The rhythm game genre is one that has been around for a long time. It existed in the forms of PaRappa the Rappa, Guitaroo Man, and Dance Dance Revolution long before anyone knew who Harmonix was. However, unless you were willing to import or get off your lazy ass and play DDR, many gamers’ exposure to these games was limited. That is, until November 2005, when the rhythm genre jumped into our hands and threw our favorite music at us. When Guitar Hero released it put rhythm games on everybody’s radar, but has the franchise grown with the core fan base, or abandoned them for the casual market?

When I first got my hands on that tiny plastic guitar, I remember thinking how ridiculous it was. At the time I played an actual guitar, and specialized in mastering meticulous metal tracks. I figured this game would be child’s play compared to the real deal. I was pleasantly surprised when the game challenged me in a way entirely separate from every other video game I had played.

Weeks passed as I climbed through the difficulty ranks. I wet my toes in Easy, waded up to my waist in Medium, then treaded water in Hard. I had years of playing along to my favorite songs on the actual guitar under my belt, but up until Guitar Hero the only thing holding me accountable for my rhythm and timing was myself. It turns out I wasn’t very strict.

As I dove off the deep end into Expert mode, I recall being amazed at how difficult the simplest songs became. Blistering solos and complicated chord progressions left my jaw agape at songs like “The Cowboys from Hell,” and “The Breaking Wheel.” The first time I went for the game’s jugular, and faced off against “Bark at the Moon” on Expert was especially memorable. This was a song I could play without any trouble on actual guitar, but failed repeatedly on Guitar Hero. However, instead of destroying my fake instrument for the real thing, I kept plugging way. After failing around the 97% mark time after time, I achieved the tangible triumph of “You Rock!” in exchange for my determination.


I'll never forget being burned by the "Bark at the Moon" riff for the first time.

The years kept coming and so did the entries in the Guitar Hero library. Guitar Hero II gave us challenging marvels like “Jordan,” and “Freebird,” to test our mettle on. Guitar Hero III also turned up the challenge with perhaps the most frustrating final tier of all. From “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” to “Through the Fire and Flame,” Guitar Hero III contains superiorly difficult songs. Beating that Dragonforce song is my life goal.

Shortly after Guitar Hero III was released, ex-Guitar Hero developer Harmonix released Rock Band. The casual-friendly game focused less on the challenge of playing music, and more on the experience of performing and having fun with friends. I enjoyed playing with friends, but still wasn’t convinced it was the “next” Guitar Hero. Something just didn’t feel right about the presentation and career mode. I patiently awaited Activision to release another game with the challenge that was featured in the third game. Time passed, and a few disappointing Guitar Hero III DLC songs later, Guitar Hero: World Tour was released.

World Tour may have gained a band, but it lost the definitive Guitar Hero “flavor.” The challenge was significantly reduced, the quality of songs was arguably poorer, and the career progression was awkwardly divided into disjointed setlists. Quantity is not always better than quality. The Guitar Hero team’s pathetic attempts at DLC were bandaged by song creation/ sharing. These fan made songs could be challenging and fun, but the lack of real polish kept them from attaining replayable greatness.


Song creation is cool, but doesn't fill the void in my soul

Was this it? Had the Guitar Hero brand sprinted after Rock Band in order to gain mass appeal? What about me? It was gamers like me that purchased the game in the first place, getting friends and friends’ friends infatuated with the game. We had practiced and become proficient at Expert, and were thirsting for something more. Instead of evolving with its core audience, Activision seemed to be taking backwards evolutionary steps, despite the addition of a full band.

It could be argued that the addition of drums and their steep difficulty compensates for the watered down guitar component. However, the core fans of the franchise have been rocking a plastic guitar since Guitar Hero first appeared. We cut our teeth on the artificial axe, so it’s unfair to assume we wish to derive all our challenge from synthetic skins.

Activision is abandoning the fans that made their game the success it is. Appealing to casual gamers with a Rock Band clone that ditches everything which made the Guitar Hero franchise “what it is” leaves us alienated and bereft. We have become proficient at playing the Fisherprice-like instrument, and we are becoming bored with the latest efforts. Guitar Hero started the night off right with making stiff drinks, and since has been watering them down. We need more to get the job done.


