Ecco - Defender of the Future
This is the one Dreamcast game covered so far that I've never played. Always swam away from the opening tutorial and had me some nice mellow dolphin sim time. Using it to soothe the mind is so ingrained by this point I'm not entirely sure I could go save the world from aliens. Very nice to look at and not creepy even after reading all about dolphin sex.
Fighting Vipers 2
I fired up this fighter hoping for a 3D version of Tapeworm for the 2600. Instead, it turned out to be some sort of fighter. So I used my usual level of skill at character selection and went with the dude wearing aviator goggles. He turned out to dress as a car and bellow "VROOM" at a guy who strapped his 10 speed to his back. Then I pressed the same two buttons a lot and won 5 rounds. The game made me miss Bloody Roar on the PS1 a bit and ultimately came nowhere near replacing it.
Fire Pro-Wrestling D
Everytime I play a wrestling game, part of me hopes for those old Technos arcade games like Wrestlefest. The controls were simpler, things didn't get bogged down by brutally forced attempts at storytelling, and the character models didn't have polygon cut out problems. So naturally when I finally find something one could consider a descendant, it has to be very heavy on the Japanese text. Thing is even without instructions, I managed to start some matches and get the controls down. As a bonus, the roster is pretty ridiculous. If the person was remotely famous and active at that time, no matter the country, there's a good chance they'll be available. You can form that Austin/Goldberg tagteam you always wanted and have it beat the ever loving crap out of Kevin Nash. Good engine, very effective graphics, a wide array of options... my only real issue with the game stems from my own ignorance of the language and absolutely nothing on the part of the developer.
Super Floigan Bros. Episode I
I really wish they didn't use the words "super" and bros." in the title of this game. Creating the expectation of a Mario-clone never works out. That's especially true in a case like this where the game is actually fairly unique. It's got the look and humor of a classic MGM/WB animated short and is only a platformer sporadically. You're trying to help a big lunk assemble a special present for your character and guiding him along the way by solving puzzles, playing mini-games, and all things considered rarely jumping around a lot. I wished there was a jump button when it came time to try and shimmy along some thin pipes to hit a switch using the joystick but that's very typical of me. What is pretty universally annoying about the game is its length. For a moderately skilled gamer, it should take a bit over an hour. Seeing as it came out near the end of the system's life but was hyped in pre-release video, that is especially anti-climactic. Of course I am wondering if there were some big plans for it due to the whole "Episode 1" subtitle and the fact that one of the save files on my VMU featured the word "monthly." If this had been an early instance of an online serialized title, it could really have worked. As is, it's a decent engaging little bit of Of Mice and Men/Tex Avery love that ultimately feels incomplete.
Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge
This one surprised me. I remember it being leprosy on plastic. Seems that with some distance from the near constant release of totally pointless compilations, ill-conceived franchise revials, Frogger 2 isn't half bad. The "plot" amounts to a gator being pissed at serving as a log and stealing some kids to get even. It's not belabored and adds some item hunting to the gameplay mix. At the core, it's fairly similar to the original but with revolutionary enhancements made since then such as jumping. This will probably get added to my list of enjoyable once in awhile titles which is more than I can say for Centipede.
Gauntlet Legends
Do you like Gauntlet? If so, this is the same basic thing but with much less stylish graphics and some pretense of a plot. I'd much rather play on the NES and drive my dad insane by informing him that red warrior is in fact "it" repeatedly.
Gigawing+Gigawing 2
Vertical scrolling shooter. Fun at parties. Easy to control. Enjoyable to play. Not much else to say really. Besides oooh pretty KABOOOOM! x2.
That's it for this week. Next on deck there's maximum boobage, some more shooters, METAL, and cel-shading.
Showing posts with label Dreamcast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dreamcast. Show all posts
Sunday, January 20, 2013
. . . and Then Some Dreamcast Happened Vol. V: I would rather pretend the 5th movie never happened, thanks.
Godzilla Generations 2: Maximum Impact
I guess this is one of those on the rail shooters? Godzilla lumbers forward through a city very slowly. Things attack him. You try to stop them with your magical fire breath, get a whole bunch of confirmed targets, then shoot wherever anyhow. Then there's a boss battle against one his foes from a movie. It all looks quite nice. Plays a bit like the controller is encased in cement and you're trying to mash buttons with a chisel. Fairly vile gaming experience, all things considered.
Gunbird 2
Nice to see classic sprites represented in a scrolling shooter. Nothing too innovative here but it's got all the ease of play and fun the genre tends to represent. As a bonus, it features multiple display modes to allow for slight changes to your gameplay experience. And you can play as Alucard, gather a bunch of elements, and make for the North Pole like Santa Claus has challenged you to a duel or something.
