Top 10 Wii U Games

With the Wii U now officially discontinued and figuratively pronounced dead, while it's successor has been released and available for almost a month now, it's a convenient time for me to put up the top 10 Wii U games.

As usual, what I consider to be top 10 material is for me subjective, objective scores can obviously help with measuring the entertainment factor most of all, but this is how present it. As of this writing, I have not played Yoshi's Woolly World and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild yet, so naturally, they will be excluded.

#10: New Super Luigi U

It never comes close towards the hardest Mario platformer which is Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels NES version, where precise platforming and memorizing are key towards progressing. Still, New Super Luigi U is recommendable for those looking for a bit more coming at their platforming ways.

#9: Pikmin 3

After a long hiatus, part 3 brings HD graphics to gorgeous results, while introducing 2 new species and a way of navigation via the Wii U Game Pad. Interesting new tactics are available, and the time system returns to prioritize your commands.

#8: Bayonetta 2

Bayonetta 2 is ultimately a better sequel, a very hectic and stylish action adventure with giant and supernatural enemies, more girl pop music, a co-op mode, unlockables and replayability in the form of high scores, challenge and achievements.

#7: Splatoon

An exciting and succesful new IP with interesting physics, presentation and gameplay in order to provide you with pure entertainment. Fast paced battles and a stylish soundtrack will keep you returning towards the multiplayer.

#6: Super Mario Maker

I can definitely recommend this as a no-brainer for anyone who is a Super Mario fan, who grew up with these legendary platformer games, who like to play and judge the creations from others and/or who want to attempt to be creative and inspiring with level design in general.

#5: Xenoblade Chronicles X

XCX is a highly graphical experience as you are able to basically explore everything that is observable thanks to the Skells, with fun combat and giant landscapes to discover, you will get value, but there are also many minor nitpicks from me personally.

#4: Super Mario 3D World 

Super Mario 3D World is entertaining with friends, has enough creative new ideas implemented, is long enough to play and collect through it's experiences and also has several new cool songs. It's a very good step in the right direction and very well made.

#3: Mario Kart 8 

In overall, Mario Kart 8 builds upon previous titles mildly, with no true innovations as far as I can see, but the formula continues to work as this franchise remains one of Nintendo's most profitable and most entertaining, as it is easily targeted for anyone from young to old.
 

#2: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Tropical Freeze is one of the best platformers I have ever played. Aquatic and ice bound levels truly return this time, there are tons of collectibles, secrets and other stuff to do, Funky Kong will help you out with his shop if needed and it clearly shows that Donkey Kong remains relevant and he is here to stay.

#1: Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

The ultimate and latest version of Super Smash Bros. has arrived, and Wii U's incarnation is simply sublime on so many levels. It carries over 3DS's core gameplay, but adds on top of that exciting new features, HD graphics and more content than ever before.
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Honestly, I'm in overall disappointed by the Wii U's small quality and quantity based library, and it's actually the worst from Nintendo so far from me, not even N64 or Wii come close to this! I can only wish the Nintendo Switch a much better run, from beginning to end.

WarioWare

I never talked about this marvelous series on Flok Factory until now, and that is a damn shame and disappointing from my end, because I'm crazy about WarioWare, and it deserves appraisal and recognition!

As a subseries of the antihero Wario next towards his villanious and platforming adventures, Wario Ware's main concept is that an unlimited amount of so called microgames are launched at you, most of them lastly only mere seconds before the next one comes up.

What this means is that you will have to memorize, respond and train your reflexes in order to overcome all of the crazy, quirky microgames coming right after each other during the various sessions you can select from.

I will now briefly only review the WW games I have played extensively myself and with my friends:

WarioWare Inc.: Mega Microgames! 

The one introducing the very addictive concept, Mega Microgames's originality and that feeling of quickly reacting towards the wave of minigames were felt here first, and whenever you would defeat the "boss" after ten turns, the session's speed would go faster.

Minigames are categorized into different themes, this would also become a standard for the rest of the series. Each of Wario's friendly cast in here would represent these themes, including Sports by Jimmy T, Strange by Mona, Nintendo by 9-Volt and Reality by Dr.Crygor.

