6th January 2009, 9:25 PM
Monday
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Saturn
--
Bust-A-Move 2: Arcade Edition (for $3? Absolutely!)
Tuesday (yesterday now, technically...)
--
PS2
--
Powerdrome -- the game that seems to be available in stacks everywhere. Gamestop has like 25 copies, a local store like 10, others multiple copies... Gamestop's dropped the price to $1 now, and it still seems to not be selling. As a futuristic racing game fan I of course had to have a copy eventually, and $1 finally convinced me. It's solid. Great sense of speed, some interesting gameplay mechanics... good stuff. It's not perfect -- it seems to have massive, annoying, catchup that keeps you from ever getting a real lead (so one mistake throws you back several places, for sure), for instance -- but certainly worth $1! Especially considering the price, any futuristic racing game fan with a PS2 should probably pick it up... but not before you get, and play, Wipeout Fusion, of course.
Gradius V ($10? For Gradius V, at GameStop? Really? Amazing... okay, it was disc only, but still, that's a very good deal for such an exceptionally great game. And it clearly is exceptionally great, as expected, that much was quite obvious before I even beat the first level. It's classic Gradius, but mixed with some somewhat Silpheed-esque voiced conversations with other pilots during the game, and Sega CD Silpheed/Ikaruga-style spinning camera moves... it's classic Gradius, but it's new too. Brilliant stuff. Quite hard, I've only got to the third level or so, and you only get one more credit per hour above the base three... but given that this is Gradius, the point is playing through without dying anyway, so you shouldn't be using them much. Anyway, incredibly awesome and great and I'm thrilled to own it, it's definitely one of the best games on the US PS2.
DS
--
Mazes of Fate -- yes, finally a new DS game, a year after my last... sadly my stylus tip broke off and finding new styluses for the original-model DS isn't so easy anymore, which is annoying, but the game (a remake of the buggy but good 2007 GBA game) is pretty good, for sure, and hard to find as well... I was kind of amazed that GameStop had it, and picked it up on sight. Controls aren't perfect -- it's free-roaming 3d and you have to turn with the stylus, while you can only move backward and forward and strafe and turn 180 degrees around with the dpad and R button. Oh well, a bit annoying but it works. IGN says the combat was broken (made way too easy) in comparison to the GBA version,but we'll see, it's pretty fun initially at least. :) And only $20 too, new, quite reasonable.
It's no replacement for Etrian Odyssey 2 of course, but I don't think I'll see that one in person again anytime soon, sadly.
--
Saturn
--
Bust-A-Move 2: Arcade Edition (for $3? Absolutely!)
Tuesday (yesterday now, technically...)
--
PS2
--
Powerdrome -- the game that seems to be available in stacks everywhere. Gamestop has like 25 copies, a local store like 10, others multiple copies... Gamestop's dropped the price to $1 now, and it still seems to not be selling. As a futuristic racing game fan I of course had to have a copy eventually, and $1 finally convinced me. It's solid. Great sense of speed, some interesting gameplay mechanics... good stuff. It's not perfect -- it seems to have massive, annoying, catchup that keeps you from ever getting a real lead (so one mistake throws you back several places, for sure), for instance -- but certainly worth $1! Especially considering the price, any futuristic racing game fan with a PS2 should probably pick it up... but not before you get, and play, Wipeout Fusion, of course.
Gradius V ($10? For Gradius V, at GameStop? Really? Amazing... okay, it was disc only, but still, that's a very good deal for such an exceptionally great game. And it clearly is exceptionally great, as expected, that much was quite obvious before I even beat the first level. It's classic Gradius, but mixed with some somewhat Silpheed-esque voiced conversations with other pilots during the game, and Sega CD Silpheed/Ikaruga-style spinning camera moves... it's classic Gradius, but it's new too. Brilliant stuff. Quite hard, I've only got to the third level or so, and you only get one more credit per hour above the base three... but given that this is Gradius, the point is playing through without dying anyway, so you shouldn't be using them much. Anyway, incredibly awesome and great and I'm thrilled to own it, it's definitely one of the best games on the US PS2.
DS
--
Mazes of Fate -- yes, finally a new DS game, a year after my last... sadly my stylus tip broke off and finding new styluses for the original-model DS isn't so easy anymore, which is annoying, but the game (a remake of the buggy but good 2007 GBA game) is pretty good, for sure, and hard to find as well... I was kind of amazed that GameStop had it, and picked it up on sight. Controls aren't perfect -- it's free-roaming 3d and you have to turn with the stylus, while you can only move backward and forward and strafe and turn 180 degrees around with the dpad and R button. Oh well, a bit annoying but it works. IGN says the combat was broken (made way too easy) in comparison to the GBA version,but we'll see, it's pretty fun initially at least. :) And only $20 too, new, quite reasonable.
It's no replacement for Etrian Odyssey 2 of course, but I don't think I'll see that one in person again anytime soon, sadly.