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.

Gaming the Pandemic - Day 18: Burnout: Revenge (PS2)

I'm playing one title from my 629 game backlog every day that the UK is in lockdown. 

Previous days games can be found here, but today we have...

Burnout: Revenge on Playstation 2

I find myself wondering what to write about this game that could possibly be interesting, worthwhile, or new.

It was in my backlog because I hadn't played it - but then, after the VERY turn of the century music had played, and the VERY turn of the century intro movie had finished, and I actually started playing, it was... well... it's Burnout, isn't it?

Sandwiched between the breakout third entry 'Takedown' and the landmark 'Paradise' (Both of which I've played a lot), Revenge is much more an iteration on the former than a step towards the latter.

There are small tweaks to gameplay in a lot of areas and the titular Revenge mechanic is the largest of them - and it is a good one. Essentially you get extra points for taking out the car that last took you out. A different coloured icon over the vehicle is about as much as this amounts to, but it really works. I found myself desperate to put my rival in a wall and genuinely disappointed if I hadn't achieved this before the race was over - even if I had won.

As a polishing of the original Burnout formula it's a hard game to fault. It comes with EA's trademark sheen and there's an impressive sense of speed for a 6th generation game - with the sound effects of particularly of quality when it comes the all round atmosphere of careening through city streets. 

I'm in the minority that really can't be arsed with 'Crash mode' so for me nothing before Burnout: Paradise even comes close to that game's quality. But Revenge is the 'next best' in the franchise and if you hadn't played any of these games from the pre-HD era then this would probably be the best place to start.

Although, with that said, I'm quite partial to Dominator on the PSP. Let's face it, these are not deep games, it's a pure arcade blast from start to finish and that structure suits handheld gaming really well.

Burnout: Revenge - You've probably played it already, but if not, you should

Gaming the Pandemic - Day 17: The Reap (PC)

I'm playing one title from my 629 game backlog every day that the UK is in lockdown. 

Previous days games can be found here, but today we have...

The Reap on PC

Look at that, a PC game in a box, cute. 

Finland's Housemarque were formed in 1993 when two smaller development teams (Bloodhouse and Terrormarque) merged. They are best known for the Stardust series and, although I'd played the PS3 version of that and various games from them over the years, they didn't really get on my radar until they worked with Eugene Jarvis on the phenomenal Nex Machina in 2017. It was at this point when I found and bought The Reap, a PC exclusive shooter originally released in 1997.

This game marks the greatest lengths I've gone to so far to play something from my backlog, becasue it just doesn't work on Windows 10.
I had to use VirtualBox and an online guide to set up a Windows XP virtual machine - nothing too taxing, but something I've never done before and certainly a lot more involved than jamming a cartridge into a Master System and turning on the telly.

Firing the game up I was immediately reminded of the classic shooter Zaxxon; The Reap is an isometrically scrolling shooter, however, in a since deleted 20 year retrospective of the game, Housemarque said they were more directly inspired by a Neo Geo arcade shooter called Viewpoint. There's an interesting graphical progression across these three games. 
Zaxxon has that classic, clean 8-bit style sprite-work, Viewpoint updates this to beautifully detailed 16-bit environments and enemies, and The Reap offers what is described as '3D modelled worlds and rendered graphics' that give an astonishing sense of depth and detail embellished by a liberal helping of, then, state of the art effects.

It's was in the detail that I first thought that there might be a kind of black humor to The Reap: As you destroy enemy vehicles and buildings tiny human figures run from the rubble and are flung from wreckage. Some of these are flagged as 'Scientist' or 'Government Spy', others seem to have given names; 'Sanna' or 'Ennis'... Intrigued, I checked the manual and discovered that you play the role of a mercenary, clearing planet Earth of human life before they can discover that their whole existence is that of universal lab rats. No one plays a shmup for the plot, but that is a pretty cool twist on the usual genre tropes.

These types of shooter usually fall into one of two sub-categories; defensive or offensive, and I prefer offensive. I take more pleasure in working out what should be destroyed next than I do in making my through bullet-hell patterns. Luckily for me The Reap definitely falls into the 'Offensive' category. It's a very tough game and the enemies are not shy with the missiles, but the focus is very much on destroying them before they destroy you.

The destroying itself is undertaking with a range five different upgradeable weapons, of which two can be loaded at any one time. So no lack of variety there, and the havoc wreaked is beautifully rendered with all the effects power DirectX 5 can muster and accompanied by decent if unspectacular sounds and an age-revealing 'metal' soundtrack.

I saw three levels in the time I played, there are ten in all, so whether I ever see the end is debatable (especially if the difficulty keeps ramping up at the current rate) but it's there and ready to go on my Virtual XP the next time the mood takes me and I definitely want to see more of this fun and incredible looking game. 

The Reap - Definitely worth the effort to play

Gaming the Pandemic - Day 16: Catherine (PS3)

I'm playing one randomly selected title from my 630 game backlog for every day that the UK is in lockdown. Todays game is...

