Boycotting Capcom

For those who don't know, Capcom has announced that they are cancelling MegaMan Legends 3. This is along side the earlier canceling of MegaMan Universe.

They also appear to have screwed up Devil May Cry, and are already releasing an update to the recent MvC3 and another game on the Street Fighter 4 engine "because now it has Tekken characters in it." Oh, and while it looks fun, SFxT is going to be considered it's own vs. series so it's probably going to get $40 updates too.

Well fuck them. They don't want to give me the games I want, I'm not going to buy other games from them. I don't have the money to keep buying updates to every single fighting game at this point, and DMC looks like shit. Also, no, it's not just Dante's design that makes it look like shit, the whole direction of the trailer is pretentious, his movements look awkward at best, and it looks like the flow of the game will be shit, which is par for the course with Ninja Theory.

Until MegaMan Legends 3 or a truly, truly groundbreaking MegaMan game comes out I'm not buying another Capcom game. Even then I'll never buy the first version of a fighting game from them again, because I know another will come out in a year.

Capcom, while I love many of your series know that your brand name is now going to be like cancer to any game you put it on for me. Hopefully other fans will do the same and you'll realize how much of a pile of douches you've all been once your get rich quick scheme goes down the toilet and fans keep clamoring for MegaMan. The next time you have an idea for a kickass MegaMan game wait until you're sure you aren't going to cancel it before getting our hopes up.

Why the Zerg rule.

I'm not a huge hardcore player of Starcraft. I've never been to a tournament. I can barely hold my own against a "hard" level computer in any of the three games (if you count Brood separately), and my Battle.net record isn't exactly stellar.

However, I have been a fan of the series since the beginning and I love the lore, and I can say, without a doubt, Heart of the Swarm's Zerg focus has me even more hyped than I was for the series triumphant return.

The Zerg race is far and away the most interesting and fun race of the three, and even if I've never wanted to root for them, I've always been attracted to them as both protagonists and antagonists. So I've compiled a list as to why the Zerg are my favorite race in Starcraft.

So we begin:

1) The Zerg fight with their bodies. The Protoss and Terran both use advanced technology and weaponry. Against the Zerg this makes them look weak. The Zerg mutate their bodies and develop skills and abilities that let them rival even the most advanced weaponry in the galaxy. It's like Godzilla vs. the military. The organic beasts are just cool because they don't need the help of technology to be successful. That doesn't mean technology can't be freaking cool in and of itself, but the less used gets more cool points. It's two races to one when it comes to tech, so the Zerg win out with their disgusting organic abilities. It's the same reason Iron Tager's SCIENCE is cooler than the magic and soul powered strength that the rest of the cast utilizes, and unfortunately the Protoss and Terran don't have the utter coolness to make up for this disadvantage like certain Blaz Blue fighters do..

2) Their synergism is better than the other two races. Now this one is up for debate, especially since the name of the Terran ground game is synergism, but the Zerg reap the most benefits for diversifying their force. The other two races only choose one main unit and pick other units to cover that unit. Stalkers and Void Rays cover Collosi, Carriers cover Void Rays, Marines and Medivacs cover Marauders. With the Zerg it's a bit different. Banelings open up walls and take out priority targets so other units can get in, but the other units stall fire long enough for the Banelings to reach the walls and units. Zerglings swarm the enemy to protect Roaches, and Roaches add DPS to kill the enemy before the Zerglings get wiped out. Corruptors protect Broodlords from air-to-air attacks, and Broodlords stop ground-to-air attacks from wiping out Corruptors, but neither is catering to the other like with other races. The Zerg help each other and each unit is equally important for the assault to be successful.

3) The Zerg are always on offense. In Starcraft II even the Zerg defensive units are best fit to serve an offensive army. The Zerg Turrets are mobile, so they can cover the entire base with less of them, meaning less forces need to stay home for surprise attacks. The Queen is terrible off the creep, so she plays D, but her main use is speeding up unit production to help out on quick offense. Sure their offense is based entirely around countering the opponent's build, but it's still offense unlike the other races turtle into steamroll and slow advance strategies. The Zerg pressure and pester like no other race, and their best defense is their economy wrecking offense. The Zerg play like they've got a pair.

