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Why didn't anyone tell me?
I tend to think I appreciate sports games a bit more than the typical retro-gamer, but I'm far from a sports fan. I can always find interesting aspects when looking at series of sports games and how they've progressed over the years. But ultimately, the bulk of my sports gaming is spent on the only sport I actually care about in real life: basketball. So trust me when I say that I had no real belief that I was going to find much more than twenty minutes of enjoyment with Virtua Tennis. But oh friends, how wrong I was.
I'm trying to really think about any experience I've had with tennis games in the past. I know I found Mario Tennis on Game Boy Color at least slightly amusing. And of course a few drunken rounds of Wii Tennis with the wife can be fun from time to time. But really beyond that, I can't really say I've ever found a tennis game to be any more grabbing than a few minutes with Pong.
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But Virtua Tennis is just this unbelievable blend of realism and arcade simplicity. Because it's controls consist of only two buttons it has this incredible pick-up-and-play quality to it. And yet there's so much detail to the presentation -- from the way the players move to the feel of the courts. And though it's easy to learn, it's far from easy to win. I found myself cursing the AI many times, but it always felt like "okay, one more game!" rather than "y'know what? Fuck this game!" That right there is a clear indication of a great arcade game. It's one that will get you to keep pumping quarters in -- happily.
Outside of the Arcade Mode is a great training route called World Circuit Mode. This offers a sort of sim where you must compete in various matches and mini games (aiming at huge bowling pins or spiking the ball at boxes) in an attempt to raise money and improve your stats and recruit a doubles partner to proceed further in the circuit. It's actually a really great game in itself that really teaches you many strategies that will apply to the main game.
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Ultimately what I think has shocked me so much about Virtua Tennis is that I've been able to spend hours on it and never getting bored. A tennis game you guys... a tennis game is actually addicting. I already can't wait to check out the sequel although I'm far from done enjoying this original installment. So recommended!
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Street Fighter II.
...and now that I have your attention, I'll tell you a bit about my love of 2D fighting games. You see it all really began with Street Fighter II. Sure I played other fighters back then -- your Fatal Furies or Mortal Kombats -- but Street Fighter II would remain the standard for me. It's one of those games that I've bought over and over again in many different forms. Over the years I've owned multiple versions of SFII on SNES along with ports to Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, XBox 360 and so on. And while in many ways I feel that Street Fighter III (and perhaps even IV) are ultimately better games, it all comes back to II as the one I have the fondest connection with. So while I was away for gaming for much of what Capcom delivered post-SFII, it was with great enthusiasm that I went back discovering many of these amazing games I had missed once I fell back in love with IV.
Some of you may know about my love for the Darkstalkers series, which of course was Capcom's "macabre Street Fighter" game. Once I had discovered the series, the doors opened up to me to start investigating the various Capcom Vs. games which included Street Fighter and Darkstalkers characters in the roster amongst other Capcom notables. Though I dabbled a bit with Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, it was really the third game in the series that got me excited as a current-gen fighting game. But this past week I've been spending some time with the first Marvel Vs. Capcom on Dreamcast. Of course the roster is smaller, the visuals aren't high-def and there's no online play. But the truth is, I'm probably enjoying it even more than MVC3.
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Upon booting the game up I was greeted to some excellent music, which got me excited as I perused the roster. My first impression was how small the roster was compared to the third game in the series, or even other Capcom Vs. titles I've played. But when I looked closer, it seemed like that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. See a lot of the characters chosen are ones I'm fond of -- Morrigan, Chun-Li, Wolverine to name a few. I'm still on the look-out for a legit Dreamcast fight pad, but I do have a Total Control adapter so for now I'm using my Nubytech Street Fighter II anniversary pad released for PS2. With no tweaking to controls whatsoever in the options menu, this sets the six face buttons to classic Capcom style light-medium-strong attacks. Perfect!
I jumped right in using Morrigan and Chun-Li as my tagteam, who I've used as a team in other Vs. games many times before. Right away I was impressed with how visually stunning the sprite-work looked on the Dreamcast hardware. I've never played this game on the original arcade cabinet, so I can't speak much for how "100% arcade perfect" the game is as claimed on the back artwork. But I will say that everything is smooth and fast.