Heavy Metal Geomatrix
Sometimes, I feel the ESRB M: for Mature Players rating isn't clear. This game absolutely deserved it for deplorable (if slightly green-blooded) violence and acts kids absolutely should not duplicate. However, one really cannot be "mature" and enjoy a game where men on steroids and women whose backs would shatter from boob weight if they ever actually jumped run around and attack one another with huge, phallic weapons to Heavy Metal music. It's as over the top as one would want something bearing the franchise's name to be and just pure freaking fun. oh and i was able to choose a comically overbusted Aeryn Sun lookalike with a chainsaw as my character so I'll break my rules and rate this one A++++++++++++++ for the teenager within.
Ikagura
There are tons of scrolling shooters on the Dreamcast and this seems to be the best reviewed of them. It's stunning to look at, well balanced, and has some gameplay innovations to boot. First off, there's the dark/light polarity swap mechanic. Instead of collecting bombs, you change colors to absorb energy from enemy weapons and build up a meter. Then there are boss battles which they can walk away from if you're not skilled enough to destroy them. It all makes the game feel fresh a decade+ after initial release. That said, I shall now bash it to increase blog hits as this one is very much subject to the Cult of Treasure Games. LOLZ DIS GAYME HAZ LAYME GRAFIX WHERE DA 3D AT YO AN IT NO CALL OF DUTY HUR DUR DUR!
Jet Grind Radio
I remember being absolutely blown away by this game. Part of it was the then-novel usage of cel-shaded graphics. Then there was the well-selected soundtrack. Could do without the Rob Zombie remix but that goes with gaming in this territory. A decade or so later what still resonates with me, however, is the gameplay experience. The camera can be annoying at times but otherwise it just doesn't get old.
Kao the Kangaroo
The best part of inheriting game libraries are the WTF titles like this one. You play as this rat in yellow, long underwear with apples on its hands and bounce over pits then convulse at some enemies. Oh wait... that's a kangaroo! The apples are boxing gloves! Those convulsions are rapid fire punching; or maybe some sort of statement about long term effects of circus-type abuses on animals. Honestly it plays like an inebriated Crash Bandicoot and I don't really care about any aspect of the thing after a few levels.
Karous
This one is significant largely because it was the last officially released Sega Dreamcast game. It may honestly be the weakest of the scrolling shooters on the system I've played so far. My skills at this style of game are severely rusty. Me beating one without dying suggests something is amiss. My weapons were too powerful and blocked too high a percentage of enemy fire for one thing. That combined with the fact that pretty much everything but backgrounds and the final boxx were monochromatic made for one dull game. Yes, I suck at Ikagura and all the others. However, I'm okay with that as it just provides inventive to improve. With Karous, my only motivation is to use a wider array of the angel-type characters moves in order to avoid being overwhelmed by repetition.
Next week I'm going to drop entirely too much knowledge of Twilight plot points for someone my age, reach a new low in revival of classic franchises. finally mention a FPS, and post a rant so bad that content isn't mentioned even once (and yes... that is entirely fixable but then the blog becomes work and it can't do that unless it gets monetized which it probably won't barring a change in terms of service).
I guess this is one of those on the rail shooters? Godzilla lumbers forward through a city very slowly. Things attack him. You try to stop them with your magical fire breath, get a whole bunch of confirmed targets, then shoot wherever anyhow. Then there's a boss battle against one his foes from a movie. It all looks quite nice. Plays a bit like the controller is encased in cement and you're trying to mash buttons with a chisel. Fairly vile gaming experience, all things considered.
Gunbird 2
Nice to see classic sprites represented in a scrolling shooter. Nothing too innovative here but it's got all the ease of play and fun the genre tends to represent. As a bonus, it features multiple display modes to allow for slight changes to your gameplay experience. And you can play as Alucard, gather a bunch of elements, and make for the North Pole like Santa Claus has challenged you to a duel or something.
Heavy Metal Geomatrix
Sometimes, I feel the ESRB M: for Mature Players rating isn't clear. This game absolutely deserved it for deplorable (if slightly green-blooded) violence and acts kids absolutely should not duplicate. However, one really cannot be "mature" and enjoy a game where men on steroids and women whose backs would shatter from boob weight if they ever actually jumped run around and attack one another with huge, phallic weapons to Heavy Metal music. It's as over the top as one would want something bearing the franchise's name to be and just pure freaking fun. oh and i was able to choose a comically overbusted Aeryn Sun lookalike with a chainsaw as my character so I'll break my rules and rate this one A++++++++++++++ for the teenager within.
