There were a lot of good games for the Playstation 2, but the one in particular for this review has t o be one of my favorite first-person shooters called XIII. Ever heard of this game? A game created by Ubisoft, it is based on the Belgium comic series of the same name. The game is based off of the first fifteen comics. The game truly feels like you're in a comic book because it has that cel-shaded look, whenever you kill someone in a gruesome way, there's little panels showing you his ultimate fate, and it's just got that cartoony feel to it with its humor and appearance. Sadly though, this game didn't get a sequel, so you don't know what happens next unless you actually read the comics. I thought that the live-action show they're doing with Stuwart Townsend would be a great way to bring the series back to the fans, however, I hated the show.
Let me actually talk about something that isn't hated by me.
You take control of a character named Steve Roland, or so you think. Your guy is being framed for assassinating the president, he must try to clear his name in a way to prove that he's innocent. But then you realize something as you progress throughout the game. You're not actually Steve Roland, you were made to look like him to get back at the Twenty organization for their betrayal. One bad guy named the Mongoose, is up in your grill because he KNOWS that he placed three bullets in you, and that you shouldn't have been alive after his encounter. Little does he know, you're not the Steve Roland everyone thinks is alive, you're Jason Fly, taking Steve Roland's identity and scaring the Twenty... You're also trying to figure out who number One is as well. Walter Sharidan, the brother of the late president, takes over his brother's campaign and becomes president. General Carrington and Jones are the only two people that knows of your innocence and wants to help you out. Amos, at first, believes you're guilty for killing the president, but then changes during the remainder of the game when Carrington later explains to him what's going on.
That's a little bit about the story, how about the game?
You don't get to kill all twenty of them, a few of them do die under your hands, other died under other circumstances, and some of them kill themselves. But the boss fights aren't really that impressive, they normally all act the same. The boss moves around really fast, has a dangerous weapon in their disposal, and you mainly have to find cover almost entirely throughout the fight. I feel as if there's really no specific strategy to these bosses because they all act the same. The second to the last boss, (sadly, I cannot look up his name because I'm constantly getting Final Fantasy XIII popping up) is one of two bosses that I find really challenging. Mainly because there's not enough cover to hide behind. You're in this room with a giant table in the middle, glass panels covers the corners of the room. You can hide behind them for a little bit, until they get shattered, for cover. Then the Mongoose fight is challenging of them all. You're roaming around this giant hanger with rockets that are about to launch, but if you shoot them, they spill out this gas that slows you down for a little bit. The Mongoose runs around really, really fast, and has a mini-gun in his disposal. I mean, he's not freakishly hard, it's just that most of the time, you're going to be finding yourself shooting next to him rather than at him because of how fast he moves.
The gameplay feels like any normal first-person shooter. At times, there's a bit of stealth moments where you cannot let yourself get spotted, otherwise the guards will call in HQ and have them be aware that you're in the area. This mission. where you need to infiltrate the Sanctuary, always ticked me off because of some of the areas that they have you sneaking around. Like this one spot, you have to climb out of a well and take out two guards that are roaming around the area, and you have to be quick because they move just as fast as the bosses. Allow them to successfully alert HQ or whatever, your mission has failed. Another spot is where you're in this large courtyard area. If you take someone out in the sights of another guard, they're alerted and they go running off and tattle-tale on you. You know when they're alerted when you see the exclamation point hovering over their heads, as well as a question mark, letting you know that they're suspicious of what's going on.
Another thing that kinda bothers me is the use of the sniper rifle. It's one of those games where you have to wait for the character to stop moving to actually get a good sight on the guard you're targeting, and this gets annoying because you have to wait like ten seconds before XIII stops moving finally. I get what they're trying to do, but it's annoying with these first-person shooters that do this. You don't hold down anything specific for him to hold his breath for a steadier aim or whatever, you just have to wait. And of course, once you shoot, you have to wait again if you're trying to aim once more.
The game does bring some good comical points to it. There's a part very early in the game where thugs that the Mongoose sent on you, are making a snowman. IF you shoot the head off of the snowman, you'll see that it's a deceased person they probably killed with the Psycho music playing in the back ground for three seconds. That part kills me, literally. I don't really get the significance of the song several characters are singing, unless it has something to do with the name "Fly" and flying since that's the first part of the lyrics. "You can fly, you can fly..." Yeah, I still don't know the significance with that song, and several characters sing this song... You also hear some funny conversations such as a guard thinking that the newbies are "goddamn John Rambo." I always laugh at that part. Oh, and did you know that these characters are voiced by people that you know? Adam West stars as Carrington, and he's not AS funny as he normally is, David Duchovny stars as XIII, and Eve plays as Jones. So this game brought a few known people into this game as stars... but what happened to this game?
You see, the ending ends in a cliffhanger. You're assuming that the way this game ends, it's going to have a sequel to pick up where it last left us. Unfortunately, due to poor sales and terrible reviews, Unbisoft didn't bother making a sequel. There is a point and click game out there for the PC, Mac, iPhone, and iPad back in 2011, however, it's not the same. It got mixed reviews, but some of the negatives sure hurt this game, such as "don't expect this to be the FPS of the year." "The graphics make up for everything this game lacks, such as the lackbuster weapons and story." They just thought this game was dull, that it didn't bring anything new, that it's just your typical first-person shooter that has nothing special other than making it seem like you're in a comic book.
