• Page 33 of 35 Post Archive • The Lifecast Network

Call of Duty: Why “Boots on the Ground” Should Stay in the Ground

May 30, 2016 Greg

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s reveal trailer is now officially one of the most disliked video on YouTube, second only to Justin Bieber’s “Baby.” There are four major reasons for this.

One: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Remastered is being “sold” as a pre-order bonus for Infinite Warfare. Now that’s a total scumbag move, probably the worst example of pre-order bs and all but, that’s not what we’re here to talk about!

Two: people are upset about the direction the series is headed wanting a more traditional “boots on the ground” shooter experience from Call of Duty.

Three: people just despise Call of Duty. There’s been this long running thing where Call of Duty is the face of all that’s wrong with gaming. Even though there are PLENTY of games with a worse record than Call of Duty and before this new Modern Warfare Remastered pre-order business their record was relatively clean.

Aaand four: The trailer was just kinda bad.

Today however! We’re here to discuss that second category and why I think the future is the best place for Call of Duty to head from both a design and thematic standpoint.

1. Design:

Call of Duty is a “twitch-based first-person-shooter” this means it’s all about testing how fast a player can understand the situation in front of them and whether or not they can execute what’s needed to succeed. Now in earlier Call of Duty’s since the games were set in a modern setting you would only really fight on flat stages where you primarily just shifted your sights from left to right to fire, only adjusted upwards to aim for the head or to hit someone at a slightly higher elevation.

Notice most combatants will just approach you on the same Z-Axis.

In recent iterations of the franchise they’ve recently started upgrading the amount of mobility the players have. With jet-packs and sliding maneuvers added players are now required to adjust their sights more dynamically in order to properly engage enemies. This adds some much needed depth to the series and depth is always good especially when it’s simple to understand. The added mobility adds much needed “outplay” potential for both players in a fire fight and such depth just isn’t possible in a “boots on the ground” experience without becoming Counter Strike.

Notice the combatant flying through the air and another about to pounce standing on the tank.

2. Thematics

Call of Duty is dumb. I mean this in the best of ways. Call of Duty is a simple game about seeing who can shoot each other in the face before the other. Call of Duty is a dumb action movie with player interaction so the stories and settings should reflect this. A futuristic story lends itself to all the absurdity Call of Duty deserves. In Call of Duty’s most recent iteration Black Ops 3 the developers are seemingly starting to understand that. This game sports a roster of characters all pulled straight out of action films. Men, women and robots with dumb special abilities and dumb taunts. It’s fantastic.

Look at um’ LOOK AT ‘UM!

A “boots on the ground” experience, while still fantasy, holds more weight to it as it is based on real experiences that real brave men and women have. In other words you gotta show it some respect. Let Call of Duty be dumb please.

If you are still looking for that “boots on the ground” experience luckily for you within the same week as the Infinite Warfare trailer a Battlefield 1 came out sporting a World War I inspired setting. If that’s not a message from the gods then I don’t know what is.

Stardew Valley: A Better Harvest Moon Experience than Harvest Moon

May 29, 2016 Kennedy

The first game I had on the Gameboy Advance was Pokemon Ruby. For many months, it was also the only game I had on the Gameboy Advance. After I had thrown about 300 hours of my life into it I started to think, “Wow. Maybe I should look into getting another game or 2 for this.” Lucky for me, my best friend at the time had been playing this “Cool new game!” called Harvest Moon: More Friends in Mineral Town. Being only 11-years-old at the time, I thought it sounded stupid and I couldn’t seem to wrap my head around how she was having so much fun with it. That is, until I played it myself. It had a very addictive quality to it—there was so much to do and you wanted to do it all. I couldn’t put it down and at the time I never quite pieced together what about it made it so charming. That is, until I played Stardew Valley.

Stardew Valley is a country-life RPG/farming simulator game made by ConcernedApe (Eric Barone) back in February of this year. More than being simply Harvest Moon inspired, Barone has said in multiple interviews that the original idea for Stardew Valley was to be something like his perfect Harvest Moon game.

The inspiration taken from Harvest Moon is clear right from the start of the game, as it shares a similar premise to most in the franchise: You’re growing bored of modern life and you’ve suddenly inherited a farm. Now go be a farmer. The originality this game has it also clear from the beginning of the game, however, as it does something that no other Harvest Moon game does despite many fans wishing it: It allows you to customize your character entirely, which is a very nice touch and only deepens the feeling of this game being so personal.

Image Source: Game Informer

Perhaps the best thing about Stardew Valley is the freedom this game allows you. Although the game encourages you to be a farmer (by, well, giving you a farm) there are plenty of other options available to the player: Mining, fishing, forging, and adventuring, for instance. Right off the bat, this game sets you loose in a world with dozens of new things to try and in any order and for however long you please. This freedom ensures that no two players will play this game exactly in the same way and adds a layer of interest to this game and discussions on it. There’s no linearity in this game whatsoever: You do what you want when you want. As for gameplay for these different activities, it’s kept very simple and minimal—as it should be in a relaxing game like this.

If the sense of freedom in Stardew Valley isn’t the best part of the game, then the characters are. The idea of Stardew Valley is, “You’ve moved into a farm in a small town. Make a living.” so naturally, making friends comes with that—you can even get married in this game. (And for bonus points, all the marriage candidates—both men and women—are available to you regardless of your gender) All the characters are written to be both incredibly unique and incredibly realistic. The more you talk to them and give them gifts, the friendlier they’ll be toward you (as measured by the hearts in the game’s menu) and their dialogue reflects that. All the characters have different events that can be triggered when they like you enough, as well.

The events are easily the next biggest highlight of this game—every character has very unique events, all which help you learn a lot more about the character. At the same time, all of the events seem pretty realistic, and like something you’d do with a friend in real life. Non-marriage candidates don’t have as many events as the potential marriage candidates, in fact some characters only have one event, leaving much to be desired in their character development. As characters grow to like you their dialogue will change to reflect this much more friendly atmosphere you now share with them, but that still only leaves the player starving for more time with them and to know more about them.

Image Source: Stardew Valley wiki

The only major problem in the character writing in this game comes from after you get married. After you get married, you can no longer get the other marriage candidates any farther than 8 (out of a possible 10) hearts full in the menu. (If it’s not already obvious, 10 meaning that you maxed them out.) Not only this, but if you want to give any of them gifts for any reason, including their birthday, your spouse—regardless of who it is, what day it is, of anything—will get angry.

Most of this games problems lie around the same area. As mentioned before, there’s a lot to do in Stardew Valley and you’re free to do it in any time and order you so please. That said, most of it can be completed within ~50-60 hours. It’s around that time, around the ~30-40 hour mark, that you’ll start feeling bored of the game since you’ve likely discovered all the surprises and events by the time. By this time, you probably know exactly what your favorite townspeople are gonna’ say on certain occasions. You’ve probably done most, if not all, of the achievements you wanted. You’ve probably tried everything this game has to offer by this time, and the game starts to lose its freshness very quickly.

