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This weekend didn't result in the finding of anything super rare or awesome, but what I did buy was at really low prices. So don't be surprised if your mind isn't blown away this time, but I think it will be worth your time to take a quick look this week.
Continue reading Treasure Hunt Chronicles 2010 - #5
 Altered BeastPlatforms: Sega Genesis, Various Other Platforms Publisher: Sega Developer: Sega Release Date: August 1989 Genre: Beat 'em Up Number of Players: Up to 2 Players at same time ERSB Rating: N/A
Review
"Rise from your Grave" The first words of the game Altered Beast for the Sega Mega Drive & Genesis, still rings into my head whenever I plug my Genesis in and hit the button. I was first exposed to this classic side scrolling beat 'em Up gem by my uncle who had the first generation Genesis. If you had one of them, you usually had this game that was one of the first releases for the Genesis. When I was young, I never could get passed the 4th or 5th stage even though I had watched my uncle beat it through many times. Leave me alone I was only six!!
Story
The story starts off kind of strange. Basically you're a dead Roman soldier that gets resurrected by the man, the myth, the legend, one and only, Zeus himself. Before you can even smell that fresh air, you are told to go rescue his daughter. He is Zeus and he can't even rescue his own daughter? You must seek out Neff, Lord of the Underworld, to claim your prize.
Game Play
As you start the game you look like any other normal old-school Roman stud. You can use two options to bust your way through the levels, kick and punch. You can also jump which can be useless. There is also a button combo, down and punch, which lets your lay on your can and punch up to get the flying creatures. As you stroll through the levels you will run into brown and blue two headed lions or wolves or something. When you kill the blue ones, a "Power-Up", yes it even says it, will come out and if you get it, you will change in appearance slightly. Your muscles will get pimped out and you continue on. When you get three of these blue Power-Ups, you will turn into an "Altered Beast" I guess you could say. The first stage is a wolverine type thing, second a green dragon and so on. Each can shoot or do something unique to that creature. Once you are in your beast character and you encounter Neff in the level, you will engage in a boss battle to win that level. Most are easy enough and are pretty sweet and fun to take on, specially the second level with the freaky eye thing that sends eyes out all over the screen. But overall the game lacked any depth and was very quite linear, gain three Power-Ups and go kill the boss. Very few other things to do and the lack luster on the side fighting really didn't jump out and make you want to play it all day. Another flaw was that it was fairly short in length. With a good sit down you could finish it with out much trouble in a hour or less.
Sound and Graphics
The sound for Altered Beast was for the most part outstanding for its' time. It had voices which few games did at that time. In fact this was one reason why it was such a hit at Arcades. Talking on games back in the day was really a stand out feature to sell the game. The graphics were on the fair side with most 16-bit games looking similar.
Unknown Facts
Altered Beast: Guardian of the Realms was released on the GBA in Nov. of 2002
Project Altered Beast for the PS2 was canceled in the US even though it was released in Europe and Japan. What a shame!
Altered Beast can be found on the Virtual Console for the Wii and XBLA for XBOX 360.
Tiger Electronics released a hand held version in 1988.
 OverallOverall I would in fact recommend the game Altered Beast to anyone who likes a good Beat-em up game or is a fan of classic Sega games. It can be found at good prices, usually $5-6 dollars and is worth the hour or so you will stick into it. I personally believe you will enjoy this game and love taking a chance to replay one of the older great games out there.
According to the Nintendo list there was somewhere in the neighborhood of 650 (official) games released for the original gray brick in the US. It's hard to imagine now, but there was a time when there were only five Game Boy titles to choose from. That's right, at the Game Boy's launch we ecstatic pocket gamers had very little choice. Of course it wouldn't be long before every major publisher began carrying over their popular franchises. But for a brief holiday season, these were the five games in every Game Boy owners' collections.
  
Alleyway is generally referred to as "that Breakout clone." And that's mostly what it is. Or technically it's a clone of Arkanoid, which was the NES' Breakout clone. But it also delivers some variants on the original simple game that make it surprisingly fun and interesting. Similar to the approach that Nintendo would later take when creating Donkey Kong 94, Alleyway begins with a very familiar level causing an initial feeling of comfort. But only a couple levels in and things start to get wacky. Whole levels begin to shift, paddles get smaller. Though the graphics are simple and the sound effects are generic bleeps and bloops, Alleyway is decent time-killer that can be a lot more fun than a game that was technically already 20 years old in concept by the time it was released on the Game Boy.
