Video Game Review #110: Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus

PlayStation 2

I will come straight out and admit that for this review I played the HD version of Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racconus for the PS3. However, I am still going to count this as a PS2 game because most of my experiences with both this game and its sequels came on the PS2 rather than the PS3. Sure this HD version has fancier, sharper graphics, but everything else is exactly the same. It is still a PS2 game in my mind, and hence that shall be what I review it as. So there! I hope that's okay with you, pal!!

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Now that we've got that out of the way, let's begin.

If you are a fan of 3D platforming games, you probably had a great time back in the PlayStation 2 era. There was certainly a large selection of such games to choose from. Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Psychonauts, Spyro, Rayman, the list went on and on. Most of these games spawned a large number of sequels or were themselves sequels as well. For 3D platform fanatics, it was a great time to be alive.

The Sly Cooper series was always one that stood out to me. My at-the-time girlfriend and I found the original Sly title at a Gamestop. It was new and expensive but we had seen the previews on G4 and thought that it looked super cool. We had some money to burn so we decided to give it a try. Turns out we both really liked the game. She even liked it a little bit more than I did. As a result, we ended up over the years getting all three Sly titles that came out for the PS2.

While the Sly sequels are more advanced than the original in terms of content, story line, and game play, I still have always preferred the first entry in the series. I find its simplicity charming. Plus, you aren't constantly getting bogged down with copious amounts of boring dialogue scenes in the original game. But I get ahead of myself. That is a criticism I have for the later games in the series, so I will wait until I play and review them to start ranting.

The game's main story line is nice and simple. Sly Cooper is a master thief descended from a long line of master thieves. For his birthday he is given access to the Thievius Raccoonus, a book written by his ancestors that contains all anyone needs to know about the thieving trade. Hints, tricks, special attack moves, thieving tactics. But before he can lay his hands on the book, he discovers that it has been stolen by the "Fiendish Five". This is a group of rival thieves that is jealous of Sly's success. They split the book into five equal parts before splitting up and going their separate ways. Playing as Sly, it is now up to you to track down the Fiendish Five and reclaim the Thievius Racoonus as your own.

Sly's graphics have always been a strong point even from its very first entry. This game, in addition to its eventual sequels, takes place in a fully 3D cell shaded world. Everything looks like a hand drawn cartoon rather than your typical video game graphic polygons. If you have ever played anything like The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker or Jet Set Radio, you know exactly what I am talking about with this looking like a cartoon. This HD version looks extremely sharp and crisp for the PS3 on my big TV. I am sure it was a little more muddied and not-as-nice looking on the PS2 when it first came out, but if so that would be expected.

The presentation of the game is very theatrical. Right from the get-go you feel like this is an interactive movie that you have been placed directly into. You take control of Sly Cooper in the middle of a safe robbing heist. Sly is supported remotely by his fellow thieves and partners in crime - Bentley and Murray. These two will help you by giving you tips and advice as you advance in the game. While you never directly control either character (although you get that chance in later entries to the series) they are involved in several mini games which help to break up the platforming monotony.

A few examples of these mini games involve racing levels, levels where you shoot enemies from a sniper scope, and an Asteroids-style computer hacking game. When you are not playing mini games, you are in control of Sly Cooper. Sly jumps, runs, sneaks, attacks, and grabs onto things. As you play the game you have the option of opening up safes which contain even more moves and actions for your character.

Combat is pretty straightforward. Sly swings his staff and does damage to his enemies. Earlier in the game most enemies just take one hit to kill. The deeper into the game you get, the more difficult they become. There is a stealth element to the game, as some enemies won't see your character if you keep out of their line of sight. This allows you to sneak up close to them, jump out, and eliminate them without letting them attack you or make a racket that acts as a signal that calls other enemies over to investigate. 

This game can be a bit challenging in spots as Sly can't take a whole lot of damage. Normally it only takes one hit to kill our beloved raccoon, but health upgrades can be found. These upgrades take the form of a silver horseshoe. Collect the horseshoe and you can be hit an extra ONE time in battle before dying. I know just one extra hit doesn't sound like a lot, but in this game it makes a big difference.

The format of the game plays out like other games we have seen before. There are five main stages in the game, each one housing a different piece of the Thievius Raccoonus. Each main stage acts as a central hub. It is up to you to beat all the levels located within the stage. Each level you complete gives you a key which you must use to unlock an area in the stage hub that allows you to move closer to the stage's boss character. Beat the stage boss and you clear the area and move on to the next one.

Clear all five stages and regain all the pieces to your missing book and you move on to the game's final area. I won't spoil anything but it shouldn't be a surprise to you at all if I told you there was a bigger and badder boss lurking in the Fiendish Five's shadows. 

This is a pretty fun game, I must admit. I like the level format of this game in comparison to later entries in the Sly series. There is a lot of jumping, fighting, evading enemies, and collecting items. This feels like a true and pure platform game at heart whereas later games in the series focus more on completing spy missions and watching story line sequences. This game is faster and it is more to the point. It's more Mario 64 while its sequels are more Beyond Good and Evil. 

My main complaint deals with the whole jumping and latching on to pipes and ledges system that is so important in this game. Most of the time I am okay, but every once in a while there will be some kind of collision problem and I fall to my death, even though I knew I should have nailed the jump and I was holding the circle button. It wasn't a huge problem, but it did happen from time to time. Also, the game is extremely short and can probably be beaten in one sitting if you are very dedicated. I beat it in about two or three, but my sittings were relatively short. Its fun while it lasts, but it doesn't last long.

So all in all I find this to be a good, entertaining game. It is creative, its fun. It looks good. It has a nice cast of characters. There are lots of mini games and diversions along the way that break up the platforming monotony. I don't think it is a fabulous game though by any stretch of the imagination. Once I beat the game there was really nothing that appealed to me about coming back. Sure I could try to find all the hidden bottles in the game, but there is really no point to that. I had a fun time while I was actually playing the game, but now that I am done with it I am done with it. 

Even the nostalgia factor of playing this game with my ex-girlfriend when it first came out isn't enough to make me give this game much more than a slightly above average score. Truth be told I am more of a Ratchet and Clank person. But even so, I can't deny that this is a fun game. Even if it is extremely short and doesn't keep you coming back for more. I like it. It's not my favorite 3D platformer ever, but I like it.

Overall:

B-

Video Game Review #109: The Incredible Crash Dummies

The Incredible Crash Dummies

Sega Genesis

One of the great things about reviewing games is that every once in a while someone takes notice and asks if I want to borrow one of their games to play and review. Which is exactly what happened with the Incredible Crash Dummies. I had never played this game as a kid. Heck, I didn't even know the Crash Dummies had a game. But a friend of mine at work told me that he had this game for the Genesis. While he still had some of his old games, he didn't have his Genesis console anymore. I gladly took it off his hands, temporarily at least, so that I could play it and review it for my blog.

I liked the Crash Dummies as a kid. I had some one of the action figures (I remember hitting a button on their chests to make their heads pop off). I had the car. I had the "Crash Center" which was like a control room with a wall that you could drive the car into. I remember the commercials. I vaguely remember a cartoon. I was not as big into the Crash Dummies as I was, say, the Ninja Turtles. In fact it wasn't even close. But I did find them amusing and I did like their toys. I have no idea what happened to those toys. A solid twenty plus years has passed since I last laid my eyes on them. Hopefully they went to someone who played with them and loved them as much as I did. Although I had really enjoyed all those toys, the Crash Dummies video game somehow escaped my attention.

Fast forward to the year 2017. My friend at work (his name is Jon, in case you are wondering) tells me about this Crash Dummies game. I immediately say yup, I want to borrow it. He brings it to me, I take it home. I try playing it a couple days later only to find that the game won't load. I just get a black screen when I attempt to turn the game on. I tried the ole Nintendo "blow in the cartridge" trick. Eventually I got the game to work, but it ended up freezing just a few minutes in. I tried it again with the same result. I threw another Genesis game in to see if it was the console that was malfunctioning or if it was the Crash Dummies cartridge itself. This game, however, (Batman Forever) worked fine. I played, beat, and reviewed Batman Forever. On a limb, I threw Crash Dummies back in to check one last time if it would work. And it did! I don't know what was happening and why it hadn't worked before, but now everything was A-OK.

As much as I didn't want to review two Genesis games in such close proximity to one another, I knew that it would only be polite if I played and reviewed Crash Dummies quickly so I could get it back to Jon. Plus, who knew if it was going to stop working again? Might as well play it while it was functioning properly. I finished up Gears of War, which I had started earlier in the week, and posted my review for that game. Now I could devote my full attention to Crash Dummies.

The story for the game is told through little subtitled scenes in between stages. In these scenes there is an evil robot out there that was built by the same old dude who created the Crash Dummies. This old dude is worried that the robot will find out just how powerful he is and clone himself and the technology used to build him to take over the world. Just when you are about to go take the robot out yourself, the old dude is kidnapped by the same evil robot he had just been talking about. Well, now you really have incentive to go wipe this thing out.

Like most titles in the Genesis library, this is a 2D side scrolling game. Nothing too fancy here. You start at the beginning of the level and must progress to the stage's end within the allotted time limit. In true Crash Dummies fashion, you lose limbs when you take damage. You start out as a full dummy, but each hit you take costs you one limb. The first two hits take out your legs. The next two take out your arms. When you are just a head on a torso, that means you are down to your last hit. Take any more damage and you die. The game starts you with five lives to work with. You can collect extra lives as you progress through the game, but there are no continues. Lose all your lives, and it is game over.

You can hurt your enemies by throwing wrenches at them. Most enemies just take one wrench, but the deeper into the game you go, the more difficult the enemies become. You can also hurt enemies by simply jumping on top of them. Some enemies will hurt you back in return, but I am glad that wrenches aren't your only means of defeating enemies. Because I found myself running out of ammo quite often. Power ups in the game are plentiful, however. Even though you burn through the wrenches pretty quickly, at least there is ammo all over the place. You take a lot of damage in this game, but at the same time it does offer you a lot of health items in return. You can also collect little yellow Crash Dummy circles which give you points.

Every once in a while the game will throw a bonus stage at you. In these stages, you are crash-testing a vehicle that you must drive into the wall at high speed. Hindering your progress are little barricades that you must avoid or they will slowly you down immensely. I never made it through a bonus stage flawlessly, so I don't know what the reward for it is. All I earned were points, which seemed useless to me because I don't believe the game ever gives out extra lives when you hit point milestones. So what is the purpose of having points to begin with? Eventually I just stopped trying with these stages. I'd put the controller down while I went to get a cup of coffee or something.

Graphically, the game looks really good. Especially for a Genesis title. The colors are bright, the characters are big and cartoony. The cut scenes with their horrible safety jokes are a little hokey looking, but I can't complain at all about the actual game's graphics. This is one of the better looking Genesis titles out there. I am going to guess that it must have come out towards the end of the system's life span. The music and sound effects, while not horrible, are nothing memorable either. I just finished the game a few hours ago and already I can't remember a single track from the game.

I thought Crash Dummies would be a breeze but it was actually a bit of a challenge. You take a lot of damage as you play the game. If you aren't cautious, you are going to be finding yourself getting hit and losing body parts left and right. Couple this with the fact that you have to start back at the beginning of the game every time you use up all your lives. It took me a LOT of trial and error to finally make it to the end and beat this game.

I appreciated the game's challenge as it kept me playing and coming back for more. The game isn't very long, so it needed to be difficult. If I would have played the game and beat it in one sitting, there would not have been any reason to come back. I would have given it a shit score for my review and moved on. But instead the game forced me to spend several hours with it. I became really good at the game the more I played, breezing through all the stages I thought were so difficult the first few times around. But then I'd make it to the challenging later levels, die, and have to start over again.

Eventually I finished the game. I felt a feeling of great accomplishment as it had taken me many many attempts to beat the game. It was no easy feat. What I had originally thought would be some cheap, easy, poorly made attempt to cash in on a hot 90's property actually turned out to be a pretty decent game. I know this is probably sacrilege to some, but I enjoyed it just as much as Aladdin, which gets rave reviews from pretty much everyone who played it. I didn't grow up with Aladdin as a kid. In fact, I didn't even play it until the age of 35, just like with the Incredible Crash Dummies. So I don't hold the same sentimental feelings for it that other people do. I had just as much fun with that game as I did with Crash Dummies. Sue me.

I am not naive enough to believe that this game is an all time classic, though. There is a reason I had never heard of the game until I was 35 years old, despite the fact that I was a huge Genesis freak as a kid. I am sure other people don't like this game. It has its flaws, true. But I had fun. I will probably give it back to my friend and never play it again, but I had a decent time.

Overall:

B-

If you liked this review, you might want to check out my reviews for:

Aladdin

Greendog: The Beached Surfer Dude!

Taz-Mania

Vectorman

Beethoven: The Ultimate Canine Caper

Video Game Review #108: Gears of War

Gears of War

Xbox 360

This is my first review of an Xbox 360 game.

I admit, I feel like I have crossed over to the dark side. I have been a loyal PlayStation user all the way back to the good ole days of the PS one. I have always ignored the Xbox systems, dismissing them as inferior product. I have only ever played a handful of original Xbox games. I never checked out the 360. Still, over the years I'd heard many good things about the Gears of War series. I always told myself that some day I would get a 360 for cheap after it became obsolete and then check these games out. In 2017 this opportunity finally opened up for me. I got a 360 plus all three Gears of War games for under two hundred dollars. This was a deal that could not be beat. It didn't keep me from feeling like a traitor, however. Like I was cheating on my significant other the PlayStation with another video game system.

I'd get over it, though.

I really wanted to like Gears of War, and my expectations were that the game would blow me away. I have to admit that the game did not leave a great first impression. I am not sure what I was expecting, but this wasn't it. I couldn't figure out what was going on with the game's story. There was a brief opening scene, but nothing that really explained what was presently going on with your characters. Also, I couldn't tell any of these characters apart. Even after beating the game, I honestly couldn't tell you who was who. They all seem like a bunch of generic meatheads with no real distinguishing traits. I found it hard to get into the game for this reason. They are all interchangeable, complete with similar looks, similar voices, and similar gruff personalities. Even though some end up dying along your journey, I found myself not caring because nothing really set anyone else apart from the pack. Certainly nothing impacted me enough to elicit any kind of emotional response from me.

I also felt as if the action moved a little too quickly to the point where you become desensitized to it. Right off the bat you are running and gunning for your life, which is cool I guess. But the game's over the top action sequences combined with its fast moving combat feels a little Michael Bay-esque to me. Explosions everywhere. People yelling and running and shooting. Mayhem, but really crisp and sharp looking mayhem. Also, the action never seems to stop. The whole game feels as if you are jumping right from one high-tension action zone to another.

One of my initial thoughts was that the game's combat system seemed very similar to some other games I have played. You draw your weapon with the left trigger, firing it with the right trigger. You move with the left analog stick, aim with the other. The over the shoulder perspective, combined with the game's sighting system when you draw your gun seemed very Resident Evil 4-like for me. The combat itself reminded me highly of the Uncharted series. The D-pad based weapon system is a dead-ringer for Uncharted's. You run, roll, and take cover like Uncharted. You can throw grenades like Uncharted. You take damage and recover from the damage (simply with time) just like Uncharted. Also like Uncharted: you collect lost dog tags rather than treasures pieces. Different items, but the way they work is exactly the same. The whole thing was too similar.

I had to Google when these two games first came out. Gears of War came out in late 2006, nearly a full year before the first Uncharted game hit the shelves. So it was Uncharted that ripped off Gears of War. I still don't know how I feel about this. I always thought Uncharted was one of a kind, and then I find out it ripped off soooo many things from a different game on a rival competitor's system. Hmmm....

Eventually I settled in and acclimated myself to the game's Michael Bay-like fast paced over the top styling and I started to have fun. I still didn't care much about the characters. The story line still didn't seem like much else other than simply running and gunning from point A to point B. But at least the combat was fun. I enjoyed the rush of battle. I liked experimenting with different techniques. Running in and blasting away versus taking cover and being cautious. I experimented with different weapons. I was never afraid to throw grenades.

For whatever reason, killing your enemies is extremely satisfying in this game. It is the best thing about the game to be honest with you. Whether your enemies drop to the ground, lose their heads, or simply explode into a mist of gore it is always a very satisfying feeling when you take one out. And the more clever of a way you find to do it, the better.

The game did challenge me on occasion, even with me playing on casual difficulty. You learn through a lot of trial and error. I died quite a few times, and it always made me come back smarter and angrier the next time. I took it as a personal challenge when I died, and I wouldn't want to stop playing until I could pass the area. It happened on more than one occasion as I played where I would survive a battle and tell myself I would stop playing at the next save point. Then something would happen and I'd tell myself "okay one more battle." And then that battle would turn into another, then another, then another... The game is not super hard by any means, but it is a challenge. That challenge definitely fueled me to keep on playing. Because the game's mediocre story line and characters certainly were not living up to their end of the bargain.

Graphically, the game looks fantastic. I admit that I live in the stone age and I don't have a PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or in fact any next generation system that has come out in the post PS3/360 era. So to me this game looks amazing. Great enemy designs, great backgrounds, great cinematics, great level layouts, great detail in the game's environment. Really. The amount of detail is truly astonishing. Areas look lived in and are filled with small personal touches. The closest thing I could compare it to is the Last of Us, which is remarkable when you consider that this game came out in 2006. It is eleven freaking years old. Jiminy Cricket. This really makes me feel old that I am playing a game that came out eleven years ago and to me it feels like it could have been a brand new game released today.

At first I had thought the game was going to be just a mindless shooter, but it turned out to be a little bit more than that. And by little bit I mean a little little bit. There are vehicle stages where you control the vehicle's main gun while a non playable character drives. But really all you are doing is still aiming and shooting and killing your enemies like you've been doing all along. There are breaks in the action from time to time where your characters simply walk and converse. Other areas make you use your head. In one stage, there are flying enemy swarms that hate the light, and will not attack you as long as you are in the light. So you have to keep out of the dark and shoot things to cause explosions which create light to allow you to move on. So not everything is one giant battle. There are lulls. But it doesn't really feel like there is much if any diversity to Gears of War's game play.

The game is very short. It took me 3 or 4 sessions to complete the campaign. Some sessions were an hour, some were longer. I don't know if the game gave me a tally of hours played at the end, but I would imagine it is somewhere in the ten hour range. It can probably be beaten even quicker too if you are not taking the time to explore every square inch of the game like I did. I still missed a crap ton of hidden dog tags, so I don't know how that's possible.

I feel as if this is a very well made game. There is no denying that it is fun to play. It got off to a slow start with me, but by the end it had won me over. Not to say it doesn't have its negatives. I still think the characters and the story line are rubbish. I think the overall story line of the game's universe has potential, but what we saw in the first game was very basic and forgettable. I have faith that it will get better in the sequels. Also, this is a game that is famous for its multiplayer. I have only played the single player campaign. So I don't have the full experience that someone who has been playing the game online from day one would have. I don't know if the servers are still up, but even if they are I don't think I'd want to play with anyone online.

While a good story line is important to me, it is not essential. If it is a fun game I can overlook a bad story line. And this is a fun game. It is not the greatest game I have ever played, but it is challenging and entertaining. It's a nice, fun game. That is really all I can say about it. Great graphics, but I think a great story line would have made it more memorable. That's the problem I am running into here. The game is nothing memorable. It is a short, amusing experience. But that's it. I expected more. Perhaps my expectations were too high. I do plan to someday play this game again and give it another shot. We'll see if my opinion changes. But for now, it gets a:

Overall:

C+

If you liked this review, feel free to check out:

Resident Evil 4

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Smash TV

Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus

Video Game Review #107: Batman Forever

Batman Forever

Sega Genesis

Ahhh, Batman Forever. I can watch that movie nowadays and enjoy it for what it is worth. Hokey, silly, over the top. It's a relatively good time. But I have to admit that I really hated the movie when it first came out. I had been nuts about the first two Batman movies with Michael Keaton. I was an obsessive watcher of Batman: The Animated Series. I liked that dark, somber version of Batman. This film was not what I was expecting. It was the complete opposite. It had such a different tone than what I am familiar with when I think of the caped crusader. I couldn't take it seriously. I wanted to, but I just couldn't. I thought it was so stupid.

Which is funny because I felt the exact same way about its video game counterpart. As usual, I fell hook, line, and sinker for the whole blockbuster movie turned into a video game trap. I bought a lot of them when I was a kid. According to popular opinion most of these movie to video game adaptations sucked. But I never complained. I always had a good time with them. Until I got Batman Forever.

I already knew that the movie was no good, but I still got the game anyway. What can I say, I was invested in the whole Batman Forever thing back then. I wanted it to like it SO MUCH. I hadn't read any reviews, but the game's previews had at least looked pretty good. They couldn't possibly mess up both the movie and the game version of Batman Forever, right? Wrong.

I came in open minded, but within the first few minutes of playing the game I began to have my doubts. The graphics looked grainy and not as realistic as the pictures had made them out to be. The controls were a bit stiff and they seemed like they had been stolen directly from a Mortal Kombat game. Plus, I was already lost. I must have spent a full day or two stuck on one of the very first screens of the game. I hit a dead end with nowhere to go. I wandered around, but found nothing that could help me. There was something that resembled a giant hole in the floor so I thought maybe I could use it to drop to another level and make progress from there. But nothing happened when I walked over it. Hitting down did nothing. I went back to the beginning of the level and explored. Combed every inch of the surface of the game's first few screens. Nothing. Nowhere to go. I was stuck as stuck could be. It even started to cross my mind that maybe my copy of the game was broken.

Eventually I figured it out. It just HAD to have something to do with the giant hole in the floor. I stood over it and mashed every single button combination I could think of. Eventually, Batman ducked down and jumped into the hole. I had moved on to another floor of the building. Just like that I was unstuck. After more than a full day of being completely frustrated I had finally figured it out. But I didn't even know what button combination I had hit. After some experimenting, I discovered that you had to hold the low kick button and then hit down to jump down to a different level. Something that was never explained and was most definitely NOT in the game's instruction manual. How were people supposed to figure that out?

As irritated as I was, at least I could now begin to actually play the game. I can't say I liked the game, but I did play it a lot. I knew I was playing a bad game but at the same time I didn't have a lot of other options for things to play. I had spent precious money on the game, dang right I was going to play it. I beat it within the week. I replayed it often and uncovered most of the game's secrets. I had struggled with the game at first, but by the end I was a pro. As normal with all those old Genesis games I used to play, eventually Batman Forever was lost to time. I am pretty sure I traded it in because I knew its use for me had run out. I tolerated the game and played it out of necessity but I hadn't really enjoyed it that much. I'd never want to play it again, right?

For the most part, yeah. In the ensuing twenty years, Batman Forever has barely crossed my mind. I would have been okay with not playing it again. But then a copy of the game found its way into my hands. I have mentioned a few times on this blog that my cousin Ryan has loaned me a box of his old Sega Genesis games. I've been playing through and reviewing a ton of these games lately. Batman Forever is, you guessed it, another game from that box.

When I saw the game in the there, I knew that it was going to be one that I would replay soon. I had spent a decent amount of time with it in my teenage years. No it wasn't very good, but I never thought of it as a truly terrible game either. If you have been following this blog closely at all, it is very obvious that nostalgia goes a long way with me. I was convinced that upon replay I would like it and think it was great. But that turns out to not be the case.

As much as I wanted to like the game, it is just too flawed for me. Perhaps I should explain how it works before I move on any further. Action takes place from a 2D side scrolling perspective. Controlling either Batman or Robin (or both if you are playing cooperative two player) you make it through each stage beating up your enemies, collecting items, and discovering secret areas. The controls are very touchy as it feels they have been lifted directly from a Mortal Kombat game. There is no jump button, you have to press up and the direction you want to jump in. You have high kicks and low kicks, high punches and low ones. Crouch and punch together and you uppercut. Duck and kick and you do a leg sweep. Down, right, then punch throws a projectile. Other Mortal Kombat like combinations do other special moves. I don't know if this is laziness on behalf of the game makers or what. Literally everything is lifted from Mortal Kombat. Which I would be okay with but it makes for some really awkward situations when doing things like jumping or fighting multiple enemies at the same time.

Levels don't necessarily follow the traditional "left side to right side" progression that is normally found in games of this nature. The levels are big and can be fully explored. You can move up and down between floors. Open doors and enter rooms. Find secret areas off the edge of the screen. Batman has a grappling hook he can use to reach high ledges and swing over chasms. Different levels have different objectives. In the bank heist level you have to save the guards who are being held hostage. In the circus level you have to ascend the tent and disable the bomb at the top, while racing against the five minute timer. Many levels have many different branches or routes you can take. The warehouse level and the subway tunnels stand out in my mind. Secret areas are hidden everywhere. I can't fault the game's level design. It is pretty decent.

I will gripe that there is no Batmobile stage, however. There is a big Batmobile action scene in the movie so you would think that somehow it would have been incorporated into the game. But noooooo!

Graphically the stages are decent for 16 bit, but nothing special. The game tried to be different with its character design and the results are a mixed bag. I think they tried to go with digitized graphics for the characters to make them look more realistic. Some of the characters look decent. For some reason I really like how Robin looks and I usually pick him for this reason. But you can't deny that the characters look a little messy and pixelated. The animation is.... decent. But I guess overall they would have been better off just going with more traditional animated character sprites. It seems to have severely limited enemy design as you fight seemingly the same five or six character types over and over and over and over again. At least they all have interesting names.

The game can be challenging if you are not good at fighting. Plus some of the levels don't make it clear where you are supposed to go next. You can get stuck or lost from time to time. After playing long enough the game becomes extremely repetitive. You fight the same looking characters using the same tactics again and again. On my first attempt yesterday I made it all the way to the end boss before dying. The game had already taken its toll on me. Imagine my dismay that I had to play the whole thing over again. Luckily I flew through my second attempt with flying colors.

Even still, I was OVER IT by the end. The game is just far too repetitive. I remember after beating the game letting out a sigh of relief because I would never have to play through this again.

So does that mean I hated that game and it should get a failing score? No, not at all. As always, nostalgia plays a factor. I can look at the graphics and appreciate them. Even though the characters look messy by today's standards I probably thought they were amazing as a kid. There are some good things about the actual game itself. I enjoyed the challenge. I enjoyed seeing my fighting get markedly better the more I played. I liked exploring the stages and finding all the secret items. There is just something super fulfilling about finding hidden secrets in this game for some reason.

I can still of course recognize the game's flaws. The controls, the fighting style, the game's piss-poor soundtrack and super fuzzy voice overs. It is extremely repetitive and there are points in the game where it becomes flat out not fun anymore.

I guess the main question boils down to this: Is it a good game? I would have to say the answer is no. But at the same time, can I say it is a bad game? I don't know if I can say it is. It is most definitely a flawed game, but that doesn't mean there are not good things about it.

I know that most reviews out there give this game extremely poor marks. I don't think it's that bad. There are certainly far worse games out there. But I can see why they would not like Batman Forever. I however, am not going to add to the collective dogpile of this game. I could just say it is trash and give it an F to concede to popular opinion, but I will not do that. While it is certainly a below average title, Batman Forever is far from failing.

Overall:

D+

Video Game Review #106: Resident Evil 2

Resident Evil 2

PlayStation

This game is associated with SO many memories for me. Back in the late 90s I was a huge fan of the original Resident Evil game. In fact, it is one of the main reasons I even purchased a PlayStation to begin with. When I heard they were making a sequel, I was giddy with excitement.

I followed the game's production closely. I remember that this was back in the days of dial up internet. When I would go to look at screenshots from the game, each one would take about 2 or 3 minutes to load. That seems comical by today's standards, but back then it was well worth the wait. The original version of the game was vastly differently from the finished product that we know today. The screenshot below is an example.

Apparently the game's creators were unhappy with the way the game was going and decided to scrap it and start over again, despite the game being about 80% complete. I remember being really sad about this as I thought the game looked cool. Plus, now it would take even longer for me to get my hands on the game if they were going to be starting over again.

The closer the game got to hitting the shelves, the more excited I became. I remember that the Blockbuster video by my school had a playable demo of the game's opening sequence on display. I would always go there after school and play it over and over again. When I finally got my hands on a copy of Resident Evil: Director's Cut, I was able to play the demo at home as there was a copy included with the game. When the game itself finally released, I went out and bought it immediately. I came home, popped it in, and never looked back.

Can you believe that my initial reaction to the game was disappointment? I liked the game, but to me it didn't hold true to the spirit of the original. There was too much action. It wasn't scary enough. The puzzles were too easy. It was too linear. You had too much ammo lying around. I never really felt like I was on edge or constantly in danger like I did when playing the first game. I think I beat the game in a day or two, whereas the original game took me weeks to complete.

When I finished the game, I went over to the other disc and played with Leon. But I made the mistake of starting a new game rather than loading up Scenario B. I will get to Scenario B later. But again the game proved to be no challenge to me and I finished it in a day or two. I couldn't help but feel disappointed that I had just sunk sixty dollars into a game that I could have easily just rented and gotten the same experience from.

Fun Dan fact. On my second play through of the game I was in the sewers with Leon after he had just gotten shot. My mom came into my room and told me to save my game because she and her boyfriend at the time (Dean) were going out to the movies and wanted to take me along. I grumbled and groaned because the movie was Titanic, which I thought was a chick flick and I had no interest in seeing. Plus it was interrupting my Resident Evil 2 time. But I did end up coming along, and it turned out I really liked the movie a lot. To this day it still stands as one of my all time favorites. Titanic. Yup. Hate all you want, but I love it. Aaaaaaanyway...

After playing through the game a couple times I finally wizened up and loaded Scenario B. Say you beat the game with Claire and save at the end of the credits. This opens up Leon Scenario B. Same as when you beat the game with Leon and save, it opens up Claire Scenario B. I think I just assumed that all it was was a "Hard Mode" so I had ignored it. Turns out, holy shit, I was in for a surprise.

Scenario B is almost like a completely new game. It tells the story of what is happening with the other character at the same time you were playing with your original character. You progress through a lot of familiar ground, but you can also access new areas that the other character could not. Plus, the story line is very different. In a way it is like Resident Evil 2 is four games in one: Claire Scenarios A and B, and Leon Scenarios A and B.

In Scenario B you are stalked by a mysterious character named Mr X, who is dropped by Umbrella via helicopter into the police station. This character can not be killed. He can only be stunned. He has this bad habit of popping up when you least expect him to. His arrival is always marked by this really loud, frightening music. I remember my first encounter with Mr X was late at night when I was home alone, playing in the dark. He scared the living shit out of me. Not only the first time I encountered him, but every subsequent time after that. I thought I had known the game so well from my other play throughs. Now it turned out I knew nothing.

That feeling of gut wrenching dread that the first Resident Evil had filled me with came back. Finally! I was constantly on edge as I played through Scenario B. This sounds silly, but I was actually terrified to even turn the game on knowing that Mr X could show up anytime, anywhere. Eventually I powered through it however. It truly is a completely different experience than playing the original Scenario A. Even the ending is different.

Suffice it to say, my original feeling of disappointment over the game went away and I was able to recognize Resident Evil 2 as the deep, complex classic that it truly was. But after twenty years, does the game still hold up?

The answer is yes. There are things that are outdated about the game. Everyone likes to bitch and moan about the "tank" controls. Rather than just move your character where you want them to go, you have to turn them in the proper direction and hit up to move them forward. Down makes them slowly step backwards. This is fine, but in the heat of battle it can be a little inconvenient. It never bothered me much though.

Graphically, of course the game is not going to look like much by today's standards. The game is over twenty years old. But it doesn't look terrible. The characters are a little pixelated but I think for the most part they look fine. I like how there is variety in the enemies. You don't fight the same zombies over and over again. There are even female zombies this time around. The pre-rendered 2D backgrounds look nice and are filled with all kinds of little details. But again, they ARE pre-rendered 2D backgrounds. Where the game shines, however, is in building atmosphere.

Whereas in the first Resident Evil the game's shoddy voice acting kind of killed the scary atmosphere for some people, it is not nearly as bad this time around. It is not perfect, but it is a huge improvement. The game's music and its sound effects really add to things too. When you are underground your footsteps echo. If you walk over broken glass or a sewer grate, the sound of your footsteps changes. You can hear zombies moaning and enemies shuffling off-screen. The game's eerie music sets the tone perfectly. Atmospherically, the game is very well done.

If I had to make one complaint, it would be this:

It bugs me every time.

The main thing I came away with is that Resident Evil 2 is fun to play. I can pick it up and immediately lose myself in the game like I was a teenager back in 1998 all over again. The game does so much right. When I look back I can't believe that I had initially been let down when I first bought this game. But my mind changed the more I played the game, and my opinion has not changed since then. The game is fantastic.

I gave the original game an A+. I don't like to give out A+ scores very often. It seems like I have been giving them out way too much though. True, I have been playing a lot of classics and nostalgia carries a lot of weight for me. It looks like nostalgia is going to win again. I just can't give this game anything less than a perfect score. It is fucking great, and it means a lot to me. That's all I have to say about that.

Overall:

A+

If you liked this review, please check out the following game reviews:

Resident Evil (PlayStation)

Resident Evil (GameCube)

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

Resident Evil 4

Silent Hill

Video Game Review #105: Beethoven: The Ultimate Canine Caper

Beethoven: The Ultimate Canine Caper

Super Nintendo

Let me just start by saying that I am not even sure what I should be calling this game. On the top of the Super Nintendo cartridge the game is listed as simply Beethoven. On the front of the cartridge it says Beethoven: The Ultimate Canine Caper. I don't have the game's box, but according to the interwebs the box reflects the title that is on the front of the cartridge. But when you actually load the game up it says it is called Beethoven's 2nd. I'm going to go out on a limb and take a guess that there was a little bit of a mix-up somewhere along the line during this game's production.

Beethoven, Beethoven: The Ultimate Canine Caper, Beethoven's 2nd... whatever its called, I just played it and finished it. Sunday, September 3rd, 2017: a day that will live on in history forever. Early in the day I finished Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and posted my review on the game. Now I have played and beaten the Beethoven game for the Super NES. Who would have thought I would complete and review two all time classic games like this on the same day? What are the odds?

I kid, I kid. This game is no all time classic. I picked it up from the bargain bin at a used video game store for just a couple dollars. I never even knew there was a Beethoven game for the Super Nintendo. I decided to go out on a limb and give the game a shot. It was only a few bucks. If it sucked, then oh well. No big loss. I looked up a few reviews on the game before popping it in and they were all negative. My expectations were not very high. However, I did not hate it as much as I thought I would. Far from it, in fact. I actually had a pretty enjoyable time playing this game. But let's be truthful. This is not a very memorable or even well made game.

I haven't seen any Beethoven movies past the first one. What have I been living under a rock or something? These movies are cinematic masterpieces. I need to go out and watch them all now!! Yeah yeah, I am kidding again. Aren't I funny? But I am going to just assume based on the game's title screen that it is based on the 2nd film in the series. Having not seen the movie, my guess based on the content of the game is that Beethoven and Mrs. Beethoven have lost their puppies in the big city and they must go on a quest to find them.

The game doesn't give you any kind of hint as to what you are supposed to do. There is no menu at the beginning of the game. No settings. All you know is that the puppies are missing and you have to find them. When you start a new game you are immediately thrown into the fray. I had to play with the controls to find out how the game worked. Aside from the usual motions like moving left to right, ducking, and jumping, the game has some interesting mechanics.

Your main mode of attack is barking at your enemies. The bark sends out a sound wave that acts as a projectile weapon that hurts your enemies. Just tapping the attack button sends out a short wave of sound that barely travels half-screen. If you hold the button down and then release it, the wave launches all the way to the edge of the screen, sometimes beyond. Most enemies take several blasts to kill. They freeze and start flashing when they are first hit, and then start moving again after a second or two. You have to time your barks perfectly or the enemies can recover and damage you between attacks. It is amusing to me that your main mode of attack is projectile barking. Who would have thought that a 2D side scrolling game about a dog would play out more like a shooter than anything else?

Another character function is a water attack. If you get wet you can hit a button that makes Beethoven shake himself off. The water kills everyone on screen. Why water would kill your enemies, I don't know. But this whole game is nonsensical and doesn't make a whole lot of sense. You're fighting fat guys with shotguns and rabid poodles half the time. I am willing to bet you don't see either of those in the movie. The last thing your character can do is hit a button that makes Beethoven scoop stuff up off the ground into his mouth. If you see an item, you can't just walk over it. You have to line yourself up with it and hit this button. This button also picks up Beethoven's children after he locates them.

There are four missing puppies, each representing four different stages. The stages are the suburbs, a park, a kennel, and a wilderness environment. Each stage is broken into two parts. So it is really like the game is only eight stages long. In the first part of each stage, you play until you find your missing puppy. This marks the end of part one of the stage. Then you play part two, where you must pick up the missing puppy and carry him to the end of the level where Mrs. Beethoven creepily, motionlessly awaits.

I was a little intimidated by the fact that I'd have to pick up this puppy and protect him during these stages. If there is anything I have ever hated in video games it is the escort mission. But in this game it is not that bad. The puppy can't get hurt at all, nor will he ever aimlessly walk off an edge and kill itself. If you need to drop the puppy so you can engage in combat, it will be completely okay. Just kill your enemies, pick the puppy up again, and move on.

I had a fun time with the game but I have to admit that it is not very well made. The reward you get for completing the game is the same image the game uses for its title screen. The same music plays that plays when you look at the title screen. And then all you get is a weak congratulatory message at the bottom of the screen. And then the credits start rolling.

Graphically the game looks good for a Super Nintendo game. It is bright and colorful and cartoony. Some of the backgrounds, in particular the sunset used in the game's final stage, really add to that effect. The game's music score, however, is really bad. All I could think about when I was playing this game was that they took the introduction music to Judge Judy and turned it into some kind of weird combination of video game and elevator music. It's not good.

The controls are also not that great. There is definitely a learning curve here. When Beethoven starts moving, he moves very slowly. When he jumps, however, he moves very fast. If you get moving and get into a rhythm of running and jumping you can move along through the stages pretty quickly. But your character often has a hard time stopping himself and will slide like he was running on ice. This caused me to get hit by enemies more often than I care to admit. Let's not even mention all the ledges I slid off of during the kennel stage. Also, you don't jump very far from a standing or walking position. Often you have to run and jump in order to make it across a wide gap. But it takes Beethoven so long to get running, that this can be very hard to accomplish, especially on small ledges.

The game is a challenge, but one that can be easily overcome through repetition. There are a lot of cheap deaths to be found. Apparently this game thinks its cute to just have the floor fall out from under you with no warning whatsoever. Super cool. But keep powering through, taking in and remembering the layout each time you take a stab at it. Once you remember where to go, where the enemies are, and which ledges are dependable to jump across, you are golden.

Once you know what you are doing, the game is very short. It can be beaten in less than thirty minutes easily. I am glad I bought this game for only a few bucks. Not only is it short but there is almost zero replay value to be found here. This is a very basic no frills game. But I had fun with it. It was good for a play through or two. I must say though that if I had sunk forty or fifty bucks into this game as a kid I would have been super pissed. It is so short and so lacking in substance.

So I am not sure what grade to give the game. I had fun with it. I only spent a few dollars on it, so it was worth the money. But it is super short, has iffy controls, and there is NO replay value to be found here. However I liked it and thought it was a fun little distraction on my Sunday afternoon. I am willing to overlook the game's flaws and give it acknowledgment for keeping me entertained, if only for a short while.

Overall:

C

Video Game Review #104: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Xbox

Well here it is. After nearly three years of reviewing games, I finally get around to reviewing my first Xbox game. Fittingly, it is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. This game is the entire reason I even have an Xbox to begin with. I have owned the game for over ten years, but haven't had an Xbox to play it on. I had played the game once, back in the mid 2000s. An ex-girlfriend at the time had an Xbox. I bought this game because I had heard so many good things about it. I played it and beat it on her Xbox. I remember I played the sequel too. But then we broke up. She took her Xbox and I kept the games that I had bought. Over ten years have passed and I haven't been able to play this game because I didn't have an Xbox. Just never thought to get one. I've always been a PlayStation loyalist.

But just recently it started to bug me that I had so many Xbox games in my possession that I could not play. In particular Knights of the Old Republic. I decided to get an Xbox 360. This system is now considered "last gen" since Xbox 1 and PlayStation 4 are all the rage now. But all I really wanted was to be able to play all my old original Xbox games again. I felt like a traitor buying an Xbox since I am such a PlayStation guy. But it was something I just had to do.

First order of business upon purchasing the 360 was to go back and revisit Knights of the Old Republic. Playing this game again was after all my main motivation for getting an Xbox. Reading other reviews of this game, many people revere it as an all time classic. Not only one of the best Star Wars games ever, but one of the best RPGs of all time. It is true that I had played this game once in 2005 or 2006, but I really did not remember a whole lot about it. That whole phase of my life back then is very hazy to me. I do remember I liked the game and I also remembered that I took the path of the dark side and made all the evil choices.

The game would come back to me in pieces as I played it again. But this time I would take the path of the light side of the Force.

If you have never played this game, I will explain how it works. The game takes place 3,000 years before the events of the films. You start out as your typical RPG amnesiac character. You wake up in the middle of a space battle. You discover you are a Republic officer and that you are battling the Sith armada. The Sith are after one of the Jedi on board your ship. Her name is Bastila. You and a bunch of other characters jettison in escape pods before the ship is destroyed. The pods crash land on a planet named Taris. It becomes your mission to rescue Bastila and escape the planet. But it won't be easy. The planet has been quarantined by the Sith. All travel on and off the planet has been indefinitely suspended.

You view your character from a behind the back perspective. All characters and environments are fully 3D. Don't expect eye popping detail, however. The game looks fine, but it is very basic. I wouldn't say the game looks ugly but I wouldn't say it is top of the line either. Some character animations are a little stiff. Stage design can be a bit repetitive. The game may not look like much by today's standards, but I have no problem with its look. Like I said, it is not ugly. I'm sure it was stunning back when it was released. For someone who grew up playing a bunch of games released in the early to mid 2000s era I think the game looks classic and charming.

As you explore Taris looking for Bastila, the game's mechanics become clear to you. Mainly, you walk around and talk to people. You look for clues about where Bastila may be. You can ask about the history of the planet. You talk to people about what they think of the Sith quarantine. Just gather information in general.

Taris is a big place to explore, and you encounter all kinds of different people with different stories. You often will take on side quests from some of the characters you encounter. Some of these quests are necessary to advance the story line. Some are completely optional. It is possible to have ten-plus quests open at the same time. Often it is up to you which order you want to tackle them in. Other times you must complete one certain quest before you can move on to another. Embarking on multiple quests at the same time is commonplace in games now, but I remember being completely wowed by this the first time I played the game over ten years ago.

It is on Taris that you discover your character has an ability with the Force. As you progress in the game, you gain experience and start to learn new powers. Choices you make in the game determine if you will go down the path of the dark or the light side. The game is very conversation driven. You are often given a list of choices when it is your turn to respond during a conversation. If you make the asshole choice, chances are that you are going to get dark side points. If you are compassionate and try to do the right thing, you get light side points.

An example: you see some bandits robbing an old man. If you are evil you would kill everyone and take the money for yourself. If you are good you would fight the bandits and save the old man. If you keep doing the right thing, you will be strong in the light side of the Force. Do the opposite and you wind up on the dark side. Each side has its own different set of Force powers. The light side seems more geared to healing and defense while the dark side is more focused on attack.

Not only do your choices affect your powers, they also drastically affect the way the game's story plays out. One choice you make on the first planet of the game may affect something that happens three planets down the road. Certain jobs may or may not be open to you depending on the choices you have made or the side quests you have already completed. You may end up at odds with some of your party members if you choose the dark side over the light. Some characters may not even join your party if you make the wrong choice in the game. The game's overall story line pretty much goes the same place depending on your choices. But you could play the game a hundred times and have it be a completely different journey each and every time. There are so many different character choices, side missions to accept, or conversation paths you can choose to take in this game. And they all make a difference.

The game's combat system is decent. It takes place in real time, but you can pause the game and make a selection while paused if things are going too fast for you. You only control one character at a time. If you are controlling your main character and attack an enemy, your party will usually jump right in to assist you. If you don't like what they are doing, would like them to attack a different enemy, or would like one of them to cast a healing spell, you can always switch over to that other character. But the same rules still apply. You can only control one person at a time. The character you just switched off of will probably then go into attack mode.

I constantly found myself switching back and forth between all of my characters and micro managing each fight. The game can be hard at times and this is a necessity. You can't count on all three of your characters winning each battle by just doing a basic attack move each turn. Each enemy you defeat gives you experience. Completing missions also gives you experience. The more experience you gain, the more your characters will level up. Usual RPG stuff. The more you level up the tougher you get and the more abilities you acquire.

The game's story line is extremely deep. Each planet you visit has its own lore. So many different characters you encounter have elaborate quests with large backstories attached. Your own party members are interesting to interact with as well. It is necessary to have personal one on one conversations with your party members as you level up. The different choices you make during these interactions affect your relationship with your team. The game's main story line is pretty awesome too. It is famous for having one of the most jaw dropping twists in video game history. The whole story line is just really fun and extremely clever in the way it is unveiled. You wouldn't necessarily expect a Star Wars game to have a top of the line story in an RPG, but this game definitely delivers.

If I had to make one complaint about the game it would be that sometimes things can break up and start getting choppy. This happens every once in a while during combat. Things move at an excruciatingly slow pace and you can't even seem to make a selection with your controller. You just have to wait it out until the fight is over and hope you don't die. It happens often during conversations too. The voices break up so severely that it is best to just read the text and skip over the vocals. Well heck that is what I did most of the time anyway. But still!

All in all Knights of the Old Republic is a very deep, very challenging, and very innovative role playing game. I knew that the game would be good. Even from my past experience with the game and reading all the positive reviews it still caught me by surprise at just how good it is. I want to say that I would recommend this to anyone. I don't think you necessarily have to be a Star Wars fan to enjoy this game as it takes place thousands of years before the movies and has its own completely new plot line. I am sure there are some people out there that still won't like it or maybe they will think the game's pace is too slow. So I can't necessarily say this game is for everyone. But if you like RPGs and don't mind something that is heavily conversation based, then Knights of the Old Republic is an amazing experience. With all of the side quests and its good/bad system it is a pioneer in its field. You can still see its influence in the games of today.

It's not a perfect game by any means, but it is still a damn good one.

Overall:

A