Play Impressions 13/9/07
September 13th, 2007
Play test is a new feature that I have started up. You see I just don’t get the time anymore to play a game from start to finish and then write a review on it. Hence in this feature I review the games that I have had the luxury to play.
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Some time ago I wrote an article about my new focus towards niche/cult gaming classics. Since that time I have managed to scronge around and pick up a few of these titles. One of these games that I have missed out on is the Street Fighter series. Unfortuntely I just hadn’t grown up with the series and until now hadn’t played the series all that much.
Thankfully my brother snapped up Street Fighter Alpa Anthology for the PS2, I’ve been playing the title pretty much ever since. Out of the 3 Alpha games and Gem Fighters Alpha 3 is the highlight of the disc. Initially I wasn’t convinced and was after a more combo orientated fighter(like King of Fighters). But after giving it a fair go I just haven’t stopped.
Although I have throughly enjoyed this excellent fighter(probably the best and most balanced/skill based fighter I have ever played) there has been the bad as well. Unfortunately for the past 3 weeks I have had monsterous blisters on my thumb from intense gaming sessions with the title. The other downfall along with the blisters is that I have lost a total of 3 beers to betting matches with my twin brother. But worry not as I plan to win them all(and more) back.
Overall I am very happy about this purchase(only $AUD30). It has reinvigorated the core gamer in me.
Final Fantasy
Recently I’ve had this thing for finishing old titles that I couldn’t be screwed finishing/playing the first time around. This is where Final Fantasy comes in, I never really played heaps of the series back into the day. As I like to say I am a more action intensive gamer. But due to the stress that I’ve been recieving from Alpha 3, my thumbs desperately needed a break.
So to cure this problem(and my left thumb) I have taken it upon myself to start my own FF journey. From the original right through to the most recent titles. Once I eventually bought myself a new working PSone memory card(the others are full up) I started playing right away. So far I am really enjoying my little adventure. Its a nice break from all of these brain stressing, high octane titles that I normally play.
Resident Evil 5 PS3 Conference Trailer Breakdown
July 18th, 2007
After hearing that some footage of RE5 was at the Sony E3 Press conference I assumed that Capcom wouldn’t be generous enough to give us a new trailer different to the MS Conference trailer. Well it turns out that they did and finally separate video has surfaced of just the RE5 part of the conference.
So if you haven’t seen the clip then check it out without delay:
Now I am going to refer to many points made in my breakdown of the 360 conference video. So I suggest reading that before you delve into this post. This video is much shorter than the previous one and many points have already been covered. So there isn’t a whole lot to break down.
To begin with this trailer repeats a number of scenes from the previous trailer, including:
- the stage scene
- angry crowd scene
- the brief snippit of the claws growing
- the scene with the strange man being restrained
- the repeated scenes of the strange man’s eye’s turning red
- scene of strange man’s fingers growing
After the first 2 repeated scenes we see an almost top down view of the initial scenes in the 360 trailer. Being at the start of both trailers it seems that this must be one of the first areas in the village.
This time though Chris walks past the announcer from the previous trailer. Although it appears that he is wearing shorts this time. We also see him a few times throughout this trailer. There is also the two females from the previous trailer. After this scene a mob of villagers group up. So it appears that this guy may be the ring leader.
We see a brief scene where Chris is being attacked and then a shot of a group of villagers running out of a shed with weapons. This is the group of people whom pursue him. Later we see one of the villagers trying to break Chris’ arm, this pans out into a scene from the previous trailer.
What I realised here was that the crowd scenes from the previous trailer must be seperate from this incident that is going on. So perhaps those shots where part of the back story as when Chris came to the town the strange man had his bloodshot eyes and yet before this he was in the crowd.
There is also another scene with the flyswat man from the last trailer. He must be some sort of boss. We see him swinging his devastatingly large flyswat around. It also should be noted that the strange man couldn’t be the flyswat guy as they where both in the same scene at the start of the trailer.
This trailer finally reveals whom is restraining the strange man, it is the two villagers at the start. You can tell because of the clothing. Although you can hardly see the announcer(that is if the announcer is the villager at the start of the trailers in the green shirt) we can spot a patch of his pants which match up. We can also see that the lighting matches the scenes.
This also scene matches up these different shots, once again the lighting:
There is also a repeated glimpse of the strange man’s hands evolving. Another scene proves this as he feels a jolt in his fingers.
The most important part of the clip is the part where we see the scene of the strange man continue. Blood starts to weep from his eyes. This and the hand part must be effects of this new virus.
Dot Points
A few quick points, as I previously mentioned the villagers use that strange hook thing. Perhaps another weapon for climbing into buildings In that scene we see a quick peek at a different area.
One of the villagers tries to break Chris’ arm which might be another new gameplay mechanic. Did you also spot the other shot with Chris’ headset I’ll leave that one for you guys.
