So, yeah, it's fun, but I'm not completely sold on the controls, plus, I think the analog's texture is etching itself on my thumb. Ouch.
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Now Playing: Me & My Katamari
I wanna wad you into my liiiiife
I'm on a PSP.... roll this month. So, Me & My Katamari, it's good. The controls are very.... awkward, but I think I got the hang of it already. The levels are much better than the first Katamari's, I'm on level... 5ish? And I'm already rolling giant monsters into my Katamari. Instant Gratification. There's a lot of reused assets, not that I really mind since it creates some consistency between the game, plus, I've also seen a ton of new Katamari fodder. I mean, objects.
So, yeah, it's fun, but I'm not completely sold on the controls, plus, I think the analog's texture is etching itself on my thumb. Ouch.
So, yeah, it's fun, but I'm not completely sold on the controls, plus, I think the analog's texture is etching itself on my thumb. Ouch.
Review #188: Gladiator Begins
I am Spartacus!
Where do I begin with Gladiator Begins? It's a rather peculiar fighting-slash-action-slash-Gladiator sim game in which you rise from slave to riches as you slay your way to the top of the gladiatorial ranks, and maybe eventually earn your freedom.
There's only two modes: Story and Exhibition. Exhibition mode let's you battle against other players or CPUs, and while you can pick your character as 'random', you need a Story Mode save file in order to even access this mode. Story Mode is the real meat of the game, you are a slave bought by Margelius, your owner, and receive training in the ways of the Gladiator. As you play the game you'll interact with a number of NPCs, Gladiators, Patrons and some other high-ranking Romans. The story is surprisingly interesting, and there are a number of different sub plots of which you can follow through to the end, each one having a different ending. The characters and drama can be very cheesy, but it is interesting, Giulianus' rivalry was very over the top, but I was always looking forward to fighting him again and seeing what he'd say!
At the start of the game you are allowed to create your Gladiator, it's a very limited character creator, but it's sufficient. Soon after, the game begins, and it follows a routine: Each day you begin at the Ludos, where you can save your game, allocate stat points in Strength, Endurance or Stamina, set up your four skills on the four face buttons and level them up if you want or set a nickname. After you are done with that, you are off to an arena, for the first few days, you'll won't be able to pick an arena, but after you reach 2nd rank, you'll be able to pick which arena to visit, each arena being owned by a different patron, so if you want a certain route/ending, you should make most of your visits to their arena. Each arena allows you to visit the armorer in order to buy, sell or refine equipment. There's a lot of pieces of equipment to put on your Gladiator, and you can also earn it after each fight. Every day there's a different set of 'battles' available, and there's decent variety: Team Battle, Survival, 1 on 1 duel, 2 on 2, Battle Royale and 'War', which are special scenarios. There's decent variety, but at the end of the day, you'll be doing the same thing: Battling arenas inside the ring!... most of the time.
Battling is fairly interesting, each of the four face buttons attack a different limb, triangle attacks the head, square and circle attack the arms and X attacks the legs. You don't damage limbs, but focusing your attack on a limb will make their armor, or even their weapons fall, allowing you do deal damage by hitting those limbs. These holds true for the player as well, the CPU can remove your armor or weapons, but you can pick them up from the floor, heck, you can pick up their weapons and equipment... but they can do so as well. Holding the L button allows you to use whichever four Special Attacks you equipped on your gladiator, but these consume Stamina, which you have to keep in mind unless you want to be left open up for an attack while exhausted. Battling is very simple, and not very deep, but I liked it. It's a very repetitive game, but for some reason, I never got bored. It does have problem in the form of the camera, you can only rotate it by holding R and then using the face buttons, which is very cumbersome, but pressing the X button while holding R makes the camera instantly move to your back, which was more than enough, as cumbersome as it was, the camera never cost me a match.
There's four different styles: Single Weapon, Weapon and Shield, Dual Weapons and Pugilist. Each style is leveled up by using it(So even if you are using, say, two swords, you can drop one and instantly switch to single weapon style), which in turn unlocks more special moves for that style. The game is fairly meaty, there's a lot of stuff to do, and the four different routes ensure that replay value is fairly high. However, there is no "new game+", loading a clear file allows you to start anew on Normal or Hard, it would've been nice to be allowed to continue strengthening your gladiator. Another thing to keep in mind, is that there isn't much to do but fight, fight and fight, and for all intents and purposes, all arenas might as well be same. Loading times can be a bit intrusive at times, but you can install the game, and I suggest you do.
The game looks amazing, character models are very detailed and look fantastic, the animations are fairly smooth as well. Some of the armor pieces don't look very convincing, but it didn't bother me much, plus, I could just cherry pick the ones I liked. The music is nothing special, but it's very fitting of the setting, it's the kind of music you'd expect on a Gladiator movie or series. Epecial mention goes to the sound effects, landing blows feels very satisfying.
Gladiator begins is a fantastic game for the PSP, but I'm not sure if it's for everyone. There really isn't anything else to do but fight in enclosed arenas, and all fights boil down to either be the last man standing or surviving for a set amount of time. But if that sounds like your kind of game, by all means, it's worth it.
