I've been waiting to make this post for a long time. A majority of the content is going to be about the following games: Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Lego Star Wars, Star Wars Battlefront, Psychonauts, and Zelda 2. These are the games that I have been playing as of late and I guess now I should put in some type of mega-review of them.
MAJORA'S MASK:
Damn Zelda games are fun. Even though Link doesn't talk, the story line was great and the characters kept me interested. This game occurs shortly after Ocarina, and basically runs the same engine. We're back to child link, and unlike Ocarina that isn't going to change. The game has one very unique feature (which I'm sure I have commented on before), you have three days to win the game. At least that is what you think. Using a song of time you can do things like speed up time (which can be bad) slow down time (good), or send time back to the beginning of your three days . . . until the moon crashes in to the Earth.
The comments on this game were that is was far more dark than any of the other happy go lucky Zelda games. That is definetely the case. Usually by use of cut-scence the game carries an ominous tone (really, the music is ominous) and there are lot s of large scary things running after you at many turns. Not to mention that any time you turn into a different race you go through a (skippable) scene with Link screaming in pain.
The three day time limit makes that game an interesting change from the normal pace. Rather than the movement of the characters being plot driven, they are time/plot driving. As a result, a person that is going to be ata place at 10pm, will be there at 10 and isn't waiting ofr your questing ass to get there. More over, if you didn't talk to the right people before hand, then the meeting at 10 pm isn't even going to happen. This makes the game odd, to say the least. You don't really have as much time to side quest, because there are so many iterations of where to be and who to talk to. I was basically done with the game, and didn't even have a full inventory. I still don't know what goes in that slot. Fuck 100%, I'd be happy to have 60%. You know, perhaps the 3-day cyclical nature added to the strange feeling the game had. It wasn't a normal Zelda game.
In some ways it was, however. As I was playing it I found that I was learning more and more where the conventions for Windwaker came from. It just dawns on me now that windwaker was my first platform based Zelda game, so it was very fresh and new. After playing Majora's Mask (and watching Ocarina) I see that Windwaker basically just took the same concepts from those games (enemies, music, bosses even) and put them in cool cell shaded form. For some reason that didn't bother me. Despite playing poorer graphics forms of things I had already seen, the relatively tough puzzle of figuring out what the hell to do kept me more than entertained. The use of changing races did the same job as different suits in Ocarina, but added a bit more because dialog between characters would change based on what race you were. In a game where you needed dialog to learn what to do, this was really important.
All in all I think this is probably going to go down as my third or fourth favorite Zelda game. It is right on the cusp of a must play, but only if you are a huge Zelda fan. I think a lot of the strangeness of the game will be lost on those that don't already have a certain amount of familiarity with the franchise. But the 3-day mechanic, and use of masks to do just about everything keeps the game very fresh even if it is getting really old.
LEGO STAR WARS:
We still aren't done with this game, but I don't know if we ever will be. I got this game because I had heard rave reviews from a variety of sources, after playing it I think I will rescind those reviews. It isn't that the games isn't fun, but it doesn't really do anything well, and I think that is a problem.
The game lets you play through the first three episodes of the star wars saga. You play as a variety of characters, which is important because you will need all of them to do things. You can switch between players simply by stepping near them and pressing the y-button. One thing that is odd is none of your compatriots seem to take damage, so you never really have to pay attention to them. The puzzles in this game are pretty much non-existant, which is a shame, but I guess they were bound by the movies or something. There is a co-op mode (which should tell you to put puzzles in the game) but it doesn't change the game at all because nothing requires two people. You basically have another person running around, and mroe often than not you get in each others way. This is a problem because there is friendly fire. Why is it the bad guys cant hurt my friends but I can?
Speaking of getting in the way, the very simple controls make it hard to do a few things in the game. I know that I can block blaster fire with my light saber, but I can't seem to accurately deflect it back at my attacker. When I say that I mean that I can't seem to show any effect on the direction of the blaster's ricochet. Meanwhile there is a part where I have to deflect blaster shots in order to kill people. Odd.
But lets talk about the games selling points. There are lots of characters, and lots of unlockable features. Those are what you are really playing for because there isn't much challange to the game. Being able to play a Gonk droid is cool, but I don't know if it is $45 cool. Honestly, I'm still baffled by why this game got such great reviews. It is fun (kind of), but it seemed like a weak platformer that couldn't really grasp anything well.
STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT
Mikex0r and I played this game a lot. I like it. It is an FPS with strategic elements. You can play as a variety of different types of soldiers. Originally we were basically only playing the generic soldier. Eventually we started to branch out and play snipers and pilots (oh crappy pilot, why do you suck so much, but then kick ass when you get inside an AT-AT). The controls and gameplay were good. The co-op was handled very well, nothing special, just a standard split screen. One thing that makes this a little more strategic is that the game play is similar to (dare I say it) Dynasty Warriors. See there are lots of people fighting, and everytime you die you re-spawn (nothing special yet). The catch is you only have a certain number of re-enforcement and when you run out the battle is lost. So you are just one aspect of the greater battle. There are a number of spawn point (command posts) and you can capture more by squatting near them fora certain amount of time. This is good because it takes away from the location that your enemy can spawn. There are lots of battles to choose from, and you do get to play the Rebellion, Empire, Rebulic and Separatist Army (Driods). They are slightly different which is nice, and you get to play in a variety of arenas (Hoth, Bespin, Endor, planets from the newer movies).
