SELECT STAGE #4 – Dragon Power October 1, 2009
Posted by Rebel in Rebel, SELECT STAGE.3 comments
When some of us were little, we would turn on the TV at (insert time here) to watch a show. That show was called Dragon Ball (Z/GT). I’m completely sure a lot of people remember Goku and him growing up in the original Dragon Ball series. I’m pretty sure everyone watched the episode where Goku got shot by Piccolo’s special beam cannon, and I’m pretty sure a lot of people were shaking when Goku came back from the dead to kick Vegeta’s ass. Anyways, I don’t think I need to write much about the Dragon Ball series as a whole, so let’s talk about Dragon Power. Dragon Power is a game made in 1986 for the NES. It was the first Dragon Ball game to be localized (game had to be edited due to lack of license), and it is pretty bad.. Anyways..
DRAGON POWER
“The adventure begins!”
“The quest is for the dragon’s 7 crystal balls; the prize, your greatest wish. Together with Goku and Nora you must face obstacles that lead to each of the balls. Each obstacle seems greater than the last, but with your skill and the help of Swift Cloud and Magic Pole, anything is possible. It’s Dragon Power!”
_STORY//
“Okay, okay. Let’s go on a trip.”
Imagine the "Kung-Fu" song being played here.
The story is pretty much the same as Dragon Ball’s storyline. You search for the Dragon Balls (crystal balls in this game). There are seven of them, and you start off with three. As mentioned earlier, the game was heavily edited. The graphics were edited, and the character names were edited (Goku stayed as Goku, but some characters like Master Roshi become Hermit), and some things were even censored. Remember this scene? Instead of Roshi asking to see Bulma’s panties, Hermit asks for Nora’s sandwich. However, the old Dragon Ball story is still recognizable in this hilarious mess (though in some cases, it doesn’t even resemble Dragon Ball). Still worth a check for the laughs, though.
_GRAPHICS//
“Come on! Swift Cloud!! Jump on well.”
Goku, you look lovely...
The graphics are pretty bad. Like I said earlier, the character sprites were edited. Nora (Bulma) has purple hair, Hermit (Master Roshi) now looks like Gandalf, and Goku (Goku) looks like a monkey faggot that flips you off every time you fight a boss battle. The level tiles are pretty generic, but then again, you won’t really see much different in any NES game. The sprites are comparable to the original Legend of Zelda sprites, but the visuals seem kind of… colour lacking, compared to games like the original Super Mario Bros. The environments aren’t varied enough, so it looks pretty boring at times.
_SOUND//
“I want it too.”
“OK. Give me your sandwich.”
The game doesn’t have much sound variety apart from the four songs you hear constantly throughout the game. Not much to say about this, except that the songs really suck.
_GAMEPLAY//
“Yeow! Help!”
“Oh no. Did she get caught?”
Yeow!
This game consists of 10 stages. The stages have some variety; some parts have platformer style gameplay (kind of like the GBC Legend of Zeldas, except for the notorious boss fights, which I will talk about later). The regular stages are pretty simple. They’re like a Legend of Zelda style game, but more beat-em-up. You don’t get any puzzles, you just blow past enemies and punch them. Sounds solid, but there are some pretty huge flaws. For one thing, the enemy design is stupid. Some enemies attack horizontally only. Although they can move vertically, you can easily kill them by going above them and slapping them with Goku’s Magic Stick. You can jump, but it’s utterly useless, as you can’t jump on most platforms in the plane. The biggest flaw in this game is probably the problem where when you stand still, you constantly lose HP. Hard to believe that a character that is stronger than any person on Earth has trouble standing on his own two legs. There is also the horribly designed Stage 2, where you have to repeatedly go to treasure chests and look for “Pudgy” (Oolong). When you find him, you punch him to make him drop a key. Rather stupid and unnecessary, and they never explain what you’re actually supposed to do.
No, Goku isn't sticking his finger out at you... yet.
As Goku progresses in his adventure, he will fight bosses. Most of the bosses are pretty stupid to fight. They have swords, and Goku has hands, feet, and a stick (that, like I said, looks like he’s flicking you off when he uses it). When the bosses touch you, you get hit. Fair enough, but their swords already give them more range than they give you. If you kick in mid-air, you automatically drop like a rock. You can also use a “Wind Wave” projectile (the manual explains how you do it incorrectly), but they are limited in quantity. The bosses are fairly inconsistant (the last boss involves you punching a giant mech that shoots missiles at you, you can literally stand right beside the boss because he doesn’t hurt when you touch him). Either way, while the bosses occasionally have variety, they are horribly boring to fight. They don’t restore your health after you beat them either, so if you die, you have to fight them again. Although you get HP item drops, they are completely random, and your HP will probably run out from you walking around before you get them anyway.
_CONCLUSION//
“It’s only that it’s a waste of time.”
