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Guys it certainly has been a while since I've written or posted anything here, but I thought that I'd drop you all a line to let you know that I am one week out from being a daddy. My daughter is due any minute and my wife is miserably pregnant.
Most the people in the IRC have been keeping track with me over the last couple of weeks but the home stretch is in sight and I'm thrilled and terrified at the same time. I do apologize for not posting here as much as I used to, but I still lurk the site and still converse with as many of you as I can. It will be interesting what I'll manage to do when the baby-insomnia hits me hard...who knows, maybe it will inspire me to write more!
Anyways, I gotta jet, my wife is in pain and I need to help her feel better. Catch you lovely Dtoiders again soon! I'll bring pics, I swear! read more
There are plenty of others here on D-Toid that do the same. I thought to myself "Wouldn't it be nice to share some sophisticated drink recipes with fellow adults?" That's where this posting comes from, the love I have for all drinks. So if you too are 21 years old or above, stay a spell, crack open a 'cold one' and join me as I share today's recipe.
BigPopaGamer's Guaranteed to Get You Laid (or Sick) Punch
BigPopaGamer, the man, the myth, the misogynist...I used to know nothing about this guy guy until I started coming into the IRC chat room (yes, some of us still hang out in the unofficial Destructoid chatroom) during the dayshift at my work. Turns out that BPG is a guy that has much of the the same interests and tastes as myself. He is always known as the man with the sexy GIFs and awesome profile, I got to know him a little better through this drink recipe he decided to share with me...check out BigPopaGamer's blog and feed the man some comments sometime. The man needs all the love you can spare.
The basic recipe is:
1 Liter of Everclear
1 Liter of 100 Proof Vodka
3 Gallons of Hawaiian Punch
1 2-Liter Bottle of Sprite
1 Quart of Orange Juice
1 Quart of Pineapple Juice
1 Quart of any random juice (optional)
1 2-Liter Bottle of Ginger Ale (optional)
This is probably the simplest recipe that I've posted in a long time, all you need is big ass cooler with a spigot, some ice, and a big mixing spoon (I suggest a cordless drill with a paint stirrer).
Just take all the ingredients and dump them into the cooler, mix and serve. Here's the real trick, you let the ladies drink for free while you charge the gents $5 to have as much as they can drink (to help offset the cost of making the whole thing).
This is a major warning! Go easy on drinking these! You will get fucked up and possibly alcohol poisioning if you drink too much. Just because there are over 5 gallons of the beverage and you can have as many as you want, doesn't mean that you should!
The drink should look something like this when finished.
How's about a nice Hawaiian Punch?
There you have it, a BigPopaGamer's Something Something Punch! Take it easy with these, seriously, even if you're initiated in the ways of liquor, it will go straight to your head. BigPopaGamer guarantees that if you make this and can make the alcohol "not taste-able", you will "see people get fucked up on two glasses" and also says that "everytime I've made this, I've seen nudity." So go out and make some and either get laid or sick...your choice!
*Note* Destructoid assumes no responsibility for the drink recipes posted by Excremento, nor the actions taken from imbibing said drinks, neither does Excremento. Remeber kids, drink in moderation you don't want alcohol poisoning. As always have something to eat before a night of drinking.
Well, I hope you guys all like it, please let me know what you think!
Gamers of Destructoid, I think that we've created a monster. A monster that is really mean that likes to eat cash and poop out cheap plastic instruments. The rhythm gaming industry is a beast that none of us saw coming but each of us have helped in making it a dominant genre.
I don't know if it was the sheer repetitiveness of the FPS genre or the amazing lack of decent RPGs in the last couple of years, but I had been looking and hoping for a new game type to play that didn't require hours and hours of my time to get somewhat decent at or one that forced me to work up a sweat.
Don't get me wrong, I love playing every single Dance Dance Revolution game that I own, including the extra expensive ones that I had to import from Japan to play on my PlayStation 1. The biggest problem with the rhythm games of then was that you had to get off your ass to really get into them; DDR wasn't quite as fun if you played with the controller instead of the dance pad.
Even the Beatmania games were lacking substance to keep me interested, and I'm sorry but I had to draw the line somewhere when it comes to importing games, I couldn't afford to import those wickedly awesome controllers. I think it was the fact that all of the Konami games didn't have easily recognizable bands and songs that lead to the imminent rise of the Guitar Hero franchise.
Thinking that the new game was just a fad and something that I didn't quite understand (I used to be one of those people who thought that it made no sense and that people should just learn real guitar), it never even crossed my mind to pick it up. It wasn't until the game was announced on the Xbox 360 that I thought I might check it out.
