| CASTLEVANIA: SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT |
| Konami |
| Action/RPG |
  |
With Halloween
just around the corner, I can't think of a better game to review
than Konami's Playstation classic, Castlevania: Symphony of the
Night. Calling this one of the best games ever made isn't
meaningless hyperbole; it's common knowledge. Ask anyone, and
they're enthusiastically agree that Symphony of the Night is a
masterpiece.
It's also vastly different from the
previous games in the Castlevania series. The spotlight has
shifted from the Belmont family to Dracula's prodigal son,
Alucard. You may remember him as a supporting character in
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, but as powerful as he was, that
game barely tapped his potential. In Symphony of the Night,
he's capable of far more, arming himself with dozens of weapons and
crushing his foes with powerful magic spells.
You'll also notice a difference in the
castle itself... it'll seem a lot larger than it was the last few
times you dropped by for a visit. That's because the level
structure has changed... it's much less linear than it was in the
past, giving players the opportunity to revisit stages and uncover
hidden rooms. Moving onto the next level is no longer a simple
matter of beating a boss... this time, you'll need to collect items
that will let you make it to that platform hanging just out of
reach, or squeeze through those seemingly impenetrable iron
bars.
It's not just the castle that's been
made more complex... Konami has added depth to the gameplay as
well. Unsatisfied with carrying around a whip, Alucard can
find and use all kinds of weapons, ranging from swift and deadly
swords to brutally effective maces. Many of these implements
of destruction are infused with magical properties which make them
even more powerful, and others... well, you'll wish you'd left them
where you found them. You can also enhance your stylish
Victorian wardrobe with an immense assortment of headgear, armor,
capes, and jewelry. It's not only fashionable, it'll give you
an important edge against the thousands of monsters scattered
throughout Dracula's lair.
I never mentioned the monsters, did
I? Well, you remember how great the creepy creatures were in
the original Castlevania, right? Take them, add enough shading
and detail to make them genuinely frightening, and throw in every
other mythological beast you've ever seen, and you've got the cast
of villains in Symphony of the Night. You'll even find enemies
you haven't seen anywhere else, like the tragically grotesque
Beezulbub, a rotting giant hung from the ceiling by rusty hooks, and
Granfaloon, a fleshy orb using a graveyard's worth of corpses as its
protective shell. You can't help but be impressed by the
monsters in this game, from the tiniest bat to the master of them
all, the sinister Dracula.
You'll also be dumbstruck by the
quality of both the sound and graphics. The game truly is a
symphony with its beautiful soundtrack, featuring everything from
classical music surpassed only by master composers to
head bangin' heavy metal rock. The graphics are equally
exceptional, with polygons and other special effects spicing up your
magic spells. The bosses are enormous, sometimes double the
size of the screen, and Alucard is a thing of dark beauty with his
flowing cape and white mane of hair trailing behind him. If it
weren't for the slightly silly voice overs and the unfortunate
moments when the game slows down to accommodate large numbers of
enemies, the game's audiovisuals would be flawless.
That's not to say that the game
doesn't have flaws in other areas, however. Konami lengthened
the game with a second castle that appears after you've thoroughly
explored the first one, but it's simply the same castle, turned
upsidedown and populated with more dangerous enemies. This
makes the going doubly frustrating... when you're not using your
gravity boots to reach areas that were easily accessible in the
first castle, you're struggling to stay alive against relentless
foes like the nearly unstoppable Galamoth. The complicated
joystick motions used to cast spells don't make things any
easier. When you're in a dire situation and your hit points
have dropped dangerously low, you don't have time to make like Geese
Howard and bust out a Rising Storm to recover your ailing
health. More often than not, you'll be left wriggling the
joypad like an idiot while your enemies close in for the kill.
The rest of the game has very solid control, but those convoluted
magic spells really suck... and I'm not talking about blood
here.
Nevertheless, Symphony of the Night is
the best the Castlevania series has to offer... and when you
consider just how good the other games in the series were, that's
saying a lot.
| DRAGONBALL
Z FINAL BOUT |
| Accl- uh, I mean Bandai |
| 3D Fighter |
|
 There's a company
in Japan called Bandai. You might have heard of them... they make
many consumer products, including Power Rangers figures and really
shitty licensed games. They're basically Japan's equivalent of
Acclaim. One particular effort they did (that was actually brought
to the US in limited qualities) was Dragon Ball Final Bout. Based on
the series Dragon Ball GT, this was the first foray into 3D for the
DB universe (unless you count DBZ VR VS in the arcades).
Interestingly enough, you'd think a game like this would kill the DB
franchise. On the contrary, it was the one "extraordinary effort"
keeping the franchise alive--the game was delayed, so they kept the
GT series going to maintain interest in the game.
I thought this game might be interesting,
so I bought it. I didn't think it would be as bad as I had heard.
Now my life is changed. I feel like I have lost my sanity to this
horrible, horrible game.
Anyway, onto the game. The characters in
this game are mostly from the GT series: Goku (both adult and
child*), Trunks, Pan (Goku's granddaughter and Gohan's daughter),
Cell, Freeza, Piccolo, Gohan, and Majin Buu. This is one of the
problems with the game--the cast seems to be mostly DBZ rehash
(though there is a saga in which Goku has to battle Freeza and Cell
when Earth and Hell are linked). They could have put in some of the
new characters in the series--Bebi, Uubu (the new form of Majin Buu
as a young boy who has no knowledge of his nihilistic past),
Super-17 (a cross between Android-17 and another #17), or even one
of the seven evil Shenlongs (Dragons) that appears in the end of the
series. Instead, what do they do? They put in a total of three
Trunks (normal, Super GT-style, and Super DBZ-style) and six Gokus
(normal adult, normal child, super adult GT, super adult DBZ, super
child, and SSJ4), along with Vegetto (Goku + Vegeta fusion). That's
it. Stark raving laziness.
This would ruin it for many folks, but
wait! There's more!! The graphics are horrible. They look like LEGO
people, almost. There are some nice touches (Majin Buu puffing up
when he charges, for example), but there's little steak for all the
sizzle. The sound is passable, but you wouldn't really expect
anything less from this. As for the gameplay...
Well, the less said about the gameplay,
the better, but since I must, here goes: The close-up combat is
horrible. The punches and kicks are stilted and take an eternity
from start to finish. As a result, there seems to be an almost total
reliance on distance fighting. The only semi-effective close move is
the meteo attack, which seems too east to do, making it possible to
link six or seven meteos in one series. This seriously throws off
the balance of the game. Furthermore, the characters' walking is
deathly slow. It takes an eternity to get over to the
opponent.
