Day 38: Import Tuner Challenge (360)

A rare foray onto the Xbox 360 in my plan to play one title from my 603 game backlog for every day that the UK is in lockdown. Today's selection is...

Import Tuner Challenge on the Xbox 360
Previous days' entries can be read HERE

Back on the Dreamcast, ‘Metropolis Street Racer’ was the obvious choice for arcade racer fans looking for something to entertain. Alongside this classic, I spent a lot of time playing both of the 'Tokyo Highway Challenge' games. These were pretty simplistic efforts built around the idea that you tune your car, hit the motorway, and flash your headlights at rival street racers to battle them - it was a very addictive race-win-upgrade-race loop.

The sprawling 'Shutokou Battle' series to which they belong, started on the Super Famicom in 1994 and was still going (albeit on Android) in 2017 some 35 entries later.
Less than a third of these games saw release in Europe, so when I found out 'Import Tuner Challenge' was the final console entry in this series, I bought it. It has sat on my shelf for a good while, but now, I'm finally going to play it.

Day 37: The Red Star (PS2)

One title from my 605 game backlog for every day that the UK is in lockdown. Today's selection is...

The Red Star on the PlayStation 2

Previous days' entries can be read HERE

When people started eulogising ‘Nier Automata’ a little while back, many of them were talking about how it cleverly mixed brawling with ranged combat and used various camera angles to mix up the gameplay… I was sure I’d heard this before but couldn’t quite recall when or for what. It transpires that it was for this; ‘The Red Star’, a comic book tie-in game that does all of those things - although it would take a person of quirkier tastes than I to suggest that ‘The Red Star’ is as good a game as Taro Yoko’s modern masterpiece.

Day 36: Lady Sia (GBA)

On a run of 4 disappointments in my quest to play one title from my 607 game backlog for every day that the UK is in lockdown. Maybe it'll be different today with...

Lady Sia on the GBA

Previous days' entries can be read HERE

This is a game from one of those studios who used to churn out licensed fodder for an easy pay cheque. There were loads of these developers on the GBA, I guess the modern equivalent would be the companies that flood Nintendo's eShop with lazy mobile ports and games with names that, at a glance, might be confused for something actually worth buying.

Day 35: MotorStorm: Apocalypse (PS3)

I'm playing one title from my 608 game backlog every day that the UK is in lockdown. 
Today's selection is...

MotorStorm: Apocalypse on the PS3

Previous days' entries can be read HERE

I had a bit of an adventure just getting set-up to play this game. First I had to find a charge-cable for my 3D glasses (when was the last time you saw mini-USB?), then I had to install a decades-worth of missed updates, and then it turned out that this game hated my console. I’m lucky enough to have a 60GB Fat PS3 with the hardware supported backwards compatibility, and as you can probably understand I’m quite protective of it. So, after the third time this game crashed the system with 3 beeps and a flashing red light, I only had one option: Break out the spare!

Day 34: Runner3 (Switch)

I'm playing one title from my 610 game backlog every day that the UK is in lockdown. Today's selection is...

Runner3 on the Switch

Previous days' entries can be read HERE

If you've been paying attention to the number at the start of these posts you may have noticed that occasionally it doesn't change when it should, and sometimes it even goes in the wrong direction.
This is because I'm an idiot and I can't stop buying games. One arrived yesterday, there's one in the post to me as we speak and last week I couldn't resist this at 90% off in the eShop sale.

Day 33: Fired Up! (PSP)

I'm playing one randomly chosen title from my 610 game backlog every day that the UK is in lockdown. 
Today's selection is...

Fired Up! on the PSP
Previous days' games can be found HERE

Before I get into looking at Fired Up!, I noticed that this has moved the 'Played' counter on the spreadsheet I use to keep track of my games to a nice round 1100 - so a quick thank you to those of you who are reading regularly for keeping me going. Next target: Getting that 'Unplayed' counter down below 600! Anyway...

It was all the way back on day one of this journey when the random game selector - henceforth to be known as ‘Selectron™’ - last chose a PSP game. That was the excellent Luminees II whereas today we’re in slightly more obscure territory with Fired Up!, a game I think I own because I got it confused with Pursuit Force. (Pursuit Force, by the way, is fantastic!)

It doesn’t take long with Fired Up! before you realise you’re playing the Single Player bolt-on to a very multiplayer focused game. If the back of the box doesn't give enough clues then you’ll soon notice that the design of each of the first two maps bear all the hallmarks of multiplayer arenas. They are clearly designed to be fun as automotive battlegrounds, and the ‘get A and take it to B’ in the alloted time ‘missions’ have been superimposed as something of an afterthought.
Actually, that’s unfair. There is definitely a story, however rudimentary, to try make the missions more cohesive and there are one or two attempts at mixing up the fetch-quests a little: The second map has you burning around taking pictures of suspicious crates as part of an investigation, which is made extra fun by the excellent handling of the buggy you have for this map; it’s a loads of fun to just hoon around in.

As well as the ten or so missions on each map there is some standard open-world filler bulking up the experience. Firstly, there’s your icon-hunt collector-thon. This has the added benefit of increasing the number of health and weapon drops there are around the map. Secondly are the game’s equivalent of GTA’s ‘Frenzys’, these are eponymously referred to as ‘getting Fired Up!’ and involve destroying a set number of vehicles in a set time.

And that’s more or less it. There are four maps in total for the Story Mode but apparently more are/were available as DLC. I played the first two and, in all honesty, I’m not sure I’ll be heading back to finish the other two any time soon.
The best thing I can say about Fired Up! is that it makes me sad I didn’t play it when the multiplayer was active. I mean, yeah, the collision detection seems like it might be frustrating as all hell, and the various weapons are more or less identical but, as I mentioned, the car handling is really fun, and I imagine it would be the best kind of fustercluck with 7 mates.

I was going to end there but there’s just one last thing I want to make a point of: One of the player characters is a Ghanaian called Addo. Throughout the first set of levels his heritage is constantly brought to our attention by the main NPC contact (a white guy) who refers to him as a ‘Crazy African’, ‘my African friend’, or variations thereupon. 
I hate to politicise something which is clearly not based in malice, but the fact that he wasn’t just referred to as a ‘crazy man’ or ‘my friend’ made me a little uncomfortable.
Anyway, far be it for me to get offended on anyone else's behalf, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Fired Up! - Hard to recommend as a single player game, and sadly that's all there is to it today

Day 32: Gungrave Overdose (PS2)

I'm playing one randomly chosen title from my 611 game backlog every day that the UK is in lockdown. 
Today's selection is...

