This weekend, the gang was assembled, and movies were watched. In this longer than usual version of Leftovers: In The Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, Halloween III (again), Warbirds, Teen Wolf Too, Bloodrayne 2: Deliverance, and Air Bud. Thanks to Mike, Chris, and Andrew for making it through this murderer’s row of movies with me. (more…)

I think what initially drew me to this game was it’s rather unusual protagonists. It strikes me as strange that a Japanese developed game would essentially feel like a game developed in Europe, having British puzzle solvers explore a European village. Aside from the premise, the glowing reviews didn’t hurt either. The game itself is a point and click adventure game that features many puzzles that are presented by talking to characters or touching objects in the environment. The main part of the game isn’t too different from the Phoenix Wright series’ investigation segments, where you essentially wander around and talk to characters and search the environment to further the story. However, the puzzles, while they feel a little forced at first, tie into the game well and really become the game’s highlight.

The puzzles are logic-based puzzles that often have a trick to them, but also can simply be a case of trial and error. However, most of them are genuinely engaging and really test your cognitive skills. Some of them are more complicated than you think, and others are much simpler than they initially appear. The great thing about the puzzles is tha they are not all the same. There are ones that offer the same type of puzzle in different configurations (getting progressively harder), but the similar ones are spaced out over the course of the game, and most of them are fun and welcome. There are a few puzzles that are just “what the fuck” types, where the puzzle’s set up just isn’t clear, or the solution makes absolutely no logical sense, but there’s really only a handful of them. Additionally, all puzzles have hints you can “buy” with hint coins you find in the game, so there’s usually a little help if you are truly lost.

The story is usually pretty important in adventure games, and luckily Layton has a pretty good story to go along with its strong puzzles. Professor Layton and his protege Luke are called into the village of St. Mystere to solve the mystery of the Golden Apple, which upon solving will reveal a sizeable fortune. As the game progresses, you meet a wide array of charming and bizarre characters that all are pretty memorable. The mysteries in the game are presented to you early, and as you go, you will address and discover the secrets in a well-paced scenario that lasts about 15-20 hours. The game also has distinct and beautiful art that is brought to life in various wonderfully rendered animated cutscenes that actually serve a purpose and advance the plot. They serve as great action sequences such as the ferris wheel scene, or reveal major plot points. In all, the story is good fun and never lets the game start to get too stale.

The music in the game is very keys and accordion-oriented, and gives the feel of a quaint, poor, European village. While much of it is largely atmospheric and forgettable fare, there are a few decent tunes near the end of the game, and the music very much fits the game. While I’m not in a rush to download the soundtrack, it’s good for what it is. The voice acting is also excellent and the characters nail the British accents well. Though Luke’s voice is slightly grating, Layton’s is superb and the rest of the cast does a great job. It has a lot of voice acting too, leading to it feeling like a very top notch production.

There really isn’t too much more to the game than that, but what it does, it does well. The writing is charming and well translated, the puzzles are well written and clever, the interface of the game is responsive, and the pacing is excellent. There is lots of extra content in the game, such as unlockable (and downloadable) bonus puzzles, movie galleries, and sound tests. Quite simply, this game provides excellent value for $30. If you are a fan of adventure games or just love puzzles, this game will surely appeal to you. Even if you aren’t sure about it, I recommend giving the online demo a try on the official website. Definitely another essential reason to own a DS.

Contributed by Adam Claiborne. He posts as Disposable Hero on theshizz.

Let’s talk about a classic role playing game. And no, this article will not include discussions of any Final Fantasy or Zelda release, or Chrono Trigger. Instead, we will take a trip into the imagination of Raymond E. Feist, and the world of Midkemia, to find this beauty of a game. It’s easy to overlook some of the early RPG’s for DOS, but this is one that you do not want to miss. Released in 1993 by Dynamix, a subsidiary of Sierra Studios, Betrayal at Krondor delivers in every way to give us the first complete role playing game for the PC, and quite possibly of all time.

