Paper Mario: Color Splash [Review]

This product was provided to me by Nintendo. Opinions are my own.

It's the game hated by the masses as early as its first reveal trailer, and now it's here to make those conclusion jumpers eat their words. Well, partially at least.

Color Splash is indeed reminiscent of Sticker Star in many ways, but it improves on the Sticker Star formula almost everywhere. It ought to go without saying (but clearly it doesn't) that one's enjoyment of Paper Mario: Color Splash is likely to come down to personal taste. Therefore, as you should with every game review, you should be reading this review to understand what the game is like in order to make your own prediction about whether you'll like it based on your tastes in games.

The Story
Our story begins with Mario and Princess Peach receiving a letter which actually turns out to be a paper Toad, cruelly folded up into an envelope and drained of its color. With their detective-like deduction skills (of checking the postmark), Mario and Peach head off to Port Prisma to investigate, only to find the town vacant and filled with spots drained of color. To make a short story shorter, Mario gets a floating paint bucket companion who imbues his hammer with the ability to splash paint and restore color to the world, and the two of them go on a quest to retrieve the Big (and mini) Paint Stars and stop whoever is behind the army of color-slurping Shy Guys (gee, I wonder who it could be). That's the plot, and although the game takes a good 25 hours or more to finish, the story only slightly develops beyond that point for the entire game. Even though Peach periodically sends letters and the Big Paint Stars show you their memories after you save them, these all end up being just a tease at a plot that could have been, and rarely actually provide any new information.

This is where I'd put my plot... IF I HAD ONE!

However, while the main story is rather thin, the game's structure of being divided up into many levels on a map screen results in many shorter stories that span one to four areas a piece. They're all just arbitrary objectives that happen to get you to the next Paint Star for one reason or another, but they're also all quite charming and filled with unique characters (well, pretty much they're all Toads, but these Toads have more personality than ever). It also can't be overstated how well done the game's writing is. The English translators did a fantastic job of giving everyone memorable personalities and filling the dialogue to the brim with humor that'll appeal to a variety of players. Not only is the writing laugh-out-loud funny, but there are many situations, puzzles, and animations that serve no other purpose than to add humor to the game. It's the sort of thing that you wouldn't expect the designers to put the time and effort into, but the fact that the setups for humor are more elaborate than usual from a game design standpoint makes them all the more unexpected and amusing.

The Overworld & Gameplay
Compared to the first two Paper Mario games, Color Splash's focus lies more in overworld exploration and puzzle solving, than in strategic RPG-style battling (more on battles later). Each of the game's many areas is accessed via an expansive map screen, and new areas are revealed and linked together on the map whenever you acquire a mini Paint Star. Sometimes getting these Paint Stars is as easy as getting to the end of the level as you would in a typical 2D Mario game, but usually you'll need to solve puzzles, talk to NPCs, and battle enemies along the way. You'll have to use all of the moves at your disposal to progress... but unfortunately, there aren't actually that many moves at your disposal.

Click to enlarge

Mario can jump, hammer, paint with his hammer, and cut out chunks of the background on the GamePad in specific locations. Jumping and hammering are exactly what you'd expect, though there is one variation thanks to "Unfurl Blocks" which, when hammered, start a countdown during which you have to find and hit a marked object to make it unfold into some useful structure. Painting with the hammer can be used to fill in the many colorless spots to reveal coins and extra cards (for battling and/or collecting), and to restore the function of an object (for example, coloring a pipe to make it work or a box to make it destructible - these are usually the only objects you're actually required to paint). For completionists, each level tracks the percentage of colorless spots you've filled in; get 100% on a level, and you'll be rewarded with some music in the museum back in Port Prisma. Mario's final ability is cutting stuff out. At certain points, the edges of objects and terrain will shift in perspective to make perfect lines, or there may be card-shaped boxes in the background. In these cases, pressing the Y button will reveal a dotted line which matches up with the suspicious spots and transfers the view to the GamePad where you can trace along the line to temporarily cut out that chunk of the scene. Doing so can allow you to place "Thing" cards to solve puzzles or to walk on top of the background to traverse otherwise impossible gaps or climb to unreachable heights.

Cut out a chunk of the screen, make stairs.

Unfortunately though, these are all of Mario's abilities for the entire game (though there are a couple level specific gameplay variations, such as riding a dragon or pirate ship). The overworld gameplay is solid and entertaining, but unlike previous games in the series which rewarded Mario with at least one new ability per chapter in the form of a partner or new equipment, in Color Splash, you'll pretty much see all of the gameplay the game has to offer in the first couple hours. The rest of the game, while well designed, merely uses the same simple abilities in different variations. Arguably, this is the game's greatest flaw; you'll master Mario's handful of skills almost immediately and for the rest of the game, nothing new is added to keep the gameplay fresh. Everything is still beautifully colored, filled with fantastic music, artistically built with the paper aesthetic, and designed with some decent puzzles and level design, but by the end of the game it all starts to feel a bit stale, like the same old things over and over, just with a new coat of... uh... paint.

Well, it's later in the game now and we're still painting pipes to activate them.

Before moving on to explaining how the battle system works, there are a couple other things worth mentioning about the overworld puzzles in Color Splash. The first of which is "Things". These are rarer, three-dimensional objects which you can squeeze the color from and turn into cards for later use. They'll act as cinematic special attacks in battle (and major bosses typically require a specific Thing card to beat) and they can be placed in certain places outside of battle to solve puzzles (using a fan to blow a ship's sails, for example). Unfortunately, placing a Thing card uses it up, so if you make a mistake, you'll have to backtrack to find another. Fortunately, the puzzles which use Things are far more obvious than they were in Sticker Star, Things you've found in the past can be easily bought in Port Prisma, and better yet, there's a Toad nearby the Thing shop who will give very clear hints as to which Things you'll be needing next and which level you can find them in if you missed them somehow.

Click to find hot grills in your area!

The other thing to mention is that progressing the story in one area sometimes has an effect in another area (for example, a train moving from one level to the next). The most notable recurring form of this is the Toad Rescue Squads, each of which are made up of varying numbers of colored Toads who are scattered across each area and who must be found and told to return to their leader in order to make more progress in their leader's area. Finding them all feels like the sort of thing that might be a side quest, but it turns out that it's required in every case. This could have turned into a nightmare of replaying every area over and over to try to find the Toad you missed, but once again there's a helpful Toad in Port Prisma who will tell you how many lost Toads are in which areas, just in case you miss them on your first time through. The main map also has helpful icons to mark unfinished business in each area, including Toad Squad leaders who are waiting for their team. Overall, what could have turned into a backtracking nightmare is generally not a problem thanks to very clear hints and hard to miss essential Things and Toads..