Gungrave: Overdose on the PS2
Previous days' games can be found HERE

If you've read any of the previous posts I've made in this series you may have picked up that my taste in games leans towards the 'action' end of the spectrum. I believe games can do 'story' well, and some of my favourites are of the slower and more thoughtful variety, but I grew up in the arcades; bunking off the last couple of classes on a Friday afternoon to head to Tavistock Street, where the arcades were in my hometown, shaped my preferences for that instant gratification style of gaming, and it has stayed with me ever since.

Additionally, although I don’t know how apparent this has been, I tend to prefer games outside the mainstream. I would never write-off a game just because it’s big budget or popular but I find that the kind of creativity and originality I most love is more often found away from the headline acts.

And so, finally, we come to Gungrave: OverDose, a full on action game that’s definitely not mainstream… remember when I said ‘expectation is the mother of disappointment’?

As you might guess from the name, this is a sequel. The original Gungrave was released two years prior and was annihilated in reviews for being simplistic, easy, and two hours long. These are all valid criticisms, Gungrave was definitely all of those things, but it was also a great looking game - the epitome of ‘style over substance’ - and when you take all that into consideration it’s easy to imagine that the developer was trying to make a playable anime action movie, but forgot that those didn’t retail for £40 a pop. I paid a lot less than that a long time after release and had a fun two hours, no complaints.

In OverDose you play as ‘Beyond The Grave’ a reanimated gunman who seems to have spent his interred years watching Desperado on loop. Yes, ‘Beyond The Grave’ is his name. Later in the game you unlock two additional playable characters; ‘Juji Kabane’, a dual gunblade wielding blind man with a bloodhound's nose (figuratively speaking), and the ghost of a man who haunts a weaponised electric guitar and goes by the name of ‘Rocketbilly Redcadillac’... Yes, really.

The back of the box boasts over an hour of original anime cut-scenes and, in addition to this, there is a fair amount of story conveyed in visual novel style, where each character has an illustration in a panel that moves about and shakes to portray what’s going on in the dialogue - it’s surprisingly effective and put me mind of the ‘Travis Strikes Back’ sections of the recent No More Heroes spin off. The gameplay is third person, viewed from behind the character at distance rather than ‘over the shoulder’. You can control the camera but only as long as you’re holding the right stick; let go and it swings back to the default position. In game, graphics continue the anime theme with simple, stylised shapes and cell shading. As with the original, this is beautifully presented.

The gameplay involves shooting everything on screen, moving to the next room, and then shooting everything on screen. There are melee moves for close combat, a charged move for additional damage, and a super move called a ‘Demolition Shot’ that fills as your death and destruction combo rises. The death and destruction combo counter is called ‘Beats’ - On my first play of the game I cleared the second-level opening stage in a Beats count that reached over 500; this, I think, gives a good account of the sort of gameplay we’re looking at.
There are bosses and mid-bosses in the time honoured fashion, and they vary from insanely creative (a gang boss in a mechanised robo-chair) to utterly infuriating (2 bulldozers that can only be attacked from the side in an area the size of my back garden).
It’s fair to say that OverDose rectifies all of the criticisms levelled at the original. The gameplay is (slightly) more complex, as is the structure, it offers more of a challenge and it was even released originally at a budget price. It’s about four times as long, too, but this is where the problems creep in.

The first Gungrave offered very little variety in it’s gameplay, but as it could be completed in a couple of hours it didn’t really matter. With eight stages and as many hours of game time, OverDose, despite the additional characters and gameplay elements, suffers through repetition. There are some well chosen locations that allow for level specific enemies; machine gun fruit machines in the Casino and bad guys rolling around on trolleys in a Supermarket, for example. But when they can all be defeated by hammering the square button in much the same way as the standard cannon fodder enemies they don’t actually add variety to the game. The irony is that after two hours I thought this was a fantastic game, another two after that I was getting bored.


Which is a real shame. Gungrave: OverDose has a lot to offer action game fans, particularly those with an interest in anime, and it is by no means a bad game, it’s just that, given the bonkers characters and non-stop action, it’s not quite as entertaining as it should be. 

Gungrave Overdose - Style over substance? Probably. But the bigger issue is one of quantity over quality. 

Day 31: Sega Ages 2500 Series: Out Run (PS2)

I'm playing one randomly chosen title from my 612 game backlog every day that the UK is in lockdown. 
Today's selection is...

Sega Ages 2500 Series: Out Run

If you read my previous post where I held a showdown for all the unplayed versions of Space Harrier I owned, you might recall that I mentioned a compilation called the Sega Classics Collection on which there was a traumatically bad remake of that game. 

In my brief summary of said monstrity I remarked that: "I don't think I can bear to see what they've done to OutRun." - Well the random-game-selector is playing chief tormentor today so here I am, facing that fear head-on.

It turns out that all of the games on this compilation are from the Sega Ages 2500 Series. These remakes were released as individual games on the PS2 in Japan from 2003 to 2004, but collected in the west in 2005 in much the same way as the more recent 3DS Classics Collection. 

I wrote a dedicated post on how I feel about the original OutRun a little while ago, if you can't be bothered to read the whole thing then just knowing that it's called 'A love letter to Out Run' might give you a clue as to my thoughts.

And my thoughts on this version? Confusion, abundantly. It’s just so, I don't know, pointless, I guess.

They've taken OutRun and replaced every sprite with polygons - not even nice polygons, the game looks like it could quite easily run on an N64 (and that might even be doing a disservice to the N64). Then they've done horrible new versions of each of the three tunes (although the originals are there too), and that's about it. 
There are some extra options that shuffle the courses around a bit but other than that this basically OutRun: Fugly Edition.

It's all a bit bizarre and I really don't know what to think of it.

On one hand it IS OutRun. The courses appear identical, the speed is good, the layouts are as you remember - but then something isn't quite right; I didn't make it to the first checkpoint without crashing on my first three tries, for example, and I've been playing this game for 30 years.

There's an argument that whatever small changes have caused this are welcome; mixing things up and making the game feel new is something a remake should try and do - and that argument is usually sound - but it doesn't fit the obvious goals of this version of the game. It's clearly aiming to re-create OutRun perfectly but with 'modern' graphics, so it should either do that perfectly or it has failed.
The alternative type of remake is to completely re-imagine the source. To further explore how this can work you only need look to the Arcades or the Xbox where, at the exact same time that these 'Sega Ages 2500' games were released, you could be playing the majestic OutRun 2.

And maybe that's the real reason for this game to exist; to placate the Sony faithful who felt left out of the glorious party that was happening on rival hardware. 
Sumo and AM2 had taken the soul of classic OutRun and used it to create a completely new, fresh, and beautiful game that achieved the impossible by living up to the legacy of what is, for my money, the greatest arcade game ever made. Whereas this 'Sega Ages' version? It's not to change the original’s oil.

Sega Ages 2500 Series: Out Run - As ugly as it is utterly pointless

Day 30: Grand Slam Tennis (Wii)

I'm playing one randomly chosen title from my 613 game backlog every day that the UK is in lockdown. Today's selection is...

Grand Slam Tennis on the Wii

In case you're unfamiliar, Grand Slam Tennis was one of the first games to make use of the Wii Motion+ add-on that vastly improved the fidelity of motion controls.
The device itself is interesting to read about in the age of household VR. There was a lot of talk from developers at the time about how the device was capable of full 1:1 motion capture but it wasn't used because they didn't think people were ready for it. As a result, I don't think any of the 40 or so games that are compatible with Motion+ actually realised it's full potential.

I've only played two other games with support for this peripheral; Red Steel 2 and Zangeki no Reginleiv. Both were excellent and the enhanced controls genuinely added a lot to the experience.

I don't play tennis. Real tennis I mean, outdoors, in the world. I've played a fair bit of squash in my time but me and tennis aren't friends. But I like a tennis game, I think it's a sport that translates to the video game medium really well - which shouldn't be a surprise really because, y'know, Pong.

Structurally Grand Slam Tennis is very much your average tennis game. There's all the usual game modes you would expect: Tournament, doubles, singles, online multiplayer, and all the rest.
Being a Wii title the focus is heavily on multiplayer but, thankfully, the tour mode does offer a decent amount of entertainment for the single player.
There's even a simple character creation tool that when used allows you to track the calories you've burned during play - it's a very 2009 gimmick, but I must admit it's one I quite liked. (109, in case you're wondering).

The single player tour is comprised of the usual Grand Slam events (all licensed) each of which is embellished by three exhibition matches as a warm up to the main event. They usually have some special rules such as 'Tag Team' where you and your partner hit alternate shots, or 'Champ', the rules of which I didn't quite grasp but it had something to do with winning rallys. In these events you can win stars to boost your characters stats but, full disclosure, I've yet to win a match so I don't actually know how this works.

Grand Slam Tennis is a difficult game to get your head around. It doesn't help that there's no tutorial mode other than a couple of flash card style infographics that sometimes appear between matches. I'm yet to launch a decent looking serve and I've even disconnected the nunchuck so the game will handle movement around the court for me; I've basically gone full noob on this while I learn the idiosyncrasies of the controls, and I'm getting better, I've actually won a few games now - even if I have yet to put together a match victory.

The thing is, when you get into a rally and it's all getting a bit Boris Becker, more often than not the ball does what you want it too. More than once I've been wrong-handed and the weird panicked flick action I've made has translated into exactly the sort of shot I envisaged, and that's pretty remarkable.
It's clear these controls really work very well, but in the absence of a proper training mode, mastery of them is going to take some time. 

I think I'll give it that time though. Despite my abject failures so far I'm enjoying the game a lot. It looks great too, with it's cartoony caricatures that enable you to face off with Rafa Nadal or Serena Williams one minute and Jon McEnroe or Pat Cash the next. Talking of Pat Cash, he provides the commentary, it's awful. turn it off.

When the game was released a lot of people were miffed at the idea of spending £40 on a game and then £20 each per Motion+ accessory. I picked up my copy for £1.50 and paid less than a fiver for the newer controller type that had the capability built in. Which all makes this a much more viable option for anyone wanting to dust off the Wii for a family tennis tournament while everyone is stuck at home.

Grand Slam Tennis - A decade after its release, it's the perfect tennis game for the times we're living in.

Day 29: 1080° Snowboarding VS Cool Boarders 2 (N64 vs PS1)

I'm playing one randomly chosen title from my 614 game backlog every day that the UK is in lockdown. Today's selection was...

1080° Snowboarding on the N64

And as you can see from the title I've decided to do a face off against a similar unplayed game...

Cool Boarders 2 on the Playstation

I actually have Cool Boarders 3 (PS1) and Cool Boarders Burrrn (for the Dreamcast) also unplayed but the second one was closest to the release date of 1080 and I wanted to make it as fair a fight as possible. I might do a double-header for the other two if either is selected later on.

1080° Snowboarding was released originally in February 1998 - almost exactly halfway between the second and third Cool Boarders’. It’s a great looking game even today, and it embraces the very un-Nintendo styles of the late ‘90s snowboarding scene pretty well. The art and music direction sets the tone for what is a surprisingly realism-focused approach for the whole game; the snow effects and physics in particular are impressive for 1998.

Cool Boarders 2 also doubles down on the ‘extreme’ design choices. From the music to the text font this is unmistakably a turn of the century ‘esports’ title. Graphically it’s a notch behind 1080° Snowboarding with a seemingly lower polygon count leading to a general blockier look. I don’t know what the technical term is for being able to see the joins in the environment but this is such an issue that it almost looks like a deliberately retro pastiche made by some hipster indie developer just last year. The physics too are less realistic, you always feel ‘on the snow’, whereas in 1080° Snowboarding the snow gives a much better impression of being a changeable, moving surface.

So 1080° Snowboarding definitely wins on presentation and (relative, this is an N64 game) realism, but when I head off to the slopes to learn the tricks and control systems for both games it’s a bit of a different story.

