Virtua Tennis 4 World Tour: completed!

Long time no see.  How have you been?

I’ve played lots of games.  I’m some way into Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood now, and I’ll write more about that soon.  But what I’ve been playing most has been Virtua Tennis on the Vita.  I’ve been through the world tour mode two and a half times now, winning major tournaments, and have unlocked all the skill games and playing styles.  I’ve completed the arcade mode multiple times.  I’ve played the game not just to completion, but almost to boredom.

It’s a really great game, which has surprised me since I’ve never found the previous VT games that involving.  But, you know, it’s a tennis game.  There’s not much more to say.

Virtua Tennis 4 World Tour: almost famous

Actually, very famous indeed. I’ve been playing this on my commute for quite some time, and am almost at the end of my second trip through the World Tour mode.

After an initial run of multiple losses in the arcade mode, I decided to try some of the practice modes and start World Tour on the ‘casual’ difficulty.  I was having no fun losing 15-40 0-40, after all.  World Tour is represented by a map where you must travel through countries stopping at practice sessions, publicity events, single matches, side tournaments and larger tournaments, building up your fame, condition, skills and money.  Each turn you get given a new move ticket to your collection of three, meaning that you can choose how many spaces to progress (and hopefully missing out on injury spaces).  At various points you can choose which path to take.

I quickly got into the swing (hah!) of the game, and won matches as a matter of course.  I got through the tournaments and won with few points against me.  I completed the whole World Tour mode after a couple of weeks, and started again immediately.

Metrico: completed!

I did indeed decide to finish this off one evening, only to find that the coloured light sections lasted for about five minutes.  Once I realised that the rest of the game was commute-compatible, I left it until I was next on a train.

The final levels were tricky, but not impossible.  The most difficult one was right near the end, where you had to jump over a platform rather than landing on it in order to ensure victory – and then shoot towards a wall then jump onto a platform that would rise once your shots reached the creature you generated by landing.

And then the ending, where you are again presented with two doors, and I just couldn’t work out what to do to get either to open.  The pie chart didn’t help, either.

I spent ages on the train trying to get the doors to settle down – but everything I did seemed to reset the world to the initial state.  I tried standing still, and the world got more fuzzy, but every now and again it reset.  I jumped, I shot, I tilted the console, I tried to reset the level, and nothing worked.

Of course, nothing was going to work.  I imagine you’ve seen where I’m going with this.  In order for the yellow door to appear, you are meant to not do anything for a couple of minutes.  Sitting on a train which was moving meant that I couldn’t get that to happen.

So, once again, played at home and completed.  I am getting a bit annoyed at Vita games being unplayable on a commute.

Metrico: not an infographic

Metrico is a puzzle platform game.  Your actions – jumping, throwing, falling – make different parts of the world move, such as bars and lines that sort of resemble graphs.  This bars and lines often have percentages or fractions attached to them.  The trick for each puzzle is working out how to manipulate the moving parts in just the right way to let you get to the other side of the world – for example, you may need to land on a certain pad to make a bar move out of the way, but the action of jumping causes another bar to fall across the exit.

It’s a very stylised game, and many compare to to an infographic.  This is reinforced by the official Twitter account publishing various statistics and links to interesting information.  The thing is, it’s not.

Each of the six worlds I’ve uncovered so far has a new gameplay mechanic.  At first, you could only move left and right and jump.  After that came the ability to throw (using the triggers or front touch screen), then the ability to aim using the back touch pad.  The worlds are visually quite striking, and many move away from the flat-colour approach making this even less like an infograph.

Some of the puzzles have caused me to pause for a while, but none have been impossible.  There are a couple I’ve encountered so far where even after working out the methodology, it’s been difficult to implement, which has annoyed me a bit.

But that hasn’t annoyed me as the shoehorning of the Vita’s motion controls and camera.  Hooray, another potable game I can’t play on the train.  Throughout World 4 you have to rotate the Vita in different directions to move the bars, and it’s taken me a week to get around to doing these levels because it’s not practical to do them during my commute – you know, the time I actually play portable games.

And then you get to World 6, which I’ve worked out needs you to hold the Vita camera up to a specific colour and hold the button down.  Strangely I don’t carry red, green and blue bulbs with me on the train.

It’s a shame, since it’s a clever game and has made me think a few times about how to progress.  Maybe I’ll get around to completing it one evening.

Gaming moments: E

Essential Sudoku DS (DS)

After competing 999 picross puzzles, there was one left.  Surely the pinnacle of difficulty, it’s surely going to be a trophy or medal or
something special.  Oh no, it’s really easy and it’s a pie chart.  A bloody pie chart.