Guitar Junky would more appropriately describe my desire

Guitar Hero: Metallica is a step in the right direction. Expert + mode for drums offers a very specific challenge to a very specific group of gamers who enjoy laying down the beat. A handful of songs are quite challenging on Expert, and require some dedication to complete. However, the game fizzles out with anticlimactic ‘pop.’ This game is still World Tour at the roots.

Something needs to happen or the Guitar Hero name will stumble and burn in the fiery wake of Rock Band. Drop the band, Guitar Hero. You tried. Embrace the guitar as your strong point, and exploit it.

In the early days of video games the number of ‘bits’ may have been low, but the challenge was high. Trial and error, twitch reflexes, and memorization were all necessary skills for conquering any cartridge. However, even the most punishing 8-bit titles would throw the player a bone from time to time to help slow the depletion of their health bar. This week’s power-up is the gaming equivalent to the cure for cancer, offering a hopeful future in a game that aims to break any gamer’s will.

A razor sharp metal spike cuts through the air and connects with your torso, sending you flying back in a flash of sparks. Your blue battle armor has deep gouges and dark scorching all over it, and the damage meter in your arm cannon is reading four measly bars remaining. Your pain sensors are screaming as the dead eyes of Needle Man’s stumpy face is forcing you to realize the futility of this situation. He’s the first Robot Master you were sent to assassinate, and he’s already killed you five times. Dr. Light says the teleportation machine can’t take any more use without exploding, so this it. As you recover from the volley of needles, a crack in your metallic breast plate reveals the forgotten contents of a storage compartment. A small, blue canister with a big bold E on it is barely visible through your fractured frame. A small smirk spreads on your face as you quickly slide out of the way of Needle Man’s bull rush and reach in and pull out the E-tank. Time seems to stop as you crack the seal and drain the contents into your mouth. The damage meter on your arm slowly replenishes, chirping loudly in approval of the newly regained stamina. As you level your arm cannon once again on Needle Man’s jumping form, his dead eyes respond with a flicker of fear.

Items and weapons have come and gone throughout the years in the Mega Man series. There are always new powers to acquire from Robot Bosses and new functionalities for Mega’s canine compatriot Rush. One very important item has been a mainstay in the series, however, and that’s the “E-Tank.” First appearing in Mega Man 2, the tiny blue canister has been like a refreshing oasis in the brutal desert that is the Mega Man universe. E-Tanks can be found tucked away on unreachable platforms or behind unbreakable barriers, and always require skill or a particular item in order to acquire. The effort it takes to procure them is well worth it, however.


You don't know what he had to do for that E-Tank. It's the reason he isn't smiling.

The Mega Man series has been known for its difficulty, boss fights in particular. The challenge of these bouts is exaggerated when you are ignorant to any given Robot Master’s weakness, and have to fight them cold with the mega buster. Usually knocking back one E-Tank just before the Blue Bomber goes “pe-kew-kew-kew-kew” will do the trick and allow you barely squeeze out a victory. Plus the tanks are practically a necessity when facing the menacing machinations of Dr. Wily at the end of each game, as the evil doctor is capable of forcing you to burn through several E-tanks if you don’t know his attack patterns or weaknesses.

This leads us to the main issue with E-Tanks, and a problem that every survivalist faces in their life. While collecting and hoarding such valuable gems is a must, the question of when a situation is dire enough to use them plagues Mega Man players. Sure, a rejuvenated health bar is great, but what happens if you still get crushed under the tremendous weight of a giant robot? Well, then you’re out an E-Tank and another life. This problem is amplified when in Wily’s fortress, as you then will either have to pull off an against-all-odds victory or restart and collect them all over again. When to pull the trigger on an E-Tank is almost as challenging as pulling off a no damage run in Mega Man 9.
etank-beer


This is how Mega Man copes with the spin-offs of the franchise.

Whether you glug down E-Tanks like Coca Cola or ration them like beef jerky during the zombie apocalypse, you’ll have to admit they are incredibly useful. Just don’t use too many or you’ll form a chemical dependency, and you don’t want to know what has to be done on the streets to get your fix.

