{"id":19285,"date":"2019-08-02T00:01:49","date_gmt":"2019-08-02T00:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=19285"},"modified":"2019-07-22T13:28:49","modified_gmt":"2019-07-22T13:28:49","slug":"penguin-wars-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/02\/penguin-wars-switch\/","title":{"rendered":"Penguin Wars (Switch)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Back in the mid 80\u2019s, there was an arcade game called Penguin Wars.\u00a0 But it was only released in Japan.\u00a0 However, it proved to be fairly popular there because it was ported to several home consoles, including the Famicom (Japanese NES) and MSX.\u00a0 I think the only version that made it overseas was the Game Boy one.\u00a0 In the old game, you play as a bunch of different animals (including a penguin) as you rolled balls across a table to your opponent and tried to avoid and toss back balls your opponent sent to you.\u00a0 It was like a cross between dodgeball, air hockey, and table tennis.\u00a0 Actually it most reminds me of a dodgeball variant game I played in elementary school P.E. called \u201cSock it to Me.\u201d\u00a0 Anyway, now Penguin Wars is back and better than ever with a modern downloadable take on the Switch.<\/p>\n

Gameplay remains pretty much the same except they added an energy meter and a special attack meter, kind of like a fighting game.\u00a0 You can press a button to toss balls, one button to dash, one to throw a charged shot, and one for your special attack.\u00a0 When you hit your opponent with a ball, they\u2019ll lose some energy.\u00a0 Whoever has the most amount of energy by the end of the time limit, wins.\u00a0 But there are quicker ways to win, too.\u00a0 If you can make your opponent lose all their energy, you\u2019ll win before the round is over.\u00a0 Try and get all the balls to their side without any on yours, and all the balls will attack them and take out a large chunk, if not all, of their energy.<\/p>\n

There are many different kinds of balls that add variety to the gameplay.\u00a0 For instance, spiked balls will take off a ton of energy.\u00a0 Bombs will explode if left on one side for too long, and if they explode on your side, you\u2019ll automatically lose!\u00a0 There are many other obstacles to watch out for, too.\u00a0 As you toss balls, you\u2019ll fill up an attack meter.\u00a0 When it\u2019s full, you can execute a special attack that\u2019s different for each character.\u00a0 Some attacks include a shield to reflect back balls, super fast balls, and more!<\/p>\n

The main mode of play is Story Mode.\u00a0 In this one you play as Riley, the penguin from the first game.\u00a0 He\u2019s gone through a lot of training since then and now he\u2019s all buff and cool, and he tricked out his truck that folds out into the Penguin Wars playing field.\u00a0 In each world he\u2019ll challenge opponents and bosses.\u00a0 The bosses will join you and you can play as them once you defeat them.\u00a0 As you win, you\u2019ll earn money and candy.\u00a0 Candy can be used to level up your stats, like ball speed, power, defense, and agility.\u00a0 Use money to buy special moves and balls to customize your look.<\/p>\n

There is also an endless mode where you battle characters and see how far you can get until you lose.\u00a0 And a local two-player mode where you can challenge a friend via split screen or a neat option where you put the Switch screen on the floor and view the table overhead, kind of like a tabletop arcade game.\u00a0 You can also play online, but I couldn\u2019t find anyone to play with.\u00a0 Probably because the game has been out in Japan for two years now, and not enough people in the US have this game yet.\u00a0 Come on folks, I wanna play this game online with you!\u00a0 Get it now!<\/p>\n

For fans of obscure cute Japanese games like this one, Penguin Wars also has some interesting DLC.\u00a0 You can download extra characters to play as in all the modes except Story, and they are four characters from Hebereke.\u00a0 Who the heck is that, you might ask.\u00a0 Well, Hebereke and friends kind of look like demented Sanrio Hello Kitty characters, and they starred in a Metroid styled 2-D platformer on the Famicom, as well as a few puzzle games in the 16-bit era.\u00a0 Their first game was going to come over here under the name Ufouria, but it was only released in Europe, although you could download it on the Wii Virtual Console.\u00a0 Pretty interesting if you ask me.<\/p>\n

Really the only problems I had with Penguin Wars are very minor.\u00a0 It gets a little hard in the last worlds of Story Mode, the gameplay can get a little repetitive, and the initial loading time when you start is a bit long.\u00a0 But other than that I just loved this game.\u00a0 The graphics are bright and colorful, the music is funky, it\u2019s a heck of a lot of fun, and it has that quirky Japanese vibe that I just love in games.\u00a0 If you like that kind of stuff, too, I\u2019d highly recommend this one.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Penguin Wars is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Cartoon Violence.\u00a0 But it\u2019s just silly and cartoony.\u00a0 If you get hit by a ball, you might get knocked down for a second with swirly dizzy eyes.\u00a0 And if a bomb explodes, you\u2019ll bounce around the screen for a bit like a plush toy.\u00a0 Reading skill is helpful for the text, but not necessary just to play.\u00a0 I think kids of all ages will enjoy this one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in the mid 80\u2019s, there was an arcade game called Penguin Wars.\u00a0 But it was only released in Japan.\u00a0 However, it proved to be fairly popular there because it was ported to several home consoles, including the Famicom (Japanese NES) and MSX.\u00a0 I think the only version that made it overseas was the Game […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19285"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19287,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19285\/revisions\/19287"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}