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Feb 23rd, 2007 at 04:32:34 - Super Smash Brothers (N64) |
When I first played the original Super Smash Bros, I was pleasantly surprised with its simple controls and relatively light learning curve. While it was one of the earlier video games that I played seriously, so I lacked a proper appreciation of its cast and crew, I soon became addicted to the cartoony graphics and the fast-paced play. Perhaps it was the timing, as I had just gotten over pokemon but the prospect of blowing the stuffing out of its annoying mascots Pikachu and Jigglypuff as a psychic first-grader from a game whose primary enemies were “Dirty Old Men” and “Innocent Passerby” was pretty entertaining.
However as I continued playing through single player mode (since all my friends stopped playing once I showed that I was ten times as dedicated as any of them) I found several more exciting techniques, subtleties within the timing scheme and a number of interesting rewards and bonuses for completing levels in short amounts of time, or without using attacks, or by using items, or by drawing bananas out of your buttocks, etc.
Regardless, even in the absence of the multiplayer mode which made the game as amazing as it could be, there were countless ways to continue enjoying the game.
In short, Super Smash Bros is the reason that I play video games. Numerous characters and modes, which expand in the sequel, complex strategy, a very easy learning curve, and its own new genre of gameplay made this game the legend that landed it on the classics list.
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Feb 23rd, 2007 at 04:32:21 - Super Smash Brothers (N64) |
Super Smash Bros: possibly the best game ever. It created its own subgenre, and still has a devoted following 8 years after its emergence. Although most fans, including myself have (reluctantly) switched to the newer and more balanced Gamecube sequel, the first game still gets played from time to time.
There are several things that make Super Smash Bros iconic in game history:
First, it doesn't conform well to existing genres. While it is most often considered a fighting game, it allows up to four concurrent players, and has a relatively dynamic camera in an environment distinctly reminiscent of a platformer.
Second, it brings together a wide variety of characters from a large number of games. This isn't a unique feature, as Capcom has created several games (e.g. Marvel vs. Capcom, Capcom vs. SNK) that have done this, however it is uncommon and the characters come from a wide variety of game types instead of simply fighting games. Mario is a classic platformer, while Link comes from Adventure/RPGs and Captain Falcon stars in racing games.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly when considering other games that have enjoyed the same level of success, Super Smash Bros is an excellent party game. Countless times I have spent afternoons and evenings wasting away with a bottom-out seven-man Smash marathon.
More on game play next time (news at eleven!)
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Feb 9th, 2007 at 05:53:12 - World of Warcraft (PC) |
For quite some time I have had a number of friends playing this addictive MMORPG, but I resisted getting into it--not in small part because until quite recently I never had a computer capable of running it.
I run Linux on my laptop, which used to prevent me from doing these sorts of things, but I recently got my hands on a copy of Cedega, and I had to test it. You know, for science.
So I created my first ever WoW character. I'm still new to the game, so let me start with a few comments on my general first impressions before I give a more detailed spec.
First: I don't play a lot of PC games--I'm a much bigger console player (although my real forte is tabletop RPGs)--so there were a couple of weird steps for me to make there, such as system requirements and lag.
I set up my character on a low population server, so the lag isn't bad, but my graphics card is barely adequate so I get some rendering problems under certain conditions, which makes things difficult sometimes.
Anyway, onto things slightly more specific to the game. the first few levels are kind of interesting, although not very exciting, and are also very misleading. They go by quickly until about level 10... at which point leveling starts taking hours, and as I hear it only takes more time as you go along (although it is faster when it isn't your first time).
The whole game so far is fairly slow-paced, and a lot of the world isn't explained very well--this makes it a lot harder for new players, but it really isn't a big issue or deterrent for me.
My naive, first-three-days-of-playing perspective is that if you have friends to play with, it will be worth your while to get into World of Warcraft, but if you don't have a specific goal (like running "instances" and "raids" with friends) then you will probably waste your life creating max level characters and exploring the nuances of the remarkably beautiful and well-developed world.
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Jan 31st, 2007 at 06:39:46 - Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) |
Every game designer's dream (at least, one hopes--some games don't show this very well) is for some nerdy college student, 20 years after the game's release, to be so happy about some mundane acheivement that they take a picture of it and brag to their friends.
Okay, maybe that's a little more specific than "for people to enjoy the game even after it is technically outdated" but I finally set up a nice shot of my inventory being filled by three warp whistles, and I really wish right now that I owned a camera (or some sort of digital screen capture hardware).
Using the whistles to jump around (and with no need to conserve them with 3 at my disposal) I visited some of my favorite levels from the fifth and sixth worlds (specifically the one with goomba's shoe) before heading on to the eighth world. I'm still annoyed by the darkness and masses of minibosses before you even get to the first few levels, but it sets the mood nicely and slows down play just enough to make racing for a ridiculously fast game-completion time interesting.
Again, surfing through the hundred or so levels of this game, I'm astounded by the variety of levels they managed to fit, and make easily distinguishible, in an 8-bit platformer. The simple controls, lack of loading time, and wide variety of items and minigames, not to mention nostalgia, all keep me running back to this game when I get fed up with the wii's weird motion sensitivity or stuck on some puzzle in Zelda.
Overall, Super Mario Bros. 3 is possibly the best game ever made. I say this with deep love for Super Smash Bros, Final Fantasy VII, and the cult classic Pokemon Snap, but in as much objective honesty as I can muster when dealing with these pieces of art which helped shape my life.
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magfrump has been with GameLog for 17 years, 10 months, and 11 days |
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