Last week saw the completion of my first 5K – The Color Run! It’s not a competitive event per se, but that didn’t stop my mom, sister, and I from jogging the majority of it. Since it’s not a competition, The Color Run is based around a gimmick. Every kilometer is represented by a color and kilometer marker has a color section where volunteers hurl chalky colored powder at passerbys – a white shirt was mandatory attire. The goal, other than to have fun, is to end up with as much color as possible. Each runner is also given a package of chalky colored powder that they can throw whenever, but it was recommended to save for the post-race festivities.
The event was massive (it sold out) with 10,000 runners clogging midtown Tulsa. My family and I started in the final wave of runners, but we were able to weave around others and wound up around the middle of the pack. I’m surprised I did so well since I haven’t been stringent in my training. Being able to jog the majority of the event (4 kilometers I believe) was rewarding in itself. This summer has in fact turned out to be one of my most active, just like I hoped.
The event travels throughout the U.S. so if you have a few friends or family willing to do it, I’d recommend doing so. Admission was $50 but it also nets a t-shirt and headband, but the experience itself was priceless.
I barely got color on me, with the exception of my legs which unfortunately aren’t in the photo. Some people were completely covered. Check the website for videos.
My iPod has been host to more of my gaming time recently and one of the reasons is Jetpack Joyride. This free game was developed by Halfbrick Studios and released last year. But before discussing the game, I want to address the Australian studio’s dramatic rise to prominence.
Founded in 2001, they spent eight years as a contract developer, mostly focusing on Nickelodeon properties. In 2009 they released their first original game and the following year they released Fruit Ninja. This was unbeknownst to me. It’s hard to believe that the studio responsible for one of the most popular games in recent years spent nearly a decade toiling on handheld versions of children’s properties. They’re the video game equivalent of a long-time musician who never “made it” writing a song that becomes a hit.
What is this? An encyclopedia entry for a game developer or a review of a video game? Sheesh…
… because the jetpack has a machine gun attached to it.
Okay, onto Jetpack Joyride. Each game begins with Barry Steakfries busting through a laboratory wall with a pilfered jetpack. If there was a goal to the game, it’s simply to fly as far as you can and beat your personal high score. What keeps me coming back and not wanting to put it down though is the multitude of short-term objectives.
Players always have three missions that they’re working on. When completed, they’re rewarded with level ups and money. The missions weren’t tough; they mostly required dedication. This made them especially alluring because I’d often think I could complete at least one before doing something else. Earned money could be spent on gadgets, costumes, and a mix of other items and the store itself is tiered so better items are unavailable until a specific number of lower tier items have been bought.
There were a few other vehicles, including the Crazy Freakin’ Teleporter.
As was the case with Thomas Screiber’s Slayin’, I feel that Halfbrick Studios was able to infuse a lot of character into a small package. The art direction and the in-game text were great, but the best part about Jetpack Joyride was its short-term reward system. I always had something to focus on, be it a new high score, completing a mission, or trying to unlock an item from the store and this system of short-term gratification kept me playing and playing and playing.
The PSP/XBLA game Half-Minute Hero seems like a spot-on comparison.
While perusing the internet, I stumbled upon the website of Pixel Licker Games. Under this name, Thomas Screiber releases the games he makes in his spare time. He is an artist who started off in the industry working for Capcom in 2000. Since then, he’s worked for various companies and on a half-dozen video games including the Maximo series and My Sims, among others. He has a fondness for pixel art and this fondness is readily apparent in the three games he has made available on the website.
The only one I’ve played thus far is Slayin’. It’s a simple 2D game that tasks players with walking their knight, mage, or knave to the left or right, running into enemies to kill them. Characters can level up, spend their found money, and build a combo to get a high score. It isn’t complicated, but it does require skill, luckily it controls fantastically and is fun to play. The most awe-inspiring aspect of Slayin’ is its art though. Screiber’s talent is on display in this game that looks like it came out the 16-bit era. Scratch that, it looks better than most games of that era! You’d think that pixel art is a limiting medium, yet he’s fit a ton of personality into this, and from the looks of it, his other games. Of course, it’s with this and other types of restraints that were present in earlier video game development that forced developers to craft songs that were instantly catchy or design characters that were definitive, despite being made of pixels.
Hopefully more people will discover Thomas Screiber’s works, because he has a ton of talent.
This isn’t the Jamestown we learned about in school.
I’m relatively inexperienced with the PC scene, but thanks to the Humble Indie Bundles, I’ve been dipping my toes the water more often. With the fourth and fifth HIBs in my possession, I recently decided to jump into Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony. Developed and published by Final Form Games (a studio consisting primarily of just three dudes!) and released last year, it’s an homage to the shoot ‘em ups of the 16-bit era wrapped around an alternate-historical story.
