NFGworld! News http://nfgworld.com/mb/ Fri, 30 Jul 2010 05:19:45 GMT FeedCreator 1.8.0-dev (info@mypapit.net) Mario vs Donkey Kong (GBA) http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/854 this article which is where they found me.  "We'll give you money if you write a new version just for us" they said.  So I did.

This one's enhanced with some new pics too. 


Mario vs Donkey Kong
Everyone's favourite fat plumber returns to battle that great ape one more time.

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/games/MvDK-1.png]

Our story begins, as it usually does, with a monkey watching TV.  Lying on the couch channel-surfing late at night Donkey Kong spies a commercial for some wonderful new Mini Mario globes, and he's instantly enraptured.  Wouldn't we all love a spherical Italian plumber to call our own?  Those charms are hard to resist, I tell you.  Immediately our buddy DK rushes out to the shops only to find they're completely sold out.  Now as you may have seen on the National Geographic channel gorillas are quick to anger, and ol' DK won't go home empty handed, oh no.  He breaks into the conveniently-across-the-street Mario Toy Company and steals an entire batch of Mini Marios.

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/games/MvDK-2.png]

This is where the real Mario comes in, our hero in red.  It's his (and therefore your) responsibility to track down this mischievous monkey and rescue the Mini Marios.  That they'll be rescued only to be sold into virtual slavery to slobbering children and nauseatingly cute schoolgirls is entirely not the point.

In typical Mario style the game is divided into worlds, with names like Donkey Kong Jungle and Fire Mountain, and stages, imaginatively called things like 1-3 and 4-2.  You must complete a level before you move on, but after you've beaten it you can come back to it any time and give it another run.  This will come in handy later.

Each stage is divided into two halves, both with simple and clear objectives.  For the first half you must help Mario pick up the key and carry it to the lock, a task that's often complicated enough on its own, as Mario cannot carry the key up ladders or while dropping from too great a height.  In the second half you find and rescue a Mini Mario that Donkey Kong has left behind.  As you might expect there's more to it;  your progress is complicated by both a vicious time limit and bonus presents, as well as natural hazards.  And animals.  It's a big bad world out there, kids.

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/games/MvDK-5.png]

Each level is trickier than the last, and happily the difficulty curve is perfect.  While you can sleepwalk through the first few stages it will quickly become obvious you should pay more attention or suffer the consequences.  It's not unlike school then.  Even when you've come to grips with the controls and can plot your path through the stage in seconds you should probably apply a more critical eye.  Sure you can tear through the game as fast as possible, but in each stage there's more than a deviously located key and lock, there are other goals which are cruicial for getting stars.  Ahh, the stars - it wouldn't be a Mario game without stars would it?  That's right, shake your head, it wouldn't be.  Every stage will reward you with a star if you play it right, and when you've acquired all the stars...  Well, it's worth your time, let's leave it at that for now.

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/games/MvDK-4.png]

You can easily beat the stages within the time limit, but each second left on the clock is worth a hundred points towards the score required to get a star.  In addition there are three presents scattered around each stage, each worth enough points to make their collection almost mandatory - typically a third of the required amount. 

At the start of every level Mario learns a new move, and there's a lot of new actions he can perform now, like backflips, handstands and rope clmbing.  Once you've watched the brief tutorial it's on to the action, and the action is - from the very start - all good. 

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/games/MvDK-6.png]

Some players may experience some deja vu when playing Mario vs Donkey Kong.  Many of the levels, and the fiends in the levels, pay homage to previous games in the Mario series.  There are fireball spitting flowers, shyguys, ghosts and switchblocks, a certain gorilla, barrels and springs, all familiar items but here used in exciting new ways.  Colour coded ghosts will freeze solid when you press the right switch, become steps.  Others will become solid so Mario can pick them up and throw them.

The first levels take place in the Mario Toy Company complex, and they're pretty simple.  Training levels, really, which is handy 'cause it can take some time to figure out how everything works.   One of the first things you'll find are the floor mounted switches, which are not unlike the switch blocks in Super Mario World, which must be stomped on to activate ladders, blocks and platforms of the same colour.  The changes aren't permanent however: activating the blue switch will deactivate the red, stomping the red switch will deactivate the yellow, and so on.  It can take a few tries before you learn the proper order and layout of each level.

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/games/MvDK-3.png]

From there it's on to the Donkey Kong Jungle, and it's a lot tougher now.  For starters there's a lot of vines to climb.  If you've played Donkey Kong Jr you know what I'm talking about here.  Climbing, dropping and jumping to and from vines is the order of the day and you'd better be ready or that star will elude you.

Fire Mountain is where we start to separate the men from the boys (or monkeys from gorillas, perhaps?).  It's a lot more difficult now, and you'll find youself working hard to knock a few seconds off your time to get that elusive hundred points for the star.  There's often several ways to complete the stages, and the most obvious one will rarely be the right one.  If you've got a friend to team up with you'll probably discover paths you'd never think of on your own.

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/games/MvDK-big.png]

Next up is Spooky House, which looks a lot like the Ghost House in Super Mario World.  Here's where the ghosts come in, smugly ethereal in their shyguy masks.  Our old friend Boo is back as well, following you stealthily if you dare turn your back on him.  There are a lot of moving platforms in this world, and Mario's jumping skills will be taxed to their limit.

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/games/MvDK-8.png]

Mystic Forest is the next world we'll encounter, with javelin-carrying shyguys and - luckily - lots of convenient hammers with which to bop them.  There's also conveyor belts, lots of conveyor belts, and there's a new kind of switch to change their direction.  One level has you remotely moving a key to the bottom of the screen using only the reverse switch.  Very cool.

