Archive: Video Games
Remember those side-scrolling, beat-'em-up arcade classics? The ones we'd play at places like Chuck E. Cheese's or laser tag joints, and they usually featured X-Men or Ninja Turtles? We can all agree they're oldies-but-goodies, and every once and a while, the greatness tries to be replicated. Samurai Warriors 3 for the Nintendo Wii could have been such a game. Unfortunately, it just doesn't cut it. And there's a lot more missing than a pizza grease-slathered joystick.
In the latest installment of Tecmo Koei's Samurai Warriors series, the action/adventure story takes place smack in the middle of a war in feudal Japan. Choose from a variety of famous warriors to control (including a ninja modeled after Hattori Hanzo, a real-life ninja from the 16th century who was honored in the Kill Bill films) and fend off attacking forces. In Story Mode, each level begins with a mission outline, explaining step-by-step objectives you need to accomplish, like defeating a certain foe or protecting a certain lord. You can replay missions in Free Mode, and in the unique Historical Mode, you participate in reinterpretations of actual battles. Continue Reading »
Tags: GameCube, Jeopardy!, Kill Bill, Nintendo, Nunchuk, Samurai Warriors 3, Tecmo, Wii, Wiimote
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Over the past couple of years, an interesting trend has taken over the real-time strategy genre. As more RTS games have come out, the genre has gotten, well, faster. What was once a genre that relied on thoughtful tactical precision evolved—or devolved, depending on who you ask—into memorizing the fastest build orders and knowing idiosyncrasies of individual units. So as more genres started to emulate popular games like the Halo or God of War series that revolved around the philosophy of constant action with constant reward, the RTS genre followed suit with games that focused on a more action-based experience. In turn, these slower, yet more tactical, focused experiences that put more emphasis on thoughtful strategy than on how efficient one could create an army were being phased out. While this reason alone would make Eugene System's R.U.S.E. standout from the glut of other RTS's, it's the game's specific mechanics that's so memorable. Continue Reading »
Tags: Eugen Systems, God of War, Halo, PC, R.U.S.E., Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, Ubisoft
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Avoiding speeding tickets is one of many things I don't want to do in a video game. Yet 2K Games apparently thought I'd feel differently when designing Mafia II, since going over the speed limit in the presence of police officers (40mph on regular roads, 60mph on bridges and highways) will immediately lead to hot pursuit and, if you're feeling too lazy to ditch the cops, a $50 fine. Since this sequel to 2002's third-person PC sandbox title is a brazen rip-off of Grand Theft Auto in virtually every respect, this driving-related statute is the height of absurdity, forcing one to either leisurely navigate the NYC-ish Empire Bay—an immense annoyance, given how many missions require lengthy car rides—or to constantly risk courting law enforcement's ire and a potential chase through crowded city streets. Admittedly, in the grand scheme of things, this one issue is reasonably minor, and is at least mitigated by the fact that one can enable a speed-limit device that prevents your car from exceeding the posted limit (plus, you can still run red lights). Yet it's nonetheless indicative of this polished but wholly uninspired follow-up, which finds only ridiculous and/or meaningless ways to tweak its borrowed Grand Theft Auto template. Continue Reading »
Tags: 2K Czech, 2K Games, Goodfellas, Grand Theft Auto, Mafia II, The Godfather, Xbox 360
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Games like Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City can be polarizing, especially on a system that draws casual gamers like a Very Bradley sale draws soccer moms. On one hand, you've got a hand console that's found new gaming niches among AARP members, Rachael Ray viewers, and Bejeweled fans; on the other, you've got a genre that demands an unshakable attention span and a long-term interest in video games that only devoted players possess. Keep that in mind with The Drowned City, a strategy-RPG that promises days upon days of dungeon exploration that leaves much of the control in the player's hands.
The story tells of a far-off town called Armoroad, located near a mythic, underground dungeon that everybody calls the "Labyrinth." If you can displace any mental associations of David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King, you'll learn that the Labyrinth is a treasure-brimming hotspot for adventurers—many of whom went into the Labyrinth and never came back. And while Armoroad has gained a reputation as tourist's tropical paradise, it's got a shadowy past. All people know is that it was completely demolished by a catastrophic flood ages ago. What does this mean? How did the town make such a comeback, and how does it affect you? These answers—not Jennifer Connelly, unfortunately—await you in the Labyrinth, along with a bonanza of treasure and man-eating beasts. Continue Reading »
Tags: Atlus, David Bowie, Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City, Jennifer Connelly, Nintendo DS
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Video games are well suited to pulse-pounding action, but heart-rending drama? Not so much, though that hasn't stopped them from trying. Halo: Reach, the latest entrant in Microsoft's cash-cow franchise, arrives on a tide of hype that has often included overly enthusiastic praise for a somber, elegiac tone born from this prequel's focus on the human race's defeat by invading alien Covenant forces on the outpost planet Reach. Composer Martin O'Donnell's soaring melancholic score cascades over cutscenes of armored soldiers attempting to grapple with impending failure and the immense loss of life it entails, the images often striving for iconographic sorrow: a sole Spartan, head downturned, in a military aircraft, or a group of squadmates cast in silhouette against a torched-city-in-ruins backdrop (less-than-subtle shades of WWII and 9/11). Amplified by the fact that the title stands as a Halo swan song for original producers Bungie Studios, such a morose mood seeks to counterbalance and complicate the franchise's traditional one-against-many heroic template with an air of gravity. And, in almost every meaningful way, it fails in this respect.
