PS2 look: Nanobreaker

While some gamers may complain about the over-abundance of shooters available on consoles today I'm starting to wonder why nobody said anything about all of the 3D Action games put out during the last console generation. I guess I don't particularly mind since for the most part I find them enjoyable and each title has their nuances and slight differences that separate them from everything else in the genre. Needless to say despite the lack of positive reviews I picked up Konami's Nanobreaker and gave it a go.

As the story goes an island colony was built to house people who had undergone a number of nanomachine treatments. Apparently somebody forgot to do their firmware updates or were browsing porn sites without antivirus protection and the main computer went berserk. Somehow this causes the entire island population to mutate into these giant freaks. The army doesn't stand a chance against them so the corrupt government sends in a cyborg with a dark past to make things right. Our hero Jake must kill a lot of stuff, do some frequent platforming, deal with his rival, and protect a scientist. There's a map in this game but it's not good for much outside of finding the next destination as this game is very linear.

Like most 3D Action Heroes Jake is capable of jumping, running, and dodge-rolling. Eventually he gets the abilities to double-jump and glide though this just means more platforming. His jumps are very stiff and he can only change direction in mid-air off of his double-jump. While Jake has a fairly lengthy health meter he has few ways to restore it aside from the rare drop and bathing in his enemy's blood. This is rather annoying as entering a boss fight with little health is never enjoyable.

Our cyborg friend arrives at the island with a plasma sword as his sole weapon. This impressive blade is notable for its combo abilities. Through different combinations of square, triangle, and the R1 button his sword can perform a variety of attacks that causes the blade to change shape. By performing a lot of combos and spilling a lot of blood Jake's limiter will turn off. What this means is that his attacks will do more damage and some of his combo finishers gain additional properties. For example in one combo he swings a scythe to finish it. With his limiter on he has a chance at slicing one enemy in half with the finish. Without the limit not only is the slice guaranteed but nearby enemies caught in the attack will get destroyed as well. The sword also has access to a grab move to snatch enemies from far away. With proper timing a snatch can be followed with a critical swing to instantly destroy most enemies. This doesn't work on every enemy yet it's required for some bosses. As a supplement to the sword the player can access a number of booster abilities over the course of the game. Early on he can only boost his snatch/critical swing but as he progresses he can gain new boosts that up his defense for a limited time and access to special weapons. Booster abilities require power to run and that power is usually gotten off of the blood of his foes.

All this talk about blood is getting annoying right? Well that's just because Nanobreaker is a very bloody game. The game's scoring system actually revolves around how many gallons of blood you're able to spill from the mutants. This is also tied to restoring health and boost since for every 2,000 gallons of blood the player gets a partial restoration of one or the other. To add to this for every 10,000 gallons of the blood the player will recieve an increase in their total health or boost. In a pure visceral sense it's always a thrill to slash monsters until they explode into fountains of blood that paints the walls red(or any other color you decide on in the options). Getting more blood off of enemies is as simple as doing a lot of combos.

The enemies are fodder for the most part. While they have a range of attacks most of the time they seem more apt to group together so that the plasma blade can go through more of them at a time. The game mixes it up decently enough by throwing in larger foes that can't be snatched, tough guys that can really wear the player down, and little guys that are hard to hit. Knowing when to switch from horizontal swings to vertical swings is important since depending on the enemy the right swing can do more damage. Various appendages can also be sliced off which is handy as it can limit the attack abilities of some foes. 

The bosses come in many shapes and sizes and quite a few of them have some sort of gimmick the player will have to figure out if they're going to succeed. Usually this gimmick involves the snatch but sometimes certain spots or objects will have to be destroyed before the weak point is revealed. There are also fights with more human-like bosses though these guys have exceptionally weak A.I. and can be beaten simply by baiting them to perform attacks that leave them open to countering. A lot of these guys can hit really hard though and without a method of healing during boss battles it only takes a handful of mistakes to get a game over.

