What I'm Playing (Volume 109): Azure Striker Gunvolt

Azure Striker Gunvolt is an action platforming game  in the vein of Mega Man originally for the 3DS, but has now also been ported to PC and the Switch. For the purposes of this review, I'm playing the version found on Azure Striker Gunvolt: Striker Pack for the 3DS, which features both the game and its sequel on a single cartridge.

I'm all in for Mega Man. So when I found out that the team behind the Mega Man Zero games made their own similarly styled game with all original IP, I was all in. The comparisons between the games are more than skin deep. One series' plot features a moody hero with tremendous powers who must carve his way through hordes of enemies intent on enslaving himself and all of the other people like him. The other one is is Mega Man Zero. But in all seriousness, the two series are extremely similar in setting, plot, and presentation, save for some faux-edgy dialogue that invents fake swear words (holy jitt!) and some occasionally sexually suggestive stuff (pretty tame). You'll shoot, dash, and jump your way through several levels, needing to beat the elementally based boss at the end, and will be rewarded a score based on how quickly and cleanly you're able to finish.

There are a few new things here. Combat features a new mechanic called tagging, in which your base gun will build extra charges for each shot that hits an enemy. Any tagged enemy can be hit with your electrical powers for far more damage than your base gun can deal, but building those charges with your gun is really important to maximize the damage you do. The electrical powers, however, drain your power meter, so you'll need to plan out how it's used, and also realize that being hit by enemies will drop your power meter significantly. Once empty, you'll be unable to use those powers, along with other unlockable abilities like double jumping, until the bar is completely filled, which takes a crippling length of time, particularly in a boss battle. It feels a bit like Diablo III in that you'll spend a good bit of time using basic skills to build up your meter, and then blow it all quickly to do a ton of damage, and rinse and repeat.

You can also use your electrical abilities to manipulate metallic objects in certain stages, making for some interesting and new platforming mechanics. I wish they had played around with these ideas more, as these segments were some of the most interesting in the game. I really would have liked to see a boss battle in which using these skills was critical to victory, but was a bit disappointed that that wasn't the case.

You can level up in the game, something that's pretty foreign to the Mega Man series in general. These level ups aren't particularly noticeable in terms of power spikes, but do have a weird quirk in which a level up will completely heal Gunvolt, which feels kind of weird in a genre intent on avoiding damage and playing strategically. Gunvolt is already VERY tanky, and can take a ton of hits, and has a skill that can heal HP at will, so including another tool to stay healthy encouraged you to play more fast and loose than in other games in this vein. I didn't care for it.

Performing better on a level also allows you to have extra chances to get better loot after a level, and this loot can be used to craft newer and better gear for Gunvolt. This is an interesting idea, but I feel like the loot didn't really play around too much with the basic concept of the game. I would have loved it if they had made it so you could outfit him with different kits, like one that allows you to strike from a longer distance while being more safe, while another makes him tankier but also requires you to get up close and personal to finish off your opponents.

The music was really, really cool. The electronica-focused soundtrack had a relentless energy and frenetic pace, and it was great.

The difficulty on this game is simply too low. I almost never struggled with the game, and it also features unlimited continues with no time penalty for dying, meaning that its a pretty leisurely walk through the game.

My biggest complaint about the game is the visuals. They look super cool at first glance, but it can be really difficult to tell where you are, where enemy projectiles are, and watching your enemy to anticipate his moves while you are using your electrical powers. It makes the game extremely chaotic, and not as much fun as a Mega Man game, in which being more precise in avoiding your foes is paramount.

This is a slightly above average game, but it's also crammed into a genre busting at the seams of quality for your playing pleasure. I'd recommend the following over Azure Striker Gunvolt, with strong recommendations in bold:

Mega Man
Mega Man 2
Mega Man 3 
Mega Man 4
Mega Man 5
Mega Man 6
Mega Man 7
Mega Man 8
Mega Man 9
Mega Man X
Mega Man X2
Mega Man Zero
Mega Man Zero 2
Mega Man Zero 3
Mega Man Zero 4
Mega Man and Bass
Vectorman
Gunstar Heroes
Any Metal Slug game
Several I'm assuredly forgetting

I think you get the point. It's even more convenient that many of these games/series are packaged neatly into some nice collections that will allow you to experience all of these gems in their entirety, for a very reasonable price. If you really like run 'n gun shooters, as I do, feel free to grab this one. If not, there are better options out there. I'll give it a 7.7/10.

I lost my 3DS charge cable like an idiot, so I still need to work on getting the best ending of this slightly above average game because I'm an idiot. While I search for the cable, or until I buy a replacement, I'll be running through something I said I wasn't going to be back to for a while, and I may have a little bit of the bug.

-TRO

Top Ten PS1 Games

I am having a crazy amount of fun doing top ten lists for some of my favorite consoles, so here goes another one! I had to acknowledge in my last two lists for the DS and the PS2 that they're pretty shallow consoles, or at least that my experience with them is pretty shallow. I do think that there are probably 5 other games on each console that could have fit on my top ten lists for each, but I'm only one man with a limited budget and even more limited time to experience all that each console has to offer, so sue me. On the other hand, the PS1 is a console that is insanely deep, and even though I haven't experienced a ton of the system's library, I managed to put together a top ten list that has ten games that I REALLY love. So here goes! Same rules as usual, no ports, or Chrono Trigger would be number 1 on too many lists to count.

