In Between VII
It Has Been Decided!
The Great Mighty Ingen has been gracefully bestowed by the Japanese Government with a 2 year scholarship for research in Osaka, Japan! Justice (not related to Summerhouse), at long last!
I will be leaving in April, although I have yet to recieve the details, God knows how long that's going to take.
In any case, I will be gone from this infernal country for at least 2 years, making me one happy Ingen, although I'll probably miss all the street crime, threats of terrorism, lousy service EVERYWHERE you go, rude and uneducated people, and worst of all, FOREIGNERS that make up such a large part of Everyday Dutch life.
Now I can be the mal-adjusted boarish Foreigner myself! Yippee!
"But Great Mighty Ingen, Purveyor of All that is Good, Scourge of at least one small Sea, Bringer of Joy and Happiness and Incredibly Gay Person, what does this mean for the Project!?" I hear you shout in desperation.
Well, obviously I'm NOT going to take all of my games with me to Japan, so that probably means the Project will have to come to an abrupt end, or at least prolonged vacation. I'll try to get as far as I can before April (oh, I'll TRY, believe you me), but it does not seem likely that I will be able to finish.
It is highly likely that this Blog will turn into a more run-off-the-mill "What happened to me on the way to the busstop" kind of thing, but I'll try to keep it as game-centered as possible. Of course this does in no way mean I'll stop playing games (HELLO!? I'm going to JAPAN!), it's just that instead of reviewing old games noone's ever played, I'll be able to review the hottest newest games, fresh off the shelves, that you'll probably NEVER get to see over here, so even my lovely readers will benefit.
I also plan to buy a Playstation 3 as soon as it is released and then make a video of me throwing it off a skyscraper, just for laughs. Damn Sony.
I'll try to maintain the same low quality you're used to, and you can be sure I will be insulting you all at a regular basis, only from a safer distance. Good.
Here's to the future!
Rockman X5
Man, there sure are a lot of Megaman games out there.
Fortunately for YOU, though, they aren't exactly getting any better, so you can actually skip playing a lot of them.
After 4 fantastic Megaman X games, varying from "just really good" to "really great" Capcom decided that the series needed a change, mainly because EVERYTIME they released a new game, everyone was going "Oh look, it's Capcom and their if-it-aint-broke-dont-fix-it routine!", "Oh,
another Megaman game, great.", "Isn't this the same as the last one" and "Why are these new Sonic games so crappy?"
To respond to almost all of these regularly returning allegations, Capcom DID decide to change some things for their new Megaman X game, and you know what?
It's not nearly as good as the old ones anymore.
See!?
THAT IS WHAT YOU GET FOR BEING A WHINY ASSHOLE.
(this last remark directed at every "official" game reviewer out there)
The way it was, we just got great games, that maybe didn't change very much, but at least that meant they were consistent in high quality. But because the industry wants Capcom to change, we get crappy new games like X5.
Thanks, IGN!
Well, to be honest, it's not really that bad at all, actually.
It's a fact that it's not nearly as good as any of the first four, but it still has some shards of that good old Megaman Action flying around here and there.
The story is that there is this Big Space Colony called Eurasia which is on a crash course with planet Earth and X and Zero need to retrieve parts to create a big Cannon to blast it out of the sky. Of course, these parts are kept by 8 bosses, who are all infected with the Sigma Virus, so they're not about to let go of them without a fight. It's not a very interesting story, but the coolness of the Megaman X storyline lies not in each separate game's story, but in the revelations regarding the characters themselves. Megaman X4 already revealed a shocking secret about Zero, which is further expanded upon in this game, and the game even ends on a rather sad note, which the series had actually been building up to from the beginning.
So the story is cool and makes sense, which makes it all the more painful that 3 more sequels have been made afterwards. But that's Capcom for you.
Anyway, they tried to change the formula a bit this time, and I'm not even talking about the addition of a crouching feature or whatever, nothing wrong with that. But there are just some really stupid decisions:
A) The game has a time limit. You have to finish it in 16 "hours", which boils down to trying stages 16 times. Admittedly, this limit goes away once the 8 bosses have been dealt with, but it shouldn't have been there anyway.
B) You start with full armor. Normally you start with Regular X and you have to find enough parts to form your new armor, but in X5 you get a full armor from the start, which makes regular X totally useless. There are two new armors to find, meaning 8 separate parts, but you have to find 4 parts before the armor can be completed.
Part of the fun of the original games was that you could immediately equip whatever new part you found, and the new system is just too cumbersome.
C) Bosses have levels! This is REALLY idiotic! Did someone come forward and say "Platform games need to be more like RPGs!"!? I mean, What the Fuck, Barbeque!?
On the one hand this means that, as you grow stronger, they do too, and they learn new skills, which is fine and all, but they will also get more health, resulting in Level 96 Bosses at the end of the game with HUGE energy gauges going twice across the screen and coming out of your TV set, making battles longer, harder and more boring. Nice one.
D) Ayla! Ayla is your friendly helpful guide who gives you information about oncoming dangers and enemies WHETHER YOU GODDAMN WANT IT OR NOT! SUXXOR!
Shit, that's annoying. It's
extremely nice to be speeding along a level when all of a sudden you come to an abrupt stop because Ayla feels the need to tell you that she's having a bad hair day. You're a friggin' ROBOT, woman! In fact, you're not REALLY a woman AT ALL, although you certainly have that whining aspect down like a charm. I guess even Robots have genes then.
E) You get full control of X AND Zero at any time you want. This may sound nice, but it's not so convenient if you realize that there is only a limited amount of health upgrades, and you need every one you can get, meaning you can only give them to ONE guy at the same time. There's no use switching back to Zero when Z is all powered up, cos he doesn't stand a chance. X4's system of each guy having his own separate route through the game was much, MUCH better.
F) SLOWDOWN! OHMYGOD! Well, to be fair, it doesn't actually happen in 90 percent of the stages, but when it happens (in Dark Necrobat's Stage) it HAPPENS. Try to make a dashing jump and you can make a cup of coffee in the meanwhile. FOR AN ENTIRE COUNTRY. Come on, Capcom, this shouldn't have been necessary.
On the other hand, it has some good stuff as well, which are more innate to the series than to this game, but at least they're there:
A) Good, Solid Action.
B) AWESOME Soundtrack. Really. X5 is one of the best in the series, and that is saying a WHOLE lot. One of the best Playstation soundtracks PERIOD.
C) Some nice secrets and lots of hidden stuff.
This is the main reason I'm not scoring it
that low. Although by Megaman X standards it's not very good, it's still a solid action game. It just fell in with the wrong crowd. Poor little guy. I'm grudgingly bestowing a nice 8- on this game, but that's me being nice. Now don't let me catch you doing that again! (*Sigh*, everyone knows what's coming up next....)
Rockman X2: Soul Eraser
Do you remember what I wrote about Capcom in my previous post?
If not, it's only a couple of centimeters below, so go and check it.
I'll wait here.
There, got it?
Now forget it, because Capcom SUCKS.
And blows.
That is to say, when it comes to making new innovative games, and even breathing life into their old series, they pretty much rule. But when it comes to squeezing every little bit of life/money out of a popular franchise, well, they pretty much rule the roost too, but that basically means that they SUCK.