To put it bluntly this game has too much platforming. After awhile it does get old watching enemies explode but surely the level designers could have done better than throw in a bunch of platforms to jump off of and onto. The controls aren't exactly suitable for platforming either since without any ability to move while in mid-air there's no wiggle-room for error. At first these areas are mercifully short but in the last fifth of the game that's pretty much all the player will do. Thankfully these final areas are broken up by mutant encounters. Then again at least there aren't a bunch of lame puzzles. Now that's something I'd love to see less of in 3D action games.

In another case of me putting it bluntly the camera in this game stinks. During gameplay a map is shown on the upper corner that also serves as a radar for keeping track of enemies. It's useful sure but I think it put there intentionally to sort of make up for the camera. While the camera can be re-centered with the R3 button it doesn't do much good for when the player loses track of enemies or bosses.

The snatch is also very annoying to use effectively. It locks on to a enemy you're facing. If you're facing more than one well tough luck. Over the years I've played enough games with shoddy 3D mechanics that dealing with this has become second nature(sort of like playing those awful 3D Sonic The Hedgehog games) but if I was anyone else I would hate this move. It's especially bad cause in two areas the scientist needs to be protected from constantly spawning enemies. She's running around getting slapped to death and sometimes when I try to snatch a foe off her I snatch her instead. Best part is I can do the critical attack on her..ugh. 

Nanobreaker also suffers from a lack of good checkpoint and savepoint placing. At first it isn't so bad but at times if the player dies -- which 99% of the time it'll be a boss fight -- they'll end up a ways back and have to fight through a bunch of foes to reach the boss again. Annoyingly whatever blood bonuses they acquired during this time will be lost as well. I understand that due to the way health works the game doesn't want the player to be stuck in a situation where they're at the boss with little health but throw in some sort of "retry boss" option or leave health items near where the boss is encountered. Actually the game does this a few times which makes it all the more infuriating because they know to put it there but for whatever reason they just don't care. The lack of savepoints is inexcusable simply because that last fifth of the game I mentioned earlier has none. There's not even a savepoint before the final boss. For crying out loud it was bad enough I had to retry this guy four times but between him and the entire rest of that last fifth of the game I was up until 5:30 am last night.

The mechanics in this game are slightly off as well. What I mean specifically is when enemies attack the player. Usually this is fair and handled well but for some attacks it feels like even it the attack looks like it doesn't quite hit it'll still damage the player. It's usually nothing serious as it mainly applies to regular enemies(which aren't much of a threat). To add to this smaller enemies seem to be a little more difficult to hit than they should be. But I guess that's due to them requiring vertical strikes to deal with at times. The game makes it all too clear whether or not attacks will connect.

I should also point out that this game feels entirely too similar to Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness. As you're already aware these are 3D Castlevania titles also available on the PS2. All three games feature a lot of combination moves done through the usage of square & triangle, silver-haired protagonists, poor jumping controls, and so on. If you've already played either of the other two games I can't say there's a whole lot you'll be missing out on if you skipped this game. I guess the blood is nice but some exploration or maybe some more abilities or enemy varieties would have been been good. Nanobreaker is probably the best of the three in terms of game design but some people might get more value out of the other two since they feature rare drops, lots of things to level-up, and Curse of Darkness also has that very clever stealing subsystem. You could just avoid all three games entirely though and probably be better off for it. 

Regardless Nanobreaker accomplished enough for me to spend the 6 to 8 hours needed to complete it. There's a score-attack mode, a harder difficulty, and even a couple playable characters to mess around with if I choose to go back. The time I spent on this game would have been better off elsewhere but somehow Nanobreaker proves compelling enough to get me to put up with all of its faults. It's gotta be all the blood. Actually I probably just have very low standards. If they replaced Jake with some cyborg woman in a really tiny outfit I'd probably still be playing this game.

Bought some more games.

One of the major reasons I started this blog is that I have a serious problem with getting rid of games before I spend at least a significant amount of time with them. I'll buy a stack of new titles, put five minutes into each of them, and throw them in a closet somewhere or on ebay. At least with this blog I have to put in a serious effort in order to make any claims about the game's quality. With that out of the way here are my latest pick-ups:

Shadow Tower - I guess it's some first-person action RPG ala King's Field by From Software.