Caveat-I have never played through to completion, or even far enough to fairly evaluate, any of the following games:

Metal Gear Solid
Any Resident Evil game
Silent Hill
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Chrono Cross
Either Gran Turismo
Any Spyro game
Parasite Eve
Either of the Suikoden games
Any Tomb Raider games
Star Ocean: The Second Evolution
Grandia
Spider-Man

Honorable Mentions:

The Legend of Dragoon-very ambitious and fun, but inferior to the Final Fantasy triad across the board.
Battle Arena Toshinden-this game really opened up my eyes to the capabilities of 3D fighters, even if it's not nearly the game Tekken is, or even Virtua Fighter. I think of it as the forerunner to brilliant games like Soulcalibur.
Tekken and Tekken 2-There was really only one spot available on the top ten for a fighter, and you'll notice which of the trilogy is missing here.
Final Fantasy Chronicles-My true number 2 that doesn't fit the requirements. It completely captured my JRPG loving heart and broadened my horizons past Pokemon. God bless this collection of masterpieces. I spent SO much time with these two discs.
Final Fantasy Anthology-This was my first legal chance to try out Final Fantasy V, and also features my two favorite 2D Final Fantasy games (by a mile).

And now for the real top ten.

10. Twisted Metal 2

What is Super Mario Kart's battle mode was like, way more adult and stuff? Twelve year old me was SOLD!

9. Final Fantasy VIII

This is the one game of the three main Final Fantasy games on the console that I did not own in high school, meaning that I don't have nearly the nostalgic attachment to it that I do the other two. When I finally got to it, I decided that it didn't have the mad genius or fantastic character customization of its predecessor, nor the graphical and storytelling prowess of its successor. But this may just be my nostalgia speaking, as its truly a great game.

8. Crash Bandicoot 3

This is the best of the Crash Trilogy, and it's still really fun today.

7. Final Fantasy IX

This game, along with Final Fantasy X, represents Final Fantasy's peak storytelling powers. It also is, unfortunately, a nadir for character customization since Final Fantasy IV, which is really why I strongly prefer other Final Fantasy titles like Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy VII, and Final Fantasy X. But it's the story that sticks with me, and finds that I really can't drop it any lower than this. You could even convince me to move it up two spots or so.


6. Tekken 3

My friend and I had so much fun playing Tekken 3 against each other back in the day. It was the culmination of 32 bit 3D fighting games, and it laid the groundwork nicely for the hyper-complex 3D fighting titles to come, along with Soulcalibur and Dead or Alive. But Tekken is my favorite of the three by a comfortable margin.

5. Xenogears

This is the most seriously flawed game of any on this list. It features an -extraordinarily dense- (Xenogears fans will get this) story that may or may not be due to the challenge of translating so much text. The entire second disc is a testament to Squaresoft running out of money to complete the game properly. This game is a bit like (I would imagine) proposing to a new friend that they attend an orgy with you, you'd need to have some intel before proposing such a thing. So, I rarely lead gaming conversations with people about my love for Xenogears, but if I know that you love mecha anime and Final Fantasy, it's going to come up pretty quick. It features an incredible turn-based battle system with 2D sprite person to person combat using complex combos that gradually unlock other combos as you progress in strength, but an entirely separate combat system for when you jump into your baller mechs to wreck a bigger kind of face. It has characters that will always live in the pantheon of JRPG lore forever for me (here's looking at you, Citan and Billy), and the game hearkens back to a day when JRPGs were still a bit of a hidden and unpolished secret. I adore this game, warts and all.

4. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

While I love every game from 10-5, this is where the list switches to must have games. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is a work of superlative genius, taking a classic property and updating enough to totally change the concept, while retaining just enough of the classic elements to keep it recognizable. It's an achievement a bit like Super Mario 64 or Final Fantasy VII, but certainly on a less grandiose scale. If you've never played this one before, go grab one of the several ports, as the PS1 version is very expensive, and enjoy a few days of adventures with Alucard.

3. Final Fantasy Tactics

Man, this is a really bad cover. But that's almost everything bad I could say about this game! Also, the story is a bit incomprehensible. But this game thrives on character building and tactical gameplay, and the game gets a 10/10 on both counts. Your characters are YOUR characters, and you make them how you want them. This game, its GBA sequel, Fire Emblem, and Fire Emblem Awakening are the four must play games in this genre, and you absolutely must experience them.

2. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

Sometimes, a game comes around and shows a lot of promise, but takes a lot of swings and misses, needing a sequel to get everything right, like Mass Effect. Other times, a game comes out and is surpassingly brilliant, and produces a wave of imitators and sequels that all just rearrange the elements a tiny bit, and are only capable of modest improvements. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is precisely that kind of game. Sure, the manualing was a great addition in the sequel, but I've honestly never even played that game seriously. I don't even own it. If I did, and I'd played it through, I'm sure it would appear on this list too, and maybe even higher than this game. But I spent so much time playing this game in high school that the courses are all indelibly etched in my memory, along with the location of all of the skill points, secret tapes, and S-K-A-T-E letters. It's an immersive and accessible concept, and is just flat out fun. Go play it!

