Can you believe that we are already more than half-way through the year? Though with the Wii sucking wind (thanks to Nintendo apparently not interested in delivering games the core would like) it was relatively boring one for me. Mostly marked with buying used games and some previous year releases. I did manage to sneak in some 2011 releases though and here is how I'd rank them:
Top 5 of the First Half of 2011
1. Portal 2 - PS3
This game is incredible. If you've played it, you'd know that. Taking the simple, yet refined mechanics of the first and expanding it greatly, not only in terms of gameplay but also in story. Not only do you get an incredible single player but also an amazing co-op mode that does more than just be an add-on but its own story in its own right. Remember if you don't play this, Cave Johnson is going to burn your house down, with the lemon!
2. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - 3DS
A remake of my favorite game of all time? That is a no brainer for me. This remake improves quite a bit, mostly graphically. Link has more animation, the world is more detailed, etc. Also moving the menus to the touch screen makes the thing that so many players hated, doing the iron boots in the water temple. Plus the ability to take OoT on the road with me is awesome.
3. de Blob 2 - Wii
And here what I believe to be the best game on the Wii this year. Sigh. Don't get me wrong, de Blob 2 is a great game. The review I posted said as much. It expands on a lot of what made de Blob great and improves on what was wrong.
4. Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition - 3DS
The 3rd of now 4 versions of Street Fighter IV is a great port from the PS3/360 versions. It is in the vein of the ports to the SNES for Street Fighter II. Gives you everything you love about the console version without having to pay for the DLC. Can't go wrong with that.
5. Radiant Historia - DS
While I am not very far into this game I am loving the use of the time travel aspects of using the Historia and opening up many different plot lines and scenarios. And with a pretty fun battle system I'll certainly enjoy this even more as I go.
Top 5 Most Wanted for the Second Half of 2011
1. Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - Wii
The wait for this has been a long one, 5 years since the last console version actually. With a great mix of TWW and Twilight Princess' art-style and hopefully some fun new gameplay aspects with Wii Motion+ this could very well be the game that beats out Portal 2 for my favorite of the year.
2. Batman: Arkham City - PS3
Arkham Asylum was a fantastic take on Batman and is arguably the greatest super-hero video game of all. It just nailed how Batman truly operates in the shadows to take out thugs and the relative brutal efficiency of his fighting technique. Arkham City promises to expand on it with a larger environment and more villains showing up.
3. Team Ico Collection - PS3
If you hadn't noticed, I just posted a pair of trailers for this game. Improves to HD will hopefully just make these fantastic games even better and make the wait for The Last Guardian a little easier, or harder. Hard to say.
4. Kirby - Wii
A Kirby platformer with some of the ideas of New Super Mario Bros. Wii of 4 player co-op? Count me in. Kirby games are always a ton of fun and will help ease some of the pain this year.
5. Star Fox 64 3D - 3DS
Another remake of a classic but much like OoT3D getting to take this on the road will be a huge plus especially that the game feels suited to handheld experiences. Plus we get to be annoyed by Slippy all over again. Yay?
There are other games that I wanted but these are the ones with the definite release dates. Mario Kart, Super Mario, Paper Mario, MGS3, etc all look great but I'm not sure if they'll all make it out this year. If they do, wow that will be a lot of stuff.
Showing posts with label Top Five. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Top Five. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Top 5 Movie Games
Well it is that magical time of year again. The time of year where bloated special FX and spectacle dominates the movie scene. Yes it is the Summer Blockbuster season, which starts in May and usually goes till August.
This summer we have a glut of super-hero movies, the last Harry Potter film, a new Pixar film, another Transformers movie that will probably disappoint and who knows what else. And with this comes video games based on said movies, which are almost invariably rushed and released to coincide with the movie as a cash-in rather than a game that can stand on its own. It is an unfortunate reality that we all have to live with that have plagued games since the earliest days, whether it was the disaster known as E.T. the video game for the Atari 2600, the games that the masters of licensed crap LJN released for the NES or modern day disasters like Iron Man, these games typically only sell because of the name and little else.
But despite this overall bleak view of games based off movie, there is still many good to great movie based video games that are more than a licensed cash-in. And while these are my favorites, there are more out there.
A 2D Final Fight styled beat-um up from Konami, this game had you more or less following the path of the movie as you bashed your way through The Penguin,, his army of clowns and dealing with the mysterious Catwoman. The games has 3 game styles, the standard Final Fight-style stages, 2D platforming stages and 3D-ish driving stages. The best part of the Final Fight-style stages has you kicking the crap out of the clowns, not to mention throwing them into the background to bash against the walls. The 2D platforming is basically the same controls but enemies die in one hit and you have do some kinda clunky platforming. The 3D-ish driving stages usually have you surviving a horde of motorcycles and a boss fight. Not much to say as you just control and shoot. Despite the iffier modes, the overall package is fantastic.
As you may recall from my retro review of Little Nemo, this is a game based off a movie. Now not very many people knew this because to be honest, how many people actually saw Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland? This game benefited, like many on this list actually, from not really following the movie's story and being its own game. So instead you go into many dream themed environments to rescue King Morpheous from the Nightmare King and save Slumberland. And considering it was made by Capcom who had an almost impeccable 8-bit line-up you really can't go wrong with this great platformer.
While I am kind of cheating with this one as the Aladdin games for the SNES and Genesis are very different games. The SNES one, made by Capcom, is more or less a straight-up platformer that focuses on Aladdin's nature as an acrobatic thief to traverse the levels. The Genesis one, made by Virgin Interactive, is a hack and slash with beautifully drawn character sprites and is easily the more well-known of the two. Both games pretty much follow the plot with some amusingly similar plot deviation. While both are good, I prefer the Super NES one for the overall package and also that I feel it is more akin to how Aladdin would actually traverse his world. But preferences will differ.
