Saturday, December 29, 2007

A Revolution of Sorts

Wow, so, from the time I stopped to the time I am now writing, GameTap has taken.... a weird turn.

I do not know about anyone else, but I feel this new design change to GameTap seems like a step down. The menus seem more clunky than they ever were, game titles load in at a staggering slow pace, and my beloved Wheel is now noiseless~! It's as if my master has been castrated....

And above all that, it now seems games can be taken off the service. I did not plan on this, but it does not change my over all goal. With that said, the Wheel has wheezed into my ear, and it has said this.

Shark! Shark!
Intellivision, 1982

Been a while, I know. I am sorry. And, as usual, The Wheel makes sure to make me realize that I should love this job.... I think.

Shark! Shark! is a game about a fish. A fish that you control in what seems like a tiny fish tank. Which seems to ruin the illusion when you realize it is supposed to be an ocean. Oh well.
So, you swim around, you dash, you stop... and other fish do the same. And then a Sark comes! i guess thats where the name came from. Was beginning to worry there. So yeah, you then avoid the Shark or not. And thats about it. If you avoid him, he swims away and comes back again and again. If not, you die. Simple as that.
Now, this may have been fun back in the day, but my lord, it is as boring as could be.

Gametap says (for some reason) 7.4, I say 3. A definite delete.

Lets go for as many as I can stomach, shall we?

1942
Capcom, 1984


Ahhh, who doesn't love the 19xx games from Capcom? I must have dropped at least $50 into 19XX at my local arcade back in the day. But, where did it all come from? Well, it all started with 1942, the very first game in the series. Does it live up to it's successors legacy?

Well, yeah really. It was all very simple back then. You have a plane, and it has guns, which you shoot at other planes. Oh, you can also do a loop to avoid bullets. Simple and classic really. There are power ups, yeah, which just make your bullets wider and more plentiful. I recommend playing with a gamepad though. The keyboard is painfully imprecise.

Really, I'm glad I got to see where the series began. You can easily see the roots of the greatness that would follow it. A must play.

The GameTap peoples say 6.6. This I cannot understand, and give it an 8. Kept.
34 of (now) 952 complete.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Hey! Break Soon!

SO on my break I will break from my break from the blog.

:D

Monday, October 15, 2007

I'm Not Dead

At least now yet. Not until the next post. Closer to brain dead, actually. But really, the real culprit here is the Wheel. For some reason, I think the Wheel THINKS I am dead. For there is no reason why any person who has cognitive thoughts and functions would ever be graced with the game It gave me.

Crush, Crumble, & Stomp
Commodore 64, 1983

Now this game promises a grand ol' time, playing as a monster who attacks a city. What's not to like about that? I mean, everyone loves Rampage and that's pretty much the same exact goal.

The difference here, however, lies in the controls. Wherein Rampage, the player moves left, right, climbs buildings, eats things, and breaks things, all with the easy use of pressing buttons in context to the environment around you. The Commodore 64, however, felt that was too easy and went in a far more obtuse direction.

Upon entering, the game proclaims to be the "Monster Movie Game," a boastful claim if you have ever asked me. To solidify it's status as the be all end all of monstrosity based entertainment, it asks what monster I wish to be, out of a list of completely creative beasts, such as "Goshilla" and "Mantra." Already floored, I was brought to tears of joy when I learned I could choose how I would be scored in the game. Epic.

Then, as the game begins, I came to realize that you play the game by entering in text commands in a turn based action grid. You press either R or L to turn right or left, and when facing the right direction you press M to move. When you are at a building, but not just any building, the right building, you press C to CRUSH IT! Then cops chase after you upon you try, and I stress try, to crush them. You see, it is very very hard to know when you are on the right invisible grid space to crush something, as none of the things seem to line up with you very well. On top of that, everything seems to move on some sort of inner move list, that you the player are unaware of, and just need to brush off.

Really, nothing here adds up to anything fun, even for a little bit. To be honest, I DID see a glimmer of hope when I found out how to control the game, but that quickly burned itself out in a mininova of sadness.

Gametap says 4.2, I say 2. A definite delete.
32 of 1002 complete.

Next review will be a special where I pick the game deliberately. Yes, yes, I know this goes against my whole setup here, but come one, Typing of the Dead is dying to be played.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Down Time Action

So, here I am, sitting outside my next classroom, which the class that will take place inside doesn't start for another hour. This is what college people call down time, which is a fancy word for bad scheduling.

My thoughts came to this: I have a laptop, I have nothing (better) to do, so, I have spun the wheel with a might force, and it was good.

Battlezone

Anyone who is keeping score will notice I dropped the in-depth info about the games pretty quickly. That is, after only one game. It's just to cumbersome for a casual blog. So, just names it will be.

Now, for anyone who played it in the Arcade or a PC, Battlezone was one of the funnest games to play. The weird green wire mesh, the paranoia of not knowing where the next enemy was, or if they were behind you, which you didn't know until you were dead. It made for a very compelling game, if you ask me.

This classic was, to no surprise, ported to a popular home console after its rise of fame in the arcades. Though, this didn't usually translate well. Just look at the Pac-Man port to the Atari 2600. It's atrocious and degrading to the original. Does this 2600 port do the same to another classic?

Well, yes and no. What Battlezone for the 2600 does well is convey a 3-D world that is truly astounding to think existed on a home console in 1983. What it does different from its arcade predecessor is actually fill in the vector world of the the original to give it, somewhat colorful, but very blurry world, compared to the originals crisp, albeit very green, world.