There were downsides to this game, but not that many. There is such a thing as a command post victory, but it atlmost never really happens. In order to capture all of the posts you pretty much have to kill everyone, so you're going to get the attrition victory anyway. One other downside to the game is the difficulty, with the execption of a few boards, the game was too easy. In a few cases (Endor in particular) we losta bunch and actually had to strategize ahead of time in order to get close to success. Every other time we were basically able to run about and kill things to get to a victory. While this is fun, I can do that without multiplayer.
Maybe this is a good time for me to rant about multiplayer in games: It seems to be a trend that everygame come with multiplayer now. While this is nice, it is being delivered the way that every phone has a camera. The demand is there for a multiplayer part of a game, but they strap it on to every game regardless of how shitty it is. Look, I want multiplayer, but I want it to be good. Don't just pawn of some weak thing where my partner can go fuck himself while I do the mission. Multiplayer should mean that it takes more than one person to acutally win the game. Don't just repaint the single player mode and think you can shove it up my ass without me knowing. I know this will require that we program more stuff into games . . . in my opinion more games should have separate levels added for multiplayer, but at least the quality will be better. For the love of god man, stop tacking on multiplayer at the end of the development cycle and then acting like it is the best shit out there. Think of the children dammit!! Rant over.
Some other problems with Battlefront were the vehicles . . . basically they sucked . . . especially the airbone variety. The piloting mechanics just weren't good. I ended up hopping into an X-Wing to fly to another platform and then getting out before it exploded. While this was important in winning the mission, it was a sutpid use of an X-Wing.
The good news is that there will be another one coming out soon. Hopefully they will fix these problems, because I had a lot of fun playing Battlefront with mikex0r and look forward to doing it again.
ZELDA 2: ADVENTURES OF LINK
Yeah, this game fucking rocks. It isn't very long, but I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't one of the first real RPGs for the NES. It has all of the classic RPG elements, an experience system, spells, world map, and some other shit. But it is still a side-scrolling adventure game. The dungeons are great, and the bosses are fun. I really love this game, despite the fact that some of the bosses are broken (including the final boss). In the end the game is just fun. Hoo-fucking-rah for Zelda and Nintendo . . . although I sae no mention of Miyamoto in the credits . . . hmmm interesting. . .
This post is too long for only talking about videogames. I'm leaving now.
M
MAJORA'S MASK:
Damn Zelda games are fun. Even though Link doesn't talk, the story line was great and the characters kept me interested. This game occurs shortly after Ocarina, and basically runs the same engine. We're back to child link, and unlike Ocarina that isn't going to change. The game has one very unique feature (which I'm sure I have commented on before), you have three days to win the game. At least that is what you think. Using a song of time you can do things like speed up time (which can be bad) slow down time (good), or send time back to the beginning of your three days . . . until the moon crashes in to the Earth.
The comments on this game were that is was far more dark than any of the other happy go lucky Zelda games. That is definetely the case. Usually by use of cut-scence the game carries an ominous tone (really, the music is ominous) and there are lot s of large scary things running after you at many turns. Not to mention that any time you turn into a different race you go through a (skippable) scene with Link screaming in pain.
The three day time limit makes that game an interesting change from the normal pace. Rather than the movement of the characters being plot driven, they are time/plot driving. As a result, a person that is going to be ata place at 10pm, will be there at 10 and isn't waiting ofr your questing ass to get there. More over, if you didn't talk to the right people before hand, then the meeting at 10 pm isn't even going to happen. This makes the game odd, to say the least. You don't really have as much time to side quest, because there are so many iterations of where to be and who to talk to. I was basically done with the game, and didn't even have a full inventory. I still don't know what goes in that slot. Fuck 100%, I'd be happy to have 60%. You know, perhaps the 3-day cyclical nature added to the strange feeling the game had. It wasn't a normal Zelda game.
In some ways it was, however. As I was playing it I found that I was learning more and more where the conventions for Windwaker came from. It just dawns on me now that windwaker was my first platform based Zelda game, so it was very fresh and new. After playing Majora's Mask (and watching Ocarina) I see that Windwaker basically just took the same concepts from those games (enemies, music, bosses even) and put them in cool cell shaded form. For some reason that didn't bother me. Despite playing poorer graphics forms of things I had already seen, the relatively tough puzzle of figuring out what the hell to do kept me more than entertained. The use of changing races did the same job as different suits in Ocarina, but added a bit more because dialog between characters would change based on what race you were. In a game where you needed dialog to learn what to do, this was really important.
All in all I think this is probably going to go down as my third or fourth favorite Zelda game. It is right on the cusp of a must play, but only if you are a huge Zelda fan. I think a lot of the strangeness of the game will be lost on those that don't already have a certain amount of familiarity with the franchise. But the 3-day mechanic, and use of masks to do just about everything keeps the game very fresh even if it is getting really old.
