Whiplash

Game: Castlevania
System: Nintendo 64
Release date: January 26, 1999
Developed by: Konami
Published by: Konami

The Castlevania franchise's jump to three dimensions was not entirely smooth, but Castlevania for the N64 is a solid, challenging and atmospheric action-adventure game which stands up favorably to more popular installments.

Depending on who is asked, Castlevania may or may not belong to the official Castlevania timeline. In any event, Castlevania takes place in Transylvania in 1852, where Dracula has once again risen from the darkness due to the wickedness of humanity. Two heroes arise to fight the growing evil: Carrie Fernandez, a young girl gifted with magical powers, and Reinhardt Schneider, heir to the Belmont clan, the greatest family of vampire hunters.

Castlevania carries over a lot of two-dimensional staples into its three-dimensional adventure. Enemies like skeletons and Medusa heads are common throughout the well-designed game environments; secondary weapons, like holy water and axes, can be found in breakable vases, torches and statues. Boss enemies are larger and scarier than those featured in the old NES titles, however, and Schneider is equipped with a close-combat dagger in addition to his whip and secondary weapons.


The greatest drawback in Castlevania is its camera, which does not operate with the same responsiveness and freedom of cameras in other N64 games. Camera problems become especially dangerous in stages which are heavy on platform elements, when one ill-timed leap could mean certain death. Castlevania is littered with traps, hazards and moving platforms.

Castlevania is reminiscent of the Playstation Resident Evil games. Apart from the option to select either a male or female protagonist, Castlevania resembles Resident Evil in its level design (especially the villa), its horror themes and even its musical cues.

Score: 88/100

The Baby-Sitters Club

Game: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
System: SNES
Release date: October 4, 1995
Developed by: Nintendo EAD
Published by: Nintendo

Rarely do I replay video games which I've already completed, but older games can be reevaluated years after their release; a game played at age 12 will not necessarily receive the same score as a game played at age 26. The most recent game I replayed was Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island which, I'm happy to report, has aged remarkably well. It represents one of the most unique and enjoyable Super Mario experiences, one with significant graphical and gameplay innovations and huge replay value.

Yoshi's Island is a prequel to Super Mario World and every other Super Mario game. The game begins with the evil Magikoopa Kamek interupting a dutiful stork as it ferries two infants to their prospective parents. Kamek is successful only in stealing away one baby; the other falls helplessly toward the ocean. Luckily, the second infant (baby Mario) falls painlessly onto the back of a green Yoshi. After a summit meeting, the Yoshis decide to help the young Mario find and rescue his stolen twin brother.


Unlike earlier Super Mario games which featured Mario as the protagonist, Yoshi's Island makes Mario a helpless infant; the hero becomes the dinosaur-like Yoshi or, more accurately, the Yoshis of Yoshi's Island. At the end of each stage, Mario is transferred between Yoshis, so that an individual Yoshi completes only one leg of the relay race.

Each Yoshi has three main moves: a jump move, which can be extended by tapping and then pressing the A button, making Yoshi flutter his feet in midair; a grab move which uses Yoshi's long tongue; and an egg-throw move which allows Yoshi to fire up to eight eggs which trail his body throughout each level. Eggs are especially important in Yoshi's Island. Yoshi can produce eggs himself by swallowing enemies or can collect them at isolated egg generators; they are used to defeat bosses, solve puzzles and collect hard-to-reach items.

Throughout their travels, Yoshis also have the ability to transform into a number of vehicles, including a submarine, a helicopter and a racecar.

Score: 95/100

Search and Destroy

Game: Metroid II: Return of Samus
System: Nintendo Game Boy
Release date: November, 1991
Developed by: Nintendo
Published by: Nintendo

Of all the Metroid titles, Metroid II: Return of Samus is probably overlooked the most often; it simply doesn't compare to masterpieces like Super Metroid and Metroid Prime. What it isn't, however, is a mistake or a "black sheep" of the Metroid franchise. Metroid II is an excellent action-adventure game and one of the better Game Boy titles.

Set some time after the events of the original Metroid, Metroid II takes place on SR388, the home planet of Metroids, predatory, parasitic lifeforms whose very existence threatens the safety of the galaxy. Subsequently, the Galactic Federation sends several teams to exterminate the Metroid population. When none of the deployed teams succeed, the Federation sends in the galaxy's best bounty hunter, Samus Aran.

