Video Game Review #140: Quake 64

Quake 64

Nintendo 64

In my teenage years I was a big fan of first person shooters. The only problem is that there was not a huge variety of them that I could play on home consoles. I had a few games, most notably Alien Trilogy for the Sega Saturn and Goldeneye 007 for the Nintendo 64. Our family also had a very low-end PC that was able to (barely) run a few games like Spear of Destiny and Corridor 6. Those games were fun, but I wanted more. Having played Doom at a friend’s house while on vacation, I knew exactly how excellent a game it was. When I started reading reviews of a game called Quake (which was essentially Doom with different enemies and 3D graphics) I knew that I needed to play that game. A big problem, however: it was only available on PC.

About a year or a year and a half later I was ecstatic to learn that the game was being ported to the Nintendo 64. I read the reviews and the PC version of the game had gotten near-perfect scores across the board. While some were saying that the N64 version wasn’t as good because of graphical and control differences, I didn’t care. I wanted Quake and I wanted it right then and there! So I scraped together my hard earned allowance money and went out and got this game.

Quake did not disappoint. Having never played the PC version of the game, I thought it handled fine. I thought the graphics looked really good. The game was long, challenging, and I had a legitimately fun time as I played it. My one complaint was that I was a little let down by the multiplayer mode. Since I had had such a great time playing Goldeneye with friends and family, I was hoping to replicate that experience here. But that didn’t happen. I played a few two-player matches with my stepbrother Kyle one night, but that was it. I never touched the game’s multiplayer again.

This was around 1998 or 1999. I played the game from beginning to end a handful of times and I got pretty darn good at it. However, the same thing happened to Quake that inevitably happens with every game I buy. New games came along. It got shelved. It got forgotten about. I remember picking it up and giving it another go around 2008 or 2009, but that was the first time I had played it in probably 10 years. It didn’t get played again for almost another 10 years when I picked it up in June of 2018. I had just finished playing BioShock and I'd been a little disappointed by the combat in that game. I had been in the mood for a good first person shooter, but I wanted something a little more high stakes and intense... and with a lot more mindless shooting and destruction. So I decided to go out and play Quake 64 again.

I want to start off by saying that the game has aged well. I honestly can't believe that this version has been out for nearly 20 years now. While it is true that the graphics don't match anything coming out by today's standards, I still think it looks really nice. It is hard to put what is in my head down into words. But the setting of the game, even though it is gloomy and dark, feels very rich and beautiful in its own way. I love the game's color scheme and the design of each stage. I love the low rumble you hear in the background, the game's faint but unsettling musical score. The makers of the game did a sensational job at creating such an involving atmosphere for you, the player. It is very easy to get lost in the world of Quake.

If you have never heard of Quake, let me fill you in on how the game plays out. There is a little bit of a story line here, but it is nothing too important. Humans have opened up a portal that leads to some kind of a demonic world filled with horrifying Lovecraftian creatures. Of course it is your job to go in and eliminate the enemy threat. There are four, like, figurines or something that you have to collect before you can proceed to the end of the game and take out the game's final big bad boss: Shub-Niggurath. Defeat him and you win the game. Pretty straightforward, huh?

This is a first person shooter and the number one game I can compare it to is Doom. It was made by the same people. There are similarities in the story line and there are similarities in the gameplay too. But this game was always for me much, much better than Doom. I think it has a lot to do with the game's atmosphere. This is a little creepy but I have always felt more "at home" in the world of Quake than I did Doom. Plus the game is a lot more technologically advanced than Doom. The graphics are better. Everything is 3D. I like the enemies, the weapons, and the puzzles much more than anything from that other game. Obviously this game came out well after Doom, so it isn't a fair comparison. But if anyone ever asks me if I am more of a Doom guy or more of a Quake guy, I am team Quake all the way. Although I must say I don't give a shit about any of the multiplayer stuff that Quake has been famous for in recent years. Give me single player or don't give me the game at all.

When the game begins you start out with your default weapon, the single-barreled shotgun. You also carry around an axe in case you run out of ammo. That shouldn't be happening to you too much, though. Along the way you will collect a double-barreled shotgun, which packs a huge punch when you are attacking your enemy at point black range, a nail gun, a rocket launcher, a grenade launcher, a laser gun, and more. As you progress in the game you move from a science facility that looks like it was built by humans to deep into the heart of the haunting medieval world of Quake.

Enemies include humanoid characters with assault weapons, ogrish brutes that come at you with grenade launchers and chainsaws (seriously, these guys will fuck you up all game long), zombies that can be dispatched with explosive weapons, knights, giant spider things that shoot heat seeking missiles at you (fuck these guys), giant shamblers that either shoot you with electricity or beat you with their massive fists, flying scrags, and fiends (REALLY fuck these guys!). Fiends were my most hated enemy because they are hard to hit with how they are jumping around so much. And they take a lot of hits to kill. And they deal out a lot of damage. And their movements are hard to predict and defend against. They can kill you in one freaking attack. Seriously: instant panic attack whenever I would encounter one of these guys. I'd hold the fire button down like a maniac and weave like a drunkard around the screen trying to keep that thing in front of me. I don't mess around with things that can kill you in one hit. Huh-uh.

