Bastion on handhelds would be a dream come true

During the holiday sale on this this past December, I always continued checking up on what game I could lose myself in at a cheap price. Every day I would open up the store on my PC and scour the many discounted games. One day, my eyes came across the immensely popular title, Bastion.

I had never played the game before. I remembered seeing clips back when it debuted on the Xbox Live Marketplace, and it looked interesting, but money was tight so I moved on. I did regret the decision at times as I heard people proclaim how great and innovative the atmosphere and gameplay were.

Well, there Bastion stood teasing me with its $3.74 price tag. Something tried to hold me back—most likely the fear that the game wouldn’t be for me and I’d have to force myself to finish it—but I ignored it and I investigated whether or not to throw down for this adventure. After looking through the game’s community hub, and the numerous titled “Should I get this game?” threads, I decided to go for it.

However, before I clicked that “ADD TO CART” button, I stopped. Not out of hesitation or anything like that. My finger couldn’t press down on the left mouse button because I noticed that the soundtrack edition was only two dollars and fifty cents more. I remember seeing a lot of critical acclaim for the music of Bastion, as well as a few songs being nominated for awards, so I said to myself, “To hell with it! Supergiant Games, take my $6.24!”

Well, needless to say, I loved every second I spent playing Bastion. The sensational narrator, action-packed gameplay, and alluring music are just a few of the things I pulled me back to the broken world of Celondia. I needed to know how the Calamity affected every part of the world, and I was intrigued by every detail that showed it to me.

I could go on, and I would really like to, but that would ruin the review I’m writing for everyone. This post is about something else; something I would love to see happen.

You see, I was playing Kid Icarus: Uprising on my Nintendo 3DS this past weekend (the blizzard of 2013 had the audacity to keep me away from my PC and consoles), and a thought hit me. Bastion, having the excellent role-playing elements and replay value that kept me coming back for more, would be a perfect game for handhelds.

I could see myself away from home, pulling out my 3DS, and journeying through the mines and forests of Celondia. Each level long enough to allow for extended pay sessions, yet short enough to accommodate handheld gamers who are always on the move.

I also believe that today’s handhelds can handle running the game extremely well. While the game features astonishing top-down isometric visuals and combat containing numerous amounts of enemies, the Playstation Vita showed what it’s capable of with Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and the Nintendo 3DS still exhibits some untapped potential with Kid Icarus: Uprising and the upcoming Castlevania: Lords of Shadow — Mirror of Fate.

Yes, I know I could be wrong. Maybe there is something I am missing that entirely negates my idea. If so, let me know. If it is possible, though, I would like to see it happen. I want to give more of my money (at least more than $6.24) to Supergiant Games and this illustrious world they created. A port to handhelds would secure that and keep me playing for hours.

I wish I could make this suggestion to them personally, but I feel it would take a number of fans to get a project like this into fruition. Still, a gamer can always dream.

Well, after all of this, I’d like to know if this is something you’d all like to see. Also, to those of you with programming and developing experience, is a port like this even a possibility? Lastly, are there any other titles out there that you wish could make it to handhelds? Let’s discuss these answeres in the comment section. As always, thank you for reading!

Oh, and in case you're wondering, I love the soundtrack. My wife and I listen to it quite frequently. She even learned how to play Zia's Song on her acoustic guitar! That's how I truly know the music from this game is amazing.

Scariest Moments in Gaming (For Me, At Least) Part Six

Here it is: the final part in this segment! Enjoy!

1. All save files deleted – Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem

Before hard drives and internal memory came along on consoles, there existed memory cards (I can’t believe they’re relics of the past now). These memory cards were valuable treasure to gamers. In the tiny squares of plastic held all the progress a player had made in his or her video games. But stating that memory cards only held a gamer’s progress is simplifying the entire idea. Think of what you have accomplished, purchased, or unlocked on your Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii or Playstation 3 hard drives/internal memory and imagine placing all that on a single tiny piece of plastic. Every obstacle overcome, every level completed, every costume unlocked made a home on a gamer’s memory card. It was only right that these items were cherished and (for the most part) taken care of by gamers.