Crimson Sea 2 - Shooter Action game by Koei. I played a bit of the first one on the Xbox and enjoyed it but somehow it became a victim of my serious problem.

Midway Arcade Treasures volume 2 - Sooner or later I was going to get around to picking this up. Luckily an opportunity presented itself.

Nightshade - The sequel to Shinobi PS2. I've played through this game before but I figure if I'm going to take another look at this game it's best not to do so off of memory. Besides it was only $4.

Rising Zan - Some kind of Cowboy Samurai guy or something. I've heard a lot of things about this game yet I'm only just now getting around to checking it out.

Jumping Flash! 2 - Can you believe I've never played a Jumping Flash game? Well I'm going to fix that and see what all the fuss is about.

Crimson Tears - Some action game by Capcom. I don't remember reading much of anything on this game so hey why not? 

DS look: Etrian Odyssey 2

While the first-person dungeon-crawler genre has never truly died there hasn't been a game to cause any sort of resurgence until Etrian Odyssey. Sure the character design looks innnocent enough but the game itself was a pretty brutal affair thanks to elements like the powerful FOEs that stalked the hallways, the all-powerful bosses, and even the chance of an unlucky encounter. The success of this game spawned not only a sequel but it also caused a number of other developers to pursue similar titles. It's still a drop in the water compared to the numbers the average FPS does but all in all it's still impressive.

Concerning myself however I didn't really get anywhere in Etrian Odyssey 1. I guess I didn't have an eye for party building, my tactics weren't sound, or I simply didn't have the patience for it. Whatever the case my time with EO1 was short but I was left with the knowledge that sooner or later I'd eventually have to rectify that. In the end I settled on the sequel despite the fact that it would probably be more difficult and more complicated. It helps that EO2 is still fairly easy to find while the original is apparently only available on ebay for almost twice as much as it originally retailed for.

EO2 involves something regarding Yggdrasil or the World Tree. A town has sprung up around this massive tree and adventurers from all over the world come to solve the mysteries and test their mettle. These adventures are organized by guilds and the name of mine is guild ABBA. Guild ABBA can be composed of up to thirty members from up to 13 different classes. From there five members can be organized into a party of three in the front & two in the back(or vice versa). 

The 13 classes in EO2 represent possibly every character archetype you can imagine. Though the names change the concept remains the same. Party-building is one of the most important aspects to success in EO2 as this game rewards the committed. Unlike some games you simply don't pick a class, give them a few minutes of training, and suddenly they're killing bosses in one hit. Putting together a strong party member requires a lot of patience and getting similar results with an entire party isn't just multiplying the effort by 5. Each party member must have strengths to cover for the other member's weaknesses and it's not as simple as putting three fighters in the front and a mage & a healer in the back. Experimentation is key at times and when faced with a tough boss it may be wise to try new classes.

Each of the classes is governed by their skills. Initially each class is given three points to distribute as they see fit. A number of skills just raise stats but others are tied to numerous abilities. With each levelup a single point is doled out. Using these abilities effectively requires commitment. Most skills have up to ten levels and making them effective will require sacrificing access to other skills. No matter the class there's little benefit to raising up a bunch of skills at once. It's important to distribute these points properly since the only way they can be re-distributed is if the player makes the party-member rest(which costs 5 levels of experience).

Equipment is another very important factor to consider. EO2 uses a crafting system of sorts where the shopkeeper adds new items when the player brings back certain materials and sells them. These materials are found off of the corpses of defeated foes and is for the most part the only way to upgrade equipment. This is good though since defeating monsters also means experience, which ties into everything quite nicely.

The sole dungeon is divided into five Stratums with five levels apiece. Progress is usually tied to finding the stairs that move the party onwards and upwards but bosses and special tasks can crop up. While the game offers a temporary save the only way to protect against party death(which is game over) is by saving in town or via special portals. Thankfully shortcuts can be found which helps make exploration much easier. The levels are usually organized in a maze with all manner of traps, special properties(like ice that causes the player to slide from one point to the next), and dead-ends with treasure or something not nearly as good. There are also harvest points where the player can collect materials(several of which can not be found from monsters) though that's limited by the number of points put into harvesting skills. There's also the risk that harvesting will trigger an ambush by monsters(though it's more likely there to keep low-level adventurers from abusing harvest with no chance for repercussion). The map is especially handy in that it keeps track of every space the player walks in but also allows them to draw in walls and indicate certain objects as they see fit. If the party is killed off map data can still be saved which can be useful.

