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Last Topic's Ratings:
Charumera - AAA - 50% (3)
Firemen 2, The: Pete & Danny - GAB - 50% {3}
Jonah Lomu Rugby - ABB - 17% (3)
Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero - BBGBBBBB - 13% (8)
Shanghai: Great Moments - BB - 0% (2)
Thunder Truck Rally - AB - 25% (2)
Wow, this was a much lower-rated topic than I was expecting. You don't often see topics with no games above 50%.
Games for this topic:
Actua Golf 3
Bogey: Dead 6
Crime Crackers
Kaettekita Cyborg Kuro-Chan
Need for Speed: High Stakes
Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals
This is another one of those topics where I wanted to put Beast Wars in the topic title but there wasn't enough room. Actually, I think this looks like an interesting set, I'm curious to check out both Crime Crackers and Kuro Chan.
Actua Golf 3 - G
ReplyDeleteBogey: Dead 6 - B
Crime Crackers - A
Kaettekita Cyborg Kuro-Chan - G
Need for Speed: High Stakes - G
Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals - G
Say what you will about the Actua Sports series, I have to give them credit for the degree to which they actually learn and make improvements between installments. The original Actua Golf, VR Golf 97, was not terrible for its time, but with Actua Golf 3 we're now in a post-Mario Golf world, so not terrible isn't going to cut it anymore. And shockingly, Actua Golf 3 actually does a decent job of rising to the challenge. It's still clearly no Mario Golf, but it's seen enough improvements that it actually now plays pretty well. By far the biggest improvement is that the game now supports the Analog Swing method of the Tiger Woods PGA Golf series. You can still use the old 3 tap swing, but there's no reason you'd ever want to, Actua's implementation of it has always been very shoddy. Having the ability to actually hit accurate shots obviously makes the game vastly more playable. There's been some improvements to the UI as well. While they didn't steal the "where the ball will land" camera from Mario Golf, when preparing a shot it does pop up an overview of the course that still works fine for this purpose (Actua Golf 1 also did something similar but it was removed in Actua Golf 2). It's worth noting that shots often go a little further than it looks and the wind is quite powerful, but these are easily adjusted to and I was fairly consistently hitting birdies after I did, which is nearly impossible in most bad golf games. There's also a decent number of courses, so there's a fair bit to do. It's actually kind of interesting how this game hasn't changed THAT much from Actua Golf 1, but better control and more content goes a long way to making a better game. While Mario Golf is clearly still better this is one of your better options on PS1.
Bogey: Dead 6 sucks. This is basically an example of doing absolutely everything wrong in a dogfighting game, to the extent that I think even some of the cheapest budget games of this type that we've played are superior. The biggest problem are the controls, which are easily stiffest of any game of this type. The control generally feels incredibly heavy, there's a ton of inertia to everything that you do and it makes controlling the plane just generally feel bad. The game is extremely simple, the whole thing is just to get behind enemy planes and fire a missile, but due to the terrible controls and even worse radar this is much harder than it sounds. Stronger planes can fire chaff and take a few shots, but it's otherwise a super simple game that loses its appeal almost immediately.
Crime Crackers kind of feels like an anime version of Epidemic. Like that game, it's a hallway FPS where you take a lot of unavoidable hits because there's often not enough room to actually dodge attacks. Pulling out your weapon also puts you into a state where you can't move (you can still strafe, but it's clunky), so even in rooms you'll be taking a lot of damage, though heals are abundant so it's still not that hard. You have three characters, who differ solely in the weapon they carry. The main girl has an assault rifle, which does high DPS but chews through ammo crazily fast and ammo is actually kind of rare. The other girl has a sword, which uses no ammo at all and has high power but has very short range. The dragon man has a powerful revolver which fires slower but does high damage and is ammo efficient (and the girl and the dragon share ammo). This leads to the rather obvious conclusion that the dragon is the best and you should use him most of the time, which is exacerbated by the way the weapon upgrades work. Rather than, say, finding the upgrades in the level, you instead have to buy them between levels, and you don't get enough money to buy them all, which further encourages you to focus on a single character. This is unfortunate, because if the girl and the dragon each had their own ammo and you could find upgrades for every character by being thorough, there might be some incentive to use them all and that would give the game a bit more depth. As it stands, it's functional but unremarkable in most ways. The gameplay is just okay, the story is bland, and the stages run together very quickly. It does have a sequel, though, so maybe it will be better.
