RedRodriguez87

#244: Columbus Salutes You! And that is two Nat Geo plats! As you could probably guest, this is a sort of edu-tainment quiz game. From memory, the Nat-Geo Wild Life was a bit more tedious and tougher to complete, but neither or particularly hard. This one wasn't as interesting trivia wise; I guess its nice to know, but heck if I can see any way this could help in our modern day life (especially seeing as to how these games are technically 5 years outdated). I am wondering if I show go for the Euro version of the Wild Life, to truly complete the Nat Geo platinum set, but I dunno..... #245: G.I. JOE YOOOOO JOE!!!! I was actually pleasantly surprised with this one. It really reminded me of the original Gi-Joe Konami arcade game. You run, you gun, and try to make it to the end. It's not deep, but it's fun. This what the ps3 game felt like to me, a modern interpretation of that. The gameplay mechanics are easy to pick up and learn, the levels are short and punchy intended for short bursts of play, and its better with a friend along. But.... I think that's why the game didn't take off with audiences (among other things). It's very arcadey, which means what you get at the beginning is the same as the end, with no change-ups. Some characters KINDA do more damage than others but ultimately are all almost indistinguishable from each other; the scoring is point based, but all you can buy are more characters because there is no upgrades. It's not hard to see that this can get boring fast. Plus, reviews reported on glitches, annoying mechanics, redundant gameplay that gets old, ugly graphics. And.... yeah, there is all that. There were times near the end where I had to restart the entire game because a level didn't want to load, a lock-on system that either works fine or is unreliable, and a utterly useless AI partner. Also, its obvious that this same exact game being spread out over ALL but 1 of the major consoles results in hit taken in the graphics department. But in the end, I still had fun with it. Levels are short and punchy bits of action, so you never have to regain too much ground should the worse arise. The Joes are for all intents and purposes super soldiers, and it never stops being fun seeing them melee tanks 'til they explode. The few powerups are thankfully very powerful and always helpful (one in particular breaks the game in your favor). The only things absolutely dependent on coop in this game are some trophies, and with some finessing can be done by yourself with an extra control; your partner is also invincible, and with a little practice you can use that invincibility to make yourself nearly so. It's not a great looking game, but I thought it looked fine enough. If there was one thing I undeniably hated, it was the boss fights, both Sub AND Major. The Major fights are a boring redundant cycle of chip away damage, they retreat, you deal with mooks, they come back and you chip away more. Whats even more are the sub fights against huge robots; you do piss poor damage to them regardless of character, AND they can only be damaged from the back. And because your partner is useless, they can't act as a decoy, so you gotta try and circle around the bosses over and over yourself, hoping they will stop tracking you long enough to get even a smidgen of damage in. Tedious doesn't even begin to describe these boss fights. Lastly, while you sadly can't unlock the classic cartoon costumes for ALL the Joes, you can unlock them for Duke and Scarlett. And really, those were the only two I wanted anyways.

Just finished Spiderman 2 PSP, the TRUE sequel to Spiderman 1 movie game. And by that, I mean the same core gameplay, just with the story of 2. Like a good sequel, it really kicks the game-play up a notch; you've now got a upgrade system, stun combos, keep away combos, power combos, and launchers for, you guessed it, AIR combos. You also have creative takes based on scenes from the movie (IE the train sequence is now a side-scrolling beat-em). Not perfect of course; You have a couple recycled bosses with a few new gimmicks, you have Tobey alternating voice acting between having fun and REALLY not giving a shit, his character model for the PSP-exclusive cut-scenes looks NOTHING like the model used for the console cut-scenes, which they also use here. All in all, the way I feel about it is the same I feel about the first, just without the nostalgia attached. The console version rightfully got everyone's attention, but this one is a really solid experience. I felt like it pushed this style of gameplay to the limit, and really wished they continued this route with 3 and the symbiote, instead of going with a watered-down PS2 port, which itself was a watered-down version of the 360/Ps3 ones.

It's been a long while since I've last seen this one, so I decided "Why not?" And now that I did, it was kinda "eh". Just feels like they were trying to strike the same chord SF2:TAM did, but without any of the actual effort (or stroke of luck) that movie did. The Eng dub did that whole westernized soundtrack thing too, except it doesn't even TRY make it fit in the scenes' context, so I guess it's faithful to the whole "not really trying to be good" thing. Though if the Japanese dub of Tekken is anything like the Japanese dub of SF2, than it was probably just masking unmemorable tunes or dead silence, so no big deal really. It also feels really uncertain of what it wants to be in regards to the series; this supposedly came out after Tekken 3, and yet it shys away from things like Kazuya's definite turn to evil to something more ambiguous; here he's just kind of an aloof jerk at his worse. 3 games into the series, surely the writers had SOMETHING more substantial to work with. That being said, can we REALLY call this a bad adaptation? Think about it, the story is stupid, all the characters are there in specifically weird scenarios (was the Lee/Nina/Anna triangle a "thing" in the games?), the majority of which are shafted and/or killed off unceremoniously, this doesn't seem to be too far off from what you would see in your average Tekken spinoff, official or otherwise. I guess the main difference is that the games are a bit better at presenting themselves as tongue-in-cheek, while this one MAYBE was trying to be more earnest in what it was going for?

This guy debuted during my formative years, and his rising star guaranteed that he would firmly plant himself in my brain probably forever. Growing up, if Sonic's name/face was plastered on it, I wanted it. Seriously, the Archie comics, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, SatAM, cheapo mini pinball tables, plastic banks, you name it. Sure, I find it easy to joke about the franchise as much as any other nowadays, but rest assured, I will always be on the lookout for what it does next, and always give it at least a chance.

What do y'all think? I honestly didn't see this coming, though I guess I should, seeing as to how Night Trap got a release. Makes me wonder what other Sega CD games we'll see down the line.

#243: Does whatever a spider can! I'm on sort of Spidey game binge right now, and after answering someones' thread about other good Spider-man games, I figured I might as well go back to this one. This was once my first Spider-man platinum from my very first account from 8 years ago (time flies, don't it?), so it feels nice to have it again. Clocking in 3 days in completion time, I can't rightfully say this was a taxing platinum, a tricky moment here and there, but nothing smart playing can't solve. There variety in locals and enemies are still unmatched, and I can easily pick out a high point from each dimension. There is wide variety of flashy attacks to unlock and use, and as a step up from the Amazing series, involve player input (well, more than a button press anyways). The four characters' basics manage to be familiar to where you can seamlessly switch between them, while having enough individual flair to keep it from being boring. The Web of Destiny is a great little activity book of sorts, asking you to really explore different ways of playing the game. The game has shown it's age though; There are common video game things, like only 5 enemy types (window-dressed to fight their universes), combat being in conflict with the interactive environment to where your moves and actions in general can be interrupted by a piece of terrain, an absolutely terrible lock-on system that would rather target the throw-able trashcan outside the camera's view rather than the enemy right in front of you currently kicking your face in, and a camera that's tries to be dynamic and epic in-game, but ultimately always gets in the way and interferes with what you the player are trying to focus on. But to me the worst ones were ironically the ones meant to be unique to this game. This game was the first that introduced what it unoffically calls "stick-em powers" where Spiderman will gravity to ANY perch or railing to prevent falling off. While I thought it was cool and fitting at the time (8 years ago), it really REALLY feels rough and unpolished in hindsight. Unlike in Amazing, where he will only attach himself to a narrow place when the button press, in Shattered Dimension he will do it ALL THE TIME, LIKE IT OR NOT; there were too many times when my forward jump momentum was destroyed because the game thought it be better to plant me on top of a light-post when I was trying to jump past it. We also got these REALLY stupid POV moments during cut-scenes and boss-fights, the former of which feels awkward and unbelievable due to the complete lack of momentum and gravity as you fly through the air like a paper plane, and the latter which end serving NO PURPOSE outside of wasting time to pad out boss-fights in a game of punch out. And I mean wasting time; all they are is punch punch dodge affairs, the same punch animations, the same enemy attack animations, over and over and over until the game decides its OK for you to move on. But if I were to list one unforgivable sin, it would the games' refusal to shut the hell up for one minute. Whether it's the enemies calling you out because you haven't hit them yet, Madame Web giving out advice that you already know (or even an idiot can figure out) and berating you for standing still more than 5 seconds, or Spidey stating the obvious on his current situation and cracking the same fucking joke 5 fucking times in a row in the same fucking fight, The game is a constant unending stream of noise noise noise. And what, you think because a level's tone is now suddenly more serious, it'll stop? lol no, now instead of the same dumbass joke parroted across all Spideys, now it's just one (or two) OMG SRS quote over and over and over again! And, at the risk of being mean, Dan Gilvezan was the worst casting choice for any of the Spidermen, fanservice be damned. *sigh* And still, I wonder what could have been if fate had more kinder to Beenox. The game mechanics didn't all pan out, but I could tell where they were coming. The game is filled to brim with fan-service, references, easter eggs, and a Spidey voice-acting veterans returning to be apart of the experience; it is, by all accounts, a love-letter to the series. I gave this game alot of spider-shit, but I know for a fact that there was just so much love and care put into it AND all of their other games. It's why I'm still kinda bummed out by Beenox not being the makers anymore. I'm willing to bet actually money many of their games' faults where NOT directly by their own doing *cough*Activision*couch*. I really do hope that somewhere down the road, they come back just one more time to make that Shattered Dimensions 2 they wanted.

I'm like alot of y'all, this came completely outta left field for me, and I couldn't be happier. The coop and speedrun sound like a pain, but for this game, I'll take that dive.