Phoenix Wright makes me feel dumb

June 5, 2014 by Mike

“Am I not an intelligent human being?”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve already asked myself that while playing Justice For All, the second Phoenix Wright game on the Nintendo DS. At only about its halfway point, I’ve had to reference a FAQ at least three times to prevent myself from receiving a dreaded Guilty verdict from the game’s ceaselessly clueless judge. I’m starting to regret not watching enough Law & Order back in the ’90s.

It’s so frustrating, because for the most part, I really like this series. It has great art, catchy music, and mostly well-written cases that are fun to investigate and peel back their various layers. It has a very strong cast of memorable and likable characters, as well as villains and prosecuting attorneys that can really get under your skin! It’s a solid visual novel design that is packaged and presented nicely.

Where the game gets a bit too rigid, however, is in its trial execution. Maybe this changes in future installments, but there only ever seems to be one solution to each problem, and that solution can sometimes make so little sense as to seem like its choice was arbitrary. The best courtroom moments are the ones where you’re left shocked, realizing something you had previously overlooked, but that which makes perfect sense once it’s explained. It’s not a reach, and it never should be. It’s great to have some slight of hand and distraction involved, but in the end, it should be smart and logical. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case here.

Do I feel ashamed for having to resort to using a guide? Yeah, but I also can’t stand having to do things over in games, so if this expedites my journey and ensures that I see the series through all of its cases, characters, and locales, then so be it. Plus, Dual Destinies on the 3DS looks fantastic! It’s my main motivator to get through the DS games, and yes, I need to play through the rest of the series — in order — before I play this one. Call it a thing.

Anyway, despite my one rather big complaint, I’m enjoying my time with Justice For All so far. The new Psyche-Lock feature adds a taste of trial crossover to the investigative portions, injecting new complexities into those sequences. I’ve become a fan of the visual novel genre after thoroughly enjoying Atlus’ excellent games 999 and Virtue’s Last Reward, so I’ll hopefully get a better hang of things here so that I don’t have to give in to the temptations of GameFAQs.

Or at least, not as often.

The Nintendo Wii U: The little console that… might?

June 4, 2014 by Mike

It’s tough being a Wii U owner. We’re faced with a constant barrage of doom and gloom from internet haters, industry analysts, and all facets of the press. It’s not unfair, and in fact, it’s entirely justified. The Wii U represents one of Nintendo’s biggest missteps, having only moved about 6 million units worldwide as of the end of March 2014. Having been on the market for 1.5 years already, those aren’t exactly numbers to be proud of.

Taking a look back at its history, it’s easy to see why:

From its unveiling in 2011, you could tell something was wrong. Very wrong. For starters, the name. While the Wii was initially a strange and silly sounding console with funky controllers, at the very least, it was interesting and made you wonder what it was all about. Plus, you immediately understood its brilliance the first time you played Wii Sports. That aha! moment is what helped make it such a phenomenal success. The Wii U? Not only does it sound awkward and unoriginal, but with a big touchscreen integrated into an even bigger Game Pad controller, my first thought was, “May we all have deep pockets for when that thing breaks.”

The screen itself was also revealed to only be a resistive, single-touch type like the DS and 3DS, so it was perceived as being old technology right out of the gate. Multiple Game Pad support, wireless range, battery life, and other concerns were brought up almost immediately, so it was raising more questions than it answered, revealing one limitation after another as time went on. At the very least, the console would finally mark Nintendo’s long-desired step into HD.

There was a lot of buzz surrounding Sony’s upcoming PS Vita handheld around the same time, which sported all sorts of cool technologies like multi-touch and a beautiful OLED display. While the Vita has its own share of struggles today, at the time it was easy to look at the two company philosophies and not see the Wii U as anything but inferior to its contemporaries, or at least the product of a company slightly out of step. The 3DS had a slow start in 2011 as well, so confidence in Nintendo wasn’t exactly at an all-time high. I wasn’t sold on the need for stereoscopic 3D, nor was I convinced that the Wii U’s tablet/console hybrid was what anyone needed either.

I stayed positive, though, and brushed it all off as early, reactionary hyperbole. I figured we’d see the goods at E3 2012.

Heading into that Nintendo press conference, I — along with the rest of the collective gaming world — really wanted to see Nintendo come out swinging. Show us that any worries were unwarranted and that this thing was going to make the PS4 and Xbox One look like derivative, same ol’ same ol’ consoles. This is where the real magic would be, right? With the next Zelda, Mario Galaxy, Metroid, Mario Kart, and Smash Bros. in the works with great third-party support and exclusives, the Wii U would continue in the footsteps of the Wii’s great success!

Oh, how wrong I was.

It was painful to watch. So excruciatingly bad that I would tune out to look at Twitter and the gaming forum responses instead. I had a hard time believing what I was seeing and hearing, but there it was. They tried pushing the concept of “asynchronous gaming”, a strange term that Nintendo attempted to sell via Nintendo Land, the centerpiece of their press conference. To me, it looked like a simple collection of mini-games, more akin to early, internal tech demos, rather than a fully realized $60 premium game. There were a few glimmers of hope, but when the great Shigeru Miyamoto comes on stage and all he has is the gentle Pikmin 3, you can’t help but feel deflated.

Their poor, disjointed showing at E3 set the tone for the months leading up to its launch that November. When you think about it, the original Wii got just about everything right, including an incredibly strong E3 showing. At launch, it was only $250, and came with the game that everyone wanted: Wii Sports. They even had a Legend of Zelda game in the form of Twilight Princess. If you wanted an Xbox 360, that was $300-400. A PS3 would set you back $500-600. I don’t think either competitor included a pack-in game. Also, since HDTVs still weren’t at impulse-buy prices, the Wii’s 480p video output wasn’t a deal-killer, although it would become one of its major and most criticized Achilles’ Heels in the years to come.

The Wii U, on the other hand, got just about everything wrong. Nintendo already had everyone baffled, but they clouded things up even further by releasing separate Basic and Deluxe Sets. Both were more expensive than the Wii at $300 and $350 a piece, with the Basic Set omitting a number of bullet points, including the pack-in game.

They should have just made one set — the Deluxe Set — priced it at $300, and that way everyone would get Nintendo Land in the same way that every Wii owner got Wii Sports. It’d be a title that would showcase the capabilities of the system in a family-friendly way. Parity would also be ensured for all owners.

Adding some poor timing to the mix, Nintendo raised their game prices on the Wii U to match those found on competitor systems, which they similarly did on the 3DS. They had a nice advantage with the Wii, with games selling for at least $10 less than they did on the PS3 and 360. Now, that price advantage was gone.

Not impressed with or interested in any of the launch titles except for New Super Mario Bros. U, I did a big thumb’s down and steered clear of the Wii U throughout most of its first year. I had more than enough to play on my other systems, so I was content just sitting this round out.

But then along came The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD. Seeing it again and hearing about how Nintendo was integrating touchscreen functionality, tweaking the gameplay, and making a number of changes to improve its overall pacing really piqued my interest. It sounded like they were addressing every issue I had with the game back from when I played it on the GameCube. I also found out that they would be releasing a Legend of Zelda-themed Game Pad adorned with gold artwork and Hylian script, all part of a Deluxe Set bundle priced at $300. Curious how things like that will tap right into your gamer DNA.

My mind quickly did the math: OK, $300 for a Deluxe Set with the $50 game and sweet Game Pad makes it a $250 console. Some extra freebies through Club Nintendo and the Digital Deluxe Promotion, and that makes it cheaper than the Wii. What a no-brainer!

So, just like that in September of 2013, I went into my local Target and bought a Wii U. It always feels great buying a new console, doesn’t it? Walking out of a store with that nice, hefty box under your arm makes you feel like you’re in the opening credit sequence of Reservoir Dogs.

It’s funny how one game will do that to you, though: turn the tide in your mind, even though nothing’s changed about the situation. I thoroughly enjoyed The Wind Waker HD, and it was a nice coincidence that the first game I played on the Wii U would show me that yes, the Game Pad’s touchscreen can truly make a game better.

Since then, I’ve purchased several other games for the system, including New Super Mario Bros. U, Lego City Undercover, The Wonderful 101, Pikmin 3, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and Super Mario 3D World, a game so good that I gave it an A+ back in January. New Super Mario Bros. U was also a big surprise, since I was not expecting much out of another entry in the “New” series, but it was also a fantastic, highly polished, and challenging game.

Virtual Console offerings have been pretty good so far, too. The standout in my mind is EarthBound — its first time available since the Super Nintendo days — which is an all-time favorite RPG of mine. It’s not to be missed. Super Metroid, Contra III: The Alien Wars, Super Castlevania IV, and others round out a slowly growing oldschool library.

Which brings us to today. With Mario Kart 8‘s release, and Nintendo’s aggressive promotion of it — including an excellent Deluxe Set bundle and a terrific free game offer — this might be just the thing that helps bring life back to the Wii U. Some major next-generation titles, including Rocksteady’s highly anticipated Batman: Arkham Knight, have been delayed until 2015, leaving PS4 and Xbox One owners with a dwindling selection of games for the rest of the year. Mario Kart 8 moved 1.2 million units during its first weekend. When you consider the number of Wii U consoles that were out there earlier this year, that’s a number Nintendo should be proud of.

So who knows? Even though I’ve been grinding this axe for a few years now, I do it out of my love and respect for Nintendo and what they’ve done — and continue to do — for us, the players. I wish them the best of luck, and hope that Mario Kart 8 is only the first in a steady stream of right moves for the Wii U.

Interplay, mid-1996: My first E3

June 3, 2014 by Mike

(Here are the links to Parts 1 and 2.)

20140603_e3_logo As several coworkers and I were getting the last details of our transfer from QA to Interplay’s OEM division finalized, the videogame trade show known as the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was drawing near. It debuted the year prior, and it was already legendary, mainly due to the combined impact the show and the Sony PlayStation had on both the industry and consumers alike. Most of my gaming friends and I had one already because of the strong buzz it developed and for its solid launch lineup, including Ridge Racer, Battle Arena Toshinden, and Rayman.

I really wanted to see E3 for myself, but since the show would be moving to Atlanta the following year, I figured this would be my last chance to attend. I worked up some courage and kindly asked the management team if I could go for one day. I was thrilled when they said yes and were able to secure me a badge. I didn’t even care that my name wasn’t on it; I would be known as the generic “EX96”, and treated that pass like gold! I still have it.

The first day of E3 arrived on May 16, 1996. Little did I know what I was in for.

First of all, nobody told me about the parking, or lack thereof. I suppose I should have known that I would need to get to the LA Convetion Center by or before the crack of dawn to secure parking at the actual venue. I would never make that mistake again.

That was a big year, as among many other things it marked the debut of Nintendo’s Super Mario 64, and everyone wanted to get a taste. It’s a classic that a lot series die-hards still consider the best of the 3D Mario games, if not at the very least the most revolutionary. I would go on to spend way too much money on an import Nintendo 64 to play it before its US release, but I’ll save that story for another post.

Anyway, back to the parking saga. After sitting in gridlocked hell for over an hour, I finally found a “parking lot” about 5 blocks away. It consisted of little more than rock-riddled dirt, a chain-link fence, and a shady attendant, but after wasting nearly 3 hours driving to LA and scouring the area, lowering my parking standards didn’t take much effort. I parked and headed towards the convention center, wondering if my car would still be there after the show.

Now, if you’ve never been to E3 before, pictures and videos really don’t do it justice. The enormity and intensity of everything is very difficult to fully capture in words, especially back in the day when the sky was still the limit for everyone. The venue itself was already larger than life, with giant banners adorning the outside of the convention halls, while advertisements, kiosks, models, bright lights, huge video walls, and very, very loud music hitting me from every angle once I stepped through the building threshold.

