Beyond Fun & More Fun

I try to avoid using the word visceral on this blog because of it's toxic "video game marketing" bent - but I have to say that summer is the most visceral month.  It is a season dominated by sensations and feelings, instinct and nostalgia - and excepting the oppressive heat - all of these feelings are positive. Even mosquito bites have a kernel of happiness at their center because one only gets them in the summer (ideally at a BBQ... at a yacht club... on Martha's Vineyard). 

But any serious gamer spent a decent amount of their summers indoors playing video games. Sure this sounds sad, and is probably a truth that is best left unsaid to any girl, but memories of sitting in front of a fan, possibly shirtless, playing Final Fantasy are the equal to any day at a beach eating cheese sandwiches. As a kid/adolescent, summer was an infinite sprawl of free time to play as many video games as possible. I would give a few toes to be as carefree and steeped in games as I once was able to be, able to casually knock of 30 hours on RPG in just a week instead of a month. 

 As my ability to acquire games outpaces my ability to actually play them, I've built up a shamefully thick backlog of games-to-play in my library. This summer, with at least a week out of commission due to impending surgery, I've been thinking about what games I should finally beat and/or rack up more hours in. Yeah, I'll probably just winding up playing Mass Effect 1 and 2 again, but at the beginning of summer I get so nostalgic for the summers of my youth that I only want to play old games. Here are THE five games I need to play this summer:

• Beyond Good & Evil
• Skies of Arcadia
• Final Fantasy XII
• Star Ocean: The Second Story
• Vagrant Story

And, like every summer, I swear to play a 3D Zelda game. Every summer since it was released, I drag my N64 out and hook it up to the TV so I can take another pass at Ocarina of Time. But I only ever make it through the first dunegon and out onto Hyrule Field before I put the controller down, throw up, and never to pick it up for the rest of the summer. Is it because my surviving N64 controller is sorta busted? Or perhaps because the N64 on an HD-TV looks like shit? Or is it because I never really liked Ocarina of Time as much as I wanted to? I suspect the former two, but deep down, I know it is the latter. And that's why I think I try to play it every year - because I love A Link to the Past so much, why shouldn't I love Ocarina of Time? Looking at the other games in the series, would I like Major's Mask and it's eccentricities more? It's arguable that The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess are just updated, more contemporary versions of Ocarina of Time, so maybe I should just skip to them?

Zelda and summer go hand-in-hand especially in my mind because the Zelda games were the first ones to impress a sense of environment on me. Plants, animals, all seemed to be a part of their surroundings, and exploring ones surroundings is what Zelda, and summer, are all about. Ocarina of Time had a fantastic, almost impressionistic sense of place, probably necessary beause of hardware limitations. The impression of these Zelda games always brings me back, but the mechanics of actually playing it aren't that appealing to me. And you know what? I guess I could say the same for summer - it's a fantastic memory, but often in the thick of it, I'm sweating my ass off and giant bugs constantly harass me.

Epilogue: After I finished writing this Zelda rant, I realized that what I love most about Zelda games is present by the boatload in Beyond Good & Evil, the game at the top of my summer list. So check that game out!

Wait... Mario 3 wasn't a straight up sequel?? -Alex
 

May 3

Picross 3D (DS)

Paul - Ask Alex... 

Alex - I LOOOOOVE the original Picross on DS.  It would have to fight with Peggle for my favorite casual game of all time.  I'm a bit worried because I think making the format 3D may make this too complicated.  Even in 2D, Picross required some pretty complex thinking.  To be fair I know nothing about this game other than seeing about a couple of pictures, but i have high hopes. 

May 4

Iron Man 2 (everything)

Paul - I'll never play this and will never think about playing this. The movie looks RAD but I'm a little sad that it's the only AWESOME movie coming this summer. 

Alex - How do you make a game fail?  Give Sega the summer's #1 movie license. OHHHHH!!!  (Side note to self: Read Iron Man comics.) 

Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake (PSP)

Paul - I heard that this game was not that good. To be honest, any game with "King" or "Princess" or "Fat" in the title just passes me by. 

Alex - Paul, why did I tell you to add this to the list?  It's not like I care enough to even look up a trailer for the PSP version of the game.  I was a little interested in the original until I heard it was completely broken. 

May 11

3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)

Paul - I sorta want to play this. It's cheap and I've been wanting to play a new 2D Zelda game for a while. The cutesy self-parody is unappealing, but Zelda games have that junk anyways. I like the surprisingly high-quality graphics, but the forced perspective effect makes me a little nauseous. Oof! 