Barone realizes that this is a common complaint with the game, though: Earlier this month, he announced that he’ll be working on patch 1.1 which will give you more dialogue with your spouse, create more events with non-marriage candidates (and even add 2 marriage candidates), add more secrets and surprises to the game, and even add a multiplayer version of which we still know nothing of. Arguably the most notable thing he said he was in the process of doing was getting a console release of Stardew Valley.

In the spirit of (most) Harvest Moon games and Animal Crossing (from which it also takes a lot of inspiration) Stardew Valley should absolutely be on a handheld console—more specifically the 3DS because the layout could be transferred easily (I imagine you can just put the menu and the backpack on the bottom screen). Being such a personal game, playing it on a hi-def TV with a PS4 would feel too grandiose for the modest and charming world of Stardew Valley.

Image Source: Steam Community

With having so much to do and total freedom in when and how you’ll do it, it’s no wonder that Stardew Valley is such an immersive and addictive game. It’s a game that you can play entirely how you want, and beyond being incredibly fun, is also incredibly relaxing. It’s major flaws come in its little late-game content and the occasional bug—usually nothing major, however, there has been multiple cases of people (including me) losing their save data on more than one occasion toward the game’s beginning. As long as you back up your saves though, this isn’t an issue.

As it was intended to be, this game truly feels like an improved Harvest Moon game–so much so that it shouldn’t be called a Harvest Moon game since they have many major things that set it apart. (EX: The lack of linearity and customization options Stardew Valley has) An incredibly solid, well-crafted game, and downright charming game, I’d give Stardew Valley an 8/10: Something I’d absolutely recommend to anyone who needs to relax for a bit or enjoys Harvest Moon/Animal Crossing-esque rpgs.

Three Days Remain: The Majora Effect

May 27, 2016 Deanna

Since Nintendo’s beloved The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask was released, its defining hallmark was the fact that the game ran on a steady three-day timer. Your objective, as the young Link, is to save the world and return a powerful, evil mask to the Happy Mask Salesman. In three whole days. At 6 AM, on each day you experience in-game, you’re presented with a screen that ominously reminds you just how many hours you have to complete whatever you’re doing, save the world, and return the mask. With a whopping four dungeons, a multitude of side quests, and a great trouble thrust upon your shoulders, three days seems like… not long enough.

The first thing seen entering Clock Town. (Image from YouTube.)

The main thing is that as Link, you gain access to the Ocarina of Time after completing the first cycle. After all, this game wouldn’t be a true sequel without some callbacks to the first. After you get the ocarina, you’re free to control the flow of time. The Song of Time allows you to skip forward, slow the passing of time, or return to the beginning of the three-day cycle. You can now use time to your advantage. Anything you collect or progress will be reset upon returning to the beginning of the cycle, though if you’ve beaten a dungeon you don’t have to do it all again, just the boss battle.

So let’s say, in your first play through, you’re in the final hours on the third day, and the timer is counting down the minutes until midnight. You’ve completed a dungeon and helped Anju and Kafei out with their quest, but there’s still more to do. You’re not done calling out to the four giants just yet. So you warp back to day one. Save the game, start over. Your restockable items like bombs and rupees fly out of your pockets as you fall through a spiral of clocks, winding backwards.

It’s just like a weird dream I had once! (Image from Zelda Informer Wiki.)

You go up to any NPC you helped out or at least talked to in your previous cycle and they spit back that same first line of dialogue. To them, those three days didn’t happen. You didn’t help them out. For all they know, this is your first time in Termina, and you’re just stopping by for the carnival. You’re not here to save them. They don’t even know they’re in danger. Majora is still out there, in mask form, and for all they know, it’s having a nice picnic in the mountains.

For years, I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around this situation. To me, Majora’s Mask holds some of the most intricately designed backstories in The Legend of Zelda‘s in-game universe. Clock Town feels like the small, rural town that I imagined I’d grow up in. Everyone knows each other and for the most part, they’re pretty friendly towards one another. Then Link, an outsider, swoops in and saves this tiny town from an imminent doom that they don’t know about.

And after everything, even during the time that Link is scrambling around to try and fix whatever problems everyone’s going through, he’s forgotten about. After the carnival, nobody remembers him, though he’s collected the masks as tokens of the memories he’s shared with the townsfolk. In the long run, it’s not even about saving the world for Link. Termina is just a pit stop on the road to finding his friend. He didn’t have to help the Happy Mask Salesman, he didn’t even have to care about anyone in the town. He could have called it a day and left.

Majora’s Mask forces players to think about things other than them in the game. Sure, you could ignore the side quests and focus on the four dungeons, but no matter what you do, there will always be someone that needs help. They may not always remember, and you may not even gain anything from it, but you will remember. Even now as I play through the game, I do my best to memorize the steps I have to take for every single side quest so that I won’t forget anyone next time. Majora’s Mask is the only game to ever give me characters I care about so much that I’d draft an entire game guide in my memory for their sake.

Majora’s Mask is all about making the player question their own morals. (Image from Google+)

The fact that the game is on a timer makes your decisions have more weight. Regardless of your course of action, it’s impossible to help everyone in one cycle. Someone will be left behind, and someone will be forgotten about. In the end, I’d much rather finish the game and have Link be forgotten by the citizens of Clock Town than fail to help them when I’m able.

Gaming’s Undervalued Treasures: Alien Hominid

May 27, 2016 colin

Image courtesy of Hardcore Gaming 101.

Alien Hominid is a nice throwback to run n’ guns
Alien Hominid is the definition of an homage, as it pays tribute to is the genre of run n’ guns.

Shooting out on the highway! Image courtesy of Nintendo City.

Run n’ guns are generally simple; they feature one, two or four different soldiers/cyborgs/aliens/etc. and they either will move forward horizontally, or in Ikari Warriors vertically, or shoot everything in their path. Explosions and bullets will be flying all over the screen when playing a run n’ gun, giving the player a sense of adrenaline only over-the-top 80s action movies can deliver.

Fan favorite franchises like Contra and Metal Slug are synonymous with the genre. Alien Hominid plays a lot like the latter, but contains the difficulty of the former. Being released for consoles in November of 2004 as a budget title and published by Q3 (Who? Exactly.), it’s no wonder Alien Hominid was overshadowed by other juggernaut games released at the time. Games released the same time as Alien Hominid were Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Halo 2, World of Warcraft, Half-Life 2 and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Alien Hominid did not stand a chance against those giants. Which is a shame, since it was good enough to be part of that upper class of games that year. Heck, it was even better received than the newest Contra installment, Neo Contra, also released in 2004.

An example of the quirky art style. Image courtesy of Moby Games.