Now, I don't know if it's just been a very long time since I have played the original Battlezone but this version both seemed unnecessarily hard at the start, and painfully easy after you got the mechanics down. What I mean is, my first three lives in the game were taken away within minutes as I could not dodge any bullets from the enemy tanks, not to mention the UFO type crafts which swoop and dodge faster than you can even fire. But then, I realized all I had to do was drive in a large circle, firing at my enemies when my reticule lit up, causing a kill for all tanks, and allowing me to dodge mostly everything, taking away all fun.

Now, that brings up the question, is the game bad cause I was able to break it's rules so quickly? I would have to say yes. As a game developer, it is your duty to make the game as fun and engaging as possible, without letting the player exploit it. Tons of games did it before Battlezone, and tons did it after.

Gametap says 5.3. I agree, with a 5.0.
As fun as it kinda is, I want that space for something better. Which can be considered a diss being the game is only 0.008 MB. You decide.
31 of 987 complete.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Pac it Up Pac it In

So, a few weeks ago, I bought the stellar Pac-Man Championship Edition for the Xbox Live Arcade (which if you have Live and don't have it, go get it now), and would have to say it is probably the single best version of Pac-Man I have ever played. Now what does this have to with anything?
Well, I was spun to Super Pac-Man and.... wow...

Super Pac-Man

What happens when you play the best version of a game? What happens is all other version feel... lacking.

In Super Pac-Man you, you guessed it, avoid ghosts and eat things, including the ghosts. The twist in this one, considering Ms. Pac-Man added the amazing ability to go from one side of the screen to the other, is you have to eat keys to open pathways to pellets, super pellets, and fruits. Not to mention for some reason you turn around 5 times larger, I never found out why. Didn't care to much. As the game felt seriously flawed compared to the original, whose perfect elegance outshines every sequel (including Pac-Man CE).

But does this make Super Pac-Man a bad game? Not by a long shot. This, compared to many other games on Tap, is actually very playable and fun, if not flawed as stated. I do indeed.

Gametap says this game is a 7.3, I agree, with a 7.
But, it is a delete.
30 of 987 done.

Saturday, September 8, 2007

A return with Honor and Ninjistics!

So, here I am, nice weekend of relaxation at home. Decided to come home on a whim from college for no reason!

Brought my new lappy with Gametap on it sooo....

HIT THE MUSIC!



Ninja Commando
Neo Geo
SNK, 1992

Ok, new setup. Seems cumbersome giving all that info. We'll see if I keep it. But hey! There has never been a more totally radical name than Ninja Commando EVER in the world.
Good name.... good game?

Eh... not so much. What Ninja Commandos is is basically just a shmup (shump, whatever) on feet. You have complete control of your characters as they run up to the top of the screen, advancing the level. What is unique to this game above others I have played is this one has a sort of "speed combo." The faster you can press the fire button, the stronger the attack. It doesn't work to well on a laptop keyboard, let me tell you that. Now if I had my 360 controller or even the original arcade cabinet it might've worked well. But as it stands, it gets tiresome very fast.

Other than that, it's a competent shump-action hybrid, has its fun for a bit, but gets boring after a while.

Gametap says 5.6, I says 5.
Deleted. (Assassinated?)
29 out of 987 complete.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

This is why I can't have nice things!

Or blogs....

Ok, this blog is not dead, I swear to you.

But really, I am total scatter brain. I find one thing to do, do it, drop it, find something else to do. I wish I could be more focused, it's something I have worked on for years.

But, suffice to say, I have BioShock now which is destroying all my time, as well as WoW and the Call of Duty 4 beta which I just got into.

Now, where does GameTap fit in to all of this, AND college? I'm not sure. What I am sure of is that I truly and honestly want to finish this project, as daunting as it seems to me even now.

That is my oath, to this blog, to me, and to any readers.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

College Life

Yup. Back at college for my Sophomore year. So if updates get erratic or few and far between, this is the reason.

Once I settle into life here once again, and learn the ins and outs of my classes, things should run smoother.

Thanks!

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Buster is Right


I love Overlord. I really do. Who wouldn't love a game that is a mix of Dungeon Keeper, Pikmin and with a dash of Fable's sense of style and humor?

First off it is something I have always wanted, a twisted Tolkien-esque world. It takes things so very Tolkien, such as Hobbits (called Half-lings exclusively in this game) and turns them into the greedy self serving creatures of the world whom reign terror over the humans. Did I also mention there is a town called Spree? Yeah. Totally a twisted version the loved Middle-Earth. And, as I said, I love it.

The game's plot revolves around you, the newly instated Overlord of a Dark Tower (Stephen King?) after its previous owner was killed by a legion of seven heroes. The Majordomo of the tower revives you from what appears to be a hibernation. He quickly walks you through the fairly simple controls (even simpler if you have a 360 controller, which automatically formats it to the 360 version's controls, which is super convenient). After that, it's off to the races.

The game from then out, as far as I've gotten at least, is mostly a series of hack and slash dungeon crawlers, all revolving around the redemption of your good (bad?) name and to kill off the Seven Heroes one by one. Over the course, you slowly rebuild your Dark Tower to its once grand standards, return powerful spells, find a dark queen fitting of you, new and super spiffy armor and weapons, and just all over reign of the land.

All in all, I'm supremely happy that Overlord is on GameTap and this game, one of many games that come out that the general population never pick up and try. The fact of the matter is, that is why I loved GameTap. It's like a foster home for lost games, where ones whose quality shone brightly but were overlooked for even shinier games. My advice, go out and adopt an Overlord of your own, for the good of us all!

GameTap says 9.4, I say 9.

28 out of 976 games complete.

So very kept.

Go download now!

Over..loard?

Ok, Overlord is out today and I have been anticipating this moment ever since I heard it was coming to the Tap. First off, I played Overlord for the 360 as a downloadable demo and loved every second of it. I am, however, a poor college kid. So, my dreams of owning it were dashed.