Twilight City Plus is where things start to get incredible - take everything you've encountered so far, and add lasers.  Combined with springs, animals, conveyors, ladders, switches, keys - and yes - platforms, it's stunning.  And what when you've gathered all the stars?  More?  Say it ain't so!

Verdict:
This game is platforming brilliance, it's some of the best original platform game to hit the GBA.  If you can get over the fact that Mario never shuts up you can't go wrong.

The first game:

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/games/MvDK-7.png]

Mario vs Donkey Kong didn't handspring out of nowhere.  Back in 1994 Nintendo released a sequel to the original arcade Donkey Kong also called, strangely, Donkey Kong.  Often referred to as DK 1994 to avoid confusion it was a phenomenal update on the original platforming game.  You'd recognize it immediately as the prequel to Mario vs Donkey Kong, with most of the same play elements the same in both games.  Mario has most of the same moves, there's a key and lock in every level, and all the incredible platform action is intact.  There's one hundred stages plus a final boss fight, enough to guarantee a lot of fantastic gaming.  DK '94 was one of the few games to support the Super GameBoy too, so while it wasn't as colourful as the new game it was certainly better than other GameBoy games of the time.


Now in the original review I went into a little more detail about Mario's history, and was quite a bit harsher about some aspects of the game.  That one probably reflects my feelings about this amazing game with a little more accuracy.  For the magazine I aimed to be a little less critical.

The game is absolutely awesome.  The shitty pre-rendered sprites and annoying incessant Mario chatter do not really detract from its greatness, and in light of what a chatty bitch Mario has become in more recent games, it's not really out of place here.

So, ultimately, it's one of the best GBA games extant.  You should get it. ]]> no_email@example.com (NFGworld.com - NFG) Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:18:15 GMT http://nfgworld.com/mb/854 Capcom's P.N.03 Review (GameCube) http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/837
P.N. 03 (Product Number 03, surely a title indicative of Capcom's new creative bankruptcy) defies easy generalization. What kind of game is it? Well, visually it's a first person shooter, but it doesn't quite play like one. When you're actually shooting your movement is restricted. Your character, a shapely lass in a tight bodysuit, will auto-target enemies (and you can switch targets) while your primary movements are dodge left or right, jump, and crouch. You can't shoot at all while you're moving, so unlike your normal FPS this isn't a run-n-gun affair.

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/screenshots/pn03h.png]

The game itself is kind of a 3rd person shmup, you work for score and clear-times, and you get combo points by stringing together kills. These points are redeemed for bigger and better suits and weapons, armor, etc. I've heard people say it's a kind of music game, and it's totally not, except that there's music in it and the character kind of bops to her own rhythm. The music plays no part in the gameplay itself.

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/screenshots/pn03b.png] [Image: http://nfggames.com/games/screenshots/pn03d.png]
[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/screenshots/pn03c.png] [Image: http://nfggames.com/games/screenshots/pn03a.png]

Visually the game is very spare, Capcom has chosen a monochromatic look similar to Sega's Cosmic Smash. The graphics have a kind of seventies-era sci-fi flick: lots of whitish rooms with few decorations populated with well animated robots and as many lasers and missiles as you can shake a pointed stick at.

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/screenshots/pn03e.png] [Image: http://nfggames.com/games/screenshots/pn03f.png]
[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/screenshots/pn03i.png] [Image: http://nfggames.com/games/screenshots/pn03j.png]

I have one complaint with the controls, and it's simply a matter of design more than a flaw. When shooting or performing a special, there's a slight delay after your last shot before your character returns from her (sexy) shooting stance to a (sexy) neutral one. If you rush the next command, a special move for example, she will completely ignore it. I found this hard to get used to, and because of it there was a constant impression that the controls were laggy or unresponsive - but only during the transition from shooting to moving or performing a special.

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/screenshots/pn03m.png]

There are close to a dozen different suits to acquire, each with a different balance of armor, power, energy and special moves. Some even feature a slow auto fire, which will relieve the stress of frantically pounding on the shoot button.

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/screenshots/pn03k.png] [Image: http://nfggames.com/games/screenshots/pn03l.png]
[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/screenshots/pn03n.png] [Image: http://nfggames.com/games/screenshots/pn03k.png]

Bottom line: If you like old-school shooting and you want to see how it would look combined with modern visuals and a FPS motif, P.N.03 might be for you. It's all about score and clear-times, there's only a little bit of exploration, thankfully little story, and no puzzle solving to get in the way beyond 'how do I defeat this boss!?' Shoot, dodge, shoot, run for the door. Simple, good looking, and unfortunately for Capcom, not a popular idea.


[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/screenshots/pn03p.png] [Image: http://nfggames.com/games/screenshots/pn03q.png]
[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/screenshots/pn03r.png] [Image: http://nfggames.com/games/screenshots/pn03s.png]
]]> no_email@example.com (NFGworld.com - NFG) Thu, 01 Apr 2010 06:28:38 GMT http://nfgworld.com/mb/837 Heavy Metal Geomatrix (Dreamcast) http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/835
[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/games/GameGo-HMGM-Review.jpg]
----

Some people have been describing this as a pseudo sequel to the Dreamcast's rather poorly received Spawn.  "The same but fixed!" they cried.  I confess I've never played Spawn so I can't really compare the two.  I'm quite sure that if Spawn was nearly as good as this I would have played it though.  This game is really ringing my bell.

