Video Game Musings – Page 30

No More EGM Magazine…

Did you pick up the latest issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly? You know, the January 2009 issue? Do yourself a favor and take really good care of it. I mean, really good care of it. Give it a bouquet of flowers and nice treatment… it might be a collectable one of these days.

Why is that? Because that’s the last issue of EGM you’ll ever get.

If you haven’t heard the news, the long-running magazine, which would have celebrated its 20th anniversary, has been cancelled after parent company Ziff-Davis sold the online component of the 1UP network to the company that runs the UGO sites.

You know, that’s kind of sad. Especially considering what a great mag EGM used to be… before its untimely cancellation. I used to remember back when my brother would pick up some issues back in the mid-90s; those guys did some great stuff. While I haven’t been a regular reader in recent years, the couple issues I would pick up were always great reads regardless of what was featured.

So all the folks involved with the EGM run, I just want to say thanks for the good times and the fun ride… and good luck out there.

Everyone Kisses Wave Race 64’s Ass

Two former partners review the same game on the same day…

First up, a review on YouTube by Camera Man Joe of The Game Heroes, a site run by Handsome Tom. Posted on December 19th, 2008.

Next up, a review on GameTrailers by Stuttering Craig of Screwattack.com fame. Also posted on December 19th, 2008.

No, don’t look anything into this. I’m sure it’s just a wonderfully stupid coincidence… so what? Who cares. I’m not trying to revive any old wars… I just find it funny that two guys formerly associated with each other would review the same game on the same day.

Finally, a review of Wave Race 64 by someone else besides me… if I can find one.

Mega Review #1: Mega Man (NES)

(2020 Update: So, in what seems like a really random spur of the moment idea, I’d figure it’d be interesting to repost some older writings from the old DTM Blog and expose my less-than-stellar ramblings from ages ago to a modern audience. Part of it has to do with wanting more content. Another part has to do with trying to preserve some of that stuff.

Originally posted on December 8, 2008 and the overall 1064th blog post, this was my initial barebones “review” of the original Mega Man game from 1987; intended to be the first in a series that would’ve eventually covered the mainstream classic series at least, to say nothing of the various sidegames. As I recall, I never got beyond Mega Man 3 in this series before it was eventually and silently abandoned. I’ll eventually get around to posting the other entries down the line.

As it would turn out, it took me a few years to cover all six main Mega Man games on NES, albeit in a different format than this. But that’s another story for another time…)

Released in 1987, the original Mega Man game for the Nintendo Entertainment System was known for its horrible box art. I mean, seriously, if I was a working father back then and my kid wanted this game for his birthday, I’d have his brain transplanted. It’s no secret that the game’s box art was one of the most horrible pieces of art ever made. Never mind the fact it had nothing to do with the actual game, but just as its own independent piece, it makes you want to puke.

Okay… so to be honest, when I saw the box art for this game back when I was a kid in 1991, I had wondered if that’s how Mega Man started off with… around that time there had been three Mega Man games available with number 4 looming ahead. I was still a relative newcomer to Nintendo games, oblivious to all the wonderful franchises out there… but not oblivious that I didn’t know what everything was. I’ve heard of Mega Man, I’ve played Kid Icarus and stumbled across one of those weird passwords, I’ve played through Castlevania 1, 2, and 3. I’ve touched on these more than enough times back then.

But then I look at this and wonder… “Mega Man had a gun? He wore yellow? I thought his hand was a gun?”