The quote says it all. This game is a waste of your time. Crappy music, average visuals, and horribly flawed gameplay. If you’re a fan of Dragon Ball, and you absolutely MUST play the first localized Dragon Ball game…. don’t bother with this. It’s not worth it… Seriously!
BLEGH!
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Eehhhhhhh, this could have been way longer, but I still haven’t finished my homework… ’till next time, I guess! Bye!
SELECT STAGE #3 – Kabuki Quantum Fighter August 1, 2009
Posted by Rebel in Rebel, SELECT STAGE.5 comments
Remember back in my last SELECT STAGE post on Life Force, I said that NES games weren’t big on story? Well, they weren’t, but some of them had awesome premises that are barely passable for any game in our current generation. Well, how does this sound; you’re a military soldier, volunteering to have your brain transformed into raw binary code to combat the viruses in the Main Defense Computer; Earth’s last hope to survive… as a kabuki! Most producers would turn down a premise like that without hesitation, but if any of you think this is interesting, read on for a brand new SELECT STAGE post about…
Fuzzy Pickles! #2 – This game stinks! May 15, 2009
Posted by Rebel in Fuzzy Pickles!, Rebel.2 comments
OH UM. I haven’t been on here for a while. Well, I guess I’ll be back for a bit longer. A bit about what’s been going own over here… I don’t really have much of a reason explaining why I haven’t been posting.. Man, I’ve been addicted to Pokemon, but I really need to get into some other things. School, for example. I NEED TO GET ADDICTED TO SCHOOL, somehow.. Reason why this game review has been so slow coming was because I actually wanted to replay the game to make sure I got all the details right, but Pokemon has sidetracked me even more! 
Anyways, if you haven’t guessed already, this post is going to be a review of Earthbound on the SNES; also known as Mother 2… also known as the review I’ve been holding off for far too long. Oh yeah, about the title of the post; “This game stinks!” is one of the American slogans for this game, designed to showcase this game’s humor. Unfortunately, this joke wasn’t very funny. Unfortunately, this legitimately funny game did not sell too well because the ad-designers tried too hard. But, uh… before I get sidetracked while posting, let’s… uh… get started! So, LET’S GET THIS PAH~TY STAAHTED.
Earthbound/Mother 2
A unique, quirky RPG about a boy named Ness, his friends, and their adventure to stop the “Embodiment of Evil”, Giygas, from destroying the world.
Earthbound is the second game in the Mother series. It is a charming game with unique ideas; unfortunately falling short of its own potential, leaving a weak entry in the RPG genre. Despite its flaws, this game is a fun game that will definitely offer you a ton of legitimate laughs.
Graphics – ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ (7/10) // Good
Lots of personality; lacking detail found in other games in this generation.
The visuals are really a mixed bag. I personally think they’re colorful and fun; contrasting from the dark and gritty feel of most of the JRPGs on the SNES. Not only are the visuals colorful and fun; the sprites are actually pretty unique. The battle sprites are great, and the battle backgrounds are fun. …in a trippy kind of way.
Trippy.. backgrounds...
But it all goes downhill from there. Back in the day, the graphics have often been criticized for being “undetailed”. People commented on the visuals, saying that an NES could do just as well a job as Earthbound. I personally call bullshit on that, but I can see where they’re coming from. The visuals get pretty bland at some points in the game. Despite this, I personally think the visuals are awesome; for simply two things. Unique-ness, and charm. Sure, a ton of people won’t agree with me. “This game totally doesn’t look unique! This game’s sprites aren’t charming at all! Just take a look at the lady!” The visuals have a lot of personality, but personality can’t really save it from the lack of detail.
Wh-wh-what is that thing?
Sound – ★★★★★★★★☆☆ (8/10) // Great
Soundtrack is especially touching, and fulfilling, but sound effects are pretty lacking.
The soundtrack in this game is brilliant. Like the visuals, it shines with its own distinct flavour and personality. To the audiophiles, the sound quality may seem low. To the Square-lovers, none of the music in this game as grandoise as the music in Final Fantasy 6. The music fits the game like a glove. You might wonder how low quality music like this would be able to touch the very depths of your soul, and I wonder how too. This is one part of the game where you’ll actually have to play the game to understand. The music really ties in to Ness’s adventure. For example, the Eight Melodies develop as Ness travels across the land to find a way to defeat Giygas. The music almost feels like character development for Ness. Music is one of the prime ways that Ness communicates, given that he is a silent protagonist. The music somehow makes Ness a likeable character. When there’s a sad song, you’ll feel sad. When there’s a warm song, you’ll feel at home. The music just does a good job in that sense. It’s like when you eat someone’s bad cooking, despite their food being cooked with love and care… the food sucks, but you know that a lot of love has been put into it, and you eat it because… okay, cheesy, sucks… Gonna come up with another example. Uh. I can’t think of one, but… you know what I mean!