As for the distance game, there's the
basic fireball, as well as the mandatory "more effective fireball
attack" that is usually three fireballs in rapid succession, but
sometimes varies from character to character. Also, there's the
homing fireballs some characters have. And, finally, there are super
fireballs. The far-away attacks have a window during which you have
to input a command to do one of four things: block (1/2 damage),
dodge (slight damage), dissipate (use energy field, slight damage),
or blast war (classic from the second and third SNES fighting
games). This is pretty much the crux of the gameplay.
Note: this is for the Japanese version of
the game. Given the fact that the US version is going for upwards of
$200, I'm not going to try to find that. And what's even
sadder is that in Japan, this game is actually in the "PlayStation
the Best" series (Greatest Hits equivalent). Try to wrap your head
around this: There were actually at least 1 million Japanese
consumers who were big enough suckers to buy this god-awful game. I
feel like Akane wouldn't be enough to "analyze" this game. I feel
like we would need Amy Rose from Sonic Adventure and Skuld from Oh
My Goddess! to aid her in the "final analysis."
*A major plot point in GT is that Goku
gets turned into a child again (he's in his mid-50s at this point)
by the "Ultimate Dragon Balls," which were created by the original
Piccolo (before he split into two separate entities). He has to
retrieve the Balls, which have scattered across the galaxy, because
1) they're the only balls that can reverse the wish, and 2) if he
doesn't collect them in one year, they'll destroy the earth (and
that's where I keep all my stuff!) He winds up getting help from Pan
(his granddaughter) and Trunks (who has his future self's sword).
The series actually has some good points--interesting attention to
backstory (the species that the Saiyajins annihilated factor into a
major plotline early on, and Dr. Gero, the creator of the androids,
makes his not-so-triumphant return), and a good cast (Uubu, Pan, and
the robot Gill, who actually has a Dragon Radar). The fact that
neither of these was used in major detail (except Super Bebi--Bebi
possessing Vegeta as a giant gold ape) was a travesty, and for this
alone, I will for all eternity call Bandai "Acclaim
Japan."
| FINAL
FANTASY VIII |
| Squaresoft |
| Role-Playing Adventure |
|
|
REVIEW BY KAO
MEGURA
Everything in this review is all in my
opinion. I know there are people out there who probably pray
to their FF8 CDs twice a day. So don't read this if you can't
stand a little negative criticism.
GRAPHICS:
This is the area where FF8
really shines. The FMV sequences are just amazing and are some
of the best I have seen in any game. The in-game graphics are
also extremely well done--the characters are highly detailed, as are
the graphics, and the special effects are very flashy. I did
find the limited animations to be something of a let down--the
backgrounds are mostly static, and the characters have only a
handful of gestures that are repeated far too often (like Quistis
holding her arms every 5 minutes).
One really nice change is that
the graphics are all realistic looking, unlike FF7's confusing
backgrounds (where you had multi-colored cave walls with misplaced
light sources and couldn't tell where the heck you were or where you
were going). My biggest gripe is the same one I had with
FF7--sometimes it's hard to see where a door or path is, and walking
along the walls or checking each rock in an effort to find an exit
gets really tiring fast, but it happens often and is really
annoying.
SOUND and MUSIC:
The music in this game is
really sub-par; it sounds just like the simplistic, MIDI-like tunes
heard in FF7. In fact, some of the tracks bear an uncanny
resemblance to old FF7 tunes. Very little of the music caught
my attention or is even memorable...as much as I disliked FF7's
music, FF8's is even worse. It's not like the tunes are
actually harsh or anything, they're just all very boring.
There are some really good songs you hear in later discs (like in
Esthar), but they can't save this game from having a lackluster
music score overall. The sound effects, on the other hand, are
pretty good--monsters roar and squeal, you can hear the splash of
the surf when you're by the water, there are all kinds of sounds for
magic spells and attacks, etc.
PLOT and STORY:
FF7 had a great plot, but it
was presented in such a muddled manner that it was hard to
understand just what was going on, even by the time you beat the
game. FF8 does just the opposite--the plot is easy to
comprehend but is mediocre at best. Most of the time you can
make a pretty good guess as to what will happen next in FF8, and the
few mysterious and intriguing aspects of the story are given rather
dumb and hasty explanations. Some parts even come off as
uneeded (as an example, seriously, you could drop the whole Matron
thing without detracting from the plot--it's hastily put in and
resolved without adding anything worthwhile to the story). I
commend Square for trying to make FF8's storyline easy to
understand, but it shouldn't have come at the cost it did: it's far
less entertaining than other RPG plots. Even the 7th Saga got
more interesting as time went on than this game did.
CHARACTERS:
FF8's Squall acts just like
FF7's Cloud, only more insensitive. Cloud was boring enough in
FF7, but to just repeat the whole "I don't care" attitude thing with
Squall in FF8 is beyond tedious. After about 5 minutes of
gameplay, you stop caring what happens to Squall, and it only comes
off as more and more pathetic when the other characters try to get
him to show some emotion (particularly Rinoa). Suddenly Squall
falls head over heels for Rinoa halfway through the game for
apparently no reason, and it only serves to show the shortcomings of
the character designs even more. The other characters are
uninteresting--Seifer, Irvine, and Quistis just blend into the
background for most of the game. Zell sticks out just because
he's so overemotional, a stark contrast to the other characters, but
he still pales compared to FF7's Barret or Cid (both of whom were
nothing great to begin with). Selphie actually has a few good
moments, but for the most part she falls into the dorky, childlike
mold so common in other RPGs. Even Edea, who is your enemy for
most of the game, comes off as lukewarm and is nowhere near as
imposing as Kefka or Sephiroth of previous FF games. Raijin
and Fujin are probably the worst two characters, since they
basically run around spitting out "Ya know!?" and "RAGE." for the
majority of the game. ;)
Ironically, the only
interesting character in the entire game is the one you spend the
least amount of time playing with. Unlike everyone else,
Laguna comes off like a real person, who is brave, clumsy, shy, and
determined under different situations. In other words, he's a
realistic and a likable character. And although his allies are
boring, at least they gave the occasional sarcastic response to
Laguna's hairbrained schemes for comedic effect. If you could
have played with Laguna instead of Squall for the majority of the
game, it would have made for a much more entertaining experience
than having to play with Squall, who is about as lively as a
mannequin.