1. Final Fantasy VII

Why don't you just call this list four Final Fantasy games and 6 very good other games TRO? Or why don't you just call it five Squaresoft games and 5 very other good games TRO? Guilty as charged! I love 90's Squaresoft (the run for Squaresoft from Final Fantasy IV to Final Fantasy X is pretty unparalleled in video game history for innovation and quality in a single series), and no game epitomizes that love for me quite like Final Fantasy VII, my personal favorite in the series. It took a 2D franchise and updated it to 3D, incorporating cinematics into the game like nothing had ever done before, and had the coolest characters and story I'd ever seen in a video game at that time. Sure, the graphics have aged poorly, and it's probably the worst looking game on this list. But the character development mechanics were nearly perfect, the world and story were completely immersive, the soundtrack is incredible, and it just oozes "cool" out of every pore. It's a touchstone in JRPG history, and is one of a holy trilogy of genre changers including Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy IV, and this, that completely changed the way we thought about role playing games in the future. Every modern RPG owes something to Final Fantasy VII, and there's a reason we keep talking about it in the modern day. If you're one of the few that hasn't played it, there's no better time than now.

Well, now I need to think pretty hard about my next list. It needs to be a system that I can go ten deep in with games I enjoy, and also one in which I've played a pretty significant portion of the library. I'm leaning towards black and white Game Boy, 3DS, or maybe the N64 next. Check back soon for another What I'm Playing in the near future, too.

-TRO

What I'm Playing (Volume 108): Dragon Warrior

Dragon Warrior is a game for the NES, but for the purposes of this review, I played the Game Boy Color port, which has slightly less difficulty and improved graphics, as well as featuring a new translation.

Boy, does this game have a lot of back story. I'll have to boil it down here, because getting all of the important points would probably take a multi-part series, so here are a few down and dirty bullet points.

• Dragon Warrior is a renaming of the iconic Japanese RPG Dragon Quest. It was renamed for copyright reasons thanks to a pen and paper RPG in the U.S. called DragonQuest.
• It's the first of a series that is hugely popular in Japan, and less so in North America, where Final Fantasy reigns supreme. 
• Copies of Dragon Warrior were given away for free with a Nintendo Power subscription, which explains why copies of the game are so plentiful, especially compared with other Japanese RPGs of the era. 
• Dragon Quest features artwork from Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, but the original North American releases of the series removed his involvement from box and manual art, which makes sense as he was a complete unknown in the U.S. and would remain so until the late '90s, when Dragon Ball Z debuted on American TV.
• Dragon Quest is really, really, really important, especially if you love Final Fantasy, Pokemon, Suikoden, Chrono Trigger, Shin Megami Tensei, or even American RPG series like Fable. Not only was Dragon Quest the first JRPG on a console, it was really the first RPG of any kind on a console, and laid the groundwork for how you could make an immensely complicated genre exemplified by D&D heavy games like Wizardry, Ultima, and the gold box games on PC simple enough to control and enjoy with a two button controller. This simplicity engaged more casual players, but also cut the barrier to entry price-wise, as personal computers were still hugely expensive back in those days. Legacy wise, this game is hovering around the top tier of video games, along with Space Invaders, Pong, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., Grand Theft Auto 3, and all of the other usual suspects.

There's really a ton more I could say, but I literally owe the existence of dozens of my favorite video games to this one, so it was very fun to go back and see where it all began.

The plot here is pretty simple, which is great. You're a warrior, descendant of the great warrior Loto, and you need to smash an evil enemy to restore peace to the land. Along the way, you can also save the princess, but you don't have to!

The game is really remarkably well messaged and designed. From the beginning, you get enough information to set upon your journey, but also the tools you need to survive. Someone in the very first town will tell you that every time you cross a bridge, the monsters will continue to grow stronger. Another tells you that you should save up some money to buy better equipment from a nearby town before going too far. And from there, you're free to explore, learning these lessons the hard way. Thge way of failure is not exceedingly hard, though. Death merely means losing half of your money and returning to the king, rather than losing all of your progress before the last save, as in Phantasy Star or Final Fantasy. You can see the enemy's castle literally on the very first screen upon leaving the castle in which you start your journey, and its presence will loom large in your mind as you probe and explore more of the map, trying to find your way to accessing it. The game teases you early with items you'll need to defeat the enemy, with a shrine that tells you about the equipment your ancestral hero had upon defeating the enemy years before. Then villagers will drop little breadcrumbs to you about the directions of these various items. I know some of this is the improved translation and balancing of experience and gold costs, but dang if this game wasn't really well paced and balanced between grinding and exploration, with a generally clear expectation of what to do next. There were a few times I resorted to a guide, but I was generally able to explore on my own, and the moments in which a guide was strictly necessary were few. With enough patience, I think everything could have been figured out on my own, but my basic rule is that if I spend 15 minutes on something and just can't figure it out, and am not enjoying myself, I feel justified in looking something up. Time is valuable, and this game is certainly more respectful of your time than Final Fantasy or Phantasy Star.