How does this game end in a way that there SHOULD have been a sequel? Well, you're on a boat, and you were asked to located Walter Sharidan, the president. So you're searching throughout the inside of the boat, and you happen to overhear number Seventeen, Kim Roland, Steve Roland's widow that you helped out in a previous level, screaming as Walter to give her back her son. You then hear her get slapped and Walter is screaming about some deal that they made together. You stumble upon an office and you get a flashback (which occurs every now and then, showing how you became XIII and some previous missions that you did during these times) having Kim asking you who number One is. You never really get to see him during these flashbacks, nor do you ever get to see him... Well, you do, that is if you actually read the comics, or English version of them. Walter Sharidan enters the office after the flashback ends with him talking to you in a deeper, more serious tone. He asks you, "Are the fireworks not to your liking?" And then... DRAMATIC MUSIC and the panel "To be continued..." shows at the bottom of the screen.
I saw a Youtube video saying that this game had the dumbest ending ever. How though? Unisoft followed the comic book, this ending is an ending in one of the comics. I actually made a response to the person, telling them that if they really wanted to know what happened next, go read the comics. Ubisoft just didn't make a sequel, that's not stupid, the game didn't sell well. Don't hate upon the ending, really, don't.
Overall, this game isn't that bad as many made it out to be. It doesn't get boring if you really enjoy this game, I certainly do. The game brings somewhat of a challenge in the later levels, but it also gets more fun as well. I truly feel that Ubisoft, one day, should make a sequel to this game, and hopefully people didn't forget about this game. I thought that there should be, despite many people were talking down about it. Yeah, the game didn't have interesting weapons, but so what. The only thing that they should have improved on, is the multiplayer. Yeah, this game's multiplayer really wasn't all that great, and I wasn't too fond with it either.
If you ever want to check this game out, go ahead. I certainly don't mind playing it every so often, that is if I'm around a Playstation 2. I definitely would recommend you to get it if you're a fan of the comics, if you're a fan of first-person shooters, and a fan of goofy games. That's all I gotta say!
>'-'<
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Angry Backpack Birds And Bears In Pants
I own Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie... both games received exceptional reviews. I am, or was, in the middle of trying to beat the first game because I could never do so back in the past. But after actually really playing the game unlike I use to back in the past, I must say... It's really flipping tough.
Back in the day, I used to play video games and didn't care if I beat them or not. I just like playing them because it was fun. Now that I'm older, and realize that you HAVE to beat the game, some of it really isn't that fun. I was at Bubblegloop Swamp when I last played the game, and I never really understood why some of these jiggies that you have to collect can be so challenging. I'm not sure why it's taking me such a hard time obtaining this one jiggy where you have a ten second time limit to get the piece, while you have to slowly inch yourself across this very narrow platform. It's ridiculous, and for some reason, I just cannot do it.
I know what comes at the end of the game, a quiz game and then the final boss fight. But I doubt I'll ever reach that knowing that I somewhat suck at this game. If the swamp level is giving me such a rough time, I cannot imagine how Rusty Bucket Bay is going to be like, and that is everyone's worse level too, or so it seems.
The one thing that used to always annoy anyone that's in the same room when I'm playing this game is when the characters talk. Yes, it's incredibly annoying after you played this game for a while when these guys talk. For those who have never really played the game but know of the Nintendo 64, some games didn't have your characters talk, some did. This game had it where your characters weren't talking, but made sounds. They make a random sound when they're talking, and believe me, it gets extremely repetitive when you've played this game for a while.
There's interesting secrets that this game carried, however, some of them did get scrapped when it came to the sequel, such as the Stop'n'Swop. It was supposed to be where you could transfer data over to the next game, but it got scratched due to technical difficulties. But it's really funny how it's still in the game, and that Rare literally made it be known to those who completed the game and collected these eggs, (yes, they're eggs) that a sequel was in the working. These secret eggs really had no important purpose in the game, unless you're going for the 100% items collected run, then yeah, it serves a purpose. But because this concept got scratched, there's really nothing too wild about it.
What's also really funny about this game is that the sidekick, Kazooie, holds more of a significance over Banjo. Banjo is a very, very, VERY slow character, hardly has any good moves in his disposal, and also, he can't really get around that well. Walk up a steep slope, he slides right back down. When you're using Kazooie, she can not only get you up those steep slopes, but she can fly, she can make you jump farther and higher, have some arsenal to use against her enemies... overall, she's the better one to play. Also, she insults pretty much everyone that she comes across from, I always thought that was hilarious.
I'm not going to touch Banjo-Tooie until I really beat the first game. The thing is though, is that I played it for a little bit, just to see what it's like... Holy crap is it different. Here comes another game series with the games being different from the previous... I was confused what I was playing, and how there's more of an improvement and such, really, it's different... and I'm not sure how I'll react towards that. I also heard that there's a level that consists of lava... Okay.