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Once I started playing for a while, there was one thing that caught me off guard: this game is hard. Or maybe I'm just rusty? Captain Commando and Mega Man both seem pretty ruthless in this game. Notice I said "ruthless" rather than "cheap." That's because as brutal as they and some of the other characters' AI can be, it always seems fair. If you put the time in to get good at Marvel Vs. Capcom, you will get good at it. Luckily the Dreamcast manual (remember those?) has pretty thorough move-lists. And before I knew it I was pulling off screen-filling specials that made me feel like a force to be reckoned with. That said, I'm still not able to beat the game on "a dollar's worth" of credits yet. But that's fine because much like the younger version of me playing Street Fighter II, this is the kind of fighter that you can sit and play for hours and have a great time doing so.
While reading old posts on the Dreamcast Junkyard blog, I came across this great Android app called Dream Collection. It's a simple tool for keeping track of your Dreamcast collection. There's not a lot to the program, but it does just what it needs to. You simply check off the games you own, and can note if they're complete or missing parts. Of course you could just as easily use the RFGeneration app as well, though this is nice for tracking just a single collecting goal. Dream Collection only tracks US released games -- and while it includes the Web Browser releases, it does not cover demo discs. Like I said, just simple and straight forward. But if you are going for a complete set of US Dreamcast games, it's definitely worth checking out.
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Recently I talked about Frogger 2, a modernization of a golden age arcade game that was surprisingly fun. Sadly, this blog post will not be doing the same.
In late 1999, Atari thought that the classic Centipede needed a modern 3D facelift. And what they came up with was the imaginatively titled game, Centipede. I guess I'll start by saying something nice about this modern piece of crap: it has great music. Really. The soundtrack is very good. It's the kind of soundtrack you could listen to outside the game -- or at least wish was in a better game.
But wait, I'm getting a bit ahead myself. Like usual, let me tell you my background with Centipede (the original game) to give you some perspective. Centipede is one of those games I have fond memories of playing on cocktail cabs in various restaurant waiting areas in my youth. Disclaimer: it's never been a game I was good at. But I've always respected it. Truth be told, as far as shooters of the era go, I'm pretty much a steady-Galaga guy in the sense that I can't find much else to compare. But I do think that Centipede is unique, twitch-enducing and fun at least in small bursts. One might assume that in modernizing such a classic, Atari would bring it into a more current "bullet hell" atmosphere. But no. Instead they threw in various power-ups and incorporated horrible 3D graphics and managed to suck pretty much all the fun out of the game proper.
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This new take on the Centipede formula turns the game into a free roaming experience. Whereas the original game was obviously inspired by the Space Invaders style vertical view -- meaning you're at the bottom killing stuff at the top -- this game lets you go wherever you want. It even lets you choose your view, including a cumbersome over-the-shoulder viewpoint. This alone pretty much kills the game. Where you would originally see the entire board at once, and move freely within a few "steps" of the bottom of the board, now you can freely traverse the environment. This means that now everything is zoomed in and you're only seeing little bits at a time. This device creates and incredibly cramped feeling and you generally find yourself sticking to small parts of the map which becomes incredibly boring incredibly quickly.
In fairness, Atari tried to make things unique here. They included aforementioned power-ups and all, but none of it feels needed. It's really just a bland take on the already established and refined formula. It's genuinely not something I could recommend anyone looking to expand their Dreamcast collection.
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The disc does have one small saving grace however. While I lamented that the Frogger 2 release didn't include an emulation of Frogger, this new Centipede does indeed offer the original version of Centipede. This will indeed offer far more enjoyment over the remake. In fact it makes me wish that there had been a trackball accessory released for the Dreamcast as it could have been hell-of-a-lot of fun to play this game again like on that cocktail cab. Sad but true -- if you pick this game up you'll spend far more time playing the 30-year game than this new iteration.
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As I continue to work my way through my Dreamcast collection, it starts to get more interesting. You see I'm forcing myself to play games I probably wouldn't under normal circumstances, and Quake III Arena is a perfect example. I'm not a big FPS fan to begin with. And the whole idea of an arena-style FPS is completely alien to me. But before I delve into the game itself, let me first talk a bit about controls. As many of you far more versed in first person shooters are probably well aware, there is a certain... shall we say snobbery regarding control methods within the genre. There's a group of purists whom claim that keyboard-and-mouse is the only way to play -- a residual effect of the genre growing up on PC's I assume. And let me just say that my first experiences with the genre as a whole were indeed on PC. I logged many hours into the shareware versions of both Wolfenstein 3D and Doom using the old kb/m setup. But nowadays, I have no idea how that younger version of myself did such a thing. It just makes no sense to me.
