Once again, another belated update! About time, right? What’s the deal? Been busy as hell, that’s what.
Comings and Goings
Most of my time has been spent working on various pieces of Anime Insider, as well dealing with ICON, which is now just a little over two months away (April 3-5 to be exact). It might be quite a different show from years past, given the change in venue, yet should still be as loads of fun like always. As I’ve done in recent years, I’m bringing a bunch of friends of mine to the affair, such as Chris Burke, aka Damian Lacedaemon, aka Glomag! He’ll be on-hand to talk to about his Halo based talk show, This Spartan Life, and if all works out well, maybe he’ll be able to play a few songs from his trusty Game Boy. As for myself, the other two parts of the “trifecta” will be accompanying me, that being Katie and Hilary, plus Jason will make his return as well.
Otherwise, there’s been all sorts of little things happening, here and there, most of which escapes me at the moment because I haven’t been taking proper notes. Yet I still can’t forget the hellish nightmare that was last weekend’s trip to Ikea, though less said the better I guess (which culminated in me coming dangerously close to punching out this fat-f*ck who resembled Harry Potter, but morbidly obese, for holding up the snack bar line for close to ten minutes because he not only was buying a hundred dollars plus worth of smoked salmon but insisted on everything being individually bagged, and all I wanted was to get my fifty cent hot dog, after a long day of dealing with the store filled with stupid parents who can’t talk to their kids but scream at them). Oh, and I also wanted to go on a tirade about the increasing number (and staggering lameness) of stupid sh*t produced from Brooklyn stinking up my beautiful Manhattan cable access channels, but then again, maybe I shouldn’t complain since I’ve yet to get my own cable access show’s ball rolling (in my defense, once again, been hella occupied). Though for the record, whenever anything from Queens makes a guest appearance, it’s always a delight. I also just need to mention that all the stupid “pro” Critical Condition documentaries that have been popping up as late do more to sh*t upon bicycling as a valid alternative form of transportation that anything a kooky automobile lobbyist could ever put together (though as its been pointed out, the ones that they hold in every other major city isn’t nearly as retarded or damaging).
On a more positive note, my camera is working again! Turns out, the batteries were faulty and all I needed to do was simply call the manufacturer to get a free replacement. Yay! I also got a super wonderful package from Atlus earlier this week, but which I will talk about next time, plus I still need to take pictures. And another one is finally headed my way courtesy of Microsoft a Xbox 360 debug unit of my very own. Now I can finally play pre-release 360 software at the comfort of my own home, or at least Dave (Mauro) can, since he’ll be the guy playing Halo Wars, not me. Oh, and yesterday I interviewed Rodney Greenblat, about his work on the upcoming Major Minor (which again, is totally hawt) and his return to video games, and that went pretty awesome! As for when the final piece will be published, still not sure, but when it pops up over at Gamasutra, I’ll be sure to pass along word. Plus I finally got see the ending of Super Mario RPG; Katie finally beat it a few days ago. And while watching her play, especially the final boss fight, I kinda felt relieved that I didn’t bother too much with it back in the day; got stuck around the 50% and never went back, which was something I always quietly regretted. Anyhow it was a stern reminder of how far we’ve come, and cheap RPGs used to be back in the day.
As for what I’ve been playing, mostly Moon, which I’m eager to finish as soon as possible, since I promised a review quite a while ago. Then I can move onto Skate 2 and Star Ocean 2, which also both arrived yesterday. As for what I’m not playing, a work in progress version of Fez, delivered on a platter by the creator himself. This was the weekend Phil Fish was supposed to crash at my place, but because he’s behind schedule, the NYC trip will have to wait for the guy (which sucks, since a bunch of folks were eager to meet the dude). Just as well I guess… I’m way too burnt out to for much partying at this point. Today is also the start of the first ever Global Game Jam; was going to swing by Columbia University and watch the New York City leg of the event unfold, but was just too beat, hence why I’m glad in the end that no one needed me to cover it for them. Just looking to recharge my batteries and chill this weekend, perhaps crack open my copy of the Guinness World Records 2009: Gamer’s Edition which arrived today also, especially since next weekend is gonna crazy! Not only is the New York Comic Con finally going down, but so is Katie’s big birthday spectacular! It’s gonna have maids and singing and everything.