There is a jump feature in this game, which I am pretty sure Doom didn't have (I haven't played it in ages, so I may be wrong). You can use this move to explore strange new worlds and seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where - yeah you know where I am going with this. There is a lot to explore in the world of Quake. Not only is the jump feature helpful to have in this game, it is essential. This is another reason why I really dig the world of Quake. While this is commonplace in games nowadays, it was groundbreaking for its time. You jump from platform to platform. You go up stairs. You ride platforms around. Enemies can be above and below you and you can look up and down to find them and shoot them. You even swim in this game. Most shooting games were FLAT before. The world of Quake was already immersing enough as it was. But when you added an unparallelled sense of depth and exploration to the game, it really put it over the top. I am still impressed now, so you can bet your patootie this game impressed me back in 1998.

You can save your game after each level, but only if you have a Nintendo 64 memory card, AKA the Controller Pak. Otherwise you have to write down a pretty long and tedious password after you complete each stage. This is unfortunately the route I had to take. I have several memory packs but for some reason none of them would work with this game. I don't know if they just won't work here or if they won't work with other games either. My Rumble Pak didn't work either, so it could be a controller thing. Or the game is messed up. Or all of my accessories have gone to shit. All I know is that it sucked because a few times I SWEAR I wrote down the password correctly but then when I would turn off the game and come back to it later the password wouldn't work. I had to look up generic level codes online and pick up where I left off. I wasn't about to go back and play old levels again. Especially because without a memory card you can't save mid-level, so you have to start each level from the beginning again when you die. That meant that I had to beat each and every stage in one go without dying or I would have to restart it from the beginning. It was quite the challenge.

Despite the memory card and password difficulties, I had a terrific time with this game. I just recently finished playing BioShock, and I can truly say with all honesty that this game was much more enjoyable to me than BioShock. The gameplay is flawless. Your character is easy to control. It's so easy to swap back and forth between different weapons. It is fun to learn which weapons are good to use against which type of enemy and what type of approach you needed to take when you would encounter different types of enemy in battle. It is a lot of mindless shooting, but there is a lot of strategy involved as well. Other reasons the game rocks: The atmosphere of the game is disturbing but beautiful at the same time. The levels are brilliantly designed. The graphics and the music are still really good considering the game's age. The game isn't bogged down by a story line that requires any kind of deep thought whatsoever. You just go out and have a good time!

And that is Quake's main selling point for me: it is simply really fun to play! I loved the exploration aspect. I loved the variety of enemies I would encounter, and the strategic steps I would have to take to ensure my survival in battle. It is a thrill to make it through a particularly tough level, especially when you have to beat it on one life. Some of these levels are very long and challenging. At first I breezed through the early stages of the game, but once I hit the second act things started to get difficult. I welcomed the challenge. The game is incredibly addicting and kept me coming back each time I would die. I just had to beat the level! Each time I would play I'd learn a little more, so I would keep at it. Then I'd tell myself I would stop after each level, but when that time would come I would keep on playing. I couldn't help it: the game is just that addicting! It is definitely one of those "just one more level and I will stop" kind of games.

Reading this, you can probably tell that I really like this game. I can't lie. I liked the game a lot when I was a teenager, but I think I like and appreciate it even more now as an adult. Not only does it bring back a lot of memories, but it also stands on its own two feet as a really fun, really addicting game. Off the top of my head I am hard pressed to name a first person shooter that I like more than this. As far as single player goes, I would take this over Goldeneye any day of the week. Doom, Duke Nukem, BioShock, Wolfenstein, Alien Trilogy? That's a no for them all! Does that mean Quake is my favorite first person shooter ever? I don't know. Maybe I am forgetting something. Maybe I am suffering from recent game bias. But I can tell you one thing: Quake may not be a perfect game, but I would put it right up there as one of the best in the genre that I have ever played. If you are a fan of the genre and have never played this game, that is something you need to fix immediately.

Overall:

A

Note: I can't wait to play Quake II for the Nintendo 64. I played it back when it first came out, when I rented it and beat it on one weekend. That is the only time I have ever played it. A few years ago I found the game at a used game store. Before I played it, I wanted to play the first Quake again before moving on to the sequel. Hopefully now that the original game is officially in the books I'll be playing this in the next year or two. 

If you liked my review of Quake, please check out some of the other reviews I've written:

Alien Trilogy

Goldeneye 007

BioShock

Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition

Gears of War

Video Game Review #139: BioShock

BioShock

PlayStation 3

BioShock is one of the very first games that I ever played for my PS3. I had read the reviews for the Xbox and the PC versions of the game, and I was intrigued by what I’d seen. I didn’t know too much about the game, other than that the city of Rapture was supposedly so intricate and had so much personality that it almost seemed like a character in and of itself. I had always been a fan of older games (and I still am). The idea that the setting of a game could almost be like another character was a foreign concept to me, so I made it a point to check this game out.

It wasn’t too long before I picked up the game at a used video game store. I remember vividly how long the game took to get set up. I came home with my girlfriend (at least she was at the time, now she is my wife) and wanted to get it installed so that when I came home later that night I could just play it right away and not have to wait for it to get set up. I thought it would be a quick ten minute thing, if  that. I had things to do, places to be. Instead, it ended up taking what seemed like hours to get set up. The 50’s style music that played while the game installed was pretty cool, but I was still annoyed. And so was she. Oh well. She still married me.

For those who are not familiar with the game, Bioshock is a first person shooter that takes place in the fictional underwater city of Rapture. You play as a silent protagonist named Jack. His plane has just crashed into the waters above Rapture. Stuck on an island with no food or supplies, Jack is forced to make the long descent down into Rapture. There he finds that the city has gone to absolute hell. All traces of civilization have been destroyed. The people of the city have become addicted to “Plasmids”, which are essentially drugs that gives special powers to whoever takes them. Jack is contacted via radio by a man named Atlas, who promises to guide Jack to safety... if Jack will help him out first.

As you play, you must fight the former citizens of Rapture. They have gone crazy from the Plasmids and will attack you as soon as they see you. You must also battle your way through Rapture’s defenses. There are security cameras that, if they spot you, will deploy drones after you to take you out. There are also turrets and mounted rocket launchers that will blast you into oblivion if you aren’t paying close attention. You can either fight these things or hack them so that they fight the enemies for you. The game’s most iconic enemy is the “Big Daddy.” These giant and lumbering creatures protect the game’s “Little Sisters.” These Little Sisters are used to harvest ADAM, which is the main ingredient used in the Plasmids that everyone has gotten hooked on. When you kill the Big Daddy that is guarding a Little Sister, you can then choose if you want to kill the Little Sister and steal her ADAM for yourself, or free her and be gifted a smaller amount of ADAM for your troubles.

My first playthrough of the game was a pretty mixed bag. At first, I actually liked the game a lot. Loved the graphics, the detail of the game, and its setting. For whatever reason, I put the game aside for a week or two and when I came back to it, I struggled to get back into it. I kept getting killed by a Big Daddy. I’d respawn, and then come back and attack it again, chipping off a little of its health bit by bit. But then I’d get killed again. Come back and attack. Get killed again. So on and so forth. Of course, now I know that this is a natural part of the game’s design. But at the time it felt like I was doing something wrong, and I got discouraged. I put the game aside for yet ANOTHER week or two.

Luckily, when I came back I was able to get back into the swing of the game and move on from the area in which I was stuck. The setting and the gameplay really sucked me in. I just couldn’t stop exploring, shooting things, and collecting as many items as I could. It was a ton of fun. I played the game nonstop and ended up beating it in a couple of days. I liked the game so much, I even went out and bought the DLC, which is a rarity for me. Even rarer, I played through the game twice in a very short period of time. I killed the Little Sisters and harvested their ADAM on my first playthrough, so I just had to take the benevolent route the second time around and see what would happen.

Since then, I have played both Bioshock 2 and Bioshock Infinite (twice), but I had yet to return to the first game. Until now! I figured it would be a good game to come back and revisit after having not played it in about seven or eight years.

My initial reaction was that the game had aged quite well. Considering that the PS3 version of the game came out ten years ago, it still looked quite nice. It sounded nice too. Technically, everything held up very well over the years. The game was still fun to play, but I did find that its combat was not as crisp as I’d remembered. It is very hard to aim and hit your enemies, especially considering the herky-jerky controls and the fact that most of your enemies move very quickly. And then when you do hit your enemies, it seems like the damage doled out from your weapons is minimal. You have to empty out three or more clips of handgun ammunition just to kill one enemy. I actually had better luck just hitting things with my wrench than I did using the game’s guns. This bugged me all game long. Like really? My fricking wrench is doling out more damage than shooting someone with a shotgun at point blank range? Okay.

The main draw of Bioshock, however, is not the combat. It is the game’s setting and the game’s storyline. I have mixed feelings here. I’ll start with the good: the setting. How could you not like Rapture? It truly is one of the best settings in video game history. An underwater city that has fallen apart after months/years of neglect and internal warfare? Yeah, it is super cool. You see things like casinos, apartments, recreation areas, arboretums, laboratories, museums, offices, shopping areas, and the like. You can tell that at some point these areas used to be brightly lit and well maintained. Now they are dingy and grungy, with obvious signs of battle scarring everywhere. Ominous creaking and dripping noises haunt the otherwise silent atmosphere of Rapture. It really is a treat to just walk around and explore and take things in. I question the practical layout of the city, but I can forgive that just because it is so freaking cool to explore. In addition to just being cool in and of itself, the city of Rapture is filled with all kinds of colorful characters and personalities. My favorite was always the psychotic artist, Sander Cohen.

Now I am going to complain about something that I complain about in every single review of a game I play with audio logs: I hate audio logs! My brain doesn’t work when they start playing. I can’t listen and play the game at the same time. 95% of the time I end up completely missing everything said in the audio log because I am too busy fighting, exploring, or scrounging for items. Seeing as how the majority of this game’s storyline is told through audio logs or walkie-talkie communication from other characters, this is a huge problem for me. This is the third time I have played through the game now, and each time I miss massive plot points that are essential to understanding the game. Even after three play-throughs I can still barely tell you what happened here. Who are half these characters? What happened in Rapture to make it the way it is now? What are these people rambling on about? Why is this relevant? Why am I here?  Why do I have to turn myself into a Big Daddy? I am sure all these questions are answered through audio logs/communications with other characters in the game. If they are, I don’t have solid answers to them, simply because I can’t play and listen at the same time.

It is a shame too, because I always hear people raving about the story line of this game. I know that there is a big twist where you find out you are under mind control to kill the leader of Rapture, Andrew Ryan. The whole thing was set up from the plane crash in the very beginning of the game. Maybe it is because I didn’t pay close enough attention to the audio logs, but there are a ton of things about this twist that don’t add up for me. And why does Ryan just kill himself when you show up at his door? Again, these are things that are probably explained in-game. But when you struggle to follow along with things like I do, it really hurts your overall opinion on the game. For the most part I liked this title’s game play, its settings, and its graphics. If only I had been able to follow the story line better, this could have been an A title for me.

A few other nitpicks of mine. One of them is the hacking system. The system itself is fine, but there are a LOT of things to hack in this game. Not only is it time consuming, it gets repetitive and tiresome after a while. Another nitpick is that it never seems like the stakes are very high in this game. You don’t have to worry about dying because you know that if you do, you will just respawn nearby with all of your items and ammunition intact. Dying over and over again carries no penalty, so there is never a reason not to just rush into any area, guns blazing. The enemies you kill stay dead, and the ones you damaged will stay damaged. So you can rush into a room with 15 enemies, kill 11 of them, die, respawn, and come back and mop up the stragglers that were left over. When you have unlimited attempts and no repercussions from dying, this makes the game very simple and easy to conquer.

The major question for me is if the good parts of the game outweigh the bad. I would say for the most part the answer is yes. If a game is fun it doesn’t matter if it has a good story line or not. For example: Doom and Quake for the Nintendo 64. Do either of these have fun stories? Not really. So I just play them and enjoy each game for what it is. That is exactly what I did with Bioshock, too. Ignore the story line and just play the game for fun. And it is indeed still a fun game. Not only is it fun, but the world and the atmosphere of the game are amazing. So are the graphics and sound effects. Story line aside, this is still a really good game. I just think I would have liked it even more if I could have been able to follow what was going on!

If you had asked me several years ago what grade I would have given Bioshock, I would have said at least an A. It pains me to say that I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I did in the past on my most recent play through. It is still an entertaining game, and it does a LOT of things right. But combine the game’s weak combat system with audio logs that are difficult to focus on and that brings the game’s score down just a bit in my opinion.

Overall:

B

If you liked this review of BioShock, please check out some of my other reviews:

Thief

Dishonored

Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition

Prey

Alien: Isolation

Farewell to my friend, the Wisk

When I started this blog about three years ago, my intent was to post about a great many topics. I wanted to post about my life, my dreams and aspirations, my friends, my family, all that good stuff. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to post about video games and movies and that sort of thing as well. But for whatever reason, I ended up ONLY talking about those things. All the personal stuff I wanted to share and discuss got left in the rear view mirror.

That is going to change with this post. I have gone back and forth about whether or not I should share this, but I have decided to go ahead and take the plunge: this week I lost one of my closest friends. His name is Jeff, but people in his online circles probably know him as either Syn or the Almighty Wisk.

Jeff not only was special to me, he was special to this blog as well. To this date, he is the only person aside from me to write an entry for the blog. He really liked my video game reviews and wanted to write up some of his own. So he did, and I posted them! If you want to read them, I attached the links to the bottom of this post.

I first met him back in 2013. We were working together at Captel, a call center that translates words to text for the sake of the deaf and the hard of hearing. I mainly worked the morning shift, with the exception of Saturday, where I worked from 3 until 11:30 at night. Jeff worked the night shift every day, so Saturdays were the only days I would ever see him.

Jeff was a large, loud man. It was hard not to notice him. Several weeks passed between the time I first noticed him and the first time we actually spoke. I overheard many of his conversations and he always seemed like a fun, entertaining guy. We seemed to have a lot in common with our love of television and video games as well. I wanted to be his friend, but being the weird, socially awkward guy that I am, I didn't know how to talk to him. I knew he was a smoker, so even though I am not a smoker myself, I found myself heading outside on my breaks to see if I could find some way to strike up a conversation with him.

It didn't take me too many tries before I struck gold. I was wearing a Green Lantern t-shirt, and he complimented me on it. We got to talking about video games, and just like that we hit it off. We started talking about Grand Theft Auto V, which had just come out. I mentioned that the title was at home downloading on my PS3 at that very moment we were speaking. He brought up the idea that we should share PS3 accounts so that he could play the game too, and I could play the games that he owned. I barely knew the man, and I questioned the legality of this whole exchange. But he insisted that people did it all the time and that it was okay.

I caved, and gave him my login information. He gave me his. The next day, we were Facebook friends. Every Saturday at work I looked forward to because it was my "Jeff Day." I didn't have any work friends at the time, so this was the highlight of my week. We always sat together and would goof off all the time. It was fun. Our friendship extended outside of the workplace as well. I came over to his house multiple times to play video games. I brought some old systems like the NES and Sega Genesis over. We'd play the classics like Mario, Gauntlet, Smash TV, and Streets of Rage. We exchanged games. I am sure I would have played it someday, but if it weren't for him I wouldn't have played the Last of Us when I did. South Park: The Stick of Truth which I reviewed a year or two ago was a game he had loaned me. I in turn loaned him a handful of games, Vandal Hearts and the Wolf Among Us being the main ones that I can remember.

Eventually he stopped working at Captel, but we kept in touch through Facebook Messenger and I still came over from time to time to hang out. He got a job at H&R Block, and when tax season came around I made sure to book an appointment with him to show him my support. He even played in an online game of mine, based on the CBS TV show Big Brother. The game was a disaster though, and he ended up fighting with half the cast and having a dismal time. We fell out of contact a bit. We still messaged each other from time to time, but the hanging out just wasn't happening anymore. I always wondered if his bad experience in the game was to blame. I wasn't too worried though. I went through dry spells with friends pretty often. I mean, we had plenty of time, all our lives to hang out with each other if we wanted to. This was last year, 2017.

Earlier this year, I ran into Jeff's wife and daughter at the gas station. I am not going to discuss the details of his medical condition here, but I was told that he had been taken to the hospital with a serious, potentially life threatening condition. I reached out to Jeff, but I didn't hear much back from him. I saw from his Facebook posts that he was in and out of the hospital quite a bit. I was concerned, but I think I underestimated the seriousness of his condition. I took for granted that he would beat it, and he would be back messaging me about video games and writing game reviews and we'd be hanging out again in no time. Even though I knew his condition was potentially life threatening, I didn't think it would go that far.

But it did. Just like that, he was gone. I thought we would have years, decades even, to hang out and shoot the shit and play video games and watch silly YouTube videos to our hearts' content. I was wrong. All my life, the only people I knew that had died were old people. Jeff dying so young at 33 years of age was a complete shock to me.

Words can't express the heartbreak that I felt. Not only when I first found out, but even now - several days later. I will be totally okay but then all of a sudden he will pop into my mind and I will completely lose it. It wasn't supposed to happen like this. Not with him being so young, and having so much life in front of him. I felt like a shitty friend for not realizing the gravity of the situation. If I had known we wouldn't have had that much time together, I would have made more of an effort to hang out and spend more time with him. It doesn't feel right. Things don't feel complete. It feels like we had unfinished business together that will now forever remain unfinished. And then I think about his wife and his daughter, and my heart breaks even more.

Like I mentioned earlier, I was going back and forth about whether or not I should post this. But I feel as if I would be doing a disservice to Jeff's memory by not posting this. He was a great friend of mine. One of the first I ever made at Captel. He helped me to come out of my shell a little bit around others. He always knew what to say to get me to laugh when I was feeling down. We had a blast every time we'd hang out. "We need to do this more often" was something he'd always say when I would leave for the night, and I always agreed with him. It is an absolute shame that I won't be able to anymore.

Jeff, you are a great friend and you will be missed. Thank you for everything you have brought to my life. I know it is impossible, but I wish we could hang out, just one more time, for old times sake. So I could say a proper goodbye. Instead, this will have to suffice. Farewell, friend. I will remember you forever.

If you are interested in reading Jeff's special guest game reviews, you can check them out here:

Parasite Eve

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Chrono Cross

Earthbound

Final Fantasy XV

Video Game Review #138: Rayman Legends

Rayman Legends

PlayStation 4

Usually when I write a video game review I open up with a little bit of backstory. My history with the game, if I have played it before, my overall thoughts on the series, that kind of thing. But I can’t do that with Rayman Legends. Why? Because I have never played a Rayman game before! I love platforming games, both of the 2D and the 3D variety, so it is actually kind of surprising that I have never played a game in the series until now.

I had read a few reviews of Rayman Origins for the Wii, and they had all been overwhelmingly positive. When I saw that Rayman Legends was a free game for the month of May for PlayStation Plus members, I decided to download it and see what the fuss was all about. I knew so little about Rayman that I actually thought that this game was Rayman Origins at first. But it is not. It may borrow heavily from Rayman Origins, but it is actually its own separate sequel to that game.

The game doesn’t offer much in the way of story line. There is probably some kind of story line going on here, but if there was a cutscene or an introduction or something like that at the beginning of the game, I don’t remember it. And that is totally okay with me. It was actually kind of refreshing getting to play a game just for the fun of it and not having to worry about its story.

The game begins with you in control of Rayman. You are in the world hub. Different paintings are hung up around you that represent the different worlds of the game. Within each world is about ten or so individual stages that you must complete. Each stage contains a certain number of little blue guys that you have to rescue, known as “Teensies.” There are 700 Teensies hidden away in this game. Teensies operate similarly to stars in Super Mario 64, a game that I seem to be referencing a lot lately in recent reviews. You don’t have to collect ALL of these Teensies, but you do have to collect enough to unlock more worlds and stages before you can move on in the game.

Each world also contains a large number of “Lums”, which are similar to coins in Super Mario 64 (here we go yet again with the Mario comparisons). You are given a grade at the end of each stage based on how many Lums you collected. Collect a small number of them and you get a bronze trophy. Medium is silver. A large number of them will net you gold. In order to 100% pass a level, you have to collect all of its Teensies and get a gold trophy for the amount of Lums you collected. Again, you don’t have to collect them all, but if you are a completionist or a perfectionist like me you are going to try to get as many as you can. I am not THAT much of a completionist, however, that I went back and got all the ones I missed on my initial playthrough. I just tried really hard not to miss anything, although it did happen from time to time.

The graphics for this game are excellent. The amount of detail that went into the artwork and the animation is truly impressive. The worlds are rich and colorful and a lot of fun to look at. I often had to just stop and soak things in from time to time. It really is like you have been dropped smack dab into the middle of a living, breathing cartoon world.

Music and sound effects are for the most part pretty standard fare. What does stand out to me, however, are the musical themed stages. In these stages you must run, jump, and smash your way through hectic and fast paced levels, each one set to the tune of the game’s background music. My favorite stages of this variety were based around the songs Eye of the Tiger and Black Betty. These stages were a ton of fun, and also fairly difficult at the same time. There is a challenge after you have beaten the game where you have to play through them all on one life with extra obstacles thrown in. Those stages are quite difficult.

Standard gameplay consists of the usual “start on the left, make your way to the right” kind of thing. Rayman can jump, punch, ground pound, and use his head to float for short distances. You can also swim in the water and use your head float move to soar through windy areas when the game allows you to do so. Occasionally a wrinkle is thrown in to keep things fresh. There are flying stages that are similar to side scrolling shooters of old. There are Invaded stages where you have to race against the clock to the end of the stage, and there are also the aforementioned musically based stages.

Playing this game brought to mind many classic side-scrollers from my youth. Some of the faster paced stages reminded me of Sonic the Hedgehog. Other stages seemed to combine elements from games like Mario, Mega Man, Ninja Gaiden, even a little bit of Cool Spot as well. Playing this game is like playing an NES or a Sega Genesis classic, but made with today’s graphics. It is a ton of fun. It is challenging in spots too, so expect to die a lot. The good news is that you have an unlimited amount of lives, and the game usually will start you off pretty close to the area where you died. So it never feels overly frustrating. It is the perfect mix of challenging but not too challenging.

Not only is the game a blast to play, it also has an overwhelming amount of content crammed into it. There is a large number of stages to play, each chock full of Lums to collect and Teensies to rescue. It is just really satisfying to play through each level while trying to collect as much stuff as humanly possible. In addition to the game’s original stages, you can also play remixed stages from Rayman Origins. So if you have never played that game before, like me, you can get a glimpse as to what that game is like by playing these special stages. Spoiler alert: it looks and plays exactly the same as this game!

The more you play, the more stuff you unlock. There is a massive library of different characters to try out. They all control exactly the same as your original Rayman character, but I had fun playing with these different skins if only for the reason that it gave me something different to look at. You also collect lottery tickets that you can scratch off to unlock more of the game’s prizes. You scratch these tickets off by rubbing the touchpad on the front of your controller. It is a silly little touch, but I like it. You can use the tickets to collect things like extra Rayman Origins bonus stages, creatures for your creature collection (which is one thing I didn’t really see the point of), and extra Lums and Teensies.

