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

Video Game Review #103: Ghosts 'n Goblins

Ghosts 'n Goblins

Nintendo Entertainment System

I have a love/hate relationship with this game that goes back a long long time. I was born in 1982. Ghosts 'n Goblins was released for the NES back in 1986. That would have put me at the age of four years old at the time this game came out. It varies for everyone, but for me this was the age I began to start remembering things and retaining information. So in a way, my real life journey began around the time Ghosts 'n Goblins was released. It's like this game and I have grown up together side by side.

I was just four years old, so I only have the slightest memories of this game's release. But I do recall playing it at my grandparents' house because one of my uncles had gotten the game brand-new. I also remember everyone taking turns and giving it a go, but no one could get past the first level. I was super excited because I was the one who made it to the part where you have to jump over the gaps in the water and avoid the flying heads. Did I make it through that part? No. Still, the youngest kid in the room did the best out of anyone. You got to give him that.

Such a stiff challenge probably would have turned most small kids away from the game, but not me. I took it as a personal challenge. I didn't own the game myself, but I added it to my wish list. I had only seen one level of the game and I had been amazed by it. Who knows what wonders the rest of the game would hold? I remember being obsessed with the box art (just look at it and tell me that it is not something a four year old would be fascinated with) and dreaming that some day I would find out for myself.

Which I did.

I ended up getting this game as a gift. I don't recall if I got it immediately or if I had to wait a year or two first. But I got it. I wasn't very good at the game, but I tried. Just making it past stage two was an accomplishment for me. I am pretty sure I gave up on the game because it was too hard. I thought I would never be good enough to beat it. I started playing other things, but the fascination with Ghosts 'n Goblin never truly went away for me.

This was the late 80s. Around this time, my dad had a friend named James who stayed with us for a few months. He was out of work, down on his luck. Nice enough guy, but he was very lazy. Instead of going out and looking for work he would sit on the couch all day playing our NES games. He moved so infrequently that he actually made a permanent indentation in the couch with his body that our family still jokes about to this day. My point is that he loved Ghosts 'n Goblins and would play it a lot. I don't think he ever actually beat the game, but he made it farther than I ever did. I remember watching him in amazement as he moved on to new levels I had never seen before.

I began playing the game again. I was a little older, maybe a little better equipped to deal with things. My mom had just moved into a new place, so this would put me at third grade when I was about seven or eight years old. Several years had passed since I'd originally gotten this game. Still, I hadn't actually beaten it. Well gosh darn it, I made it my mission to beat this game. No more messing around. I have memories of long, frustrating, marathon sessions with Ghosts 'n Goblins in my mom's basement at the new place. I pulled out every trick in the book (shooting the red demons on the edge of the screen and then moving away so they'd disappear, using only the knife, etc.), and I really dedicated my time to conquering this game.

The hard work paid off, and after years and years of Ghosts 'n Goblins in my life, I finally finished the game. I did what no one I knew had been able to do. Success!!

But wait. Hold the fuck up. The game's end boss isn't actually the game's end boss. Turns out you have been getting tricked by an illusion from Satan this whole time. In order to properly beat the game, you had to play it again from the beginning and finish it one more time. Oh my god. whaaaaat? I can only imagine my rage.

But I kept playing. It wasn't easy, but I beat the game again. Only to once again find out I wasn't done. I had to go back and collect the shield (the lamest weapon in the whole game) and defeat the final boss with that. Only then would I truly be a champion of Ghosts n Goblins.

I hated every second of it, but I did eventually finish the game the "proper way." It went down as one of the major accomplishments of my young gaming life. Of all my friends and family members who had had this game, I became the first to complete it.

Over the years I would play and beat the game a small handful of times. I always got frustrated. You could never say I was truly having a good time with the game. It's hard and it is unfair. I always liked the idea of the game and I recognized that it was an iconic title. But to say that I truly liked it would be a lie. It was a very love/hate relationship.

Eventually as I moved into my teens and my twenties I stopped playing this game completely. There may have been one random time somewhere in there that I played it, but that had to have been at least ten years ago. All I know is that it has been a really long time since I last played this game. Now here I am at thirty five and I am ready to give it one possible last go.

I have to admit, I have been putting off this game for a long time because I remember how much of a challenge it is. I really dreaded the thought of struggling through it again. But the time just suddenly seemed right. I was up to that challenge. I was confident I could beat the game in a few hours. Initially there was  bit of a learning curve for me but once I got going I began to remember all the little tricks you can utilize to advance in the game.