It’s the early 1600s and thanks to unmentioned advancements in technology, the British have colonized Mars instead of North America. Unfortunately, a combined force of Spanish and Martian soldiers is causing trouble for the British settlers and it’s against this backdrop that a personal story is told involving many real life figures. The game is brief so there isn’t much in the way of narrative, but the interesting setting and alternate-historical story is a neat addition to a smooth game.
The bosses that capped off each stage were impressive.
As I mentioned, the developers of Jamestown must have some reverence for the shoot ‘em ups of the 16-bit era. The graphics appear as if they’re straight out of an arcade cabinet circa the early 1990s. Also, it was around this time that bullet bell shooters were beginning to arrive on the scene and Jamestown clearly fits into this subgenre.
Jamestown starts off simply but eventually cranks up the difficulty when hundreds of bullets are on the screen at any given moment. These types of shooters generally require catlike reflexes and lots of pattern memorization but thankfully, Jamestown isn’t too gnarly. I found it to be paced very well, subtly cranking up the difficulty as stages progressed until the final encounter which tested my skills in different ways.
The gameplay “hook” for Jamestown is a move called the Vaunt. After filling a gauge, I could Vaunt, at which point a shield would temporarily eradicate any nearby bullets. As long as I could keep the gauge full by collecting coins, I’d also have increased damage and a 2x points multiplier.
Although the game proper is brief (easily completed in one sitting), there are plenty of incentives to keep playing. With the story finished, it can be replayed in Farce Mode which exchanges the serious text in the cutscenes to something more whimsical. There’s also a second mode of challenges that have super specific goals. But my two most favorite aspects about Jamestown were the ability to play it using an Xbox 360 controller and the local multiplayer for up to four people.
Shit.
With an Xbox 360 controller in my hand and my laptop hooked up to my TV via HDMI, I was in hog heaven. Jamestown is a finely-tuned shoot ‘em up; blasting enemies, dodging bullets, and collecting coins were all intrinsically satisfying experiences and its lax difficulty (or tough depending on how hard you want it) meant that I could get involved in the game, without pulling my hair out. Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony is a fantastic game – kudos to Final Form Games.
I capped off my week in a fine way yesterday by attending the 2012 Oklahoma Video Game Expo. Held in Bixby, Oklahoma, a suburb of Tulsa, the convention featured many retailers and vendors hawking all sorts of classic video games. Seeing harder-to-find games and systems was sweet, but the best part was that tons were hooked up and available for anyone to play! I attended last year and not much has changed, but this time I spent most of my time actually playing games.
The moment I walked in I began playing Tempest 2000 for the Atari Jaguar. The game is a remake of the classic arcade game but what’s most notable is designer Jeff Minter’s trademark psychedelic neon graphics and techno soundtrack. Afterwards I dabbled a bit with various home console games before finishing off along the wall of arcades and pinball machines. My friend and I had competitive matches in Street Fighter II: Champion Edition and a SNK vs. Capcom fighting game. We also competed in Pengo (a Sega game from 1982), Donkey Kong Junior, and a few others. I felt like I was among like-minded people and there was a super positive energy throughout.
Stallone’s outfit seems a little bare for the Rockies.
When the failed heist of a treasury plane leaves John Lithgow and his group of robbers abandoned in the Rocky Mountains, they force rescuer/mountain climber Sylvester Stallone to locate the lost suitcases of money and get them out alive. This introduction is what one gleams after watching the ten or so minutes of low-quality, grainy footage that sets the stage for the first level of the Sega CD video game based off of the 1993 film, Cliffhanger. Developed by Malibu Interactive and published by Sony Imagesoft, Cliffhanger features awful beat ‘em gameplay interspersed with fast-paced 3D snowboarding and dire video clips.
Fighting the dozens of enemies was unpleasant thanks to Stallone’s slow movement, limited selection of attacks, and poor hit detection, among other deterrents.
After locating one of the lost suitcases, Stallone is on his own as he proceeds to traverse and scale peaks that contain way more enemies than one was lead to believe was with Lithgow. The beat ‘em up gameplay that ensues is awful. The stages are full of banal action that manages to be infuriatingly cheap. Stallone moves like a child with a dozer load in his diaper and after every hit he takes, he collapses onto his batch of brownies. This Stallone is not the Rocky who can take the hits, and deal them out with more determination and intensity than his foes. Thankfully, the enemies also can’t take a beating and are out cold after two or three hits. But when it comes to scaling cliffs, don’t even bother. Resting on perches are snipers who can’t be touched, so don’t worry, Stallone’s just going to have to man up and take a few bullets. The lives will be lost and continues will be used – thankfully the game doles out a combined twenty-one chances to outwit Lithgow, but you’re gonna blow through them on the snowboarding sections.
