Time To Make Some Crazy Money!!! - Crazy Taxi

Crazy Taxi - Nintendo Gamecube

Crazy Taxi is one of those games you see almost everywhere. Whether it's taking its original 1999 form in an arcade, waiting to be downloaded on Steam, or enjoying life on any of the sixth generation consoles, Crazy Taxi is nothing less than a classic title screaming with personality. I find this game, with its dumb yellow box, at retro game shops and flea markets everywhere I go. Usually a single copy will be accompanied by a second and third and fourth just sitting on the shelf unwanted, bearing a humbling $5 price tag. I recently grabbed a copy to use its box to brighten up the aesthetics of my Gamecube collection, but instead I found myself hooked on burning rubber.

Even on consoles, Crazy Taxi still retains its arcade feel. Gameplay involves picking up and dropping off passengers on the streets of what appears to be an exaggerated, cartoon version of San Francisco. You are free to drive around the town, disobeying all traffic laws, flying over sidewalks and off of truck-beds, but time will quickly expire if you neglect to pick up pedestrians waiting for a taxi ride. Both taking on and unloading passengers will award you additional time, and the game ends when time runs out. That's pretty much it. The console version keeps track of your high scores, and as long as you're playing the "Arcade" or "Original" version of the game (selected on the main menu), achieving a respectable high score is all there is to it.

The console version also has a challenge mode. Challenge mode presents players with different scenarios, such as seeing how far you can launch off of a ramp, or how quickly you can escort a certain number of passengers. Gameplay stays pretty uniform no matter which mode you play, but challenge mode does its best to mix things up, sometimes successfully and other times just adding more of the same.

The best way to play Crazy Taxi (in my experience) is to put it on if you have 10 or 15 minutes to kill before you need to go to work or something. As many times as I have booted Crazy Taxi since I purchased it 3 days ago, I haven't yet played for more than 20 minutes at a time- this is not a game meant to be played for hours and hours at once. That being said, it is addictive and the punk-rock soundtrack featuring early hits by The Offspring is an excellent compliment to the fast-paced bad-ass attitude the game proudly demonstrates.

Don't get me wrong, Crazy Taxi isn't going to change anyone's life. But it is really fun and undoubtedly worth $5. I recommend this to anyone who is looking for something dumb to bust out at a party, or to anyone whose video game box collection is severally missing the color yellow.

Sonic the Hedgehog

I'm bored! Let's talk about Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Throughout the 30+ years of significant gaming history, the video game world has seen its fair share of console mascots. Between Super Mario, Ratchet and Clank, Spyro the Dragon, and even Pac-Man, perhaps no video game mascot has left a legacy as impressively dramatic as Sonic the Hedgehog. It's no question that Sonic the Hedgehog has fallen off in recent years, but if there is seriously only one thing that my readers know about me, it's that I love Sonic.

I haven't played all of Sonic's tales, but I've played enough to give an interesting top 5 favorite Sonic games. First though, allow me to list what I have played:

Sonic the Hedgehog (Mega Collection)

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Mega Collection)

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Mega Collection)

Sonic & Knuckles (Mega Collection)

Sonic 3D Blast (Mega Collection)

Sonic Spinball (Mega Collection)

Sonic Adventure DX Director's Cut (Ported to Gamecube)

Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (Ported to Gamecube)

Sonic Advance 2 (GBA)

Sonic Advance 3 (GBA)

Sonic Heroes (Gamecube)

Shadow the Hedgehog (Gamecube)

Sonic Riders (Gamecube)

Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (Xbox 360)

Sonic Unleashed (Xbox 360)

Sonic Generations (Xbox 360)

Sonic Generations (3DS)

Sonic and the Secret Rings (Wii)

Sonic Riders Zero Gravity (Wii)

Sonic and the Black Knight (Wii)

Sonic Colors (Wii)

Sonic Rush (DS)

Sonic Lost World (WiiU)

Sonic Boom Shattered Crystal (3DS)

These are games that I have not necessarily beaten, but games of which I have played enough to understand thoroughly.

Number 5: Sonic Colors 
By the time Sonic Colors was released for the Wii, Sonic fans had already endured the disappointing quality of both Sonic and the Secret Rings and Sonic and the Black Knight for the Wii. We took the announcement of a new Sonic game with copious amounts of salt, but Sonic Colors turned out to be an expertly crafted Sonic game, reminding us first and foremost that above all else, Sonic is meant to go fast. While very much on the short side of games, clocking in at about a 4 - 6 hour Main Story, Sonic Colors introduces new abilities that change up the typical Sonic rhythm without changing the typical Sonic feel.

Number 4: Sonic the Hedgehog 2
I didn't grow up with a Sega Genesis. My first Sonic the Hedgehog game was Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, and it wouldn't be until I was perhaps 10 years old would I learn what Sonic once was. Thanks to Sonic Mega Collection on the Gamecube, I was able to experience all of the classic Sonic titles that came before my time. Among them, Sonic 2 shines the brightest. The levels are more open and faster than those in Sonic 1, and aren't as difficult for younger gamers as they are in Sonic 3. For me, Sonic 2 is a perfect side-scrolling platformer.

Number 3: Sonic Heroes 
I didn't love Sonic Adventure 1 or 2 for the stories, I loved them for the characters. Though most Sonic fans eventually came out to admit that they disliked most of Sonic's friends, I was not part of that crowd. I love Sonic's friends, and Sonic Heroes puts each of them front and center. Sonic Heroes allows you to control a team of 3 Sonic characters at a time, while opting to exclude a vast story in favor of simple gameplay on ingeniously designed levels.

Number 2: Sonic Adventure 2: Battle
The Sonic game that started it all for me. Not only did Sonic Adventure 2: Battle have profoundly fun gameplay, it had a killer story and introduced Shadow the Hedgehog: briefly the most popular Sonic characters of all time. Sonic Adventure 2 has everything that makes a game good: gameplay that varied from level to level, cool characters, and a surprisingly deep and emotional story about revenge and nature vs. nurture.

Number 1: Sonic Unleashed 

It is very difficult for me to explain why I love this game. My best college memories have come from playing this game, as one of my best friends on campus and I once spent an entire semester trying to 100% this game, and succeeded, but that isn't the only reason why I love this game so much. Sonic Unleashed had everything Sonic Adventure 2: Battle had (barring Chao), and shot it up with crack-cocaine and adrenaline. Sonic Unleashed features Sonic at both his fastest and his slowest. Different levels become available depending on whether it is night or day time, and while the night time levels feature Sonic playing God of War-like levels, the day time levels are literally the fastest in any Sonic game. They are difficult, but the excitement of completing one of the lightening-fast levels with an S rank is one of the most rewarding feelings I have ever gotten from a video game. Sonic Unleashed made me want to play better, explore the levels for shortcuts, slow down to perfect combos and then speed those combos up. Combine that all with some of Jason Griffith's best voice acting, and some of the best music in any Sonic game, and you have Sonic Unleashed: one of my favorite games of all time.

Super Smash Bros. for 3DS

I've been writing on this blog for over a year now and I'm sure that all 6 people who actually read it have been beginning to wonder when I was going to get around to reviewing a game about which people actually care. Well, today is that day, because this is my review of Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 3DS.