Unlike its predecessor on the NES, Metroid II features a single, huge world instead of several large regions. At the beginning of the game some areas of the world are blocked by corrosive lava; as Samus kills Metroids, earthquakes reroute the lava and open up previously blocked rooms. There are dozens of enemy lifeforms in the labyrinthine underground tunnels of SR388, but the most dangerous are Metroids. Samus encounters several dozen Metroids in different stages of mutation. A counter on the bottom right corner of the screen informs players how many Metroids remain on SR388.


Metroid II introduces several new power-ups for Samus which would become staples in later installments. Enhancements include the Plasma Beam, the Space Jump, and the Spider Ball, which allows Samus to use her morph ball mode to cling to surfaces, scale vertical walls and explore cave ceilings.

Metroid II also features save points scattered across the game world, removing the need for the password save used in the original Metroid.

Score: 90/100

Firefly

Game: Spyro the Dragon
System: Sony Playstation
Release date: September 10, 1998
Developed by: Insomniac Games
Published by: Sony Computer Entertainment

In the mid and later 1990s, 3D platformers ruled the earth. Titles like Super Mario 64, Crash Bandicoot, Banjo-Kazooie, Rayman 2, Donkey Kong 64 and Spyro the Dragon appeared on the two biggest consoles of the era, Nintendo 64 and Sony Playstation. Although Spyro the Dragon doesn't quite match up evenly with the best of the generation, it remains an enjoyable, fun-for-all-ages platform game with some excellent graphics, sound and play control.

Typical of its genre and time, Spyro the Dragon has a nuts and bolts storyline which serves mainly to set up the action. Gnasty Gnorc has used a magic spell to imprison all dragons in crystal; he also has transformed all the treasure of the five dragon worlds into his loyal minions. One dragon, the smallest of all, avoided being turned to crystal: Spyro. Soon Spyro accepts the mission to free the dragons from Gnasty's spell, recover the treasure (and stolen dragon eggs) and defeat Gnasty once and for all.


The five dragon worlds, each inhabited by a particular caste of dragon, are divided among several environments. Each environment has several dragons waiting to be freed, hundreds of treasure pieces and a few stolen eggs, here and there. The environments are absolutely huge and it takes Spyro a while to traverse the terrain and find all the hidden items. At his disposal are several abilities, including a flame attack, a charge attack and the ability to glide from high places. As the game progresses and the difficulty level rises, gliding is necessary to find every last hidden gem and dragon.

Mixed among the traditional platform stages of Spyro the Dragon are several timed flying stages, where Spyro has the ability to fly freely around the environment. Before time runs out, players must pass a number of obstacles: flying through rings, destroying airplanes, etc.

Spyro the Dragon can be beaten without collecting every single treasure piece, egg and frozen dragon, but if players persevere and reach 100% completion they can unlock an alternate ending.

Score: 86/100

Duck and Cover

Game: Gears of War
System: Xbox 360
Release date: November 9, 2006
Developed by: Epic Games
Published by: Microsoft game Studios

Of the thousands of video games released since the dawn of the computer age, perhaps none can be held more responsible for my leap from Nintendo loyalist to multi-platform completist than Gears of War. Even if Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and the soon-to-be-released (hopefully) Beyond Good & Evil 2 provided the final push toward the purchase of a Xbox 360, it was the one-two punch of Gears of War and Bioshock which planted within me a curiosity for the non-Nintendo gaming world. This trailer (one of the finest I've ever seen) went a long way towards making Gears of War a game I HAD to play. All that being said, I have finally played and completed Gears of War, a little more than a year after my Xbox 360 purchase and roughly three years after it was released; and it is the masterpiece I hoped it would be.

To say Gears of War is cryptic is something of an understatement. The instruction manual and a brief title screen cut scene give the player a rudimentary understanding of the origins of a long, destructive war between humans and a subterranean menace called the Locust Horde. The game's hero is Marcus Fenix, a disgraced and imprisoned Gear (army infantryman) who is released by his best friend and fellow Gear Dominic "Dom" Santiago once the prison falls to the Locust. After a brief, optional training session, the player is thrown into battle.


