The Dragon of Dojima

During the time since I finished Duke Nukem: Time to Kill and Rush’n Attack I’ve started playing Twisted Metal: Head On on PSP and the original Yakuza. There’s not much to say about the former. If you like Twisted Metal it plays as you’d expect. I already played its PS2 port the year it came out so I know what to expect here.

Yakuza, on the other hand, is a new experience for me. I think the best way to sum up this game is a beat-’em-up with RPG elements and just enough of an open world style to make the experience memorable.

The story itself is probably the best part of it and has definitely kept me going. A lot of the details of the world, such as what items are sold where and what they do, are left up to the player to experiment with. This can be a good or a bad thing depending on whether or not you like things spelled out for you. I’m in the middle to where I like discovering things, but sometimes I wished there was a bit more explanation than is given.

The combat takes a bit of getting used to. When your character, Kazuma Kiryu, chooses a direction to throw a punch or kick he’s determined to go that way. The animation can’t be interrupted to change course, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s just something you get used to over time. Add in the heat meter and fights get brutally satisfying before too long.

I’m currently 4 hours and 25 minutes into the game on Chapter 5.

As I mentioned last week I was able to get a copy of Run Saber for the Super Nintendo at a reasonable price off of eBay. It has arrived. This makes for only two SNES games left on my wish list: Sparkster and Wild Guns.

2001 Game of the Year

Note: You may very well disagree with some of my choices, but that’s why it’s a good list.

NOMINEES
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire
Max Payne
Twisted Metal: Black

2001 Game of the Year: Max Payne
Runner-up: Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

Ah. Max Payne. It’s the only PC game other than Half-Life 2 that I bought on the week that it was released. I remember being in my college dorm where I downloaded and played the demo. That weekend at home I bought the game to take back up with me. I remember playing it through several times and also messing around with some modifications. Those mods weren’t nearly as interesting as the ones for Half-Life at the time, though.

For my first time playing Jak and Daxter, I borrowed the game from Usagi704. For an early PS2 title it still had the collect-a-thon element that was present in a majority of the previous console generation’s platformers. It had me frustrated once in awhile, but it was still a very fun game.

Previous entries: 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000

Street Fighter IV Plus Other Goodies

I picked up the much anticipated fighter Street Fighter IV yesterday at that local store I often mention, It’s About Games. While I was there I also selected some other goodies.

The first was The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King for the PS2. After thinking about getting this game in the past and also being disappointed with the Conquest demo, I figured I’d actually get the game this time. I also picked up the SNES shoot-’em-up Phalanx. It’s a decent and serviceable game aside from the odd box art.

On the portable games side I was able to get a second copy of Twisted Metal: Head On. Why another copy? Two reasons: first the copy I had included black cover and red disc and while I don’t care which it is, they still have to be the same. Second reason was that it was new, which the current one wasn’t.

The final two portable games were the remake of Kirby’s Adventure for the GBA called Kirby: Nightmare In Dream Land and a Game Boy game that I haven’t owned in years entitled Fortified Zone.

Details: Phalanx, Kirby: Nightmare In Dream Land, & Fortified Zone | Street Fighter IV, Castlevania Chronicles, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, & Twisted Metal: Head On

Today in the mail I also received half of my Amazon.com order consisting of a second Dualshock 3 and Castlevania Chronicles, which was won in an eBay auction last Friday. The condition of the game is really great considering the last few auctions I won.

What Game Do You Have The Most Copies Of?

The following is my reply to the topic “What game do you have the most copies of?” started by cosmostein77 in The Candid Collectors’ Union.

I only have two of the exact same game on the same system. That game is Twisted Metal. I have one long box version and one jewel case version.

Games that I have different versions of are:

Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance – PS2, GBA
Disney’s Aladdin – SNES, GEN
Doom II – PC, GBA
Fatal Fury – GEN (coming soon), SNES
Final Fantasy VI – SNES, GBA
Killer Instinct – SNES, GB
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past – SNES, GBA
Max Payne – PC, PS2
Mortal Kombat – SNES, GEN, GB, GG
Mortal Kombat II – SNES, GEN, GB, GG
Mortal Kombat 3 – SNES, PS
NBA Jam – SNES, SCD
Quake II – PC, PS
Samurai Shodown – GEN, SNES
Sonic the Hedgehog – GEN, GG
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 – GEN, GG
Street Fighter Alpha 3 – PS, GBA, PSP
Street Fighter II – SNES, GB
Stuntman Ignition – PS2, PS3
Sunset Riders – SNES, GEN
Super Mario World – SNES, GBA
Super Street Fighter II – SNES, GEN
Tecmo Super Bowl – NES, SNES
Tetris – NES, GB
Tomb Raider: Legend – PS2, GBA (Euro verison), DS (Euro verison)
Twisted Metal: Head On – PS2, PSP
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 – SNES, DS

New Findings While On The Quest For Grand Theft Auto IV

Yesterday I specifically went out to buy Grand Theft Auto IV. I first checked It’s About Games. They didn’t have it, but I did notice several hard-to-find games that I needed to get because it will probably be awhile before I see them again.