It was sensory overload of the highest magnitude, and I loved it. I was just about to turn 22 that month, so I was still in my “I’m able to go out every night to loud clubs and bars and function fine the next day!” years. I was ready.

Walking into one of the main halls, I just didn’t know where to start. I saw the names of my favorite companies hanging high in the air: Nintendo, Sega, Konami, Namco, Square, Sony, Capcom, and many others. It’s interesting to look back and see how much the Japanese companies dominated the industry back then, compared to what it’s like now. While I wanted to make a beeline straight for the heavy hitters, I decided to just go up and down each row to check out every booth in order.

About halfway through the first hall, though, I was not only starting to feel fatigued, but also incredibly annoyed with the insanely dense (and sweaty) sea of attendees. It was pretty cool to see so many like-minded people together at one event like that, but when you can’t even focus on a game you’re eager to check out because someone’s standing there yelling at you to go through their game a certain way, or you’re being constantly bumped by the flow of people behind you, it quickly becomes an exercise in patience. Or rage control, rather.

That aside, however, the announcements and games themselves that year were fantastic! It’s crazy to think that Windows wasn’t even really a gaming platform yet. Most things we did at the time were still done in DOS. I was definitely more comfortable with the streamlined C:\> prompt than I was with the clunky and ugly Windows 95. Microsoft made a big gaming push that year, but I didn’t really pay attention, since I was still very much attached to DOS gaming. I was there for the consoles, man.

Although Super Mario 64 was the star of the show, Naughty Dog — who was still relatively unknown at the time — was showing off their own mascot platformer for the PlayStation: Crash Bandicoot. Like the whole Windows gaming thing, I remember walking past it, thinking that it looked nice, but I didn’t really pay much attention to it. Part of it was the Mario 64 buzz; the other being my weird bias against domestic developers at the time.

While I loved them for traditional PC game development, I found most US-based console games to be lacking when stacked up against their Japanese competitors, and the vast majority of my favorite 8-bit and 16-bit games came from overseas. There were exceptions, like the excellent Cool Spot and refined Disney platformers from Virgin, but heading into the 32-bit generation, a lot of those ill feelings still persisted. However, by the second — and especially the third — Crash Bandicoot game, I was a huge Naughty Dog fan, with their games and the games of many other US-based developers looking and playing as good as the best out of Japan.

Meanwhile, after a year on the market, Sega was still struggling with their Saturn console. It was one of the worst console launches ever, and even though I felt burnt by both the Sega CD and 32X — both were huge disappointments for me — I was still a big Sega fan at heart. One of my most anticipated games was NiGHTS into dreams…, which I had only seen in tiny, compressed video clips on the internet earlier that year, but the design, colors, and sound immediately drew me in.

The display that Sega had for NiGHTS was pretty cool, with the title character flying high above their booth, but the area they had for it was small. Most folks stood transfixed (myself included) on the utterly amazing Virtua Fighter 3 demo, showing off Sega’s new Model 3 arcade board. To put it lightly, it melted faces, and I think it still looks pretty darn good for its age.

I didn’t get the sense that Sega really believed in NiGHTS, and I remember that it didn’t do much when it came out in the US later that year. I loved it, though; the analog controller was terrific, and it remains one of my all-time favorite Saturn games. It also possesses a magical soundtrack that is still part of my CD collection.

One other major title at E3 was Square’s behemoth: Final Fantasy VII.

At the time, I don’t know if any other game was anticipated as highly as this, and it had already made tsunami-sized waves with the announcement earlier that year that it would no longer be released for the Nintendo 64, but instead would be exclusive to the PlayStation. The announcement underscored the high cost and low capacity of cartridges, practically outdating the N64 before it had even been released. This was absolutely huge news at the time, since Nintendo fans had grown up with so many Square classics across its 8-bit and 16-bit systems, and many would find themselves deserting the child’s play of Nintendo for the cool, new kid on the block.

I honestly don’t remember much about FF7‘s presence at the show, as I think it was only there in CGI trailer form. No matter, though; the demo that was released later that year pretty much guaranteed that everyone and their mother would buy it upon release. And buy it they did, to the tune of about 10 million copies over its lifetime. No wonder it’s often referred to as the game that sold the PlayStation.

But after only about 4 hours, I was done. That whole “I don’t remember much” theme would continue through all E3 shows I would attend as either a guest or exhibitor. There’s just so much to see and do. If you do get a chance to attend, I’d recommend bringing a camera and notepad so that you can actually document and remember what you saw, because otherwise you won’t. There’s just no way. This is especially true for the tiny diamonds in the rough, of which there are always many.

My next show wouldn’t be until Atlanta ’98, where I would also work the Interplay booth for the first time. I almost didn’t make it onto the flight back to LA, if that says anything about the good times that were had.

I’ll always be very thankful that I was able to go, and yes, my car was still there, parked in the dirt as I’d left it.

My influences: Space Harrier

June 2, 2014 by Mike

I’ll never forget the first time I saw Space Harrier. It was at Disneyland’s Starcade in the mid-’80s. They were fortunate enough to have the deluxe sit-down version, too. The entire cabinet would tilt as you moved the flight stick around, a popular feature in a number of arcade games at the time, like Sega’s own Out Run and After Burner. I never would see that version in any other arcade after that, so looking back, I feel fortunate that I was able to play and experience it. More so than the cabinet, however, was the game itself.

The title screen alone was enough to capture my imagination with its huge spinning logo, one-eyed woolly mammoth, and beautiful-looking mecha. I was a huge Robotech nut as a kid, so how could I resist? I couldn’t. Even the sound the game made when you inserted a quarter or token was cool. That’s a small, but important detail that I really miss from modern gaming.

And then I pressed Start. Oh my goodness, those graphics! It absolutely blew my mind. Hardware sprite scaling wasn’t something we would see in home consoles until the Super Nintendo and Neo Geo in the early ’90s, and it was still a relatively new technology in arcade games. Using Sega’s Super Scaler technology, they took the concept of 3D gaming using 2D sprites to a whole new level. It represented a paradigm shift for me, establishing a very clear graphics capability line between arcade and home consoles, and altering my expectations from then on.

That was one of those moments where I figured playing an arcade-perfect port at home would never be possible. And I would be mostly correct for the better part of the next decade, until 32X and Saturn ports would finally make the impossible possible. It really shows just how advanced Sega’s arcade technology was back then.

However, that didn’t stop me from wanting the home Space Harrier experience ASAP. Back in junior high, several of my friends all generously chipped in and bought me the Sega Master System version for my birthday. I knew there was no way it would be as good as the arcade, but then again, I’m the one who thought Cobra Command was possible on it, so my hopes were still unrealistically high. After containing my excitement, I opened it up and turned it on…

I was actually quite impressed with the title screen! It approximated the look of the arcade version, right down to the light glinting off the mecha’s gun, which was always one of my favorite details. It also had a new, majestic-sounding title screen song, which the arcade game lacked. So far, so good.

Then I started playing it, and that’s when disappointment set in. I mean, it wasn’t bad and I still played it endlessly for weeks on end, but when so much of Space Harrier‘s appeal is in its visuals, it’s easy to be let down. When you stop and think about what they achieved, however, on hardware that was never designed to do this, Sega pulled off a small miracle. It might not be as fast or pretty as the arcade original, but it still plays, looks, and sounds good in its own right.

One of the things that made the Master System version stand out was the exclusive final boss, Haya Oh. The first time I got to it, I was so surprised, because I was expecting the lackluster “The End” from the arcade game. In addition to it having an intense and memorable music track, it provided a good challenge and was a nice example of developers adding extras to the home versions. It also had a surprisingly lengthy epilogue hinting at a sequel, so that obviously got my attention. That sequel came in the form of 1988’s Space Harrier 3-D, but I never did play it because I didn’t have the SegaScope 3-D Glasses. I remember wanting them bad — real bad — but I think it was the limited game library for it that never made me ask for them.

As the Sega Genesis’ release date drew near in late-’89, so did that of Space Harrier II. With the Genesis being a 16-bit videogame console, and early signs looking terrific with strong entries like Ghouls’n Ghosts and Thunder Force II, I wondered if this would be the era for my beloved Space Harrier to come home in all its glory. Even though the review of it in EGM was very average, I still wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt.

Oh, how wrong I was. Not only did it have an absolutely awful and generic title screen — seriously, what is that? — but the music was a complete downgrade except for the main theme, which was OK, but hardly came close to the classic original. Most disappointingly, the visuals seemed even choppier than the Master System version. The sprites were nice and big, and the scrolling playfield now shifted perspective, but the objects scaled poorly, and the artwork overall was very generic.

This was not what I was expecting out of Sega’s brand-new console, and it goes down as one of the most disappointing games on the Genesis for me. It would be another 6 years before I would reunite with the series, this time on the infamous Genesis 32X add-on.

Despite its lackluster software lineup and hideous design, I bought a used 32X in late-’95, and it came with the only two games I would ever play on it: Space Harrier and After Burner.

Although the 32X version of Space Harrier suffers from some frame drops when there’s a lot going on, it’s one of the better ports. It controls well, and for all intents and purposes, looks and sounds exactly like the arcade version. I just couldn’t stand the 32X itself, and after only a few weeks with it, I sold it.

As I mentioned earlier, an even better version of Space Harrier would be released shortly thereafter in ’96 for the Sega Saturn under their Sega Ages label, and that’s the one I still have. At long last, what I consider to be an arcade-perfect version of one of my favorite arcade games now exists, looking and playing beautifully at home. I would spend additional money to buy the Saturn Mission Stick for an even closer approximation of the arcade experience. It was glorious, taking me back to that fateful day at Disneyland.

When I think about it, the reasons why Space Harrier was such a big influence on me seem superficial. It first and foremost came down to the graphics. For a game that’s pushing nearly 30 years in age, it still looks fantastic to me. It was really unique at the time to be playing a shooting game where you were flying forward, with enemies and obstacles coming at you at breakneck speeds. It has a terrific sense of style, with bright colors, individual stage names, amazing sound, a wide variety of enemies and bosses, and rewarding twitch gameplay. Successfully navigating one of its accelerated stages is still a tremendous rush.

It might be a one-trick pony, but it does that one trick exceptionally well. Perhaps one day I will own that elusive sit-down cabinet, too.

What I’m playing right now: Swords, Courts, and Karts

May 30, 2014 by Mike

My father-in-law’s now recuperating in the comfort of his own home and bed, which is great, but my wife came down with a pretty bad case of food poisoning last night. Long story short, we were up until dawn, and didn’t get to sleep until about 6 this morning. As they say, when it rains, it pours. Yin and yang, or something like that.

Anyway, after such a stressful week, I’m looking forward to some quality game time this weekend. Here’s what I’ll be playing:

A couple weeks ago, I started Fire Emblem: Awakening on the 3DS, even though I’m not a big fan of strategy games. I just finished The Exalt and the King (Chapter 5), so I have a long, long way to go, but I’m enjoying it so far. I’m playing it on Casual, even though I’m sure this irks Fire Emblem purists to no end. The game is still pretty tough, however, and vital units can get wiped out in a single turn if you’re not careful.

The amount of content in Awakening is impressive. In addition to the main quest, there are a number of sidequests to complete as well, so this game will be keeping me busy for quite some time. I’m extremely impressed by the game’s production value. The animated cutscenes by Madhouse are gorgeous, and put a lot of regular console games to shame. The soundtrack is equally impressive, providing great drama and tension to story and battle scenes alike.

About the only thing I don’t care for is the sporadic voice-over. It’s distracting, and tarnishes the shine of what is an otherwise superlative game. I’m also feeling slightly overwhelmed by the already high number of units I have at my disposal, but I’d rather have more to deal with than too little.

I played and finished the first Phoenix Wright game back in 2012. While I really liked it initially, it became tediously long and definitely wore out its welcome by the time it was over. This could be due to the DS version’s extra content, but whatever the case, I was relieved when it ended, only giving it a C+.

Now that a couple years have passed, I felt ready to jump back into the series. It’s very familiar so far, and I’m liking that. The mildly remixed music is nostalgic, and it’s great to see old friends and colleagues return. I’m enjoying the story so far, and the new cast has been quite eccentric. I wouldn’t expect anything less after the crew from first game.

I’ve only completed the first case, and that trial had a good flow with testimony and cross-examination that made sense. Some of them were so vaguely indeterminate to me in the first game that I had to resort to using a guide on more than one occasion. I’m hopeful that I won’t have to do the same here. So far, though, I’m digging this.

Finally, my copy of Mario Kart 8 should be arriving at some point today, and I’m very excited to start playing it! I’m not really the target Mario Kart player, though, since I like to play solo most of the time. I suppose that’s why most games in the series haven’t really done much for me. I’d rather have a goal/adventure-based format like Diddy Kong Racing instead of straight classes and groups of tracks. Seriously, why haven’t they made more games like that Rare classic?

In any case, I’m hopeful that MK8 rekindles my love for the series. I was addicted to Super Mario Kart on the SNES, and I haven’t liked any of the subsequent entries nearly as much. Maybe this will be the one that breaks that cycle. By all accounts and reviews, it looks like an undeniable gem of a racer. As a Wii U owner, that’s very, very good news.

Have a great weekend, and thanks for your continued support and readership here at GHG.

Backlog Blitz: The games of March 2014

May 29, 2014 by Mike

It’s been a rough week. Even though every fiber of my being wants to just rest and resume business as usual on Monday, I think it’s important to keep things going here at GHG. Taking a break can make it that much harder to get back into it, and I know me: I’ve tried and quit a lot of things, so I can’t let that happen again.

Anyway, March was a good month. With only 5 purchases and a decent completion tally of 7 games, I pushed my total upwards a bit. The format, like January and February, is Game Title (Platform, Purchase Price, Play Time).

Games purchased (-5, $67.50 spent):

Pokemon X (3DS, $20.00)
Tough to resist a good 50% off sale, and so even though I have never really played or finished a single Pokemon title, starting with the latest one is probably an OK place to begin. My friends told me to get X instead of Y, so get X I did.
The Humble Mobile Bundle 4 (Android, $3.00)
Although I’m getting to the point where I have most of the games offered by current Humble Bundles, I’ll still pick them up. This bundle included BADLAND Premium, Breach & Clear, Catan, Color Sheep, Gunslugs, OLO, Riptide GP2, Vector, and Zombie Gunship.
The Humble Weekly Sale: PopCap (PC, $6.00)
I bought the vast majority of these in a PopCap bundle for my wife years ago, but decided to add some of them to my library as well. Pretty good selection: Peggle Deluxe, Bejeweled 3, Bookworm Deluxe, Escape Rosecliff Island, Feeding Frenzy 2 Deluxe, Plants vs. Zombies GOTY Edition, Peggle Nights, and Zuma’s Revenge.
PlayStation Plus (12-month, PS3/Vita/PS4, $35.00)
It took me a long time to finally sign up, but a 30% off sale made me pull the trigger. This is only my second month with the service, but the free games alone across all three of Sony’s platforms makes this one of the best deals in gaming. It’s no wonder Microsoft had to bring out Games With Gold, to which Sony has already countered by increasing the number of PS4 games per month to 2 instead of 1 starting in June. How long this kind of great value can be sustained in anyone’s guess, so you’ll never see me complain about it.
Thomas Was Alone: Benjamin’s Flight DLC (Vita, $3.50)
As part of PlayStation Plus, I finished Thomas Was Alone (see below), and immediately had to purchase its follow-up DLC.

Games finished (+7, $44.50 value):