The combat is exceedingly simple, but ultimately very fun. The battle animations are ok, and everything is understandable. It's clear what your stats mean and what your commands do. You control a single character who evolves based on a predetermined curve and learns spells at predetermined times, so your "role-playing" opportunities are fewer than I would like. But for an early RPG, it's perfectly fine.

I honestly didn't listen to the music at all. I have heard it's excellent, but I can't vouch for this.

Graphically, the game is perfectly fine for the era. Looking at the NES artwork (my visuals were redone, so I'm just basing this on still photos), it's certainly less impressive than, say, Final Fantasy and light years behind Phantasy Star, but it was also made significantly earlier than that. But the GBC visuals are nice enough that you won't have any qualms. There are too many recolors, as you'll run into pretty my every enemy archetype within the first 45 minutes of play, but again, it's an early example of the genre on a cart with very limited memory, so I'll give it a pass.

The pacing on this game was a complete breath of fresh air. I really struggle with games that ask me to burn 30-50 hours to complete, and I think I finished this one closer to 10. God bless old games.

The game isn't perfect for sure. It's got the barest of bare bones plots. I prefer RPGs with more customization options in character development. It gets pretty heavily grindy by the end, with very low stat growths to twist the knife even deeper. The combat is basically press A to win, while healing from time to time.

But I really enjoyed spending time with this one. I cheated my way through Dragon Warrior on an emulator during college, but really don't count that as an official clear, and remembered precious little about it. I'll definitely be giving Dragon Warrior II a shot at some point, but I think I've done enough handheld RPGing for a few weeks at least. I'll give this game a 9.0/10, and would recommend that every play it for sheer historical significance alone.

Up next on What I'm Playing is a game I've been wanting to try for years, and finally picked up a copy.

-TRO

Top Ten DS Games

This is, to date, the only console I have ever bought on its release date, and it is one that is filled with many happy memories for me. I bought it at Toys 'R Us after several failed attempts elsewhere, and I'll never forget its beautiful clamshell design, the wonders of how tiny the cartridges were, or my joy at being able to play Super Mario 64 on a handheld (this was the first game I bought for the system). I also loved that I could still play my old GBA games on it. We spent many happy hours playing great/good/average/poor/stupid games on the bus and at school, and I spent many more solitary hours playing in my room, in the car, and on the couch. It will always hold a special place in my heart, but I do think that the Game Boy Advance still has the overall deeper and better library of games, explaining why I did a Top Ten GBA Games article first. It was frankly a little shocking to me how shallow this console is, as I would only consider the top seven games to be truly must-buys.

My basic rules have been roughly the same for every list thus far, namely, no ports or remakes.

Honorable Mentions:

Mega Man Zero Collection-Great collection of great games, but they're ports
Pokemon HeartGold/Soulsilver-Incredible remakes of fantastic games
Chrono Trigger-The definitive port of a perfect game
LostMagic-I think this is a very ambitious and fun game, but too flawed to make the top ten
Super Mario 64-Another great port on the system. Also you can play as Yoshi.
New Super Mario Bros-Pretty good, but not good enough to crack the top 10
Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story-Ditto

Caveats-I haven't finished the following games, so you'll have to forgive me if they don't appear here, along with any of the other games I'm missing:

The World Ends with You-I've started this one, and enjoyed pieces of it, but it seemed very dialogue heavy for a game with such a fun combat system. I'll wrap this up at some point, but I can't say I have well-formed opinions about it.
Animal Crossing: Wild World-This seems so perfect for handheld, but I've never seen a copy in the wild
Any of the Phoenix Wright or Professor Layton games
Radiant Historia-I really need to try this one, but I haven't seen one in the wild
Mario Party DS
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor-Never have played any games in this series, but I really want to try it

On to the top ten!

10. Children of Mana

This is a simple, fun, hack and slash RPG. I burned tons of hours into this, but don't feel very confident putting it at number 10. If you like the genre, or the Mana series, go for it. If not, there's no shame in skipping it.

9. Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's World Championship 2011: Over the Nexus

I have zero qualms in saying that this is the best Yu-Gi-Oh game ever made. It has a great story mode that actually scales very well with your ability to have a card collection, it's graphically very nice, and it has a huge collection of cards. If you like the card game, grab this one!

8. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance A2: Grimoire of the Rift

Boy, this console is not super deep. I consider this a good game, but not a great one. It's outstripped in basically every way by its two predecessors in the series, but it's still a good time, particularly if you enjoy the strategy RPG genre as much as I do.  

7. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum

This is the game I always point to as an example for why Pokemon is my favorite RPG series. This is my least favorite main series Pokemon game, and it's still a fantastic game. Contrast that with stinkers like Final Fantasy III (the real III, not the SNES III), and you can see a consistent level of quality across the series that makes each one a guaranteed good time.

6. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

This is a very good game from a series I've been getting increasingly fond of in the last year. You really need to check out this series if you haven't, but the places to start are probably with Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow or more likely Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. But displaying the map on the second screen is a really nice selling point-the main thing that hurts this one is the high purchase price.


5. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

I really love it when I'm not looking forward to a game, or come in biased against it, and it completely wows me. This is a truly excellent Zelda title, and really offers something for casual gamers as well as those who are just looking for a different spin on the classic control scheme and approach.


