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Well, the last weekend of August is here, and with that my Summer Gaming challenge whimpers out. I'm sad to say that although I went into this in June with guns blazing, I'm left with six of my ten games unfinished. Why did I fail to such a degree? For one thing I seemed to have chosen a lot of longer and more involved games. You'll notice that the ones I beat were a lot more arcade-style.
So let's take a look at what I'm left with...
[img width=300 height=300]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/3/477343_44275_front.jpg[/img]
Chrono Trigger is definitely the game I enjoyed most out of the unfinished pile. It's also the one I spent the most time on. Truth be told, it was one of the first Summer Games that I started playing in June. And I kept up with it on and off throughout the three months. In the end, I put fourteen good hours into it and made it up to the twin Golem boss fight. Unfortunately, I just didn't have the right equipment to finish the fight. And one thing that I hate doing is backtracking. So I ended up just sort of stalling right there. Admittedly, this is one game I do plan to eventually pick up and finish. Just not in the next few days.
[img width=300 height=300]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/9/197909_42494_front.jpg[/img]
After years of assuming it just wouldn't be my sort of game, I am now officially a fan of the Metal Gear Solid franchise. I found everything about the game utterly brilliant, and again I do plan to eventually finish this one as well. The hard truth is that I'm just not good at the game, no matter how much I like it. So even if it is considered a shorter game, it's taking me a lot longer than it probably should.
[img width=300 height=300]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/8/197178_50255_front.jpg[/img]
Duke Nukem 3D turns out to be a lot of fun. And I was playing it for the first time as all the hype about Duke Nukem Forever being a catastrophe was hitting hard. So that was interesting timing, too. I found the levels to be excellent, and basically it's the kind of FPS I really enjoy. However, like MGS, I'm just not great at FPS games. So each level would take me like an hour. It was slow progress and I stopped somewhere around one-fourth of the way through the PS1's extended version of the game. I don't know if I'll have finish the entire game, really. But I'm sure I'll revisit it and make more progress anyway.
[img width=300 height=300]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/9/198519_42825_front.jpg[/img]
I was warned not to include R-Type Delta on my list for the simple reason that I just would not be able to beat it. I laughed. Surely if I put some time into it and memorized levels and enemy patterns, I certainly could beat it! I had no problem making it through the first level without losing a ship. But level two. Woah. I lost them all. Fast. And as it turns out, Delta really is one big jerk of a game. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it's fun to take abuse. But there was no way I was going to beat this one.
[img width=300 height=300]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/1/198021_50362_front.jpg[/img]
Myst is a game I played for about fifteen minutes. And y'know what? I don't think I like it.
[img width=300 height=300]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/1/198641_42896_front.jpg[/img]
Unfortunately Silent Hill is the one game I didn't get a chance to start up. It's also the one game on my list that I had played some of prior to the challenge. At any rate, I obviously plan to play through this sometime in the future. I'm actually contemplating attempting a similar Winter Challenge later this year. So we'll see...
[img width=300 height=300]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/8/197898_27938_front.jpg[/img]
Well, it's official. I beat my fourth Summer Gaming pick. Appropriately enough, it was Mega Man X4. And wow. Let me start by saying that the first X game was, and is one of my all time favorite Mega Man games. In fact, it would rival Mega Man 2 and 3 for the top spot as my definitive favorite. Truth be told, I've probably spent the most time with X above all others. And yet I can say with all honesty that I enjoyed this game just as much. It really brought back memories of how exciting it was playing through the first game. You see strangely, I haven't really played most of the other entries in the X series. I suppose because of all the talk of the series having gone down-hill over the years. But X4 is a true masterpiece to me.
Oh, before I forgot I want to plug this excellent article by Alex Reo about X4. It was published in GameSpite Quarterly #8, and I had just read it around the time I was picking my Summer Gaming list. My friend Flake had urged me to add the game to my list, and upon reading this how could I argue? So here: http://www.gamespite.net/...ex.php/Games/G8-MegaManX4
[img width=300 height=200]http://ui09.gamefaqs.com/2344/gfs_27938_2_70_mid.jpg[/img] [img width=300 height=200]http://ui30.gamefaqs.com/1565/gfs_27938_2_42.jpg[/img]
Now the thing about X4 is it does having stretch marks from the growing pains of 16-bit moving onto 32-bit. But your own perception will decide what to make of the hilarious voice acting, the need to included anime cutscenes, and so on. I however loved every moment of this game. The silly voices were endearing. The fact that the double agent robot was named Double made me smirk. The music was great, the sprite work to die for and the detail incredible. There were levels where I'd just stop and look at all the little things -- like water trickling -- that just totally showed off the PlayStation's graphical abilities. Remember, we were supposed to believe that it didn't handle 2D games well.
