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Yeah, and it’s still out there, in his hands, sucking up all kinds of digital evil.

As you know, I’m running my own Video Game store which requires me to be there a million hours a week doing stuff, and when I’m NOT, I’m at home, streaming my show from the Datazone channel.  Yeah, I know, it’s AMAZING, but it shouldn’t be an excuse to not be rocking Ravage daily.  So, I will be doing my absolute best to work on keeping these updates regular, but if I can’t, please forgive me.  It just gets worse as we get closer to the holiday season.

I have been playing a ton of games, however (well, kinda), and want to do reviews on all the stuff I’ve gone through since I stopped writing.  That will include God of War 3, No More Heroes 2, Metroid: Other M, and many others.  I’m wrapping up some impressions on Sonic 4 for the iPhone as well, and will do some comparisons between that and the console release.

So, again, thanks for your support and patience, and don’t forget to also visit Datazone, usually beginning at 9:30-10 PM MST.

-Sack

For over two decades, Super Mario Bros. was the best-selling video game of all time, before being outsold by Wii Sports in 2009. Excluding Game Boy Advance and Virtual Console sales, the game has sold 40.241 million copies worldwide. It was largely responsible for the initial success of the Nintendo Entertainment System, as well as ending the two-year slump of console game sales in the United States after the video game crash of 1983. As one of Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka’s most influential early successes, it has inspired many clones, sequels, and spin-offs. Its theme music by Koji Kondo is recognized worldwide, even by those who have not played the game, and has been considered a representation for video game music in general.

Watch the video for a nice stroll back memory lane!

The video is from TEAM UNICORN  (Check them out on Facebook)  I will see if I can get an interview with them for the site.

Geek and Gamer Girls Song – Watch more Funny Videos

G33k & G4M3R Girls” — sung to the same tune as the hit song “California Girls” by Katy Perry — features Team Unicorn which includes actresses Michele Boyd (The Guild, How I Met Your Mother, Cold Case, Sons of Anarchy), Clare Grant (Walk the Line, $5 Cover, Black Snake Moan, Saber), Milynn Sarley (EA, TheGamerChick, LTA, Street Fighter High School), Rileah Vanderbilt (Hatchet, Frozen, Saber), and actor Seth Green (Robot Chicken, Family Guy remind us all why geek girls rule!

Thanks go out to Tess Folwer and Mark K  Hollinger for the heads up on this!   Mark is an old school gamer, and Tess is a sexy Gamer/Geek Girl.

Come on really???  did you think I would honestly tape a cat and a dog together?   I am not stupid! cats and dogs don’t like each other!  but a DOG-DOG or a CAT-CAT is another idea!

Just watch the video!

thanks to ENGADGET for the HIT!

Day 3 – A game that makes you really happy
Rhythm Tengoku – GBA
Nintendo

So, there’s a reason this game makes me happy, and it has to do with the wonderful amount of simplicity this game requires.  There’s really not much to it, save for the presses of a few buttons.  The game functions much like a Wario Ware game, and as it’s made by Intelligent Systems, the same team behind the WW series, it should bring the same amount of joy.  Basically, the entire game can be played with your eyes closed, because audio cues will tell you exactly when you are to press a button to respond.  Of course, the visuals can definitely help as it gives it a more ‘physical’ feeling to know you are controlling an element in the game, but sometimes, your eyes will deceive and the devil will take hold, so trust your ears and reflexes!

The game is made up of many, many short games, again like Wario Ware, but there are fewer games and they last a bit longer, generally the duration of a whole song.  After you’ve completed a set of 4 or 5 minigames, you will do a Remix, which will throw the challenges into one game with a new song and require you to switch back and forth to different games to complete the remix.

What brings me joy in these games is the presentation.  The music is really well written, catchy, and ridiculous, and the visuals that accompany it are ridiculous and appropriate.  Whether you’re shooting ghosts in front of a mansion with arrows, cutting demons in half, or pulling chin hairs out of an onion, the level of charm this game provides is unparalleled.  The sequel provides much of the same feel, but something about this one stood out to me the most and I enjoyed using the A button instead of the touch screen.

The poor mans way of shaving is to rhythmically gut an onions goatee.

If you can hunt this down, do so.  It’s very easy to figure out and requires no knowledge of Japanese at all.  Or, if you can find Rhythm Heaven on the DS, it’s just as worth playing, and either way, you will see the magic that these little bastards can bring to put a simple smile on your face.

Day 2 – The most underrated game you’ve ever played

The Goonies II – NES

Konami

So, this little bastard of a game really will make you flip your wig after a good, lengthy session.  It’s not to say that the game is remarkable beyond words, but especially for its time, it did a lot, and it did most of it well.  The sequel released in NA to a predecessor that only existed here on Play Choice 10 and the Vs. Arcade machines, it does much to escape the level to level design of the original and offer something in common with one of the most highly regarded genres out there — the stupidly named Metroidvania style of play.

It’s to say that the game likely has more in common with Nintendo’s explorative space excursions than Castlevania, but considering Konami had Castlevania II and SotN (plus the million just like it afterwards), you can say that they pulled a lot from what the Goonies II had to offer — a huge world map.  Oh, excuse me, make that double sided.

