Plokster
1998
I think it was kind of ambitious of them to create a game based on such a lackluster movie. The movie itself is cheesy but it's a fun watch, especially with friends. The film revolves around a line of futuristic "Cowboys Vs Indians" toys gaining sentience with the help of artificial intelligence. The violent, militaristic Commandos will stop at nothing to wipe out the nature-loving, pacifist Gorgonites simply because they were programmed to do so. I actually had the game and played it as a child long before I ever saw the movie. In fact for a long time, I thought the movie was based on the game.
In terms of the concept, I think they took it in the best possible direction you could take a movie tie-in like this. Rather than having the movie context of being a toy in 90's suburbia blowing up other toys, you play as the actual characters the toys are based on in their homeland. Gorgon is being invaded by the Commandos and you play as Archer, the Gorgonite leader, to drive them out. As you progress, you begin encroaching on the Commandos' heavily-armed outposts. If anything, this game feels like it could be a product that existed in the universe of the movie; it's kind of cool in a way.
As for the actual game itself, it's okay. The combat is pretty standard and the controls are very stiff. This game uses tank controls and while many people discuss if/when tank controls are appropriate in shooters, it just doesn't service this game well, in my opinion. On top of that, I feel this game doesn't use some of the basic concepts a shooter-platformer should have. You really don't have any dodging moves and there's barely any cover to hide behind. This becomes a problem late game, since the game will just start spamming enemies at you in wide, open areas. You can summon helpers sometimes, but most of the time, you're just one guy with a dinky gun and tank controls while the Commandos run circles around you with their automatic assault weapons. Eventually you realize there's hardly anything stopping you from progressing, so you just start running past enemies rather than fighting them. If combat is the main focus of your game, I feel running away shouldn't be the optimal solution. I think this game could've been much cooler if it released in like the early 2000's.
In terms of the concept, I think they took it in the best possible direction you could take a movie tie-in like this. Rather than having the movie context of being a toy in 90's suburbia blowing up other toys, you play as the actual characters the toys are based on in their homeland. Gorgon is being invaded by the Commandos and you play as Archer, the Gorgonite leader, to drive them out. As you progress, you begin encroaching on the Commandos' heavily-armed outposts. If anything, this game feels like it could be a product that existed in the universe of the movie; it's kind of cool in a way.
As for the actual game itself, it's okay. The combat is pretty standard and the controls are very stiff. This game uses tank controls and while many people discuss if/when tank controls are appropriate in shooters, it just doesn't service this game well, in my opinion. On top of that, I feel this game doesn't use some of the basic concepts a shooter-platformer should have. You really don't have any dodging moves and there's barely any cover to hide behind. This becomes a problem late game, since the game will just start spamming enemies at you in wide, open areas. You can summon helpers sometimes, but most of the time, you're just one guy with a dinky gun and tank controls while the Commandos run circles around you with their automatic assault weapons. Eventually you realize there's hardly anything stopping you from progressing, so you just start running past enemies rather than fighting them. If combat is the main focus of your game, I feel running away shouldn't be the optimal solution. I think this game could've been much cooler if it released in like the early 2000's.
I had vague memories of playing this in 2004 or so and thinking the first third of the game was cool and the rest felt like torture. It didn't last long in my library until I traded it in. Around 15 years later, I found it for dirt cheap online and decided to give it one more try.
I understand why it was dirt cheap.
The game is pretty much Bootleg Klonoa. You use your umbrella to "bubblize" enemies and use them as projectiles. You also have a few platforming moves, like a glide, a shield, and a ground pound. Overall, it has a few cool things going on, but not enough to save it. Like I said earlier, the first third of is pretty decent and varied. After the first boss though, you start getting the creeping realization that you've already seen everything this game has to offer. Most obstacles are just "do you have the patience to wait for this hazard to turn off" or "push this button and wait through an unskippable 20 second cutscene showing you that the path 2 feet away from you is now open."
It gets very repetitive very quickly. It gets worse as it goes on because the levels get longer which means more obstacles to wait through. You also need increasingly more collectibles from each level to progress through the hub, so if you don't collect enough in your first run through a level, you'll have to play it again. Each level also has a bonus round where you have to run through an obstacle course with some sort of time limit. You get an excruciatingly long cutscene that pans through the course and you have to watch it every time you die. Even the bosses are repetitive; each time you fight him, he just adds 1 new phase. The whole thing just feels like a waste of time. Your mind will go numb while you physically feel each minute ticking by while you play this game.
I understand why it was dirt cheap.
