DAY 181 / GAME 181
Star Wars Episode 1: Racer
Arguably one of the only good things to come of the Star Wars prequels was the fantastic Pod Racing sequence. Thankfully, LucasArts was smart enough to run with this and created the best selling future-racer to date. Which is great, because I didn't feel like watching the movie over and over again just for the pod races. Now, I'm not necessarily clear on why Episode 1 racer outsold the likes of Extreme G, F-Zero and Wipeout, each of which I found to be better racing games with an even more formidable pedigree. But nevertheless I did enjoy this game a great deal and it stands as one of the few racers that I enjoyed thoroughly on the PC. In fact, considering how impossibly fast paced the game is, keyboard controls seem like the least capable for the job. And yet, I still managed to make them work.
Episode 1 Racer was released for a couple consoles including the Dreamcast and the Nintendo 64, but at the time I only knew it was available for PC. I remember being excited about the possibilities that lied within the property, but I was pretty certain that like most movie tie-ins this would end up somewhat lacking. You know, that unpolished 'cash-grab' feel that so many tie-ins have due to having been reworked and rushed to match elements of the movie and still launch it within the same release window as the film. With all this against it, LucasArts won by simply focusing on the important elements -the racing- and leaving any story elements or major Episode 1 tie-ins by the wayside. The pod racing felt like any other racing game. You made your work you way through a series of courses to earn trophies, money to buy upgrades and other unlockables like extra tracks and additional pilots/pods.
Episode 1 Racer really succeeded in recreating the pod racing experience as best they could at the time it was released. Speed was of utmost importance and it was most definitely not lacking in that respect. Careening through chasms, twisting your engines through narrow gaps and blasting out full-throttle across a short open stretch, all the while your engines blare that fantastic sound they established within the film. Direct ties to Skywalker Sound and LucasFilm in general meant this game was full of all the best sound FX and music scores straight from the movies which went real far in helping sell the overall experience. It was also quite impressive that they managed to make a whole series of tracks so that you weren't only racing within the Tatooine desert the whole time. It's pretty exceptional when a company can make a bunch of new content that still feels tied to what has already been established.
It's been about 15 years since I've played this, but it sure seems more familiar than that. Sega ported this into the arcades and you can still find it there. An amazing cabinet that resembles a pod, including the dual-engine power controls like in the movie. Which is, in the end the most difficult way to control a high speed racer ever. Still, it's got that really cool gimmick to it that makes you want to try it at least once. Having just got a new PC (finally), I'd love to see if I can track down a copy of this and see if it still looks as great as I remember.
DAY 180 / GAME 180
Quake
At the time, most First Person Shooter games were 3D in nature, but still used a lot of 2D elements. Doom, Dark Forces, Alien Trilogy; they all used 3D rendered levels (walls and floors) but all the enemies, items and most props plus your weapons were all 2D sprites. For the most part this was a smart decision, walls and floors required few polygons and could take advantage of a few tricks so far as rendering perspective goes. This leaves the more complex components to be rendered as pixel art and can contain more detail than what you could render in 3D at the time. And yet, this would cause a number of issues. Sprites couldn't rotate very well in 3D, so quite often enemies were always either facing you, or facing away. Sprites were always a set resolution and so looked best at a certain zoom level and looked hideous when you got closer to them. And generally they just didn't fit in well with the 3D rendered surroundings.
But then, two years after the very popular release of Doom 2, ID Games released a fully 3D FPS game that was like none before it. Everything was rendered in 3D; enemies, weapons, item pickups. The characters lacked some of the detail of game before it, (Heads and other body parts were usually composed of a single block.) but they felt like they belonged in the world that was presented before you. Everything felt more fluid and tangible providing you with a more exciting, somewhat more realistic experience. Which was really the point of FPS games in the early 90s. That and shooting everything in sight.
Quake wasn't just the first 3D first person shooter, for me it was also the first time I had really seen online multiplayer in action. My uncle once showed me Quake while in multiplayer mode. I can't remember if this was a dial-up server or internet based, but I remember there were a ton of players running around. It took seconds to get completely obliterated and I really had no idea what on earth was going on. Though, it was pretty clear that the people that were playing knew exactly what was going on. Rocket jumps, telefragging, headshots; there was no mercy. It was as it is then as it is now.
