Play Again?

It used to be I completed a game, then packed it away. I was playing less for the playing, and more to say I finished it, as though that were some kind of reward.  I was pretty wrong.  The reward is playing the game itself. It’s about the journey.

Recently I’ve erased my aversion to replaying completed titles. Sometimes I just replay specific parts of completed titles, and sometimes I want to experience the whole thing again.

It's not about distracting yourself with something and packing it away to find something new. Games are great experiences, and same as is done with movies or books, it's a good idea to re-live them, maybe with a friend next time.

Raw Danger

"in the flooded city, everyone's fate crosses"

Raw Danger is quite a unique experience. From the start, the premise sounds simple but fun, and even at its worst, could probably be entertaining. What we get instead is a game where the actual disaster takes a backseat to an unexpectedly spectacular story. That’s not to say the actual “Raw Danger” and gameplay aren’t good too, but they most certainly take the second priority. Whether this is a good thing seems to be highly divided among players, but what is there, even if to some it feels like the focus is improper, is great.

 

Moving onto the gameplay, it’s certainly easy to pinpoint as the game’s weakest aspect. That doesn’t make it bad, but it is rather odd, and occasionally frustrating. The main gameplay consists of surviving the harsh disaster around you, and it always looks and feels nice, due to some excellent set-pieces. Alongside this are some adventure elements, and then perhaps the most important piece of the game: the dialogue options. Those will be gotten to later.

The adventure elements of the game do a good job of building atmosphere and immersion into the world, but can occasionally be frustrating in their obscurity. A few times in the game, you'll wonder where a specific item is or how to progress. Luckily enough, these setbacks are quite a ways apart, and don't do much damage to the excellent pacing of the gameplay.

Without doubt, the largest reason the game is so fascinating is that the six playable character’s stories are all woven together seamlessly. It’s all one big story, just with six different pieces, and it's pretty damn thrilling to see. There’s a huge sense of progress when you see something you did to a character earlier come up again, and it’s part of what makes the game unique.

 

The most excellent aspect of Raw Danger is still its story. Irem could’ve set people in a disaster, made them escape, and called it a day, but the game instead houses an interesting and satisfying story, all set amongst a flooded city to keep things moving and interesting. What would otherwise be a fairly simple mystery-adventure game becomes something much more fun and memorable due to the urgency and scale of the setting. In Raw Danger, the flood and disaster are part of the environment, not the main course. How the game manages to weave its story and gameplay together like this still impresses me to this day, and hopefully it does the same for someone else.

Future Tactics

"gotcha"

I could write several essays on why I love Future Tactics. It just feels like this game was specifically tailored to my interests.

The game has an interesting take on the turn based strategy genre, and is one of the very few games to pursue this route, if not the first. The gameplay takes place in semi-realtime, with both teams of a battle moving their players, and then taking shots at one another. Where the twist comes in is that -although it is still turn based in nature- the shooting and combat in general take place in real time. For a more popular example of this, one might think of Valkyria Chronicles.

 Depending on the destructive power of the weapon, one of the game's most defining features comes into play: the ability to destroy and shape terrain with your attacks. You can blast holes in pavement, create craters in the ground, and destroy entire footholds your enemies may have used. Not only does this make the game feel more satisfying, it adds an extra layer of strategy, allowing you to destroy specific pieces of the environment to your advantage. How you make use of this ability is a big factor in how interesting the core gameplay is to you.

Perhaps the second most defining feature of the game is how you maneuver around the game environments. Future Tactics takes place in a post apocalyptic world, and as such, there's a lot of cover for you to use. Each player character can jump, which may not seem like much, but opens a lot of possibilities. You can take perch on buildings, hide behind hills, under steel girders or cars, and inside destroyed barns. With the previous feature of destructible scenery, and literally EVERYTHING being destructible, this always keeps the combat moving, especially with you trying to get the best shot in on your enemies. It's a beautiful system, and a few patches of lazy AI and a couple of uninspired stages aren't enough to bring it down.