And as the genre matured, so too did its control scheme. Later games would start to include aiming on the vertical plane as a thing which only confused me further when a keyboard and mouse were thrown into the mix. Though I grew up dabbling in PC gaming, it was consoles and their controllers that I was at home with. In recent years I've attempted some console FPS games wondering if maybe I could feel more comfortable with a controller. A good example is Borderlands. I mean wow, what a great looking game. I spent several hours flailing my ass around Borderlands never to beat the first boss. It's all kind of embarrassing really. But it's true. My brain has serious trouble understanding how one analog stick is movement and another is aiming. Generally, I can only concentrate one or the other which often resulted in me standing still when I should be running or fumbling awkwardly with the camera to aim at something. Quite the mess.
But recently I decided to try the leaked Dreamcast port of Half-Life because I had found the Prima guide for it. Here was an FPS game not only put on a console with the limitations of its controller, but of course the Dreamcast is lacking that second analog stick. Instead of the left stick being movement and right being aim, we had the left stick for aim and four face buttons for movement. For some strange reason this made a lot more sense to me. Four flat buttons (IE: Up, Down, Left, Right) just clicked in my brain rather than trying to make sense of the four directions in a 3D-space because of an analog stick. When I brought this subject up on the Racketboy forums a member there suggested that perhaps the southpaw control scheme would work better for me when playing FPS games. I was intrigued. You see, I'm a right-hander, baby. Far from sinister. But perhaps in some weird way, my gaming brain is a lefty? Either way I find it appropriate at this point to plug a wonderful blog post by slackur on the plight of the left-handed gamer: http://www.rfgeneration.c...the-SouthpawClaw-1463.php
And now on to Quake III Arena...
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I should start by pointing out that my knowledge of the Quake series is small. And I'm guessing that this particular game does little to change that. Quake III Arena is of course meant as a multiplayer game. It's all deathmatch and capture-the-flag, etc. with no room for a single player campaign. Again, this is quite foreign to me. But finding the controls so similar to the intended Half-Life release, I was able to jump right in and have myself a pretty good time.
The game itself runs great on the Dreamcast hardware. It looks fantastic and has a silky-smooth frame rate. It's fast-paced and has lots of weapon upgrades to keep it interesting. And yet, I'm not sure I could put myself through the entire single player experience. Since really I know all I'm doing is running around killing computer-controller enemies, it kind of loses its luster after a while. And honestly, I'd kind of prefer to just be experience the original Quake on DC instead.
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Oh but there's something I forgot to mention! There are actually still a handful of Dreamcast games that still have some level of online support. And Quake III Arena is one of them. Although the official server has been shut down for some time, Q3 actually has various private servers still supporting the Dreamcast port. And as it happens, I have my Dreamcast hooked up to a phone line, and configured to work with Juno as a free ISP (remember Juno? It's still around!). But sadly my efforts to play Q3 online have so far been a wash. I've checked into various online communities (like the excellent Dreamcast-Talk or OnlineConsoles) and written down a slew of IP addresses of private servers. Yet every time I take Arena online and input the server addresses... absolutely nothing happens.
I still have some reasonably high hopes for this game. I feel like if I could get connected to a server somewhere then it could be a blast to play against human opponents. But until that happens, I'm sadly stuck with a pretty cool multiplayer game and no multi-players to play it with.
Well, this update will in no way compete with OatBob's additions to his Dreamcast collection for August, but I had wanted to keep track of my growing collection each month so here goes. Besides, maybe he and I will help motivate each other to further our collections even more.
August was really my first full month getting back into seriously collecting Dreamcast stuff. And when you look at it that way, it was a pretty impressive month even if I was only mostly picking up commons (read: cheap stuff).
First up is the big batch of additions to my US licensed library:
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Most of these were obtained via trades, with just a handful of them being purchased from a friend. This purchased lot includes Mars Matrix which was one of my top priority wants for the system. Though I think maybe Gunbird 2 makes me slightly happier, as I now have the US version whereas before I had the Japanese import which meant I couldn't actually follow any of the story.
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Inhabitants is one of the indie games released by Goat Store, and picked it up in that same lot that included Mars Matrix. Last Hope and Cheats N Codes were via trade. Last Hope is of course the recent-ish import shmup that was also released for Neo Geo. I managed to get the original release (complete with spine card) which is less sought-after than the Pink Bullets re-release. But it was a good deal. The Cheats N Codes disc is a Gameshark release with all kinds of cheats on it, but more importantly it's an easy import-loader disc. I prefer to use a commercial import-loader rather than burning one.
