Hall of Fame: Super Metroid

Title: Super Metroid

First Released: March 19th, 1994

Available on: SNES, Virtual Console

Overview:

Super Metroid was developed by a staff of people from Nintendo's R&D1, managed by Gunpei Yokoi, the creator of the Metroid series, though this game was directed by Yoshio Sakamoto. It was produced by Makoto Kano, and the music was composed by both Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamono. Upon its release, Super Metroid was known well for taking the Metroid concept and running full force with it. From the amazing graphics creating lush environments to the fantastical bosses and enemies, the game had it all. Nintendo Power, back in May of 1994, gave the game a 4.425 score out of 5. To this day, it is one of the most appreciated titles of any console or handheld.

The game takes place immediately after Metroid II: Return of Samus and features, for the first time, a monologue from Samus herself setting up the story. The game, whether this is considered a flaw or not, had a decent amount of what is called "sequence breaking" which makes it a favorite among speedrunners. Following in traditional Metroid fashion, the sense of isolation is deep with a mix of subdued music and excellent level design.

Our thoughts:

SPOILER WARNING!

"I began playing the Metroid series around the time Fusion and Prime came out, and I've been a fan ever since, and I've tried my best to play all of the games in the series. This entry, however, blew away my expectations when I played it. The freedom the player has in this game to explore is unmatched by many modern games, even other Metroid games can't match it. There are a ton of power-ups and items to scavenge across planet Zebes, one of which I wish they would bring back to the series: the Spazer beam.

There are so many memorable moments too, such as defeating the Crocomire, with it's body melting in Norfair's intense magma, and then when I thought I saw the last of it, CRASH! It's skeleton pops out of a spiked wall and scares me. There's also the frustration of trying to get back to Maridia from Brinstar, only to find out you needed to break the 'n00b tube' as fans like to call it. Truly, right from the beginning of this game, from hearing the 'new' Brinstar music pick up for the first time, to finally defeating Mother Brain and seeing the Metroid baby give its life for you... this game will stick in my memory forever and it will live on as the greatest in the series for me."

-- Paleo

"Metroid, for me, was a gaming franchise I chose to ignore once upon a time. I heard it was pretty good but I just never ended up playing it. That changed when the Prime games started releasing and I finally understood what was so amazing about Samus and the world she existed in. So once Super Metroid was released on the Virtual Console (having missed the original release by over a decade...) I decided to take the "risk" and purchase it. To this day it stands as one of my most prized purchases sitting on my Wii. I wasn't surprised when the most popular title ofthe third pillar in the Nintendo Holy-Trinity turned out to be amazing.

I played it thoroughly and found everything I had ever read about it to be true. Discovering new moves and accessing the new worlds were so rewarding. The game was close on par with the Metroid Prime series I had already loved, but it was all in glorious 2D. Super Metroid, to me, is a game that is a prime example of the greatness Nintendo is as a game developer. They've had an understanding about game design and game theory that for many years was unmatched. At the time of Super Metroid's release, few games in the genre seemed to come even a little close. In the end, the Metroid Prime Trilogy still stands as my favorite trip into the Metroid universe, but Super Metroid uncontestually deserves to be in any gamer's Hall of Fame. It deserves every last energy pellet of respect from every last creature of that galaxy."

-- DrFinkelstein

Gaming Reference: The Colbert Report

This is a quick new article type you'll see around here at PK Gaming. I, DrFink, watch a good amount of television. I fit it all in by watching (or more like listening rather) while doing other stuff and even if the content gets boring, one thing always perks my head up... a Gaming Reference.

Last week I was watching an episode of The Colbert Report from January 24th, 2011. In it, Stephen interviews a controversial writer named Amy Chua. She has specific views about child raising, specifically about being a bit of a hard-ass. She had this to say;

AMY CHUA

"I think if you give a five-year-old, or an eight-year-old, free choice; pursue your passions today; I think that's going to be video games for five hours. So, I was more restrictive of those choices.

Colbert refuted...

STEPHEN COLBERT

"But they will school you in Halo."

Whether you're a fan of Comedy Central's mock-Republican comedy show that Stephen puts on, it's still certainly fun to have video games referenced out of the blue. Stephen Colbert actually made a Donkey Kong reference just a week or two before this one. So keep a look out for more in the future folks!

Gamer Culture: Gamer Cakes

If you're as big of a Nintendo fan as me, you've no doubt had a video game birthday cake or two in your lifetime. When my cousin was eight, his cake had the Link art from the Legend of Zelda original art style. When I was five, Super Mario Bros. 3 had just come out and my cake reflected that. Two years ago for my birthday my sister made me a Mario Bros. style cake with a Pac Man cameo. I'm definitely not alone though in this sort of cultural phenomenon. Today, my buddy Smerd over at Negative World had his birthday today and his lovely wife made him a pretty awesome cake. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SMERD!