8.0 out of 10
There's only two modes: Story and Exhibition. Exhibition mode let's you battle against other players or CPUs, and while you can pick your character as 'random', you need a Story Mode save file in order to even access this mode. Story Mode is the real meat of the game, you are a slave bought by Margelius, your owner, and receive training in the ways of the Gladiator. As you play the game you'll interact with a number of NPCs, Gladiators, Patrons and some other high-ranking Romans. The story is surprisingly interesting, and there are a number of different sub plots of which you can follow through to the end, each one having a different ending. The characters and drama can be very cheesy, but it is interesting, Giulianus' rivalry was very over the top, but I was always looking forward to fighting him again and seeing what he'd say!
Battling is fairly interesting, each of the four face buttons attack a different limb, triangle attacks the head, square and circle attack the arms and X attacks the legs. You don't damage limbs, but focusing your attack on a limb will make their armor, or even their weapons fall, allowing you do deal damage by hitting those limbs. These holds true for the player as well, the CPU can remove your armor or weapons, but you can pick them up from the floor, heck, you can pick up their weapons and equipment... but they can do so as well. Holding the L button allows you to use whichever four Special Attacks you equipped on your gladiator, but these consume Stamina, which you have to keep in mind unless you want to be left open up for an attack while exhausted. Battling is very simple, and not very deep, but I liked it. It's a very repetitive game, but for some reason, I never got bored. It does have problem in the form of the camera, you can only rotate it by holding R and then using the face buttons, which is very cumbersome, but pressing the X button while holding R makes the camera instantly move to your back, which was more than enough, as cumbersome as it was, the camera never cost me a match.
The game looks amazing, character models are very detailed and look fantastic, the animations are fairly smooth as well. Some of the armor pieces don't look very convincing, but it didn't bother me much, plus, I could just cherry pick the ones I liked. The music is nothing special, but it's very fitting of the setting, it's the kind of music you'd expect on a Gladiator movie or series. Epecial mention goes to the sound effects, landing blows feels very satisfying.
8.0 out of 10
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Now Playing: Gladiator Begins
Somehow, I doubt I'll finish it before the year ends...
I've already clocked a fair amount of time in this one, but better late than never! It's really fun. It's simple, but fun. One would've thought that with such a simple combat system and repetitive scenarios it would get old fast, but it doesn't, it's fun. The load times however, are not, you could always install the game though.
My dual sword-wielding Thracian gladiator is already 'Gold level' so I can choose my arenas. I love how you get to meet all these politicians, owners and other Gladiators, they are so cheesy, but it's somewhat charming. I also can't seem to please the audience ever since I became a Gold-tier Gladiator, I'm gonna have to try changing my nickname.
My dual sword-wielding Thracian gladiator is already 'Gold level' so I can choose my arenas. I love how you get to meet all these politicians, owners and other Gladiators, they are so cheesy, but it's somewhat charming. I also can't seem to please the audience ever since I became a Gold-tier Gladiator, I'm gonna have to try changing my nickname.
Sunday, December 21, 2014
Review #187: Capcom Classics Collection vol. 2
Classic Arcade action!
I'm a huge fan of Arcade games, as I have previously stated, which made this a collection I needed to own. It contains 20 games, of which I will sum-up how I felt about each of them.
Something that holds true for each game is that you can unlock Art, Tips and Music from each game just by playing it. The requirements for each unlock are fairly easy, usually it entails achieving a certain highscore(Fairly easy), finishing the game(Varies) and defeating the boss located midway through each game. The art collection for each game is decent, although the quality isn't the best. You can also unlock cheats(Usually invulnerability) by playing the special Capcom-themed quiz game. A fantastic feature is that you can save your progress at any time on every game. There's also an special Street Fighter II tutorial vid, which is pretty decent, but it doesn't give you a chance to try out the lessons as you learn them, still, a nice extra.
One thing to keep in mind is that all of these games were made to suck the quarters out of you. These are very challenging games, and very unfair, some more than others. This is somewhat mitigated by the ability to play with another player and use infinite continues, but some games run on a checkpoint system, still, you can just unlock the Invulnerability cheat, which is rather nice since it allows you to experience the whole game. The game doesn't allow you to tweak much of each game, you can choose difficulty, and sometimes mess with how many lives you get per 'credit' or when you get extra lives. It's fairly skimpy on options, and it could've allowed you to mess with the dip switches, but no big loss. As for the games:
Black Tiger: You are a warrior and you must explore somewhat large levels, climbing and jumping. Control is a bit stiff, particularly the jumping which is based on momentum. You can collect money and use it to buy better weapons and other power ups at shops, which appear randomly when rescuing old men. It's very cheap, enemies spawn all the time and in large quantities, but the bosses, in contrast, are very easy, just figure out the pattern and attack their weak points. It seems to be a sort of predecessor to Ghosts and Goblins since Red Arremeer appears both as a boss and an enemy. All in all, it's pretty dull.
3/10
Street Fighter: Bad. Very, very bad, but it's nice to have as a curiosity. Sprites are bad, the animation is bad, the controls are unresponsive and the movement is awkward, the music and voice clips are bad. It's a bad game, very, very bad. But it's nice to have as part of the collection, it is part of Street Fighter history after all.
1/10
Strider: A challenging action game in which you play as the famous Strider Hiryu. It's a classic for a reason, while it can get frustrating. Really, really frustrating. The filled with memorable moments, like riding atop dinosaurs only to have a robot dino-creature maul your ride to death. Or when dinosaurs and a mechanical gorilla try to sandwich you. Or when you storm a battleship and escape will it explodes.... it's a fun game, when it isn't frustrating you. I found the controls to be a bit stiff, particularly the jumping, but you can have infinite continues, so it evens out.