4) The Zerg have the most unique design. Terran: Space Marines. Protoss: Proud Ancient Civilization on its last legs crossed with an artificial race that rebelled. Zerg: Tyranids crossed with possessing parasites, an artificially created race gone bad, living buildings, and evolution driven by cancerous cells, as in cancer super powers. One of these may have started out pretty derivative, but their end result is easily the most unique and well thought out. The reveal that the Protoss are artificially created comes close since they're also the oldest of the main races, but it's not nearly enough to take the crown.

5) The Zerg are still an enigma. 3 games in and the Zerg are still mysterious. Maybe not as much as before, but it's still around. Their original name was the Nightmare Invaders, and they're still an unknown terror like a nightmare. What was the Xel' Naga's plan for them? Are they limited to the sector we're seeing or not? What exactly is creep? These questions still persist, and their greater amount of mystery makes them more interesting.

The Zerg win, like a boss.

The Legend Continues... or of Continues

So, after being severely busy (read: lazily sleeping in) for quite a while there's nothing like school to get you off your bum and writing again. It seems that when I'm busy I'm more likely to do stuff like this, but if I'm too busy I obviously don't have the time, kind of a sweet spot I got to hit.

So, anyways, I have finally finished Zelda II, obviously, and am actually nearly done with Link to the Past, giving this one a really long chance to soak in, which I really wasn't planning on doing.

Now then, Zelda II, what to say? Much like Zelda I it's strength lies in it's simplicity and challenge (at least at first). It's quite cryptic, but hints are reasonably well given up until around 2/3rds of the way through the game takes a dump on your brain.

Released in Japan in 1987 and America in 1988, only five months after the first game, it is quite an interesting case. Much like Castlevania II, it tries to add in more Adventure and RPG style elements, although much more successfully. It shares a lot of similarities with the first game, but right off the bat you'll notice it's completely different, and not just because it's a side-scroller.

You're not in Hyrule anymore... wait.

To call Zelda II a great game would be a little difficult. Even 'good' ends up feeling a little awkward. It's not a bad game by any means, and much of the time it is quite fun to play, which is pretty much the best thing you can say about a game, but other times it's frustrating, or rather interesting to say the least.

The game is filled with experimentation, and why shouldn't it be? It's one of the first games to blend genre elements without being a complete mess, and actually crossing a platformer, an adventure, and stat building elements all into one game. However, as you've probably guessed from the way I've been talking about it, a lot of the time these experiments are exercises in frustration, and it's unfortunate, because underneath it all lies the potential for one of the greatest games on the system.

This is widely considered the black sheep of the franchise, so you probably already know a lot about it. So instead of raging on everything bad right away, lets try and see if they're actually all that bad or not.

The first thing that comes to mind when people start ragging on the game is the combat, or more specifically, "Why is Link's sword so tiny?" It's true that Link is twice the size he was in the previous game, but the sword is the same size so it now resembles a long dagger. But man up you pansies. The combat in this game is actually one of the best parts, and nearly flawless. The hit box of Link's sword extends out to the absolute last pixel of the thing, and every enemy in the game likewise has such a delicately crafted hit box. Link's range is short, but never disadvantageous, and if something looks like it hits, it does. This makes the game challenging and require strict timing, but it also makes it very fair about it. The game feels like it respects you, the player, more than other games at the time, even the first Zelda. It doesn't have you walk into a room and suddenly have 8 Darknuts staring you in the face and just being a jerk. The game is insanely hard, but it never really puts you in a situation where you can get surrounded by enemies faster than you like the first. There are enemies that will block most of your hits, but you can block their hits in turn, they're exactly like you (unless you jump). It expects you to be a big boy (or girl) and pull your own weight, and in turn it's not going to be a jerk. Score one for Zelda II!

Me attempting to get screenshots using an emulator and keyboard whilst typing this review. The game is unforgiving for mistakes, but they're your's to make.