The game also offers online bonus stages where the point is to progress as far as you can on overly long and difficult stages on just one life. You earn Lums and online trophies by beating your competition. I was relatively good at these, but I never did finish in the top 5% or whatever you need for the game’s highest tier online trophy. There is a two player soccer-like game you can play as well, but I never had anyone to play against with this mode. Seems like it would be a lot of fun though.

Even though the main quest is relatively short, all the collectibles and all the bonus stuff kept me coming back for more. I ended up spending many more hours on this game than I originally thought I would. Which is a good thing! I expected this to be a run of the mill linear 2D side-scroller that I would beat in two days and be done with. But all the extra content makes it worth it. I played this game for free, but if I had spent money on it I would definitely have said that it was money well spent. 

If you are a fan of classic, old school 2D platform games, you should love Rayman Legends. Having never played a Rayman game before, I was not sure how I would like this game. Turns out, it is one of the best games in this genre that I have played in a long time. Now I kind of want to go back and play all of the preceding Rayman games to see how they stack up. That is the mark of a good game. I definitely recommend.

Overall:

A-

If you liked my review of Rayman Legends, please check out these following reviews:

Super Mario Bros. 3

Cool Spot

Dynamite Headdy

Sonic The Hedgehog 3

Super Mario 64

Video Game Review #137: Super Mario Sunshine

Super Mario Sunshine

GameCube

Super Mario 64 ranks as one of my favorite games of all time, so it should come as no surprise that I was super excited to play Super Mario Sunshine for the GameCube when it first came out. It was a very bittersweet time period in my life. I had just broken up with my first major girlfriend, who I was living with. I moved back home with my mother for the time being. I was working two jobs and I was also doing a lot of online dating. Within a month of moving back home, I was completely burnt out from all the working and dating. It seemed like I had almost no time to myself. Anyone who knows me nowadays knows that I value my personal time VERY much. Honestly, I am not quite sure how I did it.

As a result of being so burnt out, it should come as no surprise that I ended up quitting one of my two jobs. With all this extra time on my hands, I had a lot more time for video games. I went out and bought a Nintendo GameCube at Mayfair Mall because it was on sale for only 99 dollars. I didn’t buy Mario Sunshine right away, but a few months later I snagged it up and added it to my collection. I remember firing it up late at night and giving it a try. I was expecting something very similar to Super Mario 64. As I said, that game was one of my favorite games of all time. Mario Sunshine shared a lot of similarities with Mario 64, but they were both very different games. One of the main differences was something I considered a dumb gimmick: the water pack that Mario carries around in Sunshine.

I played the game and I mildly enjoyed it. But I just couldn’t shake that feeling of disappointment. I came in with expectations that were far too high, and this game didn’t even come close to meeting those expectations. I ended up meeting a girl through the aforementioned online dating that I was doing. This was actually one of her favorite games. We played through it together and that helped me appreciate the game a little bit more. In fact, when I think back on this game those are the main memories that come to the forefront of my mind. Us getting stoned out of our mind and playing through this game together at her place. But still, good memories aside, this wasn’t one of my favorite Mario games. I would put all the NES Mario games, Super Mario World, Mario 64, the Kart games, even the Galaxy games (which I played after this) ahead of Mario Sunshine on my favorite Mario games list.

I have played through the game one or two more times in the years since, but my opinion on the game has never really changed much. Until now! I would say it has been a good ten years since I last played the game. While perusing my game collection and looking for something I haven’t played in a long time, Mario Sunshine for some reason was standing out to me. I pulled the game off the shelf, looked at the case, turned it around and checked out the screenshots on the back of it. The old memories came flooding back. Immediately I knew that I just HAD to play this again.

The difference between playing it now and playing it back in the early 2000s is that this time I knew what to expect coming in. I knew this game wasn’t Mario 64. I knew that a lot of the game play focused around the gimmicky water pack. I knew about (what I considered at the time) the ho-hum setting of Isle Delfino. I knew about the difficult bonus stages. And you know what? I was ready for all of this.

I came in with an open mind. If I still didn’t like it much, then oh well. If I did like it, great! Turns out, I actually did like it this time around. In fact, I liked it so much I finished the whole game in about two or three days. I spent almost my entire day off from work solely playing this game. If you know me, Mr. Short Attention Span, at all, then you know that this is quite the feat.

Basic gameplay is very similar to Mario 64’s. Mario can run, jump, dive, ground pound, wall jump, swim, and pretty much do anything that he can in Mario 64. The exception to this is that both the long jump and the crouch jump (accomplished by holding Z in Mario 64) are both no longer available to you. You also can’t punch or kick anymore, not that these were utilized in the original game very much anyway. The biggest twist is the use of the water pack. Mario mainly uses this pack to spray water. There are several modifications to this pack that you discover as you play the game. You can use it as a jetpack, where two streams of water lift you off the ground for a limited amount of time. You can use it as a rocket pack, which shoots you into the sky. You can use it to blast you along the ground (or along the surface of the water) at high speeds. I mentioned that when I originally played this game that the water pack seemed very gimmicky. Again, and maybe this is an expectation thing, I didn’t mind it this time around. It felt quite natural, actually.

