Category Archives: Reviews

PlayStation 2, Reviews, Xbox

The Thing – Review

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I originally wrote this February 2, and intended for it to go on a blog but couldn’t decide if I just wanted to post it to Giant Bomb or create my own blog. Since I’ve created this blog, I’ll go ahead and post it now since I never did. It’s short and little on details, but it’ll fit.

The theatrical poster for The Thing.

So I just beat The Thing and I’d like to talk about it; I don’t want to review it as it is very outdated by today’s standards. I began playing the PS2 version and started on medium. However, about a third of the way into it, I had no health packs and found it too frustrating to continue. I decided to restart and to buy the Xbox version considering it would look nicer (I don’t have a PS3) and in the hopes I’d prefer the position of the analog sticks. I decided to start on easy instead of medium and it was still a toughie but I managed to beat it. I should also note the reason I decided to play it was to play along with Rebel FM’s Game Club of it; now onto the actual game.

The game is a third-person squad based shooter, but a large portion of the game is spent alone. There is a trust/fear mechanic between you and your teammates and I really liked it but found it to be pretty binary in most cases and ultimately not as cool as it could’ve been. Your teammates are useful and in some cases necessary but man, they sure are flaky. They are however very lethal. The enemies can be a hassle, especially the little things (think head crabs), but taking a concept from the movie to destroy the larger things with fire was cool and varied the combat. I found the game to be very frustrating and contemplated quitting it more than once.

Just going back to a game like this after “adapting” to the game’s of recent memory was hard. Much of the game, you need to die to figure out how to progress and then execute whatever must be done near perfectly. Pretty much every one of the bosses was cheap and required multiple attempts just to figure out if what I was doing was working. Finally much of the game I spent with less than half health, just struggling to get by. The story takes place a little bit after the movie; which had an ending perfect for the spirit of the movie, and not necessarily implying any need for continuation. The story in the game was pretty vague and low on details but there were many references to the movie and I really enjoyed them. Overall I found the game to be very frustrating and lost my cool a lot, but found a few things to like in the game.

Reviews, Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Earth Defense Force – Review

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Set in the future with a generic plot, Earth Defense Force is a quality shooter for the Super Nintendo. Lacking a thrilling story is not a knock for games of this vein as the story is each person’s experience encountering the hundreds of enemies and bosses you’ll surely take out. From the beginning, the game is fast paced and early on, requires quick reflexes as well as memorization.

EDF was developed and published by Jaleco; it was released originally into the arcades and later ported to the SNES. Having never played the arcade version I’m unaware of the differences between the two. The story of EDF is told in the manual with a lack of cutscenes or any background in-game. I would’ve liked seeing some sort of progression between levels but the story in the manual was sufficient for the genre. Full disclosure: I wasn’t able to beat the final boss and see if there was an ending sequence. That being said the manual was detailed and even referenced The Beatles!

At the beginning and between each level you are given the option to pick a weapon type. There are eight different types but a few seem redundant. My favorites were the homing and the search laser although anyone who has played a

The homing weapon in action.

similar game will find something familiar. As you defeat enemies you will fill a bar at the top of the screen. This will level up from 1-5, each time increasing the power of your weapons. This turned out to be a good barometer of success and a way to differentiate itself while retaining elements of the genre. Flying with you are two satellites ships that provide extra firepower. As you level up, they’ll be able to take on different formations and like your weapons, become more powerful. These smaller ships are indestructible and can absorb some enemy fire.

The game is comprised of six levels that take you from Earth to space and get increasingly more difficult. I spent much time getting to a new part and dying, but making progress with each death until I was able to get to the final boss. Though all this dying was frustrating at first, it came to be a part if the game. I found the game to be tough, but fair in most parts and towards the end of my playing I was able to reach the final boss without losing a life. The final boss however seems very cheap, nigh impossible. This experience is made worse when you lose all of your continues and must trek through the whole game just to have another stab at him, all a part of the game I suppose. I felt the soundtrack was great; its up-tempo beat matched the nature of the game and in particular I found the weapon select track superb.

I found the final boss just too tough to continue after a while and have given up on the game. I will still try every now and then and I won’t let this bad ending impact my view of an otherwise solid game. I found EDF to be fast paced and when considering the effort it took to be able to get to the final boss undefeated, rewarding.

Reviews, Wii

MadWorld – Review

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So I bought MadWorld off of Amazon for cheap and thought it was a steal. I’d always been interested in the game but not enough to pay full price for it, sorry Platinum Games and Sega.

MadWorld is a game unlike any other due to its art style. The game’s look is very reminiscent of Frank Miller’s Sin City and the game overall is influenced by comics. Having not read anything about the game, my guess is the decision for this art style was to cope for the Wii’s graphical power among wanting it to stick out and I really dig it, except that most everything blends together and it can be distracting at times trying to figure out where one thing ends and another begins. Of course that’s not a problem when blood starts spewing over everything, which it does often. This is without a doubt the goriest game I’ve ever played but it didn’t have a negative effect on me like a more realistic game would’ve.

What’s the reason for all this gore? Well, a game show is being staged and it’s being run by people who bet on

This is what happens when you cross Jack.

contestants. The contestants must survive on an isolated island that has had a virus spread across it. They can’t only survive though; they need to kill the others in outrageous fashion to score points, which is how you progress. You play as Jack Cayman, a mysterious man who is on the island. You get sponsored early on and it’s apparent that Jack has other motives for being here. Jack stabs people with road signs, throws them in spike laden dumpsters and an assortment of other gruesome acts, many including his prosthetic chainsaw arm. Early on I found the story to be the least of my concerns but as the game moved on, it’s what began to draw me in as it got more complex.

Structurally the game doesn’t change much. Each level is a confined map that opens up more and more as you get more points. Throughout the levels are all sorts of objects to inflict death with and halfway through each level, a “Bloodbath Challenge” opens up which tasks you with killing people in a single creative way for a limited amount of time. These break up the pace and most of them are very fun, and they’re all playable in a multiplayer mode. At the end of a level you fight a boss which, like the levels, adheres to a singular structure. You attack the boss some and get the opportunity to do a cinematic, motion-based super attack and then repeat. There are two motorcycle missions but these got old before they were finished. The levels get boring with a repetitive nature to them, but like I said the Bloodbath Challenges provide a nice break in between them and the boss battles are quite fun.

The soundtrack was enjoyable although the developers seemed split on a singular direction to take it audibly. Solemn music fills the menus and cutscenes which is a stark contrast to the obscene rap/rock soundtrack that takes place during levels. Although thinking about it now both types fit the setting well; the dual settings of an island with a bleak outlook to the over the top death game show. Easily one of my favorite parts of the game were the commentators, providing quips about the on-screen action, often in vulgar and funny ways and the voice acting in general I liked.

MadWorld was a cool game. The art style was striking, the story became more interesting as the game progressed and the voice work and soundtrack were well done and added to the over the top setting. There were many interesting and fun gameplay moments, specifically the Bloodbath Challenges and boss fights, but the repetitive nature of the game grew old fast.