Quake was another one of these pioneering games that was saw so many of in the 90s. Introducing brand new technology that paved the way for how we game today. It was a great time to be playing games since so much of this stuff felt like bigger advancements than much of anything they can do now. And though, with story being so much more important to me overall and that's really what gets advanced nowadays; I still remember a time when all this new tech was so exciting and there was nothing cooler than sitting in front of your computer and seeing stuff render out that you never imagined possible up until that moment.
DAY 179 / GAME 179
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
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This make strike you as odd, but up until I had purchased a Nintendo 3DS I had never actually played any of the Legend of Zelda games. The 3D rebuild of Ocarina of Time was the very first Zelda game I had ever played. Some say it was a bad move on my part, now having played what some consider the best of the series, (some consider the best game of all time) going and playing any other Zelda title would be difficult. And to a certain degree they were right. Ocarina of Time remains the only Zelda title I have completed and easily my favorite of the lot. Of course, it certainly helps that I have only played the massively overhauled 3DS version which is over a decade newer.
It really was striking though. One of the first games I had a chance to see on Nintendo's new portable hardware was this re-released game from the Nintendo 64. It looked incredible and at first I wasn't even certain that it was an entirely new game or not. It was the first game I bought when I got my 3DS and it had completely sold me on the system. Which says a lot considering it's age. Afterwards I enjoyed this so much that I went back to try some other Zelda games: Phantom Hourglass for the DS, Link to the Past for the Gameboy Advance, Majora's Mask for N64 and the HD remake of Windwaker. I have yet to complete any of them, though I found each of them much more interesting than I had originally guessed they would have been, but I just didn't have the drive to complete them like I did with Ocarina of Time. Although I must say I was very impressed with Windwaker and I will be sure to finish that shortly.
Ocarina of Time is really impressive when you consider it's age. Not unlike Mario 64, it really came about as one of the first of it's kind. There were few fully-3D roaming game like this one and it really set a lot of standards of controls and gameplay that we find so commonplace in today's games. And incredibly enough, going back and playing it now is rewarding as it's controls are not clunky, the puzzles aren't confusing and the camera isn't half-bad. It really makes me wish that I had been smart enough to have played this when it first came out. Similarly though, I wish I had played Link to the Past when it first came out.
Ocarina of Time was just plain fun to play. The puzzles were tough, but smart. So you really felt like if you were stuck, it was something that could be fixed if only you take the time to think about it. The sword and bow and arrow combat was well done and took advantage of a lock-on system so you didn't even need a second analog stick to properly control everything. There was horse riding and even mounted combat. Horse riding which meant you could really cross the big maps without spending so much time going back and forth for the purposes of certain puzzles.
There's a lot of detail to go into to really describe all the amazing things about this game, but the big thing for me is simply how it opened my eyes to the Zelda game-verse. If it wasn't for Ocarina of Time I probably would still be putting the Zelda games off as something I could never get into. And although I may not quite have played anything like this one yet, I'm definitely more interested in investing time in the rest of the games now that I've run though this.
DAY 178 / GAME 178
Tazmania
Back in the 90's there was a great spinoff show revolving around the WB character Taz from the Bugs Bunny and Tweety show. The show revolved around the idea that Taz (the Tasmanian Devil) wasn't actually typical of his species; instead he is uniquely maladjusted and a general spaz whereas the rest of his family is quite normal. His dad plays golf, his mom works at the office and his younger brother and sister do brother and sister stuff. And noone quite knows why Taz is the way he is. (He's also the only one that doesn't wear clothes.)
Anyhow, as was the case with a number of popular cartoons at the time, Taz-Mania got licensed out to become your typical side-scrolling platformer. Though, as was the case for me at least, there was always room for another side-scroller and this one was unique enough that it had definitely stood out for me.
Taz-Mania let you spin into a tornado, which was a given and while in that mode you were an unstoppable crazy force could blast through enemies, up walls and through obstructions. Taz also did one other thing great. Eat. You found yourself stuffing anything you found within the levels inside your mouth. Food items granted you heath, hot peppers let you blow fire, water jugs put that fire out and bombs could be eaten to contain an explosion.
The levels and creatures you fought were fun and bizarre. A number of the enemies were characters from the series. Bush mice with spears, the Gators, kiwi and so on. But then were were a bunch off oddball creatures designed strictly for the game, like a giant man-eating rock among others. What really made the game in the end though was all the fantastic character animations and expressions for the lot of them. Care was taken so the sprites nicely mirrored the show's characters. And since I was so super absorbed in as many cartoons as I could get my hands on, the next step was trying to get them in other formats and since gaming was still really new, seeing all these properties on my new gaming platform was pretty exciting. Though sometimes disappointing.