GAMEPLAY:
For reasons unknown to
mankind, SQUARE decided to over-simplify FF8. This ranges from
really minor stuff like being unable to change the window color, to
serious stuff like omitting rank changing and defending from the
battle menu, removing armor and accessories (all you can do is
upgrade your weapons), and being unable to cast magic spells on
multiple targets. With so few and limited options, it
undoubtedly makes it easier for newcomers to get into the game, but
it also makes the game so simplistic that it gets boring. I
mean, when all you can really do in battle is attack, use magic, use
a restorative item, or one of the few special abilities available to
you, it gets dull after a while. It also takes out quite a bit
of strategy (i.e. you can hit flying enemies with any weapon, unlike
in FF7, and enemies in the back rows don't take less damage than
those in the front row, so you can just attack indiscriminately).
The only thing that saves the
gameplay is the interesting way in which item use has been
implemented; you can earn a lot of weird and seemingly useless items
from monsters, and then modify and refine them in to all sorts of
stuff. It's pretty neat, even if it can make your characters
too powerful. The magic 'drawing' system seems like a neat
idea, but is actually quite boring, as you run around drawing spells
from points or monsters for hours on end just to get enough magic
spells. I actually ended up just going into battle against an
enemy, incapacitating them with Bad Breath or something similar,
then putting something heavy on my controller to keep them all
drawing magic for 20 minutes. Sure it's dull, but it's faster
than hacking up monsters to get items you can refine into spells, or
waiting around for draw points to recharge. Leave it to SQUARE to
make sure that the only cool gameplay addition ends up being not
very well implemented.
DIFFICULTY:
FF7 was ridiculously easy, and
FF8 also shares this distinction. If you play through the game
without using GF abilities, the game is reasonably hard. On
the other hand, if you give into temptation and use the GFs, the
game becomes a cakewalk. GFs do tons of damage when summoned,
and the abilities you learn from them just ruin the game. For
example, you can get Diablos only a few hours into the game, and
from him you can earn the power to never encounter random battles.
That would be like getting the Moogle Charm in FF6 by the time you
reached the Returner's base. It just makes no sense. The
refining powers of the GFs let you turn items and cards into
powerful stuff--for example, with the Card Mod ability (which
Queztlcoatl can learn, and you get him at the start of the game),
you can earn half of Quistis' Blue Magic spells before even going to
the Fire Cavern, just by collecting cards from the other Balamb
Garden students and turning them into the appropriate items to use
on Quistis. This even includes the way powerful spells like
Bad Breath and Mighty Guard...uh, excuse me, didn't of the
playtesters at SQUARE notice this?
As the game progresses, you
only get stronger GFs with more and more abilities (like the Revive
ability of Alexander, which ressurects a character with full HP and
costs absolutely nothing to use). As if your characters
weren't powerful enough, the enemies are beyond dumb, most of them
having idiotic attack patterns (for example, Imps will try to Dispel
someone with Auto-Reflect repeatedly, even though it can't be
dispelled). As tragic pointed out, the only difficult aspect
of this game is when it comes to finding save points, as they are
far and few between, a real problem when you've been playing for 40
minutes, have something else to do, and there are no savepoints in
sight. Ouch.
THE TRANSLATION:
I can't really comment on this
since I haven't played the Japanese game. On one hand, at
least the text reads better than FF7 and has few spelling and
grammar errors. It's nice to not have to figure out who said
what and for what reason, unlike in FF7's hard-to-follow
conversations. Also, it was neat to see the magic names in
their original Japanese names, and some of the shortened names were
understandable, such as "Quetzalcoatl" becoming "Quetzcotl" or
"Grashaboras" ending up as "Doomtrain". On the other hand, you
have the usual name mistranslations--"Golden Needle" becomes "Soft",
"Garkimasera" ends up as "Imp", and "Meteor Bullet" is mangled into
"Meteo Barret". You'd think after FF7, the people at Square
would get into gear and start translating correctly, but apparently
it's not a big concern for these guys.
REPLAY VALUE:
I've heard the argument time
and time again that RPGs are not meant to be replayed often; which
makes no sense to me. I mean, if I counted the number of times
I replayed Dragon Warrior III, or Chrono Trigger, or Secret of Mana
since I bought those games, I'd probably be up in the
trillions. Any quality RPG has just as much replay
value as other game genres. Unfortunately, FF8 got pretty
tiring after just the first play through. One problem was the
fact that the game was so short-- despite FF8 being on four CDs, it
felt like I spent more time playing FF Mystic Quest than I did
getting through FF8. When I found myself confronted with the
message to pop in the next disc, the same thought of "Geez,
already?" kept entering my mind. Unlike other RPGs, I didn't
think after I'd beaten it that it would be fun to relive it all
because there wasn't that much to go through again.
Another blow against FF8 is
that there aren't a lot of secrets and bonuses in it. Granted,
I don't really care for FF7, but at least it had all sorts of
mini-games, and hard-to-find items, and bonus areas (like Yuffie's
quest in Wutai or the Ancient Forest with the frogs). All FF8 has is
the card game, which is entertaining, but not the most exciting
thing ever to pop up in a video game. One of the fun things
about replaying RPGs is trying to discover all the stuff you missed
the first time, but with FF8, you pretty much see it all on the
first play through (at least that makes it a good candidate for a
rental).
IN SUMMARY:
FF8 is a below-average RPG;
the great graphics can't save it from it's boring (and highly
predictable) plot, uninteresting music, one-dimensional characters,
neutered gameplay, non-existant replay value, or utter lack of
challenge. If you didn't care for FF7, you probably won't care
for this game, and even if you liked FF7, you probably won't care
for this game, either ;) It's not like FF8 is the worst RPG
ever made (there are plenty of other games that could hold that
distinction), but you should definitely rent it first or borrow it
from a friend before deciding whether to purchase it or not.
Square obviously feels that putting out commercials full of FMV are
enough to make people buy this game, when in fact the FMV is about
all FF8 has going for it.
| GEKIOH:
SHOOTING KING |
| Natsume, Wanashi, Four
Winds |
| Shooter |
| |
 With recent releases, it's become apparent that Sony's
first console is a dumping ground for a wide range of budget priced
titles aimed at a mass market that finds themselves more than
willing to shell out $10 for dreck like Largo Winch and Disney Kid's
Kitchen with Mickey and Minnie (don't quote me on the exact title of
that one...).
At the same time the ol' PSOne has become
the home for quirk-filled, anime-flavored arcade games and four
year old shooters. Beating Psikyo's Sol Divide to the Toys 'R
Us Deals Zone cardboard rack is the Natsume published Gekioh
Shooter King, a slightly above average, relatively nice looking
shooter that abides by the Capcom school of cheap Dreamcast games:
supply a cathartic twitch game experience at a bargin basement price
(in this case $10) and throw a bunch of useless, but fun, crap on
top of it.