However, instances could (and did) arrive when a save file on a memory card would be deleted or corrupted. The moment you read the words “No save file found” after pouring time, sweat, and tears (I never cried, though… honest) into a game could become the turning point for your newfound path into insanity (or anger management). No matter the case, whether hard drive or memory card, losing your hard work is both depressing and frustrating… and frightening when a video game toys about the subject.

That’s why my number one scariest moment in gaming happens to take place in Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. Throughout the adventure, the character’s sanity plays a key role in the game. As you traverse through the horrific world, encounters with enemies would decrease the sanity meter causing the character to lose their grip on reality. Once this sanity meter was low enough, odd occurrences would take place. These consisted of: a group of enemies appearing that disappear once attacked, blood seeping from the walls, the volume turning down as a TV volume meter appears on screen, your head exploding, etc.

Now, since I was playing this when I was younger and I wasn’t one hundred percent sure what exactly was going on, these sanity effects both confused and terrified me. I was not sure if anything in the game was really happening or if it was another hallucination. However, the effect that truly terrified me was when I attempted.

While playing the game, I reached a part where I had to time my character’s movements to make it past some spinning blades. It seemed easy enough. However, I didn’t realize how low my sanity meter was and as I made it past the first blade, my game locked up and transitioned to a blue screen. Confused, I read the white lettering on the blue screen and my jaw hit the floor. Basically, the screen stated that all my save files were “expunged” and that I needed to reset my game. Distraught, I began to yell, “No, no, no, no! Come on! This can’t be happ-” Before I could finish my statement, the game transitioned back to swinging blades and I was able to continue my trek.

Before I could though, I had to pause my game and realize everything was okay. The game managed to get me riled up as I believed I lost everything. Before continuing though, I said to myself, “I better save.” Opening up the menu, I took all the necessary steps to save my game; but I didn’t read the text boxes because I had saved countless times earlier. Well, you remember what I wrote about complacency in my previous post, right? Selecting the “Yes” option, the corner of my eye caught the question the game asked: “Do you wish to delete all save files?” As I watched the bar slowly increase, I read the word “DELETING” above the bar. I completely lost it, yelling out obscenities and cursing out both the game and console (the loudest one was more of a question, though: ARE YOU SHITTING ME?!).

As you most likely realized, the game yet again slipped one by me as the deletion of my save files was simply another hallucination. I still laugh about this moment to this day and think about how scared the game actually made me by pulling those tricks. I couldn’t imagine losing all the progress I worked for and this game threatened me twice with it. More than that, the game forced me to experience more than a simple scare through sounds or surprising enemies. Instead, it toyed with me psychologically by pretending to destroy something important to my hobby. That is why this is the number one scariest moment in gaming (for me, at least).

Closing comments

That’s it for this segment. I hope you enjoyed learning a bit about me through moments that terrified me in gaming. Though, I apologize for dragging this out longer than needed. I promise next time I do a top ten list, the most it will be separated into is two parts.

Unfortunately, I’m off for two weeks for military training so I don’t think I’ll be able to write any new posts. Nevertheless, when I get back I will finally be uploading videos! I’m excited to try out the new equipment I bought, and I hope you are interested to see what I can do. Well, that’s all for now. As always, thank you for reading!

NINTENDO 3DS HARMFUL?

Here ya go! Decided to do a news article on the rumors of Nintendo's new handheld being harmful to players. Enjoy! And, as always, thank you for reading!

NINTENDO 3DS HARMFUL?

Since the 1980’s, Nintendo has always been known to be the best when it comes to handheld gaming. With releases such as the Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, and Nintendo DS, they have made sure to secure that title. Nevertheless, with Nintendo’s newest creation, the Nintendo 3DS, they have reached a potentially devastating problem. Released on March 27th of this year, the sales of the 3DS have posed no problem for the company as they have continued to break records. However, Nintendo’s true dilemma lies within the fact that there have been many reports of minor health problems, such as headaches and migraines, due to the handheld console’s 3D images. Some critics have also been cited stating that playing the 3DS is simply uncomfortable to play.

For those that do not know, the Nintendo 3DS is able to display multiple planes on a flat screen. Although, when well developed, the images are crisp and clean featuring what seems to be a 3-dimensional universe, this is where the handheld’s problems occur.

When a person notices an object, their eyes focus completely on it creating a clear observation. At the same time, the vision of everything else around that object is blurred. This feat cannot be done with the Nintendo 3DS, causing discomfort as the player’s eyes try to focus on a certain plane displayed on screen. This is especially worse with children as doctors’ have reported that prolonged exposure to 3D images can have an adverse effect on eyesight development.

Nintendo quickly combated these reports with its legal shield: the Health Risk Warning. Nintendo states in their warning that:

· Nintendo recommends players take a break after 30 minutes of play

· If your physical condition worsens or you become ill, please stop playing at once

· 3D not recommended for children under the age of six as the vision of young children is still in developmental stages

· It is possible for anyone to enjoy playing Nintendo 3DS since it can be changed to 2D to avoid any effects on young children’s vision

While this warning is informative and clearly presents any problems that may be associated with the 3D images, it also raises some pertinent questions.

It is recommended that children under the age of six to not be exposed to the 3D images the console displays. Nonetheless, Nintendo’s handhelds are usually aimed toward the younger crowd and the main selling point of the 3DS is the 3D mode it offers. Not allowing one of the largest consumer bases to utilize the device’s draw point could warrant the public’s undesirable frustration with their purchase.

Another debate arising from the 3DS’ health warning is that it is recommended for players to take breaks after thirty minutes of play. For many handheld gamers, this can become a reoccurring problem as these consoles are mostly used for extended amounts of playtime when away from home, during road trips, or when on a plane. Players are able to turn off the 3D mode and play in 2D but, once again, the 3D images are the main selling point of the console. To be forced to turn off the 3D mode or take a break every half an hour because of a headache or your eyes becoming uncomfortable seem to only hinder the usefulness of the 3DS.

Nevertheless, even with the reports of the 3DS being harmful, there have been no setback to sales. Also, no long term affects have been confirmed as most players who experienced any discomfort were able continue on gaming after a short break. The only action is to wait and see if anything other than minor health problems surface. As for now, Nintendo claims, with responsibility, gamers can enjoy the 3DS without problem.

Maximum Carnage Review (SNES)

Hey, Super Game Geek here and today I am reviewing a game about my favorite superhero ever, Maximum Carnage! That’s right; Spider-Man! Now, normally I would be ecstatic for anything containing Spider-Man, but then I saw that this game was published by LJN. For those of you who do not know the company of LJN, they are responsible for horrid games such as Back to the Future, Friday the 13th and the Karate Kid. After hearing about, and experiencing firsthand, their awful track record, it certainly put a damper on my enthusiasm. Even so, you really shouldn't judge a game until you've played it and, trust me, I put some serious hours into this one.
You actually never have to beat the game to know the entire story because LJN (for once) actually did something really cool with this game let the developers (Software Creations) base it on the Maximum Carnage series (hence the title) in the Spider-Man universe. It was a great series that featured rivals Spider-Man and Venom teaming up along with some other heroes (Captain America, Black Widow, Nightwatch, etc.) to take down Carnage and his gang of baddies (Shriek, Demogoblin, Doppleganger, etc.) For those of you who don’t know the story I’ll shed some light on it without any major spoilers. Carnage escapes from a mental institution/prison he was confined in for being a psychotic serial killer and begins to wreak havoc and chaos around Manhattan with his crew. Venom believed he had killed Carnage but when he senses that his other half is still alive, he seeks out to destroy him for good. While good ol’ Spidey tries to save Manhattan he realizes he can't do so without his rival’s help. And that's end of my brief synopsis. This series was a big deal because not only did it have a great storyline and great characters it crossed over all the Spider-Man comics such as Amazing Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, Spider-Man, etc. If you are a comic/sci-fi fan and you ever get the chance to read this series, take it the opportunity because you will enjoy every second. If you are a Spider-Man fan you haven’t read it, you really should stop reading this review and get a copy of those issues... like now.