DeleteKaettekita Cyborg Kuro-Chan is an example of taking one thing and doing it really, really well. It's a run and gun game that resembles Alien Hominid (though it predates it). You run through pretty lengthy stages shooting tons of badguys with various weapons while trying not to get blasted too much yourself (you have a decent amount of health, but there's a ton of shots coming at you). What sets this game apart from most other games of this type is its weapon system. Kuro carries 6 weapons, all of which have their own unique ammo counts, save for the default weapon which has infinite ammo. As you play, you find power-up pellets, which can be used in a number of different ways. You use a power-up pellet by pressing triangle, and what it does depends on what letter is currently active, which is cycled by pressing square. L restores health, which is lame because it's temporary, but it's also the only way to heal and lives are not common. B increases bullet capacity for the current weapon, which is great for weapons with low ammo counts. W increases weapon level, which we'll come back to in a moment. S increases your movement speed, and G increases your defense. Right off the bat, you can probably tell that this gives you a ton of options, and unlike Crime Crackers, they're all pretty viable.
(Kuro-Chan cont'd)
DeleteLet's now take a look at Kuro's weapon loadout. His default weapon is an infinite use gatling gun. It doesn't really do anything interesting when you upgrade it (except for more damage), so I feel it's probably the worst option to upgrade, but even then it can come in handy against bosses if you run out of ammo in your other weapons. His second weapon is a revolver that does high damage and has a decent number of bullets. At level 3, this weapon becomes a shotgun, which does much more damage but has more limited range, which changes its general function. Level 4 makes it a super shotgun that has more range, and at level 5 it changes again, to a kind of railgun that pierces anything. His third weapon is a blowtorch that has very short range but can set things on fire. At level 1, this weapon is trash, but at level 2 it becomes a flare pistol that can shoot full screen. At level 4 it becomes a proper flamethrower and level 5 is a flame launcher that causes extreme devastation. His fourth weapon is a hammer. This has one use case and it's to do high damage up close. Its weapon levels don't change this, but it does get a little more range and power. There are definitely use cases for it but it's kind of a niche pick. His 5th weapon is a rocket launcher. It has very little ammo, but if it hits static objects it makes them blow up, which can blow up other static objects for a huge chain reaction. At level 1, it fires 2 small rockets, but at level 2 it fires only a single, stronger rocket, so this is actually kind of a downgrade against regular enemies (as the level 1 can kill 2 regular enemies with one shot). Upgrade it all the way to level 5, though, and you get a shoulder mounted rocket launcher that fires 3 rockets, as well as doing extreme damage. With this weapon, you'll also definitely want to upgrade its ammo count, but it's crazy if heavily upgraded. Then lastly we have the sword. You'd think this would be a melee weapon, but it's actually more of a smart bomb, he whips out a huge sword and does a big slash that hits many enemies. At level 1, it hits only enemies on the ground in front of him about half screen, but the range gets bigger with each upgrade, at level 5 it hits the whole screen and is a nearly guaranteed screen wipe, but it has very little ammo. You might think something like the sword, given enough ammo, might be able to handle everything, but bosses through another wrench into this equation. The sword can hit them from anywhere, but it does relatively little damage and you don't get THAT many uses of it, so it can't kill them on its own. That's not to say it's useless against the bosses, the first boss has an attack where he hides in an object and attacks you and the sword is amazing here as it can wipe all the decoys instantly, but you can't really rely on any one weapon to do it all, you'll need at least a couple. As you can probably tell, there's a ton of decisions to make here. Powerup capsules aren't super rare, but they're not exactly common either, forcing you to be selective about what you want, but it's balanced enough that you can succeed with a bunch of different strategies, which gives it quite a lot of replay value. There's also 3 different characters, each with their own weapon loadouts, though they are broadly similar. For example, the third character trades out the blowtorch for a molotov, but it still does broadly the same thing (albeit with far more range at level 1) and he gets the same flame launcher at level 5. Still, even if you stick to just one character, there's still a lot to do and the upgrade system is very fun to play around with. There's also co-op, if you want to get into an argument about who's hogging all the powerup capsules. Overall, it's quite a fun game that I can definitely see myself coming back to with a friend.
