Lately I've been playing Nintendo Wii U's NES Remixes*, so I decided to share a couple of thoughts about them. The NES Remixes are compilations of minigame or challenges that are based on the old timey NES-classics (also published by Nintendo at the time I believe, so no DuckTales, Castlevania or Metal Gear-challenges in here). Many of the challenges are sections directly from the original games with the familiar game mechanics (like gathering a certain amount of coins with a time limit in a Super Mario Bros.-level) and other stages have "remixed" elements from different games and/or an entirely new type of gameplay (such as Link from The Legend of Zelda going through a Donkey Kong stage or Mario "skating" through a snowy Super Mario Bros.-level). You can get 1-3 "gold stars" from every challenge depending on your performance as you try to unlock more "basic" challenges, remixes and bonus stages. Here is a couple of Youtube-trailers of the games by Nintendo, if you haven't seen these games at all.
The first NES Remix came out in December 2013 and the second one in April 2014, so both games were released in a relatively short period of time in the Wii U eShop. This lucrative business model (I guess you could call it that, because they probably could have released the Remixes together as a single game) was ok for me, as I've spent quite a few hours (in total) with both games & I therefore think they were worth the money even as separate releases**. The first Remix includes challenges from 16 different classic games and the second one has a dozen of NES games in its "challenge-library". These numbers are a little bit deceiving, because the Remix 2 game includes a bunch of better-known NES-games that have a little bit more depth to them. The Remix 2 also includes a Nintendo World Championships Remix-game mode (only if you bought the original NES Remix) to chase those high-scores in the spririt of the original Nintendo World Championships & Super Luigi Bros.-game, which is basically the old Super Mario Bros. with mirrored gameplay (meaning you go from right to left) and a higher jumping Luigi as the main character. I think these additions & especially the Super Luigi Bros. felt a little bit lackluster (although it's nice that Luigi finally got the recognition he deserved during the "Year of Luigi"), but they were meant to be extra-material, so not really complaining.
I'm a sucker for the 80s & 90s Nintendo games & these remixes work quite nicely in curing the occasional 8-bit fever. I don't have the patience or time to play through the familiar NES Zelda anymore, but a few minutes a day with the Remix challenges works for me. I think even the oldest NES games (such as the original Mario Bros.) work relatively well in this "challenge"-format, but one of the problems that I had with the games is that some classics had been given only a handful of challenges (my all time favorite Punch Out!! & the original Donkey Kong had only 7 challenges + a few remixes) whereas others had a ton of them (there are 23 Super Mario Bros.-challenges + remixes). In addition, these minigame-collections are not designed for lengthy gaming sessions. After a half an hour the format starts to feel a bit repetitive, so I wouldn't recommend these games for your number 1 games, but instead, as a nice little secondary games that you'd play for a few minutes at a time.
I guess you could say that this minigame-format is pretty close to the whimsical WarioWare-franchise, so if you liked the WarioWare-games, these Remixes might be a good purchase for you. On a scale of 1-5 (1 being horrible & 5 awesome), I'd give these games a solid 3 (NES Remix 1 has a metascore of 71 & NES Remix 2 has 73, so pretty average there also). Here were my thoughts on the NES Remix 1 & 2. Quite fun retro-challenges for the gamers who appreciate the old Nintendo-franchises & do not expect the depth/playtime of "full-sized" games.
Have a great day!
-Karelian Gaming
Other info & footnotes:
Official Nintendo Remix Site
Official Nintendo Remix 2 Site
*or Famicom Remix as they are known in Japan
** The games cost around 10 EUR each in the Wii U eShop (& about 15 dollars in the U.S or 9 pounds in the UK according to a few websites). I've read also that the both games have been released together as a single retail edition in Japan.
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti