Day 10: Game with the best gameplay

Mike

I promised I wouldn't write about Bayonetta again, so I'll go with my other choice

Serious Sam/EDF Series.

  

These games, while almost completely unrelated except in terms of a similar plot and very similar gameplay.

Basically, point your giant weapon at the evil invading alien and fire, while dodging the other 100 aliens that are swarming around you.

 

Lots of havoc and tons of fun. The engines of each game are built specifically for wide-spread one-on-50000 wars with little emphasis on physics or graphical quality. Basically, they cut out the unnecessary junk and get to the core of a mindless slaughter fest.

Each game is cheesy, ridiculous, over-the-top fun that many modern first-person shooters and third-person shooters seem to have abandoned nowadays. And I feel like that's really what is important.

Kam

This was another tough one to write. Because unlike most people, I have two separate standards for “best gameplay” 

1. Fun: something like Earth Defense Force, Metal Storm, Bastion, etc.

2. Tournament fun: Fine tuned competitive games like Starcraft, DOTA, etc. 

I have a feeling Mike's going to go for “fun” so I'll go with “tournament fun.” What is the most tournament fun video game of all time? 

Virtua Fighter 5. 

VF5 is the smartest designed fighting game ever. The only other two that I can give a complement of that magnitude are Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core and Vampire Savior. 

Sega AM2, continuing a trend of excellent games and game design, did two things in particular that might be the best idea for a fighting game ever.

1. One game designer makes one character. Think about that. You know how everyone has a personal preference of what kind of characters they like to play in fighting games? Imagine a fighting game character designed by someone who likes the same kind of characters you like. All their best traits, and things you love about that kind of character put into one awesomely dense, puzzle of a character with no right and wrong ways to play them? That's fighting game heaven right there.

Normally, this would be a case of “too many cooks spoiling a good soup” but the opposite happened, because every VF5 tune up has kept a remarkable, almost non-existent “tier list” just due to how well balanced the cast is. 

And hey, it's fun to watch in high level play. 

2. A loot system that ties into mastering the game. To me, this is the holy matrimony of the compulsive loot system of games like Diablo or Phantasy Star Online, and the learning and improving one's self of fighting games.

Basically, in the single player mode, on a random fight, an “item battle” will happen. If you win that “item battle” you get a cosmetic item for your character, or money to buy more cosmetic items.

I for one, love character design and making characters. Heck, my Eileen (not pictured) looks pretty cool but I only got her that way because I beat a lot of people, thus improving as a player.

It's honestly a win/win, not only do you get the satisfaction of learning how to kick people the right way, you get to develop practical, real strategies. Plus you get this fun little side thing that gives more incentive to keep playing. Best of all? These items aren't stat based, they never get in the way of actual competitive play.

And thus that ends part 7 of 46 of Kameron Monk's Virtua Fighter 5 tribute. Tomorrow, he'll be presenting a lecture at Cambridge University about Eileen's 6K

Day 9: The saddest video game moment.

Mike 

Metal Gear Solid 4

 WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS.

DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU.

...BECAUSE I JUST DID.

Say what you will about MGS4. It's either the greatest conclusion to one of the most awesome video game sagas in recent memory or the blunder of the century as an interactive movie with minimal gameplay.

I personally love it, but that's not what's important right now.

What's important is that it still manages to deliver an emotional story in spite of yanking control away from the player constantly. One of the defining moments for me was the Microwave Hallway scene near the end of the game.

Throughout the entire game, Snake is constantly dealing with is mortality and eventual early demise. In spite of the fact that everything is against Snake; he's aging rapidly, he's going to die from a terminal disease, and and his past is quickly catching up with him, he fights on anyway: well past the point where any normal human would break. Snake continually fights even though he's slowly killing himself. His body is weak and failing, but Snake's iron will keeps him alive.

In this way, the Microwave Hallway is sort of an allegory of Snake's entire struggle.

In this portion of the game, you are encouraged to mash the triangle button to keep Snake moving through the deadly hallway, Snake being wounded and trudging along at a painfully slow pace. As Snake goes further and further into the hallway, the electronics in his suit malfunction and stun him from time to time, and his health bar continues to decrease. Each time you get to what you think it the end, it opens and reveals an even longer passageway.

Eventually, Snake's health bar completely depletes and Snake collapses on the ground. The player is led to believe that this Game Over, and they'll have to try again...

But then...

Snake keeps moving, and a bar underneath his health bar begins to drain instead. This is his "Psyche" bar. At this point, Snake should be physically dead, but he's so fucking determined that he'll continue forward even if his entire body was reduced to a quivering mess of Jello.

I dunno, that raw passion that fueled Snake to keep going in the face of certain death really spoke to me. He'd give everything to see his mission through, even it killed him.

Kam

Mother 3

 

 There's this part in...(sniff) Mother...(sniffle) 3, where the main character. (sniff) He, uh (choke)

I can't do this, it's just so, (sniff sniff)
I need to be alone.  

Day 8: Your Favorite Soundtrack

Mike

 Bayonetta by:   Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Masami Ueda, Erina Niwa, Takayasu Sodeoka, Naoto Tanaka, Rei Kondoh, Norihiko Hibino, Takahiro Izutani, Yoshitaka Suzuki, Hiroshi Kawaguchi, and Mitsuharu Fukuyama 

Fly me to the Moon: 

It has a fantastic variety of music that really helps keep the mood of the game. Especially some of the Angelic themes for the later levels that take place in Paradiso.

The boss themes are exceptionally fantastic, each one seeming like a grand orchestral choir. It really fits the intensity of the battles with the Angelic theme.

The Greatest Jubilee:

Rider of Light: 

The regular battle theme, however, was a tad bit grating. I can only listen to Mysterious Destiny so many times before it gets annoying. However, it grew on me with time.



Bayonetta also has several remixes of classic Sega game themes imbedded in the soundtrack.