Seems better than any cake Peach ever made. Below are some more gamer-cakes. Submit your own if you've ever had a gamer cake made for you!

My 23rd Birthday Cake

My Cousin's Link Birthday Cake

Katamari Pushes Cake

Wayne's Sonic Cake

(Note the fact this cake has a better character model than Sonic The Hedgehog 4 did...)

Majora's Mask Cake

Waluigi Face Cake

and finally, this cake, which admittedly hit the Nintendo/Romantic in me,

Mario and Peach Wedding Cake

(Literally hundreds more Gamer Cakes can be found here at Flickr.)

Heads-Up: PK Gaming Hall of Fame

Tomorrow or Monday, we will be posting our first inductee into our own Hall of Fame. It will be similar to IGN's, but not exactly... and we'll actually follow through with it. (I noticed that they haven't inducted any games since October of 2009.) If we don't, please feel free to slap us in the future.

It's a bit of a late notice, but I might as well post about it since we're pretty much decided on what we're going to induct first. Later on, next week, I'll be posting an article about the Hall of Fame and how we decide on what games we want in it. Again, it will be similar to IGN's induction process but not really. Am I making sense?

Hopefully our next podcast will make it a lot clearer, since the first topic will be about our Hall of Fame and the induction process.

In the meantime, can you guess what our first inductee might be? Here's a hint: It's NOT related to the name of the site. (And if you're one of the editors I talked to in Skype about it, don't say anything.)

Hidden Gems of the PS2 Era

The Playstation 2 was the longest lasting console of the previous generation. Lasting far into the next generation even as the Gamecube and XBox were left behind, the Playstation 2 had, and still has, the most solid library of any console. Everybody knows about the big titles that had graced the system, SOCOM, God of War, Ratchet and Clank, Sly Cooper... But there were also a few games that slipped under the radar and can be found for way less than it'd cost to get a new game.

1. Dark Cloud
Expected Price: $6 (The price I bought it at. This may vary wildly depending on where you buy)
This game is fairly unique. It's an action-RPG in the vein of Legend of Zelda combined with the city-building mechanics of Act Raiser. The story and setting are fairly original, but takes a backseat to the gameplay and mechanics. The game is essentially a dungeon crawler for the action segments, as you try to recover lost pieces of the world to bring it back into order, but you should be careful, as your weapon will eventually wear down and break, or you can run out of water and become dehydrated. A very unique blend of two genres that takes a while to get into, but is ultimately rewarding.

2. God Hand
Expected Price: $13
Okay, so this one's a bit more well-known than the others, with the cult following it has, but still. God Hand is an incredible beat-em-up game by the now-defunct Clover Studios. Beat up bad guys with a customizable moveset (you can even customize your own combos!) featuring many, many styles of martial arts. Many complaints are leveled at the camera, but it's not too bad. The decidedly Wild West environments are incredibly sparse, but that gives it the plus of not getting in the way while you play, a must for this game. This game is hard. Unless if you learn the mechanics, you're going to be stuck on the first level for a while.

Fun fact: IGN gave this game a 3. Don't let this dissuade you though!

3. Okage: Shadow King
Expected Price: $5
So you've finished Earthbound and Mother 3, and possibly loads of other quirky games? If not, give this game a try. This is the silliest RPG you can get for the Playstation 2. The setting is reminiscent of a Tim Burton film, with catchy melodies and designs that look like they were taken from The Nightmare Before Christmas. The story doesn't exactly take itself seriously, with the protagonist becoming the avatar for the pompous Lord Stanley Hihat Trinidad XIV (Or just Evil King Stan), becoming a pawn for him to defeat all the other evil kings and reign as the supreme evil king. The only downside of this game is the battle system. It's not that great, but if you can tolerate it, you're looking at a great RPG that's as memorable as Earthbound.

4. Seek and Destroy
Expected Price: $3
The cover looks like it's a very bad shovelware game, doesn't it? Don't believe its lies, though. Seek and Destroy is a tank combat game. It is the cutest tank combat game. Several real-world tanks have been transformed into tiny, adorable killing machines, and you get to customize the hell outta them with engines, turrets, anti-aircraft guns, rocket launchers, jet boosters, and chainsaws. The story may be simplistic and the graphics may be sub-par, but you have a tank wielding a chainsaw, and that's all that matters.

