Sunset Overderivative

It’s a bit funny how something like this reeks of such ‘punk attitude’, but get’s stuck relying on a certain way to play. I’m pretty sure being punk and grinding on rails aren’t exactly the same, but it’s a little weird for a game that loves making fun of how much of a game it is. Between the lines of self referential banter is a constant reminder of how you need to play.

On the surface of it all, is a game with a personality not unlike Deadpool, the developers create a humorous game that includes you in on the joke if you’ve been playing videogames for any one period of time. It’s cute in a way and there is genuine laughs, incredible comedic timing (4Kim is flawless in reactionary humour), nothing too offensively ‘videogame-y’. but it feels like the writing team got a lot of their jokes from watching hours of let’s play videos and wanted to relate the the bodiless voices that play open-mic night to an empty room.

That’s fine though, there’s clearly a crowd for that kind of thing.

Those that are familiar with what Jet Set Radio is are in for a bit of a treat as the core idea of the gameplay is centered around grinding on rails. They want you to get around the city that way. Once you start doing that though, you immediately realize that something is missing.

Why can’t I do tricks?

The STYLE METER points this out just by it’s sheer existence. The more cool things you do, the more style you have, the more badass you become. There’s not a lot of things you do to build up any amount of style (grind, bounce, kill). Granted, it’s something that builds up quite easily when you’re not paying attention to it (while being busy trying not to die).

But often times, I find myself asking “Why is there no trick system?” Is this game trying to appeal to the Pro-Skater crowd without having the thing that appeals to the Pro-Skater crowd?

Tangentially, constant grinding is the games biggest flaw. It’s a means to survival, constantly having to move around to avoid attacks. If you don’t have that much coordination with controls/awareness of your surrounds, it could take a while to attack the larger enemies (at first).

I suppose we could also sit here for hours wondering why a game like this is even bothering with tower-defense scenarios. “The player will be moving around so much so ‘fly’, that we have to include a mini-game that really utilizes the frustration of getting ahead of yourself so you don’t lose.”

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But let me get into the part of the game that has made it a strangely positive experience:

First off, when it comes to games with ‘create-a-character’ modes, what do you do with it? Do you put yourself into the game? Do you create the person you want to be? Do you just want to create eye candy? How about creating the character that fits the world?

There’s a character that I fell in love with a long time ago, in the days of the Pro-skater franchise. THPS3 had a well realized (for the time) create a character mode, she was a punk-ass lady named Facegurl (named that way because of the special move called ‘The Jackass’. you know, the one where you kick the skateboard into your face). I grew attached to the character so much, that I would often make it my mission to see if I could make that character in anything else with a create a character mode.

When I have something so specific, it makes it hard to recreate that same person in another other game that wouldn’t allow her look. I’d either have to fit her into whatever context I can (as a robot in most Sci-fi games), or just not create her at all.

But even still, she was always destined to be a joke character. Let’s face it, most games where you create your character you, want to imagine that they fit the world. An awkward skateboarder doesn’t make sense as a Grey Warden, Space Bounty hunter, or Barbarian.

When I made her in Sunset Overdrive, I can admit that it was just for the sake of making her. But the more I played with her, and the more she spoke, everything just kind of fit. It’s a nice feeling to see a character behave in the exact way I imagined her. Regardless of how I felt about the humour as a whole, it’s those reactions coming from her that made total sense for me.

It helped me enjoy Overdrive more than I probably should have.

Before I go, let’s talk about our Amiibo collections. How far deep are you wading through them? Have you collected more than you should, or are you showing a hell of a lot of restraint?

I figured I was going to stop at Link. When I picked up Smash Bros on launch day, I told myself “Well obviously, I should get one too see what it’s like… And also because I have Hyrule Warriors.”

I enjoyed it for what it was.

Some time later I received Zelda as a christmas gift. I didn’t expect it at all, but I guess my friend assumed that I was really into Amiibos (again, we’re probably thinking in a Hyrule Warriors frame of mind here).

Having both Link and now Zelda, I get to thinking “Well I should probably just wait until Ganondorf is released then.” At least then, I’ll be waiting it out for the next one and not buying things when I see them in store. I’d basically be completing the ‘Tri-force’ as it were.

But then I got to thinking, that I should probably get some variety.

My reason behind that is, I’m really interested in where the future of these Amiibo figures leads. Because of that, I can’t really expect every game to use every Amiibo all the time, there’s bound to be some games that will only relate to the certain franchises.

I bought Luigi today, because I wanted to have at least one thing Mario related.

Now with the three Amiibos under my belt, (and if my friend comes back from his trip with a WiiFit Trainer, that’s going to make it four) I’m wondering if this is really becoming the start of a collecting craze, even if so far, I’ve only been getting the ones that I want.

