Star Wars: Dog Fight
Posted by: kmikeym
I won nine dollars playing Rogue Squadron dogfights with Steve above Cloud City.
At first, before we were betting, we were flying like Super Dave Osborn, thumbing the turbo booster and the guns as fast as possible and veering down in between two buildings only to quickly crash trying to make anything sharper than a forty-five degree turn.
Once we have our betting system figured out (a suicidal crash was a two dollar penalty), the thumb on the turbo boost moves to the air brake, trading maneuverability for speed and allowing for quick turns to fire off a few shots.
The game begins with both of us in Cloud Cars, those double podded flying chariots that escorted the Millennium Falcon during their arrival to Lando Calrissian's Cloud City. These are not high performance intergalactic fighting machines. If an X-Wing is a lamborghini, then the cloud car is an electric scooter. Thankfully the Heads Up Display tracks my opponent. Unfortunately, the color of my HUD is a dull yellow, and blends in a little too well with the rusty Cloud City environment, making it hard to tell exactly where Steve is.
Steve seems to be better at shooting than I am, which may be surprising considering I won $9. In one of our early attempts we enter into a game of aerial chicken, both heading straight into each other and firing the laser cannons. I lose. While a crash costs $2, getting shot down is $5, and so I develop my strategy: Hide in the caverns, lure him in, and let the unforgiving landscape do the rest.
This strategy works surprisingly well. It's a little slow, but there is tension knowing Steve is closing in, and hearing him taunt me by intentionally calling me by the wrong name: "I'm coming Mark. I'm right on your ass Mark." Occasionally I see his laser fire track me through one of my slow tight turns and I have to dip into a deep alley. Moments later he crashes and I earn another $2.
DDR is *not* a gateway drug!
Posted by: kmikeym
The DDR fiends in KC are pissed about the pitch.com article.
One of them says, "He took up a lot of my time with interviews, hanging out here, taking pictures etc... I swear if I spend the majority of that article reading about Wayne, I'm never going to touch a pitch weekly again. This was supposed to be about the community, not an individual's personal affairs."
Advance Wars: Under Fire
Posted by: kmikeym
The latest Advance Wars game jumps to the Gamecube in 2005, and seems to be just another attempt to cash in on an existing brand. The lesson we see here is that when Nintendo changes the development company on a game series, it means they are ready to sacrifice quality for cheaper production. While Advance Wars on GBA was done by the Japanese company Intelligent Systems, Under Fire was developed by the euro Kuju.
Who is Kuju? Oh, you might remember Microsoft Train Simulator, a slew of crappy aerial combat games, and nothing else to get excited about. This is a second rate team at best, and it's sad that the game that made my GBA purchase worthwhile was kicked to their curb.
The people over at Intelligent Systems have a history! They developed for the Famicom and the Virtual Boy! They made the original Paper Mario!
Kuju stripped out the turn based element of the game and created another boring real-time strategic action shooter. IGN calls it "a strategic Call of Duty with cartoony army men" and mentions that you no longer have an Army to control, but only a small squad. It feels like Kuju had this in the pipe and adapted the concept to Advance Wars.
IGN sums up my feelings, "Advance Wars on GameCube is a great idea, but it's too bad that this isn't actually "Advance Wars" -- and instead is a spin-off."
DDR is a gateway drug
Posted by: kmikeym
A story about DDR, sex, lies, and crime.
Be careful Josh.
Kids Play the Classics
Posted by: kmikeym
EGM did a great piece where they took kids 10 - 13 and got them to play and discuss older video games.
On Pong:
Andrew: This is a lot like that game. Um, whatchamacallit—air hockey.
Sheldon: Except worse.
On Donkey Kong:
EGM: Who's that chick Mario is rescuing up there?
Brian: It's Princess Peach.
Kirk: It's a hooker.
Niko: She looks cut in half.
Tim: Oh wow—she's one of those pole dancers.
On Tetris:
Becky: This is boring. Maybe if it had characters and stuff and different levels, it would be OK. If things blew up or something or—
Sheldon: If there were bombs.
On Space Invaders:
Nico: This game needs a super bomb or something.
Tim: This is nothing compared to Grand Theft Auto III, because you can't steal a taxi cab, pick up somebody, then drive into the ocean with him.
E3 Industry Insight
Posted by: kmikeym
The E3 news continues...check out what this earnings forecaster has to say about this year's convention.
Cabel's E3 Wrapup
Posted by: kmikeym
Check out Cabel's E3 Wrapup over at stevenf.com.
"Cabel, I don't wanna sit with the hot girls!"
