#869 BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger

Posted: 21st May 2012 by Mulholland in Games
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2

149th played so far

Genre: Fighting
Platform: Various
Year of Release: 2008
Developer: Arc System Works
Publisher: Arc System Works (JP), Aksys Games (US), pQube (EU)

I love fighting games. This is a fact about myself that we have covered multiple times in the past whilst we talked about games like Tekken and Soul Calibur II so it is not a point I will labour that much. It just saves me having to do too much playing of them. You’re just lucky RPGs outnumber fighters 2:1.

The fact is that in the course of this blog we have yet to play many traditional fighters (three including the ones mentioned as well as Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting) I really pushed for another proper fighter before we reached 150 games. Since first reading the book my eye was really caught by the screenshot so I knew which one to go for.

Our Thoughts

I am going to start this by acknowledging one thing; if you are not a Japanophile this may not exactly be the fighting game for you. This may seem like a strange thing to point out considering the number of games made in Japan. Why this warning here rather than for Xenogears, Tales of Symphonia or Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles? Well if you spend 30 seconds with part-human, part-feline Taokaka and you will know the reason why. A substantial part of the game feels like an interactive anime… which is weird for a fighting game. In fact, when playing the story mode, that pretty much seems to be what it really is – half fighting game, half slightly interactive anime (with the interactiveness being of the ‘left or right’ kind).

As with all fighting games you have the standard modes: story, arcade, versus, training and some form of time/score attack. Not much there saying “Nekos roam free”. It is when you begin to play the game that the anime influence begins to leak through. The introduction movie plays like the standard opening sequence of an anime, complete with Japanese music and moody close-ups of the principal players. The 2D sprites of the fighters are all drawn as they would be in an anime. But the place where you see it the most is in the Story Mode, also known as the mode where I truly fell for this game.

Most fighting games make a half-arsed attempt at a plot. It’s one of those truths that has been accepted by gamers for years so it makes sense that one of the very few new fighting franchises of the millennium (seriously can anyone come up with a second decent one?) to change this. The main story contains a complex interlocking story involving magic, war, corruption, possession and murder. There are believable motives in place for the characters whether it is just them carrying out their job as a soldier or trying to cure their old friend and work colleague from some form of soul-corruption… something that is missing from many fighter where there is just an evil sword to destroy or yet another tournament to control a multi-national corporation. To be honest, the interlocking stories are actually quite confusing, at least when you first start playing. It doesn’t immediately make sense who everyone is and what they do, and you need to get quite far into the story lines before you do. Then there are the storylines where the motivations are just frickin’ hilarious that it had both of us laughing out loud… whether it be stroking a dwarf panda or being so hungry that they think a floating demon is a meat bun. I really could go on about the character development until the cows come home so I’ll just mention one more thing: the tips videos.

Since the back story is fairly large it is forgivable that whenever they start to talk about specific terms like “hierarchical cities” that you may get a bit lost. Luckily the game makers actually thought of this and made some rather funny chibi-anime videos to explain these terms as well as fleshing out the back story of some of the more secondary characters. It is also a place for a lot of boob jokes in a typically anime fashion.

The fighting itself plays more like a Capcom fighter compared to a Konami one. The buttons are linked to weak, medium, strong and drive attacks rather than individual limbs. Due to this, and the very VERY different fighting styles of all the characters it means that you really need to put the time in to work out each of their strengths and weaknesses. True, there are only 12 characters on the roster (something that was criticised) but when you have such variation and fleshed-out character development it doesn’t seem to matter too much. Examples include Carl who is accompanied by his creepy doll-like servant, Jin who possesses ice-based powers and Rachel whose arsenal include electrocuting frogs and a cat umbrella that can transform into a cannon. The different fighters are actually that – different. There’s no real carbon copies that we’ve been able to find. Sure, some are a bit more similar, but you really are playing as different characters – not just the same with a different look and slightly different stats.

In the end though, despite that you have all these different styles, the game is accessible. As I’ve said with other games, this might just be me getting better, but I picked this up and did quite well (at least until later boss fights). Sure, I stuck with the character I knew, but while you need to take some time to get used to each character, you can easily get a good feeling with some experimentation. Together with that, the story draws you in, making the whole game a bit more interesting and fun to play through.

For a long while we really did need a new fighter to arrive onto the scene to shake things up a bit… Arc more than succeeded with this fighting gem.

Final Thoughts

Unlike Peter, this game was never going to fully win me over, as it’s quite a bit removed from the type of games I used to play, but so far, this is probably the fighting game that drew me in furthest. This is just as much thanks to the story and graphics as it’s about the gameplay, but it’s accessible enough for me to keep playing.

