Posted on October 3, 2012
My Top 100: #75 – Guerrilla War
1987 – SNK (Arcade, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, NES, PlayStation Network)
Ports of old arcade games are still released from time to time, either as part of a compilation disc or as downloadable titles. I often jump at the chance to buy them, since I get to experience all those titles I never had the chance to because of a lack of quarters.
“Continue?” Heck yeah, I’ll continue! It doesn’t cost a dime!
Playing through arcade games like this is still a relatively new concept, but the NES port of Guerrilla War was among the first to let you continue on through to the end of the game, regardless of how many times you had to die doing it.
The game is a shooter set on an unnamed central American island, where the ruler of of an oppressive regime is leading with an iron fist. As a fighter in the resistance, your character charges onto the island with guns blazing, slowly making his way inland through hordes of enemy fighters towards the enemy stronghold. It’s like Contra in top-down format, what with the crazy action, weapon upgrades and jungle-setting.
If the plot of the game sounds familiar, then it’s probably because of the obvious references to the situation in Cuba in the late 1950’s. There’s no direct mention of the Batista regime, nor is there any reference to Che Guevara or Fidel Castro by name. This is due to a localization of the game’s instruction manual and in-game dialogue over fears that anti-Communist sentiment in the West would hurt SNK’s reputation. Nevertheless, it was actually released under the name Guevara in Japan for a short period, making it one of the more rare and sought after Famicom titles.
It’s simple and mindless shooting fun, and I wish like hell that I had bought it that day at Mike’s yard sale…
“Hey look, it’s Mario!” is probably what I said when I saw this as a kid.
“Hey look, it’s a typo!” is what I said when I saw this today.
Posted on October 2, 2012
My Top 100: #76 – Far Cry Instincts: Predator
2006 – Ubisoft Montreal (Xbox 360)
It may sound a bit crazy, but there was only one video I needed to see to be sold on Far Cry Instincts: Predator…
I was aware of the awesomeness of Far Cry Instincts on the original Xbox for a few months before the Xbox 360 was even released. We’d get together at my friends’ apartment every Sunday evening, play some multiplayer games, watch The Simpsons, play for another 30 minutes, then watch Family Guy before I headed home. Far Cry was one of the games that we played the most.
This is actually one of the few games I know more for its awesome multiplayer than for its single player campaign. I’m not sure if I’ve touched on this in prior entries (though I probably have), but I’ve never been big on multiplayer games. Yeah, they’re fun, and yeah, it adds a nice layer of competition when talking about games with friends… but growing up, I had to rely on my own gaming experiences, just because I lived so far out of town.
Games like GoldenEye 007 and Halo had come and gone by then, and I had gotten some enjoyment out of other multiplayer shooters as well… but there was something about Far Cry that got me truly pumped up to play it.
The mode that we most consistently played was 4-player “Predator”. At the beginning of the round, one of the four players is given the role of the Predator, whose superior speed and extremely powerful melee attacks provide definite advantages. The other three players are tasked with activating a beacon that, if left running long enough, can kill the Predator for good and end the match.
You could also design your own multiplayer maps with the level editor, which was pretty in-depth. You could design some pretty funky stuff with it if you were creative enough!
Oh, and the Xbox 360 version has two full single player campaigns on it. They’re pretty great too!
This game didn’t re-invent the wheel or anything, but we had an absolute blast with it.
“FIVE MINUTES OF KILLIN’ WITH YOUR CLAWS REMAINING, YOU GUYYYSS.”
(Inside joke.)
Posted on October 1, 2012
My Top 100: #77 – The Beatles: Rock Band
2009 – Harmonix (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii)
This game was bought for me as a bribe!!
One fall day a few years ago, my wife Anita *really* wanted to get her eyebrow pierced. Me, not being much of a fan in getting new holes bored into a person’s body, thought her face was lovely just as it was, and didn’t need any new holes in it for the sake of new jewellery. Well, it’s her face, and one day I came home from work to a shiny new piercing over her right eye. Call me old fashioned, but I was a bit bummed out. I tried to not be too upset… It’s not my face! Why should I be upset?
Anyway, she could tell I was still grumpy about it as the night wore on, so we ended up making a trip to the mall. We came home with the special, “full band” edition of The Beatles: Rock Band. I forgot all about the piercing after a few hours!
I hope she doesn’t get anything else pierced. It might get a bit too expensive.
