#314 Resident Evil

Posted: 30th July 2012 by Jeroen in Games
Tags: , , , ,
9

166th played so far

Genre: Survival Horror
Platform: Various
Year of Release: 1996
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom

As we approach the one-in-six mark, there’s only one of the major franchises (at least five games on the list) that we haven’t covered yet. We’ve played some Grand Theft Auto, plenty of Legend of Zelda games and a remarkable amount of Mario, but Resident Evil still remains untouched. Don’t forget about Final Fantasy!

The Resident Evil franchise is pretty much purely survival horror games. This first game might not have started the genre (I believe Alone in the Dark, for example, got there earlier), but it made it popular and had a big role in properly starting it (there are some who say Sweet Home, the game Resident Evil is a remake of, is the real first survival horror.)

Our Thoughts

Obviously, this game is old, and that reflects on the graphics. And yeah, that makes the zombies less believable and the whole game less involved. They tried to go for realistic graphics here, and as we discussed before, that doesn’t age as well. Although to be fair – somehow the graphics have help up well compared to many other games from this era.

Now, the big question is, though, does that make the game less scary? And to be honest… no, not that much. A lot of this comes from the suspense – there’s some sound from around the corner, is that a zombie or a partner? Does picking up the shotgun release zombies, a trap, or just unlock a door? What is going on?

Yeah, the age makes the effect work less well. We’ve had scarier and we’ve had better. It wasn’t constantly tense either, we managed to not get all that freaked out, it was mostly just tense. To be honest I was sat in a bunch in the corner since the idea of playing this freaked me out. I remember playing Resident Evil 4 years ago with a mate of mine (the same mate who leant me Viewtiful Joe) and being scared… this not so much. I mean it was slightly jumpy but Borderlands made me jump a lot more than this did.

On a related note, don’t expect much from the (voice) acting in the game. Some of the lines are so awkward, it’s just funny to listen to. They remove quite a bit of the tension that could be in these scenes… too often larger than life. I’m sure the story is quite intriguing… but it just doesn’t feel that way because of it.

I would like to say that the acting is meant to be bad because that would mean this game was a slightly satirical love-letter to horror films where the victims always make stupid like decisions. The fact that the phrase “let’s split up” occured so early made both of us laugh. However, this clearly is not the case… and it’s all the funnier for it.

Gameplay, then, is mostly good. It’s a mix of adventure and shooter, although the latter is mostly straightforward – the game has auto aim, required to shoot, so you can just shoot. You just need to be fast enough – if the zombie reaches you, he will start eating you. Beyond that, the controls can be occasionally clumsy. You have to use the d-pad, analog sticks not yet supported, with the lovely character-focused controls – left and right turn, forward and backwards move. While natural, they can be quite clumsy and get in the way, as often around this time.

The puzzles are fairly simple, mostly focused on exploration and some simple movement. Simple enough.

One thing this game can boast is story. We didn’t get far enough to get into the complexities of Wesker and the Umbrella Corperation but this story running through the franchise is one of the big reasons that this has so many fans. Characters like Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield keep cropping up in future releases (with the former being a staple in the Marvel Vs. Capcom games). The fact is that whilst this game has a lot of merit it is now very dated… which means that I am now actually looking forward to playing future releases like Resident Evil 5… and noone is more shocked at that statement than me.

In the end, however, this game is about resources. Conserve your bullets, so you can take on the inevitable enemies. Conserve your saves – you need an ink ribbon to save, which are limited in number. In the end, that’s where the challenge comes from. And a tense challenge it is.

Final Thoughts

Not as scary as it was. And quite difficult to control – we found it to be quite a challenge. But the tension of the game is still there, whether it’s because you’re not sure what’s behind the next door or because you know there’s something around the corner and you’re not sure whether you have enough bullets left. It’ll make you tense and careful… maybe not as much horror, but it’s pretty much what you want from a game like this.

#304 Civilization II

Posted: 26th July 2012 by Jeroen in Games
Tags: , , ,
1

165th played so far

Genre: Strategy
Platform: PC
Year of Release: 1996
Developer: MicroProse
Publisher: MicroProse

There’s some games that, when they come up in our random selection, fill me with both anticipation and dread. We had a good time playing Civilization, but it took a long time… partially a ‘one more turn’ thing, partially the need to play this game to completion.

