Shadow of the Colossus - Defeated the ninth Colossus

As I moved into the later colossi, the challenge level is ratcheting up. For the first time, while fighting the eighth colossus, I died. But I knew what to do so I tried again and was successful. The ninth colossus though, just kicked my butt many times. From projectiles that were near impossible to totally dodge to ground shaking footsteps that damaged me, I required many tries to overcome it. Heck, even once I'd figure out what I had to do in order to even get on the damn thing, doing so proved difficult. Getting to its weak point even more so. I wonder if I can expect taking multiple tries to defeat colossi from now on.

Shadow of the Colossus - Defeated the fifth Colossus

I think I already mentioned that the battles in this game are epic. It bears repeating. While the first colossus is a bit bigger than you and the second is more of the same with a slightly different strategy, by the third colossus, you truly feel miniscule in relation to them - heck, you run up its club after it swings at you so you can even get near its arm. The fifth colossus battle was truly amazing. It is a bird and you must leap on its back and hold on tight as it soars through the air. The designer's did a great job of making you feel like you were on a flying beast as it dips and turns and the air rushes past you.

I'm wondering when more of the story will come into the game. After the expository opening, that you brought the girl here to revive her and that the strange voices in the temple tell you that with your special sword, you can bring her soul back by defeating all sixteen colossi, I've gotten nothing. Don't get me wrong, I like the subtlety of the spirits of the dead colossi that surround you after you defeat one and that after the fourth one was killed, your horse went up to the girl and sniffed at her. I also get the emotional weight that goes with felling these beasts. They seem not evil, but more like forces of nature and you are destroying them. It is more like felling an ancient tree than beating a bad guy. But I've read a bit more of the story and I wonder when I'll find out the circumstances of why the girl was killed.

Shadow of the Colossus - Defeated the first Colossus

When the debate over whether games are art comes up, this game, along with its predecessor Ico are always tossed around as examples on the "pro" side. I have played Ico. It was extremely well put together. Everything in its world was crafted to make sense that it was there. It was immersive. It completely drew you in and made you feel like you were a little boy attempting to navigate through the castle and bring the girl with you. It was beautfiul. All that said, it was only above average as a game. As enthralled as I was by the world, I only had a decent time playing through it. The bottom line is that I think it was extremely important that the game was made because it challenged many perceptions of what a game is or should be.

Shadow of the Colossus is the game the lead designer and director Fumito Ueda made after Ico. And it feels more like a game. So far, more of the story seems to be told in cut scenes than in Ico. There is more of a heads up display (for your health, grip, and current weapon). I'm only a sixteenth through the game, but so far it seems less immersive than Ico.

That isn't to say that I'm not enjoying it. The game is a little more lonely, since it is you and your horse instead of you and a mute girl. It is still painstakingly designed, with all the scenery seeming absolutely appropriate. And the battles with the Collosi are, appropriately epic. These things are huge - at least five times as tall as your character. The lumber around and attempt to swat your character like the fly that he is to them. You need to climb him and find his weak point, all why he is attempting to shake you off.

It is interesting that, as far as I know, the Colossi are the only enemies in the game. It is rare that a game consists of nothing but boss battles, but I think that can work very well. I know Treasure made a game based on the concept of nothing but boss battles, but it never made it here to the US. Certainly the fact that there aren't random faceless enemies that you slay on your way to these things contributes to the world building.

I had already played the demo of the game previously, so I had actually already defeated this colossus. I'm looking forward to seeing what the next ones hold.

Castlevania III - Review

Castlevania II attempted to expand the original Castlevania into a free-roaming non-linear game with RPG elements. It failed.

Not because the ideas themselves were bad, but because they were so poorly implemented. Regardless, after seeing the suck of the previous game, the Castlevania designers went back to the beginning and added tweaks there. Castlevania III is the first Castlevania with multiple characters, multiple possible paths through the game, and bigger and better levels and enemies.