I remember fondly going out to every store near me trying to find Guitar Hero II and how insanely quick the game managed to sell out at stores near me. It wasn't until I tried the last place on Earth that I want to shop at that I found my own copy of the game...at Kmart (I f*cking hate Kmart with a passion!). From the moment that I unpacked my Xplorer guitar and strapped it on, I was hooked.
Since then, I have picked up Guitar Hero III with the wireless guitar and Rock Band with the complete set of instruments. There are two games that I plan on getting soon, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero DS, and two that I plan on getting when they come out, Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2. Each one of these games can be bought without their peripherals (except the DS version), but I'm going to be a sucker and buy each one's bundle pack so I can have the newest version of the instruments. This is going to be a problem.
By the time I get all of the games I listed above, I will have 6 guitars, 3 sets of drums, 3 microphones, and a DS attachment that will probably never be used on any other game. There is simply no need to have all of that crap piling up in the corner of my living room or collecting dust in my basement. I know that it's not necessary to pick up each game's bundle pack with all the instruments, but I don't care. I'm a collector, it's what I do.
Oh and before I finish up here, I didn't forget Konami's Rock Revolution. I just didn't say anything about it because I have a feeling that it will be horrible and not worth the money. Save your cash and get one of the good games coming out.
Seriously, I think we've created a monster and I see no end to it in sight...and to be honest I don't care if it really does because I'm having a really good time S'ingTFUAJPG. Thanks for reading. read more
This last week, I had the distinct opportunity to attend the first gaming industry event that has been held in Utah that was open to the public. The GEEX show was held in Salt Lake City last Thursday through Saturday and I was lucky enough to get to go for free.
Using the credentials that I obtained by being a writer through (another site), I was able to secure a press pass to attend this last Friday. I was hoping to get a scoop or two from companies that were there, but alas...it ended being a huge LAN party/vendor event, no real game news to be had. I did manage to pick up 20 NES games for only $20 bucks from the GameCrazy booth. There really wasn't much there worth really discussing.
I had an ulterior motive for attending this event, which made it all the more worthwhile. I had a tryout for a locally produced podcast called Geek Show Podcast as their potential resident gamegeek. I have to admit that I killed it, and had a great time working with the guys from the show.
What I was really hoping for is to impress the host of the show by getting him some new listeners from Dtoid and any other site I have any amount of influence on. So if you fine people at Dtoid give it a listen and enjoy my little bit of gaming news I shared, email the show at the following addresses and let them know that you want more Excremento in your ears. I will forever be indebted to you all.
Oh and you all should know, that I am quitting the other site tomorrow morning and focusing everything I've got on Destructoid and my own projects...trust me, there's more to come.
Death, the one inevitability that we all must face. The one absolute to each of our lives, that is unless you're a character in a video game, then death is as avoidable as most common STDs (Protip: look for open sores to avoid Herpes), or steaming piles of dog poo on the sidewalk.
Fortunately, the brilliant minds at Rare decided to put a nice spin on death by giving him a face, name, and perfectly suited attitude for his job. I'm talking about Gregg...Gregg The Grim Reaper...ya know from Conker's Bad Fur Day. For the first good couple of hours playing Conker I had managed to not die. But as the game progressed, the difficulty started to get more...well...difficult, and death was inevitable. Once I finally bit the dust while fighting the HayBot at the bottom of the barn, I was treated to a nice cutscene where you hear a menacing voice calling out to your character. "Conker, Conker, Conker, Yes you boy, You're Dead, You are dead. Dead as a Dodo. Deader than a.." it is then you see one of my favorite video game characters of all time, Gregg the Grim Reaper.
He is one of the few characters in the whole world of Conker the Squirrel that has no issue giving Conker a taste of his own medicine in the form of being a smarmy cunt. In the short introduction between the two characters you get to know more about what its like to die as a video game squirrel than you'd probably care to know.
Now he may not seem like much of a character, but the few times that he does pop up in the game are more than enough to get a feel for the character, especially his disdain for his job that resonates so closely to my own opinion of work. Let's not forget his hate of cats. He bloody hates cats. For the longest time, I as well didn't have any love for the normal house cat.
Not only is Gregg's appearance something that I could never have anticipated, he's also damn funny to boot. I mean, just look at him, he's a diminutive Grim Reaper with a gold tooth! Every single time that i was treated to a scene featuring Gregg, I knew that I was in for a treat.
It might seem strange to be able to identify so easily with a auxiliary character that only has about 5-6 minutes of actual time in the game, but for that moment of time in my life I was Gregg The Grim Reaper. Not that I enjoyed killing people or even slaying cats, but the disdain that he has for his job and all of the smart-assed people he has to deal on a daily basis made him an endearing character that I hope gets his own title one of these days.