Luigi? Dude if you are going to pay a lot of money for a figure you get the badass Bountyhunter Samus .

As a side not , havent bought a single one because well I dont own a Wii U and I much rather save the money for a PS4.

The characters I create is a combination of eye candy with who I would like to be or be with (so I end up making good looking girls :/ what can I say , I just do )

I bought a Kirby Amiibo. Because Kirby is my favorite Nintendo character. I hope they put Kirby in Mario Kart 8 at some point as a DLC.

Sunset Overdrive never managed to gel with me. I liked the aesthetic, I liked the whole pseudo-punk vibe, I really had no complaints about the game whatsoever. But for some reason, I could just never find my gameplay rythym in that game and I ended up not getting very far or playing very much of it.

I fully plan to give it another go in a couple of months. It was hurt by coming out when my anticipation for Master Chief Collection was at it's apex. Sure, it turned out to be a busted mess, but I didn't know that at the time. And I think it really hurt Sunset Overdrive's chances at ingratiating itself to me. I imagine I'll end up giving it another go during the summer games drought. You know, in between rounds of MKX... obviously.

You know why Sunset Overdrive doesn't have tricks. Because tricks suck.

Same. They should put Kirby in every game. There is no game ever that could not benefit from having an adorable pink sphere that eats people and steals their defining characteristics.

When it comes to amiibo figures, I have two. I bought Link myself (because I was sure I would get Hyrule Warriors for Christmas) and a friend actually spent a good amount of money and imported a Marth for me for Christmas. I'll likely pick up Zelda (Hyrule Warriors) and I plan to get Ike as well. After that though, we'll see.

@aetheldod: I can't find Samus anywhere! :( I used to make eye candy here and there, but I keep creating narratives for these people. maybe it's a bad habit!

@zzombie13: Fighting crowds and giant boss monsters became my biggest problem. They created a nice way to get around, but that flow does not lend itself to battle. but yeah, the rhythm is everything for that game.

@personandstuff: too tricky?

@smtdante89: I was thinking of getting at least one Fire Emblem character. Definitely Lucina... though I might just cave and buy Ike when I see him.

Trials eventually added tricks, and that me not want to play anymore Trials.

Also, I bought a Kirby amiibo for no reason. He just sits next to my TV. But I'm still really glad I bought him and I don't know why.

Sunset Overdrive doesn't need tricks, it might have elements of Jet Set Radio and Tony Hawk, but it's not those games. It's an open world action platformer made by the Ratchet dudes. The flow of the combat is one thing that the game does perfectly, provided you're willing to be bouncing, grinding and air dashing around. (the amount of videos I have seen where people don't use the slam-bounce move to get to higher places/ keep the movement flow going confuses the hell out of me) It has the exact same chaotic feeling the Ratchet games have had since UYA.

I understand that there can be a LOT going on sometimes. Occasionally you're having to deal with those homing leapers, ice projectiles/mines, acid shooters and an angry mob all at once, but if the game didn't force you to move, you'd be playing the game like any other third person shooter. There's so much stuff to bounce on and grind, and the ability to switch grind directions in an instant that it's never, ever a problem. I almost never found myself on the ground with nowhere to keep my combo going. (possibly that one section with the battering ram) and If I did I'd ground pound and be dashing high in the air again in seconds.

As for Amiibo's. I have Samus and Fox. I was surprised by how well painted/made the fox figure is because of all those early reports of shoddy quality. Samus actually looks kinda cheap due to the weird metallic paint on her suit.

I also have Pit. I'm not gonna open it until i see if he becomes one of the rarer figures.

Sunset Overdrive does have a trick system: the right trigger.

I played SO for 35 hours, absolutely adored it (far and away my personal GOTY), and ended up getting really good at it. It's one of those games that is just a blast to move around the world and just play, if you are decent at it, but kind of lackluster, clumsy and sluggish if you can't get the hang of it. This creates the dichotomy of people who absolutely loved it, and those that thought it was wholly mediocre. I think it does a poor job of explaining itself, especially in the beginning. That, and there are 2 very key moves (air dash and the dive-jump) that you obtain after you reach certain points in the story. Moves that should have been given to the player after the first hour. I suppose they didn't want to overload the player with more movement tutorials, but they could just done a better job of teaching you how to move around effectively (does the game ever even explain how to wall run? I figured that out on my own and never saw it mentioned even once).