With a very innovative and very addictive nature, I have fond memories of playing this obssesively  outside, such as at parks, beaches and gardens. It's totally weird playing it for the first time, but also very hard to resist!

Rating: 9.0

(WarioWare Inc.: Mega Party Game$!  is a multiplayer expansion of MM, and largely is the same, except that several multiplayer games are added.)

WarioWare: Twisted!

The first sequel has the general feature of having to rotate your Game Boy Advance during the microgames in order to overcome the challenges, and surprisingly, the quality is blooming very succesfully!

With a gyro sensor installed and attached towards the game cartridge,  the microgames spin and twist your gameplay sessions this time! Of course, new microgames are introduced here to supply and benefit this feature which is yet again, very addictive and hard to resist.

The game's plot and that of MM also are a nod back towards the developers themselves, in that Wario himself represents the manager, developer and CEO of the game company, and his friends are tasked and assigned to deliver microgames, as the demand is high, and the return on investment is higher!

Rating: 9.0

WarioWare: Touched!

The next installment on the Nintendo DS has the general feature of being able to touch microgames using the stylus and touch screen, and this also includes microphone usage. Including the natural insertion of the DS having two screens, this makes for some interesting changes!

Several new friends of Wario's with their own categories make their debut here, including famous Ashley with her Horror theme. There are also odd extras included called toys, where you can toy with the DS's features to achieve interesting results.

The very high quality of MM and Twisted! would not be replicated here, and yet it's still worthwhile to consider playing through this in short sessions as the content is the largest seen yet, and the innovation continues with each title.

Rating: 8.0
  

WarioWare: Smooth Moves

Arguably the most social and funny entry seen yet, Smooth Moves on the Nintendo Wii utilizes the Wii Remote and Nunchuk in order to perform questionable moves so that you can beat the microgames coming after you.

The stages accompanying Wario's friends  also include 18 variations of holding the Wii Remote. While a mocking and comedic intro explains how to use each of the variations in a sarcastical manner, the microgames in the mean time manage to evoke surprise reactions.

With a touch of multiplayer and yet again a new central exciting feature making all of the installments so far distinguished, there's no need at all to skip or ignore this one as well, as the entertainment is unmistaken.

Rating: 8.3

WarioWare: D.I.Y.


When Do It Yourself edition released, it brought me back to my hay days of amateuristic game development, as D.I.Y. allows you to create your own microgames in a simplistic manner with a simple engine.

Creativity is the ultimate factor into determining if you really like this installment or not. With the option available at that time so share and download microgames online, this would motivate even further to appraise and impress each other.

I have created about a dozen and half of my own microgames on it, programming the code, drawing the art, composing the music and designing the "cartridge" of each of them until I could remix them all in my personal microgame session.

Aside from this exciting creativity feature, D.I.Y. also has a large range of normal new microgames to try out from Wario's cast with their own themes again, and if memory serves me well, it was possible to view their coding to see how they were made by the developers.

While I applaud the effort, for a large part it also asks input from the gamers, and the replayability is affected because of this.

Rating: 8.3
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I have not had the possibility of trying out Snapped! or Game & Wario yet, but from what I can see, I have played the best entries already. Maybe it's too late to introduce a WarioWare 3D for the 3DS, but I wouldn't mind at all too see a Switch edition, using any of the features used so far!

Mega Man 9 & 10

This just might be my two final old IGN blog articles remaining which I did not transfer to Flok Factory yet, one from 2008 and the other from 2010, notice the amount of written content between the two!

"Hell yeah, baby. THIS is what everyone was waiting for regarding the Mega Man franchise. Mega Man 9, being my first WiiWare game, is a grand revival of perhaps the greatest NES series out there.

It has all the things I wished for. 8 typical Robot Masters, high difficulty, great 8 bit music, flawless gameplay and a fun challenge mode plus another silly storyline! Mega Man 9 might not be my favorite Classic game, but it will inspire many developers out there for sure.

It's nonetheless an excellent soft reboot of most of all Mega Man 2's formula, and it's seriously addictive.

Rating: 8.7"

"It's the year 20XX, Robots go wild, a virus is unleashed and Mega Man rushes in to save everyone once again. That's all you need to know. But what virus you ask? Apparently Dr.Wily's first developed virus, Roboenza, before the Maverick virus is made.