The next big thing that gets everyone's panties riled in a bunch is the leveling system. "Zelda shouldn't have experience bars!" Yeah? Well screw you. The experience system is far, FAR from perfect, and usually it's more irritating then it needs to be. So why am I standing up for it? Because so many games nowadays have unnecessary experience systems that are way more irritating than they could be. Zelda II's system is actually pretty decent. You gain experience at a decent rate, there's a clear sense of progression, there's a real set of incomparable choices to make: "Do I want more attack power now, or should I wait so I can get my next defense boost earlier?" and the grinding for experience doesn't take nearly as long as rupee grinding in the previous game. To strengthen my incomparable argument a bit, while it is true that you will eventually get every upgrade, the mid section of the game is where it really starts wracking up the difficulty, so the stats you can get before that are going to determine exactly how you're going to tackle the situations, leaning you towards a more aggressive or defensive manner. While the experience system isn't exactly good, it doesn't deserve the hate it gets either. It's there, it doesn't hurt anything, just deal with it.

And now we're going to get into some of the real hiccups of the game. "Why the hell is this game so cryptic?" Well, for starters, it's no more cryptic than the first game. Just thought I'd throw that out there. This is still an issue though, because Zelda II is a much bigger game, I mean just compare the overworlds for a second:

That red square is a mini version of that first picture. Zelda II is huge both in scale and in comparison.

So here's where the main issue with the game comes in. Tips you may have learned won't be very useful. You won't know where to go with that information, and when you get there you may have forgotten what you were told. It's fairly simple in the earlier parts of the game, but once you hit around Dungeon 5 or so everything just becomes really confusing and you'll probably need a guide. It's a hassle to try and figure out where to get what each town needs, and what item does what without some help, trust me on this one.

But lots of games are cryptic and strange, so clearly that's not the only problem with this game. Well there is one other: This game gets hard. And I'm not just saying difficult, I mean it goes all balls to the wall. It starts out pretty challenging, but, and this is coming from a guy who once beat all three NES Ninja Gaiden's and all three NES Castlevania's in one night, the Great Palace is freaking insane. It took me weeks of on and off play to chip away at that thing. It is long, and it is tough.

Abandon all hope now.

Unfortunately, this game is a little less forgiving with deaths than the others in the series, and it likes kicking you back pretty far even though it lets you keep any items you got. So I'm really not ashamed to call the insane difficulty a flaw in design since it reaches the point where it ceases to become more satisfying to beat than it was trouble to do. Completing a really hard game is incredibly satisfying, and the reason difficulty is a very important aspect in games. But difficulty always goes hand in hand with pacing. You have to offer up a climax to the challenge often enough to keep the player interested. Zelda II is generally very good about this, and it always feels good to beat the tough, but moderately sized dungeons. But the Great Palace, while you can never call it unfair, just reaches the point of tedium in how long and difficult it is, and near the end it just isn't fun anymore.

But let's end this on a high note, ha puns. Zelda II's got some of the best music on the NES, especially that classic dungeon theme everyone knows. At nearly two minutes long that song pushes the boundaries of everything I, and I expect other people, thought they knew about the limits of the system. Sure the game doesn't have the iconic Zelda theme, but quite honestly, it doesn't need it. The game far and away stands up on it's own, which is good, because the rest of the game is so different it really needed to stand on it's own merits anyways.

So Zelda II is, overall, a mixed bag. It's good for most of the game, but the late game confusion (why does the "Spell" spell raise a building from the ground?), and the utterly brutal Great Palace make it difficult to recommend the game. Check out the soundtrack if you like Midi chip tunes, but other than that I'm going to have to say, Don't Play this one if you're newer to the series and not hellbent on it. It's just a little too rough for it's own good.

One last thing: http://3dnes.blogspot.com/

See you next time.

Epic Yarn is Epic Fun

OK, I know I'm taking a while on Zelda II, got a little involved in quite a few other games. It's coming along though, I'm about 75% done with it right now. However, I did pick up Epic Yarn a couple days ago and really want to share my thoughts on it.

I am in absolute love with this game. It's easy, it's short, but god damn is it fun. While you can't die it is reasonably challenging to get gold rankings in a few of the stages.

Why is this game so good? There's quite a few reasons so let's just run down them in no particular order:

The Yarn effects are amazing. Seriously, praising graphics on a Wii game? Heck yes, this game is gorgeous, plain and simple. Watching the yarn water line fly up as you jump out of the water, or watching the yarn clouds get blown around by a gust of wind is just incredibly impressive, and the developers were very clever with their yarn effects, such as yarn getting yanked out to create shifting sand. This is the prettiest game I've seen stylistically since Okami.