Final Fantasy Concert
Posted by: kmikeym
Monday, May 10, 2004
Tonight I witnessed the nerdiest event of my 27 years--"Dear Friends: The Music of Final Fantasy" at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, CA. Despite a lack of cosplayers in attendance, the fanatacism was evident early as series composer Nobuo Uematsu entered the room and the audience burst into thunderous applause--we even decided to give him an early standing ovation. Umetasu was charming and grateful, wearing a kimono-type outfit complete with sandals on his feet, and he grinned from ear to ear as the audience showed their appreciation for over 15 years of memorable video game tunes.
The performers were the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master chorale, and we were seated in a unique position behind the musicians--with a great view of the audience and the auditorium. My predictions about the order of the setlist were immediately thrown when they launched into an intensely rich song from my least favorite FF game, FF8's "Liberi Fatali." An early highlight was a song from FFX, "Zanarkand", which was introduced by the man who voiced Tidus, the lead character of the game. James Arnold Taylor it turns out, was the emcee of the concert, stumbling through introducing the upcoming songs and doing an incredibly poor job of reading cue cards. It seemed a bit like watching Robert DeNiro on a recent episode of SNL where you know he hasn't practiced his lines at all.
It took awhile for the performers to get around to my personal favorite FF song, but when the LA Phil played an early Final Fantasy medley they brought out a rich rendition of the opening title sequence, complete with piano and harp. Then, to the delight of nearly everyone they included a chocobo song. Cabel was definitely pleased.
Throughout the concert the audience responded with a great deal of appreciation, and it was obvious that the performers were taken aback by the reception to music they must have considered was kind of (ch)easy and not very serious. Towards the end of the night they let Uematsu on stage to talk about the music, and as it turns out, series illustrator Yoshitaka Amano and creator Hironobu Sakaguchi were in attendance. It was amazing to see the reaction they received, and it truly was a special opportunity to share the joy of videogames and the effect they have had on millions of people around the world.
Full setlist for those who are interested:
"Liberi Fatali" (Final Fantasy VIII)
"Zanarkand" (Final Fantasy X)
"Terra's Theme" (Final Fantasy VI)
"Theme of Love" (Final Fantasy IV)
"Dear Friends" (Final Fantasy V)
"Vamo' Alla Flamenco" (Final Fantasy IX)
"Love Grows" (Final Fantasy VIII)
"Aeris's Theme" (Final Fantasy VII)
"Not Alone" (Final Fantasy IX)
"Ronfaure" (Final Fantasy XI)
"Final Fantasy I - III Medley"
"New Melody From Final Fantasy VII Advent Children"
"Final Fantasy" (Theme)
Book: Blue Wizard is About to Die
Posted by: curt
I'm surprised this hadn't been done sooner.
Blue Wizard is About to Die is a book of poems about video games ranging from the jungle of Pitfall to the urban sprwal of Vice City. It's a short, entertaining read. Although the poetry won't win any awards, it's value comes from how much the reader can relate to the content. From haikus about Mega-Man to epics that span epochs and genres, Barkan captures the emotions of conquering bosses and feeding countless quarters into mind-numbing button-mashers.
My favorite poem is "The Long Night of The Law," a lengthy tale of bringing vigilante justice to Vice City using the Hunter (military helicopter).
Tommy-boy has been converted. He now sees
the error of his ways, and wishes only
to pay his debt to society in the currency of corpses,
the only realy coinage he understands.
Another gem recalls the expansionist "Oregon Trail"
I was always thrilled when we passed another one
of our gravesites (which appeared with ever-increasing
frequency as spots were filled):
Here Lies Brent, Took ill with Dysentery and Just Couldn't Hack it.
Here Lies Margo, Died of Exhaustion, the Lazy Bitch
These two poems particularly struck me because of my vivid memories, having spent countless hours at the helm of each at different points in my life.
At $15 Blue Wizard will make a solid addition to any gamers library.
Off to E3
Posted by: kmikeym
Stay tuned to Game Thumb for updates from the 2004 Electronic Entertainment Exposition (E3) from K. Mike Merrill and J. John Afryl (and possibly guest writer Cabel Sasser).
Games I'm hoping to check out include:
Metroid Prime 2
Paper Mario 2
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Viewtiful Joe 2
Portland Mercury Reviews Games?
Posted by: kmikeym
Erik Henriksen of the Portland Mercury writes a great review of Ninja Gaiden for XBOX.
Some choice quotes include:
"No, no--fuck YOU, Ninja Gaiden! ... You're the goddamn reason I fucking hate my life."
"One more thing--you're a big fucking tease! Would it kill you to give a little something back every once in a while, or am I the only one who has to work in this relationship?"
"... you make me fight like 50 soldiers, then you make me fight a fucking tank, and then once I beat the tank and I have like no life left, you throw another goddamn tank at me? Then, on the 1000th try, when I finally fucking beat both tanks, and ... you're like 'Oh yeah? Well hows abouts a helicopter?!'"
