Knight Lore is the third game in the classic Sabre Wulf series of games. I felt like the first was pretty good and that  the second was okay, but much more flawed. I wondered whether this downhill trend would continue into the third title, or if I’d be pleased to find a return to the heights of the first game.

So, which was it? Well, it’s start looking over the game’s strengths and weaknesses. First, the strengths: The game introduces the idea that Sabreman has been turned into a werewolf, which is pretty cool. There’s a day and night system where he’s human during the day and in a wolf-form during the night. Again, pretty cool. The game provides an isometric perspective in an attempt to provide a 3D gaming experience. A nice ambition for the time. The character designs are all pretty cool as well and I felt like the art style of the old graphics went a long way towards making an atmospheric world. Plus, the title screen has a really great piece of music on it.

Now, for the game’s weaknesses. There’s only one, really: it controls really, really badly and the perspectives make it very hard to time jumps and so forth. This is the games only problem and it’s such a shame that it completely ruins the experience. It’s kind of like if you had a really nice car: it looks just the way you wanted it to, had a powerful engine, comfy chairs etc. etc. but, oh wait, it doesn’t have a steering wheel. Also of a sudden, it’s not a good car anymore.

It’s a shame. I’d love to be able to say this was a great game, because I think it has good potential. You’re working to a deadline to cure your lycanthropy and you need to find special ingredients so that a wizard named Melkhior can make you a potion. A cool idea for a game. I’d love to see it remade (just like Underwurlde) because modern developers might be able to do the concept justice. Until then, it shall have to remain as a not very good chapter in the life of Sabreman. Sorry, Rare.

Rating: 4.6/10

Buy it (as part of Rare Replay) here.

I have never been to a party where people played Mario Party, but if I did it would probably have been one of the best parties I had ever attended. I consider it to be one of the best multiplayer experiences created by Nintendo and unlike, say Mario Kart (which is also very good) this game is not a conversational killer, because you won’t be focusing solely on what you’re doing, but on what everybody is doing.

If you’ve never heard of it before (or have never played it) it is essentially a digital board game. You can choose between Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Wario, Donkey Kong and Peach and there are different levels based on each character. You play with four people and you role a dice to see how many spaces you can move around the map. Different spaces cause different things to happen and each of the maps have several characters who will do certain things when you interact with them. The goal is to be the player with the most stars and the most coins – you get coins by winning mini-games (and there’s one of those every time all four players have moved) and then you use them to buy stars from Toad, who can be found somewhere on the map. After a set number of turns, a winner is declared.

I have a feeling that that sounds rather boring in writing, but trust me, it isn’t. There’s a lot of luck in this game and it can be quite funny to see a player lose their fortunes because Bowser randomly decided to steal everything from them, or something like that. Having said that, I don’t think people who take their games really, really seriously will  get much out of it. I can imagine someone getting quite grumpy if they have too many mishaps. You have to be able to laugh at yourself – then everyone can have fun.

Speaking of fun, the most fun comes from the mini-games. They come in several different varieties (sometimes players are all working against each other,  times they’re working in teams) and almost all of them are highly enjoyable. In one, you’re skateboarding as fast as you can to get across a bridge which is collapsing into a river of lava. In another, you’re working together to get through a haunted house and use a giant bulb to defeat an army of Boos. In particularly unfair (but amusing) one, one character dresses as Bowser and everyone tries to hit them with giant hammers, causing them to drop money each time.

There’s one unfortunate thing about these mini games though and I really have to mention it. They are literally bad for your physical health. One or two of them are built around the player spinning the control stick around really, really fast in order to make their character do different things. The problem is that in order to do this, you need to spin it so fast that you’ll blister your hand. It’s annoying. In a way, it’s a bit like an extra-large pizza from Domino’s – at the time, the pain will seem worth it,  but when you wake up the next morning and your hand still hurts, it will be just as bad as any post-pizza tummy ache.