Afterburner Climax

All in all, I really love the effort that went into the soundtrack, and that it feels varied enough to fit a range of events while sticking with a theme so that very few songs seem out of place.

Each song is also fantastic to listen to.

Kam

Battle Garegga- Manabu Namiki 

This one doesn't need an intro, I just want to list all the soundtracks that my choice just barely beat out.

Chrono Cross, the entire Guilty Gear series, Bastion, VVVVVV, Cave Story, Beatmania IIDX: Ad Nausea, Kirby Super Star, The Last Blade 2, Raf World, R-Type Delta, God Hand.. and so, so, many more.

However, this could switch out at anytime depending on my mood, so without further ado, let's talk about

Battle Garegga

Oh, my god I love this soundtrack. It's gritty, heavy, scratchy, loud, and pulse pounding. Personally, I think it's perfect shmup music. So perfect, I tend to get myself killed while I listen to it, because 96% of the time, I shoot, bomb and dodge to the beat.

I get a little too into it.
 

It's a kind of sound that isn't the most common in games, but yet at the same time fits like a glove. Of all the tracks, everyone seems to list “Stab and Stomp” as the best song, but I think Fly to the Leaden Sky and Subversive Awareness are far and away the best.  

Seriously, even if you have no interest in obscure, stupidly difficult/ hard-to-obtain maniac shooters, you own it to someone or maybe yourself to listen to this soundtrack. It's not only (in his words) Manabu Namiki's greatest soundtrack, but probably the best shmup soundtrack ever.

I went there Touhou, you and your trumpets.   

Day 7: Your favorite relationship

Before we get started, we as a committee of writers changed this from “favorite couple” to “favorite relationship” because games don't really have much of a romantic side... yet.

But they do have relationships that aren't really traditional. Which of course, makes them interesting. Alright with that out of the way, here's our picks.

Mike

Bayonetta and Luka 

I like Bayonetta and Luka. It's a fun relationship that doesn't expect to be taken seriously. It's cheesy and full of ridiculous writing and exposition dumps every five minutes, but I liked seeing it develop over the course of the game.

    

They aren't an example of a great romantic couple like Squall and Rinoa is widely considered to be, but whatever.

 

I really enjoyed some of the little back-and-forth between the two. And it was nice to see that Bayonetta does care about Luka as much as she enjoys messing with him.

 Point is, seeing the two characters on screen together was rather charming, and made me smile. And that wasn't something I expected from a game like Bayonetta.

Kam

Terry Bogard and Rock Howard from Garou: Mark of The Wolves

Pictured: Rock Howard (left) Terry Bogard (right)

As much as Terry Bogard is my favorite fighting game character, he's a complete airhead. I mostly like him out of narm charm, and compared to nearly any other (male) fighting game character who is either a:

> Prick with an attitude
> Chaste Monk
> Hotblooded yelling guy.

his head in the clouds easy-goingness/love of life is still unique.

Anyway, that's beside the point, to really explain why I like this relationship, I have to give you some SNK fighting game history. Here's the long and short.

At the start of the Fatal Fury series, Terry's dad was killed by this final boss corporate asshole Geese Howard; (it's okay to laugh) Terry, after witnessing this as a kid, decided to kick a bunch of ass, learn street kung-fu-do and murderize Geese by kicking him off his tower of capitalism.

Eventually Geese came back to life like seven or eight times or some shit, (fighting games are stupid) and Terry killed him off for good.

After doing so, he adopted Geese's son, Rock Howard, (again, totally okay to laugh) I don't know how he did this, because Terry should be wanted for murder, but whatever, video game logic.

Pictured: Dawwwwwwwwwwwwww 

Then in the (unfortunately) last entry in the Fatal Fury series, a time skip happens and Rock and Terry have aged considerably. They enter a new tournament called "Maximum Mayhem" where Rock learns of his true dad, and his uncle shows up, putting...

Anyway, it gets more complicated from there, I should actually get into the real reason why I like this relationship.

1. They actually grew up Terry. Yeah he's still heads in the sky, America Southtown F-Yeah,
blah-de-da. But in a weird way, he matured while maintaining who he was.

This is seen in his new appearance, who went from looking like a hot Dominoes pizza guy, to this modern... grizzled, no that's not right, to this modern, jaded, no that's not right either. Uh, cool middle aged guy who isn't grizzled or jaded? Yeah that works!

2. Then there's Rock, who's in-game movelist consists of half Geese Howard moves and Half Terry Bogard moves. In story terms, that means he's trying to not succumb to his darkside, but at the same time, he can't view Terry as a good guy, because well, he murdered his dad in cold blood, but at the same time Terry is the one who raised him...

...you see where I'm going with this?

Anyway, that's what's interesting to me, the gray and gray morality. Plus it doesn't hurt that Terry and Rock subvert a typical father/son relationship itself.

Rock, despite what the fans say, is not an emo teen, sure he angsts, but in the events of Mark of The Wolves, he's more just in a bad situation that's taking it's toll on him, rather than angsting for drama.

Pictured: SNK being amazing at their craft

And Terry has this existential problem of the fact that he killed Rock's dad, which brings the question, is Terry actually as bad as Geese or did Rock grow up this way because Terry raised him right...

...okay I'm reading way too much into this.

Mark of The Wolves is an awesome fighting game  with a really cool father/son relationship,  that's still something "story based” games haven't pulled off as well.

But to get back to my honestly again, if I saw this relationship in my current state of mind, I would of laughed my ass off. It's plagued with a hilarious amount of SNKgrish, and some truly terrible translation. But, 12 year old me was a little less jaded, and could see it for what it is, and that it's a step forward to the eventual day that a fighting game tells an awesome story.

I can't wait for when that happens.

 

Catch up: Mike Edition

Day 5: A game that I would like to play:

 Metal Wolf Chaos.

 

It's a very oddball third person action game that has you control the President of the United States Michael Wilson Jr. who pilots a star-spangled mecha in order to do battle with the treacherous Vice President RICHAAAAARD! The game, despite having the most awesome plot ever conceived, never made it over to the US. It might be due to the fact that some missions involve destroying some DC landmarks. It's a damn shame, because it's already got an awesomely bad English dub in the style of the original RE, so it wouldn't take much to localize it. The game can be imported and played on a USA Xbox, but it's rather difficult to find now.

Oddly enough, it's probably the most patriotic game ever to come out of Japan, and it's not in a sarcastic fashion. President Wilson constantly yells about 'Justice always prevailing over evil" and has an almost inexhaustible warehouse of beatings and bad one-liners to dish out. I can tell that this game was made for me, if only I could play it..

Day 6: A game character I find annoying:

Mr. X from Lego Stunt Rally

 

Lego Stunt Rally is a game that is all about building fun tracks and racing on them from an isometric perspective. As you can imagine, you'd probably spend a lot of time in the track creator. Considering that the game is made for a younger audience, the game's creators would probably need a guide to remind the player what each track piece does EVERYTIME YOU HOVER YOUR MOUSE OVER IT. And that is Mr. X.

There was an option to toggle him off after you'd basically memorized the function of every track piece and didn't need his directions anymore. It didn't really help, because every fifteen or so minutes, he'd pop in to remind you how to turn his hints on again.

He's kind of the epitome of "Stop Helping Me".

Day 6: Most annoying character

Brandon

Ashley: Resident Evil 4

The kids are disco dancing, theyre tired of Rock n’ Roll. Don’t bother telling them that drum machine aint got no soul.

 

First and foremost, I hate hate HAAAAAATE this chick. Now that that’s out of the way, maybe a little reason why?
Reason 1: She’s the President’s Daughter. This basically means that through the entire game, and probably her entire life, she carries herself around with this all important “Just who do you think you are?” egotistic attitude that wears its welcome out very, very quickly. Coupled with the fact that her sheltered lifestyle has left her to be completely useless in a survival situation, many of my Game Overs came from blowing off steam by blowing off her various body parts.
Reason 2: Damsel in Distress Syndrome. Her hoity toity-ness completely disappears to be replaced by high pitched screaming and cowering in one spot at the drop of a hat. You would think this would be helpful, cowering and running away from the danger lest she get injured or kidnapped. Nope. Her plan to live through this pseudo-zombie nightmare is to cower in one spot, and that one spot only. A crazy Spaniard could be swinging an axe two inches from her face and she wouldn’t so much as twitch. At least not until her head decides to have a messy affair with the axe and leaves her body to twitch about on the ground in sadness/lifelessness.
Reason 3: “The Grateful Princess”. The entire game shes this intolerable whiney bitch who can’t even climb down a god damned ladder on her own. But the second everything is said and done with, she almost immediately turns off the annoying and tries to “subtly” invite you into her bed. Her the whiney college student, and you the depressed single-expression pretty boy FBI agent. Actually that might not have turned out too bad. She certainly displays a talent for screaming out your name at an ear rupturingly high pitch throughout the game. So.

Kam

Tira: Soulcalibur IV version

 

I don't have the brain cells to talk mean about something right now. I'll leave all my work to one youtube video.

If you sat through that you hate yourself.

Day 5: A game you desperately want to play

Brandon


Dragon Age: Origins

Hello again, to all my friends. Together, we can play some rock and roll.




While being someone who does not own a single ‘Next-Gen’ console, there are an awful lot of games I am missing out on. Sure there are plenty that I’ll get to play a few fleeting hours of at a friend’s house on occasion, but for me the majority is experiences only through trailers and hilarious references that I will never understand. My knowledge of Dragon Age Origins is similarly limited. Apparently there’s some chick named Morgan or something and she’s a total bitch who fucks everything up. This is what I know from a few conversations I’ve heard, and is pretty much all I know about the series as a whole. Although with Origins I had the opportunity of watching a friend of mine play through the last few missions of the game and then the final boss fight. He sided with the mages (Though I’m not sure why, seeing how unbearable the main mage sidekick was) and the Templar chick was a bitch. He had been playing as a primarily good guy knight sort of player, but once he finished he started a new game almost immediately, this time as a mage who was probably the biggest douche in the entire game. We got up to meeting the narrator (whose name escapes me) for the first time and that is all I remember. So from what I can tell it’s your basic morality sandbox type of game (Fallout, Mass Effect, Etc.) set in a fantasy world with some very blatant racism and religious overtones. Looks like fun.


Kam


Radiant Silvergun



I'm pretty happy with the games I've played. When you play 600 or so, you tend to notice trends, design choices of certain eras of gaming, all that kind of stuff. That being said, I still really, really, really want to play Radiant Silivergun.

Most of this stems from my unhealthy-fanboy devotion to developer Treasure, but none the less I feel like I need to honor them by playing their “magnum opus.”

Plus, it looks like an awesome take on some of the stuff that kind bugs me about shmups. Having six weapons instead of like, two or three, in a maniac shooter seems to be an awesome way to make a ship have the tools to deal with bullet hell. Plus, one of them is a badass looking sword that absorbs bullets.

So yeah, Silvergun, it's probably not going to be exactly what the hype sells it as, but Treasure's had a good thing going. Now I gotta find an Xbox 360 to kidnap.

(Stares at all friends who have Xbox 360.)

Mike

Dark Void

My Guilty Pleasure would be Dark Void. It was a new Capcom franchise that was an over the shoulder TPS introducing a unique jetpack mechanic that allowed you to swap to a super fast jetpack with the push of a button. This was really cool, as it allowed you to switch instantly from ground combat to aerial combat instantly. However, if you used your jetpack in an area with a roof over your head, you would end up splattered on the ceiling or walls.

