When I first wrote about de Blob, I was really digging it. I loved the visual and audio presentation. The gameplay was really fun and easy to pick up. The second time I wrote about it, I voiced what was (and still is) my biggest problem with the game: its pacing. Now that I have beaten de Blob, how do I feel about this sleeper hit?
I’m just over half way through de Blob and I’m still enjoying it. The gameplay mash-up of Katamari Damacy, Super Mario Galaxy and mercenaries mode in the Resident Evil series works really well and the developers at Blue Tongue have done a great job of polishing the details around that core experience to make the game a pleasure to play.
With the core game mechanics of de Blob, I would like to play this game in 20-30 minute chunks, with the ability to save mid-mission at any time. All things considered, I think this game works great in short bursts. If you want to speed run through it, you can beat each level in about 20-30 minutes. However, if you want to get a reasonable chunk of the levels done, your time per level will balloon to the point where it’s no longer a pick-up-and-play game.
After a year of damn-near uncontrollable anticipation, the sequel to my 2009 game of the year is now in my house. I was actually so excited for this, I was at Walmart at 7:00 AM buying this game, even though I wouldn’t get to play it till after work. After putting in about 20 hours this week into it (and waking up this morning with an arthritic right hand due to all the fighting action) I can positively say this game is good. In fact, it’s SUPER (sorry).
After a few minutes in the training level, I thought I was ready to go. What the training mode didn’t prepare me for was encountering trial-and-error gameplay and crappy combat.
During a time of economic instability, relatively high prices for new games and a number of high-quality games to choose from all major platforms, the market doesn’t really show much love to decent or middle of the road games. You can be an avid gamer on any system and own 30 games; all of which are AAA titles. If a game is not on the level of a Modern Warfare 2 or Halo, gamers nowadays with discriminating wallets can easily leave your game to rot in the bargain bin.
Stranglehold was one of Midway’s last attempts at creating a AAA title. It featured fast-paced third-person shooting, was inspired by John Woo’s “Hard Boiled” and even starred Jet Li as the protagonist. However, in a market crowded with great shooting games, not even John Woo and Jet Li could save Stranglehold from being a mediocre game at best and a sales flop.
In spite of its shortcomings, my experience so far with Stranglehold gives me the impression that this is a pretty decent video game equivalent to a B-movie. It has its flaws, but for the right person at the right price it could still be a good time.
Not that many games are fun anymore. No, I’m not talking about the ratio between good games and bad games. I’m talking about games whose sole existence is to be fun. Street Fighter is fun, but wrapped in a game where you get enjoyment out of beating the crap out of someone else. Grand Theft Auto is fun, but that fun comes from wreaking havoc on a city an its inhabitants. The Resident Evil series is arguably not fun at all, as the enjoyment is derived from the games scaring the crap out of you.
This is why de Blob smacks me like a breath of fresh air. Behind the colourful visuals (which haters may call kiddie) and cheery music is a game aiming to achieve fun in it’s purest sense. I’ll be quick to admit that I’ve only played the first level, but this Wii game had me grinning from ear-to-ear from the opening cinematic to the end of my initial playthrough.
Berzerk has a unique and weird place for itself in the pantheon of video games. In the arcade, it was one of the first video games with speech. It’s also believed to be the first (and I think only) video game to actually kill a person.
The first time I remember finding a “money play” was in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. After a few fights with Rocksteady, I figured out a cheap way to beat him without him ever touching me. If you’ve ever played this game, you probably figured this trick out, too. If you don’t, the image above shows how to do it. If you’re perched up on those boxes with Donatello and attack down, Rocksteady will just eat your attacks until he dies with no way to fight back. I was only six years old when I figured that out. Before I ever took the time to think about how video games worked, I had already figured out how to exploit the system.
Last night, I was feeling a bit under the weather and I passed out the moment I got home. As a Street Fighter IV enthusiast, this kind of worked in my favour as I woke up just in time to catch the Super Street Fighter IV launch party taking place in the west coast.
The main event was a must-watch for those who follow the scene, as it featured two of the top Street Fighter IV players, whose rivalry has led to arguably the best Street Fighter matches of all-time. When they did battle last night, they went back and forth and finished with probably the craziest ending possible. Click through to watch the final round!
Continue reading
In Third Person 