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Day Five: Vandal Hearts

Before Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, there was... Final Fantasy Tactics. Before that, though, there was Vandal Hearts. While there had been RPGs that mixed strategy elements before Vandal Hearts, there were none of this style. Well, not on this end of the Pacific.

Since then, the SRPG has gained popularity and has defined its own genre -- almost to the point of cliche. Vandal Hearts isn't the deepest example of the genre, nor is it particularly challenging (I remember beating the game during a rental period, but I did have more time on my hands then), but it was well produced and enjoyable. Unlike many such games, it was expertly paced and it did not drag on for too long -- which is my biggest beef with the likes of Tactics Ogre: Knights of Lodis.

I've been meaning to replay Vandal Hearts for a long time.

Day Four: Goonies II

Perhaps I'm being overly NES-centric, but that period was the first golden age of Konami. After the 16-bit era, there was a lull with Konami. Their early PS1 era games were either lousy or relatively niche. For years, they didn't have any true hits. That changed come 1998 and beyond, but during those quiet years all we could do was reminisce.

One of the unique, non-franchise games that stood out was:

What's there to say? It was a decent platformer with a very good infusion of "adventure" elements with a Metroid-ish bit of non-linearity. An element that Konami would incorporate, many times over, into future titles -- Castlevania being the most obvious. Where would Castlevania 2 have been without the mechanics of Goonies II? I mean that with all seriousness.

Day Three: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were everywhere at the end of the 80s. They were radical. Konami saw this, licensed this, and produced the best tie-in game of the era.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game was, more or less, a simplistic beat-em-up. The controls were simple and the game wasn't exceedingly deep, but what set it apart were the production values (I remember being wowed by the graphics and animations!) and the four-player simultaneous co-op. The fact that you could play the game with three of your friends created an exciting dynamic. One that ate a lot of quarters.

It's a shame that multiplayer co-op arcade games never caught on too much after that. A couple years after TMNT came out the Street Fighter II craze hit and everything focused on direct combat -- or Kombat. Player versus player. Mono a mono. There was no room for teamwork, and the world became a colder place because of it.

The TMNT game engine was reused for the inevitable sequels and for another hot license: The Simpsons. The Simpsons arcade game was grand, and it still is the greatest Simpsons related arcade game ever. But, despite the "coolness" (it was the early 90s after all -- "radical" wasn't it anymore), it was the same game with a different skin. The original TMNT was the one that counted.

Of course, there was NES game too... but, for some odd reason, it was completely different. Still a very good game^[1] on its own right -- possibly deserving its own day -- but playing on your own couldn't compare to the glory of four-play. Hmm. Regardless, the arcade game was later ported to the NES as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game. A commendable port, I might add, but it could never compare to the coin-op.

1 - With a very frustrating water level.

Day Two: Gradius

A dozen years ago, a bunch of game developers and designers fell out of love with Konami. Instead of erasing those memories, they decided to leave it be and went on to form their own company. Treasure was born.

Outside of Konami, Treasure went on to create Gunstar Heroes, Guardian Heroes, Radiant Silvergun, and Ikaruga. Most recently, they were hired by Nintendo and SEGA to make Wario World and Astroboy, respectively. At this very moment, some Treasure members are working on the final touches for the oft-delayed Gradius V -- for Konami. Treasure is the closed circle!

Before their make-up and before their divorce, there was the original Gradius: one of the definitive horizontal shooters (next to R-Type, of course). The NES version was my first and only contact with the game; I sucked at it. Sure, you can't expect the universe to be saved by a seven year old, but that doesn't stop it from being frustrating. And oh how frustrating it was.

At that age, I managed to get past the third stage (those cursed Moai heads!) a handful of times. The fourth stage was as far as I'd ever manage to get. Normally, this wouldn't have been such a big deal where it not for the fact that my mother -- yes, my mother -- could play Gradius and progress a hell of a lot farther than I ever could. My budding gamer pride was humbled.

Like for every seven year old, my attention was soon focused elsewhere. I moved on.

Years later, during the mid-life of the SNES, I grew strangely nostalgic. I dug out the old, dusty Nintendo. Grabbed a few carts. Plugged in Gradius, jiggled the cartridge around a bit, got it working, and started blasting away. On that day, I made it past the fourth stage, the fifth stage, and every other stage. I was in the zone. The game was finally conquered! I felt relieved. I felt vindicated. I felt disappointed.