No matter how fun the gameplay might be, it would be nothing without some proper atmosphere or motivation to keep you moving through it. The game certainly doesn't drag in this section either, as not only does the game nail a desperate post-apocalypse feel, but it has music composed by the genius "Tim Follin", who creates such an atmospheric and beautiful soundtrack for the game that it's nearly inspiring in its rhythms.

Atmosphere would be nothing without an engaging plot, and again, Future Tactics manages to deliver. The story is somewhere between a traditional sci-fi epic and a deconstruction of said epics. It is the future, and there are new overlords. There are survivors, and they overcome. While the story at first seems to lack in depth, it reveals itself later as a humble narrative with some of the finest pacing this side of Arkham Asylum.

The stage designs, story, beautifully done voice acting, and overall sense of scale and progress help give this game legs far beyond its core gameplay, which is all-around fantastic to begin with. If you have a weekend to kill, there are much worse things you could do than pick this up off Amazon for a few bucks.

Lego Batman 2

"my mommy told me i could be anything i wanted" 

Lego Batman 2 is, obviously enough, the sequel to Lego Batman. Expectedly so, it improves on nearly everything from the first title. LB2’s core focus is still action-platforming and puzzles, but with a little less action platforming, and a lot more puzzling.

Something the earlier Lego games never quite got right was that the puzzles made little to no coherent sense, and were often repetitive. LB2 corrects this in a lot of spectacular ways. While the puzzles are far from anything Silent Hill, they do require actual thinking to solve, and most of them break the mold set by previous games. It felt like I understood why I fell in love with these games in the first place.

Some of the stage design, specifically the airship battle with Batman and Superman, and the wonderful set-piece at Wayne Tower, are just leaps ahead of earlier games in every respect. Aside from major improvements in gameplay, Lego Batman 2 finally achieved what was usually lacking in its series: a sense of wholeness and coherency.

In earlier Lego games, specifically the original LB, the game would be stopped at several points, or slowed down for little to no reason, ensuring you never had much motivation. In LB2, the well-acted and scripted cutscenes, as well as more polished level design and bosses always keep things moving. The last two stages and the final boss present such a feeling of urgency that it’s impossible not to get wrapped up in the game. Wherever Lego Batman failed, 2 succeeds, and that’s plenty enough to ask from a sequel.

Undercover Cops

Undercover Cops is a beat em up developed by an Irem studio, who later went on to form Nazca and create Metal Slug. It really shows. In Undercover Cops, the music is loud and intrusive, the characters and backgrounds are gorgeously detailed, and the fighting is rough and tough.

As the story goes, three cops, Rosa, Zan, and Matt, fight crime in the future New York city. Matt is an ex football champion who joined the “sweepers” after being falsely accused of murder. Rosa’s fiancé was murdered, turning her to a life of vigilantism, also joining the “sweepers”. Zan, the last of the three, is a former karate champion, banned from official tournaments after killing a man in self defense. For different reasons, all three of them have ended up in the same situation.

With that digestible but tasty setup, the game begins. In the first stage, regardless of who you pick, the game starts out like a standard beat em up. You press the attack button to wail on guys, and they fall down defeated. The first hint that the game becomes something more is when you approach a pillar, and to your surprise, you can pull it right out of the ground and smash guys across the face. The game turns what would ordinarily be decorative items into weapons, and it’s way too fun. The level of detail when an enemy is burned, hit, knocked down, or otherwise attacked by anything, is astounding. It’s easy to see how the team went to Metal Slug from here.

The game environments look absolutely stunning in their detail, and paint a post-apocalyptic city right in front of you. It would have been good enough if the game were just an ordinary beat em up with above average visuals, but that’s just not how Undercover Cops rolls.

The first stage, while average, ends with a great boss fight against a terminator-like machine, whom you can destroy by tossing into a giant garbage crusher. Pretty cool. From them on, the game adopts a more challenging style of gameplay. In stage 2, you’re confronted with an elevator arena, and a lot of open pits to fight beside. The addition of flying enemies in the same stage, and swifter ground foes, keeps things interesting. The game can be a bit tough starting here, but if you manage to storm through, there’s a lot of good ahead.

