MY FAVORITE GAMECUBE GAME

Fin.

Number 2 Favorite Gamecube Game

Only 1 more!

Number 6 Favorite Gamecube Game

That Number 6 spot!

Number 7 Favorite Gamecube Game

Enjoy the Number 7!

Number 8 Favorite Gamecube Game

Behold my 8th Favorite Gamecube Game.

I Put This Down: Tales of Symphonia

Mkay so as you all know, I acquired about 20-22 new Gamecube games over the summer. God damn. I haven't even opened all of them yet. I had to develop a strategy in order to quickly play and/or beat all of these games so that I could talk about them here. Typically, I would figure out which games were short, and I tried to blast through them, while allowing myself to spend weeks on longer games, such as Metroid or Wind Waker. Among these longer games was, and still is, one REALLY damn long game. With a typical playthrough occupying at least 80 hours of your life, this next title really had me baffled as far as how I was going to go about playing it quickly. Do I play it every day for a month until it's done? Do I allow myself to take 1000000000 years on it while playing other games in between sessions? Well Ill tell you, what wound up happening was me putting this game down. "Ill play it later" I would tell myself. But days, weeks, maybe a month went by before I finally picked this game up again; this is where our story begins.

Tales of Symphonia

Recently, I've been going around saying "Most of Gamecube's best games came from Dreamcast." It's a hyperbole, not a lie. Tales of Symphonia is a JRPG (Japanese Role Playing Game) that came out for the Sega Dreamcast maaaaany many years ago. Despite it's age, it has made a pretty remarkable impression on Gamecube and RPG fans alike. There are many notable qualities this game has. From it's adorable graphics, to it's deep story, this game really kicks ass from beginning until...you put it down. Notice I didn't say "end". It's true- I haven't finished this game yet, but I will. Don't worry. The question today is the same as it always is with I Put This Down:
Why did I put it down?  Why did I pick it up again? What do I think of it now?

Why did I put this game down? Well let's see. I suppose the answer is that I simply didn't have time to play this game. Believe it or not, between my band, school, sleep, friends, working out, getting mad chicks, getting beefy, buying Red Bull, and donating large sums of money to charity, I didn't have a spare 80 hours of my awesome life to designate to this game. It is a shame too because I really do enjoy this game. Tales of Symphonia is the first real RPG I've ever played, so the new gaming experience was very exciting. This game is often praised for it's amazing character development, graphics, fighting style, and soundtrack. The dungeons are fun because the 1 item you have that pertains only to dungeon exploration changes with every dungeon, affectively creating as many different puzzles as there are dungeons. These are all claims that I found too awesome to be true while reading about the game, but it turns out that they are, in fact, true. Those were just a few reasons why the game was all the more difficult to pause. Unfortunately, in the end, the amount of fun the game was to me was not enough to keep me going for more than 20 hours at a time. Ultimately, I put this game down.

 

But then I picked it up again! I think I just missed playing it. The thing about Tales of Symphonia is that the story makes you want to play the game. It's like reading a good book - you may not love reading in general, but what the hell, are you just going to put down the damn book without fucking finishing it? You're already 20 damn hours into it you scumbag! Just finish it and learn what happens. The game is fun to play and the ever-growing story counteracts the sometimes repetitive gameplay. Maybe you find yourself pressing the same buttons over and over, but the reason WHY you're pressing those buttons changes, and so does too your feelings towards the repetition. Considering the game has 80 hours to god damn do it, the character development IS really flawless. You got some dudes betraying you, some people dying, some friends destined to become enemies, some unlikely alliances, all while optional cut scenes take the development one step further by providing you with windows into the personal lives of each of your team members. Is the viewing of these scenes essential for the understand of the story? Not at all, but they are a good example of the steps game designers can take in order to ensure that those who may put this game down pick it up again. As you guys know, this isn't a review, so I can't talk about gameplay that much, but I will say that the fighting is fun as hell, as it takes place in real-time akin to Viewtiful Joe or even Super Smash Bros., and navigating the open hub world is very fun and rewarding. When a developers give you a big map, they want you to get lost. They want you to appreciate what they have created, and I do. I so do, Namco.

So what do I think of it now? I love it. In the end, Tales of Symphonia offers an exceptional gaming experience. Nothing is too challenging, nothing is too annoying. Everything is perfect as far as I am concerned. The idea of playing an 80 hour game is daunting to me, as, like I've said, I've never played an RPG before (I know this isn't even the longest RPG out there, dickhead, so don't yell at me), but I anticipate feeling really good when I beat it. It will be rewarding and I look forward to it. I do feel like I will wind up putting it down in increments of 20 or so hours, but that's fine by me. If spending 80 hours on this game is inevitable, then I might as well enjoy every last second of it. Seashells. Forever.

Playground Series: This Shit Is Bananas

I've recently learned to stop apologizing. So EXCUSE my bitch ass for not posting for a bit.

P.N.03

Okay so you know how when a game comes out people are all like "wahhh imma go check IGN anf fuckong.. Gameinformersomeshit fuckin'...askn all ma frendzz an whatev see hoiw good the gmae is befo I spend moneuy err whatev" I say FUCK THAT. In order to know how good a game is, you have to play it yourself. And no game has taught me that lesson more thoroughly than P.N.03.

P.N.03 is a third-person shooter that gives off a classic arcade-like feel. You navigate through linear levels and just try to fucking kill everything in your path before they kill you. Once you reach the end of the level, you move on to the next level. The point of the game is to beat every level and once you do, you're expected to move onto the next difficulty. This game's concept is simple and during this day and age, it could appear to be outdated and stale. This game was reviewed poorly and was criticized for it's sloppy controls, small move-set, length, and gameplay. Well you know what I say? Wanna know what I think about these claims? I think FUCK. THAT. This game is AWESOME. It's so frustratingly difficult, but rewarding and even though it only takes you 2 hours to beat the story on Easy mode, it will take you a lot longer than 2 hours to earn the ultimate prize.

So we gotta talk about all the different aspects of the game that make it what it is. Like I said, P.N.03 is pretty much a level-based action game. You start in one "room", kill all of the enemies, then move onto the next room. Once you complete every room, the level ends and you are pushed to the next one. Easy right? NO. So first of all, what you need to understand in order to play this game is that even though, yes, it is a shooter, there is only 1 or 2 buttons that make you shoot. You got the A button, which unleashes the rage of your trusty Palm Shot, and different combinations of the D-pad buttons + A for your strongest attacks. Knowing when to use your 2 different shots is important but what is even more important is knowing that every other button, including, B, L, R, LL, RR, Z and Y are all different buttons that let you dodge in different ways. The point is that health and energy necessary to charge your strongest attacks is scarce and if you fuck up, the game is not going to forgive you. Every single bit of your health counts so the skill you need to master in order to beat this game is not shooting the enemies, rather it is dodging the enemies, because you better believe that if you're trying to kill these enemies, then they are trying to kill you.
 
Imagine each room is like a spacious, in-door paintball arena. There are sections of the room where you are out in the open, as well as sections where you can jump and duck behind things. Using the environment in order effectively avoid the enemy onslaught while picking off each enemy one by one is critical in order to beat, or even play this game. The incentive to avoiding every single bullet shot at you, in addition to not dying, is the fact that the game awards you a certain amount of points each time you complete a room, and then gives you a nice bonus each time you complete a level. Wow points? Like fuckin....Super Mario Bros. or some shit? Yeah points. Obviously, whenever someone hears the word "points", they think of older games. Points, and trying to achieve the greatest amount of them, is a personal goal. In Mario Bros, you aren't rewarded for getting a high score with some kinda fuckin power up or something, you were just supposed to feel good about getting more points than ya friends. P.N.03 tries to rekindle that desire to snag the most points and does it flawlessly.....not satisfied are you? Okay, you got me. P.N.03 does definitely give you incentive to earn points, but not in order to fulfill any video game goal, but to fulfill you sexual goals. Yup I said it. So lemme explain this shit. You see the points given to you at the end of each room and level is the currency in P.N.03. You can exchange the points you've earned in order to upgrade your suit, increase your health, or buy different suits. The specs of your suit, predictably, affect how quickly you are able to vanquish enemies during levels, thus making it easier for you to beat the game faster. The amount of points earned at the end of each room is determined by how quickly you completed the room, as well as how much damage you took. Then the bonus at the end of the level is determined by your average performance during each room. So where is the sex? Well what if I told you that the character you play as was a woman? What if I said she was curvy? and sexy? What if I said that while you're standing there idle on the screen, and pretty much whenever she is not jumping or rolling around, she is shaking her ass right in your face? What if I said that if you earned a fuckload of points over time, and purchased every suit, and upgraded every suit, and completed the game, that you would get the final suit: Vanessa in her underwear. Yeah I'm a fucking pig, whatever. It's funny! Think about it: the ultimate, final suit as a reward for beating the game, leaving no stone unturned and no enemy alive, is just porn. It's amazing and kicks the shit out of earning any Trophy nowadays.

This game has an insane learning curve, but it's not hard, it's just untraditional. I know when I used to play Halo 3 with my brother, I would head out and if I got shot, fucking, whatever I didn't care. You just run away, get your health back automatically and then you can go out and shoot again (I am not good at Halo). In P.N.03, if you just run out there and not give a shit, then you're gonna die in like, actually 5 seconds. You have to be stealthy and attentive. You have to learn how to use all of your different dodging techniques in order to avoid fucking EVERYTHING. I remember I definitely just ran out into the open field first thing when I turned on this game and I got pwned. I looked at the screen and I was like "...ffffuckn whaaa??" So I reconsidered my strategy, and learned how to play the game the right way. Ultimately, the fact that this shooter was so different than anything I had ever played before gave me confidence in games that try to teach an old dog new tricks. Not every game can do it, but some, very few, can. And among those games that successfully tackle familiar game genres in untraditional ways is, in my opinion, P.N.03.

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

Playground Series 3: Most Overlooked Gamecube Game

Overlooking something. It's like assuming, but makes less of an ass out of everyone involved. It is definitely understandable why this next title would be overlooked. This game may be a little off the beaten trail for a lot of gamers, but it goes to show that if you exclude any genre of game, you will probably miss at least a few great titles. Play every game you can - it doesn't matter if it is the most popular game ever, or completely underground.

Tony Hawk's Underground
did anyone miss the puns?

The Tony Hawk skateboarding games kind of lost their balance towards the end of their 50,000 point tailslide, finishing it up shamefully with Tony Hawk Ride and Tony Hawk's Project 8. It is still uncertain if the successful Skate. games were to blame for the fall of Tony Hawk, or if the games simply plummeted to the ground after trying the nail that famous 900 for the thousandth time. Despite the disappointing end of the Tony Hawk series, there is no doubt that they left a mark on gamers forever. Anyone who has ever played a Tony Hawk game instantly became the witness of the most vulgar humor, strangest Easter eggs, and ridiculous physics, but it is important to know that the game that REALLY cashed in on all of the wacky antics, and really set the Tony Hawk games off in a new direction, was Tony Hawk's Underground.

Tony Hawk's Underground was the 5th installment of the Tony Hawk skateboarding video game series. The original games, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1-4, spawned your favorite pro skater into a small level where you would have to complete different random goals within a certain amount of time. Once you completed enough goals, you would unlock the following level until you essentially beat every goal, and there was nothing left for you to do in the game. What was so impressive and refreshing about Tony Hawk's Underground (T.H.U.G.) is that it changed up the formula for these errand-boy games forever. T.H.U.G was the first ever Tony Hawk game to ever feature an actual story. Your custom-made skater and your best friend Eric are trying to make it big by becoming pro skaters. You start off the game by skating around your hometown of New Jersey, and you spend the game progressively getting sponsored, making team films, winning amateur and pro skateboarding contests, and of course, watching Bam Margera be a dick. The new concept to the Tony Hawk series, a story, really made the game more enjoyable the same way adding a story to any list of tasks would. The characters are relatable, the antagonist makes you angry, and watching the thrill of your pro-to-be makes you proud to be a player. Suddenly, right before your very eyes, a Tony Hawk skateboarding game becomes an emotional experience.

What I was trying to allude to in the prologue of this post is that the reason why this game is overlooked, is because anyone not interested in skateboarding would never be interested in a skateboarding game. It seems that with all of the shooting games, driving games, action games, why would anyone want to live out a fantasy of skateboarding, instead of one of the aforementioned? Really, you might not, but you should. T.H.U.G. is the perfect place for new fans of the Tony Hawk series to jump onboard. With every addition to the Tony Hawk series, new tricks and features are added. T.H.U.G. is not only the first Hawk game to include a story, but it is the first to include the ability to "get off your board" and walk around on foot AND include the ability to drive cars and busses (this was the only Tony Hawk game that included the ability to drive). T.H.U.G. is the perfect game to get an authentic and modern feel for the Tony Hawk franchise. Some of the older titles might feel a little bit dated at this point in time, some of them being well over 10 years old, and a lot of the newer titles (T.H.U.G. 2 and Tony Hawk's American Wasteland) are better enjoyed after playing different Tony Hawk games first.

The soundtrack and gameplay of this game are both amazing, typical to Tony Hawk titles in the past,
and I won't give any secrets away, but if you plan to play this game, keep an eye out for various references to the greatest Hair Metal band of all time throughout the game. For anyone ignorant in the topic of heavy metal, the references will become more than apparent during the game's final unlockable stage....YEAH IT'S FUCKING GENE SIMMONS.

In conclusion, I understand that it may be very likely that you have overlooked Tony Hawk's Underground, especially if you don't care for skateboarding in real life. That being said, I insist that you try this game. The fact that it is literally less than 2 dollars on amazon, combined with the fact that it is just a great game not only within the Tony Hawk series, but as a stand-alone game gives you not a single excuse to avoid picking up your own copy, and start shredding. This game shines within the Tony hawk series, and as a stand-alone game. Fans of Tony Hawk games will be treated to the best Tony Hawk experience to date, and gamers looking for something new to play will not be hindered by the age of the game, or their disconnection to skateboarding. Play. This. Game.
 http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0000A0834/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1375039026&sr=8-1&keywords=tony+hawks+underground+gamecube&condition=used

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.

Hang In There

Hey guys. This post is more of an apology than anything. Maybe I'm being too hard on myself, but I fear I will not be able to post my next review for a little while longer. I have been very busy with my band recently and I haven't had much time to get my Gamecube on. What I do have, however, is a website I just discovered. If you didn't already know about this site, I suggest you check it out.
http://www.howlongtobeat.com/index.php

Ever wonder if you're going to get the best deals on your games? Ever fear that you are going to pay up to 60$ for a game that you'll finish in a week? Well fear no more! http://www.howlongtobeat.com/index.php is a website where numerous gamers from all over can submit how long it took them to complete any video game you can think of! Simply type a game into the search bar, and BAM you have everything you need to know about how long any game will take you to complete. Separate times are provided for those who like to beat a game quickly, or for those who like to 100% a game. This site is the best way to make sure you're getting the most game for you buck.

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.

The Commencement of the Countdown

Hello! Hello to my friends and hello to video game enthusiasts! I welcome you to my blog at oldreality.blogspot.com. This blog is dedicated to those with whom I share memories of a fast-fading video game console, the Nintendo Gamecube. In the future, I plan to expand my posts to cover various other topics in the world of video gaming, but I'd like to start off writing a little bit about my favorite video game console ever created.

The Nintendo Gamecube offers a large variety of classic games such as Super Mario Sunshine and Metroid Prime in addition to its collection of video game failures AND its hidden gems. I plan on talking about a lot of examples of these different categories of Gamecube experiences, but I understand that I have a bit of qualification to establish before I can justify any of my own opinions. So for my first series of posts, I will answer a question that many of you Gamecube fanatics may have been asked by your own friends.

What are your top ten favorite Gamecube games?

Each game will have its own post AND a detailed analysis of why I feel it deserves a spot on my list. With a lifetime of Nintendo Gamecube under my belt so far, I can absolutely assure you that my list will be the result of extensive research, long hours of navigating the darkest caves, defeating the most powerful collection of bosses, solving the most tedious of puzzles, and saving the most needy of princesses simply so that I can claim that I am a Nintendo Gamecube expert.

New posts will be made every couple of days, so be sure to remember to check them out.
Stay tuned and keep on reading, because this next series is nothing you'll want to miss.