PS2 Look - Silpheed: The Lost Planet

There's no question that I love 2D shooters of all types. While I tend to prefer the arcade titles there's still a lot of neat & interesting ideas to be found in console releases. Unfortunately I have no love for this game. Actually I'm not so sure I can call this a game as it's more likely that it's just an experiment.

Developed by Treasure and released by Working Designs this is one of the Playstation 2's many launch titles that fell through the cracks. In fact I think it was Treasure's name that gave this release any sort of notoriety. Nevertheless it's the standard tale of man vs alien set over the course of seven stages with a ton of cinematics in-between.

Before each set the player is allowed to set their weapons of choice. The ship is capable of holding two weapons and while at the start only two are available(a forward shot and a V-shaped spread) as the game progresses more are unlocked. Both weapons can be fired at the same time or independently but otherwise that's the extent of the ship's offensive capabilities. There is a shield that is capable of taking 10 or 5 hits(depending on difficulty) so for the most part it's pretty difficult to actually lose the game(though this changes towards the end).

The entire scoring system revolves around one simple concept: The player must be as close as possible to an enemy when it is destroyed for the maximum bonus. It's a simple concept to grasp and in practice Treasure found a number of inventive ways to make it work. This can be a bit tricky however as the graphics are fully-3D and thus it's a bit difficult at times to tell whether the ship is close enough to an enemy without taking damage. Each of the seven stages creates a variety of situations for the player to discover new ways of maximizing their score.

That's about it really. The biggest problem with this shooter is that there isn't really anything else to it aside from the scoring system. The level structure is all over the place with some stages being little more than a couple fights and a boss, or just a very long boss-fight. The entirety of The Lost Planet seems more interested with creating situations that use the scoring system rather than allowing them to come out naturally. Sure their are a number of weapons to play around with but it still comes off as a very methodical title and is ultimately incomplete and not entertaining.

This is why I consider Silpheed: TLP an experiment. It has a good idea but rather than building upon it simply shows off a bunch of ways that it can be used effectively. There's a complete lack of cohesion to the whole affair and while each encounter is structured well there's no flow that builds them up properly. The player is just sent from hot-spot to hot-spot and has to rely on the cinematics to tell the story rather than the game itself(if there was a game in here).

Another problem is that even the concept itself isn't enough to build a game around. 2D shooters have multiple methods to achieve a highscore and the player must use all of them effectively to master the game. Take Battle Garegga for example. The player can achieve better scores by collecting medals, destroying secret objects, taking apart bosses piece by piece rather than going directly for the core, and so on. On the other hand with Silpheed all that matters is being as close as possible to an enemy. When a developer is making a game that runs about 30 minutes or less in length the last thing they can afford is to have it come off as shallow.

While Silpheed: The Lost Planet isn't worth playing the concept itself is still pretty good and has seen better use in titles like Mushihime-sama Futari and Treasure's own Ikaruga. While the implementation has changed slightly the concept remains the same and when used properly it can enhance games. As far as this title is concerned however I wonder what would have become of it if Treasure chose not to adopt such a concept...

X360 look - Test Drive Unlimited

Today I'm looking at the open-world CARPG Test Drive Unlimited. What is a CARPG? It's my vain attempt at making up a clever phrase that doesn't work. Seriously though it's a racing game with RPG elements. My first experience with the sub-genre was Genki's Tokyo Xtreme Racer and I've been a bit of a fan ever since. While the mechanics and design of a traditional racer are there the pacing and method of progress is more along the lines of the typical RPG.

Since the developers couldn't be bothered with giving the game a storyline I had to make one up myself. The star of this game is PepsimanVsJoe. He's arrived at Oahu to solve the mysterious murder of his parents. This is accomplished by driving all around the island giving rides to top-models and their boyfriends, test driving expensive race-cars, and buying multiple dream homes. The problem with PepsimanVsJoe is that like most RPG heroes he has severe mental problems. Aside from amnesia he suffers from two different personalities. While one is trying to focus on the task at hand the other is obsessed with material gain and only cares for owning more cars, motorcycles, and clothes. While the island offers many opportunities for both sides of PepsimanVsJoe in the end he never figures out what happens to his parents and is soon lost to a world that never sees a drop of rain or even the moon.

Seriously though the player starts by selecting one of several characters to represent them. Upon arrival they're given a house, some spending money, and the freedom to go anywhere they please. Oahu is a very large island but thankfully exploration is a breeze thanks to a GPS system. Aside from giving step-by-step directions to every destination this system is also capable of transporting players to any previously visited spot on the map. Aside from dealerships to buy new cars one can expect to find other facilities like clubs to organize games with friends, restaurants for taking on multiplayer challenges, and a variety of clothing stores for playing dress-up.