The dreaded FOEs make their return in EO2. While most encounters are of the random variety the FOEs stalk the halls and running into them will trigger a battle. The first one you'll run into will likely just be sitting around. Others will wander around in set patterns, still others will suddenly appear and chase the party down. Since most of them move one space for every space the player moves it's in the player's best interest to outmanuever these monsters and avoid getting into random encounters when FOEs are following them(since FOEs will move one space for every turn in battle). While these creatures offer some unique materials they are for the most part optional and unless the player manages to defeat them early on the rewards aren't really notable.

In battle utilizing skills properly will make all the difference. Most battles in EO2 will end in just a couple rounds with the right skills. While there are quite a few defensive skills(especially for classes like the Protector) it's obvious that skills that either do tons of damage or prevent the enemy from attacking are more useful. Despite that the game does a fair job at making every class viable and offers a lot of options for players interesting in trying a variety of tactics.

While in town the player can accept quests. These quests typically involve retrieving items, defeating certain enemies, or possibly something different like making a map. The only problem with these quests is that the rewards stink. Most of the time the reward is a one-time use item and little else. Some extra money would have gone a long ways towards making these quests worth the trouble of completing. It's possible there's a special reward for completing every quest but I lost patience with them long before.

EO2 also has a schedule which effects the time, months, and days. For the most part however time doesn't mean anything aside from finishing a few quests. Whenever a month passes all defeated FOEs and bosses will respawn in their respective places. After a certain point this opens up the best option for gaining experience at a rapid pace. Although resting at the inn is the only quick way to move the days along it's still far easier to do than sit in a dungeon and grind out the levels slowly. Bosses are worth a lot of experience and late in the game most can be taken out in a couple rounds. To add to that some of them drop special materials that are worth a ton of money. This is especially useful when the player has retired their party members. This causes the party member to be replaced by another one with half the level but with more skill points and another level of experience to attain before hitting max..provided the party member was max level when they retired. 

Sadly with the way this system is organized there's no real benefit to exploring the dungeons. Since all of the equipment is based off of monsters and harvest points the player can ignore everything else and rush through the bosses. While the open-nature of the game can also provide for players who wish to challenge the FOEs at all times it still doesn't do much for the dungeons themselves. Some players like myself will opt for the path of least resistance and rush through the dungeons only worrying about equipment upgrades and experience when the boss is being troublesome. The treasure lying around the dungeon tends to not be very useful and there's no reason to challenge the FOEs after a certain point as they don't give experience and the materials they give out are for equipment that's probably much weaker than the stuff gotten from some random encounter on a higher floor. 

Due to the short battles there's really not much in the way of round-to-round tactics. In fact winning is more about applying a formula than decision making. With the right combination of party members, the right skills, and the equipment and experience to back it up there's nothing to worry about. Even the battles that manage to last for more than are due to a number of abilities that prevent the enemy from either attacking or damaging a party. I guess maybe this isn't a bad thing but it's just not for me. If I reach the final boss of an RPG I expect an epic encounter that relies on adapting to situations properly as they come up and using every last resource in order to get that win. In EO2 the final boss can fall just as easily to abilities that bind its attacks as any regular encounter. I expected the rules to be bent slightly with the supposedly all-powerful but I guess with a game that rewards commitment it would be unfair to the player if the boss was immune to the skills they put the most effort towards. 

In a way EO2 manages to come off as repetitive. Though each of the levels in the dungeon have their own quirks and ideas the battles are just the same on the 23rd level as they were in the 1st level. This is not an uncommon trait in RPGs I'm well aware but when I'm still using the same skills on the same types of enemies it quickly becomes apparent that I'm wasting my time. If I want to efficiently play EO2 I should focus on collecting money/exp from bosses, materials from random encounters/harvest points, and just ignore the rest. While the dungeon levels strive for variety once I got past them I found no good reason to ever go back. They might as well have just been gimmicks because in the long run they don't make up enough of the game to mean anything(especially since there's a major shortcut for practically every level). 