HOWEVER! It is now in my grasp, and my next post WILL, and mark my words here, BE a review of Overlord.

It may be a while... I really wanna get sucked into this game.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

My Mistake Readers

Well, thanks to some friendly commenter's, I have realized I completely mis wrote my intentions in the last post.

As said in last post, I would not review any more large games.... which is not what I meant to say, you see. My fault! My fault, I know. What I meant to say was during busy days, such as weekdays and such during school, I would forgo any large games, and save them for the weekend or a day off. What it seemed was me backing down from large games at all, which I will say now, I have no intention of doing. I really can't wait to review some of the large games there, some I have been playing for a long while now, such as Planescape: Torment and URU.

So! I would like to thank you guys again for pointing that out to me, my promise and goal remains to review every single game on this wonderful service and I still believe that I can and will do so.

Monday, August 6, 2007

Big Games = No Beuno

Ok, suffice to what I said in the previous post, I will not continue the review on Freespace 2. It was because of this game that I decided I would forgo any large titles that I come across, as it is not really conductive to updating my blog as often as I want to.

SO! I will conclude here that Freespace 2 is really good, though the controls are a bit to obtuse, even to change. As such, I give it an 8 out of 10. Gametap says 9.3 out of 10.

Deleted cause I wish to save space.

25 out of now 975 games complete.

So, I will now give you more reviews of smaller games.

The Wheel givith!

SimPark

First off, I am, as most people are, a big fan of everything Maxis and more importantly, Will Wright. But, the sad thing is, after Maxis was bought by EA, the once might name of Sim had begun to be whored out to every extent. Some of them, admittedly, were decent, such as SimTower, or to a lesser extent, SimAnt, but the majority of them were pretty bad. SimPark is one of those bad ones.

I was offset from the very beginning when I was greeted with one of those horrible PC animations from the mid 90's, where the characters seem to move awkwardly and just very unnaturally.


If that wasn't bad enough, the darn game crashed the first three times trying to start a new park. After finally getting in, I found the game to be somewhat fun, if not just a sparse version of SimCity, which makes sense, considering it is made under the Maxis Kids brand name. So you start off with a certain set of cash, and go on to create a good equilibr
ium within the park. All the same concepts seen in the big hitter, but just watered down to a fairly un-enenjoyable version. Give it a whirl if you have a kid, as usual.

Gametap says 5.5, I say 4.
Deleted.
26 out of 975 games complete.

I must say, the Wheel likes me today, this is just funny.

Pong

I really found this funny. The game is 0.000 MBs large by Gametap's count. I basically pressed the download button, and it was down.

I thought I would take a screenshot just for humour reasons. I mean, who doesn't know Pong?

I promised myself I wouldn't do this with a review, but really, do I have a choice? It's Pong, and noting more.

Go play it with someone, it's still fun.

Gametap says 7.0, I also say 7.0. And I won't delete it. I mean come on. 0.000 MBs.

27 out of 975 games complete.

Friday, August 3, 2007

Space, Now More Free Than Ever Before!

Growing up, I was never to lucky on the computer side, which is what lead me to be mainly a console guy. My family household was relegated to owning a DOS ran PC for well into the lifespan of Windows 95. When we finally did get a decent computer, I was already fully dedicated to consoles than I ever would be with PCs. Not to say I didn't enjoy a good deal of PC only titles, such as Warcraft and a good deal other RTS's. But I digress, what I mean to say is, I missed out on a grat deal of amazing games, and thanks to Gametap, for a meager fee, I get to relive the glory days of the platform.

Freespace 2

First off, I have heard about this series for a long time. I was always a fan of the space fighter genre since I was hooked on the X-wing series, most notably X-Wing vs TIE Fighter. From the word go, I am in love with the aesthetics of this game. It treats the subject of space travel and spaceship dog fights very "realistically," bringing in a very militaristic style to the briefing and debriefing.
And really, when a game as already grabbed me this well before I have even started playing, I know I'm in for a good time.

So, first off, the controls are bit obtuse. Buttons from all over the keyboard, from the numpad all the way to the left side. It is a bit frustrating already, and I'm only in the training. But, once the controls are fairly learned, the game is as fun as I knew it would be. Hopefully I can switch to mouse control later.

So, this is probably gonna end up being a super long post, so what I'm gonna do is cut this post into two.
So, look forward for part two, of what is ostensibly my first boss battle!

Wheel Spin Impending

Busy busy busy. Had a house guest over for the past week and had almost no time, between him and looking for a job, to get any reviews done. BUT, that time has passed, so, I thank you all for still commenting and reminding me people DO read this thing.

And yes, I admit, the Arthur Living Book wasn't that bad... I used to LOVE living books as a kid. Was just taking frustrations out on the game. Hehe.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

I Hate Arthur

Ok, I'm just gonna jump right into this before my internet dies.

Arthur's Computer Adventure

Ahh, crap. I have infuriated the Wheel by being away for so long. This should be semi-painful. Well... let's get this over with.

Suffice to say, as a kid, I loved Living Books. They were just fun, I loved the concept of playing a picture book, and finding the hidden games and experiencing the characters in such a one on one way. Ahhh... well, I have to say, the concept hasn't aged well. I could not find one scrape of fun out of this game. There is not much to say about it, it was just boring edutainment. Was to boring to even bothering getting a screenshot.

Still, as with Calculating Crew, I could see a kid playing this game, and enjoy it as much as I probably would've if I were still ten years younger.

Blah, lets move on.

4.9 says Gametap.
I say 4.
Deleted.
23, out of now 963 games, complete.

