The Omnivangelist

Persona 3 lets you study your way through a Japanese school year, building meaningful friendships and romances by day. And at night, you slay foes…

by placing the barrel of a gun to your temple and pulling the trigger.

(more…)

Stumble it!

Soul Calibur IV is high on my list of passions at this moment. Normally, I like my fighting games flat.   Virtua Fighter (best fighting game ever!) is a notable exception, but Soul Calibur? Meh.  I played it when it first came out, I’ve at least tried it in its various revisions through the years, but its gameplay never compelled me to really pursue it. Yes, I hear you Soul Calibur players yelling at me.  Just let me finish.

It’s my birthday party.  I’ve decided to hold a mini-gaming convention at my house.  My garage, which has been converted into a dojo/storage center, has been cleared out just enough to be converted once again, this time as a one-screen arcade.  The projector I drove for four hours to get the previous day is broadcasting whatever 360 game we put in.  I’m scheming on ways to get people into some sleeper game like Kengo.  But when Chuck pulls the Soul Calibur out of his bag, the dropped jaws and collective “ooo”s and “aaa”s tell me I’m licked.

(more…)

Stumble it!

Following the release of 1986’s landmark games including some of the best boss fights of all time, the market largely adopted a platformer-based model where each game has levels followed by a boss fight. This model was tweaked and honed for over a decade and games today still largely use this model. This model spans most of the relevant genres: action, adventure, RPG and even some sports games such as Mike Tyson’s Punch Out.

This wasn’t an era of poor boss battles, mind you. To the contrary the games that followed market a renaissance in gaming, but in terms of innovation, the changes to the formula were incremental and limited. New genres of gaming were created and with them the boss formula was adapted to fit. Taito found success with their ground breaking title Double Dragon in 1987 built on their previous title Renegade. This new beat-em up side scrolling fighting game genre took hold and lasted for many years. The side scrolling fight game genre became home to many boss fights which marked the minds of players of that generation. Along with the beat-em up genre came the cooperative play in gaming. The computational power available to designers allowed for multiple players in both arcade and home games. Final Fight released in 1989, is one of the more popular games from the beat’em up genre. Annoying bosses to clobber on fit right into this new video game craze which lasted until the mid 1990’s.

The same year as Double Dragon brought the release of Mike Tyson’s Punch Out which hosted boss fights as the championship boxing matches. Mike Tyson was both feared in the boxing ring and feared as a boss in his video game. Dodging many consecutive uppercuts was required in order to survive a fight with him. Tyson often finds himself in favorite boss lists.

In 1991, Sega attempted to launch their own home console competing with the now matured NES. Sega borrowed much of the traditional template by launching their flagship title Sonic the Hedgehog. This further polished the platformer boss based gaming model. (more…)

Stumble it!

Donkey Kong and its spin-offs lasted for several years, starting with the release of Donkey Kong Jr. in 1982. In 1983 the video game industry suffered a serious shakeup. Generally believed to be caused by over-saturation of the market, the glut of games available to consumers in the fledgling video game market far exceeded demand. This led to a two-year crunch stifling investment in video gaming. In this period, most of the games followed previous trends while few started new ones. Q’bert, Tron, Dragon’s Lair, Star Wars and Spy Hunter were notable entries taking games in new directions, or capitalizing on movies, or both. Some games were notably poor like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and contributed to video game company losses.

Meanwhile, SNK continued the legacy of the boss fights with their landmark shooter, Vanguard in 1981. Vanguard would prove to set the foundation for some of the strongest boss fight based shmup games in the following years: Gradius and R-Type. The other early boss veteran developer Taito on the other hand appeared to move in different directions with their introduction of Qix, Jungle Hunt, and ground combat game Front Line.

1984, the same year as the release of The Karate Kid, had one notable entry with Karateka published by Broderbund and developed by Jordan Mechner who later created of Prince of Persia. Karateka featured realistic martial arts movements and followed the Donkey Kong damsel-in-distress plot element. The final boss was the notorious Akuma, who would initiate conflict with you far before reaching him by sending out his attack bird. Akuma is often ranked in favorite boss lists due to his difficulty and dishonorable demeanor. (more…)

Stumble it!

“There are many powers in the world, for good or for evil. Some are greater than I am. Against some I have not yet been measured. But my time is coming.”
– Gandalf the Grey

As video gamers, we are all measured. Men hold an insatiable hunger for knowing their level of dominance over other men. It’s native to the human quest for power whether recognized or not. Traditionally the measure for power in games was by numbers, similar to sports. Destroying foes would award points to increase our score, gold, or XP while competitive games would tabulate wins and losses.

Score would not be the only adaptation made to measure gamers. The concept of levels introduced a new dimension to gaming. The levels achieved by characters in tabletop modern role-playing games, started by Dungeon’s and Dragons exerted strong influence on video games. As early role-playing games developed strongly based on the mythology of J.R.R. Tolkien, it’s quite fitting that the opening quote to this article originate from his legacy. To look at Tolkien’s inspirations for his fantasy writing will take the reader from the world of Norse mythology, to the Old English heroic epic poem, Beowulf.

