Posted on December 25, 2011
What a haul!
The utter lack of updates can be attributed to the organized chaos that comes with the Holiday season. It’s become a pretty consumer-tastic time of year, but growing up, I always felt truly appreciative of what I got. Same goes for this year, even though I probably got way too much, and bought way too much.
As years went by, many different games were recieved as gifts… when I’m not posting from an iPod as I currently am, I’ll be recounting the memorable video game hauls from X-mases gone by!
Posted on December 18, 2011
I have been converted!
No longer do I believe GameSpot to be the better resource for all things video games. At least, not the more trustworthy one.
There was the whole situation with Jeff Gertsmann, who reviewed games for the site forever and was canned for giving an honest (in other words, “bad”) review of Kane and Lynch: Dead Men. The game happened to be a sponsor for the site in the weeks leading up to its release, and it was more than just a coincidence he was “let go” after giving the game a low score.
I let that one slide, even though it didn’t really seem fair. After all, I’m tracking my entire video game collection on GameSpot, something I can’t seem to do anywhere else.
Anyhow, a glitch was recently uncovered in the new Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword that would make the game un-finishable. By that, I mean that if a specific sequence of events occurs within the game (by trying to complete the game “out of order” from the storyline), Link won’t be able to proceed to the next objective. The player would then have no choice but to restart the game entirely
A full (mostly negative) article was posted at GameSpot, basically stating “not sure how this could happen in this day and age, but Nintendo says ‘don’t worry about it'”.
About five years ago, a slightly more aggravating glitch reared its ugly head in Zelda: Twilight Princess. I won’t delve into details, as the video below describes it pretty well!
This was a pretty serious muck-up, but I never saw a thing about it at GameSpot. Being concerned about it at the time, I looked it up elsewhere on the interwebs, and found a few websites confirming what was happening. It never affected what I ended up thinking about the game when I bought it a month or two later, but I did make sure to avoid the glitch.
The site’s sponsor for a week or two back in ’06 before its release? Twilight Princess.
Interesting… Skyrim, which I have almost no interest in, but somehow keep hearing about, has almost crippling graphical issues on the PS3 edition, yet that gets no coverage. Skyward Sword gets lampooned for a glitch that only shows up if you do a specific sequence of events.
What was GameSpot sponsored by for a few weeks last month?
Ahh, right. Skyrim. Not Zelda… I see a pattern.
I have converted to IGN-ism.
I will return to video game memories very soon! Worry not!
Posted on December 11, 2011
Note to self!
Don’t get too angry in the post looking back on your current GoldenEye playthrough. It’s still a fantastic game, despite your current frustration with it…
Posted on December 7, 2011
MGS: The Conclusion!
I just realized that the MGS series is now also guilty of slapping HD onto its games, and re-selling them that way. Not that that’s a bad thing. It’s just been done a fair amount over the last few years, and not necessarily to games that really needed it.
So I got to play Metal Gear Solid that night after the Bruns meeting, and was instantly hooked. I can tell you exactly what did it!
In that first area, you’re just getting used to the controls and the way the radar works. The credits are rolling, and you’re more or less focused on keeping out of sight… then, you step in a frickin’ puddle and tip the guards off to your presence. This game thought of everything, whereas I apparently did not.
Those damn puddles.
There was a moment of sheer panic that I had never really experienced before. “Where do I go??? What do I do?? AAAHHHH OMIGAD HE’S COMIN’!” I had to figure out what to do pretty quickly and took a fair amount of damage, but it was on from there. The game had me absolutely hooked, and I wasn’t even five minutes into it.
The next day, I hitched a ride into town to get picked up by John in his boat of a Caprice Classic. His place was quite a distance out of town, and even though I was a bit nervous with him driving (through no fault of his own), I chilled out on the drive by listening to some Tea Party (the band, not the movement), and some Static-X.
For some odd reason, Cake’s “Short Skirt, Long Jacket” was in my head as I got out of the car. *DUNNN…DA-NAnaNA! DA-NAnaNA-nuh-nuh-nuhhh…* John said “Don’t finish it. Please. Just stop singing it. I hate it. So bad.”
I also remember that R&B singer Aaliyah’s plane crashed that day. Weird.