Also, this is a game that’s made to be played with a group.  Or, at least, one other person. It’s not that the game won’t be fun if you play alone, it probably will be, it’s just that it will wear off a lot faster and you’re more likely to just get annoyed by a change of fortune if it’s just a computer player who’s taken all your money, rather than one of your friends. It does sometimes feel like the CPU players cheat as well.

But, overall, I consider this a fantastic game. When it first came out, I was absolutely blown away by it and spent hours and hours playing it with my brothers and alone too. Returning to it as an adult, its flaws are a little more obvious to me, but it’s still a game I recommend – it even manages to have unexpected story-elements! If you do ever get a chance to play (which is unlikely, so it seems as though it will never be rereleased) you should give it a try.

Rating: 9.5/10

Buy it here.

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)

After his introduction in Super Mario World, Yoshi had proven to be very popular. Nonetheless, I still find it quite surprising that he was the one to take centre stage in its sequel Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, which I consider to be one of the most experimental instalments in the mainline Super Mario series.

While most of the games had pretty much been a case of Bowser causing trouble, kidnapping Peach and having Mario and Luigi stop him (discounting Super Mario Bros. 2) this game actually gives us a flashback to a very early stage in their lives. It starts with a stork carrying a baby Mario and Luigi in a bundle through the clouds, only for it to be attacked by a mysterious figure who takes one of the babies (Luigi) and causes the other to fall from the stork’s grasp and down onto Yoshi’s Island far below. The Yoshis then find the baby and work together to try and get him home and rescue his brother.

I know I musn’t spend too much time talking about story when it comes to a game like this (since it isn’t overly important to most people) but the game seems to give a significant retcon in what we understand of Mario’s life. The earlier games had seemed to show him in a fairly “real world” setting, with him then passing into the Mushroom Kingdom in Mario Bros. but this shows him in the Mushroom Kingdom at the very beginning of his life. It’s hard to reconcile these two origins, but I guess, maybe, he was born in the Mushroom World, then moved to Earth at a very young age, then returned to the Mushroom Kingdom, not remembering the distant past.

So, anyway, onto something of more relevance: the gameplay! You play as Yoshi and you have Baby Mario riding on your back. Yoshi can eat his enemies, use a “flutter jump” to get up extra high and lay eggs which can be used as projectiles. He’s fun to play as and he also cannot be defeated just by being hit by enemies – but the thing is, if he gets hit, Baby Mario will fall off his back and get trapped in a bubble. Yoshi then needs to retrieve him before enemy Toadies come along and steal him away. It creates a very different dynamic to the other games in the series. Egg throwing also creates lots of new types of puzzle.

What also sets this apart from the other games in the series, is that everything is designed with a sort of hand-drawn aesthetic. There are lots of bright, vibrant colours and it looks as if it could have been sketched with crayons. It’s a nice look and there’s a particularly good soundtrack to accompany it. In terms of presentation, I feel the game does really well.

While in previous games, you’d face Koopas, Goombas, Thwomps and several other enemies that you’d come to expect by now, this game introduces several new enemies, such as the Ukikis and Raphael the Raven. They really tried hard to give this game its own unique identity – which is quite fitting, because it is essentially the first instalment in Yoshi’s own spin-off franchise.

It also introduces some bizarre new elements, like Yoshi’s ability to transform into a helicopter. It makes no real sense and is given no real explanation, but when it does happen, it changes up the gameplay in nice ways and I find it quite funny too. Other nice little bits include times when Baby Mario runs free without Yoshi.

It’s a good game all round and with a fair amount of replayability too (since there are lots of hidden collectables in each level.) I guess sometimes the game can be a little frustrating difficulty-wise and I do wish that it had had a map screen like the last Super Mario World game. But, overall, it’s a good experience (and without spoiling it, it has a great final boss too.) A good start for Yoshi’s own platforming series.

Rating: 8.8/10

Buy it here.