Demo Reviews

Hey guys. I'm sorry that I didn't get this posted yesterday, but it took a little bit longer than I intended. Instead of reviewing a single game this time around, I decided to take a look at three demos available on the 3DS's eShop. So, without further ado, let's get started!

Epic Mickey: The Power of Illusion

The first demo I looked at was for Disney's Epic Mickey: The Power of Illusion. A sequel to 2010's Epic Mickey (and at the very least a quasi-sequel to Sega's Illusion series from the early 90s), Power of Illusion sees Mickey having to return to Wasteland, having heard from Oswald of the Castle of Illusion appearing there, with various toon characters, Minnie included, trapped inside. So Mickey... borrows... the magic paintbrush from Yen Sid once again, and ventures into the Castle to save his girl. However, it is quickly revealed to the player that Minnie is safe and sound, leaving you to wonder just what sort of trap is Mickey wandering into...

Power of Illusion plays as a fairly standard platformer. You play as Mickey, going through linear courses, jumping on enemies, etc., in order to both reach the end and rescue toons. Two of the three levels in the demo are based off of Peter Pan, so for the most part you're rescuing characters from that movie, but you also rescue Scrooge McDuck, Goofy, and a couple other Disney characters. As you rescue characters and bring them back to the Fortress (the hub for this game), you can go on quests for them, which reward you with money, upgrades, and sketches, which are basically summons for this game. These sketches range from Tinker Bell sprinkling fairy dust on you to let you jump longer, to Scrooge McDuck pulling a DuckTales and jumping all over enemies with his cane.

As with Epic Mickey (from what I've heard, I've never actually played the game), the magic paintbrush is an important part of gameplay here. You can use Paint to create platforms or obstacles to damage your enemies, or use Thinner to destroy obstacles. In addition, you can also use both Paint and Thinner as projectiles to damage your enemies. Paint causes them to drop health upon defeat, while Thinner makes them drop money, which can be used at Scrooge's shop to buy upgrades to your health, attacks, etc.

So, you go through the first three levels and unlock the first boss: Captain Hook. Mickey heads into the boss room, the two exchange some banter, and then... the demo ends.

No, seriously. It ends JUST as the boss battle starts. See, that bugs me. I'd have been fine if they'd stopped before entering the boss room, I get wanting to save your bosses for the real thing, but they lead me to believe that I was going to be fighting Captain Hook. And damn it, I WANT to fight Captain Hook!

All in all, this demo did a great job. When I downloaded it, I wasn't really that interested in the game, just bored and looking for something to play. Now, I want to actually go out and buy Epic Mickey, so that I can beat it and then buy this one. Which is exactly what a good demo should do. Anyway, on to the next game.

Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy

This... strangely-named (apparently it's supposed to be a portmanteau of 'theatre' and 'rhythm') game is Square Enix's first entry on the 3DS. From what I understand, it's supposed to be a sort-of continuation of the Dissidia series, in which characters from various Final Fantasy games are brought together in order to fight to determine the fate of the world or something. I don't know exactly, but it isn't important to the demo, as it is just two levels of the Challenge mode. What sets this game most apart from the two Dissidia games, however, is the genre. While those two were fighting games, this is a... rhythm game. Yeah.

Basically, you play through various songs from the 13 Final Fantasy games included. In the demo, you only have the choices of 'The Man with the Machine Gun,' from Final Fantasy VIII, and 'The Sunleth Waterscape,' from Final Fantasy XIII. You tap the touch screen in time with the cues on the top screen, holding where indicated, and sometimes having the slide the stylus in a particular direction. Honestly, I'm doing this game justice in my description. If these two songs are any indication, this is a very enjoyable game, and I certainly want to get the full version when I get a chance. But, past that, I don't really have anything to say.* This was a great demo, and it certainly did its job well.

Lego Lord of the Rings

Now, let me preface this by saying something. I LOVE the LEGO video game series. I feel like Traveller's Tales has done a great job at... quasi-adapting these movies, telling the stories while still being both fun to play and funny. Out of these three demos, this was easily the one I most wanted to play.

This demo puts you on Weathertop, recreating the scene from Fellowship of the Ring where Frodo gets stabbed as the Witch-King of Angmar. You go through a couple scenes, using each of the Hobbits' abilities, as well as Aragorn's towards the end, in order to progress through the story. Gameplay and graphics are just about the same as any other of the LEGO games, music is taken directly from Lord of the Rings, as is the dialogue, which is probably my biggest problem with this demo.

One of the things I loved about the other LEGO games is a consequence of the lack of spoken or written dialogue. Instead, the characters basically played charades with each other, acting out scenes instead of speaking them. One of my favorite examples of this comes from Episode V of LEGO Star Wars. In the climactic scene in Cloud City, where Vader makes his big reveal, instead of simply saying "No... I am your father," he instead pulls out a baby picture of Luke. It serves the same purpose as the spoken line, but is a bit sillier, and it fits the general tone of the game. With this game, however, the dialogue adds a tone of seriousness to the game, which is rather jarringly juxtaposed with some of the sillier elements of the scene. The best example comes to me is when, after Frodo is stabbed, Aragorn is being all grave about how they have to hurry to Rivendell, while Merry and Pippin are in the background with a stretcher and nurse's hats. Now, without the dialogue, I feel like this would've been funny. But with it? The two tones just kind of clashed, and I, for one, didn't like the result. Sadly, I'm no longer very keen on getting this game after having played the demo



So, that wraps up this week's (albeit-late) review. Be sure to stop by next week for more... whatever it is I do here.

*My top scores: Sunleth: 7,229,392 on Ultimate; Machine Gun: 6,665,950 on Basic