I have to admit, I am a veteran in the world of Super Smash Bros. I understand the game, and I understand that those who don't play competitively see the game differently than those who do. I am on the edge of both worlds, so I will try to see this game with no preference to either perspective. Instead, I will take you through a journey of what my Smash Bros. 3DS experience has been like for the last week.

Super Smash Bros. for 3DS is the first entry in the legendary Smash Bros. series to appear on a handheld, and if you ask me, it's a pretty fucking good idea partially because no one owns a Wii U right now, but mostly because Nintendo has spent the last year upgrading the 3DS via all sorts of hardware and software improvements from system updates to the release of new limited edition consoles BUT has completely forgotten to release any fucking games for the damn thing. I was looking forward to Smash Bros. on a handheld because of the convenience of being able to play anywhere I go. My parents still live in the same hometown I graduated High School in, but now I am in college and most of my friends live in different states than I do, so being able to not only bring the game back and forth from home to school but being able to bring the multiplayer experience anywhere I go was something I originally found to be extremely appealing, but not so much anymore because the online is complete and utter shit. Many, nay, all people who owned Super Smash Bros. Brawl agreed on two things: Final smashes were horse shit, and the online was embarrassing and irresponsible. 6 years later, we are still faced with the later issue. Out of my 20 attempts made JUST NOW to play a 1 on 1 online match against a random opponent also using the online features, want to guess how many of them were successful? 0. 0 times. I was kicked to the start screen before the match had even begun, with the furthest I ever got being gaining access to a training area which I can only guess comes right before a match- I wouldn't know, because I never got to play one.

My next thought was then "okay whatever". I'll just play some single player. The main excitement that comes with any new entry in the Smash Bros. series is the thrill of both unlocking and using new characters or old characters with new abilities, and in this department, Smash Bros. 3DS really excels. Out of the 49 characters, not even the 2 or 3 sets of clones feel exactly identical, with the exception of Pit and Dark Pit, which I let slide because I loved Kid Icarus: Uprising. However, with the multiplayer options being limited to local multiplayer, an issue I plan on discussing in just a hot second, the player is forced to experience the thrill of new characters by playing single player modes in the game. Classic mode is the main single player mode mostly because it is the only single player mode that can be used to unlock characters. Once you play classic mode with the appropriate characters, you'll unlock every hidden character, of which there are only like, 10, and once you have unlocked every hidden character, you'll want to try them out in more single player modes, once again because multiplayer is hardly an option. Classic mode, however, is not the most suitable testing grounds because, in it, you can't turn the items off, this only being a problem because of the fact that almost every single item in the game just kills you. Blue Shell, The Beetle from Skyward Sword, every Assist Trophy, the Smash Ball, almost every Pokemon, every Bomb-omb, Gooey Bomb, Exploding X bomb thing, every capsule which is ALWAYS a bomb in disguise, and a properly placed bumper all really don't do anything more than just kill you, which believe it or not, reduces the fun of actually becoming good with a character by about 1 fuckton.

So what else is there? There is no online, and classic mode isn't any fun, so what I decided to do was try out a bunch of characters by playing against level 9 CPUs in Smash mode with, of course, the items turned the fuck off. Playing against random CPUs with 3 stock as I attempt to beat the shit out of them with my favorite Nintendo characters of new and old is actually the most fun I get out of the game, but like everything else in it, I am beginning to see how short-lived this is going to be as something about the CPU's tendency to spam both counter-attacks and shield has me convinced that the AI isn't actually very good in the game. In fact, there have been an unacceptable amount of times where I decided that instead of fighting in the fighting game, I thought that it would be more fun to wait in a corner and see how long it would take the CPU to notice that I am preparing to kill it. In the end, the CPU struggled desperately to convince me that my hacking away at it with a sword was something it preferred for me not to do. Instead, the characters against whom I played seemed much more concerned about their health as mostly all they ever did was run around or jump a bit, as opposed to hitting me back, even on the highest difficulty setting.

And so finally, we reach the last selling point of this game, the local multiplayer. Traditionally, local Smash Bros. took place on the living room sofa with 13 of your closest friends and 1 kind of smelly friend who heard you got the newest flavor of Mountain Dew and invited himself over. You'd all gather around the TV for better or for worse and enjoyed the $50 dollar investment made by one friend as you played his game with his controllers on his console in his house. Now, in order for even the most casual collection of players to indulge in the joy of local Smash multiplayer on the 3DS, each participant must own not only the $40 game, but the $200 system. Now I admit, this shouldn't be a problem for children who plan on spending study hall trying to escape from a hard day at middle school with a round or two of Smash Bros, but I am in college, a place where people come to study and learn, not fuck around with video games all day like how I do. I do have a few friends on campus who own the game, but because those who don't play Smash Bros. understand that we no longer need a TV to play, we are often kicked out of common rooms and forced to squeeze 4 dudes into my small bedroom, which I dislike not because of the small size of my room, but because the small size of my bed ill-suited to seat 4 grown men in a fashion that can be described in a manner other than "really gay".

Despite all of my bitching, Smash Bros for 3DS is an excellent entry to the series. In fact, I'd say it's second best with Melee being the first best and Brawl being the worst. There are advantages to having it on a handheld, but I don't really think anyone would argue the fact that the game is supposed to be played on a console with 6 bowls of chips, 14 friends, and 2 girl friends who would prefer to be doing anything besides play video games all night. As an entry in the Smash series, Smash Bros. 3DS is impressive to say the least, but as a game, it just can't be considered as good as people want it to be. The online doesn't work, the single player options are limited unless you are a masochist or a completionist as the collectibles are nearly endless, and the salvageable modes in the game are only fun for a short while due to mediocre AI. If you have the game, I am SO excited to play with you next time we are all home and have the game on us, but if you were one of the more skeptical players who decided to wait and see if this game was going to be executed properly on the 3DS, I declare that you don't have to get it if you don't want to. It's not a "must-play" for the console.

**EDIT** I have friends at home and in other parts of the state who have assured me that my poor experience with the online in this game may be the fault of my school having bad internet service, and not because Nintendo likes online multiplayer as much as I like eating glass. Fine. They are probably right, although I have heard about other players and professional gaming companies complaining about having as much trouble as I had. If your online mode works, ignore what I had to say about my experience, and go play it because it is probably awesome. I, on the other hand, will sit here in my bedroom and whine on the internet like a normal Nintendo fan.

Gotta Go Fast

This is review is going to be written in what I think is the ideal format - no numbers, no bullshit.

The other day, I was in Gamestop looking for something cheap that could hold me over until Smash Bros comes out on Friday. I just bought a brand new Limited Edition Smash Bros 3DS XL and I didn't want it to sit there while I tried to amuse myself with some outdated Wii games for the next week so after almost no consideration, and almost completely impulsively, I decided to try out Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed for the 3DS. 

Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed - Nintendo 3DS 

Intro + Summary



Branching paths lead to the same end, but allow access to unlockables.

