Blog de Dyer

You clear out five cats wearing orange jumpsuits with a three hit punch combo to the face.Two jetpack wearing, gun brandishing felines enter from either side and you backflip-kick one to the ground and finish him with a punch+kick combo. As you pick up his gun, his pal closes in on you with his beam rifle, but you turn and fire just in time to clear out the screen. All of this is done with a smooth grace and the anguishing “Mraaaaaaaaow” of a once living ferocious feline echoes in the air for the millionth time this level.

You can’t help but smile in a nostaligic glee at your character, be he Vinnie, Modo or Throttle. You guide him to the beaming red pad signifying the end of the level. Rock ‘n’ Ride!

Anyone in the 20 years old age range should vaguely remember an early 90’s saturday morning cartoon called Biker Mice From Mars. Fifteen some-odd years later American Game Factory (The brilliant minds behind other games such as Code Lyoko, Legend of the Dragon and Bratz Ponyz) decided that now is the time for a new BMfM video game for the Nintendo DS.

What?

Click for Full Review at Game Stooge

So I’ve been posting at Game Stooge for the last little bit here, hence my abscence. You can check out a lot of stuff there, like this review, and my TENCHU Z review too. Also news.

Tekken is, of course, a long lived Playstation franchise, and inevitably makes its way to the beloved handheld; memorable characters, brutal combos, catchy music, and tons of features all make their way to the palms of your hands, and there is nothing sweeter. Not being a big fan of the Tekken series, or fighting games in general, purchasing Dark Resurrection was seemingly a foolish move, but a review needed to be written. Now, when gamers think PSP and Fighting Game, a harsh chill courses through every single artery, vein, and capiliary in their body. However, playing Tekken on PSP gave me no such chill, but instead, a great satisfactory feeling, much like when a fat man consumes an entire Double Double Chocolate Fudge Cake.

The Good

Visually, Tekken: Dark Resurrection (TDR) is simply astounding. Stunning character models grace the beautifully laid out scenery of nineteen unique stages, while they gracefully and smoothly dish out the killer kicks, powerhouse punches, and aerial a-bombs of over 30 classic, and some new, Tekken characters. Animation is key in fighting games, and with lots of running, dodging, punching, leaping through the air, and even standing on the spot, TDR brings the greatest feast to the PSP table that we’ve ever seen, or tasted. Each character has a unique look to them, multiple costumes, as wel as literally dozens of fighting styles, so you’ll never get bored of fighting as the same character. Environments, especially, are spectacular. While the distant background might not be as sharp, save for the glaring sun/moon, the foreground is stunning, with reflective water, smoke, dust, and sometimes animals that follow you around, you’ll find yourself looking at the little niches of every level more than your fantastic looking character avatar. The effect of the punches, kicks and other random acts of unnecessary violence make you cringe with the seeming power behind each blow. There’s nothing like seeing the extremely powerful titan, Craig Marduk drop to a knee after a single gut punch brought on by little Lilli… or vice versa. Story cinematics, as well as the introduction movie are truly visual masterpieces, and are unlockable through purchase, or completion… and you will want to watch them over and over again. Screenshots of this game simply do not do it any sort of justice.

Aside from the games mind-bogglingly delicious eye-candy, is the mind-blowing sound. Voice overs (some in Japanese, some in English) all sound authentic, and make for more realistic gameplay. Pre, and post round taunts get you pumped for the fight, while each characters story also has some decent —and sometimes comedic— dialogue. What really makes this game shine is the music. TDR’s music is easily some of the best on PSP, with some disco, rock, orchestral, and Lumines-esque techno, your ears will bleed with pure enjoyment. The best part about the music, though, is the Music Theater. Any and all tunes you listen to during your short-burst fights can be heard here, for your sit-down and listening pleasure, and is really quite convenient if you don’t have MP3s on hand — I am listening to Into Nirvana as I write this — or any other form of music. Catchy, upbeat, and sometimes downright depressing (depending on the stage) sounds drift from the headphones to your ear drums, giving you a real sense of intensity while you fight. Plus, the theater has Kuma, the delightful polar bear gettin’ down with the dance moves.