The Great Mighty Poo, King Ooga Booga, The Weasels, and the Bee King & Queen were great, but nowhere close to being as funny as Gregg was in the brief times he was featured in the game. Below, I was lucky enough to find a collection of all of his appearances in the game. It's sad to think that he's only in the game for a little over 4 minutes. Oh well, he's still one of my favorite assholes in recent gaming history.
I really don't know if it is the British accents or what, but to this day Conker's Bad Fur Day remains one of my favorite games because of the excellent dialog that each character is given. There is such a variety of individual characters represented in the game, it's hard to believe that the voice acting cast was so small.
I'm not sure how many people picked up Conker's Bad Fur Day on the Nintendo 64 or the remade/censored version that came out on the Xbox as Conker: Live & Reloaded, but I honestly think that it is incumbent on you as a gamer to spend a good couple of nights running through the crazy, platforming, adult oriented world that Rare so skillfully crafted.
Maybe Rare will see the error of their ways in the future and actually decide to take a chance on us adult gamers again...yeah right, fat chance, we all know that we're doomed for more sequels to Viva Pinata and a version of Banjo Kazooie that doesn't seem quite true to the original. Oh well, at least I can game happy because I own both versions and even take the time to play them all the way through every once in a while, its seriously that good of a game. read more
Hi everyone, some of you out there in CBlog land know me while some of the others are clicking this and seeing my name for the first time. I am Excremento, but otherwise known as Xopher Reed, or even in some rare cases Chris. I've been writing game blogs for Destructoid for almost a year now and I have to say that I love every minute of it. The community here is where I've gotten my feet wet in the gaming blog industry.
Almost 8-9 months ago, I took a writing position at Megatonik.com and have been attempting to be a "real" video game blogger. The only problem I have with such a gig is that I have to rehash idiotic and bland PR press releases from all the companies out there, or even worse go out to another gaming blog and steal their news and post it on the other site. I always cite who my source is, I'm not a douchebag like some other writers can be. Sometimes I don't want to write these bland and tedious blog postings because I feel that we as gamers get our news from many of the big sites.
What a successful gaming blog site needs to stay relevant is opinion and an image. Here on Destructoid we have both. Whether it be the big guns like Jim Sterling making his opinion known on the front page and reaping the benefits of Digg, or lowly peons in the CBlogs like me and Wardrox who are lucky to get on reddit or N4G every once in a while, Destructoid is full of talent and excellent writers.
It's true that you have to put in your time with shitty little blogs about what was said at some event that almost every other gaming blog in the blogocube is already furiously typing out, or in Kotaku's case sometimes so quickly that all spelling and grammar mistakes are overlooked. Don't get me wrong, I like Kotaku just fine, but sometimes the grammar nazi inside of me just can't stand to look at glaring mistakes.
Now, to the main meat of my discussion with you today. I like writing, I like writing features mainly (as many of you already know). I've done drink recipes, lists of songs I think would be great to see in the current crop of music games, top 10 lists broaching almost every topic in gaming, and even some off-the-wall blog posts that were spawned in the depths of the IRC hell. When I sit down to write a CBlog I want it to be relevant, entertaining, and most of all worth the reader's time. When guys like me are forced into the professional blogging scene, we sometimes don't get the luxury of having fun writing about things we enjoy, we get stuck reviewing games like Top Spin 3 or writing yet another story about Hail To The Chimp because it's a slow news day.
I'd love to be a editor at Destructoid mainly because the stories that I read here are more than just rehashes, they inject humor, cynicism, and character into them. I've tried this at other gigs, but it always hurts to spend time on a story only to have it float on by without any comments at all. Destructoid is my home, it's my lifeline into the gaming culture that I've always wished for, and hopefully one day a place that I can write for professionally.
I've talked to Ron Workman about the topic ad-nauseum and I completely agree. With the amount of time this story will be on the sidebar of the main page of Destructoid (generally an hour if the Failbloggers aren't out in force), I get more page hits than any other site that I burn the midnight oil writing for. That is insane, the fact that as a CBlogger we have this wonderful exposure that you will rarely see at any other site.
Maybe I should worry mainly about writing my features and my editorials from now on and ignore the shit that we as gamers like to call the news. At least then I'll have made even more of a name for myself. Stay tuned for more to come from me, I plan on blowing up the leaderboards in the weeks to come.
Also, the CBlogs are a privilege, not a right. Please use it responsibly, and for the sake of any ethereal being that you may pray to, make it worth the reader's click, you owe them that much. Thank you for your time, also TL;DR.
The arcade, to my generation its where magic happened one quarter at a time, and games looked so much better than anything you could play on a console at home. The big names were always represented in these beaming halls of standup gaming fury, Sega, Capcom, Konami, and one of my favorites SNK.
