Mechwarrior

Here's a blast from the past: an arcade from the late eighties known as Mechanized Attack!:

They say the further you get from your childhood the more laughable products from that era become (or something like that). Now me, I grew up in the eighties and I look back at that decade fondly for some really great action movies - namely in the form of muscular action heroes and the whole 'one man army' trope.
I originally saw Mechanized Attack in it's arcade form. I thought it looked lame with baddies that were shamelessly ripping off the T-800 from the Terminator movies. That and it was friggin' hard as! I tried it and I couldn't get off the first level!

Now I'm not a fan of the whole, first-person rail shooters as they are stupidly difficult, offer tedious levels, are more less plonking you in direct line of fire with no chance of getting out and throw everything & anything at you! Of course most of these can be attributed to the eighties and the penny-pinching nature of arcades - thankfully things got better (Virtua Cop? Yes please. Operation Wolf? No thanks).
That being said, to me Mechanized Attack looks like it's taking the whole One-Man-Army trope to the most ridiculous extreme imaginable. Never mind having a horde of T-800s large enough to make Skynet envious: How the hell are the Player Characters able to withstand so much firepower? Do they have skin of steel like that of Colossus from the X-Men? What type of guns are the Player Characters using that they down battleships and Harrier jets with ease? And how big is the enemy army? What kind of resources do they have that they can call upon Harrier jets, helicopters, and so many tanks? In fact with so many war machines why would they even need to bother with having T-800 clones?
Still at least give the baddies credit: They saw a potential threat approach and figured sending Harrier jets and battleships (in the first level!) would sort him out good and proper - at least they had the foresight to send off the most powerful war machines out first

Bottom of the Barrel (no.3): Operation Thunderbolt

It's been awhile since I'd last done a rant on games I've despised so, seeing as I have little to talk about, now may be as good time as any.

Today I want to talk about Rail Shooters. Can't say I'm a big fan of them - you see my problem is that usually there's so much coming for the player that there's little fighting chance left for the player. Thus, the player soaks up bullets he can't dodge and facing odds that they don't have a hope in hell of beating. Now whilst there may be some amusement value - I myself played, and enjoyed the Terminator 2 arcade game back in the day - Rail Shooters aren't really my thing. No, give me first- person shooters any day - at least they have the option of ducking out of fire. 

Which brings me to Operation Wolf - a milestone in Rail Shooters. Released in the arcades, it played by presenting the player with a gun and, through the player's perspective, produced a whole lot of army soldiers to gun down. It came across as being like the action movies of it's time and, through mission descriptions, evoked the sense of a Special Forces operation. The game was a big enough deal to get converted to nearly every home computers and consoles. So a sequel eventually arrived: Operation Thunderbolt!

I myself never played Operation Wolf but I did play Operation Thunderbolt on my trusty Commodore 64. For the purposes of today's post however I present the Amiga version:



One look at the video reveals everything I despise about the Rail Shooter. There's no way to dodge the bullets so all you can do is soak them up and watch helplessly as your health decreases. The levels are long and tedious and thus become less a challenge than an endurance test. There's so much coming at you all at once that the difficulty is ramped up to the level of 'impossible'. Indeed, the only thing that player would need to beat this game would be luck and luck shouldn't have to play a part in beating games. Matters aren't helped with the absurd length of the plane in the final mission and a narrator who sounds like Duffman.

So playing Operation Thunderbolt was enough to put me off Rail Shooters. Okay so there've been some I've enjoyed in the form of Virtua Cop, Gunblade and Hous eof the Dead Overkill but all in all, Operation Thundebrolt made me approahc the genre with a degree of caution.
And I hope it feels damn proud of itself >:(

Arcade Fire

Inspired by this week's edition of Good Game, I thought I might take the time to talk about some of my favorite arcade games. I played a lot of arcades during my youth and have fond memories of them all - some of which I still play today. So without a further ado....

Mighty Bombjack
Growing up in the eighties I always viewed Arcade Machines with some degree of awestruck reverence. Whereas I was used to playing games on the Commodore 64, Arcade machines were something else: They were technologically superior, they attracted players of all ages and it was games being played in public! I recall seeing them in certain locations and seeing them always sent a rush of excitement through my young mind.
They say you always remember the very first arcade you play and in my case it was the Mighty Bombjack. Of course it wasn't anything special in it's day but, as the saying goes, ya gotta start somewhere...