Catherine on PS3

I don't really know why, but for a long time I felt almost obligated to buy Catherine. Generally speaking my taste in games falls outside the mainstream, and definitely away from the strong western influences that dominated so much of the games zeitgeist ten or so years ago. I think Catherine's ostensible existence outside these themes had a lot to do with the strange magnetism it held for me. It's very apparent oddness somehow appealed beyond the fact that the gameplay appeared to be an amalgamation of two genres I don't really care for: Sliding block puzzles and visual novels.

The visual novel aspect sees the player character Vincent torn between two women. The block puzzle elements are a nightmarish dreamscape that Vincent finds himself in whenever he sleeps. The presentation of both is beautiful, with first rate animated cut-scenes segwaying into the cell shaded graphics extremely well. Voice acting is also of the highest calibre, and the music, too, is high quality throughout. I found myself a little surprised at the level of polish on display, apparently I was subconsciously expecting a more 'indie' quality experience.

Unfortunately I found the game to fluctate wildly between being completely dull when it was too easy and infuriatingly frustrating when it was too hard - in the three levels I played it never found the sweet spot of enjoyable challenge.
To exacerbate this there are (well documented) control issues. The most prevalent is that, at times, the required directional control is unclear - in itself this wasn't something that bothered me too much. However, a short time into the game an enemy arrives who's primary mode of attack is to reverse the input controls. It was at this point that I stopped playing. 

Were the other part of the game, the visual novel/ role playing element, more compelling I may have been tempted to try again. But, having constantly read over the last ten years that Catherine appears to present maturity in the sleazy way, but actually delivers maturity in the more literal, 'grown-up' way, I was perturbed to find myself somewhat uneasy with it's themes - or rather, how they are conveyed. 

Without knowing how the story plays out I hesitate to throw words like 'misogynistic' around, but neither version of C/K-atherine is particularly sympathetic. One is a cold, marriage-obsessed control freak, and the other an emotionless temptress. In this game-world women are to be either feared or lusted after.
And I'm not really cool with that. 

There's always the argument that we are interacting with characters with these thoughts and worldviews, that this misogyny isn't what the game is conveying, just the thoughts and actions of 'realistic' characters with the flaws and misjudgements thereof. 
But even if this were true it doesn't make me want to spend any more time interacting with these characters or playing this game.

Catherine - Disappointingly, not for me.

Gaming the Pandemic - Day 15: Rebelstar (ZX Spectrum)

I'm playing one randomly selected title from my 631 game backlog for every day that the UK is in lockdown. Todays game is...

Rebelstar on ZX Spectrum

"This is no ordinary game! There is no fancy story or scenario, just you against the computer. It is a fight to the death!"

So states the instruction manual for Rebelstar, 2nd of a four game series that started with Rebelstar Raiders in 1984 and ended with Rebelstar: Tactical command on the Game Boy Advance in 2005. There were 2 years between each of the first three games and 17 between the third and fourth. They were all created by the master of turn based strategy; Julian Gollop, who to this day is still polishing the genre to a fine sheen with the XCom series.

Rebelstar was the first time the series had a single player mode, although 'mode' isn't quite accurate as it and the two player game are entirely separate programs stored on different sides of the cassette. As an aside to this, there's another great line on the inlay where it bluntly states that: 'Because of memory restrictions, at the end of the game you will have to RE-LOAD before playing again'. Simpler times.

I started my journey with the series with Rebelstar II when it appeared on a cover tape back in about 1990. I played it a lot but I'm pretty sure I never completed it. Loading up Rebelstar the first thing that hits me is how similar it is - the Aliens 'inspired' characters and designs are absent, but the familar yellow, blue, and green palette is here and it plays very similarly indeed.

It's recognisable turn-based strategy stuff. Movement points, action points, stamina, morale... they're all here and presented for each individual unit and enemy. It even has a version of 'overwatch' - although here it is called 'Opportunity Fire'. In fact there is so much here that is completely familiar that it's difficult not to speculate that this game may have been be the genesis of the whole genre. I'm no games historian, I have no idea if that's true, but it's very rare to pick up a game 34 years after it was released and be immediately au fait (control interface aside) with most of it's ideas and structure.

Obviously there are frustrations that come with the age of the software too. There is no map, for example, making a search of the surprisingly large play area a laborious task. There are also a few details of which you have to rely on the manual to convey - not unusual for games of this vintage, but definitely worthy of note for anyone thinking of giving it a look today. 

This is a series for which I have a lot of nostalgia and a develop for whom I have a massive amount of respect, it isn't easy to put those things aside when appraising the game - but there is no doubt that I loved going back and seeing the early days of this genre again. It's a historically fascinating game that's still a lot of fun to play.

Rebelstar - Essential for turn based stategy fans and good fun for everyone else