Admittedly, I blew through most of the game pretty quickly. Then went back to look for E-Tanks and other upgrades. But really the bulk of my time was spent on the last stage. I can't tell you how many times I went through that boss-rush. I can only tell you that I can beat all eight robot masters in under ten minutes. Usually without taking a lick of damage. But the last Sigma battle is intense. He takes three (or technically four) forms that get progressively harder. It's not something you can luckily blast your way through. And as frustrated as I got trying and re-trying, it really made me realize how much I loved the game. I never wanted to stop playing in disgust. I just wanted to get good enough to see the end credits. Like so:
[img width=480 height=640]http://i.imgur.com/bKpAkl.jpg[/img]
Chrono Trigger
Dead Or Alive
Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown
Mega Man X4
Metal Gear Solid
Mr. Driller
Myst
Ridge Racer
R-Type Delta
Silent Hill
I'm not sure which game I'll focus on next. Probably Chrono Trigger, Metal Gear Solid, or Duke Nukem as those are the three I've spent time with already this Summer.
[img width=300 height=300]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/7/366817_127505_front.jpg[/img]
So I finally beat a third game from my Summer Gaming list. Ridge Racer is of course the classic PS1 launch title that showed off Sony's new piece of hardware as a viable option for near arcade perfection. (See: dsheinem's blog for a wonderful post on this game's release). This was a game I had at least tried before this Summer, but never spent any real time with. Now before I get started, brief disclaimer: when I say I beat Ridge Racer, I mean I beat it on Mid-Level. To me, that's beaten -- at least for the purposes of this challenge. My goal with these games was to get through them for once. To play them to the extent that I get to the end credits, and can say that I've honestly experienced the games to a point where I can have an actual educated opinion on them. So although I didn't try to beat it on the hardest mode -- I'm just not a completionist gamer. I don't care about unlocking everything, achievements, 100% or any of that kind of thing. To me, it's about the experience and having fun.
[img width=300 height=200]http://ui32.gamefaqs.com/1791/gfs_10965_2_6_mid.jpg[/img] [img width=300 height=200]http://ui26.gamefaqs.com/697/gfs_10965_2_7_mid.jpg[/img]
So what did I think of the game?
First, The Good: Ridge Racer looks phenomenal, even now. I mean I'm playing this on a PS3 and still impressed with what Namco was able to pull off all those years ago. The game feels great as an arcade racer. Though it certainly doesn't trump OutRun in my opinion for pure arcade racing thrill -- it is a blast. The Galaxian mini-game to unlock more cars is unique and actually makes the loading screen fun.
The Bad: Really the whole game is just one track. I mean, the track gets switched up a bit depending on difficulty level, and you can even race it backwards. But still. One track. Certainly this wasn't a big deal upon its release, but by today's standards this felt very limited to me, making the game slightly boring to keep reattempting. Also, I found that drifting never really clicked with me. I peeled out a lot, even using the car with the best traction. The other thing I found was that I handled curves much better playing in first-person view, which kind of irked me as I much preferred the third person perspective otherwise.
Ultimately, I'm glad I spent the time to get through this one. It's still fun and challenging today. But more likely I'd next check out a sequel with more tracks than come back and revisit the original again.
Chrono Trigger
Dead Or Alive
Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown
Mega Man X4
Metal Gear Solid
Mr. Driller
Myst
Ridge Racer
R-Type Delta
Silent Hill
As for other games, Chrono Trigger I need to get back into. I kind of stopped around the 10 hour mark. I'm somewhere around the third or fourth mission of Duke Nukem. Mega Man X4 is still infuriating me, as I can easily make it up to Sigma, but he kills me in his final form even though I have two E-tanks. And I recently started playing Metal Gear Solid, in which I'm about an hour and a half into and really impressed by.
[img width=300 height=300]http://i.imgur.com/O6WPKl.jpg[/img]
Last night I beat the second game on my Summer Gaming list, Dead Or Alive. Of course the series is rather infamous for its shapely fighters, but I really didn't have much experience with them. However the wonderful article about the series on http://HardCoreGaming101.net had always made me curious. And it being an infamous game only made me want to give it a try even more.
I should say that I'm most interested in 2D fighting games. However I've dabbled in some 3D and borderliners: Tekken, Soul Calibur II, Battle Arena Toshinden, etc. Upon firing DOA up I was immediately reminded of Virtua Fighter 2 which I had played -- and hated -- in the past.