Anyhow, not to get too side-tracked, but it was a weekend full of video games and junk food I’ll definitely never forget. I felt like, after that last hangout, my mind was clear of clutter and good to go. I was back behind the wheel of a car for the first time the next week, classes at university started soon after, and then the attacks on September 11th happened a week later.
What a friggin’ weird summer.
I think I may have submitted to Ocelot’s torture the very first time I played through it. The only reason being that I thought the ending was somewhat of a bummer – who wants to ride off into the sunrise with a dude on the back of a snowmobile?? Not sure which one is considered canon, but I’ll take the one where Meryl lives. If you tough it out during the torture, you end up with an ending that’s considerably better.
Though it’s got a bit of drama that isn’t even mentioned otherwise (Campbell is Meryl’s father???), the game’s alternate ending is actually the funnier one of the two. Seeing Otacon take that endless tumble down the cliff was definitely worth re-playing the second half of the game.
Then again, after skipping all the cutscenes and Codec transmissions I didn’t need to record, it didn’t take long at all!
Posted on December 6, 2011
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (GameCube)
This was way bigger than your typical current-gen video game re-make. Most companies get away with a fresh new coat of paint, slap “HD” on the end of it, and that’s it. The Twin Snakes not only had revamped graphics, but altered cutscenes, slight changes to improve game play, and completely re-recorded dialogue by almost all original voice actors.
2004 - GameCube (Konami)
I wasn’t necessarily feeling down in the dumps about the car accident, but I definitely didn’t feel comfortable enough to get behind the wheel again for quite a while afterwards. I felt somewhat restricted as to what I could do that summer; hanging out with friends and going out for a night at the movies just wasn’t as easy to do, anymore. It gnawed at my consciousness all summer long.
Later that month, I went on the yearly family trip to Connecticut to see my aunt and uncle, and also to see a NASCAR race in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. For the long drives there and back, reading material was pretty much exclusively EGM, Official PlayStation Magazine and some other gaming magazines. The main articles in all of them focused on the E3 held earlier that year, showcasing the upcoming Xbox and GameCube consoles. The PS2 had its own ace in the hole with Metal Gear Solid 2, a sequel to a game I’d often heard about, but knew almost nothing of. MGS2 looked so damn lovely, I had to give the first one a try.
Finally, a couple weeks before my fresh new start at Saint Thomas University, I rented it. That same day, I had a meeting with folks at The Brunswickan, a campus newspaper I was interested in contributing to. I’d be tasked with doing reviews of music CD’s, and I’d actually get to keep the ones I reviewed! That was a great deal, and reviewing video games had the exact same perk!
Some guy with a cool German accent had dibs on reviewing MGS2, however. Lucky guy.
After the meeting, my friend John could probably tell I still wasn’t completely myself. He suggested one last hangout at his place with the old high school crew, just to play games and joke around all night before we all made the “official” move into life as post-secondary education students.
When I got home that night, I popped Metal Gear Solid into my PS2. To say the least, I was hooked pretty much right away, and I couldn’t wait to show it off to my friends that weekend.
There’s one specific change made to The Twin Snakes that smoothes out one painful quirk the PS1 version had; the addition of a first-person view for firing your weapon. In the middle of a boss battle, you could easily get a bit disoriented if you ran around enough. With the GameCube re-make, pressing the Z-button gave you what Solid Snake saw from his own eyes, and you could whip out your weapon for a quick and precise shot if you needed to.
Posted on December 5, 2011
Metal Gear Solid (PlayStation)
This will undoubtedly be worth two or three posts, not only because it’s about such a fantastic game, but also because it goes back to one of the weirder parts of my life.
1998 - PlayStation (Konami)
The summer of 2001 started off with a bang, in more ways than one.
“But Andre”, you say, “didn’t Metal Gear Solid come out in 1998?” Yes, well, I’ll get to the point in a bit, but to me, 2001 was the year of Metal Gear.
In June of 2001, I graduated from high school. It’s one of those events in a person’s life that’s supposed to be filled with meaning, and begins a gradual shift into adulthood. Well, it certainly was that for me, but in a slightly different way for slightly different reasons.
A few weeks after graduation, I went to see Scary Movie 2 with my good friend Tom. After getting to the theatre, I realized I had forgotten my wallet. It would be a pain in the neck, but I had to drive all the way back home to get it.
I was certainly right about the “pain in the neck” part.