The game plays like a 2D platformer, as that’s exactly what it is, but it allows for the player to explore a myriad of different locations, each accompanied by some pretty stellar 8-Bit music, including the starting game song of Cyndi Laupers “Goonies R Good Enough” rendered on Squarewaves and Triangles to give it that extra digital oomph.  But with control that is arguably better than even the early Castlevania games (you even have limited movement mid-jump), you can find weapons beyond your initial yo-yo, and some equippable upgrades such as spring shoes and sprint shoes, each, of course, having their own benefits.   Grab a handy boomerang to help take out some nasty Fratellis or penguins or floating metal skulls or whatever, and enjoy exploring the huge map!

The only caveat to the exploration side of things is the fact that whenever you enter a door, you don’t teleport to the opposite side of the map, you enter a first person mode that becomes more like a point and click adventure.  I personally loved it, as it lets you swing hammers and fists into walls, floors, boxes, and old ladies or men, just to see what you could get.  Obviously when you hit a blank wall, a safe would show up and require a key to open, maybe to get an item , maybe more keys, or maybe a vague hint that alluded to how wasting keys on unnecessary safes was not prudent in rescuing other Goonies.   So yeah, while all THAT may not sound too bad (or be up your alley, depending), the hardest thing to figure out was that when you walked in, there was a small body portrait of Mikey on the side of the screen, either facing towards or away from the player.  Depending on THAT, pressing up will either make him go backwards into a room, or forwards into one, and is never clearly explained except for right this second.  Because most won’t pay much attention to this tinny feature, it goes unnoticed, and turns a 2 door hallway into the devils labyrinth.  If you can figure out the 1st person nuances, it leads to a largely enjoyable game that has several great songs, some excellent exploration, and is a good evening killer if you want to play all the way through it. That will probably be the only way you’ll do it, because the password system is made out of the entire NES ascii library of lowercase, uppercase, and alphanumerics to ensure that you never properly copy down a password or want to even try.

Since no one could ever understand Anne Ramsay anyway, this is actually not a password, but a direct quote.

It’s truly a great game, and has just as much in common with the open exploration style games that people dig so much, so go find a copy for a few dollars and try it out.  Sadly, there is no Sloth in this game, so if you give it a 3/10 for strictly that reason, I can understand.  Otherwise, there’s no reason not to play it.

Share on Facebook ]]> http://www.ravage.com/2010/08/02/the-30-day-gamer-challenge-day-2-the-most-underrated-game-you%e2%80%99ve-ever-played/feed/ 0 http://www.ravage.com/2010/08/01/the-30-day-gamer-challenge-day-1-your-current-favorite-game/ http://www.ravage.com/2010/08/01/the-30-day-gamer-challenge-day-1-your-current-favorite-game/#comments Sun, 01 Aug 2010 18:33:26 +0000 sack http://www.ravage.com/?p=928 So, a friend of mine sent me a list of these challenges to write out, and I figured what better way to spread news of my tastes and interests than through this comprehensive list? Let’s give this a shot for the next month (and end it on the note of Metroid: Other M coming out), and see what goodies come our way!

Day 1 – Your current favorite game

DRAGON QUEST IX – Nintendo DS

Square-Enix

So maybe it’s just a matter of this game coming out at the right time, but there’s something terribly special about the way this series has always struck me.  It doesn’t have quite the same overwhelming and majestic narrative that Final Fantasy game MIGHT have (oh 13, you son of a bitch), but it does what it aims to do simply, and it does it well.  The design of these games is overwhelmingly concise, and it’s all the better for it.  Basically, it’s an RPG constructed from the bare bones recipe of Fighting, Leveling Up, going after the ‘bad guy’, changing jobs, using herbs, etc.  It doesn’t break much new ground in terms of core mechanics, but it doesn’t need to, because in a world of unnecessarily complex systems that pretend they’re a lot deeper than they are, this little butthole just wipes your ass for you and keeps on smiling.

But what about that is so much fun?  Well, it introduces a system where you get to customize the Eff out of your characters, due to the fact that every single piece of armor or weaponry has a fully unique 3D model for your character, giving your entire party the ability to stand out from each other at your discretion.  Now, there HAVE been other games that allow for this, such as many big name MMOs, but for a small DS game, this is a big deal.  The main idea behind it is likely stemming from the fact that if you want to partake in one of the most enjoyable digital orgies this planet has seen, you can basically turn this game into a small scale MMO.  Granted, it’s only 4 players, taking away from the MASSIVE part, but when you invite friends to your world to hang out, level up, find treasure, and do quests, they can come and go at their leisure.  If you’re in a fight they can come join, or if they want to explore a different part of the world entirely, it’s available for them to do so.  But remember that character customization I was talking about? Having such colorful and unique clothing options lessens the chance of you having characters that look exactly like your friends, making my bug-eyed, dark skinned Martial Arist with a Viking Hat and Blue Jeans all the more interesting to fight alongside in battle.

Oh, and the music is everything I could ask for as well.  Obviously it’s a step down from a fully orchestrated soundtrack like seen in DQ8, but it’s just as well written, and fully appropriate for every moment in this game.

Currently, I can’t make enough time to dedicate to this game that I’m so in love with, and hopefully through the coming weeks I will get more of an opportunity to hang out with other Dragon Questers and finish up some of the games many, many, many extra (and downloadable) missions.  It’s truly a gem an RPG fan should be without, and even if you’re not into RPGS, this is the least intimidating one I can even think of and should be at least worth a try.

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