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And a couple of strategy guides... I'm not usually a big collector of guides, save for fighting games for easy access to move-lists. However, I do find something appealing about collecting DC guides as they remain part of the time-capsule. These two are both exciting additions to me. Half-Life is obviously awesome as the game never officially got released. And House of the Dead 2 is probably my favorite lightgun game of all time.
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Finally, I found this little guy at KMart for $5. How could I pass him up?
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Let me just put this out here right away: I didn't expect much from a 3D Frogger sequel.
The original Frogger is of course a classic. But it's also one of those classics that I tend to only find fun for around five minutes or so. Even when I've had the chance to play it on its original arcade hardware, it's more a game where I'm like "oh I can appreciate why this was cool at the time." Then I think about the Seinfeld episode. And laugh. Then I get pissed at how hard it is. Then I get bored and move on to something else. So what reason would I have to think that a 3D sequel would be anything special?
So when I first booted the game up on my DC I figured I'd play it for a night and have a fair impression enough to write something here. But that was nearly a week ago and I've found myself continuing to play it throughout the week. Which isn't saying that it's some amazing hidden gem. But it is surprisingly fun.
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The game looks fairly great, with some bright vibrant colors popping off the screen. At least while you're playing it. I wasn't as much of a fan of the CGI-ish cut scenes, and really do we need such a drawn out story for a Frogger game? Luckily, you can skip these scenes so if they're not your style that's fine. Also of note is the music, which isn't the greatest soundtrack, but still manages to be catching and fitting and never annoying. But who cares about audio and visuals when you've got great gameplay to concentrate on anyway? Gameplay is where Swampy's Revenge shines.
The game takes the basic "hop one space at a time" mechanic from the original game and features it within this new 3D world. Rather than a single board to make your way across, you've got 30 or so huge levels with varying elevation, and many obstacles to make your way around. Indeed, this is pure 3D platforming fun. There's no weapons to master. There's just you hopping around avoiding things and trying to find your lost babies (who act as check-points). The levels are all well-thought out with bits of puzzle element thrown in to make each section unique -- and sometimes really something to think about how to proceed. It's not overly hard, but there is a challenge present -- mostly due to the need for trial and error to succeed. Luckily, there are also enough Extra Lives in the shape of flies for you to eat up.
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Seeing how the Story Mode offers at least several hours of enjoyment, the game has a handy save-feature. Also included are some extras including some retro-themed levels, though sadly an arcade emulation of the original Frogger is nowhere to be found. Of course that would have just been icing on the cake. While Swampy's Revenge might seem like just another common Dreamcast title to pick up on the cheap, the truth is it's really far more fun than you might guess. Recommended!
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Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 is one of those games that I've beaten so many times yet never feels old to me. Instead, it's what I call a comfort-game. One that I can return to when I'm tired or stressed out and just want to relax and feel better. A lot of that probably has to do with how it fit into my gaming life. When I moved out on my own at the age of 18, I'm pretty sure I had never seen a Dreamcast in real life before. But my roommate in college brought one with him. Because I went to a community college initially, we lived off-campus. This was great because it meant we could smoke cigarettes and drink beer while we played this new-fangled console, what was it? Ah, yes... the Sega Dreamcast.
I had quit gaming not too long after the PlayStation had hit big. So really I wasn't sure what to expect from a new console. What I got, was hooked. Specifically on Pro Skater 2. It was just such an amazing game -- especially to someone who had been so out of the gaming scene for a few years at that point. I couldn't believe how fluid everything felt. How life-like everything looked. How kick-ass the soundtrack was.
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Actually, that's a good place to start -- the soundtrack. At the time of the game's release I wasn't really a fan of most of the music present. And yet, throughout the years it's become one of my favorite game soundtracks ever. Hearing something like Lagwagon's "May 16" or Millencolin's "No Cigar" doesn't just remind me of the game; it sounds like the soundtrack to that year of my life. That year away from parents, screwing around and having no idea what I was doing. There's a strange tone of optimistic rebellion that runs throughout those songs that not only fit a game about thrashing everything in sight, but also fit what it feels like to be 18 and wide-eyed.
