This week I’ve found myself short of spare time, so I didn’t
play many games. But I get to talk more at length about the games I did play,
so here they are:
The main game I played was Star Wars: X Wing. I talked about
this last week, but I’ve been getting really in to it again because of how the
game plays. It is a space flight simulator; there’s all sorts of different
controls and buttons and you have to use most of them at some point in order to
succeed. It’s challenging for a number of reasons, the main one being the power
distribution system, but it’s not insurmountable and is still a lot of fun.
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| I'm pretty sure this is the edition of X-Wing I am playing... |
I beat the A-Wing proving ground: a track where you have to
fly through gates and shoot targets, some of which shoot back. The track is the
same layout no matter what ship you’re in. There are eight levels you have to
beat in order to gain the reward for it; a flight badge. You have a limited
amount of time to beat it, which gets progressively smaller as you beat the
levels. If you miss a gate, you incur a penalty of 15 seconds; for some of the
middle levels, that’s disastrous. Also, the targets shoot more aggressively in
the later levels, and in the last one, they even shoot you from behind – but if
you shoot them, you gain 2 extra seconds to complete the level. There are
certain stages that are all but impossible to beat without this.
The challenges in the proving ground are more or less
substantial depending on what ship you are flying. The middle tier levels have
the tightest time and usually present a significant challenge, but less so with
the A-Wing as it moves fast enough for time to be less of a consideration. It
doesn’t do such a good job at boosting its shields though, and for that reason,
the later levels with the more aggressive targets were more challenging. If
your systems start to shut down then you’re in trouble; if your guns are taken
out then you can’t fire back, if your shields are knocked out you’ll be
destroyed in seconds, and if your flight control or engine goes then you lose a
lot of time getting them repaired. Despite all this it was a surprising amount
of fun addressing the different challenges each level presents, knowing that
there is way to beat it if you can only get it right.
I also enjoyed the A-Wing historical missions; they’re less challenging
and a relaxing change of pace. Here’s where a lot of the genius of the game
design comes in to play: The missions rarely take more than a few minutes to
beat, and you can play through them quite quickly, but there is a reward for
each one. It’s a graphic of a badge on a display uniform; not much in itself,
but because the game shows you a tangible reward for doing these training
missions, you have the incentive to beat them all.
I started the main campaign mode as well. More on that next
week!
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| These hornets are a threat at the beginning. Not for long... |
I also progressed with Final Fantasy II. I love the Final
Fantasy games but rarely see one through to the end; the first game is the only
one where I’ve managed it so far. I’m having a lot of fun with it, and I’ve arrived
at the point where I’m heading for Mysidia Tower. I’m playing it on my Gameboy
Advance, although I find that the game is best enjoyed when I have my phone to
hand. I don’t know whether it’s a design error in this edition of the game, but
whatever command is supposed to display the world map isn’t working! I’ve had
to call up an image of the world map come up on more than one occasion so I can
see where I’m supposed to go. The game itself isn’t all that challenging,
although I am aware that the difficulty level was re-balanced for the GBA editions.
So, what’s next? More of the same, or will I try a different
game? Will I even have time? We’ll see…
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