1080° Snowboarding is very deliberately not a grab-and-tweak based game, the most complex tricks are based on rotation - with the titular 1080 spin requiring three complete rotations of the analogue stick with three changes of button press. The same trick in Cool Boarders 2 is performed by simply holding left or right or right on the d-pad for a bit before a jump. The approaches couldn’t be more different and as a result 1080° Snowboarding only has 25 tricks, nearly half that of Cool Boarders 2.

And since I mentioned the d-pad I should probably clarify that analogue control is not an option in the Playstation game - and you have to wonder how much the systems’ controllers influenced the very different ethos’ of these titles. The N64 offering appears very self-conscious of using the analogue stick. The few grabs in the game are performed by pushing in one of eight directions on it, and only the main two face buttons are used in general play along with the Z and R triggers. The PS1 game is also conspicuous in its use of all of the controller's trademark 4 triggers and only really uses two face buttons in combination with them.

Deciding which scheme is better in 2020 is a difficult task. The controls of 1080° Snowboarding work well and it delivers exactly the kind of experience that it’s aiming for; in that regard it’s a definite success. The issue is that this is the game equivalent of a Panda Bear: It looks great and feels nice but it’s a complete evolutionary dead-end. Playing it for the first time today is like trying to ride a bike with your hands on the pedals while controlling the brakes with your ears. The next esports game to put analogue control front-and-centre was Skate, 10 years later, and even that doesn’t really bear any similarity to 1080° Snowboarding. As such, despite an ostensibly more complicated set-up, I found Cool Boarders 2 a much easier game to get to grips with as it fell instantly in line with the muscle memory I’ve built up through decades of playing the Tony Hawk and SSX series’.

When it comes to looking at the games as a whole it presents an interesting dichotomy. When you directly compare the things the games have in common; Depicting the sport, the snow, and representing the style of both - 1080° Snowboarding is a clear winner, in these aspects it’s just all round a classier act. But when you look at the way the two approaches differ, spins or grabs, simple or complex, racing or stunts, realism or OTT thrills… Cool Boarders 2, it turns out, is just a lot more fun to play.

Would I have thought the same if I’d played these in 1998? Hard to say - This was before Tony Hawk's Pro Skater entered the scene and pretty much defined how all extreme sports titles would play for the following decade, so it’s possible I would have enjoyed 1080’s approach more had I played it at the time… but we’ll never know. What I do know is that, as far 2020 is concerned:

The winner of the 1080° Snowboarding vs Cool Boarders 2 face-off is:

Cool Boarders 2

Despite lagging the Nintendo game in every obvious, technical regard, Cool Boarders 2 was the game I wanted to keep playing, and in the end there’s nothing more important than that.

Day 28: One (PlayStation)

I'm playing one title from my 616 game backlog every day that the UK is in lockdown. Today's selection is...

One on the PlayStation

Previous days' entries can be read HERE

ONE (I’m going to write it in capitals for clarity) is a game I was told about when discussing hidden gems for the PlayStation some time last year. Having checked at the local retro game shop and found they didn't have it (RIP Ninja Game Den), I took to eBay.

Try to imagine how hard it is to search for a game called 'ONE' on a machine everyone refers to as the PlayStation One... was it easy? No. Was it worth it...? 

In ONE you play an experimental soldier called John Cain. You have been blah blah blah... I don't care, you won't care, the game doesn't even really seem to care. The intro features one line of monologue; "I made a mistake." before a futuristic jet-helicopter thing fires a missile through Mr Cain's window disturbing him from an afternoon nap on the floor. At this point you take over.

Instantly you’ll be aware that there are some early 3D era issues in this game. Namely that there's mild platforming elements, and too often it's very difficult to judge your jump. So far, so 1997.

However.

It is with not a single iota of hyperbole that I say this is easily one of the best action games on the PlayStation. 
From that moment at the start, until the point I had to stop playing to write this, the game is a non-stop onslaught of gunfire, enemies, and explosions. 
There are games around today, big, popular, successful games, that feature weapons that break or lose effectiveness the more you use them. 
ONE doesn’t have this. ONE has a system, called ‘Rage’, through which your weapon increases power and rate of fire the more you use - either on people or objects - which of those two systems sounds the most fun to you? 
The game is viewed with a ‘dynamic’ camera - which basically means the game chooses the viewpoint and perspective. There are some points in the games where I cursed this, loudly, but all was forgiven come the stage 2 boss fight. During this particular set piece the action is viewed from the perspective of the boss, that’s certainly a new one on me, and it’s not only a very cool effect but is also key to figuring out how to beat the boss. The game is full of neat touches like this that keep the action varied, interesting, and fun. 

Alongside the lack of camera control there are other details that expose ONE’s transitional place in the timeline of video game history. Thankfully there is memory card support but tellingly there’s a password save too. The game uses long outdated (and sorely missed) ‘Lives’ and ‘Continues’, and then there’s the aforementioned platforming elements that are probably completely unnecessary, but there’s likely a couple of reasons the game has them. 
Firstly, at this time in gaming, the SNES and Mega Drive era (when platforming was very much king) was still fresh in developers' memories. 
Secondly, the designers of this game say their main inspiration for ONE was the likes of Contra and Gunstar Heroes; their aim was to bring that style of gameplay into the ‘3D’ era - and it’s no small praise to say that they pretty much achieve that goal.

ONE is explosive in every sense of the word. It kicks off at break-neck speed and doesn’t let up for a second; it’s hectic, noisy, full of neat tricks and surprises, and it’s one of those rare games where the imperfections are not only forgivable, but somehow endearing.

ONE - Genuinely unmissable for any PlayStation owning action game fan.

Day 27: OneShot (PC)

I'm playing one title from my 617 game backlog every day that the UK is in lockdown. Today's selection is...

OneShot on PC

Previous days' entries can be read HERE

As I've got older I've found that I like to streamline conversation with catchphrases - little cliched nuggets that sum up my thoughts without me having to (re)explain my opinion. It's either lazy or efficient, depending on your stance.

A couple of them came to mind while compiling my thoughts on this game. The first, as pertaining to OneShot, goes like this: 
"It's the game's job to keep the player engaged from start to finish, not the players job to keep playing something that is not engaging them."

The context, of course, is that I've stopped playing OneShot after a relatively short time and I don't think I'll be returning to it. I wasn't enjoying the game and I'm not going to continue out of some misplaced sense of obligation.