SpellTower (Android, $1.00, 2 hrs.)
This one’s a nice cross between Tetris and Bookworm. It’s a fun diversion that I still find myself playing while out and about, waiting for a table at a restaurant, or any instance where I need to kill a few minutes. While word games aren’t my favorite, it’s still very well-made with a number of different modes, multiplayer, intuitive touch control, style, and challenge. Overall: B
Grand Theft Auto V (PS3, Free, 40 hrs.)
This is the first Grand Theft Auto game I’ve ever finished, and it’s easily one of the best games I’ve ever played. I was at first overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff you can do, but Rockstar has designed it in such a way that you almost always feel naturally led to the next activity. A wealth of variety, entertainment, and quality is in no short supply here, and each subsequent mission continued to blow me away. I have a feeling I’m going to be completely ruined on most other open-world titles from this point forward. Great characters, expertly designed missions, hilarious lowbrow gags, and the underlying technology driving everything in this game is impressive. It’s crazy to think that this is running on hardware that’s nearly 8 years old. Overall: A+
Batman: Arkham Asylum (PC, $7.50, 30 hrs.)
I had previously tried to play this two times, but for different reasons that weren’t related to the game itself, I stopped playing. After enjoying the open world of GTA5 so much, I wanted to go back and play this one before tackling the bigger Arkham City. I loved everything about it, especially the hand-to-hand combat, which is just so fluid and intuitive. I’m no Batman expert, but outside of the comics, this series is the best treatment of the license I’ve ever experienced. The in-game dialogue scenes are comically amateurish, which is too bad since the rest of the game is so good, but they don’t detract from what is an otherwise perfectly crafted action game with tons of collectibles and things to do. Rocksteady’s treatment of The Joker and Scarecrow are particularly memorable, too. Overall: A+
Broken Age: Act 1 (PC, $25.00, 5 hrs.)
I hopped aboard the Broken Age train really late because for some reason, my Kickstarter backing didn’t take initially. No matter, though — this is a charming adventure game that leaves the player with one heck of a cliffhanger ending. It’s almost unfair. I remember reading about how backers thought it was too short and easy, but since I’m not the biggest adventure game purist and I can’t stand obscure puzzles, I found it to be just right. Most of the puzzles are pretty simple, but they’re also intuitive, and they’re not all easy: there were a couple that almost pushed me to look at a FAQ. Yes, it’s a short game, but not if you take your time and enjoy everything the designers put into it. It’s at its best when you’re left to just experiment with item combos and usage to see what the characters will say. They all have great dialogue that must have been a lot of fun to write. The soundtrack is terrific, the art and animation are well-crafted, and it’s just a cool throwback to the type PC adventure games so many of us played in the ’90s. Overall: A-
Batman: Arkham City (PC, $7.50, 60 hrs.)
I loved Arkham Asylum, and Arkham City delivered on the promise of a bigger world to explore, more gadgets, and lots of things to do. It had a nice Legend of Zelda vibe to its world structure and game flow. Its depiction of the Penguin, Ra’s al Ghul, and Mr. Freeze were fantastic, and although the story takes a Batman-like nosedive into predictable cliches at the end, I enjoyed the game itself just as much as its predecessor. Side missions were fun, and some of the Riddler trophies were downright diabolical. I loved that they were turned into puzzles themselves, taking some good timing and ingenuity to collect. Traversal in Gotham City was painless, and I really liked all the refinements made since Asylum, particularly to the combat. Keeping Riddler informants alive adds a nice layer of strategy to the mob fights, and it’s addicting grabbing all the subsequent collectibles. Although the size and length of the game inherently makes the story feel less refined and focused as Asylum‘s, I still thought this was as good a game as the first. Overall: A+
Thomas Was Alone (Vita, Free, 6 hrs.)
What a surprise. Included for free as part of March’s PlayStation Plus offerings, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I thought it was just going to be your typical minimalist platformer with some indie quirkiness thrown in for good measure, but what I got was one of the most charming and memorable games I’ve played in a long time. While it’s not the most challenging platformer — this isn’t Super Meat Boy — it’s still fun and provides a lot of rewarding gameplay. I found myself compelled to complete it primarily for its wonderful story and characters. It’s pretty short, even after going through it twice to listen to the Developer Commentary, but it’s worth every minute. I think that anyone who has even a passing interest in game design should play this twice. Overall: A
Thomas Was Alone: Benjamin’s Flight DLC (Vita, $3.50, 1 hr.)
The follow-up DLC for Thomas Was Alone adds some new characters, play control, and good narrative, but it is extremely short, and unfortunately (for now), doesn’t include Developer Commentary, which was one of my favorite features of the original game. It gave such valuable insight into Mike Bithell’s approach to both game and character design that it almost feels like the DLC is missing a limb. Still worth the cost of entry, despite its lack of length and features. Overall: B

So that was March in a nutshell. It was thankfully a very light month in terms of how much I spent, and I was rewarded with some of the best games I’ve ever played. It will certainly be a tough month to beat!

Cancer sucks

May 26, 2014 by Mike

Updates at GHG will be light this week since my father-in-law goes in for radical prostatectomy surgery tomorrow morning. This will change his life and the lives of those who are close to him in ways we don’t even know yet.

Although I am not ready to talk about it, one day soon I will. In the words of Wil Wheaton from one of my favorite films Stand By Me, my message to all cancers of the world: “Suck my fat one, you cheap dime store hood.”

5/28/14 Update: Well, after a long two days, we are back home.

My father-in-law had the surgery done yesterday at the Portland VA Medical Center. He went in for pre-op around 9:30 in the morning, and we didn’t see him until about 9 that night, so it was a long, long day.

The good news is that everything went really well, and that there was no indication that the cancer had spread anywhere else, which was a huge relief for all of us to hear! Almost miraculously, he was already up and walking around a bit today, had a good appetite, and his pain meds were kept to a minimum.

He was his usual joking self, although laughing would make his abdominal area hurt, so we tried — and our attempts were futile — to limit the funnies. We justified it by saying that laughing would strengthen his core and speed up his recovery, which of course, caused more laughing.

Anyway, with any luck, he’ll be coming home this Friday to continue the long road to 100% recovery. We are all very, very thankful for the doctors and staff at the VA. They were all caring, knowledgeable, and took great care of my father-in-law before, during, and after his surgery.

Despite the stress, lack of sleep, and emotion of the day, I did get some “gaming” in while we waited yesterday. Although I can’t claim to have completed the entire thing, this puzzle kept us busy into the evening hours:

It actually made me want to put more puzzles together, so I might have to buy a few in the near future. Videogame-themed ones, of course.

Thank you so much for the kind emails, messages, and calls we received over the past few days. In times like these, having so many caring and loving people around us has made all the difference in the world.

Elgato Game Capture HD: Sample images

May 25, 2014 by Mike

This will be a very short weekend update, but here are a few screenshots I took today with the Elgato Game Capture HD. I’m pretty happy with the results, even though you have no choice but to grab them after they’ve been processed automatically via H.264 compression. I’ll be writing a full review on the device, setup, software, and image quality later this week.

Wipeout HD (PS3, 1920×1080)

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game (PS3, 1920x1080)

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game (PS3, 1920×1080)

Grand Theft Auto V (PS3, 1280×720)

Crash Bandicoot (PS3, 1920×1080)

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD (Wii U, 1920x1080)

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD (Wii U, 1920×1080)

The Sega Master System, Part 1: Odd man out

May 23, 2014 by Mike

You’ll never believe the reason why I wanted a Sega Master System so badly back in 1986. I had seen a Toys R Us ad for it not too long before Christmas that year, and sure, the system itself looked pretty cool. However, it was the game I saw plugged into it that grabbed my attention: Cobra Command. Yeah, the LaserDisc arcade game.

As a young, impressionable 7th grader who didn’t have a modem yet, I didn’t possess much knowledge about technical limitations, data storage, etc., so I surmised that sure, they could fit an entire LaserDisc game onto a cartridge. I mean, why not? Or better yet, use one of those nifty little Sega Cards! I later learned that Master System cartridges started out at 128KB (1 megabit) and those Sega Cards only held a fourth of that at 32KB.

Needless to say, I wouldn’t be playing stuff like Space Ace on the Master System anytime soon, even though I was convinced that it would happen. It didn’t.

While today’s consoles cost $400-500+ and only come with one controller and no games, the 8-bit era was more generous. For $200 at launch, you got the Master System console, 2 controllers, the Light Phaser gun, and two games: Hang-On & Safari Hunt. Nintendo offered a great value for the same asking price, sweetening the deal with R.O.B. No matter what you thought of that robot — or how poorly he “worked” — he was one of many strokes of genius in marketing the NES.

Anyway, Christmas Morning arrived, and even though I wouldn’t be fighting Borf, saving Daphne from the clutches of an evil dragon, or even stomping on Goombas, I was still in gaming bliss. Not counting our Apple //e, the only other gaming device in our household was an old Atari 2600, so going from that to the Master System kinda blew my mind.

The first game I powered up was The Ninja, based on Sega’s similarly titled arcade game. I remember the opening like it was yesterday, with the stylish, scrolling text reminiscent of Broderbund’s Karateka, except now with catchy background music and drums! Percussion in console games was still new to me, and hearing that snare along with clear, multi-channel melodies was amazing.

I loved that game so much, and it’s one of my all-time favorites on the Master System. It was very challenging, with good level design, diverse enemy types, hidden secrets, tight controls, and lots of style. It was similar to other vertically scrolling “run & gun” titles like Ikari Warriors, but I liked the pacing and variety of The Ninja better.

Transbot, one of only a handful of Sega Card games I would ever own, was another I received that Christmas. Sega got me with their marketing when I saw a clip of it in one of their TV commercials. When I saw the Star Wars-like AT-ST, I knew I had to have it. The game itself controls well, has several different weapon types, decent graphics, and a few interesting enemy patterns, but it’s an otherwise boring and repetitive game that I tired of quickly. Compared to The Ninja, or even the pack-in games, this one was disappointing.

Its quality would be consistent with the few other Sega Card games I would risk asking my parents for, like My Hero and Ghost House. I actually liked My Hero better than the arcade version, but it too was repetitive. I seem to remember Ghost House having a little more challenge and variety, but the fact that I barely recall any details about it speaks for itself. That was it for me and Sega Cards.

Ahh, but then there’s Alex Kidd in Miracle World. This was, in my opinion, the “must have” Master System game. Before playing it, I really had no idea what it was about. Sega’s cartridge boxes are infamous for their atrociously terrible art, but something about the name still intrigued me. From the moment I turned it on, I knew this was going to be great. The title screen was so colorful, the music was extremely upbeat and catchy, and the world map inspired a great sense of adventure.

The platforming gameplay was also lots of fun, with sprawling levels going in every direction, different vehicles to drive, shops to buy items, and one of the more unique (and frustrating) features: playing rock-paper-scissors against the game’s bosses. It was all very unique, and I enjoyed it as much as Super Mario Bros., perhaps even a little more due to its more varied styles of gameplay. This was Sega’s attempt to eat into Nintendo’s success, but there was just no way. Still, this is a classic and one of my favorites of the 8-bit era.

Meanwhile, my neighbor across the street also got a Master System that year, which in hindsight was miraculous, since he would end up being only one of two people I knew at school who had one! We’d trade games every now and then, which was fun. I miss that about childhood: bartering in the playground bazaar.

I remember borrowing Black Belt from him, which I would later find out was re-skinned from the Japanese Fist of the North Star original. It was a pretty straightforward and short side-scrolling beat-’em-up with mid-bosses and power-ups that you had to be quick about grabbing out of the air. My friends and I would laugh at the way defeated enemies would “explode” into a spray of square tiles.

The highlight, however, was definitely the one-on-one boss fights. Some of them were tough, and looking back, they were pretty impressive for still being part of the pre-Street Fighter II era. The characters were large, their movements were smooth, and when you would finally defeat them, they’d be on the receiving end of a satisfying flurry of punches and kicks. The only thing missing was Kenshiro’s trademark, “Atatatatatata!”

Finally, another early favorite of mine was Fantasy Zone. A port of the Japanese arcade game, I would not play the original until years later on the Sega Saturn and in MAME. That wouldn’t matter, though, because the Master System version was terrific. In fact, after having played both, I like the Master System version better.

Graphically, the game was lush, detailed, and it certainly captured my imagination. The player’s ship — Opa-Opa — was also unique with its different wings, weapons, and one of my favorite touches: little feet that would come out and touch the ground, letting you stroll around the bottom of each level. You can tell that Sega’s artists had a blast visualizing the world and its inhabitants.

Fantasy Zone‘s soundtrack deserves special mention. In addition to each level having its own unique look, they all had their own distinct musical themes. This was pretty amazing in the day and age where many games used the same music over and over throughout, and this helped make these alien worlds memorable. Well-designed bosses provided a good level of challenge, all leading to the game’s surprisingly touching ending.

As much as I loved that first wave of Master System games, the best games were yet to come. Specifically, a $70 RPG that would blow away my expectations and change the course of my life: Phantasy Star.

See you next time in Part 2!

The Apple //e, Part 3: Quest for 16 Colors

May 22, 2014 by Mike

The Apple //e might have been the most popular computer in the mid-’80s, but it certainly wasn’t the most technologically capable when it came to gaming. Armed with a standard array of 7 colors in high-resolution mode (jokingly referred to as the “Big Seven” in development circles), it was only slightly better than the paltry 4-color CGA spectrum on IBM computers.

Its built-in speaker didn’t exactly set ears ablaze either with its output, and while multi-voice sound was achievable, it paled in comparison to the audio heard through the Commodore 64’s legendary SID chip or the equally excellent, but perhaps lesser-known POKEY chip in Atari’s 8-bit computers.