The reward was anti-climactic (a norm for the NES), general 8-bit "Congratulations". Then I was thrown into another loop of the game. That was enough for me, I had already accomplished what I set out to achieve. I shut the NES down, took out the cart and never played it again. Never had the chance to. Months later, I sold my NES and all my games (stupid STUPID move! I so regret it. It's why I never sell my games anymore.)

So I wait for Gradius V, hoping that it will be the reward that I never did get.

Day One: Jackal

Konami's Jackal wasn't merely my first contact with the greatness that is Konami, it was also one of my first experiences with gaming in general. And a nice first impression it was.

Technically speaking, Jackal was most likely not the first game I ever played -- but it is the first game I remember playing. The machine was in a crappy local convenience store in Mimico near my grade one school. I was new. I knew no one. We had nothing. I didn't even know any English.

Despite that, a mere quarter was all it took to get into that Jackal jeep. Arcade games were simple by nature, so despite my language limitations I knew exactly what to do and how to do it. During a time when I couldn't understand TV (I don't think we even had one at that point), music, and my peers, it was the only escapism to be had -- outside my own imagination. That's when the seeds for my love of gaming were planted, and it's all thanks to Konami.

A few short months later, my parents bought me the then new Nintendo Entertainment System. Oh how that fond memory remains; standing at the bus stop on the way to Sherway Gardens. After that, I was set for life.

Despite this affection for "Jackal", I never did own a copy of the game. Perhaps I rented it once, but I never owned it. In fact, other than through some (bad! illegal!) emulation, I haven't played it since the 80s. I resolved this yesterday:

Nostalgia often paints a favourable image, no matter how bad the subject matter. This is a risk often taken when reminiscing. Many fond memories have been destroyed by the realization that "This Sucks! What the hell was I thinking back then?"

Jackal definitely is not such a title. The game holds up remarkably well. The controls are very smooth and intuitive, the graphics are good, the music is acceptable, the difficulty curve is perfect, and, most importantly, the game is still fun.

And while it's not one of Konami's all time best (that's a long list!), it's one of the most influential games in my life. Rather impressive for a game that I likely never put more than $15 into. Total. Counting arcade quarters and yesterday's purchase. I ♥ Konami.

I Love Konami Week

I went to check out this small store today (ignore the site, focus on the pictures). There was a lot of super geeky temptation there, so I'm proud to announce that I left with a mere four games: three complete, one loose.

On my way out, I realized that three of the four were Konami games. Nintendo is great and all. Sega too. But as far as "pure" software makers are concerned, no one beats Konami. Not Capcom. Not Square. Not Namco. Definitely not EA. I ♥ Konami.

As of tomorrow, I pronounce this "I Love Konami Week".

Pi Day

Hmmm, yesterday was Pi day (March 14 = 3.14). Here's a pi website with a very appropriate url (Warning: big. That site has Pi to many, many, many digits.)

I can recite Pi to a dozen digits. I could since about grade ten. I've never found any convincing reason as to why I should memorize it any further.

sigh. Gradius V has been delayed (again!) til' the end of summer.

Early Lifeline Impressions

The early, negative reviews for Lifeline made me wary of my purchase. Some of the write-ups for the game weren't just negative, they were downright nasty. A few of them were borderline misogynistic, likely reflective of the authors' past communication failures with the fairer sex. If anything, those particular reviews tended to emphasize the reviewers' own psychoses rather than any actual faults in the game design. Take this EGM gem:

You mostly bark the names of objects, since Rio is stymied by fancy words like verbs, adjectives, and prepositions. Propositions she sometimes understands, but her prudish responses aren't much fun. Pity. When Rio misconstrued my clearly enunciated "break room" and used (wasted) a health pack--twice--I lost all interest in her survival. Stupid ho.

Voice recognition will be a lot more fun when it works. Until then, if I really want to be ignored and misunderstood by a girl, I'll go clubbing and hit on the haughty hipster chick in the Pabst Blue Ribbon T-shirt.

Reason number 324,529 as to why EGM is useless.

After playing the game for about two hours, I have to conclude that most game reviewers have some form of speech impediment. Or, even more likely, they were expecting something that this game definitely is not... a chat bot.

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Sword, Give Me Strength

I started writing some initial Lifeline impressions but I want to get through more of it before I post any concrete thoughts. In brief: it is my belief that a good chunk of the reviews are criticising it fairly, but for the wrong reasons (if that makes sense). By no means is it a great game, but the technology isn't as bad as many make it out to be. IGN's review isn't too bad, excepting the "laughable" comparisons to the action sequences in Prince of Persia and Mark of Kri (what the hell kind of game was the reviewer expecting?)