Alien Hominid also has one of the more unique art styles found in any video game. The simplistic and cartoony graphics, along with some solid gameplay which thrives on two players, make Alien Hominid a run n’ gun absolutely worth checking out. Even after the guns have been put down, there are more than a few throwback mini games to keep the player busy as well as some silly unlockables.

Alien Hominid has an interesting background
Dan Paladin, otherwise known by his online name “synj,” is the brainchild behind the lunacy of the artwork. A longtime contributor to Newgrounds.com, Paladin’s boxy, yet overly animated, style is the first thing players are going to look at. Newgrounds’ co-founder, Tom Fulp is also one of the developers behind Alien Hominid, as his love for old school video games shines in the game’s action.

The duo actually released Alien Hominid through Newgrounds.com as a “beta.” Newgrounds users were only playing the first level, but compared to a lot of Flash based games on the site, the game felt bigger and played with more polish.

Paladin and Fulp, along with their friend John Baez, started the Behemoth, an independent video game developer. Alien Hominid was a success on Newground for a couple of years, with it being featured on their main page predominately and was later released as the Behemoth’s first game. The Behemoth later went on to develop Castle Crashers and Battle Block Theater.

Alien Hominid doesn’t break down walls, but instead crashes through them in spectacular fashion
Alien Hominid has an easy to follow story, much like an classic run n’ gun. An FBI agent shoots down a UFO carrying our little yellow hero and he crash lands on Earth. The FBI try to cover this up in a hilarious, not so subtle fashion, but the alien is not having any of it. From here on out, the alien starts his (her? Its?) sadistic quest to get revenge.

The one guy who caused this. Image courtesy of Moby Games.

The presentation of the game is very familiar to those who have watched Flash cartoons hosted on Newgrounds. It has a vibrant color scheme, with yellow and green being the big stand outs. The animation is not Disney quality, but has a kinetic energy to it that is more along the lines of a classic Tex Avery cartoon. Character’s eyes will bug out and mouths will drop right down to the floor. Characters will look minimalistic when they are idle and but it adds to the charm of it all. Bosses are over-the-top goofy as well. However, the level of gratuitous violence is what sets it apart from classic cartoons and more along South Park.

The FBI trying their best to cover up the incident. Image courtesy of Hardcore Gaming 101.

The alien will be biting heads clean off of the FBI agents, slicing and dicing them and even shooting them in areas where no man should be shot. The alien and the FBI also have no qualms blowing up everyone’s cars on the highway. It’s not overly gory or done in a tasteless manner though, as it still has this cartoonish edge to it all. Still, not exactly a kid’s game with all the beheadings going on.

The gameplay does not bring the newest food to the table, but instead makes a classic meal exceptionally well. Alien Hominid has a simplistic control scheme of jump and shoot. There are other moves in the game, such as the ability to throw grenades, use a melee weapon (borrowed directly from Metal Slug) and dig underground as a stealth tactic, but for the most part, players will have to make sure the Alien Hominid is shooting, jumping and dodging. It helps the controls are consistently fluid and responsive.

EXPLOSIVE action and HUGE bosses are found aplenty! Image courtesy of Nintendo City.

Metal Slug is Alien Hominid’s main source of information, even down to the “How to Play” screen that shows the player the controls. Even the sense of humor is similar. The whole tongue-in-cheek manner of the story and presentation will certainly create some laughs among the players.

On the side, there are a couple of old school minigames made with Atari in mind. The most prominent, Super Soviet Missle Mastar is an excellent parody of Cold War era paranoia.

An enormous difficulty curve may not be for everyone
Similar to Metal Slug, Alien Hominid showcases an immense level of difficulty. It is not Contra: Hard Corps level difficult, where bosses being thrown at the player every few feet, but it does require a level of skill. Make no mistake, Alien Hominid is not the most difficult game of all time, but it is certainly no cakewalk either. This is where it might scare some players, but if they are used to the overly difficult nature of run ‘n guns, then they can brush this off.

Alien Hominid may be one of the few games with a pudding boss. Image courtesy of Nintendo City.

One of Gaming’s Undervalued Treasures
From a little Flash game to big retail release to even an HD re-release on the Xbox 360, Alien Hominid is proof that anyone with a creative vision for video games can make it in the field. An imaginative and energetic art style and tight gameplay which harkens back to a cult hit video game series, make Alien Hominid one of Gaming’s Undervalued Treasures. It is an absolute blast throughout and can be enjoyed with two players, like any old run ‘n gun. Alien Hominid may be punishing, but sometimes it hurts so good.

It is not terribly obscure, as copies on Amazon don’t break the bank and the game is now available as a download but if any lower tier game was released around holiday 2004, they would be lost in the shuffle too.

Let’s Talk: What to Expect in DayZ

May 26, 2016 Tiffany

BAM to the zam through the pituitary gland! I’ma go straight in and say DayZ is worth getting if you like survival games. There are definitely a TON of zombie-related games like Call of Duty zombies, Left 4 Dead, The Walking Dead, Dying Light… Plants vs Zombies to name a few. Whether it’s single-player or not, we just wanna feel the thrill, test our survival skills, and gore is always a plus (at least for me). Let’s put the dim, flickery spotlight on DayZ for a moment, shall we?

Current Status

DayZ is still in Alpha through Steam since Dec 16, 2013. Based on their twitter profile, they plan to release it on Xbox and Playstation in the future.

The devs at Bohemia Interactive seemed to be slacking and the whole community was convinced the game would never go into Beta, but the devs are picking it back up again!

Good Morning Survivors! FYI We'll be working on the Exp/Unstable servers this morning, so you'll see them up/down at random times.

— DayZ Development (@dayzdevteam) May 20, 2016

Gameplay

I wouldn’t consider it much of a zombie game, since you have to worry about other players way more than the actual zombies. The biggest threat a zombie could be is giving away your position. But before this all happens, I have to mention that it’s a pain to get into the “good” servers (amount of lag based on the host). There is a 50 player maximum in a server, which means it can be a pain to get into the same server as your buddies. Another thing– it can take an insanely long time to cross each other’s paths. Sometimes you gotta die a few times to finally meet them, too. There will be times where another player begs you to kill them, so don’t be surprised! The map is HUUUUUGE!! There is no default auto-run key, so you gotta set a macro for it. Because, believe me, your hands start to ache.

Interactions

You could end up in this situation (Image taken from official DayZ website)

I can’t say this enough, but communication is extremely vital in this game. State your intentions immediately. Your ability to negotiate and the level of cooperation in both parties will determine your fate! After all that time and effort looting, it would be a shame to die and become a Bambie (aka fresh spawn) again. You never know what types of people you’re going to encounter, so it would be safer to listen to whoever has the advantage.

Note: if you’re looking for a chillax time, I recommend going to the”Roleplay” and “No KOS” (Kill On Sight) specific servers. Image below is a perfect example of how involved you can get in the community!

