Games of the week for 08/18/08: Duckula ... COUNT Duckula edition

7:48 PM on 08.17.2008   |   Jim Sterling

42 comments

This week's cultural exchange piece comes courtesy of my childhood, and likely a fair few other childhoods. Perhaps some of you are a bit too young to enjoy Count Duckula, but those of us that aren't can fondly remember a time when kids' cartoons weren't afraid to be a little dark and inject some dry, sardonic humor. Kiddy shows back in my day had the best bloody theme tunes as well. Duckula, Knightmare, Trapdoor, my memories kick the ass of any fifteen-year old's pathetic recollections.

Oh, also there were videogames again this week. Talk of such things may be included after the jump.

Savant: What a week it has been. Completed Braid, which I honestly cannot say enough good things about. I wish I could shake Jonathan Blow's hand for such a masterwork. I started (yes, started) Grand Theft Auto IV finally. I also rented Soulcalibur IV for a little get-together I had this past Monday, which turned out to be great fun. (For the record, Tira is complete and utter bullsh*t.)

That pretty much sums it up for me. Go buy Braid if you haven't done so already. Seriously. Buy it.

Nick: Bionic Commando: Rearmed is a pretty fantastic remake, but the challenge stages are driving me nuts. I don't understand how the f**k Grim was able to get some of those times in three tries when I failed some of those challenges 10 times before even completing them. I hate that guy.

Also got preview/review copies of Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, and while I can't "review" the game, I can confirm that it's just like the first game as far as I can tell. Yay. Also, a lot of cursing at Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 and its leaderboards. Surprisingly been playing a lot of Nintendo DS games, including N+, Soul Bubbles (buy this!), and Mister Slime. Sometime this week I hope to be playing the sequel to a game whose name rhymes with "shock sand."

Colette: Working my way through World 6 in Braid and playing a little Final Fantasy IV. I also played Culdcept Saga with Conrad earlier this week and remembered how much I like that game.

Conrad: Culdcept Saga is so good. It's part of a sale that Gamefly is doing on used games right now too, so I'd highly recommend people snag it.

In addition to that, I've gone through Braid a couple more times and have been vigorously defending my position at the top of my friends leaderboard in every mode of Geometry Wars 2. I grabbed Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People on WiiWare (my first time downloading anything from the service), and it's pretty good, but it has also pushed me to the limit on my storage capacity. Nintendo had better find a solution to the capacity problem soon, what with some of the other games coming that I'll want to buy.

Jim: Mostly Crisis Core which I got at the weekend. Really enjoying it, too. I was expecting to hate the thing, but it's easily the most tasteful and well put together of Square Enix's "Whoring of Final Fantasy VII" series. 

Dale: I have been playing through a pre-release copy of the PSP remake of Yggdra Union and loving it. I play a lot of SRPGs, and this is the first to really draw me in in a long time. Also, I've playing Magical Drop 3 on the Sega Saturn. I will be good at it someday...

DMV: Gurren Lagann. Get it? Get it?

But seriously, Bionic Commando: Rearmed and Metroid Fusion.

Colette: I got it. GIGA DRILL! ^__^

Hamza: Bionic Commando multiplayer, The Godfather II, Pure, Brain Quest, FIFA 09 All-Play, Harry Potter, Henry Hatsworth, Lord of the Rings: Conquest, Mercenaries 2, Monopoly, MySims Kingdom, NERF N-Strike, SimCity, and 4 shit iPhone games.

Chad: I started the week trying to find all the gosh darned stars in Braid (impossible!), played some Bionic Commando: Rearmed (the music in this game may be some of the best I have ever heard in a videogame), and finished the week defeating aliens in my new favorite game, Earth Defense Force 2017.

What is my favorite line in Earth Defense Force 2017, you ask? When the giant UFOs and giant bugs are attacking you, the guy on the radio says: "Don't attack the giant UFOs; they might be unrelated."

Seriously, the UFOs and the giant alien bugs destroying the city have absolutely nothing to do with each other?

Wow. Amazing. :)

Samit: "That's the old passage to Ravenholm. We don't go there anymore." Yeah...you might not go there anymore, Ms. Vance, but it looks like I'm going to have to.

In case you couldn't tell, I'm easing myself back into Half-Life 2, and goddamn, is it awesome. It's the best argument against non-linear, open-world games I've ever seen. Who needs freedom when you have amazing scripted sequences? Otherwise, I attended this weekend's NY NARP, graciously hosted by fellow Long Islander Zen Albatross. There was much alcohol, Rock Band, and Dreamcast gaming (Twinkle Star Sprites, Bangai-O, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2, to name a few) to be had. And we also watched Tron! My liver and I are going to need a few days to recover. In other words, BEST NARP EVAR! (Aside from the Cinci Mega-NARP, of course.)

Orcist: This week's been the usual -- rousing doses of Persona 3 FES. It just never gets old -- it's one of the best RPGs, nay games, I've ever played.