Although the idea of Sonic the Hedgehog, who can canonically run at the speed of sound, driving a car that tops out at 120 mph was originally offensive to me, turns out that I think Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed is actually a pretty damn good game. I was seriously surprised. This cross-over racing game features 25 of SEGA's most famous or likable (which ever comes first) characters, of whom you might know 7 - this is totally not a bad thing, I'm just pointing it out. As of now, I only have about 12 characters unlocked, and I actually know about 10 of them, but only because I am kind of a video game buff. Anyway, single player features the racing-game-staple Grand Prix, where you race across 4 tracks and earn points based on your performance in each race individually, which get added up at the end with whomever having the most points being the grand wiener. I honestly have only done a couple of Grand Prix races because the game also features a totally separate Career mode. Career mode starts with a single challenge. You select the challenge and difficulty for the challenge. If you complete the challenge, you unlock the next challenge, rinse and repeat. Career mode = beat all of the challenges. I dumbed that down for simplicity's sake, especially since I am going to put a fucking picture right here, which will effectively obsolesce any wordy description, but it's definitely worth noting that each challenge features a different track, and different objective within the challenge. Sometimes you just have to place 1st in a race, other times you have to complete 1 lap within a certain amount of time, etc. Branching paths in the career mode challenge selection screen will allow you access to secondary objectives whose completion will award you with new characters and collectibles. Finally, EXP will be gained by the character you choose before each challenge should you complete it successfully. Every time a character levels-up, you unlock a "Mod Pack" for that character. Mod Packs allow you to select the same character, but apply different set of stats for his/her car. About to race on a track with a lot of turns? Use the handling Mod Pack. 

Good Things

I thought this game was going to be a blatant Mario Kart rip-off. It's not. It IS another mascot, kart-racing game though, a bit redundant in a genre dominated by the famous Italian plumber. However, there are certainly enough distinguishable features in Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed for it to earn a solid A for effort, and maybe even a little bit more. S&ASRT features extremely fun, bright and colorful track designs inspired by SEGA's most famous games of which you probably know more than you think you do, some of them being Sonic the Hedgehog, Monkey Ball, Crazy Taxi, Golden Axe, Nights, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, and Skies of Arcadia. The main attraction to this game is that even though each race features 3 laps on a track, the track changes (or transforms) each time you complete a single lap, offering track variety out the ass, and you can bet that same ass that when the track transforms, your vehicle transforms! The word "Transformed" in the game's title refers to the transformations made by your vehicle when racing. Driving on a boardwalk that suddenly gives out? Your car will turn into a boat! And does the river you're now trying to traverse give way to an enormous waterfall? Boat --> Airplane. Not every track uses all 3 forms of vehicle, but when your vehicle does transform, it is totally appropriate, feels good, and is really fucking fun. The Career mode is particularly effective in making me want to play more. I don't always have time for 1 more Grand Prix in Mario Kart, but another 4 minute challenge is seldom an issue with my personal schedule. Items in Sonic Racing are also fun and balanced. If You want to win in this Kart Racing game, you need more skills behind the wheel than you need Red Shells. I can truly say that no item in this game feels copied from Mario Kart (I didn't mean to spend this review comparing this game to Mario Kart, but I KNOW that's what you're doing so I'm just responding to how I know you're responding). The Career mode isn't too long, but earning the maximum amount of stars for each challenge means that you'll have to complete each challenge on HARD mode, as opposed to Easy or Normal, which is not an easy feat. You can only unlock certain characters by obtaining a certain number of stars, so although the Career Mode itself is a bit on the shorter side, obtaining every star to unlock every character will probably satisfy any need to play a medium-lengthed game. Finally, the 3DS's bottom screen is used to display an over-head live racing map. Having it on the bottom screen is nice, obviously because it doesn't obstruct the racing-action. It's also handy because occasionally the "track" during the boat or flying sections can be a tiny bit ambiguous, so having a map when you're threatened to get lost is un-ironically the perfect solution. This is a fucking fun racing game. 

Short-Comings 

Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed on the Nintendo 3DS doesn't suffer from any lag technically, but like, it runs at what feels like 15 frames per second. Keep in mind, this is a straight port of a game that was originally sold for XBOX 360 and PS3, as well as the Wii U. The game performs impressively after knowing that, but ONLY after knowing that. My eyes immediately felt the difference between playing Sonic & All Stars and playing the Smash Bros. demo, but I would be such a bitch if I didn't admit that I totally got used to the frame rate after playing for, like, 2 minutes. You get over it. Also. perhaps 3% of the time, I can't tell what is 10 feet ahead of me in the game, which wouldn't be a problem if we weren't discussing a racing game. Remember though, I said this happens rarely, although when it happens, it totally happens. Graphics are also a bit pixely, but again, nothing a determined gamer wouldn't be able to brush off. This game is also out, like I said, for the 360, PS3, and Wii U. I plan on buying it for the Wii U when I get home from school. I played the demo and the graphics were appropriately gorgeous, and now that I know the rest of the game is awesome, I am confident that the Wii U version will hold up. I am playing this game on the 3DS XL. I cannot imagine this game on the small screen of the standard 3DS, and when I do try to imagine it, I imagine, like, a nightmarish, nebulous, chaotic, vague image of like, 10 guys driving play-dough cars through a guillotine testing factory. Not sure - never played it on the standard 3DS. I could be wrong, but I could be totally right.  

To Whom Would I Recommend This Game?

Of the 2 viable kart racing games out there, Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed is not definitely  the best one, but it could be. Though Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed is hella fun, don't be surprised if you find yourself pondering this game asking yourself "Do I really need to play another Kart Racing game?" if you've already played Mario Kart 7 or 8. I admit though, I haven't played Mario Kart 7 and thanks to this game, I don't think I will anytime soon. I feel like the demand for kart racing games is strongest after not having played one for a long time. If you have played Mario Kart 7 or 8 recently, there is no pressure to play Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed, but it is still a killer game. 

So to whom would I recommend this game? SEGA fans, die-hard kart racing fans, anyone who needs to play something on the 3DS and has already played all of its first party-titles (barring Mario Kart 7), and anyone who is opposed to playing this on a home console. 

The Grand Return

So after a short hiatus from this blog, I have decided to resume my writing for a little while. Yesterday, I entered my school's lounge to watch one of my classmates play an old favorite of mine on the 72 inch TV. I watched this kid tear up the streets of City Escape and dive through Aquatic Mine and when he finally introduced himself, he and I started talking a bit about the Gamecube. Our conversation ended with me mentioning that I have 75 Gamecube games in my dorm room. He responded "Wow, you are a Gamecube MASTER if you have 75 games." Well that little fat dick was right! This one goes out to him.

What I noticed about his Sonic Adventure 2 experience was that it was unfolding via Steam - without a Gamecube controller. How could anyone resist playing a video game without the Gamecube controller if they have the option to?? The Gamecube controller is my favorite controller out of any controller I've ever used, and I've used a lot. My friends at home have invited me to share my opinions of the Gamecube controller with them, but I always feel bad because I knew my full opinion would be so long, that it would take up an entire blog post. So in honor of that kid in the lounge, and in honor of the new consoles and their controllers, whose generation pushes the Gamecube and its controller one generation further into the chasms of time, here we fucking go.

The Nintendo Gamecube Controller

How is it that despite the Gamecube controller celebrating it's 12th birthday this year, people still insist on using it to play games that are 5, 4, 2 years old? What is it about this controller, about its unusual button layout, its strange colors, and tiny D-pad that make it so loveable- make it rival with the XBOX 360's or PS3's beloved controllers? Well let's check it out.

