September 7, 2018

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, which originally launched for Wii U back in 2014, has been ported and released for both the Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo 3DS. While some have been critical of Nintendo for doing this with several of their games from the Wii U era, I’m grateful for the ports. Captain Toad is one of the games that I had always been interested in and had been meaning to play, but for one reason or another never got around to checking it out. And let’s be fair – it’s unlikely that I’m going to go back and look for a Wii U copy of the game. With the limited battery issues I have with my Wii U gamepad, that system isn’t seeing much use these days.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is a puzzle platforming game where you take control of Toad. The game’s narrative is split up into levels which are strung together in a book. The game starts off with Toad and Toadette finding a power star before the monstrous, greedy bird, Wingo grabs the power star and Toadette along with it. It’s up to Captain Toad to reclaim the treasure, Super Gems, and Power Stars and save Toadette.

Unlike the play style of Mario and Luigi, you won’t be able to jump with Captain Toad. Gone is the play style of hopping to and fro and you must instead figure out how to reach the goal and capture the power star. Here’s a tip – you’ll be doing lots of running around and away from enemies.

With the game coming right around the time of Super Mario 3D World, the look and feel of the game is taken right from that game. You’ll find many enemies from 3D World, and some of the game mechanics from classic Super Mario Bros. 2 are in here as well, like plucking up turnips to throw at your enemies. Though it’s ironic since, in Super Mario Bros. 2, Toad could jump the highest of all of the playable characters.

The game is also filled with a lot of classic, retro, and iconic Super Mario music which is great. There is also plenty of new and unique music in the game, which is also very well done.

The game has a lot of content and is full of quite a few levels to play through. Actually after you finish what seems like the end boss level of the game, a second book opens up with even more levels to play. And (spoiler) you’ll get to play as Toadette through the second book. Each of the levels you collect not only the power star to finish the level, but also three power gems are also hidden in the level. They aren’t essential to beat the level, however later levels need to be unlocked with these gems.

Each level also has another optional challenge objective, like finding a hidden item, getting through a level unseen, or collecting a set number of coins. These optional tasks add to the replay of levels. There is also another “Find Pixel Toad” challenge for each level where you replay the level without the power star as the end goal. To complete the level you’ll need to spot and tap the tiny pixelated Toad. He can be surprisingly tough to locate, but when you’re close you can hear him call out.

As with many adventure games in the Mario series, there are a wide variety of level types in the game. There are underground levels, underwater levels, and of course ghost house levels.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker was released for both the Switch and 3DS with the former having some small control issues to deal with depending on whether you’re playing in handheld or TV mode. For example in the game you will come across cranks which you will need to turn to rotate parts of the level around. When Toad is on the right spot a large crank wheel will appear in the centre of the screen. If you’re playing in TV mode you need to hold [ZR] and rotate the right analogue stick. When you switch to handheld mode, for some reason you can’t use this control. Nothing will happen if you do this. Strangely you are forced to use the touch screen, similar to what you would do in the 3DS version of the game. It’s really awkward to let go of the Switch with your right hand to do this motion.

Another oddity between the two modes, when you are in TV mode you can set the camera to react and move around with the gyro sensor so that you can move the camera by moving the whole controller. This can’t be done in handheld mode which makes for a frustrating adaptation when you go to handheld after playing in TV mode for a period of time.

Other than these minor control oddities, the game is pretty slick and fluid to play. Maneuvering Captain Toad and Toadette around the level, and moving the camera up and around the level soon becomes a breeze.

A new addition to the Switch/3DS version of the game includes new miniature courses based on various Kingdoms in Super Mario Odyssey. They can be unlocked with Super Mario Odyssey amiibo or through regular gameplay. The Toad amiibo can also be tapped in game to unlock an invincibility mushroom into the level. All other compatible amiibo figures & cards can be tapped any other compatible amiibo to receive an extra life.

The game also has a two player assist mode thrown in with use of both Joy-Cons. The second player can stop enemies, move objects, and throw turnips at enemies.

If you’re not sure which version of the game to check out there is a demo for both in the Nintendo eShop. And to top it off, both the Switch and 3DS versions of the game are the same price of $49.99 CAD. I’m impressed that Nintendo chose to give this Switch title a value price and not charge the standard $79.99 CAD for a first party AAA Switch title.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is great fun to play. It feels oh so familiar and yet so different at the same time. The levels are classically Super Mario 3D World and are both fun and challenging enough to keep you interested.