But then, who cares? Halo's FPS calling card was never narrative profundity (despite its increasingly convoluted plots, as well as tie-in novels and peripheral stories), but sturdy mechanics that were second-to-none in terms of effective, thrilling simplicity. The Call of Dutys and Bioshocks of the gaming world may have more intricate control schemes and afford more complex actions and reactions, but Halo's fundamental gameplay remains a surefire genre standard-bearer, and with Reach, Bungie has refined its template to near perfection. With only slight tweaks to the formula (the inclusion of Armor Abilities—like speed-running, camouflage, and jet packs, which first appeared in Halo: ODST—and an aerial combat sequence set in space), the interface is at once wholly familiar and yet smoother and more robust than before. Like the gorgeous HD graphics and sound design, it feels more muscular, and never sluggish or unintuitive. To play Reach is not only to be reminded of why Halo has become such an industry titan, but to understand that all prior installments were, at least with regard to gameplay, merely preludes to this current state. Continue Reading »
Tags: BioShock, Bungie Software, Call of Duty, Halo, Halo: ODST, Halo: Reach, Martin O'Donnell, Microsoft Games Studios, Xbox 360
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What a mysterious legacy the Metroid series of games has. It always seems to be suspended in limbo, above obscurity but below the ubiquity of other Nintendo franchises, a dangling thread unsure if it should sever its ties from science fiction or reinforce them instead. The underlying appeal of Metroid, whether anyone cares to admit it or not, doesn't hinge on its action-adventure gameplay mechanics (solid as they are), but rather on its main character, Samus Aran, a tough yet morally compassionate galactic bounty hunter who also happens to be female. That information, first revealed at the end of the first Metroid game wasn't an entirely original concept for space thrillers (one only has to glance over at Ellen Ripley for proof), but for video games it was quite unique. It created a paradox in which the strong, silent protagonist exhibited emotional depth not through action or mannerisms but by simply being, in an '80s digital universe saturated with testosterone.
Metroid: Other M attempts to dispel this paradox by throwing new narrative elements into an otherwise experience-driven game. The notion is indeed admirable, to give Samus Aran a voice and a complete, fleshed-out story, to make her into a character rather than just a vehicle of progression in a game with its main mode of play built around growth and expansion. Moments throughout Other M, however, left a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth, like the Samus that I had adventures with in the past was slipping away from me, sinking into a conglomerate block of "tough female leads" that no one wants to carry along with them and no one would dare crack. Curiously, the thrill of what makes Metroid games glow in a fruitless constellation of "space shooters" remained resolutely intact, perhaps stubbornly so. My feelings coming away from Other M, then, are muddled and gray; it reminded me of the euphoria of the past while also continuing to pitch what could be a glum future for Metroid, one in which narrative is tightly controlled and dogmatically parsed out, a mystery without mystery at all. Continue Reading »
Tags: Metroid Prime, Metroid: Other M, Retro Studios, Shigeru Miyamoto, Super Metroid, Team Ninja, Wii, Yoshio Sakamoto
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The words "Wii party game" conjure up some pretty specific associations, few of them good. At this point in the Wii's lifecycle, "party game" has come to mean a mini-game collection full of boring little tasks executed in insultingly stupid environments. Putting the Disney name at the front does little to inspire goodwill, considering the grim history of Disney video games. But Disney Guilty Party overcame my trepidation. It's not a masterpiece, but it's a great experience, and a promising new path for family games, and it's exciting to see a family game where story and aesthetics get the same level of attention that you would expect of a good movie.
