Mirror of Fate, Yoshi's New Island

I traveled back home in a daze yesterday. As always the trip from Cubao to Olongapo via Victory Liner was a mix of ice and fire. I can't blame them after all the disclaimers they posted on their glass windows saying that all buses are not exact time but what we expect of "not exact time" would be late or early for about 5 to ten minutes. Oh but no, they give us a whole hour waiting for a bus that's not even our designated bus yet.

Back at the terminal I wanted to cause havoc because of their service. But then I still got Harbor Point earlier than expected and there I browsed new games for the 3DS stacked on the shelves of Data Blitz.

There were a few new games in stock (but not exactly new as in newly released) including Bravely Default, and Yoshi's New Island. I've had my eyes on Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate since I got my 3DS not because it's an exceptionally well-made game for the Castlevania series but it's exactly the opposite of that.

After approval from my mom, I bought Yoshi's New Island and Mirror of Fate much to great disappointment the moment I play the two games.

Mirror of Fate has been widely criticized for its lack of originality and the fact that it diverted from the natural order of Igarashi's era in Castlevania. Yoshi's New Island on the other hand was a bad decision on my part because I bought it out of impulse when other Mario-related titles were on the shelf. Yoshi's New Island was a game for kids and the platforming challenge was stupidly easy. But I found myself playing it more than Mirror of Fate so that's a plus in Yoshi's part.

Here's my current observations after playing last night:

Castlevania: LoS: MoF

Ups:
+ Harder than previous installments
+ Returns to the traditional style of Castlevania
+ Detailed design

Downs:
- too straightforward even if the story is split to three different POVs
- core mechanics of the game makes it a GoW, DMC ripoff
- though the features may speak traditional Castlevania of magic and sub-weapons, the system used in later installments such as the ability-system, soul-system and glyph system overshadows that of Lords of Shadow (lol, pun intended)
- diverts from the established story of Castlevania that Koji Igarashi and his team made
- exploration is too simplified and is in favor of progress and not discovery
- gives the player too many pats in the back because of easy leveling system and repetitive tasks

so far?

Worst Castlevania that I've played. The long name itself is already a turnoff and the fact that it's not from IGA and his team begs the question - what in Wallachia is this game?

*BUY IT - if you're a die hard fan of the series and miss the feel of kicking dracula's bloodless butt in his own throne.
*DON'T BUY IT - if you're a die hard fan of the series who's waiting for the BATTLE OF 1999 game. Seriously how dare this game use the name of Castlevania.

Yoshi's New Island

Ups:

+ childish design matches the atmosphere of the story quite well

+ The green dinosaur is back in his own game after eight years

+ good game for small intervals of resting from other games with intense action

Downs:

- the game is too easy

- the core mechanics of the game gets old after a while, there's really nothing notably new here and the first Yoshi

- for 1795 PhP, it's a total waste

- it's basically Mario platforming but Yoshi is the main character

*BUY IT - if you enjoyed the first game and want more of Yoshi

*DONT BUY IT - if you're not into simple games with little to no challenge at all