Games on those competitor systems blew my mind back then, and it would be depressing playing games like M.U.L.E., Ghostbusters and Moon Patrol on my friends’ computers and then come home to the weaker looking and sounding versions on the Apple.

While we would never get a Mockingboard sound card either — and let’s face it, very few games actually supported it — we did get an Extended 80 Columns Card, which gave it 128K instead of the standard 64, and enabled support of 16-color high-resolution graphics, a holy grail of sorts for Apple games back then.

That doesn’t mean that the Apple didn’t have great games, though. Quite the contrary. It’s just that they didn’t look or sound as good as they did elsewhere, especially when it came to action and arcade games. I know the saying goes that graphics shouldn’t be the main focus, but I don’t think you can debate that they can only help if they’re done well.

The first game I ever played with the Apple’s enhanced graphics was Penguin Software’s 1984 adventure Transylvania, based on the original non-enhanced version from 1982. For some reason, this game — along with Oregon Trail and Carmen Sandiego — was commonly found in elementary school classrooms, despite its somewhat graphic nature and adult themes. It did “teach” map navigation, comprehension, and problem solving, but we all played it for the cool graphics. It was also fun to watch out for the menacing werewolf, who would always appear at the most inopportune times.

In hindsight, the enhanced 16-color version doesn’t really look that good, held back mainly because it was based on an older game, but it did have a very ominous, new title screen, complete with an animated splash of blood, so props to Penguin for that.

Around the same time, I got what would become one of the most famous games of all-time, Sierra’s King’s Quest (1984). This one was a life-changer for me, since at the time, playing it was the equivalent of being transported into an animated storybook or movie. It totally shifted my view of what a computer game could be. Your character Sir Graham was drawn and animated beautifully, the colors were rich, each scene had a wonderful sense of depth, and the simple act of moving Sir Graham around objects and behind buildings in each area was really advanced stuff back then.

One of my best memories about King’s Quest was how each scene was drawn. The Apple wasn’t a particularly fast computer, so each image looked like it was being drawn on the screen by hand, filled in with color, and additional details would be splashed on the end. Seeing each one come to life like that was a treat.

The text parser was also intelligent, and for the most part, understood plain English, compared to other more simplistic graphic adventure games that only accepted two word inputs. This also helped give King’s Quest a more natural and organic feel, and it made a strong impression on people who played it. I re-bought this series a few years ago on GoG.com, and while certain aspects of it don’t really hold up that well — like obscure puzzles and vague pathways — it’s still a wonderful game full of humor and adventure.

It wasn’t all gaming, though. Broderbund’s Dazzle Draw (1984), a computer art program that would later lead me to Deluxe Paint II Enhanced and beyond on the PC, was fantastic. I didn’t have a drawing tablet like a Koala Pad or anything, so I tried my best using a Kraft analog joystick. It was far from refined, but I thought it was just so cool to be able to have drawing tools like this on our computer. It also had a menu system that mimicked the feel of a Macintosh, so that made the entire package feel very premium and professional.

I still have my drawings on a 5.25″ floppy disk somewhere in storage. If I can find them, I’ll share them in a future post.

Like I’ve said once or twice before, Broderbund’s output on the Apple was impressive, not just in terms of quantity, but they set very high quality bars too. Dan Gorlin’s Airheart (1986) represents the pinnacle of Apple action games for me. I was already a big fan of Choplifter, but Airheart took things to a whole new level. Not only did it sport gorgeously immaculate 16-color graphics, but the animation quality was absolutely stunning. The first time I loaded it up, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing!

Not only was the art and animation fluid and cinematic, it was also really funny and full of great little details. From the way your character would slip on his backpack to the realistically flowing robes on your “guardians”, they showed just how much Dan Gorlin cared about the look of this game. It also conveyed an impressive sense of depth as you sped over and under the sparkling ocean, your character shaking water from his head after surfacing.

One of the most unique features was how each enemy would cause a different type of end for the player. You didn’t simply blow up, but if you got hit by a bubble, you would struggle inside it trying to escape until it eventually exploded, taking you with it. Or you’d get trapped by a vacuum-like enemy, which would ingest your ship, but eject you out, leaving you to endlessly swim to your demise. All of these touches made the game such a treat on the eyes, and is one of my all-time favorite Apple games.

Wings of Fury (1987) was another Broderbund game that required 128K to run. While it had the 16-color title screen pictured above (which really isn’t very good), the game itself ran in standard 7-color high-resolution mode, which for me was pretty disappointing. The game was lauded for its realistic physics and gameplay, but I was never able to truly get the hang of it, and only played it a handful of times before moving on to something else.

It reminded me of Star Blazer, Choplifter, and other side-scrolling Apple shooting games, but its focus on realism and slower pace made it less fun for me when I was younger. I’d be curious to try it out again now to see if my opinion has changed. It did have some novel ideas like a view that would go super-wide as you gained altitude, a pseudo-3D terrain map HUD, and a flight model that made your plane feel nice and weighty.

Next up: New World Computing’s Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World (1988). New World had already shown players that it could produce a beautiful-looking RPG with the first Might and Magic, but this one took the series’ graphics to new heights on the Apple. The title screen alone made my jaw drop, and the huge in-game animated graphics were a revelation. Compared to most other RPGs at the time, this was the undisputed visual king.

I played it a lot, but I don’t remember ever finishing it. That was pretty common for me back then, as I would often get frustrated with traditional computer RPGs and either quit or start using things like hex and characters editors to cheat. Anyone remember The Bard’s Tale Workshop?

Finally, Interplay’s Dragon Wars (1989) took the successful formula and look of The Bard’s Tale series and gave it a fresh coat of paint. I admittedly did not put a lot of time into this game, even though I do remember it being very good. 1989 was a pivotal year for me, since it would see the release of the Sega Genesis, me getting my driver’s license, and our family’s first IBM-compatible PC: a 386/33 with VGA graphics and a SoundBlaster.

My eyes and ears would be ill-prepared for what I would play next.

Gray-Haired Gamer

Gaming in my forties

Author Archives: Mike