You would always catch me over at the SNK cabinets, easily identifiable as the ones with red and white stripes and always with the same 4 button layout. You'd even be lucky at time to find a cabinet that has more than one of your favorite games. Keep in mind though that they didn't specifically make games JUST for the Neo Geo cabinets in the arcade and their proprietary system, they managed to give some serious love to the Nintendo back in the day. Honestly, there isn't a game maker that I think is more plugged in to what their fans want and appreciate. Tonight’s list is: Excremento's top 10 SNK games of all time, enjoy!
NAM-1975
If you've ever played a game like Cabal or the Western-themed Blood Brothers, then NAM-1975 is right up your alley. The game plays almost identical to the other 3rd person action shooters that were out at the time. The game takes place in...you guessed it VietNAM in the year 1975 (which for you younglings out there is when the conflict for America drew to a close), and involves you + a gun + grenades versus them dirty North Vietnamese. It is totally derivative gameplay, but still remains one of my favorite arcade shooters.
Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy
Top Hunter is a great side scrolling 2D beat-em up that shares its soul with games like Battletoads, Super Mario Bros., and Street Fighter. I know it sounds like a strange combination, but besides regular attacks you can jump on your foes, throw items at them, throw hadokens, and even grapple with the baddies.
This game is a piece of 2D art, and is very gorgeous. Each stage features amazing detail and 2 layer backgrounds that give you a faux sense of 3D. Top Hunter is great, but is relatively unknown to the non-Neo Geo crowd. It's worth your time if you can 'not' get a copy for yourself to check out, I wouldn't suggest actually buying this game unless you're a serious collector like Hitogoroshi.
Metal Slug 3
The Metal Slug series did for shoot-em up games what Ronald McDonald did for burgers...it made them fun and addicting at the same time. Action is much like the Contra series except, you know, better. The graphics are always eye-meltingly good, and the individual shrieks you hear from each character meeting their demise combined with the report made from each weapon you use go to create an atmosphere that is so reminiscent of arcade gaming when I was younger.
The best think that you can look forward to in any Metal Slug is that there is almost guaranteed to be new items, vehicles, and enemies to shoot at. The ONLY reason that MS3 makes this list and not the others is the vomiting zombie that you can become...seriously you have no excuse, go and get this game either on the Wii, XBLA, or on a Neo Geo console, now.
Last Blade 2
The greatest historically weapon based fighter you've never played is how I would sum up the gameplay experience of playing The Last Blade series. Just like any Neo Geo based fighting game, the visuals are damn near perfect and are some of the best examples of sprite animation ever seen. The Last Blade series was created by the same genius behind Guilty Gear, Mr. Daisuke Ishiwatari.
If you were to look closely at the combat system behind Guilty Gear, you can almost see a few parallels. The most engaging aspect of gameplay is the introduction of a parry button that will leave your opponent up to an attack if you time it juuuust right. The music and sound effects used in the game are very reminiscent of the type that would hear during an epic samurai movie that were all based during the Tokugawa era in which the game is set.
King of Fighters 98
I bought this game for my Dreamcast way back when the Dreamcast was still fairly new, and it prompted me to go out and actually buy a Neo Geo Pocket Color with The King of Fighters R2 so I could link it up with my Dreamcast. This was the one game in the KoF series that cemented me as a lifelong SNK fan.
Whether it be the inclusion of almost every single team member from all of the years past, or the new challengers that made it into the mix. I believe that this was the first KoF that detached itself from the rest of the SNK fighting game flock and stood out on its own. The gameplay was balanced more than any of its predecessors, the roster was huge, the music was memorable, and the backgrounds were detailed. I really really really liked playing this game on my Dreamcast and still remains to this day one of my top 3 for the system.
Ikari Warriors
Ikari Warriors (Ikari is moonspeak for 'anger') busted in on the shmup scene back in the mid-eighties and featured a few never-before-used gameplay elements that have survived the test of time and are still used in many games to this day. The 8 direction joystick used in the arcade coupled with the 8 position rotary switch underneath said joystick is what I think became the precursor for the standard we enjoy in FPS games. Metal Slug wouldn't be Metal Slug if there was no tank to jump in. Hell, even co-op gameplay was scarce on arcade cabinets until Ikari Warriors proved that nearly every game deserved it.
Let's not forget that SNK rarely forgets its roots. The protagonists in Ikari Warriors would eventually end their hiatus and appear in one of SNK's most popular series The King of Fighters, representing Team Brazil. SNK even gave Ralf and Clark a chance to rejoin their original genre and continue their shmup legacy in Metal Slug 6.