And yet, I didn't love it especially more than the first game. The first game was pure and simple. You were in a castle fighting all sorts of horror movie villains. It didn't take itself too seriously, even offerring humorous film reel credits when you beat the game. By the second game, Konami had decided they had a series on their hands and made it all serious and... it kind of lost something. The third Castlevania also has this seriousness and since the gameplay mechanics are fairly similar, it isn't quite as cool.

Castlevania III takes place hundreds of years before the first game. You play as Simon Belmont's ancestor Trevor. Apparently people mistrust and shun the Belmont family because of their great strength. Dracula and his minions have been terrorizing the land and Trevor decides that he will use his powers to take him down. Along the way, he can encounter Grant DaNasty - a pirate whose family was killed by Dracula, Sypha Belnades - a vampire hunter who had been cursed by a mummy and turned to stone, or Alucard - the disaffected son of Dracula.

Trevor plays just like Simon did in the original game. The new characters are what is meant to add life to this game. Grant wields a dagger as his standard weapon. Its range is miniscule, but he can swing it much faster than any of the other characters can use their weapons. It is also equal in power to the leather whip. He can also acquire the dagger or axe as subweapons. His main special ability is the ability to break Castlevania. He jumps slightly higher than the other characters and most amazingly can change his trajectory and direction in mid-jump. He can also grab onto walls and ceiling and crawl along them to reach otherwise inaccessible places. He is weaker than Trevor and takes an additional bar of damage for each enemy that hits him. Sypha is weak as well and also takes additional damage like Grant. She wields a staff which seems about as long as Grant's dagger and does as much damage, but hits in an arc so it can hit more enemies around her. Sypha doesn't acquire traditional subweapons, but instead magic spells that are unique for her. These spells can be really powerful and make some sections of enemies and bosses much easier. Alucard has the weakest regular weapon of any of the characters. He shoots out a ball that moves horizontally forward about the length of the longest whip. Like Simon, his main weapon can be upgraded. The first upgrade adds a ball that shoots out diagonally upward and the second one that shoots out diagonally downward, but all these balls are weak in the strength. Alucard gets no subweapons, but has the ability to turn into a bat and fly around the screen, using hearts while he does so.

These new characters are nice and fun, but... ultimately don't add a lot because the game is designed to be played with Trevor. Most of the time you want to play as him because it is easier to kill enemies and if you get hit you take less damage. The other characters have their uses. Grant is great for platforming sections, especially those where you may need to quickly kill weak enemies (though the fact that he jumps higher than Trevor can get you in trouble). Sypha can be useful against tough gauntlets of enemies and can absolutely annihilate some bosses. Alucard will literally save your life when you turn him into a bat while about to fall to your death. Still, you only do these things occasionally. Having the extra characters is more like giving Trevor more powers rather than actually introducing new ways to play the game.

Oh, the other new level innovation is the ability to choose which levels to do. After completing certain levels, you get a choice of which path the take. The different paths lead to different levels and at the end of certain levels you meet up with the secondary characters. The addition of some non-linearity is nice and gives the game more replay value, but the levels don't feel so different or amazing that it really stands out.

The game is hard. The original Castlevania was also difficult, but this one is difficult in a slightly different way. I can't quite put my finger on what, though. There seems to be a bit more emphasis on platforming in this game. There are things like moving gears and conveyer belts, flipping platforms, moving spikes and all sorts of other new platform elements to worry about. There, in general, is much more reliance on jumping and moving around, but the platforms and such are well placed so you rarely feel cheated because you miss a jump. The enemy design is also significantly upgraded in this game. This game introduced the gargoyles the fly up and down the screen, the ghosts that require multiple hits, the red skeletons, and others that became mainstays in the series. The bosses in general are a mixed bag. Though there are quite a few re-treads from the original game, many do more interesting things. Frankenstein's Monster now throws blocks. The Grim Reaper now has sickles appear around the screen and come toward you. The early bosses aren't really very interesting, but the ones in the later stages of the game are very well done. Some bosses feel very cheap and you feel you only beat them because you got lucky. Others work much better because you feel more in control of whether you get hit or not.