#503 Medieval: Total War

Posted: 17th May 2012 by Jeroen in Games
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0

148th played so far

Genre: Strategy
Platform: PC
Year of Release: 2002
Developer: The Creative Assembly
Publisher: Activision

Right, here’s another game that came up randomly, but happened to be a game in a series one of us already loved (this time, perhaps surprisingly, not me).

The Total War series is a historical strategy series, with this incarnation set in medieval times. Command your armies and conquer Europe! Really? Yay!

Our Thoughts

The best way to describe this game? Civilization, but simpler (and with territories instead of cities) with battles being done RTS style (like… well, it seems like we only played Dune II so far, but I’m sure you know the type of games – Command & Conquer, Starcraft, that sort of thing… we’ll get to them!), but simpler.

That’s probably the one thing that describes this game best – it does what other games do, but simpler, more streamlined. I would argue against that to be honest. At the time the battling system in this game was incredibly advanced, but that is something more for when we get to the later title Rome: Total War. You develop regions/forts/cities, but aside from some basic loyalty buildings, it’s about making money and getting better units. In the mean time, the RTS bits (which are completely optional during the campaign) are probably a bit more complicated than the original games, but with you moving units around with some different options (flanking works better, hiding and so on), it’s leaving out anything resource-based, instead focusing solely on unit warfare, similar to what you might know from Warhammer.

With that said about gameplay, let’s move on a bit further in-depth. The strategy in this game really is about gathering and moving units. You’re fairly constrained here, having to pay upkeep for each unit, meaning that the best way to build a larger army is to gather more territories (some buildings can help grow it, but this is expensive on its own). As it’s turn based, this makes the whole thing a lot more predictable… but also means you can see certain defeats come from far. Then there are times when can be absolutely trounced even when  you vastly outnumber your enemy *grumble*.

Diplomacy, in the mean time, is simple – you can be enemies, neutral or allies. No negotiations or similar, alliances just get created and broken easily. It’s similar to how we found alliances to be in Civilization. Then again, when you read up on these eras in Europe the alliances were rather mercurial in their making and breaking. I mean, it was part of the plot of my favourite episode of the original series of Blackadder. So it must therefore be true.

Most of what we saw of the battles was during the tutorials. Yeah, you can do them during the campaign – which is probably more efficient when you get used to it – but we mostly saw it during the tutorial (with a fairly annoying narrator) where you get to learn these controls. One interesting thing happened here – during one example battle, we ended up in a siege on a Turk city. This city had a mosque, which you can target and destroy with your siege engine if you want. That would not have been easy nowadays, and makes you wonder whether that was a worry at the time.

Graphics are of the time. The main campaign screen is simple but useful – you’re more or less playing on a dynamic game board, with some differences based on your actions. This looks nice, but is now annoyingly -. Functional, that’s all I can say.

The battle screen, in the mean time, has a similar thing. They’ve tried to spice up the battlefield slightly – flowers, hills and so on – but in general it looks a bit grainy at times. I know we’re playing on a large nice PC screen, but it still stands out slightly. It’s nothing too bad – you can still make out what’s going on and all that – but there are cases where it got annoying, when your troops were battling the enemies and it got difficult to target the enemy to get some additional forces in.

One thing that is strangely enjoyable to watch is how your choices (as well as the random choices made by the computer) really does fly in the face of European history. In a game we played the Germans were wiped out completely, the Danes took over most of France and Spain whilst previously wiped out groups (like the Ukrainians) came back with a vengeance and eventually became a dominant power… I mean really!? Still, the idea of Denmark as a major power in the Mediterranean did make me chuckle.

Final Thoughts

Seriously, Denmark controlling Portugal still makes me smile.

We have plenty of RTS games coming up so it is actually a real strange quirk that we’ve barely had any up until now. I am still a little sore that my favourite RTS of all time (Kessen II) did not appear on this list but I am sure my letter of complaint will have some traction in the next list… maybe… ok it won’t… SHUT UP!

#380 Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus

Posted: 13th May 2012 by Mulholland in Games
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2

147th played so far

Genre: Platform
Platform: PC
Year of Release: 1998
Developer: Oddworld Inhabitants
Publisher: GT Interactive

Abe is adorable. He is one of the ugliest game heroes ever to grace a home console but he is adorable.

The Oddworld series has had a bit of resurgence in the last year thanks to Steam and the revamping of games in glorious HD (which is how we later came to own a copy of Shadow of the Colossus).

Our Thoughts

For those who played Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee the release of Abe’s Exoddus came as a breath of fresh air because of one thing: a quicksave function. In truth there are improvements in nearly every way but it is this quicksave that ensured this game a place on the list rather than the original.

