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Hey guys, you probably noticed that I've been really demeaning and assish for the past few weeks. This can primarily be seen in a lot of the comments I have left.
Without delving too much into it, I'm just going to say I'm sorry and it honestly has nothing to do with you guys at all.
You know, I'm playing through Metroid Fusion for the first time in years and it just hit me-- this is a survival/horror game.
That's right I said it. I don't really know how I didn't realize this. Perhaps it was because that strays so far from people's perception of what Metroid games are 'supposed to be' that they are blinded from seeing what the individual games attempt to be. Take Metroid 2 for example. It is constantly panned for not being like Metroid or Super Metroid. It does it's own thing and people say it doesn't have the Metroid feel. It's kind of funny considering that belief has existed wayyyy before the release of Prime/Fusion etc. Was there ever a set pattern for what the Metroid games are supposed to be?
Not really. The main reason I can think of that people call Metroid 2 and Fusion radical is because they aren't like Super Metroid which is in many peoples' opinion one of the best game ever. Therefore people expect the newer releases to follow suit and attempt to emulate it's success.
And here is where Fusion comes in. It doesn't emulate Super Metroid, and like Metroid 2 it is it's own breed. Because people wanted it to be like Super Metroid or because they had this false perception of what the series 'should be' (me included), they missed what the game really was-- it was a freaking survival horror game.
Am I going mad? Not at all. The story starts out with Samus investigating an explosion on a space station after nearly dying due to a parasite attack which has rendered her extremely weak and without any weapons. From there she must stop the X parasites from inhabiting the other sectors of the research station and overrunning the place.
But then it becomes known that the X parasites are smart and out to kill her. One has mimicked her at full power (the SA-X) while the others begin destroying the download stations so she can't become more powerful to fight them. Pretty much the game turns into Samus fighting for her survival while avoiding the SA-X which is actively hunting her. ADAM (the computer) constantly informs her of her chance of survival (consistently low) and is doing as much in his power to help her survive as he can, all the while trying to have her save the station from destruction.
But really... the majority of the game is Samus running from the SA-X in an attempt to survive and become powerful enough to confront the thing. There are instances where Samus might encounter it and have to run otherwise she'd die instantly. There are instances when the X parasites infiltrate other sectors in an attempt to stop Samus from obtaining upgrades. Often times you have to disobey ADAM in order to avoid being killed by the SA-X.
The game is linear, but this is because Samus only has so many options as to where to go. The download stations available for her upgrades are the ones which the X haven't destroyed, the paths she takes throughout the station are intended to help her flee from her pursuers, and pretty much as ADAM says himself 'survival is your main goal'.
I can't really do justice to this aspect of the game as much as I'd like to. I'm sure if you played the game again and really stopped to think about what is occurring story wise and even gameplay wise (such as where you are exploring and why), you'd realize that the majority of the game focuses on Samus' survival. The other major aspects are slowly unfolded through her attempts at surviving, similar to the way the story in any other survival horror game unfolds.
Comments, criticisms, and flaming all welcome.
Watch and enjoy the video!
Continue reading Byte Back Video
Yesterday I went to a Classic Gaming Convention called Byte Back, which was situated in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, for two reasons.
- I'm a retro gamer so who'd give up a chance like this
- To see if I can find some rare titles to add to my Mega CD Collection
The latter reason is for this saying that I made The internet is an antique shop, outside that antique shop is a very large island, with treasure hidden deep. If you aren't sure what it means, it should be that the internet may be a great place to by Retro games but outside the internet something special is somewhere for collectors to grab.
Continue reading A Journey to remember
Originally popularized in arcades during the nineties, fighting games have remained a popular genre to this day. With the recent release of Street Fighter IV and last weeks news that Midway has put Mortal Kombat up for sale, I've decided to focus the next few articles on these two popular fighting franchises. Street Fighter has been around for more than twenty years and was popularized due to it's fluid control and expertly balanced game play that would become even more polished with each release. This first article will look at the first four games in the Street Fighter series, according to the series timeline, which will cover the original Street Fighter from 1987 and the three Alpha games which were released between 1995 and 1997.
Continue reading Gaming in Retrospect 2: Street Fighter
This week's treasure hunting wasn't particularly successful. I did the rounds of all the usual shops, but I only managed to pick up a couple of PS1 games.
