Flash Friday: Dino Run

I almost forgot I was going to keep this an ongoing thing!

The flash game for today is a pixel style platformer called...

Dino Run

If you recall, I love dinosaurs and this game places you in the consciousness of a small theropod escaping the imminent doom that is the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. You have to run your way through each level, continuously trying to outrun the blast. You can also upgrade your dinosaur before each level depending on how many DNA points you have.

That's a short overview of the game, now go play it!


Second Opinion: DrFinkelstein

I gave this game a go just now and I was surprised. It's essentially like Sonic The Hedgehog with Dinosaurs and a greater sense of peril. It's kind of a morose game if you really think about it, but play it anyway. I also appreciated the very 8-bit look and sound of the title.

Review: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

I seem to have come down with the sniffles, but I will attempt to do a review today, though it may be shorter than my previous ones. I appreciate Dr. Finkelstein contributing this week, so go check out his articles! Anyway, onto the review...

I bought this game at the beginning of this year and... well, I didn't finish it, until now. I just restarted the whole game because I don't like to pick up a game after several months of not playing and then try to beat it, especially if it's an RPG or action/adventure. I've been a big fan of the Mario RPGs, I've played and beaten every single one, with the exception of Partners in Time, which I did have at one point, but, like Bowser's Inside Story, I didn't finish it when I first bought it.

Out of all the Mario RPGs, this one probably has my favorite story and writing. Bowser eats a bad mushroom from the main protagonist and he sucks in all of people in Peach's Castle. The main protaganist in the game is a little guy named Fawful from the first Mario & Luigi who speaks almost like he was hilariously mistranslated from Japan to the US, but that was completely intentional. I suppose Fawful was chosen as the villain because he has had a big cult following and the fans wanted to see more of him.

Like the other Mario RPGs, the battle system in this game relies on timing and expects the player to pay attention when the enemy is attacking so you can avoid damage or counter. With that system, the game feels like an action rpg without being one... if that makes any sense.

Other than the battle system, there are various mini-games through the story that Mario and Luigi will have to complete inside Bowser's body. You won't be doing the same mini-game too often, each one you will only have to do 3 or 4 times throughout the entire game. One special mini-game is a short shmup that allows Bowser to become gigantic, and that takes you to another battle system where it's like a turn-based fighter. These segments were my favorite part of the game. You turn the DS on it's side, book style, and you use the stylus to control bower's actions. It feels very satisfying to slide the stylus and see Bowser punch your enemy halfway across the battlefield.

The Verdict:

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story is a fine installment in the series. I'm not entirely sure when we'll see another game like this, since it's been announced that the next Paper Mario will be on the 3DS, will there ever be another 2D Mario RPG? Well, if there isn't, this is a good close for the series if they decide not to make any more.

What I liked:

-The writing and Fawful: I HAVE CHORTLES!!!
-Fun turn-based fighting Bowser segments.
-Battle system that requires attention.

What I didn't like:

-The ending felt abrupt, but maybe it's just me.

Playing The Classics: Chrono Trigger: Vol 2

-- Part One --

Last night after the movie I attempted to play some more Chrono Trigger. I made my way through the story and was transported to 600 AD in search of the girl I met at the fair. That fair tune is one of my favorite songs from any video game ever and I was glad to hear it at the source. However, shortly after I time travelled I neglected to estimate properly my HP and I died... well the game hasn't let me save yet so I lost all progress.

Going through this a second time now, I decided to not go to the fair right away first. I went to the nearby forest leveled up a bit. I'm determined to keep the "live" battle system going as opposed to the waiting one but I do find it frustrating. I'm sure I'll get used to it in time though. I made my way south a bit and investigated a nearby town. I love the little touches in this game already like the monster who plays the piano at the bar. He excitedly asked me if I wanted to hear an upbeat tune or a sad tune. Both were nice and I hope this game is riddled with little touches like these.

One thing I've noticed already, after moving up a couple levels, is that the HP gained is pretty significant. In past RPG's I've played, notably the Super Mario-based ones, you only move up 2 or 3 hit points on average. In Pokemon, this is the same way. In Chrono Trigger so far I've been making much greater leaps. At least double that of the aforementioned games. I wonder how this will come into effect later as I expect the bosses I'll be fighting soon to be hugely strong. I also wonder who the key antagonist is in this game. I know I'm not deep enough in to find out but so far all the issues I've had are by natural monsters and Lucca's machine going nuts when the pendant was inside. If I remember hearing correctly, there was some kind of over-arching antagonist, so I look forward to seeing more about this world's enemies. Maybe I'm wrong though and it's specific to the time I'm in specifically. I'm not sure if I'll enjoy that more or less but eh, I'll find out soon enough.

Before writing again in this series, I'll wait to get a bit farther into the story so I have more to discuss. For now though, the start was slippery, but pretty much that's because of my own issues. I must ask though, when and how do I save? Unless I'm just purely ignorant, I haven't yet had the opportunity. Is this coming? Also, I wonder if it's smarter to save my money or to upgrade weapons and armor at every stop... I'm not looking to find out the best things to do as per a FAQ or something but feel free to answer the basic question in the comments as well as my save query.