Disney Guilty Party is a Clue-style mystery board game for the digital age. Each level is a new environment in which one of a group of NPC suspects has committed a crime. Players take turns looking for evidence and interrogating suspects via witty mini-games, and then assemble what they've learned to identify the culprit. Strategy is further complicated by a token system that imposes a cost on each move and randomized obstacles that must be overcome with equally randomized Savvy cards. Players are also occasionally confronted with group challenges that demand everyone work together, which keeps people from dozing when it isn't their turn. Continue Reading »
Tags: Clue, Disney Guilty Party, Disney Interactive Studios, Wideload Games, Wii
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For many years, downloadable games have been viewed as nice little distractions when compared to their retail brethren. However, with these games increasing in sophistication year after year, more consumers are beginning to discover the joys of a lean eight-hour experience over a retail release with a 60-plus-hour playtime. So, with this monthly feature, we hope to shine a light on a few downloadable titles, from various platforms, that have impressed us in the past month. Continue Reading »
Tags: And Yet It Moves, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Monday Night Combat, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Shank
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Many video game sequels have been accused of failing to push their respective series forward. Even the God of War and Madden franchises have been criticized for not evolving core design mechanics between iterations. Yet even with these criticisms, both series tend to be celebrated by critics and fans alike for their level of quality. And with the release of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, Blizzard Entertainment's seminal RTS has now firmly established itself as a series akin to the God of War and Madden franchises. By following the same template of the original Starcraft, the game excels in its execution, but it doesn't evolve the formula that it established more than a decade ago.
At its core, the Starcraft series boils down to three activities: gathering resources, building bases and units from those resources, and then seeing if your units can overtake your opponent. Using this template, Starcraft II presents two separate experiences: the single-player campaign and the multiplayer mode.
In single-player, you play as a rebel group of Terrans (the humans in the Starcraft universe), lead by the story's hero James Raynor, as you fight an oppressive empire. Overall, the story keeps the player engaged to Blizzard's well-crafted space opera with events like the resurfacing of the Zerg (an insect like creature that pillages planets) as well as having to allay with the Protoss (an ancient alien species).
Along with the expertly told story, there's a wide variety of mission types to keep the player engaged. Even though these mission types still revolve around Starcraft's basic formula, it's those objective-based tasks within every mission that keeps the single-player experience from becoming stale. Whether it's a train heist or gathering resources on a transforming planet, the game's biggest strength lies in how it plays with the traditional formula in the single-player campaign. Continue Reading »
Tags: Battle.net, Blizzard Entertainment, God of War, Madden, Starcraft, Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
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For the uninitiated, Sin and Punishment: Star Successor—a Nintendo-published sci-fi shooter for the Wii, released this past June—may seem derivative of other offerings in its genre, and could even be dismissed as bland and indistinct, inviting an assessment as thorough as one would look over a package of chicken cutlets at the supermarket. That kind of dismissal, however, is inviting a wrath from the Internet that, justifiably, would be massive and brutal, for the initiated need to only glance at the name of the development team, Tokyo-based Treasure, to begin frothing with the kind excitement normally reserved for fanboys (the super-initiated?). After all, Treasure games are regarded with an esteemed and deep reverence among experienced gamers, and to see a Treasure developed game for the Wii—and one that is a sequel to a non-stateside release dating back to 2000, during the final hours of the Nintendo 64—is an achievement in itself. A predictable achievement, mind you (the original Sin and Punishment enjoyed a successful port to North America's Virtual Console service a few years ago), but an achievement just the same.
To understand what makes Sin and Punishment: Star Successor so agonizingly enjoyable on the Wii also involves an understanding of what Treasure stands for in video games, and why they still shine as developers in a medium where narrative showmanship is encroaching on the art of crafting genuine gameplay—a practice that Star Successor sidesteps with a moderate degree of grace. Continue Reading »
Tags: Nintendo Wii, Sin and Punishment, Sin and Punishment: Star Successor, Treasure
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I'm going to just assume you've YouTubed at least one Disney song in your lifetime. Maybe you were singing with your kid, chasing nostalgia, or leading a libation-fueled rendition at some house party. You probably know the melody to "A Whole New World," and can sing the chorus of "Hakuna Matata." Disney has woven its inextricable thread into the collective pop-culture consciousness, so if you're a member of the past few generations, it's practically guaranteed you grew up with classic Disney films and their soundtracks.
Earlier this week, Disney Interactive Studios released Disney Sing It: Family Hits for Wii and PlayStation 3. It's the latest in the company's Sing It series, which has hitherto included music from such time-treasured, timeless classics as Hannah Montana and High School Musical. This time, Disney shifted the target audience from teenyboppers to a more universal crowd, with a varied song listing from decades of Disney movies.