The music, as is normal for the Castlevania, is awesome. It took me awhile to warm up to it, but I am now fully on board. There are some great tunes in this soundtrack and it even starts the tradition of reusing or doing remixes of tracks from earlier Castlevanias. The graphics are about on par with Castlevania II. There is much more use of color than the original game, and many of the levels feel a bit more organic. They are good quality, especially the large bosses.

This game is good, but it took me awhile to come around to that. For whatever reason, this game didn't do it for me in the same way that other games have. It was only when I reached the final level that it all came together and I could appreciate the style of this game. On subsequent replays, I could appreciate the music and gameplay more. I think the difficulty was a big sticking point with me. I don't mind difficult games where it feel like I can get better with practice, but sometimes during my first playthrough I didn't have this feeling. This game is good and features quite a few innovations beyond the original Castlevania, but I can't really say I liked it any better.

Rating: 8 / 10

Super Metroid - Beat the game in under 3 hours

How awesome is this game? So awesome that I wanted to replay it and finish it in under three hours to get the "best" ending. The ending totally wasn't worth it. You just get to see Samus Aran out of her armor and for less than five seconds. The real enjoyable part in doing this was seeing how I could exploit thing like wall jumps and morph jumps to get to areas I probably wasn't supposed to get to until later in the game. That is another (probably unintended) aspect that makes this game stellar. I also failed to get 100% items despite using a walkthrough. Odd.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Technodrome Level

In honor of this game being released on the Wii's virtual console (which was released in honor of the recent movie), I decided to give it a play again. I still enjoy it.

I am aware that it is not a good game. At least not in the traditional sense. The play control isn't very good. Jumps are hard to control and getting from platform to platform can be a chore. You don't quite move fast enough, especially in the air to avoid enemies. You can switch between the different turtles and they each have their different weapons, but generally you would always want to use Donatello. His weapon may be the slowest, but it is the strongest and has the longest reach. Leonardo is next best and then comes Rafael. You pretty much never want to use Michaelangelo to fight with. The game is also extremely difficult. There are pits and spikes that are hard to avoid (and occasionally instant-kill lava). The enemies can be extremely tough to avoid and they often take multiple hits to kill so it is tough to kill them without taking any damage.

Despite all these negatives, I really like this game. Part of this is nostalgia. I had it when younger and spent a ton of time with it. It also has some things to recommend it. The game's soundtrack is stellar. The game's graphics are good. Exploring the city and airfields are fun. There is also a big sense of satisfaction when you get past certain parts.

That last reason is probably the biggest for me. The game is difficult, but masterable. It doesn't feel "cheap" - that is you generally feel you could have avoided something if you'd done a little better. For whatever reason, I just really dig tough games like these. Hell, the Ninja Gaiden games are pretty much my favorite on the NES because they are the perfect combination of excellent play control and incredible challenge.

I have been thinking about it, but I can't decide what I would do when the review this game. Obviously, I will point out all the flaws and shortcomings. The issue is the ridiculous number at the end. Is it completely based on what I think or what an average person would think? This is a whole issue with reviews in general and how "objective" they are supposed to be. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Right now, I am so out of practice I couldn't even make it to Shredder. The final level is absolute hell with enemies that take four hits from Donatello (meaning like eight from Michaelangelo) to kill. I used to be able to get through it, but not last night.

Super Metroid - Beat the game

After the vast expanse that was Maridia, tackling Ridley in Norfair was a piece of cake. It was all relatively linear (though I did end up inadvertently going back to the beginning of the level and having to do it again) and I went through, killed Ridley, then had my final confrontation with Mother Brain.

I'm very satisfied after beating the game. It gave me the chance to go where I want and choose what to do next. I attempted to explore everywhere and still finished the game with only 96% of the items. I also came in just over the ten hour mark (Was it really that short? It seems like so much longer) and am sorely tempted to try again with a speedy run to come in under three hours. The game is truly that good.

Yes, it is that good. As I was playing through it, I kept looking for little flaws. I found them, but after finishing the game, I realize just how inconsequential they were. Super Mario Bros. 3 wasn't perfect, but it was still the epitome of 2D platforming on the NES. Similarly, Super Metroid stands out as the 2D exploratory platformer.