No more Harpuia and Leviathan look a likes from Inti Creates. This time, the wave is refreshing yet familiar with older waves, including original ones such as Strike Man and Nitro Man, a mix of Turbo Man and Wheel Gator, but also core bosses such as Chill Man and Solar Man.

In overall the 8 Robot Masters are a strong lineup once again but there are stronger ones out there, but also weaker ones. Some of them took time at first to accept though, when talking about Blade Man and Strike Man, I cannot wonder but ask Capcom where Robot Masters such as Water Man, Thunder Man and Poison Man are.

Too obvious to use in MM10? But look at Blade Man then! Oh well, I'm content with all 8 of them now.

"Real time weapon change"(Look at Sony's E3 2006 press conference for the joke) has been restored once again, something which was missing in Mega Man 9. It helps and saves time. The difficulty, and speaking of normal mode now, is about the same as Mega Man 9(The most recent one almost all of us played), but I think that 9 is harder on a whole.

Some tricky parts are in Commando Man's stage where patience is the key to proceed, but also Strike Man's annoying mini boss. E tanks are scattered throughout the stages, another thing absent during MM 9, so that should help. But of course any Classic Mega Man game I play should atleast be beaten once without using any of the tanks.

But that was strictly speaking about Normal Mode. I am now progressing through Hard Mode, and it is deliciously hard. It's also hard to make a guess now, but I think it's even harder than MM9's Hard Mode.

Besides more enemies and different placements, some of them move quicker. And best of all, all of the 8 Robot Masters get 1 more attack, a tradition Inti Creates also used in the Zero and ZX series. By the way, I am fighting them using only the Mega Buster, but as for the stages themselves, I agreed on using the RM weapons because first, I needed more time to test them out and second, the stages are hard as hell, even for a veteran like me.

It's always enjoyable to guess the Robot Master's weakness order. But this time, at first when looking at the boss select screen, instead of going for the weakest looking Robot Master as usual, I went for the toughest one, which in my opinion was Nitro Man.

But he turned out to be okay, not too hard and not too easy. But then again, looking at the other Robot Masters, he was probably the hardest to fight at first, but I should not forget that this was just my first run through Mega Man 10 and it's obvious I haven't seen everything yet.

On a side note, did anyone else notice how the mugshots of the Robot Masters's colors look different and resemble the old Mega Man 1 and 3 PC games? They look kind of lesser "quality" than other Mega Man games. (Pst, on Hard Mode, Nitro Man is a beast with godly speed)

Some of the music will take some time to become great, such is the case with any new Mega Man music. Solar Man, Pump Man and Sheep Man are instantly amazing to hear already though, and others will need more time.

Dr.Wily has made the most awesome fortress yet judging by its size, and early on at Wily stage 1, fan service ensues right away. And oh my god, Capcom put Ring Man in to represent Mega Man 4! It's a very faithful Dr.Wily fortress with quality music and difficulty as usual.

Some other improvements which we have seen in other titles already beside Mega Man 9 is that the weakness system of the Robot Masters is slightly more interesting because as most of us will soon find out, Commando Bomb starts to really hurt for Blade Man once that second attack kicks in.

Chill Spike also deals more damage when the spikes are formed. Also, different routes are available for some of the stages in Mega Man 10, granting for us more replayability(As if it wasn't enough already with Proto Man and Bass) and for the speed runners a choice.

Last of all, I present pros and cons for Mega Man 10:

Positive notes:

+Capcom delivers with fan service for us anno 2010, and still gets it done right. Thank you so much for all those blue bombing moments.

+Difficulty and (on a longer period of time) music(For some songs atleast) are still great and faithful. Thanks to the mediocre weapons, the difficulty is even higher.

+Extra content is nice to have, and previous DLC is already available.

Negative notes:

-Those mugshots feel less likable than older mugshots.

-Robot Master weapons are less spectacular after the great Mega Man 9 weapons.

Rating 8.8"

C'mon Capcom, after Street Fighter V and Resident Evil 7, isn't it about time to return to the Blue Bomber!?

Ex Machina

 

A young programmer is lonesomely selected to participate in a breakthrough experiment, the Turing Test, in synthetic intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a breath-taking female A.I. android.