Ikagura
There are tons of scrolling shooters on the Dreamcast and this seems to be the best reviewed of them. It's stunning to look at, well balanced, and has some gameplay innovations to boot. First off, there's the dark/light polarity swap mechanic. Instead of collecting bombs, you change colors to absorb energy from enemy weapons and build up a meter. Then there are boss battles which they can walk away from if you're not skilled enough to destroy them. It all makes the game feel fresh a decade+ after initial release. That said, I shall now bash it to increase blog hits as this one is very much subject to the Cult of Treasure Games. LOLZ DIS GAYME HAZ LAYME GRAFIX WHERE DA 3D AT YO AN IT NO CALL OF DUTY HUR DUR DUR!
Jet Grind Radio
I remember being absolutely blown away by this game. Part of it was the then-novel usage of cel-shaded graphics. Then there was the well-selected soundtrack. Could do without the Rob Zombie remix but that goes with gaming in this territory. A decade or so later what still resonates with me, however, is the gameplay experience. The camera can be annoying at times but otherwise it just doesn't get old.
Kao the Kangaroo
The best part of inheriting game libraries are the WTF titles like this one. You play as this rat in yellow, long underwear with apples on its hands and bounce over pits then convulse at some enemies. Oh wait... that's a kangaroo! The apples are boxing gloves! Those convulsions are rapid fire punching; or maybe some sort of statement about long term effects of circus-type abuses on animals. Honestly it plays like an inebriated Crash Bandicoot and I don't really care about any aspect of the thing after a few levels.
Karous
This one is significant largely because it was the last officially released Sega Dreamcast game. It may honestly be the weakest of the scrolling shooters on the system I've played so far. My skills at this style of game are severely rusty. Me beating one without dying suggests something is amiss. My weapons were too powerful and blocked too high a percentage of enemy fire for one thing. That combined with the fact that pretty much everything but backgrounds and the final boxx were monochromatic made for one dull game. Yes, I suck at Ikagura and all the others. However, I'm okay with that as it just provides inventive to improve. With Karous, my only motivation is to use a wider array of the angel-type characters moves in order to avoid being overwhelmed by repetition.
Next week I'm going to drop entirely too much knowledge of Twilight plot points for someone my age, reach a new low in revival of classic franchises. finally mention a FPS, and post a rant so bad that content isn't mentioned even once (and yes... that is entirely fixable but then the blog becomes work and it can't do that unless it gets monetized which it probably won't barring a change in terms of service).
Friday, January 18, 2013
. . . and then some Dreamcast Happened Volume 1: The Motion Picture
I loved the Dreamcast. It had some great games, the controller felt nice in my hands, and the thing didn't die easily. Fortunately for me, I'm somewhat alone in that sentiment among most of my friends and have inherited a console, 2 controllers, 2 VMUs, and 2 software libraries. So a couple controller extensions later and I'm good to comb through and write about what survived. Note that many of these are first impressions and not actual reviews where I feel some obligation to sit down and get past an awful interface or unappealing presentation. Nor am I going out of my way to explore every nook and cranny of the system's software library. Based on my (admittedly rudimentary) Dreamcast knowledge, it looks like sports, RPG, and FPS coverage will be almost non-existent. Plus the broadband adapter was sold off by the system's original owner and I'm not terribly keen on putting my laptop next to the box that makes the neat-o noises that OMG OMG OMG NEED POUNCING! for purposes of modem simulation.
My goal to post these once a week sometime Friday or Saturday. We'll see how that goes as past attempts with The Doctor watching would go 2-3 weeks sans updates. It's just tough for me to invest that much effort in something whose audience largely consists of people brought in by Google hits on the semi-relevant tags. The hope is I've been discussing Dreamcast with a friend or two of late and they will look thus giving me a kick in the pants. However, the appeal of purely text-based blogs is minimal and I'm not keen on cameraphone derived screenshots to liven things up or the ever popular "borrowing" of someone else's pro-shots.
Well, that's all for the rambling. I should technically have said that concisely enough to have a standard header/disclaimer week to week. However, I decided not to proofread or edit these entries at all to prevent myself from getting caught in a revision trap. So I may as well not make things even messier
Aerowings 2
I get that it's easier to pull optical media out of its original case then swap them to a book or spindle or pretty much anything else that will fit conveniently near your viewing area. However, if I weren't insanely lazy, pictures of the first Aerowing would illustrate why one really shouldn't do that. The disc got warped, came out of its sleeve a bit, received more scratches than Freddy's victims, and apparently took the brunt of an attempt to stomp out rage over Sega exiting the market. Fortunately for me, Aerowings is a flight sim franchise. I suck so bad at that sort of thing I waited for GTA: San Andreas to hit PC so I could easily download saves and bypass any and all flight missions. This one wasn't terrible and at least featured a detailed tutorial. Instruction and controls were so good it took me three minutes to fly my fighter jet into the ocean and fail my training mission. Can't even comment if the game is good for its genre as I never play such things. Still, gave me 5 minutes of fun.