I had planned to give it a miss, but when I saw WASP was on the soundtrack, I had to pick it up.  I wasn't even sure what kind of game it was - only that it was gonna have a rocking soundtrack.  Megadeth, Halford, Corrosion of Conformity and Entombed are all given top billing.  It's strange then that two unknowns - Dust to Dust and Cyber-T - are given three and eight tracks respectively, and the headliners are given one each.  Considering Sega's financial situation perhaps this is easily explained.  The tunes suit the game perfectly, I'm happy to say.  Money well spent.

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/games/GameGo-HMGM-Review-1.jpg]

The game itself might be best described as a third person over-the-shoulder quake, in small arenas with gobs of weapons.  The camera always faces your opponent, but with you in the foreground.  It's because of this that it's not often facing the direction you're going.  At first I found it frustrating and I was yelling at the game to "Look this way, dammit!"  After a few rounds however you learn the maps so well that you can tell where you're going with ease.  Pressing Y instantly switches the targetting onto the next opponent, a function you learn to appreciate fast when you take on two CPU bosses for the first time and they try to sweep you into a pincer.

Combat has two styles: an up-close and a ranged attack.  Sega saw fit to lavish the weapons on us, with some surprising variation.  Each weapon has a fierce secondary attack too, usually with poorer aim and consuming more ammunition, but effectively doubling the number of weapons.  The weapons cover the entire gamut from swords to traps and mines and rail guns and rocket launchers and laser-guided satellite-dropped bombs o' doom.  You can only carry one close combat and one ranged weapon at a time and the ammo is limited so rapid discharge and frequent re-arming is the name of this game.  If you can't get up close with either of the two swords, you drop back and pick up something with some distance - perhaps you'll pass over the flamethrower and pick up the rocket launcher.  You can let loose a stream of anime-styled six-rocket bursts, pick up and plant some traps or explosive mines, then nail your opponent with a flame-thrower when he falls prey to your dastardly tricks.

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/games/GameGo-HMGM-Review-3.jpg]

Sega's taking the unfortunate but all-too-common route again, and will remove the online play from the North American release.  The Japanese version didn't support the Broadband Adaptor, and since a local call is required to play, you can't play online with the import either.  Considering the fragmented and chaotic phone system in North America this might not be a bad decision, but it's unfortunate they didn't put the link cable to good use.  As it stands, split-screen madness is the best you'll get, but it's good indeed.  There's no slowdown, and since you can always see your opponent anyway with the game's camera system, there's no element of surprise lost.

The graphics are, as can be expected from a late-released game, stunning.  The characters were designed by Simon Bisley, who you might remember from such games as Loaded.  Every weapon is large and well rendered, the characters even moreso, showing a surprising variety for Bisley, perhaps to appeal to Japanese sensibilities.  The backgrounds are well presented, looking almost as good and a lot like Soul Calibur, but with wildly varying terrain and destructible environment. 

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/games/GameGo-HMGM-Review-2.jpg]

When the action gets frantic and you're in the zone mindlessly launching attacks and running for your life, you'll find yourself frequently impressed as someone finally succumbs to the onslaught and the action stops.  The camera will swoop and rotate around the loser, locked into a death pose with the killing blow slow-motioning through them.  Stunning bit of work, and very very rewarding.  Much to the rest of the family's unhappiness, I found myself whooping in the middle of the night as I'd pull off a particularly sweet kill.

It's not a game for everyone - it's a visceral blaster which proudly shows Sega's arcade roots.  The game makes no apologies for what it is.  My criteria for games are quite simple: I likes 'em fast and I likes 'em competant, and Geomatrix delivers.  Twelve fighters, fourteen arenas, and a rocking soundtrack, perfect control and a camera that rarely misses.  Definately the best game I've played in a while.

  • Covers stolen from internets
  • Crappy screenshots mine
]]> no_email@example.com (NFGworld.com - NFG) Thu, 01 Apr 2010 01:36:22 GMT http://nfgworld.com/mb/835 Goldeneye 007 (Nintendo 64) http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/801
Let's be honest: when it comes to the Nintendo 64, many gamers have been disappointed. The in-stone promise of "Jurassic Park" visuals, perfect CD sound and quality titles have been replaced with foggy mist, uninspiring noise and... well... Aerofighters Assault. Arcade-to-home translations are also a letdown (cough, cough, KILLER INSTINCT, cough) and quality 3rd party support is nil. Sure, Mario 64 is godly but you can't ride off one title forever.

With all these negatives in mind, let's not forget what Nintendo DOES have. They have Rare on their side. As previous developers of games like Battletoads, DK Country, and Killer Instinct (arcade version), Rare has flexed their programming muscle on many a platform. And, today, on the N64, Rare has crafted a game which has made the gaming community step back and remember the days when Nintendo did it best. The game: Goldeneye 007.

It's not like this game just showed up one day though. It saw a number of delays (which put its release on par with the movie sequel) and the limited space in the cartridge gave Rare many development hurdles. But somehow, Rare has bestowed all software-starved N64 owners with a title they can enjoy for months to come.

The 1P game follows the storyline of the movie very closely right down to the actual level layouts. You are given 23 missions (and 2 secret ones) to complete ranging from the Dam to the Cradle. The missions themselves are wonderfully put together and are full of lots of bloodthirsty soldiers waiting to stop you from reaching Trevelyan. The enemies are well placed and the level designs are absolutely brilliant. Lack of firepower is not an issue either as weapons such as the AR-33, Grenade Launcher and the RCP 90 are at your disposal to mow down the enemies.