The laggard impressions are also thanks to an in-the-wild find of the DC version of Soul Calibur. Since Soul Calibur 2 was my first foray into the series, my enthusiasm for this often proclaimed "Greatest 3D-Fighter Ever!" is subdued. It's a solid title, but its follow-up is superior in every way imaginable.

It's aged well, but was it really deserving of perfect 10s from IGN and Gamespot (amongst others.) Or am I missing something here?

Nice sword.

1997: Shock Shock Horror Horror

During grade school, grunge hit. In the final months of grade 8, grunge died. The first couple of years in high school were marked by the post-grunge punk revival (with some brit-pop thrown in for good measure). Then, during the mid-to-late high school years, there was... nothing.

Looking back, there doesn't appear to be any singular style or movement with alt-rock/new rock associated with that late-mid-90s period. Yet, despite this, certain musical triggers have taken me back to the nostalgic days of 1997.

In hindsight, it was a pretty good time. School was going fine, I was expanding out of my lonerdom and socializing a bit, and the freedoms that came with a proper (G2) drivers license were opening up the world (or, at least, the Greater Toronto Area).

All the memories came back thanks to the remembrance of three particular radio hits from the spring of that year: Space's "The Female of the Species", Squirrel Nut Zippers' "Hell", and White Town's "Your Woman".

The hits were an aberration, so to speak. They came during an alt-rock lull. They were fueled by rock media's search for something (anything!) new, and partly by the neo-Swing-hipster thing of the time. They got a lot of air-play for a while, rising up the new rock charts (which is weird for songs like "Female of the Species" and "Hell"). They gradually faded away. Then, a short while later, Limp Bizkit hit the scene and Korn gained popularity and the whole nu-metal rapcore whatever sounds forever knocked those three novelty songs into the annals of music history. Soon after, my interest in new rock waned.

But to this day that trilogy of tunes is what I associate with 1997. As far as I am concerned, they were the defining songs of that year. Add to that the fact that all three of the albums that they were featured on (Spiders, Hot, and Women in Technology) came out, literally, within a span of a few weeks, and you can't help but feel as though they were forever destined for each other. It's as thoughthe stars of novelty music aligned just for them. As another (non-alt-rock) hit of the time said: How Bizarre.

The Headset Dilemma

Lifeline requires a headset to play, but ships without one. At the nearby EB (at a new and very convenient location -- they've been expanding a lot in this area), I stared blankly at the game wall for a good five minutes thinking about this headset dilemma.

It would be easy to deride Sony for not including a headset with the broadband adapter, but the comparison to the XBox Live Starter Kit is an unfair one. Lifeline is an offline game so if it were to ever appear on the XBox, and if you did not have Live, you'd still need to get a headset anyway. That's not the issue here.

I stood there, Lifeline in hand, evaluating all my headset options. There was the Logitech headset; the (naturally) more expensive Sony headset; the original SOCOM with headset; and Karaoke Revolution, also with headset. Either pick essentially doubles the price, so I went for the best bang for the dollar option -- I got SOCOM. Then came the realization: tactical-shooter-loving Karaoke fans are getting shafted!

More thoughts came rushing in as I took the games to the counter: the headset is slowly becoming the next essential peripheral. The last such device was the rumble-pack, and that became a standard. Tactile response is now an invisible feature -- ubiquitous, integrated, and essential. You rarely notice it anymore.

There is every reason to believe that headsets will become the next rumble-packs. They enhance communication (voice chat), they open up new avenues for interaction (voice commands), and they provide a direct means for "secondary audio" (see Manhunt's director commentary). The next generation should have headset support right from the get-go*.

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Windscreen Gallery

The Windscreen Gallery is very much like the Mirror Project (knock-off *cough*), except it's for pictures from cars instead of pictures of yourself in a mirror. Drastic difference. Or not.

Random, crappy photo taken two days ago.

Site-to-site comparisons aside, the concept is one that has a certain appeal. Let's face it, I'm lazy. I like to go on long drives, get some fresh air, see the countryside; but I hate walking. Naturally, a large percentage of my digital photos are taken from within the car, often without bothering to stop.

Just aim in the general direction and hope for the best. That's my philosophy. Sure, most of the photos end up lousy, but I like the sense of spontaneous passing that they capture.

I've uploaded a couple of pictures (including one taken two days ago -- how convenient), but they're still pending approval. So here's my mirror project photo from 2002. (Has it been that long?) Not surprisingly, that photo perfectly illustrates the parallels between the Mirror Project, the Windscreen Gallery, and my lazy drive-by-shooting techniques.

Edit: three windscreen images are up.