I hope these features have opened up the trailer a little bit for you. 🙂
Retro Review – Shinobi III Return of the Ninja Master
July 1st, 2007
Much like my last Retro Review this game is from the 16-bit era. I remember playing Shinobi on my cousin’s Megadrive(Genesis to you Americans) when I was a little tacker. Thankfully SEGA have included Shinobi 3: Return of the Ninja Master in Sega MegaDrive Collection(which I have been madly playing), so I have been able to get back into this awesome ninja game.
Summary
Shinobi 3: Return of the Ninja Master is the 3rd game in the Shinobi timeline and sees the return of evil Neo Zeed. Shinobi 3 is regarded as the best game in the Shinobi series which couldn’t be any truer. When you play Shinobi you can’t help but feel like a ninja, despite the somewhat ‘Americanized’ feel to the game. Stick that ninja feel with some crazy ninja scenarios and you have yourself one of the best damn ninja games of the generation.
Story
NB: The word Shinobi means ‘ninja’ in Japanese, in the Shinobi games, the Shinobi is the hero of the story. Hence the Shinobi character can change per game. In this first three games (Shinobi I-III) the Shinobi is the same; Joe Musashi .
Despite playing like ninja fan’s wet dream the story wasn’t actually that great. Not that it needed to be, of course. Basically the evil crime syndicate; Neo Zeed has reserected itself, Joe Musashi senses this(naturally) and embarks on a mission to wipe them out.
Gameplay
This game plays excellently, I always enjoy playing Shinobi because as I mentioned before, you feel like you are a ninja when you play it. Your main weapon in this game are your shurikens which are those little pointy projectiles that all ninja store in threes. Joe isn’t just confined to the shurikens though, when sprinting Joe can do a sword slash, he can also spear kick towards the ground while in mid air and do a quick sword slash at close range. These added moves make the game feel much more than a platformer with projectiles which is what it needs to be as there are piles of games like that already.
Joe also has an assortment of Ninja climbing techniques, he can double jump, wall jump and climb poles etc. This and the combat make him feel extremely versatile. Unlike the previous Shinobi games Joe can actually run this time round, I couldn’t imagine how bland this game would have been if Joe was restricted to walking.Along with these attacks Joe also has a couple of Ninjitsu attacks at well. These are like “ninja spells”. There are four in total, heres a run down of what they all do(taken from Wikipedia):
Ninjitsu of Ikazuchi: The art of thunder. This ninjitsu envelopes Shinobi with a shield of lighnting energy that sustains damage for four consecutive hits.
Ninjitsu of Kariu: The art of fire. Kariu summons four dragonshaped columns of flame that move across the screen and damage all enemies in their path.
Ninjitsu of Fushin: The art of floating. Fushin improves Shinobi’s agility by heightening his jumping capability.
Ninjitsu of Mijin: The art of pulverizing. The decision to use Mijin is most often tactical. It damages all enemies on screen at the cost of one life.
The game is split into numerous chapters each which have a few levels in them. Generally you have a main level, a smaller level and then a boss battle. Some of these smaller levels take the form of mini game-esque levels, for example you could be horse riding, surfing, climbing up a bunch of falling rocks to reach the top of the cliff etc.
Highlights
The best part about this game is how AM7 have included so many cool ninja scanarios Here’s a few examples: You get to ride a motor powered skateboard across an ocean while duking it out with a giant, flying mecha robot with a machine gun arm.Facing off against a bad ass mecha Godzilla.Jumping from rock to rock of a collpased cliff while trying to wipe out ninjas and dudes with angel wings.Sneaking thru a secret base full of moving platforms and electric ceilings.
Bad ass
Another highlight is that you know that your playing the best Shinobi game in the series. Every other Shinobi game has not ben quite as good as this one. The 3D versions were too hard, the previous 2D games weren’t as refined as Shinobi 3. Your are playing the best so be proud of it.
Lowlights
There’s something really fishy about Shinobi that kinda puts me off a little. Its sort of like trying to figure out if the foreign movie your watching has english voice dubs over the foreign language speech. Take for example the fact that the Shinobi’s(that’s Ninja’s) name is Joe, its not a very Ninja like name now is it? The game’s direction feels like an American take on Hong Kong action cinema. The scenarios in the game are cool but they just don’t feel authentic. Joe also doesn’t look like a ninja, his white and red outfit aren’t even in true ninja colours. Ninjas are meant to be stealthy and yet how can this be so when he is wearing bright colours? At least cover yourself is a pale blue Joe.
Beta versions
Shinobi 3 was originally planned to be release a year before it did, which would have been in 1992. The game was strangly withdrawn and modified to be what we know to be Shinobi 3. Two beta versions of Shinobi 3 have been brought to light via online ROMs. A whole run through of these beta files can be found here.
Virtual Console
After writing out this piece I had heard news that this game is coming out for the Wii Virtual Console in Japan. It seems pretty likely that this game will be released globally so when it does check it out.
Conclusion
Shinobi 3 is an action/platformer fans treat, this game plays smoother than fine quality silk. The game throws you into a mass of cool and innovative action sequences which make the game stand out from the crowd. This game has almost everything that a ninja game needs to be good fun. Strongly Recomended
Extended Readings/Sources
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