Every stage introduces some new type of challenge, and by the end of said stage, you’re bound to have mastered it. It feels tight, solid, and undeniably entertaining. The bosses, too, only get more challenging and entertaining, until the final stage builds itself into an equally difficult and satisfying climax. As a beat em up, Undercover Cops may not be what most people expect from the genre, but as a game in general, it’s nothing less than fantastic in every way.

Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2011

"quickly, while the blood is still warm"

Dangerous Hunts 2011 isn't a hunting game, in the same sense that Animal Crossing is not the Sims. There are animals in it, and you shoot at them, but you are not hunting them. It's more like Serious Sam with wolves and hyenas. That's not to say the game isn't fun, because it certainly is, but it's obviously amateur in its design. I'm completely behind Cabela's decision to make an insane, story driven action horror game, but they don't really seem to understand how horror works, or how to write a story.

Starting off, the story DH2011 has to tell is one of the strong points, still, simply for how nuts it gets. Genetic experimentation, evil madmen, and a burning hunting lodge aren't things I expected to see heading into this game, but I'm glad they're there. The story misses almost every note it tries to hit, but it's still just that right kind of crazy to be worth a play. Though while it IS crazy, it's also surprisingly dry.

The plot is pretty slow, and only begins to unfold itself toward the very end of the game. Not that you'll have to wait long, but some more motivation to complement the "just okay" action in the first few stages would've certainly helped. It does manage to successfully create a sense of progress in the middle and very near the end, but otherwise it's just a few voice clips between large stages. If you can hold on till the endgame, there's some reward in it all, but that may be a little too late if you don't enjoy the gameplay itself.

Speaking of, the gameplay is split almost cleanly into two parts. First,there are high action sections where animals come at you from all directions, forcing you to react as quickly as possible. This is easily the most fun part of the game, as it's the most challenging element, and the most tense. The controls work fine, and the few extremely difficult sections of the game only take a few tries. Overall, the action sections are pretty satisfying and fun, depending on whether you like some mindless shooting.

The second, less frequent, and infinitely more tedious piece of the gameplay are "trap" sections. These sections lay out more laid back enemies in the environment, and they function as traps for you to move around. Unfortunately, any challenge in this is lost with the "hunter sense", which allows you to see an animal through any kind of camouflage they may have, and snipe at them from however far you choose. This basically devolves the trap sections into slowly sniping threats for about 10 or so minutes at a time. It's just not fun.

These sections are easily washed away by the absurd boss fights, an on-rails shooting section through a buffalo stampede, and facing off against packs of hyenas in a vast cavern. It may not be the most polished or balanced game, but c'mon guys, BUFFALO STAMPEDE.

Pokepark: Pikachu's Adventure

Pokepark Wii is an adorable adventure game released for, well, the Wii. It starts when Pikachu and company enter the Pokepark to play, but something is horribly off. The attractions are closed, the Pokemon are fighting, and the rainbow that holds the park together is breaking. It’s up to Pikachu to unite broken friendships and scattered trust to bring everyone back together. And man is it heartwarming. The dialogue and story, while clearly geared toward kids, is sincere and thoughtful. They are some truly wise words to be found in this game about friendship, regardless of age, and that in itself is something special. 

 

The gameplay, at first, isn’t too outstanding. You talk to fellow Pokemon, earn their friendship through games, and have confrontations with the leaders of each zone through their attractions. The minigames are fun, delightful, and almost never repeat their concepts. If you stick with the cute story and sweet dialogue long enough, you come across some really interesting and beautiful design choices. 

 

Granite Zone, Haunted Zone, and the Sky Pavilion have an air of mystery, adventure, and wonder about them that most of the other zones lack. In these stages, though, the gameplay, storytelling, and sincerity of the overall product really shine. Pokepark is a genuine, beautiful, fun experience that I wouldn’t wish anyone to miss. 

 

First Written on Friday, August 3rd 2012

Max Anarchy/Anarchy Reigns

"Super sexy flaming fists of fire!"