Battles

Click to enlarge (hah, that pun was accidental!)

The combat in Color Splash is fairly unique and different from most RPGs, though very similar to that in Sticker Star. Essentially, every action that Mario can perform in battle is represented as a single use card, and these cards are scattered around everywhere in the world, or can be bought at the shop in Port Prisma. As was the case in every other Mario RPG, each attack has a certain timing-based press of the A button which determines the damage output. Damage output is also determined by the card itself (a large hammer vs. a broken hammer) and by how much paint is applied to the card. You can tell how much damage you've dealt, not by numbered hit points, but by seeing how much paint you've drained from the enemy's body. Many cards come fully colored, but others are blank and are far more effective when colored in with Mario's paint supply. Paint is limited, but defeated enemies drop more, as does hitting environmental objects with your hammer, so running out of paint is rarely an issue. Running out of cards, however, can be an issue if you decide to fight every enemy in your path. But Color Splash is not a game that encourages level grinding; the only useful things that defeated enemies drop are hammer tokens which gradually level up your max paint. Since there's little reward for fighting unnecessary enemies, it's more accurate to look at them as environmental hazards which are there to be dodged in order to not waste resources which would be better spent on mandatory battles. You may be tempted to run from unnecessary battles to save cards, but this is a gamble between wasting health and wasting cards, since the success rate for escape is random. It's better to avoid optional fights in the first place - or, later, to hit weaker enemies with a preemptive strike to defeat them in one hit and skip the fight entirely. Though if you do run out of cards, you can either try to escape or pay ten or more coins to get a single extra card per turn.

There are several categories of cards which each have many variations and stronger versions that can be found more commonly as the game progresses. The card categories basically come down to: hammers, jumps, fire/ice flowers, restoration items, enemy cards, Thing cards, and a few miscellaneous cards like POW blocks and defensive abilities. Regardless of the specific variation of card in each of these categories, the timing is basically the same. For example, one jump might hit three times, another might hit more, and another may hit all enemies in a line, but the timing for each is the same. You'll find something from each card category pretty early on, so once again, even though its appearance may vary, the battle gameplay remains largely unchanged throughout the game, once again causing it to grow stale by the end. Compare this to other games in the series which kept battles fresh by adding special moves after each chapter and new partner characters who each had different kinds of attacks, and you can see how important adding new fresh variations on gameplay throughout the game can be. (I should note, however, that enemy cards are pretty unique, and can summon an enemy to your aid which stays with you until it falls in battle, somewhat reminiscent of the partners in earlier games.)

While Mario's battle actions don't vary much over the course of the game, the enemies you'll encounter do vary a fair bit, and are pretty much the only things that keep the battles from becoming a mindless grind. Some enemies come in stacks and are better dealt with by using many weak hits, other enemies have spikes, making jumps ineffective, still others can be flipped over, or have other weaknesses. Since Mario always attacks each enemy in the order that they're lined up, there's a bit of strategy involved in choosing the order of your action cards according to enemy weaknesses and your own ability so that the appropriate card is used on the appropriate enemy. Another thing that keeps the battles at least somewhat fresh, is the seemingly random appearance of Kamek, who will block you from running from the battle and curse you with some kind of gimmick like limiting your cards or flipping them all over.

Things come with their own humorous animations when used in battle too.

Boss battles were a bit odd in Sticker Star because they were essentially impossible without using the correct Thing. Well, that's back, but only for a handful of battles, and, once again, the Toad in Port Prisma will tell you which Thing you'll be needing ahead of time. The issue then comes with knowing when in the battle to use that Thing card. It's usually obvious and follows the same format in each boss, with a normal battle segment followed by a Thing segment, but if you do use your Thing at the wrong time, it'll be wasted and you'll have no choice but to run from the battle to get another one or reset the game. Furthermore, there are "Replica" Thing cards which can only be used in battles and not for solving puzzles, but for some reason have no effect on bosses even if they're the correct Thing. So that's not very intuitive.

Click to enlarge
The enemy variety helps to keep the battles at least somewhat fresh.

Also, just a couple minor, miscellaneous things to mention:
There are a few control options to enable buttons to be usable in battle rather than touch controls, though I'm not sure why they aren't just both enabled by default.
Secondly, cards are kept in one long line, simulating how Mario holds them like playing cards while deciding his next move. Cards can be manually re-ordered, or instantly sorted by type with the press of a button. It's a minor complaint, but card organization could have been better with the addition of different sorting options and if cards were displayed in multiple rows so that you didn't have to scroll through as many as 99 cards to get to the Thing object you want at the bottom of the stack.

Miscellaneous Other Stuff
The world of Paper Mario: Color Splash is surprisingly big, and there's a lot to find and do, but almost everything there is to find and do ends up being a required part of the main story at some point. However, there are a few optional goals for the player to pursue.

Click to enlarge

Firstly, there's a museum in Port Prisma that you can donate cards to in order to unlock some pretty spiffy concept art. The museum also contains a sound test room where you can listen to music from each area, which is unlocked for filling in 100% of that area's colorless spots.

Secondly, there are Roshambo Temples, where you compete in a series of three Rock-Paper-Scissors battles, using clues and a bit of luck to win tons of easy coins and exclusive cards.

Third, there are some hidden cut-out spots with secrets in them which award coins, though finding each of them is tracked.

And finally, the main plaza of Port Prisma has some flags with achievement goals written on them. Fulfilling these requirements will unfurl the banners and... seemingly have no effect beyond that (but I haven't gotten them all, so I can't say for sure).

...And that's pretty much every optional side quest in the game. It's not much, but it does mean that the main quest feels extra long thanks to everything else being required.

By the way, for those who want to play on the Gamepad only, yes, you can do that and it works just fine.

The Final Word
Paper Mario: Color Splash is arguably the most visually and musically beautiful game in the series so far. Its main plot may be thinner than usual, but the characters and their smaller, individual stories are put together with hilarious, top notch writing and animation that goes above and beyond the call of duty, giving Toads more personality than ever. I found both overworld and in-battle gameplay to be enjoyable as well, albeit a bit simplistic. However, although everything is great from the start, both the plot and gameplay introduce almost no new innovations for the entire rest of the game, causing it to get a bit stale by the end of the 25 hour adventure. You could say that Color Splash shows its entire hand to the player too early, and that the game's hand consists of only a few very colorful cards. But, complaints aside, Paper Mario: Color Splash is still a rather good game overall, is worth playing, and is something that I think fans of the series and new players alike will enjoy.