LEGO STAR WARS:
We still aren't done with this game, but I don't know if we ever will be. I got this game because I had heard rave reviews from a variety of sources, after playing it I think I will rescind those reviews. It isn't that the games isn't fun, but it doesn't really do anything well, and I think that is a problem.
The game lets you play through the first three episodes of the star wars saga. You play as a variety of characters, which is important because you will need all of them to do things. You can switch between players simply by stepping near them and pressing the y-button. One thing that is odd is none of your compatriots seem to take damage, so you never really have to pay attention to them. The puzzles in this game are pretty much non-existant, which is a shame, but I guess they were bound by the movies or something. There is a co-op mode (which should tell you to put puzzles in the game) but it doesn't change the game at all because nothing requires two people. You basically have another person running around, and mroe often than not you get in each others way. This is a problem because there is friendly fire. Why is it the bad guys cant hurt my friends but I can?
Speaking of getting in the way, the very simple controls make it hard to do a few things in the game. I know that I can block blaster fire with my light saber, but I can't seem to accurately deflect it back at my attacker. When I say that I mean that I can't seem to show any effect on the direction of the blaster's ricochet. Meanwhile there is a part where I have to deflect blaster shots in order to kill people. Odd.
But lets talk about the games selling points. There are lots of characters, and lots of unlockable features. Those are what you are really playing for because there isn't much challange to the game. Being able to play a Gonk droid is cool, but I don't know if it is $45 cool. Honestly, I'm still baffled by why this game got such great reviews. It is fun (kind of), but it seemed like a weak platformer that couldn't really grasp anything well.
STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT
Mikex0r and I played this game a lot. I like it. It is an FPS with strategic elements. You can play as a variety of different types of soldiers. Originally we were basically only playing the generic soldier. Eventually we started to branch out and play snipers and pilots (oh crappy pilot, why do you suck so much, but then kick ass when you get inside an AT-AT). The controls and gameplay were good. The co-op was handled very well, nothing special, just a standard split screen. One thing that makes this a little more strategic is that the game play is similar to (dare I say it) Dynasty Warriors. See there are lots of people fighting, and everytime you die you re-spawn (nothing special yet). The catch is you only have a certain number of re-enforcement and when you run out the battle is lost. So you are just one aspect of the greater battle. There are a number of spawn point (command posts) and you can capture more by squatting near them fora certain amount of time. This is good because it takes away from the location that your enemy can spawn. There are lots of battles to choose from, and you do get to play the Rebellion, Empire, Rebulic and Separatist Army (Driods). They are slightly different which is nice, and you get to play in a variety of arenas (Hoth, Bespin, Endor, planets from the newer movies).
There were downsides to this game, but not that many. There is such a thing as a command post victory, but it atlmost never really happens. In order to capture all of the posts you pretty much have to kill everyone, so you're going to get the attrition victory anyway. One other downside to the game is the difficulty, with the execption of a few boards, the game was too easy. In a few cases (Endor in particular) we losta bunch and actually had to strategize ahead of time in order to get close to success. Every other time we were basically able to run about and kill things to get to a victory. While this is fun, I can do that without multiplayer.
Maybe this is a good time for me to rant about multiplayer in games: It seems to be a trend that everygame come with multiplayer now. While this is nice, it is being delivered the way that every phone has a camera. The demand is there for a multiplayer part of a game, but they strap it on to every game regardless of how shitty it is. Look, I want multiplayer, but I want it to be good. Don't just pawn of some weak thing where my partner can go fuck himself while I do the mission. Multiplayer should mean that it takes more than one person to acutally win the game. Don't just repaint the single player mode and think you can shove it up my ass without me knowing. I know this will require that we program more stuff into games . . . in my opinion more games should have separate levels added for multiplayer, but at least the quality will be better. For the love of god man, stop tacking on multiplayer at the end of the development cycle and then acting like it is the best shit out there. Think of the children dammit!! Rant over.
Some other problems with Battlefront were the vehicles . . . basically they sucked . . . especially the airbone variety. The piloting mechanics just weren't good. I ended up hopping into an X-Wing to fly to another platform and then getting out before it exploded. While this was important in winning the mission, it was a sutpid use of an X-Wing.
The good news is that there will be another one coming out soon. Hopefully they will fix these problems, because I had a lot of fun playing Battlefront with mikex0r and look forward to doing it again.
ZELDA 2: ADVENTURES OF LINK
Yeah, this game fucking rocks. It isn't very long, but I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't one of the first real RPGs for the NES. It has all of the classic RPG elements, an experience system, spells, world map, and some other shit. But it is still a side-scrolling adventure game. The dungeons are great, and the bosses are fun. I really love this game, despite the fact that some of the bosses are broken (including the final boss). In the end the game is just fun. Hoo-fucking-rah for Zelda and Nintendo . . . although I sae no mention of Miyamoto in the credits . . . hmmm interesting. . .
This post is too long for only talking about videogames. I'm leaving now.
M
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