Tech Report: High-Quality Sound On The Megadrive?

So much for not working on Christmas day. Here’s a small retro-themed piece I just put together a few minutes ago for today. Enjoy!

Sega’s Megadrive (Genesis for all you North American readers) usually gets a pretty bad rap when it comes to sound. It’s not uncommon to hear games with really poor, overly fuzzy voice samples and sound effects, backed up with admittedly solid music composition. But even then, some music on a wide range of titles still tends to sound tinny, like it has been compressed right down to nothing and put in a tin can.

However, it doesn’t have to be that way, and as we will show you today, the MD is actually capable of some really high-quality audio more than matching what the Super NES has to offer.



Take the examples from this video above. Clearly, the first few games showcase the MD’s impressive capabilities in processing good quality voice samples, with clarity and crispness not usually found in most games on the system. Many people tend to confuse the MD’s poor sound with the use of low-fi samples. However, most of the samples used in the video are only 4Hz, 8bit PCM, and as you can see, you can still get great, very clean sound using such low-fi samples.

Instead, it seems like the vast majority of problems stem from the developers capability in writing decent playback code which best represents the samples upon being output by the console. Better playback code will improve the accuracy of how the sample is output to the Audio/Video encoder at the end of the sound/visual output stream. The encoder is another matter for concern, but we’ll look at this later.

Of course, bad samples will sound bad regardless of how good the playback code is. For example, both the muffled voices of SF2:SCE and tinny, grainy FM music of SSF2 cannot really be made to sound any better than they already do. Better playback code may indeed clean them up a little, but the overall effects and music used aren't particularly well implemented to say the least. It also doesn’t help that in SSF2’s case, that the use of FM for music also makes matters slightly worse. The MD’s sound chip is far better suited to PCM playback, and PSG composition, than synthesised FM – although it can do a good job on that too - unlike the Super NES and to a lesser extent the PC Engine, which handle FM sounds in a smoother fashion.



The second demonstration is a little different, and comes from a game called Tempo. Another reason why many sight the MD has having – and wrongfully so - poor sound is down to the actual A/V encoder used in various revisions of the console itself. For example, the earlier systems – we’re talking launch and early model 1 units here – have a far better A/V encoders than later models. The diverse range – and indeed sound quality – from differing encoders varies greatly, with some responsible for outputting incredibly poor sound compared to what the internal sound chipset is actual producing.

Many later Model 1 units have poorer encoders, and the vast majority of Model 2’s suffer from really bad sound in comparison to those, lacking warmth on low level frequencies and delivering tinny higher level stuff in general. Music and sound effects can often sound harsher and fuzzier than they are originally meant to be. There is at least one Model 2 unit that has very good sound – not as good as the best, or a very good Model 1 MD – but one that produces the kind of sound which at least comes fairly close up to what the developers intended us to hear in the first place.

The above video shows just what happens when you run the soundtrack from a 32X game on a Model 1 MD. Tempo uses just the MD sound chip and non of the PWM capabilities of the 32X, so forms the basis for a very good comparison to test this observation. There is also a demonstration in general of the audio capabilities of the console, although the small nature of cart sizes back in the day would prevent such high quality content being available for use in-game as it were.

What we find here, is that like with sound being output via the Model 2 MD, quality is sorely lacking through the 32X’s A/V encoder. Instead, when played back through a stock MD1, the sound takes on a new lease of life, not only sounding cleaner, but also adding depth and scale to the proceedings as well. You can hear the various instrumentals much more clearly, with individual elements being directly discernable whist being tightly intergrated together as a whole.

So, from the videos it is evident that Sega’s Megadrive can indeed produce some great sound which compares directly to some of the best on the Super NES in terms of raw quality. In fact, when using the MD1’s superior output, we can see that the MD can actually handle certain samples with much greater clarity than the Super NES – as can both the NES and PCE, but that’s another avenue entirely.

Essentially, the Super NES distorts all sound produced by its internal hardware via the use of some often unwanted filtering. By contrast, the MD’s sound output is much clearer as a result of both this, and the Yamaha YM2612’s, plus the Texas Instruments SN76489 PSG’s capabilities in combination with the Model 1 MD A/V encoder. Unfiltered Super NES samples sound incredibly clean too, though that isn't possible on a stock console.

In the end, we can see that the MD’s bad rap with regards to sound is perhaps a little more than undeserved – on a sheer technical level at least. On the other hand, it can be argued that Sega should have taken much greater care with its hardware revisions in general using higher quality components which accurately present the capabilities of the underlying hardware. That said, it is possible to perform various audio mods to every revision of the MD, thus getting the same high-quality audio output on any system as you would on and original ‘high-definition graphics’ branded Model 1 console. And that’s just to hear the true output of the internal sound chip, not to improve on it in any way.

Thanks go out to both TmEE and Joe Redifier, who performed the tests and created the videos used as reference in our report.

Christmas Updates At IQGamer

Well, it’s that time of year again and Christmas is finally upon us, for better or worse. Here at IQGamer however, we won’t intentionally be taking time off (at least except for the big day itself) instead working on our upcoming tech analysis of the PS3 Mass Effect demo – which I might add, the game is looking like an incredibly good port. Sadly, there may be a few delays as my proper job demands that I work more hours over the Christmas and New Year period, so you can expect the ME2 piece in the next couple of days.

In addition, if all goes to plan I’ve also got a cool retro tech analysis of sorts planned for late next week. To give you a clue, it’s one of the first home console 3D racing games, which premiered in arcades in 1993, and was ported over onto two different – but directly linked – formats in 1994. No prizes for guess which game, but it should hopefully make for an interesting read. Should have both screens and video, plus maybe an arcade comparison if I can get that version to work.

So, for now at least from everyone here at IQGamer, we wish you all a Very Happy Christmas! I hope you’ve enjoyed the site over the past year, and that you’ll continue to join us along for the ride throughout 2011.

All the best…

Tech Analysis: Uncharted 3: Gameplay Demo

Just as we were finishing up on our tech analysis of the Uncharted 3 teaser trailer, Naughty Dog unveiled the first live gameplay demo on the Jimmy Fallon show, thus revealing more juicy technical insights into the engine upgrade contained within, along with direct-feed gameplay footage of the title

We lightly touched upon some of the things contained in the gameplay trailer in our last report – the possible use of MLAA, composition of the fire effects, character modelling, and rendering resolution – but due to the compressed nature of the initial teaser trailer, and the late arrival of the gameplay footage, were unable to take a detailed look.

Now, rather than expand our original report, we’ve instead taken the time to asses in greater detail the direct-feed gameplay trailer, looking at more of the game’s in-engine enhancements and referencing it with the original teaser footage from before. Here, you’ll hopefully find a nice companion piece to our previous analysis.

Let’s get on with it then.



In terms of framebuffer resolution, Uncharted 3 appears to be rendering once again in full 720p (1280x720) just like the last two games in the series. However, unlike both of those titles, this time around Naughty Dog seems to have used a different anti-aliasing solution for UC3.