If you have never played this game before I will break down the basics for you. If you have played the game before I don't care what you do next. But you should listen to some of this game's music as you read the rest of this review because it is very iconic and will bring back a ton of memories.

You play as Arthur, a brave little knight who is out with the Princess when she is kidnapped by a red demon. What's important here is that Arthur is half naked and that he and the Princess are hanging out in a graveyard alone together when this happens. Scandalous! Arthur gathers his armor and runs off to save the day.

This is a 2D side scrolling platformer. Generally you start on the left of the screen and must run to the right to advance. Left moves you left, right moves you right. You can jump, you can duck, you can climb ladders, and you can attack with your equipped weapon. You start out with a standard javelin, which is a pretty effective but slow weapon. When you hit enemies that are holding baskets, they drop items. Items include jewels that add to your point total in addition to different kinds of weapons. Weapons include a fireball, an axe, a shield, and my personal favorite: the rapid firing knife. One of my tricks in this game is to hang out in the first level and killing the endlessly spawning enemies until I get the knife. Then I try to keep it for the entire game. It doesn't make the game easier necessarily because it is still very hard. But it is an essential weapon in my books.

A game map shows you your destination and your progress as you make it further into the game. There are six areas and one final boss you must defeat to beat the game. The first time, anyway. As I mentioned before you have to beat the game again and defeat the final boss with the shield to truly complete the game. Levels are pretty iconic and memorable. I love the first and second stages. That house with all the "Big Men" really gave me troubles as a kid. And then after that you have to make it through all those tough jumps in the city.

I find the blue cave area to be very memorable as well. And that last section with the white tiles and all the red demons to defeat. Yikes. It is memorable solely because of its daunting difficulty level. A reason this game is so difficult is because you can only get hit twice before you die. You start out with a suit of armor. If you get hit you lose the armor. Get hit again and you are toast. There are spots in the game where you can get armor back after you have lost it, but they are few and far between. Undeniably helpful, however, if you know where to look for them.

Another reason the game is difficult is because your character sometimes gets flung back when he is hit. When you are trying to navigate a difficult jumping section, this can be a huge problem. Also, your character won't move at all if you are accidentally hitting up or down at the same time you are trying to move to the side. So if you are hitting diagonal up-right, your character won't move right. Often times he will get stuck crouching too if you are hitting down and the direction you want to move. This can be really, really annoying if you are in the heat of battle. It killed me many times while playing this game and will probably kill you too.

What really makes the game difficult for me is the enemy known as the red demon. These things require multiple hits to kill. They fly around from right to left on the screen, swooping in AND shooting things at you. They are nearly impossible to defeat without getting hit. And as it takes only two hits to kill you, these things become a huge problem. Because I think they are so unfairly difficult, I have resorted to cheap tricks to defeat them. Usually I am above this kind of thing, but not in this instance. If you stand on the far edge of the screen, launch your weapon at it, and move off the screen in the opposite direction as it is getting hit, it will make the demon go off the screen and disappear completely. Because I think that these enemies are so overpowered and unfair, I do not feel guilty at all about doing this.

I thought I would beat this game in about two hours but it actually took me closer to four. The game was a lot tougher than I remembered. And I remembered it being pretty darn tough. But I kept at it. Some areas I found much easier than others. It was mainly the Big Men house with the unpredictable bat pattern level that I found to be frustrating, in addition to the last stage before the final boss of the game. I hate how they have it on the second playthrough where you need the shield to beat the final boss, but they put an enemy in your way who is immune to the shield attack. That pissed me off. It must have taken me over thirty tries to beat this stage so I could get to the end of the game. It was a frustrating experience.

However, I am glad I played and beat this game again after so many years. I think it takes a relatively skilled player to beat this game, so I felt a small sense of accomplishment after finishing it. But can I really say I had a great time playing it? That is questionable for me.

Ghosts 'n Goblins brings back a lot of memories. All of the game's enemies, stages, weapons, and sound effects and music are so iconic. I look at this game and I know it is an all time great. But at the same time it is tough because I find it to be so harsh and unfair. I like to think I had fun playing this title, but the frustrating areas of the game were really frustrating. I had several moments where I felt like I wanted to chuck my controller through the TV set. Luckily I practiced restraint and didn't do that. Should I reward a game for being so unfairly difficult?