The Megaman X games are great in general, until X5 which sucked tremendously, as did X6 and I don't even want to talk about X7 because it gives me convulsions. I still have to play X8, but I've heard it's a lot better and actually, in fact,
good.
Capcom realises this so they try to rerelease and remake the CRAP out of the old games, because they know they can't make a decent new one anymore. This has recently led to Maverick Hunter X on PSP, which is supposedly nice, but they fucked up the soundtrack pretty bad, and to the Megaman X Collection on GC and PS2, which everyone was excited about until it turned out to SUCK just as much as the abysmal Megaman Anniversary Collection, only with better emulation.
The problem was though that there were NO extra's, despite the fact that fans were promised a whole bunch. No remixed soundtracks, no redubbed voice tracks, NOTHING.
Just some artwork and some crappy original songs. Bleh.
With that in mind, let me take you back to the year 2001, when Capcom decided to release 2 Megaman X games on Gameboy Color. They were called Megaman Xtreme 1&2 in the West (that name alone should get someone fired), in Japan they were called Rockman X Cyber Mission & Soul Eraser. I never played the first one, but when I saw Soul Eraser for a very reasonably price in a second-hand shop, I thought, why not?
Well, the answer is: because it will give you a migraine, that's why. And it will make you impotent. And it will steal your job and your house.
Still, I guess I should've known better than to expect that a series that became popular on the SuperNES with detailed colorful sprites, great animation, kick-ass music and big bosses could ever turn out decent on a Gameboy Color.
And you know what? IT DOESN'T!
Although I'll admit the graphics were better than I expected, and not even that bad, everything else just sucks. They took 8 bosses from Megaman X1 - X3, but they:
A) Messed up the music. I mean, of course it would lose in quality, going back from 16-bit SuperNES to 8-bit sub-NES quality, but they actually managed to mess it up in other ways. It uses the same themes from the respective games, but some portions of each theme have just been cut out, presumably to save some storage space or something. Also, they mixed up Launch Octopus's theme with Flame Mammoth, which is just idiotic.
B) Messed up the stages. The GBC has a very small screen, meaning you won't see very much on one screen at one time. In honesty, the game manages to maintain a very decent speed throughout, not notably losing out to the SNES counterparts, but to do this, they make sure you can never see much of what is happening around you. Scrolling happens too late, meaning you'll often run into enemies or harmful objects that you simply couldn't see, or that you'll have to rely on blind jumps, which is just moronic.
Also, some stages have exactly the same layout as the SNES versions, which is cheap, and others are completely new, but totally boring. Stupid.
C) Messed up the fun. It's just no fun at all to play anymore. NO FUN AT ALL.
Really. Let's face it, they're making these games to make some extra money out of the franchise, meaning they are either aiming at people who don't have a SuperNES and want to play these games anyway, or they're aiming at die-hard fans, who'll play anything Megaman related. *raises hand*
If you're in category 1, you'll get a severely downsized and compromised sucky version which is crap. Instead of paying 30 bucks for this GBC cartridge, pay 800 bucks to get a decent computer with an Internet connection, and download a SuperNES emulator with all 3 Megaman X ROMs. Or, perhaps a slightly less costly alternative, sell your stupid GBC and get a SuperNES with the 3 original games, although they're rather hard to get nowadays. So best option: get a GC or PS2 and get the Megaman X Collection for 29.95. Easy as pie.
If you're in category 2, you'll get a severely downsized and compromised sucky version of those fantastic games you loved so much, which is crap. Instead of paying 30 bucks for this GBC cartridge, pay 50 bucks to get yourself laid. The fun'll last longer, and there's a considerable SMALLER chance of getting a venereal disease.
Avoid like the plague. A lousy scrawny 4 for this game.
Bad Capcom!
Killer 7
I think I've uttered this statement before, but in any case it should be obvious from all of my previous post, as well as the
list I've put up on IGN, I friggin' LOVE Capcom.
Whenever they're not making incredible quality titles like Megaman, or Resident Evil, they're trying something new and unexplored, if not gameplaywise, then at least style-wise.
First there was Viewtiful Joe, which introduced American Comic Book style graphics to a great side-scrolling beat-em-up with Slow-motion, Fast Forward and Lord knows what else. This year will hopefully bring Okami, an awesome looking RPG based on Japanese mythology, starring the Goddess Amaterasu in the shape of a Wolf.
To fill in the Cell-shaded gap between these two titles Capcom gave us Killer 7 to ponder over. And it's.....well.....
different.
The story is that there's this gang of Assassins called the Killer 7, who are hired by the American Government to dispose of liabilities, ie terrorists. The story behind the Killer 7 is that there's this one dude, Harman Smith, an old guy in a wheelchair carrying a HUGE FRIGGIN' Sniper Rifle, who has 6 split personalities, which have all been made flesh somehow.
It is up to you to take out several terrorists and other dangerous people, making use of each persona's skills and abilities. The terrorists come mainly in the shape of the Heaven Smile, a big bunch of VERY strange creatures who cackly maniacally when you get near them and then try to get close enough to you to commit a suicide bombing.
Sounds weird? This is only the tip of the proverbial Iceberg, my friend.
At your disposal are 7 other Smiths. First there's Garcian Smith, he acts as the middle man between Harman and the other personae. He's also the one people contact for assignments.
You'll get to spend most time with the other 6 persona's though:
Dan Smith, aka the Hellion, good all-round shooter with Energy Shot ability to dispose of stronger enemies.
KAEDE Smith (the capitals are intentional, apparently. An Onimusha reference, perhaps?), aka The Barefoot, who's good at sniping and...er....uncovering hidden areas by spraying them with the blood from her wrists (just to be sure, I'm not making ANYTHING up for this post).
Kevin Smith, who uses knives instead of a gun, meaning he doesn't have to reload, and he can make himself invisible, which is considerably less impressive.
Coyote Smith, aka The Thief, who is a Master Of Unlocking (Damn you, Barry!), and can jump on top of high walls.
Con Smith, who's blind and therefore possesses great hearing ability, which is used exactly 2 times in the entire game, and he can fit through small openings, which is used a bit more. Also, he can run very fast.
And last but not least, Mask De Smith, a Mexican Pro Wrestler, complete with gaudy uniform, and two shotguns, meaning he can pierce through armor, and break walls. He can also smash or move heavy objects.
You can change between these characters on the fly in the menu screen, and you'll have to use most of them very often.
Now, as if the above wasn't already indicative enough, I will restate here that this game is WEIRD. In a
good way.
This is seriously one of the most bizarre, disturbing, unique and violently original games I've ever played in every single concept.
Presentation is absolutely awesome. The comic book style graphics and basic color pallette more than once reminded me of Sin City, which is a big complement. Basically, this game is Sin City in Cell-shaded 3D, although it has more color.
The pictures I've shown here are mostly dark which might give you the wrong impression, because there's a surprising amount of outdoor colorful environments, which are actually pretty relaxing, and not scary or disturbing at all.
Which is good, because the environments are pretty unique, not like what you'd come to expect from video games at all (except for the odd school or office building or so), but there's a couple of unusual surroundings in here, which all look really really good.
Make no mistake though, this is not survival horror, and scaring you is not what this game is trying to accomplish, it's just seriously bizarre. It wants to surprise you and perhaps disturb you, It wants you to experience a game unlike anything else, and it manages to do this almost perfectly.