About why the game is on my countdown, I barely feel like I need to explain anything.
1. Based on the most revolutionary band in rock history.
2. When I think of The Beatles, I think of the art of The Beatles. This game recounts their visual history, from their early days at venues to the Dreamscapes representing their more… experimental years.
3. Downloadable content – three full albums, all of them legendary – all with brand new Dreamscapes of their own.
4. The Special Edition includes either Paul’s legendary Rickenbacker bass, George’s Gretsch Duo guitar or John’s Rickenbacker guitar, along with Ringo’s trademark drumkit.
5. Same old Rock Band fun, with the addition of harmonies for whoever wants to join in with a second mic.
6. Career Mode chronicles their album portfolio as you progress with fun little cutscenes between each chapter.
7. Tons of bonus images and videos to unlock.
This was my first experience with a music game outside of the realm of Guitar Hero titles, and it blew me away. It is the pinnacle of the fake plastic guitar genre, which seems to have lost a bit of steam in the last year or so. There’s still a market out there for DLC, but I don’t see any new peripherals making their way onto shelves, what with the death of the GH franchise and all.
I do have one complaint about the game, and it’s a fairly minor one… but why, oh WHY couldn’t we have had some kind of DLC to make the game playable on the Rock Band keyboard?? This game was only a year old when RB3 came out, so why not a patch for The Beatles: Rock Band? So many of their songs feature the piano in some way, and it wouldn’t have been a stretch to have released even more DLC on top of it. “Hey Jude”, “Let it Be”, “Lady Madonna”… such great songs that never got any keyboard love.
Anyway, I love the heck out of this game. I might be partial, just because I love The Beatles, but it’s just friggin’ great.
“Wh-one – two – three – FAAHHWWR!”
Posted on September 28, 2012
My Top 100: #78 – Metroid Fusion
2002 – Nintendo R&D 1 (Game Boy Advance)
This game might be widely known as the weakest entry in a series that is now more than a quarter-century old. I’ve been known to go against the gaming grain, though, so it should be no surprise that it’s ranked among my favourite titles starring a certain female bounty hunter…
Metroid Fusion is the most linear game in the long-running sci-fi series, which might have been what turned some people off. Instead of plopping you in the heart of some unknown territory, with nothing but your wits and curiosity to guide you through each obstacle, Fusion holds your hand and guides you. It doesn’t pull a South Park 64 and plant random signs with arrows on them, but you can’t progress to certain areas of the BSL space station if you haven’t acquired certain items.
It’s like Zeld-troid… or Metro-lda…
Like a few other games you’ll see on this countdown, Metroid Fusion was one of my first experiences on a new-to-me platform.
In 2004, Nintendo released the Limited Edition Classic NES Series Game Boy Advance SP (that’s a mouthful). A bunch of NES titles were re-released in portable fashion, and the GBA itself would look like an NES console when closed. Naturally, the “controller” portion of it was modeled after an NES controller. I jumped at the chance to own a system I had heard much about, but never actually played for myself.
Along with The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros., I needed a game that would actually stretch the system’s capabilities. I didn’t have to look much further than good ol’ dependable Metroid.
I honestly believe that, in terms of atmosphere, this is the coolest one of the bunch. The reason? One word.
Audio.
The video above really doesn’t do it justice – you need to hear it coming from those tiny speakers on the GBA!
It’s not saying anything new when I say that Metroid games are beyond epic in terms of music and sound effects. The way Samus’ arm cannon sizzles when it charges, how missiles crunch when they detonate, and how the shrieks of each boss echo through the space station’s halls… man, it just gave me chills. The music was great too, as usual.
The other games in the series are fantastic at giving you that sense of scale, how you’re just a tiny speck in a large and confusing labyrinth, all alone. Fusion kept that atmosphere, but instead went with a go-with-the-flow approach – if you didn’t want to check your map every two minutes, you didn’t have to. Just explore, find secrets, and then eventually dead ends, search some more, progress, repeat.
Oh, and when her Zombie-like Power Suit makes an appearance? Forget about it. Be thankful it doesn’t see you, or if it does, just run!
Great game! Play it if you haven’t already!
Speaking of the Classic NES Series, here’s the Japan-only Famicom Mini collection. I’m quite glad it wasn’t released here!
Wait, did I say “glad”? Sorry, I meant “sad”.