But of course it's not all nostalgia that makes me love this game. The bottom line is that it's an excellent game. There's so much to it, with its two-minute runs that let you pick how to tackle your goals. It's got great level-structure with secrets all around. It's got a wonderfully addictive scoring mechanic made possible by the combo-enabling manual. It's got money to build up your skater's stats or tricks RPG-style. It's even got customizable skaters and levels!
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My last play-through of Pro Skater 2 before this week was just about four months ago, though that was the PlayStation port. I can honestly say that while the PlayStation version controls a lot better in my opinion, the Dreamcast port is still my preferred version. And here's where nostalgia really comes in. Certainly the Dreamcast port looks better, but ultimately hearing that soundtrack and holding this clunky controller just brings back that rebellious optimism -- magically making a comfort game even more comforting.
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As a fan of B-horror films, it kind of goes without saying that I'm a fan of the Resident Evil series. Silly plots, bad acting, over-the-top violence... it's a lot of what I adore. However, I've never been a die-hard fan of the series either. I've always been the type to pick and choose specific titles to play from the series. It all started for me with the original Resident Evil on PS1. I'm talking the original original, pre-Dual Shock version. I vividly remember borrowing the game from a friend during Summer vacation. I was 16 if I'm remembering correctly. I'd wait until my parents went to bed, bring my PlayStation downstairs on the big (whopping 27 inch!) TV to play the game alone late at night while everyone slept. And certainly I got my fair share of jumps, be it the infamous "first zombie scene" or the dogs jumping through windows.
As much as I loved that game, I somehow managed to miss out on the second and third games in the series. This is made even odder by the fact that I would actually go on to play the glorious GameCube remake, along with the slightly tweaked analog-enabled PS1 edition. But as far as the series went, I mostly overlooked it. I'd eventually get into the extremely awesome GBC game Resident Evil Gaiden, which took cues from series inspiration Sweet Home, and finally the absolutely incredible Resident Evil 4. The fourth game blew my mind -- like many a gamer -- but also seemed to change many of the things that made the original what it was. Gone was the claustrophobia and in was the vast rural landscape. Tension was pushed to the side for high energy action. And really in a way the whole Night/Return of the Living Dead vibe was replaced with something much more akin to HP Lovecraft's "Shadow Over Innsmouth" (or perhaps more specifically Stuart Gordon's film adaptation Dagon).
So to finally delve into Code: Veronica has been something of a revelation -- a reminder of a simpler, and more riveting era of gaming. I should go on to remind you here that these recent blog posts chronicling my slow discovery of the Dreamcast's library was meant to be done so with the intention that I would put in some serious time with each game before writing about each. I confess that at this point I've only played two hours of Veronica. Two hours, and I've made very little progress. I don't even have a save on my VMU at this point. And yet I was driven to write about it now.
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Let me walk you through my experience with the game thus far. I was first greeted to an amazing CGI intro that reminded me once again at the processing power of the Dreamcast. Watching the intro I found it hard to believe that this wasn't a DVD. Everything was so detailed, so believable from the visuals to the soundtrack. And then I was dropped into the game, in a dark room in need of a light. I thought for a moment that my monitor needed some tweaking. I played with the brightness, contrast, etc. Nothing. After several minutes I finally figured out that I had a lighter in my inventory. Duh.
Once I could see where I was going and the game actually began I was reminded of something: Tank Controls. Oh how disheartening. I had forgotten just how utterly terrible the whole tank control scheme was. I checked the options menu, but sadly there was no alternate control setting. So tank controls it was. Certainly it took me a while to re-acclimate myself with this affliction. But soon enough I was on my way picking up a knife, some bullet shells for a gun I had yet to find, green herb for healing and -- oh no! -- a typewriter ribbon. There it was, the other horrible device that made the original RE such a pain. Set save-points. I took a gulp, and ventured on.
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Now let me just side-track for a moment in case it sounds like I'm complaining too much. Here are two devices that I've processed to hate about the series; two devices that were alleviated by the time RE4 hit. Yet I can't say they are without their merit. Personally, as a gamer I hate tank controls because I just find them impossible to wrap my brain around consistently. I can never do what I want without thinking long and hard. And I personally, as a gamer hate set save-points because I just don't have the same time I had when I was a teenager. I hate making a bunch of progress only to realize that I need to get to bed and can't find a place to save. Yet as a game fan, I think tank controls are sort of brilliant within the survival horror genre. They create a sort of fumbling confusion that can really elevate the tension in those fight-or-flight moments. And again, as a game fan the set save points force you to really think about when you should save instead of always playing it safe. These are at least interesting devices within the genre.
