Strike of the Ninja

A Kickstarter? To do a revamp of The Last Ninja?!

You can't kill the metal

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the original Sony PlayStation. And to mark the occassion, Sony asked their fans which was the best PS1 game of all time. The results were:

1. Metal Gear Solid
2. Final Fantasy 7
3. Crash Bandicoot
4. Crash Bandicoot: Warped 

Source 

Not much i can say except is indeed satisfying to see MGS still reigning supreme :)

....We can sing in the glow of a star that I know of / Where lovers enjoy peace of mind....

And yet another game has been given the boot from the Hall of Shame. Clean up your desk Leisure Suit Larry 6, you're outta here!

Original image located here. Accessed 28th August 2015

Compare to the other Larry games, this represents unfamiliar territory for me: I'd seen the other games whether being played or witnessing the box art. This however completely escaped my notice at the time. Why, I wasn't aware there was a Leisure Suit Larry 6 until I saw Leisure Suit Larry 7 in a game store! (and considering that this is a series that lacks a fourth entrant, that's saying something).

Anywho, having played Leisure Suit Larry 2 and 3, I can safely say that this game is a definite improvement. The character designs are superb, the locales are interesting and the voice acting is superb. Maybe it was case of the technology having advanced enough to make a decent game. Or maybe it was a simple case of having better writing then the preceding games.

I did call out Larry 3 for being ambitious but in Larry 6, the general goal is more scaled back (ie, attempt to sleep with as many women as possible). And that in turn provides a sense of focus. As a result, the jokes are great, the problems are solved through logical means and there is a clear beginning, middle and end. Leisure Suit Larry 2 and 3 may have been meandering but that doesn't seem to be the case here - and Leisure Suit Larry 6 is all the better for it.

And it's good to see that the unwinnable situations are less in number. True, I fell foul of two of them when playing this game and had to start over, but it's good to see that Sierra at this stage were starting to realize this flaw and were taking steps to correct it. True one could suggest that the games LucasArts were churning out may have made Sierra nervous but 'A' for Effort.

In addition, special mention must go the voice acting. Larry sounds pathetic and the ladies certainly have plenty of character that stretches beyond a character portrait. But the real star is the narrator, sounding smug, snarky and taking great delight in commenting on Larry's pathetic existence. Indeed, seeing as so many voices are spot on, it makes a fascinating contrast to the likes of Metroid Other M and the outrage it inspired when the previously silent character of Samus Aran was given a voice. 

All in all, Leisure Suit Larry 6 may have completely escaped my interest first time around - so it;s funny to see it turn out to be a such a superb game. And then, from Leisure Suit Larry 6 comes Leisure Suit Larry 7....

Bond. Azure Bonds.

Another game has been struck down from my Hall of Shame. Goodbye Curse of the Azure Bonds!

Original image located here. Accessed 24th August 2015

Boy has this been along time coming: I recall playing this over twenty years ago on my C64! True it was well and truly on the way out by then but I still played it and enjoyed it. After all, it was in the same series of the legendary Pool of Radiance so it has to be good, right?

This may sound strange but I compare Pool of Radiance to Super Mario Kart in that the first game introduced the concept and did it so well that the successive games haven't really done a lot to add to it. And that is the main problem I found with Curse of the Azure Bonds: It may have introduced two new classes, the Paladin and Ranger, as well as Dual Classing (keep in mind this was based on 2nd AD&D edition rules) but somehow it seems smaller then Pool of Radiance.
I recall Pool of Radiance being full of large areas to explore. In Curse however, the same area size is still present but there seems to be less of them. Also many of the areas are divided up. Case in point: The opening area, which is split between the city of Tilverton (where the PCs start the game) and the Thieves Guild. Now according to the background, Tilverton is a major city - it has a large temple and is visited by royalty. But for such a city it certainly seems small. And the Thieves Guild also seems small - especially when the thieves in question seem organized (one can imagine the thieves in Kovel Mansion in Pool of Radiance sniggering at these guys). True, Curse may have introduced an overworld map but the reduced areas somehow do take a lot of the immersion away from me.

Other things of note is the inclusion of Alias and Dragonbait from the original novel, Azure Bonds (for the unfamiliar, they're the two characters on the box art above). Sure they weren't much help but it was great to see them and have them join my party. It was also great to see Akabar, Olive, and Nameless too.
Also, the last battle was one tough nut to crack. It took me several attempts due to me being swamped by the Margoyles and the Priests of Bane. But when I finally managed to wipe them all out, the Big Bad, Tyranthraxus, turned out to be surprisingly easy to defeat. Anticlimax much?

