What are you playing?

[noiseredux]

Finally, Noise comes full circle.

who says you can't go home again?

[Ack]

Finally, Noise comes full circle.

who says you can't go home again?

I eagerly await your return to the pain train, my friend.

[noiseredux]

Now here's a weird one. Back in the 90's, before he was a spokeslizard for Geico, Gex was launched as the ever necessary animal-with-tude mascot for the 3DO. And when that didn't work out, his game was ported over to Playstation and Saturn as well. Still, Gex wasn't a hit. But for some reason, two more games were made in the series.

Gex 2 was released under the title Enter The Gecko, and since 3DO's were now $700 paperweights, this sequel was released on Playstation, Nintendo 64, and oddly enough... Game Boy Color. The home console game was a 3D platformer, while this GBC version was an entirely unique 2D game. And while I'd certainly label it an INTERESTING release, I can't by any means tell you that it's good.

I say it's interesting because it actually reminds me a lot of some Apogee DOS platformers of the day - both graphically, and in how it plays. Rather than linear levels, there are sprawling, branching levels with different paths to play. However, the goals are unique to the levels. Mostly it's "collect these things," which... I kind of hate. I also find the level layouts rather confusing.

The biggest downfall is in how the game plays. First of all - strike one - the jump and attack buttons are inverted. Is it really possible that the unspoken rule of two-buttons wasn't firmly in place by 1998? I mean, c'mon. Thanks to the GBC's slightly updated hardware, the framerate is fine and Gex can jump around nicely. However, his attack (whipping his tail) is meh and has a really small hit diameter. And what's worse is that he starts running automatically after several steps of walking. This can really screw up platforming as you'll run off of one when you think you're about to jump. Gex can also do a higher pogo-style jump, but only after jumping once from running, which means you need to find ample space and plan out these higher jumps. It's quite cumbersome.

So I mean, not to judge a book by the cover but look at that cover. We all knew this game was going to be bad, right? I guess I did. But like I said - it's interesting. Just not good.

[noiseredux]

Back in the day I played a little of the original Goldeneye 007 at a friend's house, but only in multiplayer. I never touched the campaign. My buddy was way better than me in the multiplayer since it was his game. That, coupled with the fact that I've never been a fan of James Bond movies means the game never really had any nostalgia for me.

I remember back in 2010 when the remake was first announced, my wife and I were sitting in Red Robin eating lunch. We had walked over after going into Game Stop so I had a flyer of some sort with me and the waitress saw it and commented on how excited she was about the Wii reboot. I just kind of shrugged and smiled.

Nine years later, it's a pretty great time to pick up Wii games. I'm finding all kinds of cult favorites for under $5 randomly at yard sales and the like. So somehow I obtained a copy of Goldeneye 007 and figured, "why not?"

Now unfortunately my time for console gaming is fairly limited these days. It's much easier to play things in small bursts on a portable with a small baby in the house. But sometimes when she's napping on the weekend, I can sneak off to the game room and play a little bit on an actual TV. And that's what I did.

As I said, I have no memory of the original game, so I don't know how closely the plot of the campaign follows in this remake. But... I'm enjoying it either way. It's a totally linear experience, and honestly, it just reminds me a lot of Call Of Duty's gameplay. But that's fine. It's definitely fun.

It was cool to get through that first mission and then see the game launch the intro credits reminiscent of an actual Bond movie. That was well done.

My one complaint so far is that in spots, the game is super dark. Like, I had trouble making out where doors were in a couple of darker rooms. I even turned the brightness all the way up in the options menu but it didn't help. Oh well. It's not game breaking, but it can be annoying.

Anyway, I haven't played much yet, but I feel like I'll want to get back to this one when I have some more time to spend in the game room.

[Ziggy]

Goldeneye on the Wii was a solid game. Yes, it does feel slightly like a CoD, but I believe that was intentional. I had a lot of fun playing the single player campaign, but the multiplayer was also a lot of fun. We (Racketboy) had a blast playing that game when the online was up.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=26580

I'm not sure if there's some fan servers hosting it or not, but it'll be a shame if you don't get to experience that part of the game. The Wii being as easy to hack as it was meant that you often came across cheaters, but it was still a lot of fun.

[noiseredux]

When I was a young lad of sixteen or so, me and some friends started a band. It was the first of many revolving door bands that this circle of friends would form and break-up throughout high school. And besides our musical proficiency, that first band's biggest roadblock would be Tekken 2. Once a week after school we'd pick up fast food, get together at my buddy's house (because he had the drum set), and more often than not we'd play Tekken 2 instead of actually jamming.

It's funny that Tekken 2 was such a big hit with our group of friends, because I don't think any of us had played the first Tekken. And when more sequels rolled out, we had moved on to other games. For whatever reason it was just that second game that grabbed us.

Years later I explored the series a little more. At one point I picked up Tag Tournament on PS2; another time I actually played Tekken 3 on Dreamcast via the Bleemcast disc. Heck, I even enjoyed Street Fighter X Tekken - though with the caveat that I only liked playing as characters from the Street Fighter roster. So there you have it - I'm about as casual fan of the series as you can get. I LIKE the games just fine, but it's fairly low on my list of fighting series.

That said, I remembered playing Tekken Advance some years back and thinking it was pretty impressive. So I decided to fire it up again last night in the short period of time between my wife and daughter falling asleep and me going to bed. And y'know what? It IS impressive.

Tekken Advance is BASICALLY a port of Tekken 3, arriving three years after its Playstation release. It is missing a couple of the characters however, which I gather is a limitation of the hardware. But what's included really does work well on the system.