Now, I know Civilization II quite well – I’ve played it plenty andit’s been a bit of an addiction. Since then, however, newer installments came along and improved on the formula, including the semi-sequel Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri. A step back?

Our Thoughts

(I really have nothing much to say here that Jeroen hasn’t said: I’ll be more vocal when we eventually get to Civilization IV)

The basics of the game remain the same as the first Civilization (which is why this may be a bit shorter than normal). A lot of the changes are minor tweaks – different prerequisites, an expanded tech tree, some units and buildings added here and there. Sure, nice little changes, but if you’ve played the first game, the second is easy to pick up and understand.

The main improvement in the game comes from the graphics. The series switched to an isometric perspective and gives the graphics a makeover, making them look more detailed and crisp than seen in the first game. Still, these remain relatively simple and repetitive (more so than the more fluid Alpha Centauri) and don’t offer much extra now. It’s a bit clearer what’s what, but that’s mostly it.

Sound’s improved slightly, but not too notable – sound effects are still rare. Not really rare rare since whenever there is a battle or whenever you finish researching something there is a sound effect but there isn’t really much in the way of an ambient soundtrack.

One bigger visual addition are movies. The game is punctuated by several of these – such as when building a wonder, as game introduction, and to accompany certain win conditions. These are simple and not always well done, but they provide a bit more emotion to an otherwise simple game. Note, however, that we couldn’t get these to work on Windows 7 – I just know them from previous playthroughs where the acting was truly atrocious… much like the movies in SimCity.

In terms of the interface, there have been some nice improvements too. The DOS-based Civilization was limited in mouse interaction. Civilization II is, instead, fully Windows-based and seemed to have been using that quite closely. Rather than the custom interfaces seen in most games, Civ II feels like a skinned Windows application – still with plenty changed, but you get things like separate windows and a normal menu bar. Primitive on some level maybe – it certainly looks simple – but it actually works well for a game like this.

There’s some weirdness in the game. Pathfinding is atrocious, with us having seen units go east to reach a city that was a few squares west, and enemy caravans being stuck between two places until we built a second path to get them further. AI is slow (both in terms of speed and intelligence) and not very aggressive. These don’t really get in your way, but are just annoying enough to bother you.

Final Thoughts

In the end, this game is about ruling and building a civilization to stand the test of time and take over the world – by conquest or more enlightened means. While there are many small niggles there, these goals remain and they’re well playable. Our too long special (past midnight again!) proves as much. I really was flagging by the end of it.

#889 Borderlands

Posted: 22nd July 2012 by Mulholland in Games
Tags: , , , , , ,
1

164th played so far

Genre: First-Person Shooter/Role-Playing Game
Platform: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC
Year of Release: 2009
Developer: Gearbox Interactive
Publisher: 2K Games

The two of us had a discussion a few days ago about role-playing games. This is a fairly regular occurrence seeing how Jeroen’s favourite games to play whilst I am out food shopping are the likes of Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights. Something that came up was how many role-playing elements are bleeding into games in general

Since this was a game I have been wanting to play for ages I am glad that I had the chance to push this as the next game we looked at.

Our Thoughts

Like with Heavy Rain and Saints Row II I was the principal player of this game so most of this will be written from my perspective (so sorry about that in advance if you prefer the blue writing).

In a nutshell Borderlands is essentially a first-person shooter game with role-playing elements. The role-playing elements are not as far-reaching as the likes of Planescape:Torment as it really only applies to weapon proficiency and character skills. As games go it has a lot in common with Fallout 3 (one of my favourite games of all time) apart from here this is strictly first-person perspective with the exception of getting into vehicles. One difference here is that while in more ‘proper’ RPGs like those mentioned above, most games would allow several solutions – stealth being as valuable as running in guns blazing, while Borderlands give you only a single option. If you look at what’s probably the most appropriate comparison in its genre – Deus Ex – then the lack of choice in solutions really stand out (just because shooting things in the face is not your thang). Deus Ex can be finished without many kills, Borderlands will require hundreds of kills. The emphasis here is on FPS, with some RPG elements, rather than this offering any real RPG experience.