What’s worse than being buried behind stacks of dirty dishes for less than minimum wage and no respect? Try having your heart ripped out, being systematically hunted by zombie cyborg assassins, and your sister willfully becoming one of them. This is the plight of the nameless Dishwasher from SKA Studios latest game. The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai may have been the winner of Microsoft’s Dream-Build-Play game development contest in 2007, but does the finished product get the blood pumping or leave you checking for a pulse?

The graphical presentation of Dishwasher is striking and crisp. Watching the game in action is the visual equivalent of those “black, white, and red all over” jokes. The game has a smeared ink aesthetic which aids in adding personality to the otherwise lackluster character sprites. From the black puffs of teleportation smoke that trail across the screen to the bountiful geysers of bright red that splatter on your TV, Dishwasher boasts a graphical gusto that hasn’t been seen on Xbox Live Arcade since Braid or Castle Crashers.
dishwasher1


Every encounter echoes the lawnmower scene from "Dead Alive"

The brush with which to paint this macabre masterpiece is an arsenal of conventional and improvised weaponry. A chainsaw, butcher’s cleavers, and scythes all populate your sub weapons arsenal, each with frenzied quick attacks and brutal strong attacks that can carry you through the game themselves. If you don’t feel like stringing kill combos together by hacking and slashing, you can take a break with the clever “arsenal” weapon, with which the light attack is an Uzi, and the strong attack is a sawed-off shotgun. While not very functional, the visceral velocity of a pointblank shotgun blast sending a baddie across the screen with a red ribbon flowing behind him is truly satisfying. The real star of the game’s armory is the “shift blade,” a samurai sword with teleportation properties, and your primary weapon. With the flick of an analog stick you can perform split second midair dashes for an infinite amount of time, leaving you nearly invulnerable to enemy attacks. After each enemy has sustained enough damage, a button icon will appear above their heads indicating they are ready to be “finished.” The brutal fatalities trigger the camera to zoom in and the background to turn crimson as enemies are dismembered and executed. The variety of abilities included in Dishwasher offers a sense of true empowerment usually reserved for the final bosses of most video games. Gameplay is smooth and responsive, but requires apt reflexes and a myriad of button presses.
The use of slow motion in this game is tastfully done. The gorey kind of tastful.


The finishing moves are done in slow motion, allowing you to savor the triumph

With all these tools at your disposal, you may be wondering how anything could possibly stand in the Dishwasher’s way? Well, even on normal difficulty, the enemies’ tenacity has been turned up to eleven. Just when you feel like you’ve become the ultimate badass and are fricasseeing cyborgs into bloody microchips, the challenge-o-meter gets cranked up and you’ll be profanely threatening the game’s existence. Expect some trial and error until you chisel out a combo that works for you. If you’re feeling especially sadomasochistic, ninja and samurai difficulties also await to draw deep from your well of patience. Some of the enemies (green eyed commandos in particular) are incredibly annoying in large numbers, spamming grenades and pounce attacks that can drain your health bar in a heart beat. While there are only a handful of different enemies, Dishwasher likes to throw over a dozen in a room with you at once, producing a chaotically cluttered screen that begs to be proliferated with your room clearing “dish magic.” For those that have trouble following intense bouts, searching for your character may be harder than spotting a raw meatball in a piranha tank, so be prepared. During the more intense fights you might find yourself throwing technique out the window in exchange for button mashing or move spamming, which unfortunately works more often than not. The addition of a block feature would have been useful, but mastering the teleport dodge of the shift blade will allow you to evade most attacks.
dead-samurai-xna1


Dishwasher vs. MadWorld for "bloodiest of the year"

Whether you tackle the game’s single player “story mode” or choose to play co-op, the game will consist of entering rooms, killing enemies, and moving on to the next room. In the single player game you hack and slash through different levels such as a restaurant, cemetery, and skyscraper which are all tied together by comic strip story snippets. The story isn’t overwhelmingly unique, and it definitely won’t be what drives you through the game. What will motivate you is dodging and mincing waves of enemies to earn points spendable on weapons, health, and magic upgrades. You’ll spend a small amount of time traveling from room to room, and a door will inevitably seal shut behind you as trap. The only down side of this layout is that oftentimes engaging enemies without the locked doors in place will result in you accidentally exiting mid-battle with one faulty teleport.