  
The imaginatively titled Baseball was almost a no-brainer for a launch title, being the American Past Time and all. And in truth, it's not a terrible game either. It plays rather well, although all the players are extremely slow for athletes. For the most part the game works well as a pick-up-and-play-one-game cart, but due to the fact that you cannot progress throughout a season, really there's little reason to get truly wrapped up in the game. More than likely Baseball was released as a quickie launch title that could demonstrate the benefit of the Link Cable for some 2-Player action.
  
As far as I'm concerned, Super Mario Land was the Game Boy's killer app. That year the top two items on my Christmas list were a Game Boy and Super Mario Land. It just seemed so exciting, a brand new Mario game -- on a brand new system! And I'll be honest, I probably liked (the American) Super Mario Bros. 2 far more than the next guy, but the prospect of Mario Land playing closer to the original Super Mario Bros. was good news. Nowadays I hear a lot of complaints about Mario Land -- it's too short, it's too easy, the sprites are too small, the controls are bad, the enemies are weird. But honestly, I shrug all of that off. This is still one of those titles that I play through once or twice a year and still enjoy every bit as much as I did back then. Truthfully, it is a short and easy game, the sprites are on the small side, the controls do take some getting used to and the enemies are weird. But that's all part of the game's charm. The new Game Boy system seemed to give a new outlet for game companies to experiment before releasing a major home console game. And that was fine with me. Generally gamers tend to prefer Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins, but not me. Although it may be technically superior in every way, this is the first Game Boy game that I got completely attached to.
  
Though I have absolutely no data to back this up, my guess is that far more kids found Baseball under their Christmas trees that year as opposed to Tennis. Though it is a similarly simple sports game that was probably rushed to launch to promote the Game Boy's 2-Player capabilities, it's actually a much better game than Baseball. For starters, it's rather fast-paced with controls that are difficultly nuanced though very good once mastered. Graphically the game looks great -- especially today when colorized via the GBA. And the music is also quite good. Though most gamers today will overlook this one and instead for one of the Mario Tennis titles that this game preceded, I'd certainly suggest giving the original a try if you happen upon it at a reasonable price.
  
Ah, Tetris! I almost hate to even attempt to write about it. There's been so many long and in-depth essays written on the game. So I guess what I'd like to point out it is the sheer balls that Nintendo had when making this the pack-in game with the new Game Boy system. At the time, Mario was such a draw that they could have easily insured some immediate sales just by including Super Mario Land with the system, much like that had been doing with Super Mario Bros. and the NES. But instead, they chose some simplistic boring-looking puzzle game with a Russian soundtrack. I won't lie, I didn't even play my copy for several months. But once I did, I was as hooked as anyone else. And though it may sound like a cliched story, my mom really did constantly steal my Game Boy so she could play Tetris, which didn't end until she got her own Game Boy. We would then play against each other, and although she was good -- she just wasn't as good as me.
So this was it. These were the only games you could buy if you were a proud launch-era owner of the Game Boy. Of these original five titles, I myself only had Tetris and Mario Land at launch. How about the rest of you? Which games did you have at launch? And which would you choose now if you could go back in time?
The results are in, and a winner has been drawn in the second part of the PAIN YOURSELF WITH SUBMISSIONS 2010 contest! But first, you're probably wondering if aeroc went with the $60 of gaming swag and RF Generation T-shirt, or two chances into the drawing for the custom Sega Genesis prize pack. Well, he went with the first prize! Congrats again aeroc, your swag is on its way!
And now, for the second prize, that beautiful Sega Genesis and bunch of games! For this prize, each of the five finalists were given a number 1-5, and each of those numbers were written on equal sizes of paper. Those pieces of papers were folded twice, mixed up, and then placed into a box and shaken again. Finally, a blind draw pulled out one of those pieces of paper. And that piece of paper contained the number 4, which matched up with the name of the member that won, dom meatball!
Congratulations dom meatball, please PM your address and your prize pack will be on your doorstep in a couple days!
If you're disappointed you didn't win this year, well then its a good thing we hold this contest every year, because that means you can win next year!
And remember, your contributions are greatly appreciated year round, so don't be afraid to be the top submitter each month, even if you don't win a prize, you'll gain the respect and admiration of your fellow RF Generation members.
You might remember a few weeks back when we announced the 6th birthday of RF Generation, and today we celebrate the day that the site went live! We've come a very long way in these six years, but one thing has not changed, RF Generation has always been and always will be the independent site dedicated to its members, because we know that you guys are the ones that have made us THE Classic and Modern Gaming Database!
To thank those that have made us what we are today, we hold a little contest every year that ends June 8th each year. Which means that we have a winner to announce! During the contest, we added over 2,400 images to the DB, 1,300 pages were edited, and 700 titles were added. One member has stood out from the crowd with an astounding 21,368 points, nearly 7 times the points of anyone else, and that member is aeroc!
