Haunted Mansion

Let's take a little time to talk about licensed games. Now, in most conversation, unless you happen to be a kid, talk about licensed games boils down to "fuck that, it's garbage." Why the hostile attitude? Well, for obvious reasons, our jaded minds embrace the harsh reality that no one else will. Licensed Games = void of creativity.

This is unfair for a number of reasons. Some of the greatest works made have been remixed versions of someone else's. Most of Disney's early movies, for example, wouldn't have existed without someone creating those tales and characters prior. Taking a licensed show/movie and translating it into a game has a lot of potential, as you're translating fairly linear storytelling into a playable experience, which sometimes, but admittedly not often, outdoes the original, or at least captures its spirit.

There's no better example of this than Disney's Haunted Mansion game.

It was released around the same time as the Eddy Murphy movie, but thankfully not an adaptation of it. The game itself is an action/adventure title, with some light shooting elements, and heavy puzzle solving.

Surely that's all it is? Cut and paste a genre into a licensed skin. Well, that couldn't be further from the truth. To start with, the premise, look, and atmosphere of Haunted Mansion are all dead on with the ride. The spooky yet comical atmosphere remains intact, and the story is absolutely nothing to snort at.

Alright, alright. That's it though. An awesome atmosphere and story that nails the ride, but still, standard gameplay?

Hell no. Haunted Mansion does things not only impressive for a licensed game, but impressive on the scale of the entire medium. The mind-bending, pathway twisting puzzles, no matter what you think you know, will be more than you bargained for.

Unfortunately, literally no videos I could find do the game proper justice. You'll just have to trust me when I tell you there are elements in this game that are still groundbreaking for the medium, simply because no other game has done as much with them since. (That I've seen as of yet)

Video Game Heaven

This is the home page for a videogame store, probably long deceased. Apparently the site has been visited a whopping 26,000 times, which is more than a little surprising, unless Video Game Heaven was once incredibly popular, which seems doubtful.

When one clicks enter and visits the website itself, it's pretty bland, and barely functional. There are listings for PSX, PS2, Dreamcast, and N64 products, with another section labeled imports that exists entirely for Japanese Dragon Ball fighting games.

The very last game listed on the site is X-Squad, a pretty fun -if not exactly outstanding- shooter. The site promises more games are coming soon, but unless they've gotten lost in a time loop, it seems that the site died down in 2000. 12 years later, sadly, there's not a whole lot to the website.

Although I did learn quite a few things about games from their site indirectly, using their listings. I had no idea there existed a videogame simply called "One", or that a bizarrely surreal horror game called "Sentinel Returns" existed, with a musical score by John Carpenter.

Really, what is this?

Among the weird stuff, there were some genuinely good looking games that I can't believe I hadn't heard of, like Rival Schools, Grandstream Saga and two games in the Rampage series.

I'll TAKE TWO. Get it?

If I hadn't stumbled upon Video Game Heaven's site, I probably wouldn't have ever known about these games. So props to them for listing so many weird-ass products on their site, and props to Vysethedetermined for talking about VGH in his Santa Claus Junior video, and by extension, Neon Studios for making Legend of Kay so I could look up that they also made Santa Claus Junior.

Could I have lived my life without knowing "Roscoe McQueen: Firefighter Extreme" existed? Probably, but I can't say this hasn't been interesting.

I need this.

Open World Driving Games and The Case of The Low Blow

For those who don't know, both the Driver series and Grand Theft Auto are open world driving games. Both started out on the PSX/PC, and eventually graduated to the PS2, where their open world aspects got more fleshed out.

GTA III was the first to test the new waters, and to put it simply, it changed gaming. That's not what we're here to talk about though, so I'll leave it at that. In GTA III, there's a mission where the player is tasked to kill "Two-Face Tanner", an undercover cop.

Tanner is the name of the Driver series's protagonist, and also an undercover cop. Cute little reference? Things get a little bit (hilariously) more hurtful during the mission description.

"Our source in the police has informed us that one of our drivers is a strangely animated undercover cop! He's more or less useless out of his car, so we've tagged it with a tracer. Make him bleed!" - dialogue from GTA III

They are referencing Tanner's almost complete lack of ability to do anything useful outside of his car in Driver 2. They even gave him a female running animation to mock the strange way he moves. Ouch.

Driver didn't get its PS2 installment until well after Rockstar released GTA: Vice City. When Driver 3 (spelled Driv3r officially) finally did get out of the gate, apparently the developers, Reflections Interactive, couldn't let go of a grudge.

This good fellow right here is named Timmy Vermicelli. He may look a little bit like Vice City's protagonist, Tommy Vercetti. A little bit. Reflections Interactive is no more mature than Rockstar, and as you can see, placed water wings on Timmy to mock the fact that Vice City does not allow the player to swim.

