GERARDAMO: Game of the Week 6

Alright, I'm back after my lazy week off. If this seems like a half-assed post, it's because I'm writing it in the hour I have until I go out for the night and I still feel lazy, but you'll be assured that I'm doing it right.

My game this week is once again a music game. This one comes from Sega. It's Space Channel 5 for the Sega Dreamcast. This half DDR, half Simon Says game is actually quite unique, not for it's gameplay, but in the style that it's presented. Set in the near future, Space Channel 5 is filled with plenty of 70's retro-chique throwbacks, from main character Ulala's tank-top and mini skirt outfit, completed with go-go boots, right down to the groovy dialogue. I was going to try to add some of this quirky dialogue to the post, but if you couldn't tell from that first one, it would sound awful.

Space Channel 5 puts you in control of Ulala, news reporter for "Ulala's Swinging Report Show!" The plot of the game is quite silly, and the game really just seems to laugh at itself the whole time. Aliens are invading the earth, forcing everyone on the planet to dance, with hopes of... Well... Maybe annoying them? Or starving them to death or something. It's never really made clear why. Somehow, they'll take over TV and the planet that way. Only you, Ulala, can save them by dancing back! Gameplay is simple, aliens (Called Morolians) will jump out and shoot directions in an attempt to attack you! You need to remember these directions and shout them back, because that apparently will stop them. You don't just remember the directions, though. It's all set to music, and you have to remember the rhythm pattern they followed, because what's a dancer without rhythm? You'll also need to shoot the Morolians and rescue the dance-crazed civilians by shouting "Chu!" (Shoot) or "Hey!" That's really all there is to the gameplay.

As I mentioned, Space Channel 5 is a rhythm game, and it easily has my favorite soundtrack. (I hope I didn't say that last week about IIDX as well, because I like this better.) It's very future-jazz-ish, and totally sets the mood for the game. It's one of the few games I have the soundtrack to and can listen to without playing the game. It's hard to describe without actually listening to it, so make sure you turn up the music when you watch the video at the end!

Easily, the most memorable thing about the game is the greatest cameo apperance of all time. Michael Jackson lends his voice to the game as Space Michael, and you need to rescue him, and he doesn't really say anything except for, "Thanks, Ulala!" However, in Space Channel 5: Part 2, he has his own entire level, and it's fantastic, because everyone dances around in an epic dance battle doing Michael Jackson moves (And yes, they do the Thriller.) and then he takes out a singing robot by... More singing. It's got to be the best level in either game. (There's only a Space Channel 5 and a Space Channel 5: Part Two. Well, there was also Space Channel 5: Ulala's Cosmic Revenge for the GBA, but let's forget that that ever happened.)

Space Channel 5 is still rather easy to find. It was re-released on the PS2 as Space Channel 5: Special Edition and comes with both parts, each on their own seperate disc. It's practically identical to the Dreamcast version as well. No unnecessary changes to be seen here. I bought a new copy of it on eBay for 10 dollars, so it's really cheap if you're interested in playing it, and with a price like that, I highly reccomend that you do, if nothing else just for the humor in the game.

The video below is of the first level of Part 1. If it looks easy, that's why, but it does get plenty trickier. The song playing in it is my favorite song out of any game, and that's why I chose this video.

Video by VirtuaPlayer

And you thought LEGO Star Wars was cool

No, this story did not catch my eye just because it was Sega. However, it IS Sega, and they are developing a new arcade game. No, you won't play it with a joystick or some buttons or a dance pad or anything like that. You'll control it with Legos. Block Pipo by Sega looks like it will be controller by stacking blocks up in front of the screen and getting your character to climb up said blocks. It looks like it could be very interesting. They can at least get props for coming up with an original arcade game. 

There aren't too many details yet (In English anyway), but this game is scheduled to be released to arcades in Japan this summer. It's also set to make its first appearance at AOU 2009.

Story by Siliconera. Full story available here

GERARDAMO on: Sonic Unleashed

Wait, what? GERARDAMO does reviews on new games? Damn right I do, I just seldom play them. Now, I realize that this game has been out for a small while now, but most of the other reviews I've seen for this game simply write this game off as another Sonic game, and therefore bad. Well, it is a bad game, probably because it is a new Sonic game. But, where all of these other reviews couldn't find anything decent in this game, there were parts of Sonic Unleashed where I couldn't help but turn into a grinning doofus from the plain, simple fun the game offered. Well... For the 1/3 of the game that was fun anyway.

The game is split into 3 different parts: daytime levels, nighttime levels, and looking around for the levels. The daytime levels are reminiscent of the Sega Genesis trilogy, but it also innovates on that classic game play by... well... Being new. There are also 3D sections that play like the Sonic Adventure series, just a lot faster. Sometimes it can be too fast. Your little blue blur will be running along, and suddenly, he'll disappear, and a few seconds later, you'll have realized you fell in a hole, but it will have been too late. Minus 1 life. Speaking of lives, I've noticed that many people are complaining about the life system, calling the game out for using a trail-and-error system. I say, isn't this what games used to do anyway? Have gamers really gotten so bad at games that don't involve shooting down squads of terrorists and dropping the fag-bomb over Xbox LIVE that they resort to throwing hissy fits when a game is too hard and punishes you by making you start over because you just plain fucking suck? That's just sad. Yes, it's frustrating when you die, but learn from that mistake and TRY GETTING PAST THE OBSTACLE SOME OTHER WAY. Anyway, yeah. 2D part is very fun. The transitions between 2D and 3D are fantastic, and there are times when they will be combined, feeling very reminiscent of NiGHTS into dreams... (Which is quite possibly Sega's greatest game ever.) 