Its hard to go into detail about the
actual game. Gekioh is, basically, a Raiden clone, and a pretty good
one at that. It has a power up and weapon system completely lifted
from Seibu Kaihatsu's legendary series and the menacing bosses, less
menacing mini-bosses, and plethora of standard cannon fodder and
environments carry the series' design astethic. Later levels drag,
painfully so, and beat you senseless with pattern-happy space tanks
(astro tanks to some) and giant robots with prutruding tentacles.
The game, thankfully, doesn't rely on endless "bullet hell"
patterns, instead offering barrages of foes to cut down. So
it's basically a poor man's Raiden. In the case of those people
that can't afford Raiden Project on Ebay, I mean that
literally.
What really makes the game are the
variety of modes. Beyond easy, Gekioh (arcade default), and hard
mode there are six bonus modes (the manual deems them as
"hilarious"). Slow mode adds, for some strange reason, zombie sound
effects and makes your ship more lethargic. Antique mode adds a
sepia toned FOX Movietone motif to the game. The screen jitters like
an old film, you get a jittery sounding projector, hair on the
"frame", and sound effects and music associated
with newsreel footage. Comedic mode adds a laugh track, cued
when you die, and cartoony "crashing anvil" sound effects when you
blow up foes. Oddly, no music is available in Comedic mode. No Mercy
and Stingy are basically the same thing: No Mercy gives you nothing
from items and makes it harder to earn to power ups and extra
lives via high scores. They also make it mindnumbingly difficult.
Stingy mode is only two levels long, and gives you one life and
no credits. The coolest mode, arguably is Pocket mode. If you are
one of the six people who own a Pocketstation in the US you can
download a mini-game to it. It plays sort of like a dumbed down
Solar Striker, the now anicent Game Boy game. If you have no
Pockstation, fret not. The game allows you to play
a beautifully emulated version of the game.
At ten dollars, it's a given
that Gekioh is worth the price. If it was just the game sans
the extra modes it would've been a two green jewel and a purple
jewel (that's a five, kids) game that would've been worth ten bucks.
With the extra weird, though basically pointless, features, it's
MORE than worth that price. Gekioh is worth a go, and, at least from
my experience, only available at Toys 'R Us.
| GUILTY
GEAR |
| Atlus/Arc System Works |
| Fighting |
| |
Everybody is
talking about Guilty Gear X this, GGX that. Everybody,
however, seems to forget what began it all... the original Guilty
Gear fighting game for PSX. The game was a marvel of
engineering--a well-animated 2D fighting on the Sony "2D?
What's that?" Playstation. The game had many interesting
characters, sort of stepping beyond most archetypes: A girl
who uses her hair as a weapon, a blind man who attacks with his
shadow, a doctor who uses a scalpel... of DOOM, and a Swiss
fighter. They also explored rarely-used archetypes, such as
"American ninja" and "British guy who uses obscure Japanese weapon
that maybe 12 Westerners would be able to identify by proper
name." Yes, Guilty Gear has an answer to Billy Kane in Axl
Low, a man trapped in a world he'd normally never live to see.
They even have similar moves.
But enough about that. You know
about the Gears from GGX, right? They were a fusion of magic
and machinery, the ultimate soldier. Many Gears were actually
engineered from humans in a Guyver-like fashion, like Sol Badguy,
the main character. But the Gears rebelled under the rule of
the "leader" gear, Justice, Gear 01. The Holy Knights, led by
Kliff Undersn (Andersen?) and Ky Kiske, eventually sent Justice to
another dimension (because they couldn't kill him, you see).
But the barrier between the worlds is weakening. Justice is
about to awaken once more, and a tournament is initiated to form
another guild of knights. However, there seems to be a dark
force behind the tournament, using the violence and bloodshed as a
catalyst to accelerate Armageddon...
The game plays similarly to GGX in most
respects, including the fabled double jump. However, each character
has two life bars a round, ala the Real Bout series or Last Blade,
and you can actually charge up a certain special for each
character. This creates one of the greatest problems with the
game: Ultra-powerful L3 maneuvers, such as Kliff's L3 Houkou Gaeshi
(his palm blast attack), which can take off MORE THAN ONE WHOLE LIFE
BAR!! Also, when one bar is down, it's unlimited supers for
the rest of the round, also ala RB or LB. However, there are
no SDM's.
Also, the Instant Kill is done quite
differently. You can initiate it two ways: 1) by attacking the
opponent with P+K, or 2) by blocking an attack JUST as it
hits. Then, hit QCF+S (I think) to follow through (if you're
on the defensive, I believe QCB+S will escape, and you can actually
do the move yourself). This is the other major problem with
the game--the Instant Kill was too easy to do, and it ended the
ENTIRE MATCH by default; i.e., WOW! YOU LOSE!
Also, the Hard Slash is a bit too hard in
many cases: Kliff again comes to mind, as does Potemkin.
Certain characters can't dash, such as Potemkin and Kliff, but Kliff
actually lurches as you attempt to backstep, and sometimes throws
out his back, doing damage. This seems a bit silly in some
cases. I can see making the "slow but strong" guy not be able
to dash, but the old guy is supposed to be able to simultaneously
take on the combined forces of the US and Europe. Certainly,
he should be able to at least hop forward.
For what it is, it's a good game. I
actually got it for store credit ($15) at an EB, and sold it on the
other EB(ay) for $40+. Who says games aren't a hedge against
investment? Still, it could have been better, as was seen in
GGX. That said, it's a good look at the roots of Guilty Gear
X.
| KLONOA |
| Namco |
| (Mostly) Side-Scrolling
Platformer |
| |
I didn't pay much attention to Klonoa
when it was first released, thanks largely to a moronic print ad
that compared it to a social disease (uh, Namco, it's a lot cheaper
to just let your competitors take shots at your products rather than
paying big bucks to do it yourself...). When I finally did
play it years later on one of the Official Playstation Magazine demo
discs, I figured I didn't miss out on much, since the first round
included on that disc was pretty simplistic... the polygonal
graphics didn't add as much depth to the game as Super Mario 64, and
the ability to throw and hold enemies had already been done, and
given more dimension, in the much older Super Mario Bros.
2.
Despite all this, there are a few people
who swear by Klonoa, and one of them was so confident that he could
change my mind about the game that he let me borrow his copy for a
couple of days, telling me, "Trust me, it WILL get a lot better once
you've gotten through the first round." I didn't really
understand how this could be possible, but after playing it for a
few hours, Klonoa's qualities had become a little more
obvious. After a few more hours, there was no way I could
ignore them. My friend was right... Klonoa DOES have a lot to
offer if you're willing to stick with it.