The controls are incredibly smooth. They're great, the only downside is that you can't aim your whip down, but even that isn't a big deal. Kirby has a nice sized pool of moves to draw from. He can dash, slow fall, whip, throw, and ground pound, and all of these moves are utilized well to get through the game. Kirby also has plenty of transformations that are all very fun to use.

The levels are just fun. You aren't really playing to win, your playing to see what the developers thought of next. It's surprisingly fun though, and you'll constantly be thinking "Oh, that's so cool!" as you go through the game.

The two player option is well implemented. This game is two player in the same way NSMBW is four player. The levels are identical, it just adds the extra players in. What's great about this though is that you can switch at the beginning of every level either to multi or single player, and unlike NSMBW everything still counts in two player. The game never says "Oh you can't do this since your not playing alone".

Prince Fluff is just cool. 'nuff said.

The bad guy is a yarn Mexican with a magical sock necklace. That's just crazy enough to be awesome. Also his name is an awesomely lame pun.

The picture at the top of this post is actually in the game. No really, that's in the opening cutscene.

American Kirby is finally secure with himself and doesn't feel the need to act hardcore.

The game is just the right length for what it tries to be. Like I said, the game is all about seeing what the developers did, so it's only about 10 hours to do absolutely everything. Which means there's enough to see all whole lot of ideas, but the game isn't so long it stagnates. Some people may find it short, but I don't think it would have been half as good if it got dragged out. Maybe just one more world would have been nice, but I'm glad it's not too long.

So there you have it. Is the game perfect? No, I really do wish is was a fair bit more challenging, but it's still a damn fun game where the good far, far outweighs the bad. But if you think 10 hours is a little short, then go ahead and give it a rent. If you do really love it though, go ahead and pick it up, Good Feel needs your support to make more gems like this.

A few thoughts on a few games.

Well then, there's a couple games that I got recently that I feel I should give my thoughts on.

Ys Seven: Holy Shit! Yes, Yes, Yes!

Dear god I love the Ys games, and usually I have to go through some kind of fancy import and patch ritual to get them running in my goddamn language. I still hold the belief that if you combined VI's story, weapon system, and super attacks with Oath in Felghana's battle, magic, and power-up gem systems you'd have a hack-n-slash that would probably make it into my top 10, maybe even top 5.

As it stands I think Ys VII may be my new favorite game in the series. It's not the combination I was hoping for, but it's pretty damn awesome. It may make my top 10 but we'll have to wait and see because it is a pretty tough list to contend with. It's not without it's problems of course, but the good generally outweighs the bad.

Let's start with the bad first though for kicks. You can't jump, which doesn't seem like it would be a big issue, but after being able to jump in the last few games it's a bit awkward for them just to remove it, luckily the Dodge maneuver works well and after a bit of gameplay you won't have a problem with not being able to jump anymore. This game also marks the first time Adol's in a party. 3 members strong at any given time, it's quite strange to have AI partners following you around, but it's nice to see Dogi in action, and their different strengths are taken far more advantage of than Ys VI's tragically underutilized elemental system.

A spot where this game falters without a counter argument though is the opening. It quite honestly sucks. They give you a tutorial on every little damn thing and they take their sweet time setting up a story while you're stuck wandering around town with nothing to do. Now I know I'm going to be called a hypocrite later since Majora's Mask is one of my favorite openings, but the difference is that the entire game world exists around Clock Town. It is the single most important place in the game, and the game is built around side quests to reach the same length as OoT and many of them stem from Clock Town. The game requires and wants you (the player) to form attachments to all the people of the town. By contrast Ys is a damn hack-n-slash RPG, let me get to the action, Ys stories are cool and all, but it's the game and the music that everyone is there for. Don't just dangle it out of our reach for 20 minutes.

The final issue I have with the game is the graphics. They suck. Really really bad. Now everything is a low-poly model. This is as opposed to the fantastic sprites and backgrounds of the previous games with passable polygonal backgrounds and boss models for the time in VI and OiF. Also the whole art direction of the previous games was fantastic, where as it seems a little less so in Ys Seven. The bosses are a little lackluster, the enemies are a little generic, and the weapons aren't anything  fancy. It's kind of disappointing really. I haven't played Ys Origin though, but I've heard that the sprite work is still nice even if the art direction is a little lackluster.