Since I found this game so very compelling and addictive there is obviously a lot to be recommended but I really need to get the big negative off of my chest: the storyline. The idea of Borderlands is that you are taking the role of an inter-planetary treasure hunter looking for ‘The Vault’ on the hostile world of Pandora (just writing this sentence makes me realise how many tropes are present in this game). This would actually be fine by itself to be completely honest. No other motivations are required since the fun does lie in setting bandits on fire and exploding the heads of skags. However, the game tries to give the sheen of some major storyline thread which really does not work well; the interjections by the supposed ‘guardian angel’ are more annoying that informative.

Crappy storyline aside, this game is a lot of fun and clearly has been inspired by other films and games which explains the warm feeling of familiarity that permeates this harsh alien landscape. Seeing that this is a treasure hunting game set in a desert there is a clear western theme (unlike whatever the hell kinda awesome cartoon weirdness was occupied by Zack & Wiki). This is strongly supported by a well done soundtrack which is never too intrusive despite what has been described as a ‘white trash’ twang.

This western feel can also be seen in the planets inhabitants, many of which feel like a slightly hillbilly version of Firefly (what a great show). Sure they give you quests and may lead you down the garden path every now and then (apart from Claptrap the robot who is beyond delightful) but they fit in perfectly with the feel of the game. The same can be said of the enemies whether they be the pterodactyl-like Rokks or the midget bandits (very similar to the grunts in Halo)

These worlds are fairly large so when you begin to be able to use vehicles they feel like an absolute godsend and not just because you can kill a lot of local enemies by running them over… although that is freaking awesome. The controls of the vehicles are pretty annoying to begin with since using anything other than X (for PS3) or A (on 360) for accelerating really does feel counter-intuitive. After a while using the analogue sticks to control a colour-coordinated rocket launching tank feels natural and all is good in the hood.

Now, the RPG elements are fairly simple, although it permeates most of the game. First, there’s the usual XP to level up system, which increases your damage and HP. Weapons are trained through use – the more you use a type, the better you can use it. Damage, accuracy and so on. To get your ‘special abilities’, you start gaining skill points from level 5 on, which gives you class-specific skills – from increased fire rate to new abilities and improvements to more special ones. They’re quite useful and serve to differentiate the different classes.

Another part of the customisation that’s present in the game, beyond class selection, skills and weapon use, are the weapons. The weapons are generated randomly, based on several base abilities that the game combines, leading to about a million different weapons being ‘available’. You won’t find all of them, and wouldn’t want to, but it makes gameplay slightly more different between different playthroughs. It won’t have a big impact, though – there’ll still be plenty of pistols setting things on fire, and one might give more damage than others, but you won’t have to worry about going without your preferred option.

One thing that I particularly applaud this on (apart from the aforementioned character customisation) is the look of the game. By making it cel-shaded it makes the entire experience feel like a comic book which should put this on par with No More Heroes in terms of graphics but I think Borderlands actually looks better because they have the saturation and colour contrasts at a more aesthetically pleasing level whilst maintaining a decent level of realism.

All in all, it’s an FPS with some RPG elements. Expect more of the former with bits of the latter, but the latter does add to the game’s appeal and longevity. It’s not the strongest example of either, but the combination of both, together with its more random elements, make for an appealing game.

Final Thoughts

I easily played over our five-hour quota for this game and I barely made it out of the first area. There is a lot that can be done in ways of exploration and looting and general shenanigans that you can make a mission drag on as much as you want. Bad storyline aside this really is a fun game. Sure it’s derivative but they never set out to change the world with this game, just to make something that was fun to play.

#626 Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain?

Posted: 18th July 2012 by Mulholland in Games
Tags: , , , ,
0

163rd played so far

Genre: Puzzle/Strategy
Platform: Nintendo DS
Year of Release: 2005
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo

We have been focusing a lot on arcade shoot ’em ups lately. Due to this we have really fallen behind on handheld games for the sheer reason that… well I don’t really know why to be perfectly honest they just never seem to come to mind when we talk about what games we should do. Possibly because it can feel less convenient than picking up a controller or starting the PC, especially when we want to play together.

Still, here we go… a step closer to that goal.

Our Thoughts

It really has been a long time since we did a truly casual game (One-Dot Heroes) or a game where calling it a game is stretching things a little bit (Wii Fit).