My former DayZ family forming a circle around a fist fight. It was after a trial we held about a cheating wife having intimate relations with the man’s best friend

Aside from the cookie-cutter buildings, the graphics look noice. Imagine how it’ll look when it comes out of Beta! (hopefully soon)

Why I’m Confident Mother 3 Will be Localized by the End of the Year

May 25, 2016 Kennedy

When it came out in 1994, Earthbound was a massive loss for Nintendo of America, and it seems that it’s haunted them to this day in more ways than one. Right off the bat Earthbound was a major financial loss during its initial release—its poor sales are commonly attributed to its poor advertising, RPGs not being popularized in the West yet, and most of all, you could only buy the game in a special edition that came with the guide that cost $70. Needless to say, there weren’t that many people at the time who wanted to pay $70 for a game that they hardly knew anything about, so sales were atrocious, therefore Nintendo didn’t produce many carts of it, nor did they bother to release its sequel game Mother 3 that came out 12 years later.
You’d be hardpressed to find a fanbase so devoted despite how Nintendo of America has neglected them than American Mother fans. Earthbound became a cult classic a few years after its initial release—just long enough for carts to be nearly impossible to find since Nintendo of America stopped distributing them so quickly. When Mother 3 finally came out in Japan 12 years later, for the first time in a long time for many Earthbound fans, hope had finally seem to come back! And so they waited for the announcement that Nintendo of America would translate Mother 3, but that announcement would never come. The closest thing they would receive was Lucas being in Super Smash Bro’s Brawl on the Wii, but his being there was not a decision made by Nintendo of America.

Image Source: Earthbound Wiki

When time passed and there was still no announcement, fans started to get angry. More importantly, fans started to get vocal. Threads about wondering where Mother 3 was became all too common in not just Earthbound and Nintendo forums, but video game forums as a whole. Notably, in an interview with Reggie Fils-Aime (Nintendo of America President) in 2007 he said, “…For example, I’m still being bombarded by Mother fans who are asking for [Mother 3] to be translated to English and launched here in the U.S.” Nintendo was clearly hearing the Mother fans, but they didn’t care to listen because of the horrible financial loss that was Earthbound—even though it had aged terrifically and is widely considered to be one of the best games on the SNES.
The next time America would hear about Mother 3 wouldn’t be until 2015 when Lucas was going to be added to Super Smash Bro’s 4 on the Wii U and 3DS—though again, his addition to Smash wasn’t a decision made by Nintendo of America. His release, however, got a lot of people wondering: Mother 3 turns 10 years old next year, and there’s a new group of Smash players being introduced to the Mother franchise through not only Lucas and Ness being in Smash, but the addition of Earthbound on the Wii U virtual console, and more importantly, the release of Mother 1 (retitled Earthbound Beginnings) which had previously been translated but never officially released in America because of poor timing (Which is why they decided to release Earthbound despite the myriad of production and translation snags that were had with it.) Nintendo of America seemed to finally be acknowledging the Mother franchise again—was there actually hope for Mother 3 all these years later?
On February 3, 2016 their prayers were finally answered when Emily Rogers—an employee for Nintendo who has been known to leak out information that thus far has been true (usually about when NX/Zelda U news would be annoucned) tweeted, “Don’t be surprised if Nintendo celebrates a game’s 10th anniversary this year… just some food for thought.” followed by a tweet with a picture of Kumatora—one of the main characters of Mother 3. The Internet went into a frenzy wondering if Mother 3 had actually been confirmed after all these years.

Image source: SSL Forum

There’s no reason to discredit or doubt what she says, as her track record of leaks has been pretty solid. On the other hand, however, she’s never leaked anything even close to as major as the potential release of Mother 3. Personally, I only see that as more reason to believe her, though—if she’s used to only leaking small, generally unimportant details about what Nintendo of America is doing, then why would she dive into something she knows would set off a frenzy? She knows that all eyes will be on her now, and if she’s wrong about this, she’ll be one of the first people a mob of enraged Mother 3 fans who had shown a glimmer of hope would be hunting down. An English release of Mother 3 has become such an unbelievable concept that the idea that a Nintendo employee would leak something like that has to be believable—if she wanted to leak something huge just to mess with everyone it would make more sense for her to go after something bigger and more relevant like Zelda U—a game that she had previously been leaking small tidbits of information for, and would therefore be far more believable.
Shortly after these tweets were set free, another Nintendo employee, Liam Robertson, tweeted “I was asked to keep quiet, and then Emily decided to let the cat out of the bag herself. Hopefully this clears some confusion.” “What I heard about Mother 3 (rumour) was that it was in the final stages of localisation in Nintendo of Europe a little while back.” “Emily sure likes to play around lol. My tweet wasn’t nearly this explicit and I got told off for it.” Tom Phillips of Eurogamer would later go on to corroborate them as well. She also recently tweeted that Mother 3’s announcement would likely be done at E3 in June—which would be a wise move on Nintendo’s part not only because their last E3 was considered to be a failure, but because this is also the first E3 for the new President of Nintendo, Tatsumi Kimishima. E3 is essentially the Olympics of video game distributors—if he were to have as lackluster of an E3 as Nintendo did last year, it would haunt his career (and PR) forever. If there were ever a time for him to bring out the absolute best of the best, it’s this E3. Nintendo has already announced that E3 will be mostly focused on Zelda U, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be entirely on that. Last year, for instance, although Star Fox Zero was the focus, it wasn’t the only thing we saw. Granted it was still almost entirely what we saw, my point still stands that there were a few other miscellaneous announcements. Zelda U could be the star of this E3, and the release of Mother 3 in English would make for a wonderful ending announcement to send Nintendo off on a good note.
I’m confident that Mother 3 will get announced sometime this year—more than likely at E3, but still sometime this year at the very least. If there were ever an E3 for Nintendo to do well at, it’s this one. More than that, Nintendo of America has been better about acknowledging the Mother franchsie by adding 1 and 2 to the Wii U Virtual Console and putting Earthbound on the New 3DS virtual console. They’re actively creating more Mother fans, and when they’re combined with the millions of insane Mother 3 fans who were already here, it would sell tremendously. Knowing that there’d be these same millions of Mother 3 fans demanding your head on a pike to be paraded through the streets if you were wrong, I don’t think anyone would leak anything about Mother 3 getting a translation this year just for fun—let alone it getting corroborated by two other reliable sources. It’s Mother 3’s 10th birthday this year, and Nintendo has always really liked celebrating major birthdays for their games— Super Mario Bro’s turning 30 last year for example, and even the 20th birthday of Earthbound by putting Earthbound Beginnings on the virtual console.

All the signs are pointing to it.
C’mon Reggie, give us Mother 3.

Remade, Rebooted, Redundant?