Ok, Wheel, I like you, and I hope you like me, so lets put past discrepancies behind us and find some common ground to be friends again. So, let us go.

Oh my god.

Arthur's Pet Chase

Ow. This hurts me. Wheel, why? I thought you were my friend, man! This is just mean. I mean, the probability of me getting ANOTHER Arthur game was very low! So, it HAD to be you! Glargh, you meanie.

Ok, whatever, it's a sidescroller game in a dreamland, with the Arthur license on top of it. Not fun at all. Stay away for your own sanity.

Tap says 1.6.
I say 1.
MAJOR MAJOR Delete.
24 out of 963 games complete.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Excuse the Delay in Transmission

My internet has been down for a few days. Finally got it back up and working just now. Expect, hopefully, a few new entries later today.

Monday, July 23, 2007

A Return to Grace!

Ok, so, I'm done with the book. Yay! And without further delays, more reviews!

First game:

Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair

Ahh, Wonder Boy, you magnificently confusing title. With spin-offs and multiple crazy named sequels, like Wonder Boy VI: Monster World 4, and your entire Adventure Island break offs, its amazing you came from such humble roots of mediocrity.

Really, this game is a horribly boring forced side scroller, by which I mean the screen constantly shifts to the right, propelling you always forward, with somewhat passable controls, and a mechanism where the main character must constantly gorge himself on the food that flies past him, or else he dies.
But, it is true, as you play this game, you can easily tell it was made to suck down quarters, with it being just passable enough that it could be the best game in the arcade, or at least, the one you get stuck on while your older sibling takes over the better, more enjoyable cabinet.

The Tappers say 4.7.
Mookie say 5.0.
Deleted.
21, out of now 960 games, complete.

Rolling Thunder 2

Ahh, the Genesis. As I have note
d before, I did, and still do, have a Genesis. But, as I may or may not have said, I did not have or get as many game for it as I did my more loved SNES. But that doesn't mean the Genesis did not hold secret games of awesomeness that I overlooked as a small child. Could this possibly be one of those games?

Bah, I didn't even bother to get a good gameplay pic for this game. And it really looked like it had potential!

Rolling Thunder 2 is basically just a very lukewarm sidescrolling shooter. The character model is very stiff, you can only shoot while standing still, you can't jump in any direction but stright up, and the enemies ranger from idiotic to cheap. Nothing really else to say about this, but, if you like sidescroller shooters like Gunstar Superheroes, go ahead and give it a try if you want to play a cruddier version of it.

Tappers say 7, Mookie says 6.
Deletion indeed.
22 out of 960 complete.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Please Excuse the Interuption

But like many crazed people, I too have been reading Harry Potter 7 all weekend. I should be done by tonight, so expect a full new list of games tomorrow.

Until then!

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Hang the Sense of It

Ok, so I have decided to shelve the Boss Fight idea, at least for now. I solemnly vow that I will indeed bring it back spontaneously here in the near future, but for right now it is seriously harming my progress. So! Back to my tried and true method of... THE WHEEL!

Also, I want to thank people for the Birthday wishes. I had a good one, if I do say so myself!

But, I digress. SPIN!

HA! I have HOURS logged under this particular game's belt. I seriously played it to death when I first got it for my Sega Genesis. I know some people say it really isn't that good... and it isn't. But I love it anyway.

Sonic Spinball

Yes indeed. Not much else to say but that really! Yet, I must give the benefit of the doubt, as I am sure many many people have not played this game. So, where to begin. I guess I should just play it and write what comes to my mind! Yes! Why of course! That's blogging anyway!


Well, I must say, I love this game still. I have a vivid memory of actually sitting and playing this game for hours and hours straight, trying to beat it. I'm happily surprised to see that all that fun I remember having still holds up today.
Spinball is actually a somewhat intimidating game, and I can remember as a youngin' not understanding it one bit. I truly had to feel my way around in the dark to figure out exactly what I was supposed to do.

For the uninitiated, there are three, I think four, "tables" all with three Chaos Emeralds to collect, and a boss to fight. You must meet certain parameters to reach each of the three Emeralds, which then allow you to fight the boss and progress. It was all as needlessly complicated and fun as any real pinball machine, just this one has Sonic in it, the tables are dangerous and have numerous wings to them, and you have a tiny bit of control of Sonic as he is moving.

Still, quite marvelous fun, if I do say so myself.

Gametap says 7.7 (which surprised me further) and I give it an 8!
And, even though I own this game twice, once for the Genesis and once for the Sonic Mega Collection + on PS2, I think I will go ahead and keep it.
20 out of 958 games complete.

Short post, I know, but stuff to do today! I shall return shortly.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Boss! Round One! Fight!

So, I spent a good deal of yesterday and today figuring out exactly how I was going to go along with this Boss Fight idea.

It became more of an ordeal the more I thought of it. For one, I had to actually pick out a game of my own volition, completely against the Wheels wishes, and two, I would have to commit myself solely to that game for the entire day. Sadly, today proved to be against all my plans, as I was rendered busy all day.

Yeah, I realize if you look at this timestamp, I do have time left, but as I said, I wish to spend as much time on the Boss Fight game as possible. I might even have other things I need to do tonight.

Sadly, timing is just bad again, as tomorrow is my birthday, and I might be a little bit preoccupied. So, if this blog goes a day or two with no game updates, please do not riot in the streets, do not pillage and burn, for I know how much I mean to you all, but I will continue onwards!

Your regularly scheduled Gametappery will continue soon.

Monday, July 16, 2007

I Really Hate Math

Oh man.

So, I decide to jump straight in after a long weekend, hoping for some good times, and I get this bad omen after spinning the All-Mighty Wheel.