I never owned a copy of Taz-Mania. I kept putting it off and instead bought the sequel when it came out. Though, I can't say that it held the same level of charm that this one did. In the end, I always wished I had bought this one instead. Something about the levels and the ties with the cartoon show that was lost in the second one. I should pop into an emulator and grab this sometime and play it through again.
DAY 177 / GAME 177
The New Tetris
Tetris has been released on pretty much any piece of electronic hardware with a screen. I remember back when the original Nintendo GameBoy was still new, people's moms used to steal it away so they could get some personal time with Tetris; bragging about their high score and lording it over their kids. Tetris in itself has always been pretty enjoyable in most any iteration, but by far my favorite version was The New Tetris for Nintendo 64. With a couple small but smart changes and the huge bonus of four-player simultaneous play; which is something that we took plenty of advantage of.
I don't think any one of us actually bought The New Tetris, I think we just rented it a number of times. But on those occasion that we had it available, we put quite a few unbroken hours into this game. When I say unbroken, I'm saying that there was a time when we were playing this and I had gone for such a long time without blinking that when I finally did my contact lens had dried out and folded in half. Tetris is never as much fun as it is when you're playing split-screen with 3 other people. And with The New Tetris' different competition modes, it can be real intense.
The New Tetris did a great job overall just cleaning up the board, the design of the pieces and more than anything, the music. Noone would suspect such a great soundtrack coming from a Tetris game, but The New Tetris really had this fantastic score; each track based on a theme present in the background art. The pieces had a nice clean bevel to the design and took in consideration lighting to really give it a more tangible feel. They added the neat feature of being able to create a big Tetris block by seamlessly (without any bits sticking out) combining pieces to make a 4x4 square. Eliminating these bought you extra points, or hit your opponents hard during multiplayer.
The New Tetris was also a ton of single player fun. Unlike regular Tetris where you are just gunning for a high-score, in The New Tetris all your completed lines got added up to a grand total. As you played more and more the lines built up recreations of the 7 Wonders of the World, which you were able to view once completed. So it definitely had that ongoing draw to play rather that just being your typical timewaster like most puzzle games.
I've yet to find a version of Tetris as complete and clean as this one. I'd really love to see this revisited and re-released in high definition for newer platforms. And if I ever have a retro-game night with some old friends, I'd really like to find a copy of this to play.
DAY 176 / GAME 176
Fatal Rewind
As usual with the Sega Genesis, a lot of my game purchasing decisions were based on whatever crazy art graced the cover, or whatever tiny snippet of a screenshot I caught while flipping through a friend's magazine. In this case, I caught an ad in a magazine I was flipping through while I was bored one day at a schoolmate's party back when I was very young. It was an ad for two Psygnosis games, Shadow of the Beast and Fatal Rewind, both of which looked pretty scary and somewhat ambiguous as to what they were about. Now, from the cover you can only imagine the kinds of incredible possibilities were in store for this game. Turns out it was pretty much nothing like I had imagined, like a lot of 16 bit games I'd purchased. So I can't say I was exactly disappointed.
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Fatal Rewind was still really dark and scary, but more in concept than design. I didn't really know the story until I bought it and read through the manual for the backstory (as it's not explained in-game). Turns out, Psygnosis took the Running Man story and changed it up a bit. The concept in Fatal Rewind is that you are in control of a convict, forced to run a maze as penitence for your sins; survive the maze and you are free to go. However, I don't see that ever happening, because: a. it's damned impossible and b. you've been irreversibly surgically altered in order to play this game. It's described in the manual that your skin and limbs are removed and you are placed into a robot shell, one with mounted guns that walks on it's hands. You look nothing like a person anymore, just this horrifying monstrosity. I'm not sure who would choose that over incarceration, or death.
On the upside, you don't exactly get attached to your disgustingly deformed protagonist. (Would it be a protagonist?) The concept behind the name 'Fatal Rewind' (Renamed from The Killing Game Show in japan.) is that you aren't controlling one single person, but rather an unending number of them. Your run through the maze is broadcast as part of a game show, you watch along with all the other viewers as each contestant attempts the maze. The concept, is that since you are watching each person run the maze, you should see where each one makes his mistakes and avoid them. So each time you start after dying, you have the chance to 'fast forward' right up until the moment you last died. This way if you did great up until the end, but made one bad jump or flipped one wrong switch, you don't really have to start from the beginning again. Which is great because honestly, this game is hard as hell.
