Ubisoft's shadow over Assassin's Creed
Plus Tony Hawk, a fishy take on Wingspan and Kirby goes 3D.
Hello there! With only a little more than a week to go before the Nintendo Switch 2’s big coming out party, I hope you have your Big N Bingo cards ready. Will we see any blue ocean grabs in the vein of Nintendo Land or 1-2-Switch? Will Miyamoto appear? Does Metroid go cross-generation? And will we see Mario?! Alright fine, you don’t get points for Mario.
This week we’re talking Assassin’s Creed, Tony Hawk and Finspan, plus we’re finishing off our month-long Kirby retrospective. Let’s gooo!
Flower, bird, wind, moon, and futuristic DNA analysis
By Tim
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the most I’ve enjoyed a game in this series for a long time, perhaps ever. I loved Black Flag, and really enjoyed Odyssey though I wasn’t sure about the series’ shift to full-on RPG gameplay at the time. But the specific setting, stories and gameplay style of the latest entry just speaks to me. The tweaks and settings available are granular enough that I can get that assassin power fantasy without making it too easy, I really like the refined version of the Ubisoft assault-the-enemy-base mechanic, and the objective-finding system is pretty clearly just wallpaper over the common criticism that the games are endless checklists that show you exactly where to go next, but it’s fun wallpaper.
The overall style and presentation is a nice surprise too. Where I expected it to be pretty dour and serious (and it is for the most part), it has a Kurasawa samurai movie vibe that really works, paired with a beautiful setting, a shifting seasons systems and heaps of culture to take in. Is it original? Absolutely not. But it’s taking inspiration from stuff that rules, and that’s fine. An unexpected vocal track for a dramatic sequence here, an interactive objective screen showing the 12 evil ronin you need to assassinate there, and a smattering of stab-the-silhouette-through-the-shoji style killings are all you really need for a good pulpy 1500s Japan adventure.
But as someone who only kinda keeps up with the series, I can’t believe we’re still doing the Abstergo stuff. I do understand that if you remove the DNA memory stuff, the modern day sci-fi elements, and the Assassins vs Templars overarching story, you could argue that each game is no longer related to the others and shouldn’t even be called Assassin’s Creed. But I will also not pretend that sounds like a bad thing to me.
I haven’t finished Shadows yet, but every time it reminds me about Assassins and Templars, or I see some other evidence that this is all a blood hallucination that we’re viewing through some VR supercomputer, I can’t help but feel the game would be better without it.
On a similar note, the Animus launcher is not as egregiously greedy as I had expected, with its current battle passes offered for free, and the links to other AC entries merely launching those games. But it does give me the impression that the real reason the modern day story framing is still around is that it’s a super convenient way to justify whatever plans Ubisoft has for ongoing monetization and exploitation of its committed fan base.
What to play
New on Game Pass is Octopath Traveller II, an essential and beautiful modern turn-based RPG that you can enjoy without any knowledge of the original (which is also on Game Pass). There’s also an early access version of the 33-player dungeon-crawling rougelike 33 Immortals, plus Train Sim World 5 for all you rail sickos, and cosy Greek god adventure Mythwrecked. Also keep an eye out in the next day or two for Blizzard Arcade Collection, which is an excellent set of three 16-bit games, each presented in their Nintendo and Sega versions as well as a new “definitive” edition. The highlight is Blackthorne, one of my (Tim’s) all-time favourites, but shout out to Rock ‘n’ Roll Racing also.
Free on the Epic Games Store this week is dinosaur park management sim Jurassic World Evolution 2. It’s good fun, and it’s hard to beat free.
Skating nostalgia
By Alice
As a kid, I played an unreasonable amount of Tony Hawk games. Like all kids in the late 90s/early 2000s I had always wanted to be good at skateboarding. I saved up my pocket money and bought a lime green skateboard when I was 12, and it was so great until I remembered that I lived halfway up an extremely steep mountain, and had no access to a skatepark. I still have that skateboard in my father’s house.
So, playing Tony Hawk became the next best thing. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 was the one I played the most, but I also inhaled Tony Hawk 3. I would stay up late and ride around the Suburbia level again and again, listening to AFI, Bodyjar and Alien Ant Farm while trying to complete it all.
The soundtrack was iconic, the drive to unlock absolutely everything was relentless, and it was one of those cultural moments you just had to live through.