Congratulations, you deserve it for all the hard work you've done in past few weeks. Aeroc now has his choice of up to $60 worth of gaming swag and a RF Generation ringer T or 2 entries into the drawing to win this prize pack:
But Aeroc isn't the only one that has the chance to win this prize pack, the top 5% of the points gainers also have a chance to win! With nearly 100 members participating in the contest, the top five point gainers after aeroc are gecko007, Paully3433, Y2richie, dom meatball, and Den68
Keep it tuned to Channel 3 to see what prize aeroc chooses and who wins the special prize pack!
I'm sure most of you know, but for those who don't, RF Generation has a chat room! It's always great corresponding with everyone via the forum, but it's also nice to be able to chat with you guys in real time. Whether it's about gaming or nothing at all, feel free to jump in and join us!
You can use your favorite IRC client on QuakeNet (irc.quakenet.org) at #rfgeneration or just use the link below to launch it as a Java applet in your browser!
Click Here for the RFG Chat
Hey, look at that, two weeks in a row! But there almost wasn't a Treasure Hunt this week, but at the last moment, I got a sweet deal that enabled me to have a worthwhile post. I got a few small deals on Friday and Saturday garage sales, but the weather wasn't cooperating on Sunday, so I wasn't going to the flea market. It looked like it was about to start storming all day, but actually didn't even rain until 10:00 PM that night. Anyway, I didn't go to the flea market, but my dad did, but it was late (around 10:00 AM) when he left, and with the pending rain, I figured he wouldn't be successful. Turns out, I was wrong, way wrong. The flea market is apparently a whole lot better when I don't go.
Continue reading Treasure Hunt Chronicles 2010 - #4
 Ever hear of Video Games Live? It's a show created by veteran game composers Tommy Tallarico (Earthworm Jim series, Unreal, Maximo, Metroid Prime) and Jack Wall (Myst III/IV, Mass Effect series, Jade Empire) that features various video game music performed by a live orchestra along with solo peformers, guitarists, a choir, all synchronized to video, lighting effects, and more. The result is something truly astonishing and sure to be loved by anyone who enjoys video games or good music. I've never seen the show live, which is unfortunate. Thankfully, Video Games Live has teamed up with PBS to produce a TV special to bring the show to more people.
The show will premiere on Saturday, July 31st and will repeat on PBS stations throughout the month of August. I don't know any exact times since PBS stations are all different, so put a reminder in your calendar or something which will tell you to check the schedule on your local PBS station. Also, the press release from Video Games Live urges people to write their local PBS station to ensure they're airing it, so you might want to go ahead and do that.
Oh, as a bonus: if you happen to live in California and get KQED, you can see the special TONIGHT at 7:30pm or 1:30am! Almost 2 months before it premieres!
If you happen to miss it, don't worry. The special be released on Blu-ray and DVD later this year. Here's the trailer PBS has put up for the show:
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/uzHLeDBKprA&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/uzHLeDBKprA&rel=0</a>]]>
(Be sure to turn on 720p HD)
If you want a taste of VGL now, they released a CD that you can buy in stores (might be hard to find in retail chains, check independent stores) or online at various places. It's also on iTunes and Amazon MP3 for $10.
I'll try and put out a small reminder post on the front page in a month and a half to remind you all to check out your local PBS station's schedule and see when the special is on. I'd hate for you to miss it.
With just under 12 hours to go, the end of the contest is rapidly approaching. If you haven't been paining yourself with submissions, its not too late, but you better hurry up because soon, it will be too late.
Remember, the top points gainer will walk away with their choice of gaming swag not to exceed $60 and an RF Generation Ringer T or two chances to win the other prize. The other prize has been a closely guarded secret, until now that is. In a recent post, I mentioned a part of the prize pack, the custom painted red Sega Genesis, but there is a lot more to this prize pack than that.
Below is everything that you will receive if you are the winner of the prize pack. To be eligible, you must be in the top 5% of points gainers or be the top winner and decline the other prize.
As you can see, the winner of the prize pack will win:
- A red Sega Genesis with power cord and RF Switch and 1 controller, a Game Genie, Greendog the Surfer Dude, Zoop, and Risk (CIB) for the Genesis.
- An NES Cleaning Kit (CIB) and Game Genie
- Pokemon Stadium for N64
- Judge Dredd, Batman Returns, Pilotwings, and Raiden Trad for SNES
This is another shot of the Genesis, to show off the pain job a bit better:
Good luck with the rest of the contest!