8/10
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: The final revision of Street Fighter II, I've already talked about it on my blog, but it's a great game and has aged most gracefully. On the other hand, this is probably isn't the ideal version to own, since you can't tweak much(Like number of rounds or the timer). Regardless, it is a phenomenal game and this game alone makes the whole collection worth it.
10/10
The Speed Rumbler: This one's a bit weird, and I had never played it before. You play as Super Joe as he attempts to rescue his friends from the bad guys, very deep stuff. You start of in a Car, but you can exit from it whenever you want, ideally when it's about to explode, since Super Joe can only take one hit. It's somewhat charming and simple, but not something I'd want to spend much time with.
4/10
Tiger Road: You play as a Monk as you go around defeating all manners of martial artists. It's a simple game, and while I couldn't care less about the character sprites, I really liked the backgrounds. All stages play about the same, you go from one exit to another, defeating enemies, if you like, until you reach the sub-boss and the boss of each area. It's decent.
5/10
Quiz & Dragons: A board-game/quiz game hybrid, if you play the original version you might not enjoy it too much, seeing how many questions are rather outdated... however, this collection features an updated question-set based on Capcom trivia, this is the version that you want to play, it's ten times as fun.
3/10 Original
7/10 Update
1941: Fairly entertaining shooter, you are a ship on a vertical playing field trying to blow up all the other ships. And tanks. And eventually moving walls filled with guns. It's a bit of a bullet hell, but it's fairly easy, still, quite enjoyable for what it is.
7/10
Avengers: Not related to Marvel's Avengers, it's a top-down brawler in which you play as some dude trying to rescue girls, and he does so by punching and kicking everyone. I came across some Kunai once too. It's repetitive, simple and a bit dull, but it's a bit of fun. Plus, it's a tad better in multiplayer.
4/10
Block Block: An arkanoid clone. I felt like the controller was a wee bit too sensitive. There's not much else to say about it, it's an Arkanoid clone.
6/10
Varth: Another vertical shooter, it's very similar to 1941, but much prettier and harder. The backdrops look phenomenal, and this time around, you die in one hit! Definitely worth checking out if you liked 1941.
7/10
Eco Fighters: Another shooter, a horizontal one this time around, and my favorite of the bunch. This time around you control two things at the same time, your ship, and an arm that you can spin around with two other buttons. You can also carry two weapons at a time, one on your arm and one on your ship. It takes a while to get used to controlling the arm, but it's worth it. All in all, looks amazing and it's fairly original.
8/10
Last Duel: A vertical shooter, what makes this one different from the others is that there are two alternating types of stages, in some you drive a Car and in others you fly a ship. Maybe I was burned out from so many other shooters, them not being a genre I like a lot, but I didn't like it much. The car stages were decent, but the ship ones were so slow...
4/10
Side Arms: The last shooter in the Collection, this time around you play as a robot, but it's still very much on rails, allowing you to move around the course to dodge shots, pretty much like the others. Stages are a bit uninspired, and enemies and bosses get recycled throughout the entire game, heck, one of the 3-4 bosses is fought over five times. OVER. FIVE. TIMES.. The main feature is that you get 5 different weapons that you can power up. I didn't care for the gameplay or its lackluster graphics, but the music is nothing short of amazing. At the end of the day, you will remember this one for the music and nothing else. It's not absolutely terrible, just unremarkable, generic and uninspired.
3/10
Mega Twins: A cutesy adventure game in which you play as a young swordsman, slashing your way through enemies. It's fun and very colorful, the music is really good as well, but some of the sounds, particularly the "Low health" and "Magic charged" beeps, can get very irritating. A bit on the short side, but very fun.
7/10
Three Wonders: Three mini-games in one, Midnight Wanderers is the 'Action game', It's just an average jump and gun game, nothing spectacular, but entertaining for what it is. Chariot is a horizontal shooter in which you play as the same character from Midnight Wanderers, except that his time they are on a Hang glider. Your melee is tied to your tail, which is also tied to yous Special shots, which is kinda interesting. I liked it, it's quite exciting and fun to play. Don't Pull is the last game, a puzzle game, you play as a cutesy bunny and must defeat enemies by smashing them with blocks that you can push. I didn't really care for this last one.
7/10
Captain Commando: I love this one. Looks great, the music is good and it has everything a good beat'em up needs. There's a lot of variety when it comes to normal moves(Two normal combos for each character, Neutral A and forward+A), a huge amount of jumping attacks(Jump+A, Jump+Down+A, Running Jump+A, neutral Jump A, etc), it also has every trope covered, every enemy in the book is here, the gang banger, the dominatrix, the ninja, oh and it also has a surfing stage! Not to mention the attention to detail, there's many dying animations, both for the player characters and the enemies, and other minutiae like a different fallen sprite when falling against a wall. I love this one, and I don't understand why it never got popular.
9/10
The King of Dragons: This one is, probably, the simplest beat'em up in this collection. Really, there aren't even combos by mashing the A button, no hidden moves, no nothing. But it is an original beat'em up, it's styled after Dungeon and Dragons and the like, you pick from a class(Warrior, Cleric, Archer, Wizard and Dwarf) and beat up on enemies like Orcs, Minotaurs and Dragon Riders. One cool little touch, is that by amassing points you earn level ups, which means more HP per life! You'll also come across different weapons that change how the weapon sprite looks. As simple as it is, it's quite fun, and worth playing through at least once.
