IS A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT.
Today I was out at the mall shopping for DS games and Nagano Snatch playing cards when I happened across something incredible in the KB Toys Bargain Bin. That's right it's Original Frisbee Disc Sports: Ultimate and Golf. I was ecstatic. Me and so many of my kind have been waiting for ages for an Ultimate Frisbee video game, and for my newly-purchased DS, what luck!
It was all downhill from the title. I couldn't agree more with Gamezone.com's review of the product when they say, "Fans of Ultimate and Disc Golf should get a few minutes of enjoyment from this DS collection." I was so determined to like this game despite how shitty I knew it would be. I mean, I knew from the box the graphics were mediocre, and it was in a KB toys bargain bin, but I was determined to put all that aside because it was an Ultimate Frisbee game. A first. A trendsetter. Unfortunately, that just isn't enough. The game creates the illusion of fun until you know how to play, and then it's over. The game is 4v4, the only option is a single game against the same AI computer every time, no difficulty settings, no different teams, nothing. But wait, you can pick your 4-man team from an exhausting list of OVER 5 PLAYERS. That meaning 6 players, and they don't have names, but they do have races, which makes the skill distribution hilarious. The asian is a handler, the black guy is really fast, the white guy is balanced, the Indian guy plays good defense... Making fun of the game developer's racial stereotyping is probably the most fun you'll have with this game. BUT WAIT! You can play against a friend! But it's necessary that they buy this heinous cartridge too, so I'd recommend cutting your losses.
The gameplay is shitty. It attempts to combine the buttons and the stylus in a way that makes gameplay awkward rather than innovative. The top screen shows the heavily pixelated players running around while the touch screen is a bird's eye view of players running around. You need to use the arrows and buttons to run around and throw, but the stylus at the same time to run plays. There are three plays each for offense and defense, but on offense you can also have a player cut by clicking him on the touch-screen and tapping where you want him to go. Cool right? Hell no. As soon as you throw it, you take control of the cutter, and have to have him continue the cut manually if you correctly remember how far and which direction the throw is going. The touch screen shows you the final destination of the throw, but doesn't show you how fast it is going or how close it is. This has you looking sort of frantically between the two screens and makes it needlessly difficult to complete a pass. That being said, if you are lucky enough to reach the brightly colored destination marker, you only have to stand there and you will catch it. Sorry Defense. Speaking of Defense, it's stupid. You can only play defense by moving into the path of the disc and catching it, no layouts, no skying, no hand blocks or any kind of knocking it away from the person that you're guarding. All of this makes man defense basically useless. So the best idea is just to play zone and try to get lucky. Any turnover you achieve feels like luck rather than skill, so any success in this game is hollow. It's just not fun.
Now there's the golf aspect too, which I can tell is more faithful than Ultimate, but I'm really not one for golfing video games. I know it's frisbee golf, and it's sort of cool that you can kind of curve around stuff. But other than that it's just a basic golf game, there are no different kind of throws, and instead of different clubs you have different discs. There's slightly more depth to golf with 18 holes and a practice mode, but that's not why I bought the game, and from what I can tell, any golf game would be better.
So here's the thing. Despite just laying down a huge whomping on this game, I can guarantee you that I'm still going to play it a bunch more times, just hoping it will get better. I know it won't, but I really like Ultimate and this is all I have right now. So, if you really love Ultimate and want to play this game knowing full well it sucks, you can buy it here. And for only $8. It's definitely not worth more.
2 comments:
I've found a very good (and free) ultimate frisbee game online. It's only 2v2, and the graphics can't get much worse, but the gameplay is fairly good. You have to control the handler with the mouse and the cutter with the arrow keys at the same time, making passing a unique challenge, but fun once you get the hang of it. When throwing you can use a forehand or backhand, and vary the power, tilt, etc. On defense you can switch between players. Also, there are various wind speeds, you can play at night with a glowing frisbee, and you can play on ice. The best part is you can layout and sky. Here's the website: http://graphics.stanford.edu/courses/cs248-videogame-competition/cs248-03/
Or just google images it and there's a screenshot about fifth on the first page. Have fun!
Ya, the 2v2 you are talking about has been updated to Ultimate layout 2006 and even features online play its really awesome and putting hucks up field ^^ sigh makes me feel like im at the mardi gras tounrey in louisiana :)
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