The True Holy Grails
of Video Game Hardware | | "The Minors" |
 Everyone is very familiar with the term Holy Grail - we see it utilized in auctions and being bandied about in user forums like a birdie during a badminton match. At times we may not agree with the assessment as we deem the item 'not worthy' of this high compliment. In all honesty, this is truly a very subjective arena and really comes down to whatever your heart is fixated upon. That being said, this collector posed the very simple question to myself: How does a video game system truly merit the lofty title of being a Holy Grail? When tackling this question, I conferred with my friend and fellow hardware collector 98PaceCar. We both agreed: it is all about rarity and availability (almost synonymous). That was the easy point of our discussion. We now we had to tackle the lineup of consoles that justify Holy Grail status. Let me tell you, this was no small feat. When developing our list, we limited ourselves to considering the standard release of a console (no crazy development units, clones, protos or LE/SE editions). Even after this filtering, we still were left with 20 systems that warranted accolades - way too many for one article. This initial entry of this two part series is entitled The Minors - those systems that just missed out being in the top ten Holy Grails of all time. Let's check out the consoles 11-20 on our list.
| | | 20. Nintendo 64DD (Disk Drive) |  |
Though system peripherals were not to be initially included in this countdown, the Nintendo 64DD will be an exception. Released on December 1, 1999 as an add-on for the Nintendo 64, the 64DD was doomed from the start. Technology had passed up the capabilities that it offered (see the PS2 and Xbox) and development for this system ground to a halt. Only nine (9) titles were ever released for this Japanese exclusive. Even the promising RANDnet online gaming service could not save this sinking ship.
| | | 19. FM Towns Marty |  |
The Fujitsu Company decided to make an attempt to penetrate the console games market by taking their popular FM TOWNS line of computers and adding in some special components to create a stand alone video game console. The result was the FM Towns Marty, the world's first 32-bit video game console. This is a system that is not hard to find, but the cost to purchase one is steep. Another rare bird is the FM Towns Car Marty - a portable gaming unit that you could plug into the cigarette lighter and enjoy gaming on the road.
| | | 18. Sony PSX DESR-5100 |  |
The Sony PSX is a high priced multimedia device designed to be the center of your home entertainment experience. The Sony PSX is driven by the "heart and soul" of the Playstation 2 console. This gives the Sony PSX all the features found in the Playstation 2 console (Progressive Scan DVD playback, Music CD playback, Playstation 2 and PlayStation games) combined with full DVR capabilities (and the XMB found in the PS3). The DESR-5100 model was the only edition released in the cool Satin Silver finish (hence this is the desirable model). This Japanese exclusive is not hard to find, but acquiring one is a very pricey proposition.
| | | 17. Aiwa Mega-CD |  |
The Aiwa Mega-CD (pictured to the right), was one of these such machines. The system consists of two parts - the top CD player and the bottom docking station that provided the Sega Mega Drive/CD interface/capabilities (except sound). This rare bird was a Japanese exclusive and will lighten your pocketbook quite a bit (if you can find one). | | | 16. Pioneer LaserActive with All PAC Units |  |
Everyone is familiar with the Pioneer LaserActive, but to have one with all of the add-on PAC units is a true feat for any collector. The Sega Pac is rather common, but the NEC unit is the exact opposite. Add to the that the Karaoke and the Computer Interface PACs and you are looking at some serious cash. The rare 3D goggles are another expected expenditure. It was the second most expensive video game console ever released during its day - it retains that expensive distinction to this very day.
| | | 15. Gakken Compact Vision |  |
Gakken was a popular manufacturer of arcade and handheld games throughout the 1980s. In 1983, Gakken decided to try their hand at the home console market with the Gakken Compact Vision. This is definitely one strange bird - the controller is built into the system itself and is definitely one of the oddest designs ever created. All games (only 6 were released) are single player affairs. This system never saw the light of day outside of the Japanese market.
| | | 14. Nichubitsu My Vision |  |
Another console released only in Japan. Arcade game maker Nichibutsu wanted to take a chance on the console market. In 1983 they released the KH-1000 better known as "My Vision" (manufactured by Kanto Electronics). The My Vision carts were all based on board games. Its biggest focus was on the game Mahjong. The My Vision also provided an external port for Mahjong expansion cartridges. This is another system that never took off and owes its inclusion on this list due to its obscurity.
| | | 13. Sharp Famicom Titler AN-510 |  |
Having the distinction of being the only Nintendo Famicom system that delivered S-Video output, this console is truly a behemoth. In addition to being a full gaming machine, the Titler incorporating video editing capabilities (subtitles, credits, etc.) complete with a writing pad and styles. You could plug your video camera directly into the back of the system and edit to your heart's content. To this day, I still can not fathom why this was done. It any case, this oddity is definitely a prized possession in any collector's display.
