Review #138: Crash Bandicoot

Playstation's original pseudo-kinda mascot!

 Crash Bandicoot was the first entry in the long running Crash Bandicoot platforming game series, back in the day, it was considered a classic, Playstation's answer to Mario, but has time been kind to it?

 The story is all kinds of ridiculous, and unless you possess the instruction booklet, you'll be oblivious to it. Basically, N. Cortex is the big bad who not only created Crash, but kidnapped his girlfriend, so now Crash must stop N. Cortex's evil plans and save his girlfriend. The story doesn't really matter and it's never expanded upon in the game, you shouldn't care about it. As for the characters, bosses, while not exactly charming, aren't terrible, N. Cortex and Crash do sport timeless designs and as for Crash's girlfriend, well, there's a reason she never returned, but given her relationship to Crash and how she looks(compared to Crash), it does fulfill her purpose.

 Gameplay is fairly simple, a jump button and a spin attack button, that's all you get and all you need. The game takes place through different stages, each with different sets of obstacles and gimmicks. While Mario 64 took place in big, open environments, Crash's stages feel cramped. It's not necessarily a bad thing, it's the game's style and it gives it a different flavor. Crash can, normally, only take one hit before he bites the dust, but running across Aku Aku masks will provide an extra hit, up to two, grabbing a third Aku Aku mask will provide a couple of seconds of invincibility. Early in the game, Aku Aku masks are plentiful, but the latter half of the game is rather stingy with them. The series' trademark are the crates, spread throughout each stage are various crates that contain fruit(Collect 100 for an extra life), extra lives or Aku Aku mask, with the occasional TNT crate that you need to avoid unless you want to die.

 The game starts off easy enough, but progressively gets harder and harder, but the difficulty curve throughout all 32 levels does scale appropriately. There's a couple of stages that are extremely challenging later on in the game, but the game is fairly generous with extra lives. The game can be beaten in a day without major issues, but, if you aim for 100% and the secret ending... you must finish each and every level without dying while smashing every. Single. Crate. This is all kinds of nuts and more of a chore than anything else, back when I was younger it was a non issue, since I had anything but time, but nowadays it's crazy to expect anyone to invest so much time in something so repetitive and obnoxiously challenging. The terrible save system doesn't help either, you can only save your game after clearing one of the bonus stages(The one with Crash's girlfriend), and this is a one time thing. Fail the bonus stage, and you have to replay the entire stage. What where they thinking? The cherry on top, is that every time you reload your save file, you start with 4 lives, just dandy.

 Sadly, those aren't the only problems with the game. The game was made before analog sticks were a thing, and Crash's movements are pretty floaty, making for very imprecise movements. For as many times that you'll die due to an error on your part, Crash's movements will cause the other deaths. Collision detection is a bit off as well, sometimes in the players favor, like on the dreaded "Slippery climb", you can sometimes stay on the air when certain blocks turn into a slide, instead of, well, sliding down. Furthermore, certain stages have a behind-the-back camera angle that can make it hard to see where you are jumping, or to measure the distance towards an enemy.

 The overall presentation has stood the test of time fairly well. Graphics are very pretty for its time, it's actually surprising just how much Naughty Dog got out of the PS1 so early in its life. Stages aren't very varied, you've got jungles and mechanical themes and that's about it, common enemies are fairly simple and forgettable, but as previously mentioned, bosses fared a bit better. Music is fairly good, with a couple of very memorable songs(Which I'm fairly sure where reused in the following games!). Sound effects deserve a special mention, since it makes collecting fruit in-masse very satisfying.

 Crash Bandicoot was a classic, it was a great game back when it was released, there's no denying that. However, as it stands today, it hasn't stood the test of time. It remains a fun game, frustrating if you aim for 100%, but there's no reason to go out of your way to play this one when the next two sequels are so much better.
 6.0 out of 10

Archile's Grab Bag - Crash Edition

  Puzzle Quest - Challenge of the Warlords: I used to play this on the computer, it was really good. I considered getting it on the PSP, but since the DS is the console I take away on trips... yeah, DS it was.

  The Sims: I'm not particularly fond of The Sims, but this one has 2 player co-op. TWO PLAYER CO-OP. I needed this one back.

  Shinobi: I loved this game, and I remember finishing it, somehow. And then you unlocked a character that made the game even harder... yeah, I didn't finish it with that one xD. Still, I've been wanting this one for a looong time.

