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Ivy the Kiwi? |OT| of Helping Baby Birds
- Thread starter Volcynika
- Start date
nincompoop
Banned
I've really been enjoying this a lot. Drawing and swing vines around with the Wii remote feels extremely natural and makes the game a joy to control, especially when you get really good at it. The game has a real nice difficulty curve and gets very tough by the end, especially if you try to collect all the feathers. (I could actually see the later levels being harder on the DS version, since the stylus would presumably get in the way and make it harder to see/react to the obstacles.) I was worried at first that the game would be too short, but as a completionist there's plenty of content to keep me occupied for a while; I've collected the feathers on all 100 levels and I'm now working on getting a gold medal on each level. The only thing I really didn't like was the levels where you had to carry a boulder around; managing both Ivy and the boulder at the same time was more frustrating than fun. Other than that, the game has been well worth the price of admission.
TheJollyCorner
Member
some disconnect in my brain makes me always read that as Ivan the Kiwi... :lol
It's kind of interesting to note that the DS version actually does feel like the weaker of the two now that I'm way into the Wii version. There's probably still nothing objectively wrong with it, but the physics feel a little different (i.e. Ivy seems to want to about-face on an upward slope much more readily; she'll try hard to climb it on Wii) and I'm not at all a fan of the lack of explicit vine-grabI'm pulling existing vines quite a bit when I mean to be stretching new.
A Human Becoming
More than a Member
This game gets brutal, especially if you want all the feathers. I'm up to 9-5 and if I understand correctly I'm only halfway done. Having doubts I'll complete it.
ICallItFutile said:
You're only 5-6 levels away from the end of the game proper. There's a bonus mode containing 50 levels remixed from the first that unlocks after that, which basically takes the same level structures and adds more hazards as well as a key you must collect to unlock the goal. (Also added: a bit more time in which do all this.)
If you're trying to get all 10 feathers at the outset, you don't have toyou can always go back and collect them in the stage mode. Though one of these days I think I'm going to try for a 100% pure run
nincompoop
Banned
I have gold medals now on the first 50 stages. The game also tracks your time for completing the game with all feathers (which is just the sum of your best times for each individual stage, so you don't need to do it in one shot) and even gives you a medal for your overall time, but getting a gold for that seems extremely hard as my overall time of 34:53 is only good enough for a silver even though I have gold on each individual stage and I don't see too much room for improvement on most of the stages.
nincompoop
Banned
Just got the gold medal for the main game. Looks like the cutoff time is 34 minutes. It actually wasn't as bad as I expected, since the later levels apparently have more lenient gold medal times so it was easy to improve my times on those levels. You don't get anything extra for getting a gold medal for the main game though. Next I'll have to work on the bonus game, but I might put that on hold since I finally got Other M today.
Nuclear Muffin
Banned
So my game FINALLY arrived! I'm up to world 5 and loving it so far
A Human Becoming
More than a Member
zigg said:You're only 5-6 levels away from the end of the game proper. There's a bonus mode containing 50 levels remixed from the first that unlocks after that, which basically takes the same level structures and adds more hazards as well as a key you must collect to unlock the goal. (Also added: a bit more time in which do all this.)
If you're trying to get all 10 feathers at the outset, you don't have toyou can always go back and collect them in the stage mode. Though one of these days I think I'm going to try for a 100% pure run
I did go back to a few of the stages to get the feathers. Yeah I thought the other 50 were more new stages. I was going to try to get all the feathers in the first 50 levels, but I ended up only got 40/50 . Overall a good game that thankfully doesn't overstay its welcome. Any longer and I would have bailed.
Allan Holdsworth
Member
Game looks good, but I'm unsure if to get the Wii or DS version.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
Spike said:
That looks awesome but at the same time I know I could never be that fluid with movements. :lol
Allan Holdsworth said:
I liked the feel of the DS version more in the short time I got to try it at E3, but since they sent the Wii version over for review, and I've poked a bit at the DS demo afterward, I'm of the opinion the Wii version is superior. Bigger viewing area, better feel, and the simple fact that pulling a vine to snap it is on a separate button all add up to the better buy.
Plus, it was always the original version. The Windows Mobile and DS versions are ports.
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
Well, I'm not that good, but there are actually a number of things the player in those videos does that I can do pretty well. The circle-sweep move in particular is very useful. It's just that you hear a lot more squeaky vine noises when I do it as I finagle the vine into the right spot :lol
Suzuki Yu said:
Yeah, sadly, that's kinda to be expected with most XSEED releases. But ordering from Amazon is really quite painless... worst part is waiting for it to show up.
I was talking to another of our writers last night, who had actually bought the DS version, and she's getting pretty frustrated with it, actually. More fuel for the superior version fire, I guess. I'm curious whether anyone here got the DS version and has been having an unadulteratedly great time with it.
crazy monkey
Banned
game looks very beautiful .
Volcynika said:
Yeah, that's my deal with it too, at least what little bit I've poked at. Once I started playing the Wii version at a higher level, this really started to get on my nerves on the DS.
EmmanuelMunoz said:
Like I said when I saw them, it's not far off from what I do (though much more polished), and I'm no gaming savant or anything. It's all about sweeping with the vines.
Hero of Legend
Member
You know what'd be awesome?
If Prope ported Ivy to the 3DS, and if Naka's such a fantastic programmer, how come he doesn't do much programming it seems? Imagine what he could pull-off on the 3DS!
So that Ivy can team up with Cubic Ninja which is potentially by Ohshima.
And THEN have XSEED localize both (being owned by AQI after all).
OH SNAP!
If Prope ported Ivy to the 3DS, and if Naka's such a fantastic programmer, how come he doesn't do much programming it seems? Imagine what he could pull-off on the 3DS!
So that Ivy can team up with Cubic Ninja which is potentially by Ohshima.
And THEN have XSEED localize both (being owned by AQI after all).
OH SNAP!
Starwolf_UK
Member
The same reason a sporting star goes on to become a coach rather than returning as a player after retiring (though in the case of Naka I guess being dragged into director/management meant he couldn't keep learning programming and the skills needed now have changed too much).Hero of Legend said:
That aside, buying a European copy of the game nets a 10p donation to the Save the Kiwi Trust. The game might be plagued with the normal rising star games supply problems though as I couldn't find any copies in my local shed sized Gamestation store (though to be honest I didn't try as it was packed full of people and I wanted to leave ASAP) and it is still up for pre-order on play.com. Amazon.co.uk are down to their last 5 copies of the Wii version.
Also you can see in the link how the EU boxart has changed. It used to have a "from the creator of sonic the hedgehog" written above the logo but I guess that has legal problems and it wasn't easy to see so they went the "from the creator of sonic" badge instead.
Finally, a demo of the DS version is up on the EU Nintendo channel. 5 stages and its up until 12th November (meaning I don't chance to play it as no wi-fi access for my Wii until late December).
nincompoop
Banned
If you're trying to play it like Canvas Curse and just using vines to create platforms for Ivy to walk on then you're doing it wrong. You should swing the vines around Ivy and use them to propel her in the direction you want her to go. Just a word of advice.
Herbspiceguy
Member
I've been keeping an eye on this game, yet I totally missed the PAL release.
I just ordered a copy through Ebay.
I just ordered a copy through Ebay.
Three is actually the most you want on-screen at any given time. If I end up with more than two that I am actively using, I've generally fucked something up.Wizpig said:
Sweep is the key here, and don't think you have to draw a vine in one motion--ease the other end into place fluidly to get the vine you need.
I do think the Wii version makes it a lot easier to achieve all this, though.