Not surprisingly, role-playing games at their origin around 1974 were light years ahead of video games. RPG’s weren’t constrained by hardware or technology and as they were heavily tied to literature, they naturally featured the literary elements including storylines, plot, conflict - protagonist vs. antagonist, a climax, and an ending. Literature, a medium enjoying a millennium of development, provided a strong foundation and the imaginations of players fleshed in the details. RPG’s and fantasy literature very strongly complement one another, with literature coming first, though not always.

It wasn’t until the introduction of Donkey Kong in 1981 that a pre-determined plot would exist in a video game. Donkey Kong proved a milestone in many ways for video gaming, introducing the damsel-in-distress plot element, being the second game to feature “levels”, and creating the first landmark villain antagonist, the ape named Donkey Kong.

Inspiration for the Donkey Kong, perhaps ironically, came from cinema rather than literature - Beauty and the Beast and King Kong being listed as inspirations of Shigeru Miyamoto, the game’s creator. Some literary influence did come from Popeye, a comic-strip character but perhaps more from that Nintendo’s attempts to license Popeye fell through and left them to invent their own franchise. Donkey Kong as led to trouble for Nintendo when Universal Studios charged in court that Donkey Kong violated their trademark of King Kong. (more…)

Stumble it!

A lot of games that need to be played, nay, experienced , are out right now.

Games that I am currently playing:

Sins of a Solar Empire (PC). I’ve had some time with the beta, and still exploring the tweaks. Need to find people for some multiplayer action.  The multiplayer in Sins is hard to encapsulate, but I’ll attempt to.  Sins combat is cinematic, the action building from your small scouting fleet to small border skirmishes to contest planets into a final crescendo into armada versus armada warfare.  Spreading word of mouth of this game to all my strategy-loving brethren.

AudioSurf (PC). Easily the best ROI (return on investment for those who lack corporatese training) of ten measly American dollars I have seen for a game.  Also, on of the coolest things you can do with your music collection.  I’ll supply the rundown in detail later, but the short version is this:  grab a track, choose a “rider” and then ride through the song while making clusters of beats.  I like this game better than other rhythm games because there is a lot of strategy embedded in the gameplay.  It’s not just rhythmic execution.  Really fun game.

Soul Calibur IV (XBOX 360). The Soul Calibur series has never been a “desert island” fighting game for me, but a friend brought it over and we were having a blast.  I had the supreme misfortune of picking for my main character one of the harder characters in the game to use in Setsuka.  Her best moves require precision timing (”Just Frames”) to execute, and her arsenal of long range moves are unimpressive.  Still, I like a challenge, and have pulled some fun wins off with her while playing online.

Games I want to be playing:

Braid (XBOX 360). You have heard so much about this game already.  I know I have.  But I still want to play, bottom line.  Normally platformers are a genre that I use to instead of sheep-counting to put my hyperactive head to rest, but everything I’ve seen and read points to this being amazing.

Wartech: Senko no Ronde (XBOX 360). I have had no time to play this awesome, awesome game.  Camisuke has even provided me with a great set of strategies, expounding upon the original set of games we were playing.  Time is not something I’m blessed with a lot of these days, but if possible I’ll double back.

Civilization: Revolution (XBOX 360). I’m a sucker for strategy games.  Especially strategy games that can resolve in a timely matter so I can get lots of games in.  It looks like they speed Civ up for the 360, so I’ll spend some time with it in the near future.

Street Fighter 4 (XBOX 360). Just get here already.  There’s no arcade near me that’s going to have this, so it just needs to be on the 360 so I can salivate all over the CD and play it forever and ever.

Stumble it!

Sometimes special boss battles can actually make a game, granting it a special place in our memories. Today we look our votes for top five most memorable video game boss fights.

5. Gaius in Shadow of the Colossus. The epic battle of scaling a titan the height of a skyscraper and bringing him down ranks Gaius among the most memorable bosses of a game of only boss fights.

Epic Gaius Battle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCrmdfYzhG

4. The Hydra in God of War. Also in the innovative battle list, the Hydra battle in God of War is also among the most epic memorable boss fights for much of today’s gaming generation, and deservedly so. Just watch the video to see how epic and overwhelming this boss fight really is – if you need a reminder.

God of War - Hydra Boss Fight: http://youtube.com/watch?v=IWFgh4xgi-Q

3. The End in Metal Gear Solid 3:Snake Eater. The battle pitting Snake against the father of modern sniping. This battle can take upwards of an hour or more the first time. The End is labeled by many an all time favorite boss.

The End – Sniper Boss Fight Intro:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=12tcUayVo1g

The End – Sniper Boss Fight: http://youtube.com/watch?v=H1Qv8d4c6Mg&feature=related

2. Liquid Snake in Metal Gear Solid. How could anyone forget Liquid Snake? He was only as difficult to kill as the Terminator, and even after that he made appearances in three more sequels. Liquid Snake’s most memorable moment was when he appeared in the jeep in the tunnel while exiting Shadow Moses. You had thought you had finally finished the bastard of right? Us too. And he never stopped crabbing about how he was made of the leftovers of the Les Enfantes Terribles experiment. Get over it Liquid!

Tribute to the many battles with Liquid Snake:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWNdsFIOz6

1. Mother Brain in Metroid. This legendary game introduced the first female on female battle of legend. Almost every gamer will remember the moment they beat Mother Brain: the nerve-wracking fight, then the countdown to self-destruction, and the beautiful moment when the helmet came off.

The epic battle and ending:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-Q4-C8CshQ

Stumble it!