Read Part 3

Playing The Classics: Chrono Trigger: Vol 1

I have never played Chrono Trigger. *GASP* Yes, I know that's shocking. I consider myself quite the "hardcore gamer" if I had to label myself but just like with movies and music, I can't have tried all the classics. When this originally released, I wasn't very much into RPG games. I owned Dragon Warrior for years but never did much with it. I never made it far through the original Final Fantasy for the Gameboy. In fact, I had owned a Genesis well before a Super Nintendo so that was yet another reason I never got a hold of Chrono Trigger. Then one day a long time ago, I tried the rom version. It was a little glitchy and I generally don't like roms anyway because I find keyboard inputs to be cumbersome. So after playing just past the prologue, I stopped. So okay, I technically have played it but you know what I mean. Years later I was very hyped for Chrono Cross. The theme song alone blew me away and I knew I had to play and own it. Problem was, being solely a Nintendo gamer minus my Genesis, it took way too long for me to get a Playstation and even then it was such an old model, it wouldn't play Chrono Cross when I rented it from the local Blockbuster. So that dream died too. This is my history with the Chrono series. I love the music I've heard, I love the word Chrono itself, but I never got to truly experience the series and be a part of the love that radiates from its core....until now. I purchased Chrono Trigger DS from Amazon the other day and it came in this afternoon. I am going to play through this classic for the first time and provide at least a couple of entries about my progress and thoughts. I really encourage our readership to chime in also but please don't speak about things farther than I am at. What good would that do me? So that all said, here's the first installment of a blog-series I hope to continue with for a long time coming, "Playing The Classics". Chrono Trigger, you beautiful bastard, now's my turn to try you.


This first post was intended as a backstory on my history with the legacy and to set up the blog-series in general. Right now as the DS sits on my desk, Im loving these cutscenes and this intro. The music is incredibly epic and the animation is superb. I know that these cut scenes and such are only from a later version of the game and we obviously not in the original SNES version but they definitely seem to add something to the game already. I can feel emotion and tension from these characters that might help immerse me even further into the actual game itself. I press A. That classic ticking pendulum rocks and the logo appears. I am in for something special, I can just feel it. I hope, though can't promise, that I'll finish this game before my highly anticipated Golden Sun: Dark Dawn arrives. Still though, it feels good to be playing an RPG again. It's been a while. As much as I like being able to think about my strategies with RPGs, I think I'm going to play it with an Active Battle mode. If I recall correctly, this was the original way of playing and I'm quite intrigued on how I handle the need to think fast on my feet to cast spells or attacks. Maybe it'll immerse me even more as if I was really in danger and really fighting against all these enemies.

...

The seagulls flock and the festival begins... and with that I pause. Hey, there's Harry Potter tonight, I need a nap. But I will write back soon in this series with the point of continuing my journey through Chrono Trigger.

Read Part 2

Gamer Culture: Forever Famicom

Do yourself a favor for a moment and press play on this youtube link below.



Alright. Now listen and read my words. There are two genres of music I don't enjoy. Authentic Country and Hardcore Rap. That's just how I am. I like old-school hip hop and folk or bluegrass if you want some grounding of my enjoyment of the variants. Anyway, that all said, it was earlier this year when somehow (perhaps from the Negative World forums) I discovered Forever Famicom.

Mega Ran and K-Murdoch, as the two lead musicians are known as, have taken something I absolutely love with something I rarely consider in my daily life. The result is amazing music that hits me at my 8-bit heart and resonates with my gaming soul. The sample you're listening to now on youtube is called "Dream Master". The art makes it obvious but this track samples from the NES classic, Little Nemo: Dream Master. The music to this game has fond memories for me and these guys masterfully rap well-written lyrics along side with it. I don't really know how to explain it, better than just listening to it, in order to make you understand.

This album samples from all sorts of excellent classic NES games. This track was from Little Nemo, but my other favorite song, "For The Gamers" takes samples from the excellent DuckTales game. Other games sampled include, Mega Man, Earthbound, Starfox, Kirby's Dreamland, Chrono Trigger, and Metroid. Their album, Forever Famicom, is fourteen tracks long. The album feels very full and satisfying both to listen to and for the price point. A digital download is nine dollars (barely 64 cents a track) while a signed hardcopy and a digital download is fourteen dollars (only a dollar a track).

It appears that after releasing this album in June of this year, they released a bonus CD called "Forever Famicom DLC". That contains eight tracks, with samplings from Zelda II, F-Zero, and even Mario Paint. Then it contains instrumental versions of all fourteen original tracks. Amazing value for seven dollars. Just last month they had a third release called "Thank You For Listening". This is simply one song and this song is free to download off the site. It takes samples from Super Mario Bros. 3. It's the perfect way to test the waters and see if this stuff catches your fancy.

It only takes a mere couple of a seconds for me to geek out over this stuff. Mega Ran and K-Murdoch have created something insanely special and unique. They deserve your dollar and with the holidays just around the corner, this is perfect for that gamer in your life. Visit their page and purchase some tunes. At the very least you can listen to full tracks streamed and find details on which games were sampled in which tracks. Don't game over on these guys... they sound awesome.