Army Men 2: Sarge's Heroes
Toy Story made profound statements about the human experience through toys. Army Men made a statement about how people would let deplorable violence pass if it was presented in an adorable manner. Sure, everyone's plastic but they honestly look a whole hell of a lot like human character models from that period of gaming sans a few textures. This isn't a bad little 3rd person shooter. It's got humor, decent level design, a manageable control scheme, and some nice voice acting. Even if I could find the case, I'd hold onto the game.
Bangai-O
On paper, a directional shooter featuring mechas would repulse me. In practice, this is very much a Treasure game and subsequently a blast to play. I may suck at it but it's so great getting oranges from buildings I just destroyed with my giant robot that frustration is eaten whole! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Bomberman Online
This franchise may hold a personal record. Can't think of any other where I've managed to suck so bad on so many different platforms. It plays like Bomberman but has online access. The local equivalent is solid and enjoyable. However, someone needs to send me a broadband adapter so I can comment on the online aspect.
Border Down
Neat take on the side scrolling shooter. If you choose the green path (or "border"), you get the longest track through a level but the A. I. is more manageable. Should you fail at that, then you move on to yellow which is shorter and harder. Then comes red which is chock full of enemies and explosions and insanity and BOOM to stress the fact you're almost out of the game. Nicely made game with lots of thought behind it.
Bust A Move 4
You shoot bubbles at bubbles of a similar color until there are none of the latter left! Things disappear! The dinosaur dudes from Bubble Bobble get happy! This series is somewhat hard to screw up, Difference between this and some of the other versions I've got is it includes a puzzle edit mode. Not too shabby.
Cannon Spike
Not entirely sure how I missed this one. It's a directional shooter featuring a cast chock full of Capcom icons. Saying much about this beyond words like "fun," "over-the-top," and "WHEEEEEEEEE" seems a bit silly. Not a very deep game. Fantastic for multiplayer. Easily picked up/put back down for single.
next week I will discuss the plague of poorly coded nostalgia, a bit of homebrew action, how much I suck at driving games, and then probably what I'll be covering the week after that.
My goal to post these once a week sometime Friday or Saturday. We'll see how that goes as past attempts with The Doctor watching would go 2-3 weeks sans updates. It's just tough for me to invest that much effort in something whose audience largely consists of people brought in by Google hits on the semi-relevant tags. The hope is I've been discussing Dreamcast with a friend or two of late and they will look thus giving me a kick in the pants. However, the appeal of purely text-based blogs is minimal and I'm not keen on cameraphone derived screenshots to liven things up or the ever popular "borrowing" of someone else's pro-shots.
Well, that's all for the rambling. I should technically have said that concisely enough to have a standard header/disclaimer week to week. However, I decided not to proofread or edit these entries at all to prevent myself from getting caught in a revision trap. So I may as well not make things even messier
Aerowings 2
I get that it's easier to pull optical media out of its original case then swap them to a book or spindle or pretty much anything else that will fit conveniently near your viewing area. However, if I weren't insanely lazy, pictures of the first Aerowing would illustrate why one really shouldn't do that. The disc got warped, came out of its sleeve a bit, received more scratches than Freddy's victims, and apparently took the brunt of an attempt to stomp out rage over Sega exiting the market. Fortunately for me, Aerowings is a flight sim franchise. I suck so bad at that sort of thing I waited for GTA: San Andreas to hit PC so I could easily download saves and bypass any and all flight missions. This one wasn't terrible and at least featured a detailed tutorial. Instruction and controls were so good it took me three minutes to fly my fighter jet into the ocean and fail my training mission. Can't even comment if the game is good for its genre as I never play such things. Still, gave me 5 minutes of fun.
Army Men 2: Sarge's Heroes
Toy Story made profound statements about the human experience through toys. Army Men made a statement about how people would let deplorable violence pass if it was presented in an adorable manner. Sure, everyone's plastic but they honestly look a whole hell of a lot like human character models from that period of gaming sans a few textures. This isn't a bad little 3rd person shooter. It's got humor, decent level design, a manageable control scheme, and some nice voice acting. Even if I could find the case, I'd hold onto the game.
Bangai-O
On paper, a directional shooter featuring mechas would repulse me. In practice, this is very much a Treasure game and subsequently a blast to play. I may suck at it but it's so great getting oranges from buildings I just destroyed with my giant robot that frustration is eaten whole! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Bomberman Online
This franchise may hold a personal record. Can't think of any other where I've managed to suck so bad on so many different platforms. It plays like Bomberman but has online access. The local equivalent is solid and enjoyable. However, someone needs to send me a broadband adapter so I can comment on the online aspect.
