Rising Blue Lightning

It's 32-Bit 8-Bit.

2009-11-15T05:24:11Z

#142

METALGUN SLINGER (Open Sesame/Atmark, 2002)

Every now and then, a developer will try to make a game that capitalizes on what gamers remember most fondly about the past eras of gaming. Some do the bare minimum, trying to play the nostalgia card as close as possible. Others update the game style and miss the mark somehow. And others, well, they provide a game that builds from what was good about the old eras, and carefully adds in enough that it doesn't feel like a dated, past-its-prime game. Games like those can be something really special.

And Metalgun Slinger really is.

The only Atmark-published game that wasn't some sort of online Dreamcast board game, Metalgun Slinger is a run-and-gun that isn't ashamed of the 8-bit roots of the genre (popularized by the likes of Mega Man and Contra). The main character is a blue-haired young man named Billy, and he battles enemies in a western-themed environment with the help of the special gun he carries. In addition to the standard running, ducking, and jumping abilities (Billy can fire upwards, thankfully), Billy has special attacks known as "Gun Force", and collects various badges and gun arts, which each affect how your special attacks work. Billy is capable of things like doing handsprings in mid-run, rolling onto his back while firing, sliding, temporarily locking himself in midair while firing, and other things. By hitting the "arts" button in the middle of a dash or jump, Billy can start an "Arts Chain", linking moves together (though I am unsure how this affects the game, due to not knowing any Japanese). Hitting the Arts button together with the Shoot and Jump button will unleash a high-damage attack, which can only be used the number of times shown in the bullet counter in the upper-right corner of the screen. In some stages, Billy will have to ride a boat driven by an allied character, and survive until reaching the end of the stage. At the end of certain areas, Billy will have to face a boss, each of which has its own methods of attack.

This is really the sort of game that makes me wish that it wasn't on the GBA, because even though the GBA has been home to plenty of good games, the hardware and small screen really seems to limit games sometimes. Metalgun Slinger, in particular, seems to suffer from some bland graphics, thin sprites, and animation that isn't as good as it could have been, had it been on one of the contemporary home consoles of the time (PS2, Dreamcast, etc...) or even possibly the Neo-Geo. The character designs are your standard anime designs, and due to the story being in Japanese, I wouldn't be able to tell you what's going on in the cutscenes.

The music is intentionally styled to sound like something from the NES or Master System era, and does its job well, though it isn't particularly memorable (though the fully-voiced anime-style opening theme may stick in the heads of people who enjoy that sort of thing), but the gameplay is outstanding. It's amazing how games like this can come out of nowhere, from developers and publishers who come out of nowhere.

Metalgun Slinger is a game that deserves anyone's attention, a fun, lovingly-made callback to the past that nobody should miss.

We'll send in Kay, the Low G-Man.

2009-11-15T01:44:39Z

#143

LOW G-MAN : THE LOW GRAVITY MAN (KID/Taxan, 1990)

Another overlooked NES game makes the list. Low G-Man follows Kay, the Low G-Man as he battles enemies across 5 chapters. Armed with an EMDP (Electro-Magnetic Disruptor Pistol), which freezes enemies in their tracks, and an armor-piercing spear, the player takes him through various environments, from the city (Chapter 1) to an ice realm (Chapter 2), and many others. Both the EMDP and the Spear can be powered up to 3 levels of strength from various pick-ups dropped by enemies, and in addition, Kay has 4 special weapons each with limited ammunition (a boomerang-style weapon, fireballs, arcing bombs, and the powerful wave shot), and in some stages he'll even encounter vehicles. The vehicles come in three types (the Walker, the Hovercraft, and the Spider), each of which has its own abilities (ie : the Walker can jump extraordinarily high, even for this game), and a time limit for how long Kay can ride.

The game's major hook, however, is of course the "Low G" in the title. At the beginning of the game, Kay can jump to about 75% of the screen's height (and since he can only thrust up or down with the spear, you'll be jumping quite a bit), and as he collects powerups (shaped like a winged badge), his jump height will increase even farther. For players used to smaller, more exacting jumps such as in games like Contra or Castlevania, it will take some getting used to.

At the end of each chapter, Kay will face off against a gigantic boss, usually more than one screen tall and/or more than one screen wide. The EMDP typically will not work on bosses, so you'll have to learn their movement and attack patterns to defeat them. As with most Taxan-published games of that era, you'll have to play through the game and beat it multiple times to get the "best" ending and be considered as truly finishing it.

The floaty jumps and the fact that the EMDP cannot kill enemies may frustrate some gamers, but if you're willing to play by its rules, Low G-Man is a fun game that I spent a lot of time with back when the NES was king.

From Paris to Oedo, Parlez-vous Francais?

2009-11-14T23:57:53Z

#144

ONIMUSHA 3 : DEMON SIEGE (Capcom/Capcom, 2004)

Sorry, everyone. The Rougeaus aren't on their way. What is, however, is the next entry.

Onimusha basically began life as "Resident Evil in Feudal Japan". Taking the setting from a fictional American midwest and replacing it with Sengoku-era Japan; replacing zombies with various demons (known as "Genma"); and switching the gameplay focus from purely survival and shock-horror to an action sword-slashing aesthetic; the series found a good deal of success and spawned a few sequels. The orignal game followed Hidemitsu "Samanosuke" Akechi (known just as Samanosuke in the games) as he hunted down the fierce warlord Oda Nobunaga, who had returned from the dead almost immediately after being killed. After the second game switched heroes to Jubei Yagyu, the third game returned focus to Samanosuke.

Onimusha 3 actually marked quite the departure from Onimusha 1 and 2. Whereas the first two games strictly held to the Resident Evil "Tank" style controls (ie : up moves forward, down moves backward, left and right make the character turn), Onimusha 3 gave you absolute control over your character through the use of the analog stick. For players who still preferred the old style, however, the control pad could still be used for the old control style. Another way in which Onimusha 3 was different was the for the first time in the series, there were multiple main characters. Unlike Onimusha 2's Kotaro, Oyu, Ekei, and Magoichi, Onimusha 3's Jacques is just as much the hero of the game as Samanosuke is. Modelled after Spanish-French actor Jean Reno, Jacques is a member of the French military who gets thrust back in time to Sengoku Japan (as Samanosuke is similarly sent FORWARD in time to modern Paris), and like Samanosuke before him, is entrusted with the power of the Oni clan to battle the Genma. Each character has their own playstyle (Samanosuke with his sword and typical samurai weapons, different ones than he had in the original Onimusha, and Jacques with his Oni Whip, and weapons with different elemental properties than Samanosuke's), due to their weapons, but you'll be playing as both throughout the game.

The time travel aspect in the game is used to add a new aspect to the puzzles, as many times, Jacques and Samanosuke will be exploring the same location in their respective time periods, and what Jacques does in the past can affect the environments that Samanosuke encounters in the modern day. Items can also be traded back and forth between the two through the use of a time-travelling Tengu who assists whichever character the player is currently in control of.

For the first time in the series, Onimusha 3 used completely 3D environments instead of prerendered backgrounds, another positive jump forward for the franchise. Nearly everything about the game is where Onimusha finally came into its own, a fitting climax and end to the Nobunaga trilogy. Onimusha 3 took all the lessons learned from Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, and even Devil May Cry in order to make a fine action game in its own right, and the best entry in the series.

Robbing you of the Nostalgia you wanted...

2009-11-13T00:22:31Z

#145

SUPER PUNCH-OUT!! (Nintendo/Nintendo, 1994)

This is most likely going to be a short one. I'm under the impression that this game doesn't quite get the fair shake that it could, because it was modelled more after the original two arcade games than it was the NES game. With the diminutive fan-favorite character Little Mac replaced with a more generic transparent character (reminiscent of the arcade version's wireframe boxer), and bringing in call-backs to the arcade games (Bear Hugger, Piston Hurricane, Dragon Chan) while leaving out popular characters from the NES game (Piston Honda, Von Kaiser, Don Flamenco, King Hippo, etc...), it seemed to leave a bad taste in the mouth of players who were either hoping to have their memories of the NES game stoked, or had never played the arcade games in the first place.