4. Mario Kart DS

It's Mario Kart. On the DS. What's not to like? This one comes with every feature you'd ever want, from graphics that rival Mario Kart 64, to online play, to the capability to play the game in download play mode with friends who don't even have the cartridge. If this is your favorite DS game, you'll get no arguments here. It's just fantastic across the board. 

3. Advance Wars: Dual Strike

It's a great series, and it's the best game in the series. This is a game that's not super pricey, and is super good. You need to check it out if you get a chance.

2. Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time

When I see retrospectives of this series, most people put Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story ahead of this one, which is incomprehensible to me. This is clearly the better of the two, even if it lags slightly behind the original due to an inferior villain. This game has much better puzzles, much more fun combat, and the Bowser gimmick in the next game just isn't used very well. Definitely go with this one.

1. Pokemon Black/White/Black 2/White 2

This is kind of cheating, but sue me. These are among my favorite Pokemon games to date, and feature tons of the best new Pokemon designs since Ruby and Sapphire. The game also probably has the best story in any Pokemon game, featuring a fascinating villain who will actually having you questioning the ethics of Pokemon training! These games are a must get, and were the first in the series to have true sequels.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my list, and feel free to let me know if there are titles I've missed that I should check out!

-TRO

Top Ten PS2 Games

The Playstation 2 was the first disc-based system I ever owned. I spent a summer umpiring baseball games at my local little league, saving up every penny to get a PS2. I was greatly intrigued by the system when I first played it-my friend rented one from Blockbuster along with, bizarrely, Tekken 3 (a PS1 game). But the thing that appealed to me the very most about the PS2 was its then revolutionary idea of being reverse-compatible, along with the presence of a DVD player. I loved playing my friend's Playstation at his house, but by the time I had enough money for a system, I figured that I would get the PS2 and kill two birds with one stone. The first game I bought for the system was Marvel v. Capcom, another PS1 game, which also seems a bit silly at the time, but I loved playing the game in the arcades, and it wasn't quite as pricey at Wal-Mart as some of the PS2 games. I still do not, and never have, owned a PS1, and contentedly played my PS1 games, which has a library I probably prefer to the PS2, on the PS2 until I got my PS3, where I now play them. But this beast has an extremely fond place in my heart as a console, and it does have plenty of excellent titles I've thoroughly loved, along with a big backlog of games I haven't yet experienced, so sorry if your favorite is left out! The crazy thing about this system is that I've beaten almost all of the PS2 games I own, and have had them beaten for years, which means I've actually reviewed very few of them for this blog, save for one that appears prominently in this list. Below are some caveats and honorable mentions:

I've never had a chance to play:
Shadow of the Colossus
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Metal Gear Solid 2 & Metal Gear Solid 3
Resident Evil 4
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
God of War II
ICO
Okami
And a host of other titles on the system

Honorable Mentions:
Guilty Gear Isuka-my entry into the brilliant Guilty Gear series, and one of my favorite fighters on the system
SSX Tricky-we had so much fun playing this at my friend's house, but I never owned it until recently, so it probably isn't as high on my list as it should be
Dragonball Z Budokai 3-features almost the entire roster of DBZ characters, had a great story mode, and we still play it sometimes at my house
X-Men Legends-The sequel is just far superior
Final Fantasy X-2-an excellent but very confusing sequel to an excellent and not very confusing
game
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4-great game, but not as good as the third
Any sports sim I could get my hands on, from MVP NCAA Baseball '06 to Madden '05 to NHL '05. This is probably where I spent the bulk of my gaming time on the console.
Grandia 3-a very good and underappreciated RPG I used to own, but now have no clue where it is.
NBA Street-completely filled the NBA Jam shaped hole in my heart.

And now for the final list:

10. Dynasty Warriors 4

This was my first Dynasty Warriors game, and while it's probably not an excellent game, boy is it fun. I have no idea if this is the best in the series or on the console, but it has my heart.

9. Tekken Tag Tournament

All of the Tekken characters? In one game? Fighting two on two? Yes please.

8. X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse

I feel like this game really deserves more love than it gets. It's extremely good in every way, and introduced me to the Diablo style mechanics I've really grown to love over the years. And by the way, could we get another game in this vein that doesn't have oversimplified combat like Marvel: Ultimate Alliance? Thanks.

7. Final Fantasy XII

This is a game in the vein of Zelda II: Link's Adventure that gets a lot of unwarranted hate for daring to do something different. But it really does a ton of things well, and even a ton of things better than (swallows) Final Fantasy X. The real time combat, genius use of the gambit system, non-random encounters, and very good story combine to make a very memorable RPG experience late in the PS2's life. The much improved voice acting from its predecessor is also a big plus. I have the cool steelbook collector's edition (note-it's not expensive at all), which was only like a dollar more than the standard edition when I bought it from Gamestop way back when.


6. God of War

This is the one game on this list that I have actually reTROviewed for this blogs, if you want a longer treatment, go check it out in the link. This is a super fun and innovating game with a few warts that will only slightly mar the genius that lies within. The Temple of Pandora will stick with you as one of the finest dungeons in video game history, if you persevere through the game.