As I pulled out of the parking lot (which was under heavy construction), I didn’t see an on-coming club-cab pickup truck – AKA the huge kind – in the far lane. That “oh crap” feeling is something I’ll never forget. In that fraction of a second, I experienced fear, anxiety, regret, and even managed to utter a curse word or two. Just like that, I got t-boned in the driver’s side door, and my mom’s poor ’91 Honda Civic was a write-off.
Ouch.
I came through it pretty sore, though only with bruised kidneys, which meant peeing blood for about a week. I’d also wake up a few times in the middle of the next few nights to a crunching noise coming from my mouth, which turned out to be shattered glass from the car window. It was a bit traumatic, but I knew it could have been a lot worse.
Tom was also fine, and when he realized I was OK and my parents got there, he casually walked back across the street to enjoy Scary Movie 2 with his friends! I have a good chuckle whenever I think of that.
- Could have used this ten years ago…
I promise this relates to Metal Gear Solid, but it’ll have to wait until my next post.
After recently seeing the brand new “No Left Turn” sign where I had my accident ten years ago in June, I thought back to that summer of ’01 and felt like re-kindling my love for Metal Gear Solid. The 2004 re-make The Twin Snakes (released for GameCube) was definitely the better choice to make a movie out of, simply due to its updated graphics and improved cutscenes and voice acting.
I’m not ruling out making a movie out of the original some day, just for fun!
Posted on November 30, 2011
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX (Game Boy Color)
Aside from being the other Game Boy Color title in my friend Antoine’s library (see my very first game post back in August), Link’s Awakening DX was actually already in my collection on that old grey brick… only not in fantastic, full-colour mode.
- 1993 (Original), 1998 (DX) – Game Boy, Game Boy Color (Nintendo)
As mentioned in the Super Mario Bros. Deluxe post, Antoine was nice enough to let me try his Game Boy Color one morning before school. It’s strange, but playing a game in colour in the palm of my hands just felt incredible. Here was Super Mario Bros., a game I’ve played through over and over again since childhood, and I was playing in the school hallway. Amazing! When he popped in Link’s Awakening DX, it was somewhat like visiting an old friend in the hospital, recuperating from colourful shots of botox to the face.
I say it felt like a hospital, mostly due to the white halls at our school… anyway. It makes sense to me.
In any case, it was strange. I had owned a Sega Game Gear since I was young, but it didn’t quite feel like it was the ultimate hand held gaming experience. Maybe if they had waited before releasing it, and made it sleeker or something. I dunno.
- Mine still works, but hasn’t aged well at all.
What I remember most about playing the original Link’s Awakening was discovering two things in particular…
- Roc’s Feather!
Who is Roc, anyway? First he leaves his invisibility cape in a Hyrule cave (in A Link to the Past), and now he leaves a magical jumping feather in a dungeon on Koholint Island. Who forgets or misplaces two awesome things like that?? Roc, that’s who.
The lady next door came over to visit my mom, and I sat quietly at the kitchen table while I played Zelda. I remember having to position myself correctly in relation to the power outlet, and have my somewhat bulky battery pack perched on the table in a way I wouldn’t yank it off in a moment of sheer gaming excitement.
- Almost as bulky and awkward as the Game Boy itself!
- Do these guys look familiar to you?
The second thing was mentioned in a Nintendo Power “Classified Information” section, which some might consider to be a “cheat”. In reality, it was actually a glitch! Performing it was simple, and allowed early access to areas you’d otherwise have to wait to be able to get to.
(Skip ahead to about the 0:55 mark for the glitch demonstration…)
If you pressed Select at the exact moment you crossed over to a new screen, it would launch you way over to the opposite side of the screen you were entering. Walls, pits or bodies of water were no longer an obstacle! It was fun to see where you could get to, but if you weren’t careful, you could easily screw the game up a bit, or possibly even get stuck “in” a wall.
The obvious choice to make a movie with was the DX version. It had Game Boy Camera support (remember that thing???), which meant that a few of Link’s exploits were captured by a photographer in the game, and displayed in nice color images. You could even print them (in black and white) on the Game Boy Printer!!!
Those were two strange experiments I definitely had no interest in buying into.
Anyway, I thought the images helped break up the monotony of reading everything.
Posted on November 22, 2011
Mega Man 4 (NES)
Some considered Mega Man 4 to be the beginning of the end of the love affair gamers had with the series. Honestly, I didn’t find that happened until several years later with the countless Battle Network games that changed the formula altogether.