Etrian Odyssey 2 is a good game. In fact in many respects it is a truly great game. However I simply didn't find it compelling. The main reason I even stuck it out despite the boredom is to make up for the fact that I didn't make any progress in the first game. At first it was fun exploring the dungeons and discovering hidden treasures but when I realized I should be taking a more hands-off approach to focus on party building that's when it fell apart to me. The way I see it dungeon-crawlers should emphasize the dungeon first and foremost. It shouldn't be the monsters wandering the halls or the big bad guys at the end. The dungeon should be the reason why the player's will is broken. The monsters can certainly add to that but it can't be an immediate effect. Through enough monsters, puzzles, mazes, and the constant fear of death the dungeon will eventually overcome them. The dungeon in EO2 never beats the player, it's usually the FOE, the boss, or an unlucky ambush. Even then unless they're not saving they'll never lose much progress as there are so many convenient ways to get back it's simply not an issue. 

DS look: Retro Game Challenge

With all of the advances in gaming hardware and the games that go along with them some developers have found a greater interest in exploring titles that hearken back to earlier times in game design and mechanics. A handful even went a step further by making games that mimic old 8-bit titles right down to the graphics and sound.

Retro Game Challenge is loosely based on the Japanese television show Retro Game Master(or GameCenter CX if you prefer Japanese titles). In this show a Japanese comedian named Shinya Arino is given a time limit of about one day to complete a variety of classic videogames. Retro Game Challenge is based on a similar concept as Arino himself gives out challenges to complete for eight different games. Unlike the TV show none of these games were available before in the real world and instead they've all been created specifically for Retro Game Challenge.

The presentation is very interesting as the player assumes the role of their younger self and it's back when the Famicom(NES) was the biggest thing around. A younger Arino sits beside you and offers commentary and reactions to everything you do in the games. A lot of the presentation's appeal is in nostalgia. Everything from buying gaming magazines to find out secret codes to blowing in cartridges is faithfully recreated. 

The games themselves emulate 8-bit consoles and most of them are based off of some popular real-world game or at least share similar concepts. They're faithful recreations but thankfully not too faithful as they don't emulate the sprite flicker and bad game design that plagued a lot of early titles. Each game has four challenges that must be completed before the player can move onto the next game. These challenges are typically very simple and if the player gets stuck there's usually a handy cheatcode or a guide to help them along. Since the games span multiple genres they're pretty easy so that players who aren't masters of every genre have a good chance at beating each game(the cheats help too). But enough about all that let's get into the games themselves.

Cosmic Gate - Namco fans will quicky point out that this game is a Galaga clone. The player is restricted to left and right movement and a single cannon that fires two bullets at a time. Enemy ships swarm in a formation while firing away at the player before taking their spot at the top of the screen. After all surviving ships reach the top of the screen they'll attempt to take the player out in coordinated attacks. Progress is simple in that the player must destroy every enemy ship to reach the next stage. 

Cosmic Gate is no mere clone however as it adds enough variation to make it worthwhile. The sole powerup in the game is a powerful shot that fires every third time the player fires a shot. This powered shot will not only destroy an enemy ship but it will also pass through and destroy any enemies behind them. Destroying more than one enemy with a single shot tacks on a multiplier and long lines can equate to big points. Every few stages the player can destroy falling asteroids of various sizes for bonus points and the occassional 1up. Warpzones can also be triggered by fulfilling certain conditions. These are handy for skipping multiple stages and thus leading to the game being completed more quickly.

All in all it's a pretty good game I think. It's not as difficult as the arcade games but there's always a good challenge in going for better high scores. On the other hand non-fans of Galaga will find little to enjoy here. 