One major point of difference was the removal of Stamina Points (aka hearts) and Star Points, instead bringing back the special meter from the arcade version, which filled as the player landed hits on the opponent. When it was full, the player could unleash more powerful punches, like an uppercut or automatic alternating rapid punches. Also like the arcade games, there was now a score bonus directly related to how quickly you defeated an opponent (each of which had their own pattern to be learned and countered).

The game starts off easy enough, giving you opponents such as Gabby Jay (this game's equivalent to Glass Joe) and Piston Hurricane (who even the worst players will beat in less than 10 seconds), but the game ramps up in difficulty by the time you reach the Special Circuit (the fourth of the game's tiers, after the Minor, Major, and World Circuits), and have to deal with the likes of Hoy Quarlow (an old man who fights by hitting you with his cane) and the Bruiser Brothers. Hoy Quarlow in particular, gave me fits, as I could never seem to dodge or counter his constant dashing in from the corners with his cane.

In general, it's hard to really get a good feel for how successful Nintendo was with the game. It's a successful and well-designed callback to the old arcade games, but it felt like (especially if the Wii version pushing more in the direction of the NES game, pressing the nostalgia buttons that the fans wanted pressed in the first place) it took some heat for not being what the fans wanted, which was something more like the NES version.

So, yeah...

2009-11-12T22:34:44Z

I took a couple days off from the list thing because I've been having a shitty week and totally lost my motivation.

I plan on getting back to it, with the draft of the list re-jiggered a little bit so that I've got some better organization going on and stop worrying about if I've got something too low or too high.

But as things are at the moment, outside of that, I just feel like things are on a downward spiral with nothing positive in sight :/

General positive reinforcement is encouraged. :/

LET'S MAKE THE OMEGA FORCE NOISE! schwuuuuufp

2009-11-10T02:42:05Z

#146

BLADESTORM : THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR (Omega Force/Koei, 2007)

If there's one thing Koei loves, it's games based on history. If there's one thing Omega Force loves, it's throwing gigantic numbers of enemies on a battlefield and letting you rip them a new one. In Bladestorm, Omega Force (developer of the Dynasty and Samurai Warriors franchise) takes you out of China and Japan, and sets you loose on the Western Battlefront, casting you as a mercenary in the middle of the Hundred Years' War between France and England.

Unlike the Warriors games, however, you are not an actual historical figure, but a custom-built (appearance-wise, from a limited amount of options) mercenary, appearing on the battlefield just in order to make money. You can take missions from either side, though the number and quality of missions you can undertake is dependent on the reputation you've built over the course of the game. Clearing missions will earn you reputation points, experience points (which in turn yield SP), and money, all which of can be used to upgrade both your own character and your unit types.

Yes, unlike in the Warriors games, you don't control a single character so much as an entire unit. When you first choose your starting point for a mission, you'll only be in charge of your mercenary avatar, but he's fairly useless on his own. As he goes through the stage, he will come across allied units (each having varied types of weapons and skills) that he can take command of, and use them to lay siege to enemy units and strongholds. Each unit type has its own strengths and weaknesses, such as sword units being able to temporarily increase their attack strength, archery units being able to attack from long range, mounted units being able to move quickly, and so on. Your mercenary becomes able to command more types of units by finding their respective book, which also allows you to upgrade them when they gain levels (each unit type has its own level), spending the accumulated SP on things like increased attack strength, the number of troops in a type of unit, and increasing the effectiveness of each unit type's abilities. Each unit type has varying effectiveness against other unit types, and it sometimes it's a good idea to keep switching the type of unit you're commanding in order to fit the situation.

Each mission has a certain number of days that you're expected to complete it within, with each day taking approximately 10 minutes or so of in-game time, so it's best not to waste too much time conquering or defending a single fort, sometimes. For situations when you're on your own and there are no allied units nearby, you're able to hire reserve mercenary units that you can activate when you're on your own, though they typically have less soldiers in them than a normal unit. You can also bring "pennons" into play, little battle flags that have temporary effects when they're in use (such as increasing defense.)

Bladestorm is an interesting action-strategy game (which much like the similar Koei title Kessen 3 leans more towards the action side, although it's an indirect sort of action) in a setting not often visited in video games. Though you don't get to personally play as any famous historical figures, there are many you'll encounter throughout the course of the game, and it doesn't hurt the game any that you're just a mercenary. In fact, that almost adds to the dungeon-crawl-esque approach to character and unit building, and it's fun to try out the various types of units and see what sorts of results you get. Omega Force gets credit for trying something a little different, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for something a little different from your normal hack-and-slash.

No, this ISN'T where I got my name from...

2009-11-10T01:02:19Z

#147

EINHÄNDER (Square/Sony, 1998)

You knew this one was coming. Considering the sorts of games I play, amongst well, other things, it was a given that Einhänder was making this list. In a small bit of irony, though, that has absolutely NOTHING to do with why this game made the list. In fact, for the longest time, I couldn't stand this game, partially because I just had a negative reaction to anything with a Square logo on it for a good long while. Another reason was that I was just plain crap at the game, and was enjoying other games in the horizontal shooter genre (on the same system) more. Every now and then, though, I give it another try and realize, it's really a well-made game, and I was being far too hard on it.

In Einhänder, the Earth and the Moon are at war, and due to the Earth's oppressive tendencies towards their Lunar Colony, those living on the moon more or less bombed the living hell out of Earth, destroying most of the planet's surface and causing Earth to create a totalitarian government in response. With the Moon now in the position of power, they start a second war to strip Earth of its natural resources. You're one of the Moon's pilots, and you're sent to attack the Earth's capital city in a small spacecraft known as an Einhänder (due to its defining feature, a manipulator arm capable of holding and firing an external weapon module). Einhänder pilots are expected to die in the field, causing as much damage and havoc as possible to the Earth and its forces before being taken down.

At the beginning of the game, the player is given a choice of 3 ships. First is the Endymion Mk 2, which can switch between 3 different external weapons, and has a single main gun. Second is the Endymion Mk 3, which can only hold one external weapon, but gets more ammo for it than the Mk 2, and has a double main gun (This is the ship I typically use) Third is the Astraea Mk 1, which can simultaneously hold 2 external weapons, but again, only has a single main gun. There are two "Unknown Fighters" that can be later unlocked, but I have yet to be able to do this. As far as external weapon types, those can range from the more common rapid-fire Vulcan guns, Wasp missile launcher, and the slow-firing/high damage Cannon to more interesting weapons such as the sword-like Blade, vertical-firing Hedgehog bomb, and the lightning-firing, able to be charged-up Riot (of course, a personal favorite). The manipulator arm on the player's ship can be mounted on either the top or bottom of the ship (and can be switched at any time), which affects how external weapons fire in various ways (typically related to the angle of firing). The game has a few scoring gimmicks, which is somewhat uncommon for horizontal shooters (and they're nowhere near as complex as the type you see in most vertical shooters), including each stage having 3 hidden bonus objectives to achieve, and a muliplier meter which grows as you kill enemies, and drops whenver you're not defeating any. There are some points in some stages where there just aren't going to be a lot of enemies coming on screen, so you'll want to keep the meter high while you can.

You start off attacking the city, encountering police ships and shooting down neon signs, and as the game moves on, you'll be put into increasingly dangerous scenarios (assigned to you by the military satellite Hyperion), in increasingly sparse areas. Being a horizontal shooter, the game is difficult for those who aren't high-level shooter players, and memorization plays a large role in your survival. As a 3D shooter on the PSX, it's a nice looking game, and runs at a high framerate, though some may prefer the aesthetics in games like G-Darius, R-Type Delta, or ThunderForce 5 better, but the game certainly gets across the point of a tightly-regimented (though not highly populated) planet, battling police ships and various other sorts of ships and vehicles (stage 2's mid-boss being an interesting example, a motorcycle-esque machine with gun-arms that often tries to ram or jump into your ship).