| | | 12. Commodore 64GS |  |
In 1990, Commodore set their attentions on the videogame console market. They followed the same concept as other computer companies (Fujitsu with the FM Towns Marty and before that the Amstrad GX400). Their new system was called the Commodore 64GS (GS = Game System) and was released only in Europe. The unit was basically just a repackaged Commodore 64 computer. It did not fair well as all since technology had already passed it by at the time of its release.
| | | 11. Tomy Pyuuta Jr. |  |
The Tomy Pyuuta Jr. was the dedicated console release of the Tomy Pyuuta, a hybrid computer released in Japan in 1983. The original Pyuuta had a moderate amount of success, enough so to have models released in Europe (Grandstand Tutor) and in North America (Tomy Tutor). This is another Japanese exclusive and is a tough find due to its limited release as well as its unpopularity. Expect to import this if you are able to find one at all.
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What Consoles Do You Think Will Make the Top 10??
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Stay tuned for Part II in this series, The Majors!!
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Over the past couple months I've done a lot of posts surveying various arcade-centric genres of games to play using an arcade stick. In that time I've developed a certain new-found fondness for Shmups. But the truth is the real reason I bought my Hori Fighting Stick in the first place was to play, well... Fighting Games. Now many of you out there probably scoff at the thought of a Game Boy Fighter, but there were actually quite a few commendable ports released.
  
When the Playstation was first released, it took me forever to save up for one. And one I finally was able to get my hands on the console, I couldn't actually afford to buy any games for a while. Thankfully it at least came with a demo disc that contained a demo for a new game called Battle Arena Toshinden. And though I never actually played the full game, I rocked that demo for quite some time. The concept of a 3D Fighter was still very new and impressive to me at the time.
The Game Boy port of Battle Arena Toshinden obviously removes the 3D perspective. But what's most impressive is that Takara was able to strip the game of its selling point, and still make a rather awesome 2D Fighter out of the remaining game. All eight characters are present as well as an exclusive hidden character, Uranus. Takara wisely chose to use a super-deformed approach to the sprites which allows for more screen-space to play with. Perhaps most importantly is the fluidity of the controls. Special moves are pulled off with ease. Battle Arena Toshinden is an incredibly impressive port that stands on its on as a great portable Fighter.
  
You have to hand it to Rare for at least trying to port Killer Instinct to the Game Boy. However it just didn't fare as well as the conversion that Donkey Kong Country had made from the SNES to the Game Boy. First off Cinder and and Raptor were cut from the roster. And though the the remaining characters are recognizable, the backgrounds are rather boring. The controls are decent enough, though. So if you're a huge fan of the series then this might be a passable portable version for you. It's also notable that Rare was able to implement a 2-Player capability when using the Super Game Boy.
  
Mortal Kombat is bad. Really bad. Looking back on it now, the arcade game itself wasn't even really that great of a game. It certainly didn't have the excellent controls of Street Fighter II. But what it did have was digitized actors and lots of blood. In fact it had enough blood to make us overlook how poor the gameplay actually was.
Sadly the Game Boy port does nothing to detract from how terrible it is. The controls are obviously worse than the console ports due to the button limitations of the Game Boy. In fact most of the special moves are incredibly difficult to even pull off. It's almost astounding that Acclaim even decided to release the game, though at the height of MK-Fever it's understandable why they would have wanted the product out there.
  
When Mortal Kombat II was released in 1994, the clear winner to me was the SNES version. This was my chosen version, and got played a hell of a lot whenever a friend would come over the house. However, in all honesty it's a portable version that's remembered almost equally as fondly to me now when thinking back.
Sure the Game Boy port of Mortal Kombat II is not without its faults. Baraka didn't even make the cut! But at the same time it seems that Acclaim did everything in its power to right the wrongs of the first Game Boy game. Here, the characters don't look like shit; the controls are fluid so that special moves are actually possible to pull of; the frame-rate is suitable; and most impressively each character can do an individual fatality, a level-specific fatality and even a babality! As stripped down as this version is, it's actually quite a lot of fun.
  
Primal Rage is another example of a developer trying to cram too much into a small cart without understanding how to properly play to the strengths of the Game Boy's hardware. Which is to say that the game looks pretty well -- it does a nice job of attempting to mimic the impressive graphics of its console counterparts. But unfortunately, all the details put into the characters force the game to flicker pretty badly due to the frame-rate of the action. I can't say the game isn't fun, but at the same time the port leaves a lot to be desired and really is more of a curio than lost gem.
