Roblog

I have a few hours of KIRBY AIR RIDE instead of the usual hour this time.  My little brother was playing with one of his friends and, being that the game allows up to four players, I thought I’d join in to see what they were up to.  KIRBY AIR RIDE is for the GameCube and is made by Nintendo.  There are at least a couple different modes (the main one being a kart-style racing game), but we spent all our time playing the “City Trial.”  City Trial mode is like free-form kart game interspersed with mini-games.  The idea is that Kirby (Nintendo’s adorable pink puff-ball hero) drives/glides around a large city map on various “stars” (vehicles) collecting items.  The stars are all dispersed throughout the city and have (sometimes vastly) different handling characteristics and each use the “boost” button for different effects–some use it to go faster, some can only turn when using the boost button, some drift when boosting, etc.  The items the players are trying to collect affect the stats of their rides.  There are speed up, speed down, handling up, increased HP, and the like.  The concept is to go find a star you’re comfortable piloting then collect as many power up items as possible in the amount of time allowed in the city map.  These stat changes will be used in the mini-game to follow to (hopefully) give you an edge over your opponents.  All the while, your buddies are trying to level up their stars and can even knock power-ups off yours.  The mini games vary from races, to battles, to who can glide the farthest and, when set to random, you never know what the competition at the end of the City Trial you’ll be in and whether you collected the right power-ups for it.

All-in-all, it is surprisingly entertaining (even considering how primitive the graphics look), though it can get rather cutthroat with the item collection (especially with eight- and nine-year olds).  The different stars are fun, and actually do provide enough variety that each player tends to have their favorite and that favorite is often different from someone else’s.  A lot of the rounds I had with my brother and his friends turned into their own games of hide-and-go-seek, destroy all the stars, or any number of emergent game-modes we came up with on our own.  We never did manage to defeat the King DeDeDe battle, though . . . so I’m not so sure about the balance of that one ; )

Perusing my little brothers game collection I ran across Sega’s SONIC MEGA COLLECTION for the GameCube and decided to get my old school game on and play one of the Sonic games I never got around to when I was younger.  I was a Sonic follower when I was little and I had a small collection of the games on the Genesis.  I’d never gotten a chance to play the fourth installment, though, so I was actually kind of excited to finally try out SONIC & KNUCKLES.  (The collection includes SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, its two sequals, SONIC & KNUCKLES, SONIC 3D BLAST, SONIC! SPINBALL, and DR. ROBOTNIK’S MEAN BEAN MACHINE.)

The first SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, in case you haven’t played one of the original Sonic games before (I know, I’m getting old), was built for the SEGA Genesis and was a 2D platformer to compete with the Mario games from Nintendo.  The big sell-point was the amazing speed at which Sonic could traverse his tile-based levels and  the fun roller coaster design that resulted from all that speed.  SONIC & KNUCKLES was the fourth installment of the series and was the final 2D version.  The game plays exactly like its predecessors, though the designers added a couple new abilities for both Sonic, and his new rival, Knuckles.  These abilities allow the designers to create sections of a level that are character-specific, only Knuckles could reach some places with his smashing power.  Basic mechanics included moving and jumping (the basics of a platforming game precedented by SUPER MARIO BROS.) to progress from platform to platform, avoid dangers, and attack enemies.  The Sonic games also added the ability to roll into a spikey spinning ball in order to attack some enemies from the ground.  Springs and loop-de-loops are characteristic of most Sonic levels and spinning gold rings were the collection item of choice.

It was interesting to go back to this game and see how strongly the arcade mentality influenced the design of the game.  The arcade industry was still fairly strong and console designers were constantly chasing arcade-quality.  Generally big successes were games that were big arcade hits and were then ported to the consoles, though with lower quality graphics due to the limitations of the console hardware. Despite (as far as I’m aware) never being an arcade title, SONIC & KNUCKLES still held on to a three lives, no continues philosophy, leading to a very challenging game.  The player has to earn new lives and learn the levels in order to progress to the later stages.  If he fails to get to the end before his life stock has run out, the game is simply over and the player must restart from the beginning.  Game design since has changed to favor helping a player play through and enjoy the game, with automatic saves, infinite “lives” (see my REPUBLIC HEROES post), and a focus on playing levels again after completing them in order to find other bonuses or increase score.  This is in contrast to having to play a level over before completing it due to failure to reach the end and having to learn how best to accomplish the task.

As a side note, I still find it amazing to play a Sonic game on a Nintendo platform.

I figured since it’s a new decade and everyone else wants to make their “top 10” lists for movies, books, and whatnot, I’d throw in my ten cents.  So here are my top ten video and computer games released in the previous decade.

#10 — Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (released in 2001 for the Playstation 2)

I’m a huge fan of the Gran Turismo series and have been playing them since the first one came out for the PlayStation.  The third installment was the peak of the series for me.  I know it didn’t have as many cars as Gran Turismo 2 and maybe not as advanced in display and options as Gran Turismo 4, but the balance of the races and the progression through the game was by far the best of the series to date.

