The 'Shroom:Issue 126/Critic Corner: Difference between revisions

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Additionally, congrats to {{User|Lord Bowser}} for snagging CC's August Section of the Month!  With this team having such a large amount of quality sections, it's an exciting feat to be consistently percolating to the top!

[[File:SMRPG2 Logo.png|thumb|The logo used at the start of development.]]

Hello everyone! My name is [[User:Alex95|Alex95]] and welcome to "Could Have Been". In this segment, I talk about features that didn't quite make it into a game's final release and see just how the cut content would've affected the game. I have decided to take a look into the original ''[[Paper Mario]]'' game, which is the first game I've covered on here that I have little experience with. I thought it'd make an interesting challenge of some kind. Anyway, there is a ''lot'' of content here, so let's dive right in and take a look at what could have been.

First of all, let's talk about something anyone with knowledge on ''Paper Mario''{{'}}s development should be familiar with. Originally, the game was titled ''Super Mario RPG 2'', meant to be a sequel to ''[[Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars]]''. However, due to copyright issues with partner company [[Square Enix|Squaresoft]], the game was renamed to ''Mario RPG 64'', ''Super Mario Adventure'', and finally ''Paper Mario'' (''Mario Story'' in Japan). The game was envisioned as having 2D sprites, with ''[[Super Mario World]]''{{'}}s as the example, in a 3D space. At this point, the "paper" feel to the game has been established, but the look of it is far from finished.

Continuing with screenshots, some also show battle menus. Mario's [[HP|Health]] and [[FP|Flower]] points were indicated by hearts and flowers, respectively (duh). One screenshot shows a Heart grayed out, meaning Mario took damage, but I can't tell if the Heart icon grays out immediately upon getting hit (in other words, one Heart equals one Health Point), or if the Heart depletes with attack (one Heart equals five Health Points or whatever). Think [[zeldawiki:The Legend of Zelda (Series)|''The Legend of Zelda'' series]]. Another unfinalized screen show a different meter for the [[Hammer]] action and another shows the HUD and battle menus similar to the final one, but with different icons. Screenshots also show different appearances of certain enemies, like the [[Koopa Troopa]]s lacking shades like how they do in some levels of ''[[Super Paper Mario]]'', and a generic Koopa can be seen following Mario around, possibly an early version of [[Kooper]].

[[File:Frost Koopa.png|thumb|left|This Koopa took the term "stay frosty" literally.]]

When it comes to sprites and unused equipment, the [[badge]]s are really interesting. There exist Jump and Hammer charge badges that are weaker and stronger than the [[Jump Charge|Jump]] and [[Hammer Charges]], badges that let you execute [[Action Command]]s perfectly, a "Shrink Smash" badge similar to the [[Shrink Stomp]] one, and sound effect changers. One that would've been really interesting to keep would be a "berserk"-type badge, where Mario turns red and begins attacking enemies of his own accord, as if being controlled by the CPU. However, Mario also turns kinda dumb and starts doing commands players wouldn't normally make intentionally, such as jumping on spiked enemies. Since the CPU has control of Mario, the player then assumes the role of the partner character…which Mario can theoretically swap out at any time. Hmm…

   

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{{anchor|Anton's Half-Baked Reviews}}

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Written By: {{User|Hypnotoad}}

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Hey guys I’m back after a short break. Now this week's review is about something I really love: Robot Combat. Those of you on the forums who pay attention to my names might realize that I fucking love the show Robot Wars and it’s been like that since I was a kid. So when my friend told me that he had Robot Wars: Advanced Destruction for the GBA, I knew it was my destiny to play it. So I forced him to load it up on his GameCube using the GBA GameCube adapter, and what do you know: it was a blast. A real simple game, but still a blast. So I was like I’m totally going to review this because this is my section and I do what I want. So please enjoy my review of Robot Wars: Advanced Destruction for the GBA.