Now onto the good. The gameplay is fantastic. It's fantastically paced with your characters moving quick but not so much that you can't keep track, the combo system works well since you can chain regular attacks into skills and cancel into dodges, the skill system is good too forcing you to balance which skills to use and when to charge up for a focus attack without being too restricting, and the bosses are fun to fight and challenging as always. You also have to go out collecting herbs, metals, other plant parts and enemy body parts in order to improve your weapons and armor. So yeah, this game is kind of like Monster Hunter... only it isn't boring as shit. The only real issue I have with the game is that the Super Attacks you get take waaaaaaay too long to charge up. I wouldn't mind them being a bit weaker if I could use them more than once a boss fight, maybe twice if I have a full charge going in.

So for those of you still wondering: It's Monster Hunter meets, oh I don't know, Lunar Knights, and it is freaking glorious.

Second game: Ultimate Knight Windom XP

Sure does look exciting now doesn't it? Well it is, but it's not worth the $20. Why? Just go get the prequely prototypey thing Bootfighter Windom XP SP2. Trust me, you're not missing out on much. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with Ultimate Knight, but I'm a giant robot whore. It only adds three new mechs, the ability to power up specific categories of your mechs, the ability to change their colors, and an arcade mode. Oh and a new soundtracks, but that's actually pretty good. Problems? Well the power-up thing screws with the balance, the Arcade mode kind of sucks but you have to do it to unlock all the mechs, and the game hasn't fixed any of it's problems. The sound is still kind of glitchy, Blitz Tactics mode is still coded like a monkey took a wrench to it and lags like crap, and the gameplay hasn't improved one bit, all it did was replace the bars with some shiny new ones. Bootfighter's gameplay is fun, but it's still incredibly unpolished. The knockdown system is broken, the mechs could stand to give you a little more control over their movement, and it's way too easy to get stun-locked. 

They really need to fix these issues if they want the game to be worth buying over just downloading Bootfighter. You're selling the game for money now, the quality has to match.

The Legend Begins

Felt like doing something simple

OK, sorry this took so long, been playing other games, moving, going to school, going to work. You know, life. I actually finished Zelda one about a week and a half ago and already started on Zelda two a bit, though I've also gotten really into the Banjo games again, maybe I'll do a review of those too.

So, The Legend of Zelda, what can I say? It's fun, really fun, and no matter how much criticism I give it that's what's important. Even when I was dying, even when I was astounded by the crazy prices of some things, even when my Big Shield was getting eaten and Wizzrobes were shredding me like a cheese grater I was still having fun.

Released in 1986 as the big launch title for the Famicom Disc System, and in 1988 in the US as the first game to have a battery backup allowing players to perform the task now taken for granted, saving your game. The quakes sent out by this game had to have been huge, and I only wish I was alive at the time, I know how I felt about saving your game when I first played this one since it was my first game that allowed saving, but it probably wasn't nearly the same.

First file select screen ever. For the record, in my file my name was Zilla (my Zelda 2's is Gamera), and my death count was around 30.

So anyways, this game is a classic, and an important milestone in modern gaming history, but how does it stack up? Seeing as it was my first time playing it in about 14 years my memory of it was fuzzy at best. Well, when I first turned it on, I picked up the sword, and then proceeded to get totally lost.

Yep, it's one of those games.

I eventually found two pieces of heart and then stumbled my way into Level 3, which I quickly exited and then remembered where Level 1 was.

Before dungeons though, let's talk about the overall game itself. If you're going to play Zelda 1 and you're only experience with the 2-D games is A Link to the Past or any of the Gameboy ones you need to immediately throw out everything you know. For starters, Zelda 1 moves on a psuedo-grid, meaning only four directions, and Link only stabs, he doesn't slash across a quarter of the screen. You have no idea how difficult that makes the game in comparison to the others. On top of that, Link moves relatively slowly, there are a lot of enemies on most screens, you can only block attacks while standing still, gathering rupees takes incredibly long amounts of time unless you get lucky or know the trick to Money Making Game, things are expensive, you can only carry two full heal potions at once and they're expensive to buy, Arrows drain from your rupee supply, you can only carry 8 bombs (though you can get up to 16 if you, you guessed it, pay a high amount), bombable things have no indication you can bomb them, and bosses are usually the easiest part of a dungeon, to the point where you fight three of the level 2 boss in level 3.