Sengoku 2
I bet a lot of you awesome Dtoid peeps have never played the Sengoku games. Well a good place to start would be with the second game in the series. Sengoku 2 took what was established in the first game, and compounded the awesome until the graphics were on par with every game seen on the Neo Geo in the mid-90s and the Music/SFX were clear and distinct.
The game's story is more epic than any of the other iterations of the game and there is an added bonus of being able to power up your weapons and swap the game's characters. Though the game is a run-of-the-mill side scrolling beat-em up, it shines much brighter than any Final Fight game, especially since you could slice and dice your opponents into oblivion, not to mention all the arterial spraying.
Samurai Shodown 2
Don't get me wrong, this is in no way a better game than most of the other fighting games that I have put on this list except for the fact that I have so much love for this one in particular. Samurai Shodown was cool as hell when I first got my hands on the series, but didn't get much love out of me until I started playing this game almost everyday when I was hanging out at my local comics shop.
The epic battles between me and my friend, each of us proficient with every character were the matches of legend. I loved every single round that was spent in that store, especially cause my teenage brain kept making me use Cham-Cham over and over again (not only cause she was the most distinct character, but she also had a monkey on her side). It may not be the best SS game, but damnit it's always going to be my favorite.
Garou: Mark of the Wolves
The culmination of every 2D fighting game that SNK has ever made came out in 1999 and featured animations that were as fluid, if not better than that Street Fighter III could ever be. That is a complete fanboy statement, but damnit SNK was so ahead of the game when it came to 2D innovation. There really are only 2 camps when it comes to fighters: you're either a SNK fan, or a Capcom fan. Don't get me wrong, I love Capcom something fierce, but SNK trumps them with play mechanics, well balanced characters that have full histories, and the pure beauty of the sprites they use.
The events of MotW take place 10 years after Geese Howard offed himself in Real Bout, and features offspring and disciples of many of SNK's favorite characters: Rock Howard - Geese's Son, Kim Dong Hwan & Kim Jae Hoon - Kim Kaph Wan's Sons, Kushnood Butt - Ryo Sakazaki's Student. The only thing that does hold the game back is it's suprisingly small cast of characters.
When I first started playing this game in the arcade, there was just too much going on, it's amazing to experience. The untrained would think that it is simply just another fighter, but the lovers of the game have come to realize that the game is deeper than most Street Fighter games, and is even argued to be better than the Guilty Gear series. Personally, I'd rather spend an afternoon playing this than any new game that Capcom may throw my way.
Crystalis
I have no doubts that Crystalis influenced some of my favorite games and is why that the action RPG genre is where it is today. Hands down, Crystalis is quite possibly one of the finest RPGs you could ever hope to play on the NES. Combining the RPG aspects of the Final Fantasy series and mixing it with the action aspects of The Legend of Zelda and Star Tropics was a brilliant move by SNK. That's right, the company known for some of the best series in fighting game history was also the creator of one of my favorite RPGs ever.
The story for the game takes place 100 years after a global nuclear war (how many NES games used nuclear holocaust as a plot device, hmmmm?), when your character awakens from a cryogenic sleep chamber to bring order to the world and prevent the rise of the evil Draygonian Empire to ultimate power.
Sounds simple enough right? Well the developers saw fit to make the game pristine in its execution. For those of you that never got a chance with this game imagine the gameplay from TLOZ: A Link to the Past and the abilities from TLOZ: Link's Awakening being available to you back in 1990. I mean, they even saw fit to have the character move in 8 directions, sounds weird I know, but for most of the RPGs on the NES, you could only move in 4 directions, hence why this game is my Number 1 pick for any SNK game.
AMAZING SHOCKING TIE!!!
It's simply amazing...I've never had a tie for the Number 0 spot of my top tens, ever.
Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf
There has never been a golf game that I haven't loved and or played. I'm serious, I fucking love golf games. It all started back in the PC days of yore when I got hooked on Links and has continued on to the Hot Shots Golf series that I enjoy playing on my PS2 and PS3. Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf was one of the rare sports games that I loved on my NES, and until I starting writing this article, I had no clue that SNK was behind its creation. What's even better is that they parodied the game on the Simpsons, on the same episode that they had Bonestorm in, except they named it "Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge". Classic Simpsons are so good.
Doki Doki Majo Shinpan
This game, never released here in the U.S. is the ultimate pedo-game, all because you have to use the stylus of your DS to 'touch' tween witches in an attempt to find their "witch mark" which ultimately exposes them as what they truly are. If that's not enough to garner a spot as a zero, the game sold even better than The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass in Japan and is even getting a sequel.
I guess it just goes to show you that the difference in gamers from Japan and gamers all throughout the world is that we don't secretly wish to touch little girls like the Japanese are so wont to do. I can only imagine the flooding amount of H-Games that are going to be spawned from the success of this game. The best thing that I saw is the fact that a UK magazine called "NGamer" awarded it 'The Superman 64 Award For Worst Game" in 2007 because they gave it 'NOs' in every category instead of a score.