But other than the jetpack, the mechanics didn't do much to separate themselves from other TPSs like Gears or Uncharted, and that, along with a slew of bugs and and a rather "meh" story, and the game failed to impress. It really reeked of an unfinished game, similar to Sonic 2006. It's a shame, because it would've been fun to see it emerge as a new franchise.

The game itself has a lot of intense moments and emergent gameplay, which is what makes it pretty fun to play in my book. For example, you could plant a bomb inside of a building, and activate your jetpack, weave through various horizontal obstacles, and escape out the opening in the ceiling like something out of an action movie. That's not to mention that the melee finishers, although drawn out, look awesome. There's a lot wrong with it, but it's still pretty fun to play, and I guess that's what matters

Kam

Vanguard Princess

I don't think there should ever be a time when someone should feel guilty about liking something. Maybe how they like something, but as long as they don't hurt others/are nice about it, there's really nothing to feel guilty about.

All that aside, creepy pedo fighting games are really hard to like.

Now, I don't know if I like Vanguard Princess due to the fact that it's a good fighting game; or if I just respect the amount of work put into it. Maybe it's a bit of both.

Not only is it free to play, but one person made this game. Dear god, in some ways the ways it outclasses big name fighting games. Each of the characters are well balanced, fantastically animated, (the creator is supposedly an ex Capcom animator that worked on the phonemically animated Street Fighter III games) and have some of the best sprite work post Vampire Savior. Not to mention, an amazing use of color and a catchy soundtrack.

And unlike other indie fighting games, it doesn't play like a typical Guilty Gear/Melty Blood clone, it plays like Street Fighter II with assists. Space control and lockdown win over modern combo fury. Even among the big name fighting games, It's a breath of fresh air.

So, as a game, it's good, but what holds me back from truly loving it is the aesthetics. Dear god, I think the only other fighting game as obsessed with breasts and panties is Dead or Alive. And the character voices? Uuuuugh. My ears don't need an ice pick in them thank you very much.

That's what makes me consider it a guilty pleasure. Like I said, as a game I consider it good, maybe even great, but the graphics and the ugh, “moe” shit revile me.

Actually, here's a better way to look at my relationship to Vanguard Princess.

You know that popular asshole character in a kids cartoon who is friends with the (usually loser) main character for an episode, but as soon as the other popular kids are around, that character immediately treats the loser main character like garbage; thus main character learns that's not true friendship?

That's my relationship with Vanguard Princess. I love the game, but I can't stand to let people know I like it/ want to be seen around it. Hell, I even take precautionary measures when I have nothing to do on campus, like hiding in a corner with the volume muted.

In other words: I'm that popular asshole kid.

I'm sorry Vanguard Princess, it's me, not you.

Day 3: Your favorite underrated video game

Mike

F.E.A.R. and it's expansions Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't like a flop or an indie game, and was met with modest critical praise and sales, but no one really talks about it that much nowadays. It's been overshadowed by CoD, and as a horror game, it isn't terribly scary. But the firefights are what make this game stand out. The story is pretty straightforward and has a nice twist at the end. Basically, it involves a secret project called "Origin" that would mass-produce cloned soldiers and put them under the control of a Psychic Commander, known as Paxton Fettel. The project was abandoned, but Fettel managed to break out of containment and seize control of a battalion of cloned troopers in storage (conveniently located nearby with access to weapons, armor and vehicles). So, you take control of the Pointman of the First Encounter Assault Recon special forces division that is sent in to prevent a disaster.

The AI for the clone troopers is pretty advanced, and will react to your movements and update one another with information regarding your position. If you manage to evade them, they will check in with one another and begin to fan out and search the area. That's not to mention that the Bullettime feature looks fantastic, and the particle effects and physics were nice for their time.

The horror is okay. I'd really recommend this title for people just getting into horror, as it tends to pace the scares and action quite nicely. If you are an experienced horror gamer, you might find most of the scares a bit cheap and predictable. However, there are a few moments that might get you, but I don't want to spoil them.

All in all, it's a pretty good FPS with some horror elements that is well worth checking out, if you got the time. The expansion pack Extraction Point does up the horror factor and mindfuck ratio quite a bit, if you are itching for more.


Brandon

Dark Cloud 2

Good morrow chums. Time is of the essence today so I’m afraid I’m going to have to cut this one a bit short.

Both Dark Clouds actually, but this happens to be one of those occasions where the sequel is much better than the original, so to it the focus goes. Dark Cloud is a somewhat lesser known game made by Level-5 studios. Perhaps you’ve heard of them? Another of their games, Rogue Galaxy, was originally going to be the third Dark Cloud installment before they switched it over to what it is now. Still not ringing any bells? How about the entire Professor Layton series? That’s quite the shadow to live under. This game has a bit of everything in it. It’s an RPG, but it also has some aspects of a dungeon crawling Beat em’ Up. I’ve always been a glutton for little eclectic quirks that some games have to set them apart from others, and this game has a couple good ones. The main character’s weapons are a series of increasingly flamboyant Wrenches (Maybe not all that out there, but the fact that some of these things can be classified as tools at all is pretty hilarious). You don’t get stronger through level your characters themselves, but by building up your weapons, the system for doing so being spectacularly well done. I’m surprised no one has copied it yet. Oh, and did I mention the giant fighting robot? Well there’s a giant fighting robot. His name is Steve. DC2 also happens to feature an invention system, another idea I’d love to see copied into infinity. The premise is simple. Take a bunch of pictures from the photography thing, string a bunch together in a way that vaguely makes sense, collect the raw materials and build yourself a super weapon, or a laser bomb, or a fancy clown costume, your pick. As an example, Milk Can + Leather Belt + Basic Everyday Pipes = The first fuel pack for your robot.

All in all it’s a pretty fantastic game that you can sink hundreds of hours into, and it saddens me to see it so underappreciated.

Josh

Nier

An underrated game to me, on the bottom line is a game that has done something fantastically.
In which, these aspects have gone unrecognized by majority of the general populace, leaving the game without the recognition it deserves. And Nier fits the bill! And this is a shame; Nier does some things that outshine all the other games that came out around its time and even this year. When you start playing Nier I’m sure you’ll slowly start falling in love with the game while realizing its charm and what makes it great. That’s exactly what happened to me and four “New Game +’s” later here I am to tell you, the readers about it.

The Soundtrack:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNZmzLzvJo8
“Hills of Radiant Winds” is more or less the over world theme. And right when I leave a town to hit the plains and this particular track plays, I feel like I’m on a grand adventure. It makes me feel like I’m on a mission, on a mission that only I can do and that’ll leave an impact with my actions. However silly it may sound, soundtracks that trigger a feeling within me as Nier does, always stick in my mind and will for the remainder of my life. This in turn, makes a fantastic soundtrack.

The Characters:
There’s a rather small cast of characters, but they’re all great in their own way. The most interesting and mysterious being Nier and the relationship between him and his daughter which could pull some heart stings as the game goes on. Also the blunt foul-mouthed chick Kaine with another side to her is also very great to see how she develops throughout the game.

The Story:
Nier’s story is one of the best I’ve played through in recent years. For me, the characters are half the story and the story presented here develops the main cast of characters with a precedence not seen in a lot of games these days. The relationship between Nier and his daughter is at the forefront in the story. I can’t really get too much into explain it without spoiling it in some capacity, but I’ll also say that the two characters in your party “Kaine” and “Emil” are really fleshed out and you’re shown sides of them you’ll never really expect. The story takes some very interesting turns which then really picks up the pace of the game once you start to feel like things are getting slow. I love the story, the story alone made me not only want, but need, to play through Nier.

The Gameplay:

First off, Nier is an action RPG. But, it’s an action RPG that lacks a lot of depth compared to the Dragon Age and Skyrim’s of the world. This is the only major problem with the game in my eyes. Nier does make up this lack in depth with a very interesting twist in gameplay. The enemies and bosses shoot bullet hell patterns in which you can either get the pattern down and doge or just smash through the bullets with your attacks. Make sure you attack carefully though, because if your caught at the end of your combo, there’s a small window of vulnerability which can lead to you getting damaged. For example, you may have a bosses health dwindled down in which you can either risk attacking through the bullets to finish it off with the risk of being damaged or play it safe. So, there’s a little bit of risk and reward going on and this twist is pretty unique in Nier and makes the game better for it

Kam

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter

This is the point where I start throwing out fighting words. And I'll do it right now.
The Breath of Fire games aren't anything special.

They have cool ideas, like a mechanic of being able to turn into a dragon, and making the party atypical outcasts of JRPG stereotypes. But as a whole, they're as by the numbers as they come. Not that that's a bad thing, it clearly has an audience who love the simplicity.

In short, the four Breath of Fire games, at their best, were well made JRPGs, albeit, with nothing much to add to the mix.

All of that changed with Dragon Quarter.

Now, your past experiences, and preference in JRPGs will do a large part in telling whither or not you'll want to burn Dragon Quarter with an inferno of Oregonian firewood, or treat it like your favorite cousin. Dragon Quarter has a niche audience, and you won't know if you're in it until you play it.

I'm not here to soap box it up saying something like “Nobody gave it a chance because of Call of Duty.” or some crap like that. I'm here to highlight why it deserves to be played.

For starters, it takes balls to radically change a game from typical JRPG high fantasy into post-apocalyptic dungeon crawling. With a pitch like that, I can easily see why anyone would immediately label it as a dark and edgy sell out.

Here's the thing though, this new direction, worked.

Which, honestly is strange enough as is. How many other games that go “dark and edgy” don't ruin a franchise? I think the answer could be counted on one hand.

Now, the short way to say “why Dragon Quarter is so good” by saying “everything” in it is good, which although the truth in my opinion, is a total cop out.

The long answer lies in the strengths of Japanese game design, subversion of common RPG elements, incorporating death as a tool, not a punishment, non-linear storytelling, thinking small, and just daring to fight against the norm. Instead of just going into rambling detail about each, I'll attribute it to one thing that makes me put it above most JRPGs.

The battle system.

Holy moses, this battle system kicks ass. Never have I seen a battle system use the rouge-like overworld navigation/enemy engagement, turn based strategy, terrain, and dirty tactics all at once.

Alright, that's a lot of throw out, let's try this again.

A typical battle goes like this. You see an enemy on screen. Normally in other RPGs, this gives you one of two outcomes.

1. Attack it /face it head on. Thus leading you into an advantageous position for combat.
2. Get attacked by it/ it faces you head on. Thus leading you to a disadvantageous position for combat.

Personally, I love it when RPGs do this. It gets rid of annoying random encounters, and lets the player pick their own fights. Dragon Quarter goes one step beyond incorporating a trap system. Similar to Deception

For example you can throw out fresh meat, causing all biological enemies to run over to it, leaving them open for your party to get the first strike.

There's a lot more variation of what you can do with that, like stunning, poisoning... bombing, anyway, the strategic placement of traps is better than any amount of brute force. Which is in my opinion, an evolution beyond the typical “hit fight 50 times, heal occasionally” battle systems of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.

Then comes the actual battle system itself. Like Chrono Trigger the area the party is currently in, instantly becomes the battlefield. Which means you can actually take advantage of the terrain, to create unique strategies like bottlenecking. Or hell, you can fight dirty like I did, by kick people into fire, and then eradicating them with dragon breath.

This is also the only JRPG where I've ever felt I was actually making my team work together, a trait I usually associate with excellent turn based strategy games like Fire Emblem. Despite only having three members, the amount you can do with Ryu's sword, Nina's magic, and Lin's guns is a treat.

In short, it has a huge amount of depth, and I'm not doing nearly good enough of a job to actually make it sound fun. Trust me, there's so much more to it than what I'm saying. How many other JRPGs actively make you use the surroundings to win?

I'm also not highlighting the other aspects that make Dragon Quarter head and shoulders above nearly any Japanese RPG,like the writing that doesn’t waste words, (something I need to learn how to do) the brilliant D-Counter, (I don't throw that word around often) and the melancholic soundtrack. (I need to write something here to make this sentence worse)

For modern gamers, if you at all liked the excellent Valkyria Chronicles series and how it blended third person shooters and turn based combat, you'll love Dragon Quarter. Outside of the giant scale combat, present in VC, here, we have quick, dirty, fast fights that feel like the best D&D brawl you've ever had.

This is a game I can write about endlessly, probably give it the Tim Rogers treatment. (which ironically, he did,) Games that think this outside of the box are in short supply, and the second hand market is selling it for the price of a Starbucks grande expresso.

Now I don't like to value quality based on how much money I spent on a game, but really, with all that nice stuff I just said, skip coffee for a day, this game might surprise you.

Day 2 Catch up

Mike missed day 2. But that's okay, we'll put it here!

Day 2: Favorite Character

Sheogorath
The Elder Scrolls games.



He's so much ridiculous fun and contradictory lunacy; fitting for a Daedric Prince of Madness.
But he's a great character because his mentality is not just 'lolsorandumXD' but more of a 'Why? Well, why not?' thought process; if that makes any sense.

It probably doesn't.

He does what he feels like, simply because he can. And he doesn't seem to be evil or good, nor really neutral. He's just the perfect embodiment of chaos, and he really carried the Shivering Isles expansion.

Day 2: Your Favorite Character

Brandon

Well hello again dear readers. Hopefully this time I can type something with grammar and spelling better than a third grader’s.

Now who can really say with complete certainty what their favorite video game character ever is? Likely it would be someone who has never even played a video game and actually has no idea what they’re talking about. Anyways, more or less, my favorite would probably be this smug asshole:

First and foremost let me get one thing straight when I say Jak is my favorite. I mean this Jak and this Jak alone. He seems to be unfortunately plagued by a strange habit of looking cooler with each sequel, but also become more and more unbearable each time. This isn’t to say that he becomes completely unbearable, I still love them all to death, it’s just that each Jak is a little less likable than the last. Now how about some praise for this guy and why he’s vastly superior to your favorite character.

Silent Protagonists Are Silent For A Reason: Or at least that’s how I figure it. In a game where the hilarious dialogue is one of your main selling points (See: Anything Daxter ever says) why wouldn’t you give your main protagonist a voice to join in on the quips? Why leave him silent other than a handful of athletic grunts and a dramatic yell when falling to his death? (See: Link) Maybe you want to make him mysterious, as everyone knows that the strong mysterious silent types ooze raw concentrated sex.

How can you say no to a face like that

Maybe you tapped out your creative dialogue juices writing for all the other characters and couldn’t come up with anything that wasn’t completely stupid. Maybe you just felt like having a silent hero, because lets face it, silent heroes will never go out of style. Maybe you just couldn’t find the perfect voice for the character and gave up on it all together. This is totally my headcanon and I don’t care how ridiculous it is. To give him a voice they had to age him up two years and turn him into a revenge obsessed gun-nut. I’m not saying nothing good came of it at all, just this one line is hilarious all on its own: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ash0oTxkw-M#t=19s but it also showcases how little much contempt he has for everything now. When you have to completely change a character’s personality in order to let them speak, you know you had something good. (This is completely ridiculous I know, but shut up and let me have my fantasy. Silent quirky wonder-filled goofball Jak was the best Jak)

Quirky Character Best Character: You’ve just destroyed a giant super robot with your bare hands, saved the entire world from basically not existing anymore, and put a couple of arrogant jerks in their place to boot. How do you celebrate? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fvOeltEJaY By break dancing with an otter. This scene is a really great summation of the kind of guy Jak was. He probably spent his pre-adventure life goofing off without a care in the world. Likely some combination of fishing, napping, disobeying an old green magic man, pranking said green man, and just generally not giving a damn. Imagining your high school summer life if you lived on a mildly tropical beach would probably get you a pretty good idea. (Unless you do live on a mildly tropical beach, in which case screw you. You go live in the cold rainy valley for a while. Jerk.) His basic outlook on everything was more or less to smile, shrug, and go with the flow to get shit done. Not to mention his compulsion to help literally everyone in the world. Lost your pants in a race? Sure I'll go get them back for you. Giant monster destroying the town? Don’t sweat it man, Ill take care of it on my way out

Not All Heroes Are Epic: Sure saving the world is nice and all, but I’m just here to help my friend with his embarrassing hair problems. The premise of the game is not to defeat the bad guys and kick off Jak’s illustrious career in saving everyone’s asses. The game is about two kids who were goofing off where they weren’t supposed to when one of them has an embarrassing accident. Well let’s go fix that. What? Saving the world? Nah man, we're just on our way to the doctor’s office, don’t be silly. This is Jak and Daxter. Not a big band of heroes off to beat the baddies, but an average Joe trying to help his best friend fix a problem that he more or less caused. The very idea of saving the world doesn’t present itself until you’re around 75% through the game. How’s that for a hero? Stopping the world from being destroyed is almost sort of a secondary goal when all things are considered. They had no idea that everything was going to blow up the way it did. They were just travelling cross country to get Daxter back to normal when the shit hit the fan. While this may be the basic premise behind plenty of other character’s rise to hero status, it just seems to hit home for me with Jak. I don’t know what it is.

So there you have it. Really shoddily fleshed out reasons for why I like this kid as much as I do. Decent character points with dangerously shaky supports. This was probably more one of those “I don’t know why, I just do” situations than anything. But hey, I tried.

Kam

Kirby

Oh man I love this guy! He's cute, funny, likeable and unlike other Nintendo characters, hasn't been ruined by voice acting. There's just so much to love about him no matter how cynical you are. Actually wait, that's a good point, what could Nintendo do to make you hate Kirby?



Oh yeah, that. Nevermind.

Day 1: Your first video game

Good evening everyone, and welcome to the first of many posts on the Mash To Win: 30 day blog challenge. Here about 5 of us are blogging our little hearts out talking about how much we like video games.

Before we get started, allow me to introduce our bloggers:

Brandon Long has a castle that must be explored upside down for the best ending.

Mike Leo is secretly a gun-slinging action movie star who plays video games when he's not saving America.

Josh Johnson is the person you want to consult about tactical espionage action.

And I'm Kameron Monk, a 8^th degree black belt in 2D fighting game-fu.

So, with that out of the way, let's get this shindig started.

Brandon

Having begun an illustrious video game playing career at the tender age of 5, I couldn’t actually tell you with 100% accuracy what my VERY first video game ever was. However after delving through the murky, unexplored, and frankly quite clutter mess of 18 years of various accumulated memories, I think I got the right one, or close enough at least.
                                                                 Game & Watch Gallery 2 

May 5th, 1998. My 5th birthday party. After a day of running around in the field behind my cookie cutter dirt brown duplex and attempting to invent a revolutionary new take on Tag, (Dinosaur Tag to be precise, though to be honest it wasn’t anything more than Freeze Tag played with your arms crooked at your side with two fingers extended in classic “Dinosaur Claw” fashion. It never took off for some unfathomable reason) my ragtag assortment of acquaintances and I sat more or less in a circle in the sparsely decorated living room. Our bellies full of cake and store brand soft drinks, I sit surrounded by shreds of wrapping paper and toys that my chums had probably only gotten me so that they could borrow them later, as was customary for children of our age. I don’t remember anything I had gotten, nor is it important in the slightest, because suddenly, in classic Christmas Story style, a secret final present is pulled from out of nowhere, almost like magic, and my face lights up as if a wizard HAD just appeared in front of me to deliver the parcel as I opened it and saw what it was. A Game Boy, mother fscking, Color. This little (regrettably Hot Pink) box of plastic and circuitry was essentially an express ticket to the very tip top of the social ladder, and it was mine. This glorious piece of technology came with an equally glorious bonus, a single game cartridge, Game & Watch Gallery 2. Being as young as I was I couldn’t appreciate the history behind its conception in the slightest, but it was fun, and it was mine. (At least until a few months later when it would be absconded with by criminal mastermind, and former good friend Stephan Somethingorother. And that’s Ste-fahn not Steev-ehn).

The game was a basic rehash of a handful of classic Game & Watch games, in one handing portable bundle. It also replaced iconic, but then unnamed, Mr. Game & Watch, with various Mario Bros. protagonists, AND updated everything from static black and white, to a slightly more dynamic interface with bright, vibrant 16 bit color palette. A welcome sight to tiny, easily bored me. You cold, however, switch back and forth between this bright and colorful Mario new-ness, and classic black and white at your leisure. This little cartridge blew my mind when I discovered that it was comprised of not just one, but FIVE whole games for me to sink countless hours into. These five masterpiece were as follows:

Parachute: The premise was simple enough. There is a building on fire (likely a clown college, given the impossible number of people inside), and the only way for the terrified people inside to escape is to fling themselves from the window on the top floor. Luckily for them, expert person catcher YOU is ready on the scene with your trust person catching trampoline. Position yourself under these amateur base jumpers in time, and their mad descent would end comfortably in your very capable hands. Fail to reach them in time and… Well, that fire hose certainly isn’t being used to extinguish the building. Three pedestrian pancakes and your license to hold a trampoline is revoked indefinitely.

Chef: You are the top rated chef in the city. Your specialty? Sausage and Eggs stacked one on top of the other in an unlikely continental monstrosity that reaches the ceiling. Oh but woe is you, it would seem that today your esteemed restaurant is filled to bursting with curmudgeonly food critics. Each one holding as much sway over the public’s opinion as the next, each one with an appetite large enough to starve and entire village, and each one with so short a fuse that a single mistake would be enough to condemn your eatery into oblivion. No pressure. However it would seem that a rival has tipped off your soux-chef in order to assure your failure, his grubby hands tossing each sausage into the air with wild abandon, your only hope is to make a mad dash across the kitchen and catch them in your cast-iron catcher’s mitt. Hell even if you do mess up and miss one, you could probably make a decent career in baseball.

Donkey Kong: That crazy gorilla is at it again! First it was the flinging poop everywhere, then it was the wild parties that continued on way into the night. His campaign for worst neighbor of the year continued when you started finding your garbage cans filled to bursting with banana peels. All of this you could more or less live with begrudgingly, but now that maniac monkey has gone and kidnapped your girlfriend! That’s crossing a line right there buddy. Youre not just going to sit there and take this any more. Youre going to march right up to that ape and show him what for! Youre going over there right now to teach that stupid simian a less- whoa wait a minute. When did he turn his house into a construction yard? Doesn’t he know what that’s going to do to your property value? Man if you were angry before, youre absolutely seething now. That chump of a chimp wont have a hole to cram bananas into once you're through with him.

Helmet: Man, what a day. Work was long and boring, your boss was a total ass, and traffic was a nightmare. At least you’re finally back to your own apartment building. A few flights of stairs later and youll be able to relax. Even the annoying renovations going on upstairs wont be able to bother you once youre recline in your favorite chair with an ice cold one and the game on tv. Whoa hey whats going on? Some moron on the top floor must have knocked their tool box off a ledge or something. Its raining wrenches! No time to get back to your car, youre going to have to make a mad dash for the door. Blast it all you forgot your key! Youll have to wait for your neighbor to buzz you in, but at her age who knows how long that will take! Youre just going to have to try and dodge this downpour of drills until the door opens. Don’t slip.