Einhänder's soundtrack is one of the game's highest points, with composer Kenichiro Fukui choosing to go with an intense electronic style (which for Square was a huge difference from what they'd usually put in a game, at the time.) and music that still holds up well now, even outside of the game (aside from the boss music, which doesn't necessarily work well out of its usual context).

Though there are better examples of the horizontal shooter genre, even on the same system, Einhänder was an interesting experiment in many ways. At the time, Square was building its reputation almost exclusively on RPGs, and hadn't graced gamers with a shooter since the abysmal King's Knight (way back on the NES). It also seems to be, from what I can gather, the first Japanese 3D Horizontal shooter to grace the console is the US (correct me if I'm wrong). From those aspects, it's a surprisingly good game, though it took me a few tries to appreciate it.

Bad Drums, Bad Joke, Bad Night, Bad Moon? YOU GOT IT.

2009-11-09T03:43:45Z

#148

ROLLING THUNDER 3 (Namco/Namco, 1993)

Namco has a fairly extensive and rich arcade history, and loves to remind us of it whenever they can, dragging Pac-Man, Dig-Dug, and Galaga out of moth balls about twice a year. One of Namco's more forgotten franchises, however, is Rolling Thunder. The first two games were arcade releases (though the second game got a Genesis release, and became known for its interesting password system) that got a small measure of popularity following the exploits of secret agent Albatross as he worked to stop the Geldra terrorist organization. Rolling Thunder 3, however, was developed distinctly for the Genesis (and unlike Rolling Thunder 2, is only a single-player game), and stars a new agent, Jay, as he tracks down a high-ranking Geldra official.

In a first for the series, Jay has the ability to fire upward at a 45 degree angle (something Albatross was never able to do), and by default comes equipped with a knife as a subweapon (which is assigned to a different button as his normal gun). However, at the beginning of each stage, Jay can choose a special weapon (out of 9) to replace the knife. Each of these special weapons can only be chosen once, though. Once a player has used it in a stage, they won't be able to use it in a later stage (and will also get bonus points if they choose to stick with the knife, not using up any of their special weapons). Other than these new additions, gameplay is similar to previous Rolling Thunder games, a side scroller that relies on ducking behind cover and making timely switches between the upper and lower parts of the stage (a style of gameplay that spawned multiple imitators, such as Capcom's "Code Name Viper" and Konami's "Surprise Attack"), entering doors to dodge bullets and sometimes refill on ammunition. The game is a little bit stiff as Rolling Thunder has always been, but the game never feels completely unfair (though sometimes the best way to battle bosses, when you encounter them, is to be able to overpower them, rather than trying to find a pattern to exploit), even if it gets a bit difficult towards the end. There are a few vehicle stages interspersed throughout the game, including one with Jay on a jet ski, and an alert player may even find hidden stages in the game.

As a fan of the Genesis' FM sound chip, I am a fan of Rolling Thunder 3's soundtrack, though the similarities between all the songs' titles (ie : "Bad Fairy", "Dammbad", "Bad Shade", etc...) makes it difficult to name a particular standout. For players disappointed that female agent Leila doesn't appear in the game, there's a password to allow them to play as Jay's contact, Ellen, though she doesn't have her own cutscenes or storyline).

I'm unsure of the sort of reputation that Rolling Thunder 3 has garnered, but it's a game that deserves some respect, and it's unfortunate that Namco allowed the franchise to die after it was released.

I told myself I wasn't going to go there, but here we are.

2009-11-08T22:24:23Z

#149

SLY 2 : BAND OF THIEVES (Sucker Punch/Sony, 2004)

Another game that I haven't managed to beat (though I suppose there's quite a lot of that), Sly 2 is a game that I wasn't really willing to give much of a chance (for reasons that if you know me well enough, you'll figure out pretty quickly). The modern era of platformers hasn't treated me too kindly, from the frustration I felt not far into Jak and Daxter, to the similar frustration I felt in the original Sly game. But a couple years away from platformers, and an attempt on my part not to be so stuck-up about certain things, convinced me to go ahead and give this game a shot. And though my typical failures with platform games began to shine through as soon as the second country, I did find myself able to enjoy the time I spent with the game.

The objective of Sly 2 is to recover the parts of Clockwerk, the villain from the original game (which have been taken and spread around the world by the game's new group of criminals, the "Klaww Gang"), and destroy them so that he may never be revived. Like many modern platformers (especially Sony's Twin Terrors of Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank), each level is broken up into a smaller series of objectives, which when all are completed, will lead to a showdown with a boss.

One of my largest sources of frustration with the original game has been addressed, with the playable characters now having a health meter, as opposed to being one-hit-killed. In addition, Sly's sidekicks have now become playable, each bringing a somewhat different aspect to the overall gameplay structure. Sly is still the main character, and the core mechanics have been built around his abilities, which involve climbing poles, moving around rooftops and ledges, and being able to use his hooked cane to either pickpocket enemies, or use a stealth attack that if done correctly will defeat enemies without having to go through a protracted fight or alert other enemies. Murray, referred to as "The Muscle", takes a more direct approach to things, and is more suited to handling himself in combat than the other characters (being able to pick enemies up and throw them, as well as knock them out with powerful punch attacks), though he is slower and not as reliant on gadgets as the other two. Bentley, referred to as "The Brains", is not much of a fighter at all, his main method of attack being the ability to fire tranquilizer darts from his crossbow and lay timed explosives. He also can't climb, and therefore it's not quite as feasible to take a rooftop approach with him, and so a player has to be more on their guard than usual. Throughout the game, each character can buy new special attacks or gadgets (though some are still locked in safes, and can only be accessed by finding every bottle strewn throughout a level), expanding their range of techniques.

Sucker Punch really went out of their way to give the game a cartoon-like feel, not just stopping with the typical cel-shading, but introducing every level with a short video that proclaims "Sly and the Gang IN: ____", followed by the name of the stage.

I'm still not a big platformer fan, and I still feel the odd twitch of guilt when trying to play a game such as this, but it's certainly not bad at all.

They don't seem to be aggressive....oh wait, yes they do...

2009-11-08T21:17:53Z

#150

EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 2017 (aka Chikyuu Boueigun 3, "Earth Defense Force 3") (Sandlot/D3 Publisher, 2007)

D3 Publisher had been releasing budget games in Japan for a long time, and a few of them had even made it to the west (Space Shot, All-Star Slammin' D-Ball, among others), but in the PS2 era, 3 of D3's titles stood out among gamers. The Oneechanbara, The Zombie vs. Ambulance, and The Chikyuu Boueigun. The first two games mostly gained notice amongst import-savvy gamers for their geek-friendly themes (The Oneechanbara being about young, busty women in skimpy clothing running around killing monsters; and The Zombie vs. Ambulance being pretty much exactly what it sounds like). Chikyuu Boueigun, however, became known for its solid, if unspectacular, shooting action. With the advent of the X-Box 360, D3 chose to finally bring Oneechanbara and Chikyuu Boueigun to the US (Europe had previously got a PS2 edition of the Chikyuu Boueigun series).

EDF 2017 is a straightforward 3rd-person shooter without any fancy tricks. A group of hostile aliens known as Ravagers have come to Tokyo (because Japan is the center of the universe) and began to wreak havoc, infesting the city with an invasion of giant ants, spiders, robots, and more. Your player is a member of the EDF, and must eliminate all enemies (indicated with red marks on the radar) to clear levels. You can take 2 weapons into a level, ranging from various different types of Assault Rifles, Shotguns, Rocket Launchers, Grenades, Sniper Rifles, and more. Even different weapons in the same category can have wildly varing statistics concerning damage potential, reload speed, and ammunition capacity. Many times, a player won't know exactly what weapons are best for a particular mission, and that encourages multiple playthroughs. Defeating enemies may cause them to drop various items, such as health refills, armor upgrades (which increases your maximum life by 1 point for each pickup at the end of the stage), or weapon cases (which will give you a new weapon upon clearing the stage, though it's quite possible it can be a weapon you already have). Playing on harder difficulties causes the enemies to be more likely to drop higher powered weapons.