Robot Ninja Haggle Man - This game is an interesting mix of action and platforming. I'd say it plays closest to titles like Bubble Bobble and the like. As the RHNM you have to rescue the princess by killing everyone and their boss in each stage. The stages are wrap-around so that if you keep moving forward you'll go in circles and each enemy must be destroyed before the boss appears(though you can sometimes trigger the bossfight early by opening certain doors). The RHNM has access to an infinite supply of shuriken that can stun most enemies, a jump he can use that'll destroy them, and by grabbing three scrolls he'll recieve aid from a friend. 

The doors are interesting in that each of them are colored. Opening a red door for example will cause all of the red doors in the vicinity to open as well. Aside from sometimes spawning powerups the doors can also be used to kill enemies. This concept was actually used in the old Namco title Mappy which I think is interesting. Like with many titles the player can gain lots of bonus points for defeating multiple enemies at once. Jumping on a lot of heads without touching the ground adds multipliers as well as killing a number of enemies with one well-timed door opening. As the player progresses the enemies will become faster, harder to stun, and eventually even fire projectiles. The bosses aren't much for the most part as they usually go down in one hit and behave like regular foes. There's a strict time limit in place to keep things moving. Oh and before I forget you can take two hits before dying. 

While there isn't much to this game in terms of variety it's still very playable and can be quite entertaining. This is another title worthy of my recommendation.

Rally King - This overhead racing game is similar to, well I don't know what it's similar to as I didn't play a lot of racing games in the past. Like every other game in this compilation the goal is simple. By dodging puddles(or other slippery substances), passing rivals, and effectively using the drift and drift boost the player can reach the top spots and win. There are walls and holes to slow you down and the player loses energy for every collision they make. 

The drift boost is what it is. Drifting is done by letting go of the gas while turning and after drifting for enough time the car automatically takes off with a serious boost in speed. This can be dangerous if used improperly and unsuccessfully performing the drift boost will also slow the player down. Randomly vehicles that replenish energy or add bonus points will appear and some tracks have special routes that are worth a ton of points if the player can find them. The concept is effective and the controls are decent but I just don't care for this game. Maybe it's the genre itself but I got bored of this one long before I completed it.

Star Prince - Here we have a 2D shooter with all of the requisites. There's the ship with multiple weapons, enemy ships that attack in formation, larger ships with heavier firepower, bosses at the end of each stage, and lots of background objects to destroy. This game is clearly patterned off of the popular Star Soldier series. Star Soldier is known for having among other things a ton of objects littering the ground that the player can destroy for bonus points.

Star Prince is perhaps the most creative of all of the games in this compilation when it comes to scoring. Aside from simply destroying enemies and objects the player can collect a special bonus by finding six secret letters that spell PRINCE. There are technical bonuses for destroying certain objects at the same time, a certain mid-boss doles out huge points if he's destroyed before he transforms, and by shooting powerups enough times they'll explode and every enemy on-screen will be destroyed with a multiplier tacked on for each of them. It's quite a bit to absorb but since the game isn't very difficult it's easier to focus on scoring over survival. It also helps that there are only four stages in the game so memorizing the key scoring areas isn't too much trouble.

Star Prince also has access to a shield. By holding down the fire button a shield will absorb most bullets. After the shield absorbs three bullets it will fire off a powerful blast while the player is temporarily invincible. It's useful certainly though against the final boss it isn't much use and colliding with ships will cancel the shield. All in all this is a nice effort though it is lacking compared to the games it's inspired by. Still one could do much worse. 

Robot Ninja Haggle Man 2 - Like most sequels this game takes the basic concept of RNHM 1 and expands upon it. The levels in this game are larger, multi-scrolling, and feature more enemies. To balance it all out there are more advanced tricks for the player to take advantage of. Fans of the first game will find a lot to like here. 

Rally King SP - This version of Rally King is actually sponsored by some noodle company(which is also apparently the mascot for all of the magazines Arino keeps buying). Aside from some changed colors and an advertisement between each stage this game is the exact same as Rally King. Obviously this is poking fun at some "Special Edition" games that don't add anything new but are instead plastered with ads and are exceedingly rare. 