However, the best part of the 1P game doesn't lie solely in beating the game; rather, it lies in unlocking the secret cheats for each level. Depending on what difficulty you select and how fast you finish a level, you will acquire secret programmer's cheats such as unlimited ammo and invincibility. Getting these cheats are incredibly difficult, and will have you up 'til the wee hours, surrounded by empty containers of your favorite beverage, trying to shave mere seconds off your best time.

Goldeneye 007's value doesn't just end on the 1P game though. The 4P multiplayer game is one of the greatest ever, even rivaling Bomberman (Saturn) and Mario Kart 64. Playing this game (loosely known as "Bond" among the multiplayer circles) with three of your buddies can be some of the best gaming fun you've ever had, complete with plenty of insults and jokes flying around. It's actually worth shelling out the dough for the extra controllers just to party-it-up with this title.

In the graphics area, Goldeneye is competent with rock solid, but sparse backgrounds. The textures themselves are quite good but very repetitive. Frame rate problems also exist (especially in multiplayer) but it's nothing that you can't adjust to. The sound is also some of the N64's better work, perfectly fitting the mood of being a smooth, sneaky spy agent. Sound effects are crisp as well, with great bass that can be noticed on a high-end system.

Minus the frame rate issues, the control is what brings this game together. A great interface and gun-target cursor make this a premium choice for Nintendo's analog stick and Z-trigger button. Selecting guns is a snap and the reload / aiming features are a welcome option as well.

It's hard to believe that a Doom-style game could be done so well, let alone a game based on a movie. But Goldeneye 007 does it all so well and its success has created a "Bond" culture among gamers and become a vast gold mine for Nintendo. Rare's done it again... do these guys ever rest? Well maybe after the sequel... Perfect Dark.. ]]> no_email@example.com (NFGworld.com - Millartime) Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:28:42 GMT http://nfgworld.com/mb/801 Nectaris - Military Madness (again!) http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/744 Xbox 360.  Despite sucking at it, I have a definite soft spot for this hex strategy game.  I've mentioned it before: here, with some detail for the newbs, wishing it came out on the DS, and here, with a neat little strategy guide.

[Image: /grafx/games/Nectaris360-logo.png]

And being an idiot, I bought it.  800 MS points, or roughly four thousand Australian pesos, for a game I already own.  I was sucked in by the promise of Advanced Levels (they didn't mention they were the same levels, but harder) and by big new Commander Units (they didn't mention these units were only for online play, which requires an eighty-dollar Gold account to access). 

It looks great, but has some bugs and exhibits all the hallmarks of a product rushed to completion.  For every great new feature added, there's some annoying little thing that they could have sorted with just a little more effort.  Here's a brief summary, which I'll no doubt be updating.

[Image: /grafx/games/Nectaris360-3.jpg]

The Good:
  • You can highlight the Zone of Control for all units on both teams with a button press.
  • You can view the range of movement and attack of your units with a button press.
  • You can speed up the battle and movement sequences.
  • Colour blind players are given icons to represent unit affiliations.  I know people who will benefit from this.

The Bad:
  • You can't use the analogue stick for unit selection.  Instead, it's used for map scrolling, and you're forced to use the execrable d-pad to mis-select units and targets.
  • You can't tell without clicking first which units can come out of a factory.
  • The process for moving a unit is click to select, move cursor and click, and finally click to confirm.  If you want to attack, it's select, move, select target, confirm.  If you reflexively click/move/click, you lose your attack option, and there's no undo.
  • When set to FAST, the computer instantly selects his units, but slowly moves the cursor to their new location, and the units instantly move.  Why can't it instantly move the cursor?  Argh!
  • If you select medium combat speed, the next time you load the game the combat's still fast but the info graphics are slow, so the combat's over before the action-obscuring info boxes are cleared.  WTF.
  • No new levels.  No new levels!! What the fuck, guys? 
[Image: /grafx/games/Nectaris360-oldnew.png]

The good is really good, it makes a game that's a little obtuse to the new players much more approachable.  Unfortunately it's not quite finished, and it's a little annoying for it.  The thing is though, it's one of the best hex strategy games ever made, with simple but real strategy setting it apart from the stats-heavy military sims or the attrition-fest that is Nintendo's Advance Wars.

I'm not holding my breath for a patch or updated release, but I'm going to hope for one all the same.

Now, back to it. ]]> no_email@example.com (NFGworld.com - NFG) Sat, 24 Oct 2009 09:16:45 GMT http://nfgworld.com/mb/744 Sega Dreamcast: Psyvariar 2 Review http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/495 [Image: http://nfg.2y.net/games/psyvariar2/title.jpg]
Modern shmups are all about the few who still play them.  Obsessive geeks who refuse to let go, who can't stop fighting for that extra point, that elusive top score, a place on the board.  This isn't an old-time shooter, it's all about gimmicks - in this case, you can concentrate your fire by spinning and you can graze bullets for 'buzz' points.  That's more or less it.  The game provides lots of bullets to buzz, more like lengthy strings of neon candy than fields of bullets. 

I prefer the shooters of old, where soul crushing difficulty and relentless waves patterned attackers were the enemies faced; where I could actually shoot things when they entered the screen and get more points, not less.  The very idea of waiting for an enemy to spew bullets is anathema to me.  Psyvariar 2 is all about the gimmick, about working hard to play one way, and only one way, to get the maximum points possible.  There's no room for improvising here.  If you're not playing exactly how the designer intended you're not making points, and there's no other reason to play this game 'cause it's over in 15 minutes and the levels, while pretty, aren't as fun to watch the third time.  And every boss explodes in exactly the same spectacular way. 