E3 2016 - What They Call Games' Top Pick

Disclaimer: I received a free 3-day pass to E3 from Nintendo, but my opinions written here are still my own.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wii U, NX)

There's no reason to beat around the bush (they don't drop rupees or hearts any more anyway) - Zelda: Breath of the Wild was easily my favorite game that I played at E3 this year. It's a bit hard to write about it because so much more was already shown off during the Nintendo Treehouse stream. Even with the generous 25 minutes of gameplay split between two demos that I got to play, there was so much that I didn't see and which already has been revealed to the internet by Nintendo and others who have played the demos. But, nonetheless, here are my impressions and perhaps there will be something new for you.

My E3 Zelda experience backstory:
So, for a bit of context, while waiting for the doors to open to the E3 show floor, I was able to catch the new trailer for Zelda as it was streamed, and just a bit of additional gameplay from between the obscuring heads of the crowd. I've actually avoided watching further gameplay and coverage to keep spoilers for myself to a minimum - probably not the best move for a blogger, but I'm sure some readers would also prefer to be mostly unspoiled as well.

After a long, but worthwhile wait, full of things you couldn't possibly want to hear about (meeting Charles Martinet, interviewing the translator of Zero Time Dilemma, etc.), I entered Nintendo's E3 area, checked out the upcoming amiibo, and was seated in a small room that was decked out to look like a dungeon from Breath of the Wild (shown above). There, we were introduced to the game with a brief gameplay trailer which showed many of the things that could be done in the game. We may have just been giddy about finally getting to play, but the trailer elicited a laugh from the audience on more than one occasion when Link did silly things; most memorably his soup gobbling and under-equipped shivering animations which I can only describe as adorable. The gameplay trailer ended with an animation of the wall rising up like an ancient, magical, dungeon doorway to reveal that the wall it was projected on had actually risen in real life as well, allowing us a path into the large and impressively decorated demo area.

(Additional demo area photos on the What They Call Games Facebook page)

Demo Impressions (10 Minute Exploration Demo + 15 Minute Story Demo):
Clearly, since this was my top pick, I thought it was extremely fun to say the least. The biggest reason for that was the huge variety of different gameplay mechanics and options available in combat and exploration. You've more than likely already seen what I saw in the trailer and streamed gameplay, but I had a blast with simply defeating enemies with each new kind of weapon I discovered: a sword, a stick, a spear, an axe, bombs of multiple kinds, the bow, and my proudest discovery, a fire rod. The fighting controls were gloriously responsive and smooth (the speed at which you can swap equipment also comes to mind as a highlight), and I quickly felt right at home with the combination of gameplay from classic 3D Zelda games (side hops, targeting, backflips, etc.) and the new additions in Breath of the Wild. I particularly enjoyed setting fires and watching it spread with the wind, as well as making apparently difficult head shots with the bow with relative ease thanks to the GamePad's motion controls. And then there are the environmental kills from pushing boulders or cutting down trees. For exploration you have gliding, using trees to make bridges, swimming, tons of different items to collect (though I wonder if some might be the sort of thing you come to ignore quickly), equipment that helps with particular environments, lots of cooking recipes, and, of course, climbing on everything. (I didn't actually try all of those things during my demo, by the way.) I can't wait to see all the new options even beyond those that will become available with the new items that are surely hidden later in the game.

Although the weapons degrade and eventually break, their variety in stats and type gave me the idea that challenge runs would be fun in this game (i.e. beat the game only with sticks, spears, etc.). I also found that sitting at a campfire could be used to change the time of day in-game, so I wouldn't be surprised if different things became available at different times.

I found a fire rod!

One of my biggest fears for the game when hearing rumors of it being more open world was that it would be an empty world with little to do, but my concerns were quickly alleviated. There are plenty of items to find, things to fight, and places to discover that are worth the journey just for the view alone (although they do tend to hide treasures as well).

The area available in the demo is only a small part of the game's world.
(Click to enlarge)

And, ah, what views there are. I've enjoyed games primarily for their artistic, eye-pleasing scenery on many occasions (for example, in Journey, Xenoblade Chronicles, Abzu, and Shadow of the Colossus) and been equally bored by worlds of muddy-colored, "normal" designs. Certainly, one's enjoyment of art will largely come down to personal taste, but I could tell that, personally, Breath of the Wild's art direction would be right up my alley. It's bright and colorful, enormous in scale, lonely (but peaceful) in mood, and filled with fantastic terrain and structures. There are story-related goals in the game, as I was shown in my second demo, but even if there were no goals at all, I would be fully entertained in simply exploring and taking screenshots of the beautiful world, as if inside an interactive painting. And, as I said before, the animations are equally stylish and often add bits of humor to the adventure. The visual art can't be talked about without also mentioning the audio... except, I honestly didn't notice the audio enough to say much about it. From what I recall, mellow mood-setting music faded in and out while exploring, which is certainly a change from the Zelda series' usual melodic earworms, but it did succeed in setting the mood and not being annoying with repetitiveness.

I discovered a familiar statue from Skyward Sword.
Also in this area, I found a bow with no arrows, while the person next to me found arrows with no bow somewhere else.

As for the story, I can't claim to know a whole lot. Link wakes up in the mysterious Shrine of Resurrection, which seems to have magical technology that's more futuristic (or ancient) than usual. As Link, the player quickly makes their way out with the occasional guidance from a GamePad-like item, the Sheikah Slate. If the final game is like the demo, this opening tutorial is quite short and upon exiting the shrine, you'll have immediate freedom to explore or pursue the next plot points by talking to a nearby old man and traveling to a distant location marked on the map. For the extra impatient, the cutscenes were even skippable. Since I figured everyone would be following the story on the "story demo", I just continued playing around and going in other directions for the entire time I played. It's great to feel in control of your own gameplay choices for once, rather than being pushed through a series of story hoops before finally being allowed to explore.

Finally, since I am a critic, I have to criticize just a little bit. Actually, since the game isn't out yet, this is the best time to make suggestions, when there's still time for things to change. (Being able to make suggestions to developers and demo attendants who seemed to actually care and take note, was one of the coolest things about playing games at E3, though I rarely had any complaints to make - usually just questions.) With Zelda, there were really only two small issues that I noticed: the frame rate and the movement controls in certain situations. Frame rate complaints are pretty self-explanatory; Breath of the Wild did not run at a steady frame rate, which did unfortunately detract from its visual appeal a bit. Considering how long it's been in development, I doubt this is something that can or will be fixed before launch, but I wouldn't doubt that a steadier frame rate will be one benefit of the NX version over the Wii U version. Most casual players don't even seem to notice frame rates though, so I suppose this isn't a huge deal for most.