Math Blaster: Ages 6 to 8

Gods... I played this game in school. Elementary school. In the second grade. And I hated it then as well.
What can I effectively say about this game? It is a game that is specifically designed for 6 to 8 year olds, there is no way I am pulling any real enjoyment out of this game. Long story short, you do math. A lot. Next Please!

Gametap says 4.0, I say 5, just cause I believe if you HAVE a 6 to 8 year old, they might like it. Or not.
Deleted. Easily.
17 out of 958 games complete.

Please Wheel, I beg of thee! Something fun!

Oh how it taunts me with its Coming Soon games. Real Bout Fatal Fury 2. Man I want to play those games. Oh well, lets spin it again.

I honestly think I have angered the Wheel in some way. Did I spin you wrong? Did I play URU to long and not spin you? Did my Planescape Torment playing offend you? I really am sorry! This is almost to much. But alas, I must play them all.

Mighty Math Calculating Crew

Happily, this game has a better score than Math Blaster, sitting pretty at a decent 6.0. So, I might squeeze some fun out of it. Thats it, Mookie. Be optimistic. The Wheel doesn't like it when you dislike it's offerings.

Well, I'm happy to say that this game was twenty times more enjoyable. I could actually see kids playing this and having a good time. It adds in a super hero element where each one of the four characters you see to the left have a different sort of game, all of which use math in "real life" situations, be it when buying something or finding out how much you have through multiplication and division. The voice acting, however, is atrocious, though I guess that comes with the territory of being a kids game. Well, whatever, it was ok. I'd have my kid play it.

Gametap is all it's wisdom gives this game a 6.0. I say it deserves a 7!
However, I will not be keeping it, as I am years and years away from having kids!
18 out of 958 games complete.

Ok, one more game, then I will gear up for a Boss Fight next round!

Ooo, this doesn't bode well. A 116 MB game with a 3.6 rating. Man, I wish I could skip games sometimes. But that would be cheating. Sigh.

Alien Blast: The Encounter

Long story short, its a full 3-D game where you play a turret that is shooting aliens. Its like a 3-D Space Invaders except you can't move. Oh, also, the game sucks. And it has some of the worst loading times I have ever seen. For one, the loading screen is just a repeating countdown up from 00 to 99 and it restarts every time it reaches 99. It made really no sense. But whatever, I didn't like it, but honestly, it wasn't that bad.

The Tappers say 3.6, I say 4.
BALEETED.
19 out of 958 games complete.

And I will see you for the first ever BOSS FIGHT tomorrow!

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Weekend Daze

Ahh, crazy weekends. This is why I love summer. It's 5:30 in the afternoon and I am near close to falling asleep. Long nights and early mornings are fuuuun!

Anywho, thunder storm rolling in, so I thought, what better to do than sit down at a highly electronic piece of equipment and play a game or two! I'm always thinking.

Alright, without further delaying for time, as they say in Crazy Taxi: HERE WE GOO!

Ah, this reminds me, I have thought of a new system. For every ten games, such as when I reach 20, or so, I don't know, I'll probably break this rule, but I do want to try a Boss system. Such as I mean, I will have to play a fairly deep game, like Psychonauts or even Sonic 3, and actually play it really far in and write up a fairly long review for just that one game. I figured it would add an interesting twist. A BOSS FIGHT is always enjoyable.

BUT, that aside, the wheel tells me I must play one of my most beloved games from my childhood.

Street Fighter II: Championship Edition

Man, I remember the exact day when I bought this game originally for my SNES. Good lord, those were fun days. Long tournaments lasting into the night. Ah boy. Well, SF2:CE is a good SF game, but it was indeed bested when New Challengers, Super, Hyper and Turbo came out a few years later. Still, this game as all the bosses playable, so who cares!

Lets see if I like it as much as I remember, cause hearing the Wing Commander 4 commercial in the background is getting annoying.

Ah, well... what can I say. I really... really don't like this as much as I thought I would. I mean, don't get my wrong. SF2:CE was amazing for when it came out, tons of fun. But, as I said already, there was a better version out within a year. And really, this game is almost too slow compared to what as been offered in it's wake. Whats worse, is right next to it in the list is Street Fighter 2 Turbo: Hyper Fighting, and in this writers opinion, that is a much better game.

Gametap peoples say 8.2.
I say 7.
Sad to say, it is also a delete.
15 out of 958 games complete.

Well, that was a real quickie, having played Street Fighter for years, didn't need much time realizing if it was my cup of tea or not. So, I say it's time for another good ol' fashioned spin on the wheel of fate!

Oooo, and another tease with a Coming Soon game that I am very much looking forward to. Fatal Fury Special. Gods I miss the Neo Geo. Well, time for another spin!

Hurrah! Another adventure game! I love these ever so much.

Quest for Glory 1: So You Want to Be a Hero

Have I mentioned that I love adventure games? Because I really do. And we have an interesting one here, as when I chose to download it I am greeted with a warning message saying I need to download the manual for the game from the Gametap website, as, per usual for adventure games of the time, was guarded against piracy by hiding the activation code in the manual. As the internets was fairly primitive back then, this was a fairly useful safeguard. Not anymore though! Anyway, I am running on a bit by now, and I am truly excited to play this game. So lets go!

Cleverly, it seems I will actually need the manual to complete the game, not just activate it, and that really intruiges me. So, I start off with something unusual for an adventure game of the time, a character sheet. I first choose if I will be a fighter, wizard, or a thief and then I spread out talent points accordingly. Very different, I must say, and I am very happy about this game so far, and I haven't even started yet!