The gameplay is actually fairly simple. The main point of the game is to defeat your opponent in robot combat. Now there are 3 ways to do this. Way number 1: immobilize your opponent by depleting their health bar. Way number 2: have more health than your opponent when time ends (in the series proper that would be called a judge’s decision). And finally, my favorite way to defeat an opponent: put them in the Pit of Oblivion (the pit opens when there are 30 seconds left in the fight). The best way to immobilize your opponent is to attack them with your weapons. Much like in the real Robot Wars, flippers/lifters are the most effective weapon since they allows you to keep your opponent down. Now one interesting thing about this game is that every robot can self-right, even robots like Plunderbird 4 (which is literally just a wedge with a claw on it) which makes sense because it makes flippers a little less effective. Now one thing I appreciate is the fact that Razer (who is literally just a big claw) can grab onto its opponent and drag them forward and backwards (much like the regular Razer would do). But one thing I don’t like is that you can’t push flipped over opponents. It just doesn’t make any sense; a flipped over opponent would be significantly easier to push then an opponent who’s on its wheels. This also makes getting into pushing matches with flippers and lifters difficult because you just end up getting flipped over. But in reality I totally understand this decision cause hell the best strategy is already just flip you opponent over and just jam your wedge over them preventing them from moving. So I can see why they wouldn’t want you to push a downed opponent around. Now overall I really like the fights while a lot of them lack strategy they’re fairly fun and it’s always nice to try different tactics.

One thing I will say is that there isn’t very much to do in this game. There’s only 4 different modes in this game with those being:

Quickstart - This is just a quick single match between two randomly assigned robots.

Vengeance - Basically just Quickstart except you get to pick the robots.

Mayhem - My favorite mode, in this mode you have to battle every robot in the game including the house robots. One thing I really like is that you only get one chance cause once you get knocked out (or pitted) it’s game over and you best believe there are no health pick ups.

And that’s really it. Now there is a multiplayer mode where you can battle it out with your friends. But I do in fact no have friends with link cables, GBAs, and copies of Advanced Destruction.

Now the controls are a bit different. In order to steer you press up one the d-pad to go up and down on the d-pad to go down. Pretty standard stuff, but in order to turn you hold R to turn right and L to turn left. Now at first this seems counter intuitive but I actually really like it. I think it adds depth to the controls and makes it a bit like controlling an actual robot (which from what I’ve heard can be pretty difficult). Of course it takes a bit of time to get used to (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve accidentally driven into the Pit of Oblivion) but once you get them down it because a joy to drive around. Now the attack controls are fairly simple robots can have two weapons with A controlling the front weapon and B controlling the back weapon. Overall I like the controls even if driving can be a little difficult at times.

The soundtrack while small fits the game perfectly. Every song features a large amount of bass which I feel fits the atmosphere of robot combat perfectly. Each song is a gritty metal song and it all comes together to really fit what the game is and what the song is supposed to represent. One thing I appreciate is that the Workshop tune features all sorts of hammers, drills, and other tools as if the song is building its own robot. But probably my favorite thing about the soundtrack is that they managed to port over a good sounding version of Robot Wars' actual theme song. The hardware fits perfectly and it sounds just like the actual theme. Now unfortunately there are only six songs in this game and each one comes on a specific stage so be prepared to hear the same songs over and over. Despite the lack of songs I think each one fits the level that it is in.

The graphics are ok. I mean they look like standard GBA graphics. Most of the stages are bare with a few obstacles and the house robots in the CPZ (corner patrol zone). However I will give this you can always tell what the obstacles are and how to avoid them which is good. Probably the most impressive part of the graphics is the robots themselves. See unlike Robot Wars: Metal Mayhem for the GBC where robots would look nothing like what they did in real life, the robots in this game all line up to how they should be. I really can’t think off the top of my head of a robot that doesn’t look how it’s supposed to which is really good.

Speaking off the roster I have to say I’m very impressed by the roster in Robot Wars: Advanced Destruction. Most of the robots wars games have surprisingly limited rosters and usually don’t feature a lot of the more prominent ones. Every robot in this game is a robot with a good pedigree, with every robot having either made it to the series semi-finals or won some sort of side competition (with the except of Onslaught). There’s also a wide variety of robots in this game weapon wise with each major weapon type being represented in some way. There are even some unexpected robots in this game such as 101 and Terrohurtz.

I really like this game imo it’s the perfect portable adaption of Robot Wars. Now I’m not saying it’s a really good game cause it’s kind of lacking in options but for what it’s trying to do I think it does it perfectly. I have a lot of fun playing this game and as a fan of Robot Wars the series itself I think it’s a quality game. However, I have a hard time recommending this game because it’s limited and there’s not a whole lot of replay value at the end of the day. But if you’re a big Robot Wars fan and you want a portable Robot Wars game you probably can’t do better than Robot Wars: Advanced Destruction.

Final Score: 7/10

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