Despite that I never owned an Xbox and probably never will, I saw a little bit about what Nuts & Bolts was like... Eh... no. Just no...
Rare always made great games back in the day, and this was one of them. Banjo-Kazooie, there's no other game like it. Really, there isn't. When was the last time you played a game where a bird, who swallows golden puzzle pieces, had more of an advantage over a bear that's trying to save his little sister while solving riddles and rhymes? I don't think you really have.
There's just one thing that I have to mention. Kazooie gobbles up all the jiggys that you collect in this game. One of the jiggys that you receive at the very end of the game when you're in Tick Clock Wood, gets farted out of a bird... Mind you, I said that Kazooie gobbles up all of the jiggys that you collect in this game... Mind you that I said that Kazooie gobbles up all of the jiggys that you collect in this game... Okay? Yeah... Disgusting.
Get the game when you can. However, it might be pricey wherever you go. I've seen the game be locked away in cases because it is one of THOSE games.
>'-'<
Back in the day, I used to play video games and didn't care if I beat them or not. I just like playing them because it was fun. Now that I'm older, and realize that you HAVE to beat the game, some of it really isn't that fun. I was at Bubblegloop Swamp when I last played the game, and I never really understood why some of these jiggies that you have to collect can be so challenging. I'm not sure why it's taking me such a hard time obtaining this one jiggy where you have a ten second time limit to get the piece, while you have to slowly inch yourself across this very narrow platform. It's ridiculous, and for some reason, I just cannot do it.
I know what comes at the end of the game, a quiz game and then the final boss fight. But I doubt I'll ever reach that knowing that I somewhat suck at this game. If the swamp level is giving me such a rough time, I cannot imagine how Rusty Bucket Bay is going to be like, and that is everyone's worse level too, or so it seems.
The one thing that used to always annoy anyone that's in the same room when I'm playing this game is when the characters talk. Yes, it's incredibly annoying after you played this game for a while when these guys talk. For those who have never really played the game but know of the Nintendo 64, some games didn't have your characters talk, some did. This game had it where your characters weren't talking, but made sounds. They make a random sound when they're talking, and believe me, it gets extremely repetitive when you've played this game for a while.
There's interesting secrets that this game carried, however, some of them did get scrapped when it came to the sequel, such as the Stop'n'Swop. It was supposed to be where you could transfer data over to the next game, but it got scratched due to technical difficulties. But it's really funny how it's still in the game, and that Rare literally made it be known to those who completed the game and collected these eggs, (yes, they're eggs) that a sequel was in the working. These secret eggs really had no important purpose in the game, unless you're going for the 100% items collected run, then yeah, it serves a purpose. But because this concept got scratched, there's really nothing too wild about it.
What's also really funny about this game is that the sidekick, Kazooie, holds more of a significance over Banjo. Banjo is a very, very, VERY slow character, hardly has any good moves in his disposal, and also, he can't really get around that well. Walk up a steep slope, he slides right back down. When you're using Kazooie, she can not only get you up those steep slopes, but she can fly, she can make you jump farther and higher, have some arsenal to use against her enemies... overall, she's the better one to play. Also, she insults pretty much everyone that she comes across from, I always thought that was hilarious.
I'm not going to touch Banjo-Tooie until I really beat the first game. The thing is though, is that I played it for a little bit, just to see what it's like... Holy crap is it different. Here comes another game series with the games being different from the previous... I was confused what I was playing, and how there's more of an improvement and such, really, it's different... and I'm not sure how I'll react towards that. I also heard that there's a level that consists of lava... Okay.
Despite that I never owned an Xbox and probably never will, I saw a little bit about what Nuts & Bolts was like... Eh... no. Just no...
Rare always made great games back in the day, and this was one of them. Banjo-Kazooie, there's no other game like it. Really, there isn't. When was the last time you played a game where a bird, who swallows golden puzzle pieces, had more of an advantage over a bear that's trying to save his little sister while solving riddles and rhymes? I don't think you really have.
There's just one thing that I have to mention. Kazooie gobbles up all the jiggys that you collect in this game. One of the jiggys that you receive at the very end of the game when you're in Tick Clock Wood, gets farted out of a bird... Mind you, I said that Kazooie gobbles up all of the jiggys that you collect in this game... Mind you that I said that Kazooie gobbles up all of the jiggys that you collect in this game... Okay? Yeah... Disgusting.
Get the game when you can. However, it might be pricey wherever you go. I've seen the game be locked away in cases because it is one of THOSE games.