The bulk of the game is in the various racing modes. As expected there are race and time trial challenges(beat the rivals or beat the clock). There are also speed challenges where the play has to pass numerous cameras at over a certain speed to attain a particular average. There are other missions to take on as well which can be lead to some very good money. All of the challenges are arranged quite well and though they can be repeated to gain money as well as beat the best times on the leaderboards, it's usually not necessary.

All of the challenges have particular modifiers. What this means is that some races might have traffic while others have a bar that decreases whenever the player drives off the road or hits an object(which leads to penalties). There can by any number of combinations to each challenge but for the most part this is a pretty easy game to complete. This is mainly due to the fact that while some skill is necessary if the player has the best car available and its fully upgraded they will most likely finish the race. Races with rival AI cars are exceptionally easy as they tend to slow down far too much at the turns. That said though there are still some rough ones towards the end and it can be frustrating to lose a 7 minute long trial because the player bumped into another car.

Usually the player-character in open-world games goes on to become a homicidal maniac but here in Unlimited they're limited to being just a jerk. While other motorists dot the landscape there is no penalty for crashing into them(outside of a race of course). Oh sure the cops will show up but in all my playing I've yet to get pulled over. I guess they couldn't care less that I smashed a pick-up truck because I ran a red-light while driving 200 mph. It's a good thing pedestrians didn't make it into this game cause I have a habit of driving on the sidewalk. This can be useful for avoiding traffic while maintaining speed on straightaways though.

I've heard some mixed impressions of the way cars handle in this game but for the most part it doesn't really bother me. Unlimited definitely has a more arcade-feel to it than sims like Forza but it's not to the point of something like Outrun or Ridge Racer. Since the player is likely to go through driving many different cars I guess it's best not to put too much effort into the way they handle. It's supposed to be a pick-up and play kind of game not one where the player has to fight just to stay on the road. Then again I'm not an expert on cars or even car racing games. I couldn't care less about concepts like the "feeling of weight" cars have and when it comes to setting things like suspension and gear ratios I just look up a guide. The pacing is also very relaxed even during challenges. I'm kind of disappointed cause in terms of music that means my Eurobeat goes to waste so instead I gotta listen to Jamiroquai or something similar.

Unlimited is what I would consider a great example of an open-world racer. Despite the numerous challenges available none of them take place on the same stretches of road and exploration feels rewarding as there are dealerships and other challenges not shown on the map. There's also a very intriguing multiplayer side to it as other players can be seen and interacted with. Course like seemingly all multiplayer games these days the chances of finding players can be pretty low. Still though it's a very impressive feature especially for a game that launched at only 39.99.

As an experience I can't recommend Test Drive Unlimited enough. It's a very easy game to just cruise around to and makes for something relaxing in-between sessions of my favorite 2D shooter. Also since in real life I doubt I'll ever buy a car nicer than a Ford Focus or even go more than 55 mph with no risks it's always handy to have a game that does both. As a game I'd still recommend it cause the way progress is handled is very well done and understanding the driving model can be very rewarding. I really wish there was a way to change my character from a man to a woman though...nevermind.

To-Do List

I've decided to put every game I plan on looking at on this list. This is mostly just for reference and don't expect to see reviews of all of these games any time soon.

Viewtiful Joe
Devil May Cry 1
P.N. 03
The Red Star
Echo Night Beyond
Taito Legends 1 -April-
Taito Legends 2 -April-
Midway Arcade Treasures 2 -April-
Activision Anthology
Megaman: Network Transmission -March-
Megaman 1-9 + 10? -March-
Kuon
Shadow of the Colossus
Sega Classics Collection -April-
Gradius V
Bladestorm: The Hundred Years War
Mushihime-sama Futari -April-
Ninja Gaiden 1-2 and most likely NG:Black as well
Castlevania 2, 3, Super, Rebirth, and Rondo of Blood when it finally hits US VC
Red Faction: Guerilla
Project Sylpheed
Namco Museum Virtual Arcade -April-
Fatal Frame 2
Raw Danger
Bionic Commando (360)
Stonekeep
Fallout 2
Might & Magic 1-5
Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers
Dragon Quest 5
Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 + Expansions
Data East Arcade Classics -April-

I also have quite a few XBLA/XBLindie titles to get around to as well. There's also some other games though for those I don't think I currently have the means to play them(Take my Saturn for example, I'm missing cables, I don't have a Genesis or a Dreamcast yet I have several games between them as well).