When we talked about Need For Speed 3, I noted that the PS1 version was an impressive technical achievement and a huge step forward for the series but still a clear downgrade from the PC version. With NFS4, we have a very different situation where the PC and PS1 versions are almost like completely separate games and IMO the PS1 version is superior. The biggest issue with the PS1 version of NFS3 is that despite playing really well, a lot of the progression from the PC version got axed, leaving the PS1 version with much less to do. This is also somewhat the case with High Stakes, as there is a lot of content cut from the PC version, however the game also now has a money and car upgrading system. There's not a lot to say here, we know from many other games like Gran Turismo, Choro Q, and other NFS games that this kind of system works great for racing games, and it continues to do so here, alleviating pretty much all concerns about the game's content levels. In terms of presentation and control, these are very similar to PS1 NFS3, which is to say, still great. As I mentioned with NFS3, at this point the series starts feeling like the NFS you know and love, and indeed, at this point, this is clearly NFS. If you're a fan of later games like Underground 2 you'll be right at home. So basically, it's PS1 NFS3 but with much better progression and there's really not much you can complain about there. We could probably just end this review here as the game is clearly G, but I think it's interesting to also talk about the PC version. The big thing to say here is that unlike the PS1 version, the PC version is running on a new engine compared to NFS3. The big new feature in the PC version is car damage (which isn't present on PS1 at all), and as a result the game is pushing much higher polygon models for cars compared to NFS3. The course geometry has also seen upgrades with high poly models for backgrounds and track objects like trees. However, these higher polygon counts come at a cost, which is significantly reduced texture detail compared to Hot Pursuit. These low-detail textures result in most of the environment looking very bland and sterile in a way that many other early gen 6 games do, and I would say on the whole the game looks substantially worse compared to PC NFS3 and even the PS1 version of High Stakes. The game also has a new handling engine which is very widely considered to be worse than the one in Hot Pursuit and the PS1 version, so the game doesn't really play as well either, even if it does have more progression, including the titular High Stakes mode where you have to bet your car which is almost totally axed on PS1 (you can still play a multiplayer version of it). Obviously, they will improve that engine further and create great games like Hot Pursuit 2 and the Underground games with it, but it just wasn't quite there yet and IMO it's worth sticking with the old engine on PS1 this time around.
DeleteWhen we covered the previous Beast Wars game, I was expecting it to be a port of the N64 Beast Wars fighter, but it turned out that game was kind of an action game instead. This time, I was sure this one was the port, since it's a fighting game and it has the same name, but it's still not! Actually, it seems the Beast Wars game on N64 is exclusive, and this is a completely different fighting game that somewhat resembles Custom Robo. The basic setup of the game is somewhat weird. Like in Custom Robo, you run around a top down arena trying to blast each other, but it's a lot more simplistic. You only have a single main attack, which fires your main gun, though you can also charge it to fire a more powerful blast. That seems simple enough, but you'll quickly notice the AI can fire their charged shot right after firing a bunch of weak shots. This is not actually them cheating, you can do this too, there's two attack buttons and although they do the same thing, you can hold one down and repeatedly tap the other to charge and fire at the same time. It's not actually too hard to pull off, but it takes a little getting used to. You also have access to a super move that requires super stocks, and the game's super meter is a bit weird. It's shown as a blue section over your life bar that builds up as you attack or are attacked, but it can only go as far as the amount of health you have left, and when it reaches that point you get a stock. This essentially means that your super meter gets shorter as you get more damaged, becoming ludicrously short as the match goes on. This is kind of an interesting mechanic, but it also means that every round after the first will see the loser having 3 supers stocked at the beginning, which is a bit silly. An extremely important mechanic in the game is that you can block, which is actually done by pressing nothing at all on the DPad. This is utterly essential as there is otherwise only incredibly minimal wakeup protection, and at first I thought meaty setups could be totally inescapable. Blocking stops damage from big attacks pretty well, but you take a lot of chip from light attacks, so repeatedly light attacking a blocking opponent is effective. You can also transform into Beast Mode, but it's basically just a different set of attacks, typically more melee focused. Some of these are interesting, like Cheetor's charged Beast Mode attack goes right through lights, and you also have a different super in Beast Mode, generally a short range super that starts up very fast and thus acts like a close range punish. Vehicle mode also exists, but is basically just like a beast-mode only superdash and has no unique moves. It definitely doesn't quite have the depth of Custom Robo's system, but it's still functional, and the generally smart way blocking is implemented ties the whole game together. Beyond this, there's also quite a lot of stages and modes, and it's got all the original voice actors from the show as well as a few cutscenes. It's not the best game ever or anything, but if you're a fan of the show this is probably the game you've been waiting for.
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