The default (only?) controls in Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The somewhat bigger deal is that the demo did not have re-mappable controls, something which should be standard in every game. I said earlier that the controls for combat and equipment switching were fluid and fantastic, and this is true, however general movement controls leave something to be desired as a side effect of having so many actions mapped to so many buttons. Here's the problem: you can't run and jump (and move the camera) simultaneously without awkwardly putting a second finger up on the face buttons to press two at once. In most cases, you won't need to do this, but there will be times that you will, and it would be incredibly helpful for there to be an option to remap buttons to one's personal preference. This was just a demo though, so it's entirely possible that these kind of control options are already in the full game (the attendant I asked didn't know, but said that I wasn't the first to ask).

Screenshot via Nintendo.com

The Final Word:
All things considered, my gripes about the frame rate and control options are minor compared to how fun and beautiful this new Zelda seems overall. Whether or not you will enjoy this return to the series' open world roots will be up to personal taste, but it certainly has me excited. I rarely get hyped over new games these days when I already have so many great old games to play, but Breath of the Wild is a rare exception that has me genuinely excited to try more as soon as I can. There's so much to explore and so much to do while exploring and I can't wait to do it all.


Additional E3 2016 Coverage

• Virtual Reality
• Indie Games
• Toys to Life
• Additional Game Coverage

Epic Dumpster Bear (Wii U) - Looks Terrible, Plays Bearable

(Actually, it's a bit better than "bearable". I just had to have a pun in the title.)

Genre: 2D Platformer - Platform: Wii U - Release: April 7, 2016
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this game to review from the developer, opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Updated 4/2/2018: Epic Dumpster Bear: Dumpster Fire Redux is now available on Steam and PS4. This version of the game is mostly the same, but has some level design tweaks, adds some powerups to levels that didn't have them, removes the Wii U Gamepad gimmick levels, and adds some new levels and cutscenes. It also adds speedrun medals for each level. The Miiverse stamps are still in the game, but only act as an in-game gallery with no real function.

You may have dismissed Epic Dumpster Bear as another low-quality, cash-grabby, Meme Run-esque game after seeing its ridiculous trailer and generic graphics bought from the Unity Asset Store, but, against all odds and expectations, this game is actually a decent platforming experience.

Does Meme Run have attack helicopters that drop cows? I think not!

Once again, this is not Meme Run. It's not a randomly generated run-til-you-die game; it's a platformer with actual thoughtfully designed levels. In fact, there are six worlds (with a bonus seventh world of unlockable levels) and each world has about twelve levels each, some of which are hidden behind secret exits or unlocked with in-game coins. Each level also has three hidden red coins which give a bonus salmon (needed for unlocking the World 7 levels) and ends with a belly flop onto a target (high scores here unlock Miiverse stamps). Suffice to say, there's a surprising amount of content here, especially if you're going for 100% completion. I went for 100% (and didn't quite get it) and it took me over five hours just to finish World 6.

See also: 4 1/2 hours of gameplay and occasional input from the developer on my Twitch channel.

[Note: The black border on this video was my own fault, not the game's.]

To sum up the gameplay, you run, jump, and wall-jump. It's often very fast paced and laid out in a way that allows you to run quickly through the level without stopping much, if you're good enough. And you aren't good enough. After the first world or two, Epic Dumpster Bear ramps up the difficulty to a level that's just right for experienced players, especially for those who go after the red coins. But fear not - your wee ones can use the collectible normal coins to buy an extra hit point if they find it too hard. Also, it's not all straight running and jumping; a handful of levels are designed around certain power-ups, like a satisfying and over-powered bomb throwing one, a fart-based double jump, and freakin' wings! Beyond that, each of the levels that is unlocked with coins is a puzzle stage which uses the GamePad to influence the level in different ways, but always by strategically pressing four color-coded buttons on the touch screen. Each world's puzzle levels are slightly different, so the ways that the corresponding colored platforms behave in reaction to their button brings new twists to the puzzles. Don't worry though, all of the puzzle levels are optional and you can play every other level using the Wii U Pro controller if you want, so there's nothing stopping you from playing through all of the main game without picking up the GamePad once. This does allow for a neat option with the puzzle levels though: co-op play with one player on the GamePad and one on a Pro controller. It's nice to see a game make use of the GamePad for once, even though these puzzles could've just as easily been done with the mostly unused shoulder buttons. By the way, for the rest of the game, the GamePad just mirrors the TV.

In this puzzle level, activated platforms move in a set direction before disappearing and returning to their starting positions.

And finally, there are also boss levels at the end of each world. They're pretty underwhelming and uninteresting though. Either you'll kill them in ten seconds, or you'll be delayed by figuring out their hitboxes and then kill them in thirty seconds.

Bear vs. Sand Worm!
ROUND ONE - FIGHT!

While I'm complaining, it seemed to me that there was something slightly off, or at least un-intuitive, about how running and jumping works. It's rarely an issue, and perhaps it's just because I've played a lot of Mario Maker lately, but there were occasions when my jump would go hardly anywhere, even though I expected to have a bit more momentum. It seemed as though there was a small start up between standing jumps and running jumps, and it might have benefited from some sort of middle jump, but it's hard to say just what caused this confusion on my part without experimenting with the programming.

But let's get back to the positives. Even though the visuals are laughably cheap, Epic Dumpster Bear surprisingly has an original soundtrack that's actually pretty good! Also, it doesn't take itself seriously (obviously) and has some humor in the form of overly dramatic cutscenes, silly sound effects, and a few other things I won't spoil. Yet it's not a constant barrage of memes and bear puns like you might expect; just an occasional extra silliness so that you'll still be surprised by it when it happens.

The Final Word:
Epic Dumpster Bear is a bit rough around the edges, mostly visually, but it's a surprisingly enjoyable platformer with a good amount of content and difficulty. It doesn't bring a whole lot that's new to the table, so I fear that it'll get lost in the flood of other indie platformers, but at least I can say that it's more than just a rip-off joke game. It's not fantastic by any means, but it's far better than you'd expect.


Want more games that are overlooked because of their graphics? Check out Voidspire Tactics!

FAST Racing Neo - A Near Worthy Substitute for F-Zero

Genre: Racing - Platform: Wii U - Release: December 10, 2015
Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of this game from Nintendo.
Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Nintendo may have ignored your cries for a new F-Zero game, but you can still count on indie developer Shin'en to deliver a polished futuristic racing game to scratch that itch for you. Available from the Nintendo eShop on Wii U, FAST Racing Neo offers a high speed racing challenge that finds a happy middle between F-Zero and WipEout.
Note that the videos in this review are in 30fps while the game runs at 60fps. It'll look even better on your TV.
The gameplay is fairly simple: get energy spheres to fill your boost meter (usable at any time), and switch between blue and orange phases in order to pass over boost strips and jumps of the corresponding colors (getting it wrong will slow you down). Of course, skillfully taking turns, flying off jumps, and avoiding or boosting into other racers are all as important as ever. Don't let the apparent simplicity fool you though - at high speeds, managing the turns and phase shifts is no easy task, and with three speeds and a "Hero Mode", the game offers enough challenge for even experienced gamers. Thankfully, the controls are perfectly responsive and intuitive, so all of the challenge comes from good design and not from wrestling with controls. There's also an option for motion controls if that's your thing, and the game supports basically every controller you can connect to a Wii U (except GameCube controllers and the Wii Fit Balance Board).