Gears of War uses an innovative and easy-to-control battle system in which Marcus and other Gears must contantly use cover to survive. Acknowledged by one of the game's developers in the introduction to the manual, combat in the majority of shooters is not entirely realistic, and so the Gears of War team wanted to create a system in which players "switch between feeling frightened and being a badass." The results are largely successful. Out in the open, in a firefight, Fenix and his platoon will die. Behind debris, walls and stony outcroppings, they have a much better chance at survival. Players have the option of blindfiring from behind cover, leaning outside of cover and aiming more precisely, or simply wait until an enemy gets too close and perform a melee attack.

Like many post-Halo shooters, Gears of Wars has a realistic inventory system in which the player must choose which guns to carry. Fenix is always equipped with a sidearm and grenades, but has only two slots for his remaining firearms. Guns include shotguns, automatic weapons, grenade launchers, sniper rifles and a particularly devastating weapon called the Torque Bow. The centerpiece of Gears of War, however, is something called a Lancer, a standard-issue assault rifle with a chainsaw bayonet.


Gears of War is surprisingly short. It ends somewhat abrubtly, obviously in anticipation of a sequel (released November 6, 2008), and only creates more mysteries and questions in the process. Regardless of its short duration, Gears of War is a masterwork and the first "killer app" for the Xbox 360.

Score: 96/100

Gotham Nights

Game: Project Gotham Racing
System: Microsoft Xbox
Release date: November 9, 2001
Developed by: Bizarre Creations
Published by: Microsoft Game Studios

Like fighting games, racing games belong to a genre which produces a lot of gems and a lot of duds and it's not always easy to sort the good from the bad. Because racing games rely so much on play control, physics and track design (and thus can't get by simply with superior graphics and storytelling), there are few things as frustrating as a bad racing game, few things as rewarding as a good racing game.

Project Gotham Racing (PGR), an early Xbox release, is one of the good ones. While not as comprehensive as titles like Gran Turismo, PGR still delivers a ultra-realistic racing experience with some truly gorgeous graphics and lighting effects.

The courses in PGR are divided among four cities: Tokyo, London, San Francisco and New York City. Each city has several districts, which are subdivided into dozens of circuits. At the player's disposal are over twenty-five high-performance cars, including Corvettes, Porsches, Ferraris and Aston Martins. As players complete races and earn medals, more and more cars become available.


PGR features several game modes: Quick Race, Arcade, Time Attack, Kudos Challenge and Multiplayer. Quick Race is a standard race against computer-controlled drivers; Arcade mode requires players to accumulate "Kudos," bonus points awarded for completing stylish maneuvers and stunts, in order to proceed. The central mode of PGR, however, is Kudos Challenge, which encompasses twelve levels and nine different types of racing challenges: average speed, overtake challenge, street race, etc.

Lastly, PGR allows players to choose among several virtual radio stations while driving their cars; alternatively they can import music from their personal music collections to create a virtual CD.

Score: 89/100

European Union

Game: Call of Duty
System: Microsoft Windows
Release date: October 29, 2003
Developed by: Infinity Ward
Published by: Activision

Although not nearly as revolutionary as titles like GoldenEye 007, Half-Life and Halo: Combat Evolved, the original Call of Duty was a milestone first-person shooter, one which arguably popularized the WWII shooter more than any other similar franchise, including Medal of Honor.

Call of Duty is divided into three campaigns: American, British and Russian. The game follows infantrymen from each national army as they march across the occupied territories toward their ultimate destination, Berlin. Each campaign has a set of missions: rescue missions, tank battles, sabotage, infiltration, nerve-shredding escapes. Rarely does an individual soldier enter the battle alone; usually each infantryman is flanked by several friendly soldiers.


Call of Duty, mercifully, begins with a training session, which familiarizes the player with the control scheme, the function of weapons and the basics of long-range and close-quarters combat. Because the game strives so resolutely for realism, each soldier can carry only two weapons at a time in addition to a sidearm and grenades.

Unlike its immediate successors, which introduced a regenerative health system, Call of Duty gives soldiers a health bar which can only be refilled with health packs scattered around the game environments. This results in very challenging and sometimes frustrating levels which can be cut short by a stray bullet.

Call of Duty Classic, a graphically enhanced port of the original Call of Duty, was released for Xbox Live Arcade earlier this month.