AlmostYou see, for all its amazing presentation and disturbing events and dialogues, the gameplay is rather tame and quite commonplace. Basically, there's shooting, and there's puzzle solving, making this not much different from your average Resident Evil, only more linear, and with slightly better puzzles.
The R button readies your weapon, and switches the screen to First Person mode, from where you have to shoot the baddies. Make sure you make them visible first, by scanning the area with the L button. Heaven Smile are usually invisible, but they will alert you of their presence by cackling eerily, which is your sign to grab out your guns and start shooting. Killing a monster will earn you a certain amount of blood, which in turn can be used to level up the personae, use special weapons or heal your wounds. Hit monsters in key places to earn more blood (or to be able to kill them in the first place) and you've got yourself a decent fighting system.
The most unusual thing about the gameplay is that you are walking on rails the entire time. Of course you can't actually see them, but you do not have free movement nevertheless. Pressing A will have your character move forward, B will turn him/her around. As soon as you get to a fork in the road, the screen will divide into the possible directions, and you have to use the 3D stick to choose where you want to go. This all goes really quickly though, so it never gets annoying.
In fact, I really enjoyed this system, since it is not very taxing on the reflexes, and you don't need to be a Joystick Wizard to maneuver your character around.
The extreme linearity of this system is what this game has been criticized for most, but I wasn't bothered by it at all, on the contrary.
No, my main problem lies in the map system. You get an instant map anywhere you go, you don't need to find it or pick it up, you're equipped with it from the start, which is fine, but it's rather unbalanced.
It shows you which room you are in, but, and this was my main gripe, it doesn't show WHERE you are. No red dot or arrow to indicate your position, just a (big) room glowing yellow. This means that, when you get to a junction, and you want to make an informed decision on where you want to go, you need to infer from the architecture of the room where you are, which can be a PAIN. You will probably take a lot of wrong turns before you get to the end, but, like I said, the walking system is very speedy, so it never becomes really annoying, but it's something I would've liked to see differently.
The other major problem with the map is that, although it doesn't tell you where you are, it tells you exactly where you have to use which Smith, and where you have to use which item. The location of all key items is shown on the map, and often a little symbol indicates what or whom you need to use to get it, in effect rendering about 80% of all the puzzles in this game COMPLETELY obsolete.
It's like Capcom said: "Well, we WANT to put puzzles in this game, cos there's very little else to do, but we don't actually want the punters to THINK, cos that'll scare them off, so we'd better give them all the solutions in advance."
Furthermore, information that can be acquired from NPC's is usually painfully obvious, the only hard puzzles are those whose answers can be obtained from Yoon Hyun (another freaky character), since you have to pay blood to get the answers from him, meaning you might consider solving them yourself first.
It seems therefore that the sole reason of existence of this game is to freak you out and impress you with its magnificent style and presentation, and admittedly it scores very well on these fronts. If gameplay had been a bit more balanced and, frankly, less simple and straightforward, this game could've scored very close to a 10, but it seems Killer 7 favores style and visuals over content.
The story is complicated, but eventually leads to a couple of plottwists that most serious game-players or movie-goers will be familiar with by now, since it's been done to death. I can't say I was surprised in the least, which was a shame, cos the entire game you feel like you're working up to something really cool, only to get a rather predictable twist at the end.
So that's it then, as a game it offers simple fun with little to no replay value, but as a piece of modern media it offers style, adult content and brilliant originality that'll just blow your socks off. Anyone with a taste for out-of-the-ordinary visuals, and anyone who can enjoy something completely different should DEFINITELY try this out, cos it doesn't get much better than this (well, I still vastly prefer Silent Hill myself actually, but this is too different to even compare).
Anyone who's looking for a great game might want to try and rent this first.
I give it a 9-.
Rockman Mega World
Wow!
Capcom sure has rereleased the heck out of their old Megaman games, and if it's up to them, they'll never stop! And you know what? I'm stupid enough to keep buying the same games over and over again! Yay for commercial whorism!
First there was Rockman Mega World, known as Mega Man The Wily Wars outside of Japan, then there were the rereleases on PSX, the Megaman Anniversary Collection, probably some versions I don't know of, and the near future holds Mega Man Powered Up, aptly titled Rockman Rockman (who the HELL came up with that, and why isn't he dead yet?) in Japan, a complete makeover for the PSP, looking a little something like this:
I'm not into the PSP AT ALL, and these updated graphics are definitely not a direction I want to see the Mega Man series going in, but when I read this game is going to have 2 extra bosses AND a level design mode, where you can apparently even exchange your own levels with friends through WiFi, I am once again becoming the sad consumer whore that I am, and I'm almost seriously contemplating getting one of Sony's sickening handhelds. Especially if they're going to do this for later Mega Mans as well.
Anyhoo, back to Rockman Mega World, which is more a Remake than a Rerelease as well.
Originally designed to introduce Mega Man on Genesis/Megadrive to the Sega Audience, this game contains "updated" versions of Mega Man 1, 2 and 3. The fact that it now plays on a 16-bit console (of sorts) means improved graphics, improved sound (well, the synth is slightly better, but none of the arrangements are as good as the originals), and you now get to play with the patented Atrocious Genesis Controller!You know, the one with the crappy ROUND directional pad (at least that's not as bad as the SQUARE directional pad from the Master System, where pressing right meant you were pressing up and down as well), and a whopping 3 ACTION BUTTONS! Wow! Please hold me, because I think I'm going to faint!
On the other hand, this being NES games, you only need 2 buttons anyway, and the third is used as an alternative menu button. Button layout on the Genesis controller is not quite as comfortable as on the NES control pad, though, although I didn't have any real trouble with it.
What I DID have trouble with are the tremendous changes in the "integrity" of the games. A good remake shouldn't change anything but Graphics and Music, and perhaps add some extra's. And this game DOES deliver in that respect. Graphics and Music are improved (although the music is really debatable, and why is it not in Stereo!?), and you get 7 extra stages, exclusive to this game.
The major mistake here is that they changed how the games work. First of all, Mega Man controls EXACTLY the same in all 3 games (with the exception of the slide added in Megaman 3), whereas the original NES games had some clear differences in control.
Although this shouldn't necessarily be a bad thing (the original Mega Man controlled like CRAP), the default they chose isn't very good.
You usually need to press the controller a little longer to start walking properly, which makes forward jumping in tight spots very awkward, and I also had the impression that Mega Man's weapon is slower than it should be.
To compensate for this, enemies are much MUCH faster, and for some reason the levels seem like they were slightly compressed. That is to say, it looks like they took the old screens and compressed them a little so that slightly more would appear on screen at one time, meaning in effect, that there are moments where you are assaulted by many enemies at once, whereas in the originals, they would neatly wait until you'd moved on far enough to trigger their appearance.
And you know what that means? SLOWDOWN! YAY!
The weird thing is that this game even suffers slowdown in the one-screen areas, where the NES NEVER did. EXPLAIN THAT TO ME, SEGA!
Also, either Mega Man jumps higher, or the levels have been compressed from the top and bottom as well. You can now make some jumps that you never could in the original, or where you needed Rush's help.
In other words, in some parts, these games are easier than the originals, and in others, they're much harder.