Alex - Everything about this game looks great EXCEPT that it looks exactly like the original Zelda.  Don't get me wrong, I really like the original Zelda, but it just seems a little too simple and boring for a lengthy modern game.  Then again I really, really liked Darksiders and that game is probably more like Zelda than even 3D Dot Heroes is. 

Skate 3 (everything)

Paul - Who still plays skating games? 

Alex - Skate 1 was the first game I got when I bought a 360. The original holds a special place in my heart.  I played the demo for Skate 2 and 3, but I just can't get interested in them again.  Skating games need a renaissance. 

Lost Planet 2

Paul - I owned the original Lost Planet for a while when I first got my 360. It was impressive but wayyy too Capcomy for me. Very difficult even when you're not under a constant time restraint. As soon as they showed that the Gears of War guys were in it I lost any interest in the sequel. But then I heard there were submarine mechs?? 

Alex -  The original was a generic, good but not great game.  The sequel looks to be the same.  Looks like a great bargain bin item. 

May 18

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands

Paul - I loved the last Prince of Persia game, so I was sad they didn't continue on with those characters and art style. I never played the original Sands of Time, but this just reeks of movie tie-in. Ubisoft is so annoying. 

Alex - I'm with Paul on this.  I really liked the PoP reboot.  Reboots of pretty much every series, movie or games, in the past 8 years have been great, why the hell would they go backwards?  Oh, because the scrawny kid from Donnie Darko did steroids? Okay that makes sense. 

LOLOLOLOLOL

Attack of the Movies 3D

Paul - A budget 3D game. I feel like this fell back in time from 2012 when there will be lots of crappy 3D games like this. 

Alex - Holy shit, a theme park ride for your living room!  I love how on gametrailers.com it has a user rating of 10 because one person rated it.  This game looks hilariously great if it were only a dollar. 

Alan Wake

Paul - I was very interested in this when it was first announced years ago. My excitement has cooled the more I've seen of it because it looks more actiony than I hoped it would be. However, playing Deadly Premonition got me excited again for a mysterious game set in a small lumber town that actually has good graphics and play mechanics. 

Alex - Wasn't this supposed to be a launch game or something?  Only 5 years late.  Long enough for me to not care too much anymore.  It does sound pretty good though, and if it's highly rated I'll likely pick it up.  I'm curious to see the whole "light as weapons" mechanic. 

Red Dead Redemption

Paul - I am very excited for this. The world, graphics and gameplay all look good, plus it feels like it will be more of an open-ended adventure than Rockstar's GTA games. Got me excited to ride a horse for the first time since Shadow of the Colossus! 

Alex - Despite everyone being really excited for this game I jsut seem to find myself not looking forward to it.  I think I'm still disappointed with GTAIV and so it's hard for me to separate this game far enough from that.  This is a good time to plug an old blog that Paul and I used to maintain 2 years ago (it only lasted 2 months, we are doing much better now, but I think Iwas funnier back then.)  So check out this post about GTAIV from our old blog and you'll see why I was so disappointed. 

Split/Second

Paul - This looks like a Beetle Adventure Racing for 2010. I'm sure Alex will get it. 

Alex - I really like the burnout series and this game looks pretty close to that experience except you make shit blow up and cause persistent changes to the track?  Yeah, I'm in.  Also I like any game where the term "persistent" applies. 

May 23

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Paul - I admit I want to play this, but only because I never played the first Galaxy. So I guess I should play that. Too bad I don't have a Wii... Alex, give me your Wii. 

Alex - Paul, you have 3 Wiis in your living room, why do you need mine?  I'll probably pick this game up.  I wasn't excited for Galaxy when it came out, but damn that game was great.  I'm not excited for this either, but i'm positive the game will be excellent.  I feel pretty much the same way about all of Nintendo's "hardcore" franchises. 

May 25

UFC Undisputed 10

Paul - Another game I'll never think about. UFC is the WWE with all the fun taken out. 

Alex - My dad and I beat the shit out of eachother in the first UFC game, and that was fun.  I'll never buy this but I hope my brother or dad get it so I can beat the living snot out of them.  I did hear that they are making the controls more accessible which is good because the original required more study time than Turbo Mega Alpha Super Street Fighter Omega 15 in order to play decently. 

Blur

Paul - Whenever I see this I get confused because Blur is my favorite band. Blur the racing game is supposed to be like Mario Kart but with real cars. Sounds cool if I was 13 and at a sleep-over. 

Alex -  I can't believe this game and Split Second are coming out at the same time.  Unfortunately for Blur, Split/Second looks more original and therefore better.  Sorry Blur. 