>'-'<
Friday, January 11, 2013
Perfect Shooter, Undefeated Streak
I have played plenty of first-person shooters in my gaming life, however, there's one game in particular that will never, ever be replaced as the best (in my books that is.) A game that literally defied shooters. A game that literally took something and made it ten times, no, a hundred times, no, infinite time better than what Goldeneye 007 did for the N64 (and believe me, that game was a saint in shooters before this game came along). I am talking about Perfect Dark.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is the game that is literally THE best first-person shooter game, in my opinion, that is out there. Sure, you can argue that Call of Duty and Halo are better, but you know what? Those games wouldn't even have a chance if it wasn't for Perfect Dark. Yes, Goldeneye came first, and many people thought that the game brought an ounce of awesomeness to the multiplayer, but Perfect Dark made it to where you can play muliplayer without the use of other people around. I mean, of course it's always nice to play with your friend and family members, but what happens if your friends aren't into video games like mine were? I mean whenever I had a group of my friends come around, I could never get them to play any kind of video game that involved violence. They mainly wanted to play Mario Party, and to be honest, the first one really sucked and I owned that one. Perfect Dark made it to where you can fight computer AIs, as much as eight, and just roam around the arenas shooting at a variety of different skilled bots. I mean you can make them really stupid and slow to very fast and intelligent. And that was a brilliantly new feature to have in a video game back in the 90s.
You had not only a new style of playing multiplayer, but you doubled the characters, doubled the arenas, doubled the guns, doubled a whole lot of things from Goldeneye, and Rare was the developer. It's not like Goldeneye didn't do anything in the first-person shooter genre, the game is an all-time classic and is up there with Perfect Dark. The game was one of THE best shooters to own in the N64. Pretty much everyone can tell you their reasoning on why they hated the Klobb, and they'll all say the same thing. An annoyingly loud shooting gun that forced you to waste an entire clip to actually do SOME damage, not to where you can actually kill a person. They will tell you why they feel the need to camp to Golden Gun. This is why multiplayer was awesome, and how everyone will tell you that Facility and Temple are the greatest levels... well, at least I hope everyone enjoys them as much as I do.
But there's got to be something that I dislike in these games, I mean I'm praising the hell out of them, there's got to be something that I have to dislike about both of them. Well, there is a few things that I have an irk about. With Goldeneye, Trevelyan just runs around in the Cradle mission hardly doing anything against you. You have an infinite amount of guards barging in front of you that's actually doing the damage. And if that's not annoying, when Trevelyan FINALLY allows you to fight him in the final fight, you have to CAREFULLY jump down (unless you want to climb down on the ladder) on this tiny little platform underneath you and shoot him. If he gets you, you're dead. There's hardly any room for you to move around and it sucks if you miss the platform totally. The boss fight was a totally disappointing fight. But hey, despite that Sean Bean is one of my favorite actors, he really played a shitty character. I mean the entire time during Goldeneye, the movie that is, all he did was more talky talky and less pew pew. Even when he had the perfect opportunity to shoot and kill Bond right before he plummets down the same area that I was talking about earlier, he just stood there, aimed the gun at him, and yapped his mouth like it was nothing. Of course, bad guys have to have the last laugh.
Ugh, such a disappointing character, and mind you that he was the only other double agent in the series that Bond worked with.
In Perfect Dark... let's see, there's got to be something in this game that I don't like. I guess, again, the last boss fight. I didn't care for it as much as I should have. You have to fave this giant Skedar King that's shooting rocket launchers at you, and time to time, he spawns mini Skedar creatures that, not only annoys the living crap out of me, but sometimes they just get you without you even knowing that they're there. I just didn't like the fight because when I first encounter him, I had no clue what I had to do. The shield freaking annoys me throughout the entire game. Sure that I don't mind it when I am using it, however, when I'm fighting against those that have the shield, ugh, annoyance. There's only one mission where the guards are using the shields and that's when the Carrington Institute is being ambushed. The guards are in shields, for some ungodly reason, and I can never beat this mission on the harder difficulties because of course they have double the damage power, but just trying to penetrate a bullet into their chests is ridiculous!
I'm a sucker for the K7 Avenger and double Falcon 2s. Not to mention the Proximity mines in the Villa area, undefeated. I'm freaking undefeated in this game, not one person has ever beaten me. The Villa against bots and putting the proximity mines in certain places that I know they'll go, I just see my score being at least thirty points ahead than the second place character. I mean that's just slaughter, you know? Sure, I get killed every so often, but hey, I'm not expecting myself to actually be untouched... that's just not human.
I also enjoy the story that Perfect Dark had. Aliens and technology, if those aren't perfect science-fiction materials to use... ugh. I'm a fan of science-fiction, no doubt. You can play the story missions in three different ways, which is something that I don't think I have experienced in any other video game yet. You can play story mode regularly where you just control Joanna Dark, your main character. You can play co-operative mode where you can have your friend, or a computer AI, be your partner. And what's even cooler, is that if you managed to beat a certain mission within a specific time, you can unlock other characters to be your partner, so you don't always end up with Velvet Dark, Joanna's supposed sister. You have Puglist, Hit and Run, Hotshot, and Alien as your other choices. Of course, they're totally not easy to unlock. I've owned this game throughout majority of my life and I still haven't come across unlocking these guys... I'm not sure why that is though... Anyways, the last mode is counter-op, if you have two players playing, one of you can be Joanna Dark and the other one could be an enemy. The person controlling the enemy can get killed as many time as they can, but if Joanna gets killed, that's it, the game is over and the guard player wins the game. If Joanna completes her objectives, she wins and obviously the guard loses. Oh, and um, when you're playing the levels with the Skedar featured in them, whoever is controlling the guard gets to be a Mr. Blonde code. For some reason, there couldn't be any kind of way for you to control a Skedar alien... despite that Turok has the ability to make you play as a raptor and a group of bugs...