Earth Defense Force 2017 (Xbox 360)

Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable (PS Vita)

Both games have many highlights, but the thing I will remember most is
the mission in which you are sent into battle against the massive
walking fortress.  I destroyed more of the city than the fortress did
while trying to attack it, and finally the mission ends with you
withdrawing because your weapons aren’t powerful enough.  Sorry I broke
the Space Needle for nothing, guys.

Exit (PSP)

One of the characters you have to rescue is very fat. I called him
Fatty.  I pushed boxes onto him.  He died.

Ecolibrium (PS Vita)

Playing on the train, on the tutorial.  And then the game requires me to
look around 180 degrees with my Vita to see the animals behind me.  Not
going to happen; never loaded up again.

Endless Ocean (Wii)

I recently went back to this as part of the “Au Revoir Nintendo Wi-Fi
Connection” drive, which was pointless as the only online mode it has is
to connect to a friend who is simultaneously playing the game; that will
never have happened.  Anyway, during my brief play I watched the most
stilted and awkward cutscene ever made.

EyeToy: Play (PS2)

Accompanying the cleaning suds game with “When I’m Cleaning Windows” was
a work of genius. 

Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable: they're spitting acid!

It’s just like the 360 game.  That’s great.  I’ve played the first ten levels on normal, and am now trying them on harder difficulties just to try and find better weapons.  I’m dying a lot.

Wipeout 2048: hitting the sides

This is a stunning game, with possibly too much going on at a time for me to cope with.  I’ve only completed a few events so far, with slow ships and easy opponents, but I’m finding it tricky to keep on the track without hitting the sides.  It doesn’t help that I can’t remember which button the airbrake is on; I keep expecting there to be two different triggers, and then my finger waves in mid-air while my ship hits the wall.

I still feel that it’s not as good as Wipeout 3 Special Edition, but that’s likely nostalgia talking.

Tearaway: lots of bugs

On the way home last night, the majority of people got off the train two stops before me.  I saw my chance to progress in Tearaway, so got the Vita out and turned it on; it’s great that I can be back in the game within a couple of seconds, something we’ve taken for granted since the DS and PSP.

I pressed Y to record a sound, called “hello” into the microphone, and nothing happened.  Surely it can’t actually recognise a roar?  I pressed Y again and growled into the mic.  Again, nothing.  No matter what i did, the game didn’t recognise that I’d made a sound.

I wondered if there was too much background noise.  I waited until I got into the car, and tried again.  No luck.  Nothing I did let me either cancel the request for a sound or record anything.  Searching the Internet today, it seems that there’s a bug in the game, which should theoretically be solved by completely turning off the system and then restarting.  I’ll try that tonight.

Tearaway: lots of idiocy

The PS Vita is a portable system – just about, admittedly, since it’s bigger than a PSP and won’t fit into a normal pocket.  Still, it’s got an integrated screen and headphone socket, so it’s ideal to play on the train during my commute.  With Tearaway you do look a bit daft from time to time when you start to prod the back of the console and use the touchscreen, but nobody looks at you on the train so that’s fine.

People can, however, hear you.  I’m sure I’m not the only person to play Tearaway on the train – in fact, I’m sure some of the developers of the game must get a train from time to time and play their 3DS or Vita on board.  Did nobody at any point in the development process think that it might not be such a great idea to include a bit in the game where you have to shout into your console?

There’s no way to skip this and use a default noise, you have to record yourself (and it won’t accept just background noise, either).  Needless to say, I’m not going to do that on the train, and as I can hardly do it in the office either I’m not going to be able to play the game on my way home either.

Idiots.

Little Deviants: dull

Gosh, it looks zany exciting fun, doesn’t it?  The main character’s goofy face just screams originality, and the over-complicated colours and textures just go to reinforce this as a game full of vibrancy and enjoyment.  You get to roll your little ball around the courses, avoiding the robots and darting between posts when the electricity stops.  But, in case that doesn’t sound amazing enough, you have to do it by manipulating the ground around the ball, pushing it up using the touch panel.  Don’t use any method of control which actually puts you in control, instead let’s make sure the game is as frustrating to play as possible.

I understand that the “new game” I unlocked is actually something completely different to play, and this is in fact a collection of minigames to show off the capabilities of the Vita.  All it’s done is convince me that the back trackpad doesn’t work as a control method, and also that I don’t really want to play Little Deviants any more.