Hey, A Couple Of Actually Good Sega Games! Courtesy of Capcom
But back to this earlier this week, Sega was in town and I got the chance to test drive a couple of titles, including…
Didn’t spend a whole lot of time on the new Sonic for the Wii, Sonic and the Black Knight, the second in the Storybook series (last time he had to fight an evil genie in an Arabian Nights world, and now he has to help out King Arthur during the days of Excalibur). It’s what one has come to expect from all current Sonic games; you run forward very fast like and struggle to jump when you’re supposed to and not ram into enemies. Well, in the case of the later, that’s what the sword is for, and as you might guess, you swing the Wiimote vertically or horizontally to slice on screen as so. If you’re stationary, it’s fine, but while running full steam ahead… not so much. Though I was pleasantly surprised by Sonic’s abilities to turn corners fairly decently, which has never been the case. Once again, can’t say much, but get this: instead of rings you collect apples. Why? “To mix things up I was told.” Okay… Anyway, it’s for teh kiddies, but that’s been the case for Sonic games in general as of late.
Next was another Wii title, House of the Dead: Overkill. This latest installment actually takes place before the first, though the main thing to remember here is that it wasn’t developed by the original creators, AM1/Wow Entertainment/Sega WOW, in Japan but by some British people, Headstrong Games to be exact, which is part of Kuju Entertainment. So not surprisingly, much of that classic feeling is totally absent. And on its own merits, it’s still not a very good game. The controls I found to be confusing believe it or not; in previous games, when you run out of ammo, you simply shoot off screen to reload, which you can still do, but now you simply hit A to reload as well. Plus, get this, if you run out of ammo, you’ll also auto-reload. What the hell? You’ll also come across other weapons, but instead of simply using it till the bullets run out and going back to your default weapon, one can now switch between them… by hitting the 1 button. Which is, yeah, all the way at the bottom of the Wiimote. Why the hell couldn’t they use the A button instead? At least B is for shooting, they got that part right at least. As for the rest of the game, the branching levels of before are gone (which were the only things that kept its replay value outside of the arcade, so nice job there guys) and instead has been replaced with some kind of director’s cut mode, which I guess presents the original levels in some kind of remixed format. The film motif is used heavily here, its supposed to represent an old exploitation flick, a la Grindhouse, with poor grain and color saturation effects all over the place. Not my cup of tea, but I know some folks will dig. They at least help to compensate for the not so stellar graphics. After watching a story segment, in which the dialogue and mouth movements were totally out of synch, I asked for the percentile of the current build and was then explained that I was playing the final product. Yikes. There was good thing about the game; it is kinda cool that your hand and weapon are out of focus whenever they appear in front of you. Otherwise… there’s really not much here I’m afraid.
The third Wii game was easily the best. MadWorld from the folks that used to form Clover over at Capcom, now Platinum Games for Sega. Aside from the black and white, very inspired by Sin City visuals, the game is hella violent, and at this point, no Japanese release is planned, due to the extreme nature of its mayhem. But the most important part here is that the game plays great. You can use your fists to pummel your foe, but the real hotness is swinging around the chainsaw, via the Wiimote, which felt totally natural. There’s also a bunch of finishing moves after a lethal combo, which also felt totally effortless, along with assorted environmental fatalities, like throwing dudes into gigantic fans (and the copious amount of blood looks especially fantastic, splattered across the black and white scenery). Plus the game has a wicked sense of humor, mostly via its wacky mini-games; the one I went through had me tossing as many foes in a crush-o-matic within a minute. It felt a lot like God Hand, which I guess isn’t surprising, given its pedigree, though I personally found it more fun. It’s also No More Heroes ver 2009, meaning it’s the perfect fix for those craving something hardcore on the Wii. Whether people will actually bite though, remains to be seen.