Previously we saw the use of standard 2xMSAA (multi-sampling anti-aliasing) in order to mitigate jagged edges and shimmering artefacts, which actually worked very well all things considering – increased use of shaders, particle/alpha effects etc. But from the gameplay footage shown of Uncharted 3, we can see what looks like evidence of Sony’s custom MLAA solution replacing the more limiting MSAA.

Originally, we thought that those rather smooth looking 720p framebuffer grabs were simply supersampled promo shots, lacking any edge artefacts and appearing all too clean to be in-game. And while we’re still not convinced that they aren’t downsampled bullshots, the direct-feed gameplay footage itself not only shows off a similar smoothing effect, but also shows clear evidence of edge shimmering in areas where supersampling would have effectively dealt with that particular issue. Shader aliasing is also present, another thing which MLAA isn't capable of dealing with in its current implementation.



Take a look at the screenshots above of the window frame and the dislodged wooden beam to the right of it. Ignore for a second the compressed, blurry nature of screenshot and focus on those edges. Clearly, there is a reduced amount of edge smoothing going on here. We can easily see some sub-pixel edge artefacts that would have blended away via supersampling – like in the desert scene from the teaser trailer – but are obviously visible for all to see despite the lack of clarity.

There are also some polygon edges directly situated next to the low res fire effects that suffer from the same problems, though not all. Most likely, this is due to the low resolution alpha buffers interfering with the higher res geometry, and the MLAA being unable to smooth over the affected area. Again, such issues wouldn’t be present to such a degree in a downsampled image and would almost certainly be noticeably worse with 2xMSAA. You can see this below.


The rest of the scene however, benefits from large levels of decent edge smoothing. It's incredibly hard to tell by the compressed nature of the video creating additional artefacts, but we can see many areas getting what appears to be as much as 8xMSAA - some surfaces 16xMSAA, with others having around 4x, which comes as standard when using the technique.

Another benefit of MLAA comes in the form of excellent high contrast edge anti-aliasing, whereby distinct edges - usually too distinct for MSAA to generate good enough samples for - are handled with reletive ease. Although the trailer doesn’t demonstrate this, due to being set in a dark, low contrast environment, I can’t imagine UC3 being any different.

In order to accurately see just how well MLAA is implemented in Uncharted 3, I suggest you download a high bitrate HD 720p video instead of watching the awfully compressed YouTube one we have here. It suffers from shimmering and other artefacting not present in the actual game.


Moving on, and the fire effects have also been expanded over what was present in Uncharted 2. Here we see multiple layers of blended 2D sprites rendered in 1/4 the frambuffer resolution. Obvious artefacts such as pixelation aren’t visible due to the effect being smoothed over via both blending and filtering techniques. However, we can see evidence of jittering and some shimmering, much like with what is happening with shadows in the game. This is most noticeable at the base of the flames.

Whilst being technically quite simple in comparison to various fire effects we’ve seen in the past, the look is still very convincing with the various layers present on screen creating an impressive show via the use of sheer amounts, rather than advanced technical trickery. Also, the increased use of 2D sprite layers allows for a more organic look to be created. The fire in Uncharted 3 is both more animated and has a greater level of depth than in the second game. This is also helped by the scope the effect finds itself in – fire is everywhere, with varying layers spread all across the environment.

Granted Uncharted 3’s use of fire isn’t technically that impressive when compared to the multi-particle, and multi-layered smoke and fire present in the likes of Lost Planet. Although, Naughty Dog’s solution instead fits in with the PS3’s tight bandwidth requirements and the overall engine make-up far more comfortably than Capcom’s alpha-hevy solution ever would. Like in Killzone 2 and 3, the low res nature of alpha is carefully reduced via good use of filtering and layer blending.


In terms of character modelling, details, and shader effects, we can see that the renderings use for gameplay come remarkably close to matching the pre-rendered desert scene footage we covered here, in our first tech analysis of the game. Drake himself, geometry wise looks to be very close with only slightly paired back use of shaders and texturing. His facial features and animations look almost the same, lacking just a little precision in comparison.

Compared to Uncharted 2, and Drake looks to have gained slightly more in the way of detail. Facial details in particular look better – improved texturing and shaders – and his overall facial design has been artistically changed somewhat. He appears to be a bit chubbier this time around, looking older, more rugged. No doubt as a result of his haphazard worldly adventures, and from the development team adapting his polygonal mesh structure.


As to be expected, when up against the desert scene in the original trailer footage skin shaders have also been mildly reduced, as have small texture details and texture resolution. We can also see the usual shadow and self-shadow artefacts on Drake – jittering, some shimmering etc – that was present throughout Uncharted 2 but absent from the pre-rendered parts of the teaser trailer. This can be found on both characters and the environment. The grasses on the floor in particular are noticeably affected.

Whilst there are obvious differences between the teaser trailer’s pre-rendered in-engine footage and the actual real-time gameplay video, there is nothing that drastically separates them as a whole. Sure, the desert scene exposes a polish not possible in a real-time rendered envronment on the PS3 – with better use of shaders, perfect shadowing and polygon clipping. Although, most effects have at least been translated over to the in-game engine instead of being cut.


Performance wise, the short gameplay clip shows off Uncharted 3's solid state at this point. The demo doesn't appear to drop below 30fps - despite plenty of performance sapping alpha effects - and there is no sign of any screen tearing. It's likely that UC3, as with its predecessor is triple buffered: rendering three frames for every one displayed, simply discarding each torn frame until a clean one is found. Tearing should only occur when all three frames are being torn, a scenario only likely to happen in the most heavy load situations.

That said, the demo dosen't feature any extraordinarily large set-pieces like the train crash and helicopter battle from UC2, which would be a real performance indicator. Instead, what we have here is a somewhat more pedestrain scene designed to show off some of the game's additional graphical polish, along with a few new moves for Drake.


All in all, from what we can see Uncharted 3 boats improvements in lighting, texturing, and shaders over Uncharted 2, with more detail being present, smoother animations, and even better use of anti-aliasing. Some of these improvements are mere subtlties, while others are far more noticeable (like the inclusion of MLAA - UC3’s big leap forward, like with SSAO in UC2). And, with just under a year to go Naughty Dog have plenty of time for optimisations, to get those little details that make all the difference down to a fine art.

The first part of our Uncharted 3 trailer analysis can be found here, which focuses on the teaser trailer and also forms a complete look at the tech behind the game so far.

Tech Analysis: Uncharted 3: Teaser Trailer

So, Uncharted 3 has finally been unveiled. And for those who didn’t think this generation of consoles had much more to offer graphically… well, Naughty Dog’s latest – still just under a year a way from completion – definitely looks to silence the critics. Arguably, given the quality of the real-time and in-engine rendering on offer in Uncharted 3, there’s no need to hurry along to meet that five-year hardware lifecycle.

At the recent VGA awards Naughty Dog finally blew the lid off the next title in the globe-hopping, bandit-shooting Uncharted series, with Drake once again looking rather worse for ware, but this time stranded in the desolate Arabian desert.