Well, I played this game for a solid 30 minutes or so and was very much enjoying myself as I have not played an adventure game like it before, when all of a sudden the game stopped recognizing my keyboard commands. I couldn't do anymore text actions and I couldn't even save. But aside from that, this game is still a true winner, and I'm glad to know there are 3 others in the series.

Gametap tells me this game has an 8.8 from users. Me myself, I give it a solid 8. Also, due to its awesomely small size of 4 MB, it is also a keeper.
16 out of 958 games complete. And I think it's time for a break.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Doctor Who is Awesome

Ok, so, the subject has seemingly nothing to do with Gametap, just thought I would share, cause it's true.

ANYWAY, I think it's time for some more games, don't you agree?

Spin away!

OOOh! My first adventure game. The one genre I am a major fanboy for. Though I've never played this series, I think I might like it.


Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon

Well, this is gonna be one of those hard ones, considering I should play at least a decent amount into the game before giving any definitive review. So, this is probably all going to be fuzzy logic and quick judgments on my part, so, lets see if I can do it well.

Oh super happy happy joy joy, I was right. I love adventure games so much. Space Quest is no exception. The writing is witty and the puzzles are unique and fun. Slow and plodding, as most mid to late 80's adventure games were, BUT that doesn't detract at all the unique fun these games give. I mean, how many games do you play as a space faring janitor turned hero? Well, unless its MDK. God I want MDK2... and I want Lucas Arts SCUMM games! Want want want!

Anyway, Gametap lists this game at an 8.4 and I say it deserves an 8.
14 out of 958 games complete.
This game,
being only a meager few MBs of memory is a KEEPER!


Well, that was about one hour on one game. I keep getting a few of the longer ones lately. Here's hoping for a quickie sometime soon. BUT another break in the action. Stuff to do! Be back later.

Refreshed and Ready to Roll: Or a Tale of Large Download Woes

Ok, so, had a good time when a friend spontaneously came over and we rocked out to some Guitar Hero 2, talked about life and apartments and people being uncool and he played some Peggle. Ahhh, break are nice, but they never last. As the old phrase goes, there is no rest for the wicked people who masochistically play every single game in Gametap! Or something like that.

Lets roll out!

Oh this should be fun. First Genesis game of the batch, and booy is it a doozy.

The Adventures of Batman and Robin

Honestly, I loved the old Batman cartoon from the early to mid 90's that this game is based on. Probably one of the best cartoons from the decade. It was dark and gritty and had some real genuine awesomeness to it. But, alas, Batman as almost never translated into good video games. Look them up! They all have abysmal stories and ratings attached to them, and growing up, I knew this to be true to never buy this game for my own Genesis.

Funnily enough, the game has a 6.1 on Gametap, which by now I have realized means "fun for a bit, but not much else." This is only made better by the fact that the "Bonus Material" for the game mentions that this game is very similar to the stellar Gunstar Heroes. Which honestly, just makes me laugh and vomit a bit in my mouth almost.

*sigh*

Might as well get it over with.

Ok, before I get to the actual game in question, I would like to note that I have finally gotten around to plugging in a Xbox 360 controller to my PC to play the games with, and I think it has heightened the experience moreso than I was expecting, as, lo and behold, I actually enjoyed Batman and Robbin to a certain extent. I mean, yeah, I see it now, the game is almost an exact gameplay clone of Gunstar Heroes. You have Batarangs and they can level up and you have different kinds with different spreads and powers, and thats all well and fun. But in the end, I really just wanted to play Gunstar Heroes.

As stated, Tap has it at an acceptable 6.1, and I agree, I give it a 6.
Oh, and I'm starting a new system, wherein I actually tell you if I save the game or if I just delete it after to save space. Sad to say, this game is a DELETE.

12 out of 958 games complete.

Well, all I can hope is the Wheel of the Gods bequeaths unto me something grand this spin!

Here we go!

Oh boy oh boy, we got ourselves another biggun. Sad to say I've played it to death on consoles... for close to a decade now. Oh well, gotta play em all!

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3

Annoyingly, this is another large game, so I have to preoccupy myself with something else while it downloads. Bah. So, next words you see written here will be from about 30 minutes after the words written before it. Its technically time travel!

Ok, 20 minutes and a system crash later, I am playing the game. First off, oh yay! I have to map all the buttons and moves to the 360 controller manually! I love doing that! Ok, maybe the sarcasm dripping off of that is a bit to greasy but truly, it was annoying and time consuming, and all for what? I have played THPS3 already, I played it back when it came out cause I was such a huge fan of THPS2. Did THPS3 make anything truly that better? No, not really. Just give me THPS2 and thats it for me.

Gametap say 8.6, Mookie say 7.
And, as Homestar Runner would say, "BALEETED."
13 out of 958 games complete.

So, two meh games in row? Have I displeased you m'lord? Or at least... blanded you? Cause really, I need something good! Unto the lord, let their be spinnage! Well, not spinach, I dislike spinach...

Oh radical dude! This should prove most tubular.

3-D Ultra Cool Pool

Well, seems I have done something to displease my gracious deity, The Wheel, for I get to wait another 20 minutes for what I am expecting to be a less than spectacular game. Though, it does have an 8.5.... we will see, won't we?

Ok, so, some more time travel for the viewers at home, and through the magic of television... I mean internet, the game is ready to be played! Or is it? I get in and the dang ol' thing crashes on me. Oh boy this is shapping up well. Lets give'r another go, eh?

Well, it's pool. I's actually really competent PC version of pool. I actually played this for a good 20 minutes. It has various kinds of tables with various types of zany rule sets and playable with up to 4 players. So, I mean, this could be fun with a group of people... well, kid people. I think people my age would just want to go out to a pool hall and play it for real.