  
Takara's port of Samurai Shodown is similar to what they did with Battle Arena Toshinden. Which is a good thing. The character sprites are all super-deformed and excellently detailed. The controls are wonderful and easy to pull off special moves. There's twelve characters to choose from -- an impressive feat given that the Game Boy port of Mortal Kombat was forced to cut its roster down to six, for instance. This is definitely a game I'd recommend to any Game Boy Fighter fans out there.
  
The Game Boy port of Street Fighter II is far from perfect. The frame-rate is choppy, the characters move slow, and you're limited to only nine of the original twelve characters. But at the same time I have to give credit to Capcom for how hard they tried visually. The character sprites look rather awesome (look at Blanka!) and the backgrounds attempt the same level of detail as the SNES port. Though it's easy to say that this is a pretty lousy port of a 2D Fighter when compared to something like Battle Arena Toshinden, if you're a huge Street Fighter II fan like myself, you're going to at least be interested in giving this one a shot.
Now I'd like to think that this post was pretty exhaustive. But of course the Game Boy library is so vast, it's certainly possible that I missed out on some of the absolute best and worst Fighting Games out there. Please let me know via the comment box below!
Lock's Quest
Platforms:Nintendo DS & DSi
Publisher: 5th-Cell
Developer: THQ
North American Release Date: Sept. 8th 2008
Genre: Strategy
Number of Players: 1, 2 Online
ERSB Rating: Everyone for Fantasy Violence
Review
I am sure all of you have played a game where you build a fort and then try to defend it from massing armies, whether it is bugs or aliens or in the case of this game, Clockworks. Now this isn't your standard tower defense game by any means. From the creators of Drawn to Life bring you a wonderful adventure into the world of Clockworks and Archineers. Think of it as a combination of Architects and Engineers, that you use to create forts and then of course defend them. However there is more to this game than the standard build and defend mentality. Lock's Quest throws at us a great little adventure. Now lets take a look at some specific areas.
Story
The story of Lock's Quest at first may seem kind of cliche in that a girl gets taken from you and you must rescue her. Except this time it isn't your love interest, it's your little sister. After some slow starts to the story, you find yourself wanting to play more and more just to see what happens. The story plays fairly straight through but does throw some curve balls in mix as well as some things you might expect as you travel through the kingdom of Antonia looking for your sister and trying to defeat the evil Lord Agony - Chief of the Clockworks.
Game Play
There is a ton of game play in this 100 day mission that brings to life a journey to rescue Lock's sister. The game can be broken up into two main stages of playing, although there are several other parts to the actual game. For the most part throughout the game you will take on the role of building towers and walls, placing traps and mines, and battling Clockworks. The first stage in this is to construct your towers and fort. This is fairly easy, using the stylus you simply click the tower you want, then click again to place it and rotate it if you need to. That is about it. You have a time limit to build and it is usually 2 minutes and sometimes 3. This goes fast and can be rather hard to set up your base in the first stages when you have a clean slate. After your time is up, a 2-3 minute stage of clockworks coming at you usually from one or more locations to attack your base. This is the cool part of the game as in this stage of things you can now defend your base by attacking the clockworks yourself, which leads to special attacks, or you can repair your towers to defend yourself. You heal automatically which is kind of nice I suppose, simply by running away from battle you will gain life back in a few seconds. Your special attacks are pretty handy and speed things up nicely. You will run around the entire time, it is crazy how much action is involved in this game.
After you kill a clockwork, a thing called Source is dropped and it shows up in a blue flame. This source is the main reason why you are fighting as the clockworks want your Source wells. Also randomly during your fighting the clockworks, a new scrap might be picked up and after the battle has ended you can navigate your way through a few screens to build more towers, traps, and helper towers from that scrap. It is a handy little thing, specially the freeze traps as I pretty much spammed them right in front of my towers and put some poison traps near the spawning points and breezed through most stages fairly easily.
Other stages to play in Lock's story is a series of days where you man the turret to defend town. This is very much like the tower defense games all over the place that you might have seen. But they are a fun change of pace and add to the game instead of just building forts and defending those all day. Another stage I really enjoyed was one where you have control of Lock but there is not town to defend. You must go through the map and take down enemies in hand to hand fighting. This was a blast and I wish there were more of these stages, sadly if I remember right, there was only one or two.
The only few gripes I had with Lock's Quest is that sometimes during the building stage where you set your towers can make it difficult to see where your others are. For example, your building a |_| shaped town, sometimes they can be hard to see the sides if you have your front built already. It is a very stylus heavy game which for me is hard to play through and I am not a big fan of the stylus. But this makes good use of and gives you a heck of a hand cramp if you play it for to long. The game runs around 20 hours but it never really feels like it as you are always wanting to get to the next stage to see what happens in the story. I ran my battery down several times and I remember thinking that I just charged it, even though it was 5-6 hours ago.
