After 8 years of playing the game on and off, I've finally finished Ratchet & Clank. Yeah, I know I'm late to the party on that one, but it's awesome to finally see the end of the game, and to finally knock a games off my backlog (I'm about 170 games behind, anf I haven't finished a game in about a year.)
Awesome game all the way throuh. I wish I'd put the tiem in to it years ago.
Also, since we're on the subject, find me on Backloggery. Username is BuryMe.
...And what a year it's been. I don't give deep thought to many things, but after a night of Vodka-Sprite and Rum and Coke, I've really been thinking hard about what's happened since last April.
This time last year, I was frantically studying for my exams, and looking forward to my next year of university. Now, I've just accepted that I'm going to fail my courses this year, and totally given up on university all together. This time last year, I was looking forward to continuing my second year. Now I'm looking forward to my first year of college.
And there's my job. Last year I was lookng everywhere I could to get some sort of a paycheque. Now I'm looking around to try and leave the place I already work to go somewhere better.
And there's the one that hit me that hardest, and it's what actually compelled me to write this blog. Last year, literally to the day, I finished curling for the season. As a celebration, the group I curl with went to the race track for the evening. On the trip over, I mentioned to some one that I was really looking forward to Michael Jackson's return to the stage. This time last year, I was looking at any possibility to go to London for a day to see the King of Pop in concert. A year later, Michael has passed away, and as I write this, I am watching Michael's rehearsal footage of his abandoned concert series.
Rest in peace, you dear soul. The King will live forever.
I've been trying for ages, but just now I finally became Super Sonic in Sonic 2. I've been playing the game for ages and I've never been able to get past those sepcial stages. I'm so happy I finally did it.
And of course, I saved my progress, so I can go back to that file. :D
Qix is old school gaming at its finest. It doesn't rely on flashy graphics, story or complex sound effects. It gets by entirely on its gameplay.
Although simple, Qix is a very engaging game. You need to move your dot around, capturing as much of the screen as possible, while avoiding the enemies around you. After capturing 75% of the screen, you move on the the next level, with more enemies you must avoid.
You have two options in capturing the area. You can move slowly or quickly. If you move slowly, you are at considerably more risk of getting hit by an enemy, but you also get a lot more points.
There are just 2 types of enemies you need to contend with. The is one that flows freely around the uncaptured area on the screen. It kills you only if it runs in to a line you are currently working on. The other one moves along the lines you have already made. It kills you by running into your dot.
Although the graphics and sound are fairly simplistic, there's enough gameplay to keep just about any one playing for hours at a time. It's just a shame that games haven't been able to maintain this level of fun or accessibility.
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Let me preface this review with a warning: Endless Ocean is not, I repeat NOT a game. There is no real story to speak of, or even a goal to accomplish. Don't jump into this thinking you'll That's not to say, however, that it's not enjoyable.
Endless Ocean can best be described as a scuba diving simulator. You, a marine biologist, are on a boat with your colleague, another biologist who cannot swim. Her goal is to complete an encyclopedia of all the life in the ocean. The way you collect the information is by swimming and interacting with the fish around you.
Controlling your movement is simple. Simply point where you want to go on the screen, hold B and you will let you swim to where you want to go. Shaking the Wiimote side to side lets you do a barrel roll, and flicking it up instantly turns you around. Generally, it all works as it should. There are just occasional times when your intended barrel roll turns in to a flip. Apart from that minor annoyance, the controls work just fine.
Sometimes you will have something specific to accomplish on your dive. The company you are working for sometime emails you requests, either for a photograph of a specific fish, or asking you to guide a tour. These help add a little variety, but sadly, there's no real reward to speak of for doing a good job.
When you aren't under water, you have a couple options. You can walk around your boat, as small as it is, and interact with any animals that climbed up on the deck. Walruses, polar bears, birds and sea lions will all come join you from time to time.
You can also play with the dolphin friends you make throughout the game. As you encounter dolphins during your dives, they will become familiar with you, and will start to show up around your boat. When this happens, you can name them and play with them. Touching different parts of the dolphin in different ways (be it by tapping or rubbing them) will instruct him to do different tricks. Swing the Wiimote from side to side and the show will commence. The more you play with them, the better they will become at their tricks. They can even accompany you during your dives, if you want some company.
Although there's no no specific goal, or a challenge to complete, the gameplay in Endless Ocean works well to create a nice, relaxing experience.
Graphically, Endless Ocean is a very mixed bag. The under water effects, where you'll spend most of your time are very nice. The sun comes through the water very realistically, making for beautiful scenery. Your character moves realistically, as do the fish swimming around you. When you are walking on the boat, however, the movement becomes very robotic and stiff. Overall, however, the graphics in Endless Ocean really give you the impression that you are under water.
The sound remains excellent throughout the entire game. The music is soothing and fits the mood perfectly. The sound effects give you the feeling that you really are scuba diving.
Endless Ocean certainly isn't for every one. Any one expecting an action packed adventure will be very disappointed. If, however, you just want a calm, relaxing experience, you will have no problem losing yourself in the endless ocean.
Maybe I'm just remembering wrong, but are "special editions" of games WAY more common than they used to be? It seems like, as recently as just a few years ago, special editions used to actually be special. They would only come out for long time established franchises that have huge fanbases. Now they seem to come out for every minor game, weather it's as established franchise or not.
Is any one else getting sick of these less than special games getting special editions? It just takes away from excitement of games that actually deserve them.
Don't let the nay sayers tell you any thing different. Sonic can still be in one hell of a game. He's had success in the Sonic Advance series on the GBA, and that continues now on the DS with Sonic Rush.
