3DS eShop - Putty Squad

I'd been busting to play this game since I first read about it almost two years ago and now it's here!

To give you a bit of background, Putty was originally released on the Amiga but ported to the CD32 and, more importantly for me, the SNES as Super Putty. Super Putty was a bit of an oddly charming game; it has a weird sense of humour with abstract enemies and a plot I'm not sure I entirely understood when I was 7. I distinctly remember we picked up a copy from the local shopping centre after doing the weekly food shop. I had french stick bread and watched Diff'rent Strokes, playing Super Putty afterwards. I played round-robin with my brother (You play until you lose a life and then pass the controller over), which worked to my advantage as he was 3 years younger and not particularly good at video games. Now 21 years later, I get to try the sequel on 3DS.

The game starts you off with a 'Training Level', which is much needed as there are quite a few abilities and power-ups to get to grips with including stretching, inflating, absorbing, jumping and throwing bombs at enemies. The button layout is pretty simple, using L and R to punch left and right respectively, with X, Y, A and B used for the various other commands. There is some use of the touch screen too, primarily as a head's-up display but also allowing you to choose between your power-ups. Subsequent levels require you to save all of the red putties before you can exit the level.

The graphics are quite nice, simple and quirky. This is definitely a throw-back to when game featured some bizarre collectibles and enemies, thinking back to games like Manic Miner and Dizzy. This game makes use of the 3D feature, however I'm still on the fence as to whether or not it adds much to the experience.

Sound and music fit in with the off-the-wall look and feel of this game. There aren't any tracks that immediately jump to mind but they seem natural and work well to enhance the experience. The sound effects retain a lot of the idiosyncratic appeal of the previous Putty outings.

Game-play wise, the first few levels are simple enough but it does get progressively tougher and there is plenty of replay value with each level having three goals, secret levels and achievements. There are over a handful of worlds with each having 7 or 8 individual levels. There's also the addition of challenge mode, where you can replay the same levels again with additional goals (e.g. Don't lose a life, kill all enemies) which earn extra stickers.

It's unfortunate that the majority of the reviews this game received are based on the PS4 release of it. Understandably it is panned as not being worth the money by people who've just spent about £450 on a brand new console with precious few games. It harks back to a simpler time of gaming where you could have your protagonist throwing up down a toilet as cover art (Seriously! Google the cover for Jet Set Willy!), freaky characters and odd concepts were developed and fostered. It is a throw back to when indie developers weren't trendy or cool, but hardcore gaming fans working out of a garage or bedroom, creating games they enjoyed. At £17.99 it is a little steep in comparison to similar games like Mutant Mudds, but if you're a retro gamer looking for something that seems vaguely familiar, I'd suggest checking this out.

Farewell to Fire Pro

Well I'm afraid it's getting to the point where I'm posting annual updates. Between this post and my previous post I think I've booted Final Fire Pro up once! So I think rather than keeping people holding out for an update, fix, patch or little bit of news, I will state that I'll almost certainly not be creating any new content for any current Fire Pro Wrestling games. 

It was a really fun project for me and created many great memories. It allowed me to escape from some of the stress of life (Mainly my dissertation!) but I've moved on. I'm still passionate about portable gaming, and I'm hoping to continue running this blog as a 3DS reviews/ranting place so feel free to unsubscribe.

Thank you to everyone that has helped me with the patch, particularly cactusj00, who (Being the only patch user to my knowledge!) motivated me to keep doing stuff with it. I might have a FFPW play-through at some point and I will be sure to share my progress with you all on here. Until then, please enjoy my play-through of whatever the hell I decide to play next.

By the way, if you're just looking for a download link, Ewzzy has almost everything I've ever done on his site. 

Much love,

TM

FFPW - ECW Returns

I've been a roll tonight so I'm going to keep going.

This scenario is aptly named ECW Returns. It does the following:

• Replaces FMW with ECW
• Puts FMW roster into the Japanese freelance pool
• Add Terry Funk, Sabu, RVD, Mike Awesome, Masato Tanaka, Chris Benoit and the Dudley Boys to the ECW roster (Dudley Boys must be unlocked by scouting or cheat code)
• Terry Funk is the heavyweight champion
• Dudley Boys are tag champions
• New logo and start location for ECW and changed a few popularity parameters to fit

Download it here!

FFPW - Death of Misawa

I started work on this in December last year and have finally finished it. Granted I have done nothing with this between December and today, but I think it's pretty complete. MOR is updated with a new scenario that follows from the death of Mitsuharu Misawa and how the Fire Pro-verse has gone from there. NJPW, WWE and UFC are the only promotions doing well, the rest are declining with small rosters. I've not included a save for this scenario. There are more details on FPWArena  and you can download the IPS here.

Final Fire Pro Complete - Mixed Martial Arts

I've just completed the MMA save and it is available to download here.

The new MMA save includes:


New Japan Pro Wrestling
Brian Johnston

Fighting Network RINGS
Dick Vrij
Chirs Dolman
Randy Couture
Valentijn Overeem
Katsumi Usuda
Hans Nyman
Kenichi Yamamoto
Tony Halme
Willie Williams

Pancrase Hybrid Fighting
Manabu Yamada
Guy Mezger
Ryushi Yanagisawa

PRIDE Fighting Championship
Akira Shoji
Enson Inoue
Wataru Sakata
Hidehiko Yoshida
Fedor Emelianenko
Kevin Randleman
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson

Mixed Martial Arts
Maurice Smith
Caol Uno
Dan Severn
Rumina Sato
Brock Lesnar (MMA Style)
Matt Ghaffari
Dan Bobish
Kazuhiko Ogasawara

Legend
Rocky Balboa
Batman
Robin
Terrible Ted

Universal Wrestling Federation
Super Tiger
Yuko Miyato
Tatsuo Nakano

K-1
Masaaki Satake
Andy Hug
Mike Bernardo
Bob Sapp
Katsuyori Shibata
Musashi

BattlArts
Takeshi Ono

The original saves (Portable, SNES and Official) are still available without the MMA wrestlers from this save. Everyone is complete with stats, moves, logic etc. Any inaccuracies, please let me know. I'm off work for another two weeks, who knows how many edits I'll finish. I'm guess not many.

Download here.

Final Fire Pro Complete - Change of direction

I've spent the last few days thinking about this project. I make a save for every game/group of games and I have Super Tiger crop up in most of them I've put together. Why? So I'm consistent? So I have every wrestler from that group on one save? 


Well my change in direction is having a save per style or promotion. The reasons:

• Fewer save packs if I stick multiple style/promotions together
• No repetitiveness in saves e.g. Super Tiger, Enson Inoue cropping up in every save
• More freedom for extras.

Today I've been reorgnaising the MMA/Worked MMA save. I've completed most of them from the PCe games right through to 6MS and G. I've also thrown in a few extras from various places:

1. Super Tiger
2. Dick Vrij
3. Chris Dolman
4. Yuko Miyato
5. Masaaki Satake
6. Andy Hug
7. Maurice Smith
8. Manabu Yamada
9. Randy Couture
10. Valentijn Overeem
11. Akira Shoji
12. Caol Uno
13. Katsumi Usuda
14. Dan Severn
15. Enson Inoue
16. Rumina Sato
17. Brian Johnston
18. Hans Nymnas
19. Guy Mezger
20. Kenichi Yamamoto
21. Tony Halme
22. Mike Bernardo
23. Takeshi Ono
24. Brock Lesnar (MMA)
25. Wataru Sakata
26. Hidehiko Yoshida
27. Bob Sapp
28. Ryushi Yanagisawa*
29. Katsuyori Shibata*
30. Matt Ghaffari
31. Dan Bobbish*
32. Fedor Emelienen*
33. Kevin Randleman*
34. Quinton Jackson*
35. Musashi*
36. Katsuhiko Ogasawara*
37. Willie Williams
38. Tatsuo Nakano
39. Rocky Balboa
40. Batman
41. Robin
42. Terrible Ted

* To Complete

So that is MMA-style fighters from PCe, SNES, FPG, 6MS, FPD, Official Edit, FPZ and FPR, plus some of the default wrestlers from SFPWS&X giving a total of 42. I've also added in Brock Lesnar from a previous save I created. I'm off work for the next few weeks now, so I'm hoping to have this save finished soon and some others up ASAP.


Thank you too for the congratulatory comment last post :)

FFP Complete: Fire Pro G and 6 Man Scramble

I've spent a little time over this weekend completing the FPG and 6MS save. So far I've completed:

These do include logic and move sets on their most recent appearance in the Fire Proverse. I'm still working on Funaki, MEN'S Teioh, Kenichi Yamamoto, Tony Halme, Psicosis, Konnan, Animal Hamaguchi, Big Titan, Headhunter A, Headhunter B, Mike Bernado and Takeshi Ono as well as copying others from the SNES, Portable and Official Edits packs.

Another thought that jumped in to my head the other day was "Why are there so many edit slot empty at the end?". My plan with creating these saves was that it would be impossible to fit every edit in to one save, but now I have lots of saves with 20+ edits. So I've also decided I will add extra edits from each collection of games through the presets. It may add a little time on to creating each pack but I think it'll make the whole project more worthwhile. 

In other news, I'm still playing Heroes of Ruin on 3DS. I've finally got around to maxing my main characters level so I'm just grinding away on the daily and weekly challenges. If anyone wants to join me, now the game is out in the states, my 3DS friend code is 0087-2886-9002 and my name is "Sam". Just send me your friend code and name via a PM, e-mail or comment so I can add you.

I can't remember announcing it but I've also completed my PGCE (Professional Graduates Certificate in Education) so after graduation I will be a fully qualified lecturer.