Remember when I told you that Klonoa
doesn't have a lot of abilities? Well, it's true... the flea
biting ankle biter can catch and inflate enemies (I like to think of
this as a tribute to Dig Dug), then throw them in one of four
directions... oddly, not up or down, but rather toward and away from
the camera. Klonoa can also spring off his enemy's back,
sending him skyward and the foe to the ground. And, well,
that's it. I didn't think this would be enough, but
fortunately, the game's great level design and even better enemy
placement make Klonoa's limited talents a lot more versatile than
you'd expect. For instance, one stage requires you to set an
exploding enemy next to a switch, then head for the door before the
monster explodes, triggering the switch and (very briefly) opening
that door. In other areas, you'll have to leap off enemies not
to reach higher ground but to break boxes blocking access to paths
below you. You'll even climb vertical lines of flying
enemies to reach some platforms. This clever exploitation of
enemies doesn't happen very often in video games (there was a
classic moment in Metroid where you had to freeze and leap off the
backs of enemies, but you only needed to do it once or twice), but
it's the backbone of Klonoa's gameplay... you won't even be able to
finish the demo without it.
What else does Klonoa have going for
it? Well, it's got great graphics, even though they are
affected by the Playstation's limitations... there are still
edges on the polygonal playfields and the sprites don't look that
great when the camera pans in during intermissions, but I can't
think of a 3D platformer on the system aside from maybe Spyro: Year
of the Dragon that looks better. The gems spread throughout
each round are stunning... when you pick them up, they break into
shards that briefly form a spinning, shrinking ring, and the fairies
you'll occasionally find make them glitter like they're under a
berzerk strobelight. The enemies have a lot of detail and
animation, too... when you toss the Moos, they burst into more
colorful shapes than you'll find in a box of Lucky Charms, and the
Boomies have rays of light that penetrate their skin shortly before
they go, well, Boomie. Finally, the superb level design adds
depth to not only the gameplay but the artwork as well... you'll see
bridges hanging over other trails, and objects in the distance that
act as scenery at first but become useful items once you've found a
path leading to them. The blinding light pouring in from open
doors is another great effect, although you might find yourself
feeling a little confined if you can't quite reach
them...
I was satisfied and sometimes even
impressed with the sound as well. The music is pretty complex
despite the use of digital instruments, and it definitely accents
some areas, like the first mine cart ride. When you hop on,
you'll hear a tune that becomes louder and more pressing as the cart
rolls on and starts to fall apart... but the music stops the moment
you do. It's a great example of how music can get a player
more involved in a game rather than just getting on their nerves...
although admittedly, there is music in Klonoa that does this as
well. And while I don't mind the gibberish spoken by Klonoa
and the rest of the characters, the cliche'd cartoon sound effects
left me rolling my eyes. Considering the great work they did
in ancient games like Galaga and Dig Dug, I think Namco could have
given us something with a little more originality.
Let's throw in a couple of other gripes
for good measure. You may have heard that Klonoa is a little
short, and that's true... but after winning the game, I kind of
wished they would have made the last few stages even shorter.
The level design goes from clever to devious to downright sadistic
when you're climbing the tower to face off against Ghadius... if
teeny weeny platforms drive you nuts, you can only imagine how
frustrating it is to try to clear them while enemies are running
after you, threatening to knock you into the pit below. Ah,
the bottomless, instantly lethal pit. I can't count the number
of lives I've lost to those gaping canyons, yet those motherfucking
things are always hungry for more. By now, you'd think they'd
be overflowing with corpses, and you could just walk over the
decaying Italian plumbers and vampire hunters to reach the other
side, but somehow, that just never happens. There must be a
little bulldozer in there pushing out all the debris, keeping the
pits ready for the next furry mascot that tumbles inside... and the
next, and the next, and the next.
But I digress. The last boss isn't
much fun either... well, Ghadius and his whirling wheel of death are
entertaining (and disorienting!), but after you beat him, he has to
go and summon video game cliche' #287, the overwhelmingly powerful
entity bent on destroying the world. That stupid thing has not
one, not two, but three forms, and all of them are obnoxious.
The other characters try to help you defeat the creature, but
they're not really much help at all, cowering under clouds while
you're getting pelted with rainbow beams and chased by metal encased
enemies. You don't even get their assistance (good riddance, I
say) during the second battle, when you're inside the beast, trying
to throw enemies at gems hanging near the edges of a platform that
just won't stay still. The creature should have died after the
gems were shattered, but naturally, you have to deal with both it
and your moronic friends one more time before it finally gives up
the ghost. It got to the point where I was afraid to let the
credits roll, because I thought for sure the damned thing would pop
back up at the last minute just like in Rocket Knight Adventures or
the film Cannibal: The Musical.
Fortunately, the creature died. For
good. And when the game finally convinced me that there were
no other forms of Mahatomb or an even more powerful enemy to take
its place, it presented an ending that, while very heartbreaking,
made me glad that I stuck it out through the last two rounds, and
that I gave the game another chance. If you can find it on
sale somewhere or have a friend willing to lend you a copy, you
might want to do the same... you'll be surprised at just how good
Klonoa is once you spend a little quality time with it.
| N2O |
| Fox Games (Gremlin) |
| Shooter |
| |
Quickly
forgotten. Underrated. Maligned. N20 is all these
things, but it never deserved to be any of them.
N20 is one of the better shooters on the
Playstation, eclipsing its inspiration Tempest 2000 with
more options, an entracing soundtrack by The Crystal Method,
and advanced graphics that make even Jeff Minter's
eyecatching sequel to Tempest look like an outdated
relic.
N20 is
essentially an evolution of the play mechanics first explored in
Tempest. You slide around the edge of a funnel, firing inward
to destroy a variety of progressively deadly enemies. Each foe
has its own preferred method of attack, ranging from swarms
of suicidal beetles to vicious black widow spiders that drape
webs inside the funnel... collide with any of the strands
holding these webs in place and you're finished.
This makes the
game a great deal like Tempest, but here's what makes it
better. Each enemy is not only given its own specialized
attack but a weakness that can be exploited for bonus
points. If you're tired of that black widow spider
making your life miserable, you can not only exact revenge on it but
squash its orphan, a small white larva, by running over it with your
ship. Similarly, you can earn extra points- and stars that
will eventually unlock bonus rounds- by blasting all segments of a
centipede or every beetle contained within a cocoon before they
reach the end of the funnel.
On top of
that, there are tons of items and weapons that can be
collected. Not all of them are particularly useful, but there
are some which become extremely useful as the game progresses.
These include the firewall, N20's beautifully deadly answer to the
super zapper recharge, shields which for a brief period of time
allow you to absorb otherwise deadly hits, and a chain gun
which sends a trail of bullets down the funnel
that obliterate even the most persistent enemies.