These hobos have no idea what's coming.

When you start, the game displays its huge cast of characters inspired from the series along with some really good music. Well that should be the case because LJN somehow got Green Jelly to do the music for the game and let me tell you, it suits the mood and sets the tone perfectly. Green Jelly is a Grammy-nominated comedic-rock group for those who don’t know. Throughout the entire game the music does an amazing job of pumping you up full of adrenaline so you can go to work on many a thug and villain. I've found myself humming the title theme years after first playing this game.

The graphics are solid for their time. The character designs look really good except for the fact that Spider-man doesn’t have the black web on his costume (he does in the cutscenes but not during gameplay). The levels look kind of bland but at least LJN was smart (for once) and has different settings for most of the game changing the scenery so you don’t get bored after the first level.
When you start the game, a cool cutscene pops on to the screen in comic book form giving you a really good sense of what this game is (that’s a comic book game if you didn’t know what I was going for). After the cutscene, you are given control of Spider-Man and now go through the game beating up baddies left and right to progress through the level. And that’s what this game is, a beat ‘em up. And my, do I love beat ‘em ups. They were great back in the day and it saddens me that no one really dare makes them anymore. But Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage does the genre justice. It’s fun to walk Spidey down the sidewalk and then spank a bunch of Linkin Park wannabes with your web. And the KA-POW sound when you punch and kick fat asses will please the ear drums. Make sure you pay attention on all fronts though because enemies will sneak up and try to sucker punch you from behind while your focus is on someone else. As you continue through the game with your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, you will be able to control Venom as well which was very exciting for its time because this was the first game that allowed you to play as Spidey’s biggest rival! Unfortunately, there isn’t much difference between them except for the way they pull off their moves; but the fact that you can beat someone’s face in with Venom is a welcome change. You are also given the option to call on your other superhero teammates for help, and they’ll dash or flip or cartwheel (whatever floats their boat) and take out everyone in their way.

Classic comic book action.

The game also breaks things up with some climbing and web swinging but this could become really frustrating to some. In one section, while you are climbing up the side of a building, Shriek is constantly firing at you with her plasma blasts as Doppleganger tries to wash the Spider out by attcking from behind. If (and when) you do get hit, you fall until you land on a ledge or hit the street forcing you to start the process all over again. This dragged down even more by the poor swinging controls. While you are trying to avoid Doppleganger's attacks and Shriek’s plasma blasts, you will be need to work out the angle of your swing to land on the adjacent ledge; and since momentum doesn’t apply you’ll most likely get it wrong the first couple of times. Also, if you are not perfectly correct Spidey will hit the ledge and proceed to fall under it instead of climbing on to the damn thing like a spider would (and should) do.
Thankfully, those segments don't happen too often because the rest of the controls are pretty solid. You have your punch and jump button along with your web button. The web swinging could have used some more work (which could have added a great vaiety of options to the ground combat) . Still, this is a 2D beat 'em up so I understand why much focus wasn't put into the web swinging.
There are many ways you can dispose of baddies such as grabbing them and giving the quick one-two, bullrushing them or grabbing to lonely thugs with your web and introducing their skulls to each other. You can string multiple combos together but more often than not, most gamers will probably mash the buttons like wine grapes. You can also pick items up to beat women and hobos with dumpsters, newspapers, trash cans and fire extinguishers. You can only throw the item once but it does walloping damage to those umbrella wielding businessmen. Another cool move that does a lot of damage is your special attack but if you hit any enemies it drains your life bar. I’ve always hated this concept in beat ‘em ups with a passion! I understand that developers don't want players running around using their character's speacial attack to every thing with a pulse, but there are better ways to restrict players than causing damage. I mean, what pain is the character putting his or her self in to do this attack? Is Spidey tearing his groin each time he pulls it off? I don’t know but you will not want to lose your lifebar. It is the one precious thing that you do not want to see decrease (well, besides your... nevermind.)