The trailer showcases a variety of engine improvements, from shadows and lighting, to texturing and skins shaders. All have seen a noticeable upgrade. Some of these look to be suspiciously from in-engine - but not in-game - footage, whereas others look to have taken the actual in-game tech another leap forward (just look at those water effects). Either way, Uncharted 3 at this early stage looks absolutely incredible.



The trailer can be divided up into three distinct parts; the desert scene in which we see Drake walking slowly across some sand dunes, stranded after being involved in a plane crash; a scene in which him and sully are in a darkened room in what looks like a flashback of sorts; and the ending post title footage, which clearly shows off a few short seconds of actual ganeplay.

All three can be seen below for comparison purposes, and it’s here that we can see exactly which parts of the trailer are being rendered in-engine, in real-time, and actual gameplay.




Starting off with the desert scene, and we can see most obviously some of the changes Naughty Dog have implemented in their engine for Uncharted 3. Drake himself has been remodelled, his facial features adjusted to represent an older, rustier, heavily warn adventurer. He looks almost slightly chubby in appearance. But look at his arms and legs through his clothes, and we can see that it’s just his underlying bone structure that has been updated.

Texture detail has been noticeably upped. Even from the highly compressed video footage we can see additional subtleties in the form of wrinkles, stubble, and pores on the skin. Skin shaders too have also seen similar increases in quality, with all those little facial features reacting far more realistically with the game’s environmental lighting.

You could say that it looks almost too good to be in-game… and indeed it is. This second opening scene looks like it has been created using in-engine assets, though not rendered in real time. A few things other than the shaders hint at this. Most notable the composition of lighting and shadowing in the scene as a whole… they’re largely flawless in their execution.


The shadowing model in particular is completely artefact free whilst maintaining an incredibly level of precision and accuracy. Notice how both the environment and Drake’s own self-shadows lack any kind of jittering or mostly any edge shimmering, both of which are present in later parts of the trailer and in Uncharted 2. All shadows, both up close and far away, are perfectly cast without error, carefully adding a great deal of depth to the final image.

The lighting also complements this, with dynamic shadows reacting and changing according to the environment conditions. Shadows are cast where expected, and the shader model delivers reflections and subtle changes usually too computationally heavy to be replicated with such precision either in-game, or in real-time in-engine cut-scenes.


Although saying that, the art assets used in the trailer are all ones that will be used during gameplay according to Naughty Dog; they’ve simply upgraded some of the effects to complement the offline nature of rendering the scene for the trailer. It’s purely an artistic style choice, great for PR screenshots and posters, but not all that far off from what is present in game as it were.

There are other things that also point to this fact, the detailed nature of Drake’s attire for example. Everything from his belt, the bullets situated upon it, his shirt, and his scarf are beautifully rendered. In particular, Drake’s scarf seems to have a soft-cloth simulation of sorts integrated into its animation system, with no polygon clipping or edge and shadow artefacts. It’s like a CGI rendering but using in-engine artwork.



In terms of the actual trailer resolution, it appears that different scenes are rendered in varying original framebuffer sizes before being either upscaled or downscaled to form the final 720p image. Take the opening desert scene for example. Here we have what looks like a 1980x1080 original FB which has been downsampled in a process known as supersampling to deliver large amounts of full-scene anti-aliasing, resulting in very little in the way of jagged lines.

In fact, the aliasing that is present in this scene – shadows and subtle edge aliasing from certain angles, along with texture aliasing – is perhaps more down to shader aliasing and in particular, the lightsoures being used in combination with the resolution of the shadowmaps themselves. Also, there is barely any evidence of subpixel aliasing issues - we can see that thin lines and small pieces of geometry are highly smoothed over – a key component of using supersampling. But there is nothing more than a few edges with ‘soft jaggies’ standing out from the rest of the scene.

On the whole, this centrepiece scene from the trailer comfortably represents the kind of graphical upgrades to be expected throughout the actual game on a baseline level, although shader effects and texturing has obviously been increases slightly beyond levels possible in-game in real-time no less, with additional precision along with more detailed character modelling.


Moving on to the second key scene, and we can see similar engine upgrades taking place, but without the same level of perfection as in the desert portion we’ve discussed above. Both Drake and Sully feature improvements in texturing, normal mapping and shaders, but not to the extent as seen in the ‘in-engine, pre-rendered’ part of the trailer. This scene appears to be rendered not only with in-game assets but also being done in real-time without any of the ultra precise shadowing and lighting.

Obviously like for like comparisons aren’t completely possible – different lighting conditions and the fact that Drake himself looks to be younger, slimmer than in the earlier part of the trailer – although we can still see evidence of visual tweaks and changes while also spotting a few rendering artefacts that reveal the scene’s real-time presence.


Take a close look at the shadowing on Drake for example. Some of the self-shadows evident around his neck clearly show evidence of jittering and some edge shimmering – something larger absent from the desert part of the trailer. In addition Drake’s character model is slightly less detailed, with reduced shader effects and subtle texture details.

Like with the earlier scene, this part of the trailer also appears to be rendered in 1920x1080 before being supersampled down to 720p, which would explain the lack of any noticeable edge shimmering on the geometry. Although, in dark low contrast environments such things rarely manifest themselves.


Onto the actual gameplay portion of the trailer, and this is where things get difficult. The short and chopped up, cropped, and constantly resizing nature of the clips, along with compression induced motion artefacts make it difficult to assertain how close the game holds up to the graphical quality of the cut-scenes in any meaningful way.

However, we can at least see that the quality looks about on par, or close to the scenes in question. Much like in Uncharted 2, the cut scenes do appear to be higher quality renderings, though using in-game assets and running in real-time (assuming the same system from Uncharted 2 is in place, whereby all cut-scenes are real-time and not video recordings of the renderings). I imagine that gameplay will look basically the same to the untrained eye, featuring similar rendering bugs, but with a touch more detail and precision.

This part of the trailer also looks to be rendered in native 720p (1280x720) like with previous Uncharted titles, while anti-aliasing is yet to be determined. Some have said that MLAA looks to have been implemented, though with compression artefacts masking any potential aliasing issues and the clips so short/poor in quality, this may just be wishful thinking at this point. However, we shall be taking a look at the more recently released direct-feed gameplay video to investigate this further.


One thing that does stand out with the gameplay footage, is the noticeable upgrade in the engine’s ability to render water and fire effects. The water in particular looks incredible. It almost looks like a simulation if you don’t pay attention to how it flows and changes in motion.

The main body of the water appears to be more volume-based than particle-based - modelled with large mesh of animated geometry and normal maps - thus avoiding the PS3’s limited available memory bandwidth for alpha effects, although this is indeed backed up with some particles at the front as the water expands and spreads across the environment.

The fire effects also feature more animation than those found in uncharted 2. From the brief few seconds of footage, we can see an increse in the layers of 2D sprites used to form this effect, with greater levels of blending. Although, again… it’s pretty hard to tell, given the quality and duration of the footage.


Instead, a far better example of how Uncharted 3’s gameplay will hold up against both the in-engine pre-rendered parts of the trailer, and with the real-time in-engine cut-scenes can be found here, in the first direct-feed gameplay trailer.