I also discovered on Youtube from those who have pulled off the soundtrack from the game, a few hidden songs. There's a rare Deep Sea: Nullify Threat soundtrack that those who have some emulator, they can somewhat find the song despite that it's really hard to get played... At least that's what I read. Another was a BETA death sound... After hearing that and the one that's the actual soundtrack, I like the actual soundtrack...
I am rambling on and on and on, however, I have to really find some way to end it... Um... I dunno.
>'-'<
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is the game that is literally THE best first-person shooter game, in my opinion, that is out there. Sure, you can argue that Call of Duty and Halo are better, but you know what? Those games wouldn't even have a chance if it wasn't for Perfect Dark. Yes, Goldeneye came first, and many people thought that the game brought an ounce of awesomeness to the multiplayer, but Perfect Dark made it to where you can play muliplayer without the use of other people around. I mean, of course it's always nice to play with your friend and family members, but what happens if your friends aren't into video games like mine were? I mean whenever I had a group of my friends come around, I could never get them to play any kind of video game that involved violence. They mainly wanted to play Mario Party, and to be honest, the first one really sucked and I owned that one. Perfect Dark made it to where you can fight computer AIs, as much as eight, and just roam around the arenas shooting at a variety of different skilled bots. I mean you can make them really stupid and slow to very fast and intelligent. And that was a brilliantly new feature to have in a video game back in the 90s.
You had not only a new style of playing multiplayer, but you doubled the characters, doubled the arenas, doubled the guns, doubled a whole lot of things from Goldeneye, and Rare was the developer. It's not like Goldeneye didn't do anything in the first-person shooter genre, the game is an all-time classic and is up there with Perfect Dark. The game was one of THE best shooters to own in the N64. Pretty much everyone can tell you their reasoning on why they hated the Klobb, and they'll all say the same thing. An annoyingly loud shooting gun that forced you to waste an entire clip to actually do SOME damage, not to where you can actually kill a person. They will tell you why they feel the need to camp to Golden Gun. This is why multiplayer was awesome, and how everyone will tell you that Facility and Temple are the greatest levels... well, at least I hope everyone enjoys them as much as I do.
But there's got to be something that I dislike in these games, I mean I'm praising the hell out of them, there's got to be something that I have to dislike about both of them. Well, there is a few things that I have an irk about. With Goldeneye, Trevelyan just runs around in the Cradle mission hardly doing anything against you. You have an infinite amount of guards barging in front of you that's actually doing the damage. And if that's not annoying, when Trevelyan FINALLY allows you to fight him in the final fight, you have to CAREFULLY jump down (unless you want to climb down on the ladder) on this tiny little platform underneath you and shoot him. If he gets you, you're dead. There's hardly any room for you to move around and it sucks if you miss the platform totally. The boss fight was a totally disappointing fight. But hey, despite that Sean Bean is one of my favorite actors, he really played a shitty character. I mean the entire time during Goldeneye, the movie that is, all he did was more talky talky and less pew pew. Even when he had the perfect opportunity to shoot and kill Bond right before he plummets down the same area that I was talking about earlier, he just stood there, aimed the gun at him, and yapped his mouth like it was nothing. Of course, bad guys have to have the last laugh.
Ugh, such a disappointing character, and mind you that he was the only other double agent in the series that Bond worked with.
In Perfect Dark... let's see, there's got to be something in this game that I don't like. I guess, again, the last boss fight. I didn't care for it as much as I should have. You have to fave this giant Skedar King that's shooting rocket launchers at you, and time to time, he spawns mini Skedar creatures that, not only annoys the living crap out of me, but sometimes they just get you without you even knowing that they're there. I just didn't like the fight because when I first encounter him, I had no clue what I had to do. The shield freaking annoys me throughout the entire game. Sure that I don't mind it when I am using it, however, when I'm fighting against those that have the shield, ugh, annoyance. There's only one mission where the guards are using the shields and that's when the Carrington Institute is being ambushed. The guards are in shields, for some ungodly reason, and I can never beat this mission on the harder difficulties because of course they have double the damage power, but just trying to penetrate a bullet into their chests is ridiculous!
I'm a sucker for the K7 Avenger and double Falcon 2s. Not to mention the Proximity mines in the Villa area, undefeated. I'm freaking undefeated in this game, not one person has ever beaten me. The Villa against bots and putting the proximity mines in certain places that I know they'll go, I just see my score being at least thirty points ahead than the second place character. I mean that's just slaughter, you know? Sure, I get killed every so often, but hey, I'm not expecting myself to actually be untouched... that's just not human.