Guadia Quest - Fans of Dragon Quest will have this game figured out immediately. This is a traditional overhead JRPG with random encounters, a few large dungeons, and so on and so forth. There's not a whole lot that separates this game from DQ. There are recruitable monsters in this game but aside from adding the occassional attack every few rounds there's not much else to them. It is very accessible at least and it accomplishes what it sets out to do. I don't really care for this game though. It's decent and all that but I was always a bigger fan of Final Fantasy 1. I kind of wished they cloned that game instead.

Robot Ninja Haggle Man 3 - Unlike most sequels this game actually changes up the game design entirely. There are a lot of similarities to action games like Ninja Gaiden & Castlevania and there's even some exploration elements similar to titles like Metroid, Rygar, Goonies II, and so on. RHNM still has his trademark shuriken but this time whenever he gets close to an enemy he slashes them with his sword. The sword is more powerful but it can leave RNHM open to attack(especially from behind). 

This game adds a healthy selection of powerups. Like Castlevania's candles and Ninja Gaiden's floating objects everything from health to nuts to special weapons can be found. The nuts can be used to buy gears which are then equipped to add extra functions. Some of these are used for progressing(like the ability to jump higher) while others make RNHM better suited at combat. Some of the shops are difficult to find however. 

There's a heavy emphasis on platforming in this game. RNHM has a very long health meter in this game but he can die instantly from falling into any of the numerous pits. In fact the placement of enemies at precarious locations and the way RNHM falls after taking damage are tailored towards making pits his worst enemy. The game takes advantage of bizarre mechanic in that even if the area he's in looks like it's directly above another area if it resembles a pit he will die. To make things a lot less frustrating RNHM can look around him whenever the game is paused to spot dangerous situations. Unfortunately this does little to account for the Ninja's worst enemy and that is birds. While the birds in this game don't have Ninja Gaiden's movement patterns they are quick, annoying, and very deadly near pits.

Despite all of the pits and deaths that come with them progress is never overly hampered. There are mid-level checkpoints and all purchased or found gears are still in the player's possession. Granted the score gets reset and the nuts are dropped by half that doesn't mean much when the game is filled with respawning foes and objects. Aside from having some lame bossfights this game is very good.

With Retro Game Challenge the whole really is better than the sum of its parts. Very few of these games can stand on their own and when compared to some of the titles they're inspired by it's not even a contest. If you're interested in Retro Game Challenge for one or two games you'll find yourself disappointed that they simply don't stack up to the similar games you played when you were younger. The main things all of these games are lacking in is variety and challenge. While there is challenge in beating highscores there's not that much there in simply beating the games. The lack of variety becomes an issue since unlike arcade games these titles don't have enough of a difficulty curve to make reaching those end levels very thrilling. A lot of assets are re-used in terms of sprites and they exhibit the same behaviors in stage 8 as they do in stage 1.  

That's to be expected though considering the overall direction of the game. Retro Game Challenge isn't directed towards masters of the arcade game or the RPG veterans. This game is for anyone who picked up a controller back when the NES was popular. This isn't the game you buy your kids to get them away from Call of Duty as they simply won't be impressed by it. RGC revels in its usage of 8-bit atmosphere and it's just not a good choice for introducing people to "retro" videogames. It is a however a thoroughly pleasant trip down memory lane and manages to skim past all of the terrible elements that made up some of our earliest games. Heck it might even inspire someone to buy an NES or dig one out of their attic and really relive the olden days.

Though a sequel was released in Japan the chances of it reaching our shores is very slim. The publishers of the original RGC cite the lack of sales as their reason for not bringing over the sequel. While I can't say I'm too surprised considering the concept I still think it's a damn shame considering that Retro Game Challenge is a very nice piece of work and a worthwhile pick-up for fans of the old-school.

PS2 Look: Eternal Ring

Here we have another launch-era PS2 title. Eternal Ring is from what I can gather a sort of experiment. What I'm basically saying is that the purpose of the game is to test a bunch of new ideas and maybe in a future game it'll all be worked out. It's sort of expected out of launch titles and tends to frequently happen with new genres or ones the developer hasn't attempted before. An experiment can still be a great game but Eternal Ring isn't even a good one.