And yet you're surprisingly not screwed. Turns out all Dodongos dislike smoke.

And despite, or perhaps because of all that, the game is amazingly fun and charming. Unlike later Zelda games cash is never really useless, the challenge is real, but it doesn't feel like an issue, and combat is the main focus of the game.

The reason the challenge never becomes overwhelming in this game, is the same reason the lack of challenge can become rather tedious in the later games, and it comes from one brilliant design choice. No matter how many times you die every life gains you progress. Any doors you opened stay open, any items you got you keep, any keys you got you keep, any rupees are kept. If you die in a dungeon a few times you can just leave, go grab the blue ring or Magical Sword, or a potion and then run back in and try again. Everything will be there just the way you left it. This means no matter how challenging it gets, you never lose, you just need to dust yourself off and keep going, and with saving you can take a break and come back to it later.

So I keep talking about the challenge, and I talked about the restricted movement and limited potions, but why else is it challenging? Simply put, the regular enemies. Some of them are tough, really tough, and rooms are swamped with them. Examples:

This is a Blue Darknut. It can appear in groups of up to I believe eight. It takes several hits to kill, it can only be hit from the side or back, it likes to chase you, it moves faster than you, it does multiple hearts of damage, and it is often fought in claustrophobic obstacle heavy rooms where you NEED to kill all of the Darknuts to progress. If you don't have your sword beams then these guys, while not impossible, or freaking tough. Good luck with that

These are Wizzrobes. They teleport or move invincibly, they shoot attacks that do lots of damage and they come in fairly large groups. Their attacks require you to either move quickly or stand still to not die, and they can only be blocked with a big shield. They are often paired with:

Like Likes. These guys eat your big shield if you didn't know. It's never a good idea to stand still OR  move haphazardly around a Like Like. Good luck with that.

This is Ganon. He's a boss, not a regular enemy though I'm sure you knew that. I'm just mentioning him because in this game Ganon is invisible while you fight him. Good luck with that.

So yeah, Zelda is hard (although Zelda 2 is so far tougher than I remember it), and it's some of the most fun I've had with a game in the past few months. I've been playing plenty of great games so it's strange isn't it? I wasn't playing easy games at all so the challenge isn't the reason, but it was just so unexpectedly difficult due to an unfamiliarity with the controls. I was having an easier time with Ninja Gaiden. The reason I had fun with it though, is the simplicity. The game starts right away, and kicks you into the adventure. No opening cutscene, just some text scroll if you wait. No bullshit training level, no stupid scenes when you enter an area, no loading screens, nothing bogging it down, and the game comes out all the better for it in a gaming world populated with overemphasis on garnish.

So I'm going to have to give Zelda one a Play. You don't have to play it all the way through, but if you haven't played it yet you do need to get off your butt and see what gaming is like without all the fancy stuff over top. Don't get me wrong, that stuff has its place, definitely, and in the later games I'm definitely going to start going over the strength of the intro and story, but every once in a while you just need to embrace the simplicity.

For the record:
1) I didn't beat Second Quest. Darknut's in the second dungeon? Guys that take away your heart containers? No thanks.
2) I was playing this old school with my Top Loader, and trust me, I tried it on an emulator but the NES controller really does make a difference.

So, see you next time.

The Great Zelda Retrospective: Intro

I'll probably end up making a logo using this.

Yeah, it might seem strange talking about Zelda multiple posts in a row, but hey, I got it on the mind for some reason.

Anyways, The Legend of Zelda is one of the most influential series in history, and the waves it's caused can be felt in many games today. So, I'm going to play through and give a rundown of every game in the series (which will obviously take a really long time) except for Four Swords (due to not having someone to play it with), Four Swords Adventure (because my friend sold his copy, maybe if I get my hands on another copy when the time comes), and the CDI games (they're really expensive, and I don't feel like paying for a CDI and them. They ain't worth it).

I won't be giving them any sort of numbered rating system (because numbered ratings are pointless, rant for another time), but I will give them a rating of Play or Don't Play if you're new to the series and haven't played them already. Let's face it, a couple games in the series, while still playable and fun, are really showing their age and won't appeal to a new gamer.

Anyways, expect the first game's review to pop up sometime in the next several weeks (I'm really busy right now, but hopefully it'll ease up).

At least I won't be going into this painful experience.