Mkay so first to tackle the things that everybody knows: The Gamecube controller features one of the first wing-grip designs, was one of the first controllers to feature 2 thumbsticks and a D-pad, had 6 digital buttons (including the START button), and two shoulder buttons that each sported a hybrid of digital/analog technology. There are two things about the Gamecube controller that are unconventional, and I just mentioned one of them. Two features, two attributes of the Gamecube controller that brought it to the top of my list of favorite video game controllers. These two features that I am about to discuss make the Gamecube controller appear to some gamers as silly or even dumb and luckily for you guys, you have me to tell those people to fuck off.

The Gamecube controller doesn't have any new face-buttons, in fact, it has even less than the controller of the console that came before it, Nintendo 64, and the same amount as the controller that came before THAT, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It seems that the Gamecube controller didn't have any new amount of buttons, but it did sport a different, unparalleled layout. The Gamecube controller is the only controller ever made (I've ever seen or have been made aware of) that features one very large central button with 3 other smaller buttons arranged around it. As you can see in this diagram, the A button is the large center button, the B button is a smaller, circular button to the lower left of the A button, and the X and Y buttons are sort of cashew-shaped buttons above and to the right of the A button. Okay, fuck, everybody knows this. But does everybody know why? I mean, it makes sense: if there is one button that in the history of gaming has been traditionally used more often than any other button, why not make it bigger? Give it special treatment, because it is a special button. Fine. The A button is big because it is used most often.

So what about the B, X, and Y buttons? From here on out, this is my own theory for why the buttons are arranged the way they are. So if you are going to have a large A button, it would make sense that the other buttons are going to be sized with respect to how often the player is going to press the other buttons compared to the A button. With the Gamecube controller, there is no question that Nintendo was prepared to design their games to feature the A button as a means to activate the game's primary command. Let's look at Metroid Prime. Which action, out of Jump, Shoot, Fire Missiles, and Roll in a ball, each of the actions that can be triggered by pressing each face-button, do you do most often? The answer is Shoot. And which button is Shoot? A - the biggest button on the controller. Now. Which action do you secondarily, or the second most often? Jump. Jump is the B button. So now we see that secondary actions are mapped to the B button, but why B? What is so special about the B button when it seems that the X and Y buttons could just as easily be given the secondary role? Check this out, I actually have the controller in front of me right now. Assume that your thumb is going to naturally rest over the A button simply because it is the most comfortable position for the thumb to rest in. Now hold the A button down. Without removing your thumb from the A button, try

to tap the B, X, and Y buttons a bunch of times each. The button that is most comfortable to hit without removing your thumb from the A button is B, followed by Y, followed by X. Why? Look at the face-buttons from their sides. If you look closely, you'll see that the top of the A button is slightly rounded like a small hill while B, X, and Y have flat tops. Now look at the lowest point of the "hill" top of the A button. If, in your head, you drew an imaginary line continuing along the slope of the A button at the same angle and stopped your line as soon as it hit another face-button, you will notice something kind of crazy. The line you draw that hits the X and Y buttons strike those buttons on their side, not on their tops. The line you draw that hits the B button, strikes the B button on its face, not its side. So what does this mean? Well the lines I had you guys draw in your head are actually the paths your thumb travels in order to press B, X, and Y without releasing A, like I had you do before. If you are rolling your thumb along each of these lines, the lines that lead from A to either B, X, or Y, you will hit X and Y on their side and B on the top. Obviously, it is most comfortable to hit a button on its top, explaining why B the most comfortable button to hit without releasing A when it is being held down. It is also important to know that in order to maximize the comfort of "rolling" from A to B, the B button is set slightly deeper into the controller compared to X or Y, ensuring that you strike the B button on its face every single time you go to hit it.

 

I said that the Y button is second most comfortable to hit without releasing A. Why? Why not X?
Okay. Pangaea the shit out of these face-buttons and what happens? The X and Y buttons fit around the A button like a puzzle. The B button does not, but its circular shape makes it easier to fit onto the face of the controller, so that takes precedence over what I am about to explain about the X and Y buttons. Let's take the X and Y button separately. In your head, draw a line that connects the right side of the Y button to the right side of the A button. Then do the same thing for the left sides and color the 2 buttons and the space between them. You'll wind up with a mental picture that looks something like this image.

Look at your thumb. It's the same shape. What face-button command do you do THIRD most often in Metroid Prime? Fire Missiles. Y button. Second most comfortable to hit without releasing A. I know.

If you do the same thing with the X button, you get a slightly different shape that doesn't really look too much like anything. The best thing I could come up with is the following: The X button has the same shape as the right-most third of your thumb. If we cut your thumb vertically into thirds, the X button is about the same shape as the third furthest to the right.  When you line up the X button with the X-button-shaped part of your thumb perfectly, you still have a whole bunch of thumb left over which sits directly above the A button. Push down, and you've got yourself your third most comfortable position for your thumb to rest in. What is your 4th most used face-button action in Metroid Prime? Morph Ball. X button.

So why make a controller whose face-buttons are all able to be pressed while holding A? Think about this: you have 4 actions that the face-buttons allow you to do. But what if you need to do 2 of them at the same time? Jump and shoot? Lock-on and Shoot? Accelerate and use items? Jump and Change weapons? These are all examples of typical actions that we need to perform at the same time or else we would be killed or lose the race or whatever SO when you position the buttons in a way that allows them each to be pressed comfortably without having to stop performing the main action triggered by A button, then you have a controller that allows you to perform multiple actions at the same time. But if this is the case, why don't other controllers use this layout? I mean, Gamecube is not the only home of games where it is necessary to perform 2 actions at once, so how is this done without the Gamecube controller's button layout? The answer is triggers. Triggers are pressed with the pointer or middle finger - not the thumb. 2 fingers to tackle 2 different buttons instead of the thumb to tackle 2 at once. That's why in Halo 3, Shoot, the first most important command is mapped to a trigger and Jump, the second most important is mapped to a face-button. With 1 finger to shoot and 1 to jump, jumping and shooting at the same time is easy. The Gamecube controller accomplishes the same exact thing in Metroid Prime, but without the trigger. In fact, the addition of the triggers on the Gamecube controller allow Samus in Metroid Prime to perform 3 actions simultaneously - Jump, Shoot with B and A respectively, and Lock-on with L. Impressive, no?

But what about those triggers? (This is the second function unique to the Gamecube controller) Push them down half way, and they glide the same way the XBOX 360 controller's do. Push them down all the way and they click. This is that digital/analog hybrid technology I mentioned earlier. Analog signals are used when triggers are pushed down on the XBOX 360. Gamecube uses the same technology, until the triggers are pushed down all the way and "click". This click, knocks an activator inside the controller that initiates a digital signal, also used by the face-buttons. This duality allows one button to perform up to 2 different functions. Light shield vs Heavy shield in Super Smash Bros. Melee or Run + Squirt vs. Stand still + Squirt in Super Mario Sunshine, maximizing the number of different commands available to the player without overwhelming the player with too many buttons.

And that's it! Gamecube controllers are awesome and that is why.