Aero Fighters  (Sonic Wings)
It was during the early nineties that my interest in arcade machines racked up - most likely to me growing aware of something called consoles. Seeing how gaming was expanding into something beyond what I thought I knew, I made it a point to check out an arcade game the instant I saw it. Now whilst there were several genres available, the one that interested me the most was the horizontally scrolling shooters. For some reason there was appeal of controlling a war machine and going around blowing the shit out of anything dumb enough to stand in the way with spectacular spread shot and homing missiles.
For this reason I do recall Aero Fighters quite fondly. Sure it was a tough game to play but I recall being nine years old and playing this game a lot - not to mention just how exciting it was, playing an arcade game with my own money.
And admittedly, at the time I thought the intro was kinda cool too:



Street Fighter 2
Whilst I gave the shooters more attention than any other arcade genre, there was however the fighters - they were there and they couldn't be ignored. And no roundup of arcade games would be complete with mentioning Street Fighter 2. History has decreed that arcade games were in something of slump before Street Fighter2 came along and breathed new life into them. From the outset I'd heard of Street Fighter 2 and people spoke of it in awe-struck tones, as if they'd just discovered the Holy Grail. I myself only got to see it through my brother playing it and I was quite impressed with what I saw. He used Blanka a lot and I recall seeing how the electric attack inspired a unique skeleton - and through watching him play I picked up a lot. Of course, it would be years before I got to play it myself and it was a damn fun game. Indeed, SF2 was a big deal I remember a lot of excitement when Super/the New Challengers showed up. And I still play SF2 to this day and even now I'm impressed by how many people also played it when they were kids.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Well I loved the cartoon back in the day and seeing an arcade game based on it was sweet as. Of course, part of the appeal was the whole 4 player and that was pretty cool too. Of course I never saw four people playing it at once (although it may have been a bit hard to see the screen when four people are crowded the machine) this is definitely a high point in my arcade game history.

Vendetta
I'll always have a soft spot for this game. Beat-em-ups were definitely popular back in the early nineties and this was one of the stand outs. Yes it was Konami trying to replicate the four-player style that made TMNT a hit but Vendetta was special to me largely through showing a sense of humor rarely seen in a beat-em-up. Aside from the player characters resembling Mike Tyson, Hulk Hogan, Jean Claude Van Damme and Mr.T, there is heaps of character interaction, weapons, and slapstick to make this one of the finest games of it's day. The fact that this hasn't appeared on XBLA is a travesty but you know what? I'll take this over XMen Arcade any day.

Raiden 2
I had a soft spot for shooters and I think this was the best of the lot. Somehow it did everything right with the power-ups, bomb varieties, inventive bosses and detail with graphics. I still enjoy this one my Playstation and I believe I'll still be enjoying it years later.

Darkstalkers
I never played Street Fighter 2 that much during my youth but I do recall playing Darkstalkers quite a bit. It was a fun beat-em-up and I really enjoyed the creativity gone into it with a fighting roster made up of b-grade movie monsters getting stuck into each other. But really I should go ahead and admit it: It was all because of Morrigan Aensland. But then again what guy wasn't sold over?

Alien vs Predator
Forget the lame movies: This game was the shit! Predators? In a beat-em-up? With the Aliens? And shooting sections? And Arnie's character from Predator 1 thrown in for good measure?! HELL YES! So there was a whole lot going for this game and I particularly enjoyed how the shooting sections were integrated into a beat-em-up (which was something unique at the time). The graphics were mind-blowing to behold and it was indeed intense to be continually swamped by hordes of the aliens. Not much else I can say except this was one of the finest arcades I've ever played & someone should get this on the XBLA and NOW.

Daytona USA
Well what can I say? Everyone played this in it's day and no doubt still play it now. It was, and still is, a great game to play against friends and goes to show that if an arcade game is designed well enough it can have incredible lasting power. And you haven't played a game of Daytona USA with seven other people you haven't lived.

Virtua Cop 2
I never thought much of the 'gun' games during my time in the arcades but this was an exception. Not sure why though: Maybe it was the graphics, maybe it was the presentation or maybe it simply damn fun to play.
But whatever the reason, this is another game I still play when I get the chance and shooting the crims never gets old. I've even tried playing it with both guns in each hand! So yeah Virtua Cop 2 is great fun and I liked it a lot.

Metal Slug
Yet another game I still enjoy playing to this day. Just when I thought that games were getting too serious and someone should make something humorous, along comes Metal Slug. Everything about this game is class: The stupidly big guns, the absurd voice announcements and the delightful graphics that are still fun to watch even now. A lot of care and attention to detail went into this game and it shows - it makes even a compelling game years later. And, in a rare case, the sequels took a winning formula and made it even better!

So there you go. Hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane. Now whilst people may say the arcades may be something of an anachronism I however maintain that if an arcade game is fun, is well designed and can be enjoyed with more than one person then the game will have staying power - which is impressive seeing that video games tend to have a limited lifespan and are often outclassed by technological superior successors. And if I'm still willing to spare the change for the likes of Virtua Cop 2 and Daytona USA then something must've worked better than originally hoped for.
Until next time...

