May 25, 1:40 pm
Sometimes we do not complete games we play, but we all have our reasons and generally they are acceptable. I started playing Bullet Witch during my Easter holidays, and got up to the last level before I had to return to work and wanted less story-based, more instantly-interactive gaming again. However, last weekend I found myself attacked by a cold. Not a very bad cold, just the kind that makes your nose run so much that your eyes water and thus you cannot leave the house in case desperate men think you have just been dumped and start gathering around you ...
So I turned to Bullet Witch again. At first the random AI annoyed me and I almost switched it off, but I was so close to the end I thought I should really give it a proper go. I was rewarded in my efforts with a really good end boss fight. There are often hidden rewards in finishing games (aside from the gamer points!) and it was nice to remind myself of that too. So what made this boss a good boss for me?
Firstly I didn’t die. I know many people rate boss difficulty by the amount of times they have to restart the fight and a good boss should be difficult. Personally I am a bit sick of running myself legless only to find that I drank the last health potion too early on in the battle. It was refreshing to fight a boss that was tough and time consuming, but do-able. It adds a little immersion to a game for me if I can really get stuck in without dying every three minutes.
Secondly I got to use my gun and magic. I hate bosses that have special weaknesses, and you have all these really cool tricks up your sleeve but somehow they are immune to everything except being shot in the sole of the foot. If you’re not Shadow of the Colossus then don’t try to be.
Thirdly it was in-keeping with the rest of the game. Some bosses just appear out of nowhere and ruin the whole feel of the situation. My prime example of this is in Devil May Cry where you are fighting the final boss and suddenly you are flying Panzer Dragoon style through an arcade simulation - not my cup of tea thank you. It was only saved by the fact that you could “devil-trigger” your way through that section.
Fourth he had a good variety of attacks which changed as I progressed, and he used minions that were nice and easy to kill but pretty annoying and occasionally unexpected. Good call all round I say.
So there you have it, Bullet Witch is not a great game. The story is weak and the characters are generally boring. The AI can be appalling, and sometimes you’ll miss with a really obvious lightning attack. But I found each stage different enough to keep me pretty happy, the meteor attack (although mainly completely useless) was kinda cool, and it does host a pretty decent end boss.
Now let’s all raise our glasses to mediocre thrown-aside games. I should really try and get some gamer points out of Ninety Nine Nights ... What will you play?