You will need to have lived under a rock for years if the whole idea of ‘brain training’ had passed you by. The fact that it has been called out as absolute baloney doesn’t really matter one iota since this game still ended up shifting over 8 million copies worldwide leading it to becoming one of the biggest selling titles on the DS. It was also a ‘gateway game’ for many people. I am shamed to say that one of the first games I got for my DS was competing title Big Brain Academy (in my defense it was packaged with both that and Super Mario 64 DS so it isn’t too bad).

Another interesting experience related to this happened the first time I visited people. We met up and had our DSes out playing Mario Kart DS in a pub (we had our reasons) and while one of my friends was being bored with stories of the intricate details of Fire Emblem or Advance Wars or something similar, one of the barmaids came up to us and asked whether getting one was worth it, citing this game as one of the reasons she was interested in.

There is not too much to this game to be honest. There are a number of mini-games masqueraded as ‘brain building’ exercises which included things as banal as mental arithmetic and counting syllables. All of these are accompanied by the disembodied polygon head of Dr Kawashima himself which scares me in ways that resemble the mild horror that is the baby sun in Teletubbies.

Whilst the idea of preventing the eventual atrophy of your brain probably sold a large number of this game another big feature of this was the prominence of Sudoku puzzles. Back in 2005 Sudoku was huge (you remember, you were there) so the fact that this game was able to take advantage of this fad at it’s height (I remember doing Sudokus in competition with a mate in the library at morning break… wow I’m a geek) probably helped it shift a million copies or two.

In the end, you do get slightly better at the mini games and I’m sure that might have somewhat of a positive effect (even if the brain age thing doesn’t make much sense).

The game isn’t without its flaws however, particularly when it comes to controls. One small thing to commend them on is the lefthanded support. The game requires you to hold the DS like a book – rotated 90 degrees from the usual. While many games then often forget the plight of the left handed person like myself, with your hand getting in the way, this game adjusted early on to take care of that.

The main flaw is the game’s handwriting recognition. Sure, it’s nice enough they can do the basics, but it can be incredibly fiddly. The game has a lot of difficulty, for example, recognising my k’s, and with the speed you have to write the digits at to get a good ‘age’, it’s easy to be a bit sloppy, where the game messes up. Furthermore, even when you see your mistake, the game has often already moved on to the next assignment and counts your answer as wrong. It actually feels quite bad at times. A real shame, as beyond that it’s a fun puzzle-like game. Even if they don’t all feel like they actually help you train.

Final Thoughts

Game or not. Game or not. I have no clue. But this is not the place to solve that, for it is time for me to start on another game for this blog. Borderlands.

Okay, while the game might not be good training, I’d say that the going for a score pushes it quite a bit further. Not sure what the whole strategy thing is about though… I think the game is slightly misclassified here. Ah well. Not top of the list, but the goals of the game are more lofty than most, which makes it worth it as something better, I suppose. In influence, source of sales and how it feels less relevant now… I mean, this or Professor Layton, what would you really prefer, right?

#297 Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness

Posted: 14th July 2012 by Jeroen in Games
Tags: , , ,
5

162nd played so far

Genre: Strategy
Platform: PC
Year of Release: 1995
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment

While the Warcraft universe is mostly known these days for its MMORPG World of Warcraft, the series originated as a strategy game, putting the Orcs versus the Humans (as the subtitle of Warcraft 1 said). The first one (as I know from experience) wasn’t very memorable and quite limited.

The second game improved on many aspects (again, I can say this from experience), and was the major competitor of Command & Conquer at the time, a spiritual successor of Dune II. While the latter kept churning out sequels, Blizzard held back, and in the past fifteen years we’ve only seen three sequels – two will be discussed on this blog in the future, while the third was released after the book’s release, so we’ll see what happens. Still, here it started, and branched off from other strategy games. Worth it?

Our Thoughts

As you can tell from the above, I know this game and played it well. The unit quotes were often quoted at school and considered highly amusing and when I got the game (including expansion) I played through it several times over. Seeing that I was five when this game was released this completely passed me by.