5. Guitar Hero II

Take your elitism elsewhere. Guitar Hero II is the best version of an incredibly fun and social gaming experience. It's got a great selection of tracks, and a much improved control scheme from the first game that's much more forgiving if you're slightly off in the timing of your strumming, hammer ons, and pulloffs. This is really a game that everyone can play, and the fun clicky peripheral made for a very unique gaming experience that really captures the PS2 era for me.

4. Gran Turismo 3

They walked a very fine line with this game-blending hyper-realistic controls and physics with accessible fun. I know nothing about cars, but I do know that this was the first PS2 game I purchased for a reason-it's crazy fun.

3. Grand Theft Auto III

I don't think there's any question that Grand Theft Auto III is the most influential and important PS2 game, and probably should be number one on my list. But I've never beaten it, still don't own it (copies rarely come up in local sales, which is where I do the bulk of my collecting now), and have really only spent time with the game casually at my friend's house. But that time was absolutely mind-blowing, and is really up there with my first experiences with Super Mario Bros., Super Mario 64, Pokemon Red, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in stretching my mind to what could be accomplished in a video game. We used to try to commit heinous crimes, then hole up on top of a parking garage and see how long we could last at 5 stars without dying. Hint-not long. But a trip to the hospital later, and we were back being bad! Everyone has their own stories like this, which demonstrates the genius and flexibility of this game, and when I get a copy, I'll play it legitimately through and report back to see if it rises up the list.

2. Final Fantasy X

This game completely capture my attention in high school and college. It has, by far, the best story in any Final Fantasy game. It's a really tightly crafted narrative that works so very well, has several captivating plot twists, and well-developed characters. I really don't think there's any competition for the story crown among the Final Fantasy fold. If you combine that with the incredible character customization in the sphere grid and weapons customization, the fantastic endgame with the monster arena, and my favorite video game minigame of all-time, Blitzball, you have a true masterpiece. The voice acting is VERY bad at times, and I think that only slightly detracts from my unapologetic love for this game. But it's still not number 1...

1. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3

This game gets the narrow edge over Final Fantasy X due to the social nature of the game. The single player mode is just perfect, but playing this game head to head with friends is one of the most fun experiences I've had in a video game. We spent many happy hours kick flipping, doing manuals, and grinding our ways to ludicrous high scores, and those times are what stick out to me. This is the pinnacle of a tremendous series of video games, and it will always be beloved in my heart. 

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this list, and I should be back next week with another clear, and maybe another top ten list with my top ten DS games.

-TRO

What I'm Playing (Volume 107): Phantasy Star

"All the young girls love Alis/Tender young Alis they say". It is an absolutely true fact that this famous Elton John song was based on the 1987 hit RPG for the Sega Master System.

Anyway, it's been almost three years of doing this blog regularly, and this is my very first Master System game reviewed for the blog! It happens to be my very first completed Master System game. It's also my first non-Nintendo clear of the year. Should I feel proud or ashamed of this?

I had precious little experience with the Master System as a kid. I played one at a friend's house once (I think we played an Alex Kidd game), and we also played his copy of The Final Fantasy Legend (he was very cool before I knew it). I, thus, have precious little nostalgic reason to hit the Master System up, but I've really been feeling playing some classic RPGs lately, and I thought this would be a good time to break out my copy of the game on the Game Boy Advance Phantasy Star Collection, which includes the first three games in the series (there are four total). I got extremely lucky and happened to pick up the very pricey Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom and Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium at a garage sale along with a Wii and a stack of other Genesis games for $20 a few years ago (one of my finest hauls of all time), so lacking the fourth (and reportedly best) game in the series on this cartridge isn't a big deal for me, but beware if you think you're getting the total package. One word of cautionary note about the Game Boy Advance compilation-it has a hugely annoying bug that causes the game to freeze if you try to save it while the music is looping, so be sure to either memorize all of the music in the game, or just save liberally. I saved liberally.

Phantasy Star's creation is really a fascinating story. It was created on the heels of Dragon Quest's smash success (true fact-more people in Japan know the creator of Dragon Quest than they know Miyamoto), as Sega felt that they needed to have an RPG competitor to provide a competent alternative to the Famicom, which already had Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest 2 would would soon receive an additional juggernaut in Final Fantasy. Yuji Naka, the creator of everything you love about Sega (only mostly true) was the programmer for the game and its sequel on the Genesis, and it launched a star studded career that featured such hits as the Sonic series, Burning Rangers, and Nights into Dreams. The game was a love letter to Dragon Quest, but also included more traditional RPG elements seen in CRPG classics like Ultima, most notably fully 3D first person dungeons (seriously).

The game tells the story of Alis, a girl whose brother is killed by the wicked Lassic, set in a futuristic science fiction setting. She sets out on a perilous adventure for revenge, and that's the whole story. It's not deep, and I do prefer the stories in Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, but it's fine, especially for the era and the limitations of putting RPGs on a console.