Border Down
Neat take on the side scrolling shooter. If you choose the green path (or "border"), you get the longest track through a level but the A. I. is more manageable. Should you fail at that, then you move on to yellow which is shorter and harder. Then comes red which is chock full of enemies and explosions and insanity and BOOM to stress the fact you're almost out of the game. Nicely made game with lots of thought behind it.
Bust A Move 4
You shoot bubbles at bubbles of a similar color until there are none of the latter left! Things disappear! The dinosaur dudes from Bubble Bobble get happy! This series is somewhat hard to screw up, Difference between this and some of the other versions I've got is it includes a puzzle edit mode. Not too shabby.
Cannon Spike
Not entirely sure how I missed this one. It's a directional shooter featuring a cast chock full of Capcom icons. Saying much about this beyond words like "fun," "over-the-top," and "WHEEEEEEEEE" seems a bit silly. Not a very deep game. Fantastic for multiplayer. Easily picked up/put back down for single.
next week I will discuss the plague of poorly coded nostalgia, a bit of homebrew action, how much I suck at driving games, and then probably what I'll be covering the week after that.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
...and then some Geekery Happened 2013: Wrath of Khan
Nights into Dreams (HD remake) Windows
This game helped make me a pariah in high school. The N64 was soooo much cooler and had better graphics because it was SIXTY FOUR BITS according to the one other kid lame enough to try holding conversations about videogames. On days when I didn't mind being laughed at for supporting a huge flop like the Saturn, I would attempt to counter with the fact that Nights. . . had better art direction and more unique gameplay than even the mighty Mario64. Problem was I didn't understand the game at all. For a good 6 years before my brother took the console and moved out, I would just glide around aimlessly then get to Puffy, have polygons shit out all over the place, and run out of time. BUT GOD DAMN IT! SHIT WAS FREAKING AWESOME!
Now a good decade later, I got my hands on the port and confirmed that I was, in many ways, an idiot as a teenager. The gameplay of this one is astoundingly simple: collect blue balls to earn back the orbs taken from you at the start of each level and try to earn the best score possible so you can access the final world. I was spot on about the art direction though. Even in Saturn mode, the bitch is gorgeous. Part of me thinks that my gawking at things had a lot to do with previous failures. Even in non-HD Saturn-faithful mode, this bitch is gorgeous. When other games went to dreamland, you could totally tell because there were clouds and stuff. Here, there's some thought put into things and I for one would love to be flying through that dreamscape with the purple Jester-y type dude. Focus less on the plot and more on just enjoying the ride and this game is fantastic.
My only real issue with the remake is the presentation of Christmas Nights. I waited 15+ years to play the thing. So not being able to play as Sonic really cheesed me off. Even if I did find a way to do that, I'm not entirely sure it's possible to swap over to the Saturn style graphics. I come from the videogame mascot era, back before the success of the PS1 despite the lameness of Crash Bandicoot proved a console could thrive without one. I used to play Sonic Jam and drool over the possibilities of X-treme and think maybe I wept openly when Sonic Adventure II made clear what was to come. So I wanted to run around as Sonic then bop that boss recolored to simulate Robotnik. This was true of the PS2 remake as well so I'm not shocked but still. Why not make dropping obscene coin on what's basically a one level demo even dumber and include the full experience?
All in all, a nice port of a great title. The HD version smooth things out and retains the charm of the original nicely. Plus, the main game features a Saturn mode that's pretty close to the original. It seems a bit less prone to polygon drop out than my original. However, that would prove very handy against Puffy as she wasn't really playable on my console (which is apparently a freak thing). Buy it on Steam or I'll uhhh shit. I don't have readers to threaten much less a threat to hold over them. Maybe I'll not pet the cat next to me and tell her it was your fault? Shit. I'm going to bed and hoping for a dream half as awesome as this game.
Klonoa Wii
Of all the $15.00 games at my local Gamestop, this one is probably my favorite. It's apparently a jump-for-jump remake of a PS1 game I missed. It might be a good thing we didn't meet back then as I got obsessed easily and now have a previously unknown franchise to explore at some point. The game falls into that awkward sounding "2.5 D" platformer category. Graphics are polygonal. You run along a fairly fixed path and don't really go exploring. As a twist, you can take aim at some things in the fore/background. That combined with the need to run around and re-explore territory sporadically helps add a bit of light puzzling to things. Controls are intuitive and of the directional + 2 buttons variety. Another thing that differentiates this from Sonic or Mario clones is that you grab enemies to use them as projectiles to progress or a means of defense instead of just jumping on shit a lot.
