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Archive for the ‘2D’ Category

GSQ8: I’ve already used the obvious joke

24 Apr

Today’s GSQ8 piece on Idainaru Dragon Ball Densetsu covers an import game, which means it was written by Mike Zeller. There are rumors that any time someone else called dibs on an import release for this issue, they’d wake up in the middle of the night to find the silhouette of a man leaning over them, brandishing an axe and quietly suggesting they reconsider. But this is just a rumor, right? You shouldn’t believe such frivolous, irresponsible talk.

This article has two errors. One, this is a Dragon Ball Z game, but I used Dragon Ball art for the splash. This is because the original Dragon Ball era is charming and I really like its art style, while Toriyama tended to use really awful grimacing muscle dudes to depict the Z era. In other words, it’s a deliberate editorial choice.

Two, I misspelled the game’s title in the URL and the actual book. This is because I’m dumb. GameSpite Quarterly 9 will be enjoying the benefits of a copy editor.

 
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Posted in 2D, Games, GameSpite

 

GSQ6: Self-destructing explosive spirits

20 Feb

Hey, it’s Bangai-O Spirits! That’s great. I’ve been hard at work all weekend, which is not great. I’m kind of burned out on this whole writing thing at the moment, so, you know, I’m just gonna post this dude with no real comment. Besides, I’ve already written about the game quite recently, and I wouldn’t want to bore anyone with my retreads.

 
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Posted in 2D, Games, GameSpite

 

GSQ6: More metal than a bullet storm

17 Feb

This game is awesome, and when it made the voting cut for GameSpite Quarterly 6, I had no recourse butto write about why that is the case.

Metal Storm is a game I bought back in the day, and loved, and played repeatedly (since it was one of those “hard” games that my idiot savant younger self mastered in about an afternoon, and which stumps my fumble-fingered adult self). Weirdly enough, I bought my copy of the game at a Putt-Putt golf course, of all places. They briefly flirted with adding pay-per-play console games to their arcades, and when they bombed out they sold their barely-used software for cheap. And then, I swooped in and discovered the joys of dancin’ on the ceiling. Lionel Richie would have been proud.

 
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Posted in 2D, Games, GameSpite

 

GSQ6: The taming of the screw (breaker)

10 Feb

It’s been a pretty busy couple of days for me. I’ve interviewed Daisuke “Pixel” Amaya, checked out Cave Story in 3D, checked out his other new game, posted a Tactics Ogre review, podcasted about same, interviewed Yuji Horii and his retinue, had dinner with same, and even recorded a podcast with Tim Rogers. I also came up with a tangential idea that will probably make a few people happy. But I still found time to post a great article about Drill Dozer. For you. Because I love you.

 
13 Comments

Posted in 2D, Games, GameSpite

 

GSQ5: Penultimate

16 Jan

Alright, dudes, one more of these time-consuming posts and GameSpite Quarterly 5 will exist wholly online — every girthy word of it. That’s reassuring. For now, please to savor the savoriness of this exploration of the NES’s notable releases for 1992 through 1994.

 
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Posted in 2D, Games, GameSpite

 

GSQ6: Fight it out

15 Jan

I am, as I have time, working steadily through Tactics Ogre. So seeing this particular article — a piece on its direct predecessor, Ogre Battle — come up in the posting queue was a happy coincidence. I never could get into the core Ogre games, and I even find Tactics much less accessible and gleefully breakable than its Final Fantasy descendent, but this particular elegy fills me with a desire to give The March of the Black Queen another go. Stupid compelling retrospectives!

In other news, the latest subscriber bonus book is stuffed into envelopes and about ready to mail out; all I’m waiting on is for the labels to finish printing. I was hoping to mail them Monday, but that’s a postal holiday. And Tuesday and Wednesday I’ll be in New York to look at some extra-dimensional game system or something. But hold on just a few days longer and you’ll have it in your hands.

The press proof for GameSpite Quarterly 7 has also arrived, but I’m not going to worry about that until next weekend, or maybe the weekend after. It’s a while yet until February 1, after all. However, I can say with confidence that it looks damn good.