That levity still holds up. It’s as much fun to keep clicking the units for more quotes as ever and playing through that is still a lot of fun (although I did not like it when you made that sheep explode). The storyline is still quite opaque – although as with many strategy games, the true scope doesn’t become apparent until later. Either way, there’s not much to it, and aside from the level intros, has little bearing on the game. The mission objectives are based on some of the storyline. While they’re simple, they’re still more varied than the ‘destroy all enemies’ we see in more other strategy games at the time.

The graphics have a cartoony style. Not as much as later Warcraft games, but still slightly away from realism to help. Still, at the same time, not much to expect here (as so often), with repetitive trees. Still, the critters were cute and the maps Christmassy at times, which was nice enough. The orc peons do look incredibly cute. As do the seals, sheep, boars and plenty of other things on the map. Apart from the trolls which looked weird.

In the end, then, gameplay. As I mentioned earlier, one of nice things about the game is the variety in goals – defeating all enemies, freeing prisoners and building enough of a certain building are all goals that you see in the first few levels. This goal of defeating all enemies can really be annoying in the best of games since it means you have to trawl around the entire map looking for that one soldier where the pathfinding mechanics somehow lead him into an obscure part of the map which takes you five minutes to find… this happened with us a few times before we found the “turn off the fog of war” option. That made things a whole lot easier… but it did feel like cheating.

In some cases, this makes for a fast-paced game, but there are times where it ends up at the wrong end of the strategy genre in this. When you’re building your base and strengthening your troops, this can take a while where you’re just waiting for progress sliders to run out and enough gold being mined and wood chopped. You can strike out occasionally to take out a few outliers, but mostly it’s waiting. This is especially bad on the later levels when you’ve got a large base to build to get to the later units and get the others upgraded far enough to have them be enough of a threat. A zerg rush can help sometimes (Hi Starcraft reference!), but this time, while playing, I found the waits unnecessarily long sometimes.

I’m just glad that, after playing this game, I will no longer put my foot in it by assuming that just because World of Warcraft is a role-playing game that the Warcraft games would be too. Ah well, time to make mistakes about Diablo just to annoy Jeroen; always a fun pastime.

Final Thoughts

I’ve played and love this game’s successors, so know how this will improve down the line. The game is still good fun to play, despite the occasional annoyances. And despite those successors, the no-frills play compared to them is still fun, while at least giving more good options than Dune II did.

#998 Heavy Rain

Posted: 10th July 2012 by Mulholland in Games
Tags: , , ,
3

161st played so far

Genre: Interactive Fiction
Platform: Playstation 3
Year of Release:  2010
Developer: Quantic Dream
Publisher: Sony

This is really old news by now but those of you who are yet to see Kara need to scooch over to Youtube (click here for the clip). I saw both this and another video by the same developers (called The Casting) before playing this game in order to give myself a bit of insight into what this developer was about… I cried at both videos so no pressure then.

Having not been as prepared as Peter, I’ve just read some reviews before we actually started playing, which peaked my interest. It’s an interesting game concept that seems interesting to keep up.

Our Thoughts

For those of you that can remember the slightly odd acquisition post I made last year you will know that Heavy Rain was one of the first games I ever had for this system. In fact it was the exclusivity of this game (along with the likes of inFamous and LittleBigPlanet) that made me want this console so incredibly badly. Why did it take so long for us (and by us I mean me) to sit down and actually play this? At the moment I don’t rightly know.

As you will know this is an interactive fiction game and we have previously looked at one of these games 60 games ago in the form of Facade but the actual experience is very different. For the first part this game is based a lot around the successful completion of quick-time events in order to not only further the plot but also to ensure the survival of your characters (more on that later). Since this game is based around this concept the difficulty of the game is based around the complexity of these events. As long as you are well experienced with a Playstation controller you will be able to play this on the highest difficulty but you have to beware of certain places where you need to hold eight buttons at a time (which reminded me of a game of Twister for the fingers and required the help of a second player for these trickier places). I thought the events in Bayonetta could be a tad difficult but the events here really do demand focus and concentration.

These button presses and stick shifts vary in degrees of severity. Some of these require you to be incredibly gentle (like when you are putting on mascara) whilst others require you to forcefully shift the whole controller to the side (like when you are dodging a mad drug-dealing ex-surgeon’s attacks). Since the difference in the symbols can be subtle (especially in the heat of the moment) you will not complete every quick-time event the first time. That’s fine, you just need to make sure this doesn’t lead to the character being killed in a car crusher.