When he’s not killing thugs with his bare hands (or wussing out by using a knife or gun), he’s hitting the slopes and getting his daredevil thrills by outrunning avalanches. How Stallone can go from falling on his ass to outrunning avalanches is a weird disparity in pacing. These stages of the game are quasi-3D with Stallone shredding into the screen while dodging boulders and bushes. Speaking of infuriatingly cheap, it was one of these stages that I rage quit and decided I could spend my time better. Still, the fast-paced gameplay of the snowboarding sections was the complete opposite of the worthless beat ‘em sections and for that, I almost enjoyed it.
This game was released for other systems back in the day (Genesis, SNES, Game Boy, and Game Gear) but this was the only version to feature snowboarding sections.
Cliffhanger’s beat ‘em up gameplay pales in comparison to the titans of the genre and its snowboarding sections are a thrill, but too long for their own good. The soundtrack was ridiculously clear, but I don’t care. The best part of Cliffhanger was the twenty minutes of malodorous video, and that’s saying something.
Rocket Science Games, the developer, was founded by a prolific entrepreneur and a workaholic game designer in 1993 and later received a $12M investment, in part from Sega.
At first glance, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs: The Second Cataclysm is very interesting. This Sega CD/PC video game is based off of the Xenozoic Tales comic books/TV show and it features graphics and cutscenes that stay true to this heritage. Another way the game sticks to its foundation is through the inclusion of the zany post-apocalyptic story. I perceive the developer’s as having a passion for translating this intellectual property into a video game, and yet, my first impressions of The Second Cataclysm are negative. Repeatedly playing the first level of the on-rails shooter deflated my morale until I eventually threw in the towel.
Through a brief comic book in the manual and an introductory cutscene, I was enlightened on the setting and plot points of The Second Cataclysm. Many hundreds of years in the future, Earth was ravaged by unnatural disasters and the remaining humans survived and thrived underground. When they returned to the surface, the planet was overrun with the remains of their civilizations and confusingly, dinosaurs. They’ve learned to follow the “machinatio vitae” which calls for a balance between nature and machinery and when a race of highly developed ground dwellers sense an upset in this balance, they seek out all around good guy Jack Tenrec to prevent another cataclysm like the one that devastated Earth hundreds of years before.
The game looked good (considering the terrible grainy picture), but the gameplay was bland and difficult.
With his trusty accomplice Hannah Dundee and his 1953 Cadillac, Jack sets out to stop Wilhelmina Scharnhorst’s megalomaniacal ambitions. His road to success is littered with obstacles however, first and foremost that there isn’t one!
As I cruised through the jungle in Jack’s hot ride, I’d try my best to avoid rocks, logs, and dinosaurs and if I couldn’t, I’d have Hannah blast them with her gun. I had to keep an eye on the path ahead though because the road to success wasn’t straight. I’d have to make split-second decisions when I came to forks in the road and I’m not quite sure if this holds true in the earlier stages, but the manual leads me to believe that I could go in circles. Keeping the “machinatio vitae” in mind, I’d try my best not to blast dinosaurs because when I did, my time limit to reach Scharnhorst decreased.
Hannah was shocked to hear that the game’s cutscenes involved little to no animation.
Looking back, I probably was going in circles. Still, I would stick it out for as long as I could until the Cadillac was too beat up from obstacles or I ran into a dinosaur preventing me from completing the first stage. I’m not all that interested in trying to best myself and complete the first stage to, reportedly, do the same thing in the same environment six more times until the game alters its stage design before capping off Jack and Hannah’s journey. An ambitious game with tepid gameplay – Cadillacs and Dinosaurs: The Second Cataclysm is a game that can remain extinct.
Well, this week’s post will be less exciting than last week’s. Not just because I didn’t take a trip in the past week, but because I’m taking a summer class and it started! The class I’m taking is Ethics in Organization and it’s purely online. I’m taking it with a teacher I’ve had before (one that I really like) so I halfway know what to expect. The textbook for the class is interesting because it’s full of true-story case studies. I always enjoy working on case studies that are based on real events, and working on ones based around ethics (or people’s lack of ethics) is pretty cool.
It looks like I’ll be writing a lot for the class. The first assignment took seven pages to complete (including a cover page and a works cited page mind you) and I still have to write a few more pages over a case study, discuss another case study with fellow classmates via a forum, and take a quiz. Those four assignments carry through each chapter and each week, so at least I know what I’m in for. It’s going to take a lot of effort to do well, but I’m up for the challenge.
Beyond that, I started mindlessly playing Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II on the GameCube. I’ve sunk three hundred hours into this game since receiving it in April 2003, and I return to it every now and then. My main character is level 105 (out of 200) and I’d like to reach the level cap before I die. Now it’s worth mentioning that I’ve never played it online. I (and others) find that the game is very addicting and the loot lust that the game offers is matched only by a Diablo game. Anyways, I’ll continue playing it off and on forever, but I found it a good use of time while listening to the plethora of E3 podcasts out there.