Let’s get to the nitty-gritty now. The gameplay. What can really be expected with the PSP’s troubled D-Pad? Well, for starters, you don’t have to use it — but you will, because it works. Minor flaws in the control layout barely scratch the hard bodied surface of this wonderfully fantastic game. Combos are hard, as expected, but completely useable, in this new-feeling Tekken title. A great sense of style, a fantastic gaming feel, and amazing fighting mechanics truly make this gem absolutely shine. With all of these mechanical wonders, you can utilize them in TONS of modes, from Quick Fight, Story, Time Attack, and the awesomely fun “Dojo” which acts almost as a rank-up tournament, with progressively better, and more difficult enemies… The enemies also gradually learn how you fight, and become very challenging, so if you’re looking for a good set of fights, head over to the Dojo mode. Entering any of these modes will take about five seconds, with the lightning fast load times, and each will likely earn you some cash for the very, very cool character customization. In my lifetime, I have seen nothing more amusing than Marshall Law wearing a bowl of noodles as a hat, as he whallops Paul Phoenix, also with a goofy hat — a puppy. A helpful, and optional tutorial is there to help the beginners, while PS1, and PS2 Tekken fans will quite easily adjust to the new title.

While Multiplayer is only through ad-hoc, infrastructure does support uploading/downloading of character ghosts (essentially, its your AI) downloading of wallpapers, and packs. Game Sharing allows PSP owners to play 2 player ad-hoc multiplayer, with a full roster, with only one UMD, as well!

The-Not-So-Good

On the thin list of “bad” things with TDR, we see lack of texture in the distant backgrounds, and they serve merely as a backdrop — which isn’t a huge problem, your focus should be on your fighter anyways. Some dialogue seems out of place amongst the good stuff… Law’s high pitched, Bruce Lee type voice changes to a deep American voice in his mini-side-story movies, and cinematics, and back again while he fights. Little annoying things like that might get to some more than others, but is no biggie, once again. The biggest problem with this game, though, is its ridiculous difficulty. Medium is what most fighters would be on Hard, but proves to you that you have some skill. Frustrating battles, especially the final, unexplained story battle, prove how hard this game really is. The whole story is broken up into movies, as well as the ever-so-lame Comic Book Style of leading into things. Great art, but seriously, did we not learn from Fight Club & X-Men that this is a bad idea for cinematics? The only control issue is the learning curve to hit those D-Pad diagonals just right.

The Low Down

Buy Tekken: Dark Resurrection immediately. It’s deep enough for fans, but simple for newcomers. Tons of unlockables, great visuals, amazing sound, and just all around fun gameplay make TDR a must have for PSP owners. Trust me, you’re taking this from a guy who doesn’t like the Tekken series. You will thoroughly enjoy this, if you don’t already. This really is the Tekken game to convert people to the series. Fantastic fun, and truly a killer app. Go eat that delicious cake, fatty!

9.5/10

Kingdom of Paradise

Shinbu is a banished member of some sort of fictional legendary martial-arts clan, seeking adventure. You, as Shinbu, find your entire former clan completely slaughtered, save for one woman. Shinbu and friend then pursue the perpetrators, as they aim to recover some mystical stolen sword, and avenge their clan. All in all, you’ll have a pretty damn good time avenging your clan.

The Good

The primary focus of this 3D-Third-Person-Action-RPG is the combat. As you progress throughout, you will find tiles, each tile containing a certain action move (A sword swing, a kick, etc.) for combat, then, you will attach them to a scroll, which is basically Shinbu’s personal notes on how to kick ass. You start off with a two-tile, two hit combo, but as you progress, and level up, you can blend more and more tiles together for massive combos. Nothing rocks more than seeing shinbu stab a foe, jump in the air, land on him with a kick, and then juggle him in the air in a glorious ten hit combo.

Visually, the game isn’t stunning, but it sure doesn’t hurt the eyes. Being that the environments are gargantuan, you have a lot of scenery to look at, so there was obviously a lot of effort put into the mountains, trails, and rivers. Dust particles follow Shinbu as he runs across the globe, water splashes as he runs through streams, stuff like that. Character models are fairly generic, but my god, can they move. Not only do Shinbu’s massive amount of combat moves look smooth, but the running, and fighting of literally everyone else is animated with a ton of realism, while maintain that anime touch. The animation truly is great in this title, and stands out above most PSP, and even PS2 games.

Clearly influenced by ancient China as well as feudal Japan, the story is fairly lengthy (15 hours, great for a portable epic!) and the music suits accordingly. You’ll never get sick of the score, as it crescendos as the battle heats up, and mellows out as you near that serene river, all as if it were a single track. The character outfits suit accordingly, and mix up as you move along.

The Not-So-Good

I mentioned the story having some cool history behind it, but there’s a problem. A big one. At least 75 % of the time, you’ll sit wondering where the heck you’re supposed to go, and what you need to do. Shinbu’s ‘Journal’ doesn’t ever help, either.

“I need to find ((Someone important))!”
Okay.
Where?
You’ll find yourself backtracking across the entire world more than once talking to familiar faces, and familiar generic villiagers… You’ll beg to whatever god Shinbu worships for some aid that you’ll never get.