  Crash of the Titans: First game in this package I hadn't played yet, part of the Crash series, so... yeah.

 Crash Bandicoot - Action pack: Three Crash games I haven't played before, Twinsanity seems terrible, but the other two seem Ok.

  Crash Bandicoot 3 - Warped: My favorite Crash game back in the day.

 Crash 2 - Cortex Strikes Back: I didn't realize the cover was missing until I reread the product description, oh well, it's Crash 2.

 Crash Bandicoot: The game that started it all, it was quite decent, but I discovered it at the same time I did the other 2, so I kinda like it least, they perfected the formula so much over Crash 2 and 3!

Review #137: Darksiders II

 Death rides again.

 Remember the amazing Darksiders I? Darksiders 2 is here, building upon the previous game's foundations to deliver fantastic follow up to the phenomenal first part.

 Darksiders II is a prequel to the first game, taking place during the hundred years that War spends recovering from his fight against Straga. This time you play as Death, the eldest and strongest of the fourth horsemen as he tries to spare War from his punishment. The game sees the return of a few familiar faces and a wide assortment of new ones. The new characters are very appealing visually, thanks to the amazing art style, but they don't feel as fleshed out or memorable as the first game's cast. As for Death, it would've been easy to make him a carbon copy of War, but he has a very different personality to War, instead of Heroic and stoic, Death is a textbook deadpan snarker with a very cocky demeanor(The reason Death can't block is because he doesn't want to, he believes enemies can't touch him). Instead of traversing Earth, Death's journey takes him through more mystic realms, it's definitely a different tone from the first one, more surreal and mystic, and while I did prefer the first game's world a bit more, it's a nice breath of fresh air.

 The game builds upon the previous game when it comes to gameplay. You'll still be adventuring around dungeons, while getting tools that will aid you in solving puzzles. However, this time bosses are much more straightforward, whereas in the previous game you, usually, had to use your newfound tool to defeat it, now it's mostly a matter of mashing buttons and avoiding attacks. Dungeons now contain a lot of climbing and wallriding, but the controls aren't up to snuff. Plenty of times I found Death trying to climb above instead of wallriding to the side or situations of the like, usually it's but a slight annoyance, but on those rare instances of climbing against a rising threat... it can get a bit vexing. The game is much, much bigger than the previous one, with a ton of optional dungeons and a respectable amount of sidequests. While the latter are appreciated, some of them can be reduced to a collectathon or get incredibly repetitive(Like the annoying Arbiter of Souls maze). There's also the fact that the game doesn't like to help you with the quests, you may get directions as vague as "Kill X in Y", but there's no marker, no hint if it's out in the open or inside a dungeon in the area, no anything, you are, basically, on your own.

 Just as the previous game borrowed a lot from other games, Darksiders II adds a couple of new borrowed ingredients. Killing enemies now yields experience points, and occasionally, loot. You'll be outfitting Death with various forms of Harnesses, Pauldrons, Gauntlets, Boots and a Necklace, as well as various Scythes or Gauntlets, Glaives, Axes or even Hammers, all which reflect on Death's look. There's a small amount of possible suffixes and prefixes for each equipment piece, with a ton of added bonuses, maybe elemental damage, HP or Mana stealing properties, not to mention that Legendary items posses exclusive bonuses. The game also adds, as far as a I know, one original mechanic to the loot system, Possessed items. You can sacrifice other equipment pieces in order to raise the power of possessed items, nothing groundbreaking, but hey, it's original! As for the experience system, leveling up provides the obligatory stat increases alongside a skill point to spend in one of two skill branches. Each branch has four different skills, and while you don't need to spend X amount of points in one branch to access further skills, each branch has numerous "sub-skills" that will add side effects or buffs to the skills themselves. Simple, fun, effective. These new additions help to fix something I feel The Legend of Zelda(The biggest inspiration for the series) suffers... that combat doesn't feel rewarding enough, well, now it does!

 The graphics don't feature any major improvement, but the new locales are certainly beautiful and varied. The previous game looked amazing anyways, so it's not like it's a bad thing. While there's not a ton of different armor pieces, there's about 10 looks for each possible armor piece, and it doesn't matter what Death wears, he'll still look badass. There's more variety when it comes to enemies, probably thanks to the new locales, but it could have used a couple more new enemies.  Darksiders 1 had a rather lackluster soundtrack, which makes Darksiders II's great soundtrack all the more noticeable. Voice Acting remains consistently convincing throughout the new supporting cast, and they get great lines as well, particularly Death.