Degeneration (no.5)

And here we go with the next installment in this series. And what a time the fifth console generation was: A new contender stepped into the field and everything was turned upside down. How did this affect me? Funny you should ask…

Sony Playstation
Well there was no getting around it. If anything, the fifth console generation will be best remembered by the arrival of Sony in the console race. And unlike other would-be contenders, like the 3DO or the Jaguar, the PlayStation had the support of a major electronics company behind it and a cunning marketing plan clearly aimed at young adults. Right from the word go Sony had become a force that was pretty much here to stay.



For much the mid-nineties I was in high school and as a result, my interest in video games waned – true I did get abreast of what was happening but other times my focus was elsewhere. Yet even with my aloofness there was really no escape the Playstation juggernaut. I was surprised to see familiar franchises like Castlevania and Metal Gear get a new lease of life. I recall seeing ads for Final Fantasy 8 on TV and I was equally surprised to see PS1 games appear in my local music store. But even if my interest in PS1 was limited at the time, I do recall visiting friends (again) and playing Tekken and Loaded. I also recognised conversions of favourite arcade games (Darkstalkers), Windows 95 games (Return Fire) and adaptations of ace anime (Ghost in the Shell).
True my interest in video games had hit a low point but I knew what Playstation was and it was reason enough to get excited. I recall thinking what games I’d get if I got one (although I’d only actually play them in the next generation…..more on that later) so that must make for a positive sign. I remember seeing some of the stunning game cinematic and being blown away.

In retrospect though, there is something about the Playstation that doesn’t sit well with me. Remember in my SNES review how people will struggle to come with a best game that wasn’t made by Square or Nintendo? Well, it’s the same problem here.
Allow me to elaborate: One of the key reasons behind the success of the Playstation is that it was able to offer a home to a lot of third-party developers who were angry at Sega’s missteps and annoyed Nintendo’s restrictions. Thus, it’s clear to me that whilst a lot of familiar IP got a new lease of life many attempts to come up with something new didn’t go anywhere.
Ask anyone which was the best PS1 game and they’d say either Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Final Fantasy 7 or Metal Gear Solid. Beyond those big three it’s a struggle to come up with something else. Aside from Gran Turismo and maybe Tomb Raider it’s a struggle to come up with any real franchise starters. Sure the afore-mentioned ‘Big Three’ may have gone their own direction but they still started from somewhere else nonetheless. Granted Sony may have at least tried to say something new with their blitzkrieg marketing campaign but in the end, what put them on the map was a bunch of old faces given a facelift.
But whatever misgivings I may have about the Playstation, there was no denying it was a hit and was here to stay. It got me excited and changed gaming forever. And that is indeed an achievement that can’t be ignored.

Sega Saturn
And thus the honeymoon ended….
Like most people, my status as a Sega fanboy pretty much died with the Saturn. As mentioned above, my interest were being diverted elsewhere and Sony was proving to be an attractive prospect. Plus I was aware of Sega’s failed add-ons, the Mega CD and the 32X, that didn’t really go anywhere. But even when I saw Saturn games in the stores, there was a part of me that realised that the Sega of then was different one to the Sega that gave us Sonic and the Megadrive.



Nevertheless I still kept an eye on things that were happening in the Sega camp. And in retrospect the Saturn did have some potential. Aside from the prospect of having conversions of then popular arcades (Virtua Cop 1+2 come to mind), at least Sega tried to bring new IP to the table. Sure not all of them were successful (ie Bug and Clockwork Knight) but in some cases it worked in their favour. I recall seeing Nights into Dreams and thinking it had a degree of beauty unlike anything I had seen before. I was also impressed with the creative designs that went into the Panzer Dragoon games.

Indeed much has been written about how complex it was to program games for the Saturn but it is only recently that I found out how many of the unique designs for some games came about only because the programmers were working within the limitations that faced them. And it’s interesting to see, in retrospect, the contrast between the Playstation and Saturn. Whereas the former favoured sci-fi-esque landscapes (Final Fantasy 7+8 and, to a lesser extent, Metal Gear Solid), the latter seemed to go in a direction leaning to fantasy/steampunk (ie Panzer Dragoon and Shining Force 3). This was indeed an idea, and an identity, that had potential so it’s indeed a disappointment that it wasn’t pushed further.
Ultimately, there isn’t a lot I can say about the Sega Saturn. I didn’t buy one and in retrospect, it proved to be a wise move. True it may have turned me off Sega for a long time, like most people, but it was more a natural progression of life than a betrayal. But now, like many historical revisionists, I have to give Sega some credit: They were trying something new. Through the complexity of the Saturn’s programming, they realised the necessity to build new IP and tried to say something new and unique with the tools they had at their disposal. True, a move like that would prove horrifically risky for any company – more so when said company is losing vital ground and left withering in uncertainty. But in the end, the Saturn ended up with a truly unique game library and that in itself is worth some credit.