Whoo I really gotta cut back

It's that time of the week again.

Bionic Commando - This is that new one that was developed by the now-defunct GRIN. No I'm not talking about the remake of the NES game. This is that new NEW one with the 3D Graphics and whatever whatever. Heard some good things and hey it was cheap.

Viking: The Battle of Asgard - Heck I dunno why I bought this myself. Maybe I'll have some fun with it at least.

Divine Divinity - Since I don't do drugs and very rarely drink that leaves action-rpgs as my one real addiction. I could always quit videogames but action-rpgs? Hmm doubtful. It's either this or installing Diablo 2 for the billionth time so hey might as well try something new.

Might & Magic 1-6 Collection - I like dungeon crawlers so this obviously got purchased.

I'm really going to have to do something about all these game purchases. I still want to make room for a Playstation 3 and Good Lord have you seen the scheduled releases for March? Sega's Yakuza 3, Tri-Ace's End of Eternity, and Square-Enix's Final Fantasy XIII all on the SAME DAY. Absolute madness I'm afraid to say.

Course knowing myself chances of buying all of these games at the time they come out is slim to none. Still though I gotta focus on getting my backlog looked at and possibly gotten rid of before I can even think of purchasing anymore games.

X360 Look: Way of the Samurai 3

Acquire's latest has all the makings of what should be the best Samurai game out there but at the same time it has a number of glaring faults that bring down the total package. Regardless fans of the first two games will find little reason to skip out on this one.

Way of the Samurai 3 tells the tale of a small piece of land that is little more than a speed-bump on Nobunaga Oda's road to becoming ruler of Japan. That is of course until a Nameless Samurai survives a horrifying battle and decides to do something about it. Course like the prior games WoTS3 has many endings and solutions to the persistent problem and the player can find themselves aiding, defying, or even simply running away from Oda.

The biggest disappointment however is that you'll never actually meet Oda. In the game he's more of a force of nature that helps to move events along. More likely you'll find working against a man by the name of Shuzen Fujimori. He's a corrupt and ambitious person who just might prove to be a match for Oda if a Nameless Samurai were to come along and assist him. Fujimori isn't the only important person in this tale as there is also a disgraced Samurai, a princess in hiding, and a number of other characters who are instrumental to the future(s) of Japan.

Much like the other games progress revolves around traveling through a rather small game world viewing events and making decisions. While the world resets to square one everytime the player starts a new game all equipment & money is carried over as well as certain other things. For the most part however whatever decisions the player has made will not carry over to future games. Thankfully the average playthrough takes a couple hours at the most so no matter what happens there's never a serious investment of time lost.

Really though I've just described Way of the Samurai 1. Let's talk about what's new in this game. The biggest addition is the ability to take on jobs. These quests are very easy to complete as they consist almost entirely of "find this and kill or collect it". The problem is however is that there's no sense of progress for these missions. They are handed out seemingly at random and can repeat quite often. The most maddening aspect is that almost all of them just aren't any fun. Some play out more like "Hide & Go Seek" as important NPCs find new crevices to tuck themselves in. There are a few missions that focus on the fun stuff like killing but some(like pushing an old lady nearly 100 feet) are agonizing in their tedium.

Combat has also undergone a few changes. One of the newest features is the ability to perform an insta-kill attack after a successful parry. While this can only be performed on weaker enemies it can be chained into a special QTE system. After butchering one person with this attack nearby hostile NPCs will run up to the player in an attempt to break the chain. I'm not sure why they'd want to rush towards a Samurai destroying everyone in single strokes but eh videogame logic. This ability is very necessary as a lot of ending paths involve fighting through waves of foes and there are even a few jobs where the player must kill 100 enemies.

Weapon building is certainly quite a bit more fleshed out than in the first Way of the Samurai. While everyone still carries a weapon the player can also find or purchase weapon parts to put together their dream sword or spear. These weapons can then be strengthened by the blacksmith to create something truly awesome(I'm partial to the two swords I named Dodonpachi and ESP Ra De myself). The character customization is also a bit more robust as there are a ton of playable characters as well as accessories to outfit them with. The biggest problem I have with this though is that I'm not exactly fond of kimonos and sandals, which happen to be what most everyone in the game wears. I understand it's supposed to match the period but they still could've tried to mix it up a bit with some western-themed outfits from around the same time.