Modnation Racers (PS3, PSP)

Paul - I really dig the Kevin Butler/PS3 commercial for this game. I don't know much about it but it sorta looks like Little Big Planet but with karts... but crappier than that would be. 

Alex - Does anyone remember Penny Racers?  This game sort of reminds me of Penny Racers for N64 which was an AWESOME game...until i played it a few years later... 

May 26

Hexyz Force (PSP)

Paul - Games like this always trick me into wanting a PSP. I like RPGs that have different quests with different main characters, like this has. I think I can now say that iPad RPGs are cooler than PSP RPGs. Thanks, Chaos Rings! 

Alex - Paul, Chaos Rings is only for iPhone right now, the only reason I don't buy it is because they already said they are working on an ipad version, which I would rather have.  Now on to Hexyz Force.  This game SCREAMS mid-generation Japanese PS1 RPG, everything from the style to the music to the gameplay.  And wow...shit I want this game. 

May 30

Rocket Knight

Paul - The original Rocket Knight/Sparkster games are really forgotten classics. I'm excited to see Konami go back to the franchise with an all-new game (no updated port). The art style is really impressive too, creating this storybook, pseudo-puppet show aesthetic that looks like a lot of fun. 

Alex - As a Genesis owner back in the day, I LOVED renting Rocket Knight.  I recently played Sparkster for Game-A-Day and it still holds up as a great game.  I hope with the increased screen space they can do something with Rocket Knight's extreme mobility.  I'm cautious about this game for fear of being really disappointed.

Floating sky asteroids destroyed: 6
What can be said about Axelay? It's basically "Mode 7: The Game 2" (sequel to Pilotwings...). Even at my age, I was like WOW IMPRESSIVE GRAPHICS, then I got nauseous and had to sit with my head between my knees for 30 minutes.

Shooters (or "shmups") like this are very aggravating, and just take so many playthroughs to memorize that it is often not worth it. I especially hate the mechanic of enemies forming a circle around you, requiring you to quickly switch to yous shoots-in-circle mode to survive. Bleh

This is the last "A" game in my sea-warped box of SNES games. At first I felt so relieved - it's been a rough journey. But looking ahead, it looks like things are only going to get rougher. Batman games, Battletoads, Bass fishing games, and Bubsys litter my path forward. I thought this would get easier, but the view from here breaks my neck. Maybe I'll rethink my alphabetic policy...

Alex: I'll start with a question to you to get started: What was the first game you played, how old were you, and what year was it?

Paul: The earliest game I remember playing was Metroid for NES at my cousins’ house. It must have been 1990 or 91, so I was 3 or 4. That's what I feel in my gut anyways

Paul: Now back at you. First game?

Alex: It was Mario and Duck Hunt for me, that’s what I remember playing a lot of when I was really young. My parents said I was 2 when I started playing which would have made it 1989.  I definitely don't know how much I actually "played" but my parents joke that I was basically born with a controller in my hand

Paul: So your older brother had an NES?

Alex: Yeah, it was my brother's. Strangely, I don't remember playing video games with my brother at all even though we shared video games consoles for many years

Alex: What was your first system?

Paul: My first system was actually an Atari 2600 that a family friend had given to us - I was 5.

Alex: do you have any fond memories of specific 2600 games?  What were some that stick out in your mind?

Paul: I had lots of fond memories - it was a gorgeous piece of hardware and I had it hooked up to this old knob-turner TV in my room. I had two controllers and liked to play COMBAT with my mom, especially the tank game with the bouncing bullets. I had a lot of games but mostly liked Defender and Frogger and this space game I can't remember. And yes, I had Pac-man, and yes, even that young I knew it was bad.

Paul: Have you ever played a 2600??

Alex: The only time I remember playing it was when we would rent out a condo in New Hampshire or Maine to go skiing.  I think the owners used to put their children’s old systems in the condo.  I only ever remember playing Pitfall and feeling really smart for figuring out I could run to the left.Years later when we had a Genesis, that condo replaced the Atari with an NES, I was a little disappointed because I had already moved on from NES, but Atari was so rare to me

Paul: Yeah, there’s a special place in this world for the 2600. I still have it somewhere in my parents’ house. I need to find it, even though I can’t play it on any TV I own. Not that I’d want to. I just want to look at the console itself.

Alex: How do you think those early gaming moments defined you as a gamer or person, if at all?

Paul: Well, since I had my Atari in my room, I know I grew to prefer gaming as a private experience. If it's just me, a console, and a TV, no one can interrupt me and I’m not interrupting anyone. With later systems that I had to play on the living room TV (composite cables and all), I’d always have to stop when my parents had shows they wanted to watch.