The story involves a young man with a mysterious past. His goal is to find a powerful ring and well none of that actually matters. The game is a first-person action-RPG though it actually plays out more like a first-person shooter. Upon arriving the player must flip switches, fall into holes, explore different environments, and kill monsters. It's standard fare and Eternal Ring does little to differentiate itself from similar games. 

At first the hero is limited to a sword that he can hardly wield. All he does is poke monsters to death and this can be very annoying since monsters come in all sizes and shapes. Time actually has to be spent arranging the hero so that he's properly facing the monster he wishes to poke. This gets old very quickly as despite the discovery of new swords the Hero never learns how to wield them with any sort of effectiveness.

After a short time at least the hero finds his first magic ring and the magic system comes into play. The player is able to equip up to five rings at any time and switch between them when needed. There are a lot of rings to collect and build and they cover practically everything you could imagine. Whether you need to throw a fireball or a tornado, casting a healing spell or cure poison, the ring system has you covered...

...That is provided of course that you know how to make them. Monsters in the world of Eternal Ring commonly drop gems. These gems can be taken to a wise old man to be crafted to make new rings. How this is accomplished is by using some combination of six gems the player can make a ring. All of the gems have various elemental affinities and varying levels of strength. It's a very deep system and can be rewarding for those willing to work with it. 

The level design in this game is hopelessly bland. I understand the appeal of labyrinths, mazes, and getting lost but all the same everything in this game looks like the developers took the basic templates and stretched them out as far as they could. There are several empty hallways and rooms, long corridors for no reason, and generally just a whole lot of nothing. 

I guess when the level design isn't any good that's because the developers focused on the combat. Unfortunately the combat simply isn't any good. I've already mentioned the impotent way the hero handles his sword and this makes every melee fight an ordeal. Since a frontal attack is suicide your best option is circle-strafing. If that doesn't work you can perform a flower-patterned circle-strafe(move backwards and forwards while circling). Doing all this for every single monster quickly becomes tiring. Many enemies can take several hits to defeat and if a second foe joins the battle somehow you're usually better off retreating. Thankfully magic can be very useful unless you go through half of your MP pool to kill a single monster. While using spells is more effective it still doesn't make the combat anything compelling.

What really pushes me over the edge is this game's flagrant abuse of mechanics. To put it simply all I have to say is enemies can attack you through walls. No I do not buy the idea that a goblin can throw a stone through several feet of solid rock to bean me over the head. How exactly does one miss something like this? I can't very well toss a fireball through walls so why should the enemy get to? Even if the other aspects of this game held up I'd still knock the heck out of it for screwy mechanics because this is just plain idiotic.

All in all this game is a complete waste of time and you're better off with something like the old PC game Heretic or maybe one(or both) of the Hexen titles. These are readily available on Steam for a low price and they resemble Eternal Ring in concept but are just all around better games. While you lose the ring-crafting system you could just oh I don't know buy a junior scientist kit or do some math homework. As a fan of the King's Field series I expected something similar in Eternal Ring and all I got was a disappointing mess.

AA Upcoming: Data East Arcade Classics

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/synopsis.jsp?Certificate=27570

This is going to be very cool. There's not a whole lot I can say about Data East right now but from what I've played their output is pretty solid. I'll do another post on this compilation when the list of games is finalized.

Recommended Link: GOG.com

Good Old Games.com is a site where you can purchase older PC games online. The UI is manageable, the prices are great with frequent specials, and most importantly the games actually work. The biggest problem with playing many older PC games is that they were designed for obsolete hardware and end up requiring some random ram nobody's ever heard of. As a bonus some games come with extras like wallpaper, soundtracks, and so on. It's probably not something you couldn't already find on the internet but it's still a very nice touch.

Right now you would do well to check out the Interplay special as there's a buy 1 get 1 free sale going on. This includes lots of classics like the Descent series, Freespace, Fallout, and many more. The Might & Magic 1-6 Collection has also been released which is a bargain at $10.

Of course I just found out that my laptop is so fried it can hardly run any of these games. Such a waste. As it stands I have to figure out whether I want a new PC, a J-360, a PS3, or an HDTV.