Anyway, all the stupid childhood memories aside, several months after that rental, my parents bought the game and I got a look at the funny instruction booklet… which had told the story of Dr. Light (then known as Dr. Wright – not Dr. Right) creating seven robots, Dr. Wily reprogramming six of them, and Mega Man being declared defender of the universe. Yeah, that’s right. DEFENDER OF THE UNIVERSE. Don’t believe me? Here’s some of the story taken from the original NES manual (faithfully translated by someone else whose link I regretfully forgot):

It’s MEGA MAN versus the powerful leaders and fighting forces of Monsteropolis — that strange multi-faceted land of robot-like Humanoids. Brilliant scientist Dr. Wright conceived the construction of fully-operational human-like experimental robots to perform specific everyday duties. Dr. Wright, and his assistant Dr. Wily, encouraged with their very first near human robot — MEGA MAN — proceeded to develop six additional Humanoids, all programmed to perform prescribed rituals.

But, with the exception of MEGA MAN, all of Dr.Wright’s near-human robot experimentation went awry. Assistant Dr. Wily turned disloyal, re-programming Dr. Wright’s Humanoids, now bent on destroying opposition so Dr. Wily could control the world and its resources.

Resisting re-programming, MEGA MAN is chosen the defender of theuniverse and its inhabitants. MEGA MAN dares to single-handedly penetrate seven separate empires of Monsteropolis, eliminating the leaders and followers of these sovereignties.

Neat-o.

Mega Man is a fairly simple platform game that gives you the option of choosing the order of six initial stages you wish to progress through. Nothing special now, but back in the day, this type of thing was rare for an action game of this style; only RPG or adventure games would feature this kind of open-endness and flexibility. Not only that, but you get their special powers too. Yay.

USELESS TRIVIA: The first boss I ever killed was Fireman. The method was just to shoot and take the heat.

Being as this is the first game in the series, Mega Man has very limited abilities at first. He can run, jump, and shoot. That’s it. It sort of pissed me off when I realized he couldn’t duck, but eventually I got used to it. Once he defeated bosses, he gained their weapons.

Bombman’s weapon is the Hyper Bomb, which is a classic bomb that explodes after a short delay. Doesn’t really do much damage and never saw much use for it because it never blew anything up.

Gutsman’s weapon is the Super Arm, which allows you to pick up blocks and hurl them at enemies. Other than that, you have nothing else. No heavy earthquake landings or anything cool like that… you just pick up blocks when they flash and you chuck them… lame.

Cutman’s weapon is the Rolling Cutter, a scissor boomerang. This weapon is actually kinda useful and it can be used to take out a few enemies at once from the right angle.

Elecman’s weapon is the Thunder Beam, which allows you to shoot electric beams in three directions. This is pretty much the strongest weapon in the game, as far as I know.

Iceman’s weapon is the Ice Slasher, which freezes stuff… and that’s it. Doesn’t do any damage to anyone except Fireman… a damn shame.

Fireman’s weapon is the Fire Storm, which allows you to shoot a fireball… kinda lame considering he shot fire waves. On the other hand, every shot summons a temporary shield which defends against enemies (but not projectiles).

Along the way, you’ll find something called a Magnet Beam, which allows you to create platforms you can climb on before they fade away forever… let’s just say that after playing with this thing, I was more than happy to get something better like a Rush Jet with limited maneuvering abilities.

Once you clear the initial six stages, you get to face off against Dr. Wily… provided you clear three more stages comprising of Yellow Devil rock monsters, Mega Man clones, and those weird things in the bubbles that roam around the room and shoot pellets at you.

Some of these bosses will give you a hard time… in fact, Elec Man and Ice Man are most dangerous considering their attacks can kill you in three hits… that hurts. No other bosses will be that damaging… ever. Don’t even get me started.

USELESS TRIVIA: I never knew about the Pause trick until much, much later… that is to say, when I first stumbled across the Mega Man page or something similar. For the most part, it didn’t really bother me since I never needed the Pause trick to beat the game.

With ten levels total, Mega Man is the shortest of the main titles, but even so, it’s a pretty hard game. None of the later extras can be found here, you have somewhat poorer traction here than you do in the sequels, and perhaps most frightening of all, the spikes will kill you… period. Doesn’t matter if you’re flashing or not. You land on a spike, you die. That simple.