Continuing on I made it to the first zombie encounter. It's within a graveyard where you are surrounded by five zombies. This is where I first died. And then I died again. And again. And again. I swung that puny knife so many times, fumbling around with my tank controls, flailing and almost never making contact with zombie flesh. It took me maybe five continues before I realized I could just run my way out of that graveyard and right into a cut-scene that would give me a handgun. I should also note at this point I was on eBay researching whether or not a Code Veronica strategy guide was published for the Dreamcast. Sadly, it looks as though any of them were for later ports of the game, and really I'm not one to collect strategy guides under normal circumstances but have kind of warmed to the idea of Dreamcast ones. Oh well.
From here the game started to open itself up a lot more. The path was far less linear. The "right" door was less obvious. I staggered, bleeding down a long alley before realizing there were more zombies than I wanted to deal with ahead. When I started to make my way back I was startled by zombie dogs! And just like in the original game, I jumped you guys. I mean really jumped and let out a yell that I think startled my poor wife who was trying to relax with a book. I just barely killed the dogs and made my way back to a porch that had a green herb for me. After healing up I headed inside and was forced to battle some more zombies. I cleared the room and searched it for goods before making my way into a bedroom lined with bunk beds.
And there I froze up. I'm not being dramatic when I say this, I was too tense to play any further tonight. The thought of what could pop out at me while investigating this bedroom was just too stressful. I felt it best to just turn the system off, and try again another night. Now this might sound like I don't like the game, but quite the contrary. I am by no means new to the horror genre. As stated previously, I am a huge fan of horror films. I've played my fair share of horror games outside of the Resident Evil series. But wow, this game is generally scary. I look forward to venturing on (howlongtobeat.com says it'll take me at least ten hours) and seeing just how badly it can scare me in the coming months.
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So here I am, devoting time to playing through my Dreamcast collection as it grows. No matter how good or bad the game, I'm giving it a fair shot. So with that said, let me give you some context as far as sports games -- and specifically hockey games -- stand within my history of gaming. You should know that I've never been a sports fan per se. I am a huge Celtics fan, but that tends to be my extent of caring for sports in any organized manner. And yet I've always had a certain appreciation for hockey video games. And I'll tell you why: NHL 94.
Ah yes, NHL 94 was an amazing game. I first picked it up on the Genesis and played it constantly. Though there was no Season Mode yet, there was Playoffs Mode and I endured it many times. There was something so brilliant about that 16-bit rendition of hockey. So brilliant that I even re-purchased the Sega CD port of it later, and have always considered it my favorite hockey game by a long shot. Hell, I even made it a point to pick up NHL 06 on PS2 just because it had NHL 94 on the disc as a bonus, and because 06 was marketed as a serious attempt to get EA's series back to its roots made strong by the integrity of 94.
But alas, EA had nothing to do with the Dreamcast. Instead we got Sega Sports' 2K series of games. But I figured that would be no problem considering what I know of the NBA 2K games that have been released in the last decade. Unfortunately my time spent with NHL 2K has proven to be a bit of let-down.
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Now let me start by telling you what's great about NHL 2K, which is surprisingly a lot. Visually this game is top-notch. The camera flows naturally and the presentation is excellent. Indeed you'll see such incredible attention paid to detail like the blades of your skates etches slits into the ice. The commentary, though limited, is also pretty impressive considering the optical media (though in fairness GD-ROM's were created to store more information than standard CD's anyway). Feature-wise, there's plenty here to keep you busy from quick games, to full seasons, all the way up to play-offs. Add to that the impressive controls, which certainly borrow a bit from the aforementioned classic 94, but manage to add much more responsiveness thanks to the Dreamcast controller's analog stick.
But unfortunately the game flops in a very major way. The AI is just completely unfair. Not all-around either. They almost got it right. But unfortunately the goalies have been programmed to be near impossible to get past. Indeed I spent much time last weekend trying to work my way through Play-Off Mode only to find many games end in a 0-0. The furthest swing was 0-2 -- my loss. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on a game for being to hard. And I'm certainly not hating a game because I kept losing. I'm only hating on it because it seems you can master just about everything in this game only to find that the AI isn't believable. There's nothing "human" about that goalie. There's no way to figure him out and ultimately fake him out.