Score: 91/100

Assassins Bleed

Game: No More Heroes
System: Nintendo Wii
Release date: January 22, 2008
Developed by: Grasshopper Manufacture
Published by: Ubisoft

It's no secret the Nintendo Wii is short on mature-themed games. Nintendo, more than ever, has made a strong push for family-friendly software with the Wii. That's precisely why No More Heroes, which features graphic violence, strong language and copious amounts of blood, stands out among the kid-friendly Wii titles currently availble on the market.

No More Heroes is the story of Travis Touchdown, an anime-loving assassin who finds himself ranked #11 in the United Assassins Association (UAA). From that moment on his singular goal is to climb the ladder and become the #1 assassin in the United States.

If the preceding paragraph wasn't enough proof that No More Heroes is a little strange, consider that the game is like a weird combination of Grand Theft Auto III and Kill Bill. Like Grand Theft Auto, No More Heroes presents the player with an open city (Santa Destroy) through which he or she can walk or ride a custom-made motorcycle; and like Kill Bill, No More Heroes is dripping with style, over-the-top violence and great dialogue.


No More Heroes features ten action-packed levels, each of which culminate in an epic showdown between Travis and an enemy assassin. In Santa Destroy, Travis can complete side-missions in the form of part-time jobs and paid assassinations to supplement his income and pay the entry fee for each fight.

The Wii remote is incorporated into No More Heroes very smoothly: players recharge their beam katana by shaking the Wii remote; wrestling moves are performed with both the remote and nunchuk.

Score: 93/100

Note: No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle will be released January 27, 2010.

New PC Games Available

My video game library grows exponentially every month it seems, but one huge chunk of software is conspicuously missing from my collection: PC games. That's why today was a great day. Microsoft has just released a port of the original Call of Duty (never before available on consoles) for their Xbox Live arcade AND Gametap.com just reformatted the original Fallout which allows the game to be played on a 64-bit OS. I'm seriously considering re-subscribing to Gametap.com not only because I can now experience Fallout, but because the company is making a good faith effort to convert its 32-bit titles to 64-bit. Two other games I hope to play, Unreal Tournament 2004 and Unreal Tournament III, have also received the 64-bit treatment; and, from what I understand, more are on the way.

Dawn of the Dead

Game: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
System: Nintendo DS
Release date: September 30, 2005
Developed by: Konami
Published by: Konami

The Castlevania franchise can be neatly divided into two phases: the platform/action titles which appeared on the NES and Game Boy; and the post-Symphony of the Night titles which fused adventure and RPG elements with classic Castlevania gameplay. Dawn of Sorrow, released for the Nintendo DS in 2005, belongs to the latter phase.

A sequel to the Game Boy Advance (GBA) game Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, Dawn of Sorrow continues the story of Soma Cruz, a young man who by all accounts has absorbed the powers of the dark lord Dracula after his ultimate demise. Keeping the darkness at bay is Soma's own resolve and the help of his loyal friends, including Julius Belmont, heir to the greatest vampire-slayer ever born, Simon Belmont.

Dawn of Sorrow belongs to the "Castletroid" or "Metroidvania" type Castlevania game, which mixes classic Castlevania gameplay with elements found in the Metroid series, including area maps, save rooms and the ability to retrace your steps throughout the game environment. The castle in Dawn of Sorrow is one of the largest yet created in Castlevania; backtracking is absolutely necessary.


Although Dawn of Sorrow is a fine game, it suffers from the greatness of its predecessor. Aria of Sorrow is one of the two best GBA games ever made and easily the best handheld Castlevania adventure. Dawn of Sorrow retains much of same gameplay, enhancing the experience with improved graphics and sound, but never quite matches up to the greatness of Aria of Sorrow.

Dawn of Sorrow features several endings, so be warned that the conclusion you see might not be the "good" one. Once the penultimate ending is achieved, "Julius Mode" is unlocked, which allows players to explore the castle as the latest member of the Belmont clan.

Score: 90/100

Gatekeeper

Game: Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II
System: Playstation 2
Release date: January 20, 2004
Developed by: Black Isle Studios
Published by: Vivendi Games

For a long time the Baldur's Gate games could only be enjoyed by PC owners. That changed in 2001 with the release of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, developed exclusively for the Xbox, Gamecube, Game Boy Advance and Playstation 2. A sequel, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II, was released three years later.