USELESS TRIVIA: The soundtrack kicks ass. Not one lousy tune in this entire game.

So now that I’m done rambling…

Mega Man is worth a try if you want to see where it all started. While it is generally difficult and not that refined, it’s still a decent title and is only a sample of great things to come out of this franchise.

STORY: 6/10

GRAPHICS: 8/10

SOUND: 7/10

GAMEPLAY: 8/10

CHALLENGE: 10/10

OVERALL: 8/10

About that FC3 Thing

The above video brought to you by videogamecentral.com’s Old Skool Fool

I’ve gotta admit. That thing looks ugly, but for what it does, I’d overlook the aestetics of the whole thing. I mean, come on. It plays NES, Super NES, and Genesis in one system. And if you have a Super Game Boy hanging around somewhere, that’s FOUR different possible formats you can play on it. All things considered, it’s a pretty neat little space saver.

I do have a couple minor concerns, though. One is the NES emulation and whether it’d be like all the other clone hacks (inferior sound quality, some color differences and other garbage issues) or whether it will be like the FC Twin’s NES mode (accurate sound quality, some color differences, and noticable scanlines). In the case of the current Genesis/NES 2-in-1 clones and based on the few video reviews posted on these products, it seems like the NOAC is of a lower quality format. If the FC3’s NOAC is based on the one that’s on the FC Twin, then it might make it a bit better.

The other issue I have is the controller and this is more of a legit issue, as other video reviews of older GEN/NES clones confirmed that playing NES games with the way this thing is mapped is awkward. I can’t really explain it properly without visual reference, but think of it as playing Mega Man Anniversary Collection on Gamecube… you know, with the A and B button roles reversed from what they originally did on the NES (similar to the included NES Metroid in the original Metroid Prime). Looks clearer, right?

Anyway… I’ll wait and see with this one. Probably won’t pick it up considering I already have a couple good clones and a perfectly functional Genesis laying around, but for those who don’t, it’s worth a look.

Smash Them Bros In A Brawl… Yip.

Had recently picked up Smash Bros. Brawl… don’t really care for the main “fighting” engine of the game, but I do enjoy the single-player Adventure mode in the game, which plays out like a side-scrolling Final Fight-type game that sort of reminds me of the old SNES Power Rangers game to a certain extent. Playing with the Classic Controller felt fine, although I do seem to have somewhat of a problem with jumping… but maybe it’s just me.

Have yet to encounter Sonic… although I’ve seen Snake’s box.

Midway Fighting For Its life

Midway is undergoing ecomonic problems… and considering the current happenings on the stock side of things, who isn’t? According to this piece, Midway is pretty much in dire straights, as they had to cancel a couple projects based on licensed properties and the properties that they didn’t cancel (such as TNA Impact) hasn’t sold as well as they would have liked. Right now, they’re hoping that the upcoming Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe game will be their saving grace.

Could this upcoming MK game have a chance of turning Midway’s fortunes around? I’ll admit that I’m a bit skeptical as to one game making all the difference, especially a game that is part of a franchise known for its excessively violent video games. However, considering the game also features DC heroes such as Superman, as well as a Teen rating for less bloody but still intense action, the possibility might be that the game could make Midway a lot of money. However, it can’t be the only game to do this feat. It takes more than that.

TMNT on NES… Still A Good Game Despite Nerd Boy

I just ended an hour of TMNT on the NES, somehow managing to beat the game without dying despite the fact that I haven’t played the game in years… and I mean, really play the game, not just “play for a few minutes, relish in the old memories, and then off to the shelf you go.” This was a good ol’ romp through childhood lane.

Some minor thoughts while playing through this game:

– AVGN complained about the pizza in the building (in Area 01) and how it takes much effort to get there. The solution is pretty simple: you see the fucking pizza on the first screen… THE FIRST FUCKING SCREEN. If you actually believe fighting your way through enemies for a pizza is worth, go right ahead and get it, but don’t bitch to me when you do get it and leave the building with one red block left in your life meter.