Over the Summer I read the fascinating book Racing The Beam, which if you haven't read it I strongly urge you to do so post-haste. In it there is a chapter on Pong, and more specifically Pong's AI designed for its 1-Player modes. The book shed fascinating light on how the programmers had to make it so the computer could beat you consistently -- creating a genuine challenge that made you want to try harder. Yet they had to make sure it wasn't "too computer-ish" in the sense that you were reminded that you were not playing against a human component that couldn't be exploited for his weaknesses. I can only hope that subsequent Dreamcast editions of the NHL 2K series had programmers on their teams that had figured out this same sort of balance.
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My recent desire to get back into Dreamcast collecting (thanks OatBob) isn't just to watch piles of games stack up on my shelves. Nope, I want to actually spend time with these games. I want to delve into the library and find out first hand everything the Dreamcast did right, wrong, and just downright bizarre. So to start with, let's talk about a game it did very, very right: King of Fighters Evolution.
Evolution is actually a port of King of Fighters 99, though the Dreamcast port of KOF 98 was confusingly titled 99. All title-weirdness aside, it is an absolutely fantastic game. But before I get into all that, I should tell you a bit of my history with the KOF series to put things into context. Growing up, I was a huge fan of Street Fighter II as I'm sure most of you reading this can relate to. My first introduction to SNK's breed of fighting games came via a Neo Geo cab at a convenience store a few blocks from my house. The game was Art of Fighting, and I popped some quarters into it whenever I had a chance. Not long after I added Fatal Fury to my collection via its SNES port. I found both games to be fun -- with their bright colors and large, expressive sprites. But ultimately, neither would prove as memorable to me as Street Fighter II. And for the most part, I wouldn't touch another SNK fighter until just a couple years ago when I finally played King of Fighters 98: Ultimate Match on PS2.
King of Fighters 98 UM I actually blogged about here and basically complained about its difficulty. It seemed to me an exercise in pure frustration. But of course this had a lot to do with its gigantic roster of characters I was completely unfamiliar with. That and y'know... KOF 98 is pretty damn hard. But for some strange reason I stuck with SNK. And really, I'm glad I did. Subsequent titles I'd check out were oddly amazing (Neo Geo Battle Colessium) or just downright incredible (Garou Mark of the Wolves, King of Fighters XIII). And slowly I started to branch out from just using my staple Terry Bogard, and started to really learn some new favorite characters (Athena rules).
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So now that we're all on the same page, let's talk KOF Evolution. First off, the roster is large but not outlandish, topping off at just over 30 characters. And luckily many of the series' fan favorites are present -- including some of my favorites like Terry, Mai, Athena, Kasumi, Choi and so on. Graphically the game is stunning. 3D backgrounds mesh beautifully with the 2D sprites and the music is fantastic and bordering on the darkside. Even more interesting is the strange storyline -- something about a conspiracy and an evil organization who has infiltrated the King of Fighters tournament to capture "data" in the form of the winners' fighting styles. It's all a bit over-the-top in a really awesome way.
There are many King of Fighters games out there, so certainly it can be a daunting task to know where to start. Certainly I've yet to make my way through all of them. But I would certainly suggest this one as a good place to start. The final boss is difficult, but lacks the infamous SNK Final Boss Difficulty that many have known as a reason to break windows with controllers. And while it uses the series' usual three-character teams, it also incorporates a fourth Striker character (including a couple exclusive to the Dreamcast release) that can jump in during a match similarly to the Marvel Vs Capcom series. What's even better is that this particular title is not overly expensive, especially if you're interested in the Dreamcast port, so you've got every reason to give a try.
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Looking back at this very blog, it appears that it was just about this time last year that I lost all interest in my Summer Gaming list and starting spending a bunch of time with my Dreamcast. In fact it was after I had beaten four of my ten games last year that this occurred. Guess how many I've beaten this year?
Let me tell you a stupid story. In the past I've often tried to be a one-console man. I can't really explain the need for this, but I'd usually try to just focus on a single console as far as collecting went. I guess my hope was to not overwhelm myself. So when I'd move from one collection to another, it usually meant selling off a bulk of what I had been collecting previously.
But recently I've come to terms with the idea that I'm not a single-console collector. I'm a video game collector. And because I love shmups, I was going to need to stop limiting my focus so much. Instead of a single console to collect shmups for, why not have a PS3, 360, Wii, PS2, Saturn and Dreamcast all hooked up and ready to go?
