Sunday, August 26, 2012

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Rings of Fate (NDS)

What's this?  A Final Fantasy game with poor quality because they focused too much on multiplayer aspects instead of actually making the game fun!?!  Precisely.  People will say this game is great because it has multiplayer and that I am wrong for saying that it was bad.

No, it was bad because the single-player campaign was bad.  Sure co-op may have been fun but I live in a place where people only play Madden.  I have nobody to co-op with.  Not only are the physics in this game wonky (I cheated to get to the last boss by making a tower with my characters) but it just feels unpolished.  Some of the bosses get a little annoying and everything slows down at the wrong times.

I would say the only redeeming quality is the fact that this is an Action RPG but I have played better.  Much better on the same system.  Still, it was a decent romp through a world that I had already felt I had been to.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Contra (PC)

Infamous cheats aside, I have to get this out of the way.  I couldn't beat this without the code.  I barely did it with the code.  I've never been the greatest at twitch shooters and games of this sort.  It's the reason I never got into Metal Slug because I just couldn't get used to being in the right place at the right time.

Sure this game is a classic and if I compared it to modern titles, it just wouldn't compare.  It's a hard game, really hard.  But at the time when it was created, games had to be hard.  Things from this gen had to be hard to keep kids interested.  There was no such thing as Gamestop or DLC.  Kids had to find this game and shell out quite a bit of money just to play a game where you might never see the end.

The game itself is a simple concept, go around and kill everything.  Try not to die too much and move on.  Where it is different is just how fast-paced and intense it gets at times.  Even on the PC (Thanks to the Konami Classics Collection), there are times when there is just so much on the screen, everything slows down.  You need that slow-down to survive a lot of times.

Would I play this again? Maybe.  Would I beat it without the code?  No.  I'm just not that good.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Castlevania III (PC)

For such a simple concept, the art of vampire hunting has never been simple.  Each time you get dragged to a new place with new foes and sometimes you have to wonder "Where do all these things keep coming from?" It seems Dracula has an inexhaustible army at his disposal each time he is revived.  Maybe it's the sweet castle or just the fact that he steals men's souls and makes them his slaves.  I don't know but I set out to find out with this game.

Now, it's been an incredibly long time since I played this and I cannot for the life of me remember if Dracula is actually in this.  I can't remember if I ever even beat this.  I do remember playing it on my PC with the Konami Classics Collection though.  I remember being able to play as different characters at certain points and I did like climbing walls and things.

This game evokes all sorts of nostalgic feelings and it shouldn't.  I didn't play it for the first time until like 5 years ago, but the feeling just oozes my childhood.  I don't know if is just the overall concept but this game gives me those warm feelings.  Sure I never beat it but there is still plenty of time to do that.  It's not like it's a terrible night to have a curse or something.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Drawn to Life (NDS)

This is a simple game.  Very simple.  You basically draw your hero and then draw some of the objects in the world.  Platform around and get different powers.  These powers are things you draw too.  Like the snow-shooter or wings.  You get to decide what is in the game.  Sure there are limitations to this but it has it's charms.

The platforming could be frustrating at times but the game is solid.  It's not a hard game at all but it isn't bad.  The story is worthless and you can ruin it with terrible drawings too.  Like the planet I drew in the story was actually just a green dot. Then they show it later and it kind of ruins it all.

This wasn't a terrible game.  It wasn't the best game ever but it wasn't awful.