9/25/07

Today, I bought a copy of the latest Halo game... and I've not even sure why.  You'd think that I would have taken Halo 2 out of its shrinkwrap and put it through its paces before stepping up to the sequel, but I guess I succumbed to all the hype.  The reduced price made it that much harder to resist... they were selling Halo 3 for $54.99 at the local college, a ten percent discount!

In the past, no discount short of "buy none, get one free" would make me consider picking up a first-person shooter.  However, my time with the Bioshock demo has me looking at the genre in a new light.  I wasn't sure what to expect from it at first, but the game turned out to be one of the year's best, with a refreshing deep sea setting and the best graphics to ever hit a game console.  If Halo 3 is even close to as inspired as Irrational Games' surprise hit, it will have been a worthwhile investment.

All right, let's shift gears from the present to the past.  I've added reviews of Mountain King and Wizard of Wor to the 52 Hunter.  These games are especially near and dear to my heart, gobbling up hours of my childhood in the mid 1980's.  If you don't own a 5200 but don't feel like going the emulation route, there's still hope... both titles are available for the Atari 8-bit computer line, and they're exactly the same as their 5200 counterparts, sans the irritating controller.  Whatever you do, don't miss out on these games... and don't make the mistake of buying the ColecoVision version of Mountain King!

9/20/07

There's new blood on the Blitz... a section dedicated to that most underappreciated of consoles, the Atari 5200.  It's a good history lesson and a nice companion piece to the 26 Hunter, so I recommend both young and old to give it a look.

I'm in a misanthropic mood right now, so I'm going to end this post on a high note rather than souring it with personal grievances.  Farewell to you all.

9/15/07

In case you were wondering, and even if you weren't, here are a few of the games I've been playing lately...

MOON PATROL EX:  You know, I don't spend much time with cell phone games.  I don't feel that the average handset is well suited to interactive entertainment, but I'm willing to overlook my personal bias for this remake of a childhood favorite.  Unlike most cell phone conversions of 1980's arcade hits, Moon Patrol EX has been enhanced rather compromised, with more detailed graphics and a jazzed-up version of the already catchy soundtrack.  Here's the biggest surprise... the game even PLAYS well!  You only need three buttons to blast the looming aliens, bound over craters, and charge your way to the next checkpoint, and that's not too much to ask even from a crowded cell phone keypad.

SUPER COBRA (ENTEX):  Before Gradius, there was Super Cobra.  And there weren't too many good conversions of Konami's exciting helicopter ride, either.  One of the few ports that cut the mustard was the tabletop game by Entex... it's about as colorful as the average Virtual Boy title and there's only four stages (with the bank heist replaced by a less creative bombing raid), but it plays pretty well, and there's a perfect difficulty setting for practically every player.  Flipping the skill level switch and turning the speed dial on the right side of the unit lets you adjust the speed, ramping up the challenge or just letting you zip through the first round in the blink of an eye.  I don't know how it compares to Tomy's kissing cousin Scramble, but it fares pretty well against Epoch's Astro Command.

HULK: TOTAL DESTRUCTION:  Stop me if you've heard this before.  You're a genetically altered superhuman, wiping out crowds of foes and scaling tall buildings to collect the little green orbs perched on their rooftops.  What separates Hulk: Total Destruction from the subsequently released Crackdown (aside from the Halo 3 demo) is a heaping helping of violence... instead of keeping the peace, you're tearing it to bits with your bare hands!  It's a very cathartic experience, with the green menace effortlessly throwing boulders, ripping apart towers, and flattening tanks.  You want tough?  This new Hulk makes Lou Ferrigno look like Pee-Wee Herman!

SONIC AND THE MAGIC RINGS:  Nintendo, you're putting me in a really awkward position.  I want you to win the latest console war, and you're doing that, but I want to be comfortable rooting for the Wii, which I can't do when I'm not having fun playing it.  Third party developers like Sega keep pumping out lackluster games that make terrible use of the Wiimote, and you've done nothing to whip them into shape.  Sonic and the Magic Rings is just one example... to its credit, Sega has put more effort into this than the usual hackneyed GameCube port, but the control is an absolute mess thanks to its dependence on that increasingly aggravating Wiimote.  If this controller is supposed to make games more intuitive, then why does it leave me confused and frustrated in nearly every game that requires it?  Granted, I've only played a little of Sonic and the Magic Rings, but what I've tried so far doesn't leave me wanting more.