And at first the Dreamcast was just sitting there waiting for some new shmups -- I've just recently found a copy of Last Hope (non-Pink Bullets version sadly) for instance. But then OatBob's recent blog post got me thinking about my neglected console. And then I came across this wonderful checklist again:
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Are you familiar with this? It's the list of all officially licensed US releases. In short, it's a pretty good reminder of just how many awesome titles, and how much variety there was released on the console in such a short span of time. It also reminds me of what an interesting period of time 9.9.99-January 2001 was for gaming.
I printed the list out and checked off the small handful of DC games I still own. And now I want more. But y'know what's nice about collecting DC stuff? For the most part it's relatively cheap.
Perhaps Dreamcast collecting is a sickness, but if there's a cure for this I don't want it.
Finally another update! I started Cthulhu Saves The World right away this Summer, but just finished it tonight. It has been my favorite of the four games I've completed. As a fan of both old school JRPG's and HP Lovecraft, it was pretty amazing to me. And funny! For instance, your first boss battle is against "four heroes" (I assume "of Light") whom are a little tough without early grinding. Later in the game you face them again and kill them in a single hit. Then there's all the great Lovecraftian references like visiting Innsmouth or battling Dagon. It's all so tongue-in-cheek both for fans of 8 (and 16)-bit RPG's and horror fans. The writing is seriously hilarious, and the gameplay is classic. I suggest this highly to... well... everyone here who has an affinity for retro gaming really. If you're into the macabre, then that's just icing on the cake. I've also unlocked some bonus modes that I can re-visit later as a plus.
Other Progress:
Daytona USA - I've gotten first in two out of three of the tracks. Fun stuff, though I'm terrible at racing games, so I'm playing on Easy to make it manageable for myself.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - I'm still stuck on the Riot mission, though I picked up the strategy guide at my local mom-n-pop store recently, so I can get back into it with some help.
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For my purposes, X-Men is beaten. I credit-fed through on co-op with my wife. But really, that's how I play beat-em-ups. Credit-feeding with my wife. We have a blast that way. I'm definitely still planning to try to get a 6-player co-op going though to get the full experience.
As far as my thoughts on the game: it was great. There's that certain golden age trilogy of Konami beat-em-ups with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Simpsons. But y'know what? This one was really impressive. I love how unique each character is; I love how expressive the sprites were; I loved the cut-scenes; loved the levels; loved just about everything. I'm really glad I finally played this one and definitely plan to keep playing it. Though that boss-rush at the end combined with Magneto... I have no idea how anyone could beat this game on less than five dollars worth of credits!
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And Garou: Mark of the Wolves is done! How come it's not called Fatal Fury anyway? It's got to be the best Fatal Fury game out there. Of course I'm saying this having played only a handful of the Fatal Fury series, but this includes the original -- first on an actual NeoGeo cab back in the day, and then soon after the home port on SNES. And though I didn't stick with the series too closely, I have remained an SNK fighting fan, even if I've really only slowly cherry-picked various entries in their series' here and there over the years.
That said, I can say that I'm quite glad I picked this one for my Summer Gaming list. First off, it was refreshing to go back to a fighting game where you (a) pick just a single character to master rather than a team from (b) a rather small roster. That's right, I said a small roster is a good thing. At least in this case. It was fun to not feel overwhelmed by familiarizing myself with 30 or 40 possible fighters. In fact, I started with Terry as he's quite familiar to me. Got myself warmed up (after picking up a SF4 fightpad for 360) and then started experimenting with other fighters.
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And then I picked Hotaru. That's really all it took for this fine game to click with me completely. She's fast and great with kicks. And just like that I made it through Arcade Mode. I should confess that continues happened. This wasn't a 1CC. But I had made the deal with myself that beating this game meant using three continues (or less) -- or rather spending one dollar in the arcade. And in all honesty, I did use that third continue and was biting my nails on that last boss battle.
Ah, but cross another game off the list! And it's a game I highly recommend to any other fighting fans who may have overlooked it.
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Other Progress:
Cthulhu Saves the World - is what I've been playing the most of. I've put several hours into it and am currently wandering around a green cat's spaceship. I think the game is fantastic.
Daytona USA - I've done a bit of racing. Still on that first Beginner track, and my best placing so far was 9th. I still have a lot to learn on this one.
X-Men - I played with some random stranger online. But I disconnected after three continues (as above). Although I'd really like to try to get a six-player co-op game going to experience it in its fully glory.
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