 
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Posted in 2D, Games, GameSpite

 

GSQ5: Blacker than your inky heart

08 Jan

With the third entry of our Noir in Gaming series (be sure to read part one and part two if you somehow missed them, you terrible monster, you), we edge quite close to finally closing the book on GameSpite Quarterly 5. Soon, you can read the whole dang issue online — perfect for the cheapskate in your family! Or, you know, the fiscally prudent. Or the impoverished. Or the person who thinks we’re all a bunch of stupid goons who don’t deserve your hard-earned cash. In other words, we’re not going to take it personally… unless it’s that last one, in which case: so’s your old man!

I don’t know if Mr. Fenlon intends to continue his Noir in Gaming series, but consider this: supposedly someone will be publishing a game this year called L.A. Noire. I foresee a fourth entry, if only to complain about that superfluous E at the end of the title.

 
3 Comments

Posted in 2D, Games, GameSpite

 

By request

05 Jan

So today I learned that Mr. Mowery isn’t the only Talking Time regular who likes to make Mario-style platformers. Apparently there’s a whole slew of ‘em.

The project in question is entitled Super Talking Time Bros. And yes, apparently it actually does have a poison mushroom bearing Percy’s face. This guy are sick.

STTB is a collective venture built on the Super Mario Bros. X homebrew platform, which is why it’s news to me: I haven’t been following the thread where everyone’s collaborating because the SMBX app doesn’t run on Macs and I haven’t been able to install Windows on my MacBook yet (long story). Pity, because it looks pretty good!

Unlike the vast majority of ROMhack-style projects, STTB has tremendous potential simply because the ground rules explicitly forbade people from creating your typical impossible ROMhack challenges built around the exploitation of bugs and advanced techniques. The idea is to make a fun, accessible, universally enjoyable game built on the same foundations of good level design you’d see in an actual Mario game. I can get behind that. There’s charm in Kaizo-style extreme challenge, but for most people (including me) they’re only fun when watched on YouTube. This aspires to be a fun game for everyone.

Anyway, you can download it at the link above and find more information about it at the relevant wiki. Let me know if it’s good, while I look on longingly.

 
5 Comments

Posted in 2D, Games

 

GSQ6: To oppress evil forever….

03 Jan

Is it just me, or does the notion of “oppressing evil forever” sound kind of, well, oxymoronic? Oppression isn’t usually the sort of behavior I associate with champions of justice. Aw, but what do I know. I guess that’s just part of the delicious contradiction that is Crystalis! The game that was called “Godslayer” in Japan, even though you never actually kill God in it. Tiger dudes? By the dozen. Giant bugs that are totally rip-offs of Hayao Miyazaki’s Ohmu? You bet. Deranged super-computers? Definitely. But no gods. Or God. It is a mystery.

Anyway, another of GameSpite Quarterly 6‘s NES issue holdover articles. Exciting! Also exciting: I’ll be submitting GSQ7 for a press proof by week’s end. How does he do it, folks? (The answer: having no social life whatsoever.)

 
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Posted in 2D, Games, GameSpite

 

GSQ6: The year-end hold-over

31 Dec

I would really like to have a more momentous post with which to end the year, but I really want to finish posting the last bits of GameSpite Quarterly 5 so I can close that InDesign file and never have to worry about it again. Also, I’m hard at work on GSQ7 this week and don’t have time for original thought. Sorry about that.

Technically, this article isn’t from GSQ5; it’s one of the three articles that somehow got lost in the GSQ5 production shuffle and had to be printed in the next volume. But at heart (and page layout) it’s totally GSQ5. And isn’t heart what counts at this time of year?

GSQ7, by the way, is shaping up really nicely. I was worried about it for a while, since it’s the villains-only counterpart to GSQ3, which wasn’t all that popular. But the layout and contents are really strong, and there’s a section at the end with half a dozen straight-up game critiques with varied layouts and strong art, so now that it’s all coming together it has a little something for everyone. Please look forward to it, bow bow bow, etc.

Anyway, read this Contra article or Bill Rizer will blow up your face and run through your esophagus and destroy your parasite-spawning heart. He’ll do it, you know. He’s crazy. And he has thirty lives, too.

 
7 Comments

Posted in 2D, Games, GameSpite

 
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