So why was this quicksave such a necessity? Because this game is bloody hard. Both of the Abe games do not really have a difficulty curve but a light slope followed by a climbing wall. I’d argue this light slope isn’t there at all. It pays to quicksave after completing every screen because you do not know what horrors await you in the next area that may cause instant kills. In the original, where there were set automatic saving points, a death could catapult you so far back that it’s no wonder gamers approached this release with due trepidation and painkillers.

In truth, this difficulty level can reach such extremes, which anyone who played the Fleech areas will immediately know what I mean, that you want to stop playing and slowly cradle yourself in the corner next to the wastepaper bin before even thinking of trying it again. It is not really since Paradroid where there are large sections of the game so hard that it is almost rendered unplayable. However, with this game you keep trying because not only are the rewards actually worth the slog but the game has something most games would kill for; a decent sense of humour… and this has it in spades.

Okay so the humour is not sophisticated. In many cases I was reduced to fits of giggles by pressing the return key to make him fart on command. It’s also great fun making him slam into walls to have Abe make his annoyed sound. Even the simple exchanges between you and fellow Mudokons are pretty damned funny.

So this is a charismatic game that can also be mind-numbingly hard, so how do you play the damned thing? Abe, as scrawny as he is, is pretty damned powerful. True, he has no gun and dies pretty easily… but he comes back to life (because he is made of doves?), can summon portals and even possess the bodies of his enemies. How do you unpossess? Well you can’t… they just explode… which makes Abe chuckle to himself. Talk about black humour.

The main point of the game itself is to rescue your fellow Mudokons from slavery and to stop the evil Glukkons from turning the bones of your ancient ancestors into a Slurm-like beverage (both of which appear to be highly addictive). However, the quicksave allows for some fun… namely the ‘accidental’ killing of Mudokons by falling pieces of rock, bullets and meatgrinders… so wrong.

Then again, the little annoying creeps do deserve it… You get Abe rescuing them, and then they get themselves addicted to this cannibalistic drink, get themselves captured and blinded… it’s all actually quite a horrible storylines, making the dark humour actually slightly creepy. These blind guys, for example, aren’t just blind – they actually have their eyes sown shut, actually quite painful to think about.

While a lot of the game is genuinely hard, there is also a bit of fake difficulty in the whole thing thanks to the controls. They are partially Prince of Persia based, down to the jump and pull yourself up option. The difficulty here is in their precision – aside from being sluggish at times, they can be fairly imprecise, making it difficult to get Abe to respond when you want to. Case in point being that Fleech area, where part of the solution requires you to pull a lever, while you’re in a hurry – it feels more like luck whether you make it than quick reflexes.

Even so… It’s a tough game, but with rewards if you can get through it. Just be prepared to die plenty even in the initial tutorial area.

Final Thoughts

When I first played this it was as a demo that I received for free with a magazine. As such I played the initial levels so many times that it was ridiculous. Strangely though… it has not suffered from the passage of 13 years. True it is not graphically superiour but so much in the story and the humour resonates as much today as it did back then (perhaps even more so because I get the jokes).

#751 Free Running

Posted: 9th May 2012 by Jeroen in Games
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1

146th played so far

Genre: Sports
Platform: Playstation 2
Year of Release: 2007
Developer: Rebellion Developments
Publisher: Ubisoft

Parkour, for the few who haven’t seen or read about this, is a fairly new sport that’s mostly about running around roofs, ledges and other backstreets of cities, trying to not break your neck as you run around. This, of course, had to be put into a game… after all, it’s popular with some kids. Just slap on enough warnings to make sure they don’t keep doing it.

We’ve made a few references to this game in our write-ups before – both Prototype and Infamous use parcours to make you move around the city, both with their own twists and other games like Spider-Man 2 make use of similar principles. These games are influenced by this sport and possibly game… intentional or not, will it stand up to that?

Our Thoughts

You know, Ill just start off with our judgement. This isn’t a good game (to be honest, it’s pretty crap). There are control issues, it’s graphically behind its time and it’s not doing many things all that way and it influences. Even worse, it squanders its potential.

Step one, the part that got to us most: controls. You know, when developing games, you use certain buttons for certain actions. Partially because people are used to them – you know, X (on your Playstation 1-3) or A (on your Xbox 1-360) mean jump. Second, there’s accessibility – if you jump a lot in a game, you want the button be in a natural position. Say, X (on your Playstation 1-3) or A (on your Xbox 1-360). It’s where your thumb is, so that way it makes sense.

You know what Free Running uses? Circle. I forgot every ten seconds and missed it every five. The thing is that games tend to map different controls to different buttons and that it absolutely fine. It would be boring if every game was controlled in the same way. However, there are certain buttons we use because it’s natural to us. That’s why, whenever you play games like Final Fantasy VII, half the battle is realising the X is not the action button. Then again Free Running is very reaction-time centred (in some ways, in others it’s very finickity) so this constant confusion does not support the idea of fluid gameplay.