I also enjoy the story that Perfect Dark had. Aliens and technology, if those aren't perfect science-fiction materials to use... ugh. I'm a fan of science-fiction, no doubt. You can play the story missions in three different ways, which is something that I don't think I have experienced in any other video game yet. You can play story mode regularly where you just control Joanna Dark, your main character. You can play co-operative mode where you can have your friend, or a computer AI, be your partner. And what's even cooler, is that if you managed to beat a certain mission within a specific time, you can unlock other characters to be your partner, so you don't always end up with Velvet Dark, Joanna's supposed sister. You have Puglist, Hit and Run, Hotshot, and Alien as your other choices. Of course, they're totally not easy to unlock. I've owned this game throughout majority of my life and I still haven't come across unlocking these guys... I'm not sure why that is though... Anyways, the last mode is counter-op, if you have two players playing, one of you can be Joanna Dark and the other one could be an enemy. The person controlling the enemy can get killed as many time as they can, but if Joanna gets killed, that's it, the game is over and the guard player wins the game. If Joanna completes her objectives, she wins and obviously the guard loses. Oh, and um, when you're playing the levels with the Skedar featured in them, whoever is controlling the guard gets to be a Mr. Blonde code. For some reason, there couldn't be any kind of way for you to control a Skedar alien... despite that Turok has the ability to make you play as a raptor and a group of bugs...
I also discovered on Youtube from those who have pulled off the soundtrack from the game, a few hidden songs. There's a rare Deep Sea: Nullify Threat soundtrack that those who have some emulator, they can somewhat find the song despite that it's really hard to get played... At least that's what I read. Another was a BETA death sound... After hearing that and the one that's the actual soundtrack, I like the actual soundtrack...
I am rambling on and on and on, however, I have to really find some way to end it... Um... I dunno.
>'-'<
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Purple Dragons Are Cool
Did you know that the same guy who plays in Reno 911, Carlos Alazraqui, voiced the Chihuahua dog from the old Taco Bell commercials and the character that I am going to be talking about in this blog, Spyro the Dragon? That's something you either did or did not know...
Anyways, let's actually get down to the point of this blog, the Spryo the Dragon series that were the GOOD games, not this Elijah Wood version that had absolutely nothing to do with the original series when it got to the Playstaion 2. No, I'm not going to even talk about that series becuase it's totally nowhere near what Spryo was during the original Playstation
When Spyro the Dragon first came out, you played this game and enjoyed it. I haven't heard a single person to this day where I heard them say that they hated the game. Not one person yet has told me they hated it. So, what is this game about? You're a dragon who has to free all of these other dragons who were turned into crystal after Nasty Norc turned them all like that. You have to collect every singly gem in the arenas to get a perfect score as well as collect the Dragon Eggs that were stolen by what I call "Nana Boos." That's mainly about it.
My only flaws with the first Spyro is are these minor issues: The fact that Sparx, the dragonfly, AKA your health meter, doesn't point out the direction the nearest gem is. You can't swim and touching any kind of water or anything that looks like water damages you. And the boss fights are pretty lame.
Of course, sequels can either make or break the series, luckily for this series, it made it.
Ripto's Rage was the next game in the Spyro series that literally improved so much from the original. You can now swim in the water, Spyro has new moves that he can perform, there's more character interaction, better boss fights, a great story, more levels, and a bunch more of fun-filled things. To be honest, I really don't think I can complain about this game or find a flaw in it because I really didn't find any when I played this game. i mean, they improved so much with everything from the last game, I feel like this is one of those perfect games that you rarely see in video game history.
Wow, to see me actually write something like that should be outstanding.
Next, we have Year of the Dragon. This time, there's a bit more to say and I do have some minor complaints. Of course, there are improvements from the last game that are made in here, such as more levels, more interactions, and a bunch of new characters that you meet... and actually get to play as. But that's the one thing that bothered me in this game. You see, I get that it's cool to play as new characters, but some of these characters that you get to play as, aren't really that fun.
Sheila, the kangaroo character, is not really my favorite, but at least she's playable in some senses. I mean, the character nonstop jumps to get to places, and it sucks because she doesn't want to do the double jump move all the time that I ask her to do. Some times, she does the jump, but she doesn't want to move forward onto the ledge that I'm jumping up. Other times, there's an enemy that's standing right at the ledge, and if I'm not quick enough, BAM, I get hit. Her attack move is so lame, half, if not, almost most of the time I get hit first. She just does this kick that sends both of her feet into the enemy and that's really about it, she does have a ground pound move, but she has to jump in the air, flip once and then actually land on the ground. Do I really need to see that flip before? Why can't you just use your feet to smash stuff when you're trying to do a ground pound?
Sgt. Bird, in my opinion, is the worst out of the cast because you have to fly in these ridiculous areas where there's a bunch of stuff shooting at you. And it's not like flying is that easy in this game, at least for me. It sucks controlling him because the movement is so slippery, even with Sheila, if I just slightly press the directional button, they take off in a heartbeat and I can't slow them down. With Sgt. Bird, I just feel like I'm unable to move with him because he just doesn't want to do anything. I have to set him down upon a platform, adjust where I want to go next, and then take off, hoping that this time, he flies right where I want him to instead of a wall or a nearby enemy.
Bently the Yeit is surprisingly easy to play because he's got that bat you can just swing around and hit enemies easy. There's really nothing to complain about here.
Same with Agent Nine, in fact, excluding Spyro and Sparx, he's the most fun character to play as. All you get to do is shoot stuff, in first person view too, it's really fun.