I Put This Down, Then Picked It Up Again

I put this down, then picked it up again
because it's good enough for one more round.
I put this down, then picked it up again
thought it would be better this time around.
I put this down!

Nothing like a Tubthumping reference to start a new line of posts.

Anyway, I Put This Down will be yet another short archetype of posts. Each IPTD post will be a brief discussion of my thoughts of a game that I played for a bit, but didn't finish immediately. The pattern for these games will be the following: I bought it, played it, put it down, forgot about it, picked it up again. The discussion will take place after I pick it up and start playing it again. Who knows what will happen the second time around?

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

The Prince of Persia titles have exhibited a new form of platforming/adventure games ever since their original
conceptualization. In these games, you play as the Prince of Persia himself who has decided that the best way to save Persia from the rule of an evil king is to run around a bit, jump off a few walls, and kill some bad guys. Fair enough. These games are praised for their ability to combine parkour-like skillsets with puzzle-solving, and dungeon-crawling mechanics. In addition to all of the moves that I wish I could do in real-life, the prince also uncovers a dagger whose hilt stores the sands of time. Releasing the sands of time from the dagger reverses the flow of time. This ability can be used during gameplay in a way that is exactly like re-winding an old VHS tape (speaking of old reality...). Pressing R will not only employ the power of the most ridiculous but still awesome backwards WOOSHing sound effects, but will bring the prince back in time for up to about 5 seconds real-time. So that's what we have for us today - a parkour prince and a dagger that can reverse the flow of time.

Of course, I am writing as if I intend to belittle the game - I don't. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time really is a fun game. The controls, outdated as they are, are solid, and although the camera makes me want to die, the ability to reverse the flow of time in order to undo your mistakes is compensation enough. So the 3 big questions are the following:
Why did I put this game down?
Why did I pick it up again?
What do I think of it the second time around?

I did just admit that I thought this game was fun, because I do - I wouldn't lie to you guys. But I put this game down a long, long time ago because I thought it fell into a trap that Mirror's Edge introduced me to, but wound up existing for a long time before that. You see, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is really 3 different styles of gameplay arranged separately on 1 disc. This game is exactly 33% parkour, 33% puzzle-solving, 33% hack-and-slash combat, and 1% synergy (this proto-discovery was realized by my friend Dylan = credit where credit is due). What is unique to the P.O.P. series is the parkour-extreme-platforming so I bought this game (my first Prince of Persia game) thinking that it was going to be about 90% parkour and 10% wishing I was still doing parkour. The trap that this game falls into most likely stems from the developers thinking that the parkour parts were awesome, but the princes' skillset weren't large enough to create a game of 100% parkour without it starting to feel repetitive after about 2 hours. So what they did was create additional gameplay styles that included combat, by throwing in some beat 'em up sections which consisted of the slaying of multiple waves of enemies until everyone except you is dead. Fine. But what happens with these "solutions" sometimes is that the very remedy used to cure repetitive gameplay becomes repetitive. So let me be more specific to this title:
Problem: The game would be boring and repetitive as shit if ALL you did was parkour.
Solution: Add more game mechanics, like fighting and puzzle-solving, in order to prevent the parkour from getting stale.
New Problem: Fighting and Puzzle-Solving get stale and supersaturate the game to the point where I miss the parkour. #ijustlearnedhowtobold

So I really really loved the parkour parts of the game, but the combat sections were sloppy, and the puzzle-solving sections were challenging, but not fun, and were really more annoying than anything, as they hindered my ability to throw myself off of buildings and stuff. I put Prince of Persia: Sands of Time down because I couldn't handle how not fun the puzzle-sections were. All I wanted to do was some wall-runs and some jumping off of stuff, but apparently Sonic The Hedgehog is still my best bet for that desire.

Probably 18 months passed and I decided to see what would happen if I popped that disc back into the cube again. Perhaps, I thought, my new found video-game wisdom would aid in my future appreciation of what is usually considered to be, like, the 5th best Gamecube game ever. Resuming my old file, I immediately became stuck in a parkour portion that only a youtube video walk-through could help me out of, and then was INSTANTLY thrown into the most annoying puzzle-section I had yet to behold. I cleared it after about a half hour of fucking falling like an idiot, and pretty much just said "fuck it" after that. Prince of Persia has yet to see the world outside of its since then. Being several hours into it, I feel like I have played it enough in order to decide that I have seen what I needed to see.

On a side note, I understand that the game took a different approach to the video game soundtrack by...well...not having one, but it didn't work. If I am going to literally be watching myself fuck up, and be forced to watch myself fuck up in reverse slow-mo, then imma need some tunes to keep me going. And that's all I have to say about that.

Verdict:
I put this down, then picked it up again, and threw it back to the ground
where it stayed down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H5uWRjFsGc

Playground Series: What the Hell Am I Playing?

I'm sure by now, you guys are sick of hearing me say things that aren't about video games, so fuck me apologizing for not writing in a while. Let's just roll the next review out.

Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg


I've recently acquired about 20 new Gamecube games. So, where do you start playing? I figured I would start up 1 or 2 long games and 1 or 2 short games at a time, and just collect other games to save for later in between. One game that I wound up playing during all of this gaming madness was Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. I only read a little bit about this game in Gameradar's list of top 50 Gamecube games http://www.gamesradar.com/best-gamecube-games/ before I decided to never think about it again, simply because I could not imagine what I was reading actually being a real game. Well I am here tonight to discuss how I formally withdraw my original opinions of this game, and replace them with a whole new perspective on the concept of hatching eggs.

Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg is an addictively ridiculous platformer developed by SEGA Sonic Team shortly after they released Sonic Adventure 2 in 2003. You play as a young boy named Billy who is thrown into a world ruled by chickens after he displays "great courage" by punching a small bird in the face in order to save his friends. Almost as soon as Billy arrives in Morning Land, he equips himself with a sacred Chicken Suit. This suit allows Billy to arm himself with giant eggs. Without an egg, Billy is pretty worthless, but WITH an egg, Billy is able to jump really high, ground pound the floor around him, ride on tracks meant to move eggs, and take out the evil crows by rolling the egg into them. The eggs, although are fragile, easily broken, and easily replaceable, utilize a basic upgrading system. It's nothing immersive, but it is important to know that when enemies are destroyed, they drop fruit. Roll an egg over the fruit, and the egg will grow. Eggs do more damage with each size-increase and a fully matured egg can be hatched by Mr. Billy Hatcher himself. A quick cock-a-doodle-doo will pop the egg open and potentially reveal 1 item from a large collection of possible egg-inhabitants. Different colored eggs hatch different items. More commonly found eggs can contain extra lives or collectables, but rarer blue or red eggs can contain animal assistants whose powers become yours to command upon hatching them. These animals help you solve puzzles or attack enemies once you befriend them in the ever-classic quest to reach one side of the level to the other.