Finally, there are spinning coins which can be used at the end of
each stage to earn either extra points (good for extra lives or just
bragging to your friends) or more of those crowd pleasin'
firewalls.
I haven't even
gotten to the best part! You have to see and hear N20 in
action to truly appreciate it. The graphics are fantastic...
it's hard to imagine how they could be better on the original
Playstation, but fortunately, you don't have to settle for mere
Playstation quality when you've got a PS2 around. On the
PS2, the game's exceptional artwork and special effects become
even more amazing. Either way, the dazzling combination of
sweeping lights, psychadelic playfields, stylish exploding
text, and accurately drawn insects, along with selections from The
Crystal Method's Vegas album, will give you the impression that
you've an exterminator at a wild rave party.
You'll want to
keep those bug infestations and that infectious music coming if
you're a fan of Tempest or other classic shooters. I won't go
as far as to say that N20 is flawless... some people will find its
artistic direction more irritating than exciting, and in its default
setting, the camera follows the ship as it slides around the edge of
the funnel. Fortunately, the camera can be locked into
place, keeping the player's head from spinning along with the
playfield, but this one flaw is probably what kept the game from
achieving the same popularity as Tempest 2000.
However, it's very easy to fix. If you were turned off by the
game when you first played it, and didn't know about the fixed
camera option, you owe it to yourself to give N20 another
chance.
| NO ONE CAN
STOP MR. DOMINO! |
| Acclaim, Artdink |
| Action |
| |
Oh, Mr.
Domino... if only you were as invincible as the title of your game
suggests! The truth is, this tiny hero will stumble over
all kinds of hazards as he struggles to build spectacular lines
of tiles. These obstacles,
ranging from swinging boxes of chocolate-covered pretzel
sticks to massive station wagons, will join forces to
make Mr. D's life
miserable... and very short.
Regardless of
the risks involved, Mr. Domino refuses to be swayed from
his mission. He's out to set up the ultimate chain of
dominos, spreading them across shady casinos, convenience
stores, and quiet Japanese suburbs. And once they're dropped
in place, he'll return to the scene of the crime (namely, littering)
to tip them all over. If he's smart, he'll place the tiles in
front of trick squares... once these are triggered, objects in
the background are set into motion, adding a touch
of Rube Goldberg-inspired flair to the spectacle of dropping
dominoes.
As Mr. D goes
about his business, unaware of the futility of constantly
unraveling his own work, you'll notice that his world bears a
striking resemblence to the colorful cosmic playgrounds
of Katamari Damacy. Every object on the playfield is
rendered with a modest polygon count and a limited amount of detail,
but their bright colors ensure that they're easy to spot against the
more elaborate backgrounds. The stages are cleverly designed,
illustrating their respective
settings perfectly. Whether Mr. Domino is dodging dice on a
craps table or weaving around discarded sandals in the breezeway of
a Japanese home, there's never any
doubt about his current location.
The soundtrack
acknowledges the game's outlandish premise, but never surrenders to
it, striking a balance between Mr. Domino's lighthearted
Nippo-centric setting and the merciless challenge hidden
beneath it. Your heart will pound to the beat of
the throbbing techno-influenced tunes as Mr. Domino makes a mad
dash for the health square that will let him cling to life for just
one more minute.
It only takes
one stage before you realize that this isn't going to be
the cakewalk that Katamari Damacy was. In fact, once you get
past the skin-deep visual resemblence, you'll start to see that No
One Can Stop Mr. Domino! is the polar opposite of Namco's surprise
hit. It's not just because Mr. Domino drops what the
Prince of All Cosmos and his cousins would likely clean up with
their rolling junk collections. The game offers far less
freedom than Katamari Damacy, pushing the hero through each
linear loop of a stage rather than letting him admire his
surroundings. If Mr. D misses something important
the first time through, he won't get another shot at it until the
next lap... if he survives long enough!
What brings
these two games together are the qualities they share... charm and
originality. The only game that even comes close to playing
like Mr. Domino is Kid Klown's Crazy Chase on the Super NES and Game
Boy Advance, and without the strategy that comes from dropping
tiles, it's not an especially
accurate comparison.
There's also
no stopping the game from taking pride in its Japanese roots.
There's plenty of head-scratching humor in store for
players who trigger the trick squares in each stage.
Vegetables will sing, microwave ovens will explode, and famous
paintings will scream bloody murder as their eyes bug out...
and it will all play in reverse if Mr. D walks over a
reset square!
It's moments
like these that will leave just you as determined to succeed as
the game's square-headed star. Victory never comes easily in
No One Can Stop Mr. Domino!, but it's always sweet.
| THE RAIDEN
PROJECT |
| Sony, Seibu Kaihatsu |
| Shooter |
| |
Even when it was released twelve years
ago, Raiden was a fairly simplistic game... this made it easily
approachable to players who found the weapon systems in Alcon and
1943 confusing, but it was so streamlined that it didn't offer more
experienced shooter fans anything new or surprising. When you
put your coin into a Raiden machine, you got a solid gaming
experience... and that was it. That was Raiden's hook, and you
could have accepted that if the straightforward gameplay had
remained exclusive to the Raiden series. Sadly, other game
companies wanted a piece of this unspiced pie, and the result were a
lot of bland shooters with nothing to distinguish themselves from
one another. People tired of the genre after playing the same
game over and over with different graphics, and most companies,
unaware of why shooters had become so unpopular, stopped making them
altogether.
With this in mind, you have to wonder why
Sony took a chance with Raiden Project, a collection that includes
both the first Raiden and its sequel. Perhaps the answer
lies with the fact that Raiden II is far superior to the first game,
and still impressive even to this day. It's the opinion of
most gamers that the Playstation can't adequately handle 2D
graphics, but I tend to question this belief whenever I play games
like Raiden II. There's so much detail in this game... not so
much in the artwork itself but the animation that greatly enhances
it. Even the smallest enemies produce debris after
they've been destroyed, and each piece of scrapnel spins wildly
before hitting the Earth's surface, creating a small cloud of dust
or splash of water. The playfield is affected by your ship's
attacks as well as the actions of your enemies... drop a bomb in a
forest and you'll not only hear a sound, but will be left with a lot
of charred, naked trees. Enemies that crash land into houses
will take a large chunk out of the roofs of the buildings, but only
where they've made contact. The larger tanks leave behind treads,
and enormous glowing craters after you've blown them up. Land
walkers leave impressions in the ground, giving you an
impression of their enormous weight and size.