 Darksiders II is a fantastic sequel to a phenomenal game. All the new additions to the formula are welcome, however, they could've use some more fine-tuning, still, this was the right track for the series to follow.
 9.0 out of 10.

Now Playing: Project X Zone

 Eh, typical Monolith Soft game.

 I'm gonna do a copy/paste since it sums up how I feel about this game, plus, I wrote it myself, so...
Ps: Project X. Zone impressions: Just what I expected. Combat is very fun, similar to Super Robot Taisen Originl Generation Endless Frontier, but much better. It also borrows some of the worst aspects of that game, namely the original characters and the fanservice. Haken, Kagura, Reiji and Xiaomu joined by newcomers Mii and... Kogoro? He's so bland I didn't even bother learning his name. Kagura is one of the worst designs in the game, and dare I say ever? She might as well be wearing just a towel, she looks dumb. Haken is a sort of Cowboy thing who is wearing so much crap over his long coat it makes you wonder just how he moves. Reiji is totally overdone and looks like a Dante wanna be... But he carries like 4 swords and can use fire(at least in the previous game) so I kinda like him. Xiaomu was made to appeal to the "moe" fans, flatchested(as it gets with Fanservicey games) and fox ears, but I kinda like her and how she fights alongside Reiji (cool by association?). The new Mii/Kogoro(?) Couple appeals to "moe" and the more straight forward fanservice crowd, she's supposed to be shy and stuff while Kogoro asks her to kick higher or give him fanservice. They suck.

You'd hope that they'd at least respect the other companies's characters... But no, during special attacks the guys look all badass and stuff... While on females the camera slides through their thighs/ass/chest with the occasional zoom on their bouncing breasts, y'know classy, tasteful stuff. It's a dumb game, but at least the combat is fun...

They also got the other kind of fanservice right, characters perform their moves based on their games, like Chris Redfield's infamous rock punches and uppercuts, or how fighting game characters, like Chun Li or Ryu perform EX moves, heck, Ryu performs a FADC during his super move! If only they didn't shoe-horn their original characters into the game, seems the annoying Mii-Kogoro couple are the main characters...

Month Overview: July

Games finished in July:
 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure                                                                                 8.0
 Assassin's Creed - Revelations                                                                        6.5
 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4                                                                              8.0
 Assassin's Creed III                                                                                        8.5
 Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi                                                                    2.5
 Darksiders                                                                                                      10
 Street Fighter - Anniversary Collection                                                            9.0
 Street Fighter - Alpha Anthology                                                                     9.0
 Shin Megami Tensei - Devil Summoner - Soul Hackers                                   7.5
 God of War - Ascension                                                                                 7.5
 OutRun 2006 - Coast 2 Coast                                                                        9.0
 Asterix and Obelix Kick Buttix                                                                        6.0

 July was a kick ass month, I managed to go on vacations(Twice this weekend), got to go out plenty o' times and managed to finish over 10 games. Bad ass. The kicker? Almost every game this month was a killer, except that terrible Dragon Ball game which I already knew it would blow. I also managed to discover to new all-time favorite games. The one thing that suffered during these vacations were my comic book readings, I re-read Marvel's Civil War and kept up to date with a couple of monthly comics I follow, but that's it.

 Game of July:

 This masterpiece came completely out of the blue. I admit I was interested i nit for a while, but it was never among my top priorities. I managed to find it on the cheap, so I caved in. I dunno what pushed me into playing it, but that's one decision I don't regret. The very same day I finished it I was already scourging online stores for the sequel(Which I got on that very same day).
 Darksiders is an amazing game, maybe not on my top 10, but easily top 20.

 Runner-up:

 Wow. Just... wow. Another new favorite of mine, and the only "racing" game I hold on that regard. OutRun 2006 is just so much fun, it's so easy to lose yourself in it. The feeling you get while drifting at top speed while listening to Night Flight is just... so sublime. The only reason I scored it 9.0 instead of 10 is due to the lack of local multiplayer mode and the unlockables that require a PSP...

Review #136: Asterix and Obelix Kick Buttix

 Yet another game I loved when I was younger, reviewed today!