I had fun but at the same time I didn't have fun. It is a tough for me to grade this title. I recognize that this is a classic. It has sentimental value. I grew up playing this game. It has journeyed through life with me. But it is so dang frustrating and downright not fun at all at certain times.

Sentimental feeling wins. Yes, I have a love/hate relationship with this game but it is more love than hate. Much, much more love. The harsh difficulty and the touchy controls that got me killed more times than I could count do hurt the game's overall score. All in all, however, I recognize this game's impact not only on the gaming world as a whole but on my life as well. It has flaws, but it is undeniably memorable and just a pretty darn good game.

Overall:

A-

Video Game Review #102: X-Men (Arcade)

X-Men

Arcade

Ah, the good ole days of the video game arcade. A lot of younger people will never know the excitement that went along with visiting these things. You'd walk in and be overwhelmed by all the flashing screens, you'd hear dozens of video game themes playing over one another, you'd see ecstatic kids rushing from machine to machine, dropping in quarter after quarter.

It was always an adventure coming to a video game arcade. No arcade ever carried the exact same games as the next one. Whenever a new game would come out, I'd always hold my breath when I walked in - wondering if they would have it in stock or not. It was always such a thrill when they did, and such a disappointment when they did not.

Back in the late 80's and early 90's you could find arcade machines all over the place. Chances are if I was in a place that had them, that is where I would be. If my parents took me to a restaurant and they had arcade machines, I'd be there. At a bowling alley, I'd be there. In a bar (yes, my parents took me to bars with them), I'd be there. Even at fairs and festivals I'd be in the arcade tent for the entirety of my stay.

In 1992, X-Men hit the arcades. That would put me at about ten years old. I was always a big X-Men fan as a kid. At the time, I actually had no idea that this game was coming out. I was on vacation in Florida. My family took a trip to Disney World. The kids and the adults split up and everyone went to do their own thing. I don't know if it is still there, but there used to be a giant arcade at the bottom of Space Mountain. After getting off the ride, I strolled through the arcade, checking things out. That's when I saw this game. It attracted me directly to it like a bright light attracts a moth.

Luckily I had an ample supply of cash on me. I played this game from start to finish, completely in awe the entire time. Over the next few years, I'd often see this game at arcades whenever I'd visit one. I'd always stop and take the time to play it. I loved it. I thought it was pretty much the best arcade game ever made.

As time passed, arcades went out of style and vanished from America's landscape. I moved on to bigger and better things, but it always kind of made me sad that I would never be able to play the X-Men arcade game again.

BUT THEN...

I was able to find this game available for digital download on the PlayStation 3. Looking at my trophy list, this was almost five years ago exactly that I first played this game. I played it, breezed through it, and collected all the game's trophies. It was a fun time, but a very short one. A few years later I played it with my friend Jeff over at his house. We beat it, we laughed at the game's horrendous dialogue, and we moved on. It was a fun time, but again a very short one.

I played it again just today for this blog. While this certainly isn't a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, I didn't enjoy it as much as I did in the past. I think the nostalgia factor of the game has messed with my head. A lot of times I will think back fondly to a game I played as a kid, and when I play it again in present time it is nowhere near as good as I remembered. This game kinda falls into that trap.

I just recently played Batman Returns for the Super Nintendo, and I found that game to be much better than X-Men. There is a lack of challenge here and a lack of depth to the combat that I had a really hard time overlooking. Everything is so simple and basic.

I'm just assuming you readers know all about this game. I apologize. This is a side scrolling beat-em-up in the vein of classic games like Ninja Turtles, Final Fight, and Golden Axe. This means that you move from left to right on a semi-3D playing surface. You can also move up and down to avoid foes and obstacles. Enemies are constantly coming at you and you must fight them off in order to advance in the level.

You have your choice of up to six different X-Men: Dazzler, Storm, Wolverine, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, and Colossus. You start the game with three lives. When you exhaust all these lives, you have the choice to continue. You can either pick a new X-Men character or use the one you died with. In the arcade version, you have to put in a quarter every time you want to continue. In the PS3 version, you simply press start. You have an unlimited number of continues. This makes the game a lot less stressful and a lot easier. You don't ever have to worry about dying because there are no consequences. In the arcade, you bet you'd be worried about dying because depending on your skill level, dying could be a very expensive proposition.