Ex Machina is a science fiction story which asks questions about artificial intelligence, consciousness, humanity, robotics, philosophy and more, blurring the border between human and robot ethics.

With clever dialogue occurring between Caleb, Nathan and Ava mainly, around 1 hour and 10 minutes in, the direction of the film takes a dramatic turn, as it seems that Nathan does indeed have malicious intentions against his own female android creations.

When Nathan reveals that Caleb’s real goal is to check if Ava can be convincingly human enough in order to trick Caleb into helping her escape, the escape plan is already in motion, and after a turn of violent events, Nathan dies, Caleb is trapped inside, and Ava, after “dressing” up as a normal woman, now enters human society, alone

Ex Machina is a no-nonsense approach towards a believable foreseeable future, and is thus a realistic depiction towards a sci-fi synopsis. Similar to Blade Runner for instance in themes, you will gain something positive out of it if you crave a good balance between being not too corny or too deep.

Rating:7.5

Revisiting The Build Trilogy

Fancely named, I consider Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior and Blood to be the holy trinity of games run on the Build engine. Lately, all three of them basically have been given definitive editions in regards to content, so let´s revisit!

One Unit Whole Blood

While a fantastic game, it is unfortunately the most dissapointing of these three, because while it includes the main campaign and it´s expansions, it runs on DOSBox, and somehow, the lag is unbearable at times, making spikes happen often.

Also, the framerate is not what I am used to when playing it. Even if you have a high end PC, One Unit Whole Blood does not run smoothly. If you are not bothered by this(you should because the difficulty becomes insane later on), then you will have a creepy yet exciting 90's time.

Shadow Warrior Classic Redux

Still being my favorite out of these three, Shadow Warrior Classic Redux runs regarding performance perfect, and it includes the full game, as well as the expansions and the Build editor, with a slick new menu interface added.

Despite that I knew how to build levels on it during the late 90's/early 00's, I have completely forgotten how it works now, and finding a tutorial of it online now is almost impossible to find! It's a shame because I used to have such a good time either creating entire new levels, or simply making existing ones even harder by enemy and item placements.

Duke Nukem 3D Twentieth Anniversary World Tour

The objective favorite of the bunch as well as when speaking of the series itsel, Duke Nukem 3D celebrates it's anniversary, and includes besides it's primary base game and expansions, a new episode called World Tour, where obviously you tour key world settings.

When compared with the other two, I consider Twentieth Anniversary World Tour to be a middleground, as it also sometimes has frame issues, and it does not have exciting new content. Maybe the mark left by Duke Nukem Forever still hurts enough before anyone can consider a real sequel towards Duke Nukem 3D?

The Last Guardian

One of several vaporware titles which recently finally got released, alongside Final Fantasy XV and Nioh as similar examples, Fumito Ueda’s latest is a flawed emotional adventure.

Like it’s predecessors Ico and Shadow of the Colossus on the PS2, it is a third person perspective game with puzzle and platform elements, and few action sequences. You play as a boy from a tribe who stumbles upon a giant mysterious griffin like creature named Trico.

Together, you will have to move through the environment in order to escape more or less. The art direction and the music kicking in at certain moments managed to create a compelling presentation, but the highlight of The Last Guardian is the bond and teamwork between Trico and the boy.

While the game is mild with providing handholding towards how to control your boy and the pet, as well as subtle hints being giving in a flashback narrative throughout, most of the time, you will have to scan your environment, but also take a note of where Trico is looking at.

The controversy of The Last Guardian is if the game design regarding performance and camera control is outdated, and this topic is hotly debated. To me, they did feel obsolete for a 2016 PS4 game, and they are also the main reason for lowering the score.

The other factor is about Trico’s AI, at certain times, despite throwing every command at him, including jumping, sitting down, attacking, using objects and calling to him, Trico would simply sometimes not listen, or as it felt implied, confused. This is perhaps an ironic or conscious design decision, which further splits the fan community as to whether it adds up or lowers the game’s overall quality.

The Last Guardian is rather tricky to rate, but it is easily clear that it stands unique and proud alongside Ueda’s other PlayStation products, and ultimately, it is a test of patience, yet rewarding if you manage to see till the end and realize the beautiful companionship between the two creatures.

Rating: 7.2