– The “infamous” underwater level… I actually managed to make it through the whole level without switching turtles. Mind you, ol’ Raph nearly bit the bullet, but I found the level to be actually easier than I thought.

– Splinter tells you to get to the blimp so you can chase the helicopter, but I always wondered how they would find the helicopter after having gone through several extraniously difficult passages. More to the point, I’d like to know exactly how the Turtles uncovered the secret Foot camp (the fifth area).

– Somehow, I managed to find the Technodrome on the first shot. I guess I jumped the gun a bit, so allow me to explain. In the fifth are, you have to search three underground caverns for the Technodrome. Only one path leads you to the monstrous tank, while the other two paths are dead ends. Back in the day, the Technodrome would be found in the hardest of these paths, but today I just took the easiest path and boom – there it was… completely by accident.

– The final area… somehow I survived this area despite being ill-prepared for this. Actually, the flying white dudes didn’t seem as frustrating now as they did back in the day. Either I’m getting better or they’re getting sloppy… probably the latter.

– Scrolls are your friend. Embrace them and DON’T LOSE THEM!

All in all, an enjoyable experience nonetheless and a difficult game conquered. Overall, I still say that this is a good game, regardless of what the almighty NERD says…

Now TMNT2: The Arcade Game? That’s a Cowa-Fucking-Piece-Of-Dog-Shit. I’ll stick with the original arcade version on MAME or on the TMNT2: Battle Nexus game.

Thank you for reading. Good night.

…

The ending rocks too.

A Relic Comes Home (and also Castle Of Dragons)

So I found myself a classic Nintendo Entertainment System.

Well, a working one.

A front-loader. Classic model.

For the most part, it works without fail… mostly. The obvious connector issue is an issue, but it works better than my dearly departed system, which means I can play Castlevania III without fail… and that’s a good thing because that game needs a bit of love that my FC Twin cannot provide.

However, instead of playing that gloriously difficult game, I’m spending my time playing crap like The Last Starfighter and Platoon. Suddenly, I get the feeling as to why my last front-loader died the death it did… even though its last game being played was Kirby’s Adventure, which is not crap.

Speaking of not crap, I also snagged the original Contra in a shop downtown. Truth be told, there’s a lot of good games there, but the prices are just ridiculous. In any case, I got that, along with another game called Castle of Dragon… the less said about that game, the better, but at least it was real cheap.

In closing, I’d like to remind you folks that Mega Man 9 is out now and I do suggest you get it… because it deserves love.

Splash has what now?

As some people may have noticed, the Rockman 9 OST has been released – brief snippets can be found on the net (it sounds good). Some scans of the booklet revealing the bosses have surfaced and naturally, the Japanese text was translated for us stupid North Americans. Nothing particularly special (although the new bosses look both awesome and weird at the same time), but then you read Splash Woman’s description, which goes something like this…

A robot who performs rescue work in situations such as sinking ships and people in oceans. Her special weapon is the Laser Trident. It fires a laser that has penetration ability.

Okay, so Splash Woman’s weapon has penetration abilities. Yes, that sounds just about right… yeah.

Um… right.

Very unsettling.

(2019 Update: The Laser Trident can penetrate shields, which makes it useful for enemies that have shields. It’s actually pretty useful despite its somewhat unfortunate descriptor.)

Another Uncommon Relic Claimed

Have managed to snag Tetris for NES. Not the widely-known Nintendo version, but the unlicenced Tengen version featuring two players and more Russian folk songs. Now supposedly unlicenced Tengen games aren’t supposed to work on the FC Twin (according to some sites here and there), but Tetris seems to work fine so far on mine.

In addition, I’ve also snagged WWF Wrestlemania Challenge for NES. This game was the sequel to the first NES Wrestlemania game and is generally a much better game overall, although I hate that you have to hold the D-Pad diagonally in order to move straight along… but I digress.