Posted on September 27, 2012
My Top 100: #79 – M.C. Kids
1992 – Virgin Interactive (NES)
To this day, I’m not sure if this is game’s title is pronounced Emcee Kids or Mick Kids… either way, it’s one of those games that didn’t get a whole lot of attention, but is still quite fun to play.
I’ve heard M.C. Kids described as a “Mario Clone” by several reviewers on YouTube (you know, the pros………), and I’ve gotta say that I don’t quite understand why the term is used in a derogatory way. Sure, it shares a lot with Super Mario Bros. 3 in that it has vividly-coloured graphics, level maps, and an emphasis on exploration in each level to find secrets and progress through the game.
Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, and M.C. Kids is unique enough to warrant a spot on this countdown.
*I hope nobody in the AVGN camp minds if this video is shared this way, but it’s a classic review from James, and I’m a big fan of his. He has since said that the review ended the way it did because he wasn’t satisfied with the way the review was going, since he actually thought it was a pretty decent game!*
If you haven’t already guessed by the box art, this game is a little bit of a McDonald’s cash-in. It was a no-brainer; a generic game based on characters from the most kid-friendly restaurant in the world. So long as they kept the gameplay fresh, they were sure to have a hit on their hands.
As it turned out, McDonald’s thought the end product was too difficult for their intended audience, and gave it very little promotion. In fact, here in Canada, I don’t recall ever seeing the slightest mention of the game at McD’s restaurants. Maybe they were too busy trying to convince people they could sell pizza at a burger joint… I dunno. Either way, they still released the game, and I still recall bringing it over to my friend Thomas’ place that first time I rented it.
Not to get too far off topic, but every summer, I was lucky enough to be “babysat” (I was 10-11 at the time) by Tom’s mother. Every day I was there was pretty much all about hanging out, playing games, baseball in the backyard, whatever. Tom liked all kinds of genres of video games, so I was able to discover some new favourites when I went to his place. I was also able to introduce him to some of my favourites, as well.
It doesn’t re-invent the wheel, but M.C. Kids gets the job done with great controls, nice visuals, good music… it also made me want McChicken Nuggets whenever I played it. Most delicious game EVER!
LET’S PUT A SMIIIILLLLE ON THAT FACE… with chicken nuggets!
Posted on September 26, 2012
My Top 100: #80 – Excitebike 64
2000 – Nintendo (N64)
The original Excitebike will always hold a dear place in my heart, if only because it was the second NES game I ever played. We had family friends in Shediac (New Brunswick), and their much-older-than-me son introduced me to the Nintendo system with Super Mario Bros.\Duck Hunt, Excitebike, and a beat ’em up he didn’t really want me playing called Renegade.
Looking back, Renegade was somewhat awful, so it’s all good.
In any case, I always loved the whacky colours on display in Excitebike. How can a track be lime green? What on Earth makes dirt show up that colour?? It still doesn’t make sense, but I still play it from time to time. It’s not exactly an in-depth experience, but it’s fun for a few minutes, anyway.
There were a few motorcross games out during the late 90’s, most of them with a Jeremy McGrath or Ricky Carmichael-caliber name attached to them. The X-Games were starting to soar in popularity, so it was up to Nintendo to revive a long-dormant franchise, and do it properly.
What I loved about Excitebike 64 was that it didn’t rely on widely-known tracks or names to be awesome. There were your typical stadium dirt tracks with varying degrees of difficulty, the “out in nature” tracks in the desert and snowy areas, and then there were the just plain weird and unrealistic ones. Every track was challenging, and though they weren’t really re-inventing the wheel, the tight controls made it a blast to navigate.
The classic game was included as an unlockable bonus, as were a few other modes, such as Soccer, Excite 3D (a 3D version of the original), a Track Editor and a free-for-all through randomly generated checkpoints on a Desert course. Taking out opponents was as simple as it was before – clip the front tire of the guy behind you, and down they go! You could do stunts going over ramps and stuff, too. I didn’t much care for that part of it, though.
I loved the heck out of Wave Race 64 when it came out, and this just felt like a much more complete version of that game… except on land, this time.
Don’t overheat!
Posted on September 25, 2012
My Top 100: #81 – Super Smash Bros. Melee
2001 – Nintendo (GameCube)
Back in the late 90’s, I was lucky enough to have access to a satellite dish with American programming. I was able to watch shows most of my classmates didn’t even know existed, thanks to having channels that weren’t available north of the border. ZDTV was one such channel, focusing on technology and all the latest gadgets and computer goodies.