May 25, 2016 Ricky

Oftentimes its hard to stay original in any creative industry, most especially gaming. What play-style can you create that no one has seen before, or what new story can you use to hook an audience? Oftentimes, big-developers will put stock into these new innovations, however for the most part they will push remakes or sequels as they are sure-fire ways to get profits. And why wouldn’t they? These are franchises that we love and we want to see continue. Oftentimes, if a particular sequel is met with in-adequate sales or critical reception, then most likely the next number will be forgone in favor of a remake. Fans could be asking for a sequel for years while others think it would be best to try and start from scratch. And then there are times when a franchise that has no desire from the community to continue.

Dead to Rights was a great deal of ridiculous fun, but way too past its prime. Image source: Amazon.com

This can be seen in games such as Dead to Rights Retribution, which was meant to revitalize the franchise after the mediocre Dead to Rights 2. Ironically however, the remake didn’t do much better in either sales or critical reception. The franchise tried to stay relevant, but with a hap-hazard remake coming out four years after the its popularity went stale, there was so little interest in what was done different that it seemed to be the final nail in the series’s coffin. But there are cases where the fans can end up being blind-sided by a remake when what they really wanted was a sequel. Fans of Devil May Cry know this feeling all too well, as the outrage soared over the announcement of its grittier reboot.

The remake of Devil May Cry, or DMC: Devil May Cry, was a complete overhaul of design and tone for the series. The once cheesy and anime-like setup and style for the Devil May Cry characters were replaced with more gritty and modern styles that more reflected the hipster and internet activist crowd. While it kept the supernatural elements of the old series, such as the main protagonist Dante being the son of the demon lord Sparda and fighting demons to protect the world, it darkened his backstory at the same time making his attitude more rebellious. Instead of wearing a red trench coat with white hair, he instead sported a modern-punk faux hawk with a tank-top and a black jacket. Fans were bashing this design the second it had come out, and while Ninja Theory, the new developer on the game, tried to tweak it to fit the fans’ tastes more, it still was bogged down by hatred of change. But did that make it a bad game? Not at all. I even felt it was an interesting change. Don’t get me wrong, I still revere Devil May Cry 4 as one of my favorite games for the Playstation 3, but while this new game made a lot of changes, I felt the changes worked. Although there were of course some eye-rolling lines as well.

Only a slight change in Dante’s design. Image source: Butterfly Samurai.com

But what of the gameplay? The game was very similar to the old, having players utilize a variety of different guns and swords against different types of demons in the general hack-and-slash style. However, fans didn’t like some changes to it, such as the update to the style system. The system used to reward players for attacking enemies in different combos, dodging hits, and doing so in short amounts of time. The new system however just allowed a player to rack up points until they got hit, which for some felt overly simplistic, losing the reward for skill the game once had. Another factor was the lack of lock-on targeting which had been essential in every game so far. Thankfully though, Ninja Theory included it within the remastered DMC: Devil May Cry Definitive Edition for the Playstation 4. But all things considered, the story remained very similar, if only re-updated. Dante and Vergil are still brothers, and are still trying to take down the Demon king Mundus. However, while trying to keep the game fresh, it only turned off more people than it pleased, which is unfortunate because I consider it a great game,and I’m a huge fan of the series. And much like how this remake won’t be expanded, neither will the out-of-left field Prince of Persia from 2008.

When I read that a remake of Prince of Persia was being made for the Playstation 3 in Game Informer, I was confused. I had Two Thrones on PS2, and I thought it was great. Only later did I find out that it did the most poorly out of the three Prince games, Sands of Time and Warrior being the previous in the “Sands of Time” trilogy of the game. The game wanted to branch off of the original trilogy instead rather than continue the current. Now the game was based around a completely new character, having no name and not even called “The Prince”, as the previous protagonist had been, and his main goal is to help mystical princess, Elika, free the land (which has several Persian aesthetics and motifs) of corruption. While a lot of focus was on acrobatics and platforming, the game was now an open world game wherein the player could go after any of the four bosses in any order. After beating one, the player would be given a new ability to explore the world better. Erika also helps the player in acrobatic platforming. However a noticeable departure is the loss of the time reversing mechanic, relying more on a variety of gained abilities to make up for it. These abilities weren’t as powerful as time-reversing, but each was gained from a boss and allow the player to explore the world more.

Elika clearing the darkness from another section of the map. Once this finishes the player gets a new power. Image source: Destructoid.com

Another interesting note is the use of cel shaded graphics which helped set it apart. Unfortunately, the game received a luke-warm reception. Fans of the game series felt it was too easy and disliked the one-on-one QTE based fights that were based off of the original trilogy. The game would get an epilogue in DLC, however it only prolonged the gameplay a little bit while not furthering the story nearly at all. Prince of Persia would again be rebooted with The Forgotten Sands. However, with the most it could tout being the ability to run up frozen water, it seemed a desperate attempt to once again revitalize the franchise, but sadly enough it may have been the final nail in the prince’s coffin. At least for now.

So in summation, what can be said about remakes and reboots, and can they really work? It makes a lot of sense why someone would try to re-energize a series. It helps to bring them back into the limelight and possibly be improved for the modern times. For instance Far Cry seemed to get a complete tone shift in the third came which made it one of the best selling games in 2013. And while Ratchet and Clank may not be old, the new reboot released helped it break away from what a lot of fans saw as being a stale formula from titles sushi as All 4 One and Full Frontal Assault. However, there are times when people aren’t ready for the change and aren’t as receptive, such as with Prince of Persia or Devil May Cry. And even then, some franchises may seem only the more dated when being brought back such as Duke Nukem Forever or Star Fox Zero. The remakes and reboots that work do so because they know what made the original great, and instead of copy it, change it just enough to be interesting, but still be recognizable, getting the same emotions from fans as well as possibly some new ones.

Nintendogs: Man’s Best Friend, Loyal to the End

May 24, 2016 Sydney

In 2005 and 2006 a little game called Nintendogs took the handheld gaming world by storm. Such a simple idea, taking care of virtual puppies, the idea had been done before, but most of those games had an ending; ultimately there was a way for the game to end whether it be training the dog after a certain amount of time or completing mundane care tasks with little reward. Then the Nintendo DS artfully used its stylus and touch screen to create an interactive environment in which the person behind the screen acted more as an actual owner and less of an errand boy.

First of all, you got to pick your own dog. You were given enough money to pick whichever dog you wanted that was available in your specific game. Then you got to name it, feed it, give it water, give it baths, make sure they were happy and energized with toys and walks. You can could teach your puppy tricks and even train it for competitions. You could make your dog a pro athletics champ or maybe just dress them up and take them out on walks hoping for a special mystery gift to show off your doggy prowess to your friends who also had the game.

The game offered tons of opportunities to redecorate the house, dress your pup up, and become a competition champion. The only real end goal was maxing out the trainer points which were earned while playing the game, but in the end there were always the dogs to take care of. The puppies always needed to be fed, given water, washed and walked at the very least. There was always something to do in Nintendogs; so why do so why are so many puppies left abandoned?