There are only three buttons that you use in this game. Jump, punch, and your mutant power. Jumping is self explanatory. Punching is a little disappointing as there is no kick button, and your basic punch move is very repetitive. Each character has a very specific mutant power. Nightcrawler teleports around the screen and does damage to everyone he comes in contact with. Cyclops shoots his eye laser thing. Storm summons a tornado attack. Dazzler dazzles. Wolverine's confuses me because his mutant attack consists of shooting some kind of boomerang energy disc from his claws. When does that ever happen in the comics, movies, or the cartoons? Never, that I know of. Weird.

My favorite character in the game, though, was always Colossus. I don't know if he is stronger than the other characters or if its only a "placebo effect" because of his appearance. But I always pick him. I like his mutant attack too, as it is a good one to use when you are cornered by enemies. He explodes outwards as he transitions back and forth between his human appearance and his metal one. If you do this when enemies are near, it throws them as far away as possible, killing most of them.

The story line of the game is a basic and simple one. Magneto bad. Magneto take Professor X. X-Men track down and fight Magneto. X-Men win. But let's be real, no one plays this type of game for the story line. I have to point out though some of the game's questionable enemy quotes. "X-Men, welcome to die!!!" is an all time favorite of mine.

At the end of each stage, you square off against a classic (or not so classic in some cases) X-Men foe. Fan favorites like Pyro, the Blob, and Juggernaut make appearances. Of course, Magneto is the game's final boss. None of these battles are particularly difficult. Or maybe it just seemed that way because I had unlimited continues. I dunno. I am sure they felt a lot harder when precious, precious quarters were at stake.

Graphically, the game impresses with its bright colors and big cartoony sprite characters. All of the characters are well drawn and instantly identifiable with their comic counterparts. The stages may be a little rough around the edges by today's standards, but it does feel like you are navigating through a believable X-Men cartoon universe.

My main issues with the game are its short length, basic game play, and its extremely easy difficulty level. You can breeze through this in 25 or 30 minutes, easy. There is not a whole lot of incentive to go back and play again. As I said before, there isn't much depth to the combat. You punch and you use your mutant powers. You can jump kick, but I found that to be mostly a useless attack. There are no items, no weapons to pick up and use. Aside from mounted laser turrets and a few areas where you can fall off the map, there isn't much environmental interaction to speak of. So soon after playing a game like Batman Returns that had a lot of depth, I found this game to be quite lacking.

I find myself with the same struggle I've experienced the last few times I've written a review for a game that I used to love. If I was going purely by nostalgia factor and how I used to feel as a kid, this game would get an A easy. But if I'm going by my current feelings, it would get a poor score. How do I find the balance? Giving it a C always works. But hey lets throw a plus on there just for old time's sake. Plus this game earns bonus points for earning the ranking of #85 on my list of 100 greatest video games of all time that I wrote back in 2008. Looking back on it now, it is a godawful list. But still fun to check out, like a terrible B movie that you know sucks but are still entertained by anyway.

Here's a link if you want to check it out (X-Men is at the very bottom of the page):

http://survivorsucks.yuku.com/topic/26697/Rudy39s-video-game-rankings?page=6#.WZDoZbLyvrc

You're welcome in advance.

Overall:

C+

Video Game Review #101: Dishonored

Dishonored

PlayStation 3

Dishonored is a game I have owned for several years now, but for some reason had never gotten around to playing until just recently. Back in 2013 or 2014 I had found a used copy of this game at GameStop for dirt cheap. I also had a gift card for the store which had more than enough on it to cover the cost of the game. Nothing else caught my eye, so it was a no-brainer that I would pick this up.

Little did I know that the game would sit on my shelf, untouched, for years and years to come. If you have been following this blog at all, you should know that I have more games in my collection than I know what to do with. Dishonored fell into the same trap that many other games have fallen in to. "I'll get around to playing it..... eventually."

Well, eventually finally came in 2017.

Dishonored takes place entirely from the first person perspective and is set in a very unique fantasy world. You play as a man named Corvo, who is a trusted informant of the Empress of Dunwall. When the game begins you are returning from a mission to seek aid for a plague that has struck Dunwall. You meet up with the Empress to deliver your results. The meeting is ambushed, the Empress is killed, her daughter is kidnapped, and you are framed for the crime.

Six months later, your character is busted out of jail by a group of loyalists who don't like or trust the new regime in charge. They want you to find the Empress's missing daughter, take out all the traitorous thugs who framed you, and restore order to Dunwall.