Adding even further insult to injury, Tanner is able to swim in Driver 3.

Both games have since branched off into almost entirely distinguishable series, but apparently there was a time when the town just wasn't big enough for the two of them.

Demos

Lately i've been lost in a sea of demos. Double Dragon Neon has convinced me to give the Playstation Store a harder look, so I did. I've downloaded demos for everything from Blade Kitten to Rochard, and most of what's been sampled is impressive. It's become almost an addiction.

It probably seems kind of cheap to write about demos instead of full games, but I'm still working on playing those six or so I mentioned earlier, and this is what I've been doing otherwise.

If there were two games that stuck out, they'd have to be Rochard, and Sideway: New York.

In Rochard, you're a space trucker and miner who's gone four years without hitting anything worth digging. Eventually, you find a pretty strange structure underground, and all sorts of hell starts breaking lose.

The game is a puzzle/platformer, and the puzzles, at least in the demo, are fun as hell. The main mechanic in the game is a gravity gun, used for some pretty nifty tricks and treats. It works well, and if the game keeps up where it's going, Rochard could easily be something really special.

Sideway: New York is a platformer where you play as living graffiti, and platform inside and around walls and rooftops to save the girl. The game has some really nice visuals, and the controls feel fluid and just plain good. The demo didn't show too much, but I was impressed with what was there.

Others, like Blade Kitten or Rush N' Attack, were fun enough, but they don't grab attention as easily. BK is a platformer in the vein of Run Saber and Strider, while RNA is a stealth/action game focused on dark visuals and, well, stealth.

Either way, demos have proved to be an entertaining, and free, pastime.

The Wonderful End of the World: Perhaps This?

"You can't save the whole world. It's going to be eaten by a mythological demon with the head of a fish. But as a puppet that absorbs all it touches, you can try to rescue as much of Earth's greatness as you can before the end arrives. In the beginning, you roam the Earth, capable of absorbing only the tiniest of objects."

I'm sold. Where do I sign up?

TWEotW is a Katamari inspired game with the above premise. You gotta suck up everything beautiful and right in the world for preservation. It's an amazing idea, and I'm in love with it.

But, Katamari also had unique audio, and a unique and quirky visual style. I wasn't too certain those were things  TWEotW could mimic. Well, I was wrong to a decent extent. The visuals in this game look damn fine.

They're nothing absolutely stunning, but they get the job done, and look good.

 It may be hard to tell from the promotional screenshots, but in the game, you control a giant marionette. The marionette has similar properties to a Katamari. Still sound great? It should. Let's look at a first impression of the audio.

This right here is pretty damn cool.

It's the kind of focused audio direction the game needs to give itself a specific style and feeling. Everything so far sound great? Good.

I'm sorry to say it just doesn't all add up right in the final product.

To be perfectly clear:  TWEotW is by no means a bad game. In fact, I recommend you go and download the demo right now, as it's worth seeing the game yourself. That being said, it's still not nearly what it could be.

TWEotW has some pretty big flaws in some very key areas that serve to bring down the production by quite a large notch. The audio only lasts as long as the title screen before falling apart, and what at first I thought to be vocal (or at least reasonably emotional) tracks turned out to be some of the oddest, out of place audio I could find anywhere.

This music is pretty much entirely pointless, for example. It doesn't serve to make the player feel anything about the stage, or about the game in general. It's just there.

That's not the main issue, though, as the gameplay itself falls short of expectations, too. The game tries really hard to emulate Katamari Damacy, but put simply, the levels and overall atmosphere of the game feel hollow in comparison. It doesn't help that, instead of trying to do something new or different with Katamari's absorption mechanic, the game attempts to copy it almost completely.

That's enough about the bad, though. I don't like making a habit of talking smack about games, and truthfully, as rough as this game can be at times, it isn't horrible by any stretch of imagination.

What I'm here to do is try and show you what  TWEotW could've been. I think the easiest place to start would be the core gameplay. Now, as I've said many times, TWEotW  tries to emulate Katamari. No secret there, and the developer will openly admit to it if you ask, I'm sure. The problem was that it was uninteresting and empty by comparison to its inspiration. How do we fix this?

Simple. Do something different.

 Katamari is known for being a happy, quirky, and relatively easy-going game. You remember when I said TWEotW's star was a human shaped marionette?


Take a look at this.

Now, apply that range of movement to the marionette in TWEotW, and we've already got something to talk about. Add that range of movement to the premise, and we have a game where I could be dashing around Paris, careening through an outdoor eatery, sucking up customers and tables, before jumping into an art fair to collect and preserve priceless paintings.

A game where the stages take place in some of the most notable cities in the world, as you dash around on rooftops and through crowded streets, slurping up everything in your path? That already has a lot more going for it.