There are various vehicles in the game, such as helicopters and tanks, though in my experience they control awkwardly, and are less useful than one would expect them to be. You're better off generally ignoring them.

The game can get difficult quickly, even on normal difficulty, especially in stages where you get mobbed on all sides by spiders, shooting their thread all over the stage and slowing your movements down, as well as constantly doing damage until you can shake them off by rolling around. You may find yourself replaying stages sometimes to grind for extra armor points in order to take on later stages in the game.

There is also a split screen two player mode, though I've only spent limited time with it, and not on difficult enough stages to say if it makes any specific stages less frustrating, though it certainly seems to have the potential to.

The graphics are fairly ugly for a modern-generation game, and the voice acting isn't all that great, but in an odd way, it enhances the "Sci-Fi Channel B-Movie of the Week" feel that comes with blasting away at giant ants with a rocket launcher. There's just something oddly fun about the game, and the constantly picking up new weapons, hoping for something new, can keep you playing.

The 360 has managed to get a lot more Japanese support than its predecessor ever had, allowing for games like this to come over to the west. Pick it up, and help make the case for us getting more games like this.

It used to be tricky, but now it's alive.

2009-11-08T07:04:07Z

#151

SSX 3 (EA Canada/EA Big, 2003)

The original SSX was one of the first games to really give gamers a taste of what the PS2 was all about, featuring larger than life locales all around the world and snowboarders with extreme personalities. SSX Tricky took things farther, with more courses, more boards, and even more over the top characters.

Then came SSX 3. SSX 3 began to move away from its predecessors by having the entire game take place on one single, giant, three-peaked mountain (with each peak representing a different skill level), and taking a Tony Hawk-esque approach to progression, allowing the player to explore the mountain as he or she pleases, taking on an event when they come to it. Also, instead of unlocks and upgrades being tied completely to medals earned in races, now the player earns money based on their finishes, and uses that to outfit and upgrade their character, allowing for a greater level of customization than in previous titles.

Most of the more bizarre characters introduced in SSX Tricky (such as Seeiah, Eddie, Luther, and Brodi, leaving only Psymon as the lone holdover from Tricky) have been removed from the game (except as unlockable "Bonus Skins" that can't be customized, and carry the same stats as the character you were currently playing), and replaced with more low-key characters such as Viggo (a laid-back European) and Allegra (who appears on the cover, a bit of a rocker chick, though not nearly to the extent of Zoe). Now that there are no statistical differences between characters, or between boards, a player is free to choose whoever they want and upgrade their stats to fit their playing style, instead of worrying about what character's stat development fits them best.

The game runs at a high frame rate, and controls just as well as SSX ever has. There are plenty of different types of events in the game, from the standard races, to the Super Pipe (a big, long half pipe), to Slopestyle (where tricks tend to be more important than they are in a normal race), and the races get harder much quicker this time than they did in SSX Tricky (at least from my experience).

Whereas the move to a single mountain may make some of the game feel less varied to some (gone are the days of the infamous pinball machine-esque Tokyo Megaplex), EA tried to add a few things like weather effects and a fully customizable wardrobe for each of the 10 main characters.

More than many other games of the same type, the music in the SSX series has always been considered a large part of the game, and many fans may be disappointed that SSX Tricky's iconic theme, Run-DMC's "It's Tricky" is gone (as is the game's "TRICKY" meter, replaced now with a "SUPER UBER" meter, which functions a little differently in order to re-balance gameplay, part of why races have become more difficult), but SSX 3 still has an excellent soundtrack, with a lot of DJ-friendly music (of course), from House music (from the likes of Felix da Housecat, Basement Jaxx, and Audio Bullys), to Breaks (from John Morgan and Aphrodite), and even the odd sighting of rock (Finger Eleven, MXPX, Thrice, Red Hot Chili Peppers). One of the stranger choices to make it into the game is Autopilot Off's "Clockworks", which was previously used in EA's NHL 2004. The odd thing about it is that even though NHL 2004 came out first, SSX 3 has the older, inferior version of the song, recorded back when Autopilot Off was known as "Cooter". But the crown jewel of SSX 3's soundtrack is the song that plays as you begin the game and ascend to the top of the first peak, preparing to be dropped into the game's world. That song is the deep progressive anthem "Ride" by Deepsky (who have always been one of my favorite electronic acts), and it sets the mood perfectly for the game.

Fans may be more fond of Tricky, but in the end, SSX 3 wins out, for me.

One of the most polarizing racing games ever made...

2009-11-08T05:05:20Z

#152

VANISHING POINT (Clockwork Games/Acclaim, 2000)

Let's not pretend that this game doesn't have an awful reputation. And let's not pretend like the game doesn't exactly deserve it, either. Vanishing Point is a frustrating, inaccessible game that just doesn't hold up to top-level arcade racers (like Ridge Racer or the Sega Rally series) OR top-level simulation racers (like Gran Turismo or Forza). It doesn't even hold up to some other games that tried to straddle the line between the two types (such as Project Gotham). So why is it on this list when some of those others won't be? Because Vanishing Point has some unique and oddly endearing and addictive qualities to it, and if one isn't careful, they may dig deep, get sucked in, and learn to appreciate what Clockwork Games was trying to do.

One of Clockwork's stated goals when they developed the game was to give the player the feeling as if they were playing on a high-priced arcade racing rig, on their Dreamcast. To that effect, they wanted a game with accurately detailed car models and backgrounds that would run at 60 FPS with little to no pop-up. How good the tracks and car models look are up to debate (especially as many finer details in each vehicle are part of the textures, instead of modeled with its own set of polygons), but the game does keep up a high framerate with few, if any, technical hiccups. The game doesn't have loads and loads of cars like Gran Turismo or Forza would, and instead of giving you a ridiculously wide choice ranging from 64 HP Japanese box cars to high powered sports cars, chooses to put you in vehicles ranging from a Ford Explorer (SUV) to a Ford Ranger (pick-up truck) to a Mini Cooper (which in 2000 was little more than an odd curiosity, and not the trendy car that it is today) to a VW Bus. There are only 32 cars in Vanishing Point, but they're all quite different, and due to quite a few of them not being high performance cars, have their own frustrating handling issues to get used to. What's more, you only start out with 2 cars at the beginning of the game, a Ford Mustang and a Ford Explorer. Soon after, you'll unlock the Ford Ranger, which fishtails like nobody's business and is a total pain to drive.

Now, once you actually get into the game itself, the game is set up as a series of small tournaments (unique to each vehicle), in which you'll have to ultimately win in order to unlock something new within the game. And there's a lot to unlock, as Clockwork locked the vast majority of content in the game (including the seperate tuning options within the game, all amongst different heats. Unlocking those tuning options may greatly help reduce frustration for players who know how to work them, though.)

Racing in Vanishing Point is held in somewhat of a different fashion than in most racing games. At the beginning of each race in a heat, you're given a target time that you have to beat in order to achieve first place. While there is other traffic on the road, and you will need to pass them in order to win, it does not directly affect your position. There are two types of traffic, normal cars and rivals. Rivals will go out of their way to try to keep you from passing, normal cars may not (though that doesn't preclude them from doing stupid things sometimes, like suddenly slamming their brakes directly in front of you). At various points on the track, you'll be updated with what position you're on pace to finish in, and how far ahead or behind you are on the clock compared to the target time, and when there are only 10 seconds left, a countdown will appear at the top of the screen. Be prepared for a lot of frustration with these, as making so much as one mistake, even with unpredictable traffic out there, can be enough to derail your hopes of finishing high enough to continue. If this happens, you may as well start the race over. While frustrating, I found that after a while the high level of concentration that one must devote to the game can become an immersive factor, forcing a player to constantly be attentive and stay on one's toes, making sure a cornering job isn't going to cause them to plow into other cars, not being afraid to use the brakes if there isn't an opening to get around, and all around just really forcing oneself to get better and understand what the game wants out of them. Also, with so much of the game being locked up, a player tends to begin to anticipate what clearing the next heat may unlock, always hoping for a new car or a tuning option, but cringing when they unlock a short video. Thankfully, none of the game's soundtrack, which consists of a bit of inoffensive European production techno (a personal favorite song being the dark trance-themed "Q"), needs to be unlocked.

