Posted on 07/21/2021 at 05:53 PM
| Filed Under Blogs
I still remember the shit-storm that erupted when Wind Waker was unveiled. A lot of times, people get mad over stuff that Nintendo never even promised. But that said, many of the criticisms of Skyward Sword were fair, and Nintendo responded to them both in this port as well as during the development of Breath of the Wild. And I will say that I feel that the worst Zelda game is better than the best games most series have put out.
Posted on 07/21/2021 at 05:50 PM
| Filed Under Blogs
Me either. You spent almost as much time in SS fighting with the controls as the monsters. I liked the Wii, it had a lot of really great games, but the controls were frustrating when all I wanted to do is sit on the couch and play.
Posted on 07/19/2021 at 03:07 PM
| Filed Under Review
Great soundtrack and a memorable little story line. I did kind of roll my eyes at the number of deus ex machinae that allowed characters to miraculously survive tragedies that killed them, but other than that? It's a shame that there isn't really a definitive version of this game out there. The PS1 is closer in terms of gameplay, while the SNES version has better sound and no load times.
And don't forget the best part: "YOU SPOONY BARD!"
Posted on 07/14/2021 at 11:17 PM
| Filed Under Blogs
It is insane that Halo is now 20 years old. Mario was 20 years old when Halo came out.
I was a PS2/GameCube guy, so I didn’t play Halo until Halo 3 on 360. I played it for a few months and quit. My finest moment was when I fired a Wraith turret and some idiot on my team jumped in front of me and got blasted. He started swearing on the mic and told my teammates to attack me. I took refuge in a fortress and managed to cost my team 15 points in own-team kills before they were able to boot me. My reputation on Xbox Live probably took a beating that day.
Posted on 07/14/2021 at 08:25 PM
| Filed Under Feature
Stage Select:
This track from the 1994 British-made PC point and click adventure, Dreamweb. Composed by Matthew Costello. This track is a bit long and obviously you're not going to play the whole thing, but it's quite excellent and worth listening to start to finish. It is called Total HeAd Control [sic].
My second piece is from Ultima III: Exodus on the NES, one of the first, but definitely not the last, RPGs I played. The music for the NES version was produced in Japan and was much different from the music for the computer versions, at least the computer versions that even had music to begin with. I found out years later that this track, and another U3 track, had a full J-pop rendition with vocals, called "Hitomi no Naifu" or "Knife of the Eye."
Cage Match:
Final Fantasy VIII. Aside from the fact i thoroughly enjoyed the game itself in spite of, or even because of the junction system being pretty broken, it holds a special place in my heart. I really identified with Squall's inner turmoil, for one. Aside from the military and magical stuff, Squall's experience in high school was a lot like mine. It also came out the fall before I started college, so the school theme kind of stuck with me.
Chrono Cross... when it came out, my finances gave me a choice between it and Valkyrie Profile. I chose Valkyrie Profile, thinking it looked more interesting. When I finally did play Chrono Cross, I learned thaf I had made the correct choice the first time.
Show response: on the subject of Insomniac doing Mario, please, no. And by that I mean God, no. Among other takeaways I had from 7th gen was a strobg distaste for Western interpretations of Japanese franchises. The one allowance I might make for that is Retro Studios, which had strong leadership from Nintendo of Japan. I'm actually okay with the blank slate nature of Mario. I come for the gameplay, not the story. I wouldn't mind a bit of interplay between M&L, but I would definitely prefer it to be left in Japanese hands.