Well, this concludes yet another Weird Kid's Top 10 list. I hope you all enjoyed reading it. I know for certain that there are many of you out there that will disagree with some of my choices for this list, but keep in mind that this is in no way a definitive listing nor is it meant to be taken seriously. Its all for fun, just enjoy reading and take something away with you or leave a comment if you so wish.
As always, please let me know if you have a particular Top 10 that you'd like to see, and I'd be happy to oblige. For all of my faithful fans that do submit ideas, I promise I'll eventually get around to yours. Thank you again for reading. See you next time.
Moving sucks...I hate it. Hopefully this will be the LAST time I will ever have to move. It is one of the most futile and frustrating activities that I've ever had to do. You pack up all your stuff, move its physical location, unpack, and hope you didn't forget anything.
Unfortunately for me, these last 3 years at my apartment have made it so that I have yet to be completely unpacked from my last move from my parent's basement. If I include this most recent move coming up, I will have moved 13 times in my life (I can thank Uncle Sam for 9 of them), which automatically qualifies me as a 'moving' ninja. I'm good at what I do, I just don't enjoy it.
Luckily, Mrs. Excremento and I have finally closed on our house and are now in the process of uprooting and moving to the fortress of solitude where we can raise our brood. This means that I will finally get a chance to have my media room decked out the way it should be. In the process of this move, after going through boxes upon boxes of games that haven't seen the light of day in years, I found some that I forgot that I even owned until yesterday when I found them all over again. Today’s list is The Weird Kid's Top 10 Games I Forgot I Owned Until I Found Them While Packing Up My Apartment To Move To My New House. Enjoy!
N2O: Nitrous Oxide - PlayStation
I used to have the biggest boner for any album that The Crystal Method made. Their first album Vegas is still one of the best examples of good ol' American made Techno. When I found out they did the soundtrack for a game, I was there, with cash in hand.
For those of you that might have never played N2O it's like this other game that was popular a long time ago (when I was a kid), Tempest. The similarities being that you pilot a ship that is tethered to a wall of a tunnel that is full of all sorts of baddies that you have to try to clear. The great thing about this game was its graphics. The tunnels you are in change shape, undulate, and change color sometimes in order to rape your eyes and give you motion sickness. This game's experience was made so much better by having its soundtrack be nothing but TCM all the way through.
Hell, in a time before custom game soundtracks, stuff like this was important and could be seen as selling points for games. I almost bought a Duke Nukem game just because the opening song was by Stabbing Westward. I can even remember popping various PlayStation games into my Discman to see if the game's music would show up.
Ghost in the Shell - PlayStation
Being a fan of many anime and not too much manga, you'd have to have been living under a rock in the nerd world to never have seen Ghost in the Shell at least once back in the late 90s. The movie was great, but for most of us silly Americans, we had no idea who the characters were. Not until the GitS: Stand Alone Complex series did we get a chance to find out the back-story on most of the series' beloved characters.
Too bad that the game came out before the TV series...
Don't get me wrong, the game is pretty fucking awesome by PS1 standards. The bad part is that every level has you playing as a no-name troop known as "The Rookie" inside a Fuchikoma tank as you crawl along walls, scaling buildings, hanging upside down, jumping chasms, and essentially shooting anything that isn't a friend. The best part of the game is the soundtrack and cut scenes (actually made by Production I.G.), the soundtrack was good enough to warrant its own soundtrack cd and the voice acting in the game was done by the actual voice cast from the TV show and movies.
Code Name: Viper - NES
Can someone say complete rip-off of Rolling Thunder? I can, but you know what, I don't care. This game was a fun little romp through 8 stages of similar looking enemies that are palette swapped. There's platforming, getting behind cover, shooting, and more awesome NES speak from the hostages you rescue. Instead of "Thank You!" it sounds like "Meeekh Maw".
If you've never played this game before, and you're a fan of Rolling Thunder type games, give this a shot. It's no Shinobi, but is pretty well done for an early Capcom game on the good old NES.
Shatterhand - NES
One of the greatest unsung heroes here in America for game development would have to be Natsume. The company never really made it huge here but they kept on releasing awesome action game after awesome action game and Shatterhand is one of the greatest.
There's a special place in my heart for all the awesome action games on the NES, whether it be Ninja Gaiden, Vice: Project Doom, or even G.I. Joe, I think it was the console's defining genre. Shatterhand is one of the few games that once imported into the country was made better by adding effects and better graphics over the Japanese version.