Still, only a fan would notice that. If you consider what this game was supposed to be, ie. the introduction of Mega Man to a Sega audience, noone is going to know, right? After all, you ARE getting 2 of the best NES games EVER, and....er.....Mega Man 1, plus extra bosses and levels, where enemies and design from these 3 Mega Man games are combined, which is actually pretty cool, especially since you can take 8 weapons of your choice from ALL 3 Mega Mans with you to tackle the new Bosses, which just rules.
Only true fans are going to know Capcom kind of raped the games, but if you're a real fan, you should just shut up and enjoy all the extra cool bits, which is what I did. As a value pack, it's superb, 2 great games and one not so great but made slightly better because of improved controls (they messed up the Cut Boomerang though!) on one Genesis Cartridge and extra levels make one happy Ingen, so I give this a 9. It could have been a 10 if they hadn't fucked up the controls and the speed. Still a great buy for any Mega Man fan or Genesis owner, if you can find it, cause it's rather LIMITED apparently. Now give me a PS2 remake already!
Rockman & Forte
You know what? Before starting this long line of Rockman games in my Project, I used to think, like many other Rockman fans: "Capcom should pick up the regular Rockman series again and make a real Rockman 9 or sumthin", but now that I've replayed Rockman & Forte, I'm not so sure anymore.
Let's face it, what with the rather dreary Rockman 8, and now this game, the series has really gone to the dogs, and I fully understand if Capcom doesn't want to bother anymore. They're probably afraid of what they'll do next.
In fact, I dare say that even this game was a bit of a gamble, since there's one thing about it that doesn't really make sense. Rockman 8 was released on PSX and Saturn with the cutscenes and the theme songs and the colorful graphics, but THEN Capcom decided to perhaps give one last nod to their Old Fans and release the sequel Rockman & Forte, on SNES again! WTF YO!? That doesn't make any kind of marketing sense whatsoever, unless they wanted to keep it cheap and see how much money they could still make with it.
I was impressed to see that the sprites have lost nothing in quality with this big step backwards. ALL enemies in this game, apart from 6 of the 8 bosses, were taken directly from Megaman 8 and they look exactly the same on SNES.
Backgrounds are a bit less detailed and colorful though, there have to be concessions somewhere. Music isn't that much worse either, but that's because Rockman 8, even on CD, sucked quite large balls.
The point of this game is that this time Megaman's not-so-eternal rival Forte/Bass is also playable. Forte controls distinctly differently from Megaman, and he has his own weak points and Fortes (I'm going to run this pun into the ground. INTO THE GROUND I TELL YOU!). He has a double jump and a buster that can shoot in 8 directions, whereas Megaman has his charge shot and a Slide to get through narrow Hallways. There is good balance between the two, and it is kinda cool to be able to play with Forte, but the problem is that the game itself is just not good.
It's a terrible cash-in, obviously, with all these re-used sprites and bosses, and it's bloody annoying and frustrating as HELL. For added replay value, the game has 100 Data CD's hidden across the stages. Each CD contains information on previous Megaman Bosses and characters, which can be viewed in the Data Screen or whatever it's called. It's a nice idea, but for fans only, and some CD's are extremely hard to get, not to mention those that are invisible and buried at places where noone would EVER think to look.
The story, as if it matters, is that there's this robot called King, who's started to go on a rampage against the Human Race because he thinks there's no need to live in peace with Humans, so he's rebelled against basically EVERYONE, and now Dr. Tomas Light and Dr. Wily have joined forces (through Megaman and Forte of course, don't expect these old geezers to ever do anything) although only an idiot would think that Dr. Wily was NOT behind it after all this time.
It's a completely unnecessary addition to the series, one made ONLY for fans, since it has many many references to older Megaman games, but even fans will have a hard time liking this one, because it's just NO fun.
It's a very nasty tone to end the Megaman Series on, but at least it doesn't leave me wanting more. Great job, Capcom. A 6 for you.
In more interesting news, I have expanded my collection once again!
Never mind the fact that I have a back-log as big as my Ego (big), as a True Gamer, you just keep buying and buying games. AND BUYING.
I'm no idiot though (never mind what the doctor's say), so I only buy games that are cheap, usualy below the 30 dollar/Euro or 3000 Yen barrier, which has today left me with: Killer 7.
After reading rather a lot of negative reviews from Gamesite, but basically having people who DO know what they're talking about telling me it's actually really good has caused me to buy it anyway.
The store clerk told me I was more than likely going to loose sleep over this game (in a positive way) so that's promising. And I already LOVE the visual style, so who knows what will come of this. More on this soon!
Rockman 8
And the downward Spiral begins!
Actually, it's not so much a Spiral as it is a straight line plummeting to unknown depths. As if the Number 8 wasn't already an indication that this series was running a bit too long, then let it be the fact that the game kinda sucks.
For Megaman 8, the series took its first steps into the realm of 32 bits (wow!), as it was released on PSX AND Saturn (wow!), and to show off its newly acquired Powers, the Megaman series for the first time sported Anime Cutscenes (wow!)
And to be honest, they're not bad at all. Although they look rather dated by today's standards, they're really very decent, and they almost succeed at covering up the fact that Rockman games usually have crappy stories.
Of course Dr. Wily is involved again. I don't really know what happened at the end of Megaman 7, all we got to see was a burning building, but apparently, Dr. Wily has managed to escape unscathed and even more eager to conquer Earth than usual.
This time, there's an Evil Alien Energy which has made its way to Planet Earth, and Dr. Wily plans to use it for his own evil causes, and Megaman has to stop him.
Of course, Forte will be there to stand in his way, but he will get help from his "brother" Blues, and newcomer Duo, a mysterious robot who seems to know a lot about this strange Alien Energy stuff. So all the characters are here, there's 8 new bosses, Rush is back, Beat is back, it's like they were never gone before and as if you're playing the same game you were playing years ago, only not quite as good.
You see, for some reason, it just fails to get interesting. It's a bit boring.
Levels are bigger, there's plenty of hidden Bolts (enemies don't drop bolts anymore; there is now a finite number of very well hidden bolts, which is actually a slight improvement), but the level design is just not interesting. Music has reached an all-time low for the series, which is a disgrace, and its more childish than ever.
And let me say this: If you're going to play it, get the Japanese version. The voice acting is MUCH better (why does Dr. Light sound like Elmer Fudd in the English version!?), and there's actually more voice samples in the game as well.
In fact, if money is not an issue, try and find the Japanese Saturn version, since the Saturn version is MUCH improved, with extra boss battles and some Artwork.
Good luck finding it, though.
For the PSX version, which I played, a 7- seems enough. Only Die Hard fans need apply.
Rockman 7
I'd thought this would be more fun, but it isn't.
And this is actually one of the better ones, it's just that I think there's a good reason they stopped making games in the regular Megaman Series, and started concentrating on Megaman X and the other series.
Having finished the entire regular series at this moment, I can say this is the last game that was actually good, and you don't really need to bother any further.
Rockman 7 starts exactly where Rockman 6 left off. Dr. Wily is imprisoned by Megaman and the world seems to have returned to peace and quiet. Little does everyone realise that hidden in some secret laboratory somewhere, 4 of Wily's Robots lie dormant, waiting for their Master's distress signal in order to activate and start rampaging around the city.
And this is of course exactly what happens. Within hours the City is in total ruin, and Wily manages to escape from prison and start wreaking havoc once again, as if NOTHING ever happened in the previous 6 games.
You'd think a Scientist would learn a little bit faster, wouldn't you?