In addition to the main racing mode, there is also a stunt driver mode, where the game assigns you a specific car and a specific task, and charges you with completing that task in as quick a time as possible. The player has to be careful, though, because there are off-limits areas, and should the car touch them, the task is immediately cancelled. Finishing a task quickly enough will score enough points to unlock the next task. Stunt Driver mode gets quite difficult quite quickly, and doesn't really affect the main game in any way, but does add some extra challenges for a player who doesn't mind taking them on.

Vanishing Point is a misunderstood little game that starts out as a demanding exercise in frustration, but actually has quite a bit to offer for whoever is willing to dig a little below the surface and put some time into it.

Shut up and have some more Sunsoft.

2009-11-08T04:19:22Z

#153

JOURNEY TO SILIUS (aka RAF World) (Tokai Engineering/Sunsoft, 1990)

Another of Sunsoft's NES games, and unlike Batman, this one uses the infamous "Sunsoft Bass" sounds that would be also heard in games like Fester's Quest and Super Spy Hunter. I've always been pretty crap at this game, so I wonder if I'm listing it higher than Batman on the virtues of its excellent (if limited) soundtrack over all else.

As Jay, son of a well-known scientist, you head out to the ruins of a space colony (that had been designed by Jay's father) take out the group of terrorists who destroyed it. Originally meant to be a game based on The Terminator, Journey to Silius is a side-scrolling run and gun game somewhat similar to Mega Man. Each stage is populated with various types of robotic enemies, and though short, it can be quite difficult if you don't know exactly what you're in for (a lot like many other NES games).

Jay's main weapon has infinite ammunition, but his special weapons all have limited ammunition (and thus are best saved for bosses), though on rare occasions an enemy may drop an item that will partially refill Jay's weapons.

The game didn't get a lot of attention when it was new, but seems to have gained a good deal of respect after the fact, through retro gamers who've either played it through emulation or other means. I personally have not been able to beat the game, and with my short attention span always having me jump from game to game, I couldn't put this much higher, nor go into a great deal of detail (though I will say I like this game's aesthetics a bit more than Mega Man's anymore, though a lot of this may be because how much Mega Man we've been inundated with over this years) due to not having been able to beat the second boss, it's certainly a game that deserves your attention and a playthrough. Just don't give up on it if the first stage seems a bit cheap at first.

The Goddamned One Himself...

2009-11-07T22:24:48Z

#154

BATMAN (Sunsoft/Sunsoft, 1989)

This was, in my opinion, one of Sunsoft's finer NES efforts (especially when you consider they gave us such games as Mystery of Atlantis and The Wing of Madoola). Released to capitalize on Tim Burton's 1989 Batman movie, the player controlled Batman as he went around Gotham City basically punching the living crap out of anybody and anything he came across. In addition to his fists, he also had 3 special weapons, consisting of his trademark Batarangs, a Spear Gun (though the spears appeared to be rocket propelled), and a shuriken-style weapon that split into 3 parts when thrown. These weapons took up 1, 2, and 3 units of his ammunition (of which he could have up to 99, shared between the three weapons) respectively. In addition to those abilities, Batman was also able to cling to and spring from walls, which the game gives you opportunities to do as early as stage 1-2 (but later becomes an essential gameplay element). Aside from having Batman and The Joker in the game, it felt like Sunsoft could have thrown any character they wanted into the game and not have it affected in any real way. It's hard to really say that the graphics or soundtrack really scream "Batman" all that much (though, to be sure, they're of fine quality for an 8-Bit game, don't get me wrong), but none of that really hurts one of the better games of its time. The game has its share of annoying enemies (especially Jader), and annoying sequences, but its playability stands up well even today.

Despite what it looks like, that's not X-Infinity.

2009-11-06T07:59:51Z

FIRST EX ENTRY

X-MULTIPLY (Irem/Irem, 1991)

This is the first of a few "bonus entries" on the list, games that initially went forgotten by even me when I came up with my list. I can't honestly squeeze them in and give them numbered entries, but I still feel they're worth covering, so periodically they're going to get a special mention here.

X-Multiply is a horizontal shooter from the house that R-Type built, and as such, there are plenty of similarities. However, there are also some immediately apparent differences. Whereas R-Type was a typical space shooter, X-Multiply takes its cues from games like Life Force and Abadox, and goes a more organic route. You're inside a human body in this game, and have to exterminate the parasites that have taken residence inside.

Despite some familiar gameplay mechanics, where R-Type's gameplay revolved around its trademark Force Pod, X-Multiply gives your ship a pair of tentacle-like option-arms. They flex about as you move (covering your front when you move backwards, and spreading out vertically when you're idle), and can be used to block bullets or attack enemies (either by their normal firing, or just by touching them, which is useful for taking out enemies on the ground).

Like its cousin R-Type, X-Multiply's gameplay requires quite a bit of memorization, and is really meant to be beaten the whole way through in one life. I know these types of games can be frustrating to players, because you tend to end up screwed if you die even once, but I see somewhat of a positive side to it, that being that you know the game isn't a quarter-eater, that it was designed to be able to be beaten, unlike so many other arcade games of its day.

The game's music and sounds are admittedly abrasive, and in a way are more reminiscent of Image Fight than R-Type, but they fit the game and its overarching theme of "otherworldly organic parasites" (somehow, despite that aesthetic, they STILL manage to work in the ubiquitous gigantic battleship stage that's almost a requirement in a horizontal shooter), and the graphics aren't bad for 1991 standards.

The game didn't get a home port until 1998 (done by XING, for the PSX and Saturn), and it didn't make it out of Japan (nor did the arcade game itself, for that matter), so it's probably one of Irem's more obscure games. If nothing else, though, this is a list of games that deserve to be played, and even if it's only here as a bonus entry, X-Multiply certainly deserves to be played.

Get on that cosmic bus...

2009-11-06T06:48:47Z

#155

COSMIC SMASH (Sega Rosso/Sega, 2001)

If you were to take one part Virtua Tennis, one part Breakout, and one part Michael Jackson's "Scream" video, you'd have Cosmic Smash. A game released in the dying days of the Dreamcast, Cosmic Smash sees the player going through a series of "Cosmic Buses", completely black (or white, but not both at the same time) rooms filled with semi-transparent blocks. In order to clear a stage, you must continually return the ball and use it to clear the blocks out of the room, before your time limit runs out. At the cost of some of your time, you can hit a more powerful shot, which can penetrate multiple blocks, and will garner the player bonus points if they use it to finish off the last block in the room. It's a simple game, but eminently playable. The inital 8 stages are named "Cosmic Bus 707" through "Cosmic Bus 777", but after that, the game refers to them all as "Cosmic Bus Special" (they actually have more detailed names, but the game never seems to say what they are). As with most arcade ports, the goal is to work your way for higher and higher scores, by clearing stages ever quicker, and finishing every level with a power shot. The game's graphics and music are both intentionally understated, but give kind of a surreal, retro-VR appearance to the game, and actually looks much nicer through the VGA Box than it does on a normal TV (the cleaner image really bringing out what Sega Rosso was trying to achieve with the game).

One of the Post-US-Death Dreamcast games to get your hands on.

Stop telling me that I don't put any PC games in this countdown. It's a lie.

2009-11-06T02:21:24Z

#156

ANACHRONOX (Ion Storm/Eidos, 2001)

There has always been a large divide between Console RPGs and PC RPGs. More accurately, the divide has been between Japanese (and to a lesser extent, Korean)-style RPGs, and Western-style RPGs. JRPGs tended to focus more on characters and a tightly shaped story, developing the character through the narrative and presenting the player with a far more linear expeience than WRPGs, which tended to focus more on customization and developing the character through how the player wished to upgrade the character's in-game skills, in turn allowing the player to feel more in control of his or her experience.