The story is...well...it's a god damned kids game so who cares? There's an evil crow who wants to cast Morning Land into an eternal nighttime. Stop the evil crow, and do whatever everyone else tells you to do in order to beat the game. But if there is one thing everyone knows about kid's games, it's that they're fucking stupidly difficult. Unfortunately, poor game mechanics are responsible for a lot of the difficulty that this game has to offer, but they are not so plentiful that the game becomes unplayable (*coughSonicTheHedgehog2006cough*). So with any platformer, you really only have to consider a few different elements. Platforming video games date all the way back to 1981 Donkey Kong in the arcades, so when looking at modern platformers, you have to consider the factors that separate the games made today from the games made 30 years ago. You must consider graphics, originality, music (I guess), playability, and most importantly how much fun the game is to play. Well in my opinion Sonic Team spared very little cheese or tomatoes in this egg-wise adventure. Ill discuss each element separately.

Originality. So I don't know if you guys heard when I said it before, but your weapon...is an egg. A giant egg. It is important for those holding magnifying glasses to this game to note that the abilities you gain while holding an egg are not very original, as we have seen the ground pound/ butt bounce/ whatever you want to call it for years, but if rolling an egg into enemies in order to vanquish them isn't creative enough for you, then stop letting Stephen King set your creativity bar too high. You could say that this game is original because you roll an egg around in order to play, or you could say it's unoriginality is disguised by an egg, but either way, someone over at Sonic Team was ballsy enough to suggest that a game whose main attraction was rolling an egg would sell, and it did...at least...to me. Moving on.

Graphics. Let's see, 2003 graphics. Well we got Metroid Prime, F-Zero GX, and The Legend of
Zelda: The Wind Waker. Okay so the bar was set pretty high for graphics even in 2003. The visual importance of video games really became most noticeable upon the arrival of Playstation 2 games during the climax of it's career. Graphical legacies were also continued by Microsoft's Halo and Gears of War series, but if I had a dollar for every time someone mentioned how the graphics in Metroid Prime could rival those of modern games, I wouldn't have to go to college. That being said, graphical feats were not easily attainable in 2003, and unfortunately, it seams that Sonic Team missed the frying pan in this area. However, having average graphics will never mean that the game looks bad. Average graphics are a great canvas for a great art style. Wind Waker is the perfect example. While Billy Hatcher doesn't feature graphics of any impressive quality, it is a delightfully bright and colorful game, complimenting it's playful, light-hearted gameplay, and REALLY catchy music. You're god damn rolling an EGG. Does anyone really need goodgraphics for this?? What was really necessary for this game, were bright colors, and Sonic Team nailed that.

Like I said before, the game feels a little underdeveloped. Perhaps it is Sonic Team tradition to leave dumb mechanics in their games, or maybe it is the fact that Billy Hatcher is run by the same engine that ran Sonic Adventure 2 - a game whose glitches are almost as famous as it's level design, but like I said before, the difficult sequences of BH:GE are the result of a few poorly designed game mechanics. Some enemies are just too annoying, maintaining control while moving with your fragile egg is about 20% harder than it should be, and small mistakes are often extremely unforgiving to the point where you question why you're playing this game even more than you are intended to. The game is still very much playable, as these annoying mechanics are not found in every level, but when they do show up, you will die in your heart a little bit for every time Billy dies as a result of their bullshit.

Overall, Billy Hatcher really is a fun game. The level designs vary greatly from stage to stage, and are always a pleasure to look at. Sometimes the game can be too hard for all of the worst reasons, but in the end, you never really did expect a game that featured weaponized eggs to be 100% solid, did you? This game is 15 dollars on Amazon. Considering the fact that 15 is enough to get Metroid Prime, Resident Evil 4, Viewtiful Joe, SSX 3, Wave Race: Blue Storm, Mario Golf Toadstool Tour, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time or F-Zero GX, I would say that it may not be worth getting immediately, but if you ever run into it at your local Play N Trade like how I did, it may be destiny telling you to either play this title, or grab an omelet.

81/100
-10 Points - occasionally clumsy controls
-5   Points - occasionally dumb stupid mechanics
-4   Points - sometimes the game feels a little boring, as levels tend to be a bit too long, resulting in the witnessing of the same music and visuals for up to 15 minutes at a time
50  Points - originality
10  Points - visual appeal
6    Points - Audio appeal
10  Points - the game is not very long, but the amount of optional levels, in addition to the main story, makes the game feel like it is how long you want it to be
5    Points - the multiplayer is EXACTLY what you want it to be

The Next Big Step

So because I feel so bad for blue-balling you guys when it came to my list of Gamecube games, I decided I am simply going to build a playground out of this blog. This time next week, I am going to upload at least 5 new reviews of games that each fit a certain qualification. These 8 topics are, in my opinion:
Most Overrated Gamecube Game
Most Underrated Gamecube Game
Overlooked Gamecube Game
Hidden Gem
Best Game Under 10 Dollars
Best Game Still Over 40 Dollars
...What The Fuck?
Wild Card

I am truly excited (and this time, capable) when it comes to approaching these topics. Keep in mind, the Wild Card will be one game that I choose from my collection at random. It could be anything from Super Smash Bros. Melee, to Mary Kate and Ashley, so brace yourselves.

Also remember that I will from now on be using a grading system, and a pros and cons list when discussing each game. I feel like this will contribute to a more accurate description of my feelings of each game. Remember to click that shit this time next week.

Finally, I've decided to occasionally post other relevant video game things among the archives of my blog in addition to my reviews. In case you missed it, I highly recommend a website I discovered recently. Be sure to check out http://www.howlongtobeat.com/ in order to figure out where your money is best spent.

Scroll down to see if you've missed anything, and of course, contact me to recommend a review or game. PEACE.

Recap

Okay guys like I said in my last post, we are officially half way through my list of top ten favorite Gamecube games. I must admit, there is a problem with how I am going about this list. The fact that I recently just purchased a bunch of Gamecube games that are new to me in addition to the games I plan on obtaining in the near future is very much making me reconsider my list. Perhaps I will post a revised list later in the year, once I have completed each of my new games entirely. Just to establish some relatability, here are the games that I just got recently and the games I will try to pick up by the end of the summer:
Mary Kate and Ashley 16 Licensed to Drive                                              -Plan on Getting-
Starfox Adventures                                                                                   Super Monkey Ball 2
Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker                                                                   Metroid Prime
Legend of Zelda: Collector's Disc                                                           Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Tales of Symphonia                                                                                            Pikmin 2
Luigi's Mansion

So far I've spent my posts discussing extensively the pros of each of the titles on my list, but I haven't touched the cons. There are reasons why I like certain games more than others, but I've neglected to reveal those reasons until now. This will be brief, but interesting. We will start at number 10:

1080: Avalanche - The game wasn't short, because there was actually a lot to do once you really
started looking at all of the unlockables. All different boards and such were unlocked by playing game modes that are typically overlooked in video games (time trial), but really, a lot of the unlockables don't affect gameplay enough for you to have a real desire to get them. There are definitely some cool prizes in the game, but by the time you get them, there is pretty much nothing left for you to do in the game. For this reason, despite how fun the game is, you do eventually lose motivation to really go the extra mile as far as 100percenting the game. Moreover, this game is WAY more fun when you race your friends, but no one plays this game...so good luck...

Mario Kart: Double Dash - I understand that number 9 might be a little low for this game, but really,
I feel pretty good about this. Despite how fun this game is, actually playing single player is a little but of a drag, but 100% necessary. Unlocking every character and track is kind of boring because it involves you playing the same track 4+ times (once on every difficulty). This game is fun for the MULTIPLAYER. But the multiplayer is only fun once you have your friend take one for the team, and unlock everything via single player.

