GB's 100 Games: 40-36

The list continues its' unstoppable march towards the mighty final ten games. As for todays' batch, one of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong.

40: Kirby and the Amazing Mirror
System: Game Boy Advance
Genre: Metroidvania
Developer: Dimps
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: October 18, 2004

Here's a game that tried something very different with the Kirby series. I've played a couple of the "weird" Kirby games and wasn't impressed - I prefer the standard platform- and ability-based gameplay. Amazing Mirror tweaks the Kirby formula without turning the game into something that isn't Kirby any more. Here, instead of traversing specific levels, you're thrown into a giant world with multiple branching paths, with the goal of finding all eight world bosses to open the path to the final confrontation. There's a map to help you plot out the right way to go, and a ton of hidden treasure chests to unlock music and alternate colors for Kirby.

Amazing Mirror is a victim of Angry American Kirby - the happy red Kirby with the phone was originally pink, and took center stage on the Japanese box. Here, his colors and position were swapped so the Kirby in front is the angry one. I really have no idea why they do this - it's still Kirby, and he's still the most adorable main character in gaming. Angry eyebrows won't change that.

39: Mortal Kombat Deception
System: GameCube
Genre: Fighting
Developer: Midway
Publisher: Midway
Released: March 1, 2005

Deception, the game that kame before Armageddon in the Mortal Kombat series, is a much better polished game for the most part (with the possible exception of Konquest, the single-player adventure mode). This is my favorite entrant in the series. I'm not particularly good at standard fighting games, but MKD is perfectly playable and beatable for genre newbies, and it's got that klassic Mortal Kombat cheese.

The roster is large and varied, and there's a whole mess of gameplay modes - aside from the oddly fun Konquest, there's also Chess Kombat (a more strategic way to fight), Puzzle Kombat (A falling-blocks puzzle game), and of course the standard Arcade mode that has you go up the tower of opponents on your way to face the villain.

I have to give special praise to the Krypt, which is absolutely LOADED with unlockables and bonus kontent. There's a ton of interesting information about the game's development, with a boatload of koncept art and video klips. There's a ton of game here, and the Cube version even sweetens the pot by adding the series' two most iconic villains to the playable roster - Goro and Shao Khan.

This is a Big Dumb Vidya Game taken to the extreme, and it komes highly recommended for people who kan get behind some klassic blood spillage.

38: WarioWare Touched
System: Nintendo DS
Genre: Microgame
Developer: Intelligent Systems
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: February 14, 2005

For reasons I cannot comprehend, the PAL version of this box is a bright yellow while the North American box is orange.

In WarioWare Touched you're tasked with clearing hundreds of "microgames", extremely short minigames (usually under five seconds) that require some ridiculous task to be performed, giving you only one word of instructions - you need to quickly figure out what you're supposed to do, and then do it. You do this over and over, faster and faster, until reaching a non-timed boss stage that requires more thought. Upon clearing that, you unlock more stages as well as an "endless" mode for the stage you just cleared, and each stage has unique microgames built around a theme.

The WarioWare series has descended into "show off Nintendo's latest dumb gimmick" territory, and although that started here Touched was still a pretty addictive game and I spent a lot of time on it in the early days of the DS.

37: Final Fantasy IV
System: Game Boy Advance
Genre: RPG
Developer: Squaresoft
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: December 12, 2005

The fourth Final Fantasy game (and the second to be released outside of Japan) follows the story of Cecil the dark knight as he tries to redeem himself for past misdeeds and save the earth from the shadowy and deadly Golbez. Also involved are a town full of black and white mages and the Four Fiends - a new set, not the four from the first game.

FF4 is notable for introducing a new battle system to the series. Unlike the craptastic Final Fantasy 2, this system was well-received and got tweaked and updated many times throughout the series. The system, called ATB (for "Active Time Battle"), eschews the turn-based battling of other RPGs at the time in favor of enemies that attack more often if their agility is higher. The playable characters each have a bar that fills up over time, and when it is full they can be given a command, and some commands, like casting a spell, take longer to prepare than a basic attack or using an item. The battles therefore revolve largely around knowing when to attack and how to time attacks and defense properly. People who aren't fans of the first three games' basic combat may find something to like here.

The original game suffered massive cuts to its' script and dungeons due to the developers not having enough space on the cartridge, which explains why there are so many remakes of this game. If paired with Final Fantasy IV: The After Years and the bonus content found in the GBA and PSP versions, the full game finally takes shape (albeit not quite as originally envisioned).

36: Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
System: Nintendo 64
Genre: Platformer
Developer: HAL Laboratory
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: June 26, 2000

While not the first N64 game I ever played (that would be either Pokemon Snap or Mario 64), Kirby 64 was the first game I owned for my own N64. Yeah, I got one late.

Kirby 64 is notable for several reasons: It's one of the few Kirby titles not developed by Masahiro Sakurai (he provided sound effects for King Dedede though). It's also Kirby's only N64 game (not counting his Smash Brothers appearance) and there's not an angry eyebrow to be found.

Kirby was a great first N64 game - to ease me into the world of 3D games, K64 is a 2.5D platformer that doesn't use the analog stick, instead being one of the few N64 games to put focus on the system's good but oft-overlooked D-Pad.

Gameplay is very similar to Kirby's Dreamland 3, with a lot of elements lifted from that game. Ado returns in the form of Adeleine, Dark Matter and Zero are once again the main antagonists, and instead of each level having some obscure task to complete, they instead feature three crystals Kirby has to collect - sometimes by just finding them, other times by solving a puzzle or using the right ability. There's also a set of collectible cards featuring every enemy in the game to add some replay value (plus some background characters and the bosses, but oddly there aren't any cards for the hero characters) and three goofy minigames to play.

Originally, you were going to be able to play as Adeleine, Dedede, and Waddle Dee, but only Kirby (and Dedede in three short areas) are playable in the final version outside of the mini-games.