Second, I’ll be honest, we originally thought this game was released a few years before what we saw here. Graphically, it looks more 2004-2005 rather than 2007, with drab environments. Even worse here, the player models are best described as similar. There’s about eight different characers to pick from, each with different (otherwise unexplained) characteristics. Thing is, they only look slightly different – it’s obvious they used the same model with a different skin each time, which makes for very butch women and indistinct men.

It’s all well and good saying that for 2007 the graphics are pretty pants but is this fair? I mean in 2007 most games had crossed the generation gap with titles like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warefare and Zack & Wiki looking rather wonderful in HD (ok the Wii does not have HD but go with it). Then there is God of War II… seriously… I would like to know what went wrong with Free Running apart from either a terrible budget or a lazy graphics department.

So right, we get past the bad controls and ugly graphics, so what remains? A game that’s tough to get through and that unfortunately gives only limited opportunity for exploration. With Prototype giving you all of Manhattan, four buildings aren’t really as impressive, and while they’re set up for more tricks, they’re not that many more that they actually becoming interesting and fun.

With the tricks and courses possible, the variety may seem fun and allow for many challenges, but when we then look at Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, that game does it better and did so 7 years earlier. It might be the skateboard, it might be speed… in the end this is done better. And if they’d gone to such a more interesting setup for this game, it would have been better. This would have been a better game, if they only tried.

Final Thoughts

Seeing how we are nearing 150 we have been thinking about what the best and worst games have been since we played Facade all those months ago. Just as Jeanne d’Arc has been a late runner for best game of the fifty now Free Running is in with a chance for worst game. I guess this is what you get for making a game endorsed by a clothing line.

#268 Point Blank, #317 Time Crisis, #451 Silent Scope 2: Dark Silhouette

Posted: 5th May 2012 by Jeroen in Games
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2

So yeah, as you can see we’re doing three games in one post – three arcade shoot ’em ups, in fact. Please allow me to explain.

Today (as I’m writing this, that is), we were out in London for a private celebration and, having some time to spare, Peter suggested we’d visit the London Trocadero. While it’s arcade had closed down earlier (I still miss Funland), it seemed like we might be able to find something there. You never know, right?

And yeah, we got lucky and found three games there. We might need to go back for one or two others we missed (we ran out of change, not having had time to prepare), but thought we’d cover these first.

Why one post? Well, first, we always said we have ten years ahead. If we covered this many in this short a period, we might as well help you out by speeding up slightly. Second, being arcade games, they’re smaller and we’ve had less time to play around (not to mention saying goodbye to the better part of a twenty pound note). We might as well, right?

Point Blank. Time Crisis. Silent Scope 2. Here we go.

Our Thoughts

Just to explain, each of these games have the same basic controls – you look at a screen and have a lightgun – you aim and shoot, with your own aim mattering most. While fairly straight forward, the three differ quite a bit in their implementation and details. One by one…

Point Blank

143th played so far

Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Platform: Arcade
Year of Release: 1994
Developer: Namco
Publisher: Namco

Let’s start with the oldest first. Unlike the other games, this is almost a collection of shooting minigames – shoot the apple off the head, fire at the soldiers but not the innocents, kill plenty of bees. You’re scored on how well you did – especially in multiplayer, when you’re partially playing against each other.

The games seem fairly varied and are fun to play through – even if they are hard and learning them will eat up your change.

I remember the first time that I played this. I was probably about six and at a classmates birthday party at Quasar. I got freaked out about the idea of being shot with lasers so I took a whole lotta change and played on Point Blank for ages and ages. Eventually I got the home version for Christmas and I became addicted. My aim got so perfected that I could easily pass that level (and enthusiasts will remember it) where you have one bullet and you have to split a falling leaf in half. A lot of this aim still remains to this day since I easily trounced Jeroen.

The great thing about this game is the sense of humour. True there are serious levels involving criminals but there are also the stupid explorer characters that need saving from piranhas, bombs and (if I remember correctly) ninjas. This game (and the hope of getting a second-hand version of it on eBay) remains the sole reason that I have kept my old CRT television. Since, annoyingly, these light guns do not work on plasma or LCD screens… this really needs a remake (or a Wiimake).

Time Crisis

144th played so far

None of the pictures came out well for this game

Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Platform: Arcade, Playstation
Year of Release: 1996
Developer: Namco
Publisher: Namco

The first with more human enemies, Time Crisis pits you against armies (or terrorists, not sure). There’s a few parts, really, that stand out here. Aside from the shooting, you can duck behind cover (or really do so by default, using a pedal to jump up). This means that you can duck most shots if you’re careful enough and can catch a breather. This is the same action you take to reload as well.