It is really sad when you think about it, the puppies being left all alone with only themselves or maybe they have a friend or two to play with. They’ll be parched, starving, and filthy with flies jumping off of them, but they’ll slowly walk up to the screen begging for a bit of love and attention. It’s almost heartbreaking going back to an abandoned Nintendogs game, simply because they don’t die; they just wait.

It could be said that this style of punishment is used in other games, but in games like Animal Crossing the villagers move away if you don’t keep up with them. That would almost be better than the Nintendogs treatment. Yes the dogs run away, but that actually only happens if the game is left on. If that game isn’t played the dogs are left in a state of abandonment, still growing hungrier, thirstier, and dirtier with each passing day.

Thinking about the dogs being left to just wait reminds me of that one story, Hachi: a Dog’s Tale, the story of a very loyal dog who constantly waited at the train station for his master so that they could come home, but after the master dies while at work, Hachi finds himself waiting still for him to come to the train station, leaving Hachi to wait for the rest of his life. He was so loyal he couldn’t bear to leave his spot.

You can’t really ever hurt your Nintendog. They can get “sick,” but there isn’t a risk of losing them. They just look a little off for the rest of the walk after they eat trash, but after a few paces they’re back to their chirper selves. You can tug their leash a little too tight, but they only whimper for a second then they bark with joy. You can tug their paw a little too hard and it prompts a sneeze or they dance a bit jumping back and forth on their paws, but you can never really hurt them at all. They don’t hold a grudge over anything that their owner does or doesn’t do; they just continue to wait for love and attention, even if it’s the form of a few style taps on the screen. Give them food, water, a bath, maybe even a walk; make your Nintendog’s day, they’ve only been waiting ten years.

Image from Nintendogs Wikia

Street Fighter V: Is It Finished Yet?

May 23, 2016 dan

Ever since its release, Street Fighter V has been under fire for being an incomplete game, and who can blame anyone for thinking like this? Upon release, people who put that game into their system were greeted with barely anything to do offline. With no arcade mode, no challenge mode, a yet-to-be-added in-game shop for unlockables, and a horrible online experience for the first week of release, anyone who bought Street Fighter V in its February release had essentially purchased a $60 training mode with bad online.

What a lot of people seem to forget, though, was that a lot of the game’s major parts were to be added in March. So, now that the huge March update has happened, is the newest addition to Capcom’s fighting game giant actually worth a buy? Let’s find out.

Gameplay

Fighting games are notorious for alienating the more casual scene due to their high execution requirements, requiring a small frame of time to mix moves together into combos. Capcom noticed this trouble with the casual scene, and has increased the window for combos in this game, making the creation of effective combos much easier to do. Most bread n’ butter (BnB; basic, effective combos) combos in Street Fighter IV only had a window of 2 to 3 frames where you could input the next move before you drop the combo. In Street Fighter V, that number seems to be closer to 4 to 5 frames. On top of this, the casual audience can also rest easy knowing that even if they don’t have combos, they can still get by on the regular moves, because the damage on all attacks in Street Fighter V is huge. A few random attacks can do some serious damage if they land. The best part about these two simple changes is that even though it is more welcoming to the casual player, it also brings the competitive scene for the game closer to its roots. By making execution overall easier, in combination with the high damage from normal and special moves, it shifts the focus of the game away from having a player that has both high execution and a good neutral game, to a player that really only needs a good neutral game.

For those unacquainted with fighting games, the neutral game is the point in a match where neither player is at a clear advantage or disadvantage on screen, and both are trying to get in on each other. This point in the game relies heavily on mindgames and prediction, as opposed to execution. Lots of limb-flailing going on here to keep opponents out or to try to get in on them. Punishing mistakes, applying pressure, everything to do with fighting games outside of execution happens in the neutral game. It’s the core of fighting game fundamentals. This change to almost exclusive focus on the neutral game is a smart choice. By having the gameplay focus more on fighting game fundamentals, it helps to develop the player into someone who is better overall at the game than creating a person with a flowchart of “that one combo they found” or keeping to one singular strategy. It encourages the player to learn, because they know that all they have to know to get by is their opponent, rather than any complicated combo list, while at the same time rewarding the player for knowing those combos.

Mobility in Street Fighter V feels incredible. Everyone has the perfect amount of weight to them and maneuvering around the screen feels incredibly natural. Street Fighter V is by far the best-feeling game in the franchise, even better than fan favorite Street Fighter 3: Third Strike. That said, mobility in a fighting game isn’t really something that can be graded, as how a fighting game feels to the player is almost entirely subjective. So while I feel that Street Fighter V feels the best, this is the part that will vary the most from person to person.

Zangief Spinning Pile Driver Street Fighter V

Image courtesy of GiantBomb user DryvBy

Now moving on to the actual mechanics themselves, Street Fighter V seems to have taken the series back to basics in terms of, well, everything. No more Focus Attacks, no more supers, no more Ultra Meter. In its place, we have Critical Art (CA) Meter, and the V-Gauge. The CA Meter is used for only two things: EX attacks, and a Critical Arts. EX attacks are powered up versions of each characters’ special moves that take one bar of your meter to perform, and Critical Arts are what’s replacing both Supers and Ultras in this game. Critical Arts are powerful moves you can do once you fill up your meter. Performing them takes all the meter you have, but if landed, they can be game-changing. You can charge your CA Meter by doing pretty much anything. Attacking, blocking, getting hurt – anything.

The V-Gauge is also only used for two things: V-Reversals, and V-Triggers. V-Reversals are exactly what they say: reversals. If your opponent is applying pressure, you can spend half of your V-Gauge to push them away from you. V-Triggers are special skills you can perform when your V-Gauge fills up. These skills vary from being something simple like an increase in overall damage for a short period of time, to a special attack that can put you at a serious advantage. Because of the higher utility the V-Gauge offers, it is harder to build up than the CA Meter. You can either build up your V-Gauge by getting hurt or using your V-Skill, a special move that varies from character to character.

That’s it for actual mechanics, though. The minimal mechanics help highlight the neutral game, giving the players just enough tools to deal damage and get in, without it being so full of mechanics you get lost in the sheer amount of options you have. With less overall options, it’s easier to learn your opponents and develop strategies for their specific style of play. It sacrifices complexity for the sake of a more involved mental game, and it works wonderfully.

One last thing I’m going to mention is that the roster is incredibly balanced. Every character has high points and low points that make them each good in their own way, where even the lowest tier characters can still make top 8 in tournaments.

Street Fighter V is by far my favorite Street Fighter game in terms of how it plays and feels.