Forever Famicom Homepage
(I have problems playing the samples in Safari but it works great in Firefox.)

Review: Goldeneye 007

I told myself today, "You cannot play anymore Goldeneye until you write the review. Stop neglecting your duties!" Well, here I am because dammit, I wanna play.

Where do I begin though? Goldeneye 007 is a re-imagining of the film with some elements borrowed from the Nintendo 64 classic. Note I didn't say it was a remake of anything because a remake this is not. I wont dive into it much for why this isn't a remake but a few reasons off the top of my head... here that goes. You wont find the classic multiplayer maps, nor some of the 64-based weapons, and the plot of the game itself doesn't entirely match the film. That last one said, luckily they hired one of the original writers of the film to write the script for this game. The story actually makes enough sense to not bother me personally and I'm a huge fan of the original film. It's my favorite Bond film in fact. I have a slight bigger issue with the cast changes but only because I love Pierce Brosnan and I miss Robbie Coltrane (who played Valentin). Any sane person however should be able to get over this and enjoy what the game is really about, being a fun FPS on the Wii.

The single player mode was something I was looking forward to just as much as the online multiplayer. From the first level through till the last one, I was completely engulfed by the presentation. There is a lot of effort here to immerse you into the role of Bond. While the first level, the classic Dam, has a lot of scripted segments, the rest of the game doles out these moments sparingly so that they don't become overwhelming. They pretty much always add to the experience. I loved the way that the EMP blast was done and how the final Cradle battle was handled. I played the game initially on the easiest mode, which does include regenerating health, but the fourth and final difficulty level borrows the health bar and health pickups of the 1997 Nintendo 64 title. Purists quit your bitching! Hurrah! I did play the highest difficulty level in the form of their Time Trials... and well my experience so far has been less than pleasant. It's insanely difficult, for me anyway. You have to pretty much run past every enemy in order to traverse these lengthy levels in typically under 10 minutes (not including the cutscenes). To me, that's not fun. I would have preferred either they make the time restrictions a bit more lax, or just changed it somehow that I can't think of. I don't find it fun when a game about being stealthy and accurate as Bond should be, becomes just how well you can be a bullet sponge without dying. Not fun at all. That's okay though because when I got frustrated with that, I just hop online and get frustrated some more... in a good way.

You'll come for the single player and stay for the online multiplayer. Matching up with random people works exceptionally well, with the exception of hosts quitting mid-match. Luckily that's not that often. Matching with your friend-code friends works pretty well too. The only downside is the somewhat awkward invite system. It works, but it just doesn't work perfectly. There's a great selection of maps to play and I having loadouts is unique. I suspect this might be an old feature for the FPS genre but still, it's pretty new to me. The only downside is that when you're just starting out, you wont have a loadout with neat gadgets or bonuses yet you'll battle someone who will. It's not a match-breaker though. If you're good, you're good no matter what. There's also a lot of different types of matches from your classic Conflict and Team Conflicts to the more unique ones like Heroes and the Black Box. It's been sucking my time like crazy the past eight-nine days. Part of the drive to keep this addiction up is the fact that the game utilizes a points earning system to unlock more modes and weapons and bonuses. Sometimes it feels like leveling up takes too long, but I guess I wont know until I continue. I'm around level 15 right now, and I know that some stuff wont unlock until level 52 or so... that'll take a long long time of online battling. I haven't played any off-line multiplayer but I would assume it's not much different. However, there is split-screen multiplayer. I don't really have the need for it anymore because my gaming friends have all since moved away or quit playing. Still, I really appreciate that they put it in there regardless.

One last thing I want to say is that the version I purchased was the one with the Gold Classic Controller Pro. I've never owned one and while I never did play this game with that controller (I used the Wii Remote + Nunchuk combo) I love the controller. It looks great, it feels great. It's not any cheaper getting the bundle versus buying a controller separately but it is the only way to get a gold colored one. If you haven't yet purchased a classic controller, I really would recommend getting one this way. If you already have one though, it's probably not worth it. I wont be using it for Goldeneye but you better believe I'll be using it for my VC and WiiWare purchases.

The Verdict:

Simply put; You should BOND with this game because it will BLOW you away. Well, I hope it will. It's a very solid shooter for the Wii with controls that are rather customizable in an almost Conduit quality. Lots of variety and it'll excite any Goldeneye-lover assuming they don't have a stick up their ass expecting something that was made thirteen years ago.

What I liked:

Brings Goldeneye to life in ways the 64 game couldn't. Online is very addicting! Production values are high.

What I didn't like:

Online can be unfair slightly. Music isn't as iconic as the 64 game, but blame that on nostalgia. Time Trial mode, while appreciated, is way too difficult for anyone but the most serious first-person shooter gamers.

Flash Friday: Upgrade Complete!

Since I have extreme writer's block right now, I thought this would be the perfect time to unleash a cheap alternative to writing my opinion: sharing free flash games that I've played! For this Friday, I give you...

Upgrade Complete!

It's a very basic shmup, but with a catch... you have to literally upgrade everything in the game. Even the preloader for the game itself!

So... go play it and tell us what you think about it!