8/10
Knights of the Round: One of my favorite beat'em ups ever created. Set in the world of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table... kinda, you can choose between Percival, Lancelot and Arthur. What sets this one apart is the large(For a beat'em up) amount of moves per character, not only do they look different but they have different uses, for example, Arthur has a very slow, very powerful slice, while Lancelot gets a swift flash kick. Another gimmick, which I love, is that as you earn points you level up, which changes the sprite of your character! Arthur and Lancelot get more armor and bigger swords, while Percival gets... bald, and a bit of armor. It's very neat. Then there's defending and parrying. Yes, parrying, on a beat'em up! You've so many options, that this is one of the few Arcade beat'em ups that actually feel fair. You can also hit big chests or food items to divide them into smaller items, allowing you to share the booty... or keep it to yourself, it's worth more that way! This game, as far as I'm concerned, is pretty much perfect. Perhaps the last boss is a bit disappointing, being a headswap from a previous boss, but I still enjoy it to this day.
10/10
Magic Sword: An action side-scroller in which you play as a barbarian. Your objective is to climb a tower, and as you go along you must collect keys to open doors and unlock CPU allies. You'll also get stronger weapons after defeating each boss. I like it, it's simple, fun and action packed. The screen will get swarmed with enemies, but it doesn't feel too unfair.
9/10
Personally, I think this collection could've used more variety. There's too many shooters, which I don't particularly like, and not enough beat'em ups! I understand the reason for the lack of Final Fight, the first one was on the first collection, and the rest were console exclusives, plus, a ton of other Capcom Beat'em ups were licensed, but what about Battle Circuit? What about Cyber-bots? Regardless, it's a nice amount of games, and even though I might've been hard on some, you've to keep in mind they were different times, and these games wanted your money. Badly.
8.0 out of 10
Something that holds true for each game is that you can unlock Art, Tips and Music from each game just by playing it. The requirements for each unlock are fairly easy, usually it entails achieving a certain highscore(Fairly easy), finishing the game(Varies) and defeating the boss located midway through each game. The art collection for each game is decent, although the quality isn't the best. You can also unlock cheats(Usually invulnerability) by playing the special Capcom-themed quiz game. A fantastic feature is that you can save your progress at any time on every game. There's also an special Street Fighter II tutorial vid, which is pretty decent, but it doesn't give you a chance to try out the lessons as you learn them, still, a nice extra.
Black Tiger: You are a warrior and you must explore somewhat large levels, climbing and jumping. Control is a bit stiff, particularly the jumping which is based on momentum. You can collect money and use it to buy better weapons and other power ups at shops, which appear randomly when rescuing old men. It's very cheap, enemies spawn all the time and in large quantities, but the bosses, in contrast, are very easy, just figure out the pattern and attack their weak points. It seems to be a sort of predecessor to Ghosts and Goblins since Red Arremeer appears both as a boss and an enemy. All in all, it's pretty dull.
3/10
Street Fighter: Bad. Very, very bad, but it's nice to have as a curiosity. Sprites are bad, the animation is bad, the controls are unresponsive and the movement is awkward, the music and voice clips are bad. It's a bad game, very, very bad. But it's nice to have as part of the collection, it is part of Street Fighter history after all.
1/10
Strider: A challenging action game in which you play as the famous Strider Hiryu. It's a classic for a reason, while it can get frustrating. Really, really frustrating. The filled with memorable moments, like riding atop dinosaurs only to have a robot dino-creature maul your ride to death. Or when dinosaurs and a mechanical gorilla try to sandwich you. Or when you storm a battleship and escape will it explodes.... it's a fun game, when it isn't frustrating you. I found the controls to be a bit stiff, particularly the jumping, but you can have infinite continues, so it evens out.
8/10
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: The final revision of Street Fighter II, I've already talked about it on my blog, but it's a great game and has aged most gracefully. On the other hand, this is probably isn't the ideal version to own, since you can't tweak much(Like number of rounds or the timer). Regardless, it is a phenomenal game and this game alone makes the whole collection worth it.
10/10
The Speed Rumbler: This one's a bit weird, and I had never played it before. You play as Super Joe as he attempts to rescue his friends from the bad guys, very deep stuff. You start of in a Car, but you can exit from it whenever you want, ideally when it's about to explode, since Super Joe can only take one hit. It's somewhat charming and simple, but not something I'd want to spend much time with.
4/10
Tiger Road: You play as a Monk as you go around defeating all manners of martial artists. It's a simple game, and while I couldn't care less about the character sprites, I really liked the backgrounds. All stages play about the same, you go from one exit to another, defeating enemies, if you like, until you reach the sub-boss and the boss of each area. It's decent.
5/10
Quiz & Dragons: A board-game/quiz game hybrid, if you play the original version you might not enjoy it too much, seeing how many questions are rather outdated... however, this collection features an updated question-set based on Capcom trivia, this is the version that you want to play, it's ten times as fun.
3/10 Original
7/10 Update
1941: Fairly entertaining shooter, you are a ship on a vertical playing field trying to blow up all the other ships. And tanks. And eventually moving walls filled with guns. It's a bit of a bullet hell, but it's fairly easy, still, quite enjoyable for what it is.