 

Spiderman 2 - This game is awesome, but it is repetitive. Although swinging around and fighting people is SO fun, it really is all you do. It shares the same problem with the Prince of Persia titles in my opinion: they are fun, but too much of a good thing is never good. It simply looses it's flavor after a little while of chewing

Super Mario Sunshine - Definitely another awesome game, but ultimately, it is not Super Mario 64.
The game is also inconsistent in that some levels are really easy, and other levels are TV-smashingly difficult. It can be a little short and some levels can be a little not-as-fun as they could be. There really are no major faults with this game, but the little things add up. I mean, it's still my 7th favorite Gamecube game, so don't think I am trying to hate on this game; it is really good, but not number 1.

Lost Kingdoms 2 - Ehh this one is tough. Sometimes you face a game with no big problems, no major flaws, but simply is just not your favorite game ever. Honestly, this game needs a little bit of a better soundtrack. There are certainly moments when the soundtrack hits you in the best of ways, but usually it is pretty bland. I never go on an epic quest without some epic tunes, but apparently Activision does not agree with me. The graphics were also pretty laughable and even though the actual story was good, the characters didn't draw me into it. The gameplay was really REALLY fun and refreshing, but I think the story could have been emphasized more by some good voice acting and cut scenes. It is something I never thought I cared about until just now...

Soul Calibur 2- This fighting game is perfect. But that is just it- it's a fighting game. The gameplay is
repetitive at times simply because fighting games don't rely on story and characters and cut scenes to help you through the games. If you get bored during an adventure game, you can usually last a couple more hours or so by paying attention to the music or graphics or something, but fighting games are typically 100% fighting, 0% everything else. So if you get bored of fighting, then you change your game, because there is just nothing else to them.

So I hope that cleared some shit up for y'all. Please tell me if I've inspired any of you to bust out your old Gamecubes because I'd be honored to hear about it. Also, feel free to ask me about any game at all. I will review any game I have played and I love talking about games so if you ever wanna talk, find a way to let me know. Stay tuned, because I plan on posting a list of ALL of my 56 Gamecube games soon.

Top Ten Favorite Gamecube Games: Number 5

Alright guys, we are half way there. Half way down the list of my top 10 favorite games for the Nintendo Gamecube. I hope that everyone is enjoying everything I write, but please, if anyone has any suggestions, comments, or recommendations, feel free to leave a comment, tell me over facebook, or stalk me at my house. With any luck, this blog has taken you guys down memory lane and maybe even inspired you to bust out the ol' Gamecube, yourselves. At the very least, this blog is something for you to read at 3am when the internet has run out of things to look at for the day. I'd like to believe that so far, this list has been a nice collection of charming titles, some you may have heard of, some you haven't, but I will admit it lacks something...I'd say...it lacks some soul...

Soul Calibur, that is!

5) Soul Calibur II

Welp. It was about damn time.

The Soul Calibur series was originally introduced in the arcades in 1996. It's fighting-style mechanics were immediately compared to those of other popular fighting games such as Tekken or Mortal Combat. Eventually, the Soul Calibur games found their way onto the home console, following the steps of most other arcade-style fighters. There were instantly a few notable differences between Soul Calibur and some of the other fighting games around at the time and these differences were pretty key when it came to the gameplay, feel, and overall experience of the game. Soul Calibur featured a combat system that involved, first of all, weapons. Every character held a weapon. It didn't really affect the gameplay itself, but it sure did look badass. When it came to playing the game, Soul Calibur definitely stood out because of the functions of the buttons. At this point, in the arcades, fighting games had anywhere from 3 to 8 different buttons. Pressing some buttons would result in a kick to the face, maybe a kick to the feet, punch to the torso, punch to the feetpunchto head, face, neck, punchkickpunchpocuncudiwulmeofiuwnq AHHH OMG. Soul Calibur featured only a few different commands, and these same commands exist without any complication to this very day, in Soul Calibur 5. In Soul Calibur, 1 button was responsible for attacks that struck horizontally, 1 button made your character strike vertically, 1 made them kick, and 1 made them guard. Vertical? Horizontal? I don't get it. The idea was to create a fighting game where Horizontal attacks could only be avoided by ducking under them, jumping over them, or blocking. Vertical attacks could only be avoided by dodging to the right or left, or guarding. Essentially, there were different ways that would affectively dodge each attack, depending on which direction it came from. Ducking from a vertical wouldn't work, because you would just be hit on the head, and trying to move to the right to avoid an attack that is swung from the left to the right wouldn't work either because you would get hit either way. During a time where the last thing the world needed was another fighting game, The Soul Calibur series stuck out like a fat, exploding peacock.

Onto the sequel! Soul Calibur II plays the same way as the original Soul Calibur and Soul Edge, so really, there is very little for veterans to adjust to. This game is also, however, newcomer-friendly, which is great because I know a lot of people to whom Soul Calibur II was their first soul-slaying experience. As I said, Soul Calibur's sequel featured the same fighting ideas and pretty much the same gameplay as the original, so what makes it so special? The expansion of the idea.

See Namco and Project Soul have earned a reputation of NOT creating the same exact SC game twice
in a row. Although SC and SC2 were very similar, the later featured numerous different game modes, an addictive single player mode called Weapon Master, interchangeable weapons to choose to equip your character with, and many more characters. I believe that when the first sequel to anything is made, it should be simply an expansion to the original idea. I don't think it is necessary to completely overhaul the game, and obviously Project Soul agrees. The multiplayer is what keeps players coming back for more, as SC is a very easy game to pick up and learn how to play on the spot. It is fun and although the best results come from hours of studying the MOVE LIST in order to conclude which combos were the strongest, the game is very playable without knowing all of it's dark secrets (TL,DR it's girlfriend-friendly). Multiplayer modes include VS. Battle, Extra VS. Battle, VS. Team Battle, and Extra VS. Team Battle. Any mode that is preceded by the word "extra" means that the option to chose alternative weapons for your character to fight with is enabled. Different weapons have different affects on the character wielding or the character fighting against them. Some have greater range, some increase health with every blow you land, etc. Team Battle involves you and your opponent selecting up to 8 different characters, and having them all fighting each other 1 after another, for a longer game and a better opportunity to showcase your skills with many characters simultaneously.

 

So the multiplayer keeps you coming back for more, but what gets you started in the first place? The single player mode - Weapon Master. Weapon Master worked in a "chapter-like" system, where the idea was to complete each mission in the chapter in order to proceed to the following chapter until you beat every chapter. Each chapter featured a new collection of missions to complete, along with a new store to access. Completing each mission would not only result in your nearing of the chapter's completion, but it also rewarded you with gold. Gold could be exchanged, in the Chapter's Store, for new weapons, new character costumes, new artwork and new weapons. Did I mention new weapons? The missions involved you fighting Soul Calibur style under special, random conditions. Sometimes you can only defeat your opponent with a RING OUT (throwing him/her off the stage as opposed to depleting their health with attacks). Other times the enemies are invisible. Sometimes, you lose instantly if you are knocked to the ground. It sounds simple, but it is a clever way to be able to unlock new items without having to playing through Arcade mode 50,000 times with a million different characters. The mode progressively got more difficult so the pressure for you to constantly increase your skills was also on, and ultimately made you a better player. Once you beat every chapter in Weapon Master, including the 5 or so hidden chapters, you had access to the stores containing every weapon in the game, but you still had to raise Gold in order to buy them all if you couldn't afford to do so already. This increased the length of the game without making it boring. It was very possible for you to play without buying the weapons respective to the characters that you never play as, so you were never to feel stressed about missing certain weapons at first.