Sound and Graphics
The graphics in this game are fantastic to put a good word on it. The game has a ton of stuff going on and it always ran smoothly. Think of this, you have at any given time, Lock running around, towers going off, 15-30 enemies on the map all attacking or walking, traps going off and it runs smoothly. I saw one review saying they had a map of over 300 things and it never hiccuped at all which is pretty amazing. The sound is simply awesome. From the battle music that really gets you in the mood to bash some clockworks to the menu music that doesn't get annoying at all which is a trend I am afraid, happening entirely to much. I thoroughly enjoyed the music and animations of Lock's Quest. The characters look good and animations work and run smoothly. Lock's hair even flows smoothly when he is running around. The clockworks also look good with a nice variety of types to have to overcome. The ones I hated most were the ones that charged your walls with explosives on their back. Not cool! Oh and also the ones that were ghosts I didn't care for much at all either.
Facts/Trivia
In July, at the San Diego Comic Convention, THQ debuted a promotional mini-comic based on the universe of the game entitled Lock's Quest: A Source of Hope - Volume 1 drawn by Edison Yan. IGN awarded Lock's Quest its "Best Strategy Game" award for the Nintendo DS at E3 2008. Source: Wikipedia
LocksQuest.Com has a playable Flash demo of the game.
Overall
Overall Lock's Quest is a great adventure to take on the go or sit in bed and play until you want to sleep. Be prepared that you will not be able to sleep after playing as it is very intense action. The music and animations are great and sound awesome coming from the heavy emphasis on battle. The graphics are also nice and look good on the DS. The heart of the fun is truly at the game play and it runs for 100 days in the mission and 20 hours in your life. A great value at $20 now and even cheaper on the internet, you would be silly not to want to pick this up and play it if you are a fan at all of Tower Defense games or just a great intense action title. Overall I give Lock's Quest a sore wrist and a score of 8.5
Screenshots from IGN.com.
A huge milestone has been reached here at RF Generation! We now have over 3000 registered members! Which is more than all the people in the nations of Falkland Islands, Niue, Tokelau, Vatican City, and Pitcaim Islands. Lucky member #3000 is casey4549.
So if you're one of the 3000 members that make up RF Generation, pat yourself on the back and know that you are a part of THE Classic and Modern Video Games Database! And if you're not one of those people, then you better get with the picture and put in on channel 3, it only takes a minute as always is completely free.
And don't forget to PAIN YOURSELF WITH SUBMISSIONS to win the contest, which ends in one week! You can win your choice of gaming swag under $60 and a sweet RFGen ringer T or a chance to win a special prize pack from my personal collection including a custom painted Sega Genesis.
As always, keep it on channel 3!
OK, OK, I know, I've been slacking with these this year. For crying out loud, its practically June, and I'm only on number 3? The year started out rather slow with the sales, but my excuse this time s that my laptop died on me a couple weeks ago. It looks like the hard drive in it is shot, so all my info on it is gone since the last time I backed everything up was in October. I've been using my old laptop, but its ridiculously slow, so I've been avoiding most activities that involve using the internet and a couple other programs, so this has been one of the things I've been avoiding. But my stack of purchases is piling up and its really bothering me not having done a new entry, so here it is.
Continue reading Treasure Hunt Chronicles 2010 - #3
To celebrate the launch of the Game Boy Advance in 2001, Nintendo Power magazine decided to start a series of quarterly special editions known as Nintendo Power Advance. These quarterlies were significantly more expensive ($14.99) than the monthly magazine, and as you might have guessed -- focused solely on the Game Boy Advance. Sadly for we GBA enthusiasts only four volumes were ultimately released. And though certainly the reviews may have been a bit biased, each issue is actually a really awesome little time capsule of the year that was the GBA's first.
Generally speaking, each issue would feature in-depth walkthroughs and strategy guides for a handful of major releases. Then they would have a "buyer's guide" that would give half-page previews of upcoming titles. Sprinkled throughout would be various GBA-related news, advertisements, tricks & tips. So let us take a journey through the magazines' short lifespan.
Volume 1 (aka: the Premier Issue) (130 pages) was intended to announce the arrival of the Game Boy Advance system. Accordingly, the issue opens with an article entitled Introducing Game Boy Advance which offers an "actual size" picture of the new handheld, along with a breakdown of its specs, features and various accessories that were already available.
The featured games in this issue were:
Super Mario Advance
F-Zero: Maximum Velocity
Rayman Advance
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
Castlevania: Circle Of The Moon
The Buyer's Guide features:
Earthworm Jim
Super Dodge Ball Advance
Pinobee: Wings Of Adventure
GT Advance Championship Racing
Bomberman Tournament
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2
Tweety And The Magic Gems
Hot Potato!