7/10
Avengers: Not related to Marvel's Avengers, it's a top-down brawler in which you play as some dude trying to rescue girls, and he does so by punching and kicking everyone. I came across some Kunai once too. It's repetitive, simple and a bit dull, but it's a bit of fun. Plus, it's a tad better in multiplayer.
4/10
Block Block: An arkanoid clone. I felt like the controller was a wee bit too sensitive. There's not much else to say about it, it's an Arkanoid clone.
6/10
Varth: Another vertical shooter, it's very similar to 1941, but much prettier and harder. The backdrops look phenomenal, and this time around, you die in one hit! Definitely worth checking out if you liked 1941.
7/10
Eco Fighters: Another shooter, a horizontal one this time around, and my favorite of the bunch. This time around you control two things at the same time, your ship, and an arm that you can spin around with two other buttons. You can also carry two weapons at a time, one on your arm and one on your ship. It takes a while to get used to controlling the arm, but it's worth it. All in all, looks amazing and it's fairly original.
8/10
Last Duel: A vertical shooter, what makes this one different from the others is that there are two alternating types of stages, in some you drive a Car and in others you fly a ship. Maybe I was burned out from so many other shooters, them not being a genre I like a lot, but I didn't like it much. The car stages were decent, but the ship ones were so slow...
4/10
Side Arms: The last shooter in the Collection, this time around you play as a robot, but it's still very much on rails, allowing you to move around the course to dodge shots, pretty much like the others. Stages are a bit uninspired, and enemies and bosses get recycled throughout the entire game, heck, one of the 3-4 bosses is fought over five times. OVER. FIVE. TIMES.. The main feature is that you get 5 different weapons that you can power up. I didn't care for the gameplay or its lackluster graphics, but the music is nothing short of amazing. At the end of the day, you will remember this one for the music and nothing else. It's not absolutely terrible, just unremarkable, generic and uninspired.
3/10
Mega Twins: A cutesy adventure game in which you play as a young swordsman, slashing your way through enemies. It's fun and very colorful, the music is really good as well, but some of the sounds, particularly the "Low health" and "Magic charged" beeps, can get very irritating. A bit on the short side, but very fun.
7/10
Three Wonders: Three mini-games in one, Midnight Wanderers is the 'Action game', It's just an average jump and gun game, nothing spectacular, but entertaining for what it is. Chariot is a horizontal shooter in which you play as the same character from Midnight Wanderers, except that his time they are on a Hang glider. Your melee is tied to your tail, which is also tied to yous Special shots, which is kinda interesting. I liked it, it's quite exciting and fun to play. Don't Pull is the last game, a puzzle game, you play as a cutesy bunny and must defeat enemies by smashing them with blocks that you can push. I didn't really care for this last one.
7/10
Captain Commando: I love this one. Looks great, the music is good and it has everything a good beat'em up needs. There's a lot of variety when it comes to normal moves(Two normal combos for each character, Neutral A and forward+A), a huge amount of jumping attacks(Jump+A, Jump+Down+A, Running Jump+A, neutral Jump A, etc), it also has every trope covered, every enemy in the book is here, the gang banger, the dominatrix, the ninja, oh and it also has a surfing stage! Not to mention the attention to detail, there's many dying animations, both for the player characters and the enemies, and other minutiae like a different fallen sprite when falling against a wall. I love this one, and I don't understand why it never got popular.
9/10
The King of Dragons: This one is, probably, the simplest beat'em up in this collection. Really, there aren't even combos by mashing the A button, no hidden moves, no nothing. But it is an original beat'em up, it's styled after Dungeon and Dragons and the like, you pick from a class(Warrior, Cleric, Archer, Wizard and Dwarf) and beat up on enemies like Orcs, Minotaurs and Dragon Riders. One cool little touch, is that by amassing points you earn level ups, which means more HP per life! You'll also come across different weapons that change how the weapon sprite looks. As simple as it is, it's quite fun, and worth playing through at least once.
8/10
Knights of the Round: One of my favorite beat'em ups ever created. Set in the world of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table... kinda, you can choose between Percival, Lancelot and Arthur. What sets this one apart is the large(For a beat'em up) amount of moves per character, not only do they look different but they have different uses, for example, Arthur has a very slow, very powerful slice, while Lancelot gets a swift flash kick. Another gimmick, which I love, is that as you earn points you level up, which changes the sprite of your character! Arthur and Lancelot get more armor and bigger swords, while Percival gets... bald, and a bit of armor. It's very neat. Then there's defending and parrying. Yes, parrying, on a beat'em up! You've so many options, that this is one of the few Arcade beat'em ups that actually feel fair. You can also hit big chests or food items to divide them into smaller items, allowing you to share the booty... or keep it to yourself, it's worth more that way! This game, as far as I'm concerned, is pretty much perfect. Perhaps the last boss is a bit disappointing, being a headswap from a previous boss, but I still enjoy it to this day.
10/10
Magic Sword: An action side-scroller in which you play as a barbarian. Your objective is to climb a tower, and as you go along you must collect keys to open doors and unlock CPU allies. You'll also get stronger weapons after defeating each boss. I like it, it's simple, fun and action packed. The screen will get swarmed with enemies, but it doesn't feel too unfair.
9/10
8.0 out of 10
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Review #186: Crazy Taxi
YA YA YA YA YA YA YA!