 Remember Asterix? Yeah, you probably don't. It began its life as a comic book, but managed to get a few animated adaptations. While they reached my eyes when I was younger, Asterix never took on, still, whenever I caught it on TV or came across the comic book in libraries, I'd spend my time on it. Asterix and Obelix Kick Buttix is an action/adventure game based on said comic, released for the PS2 and Gamecube, did it manage to make the license justice?

 Caesar, the main antagonist of the franchise, has raided the village of the Gauls while Asterix and Obelix were out, taking everyone captive to different parts of the world. As luck would have it, a Roman spy defects to Asterix aid and informs him of what happened, and ends up helping him save the rest of the Gauls. The story is very plain and simple, but it doesn't aim to be much more, and they got the personalities of the characters right, at least as far as I could remember, even though the supporting cast only gets little screen time. Bonus points for basing the enemies on the enemies from the comics.

 Controls are very simple, square attacks or performs context sensitive actions(Like pulling, pushing or grabbing items), X jumps and triangle performs a grab on dizzy enemies. Successfully hitting enemies raises the combo bar, once filled you can unleash special combos, provided you bought them from the vendor. Combat is very basic, and at times dull, but it seems the developers thought it was better than what it is, so many a times certain objects pertinent to your objective will become inaccessible until you defeat a certain number of enemies. Twenty enemies is alright. Forty is pushing it. By the end of the game, it will be locked behind over hundreds and hundreds of enemies, had the combat been more engaging, I wouldn't have minded, but in this game it's just obnoxious. Later in the game you can purchase the Twister combo that will thin out the enemies in a matter of seconds, I'd complain that it makes the game too easy, but in this case it's a godsend. Also, some enemies will decide to be extra annoying and will run away from you for reasons unknown, them being faster than Asterix makes finishing off 40 of these cowards quite a chore.

 Most of the time you'll play as Asterix, with Obelix on tow, Obelix's AI is alright but he takes no damage which is a plus. When you are not fighting, you'll be exploring and puzzling, and at certain times the game will switch control over to Obelix. Obelix plays basically the same as Asterix but with less Combos. Regardless, a ton of the puzzles requires switching between characters, having the game make the switch for you makes them a bit easier than they could be. As for the levels themselves, they are five in all, very colorful and lengthy, plus, they house a wide variety of collectibles and secrets, exploring levels is very fun. Among the collectibles, there are 51 Golden Laurels, getting every Golden Laurel in a level will unlock a costume for Asterix or Obelix. Controls are alright, but movement feels a bit wonky since Asterix and Obelix move with very exaggerated, floaty motions. The camera is a bit unwieldy, being a bit to sensitive, and when it moves by itself it tends to pick the worst camera angles it can. Finally, each level has a boss fight at the end... except that it's the same boss, but with additional obstacles. That's right, the same boss has to be defeated using almost the same strategy. The last boss is just two of them, very original of them, huh!

 Graphics are fairly good, all characters look just how they should, and levels are very pretty and varied. However, animation is terrible, it seems they were aiming for a cartoonish feel to the movements, but they didn't get it quite right, the end result looks off. The game has a few very good tunes, but the rest are kinda bad, plus, the game sometimes decides that it'd rather not play any background music. Voice acting was passable at best, Obelix being one of the worst.

 It seems as if I've mostly bad things to say about it, but the game is more than the sum of its parts, it actually manages to be fun when you are running and jumping around levels, it's when the game decides to push combat onto the player, locking them in those four hundred man fights when it's at its worst.
 5.0 out of 10.

Now Playing: Mario Kart 7

 Mario a la go.

 I'm going out this weekend, which means I needed a game, and I was THIS close to taking Project X Zone(That was the name? The Capcom/Namco/Sega crossover thing), but in the end I opted for Mario Kart.

 So, first impressions: Looks beautiful. I played the first of the "original" cups, and it's... eh, Shy Guy Bazaar was good, but the other three were rather plain, maybe they feel better at higher ccs. Then I played the first retro cup... they brought Mario Kart DS' Luigi's Mansion track, and it's glorious. The first N64 track was also a nice surprise. Gliding and Diving feel so superfluous, might as well not even be there.

 Oh, and no Wario? Wario better be a hidden character or something. All my mains are gone: Diddy, Bowser Jr, DryBones and Wario, what am I to do?