They're little details, but nevertheless
important ones... without them, Raiden II would just be Raiden with
a handful of improvements. Those improvements include a new
weapon that bridges the gap between the bullets and beams in the
first game... hell, it pretty much obsoletes them! The plasma
laser starts out as a concentrated line of fire, then transforms
into a homing laser that twists and bends to catch not only every
enemy in your path, but those nowhere near it. There's a new
bomb, too, and although it's less powerful than the original, it
activates immediately, guaranteeing your safety. You can
choose one or the other depending on your personal preference, or
mix and match them by collecting bomb icons once they switch to
the type you want most.
Also included on the disc is a conversion
of the original Raiden that's among the best available on a home
console... only the more colorful Jaguar version can rival it.
Nevertheless, it's a pretty no-frills game, and certainly not
preferable to the more exciting sequel. The graphic flourishes
that abound in Raiden II are limited to the occasional glowing
crater and large explosion in Raiden. The music takes a step
down as well, with low-pitched, twangy instruments that sound like
they were pulled straight from an early Genesis game... you can
select an arranged soundtrack instead, but it's not much of an
improvement. Finally, while there are enough enemies and
bullets onscreen to hold your attention, they aren't as plentiful as
they are in the sequel and nowhere near the amount you'd find in a
later shooter like Radiant Silvergun or Dodonpachi. It's
competantly designed, but why settle for that when a brilliantly
designed game is on the same disc?
That game is the reason I recommend The
Raiden Project to shooter fans. You can't play Raiden II on
MAME (at least, not as of this writing), so you might as well get a
taste of it somewhere. Besides, The Raiden Project is a
relatively obscure Playstation release, a fact which collectors will
definitely appreciate.
| SLAP HAPPY
RHYTHM BUSTERS |
| Ask/Polygon Magic |
| Fighting Cocktail with a Splash of
DDR |
|
|
People who have
visited The Gameroom Blitz for a long time may remember that Jess
wrote something about Slap Happy Rhythm Busters in an update. I had
seen this game in EGM, so I was seeking it out.
A few weeks ago, I got the game for
around $30 on Ebay... God bless the buyer's market. But enough about
that; let's talk about the game.
SHRB is an interesting cel-shaded 2-D/3-D
fighting developed by Polygon Magic, who also developed such games
as Galerians, Vs. and Countdown Vampires. The style of design is
much like Jet Grind Radio for the Dreamcast, which means it looks
like a 3-D cartoon.
The characters seem pretty diverse,
deviating from the normal stereotypes: There's Ramos, the fiery rave
DJ, Euri, the requisite "cute candy raver," Oreg, the taxi driver
(yes, he does drive a taxi), Holemon, the strange butcher with a
birdcage for a head, Nitro, the robot whose hands can become a
diverse array of tools and weapons, Zekoo, the samurai, Garia, the
fortune teller, Mia, the Chun-Li clone, Trash, the garbage man with
a mechanical third arm coming from his backpack, April, a spunky
cowgirl who can actually lose her hat, and Vivian & Roxy, two
girls who alternate between chicken-fighting and double-teaming
their opponents. Each character has about two or three specials, a
launcher, a move that knocks an opponent off the opposite wall, and
two supers.
Also, there are ten other characters:
Chad & Gram, two brothers who fight piggyback-style, Baron &
Volt, a monster with his doctor on the sidelines, Sledge, a
fast-fisted tattoo artist, Tomtom, a graffiti punk with many
Stand-like attacks, Mercantile, a wolf who fights like the unholy
offspring of Galford's dog Poppy from Samurai Shodown and J.Talbain
from Darkstalkers, Stealth, the deadest ringer for the Predator that
you can find, D-Ramos, an evil version of Ramos (with a cattle-skull
mask!), Jakoo, who seems to be a super version of Zekoo, Frosty, a
happy-hardcore snowman, and Rude Boy, the final boss of this game
who's a lot tougher than he looks.
The game is pretty simple to pick up: two
punches, two kicks; moves are done with one of four motions (down*2,
qcf, qcb, b-f), and supers are usually a special done with two
punches; throws are done by hitting both weak attack buttons.
However, the main innovation of the game is the "Beat" combo. When
you have max super (or B-level), hit both strong attack buttons when
close to the opponent, and you'll attack with a move that uses one
level. If it isn't blocked, you'll go to a screen with four arrows.
Hit the proper directions as the steps line up, and you'll do a
great amount of damage; finish an opponent off and you'll get a
"Fever" animation, which is like a fatality. Many of them range from
the funny (Ramos' involves the victim being Dolby'd and then flamed,
while Oreg puts the opponent into a taxi and drives increasingly
fast before hitting the brakes) to the overkill (Nitro's "Zero
Cannon/Broadcast Energy Transmitter/big laser satellite" move comes
to mind) to the just plain weird (Euri skips away with you into a
Candyland setting... which makes me believe that some recreational
drugs were in use during the making of this game). Also, there's a
DJ Practice mode in which you can practice your Beat combos and
unlock the opportunity to play as secret characters. The music is
pretty much all techno, but it has several flavors of it, such as
hip-hop techno, Western techno (with the infamous Good, Bad &
Ugly whistle), and bass-busting backbeat.
Any concerns about the language barrier
should be easily put aside: A good 95% of the text in the game is
either in English or the incredibly easy-to-read Katakana character
set. Even the loading manga are mostly in English, which leads me to
believe that the company might have been THIS CLOSE '' to getting a
US distributor... a pity.
In short, I give this game a 9. It's
everything I hoped for, but it could have had a bit more to it, like
more characters (yeah, yeah, I know it has 20+ characters, and you
know what else? I don't give a rat's ass) or more music (some
appropriate horror music, good old rock&roll or old-school rap
or even... *shudder* J-pop).
| STREET
FIGHTER: THE MOVIE |
| Acclaim, Capcom |
| Fighting |
|
|
SEGA
SATURN
"After all my work in ER and
'The Joy Luck Club', you had to show them this..." An
embarassed Ming-Na Wen to Conan O'Brien, after watching a clip of
her work in the Playstation version of Street Fighter: The Movie
I haven't talked to a single gamer who
can tolerate this cheaply produced cross between Street Fighter 2
and Mortal Kombat (and judging from the above quote, the actors were
equally unenthused about starring in it), but y'know, I must admit
that I have a certain admiration for the original designers in that
they had the gonads to alter the eternally popular SF2 engine and
risk pissing off fans of the series in the process (and boy, did
they! :). And hell, it was about time someone tried to incorporate
Street Fighter 2's precise, intuitive controls into a fighting game
with digitized graphics... who's idea was it to release Mortal
Kombat with a block button, anyhow!? Urf... But anyways, here's the
deal. Capcom went through the original game as designed by GameStar,
took out the storm trooper and most of the Mortal Kombat-style
moves, and replaced these features with better control and
characters more familiar to the series, like Dee Jay and an
unfittingly scrawny incarnation of Blanka. They sold the rights to
the new and improved game to Acclaim (who'll apparently buy the
rights to anything that's been on a film reel), and smash boom bang,
we have Playstation and Saturn versions of a title which could very
well have been released on the Genesis and SNES.