And then there was Bayonetta. Whereas MadWorld was God Hand’s spiritual successor, here we have Devil May Cry’s. Unfortunately no press folk were allowed to get their grubby mitts on the controller, so I had to sit and watch, but man what a show. The visuals were stunning, with tons of action going onscreen, all helter-skelter like, liquid smooth and crystal clear. Most importantly, it looked hella fun and super stylish, which the latter I know was a primary goal of the designers. The game’s star, who blasts evil demons posing as angels (I think?) is indeed the new virtual hottie on the block; I knew about the guns in her hands and feet, but was totally unaware of her hair that could call upon gigantic demonic fists and the such. This also changes her physical appearance for some reason, including outfit changes on-fly. At certain points she was also practically nude, which was pretty neat. Anyhow, the action is basically DMC on roids, with one epic, very God of War-esque boss battle after another. There was so much of it that I began getting vibes of a Treasure-like boss rush game, but was then explained by our demo person that he had the game configured with one hit kills, hence why regular enemies were hardly a presence. Anyhow, it’s impossible to describe how dramatic the boss battles were, most of which were different encounters with the same one, strewn about a single level, with totally dynamic camera angles to help frame the action. I guess everyone will have to wait for YouTube vids or something.
Rest In Peace, Father Of Bub And Bob
Anyhow, for a while now I’ve been meaning to pass along highlights from the fort90forums, since it’s been a couple of months now. But again, been so busy that I’m behind the times in general. So here’s the latest assortment of random game related links…
- Once again, more financial gloom and doom! In addition to virtually every publisher downsizing in recent weeks (with the exception of Nintendo at this point, but don’t quote me on this) is how retailers are also going to be ordering less in general, to avoid the problems associated with having too much stuff on-hand. Which means to get the stuff you want, you’ll really have to indeed pre-order at Gamestop. Good God.
Speaking of, I was at one earlier this afternoon. Pure hell on earth. Because today was the last day of my membership there, I figured it was one last chance to take advantage of its only real perk, that being an extra 10% credit for trade-in’s, and I simply needed to get some stuff out of my mind, our of sight, stuff that I can’t even give away (cough*cough*cough*Celebrity Sports Showdown). BTW, I was somewhat suckered/sweet-talked into joining in the first place, while trading a f*ckton of crap a while ago; it was pointed out that if I signed up, the membership fee would be completely absorbed by the additional 10% I was to receive, plus the free magazine subscription sounded nice. All I can say is, my last issue of Game Informer had the top 50 games of 08 and not once was Persona 4 was mentioned. So yeah… not gonna miss it. Though I will say that I’ll miss seeing the awesome pictures that accompanied each interview (the best of which was courtesy of Steve Skoll).
Anyhow, as expected, I had to tell the goons behind the counter that I was not interested in rejoining literally twenty times, which was fun. Hey, it wasn’t my fault the line behind me began to grow and grow as a result (everyone began grew annoyed, though most I could tell was wondering what my problem was, why I didn’t want to sign back up to be exact… and explaining to them the exact reasons would be opening a whole different can of worms that I just didn’t feel like bothering with). And because I didn’t want to get anything since, A) there’s nothing I’m really interested in purchasing at the moment, and B) if there was, I’d have to go through that stupid song and dance of arguing why something that’s been opened isn’t technically new, I asked to transfer the balance to a gift card, so I could get rid of the stupid membership card, which makes me feel like a tool for simply having in my wallet, and for whatever stupid reason was not possible. They assured me that my Edge card will still retain the balance, past the point of expiration. We’ll see. Man, I should have just blown that credit on Wii and XBL point cards when I had the chance. But anyway!
- I had no idea: the man who created Bubble Bobble recently passed away.
- I’m one of the many out there who absolutely cannot stand the new Xbox 360 dashboard. It’s just such a mess, to the point that the original blade system, in my opinion, worked far better. And people who think I’m insane need to ask themselves why a mini-version is still part of the system? The fact that the interface needs a mini version of itself speaks volumes. Anyway, here’s an interesting look at one discarded iteration, which in many ways I believe, is superior.
- There’s nothing funnier than watching an inept/ill-informed writer digger an even bigger whole for himself, like the dude from Forbes that called Rock Band a “shameless knockoff”. His justifications are pretty priceless.