Alex: Even though I always had to share consoles, I think I feel the same way. We did have separate TVs, one in the basement, and one in the living room, so I wasn't booted off if someone wanted to watch TV. I very much liked my game playing to be an experience, something I could really focus on and get into.

Paul: Yeah exactly. I’m sure that, and being an only child in my case, then led to me being into RPGs, the ultimate solitary game experience.

Alex: We had a good variety of NES games, and I remember I would always borrow games from my neighbors. The kids over there were older and grew out of the NES but they would let me borrow games, which I think really got me to enjoy all sorts of different games- from sports, to RPGs.

Paul: Did you ever rent games?

Alex: Ohhhh yes, Stop & Shop right down the street was where we used to go. I don't remember very many rentals, but I remember that they had a Game Genie you could rent, and they even gave you the book with it, but it was like, you weren't getting a game too, though sometimes my parents would let me rent that and a game as well, I feel sort of bad now that I asked them to rent both for me.

Paul: Stop & Shop was a great video store for renting games. Can I just add that, before ever having played any video games, I remember renting a caveman videogame from Stop & Shop with my dad, and not knowing you had to have a console to play it in.

Alex: Wait wait. A caveman game? Like the one I bought from Stop & Shop?

Paul: Yeah man, maybe Joe and Mac? Is that it?

Alex: No, I think it was Big Nose. Yeah, Big Nose the Caveman

Paul: Yeah, had to be because it would've been for NES. OMG it’s our nerd destiny.

Alex: Haha, that amazing. Big Nose was a great game, I have a very specific memory of my parents saying "You can buy a game from Stop & Shop", and we went there and I chose that game for no reason other than the cover art.

Paul: I have the SNES Phantom 2040 from Stop & Shop, but that's jumping ahead a few years. I have to remember that with my 2600, I couldn’t rent any games. My parents would take me to Save the Dragon, this independent game store in downtown Beverly, MA, and they would have to dig in their attic for 2600 games.

Alex: Hmm, any other subject we should cover?

Paul: Yes, the Atari came with an issue of the official Atari Force comic and I loved it

Alex: Haha, what was Atari Force?

Paul: Atari Force was this futuristic, G.I. Joe type organization that did missions for Atari or something. I didn't really understand it as a kid - I didn’t get why Atari was this pseudo military organization that was sending people to the moon. But it had great art, and I’m a good artist! So I have Atari to thank

Alex: Did you ever have an NES?

Paul: Yes - at some point my parents got me a pre-owned NES from that Dragon game store, along with the combo Mario Bros/Duck Hunt cart.The only other game I owned for it was Kirby's Adventure - my first brand new game.

Alex: Ohhh what a great game.

Paul: I also owned a broken Super C I got at a yard sale.

Alex: Ohh, we had Contra.

Paul: That NES was a champ though... I sold it to Brendan in 2004 and he still uses it.

Alex: I think I’ll have to write a more in depth article about specific NES games. Mega Man 2 sticks out in my head.

Paul: I rented a lot of games, I def rented Mega Man 5 a lot. Part 2 should be the 8-bit, heavy rental years

Alex: OK, one last question.

Paul: Shoot

Alex: How far away from the screen did you stand when playing duck hunt?

Paul: Well I was really bad for a long time, then got a lot better - and to be honest I’m not sure if I started far away and got close or vice versa.

Paul: You?

Alex: The gun was touching the screen, haha.

Paul: Hahahha

Alex: When I got older I finally stood back from the screen.

Paul: Wasn’t it easier when you actually aimed?

Alex: Nope, just touch the gun to the screen where the duck is and shoot.

Look for Part 2 of our Turbo Oral History next Friday!

The actual product got mixed reviews and I didn't consider picking it up, but having so much history with the franchise (and being intrigued by the Halo Reach beta) I was excited to be given a copy of the game.

The opening cinemas were a big turn off - not only is the Halo engine severely dated, but the characters were just so terrible. When we finally got out of our drop-pods and onto the streets of New Mombassa, I have to admit I was impressed with the atmosphere. A night-time, post-traumatic city is an interesting local to battle aliens (even if the city has nothing really going on in it). The music was a far cry different from typical Halo and FPS fare, with some ambient electronics and dissonant jazz thrown in. ODST felt distinct from the mainline Halo games, and I was really enjoying myself until we "flash backed" to the experience of one of the other ODST soldiers and it became Halo 3 all over again, with the same, stale "HALO" set-pieces. Drive the Warthog! Blow up the Wraith! Hit those two big boss dudes in the back! Accidentally pick up a Needler!