As you can see, there is a noticeable difference between both the character and environment modelling, shader effects, shadows and lighting compared with the trailer. Against the standard cut-scenes too, we can see a slight downgrading - small, but perhaps greater than the differences in Uncharted 2.


Pre-rendered


In-game

We’ll be taking a look at the gameplay trailer in the next day or two at IQGamer in a shorter tech analysis, mainly focusing on the upgraded fire effects and comparison details between pre-rendered in-engine footage and gameplay. Interestingly, these gameplay shots feature very little in the way of aliasing, shimmering edges etc, which could lead to either an MLAA solution being implemented, or perhaps more supersampling - used in creating print and promotional quality bullshots. But we shall see.

In the meantime we can at least see that regardless of how the footage – and indeed the screens – have been enhanced, modified, or created from an offline render, that Uncharted 3 is already delivering a tangible improvement in rendering quality over and above Uncharted 2 and in some respects Killzone 3, while the game still has just under a year to go before it goes gold.

We also haven’t even mentioned that 3D support is also in the pipeline for day one. How this will be implemented – what method: side by line, top to bottom, half res, full res, etc hasn’t been confirmed – but Naughty Dog have stated that the engine is constantly in a state of flux, with new tech and changes being implemented right up until a month before the final crunch to completion. With that said, we won’t likely find out anything concrete for at least a few months. Although details on the 2D rendering engine will certainly surface long before that.


So… Uncharted 3 then, from what little we’ve seen of it, is looking mightily impressive at this point. It’s very early days in the game yet, with many questions still going unanswered, and a few in which the answers are obviously identifiable. The leap between the second and third Uncharted titles doesn’t appear to be as gigantic as the jump from UC1 to UC2 (SSAO was by far the most noticeable upgrade), although there’s plenty of subtle elements that provide additional flair to the engine, along with increased levels of realism to help engross the player further into Drake’s world.

As we’ve already mentioned, a direct-feed gameplay trailer has since been released to complement the highly directed teaser trailer, showing off two minutes of continuous gameplay in which to present the various in-game engine improvements. You can expect another analysis, albeit much shorter based on this in the next few days.

Thanks go out to Nebula for the framebuffer analysis/pixel counting.

LA Noire: Facial Animation Tech Shown On Video

We took a look at the basics behind LA Noire's advanced facial animation system in a fairly in-depth tech report, sighting a combination of motion capturing and 3D scanning as the process behind the incredibly accurate facial reproduction seen in the game. However, we now bring you a video demonstrating the baseline process of how the initial character facial animation model is created.

The video doesn’t cover the additional work required in preparing these highly detailed and impressively animated models for rendering on the current-gen consoles now massively outdated GPU’s, but instead shows the work done before things like downgrading the art assets and creating the normal maps take place.



As you can see the combination of traditional motion capture and advanced 360 degree 3D motion scanning yields incredible results. The technology on display here could easily be used in digitally re-creating actors for completely CGI-based movies, with obviously far more grunt being available to produce even more detailed and accurate character modelling, especially since all rendering is done off-line rather than in real-time.

To see such tech being used effectively, and indeed highly impressively in a videogame – even with the obvious compromises made in getting the tech to work to a high standard – represents not only some serious investment from Rockstar, but also their commitment in attempting to creating a thoroughly believable, and entirely engrossing experience.

Review: Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)

Donkey Kong Country Returns marks the first proper instalment in Rare’s much-loved and critically applauded series of platform games in eleven years, fourteen if you go right back to DKC3 on the Super NES. The game is a modern day homage to a tried and tested gaming classic, blending in brand new 3D visuals on a 2.5D plane with plenty of barrel blasting, vine-swinging, and baddie bashing action. It’s been a long time coming, but Retro Studios have crafted a rather excellent, if not ever so slightly flawed entry to a series that has been absent for far too long.

Like before, DKCR begins with the great ape having his prized banana horde stolen from right under his tree house. Only this time it’s not those pesky Kremlings and King K Rool that is to blame, but a race of floating masks going by the name of the Tiki Tak tribe. The Tiki’s have hypnotised all of the DK Island’s animal inhabitance and turned then into vicious banana stealing, Kong killing adversaries. And naturally it’s your job as the Island’s head-honcho DK, along with your simian pal Diddy to stop them.

Donkey Kong Country Returns shares much of its blueprint with those three Super NES originals, along with borrowing elements from Donkey Kong Jungle Beat and adding plenty of fresh new material. You’ve got the return of the series main hub and individual world maps, with some six or so levels, plus one boss in each, a lively jazzed up version of the original DKC soundtrack, along with sound and gameplay elements from the later games as well. Both DK and Diddy return for the first time together since the original DKC, aiding each other with their own individual trademark moves.


Unlike in past DKC games however, only Donkey Kong is directly playable in the single-player mode, with Diddy simply riding on DK’s back giving the titular ape two more extra hits before dying, and a very usefull jetpack ability used to extend jumps and clear longer distances. The change in design gets rid of the need to have one particular character to reach certain areas, instead opting for Diddy’s jetpack ability to help lead you to secret areas and unreachable items. It’s a compromise that works well, and the use of additions to your life is welcome given the game’s often harsh difficulty level.

Yep, Donkey Kong Country Returns is hard… very, very hard. It’s by far the toughest of the four DKC games created, getting players sweating very early on – sometimes boardering on being a little too difficult for its own good, with stages getting notoriously annoying to complete just before the halfway point. However, for me much of the earlier challenge didn’t come in having to avoid the game’s various pitfalls, enemies, or deviously placed traps. These I can deal with, mostly, considering they aren’t always all that much harder than the worst DKC2 or even 3 had to offer – almost on par in fact - quickly going to back to those games to check.

Instead, the main culprit behind DKCR’s sometimes absurd difficulty (early on, but certainly not later) – and yes, I did have to use that Super Guide at times – is the unnecessary use of waggle with the Wii Remote in order to perform specific moves. It just makes this harder by not being as responsive as a button press on the controller.


You can use both the Wii remote on its own, or a Wii Remote + Nunchuck combo in DKCR, but it is the former that I find works the best. Jumping and running is handled with the 1 and 2 buttons when the game is played this way, with the D-Pad being used for movement. Shaking the Wii Remote while stationary performs a ground pound, while shaking when running delivers a barrel roll.

Now this set-up largely isn’t a problem, though waggling the remote has a noticeable delay in between performing the motion and having DK executes his moves. This means that last minute barrel rolls off the edges of platforms in order to gain higher, further jumps is no longer anywhere near as intuitive as on the Super NES games, often leading to either: late attacks which fail to have the desired effect, or simply nothing at all in a worse case. Classic Controller support then is sorely missed, as it would have eased up the difficulty level somewhat along with giving you a more comfortable method of control.


While Donkey Kong Jungle Beat showed off how much imagination and excitement the series still had after years of being left untouched in the canopy for the best part of half a decade, DKCR goes even further having some of the most intoxicatingly inspired platform level design I’ve seen in any game in years, let alone DKC. Sure enough, the game sees you barrel blasting through the jungle, riding mine carts through uncharted territory, and bopping off a string of enemies before swinging off to that next platform.