A lot of money is required in order to get the most out of this game and depending on the nature of the player this can either become extremely tedious or just flat-out broken. The biggest issue is that if you kill a shopkeeper after purchasing something from them they drop your money. Needless to say I gutted everyone I did business with because doing the jobs is such an incredible bore. Some people don't agree to playing this or any game in such a manner but with the open-ended nature of the game it really doesn't matter. After enough upgrades the player will become all but invincible so the only real goal afterwards is in unlocking everything.

This to me is where the game truly falls apart. There is such a thing as having too much content. A lot of the times when there's "hundreds of weapons, thousands of moves, infinite possibilities" that just means a lot of the same content only with very slight variances. Almost all of the endings are a page of text with a still image, and some can only be acquired by doing a ton of jobs. What this eventually comes down to is a loss of focus as I spend more time filling up charts, spending time at shops purchasing scrolls to mastering weapons(as opposed to actually using them), and generally doing things that would make more sense in an Accounting sim than a Samurai sim.

If there was more in the way of unique characters or creative encounters I'd have more of a reason to focus on the entertaining qualities of Samurai 3. There are a lot of people to fight with in the game but many go down with little trouble and certain moves are so devastating that they don't have much of a chance. There are some very interesting abilities like a moveset geared entirely towards fighting bare-handed but since one can not parry without a weapon it only becomes useful after reading enough match skill scrolls. With nearly a thousand moves to match it's easier to just buy them all rather than going up to an enemy and parrying a move potentially several times just to match it. By the time I finally master something it's such an exhaustive ordeal that I lose interest in actually using it.

The thing is though is that I'm at a bit of a loss when it comes to suggesting an alternate idea for a future Way of the Samurai game. It's pretty clear what direction the series is going in and even though I believe it lacks focus all the same it's not something that can be easily changed. Paring down the number of weapons and abilities might help a bit. Sure die-hard fans might cry foul but do we really need seventeen flavors of vertical slices and thirty swords designated by different colored pommels? Put some of that energy into creating fights that are more than either one-on-one duels or 100+ men battles. While I'm at it why not pursue more entertaining encounters? I'd be partial to Samurai vs Pirate battles myself.

Even ignoring all that at least fix the job system so that there's some semblance of progression to it and the jobs don't consist of finding randomly-placed objects or people. I can't believe that the exact same person is causing trouble in the exact same place two times in a row. There is really no excuse for such a badly designed system.

Still in the end this is pretty much the only thing still going if you need your Samurai fix. Despite my numerous issues it's still a decent enough game and while the combat can be very shallow there is some satisfaction in spilling the blood of others. Maybe I just spent too much time on this game and allowed myself to become jaded as a result.

VC Look: Final Fight 3

We're all familiar with the beatemup classic Final Fight. While not a good game on its own it had a lot of great qualities that found their way into truly great titles like Streets of Rage 2, Bare Knuckle 3, and obviously Capcom's future beatemups like Cadillacs & Dinosaurs and Battle Circuit. Strangely enough while Final Fight debuted as an arcade game all of its sequels(ignoring last-gen's Streetwise) were on the SNES only.

Metro City is once again in trouble. In fact things are so bad that a wannabe dictator is attempting to take power and even the cook of a local restaurant has gone rogue. It's a riot zone out there and only the mayor Mike Haggar, his Bushido-buddy Guy, and a couple of nobodies can make things right. What follows is the standard format that practically every arcade beatemup goes by. There are six stages with a boss at the end of each and filled with thugs. Unlike most beatemups however there are optional areas to find(basically hidden rooms with 1ups or other goodies) and even an alternate path with a couple different stages and a different boss.

Final Fight 3 has four playable characters though you can rightly assume that the ones I didn't name in the last paragraph are useless. The game employs a number of interesting features like special moves that are performed with controller motions(like any fighting game) but for these two other characters their moves just aren't any good. Couple this with a lack of good combos and crowd control moves and you have a serious lack of character balance. To compare Haggar has an extremely useful and safe spinning pile-driver while Guy has a fireball special that can be easily comboed for quick and easy damage. The other two guys rely on slow special moves that leave them open to damage and can miss easily.

