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.