From these, you get thrown into some pretty cool combat situations. They’re fun to go through and pretty manic to shoot through, with some nice unexpected additional effects. It looks good too – not brilliant but lovely enough.

Not much more to say really, this game (as well as it’s sequels) can still be found in most entertainment venues like cinemas or bowling alleys. Always worth a bit of a flutter, especially the later ones in co-op mode.

Silent Scope 2: Dark Silhouette

145th played so far

Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Platform: Arcade
Year of Release: 2000
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami

Last, Silent Scope 2. The interesting bit of this machine is the gun. Not a simple light gun, we’re looking at a sniper rifle sort of thing with – yes – a scope on top. You’ll need this, as on the normal screen your targets are really just black dots. You need to use the scope to get a zoomed view to see and kill your targets – headshots optional. What’s really neat about this scope is that it contains it’s own little screen. So rather than actually zooming in on the screen and giving yourself one hell of a migraine there is actually some complex technology going on here linking the two… cool.

The time limit is annoying, but beyond this the game is highly playable. The scope takes some time to get used to – adjust to the speed of movement and how to find your target (there are helpers on the scope, but you need to realise that’s what they are). In any case, it’s a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the actual physical feeling of aiming the scope.

That applies to all games really. Yeah, we can do this using the joypad and there are other ways to simulate a gun, but the light guns really add to all of these games – whether it’s just to aim, or the scope adding an additional element, they’re all good extra fun to play.

Final Thoughts

Arcade games were always going to be hard for us to find, especially when specialist equipment like light guns are involved. However, there are still many games that we need to find in order to complete this blog and if there is any help that can be given it would be greatly appreciated.

The main arcade games we need to find are the original Dance Dance Revolution, horse-racing simulator Final Furlong and golf game Golden Tee Live.

#713 Jeanne d’Arc

Posted: 1st May 2012 by Mulholland in Games
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1

142nd played so far

Genre: Strategy/Role-Playing Game
Platform: Playstation Portable
Year of Release: 2006
Developer: Level-5
Publisher: Sony

Right, this is a bit unfair isn’t it. Not only does this game cross the generation line compared to Advance Wars but it also incorporated RPG elements into its turn-based strategy framework. Still Jeanne d’Arc is one of those list games that I have found myself drawn towards playing for a reason I have yet to ascertain. Heralded as one of the best games released on the PSP it boggles the mind completely that this never made its way to the PAL region. 

Thanks be to the region-free capabilities of the PSP which meant that after a bit of eBay bargain on an import from Canada this game made its way to the UK making us in a happy minority of European gamers to have our hands on a good condition copy of this game.

Our Thoughts

Games enjoying playing around with history. We mentioned this in our look at Defender of the Crown and considering the liberties taken here this is something that warrants mentioning. I am not even going to take issue with the inclusion of magic or the recasting of a great warrior as an anthropomorphic lion character who takes pleasure in saying his own name. Since Joan of Arc was canonised as a saint then placing England as the villains also makes great sense (it was probably our fault anyway) but it is the casting of Gilles de Rais as a hero that really jars. Why? Well he was hung for the rape and murder of young boys… true he was one of the big names in the fight against the English but Level-5 surely could have done their research. Be that as it is… I liked the mental illness of the English king Henry VI as being due to demonic possession rather than years of inbreeding. In case you hadn’t noticed yet, for the past three hours, rather than starting this write-up, Peter instead did research on the characters in the game. Wikipedia strikes again.

Okay so that’s another time I have had to don my historian hat and then remove it. It pained me to read that a child murderer was cast as a hero since this is the best discovery I have yet to make using this book. There are games we have covered on here that I have been more addicted to or view as better but since neither of us had actually heard of this game due to it not being released in the EU this is a true discovery if there ever was one.

The first thing that this has going for it is the engrossing story. Japan regularly takes reference from French culture in their anime (a recent example being the marvellous La Croisée dans un Labyrinthe Étranger) and Joan of Arc is France’s greatest heroine of all time. Around her they built friends and supporters with their own complex back story and personalities. This is married up with some beautifully animated FMV (similar to those in Professor Layton and the Curious Village) and well written dialogue where you begin to really care about the characters. Although to be fair here – the story plays a lot with the usual tropes (mysterious power, village burning down, having to leave and deal with strange armies… Sounds familiar? They even both have lovely anime-style cutscenes)

The gameplay itself also has a surprising amount of depth. Just like Advance Wars this is a turn-based strategy based around a gaming board. However, unlike Advance Wars here the gaming boards are fully three-dimensional including buildings, ladders and giant pink demons where applicable. Each character is also customisable with skill stones which dictates cosmic alignment (which then works the same way as elemental types in Pokémon), special abilities (like fireballs or swordplay) as well as supplementing areas such as accuracy and evasion. In this way you really can craft an ultimate team to support Jeanne herself. While probably not the best RPG system around – we’ve seen similar things in other JRPGs – but considering the groups of people you’ll deal with in one go and the focus on tactical stuff and deployment over individual battles, it seems to offer a good balance between the two – in fact, I’m glad you don’t have to set up larger armies in one go, as that would take a horrendous amount of time.