The game's mechanic is your typical action platformer reminiscent of a run-and-gun game except you yourself have no gun, just your fists. Well that's true until you collect enough 'Alpha' and 'Beta' icons to build a little robot buddy to help you out. This game is one of the rare gems that came out near the end of the NES's lifecycle, at that time when the games on the console were really really well done. If you're a fan of the genre and you like having fun, check your apartment out when cleaning up, you too might have a copy you forgot about.
Side Arms Hyper Dyne- Turbografx 16
Another game that incorporated the Alpha and Beta theme was Side Arms Hyper Dyne that was originally an arcade game that got ported to just about every system imaginable for its time. Taking cues from other shmup games like Gradius, you had a multitude of powerups and speed-ups for your character that you use to battle all sorts of various no name enemies.
What was great about this game and why I'm glad I found it was that it is a damn near arcade perfect version of the game. Not as cool as my copy of Blazing Lazers but still a pretty damn cool game nonetheless. Also, if you find the hidden powerups in the stages and you are playing 2 player, you join together like F-ing Voltron to decimate your foes...man I loved this game!
Grandia - PlayStation
Grandia, you either loved it or hated it. I'm one of the few that adored this game. The story was strangely attractive, considering it was like most JRPGs and dealing with the coming-of-age of the characters involved. The main draws for me with this game, like all of my games is the great soundtrack, and innovative battle system that mixed active-time and real-time elements.
I remember from the game, the quest to reach the wall that divides the 'end of the world' was pretty epic, and the cool way that the game made you feel sympathy with the characters by tackling elements that all gamers tend to share. Most of us game players share the same traits, we're curious, energetic, loyal, adventuresome, and most importantly we enjoy other people's company and like to have fun. That's what this game is, one of the best examples of JRPG fun. My only complaint...slowdown, there's massive slowdown as the screen fills up with sprites.
Excitebike - NES
Its fuckin' Excitebike, 'nuff said. I just cant believe I forgot I owned this one!
Jet Grind Radio - Dreamcast
Jet Grind Radio (aka Jet Set Radio), I thought I lent you out to my friend back in the day! I am so happy I didn't cause he's not my friend anymore! I thought this game was lost forever due to the strange circumstance that is known as growing up. I got this game mainly because it had graffiti art as the main gameplay mechanic. Little did I know that electro-magnetic inline skates and gang warfare would be the other 2 big things.
Probably one of the first cel-shaded games ever to be made, JGR holds a special place in my heart as one of my favorite games with a wild and eclectic soundtrack that suits my personality to a "T". Holy crap if you seriously have never had some time with the Jet ___ Radio series, go out to Gamestop and spend 4 bucks on an Xbox version of the game. I'm just glad that I found my copy, now I don't have to source a new one from ebay!!!
Dungeons & Dragons Collection - Saturn
Man I got so lucky in finding this game. I had it stuffed in my PC game box of games because it doesn’t even resemble other games that I have on my Saturn. Not only is the game really 2 games smooshed into one box. It's two arcade perfect versions of the games, and it's friggin D&D!
Only one problem, I speak and read only enough moonspeak to get by, not quite enough to get the whole story of what’s going on in the game, or what somebody just said to me. It's ok, this beat 'em up is one of my favorites that never gets old, no matter how many times I play it. I especially love being the cleric and killing undead enemies with my magic rings. Have fun with the dragon at the end of the first game though. Oh, and boobies in the second game!!!! Woo hoo!
[ Legend of Mana - PlayStation
I don't know how I forgot I had this game. Honestly, with the amount of time I spent playing this game would have made it an easy thing to remember...alas, it was forgotten. This is probably my second favorite version of the Mana series, with Secret of Mana claiming the number one spot in my heart.
The graphics in this game are spectacular, all of the hand drawn and painted backgrounds, all of the 2D character sprites were just unbelievable. The music is probably one of the most important aspects of the game for me. The soundtrack was composed by Yoko Shimamura, the same genius behind the soundtracks for Kingdom Hearts I & II, Parasite Eve, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Tobal No. 1, and even Street Fighter 2; that makes her alright in my book.
Now many people think that this game isn't worth the Mana moniker (I'm looking at you BigPopaGamer!!!), I happen to disagree. Its true that there isn't much story in the game (probably why I forgot the game) but there is sooooooo much content there to keep a guy like me happy for weeks. I really want to throw this game into my PS3 just to see the opening video right now...too bad for me, I'm at work.
Pro-Wrestling - NES
The beginning of the button-mashing console fighting game was in an area of my apartment that hadn't seen daylight in a long time. I picked up the cartridge, and immediately ran into the other room to pop it into the good ol' NES. I was immediately frustrated by the control scheme and the unrelenting computer opponents, but had to give a good laugh when the match was me 'Starman' vs. 'The Amazon'.