Dark Alliance II is set almost immediately after the events of the first Dark Alliance and introduces five new playable characters: a human barbarian, a Drow monk, a Moon Elf necromancer, a Dwarven rogue and a human cleric. Each has his or her own strengths and weaknesses; some have more magic energy; some have stronger melee attacks. The player's choice is largely dependent on his or her own playing style.

Like its predecessor, Dark Alliance II is a hack and slash RPG which eschews turn-based combat in favor of real-time action. Each character can be equipped with three types of weapons: a one-handed weapon, a two-handed weapon and a ranged weapon. Dark Alliance II introduces the novelty of weapon and item customization, in which players can bring swords, shields, amulets and rings to a workshop and enhance their attributes by adding runestones and gemstones.


Although Dark Alliance II is an extension of the first Dark Alliance, featuring some of the same characters, locations and mythology, it never lives up to the experience of the original; its dungeons, storylines and characters are less dynamic. That said, Dark Alliance II remains an excellent RPG experience, made even more appealing by its cooperative play mode, in which two friends can brave dungeons and fight monsters together.

Dark Alliance II was originally meant to be the second chapter of a trilogy, but Dark Alliance III was cancelled when its developer Interplay went out of business in 2004.

Score: 88/100

Ultimate Zelda?

There is nothing in video games I take more seriously than The Legend of Zelda franchise: a total of nine Zelda games are featured in my top 100 games list; my personal favorite is a Zelda game (A Link to the Past); the best game ever made is a Zelda game (Ocarina of Time).

In the December 2009 issue of Nintendo Power (NP), the NP staff collaborated on an article titled "Ultimate Zelda," in which they rank the thirteen Zelda games (excluding Ocarina of Time Master Quest and A Link to the Past/Four Swords) from worst to best and name a number of series' superlatives. This blog entry is a refutation of that article.

What follows are the NP rankings:

Best Zelda games:

13) Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
12) The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures
11) The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
10/9) The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Oracle of Seasons
8) The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
7) The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
6) The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
5) The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening/DX
4) The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
3) The Legend of Zelda
2) The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
1) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

This list is wrong. It's certainly not the worst Zelda list I've read, but it has some serious problems. Most notable is number 11.

Majora's Mask is one of the finest entries in the Zelda franchise, one which improves on the graphics and play control of its immediate predecessor on the Nintendo 64, Ocarina of Time. NP explains its low ranking of Majora's Mask by describing it as "a different kind of Zelda quest that polarizes fans." The editors at NP of course refer to its unique 72-hour storyline, where players must make as much progress as possible in 3 game days before using a magical ocarina to return to dawn of the first day and start the cycle again. Far from being a detriment, this 72-hour cycle makes Majora's Mask one of the most unique and enjoyable games in the franchise, as well as one which requires a good deal of time management and strategy.


Similarly low on the list is The Wind Waker, although its ranking isn't nearly as criminal as that of Majora's Mask. NP echoed the complaints of some fans by calling sailing in The Wind Waker "incredibly tedious." I, for one, love sailing in The Wind Waker. Zelda games have always been about immersing the player in the game world; sailing across a vast ocean, traveling from island to island, goes a long way in absorbing the player.

The previous two games are too low on the list; the next game is too high. The first handheld Zelda game, Link's Awakening is a legitimately great game. Its spot on the list, however, is all wrong. There's nothing particularly faulty in Link's Awakening, but it's shorter and less innovative than many other Zelda games, including another superior handheld title ranked below it, The Minish Cap.

What follows is my list:

13) The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures
12) Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
11/10) The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Oracle of Seasons
9) The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
8) The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening/DX
7) The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
6) The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
5) The Legend of Zelda
4) The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
3) The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
2) The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
1) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

The NP article also lists several superlatives:

Best hook: Light World/Dark World (A Link to the Past)
Best weapon: Bow (all games)
Best item: Double Clawshots (Twilight Princess)
Best Princess Zelda: (The Wind Waker)
Best boss: Twilit Dragon Argorok (Twilight Princess)
Best overworld: (The Minish Cap)
Best story moment: Beneath the Waves (The Wind Waker)
Best tune: "Overworld Theme" (The Legend of Zelda)
Best secret: Second Quest (The Legend of Zelda)
Best dungeon: Goron Mines (Twilight Princess)
Best enemy: Octorok
Best supporting character: Midna (Twilight Princess)
Best Ganon: (Ocarina of Time)

