Everyone knows Donkey Kong. I thought I knew Donkey Kong before King of Kong reignited everyone’s appreciation for the classic arcade game. Apparently, I never got very far in the game because the big monkey had a few surprises for me when we got reacquainted recently for a week long company arcade tournament. The hammer is not invincibility One of the original adrenaline rushes I remember from going to the arcade was the first time I picked up a hammer [...]
To this day, I don’t really know what Blue Stinger was actually about. I was an angsty teenager when I last played it so my emotional pursuit of the opposite sex and a tendency to fall asleep listening to Linkin Park more than muffled the intricate details of my semi-adulthood. I can piece together bits and pieces of the plot; remote island, bio-tech company, apocalyptic meteor impact. Outside of that, it was a third person, dare I say “survival horror” [...]
Some things are better left to history. Cartridge games and Topher Grace playing Venom are probably two of them, but 3/4 view beat-em-ups and awesome soundtracks aren’t, particularly when they’re coupled together. When you consider a game from 1994 whose “awesome soundtrack” was written by Green Jellÿ (no, seriously, go watch that video), what seemed like damn near every Marvel character out there available for summoning as a power-up, and (most importantly) that you could play as the hulking, badass Venom, not [...]
Right around Halloween, I somehow found out that The 7th Guest was available on iOS and, despite my well-known distaste for all things Apple, I quickly realized that I was going to need to borrow my fiance’s iPad and get back into a game that I hadn’t played in almost 20 years. Getting back into an old game, particularly one that was one of the first crop of, “Holy crap, video games are way more than just platformers/top down shooters/beat-em-ups” [...]
The Adventures of Bayou Billy might have flown under many radars when it was first released in North American in June of 1989. It had previously been released under the nom de guerre “Mad City” in August 1988 in Japan, where surprisingly it was much easier than its region 1 counterpart. Because Bayou Billy was so difficult, most people don’t remember the variety of gameplay options it brought to the table, combining genres for the first time. My own experience with [...]
After I got my appetite whetted for mech-combat with Trenched, it got me to thinking about my other increasingly rare gaming passion: space combat simulations. It’s been a while since I really got into a space combat sim excepting the level in Halo: Reach, which prompted a little thought about the last (good) space combat sim I played - Tachyon: The Fringe. When I mentioned the title to Justin L., the reaction wasn’t quite what I was expecting. Although we were on gchat at [...]
When I was a kid, I had a pretty limited budget and my mother was disinclined to encourage her sons’ affinities for video gaming. Nonetheless, Mama GiffTor was powerless to stop my grandparents, aunts and uncles from undermining her nefarious plot to ensure we got exercise and exposure to things like literature and fresh air. The Christmas after my brother and I bought the Sega Genesis, he received Ghouls n’ Ghosts and we began our descent into the depths of [...]
When Portal was released as part of the Orange Box compilation in 2007, the average gamer didn’t quite know what to expect. Sure, everyone had read the previews and early reviews of the game, but would a first person shooter/puzzle game conglomeration actually be fun? After a brief flirtation with the Mac version when new Steam subscribers using OS-X got it for free, I finally bought it on Xbox Live Arcade, I can now answer that question: Yes, Portal is fun…but [...]
Everyone is curious as to when we will get details on the next Grand Theft Auto games. Most of the rumors claim that GTA will return to San Andreas, which makes me quite happy. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is, in my humble opinion, the best game in the series. The depth of this title is amazing. Personality goes a long way It would be an understatement to say that Rockstar is a developer with a lot of personality. This [...]
Very few movies turn into competent video games. Whether it’s the push to meet unrealistic deadlines or the nature of using games as marketing materials, the bar tends to be set quite low. When a game does surpass expectations, it does so by understanding the important themes present in the movie and how to transition those themes into an enjoyable gaming experience. While not without its own negative characteristics (a clunky control scheme and sometimes frustrating game play) The Thing [...]