Part of this is down to the format. The game is a top down puzzle/adventure but it has a very RPG feel. There is a lot of interacting with other characters and this means reading a lot of text.
I've never enjoyed this in games; in 35-odd years playing I've never once completed an RPG of any kind.

The rest of the reason is that the game also features elements that are often incorrectly called 'metafictional'. In fact, these are just fourth-wall breaking puzzles and for me most of them didn't land with the intended impact.
When done correctly 'meta' is one of my favourite tools in fiction, but to be powerful or effective it works best when it doesn't break the fourth wall. Despite often being confused, 'meta' and ‘breaking the fourth-wall' are in fact very different things.
A lot of the puzzles and mechanics in OneShot wouldn't work if it were truly metafictional, but, conversely, it's likely that the narrative would be more effective if it could be moved in that direction. In the end it's a 'nearly there' story with some gimmicky puzzles - and it feels like an opportunity missed.

Which brings me to the second of my catchphrases: 
"Expectation is the mother of disappointment".

I first heard of OneShot after playing Pony Island; another meta/fourth-wall breaking indie puzzle game that I completely loved. Pony Island is punchy, funny, and completely over the top. There is definite weight in its story and it's important not to miss that - but the delivery and the narrative are in perfect tonal harmony, and I think that's where OneShot falls down. 
The feel of the in-game puzzles and game-world are at odds with the moments it asks you to act apart 'in your world' - this may be intentional, but that doesn't mean it works. 
I believe the idea is to promote a feeling of care and protection of the protagonist by adding weight to the player’s actions. But I found the disconnect impacted my immersion and was left cold by the maudlin tone of the characters.

It's entirely my fault that I let myself get carried away by people suggesting that if I loved Pony Island I'd love this, that's on me, but take that away and I wouldn't enjoy the game any more, or any less, than I actually did.

I feel I should probably say that, all this notwithstanding, the music and sound are both exceptional.

OneShot - Ambitious ideas, ruined by a tonally misjudged delivery

Day 26: Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy (3DS)

I'm playing one title from my 618 game backlog every day that the UK is in lockdown. Today's selection is...

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy on the 3DS

Previous days' entries can be read HERE

The handheld run continues, but we're up to date now with the 3DS... he says, before realising this game is almost a decade old. Terrifying.

Despite the long winded name, this is actually a remake of Ace Combat 2. The Assault Horizon part of the title was specific to the western release, assumingly to try and cross-promote with the 7th gen console (and PC) game that came out around the same time. Besides the title, the games' only other similarity is that they both feature a kind of 'special move' designed to help keep the action more dynamic. It was called 'Dog Fight Mode' in Assault Horizon, and I hated it. As a result I have never completed that game. In fact it’s probably why I haven't played Legacy on the 3DS... until now.

So I'll get right to it. 'Attack Manoeuvres' as they're called in this game, involve keeping within missile range of an airborne target for long enough for a power bar to charge. When triggered you're given a 'canned animation' depicting your aircraft performing some flashy aerobatics that will result in you being behind the enemy. 
If you're lucky enough to have played the brilliant 'Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces' on the Wii then you'll be very familiar with how this concept can work well, and not feel like hand-holding and the removal of player agency (as it did with Assault Horizon on 360/PS3/PC).
'Attack Maneuvers' are entirely optional, they flow into the gameplay seamlessly, don't guarantee a kill every time, and most important of all, they're actually quite fun to use. It basically makes you feel like you're in Top Gun for a few moments and, really, isn't that what this kind of game is all about?

It's a short game, taking me about 7 hours to complete first time around but, being a Japanese game, it has replayability built into the structure - I think I've mentioned before that I much prefer this approach to the Western style of a 30 hour game that you're only going to play once (Obviously this doesn't apply to RPGs, but I don't play those). As much as this is a personal preference, I don't think it's contentious to say that short levels are a much better fit for handheld games - with the 3D off you could finish this game (once) on a single battery charge.

Don't turn the 3D off though, it looks great.

In Japan the game featured support for the circle pad pro; the ugly bolt on that gave the 3DS a second analogue stick. I'm sure it works well, but the annoyance for me is that it would be completely unnecessary if the game allowed you to remap yaw from the d-pad to the L/R buttons. It's the game's biggest misstep, as it requires you to move your thumb from the analogue stick to the d-pad meaning you're never in full control of the plane. 

Nethertheless, this is still a very good Ace Combat game. It lacks some of the earnestness of previous games and the yaw control is annoying, but as far handheld flight combat games go, this is probably the best there is.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy - Top quality, Top Gun action on the move

Day 25: Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX (GBC)

I'm playing one title from my 620 game backlog every day that the UK is in lockdown. Today's selection is...

Mat Hoffman Pro BMX for Game Boy color

Previous days' entries can be read HERE

Four in row for handhelds now. We went from GBA all the way back to Game Gear, then Lynx, and now we're heading forward a bit from there with the Game Boy Color to explore the turn-of-the-century extreme sports scene.

There were so many of these games in the late nineties and early 21st century. Tony Hawk's Pro Skateboarding was such a huge success that it created a crossover audience that grew and grew. People into extreme sports started getting into video games and people who were into video games started to follow extreme sports. As a result there were skateboarding, roller-blading, and BMXing games everywhere you looked.

As a direct expansion to the Tony Hawk goldmine, Acclaim came up with this Mat Hoffman license for the Playstation and plugged his BMX directly into the Tony Hawk game engine. Anyone could see it was Tony Hawk with a bike but it was a fun game so it did pretty well.

Despite having a decent Tony Hawk game for the GBC that could have been similarly reskinned, a different route was taken with Mat Hoffman. In 2000, Acclaim had published a little known game called Road Champs BXS. With no big name to sell it and middling reviews it wasn't much of a success, so a year later it was this game that was given Tony Hawk style challenge goals, a few other negligible tweaks, slapped with the Hoffman branding, and sent out into the world.

The most criticised aspect of BXS was its 27 tutorial stages that needed to be completed before you could get anywhere on a real stage. Hoffman still has these training levels but thankfully they are all optional. However, with two buttons and more than 50 tricks on offer you'll definitely want to give at least a few of them a look.