[img width=300 height=200]http://i.imgur.com/jq4TYl.jpg[/img] [img width=300 height=200]http://i.imgur.com/bGlWQl.jpg[/img]
I decided to go with Kasumi, as she was the one I recognized from reading about the series. Of course I knew Ryu from Ninja Gaiden, but let's be honest. If you're going to play a game known for its bounciness, then why pick a dude? That would take away some of the campiness of being exposed to it for the first time.
Usually when I play a 2D fighter for the first time, it really doesn't take me long to complete the arcade mode. Generally speaking, it's a one or two session deal for me to get used to the controls and make it through. But Dead Or Alive turned out to be something totally different to me. I expected long matches with lots of special moves. Instead I realized that matches could be over in a matter of seconds if the AI unleashed a particularly brutal combo. So instead it took me a good four or five sittings of getting used to controls, and learning some strategy to get through the Tournament Mode. Indeed DOA turned out to be a far deeper fighter than I expected. I had to learn patience for one. This wasn't the sort of game where you could always just rush at an opponent. No, I actually had to play quite defensively at times. But after enough practice -- and admittedly some frustrated button mashing -- I came out victorious.
[img width=300 height=200]http://i.imgur.com/57dy0l.jpg[/img]
All in all, I thought it was a pretty fun game. Certainly it was a bit rough around its edges. But I liked it way more than Virtua Fighter 2. And I liked enough that I plan on playing some of the sequels as well. Who knows, maybe I'll even subject myself to the movie as an added element of camp?
[img width=215 height=317]http://i.imgur.com/O30Xt.jpg[/img]
Chrono Trigger
Dead Or Alive
Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown
Mega Man X4
Metal Gear Solid
Mr. Driller
Myst
Ridge Racer
R-Type Delta
Silent Hill
As for the rest of my list, I'm about nine hours into Chrono Trigger, I still need to figure out how to kill the third Sigma in Mega Man X4 and I've bean the Beginner track on Ridge Racer.
[img width=300 height=300]http://i.imgur.com/dNzkOl.jpg[/img]
So the first of my Summer Gaming Challenge titles can now be ceremonially crossed off the list. This morning I beat Mr. Driller. Now disclaimer: when I say "beat," I mean I got to the end credits. I actually beat the Arcade Mode on Beginner. In this case I feel I can consider the game beat because well, it's a puzzle game. And the Arcade Mode on Expert is the same exact thing except you need to get through double the levels of Beginner. I'm sure if I stuck with it long enough I could do that no problem. In truth, I played Mr. Driller for the first time this morning. And a couple hours later it was beaten. The other reason I really don't feel I need to attack Expert for this challenge is because really my goal is to get through these games to see an ending and feel that I've experienced them. In this case, I feel that playing through the Beginner Arcade Mode was enough to know I've experienced the game.
[img width=300 height=200]http://i.imgur.com/udvx9l.jpg[/img] [img width=300 height=200]http://i.imgur.com/YBmVTl.jpg[/img]
So what did I think of it? Well, I thought it was pretty great honestly. I'm a fan of puzzle games to begin with, and this one hit the spot. It had a really good blend of strategy, where you have to kind of try to be patient and plan your moves mixed with urgency, because if you hang around too long you'll run out of air (basically a time limit that can be extended by finding Air Items throughout the levels). Visually, I thought the game looked fantastic. The bright candy-colored levels and cutesy design of Mr. Driller himself was really a great visual style for a game like this. Considered a spiritual sequel to Dig-Dug, I'd say I far prefer Mr. Driller to be totally up-front. I do think it could have benefited from a 2-Player mode, though. Just a thought.
[img width=300 height=200]http://i.imgur.com/Np7NGl.jpg[/img] [img width=300 height=200]http://i.imgur.com/ebVJll.jpg[/img]
Chrono Trigger
Dead Or Alive
Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown
Mega Man X4
Metal Gear Solid
Mr. Driller
Myst
Ridge Racer
R-Type Delta
Silent Hill
So moving on... I'm actually very far into Mega Man X4. As in all the way up to the last boss, so I expect to finish that one soon. I'm about six hours into Chrono Trigger, which really I'm not sure how far into the game that is. I've also dabbled a bit in Ridge Racer and Dead Or Alive. Really I've just been trying to bounce around between the games based on my mood. At any rate, it feels good to finally have one finished.
[img width=480 height=640]http://i.imgur.com/j1fuvl.jpg[/img]
Last Summer on the http://Racketboy.com forums a member by the name of Snickerd00dle came up with a Summer Gaming Challenge for himself. He decided he would compile a list of ten classics that he had never beaten and attempt to beat them all during the Summer months. The thread was popular enough that not only did many of us follow is progress, but several members even joined in with him. About a month ago he mentioned he was planning to do it again this year, inspiring some of us to come up with our own lists -- myself included.