Teh Tap says 8.5, the Mookie says 7.
And, I did contemplate keeping it on my hard drive, but, its big and not THAT fun, so, deleted.
13 out of 958 games complete.

And, time for a break!

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Right Back Into It

Ok, so I accidentally published the last post before actually getting all I wanted to get into it. So I took a small break to check on other things real fast. You know, went for a walk, ate some pizza, talked to some family.

Wasn't much else to do so I came back, spun the wheel and got another Atari 2600 game, and again, this one has a fairly good score at 7.7, so, well, without further adieu I give you:

Pressure Cooker

Ok, so, a weird chute fires various burger ingredients at you, as orders for certain burgers with certain ingredients are given to you, you must make these burgers and get them out in due time.
Took a bit gettin used to it, but it was fun. Wasn't my cup of tea though.

Gametap has it at 7.7, I say it deserves about a 6.
8 out of 958 games complete.

Well, that one wasn't that interesting, so, lets hope for something better! SPIN THE WHEEEL!

Oh hell yeah! No more talking, time to play this next one!

Super Xevious

Ahhh, more shump loveliness. I have always been a fan of Xevious, and I don't think this will be an exception.

And it isn't! It is just pure distilled shump action. Not much fluff to it. Slow moving, top to bottom movement, enemies of predictable movements. Not much on the side of power ups or missles or enemies, but what do you expect from a game from 1984?

Suffice to say I played it for a good 15 minutes, nice good relxation game really, very low stress game. I like it!

Gametap has the game rated at 7.4, I say it deserves a 7.
9 out of 958 games complete.

All I can say, is NEXT! Spinnerrup!

Ha! Oh me oh my... this should be.. interesting, to say the least. Well, might as well get it over with.

Hoyle Children's Collection

So... a card game game! Yay! Lets see, it has a 4.5 rating... optimistic much? Lets give'r a whirl!

First off I must say, WOW. Not to it's quality of game, but the fact that the game is 272.6 MB! Thats huge for a game with several card games. Anywho, there was about a 15 minute gap just for this game. And what is it? THREE GAMES. Crazy Eights, Old Maid, and Checkers. Whoopie.


Gametap says 4.5, I say 3.
10 out of 958 games complete.
1.04% complete! Yay!

*eyes the wheel*

OH ok, ONE MORE!

Er, ok! My first Neo Geo game! Excitement! I loved Neo Geo back in the day, so, lets see how it holds up.

Cyber-Lip

Mmmm, did you just give me some cyber-lip, boy? Didja? DIDJA? Well we'll see about that. Well, I smacked it upside its head for that, you know why? It is nothing but a sad Metal Slug rip off. WHICH is made even more sad by the fact that it was made by SNK Playmore, the same people who MADE Metal Slug. I tried to get a screen cap for you, but, my computer seemed the hate the game enough to not let me cap it. Oh well. Just imagine Metal Slug, or Gunstar Heroes, just less good.

Gametap say 5.6.
Mookie say 4.
11 out of 958 games complete.

Zooom! The insanity continues.

Got Bored

Yeah, got bored not posting, so I decided to come back.

SO, I took another spin on the wheel, only to be heartbroken with the COMING SOON for Thief: Deadly Shadows, one of my personal favorite games. Well, guess I'll get around to it when it actually gets added. For now, time to take another spin.

Oh yay... another Atari 2600 game. 4.0 rating. Well, lets get it over with.


Sky Jinks

Well ok, Sky Jinks isn't that bad. Its one of the better 2600 games I've ever played. Basically what you do is hold down one button (V) and use the arrows keys to slalom past various obstacles of death and pain, such as trees, power lines, balloons and, what I GUESS are slalom posts. Though I have way of being sure at all.

Truthfully, I had a good time playing it, I reminded me a lot of SkiFree, one of my favorite old DOS games. So yeah, I recommend.


Gametap says 4.0, I say 6.
6 out of 958 complete.

Well, nothing better to do, might as well take another spin and keep on going until I get tired or something better comes up.
Here we go.

SPIN SPIN LETS GO ROUND!

Oooooooo! An arcade "Shump," or shoot em up, by Capcom! And a 7.3 rating! I'm excited. Lets giver a whirl, shall we?

Vulgus

What can I say? It's a competent enough shump. It has shooting, enemies, and you scroll upwards while collecting powerups. Oh, and it's hard. It can't be a shump and not be hard.

The best part is that the game was made in 1984, and looks really good for being so old, so it gets props from me for that.

Gametap has it ranked at a 7.3, I say it deserves a 7. So, works out. Next please!


7 out of 958 complete.

Lets Pray for More Quickies

So, I take another spin and I find myself on the most joyus of joys, the Atari game Fun with Numbers which carries an awesome 2.0 rating.

Well, gotta play em all.

Fun with Numbers

Right off the bat, I am confused as all hell. Now, I was a late eighties kid. I missed the whole Atari scene, hell, I mostly missed the NES scene, though I did play with it well into the mid 90's, but even after trying to think back to the mentality of the era, I can't see the enjoyment in this. My god, I can barely tell what I supposed to do! And it's got the audacity to be called fun with numbers! Really, what I see is, a puke green background, with a number 9 with a plus sign to the left of it. The game is now asking me to input a number above it. I have now tried 6 numbers and the game has yelled at me for all of them. It then asks me what 6 divided by 4 is. A real calculator tells me it's 1.5, which is all well and good until a realize I can enter decimal places. Then it hits me, the game is trying to tell me something... 1.5... OH! It's telling me its deserved score!

Gametap Score = 2.0
My Score = 1.0
2 out of 958 complete.

NEXT! SPIN THAT WHEEL!

Oh joy! A Sega arcade game from... 1979... It's time for...

HEAD ON!