Sadly, I never got to play Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4, because my Gateway PC wasn’t powerful enough to handle it.
So, the announcement earlier this month that a remastered Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4 is coming to consoles in July this year was, essentially, Christmas. The last remaster of 1+2 was absolutely brilliant, with the game looking and playing exactly how I’d remembered it (meaning it was much, much better than it was originally, but lived up to my remastered nostalgia memories).
What I want from the game is the full 1+2 treatment. All the levels, all the characters, and everything else from the original games included, with a couple of nice extras (that fit seamlessly with the original stuff). A few extra songs on the playlist would be nice, but not required.
Then, hopefully in another few years we can get the remasters of Underground 1+2, followed by some of the Shaun White games, because why not?
Bricks, Boards and Beginnings
by Alice
I love Wingspan. You don’t rack up 570 hours of a board game on Steam without really loving it a lot, or having something a bit wrong with you, and I am a very capable multitasker.
So, when Finspan was announced, it instantly became my most anticipated game of the year. Luckily, it came out in January, because I am impatient.
As the name suggests, Finspan is the fish version of Wingspan. Rather than just being “Wingspan, but wetter”, the game’s format has been rejigged to be more forgiving to players. Wingspan can be a bit harsh if your hand sucks, and there are some ways to snipe your opponents.
In Finspan, it’s easier to get resources, play fish, and obtain new fish, plus there’s a bigger way of getting points that is more in the player’s control. There are more ways to strategise aside from just trying to get certain types of fish/birds.
I don’t think I will ever play Finspan as much as I did Wingspan, purely because of the trauma bond I have with Wingspan (played daily during the lockdowns). However, I do think that Finspan is that game I will use to introduce people to the ‘Span games.
To compare the games in the ‘Span series to those in another, I would say that Finspan is the equivalent of Azul Summer Pavilion (similar mechanics to the original, but a bit kinder and encourages a stronger focus on your own board), and Wyrmspan (the dragon version) is closer to Azul Queen’s Garden (a lot more going on, a bit harder to learn, but really satisfying to master).
One of the things I love about the ‘Span games is how much replay value you can get out of them. There are so many different strategies, and different combinations of goals to use that I don’t think I’ll have the full sense of Finspan until I’ve played another dozen or two times.
If you enjoyed Wingspan, or have been curious about these games, I strongly recommend Finspan.
Retro Esoterica
by Tim
Kirby part 4
So far this month we’ve covered all of the pixel-based goodness of Kirby’s first 20 years. But try as they might, HAL couldn’t avoid polygons forever, and the pink puff ball had to become a puff sphere at some point. Or a polyhedron, as was the case for 2000’s Kirby 64.
I feel this game is unfairly maligned. It sticks to a 2D plane so was regarded as old-fashioned in 2000, but it features ugly 3D graphics that make it less appealing today. It’s once again a breezy adventure with a more difficult true ending, this time requiring you to collect 100 crystals on your journey in order to face O2, the blood-dripping angelic source of all Dark Matter. But the real appeal of the game is the copying; there are only seven abilities, but you can absorb two at a time to power them up or create combinations. Some are powerful, like the flaming sword (fire+cutter), while others are ridiculous, like the walking fridge (ice+spark).
Kirby platformers skipped the Gamecube generation, as the series went primarily handheld as covered last week. But series creator Masahiro Sakurai did direct Kirby’s Air Ride, an experimental 2003 racing game that is mechanically extremely simple, but includes the suite of hidden objectives and unlockables that would become part of the DNA of the Smash Bros series, as well as an interesting open exploration “City Trial” mode.
When side-scrolling Kirby did return to console after a decade it was in the outrageously adorable Epic Yarn, developed by Good Feel for Wii. Evoking Dream Land 3’s aesthetic focusing on charm above challenge, it’s a singular distillation of the Kirby attitude despite not being made by the original team and not featuring traditional copy abilities at all. Hearing the music makes my heart feel warm to this day.
And finally, rounding out the mascot’s first two decades, HAL took a second stab at the 2.5D platformer in Return to Dreamland (or Kirby’s Adventure Wii). It sports a generic look as far as Kirby is concerned, but it’s undoubtedly an improved take on the 64 design, featuring four-player co-op and a host of new abilities.