PS1
Trash It
Resident Evil
I only paid GBP1 for each of them, so that was good.
Spurred on by the lack of success I had a look through the cheap end of the games that CeX had in stock, and I picked up this lot for GBP15
XBox
Unreal II: The Awakening
Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon
Black
Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy
I already had a copy of Broken Sword, but sans manual, so this was a good opportunity to replace it. I'm making good progress on the incompletes, 56 remaining out of a total of 969 games.
PS2
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Getaway
Red Faction II
007 Nightfire
Half-life
Headhunter
There's nothing especially amazing amongst the PS2 stuff, but it was time just to pick up some of the cheap stuff while it's still easily available. On another note I did fantastically well with records, but that's not the point of this post.
Spend for the week: GBP17.00
Month: GBP17.00
Year: GBP295.36
When someone says 'Fire Emblem', many Americans and Europeans may not know what you are talking about. The Fire Emblem franchise was introduced to North America and Europe not too long ago, with a Game Boy Advance release titled Fire Emblem, in 2003/2004. Prior to this date, NA'ers and Europeans had only learned of the series via either the import scene, or Super Smash Brothers: Melee, on the GameCube.
But, what many do not know, is that FE has been a long standing, and quite popular franchise in Japan. Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryū to Hikari no Ken or Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragons and the Blade of Light in English, was released in 1990 on the Famicom, or NES to the rest of the world. On February 17th, 2009, North America was 3rd to recieve this original game (being released on December the 5th, 2008 in Europe) in an all new, remade format, titled Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon.
Utilizing the DS's 2 screen interface, this (practically) new game is incredibly fun to play, and has a wonderful background soundtrack.
Learning Curve:
Quite Easy to start with, but as you approach Chapter 5 - 7, it gets progressivly more difficult. It jumps up to this quite difficult-ness very quickly, instead of slowly getting more difficult.4.5/5
 Gameplay/Story:
Awesome! The story is very fun to read, and you feel as if you are actually part of the game, in a way. I won't spoil it for you, but you basically take on the persona of Prince/King Marth, commanding your forces and Leveling up, to save your kingdom.5/5
Replay Value:
Since I haven't actually beaten it yet, I can't say much on the topic of replay value yet. It seems to me, however, that this would be a game that going back to after you beat it makes it really easy. 4/5
Music:
Brilliant. The music fits the tone of the game amazingly, and the composer did a wonderful job. It also makes great use of the DS's fairly high Audio Quality, sounding very nice even through the speakers. 5/5
To sum it all up, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is a great game. It has many qualities that make it highly addicive the moment youy begin to play. For the normal DS game price of $29.99, you can get more than your money's worth out of this game.
18.5/20 or 92.5%
Well, it's been over a month since my last entry in the Treasure Hunt Chronicles, and I blame that solely on the weather. There just are not any garage sales or flea markets in the frozen tundra Northeast Ohio this time of year. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel, it's in the 50's today and 60's the next couple days so garage sale season will be here before we know it. Luckily, until then though, I've still got some awesome treasure through some online trading I did through RFGen, Digital Press and GameTZ. So that will be the focus of February's finds.
Continue reading Treasure Hunt Chronicles '09 - February
Hot off the heels of last week's Random Lists #2, I've decided to go ahead with a semi regular article featuring video game music, which will allow me to cut back on Random Lists so I don't step on Tan's feet since he does the List 'em article. Anyway, today I'm looking back at some of the music from the 8-bit era, and since I've never played a PC Engine/Turbo Grafx, I'll be focusing mostly on the Master System, NES, Gameboy, and Game Gear and for now each game will have only one song per article, unless I make an article featuring a certain game or composer.
Continue reading Melodic Notation: 8-bit Classics Part I
With 46 Master Robots to choose from it wasnt actually very difficult to narrow it down to 10. A lot of them are just rehashes of previous robots, really wierd or simply forgettable.
Anyway we'll start at 10 and work our way down.
Continue reading Top 10 Master Robots
 Chuckie Egg was released by A&F software on many platforms, but originally for the ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro and the Dragon 32 in the first flush of the home computer era, way back in 1983. I first played this in my youth on the Dragon 32 and consequently I consider it the definitive version. Others may disagree, but to them I say 'tough!'. It's nothing amazing nowadays, just another platformer, but back in 1983 it was considered something special. From that damned Birdie Song theme tune, to the mad duck which pursued you in later levels, it was the home computer Donkey Kong of it's day.