The game is pretty much Bootleg Klonoa. You use your umbrella to "bubblize" enemies and use them as projectiles. You also have a few platforming moves, like a glide, a shield, and a ground pound. Overall, it has a few cool things going on, but not enough to save it. Like I said earlier, the first third of is pretty decent and varied. After the first boss though, you start getting the creeping realization that you've already seen everything this game has to offer. Most obstacles are just "do you have the patience to wait for this hazard to turn off" or "push this button and wait through an unskippable 20 second cutscene showing you that the path 2 feet away from you is now open."
It gets very repetitive very quickly. It gets worse as it goes on because the levels get longer which means more obstacles to wait through. You also need increasingly more collectibles from each level to progress through the hub, so if you don't collect enough in your first run through a level, you'll have to play it again. Each level also has a bonus round where you have to run through an obstacle course with some sort of time limit. You get an excruciatingly long cutscene that pans through the course and you have to watch it every time you die. Even the bosses are repetitive; each time you fight him, he just adds 1 new phase. The whole thing just feels like a waste of time. Your mind will go numb while you physically feel each minute ticking by while you play this game.
2013
When it comes to the WarioWare series, I often see people refer to this one as the worst. I’ve only played a handful of games in the series, and to be honest, the single player mode isn’t anything too special. I can see where people are coming from when they write this one off.
But then you get to the multiplayer minigames.
There are 4 multiplayer minigames and each one is very unique in its execution:
- Disco, where one player makes a rhythm and another player tries to match it, like a very simplified Guitar Hero. This one is easily the weakest of the 4.
- Sketch, which serves as a rapid-fire Pictionary. Each player takes a turn sketching a word they receive on the WiiU gamepad. The drawer gets one point each time a player gets it correct and the guesser also receives a point. You’re on a time limit that continues with each drawing, so you don’t want to spend much time on each one. Before playing, each player has to take a picture of themselves for their icon. These pictures aren’t saved and allow you to apply tons of dumb little filters, which is fun in itself.
- Fruit, which is similar to Gmod Guess Who. The player with the WiiU gamepad picks an unsuspecting guy and then gets inserted into an environment full of mindlessly wandering NPCs. The gamepad player has to steal 3 fruits within a time limit while the other players have to work together and find out which NPC the gamepad player is. Every 30 seconds or so, the game gives a highlight of which corner the gamepad player is in.
- Islands, which is my favorite one. You launch little creatures called Fronks onto giant buoys floating in the ocean and gain points depending on where they land. There are multiple maps, each one with a specific mechanic designed to shake each round up and keep it fresh. One of the most challenging maps is a gigantic, vertical buoy that tips if too many Fronks are on one side. If far too many accumulate in one spot, the buoy tips over and the game ends in a draw.
- There’s also a single player game I’d like to give a shoutout to: Design. Dr. Crygor needs your assistance to build blueprints for a robot. As a result, he’ll ask you to draw seemingly random things, like a 5cm line or a circle with an 8cm diameter. You have to guesstimate how much to draw, and neatness counts.
I cannot tell you how many times I busted out this game at parties for the multiplayer minigames. The Rhythm game was okay, but people couldn't get enough of the other games. I had so many countless nights of people laughing and shouting at the Islands minigame, people using insane logic to discover who the thief is in the Fruits minigame, and people excitedly racking up points in the Sketch minigame. They even really loved the single player Design game, too. This was a game easily brought people together for hours of fun and I'll never forget that. I would love to see a more fleshed out minigame collection like this. Arguably, I think the multiplayer minigames do a better job introducing the WiiU to casual players than Nintendo Land does. Simplicity goes a long way, and while NL games are fun, I feel they can be a bit too complicated for the average person sometimes. The G&W minigames are incredibly easy to understand and almost anyone can pick them up in no time.
And then of course, there’s Miiverse Sketch, which was fun in its own regard. People on Miiverse would enter prompts and you had to sketch them as quickly as possible. Afterward, you can see what other people drew, going through a gallery of strange scribbles with the occasional amazing art piece that leaves you confused as to how someone accomplished it on a gamepad in 60 seconds.
Overall, I have a ton of respect for this game even though more than half of it isn’t very engaging. It comes off as a bit of a WiiU tech demo, for better and for worse. Either way, I think the multiplayer minigames do a great job showcasing how the different the WiiU was compared to the Wii. If you’ve never played the multiplayer minigames, I urge you to get some friends together and try it out.
But then you get to the multiplayer minigames.
There are 4 multiplayer minigames and each one is very unique in its execution:
- Disco, where one player makes a rhythm and another player tries to match it, like a very simplified Guitar Hero. This one is easily the weakest of the 4.