Speaking of E3, I might do a recap of the event, but if I don’t I’ll just tell you now that I thought it was lackluster overall. Regardless, I’ve enjoyed reading and listening to other’s coverage of it, such as Writer of Words, SlickGaming, ExplicitBaron, and LVLs.
I’m guessing the battlecorps and the peace corps are diametrically opposed.
In my years of collecting video games, I’ve made an observation. When developers were making their first forays into first-person and polygonal video games, the first-person mech genre was a popular choice to test the waters. Battlecorps for the Sega CD falls into this category. Developed by Core Design and published by Time Warner Interactive, Battlecorps features colorful graphics, but poorly executed gameplay.
As one of three characters, I began missions by listening to a briefing from the Comedian-inspired Lieutenant Calgary. With my objectives known, I’d pilot a bipedal attack machine (BAM) through enemy-riddled levels and destroy the infrastructure of rival corporations.
Are those giant boulders or scrunched up moai faces?
Controlling the BAM was doable but aiming was a hassle. With only three buttons and a directional pad, Core Design was limited in their choices for sure, but they still chose to overuse the controller. They opted to give players the ability to aim up, down, and around, but doing so required players to shift the functionality of the d-pad depending on what they wanted it to do: pilot their BAM or aim. Enemies won’t wait for you to aim at them so taking damage is an unfortunate necessity. This is a design choice that hampered the game and could’ve been avoided by eliminating the need to aim at all.
The confounding controls ire me and the gameplay revolving around walking slowly and shooting deserves only this single mention, but I do like the graphical style. The environments are colorful and the game is a hot pixilated mess. It’s 3D much in the way that Doom was 3D; objects are made of pixels and as camera moves, so too do they. What’s not cool is the limited field of vision. The game replicates the insides of the BAMs as though I was actually in one, and because of radar and various screens, my view of the world is limited.
Like a ticker on the bottom of a TV news channel, the ticker in the topmost portion of the BAM warns against enemies and mines.
Battlecorps’ tepid gameplay and complicated controls left me not wanting to return to its battlefield again.
On consoles, Lethal Enforcers was released in a massive cardboard box that could contain the Konami Justifier.
Back when arcades ruled the video game roost, light gun games were widespread. The genre wasn’t as ubiquitous on home consoles, but it seems like each console from back in the day had a light gun. One game with a big presence back then was Lethal Enforcers. It was originally released as an arcade game in 1992, but was ported to the Genesis, Super Nintendo, and Sega CD from 1993-1994. Developed and published by Konami, each version came bundled with the Konami Justifier, a blue light gun modeled after the Cult Python, the iconic .357 Magnum revolver. Enabling cooperative play is the harder to find pink light gun, although it works across all three platforms.
The Genesis and Sega CD versions were very grainy.
Lethal Enforcers contains little narrative, but little is needed. Crime is being committed and as a cop, it’s your (and your partner’s) duty to uphold the law. You’ll shoot through scenes in which bad guys pop their heads up from cover looking to blow yours off. Without quick timing and precise accuracy, game over comes quickly. Once those qualities are on lock-down though, you might just be able to make your city a little cleaner. While that sounded like an ad, that’s pretty much the best way I can sum up the game.
My friend and I played the Genesis and Sega CD versions of Lethal Enforcers and I only noticed one difference between the two versions – the soundtrack of the Sega CD version was of a higher quality. Both games looked identical, although the Sega CD version should look much better than its Genesis counterpart. I imagine the Super Nintendo version is identical to the Genesis version, although without playing it myself, I can’t say with certainty.
My friend and I had a rough go at the game. It was easy to complete the first level, a bank robbery, and even do so without losing lives, but to unlock the next level, we had to have 70% accuracy. We eventually managed this, but the second level, a trip to Chinatown, upped the difficulty, while also asking us to have even better accuracy. The game has five stages and I’m sure this continues to be the case throughout the game.
This scene played like an episode of The Flintstones – my friend and I saw, like, thirty National Rubber Stamp Companies.
I really enjoy light gun games, and Lethal Enforcers seems to be one of the genre’s better examples. It’s tough, but it doesn’t force players to memorize enemy locations. With quick reflexes and good accuracy, anyone can have fun. Playing cooperatively is a treat because at that point, you’re into the experience for at least thirty bucks, but it’s definitely much more fun with a partner. Lethal Enforcers is a fun game, although for the best experience, it will be slightly costly/difficult to track down. It’s worth noting that Lethal Enforcers won’t work on HDTVs so if you’re interested, make sure you have a CRT TV or something you can play it on.
My Brain on Games 