This is a top notch production with above average music and graphics, and very tight control.  But it's not hard to beat when you're granted unlimited continues.  Even though you start at the beginning of the stage when continuing the stages are only about forty seconds long and you can clear them very quickly.  And there's only five or six stages...  Great ride, short ride.  If you're a score player there's more than enough here to justify the purchase. 

Like a fighting game's one player mode it's fun once or twice, but that's not the reason you play.  You have to play Psyvariar 2 for score, not at all.  Find the safe spot, keep the focus, max the buzz, and swap scores with your friends.

I don't care for it.  As far as I'm concerned shmups died after Raiden DX, tho I have a soft spot for Dangun Feveron's disco men-catching frantic pace.  I'd rather play something that makes my knuckles white with tension and my arms sore from pounding the buttons.  If you dig fancy score mechanisms and newfangled whatsis and all that foofaraw, this is the greatest game to hit the Dreamcast since Gigawing 2.

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/psyvariar2/1.jpg] [Image: http://nfggames.com/games/psyvariar2/2.jpg] [Image: http://nfggames.com/games/psyvariar2/3.jpg]

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]]> no_email@example.com (NFGworld.com - NFG) Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:37:18 GMT http://nfgworld.com/mb/495 Review 3-pack: Hudson's GameCube Remakes http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/494
  • Lode Runner (technically a Broderbund game...)

I didn't pick up Lode Runner, as I hated the original.  I will get it one day...

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/starsoldier/SS_logo.png]

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/advisle/logo.png]

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/bonkgc/bonks.jpg]
]]> no_email@example.com (NFGworld.com - NFG) Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:31:26 GMT http://nfgworld.com/mb/494 Thunder Force VI http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/461 entirely damning either.  I gotta say, considering there's no domain for it (the official site is thunderforce.sega.jp), my expectations were low.

Quote by FortNinety:
I've been playing it. Long story short... don't bother unless you are a diehard Thunder Force fan.  But seeing as I am, I've been enjoying it, though not as much as I had hoped to.

Read the rest...

ThunderForce has always been a bit of a hit or miss affair for me.  Unlike several other Tecnosoft games (Elemental Master, Herzog Zwei) the TF series always seemed to want more from me than I could give. It was too hard, especially part IV, which I could never seem to master.  Instead I loved the series for the graphics and sound - the soundtrack for the entire Thunder Force series was exceptional, and the original chiptunes, remixes and remakes are a staple of my game-tune listenin's.

Sad news then that part VI eschewed the old composer too.  Ah well, the old days were best anyway.  =) ]]> no_email@example.com (NFGworld.com - NFG) Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:34:01 GMT http://nfgworld.com/mb/461 Raiden DX Review (Playstation 1) http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/442 recently sold for an astronomical sum in Japan, so I thought I'd drag out the old review.


Seibu Kaihatsu's Raiden series has long stood as the very pinnacle of shooter design.  The first Raiden featured a decided lack of glitz and featured instead the kind of understated gameplay other developers could only dream of implementing properly.  The weapons were few, only two different shot types and two kinds of missiles, and with this we were expected to clear eight waves of bad guys.  Simple and to the point, the game was a really tough nut to crack.  It was one of those rare experiences where every single time you died you knew it was your fault.  The computer never cheated, it never presented you with anything you couldn't overcome, it was just eye-tearingly difficult.

Raiden's simplicity was the key to its longevity, I think.  Everyone likes Raiden.  The simplicity of the gameplay made it immediately accessible to everyone, and it was not at all uncommon to find a girl playing Raiden either.  The appeal was universal.

Seibu followed with a sequel imaginatively titled Raiden 2, which featured (besides new levels, baddies and bosses) only one change: a new weapon.  A squiggly squirrelly hose of a weapon that locked on and did very little damage.  And yet the game was still every inch as good as the first—Seibu were establishing themselves as masters of the craft.  When Sony's PlayStation was released, Seibu was presented for the first time with a home console powerful enough to render in the home an arcade perfect version of both Raiden 1 and 2.  The Raiden Project was Seibu's first home console game programmed in-house, and it was an instant classic.  They followed it up a short time later with what I believe is the best Raiden game in the series: Raiden DX.

Raiden DX is basically Raiden 2+.  At its core the game is not significantly different from Raiden 2, no new weapons were added, the levels only moderately different and the enemies familiar.  They packed in the extras too: two additional soundtracks (New Version is the very best shooter soundtrack around, ranking up there with Sokyugourentai), three game modes, a boss-only mode, a playable demo of Battle Balls (the very finest puzzle game since Tetris) and the most amazing thing, the Master of Raiden. 

The levels closely parallel what you see in Raiden 2.  The first stage features the other side of the crater you fly over in Raiden 2, in fact, giving the impression you're flying a parallel path.  One new addition to the game is the decaying-value bonuses.  Instead of simply laying in wait for you, the bonus point items become darker and less valuable as they scroll down the screen.  Just before they become more or less worthless, they pulse brightly and for a half second are worth double their original value.  Racking up the big points means you have to keep track of even more details than before.  Also new are hidden "radar" sites, bumps in the ground that rise up and are destroyable when you fly over them.

The training stage is an amalgamation of several levels from the standard game.  The stage is as long as three or four regular levels, but has only one boss at the end.  Once you've beaten a few things and you've unlocked the Master of Raiden, you can see the training level played perfectly, and this is one of the nicest surprises the game offers.  The Master of Raiden is an apt name for whoever played this level through.  Their entire effort was recorded for your viewing pleasure, and it's simply stunning to behold.  He completes the entire level unscathed, with every radar site uncovered in the correct order, every enemy killed, nearly every bonus collected.  No matter how good you think you are, this guy's better, and it has made me crazy over the years trying to measure up.