I have problems with several of the abovementioned superlatives; I'm especially surprised with so many coming from Twilight Princess, the most recent console Zelda game. The worst entries are BEST BOSS and BEST DUNGEON. Like many climactic battles in Twilight Princess, the encounter with the dragon Argorok is a very creative boss fight, but it's surpassed by fights in The Wind Waker, Ocarina of Time and The Minish Cap. Worse yet is NP's choice for BEST DUNGEON: Goron Mines. This is just plain inexplicable. The final two dungeons in The Wind Waker are far better, as is Great Bay Temple (Majora's Mask) and half a dozen dungeons from Ocarina of Time. One superlative which I was surprised to agree with is BEST OVERWORLD; The Minish Cap has an overworld packed with secrets and side-quests, many of which are accessible only by shrinking down to microscopic size.


My superlatives (unchanged entries are in bold):

Best hook: 72-hour cycle (Majora's Mask)
Best weapon: Biggoron's Sword (Ocarina of Time)
Best item: Hookshot (A Link to the Past)
Best Princess Zelda: (Ocarina of Time)
Best boss: Twinrova (Ocarina of Time)
Best overworld: (The Minish Cap)
Best story moment: Beneath the Waves (The Wind Waker)
Best tune: "Overworld Theme" (The Legend of Zelda)
Best secret: Second Quest (The Legend of Zelda)
Best dungeon: Water Temple (Ocarina of Time)
Best enemy: Stalfos
Best supporting character: Ezlo (The Minish Cap)
Best Ganon: (Ocarina of Time)

The great thing about the Zelda franchise is that it touches players in very personalized ways. Everyone has their favorite game, perhaps corresponding to their first experience in the Zelda universe. Comments, as always, are welcome below. What would your list look like? What's your personal favorite?

Wingmen

Game: Aegis Wing
System: Xbox 360
Release date: May 16, 2007
Developed by: Carbonated Games
Published by: Microsoft Game Studios

In an economy where the newest console games cost between $59.99 and $79.99, a free game seems like something of a miracle. But that's exactly what Aegis Wing is -- free -- and always has been on Xbox Live Arcade.

Aegis Wing is a horizontal shooter, cosmetically similar to classics like Gradius and R-Type. In fact, Aegis Wing is very much a blast from the past, playing a lot like arcade and console shooters from the 80s and 90s.

One very important aspect of the game which separates it from the large flock of space shooters is its cooperative mode, which can be played both offline or online with friends from all over the world. Up to four players can fly together, three of whom can attach their ships to the leader's ship and become 360-degree gun turrets. This option adds elements of strategy and cooperation that make Aegis Wing much more than a forgettable Gradius clone.


Apart from exercising the option to join ships together, gameplay consists largely of avoiding gunfire and shooting down enemy ships. Players can also pick up one of four "super weapons" to augment their standard blasters. These include the Hades Beam (a concentrated blast of energy), the Gordan Burst (an electromagnetic pulse which disables nearby enemy ships), the Arcus Missile (heat-seeking missiles) and the Lambda Shield (a protective bubble which deflects enemy bullets).

Three Microsoft interns, Scott Brodie, Danny Dyer and Matt Monson, created Aegis Wing in the summer of 2006.

Score: 80/100

Note: Thanks to Jason C. for helping me stop the Araxian menace.

Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword

Game: Samurai Shodown
System: Neo Geo
Release Date: August 11, 1993
Developed by: SNK
Published by: SNK

Before the appearance of the great weapons-based fighters, The Last Blade and Soul Calibur, there was Samurai Shodown. Released in 1993, Samurai Shodown might not have been the very first weapons-based fighting game (several unremarkable titles were released in the years before 1993) but it was certainly the most important and the most popular.

Samurai Shodown takes place during the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan and therefore has a certain Japanese flavor. Many of the playable characters have Japanese origins, but there are other characters from the United States, China and France. As expected from a weapons-based fighter, all the characters wield a blade in battle, which can be used in a number of basic offensive moves and several special moves unique to each combatant. Two of the more dynamic characters are Nakoruru, an Ainu miko (female shaman), and Galford, an American sailor turned ninja. Both Nakoruru and Galford have animal companions who fight alongside them in battle.