- Sketch, which serves as a rapid-fire Pictionary. Each player takes a turn sketching a word they receive on the WiiU gamepad. The drawer gets one point each time a player gets it correct and the guesser also receives a point. You’re on a time limit that continues with each drawing, so you don’t want to spend much time on each one. Before playing, each player has to take a picture of themselves for their icon. These pictures aren’t saved and allow you to apply tons of dumb little filters, which is fun in itself.
- Fruit, which is similar to Gmod Guess Who. The player with the WiiU gamepad picks an unsuspecting guy and then gets inserted into an environment full of mindlessly wandering NPCs. The gamepad player has to steal 3 fruits within a time limit while the other players have to work together and find out which NPC the gamepad player is. Every 30 seconds or so, the game gives a highlight of which corner the gamepad player is in.
- Islands, which is my favorite one. You launch little creatures called Fronks onto giant buoys floating in the ocean and gain points depending on where they land. There are multiple maps, each one with a specific mechanic designed to shake each round up and keep it fresh. One of the most challenging maps is a gigantic, vertical buoy that tips if too many Fronks are on one side. If far too many accumulate in one spot, the buoy tips over and the game ends in a draw.
- There’s also a single player game I’d like to give a shoutout to: Design. Dr. Crygor needs your assistance to build blueprints for a robot. As a result, he’ll ask you to draw seemingly random things, like a 5cm line or a circle with an 8cm diameter. You have to guesstimate how much to draw, and neatness counts.
I cannot tell you how many times I busted out this game at parties for the multiplayer minigames. The Rhythm game was okay, but people couldn't get enough of the other games. I had so many countless nights of people laughing and shouting at the Islands minigame, people using insane logic to discover who the thief is in the Fruits minigame, and people excitedly racking up points in the Sketch minigame. They even really loved the single player Design game, too. This was a game easily brought people together for hours of fun and I'll never forget that. I would love to see a more fleshed out minigame collection like this. Arguably, I think the multiplayer minigames do a better job introducing the WiiU to casual players than Nintendo Land does. Simplicity goes a long way, and while NL games are fun, I feel they can be a bit too complicated for the average person sometimes. The G&W minigames are incredibly easy to understand and almost anyone can pick them up in no time.
And then of course, there’s Miiverse Sketch, which was fun in its own regard. People on Miiverse would enter prompts and you had to sketch them as quickly as possible. Afterward, you can see what other people drew, going through a gallery of strange scribbles with the occasional amazing art piece that leaves you confused as to how someone accomplished it on a gamepad in 60 seconds.
Overall, I have a ton of respect for this game even though more than half of it isn’t very engaging. It comes off as a bit of a WiiU tech demo, for better and for worse. Either way, I think the multiplayer minigames do a great job showcasing how the different the WiiU was compared to the Wii. If you’ve never played the multiplayer minigames, I urge you to get some friends together and try it out.
I have a love-hate relationship with this game. Kart racers are one of my most favorite genres, so the thought of a User Generated Content kart racing game sounded amazing. On the surface, LBPK is a LBP themed reskin of Modnation Racers which came out about 3 years prior. ModNation Racers was pretty good, but I felt they could've given you a bit more control over your tracks. When I learned that this game was being made and the main focus was giving you more tools to get more out of your tracks, I was super excited.
Upon release, it's evident that something went wrong. Right away, you can tell Media Molecule had no hand in making LBPK. It's unpolished, quite buggy, and the editing mode has an immense learning curve, dwarving the learning curve compared to previous LBP entries. It crashes frequently, which means there will be lots of times you lose work in the editor unless you’re constantly saving. Compared to ModNation, it feels like you had more track customization options but far less character and kart customization options. You can't customize the NPCs you race against in your own levels, so it was difficult to make anything story-driven. When the online was working, you were constantly booted from races. You were also only allowed to favorite a certain amount of tracks before it started taking older ones off your list. At some point, it just stopped recording your new favorites altogether. The online tracks in the "Cool Levels" section (New and Popular levels) never changed since Day 1.
Whoever was in charge of the servers was fully aware of the reception to this game, as the online servers only lasted a little over 5 years. That's also unfortunate, considering the main attraction of LBP is usually the online levels. It's a shame that some of the coolest tracks in this game are only viewable on YouTube now while others are just completely lost to time. I wish they had some sort of end-of-life plan for this game so that it was easier for players to keep playing their favorite online levels while offline. I don't know how large each level file is, but if they're relatively small, I think it would've gone a huge way if the devs patched in an "All-Time Community Favorites" section that you could access offline once the online was killed off.