Other than that this game plays a lot like a cinematic version of a traditional adventure game. In order to find clues you need to walk around the areas (known as sets in the credits sequence) and input directions on the right analogue sticks whilst using the left analogue stick to look around in search of clues or interactions. You need to keep your eyes peeled for these interactions since you never know what you might miss which could prevent you from finding the killer and not saving his next victim. The game doesn’t feature the many puzzles of more traditional adventure games, but in this case it helps – thanks to this, you focus on advancing the stories and how everything integrates, rather than how to get to the next clue. You need to find and solve things, sure, but it’s almost secondary.

Whilst the controls are engrossing in their own way the real heart is, of course, in the story and characters. Interestingly the entry for Heavy Rain in the book criticises this game from lacking in heart and humanity to which I say; what the hell were you playing!? Over the course of the game you play as four main characters: an FBI investigator, an investigative journalist, a private investigator and the tragic father who is searching for his son.  Whilst all the characters are well realised and motivated it is Ethan (the father) that truly melts your heart. This is a man who has already lost his first son in a car accident and a result of this now has crippling agrophobia, depression and a strained relationship with his surviving son Shaun. All four characters are on the hunt for the Origami Killer (so-called because they leave an origami animal and an orchid with their victims) but Ethan’s search is so well-played emotionally that I wanted to cry at many different points.

After a lot of time deciding the movements of the characters you really begin to get under the skin of the characters to the point that when you have to chop of a character’s finger (as one of the killer’s trials) or find yourself close to dying in a fiery blaze your heart really begins to pound. Many games have instituted moral choices as part of their gameplay but so few have executed it so successfully where there are actual far-reaching consequences.

One thing that integrates quite well are the graphics. While not going for photorealism – a step below the Kara clip Peter referenced earlier – they’re real enough to evoke sympathy and make you feel the characters are real. Helped by the characters being based on the real actors (the casting video you can unlock shows this off nicely), they evoke empathy by being such. Add to that the surreal elements that integrate surprisingly well – both in the sense of virtual reality glasses used to investigate clues as well as dream sequences through characters feeling like they’re losing control.

While this mostly works well – up to a point where you have to work your way to big crowds to get to where you want to get to – you can tell that they were pushing the boundaries in some sections. While it’s mostly okay, a few scenes, especially near the end of the game, started lagging, something that doesn’t combine well with the quick actions required in these sections. Luckily they didn’t have an effect on gameplay, but they felt jarring.

Finally the element that really helps up the ante emotionally is the music. Beautifuly orchestrated sweeping music that reminds me of movies in a mixture of noir detective films and modern flicks such as Gone Baby Gone. This is paired with great voice performances by the cast which gives the game the pathos required to link the gamer with the characters.

Final Thoughts

The last time we properly played a longer game to completion before writing it up was The Last Express. Thanks to this we both know how the game ends and have such made sure to have this review free of spoilers.

I am not sure how much replay value this game has but now I want to play Fahrenheit very VERY badly.

#59 Jetpac

Posted: 6th July 2012 by Jeroen in Games
Tags: , ,
0

160th played so far

Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Platform: Various
Year of Release: 1983
Developer: Tim and Chris Stamper
Publisher: Ultimate Play The Game

Following Galaxian and Space Harrier, we finish the shoot ’em up weekend with this game. I know it took over a week for it to go up, but we don’t generally get to play much during the week, so we have to play ahead… I blame school children that don’t automatically understand science.

Three fairly different games too. Galaxian followed the fairly basic Space Invaders format, while Space Harrier is more of a manic shooter of the type we also saw in DoDonpanchi. Jetpac (no k), in the mean time, is a side scrolling type of shooter, looking more like a platformer, except that thanks to the titular jetpack, you have more free movement.

Our Thoughts

The premise of this game is fairly simple – you need to collect rocket parts so you can build your ride home and collect fuel to power that same rocket. Once you do so, you take off to the next level, which is harder and leaves you collecting more fuel and, every few levels, a new rocket.

You use your jetpack to fly around and get to these parts, which is the easier bit. Harder is that there are aliens – initially what seem to be poisonous clouds, but that changes in later levels – moving around trying to kill you. As you die in one hit, that’s not a good thing. In many ways this games level contruction reminds me a lot of Pang without the nifty grappling hook.