While the genre has been no stranger to repetition and a general lack of variety Final Fight 3 turns that dial all the way to the right to create one of the most bland beatemups I've ever went through. The strategy for every foe in this game boils down to walking up to them and punching and/or throwing them. There's one guy that moves around a lot, a big guy that charges, and a woman that does backflips. As far as the regular fodder is concerned this is all of the variety in the game. The bosses aren't much better either as it seems like the easiest way to become a boss in Final Fight 3 is to have a weapon. Bosses are also distinctive by using a move that allows them some invincibility after being knocked down so the player simply can't stand on top of them and pummel them as they get up. Something as simple as jump-kick is out of reach for 90% of the enemies you'll face in this game. This is absolutely pathetic for a genre that's life-blood is in creating interesting encounters. As expected the level design is non-existent but I guess when the fights themselves wouldn't benefit from anything in the way of traps or other objects it doesn't matter.

This game is also lacking in terms of challenge. First off it seems that with no matter the difficulty setting I always start with five lives. 1ups also happen to be very frequent and the only real tough spot is the fifth boss due to a number of cheap attacks. I'm not even sure what the settings really affected aside from maybe making enemy health meters a bit longer. Adding some new enemies or even throwing in more of them in each level is probably a bit too much of a hassle. Even the game itself lacks the impact that most beatemups have(including Final Fight 1). There's no satisfaction from perform devastating attacks on a foe and everything feels weak and lifeless like people were clobbering each other with wiffle-bats instead of actual bats.

Really I can't think of anything nice to say about this game. It's really one of the saddest efforts Capcom has ever put forth and the only reason it has the title of "Best SNES beatemup" is due to the complete lack of competition. Really if you're looking for a respectable beatemup and have already played everything you're better off giving everything a second play cause this game is pathetic.

Yikes - Games I really shouldn't have bought

Every now and then I end up with a game that I simply can not hope to wrap my head around or they're in a state that's pretty much unplayable. To me even the worst game isn't a waste of money because there's still something I can learn from playing it. With these games however what else can I say aside from...oops?

Die By the Sword - I read a bit about this game way back and thought it sounded really interesting. It's an action game with a unique control system and customizable movesets. It also has features like the ability to hack limbs off of an enemy and watch them hop around helplessly(though the same can be done to you so you can do your best Black Knight impression). Unfortunately it's probably my lack of a dedicated 3D graphics card because this game is unplayable. Maybe I'll give it another go in a few years.

Redneck Rampage - I guess you had to be there to appreciate games like this. Basically it's your typical tale of hicks vs aliens and includes all of those wacky redneck stereotypes like pork reins, shootin' aliens instead of shooting, and some hillbilly tunes to jam out to. I gotta say though the highlight of the game so far is the soundtrack. Otherwise this game looks and runs quite terribly. I think I'm going to avoid 3D-card games for awhile.

Guilty Gear Overture - I try to stay open-minded but even I don't have the mind for this game. I couldn't care less that it isn't a 2D fighter but a Real-Time Action Stategy game just isn't for me. I can only guess that Arc Systems accomplished whatever it was they were trying to do here cause even after running through the glorified tutorial that is the story mode and trying a multiplayer match(which froze my 360..thanks) I'm almost as lost now as I was when I tried the demo of the JPN version a long time ago.

Divine Divinity - The best thing about this game is most definitely the soundtrack. One of the nice features of GOG.com is that a number of the games available have downloadable soundtracks in mp3 format. As a pizza delivery guy I go through a lot of music so this is always welcome. The soundtrack to this game is beautiful and atmospheric, some of the pieces even remind me of the music to Blade Runner. This game on the other hand feels like a dated Diablo 1.5. It tries to capture the mood of the first game while employing the features of the sequel. Unfortunately I got hit with a crash-bug early on and I can't figure out how to get around it. Oh well it's probably not worth the time anyway, the first 10 hours I spent with the game haven't really blown me away.

Metro 2033 - Good game but I have absolutely no time for it. Life is short and I gotta prioritize so this game had to go.

Dragon Quest V - While the story is charming and the characters are endearing the game itself just wasn't enough to hold my interest. I guess I'm getting tired of the traditional JRPGs or maybe it's just the wrong time of the year for it. Whatever the case I wasted my time on this one and got maybe a 1/3 of the way through it. I'm sure others will love it however as it's a quality game.

Ultima Collection (I-VIII) - Like a lot of things this seemed like a good idea at the time. Unfortunately I came to the realization that I'm getting older and one day my ability to play action-oriented games will have all but faded away with time. Maybe I'll come back to something like this when I'm seventy and can devote that kind of time to hundreds of hours of Ultima goodness. If that doesn't happen well..who cares?

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory - I heard this was an absolutely fantastic Stealth game. Problem is I continue to forget that I don't care for stealth games. On the bright side at least I was only out $4.

There'll be others in the future so feel free to keep an eye out.