Aug Together Retro: Animal Main Characters

[Sarge]

DKC3 actually ends up having some teeth to it as well. I think it's a solid game, and I might have enjoyed it slightly more than DKC2. Those first worlds don't leave the best impression, though; you really need to get a bit further to start seeing the more interesting level designs.

[alienjesus]

I can kind of agree about the first world being a bit boring, but I disagree with the second world. Sure, the forest-y theme is a bit generic, but the level designs are all pretty memorable in that world I think. The boss is really cool too.

[Exhuminator]

DKC3 actually ends up having some teeth to it as well. I think it's a solid game, and I might have enjoyed it slightly more than DKC2.

Well considering Bone didn't answer my question, I'll have to assume he didn't finish DKC2. If so, I don't blame him one bit.

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I've got another Wii game and a GameCube title lined up for this TR. If either of those end up not worth playing, I've got a SNES title in reserve as well.

[dunpeal2064]

Bone beat DKC2, he posted about it in the Games Beaten thread.

DKC3 is a possibility for me this month. I've basically never played it, other than a few very short attempts. I like the other 4 DKC games I've played quite a bit, so I should probably just buckle down and play the last major one.

[Exhuminator]

Bone beat DKC2, he posted about it in the Games Beaten thread.

Thanks for letting me know that.

I think when we're posting about our progress playing a game for these TRs in their TR thread, if we beat said game, we should make mention of that fact in the TR as well. (Bonus points for providing a link to your review.) It makes participants' progress easier to keep track of is all.

[laurenhiya21]

I've started to play The Dog Island (PS2)! I haven't played too much of the game yet, but I'm somewhat enjoying it so far. It's an extremely simple game, where you mostly talk to other dogs, deliver things, and search for things by smell. Normally I probably would be pretty bored and drop it, but what I wasn't really expecting is that the other dogs often have some depth and personality. Some of them talk about death and trying to make up for past sins?? It's a sort of weird juxtaposition between super cute doggos and some of the darker topics that they talk about, and I think that's keeping me invested in the game. Also the fact that the game is adorable probably helps haha.

Not sure how far along I am in the game, but I'll see if it keeps me invested to the end.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Haha, yeah, sorry Ex, I did finish DKC2.

On the third now, in the third world. I think I may end up liking this more than the second one, though I'm not in love with it.

[Nemoide]

I've been slacking in Blinx The Time Sweeper and instead today played Donkey Kong Country on my SNES Classic.

I'm up to the third area and feel like I have a handle on how the game works. But I'm not really feeling it, TBH. I feel like the older I get, the less interested in platformers I am. It's not that there's anything wrong with the game, and I do recognize what a big deal it was when it came out (I remember being BLOWN AWAY by the graphics on a cousin's SNES).
I'll fully fess-up to save scumming, since the SNES Classic makes that so easy. I started off avoiding it and only saving at the world map. But now I'm saving ALL THE TIME and loading after every screw-up. I should try to stop: it's not like I'm running low on lives. But also, this will make the game go by more easily...

[BoneSnapDeez]

First Donkey Kong Country is the easiest by a wide margin. In my opinion. Of course I've been playing it since I was a kid. I remember the Nintendo Power hype, the VHS tape, etc.

Just completed the third world of the third game. It's alright. My daughter is having a blast watching me play (and get owned). One Game Over so far. Thankfully, it's easy to save frequently in this one so there isn't much of a penalty.

One issue I have with the game (and with the second) is that it doesn't always seem to play by a consistent set of rules. For instance, the third boss is a giant robot. You hit it by bopping its head. You can only reach said head by first hopping on blades that emerge from its body. Blades! In any other part of the game I'd assume blades = death, but here they're platforms. Took me a few tries (in other words, lives) to figure this out.

[Exhuminator]

Trying to find games in my physical collection to apply to this TR, I went through my Wii library and tried a few things tonight. Deadly Creatures would have been an ideal candidate, but I already beat that one years ago. (I recommend it to others looking for something unique though.) So tonight I played...

Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars had a unique premise; playing as a combative humanoid mushroom was interesting in and of itself. Plus you can make your own weapons from found junk. This game is a 3D platformer at heart, but is ruined by a terrible camera and bad level designs. I put about thirty minutes into it, and didn't care to continue. Boring and unpolished.

Ivy the Kiwi? seemed pretty decent for a moment. You play as a baby kiwi (named Ivy?) searching for its mother through auto-scrolling platforming stages. Ivy is always moving, and the player must direct Ivy using vines drawn by the Wii Remote. There's more to it than that of course, but whatever. I put about forty five minutes into this one before retiring it. My issues were its monotonous visual aesthetic, lackluster level designs, and extremely repetitive gameplay. I wouldn't call Ivy the Kiwi? a bad game mind, but it needed more depth and complexity to hold my interest for the five or so hours it takes to finish. A game like this should take an hour at most to beat honestly, and would have been better as a short WiiWare title.

Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure lets the player become various prehistoric sea monsters, roaming the oceans for food and fossils. Yes fossils, because it's an edutainment title. It's also terrible. This game is an amateur hour pile of junk, and I'll just leave it at that. Fifteen minutes was all I could stand.

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams is the Wii sequel to the original NiGHTS into Dreams... on Saturn. Journey of Dreams doesn't star an animal main character, but I've read the protagonist "Nights" is a humanoid creature of the non-human Nightmaren race. Since our curator said creature protagonists count, I assume this game works for this TR. Also here Nights can sometimes turn into other creatures like a dolphin or dragon. Anyway I only beat the first stage of this tonight, but I liked what I played. Maybe I'll actually finish this one.