Despite being a "regular solider", I noticed very little actual difference between my ODST guy and Master Chief (he doesn't talk and can still flip trucks with no sweat). The VISR combat scanner was a nice addition, especially during the night missions, but felt more like an afterthought to make those portions of the game easier.

We stopped a few hours short of beating it, but ODST left JUST enough of an impression with me that I will be picking it up in the next few weeks to see how it all wraps up. I hope that Halo Reach brings out more of the impressionistic, sad side of the Halo universe that was on display here.

Time played: fuggit

Faces broke: GRAHH

I hate fighting games. But I want to love them. My problem is that playing against any of my friends is impossible because they're WICKED good at fighting games. I only have a chance of surviving if we play a shitty fighting game (or Dead or Alive). And this is a shitty fighting game. But I can only play on my computer by myself only have one controller so had to play by myself. Feh!

Where'd Mom go!?!?

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Earlier this week I beat Batman: Arkham Asylum, a truly solid game and excellent Batman sim. I was extremely impressed with the first half of the game, impressed by the fluid gameplay mechanics and the great level design. Don't get me started on how great the cape looked. I loved it until about halfway when they stopped presenting new ideas, and just repeated variations of the same thing. Another boss fight where you have to dodge ramming brutes, another encounter with Scarecrow where you have to avoid his stare-beams, another gargoyle room where you have to stun every enemy. Even the upgrades got to be repetitive (more batarangs, more grappling hooks). I think a sequel would really take everything good about this and make it great.

Also, a side note, that I'm tired of the Unreal Engine and it's super shiny textures. Sure, it's an easy way to look good, but it in Batman I found it sometimes distracting. Batman's mouth, for instance, could barely move when he was talking. And, it's just so... Unreal looking.

Red Faction: Guerilla

I played the demo for this game on Xbox Live and wasn't blown away. But it seemed like in every Year's Best of 2009, Red Faction was the game that wasn't in the top 10, but was always the "Secret Best". Playing the full version of the game, there's still some lame stuff that turns me of: combat is pretty janky, and some of the controls and open world mission structure things are illogical. But blowing things up with this games masterful engine is SO much fun and SO addicting, that you could say the crappy stuff is DEMOLISHED.

This is the most fun I've had in a sandbox game since Mercs 1, and in many ways it feels even more like a real SANDBOX than any other game of its type. The developers give you tools and toys, and you're just out they're fuckin' around with them. From what I've played of Just Cry 2, the world is interesting and you can traverse it interestingly, but you don't feel in control of the world. In Red Faction, you feel in control of the world, like that kid in his sandbox with his action figures and exploding sandcastles.

If anything bad can be said it's that the candy of destruction in this game is too sweet, too addicting. I'm sort of burnt out on it already, and I hate doing anything that doesn't involve hammering or bombing away at walls.

Time Played: 90 minutes

Bricks broke: all of 'em

Hot damn, Arkanoid - Doh It Again is the winner! I played this sucker for almost 2 hours on a bus ride from New York to Boston. I don't know if it was just the fact that I was stuck on a bus that ensnared my attention or the fact that Arkanoid - Doh It Again is just a rockin' version of a rockin' game. Hell if I know what makes this Arkanoid different from others. I do know it came out in 1997 for the SNES which is MAD late, yo! I think I already had thrown my N64 out by then (JK I still have it hooked up to the TV). The only thing that would make this better is playing it on a huge projected screen in a park at night time. Yeah. Arkanoid! Does insane things.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Ardy Lightfoot

Time played: 8 minutes

Expectations reversed: 1

I was really ready to hate this game, expecting something floaty and bad like Bubsy. Color me surprised when I found a charming, interesting platformer that borrowed elements from other games - not to be derivative, but to make a better game.

Ardy Lightfoot is this animal person who has this little floaty bubble creature that follows him around and he uses to attack enemies like Kirby. Ardy can run fast like Sonicwhen you push hard to the right. He can bounce on his tail like Scrooge McDuck in those rad Ducktales games.

The feel of the game was very high quality, with accurate controls and good sprite animation. I was surprised to even see a detailed overworld once I finished the first level. The game is presented as a film, with opening credits and "scenes". There is very little dialogue though, which is nice.

My only problem with the game is that after getting hit once, Ardy loses his little helper. This means that you cannot attack, and basically means that you'll be dying soon.

This is probably the first "hidden gem" I've found in the many Games-A-Day I've been playing. If I found this game with an old SNES in a house that I was renting on vacation, I would love to sit and play though all of it on a rainy afternoon.