The game takes place on Isle Delfino, a previously unseen location in the Mario universe. Mario comes here with the Princess to take a vacation. He is Mario, so of course things end up going haywire. The island has been covered in some kind of goopy toxic material. The person going around and spreading this junk looks just like Mario, so he is blamed for all of this. To clear his name, Mario straps on the water pack, which he can use to spray this toxic gunk away. Then the game begins.

Delfino Plaza acts as the central hub for the game. In Mario 64 terms, it acts in a similar fashion to the Princess’s Castle. You can explore the hub, talking to characters and uncovering hidden Shine Sprites. I hate to keep comparing this to Mario 64, but these Shine Sprites act like the Stars from that game. In this hub, you will discover portals that take you to the game’s individual stages. I believe there are seven or eight stages in total. Each stage has eight missions in them which lead to Shine Sprites. In addition, just like in Mario 64 (sigh), if you collect 100 coins in a stage you get a Shine Sprite. There are also secret areas in each stage which lead to even more hidden Shine Sprites. There are Shine Sprites everywhere!

Stage missions are various and non-repetitive. They range from things like defeating bosses, to winning races, to collecting eight red coins (like Super Mario 64.............), and much more. There are some fun oddball missions out there like riding on a rollercoaster and shooting down Bowser balloons as you whip around the track. One has you cleaning the teeth of an underwater sea creature with your jetpack. Another one has you grabbing hold of a runaway chain chomp and dragging it back to its proper place. Although you don't use him a whole lot, Yoshi makes an appearance in the game. Using him properly is key to completing some of the game's missions as well. One mission type that IS repetitive is that each world stage has a mission where you have to chase after and spray Shadow Mario. In fact, you HAVE to beat all these stages if you want to beat the game. They are quick and not difficult, so I won't complain too much about them.

I had mixed feeling about some of the game’s secret areas the first time I played this game. Clearly they are meant to be a throwback to classic Mario games of old. The water pack gets jettisoned during the majority of these areas, which is nice to see. It is just you and your platforming skills put to the test. These areas for the most part are pretty difficult. It is especially hard because platforms are always flipping and rotating. It can be difficult to judge spacial distances in this game, especially without the use of the water pack’s hovering feature. As gimmicky as it is, you get used to it and start to rely on it after a while. If you die, you have to start at the beginning of the stage. I remember being quite frustrated back in the day when I played this game. I must have been up to the challenge this time around, though. Instead of getting frustrated or annoyed, I took these stages as a personal challenge and I set out to master them. And master them I did. I even somehow managed to beat that plinko/pinball machine-ish stage that gave me nightmares in my youth.

Graphically, the game seems like it is ahead of its time. Things look beautiful even 16 years after this game first came out. Everything is bright and colorful and fun to look at. The stages are fun and varied in their layouts, but still manage to stay true to the setting of Isle Delfino. That stage with all the mushrooms and the chain-chomps gone wild is visually my favorite, especially at night. I just think it is so fun to look at.

As far as the game’s music, the game doesn’t have a whole lot of standout original numbers. I mean, the music is for the most part very pleasant, but it doesn’t stand out like other games in the past. I like the music that plays when you collect a Shine Sprite. I like the classic Mario music that plays in the secret areas. Try as I might, though, I struggle to remember much of the music from this game. The sound effects are fine though, and exactly what you would expect from a Mario game like this.

The big question about Super Mario Sunshine is if it is any fun or not. If you had asked me ten years ago, I would have been like: “meh.” Now, however, my opinion has definitely changed. I had a really great time with this game. Once I started playing I did not want to stop. It was always “just one more Shine Sprite” or “just let me finish this stage mission and then I will stop playing.” The game is packed with content. There is always something to find or some secret area to uncover. It is very addicting and very fun, too.

My opinion on this game has definitely changed for the better. I don’t know what I was thinking, not liking this when it first came out. Now when I think about Mario Sunshine, happy positive thoughts will come to mind. It is just flat out fun. Sure it can be a little challenging in parts, but it never got to the “chuck your controller through the wall” level of frustration for me. I had a blast playing this. If and when the day ever comes when I make my way through my entire game collection, Mario Sunshine will be one of the first titles I revisit. This was really good.

Overall:

A

If you liked my review of Super Mario Sunshine, please check out the following reviews:

Banjo-Kazooie

Super Mario 64

Gex: Enter the Gecko

Super Paper Mario

Super Mario Bros. 3