This is not even getting to the central feature of the story which, as any fan of history or Milla Jovovich, is that she was sent by God and receives messages from him. In the game this manifests itself as a magical armulet which allows her to transform into a holy warrior with strong moves and the ability to gain an extra turn as long as you completely destroy an enemy. The rules are not too complex but there is the ability to have Free Combat campaigns as a way to try out new skill combinations or just to make sure you level up your team before a major battle. Of course, as we see in most any family-friendly game, this isn’t God saying this – just a voice from above. Still playing it safe here.

Final Thoughts

Don’t be surprised if Peter’s writeup, in a few week, will mention this as his favourite game of the lot. He has been – I am not exaggerating – absolutely addicted to this game. And who can blame him? It’s a good game – not as indepth as true RPG fans make like, but a lot of fun, with a major focus on the tactical and a brilliant story told in a brilliant way.

Not to be burnt at the stake.

#487 Advance Wars

Posted: 27th April 2012 by Mulholland in Games
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4

141st played so far

Genre: Strategy
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Year of Release: 2001
Developer: Intelligent Systems
Publisher: Nintendo

Whilst we have been playing some handheld games recently (like Edge and LocoRoco 2) this is a group of platforms that we tend to neclect in favour of the PC or home consoles. This was noticed by the two of us a hile ago when looking at our statistics and seeing that we were behind on many handhelds. To combat the next two games for the blog are those available exclusively on a handheld.

So what? We play the same platform back-to-back all of the time. Why is this any different? Well in doing this we will also be directly comparing two critically lauded handheld strategy games. I will be taking the lead on the next entry but for now here is 2001’s Advance Wars.

Our Thoughts

That other game does influence your thinking… although with its different goals, we’ll need to see how fair a comparison is. To be fair it is not a fair comparison in retrospect.

Let me first start, then, by explaining that my opinion of this game was slightly driven by me initially playing the game second hand… You see, the game adjusts its difficulty level based on how well you play. Once I started playing, this game had already been beaten… meaning that I was thoroughly wiped in about the fifth or sixth tutorial mission. This game really pulls no punches. However, a quick Google search about deleting previous save files lead us to have a far more rounded gaming experience.

Right then, the usual categories. Sound? Adequate, but little more. Suitable. Graphics? Basic, really, small icons moving around. Some okay cutscenes, but those are simple and repetitive. Aesthetically, nothing to write home about, you could say. Functional.

But you know what? It works. That is what you want here. You’re a commander, directing your troops from high up. Figures you move around – even in battle you barely care.

Even your commander – possibly general on the ground – I’m not sure how the different levels interact – feel… abstract, I suppose. You don’t interact much, it really is all business.

And that’s where the game is good. You fight against armies of similar capabilities and use any tactical advantages you can get – take over cities, stay out of range, get defensive positions on top of hills compared to those on plains or roads. When two units fight, it’s clean – seperate areas, both sides fire, whoever attacks goes first, once both had their turns you see how many people, out of time, each side lost. Go to zero, you’re dead. Lose all your units or your HQ, you lose. Basic simple gameplay, clean, but with an underlying depth that will keep you engaged for a long time.

If I have to mention one downside, it’s a lack of prep – you get given an initial army, but can’t create new armies or advance their capabilities. You have to deal with what you’ve got, with the only customization being your commander who can have different capabilities – heal all your units, slow down the enemies or others – making for a very samey experience. Still, that might actually be a good thing, considering the time you’d need to spend figuring out how to beat them.

One thing that this does well is multi-player. I have very fond memories of a summer back in 2002 playing this with four mates on a series of sunny lunch breaks and things getting very heated (and some cheating may have been involved when people went to the bathroom. True the GBA SP had to be continuously passed from person to person but it was great fun.

Final Thoughts

The older a game is the more it suffers at the hands of recent games that have learnt from their mistakes to make a better product. This game suffers from this in spades anyway but when compared to the next strategy game this pales in comparison in every way… maybe we won’t do this again.