Sparx is actually playable in this game, and I thought it was going to be like another Sgt. Bird issue, but actually, it isn't. You see, you're in an overhead view of him and you have to shoot at other insets to advance to the next part of the level, while also collecting gems. Yeah, each character you have to collect gems too, they're not going to slack off away from that part.
There's also a variety of bonus levels you can play with Spyro too, such as the skateboarding one. I don't feel like going too much into details there becuase really, all you do is perform a series of tasks that Hunter wants you to complete, and it's not like these challenges are hard. Maybe the one where you have to outscore him by doing a bunch of crazy stunts on the board, but really, these bonus levels are a peach.
Maybe that's why I like the Spyro series so much, is becuase it's easy to actually play and beat. I mean sure, I like a challenging game, but there comes a time and a place where I would also like an easy game be placed in my hands and get through. There's nothing wrong with asking for an easy game every once and a while, right? Games these days are certainly not what they use to be back in the past. And as of right now, I have yet to touch any new game that feels and plays like the original Spyro.
But wait a minute, Kitty, you're forgetting something... Just becuase Spyro has existed on the Playstaion 2 doesn't mean that his series has ended in that particular generation... He came back, with a bunch of new friends, in a new kind of style... that he's sort of the main character of... but realistically, he's not... Because his name rarely gets mentioned in the commercials, and he's not the first character that appears in the strategy guide book (And no, it's not because they're going alphabetical, in fact, it's not even alphabetical in the first place) I am talking about Skylanders; Spyro's Adventure.
Yeah, about this game... what the fuck is it supposed to be about Spyro? I see nothing about this game that has to do with Spyro. Why make him the star of the game when I have yet to see anything that makes him stand out more than the other characters. Ooh, he's got a silver character that you could have only obtain if you went to E3, bull, that's not making him special. Maybe if I actually played the game, I probably would get a sense that he probably does have a bigger role than what I'm thinking, but if I have yet to hear his name be announced in the commercials, do I really want to know if I'm right or wrong by playing this game? Sure, it does look like a lot of fun to actually get a hold of, but to waste so much money on it, I'll pass. I already wasted a lot of money getting the collector's edition for Diablo 3, and I haven't touched that game since I've beaten it with my Witchdoctor character back in the early summer.
I guess it's just because I'm waiting for the expansion packs that they claim they're making before I get back on the game.
But back to Skylanders. I remember seeing a mother at a Best Buy looking so stunned and freaked out that the amount of money she has to waste on the Skylanders characters was hysterical. I wanted to ask her if she knew what she got herself into, because let's be honest, this game is not cheap, the additional characters are not cheap, and I'm fairly certain with these "Giants" that they're selling out now, aren't cheap either. She almost wasted an amount as much as what the game cost, and it's $90. If I want to see what this game is like, however, I just feel that I am going to be disappointed with what I find out with the amount of times I see Spyro, how he plays, and the fact that I'm wasting so much money that doesn't need to be wasted upon.
It's best to say that I'll just have my opinions about this and move on with my life...
So, that's really all I have to say about Spyro. I just hope in the future, same goes with Naughty Dog and their creation, that I see a game about this character that actually doesn't suck and goes back to the original roots it once had. None of this new, mystical game where it's totally not like the original, and completely ignores the fun and cuteness it once held in the past. Bring back the cute, no one ever thought that being a dragon and being cute couldn't exist.
They can... they did... and it was fucking awesome.
>'-'<
Anyways, let's actually get down to the point of this blog, the Spryo the Dragon series that were the GOOD games, not this Elijah Wood version that had absolutely nothing to do with the original series when it got to the Playstaion 2. No, I'm not going to even talk about that series becuase it's totally nowhere near what Spryo was during the original Playstation
When Spyro the Dragon first came out, you played this game and enjoyed it. I haven't heard a single person to this day where I heard them say that they hated the game. Not one person yet has told me they hated it. So, what is this game about? You're a dragon who has to free all of these other dragons who were turned into crystal after Nasty Norc turned them all like that. You have to collect every singly gem in the arenas to get a perfect score as well as collect the Dragon Eggs that were stolen by what I call "Nana Boos." That's mainly about it.
My only flaws with the first Spyro is are these minor issues: The fact that Sparx, the dragonfly, AKA your health meter, doesn't point out the direction the nearest gem is. You can't swim and touching any kind of water or anything that looks like water damages you. And the boss fights are pretty lame.
Of course, sequels can either make or break the series, luckily for this series, it made it.
Ripto's Rage was the next game in the Spyro series that literally improved so much from the original. You can now swim in the water, Spyro has new moves that he can perform, there's more character interaction, better boss fights, a great story, more levels, and a bunch more of fun-filled things. To be honest, I really don't think I can complain about this game or find a flaw in it because I really didn't find any when I played this game. i mean, they improved so much with everything from the last game, I feel like this is one of those perfect games that you rarely see in video game history.
Wow, to see me actually write something like that should be outstanding.
Next, we have Year of the Dragon. This time, there's a bit more to say and I do have some minor complaints. Of course, there are improvements from the last game that are made in here, such as more levels, more interactions, and a bunch of new characters that you meet... and actually get to play as. But that's the one thing that bothered me in this game. You see, I get that it's cool to play as new characters, but some of these characters that you get to play as, aren't really that fun.