Through some technical trickery that I don't really understand, they've made sprites out of the original 3D models. Is this sort of like what Rare did with Donkey Kong Country or Killer Instinct? Maybe. But I'm not going to take the time to go read about it right now because I just don't have the time. Whatever they did, it looks really cool. I mean honestly, this LOOKS like a Playstation game running on the GBA. Which is neat.

But looks can be deceiving and this is effectively a 2D fighter here. Of course the controls are going to be dumbed-down or refined or however you want to look at it. So now you've got Kick and Punch mapped to the face buttons, while the shoulder buttons manage Throws and Tags. It's basic, but it works. Before too long I was starting to string together some combos and feel fairly comfortable with the controls.

At the end of the day, Tekken is not my chosen fighting game. It's cut from the same cloth as more technical games in the genre like Virtua Fighter. I mean, I understand the appeal but I've never had the time nor energy to really understand these kinds of games' systems - never mind get good at them.

But Tekken Advance is a solid portable fighting game. And it's something I'd hang on to and revisit again in the future. I'll probably be impressed with it again next time I play it as well.

[noiseredux]

The Ubisoft era of Ninja Turtles games was brief but interesting. Take for example, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up. It's inspiration is right there in the title. You could just call this "Turtles Smash." Ubisoft even went so far as to hire various folks who worked on Smash Bros Brawl. And at least their intentions were good.

I ran through the arcade mode last night which was... brisk. It's not bad. It plays like any number of Smash clones. I'm just not sure why we need so many Smash clones. But then again, I'm a HUGE fan of Ninja Turtles games, so whatever. I have this. I'm glad it exists. At any rate - good intentions aside - the biggest problem with this game is the meager roster. I mean we're talking about a Smash-style fighting game in 2009, and it starts with only seven characters available. Do the math, four of those seven are the Turtles themselves.

Now you can unlock more fighters for a total of a "whopping" sixteen. But if you're a TMNT fan (which, you must be if you're bothering with this game), then you'll be bummed to see the final roster. SPOILERS: Splinter, Shredder, Casey Jones, and April O'Neil are all in the game. As is a foot soldier. And then a couple of less cool characters. There is no Bebop or Rocksteady. There's no Krang. No Baxter Stockman. Basically nobody from the 80's cartoon. Which would have been fine if they'd managed to draw a cool and fleshed out roster from the on-going comic series. Instead, we're given TWO different Rabbids to unlock. Really? That feels like a slight on Usagi.

The fighting is... fine. It's standard Smash stuff, really. But I managed to complete the arcade mode in less than a half hour - WITHOUT really knowing what any of the buttons even do. So, yeah. I don't think there's much challenge there in the single player campaign. Which is fine. These kind of games are generally meant for multiplayer. I'm just not doing much of that these days.

There are other modes to mess with, but I think I've seen enough. This game will stay in my collection pretty solely because of my love for the franchise. And maybe once in a while it'd make a fun "party game." But I can't imagine spending much more time on it. I will say that the cut-scenes between the arcade mode's fights are beautiful drawn by Jim Lawson and Eric Talbot and written by Peter Laird himself. So again, this is a game worth owning for Turtles fans to some degree.

But again, this is a TMNT Smash clone with a mere sixteen characters. And two of them are Rabbids. Two of them.

[marurun]

Wow, that's a real lost opportunity, IMO. There are so many great mutant characters in the TMNT universe. Why ignore most of them?

[prfsnl_gmr]

Yeah...the Ubisoft TMNT game’s are odd. The GBA beat ‘em up is a really solid game...with almost no recognizable characters. (I think they’re all from the TMNT computer animated movie almost no one saw. I don’t know because I haven’t seen that movie.) I wish I could like them more than I do. Oh well...


EDIT: Hey! Isn’t that Krang on the game’s cover? Is he there, but not in the game?

.....

So...I started Five Nights at Freddy’s in anticipation of October. My son is PUMPED, and he really enjoys playing (and being scared by) it. It is also a “classic” of modern gaming, spawning a very successful franchise. The problem is...it’s really hard, and I can’t figure out what to do. As a result, I keep dying. Gruesomely. The gameplay reminds me a bit of a 90s FMV game like Double Switch or Night Trap, but I’m not sure it’s supposed to work that way. I really do not grasp the mechanics yet...and I thought this game was supposed to be easy! I mean, lots of people have beaten this, right? What am I missing? Have any of you beaten this game? Any tips?

[noiseredux]

Yeah...the Ubisoft TMNT game’s are odd. The GBA beat ‘em up is a really solid game...with almost no recognizable characters. (I think they’re all from the TMNT computer animated movie almost no one saw. I don’t know because I haven’t seen that movie.) I wish I could like them more than I do. Oh well...

The 2007 CGI movie simply called "TMNT" is actually not bad at all. It's its own thing. But it's fun and has a nice story and decent voice acting. Sarah Michelle Geller FTW.

Now the GBA game based on that movie is quite fun, and reminiscent of the Konami beat-em-ups; kind of. But even weirder is the console version of the game based on the movie which is a straight up clone of Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time. Like I said, brief/interesting era.

EDIT: Hey! Isn’t that Krang on the game’s cover? Is he there, but not in the game?

Ah, well, yeah. They just refer to him as "Utromimator" in the game. So I don't know, it feels almost generic. Like, it's a Utrom; it's in the big robot body, but isn't referred to as Krang. Also, in game it just looks like a big clunky robot. So sure, "Krang" is in the game but it sure doesn't feel like he is. Y'know?