N64
I hear people say today that the N64 wasn’t as big a seller as its predecessors. But most likely those people were from the US. During the late nineties I remember knowing many people who owned one of these – In fact now that I think about it, the people who owned an N64 outnumbered those who owned a PS1.
For many people, the N64 was another turning point in the history of gaming: It was the epitome of the fifth generation and many people today can recite tales of their childhood spent playing Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time. But I personally have a different perspective of the N64 – you see it represents me the things I didn’t like about the fifth generation.



Don’t get me wrong: I have fond memories of going to friends’ places and playing against each other in Goldeneye 007 and Diddy Kong Racing. I also played Super Mario 64 too. But for me the 3d age was here in full effect and the N64 represented the unease I felt at the time.
I recall playing Super Mario 64 for the first time and found it hard to get into grips with – the wonky camera didn’t really help much either. Most of the time I spent playing Mario 64 involved me running Mario around like headless chook wondering what the hell I was supposed to do next. During this time I played other 3D games, some before Mario 64, and at times I found them unwieldy and no fun at all to play. And such a disgust did indeed influence my playing of Mario 64.
Secondly, whereas I felt the SNES had beautiful graphics (and still do), much of the 3D graphics took a lot of getting used to. Compared to it’s predecessor, the models on the N64 looked hideous! They were badly constructed and looked less like proper graphical models and more like a bunch of random squares thrown in together. To me, this seemed an awful step backwards to what the SNES had accomplished and made me feel put off by the fifth generation and wondering if things had truly taken a turn for the worse.
Of course now, in 2011, such a contemptuous view has been softened (somewhat): Sure we can whinge about the camera on Super Mario 64 but at that point many of the developers were trying new things and coming into grips with this new technology. Indeed, it is interesting to see many of the things they tried in Super Mario 64 get reworked, and improved, with Ocarina of Time. And in a way, it could be said that both Nintendo and Sega were going through an experimental phase at this point in time, trying to find what works. But in that case, Nintendo proved more successful.
So in the end, despite my initial mistrust, I can now use the Virtual Console to download games for the N64 and can play them with fresh eyes. And despite my annoyance with wonky cameras, I can see there was some beauty within the beast.

If this write up seems a bit bland that’s because during the fifth generation my youthful enthusiasm for gaming consoles was in a period of remission. Sure much of it comes in the form of unease towards the innovations of the fifth generation (as with any new technology) but ultimately, it was more a natural progression of life: You find new things, you embrace them for so long until you then move onto other new things. And this case, the real world demanded attention: I had left secondary school and ahead lay college and, eventually, University.
And in retrospect, gaming of the fifth generation represented, for me, a transitional period. The seemingly untouchable Nintendo was beginning to try out new ideas and technology and, as before, everyone was taking note. The former heavyweight Sega had been crippled but was also in an experimental phase, trying out new ideas and ways to get the point across. And the newcomer Sony welcomed in many giants in from the previous eras to ride all the way to the top. The once, two-horse race had now opened up to three and, by the generations end, had revealed three very different outcomes for each contender.

But as I said it was a transitional period: Many of these changes I remained oblivious to with my attention being diverted elsewhere. Thus I went off gaming for a number of years. But little did I know, gaming itself wasn’t going to give up on me that easily….

Eternal Arcadia

In this modern age, it's fair to say that the arcade machines are pretty much antiqued: It's hard to compete with home consoles which boast DLC and online gaming.
Still, whenever I have the chance, I like to spare the chnage to play the odd game of Virtua Cop 2. Sure I have memorized a lot of areas where/when the baddies show up but it's still loads of fun. I don't mind looking at graphics from the mid-nineties - in fact I actually find a lot of mid-nineties arcade graphics look a lot better than some fifth-generation console games.

Of course arcades may be dead but they are still around in the form of arcade parlors (Galactic Circus in Melbourne's Crown Casino comes to mind) and, in Japan, public places where they generate a decent revenue (train stations being one such example). It does present something that not many games have:

Staying power.

As I mentioned above, I'm still keen to have a shot at Virtua Cop 2. And Daytona USA is still heaps of fun to play with a group of people (8-way game FTW!). Thus, it becomes clear why arcade games persist: If it's a good game, people will continue to play it. This is what Nintendo realized with the virtual console and may also explain why old games are being revamped in HD.
Many of the games I see in my local arcade are pushing fifteen years which is an absurdly long amount of time in an industry where major developments happen in third of that time. Granted, I have seen some innovative things being done to arcade games elsewhere - like Namco & Nintendo joining forces to present Mario Kart as an arcade game - but as said, if a game works well then people will keep playing it until the end of time.

Now there's a thought to ponder: Would we still be playing Starcraft if Blizzard didn't keep pumping out updates for it on a regular basis?