However, the scenery this time is far more interactive. Platforms raise and lower as you ground pound on certain areas, structures collapse in the background as you try to perilously shoot yourself across bottomless pits of jungle, and barrels can be ridden as an unwieldy rockets providing yet more excitement. The old-school perfect path elements of the previous three Super NES games return: bopping off a few enemies, jumping off a vine and into a barrel in order to progress in a clean and fluid manner not always apparent on your first playthrough of any of the game’s levels, is something that is as polished as it was all those years ago.


There’s also lots of hidden areas to find in each stage, KONG letters to collect, and a variety of other such bonuses, all of which deliver added depth familiar to all those who’ve spent their times playing the original DKC’s all those years ago.

Other than the perfect path aspect of the game, this is by far the biggest draw. I’ve always loved going through the first three DKC games one-hundred percenting them numerous times before, unlocking the lost world in the last two games and sending K Rool packing for the second time. And while the challenge in DKCR may well be too great to do quite the same, I really like the amount of effort that has been put in to giving completists exactly what they want.

The game’s remixed soundtrack also verges on being thoroughly excellent at times to a little bland in general. The music doesn't quite generate the same level of atmosphere as the tunes found in Rare's first two DKC games, although to its credit always fits the mood of the stages and their surroundings.

Another qualm comes with regards to the game's general sound design, especially concerning the sound affects. Again they aren’t quite as good as expected. Both DK and Diddy’s voice work (if you can call it that) is cheesier than ever, sometimes sounding more comic than needed, and the contact hits and smacks when jumping on enemies and blasting out of barrels isn’t anywhere near as distinctive. Thankfully, collecting the KONG pieces and Puzzle token yield some lovely old-school jingles.


Moving on, and Retro’s attention to detail in other areas is simply outstanding. Visually the stages in DKCR literally come alive. Trees move and sway in the wind, tides rise and then receed as you play, and whole parts of the environments radically change before your every eyes.

Nothing like this remotely happened in the old 16bit titles, and this is precisely why, even though on first impressions I didn’t like the move to polygonal 3D, the change in visual style was exactly the right choice. DK’s world coming alive, feeling organic as well as graphically accomplished gives the game a personality that would otherwise fail to shine through in quite the way it does.

The same can be said of the animation on both the Kong’s and the enemies, which is both smooth and incredibly fluid. It looks very organic. The enemies themselves, although generic in design feel like they belong in a DK title, making up for the lack of Gwanty’s, Neeks, and Necky’s. The Tiki’s on the other hand, are pretty poor in general, lacking the distinctive impact of the Kremlings and their ruthlessly scaly nature.

But on the whole both the characters and worlds of DKCR are full of personality, even if they aren’t always that interesting. Retro have also (thankfully to some extent) cut out the fat by removing most of the supporting cast of Kong’s. Cranky makes a return – you can’t really not include the ‘original’ DK now can you – as does our Rhinoceros animal friend Rambi, but without some of the more pointless additions (Wrinkly Kong, Swanky Kong, and that stupid elephant from DKC3 I can’t remember the name of). It’s the right choice, and allows the developers to expand the level design ideas around almost solely playing as Donkey Kong, to much success.


While its quite easy to dislike DKCR for things it does wrong, it would also be at an utmost disservice to avoid the title considering the things it get so very right. Fans of the Super NES originals may indeed dislike some of the direction this latest homage title has taken – myself included - although that doesn’t take away from the blindingly awesome level designs, the hidden secrets dotted around everywhere, and the fact that even Rare themselves have failed to match their own genius since the last DKC (damn you DK64). I didn’t always enjoy my time with DKCR, but I did appreciate just what Retro have achieved, which is always something worth considering.

Donkey Kong Country Returns, dare I say it, is a mostly triumphant return to the series glory days, although isn’t quite a perfectly formed comeback. The incredibly high difficulty level, the lack of any truly iconic enemies to face throughout (certain bosses aside), and the removal of Donkey and Diddy as fully fledged, separate playable characters in single-player mode definitely hurts the experience. As does the lack of Classic Controller support, which would have gone along way in making the gameplay seem a little more fluid; being able to jump around, blasting your way through stages almost like second nature, instead of fighting the slightly laggy waggle mechanics.

However, against all odds Retro Studios have crafted some of the most imaginative and inspired level designs ever seen in any platform game to date, not only outclassing those in the original DKC, but also all of the ones in Nintendo’s own New Super Mario Bros re-envisioning.

Certainly, much care and attention has been lavished on the experience as a whole even if it doesn’t quite, in my opinion, match the sheer brilliance and beauty – in terms of having a complete mix of graphics, sound, and gameplay design interwoven together – as the first two DKC games. Though it does both hold its own and often exceed Rare’s less impressive, but still solidly excellent, third instalment in the series.


For those looking for some old-school, really hardcore platforming action, then Donkey Kong Country Returns is well worth picking up. But be warned though; it’s tough, often frustrating, and unbelievably unforgiving. That said, it’s also incredibly good at the same time, balancing a fine line between sequel and self-indulgent homage, and exemplarily hard but always fair ride into the Kingdom of Kong.

VERDICT: 8/10

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Gets 3D iPhone Remake

The announcement of a proper PS3 and Xbox 360 Mortal Kombat reboot of sorts – inspired by the first three arcade games in the series – was enough to get fans salivating. However, the retro-themed goodness doesn’t end there. Today on the Mortal Kombat Facebook page, it was finally confirmed that a complete reworking of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was on its way to the iPhone, featuring brand new 3D graphics no less.


UMK3 on the iPhone will feature a total of 13 playable characters, each with their own fatalities, plus supports customisable controls, as well as a head-to-head kombat mode via Bluetooth or WiFi on both the iPhone and iPod touch. The game will also stay true to the arcade original by excluding any fancy 3D-based gameplay features. So that means plenty of bloody uppercuts and roundhouse kicks to the head, sweeps, and crazily over-the-top, jump in dial-a-combos.

The biggest draw however, isn’t so much the return of classic MK gameplay, but is with the game’s visuals, which have been completely redone using textured geometry rather than flat 2D sprites – although it looks like the texture work is partially based on the old digitised pixel art. Graphically UMK3 looks great, almost on-par with what you’d expect any of the first three titles in the series to look like if they were re-created to fit in with MK4’s three-dimensional leap, and certainly – in my opinion anyway – ripe for a porting to PSN and XBLA to coincide with the brand new, rebooted Mortal Kombat game.


As an iPhone title, UMK3 might indeed attract some serious attention, playing upon it’s reputation as being one of the best games in the series. Although, with the use of touch screen controls more than likely to put a dampner on things than please the franchise faithful, one can’t help but feel that an inclusion with the upcoming PS3 and 360 game, or a download console release would be a far better bet. Either way, we definitely look forward to checking UMK3 out upon its release, sampling what could turn out to be a nice reinvisioning of a classic.