The game starts us with an attempted assassination of one of our party members. Gorath, a renegade moredhel leader from the Northlands, is being escorted to the Prince to deliver news of an impending attack on his kingdom. Accompanied by the Prince’s Squire, Locklear, and an apprentice magician, Owyn, they set off for the western capital of the Kingdom of the Isles, Krondor. The mainstays of our party are Gorath and Owyn. As the game progresses, we are introduced to a plethora of playable supporting characters, and are allowed to interact with non-playable characters at every stop in the game. The world of Midkemia, as created by Feist, is one of pure excellence. Although the game was written by Neal Hallford and John Cutter, the adaptation for this game seemed as flawless as if Feist had written it himself (he did have final editorial say in the script). As the story unfolds, we learn various details of our heroes’ lives and their personal struggles. From family history to marital problems to the self confidence of a young teenage magician, the audience is quickly drawn into the world created before them. The dialogue and story are written for a more mature audience in comparison to its console brethren. The structure, substance, and overall realness of depicted emotions really add to this games’ depth, and puts it a notch above even the most hallowed console RPG’s. By the end of the story, you feel a deep connection with each character, and the cause they are fighting for.

The game is not designed to be completely linear. You have freedom to roam the Kingdom of the Isles at most points in the game, completing various side quests and exploring different areas depending on what chapter you are in. While traveling the realm, first person view is utilized, with your party and menus displayed below the main screen. From this screen you manage everything in the game. Inventories, character information and stats, weapon and armor repairs, camping, spells, and the world and overhead maps can be accessed here. Objects within the window that can be activated are done so by clicking on them. Houses, graves, chests, NPC’s, etc. are all activated this way.

The first thing that you will probably notice when you get to playing the game are the graphics, which are, by most standards, horrible. Pixels everywhere and the topography of the land is very boxlike. In addition, everything is still frame, aside from you walking along the King’s Highway. The only animation in the game is the occasional cut scene animation and all fight sequences, which are turn based. What this game lacks in graphics, it makes up for in imagery. All major cities (which are identified with white markers on the world map), temples, and most places that are pertinent to the main story, have their own screen, with an artists’ depiction of what that place may look like. And each cut scene is rich in color and text to efficiently portray the goings on of our characters and their journey. This allows for the player to reach out with their imagination, and become immersed in the world. In newer gaming worlds, I feel like a lot of this is already done for you.

Perhaps the most innovative feature of this game lies in the development of each characters skill set. Traditionally, experience is earned and levels are gained, usually applying some type of point system to distribute among character attributes. But in BaK, usage of a skill determines proficiency. The more you shoot a crossbow, for example, the higher your accuracy becomes. More attempts to sneak up on enemies yields a higher stealth rating, and so on. At the time, this was the first of its kind. Although many games today still cling to the traditional system of leveling, this feature helps make BaK unique, and sets itself apart from the norm.

Let’s not forget the musical score written by Jan Paul Moorhead. Two words sum up this soundtrack: powerful and epic. Superbly arranged and well placed throughout the game, each track is tailor made for its respective setting. With the use of orchestral and ambient sounds through midi format, Moorhead masterfully draws on the audiences’ emotions, empowering the story, and creates an ambiance that was as important as the writing in the game itself, bridging our thoughts, feelings, and concerns for what we were reading and seeing on screen. As a work by itself, it’s simply amazing. If you never play the game, do yourself a favor and at least download the soundtrack, available here. You will not be disappointed, I assure you.

Betrayal at Krondor received several awards upon its release, staying atop the sales charts for more than 18 months. But it seems that it has been mostly forgotten in today’s age of high speed, visually stimulating video games. It was an infant RPG on an infant platform, as this was the time PC’s were truly becoming a viable source for good games. As a whole, this game is beautiful. Each element of the game compliments another and it comes together as an amazing masterpiece. If you are looking for a gaming experience, dig this one out of the archives, and give it a try.