1992 - NES (Capcom)
It came out a couple months after the Super NES was released, but the Nintendo Power Pak Watch previews had me quite excited. Why not? Mega Man 3 was (as far as I’m concerned) the best game in the series, and the sky was the limit for 4. They were adding a few things, such as a Mega Blaster you could charge and unleash for maximum damage, and Fliptop, a tin-can robot who would help you out on certain levels with random items.
I wanted there to be a “Super Mega Man” pretty badly, but I supposed it would show up eventually. Mega Man 4 would just have to suffice for a while.
I remember renting the game and having that boss selection music stuck in my head, and humming it while at my seat in the school cafeteria.
Mega Man 4 was indeed a fantastic game, but that initial wow factor that had come with 3 was almost non-existant. It was more of the same with a few additions, but even as a young kid I couldn’t help but just lose interest and explore other games, especially considering the fact that the Super NES had been out for a little while. 16 bit graphics were just too pretty to look at to be ignored.
It was worth a few rentals, but it has yet to make it into my NES collection; aside from being a part of the Mega Man Anniversary Collection, which I own for GameCube.
Speaking of which, I don’t usually go on a tangent from game to game in a single post, but it’s Mega-related to what I’m talking about.
2004 - GameCube, Playstation 2, Xbox (Capcom)
When Anniversary Collection was announced, the only logical choice for me was to buy the game for the Nintendo GameCube. Yeah, the PlayStation 2 controller would have been decent to play with, but I really couldn’t see myself playing a Mega Man NES game on anything but a Nintendo console. Every other option seemed like blasphemy!
Somehow, the controls have been seriously messed with. B is jump, and A is shoot. Considering the positioning of the buttons on the GameCube’s controller, how could this be messed up so badly? You can’t even change the button configuration, which is really unfortunate.
Oh, but I found a way around that.
Thumb on B, side of my index on Y.
Pressing Y performs a rapid triple-shot, which works better than even pressing B on an NES controller super-fast. You’d think the messed-up position my hand is in would make it cramp up after a while, but it really doesn’t.
Game on!
This was the first Mega Man title to have a proper introduction to the game’s storyline. I mean, yeah, Mega Man 2‘s was classic, and the music just made it so great perfect. It wasn’t an actual cutscene with detailed images, however, so that made this one start off a bit better than the first two.
Playing through this one again made me regret not having the chance to play it that much as a kid. Like I said earlier, these games may have all followed the same formula, but they’re still a hoot today.
Posted on November 17, 2011
What a… stinkin’, no-good… burgerfricckle!!
In going back to play old games, I’m finding that some of them are real stinkers. Games that were once cherished are actually big steaming piles of gaming poo. I’ve watched a fair amount of Angry Video Game Nerd episodes in the last few weeks, and honestly, I’m holding back from a profanity-laced tirade on a game I once thought to be awesome!
Since this is a family friendly blog….. I think….. I’ll refrain from saying anything too vulgar.
The Adventures of Bayou Billy isn’t on my list of “Must Play Through Games”. At least, not anymore. I remember renting it from our Co-Op store when I was little, mostly because my friend next door thought it was an awesome game. I got some enjoyment out of it, I guess. You could pick up weapons like knives and bats to attack your enemies with, and the jungle\swamp setting seemed pretty cool.
For cryin’ out loud, the first level had you punching out alligators until roasted chicken (health) came flying out! How is that not awesome?!
The other night, I re-played it. Not only does it take abnormally precise positioning to land your hits, but when you do manage to connect, it takes a good five or six punches to kill the first few bad guys you encounter in the game. It definitely didn’t take long to clue in why I never played it much as a kid… you needed the NES Zapper for level two, which I didn’t own then, and nor do I own it now.
So much for a playthrough. Not that I’d necessarily want to put myself through the pain and personal anguish of taking (what feels like) two or three minutes to kill each enemy I came across.
I will give the game this, however… that distinctive Konami music is friggin’ amazing. Here’s a short piece played at the beginning of the game, where the bad guy says “I HAVE YOUR SCANTILY CLAD GIRLFRIEND!!” It just seems so… southern bayou, gonna eat some cajun crawfish gumbo, 8-bit YEEHAW.