When you finally get to where you need to be, you’ll be lucky to find the save point you so desperately desire, as you are encountered with (Good looking, and mostly fun) cinematics, with absolutely painful voiceovers. Accelerated dialogue to match the mouths of the would-be-speaking-Japanese-characters just doesn’t work… An entire sentence comes out as gibberish, sounding like a whole word, and if it’s not that, it’s just the actors obviously not caring about their job, as they speak in total monotone. I don’t know if it’s an audio glitch, or something, but I could have waited a little more time for the game for decent VOs…

Conclusion

Other than a confusing story, awful VOs, and some minor camera issues, Kingdom of Paradise will have you happily slicing and dicing at the hordes of thugs, samurai, skeletons, and other unfortunate saps who get in the way of your decent looking character. Animations are stunning, deep, complex combat (which is heavily in favor of magic, unfortunately), Infrastructure multiplayer, tons of goodies to find and buy, make this level-up adventure worth a purchase for any RPG fan who has access to a walkthrough.

7.5/10

Another review I dug up from a while ago… I miss playing this game, but holy crap was it frustrating, but I recommend it if you need a PSP RPG!

If you’re a gamer, you no doubt have recollection of the huge amounts of characters you’ve controlled, as well as those in the world around them. Most of the time characters are given a full fledged background for you to flesh out and uncover, or you can look at it from the other side of the spectrum, and the personal development is displayed in a manner that you understand the world and its inhabitants before you take control of them. In the process of playing games, you will begin to notice, whether you realize it or not, that you care about the characters in the game. Quite often a hero/heroine will capture you and you will develop a sense of relationship with them in one form or another and begin to really care what happens in the world surrounding them. There are a lot of flat characters in games that you know the names of, and you understand the universe they are enveloped in, but you just don’t care if they live or die, succeed or fail. Let’s take a look at some of the most memorable characters that have enthralled me enough to care about their motivations, and do everything I can to protect those around them.

*Spoilers for the following games listed below, in order*

Final Fantasy VII

Suikoden II

Metal Gear Series

Republic Commando

Fable

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Aeris - Final Fantasy VII

Let’s get the most obvious one out of the way first. Cloud Strife’s love interest, who takes the form of an innocent flower girl, is brutally murdered by the nefarious Sephiroth. The fact that she’d been a character who’d gotten your attention in the immediate minutes of the games cinematic introduction, and had been a potential love interest for the character you controlled, made her whole situation sad. You cared about Cloud as you played as him - his mysterious history and empathetic nature and compassion for those around him gain the players’ sympathy, and when Cloud is burdened with the murder of a praying flower girl, the player is crushed. The cinema, and the flashbacks pour a gallon of lemon juice in to the gaping wound, merely to remind the player that there’s nothing you could do about it. It’s a touching scene that really grabs you when you see it for the first time, and Cloud is not only remember the innocent woman throughout the course of Final Fantasy VII, but haunted by her death in future Square iterations as well. Aeris is such a memorable character since so much of the story revolved around her, and that she was taken away from you so mercilessly and abrubtly you found yourself sobbing in the long lonely nights of 1997. Loser.

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Nanami - Suikoden II

The only living relative of Riou/Ryu, protagonist of Suikoden II, is his younger sister Nanami, aged 16 -  the siblings grandfather/sensei has recently died, bringing them closer together than they already were. The more you play with Nanami throughout the course of the game, the more it becomes apparent just how much you mean to her. The child looks up to you in every way, as she is envious of your warrior like status as you progress through the game, and she’s a wonderful aid in combat and decision making situations throughout this under appreciated RPG. The player has the choice to shun the sibling near the beginning of the game, and reject her assistance, and accepting it ultimately leads to the young girls demise. After pouring many hours in to Suikoden II you’ll begin to care about the political happenings, and those who follow you - Nanami is your right hand “man” should you accept her, and in a fight near the end of the game, Ryu/the player, is burdened with the death of Nanami, as she receives an arrow through the heart in order to save his life after a series of shocking situations. All the girl ever asked for was for you to like her and let her help you, since you’re the only person in the world she cares about, and technically the only person you as the player have left. Letting yourself get sucked in to Nanami’s cute childlike behavior is rewarded with a serious punch to the lips, knowing you could have stopped her death with a simple “No.” many hours beforehand, or worked harder to ensure that she never met the tip of the arrow.