Vermin: Your garden. Your pride and joy. The accumulation of the last 8 years of your life and really the only thing that brings you joy any more. You just love showing it off to any and everyone you can. Friends, family, passersby, and your favorite, neighbors. Though they don’t always appreciate your gloating, they usually cant disagree that your garden is absolutely stunning. That new neighbor that just moved in next door seemed particularly impressed. He says its nice to see someone who actually takes care of their yard for a change, and that his last few neighbors always had an absolute mess of a yard. For some reason this carried a weight of foreboding when he said this, you aren’t sure why. Oh you think you hear him now, on the other side of the fence in his backyard. Maybe if you talk to him a bit more you can put your mind at ease. But what’s that hes doing there? Looks like he’s letting his pets out. What are those cute little thinOH GOD NO. MOLES. And theyre making for your beautiful yard! You grab the nearest object you can find to fend them off, a mallet you use to pound posts into the ground. You ready yourself at the fence. Not a one of these

Ball: Its finals time at the local clown college. While the recent fire has most people a bit frazzled, you don’t have the luxury of such things. Your mind has to be sharpened to a razor’s edge. Its time to choose this year’s valedictorian and so far its an even tie between you and your long time rival. Today is the day you finally decide which one of you is the better entertainer. The trial? Juggling. While you are pretty good at it, you happen to know that it’s his specialty. A natural prodigy at the act, he’s going to be hard to beat. A ball dropped is a death sentence to your dreams of Head Clown. The pressure isn’t helping any either. Well, here goes nothing.

Game & Watch Gallery 2 was something of an eclectic interest. One day I wouldn’t be able to put it down for a second, completely enthralled by its brightly pixilated glory. The next day it would be as boring and bland as counting the little paint drops on the ceiling. The very thought of playing it would elicit an audible groan from my lips. But no matter what I would always eventually end up coming back to it. Originally because I had no other games to speak of, but eventually because I still found it fun to play. When my friend borrowed it and never gave it back, claiming that he had never had it in the first place in fact, I was beyond pissed. It was one of those games where the only real goal was beating your own score again and again. Becoming more challenging as you got better. Depending on your preferences this could either be really great, or completely terrible. I liked the game and would recommend it to fans of classics.

Mike

Spy Fox In Dry Cereal

My first game was Spy Fox In Dry Cereal. A Humongous Entertainment Point-and-Click game aimed at younger kids. I poured hours into that game, although I often got stuck. My favorite part had to be the laser reflection puzzle and the SpyWatch minigame called "Happy Fun Sub", which in spite of how it sounds, was actually a pretty challenging side-scrolling shmup.

Josh

Super Mario 64

My first video game is an interesting one for sure. However, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what my “first” video game ever played was. I’m pretty sure my first video game was some arcade game, Super Mario World, or Toy Story for the Game Boy Pocket. The time in which I played these were fairly close and intertwined which is why it’s hard for me to pinpoint my first game. Even though these were technically the first games I have played, I like to call Super Mario 64 as my “first video game.” My time with the games before Mario 64 was very limited thus lacking a proper impression and leaving not too much to elaborate on.

Compared to the other games, Mario 64 left a planetoid sized impression in my mind. When I first picked up the controller and played it at my cousins, that’s all me and my cousin did for the rest of the day. I also remember clearly my eyes being pretty red from playing all day and night which even my aunt took notice to which she then said “you really must like that game”, it’s funny to me how clear that memory is in my mind. At the time, I remember just thinking “I have to get this, video games are amazing” and this overwhelming feeling just washed over me. A feeling keeping my love for gaming alive ever since, and sadly, that’s a feeling that can never be recreated in my eyes. After I got a Nintendo 64 to call my own, Super Mario 64 was there from the beginning keeping me glued to my CRT tv and N64. This monumental game also hoisted the platformer genre to my favorite genre that still holds true to this day.

Kam

Duck Hunt

You know, unlike most people for their first game, I don't have any kind of warm fuzzies for Duck Hunt. According to the internet, I filled in each box on the check list of what you should of experienced to have truly played Duck Hunt.

Play the game with the first edition gray Zapper over the lamesauce orange one? Check.

Touch the screen with the gun so you can kill ducks easier? Check.

Play it upside down on my couch to get a true challenge? Check.

Secretly try to kill the dog? Check.

Basically, Duck Hunt wasn't the catalyst for my love of gaming. The real catalyst would probably be a three way split between Battletoads, Little Nemo: The Dream Master, (Law of gaming #26: If it has “master” in the title, you know it means business.) and Bubble Bobble. Maybe Zelda II for a different reason.

Battletoads didn't actually click with me until 15 years after the fact. It's basically a 16-bit game that runs on an 8-bit system. Saying that alone is impressive, but what it did to accomplish that is something I took for granted for years.

Little Nemo was a perfect game for me. Not only was I a stubborn child who would play difficult video games no matter how much they beat me down; I also loved dreams. Killing two stones with one bird? You bet.

And Bubble Bobble introduced me to how fun cooperating with someone else is.

If anything, those are my real first games, Duck Hunt may have been the actual first, but I remember clicking with those stranger, imaginative games instead of the one with the stupid dog that laughed at my mistakes. Something, for the longest time I was ashamed of for liking, because my “friends” said what I liked was a waste.

Eventually I outgrew that, dug my NES out of the basement, and went back to my roots. I popped in those cartridges and realized that I love the classics. I love their cuteness, I love their challenge, I love their music, and most of all I love their cohesion.

Even if we get to a point where we can play these game through our eyelids, I'll still hook up my NES, blow in the cartridges, and cherish where it all began.