The co-op mode consists of progressing through a list of single room brawls that feature unique battle conditions. With the vampire condition, you must kill enemies quickly to restore your ever-draining health, in quad damage there is 4x the damage, and in bullet time every enemy is slowed to a snail’s pace. The heart of co-op, however, is all about you and a pal slicing through as many grenade throwing, chainsaw wielding enemies as you can, either locally, online, or via system link. On some of the larger maps, co-op suffers from a character being needlessly cut-off by the screen, which could have been easily remedied by panning the camera out.


Somebody has seen "The Crow" a few too many times

However, if you feel like tackling story mode with a pal you are only a couple items away. One item found early in the game allows a second player to jump in as your shadow and aid in combat, sporting an identical arsenal. The other item allows for the incredibly original experience of a buddy firing up your trusty guitar peripheral and jamming away on it to do damage. The guitar sidekick is perfect for someone who wants to do more than watch the frenzied combat, but doesn’t have the skill to quite keep up with all the intense action. This same guitar peripheral can also be used to shred out Guitar Hero style minigames to earn “psycho picks” which are then used for upgrades.

Ultimately, Dishwasher: Dead Samurai feels like two fully realized games in one. Whether you decide to tackle the single or multiplayer mode, both will have you button mashing for around three hours, depending on trial and error. This isn’t even including the “challenge room” in which you slaughter enemies in the attempt to string together an epic combo within the time limit. Think you can get the achievement for a 100,000,000 point combo? This is the place to do it. Online leader boards are also in place to check your standing for every segment of the game.


"Dish Magic" is devastatingly useful for proliferating a roomful of enemies

For ten dollars, Dishwasher: Dead Samurai is a steal. Immediately after beating the game on normal mode you’ll be tempted to pack up your upgraded gear and head into the next difficulty full force, or call up a friend and try to aim high on the co-op leader boards. In all, Dishwasher is a game unlike any other on XBLA and is begging to be downloaded. It is a game that smelts your patience with its punishing difficulty, and tempers your will like the folded layers of your blood soaked samurai sword.

8.5 Presentation
The graphics are fresh in their intentional sloppiness, creating a unique high definition bloodbath. Enemy types are recycled, but contain enough personality. The settings lack much originality.
8 Gameplay
The controls are tight and responsive, but sometimes quicktime button presses aren’t as instant as they should be. Dodging is a bit too touchy, but otherwise the game controls just fine.
8 Sound
The music is done by Jon Silva’s own band, and sounds great with its hard edged rock/ traditional Japanese sound. The enemy sound bits are overused and lack variety, however.
7 Longevity
With two replayable game modes, a challenge mode, and online play this game boasts value not otherwise common in XBLA games of its ilk.
8 Overall
Dishwasher: Dead Samurai is one of the best deals on XBLA for $10, and they could have easily have gotten away with a higher price tag. The fact that this game was created by a single person is reason enough to take a look. Download the demo now if you don’t believe me!

For this week’s Power Trip, I explore Guitar Hero in spirit of Guitar Hero: Metallica’s release this week. The first installment in the Guitar Hero series introduced the most powerful mind controlling technique in gaming since Psycho Mantis. The power up this week is so powerful that it can malevolently manipulate the internal workings of one’s mind, turning dissonance into sweet harmony, red to green, and condemnation into euphoric idolization.

This is it, the very first song of your very first paid gig. You know everyone came for the headlining band, and your band, “Unholy Creation,” is merely in the audience’s way. Your sweaty fingers tremble as they clutch the guitar pick. The guitar’s metallic strings seem to resist your plucking and prodding as you stumble through the introductory melody of Boston’s “More Than a Feeling.” The crowd of rampant Boston fans begin jeering and reaching into their pockets for rotten tomatoes. “Is it time?,” you quietly ask yourself. You swallow hard and, while playing, tilt your electric guitar vertically. The Miniature Gyroscopic Cogniscience Manipulation Apparatus slides into place and the magnetic contacts unite, sending a signal to the Tesla Dispersal Unit attached to the guitar’s amplifier. Blue bolts of electricity burst from the amps and snake through the booing crowd, penetrating their brains via the ear canal. Suddenly grimaces mutate into smiles, jeers turn to cheers, and the familiar melody of “More Than a Feelings”’s arpeggios wash over the audience’s ears, veiling the cacophony of twangy noises coming from your guitar. “This is how you’ll rise to the top,” you think to yourself as you grin wickedly.

The Star Power of Guitar Hero may seem like a benign and cheesy way to save yourself from completely blowing it during “Bark at the Moon,” but it exemplifies a power rarely seen in games. It not only slows your rate of fail, but with each note you hit correctly, the audience approval meter sky rockets. This is incredibly helpful for not only making it through bloated serpentine solos containing notes that crowd the fret board, but it also allows you to start the next section of the song in the green, giving you a cushion should you biff it again.


Even professional musicians rely on Star Power during live shows

As everyone surely knows, Start Power appears in the form of glowing notes that must be played sequentially without error. Accumulating enough of these “streaks” fills an energy meter that looks like something inside Doc’s DeLorean. Star Power is then activated by tilting the guitar vertically in order to simulate a rocker entering “super shred mode.” Obviously, tilting the guitar allows you to look much cooler, thus wowing the audience into an orgasmic stupor.

Guitar Hero may have polished and popularized the rhythm game genre that existed successfully in Japan years before, but it also borrowed elements from another genre- survival horror. Yes, survival is crucial in the higher tier songs of the game. Being eaten alive by songs like “Cowboys from Hell” had players hoarding Star Power like shotgun rounds in preparation for the apocalyptic guitar solos of Dimebag Darrell. Waiting until the last blistering moment as they teetered on the crimson brink of failure, gamers would spastically tilt their plastic instrument and unleash the fury of Star power to save them from mass ridicule and the infamous “You Suck!” screen.


This guy has the right idea... just before you bomb

Without Star Power, Guitar Hero would have been an incredibly difficult game on the higher difficulty levels. This, combined with the first game’s strict timing window and rigid hammer-on/ pull-off mechanic would have made the game much less user friendly, and could have ultimately doomed the series and future rhythm games.

Some say that Star Power is the western rhythm game developer’s “easy button,” and that it would have been better if the hardcore difficulty of Japanese rhythm games wasn’t watered down. However, I don’t know what I’d do without it. So here’s to Star Power! Mind washing virtual audiences into adoring us and convincing us we’re actually good at rhythm games since 2005!

If you’re anything like me you not only love playing games, but you also like completing them. After plugging hours of sleepless nights into an RPG or action game, it’s incredibly satisfying to bask in the soft glow of your television as the end credits roll. Sometimes, however, you’ll be 30 hours into a Final Fantasy game when something new and shiny distracts you from the epic quest you were on. After your fickle gaming side quest has been completed and you’re ready to pick up the unfinished JRPG again, however, it can be near impossible to reenter the state of mind you were in when you stopped. What can game developers do to make sure we see games through to their epic conclusion?

If there is one thing I’ve learned from watching episodic TV shows over the years, it’s that viewers have short memories. Even with shows that only have one cliffhanger ending episode per season, viewers need immediate reminders about the events that transpired. When you take into account shows like Lost, which have increasingly convoluted plots, dedication to summary sometimes can last over five minutes! Five minutes is a small price to pay, however, to be completely caught up to speed. The best television shows can summarize so well that you can begin watching any given show 3 seasons in and feel as knowledgeable as a fan since the pilot.

Where am I getting at with this? Well, as video games try harder to emulate cinema and existing media, their plotlines become thicker and more tangled than the Christmas lights in your attic. Games like Japanese RPGs and lengthy adventure games are especially guilty of having convoluted story lines, and could benefit greatly from a quick recap every time you load your game. Think about how many times you’ve had to restart a great game because you couldn’t remember what happened when you stopped playing? A great example for me is Final Fantasy 9. I think I left off somewhere on the 2nd disc with a hefty chunk of my life invested, and I know whenever I want to play it again I’ll have to start over. It’s not enough to read plot summaries in strategy guides to catch up, simply because they may leave something out and you may tread into spoiler town.


If Pokemon can do it, who can't?

I have found one shining example of recaps in gaming. One. The award for best “previously, on…” summary goes to the Pokémon Fire Red/ Leaf Green games. Each time you load up your save game, snapshots are presented in black and white that remind you of plot points, recently captured Pokémon, and even items you’ve purchased. Brilliant. If a Gameboy Advance game can do it so simply, what’s stopping the folks at Square Enix or even Capcom from slapping it on some of their longer games? It could be a selection in the options menu you could turn on and off, so as not to interfere with hardcore gamers that can burn through games like Persona 4 in a week.

