NES Games I Beat #53: Friday the 13^th

                Friday the 13^th, based loosely on the series of movies by the same name, is an interesting game indeed. Developed by Atlus and released by LJN in 1989 (around the time of the seventh movie) the game has been critically panned by such internet famous reviewers like AVGN and defended by a lot of reviewers like the LJN Defender and MichaelBtheGameGenie. So who’s right? How bad is this game?

                The odd part is this is actually one of a select few NES games I was exposed to as a kid and back then my brother had bought it probably because it was cheap and based on a big name horror title. When I used to watch him play games, I was often very lost but enamored and engaged because the games were just cool to watch. I vividly remember one time he handed me the controller and I got lost in the confusing “3D” cabin sections and wrote the game off as being pretty bad after that. Seeing the AVGN video years later confirmed my ignorant thoughts.

                Before I look into the deeper intricacies of how to play this game, let’s look at the aesthetic nature of it. The graphics are pretty solid with a creepy vibe to them and their diverse in location like in the forest, cabin, or cave. The music, especially inside the cabin, sets an unnerving tone as well. This can be billed as one of the first survival horror games and with Jason lurking around any corner, there’s some genuine jump scares in the cabin or on the trails if he decides to show up there. You never know quite where he’s going to be unless you map out his pattern and that’s unsettling, to say the least. The color palette is often diverse and the day to night mechanic is very subtle and sound which is a very nice touch on Atlus’s part. Though, it really only becomes confusing in the gameplay.

                To be fair though, Friday the 13^th is a very obtuse game. The manual tends to shed a bit of light on how the game works but it’s still a bit too cryptic given all the obscure secrets that need to be performed in order to stand a decent chance of winning. The objective is actually rather simple, kill Jason 3 times, one on each day. What comes with this is the mechanic of Jason hitting cabins, killing one of your 6 playable characters, or killing the kids you trying to protect at the center of the lake. The characters are each diverse in the sense that some like Mike and Chrissy are faster than others or have a better jump while others like Paul are sort of useless and slow. Aside from these two characters and Laura, most other are just used to fetch items or to be sent in as cannon fodder to weaken Jason.    As I mentioned before, Jason moves around the map in a counter clockwise fashion and stops at each cabin in his path. He can deviate to the cave and lake sections of the map and will if there are a decent amount of people stationed in cabins there. If he hits a cabin with a counselor inside, the Jason alarm will go off to let you know. It’s a common criticism that there’s never enough time to make it to that cabin given the size of the map but that’s not entirely true as long as you know how to navigate the map. See, given that this is a sidescrolling game, often the direction you’re headed on the map won’t line up with the direction you’re going due to perspective changes. This is an annoying quirk to adjust to but once you get the hang of it, it’s really not too bad. Plus given the fact you can bring up the map at almost any point with start will give you a good idea of where you are. Also, if you make it to any small cabin and hit start you can change to any of the other counselors which basically means you switch to the one who is in the building with Jason and fend him off for a bit.  

                So once you’re able to answer the call, you’ll notice Jason is hard to hurt and his life meter goes down super slowly with most weapons. You’ll have to dodge with down right or down left and as long as you can figure out the pattern, you can manage to hit him with your weapon when he backs off. Hit him about 7 times with any weapon and he’ll retreat… for now. If he strikes on the lake, the number of children will decrease until you can make him retreat. It’s a bit of a pain though given that if a counselor dies here, Jason remains, killing kids until you can stop him. If all the kids or counselors die, it’s game over.

                The first day isn’t so bad as Jason is slow enough to consistently dodge and the zombies on the trail are pretty slow. All the character’s default weapons are a rock with an arc that is pretty bad unless you duck which makes it hit a lot better. At this point it’s three hits to kill the zombies. The first point of business is to take a character and get them three items, a lighter, a knife, and a key. Lighters are needed to make the other items appear and can be found after killing a few enemies. There’s a direction at the beginning of the game stating that you need to light fire places with it in all the big cabins but the one time I ever did that all it gave me was a useless flashlight which I’ll talk more about in a moment. The knife appears in much the same way as other objects like the potions and keys, by jumping around. However, the keys and potions have fixed locations whereas the knife appears everywhere. Once you have these, there’s a large cabin at the top of the lake road that has a note. It tells you to go into the woods which are right next to this cabin. At this point head right until you find an upward path and take it twice to find a secret cabin. The key unlocks the door and within is a note that tells you fire will damge Jason the most, in reference to the best weapon in the game, the torch, which takes a full peg of Jason’s life during battle. Now if you backtrack to the cabin from earlier where the first note was found you’ll find a torch. You can repeat this as many times as you’re able to squeeze in between answering to Jason’s rampage but the main goal is to get the two main counselors Mark and Chrissy equipped with the torch. At this point it’s a game of cat and mouse as you track down Jason and lower his life bar to a reasonable level. If his life is less than 7 pegs, he won’t retreat and at this point you want a torch bearer to be fighting him to make it easier on yourself. I recommend getting his health down with the other counselors at this point as if one of them dies it’s very much less of an impact on you winning than if Mark or Chrissy dies. Once you kill him, the second day begins and all the surviving counselors have their life replenished to full.

                Day two is the toughest of the days because Jason’s speed is increased at certain points during the cabin battles. The random nature of this speed up and slow down is hard to tackle but can be handled with enough skill. The enemies also speed up and drop less lighters so get equipped with knives the first day to avoid needless wasting of time. There’s one very important task today other than to kill Jason again, obtain Jason’s mom’s sweater. Inside the cave on the left side of the map rests a confusing set of catacombs to navigate. If you have a key, there’s a few sets of blocks which are right of the start that differ from the others and if you find these twice, you can enter her chamber. Generally a player could also use a flashlight to light up the entrances here but that takes way too much time to light the fire places on the first day that is needed to obtain torches. Once here, you can engaged in battle with Jason’s mom’s decapitated head and if you can dodge her attacks while laying down the attacks needed, you’ll defeat her and obtain her sweater which gives you a higher defense and halves damage taken by Jason which is nearly critical to defeating him. It cannot be transferred via the pass function either so make sure it’s Mark or Chrissy who slays her. It is optional, but it’s such a helpful item that it’s almost nonnegotiable if you want to stand a chance. If you made it this far, it’s likely Jason has holed himself up at the kids’ cabins again so confront him there and be ready with a lot of potions. It’s definitely a lot easier if you use the sweater bearer but if you don’t want to risk it, the other torch holder can go and kill Jason as on the third day you’ll only need one. It’s actually preferable to fight Jason on the trails so if he hasn’t attacked the lake yet, bait him with a throw away counselor or even a good one and get him to attack a cabin. If you exit the cabin at this point, he should be there on the trail and fighting him in side view is a lot simpler as you can just mash the attack button and follow him if he attempts to flee. You will have to jump his axes if you don’t have a lot of potions but it’s a hell of a lot easier than in the cabin.