- Okay, maybe the only thing funnier is Rockstar’s limitless arrogance. One of the few things I really liked about GTA4 was Niko’s voice, so yeah, their attitude is kinda bullsh*t, even if his demand was a tad bit ridiculous.
- Hey, remember those two mysterious countdowns last time? Well turns out one was for a WiiWare title from Sega that’s all retro-looking, and features a dude that’s very much like Mario, but isn’t the star. Neat!
Though the other one is easily the most interesting of the pair; it’s a RPG in which there’s four different modes of action (platformer, shump, strategy, and straightforward action), and each one must be completed in only 30 seconds! So I guess Final Fantasy meets WarioWare?!
- Guess what’s now my most anticipated new game of the year? Space Invaders Extreme 2 of course!
- Via Tiny Cartridges, which is like my new favorite gaming news website of all time (at least for this week), comes these totally awesome alternative video game box arts, in the style of old Penguin paperbacks, circa the 60s…
- This one is just for Dave: Have you heard? Umihara Kawase is coming to the DS.
I’m not even gonna bother to mention how DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou Black Label Extra has finally been dated, since I’m assuming the dude already know this. Though Dave, do you have a bigger version of the box art? Thanx.
- Want to know the reason why I booted into XP mode on my iMac this week? To play The Legend of Princess, a tribute to Zelda courtesy of Joakim Sandberg, the man behind the Noitu Love series…
… BTW, for those who haven’t heard, Noitu Love is only $10 at the moment, a TOTAL steal.
- Anyone remember game “game, game, game and again game”? Well its creator recently gave me the heads up regarding his follow-up, which has the even snazzier title of I made this. You play this. We are enemies. And it’s even more intense and insane if that can be believed!
- Oh, and here’s something Hilary just passed along: a fan translated Persona 4 manga!
- Well the finalists for this year’s Independent Games Festival Student Showcase was recently revealed. Perhaps the most interesting of the bunch (which honestly is saying a lot) is perhaps City Rain, which combines Tetris and Sim City. It’s one of those “gee, why didn’t anyone else think of it before?” kind of things.
Then, when you watch the game in action, you’ll quickly realize why, and then be amazed how someone’s been able to figure it all out!
It’s MAHVEL BAYBEE 2
Well since we’re now onto YouTube videos, how about instead of me going over three months worth of topics from the forum, since it’s kinda late on my end and how this might be an excellent chance to keep things relatively short, I just pass along the best bits from the random video game videos thread? That cool?
- Here we have the Kids in the Hall, playing Spore.
- And a look at the recently cancelled iPhone version of Seaman.
- Before there was Guitar Hero and Rock Band, Dance Dance Revolution was the pinnacle of music games. And my God, how far we’ve come.
- What if Uwe Boll directed Contra? Unfortunately, if he ever did, it wouldn’t be half as amusing as that trailer.
- Time for dog time, EPISODE 5: Gamer Dogz.
- Just some dude jamming on his guitar… that’s made from a Genesis.
- Anyone remember Super Mario fruit snacks from the 80′s, let alone the rap that goes with it?
- Here’s a trailer for a video game based on The Minis, which is very real movie in which Dennis Rodman teams up with four dwarves to compete in a basketball tournament. Again, this is a real movie.
- From the creator of Kings of Power 4 Billion %, Paul Robertson, comes an ad for some energy drink.
- And here?s another one, which I spotted on Kotaku if I’m not mistaken, that’s proof positive that the Japanese absolutely loves their baseball.
- You know, as much as I love to bash PlayStation Home, this mini game looks all kinds of terrific (though the control looks like a total pain in the ass).
- I have no idea how this got so many hits.
- A possibly drunk Japanese dude, playing Super Mario Land.
- Time for Amazing Yuna On Her Final Fantasy, aka some Final Fantasy X-2 porn (NSFW, obviously). And no, I haven’t watched all fifteen minutes of it.
- Finally we have the sequel to the greatest YouTube gaming clip of 07, Mahvel Baybee the sequel! It definitely lacks the charm of the original (most find the copious amount of cursing a turn-off, and I have to agree), yet still worth checking out.
