The Asian Power Hour

So it's been a while since I've posted, and I'm gonna aim to make a change starting....now. That being said, I'm sure most people that watch TV even remotely aimed at the gamer community has seen these two commercials:

Now, I was playing the demo for Hail to the Chimp when I stumbled across this absolutely brilliant little spoof:

As for the game itself, the closet I can come to is a toned down version of Powerstone from the old Dreamcast days. The maps are all interactive and come with a variety of traps and widgets strewn about, but there are no items that can be picked up, only one time use powerups. The goal of each stage is to basically collect more clams than anyone else and hold on to the lead for set amount of time. Players can also beat said clams out of each other, or lose them by falling prey to dangerous obstacles.

I've talked about this little exercise I do often, where I list the top 5 things I like and dislike about a game and then a short suggestion often, but I haven't posted them up much. Well, starting now, I'm going to start putting up these little snippets. Here we go!

5 things I like about Hail to the Chimp:
1. The writing is hilariously brilliant throughout the entire game. The entire game is satire based around a CNN like news show complete with well written commercials (see above) and political attack ads. The commentary and fake news stories presented by the reporters kept me simply thumbing through stages and sitting on the screen to hear what they had to say. Simply amazing.

2. Simple controls, no special attack button, your next normal attack that hits is whatever powerup you picked up. This also goes for the team up attacks, which are easy to execute.

3. Characters with personality. Although I'm pretty sure this fits into no.1, I feel that, story-wise, each character is pretty well rounded and has a unique take and angle in the Hail to the Chimp world. It's also nice that you can further customize your characters with extra costume pieces, titled "flair".

4. The visuals all feel very organic and complementary to the plot, this includes the brilliant GRR (CNN) interface design that is carried out consistently throughout the game.

5. The sound design in games is well done, with the commentator cluing in players to what to watch out for, who's in the lead, and what players should team up in a very natural way. This also enables players to not look at the "numbers" (how many clams they have, etc) of other players or themselves.

5 things I dislike about Hail to the Chimp:
1. Controls are too simple. There's really not much to do except punch, punch, punch. It's fun for a while, but it gets old. By adding a simple special attack button like in smash bros, but bolstering it with visual flair, I think a lot could be added to this game.

2. Characters feel unbalanced. After playing through each of the characters in the demo, I felt that, because of the simplified controls and the clam collection premise, the biggest attribute that characters could have would be speed. And with the speediest character, I easily outclassed the other players by leaps and bounds. This also goes with attacks, what good is the big guy with the strong attack if a normal hit from the fastest guys with a weak attack still knocks clams out of him? It's not about doing damage to other players, but getting clams. This is merely a demo, so there are probably other game types to balance this out (A life bar and lives seem to be missing, even in this mode though). However, just from the demo, I did not get a good feeling from this.

3. Stages are not interactive enough. The thing that made a game like Powerstone compelling was that in the stages, things would be constantly shifting (like the airship drop stage) or moving. The stages would have multiple parts that would continue to evolve throughout the match. Also, parts of the stage were not only destructible, but there were a variety of things that could be picked up (like parts of the stage) that would have special effects. Especially if Hail to the Chimp is branding itself as a party game, I think there needs to be more of these "random, chaotic" game elements to make it more fun and appealing. Take the case of Smash Bros., the difference between a casual game and a hardcore game is there simply by turning on and off the items.

4. Game modes, and how the players are unbalanced by them. This was covered in no. 2 also. I'd have to wait for the full game to reserve judgment fully on this item. However, it does tell me that the Clam Collection style of gameplay will be dominated by the faster characters. And that's a huge imbalance already. The characters are so well rounded story-wise, it would be nice to see some of that balance put into special moves that would equalize the playing field on all game-modes.

5. The flair and customization is great, but...what does it do? I mean, I can't really see it anyways when I'm playing the game, just in the customization screen. They look cool, but they don't really do anything, and I wouldn't feel compelled to collect them unless I was a hardcore completionist. I'm assuming they're unlocked through more play through multiplayer, but mostly campaign mode. If each item did something, like adding extra power at the cost of speed, longer reach, make your team up attacks last longer if both players had the item, etc. It would be nice. Something that would spice up the very basic gameplay.

After looking at the game and the 39.99 price tag. It seems fun, and is pretty damn hilarious, but there's not enough meat in the gameplay to warrant a buy until around 20.00, and I'd have to be pretty bored or have a bunch of friends over even for that. Just goes to show you, as much as I love clever writing < solid mechanics.