Looks/Sound

Aesthetically speaking, Street Fighter V looks fairly lacking when compared to other fighting games, such as Mortal Kombat X or Guilty Gear Xrd. Not to say it looks bad, just that it could be better. The quality of the character models is very good, and the environments are bright and full of color. The biggest issue here, though, is that the environments don’t feel like they’re a part of the game like in previous entries. This has to do with the fact that, while the playable characters are animated at a full 60 fps, the backgrounds are only animated at 30 fps. Meaning the images in the back are going to look really off-putting while playing. The stages themselves look good, but when playing through them, I can’t help but feel detached because of this weird, unnecessary difference in frame rate.

Now, onto my biggest complaint about the visuals in this game: the color of the stages. You have all of these beautiful looking stages, with all of these colors that could be used really well to make them even prettier, and this just doesn’t happen because of one huge reason:

HARDLY ANY OF THE STAGES ARE WHITE BALANCED WELL

Image Courtesy of EventHubs’ Jonathan ‘Catalyst’ Grey

Seriously, it may seem like a small thing to some, but god damn is it horribly obvious in this game. The colors in the majority of the stages all have this really ugly blue tint to them from lack of white balancing, as shown above. And when it’s not an ugly blue tint, it’s an ugly orange tint. All of those great colors could have been brought out so much better if they just white balanced the stages.

Now onto the sound, and I’ve gotta’ say, Capcom nailed it with the OST here. You’ve got a bit of everything, from the hype-building Rashid’s theme, Ryu’s orchestral theme, Ken’s awesome hard rock, and F.A.N.G.’s… Dubstep elevator music? Yeah I guess that’s how you’d describe it. But it’s great, I swear! Point is, this OST is awesome, and huge props to Capcom for making one of the best fighting game OSTs of all time.

Story

lol

Content

Ah, here it is. This is where all the backlash is coming from. Does Street Fighter V have enough content to warrant its price? It certainly didn’t at its release. But now that the promised March update has happened, adding in a lot of the content that was lacking in the initial release, is it finally worth a buy?

Well, let’s add it all together, shall we? The amount of content in this game is as follows: Survival Mode, Training Mode, unlockables through the in-game shop, Challenge Mode, ranked and casual online matches, quick stories for each character, access to the Capcom Fighters Network, and yes, the online is now actually stable and working pretty alright now. If you want to count it, we’re also getting a cinematic story mode some time next month.

Survival mode is the closest thing this game has to an arcade mode, and it’s not as good as one. You go through a lot of stages, each increasing in number with difficulty, and try to beat the boss at the end. To stay in the best shape you can, you can exchange points you earn for winning fights for buffs in HP, attack, defense, etc. It would be so much cooler if it weren’t for the horrible AI. It’s pathetic for the first half of survival, and then is absolutely brutal in the second half, so getting through the whole thing, even after a little bit of practice, is still horribly tedious. That said, I still enjoy the occasional survival mode, and don’t really see why people hate it aside from unlocking colors. As a mode on its own, I feel like it’s perfectly fine. The AI may be jank, but going through it once you learn the game is kinda fun. You just have to get over that difficulty spike if you’re playing on anything higher than easy.

The stories take 5 minutes per character, are pathetically easy, horribly written, and have ugly art, though sometimes comically bad. And some stories are kind of entertaining. And by some, I mean just Zangief’s.

Doesn’t stop the art from being ass, though.

Challenge mode is the standard fighting game challenge mode, where you’re presented with 10 combos for each character that you have to pull off. You get nothing out of this aside from something to do and some help on your execution, which isn’t a bad thing. Especially since this is the first challenge mode I’ve seen where the combos in it are actually practical. A couple of the combos I came up with for Nash actually were in challenge mode. It was soul-crushing.

The Capcom Fighting Network is irrelevant if you don’t play competitively, but if you do, it’s a place for you to keep track of the top players and watch replays of pretty much any match that happened online. It’s a great way to learn more about the game.

There is plenty of content, but half of it won’t be revisited after the first play through.

Conclusion: Should You Buy Street Fighter V?

Okay, here it is, the big moment. After everything that’s happened with Street Fighter V, is it finally worth a buy after the update? Well, a used copy of Street Fighter V at Gamestop goes for about $45, and that’s the perfect price. I want to use that to prove something: Even after this huge update, with the extra characters, modes, unlockables, and everything, Street Fighter V still does not have enough content to warrant a $60 price tag. Even now that it’s price has been lowered to $50 for a new copy, that’s not going to be worth it until June, maybe. If the story mode isn’t 5 minutes like what we have now. I bought my copy for $60 on release, and I love it. It’s one of my favorite fighting games, and I feel like my money was well spent for the time I’ve put into it. But I can’t honestly recommend getting this game to anyone for anything higher than $45. I wouldn’t buy a game that was online-only for any more than $30, and with the content Street Fighter V has, it just pushes it up to $45 as a good price. It plays wonderfully, looks good, and sounds great. From the perspective of gameplay, Street Fighter V is absolutely fantastic, and if you want to play it, you should buy it for whatever price you want. But if you’re looking for content, this game just won’t deliver for full price. Get it used.

Pony Island: Not Your Typical Puzzler

May 23, 2016 Deanna

Pony Island is an interesting little puzzle game. You find what seems like an old arcade machine with an AI that is alive in many respects. You’re greeted with a bubbly, happy splash screen. The AI speaks to you. It’s a setup that’s been seen before, in many games. And yet, this time it feels very different.

Ah, yes. Exactly what you’d expect! (Image from Indiegames.com)

The game starts out as a runner. You’re controlling a pony with the goal of just getting to the end. After a couple levels, though, Pony Island ramps up the satanism by a lot. And by that, I mean you become the herald for someone trapped in the game, trying to break free. Pony Island transitions into this section of the game very well. I think that for a game jam game like this, it pulls off getting into the meat of the game really well.

So, you’ve met this person via a chat interface inside this arcade machine’s computer. You’ve talked for a while. Another AI introduces itself, with seemingly more evil intentions than the first. Its main goal is to keep you in the game, to keep you playing. The first person says it’s due to errors in the game’s code, and that they’ll help you get to the faulty bits for you to fix them.

Coding looks exactly like this, I promise. Complete with ponies.

These puzzle sections are what you’re really getting at via the levels. (Image from Kotaku.)

As far as puzzles go, the coding is easy enough to figure out. There are certain tiles that will progress the cursor to the next line, to the previous line, move it between columns, or make it repeat from a certain point. The running sections are what’s difficult– turns out it’s kind of hard to focus on jumping, shooting a laser from a pony’s inorganically moving head, and dodge projectiles. Yes, sometimes all at once. This was my only frustration. It made it difficult to progress, and running through the same beginning section of one particular level was boring after the first fifteen attempts.