It's the same old story for Sonic. They need the Chaos emeralds to stop Eggman. But this time, there's a little twist. A tear has torn in the space time continuum, colliding Sonic's world with another, introducing him to (yeat another) new character: Blaze the Cat. Both are determined to stop the Eggman from their dimension, and neither wants to pass off the responsibility to the other.
Sonic Rush stays truer to its roots than any other installment in recent memory. Sonic goes through 2 2-D levels in each act, and then a boss fight at the end. The levels he goes through are all unique, and faithful to what you'd expect sonic to go through. Sonic maintains he incredibly fast personality, but there are also some real platforming aspects you need to watch out for. There's only 1 real problem that detracts from the gameplay. One in a while, you'll enter a room where you have to defeat a set number of enemies before you can continue. These aren't at all hard, but they just slow the game down way too much.
Of course, there is an easy way to get through them. As you defeat enemies, a meter fill up at the side of the screen. while it's even partially full, you can press Y to make an incredibly fast dash, effectively killing anything in your path. This is the only real new aspect to the series, but it works well and comes in handy.
Between levels, you have a world map, similar to that of Donkey Kong Country. This lets you go back and play any previously completed levels to raise your rank.
Boss fights took a different approach. Instead of the traditional 2d gameplay, they are played in 3d environments. But don't let Sonic's track record in 3D sacre you. The boss fights are interesting and incredibly fun to play through.
Sonic Rush's graphics stand up well. They are bright, colourful, and most importantly, look like Sonic. The animations are fluid and attractive, and the game has absolutely no trouble keeping up with the speed.
Sonic Rush also does a great job of sounding like Sonic. The nostalgiac sounds, like the rings or sonic jumping, are all intact, and the music is what one should expect to hear. The only real problem is that it can get repetitive, especially if you're replaying the levels.
There's only one real problem here. Sonic Rush is incredibly short. There's only 7 zones plus the final boss, and though you can play as Blaze the Cat, it's pretty much the same experience over again.
Still, any one looking for some great Sonic gameplay will not be disappointed with Sonic Rush. If only this kind of quality would carry over to his console games.
Tetris is back, but with a twist. Nintendo's taken control and put their immage all over this one, and added a few new modes for good measure. While that all sounds good, the c|assic game of Tetris took a hit.
Tetris DS has 6 modes to choose from, every one of which is associated with a c|assic nintendo game.Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong and many more characters make an appearence in here, via the music and backgrounds you play on.
The 6 different play options are c|assic Teris, push mode, touch, puzzle, mission and catch.
Initially, the c|assic game of Tetris has same changes that will annoy at least a few veterans. Pieces can be swapped out by pressing the L button, letting you save a piece for later, when ou really need it. There is also a ghost of the falling piece at the bottom, letting you see exactly where they will fall. And, the first time you play, it only lets you clear 200 lines. Luckily, the ghost pice can be turned off, you unlock infinate play once you've cleared 200 lines, and you are not forced into using the piece swap.
There is, however, one change that can't be turned off. Once a piece reaches the bottom, it does not lock immediately into place. This allows you to spin the piece infinately until you've decided exactly where it should go. This sadly take much of the challenge out of Tetris, making it more of a game of luck than skill.
The piece's speed also increases incredibly quickly. By about level 10, it is already at the bottom by the time you see it.
Catch is an interesting but bland variation of the c|assic puzzler. Set in the Metroid world, you have a single pice you control called the core. As you play, pieces fall from anywhere on the screen. You need to use your core to catch these pieces. Once you've made a solid 4X4 square or more, a count down starts. Once it ends, all the pieces withing range are destroyed. If you let a piece fall off the screen, hit an evil Metroid or destroy a piece before it's connected to your core, you lose energy. The game ends when your energyis completely depleated.
Mission mode is exactly that. Set in the Zelda world the maode works as the name suggests. You are given an objective of some sort, bet it clearing a certain number of lines, use a certain piece to cleara row, etc. You are given 2 options: Marathon and Time attack. In Marathon, you have a certain number of heart meters. They deplete over time, and completing a mission give a bit of health back. One they empty, it's game over. In Time attack, you race against the clock to complete 10 missions as quickly as possible. The game saves you best time.
Push mode is an interesting variation. You play from the top down, and you opponent plays fromthe bottom up. The pieces settle in the middle. By clearing more than 1 line at a time, you push the entire puzzle down towards your opponent's danger zone. You win by forcing the puzzle below your opponent's line, before it get up to yours.
There are just 2 missions that make use of the touch screen. Touch and Puzzle. In puzzle, you are given a limited number of pieces to clear an entire play field. The pieces do not fall. You can select in which order they are used. Touch is more interesting. You are given a large tower of blocks that you need to clear. Use your stylus to slide them into place. In lower difficulty levels, the pieces can be rotated by tapping them twice. The game is completed by getting a baloon cage sitting at the very top of the pile to reach the bottom. Touch my just be the standout mode inthis entire package.
In addition to the single player, Standard, Puch and Mission can be played in multiplayer and online.
Tetris got a bit of a graphical upgrade for the DS. The pieces look noraml, as they should, but the top screen is used well. It has footage of c|assic nintendo games, and when you clear a row something good happens in the game abouve you. Apart from that, however, it looks like you standard game of tetris.
The sound, however, is quite interesting. It features c|assic nintendo tunes, by remixed for today's ears. It actually sounds very nice, and helps keep the gameplay exciting.
While all these new modes are great, and the presentation is very interesting, it's just disappointing overall, because of the standard game's infinate rotation. Without that there, this would be an easy game to reccomend. As it stands, however, you can probably find something better.
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