5. Sky Odyssey
Expected Price: $4
Looking for something a bit more relaxing? Maybe a flight simulator where you just go around, drifting lazily through air currents? Tough. Sky Odyssey is probably the most intense non-combat flight simulator I've played. You have to navigate your plane through harsh weather conditions, heavy winds, and even rockslides in order to get your plane safely to its destination. There's no combat in this game, so no dogfighting. The music is fantastic, done by Kow Otani, composer for Shadow of the Colossus.

6. Shinobi
Expected Price: $8
In a world where the length of your scarf determines how much of a ninja you are... Shinobi is an incredibly arcade-like experience. With only six levels to play through, you can blast through it in an afternoon. However, the difficulty's pretty high in this title. Dying sends you back to the last checkpoint, or worse, to the start of the level. This is definitely a game you need to get good at fast, as later levels have you dashing from enemy to enemy in order to cross bottomless pits. There is a timer in the form of your sword, Akujiki. It feeds on the souls of your enemies, and not killing any enemies means that it will feed on your life instead, so killing enemies rather than running away from them is heavily encouraged. It's a short, yet really fun experience that can be played multiple times.

7. Soul Reaver 2
Expected Price: $5
No, I'm not going to go with a Twilight joke in this one. This is an action-adventure game with smooth combat mechanics and thought-provoking puzzles. The story is told through the eyes of Raziel, a vampire who had his body destroyed, but his soul had been saved by the octopus representation of the late Tony Jay. Don't worry if you hadn't played the first, as there is a recap of the story at the beginning. A very satisfying game with a great setting and atmosphere.

Estimated Price for All Seven Games: $44
Average Price for a New PS3/360 Game: $60
Other obscure titles worth checking out: Rogue Galaxy, Robotech: Battlecry, XIII, Graffiti Kingdom

So pick up that old PS2 you've got lying in the closet somewhere, dust it off, and get to gaming. If you don't care about achievements and online play, the Playstation 2 can get you hours of entertainment with very little money.

Gamer Culture: The Adventures of Duane and BrandO

Some of you might remember when I featured a rap group named Forever Famicom on the site many weeks back. They were a group in the hip-hop genre which had a unique blend of video game samplings and great lyrics. Well, I was recently introduced to another hip-hop gamer group who has quite the library of songs already. They aren't as "mature" lyrically but they aren't trying to be. Instead of creating hip-hop songs based on life but using gaming beats, The Adventures of Duane and BrandO use the gaming beats as a backdrop to sing and rap about the games themselves.

This makes for a fun and creative mixture of NES musical greatness. NES music has always affected me at the core. Something about it is just amazing. In the NES' sound hardware's limitations, came brilliance. Now that is being used to create new music and new art. I love this sort of thing...even more so when it's actually good!

Their most recognizable work can be found on their LP Of Devastation album but they have lots more at their download page, found here. Games featured in this album include, Battletoads, Bomberman, Castlevania, Final Fantasy, Mario II, Mega Man II, Metroid, Ninja Gaiden, Sonic, Zelda, and believe it or not, Cheetahmen II. Best of all, the song about Cheetahmen II is leaps and bounds better than the game itself!

What other hip-hop/rock group sings with such energy and flavor about video games? It's pretty great and I highly encourage all you readers to check it out. Two other great aspects about this duo are that not only are the songs long in length, but they feature different songs from the games they're about which definitely help take you on a little journey. I have no doubts that when thinking about the original Super Mario Bros. most people think of the Overworld Theme and then suddenly the Underworld Theme and then most likely next is the Underwater Theme. These songs just naturally go together and Duane and BrandO pick up on this. Below is one of my favorite samples (from Zelda II) as well as a snippet of some lyrics about that song. Judge for yourself if this is for you. It's definitely for me.

Well I made it to the palace, I got nothin to lose.

Ridin' up and down on these elevators (Awesome dude!)

I gotta find the key to open up these doors first.

Before I lift this curse that's been put on this earth.

I'll stab that f*****' Horse Head and put him on my wall.

Helmethead ain't gonna be a f*****' problem at all.

That ghost ridin' Reubenok licks ghost horse balls!

Reflect Carock's spells, brawl with Gooma and make Barba fall!

Flash Friday: Extinct! Are you smarter than a plant?

Since I just started learning about plant life in my Biology 2 course at the college, I thought it would be appropriate to share this game on Flash Friday. My significant other actually showed me this...

Extinct!

The object of the game is to grow and disperse enough of your offspring (seeds) so that your species will survive. Sounds easy, right? Well, there are a lot of things you have to consider, such as how many minerals and sugar the plant gets, and how tall the plant should be so it can get enough sunlight. Insects will also visit your plants, some will pollinate like the bees, which is what you want, and some will destroy your leaves! At the end of the game, you're given a percentage of the chance that your species will survive. I got 37% the first time around, and 28% the second time. I'm an endangered species!