Pony Island doesn’t stand out in terms of gameplay. It’s very standard, and the puzzles have an interesting spin. I’d go so far as to say that while it is a video game, its main purpose was to be a medium to tell the story. As you play the game, you begin to realize that the AI with evil intentions is, spoilers, Literally Satan™. It’s designed the game to capture lost souls who may decide to play it, you included. It’s spent time reinventing the game and trying to draw in bigger crowds, even as you play. It breaks the fourth wall, but not in that awkward way that some other games would. For me, at least, it drew me in and kept me in. I didn’t even question the part where I killed Jesus.

Yeah. It happened. (Image from Encyclopedia Dramatica.)

In summary, Pony Island is a really, really solid game, and probably one of my favorite indie titles to come out this year. While the indie scene was being overshadowed with Undertale stealing the spotlight for many Game of the Year awards, Pony Island managed to hold its own enough to garner some attention for a little while.

Gaming’s Undervalued Treasures: Final Fight 3

May 23, 2016 colin

Picture courtesy of Giant Bomb user dracocall

Final Fight 3 deserves more love from SNES fans
The original Final Fight, released back in 1989, is often seen by several old school gamers to be one of the most memorable beat ‘em ups.

The game was a massive success in the arcades, as well as home consoles. Capcom created and developed a sequel exclusive to the SNES under the immensely intriguing title Final Fight 2, which is a solid game in its own right.

Final Fight 3 was also released as a SNES exclusive. However, it came near the system’s end in 1995. The game features the largest roster of characters, each with their own truly unique special moves to add to the already near-perfect gameplay.

GUT Final Fight 3 7

Final Fight 3 is also one of the few side scrolling beat ‘em ups to feature branching paths which effect the game’s ending. From a technical stand point, Final Fight 3 contains some fist pumping anthems which fit the chaotic fights seamlessly and curb check the tinny sounds of the original game. Final Fight 3’s colorful, comic book-like graphics are pleasing to look it throughout.

Since it was released so late into the SNES lifespan, and was BLASTED by several major video game magazines , Final Fight 3 faded into obscurity.

The only franchise to feature a pro wrestling mayor as its hero three times!
Final Fight 3’s story is similar to most beat ‘em ups; an interchangeable gang, (this time the Skull Cross Gang, which to be fair is a totally bad ass name), takes over an interchangeable city (Metro City) and our heroes (Mayor Mike Haggar and friends) must walk forward and punch and kick everyone in the face in the name of justice.

What is nice to see when the game is booted up on the SNES, is an extended intro which gives a detailed backstory, including the riots the Skull Cross Gang has started throughout city. New comers to the series, Luica and Dean are even given a quick origin story and players are caught up with the returning Guy and Haggar.

The cut scenes actually add to the story of Final Fight 3. Image courtesy of Giant Bomb user 234r2we232.

Lucia is a booty short wearing cop who mildly resembles Jennifer Jason Leigh in Single White Female. Dean is a big Image Comics looking-dude who controls electricity and whose family was killed by the Skull Cross Gang.

Our heroes, ladies and gentlemen! Image courtesy of Hardcore Gaming 101.

Refined and polished to borderline perfection

By this time in the mid-90s, the beat ‘em up genre was very much a road well-traveled. Final Fight 3 is walking down that road, but the gameplay has beneficial tweaks here and there which make Final Fight 3 fresh and exciting.

The new cast members, Dean and Lucina in action! Image courtesy of Giant Bomb user Kou_Leifou

The new cast members, Dean and Lucia in action! Image courtesy of Giant Bomb user Kou_Leifou

For starters, Final Fight 3 introduces a run button, similar to how Sega’s Streets of Rage 3 did. However, it does not feel as slippery as it was introduced in that game. Running in Final Fight 3 allows for more moves for each character, adding in a bit of depth in a genre that is not known for being deep.

The return of Guy is something most Final Fight fans will love about this game. Image courtesy of Giant Bomb user ignor

Guy executing a running attack!. Image courtesy of Giant Bomb user ignor

Each of the four characters has their own unique play style and special attacks. Guy is the quick, combo heavy one, not unlike his appearances in Street Fighter. Haggar is a grappler/powerhouse, Lucia is your basic, all around character and Dean is a charge-like character. It helps to have more variety, especially when it comes to playing with other friends.

Final Fight 3 also takes on a more colorful and animated art style that is not like the other games. Characters appear a little cartoony and have that mid-90s Capcom vibe which gives Final Fight 3 an appealing look. It gets rid of the gritty style of the first game and overall looks better than 2.

Haggar has spent most of his political career on the streets! Image courtesy of Giant Bomb user kou_leifou.

Finally, the branching paths will offer some new scenery along with a chance to get a different ending. Not the greatest feature of the game, but it helps add to the experience of playing Final Fight 3.

Final Fight 3’s features similarities to another Capcom franchise…
Even when compared to most beat ‘em ups, the first and second Final Fight had beyond easy control set ups. One button to jump, one to attack and pressing the two made the character do a special attack. There was a separate button in 2 which controlled the special attacks.

An example of the super moves found in Final Fight 3. Image courtesy of Giant Bomb user kou_leifou.

This control scheme is implemented in Final Fight 3, but there is the addition of more special attacks. How the player executes the moves is more in line with a fighting game, very similar to how Street Fighter or Darkstalkers plays. Fighting game fans can feel right at home with the special move system along with the super meter which can be triggered and create a devastating super move.

Final Fight 3’s only flaw is the mild repetition
A welcome addition of characters, moves and smoother gameplay allows Final Fight 3 to be great. Not flawless though, as the game suffers from what many other beat ‘em ups suffer from. Repetition.

Dispensing some justice with a lead pipe. Image courtesy of Giant Bomb user 234r2we232.

The player will be taking Haggar and friends on an excellent adventure through some vibrant locales, but the enemies and even the bosses will not be as creative. At least halfway through the game, enemies start to repeat.

The music does not fare much better, as the same tunes are repeated ad nausem throughout the game. They aren’t bad, the song “For Metro City” is arguably the highlight of the soundtrack, but when the player is hearing the same four songs over and over again, it gets old.

One of Gaming’s Undervalued Treasures
Final Fight 3 is one of the best examples of a sequel being overshadowed. The original Final Fight has a massive following and several ports to consoles, whereas 3 has the SNES port and it is exceptionally rare. However, the game can be downloaded on the Wii and Wii U thanks in part to the Virtual Console.

A beat ‘em up worthy of anyone’s collection, Final Fight 3 offers gameplay a little more complex than the average side scroller and features some fantastic controls as well. The graphics showcase the SNES colors expertly and the multiple characters and paths will make this an instant replay, especially among fans of classic beat ’em ups.

Semi-Hiatus | Ep.14

May 20, 2016 The Lifecast

Hi all! Just making sure this episode gets out before it gets to be too late! Later this week we’ll be off again. This is another filler-type episode, so sit back and enjoy!

Host/Producer: Deanna Minasian

Guests This Week: Tiffany Ma, Rich Capezzuto, Pat Bowden

Intro/Outro Music: Fluffing a Duck – Kevin Macleod

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