I never played the Wii U game but #CaptainToad is surprisingly fun and addictive.#NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/HHdYO9nWTS

— Hamilton Today Games (@HamTodayGames) July 28, 2018

SNK HEROINES Tag Team Frenzy is a fast, colourful tag-team fighting game from NIS America. While the game is a little bit light and has a few small flaws, it’s an enjoyable and unique fighting game that is pretty fun to play. It’s not an instant classic that is going to become a tournament staple, but it holds its own.

The game has a brief single player story mode. The heroines suddenly awoke to find themselves in a strange mansion they’d never seen before. And to top it off they find themselves dressed in strange new outfits as they begin to explore the mystery mansion. So begins their battle to discover the truth behind these strange events. They have been summoned to this pocket dimension by a strange hooded figure who is pitting the heroines against one another.

It’s a weird but simple story. Kudos to SNK and NIS America for leaving the clearly weird Japanese story and characters in tact. It’s strange but satisfying.

Each team has an Attacker and a Supporter character for a total of 4 characters per battle. You’ll control one character at a time and swap in the other character as needed. You share a total life value through the battle, though each character has a unique special charge meter. While this meter depletes as you use special moves during the battle, it will slowly regenerate through the match. The character which isn’t in the active role will have their meter charge more quickly, so tagging between characters can be key to winning the battle.

Interestingly you don’t win a battle by simply getting your opponent’s life gauge to zero. When their life gauge does fully deplete they will become stunned but the match won’t be over. When your opponent’s gauge turns red, you can end the match with a Dream Finish. The winner of the match is the first one to whittle their opponent’s health down to red and land a Dream Finish. You’ll need to have your special gauge charged up enough to execute the move though.

Most characters have a basic control scheme for moves like punch, kick, special, etc. With very limited deviation it makes it easy to play any character. Each character also has two different Dream Finish moves, one with just the button press and another by pressing down plus the finishing button. The various dream finish moves for each character also have different ranges, from up close to distance strikes, so it does take some practice with each character to perfect necessary these attacks.

It’s a little disappointing though that not all button combos are utilized for different movesets, i.e. pressing the punch button plus up, down, front, or back does the same move. It would have been nice to have a little bit more variety for moves.

In all there are 14 playable characters available right off the bat, with more being planned for release after release. The characters have four different coloured skins for their default costume but you can also purchase two additional costumes in game using coins that you earn by playing. These alternate costumes are, for the most part, significantly different from one another so when you do change a costume it feels essentially like playing with an entirely different character.

The game also has a pretty healthy customization mode as well. There are a ton of different costume elements and decorations to choose from. While some of these are downright silly (who wants to have a ringing phone on the top of the character’s head) there are a quite a few great ones. Plus as you purchase / unlock alternate costumes from the various characters, some of those costume elements become available for use in other characters. Not only that but each costume unlocked has four different colour skins to choose from.

The customization is pretty fun to play around with, even if you can’t do the same with the movesets.

Overall the characters and environments look beautiful. The only glaring oddity that doesn’t look beautiful comes in a strange place. For some reason the hands on the character models all look too large. Hands are one of the hardest things to draw, but I’ve never noticed character models with such large hands. I’m not sure if they are the same way during battles, and the drawn art looks flawless, but during cutscenes the large hams are laughably noticeable.

The one thing I love about playing this sort of game is the Japanese language track. In all honesty I usually like the original Japanese better than the dubbed English – it just feels more natural. Well, in SNK HEROINES Tag Team Frenzy there isn’t even an English language track to choose from so all of the cutscenes are subtitled in one of five languages. There is only one small issue – the subtitles are tiny on the screen. While it’s a very small problem, and the story isn’t really all that important in the story mode, it would have been nicer to have an easier time reading the text. Thank goodness for handheld mode, though the text is even smaller on the smaller screen.

Speaking of handheld mode, why isn’t there touch screen support for the menus? It seems like the large on-screen icons are wasted as they look like they’re meant to be tapped.

But enough of the negatives – SNK HEROINES Tag Team Frenzy is incredibly fun to play. The game has scaling AI difficulty which can be amped up or turned down if you’re finding battles too easy or too tough. Grab a friend and enter the SNK dream match in this frenetic fighting party game featuring everyone’s favorite female fighters.

Captain Toad Treasure Tracker | Review

SNK HEROINES ~Tag Team Frenzy~ | Review