                If you make it to day three, the only thing left is to kill Jason for good. It’s preferable to have both Mark and Chrissy at this point but during my run Chrissy had died so it’s not absolutely necessary as long as you have another lower tier counselor on standby. The only hurdle to this day is that Jason is relentlessly fast in the cabins so if he hits up the lake, it’s going to be hard to take him down. During my playthrough he did so and I managed to get in the 7 hits I needed, but only with Mark because he’s the fastest and was the most well defended with the sweater and the potions I had saved up. The single most important key to victory is to lure Jason using the trail kill technique discussed in day two. Don’t bother fighting him in the cabins. If you lure him to you, get him on the trail, and spam the attack button with Mark, as long as you have ample potions and the sweater, you barely even have to move until when and if Jason attempts to retreat. If you survive this, you’ve beaten the game!

                I know that was basically a walkthrough but that clears up a lot of the issues with the game and it’s confusing segments. If you couldn’t tell, there are a lot of obscure secrets and tricks here that help tremendously when actually trying to finish this one.  In this regard, it’s a lot like Simon’s Quest, but whereas that game it is absolutely necessary to figure out its bullshit, here it’s mostly optional stuff that serves to make your quest to defeating Jason a bit easier. It’s a game where once you figure out how things work the most efficiently, you’ll have fun just playing it and experiencing it’s unique world and gameplay.

                Bottom line, it’s a lot of fun when you know how. For one of the very first survival horror games, it’s not bad and I actually quite enjoyed my experience once I got better at it and practiced it a bit. It’s got its annoying and challenging parts but it’s certainly worth a look in the modern day of the internet where it’s not only cheap but also where there’s guides a plenty on the nature of how to defeat it. I’ll give it a 7.4/10. It’s a rather enjoyable and unique experience but definitely a challenging one if you don’t know what you’re doing.           

FireGuts tips Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mcq9YGG6vVA&feature=iv&src_vid=AEDHYgITKqE&annotation_id=annotation_2731303593

LJN Defender Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEDHYgITKqE

MichaelBtheGameGenie Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCMMc48agfU

NES Games I (along with Nick and John) Beat (Played) #52:  Anticipation

                                                                                                                                                 

                Anticipation was released in 1988, developed by Rare of Banjo Kazooie and Conker fame, who at the time hadn’t released a lot yet. This was billed as the very first board game on Nintendo, boasting fun game play for the entire family and four simultaneous players! Also, how about that box art huh? lol

                To start you can pick from a horn, a bear, a pair of shoes, and an ice cream cone, what a selection! You can choose to play the computers as well but their always going to win so grab some friends and put a controller in each of their hands… but oh wait, you can’t do that. Soon after selecting your difficulty (easy being the only one that will keep you sane) you’ll notice a slight problem. Only two controllers will function. See back in 1988 accessories like the Four Score and Satellite didn’t yet exist so instead they opted to make the control scheme a bit different. Not only do two people have to hold one controller, one hitting the Dpad to buzz in the other hitting the A or B buttons, but also this leads to a plethora of issues when passing the controller to the person who buzzed in as you accidently tap a letter and take away one of their guesses. It’s an annoying quirk but it was an ambitious solution at the time to the problem.

                The object of the game is to buzz in as it draws a shape for you based on several categories. If you type in the answer correctly by scrolling through the letters, you obtain the color of square you’re on. The object is to get a pink, yellow, green, and blue piece, all of which are colors signifying the categories of that floor. If you fail, the category remains until a puzzle is solved. Once you have them all, you advance to the next floor for more challenging puzzles and categories. Get through all three floors and you are the winner. Often you’ll find yourself trying to always win the color even if you don’t need it just to keep it from the other players or everyone banding together to figure it out if nobody needs the color, just to get through it. This does point to one of the flaws, like many board games it’s a long experience sometimes and eventually it does start to lose a bit of it’s charm.

                The main problem and fun of the game comes from all the players bashing their head into a wall trying to interpret the NES’s version of what is being drawn. Due to limitations of graphical power and the fact that they solely us a vector based line system to draw their picture, it is often extremely challenging to wrap your head around the most basic of shapes. The best part is that if you don’t guess correctly, the game never tells you what that object was so it’s a mystery if you can’t interpret what’s there and you’ll wonder for the rest of your life (well, nowadays there’s the internet but back then it wasn’t so clear).

                Major flaws aside, I actually sort of like this game. It’s not a great game but it’s worth a lot of laughs over what in the world the object could be. I’ve found both times I’ve played it with friends rather enjoyable. It’s another game I’m a little soft on for some reason because it makes me laugh at how truly ridiculous it is. Bottom line is, it’s cheap, it’s worth a bit of fun, it’ll get some laughs, and while it has some serious flaws, it’s not as bad as some other bad games for the console that are just boring. I’m giving Anticipation a 6/10. It’s a guilty pleasure of mine I guess.   

Today's Gaming Finds: March 20th, 2015

My Nintendo Power and strategy guide haul for today! An FF7 and FF Anthology (5 and 6) guides for really cheap!

Today's NES Finds: March 20th, 2015

Today's game finds: two NES classic titles I passed up before on GBA, a Wizards and Warriors 3 which is pretty uncommon l, and a jeopardy junior, a common game I don't see much! Not to mention a stack of Nintendo Powers and some rare RPG guides!

NES Games I (Nick) Beat #50/51: Big Bird's Hide and Speak and Sesame Street 123

Ok, so we beat these a while back, a different day a few months ago. Their pretty much on par with the quality of the other Sesame Street NES games. Given that their both made by Hi Tech Expressions, it's clear that their straight young children educational titles with various minigames. Nothing remarkable. 1.5/10 each.

NES Games Nick and I Beat #49: Mario is Missing

Mario is Missing is a late release in July of 1993 for the NES and is a pretty uncommon game. It’s also an educational game. 

The gameplay is simplistic but has a certain amount of charm to it. You find and stomp Koopas to get items, then you take those items to information booths and answer questions, and once you do that, you move on to the next area. You can’t just go to any of the information booths, you have to do them in order, even when you have all the items. The cities are sort of confusing and hard to navigate but there is a map that makes this issue a moot point. You can’t access this however until you get Yoshi to come to your location so that’s a minor complaint. 

The graphics are nice and are almost SNES level given they ripped the sprites straight from Super Mario World. The music in town is super repetitive and while there are a lot of tracks, one for each of the 14 real world locations, only a few were really memorable. The game also makes a lot of racist puns based on your location and the items you pick up so there’s that. 

There’s a computer that tells you all the information you’ve learned so far which is a nice touch. Also, it has nice, short passwords after every level. The game has an attempt at replay value by randomizing the questions about the items which is good for an educational game so you have the chance to learn something new every time. The difficulty is questionable as the age group was supposed to be young children but the questions are a lot harder than early children’s knowledge. A lot of the wrong answers are pretty funny so it gets props for humor. 

Nick gives it a history book/10. I’m giving it a 4.5, it’s not the worst game ever and it’s very educational but at the same point it’s a bit tedious and pretty easy. Here’s hoping I get Mario’s Time Machine pretty cheap!

NES Games I (Nick) Beat #48: Sesame Street: Count’s Countdown

     They give you two options of movement which are hop and run and it’s surprising hop is the better option. You move around in many different stages of which there is a wide variety and the graphics are pretty good too. The music is much worse and given it’s made by High Tech Expressions that makes sense. The objective is simply to find as many of the things that count up to the number you’re assigned. The Count also speaks rather clearly and that’s fucking impressive for NES. 

     Overall, it’s pretty horrible but has some good educational elements like minigames about adding, subtracting, and counting. We give it a 1.5/10. 

NES Games I (Nick) Beat #46/#47: Sesame Street ABC and ABC/123

     This is one of the hardest NES games there is. Well not really, it’s an assortment of minigames where you match letters and spell words. Your reward for this is a horrifying glitchy dance scene of all your favorite Sesame Street characters as ghosts. Then there’s a second minigame is like the pipe game from Bioshock where you line up a set path for Ernie to get his rubber duck. There’s other characters can be given the duck too but as far as we found. And that’s it. People might have paid way too much for this game back then. It’s much shorter than many NES titles so there’s that.

     In the words of Nick, “It’s not a bad game, it did what it set out to accomplish, it’s an educational game and thus it accomplished its goals.”

     The music and graphics were ok so I guess I’ll give it a 2/10. It was actually made by Rare which is interesting. It’s a bad game, but also it is what it is. This also means I’ve beaten the ABC/123 combo cart.  

NES Games I Beat #45: Jaws

                Jaws on NES is a game that has been critically bashed by the AVGN and several other people within the gaming community but the funny thing about it is this is one of the more beloved LJN titles that a lot of people say catches too much slack and I tend to agree with that to some degree.

                Obviously it was a movie tie in to the 1975 classic of the same name released several years later in 1987. A common misconception that LJN is responsible for creating a slew of horrible games but the trick to it is LJN was only ever a publisher and never actually developed a single game. For example Jaws was actually developed by Westone Bit Entertainment, which was most well known for the Wonder Boy series in the arcades, under contract by Atlus. That’s right, Atlus cut their teeth on early “duds” like this, Friday the 13^th, and Karate Kid, more titles for a later time.

                In terms of an objective, it’s very simple: KILL JAWS! The over world is a small ocean where you control a boat. Much like in an RPG you’ll hit random battles which will bring you to a deep underwater area where you fight sting rays, annoying jellyfish, baby sharks, and occasionally Jaws. Jaws will only show up if he was somewhere visible on the over world when the battle commenced. There’s also a shallow water segment that can be accessed by running into an enemy or Jaws near a cost. These are much harder to maneuver in and take a lot more precision. Being careful is the name of the game. You only have one hit and three lives to accomplish the kill or its game over.

                The battle segments consist of dodging enemies and taking down any you can manage to. Sometimes enemies will drop seashells which are the currency for leveling up your power bar. The other way to get these is in a plane bonus stage where you shoot jellyfish that occurs every now and then after a battle where 3 hits is equal to a shell. See, Jaws is super strong and you start at level 1. He’ll retreat after a certain amount of hits so you have to level up to around level 6-9 to be able to dispatch him efficiently.

                As you may have guessed this means a whole lot of grinding. There are two ports that you travel between to level up. At first it only costs a few shells but it increase in price every time. With every level up the enemies get a lot tougher and more devilish with their movements so the dominant strategy is have a really good run your first time around and gain about 40 shells so all you have to do is go from port to port. This is a lot harder than it sounds as spaces in the underwater segments are super tight and tricky to maneuver. If you die, you lose a power level and half your shells so it’s very critical not to. The extra lives you rack up from points barely matter until late game when you’re trying fight Jaws and even then they’re basically a cushion.

                The control takes a moment to adjust to but it’s pretty fluid once you understand the feel of how your character moves. There’s a submarine that is a Godsend and seems to show up if you’re doing well and killing a lot of enemies and this thing is nearly essential to making this game beatable. This is the only way to have an extra hit and it not only moves faster but shoots faster as well. This is good game design to reward you with an extra hit for your hard word as without it, the game would be just that much harder.

                There are only a few grips I have with the difficulty so I wanted to offer some solutions to this. First, have three hits and scrap the lives system. This would make the relentless enemies like the jellyfish so much less annoying. Second, I want continues. It’s a short game so a password or save feature would be overkill. This would allow for an easier experience, put the challenge more on you skill as a player.

                A perfect run consists of focusing long enough to grind the shells, obtain the submarine, go from port to port, and finally take on Jaws without dying and this game is tricky in this regard. It is a fair criticism of the Nerd that the game feels repetitive and it very much is. It’s essentially a strange derivative of an action RPG without a story and where 98% of what you do is battling. In this regard, it’s so easy to slip up and get hit and there’s a huge frustration curve for me in this regard. But the thing is every time I died I still hit reset and wanted to try again. There’s definitely something fun to the combat that kept me coming back.

                Once your powered up enough to fight Jaws, you can basically kill every other enemy with ease and there’s a definite feeling of power to it, much similar to being fully powered up in a side scrolling ship shooter, it feels epic until you take that one hit and get completely powered down. If you manage to knock Jaws down, the game switches to a third person segment with the boat where you have to stab him one more time with the front. Lining this up is a pain but once you do, you have 3 strobe lights to freeze him a moment. If you fail, you go back to the overworld and must fight him again. I distinctly remember getting to this segment on two separate occasions and after numerous tries dying on all my lives and having to start all over. Once you line that thing up and pierce that son of bitch though it’s a great feeling.

                As far a graphics go, it looks ok. For its time of 1987 it’s not bad, a decent amount of animation and a variety of enemies as well as solid looking backgrounds make it a bit of a washed out experience visually but it’s serviceable. The music definitely fits the tone of each section and its ok, nothing to write home about. The track for the bonus level was pretty good though.

                Overall, Jaws isn’t one of the worst LJN published titles and it actually pretty decent. The gameplay is unique and if you can get into, it’s actually a bit of fun to play a sort of action RPG shooter game like this. It’s pretty hard due to one hit deaths so there is a frustration factor at points but I never stopped playing so that says something. It’s not going to be on anyone’s top 10 NES games list but it’s a decent distraction for the price it’s worth. My friend the LJN Defender said it best “I consider the cheap LJN games like fast food, there are definitely better options to play but when you’re in the mood for 15-20 minutes of fun, Jaws is a good choice to go with.”

                Jaws for the NES earns a 6.5/10 for being a decent game with a short, unique experience.    

Today's NES Finds: March 12th, 2015

Today's game finds: fucking awesome! Dragons crown, soul sacrifice, NES games! Can't beat it's.

NES Games I Beat #44: Fire N’ Ice

                Fire N’ Ice (because it was 90s and the N’ makes it cool!) is a puzzle game as well as the prequel to Solomon’s Key (its known as Solomon’s Key 2 everywhere else). It was late release by Tecmo of Ninja Gaiden and Tecmo Bowl fame, coming out March 11^th, 1993, just less than a year from the end of the NES. Being that Solomon’s Key was a fairly successful arcade game which saw a port to the NES, it’s prequel   

                As you may have guessed, this meant poor sales especially coupled with the fact that it released in limited quantities given that the SNES was now dominating the market. In the excitement and heat of the console wars, gems like this flew far under the radar. It’s a shame that one of the best puzzle games out there with some of the most addicting, challenging and brain teasing gameplay never had its chance to become a classic. Even the box itself sports a warning label claiming there are “Highly addictive logic puzzles within” and to “use caution and restraint”.     

                The story is this game isn’t too deep but for its time its completely understandable. Basically, Dana, a young wizard, is granted the power to create ice by the Winter Faries of Coolmint Island so that he can stop the evil Druidle from melting the island. Also Druidle kidnapped a girl and her little sister who are the damsels in distress for that “Dude, save yo girl!” message most classic NES games had.  I also like how it’s being told by a grandmother to her grand kids like it’s a fable or a storybook, that’s a nice touch.   

                The gameplay itself is a ton of fun as it’s easy to pick up and learn the mechanics. Quite simply, your objective is to put out the fire enemies using blocks of ice which our hero Dana (very manly name) can create in an empty spot below him diagonally. There are also blocks arranged in certain patterns in each level and the variety of arrangements is what keeps the game fresh and always interesting. While it starts off very easy, the levels past world 4 get deceptively and progressively harder. A good tip is to always keep altitude on the opponent because if Dana traps himself below and can’t reclaim his footing, then you’ll have to restart the level in order to slay that fireball. This is where the challenge exists, not getting stick while at the same time finding a way to the enemy and then killing it with ice.

                While there are a total of 100 levels spread across 10 worlds which can be done in any order you choose, it is more feasible to just do the levels in order, especially if you’re a new player. The game does a solid job of building on its mechanics through gameplay and constantly stumping you with new, mind bending obstacles for how to traverse the stage and reach enemies. Often times when pushing blocks around you’ll get stuck in a corner with no way back up. Luckily there are no pesky lives or continues to worry about, simply hit start and hit “try again” with the only punishment being starting the level over. And hey, if the level you’re on is infuriating you, just exit out and try a different stage. Since you choose the stage, you choose when to take on the more challenging levels. On top of that, there’s a password system that can be accessed from the map screen by pressing B to back out and choosing the quit option. It’s not too long and it’s a great addition considering this is a pretty lengthy NES title and you won’t likely beat it in one sitting.   

                At the end of each world there is a boss fight which is usually just a bigger puzzle to solve, often with lava chasing you upward. Theses stages are unique and for the most part feel very rewarding and vastly more challenging than the regular stages. There’s even some levels where the stage cycles vertically and the player has to adapt and use this to their advantage. Those were some of my favorite stages because they really pushed you to think ahead and leave gaps for when you’re climbing upward again from the bottom. The final boss is a tad anti climactic, as he’s easy when you know how and only takes 5 hits, but he was still a pretty cool addition none the less. Also once you beat the game there’s 50 more levels and a sound test that can be unlocked. There’s even a stage editor that allows for customized levels which, much like Excitebike, cannot be saved. It’s still a neat thing to have and there’s definitely a lot of bonus content here.  

                     They certainly aren’t lying about that, this game is addicting and it puts the player into a zen sort of mood. The first 4 worlds gave me a warm feeling and the first time I played them, it was clear to me I had to pick up the cart as soon as possible. Often times I’d lose track of hours of time because I couldn’t put the game down. One of this game, and most puzzle games’, biggest strengths is making the player feel the knowledge induced satisfaction of finally figuring out a puzzle after serious trial and error. Beating a level is generally super satisfying because I was finally able to have that “aha” moment and execute the perfect solution. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of when everything falls into place. It reminds me of my experience with Catherine and how certain puzzles drove me nuts until I finally cracked the code and solved it.

                This does however bring up the biggest downfall to this game, the fact that the internet makes this challenging and satisfying glory ride into a cheap cake walk that becomes boring and repetitive due to the corrupt GameFaqs and Youtube playthroughs. It’s a morality issue that stands out here more than most games. It’s like having the answers to the test or being spoiled for a big twist in a movie. I will admit I had to use these to make it through on occasion but I always tried to figure out the solution prior to looking it up as there’s no fun in just mindlessly slogging through such an inventive puzzler. In defense of these playthroughs, they did help make the game less frustrating at points for me and definitely helped me navigate some really obscure methods of completing certain ridiculous levels and in that light, I owe me beating pieces of this game to them. One Youtuber in particular, MMDE, was a Godsend. Also, I can tell he’s got good taste in obscure games as he has a Tomba as his pic and did a full playthrough as well!

                Visually, the game is rather stunning and I love all the animations on the enemies and Dana. There’s even a gag where if you leave the game unpaused for more than 10 seconds without moving, Dana will fall asleep until you make a move. It doesn’t affect anything but it’s cute touches like these that make games stand out. All the bosses are well detailed too and theirs all sorts of variety like a magician, a griffon, a troll, a dragon, and the creepy final boss wizard Druidle. While none of them really do much to stand out, their designs are neat and they all have solid animation as well. The only gripe I have with the visuals is the lack or change in the areas. The map screen boasts forests, caves, mountains, palaces, mines, even a volcano and while the backgrounds do at least change color scheme and patterns, they don’t truly reflect the areas they promise. In this sense, the worlds sort of blend together for me and it seems a missed opportunity to have the worlds all pop with a unique flair. Still, what’s here is good and the aesthetic feel doesn’t disappoint. The soundtrack on display has some really memorable pieces while others are just ok. Overall the quality of the sound is great.

                Despite it’s late release, Fire N’ Ice was actually featured in issue #49 of Nintendo Power with a short walkthrough of some of the more challenging levels. While it never got a full review back then, critics now are actually considerably kind to this game. Most understand its complicated and brilliant gameplay and can truly appreciate this under looked title. It is unfortunate that it has shot up to almost $150 for the cart as only a year ago I obtained mine for $80. Given that it’s one of the top 50 rarest NES games, it’s a most own for any serious collector. For modest collectors I recommend checking out the ROM first and if you fall in love with it like I did then consider getting the real deal. According to some people it’s not worth it but I think it’s more dependent on what kind of collector you are and if it means enough to you to purchase it or not.

                This is a truly special game and is not only one of the best puzzle games ever (right next to Catherine for my favorites) but it is also most certainly the definitive puzzle experience on the NES. With great, inventive, brain teasing , and challenging gameplay, as well as excellent music and visuals, with a steep but rewarding learning curve this is an extremely fun gem. An absolute must play! I’m giving it a 9/10! It feels good to finally put it behind me after this past year!

Game Reviews: Zone of the Enders

Zone of the Enders Review

February 20th, 2015

Well, I finished Zone of the Enders. What can I say about it? It's an interesting concept with a minimalistic presentation overall. The gameplay is its strongest feature as its simply fun to take on enemies and explore levels. The mechs look really cool and overall the atmosphere is good though the cutscenes really categorize this as early PS2. The story is nothing special though they do try to establish a lot of character and interesting concepts by the end. Overall, it's a competent game but it's story seems weak when compared to Kojima's other works like the Metal Gear franchise. It's not about the story though, its about the feeling of piloting a mech and feeling awesome while doing so. Eureka 7 wasn't out yet but I think that has the same conceptual characterization and story done a million times better. Is it worth playing? Yeah, it depends. It was pretty fun for the 6 hours I got out of it. I'm gonna play the sequel at some point but for now eh 7/10. Pretty good.

Game Review: Person 4 Arena

Persona 4 Arena Review

February 5th, 2015

                Persona 4 Arena (that’s the first one not Ultimax its sequel) is a 2-D fighting game released by the untouchable Atlus along with Arc Systems in 2011. It is an extension to the stories and universes set forth in its predecessor titles Persona 3 and Persona 4 utilizing their characters in a one on one fighting engine.

                In terms of story, for a Persona title which is generally an RPG heavy franchise, it reflects that quite well with some costly mistakes in the presentation of said story. While the story goes that the Midnight Channel has returned and Yu is apparently back conviently on schedule with its resurgence a few months after closing out the incident of Persona 4’s story, so his celebration is cut short by the “disappearances” of Kanji, Rise, and Teddie. In actuality it was a series of misunderstandings (Kanji fell into his TV, Teddie got shoved in a locker, etc.). The Midnight Channel now boasts a fighting tournament ad rather than an embarrassing tell all of ones secrets, the main cast all being included and so now the questions arise of why an evil “Teddie” and “Rise” are hosting a tournament between their friends. All it amounts to is a lot of running around a warped version Yasogami High, fighting your friends due to the illusory powers of Labyrs, an anti shadow weapon in the vein of Aigis, and following the story of whichever of the 12 characters you choose. For a plot to a fighting game, it’s decent enough but the rigorous conditions of a fighting game’s mechanics make story telling difficult. T

                There’s 12 different fighters on semi unique journeys that tend to contradict one another but sometimes overlap making for a confusing mess of a universal plot. Yet, it’s not all bad. Each character has a twist perspective on the situation and for the most part its completely unpredictable as to which opponents/ order you’ll be fighting in. I give them props for half trying to make each story feel unique but it led to a lot of skipping of dialogue in instances like the bickering before matchs due to the illusion that the opponent was egg them on or when a certain event would play out almost exactly the same way which is understandable in the sense that they had to get a solid narrative across and the main points of the story while making parts unique. It just comes off more as a hindrance though for the repetitive nature of this formula and given that each and every story is necessary in order to not only unlock all the characters but then actually finish the stupid cliffhangers the first run through gets you for each story. In the end, for a fighting game they took the time to actually explain why they felt the need to fight one another and while mostly it was silly nonsense, it’s that fourth wall breaking nonsense. It knows it’s a game and it plays on that.

                The best part of the story was the addition of Persona 3 characters, their role being to seek out Labyrs who had escaped the Kirijo Corporation’s grasp. The return of Misturu, Akihiko, Aigis, Fuka, and even Elizabeth was great and the interactions with the P4 characters in fanservice candy. Of the 12 characters Labrys and Elizabeth had the best stories because they fleshed out two characters we knew very little about. It feels like the story writers had three really good stories in them which were repitiously spread through the appropriate characters from each game. The Labyrs back story of being an experimental android enfused with a sick child’s mind and heart and then forced to destroy other similarly driven androids with human levels of thought and emotion was incredibly moving in comparison to the rest of the story, to say the least. It’s a concept for a story I’ve always been completely interested in: the will of the mechanical to become more human like and obtain emotion. In this case she, much like Aigis, was able to confront herself and her past to wield her persona which is a fascinating angle that I love, robots wielding a soul and forming bonds just like humans. The other great story is that of Elizabeth,  which may be the most aggravating 11^th hour inclusion as her story isn’t unlockable until you’ve completely over 80% of the game, but what an inclusion it was as it fleshed out her role and that of the Velvet Room even further with an ethereal plain of souls. Not only that but she even learns it is not the power of the wild card but the bonds that make for true strength and it was rather refreshing to see Elizabeth learn this ascend to a higher state of being. Also, she just happens to be my favorite of the Velvet Room girls because of her funny ways of understanding the foreign concepts of our world and the way she talks which makes for an entertaining time every time.

                The other stories were fine, they spoon feed details well, but the insistence on doing them all becomes tedious for a 97% rate finish that only gets changed if you replay certain characters and choose different dialogue options. Pass. The main problem also seems to be in how there is a large focus on the inner thoughts of each character which is given in plain white text between spoken sequences which also accounts for most of the action in the game that is not either a fight or the few animated scenes so there’s a lot of reading an imagination required at some points. While it’s a tad lazy, I guess its fine not expect full drawn cut scenes or anything but it just really would drag explaining the smallest of things. Most of it I skipped but occasionally for my favorite characters like Naoto, Aigis, Elizabeth, and especially Labyrs, it was well worth reading over. It was also fun to see P3 characters enter the TV world, I know random but it’s just a cool little tidbit. I feel like the story was admirable, ambitious, but just over stayed its welcome at some points which isn’t bad considering the limitations most fighting games would have done. It’s more the fact that the fighting is often stretched out a ways for the sake of the story (sometimes initial investments could be a half hour plus before a single fight) so its maybe just a balancing issue if anything. They pull a twist and a cliff hanger, looking forward to Ultimax.

                In terms of presentation, the backgrounds out of battle are good and detailed and it was a nice touch to see Yasogami High in the TV world all messed up and shadowfied. In battle, the backgrounds were even more lively. The characters themselves are beautifully and so fluidly animated. All the moves and movements are a treat to watch given the anime stylization and the crisp/ keen look of the detailed character sprites. I could sit there and watch the gifs of their movements for hours, it’s stunning. Not to mention the game obviously takes advantage of the HD now that it’s on PS3. In a nutshell, everything looks gorgeous so huge fucking props to that. The only complaint I have is they add lip movements to dialogue scenes which sounds trivial but it fucks those up pretty bad in terms of visual appeal as its just not done well and I prefer the facial expression, nonmoving mouths of the past in this series. If it aint broke don’t fix it! Except when…    

                The sound department is serviceable. This game is a fan servicey game intended for us so the music is mostly the soundtracks to Persona 3 and 4 which is ok but I would have preferred some original stuff with the occasional old tune or some remixes would have been nice. There is a handful of unique tunes that are fairly good! The voice acting is pretty much on point aside from a few new voice which is understandable after the 3 year gap. Still, after a while my ears adjusted to Teddie and Chie’s VAs being different and Yu having a voice which still seems a bit off but no big deal.

                There’s not much to say about the game play either as I don’t know the ins and outs of fighting games and I mash a few buttons but it’s good for casuals and hardcores as there’s definitely a ton of moves to master and remember if you’re into that stuff. There’s a whole host of amazing characters and at least one is bound to resonate with you and you’re play style.

                In short, the story is pretty fantastic if not a little overbearing, the visuals are amazing, the music is tight but not original for the most part, and the game play in depth and solid. It’s a great game for multiplayer (although Ultimax is obviously superior with more characters, stages, and shadows). It obviously can’t touch it’s RPG master piece counterparts but it’s a really good effort to make a fighting game spinoff that captures the personality of those titles and for the most part it succeeds in that right. It’s a game for fans of Persona or just fighting game fans in generally as there’s a lot to like here. In the end, I really enjoyed this game so I’ll give it an 7.6/10 for a really solid spin off fighting game! See you next round in Ultimax!  

Game Reviews: Persona 3 Portable

Persona 3 Portable Review

January 30th, 2015

                With the sheer impact and gripping force that Persona 4 had on me, it was inevitable I was going to eventually try some other game in the series. While originally I had intended on starting from Persona (the first one) and working my way up, I found the first entry to be a very standard RPG that, I would come to find, had none of the social links and going into a second world that I adored about P4. Rather, in the first two entries the world itself begins to be infested by the shadows which is interesting enough for some but the gameplay didn’t engage me on the same level and it was lacking the balance of what made Persona for me as it had not been integrated into the series yet. The first entry to implement these features was Persona 3 of which I became curious given the crossover storylines of P4 arena and in Persona Q. Most fans consider the P3-P4 universe its own anyways due to certain similarities and I’m sure some of those questions will be answered in the previously mentioned crossover sequels.

                For now though I have the honor of reviewing the similar game in the vein to my sixth favorite game of all time (Persona 4) which is none other than Persona 3. How does it stack up? Well it’s worth mentioning these games have a very distinctly different tones from one another. The feeling of Persona 3 is an insistence on saving the world and braving the corridors of Hell to climb a single while fighting shadows on the side in the Dark Hour of the real world. The Dark Hour is a 13^th hour added onto the day just past midnight where the true nature of humanity is shown while most sleep soundly. The objective of P4 is more personable in the sense that you deal with the shadows of individuals who eventually join your team once you’ve saved them. There’s a distinctly more characterized quality to Persona 4’s way of connecting you to the characters. While Persona 3 has this its more told through cutscenes and dialogue which could make it harder for some people to get interested. You have to make investments in the characters rather than having seen their darkest secrets upfront.

                This isn’t much of a problem though. I feel like there are some really memorable and interesting characters here just like in P4, you just get less chances of interaction given  your cut off from their social links until you max any one stat, of which there are 3 not 5, Academics, Courage, and Charm. From the start I knew I was going to make Yukari my girlfriend so I constantly did events to raise my charm. These can be found through answering questions in class right or doing odd tasks like karaoke. There were certainly a lot of ways to improve stats. The system is vastly more simple than it is in P4 to where certain things were unavailable certain days. I really like the variety of shops and areas though. Vincent from Catherine even makes an appearance in the club Escape. There were also a ton of little references and connecting threads like Rise’s show being cancelled getting mentioned, the teacher, Tannaka being a social link, as well as all the references made in the Tastumi Island segment of Persona 4 in which the characters in that game visit Gekkoukan High, the high school Persona 3 centers around.

                In that regard the high school setting as well as the city are all cool locations and feel pretty alive. Tarturus was a great concept but it really lacked visual life and uniqueness for me. Perhaps it was just the small screen and the PSP’s limitations showing but it’s a mood point given I originally played the lively and very unique dungeons of Persona 4 on the PS Vita. Other than that, I quickly adjusted to the point and click style and honestly the world looks good enough for what the PSP could do.

                One thing this game does really well is pushing social links and clubs on you which was a good way to get me to notice whose social links I had access to. Most of the secondary characters and their social links were done very well. The only problem is that they are a minefield when it comes to not getting into a relationship. As  I stated previously, much like Yukiko in P4, in P3 I made a commitment in my mind from the start to date Yukari. I dodged every bullet with the numerous other girls I did social links with and in an eleventh hour social link somehow I managed to make Yuko also think I was interested when I specifically turned her down many times previous. Luckily there wasn’t a situation at that point to fuck up with multiple relationships but it still sucks to feel like I was unintentionally cheating on Yukari with Yuko. But hey, you can give your girlfriend a Jack Frost doll or flowers and other gifts so that’s neat! Too bad that wasn’t carried over to P4. There’s also reverse links if you say or do something stupid which is hilariously bad if you pick the worst option in a conversation or just weren’t paying attention. Anyways, the social links were good and with the choice addition of the female lead (basically deemed noncanon by the fact that the boy main character appears in Q) allows you even to do a social link and relationships with characters like Akihiko and Junpei, so score one for equality! You can even date the much younger grade school student apparently which is weird and uncalled for but you know Japan can’t stay classy so yeah… I just feel like you connect more to the characters in P4 because you get to see their inner turmoil and fears upfront thanks to the midnight channel and their shadows  when you help them face themselves. To me that’s a much more resonant concept. No disrespect though, the characters here work together well and are special in their own right.

                While social links are my favorite part of this game, the story was no slouch. The ideas about the lost and ridding the world of shadows as well as facing Nyx were great but again the mysteries in Persona 4 really were a better framing device. It’s not that P3 is framed bad, just differently and it works in that right. There are genuinely emotional moments like the passing of certain characters and just some dismal moods that often hang over the crew for various reasons. I really felt the mood of January’s inevitability and it resonates. The story is really interesting and it’ll be a joy to see if Tarturus or the Dark Hour have anything to do with Arena or Q’s story lines.

                A quick note about the music, it sets the darker, creepier atmosphere very well and while not as hip and upbeat as the masterful tunes of P4, it catches a more edgy vibe. Not to say some of the stuff for the school and malls aren’t upbeat because they are, just there’s a lot more rap and electronica here than j pop and rock. In a way that’s a really good comparison for the games as well.

                The other half of these Persona titles is dungeons and combat which feels a bit more of grind here due to the optional climb to whatever barrier is blocking you further path. This can result in a determined player like me who wants to do on block in a single go having to ascend anywhere from 20-50 floors as opposed to the 10-13 level floors of P4. The floors seem shorter and are definitely a lot easier skip as the stairs are often right next to you but still it feels more tedious given how often your expected to do so. Not to mention once you get to the top, another night Elizabeth will tell you that you have to save people who sometimes wind up in Taturus somehow which means scaling most of those floors again to search for those dumbasses. It’s not actually that bad though. In the original PS2 release you couldn’t even control your characters actions which was thankfully fixed here. Personas and fusion is all the same. The combat is fine and fun and its awesome they milked that Earthbound surprise your enemies from behind thing for it’s worth. There’s mini bosses at certain intervals in Taturus or on full moons there is 1 of 12 shadows to fight. The final boss Nyx was pretty awesome given you have to fight every Arcana one by one which makes for a super great fight all while a pumped up rendition of Aria of the Soul plays. It’s something brilliant.

                So I’m super tired after having finished this so I know this review isn’t the most complete picture of this game. Even though I mostly compared it to Persona 4 its just because that’s the one I personally love more and why not? It’s the superior game for my tastes but that doesn’t mean Persona 3 isn’t just as badass in its own right because it is! Persona 3 has great social links, fantastic characters, a gripping narrative, a sweet location, a decent dungeon system, kicking tunes, and solid combat all balancing out to a pretty spectacular RPG when stood on its own merits. It has most of the charm and appeal of P4 and it was almost as addicting too. The magic certainly shines through. It’s one of Atlus’s best titles and it has their signature passion and flair in terms of quality. I loved it. 9/10. I’m definitely making another run so I can date Aigis, the android that develops feelings and pretty much becomes human. I really liked her character a whole lot. Now onto P4 Arena finally! 

Game Reviews: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Review

                

January 3rd, 2015

              This review is going to be over Uncharted 2 but I suggest you read the Uncharted 1 review first if you haven’t as this is more or less an extension to that one. This 2009 sequel to Sony’s flagship series has been universally praised as one of the greatest games of all time with nearly every gamer I’ve ever heard talk about it calling it a huge improvement over the first. I tend to disagree with both of these claims for reasons I’ll crack into but for the most part I’m just establishing I went in with very high expectations not by my own doing but by the hype around the series itself and this game’s status as the crowning glory in it. After all, the next title Drake’s Deception has been almost universally panned, not on Splatterhouse levels, but I’ve heard they fucked up somehow so for me that’s a bit frightening considering the revisions needed in this game.

                In my first review I mentioned that the platforming bugged me and everyone assured me it improved to perfection in this game. I simply do not agree, it’s still a major pain in the ass to find where you need to go and what you can jump on. Again I’ll mention what is the challenge other than a cheap death of “oh guess I wasn’t supposed to jump there” and the trial and error gameplay present. I still think it’s a cool gimmick but it has not been more than slightly refined for this title which led to a ton of stupid and frustrating deaths and even some legit rage at points when I was clueless as to what to do. I feel that the platforming is less intuitive and much cheaper than in the first title as now they tease you with short jumps that kill you and hard to see objects to climb on. Shout out to that neat fight where you’re on a billboard and you have to mange to kill all those guys, that was inventive. The train segments and car hopping also stick out to me as good. So I’ll say for me, I just don’t think I’m a fan of the Uncharted series’ platforming. Since this is a major part of the gimmick of these games, essentially we’re left with a story driven treasure hunt that is a solid third person shooter.

                 In terms of combat, the one gripe I had still exists majorly here. I was also told they’d ironed out the cover mechanics for this game and while it may be slightly better, I’d desperately try to cling to walls or duck at times and would get hit hard for lack of being able to do so. I know I’m spoiled by that near perfect control of The Last of Us where you can essentially duck everywhere but it’s really still a legitimate problem here. The stealth is a lot better though and the game definitely seems to be tooled more around it so props to Naughty Dog for fixing that. Other than that everything is similar with new weapons like the chain gun and crossbow being awesome. Overall, most of the good parts were carried over but that cover mechanic really hurts my enjoyment at some points.

                The story this time was trying to be bigger but in my opinion really didn’t grip me as much as the first one. Not only did (spoilers) Drake not walk away with anything other than saving the world kind of by destroying the “stone” (really just a sap that makes you marginally stronger) but it never amounted to much more than that. In the first game there was the angle about those experiments in that awesome segment where it turns into survival horror for a second and while this game tried that with its orc looking people it just didn’t seem as cool. All the characters are back though with some new ones and their all fine but there’s nothing too deep here, it’s an action game after all. I give it credit for trying but I definitely enjoyed the pay off of the first one much better rather than getting gyped here in terms of payoff treasure wise. While the story is nothing special, it’s decent enough.

                The atmosphere, while being much more dark and tonal here, is really brilliant in its own regard. Winter is a cool sort of appearance to have in games and wile games like The Last of Us blew this winter segment out of the water, it’s still really spectacular when put in the context of its time and still looks really good today. At points I had to sit back and remind myself I was playing a game and that some guy programmed all these areas which is a great testament to how good it looks and feels. This also works against it in the sense that I remember that some asshole programmed a ledge or a platform to be so well hidden that I’d search for it forever but I’ve already been over that. The music is still top notch which is a major plus because I really appreciate that stuff. Good work there.

                So where do I stand on this supposed masterpiece? I just didn’t like it as much as the first but I can kind of see why some might. For me, what’s broken generally remained broken. Fixed stealth aside, the platforming is still not for me as it’s frustrating and at times cryptic. The story was lacking and while I enjoyed the characters it was nothing too special.  The combat, while a bit stilted by the cover system at times was still rather enjoyable. The atmosphere was great but an obviously stark contrast at points in terms of colors to the darker winter vibe which is fine, I just prefer the jungle and ruins of the first. When it comes down to it, it boils down to a very solid fun, but just sequel as hell experience for me. It’s more Uncharted and if you like the first, it’s likely you’ll love this one. I’m in the minority that honestly thinks the first one had more personality to it but it doesn’t detract from this being a pretty good title with problems. I’m surprised it doesn’t bother anyone but me and I suppose the controls were probably state of the art for their time but nowadays we’re spoiled and it’s hard to go back sometimes. Regardless, this title earns a 7/10 for me. A good title but I weirdly prefer the first or God give me the Last of Us over both any day!             

Game Reviews: Persona 4 Golden

    Person 4 Golden Review

November 7th, 2014

     Well,I did it. I somehow manged to beat Persona 4 in 65 hours with a nearly flawless run in my opinion. Golden Ending and all. I played it every night this week and that tiredness felt from such a thing may have made me careless enough to leave my Vita collection somewhere (not sure yet, will look harder after some sleep and once my headache from playing too much today subsides. I'm not gonna write some elaborate thing, though I'd like to, about why this game is good because headache and such but let's just say this game fucking blows because Yukiko and the main character never once kissed despite me being in a relationship with her and visiting her all the fucking time. So yeah 0/10. Worst game. Actually that's a joke and is reminiscent of how this game will "end"30 hours too early if you fuck up bad enough. All joking aside, this is one of the most excellent, finely crafted RPG/ social simulation games I've ever played. Here's the short of it: It's Atlus at their prime. The animation is good, the story is gripping with PLENTY of fucking twists, the characters are lovable, the social link system and the pressure put on you by the time mechanic are genus and make for genuine bad feelings if say you don't hang out with somebody if they asked you to, the romance system was nice touch, making me always feel loyal to Yukiko even though Rise pushed herself on me until the damn end, the music kicks ass, the combat is great, the world and theming feel alive and vast. There's never not something to do in the down time. The amount of depth in your choices during dialogue is staggering (where the fuck was the kiss though fucking seriously guys you altered other scenes for me and they nearly did on Valentines Day... you bastards at Atlus...), hell the depth to everything in general is amzing and incredible. I got the feels constantly. I near cried at the end because the amount of emotion and my impact was palpable to the entire town and community. Look, in short, the game is incredible and words do it no justice. Please for the love of God play it on PS2 or if you happen to somehow own a Vita that version is great. This is without a doubt one of my top 5 RPGS ever and would make a top 20 list of favorite games of all time. I was so fucking addicted to this game that it seeped into my life and that's what I'm saying, it feels so real. The depth here mimics reality. In the week I've played this game there was not a single day where I didn't invest over five hours. That kind of game where I HAVE to play it, that's fucking good. Sorry this rather incoherant, I have a giant headache from finishing this game today and investing a large part of this day doing so. These are just my exhausted ramblings about it. I'm going to bed. Good night.