I love Crazy Taxi. It's one of Sega's finest Arcade Games, in which you play as a, ahem, Crazy Taxi... driver, and you must take different passengers to their desired destinations. It's an Arcade game through and through, which means it's fast paced, and the physics go through the window in favor of fun.
The game has three modes: Original, Arcade and Crazy Box. Original and Arcade are basically the same game but in different towns. You can play either under the Arcade rules, in which you start with one minute-time to get your fare, but successfully driving a passenger to his destination gains you more time, or under set 3,5 or 10 minute runs. Furthermore, there's the 'Expert' and 'another day' variations unlocked by holding L1+R1 or simply L1 while choosing your ride. Crazy Box is a 'mission mode' of sorts that houses many different objectives, like knocking down all the bowling pins on the road, or popping every balloon on a field, etc. It's a fun little diversion, but it ain't much more than that. It also unlocks alternate cars for all four drivers.
Gameplays is incredibly simple: You drive around town, look for people with dollar signs over their heads(Green, Yellow, Orange and Red, signifying how challenging the route is), stop nearby and drive them to their destination, there's no map, but an arrow on top of the screen aids you in getting to your mark. That's all there is to the game, really, but there's genius in its simplicity, going around the town is so much fun, no in small part thanks to the physics that makes everything feel very light, yet the collisions are satisfying... not that you'd want to collide, since you earn bonus money(Points) for 'near missing' other cars.
To be fair, the game can get a bit dull after repeated sessions. The controls are something I didn't really like either, accelerating and breaking is just fine, but in order to go in reverse, you have to switch gears, which I thought was annoying. There really is no point to shifting gears in a game like this, and even then, X puts you in Reverse while Circle puts you back driving forward... it should've been just one button. I never really got a hang of it, even after mastering the Crazy Drift(Shift gears while drifting).
The graphics are... kinda bad, and while I usually wouldn't care, there's no excuse for the framerate drops every now and then. They aren't very common, but with graphics this simple, this shouldn't be an issue. The music is comprised of Punk-rock music, mostly by the Offspring, they suit the game so well that I have a hard time imagining Crazy Taxi with any other soundtrack!
As much as I love Crazy Taxi, there's no denying that the game gets boring after a while. The game could've used a little more variety as well, both towns look and feel very similar. Still, it's a decent game to pass the time.
7.5 out of 10
The game has three modes: Original, Arcade and Crazy Box. Original and Arcade are basically the same game but in different towns. You can play either under the Arcade rules, in which you start with one minute-time to get your fare, but successfully driving a passenger to his destination gains you more time, or under set 3,5 or 10 minute runs. Furthermore, there's the 'Expert' and 'another day' variations unlocked by holding L1+R1 or simply L1 while choosing your ride. Crazy Box is a 'mission mode' of sorts that houses many different objectives, like knocking down all the bowling pins on the road, or popping every balloon on a field, etc. It's a fun little diversion, but it ain't much more than that. It also unlocks alternate cars for all four drivers.
To be fair, the game can get a bit dull after repeated sessions. The controls are something I didn't really like either, accelerating and breaking is just fine, but in order to go in reverse, you have to switch gears, which I thought was annoying. There really is no point to shifting gears in a game like this, and even then, X puts you in Reverse while Circle puts you back driving forward... it should've been just one button. I never really got a hang of it, even after mastering the Crazy Drift(Shift gears while drifting).
As much as I love Crazy Taxi, there's no denying that the game gets boring after a while. The game could've used a little more variety as well, both towns look and feel very similar. Still, it's a decent game to pass the time.
7.5 out of 10
Review #185: Parasite Eve
Back when SquareSoft could do no wrong...
Back before SquareSoft merged with Enix, it seemed like no matter what they did, Fighters(Bushido Blade), Shooters(Einhander), Adventure(Musashi) or RPGS, they did it right. Mind you, I'm not blaming Enix, I'm just saying that Square has changed for the worst, just look at what they did to Aya in The Third Birthday and having her clothes break just because Japan. But I digress, Parasite Eve is an awesome blend of RPG with Survival Horror, with a great protagonist and an original take on the "virus outbreak" trope.
I mentioned this Aya character in the paragraph above, she's Aya Brea the protagonist of the Parasite Eve, a Police Officer who has been blessed(Or cursed, depending on how you see it) with special powers, stemming from her evolving Mitochondria cells. At the game's start, while attending a theater play, the main actress morphs into a hideous monster and everyone but Aya burns to death. Instead of having human zombies, your main enemies are mutated animals, thanks to the evolved Mitochondria that Eve, the main villain, is spreading around. I liked the story, I liked the characters, Aya Brea is a no-nonsense badass with a bit of an attitude, her partner, Daniel, is a single dad who tries to balance the police life with raising a child, and most of the other named officers are relatively memorable. The dialogue was fairly good too, for the time, and I really dig how the game takes place in the present day(...of 1997).
The game is very linear, with just one optional area, but you are allowed to go back to previous dungeons every now and then. The game plays, when out of combat, like other Survival Horror games of the past, you go around pre-rendered backgrounds, looking for keys to open doors. You have a limited inventory capacity, but it increases as you level up, it is an RPG after all! You can store excess items at opened chests and retrieve them later, or at the Police Precinct, however, one big issue I had is that keys will bother you all the way to the end of the game. Even after opening every door they can open, you cannot remove them from your inventory inside dungeons, you can't even place them on chests, your only choice is to leave them at the Precinct's storage, but they'll occupy a slot in there until the end of the game. Not. Cool. Throughout the game, you'll come across a wide variety of armor and weapons(Guns, Machine Guns, Rifles, Shotguns, Grenade Launchers and a Rocket Launcher), and they may come with special skills, like Fire or Cold bullets, or armors that automatically use healing items in your inventory when low on health. There are also items that can be used to power up their stats. Y'see, there are 'tools' in the game that can be used to destroy a weapon and take their skills OR bonus stats and apply them to another gun, this way you can take every power up you've used onto a new, better gun, which was pretty interesting.