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure
Fire Pro Wrestling
Top Gear GT Championship
Army Men Advance
ChuChu Rocket
Konami Krazy Racers
Iridion 3D
Volume 2's (130 pages) cover featured Mario Kart: Super Circuit. It also came with a subscription card that offered "Your Choice Free!" of either a Mario Kart: Super Circuit T-shirt, a pair of Nintendo Power Advance headphones or a Pokemon Crystal Version Player's Guide. (Note: If anyone has those headphones, I'd like them for myself.) This issue is of particular interest to me due to the inclusion of a full moves list for the entire roster of Super Street Fighter II, which is easily one my all-time favorite GBA releases.
The games featured in this issue were:
Mario Kart: Super Circuit
Advance Wars
Super Street Fighter II: Turbo Revival
Jurassic Park III: Park Builder
Lego Bionicle: Quest For The Toa
This volume also includes a section entitled Sports Arena which features:
ESPN Final Round Golf 2002
High Heat MLB 2002
The Buyer's Guide includes:
Mega Man Battle Network
Namco Museum
Jurassic Park III: The DNA Factor
Final Fight One
Fortress
Klonoa: Empire Of Dreams
Tang Tang
Lady Sia
Snood
Lego Island 2: The Brickster's Revenge
Pac-Man Collection
Back Track
F-14 Tomcat
Driven
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
Volume 3's (138 pages) cover is dedicated to Golden Sun, Nintendo's very own 16-bit RPG retro throwback. And if that doesn't get your RPG mouth watering, the issue also features a section on the GBA re-release of the SNES cult-classic Breath Of Fire. The issue comes with that same subscription offer (still want those headphones).
The games highlighted in this volume were:
Golden Sun
Wario Land 4
Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone
Breath Of Fire
Though the issue contained less featured games upfront, it seems appropriate due to the vast coverage required of two RPG's. The issue also added considerably more bulk to the Buyer's Guide this time out which included:
Tekken Advance
Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits
Disney's Donald Duck Advance
Jackie Chan Adventures
Spyro: Season Of Ice
Columns Crown
Tom And Jerry: The Magic Ring
Road To Wrestlemania
Spongebob Squarepants: Supersponge
Rampage Puzzle Attack
Cruis'n Velocity
Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarder
Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX
Madden NFL 2002
Monster Rancher Advance
Midnight Club Street Racing
Planet Of The Apes
Mech Platoon
Alienators: Evolution Continues
Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2
Tiny Toons Adventures: Buster's Bad Dream
Super Bust-A-Move
Hot Wheels: Burnin' Rubber
ESPN Great Outdoor Games: Bass 2002
Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles
The fourth and final volume was unique in that it only featured one game. Volume 4 (130 pages) served as a complete strategy guide to Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2. In fact the first 100 pages of the issue were spent offering in-depth walkthroughs for each level and breaking down the enemies, power-ups and minutia of my personal favorite Mario Bros. sequel.
The final Buyer's Guide included:
Sonic Advance
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
The Powerpuff Girls: Mojo Jojo A-Go-Go
Razor Freestyle Scooter
E.T. The Extraterrestrial
Puyo Pop
Nancy Drew: Message In A Haunted Mansion
Moto GP
M&M's Blast
Batman Vengeance
The Flintstone's: Big Trouble In Bedrock
American Bass Challenge
An American Tail: Fievel's Gold Rush
Dokapon
Motocross Maniacs Advance
Broken Sword: The Shadow Of The Templars
Salt Lake 2002
Sheep
NBA Jam 2002
Inspector Gadget: Advance Mission
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear
Jonny Mosely Mad Trix
Disney's Peter Pan: Return To Never Land
Ecks Vs. Sever
Bomberman Max 2: Red Advance and Blue Advance
Mike Tyson's Boxing
Monsters, Inc.
Planet Monsters
Zone Of The Enders: The Fist Of Mars
Chessmaster
Guilty Gear X: Advance Edition
High Heat Baseball 2003
Breath Of Fire II
Sadly there was no Volume 5. Looking back it's unclear why. Perhaps it was the elevated price tag, considering that the same games were probably at least somewhat featured in the far cheaper monthly Nintendo Power magazine? Perhaps there weren't enough people like me who were interested in free Game Boy Advance headphones? Whatever it was, it wasn't a waning interest in the GBA system, as an overload of games would be released for the handheld over the following six years. And these four brief volumes of Nintendo Power Advance serve as a great overview of a year when one of the absolute greatest handhelds of all time was still in its infancy.
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