Raiden DX was a pleasant surprise for me.  I managed to swap a crummy old Neo cart for a barely-played copy of this fine game when it was first released, and it hasn’t left my side since.  It supports a vertical monitor mode, too, so that you can experience the game in the arcade-perfect way it was meant to be played.

Raiden DX is the perfect addition to any shooter fan's library.  Crank the sound up, tip your TV over, and groove to the finest shooting action ever from the masters of the craft.  Since the game was re- released in Japan as a budget title, you can pick up the import for a very reasonable price.  It's worth the effort, for you'll rarely find a game this solid, this polished, or this good anywhere else. ]]> no_email@example.com (NFGworld.com - NFG) Sun, 19 Oct 2008 14:12:54 GMT http://nfgworld.com/mb/442 Geometry Wars 2: Retro Evolved http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/429
But I loves me some Robotron.  This two-and-a-half-decades-old game is still as loud, frantic and punishingly difficult today as it was in 1982.  A lot of games have tried and failed to emulate its successful blend of explodey graphics, twin-joystick controls and impending-doom gameplay, but until now none of them were ever really as good. 

Geometry Wars 2: Retro Evolved (official site) is every bit as good as Robotron, better in someways, and only lesser in a couple of unimportant ways.  It's for the Xbox 360, it's a Live Arcade game (download, no CD), costs about $10 ($15 in Australia) and I've worn out my pad's analogue sticks playing it so damned much.

[Image: /grafx/games/GW2-1.jpg]

There are six game types, each different enough that there's real variety to be found.  The core mechanic in most of them is shoot things, but even that's turned on its head in a couple of the modes.

[Image: /grafx/games/GW2-3.jpg]

Game Modes:
Deadline: Three minutes, GO!
King: You can only shoot from the safety of a circle barrier, but the barrier fades away after a few seconds.
Evolved: How long can you last?
Pacifism: You can't shoot, but passing through randomly moving gates blows up baddies.
Waves: Walls of enemies appear along the playfield edge and straight-line across the field...  And you!
Sequence: Twenty levels of increasingly difficult challenges.

[Image: /grafx/games/GW2-4.jpg]

It has a retro faux-vector aesthetic, complete with phosphor glow, but has many times more things on the screen than any vector monitor could ever have drawn.  Everything either leaves a trail or blows up in the most particle-icious manner you can imagine, and it doesn't take long until the screen is a throbbing miasma of glorious colour.

[Image: /grafx/games/GW2-2.jpg]

If I had to complain, at all, I'd whinge about the particle effects obscuring the action, but that's sooo minor a complaint I feel dirty even mentioning it.  Others have complained about it with feeling, but I fucking love it.  I do.  Loud and shiny, that's what I love!

[Image: /grafx/games/GW2-5.jpg]

It's awesome, it's hard, it's easy to figure out, and it can be played very, very loud.  Bizarre Creations, best known to me as the guys behind Dreamcast's Metropolis Street Racer (Project Gotham to you new kids) has totally delivered the goods, giving me two games that justify the purchase of my Xbox 360 (the other being Pac Man CE of course).

It's NFG approved!

(Screenshots provided by Bizarre Creations) ]]> no_email@example.com (NFGworld.com - NFG) Sun, 28 Sep 2008 06:49:21 GMT http://nfgworld.com/mb/429 Unreal Tournament 3 http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/288 other game.  Years later I tried the demo of Unreal Tournament 2003, after it received rave reviews, and I was totally hooked: It was fast, gorgeous, and even in Japan there were lots of low-ping servers to play on.   I bought the next release, UT 2004, and loved it just as much.

[Image: http://nfggames.com/grafx/UT/gal07.jpg]
Unreal Tournament 2003 - lookit the colours!

So I was very eager to buy Unreal Tournament 3.  I played the demo though, and was unimpressed - it looked the business, but it was really boring to play...  It wasn't as captivating as 2k3 and 2k4, but I thought maybe the full version would be good.

Recently it was made available on Steam, and I bought it for $29.99, a very nice discount over the Australian regular price of $89.

And it sucks.

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/grafx/UT31.jpg]
Unreal Tournament 3

I'm sooo unhappy about it.  The game is boring, totally dull, and I can't quite put my finger on why.  It's got all the things I love, but tweaked so far they're broken.  The rapid-respawn fast-action mayhem I adore is toned down a little, it seems to be running a little slower than the last 2 games.  Strangely, the menus run much slower than the game itself, so there's mouse-lag when you're setting up a game, but not when you're playing it.  Tabbing out is quick, but it takes a full 30+ seconds to tab back into the game...  When a game's borderline fun it doesn't really help that trying to play it is irritating.

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/grafx/UT32.jpg]
Unreal Tournament 3

What's really disappointing is Warfare:  the old Assault and Onslaught modes are rolled into one single game mode which takes all the good parts of the two modes and throws them away.  What's left is a frustrating and unremarkable experience.  Where Onslaught had large maps and multiple ways to achieve victory, the maps are now small with single paths from end to end.  Where Assault had delicious scripted levels with actual plots and advancing team v team action, Warfare now has similar triggers on the map without any real rhyme or reason.  The object is to connect your base to the opponent's by first seizing control of the linked nodes between the two:  Pushing your control forward against the opponent's attempts to push theirs is where the fun lies... 

