Pipe Mania (DS)

 1990's Pipe Dream was a favourite of mine among the games inclided in the thirty-two game Game Boy multicart I had as a kid and I know there's probably been a ton of updates and sequels and so on, with or without the approval of the original developers, but this one (which does seem to be official) is the only one I've played. It's something of a mixed bag, being a true sequel in the sense that it builds upon the game's concept with a lot of new ideas that really add to the formula, but it also implements some more modern structural ideas of which I'm less fond. And somewhere in the middle is an idea that makes the game worse (though it's mostly optional). In case you're not familiar with the concept, you have to lay down pieces of pipe in different shapes (randomly given to you like the pieces in Tetris), to direct the flow of a liquid from one place to another, usually with a quota of spaces it has to pass through first.

 

To get the good stuff out of the way first, there's generous helpings of it. In the game's main mode, the stages are split into different areas, each with its own aesthetic and its own substance whose flow you have to direct: whether it's chemicals through pipes, trains on tracks, electricity through coils, toys on factory conveyor belts, or data through cables, they all look great, each having their own unique and appeallingly-drawn pixel art tilesets. Each area has their own set of mechanical gimmicks, too: teleporters, switches to redirect the flow, gates to split or re-combine the flow, and so on, and they all work to add variety and legitimate challenge to the stages. There were definitely a few points where I got a little frustrated, but I never felt like the game was unfairly designed, just that I was failing to solve the puzzles, and as a result: when I did get through those moments, it was as satisfying as it should be. I can't really fault this aspect of the game. Except, there's a boss fight for each area, where as well as the regular puzzle, you have a character sending various attacks to destroy or change the pipes you've laid. These parts are no fun, but luckily, you can progress through the game without bothering with them.

 

There's a couple of other modes to play, too. Arcade is one that plays with the format a little. Instead of static single-screen stages, this mode has autoscrolling stages, in which you have to keep the flow onscreen as well as in the pipes. It's an interesting idea, but I found it too stressful to really enjoy. There's also the slightly misnamed classic mode, which just has a whole bunch of traditional single screen A-to-B stages without the heavy gimmickry of the main mode. This is a perfectly decent mode to play, though it takes a more modern structure where each stage is played in isolation and also scored as such. It might sound like nitpicking to some, but the name "classic" had me hoping for a mode similar to the original game, where you play stage-to-stage until you get a game over or reach the ending, building up a singular score as you go.

 

That's a small issue, and the biggest downside of the game are the optional bossfights, but there's one more negative I have to bring up. While the game looks great while you're playing it, with the aforementioned beautiful pixels, all the menus and character designs are a world away from that. They're all this kind of incredibly cheap-looking simple vector art, that I assume were created with easy scalability in mind, since as well as the DS, there are versions of this game on PS2, PC, PSP, and Wii. Despite the few flaws I've pointed out, though, I still really enjoyed pipe Mania. I prefer the structure of the original Pipe Dream, so I'd recommend that one before Pipe Mania, but Pipe Mania is still a great time, and still worth playng.

Tiny Bullets (Playstation)

 

 Judging by the title, I really expected Tiny Bullets to be another one of those excellent 3D shooting games secretly hiding in the Playstation library, like Gungage and Cosmowarrior Zero. Instead, it's more of a combination of Tomb Raider's meticulous 3D platforming and Resident Evil's simple "put the item in the hole" puzzle-solving. Also, the player character looks like a babyfaced Sonic gijinka.

 

So, you play as this blue spiky kid, and you're exploring ruins and caves and such (though apparently, you're meant to be running an errand for your grandmother). There's some kind of plot involving an evil wizard and his henchmen who have cool bird-face helmets, as well as a friendly dragon and some other guy that you meet on your travels. So, you jump and climb and shimmy around, trying to get to the village where the shop selling Grandma's medicine is, and also not getting killed by monsters or evil goons or your own clumsiness.

 

The platforming itself is slow and clunky, but in a way that makes it feel deliberate and satisfying. You jump with X, and hang onto ledges by holding O. You can jump up to a ledge and hold O to grab it instead of falling back down, or you can hold O while walking off of a ledge to grab it while you drop down. You can also grab ahold of vertical poles/pipes/etc., and shimmy from side to side along them, and while hanging like this, you can swing bak and forth to do a long jump forward. I'm describing this stuff in such exhaustive detail because it's a big part of what the game entails, and it's all fun and satisfying. In fact, I do kind of wish Tiny Bullets more platforming and less puzzle-solving. And no combat.

 

The puzzle solving, as mentioned already, is Resident Evil-like in nature. Find a key to open a door. Find a fuse to turn on a machine. Put the coloured tiles in the right slots in the right order to activate the ancient secret thingy. That kind of thing. It's fine, but in a game like this where it clearly wasn't a high priority for the designers (as opposed to Resident Evil, where the puzzles clearly were a higher design priority, and are much more interesting as a result), these puzzles feel more like they're just a way of making the game consume more time, rather than entertaining challenges.

 

The combat, as has been vriefly alluded to already, is bad and even more of a chore than the puzzles. The controls for it are interesting, at least. Your weapon is a slingshot, and you hold R2 to point it, then O to shoot it. The game lets you hold L2 to look around in first person, and you can hold L2 and R2 together to aim and shoot like that, which at least is nice. You can shoot at things like gongs to activate stuff in the stages, too. The problem is that the enemies just kind of potter about, they'll probably get a hit or two in on you while you're aiming, and after a couple of shots they die. Also for some reason, despite the detailed aiming mechanics, most of the enemies don't take damage if you snipe them from a distance. Like the puzzles, the combat feels like padding, and while it's happening, you'd much rather be jumping and clambering and generally navigating the environment, and it's a shame the developers didn't concentrate more on that instead. 

 

Tiny Bullets is a game that I think, had it gotten a worldwide release, would be fondly-remembered part of a lot of childhoods. Without nostalgia, though, it can only really stand on its own, and unfortunately, the good parts (the controls and the generally great way it feels to move around in this game) are heavily overshadowed by the bad parts (the pointless puzzles and boring combat). Having said that, I do wonder how beloved it is among Japanese players. I've never seen or heard any references to it anywhere, though.