Sheila, the kangaroo character, is not really my favorite, but at least she's playable in some senses. I mean, the character nonstop jumps to get to places, and it sucks because she doesn't want to do the double jump move all the time that I ask her to do. Some times, she does the jump, but she doesn't want to move forward onto the ledge that I'm jumping up. Other times, there's an enemy that's standing right at the ledge, and if I'm not quick enough, BAM, I get hit. Her attack move is so lame, half, if not, almost most of the time I get hit first. She just does this kick that sends both of her feet into the enemy and that's really about it, she does have a ground pound move, but she has to jump in the air, flip once and then actually land on the ground. Do I really need to see that flip before? Why can't you just use your feet to smash stuff when you're trying to do a ground pound?
Sgt. Bird, in my opinion, is the worst out of the cast because you have to fly in these ridiculous areas where there's a bunch of stuff shooting at you. And it's not like flying is that easy in this game, at least for me. It sucks controlling him because the movement is so slippery, even with Sheila, if I just slightly press the directional button, they take off in a heartbeat and I can't slow them down. With Sgt. Bird, I just feel like I'm unable to move with him because he just doesn't want to do anything. I have to set him down upon a platform, adjust where I want to go next, and then take off, hoping that this time, he flies right where I want him to instead of a wall or a nearby enemy.
Bently the Yeit is surprisingly easy to play because he's got that bat you can just swing around and hit enemies easy. There's really nothing to complain about here.
Same with Agent Nine, in fact, excluding Spyro and Sparx, he's the most fun character to play as. All you get to do is shoot stuff, in first person view too, it's really fun.
Sparx is actually playable in this game, and I thought it was going to be like another Sgt. Bird issue, but actually, it isn't. You see, you're in an overhead view of him and you have to shoot at other insets to advance to the next part of the level, while also collecting gems. Yeah, each character you have to collect gems too, they're not going to slack off away from that part.
There's also a variety of bonus levels you can play with Spyro too, such as the skateboarding one. I don't feel like going too much into details there becuase really, all you do is perform a series of tasks that Hunter wants you to complete, and it's not like these challenges are hard. Maybe the one where you have to outscore him by doing a bunch of crazy stunts on the board, but really, these bonus levels are a peach.
Maybe that's why I like the Spyro series so much, is becuase it's easy to actually play and beat. I mean sure, I like a challenging game, but there comes a time and a place where I would also like an easy game be placed in my hands and get through. There's nothing wrong with asking for an easy game every once and a while, right? Games these days are certainly not what they use to be back in the past. And as of right now, I have yet to touch any new game that feels and plays like the original Spyro.
But wait a minute, Kitty, you're forgetting something... Just becuase Spyro has existed on the Playstaion 2 doesn't mean that his series has ended in that particular generation... He came back, with a bunch of new friends, in a new kind of style... that he's sort of the main character of... but realistically, he's not... Because his name rarely gets mentioned in the commercials, and he's not the first character that appears in the strategy guide book (And no, it's not because they're going alphabetical, in fact, it's not even alphabetical in the first place) I am talking about Skylanders; Spyro's Adventure.
Yeah, about this game... what the fuck is it supposed to be about Spyro? I see nothing about this game that has to do with Spyro. Why make him the star of the game when I have yet to see anything that makes him stand out more than the other characters. Ooh, he's got a silver character that you could have only obtain if you went to E3, bull, that's not making him special. Maybe if I actually played the game, I probably would get a sense that he probably does have a bigger role than what I'm thinking, but if I have yet to hear his name be announced in the commercials, do I really want to know if I'm right or wrong by playing this game? Sure, it does look like a lot of fun to actually get a hold of, but to waste so much money on it, I'll pass. I already wasted a lot of money getting the collector's edition for Diablo 3, and I haven't touched that game since I've beaten it with my Witchdoctor character back in the early summer.
I guess it's just because I'm waiting for the expansion packs that they claim they're making before I get back on the game.
But back to Skylanders. I remember seeing a mother at a Best Buy looking so stunned and freaked out that the amount of money she has to waste on the Skylanders characters was hysterical. I wanted to ask her if she knew what she got herself into, because let's be honest, this game is not cheap, the additional characters are not cheap, and I'm fairly certain with these "Giants" that they're selling out now, aren't cheap either. She almost wasted an amount as much as what the game cost, and it's $90. If I want to see what this game is like, however, I just feel that I am going to be disappointed with what I find out with the amount of times I see Spyro, how he plays, and the fact that I'm wasting so much money that doesn't need to be wasted upon.
It's best to say that I'll just have my opinions about this and move on with my life...
So, that's really all I have to say about Spyro. I just hope in the future, same goes with Naughty Dog and their creation, that I see a game about this character that actually doesn't suck and goes back to the original roots it once had. None of this new, mystical game where it's totally not like the original, and completely ignores the fun and cuteness it once held in the past. Bring back the cute, no one ever thought that being a dragon and being cute couldn't exist.
They can... they did... and it was fucking awesome.
>'-'<
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