The definition for the word melee is, “a confused hand-to-hand fight or struggle among several people.” Furthermore, brawl is defined as, “a noisy quarrel, squabble, or fight.” Two separate words with similar meanings. Similarly, if you compare Super Smash Bros Melee with Super Smash Bros Brawl you are left with two separate but almost identical games. This is both a curse and a blessing. Super Smash Bros Melee for the Gamecube was an incredibly fun fighting game. Apparently the people at Nintendo thought the same. Therefore, they decided to not stray far from their now seven-year-old fighting gem. Melee’s successor, Super Smash Bros Brawl, doesn’t revolutionize the series, but it does add some nice features to help make Brawl standout from Melee. The question now becomes, are these features enough to make Brawl a classic game? After all, many consider Melee to be a classic game [ed. note - though there are others who don't...].

The core elements in Brawl greatly resemble those found in Melee. The fighting system remains intact from the previous two titles. Every fighter has a set of standard attacks and character specific attacks. Each set of attacks is designated to one button (for example, all standard attacks executed using the A button), and you can use different attacks by combining that one button with a direction. It is fairly easy for newcomers to jump in and play. The control scheme I am referring to is on the Gamecube controller. This is what I use to play Brawl because I am familiar with the controls. You do have the option to play with the Wiimote and nunchuk, just the Wiimote, or the classic controller. I didn’t want to have to relearn a control system so I stuck with the original. However, you can customize the controls for each controller type. So if you want to play with the Wiimote you can program the buttons however you desire. From what I have seen, people prefer the Gamecube controller as well as not wasting batteries.

Besides the controls, another part of Brawl that is similar to Melee is the multiplayer. The biggest draw of the Smash Bros fighting series has always been the multiplayer. This is still the main attraction. Get three friends (at least!) and get ready for some wacky, fast-paced battles. I say at least because you now have the option to use “rotation” mode. Basically you can pick whether the winner or loser passes the controller after a match. You can have a total of sixteen players use this mode. After playing Brawl with five people, I realize this is a handy feature to have in a fighting game. Besides “rotation” mode, the major changes to the multiplayer in Brawl come in the form of items. To the plethora of items already found in Melee, we add now the assist trophy and smash ball. Grab an assist trophy and out will pop a helper. There are twenty-six assists that include a Metroid leeching onto you, Shadow the Hedgehog slowing everyone else down, a Hammer Brother hurling projectiles, Little Mac punching anything that gets in his way, Excite Bikes that play a nasty game of hit and run, and Gray Fox who slashes away at the competition. There is even a Nintendog that will annoyingly leap at the screen and obstruct everyone’s view. Generally, going out of your way for an assist trophy will usually pay off.

The smash ball is something that will leave you on the verge of screaming more times than not. This handy device unleashes a finishing move that is character specific. To gain this ability you need to land three to five hits on a floating ball that appears. The person who shatters it will gain the finishing move even if someone else hit it all but that last time. That is why this thing is annoying. If you hit the ball hard enough it will fly around and leave you far from landing another hit. If you are lucky enough to break the ball open, you’re character will glow and you are now the primary fear of every person against you. With a tap of the B button you can unleash a potentially devastating attack. Each character has a unique attack and some are more effective than others. Mario shoots out a giant fireball, Link performs a multiple slash attack, Fox summons a tank, Kirby cooks those around him, Wario transforms into Super Wario, Samus shoots a massive laser, Bowser turns into Giga-Bowser, and Snake fires a grenade launcher from a helicopter. It’s fun discovering these attacks and how useful they can be. However, I found myself turning this item off because the computer can sometimes spawn with it already acquired. But when playing with people, this can be a fun item to have turned on.

To use these fun new items you need battlefields and combatants. Luckily, there are forty-one stages to fight on and thirty-five characters to choose from. Twenty of the characters are available from the start of the game. Mainstream characters, such as Link, Mario, Samus, Donkey Kong, Fox, and Pikachu, return, but there are some new characters that make their Smash Bros debut. Sonic, Solid Snake, Olimar (from Pikmin), Wario, and the Pokemon Trainer are some of the more original characters. It was nice to see Nintendo branch out and create more unique characters. Melee was fraught with clones (Pikachu and Pichu, Gannon and Captain Falcon, Fox and Falco) but not only did Nintendo introduce more original characters, they also retooled the existing clones to make them stand as individuals. The moves for characters like Gannon and Falco have been changed to make them more diverse. They haven’t been completely made over, but this change did give them a different and more individual feel.