Naturally, they had a few gaming shows to go along with that. GameSpot TV was the main one, and it had all the latest news from all gaming fronts – including what was happening in Japan. One episode highlighted this crazy-looking N64 game with well-known Nintendo characters – the “all-stars”, from what little I could distinguish, there was so much going on on the screen – and they were fighting?? Donkey Kong beating the piss out of Pikachu… imagine that.
I excitedly told my friends all about it, and when Super Smash Bros. was released in North America a few months later, we played it a ton at our Halloween party that year. We played it at other gatherings too, but at those parties, great times were had.
The first game was nice, but it wasn’t exactly the kind of game I’d spend tons of hours on. I wanted more unlockables, more characters, more levels, more references to obscure Nintendo titles… I didn’t have to wait that long, really.
Nintendo’s GameCube launched Mario-less in November of 2001, but Luigi’s Mansion and Super Smash Bros. Melee were there to fill the void. Mansion and Wave Race: Blue Storm were the launch titles I’ve barely touched to this day, but Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II – Rogue Leader and Melee have gotten hours and hours of play at my house.
To begin with, the game looks and sounds pretty damn spiffy. Pretty much all of Nintendo’s IP’s are represented with a stage, a playable character, an item, or with music – old tunes are orchestrated and sometimes simply re-mixed, which upped the nostalgia factor quite a bit. An Adventure Mode was also added, which was definitely the highlight for me. A quasi-platformer\brawler using characters from all lots of Nintendo life, spanning everywhere from the Mushroom Kingdom to Icicle Mountain??? Sign me up!!!
On top of that, collectible trophies (each of them highlighted in the video above) gave you that extra little incentive to play the game more and more. For a guy that’s all about the retro gaming, this game was pretty much tailor-made for me.
Not the most complex stage, but my favourite of the bunch!
Posted on September 24, 2012
My Top 100: #82 – Street Fighter II Turbo
1992 – Capcom (Super NES)
Growing up, it seemed like there was always two of something, and a person always had to be on one side of the fence. In baseball, there were the American and National Leagues. In New Brunswick politics, there was the blue party and there was the red party. In video games, you had Sega vs. Nintendo, and in the mid 90’s, it was all about Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter II.
SFII came first, so I got to know Guile, Ryu, Blanka, and E. Honda pretty well before I ever heard mention of Scorpion or Sub-Zero. When I’d rent the Super NES version, I didn’t really have a favourite fighter, and I tried to use a variety of them as I climbed up the game’s competitive ladder. Once you beat the cast of regulars, four more tough competitors were up next.
If you buy a fighting game these days, and the “boss” characters are playable from the get-go, you don’t really think twice about it. It’s almost expected! Street Fighter II had four bosses – Balrog, Vega, Sagat and M. Bison – all with unique attributes that made them challenging in their own right, and you couldn’t play AS any of them. Not even with cheats! How badass must they be, if Capcom doesn’t even think we’d be able to handle them?
*TOTALLY RAD, MAN. Also, I thought Ryu’s name was either pronounced “Ruy-you” or “Ree-you”, not “Roo”?*
Fast-forward about a year, and Mortal Kombat‘s about to hit shelves. Of course, Capcom didn’t want their massive money-maker to take a hit in sales, so they released both Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition for Sega Genesis and Street Fighter II Turbo for Super NES. Essentially the same game, they were the first in the long line of Super-Mega-Hyper-Turbo-Special-EX-Champion-HD titles that SFII would become infamous for.
These re-releases came with a few additions, like bonus challenges and alternate costumes… There was only one thing I cared about, though; finally, I could play as any of the four bosses and RULE THE WORLD!! I thought it was somewhat taboo to play as the bad guys, and that’s what felt so awesome about playing this game. After all, it’s not like you can choose to be Bowser or Dr. Wily at any given time!
In any case, I never owned Turbo, and I also never got to own Mortal Kombat until much later. Still, while at our local Co-Op (grocery store) shortly before Christmas in ’93, my mom and I ran into my friend Josh’s dad. In his shopping cart were a bunch of gifts, and both of those games were in there! I was jealous as all get out, but I was tasked with keeping it a secret. I’d do my best!
