the Forsaken Fortress, and ready for the second half of the game’s journey to begin.
One of the things I find most amusing about returning to the game is seeing how much I remember and how much I’ve managed to forget in the eleven years since I first played it. There are a lot of parts that I intuitively remember, and others… well, not so much. I was stuck on a puzzle for a solid hour or so the other day, and finally went to bed disappointed in myself. The next day, I came back to it and had it solved within minutes. What I love about Zelda titles is that feeling of satisfaction that overtakes you when you figure something like that out. It really makes all the aggravation seem worth it.
I finally got the Swift Sail in the game. I have to say, acquiring it was a bit of a pain, but it was definitely worth the hassle. The developers really make you earn it, but I’m so happy I have it now. It just speeds up things up so much. Last week, I mentioned how the sailing was one of my least favorite parts of the game when I first played it. Seeing how it’s been improved, it certainly makes me feel less anxious about the upcoming Triforce fetch quest I’ll have to endure!
Anthony Vigna
One week later, and Star Fox Adventures is still a good game! Well, for the most part.
My biggest issue with the game is that Fox feels very detached from the world of Dinosaur Planet. We all know that Star Fox Adventures was going to be a completely different game before Nintendo decided to include Fox in, but it becomes painfully apparent that he doesn’t belong through a lot of the game’s dialogue. For instance, upon entering Cape Claw for the first time, I ran into a dinosaur that randomly wanted me to bring him some gold that he lost. Why do I have to do such an annoying fetch quest? Not only that, but why is Fox not speaking back to the dinosaur that he’s doing such a big favor for? Instances like this make me think that bigger plans were in place for exploring the world of Dinosaur Planet.
Other than that, I love the game! The combat is simple but fun, Tricky is pretty useful as a partner, navigating inventory is seamless due to the fact that you never have to pause, and the puzzles are really clever. I’m shocked by how much I’m liking this game and I’m curious to see if it will last!
Robert Marrujo
Chibi-Robo sure is weird. Along with his robotic pal Telly Vision, Chibi has taken up residence in the Sanderson household, where gameplay revolves entirely around cleaning up after the family and finding objects to give them. The Sandersons are an interesting bunch. The daughter is obsessed with frogs and is constantly wearing a frog suit, while the mother looks on disapprovingly and the father struggles with immaturity. There’s a lot of personality on display, but it also feels a little foreign for a Nintendo game (especially with the presence of a dad!). At this point in the game, there seems to be something a little off with all of them, and it has me curious to find out what that might be as I continue to play.
The nature of Chibi’s activities (cleaning, scrubbing, gathering) was a turn-off for some people who originally played the game, but I find it exceptionally fun. The Sanderson household is packed with places to go, and the sense of scale is very impressive. Like Pikmin, Chibi is a tiny guy, so the house feels massive in comparison. Though it feels a bit like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, this is still a platformer at heart, and I’ve been having a blast working out some of the simple puzzles to get around the environment. Telly can be obnoxious at times, mainly because I feel like he can ramble a bit more than I prefer, but I still enjoy the interplay between him and Chibi. I’m so mad I missed this game the first time around, but in the time I’ve spent with Chibi lately, I’m making up for it in a big way!
Nicolas Vestre
After owning the game for years, I’ve finally completed Professor Layton and the Curious Village! Solving every puzzle and uncovering the secrets that St. Mystere hides has been mesmerizing. I have to admit, some of the puzzles were quite challenging for me, especially if there’s one little piece of the big picture that I’m missing. Only one puzzle made me resort to the Internet, but that’s more of a personal thing than the puzzle being a really difficult one. In the end, I had around sixty hint coins, which is evidence more that the game gives you a lot of coins than my being adept at not using them.
Part of me feels like I could tackle the sequel right now (I own all the DS iterations of the series), but my sister is playing Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, and she’s not always the fastest at completing games. It looks like my time with Layton and Luke has come to an end for the time being. I will be back, though, and I will devour the sequel.
It looks like I’ll be taking my Game Boy Advance SP with me in my travels, which means I’m going to play Mario Tennis: Power Tour. Sure, the game just released on Wii U Virtual Console, but I’m going to play the game in cartridge form. Actually, I’ve owned this game since about 2007, and it sat in shrink wrap for several years. I don’t think I’ve even started the game up once! This title is definitely in need of a little summer gameplay. Wario Land 4 might have to wait.
Anthony Pershkin
I made it to the Minish Village in The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. As you can probably tell, I’m only just starting my adventure, but I’m already in love with the game. I absolutely adore the art style and how it adapted Wind Waker’s lively animations to 2D graphics. Ezlo also seems like a really interesting companion.
I’ve heard Minish Cap is probably one of the shortest and easiest games in the entire series, so I think I will be able to handle it in a month. No worries, you guys.
Another game from my backlog is currently eating a lot of my time: Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. I always enjoyed the classic Castlevanias more, so my stupid butt ignored the majority of the GBA and DS installments (which is borderline idiotic, considered how great all of those games are).
I don’t know how far I’m currently into Portrait of Ruin, but I just fought The Legion, which happens to be one of the series’ most memorable boss encounters. For those unaware, it’s a giant ball of tentacles and corpses. Pretty metal, if you ask me. I think the weirdest thing about Portrait of Ruin so far is that it is supposed to be a sequel to Sega Genesis’ Castlevania: Bloodlines. Of course, it barely feels like a continuation of Bloodlines. Konami did something similar when it released Hard Corps: Uprising, a prequel to Contra: Hard Corps. It was a fantastic action title on its own, but once again a very weak continuation of the previous game.
Are you also playing through any older games this summer? Let us know in the comments!