Fatal Rewind really doesn't want you to succeed. The maze's exit is upward and shortly after you start moving the floor fills with a pit of acid. HALFs, or Hostile Artificial Life Forms attack you in waves and keys and weapons are littered about as you make your way through the maze. Of course, backtracking is very difficult because you risk getting dissolved in acid if you take too long. So you pretty much have to play this game via trial and error, lots of it. This game is one of the harder Genesis games I'd ever played. I think I was pretty happy to make it to the second level and I most definitely never got any further than that. Maybe on an emulator, with save-states I may be able to get further, but I am pretty happy with the amount I've played. As neat as it was, I'm pretty sure the later levels would have ended up getting pretty repetitive anyway.
DAY 175 / GAME 175
Dead Space 2
I once said that between Dead Space 2 and Dead Space 3 I couldn't decide which was my favourite. Thankfully I don't actually need to choose, but I can say that I've easily put the most time and effort into part 2. Dead Space 2 was another one of these perfect sequels. A sequel where they really read the minds of the fanbase and created a second game that not only cleaned up the original gameplay and controls, but also expanded on the story and characters to create and even better experience than the last. Dead Space 2 took action-horror-sci-fi to new places, with vivid and grotesque creature designs that ooze the kind of detail you almost don't want to see. Incredible and unique EVA suits and weapons that are just repurposed space tools. Because the nailgun in Quake and the chainsaw in Doom were the best weapons in a game to date and who really hasn't fired a big stapler like it was a gun before?
I remember hearing the announcement for Dead Space 2 and just being ecstatic. I really loved the first game, but I love a lot of unpopular games and I really wasn't sure it was going to take off as a new IP. But it seemed to have gotten quite a bit of traction. EA sure made a big advertising push. They had the 'reaction' ads where they showed the game to soccer moms and filmed their disgusted reactions and when I attended PAX East that year they made a great show. Not only did they do a great retrospective panel regarding the first game, but showed (for the first time) footage from the new game. Then, on top of it all, they showed up with an (expensive) recreation of the new Dead Space 2 RIG suit, all very functional with articulated panels and lights, worn by a staff member.
Dead Space 2 was incredibly scary. Which is a feat considering you make your way through the game fully-armed and in a suit of armor. Both things which would normally take away from the terror level almost completely. But the truth is, Dead Space 2 is full of enough creepy monster children and chirping raptor like meat-machines that even with your plasma cutter readied you feel pretty helpless when they start running at you from the darkness. In fact, if there weren't any ranged weapons I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to play this game at all. As it stands, I found I could only play it for about an hour at a time before I felt like my heart was going to just give up and quit; my nerves more shot than a housecat.
Dead Space 2 was just the perfect feat of a game. It looked utterly fantastic and disgustingly horrifying. I read somewhere that staff had to study animal carcasses in order to properly create the designs for the game, which typically appear as a mashup of body parts. Controls are clean and tight, your weapons are unique and fun to use. The multiple designs for a variety of different RIG suits you can wear are amazing. So much more than what was available in the first game. Everything from the clunky engineer's suit to the sleek and deadly new suits and my favorite minimalist hacker suit. The music is incredible and perfectly background and the sound design is top notch. There are some moments when everything is going to hell and the Marker is sending out horrifying signals; the low, ominous sound presses on the already terrifying note of almost certain end.
I must have played this game through at least 3 times. I even tried like hell to beat in on the hardest mode to get a few unlocks. But with only 3 save points allowed and no checkpoints it's practically impossible. The DLC for this game, which is a terrific side story with a new RIG suit and character, which follows alongside Issac's story is some of the best DLC to date. I even made sure to play this through multiple times as well. One of my absolute favorite games to date, I'm super glad they made an amazing sequel to it and I'm looking forward to the announcement of a Dead Space 4. I'm sure Visceral will treat it right.
DAY 174 / GAME 174
Enter The Matrix
It took a while for a proper Matrix game was released. For a while I considered modding Max Payne (if that is possible) to try to recreate the experience. Which would have worked quite well considering how much Max Payne borrowed from The Matrix and John Woo films. They didn't even merchandise the movie pretty much at all until the sequels were announced. Then it blew up a bit and we saw a toy line by McFarlane, an animated collaboration of movies that filled the gap between the first two movies and a number of video games. The first one I jumped on immediately, I even preordered it from EB and picked it up on my way to the theater to watch Matrix Reloaded. The timing was perfect as the game itself bridged Reloaded and Revolutions including content that was filmed during the movies that exists exclusively within this game.