The levels are comprised of quarter-pipes, spines, funboxes, and rails. Unlike the free-roaming nature of these games on more powerful consoles, here everything is presented isometrically and traversed left to right (or vice versa). You can also move up and down the screen as long as you're on certain equipment, and this allows the levels to take on a degree of exploration. Key to this is the fact that you can't transition from a quarter-pipe; the designers have used them to section off zones so that an alternative route must be found to get to areas beyond them.

It's all pretty smart stuff. The animation is incredibly clear considering the sprite size and the layouts ensure that finding all the Stars or all the letters of 'T-R-I-C-K' (as you are regularly required to do) is never as easy as you might imagine for a game that operates more or less on a 2D plane. 
I did a little research to see if any variety is introduced in later levels and, worryingly, it doesn't seem that there is. I had fun with the game for a while but I can't see that fun lasting for 26 very similar levels.

One last point of note is that for some reason the game didn't look too great plugged into my GBA SP. If you're going to give it a play then I suggest a GBC and good light source will make the game far more attractive. Just don't ask me why.

Mat Hoffman Pro BMX (GBC) - Surprisingly complex but all the better for it.

Day 24: Hydra (Lynx)

I'm playing one title from my 620 game backlog every day that the UK is in lockdown. Today's selection is...

Hydra for the Atari Lynx

Previous days' entries can be read HERE

The random selector is smiling on me today. I adore the Atari Lynx; it's a beautiful beast of a thing and it's small catalogue has a ridiculously high ratio of really good games. It's always an absolute joy to find a reason to fill it with 6 AAs and get playing!

As I write this we in the UK have just started our fourth week of what was originally supposed to be a 3 week lockdown (although, to be fair, no-one actually believed it would be that short). Given the types of storylines videogames lean towards I'm surprised that a plot foreshadowing current events hasn't come up in one of the 23 previous days. But fear not, Hydra, a simple arcade game about a heavily armed flying boat is here to put that right. Each level sees our be-mulleted hero taking on swarms of enemies as he races to deliver sensitive packages to a couple of bikini clad girls who live in a shack on the river (obviously). The contents of the very first package: Mutated Virus! Spooky, right?

One of the things I love about the Lynx is the quality of it's coin-op conversions. It's incredible that a handheld unit in 1992 was able to create the feel of these arcade games so accurately. Granted the games chosen were on the simpler side, but there's no denying that the Lynx ports of A.P.B., Xenophobe, S.T.U.N. Runner, Rampage, and the like are among the best out there. The most accurate of them all was probably Roadblasters, the game that I fondly remember being tucked down by the counter at Mr Pool in Bedford for years on end was brought to the Lynx in almost arcade-perfect condition. 

I mention this because Hydra, a far less well known game, is both another very accurate Lynx arcade port and basically Roadblasters on water. The reliance on fuel, the temporary power-ups, the on track orbs. All present and correct.
Hydra does add a couple of tweaks of its own. There's a shop between levels where the aforementioned power-ups can be purchased along with extra fuel. There are bonus levels after each stage too, taking place in an enormous geodesic dome, and, finally, there's Hydra's big gimmick: As well as attacking enemies on the water you can launch into the air to grab cash balloons and attack helicopters and other flying enemies before gliding safely back to the river - it may not sound like much, but it does add an extra little dimension to the gameplay.

Despite these, not insignificant, additions to the Roadblasters formula, Hydra is never quite as fun as it's obvious inspiration. It's absolutely worth playing for fans of this kind of arcade immediacy and as you can pick up boxed copies for about £15 it's more than worth than worthy of a place in your Lynx library.

Hydra (Lynx) - Roadblasters with a flying boat. Why wouldn't you want that?

Gaming the Pandemic - Day 23: Space Harrier 4-way Showdown

I'm playing one title from my 624 game backlog every day that the UK is in lockdown. Today's selection...

Space Harrier for Game Gear / C64 / Amiga / PS2 

Previous days' entries can be read HERE

Yes it's four-for-one time! Obviously only one of these versions was spat out by the random game selector but when I realised I had so many unplayed ports of Space Harrier I thought this would be a fun way to bulk up what would otherwise be a pretty short piece.

I own six different versions of Space Harrier so as you might guess I'm a bit of a fan. It was one of those arcade machines that you just had to play whenever you saw it. Everything about was amazing. The sound, the music, the setting, and obviously the hydraulic chair. It holds a special place in my heart and I guess that's why I just can't see a copy and not buy it - even though I know very well that the vast majority of these ports are pretty shoddy (which is probably why I haven't played any of them yet).
Talking of shoddy...

C64 Version
For some reason there are two versions of Space Harrier on the C64. The first was ported in house by Sega and the second was released a year later by Elite.
They can be told apart by the fact that one is terrible and the other is really terrible. Guess which I own?
The graphics are actually decent - or at least they would be if the game was a screenshot. The animations are rubbish and the controls are jerky to the point of unusability.

Game Gear Version
Absolutely this should not work. With the Game Gear's tiny screen and limited capabilities this should be a disaster. It isn't though, as you probably guessed, it's actually a very playable kind of 'edited' version of the game. Possibly sacrilige to purists but I'd rather they make a Space Harrier game that's fun to play than one that is more arcade accurate but not enjoyable. 
It runs pretty quick, the graphics are big and colourful without clogging up the screen and music is really nice too. Best of all the game has password save, who doesn't long for that in every arcade conversion? Worth noting that, like most handheld games, this looks much nicer on the real screen than it does on an emulator.

Amiga Version
In a word, disappointing. Maybe I expected too much but even after a couple of minutes with the game I thought I was on to a winner. Sadly the issues soon started to come thick and fast. The game sounds like it's playing on a single channel with sound effects eliminating most of the music, for some reason you're not allowed to move around the whole of the screen and, most annoying of all, the enemy fire is tiny so you often can't see that you're about to die because your own body is in the way.
Frustrating doesn't begin to cover it.

PS2 Version
No. Just no. It's like the devil ate Space Harrier and this is what he shat out. This is part of a compilation that takes 8 classic Sega titles and re-invents them with (and I quote): 'enhanced graphics and sound for a superior experience'. No.
This is the only game on the disc I've played. Judging by this I don't think I can bear to see what they've done to OutRun. If the horrible EDM music and hideous rendered graphics weren't bad enough, the game is just so damn slow; it's as if they wanted to extend the torture.