This was the first step to a new Console. After 6 games on NES, this was the first in the regular series to go to 16 bits, and it shows. A little bit.
Graphics are cute and colorful, which is a shrill contrast to the darker pallette of the old Nintendo Entertainment System. Although presumably the NES games were aimed at young gamers as well, the colors of the NES were too dark to give anything a real "kiddy" feel, but suffice to say, there IS a generous amount of pink in this game. WHICH IS NOT GOOD.
Also, the music, although great in composition and definitely one of the better melodic Megaman Soundtracks, uses synth that's VERY sugary and actually gave me multiple cavities IN MY EARS. Deliberate or not, the old dark atmosphere of the NES games was much MUCH better.
Bigger storage space, though, not only means better graphics and "better" synth; it also means Bigger Stages and more to do. Although there aren't MORE stages, in pure terms of absolute numbers, than in, say, Megaman 3 - 6, they ARE definitely longer.
Gameplay-wise, Rush Jet is back, this time accompanied by Rush Searh, which will allow you to find hidden objects, buried in the ground. Rush Power also makes it's return to form Super Rockman, which is basically a combination of the two forms present in Rockman 6, only a bit more balanced this time.
This game also introduces the Bolt System, where enemies will drop bolts which can later be used at a shop to buy upgrades and items.
All upgrades can be found hidden in the stages as well though, if you know where to look, so you don't actually need this system, but it's nice anyway, if you need some extra lives or Energy Tanks or whatnot.
Also making his first appearance is Forte, known as Bass in the West, and his trusty sidekick Gospel, aka Treble (gotta love all those Music references). Although initially someone who seems to be on your side, he becomes increasingly self-centered throughout the series until he even became one of the most evil characters in the Rockman universe (in the Battle Network series), so I don't quite know what happened there.
He's nothing but a persistent mid-boss in this game though, not much more than a simple gimmick.
Megaman 7 is also the first in the series to start with 4 Bosses, rather than the usual 8, right at the beginning. I don't know why they chose to change the regular series into something more like the Gameboy series, which were always rather simple in that respect, but logic has never been Capcom's Forte (dur hur hur).
This means only 4 bosses are available at the start, which also means it's much easier to figure out their weakspots, and also that you just don't get a lot of choice at the beginning.
I have to admit though, that for Megaman (and maybe even Capcom in general) fans, this is one of the better games, because there are numerous references to other Megaman games. There are cameo's of old bosses, some familiar music and even some bits of old stages were included in full color for nostalgia.
There's also some nice secrets, including a short battle mode, a hidden piece of "armor", a great homage to the Ghouls and Ghosts series and there's a fucking annoying final boss. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT!?
Diazepam, perhaps, but you're not getting any in this game.
What you ARE getting is an 8+, which isn't bad at all actually.
Get this as a final goodbye for the series, and just ignore the 2 sequels, which unfortunately, I can't. D'oh!
Rockman 6
SHORTEST POSSIBLE ULTRA MINI REVIEW EVER!
I'm kinda running behind on my update schedule, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna write two reviews on one day. I don't love you
that much.
So, Rockman 6 then. "What's the story!?" is of course the most burning question on everyone's minds right now. Well, this time the Mysterious Mr. X (very original, Capcom!) has organised some kind of Robot Tournament or something, and I'm sure there's some kind of World Domination involved here somewhere.
Strangely, Mr. X looks VERY similar to a certain Evil Doctor we've seen a couple of times before, and I don't think I'm spoiling anything by telling you this IS in fact, the infamous Dr. Wily, in a fantastic plot-twist that shook the earth back in, oh, 1745. Very Original x2, Capcom.
The most notable changes this time are that Rush is now not longer a separate device to help you reach difficult places, but this time he actualles merges with Megaman to create 2 special kinds of Armor: Rush Jet and Rush Power.
Rush Jet allows Megaman to float after jumping, and Rush Power allows for more powerful attacks, and breaking some blocks and shit.
Unfortunately, although Rush Power has very limited range, he's FAR too strong, making the majority of the game FAR too easy.
On the upside, the new Armors are used to gain access to extra/alternative areas. 4 of the Boss stages have alternate exits, and finding the hidden one will result in getting some extra items (ie. BEAT. Yay.). This IS a nice addition though making the game more interesting and giving it slightly more replay value than Megaman 5, and of course, it's still great shooting fun, like any Megaman title.
Also, if you're playing the PSX rerelease, the arranged music is some of the best in the series, and it doesn't even look bad for an NES game. Not bad at all.
A nice round 8, because I always tend to hugely overscore Megaman Games.
YOU GOTTA PROBLEM WITH THAT!?
Rockman 5
EVEN SHORTER ULTRA MINI REVIEW!
What is it with the Megaman series and the fifth installment generally sucking?
The regular series started the trend, the X-series continued it, as did the Battle Network series, but let's hope the Zero series will be the sole exception.
Perhaps it's because, after 4 prequels, there isn't a whole lot of new stuff you can do anymore, and even fans will be tired of the same gameplay they've witnessed four times already.
What you'd need is a real tour-de-force, Resident Evil 4 stylee, taking the series into a completely different direction. This never happened to the Megaman series, although you might call Megaman X the refreshment the regular series so desperately required.
I mean, think of it, how many game series do you know that have SIX (6!) separate installments on ONE (1!) console!? The NES got 6 bloody Megaman Games back in the day, which is insane. Not even Final Fantasy or Mario reaches that kind of numbers.
The worst thing is that hardly anything has changed for Megaman 5.
Whereas the previous 4 games all introduced something new into the series, Megaman 5 seems fresh out of ideas. The only notable difference is that Megaman's charged Rockbuster is now a bit beefier, and has taken its final shape, looking like it was going to look for the rest of the entire series.
And that's ALL.
Well, there is BEAT. BEAT is a small blue robot bird that you can call for aid in dire times. It will automatically start attacking enemies, no matter where they are, so that's useful. It surely makes the final boss a COMPLETE push-over, so that's stupid too.
BEAT is not nearly enough to make this game interesting enough to stand on its own though. Also, they've given Rush Coil an overhaul, and it's basically a lot more annoying to use now.
Add to that the fact that there's some trial-and-error bits in here, which is NEVER good in a video game, and it features THE most annoying enemy in the entire series, that Tiger thingy, and you've got yourself a pretty unnecessary game on your hands.
Also, the bosses are dull. The Wily Numbers seem duller than they once were, but most notably the castle bosses are stupid.
One of the great things about Megaman 4 was the HUGE bosses you would get in Dr. Cossack and Dr. Wily's Castles. This time round, the game lets you think that Megaman's Brother of Sorts, Protoman aka Blues, has gone haywire and wants to destroy the world or some such thing, but of course Wily will turn out to be behind it, shock and horror, I never saw that coming, What's This World Coming To, etc. etc.
Anyhow, the bosses in Protoman's Castle totally SUCK. They're small simple robots with nothing cool or special about them, and they're totally boring. Yuck.
Also, the music is rather uninspired and very lacklustre, especially when compared to 2, 3 and 4 which all had amazing soundtracks.
And ruining a Megaman soundtrack is simply something that can not be tolerated.
That said, it still is a quality action title, of sorts. Megaman's base value is still way above 90% of the competition, as it always has been. It's just that this particular game is not very good when compaired to the rest of the series.
I give it a 7 for trying, but please don't do this again Capcom.
At least, not until Rockman 6... :(
On a side note, I finally finished Kingdom Hearts 2 yesterday (yay!). The final boss fight was spectacular, as expected, and it's another fantastic game overall, so expect a very nice (exclusive!) review soon.
Now I've started work on Grandia III, which I recently acquired (thanks again, Drs. Summahhouse!) and which should last me a couple of weeks as well probably.
Nice!
Rockman 4
Super Ultra Mini Review!
The great thing about Megaman games is that they NEVER change, so if you've reviewed one, you've reviewed them all! Very little words are necessary here, you just need to EXPERIENCE this truely MAJESTIC piece of Video Gaming because IT RULES, almost as much as I do.
This time, not Dr. Wily but the Evil Russian Dr. Cossack is threatening World Piece, and it is up to Megaman to save everything and everyone. Why Megaman and not someone else? BECAUSE THIS IS MEGAMAN 4!
Otherwise, they would've called it Someone Else 4, or Tanin 4 in Japan, but fortunately the majority of the threatened world is a little bit less dense than good old Rock, so anyone with even half a brain already knows that Wily is actually behind it AGAIN.
To flog a dead horse, there are 9 games in the regular Megaman series, and they ALL have Wily as the final boss, so don't get fooled by any other kind of story. The same goes for the X series and Sigma by the way. Only the Battle Network series has different Badguys occasionally.
The only new thing this time is the fact that there are two Castles at the end (Dr. Cossack's and Dr. Wily's), which would prove to be a short-lived fad, but most importantly the addition of a chargeable Rockbuster. It would change shape in later installments, but Megaman finally takes his complete form in this game. Later games add very little new, and this is by all means the game that set the mood for the rest of the series.
Rush is back too, and there are even an additional 2 secret Power Adaptors, and that's about all. This game is one of the absolute highlights of the series when it comes to the music though. It represented some of the finest audio the NES was ever able to pull off.
I'm playing the PSX rereleases for these games, which were only released in Japan if I'm not mistaken. These versions were used for the abysmal Megaman Anniversary Collection, in a HEAVILY compressed, compromised and downsized form, even on PS2.
These PSX "originals" have clearer picture, STEREO sound (for the arranged music, which is great), unlockable artwork, time attacks, sound tests and some more cool stuff.
Owning these games may cost you more money than buying the Collection, but you do get INFINITELY better quality, so true Megaman fans will vastly prefer this over Atomic Planet's disgraceful attempt at making money out of this famous franchise.
I just hope Capcom is going to do a better job at that Megaman X collection.
I'm going to give this a 9.5 as well, since this is one of my absolute favorites, but I promise this is the last one ;)
Rockman 3
As if the recent amount of visitors to my site hasn't been stagnating enough, today marks the first day of a long LONG range of Rockman games, so it's FANBOY TIME, for good old (and handsome) INGEN!
First in line is the wonderful Rockman 3, released AEONS ago on a little known system called the NES, or Famicon, by an even lesser known company called Capcom, who are to this day presenting us The Universe.
Rockman, in case you didn't know, and you couldn't tell by the obvious picture below, is the Japanese name for what we in the West have come to know as Megaman aka the Blue Bomber, or The Blue God of Games That Are Cool.
This is only the third installment in a LONG series that has spanned 9 chapters so far, and that does not include all other Megaman series, because counting those would mean I had to be here ALL NIGHT.
Back in the days of Megaman 3 however, these games were still really REALLY good, and actually represented some of the most advanced high-quality video games of that era. As such, Rockman 3 is one of those games you simply HAD to play, as most people have, because it rules. For Megaman fans, this is a given, but even a great number of casual gamers of that age have played this, since this actually REALLY was one of the best games of its time. Most people agree that Megaman 2 and 3 were the highlights of the series, it's just that they can't actually agree on which of the two is the better one.
Well, if you ask me, and by reading this, you ARE, Rockman 3 is better than Rockman 2. More levels, bigger levels, better difficulty (although still way too easy), arguably even better music (although both are fantastic) and better graphics, as far as that means anything on an NES.
New for this game are the Slide, allowing Megaman to get out of or through tight spots, and the introduction of Rush, the Robodog, who functions as a Trampoline, Jet platform or Submarine thingy, to reach those hard-to-get-to places.
There are 8 new Boss Robots, and clearing them out will reveal 8 OLD ones, and of course Wily's Castle with 6 stages, cos this wouldn't be Megaman if Wily wasn't in there.
Like any good NES action game, the story is non-existent, and it takes about an hour to complete, but what is there is fantastic! The action is great, the music is classic, and it just rules. Seriously.
Back in the day, this game was DA BOMB, although nowadays there are CELLPHONE games that look better. Still, no cellphone game to this day has even been this good, and you have to keep in mind that these games should be reviewed according to their respective timezones, and this game was the best in its day.
A 9.5!
Resident Evil 4
More Zombies! Oh, no, wait,
Ganados.
Yeah, right.
After popularizing the Survival Horror Genre with Resident Evil 1 (because noone ever gave a F*ck about Alone in the Dark, because it SUCKS), Capcom realised it was on to something and a new production line of "Squeeze every penny out of the series" items had begun.
Resident Evil 1 was followed by Resident Evil 1: Director's Cut, which offered an arranged mode with different object and enemy placement but was basically the same, since the promised Uncensoring never actually took place. To get people to buy it anyway Capcom included a demo of Resident Evil 2, which would later turn out to be COMPLETELY different from the actual game, and has now become somewhat of a collector's item, because it's LIMITED.
Eventually Resident Evil 2 was released with a totally different look, and it would turn out to be the best game in the series BY FAR. Mainly because Leon was cool.
Some years later they made Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, or Last Escape, or whatever, which was pretty much use- and pointless, and its sole reason of existence seemed to be to blow up Raccoon City, which is an event that most of the sequels keep referring to. Mainly, the game was ruined because of that Big Asshole that kept following you around everywhere, which was more annoying than scary.
THEN came RE: Code Veronica on Dreamcast, which turned the entire series into FULL 3D for the first time EVAHR, but they forgot to actually make it fun or, indeed, change anything about the old formula, so it was arguably the least exciting game in the series.
Then, many moons later, when it looked like the series was all but dead, Capcom came out of nowhere and announced that they had made a contract with Nintendo to make a bunch of exclusive RE games for the Gamecube, one of which was going to be the much talked about Resident Evil 0, which had previously been in the works for N64.
It was canned for N64, very much like Onimusha, which was ALSO supposed to appear on Nintendo's ill-fated machine.
Capcom then went on to remake the original Resident Evil, for Gamecube, and made it look insanely good, using the most advanced technology in animated prerendered backgrounds and adding a whole slew of new stuff to the game, making it effectively one of the best remakes in the history of Video Games (which is unfortunately not saying much).
The remake was then followed by the REAL Resident Evil 0, which looked a little like this:
Which, despite its great graphics, was not very interesting, because it still featured that same old tired gameplay that had been plagueing the entire genre for years now.
Konami took it upon themselves to create Silent Hill and showed that Survival Horror can be truely Goddamn Scary, as long as you employ enough people from the local mental asylum, who are either suicidal, certifiably insane or homicidal maniacs, but preferably all of the above. Yet, they still did not manage to
change anything about the tried and tested kind of gameplay, and therefore never gathered more than a hardcore fanbase, with just slightly better taste than others.