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Rainbow Squad Members - Rainbow Six

Rainbow Six has always been a very tactical shooter. The first game, released shortly after the 1998 book, gave the player the option to control multiple squads, commanding their every movement before each mission. Before doing this however, you as the player are given a list of selectable Rainbow Six members - each soldier has a distinct and specific biography that you’re encouraged to read so as you learn who is more capable of succeeding at what. Dieter Wieber and Homer Johnston are best for sniping, while Domingo Chavez is better for stealth and assault. I know this because the game drills the information in to you throughout the series, and you learn about the men you’re sending in to battle. This makes for some serious heartbreak when you learn that you didn’t have anyone covering Weber, and he’s been killed. In any other game, it wouldn’t really make a difference, but in Rainbow Six, Weiber is dead. He can not be selected for another mission ever again, and it’s your fault. The game gives you a lot of responsibility for the men and women you’re sending in to action, so be careful. Try not to get attached to them - believe me, it’s not easy.

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Solid Snake - Metal Gear Solid

Solid Snake, plain and simple is an admirable hero.Players are so intimately aware of his history, life, and what he cares about that he envelops you in his personal life, fictional though it may be. At the end of the ‘Tanker’ chapter in Sons of Liberty, when Snake is supposedly killed by Revolver Ocelot, players are stunned - finding out you don’t play as him for the remainder of the game is shocking, and it takes some time for the explanation of how Snake lived, and it’s a relief to the trauma you realize you’ve felt in losing the epic soldier. Not knowing where Snake ends up after the conclusion of Sons of Liberty still pesters fans today, but Metal Gear Solid 4 is a direct sequel - further with that, the only trailer for the fourth MGS title shows Snake putting his pistol in his mouth to an astounding score of music. The intensity of that moment for people that have been following this man, and wallowing in his pain for almost a decade (Some of us even longer) stabs you in the heart, wondering whether or not he pulls the trigger. Another character in the series, Meryl Silverburgh, can be considered a character you care about, as players undergo actual torture to their own hands trying to save her life. Without that much care, why would a player risk their own physical strength to save a pixelated video game character? Snake is obviously in love with her, and the moment she puts her hand over her chest, revealing Sniper Wolf’s PSG-1 laser-sight leaves you in silence as the crack is bellowed in the room, and blood sprays from Meryl’s chest. Finding her dead later knowing you failed and could have saved her is rubbed in for the last few moments of the game, really making you regret not mashing that triangle button with every ounce of power you had in you.

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Why do we care about fictional game characters? If the character has a lasting effect in the game/series, it really means something. Knowing you have control over these people in this universe that you can shape by letting people live or die. Whether you can stop a polygonal flower girl from being brutally murdered or a  more realistic solider and his acquaintances from being harmed or not, you care. As someone who is generally interested in playing a game, it’s hard to enjoy it without trying to become encased in the universe as much as possible. Learning about their personal lives really has an impact on how much you care about characters. Anything with a name attached to it can bait you in to having some affection for it. When you send your pokemon in to battle he’s got a name, whether it’s its species or “Mr. Gubblemuster”, when it gets hit and you watch the HP bar drain at mach 2, you stomach turns and you bellow a cry of anguish in to the air….You don’t? Me either.

Other notable mentions include the soldiers in Republic Commando, who all have unique personalities, and as they get taken out you realize you want to exact revenge on those who have taken these fictional friends away from you, and Fable is worth mentioning as well. The final sequence where the dilemma that faces you as to whether or not you take the final sword and kill your long lost, tortured sister, or save her, is a really passionate moment that defines how evil you and your character truly are. A couple of characters I find I’ve never cared about, no matter how much I knew about them are Super Mario, and Ryu from Ninja Gaiden. As they die, you know you’ll just pick up with another Mario/Ryu right where you left off, so there’s no true consequence to their (tons of) deaths. Names and backgrounds about people gives them more life, but is not necessarily always a factor. Giving a diverse personality to a someone or something in a game is a start to getting gamers to give two hoots about what you’ve created.

Do you care about characters? Do you think that there’s no reason to care?

Reply here, let me know. Who do you care about in video games?

Mario Party 8 is a traditional MP game in the sense that nothing has really changed. Sure, there’s motion controls, but they’re not utilized nearly enough, as probably half of the games use the sideways ‘classic’ style controls for minigames instead. No widescreen support really hurts those with HD, but the game itself is very crisp looking. A wide variety of interesting new boards can’t save the game from its repetition of old minigames, but there is a ton to unlock, it’s just too bad that there’s no incentive to unlock the horde of useless items. The two new characters are worth playing the sloppy single player for, but of course multiplayer is where this game shines. Minigame/party games are abundant on the Wii, and there are better one’s out there but there’s no reason for Mario Party fans not to pick up and play this one with their buds.