To further separate TWEotW from Katamari and give the game its own feel, quick-paced, objective based gameplay could be implemented. Not so quick as to make the player feel rushed, but quick enough to remind them that the world is going to be eaten by a mythological demon with the head of a fish.

You could even add in a stylish announcer, like Viewtiful Joe, or a feelgood bonus area that just has a whole ton of small, sparkly objects to run around and collect. If you're imagining the same thing I'm trying to make you imagine, it should be reasonably awesome as hell, and I think it would do this game's premise, and the idea of other game's with Katamari mechanics, a lot more justice.

Bit.Trip Runner

Bit.Trip Runner is a platforming game in the Bit.Trip series, notable for its unique gameplay and music. The title is a very unusual kind of platformer, and focuses more on quick reflexes than actual skill of some kind. This can result in a lot of trial and error, but if you're playing it right, that really shouldn't matter.

BTRunner's controls and overall feel are similar more to a rhythm game than a platformer, in that your actions create notes of music, and you have to perform them nearly flawlessly, or ruin the rhythm. I found myself completely captivated by the game's soft and surreal look, as well as the perfected controls and focus on trance-like repetition. I mess up often, but I never have any qualms about trying again, because playing the game just makes me feel happy.

It's the kind of game that expects perfection, but it also expects you to be either entirely zoned out or entirely captivated while you play. I can sit still for hours in a trance playing Bit.Trip Runner, and be thoroughly entertained.

Everyone deserves to feel the feels I have felt from this game. They are the best feels, I assure you.

Free Writing: Language of Games

A while back, I read about someone talking about the "language of games". She was referring to the unique way that games can portray events to its players. Technology and game development have evolved a lot from the time it was first conceived, and now more people are playing games than ever. This means the opportunity to create and show people something amazing with the medium is within reach.

The issue she brought up was, while technology and game development had evolved, the "language" of games hadn't. She said that games were still speaking to players in means of movies or simple entertainment, with basic goals or cinematic construction. While I believe there's nothing at all wrong with any given kind of game, I believe what she was trying to say has a lot of importance to the medium.

Games are unlike any other media before it, and it has the potential to do things that haven't quite been grasped yet. Games can create virtual worlds for players to not just interact with, but be a part of. You can see hints of this everywhere, from Skyrim to Bioshock 2, although in different flavors and different genres. Immersion is a huge factor in the impact a game has on a player. Getting wrapped up inside a story is great, but getting wrapped up inside a world is amazing.

We're getting more and more games that introduce and invest players in a world, to the point the events and characters, and especially the gameplay, carry emotional and mental impact.

Games allow people to interact and become a part of worlds, not just view them in a linear and static fashion. This is a language that games have created, and one that can't ever be perfected, so long as people always try to create and improve.

There are some games coming up/recently released that I feel, at least, can be potentially big for the medium as a whole. Dishonored, for example, seems to put interaction with the game world as much inside the player's hands as possible, to ensure freedom. I haven't played it yet myself, but IGN reviewer Cam Shea went so far as to say, "It picks up where games like Deus Ex and BioShock left off, and puts choice back in the hands of the player.", which can only be a good thing.

Last of Us, a yet to be released shooter by Naughty Dog, seems to strive for telling a linear story through immersion and atmosphere. In the trailers and promotional items this far, it seems to build up its world and story through scenery and gameplay. Needless to say, a lot of games have tried to take this route before, but so far, Last of Us pulls it off in the most spectacular fashion.

Please check out the promotional gameplay footage, and see for yourself.

Even if these games and others like it do not succeed in all of their goals, they will certainly populate the medium with more of the kind of games it deserves, (although the games we have already are by no means a joke) and maybe it can take a few big steps forward in developing its language.

Kirby's Dream Land

Kirby’s Dream Land, originally in development as Twinkle Popo, is the first game in the Kirby series. It was created when Masahiro Sakurai and fellow developers grew attached to Kirby, a character who was originally used as a dummy in place of more advanced and detailed characters.

Ironically, Kirby’s gameplay wound up being something pretty unique at the time, and helped his game stand apart from other platformers. Like other games in the series, Kirby can inhale enemies. Unlike other games in the series, he cannot copy their powers. The game relied entirely on the inhale and spit mechanic to combat foes and solve (admittedly few) environmental puzzles. This probably sounds a little off-putting to fans of the other games, and I was skeptical of how well it would hold up, too. Fortunately, thanks to some clever bosses and presentation, it works just fine.

Although seemingly far removed from its sequels, Dream Land has everything that makes people think of Kirby as Kirby. From bubbly music, Waddle Dees and Waddle Doos, and a friendly and cute atmosphere, it’s all here, just a little less colorful and complex.