Infinity Blade Leads iPhone Graphics Tech

When the iPhone 3GS was first released it’s graphical capabilities generally impressed for a potable device, with various visual effects normally home to regular gaming consoles showcasing the system’s potential for high-end like graphical prowess. However, outside of Doom Resurrection and a cut down, shortened version of Resident Evil 4, there were very few titles that demonstrated this fact, with many looking like enhanced PSP games with better visuals.

Moving on, and Epic Games with their Project Sword demo changed everything. Epic Citadel – as the demo finally became known – showcased the raw grunt contained inside Apple’s portable powerhouse, featuring various traditional GPU based effects such as normal mapping, specular highlighting, and real-time dynamic lighting. The game also used a baked global illumination system to give the impression of having a basic global lighting system, even if was admittedly non real-time.

As impressive as the technical demo was, it was indeed just that. With no enemies, characters, or even missions, it was simply designed to show how when used correctly, the kind of graphical potential the iPhone had within silicon confines. Recently, id software’s Rage expanded on this concept by delivering a similarly advanced looking game-come-demo in the form of a short on-rails shooter. It was pretty good for the most part. But now Epic Games has returned with their Epic Citadel/Project Sword demo in a finished game called Infinity Blade, once again raising the bar for iPhone related visuals.



As you can see in the trailer above (powered by the iPhone 4), Infinity Blade looks quite simply stunning. Running at around 30fps with what looks like a similarly almost on-rails design as seen in many iPhone titles, the game displays command of a small range of beautifully implemented advanced graphical effects along with current-gen console standard characters, which make it stand out more than any other iPhone game or demo seen so far. It’s looks incredible for something running on a handheld device.

By the looks of things, we’re talking about visuals and image quality that on an artistic level, and on some technical levels, stand above the best titles displayed on the 3DS thus far – approaching first gen, and even some second gen 360 and PS3 titles. Here we have detailed characters with decent amounts of geometry and a high level of normal mapping, crisp and clear use of texture mapping, plus good use of what looks like a mainly pre-baked lighting and shadowing system with some real-time elements.



While we won’t go into any further details into the technical side of the production just yet – if we have time, look out for a future tech analysis – the game as a whole looks to be significantly more impressive than any other handheld title on the market. And from initial reports, also looks like providing more replay value than the likes of id software’s Rage, in terms of being a proper game for the iPhone.

The actual game itself appears to be a weapon-based fighting game with limited movement – ala Punch Out – with the ability for you to dodge incoming attacks, and repel with your own strikes by moving your finger across the touch screen. Movement around the environment is largely automated, with you pointing and clicking where you want to go. And there is no real storyline in game either, other than what is uttered to you by the God King.

Infinity Blade looks rather interesting, not just down to its own technical merits – of we have no doubt are as solidly implemented as they are visually alluring – but because of how it supposedly manages to keep you immersed in its world without needing to give you any real depth to do so - word has it you simply replay the game over and over levelling up and upgrading weaponry until the God King can be killed. And that could make it a surprising success, as well as being more than just a hybrid game/fancy tech demo.

Infinity Blade is already available for download, with versions on both iPhone 4 and the older iPhone 3GS. The 3GS version has seen some graphical downgrades compared to tne title running on the iPhone 4, something we shall investigate at a later date.

Tech Report: LA Noire's Facial Animation System Detailed

We came away rather impressed with LA Noire after taking an early look at the trailer, which showcased what looked like some of the most advanced motion capturing we’ve seen used in any game thus far. However, motion capture was only half of the story. As what we’ve learned since our initial tech analysis, is that the game actually uses a far more complicated hybrid method of motion capture and video capturing in order to sample and realistically animate the in-game characters.

Much of what we’ve talked about was indeed correct – the bend of normal mapping and texture layers, complete with only basic shader effects and minimal surface skin shaders in general – although the core process behind creating the character models, and indeed the capturing of motion data from the actors themselves, is a far more closely aligned affair.

But how does it work?


Well, on the base of it, the technique that LA Noire uses actually begins with using a detailed level of motion capturing. Dozens of points across the actor are tracked as per usual before being mapped onto geometry as a starting point, before the actor's face is digitally scanned in 3D in order to create the character model. Both the audio and visuals are recorded at the same time in order to allow for precise lip-syncing with very few obvious errors, whilst preserving most facial expressions naturally.

Afterwards, this highly detailed model is converted for use in-game. Normal and colour maps are created for a wide range of facial expressions used in animation blending. These are created from both the marker data recorded during motion capture (for the geometry animations) and from the footage and lighting of the actors faces themselves. Combined together they create a series of mappings that display elements such as wrinkles, skin details, facial features etc, which are then used to build up a complex, finished character model. They form the normal maps used in the final in-game rendering.


Basically, everything from the actor’s facial features to their actual motion captured performance is recorded to gain the most detailed animation for use in-game. Once this is done you can’t change the make up of a character’s features as this has all been recorded and set up during the capturing phase. You have to record capture for every character in the game individually. The assets created cannot be shared between different character models, or even when a character under goes certain changes to their face as the game progresses – it all has to be recorded.

Also the lighting in the capturing process - to form the imagery used in creating colour and normal maps - is fundamental to the look of the end result of the modelling and animation capture. For this process best to work, you need to set up the lighting on-stage in a similar way to how it will look in the game.

Of course it is still possible to adjust and change the lighting composition in game, affecting the shading of the character models, although the results may not be quite as accurate. Instead an image-based lighting solution – such as the one found in Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, whereby the characters are lit by their surrounding environments – in combination with recording data of the light reflections on the actors on set would provide a solid solution to this problem.


Moving on, and we can see that both Normal and colour maps are then blended together to form more detailed facial animation on top of the motion-captured geometry. There are different normal and colour map blends for different expressions and animations, and these are combined together to form the final, fully animated facial model. Some of the normal and colour maps also have specific pre-sets, modifications if you will, for varying facial expressions and detail changes, such as adding or expanding wrinkles, muscle details etc, all based off the original capturing session.

For the system to work accurately in providing an unflinchingly realistic representation of natural facial animation, and indeed smooth lip-syncing in line with the audio – so they both look correct when combined – lots of normal maps are required along with animated geometry, which takes up a huge amount of memory.

Here you have multiple textures with varying blends of normal and colour maps in order to represent some finite details, and these have a distinctly high memory cost associated with them. Additional costs are also incurred, as blending everything together, along with animating loads of small triangles takes a fair amount of processing, which means that some compromises have to take place in order to use such a system in-game.


As a result, we can see that normal and colour map resolution are relatively low compared to the rest of the frame – roughly about 1/4 of the framebuffer resolution – in order to save on memory bandwidth and processing costs. This is perhaps why none of the characters display any kind of advanced surface shaders, although there is some evidence of phong specular highlighting present, which is barely apparent in some of these shots and indeed the trailer.

The game’s use of lighting is also fairly simply in this regard too, from what we can see from the trailer. However, this is boosted by the use of SSAO, which has been implemented to expand the use of shadowing in the game, whilst adding depth to the highly stylised, slightly washed out look that has been artistically chosen.