That's it! No more friendly neighborhood Spider-Man for you, you eight legged freak!

This game is an unrelenting. You are allowed three lives and one continue. If you lose a life you start right back up again as if nothing changed but using your continue will bring you back to the beginning of the level. If you lose both your lives and your continue, well, you probably guessed it! Game over. Be ready to see the game over screen a lot because this game has a really hard difficulty curve. The first couple of levels shouldn’t be too difficult for most gamers to get by but after that the skill level really kicks in. The bosses are ridiculously hard compared to the nobodies you have to fight prowling the streets. You will have to use everything at your disposal to take care of these villains and this is where your ability to call in a teammate for back up really helps out. Another thing that makes this game even tougher is the fact that there is no way to save your game. There isn’t even a password system! That means you have to beat the game in one sitting which most people don’t really have the time for. This doesn't help the fact that you’ll most likely be starting this game over and over again. Because of all this, beating the game should earn you some type of medal.

Nevertheless, once you get past the difficulty (and the frustrating climbing segments), there is a good beat 'em up to be found here. You will enjoy this game especially if you’ve read the Maximum Carnage series or you are just another Spider-Man fan. The music is amazing and graphics (for its time) are easy on the eyes. Even though the web swinging isn’t up to par the combat controls are solid and it’s fun to beat the piss out of hobos. But, this game will give you a run for your money as completing it is a task that will give even the most committed gamer a challenge. Nonetheless, I do recommend Maximum Carnage because I guess even LJN can do something right (for once).

Journey to Silius Review (NES)

Super Game Geek here and today I’m going to go back in time to the 90’s to review Journey to Silius, an action-adventure platformer (better known as run and gun) developed by Sunsoft for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Now if you don’t know, Sunsoft developed a lot of great NES games such as Blaster Master, Batman, and Spy Hunter. I’m reviewing this game because a lot of people have never heard about it and it is a great classic run and gun shooter. I also did some research to give you some more history. This game was actually developed to be based on the first Terminator movie. This can be recognized by the enemies seen in level three and the last boss which happen to look like exact models of the Terminators. And if you listen closely to the intro you can hear a snippet of the Terminator theme. The reason this didn’t go through as a Terminator game was because Sunsoft lost the license and was forced to change the game. But forget what this game was supposed to be, let’s find out what it actually is!

When the game first starts up, you are introduced to the title screen along with the developer’s name under it. The first thing I noticed was an awesome title song. I mean this song was way ahead of it’s time. Most NES games have the same two to eight notes repeated over and over until you want to gouge out your eyes with a spoon but this title theme is a freakin’ tune. I actually timed how long it took for the theme to repeat and it came to two minutes and thirty-five seconds. Throughout the entire game the music will have your blood flowing faster than ecstasy. The techno sounds and themes were my favorite part because each level has its own song to set the tempo. Hell, I found myself doing a shoulder lean and dropping bows to some of them. Now, they definitely did work on that aspect, but will the game follow up?

When you start off, a short intro occurs to let you know what’s going down in the story department. You see a nice city nuked and then the text appears, “After many years of space colony development, Jay’s father has passed away.” Alright… This isn’t the best way to introduce a character because at first glance I was asking myself, “Who the hell is Jay?” Apparently the game automatically assumes you know who Jay is. This is probably because they expected you to read the manual but most likely if you get the game any time soon, you’re going to buy it from the flea market or an antique store with enough dirt in the cartridge to start your own ant farm. As the intro goes on you find out Jay’s father died because of terrorists and then a picture of some little Emo punk pops up on screen (which turns out to be Jay) as he states he wants to make them pay. Another tragic, angry hero wants revenge; we’ve heard it all before. This game is more about the gameplay so let’s talk about that.

Oh yeah. No doubt about it. That’s a terminator.