Swallowing and spitting enemies feels precise and satisfying, and the stages, while re-made in later Kirby games to satisfactory ends, were clearly made for traversal by a hero without copy abilities. The game is built around using his inhalation attack in as many ways as it can. Admittedly, it could get old, had the game been longer, but five short stages and some creative (and classic) bosses keep the game interesting long enough for the final showdown against DeDeDe.

There aren’t really too many downsides to Kirby’s original outing, except maybe in the slightly unrealized world itself, but considering the Game Boy’s graphical limitations, that’s easily forgivable.

Every Game Ever

The lack of writing this past week is due to my playing a few too many games at once.

Fracture: a third person shooter with pretty neat terrain deformation mechanics.

Kirby's Dream Collection: Happiness in a box.

Batman, Rise of Sin Tzu: A shiny and fun beat em up with great music, but standard mechanics.

Resident Evil 5: One of the best co-operative games I've played, and one of the most intense.

Squeak Squad: Happiness in a Kirby Kirby Kirby.

and Stuntman: Probably one of the most unique driving games out there period.

So pretty much every game ever.

I want to say I'll have posts about them soon, but I'll probably play most of them a second time, so I can more easily recall and sum up the experience.

Double Dragon Neon

"all my enemies gunna get rocked"

I'm going to be frank here. Double Dragon Neon is easily one of the greatest games created as of this date. It is the most perfected and finely tuned example of its genre, and it creates such a satisfying and empowering experience that it nearly leaves one with exhaustion.

DDNeon is a game developed by WayForward, who have quite a big reputation dealing with old school titles. From Contra 4 to Risky’s Revenge, they’ve managed to deliver top quality entertainment on a number of old brands, and this is no exception. Nearly everything about Neon screams dedication and soul, from the flawlessly executed style to the satisfying and meaty combat.

The game starts the same as the traditional Double Dragon. Marian is punched and taken away, so you and preferably a friend set off to rescue her. It only takes a few seconds before you fight a few cartwheeling goons with hair picks and gorgeously styled hair. The first taste of combat can seem a bit slow at first, but by the end of the first stage, the mechanics reveal themselves for what they are, and you understand exactly the kind of game Neon is.

Neon presents its mechanics in the favored form of Final Fight, but with some much needed tuning and personality. You have a punch and kick, simply enough. You can punch infinitely, but kicking in the middle of a combo unleashes a spin kick, inflicting multiple hits of damage, stunning enemies, and giving you a brief invincibility frame. You’re going to become best friends with that move, because it’s easily the one you’ll use most.

You can also quickly duck and roll to dodge. Doing so perfectly gives you “gleam” which causes Billy or Jimmy to light up red and doubles their attack strength. Alongside these basic mechanics, you can dash and jump kick, as well as use a heavy assortment of weapons, ranging from a comb to a boomerang.

These may sound like ordinary mechanics, and that’s because they are, but they way they are put to use has to be felt for oneself. The powerful, meaty feel and style to the combat cannot be overstated. There are as many enemy types as weapons, and each of them feels entirely different to engage. They knocked the ball into goddamn outer space. I've never seen a battle system work and feel this well since God Hand.

Aside from basic attacks, we have probably the most definitive feature of the game: the ability to equip songs on cassettes that grant you special abilities or status upgrades. Not only does each song offer a distinct ability, but a distinct song, complete with lyrics.

I can’t really describe in words how great it is to point my cursor over the “Bomb Toss” tape and hear a deep voice man sing a song about love explosions, or to equip the “Balanced” tape and hear harmonized chanting of the classic Double Dragon theme.

The abilities granted by these songs are nothing to laugh at either. “Training Wheels”, a delightful song about a cheerful girl who finally graduated from her training wheels, will appropriately give the player a large health boost.

There are a large handful of status upgrade songs to choose from. One may increase your magic meter, allowing you to perform more specials, and another may allow you to regenerate health with each blow you strike. It works beautifully, and especially in co-operative play, allows players to click together nicely, combining preferred combat styles in the best way possible.

While we're on the subject of co-op, Double Dragon Neon is probably the most perfect co-operative experience available. I mean that. It's that damn good.

With a friend, the game almost entirely changes. Things that were fun in single player become so ridiculously and wonderfully enjoyable that it feels like you are going to snap the controller in two.

You can split your life with a partner using high fives, give them a boost in power, juggle enemies back and forth, and revive them upon their defeat. The game goes out of its way to encourage that you work and form a bond with your partner. It never feels like you're just zoning out with a buddy, because the game always keeps you involved.

I can't spoil too much, but the game is such a masterpiece from beginning to end that I almost don't know what else to praise. The game culminates into such an unbelievably fantastic crescendo that it's impossible to describe in words.

Just, goddamn.