Max Anarchy is a 3D beat em up by the masters of the genre, Platinum Games. It’s possibly the most hectic, high action game they’ve created yet, which says a lot, considering they’ve created Bayonetta, Mad World, and God Hand.

The game is split into two modes: campaign and multiplayer. The focus of the game is in the multiplayer, and it’s the main drawing point to the market. It works great, and although it’s hard for a new player to jump in, it’s fun whether you win or lose.

There’s a ton of game modes, and so far, a very active player base. But, the story mode. I was impressed with Platinum’s earlier attempts at creating and showing a world gone mad, but Max Anarchy completely obliterates their previous effort in nearly every way. The story is possibly one of the most thought provoking, damn near flawlessly executed social dramas to ever be attempted in an action game.

Just as Madworld was the tale of a world gone mad, Max Anarchy is the tale of people inside the Mad World. Justice, corruption, revenge, money, pain, power, all set to the backdrop of a world gone insane. It’s moving, entertaining, and engaging. A noted downside to the game’s story is the general lack of difficulty, but if you’re in the middle of that clusterfuck battle in the endgame, and you’re thinking about whether the game is challenging enough, there’s something gone wrong with you.

First Written on August 1st, 2012

Spiderman, Web of Shadows: Amazing Allies Edition

"What are we? Beekeepers? Evil beekeepers?"

Sometimes it’s good to just play a simple game. Spider-Man: Web of Shadows PS2 isn’t a port of its seventh gen brethren, but it doesn’t really need to be. Amazing Allies Edition was obviously developed on a very, very, very tight budget. Most of the game, voice samples aside, could probably run on an N64. The character models are heavily re-used, the music is almost not even there, and the combat is more simple than some SNES titles. The game takes place on a 2.5D scale, and functions like most old school beat em ups, with the added mechanics of web slinging and crawling. 

 

Where the core combat, although competent, fails to impress, the dialogue and writing step in. The dialogue in Amazing Allies is nothing short of spectacular, and it shows that although this may be a budget title, the developers had their heart and soul in the game. From beginning to end, the dialogue in Amazing Allies is some of the most entertaining, quirky, and just plain amusing character interaction I’ve seen in any game. 

 

Each conversation, no matter how small, allows you to pick from three or more choices. These choices range from being a Spider-dick by going a little overboard with your jokes, being a humorous but helpful good guy, or playing solitaire on an A.I.M. computer. This game does an excellent job of showcasing who Spiderman is and how he acts, at least in the comics. 

 

Just as entertaining, if not more so, are the cast of characters he encounters. Finding a conspiracy theorist’s best friend seems sane enough at first, until you continue to find his friend is a pillow, named Shecky. Amazing Allies is more than aware of its often comical origins, and you also come across a man who talks with rats, someone obsessed with their pet pigeons, and some one who just can’t get their TV reception to work. 

 

The basic, beat em up gameplay is more than tolerable, but the real fun is in these interactions. The main plot itself moves along at a nice, un-frustrating pace, and has quite a few good twists and turns. Thanks to the amazing voice acting delivered by Spidey and his foes, as well as a pretty good variety of stages and scenery, the 7 hour adventure feels comfortable to play through. 

 

The only absolutely glaring flaw in this title is the ending. The game got by its low budget status by replacing cutscenes with enjoyable character interactions, but this didn’t hold up in the ending, where I assume the developers just didn’t know what to do. You destroy the final boss, and are awarded with a window prompt reading “Congratulations! You saved the city!” And that’s it. No credits, unless you want to use the options menu to locate them, and no ending. A sadly disappointing end to an otherwise surprisingly entertaining adventure.

First Written on Tueday, July 10th 2012

Asura's Wrath

"ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

Asura’s Wrath is, as of this writing, unique. It tries to create a living, functional piece of multimedia, and although that’s been attempted before, never like this. The game puts you in control of an unstoppable demigod, Asura, and the game just builds on itself from there. Much like the adult action anime genre this game is based on, Asura’s Wrath continues to build up, topping itself even more with each stage. 