#238 Gunstar Heroes

Posted: 23rd April 2012 by Jeroen in Games
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2

140th played so far

Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Platform: Mega Drive
Year of Release: 1993
Developer: Treasure
Publisher: Sega

Some of the games we play are ones that we’re playing because they’re on the list, not for any affinity or initial interest. I’ll be honest – Gunstar Heroes started off as one of those.

It’s a futuristic shooter. You kill lots of enemies. Let’s just go on to the game itself.

Our Thoughts

Let me describe the experience of starting the game. First, one or two player? Well, I’m busy, but maybe later we could do some two player. Fixed or free? Well, I may take my time, multiple directions would be good. Gun types? Let’s see… Chasing would be good, homing missiles would be easier. Wait a stage select too? When do we get to actually play?

That might not have been as succesful, but it gives an impression. You see, you start off with a lot of options, half of which make no sense before you start and it’s not easy to see what’s the best option. Then you get into the game and it really starts. The starting rigmarole isn’t really that bad to be honest. It is really nice to have a lot of options when it comes to ammo type and how often  you care to fire at them. The game itself insists on an edge of difficulty so the only real difficulty setting to hand would be your choice of ammo.  An interesting thing, however, is that power-ups later in the game further customise your ammo so it’s good to try out different combinations because it really can make for a different experience with every playthrough. Just beware of the aim on this game… not great.

We’ve featured manic shooters before, such as DoDonPachi, but those were top down shooters. This time we’re dealing with a side scroller, jumping and all, which changes the mechanics slightly. While still having lots of enemies come in, the lack of free movement means that you have to pay a lot more attention to where you’re standing, while you know enemies won’t always come out of nowhere.

Now these are all wonderful, colourful enemies that are incredibly difficult to deal with, but the real treat comes only further in. Each stage has several bosses in it and they’re brilliant. Each looks amazing, with their own tactics and attacks. Maybe it’s something we’ve seen before, but it’s worked out amazingly here. Whether it’s an overly complicated mecha or a number of cubes together stomping around as some simple human.

One thing I loved is the edge of humour. I am still not completely versed in what the background storyline of this game really is; to be honest I just got as far as shoot now, ask questions later, be chased by killer bees. However, whenever you beat a major boss or cause some major damage to the level the enemies do look on the verge of tears as they clamour around looking for their ringleader. It is also gratifying that many of the bosses are actually subject to the same rules you are. Typically whenever you fall off screen you are catapulted back into the level at the cost of 20 hitpoints, what’s cool is that the bosses will also be docked the same amount of points if for some reason you can lure them into jumping off screen. It’s a small point but it actually humanizes your adversaries.

Main thing though, it’s tough. Enemies from all sides, then bosses who have plenty of health and attacks and are difficult enough to shoot at. It’s hard enough to keep up with… whether you take time to gawk at the enemy or not.

Final Thoughts

This is the first time that we have heard from Treasure on this blog and it will not be the last. In fact there are two more games in this franchise alone as well as a game involving what I believe is a demonic blanket as well as a GBA game of Astro Boy. There is more than this, in fact they probably fall into the Top 10 most prolific developer on this list… that sounds like a good idea for a blog post. Watch this space people!

#848 LocoRoco 2

Posted: 19th April 2012 by Mulholland in Games
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0

139th played so far

Genre: Puzzle/Platform
Platform: Playstation Portable
Year of Release: 2008
Developer: SCE Japan Studio
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

On this blog we like to put forward the idea that there is some form of consistency in this list… well there is not. There are instances where most of a franchise are on a list despite the fact that some of them are not too different from one another (yes Mario: The Lost Levels I am looking at you) and then there are remakes (like Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes and Ninja Gaiden Black) which appear on the list alongside the originals. LocoRoco 2 is like neither of these. The reason it made it onto the list is because it was seen as the same game as LocoRoco but with a lot of improvements. Good work list, you done good.

Our Thoughts

Without a doubt LocoRoco 2 is one of the cutest games that I have ever played. Any game which involves navigating Space Hoppers through a colourful environment by tilting the entire world using the shoulder buttons is alright by me. Was I the only wondering whether actual tilting might work better for this? As the level progresses your LocoRoco grows by eating berries and you are able to use your ever inflating character to solve puzzles, blast through walls and generally save your planet from the evil (and still very cute) Moja.

It has previously been described by some reviewers as a slow motion version of Sonic The Hedgehog because of all the hills and ramps that you find yourself rolling down in order to collect fruit. With Sonic being all about speed, that seems a bit weird though… and the similarities are only superficial. If anything, if we want to list early examples, we might be more inclined to look at Snake, Rattle ‘n Roll. In many ways the style of animation is one which you would probably expect to find on a children’s network like Nick Jr. or CBeebies and that really should be a turn off for a semi-serious gamer such as myself but it also resembles a slightly brighter Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends where the world could have been easily made out of construction paper.