 The platforming gameplay still holds up well, it's a frantic run around the screen avoiding the chickens which follow preset pathways, leaping on and off lifts, jumping gaps, seeking out the piles of birdseed that temporarily pause the ever present timer, all so that you can collect your dozen eggs. In the early stages the duck sits harmlessly in it's cage, waiting for the timer to run down to a preset value before it springs free, to chase you around the screen at it's leisure. You can move significantly faster than it, but it's all too easy to find yourself cornered between chickens and the duck and nowhere to go. In later levels it doesn't have the decency to wait for the timer, and it's chasing you from the off, not following pre-programmed paths, but actively seeking you out, like a duck with radar - a smart duck, the sort that would be deployed in wars, with trained commandos pointing laser guiders at your egg stealing ass in a bid to end your omelette making ideas prematurely,
There's not much more to be said of it, it has no aspirations over and above being a collecting platformer - get the eggs before the time runs out and you're gold, hesitate and there's a duck raping your face. I've wasted hours of my life playing this damned game, and I've still never finished it. I'm determined though, maybe in another 25 years I'll have honed my ninja egg stealing skills to the point where my arthritic hands can frantically navigate the fat collector around with enough agility to collect the eggs in time, and then it'll be time to learn how to make fritatta
Over the next couple months I'll be taking a trip down memory lane. Those memories will include Robot Animals, Fat Bearded Scientists, Blocks Appearing out of nowhere (seriously), and Mega Busters.
Ill be trying to put up one Top 10/Bottom 10 (maybe 5 in some cases) per week. These lists will range from: Master Robots, Weapons, Levels, Music, Non-Master Robot Bosses, Wily Levels, Regular Enemies, Upgrades From Game to Game and anything else that pops into my head (or is suggested by you guys!!).
We'll start off with something easy and do Top 10 Master Robots. This should be up by the end of the week.
I'm pretty sure most of us here have played that NES classic, Contra. What better way to celebrate its legacy than to turn it into a series of LittleBigPlanet levels? Well, that's what a bunch of people from the NeoGAF forums thought of, and they decided to make it a reality in a collaborative effort called LittleBig Contra. Using a lot of assets (including the paint gun) from the Metal Gear Solid DLC, they've managed to make a near perfect conversion of the original game.
Here's a look at what you can expect:
To locate the levels in LittleBigPlanet, search for the creator's PSN names. I've listed all 8 levels below in this order, "Level Name: PSN Name"
- Jungle: Leonidas2123
- Base 1: SaitoHalifax
- Waterfall: RyanardoDavinci
- Base 2: SaitoHalifax
- Snowfield: NinjaMicWZ
- Energy Zone: El_Beefo
- Hangar: Jaeyden
- Alien's Lair: gevurah22
I've played through first two levels so far, and I must say that I am very impressed with their creative skills. I glanced at the others briefly, and they seem just as brilliant as the two I've already played. The only weak spot are the base levels. Remember how those were a 3D perspective in the original? Well, they tried to replicate it, and the results are decent at best. However, considering the circumstances and the limitations LittleBigPlanet placed on the level creators, I'm rather impressed. If you have a PS3 and LBP, you must seek out these levels as they are some of the best examples of what can be done with LittleBigPlanet's creation tools
Oh yeah, the Konami Code is most definitely in these levels. 
I have new games to add to my collection, this was the first game lot that I have won. These include 8 Mega CD demos (which were originally provided with either the Sega Pro Magazines or Mega Power Magazines during the Mega CD's life cycle), a "collectable" Comix Zone Soundtrack called Roadkill (I'm unsure about how rare this is) and 2 backup games.
Continue reading New winnings
Released as the fourth game in the Area 51 series, Blacksite is a squad based first person shooter for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC developed by Midway Studios Austin. For those unfamiliar with the series, Area 51 was originally released in arcades in 1995 by Atari Games. The first two games in the series were light gun games, which would later be ported to the Playstation and Satun. The franchise would later receive a reboot in 2005, courtesy of Midway, on the PS2 and Xbox in the form of a first person shooter.
Continue reading Underachievers: Blacksite Area 51
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