As for the actual racing itself, it’s alright. The controls feel a little floaty but you can get used to them pretty easily. I like that they kept the weapon system from ModNation, where you can use any weapon to block a weapon homing in on you. The only trade off is that there's probably three times as many leader seekers (blue shells) than most racing games. In your own levels, you can make completely custom weapons that function differently from the base set. There's also a Story Mode, but it's not very memorable at all. The levels are tightly crafted and offer a variety of different gameplay styles, which makes it seem like a demo of what the Creation Mode can do. Some people have dug through the files and found that there was potentially going to be more Story Mode content and prizes available to the player, but it appears to have been cut due to time constraints.
It should also be noted that this game doesn't just offer racing. You can make battle arenas, though I tend to find them half-baked in most racing games and this one is no exception. However, using the Battle Arena game type in your own levels offers a huge variety of other activities. The game gives you the ability to set win conditions based on score, weapon targets, racing gates, and more. This means you could make a King of the Hill style game mode, a ring-rally race, freeze tag, Keep Away, Shine Runners and Balloon Battle from Mario Kart, Cops and Robbers, and so, so much more. Albeit it's a pain to program in this game compared to LBP2, the mantra remains the same: if you can think it, you can make it.
Despite the low points, I find myself loading this game up every once in a while to make a new track. There's just something so satisfying about drafting an idea, building it in-game, and tweaking it to perfection, even if I’m going to be the only person to ever play it. It's sad to see an idea for a game like this flop; if given more time and resources for its development, this game could've been endless fun. This is probably the closest thing to my personal dream game that we'll ever get.
Upon release, it's evident that something went wrong. Right away, you can tell Media Molecule had no hand in making LBPK. It's unpolished, quite buggy, and the editing mode has an immense learning curve, dwarving the learning curve compared to previous LBP entries. It crashes frequently, which means there will be lots of times you lose work in the editor unless you’re constantly saving. Compared to ModNation, it feels like you had more track customization options but far less character and kart customization options. You can't customize the NPCs you race against in your own levels, so it was difficult to make anything story-driven. When the online was working, you were constantly booted from races. You were also only allowed to favorite a certain amount of tracks before it started taking older ones off your list. At some point, it just stopped recording your new favorites altogether. The online tracks in the "Cool Levels" section (New and Popular levels) never changed since Day 1.
Whoever was in charge of the servers was fully aware of the reception to this game, as the online servers only lasted a little over 5 years. That's also unfortunate, considering the main attraction of LBP is usually the online levels. It's a shame that some of the coolest tracks in this game are only viewable on YouTube now while others are just completely lost to time. I wish they had some sort of end-of-life plan for this game so that it was easier for players to keep playing their favorite online levels while offline. I don't know how large each level file is, but if they're relatively small, I think it would've gone a huge way if the devs patched in an "All-Time Community Favorites" section that you could access offline once the online was killed off.
As for the actual racing itself, it’s alright. The controls feel a little floaty but you can get used to them pretty easily. I like that they kept the weapon system from ModNation, where you can use any weapon to block a weapon homing in on you. The only trade off is that there's probably three times as many leader seekers (blue shells) than most racing games. In your own levels, you can make completely custom weapons that function differently from the base set. There's also a Story Mode, but it's not very memorable at all. The levels are tightly crafted and offer a variety of different gameplay styles, which makes it seem like a demo of what the Creation Mode can do. Some people have dug through the files and found that there was potentially going to be more Story Mode content and prizes available to the player, but it appears to have been cut due to time constraints.
It should also be noted that this game doesn't just offer racing. You can make battle arenas, though I tend to find them half-baked in most racing games and this one is no exception. However, using the Battle Arena game type in your own levels offers a huge variety of other activities. The game gives you the ability to set win conditions based on score, weapon targets, racing gates, and more. This means you could make a King of the Hill style game mode, a ring-rally race, freeze tag, Keep Away, Shine Runners and Balloon Battle from Mario Kart, Cops and Robbers, and so, so much more. Albeit it's a pain to program in this game compared to LBP2, the mantra remains the same: if you can think it, you can make it.
Despite the low points, I find myself loading this game up every once in a while to make a new track. There's just something so satisfying about drafting an idea, building it in-game, and tweaking it to perfection, even if I’m going to be the only person to ever play it. It's sad to see an idea for a game like this flop; if given more time and resources for its development, this game could've been endless fun. This is probably the closest thing to my personal dream game that we'll ever get.
A frustrating game with horrible controls that make the experience miserable from start to end. Sometimes the game tells you exactly what to do, other times it leaves you completely alone to figure out a crucial mechanic that you have no idea exists. Sometimes there are so many things on the screen that it's impossible to see where your character is and you just walk off to your death. There are lots of funny cutscenes and sounds, but the novelty wears off quickly. A game like this would've been impressive in the early 90's but just falls completely flat for 1998.