Unfortunately, some moron on Sonic Team decided that Sonic needed to take a break from all that running... A loooooooong break. So, they decided that Sonic should turn into a werewolf, a stretchy werewolf, a stretchy werewolf in a bad beat 'em up platformer. Well, it's not that bad. If it weren't in a Sonic game, it probably would have went over very well. It has a rather deep combat system to prevent the monotony that comes from most beat 'em ups with the regular "PRESS A OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND HE DEAD NOW YAY" gameplay. But... It's Sonic. For one thing, he's a hedgehog, not a werewolf. For another, nobody wants to play a slow Sonic game... Nobody. Get it right, Sega. 

So, that's another 1/3 of the game. Wait, Gerard, that's only 2/3, you suck at math. No I don't. The other 1/3 simply consists of trying to find the damn level you want to play. This is not enjoyable at all. I don't want to get rewarded for playing a game simply by getting to actually play it. It can take upwards of half an hour to actually find the level you're supposed to play, and because of that, I could only stomach about 4 hours of this game before I quit. You go around trying to find some towns person to talk to, and they might tell you where the level  is, or they might just try to sell you a hot dog, or ice cream, or mushrooms, which would probably be a good investment and make this part of the game stomachable. 

So, when the majority of gameplay in a game is bad, yes, it's a bad game. It's sad, because the part that Sega got right is fun. Really fun. Really really really really really fucking fun. Sega did take a step in the right direction, and I have high hopes for the next Sonic game they might be releasing (When's the last time that happened?) After all, they did develop an entirely new engine for this game, I doubt they would use it for one game. Hopefully, Sega will learn from these mistakes. They're so close to fixing a problem that they shouldn't have had in the first place, but as an avid Sega fanboy, I'm not going to give up on Sonic. No, Sonic 2006 is still a terrible game that I'll never, EVER play, but it looks like Sega is starting to finally get things right. It's just a shame that if they had just shortened Sonic Unleashed and removed all of the shit that didn't belong in it, it would have been a perfect game.

GERARDAMO's Game of the Week 1

Alright, as this is my first post here, I've realized that I should do a short introduction first. I'm not terribly fond of the third dimension. It tends to be a problem when it comes to playing new games, so I don't play many. Don't get me wrong, I'll happily play new games, like 3rd-person platformers or something, but when I can't see my character because the camera is in the first-person, I can't actually find out what I'm doing. But, the most enjoyment I get out of games are from games in the 2nd dimension, so I tend to favor games from 1996 as opposed to 2006 (Actually, 2006 isn't really relevant anymore, is it?), which leads me to this. Once a week (hopefully), I'll be providing you with a mentioning/review of a game from before the 6th generation (PS2, Gamecube, Xbox) of gaming for you to check out either on the actual console it was for, or the lazy way with an emulator. (I would highly recommend you get Fusion 3.6 if you plan on trying out most of the games I recommend. It's the Sega Master System/Genesis/32x/CD Emulator. It's pretty fantastic.) 

That being said, my first review is for a Sega Genesis game that's slightly more popular than most of the other games I'll be recommending. It's Toe Jam & Earl. Toe Jam & Earl is a very bizarre game to say the least. You play as two aliens (Toe Jam and Earl, shocking.) who crashed their rocket ship on earth, and they must journey across, well actually, I don't even know how many levels trying to find the 10 pieces of their rocket ship, which have pretty awesome names. I can't actually remember any of the names of the parts, but come on... They had a friggin boom box built into their ship. That brings me to my next point. The game has a terrific sense of humor. Toe Jam and Earl are the two funkiest aliens Sega ever created. Seriously, Toe Jam wears a huge gold medallion with his name on it. 

There's also a slight RPG element to it. There are 9 levels your character can reach, and each one will give you more health, and sometimes an extra life. The titles range from things like  Wiener and Dufus to Homey and Funklord. 

Almost all of the other characters you encounter are "earthlings." Some of them help you, like the Wise Carrot (It's an old guy in a carrot suit), or Santa Claus. Most of them are out to kill you, though. They range from an angry lady pushing around a shopping cart and a guy pushing around a lawn mower, to some rather unearthly things like a giant hamster in a ball and a possessed, evil mailbox. (My favorite is the Phantom Ice Cream Truck.) 

My very favorite thing about this game is the items. They all come in the form of presents, and since they're presents, you don't know what they are until you use them (After you've used it once, you'll know what it is... Until you open a Randomizer, which messes up your collection, and you have to identify them all over again.) Some presents are good, like Super High-Tops, which let you run really fast, or wings, which obviously lets you fly. Some presents are bad, like books. They make you fall asleep, and you need to start shouting "Wake up" until your character wakes up. Or sometimes your present will make it start raining tomatoes, or you'll open a Total Bummer, which kills you. 

There have been two sequels to this, Panic on Funkotron and Toe Jam & Earl III: Mission to Earth, available on the Sega Genesis and Xbox, respectively. Panic on Funkotron isn't actually a sequel at heart though. It just borrowed the title, and replaced the platforming/treasure hunting on a 2D plane with an action 2D side-scroller. I haven't played the third version, but I believe it is more similar to the first. 

This game shouldn't be that hard to find, actually, if you're interested in playing it. It's available on the Wii's virtual console, and most stores I've gone to that sell used Genesis games almost always have a copy of this game lying around somewhere.