I was super happy with this game. I was waiting for a Matrix game forever and this really delivered. Truth is, there wasn't much you needed to do at the time to impress me with a Matrix game. So long as it featured some bullet-time slo-mo and some crazy kung-fu gunplay, I'd have been happy. But instead I got a lot more than I had bargained for. The game not only included some fantastic gameplay but also an absolute ton of extra tie-in content that expanded the movie experience so much more than any other movie-game tie in before it.
All because the Wachowski Brothers were determined to go out of their way to expand their world into a variety of mediums. Back in '99 the official website featured a ton of official short stories and comics, then in 2003 we saw the Animatrix; 9 short animated films, some directed by the brothers who hand picked their favourite studios. And now, with the Enter the Matrix game, the brothers made sure to weave the story in that of the films, going so far as to direct over an hour of footage to be used as cutscene content in the game. It also goes so far as following two supporting characters instead of Neo himself. This meant these characters could have gaps in their individual plotlines during the movie while the focus remains on our main three heros. Gaps that were filled with the content of this game.
Enter the Matrix' biggest downfall was simply that it was rushed to meet a strict release date and that it was asking a lot of a early console generation. Gunning for a realism to match live action content instead of stylising more meant that it got visually dated quick. Plus, all the content including crazy car chase scenes, gunplay and nicely created fight animations appear limited by low-poly models and textures. It's almost too bad they couldn't remake this game on current systems, but the truth is that it was a real product of the time and as cool as it was, is no longer relevant story-wise.
Still, it was great at the time. Fights and gunplay were as fun as you'd imagine they would have been. You followed both male and female protagonists; both minorities, which is really unheard of in a major AAA game release. They even threw in a couple moments that really mirrored the 'lobby scene' from the first movie. Which is a real plus for most any fan. Plus, as a bonus, there were a ton of hidden extras that were available through a 'hacking' console. With the proper sequence of codes you could get into a few neat bits including an extra two-player fighting game; one that even included fights between character models and even cars.
The Matrix didn't see as many video game releases as it really could have. Maybe because most of them didn't do so well. Enter the Matrix sold an absolute ton within the first few weeks of release, but was a hit-or-miss with critics. I guess it was a real hit with fans, but was received mildly from anyone else. Nevertheless I enjoyed it quite a bit. Maybe one day the brothers will return and expand on the series with a new game, animated movie or the like.
DAY 173 / GAME 173
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Arkham Asylum looked incredible right from the start. Every aspect of it looked as if it were cared for by Batman fans alone; a true labour of love. I even came close to buying this at launch, which has been a rare thing for me to do for a while now. You see, with so many games being released so frequently now, compared to say, 10 or 15 years ago, I can barely keep up. So I always have a stack of games that need to be finished and it just seems hard to justify buying a new game and playing that while I have others that may even be unwrapped. Of course, there are exceptions; games that I simply can't wait for such as Dead Space, Gears of War and Mass Effect. But usually I'll just wait because the truth is, the price will drop by about half or more in a matter of a few months; makes it hard to justify.
Nevertheless, though I may not have grabbed it right away, it wasn't long before I had picked it up during a holiday sale and booted it up shortly thereafter. But the truth is, that even if I had picked this up at launch I wouldn't have been sorry because it turned out to be an absolutely fantastic game. Arkham Asylum featured all kinds of fresh new designs of a ton of classic Batman characters. All well within the realm of what is acceptable for each character, what with Harley Quinn being the least recognizable and yet still very much herself. Many aspects of the game follow suit with all kinds of tasteful redesigns from Batman's costume to his gadgets and the world around him. It also includes some of the best casted voices in Batman history; Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and Arleen Sorkin who voices Batman, the Joker and Harley Quinn from the animated series in the 90's.