Except now the maps small, narrow, often with only one node between bases, and there are scripted mechanisms - often for one side and not the other - that make matches even shorter.  There's no ability to wage tactical war on such small maps.

The game is gorgeous - sort of.  Epic's really caught the monochrome bug...  Like Gears of War the levels are largely monochromatic.  They're very well detailed, but lack the energy and variety of 2k3 and 2k4.  Where I'd go on screenshot rampages in the last two games, I find myself basically unable to give a shit in UT3.  Compare the first screenshot with the next three...  Colourful -> monochrome. 

And it seems the worldwide consensus is similarly negative: There's basically no servers.  Barely six months after release there were only 2 CTF servers running tonight, and less than two dozen of most other game modes.

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/grafx/UT33.jpg]
Unreal Tournament 3

Wow, what a failure.  It's a good thing Epic makes their money by licensing the engine to other developers, 'cause this game's a real dog.  =( ]]> no_email@example.com (NFGworld.com - NFG) Sat, 17 May 2008 13:17:55 GMT http://nfgworld.com/mb/288 PacMan Championship Edition http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/251
The other reason I really wanted one was PacMan.

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/PacManCE/PacTitle.png]

I loved PacMan as a kid, I played the shit out of it.  And then I loved Ms PacMan, and Super PacMan, and...  well that's more or less where it ended.  I played a bit of Jr. PacMan, and some Baby PacMan, and then Pac n Pal, Pac Land, PacMania...  Namco kind of flogged that dead horse a little too long, I think. 

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/PacManCE/PacClose1.png]

But now, finally, they've done good by the old yellow man.  PacMan Championship Edition is a bloody great game.  It fixes everything that was stale about the original, adds new gameplay challenges without fucking up the original formula, puts in a few new game variations that - again - avoid breaking what made the game fun, and then they bundle it all up into a tiny little ball and release it on Xbox Live.

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/PacManCE/PacScreen1.png]

The original game has not aged well.  Like Taito's Space Invaders, what was once entertaining and world-beating has become slow and boring.  Even while PacMan was still new it was deemed slow, which is partially why Ms PacMan was released, and even that saw bootleg'd speedup chips installed.  And this was rectified officially in PacMan CE: the game is faster.  There are several game modes, and some start slow and get faster, and some start fast and get faster still. 

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/PacManCE/PacScreen2.png]

The original was too long.  Partially as a result of playing slowly, it could take ten or fifteen minutes just to get to the good part, so they fixed this too: PacMan CE is comprised of short time-trial games limited to five or ten minutes each.  That's it: You try to stay alive until the time runs out and hopefully beat your old score.  It's exactly the kind of 'casual game' I can approve of: one simple mechanic honed to a shining perfection, with simple controls and a concept that is immediately easy to grasp.

I mean, check out the control scheme:

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/PacManCE/ControlScheme.png]

Just move.  There are no buttons to press.

And speaking of movement...  How the hell did Microsoft make the single worst d-pad since the 3DO?  It's not as if there's a dearth of precedent to draw from here!  Shockingly PacMan, a game that has always relied on a 4-way joystick, plays better on the 360 when you use the analogue stick.  Make no mistake: it's nigh unplayable with the digital pad, but close to sublime with the analogue stick.  Of course my father's first reaction was to complain that the whole game was moot without an original Atari stick to play with...

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/PacManCE/PacScreen3.png]

PacMan CE always plays as if you're about to clear a level.  The game doles out the dots as you eat the previous set, so when you eat the last dots on the right side of the screen a bonus item on the left side will re-fill the right side with more dots, and often rearrange the maze as well.  So you're always eating the last few dots, you're always in a new (often asymmetrical) maze, and as the game is constantly getting faster and faster, you're always slipping into panic mode as you try to stay alive, beat the clock, and rack up a new high score.

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/PacManCE/PacClose2.png]

PacManCE is the last game to be designed by the original PacMan creator, Toru Iwatani.  After reprising his original creation, he retired.  Now that's what I call a last hurrah. 

It totally gets the NFG thumbs UP.

(screenshots lifted from xbox.com) ]]> no_email@example.com (NFGworld.com - NFG) Sun, 27 Apr 2008 01:52:08 GMT http://nfgworld.com/mb/251 PC Game: Harvest http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/190 Harvest, by Oxeye Games, and it's really cool.

I played it for a while and thought "yo, is cool" and promptly plunked down twenty five PayPalBucks, buying myself a legit copy form their website. 

Basically, you mine minerals, collect energy from the sun, and you build weapons to destroy the bad guys.  They attack in waves, first one, then several, then screens full of flying saucers and other nasties will swarm your little outpost.

You only have 5 kinds of buildings available, one of which can be upgraded to two kinds of missile launcher.  This paucity of unit types makes the game very easy to learn: Gather, link and defend.  The fun lies in trying to survive longer and longer in each successive game, and it's not easy.  At first I was happy to survive five rounds, then I was doing twenty, thirty, and finally fourty rounds!! 

It's good fun, and it looks good too:

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/grafx/Harvesta.jpg]

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/grafx/Harvestb.jpg]

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/grafx/Harvestc.jpg]
]]> no_email@example.com (NFGworld.com - NFG) Fri, 07 Mar 2008 13:29:13 GMT http://nfgworld.com/mb/190 Crysis http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/105
Anyway, it's a real monster of a game and is brutally demanding on the hardware resources.  I've got a real top-end machine and this game is making it cry.  I can get 30fps on average, in full res (1280x1024) and medium detail settings.