This is tough. Enemies can be difficult to hit (as you fire with a laser, it’s easy for an alien to sneak under it while it’s on its way to you) and the parts you need tend to materialize in areas where you’re easily hit with enemies – a fuel tank at the edge of the screen is enough to kill you twice because of a suddenly appearing enemy.

Still, it controls well once you’re used to it. The game can feel a bit sluggish, but it seems to fit with the response times you’d expect.

Graphically, there’s little to say – functional, as you’re used to from the time. The game is colourful, with red, green, blue and purple enemies flying around, but there’s no major effects to take note of here, it’s simply functional.

Final Thoughts

Whilst I do not usually condone the shooting of cute fluffy things (I mean I can’t even eat a hollow duck-shaped lump of white chocolate without wanting to cry) this game managed to get me over this.

Just as with many games of this era it is hard. For good reason, they wanted your quarters. Nowadays this game can be found in decent shape on the internet if you ever fancy a tussle.

#125 Space Harrier

Posted: 2nd July 2012 by Mulholland in Games
Tags: , , ,
1

159th played so far

Genre: Shoot ’em Up
Platform: Arcade
Year of Release: 1985
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega

15% of games on this list are shoot ’em ups. Since this is not a genre either of us usually think of when it comes to picking games we are probably going to splurge on these every now and then… sorry about that.

Our Thoughts

Although this was orginally released in 1985 in the arcades of Japan my first experience of this game was worlds away. I was about seven and my ‘cousins’ were in possession of a Sega Saturn (just note that the inverted commas is because they weren’t cousins but friends of family on my father’s side). I hated going around there because I was a complete townie and they lived on a farm and collected Border Fine Arts. The one saving grace (apart from Jennifer who really took pity on me) was this Sega Saturn.

I was transfixed with this console and I always went straight for this room when I was forced to go there since I didn’t particularly want to see where they hung the cattle they had just slaughtered for meat (that image still haunts me). So on this console is where I played games like Virtua Fighter 2, some of the Sonic games, a few I can not remember and then there is Space Harrier.

I guess this long pre-amble does not really mean much in terms of how good the game is but the moment I started playing it all these memories really came back to me. Just like songs and smells I guess video games can hold a lot of memories and I remembered this game being utterly brutal… and it still is.

Just like games such as DoDonPachi  and Mad Planets this is a manic shooter but unusually this is done from a third-person perspective. Your control is a joystick and it is your mission to shoot your way through 18 levels (containing many a pallete-swap) before blitzing your way through the ends boss run towards victory.

It’s perfect for the arcade because it is so incredibly lethal. You would be hard pressed to make it to the end without spending enough money for a decent bottle of cologne and in many ways it feels like the game is really out to get you. Unlike many games of this era it is painfully clear that these crazy enemies are gunning for you. Whether they be floating Easter Island heads or skeletal dragons you are pretty much screwed.

The graphics are pretty damned decent for a 1985 game but for me the best touch is one of the ice levels populated by cyclops-mammoths. Basically when shot by your enemies they disitegrate into a pile of mammoth bones… strangely cool. Then again so is the game.

Considering the age of the game, the graphics are quite good, and part of that has to do with its background. Unlike most shooters, especially in the days when the game was created, the graphics are vaguely 3D – not as we know it now, but it plays with depth and scaling to give the impression of enemies and the environment coming towards you or moving away. It feels speedier and puts you inside the action, making for more fun gameplay. It also looks impressive, even now in a cartoony way.

Final Thoughts

Tough, true, this game was doing its best to eat your change while you played. It’s not overly long, but long enough to keep you going for quite a while.

The game’s currently available on the Wii Virtual Console, so if you want to play it, go there now to give it a go. Assuming you don’t mind a bit of weirdness in your life.

#9 Galaxian

Posted: 28th June 2012 by Jeroen in Games
Tags: , , ,
3

158th played so far

Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Platform: Arcade
Year of Release: 1979
Developer: Namco
Publisher: Namco

So here we go – game one of what I’ve unofficially dubbed our weekend of shoot ’em ups. We’ve got lots of them to do for the blog, and many are fairly quick and straight forward, so it’s easier to do a few in batches – saves us time and gets them done – according to our stats, we should do 12 of them before #200 if we want to keep on target (and there was you telling me earlier in the supermarket not to fixate on those stats).  I doubt we will, but we should probably try.