There are sixteen tracks which are all beautiful, unique from each other, and well-designed. They're divided into four cups which you'll be playing through on each of the three speeds / difficulties. Clearing a cup will unlock the next one, and often a new vehicle as well (of which there are ten in all). Each vehicle handles a bit differently according to its weight, but mainly they differ in their top speed and acceleration stats. Beyond grand prix, you can also shoot for a fast time on each course (on each speed, no less) in Time Trials, and every course on every difficulty has a developer time for you to try to beat. Unfortunately though, you can't save ghosts or replays in Time Trials, so that's kind of a bummer. On the other hand, there is an online ranking system, even for your grand prix times, so you can see the world record time and your own ranking. (Update: It seems that there is only online ranking for Grand Prix times and not for Time Trials. Weird.) There's also "Hero Mode", which is unlocked for tracks you've cleared on the highest speed. In this mode, you must get first place to win, crashing will put you out of the race (normally you'd respawn, which is punishing but still recoverable), courses are mirrored, and you have a health meter / boost meter combo as in F-Zero. Unfortunately, from what I can tell, there isn't any incentive to beat the developer times in Time Trials or clear each track in Hero Mode beyond increasing your completion percentage. It would've been nice if there were unlockable skins or online badges or something.
The F-Zero-esque "Hero Mode".
As for multiplayer options, you can play offline in splitscreen with up to four players, or online in groups of eight (but with only one local player). Performance-wise, everything works very smoothly in multiplayer and I didn't have any issues with lag (although I was rarely close enough to other players to see if they were lagging). When playing online, courses are chosen from a random selection of three (like in Mario Kart), but the three that each player has to choose from may be different, so it's usually a surprise as to which course gets picked. There's also a scoring system through which you earn points according to how well you place in each race. Unlike in Mario Kart, it seems that you can't lose points, so it's more of a record of how long you've played rather than how well, since even an unskilled player can rack up a lot of points if they play enough. Oh, and yes, you can play with friends online, but only in a single lobby that any of your friends can join.
Now for the bad news... There are no options for online play. Even with friends, only a single speed is available and you can only choose from the random selection of three tracks each time. At this point, you can't play Hero Mode online either (and honestly, I couldn't even find a way to play it in offline multiplayer).

But back to the positive side, the graphics are very pretty and the game runs at a steady 60 frames per second. The soundtrack is good and sets the mood for fast-pace racing, though admittedly it's not very memorable either. Oh, and the GamePad mirrors the TV at all times, so playing without a TV is possible.

The Final Word:
FAST Racing Neo's core gameplay is fast, responsive, and delightfully skill-based, the courses are all well-designed, and the graphics and frame rate are fantastic. But the fact that it's so polished and so darn fun overall just makes its faults all the more regrettable: no options online, no incentive to do most of the modes, and no ability to save time trial ghosts. In spite of that, for the price, I can confidently recommend FAST Racing Neo to fans of the genre. It might not quite be enough to replace F-Zero, but it's surprisingly close.

Comparison to F-Zero and WipEout:
For readers who are familiar with F-Zero and WipEout games, here are some comparisons. Vehicles are few (10 racing at once) and large, making FAST Racing Neo more similar to WipEout in that regard. On the other hand, the sense of speed, track design, and item-less gameplay made it feel somewhat more similar to an F-Zero game, in my opinion. But the vehicle handling also isn't as sensitive as in F-Zero in that you won't be making any sharp U-Turns (the courses are designed with this in mind though). Like I said at the start of the review, I feel that FAST Racing Neo is a nice middle ground between WipEout and F-Zero, so fans of both series ought to enjoy it.

You might also be interested in this article I wrote a few years ago about my ideas for building the next F-Zero game.

Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival - Fun for kids of some ages!

Genre: Minigame collection / Board game - Platform: Wii U - Release: November 13, 2015

Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of this game from Nintendo.
Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

As a critic, I have to tell you that Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival is lacking in depth and probably does not offer enough mental stimulation for older gamers. But there's a reason why I don't give review scores and that's because while a game may be below average from a critic's perspective, there still may be an audience who will enjoy the game. In this case, that audience is parents and their kids. Personally, I found the main board game mode and most of the minigames to be pretty dull and not worth playing when there are other, more complex games out there like Mario Party and especially Fortune Street. But Fortune Street is a bit too complex for younger kids and so there is indeed a place for amiibo Festival. I can even confirm that while streaming it, I had at least one viewer who already owned the game and absolutely loved it, so maybe you'll be like that.

There's another important clarification that I'd like to make and that's that Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival is not as much of a cash grab as it appears to be with its amiibo gimmick. Yes, Animal Crossing series amiibo and/or Animal Crossing amiibo cards are required to play, but as of now, the game comes with two amiibo figures and three amiibo cards which is enough to play all of the game except for two minigames which each require an additional three cards. Although, I'll admit that having additional figures and cards does open up some variation in a few of the minigames which I feel really should have been available without an additional purchase. I'll go into that more when I explain each of the nine minigames.

One last thing before I explain each game though - yes, this is kind of a minigame collection, but two of the games are less "mini" than the rest. In general, playing and winning the games doesn't really unlock anything apart from tickets, which are more of a participation bonus than anything, and these tickets can be used to unlock the rest of the minigames as well as new features for the board game. Since there aren't really any unlockables besides that, there isn't a whole lot of reason to replay most of the games, except, you know, if you enjoy them of course. The board game does offer a bit more reason to play it though, since any player who uses an Animal Crossing amiibo as their character can save their points to their amiibo and level it up to unlock emotions (cute animations you can do at the beginning of your turn) and clothing. So that's the game. Let's finally get into the games within the game.

Board Game  (Requires one Animal Crossing amiibo figure (up to four). Players without an amiibo play as a villager.)
This is the main game of amiibo Festival. The basic goal is to have the most happy points at the end of the month (each turn is a day). You get happy points by landing on certain spaces and triggering short little cutscenes showing your character doing something happy. Another way of getting happy points is to focus on collecting the stamps at the four corners of the board, each of which gives a happy bonus. Apart from happy points, you can also collect bells (that's the Animal Crossing currency) by landing on money-giving spaces. At the end of the game, you'll get one happy point per 1,000 bells, so you'll be wanting to go for any good space you can get. The best way of making it big though, is to buy turnips on the Sunday of each week and then hope you can land on a space with a higher turnip price during the week so that you can sell them for profit. It's a sort of "stalk" market. Any turnips not sold by the end of the week go bad though, so you're forced to sell on Saturday if you have any left. It's a bit of a gamble, but betting on the "stalk market" while going for each of the four stamps is the main way of winning.

Unfortunately for you, there are also negative spaces which cause you to lose either happy points or money or both, so you'll sometimes be faced with a choice of whether to land on a bad space in order to keep on track to your next stamp or avoid it and possibly miss the stamp. There's only one board to play on, but you're able to pick which month you play in to change the events that happen during the month. These events include special characters showing up who may give you cards (items usable at the beginning of your turn which give you a bit more control over the generally totally luck-dependent game) or contests rewarding you with happy points, which all typically come down to landing on a better space than your opponents. It's important to stress just how little control you have over your fate in the game; it's a step above Candy Land, but whether you win or lose will mostly come down to dice rolls and how lucky your spaces are, so more experienced gamers will probably be bored by it. There's even a "money tree" event which grants the player who lands on the unidentifiable space 90,000 bells - basically an instant win. That said, the lack of complexity means that the game is also accessible to younger players, making it the sort of game for parents and kids to gather around the GamePad like a physical board game for a fun family game night.

Oh, also, you can play this single player against three computer-controlled villagers if you want, but that's pretty boring.

Desert Island Escape (Requires three Animal Crossing amiibo cards. Additional cards allow you to use different characters which have different abilities.)

This is the second "main" minigame is Desert Island Escape, and this one actually does offer a bit of strategic fun that players of any age will probably enjoy. There are thirty levels (unless there are more after that which I don't know about) and in each you'll be stranded on a island which is divided up by a hexagonal grid. As a single player, you'll control each of your three characters in turn (whichever cards you scanned in) and use them to strategically explore the island in search of food, tool-building supplies, and ultimately the materials to build a raft to escape the island. Since food is limited and there's a turn limit as well, you have to plan carefully and use each character's special ability (for example, being able to catch fish without a rod or being able to identify items in adjacent spaces) to explore the island as efficiently as possible. And a little luck also helps since the things you need are semi-randomly distributed on the island and many events are determined by a roulette wheel. With careful planning and the right tools though, you can figure out the probabilities and put luck back on your side. It's a shame that you have to buy additional cards to try out more characters and abilities which really spice up the game, but if you have the cards for it, this game is probably the most fun of the bunch.

Acorn Chase (Requires three Animal Crossing amiibo cards.)

From here on out, the minigames are more... mini. This one is still pretty fun and unique though. In Acorn Chase, you're tasked with navigating around a field of obstacles to collect all of the acorns with your team of three animals. The catch is that you must navigate by scanning in the appropriate amiibo card to choose your direction. And the second catch is that an evil lawnmower is chasing you, so you have to do it fast. There are only three levels, but the game does save your fastest time, if that gives you any incentive to replay it. It's a pretty unique and difficult to master control scheme, but I can't help but wonder how beat up the cards might get when kids try to play this frantic game.

Balloon Island (Requires one to three Animal Crossing amiibo cards.)
Basically, it's pachinko. By holding an amiibo card on the GamePad and then taking it off with good/lucky timing, you drop characters from above onto three different configurations of balloons. There's also an island in the middle which is essentially a target to land on with point multipliers, but if you miss the island entirely, you don't get any points. All you control is when you drop the character, so mostly you just have to watch and hope for the best. As always, your only reward is a high score and participation tickets.

Quiz Show (Requires one Animal Crossing amiibo card per player, up to four.)

It's an Animal Crossing trivia game and honestly the questions are pretty darn difficult, even though I've played every main Animal Crossing game including the Japan-exclusive Nintendo 64 version. Each question appears on the TV and the multiple choice answers are shown on the gamepad. When playing single player, you have to answer as many questions correctly as you can in a limited time. For multiplayer, players must scan in their card whenever the spotlight is on their character and shoot for the most correct answers out of the fifteen questions. This is another one that I could see kids wrecking their cards on, but it's decently fun even though it's pretty darn hard. Parents will be in trouble for this one, since you need a lot of Animal Crossing knowledge to win.

Fruit Path (Requires one or more Animal Crossing amiibo cards, but playing with one would be stupid.)

For this one, players take turns scanning in cards to move the number of spaces listed on the card. The goal is to collect fruit while stopping before potential pitfalls which cause you to drop fruit. There's also a basket of golden fruit at the end of the path that you'll want to get, so it's kind of a game of chicken to see who can end up with the golden fruit. It seems more random and unpredictable than that description sounds though.

Resetti Bop (Requires three Animal Crossing amiibo cards.)

Resetti Bop is basically whack-a-mole, but you do the whacking by scanning in the appropriate amiibo cards. There's also an added twist in that each character has a particular sign from rock-paper-scissors and you have to only bop the Resettis that you can beat in rock-paper-scissors. It's another frantic card swiping game, but it's a little fun and clever at least. Also, this game features a totally rad remix of Resetti's theme music.

Mystery Campers (Requires six Animal Crossing amiibo cards.)

The first of the two minigames which requires you to buy more cards to play it, Mystery Campers is a version of one of those tried and true logic puzzles. You get ten guesses to figure out which four of a set of six characters are in which tents. Each guess reveals how many you have exactly right and how many are close, but not which ones are right or close, so you have to use educated guesses and the process of elimination to figure it out. Once you know the method though, there's really no reason to play this game a second time.

amiibo Card Battle (Requires six Animal Crossing amiibo cards.)

I'll be honest. I don't totally get how this game works, mostly because the game explains almost nothing about it and it's completely absent from the manual (and this isn't the only game that is either). Essentially, you take turns swiping in amiibo cards with a friend and try to beat their card without reusing any. But then seemingly random stuff happens that changes whether you want to get a high card or low card and I don't get it.

The Final Word:
Honestly, this review has gone on longer than the game deserves, but I do like to be thorough. The majority of the minigames are so simple that you probably won't want to play them more than once or twice, but then again, when I was a kid, I could be entertained for hours with a bed sheet and kitchen utensils, so don't underestimate how much a kid might enjoy it in spite of its simplicity. While it's not quite as much of a cash grab as it appears, it's still disappointing that some fairly significant features (like additional characters for the board game and Desert Island Escape) are unnecessarily locked behind the paywall of owning certain amiibo and cards. So, basically, the only audience that I can recommend this game to is parents who want a game to play with their kids and who don't mind potentially getting into amiibo figure and card collecting. For everyone else, you should probably pass on this one. It's not even compatible with the Animal Crossing e-Reader cards from 2003! (That's a joke. Those are totally different cards and nobody expected them to be compatible.)