Space Harrier 4-way Fight, the winner is: 

The Sega Game Gear, and it's not even close.

I'm off to play the 3DS version to cleanse my soul.

Gaming the Pandemic - Day 22: The Scorpion King: The Sword of Osiris (GBA)

I'm playing one title from my 625 game backlog every day that the UK is in lockdown. The selection for today is...

The Scorpion King: The Sword of Osiris on GBA

Previous entries can be found HERE


There's a commonly held belief among video game fans that licensed games, particularly those based on films, are intrinsically bad. There's decades of evidence to back this up of course, but as far back into gaming history as bad movie tie-ins go, so too go the exceptions to this rule.

Due to its limited power (compared to everything else around it) every cross-platform game for the GBA had to be made from the ground up for the hardware and this resulted in a lot of 'de-makes' - games that elsewhere embraced the power of 6th generation hardware were given GBA versions that looked very much like something from the SNES or Mega Drive era. 

For the 2007 TNMT CGI movie the big boys were given a horrible, generic action platforming mess of a game while the GBA received one of the best side-scrolling beat-em-ups anyone had seen for years. It was a similar case with Ghost Rider. The Nicolas Cage movie vehicle may have been poor, but the home console tie-in games were even worse, while the GBA had a cool little 2D action effort with shades of Castlevania.

Which is all ground-work so that you believe me when I say that this Scorpion King game on the little GBA, that can be picked up online for about three quid, is really, really good.

The 'Sword of Osiris' subtitle is indication that the game actually serves as a sequel to the Scorpion King movie. You start in control of the Kelly Hu character, Cassandra, but early on you'll face an unwinnable boss battle and the avatar switches to that representing Mathayus, the character portrayed in the movie by Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson - and just like that we're right back to 'rescue the damsel in distress' territory (but more on that later). As you would expect from Wayforward the sprites, despite being fairly small, are well drawn and beautifully animated. And while some of the games backgrounds can be a little nondescript the worst thing that can be said about the visuals is that when it uses still headshots from the movie to illustrate which character is talking it looks cheap and clashes with the style of the game, but as biggest issues go, that's a pretty small one.

The game is ostensibly a side scrolling action platformer. You spend the first true section heading from left to right killing things in time honoured fashioned. However, there are a couple of SNES era tropes to keep things interesting. We have the good old 'keep jumping to stay out quicksand' gambit and a nice screen effect to represent walking into a strong wind. When you hit the second section things start to build upon this solid start. While the representation of the levels remains pretty basic, structurally they begin to open up and offer alternate routes. Enemies too evolve and start to exhibit patterns to be avoided and exploited, and there are secret routes and rooms everywhere.

Basic combat is enhanced by a choice of two weapons, one strong but direct, the other weak but a bit more versatile - both can be enhanced by collecting gems for the infinity gauntlet style glove you are given at the start of the game. There is nothing outstanding about the game in this area but it works well. It's really the exploration that sets Scorpion King apart from other games of this type, and this excels through a nicely implemented wall jump that enables traversal to otherwise unreachable areas.

The positives on offer make this an attractive proposition all by themselves but the game has one last trick up its sleeve. Once complete, you can start the game again and this time control Cassandra as she rescues Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's Mathayus. Cassandra has different abilities so this second playthrough offers variety alongside the extra challenge. Better still, the game uses old fashioned password saves, so if you just want to skip the first playthrough and start with Cassandra the codes can easily be found online.

The Scorpion King: The Sword of Osiris (GBA) - Another licensed winner for this handheld

Previous entries can be found HERE

Gaming the Pandemic - Day 21: Prince of Persia (Mega Drive)

I'm playing one title from my 627 game backlog every day that the UK is in lockdown. 
Previous entries can be found HERE, but today's random selection is...

Prince of Persia on the Mega Drive

Before I downloaded Transpose yesterday (it was free on SteamVR at the weekend and looks ace) this was actually the game that had been in my backlog for the shortest amount of time. 

It was a thank you gift I received just earlier this week, and with this undertaking every day and playing Pyre and Ape Out quite a lot, poor PoP hadn't got a look in.

This is a game I played a lot back in the day. Although I have neither in my collection today I'm almost certain I played and completed both the Gameboy and SNES versions. Interestingly I discovered whilst researching the game that every version of it after the Apple II original had to be re-written from the ground up. Jordan Mechner was only involved in the original, the sequel, and the 1999 masterpiece 'The Sands of Time'. Every other port, sequel, and spin-off (of which there are literally dozens) was handled in isolation by third parties.

By the time the Mega Drive version arrived in 1993 it was pretty late to the party. This was 4 years after the Apple II original and a year after every other port to 4th and 5th generation hardware (including the Sega's own Master System and Game Gear). 1993 was the same year that the sequel arrived on other systems, a year after Flashback had arrived a knocked this concept into space, and only 3 years before Tomb Raider came along re-wrote the book on this kind of thing entirely. As a result this version was yesterday's news and it did not review or sell particularly well.

Anyone who plays a lot of retro games will know that you never continue on the first level of a game. You're basically wasting that 'continue' because you're starting from the beginning away. So, whatever the game, don't continue, go back to the main menu and start again. 
With PoP you have a 60 minute countdown timer running so it's time you'd be wasting rather than continues - but it's still relevant, and on the Mega Drive there's extra step to this process. 
After you've died on the first level for the first time, head back to main menu and, before you start a new game, change the sounds option from 'Music and SFX' to 'SFX Only' - because it seems the developers used their extra time incubating this version to compose the most irritating music ever conceived! I think I'd rather have Baby Mario screeching in my ear for an hour.

Other than that this is Prince of Persia as I know and love it. I've seen the Domark ports (they handled all Sega machines and the Amiga version) criticised around the internet but I'm struggling to see why. Maybe I'd feel differently if I had this running side-by-side with the SNES version but I didn't, and neither will the vast majority of other people who play it.
I have to say though, and this is very much a matter of personal taste, but I think the earlier versions of game have aged with more style. The Apple II version may have limited detail but this somehow makes the rotoscoped art look even more fluid in action.

