30 Days of Video Games Day 23

Game I think had the best graphics or art style:

Zelda: Wind Waker.

The most-posted picture from this game gets another post.

Firstly, this game is very underplayed.  The graphics were a turn-off for most of the people who chose not to play this game, which is a huge disappointment.  This is a definite stand-out game in the Zelda franchise, and I love every minute of it.    It does a great job of continuing the universe of Ocarina of Time, something that a lot of Zelda fans drool over.

And you even got to chase pigs around and catch them!

I really liked the art style, though.  The cartoon art gave the characters a great range of emotion, which was pretty awesome compared to the basically-still faces of OoT and Majora's Mask.  It also gave the game its own identity; it wasn't trying to be OoT.  This new world was not Hyrule.  No Hyrule Field.  No Death Mountain.  The overworld was a massive ocean.  All of that made the King of Red Lions's (the talking ship) secret even more of a surprise.

Wind Waker still, I think, sets the standard for cel-shading.  Part of the reason I'm a fan of the art style is that it's a cure for what I once read as "BROWNANBLOOM," like you see in Gears of War and Call of Duty.  I'm not saying it works for every game, but I really liked it in Wind Waker.

Also Killer 7.

Any excuse to post another picture from this game.

30 Days of Video Games Day 22

A game sequel which disappointed me:

Just kidding.

Hmm, let's see.  I'm trying to go down the list of the great Nintendo franchises, because I hold the bar pretty high for those games.  But even the worst game I've played in the Mario sequences, Super Mario Sunshine, was a fun experience that I'm glad I played.  A sequel I'm disappointed in would have to promise something really good, but fail to deliver on just about every promise.

I've been told that Duke Nukem Forever was that game, but I haven't played it, so I really can't comment.  Though I'm not sure why everyone thought it was going to be a genre-redefining game.  Duke has (in my opinion) always been about mindless fun.  Fun.  That word some people forget.

Hmmm... I'm not sure about this one.  I almost always check out some reviews before I get games (on the rare event that I even can get them), so I tend to avoid bad sequels. Even now, as I was trying to write this, I looked up games that are popularly thought of as bad, and if I've learned anything, it's that sometimes people label games disappointing just to be controversial.  Also, a lot of people have different ideas of disappointing, so it's really hard to go off others' opinions.

I suppose I'm going to go with Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.  It's the only sequel I played that I was kind of upset that I spent time on.  I'm still not sure what happened with that one.  It carried the Zelda name, but little else was even remotely close to the original game.

Yes, yes you are.

I can say, though, that I was disappointed that they made Shadow the Hedgehog.  Well, that needs clarifying. I was not disappointed in the game as a concept.  I kind of liked Sonic Adventure 2, and I liked Shadow as a contrast to Sonic.  I liked that he wasn't really created to be the fastest hedgehog in the world, and that his speed was likely due to the hover-skates.  As far as Sonic characters go, he was pretty cool.  I'm also a fan of the red-and-black color scheme.

But really?  Adding and fetishizing guns?  That works in a game like Black, not here.  I get that you want to keep Shadow separate from Sonic.  That's understandable.  But there are a lot of other mechanics that Shadow's character could carry within his own set of powers and story.  Time control, for example, which is a good-sized portion of his powers.  Hell, even a straight port of a game meant for Sonic would have been better than the conceptual hell that Shadow the Hedgehog took.

Fuck you, game.  Fuck you.

30 Days of Video Games Day 21

Game with the Best Story:

This one's tough.  One of my gut reactions is Portal 2, because it expanded on a world that we knew so little about but wanted so much more from.  And yet I still feel like I can choose a better one.  Amnesia gives me the same reaction, but I haven't played it enough to declare that one the winner.

I think I'm going to have to go with Killer 7 on this one, too.  I loved the characters, and the twisted sense of the world in this game.  The story really kept up with the idea of twisted, too, because that plot is all mixed up.  The world is so convoluted that they released an entire book explaining what the hell happened.

This is your brain on Killer7.

But the game had a kind of flow to it that really fit the atmosphere.  You get the idea that even the Killer 7, probably the greatest team of assassins in that universe, is nothing but a pawn in the face of global politics and Illuminati   The idea of good and evil gets lost in this whirlwind of activity between the US and Japan.  It kind of speaks to the idea that no matter how much you think you know about the world, there's so much that you can decipher through a hundred different lenses that everything has to become new again.

30 Days of Video Games Day 10

Day 20: Favorite Genre

I'd have to go with the classic: the platformer.  The old 2D genre that Mario owes his fame to has seen a kind of reawakening in this age of downloadable games.  I want to give a few highlights of the genre here:

Braid:

Solid gameplay, solid story, amazing art.  It's a platformer, with the added ability to turn back time.  The levels feature some puzzles that range from insane to just plain stupid, too.  But seeing the world unfold before you is an experience I haven't really had with many other games.