Speaking of console limitations, boy does Phantasy Star absolutely shatter some. I'm dead serious when I say that if I'd have booted up a copy of Phantasy Star on my SNES or Genesis, I probably would have been at least mildly impressed by the 3D dungeons. But this is two years before the launch of the Genesis, and 4 years before the launch of the SNES, and it was so far ahead of its time that it's ludicrous. Add in the huge enemy sprites, which actually move and attack with unique animations for each enemy, and you have an absolute titan of technical accomplishment. The combat is even more impressive when you consider that they reuse so few assets for enemy recolors, a JRPG trick as old as Dragon Quest itself, that it almost seems like they just didn't know any better that they could save a lot of work by changing colors. But it's so impressive that they didn't, and the raw ambition and creativity of the choice was jaw dropping. The 3D dungeons themselves are improved in technicality due to the fact that monsters would randomly appear within the dungeon, rather than following jarring cuts to a new battle scene. This is something that Chrono Trigger, released in 1995, would be rightly lauded for, but here's Phantasy Star achieving something very similar a full 8 years earlier. The game is huge, spanning three separate planets (and they really do feel like separate planets with their size and setting). I just can't say enough about the graphical and technical accomplishments of this game.

Not everything graphically has aged perfectly, however, and this is seen particularly clearly in the dungeon layouts. These dungeons can get huge and complicated, and cry out for some graph paper and a pencil. But the problem is that due to the fact that all of the walls look the same, it can get really hard to figure out where you are, particularly if you happen to fall down a trap to a lower floor. This is complicated due to the fact that the only landmarks that exist in the dungeons are treasure chests, doors, and stairs, and the treasure chests completely disappear after you claim them, leaving only empty space in their wake. I resorted to pre-rendered maps I found online, and regret nothing. Navigating these dungeons would be nigh upon impossible without it, especially when you have three dimensional reasoning as poor as mine. I normally advocate for playing a game without a guide, at least the first time, referencing one only if you get stuck, but this game necessitates a guide, and maps.

Speaking of a guide, the maps aren't the only reason why you'll need one. The map is huge, clues are sparse, and frankly, some of the objectives are so bizarre as to be ludicrous. Here are just a few examples. You'll figure out throughout the game that you need a Laconian Sword, Shield, Axe, and Pot to defeat Lassic, but the game tells you nothing (that I could tell) about where to find the Sword or Shield, and nothing about where to reacquire the Pot following your trade of it for a cat (this is a real plot point in the game). You'll have to use an item on a tree out in the middle of nowhere, which is only accessible through a secret entrance unlocked by digging through the ice with an extremely expensive item that has no description. None of the items have any descriptions, and feature abbreviated names that leave their function entirely unclear. If you show your roadpass throughout the game, guards will let you through, but there's one spot in the game that will have you thrown in jail if you show your roadpass to a guard, and if you lack the item, spell, or magic points necessary to escape the dungeon and unwittingly save inside it, you're seriously trapped forever. Once you get to the top of the penultimate dungeon, you'll be presented with a beautiful view of the sky with no other prompt. Silly person, you were supposed to use a prism to reveal the Lassic's stealthy lair, and then also feed some nuts to your cat to make him sprout wings and ride him up to the castle! How did I not figure that out organically??? What's more, in the final dungeon, the end boss is hidden behind a secret wall. This is one of those games that, like the American release of Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, I think may be impossible to beat purely on your own. There were definitely a lot of call-ins to the Sega tip line, if they had such a thing, back in the late '80s for this game. If you did manage it, kudos to you, my insane friend.

Combat is basic by modern standards, but perfectly fine by 1987 standards. I enjoyed the grindy nature of battling and leveling, but it did seem like the experience needed to level up were way too high. Character development is more similar to Dragon Quest than Final Fantasy, in that your character is pretty much predetermined before the game, with no role playing elements in the characters besides equipment choice.

I didn't listen to the music much, to be honest. What I did listen to was perfectly solid, but well under the high bar set by Uematsu in Final Fantasy. But there are no complaints to be had here, either.

All in all, this game is a gloriously ambitious stab at greatness, with an astonishing number of rough edges in story telling and progression. If you like old school RPGs, get a guide and play this one. You'll really be impressed. If the genre's conventions grate on you (and who could blame you?) but you want to try out a game in the series, I'd skip this one and try out Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium, not based on personal experience, but simply based on the reputation of the game itself. I really enjoyed Phantasy Star, but it's definitely not for everyone. I'll give it an 8.0/10.

Up next on handheld is a revisiting of a game I largely cheated through in college, so I'm going to give it another try since I enjoyed Phantasy Star so much.

-TRO

Top Ten NES Games

The NES will always hold a near and dear position to my heart due to the fact that it was my very first console. My mother bribed me with an NES to get me to stop sucking my thumb at the age of six, and boy does bribery work, as I never sucked my thumb again (save for one tearfully, and I'm sure hilariously, repentant moment about a week into my pledge). Despite that, my experience with the library was pretty limited until lately. When I was a kid, I had the following games:

Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
Bases Loaded
Jordan vs. Bird
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Sesame Street 1-2-3
Adventures in the Magic Kingdom
The Legend of Zelda
Tecmo Super Bowl
Paperboy

Now, that's actually a pretty nice list of games for a six year old, to be honest. There's at least 5 5 star games there, and depending on your definitions, maybe 6. But I knew nothing about Mega Man, Castlevania, DuckTales, Ninja Gaiden, Contra, Kirby, or any of the other most beloved NES games, largely because of the time in which I had an NES. By 6, it was already 1993, which means that the Super Nintendo had already been out for 2 years by that point! I knew my neighbors had SNES and Genesis, and envied them, but there wasn't a whole lot of discussion going on about the NES by that point. So I was satisfied by getting beaten down by Glass Joe, getting killed in World 6, and generally being directionless as Link, woefully ignorant to the world around me.

