Welcome to my dojo (Gamespot edition) Here I talk about my opinions of games. Check out my regular dojo ( jamesdojo.wordpress.com ) I have a lot of stuff there about a variety off subjects! (even though you may see some things there that I wrote here too!) Happy Gaming!

• 9Aug 09

  Lost Potential: Shadows of the Empire

  In the early 90's, the world of Star Wars fans was abuzz. There was a new story, Shadows of the Empire, that bridged the gap between episode 5 and 6. There was to be a book, comic, and a video game. Each would tell the same story from a different point of view. The book showed the perspective from the main characters of the movies and Prince Zizor, one of the chief villains. The comic tells Bobba Fett's side of the story, and the gamers would have the opportunity to play as Dash Rendar - he pretty much takes the place of Han Solo.

  The book itself was great, and the action figures are cool. (Yes, I has some) I have not had the pleasure to read the comic, but I do own the game.

  Is this starting to sound familiar? Yeah, sounds like The Force Unleashed.

  Shadows of the Empire had the potential to be one of the best games for the N64. The level designs were impressive, the bad guys were fun to fight, and it had one of the best, albeit small, arsenals of any Star Wars game I have played. The 6 weapons included a basic blaster, seeker missiles, a flamethrower, pulse cannon, surprisingly fun stun gun, and the disrupter - think handheld nuke. There was even a jetpack. A JETPACK! And it was not painfully weak like in battlefront, you felt like Bobba Fett in that thing! Most levels were Third Person Shooters, but some were vehicle levels, including a very fun swoop bike sequence and a crazy rail shooter level. Overall, this game had it all, but it was sorely lacking in one department. Control.

  There were about 4 different control schemes, and all of them sucked. Half of the difficulty in the game came from aiming and walking coherently. You would think that Dash was drunk!

  Also, the game opens with the battle of hoth, where you have to use a snow speeder to fight AT-AT and AT-STs. That level is the opposite of fun. These two thing pretty much ruined the game for many people. (I was dedicated enough to trudge through until the last level...which was a x-wing battle that played out exactly like the first level.)

  As a slap in the face, there is a cheat code that leads to a de-bug menu. This menu gives you control over everything in the game, which quadruples the play time...but entering the code will drive you insane.

  First, pause the game on any stage and hold down ALL of the following buttons: Z, R, L, all the C buttons, and left on the digital cross pad.

  Then, with all the buttons still held, move the control stick HALFWAY to the right, and hold it for about five seconds until you hear a donk.

  When you hear the donk, then move the control stick halfway to the left, and hold for about five seconds until you hear a donk. Repeat to right again, and then again to the left. Now pink text should appear at the top of the screen. Use the L and R buttons to switch between options, the control stick up and down to change (where applicable) and to activate. When you use one of the options or leave the pause screen, the next time you pause the text will be gone. To get it back, hold all of the buttons you held to activate the code, and move the stick halfway either to the left or to the right.

  IT TAKES 7 HANDS TO IMPUT THAT CODE. (yes, I managed it, but I had to use my nose to move the analogue stick, and it gave me a headache.)

  Well, this post is getting really long so I need to make my point and quick. Shadows of the Empire had a lot of potential, and I would love to see that potential realize someday. Maybe the game could be remade for current generations or something, it would be awesome. Yeah...thats pretty much it.

  • Posted Aug 9, 2009 8:46 pm GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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• 18Mar 09

  The Wii at its best

  

  Lately, my posts about the Wii have tended to revolve around the excess of shovelware that has been plaguing the console, and the problems it has. I had just about lost all faith in my console of choice. My Wii had become all but a glorified gamecube...until recently.

  The other night, I decided to play Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. (I had been stuck ona part where you have to find the energy cells) I was moving along and making pretty good progress, having more fun with a wii game than I had in a while. When suddenly, the Metroid Hatcher showed up.

  Now, this post is not gonna be me ranting about how fun this guy was to fight or about how awesome I am for beating him. (Ifell of the platform too many times to be called awesome) This is a post about what it is like when the Wii is at its best.However,in order to fully explain my point, I am gonna have to ramble about the boss for a moment.

  In order to fight this monster, I had to shoot at his tentacles. Each time I hit one, it would retract into the beast.Once they were all gone, I had to shoot the creature in the mouth (while he tried to spawn metroids) , until he re-exposed his tentacles. I then had a short window of time where I could use my grapple lasso to rip off one of the tentacles. Repeat.

  While I was doing this in the game, I felt as though I was doing it in real life. To aim my shots, I had to point at the screen. To rip a tentacle, I had to swing the nunchuck forward to attach the grapple lasso, then pull back a couple of time to rip it away. I was totally immersed in the game in a way only the Wii can allow.

  It was at this moment that I truly remembered how great the Wii is. I know that the graphics will never live up to its competitors. (acually, I have become convinced that the gamecube has better graphics) I will also concede that in order to find the gems, you have to hack your way through a jungle of shovelware, but it is worth it.

  The Wii holds some of the best console games I have ever played. Super Mario Galaxy blew my mind with the way it messed with gravity.Brawl continues to provide hours of video game characters fighting each other in colorful locations with awesome music. Boom Blox (despite the casual sounding title) provided hours of fun worth of knocking blocks down. (something that the wii makes surprisingly fun) Super Paper Mariorocked my world by bringingback the old school fun of platformers while adding a new twist.

  Also, while the online abilities of the Wii are less than grand, there is still a grerat selection of games to buy. Not only is there all kinds of awesome wiiware, like World of Goo and Strongbad, there is also plenty of older games to satisfy the nostalgic gamer in all of us. (or introduce a new generation to what made gaming great in the first place)

  I could go on listing games, but this is not a hardcore gamers guide to the wii. (though you can find one of those on any gaming site/magazine)

  The Wii holds the greatest potential for greatness of all of the consoles. Anyone who has played a truly wonderful Wii game knows this. So evenwhile we wait for more core games to come out for the console, we can still enjoy what games are already there.

  • Posted Mar 18, 2009 7:11 am GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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• 12Feb 09

  Sonic should go Megaman 9

  

  Sonic + Megaman 9 = Happy Gamers

  It seems like with each passing sonic game, we get our hopes up, just to be disappointed again. I recently was able to play a demo of sonic unleashed, and while the daytime levels seem pretty fun, I know the nighttime ones suck. I have pretty much given up all hope on Sonic and the Black Knight. Sega keeps trying to make Sonic better, but he only gets worse.

  This is why I think Sonic should go the route of Megaman 9.

  Granted, I have never played any of the Megaman games, but I do know the storybehind Megaman 9. Basically they went back to to the old school platforming of the original Megaman games, even going as far as using 8-bit graphics. This is a great route for Sonic to go.

  The 16bit sonic games for the genesis were among the best games in the world, and that glory could be relieved if only the sonic team would keep sonic in 2d. He just can't thrive in that third dimension. Go back to the basics and create a game reminiscent of Sonic 2, or Sonic and Knuckles.

  I don't want to see an overwhelmingly large cast of people I do not care about. Stick to Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles as the protagonists, and Dr. Robotnicas the bad guy. That is it. No alternate stories, no teams, no Big the Cat!

  The story needs to be something simple. Dr. Robotnic is turning forest creatures into robots, and needs the chaos emeralds to power his latest death egg…or something like that. No weird backstories about girls named Maria, no team chaotix coming to investigate, no useless junk. Cutscenes can be kept to a minimum, and the ones that are there could be like those of Sonic CD.

  It could be a downloadable game over the virtual console, or it could be a standalone game. If it is a standalone, it would need to be big. I am talking, like 100 stages. (with a saving feature of course) But keep it every bit as hard as the old games. I know it will be more difficult for little kids, but I was 6 when I started playing Sonic 2, and I never complained that it was too hard! Games are supposed to be a challenge.

  They could also throw in some unlockalbes. Wii does not have achievements, but they could implement and in game system that would give you rewards for completing certain challenges. For example, perhaps you could unlock levels from older sonic games, or entire games. Knuckles and Tails could be unlockable for beating the game as sonic. Perhaps even some documentaries (or mocumentaries) about Sonic.

  *sigh* The point is, if Sega wants to revive Sonic, they need to be looking to the past, not towards lame gimmicks.(*cough* swords *cough* werehog *cough*) Just go back to the original formula and let us relive the glory days…

  • Posted Feb 12, 2009 3:59 pm GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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