The weird thing now is that I find myself in exactly the same position as the original reviewers of this game back in '93. The overwhelming consensus back then was that Prince of Persia on the Mega Drive was only really worth your time if you hadn't already played it on other systems - and it's as much true now as it was then.
If you only have a Mega Drive/Genesis, or maybe the Mini Classic version thereof, then absolutely you should have Prince of Persia in your library. Other than that, this version's appeal will rest on how keen you are to play different versions of this classic title.

Prince of Persia (Mega Drive) - Better than I was expecting and, with the above caveats, recommended.

Gaming the Pandemic - Day 20: Ape Out (PC/Switch)

I'm playing one title from my 626 game backlog every day that the UK is in lockdown. 

Previous days games can be found here. Today's game is...

Ape Out on PC/Switch

Oh. My. Goodness. I actually have chills.
This game is PHENOMENAL!

Here's what happened:
I played the first set of levels. I took a breath to write this and to buy this game on my Switch because I got it on PC for free and because jesus christ do these guys ever deserve my money.

And now I'm going back to play some more.

Right. Start again.

I love video games. When video games are done properly and the player feels like they are the final component in someone else's work of art... There is nothing else like it.

It's games like Ape Out that make me wish I were a better writer. I don't think there is any way I can properly convey the excitement, the thrill, the pure joy of playing this game. It's an expertly crafted thing. Ostensibly a top down brawler with a style not unlike Teleglitch; the columns and walls of the architecture reaching up infinitely to provide a stylish way to bring line-of-sight
into play. 

The art design is very Saul Bass (if you're not familiar with the name then I'm sure you'll recognise the style) and the music. My god the music. If I were to describe it as 'Percussive Jazz' I'm sure half of you would stop reading but as recogniseable descriptors go it's the best I can do. It accompanies the action so perfectly that it becomes a rhythm game - not overtly so - more in the manor that you can't help but become part of it.

Sound effects add additional percussion literally and conceptually. But I need to take a step back to explain that properly.

You are an ape. You start the game in a cage surrounded by your dead brethren and a guard, and there are two instructions emblazoned on the floor: Left Stick. Right Trigger. I'll spare you what happens immediately after this because it's a beautiful thing to be experienced for yourself - but I pretty much knew after 30 seconds that I was going to love this game.

The game is split into four sets of levels, called albums in keeping with the jazz motif, with each level being a track thereon. In the first of these 'albums' you thunder through a facility of some kind punching armed guards into walls, windows, each other, where they are eviscerated into a pool of blood and loose limbs accompanied by a cymbal clash or a bass drum thump.
Not long into the game another mechanic is revealed. Left Stick Grab. Right stick Aim. From this point you can get hold of an enemy 'human shield' style, in panic they will fire their weapon, only once, but it's enough bring another level of depth to the insane pace of the game.

There are other things that mix up play later on that I'm going to leave you to find for yourself, but suffice to say in what I've played thus far the game has yet to take even a small misstep. It exhibits perfect execution of everything it strives to achieve.

In 1987 I played 'Into The Eagles Next' on my brothers Commodore 128 and a love of top-down games was born. 33 years later I think Ape Out might be best example of this genre I've ever played. Gabe Cuzzillo, take a bow, because this is an amazing example of the focus and vision that auter game development can bring and the pure perfect artistry that is apparently impossible with large teams and, potentially, large budgets. 

And it's so much damn fun I can't even quantify.

Ape Out - Go and play it. Now. Right now.

Gaming the Pandemic - Day 19: Yoshi's Island

I'm playing one title from my 627 game backlog every day that the UK is in lockdown. 

Previous days games can be found here, but today we have a game that's considered a true classic...

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island on SNES

Shouldn't it be Yoshis' Island? With the apostrophe at the end because it's plural and possessive? There are multiple 'Yoshis' after all..? Anyway.

I have so much love for the SNES. It was my first 'proper' console and it's great to finally get a chance to write about it here. I only have a handful of unplayed games for this machine and most of those are Mario platformers, and, well, I have a confession to make...

I don't really like Mario platformers. 
I love Mario Kart, I've had fun with Mario Party, and I recently played and loved Mario & Rabbids kingdom Battle. When the games are spin-offs and side projects they hit the mark, but I've never really got on with the 'true' genre of Mario.
Obviously I'm part of a minuscule minority, but I really struggle to take the same pleasure from these games that millions of other people find.

To try and break it down I can tell you that most of the character designs are hideous to my eyes, the music is often repetitive and annoying, and, worst of all, I find the controls to be floaty, slidey, imprecise, and infuriating. I know I might as well be shouting this into a hole in the ground but I'm not going to pretend I feel otherwise due to decades of other people's reverence and nostalgia for the Mario brand.
I'm happy for you if you get joy from Mario games, truly I am, but I don't feel the same way.

So... This is the part where I say that Yoshi's Island was different, that it's the exception to the rule, and that it changed my mind... 

Except it wasn't, it isn't, and it absolutely didn't.

I played the entire first world of Yoshi's Island. I was impressed by the art work and level design, I admired the clever platforming, I respected the built in replayability of optional goals. This is a game clearly created by incredibly talented people with enviable creativity. But all that means nothing, because after 8 levels I just couldn't face another moment of sliding into lava, crawling along platforms, and chasing that incessantly mewling boy-in-a-bubble. 
The latter; that shreeching, monotonous cry as Baby Mario floats rage-inducingly around the stage, is the only issue I had that relates specifically to this game - all the others are issues that can be traced to the Mario DNA that I've never enjoyed but so wanted to be different this time.

And that's something that makes it worse: I wanted to like this game. 
I'm indifferent about the other Marios in the backlog, I'll give them a fair shot if they pop out of the randomiser but I don't really care if they don't. But when SMW2 was chosen today I was excited. I loved Yoshi's Woolly World on the Wii-U and it was because of that that I was recommended Yoshi's Island and even found a beautiful boxed copy in a local shop not long after. 
But, expectation is the mother of disappointment, and that's certainly something I'm full of right now.

If you've read any of these before you'll know I do a one line summary at the end. I'll say a game is 'recommended', or that 'genre fans might want to try it' - that kind of thing.
But I've struggled with what to put for Yoshi's Island. 
Not for the first time I've played a game that many consider one of the best ever made and I just couldn't enjoy it, but I don't want to piss anyone off. So I guess the summary can only be...

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island - I hated it. Sorry.