Personally, I'd recommend this game a lot more.

Xenoblade Chronicles X Preview Coverage

I have a free review copy of Xenoblade Chronicles X from Nintendo.

All opinions in this article are my own and information is accurate to the best of my ability and knowledge.

This is going to be somewhat unorganized, but I'll keep this page updated with pre-release information that people seem to want to know including impressions, screenshots, and videos. Let's get to it!

General Gameplay

The world is massive and beautiful. You'll be spending a lot of time doing minor side missions, less minor affinity missions, and not at all minor story missions. These typically involve collecting items, exploring new areas, and fighting enemies. Collected items can also be used to craft new equipment and augments and upgrades for your equipment. Exploring will open up "landmarks" to fast travel to and in some places you can plant data probes which give various benefits such as mining valuable materials for quests or for investing in equipment manufacturers. Enemies vary in hostility just as they did in Xenoblade Chronicles and there are also certain stronger versions of normal enemies that are often tied to quests. There's an enemy log and collectopedia for keeping track of enemies and their drops, and all of the random items you find scattered across the world.

Completing affinity missions improves relationships between characters, unlocks new party members who can join you upon request, and may unlock new Arts as well.

While I haven't discovered difficulty options overall, I did find that I was offered to lower the difficulty for a single boss after dying to it a few times in a row.

Additional info here, compiled by Gessenkou (Possible spoiler warning)

Arts work similarly to how they did in Xenoblade Chronicles. They require a cooldown in most cases and often work better in a certain order (Topple enemy -> Move strong vs toppled enemies). Positioning relative to the enemy is also important. Depending on your class, you'll get different Arts and use different weapons. You'll also unlock skills which can be equipped and leveled up for passive bonuses.

(Settings Menu is here)

There's an overwhelming amount of information and menus to keep track of in this game. That's good for complexity, but I honestly still feel like I'm missing out on certain things (multiplayer especially). The game does a good job of explaining everything a little at a time, but it still feels like a lot at once - but I prefer it that way over holding back too much of the game for too long.

It is possible to replay certain boss battles in a time attack challenge for rewards and for glory (the fastest time of the day is recorded on the server).

Minor peeve: Sometimes when fighting large enemies for a quest, a larger, ridiculously strong enemy will wander in and you won't even see it until it kills your entire party in one hit. Actually, on second thought, this is often probably my fault for using AOE attacks and hitting other creatures without accidentally.

Rumor buster: "There is no Japanese audio option or any audio options of any kind." CONFIRMED

Random note: For the most part, everything you need to know is explained in-game, but there's a whole lot of things that aren't well explained in-game. Thankfully, the digital manual is quite in depth and covers seemingly everything you'll want to know.

Skells
You don't get your first Skell until after Chapter 6 (fairly far into the game) and there's a long-ish quest required to get it, but it's definitely worth the trouble. It looks cool, goes fast, jumps high, and hits much harder than you would on your own. Skells have a whole bunch of equipment slots and each equipped item gives you an Art associated with it, so there are a whole lot of variations available. You can also name your Skell and customize its colors with nice Photoshop-esque color sliders. There are better and better Skells that you can get as the game goes on as well.

See also: My archived stream of the Skell License quest and Skell gameplay. (Part 1, Part 2)

Story

There seems to be less focus on the main story compared to Xenoblade Chronicles since you're required to do certain affinity missions and other arbitrary goals before moving on to the next story mission. That said, the story is still really epic so far although I have a long way to go.

By the way, the voice acting and writing is fantastic and often funny, especially when it comes to the other alien races. The characters' visual design however, at least for the humans, is kinda bad in my opinion.

(Spoiler warning)

Rumor Buster: "Lin's age has been changed from 13 to 15 in English releases." BUSTED (Lin is still 13.)

Character Customization

At the beginning of the game you can customize your character. There's a lot more depth to it than most games, but not as much depth as other games. Watch the video to see for yourself. Also, there are certain hair styles that are unique to a particular "base face".

Rumor buster: "The bust slider is removed in non-Japanese versions of the game, even for 'woman' character models." CONFIRMED.

Rumor buster: "Lin's skimpy bathing suit has been censored in non-Japanese versions of the game." CONFIRMED

Multiplayer
-Multiplayer is not yet fully functional in the review copy, so not all of these impressions are accurate.- 
If activated, other players' achievements will pop up in the top left corner when they're unlocked. It seems that achievements you've seen from other players will be visible in your own achievements list so that you can get hints of what you have to do to achieve them. For achievements that you have gotten, you can see the date on which you got them, which is pretty cool.

When you start the game, you can choose between focusing on the main story, focusing on multiplayer, or focusing on doing stuff with friends. At this point, though, it's not very clear how this makes a difference since I have no friends to play with and I've yet to see how to even join a multiplayer session. It seems that multiplayer missions have to be unlocked. However, it is possible to see other player characters out in the field and they have customized greetings (you can type in whatever). These characters can be recruited to your party for a thirty minutes and behave as computer-controlled characters. Since the other player characters do have foreign language greetings,, but not in Japanese, and since the English version of XCX seems to use a separate Miiverse community, I'm led to believe that multiplayer is region locked, at least in regards to Japan playing with anyone else.

(Not written by me, but someone has compiled a detailed explanation of the multiplayer features here.)

Reader Questions
Can you play on the GamePad only? - Yes, but the menu and HUD font is super tiny. I wouldn't advise it. On the other hand, once you are familiar with the menus, you won't have to read the text as much anyway.

Does the game audio play on the GamePad when playing on the TV? - No, the GamePad only plays the "beep boops" of using FrontierNav on the GamePad, but if you switch the screen to have the gameplay on the GamePad, it will play all of the game audio.

Can we take a moment and appreciate how cool of a name "Full Metal Jaguar" is? - Yes, let's. 

Do separate NNID accounts have their own save file? - Yes. And by the way, you can only have one save per account.

Can you confirm that the fashion menu is available in the regular base game and not as DLC [as it was in the Japanese release]? - Yes, it's available from the start and allows you to have the appearance of any equipment you can have, while maintaining the stat benefits of any other equipment you want to equip. The DLC characters and affinity missions from the Japanese version are available in the base game for no extra charge as well.

Keep checking back to this page as the game's release approaches for more details and leave a comment with your questions. I'll do my best to answer them if possible!