It's a game that demands you to walk and chew bubble gum at the same time, but I felt the auto-aim the game provides to be more than enough to alleviate this. There are many, many loadouts and options to tear enemies apart, and a few combos will just rip things to shreds with no effort (hair-spray bomb with ammo regen amp, combined with damage buffing overdrives = never ending screen-clearing death and destruction). Something the game does really well too, is allowing easy to not be a bad thing. Once I had my set-up complete, even though it was way, way over the top crazy powerful, I never felt like I was cheating the difficulty. No matter how hard or how easy the game was, it is just such a joy to move around the world, it never seemed to matter. Though, again, this relies entirely on if you can become quick and efficient with the grind/boosting/swinging/wallrunning/super jumping aspects of it.

Also, the entire time all this is happening, an amazing soundtrack is playing in the background. Fantastic stuff, this one right here being my favorite track in the game: Between The Lines.

I had a lot of fun with Sunset Overdrive, it was simply a lot of fun traversing the world, I just kept coming back to get all those collectibles. The humor didn't always land for me, but I appreciated the tone and charm as a whole.

My complains come from the upgrade systems. I did what the tutorial asked of me and essentially didn't touch it until I had beaten the story. It seemed far too convoluted for an arcadie game like this. Weapons are pricy and level up far too slowly, design decisions that seem to be at odds with encouraging players to experiment with them all. Also, collectibles are used as a currency, but it's not possible to buy everything with the finite amount of each item. Am I missing something? Or is it just a frustrating design decision.

All that said, I enjoyed it as a whole, and was able to ignore the parts I didn't like as much.

I love character creators, the Tony Hawk series was formative for me as well. One of the earliest characters I recall was creating Han Solo in THPS3. He didn't have a vest and looked nothing like Han Solo, but don't tell that to 15 year old me. Now I pretty much exclusively make red headed female characters. My snarky, glasses wearing Sunset Overdrive character was remarkably similar to my Saints Row 3 and 4 boss. Maybe I'll see if I can make a decent Han in Sunset, a game that has vests....

Not played Sunset Overdrive though I am kinda surprised it doesn't have any kind of tricks, not sure I will ever play it since I wont be getting a Xbone and I don't think any of my close friends are either. Does look cool though but not a must-play for me.

As far as character creation goes, I pretty much always make a male character on my first playthrough (I'm a girl) and yeah I usually make them at least decent to look at so there is an eye candy element. Often I have a bare-bones character idea in mind and try to create a look that fits that, although sometimes if I don't know much about a game before playing I just play around with it and see what sticks (I'm sure I spend way too long on character creation screens - on a related note, WHY is it the background around the character is often black so that you can't really see dark hair?)

Ahh amiibos. I am actually really tempted to get at least one despite thinking they're a bit of a cash-grab. So far they're only used in one game I have (Smash) and I really don't know if I'd actually use them very often in that. Think I'll wait for now, though I'll probably get a Yoshi one first since he's always been my go-to guy for mario kart and party and I hear Woolly World will also support amiibo so he seems a logical choice. Plus he's cute & cheap.

@discomposure: The very idea behind character creation is really addicting. I think in terms of eye candy, I tend to make a lot because I have so many cool ideas for looks and I can't stick with just one. (seriously, I would almost dedicate a blog of lore to those things. I'm sounding off topic.)

I keep expecting captain toad to have support for amiibos (just because the amiibo website says it will. But really, their only purpose at the moment is better matches.

@tom_omb: Yeah, that upgrade system I never really did anything with, even after the game constantly telling me I should. And even though I could spend all this money on clothes and guns I was perfectly fine with using what was already given to me. I also don't quite understand why the weapons upgrade too. Oh well, doesn't really matter anyway once I've beaten it.

@doctordonkey: I admit though, once I got the air dash I was much happier with moving around. and I agree, the soundtrack is stellar!

@gunstarred: If anything sunset has taught me that my coordination skills are getting rusty. Also, I'm surprised on the varying quality of Amiibos as well. I suppose since there's not much detail to Luigi as opposed to link, he has the benefit of looking nicer just because of simplicity? I dunno.

@csl316: I suppose there's validation in having a Kirby figurine.

First new game I bought for my Xbone was Sunset; its OK. I won't rave about the game because I think it makes some major missteps, but it lays the ground for something really cool that I hope they expound upon in a sequel. I don't think a trick system would have done anything positive for that game as it doesn't fully realize the systems it already has. This is probably one of the weakest selection of weapons that this developer has put together in recent memory. I cannot say I had fun shooting any weapon specifically; it was all just a matter of "well this weapon works best...whatever". Still, I like the game I just think its more a case of "should have been way better". Definitely not top 10 of the year for me, at all (still better than Destiny ;p) .

I don't own SO nor have I played it but it seems to me that you have the wrong expectations of the game. That's not the game's fault. I think the game should be applauded in a industry where gritty (military) shooters are the norm. Only THPS or SSX can actually scratch that itch of freestyle trickery.