Back in the good old days, before the advent of such terrible games like Gears of War, and other related titles, there were good games. And the late '80s/90's brought some of the best titles out there.
Back in '87, Mega Man was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It followed a robot known as Mega Man as he ventured out to stop the evil Doctor Wily. (of course, it has to be a German villain, but I digress) Doctor Wily stole eight of Doctor Light's creations, reprogramming them to follow his orders. Wily and Light apparently worked together long ago, as friends, but things went downhill for the group, specifically Wily. But that's another story. Upon defeat of a "Robot Master" as they're called, Mega Man obtained their power chip, gaining their special ability.
Mega Man eventually went to Wily's Castle, one of many in the series, funny how he always manages to build a castle in between games. In the main series, he's had ten castles. Each different in design, to some extent. Wily was defeated, and the world saved.
About two years later, Mega Man II was released, also for the NES. While I was disappointed with the gameplay of the original, Mega Man II was far more better.
It opens up in a city, nighttime setting, telling a brief story of the first game, and a brief bit of the plot of this one, such as Wily creating eight more Robot Masters to defeat Mega Man, rather than steal them from his old companion. It seems to me that Wily has so much time on his hands, creating a new castle each game and creating eight Robot Masters each new game. It's no wonder the man's crazed; he doesn't do anything but try to stop Mega Man and take over the world, rather than living life with a woman, living by the beach.
But I digress.
Mega Man II, as with most if not all other titles follow the similar plot of "Wily's at it again with eight more robots. You gotta stop him!", with this title pitting you up against Wood Man, Air Man, Metal Man, Heat Man, Crash Man, Quick Man, Flash Man, and Bubble Man. Wood Man summons deadly leaves, Air Man summons whirlwinds, Metal Man sharp round metal blades, Heat Man lobs out molten lava, Crash Man shoots bombs, Quick Man throws boomerangs while darting about, Flash Man stops time and shoots you to death, and Bubble Man shoots...bubbles..-.-
And the boss fights follow the same pattern of each one being weak to another. Metal Man kills himself with his own weapon (only exploitable later in the game), Wood Man jams Air Man's fans, Air Man whisks Crash Man to Oz, Crash Man doesn't hit any primary weaknesses (but still somewhat hits some opponents for decent damage), Flash Man slows Quick Man to dust, Quick Man is in a similar vein to Crash Man, Heat Man incinerates Wood Man, and Bubble Man takes out Heat Man
Wily's Castle is a "long" five stage journey, defeating Wily's creations, as well as all eight Robot Masters again, until finally you face Wily himself. Three phases, one being a large mecha, the second that very same mecha, until finally you reach his inner sanctum, and he turns into...ET?!
...
Well not exactly, he appears to turn into an alien floating in a predictable figure eight, and is only defeated by Bubble Man's weapon. It may take awhile, but finally once its health is reduced to nothing, you discover that the alien was in fact a robot, and Wily is there, on his hands and knees begging for mercy.
(..Not until he scrubs all the floors in Hyrule, THEN we'll talk about mercy.)
So that's it, really. Mega Man II was probably the reason why we have so many of them now. It was a great game with great music, and that's why I give Mega Man II 4.5 Wood Men out of 5.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
SPECIAL: "Nerfing" In Video Games
With the advent of Black and White, and the unveiling of all new information about new move mechanics and the like, there was one thing that stood out. Selfdestruct and Explosion (Normal-Type 200 Power/250 Power/Deals massive damage but causes the user to faint) had a very beneficial effect removed from them. In previous generations, when the move Selfdestruct or Explosion is used, the damage is calculated as if the opponent's Defense was effectively halved, making it to where instead of both moves effectively having 400/500 Power, they are reduced back to their original base power, effectively making it just about useless. Whereas before it was a staple in causing hellish damage to very hardy opponents, it hardly dents them as much, for the same cost of the user fainting afterwards.
Which brings me to the topic of "nerfing" or reducing the effectiveness of something in order to bring more balance into the game. It's quite common in games where a single aspect stands out as being near broken, or simply too-overpowered in its environment. For example, the original nerf was the transition between Pokemon Red/Blue and Pokemon Gold/Silver. Back then, the combined Special stat proved rather broken, giving some a very large advantage over another. Mewtwo stood as the King of Special back in the day with base 154. Special moves could hardly touch him. Same is said for many others with high Special. So to bring more balance, Special was split into Special Attack and Special Defense. Some with rather high Special obtained either high Special Attack, or high Special Defense, some having drastically lowered stats in one of those areas unlike the previous installment. Mewtwo still retained base 154 Special Attack, but its ability to take Special attacks was lowered drastically. Move effects where changed to, whereas Amnesia no longer effectively raised Special Attack and Special Defense, now just raising the new Special Defense stat. This brought on more balance within the game.
In the Fire Emblem series, there was an spell known as the Luna Tome, which was an extremely effective item bringing a very high advantage to the user, making them a deadly unit in battle. It negated enemy resistance, making the damage from it equal to your Magic power. It also had a very high Critical ratio and accuracy, effectively ending boss battles in two phases, or turns. The creators saw fit that this spell was definitely overpowered for that reason alone, and in the next installment lowered the critical ratio and the accuracy by a large amount, bringing in much balance.
In the Super Smash Brothers series, characters have taken many a "nerf". In the Nintendo 64 Version, some characters had a gross advantage over the others. In the transition into Melee, those characters had changed mechanics, or simply altered move mechanics to lessen their effectiveness. The same happened in the transition from Melee to Brawl.
However, most nerfs are actually justified, while others feel out of place. Some nerfs aren't even implemented in the physical games. A prime example is, again, in the Pokemon series. Being a game that has a large competitive aspect to it, there are of course going to be things that stand out. And things that stand out are usually those that tend to be overpowered.
And that is why the tier system was put in place. As a means of nerfing things the competitive community find either overpowered or overcentralizing that are also overpowered. These are placed into a tier of their own, above all others. A "no man's land" if you will, that's still very well playable. This tier, known as the "Uber Tier", is pretty much a banlist, or simply nerfing the standard metagame in its present state. Other tiers below standard. such as UU(Underused) can either be used in standard, or can be played in their respective tier, and those below it, banning those in standard and in Ubers. And even lower than that, there is one last final tier, NU(Neverused, although the name is rather ironic, as the members are used, however usually not in standard), whose members are playable in all other tiers, but can also work as a standalone.
Nerfs are usually argued by groups that centralize on that particular game, usually whether or not the nerf was really justified or simply unnecessary. Others give praise to the nerf if the thing in question was really wanted by most, if not all. Others, known as "buffs" are improvements to something, however it can still be considered a nerf to those that benefitted from the weakness of the thing in question.
In conclusion, nerfs are an essential part to the way competitive and casual games are played, changes forcing the birth of new thought on how to play it, rather than continue the exact same style of play as before. While it may be argued on whether or not it was really needed, perhaps, in a sense, it has justification in the fact that change is for the best.
Perhaps why Explosion and SelfDestruct had their key effect removed was due to the fact that in the Pokemon Video Game Championships, an annual event sponsored by The Pokemon Company International, the use of those two moves were overcentralizing in the key style of play used then, which was Doubles. With the advent of Triples, it is assumed that they feared that play would centralize upon those moves even further, causing matches to not be as fun, and rather, who survives the most Explosions/SelfDestructs is the victor. This way, people must develop a new perspective of how exactly to create teams, and how exactly to use them, rather than focusing on Explosion/Selfdestruct decimating the opposition.
Which brings me to the topic of "nerfing" or reducing the effectiveness of something in order to bring more balance into the game. It's quite common in games where a single aspect stands out as being near broken, or simply too-overpowered in its environment. For example, the original nerf was the transition between Pokemon Red/Blue and Pokemon Gold/Silver. Back then, the combined Special stat proved rather broken, giving some a very large advantage over another. Mewtwo stood as the King of Special back in the day with base 154. Special moves could hardly touch him. Same is said for many others with high Special. So to bring more balance, Special was split into Special Attack and Special Defense. Some with rather high Special obtained either high Special Attack, or high Special Defense, some having drastically lowered stats in one of those areas unlike the previous installment. Mewtwo still retained base 154 Special Attack, but its ability to take Special attacks was lowered drastically. Move effects where changed to, whereas Amnesia no longer effectively raised Special Attack and Special Defense, now just raising the new Special Defense stat. This brought on more balance within the game.
In the Fire Emblem series, there was an spell known as the Luna Tome, which was an extremely effective item bringing a very high advantage to the user, making them a deadly unit in battle. It negated enemy resistance, making the damage from it equal to your Magic power. It also had a very high Critical ratio and accuracy, effectively ending boss battles in two phases, or turns. The creators saw fit that this spell was definitely overpowered for that reason alone, and in the next installment lowered the critical ratio and the accuracy by a large amount, bringing in much balance.
In the Super Smash Brothers series, characters have taken many a "nerf". In the Nintendo 64 Version, some characters had a gross advantage over the others. In the transition into Melee, those characters had changed mechanics, or simply altered move mechanics to lessen their effectiveness. The same happened in the transition from Melee to Brawl.
However, most nerfs are actually justified, while others feel out of place. Some nerfs aren't even implemented in the physical games. A prime example is, again, in the Pokemon series. Being a game that has a large competitive aspect to it, there are of course going to be things that stand out. And things that stand out are usually those that tend to be overpowered.
And that is why the tier system was put in place. As a means of nerfing things the competitive community find either overpowered or overcentralizing that are also overpowered. These are placed into a tier of their own, above all others. A "no man's land" if you will, that's still very well playable. This tier, known as the "Uber Tier", is pretty much a banlist, or simply nerfing the standard metagame in its present state. Other tiers below standard. such as UU(Underused) can either be used in standard, or can be played in their respective tier, and those below it, banning those in standard and in Ubers. And even lower than that, there is one last final tier, NU(Neverused, although the name is rather ironic, as the members are used, however usually not in standard), whose members are playable in all other tiers, but can also work as a standalone.
Nerfs are usually argued by groups that centralize on that particular game, usually whether or not the nerf was really justified or simply unnecessary. Others give praise to the nerf if the thing in question was really wanted by most, if not all. Others, known as "buffs" are improvements to something, however it can still be considered a nerf to those that benefitted from the weakness of the thing in question.
In conclusion, nerfs are an essential part to the way competitive and casual games are played, changes forcing the birth of new thought on how to play it, rather than continue the exact same style of play as before. While it may be argued on whether or not it was really needed, perhaps, in a sense, it has justification in the fact that change is for the best.
Perhaps why Explosion and SelfDestruct had their key effect removed was due to the fact that in the Pokemon Video Game Championships, an annual event sponsored by The Pokemon Company International, the use of those two moves were overcentralizing in the key style of play used then, which was Doubles. With the advent of Triples, it is assumed that they feared that play would centralize upon those moves even further, causing matches to not be as fun, and rather, who survives the most Explosions/SelfDestructs is the victor. This way, people must develop a new perspective of how exactly to create teams, and how exactly to use them, rather than focusing on Explosion/Selfdestruct decimating the opposition.
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