Unfortunately, the new levels don’t seem as diverse as the new characters. To start with the positive, Nintendo did include ten levels from Melee and the ability for you to create your own stage. However, after unlocking all the accessories to build your own stage you will realize you don’t have much creative power. There is a decent selection of pieces but they take up a lot of room. You can’t fit many objects into your level, and after making a few levels, they all look bland. This was a promising feature not well executed. The new levels they made for Brawl are nothing special either. Most are small and contain only a few platforms. Many of the levels evolve the longer you play on them but it’s often just in a cycle that repeats after three scenes. It’s not all bad though. They included a neat level which mimics the first level of Super Mario Bros. It scrolls to the left and even has the castle at the end. But the ratio of well-designed levels to bland levels is lopsided. Fighting games like Dead or Alive 3 and Power Stone 2 were great because of their levels. These games came out many years ago, and Nintendo could learn a few things about creating levels that you get to experience rather than just fight on.

The single player game is relatively the same compared to Melee. There is one major change that I will discuss shortly. Returning to the single player experience is classic mode and all-star mode. Classic mode is your standard arcade style fighting option. Battling your way through twelve stages yields different challenges. Sometimes you have to fight multiple enemies, giant enemies, and enemies that are made of metal (thus very hard to knock off the stage). It all concludes with a battle with the boss, Master Hand. All-star mode is also taken from Melee. In this scenario, the player has to battle all thirty-five characters. The catch is that you do not recover in between fights. Your damage continues to escalate with your only relief being three heart containers. Once these sources of life are depleted you are left to survive on your own.

The latest addition to Brawl’s single player experience is Subspace Emissary. This is a story/adventure mode that was written by Kazushige Nojima. I didn’t know who this guy was either until I googled him. It turns out he is responsible for the storylines in Final Fantasy VII, VIII, X, and X-2. Additionally, he worked on Kingdom Hearts for the PS2. Pretty good resume if you are in the market to write a story. However, there is something strange about the Subspace Emissary that makes you wonder why they needed such a mastermind. It contains no dialog. There aren’t even subtitles. Despite this odd trait, you do get a complete story. Basically Bowser, Gannon, King Dedede, and Wario are trying to turn the other characters into trophies. Mario and company set off to rescue those who have been already transformed as well as stop this evil plot. When playing Subspace Emissary, you are doing one of two things. Either you are completing a platforming level or you are fighting in a boss fight. It’s a simple game that will take about ten to twelve hours to beat. Personally, I would have liked a more in depth and engaging story (especially after seven years), but this was a pleasant improvement over Adventure mode found in Melee.

When I began writing this review I was convinced that Brawl deserved the rating of great rather than classic. My main defense for this was that Brawl did little to improve over Melee. Everything in Brawl seemed bland, as if I had already seen everything this game has to offer (after all, the graphics are nearly identical in both games). Then it dawned on me that fighting games rarely grow in leaps and bounds. Instead, this genre changes steadily with each new addition to a series. However, after three or four games of too little change, then a fighting series needs to vastly grow. I thought back to the large change from the original Smash Bros on the N64 to Melee on the Gamecube. Should Nintendo have placed more emphasis and time on creating a more revolutionary fighting game rather than spending time adding trophies dedicated to the most abstract Nintendo games? I reviewed the evidence. This game is like a Nintendo museum. You collect trophies for countless Nintendo games and you can unlock a vast array of knowledge. Having access to all this Nintendo knowledge is neat but I would have preferred the revolution. Brawl is too much like Melee. I spent fifty dollars on something I already played. I don’t feel enough steps were taken to progress this series to warrant a rating of classic. That is why I am going to give Brawl a great. This is still a wonderful game to play and own, but don’t expect anything you haven’t already seen.

Contributed by Daniel Brown. His website is here which showcases his excellent piano music. He also has an album for sale of arrangements of Final Fantasy VI music.

Ghosts ‘N Goblins for the NES gets a lot of bad press – reviewers trash it, and it is commonly cited as a game made far too difficult to be enjoyable. As this is one my favorite games of all time, and one I have spend hours upon hours getting to know better, I feel it is my responsibility to defend its honor the best I can.