The hardest part was of course coming up with the list. My list went through many major revisions over the course of the month. My original idea was to try to pick so-called classics that I had never played, representing ten unique genres and stretched over many systems from 2600 to PS3. However a funny thing happened. Once my first list draft was done I noticed that it was basically a bunch of PlayStation games book-ended by a handful of older and newer games. You see I had just finished reading the wonderful GameSpite book chronicling the history of the PlayStation. Not to mention the PS1 seems to be the console I've been focusing my collecting on the most these days.
I then decided that I'd just make my whole list PlayStation games. That would at least help me narrow things down. And I'd stick to keeping it ten different genres. But classics? That was tricky. As an early adopter of PS1 back in the day, I really knew a lot of classics. Really this list should be games that I personally always meant to play, but had put off for some reason or another. I figured how about a list that finally gives me an excuse to play some of these games that I had always planned to.
So here's the list I finally decided on:
Chrono Trigger
Dead Or Alive
Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown
Mega Man X4
Metal Gear Solid
Mr. Driller
Myst
Ridge Racer
R-Type Delta
Silent Hill
For the most part, these are all games I have never played at all. There's a few small exceptions. For instance I've of course played many Mega Man games, just not X4. I have briefly played DOA2, but never the original Dead Or Alive. I've played Duke Nukem Advance, but never the classic Duke Nukem 3D. And I have tried both Ridge Racer and Silent Hill, but not for any expanded period of time. So my attempt to seriously sit down with these games and try to beat them all will be a very new experience to me with each of them.
As far as time-frame is concerned, I decided to start playing during Memorial Day weekend -- the unofficial start of Summer as they say. And I suppose I'll aim to wrap it up by the first of September. So three solid months to get ten games under my belt. For the most part I think that's reasonable, with the only really long games being Chrono Trigger, Metal Gear Solid and possibly Myst. I also have no sequence in mind. Originally I thought maybe I'd do them chronologically, but I've decided I'll just play them as I wish. If I feel like focusing on one until it's beat, then fine. If I want to work on Chrono Trigger and R-Type back and forth, so be it. If I want to juggle them all at once until something gets beaten, whatever. This is just supposed to be fun, right? And of course I plan to keep the blog updated with my progress on each. Stay tuned!
[img width=480 height=640]http://i.imgur.com/xDHxbl.jpg[/img]
This month's Together Retro game club pick over at http://Racketboy.com was Zoop. Now let me guess -- you've heard of Zoop, but never played it. You vaguely remember a magazine ad for it, but aren't really sure what it is. Am I right? Probably. That's generally how it went. Zoop was a puzzle game released in 1995 and it was ported to just about every platform available at the time. It made its way to SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear, PC, Mac, Saturn, Atari Jaguar and the PlayStation in an honest-to-goodness attempt at being the next Tetris. Indeed it was even marketing as "America's Largest Killer of Time!"
Perhaps what's more interesting about the game's place in history is that it was designed by a team called Hookstone. Though that name may not ring a bell, most of the members of Hookstone went on to form Mobius Entertainment, who you probably know better as Rockstar Leeds. That's right, the same team responsible for bringing Manhunt and the Grand Theft Auto series to the PSP had its humble beginnings in a simple puzzle game.
[img width=300 height=300]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/2/586002_70514_front.jpg[/img]
[img width=200 height=200]http://ui23.gamefaqs.com/1366/gfs_70514_1_1.jpg[/img] [img width=200 height=200]http://ui05.gamefaqs.com/1892/gfs_70514_2_1.jpg[/img]
Originally my plan was to play the Game Boy version, but I found it to be a bad idea. You see Zoop is all about a little triangle that's inside a big square. And all these multi-colored shapes are attempting to get in the square. But the triangle can turn into each color, and then take out like colored rows. Maybe you see where I'm going with this? Yeah, a game where color is important just isn't going to work so well on a monochrome system. So I soon decided that I'd pick up the PlayStation port instead. Some of my fellow Racketboy forum members actually played and enjoyed the GB port. Well, more power to them. Personally it just confused my eyes.
[img width=300 height=400]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/1/573801_46087_front.jpg[/img]
[img width=300 height=200]http://i.imgur.com/lG136l.jpg[/img] [img width=300 height=200]http://i.imgur.com/SYlK9.png[/img]
The PlayStation version was very good. At least I assume it would be just as good as any of the other console ports at the time (Jaguar, Saturn, etc.). The controls were responsive, the colors were vibrant and thanks to the newly implemented CD technology, the music was really great. I personally wasn't great at the game. In fact that's my high score in the picture up above there. But what was really nice about playing this month is that so many members got really into the game. It's really fun to go back and play a game with a bunch of people even though it's not handing out achievements or syncing trophies.