The game is an RPG first and foremost, while most of the game plays like a Survival Horror, enemies come in random encounters. Kinda. There are certain, particular spots in each area that spawn monsters, the first time around you can't avoid it, but each time you return to the area, there's a chance that the monsters might respawn, and with each respawn, that chance lowers down to a minimum of 20% I believe. Battles make use of the Active Time Bar that Square was so fond of back in the day, while you wait for it to charge, all you can do is run around the area... which also allows you to dodge enemy attacks in real time. Once the ATB fills, you can either press Triangle to use a Parasite Spell or an item, or use X to attack with your weapon. Different weapons have different skills, as previously mentioned, some might allow you to shoot up to five bullets in one turn, or maybe only one(I found that three bullets was the most convenient, as they get weaker the more shots they allow), and they also have different ranges, if an enemy gets out of range, your shots will miss. Lastly, Parasite Spells make use of a gauge that refills automatically, but the more spells you use, the slower it takes for the bar to recharge.... but you can bypass it by switching armors on one of your turn, resetting the recharge rate! I loved, adored the combat, I found myself fighting not to grind, but for the fun of it!
Defeating enemies nets you items and experience. At first I was trying to Tonfa my way through the game, but then I noticed that it was doing too little damage and bullets were plentiful. I never, ever found myself lacking ammo, and every gun shares the same ammo(Except the Rocket Launcher), so you can just go guns blazing. Every time you level up, all your stats level up, but you also get Bonus Points that can be used to enhance your ATB recharge rate, backpack storage or enhance your weapons. Lastly, there's a new game plus, you are allowed to carry over your BPs and one of your guns, besides enemies getting stronger, you also unlock the 100 floor dungeon Chryseler Building, that houses the secret boss and true ending. I thought it was a rather cheap way of making you play through the whole game again, but the core game is so satisfying that I didn't mind it.
The presentation holds up even to this day. The pre-rendered backgrounds aren't very original, nothing really 'awed' me, which is not to say that I didn't like the environments. I think it has to do with the fact that they are trying to be 'realistic'? Character models and special effects are relatively good, human characters are a bit simple, but well defined, and enemies look great. The CG cutscenes awesome, some of the awe factor has been lost, but they are still quite creepy and unsettling. The music was pretty nice as well, very foreboding and mysterious during exploration, while a bit more upbeat during battles.
Bottom line is: I loved Parasite Eve, it's a great game, with an original combat mechanic, a great story and memorable characters. I'm not sure if it's the right game for someone interested only in Survival Horror games, but as an RPG it's pretty unique as well, when was the last time you were a police officer exploring realistic buildings and environments on an RPG? Exactly.
9.0 out of 10
I mentioned this Aya character in the paragraph above, she's Aya Brea the protagonist of the Parasite Eve, a Police Officer who has been blessed(Or cursed, depending on how you see it) with special powers, stemming from her evolving Mitochondria cells. At the game's start, while attending a theater play, the main actress morphs into a hideous monster and everyone but Aya burns to death. Instead of having human zombies, your main enemies are mutated animals, thanks to the evolved Mitochondria that Eve, the main villain, is spreading around. I liked the story, I liked the characters, Aya Brea is a no-nonsense badass with a bit of an attitude, her partner, Daniel, is a single dad who tries to balance the police life with raising a child, and most of the other named officers are relatively memorable. The dialogue was fairly good too, for the time, and I really dig how the game takes place in the present day(...of 1997).
The game is an RPG first and foremost, while most of the game plays like a Survival Horror, enemies come in random encounters. Kinda. There are certain, particular spots in each area that spawn monsters, the first time around you can't avoid it, but each time you return to the area, there's a chance that the monsters might respawn, and with each respawn, that chance lowers down to a minimum of 20% I believe. Battles make use of the Active Time Bar that Square was so fond of back in the day, while you wait for it to charge, all you can do is run around the area... which also allows you to dodge enemy attacks in real time. Once the ATB fills, you can either press Triangle to use a Parasite Spell or an item, or use X to attack with your weapon. Different weapons have different skills, as previously mentioned, some might allow you to shoot up to five bullets in one turn, or maybe only one(I found that three bullets was the most convenient, as they get weaker the more shots they allow), and they also have different ranges, if an enemy gets out of range, your shots will miss. Lastly, Parasite Spells make use of a gauge that refills automatically, but the more spells you use, the slower it takes for the bar to recharge.... but you can bypass it by switching armors on one of your turn, resetting the recharge rate! I loved, adored the combat, I found myself fighting not to grind, but for the fun of it!
The presentation holds up even to this day. The pre-rendered backgrounds aren't very original, nothing really 'awed' me, which is not to say that I didn't like the environments. I think it has to do with the fact that they are trying to be 'realistic'? Character models and special effects are relatively good, human characters are a bit simple, but well defined, and enemies look great. The CG cutscenes awesome, some of the awe factor has been lost, but they are still quite creepy and unsettling. The music was pretty nice as well, very foreboding and mysterious during exploration, while a bit more upbeat during battles.