However, a few Western RPGs (Septerra Core being another example) tried to blur the line between East and West, putting the focus on the game's story. Anachronox was one of the few games that came out of the ill-fated developer Ion Storm. Not nearly as well known as Daikatana or Deus Ex, Anachronox follows Sylvester Bucelli (aka "Sly Boots"), a perpetually broke detective as he is recruited to uncover the mysteries surrounding his universe.

I haven't played this game in a long time, and the last time I tried to install it, it pretty much crapped out and crashed, so honestly, there isn't a ton I can say about it. Even when the game was released, it was extremely dated, still running on the Quake 2 engine even though Quake 3 had been out for a year and a half (though it had been modified to allow for things such as lip movement), and that it had an odd, but welcome sense of humor (the sock scene is the stuff of legend.) Being a game developed in the US from the beginning, there are no odd translation idiosyncracies to worry about, but like most RPGs, you'll have to sit through a slow start before things really get going. The initial release was a bit buggy, and multiple patches were released. If you can find them, there's really no reason not to track this game down.

Classic games that were tainted by underwhelming sequels, Part 1.

2009-11-06T01:43:07Z

#157

NiGHTS : Into Dreams... (Sonic Team/Sega, 1996)

Sega's Saturn turned out to be a much maligned system by gamers at large, Sega's choice to focus on 2D, and then haphazardly toss in 3D capabilities at the last minute (due to the PSX being designed primarily around 3D graphics) really hurt the console in most Western gamers' eyes. Those gamers that did stick with the Saturn, though, wondered when Sonic Team would grace their system with a Sonic sequel. What they got, however, was NiGHTS.

A game with fairly simple gameplay mechanics (though some copies of the game came with its own controller, a round, bulky monstrosity with an analog pad known as the "3D Pad"), NiGHTS follows two children, Elliot and Claris, as they enter the dreamworld of Nightopia, and attempt to free it from Wizeman, who steals the energy and personalities from people as they sleep (and thus, their personalities enter the dreamworld in the form of "Ideya", colored spheres of light). To do so, they team up with NiGHTS, a former henchman of Wizeman who turned against him.

Elliot and Claris each have 4 levels to play through, 3 of which are unique to each character, though the final level is shared between the two. At the beginning ot each stage, either Elliot or Claris are dropped into the level, and their first task is to find NiGHTS, who is imprisoned in an "Ideya Palace" nearby. Once finding and freeing NiGHTS (the red Ideya sphere they carry being what can free NiGHTS, presumably), NiGHTS flies along an on-rails path, flying through a given area of the level with the goal of collecting 20 blue "chips", which will allow NiGHTS to free a captured Ideya sphere. Once the Ideya has been collected, NiGHTS must return to the Ideya Palace before time runs out, moving to the next section of the level. However, a player doesn't have to immediately return to the Ideya Palace, and can use their remaining time to take other runs through the stage (blue chips will turn gold once an Ideya has been recovered, and be worth more points at the end of the stage). Points can also be scored by defeating enemies (typically done by looping around them) and by flying through loops and rings quickly enough to make combos. When NiGHTS enters the Ideya Palace at the end of a section, the player is given a grade based on their performance, and sent to the next part. If the player runs out of time (in addition to its natural countdown, getting hit by enemies will cause chunks of time to be taken off the timer), however, NiGHTS is recaptured, and the player will be put back in control of Elliot or Claris, who can walk freely through the stage (as opposed to following NiGHTS' linear flight path), but cannot fly, and will be chased by a giant alarm clock. Should the alarm catch up to the player, the game will end. Each level has 4 sections, and once all 4 have been cleared (and thus, the player possesses all five types of Ideya), they're sent to battle a boss. The quicker a boss is defeated, the higher the multiplier for a player's overall level score will be, so it's important to defeat the boss as quickly as possible (The player won't be permitted to move on to the final level in the game unless they've achieved at least a C grade in each of the three previous levels).

Whereas Sonic the Hedgehog focused on speed (at least in those days), NiGHTS was clearly focused on the sensation of flight. Despite the Saturn's weakness in the 3D department, the environments are actually fairly well done from an artistic standpoint, and the relative shortness of the levels combined with the grading system pushes the player to replay the levels, always trying to link together higher combos, and achieve higher scores. NiGHTS wasn't exactly the hardest game to play (though the Twin Seeds level had a pretty tight time limit, with little room for error), but it was the sort of game that you'd want to come back to and try to get through a level more effectively than you did the time before.

In 2008, Sega re-released the game on the PS2 (in Japan only), including the levels from the "Christmas NiGHTS" promo disc, which could be played after the main game was finished. There was also a Wii sequel (released in 2007), though it has been criticized for bothersome and inexact controls.

I got rid of my Saturn long ago, but NiGHTS probably has to be one of the games that I regret not having played more of.

Shoot Like Lightning

2009-11-04T01:20:23Z

#158

RAIDEN DX (Seibu Kaihatsu/Nihon System, 1997)

The last entry in the main Raiden series made by Seibu Kaihatsu (the original Raiden developers) before they switched over to the Raiden Fighters spinoff series (and Moss took over the main Raiden series), Raiden DX is somewhat of a remixed version of Raiden 2, which may be more famous for its purple proton laser (known amongst some gamers as the "toothpaste laser") than anything else.

The Raiden series has always been fairly simple. Your ship, the Raiden Mk-II has 3 types of main weapon. The red weapon is a spread shot which can cover a lot of ground, but doesn't do too much damage. The blue weapon is much more powerful, a straight laser beam, but it only fires directly ahead of the plane in a narrow column. The third weapon, and probably the only thing a lot of people know about the Raiden series, is that infamous Proton Laser, which starts out thin, and gets thicker as it powers up, locking onto enemies it touches and bending around to attempt to attack other enemies while it's still locked onto previous targets (until they're eliminated).

The game itself is segregated into 3 types of play. Training Mode (which puts the player in a singular, long, special training stage with 3 lives, and no continues, only one chance to get through), Beginner Mode (which allows the player to play through stages 1-5, nearly identical to Raiden 2, except with the new rules), and Expert Mode (which allows the player to play through all 8 stages, with a special stage for the most skilled players only). The stages in the game are mostly similar to the progression from Raiden 2, only with some graphical changes to make it look more scarred by war, and some new enemy patterns. However, what may be the largest change, for high-level expert shoot-em-up players, is Raiden DX's new medal system, and how it affects scoring. When a medal appears, it quickly begins to fade, losing its point value. A completely faded medal is worth a very minimal amount of points, so it appears to be best to grab a medal as soon as possible. However, a brief moment after fading completely, the medal will shine again for about half of a second. If the medal is picked up at that time, its value will be significantly higher than it was even when it first appeared on-screen. Being able to do this consistently is the only way to get extremely high scores. And speaking of, Raiden DX's scoring in an average game will be much higher than it would have in Raiden 1 or 2, as the game gives you a bonus upon your final death based on how well you played, and then gives you a ranking. Not knowing a single word of written Japanese, I couldn't tell you what the ranking system means or how it is determined (just that it's displayed as a number listed beside a Japanese character). For those who understand it, coming back to achieve better ranks may be a motivating factor.

The music in the game calls back to the original Raiden, including the nicest sounding version of Gallantry (the main theme from Raiden 1) the series has known. As an added bonus, the game included the BGM from the then-brand-new-arcade-game Viper Phase 1 as a selectable music option.

As a classic vertical shooter from the pre-bullet-hell era, Raiden DX is a forgotten entry in a classic series, and should be played be anyone interested in old-school shoot-em-ups.

Remember when they made 2D PC games?

2009-11-04T00:04:50Z

#159

DEATH RALLY (Remedy/Apogee, 1996)

Before they were the Max Payne people, Remedy used the help of another shooter icon, Duke Nukem, to get a game of theirs off the ground. And in the tradition of Rare's RC Pro-Am series, they gave us Death Rally, an overhead perspective racing game where the objective is ultimately to defeat the grand champion, known only as "The Adversary".