The characters, old and new are all shining and well-endowed as they blast onto this generation of gaming. All 25 characters have unique fighting styles, are all good-looking and are fun to play as. The voice acting is fantastic (this is important to me), and the moves of each fighter are clever and often have my friends and me looking at each other saying "...what the fuck just happened?" The new stages in SC2 are also fantastic. Stages in these types of fighting games often don't matter, as the characters never interact with them, but it is still nice to have something other than giant swords to look at once in a while. These stages are all accompanied by a great musical score. These are the kinds of things that true gamers appreciate- good looking stages and great music are nothing that would missed had they not been in the game, but the fact that the designers went the extra mile to enhance the Soul Calibur 2 experience is really why the fans love Soul Calibur so much. Soul Calibur 2 also included 1 guest character to the game. The character available to you depends on which system you play the game on, but the Gamecube version featured Link, from the Legend of Zelda series. Seems strange, but it's fun as hell. Trust me.

Soul Calibur 2 is a game for fans of fighting games, but it is also a great chance for the newcomers to jump onboard a genre of gaming that is easy to get lost in. Ever find yourself attracted to giant swords? If your answer is "Yes", then I hereby diagnose you with normality and welcome you to a game transcending history and the world, a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold.

Top Ten Favorite Gamecube Games Countdown: Number 8

Yup. It's finally here. Looks like I've been caught stalling and I must apologize to that. I'm going to make the pre-ambling shorter this time because I am very excited about this next game, so allow me to just swing right into it.

8) Spiderman 2   

....what?

Okay so Spiderman is like, my favorite super hero ever. I think his powers are balanced and his style is cool. Excuse me? Balanced powers and a stylish attitude? Remind you of any (every)  other perfect video game protagonist??
Anyway Spiderman 2 was a fantastic game and there are really several reasons for why it is an awesome title, but really only a couple of reasons why it made my top ten list, the most important reason being replay value.

I LOVE a long game. I love love love a game that keeps me entertained for hours and hours without me getting bored or stuck. No walkthroughs, no yelling at the TV, no bullshit. It wasn't an easy game, but it wasn't too difficult. It was long, but not frustrating. It was just fun. The game kept me playing for hours at a time just swinging around New York City without even doing anything really important or relevant to the game's storyline. THIS is really the appeal of the game, but I definitely have some explaining to do before I try to convince you of how fun NOT doing missions is. And before I start, please forget the gamepoop that was the first Spiderman video game. Just forget about it.


GAMEPLAY. Spiderman 2 was open-world. What does that mean? It means that no matter what you had to do, where you had to go, who was dying in the game, who was dying on the sofa next to you, NO MATTER WHAT, you could pretty much go anywhere at anytime you want. And how would you get there? Well think about it...you're Spiderman....THAT'S RIGHT whenever you got bored, you could literally just swing around the entire city of New York jumping off walls, dangling from street signs, and even kicking the crap out of thugs trying to mug a helpless old lady. And believe me, following the missions was fun, but just swinging around was so chill. See really during the entire game, you can do anything Spiderman can do in the movie, but the skill necessary to swing around without bumping into walls every 2 seconds is never something that any tutorial hands to you on a silver platter. The means to swing around stylishly, chaining together the ability to swing, run on a wall, jump off the wall, swing off a flag pole, etc, is something you have to develop and learn how to do as you play the game. As the enemies of the game increase in difficulty, the more essential it is for you to harness the real capabilities of the in-game Spiderman. This game will force you to gradually get better at playing as the story demands it. You will have to get better at swinging and fighting as the game progresses and the better you become, the more fun it is. If you don't get better over time, you simply won't win.

Now we will discuss the pacing of the game. This is the first time I have ever discussed this topic, but it is vital to the understanding of the gameplay of Spiderman 2. So the game is split up into "chapters". With each chapter comes different objectives that you must satisfy in order to advance to the next chapter. The point of the entire game is to complete every chapter and when you do, you just have the entirety of The Big Apple as your playground. Typically, a chapter will have 3 or 4 objectives. Usually, one is "Earn 500 hero points" and one is "Meet with MaryJane". The other two are less consistent and may be something like "Go to the Daily Bugle" or "Check Your Answering Machine". For each of these missions, a pin-point marker will appear on your screen. They appear in the distance and display how far you are from the location it is representing. Once you reach the marker, the mission it represents will commence. Unless you are timed, however, you can pretty much do any mission whenever you want in any order you desire. This creates a very stress-free environment as  you can literally turn the game on, not progress in the storyline at all, and still have a lot of fun.

I mentioned "Hero Points" before. They are simple to understand, but will wind up being very important to the progression of the game with every chapter you complete. Green markers appear above the heads of pedestrians who either need help or witnessed a crime. Once you talk to someone with a marker above their head, you become responsible to handle whatever they are freaking out about. If you fail to assist properly, then you lose Hero Points, but if you succeed (not difficult) then you are awarded many more. The collecting of Hero Points is absolutely necessary in order to complete each chapter. They also function secondarily as currency in the game. One can spend Hero Points in the store in order to purchase upgrades for Spiderman such as different moves in combat, or an increased swinging speed, as if Spiderman needed to be upgraded.

Lastly we will talk about the combat. Although swinging around is just the most entertaining thing
ever, what would be the point of Spiderman's super strength if he couldn't take it to the streets? A lot of the game involves the utilization of Spiderman's fighting abilities, and in the game, that super strength is just a couple of buttons away. B is punch. B, in fact, is the only button designated to attacking. That being said, when Spiderman fights, he does a lot more than simply wail on an opponent. For example, the B button makes Spiderman punch, the Y button makes Spiderman shoot web, and the A button makes Spiderman jump. So what happens when you press B,B,A,Y,B when fighting en enemy? Well, Spiderman punches the enemy in a two-punch combo, jumps up, wraps the criminal in web, and then punches them again. In addition to standard moves that can be used at anytime, there are certain moves that involve Spiderman interacting with his surroundings. Anyone who has played the game knows what I'm talking about....that one move where you tie an enemy to a traffic light and leave him dangling by his ankle? Yeah, that move definitely contributed to this game's existence on my list, not to mention Spider Sense Mode which makes the entire world slow down allowing for you to completely gain total advantage during combat.

Spiderman 2 is definitely not an ordinary superhero game. It provides a relaxing environment where you can either swing around aimlessly for hours or complete missions battling some of Spiderman's toughest friends and foes and have a great time regardless. Upgrading Spiderman's powers and your own skills, along with numerous mini-games and wonderful voice acting from Toby McGuire, Alfred Malone, and the rest of the Spiderman 2 cast will surely motivate you to harness every bit of responsibility that comes with your great power.