#9 — Plants vs. Zombies (released in 2009; I played on Mac OS)

PopCap Games is the Pixar of casual games.  All of their games are great.  Plants vs. Zombies is their best.  My eight year-old brother’s friends still come over just to play this game.  It didn’t matter that we had two Playstation 2s, a GameCube, a Wii, a DS or two, or even a Playstation 3 — everyone fought over who would get to play Plants vs. Zombies next.

#8 — Rock Band 2 (released in 2008; I played on Playstation 3)

I was late to the party, playing my first plastic guitar game a little after Guitar Hero II came out, but I was instantly hooked on the games.  I’d been a fan of other rhythm games in the past (yes, it’s true, I played Dance Dance Revolution and Donkey Konga, and the lesser known game by Harmonix, Amplitude, had been a favorite of mine), but I thought Guitar Hero was a stupid idea . . . until I played it.  Now I host plastic guitar parties with my extensive collection of Guitar Hero and Rock Band games.  Go ahead and bundle all the titles from the two franchises in with Rock Band 2.  The Beatles Rock Band is probably the best designed, but I still have more fun rocking out to the Rock Band 2 catalogue, which is why Rock Band 2 gets to be named.

#7 — Kingdom Hearts II (released in 2005 for the Playstation 2)

I love this franchise and I think the second one was the better of the two major installments.  The mix of the Disney locales and characters with Square Enix’s gameplay polish and control of the genre made for a very satisfying play.  More console role-playing games should play like these games.

#6 — Ico (released in 2001 for the Playstation 2)

Beautiful, beautiful game.  I still marvel at the look that developers managed to create on the now dated Playstation 2 hardware.  The puzzles were very well done and challenging, and the story, though simply presented, was compelling and provided enough glue to perfectly keep the game together.  Did I mention that it’s a beautiful game?

#5 — The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (released in 2002 for the GameCube)

Wind Waker held classic Zelda-style gameplay in a new, wide-open setting.  Traversing Wind Waker’s water world and its islands was far more fun than I would have expected and really did give me a sense of exploration.  The cell-shaded art style was amazing in the game.  Screenshots never did it justice.  A great game and nearly, NEARLY beats out my all-time favorite of the series, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, which is saying a lot.

#4 — God of War (released in 2005 for the Playstation 2)

Brutal. Awesome. Epic. I was not prepared for the amazingness that poured forth from my TV when I put this disc in.  God of War did things I’d never seen before in a game and did other things I had seen, but did them far better.  It’s a brawler, and a platformer, and a puzzle game and it’s great at all three.  Put that with an epic story and even more epic visuals and you’ve got one of the top ten games of the decade.  Oh, and God of War II is just as good, though a bit more cruel.

#3 — Prince of Persia (released in 2008; I played on Playstation 3)

My only real complaint with this game is its ending, and maybe because of that it shouldn’t be in the top three.  I had so much fun with it and the superbly polished gameplay Ubisoft created in it, though, that I’m keeping the latest installment in the Prince of Persia franchise high on my list.  It is a beautifully put-together game, with stunning vistas galore, and ingenious design elements.  The interactions between the “prince” and the princess were fun, informative, well-written and well-delivered.  The feel of the controls make other platformers feel clunky, imprecise, and unresponsive in comparison. Great game.

#2 — Battlefield 1942 (released in 2002 for Windows PCs)

Much time was spent (and arguably wasted) playing Battlefield 1942 and later Battlefield Vietnam at the 11:11 offices when these games came out.  We couldn’t wait to set off renders, take a break, skip lunch, or stay late for rousing battles online and locally.  We played so much during that time that when I went outside and heard a prop plane flying over from the nearby airport, I’d start to take cover . . .

And now a drum roll for my number one game of the last decade . . .

#1 — Fallout 3 (released in 2008; I played on Playstation 3)

This game is awesome.  I’d never really gotten into the previous Fallout games (my college roommate would probably yell at me for that).  I was always intrigued by the open-ended character options, but the chunky graphics and cludginess of the isometric three-quarter view kept me from really enjoying the series.  Then Bethesda got their hands on it and created a first-person role-playing game that actually allowed me to create practically any type of character I wanted and (in the true role-playing sense) allowed me to be successful being evil or good, a talker or a fighter, intelligent or a goober.  I keep replaying this game just to see how situations I’ve already played in the game turn out if, say, I’m a kleptic, gullible guy with fists of steel; or I follow in my father’s footsteps as a scientist who is just trying to survive; or a sweet-talking, gun-nut, gambler with a good heart. All that and I still haven’t even touched the expansions.

So there you are.  The top ten games I played this past decade.  There are some honorable mentions: Quake 3, Starcraft, and Soul Calibur were all games that I had a great deal of fun playing with my buddies in college in the earlier half of the decade (but they all came out before 2000) and I think Civilization IV and the Lego Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Batman games were all great fun and deserve some mention.

~r

Currently playing: Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues