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Feb 9th, 2008 at 02:08:30 - Guilty Gear XX Accent Core (PS2) |
GAMEPLAY:
My second time though I tried the arcade mode and then later played some more with Alex. I chose a character that I liked from playing with my brother before. The matches started out fairly easy and progressively increased in difficulty. Unfortunately for me, the difficulty surpassed my skill before I was even close to the end. After some frustration, I started arcade mode again on easy. This setting proved quite accurate until the last fight which took me many tries to win. This brings me to one of the most annoying aspects of the game, the AI. Its not particularly humanlike. To make the game harder, the AI becomes amazingly adept at combos and special moves. It then lapses into stupidity to allow some possibility of winning. The frequency at which the AI is stupid instead of a pro is the difficulty. This can be very frustrating as sometimes there is a disproportionate amount of time when the AI is amazing which often leads to it winning nearly flawlessly. I still like this game though. I just don’t plan to play the 1 player modes again.
So I quickly beckoned Alex to come play. This time I used some of the characters I had before and started getting used to them. Once I was somewhat familiar with a few of them, it became clear that each has a particular strategy. For instance, there is one character that is very defensive and has traps and long range attacks. Another character does a lot of her moves right after blocking and has a complementary move which allows her to run forward while blocking. Another character still can charge up and relies on hitting with a few very powerful attacks. This allows players to choose a character that suits them best. When I was playing with Alex he had characters he liked and I had mine. I liked having a character that was “my” character and fighting one that was “Alex’s”.
There is also a colorful array of places to choose from. You can fight in a fancy lobby, or a magical forest with gnomes and giant bettles, or perhaps you’d like to fight in Hell ankle deep in a river of blood, why not? Though the background you choose has no effect on the game, they’re all very well drawn and add some variety.
DESIGN:
The style of the game takes a lot from anime. The art itself is anime but also the design of the characters is reminiscent of anime. Their appearance and moves are often way over-the-top like anime is a lot of the time. The personalities of the characters are similar to those you see in anime too. For example, there is a cute spunky petite girl probably around 16 who fights with a giant anchor. The kind of gung-ho attitude she has is something anime uses frequently. The fact that many character fight with huge and/or strange weapons, an anchor, giant swords, a giant key, a giant scalpel, fans, a yo-yo, a pool cue and billiard balls, a guitar,…hair, is another kind of thing I expect in anime.
The over-the-top feel of the game is emphasized in this game, more than most fighters. Giant blasts are a part of most characters’ arsenal. Every character had a instant kill move and these are especially wild. Whether they’re blowing the opponent up with an atomic bomb or sucking them into another dimension, the instant kill moves are the pinnacle of this game’s active imagination. This adds to the excitement and energy of the battles.
Also, as I said before, the changing of the commands for special moves in this iteration of Guilty Gear is important design choice. The designers decided it was more important that players be able to use the moves effectively than to make them harder to do. I believe it is more satisfying to do a move that requires more than just a button press, but there is a point where this causes more frustration than fun. I’d say they got the balance just right.
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Feb 9th, 2008 at 00:37:30 - Guilty Gear XX Accent Core (PS2) |
SUMMARY:
Guilty Gear XX AC is a 2D fighter. There’s really no intelligible story, like most fighting games. The emphasis is on game play. There are several modes to choose from like arcade, training, survival, and 2 player VS. The characters range from normal, samurai and ninja, to completely weird, a girl with a giant living key, a guy who is possessed by a demon, a girl who fights with her hair…there are a lot more characters in this category.
GAMEPLAY:
I decided to start out with 2 player VS with my brother. We went slow, choosing characters and trying all their moves. The first thing I noticed was the improved commands to do moves. The button combinations are much simpler than on Guilty Gear X on Dreamcast which I‘ve also played. Though seemingly a small improvement, this can make or break a fighting game. In Guilty Gear X’s case, the commands were so hard to pull off that button mashing was the only way to win unless you wanted to spent hours practicing and memorizing the buttons. This time the moves consist of simple d-pad quarter circles, half circles, and “dragon claws”(toward enemy, down, diagonally down toward enemy). These are common in fighters and easy to become consistent with.
We continued to play 6 or 7 matches trying various characters and I was very impressed with the look of the game. As 2D fighters go, and 2D in general, this game is top-notch in the graphics department. Every character has a plethora of animations, all drawn with stunning detail. Half the fun for me is watching the animations when you pull off special moves, which are usually particularly dazzling. In this age when almost all games, even on handhelds, are predominantly 3D, I’m glad to see a 2D game done well.
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Jan 26th, 2008 at 02:38:11 - Elebits (Wii) |
GAMEPLAY:
As I progress though the game, new aspects get add every level or so to make the levels fresh and increasing hard. For instance, new types of elebits appear in later level that act differently. Blue ones are fast and make smoke to hide them, Pink ones teleport, red ones have a siren that wakes up other elebits nearby, orange ones fly and so on. The variety of elebits is welcome and keeps the game from becoming repeatative.
There are also new rules in farther levels like breakable items that cause you to lose if you break too many. Though this doesn't add to the gameplay it makes the game more challenging and adds more variety.
To my surprise, there was a boss stage. The boss stage was different then the other level because I didn't have to hunt it down. The boss was fun and exercised my aiming skill because he kept teleporting and turning almost invisible. The appliances took a odd turn in farther levels too. In early stages once I had enough watts I just pushed a button on the appliance and got elebits.
Now some of the appliances are like minipuzzles That require more than just enough watts. some require you to insert something like toast in the toaster, coffee pot in the coffee maker, and a DvD in the DVD player. Then there are some that require a special action. The laundry machine had to be openned, then dirty laundry put in, shut, then started. Its good to see a game that teaches kids how to do chores. And on that note, this game is a great kids game. It's simple, colorful, clean, and no violence(well except for the capturing of helpless, little elebits.)
Design:
Elebits does a lot of things right(it wouldn't be on the classics list if it didn't, would it?) First, the house feels very real, mostly because its full of stuff. The drawers are full on clothes, the closets full of boxes and tools and vacuums, the kitchen has pots and pans and dishes and a refrigerator full of food. All that makes the game more immersive. Second, the elebits are funny and odd. sucking them up just never gets old. Just the fact that the point of the game is to catch these innocent little things is offbeat and original. Third, The game has a lot of replay value. You can play levels again to try to get higher scores and faster times. Theres also a level editor thats allows you to put anything anywhere and you can add properties like zero gravity. From the couple levels of that I played with, it looks like theres a lot of crazy levels you can make. Oh, and there's even multiplayer.
There's not much to say thats bad about this game. The story is silly and slim but they intended it to be that way. There's not much of a goal since the story is so insignificant, you just go from level to level, though you do get a cut scene every once in a while. well that was a short paragraph, I'm gonna have to get a really bad game for my next log.
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Jan 25th, 2008 at 20:05:45 - Elebits (Wii) |
SUMMARY:
Elebits is a werky first-person shooter for the Wii. Its style is not unlike katamari damacy. You play a little boy in a world that is normal in every way except for the fact that there are strange little critters called elebits. You hate elebits because your parents, being elebits researchers, pay more attention to them than to you. You wish elebits didn't exist because if they didn't, your parents would take you to amusement parks appearently. One day you are home alone and the power goes out. Your favorite show is going to come on soon so you decide to go catch elebits using a laser gun so you can power the TV.
GAMEPLAY:
When you start the game you have the option of taking a tutorial, which I did. The tutorial's not bad, it shows you all the controls, and gives you a lot of tips. The gun you have can catch elebits bit it can also pick up objects, open doors, and turn on appliances. Each level is a different part of your house and you are given a time limit to collect a certain number of watts which you get from elebits. Watts are also needed to activate appliances and open certain doors. The appliances and doors show you how many watts you need to use them. Appliances are objects that, when activated, let out yellow and pink elebits which allow you to pick up heavier objects instead of giving you watts.
Back to the elebits. Your house is completely swarming with them. They're on the beds and shelves, in the closets and cabinets, on the floor, under everything and in everything. It's a good thing elebits are cute little puff balls because if they were cockroaches or something your house would be suitable for a horror film. collecting the elebits is very satisfying because they run and scream and hide and cry. I particularly like their cute little screams. It's also fun to ravage rooms by madly flinging everything, which usually exposes a lot of elebits who prompty run for their lives.
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ballboy has been with GameLog for 16 years, 10 months, and 7 days |
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