Truthfully, I lost interest in the game about halfway into the month. But in fairness, it was my birthday this month which means I got a lot of new games and all of them were begging for my attention. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't come back to this one. In fact Zoop certainly has a certain appeal to it. That kind of timeless replayability that makes games like Dr. Mario or Tetris so addicting. If you haven't played Zoop yet, you've really got no excuse. I guarantee you own one of the systems it's available for.
[img width=300 height=300]http://i.imgur.com/dfi1Y.jpg[/img]
When Star Wars: Dark Forces was announced as March's game of the month for the Together Retro game club at http://Racketboy.com, I wasn't quite sure how to feel. On the one hand, I was excited at the prospect of trying out a game I had never had any experience with. Certainly it had attained its Greatest Hits package because enough people liked it. Right? And plus, I was back into the swing of seriously collecting PS1 games again. So it was a great excuse to snatch this one up. But on the other hand, I'm really not a Star Wars fan. I mean, I saw the original trilogy growing up. I certainly was aware of the license. But I was never all that into it either. So I've always avoided games based on it.
Upon first firing it up, I felt a bit of relief. The truth is that I don't have all that much experience with first person shooters. I did enjoy Wolfenstein 3D and Doom during the golden age of freeware. I loved the GBA Duke Nukem sequel. But for the most part my experience with the genre was limited. So imagine my comfort when I realized that Dark Forces was cut from the same mold as Doom.
[img width=300 height=200]http://i.imgur.com/bDI4f.jpg[/img] [img width=300 height=200]http://i.imgur.com/7PsN6.jpg[/img]
It should certainly be distinguished that Dark Forces is not quite a Doom-clone either. I mean obviously it borrows at least something from such an influential game, but it also adds a lot as well. The most impressive addition being the ability to freely look up and down, thus adding an extra layer of importance to the 3D environment.
The first few levels impressed me immensely. Even without being a Star Wars fan, there was a lot to enjoy here. The absolute high point for me with this game was the level design. Each level was amazingly well thought out and featured various puzzles or gimmicks that made them stand out. Whether it was dealing with the absence of light until getting a power generator running, or navigating through multi-level platformed mazes in a sewer, the game offered incredible levels to explore and enjoy.
[img width=300 height=200]http://i.imgur.com/MUKUO.jpg[/img] [img width=300 height=200]http://i.imgur.com/fsDuw.jpg[/img]
Unfortunately there was one major drawback to the game that completely derailed my progress: the lack of ability to save anywhere. You see, in Dark Forces you can only save your game after you beat a level. This might be fine in a game like Doom where you can shoot your way through a level in no time. But whereas Dark Forces concentrated so heavily on mission-based levels with puzzles and mazes and other various objectives, this really hurt things. At least for me.
After spending about an hour and a half making my way through a maze-like level one evening, it got to a point where I simply had to go to bed. So that was it. I had to just hit the power switch and lose ninety minutes of progress. The slightest thought of powering up my console to replay that same ninety minutes over again just enraged me. Especially if I wasn't able to complete the level before having some other real world thing to deal with. There was no way, man. No way.
[img width=221 height=166]http://i.imgur.com/OrEbp.jpg[/img]
So honestly much of the month was spent with that mindset. I'd pick up Dark Forces with the intention of making some more progress. But then I'd look at the clock and figure I best just play something else instead. I figured I just didn't have the time to devote to a single level like that. Considering many (probably more recent) games of this nature my let you save your progress as you go, I'd probably do better with them. Y'know making my way through a game in baby steps.
But that got me to thinking a bit about the whole concept. I mean, is it wrong to want your game to be so flexible? I couldn't help but think back to Resident Evil with its infuriating typerwriter ribbon save system. Now certainly I don't look back on Resident Evil with any disdain, but I will say that I was thrilled that saving was a far more easy and constant prospect by the time Resident Evil 4 was released. I'm also somewhat reminded of the save-state debate that's developed since the dawn of easily attainable ROM's via the internet. While we old timers might look down on the youngin's for "cheating" by using save-states, how many of us actually have time to handle all of our day-to-day adult responsibilities and keep replaying the same dungeon over and over again? (I'm looking at you Ice Palace).
I know I've gone off on a bit of tangent here. But I guess it's nice to know that even if I didn't get a chance to really get as much gameplay enjoyment out of Dark Forces as I may have wished, at least it caused me to do some thinking.
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