Yes, it’s got issues. The framerate is pretty choppy, you can’t change the direction of your jump mid-air, and you can’t shoot very many of your weapon at a time. Beating this game is very rewarding – it really gives you a sense of accomplishment. But, in order to do that, you’ve got to put up with many hours of pain. My feelings on it are best summed up: it’s my favorite abusive girlfriend. And I’m sick of people talking smack about her.

So before you make a Youtube “wtf I am dead! this sux” video, stop whining long enough to read these.

Twelve Things That Would Make Ghosts ‘N Goblins Worse

1. More levels.

There are only 6 stages in the game. Even though you need to go through them all twice to rescue the princess, the level layouts are unchanged. Six is the least number of levels in any game in this series. Three of the levels are pretty consistently beatable with a little practice – levels 1, 3, and 5 don’t usually cause problems if you know where you’re going. That only leaves 3 difficult levels, though it’s true when this game does difficult, it fucking means it.

2. No checkpoints.

Levels 5 and 6 have no checkpoints, and they can be maddening. But levels 1-4 all have checkpoints where you can start from if you die – they’re a great help. If I managed to reach the end of the blue cave of level 3 and die, then have to start over in the yellow cave each time, I probably never would have continued my relationship with this game.

3. Auto-scrolling.

You have control of the screen scrolling from beginning to end. This means you can take your time watching out for spawning enemies and plan your next move. I dare you to enjoy the nervousness of horribly long auto-scrolling levels of Super Ghouls ‘N Ghosts. This is what that game says to me in those levels: “I love seeing you fail. I’m going this slow because you spend more time failing this level that way, and that’s great for your self-esteem.”

4. Armor upgrades.

“What,” you say? “Wouldn’t that help?” To this I respond, have you played Super Ghouls ‘N Ghosts lately? You’ll get to a boss and say “Wow, I’m getting owned. If only I had the golden armor!” (stares off wistfully.) So you spend an hour trying to get the golden armor in the level and not die getting up to the boss to find out, he’s still owning you because he’s hit you once and you’ve lost your Golden Armor. That’s a soul-crushing feeling. At least in Ghosts ‘N Goblins you know that the armor you start off with is the best chance you’ll have, so you don’t waste time wishing you had something better.

5. More fireballs.

No, I’m serious. GnG is light on fireballs flying at you. The eyeball plants, red devils, cyclopses all shoot fireball-ish projectiles at you, but virtually any time you see one coming at you you can dodge it or jump over it. They move pretty slowly, too, so you can jump over them if they’re at a good angle. There are never more than 2 on screen at one time – and there are no spots in the game where you can’t kill the maker of the fireballs. Once you kill said enemy, they are dead and thus can’t shoot fireballs anymore.

6. Worse music.

This game would be unforgivable to the casual NES gamer if the first level theme wasn’t so memorable. That tune keeps the game alive in people’s minds even if they can’t stand to actually play it – so it’s got that going for it.

7. Difficult final bosses.

I didn’t say “more difficult.” The end-of-stage bosses of levels 5 and 6 are significantly easier than the levels they are bossing over. They fly slow, they’re easy to hit, they can’t hit you if you’re ducking, and their fireballs are easy to dodge – following the examples of their minions. The final boss is a pushover – you might think he changes form and becomes harder a la Castlevania, but no. He just dies.

8. More random enemy behavior.

The zombies don’t change direction. The eyeball plants have a fixed rhythm to their shots. No walking enemies can jump. The red devils swoop based on timing that’s tied to how you’re moving – this is a little tricky, sure, but you can get used to it if you’re paying attention each time. The dragon bosses all move in fixed patterns. The blue devils swoop and ascend in regular rhythm. The ogres won’t be able to attack if you are hitting them with a constant rhythm. The birds wave up and down a little as they fly across the screen, but always at the same height depending on where your character is when it generates. Appreciate those facts.

9. Not be able to turn around while jumping.

In GnG, you can always turn your character to face the other way in the middle of any jump. This is very useful when you’re attacking flying enemies or trying to get some hits on a boss while also backing away from it. Not being able to do this would mean you have to run away, turn to shoot, then run away some more – you’d only get half the opportunity to attempt shots. This would effectively double the difficulty of the game overall.