The game looks fucking brilliant:

[Image: http://nfggames.com/grafx/screenshots/Crysis1.jpg]

Unfortunately it's brutally hard as well, so I spend most of my time looking at scenes like this:

[Image: http://nfggames.com/grafx/screenshots/Crysis2.jpg]
]]> no_email@example.com (NFGworld.com - NFG) Sat, 17 Nov 2007 15:41:21 GMT http://nfgworld.com/mb/105 Worst PlayStation 2 game you've ever played http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/94
[Image: http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2003/all/boxshots2/914966_40754.jpg]

I can make a start - Charlie's Angels - which I believe only hit Gamecube in the US - is just a terrible 3D Final Fight-esque run and brawl game, but with the worst animations and tired gameplay I've seen in the genre.  Climbing a ladder for what seems like a day, almost Metal Gear Solid 3-esque in duration, while staring at a badly pixellated version of an Angel's ass isn't my idea of paradise on earth.  Let's not even get into the wu-xia style jump animation, where your character leaps from one side of the screen to the other like a demented gazelle with helium balloons on each leg. ]]> no_email@example.com (NFGworld.com - Patrick Bateman) Mon, 12 Nov 2007 11:51:39 GMT http://nfgworld.com/mb/94 WonderBoy III: Monster Lair http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/84
It was huge, and it was first-gen CD: a single-speed player that was totally underwhelming spec-wise: It had a mere 64kB RAM.  Not 64 MEG, but two sixty four KAY.   Despite being a single-speed drive (150kB/s transfer) it loaded really fast 'cause, let's face it, 256kB doesn't take long to fill at 150kB/s!  Two seconds was the typical wait time.

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/WonderBoy3/WB31.png]

The game I got with it was WonderBoy 3: Monster Lair.  This game looked awesome and sounded better, thanks to the CD soundtrack.  It was, in fact, a very accurate copy of the arcade game.  Released in 1988 by Sega & Westone (the relatively unknown Westone had a long relationship with Sega, and they developed the WonderBoy franchise), it was a platform/shooter with a cute theme and vivid colours.

I never did finish the TG-16 CD version, it had a fixed number of credits you could continue with, and I'd always die around the sixth stage, in the castle.   It's not an easy game, but the graphics and colours are very appealing, and last night I fired up MAME and gave the arcade version a shot.

It's a really simple and fun run/jump/shoot game.  The second half of every level is a flying boss fight, where the bosses throw miniature versions of themselves at you.  In the first stage (shown below) a giant fish turns its own scales into mini-fish which swim towards you.  In later levels a bat opens its wings to reveal mini-bats, a skull hurls little skull ghosts, etc. 

It's great fun.  It's also 2-player, so you can have a go with a friend.

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/WonderBoy3/WB32.png]

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/WonderBoy3/WB33.png]

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/WonderBoy3/WB34.png]

[Image: http://nfggames.com/games/WonderBoy3/WB35.png]

You can download the ROM from here, and if you don't already have MAME, you can get the Windows version right here.  Simply save the game ROM into the ROMS folder that MAME creates, and you're good to go!

Trivia:
The TG16 CD version of this game actually used the system's audio RAM - normally reserved for sound effects - for extra graphics storage.  When emulator programmers added support for this extra audio hardware it was a rare occasion: improving audio support enhanced the graphics!   

Tip:
Try to arrive at the final boss with either the lasers or the rockets.  The former gives you much-needed autofire, the latter will wipe out most bosses in a couple of shots!

You can rush the scrolling by running against the right edge of the screen, but this is a sure-fire way to get yerself killed fast-like.

The TurboGrafx CD version had some great cheat codes. ]]> no_email@example.com (NFGworld.com - NFG) Fri, 09 Nov 2007 01:30:51 GMT http://nfgworld.com/mb/84 Robotron 2084 http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/21
There are two joysticks: one moves, one shoots.  The player can run one direction and shoot in a different direction.  There are no buttons, except to start the game.

There's no music, but most things in the game make sounds.  Footsteps, explosions, shots fired, humans screaming as they're crushed by Hulks.  Cranked loud, the audio is visceral and rewarding.

Here's how I imagine a review would go in the modern world:

Robotron 2084: A review by Needledick Bugfucker.

My review copy of this game arrived from Williams today.  I was surprised to find this game comes in a very large wooden box, and it was really hard lugging it up stairs to my apartment.  There is an unlockable back panel, but inside the box I could only find some computer parts, bolted to the sides of the box, and what looked to be the guts of an old TV.  There were no CDs or cartridges and I could not figure out how to connect it to my plasma screen.

After fiddling with it for a while I found that it had a power cord, and when I plugged it in it made a scary noise, and colourful garbage covered the screen.  I thought it was broken, but then it seemed to sort itself out.  The title screen appeared and described a brief story about renegade robots and saving the last human families, but I think it was a conceptual failure.  I get more story from the back of the box of any Final Fantasy game.

Starting the game turned out to be an ordeal.  None of the buttons had any effect except the power switch, so I called Williams and they said I had to put money in the front of the box.  There are two illuminated coin slots for this purpose, but I was appalled.  Pay to play games?  This idea will never fly, it's stupid. 

I found some coins and tried it anyway.  The game is too hard, it's stupid.  There are two joysticks, one to move your character and one to shoot the badguys.  It's impossible to get good at this game, I don't think it's completely finished.  I was dead by level
Bah, I got distracted and now i've lost interest.  =/ ]]> no_email@example.com (NFGworld.com - NFG) Fri, 12 Oct 2007 02:24:03 GMT http://nfgworld.com/mb/21