Arkham Asylum got the game just right. Not only did they make it a fantastically dark and brooding game with beautiful graphics and stunning design, but they also introduced some unique and appropriate gameplay. As the dark knight himself, you do your best to hide in the shadows and stalk your enemies. A special camera mode shows the skeletal structures of the thugs below you, their heart rates, weapons and level of fear. Picking a few of his buddies off in the dark can frighten an opponent into firing blindly or not paying attention while you come up behind him. You can use your grappling hook to reach far up areas, swing from platforms and reach normally inaccessible sections of the game. Other gadgets in your arsenal allow for hacking coded doors, gassing inmates, creating traps or blowing up walls to gain access to hidden areas. And then of course, the game features a terrific brawling system which really shows up Batman's ability to hold up in a fight.
The best part about Arkham Asylum for me though was how much it got me excited about Batman again. Perhaps even more than ever before. It's full of all kinds of comic lore and background info about all the characters and their stories, even going so far as mentioning which comic each person first showed up in. As soon as I could, I borrowed a whole ton of Batman graphic novels from a couple friends of mine. Some of the best, including Arkham Asylum (of course), Hush, Year 1 and a few others. And as far as I'm concerned, when a game is based on existing content, it's definitely succeeded when it prompts you to search for more of that content.
DAY 172 / GAME 172
Tomb Raider 2
I learned my lesson when I bought the first Tomb Raider game for the Sega Saturn. Until saving in general became more accessible in a game like this on consoles, PC was really the only way to play it. And so, when Tomb Raider 2 came out, I was sure to buy it for my home computer instead. This means I actually got quite far in Tomb Raider 2, I may not have beat it, but I still got further than in any of the original Tomb Raider games. Which is great, because it really had a lot to offer in terms of level diversity, varying costumes and different environments. Unlike the first one, where I really only played the first level about a hundred times.
Tomb Raider 2 still featured the same, albeit slightly higher poly-count, busty protagonist Lara Croft; who I still really just viewed as a modern, female version of Indiana Jones. And being a huge Indiana Jones fan at the time, was more than happy to take this in lieu of an actual Indy game since there really hadn't been one since the Fate of Atlantis adventure game. I mean, they even went so far as including a level that takes place in Venice where you can drive around in a wooden motorboat similar to those featured in the Last Crusade. Which was actually my favorite part of the whole game. It was really nice to introduce some useful vehicle components to the series.
Tomb Raider 2 did a great job of taking us to some new locations. Going full circle starting from the Great Wall of China, to Venice, an sunken ocean liner, a monastery in Tibet and then back to China. The ocean liner included some great underwater sequences and the use of a speargun to fend off sharks, the Tibetan level included the use of a snowmobile and as I mentioned earlier, you get to drive a boat in Venice. Everything felt quiet, creepy and abandoned. Which is easy to accomplish in early games, but still made the whole 'tomb raiding' aspect feel more accurate. The new game engine allowed for some real time lighting, which also helped as some sequences you actually had to use flares for your only light source while exploring. Which was something quite new at the time for games.
I also still have to say, knowing that Lara Croft really is a big example of games as a 'boys club' and how she is obviously designed to attract male players, I still really just thought she was a kick-ass character. I've mentioned before how I really appreciate female protagonists and how there were a lot less to choose from back when this was released. So really, Lara may have been somewhat shallow and admittedly being 'kick ass' really isn't enough of a personality trait to consider her as strong as a lot of other player characters at the time; and so I guess I probably just imagined her as being deeper than she really was presented. But truthfully, Lara really was one of the first dominant female protagonists and probably paved way for a lot more who came after her. And so, I'll always have a soft spot for the series if even just for that alone.
In general, Tomb Raider 2 was just the right kind of sequel. It added lots of new content, cleaned up the engine and controls and really added in areas most fans would have wanted to see fleshed out. In fact, I really should go back and play this one again because the more I think about it, the more solid it was and may even be really comparable to a lot of the newer ones developed by Crystal Dynamics. It's not like I don't still have the copy sitting on my shelf, maybe I'll install it when I get home tonight.
DAY 171 / GAME 171
Ghostbusters the Video Game (2009)
Back around 2007/2008 it was announced that the original cast of Ghostbusters was working on a video game. A video game with a script 3 times the size of a single film and one that would include all the major players with the exception of Sigorney Weaver and Rick Moranis. (Sigorney due to a mix-up, her agent failed to mention who exactly was working on the project and Rick who has been out of the industry since his wife passed.)
As more and more details emerged regarding this new Ghostbusters game my excitement grew. It had been a long while since anyone really took to the property seriously and knowing this was being handled with care was important. In fact, at the time it sounded like everyone involved was much more interested in this than working on a third movie. And to be honest, as far as I was concerned, this was as good as a third movie, if not much better.