A really cool feature of this game, apart from tilting the entire world using the shoulder buttons, is the fact that you are able to split your character into smaller LocoRocos (via lightning) or reform them into the larger one at will (via an earthquake). This is necessary for completing certain puzzles as well as being unbelievably cute to just watch their uncertain faces. They also start making really cute sounds, and indeed the way to progress is sometimes not just to split them, but to have them sing with their cute squeaky voice. They’re quite simply adorable for a large part of this. To be honest this is not the hardest game but there is beauty in it’s cute simplicity.

Final Thoughts

What’s there to be said, really? Not having played the first game (yet!), I can’t judge whether it’s a major improvement, but all in all the game is solidly put together. It’s great fun to play, with a control scheme and physics engine that starts out a bit bewildering, but actually starts making sense really soon and offers a more integrated experience.

At the same time, it feels like there are so many more worlds and things to explore in here that we’re really just waiting for a sequel… Can we have some more please?

#402 Grand Theft Auto 2

Posted: 15th April 2012 by Jeroen in Games
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0

138th played so far

Genre: Action
Platform: PC/PS1
Year of Release: 1999
Developer: DMA Design
Publisher: Rockstar Games

Let’s be honest first. We’ve played Grand Theft Auto 38 games ago, which (in our perception by now) is fairly recent. Fair enough – we need to play one every 100 games if we want to spread them out as evenly as possible (which is not likely to happen, but it’s a guide). But we didn’t play it for that, or just that – no, it’s because it’s the one final game we need to play before we feel we can play GTA3, which is where Peter’s love for the franchise starts.

From the look of things, it just doesn’t woo from the start. It’s got the original game’s topdown perspective and playing style, which, while it works, isn’t brilliant. It just doesn’t seem to be the thing that would woo you enough to be on the game – unless you consider the franchise big enough that all games should be on there.

Our Thoughts

Okay, let’s start at the beginning. If you haven’t yet, read our review of Grand Theft Auto. Most of the game still plays the same – the controls feel a bit more responsive and the story-related changes that we’ll go into later change the feel of the game, but for most of the game, it’s the same – running, driving, having to earn money to move on. So we can get this out of the way early on it is this top-down gameplay that is this games biggest weakness. Missions are made that much harder for no good reason beecause unless you know the city by the back of your hand (and you won’t on your first playthrough) you will find yourself crashing into off-screen walls at every available opportunity because there is no real warning in terms of the game screen and there is a distinct lack of a map whose addition in later GTA games is a god send.

Another issue that can be found in this game is the amount of ammo you can hold. To be fair you are guarenteed a gun whenever you kill a gang member but it mostly maxes out at 99 bullets… and since we are still in the realms of top-down gameplay it is obscenely difficult to aim the bloody gun without firing 4-5 rogue bullets at the passing Hare Krisna group. In retrospect all these problems really are niggly ones which nip at your wrists whilst you are playing a game which, when you consider the age and view point, has still aged fairly well.

Now based on that, and our reluctance to play, you might expect to see our fears met and having us feel this game wasn’t worth it as much. Luckily, it wasn’t so just yet. Let’s start with the story. Advancing no longer just relies on money – you have to finish 22 jobs to go on. The way this goes on brings in a tad more story and setting, making the jobs a bit more interesting to follow.

With that said, that basic story is possibly the most interesting change. You see, as also seen in Saints Row 2, here, too, there’s a gang war going on. Rather than leading your own gang, you instead work for all three, doing their jobs and advancing their goals. You need to have enough respect with a gang to be allowed to do their missions, too – mainly gained by killing other gang members. Thus the best thing to do is to just focus on one gang at a time, complete all their missions within the level (that’s right we’re still on levels here) and then move to another gang.

The other big change is one that makes gameplay a lot more enjoyable. Rather than having a limited amount of lives and being restricted by this, you now have infinite lives. Dying or being caught ends your mission and means you lose your weapons and such, but you can keep playing – you can even restart the job if you want to try again. Not as sophisticated as later games, but it means that frequent deaths don’t get too annoying – you adjust and go on.

All in all, there’s no big leap in gameplay, everything just gets a bit better and more playable. But to be fair – it seems like at this point, that’s the step the series needed to get to where it is now.

Final Thoughts

As said, the reason that I lobbied for this game to be played as soon as possible is because I desperately want to replay Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and all the games that came after it. With Grand Theft Auto 2 we are now looking at the period during which DMA released Body Harvest and pretty much changed the face of gaming forever. As studios go they and Rockstar really have altered gaming and it’s when you look at their earlier work (and see hints of what is to come) that you get to appreciate the journey they have taken.

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