The first stack of games included:
Knight Rider (NES)
Battletoads (NES)
Tecmo Super Bowl (NES) – game only; great
Renegade (NES) – game only; good
Shadow of the Ninja (NES) – game only; fair

After getting home I tested the games out as I always do and I ended up having problems with Knight Rider and Battletoads. So later in the day I returned to the same store to return those two games and picked up four others in their place.

Street Fighter 2010 (NES)
Rad Racer II (NES)
Tecmo Super Bowl (SNES) – game only; poor
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (PS2) – complete; great

Once again the NES games gave me problems. Today I took those back and bought a PSP launch game instead.

Twisted Metal: Head On (PSP) – complete; great

Now I own every single Twisted Metal game that’s currently available.

While I was out the second time the previous day, I stopped by Circuit City to get GTAIV. I found that game along with three more PSP games. An extra DS game that I bought at Best Buy about two weeks ago was Nanostray 2. I wasn’t going to get it, but then I saw that it was $20.

Nanostray 2 (DS) – new
Avatar: The Last Airbender (PSP) – new
Guilty Gear Judgment (PSP) – new
Chili Con Carnage (PSP) – new
Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3) – new

Total this time around: 11

Condition scale: Excellent, Great, Good, Fair, Bad, Poor

Now Playing: January ’08

It’s been a pretty fun month with the nine games that I’ve played. Let’s get to it.

First up is the fighting games which were, of course, played with some exciting vs. mode action. Mortal Kombat 4 and Ultimate Mortal Kombat were the two games this month where Usagi704 and myself went at it. MK4 was in 2-on-2 vs. mode and the newly bought UMK on the DS was fun online and off.

The games that I played the least of were Driver and Dynasty Warriors 3. In Driver, I simply played for a few minutes setting some high scores in the cross-town checkpoint driving game. Over on DW3, I played a quick mission in free mode, but I doubt that 35 minutes is all that quick. :lol:

After playing Twisted Metal: Black for only a few minutes the verdict was in…this game is HARD and then you get out the cheats and actually have some fun. :P I played through the story mode with each and every character. I found Sweet Tooth and the Preacher’s stories to be the best of the bunch.

I achieved two things with Contra and Super C. For Contra I beat the game without the 30 lives code and only died once. In Super C, I finished the domestic version with the 10 lives code and continuing only once. A few days later a beat it again with the code, but this time without using a continue.

Now we come to the game of the month. I did play quite a bit of Burnout Paradise (PS3), even completing a number of three-player challenges online with VixDiesel and s0njas0n.

That’s not the game of the month, however. That honor would have to go to the NES classic Ninja Gaiden. I played the game throughout the month on both the NES and Famicom. For years the farthest stage I was able to reach was 5-3. Now I’m always able to get to stage 6-2! You know that stage 6-2 is really difficult if there exists an FAQ that’s solely for helping gamers with that stage.

That’s it for now. Check back for my next two blog entries. The first one will show my four newly acquired games and the second one will ask about Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

Games, Games, and More Games!

More excitement on the video games collection front. This time I only scored seven games. I know it’s down from 11, but some of these games are pretty damn fun.

First up was another eStarland.com order of four games. I was notified that Twisted Metal Black was available, so to make the cost of shipping worth it, I added three other games to the list. Those were Ridge Racer V, Unreal Tournament, and the only PS1 game of the bunch, Syphon Filter. At one point after putting my order through I tried to cancel out Unreal Tournament. This was because of what I read from GameSpot’s review about a problem with the controls. I still ended up receiving it since eStarland’s customer service decided not to take action (not the first time either). I was glad in the end, after playing some of UT, that I did get it since the problem I’d read about can be remedied in the options menu.

A few days later I bought Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, Midnight Club, and Ratchet & Clank locally. None of which I’ve played yet, however CoD will most likely be the next game I start playing. That is after I’ve had my fill of Mercenaries.