By the point I was old enough to be interested in looking backwards at games, my eye was completely drawn to the SNES. I had borrowed the Final Fantasy Chronicles collection for PS1 from a friend, and was totally sucked into Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy IV, and had a remarkably strong nostalgic attraction to the console more generally as I had one at the tail end of its life span, but before the launch of either the PS1 or N64, which meant more of my friends were discussing games on the SNES and Genesis by that point. I spent a good deal of college playing SNES games through completely legal means, and dipped my toes occasionally into the NES, playing through the ones I'd owned as a kid, but not going too much deeper than that, save for a quick run through of Dragon Warrior.

As a result, a good deal of my exploration of classic games in the last three years since I started this blog has been on experiencing the highs of the NES. I had already had a pretty good coverage of the Super, so the NES was an excellent spot for jumping off for me. It was my most played console in 2018 by a comfortable margin, and was my second most played in 2017, as measured by total games completed. My SNES exposure is still far better than my NES, but I feel like I'm ready to pay an homage to some of my all-time favorites, so here goes!

Games that might be on here but I haven't seriously tried to beat (no offense if your favorite happens to be on this list, I aim on clearing out all of these at some point, save perhaps for Bubble Bobble, which sounds time prohibitive):

Contra
Ninja Gaiden II
Castlevania III
Metroid
River City Ransom
Bubble Bobble
Little Samson
Double Dragon II
Battletoads
Crystalis
StarTropics

Honorable mentions:

Mega Man
Super Mario Bros. 2
Duck Hunt-A silly little game that is still tremendous amounts of fun
Donkey Kong-Compared to it's 1981 arcade peers, it's a tremendously creative and fun game. Compared to any of the 10 games on the list, it's not close.
Dragon Warrior-It suffers from too many of the foibles of 8-bit RPGs to crack the list, but it's still very fun, and even more important than it is fun.

Now onto the true top 10!

10. Tecmo Super Bowl

Placing this one was tough. I haven't formally reviewed it yet, and it's been a long time since I played it, so I just put it in the spot in which it felt right. I could have easily moved it up as high a 7, but not really any higher than that. It's extremely fun, and the first sports RPG I can remember. The fact that people still update the rosters and play it to this day is a testament to its greatness, and everyone should own a copy.

9. DuckTales

This game is so much fun I think it may be one I return to every year, and the short play time really helps with that! Not all licensed games are garbage, and this is one of the finest out there.

8. Dr. Mario

This is the best puzzle game on the NES save probably for Tetris, but I just don't think of that as an NES game any more than I think of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time as a 3DS game. Dr. Mario has frantic fun with a single player, and only gets better playing competitively against someone else.

7. Kirby's Adventure

This is a game I played for the first time this year, and really enjoyed it. It's a technical powerhouse on the system, has an accessible nature to it that invites a good time for players of all skill levels, and is just plain fun.

6. Mega Man 2

Commence the pointing, staring, and shocked whispers at my disrespect to this all-time classic. In my opinion, it's just not as good as another Mega Man game on the system, and is certainly not better than the other 4 games above it on this list. It's too easy, suffers from serious slowdown, and the difficulty comes in absolutely brain frying spurts that no human could predict (I'm looking at you, falling laser beam stage). But it's still beyond genius, and well deserving of being a top 10 game.

5. The Legend of Zelda

The pointing, staring, and shocked whispers are now devastating. This game is pure genius, has aged remarkably well, and laid the groundwork for one of my five favorite gaming franchises of all-time (another list for another day). But this is my list, and my own experience with the game is one of a great amount of joy, but also a surprising amount of frustration. I wish I had grown up with the manual, because maybe things would have been different. But I really struggled with finding my next objective in this game, even as an adult, and feel that a small bit of additional structure, as seen in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, would shoot this game up into the top 3.

4. Punch-Out!!

This game is still hugely fun today, and one of my favorite games as a kid. It's one you just have to experience to understand.

3. Mega Man 3

This game represents a huge leap forward in appropriate difficulty, gameplay, and story-telling from its predecessor, and that's enough to push it up the list. It's my favorite classic Mega Man game, and despite some brutal slowdown at times, and a worse soundtrack than Mega Man 2, I still give it the edge.

2. Super Mario Bros. 

It's the game that got me into gaming, and I'll love it forever. It's probably the game I felt the most pride in completing, and it truly is perfect in every way. I really can't think of a single bad thing to say about the most important video game (for me) of all time but with all of that being said...

1. Super Mario Bros. 3

is unquestionably the best game on the system, and probably in my top ten video games of all time. It takes all of the charm of the first game, adds on a bit of technical polish and a ton of new stages and mechanics, throws together some of the best level design of all-time, and there you go. If you haven't played it yet, take a personal day, and go do it. It's that good!

Since I have so many NES games that I still want to clear, I may revisit this list in a year or so if I find I need to shuffle things around a touch. 

I think it will be another week or two before I wrap up another game based on my current progress, so I'll probably check back in next week with another top ten list, this time for either the DS or the PS2. stay tuned!

-TRO