Not long afterwards, a friend of ours had his birthday party. There were only about ten days to go before Christmas, so naturally, I asked Josh what he had asked for. He said he’d done some snooping, and though he didn’t quite get a good look at the game box, he thought it was Darius Twin. I said “oh cool!”, but inwardly laughed at him. If only he knew!
Well, he did get Darius Twin that Christmas, as well as Contra III: The Alien Wars. With MK and SFII Turbo on top of them, we wasted so much time playing them into the wee hours of the morning, it’s just ridiculous.
Oops.
Posted on September 21, 2012
My Top 100: #83 – Stunt Race FX
1994 – Nintendo EAD (Super NES)
Nintendo was pretty damn proud of Star Fox, and for good reason. The Super FX chip helped this little 16-bit console compete with the Atari Jaguars and Sega CD’s of the world, delivering some pretty fine-looking polygon action to the masses. Why drop hundreds of dollars on a new console when you can experience nearly next-gen graphics on a console you already own and love?
Even though Star Fox was a massive success, the number of games that actually took advantage of the Super FX chip was pretty low. They were titles that were easy to forget, the quality not being up to par with what Nintendo had achieved; Dirt Trax FX and Vortex were the only ones released in North America, while Europe also got a game called Dirt Racer.
Thankfully, Nintendo had another ace up its sleeve with Stunt Race FX.
If Star Fox was an attempt to steer Nintendo clear of its cartoony and kid-friendly roots, then this racing game was definitely a step back in the usual direction. I mean, to begin with, the cars have googley-eyes!
I loved how there was a theme to each track, and how they didn’t have to rely on being a big-name franchise (à la Mario Kart) for inspiration. They all felt unique, even if they were mostly comprised of texture-less polygons. Instead of just going left and right, tracks went uphill and downhill, and would sometimes give you that weird feeling of vertigo if you went downhill really fast. You can tell the Super NES is chugging pretty good at times when the frame rate takes a dip, but it holds up pretty well today.
*By the way, is it vertigo when you’re driving down a sudden dip in the road, and you feel your stomach lurch? Yes, no, maybe?*
If you ever get bored of running the normal tracks, there’s also an 18-wheeler slalom challenge and Stunt Trax mode to choose from.
I enjoyed this game so much, I recently thought it was good enough to buy twice! **
This is not your typical pre-race fly-by. Yay, cameos!
** I actually didn’t know I already owned it when I bought it again recently, which is the first time that has ever happened to me.
Posted on September 20, 2012
My Top 100: #84 – Mission: Impossible
1998 – Ocean Software (Nintendo 64, PlayStation)
Nintendo Power seemed to believe that two Nintendo 64 games would revolutionize their respective genres, and both were based on movies that would be a couple years old by the time they were released. One was GoldenEye 007, and the other was Mission: Impossible.
If I remember correctly, the amount of hype surrounding M:I was even greater than the hype behind the Bond game. Early screenshots showed some fantastic lighting effects, as well as character models more realistic than we had ever seen! Indeed, this was shaping up to be something quite special. Even though I had never seen the Tom Cruise movie, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.
Kinda dark, but this looked pretty incredible in ’96. (Credit for the image goes to Unseen64)
The finished product actually looked quite different than this. It wasn’t as dark and gritty, and had a bit more of a cartoonish look to it than they probably wanted. That didn’t really matter to me, since it was very much unlike anything else I had played before. Very few situations called for brute strength or actually shooting a bunch of bad guys, so sneaking around was the name of the game.
There was also a level based on the Terminal Room scene in the movie, where Ethan Hunt is dangling precariously from a cable, avoiding security lasers and such. It was promoted as one of the coolest parts of the game, figuring prominently in ads for the game and screenshots on the back of the game box… instead, it was one of the most infuriating experiences I’ve ever had in any game, ever! The controls for it just didn’t fit the game at all, and instead of just doing what I needed to do, I found myself swinging around the room like an idiot.
Thankfully, the rest of the game is quite enjoyable, and I never let that one level get me down.
Aw, mannn. This guy flies through all the dialogue and gets things done like it’s no big deal, but you had to be quite sneaky about the way you did things in this level. Not only that, but that woman in the red dress is out to ruin Hunt’s day if he pulls off the face-switcheroo the wrong way. She kinda creeped me out, too, just because she followed you all sketchy-like. Good times!