Ultimately, we want to complete these games even if we don’t have enough vacation time saved up to conquer Final Fantasy XIII a week after it releases. There are tons of gamers that don’t complete games they’ve started, and I’m positive that this feature would help those fickle pickles finally complete what they’ve begun. Here’s to hoping we see our past in the future!

What do you folks think? Are there other games that succeed in doing this that I’m missing? How could this “previously, on…” recap be implemented best? Any particular games you would have killed to have this in?

In this week’s edition of Power Trip, I explore Resident Evil 2 just in time for Resident Evil 5’s upcoming release. Resident Evil may seem an obscure place to find an item that could power up the protagonist the level of near god hood, but one such enhancement exists in Resident Evil 2. In a city where 9mm ammunition is like gold and finding a little green shotgun shell box will make you wet your pants, the following item is practically the Holy Grail.

Wanton moans drown out Leon’s footsteps as he limps down the dimly lit hallway. Twelve 9mm rounds, one blue herb, and five shotgun shells. He knows these provisions will not suppress the half a dozen shambling corpses that he narrowly evaded. Somewhere between the sewage treatment facility and the factory Leon had taken a wrong turn, and now he’s facing a dead end, with the moans growing louder. Gripping his sawed off Remington shotgun firmly, Leon backs into the corner of the deadlocked corridor, slowly sliding to the ground in despair. That… thing that’s been stalking around the police station is getting stronger, and even this shotgun lacks the firepower to do more than agitate it. Next to Leon lay the corpse of a construction worker, sporting a self-inflicted headshot. The man’s firearm had since been dismantled, and all that lay near him are a reinforced gun stock and barrel extension. With shaking hands, Leon attaches the newfound upgrades to his own shotgun and slowly struggles to his feet, the powerful gun revitalizing his will. Sliding his remaining five shells into the chamber, Leon pumps the shotgun and leans back, aiming the deadly barrel at the rotting head of an incoming zombie.


This shotgun would give a Heavy from Team Fortress 2 an inadequacy complex

The shotgun parts in Resident Evil 2 are perhaps the most unassuming, seemingly random little trinkets you can pick up in the game. But when they are ‘combined’ with Leon’s existing Remington M870 shotgun, they birth a beastly Remington 1100 semi-automatic 12 gauge. Proving his manliness every step of the way, Leon refuses to shoulder the furious firearm, instead performing stylish hip-shots. The immense shotgun is about as big as the missile launchers you find at the end of every game. Similarly to the missile launchers, if you aim for a zombie’s head not only will it disintegrate upon pulling the trigger, but their arm, shoulder, and half of their torso will disappear in red mist. What’s more, if you blast a zombie’s midsection as it shuffles towards you, its torso will sickeningly slide off its still standing set of legs and crawl after you.


Makes Resident Evil 5 look tame in comparison

In the early Resident Evil games, ammo is a precious commodity where even the standard box of 9mm rounds will make you breathe a sigh of relief. That joy is far surpassed by the orgasmic bliss you feel when you find shotgun shells, and the upgraded shotgun increases their value ten fold. Not only does the Remington 1100 match the power of the series’ legendary magnum, but surpasses its effectiveness by achieving a punishing spread shot that allows you to down multiple enemies with a single shot.


Fap fap fap fap fap

The upgraded shotgun isn’t only limited to dismembering zombies, however, as super lickers, Mr.X and even g-virus infected William Birkin must all make bloody bows to this powerhouse. Blasting away bosses with this weapon will leave them withering piles of gore, and your magnum rounds will collect dust in your storage crate as you wonder why you ever lusted after them.

The Remington 1100 is a gem in Resident Evil 2, as it’s probably the strongest “ordinary” weapon available that only takes up one inventory space. Other weapons like the infinite gatling gun and rocket launcher may be more obviously devastating, but they’re inventory space hogs and for cheating.


Leon will blast down the 4th wall if you doubt the power of the Remington 1100

If you fail to see the Remington 1100 as anything but supreme, then when the zombie apocalypse rolls around I recommend trying out a bolt gun instead. Good luck with that.