The use of such an advanced, high-end capturing technology for use in LA Noire is also incredibly costly from a financial point of view. Seeing as every actor has to not only be marker tracked, but also their acted lines delivered for every scene found in the game. The result is you get some of the most realistic and downright refined examples of facial animation in any videogame to date, with characters that are uncannily lifelike in this regard. What the development team in LA noire is dabbling here looks to be the future for creating cut-scenes in the majority of next-generation games.


Naturally, Rockstar’s choice in using such expensive and high-end tech is maybe just a little surprising. But when you consider what they are aiming for – to create an environment filled with natural looking characters in which to drive forward a very strong narrative– then the choice completely makes sense. You can definitely see such things being used again, possibly in the next GTA, and in other similar games which focus on strong story and characterisation.

Even this early on – with just a few screenshots and brief teaser trailers – the tech powering LA Noire is remarkable impressive. The actual game engine itself, from what we can see, may not be all that spectacular, but the delivery of the characters, their own delivery of emotion, actions, whatever else you want to call it, definitely stands high above the rest, backed up a competent rendering engine with snippets of advanced, forward thinking rendering technology.

You can check out our original tech report on the LA Noire trailer here, which provides a nice companion piece to today’s motion capture-based article.

Review: Rage HD (iPhone)

There must have been much excitement amongst fans when ID announced RAGE for the iPhone, even more when it was first demoed as an example of the versatility of the company’s Megatexture technology. The thought of having a lavishly grim and detailed mutant populated world in which to roam around in must have been as alluring as it was too good to be true. And indeed it is, because anyone at least half expecting an open world, or even a closed off, linear FPS experience on Apple’s portable powerhouse will be disappointed. Because RAGE in this guise, is absolutely nothing like that at all.


In many ways RAGE plays upon the strength of the iPhone in delivering a short but entertaining excursion into the low down and dirty wasteland contained within, using the device’s trademark touch screen for simple control and a journey that barely kicks off, to keep things from getting too repetitive before the end is reached. It is you could say, the antithesis of what to expect iPhone gaming to be all about, having more in common with Sega’s HotD series of lightgun games than the title’s own console bigger brother.

Even compared to basic, twenty year old shooters like Doom or Wolfenstein, RAGE is pretty simple. It’s meant to be. It’s something you can pop into and play for a few minutes, before trying again to beat it a few hours later. So, the game follows the tried and tested blueprint found in on-rails shooters pretty closely, with a dashing of FPS targeting for your pleasure. You are automatically moved around the environment via the game’s camera, while control of a cursor allows you to aim and shoot enemies as you are tightly directed to the next location.

There are only a handful of levels to work through, along with the same number of mutated enemies in which to kill, and three weapons to use (pistol, AK-47, and a shotgun). The difference comes into play with the ability to doge incoming attacks, and being able to control the outcome of your reloads with a reload bar of sorts, which allows you to rack up extra damage if you manage to get the icon in the sweet spot indicated on screen. It’s like Gears in this regard.


The sheer simplicity of it all however, is given a noticeable amount of depth with the reload system at hand. You’ve only got a limited number of shots before having to reload again, and timing in this regard, to score the best combo, thus dealing the maximum amount of damage per shot, is essential. Since there is no way of making a last ditch melee attack from the late bumrush of foes you can encounter (dodging isn’t always an option this late in the game) knowing when to shoot, where to shoot, and how to reload with efficiency, all plays a significant part in expanding the overly simple experience as a whole.

Another, is the game’s cleansweep style bonus system, whereby if you manage to get through an entire stage without getting hit, your points score dramatically grows in size. The more kills you make without getting hit, the bigger the bonus paid out at the end. And this scoring system is backed up by the ability to gain even more extra points by shooting down the many flip-up target boards that appear throughout each stage.

While at first all these layered elements to gameplay may in fact be beneficial, the game’s controls simply don’t do them justice. Perhaps if RAGE was simply a HotD clone, where all you do is tap on the enemies to kill them, then maybe things would feel a touch smoother, making you feel like you had more control over your actions.


Alas this isn’t the case. Doing everything the game asks of you whilst the camera is moving, while you are attempting to balance out dodging and reloading before making that last ditch precision shot, can often be quite difficult. Use of the touch screen controls often means that your thumbs can obscure vital parts of the screen. And during times where the camera is quickly moving to the next location - while you are still aiming at things - response times can feel sluggish, and the method of input, inadequate for the task at hand.

But of course, this isn’t so much a flaw with the game itself - more the iPhone, which clearly wasn’t made for these kinds of faster-paced action titles. But then again, maybe id’s decision to toe the line between basic on-rails shooter and HotD clone wasn’t the best choice given the medium it occupies.

Instead, I found it far easier to use the iPhone’s tilt functionality in order to aim around the screen, rather than rubbing my finger all over it in order to target my foes. Playing RAGE this way allows it to feel far more like a responsive on-rails FPS, with headshots being more down to skill rather than a spot of clumsily controlled luck. The downside, of course, is the fact that moving the iPhone around means that your view of the screen is constantly changing. And this isn’t such a good thing. However, controlling the game via the tilt mechanism is a far better option than using the touch screen.

Control quirks aside, RAGE was made to impress with its potential graphical prowess. And in this regard the game excels beautifully, looking very much like it belongs on Nintendo’s upcoming 3DS than it does on you fancy mobile communications device.


Here, Carmack and co showcase some nicely detailed environments, with bump-mapped enemies and impressively baked shadow routines. Compared to Epic Citadel, RAGE may not throw around quite as many basic shader effects (it is in fact fixed function). But then again, it has multiple characters on screen. And however simple it appears to be, feels more like an actual game than just a fancy tech demonstration.

It is a shame then, that the experience doesn’t last quite as long as it should have done. RAGE is only a paltry three levels long, with little else to do once the game has been completed. There is literally nothing to hold your attention outside of replaying the same stuff over and over again, even if it does look mightily impressive for a handheld game.

However, this stubbornness to exceed anything other than the size of a beautifully created, but obviously short tech demo, is exactly the philosophy that several games on Apple’s life conquering device follow to the letter. And with great success I might add. Where RAGE begins to fail though, is with the lack of any online support at all. While many other iPhone games rely on similarly short and constantly replayable bitesize chunks of fun, they make up for it with online leaderboards and other such features, which often pitch players off against each other in getting the highest score and the best ranking.


With the iPhone version of RAGE, id software seems to have come up with a great idea, but without having the real drive to do anything other than the basic, barebones treatment with it. RAGE works as a series of short, subtly deep experiences, with lovely graphics to boot. But doesn’t manage to free itself from being anything but a testing ground for something bigger in the future.

That said, at only 59p for the SD version, and £1.19 for the superior HD edition – which works on the older 3GS model, but with inferior performance – it doesn’t need anything else to offer considerably value for money.

And that’s the point many seem to be missing. Not only is RAGE cheaper than a cup of coffee – it’s like half the price – it’s also cheaper than most things you can buy. So in that sense, for a game, it is well worth the asking price, even if what we have here really is just an interesting, entertaining, albeit expanded technological demonstration of what the iPhone can do.