To do this, you'll choose a character avatar, and then be given $495 of in-game currency and a low-level car known as the Vagabond. You're dropped into the bottom of the game's leaderboard, and have to work your way into the #1 spot (usually held by Duke Nukem if you didn't choose his portrait to use as your own) before you'll be allowed to challenge The Adversary. In order to move up the ranking list, you'll have to enter and win races. There are 20 drivers, but only 12 can race per day (3 races per day, one at beginner level, one at medium level, one at expert level; and four drivers in each race). The player earns points and money depending on how he finishes the race, and can use it to buy upgrades for the car which will allow it to go faster, turn better, or take more damage. If they have enough, they could buy a new, better vehicle entirely (though their upgrades start at zero again on the new car). Although weapons are in the game, they're optional, and can be turned off if the player likes their game a little less RC Pro-Am, and a little more Super Off-Road.

When a player reaches the #1 spot, they must challenge the Adversary, and cannot enter regular races (unless they drop back down to the #2 spot or lower in the rankings). The Adversary has a Deliverator (the fastest car in the game) that is upgraded to a level beyond what the player is capable of upgrading it to, but he can still be beaten, even with weapons turned off.

The game doesn't stray too far from what other examples of the overhead racing genre had provided up until that time (be it Super Sprint, RC Pro-Am, Super-Off Road, or what have you), but is a well made game with plenty of polish, and looked quite nice for the time (and was infinitely superior to Excessive Speed, a similar game released at a similar time period, especially in the gameplay department) Though the game advertised 19 tracks, 9 of them were mirrored versions of the original 9, and the last was the stage you faced The Adversary in. The task of working your way up the rankings, and watching to see who on the board entered which races kept things interesting, as there was a little more to consider than just entering a race and being on your way.

Originally for DOS, Remedy just released a free port for XP (SP3), Vista, and Windows 7, apparently to commemerate the release of Windows 7.

Certainly a game that deserves to be played, and now there's no reason not to.

I hate halloween.

2009-11-01T03:43:56Z

I really do. I never have any plans, I never get out, I never have anything to do or anywhere to go.

Other people get to have fun with it, but not me. Even when I was little, I never did anything. My father called it a waste of time. He called EVERYTHING a waste of time (and money).

Blargh.

Why am I the only person on the planet not allowed to do anything fun?

In a time where everything on the Saturn had to look like a fighter...

2009-11-01T03:41:04Z

#160

DRAGON FORCE (Sega/Working Designs, 1996)

Let's not mince words. I'm horrible at strategy games. Beyond worthless. The drizzling shits at them. Stick them in real-time, and you've got both my feet in the grave already. Somehow, though, Sega came through the darkness and dropped a gem in my coffin, and even though I'm just as awful at strategy games as I've ever been, I at least managed to have a bit of fun with this one, and thanks to half-decent Saturn emulation, I'm actually able to give this game another chance once I'm willing to dedicate myself to putting the time into it.

The game takes place on the continent of Legendra, where the God of Destruction, Madruk threatens the land. As the leader of one of eight countries; Highland (led by the Nobleman Wein), Palemoon (led by the Shaman Priestess Teiris), Tristan (led by the dark, serious, and mysterious Junon), Topaz (led by the Martial Artist Leon), Tradnor (led by the young wizard Reinhart), Bozak (led by wildman Gongos), Izumo (led by the Swordsman Mikhal), or Fandaria (led by the Warmonger Goldark); you have to go out and lay siege to castles, recruit new soldiers to your army (while keeping the ones you already have happy), and defeat and capture the other leaders, to ultimately form a united front against Madruk.

The process of uniting the land takes place over a series of in-game weeks (each with their own short time period), in which you organize your characters into groups, decide who'll advance to attack and take over castles, and who will stay behind to defend the ones your country owns. When you reach an occupied castle, you will enter battle with the occupants, in which a screen showing the commanders in the enemy force, and your own group of commanders are displayed on screen, and you can access information about the commanders' levels, and the types of unit they currently command. There are 10 different unit types in the game, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses (for instance, Monks are strong against Cavalry and Undead, but weak against Archers and Dragons), and as such, can play a big part in who wins or loses a battle. Even though a commander can have multiple unit types under his command, he can only command a single unit type at a time, so if all his Cavalrymen get taken out early in the battle, you won't be able to switch him over to Monks or Solders in a later round of the same battle.

Battles themselves take place on a side view screen, where each commander's life meter, MP meter, and soldier count is displayed along with a time limit. At the beginning of each round of battle, the player and enemy will choose a formation for their unit, which affects how the unit members will be placed relative to the commander (ie : "Special" places the entire unit in front of the commander, leaving them free to advance toward the enemy army, but leaves nobody behing to guard the commander, or "Defense" will place 30% of the unit in front as an attacking force, and the remaining 70% behind the commander to protect him). Once the formations are selected, the battle will begin and the player can open a menu to give a command to his unit (such as "Advance", "Retreat", or "Standby"). Stationary units will fight more effectively than ones on the move, so if you have a unit of 20 monks, and the enemy has 30 advancing cavalrymen, if the monks are standing still, they'll take out a large number of the cavalrymen while suffering very few losses of their own. Orders can be changed at any time in the battle, unless the player chooses the "Melee" order, which causes the entire remaining unit to charge in headlong for the commander, battling until either he or they die. Once that order is given, the unit can no longer be given any other orders. For their part, commanders also have special attacks, which if used correctly will take out a large number of the enemy unit, and possibly even do damage to the enemy commander. If a commander is in trouble, they may retreat, which will remove them from the remainder of the battle, but will keep them from being completely defeated.

If during a battle both the player and enemy have their entire unit defeated, and neither side retreats, then the two commanders will go into a duel, where they will take turns automatically attacking each other until one is defeated. Once all the commanders on a side have been defeated, the battle will end, and some of the commanders on the losing end may be captured. Anyone who isn't captured will run off towards another castle. Commanders occupying a castle without fighting may replenish lost units (Castles have levels, and can hold a number of reserve units equal to the level of the castle multiplied by ten).

At the end of each week, the player can speak to captured enemy combatants (trying to recruit them to their side), speak to their own soldiers (Though one should be careful, as speaking to an unhappy soldier may cause them to quit and leave your army), or hand out awards, which will increase the number of units that a commander can have under them. The game will tell you specifically who earned the awards, but you don't necessarily have to give them to that person (as there may be other commanders you wish to bolster, or unhappy commanders that you need to pacify), search castles in your country's territory for new recruits, or strengthen the level of your castles (if someone capable is occupying them). After all of that, the game's story will advance a little, and the next battle phase will begin.

As someone with absolutely no mind for strategy, I did find myself making headway in the game at first, and it's not laid out too complex, but there's one little thing that kept me from being any good at the game, or being able to continue making progress, my first time through.

The skull children. The MOTHERF***ING SKULL CHILDREN. Every now and then, a group of renegade enemies will show up on the map near your weakest and/or least-defended castle, and begin slowly defeating everyone there and effectively shrinking your territory. And they always retreat, so no matter how many times you defeat them, they'll always come back. On the off chance that you DO kill them (which can happen if they meet a computer controlled army while running away from you, and enter battle with them), they'll be replaced by Paine and Agonni, which serve the same purpose as the Skull Children. Trying to leave behind soldiers who can take care of those battles, while ALSO having to deal with attempts to conquer the other countries can prove difficult, especially to someone who isn't good at strategy games. (A helpful hint that I learned stemming from an incident that forced me to abandon my game and start over about halfway through : Do NOT leave any castles for an enemy country's Ruler to run away to, when you attack them. You're in their territory, and the castle you just took over will have zero reserve units due to its new occupants, so the enemy will just be able to send a force to easily rout the party that just finished a battle.)

Despite this, Dragon Force is a game with a nice art style (especially for 1996), engaging gameplay, and an appropriate soundtrack that never gets in the way of the game. Working Designs' translation is the usual WD work, trying to inject their usual humor into the game (though thankfully it's not as blunt and doesn't feature fourth-wall breaking pop-culture references quite on the level of their Lunar translation). Somebody skilled at strategy games, real-time or otherwise, probably won't have too much difficulty with it, and even someone like me, who couldn't outstrategize a watermelon, has enough respect for the game to be willing to give it another shot.