My only complaint with it was the fact they redesigned the character from his PS1 days to look more like a Sonic Adventure reject that anything else. It's mostly in the eyes. The voice sounds similar as well. I just wish they'd thought things through and maintained distance from the blue dude. Klonoa doesn't need more things to resemble Sonic. The plot is fairly wafer thin, a skill I wish Sonic Team learned after S. A. instead of flooding the market with crap games. Go buy this. Now.
The Combatribes Arcade via MAME
Side scrolling beat em ups started to get repetitive after awhile. Don't get me wrong I still love playing through Streets of Rage II in a quest to try and use Max's kneedrop move on every boss. However, the same dudes keep running at you with the same attack patterns in levels where variety comes from going left instead of right, travelling up an elevator, or having maybe three possible endings caused by really basic choices. Combatribes is one of the weirder variations on that theme. There are some very tiny areas populated by a single gang. Your purely Technos designed character pounds the crap out of them with some downright brutal moves, gets charged at by a themed boss, and brutalizes them. I've always stuck to the arcade version because grafting a coherent plot onto this blatant quarter muncher seems stupid. It's all about style, brutality, and having fun. Who cares if the story amounts to "there were bad people. Good people who you could tell apart from the bad people because they responded to your joystick beat the crap out of them. There were no more bad people." Just grab a friend, pump in some quarters, and enjoy.
Muramasa: The Demon Blade Wii
I seem to keep on playing variants on the old side-scrolling-beat-em-up formula. This one uses swords and has its fairly linear plot structure imposed upon a non-linear version of feudal Japan. There's a bit more strategy than some of the traditional, more straight forward hack n slash type games. You build up stats as you go through and forge new, better swords. Then you need to choose which ones come along, what items to carry, etc. based on what obstacles you see yourself needing to overcome. As a further bonus, the art direction in the game is utterly fantastic. During a few of the more over the top boss battles, I didn't mind getting my ass kicked because the enemy doing it was so pleasant to look at. It's a good thing that the boss battles are so lovely as the "run down this road from that creepy forest to that field to that garden then across the creepy mountain tops as some combo of six or seven types of enemies jump at you" formula starts to get severely repetitive after awhile. Still, there's just enough strategy to keep proceedings engaging. Plus I found when I was really starting to feel the sameness, the final boss battle started. If anything else irked me, it was the Wiimote control scheme. I couldn't stop accidentally jumping until swapping to the classic controller. Muramasa . . . looks lovely, drags a smidge, and has a good old-school beat-em-up feel to it. I dig the hell out of it but will probably lose interest once my Saturn is running Guardian Heroes again. Maybe a multiplayer option might help it win that battle, provided it went online so I could play with my brother? I kind of doubt it as GH is that much closer to perfection and comparing the two is a total dick move. Thank fuck I don't need to have journalistic standards!
retro-bit extension cable for Sega Dreamcast
Pre-reliable wireless controllers, I was a big fan of extension cables. Leaving consoles in the middle of the floor posed undue risk to hardware. As a bonus, going with 3rd party cables of questionable quality wasn't as risky as compromising on memory cards. That is unless of course you're dealing with a Dreamcast where said memory units are seated within the controller. These were about 1/2 the cost of a single legit one for a 2 pack and it showed fairly early on. My initial connection was so bad that my first party VMU tweeted a lot to protest connection loss. My supra defuxe 3rd party 4x capacity card with serial port flat out died until I strategically thwacked it. After evaluating things a bit, I determined the issue had to do with a fidgety connection point. Basically, I'm used to my originals which would do click into place perfectly with no pressure on every attempt. With these, one needs to double check for security and be ready to have a dashing kitten sever the connection. Time will ultimately tell when it comes to build quality but for the price, I expected worse.
Performance Super Pad 8 for Sega Saturn
One thing I didn't like about the Saturn were the default controllers. They didn't sit comfortably in my hands and the XYZ buttons were too small for my ample digits. So figuring that Interact's Eclipse Pad was kind of awesome, I opted to grab their Performance brand "equivalent" for my sporadic-at-best second player. Slow-mo comes courtesy of a poorly positioned switch on the back which my fingers tend to rest on top of. The build quality is so flimsy I figure that will snap off after a week's worth of normal use and possibly take the housing with it. My favorite aspect, however, is the fact that one must enable auto-fire to use anything other than the D-pad or start button. I am in awe of how poorly made this thing is and highly recommend pointing at one and laughing.