9.0 out of 10
Friday, December 19, 2014
Review #184: Rengoku 2 - The Stairway to H.E.A.V.E.N.
Remember Rengoku? It's back, and it's better than ever!
Rengoku: The Tower of Purgatory had a great concept but a rather lackluster execution. True, I did have fun with it, but I feel it was the kind of game that would only appeal to a certain demographic. Rengoku 2 is a more polished game, and what Rengoku 1 could've been.
As with the previous game, Rengoku is a Rogue-like, a genre in which you go through different, randomly generated rooms, and is usually a challenging game. This game seems to be a Sequel-dash-pseudo reboot of the first game, you play as an ADAM, an android that has developed a consciousness, and finds itself compelled to ascend through the tower he is in. The game could be a reboot or take place right after the first game took place, those who played that game will understand why either possibility is plausible. Regardless, this time around the story has received more backstory, further developing on the playable character and the eight different bosses, plus, a supporting cast found in the ADAM's memories. The story is fairly cliched, and I never found myself invested in it, but it's leagues above the first game's.
As far as gameplay goes, it remains mostly the same. You go through randomly generated floors defeating other Androids, which may drop parts, which you can then equip on your chest and limbs for a total of five parts: Head, Chest, Left Arm, Right Arm and Legs. Each floor has a Terminal that is the only place where you can requip your ADAM, enhance it with Elixir Skin, which is dropped by enemies or obtained by recycling spare parts, and save your game. Dying in the game means dropping all your equipped weapons and dropping back to floor 1... but this time around, there are 8 different warps on the first floor, so you can simply jump right back to the floor you were in and attempt to retrieve your weaponry. As for new features, you can now switch between your different slotted weapons by tapping select and going into the weapons menu, and by pressing different limbs in succession you can use combos. Oh! And now there's four "challenge rooms" on each floor which you must clear in order to open up the Warp point to the floor's boss. Bosses are now much more varied and come in different shapes than before, plus, the game as a whole felt more challenging than the first. Lastly, the game now allows you to use the Analog stick for movement, which I yearned for during the first game... turns out the digital pad works much better for this game, go figure! Movement also feels a but looser, I found myself rolling and sidestepping accidentally more times than I could count, but it never cost me my life, still, a bit bothersome when trying to cross doors.
As you trek through the first two floors you'll come across familiar weaponry, but as soon as you hit floor 3 you'll come across new weapons. In Rengoku's review I said that it had a ton of weapons... I was wrong, the quantity of weaponry in this game dwarfs the one found in the same game by a large margin, and there's all sort of new, fun weapons to try, like the Zero Shift, which teleports you right behind your enemy, Zone of the Enders 2 style! While the first game was very lifeless as far as floors went, this time around there's more interactive objects, accelerator pads, rising columns and more variety in the architecture. Beating the game unlocks H.E.A.V.E.N. a 100 floor monster dungeon that starts you with no weapons, and dropped weapons equip automatically, and once you deplete the ammo, they are gone for good. A much better post-game feature than having to replay the whole game, although it would've been nice to be able to save on any part of HEAVEN, since it is a portable game and all....
Rengoku was not a good looking game, but Rengoku 2? It finally does the art direction justice, and the floors now offer different themes, unlike the rather monotonous first game. The music isn't as fast-paced as the first game's, this time they went for more somber tunes, but they work well enough.
Rengoku 2 is the kind of game that makes the previous game obsolete. There's absolutely nothing to be gained from playing the first game that you can't get from playing this one. Basically the same story, but with better gameplay and better graphics.
8.0 out of 10
As with the previous game, Rengoku is a Rogue-like, a genre in which you go through different, randomly generated rooms, and is usually a challenging game. This game seems to be a Sequel-dash-pseudo reboot of the first game, you play as an ADAM, an android that has developed a consciousness, and finds itself compelled to ascend through the tower he is in. The game could be a reboot or take place right after the first game took place, those who played that game will understand why either possibility is plausible. Regardless, this time around the story has received more backstory, further developing on the playable character and the eight different bosses, plus, a supporting cast found in the ADAM's memories. The story is fairly cliched, and I never found myself invested in it, but it's leagues above the first game's.
As you trek through the first two floors you'll come across familiar weaponry, but as soon as you hit floor 3 you'll come across new weapons. In Rengoku's review I said that it had a ton of weapons... I was wrong, the quantity of weaponry in this game dwarfs the one found in the same game by a large margin, and there's all sort of new, fun weapons to try, like the Zero Shift, which teleports you right behind your enemy, Zone of the Enders 2 style! While the first game was very lifeless as far as floors went, this time around there's more interactive objects, accelerator pads, rising columns and more variety in the architecture. Beating the game unlocks H.E.A.V.E.N. a 100 floor monster dungeon that starts you with no weapons, and dropped weapons equip automatically, and once you deplete the ammo, they are gone for good. A much better post-game feature than having to replay the whole game, although it would've been nice to be able to save on any part of HEAVEN, since it is a portable game and all....
Rengoku 2 is the kind of game that makes the previous game obsolete. There's absolutely nothing to be gained from playing the first game that you can't get from playing this one. Basically the same story, but with better gameplay and better graphics.
8.0 out of 10
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