So I have a bit more hope for this game, as it holds a 5.1 on the ol' rating board, and 5.1 usualy symbolizes "fun, but not to interesting... or fun for that long." What I find is exactly that. Head On seems to be a weird hybrid of Pac-man and Off Road Rally. The gist of it is you are a car, and you are driving in one direction while picking up dots for points, while the "evil" red car is doing the same... IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION. *revealing organ music cue* There are multiple "lanes" in which you can switch to very stiffly, all while trying to avoid crashing into the EVIL RED CAR, who seems intent on killing himself along with you.

I actually ended up playing this game for a good ten minutes and actually enjoyed myself. It's not very deep or nearly as strategic as some arcade games, but it was at least good fun for a bit.

Gametap ranks it as 5.1, I say it deserves a 6.
3 out of 958 complete.

SPIN SPIN SPINARUUU!

Oooooo, an Intellivision game. Another system from before my time. Here we go!

Night Stalker

So apparently I'm some secret spy, who's been caught... and now I'm in the evil guys labyrinth of doom or something... and I need to get out. Compelling! Lets see how I do!

Well, the controls are slow and unresponsive at best, but it controls well enough. Long story short, you are chased by a robot, you get out of your cage, get chased around, get a gun, and fight back. All while scoring points. Wasn't that fun, if you ask me.

Gametap Score =5.4
My Score = 4
4 out of 958 complete.

Time to spin it right round baby, right round.

Alright! An arcade game! I loves me some arcade games. Has a nice 6.3, lets see how it fares.

Return of the Invaders

Thats right, its what you think it is. This is the sequel to Space Invaders. Whats that you say? Didn't know they made a Space Invaders sequel? While, prior to about 10 seconds ago, neither did I. Does it stand up to the original? Lets see.

Wow, so, yeah. Thats actually a really really good game. For all ostensive purposes, the game is just Space Invaders with color, good color mind you, more dynamic enemies, and actual music. I actually had a real good time playing this one and could imagine playing it again in the future.


GameTap score = 6.3
My score = 7
5 out of 958 complete.

And thats it for now. Food and a break, maybe some more real soon.

Let it Spin

This is how it will be done. Gametap has a feature called "Gotta Getta Game," which is basically a randomization wheel for all 954 games in the library. I will hit the wheel once, and only once, and will play the game it lands on to the extent of what I need to give it a fair shake.

Here we go, spin NUMBER 1!

ANNNND I get a game that is COMING SOON..... <<....

SPIN NUMBER 1 TAKE TWO!

Age of Sail 2: Privateer's Bounty
Seems to be a knock off of Sid Meyer's Pirates! Well, time to download. 246 MB. What I can see right now, is that it has a user rating of 4.6. Oh right, yeah. Gametap has a user rating for each game, where any and all users can rate a game from 1 to 10. Lets see how true these scores are during this experiment, shall we? I will rate each and every game afterwards, to see if it is true or not.

So the game gets done downloading and I enter only to be greeted by a list of around 15 options of things to do. Wanting to get in quick and see what's up in this game, I go with the quite explanatory, "Start Battle." I pick what seems to be the first "skirmish" on the list, and thusly, the easiest. Once in, I quickly realize what kind of game this is. It's one of those very slow, very anal, plodding types of games. I am in command of three American ships as they chase after a British ship. I can control each ship and its current destination, but its all very cumbersome, as I can't easily tell them where to go or turn them to the right direction. Also, while each ship is selected, I can see their cannon range (which is like thousands of miles long and wide apparently). So, very very slowly, I start to chase after the boats. So I wait. And I wait. And I wait. What felt like at least half an hour, I FINALLY get into gun range of the dirty Brit (just kiddin, I love you guys) and start firing away. This is when I realize I do have control of manual steering, with the weird compass rose around the ship. This helps loads to keep the poor Brit in my sights. I slowly realize my other two ships are just aimlessly wandering away from the fight, so I set them straight to the action. Soon, I have all three ships annihilating my enemies hull. In due time, the white flag is flying, and in compassion, my ships stop firing... that is until I try to find out what to DO with a surrendering ship and accidentally resume the attack, sinking the boat and killing all aboard. OH, and it was here when I found the SPEED bar at the bottom of the screen, wherein I could've sped up the battle at ANY point up to super speed. Oy vey.

Suffice to say, the game isn't really BAD, per sey. It's just... boring. There wasn't all that much to it. I imagine the "campaign mode" would have more meat to it, but all I found was the same old thing, just now set to a story. Not really all to compelling. Members of Gametap give this game a 4.5. I say it deserves at least a 5. It's one of those games your aunt gives you when you are ten cause she knows you like video games, but doesn't actually give you a good game, just a passable one.

And with that, I have now finished one game out of, well oh me oh my, during my time in there, 4 more games were added to the list. Making it 1 down, 958 left.

It happened like this..

You see, I was browsing through the Gametap library of games, which at current date totals 954 games, and I said to myself, "I am never gonna play most of these games, which is a shame, cause I know a good lot of em deserve a good shake or two." It was then when it hit me.

For anyone who knows me, or takes a look over at my main blog, Swing the Bat, I am very... insane. I like to come up with ideas and things that seem relatively nutty on the surface, and certifiably mad at the core. Usually it is just a way to set a fire under me, a way to get my pumped about an idea, about something, anything, to write. And thats how it came to me. I thought of my blog just then, and I thought, maybe I could write about Gametap? Then, the crazy tick kicked in, and my mind thought, maybe I could write ABOUT ALL OF GAMETAP.

Thats right. I decided right then and there what I would, neigh, MUST do. And that is play and write about EVERY SINGLE GAME ON GAMETAP.

What follows is my breakdown.