VERDICT: 7/10

Review: Super Mario All Stars (Wii)

For many people their first experience of playing a videogame system was with the original Super Mario Bros on the Nintendo Entertainment System in the late 1980’s or early 90’s. Squishing a Goomba, kicking a Koopa shell across the ground, or jumping up to a ‘? Block’ releasing a Super Mushroom. These were the beginnings of a journey that would take people into a whole new world of gaming goodness. I still remember the impact the NES, and specifically Mario had on my life, transitioning from a green screen Amstrad to Nintendo’s 8bit spectacular.

When Nintendo decided to release the original four 8bit Mario games to a new audience in 1993 on the Super NES, I was there waiting. I always preferred the likes of Super Mario 3 to Mario World. Although, today the Big N’s first and only proper 16bit excursion into the Mario universe clearly stands out as being superior. But for me, even now, there’s still something SMB3 delivers over and above any other game in the series to date. So back then having the very best the series had to offer all on one console was like a match made in per-pixel heaven.

Super Mario All-Stars brought over the delights of the original Super Mario Bros and its sequels, Super Mario Bros 2 and 3, whilst making available for the first time in the west the Japanese only SMB2, in the form of Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels. All four games came complete with reworked 16bit quality graphics and sound. Mario now looked recognisably similar in the original SMB as he did in SMB3 – clearly tying in the first and third games together as sequels even more closely - while the backgrounds were given addition polish in the form of parallax scrolling and additional colourings and detail.

The music and sound effects were given an overhaul too, helping to create an atmosphere which brought the Mushroom Kingdom to life in a way the aging 8bt NES never could.


For me All-Stars represented the quintessential collection of Mario games: everything from the basic beginnings to the advanced direction of Super Mario 3 and everything in between. And this is exactly what we have here.

Marking the 25th anniversary of the birth of an entertainment legend (Mario spans far more than just games - toys, TV shows and more have all been persistent over the years) Nintendo has ported over the Super NES version of Super Mario All-Stars exclusively for Nintendo Wii owners. None of the games on this collection are available in their 16bit form on the Virtual Console. And on top of that Nintendo have also included a soundtrack CD and some history of memorabilia, just giving a tiny insight into the development of the series without really providing anything other than basic info. It’s like a fancy timeline with short developer comments for each game.

There’s almost no point in going into any detail on each of the individual titles found here. Most of you know exactly what to expect.

The original Super Mario Bros layed down the blueprint for the modern day platform game, with multiple worlds each with their own look and doppleganger Boweser end boss, the inclusion of power-ups etc, while the sequels expanded on the gameplay concepts found here in SMB: The Lost Levels and SMB3. The US and European versions of SMB2 of course took a different route, being based on the Japanese exclusive platformer, Doki Doki Panic.

All are excellent games, each with their own highlights and plus points. With SMB: The Lost levels, you can also add incredibly high difficulty to that list too.


Out of all the games available on this collection, it is arguably Super Mario Bros 3 that stands out the most. Even now it is still candidate for being the best Mario game in existence, alongside Super Mario World and Super Mario 64. Looking back now, it’s not hard to imagine the level of impact the game had on the world. But suffice to say, it was revolutionary to say the least.

Again, like with the original SMB, you had eight worlds to explore. But this time they were even bigger, with nearly double the amount of stages in each and loads of secret areas and levels to find, all of which were represented with a colourful map screen. You could now also accumulate a multitude of power-ups, thus being able to start off with one of many at the beginning of each stage if you had some in reserve. And there were loads of these to try: Fire Mario, Racoon Mario, Frog Mario etc.

Back in the day the game was also mildly criticised for its slightly high difficultly level, and this is still apparent now. Although by adding a save point midway through each world – the actual levels themselves can be rather hard, but are never unfair - this could be easily fixed.


Moving on, and in terms of the conversion itself, Super Mario All-Stars is on the whole actually very good. It isn’t quite perfect, lacking any option to be played in its original resolution. But otherwise Nintendo have done a great job. The port appears to be a straight up emulated version of the Super NES cartridge, meaning that there are no Wii specific options to be found anywhere, and the front end and all on-screen prompts are exactly the same as they were before. The game has also has been given the full 50Hz PAL optimisation treatment. It runs in full screen, at full speed, but without any widescreen options available.

However, there is no original 240p display mode available like with VC titles. Instead All-Stars runs in 480i when using both RGB SCART and Component cables. The result is a game that looks incredibly flickery when played on SD CRT’s, meaning that trying to view it as intended – or as close to – is largely uncomfortable. It’s such a shame as this was something we, along with most hardcore fans, were expecting. That said, the game does upscale very well in its 480i guise on my HDTV. And with no flicker, making it by far the best way to play given the choice.


The actual core of the collection overall is superb, as expected. Each and every one of the games included on this package is worth the price of admission as separate VC titles alone - sans perhaps SMB: The Lost Levels, which still feels far too difficult for its own good – and the port itself is as solid as they come.

One slight disappointment though, is that Super Mario World has been excluded from the pack. Seeing as the All-Stars package was updated to include it back in the mid 90’s, quite why it is absent here is rather perplexing. While it is indeed obvious that Nintendo would want to sell the first true 16bit Mario title as an added extra via their VC store on the Wii, one can’t help think that SMW - and perhaps the 8bit originals - deserve a recognised chunk of space on the disc. And when you consider how many top-selling Megadrive titles Sega puts on its collections, you can’t help but feel a little short-changed.


Another slight letdown comes with the inclusion of the soundtrack CD and history book. Nintendo could have padded out the book with at least a few pages of more elaborate info and more unseen artwork for each of the four titles. But instead, all we are given is a barebones treatment of sorts. There are some cool photos of level design sketches and concept art to see, along with shots of promo material and developer comments to go with each game. It’s all been nicely arranged, and acts as a rushed, but pretty good companion piece to the package’s excellently produced instruction booklet, but hardly goes the extra mile to please fans despite some neat little touches.

The soundtrack CD contains a range of tunes and effects spanning from the original SMB to Mario Galaxy, coming complete with a small range of signature music and a small collection of sound effects. Altogether, the extras here aren’t bad but seem somewhat lacking for a 25th anniversary re-release spectacular of what are arguably some of Nintendo’s most revered hits.


Still, at £24.99 Super Mario All-Stars can be considered fairly priced. Each one of these titles would have retailed on the VC at a reasonable £5 a piece. So for the extra £5 we get all four games in a box with cool, if shallow booklet and soundtrack CD. The games themselves are as awesome as you remember them to be, gracefully standing the test of time while providing a perfect example of just how to create satisfyingly challenging experiences.

Besides that, little else can be said. Sure the lack of 240p support is a bummer, and the extra stuff merely scratches the surface of what could have been included about the background and development of each title. But don’t let that stop you. Super Mario All-Stars is easily worth picking up to relive a small slice of exceptional gaming history, and for those who have yet to sample these delights. Definitely, more could have been done to make the whole collection worthy of the 25th anniversary banner, although the games themselves still make it worthwhile for fans and newcommers alike.

VERDICT: 8/10

Screenshots and images courtesy of IGN and NintendoLife.