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water (Review)

Platform: Wii U - Genre: Survival Horror - Release: October, 2015 - Buy it on Amazon

Disclosure: I received a free review copy of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water from Nintendo.

Opinions in this review are my own.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is the fifth main entry in the Fatal Frame series, but only the third fourth to make it outside of Japan. It doesn't matter if you've played the others though, since this is an independent story with the common theme of fighting ghosts with magic cameras (called Camera Obscura). So yeah, there are ghosts and it's a horror game, if you somehow weren't aware.

The game takes place over a series of chapters which switch your control between three of the handful of main characters as they investigate cases of disappearing persons and objects on the cursed Mt. Hikami. This mountain, by the way, happens to have a reputation as a suicide hot spot and also has a dark history which you discover through reading lots and lots of conveniently placed notes, books, and notebooks. It's worth noting twice just how much of the backstory is told through these documents, although there are certainly voiced cutscenes as well (in both English and Japanese with an option for subtitles), but as this seems to be the main method of storytelling in most horror games these days, I doubt many fans will mind.

Here, have a Camera Obscura.

The fact that the game is divided into chapters is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, they offer good, clear places to save and quit after a long gaming session (though there is also auto-saving mid-chapter). Also, your stats for each chapter are kept track of, so it gives some motivation to revisit previous parts of the game to try for a higher score by photographing hidden ghosts, speedrunning it, playing on a higher difficulty, or just by being more efficient in battle in general. The chapters also help break up what might have been a monotony of exploring the same place for hours on end; in this case, characters typically go back home at the end of each chapter to regroup. On the other hand, the chapter breaks sometimes feel a bit forced and can break up the plot when you don't want them to. Part of the way through the game, I couldn't help but feel that my actions were a bit repetitive thanks to always going home between visits to Mt. Hikami, only to have another character lured away by ghosts five minutes later. Revisiting previous areas also contributed to this feeling of repetition a bit, but for the most part, previous areas are merely a means of getting to new areas (which are typically forests, old buildings, and shrines) and usually the chapters start you part of the way along the path so you don't have to backtrack the entire way.

(Click to enlarge)
Dolls aren't as cute when they're hanging from trees at night.

The plot itself is... alright. It certainly gets more complex than the basic premise that I mentioned, but it mostly just amounts to learning the history of Mt. Hikami while fighting off ghosts. Rarely does it feel like anything you do is actually working toward any kind of permanent goal; it's more just surviving and rescuing people and learning things. It's worth noting though, that there are multiple endings as well as an entirely separate bonus chapter.

Basic reading ability is required to fully enjoy this game.

As for the gameplay, it's a nice combination of exploration and combat. Your goal varies between chapters, but in most cases you'll be looking for a missing person or object. Sometimes you'll have a personal item which will allow you to trace a missing person and see a vision of which way they went, but in other cases you'll just have to explore. Along the way, there are scattered items which you can collect (healing stuff, extra film, backstory documents, etc.) and while your character slowly reaches out to pick them up, there's a chance of a ghost hand grabbing your arm. This can be dodged by releasing the "pick up item button" (ZR) as soon as you see the ghost hand, but in general it's more annoying than scary or fun. The camera obscura is also used in exploration by occasionally revealing hidden objects, giving hints on the location of a key for a particular keyhole, or by forcing you to go back and take a matching photo from one given to you. These additional uses for the camera are kind of neat, but it's always completely obvious when you need to use them, so they don't really add a whole lot either. In fact, in the few parts where you have to take matching photos, it kind of just feels like pointless filler. That said, it's a very minor complaint that rarely comes up, so don't let it dissuade you from giving the game a shot.

(Click to enlarge)
One of my favorite, creepiest ghosts. I like to imagine that she's looking in through dark windows at night. ;D

Combat is pretty enjoyable, perhaps because I'm into photography in real life anyway, but it really is unique from any other game I've played (except, maybe, Pokemon Snap). Since you're using a camera, rather than shooting at one target as in a first person shooter, your goal is to tilt the gamepad to contain as many targets as possible within the frame. Your basic film is unlimited, but stronger film has to be found or purchased with the points you get while playing, so you'll want to be strategic with the shots you take. Even if you don't care about wasting all your good film, it takes time to reload the film between shots, so it's very important to wait for a good moment. There are a variety of ghostly enemies which behave in different ways, but your main plan of attack will be trying to take a picture with at least five targets in the frame (as you fight, additional targets will float around the ghosts) and taking "fatal frame" pictures when the frame turns red just before you get attacked. Getting a "fatal frame" allows you to take multiple shots without the reloading cool down while having more targets in the frame knocks back the ghost and deals massive damage. The camera(s) can also be upgraded with spiffy lenses which are found throughout the game, granting special attacks that may slow ghosts down, heal you, do extra damage when your health is low, or other handy things. These lenses and the camera itself can be further upgraded by using the points you earn throughout the game from fighting and taking pictures of optional, non-hostile ghosts. As you may have heard in other reviews, character movement is a bit clunky and it's hard to turn quickly when in 3rd person view. This is a bit of an annoyance, but isn't too big of a deal since there is a dodge button when in combat which doesn't require you to wrestle with the controls at all. There's also an element to the gameplay relating to the titular black water - getting wet makes you more vulnerable to attack. There's also a more severe case of this which acts like poison and requires you to use an item to dry yourself off, but since you'll often be walking in the rain and getting knocked down by ghosts, you're probably going to settle for being wet most of the time.
Speaking of being wet, the graphics are pretty good when it comes to water effects and wet clothing (fan service is definitely a thing in this game, there are even unlockable costumes to dress up the girls). The characters and ghosts also look quite nice, but the graphics on the environments in general are hit and miss with a range of high and low quality textures. But my humble opinion is that the graphic quality is perfectly adequate. The audio is what you'd expect from a horror game - creepy sounds and moaning ghosts. The English voice acting is good enough, though the script is merely average, but there's always an option for Japanese audio if that's what you prefer. I did find that some of the dialogue was difficult to understand because of the audio balance, especially outside of major cutscenes, but as I mentioned before, there is an option for subtitles if you find that it's a problem.

The Final Word:
Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water isn't the scariest thing I've ever seen, but it's definitely creepy and fun to play for the most part. I wouldn't call it a must-play thanks to the merely average story and somewhat repetitive gameplay, but if it sounds like something you'd like, it's definitely worth playing. With all the incentives to replay previous levels for higher scores, faster times, missed items and ghosts, and harder difficulties, there's quite a lot of content here to get fans to stick around and get their money's worth. It's a good game, but whether or not you'll enjoy it comes down to your personal tastes, as always. I recommend giving the lengthy demo a try, while keeping in mind that the story and combat does get more complex further in the game.