Years later, when it seemed noone was going to bother anymore, Capcom suddenly came out of nothing and introduced Resident Evil 4, starring good ole' Leon Kennedy, certified Bad-Ass. Even in its early stages, which would turn out to be COMPLETELY different from the final game again, Resident Evil 4 looked absolutely stunning, as it was another venture into the realm of full 3D again, and it looked VERY nice.
I recently saw a movie of it showing a very advanced version, which, if anything, looked A LOT more like Silent Hill than Resident Evil, and it looked totally COOL, but it was abandoned anyway.
And later on, the final version would finally be revealed on Gamecube, and the results are, to say the least........
phenomenally good.
Discard EVERYTHING you know about Resident Evil, in fact, FORGET everything I wrote above, because it doesn't apply anymore! The only thing connecting this to the old series is Leon S. Kennedy, now part of some secret organisation, and some other characters who shall remain nameless because they're Ada and Wesker.
That's it.
NO Zombies, NO prerendered nonsense, NO fixed camera angles, NO boredom or annoyance!
You DO still get limited inventory, but it's much more roomy than before.
Leon has an Attache case, which he uses to store items in (bigger ones can be bought), and every case has a set number of squares/grids. Every item takes up a specific amount of space, and you can pretty much decide wherever you want to put it, which is actually so much fun that it almost constitutes an entire mini-game in itself.
Many was the time I obtained some large item, that I didn't actually even really want or need anyway, that would not fit into my case, until I pushed and pulled some items around after which it fit in just snugly! It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, even though it was a huge fish!
Also new is the fact that you can earn money this time. There is a merchant whom you'll regularly run into, who'll sell you weapons and items and upgrade some of your equipment as well. To earn money, you can shoot badguys, or look for hidden treasure lying around. Gems, necklaces, ornaments, there's a veritable multitude of stuff to find, and many of them can even be combined to form an even more precious and valuable artifact.
Most importantly though, the combat is radically different.
First of all, the Zombies are gone, and are replaced by so-called Ganados. Ganados are people who are.....
influenced by a certain something or someone, but they are still real live human beings, meaning they are FAST and they can THINK.
No standing around waiting for a Zombie to shuffle closer this time, but MAD FRANTIC battles for your life as one Ganado leaps at your throat, after another.
The fact that they're smart means that they are also able to wield weapons, ranging from simple knives and pitchforks, to crossbows,
chainsaws and even frickin' ROCKET LAUNCHERS. It ALSO means that they'll come at you from EVERY side.
NOWHERE IS SAFE.
Try and hide on top of a roof? They'll find a ladder and climb up. Or they'll just throw Molotov Cocktails or Dynamite at you of course. Nice.
To help you deal with these freaks, you get a vastly improved shooting system.
The Camera is behind Leon at ALL times, and pressing the R button will ready his weapon and show you a small red laser, indicating what you're shooting at.
This allows for very precise shooting, which is good, because every body part is a hit-zone. Shoot the head and it will explode (don't think that'll make the game easier though. Capcom has a very nasty way of punishing you for that later on), shoot the knees or below to bring them to their feet, shoot their arms to let them drop their weapons etc. Stun them and you can kick them in da face for some free damage! Yay!
This system works fantastically and is huges amounts of fun. The only minor gripe I can think of is that the camera is slightly too close behind you for comfort sometimes, which makes detecting enemies behind you rather difficult, although they're usually not afraid to announce their presence first.
The game looks absolutely gobsmackingly amazing, putting about 98% of current video games ON ALL CONSOLES look like complete and utter crap. Believe it or not, but in many instances it looks better even than the prerendered stuff you got in the remake of RE1. And it's all in full glorious, interactive 3D!
Which brings me to another thing. Interactivity.
Your weapons not only function as killing devices, but also to interact with the environment. Switches can be shot to be operated. Shoot oil drums to cause huge explosions, shoot oil lamps hanging from the ceiling to rain FIRY HELL on your foe, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
No matter WHAT you do, everything feels exciting and an almost immeasurable amount of fun can be had. There's a big supply of weapons, which all handle differently and have their specific situations where they are most useful. Like I said before, looking down from above at a group of Ganados, unaware of your presence, and dropping a Grenade in their very midst is totally PRICELESS.
And then there's a whole bunch of freaky monsters, like trolls and what have you. Most boss battles are executed brilliantly, there's the obligatory context sensitivity stuff that's so hip nowadays, and most imporantly, the game is quite big. Especially for a Resident Evil.
You'll be moving to different areas until the very end. There's hardly any backtracking, and there's a great variety in the environments you will get to see.
New enemies, events and gameplay mechanics await you at every turn, there's mini-games, unlockables, sidequests, EVERYTHING.
There's really NOTHING I can criticise about this game, it's about as perfect as games can get, AND it's original, innovative, fun, exciting and every other superlative you can think of.
There's a whole bunch of adrenaline-pumping, nail-biting action (although putting down your controller to bite your nails is not a wise decision), some scenes that I'm pretty sure are movie references, only now interactive, ie you can act them out yourself, and then there's the fact that this is simply one of the best games ever created. Play it, or be a sad loser. Yes, playing this will make you COOL.
Women will want you, rich people will like you and shower you with expensive gifts, animals will feel safe with you, and the president will call you to tell you you rule.
It's simply the best game of this age, and it's from CAPCOM.
GET IT NOW!
A perfect 10!
The Ingen Game Awards 2005
Gotta have one of these, haven't we?
In true Game Reviewer Fashion, I present to you the much acclaimed Ingen Game Awards 2005, THE be-all end-all of Gaming Awards, the most prestigious Award in the Gaming Business, Companies exert themselves to be able to claim this victory every year, as not only does this Award earn you eternal fame, but you also get a nice potted plant, shaped like a willy. And a cash prize of $100.000 to be transferred to my bank account by TOMORROW, or else. Bastards.
So without further ado, let me present to you the definitive Game Awards of 2005, don't believe any other sites, cos they suck, and they wouldn't know a good game if it came up to them and violently stabbed them in the Magic Symbol.
Just listen to me, and you'll be alright. Get these games, and you will experience the best of the past year, and you will thank me for it. ASSHOLES!
Ehem.
Bear in mind that I'm only including games released in 2005 in the country of origin of the version I played. There are some titles which were released in America or Europe in 2005, but which were already available in Japan in 2004, and are therefore not included (ie. Zelda: Minish Cap, Metal Gear Solid 3, among others).
Here we go:
- Best Gamecube Game:There can be only one:
Resident Evil 4.No motherfucking contest. I haven't written a review for it yet, but expect one soon, since I've almost finished it for the project. It's ironic how this was the first game I bought in 2005, and also the last game I played before the turn of the year. But that's how Goddamn INSANELY good this game is, you can play it for a whole year, and you'll discover new things every time. Not only because there's a slew of hidden treasure and items, but also because there's literally DOZENS of different ways of tackling each area.
Each area is wide open and VERY big, and there's all kinds of objects and things you can interact with. Want to take out the baddies by just blasting through them?
You can do that, but you can also climb on top of a roof and drop some grenades in their midst (I frickin' LOVE doing that! Weehee!), shoot some explosive oildrums, use Karts full of explosives, shoot them down cliffs, do whatever the Heck you want, it's ALL good.