Thirty songs from three Disney eras are honored: the classic period from the '30s to '60s, the "Renaissance" of the '90s, and contemporary releases, which include Pixar. Gameplay is less karaoke and more of a sing-along, as the original vocals play in the background as you sing the lyrics on screen. Assuming you stay in pitch and don't make Simba sound like a pubescent yodeler, you'll nab a high score. The game requires at least one microphone, which you can pick up with the game for an extra 10 bucks. Simply plug the mic into the Wii's USB slots and you're ready to unleash your inner Donna Summer. Continue Reading »
Tags: Aladdin, Anika Noni Rose, Disney Interactive Studios, Disney Sing It, Disney Sing It: Family Hits, Nintendo Wii, Pixar, Pocahontas, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Zoe Mode
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In this new generation of video games, you can't help but feel that the Japanese role-playing game has been left behind. While many Western-based RPGs like The Witcher and the Mass Effect series have tried to evolve the role-playing genre, JRPG apologists keep maintaining that the tried and true gameplay more than makes up for the genre's lack of evolution. However, for every Triple-A Western RPG that gets released, that argument becomes less and less credible. So, while most JRPGs are still recycling the same game mechanics that have been used since the beginning of the original PlayStation era, it was good to see the Persona series (a spinoff of the Shin Megami Tensei video game series) try to push the JRPG by infusing fresh new ideas into an established genre.
Back in 2007, Atlas had originally released Persona 3 on the PlayStation 2. The game was a breath of fresh air to the whole RPG genre, incorporating a unique setting with traditional JRPG tropes like turn-based battles and dungeon-crawling. Three years later, Atlus brings Persona 3 Portable to the Sony PSP, this time adding a few new tweaks to the overall game. The question of whether these tweaks make the overall experiance better depends on the player's preference. Continue Reading »
Tags: Mass Effect, Persona 3, PSP, Shin Megami Tensei, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable, The Witcher
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In Disney's recently released film The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Nicolas Cage's character teaches an NYU physics student about magic, Merlin, and how to fight evil forces. The video game The Sorcerer's Apprentice teaches us about tedium, dull gameplay, and haunted Hefty bags. The DS platformer, which debuted last week, is like most movie-inspired video games: Cogs in the publicity machine, these games seek to maximize the buzz and profit film studios hope to generate—and when games are rushed for a quick buck, product quality suffers big time.
Gameplay involves combating bewitched objects using six types of magic in six districts of Manhattan. Each variety of magic is essentially a projectile attack of different shapes and different trajectories. For example, your character begins with "turquoise magic," a long, narrow laser that ricochets off walls. Yellow magic is a ball that can be lobbed over barriers. Enemies use magic as well, and if you're using the same colored magic as they are, you're immune to their attacks. Bad guys can include giant, humanoid oil slicks and flying trash bags with menacing, Jack-O-Lantern-like countenances. Continue Reading »
Tags: DGamer, Disney Interactive Studios, Nicolas Cage, Nintendo DS, The Sorcerer's Apprentice
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Naughty Bear is an unpleasant forest animal. Naughty Bear is his equally unpleasant game, a title (available for Xbox 360 or PS3) whose cutie-pie premise isn't the least bit cute and whose execution leaves everything to be desired. Arriving on the heels of advanced clips that indicated an amusing Sesame Street-gone-awry vibe, SOS Games's latest—in which you make Naughty scare other forest bears, or simply hack, bludgeon, or shoot them in gratuitously violent ways—promised inventively vile, delinquent action wrapped up in a cuddly stuffed-animal façade. Such a discordant form-content scenario always seemed a tad too on-the-nose (see, Naughty looks like a toddler's toy! But he acts like Reservoir Dogs's Mr. Blonde!), but as with all art forms, games deserve the benefit of the doubt. Alas, to actually attempt to make it through this dud's myriad levels is to know the meaning of frustration: From graphics to audio to level structure and basic gameplay mechanics, Naughty Bear is unendurable.
As stated above, you play as Naughty, a prickish bear that the forest's other bears despise. At start, Naughty isn't invited to a birthday party, leading to a task in which you have to scare and/or kill those who left him out of the fun. Except that's not really the case—because, in truth, all you really have to do is kill them. By using one of the trigger buttons, you can have Naughty roar at others in an intimidating fashion in order to rack up points. However, with the exception of those missions that specifically require you to scare and not harm, there's no reason to frighten anyone. Roaring is one-note and audibly irritating (the accompanying sound effect quickly becomes a virtual version of nails on a chalkboard), and setting up more elaborate environmental traps to alarm or unsettle is equally tedious. Murder always gets the job done quicker, and because no tangible value is placed on acquiring points in the first place (they're random, save for the need to acquire a certain amount to complete each stage), simply slashing your way through levels is the more inherently efficient way of going about things. Continue Reading »
Tags: 505 Games, A2M, Naughty Bear, REservoir Dogs, Xbox 360
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