Yes I have two on here. But I especially picked this one because as far as I know it may very well be the first good movie based game ever. While not following the movie's plot from what I can tell, there are references to the movie in cutscenes but the seem thrown in to give the game a semblance of relation to the movie. The game goes through 5 stages, which barely have anything to do with the movie and Batman plays very little like the movie version of him. Instead of being a walking tank (though he is) Batman, along with his punch, relies also on a gun with 3 attack options and a very useful wall jumping ability, necessary to get through some of the more difficult parts of the game. The game is short but very hard and will kill you many times especially in the later levels. Also the music rocks.
Goldeneye is important for a couple reasons, one being the best movie game of all time and also for bringing a great console only FPS experience to the consoles. What is amazing is that this game was given a lot of time to mature as it was released 3 years after the movie it was based on which given the a nature of movie-based games is almost entirely unheard of. What Rare gave us was a game that followed the plot reasonably well while expanding the narrative quite a bit. Though I'm pretty sure what most people remember is the multiplayer. Many hours were lost playing deathmatch on this game and is typically what people remember the most. It was such a nostalgic game that Activision gave Wii owners an exclusive update of the game, which while different from the N64 game, plucked on the old nostalgia heart strings for many of us.
Honorable Mentions: Spider-Man 2 (GCN, XBox, PS2), Journey to Silus (NES) (it was meant to be a Terminator based game and it shows), Lion King (SNES/Genesis)
This summer we have a glut of super-hero movies, the last Harry Potter film, a new Pixar film, another Transformers movie that will probably disappoint and who knows what else. And with this comes video games based on said movies, which are almost invariably rushed and released to coincide with the movie as a cash-in rather than a game that can stand on its own. It is an unfortunate reality that we all have to live with that have plagued games since the earliest days, whether it was the disaster known as E.T. the video game for the Atari 2600, the games that the masters of licensed crap LJN released for the NES or modern day disasters like Iron Man, these games typically only sell because of the name and little else.
But despite this overall bleak view of games based off movie, there is still many good to great movie based video games that are more than a licensed cash-in. And while these are my favorites, there are more out there.
Top 5 Movie Games
5. Batman Returns - SNES
A 2D Final Fight styled beat-um up from Konami, this game had you more or less following the path of the movie as you bashed your way through The Penguin,, his army of clowns and dealing with the mysterious Catwoman. The games has 3 game styles, the standard Final Fight-style stages, 2D platforming stages and 3D-ish driving stages. The best part of the Final Fight-style stages has you kicking the crap out of the clowns, not to mention throwing them into the background to bash against the walls. The 2D platforming is basically the same controls but enemies die in one hit and you have do some kinda clunky platforming. The 3D-ish driving stages usually have you surviving a horde of motorcycles and a boss fight. Not much to say as you just control and shoot. Despite the iffier modes, the overall package is fantastic.
4. Little Nemo: The Dream Master - NES
As you may recall from my retro review of Little Nemo, this is a game based off a movie. Now not very many people knew this because to be honest, how many people actually saw Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland? This game benefited, like many on this list actually, from not really following the movie's story and being its own game. So instead you go into many dream themed environments to rescue King Morpheous from the Nightmare King and save Slumberland. And considering it was made by Capcom who had an almost impeccable 8-bit line-up you really can't go wrong with this great platformer.
3. Aladdin - SNES/Genesis
While I am kind of cheating with this one as the Aladdin games for the SNES and Genesis are very different games. The SNES one, made by Capcom, is more or less a straight-up platformer that focuses on Aladdin's nature as an acrobatic thief to traverse the levels. The Genesis one, made by Virgin Interactive, is a hack and slash with beautifully drawn character sprites and is easily the more well-known of the two. Both games pretty much follow the plot with some amusingly similar plot deviation. While both are good, I prefer the Super NES one for the overall package and also that I feel it is more akin to how Aladdin would actually traverse his world. But preferences will differ.
2. Batman: The Video Game - NES
Yes I have two on here. But I especially picked this one because as far as I know it may very well be the first good movie based game ever. While not following the movie's plot from what I can tell, there are references to the movie in cutscenes but the seem thrown in to give the game a semblance of relation to the movie. The game goes through 5 stages, which barely have anything to do with the movie and Batman plays very little like the movie version of him. Instead of being a walking tank (though he is) Batman, along with his punch, relies also on a gun with 3 attack options and a very useful wall jumping ability, necessary to get through some of the more difficult parts of the game. The game is short but very hard and will kill you many times especially in the later levels. Also the music rocks.
1. Goldeneye 007 - N64
Goldeneye is important for a couple reasons, one being the best movie game of all time and also for bringing a great console only FPS experience to the consoles. What is amazing is that this game was given a lot of time to mature as it was released 3 years after the movie it was based on which given the a nature of movie-based games is almost entirely unheard of. What Rare gave us was a game that followed the plot reasonably well while expanding the narrative quite a bit. Though I'm pretty sure what most people remember is the multiplayer. Many hours were lost playing deathmatch on this game and is typically what people remember the most. It was such a nostalgic game that Activision gave Wii owners an exclusive update of the game, which while different from the N64 game, plucked on the old nostalgia heart strings for many of us.
Honorable Mentions: Spider-Man 2 (GCN, XBox, PS2), Journey to Silus (NES) (it was meant to be a Terminator based game and it shows), Lion King (SNES/Genesis)
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