Finally, you can start playing and you’ll immediately realize the Sprite you’ll be messing around with for the next couple hours looks nothing like the whiny little Emo kid seen in the picture. Oh well, makes it easier on the eyes. You can open the inventory if you press the start button, and it shows the weapons you have in stock. You start off with a pistol but as you go on through the game defeating bosses and sub-bosses you can pick up five more powerful weapons. However, your pistol is the only weapon with unlimited ammo and you’ll have to kill enemies to replenish your supply of ammo as well as health. You’ll immediately notice that this game resembles several other great run and gun games such as Megaman and Contra. You can shoot, run, jump or hump the floor in prone position. Your basic controls are simple, A to jump, B to shoot, and D-pad for movement. Some may find a problem with Jay’s movement. It might be a little stiff at first but when you get the hang of Jay’s movements the platforming can become much easier. I hardly ever died trying to jump from platform to platform. Also, when he falls and hits the ground he still has the momentum of the drop so that may cause some confusion when first starting out but is surprisingly realistic for an NES game. This really ticked me off at first because I landed on enemies accidentally while trying my hardest to avoid them after dropping off a ledge. But again, once you get the hang of his movements, you’ll be fine. Also, when dropping down from a ledge, you can’t change direction in mid-air as well so when taking on a new level, be ready to get sucker punched in the groin by an enemy.

There are five fun and fast paced levels. You run through them blasting away everything in sight. All of the levels are greatly detailed for an NES games. They just look fantastic and add to the tone of the game. Each level has new enemies, most being new robots or gun turrets, to change the tempo. However, one enemy that had me questioning what the developers were thinking was in the second level. There are these little pods on the ground that literally erect into a giant cock to stop Jay from proceeding. I mean check it out! It’s a machine cock that gets hard whenever Jay gets close to it. How’d that get in there? Machines getting erections over humans?! What the hell?! But other than that, the enemies are fun to destroy and the levels are great for platforming.

So wrong. Just so wrong.

Now don’t get me wrong, you’ll have a fun time pumping enemies with your laser and blazer, but this game doesn’t lay itself down and let you walk over it. This game is tough. There are countless enemies that all want a turn at abusing poor Jay. What’s worse about it is that it takes awhile to sweep any enemy off the floor with your pistol. It’s easy when you get stronger weapons but you’ll want to save your ammo for the almost impossible boss at the end of the level. And these bosses are tough especially since they take up almost the entire screen and one wrong move will cause Jay to take damage. If you are not a fan of run and gun games, this game will piss you off to the point where your TV will end up smashed on the floor or your control will reveal its insides after you break it in half.

The biggest compliant I have about this game deals with the shooting mechanic. You can only shoot straight. Yeah, I know Mega Man was like this but it didn't limit you to only three shots at once. You can only release your fury behind or in front of you. But you can not shoot up or down. In any run and gun game that is almost a necessity since enemies barrage you from all angles and that is no exception in Journey to Silius. Maybe Jay was based after John McCain and can’t lift his arms above his shoulders? But this really adds to the difficulty and will frustrate a lot of people when you begin to take damage from enemies that are shitting on you from above like pigeons.

But besides that, this game did almost nothing wrong. The controls are good and work great, learning to move Jay will take some time but shouldn’t be too much of a hassle, the gameplay is fun and action packed, and the graphics look amazingly detailed for their time. The music is outstanding with futuristic tunes (for back then) that’ll get you to even bob your head or tap your foot (unless you’re some testosterone freak who views dancing against the manliness religion). The story makes no sense with the game but this was released with on a system where stories were few and far between so any attempt was appreciated especially after they lost their license. However, it didn’t ever do anything to break from the pack either. It took all the great concepts from great run and gun shooters but Sunsoft couldn’t come up with any great ideas on to truly make this game shine. Sure it will be a classic to many fans of the genre but to others it will be another sharpened pencil to the eye. Especially since the difficulty of the games will cause internal riots. But if you can handle games like this, you’ll be spending a fun couple of hours on Journey to Silius.