One of the most interesting features of Samurai Shodown is its "rage gauge," which gradually fills up after a fighter absorbs several attacks and can then be used by the abused fighter to strike back with intense ferocity. It's the opposite of the super combo gauge in Street Fighter Alpha, which builds up upon successful hits of the opponent.

Another feature which inspires ambivalence is the Edo Express Delivery Man, who arrives during battles to lob items at the combatants, specifically bombs, meat and money. Bombs, you guessed it, explode and damage nearby fighters; meat heals damaged fighters; and money awards points to the character who picks it up.

Taken as a package, Samurai Shodown is a very good and influential fighting game with a healthy amount of playable characters (10), exemplary graphics and sound, and an understandable combat system. It doesn't quite measure up to the Capcom fighters of the early 1990s, but in a genre with so many duds, Samurai Shodown distinguishes itself.

Score: 87/100

Recall of Duty

Game: Call of Duty 3
System: Xbox 360
Release Date: November 7, 2006
Developed by: Treyarch/Pi Studios
Published by: Activision

World War II captures the American imagination like no other conflict in the history of the United States, eclipsing the Civil War and the Revolutionary War, both peculiarly American events. The drama and horror of WWII has been recapitulated in movies and in books and, increasingly in the last decade, in video games.

One of those games is Call of Duty 3 (CoD3). Released a year after Call of Duty 2 (CoD2), CoD3 features gameplay remarkably similar to its predecessor. In many ways, in fact, CoD3 plays like an expansion pack for CoD2. This is not necessarily a detriment: the mechanics and engine of the CoD franchise are so fine-tuned and engaging that a dozen CoD games would be welcome on any console, despite any redundancy.

Unlike its predecessor, CoD3 focuses solely on the infantry and tank battles in France during WWII; the North African and Russian theaters have been completely obscured. Diversity is instead found in the soldiers who fight the battles, who belong to the American, British, Polish and Canadian armies, as well as the French resistance. Players take on the role of either an American soldier, a British commando, a Polish tanker, etc. In many instances, the separate story lines converge, adding to the drama of the battle.


CoD3 features fourteen solo missions and an online multiplayer mode. The missions include assaults, sorties, sabotage, tank battles and rescue operations. Gameplay is nearly identical to CoD2: harrowing, 360 degree battles fought in forests, fields and deserted houses.

CoD3 is a welcome addition to the Xbox 360 library and a worthy companion piece to CoD2. The battles and bloodshed of WWII are faithfully recreated in both, along with the sounds, sights and heroism of the bloodiest conflict of the twentieth century.

Score: 90/100

Payne and Suffering

Game: Max Payne
System: Microsoft Xbox
Release date: December 11, 2001
Developed by: Neo Software
Published by: Take-Two Interactive

Max Payne is a troubled soul. The violent deaths of his wife and young child weigh heavily on him, as does the insolubility of the crime, perpetrated by mystery men high on Valkyr, the drug du jour in New York City. Max is a cop, deep undercover in the Punchinello crime family; that cover, however, will not protect him for long...

When we first meet Max it is at the end of his journey through the darkness; the player controls Max in the days and hours which lead up to the denouement.

Max Payne is heavy on action and style, much like The Matrix and the films of John Woo, which greatly inspired the game. The player takes on heavily armed and dangerous enemies in the snowy streets of New York City, in brothels and in boardrooms, in run-down tenements and in a luxurious skyscraper. At Max's disposal are pistols, shotguns, Uzis, sub-machine guns and grenade launchers, all of which are used with extreme prejudice against the enemies of Max Payne. The most important weapon available to Max, however, is his own superhuman ability to slow down the action around him while he maintains his normal speed. This "bullet-time," which owes something to The Matrix, makes progression through the game much easier and produces some dynamic action scenes during the many firefights which occur throughout Max Payne.


Another facet of the game which allows Max Payne to stand out among other similar third-person shooters is the connecting scenes which drive the plot forward between action events. These scenes are illustrative panels which look like they've been torn from the pages of the grittiest graphic novel.

Despite some derivative stylistic choices, Max Payne is a gripping and innovative experience that combines superior action with tight play control and a sinister film noir storyline.

Score: 91/100

Note: Max Payne is rated M for "mature" by the ESRB. It contans violence, blood, adult language and sexual content.