Not only that, but it sports fantastic visuals as well. Unbelievably beautiful and realistic, I'm sure the Gamecube wasn't even supposed to be able to handle anything like this; it puts 99% of the current video gaming world to shame, and that includes your stupid XBox 360. PHA!
One of the best things to ever happen to video games. Let's all burn a candle for Capcom and worship their leaders.
- Best Playstation 2 Game:Again, no real contest:
Shadow of the Colossus.I acknowledge the fact that Resident Evil 4 has been released on PS2 as well, and that all the added extra's make it an even better game than the original (the PS2 version is apparently coming back to the GC as a budget title, which is good!), but it was originally a Gamecube title, and it wouldn't be fun to give the Best PS2 Game award to the same game, now would it?
Also, as much as I'm loving Kingdom Hearts 2 right now, it simply cannot match the incredibly indelible expression Shadow of the Damn This Title Is Long left on me.
It easily matches Resident Evil 4 in terms of completely overwhelming visuals and fantastic gameplay, and even manages to up the ante for sheer originality, beautiful art direction, a great moving story and a majestic soundtrack.
You have never played a game so visually impressive as Shadow of the Colossus. It may not be as polished and realistic as Resident Evil 4, but it more than makes up for that by gorgeous lighting effects, dreamlike graphics, and totally humongous enemies. You though the Troll in RE4 was big? Don't make me laugh! He's an extremely small ant, when compared to even the smallest colossus in SotC.
For one of the most unique gaming experiences you are ever likely to have, this game is the bee's knees. Wonderful, exciting, adventurous, and completely overwhelming, one of the finest experiences in my entire life.
- Best Gameboy Advance Game:Hmmmm.
Rockman EXE 6: Dennoujuu Faltzer/Greiga.Let's be fair, it hasn't exactly been a very exciting year for GBA this year, what with its new younger brother, the Nintendo DS, stealing all of its limelight. The same companies that made games for GBA have quickly made the small step to DS, and its older brother has therefore had to deal with a rather severe lack of anything good.
Amidst the rather dull titles released on GBA this year, Megaman Battle Network 6 is the only game that I really enjoyed, perhaps because I'm a longtime Rockman fanboy, but most probably because this game was finally as good as its early predecessors.
Capcom had done a good job at totally fucking up the last couple of games in the series, so I was pleasantly surprised to see them returning to their roots, and making a game that was worthy of the name again.
These games, when done right, are tremendous fun. They offer a decently lengthy quest, with many many subquests, and a superb battle system that rewards skill and dexterity. Collection freaks will also love this, cos there's a whole shitload of items to collect and stuff to unlock.
I don't care for Fire Emblem, and I definitely don't like Final Fantasy IV, so this was pretty much the only game worth playing on GBA for me this year. And great stuff it is too.
Sadly, this is pretty much the only 3 categories I've been into this year.
I don't own an XBox, regular OR 360, nor do I own a PSP or DS, so I've been kinda running behind things this year. Maybe I'll get one of the above in the future, although I'm sure I'll never buy an XBox, and the 360 is going to have to REALLY strut its stuff if it wants to attract my attention, cos from what I've seen so far, not only does it not look like true Next Gen (just a nicer Xbox), it has rather dull and uninspired games as well.
The PSP is a complete joke, despite its processing power, and the DS is the only thing I AM interested in, but it has the added disadvantage of my not enjoying Portable gaming very much anymore. Those Online features are definitely looking cool though.
Which leaves the final category:
- Most Overrated/Overhyped/Disappointing Game:Again, a very clear winner here:
God of War (PS2)Check out ANY End-of-the-Year Awards at ANY gamesite on the Internet, and you will see God of War showered with almost EVERY possible award. Well, let me be the voice of reason here, and say that it is NOT all that good. Perhaps people are just surprised to see such a high quality title (it is definitely not bad in any way) from an AMERICAN company, but by any means, it's not all that great.
I still think that the 9.0 I gave it was giving it too much credit, cos the more I think about it, the less I like it. There's games that look good in retrospect, and there's those that don't, and God of War belongs to the latter.
First of all, the graphics are overrated. This game reminded me in many ways of Jak and Daxter. It has great open environments, which blend into each other without any fade-outs but are usually connected through some short and uneventful hallways, which occasionally stutter because of the loading. Like Jak and Daxter, the Graphics are bright and colorful, but as the above picture should show, have no real textures to be proud of.Take a gander at Resident Evil 4, and it is painfully obvious which game has the REALLY good graphics.
The cutscenes are stupid as well. It's like they took cutscenes in real time graphics, and then TURNED THEM INTO FMV, which looks like crap. Only occasionally you'll get REAL CG movies, which mainly make use of 2D sprites, strangely, but admittedly DO look very nice, at least from an artistic point of view.
The music is also laughable. Why everyone likes it so much is beyond me. It's bombastic, loud and boisterous, and it lacks any kind of melody. The main theme is boring and blaring horns don't make it sound any better. It claims to be orchestral, but it sounds like synth, which stands in stark contrast with the beautiful Shadow of the Colossus, a majestic, sweeping score that actually had some talent behind it.
Controls are decent, the context sensitive functions are nice, pulling off finishing moves by pressing random button combinations was also a cool idea, but Kratos jumps like a Bag of Sand. AGAIN, like Jak and Daxter, it seems American companies can't make a hero with decent Jumping abilities, which is kind of a painful omission if you're going to make a bloody PLATFORM game. Why equip your hero with a standard Double Jump, if you could also just give him a GOOD single jump? You know, one that works? Also, balancing is completely atrocious. The camera TOTALLY gets in the way, and many was the time I plummeted to my untimely death, through no fault of my own.
Prince of Persia did a MUCH better job at this, since the Prince has more grip, and at least HOLDS ON TO THE EDGE, if he threatens to fall off. Kratos only occasionally manages to grab the ledge when he falls, which makes him an idiot. But that's fine, cos he's not a likeable character to begin with.
And then there's the fact that almost the entire premise of the game was ripped off from Rygar. Same kind of battle system, same kind of background setting. And the story is stupid. IGN actually dares to give it a Best Story award, which is insane.
Of course Greek Mythology rules, but the creators of the game had nothing to do with that, did they? And what they added was tripe. Tripe, even, that has been done thousands of times before. Bah.
The only REALLY cool thing about God of War were the boss fights, and there were FAR too few of them.
No sir, don't like it!
Well, enough bitching, let's start 2006 on a more positive note, shall we?
This year is likely going to bring A LOT of cool stuff! With the PS3 and Revolution in the works and apparently scheduled for this year, the New Console Wars will probably start this year, and I for one, am very curious as to how it will turn out.
Final Fantasy XII should make it to stores this year, although I'm getting increasingly worried about the quality of gameplay.
Zelda: Twilight Princess should not be too far away anymore (apparently Europe is going to see the release FIRST), which should be enough to last ANYONE the entire year, and Baten Kaitos II, so Gamecube owners are looking at a good start.
Next week will see the release of Megaman X Collection on Gamecube and PS2, which is a nice way to start the year (thank you, Capcom, as usual), and the same company should bring us the fantastically and beautifully artistic Okami this year.
I'm sure there's a lot of great stuff in the works noone knows anything about yet.
So here's to 2006, let's hope the Earth doesn't explode!
Happy New Year everyone!
