Welcome back friends! This is Part 2 of my 3-part Nindies@Home series. In a world where Nintendo is regularly criticized for the lack of content on the Wii U and the lack of third-party support for the system in comparison to Sony and Microsoft, Nindies@Home is certainly a step in the right direction. Similar to the preview program Microsoft revealed last week for the Xbox One, all nine of the games above had free downloadable previews for the week of E3 (they just went offline this morning). After playing through all of them, here's my list of the Nindies@Home games that have great potential, but didn't quite hit the mark for me during their previews. ______________________________ RIVE (multi-platform) Hands-down one of the most visually impressive titles shown, RIVE was both a joy to play and look at. The production values really shine here, most notably the sound design and explosion effects. RIVE feels incredibly satisfying to control, too, and there were few gameplay experiences more enjoyable out of all nine titles than swiftly shooting an onslaught of enemy robots into pieces of scrap metal. The developers really nailed the user experience here. The only real issue is that, well, I could've sworn I've played this before. RIVE is greatly lacking in personality; from the way my robot feverishly shot 360 degrees around the screen to the generic enemy robots and weapon upgrades, I felt like my experience wasn't special or unique at all. The weapons (particularly the missiles) did feel fantastic to unleash, but I can recall so many shooters with the exact same weapon upgrades. I'm sure the game will have more varied environments and a stronger sense of identity in the final version (especially playing through the campaign), but my time with the preview has left me a bit wary. Mutant Mudds Super Challenge (Wii U & 3DS Exclusive) I'll say this right off the bat--the Mutant Mudds series isn't really for me. I enjoy the platforming and how the game handles, but I've never been a fan of the game's aesthetic or Max's character design. The art style is colorful and the chiptune songs are pretty catchy, but the sound effects and giant gold tokens always seemed a bit odd and low-quality to me. Nonetheless, fans of the series love it for its gameplay, and the tightness of MMSC's controls is undeniable. This new entry in the series is punishingly difficult--much more so than its older brother on the 3DS--and yet I could blame no one but myself when I died constantly playing this preview. The game is so hard (hence "Super Challenge") that even one of the developers from Renegade Kid couldn't collect all the tokens in a level without dying repeatedly during the Nintendo Treehouse gameplay. While it may be fun to watch, I didn't enjoy the game too much myself. This is a real love letter to fans of the series, however, and with the additions of boss fights, challenging ghost levels, bonus costumes of characters from other e-shop titles and cross-buy, you really are getting a quality experience here. Freedom Planet (Wii U Console Exclusive) If I could sum up Freedom Planet in one sentence, it'd be "An old-school Sonic game with original artwork direction and a few mechanical changes." The game was literally intended to be a fan-made Sonic game at first, but was later refined into a more original experience. There's no getting around it--from the moment you pick it up, you know you're playing a Sonic game. The classic sprinting and platforming is as fun as ever, though, and your character is undeniably adorable. Freedom Planet looks so different from Sonic that the gameplay similarities actually don't bother me too much. What does bother me, however, is how the game's stages are set up. When playing through the preview with one of my friends, we established that we'd switch off every level, expecting them to be short and sweet like the original Sonic levels. After 15 minutes of playing, however, the level still hadn't ended, even after I defeated the boss--it just transitioned to a second, samey part of the level. While I'm excited to see where the story goes and enjoyed the nostalgic gameplay, I'm a bit hesitant to fully embrace the title due to level design and pacing issues. Thanks for reading friends! Be sure to come back tomorrow for the third part in my Nindies@Home series, The Doubtfuls. Follow me on Twitter @CreamBasics to know exactly when the next post goes up. Until then, have a wonderful day!
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