In fact, the dull digitized characters
aren't even as detailed as the vivid sprites on the 16-bit versions
of Street Fighter 2, or even the 8-bit Turbografx version, if you're
willing to go that far back. Their outfits look like second-hand
wardrobes from the Goodwill Thrift Shop for Needy Fighting Game
Characters, with drab earth tones and butt-ugly reds and oranges,
and the actors themselves are nothing to shout about. They're
stiffly animated, and many of their attacks are clumsily performed
(as one would have to expect from a digitized version of a game with
superhuman characters). The voices are pretty silly, too, but are
especially bad on the Playstation, where Jean Claude VanDamme
announces the beginnings of rounds and the characters' names. If you
thought the scratchy vocals on the Genesis version of Street Fighter
2 were bad, try deciphering phrases like "Roun' Wan" and "Yeew
Ween"...
Things aren't all bad on the Saturn
version, though. Its access time is nearly half that of the
Playstation's, and the control is much better thanks largely to
Sega's nifty six button pads. Even the full motion video is
better... it's very blocky, but it moves at a much smoother clip
than the full-mo on the Playstation version (and I thought that
system had compression hardware especially designed to handle the
stuff...odd...). So if you've got to have a copy of this game and
own both systems, the Saturn version is definately the one to get...
that is, if you find it on clearance and can't afford X-Men, Night
Warriors, or Street Fighter: Alpha. Otherwise, it's only worth
renting once. Coincidentially, when you DO rent it, have a friend
who loves Street Fighter 2 come over, and pop this in when he's not
looking. Watching him wince at every special move and sound bite is
in itself worth the three clams... >:)
As you may know by now, Tekken means
"clenched fist" in Japan, but nothing at all here. Similarly, Tekken
the game is a big deal in the land of the rising sun, but nobody
gives a shit about this shameless Virtua Fighter rip-off here in the
States (and if you do, don't tell me about it, 'cuz I really don't
want to know). Why? Because quite frankly, it pales in comparison to
Virtua Fighter 2 and even Toshinden in nearly every respect. The
graphics are ugly, the music is unmemorable, the characters look
like puppets, and the control is to say the least in need of a
serious tune-up (hell, if it were a car, it would have been hauled
to the junkyard by now! What the hell is the deal with having to
pound buttons in sequence to perform special moves?! You call this
intuitive play control, people?!). Yet, Namco saw fit to release
this for the Playstation... go fig. I must admit that the
translation is 97% accurate (the flicker and smaller characters is
really a minor quibble when you consider that the game is an exact
translation otherwise), and that Namco tried its best to improve it
with hidden characters, cool to the bool computer rendered cinemas,
and a neat Galaga teaser, but sprinkling cheese on a turd souffle'
doesn't make it any more appetizing, and adding features to a game
which shouldn't have been made in the first place doesn't really add
to its appeal, either. If you're dying for yet another fighting game
with a polygonal graphics engine, and don't own a Saturn, you'll
probably be deliriously happy with Tekken, but if you're like me
(heaven forbid there be someone ELSE like me on this planet! :),
you're just not going to want to bother with it. At least the
pathetic dipsticks who run out and buy this pile will be forced to
experience a REAL game first...
| WCW/NWO
THUNDER |
| THQ, Inland Productions |
| Wrestling, or so the Germans would have
us believe |
| |
WCW, we hardly
knew ye. When the promotion died in 2001, it was the end of an
era for many wrestling fans. And for many of those fans, it
was an era that probably should have ended long ago.
The
sooner we get this review over with, the less emotional trauma I'll
suffer by dredging up the memories, and the less inclined you'll be
to claw your eyes out after reading it. So, if it's a bit
brief, I'm doing all y'all a favor.
The game starts with 32 characters, comprising many of the top
stars of WCW (circa late 1998). The game had an interesting
presentation--each default character had a little clip introducing
himself, and the game would play clips of the superstars before the
match. However, the game itself had very little
substance. Each character only had three moves aside from the
common set (which varied only for the "really fucking tall/heavy"
guys) but that doesn't matter... because you only need
one. The TEST OF STRENGTH (of doom)! Yes, all you have
to do to win this game is the following:
1) Approach
opponent.
2) press up+O.
3) violently mash buttons.
4) repeat until opponent's life bar is depleted.
5) press down+X.
6) press down+O when near fallen opponent.
7) A winner is you!!111!
There were three belts to get in
this game: the World title, the US title, and the TV
title. The only difference between the three title hunts,
however, was the number of matches you had to go through to get the
belt. Winning a title would unlock a character depending on
which star you used to beat the game. However, there were 64
more guys on top of this, many of whom are either Nitro Girls (a
dancing troupe that appeared on WCW's show for the live audience's
benefit), semi-obscure members of WCW staff, "jobbers," Ric Flair,
and Inland Productions developers.
The only notable contribution this game made to wrestling, aside
from a shining example of what not to do, was that it allowed the
player to change the allegiances of each character. Of course,
this actually made little difference, other than the attire and the
"run-in" partners.
In short, this game is crap. The only thing separating this
from Final Bout is that it's remotely playable. I give it a 1,
and warn you now not to buy it, rent it, or accept it as a
gift. If you buy it, I cannot be held responsible for any
serious injuries inflicted by or through the emotional trauma you
shall incur. |
|
SONY
PLAYSTATION
| CPU |
MIPS R3000A |
| MHz |
33.86MHz |
| RAM |
3.5MB |
| Media |
CD-ROM |
| Sound |
24 channels |
| Gfx |
GFX processor
unit |
| Res |
640x480 |
| Color |
16.7
million |
| Sprite |
4000 |
| Polys |
360,000/sec |
Armored Core:
PP
Bloody Roar II
Castlevania: SOTN
Gradius Gaiden
(Jpn)
Konami Arcade Classics
Point Blank
Street
Fighter Alpha 3
Spyro: Year of the Dragon
Suikoden
II
Zanac X Zanac (Jpn)
Battle Arena
Toshinden
Blasto!
Crash Bash
Fighter Maker
Galaga:
Destination Earth
Pong
Samurai Shodown III
South Park
Rally
Street Fighter: The Movie
Tomb Raider
III | |