Nice to meet you, Mr. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

2009-10-30T05:33:59Z

#161

YOU DON'T KNOW JACK 4 : THE RIDE (Berkeley Systems/Jellyvision/Sierra, 1998)

Video game versions of game shows are nothing new. Even back in the old days of 286 computers and such consoles as the NES, companies like GameTek and Sharedata were giving us digital conversions of TV favorites like Wheel of Fortune, Family Feud, Card Sharks, and Classic Concentration. But what there wasn't much of, was a game created from the ground up, with a game-show style format, that wasn't based on an existing TV program. With the goal of applying game show concepts to a contemporary adult trivia game, You Don't Know Jack was born.

Billed as being "The game where high culture and pop culture collide[s]", the series' humorous take on trivia made it wildly successful, spanning 6 main volumes and a few special spinoffs. The Ride was one of the more interesting entries, and the one I've chosen for this list.

The ride begins, by asking you a moral question, and after you answer, you're put on an elevator in which you set-up the game itself (such things as the number of players and their names...). Sometimes the computer will do things such as force you into a name you don't want, or act like only a single key on your keyboard is working, and make a joke about it (such as "Oooh.", if it only allows you to enter the letter o when typing in your name.) Once that's all set up, the intro sequence and theme song to the game will play, the elevator will let you off at a certain numbered floor, and the theme of the game's questions (which relates to the question the game asked you before you started) will be revealed.

While other versions of YDKJ game you the option of a 7 or 21 question game, The Ride is always 13. Each proper game of The Ride begins with the host (all the hosts of the Previous YDKJ games appear in this one, though Cookie seems to be the primary host for most of the game itself) introducing himself and the rules of the game, giving each player a "Screw". What the screw does, is when a player rings in to answer a question, one of the other players can press a button to fire screws into the screen, obscuring both the question and the answers to make it more difficult to respond.

Before each question, a quickly changing money value is displayed on the screen, and a player (usually the last player to correctly answer a question) has to press their ring-in button to stop it and determine the question's value. From that point, a multiple-choice question will be asked. A correct answer will add the value to the player's score, and an incorrect answer will subtract it.

In addition to standard questions, there are also special sorts of questions that can appear throughout the game, such as "Dis Or Dat" (where a single player is given a series of subjects, and either 2 or 3 terms that could describe those objects, and must determine which term each subject belongs to), or "Jack Bingo", where a five-letter word is displayed on screen, and players have to ring in when the first letter of the answer to the question in play is lit up. At the end of the game, all players participate in the "Jack Attack", in which a clue is given to the players that sets the overall theme of the round, and then another clue appears in the middle of the screen. After that, a series of possible choicess (that could fit both the overall clue, and the secondary clue) appear, one at a time. If a player rings in when the correct choice is on the screen, the question value is added to the player's score. If they ring in when an incorrect choice is on the screen, it will be subtracted. A player can ring in multiple times during the same attempt to match a word, meaning there can be some rather large subtractions from a player's score if they keep answering incorrectly. After seven words, the Jack Attack ends, and the player with the highest score wins.

As the YDKJ series has always done, the game has a very minimalist graphical style, mainly consisting just of various text boxes and text animations (with a few exceptions for special questions such as Roadkill and Dis or Dat). This keeps load times and disc access down, and gameplay moving along quickly.

The game's morality questions and downwards elevator ride seem to imply that the players are being sent to hell, but The Ride is certainly a more enjoyable experience than that.

Say it five times fast.

2009-10-30T02:44:43Z

#162

SOUKYUGURENTAI : OUBUSHUTSUGEKI ("Blue Sky, Crimson Lotus Warriors") (Raizing/Data East, 1997)

In the early 80s, a developer known as Toaplan became known for their many vertical shooters, giving us classics such as Twin Cobra (aka Kyukyoku Tiger), Twin Hawk (aka Daisenpuu), and Sky Shark (aka Hishou Zame). When they closed down in the mid 1990s, their staff split off and joined many other companies, and continued to make vertical shooters. One of these companies was Eighting/Raizing, and the game we're covering here has a title just as unweildy as the company that developed it.

After making their name known with the Mahou Daisakusen series (aka Sorcer Striker, Kingdom Grand Prix, Dimahoo, etc...), Raizing developed an arcade game for Sega's ST-V hardware (and later ported it to the Saturn and PSX) known as Soukyugurentai (where if the original arcade game was set to an English language setting, it would become known as "Terra Diver"). This game is different to most of Raizing's vertical shooters, as it was designed to run on a horizontally aligned monitor (which Takumi's 1999 arcade game "Giga Wing" would also become known for). The story of the game, like most shooters, doesn't really make a lot of sense, involving the Japanese Self-Defense Force protecting the interests of a prominent Japanese space-mining business from a rival corporation and eco-terrorists opposed to space-mining.

The PSX port of the game, saddled with the ridiculous subtitle seen at the top of the article, added an extra, yellow-colored ship to the three in the arcade version, though the system's inferior 2D capacity meant it didn't look quite as nice as the Saturn version. If I had to compare the gameplay to another shooter, the one I'd say it resembles most is Taito's RayStorm, though there are some key differences to speak of.

Similar to RayStorm, you had your standard shot and a secondary lock-on weapon. But unlike Taito's game, in Soukyugurentai, each player ship had something known as a "NALS" (Non-Blind Spot All Range Laser System) that spread out around the ship, and if an enemy ship flew into the area it covered, it would be locked onto. Each ship had two seperate styles of NALS, each with its own shape and attack type. To someone who plays a lot of shooters, they may also find little similarities to games such as the Aleste series here and there as well.

Working Designs tried to bring this game to the US on multiple occasions (both the Saturn and PSX versions, on seperate occasions), but various things kept happening to keep them from ever coming out.

If this article seems like as big of a mess as the game's title is, that's because while Soukyugurentai is a good game, and got a good deal of hype from fans of import shooters in its heyday, and despite its solid gameplay and music, it felt like there was something missing, and even I'm not sure I can quite describe what it was. Maybe I've just played too many shooters. All the same, I'd consider this one Raizing's best effort.

The game that gave HMX legitimacy.

2009-10-30T00:16:11Z

#163

AMPLITUDE (Harmonix/Sony, 2003)

These days, Harmonix may be best known for the Rock Band series, but before that, they developed a pair of rhythm games that didn't involve costly plastic instrument peripherals. Amplitude, the sequel to 2001's Frequency, is overall the better game, even though which of th two had the better soundtrack may be debatable.

Amplitude, like Frequency before it, consists of the player's indicator moving down a series of paths, each path representing a different part of the song (Bass, Vocals, Synth, etc...), and the player is charged with hitting the appropriate button in time with the notes that appear on the path. If the player successfully does so, the path will be temporarily 'captured' and play automatically, allowing the player to move onto another one. In order to easier facilitate this, the player has powerups such as an auto-capture (instantly clearing a track) or a slow down (slowing the entire song down to make capturing a track theoretically easier). Captruing consecutive tracks increases a score multiplier, up to 8x. At the end of each tier of songs, the player has to reach a certain target score in order to unlock that tier's last song.

Where Frequency used almost exclusively electronic music (especially lo-fi types), Amplitude chose to try to appeal more to the masses by using songs by such known artists as Blink-182, Garbage, P!nk, and Weezer. In addition, like Frequency before it, Amplitude has a good number of in-house songs written by Harmonix staff (a personal favorite being "Robot Rockerz"), as well. Whether one considers the change in soundtrack style a good or bad thing is subjective, though Amplitude's gameplay is definitely improved over Frequency.

In addition to the normal game, there is also a "Remix" mode, which places the song's general backing track before the player and allows them to place their own series of notes. It's not something I personally experimented with at all, as it seemed far too time consuming to come to grips with. Others may enjoy trying to seek better results.

Though not as well known as Harmonix's other music games, Amplitude is still worth taking a look at.