I didn't buy it right away, I tried the demo on the Xbox 360, which looked fantastic. But I heard nothing but mediocre reviews from all angles regarding the full release and so I had put this game aside in my mind to purchase one day, but not right away. Then, one Christmas, my buddy Pete picked this up for me as a gift. Which was cool because I was definitely interested in trying it, just never got around to buying it. It didn't take me long to toss this in the tray and when I did, I couldn't believe that I hadn't bought this on launch day. I really should learn not to listen to anyone when it comes to negative reviews. Because of course, I love everything when it comes to games.
In Ghostbusters, they smartly wrote the player's role as a silent one. Not forced silent either, it's perfectly well written. You're the new intern-slash-recruit who ends up with all the dirty jobs and generally someone to dump on. It's not like you don't try to talk, but instead, everytime your pudgy character opens his mouth someone usually cuts him off. He's well animated (as they all are) and therefore shows a lot of character, whether he talks or not. Having the player as a new character who isn't too invasive means that the game can still focus on the original cast and their witty interactions, which come close to equaling the dialog from the early movies.
Story-wise it's pretty great as well. Things get pretty dark at moments and to be honest, the whole thing feels like perhaps they drew from not only the early movies but also the animated series. Which is something I adored since there were some fantastic elements in that show that really opened up the original material.
Graphically the game is great as well. The character models are more than decent and all the surroundings, including New York and the otherworldly dimensions really capture the movies about as good as I could ever imagine. And of course, the Ecto 1, proton packs and PKE meter all look like the movie props, bringing with it all the nostalgia you could hope for.
In the end, as far as I'm concerned, Ghostbusters accomplished exactly what it set out to do. It was brilliantly written, gorgeous and brought back everything I would have wanted to see in a Ghostbusters video game. I'd love to see another game done by the same team, but I know that the work that went in to this game could never be duplicated. On the bright side, the Wii version is actually slightly different. Different enough that I may pick it up sometime to play through it. It's the same story, same writing, but redesigned with much more cartoony, stylized characters reminiscent of the animated series. It also has you playing from a first person view instead of third so you can take advantage of the Wii-Mote as a light-gun. It would definitely be a different experience.
DAY 170 / GAME 170
Pikmin 3
Where Pikmin 2 may not have quite succeeded, Pikmin 3 certainly did. That is to say that Pikmin 3, as far as I'm concerned maintained everything that was great about the first game and then went ahead to surpass and become the best installation in the series so far.
Pikmin 3 almost entirely sold me on the Wii-U console by itself. It is a real showcase for the system's power, which is long overdue for Nintendo, having never released an HD capable console up until this point. And while the Wii still produced some incredible graphics at it's SD resolution (see the original Pikmin) the Wii-U's output is like night and day.
Pikmin 3's updated engine produces soft shadows and ultra-realistic lighting making the tiny-garden microcosm really come to life. The fruit looks delicious, the water refreshing and the fire looks hot and burny. All the creatures really look part of their environment and the environment itself feels as turgid and tangible as your own backyard. The gameplay is solid and takes full advantage of the Wii-U gamepad. In fact, this game really was made for a dual-screen console. I'm very surprised there has never been an adaptation made for the Nintendo DS handheld. Your map is important and in this case, you are able to command your three different protagonists independently via the touch screen.
Pikmin 3 adds a new story to the mix as well. Instead of controlling Olimar this time around, you control a new three-person crew of similarly designed characters from a new planet. This planet has used up all it's food and is in a mad search for more. Alph, Brittany and Charlie (Yes they FINALLY added a girl character.) are part of a search team that has discovered delicious fruit on a new planet. You control the lot of them (who in turn control hoards of Pikmin) to gather as much fruit as you can in order to return to your home planet, bearing fruit. Of course, you run into various obstacles along the way, including the three of you becoming separated from the very beginning. And the story ties nicely into the first two games, but since this is so new, I'm going to keep this spoiler free.
Pikmin 3 is not only the best of the series, it's a must-have game for anyone who loves games. It's gorgeous, unique, well refined in both gameplay and controls. Features a cute little story with all kinds of fantastic elements contained within the world. It makes extremely good use of the Wii-U console and really sets itself apart from any other game you've ever played. Pikmin 1 and 2 withstanding. I've played this daily with Leia for months since I picked it up back in November and she still asks me daily to play this for her.
