Nothing hugely interesting so far, and everything seems to be leaking ahead of time, but Nintendo is tomorrow. We'll see if their conference is as bad as last year's was, or better... :)
Oh yeah... now that was awesome. I didn't think I'd actually finish, I thought I'd give up right near the end like I did last week with the first game... but no, I stuck with it, and made it through! (me > 8-bit hard... )
So, as I said in the 'games I got' thread, a week or two or so ago I got the first two Ninja Gaiden games for NES. Well, I've played them both quite a bit. I played the first game first, and got to the second boss of the final level, but the last level's stratospheric difficulty level and the fact that you have to restart the entire level if you lose a life at any of the FOUR bosses at the end of the level led me to eventually just give up. Sure, it refills your health between bosses, but it's still insanely, insanely hard. I started playing the second game a few days ago though, and while it's also quite hard, it's maybe a bit easier, and the result was different... I just beat it today! :)
Ninja Gaiden II - Dark Sword of Chaos -- (spoilers of course!) Awesome game, as I just said. It's pretty hard too, of course... this is a NES game, and a Ninja Gaiden game, after all! Still, this one may be a bit easier than the first game, because it doesn't make you RESTART THE ENTIRE LEVEL if you lose a life at the boss in the last two levels or so, it lets you start from the beginning of the second stage instead... of course it does not restore your health between bosses when there are several (the last level) or during in-level cinema scenes like the first one did, but on the other hand once you beat the first of the last three bosses, you don't have to fight him again; next time you get that far you'll be right at the second form, like in NES Batman. Very nice. Didn't help me beat that one, the Joker's impossible, but with some work, I got this one... though really, the first of the final three bosses was definitely the hardest. Once I got past him, the latter two didn't take nearly as many tries... and the first time I got there with the upward-angle fire magic and nearly 100 special weapon power, they went down without too much of a problem. I beat the last form on my first try (the head took the remaining 50 power, then the sword made quick work of the blinking core).
Oh, the graphics and sound are pretty good. Very similar to the first game, but good. The story is also very similar to the first game, and just as poor... there are a lot of cutscenes here, and I know that these games were groundbreaking in their use of cinematic cutscenes, but still, the story itself is so cliche and bland... they're not BAD or something, they're just very generic. Beat evil monster trying to take over/destroy world, rescue kidnapped girl, defeat legions of demons all on your own even though the government seems to know of the threat, etc...
It really gives me a better sense of why Astyanax has such long cutscenes to tell an equally cliche and generic rescue-the-girl-and-country story... its inspiration (storyline-wise, the gameplay in that game is completely different and much more like Legendary Axe or perhaps the first Rastan) was like that too. Eh, oh well... there is some nice imagery going on there and it was enough to keep me going and make me want to finish it, but somehow () I think that was mostly because of the amazing gameplay more than anything. And given that this is a game, that's the most important thing... and they're really good games that definitely deserve the praise they get.
... now I need the third one... well, and play the first one again, but beyond that. I actually saw a copy of the third one several months ago, but didn't get it then... perhaps one is around. I know it's really hard thanks to the 5 continue limit, but still, I do need it. (Oh, on that note, did you know that in the original Japanese version not only does Ninja Gaiden III have infinite continues, it actually has PASSWORD SAVE like all three games have in the Ninja Gaiden Trilogy SNES collection? They removed that from the US version of course, it'd make it too possible... the game itself isn't so bad, it's just the continue limit of the US version that makes it really hard.)
PSP Go: What kind of an idiot designs a new model of a system (and it seems to be just that, no hints of better specs, no second analog, no sign of a touchscreen... it's just a new PSP in a stupider looking slide-down case)... and removes all compatibility with virtually every game that had been released for the system previously (as the Go has no UMD drive)? It's hard for me to imagine why they'd be so dumb...
I mean, yes, digital download (DD) is coming along and improving, even in console world now. But it's nowhere near dominating mainstream. Most people buy console games in stores, not online. Going online-sales only really is a big gamble here... and with just 16GB of internal memory, it can't hold all that many full-sized games before it's full (and at wireless speeds, that'll take a while to download!). NO sales in stores? No better specs or touchscreen or something to entice current owners? Lame slide-down design, with the screen still on top so it can still get easily scratched? This just makes no sense...
That's blown up. It's actually smaller than a DSi, and the screen is a half inch smaller than the original PSP. This better be cheaper, even with 16GB of internal flash...
Now, I know -- the DSi's exclusive software is so far all download-only. But the system plays almost all DS games (only not supporting ones which require something to be in the GBA slot, like Guitar Hero and a few others), and they could release card-based DSi games in the future if they so desired, as well as dual-mode titles, GBC style. Sony both didn't actually upgrade the specs, it seems, AND got rid of the disc drive. Um... I knew this thing was hurt a lot by piracy, but that's really not the right solution...
Hopefully normal PSPs will be able to download these games too, though, with a memory stick. With a normal DS you can't get DSi games, unfortunately, whether or not they use the new power...
As for the PS3 Slim, it's just a smaller PS3. Joy. I'm sure it still won't have any PS2 BC... or a competitive price, even if the '$50 price drop' rumor is true...
Had a chance to see this today in the theaters, so I did of course. It was quite good... not T2 good for sure, but quite good. Great sci-fi action movie. I'd definitely recommend it... :)
(I could say more, but do I want to spoil anything?)
Oh, James Rolfe (AVGN) did a review of it through Cinemassacre. It's linked in the AVGN thread. He doesn't spoil much, so watch that if you haven't seen it.
I recently picked up a few games from Gamestop. There were 5 in total, more than I had planned on getting, but there were too many attention-grabbers that I couldn't ignore. One of them was Shadow of the Colossus. I've been drooling over it and ICO for longer than I can remember, and now that the titles are cheap I can get more than one for the price of one game.
I asked the clerk about ICO, but unfortunately, she said it's hard to find. She gave me a gamestop location that did have a used copy, but I had spent so much money already that I think I'll hold off.
Question:
Do you think I should play ICO before starting Shadow of the Colossus? How integral is it to know the story of the its predecessor to really appreciate its story? I popped it in to get a good feel of the game. I'm liking the epic presentation and gorgeous scenery (albeit with a few problems with aliasing and framerate). The control system is interesting, and I'm sure adjusting to it won't be difficult.
Hopefully the game will keep me engaged, and I might start on it after working my way through Manhunt (fuck yeah, shanking sleazy gangsters with a glass shard, hope the gameplay doesn't get repetitive).
Hell, I already mentioned two titles. The other three:
Crazy Taxi (GameCube): I lost my Dreamcast copy and always had great times with it back in the day.
GTA3: The original - I didn't get Vice City because I can always borrow it from a friend, and for some reason I just always felt drawn to try it over the newer ones. San Andreas sounds cool but I think it would get too immersive for me, such as having to go to the gym or eat or whatever other meta thing you have to do. It's the first free-roaming game I've owned aside from that lame cop game that took place in LA. I bought it because I wanted to try a free-roaming game, okay? I guess the +/- points for solving crimes or committing them was an interesting system, but the main character was so annoying (and the game's humor/presentation so embarassingly stupid) that I've probably sat down to play it less than 10 times.
Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2: Not for me, but my girl wanted it and she's broke. I thought it was a Silicon Knights title, but apparently someone named Crystal Dynamics developed it. I only played a demo of the first game in a disc that came with Official Dreamcast Magazine, and although at the time I might have had some interest in owning the game, thinking back, I'm not sure that kind of gameplay could sustain my attention span for an entire game. Hopefully this one is decent, though.
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