Sound effects are pretty run-of-the-mill. There’s really isn’t much to say about them. When you hit something, there’s some sort of weird “CRAAASH” sound, and now and then, there are these other “CRAAASH” sounds. There are different sounds for critical hits and regular… hits. I can’t really remember the sound effects, so forgive me if there are more sound effects.
Gameplay – ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ (6/10) // Decent
Wow! This game is pretty sub-par!
This game’s gameplay… definitely isn’t to good. It’s pretty much your generic RPG. DQ without the extra fuzz. Customization is pretty bad for your standard RPG. You have equipment, in which all equipment, save yo-yos and slingshots, are specifically assigned to a certain character. Bats are for Ness, frying pans are for Paula, guns are for Jeff, and Poo doesn’t even equip items (save the Sword of Kings, a 1/124 drop from an enemy that appears for a limited time).
You encounter battles by “touching” an enemy on the map; think the Tales series. The biggest difference is that some enemies move differently than others. For example, there are these prism-shaped enemies that go in circles, and there are these birds that make a beeline for you when they see you. The only problem is that most of the enemies are.. well.. really fast. Ness…. can’t outrun most of them lategame.
In terms of battle, this game sets itself apart from other games (like Dragon Quest) through use of a scrolling healthbar; similar to that of an odometer. When you recieve a “fatal blow”, the health bar begins to kind of tick down. During this time, you can attempt to heal that party member before their health reaches 0. If you are successful, that character won’t die; it will actually be healed. You can use this odometer to deal your final blows if you can’t heal, and this brings about a lot of interesting strategy. For one thing, you could probably beat the game with everyone at level 1 (if you could GameGenie so that you didn’t get any EXP from battles, or something; really difficult and may drive you to insanity, though). It’s pretty difficult to explain, so here’s a video:
If you watched that video, you’d notice one flaw with the odometer system; your health falls faster than the text scrolls. You’d probably need about 200 HP to stand a chance with the odometer system, (unless you have turbo or really, really fast fingers, or if the enemy name is short). Now that I think about it, Earthbound would be awesome multiplayer because of the odometer. …but let’s not get off topic now.
To be honest, there isn’t really much more to say about the gameplay. You don’t really do any puzzles in this game. Basically, it’s travel from point A to point B, do this and do that, and then travel to point C. It’s fun, because the story can actually get pretty interesting. I won’t really delve into the story, because the most I can really say can be found in the first part of the review. The story is pretty warm, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say it was deep. It scores about a .5 extra point for me, I guess, but it’s kind of hard to score the story, due to it being… kind of hard to talk about. Let’s just say that the story is awesome.
What I can talk about is the script. The script for this game is absolutely hilarious. You will laugh your socks off what what all the NPCs have to say to you. Most of the lines are totally random. In one part of the game, you have a zombie infested town, and some random guy invented paper, called Zombie Paper. You lay Zombie Paper on the ground, and zombies stick to it. One of the NPCs say “Zombie paper really works, so I hope someone comes up with “Pretty Girl Paper.” Some parts of this game are just really random. I can’t think of a single quote right now, though, since I haven’t played the actual game for quite a while. One of the first quotes in the game has you talking to a police officer at a blockade, saying that they are going for the world record for blockades.
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We're going for the world record.
Overall -★★★★★★★☆☆☆ (7/10) // Good
Seriously?
Sure, this RPG might be my favorite RPG… ever, but being my favorite RPG doesn’t make its flaws any less apparent. Unfortunately, its flaws stick out like a sore thumb. However, if you can overlook this games’ flaws, you’ll find a quirky and fun RPG that you will remember for a lifetime.
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Anyways, I guess that’s it for Mother 2/Earthbound. Time for Mother 3?
Rebel #11 – I’M COMPLETING MY POKéDEX! March 31, 2009
Posted by Rebel in Rebel, Rebel's Rants.3 comments
Dammit, Mach! It’s not like you have 6 badges yet, you FOUR BADGE-ER! Anyways, I don’t really have much to talk about, as usual. I’ve really only been wasting my time gaming; playing Pokemon Platinum here an– playing Pokemon Platinum (55 hours is a waste of time, right?!) GYM BADGES ARE EASY TO GET, TAKES LIKE TWO SECONDS TO GET ALL OF THEM MACH! POKEDEX COMPLETION IS WHERE ITS AT! I’m still thinking of something to put in this post. I was actually going to post something else, but I was stopped. Oh yeah! Free Larvitars for anyone who wants one! Some of them have Bite/Leer, but others have Earthquake/Stone Edge/Dark Pulse/Rock Tomb. I only have like 30, though… Well, that’s all I have on my mind right now… video time..
Most Earthbound fans should have seen this already…. but it’s so awesome that it’s worth another watch…
On The Air #1 – Nothing Fancy! March 7, 2009
Posted by Rebel in On The Air!, Rebel.1 comment so far
What’s this?! A new category?! Anyways, getting straight to the point here, because my fingers are kinda numb from Tidal Wave spamming in Vesperia.. On The Air, eh? I’ll keep the description short; I’ll post one of these every month, and it’ll talk about certain video games that are being released that month. So… eh… on to the real deal! By the way, all release dates will be based on NA release dates… and these entries will be based on NA releases too. I swear, Mach, not all my entries are 2000 words! In fact, I have a 500 word entry. FIESTY MACH BOY! This post might seem a little stiff, but my fingers are stiff (that sounded kind of wrong.) Anyways, let’s start this post up FOR REAL! this time. (damn you, Mach!)
ON THE AIR march ver.
Resident Evil 5 (PS3/360)
This game was obviously going to be on this list. Anyways, Resident Evil 5… Resident Evil 5 stars one of the Resident Evil 1 protagonists, Chris Redfield. It takes place 10 years after the orignal Resident Evil, and it takes place in a fictional African country, Kijuju. It plays like Resident Evil 4, with the behind-the-back perspective going on. There isn’t much to say about Resident Evil 5, that you don’t already know. Resident Evil 5 will be the first Resident Evil game to feature local and online co-op… or at least, easily accessable local and online co-op through the singleplayer story. This means that there will be, you guessed it, an AI partner helping you out. To those of you who aren’t familiar with the Resident Evil 4 gameplay, Resident Evil 4 has… you guessed it… a behind-the-back perspective (or rather, you read it). Resident Evil 4 has its ties to Resident Evil 1, 2, and 3 in terms of controls; something people often refer to as “tank controls”. You can rotate your character, you can move forwards and backwards, but you can’t shoot and move at the same time. Oh yeah, you can’t strafe either. In Resident Evil 4, you can aim your gun like how you aim in First Person Shooters (in RE1, you could only aim your gun up, down, or middle). Resident Evil 5 kind of deviates from the controls, offering up to 3 or 4 control schemes, some with the option to strafe (think Gears of War controls, but you can’t take cover and you can’t shoot while strafing). Resident Evil 5 also introduces a real-time menu, rather than a regular menu where the game pauses. Despite this game going in a fairly different direction (bright, sunny areas, multiplayer, strafing), the game promises to be a true Resident Evil game that captures the feel of the series.
Resident Evil 5 comes out on March 13th.
Madworld (Wii)
I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one you’re hearing from regarding Madworld (at least I hope I’m not..) Madworld is a violent game. Actually, violent may be an understatement. Madworld plays in 3 colours; black, white, and red. The game takes place in Varrigan City. A group of terrorists known as “The Organizers” have taken over the city, making it the “playing grounds” for a violent show called Death Watch. The protagonist, Jack, is a man with a chainsaw on his arm. Jack is sent to Varrigan City (by the President) to stop Death Watch. …Death Watch is really violent… You can pick up random objects found in the environment and use them to destroy enemies. By destroy, I mean REALLY destroy. In several videos, enemies were killed using a sign. …The pole of it. ….stabbed through their face. This game will feature multiplayer. I don’t know what kind of multiplayer, though. Blah, I don’t know too much about this game… but I do know that if what I just said floats your boat, get it! WorldDude would kick my ass if you didn’t… after reading all that!
Madworld will be released on March 10th.
Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume (DS)
The boxart for this game is really pretty. Probably the first VP game that DOESN’T star Lenneth (deny this if you will, VP2 starred Lenneth!) The protagonist’s name is Wylfred, son of Thyodor (this game likes replacing vowels with “y”). Wylfred holds a grudge against Lenneth Valkyrie. When Lenneth made Wylfred’s father an Einherjar, it left Wylfred’s family was left in poverty. Wylfred’s sister dies due to poverty, and Wylfred is chosen to become an Einherjar. By becoming closer to the gods, he becomes one step closer to exacting his revenge. ..I guess that’s the gist of the beginning for you! Anyways, Covenant of the Plume doesn’t play like a normal Valkyrie Profile game. It is an SRPG with RPG battles; the same kind of battles that were in the other Valkyrie Profile games. You press A, B, X, and Y to make certain party members attack. Successful attacks build on the EN Gauge that allows you to use attacks called Soul Crushes. The thing that seperates this game from other SRPGs (well, it already sets itself apart from other SRPGs) is the Active Formation system, where, depending on the positioning of the characters. There is another thing called the Goddess Feather, which, upon use, grants individuals a large stat-boost and unique abilities. At the end of the battle, though, the unit…. dies. Don’t worry, though! This isn’t like Fire Emblem! Units only permanantly die if you use the Goddess Feather! Don’t expect them to die when they get struck down in battle.
Anyways, if you’re a fan of Valkyrie Profile, and if you’re a fan of SRPGs, I recommend you get this game on March 17th. Then again, if you ARE a VP fan, you probably ARE going to get it, regardless of what I say.
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Anyways, that’s pretty much it for the first On The Air! Good hopefully, it was an interesting read. HOPEFULLY!
Rebel #10 – Double digits! February 11, 2009
Posted by Rebel in Rebel, Rebel's Rants.1 comment so far
It’s my turn already?! Feels like it’s only been a couple of days! …been a couple of weeks, though, UNFORTUNATELY. Anyways, as usual, I don’t have much to talk about, especially if it’s regarding my life. I’ve been doing schoolwork, and playing games. That’s pretty much it. Vesperia made me a Tales fan. Goddamnit, Vesperia! Having lots of fun with that game. Trying to slug through Fire Emblem, and trying to beat The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Sousuke wrote about it earlier! Great game. Fire Emblem… hrm… Such an awesome game, but I can’t bring myself to play it for some reason. SRPGS ALWAYS DO THIS TO MEEEE! Anyways, in this post, I’m going to review Mega Man Star Force: Leo/Pegasus/Dragon. No, not Earthbound! I’ll get to that eventually! FO’ SHO! Anyways, in the meantime, I hope you enjoy this review! I PUT MY HEART AND SOUL INTO IIT~!
Mega Man Star Force: Leo/Pegasus/Dragon Review (DS)
I’m pretty sure you’ve all heard of the Mega Man Star Force series; you know, the sequel to the Battle Network series? Being a sequel to a series (within a series with 7/8 entries itself), you’d guess that the Star Force feels like Battle Network… and the thing is, it does. Can playing such a similar game for the 8th/9th time be a blast, or is it a chore? (more…)
SELECT STAGE #2 – Life Force January 21, 2009
Posted by Rebel in Rebel, Rebel's Rants, SELECT STAGE.3 comments
Anyways, welcome to the second “SELECT STAGE!”. It was going to be a feature that just talked about classic games, but now I’m going to revise this feature a little. Make it more specific. This feature is now going to be about obscure gems (or not so shiny tin caps) on the NES, SNES, and the Genesis. At the end of each SELECT STAGE post, I will give the game a thumbs up, or a tentative thumbs down. Anyways, here we go… Uh…
Has anyone heard of a game called “Life Force”? For those of you that haven’t, Life Force is a shoot-em-up on the NES. Okay, there were a lot of shoot-em-ups on the NES, but this one is a fun shooter by Konami. “Life Force” (also known as Salamander in Japan) that resembles Gradius. Actually, it was actually supposed to be a Gradius spinoff, so it should resemble Gradius. Well, actually, it IS a Gradius spinoff, but whatever. Anyways, Salamander was popular enough in Japan to get a sequel, Salamander 2. Since Salamander was released at arcades at 1986, it has undergone multiple remakes and “ports” on the PC Engine, the NES, and surprisingly, the Playstation Portable. Now that I think about it, I think Salamander and Life Force somehow became two different games even though they’re the same game, or something. I don’t really know too much about this game, personally, so I’ll make myself sound stupider if I continue with talking about the game’s history. Anyways, enough of this! Time to sink our teeth into this game.
“You’ve saved the innocent people of Gradius from the vile Bacterions. But now, an even deadlier plague has slimed into the neighbourhood! It’s Zelos, an all-engulfing planet-eating alien who’s hungering to take a bit out of you!”
Story
NES games have never been huge on story. This is no exception. If you haven’t gathered anything from that snippit of text I just gave you, basically, the premise is that… you’re in the Gradius world, somewhere, and there’s an alien named Zelos (har har) that is going to eat your planet. What that little snippit DIDN’T say, was that you’re going to be flying a plane called the RoadBritish space destroyer… into the alien’s body. …that’s pretty much all there is in the way of story.
Graphics
This game looks and plays like your every day shoot-em-up. It’s nothing special, but it’s still pleasant to the eye. Who plays NES games for GRAPHICS nowadays anyways?
Travelling through Zelos' mouth~!
Sound
The music is good, but it’s what you’d expect from an NES game. Some songs DO stand out though; for example, the stage 2 song. Man, that song is catchy.
Gameplay
Look familiar?
This game is a pretty deep shooter. Life Force has 6 stages, each representing a different part of Zelos’ body (first stage being his mouth. you even get to travel through his blood stream!) This game has both vertical and horizontal scrolling stages, alternating between level and level (stage 1 being horizontal, stage 2 being vertical). You get three lives; the standard for schmups. You don’t get any continues, which makes the game pretty damn hard. Fortunately, you can use the Konami Code to get 30 lives, just like in Contra… which makes the game a lot easier. This game, like Gradius, has power-ups.
There are 6 power-ups; speed, missile, ripple, lazer, option, and force. To power yourself up, you shoot differently coloured enemies and collect orbs that they drop upon death. Speed increases your speed, missile gives you two floating orbs that shoot wall-crawling missiles, ripple changes your regular shot into a kind of sonar-ish shot, lazer changes your regular shot into a lazer, option makes a certain aircraft thing float around you, shooting when you shoot, and force is a forcefield that protects you from the weakest of enemies.
Each orb shifts the glowing square to the right by one square.
The actual shoot-em-up part is rock solid. You shoot enemies, enemies, and more enemies until you reach the boss. Wait, that’s not all you do! You navigate through the dynamic stages that WANT to kill you. For example, in the first level, there are clear passages that get blocked by Zelos’ gums. You have to fly through those passages fast enough to get through. If you’ve played this game, you’d remember the chaotic fire level that shoots fireballs that you have to fly under (or over). This game does the shoot-em-up part really well, and the level designs are extremely inspired.
Remember the firebaaall?!
Life Force also sports a simultaneous two-player mode! Something that every Gradius (until Gradius V) didn’t have! (thanks for the heads-up, MinhT)
Overall
For those schmup purists, this is the game for you. 6 stages; some may say it’s too short, but this schmup pretty much excels in its genre, with challenge and fun packed into one bundle. It’s a game that is pleasing to hear and nice to watch. It still stands as a great game in our current gaming generation, and for that, it gets a whole-hearted…
RECOMMENDED
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Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed the second “SELECT STAGE!”. In the future, I’ll try to add some gameplay videos. Thanks for reading!
Rebel #9 – A RIG? January 15, 2009
Posted by Rebel in Rebel, Rebel's Rants.7 comments
MY RIG SUCKS. Now that I’ve gotten that across, I need some words. I don’t even want to post my rig. Taking pictures took so much effort. Damn you Mach! Can someone help me find my PS2 games? They’re probably somewhere in the pictures… somewhere. Anyways, is this enough? Damn you, Mach. Damn you. ….Damn you. Anyways, this should be enough. I actually took a few photos YESTERDAY, but I didn’t post them because I had an exam today. I think my mouse is breaking. Anyways, I really want to get back to Persona 4. Damn you, Mach. Damn you. Hrm, still not enough room taken. Uh. Oh. I think this should be enough. I just noticed, I don’t have enough lines. Bla bla bla bla. Lines, lines lines lines. Delicious lines. This should be enough. I don’t know if it’s enough, but… I think it’s enough. Hopefully, it’s enough, because I don’t want to have to edit this post again. IT’S KIND OF TIRESOME! I think. BY THE WAY. MY RIG SUCKS. MY CAMERA ALSO SUCKS. Anyways, on to the pictures!
I do pretty much everything in here.
Well, there isn’t that much to say about this room, other than the biology text book lying in the middle of the table. I just got back from an exam, guys. Give me a break. Also, Mother 3 background, and Persona 4 is running on the screen with my PS2 on the side, connected to my capture card. I SEE THREE GAMES HERE, but there are probably more games. And yes, that’s a book shelf over there. CAN ANYONE SPOT MANGA?
I need a Gamecube memory card.
Well, I’m pretty sure you guys saw in the previous picture, but my Wii is here, and my controllers are here.. and.. uh.. two games are here (can anyone guess what the game under Metroid Prime is?!).
WELL, THERE'S YOUR DAWN OF SORROW, NOI!
Some of my games are in that Philips (notCDi) box. This is the cupboard under the Wii, if you guys are wondering. There’s my nunchuck, and my OTHER PS2 controller. Wait, two nunchucks? WHAT?
My.. uh... next-gen gaming room?! I can never come here, my parents are always on the TV. D:
WILD SOUSUKE APPEARS, PLAYING CASTLE CRASHERS. Yes, that’s Sousuke. You can’t really tell, but it IS. My 360 is on, over beside the TV. Some games are in the cupboard on the left. Rock band drum set. Big subwoofer that.. isn’t plugged in. Blurred pictures on top, delicious. Cable box, some weird animal things. D:
I guess that’s it! Damn you, Mach, for wasting my precious Persona 4 time! Damn you! Anyways, hope you guys can help me find my games. I’m pretty sure you guys will notice something I fail to notice. After all, I noticed this white plastic nail thing on Sousuke’s picture, RIGHT SOUSUKE?! Sorry, Dan, but you don’t make an appearance!
Rebel #8 – NOOOHHH!! January 6, 2009
Posted by Rebel in Rebel, Rebel's Rants.4 comments
ERRRR. HRMMM. I seriously can’t go into Teddie’s character; it’s beary hard, GET IT? GET IT? Okay, I’m done. Anyways… HAPPY NEW YEAR, people, even though it’s the 5th. (Goddamnit, school started. ) Aaanyways, Teddie is a badass. GOTTA HAVE MORE POSTS FROM THE TEDDIE, RIGHT? RIGHT? Okay, maybe not. Hmph.
I’ll just say what’s been going on. I’ve just started a game that Len has wanted me to start for a while. Uh, well, Len, Mach, Dan, Kirby and Meimi from Backloggery, and a ton of other people wanted me to start. THAT GAME IS TALES OF VESPERIA. (No, I haven’t beaten it yet.) Anyways, it’s a great game so far, definitely worth the $54 I dished out for it. I don’t really have any impressions on it so far, since I’ve only gone about 2 hours into it. Besides, I’d just be echoing what Dan and Len already said… WHICH ISN’T A BAD THING, but…. I shouldn’t really repeat what they say since I post rarely ANYWAY. There are actually a couple of games I’ve wanted to cover, mainly Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, and uh… Earthbound, my favorite game. But why haven’t I covered the latter two? Hrmm, I wonder. I really do. ANYWAYS, I want to talk about Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. Why? I AM VERY SLEEPY.
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (PS3/360) [REVIEW]
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix… Hmm, who DOESN’T know about this game? It’s Super Street Fighter II Turbo with revamped visuals, a rebalanced roster, online battles, and, well… Let’s just say that it’s the definitive version of Super Turbo (SSF2T). This is probably the 36th version of Street Fighter II ever to be released to the public. SFIV will be the 37–*gets shot*. Oh, I may be making the wrong impression here. What is Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (which will now be shortened to HD Remix in this blog post)? HD Remix is a fighting game that no fighting fan should ever miss out on. Lots of depth, lots of characters, and a rebalanced roster make this fighting game approachable for newcomers and veterans alike. HD Remix feels like Turbo, WHILE changing up some of the fundamental Turbo aspects. What is HD Remix? WHAT IS HD REMIX? Well, LET ME TELL YOU WHAT HD REMIX IS.
The evolution of Street Fighter 2.
Graphics – ★★★★★★★★☆☆ (8/10) // Great
HD Remix looks good. In fact, it looks very good. The sprites are beautiful, and the backgrounds are detailed. Actually, the backgrounds look like they do in the other Street Fighter 2s. The only difference is that they have been redrawn. The backgrounds still carry the same amount of frames, of which carry the same content. The sprites are the biggest change. The characters don’t just look like a bigger version of themselves. Backbone Entertainment put a lot of work into the sprites, leading to a nearly-anime-like visual experience. Of course, the characters would need more frames for that… Sprites can be changed back to their former, Street Fighter 2 selves, while the backgrounds can’t. That kind of struck me as odd, since the old backgrounds are pretty much identical in terms of the frames and their content, while the new HD Remix mode actually adds some attacks (i.e. Akuma has Shun Goku Satsu), while still allowing for old sprites… or should I say… old style sprites? Aannywaaayysss, the visuals are extremely pleasing to look at. They look impressive in images, but they look even better in motion.
...Ouch!
All the art has been redone on Udon’s part, and man, does the art look pretty? Even the main menu is flashy as hell. Some people may not like the new Udon art, since the characters look a lot buffer than their Street Fighter II Turbo counterparts; but I think it’s for the better. After all, Guile used to be preeetttyy ugly. Thankfully, all the portrait poses remain the same.
THIS LOOKS A LOT BETTER IN MOTION!
HD Remix isn’t as flashy as the newer entries to the fighting genre, such as Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, being an entry in the Street Fighter 2 series. It doesn’t mean that this game is missing in substance, though!
Pros:
+ Very pretty sprites, and very pretty backgrounds.
+ Keeps the old Street Fighter charm while managing to look new and fresh.
+ New animations backed up by solid, old animations.
+ Option for old sprites.
+ Udon art is awesome.
Cons:
- While the backgrounds are visually appealing, they do not have many frames of animation (I think Chun Li’s stage only has about 3 frames?)
- No option for old backgrounds?!
- Not quite as flashy as new fighters.
Sound – ★★★★★★★★★☆ (9/10) // Excellent
The music in HD Remix is great, thanks to some of the members at OverClocked ReMiX. The songs are interesting. The songs are noticeably softer than their Super Turbo counterparts (except for Ken’s theme… Wao.) Luckily, the softness of the music doesn’t detract from the actual game. Sometimes, it actually contributes to the overall atmosphere of the fight. Ryu’s theme is a prime example, with a quiet beginning, slowly becoming more intense with a crescendo, reaching a climax, where the music feels in-tune with the thrill of the fight. Awesome, awesome stuff. Even Vega’s theme is great in-battle, although people may disbelieve it when they hear it outside of battle. Some themes are catchy, like Zangief’s theme. Anyways, nice job, OCR! YOU HAVE CREATED AN AWESOME VIDEO GAME SOUNDTRACK! (Also, thanks for the free download!) For those of you who don’t like the new tunes (for whatever reason), there is the option of listening to the old Street Fighter 2 music! OPTIONS, OPTIONS!
The sound effects are exactly the same as those found in Super Turbo. I can’t tell if they sound crisper or not, but, while the sound effects are a blast from the past, new players may want to hear new, updated voices. I’m pretty sure the clips have a higher sampling rate, though.
Pros:
+ Grunts and fighting sounds sound the same (meaning an awesome Sonic Boom voice!)
+ Music is, for the most part, better.
+ Option for old music available.
Cons:
- …The grunts and fighting sounds sound the same.
Rebel #7 – NICE JOB, SENSEI! December 22, 2008
Posted by Rebel in Rebel's Rants.4 comments
4 weeks have passed pretty quickly, and I still haven’t written my Earthbound review. I’m pretty much still trying to figure out how to present my opinion on the game, so I’ll still need a bit of time to organize my thoughts. Anyways, this is pretty much just an “I’M ALIVE!” post. I haven’t got too much to say, though. Christmas break started, and I got the red ring of death. Not cool Microsoft, not cool. Anyways, I’ll be recieving a box tomorrow or the day after tomorrow to ship my 360 in. (I haven’t even used my damn 360 since summer!) On the other hand, I’ve been playing video games, as usual. Specifically, Chrono Trigger DS, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, Gears of War 2, and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, so I guess I’ll talk about those in seperate blog posts. So let’s start with Chrono Trigger! Because nobody expects me being lazy!
CHRONO TRIGGER [DS]
I’m pretty sure everyone reading this blog has heard of, or has played Chrono Trigger, so I won’t go into too much detail. Basically, Chrono Trigger is the story of Crono and his friends, and their quest to travel through time to save the world. Despite the fairly cliche premise, Chrono Trigger delivers an amazing story at a steady pace, topped off with a whopping 13 endings. I haven’t beaten Chrono Trigger DS, and I don’t remember beating Chrono Trigger on the SNES, so I can’t really comment on the endings. The game plays just like how you’d expect an RPG to play. There are no random encounters; battles are triggered by the *touch to battle* kind of system. There are no battles on the world map because of this, meaning battles only occur in “dungeon” maps. Actual battles are your standard Final Fantasy-like flair. You have an ATB bar, you can attack, you can use techs, you can use items, and you can run. However, two things set this game apart. One thing is the top screen (assuming you’re playing in DS mode). The top screen is basically your battle screen. On that screen, you will see your party members attack. What’s important about this top screen is that there are attacks that damage a certain portion of the screen. For example, in the beginning of the game, Crono learns an attack called “Cyclone”. Cyclone is an attack that hits all the enemies around a certain enemy in a circle. If an enemy is out of range, you won’t be able to hit them. This adds another layer of strategy (until you get Dark Matter and Luminaire, that is…) because some enemies move a lot, and you want to hit them at the right time. There’s Active and Wait timing options for the ATB, but it’s the same as all the other Active and Wait options in every other game, so I won’t develop on that. On active, you’ll require a bit of timing with your skills, since enemies will be moving while you use your techs. Interesting. Another thing that’s worth mentioning is the dual/triple techs system. Each combination of party members presents you with different dual/triple techs. Basically, dual/triple techs are techs where you combine the techs of different party members? Make sense? Think of it this way; Marle has Ice spells, and Lucca has Fire spells. Combine the two of them together, and what do you get?
Crono, Lucca, and Marle prepare for a fight.
A fire/ice spell called “Antipode Bomb”. Antipode Bomb is a dual-tech. It’s knid of hard for me to describe, but you get the point, right? The music remains the same. Yasunori Mitsuda did a great job of it. I’m particularly fond of this specific tune; not sure why, but it’s my favorite song in the entire soundtrack. *shrugs* The new translation… I can’t really comment on that. I don’t remember the old translation well enough, since I didn’t really appreciate Chrono Trigger back in the day. I just noticed that Frog didn’t speak in his “olde english” anymore, which is good, since everyone else in his era spoke in plain, SIMPLE english. But hey, he’s still just as formal, so it doesn’t really detract from his personality. Anyways, as far as I’ve played, if you’re a fan of JRPGs, definitely get Chrono Trigger DS. Unless you’ve beaten the original 12321 times. If you have, just get it if you want to, I guess. The visuals are exactly the same, the soundtrack is exactly the same, and the gameplay is practically the same (although there are two new dungeons, an extras menu, and an arena. not sure if it justifies a purchase over the SNES version…) But if you haven’t played the original Chrono Trigger, you’re in for a treat! It’s got interesting characters and a touching plot riddled with twists and turns. Either way, it seems like a pretty short game, and 13 endings add to replayability of the game. Fun Toriyama art is always a plus too!
Anyways, I thought I’d write a lot on Chrono Trigger, and I did. Hopefully, I’ll be able to update some more over the winter break. I’m gonna go do something else, but have fun, and enjoy yourselves over the holidays, people! I know I will! 