Galaxian looks like a fairly straightforward shooter, but I’ve not played it, so let’s see what happens…

Our Thoughts

Right, at first glance this seems to be a colourful Space Invaders, but that changes soon after. Rather than the unrelenting march of Space Invaders – digging down slowly while shooting at you – the enemies fly at you, leaving you not just dodging those bullets, but also the creatures themselves, who, after their assault, run back to formation to repeat their attack later. They look like giant galactic bugs… so you are fighting the very pixellated minions of the giant wasp from DoDonPachi.

This adds to the game’s challenge, leaving you running around a lot more. The aliens may not shoot from formation, giving some more predictability, but the speed with which some of the creatures attack more than makes up for that. The different attack patterns from some of them make it even more difficult.

Beyond that, graphics and sounds have improved slightly, but not really by all that much, so besides the colours, there’s not much to say. Sorry folks, expect to find a write-up almost quadruple this length when we get around to writing up Heavy Rain.

In the end, yeah, a lot like Space Invaders, but suitably improved, so that’s all good.

Final Thoughts

I like these games because they are easy to write and easy to find. To be honest if you type Galaxian into any search engine you are bound to find a decent version of it online. Just be wary of some of them since there are many Space Invader clone games with a Galaxian skin.

#919 Flower

Posted: 24th June 2012 by Mulholland in Games
Tags: , , ,
2

157th played so far

Genre: Adventure
Platform: Playstation 3
Year of Release: 2009
Developer: thatgamecompany
Publisher: Sony

I don’t like downloadable games. This may make me a hypocrite since I laughed myself silly whilst playing Pain but I am still not convinced about XBLA, WiiWare and PSN. Still when there is a sale on and the likes of this and Flow are reduced… well you’re stupid to not at least give it a whack.

Our Thoughts

It’s hard to classify the game. It’s listed in the book and our joined list as an adventure, and that certainly comes closest, but it doesn’t feel right. You’re a petal flying through the air, blown forward by the wind. You open flowers by passing them, releasing more petals to join your stream, releasing a large group that follows you. I guess that classifying this as an adventure makes sense in some way since you are exploring a once-desolate land and bringing life and colour to it.

As you open flowers and explore, the environment around you transforms – grass becomes green (or sometimes blue or purple), more flowers appear and stones move to change the landscape. The whole idea of this is that the levels that you play through are the dreams of flowers in an urban apartment. Beautiful idea really.

This gorgeous sight is complemented by wonderful music. Mostly piano based, it slowly grows as you gather more petals. At the same time, flowers you touch add to the arrangements, with a group of them you open in a line forming a short melody. It’s all wonderfully in tune and absolutely lovely. Interestingly whenever you open a flower by wafting over it the flower harmonizes with the background music and each species of flower does this in a different way.

To complement the setup, the controls are as unique. Making use of the Sixaxis controls, you move around by simply tilting the controller, touching any button to accelerate. Simple but effective, requiring some practice to get to grips with and requiring some awkward turns sometimes, but feeling surprisingly natural when controlling the wind that moves the petals, its minimalism adds to the experience. Personally I never felt any awkwardness. In many ways the tilting contols feel very intuitive, but I could have sworn that the face buttons each summoned a different kind of wind.

The whole ethos of thatgamecompany is to create a game that can evoke certain emotions to the point that their creative director refuses to let the company produce blockbuster games and instead try to create ones that are more innovative. In this case this game really does allow the gamer feel a great degree of freedom as well as a feeling of positive calm. Such is the case that this game has already become a go-to title whenever I get stressed out from lesson planning or marking. It may not have been their original idea but it more than does the trick… far more so than killing people on the streets of Stilwater in Saints Row 2.

An absolutely beautiful game and, like The Path, one of those games that qualifies for an entry in video games as art, but again while remaining a lovely (and in this case relaxing) game to play.

Final Thoughts

I am not ashamed to admit that when I first played this game I almost cried because it moved me so much… or it might have been tiredness from lesson planning all day. I don’t know,  I’m not a doctor. Still, I have to play Journey soon.

Older Entries
Newer Entries