Chu-Chu Rocket Sega Dreamcast
I remember this one coming out. OMG ONLINE MULTIPLAYER! ON A CONSOLE! HOLY SHIT! WOW! That would all be irrelevant if the game sucked. Luckily for me, it doesn't. The primary condition for my acquiring a Dreamcast with 4 VMUs, 2 controllers, and 80 games free was not bitching about the fact the broadband adapter was sold to recoup losses after Sega murdered the console. So since I'm not ambitious enough to track down a dialup ISP or simulate on via a PC/DC server my Chu-Chu Rocket experience is strictly offline. Gameplay consists of escorting space mice to their rocket ships by dropping some directional tabs and avoiding a variety of obstacles in the course of your duties. It's one of those things you need to play to understand its appeal/charm. Ideally one could do so via local multiplayer but attempts to draw the wife in have thus far failed. That's really a shame as it's one of those fairly intuitive addictive puzzlers that everybody should play every once in awhile.
This game helped make me a pariah in high school. The N64 was soooo much cooler and had better graphics because it was SIXTY FOUR BITS according to the one other kid lame enough to try holding conversations about videogames. On days when I didn't mind being laughed at for supporting a huge flop like the Saturn, I would attempt to counter with the fact that Nights. . . had better art direction and more unique gameplay than even the mighty Mario64. Problem was I didn't understand the game at all. For a good 6 years before my brother took the console and moved out, I would just glide around aimlessly then get to Puffy, have polygons shit out all over the place, and run out of time. BUT GOD DAMN IT! SHIT WAS FREAKING AWESOME!
Now a good decade later, I got my hands on the port and confirmed that I was, in many ways, an idiot as a teenager. The gameplay of this one is astoundingly simple: collect blue balls to earn back the orbs taken from you at the start of each level and try to earn the best score possible so you can access the final world. I was spot on about the art direction though. Even in Saturn mode, the bitch is gorgeous. Part of me thinks that my gawking at things had a lot to do with previous failures. Even in non-HD Saturn-faithful mode, this bitch is gorgeous. When other games went to dreamland, you could totally tell because there were clouds and stuff. Here, there's some thought put into things and I for one would love to be flying through that dreamscape with the purple Jester-y type dude. Focus less on the plot and more on just enjoying the ride and this game is fantastic.
My only real issue with the remake is the presentation of Christmas Nights. I waited 15+ years to play the thing. So not being able to play as Sonic really cheesed me off. Even if I did find a way to do that, I'm not entirely sure it's possible to swap over to the Saturn style graphics. I come from the videogame mascot era, back before the success of the PS1 despite the lameness of Crash Bandicoot proved a console could thrive without one. I used to play Sonic Jam and drool over the possibilities of X-treme and think maybe I wept openly when Sonic Adventure II made clear what was to come. So I wanted to run around as Sonic then bop that boss recolored to simulate Robotnik. This was true of the PS2 remake as well so I'm not shocked but still. Why not make dropping obscene coin on what's basically a one level demo even dumber and include the full experience?
All in all, a nice port of a great title. The HD version smooth things out and retains the charm of the original nicely. Plus, the main game features a Saturn mode that's pretty close to the original. It seems a bit less prone to polygon drop out than my original. However, that would prove very handy against Puffy as she wasn't really playable on my console (which is apparently a freak thing). Buy it on Steam or I'll uhhh shit. I don't have readers to threaten much less a threat to hold over them. Maybe I'll not pet the cat next to me and tell her it was your fault? Shit. I'm going to bed and hoping for a dream half as awesome as this game.
Klonoa Wii
Of all the $15.00 games at my local Gamestop, this one is probably my favorite. It's apparently a jump-for-jump remake of a PS1 game I missed. It might be a good thing we didn't meet back then as I got obsessed easily and now have a previously unknown franchise to explore at some point. The game falls into that awkward sounding "2.5 D" platformer category. Graphics are polygonal. You run along a fairly fixed path and don't really go exploring. As a twist, you can take aim at some things in the fore/background. That combined with the need to run around and re-explore territory sporadically helps add a bit of light puzzling to things. Controls are intuitive and of the directional + 2 buttons variety. Another thing that differentiates this from Sonic or Mario clones is that you grab enemies to use them as projectiles to progress or a means of defense instead of just jumping on shit a lot.
My only complaint with it was the fact they redesigned the character from his PS1 days to look more like a Sonic Adventure reject that anything else. It's mostly in the eyes. The voice sounds similar as well. I just wish they'd thought things through and maintained distance from the blue dude. Klonoa doesn't need more things to resemble Sonic. The plot is fairly wafer thin, a skill I wish Sonic Team learned after S. A. instead of flooding the market with crap games. Go buy this. Now.