VVVVVV:

This is easily the crown jewel of the 3rd Humble Bundle.  I LOVED this game.  You can move back and forth in the same way that you would in a platformer, but your only way of avoiding obstacles is by switching gravitational pulls.  The retro art style goes great with the game, too.  The only thing I wish is that the game was longer.  If any game I list here could get a sequel, I hope it's this one (maybe they could call it VVVVVVV).

New Super Mario Bros Wii:

This was a great time.  I love that they took the idea of a multiplayer platformer and got rid of waiting for your turn.  Add that to the fact that your actions affect other players, and you get controlled chaos (in the best case).  It's really good fun.

Wario Land (1 and 4):

I played Wario Land 1 all the time when I was a kid.  I still have some of the game's music in my head, and I remember it as one of the first games I played that issued challenges to get cool hidden treasures.  I logged in a lot of hours with this game, especially when we traveled cross-country.

I didn't play 2 or 3, mostly because I didn't even know they existed.  But when I got my Game Boy Advance, I took a risk and got Wario Land 4, and it was worth it.  This game has character.  Great levels and great boss fights combined with a sense of humor really lets this stand out as one of the best platformers I have ever played.

30 Days of Video Games Day 19

Picture of a game setting you wish you lived in:

So the game is Minecraft, if you haven't been introduced to the ridiculously blocky game before.  The specific place I want to live is in my castle.  I built Castle Island (or Island Castle, not sure which I prefer) because I saw a large patch of water and thought: ocean palace goes here.  So I built an island.  And I didn't want to take [complete] advantage of Minecraft physics, so I ended up digging about 4000 blocks of sand to make it.  And a lot of dirt.  

But I soon realized I needed (okay, wanted a lot) a way to get to my castle safely during the night.  So I went to the basement I built in my regular base, and dug eastward.  I laid down mine tracks as I went.  And when I hit water, I was ready.

Boom!  Underwater Minecart Tunnel!

That really took a while (and a lot more sand).  But I have an underwater path that works going back and forth from base to castle.  It's so awesome, how would I not want to live here?

Also, sheep seem to spawn in the weirdest places.  Even after the glitch where farm animals would constantly spawn in my house, the sheep have found a way to continue being derp-tacular.

Why oceansheep?  Why?

By the way, you can click on the pictures for their original resolutions.  Same goes for the other blogs.

30 Days of Video Games Day 18

Favorite protagonist:

Let's see... this one's pretty difficult.  Well, I can get rid of a lot of potential answers by eliminating silent protagonists from the race.  I like Gordon Freeman, Chell, Chrono, and Mystery Guy from Bioshock enough, but you can't really connect to them without any kind of dialogue.  People who just yell and don't really give a lot in the way of plot or thoughts also don't count , so Link, Mario, and others along that line also get eliminated.

Phoenix Wright makes the nomination list for actually having a personality and for being relatable.  Edgeworth also too as well.  Duke Nukem is also note-worthy, but I'm not sure I can justify him as my favorite protagonist.  Same goes for Raz from Psychonauts.

Note: Here, I had to take a break from writing.  I couldn't decide on anyone being a particularly stand-out protagonist.  So I changed my line of thinking.

I'm going to change my line of thinking to a great creation by a game developer.  And I'm going with the protagonist of Amnesia: The Dark Descent.  He doesn't throw out awesome one-liners, but Amnesia isn't the type of game that would need that.  Instead, we're set up with a protagonist who intentionally loses his memory, and who has a completely unidentifiable enemy force hunting him.  He's the perfect protagonist for what Amnesia sets up.

In regaining some sense of his past (since that seems to be the goal of every amnesiac in video games), we get a first-person view of Daniel's experiences beyond what happens in the goddamn creepy castle.  Instead of letting us watch what happens, we maintain complete control.  That keeps everything about as terrifying as Frictional Games could possibly want it.  Plus, I actually care about this protagonist's back-story, something I can't say for many of them, apparently.

30 Days of Video Games Day 17

Favorite Antagonist:

My favorite non-traditional antagonist hands-down goes to the antagonist of Braid.  I don't want to say anything further for those who have not played the game, because I recommend that everyone play Braid.

But as for a straightforward protagonist, there's a lot of really good examples out there.  Bowser is classic; he's powerful, persistent, and (depending on the game) pretty damn funny.  Lavos (from Chrono Trigger) is probably the coolest parasite ever, drawing enough power from the Earth to destroy it if left undisturbed.  Magus was also cool when I thought he was the main antagonist (and to be fair, he was also cool after that).  And for a fighting game, I'm a fan of Galactus in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.  He's just on the level of beatable while still maintaining the correct level of bullshit overpowered moves.

But I was always a fan of Skull Kid from Majora's Mask.

Even if he is kind of a cocky fuck.

By the end of the game, you see the power that Skull Kid and the mask are capable of, and it's pretty crazy.  Hell, he gives the moon a damn face that stares at you the entire game.

YOU CANNOT HIDE.

And when you get sucked into the inside of the moon, you get to see one of the best WTF moments in gaming.