This game had it all, cameramen, referees that dropped to the mat when you go down for the count, and even better is the simulated 3 count that the NES's sad little sound chip tries to emulate. I had a good time with the game, but seriously it got old FAST. Its sad though I can remember a time before home console fighting games where all we had to keep us entertained on weekends when we'd have friends over were games like this one.
Well, this concludes yet another Weird Kid's Top 10 list. I hope you all enjoyed reading it. I'm just glad that most of my most precious games that I thought I lost or forgot about are still in my collection. Remember my top 10s are meant to be entertaining and not meant to be taken seriously. Its all for fun, just enjoy reading and take something away with you or leave a comment if you so wish.
As always, please let me know if you have a particular Top 10 that you'd like to see, and I'd be happy to oblige. For all of my faithful fans that do submit ideas, I promise I'll eventually get around to yours. Thank you again for reading. See you next time. read more
I'm always striving to create new content that might be interesting to the Destructoid crowd. In doing so, I've always had issue with writing up stories about the news or just rehashing something somebody else has written about already.
Today, I hope to introduce to my faithful audience, a new feature that I think is pretty unique and reader friendly. Let's not forget that it could possibly open me up to harassment and comments, after all that's one thing I really think keeps Dtoid so fresh...user content.
I introduce to you: The Search for Booty Episode I, The Devil May Arc the Gungrave
I went out on Saturday to do my normal rounds of relative visiting/shop visiting with my lovely wife, when I decided to go into Gamestop while the wife was over at Robert's Arts & Crafts. This not being my first trip to the GS, I knew precisely where the bargain bin was located, and I only planned on spending about $20. It was there that I started my search in the 'A's and came across a title that I had no recollection of...Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits.
I never played any of the original AtL games, but really wanted to get the collection that came out for the PlayStation, so without a moment’s hesitation I picked up the game for a paltry $3.99. I played this game for about 30 minutes last night and I have to say that so far, I am really impressed. The creators of the game have done a really good job of making you care about the characters simply by making them seem alive. This is quite the feat for a RPG that came out in 2003.
The story is your typical son of so-n-so who becomes the 'chosen one' meant to save the world, fairly typical but at least the voice acting is pretty well done. The gameplay is almost traditional RPG except for the battle system, which is turn based but has a strategy twist added to it. Think Front Mission or Final Fantasy Tactics, just not on a grid system. Finally, the graphics are very pretty and the animations are nice and fluid. What really got me is that the programmers took the time to animate the 3D trees in the background to make the world seem more alive, you could almost feel the breeze on your skin.
Next down the line while I was doing my searches was Devil May Cry 2, a game that I had heard was shit, but I needed it for the collection's sake. I loved the first one, hated number three 'cause it was so hard, and enjoyed number four a lot, so I thought "hey, what the hell, its only $6.99, why not?" I'm glad to say that the game isn't horrible like everyone thinks it is. It's just not good. I didn't like the combat in this one compared to the first game, and the enemies weren't as cool either. My major gripe with this game is that they changed the character model of Dante slightly which made him look more like a sad, beefy-clown than a demon hunter. Too bad, I’m sad to say that this one will just be for my collection only.
Finally, rounding out my quest for booty was a game that I always wanted to try but couldn't force myself to pick up thanks to the skewed reviews I was reading about it, Gungrave. You know what I found out? This game is pretty damn fun! Maybe it’s the fact that it feels like an old school arcade shooter because you only really need to worry about hitting one button over and over again, or that the graphics are really well done for an anime based game. The voice acting is top notch and left in Japanese like all anime should be, and the story is just your standard one guy against a criminal organization with guns that never need to be reloaded. Gungrave is quite possibly one of the best shmup type games that I've played in years. The best part is that it only cost me a whole whopping $7.99.
I rate my purchases as follows:
Gungrave -- gets a 7 for its mindless killing and fun factor, exactly the kind of game that I was looking for this weekend.
Ark the Lad -- another 7 for its awesome soundtracks and almost believable characters with good voice acting.
Devil May Cry 2 -- hits the bottom with a 4 due to its uninspired sequel-ness, and derivative gameplay that just left me wanting.
Probably the best part of hitting all of my local Gamestop locations is that I'm starting to get noticed as 'that guy', you know the guy who buys anything and has very vocal opinions. At the register this time, I talked with the manager and a really bitchy employee about collections and why I keep on collecting. The discussion quickly dissolved into how sad I am that I still have all my anime on VHS instead of DVD and what a pain in the ass it is when new formats come out. Oh well, c'est la vie...I've been around since LPs and Cassettes and I'm sure that I will be around for other numerous generational changes. Luckily they all have a good home with me, where I will take good care of them all, to the end of my days. Thanks for reading!