The Combatribes Arcade via MAME
Side scrolling beat em ups started to get repetitive after awhile. Don't get me wrong I still love playing through Streets of Rage II in a quest to try and use Max's kneedrop move on every boss. However, the same dudes keep running at you with the same attack patterns in levels where variety comes from going left instead of right, travelling up an elevator, or having maybe three possible endings caused by really basic choices. Combatribes is one of the weirder variations on that theme. There are some very tiny areas populated by a single gang. Your purely Technos designed character pounds the crap out of them with some downright brutal moves, gets charged at by a themed boss, and brutalizes them. I've always stuck to the arcade version because grafting a coherent plot onto this blatant quarter muncher seems stupid. It's all about style, brutality, and having fun. Who cares if the story amounts to "there were bad people. Good people who you could tell apart from the bad people because they responded to your joystick beat the crap out of them. There were no more bad people." Just grab a friend, pump in some quarters, and enjoy.
Muramasa: The Demon Blade Wii
I seem to keep on playing variants on the old side-scrolling-beat-em-up formula. This one uses swords and has its fairly linear plot structure imposed upon a non-linear version of feudal Japan. There's a bit more strategy than some of the traditional, more straight forward hack n slash type games. You build up stats as you go through and forge new, better swords. Then you need to choose which ones come along, what items to carry, etc. based on what obstacles you see yourself needing to overcome. As a further bonus, the art direction in the game is utterly fantastic. During a few of the more over the top boss battles, I didn't mind getting my ass kicked because the enemy doing it was so pleasant to look at. It's a good thing that the boss battles are so lovely as the "run down this road from that creepy forest to that field to that garden then across the creepy mountain tops as some combo of six or seven types of enemies jump at you" formula starts to get severely repetitive after awhile. Still, there's just enough strategy to keep proceedings engaging. Plus I found when I was really starting to feel the sameness, the final boss battle started. If anything else irked me, it was the Wiimote control scheme. I couldn't stop accidentally jumping until swapping to the classic controller. Muramasa . . . looks lovely, drags a smidge, and has a good old-school beat-em-up feel to it. I dig the hell out of it but will probably lose interest once my Saturn is running Guardian Heroes again. Maybe a multiplayer option might help it win that battle, provided it went online so I could play with my brother? I kind of doubt it as GH is that much closer to perfection and comparing the two is a total dick move. Thank fuck I don't need to have journalistic standards!
retro-bit extension cable for Sega Dreamcast
Pre-reliable wireless controllers, I was a big fan of extension cables. Leaving consoles in the middle of the floor posed undue risk to hardware. As a bonus, going with 3rd party cables of questionable quality wasn't as risky as compromising on memory cards. That is unless of course you're dealing with a Dreamcast where said memory units are seated within the controller. These were about 1/2 the cost of a single legit one for a 2 pack and it showed fairly early on. My initial connection was so bad that my first party VMU tweeted a lot to protest connection loss. My supra defuxe 3rd party 4x capacity card with serial port flat out died until I strategically thwacked it. After evaluating things a bit, I determined the issue had to do with a fidgety connection point. Basically, I'm used to my originals which would do click into place perfectly with no pressure on every attempt. With these, one needs to double check for security and be ready to have a dashing kitten sever the connection. Time will ultimately tell when it comes to build quality but for the price, I expected worse.
Performance Super Pad 8 for Sega Saturn
One thing I didn't like about the Saturn were the default controllers. They didn't sit comfortably in my hands and the XYZ buttons were too small for my ample digits. So figuring that Interact's Eclipse Pad was kind of awesome, I opted to grab their Performance brand "equivalent" for my sporadic-at-best second player. Slow-mo comes courtesy of a poorly positioned switch on the back which my fingers tend to rest on top of. The build quality is so flimsy I figure that will snap off after a week's worth of normal use and possibly take the housing with it. My favorite aspect, however, is the fact that one must enable auto-fire to use anything other than the D-pad or start button. I am in awe of how poorly made this thing is and highly recommend pointing at one and laughing.
Chu-Chu Rocket Sega Dreamcast
I remember this one coming out. OMG ONLINE MULTIPLAYER! ON A CONSOLE! HOLY SHIT! WOW! That would all be irrelevant if the game sucked. Luckily for me, it doesn't. The primary condition for my acquiring a Dreamcast with 4 VMUs, 2 controllers, and 80 games free was not bitching about the fact the broadband adapter was sold to recoup losses after Sega murdered the console. So since I'm not ambitious enough to track down a dialup ISP or simulate on via a PC/DC server my Chu-Chu Rocket experience is strictly offline. Gameplay consists of escorting space mice to their rocket ships by dropping some directional tabs and avoiding a variety of obstacles in the course of your duties. It's one of those things you need to play to understand its appeal/charm. Ideally one could do so via local multiplayer but attempts to draw the wife in have thus far failed. That's really a shame as it's one of those fairly intuitive addictive puzzlers that everybody should play every once in awhile.
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