Your first mission is the prison break. This is where Dishonored eases you in and teaches you all the game mechanics and controls. Game play is mainly stealth based. You want to sneak up on your enemies and take them out, preferably in a non-lethal fashion. You actually can attempt to rush through this game fighting everything in sight if you choose. The game doesn't force you to play either way. But health and ammo is a little scarce in this game. If you do choose to go the combative route, it will drain you of all your items very very quickly.

I always try to play stealthy. Even though I have been playing stealth games like Metal Gear Solid, Thief, and Manhunt for a long time, I am still not very good at them. Something always happens. A guard I didn't know was there will see me. Or I'll accidentally make a noise. Or I'll get impatient waiting for my opening and make a dumb move that gets me spotted. It is always something. I had the same experience with this game as well. As much as I tried to stealth it up, I would often fail miserably.

Like other stealth games, when you are spotted the enemies all flock to your location. Unlike other games though, it is not an endless supply of enemies. You can kill them off. But as I said before, it is very draining on your item and ammunition situation. You can't just blindly run through this game trying to fight everyone and expect to have a whole lot of success. In fact, there are some areas that are pretty much downright impossible once you have been spotted. It took me a LOT of trial and error to get through these areas.

If I had to compare this game with another game, it would be Thief. The comparisons are obvious. Similar setting, similar character, similar first person game play mechanics. There are a lot of differences, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was playing Thief all over again when I first started this. And I was not a huge fan of that game, if you can remember my initial review. So by default I didn't like this one too much either. I know it really isn't fair to make that comparison, since this game came out before Thief. But I had played Thief first, so I couldn't help but hold this game up in comparison.

This isn't a long game. Probably about ten to twelve hours. Even still, it took me over a month to finish this game. I just could not get into it. I wasn't having fun. Playing was like a chore.

About halfway through the game, something changed for me. I still wasn't the game's biggest fan, but I began to not dislike it as much as I had before. I started to "get" it, if that makes any sense. The mechanics became more natural to me. I became a pretty skilled fighter. I still sucked at the stealth aspect, but I was beginning to at least show some improvement. And when stealth failed, there was always combat to fall back on. Or hiding. Shameless, shameless hiding.

In addition to being similar to Thief, the game also shares a lot of common traits with Bioshock. The overall environment of the game is pretty cool, much better than that of Thief and more comparable to that of a Bioshock game. The story line is okay. A lot of the game play mechanics like listening to tapes and picking up items are similar to the way Bioshock does things. Not only are there regular attacks in the game, but you can also earn supernatural powers along the way, very similar to Bioshock's Plasmids.

While I enjoyed the second half of the game, I still was not enthralled by it. It has its moments though. There is one mission in particular I really liked. You attend a costume ball in a posh mansion and have to find and eliminate one of its residents, who is helping your opposition. As you get deeper into the mission, you are given the choice of killing this lady or helping her run off with her lover. Either way, she is off your hands and out of the picture. Normally I am a heartless bastard and make all the evil choices, but I actually helped her get away. I thought it would add a little more intrigue to the story. And it did.

This game gives you choices like that every once in a while. Every in game choice you make affects the way the game's story plays out. In fact, the very style of play you choose plays a major role in the advancement of the story line. If you kill a lot of people, you inadvertently help to intensify the plague that is ravaging Dunwall. If you play in a more peaceful, stealthy manner, things will be a lot more rosy at the end of the game. Or so I've heard. I have only played through the game once and got the shitty ending because I had to resort to fighting so often.

Dishonored does a lot of things right. Graphics, story line, music, sound effects. Creating a nice, believable fantasy atmosphere. It plays and controls well. Clearly a lot of time and effort was put into making this a really grade A game. From a technical standpoint everything here is top notch.

That said, it doesn't matter how pretty or technically advanced a game is if it is not any fun. Not to say this game isn't any fun, but it does drag its feet quite often. It starts slow. It didn't get me hooked immediately. The whole first half of this game I trudged through. It was kind of a chore to play, to be honest. I only started playing regularly so I could finish the game and move on to something else. The game eventually did win me over, but it was almost too little too late.

So how do I grade a game that I half hated, half kinda-sorta enjoyed? I was going back and forth between D+ and C-, but decided to settle on the latter. I simply can't ignore all the things that this game does right. All the TLC that went into making this a really detailed and engaging fantasy world. It is not the most fun game out there. Definitely one of the least enjoyable games I have played in the last six months or so. But it doesn't deserve to be in the D range.

If you love Thief, you will love this game. If you love Bioshock, you may love this game. But if you hated either, then Dishonored definitely will not be for you.

Overall:

C-