 

The basic gameplay is simple enough, but it relies on your adrenaline to keep things varied. Because the developers behind this title know what they’re doing, it often works. It’s easy to relate to the characters you control and their motivations, and to immerse yourself in the combat. This works especially well, as the title character keeps a steady supply of action coming. 

 

Underneath, Asura’s Wrath’s gameplay isn’t incredibly deep, but the presentation and story are too compelling for one to notice, unless they happen to be actively trying. It pains me to mention flaws in a game I enjoyed so thoroughly, but the basic ground combat leaves something to be desired in later stages. The flying and running sections are entertaining throughout, but the basic combat wears toward the end, boss fights being an exception. 

 

I’ve never been entertained by any piece of media as much as I have Asura’s Wrath. Considering games are entertainment, I’d say this one fulfills its purpose. 

 

 

First Written on Wednesday, June 27th 2012

MadWorld

"I don't help people, I kill people."

I bring you to a well known story. A story over-told, and more than well sung. A story of greed, corruption, violence, and a Mad World, where humans are the world’s truest evil. And for the first time in what might as well have been forever, it’s well told. Well enough to actually be damn good. It doesn’t overspill its themes. It says what it wants to, does what it’s meant to, and leaves. It leaves a lasting impression behind, because it’s actually pretty believable and well told. 

As for the gameplay, it’s almost a direct contradiction. The story and cutscenes are heavy and thoughtful, while the gameplay is downright Tom and Jerry. The level of violence is so ridiculous it loops back around to being entirely harmless. Mad World isn’t a perfect game, and its gameplay could probably use a little more variety, but the presentation and wonderful voice work and story break it up juuuust enough to achieve greatness. 

First Written on Monday, June 4th 2012

Stretch Panic

" YES, FUNKY~"

Stretch Panic, known as Freak Out and Hippa Linda in other countries, is an unusual action title by Treasure. You take control of Linda, the youngest in a crazy family of 13 sisters. On the way back from getting her 12 elder sisters cosmetics, a truck from The Valley of Demons drops off a package at her house. Opening the package transforms the sisters into hideous representations of their vanity, as a form of punishment. Linda, apparently the least vain of the 13, has to save them with her newly possessed scarf. 

That’s where the gameplay comes in. In Stretch Panic, literally everything in the game environment (excluding water) can be grabbed and stretched. Attacks are done by grabbing an enemy and pulling on them, letting go, and pretty much slapping them in the face with themselves, or flinging yourself into them with the scarf. The game is pretty much entirely boss battles, in the form of Linda’s twelve sisters. Most of them can be damaged lightly with basic attacks, but each has a weakness or two that deals them heavy damage. For example, in order to critically damage a sister who was basically transformed into Mister Potato Head, you have to knock all her pieces off, and place them back on her head incorrectly. 

The weaknesses all range from obscure to just plain clever, and it’s what makes battling the bosses so interesting. The game is endlessly entertaining for its length, which is good, since in whole, it’s only about 2 hours long, tops. There’s a small amount of filler in the form of extra stages, where you get the points necessary to perform a “Spirit Bomb” attack and exorcise Linda’s sisters, but the meat of the game is the bosses, and the meat of the game isn’t all that meaty. Whether Stretch panic could have gone on longer and still maintain its entertainment value, I don’t know, but what’s here already is fun, crazy, and charming. That’s plenty enough for me.

First Written on Thursday, August 30th 2012

So Here's How This is Gonna Go

I have a lot I've already written about the games I've played, so there are going to be posts here and there from earlier times. These posts will state their original date at the bottom. Other posts are just written when Blogger says they are.

Thank you<3

Games

It Begins

Can't lie and say I'm not nervous, but here it starts. The point of this blog is to share my passion and hobby -games- with whoever out there finds this. Games have been a part of my life for years, and they've consistently been my favorite source of enjoyment and entertainment. I believe, now more than ever, that games have something to offer everyone, and I want to share everything I can.

Sincerely, I Like Games