10. No replacement armor.

They’re hard to find, but there are 5 replacement armor spots throughout the game. Once you know where they are, they really help out. They increase the number of survivable hits you can take from 1 to 2, so lacking those in addition to #8 above would make the game four times harder.

11. One-hit kills.

Hold it! Don’t even start the “you can only get hit twice!” argument! Be thankful Sir Arthur didn’t follow the lead of Donkey Kong, Silver Surfer, Jaws, whose main characters all die in one hit. Be thankful there are no smashing things, flames, or spikes that kill in one hit no matter what – which you experience often enough in the Super Mario games, Castlevanias, and Mega Mans. I don’t want to hear it.

12. Limited continues.

The first time I beat both rounds of this game, my NES was on for three days without being turned off. You’ll never have to start back at level 1 of the first round once you beat it, thanks to the unlimited continues – provided your NES is reliable and your patience and persistence are also unlimited.

Now go play this game like a man.

Over the course of the last week, I’ve watched a decent variety of movies. Now I’ll write about it.

Atonement

Maybe I’m just not sophisticated enough for this movie, but apparently people fuckin’ LOVED this movie. I don’t know, I wasn’t feeling it. It wasn’t particularly gripping, I felt the love connection was forced and not that convincing, and the story it told was told well enough but…well, it was just not that great. Young girl does bad thing to get young man imprisoned for crime he doesn’t commit and takes him away from his sudden love, Keira Knightley. Boy goes to war, girl eventually feels bad and tries to tell the full truth…meh. The war scenes weren’t gripping and the story was told in such a bland way. I could barely stay awake. Pass.

No Country For Old Men

Now this movie was all right. I love Coen movies usually anyway, and this movie gave me a bit of a Fargo-in-Texas feel. Javier Bardem makes the movie, and his character is probably one of the scariest and most fascinating villains in recent memory. He has no super powers, he doesn’t survive getting shot a million times, he’s just a dedicated sociopath that doesn’t stop until he finishes his job. His choice of weapon is unique, his manner of communicating is alien, and his whole persona just makes you feel uneasy. The rest of the cast is fantastic as well, and the whole plot really is gripping till the end. I felt the ending with Tommy Lee Jones was a little too quiet and philosophical compared to the rest of the movie, but I kinda understood why they chose to end it like that. Definitely deserving of the Best Picture nod.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

Ah, now for the true gem of the week. When I saw the first few Halloween movies were On Demand, I hoped Halloween III would be one of them. Sure enough, it was. I’d read about this epic shittiness of this movie before, but man, does it ever deliver. I really don’t even need to give anything more than a synopsis here:

This movie is not about Michael Myers. It is about an old evil corporation owner involved in witchcraft who steals a 5 ton rock of Stonehenge (“Don’t ask me how!”) in order to take pieces of the rock and its “mystical powers”. He then implants them in children’s Silver Shamrock Halloween masks on a microchip (buh?), so that on Halloween, when the children watch a corporate sponsored commercial at 9pm with their masks on, their faces will melt and turn into snakes and locusts. Because it will be like the old times on Halloween. When children were murdered. Makes perfect sense. Also, the evil corp. owner apparently has made lifelike robot killing machines who exist everywhere and know everything, and kill anyone involved uncovering the plot. Then there’s the main character who’s a true 80’s man: killer ’stache, hits on/sexually harasses every woman in sight, ex-wife is always giving him shit, drinks heavily and then drives to work…dude’s a real piece of work. And his love interest (daughter of a man killed in the beginning of the movie) is at least 20 years younger than him (until it turns out she might have been a robot the whole time…I guess?? At that point, the plot just kinda gave up and said “fuck it movie, you are on your own”)

This movie toes the line of completely boring, forgettable b-movie with its amazing ineptitude. The plot is so ridiculous that I could spend hours analyzing how this ever got filmed. At least John Carpenter made a decent soundtrack for it. But seriously, just see this thing. It’s a real fucking classic.