Grumbling aside, I did enjoy Curse of the Azure Bonds. True it's part of the Gold Box series and I played those games a lot when I was a kid but seeing it now, it holds up surprisingly well. This goes to show that a well-designed game can outlast the march of time.
Also it's fun to see the same party I took all the way through Pool of Radiance return and go to even greater strengths.
Furthermore it's always pleasing to complete a game I started playing over twenty years ago :)

The Ultimate Warrior

Anyone remember a game called Barbarian?

For the unfamiliar,. Barbarian was a game that came out during the Commodore 64 era. It eventually found itself onto the Amiga and presented itself as a one-on-one fighter game. It was also notable for the use of gore and inclusion of decapitations, making it something of a spiritual fore-father to Mortal Kombat. It was a controversial game with a) it being banned in Germany because the violence and b) having Maria Whittaker on the box art.

But what I find fascinating about the game is the setting. Get past the obvious inspiration from Robert E. Howard's famous creation and the game presents a rather bleak setting.The background to this game is that some warlock has kidnapped a princess and it's up to the PC to go rescue them. But if the Princess in question is indeed a princess then she is of royalty and part of a ruling family. But what exactly is the ruling family actually ruling? Judging by the setting presented in the game, the land is sparsely populated and is kinda bleak.
Don't believe me? Watch this video of the Amiga version:

Original video located here. Accessed 5th August 2015

I counted eleven people in this game: The PC, the Warlock, the Princess and eight combatants. They are the only people in this game. We have forests, dungeons and volcanoes but no sign of civilization whatsoever.
So what kind of kingdom is this? An empty and wasted one? Does this Princess have any authority? Does the royal family in question have ANY authority? Is this princess even worth saving?

I do recall making a post how I noted how the original Legend of Zelda could work in a desolate setting but it would seem someone was way ahead of me....

...Let's fly way up to the clouds / Away from the maddening crowds....

And the hot streak continues with another game cast down from the Hall of Shame - yep, after something of a lull for the first half of the year, I'm on fire! And who is out on their arse this time around? Why, it would be Leisure Suit Larry 3!

Original image located here. Accessed 29th July 2015

Having played the first three Leisure Suit Larry games in order, it is interesting to observe the progression the series has taken. While the first game has this nasty reputation of being 'the game with sex in it', I however understand the satire that was being put in place: Larry is, no matter how you look at it, is a loser and his attempts to get laid always end both successful and with him being humiliated. Therefore it's funny how this satire is often missed by most people - still, the first Larry game sold enough to warrant several sequels (along with a more recent revamp) so more than enough people may have noticed.

But it would seem that that the Larry in the sequels is a different one from the first game. It would seem that Larry(s) in 2 and 3 is less a sleazeball and more a bumbling-yet-lovable loser. In Larry 2, Larry was looking for love (as the title suggests) and he does succeed in Larry 3 with Passionate Patti. Okay sure Patti comes at the end of several conquests but the conquests in question are handled in a more lighter manner with Larry's acts being interrupted by pure happenstance.
And as for Patti, I'm not sold on her. She comes across as beautiful, flirtatious and having been 'around', so why would she have an instant attraction to Larry? It would make sense for Larry to have an instant attraction to any woman who gave him the time of day as he's been established as a loser. So what did he do to win the attention of a woman who's made out to be sexy, confident and self-assured? I can see the argument that Patti was included to add some balance but I don't know: if anything, her presence seems a more no-win situation. Why, imagine how much outrage would've occurred if Patti was a mirror of Larry: A horny but hopeless nerd abused by the men she tries to hit on.

Beyond the writing though, there are still some glaring design flaws. While the parts controlling Patti were different, it was however dull compared to the rest of the game. And whilst the timed puzzles from the previous are gone, they are however replaced with an intruding arcade sequence (ergh!). And the controls are still as disagreeable as ever - funny how many of the Sierra games in the eighties tend not to age well. 

Some say that Leisure Suit Larry 3 was an improvement over the misstep that was Leisure Suit Larry 2. But I'm not convinced: If anything, I found the humor of two far better than three.
I don't know if the changes Al Lowe brought about in 3 was through the outrage caused by 1 and 2 but I guess you can't please everyone

.....Cantare, Whoa oh oh oh....

And yet another game has been cast down from my Hall of Shame. Pack your bags, Leisure Suit Larry 2, you're outta here!

 Original image located here. Accessed 27th July 2015

And much like it's predecessor, this was a game I originally encountered through witnessing it being played by my friend at the time. And once again, it is interesting to play this game myself given the distance of two decades worth of time.

Compared to it's predecessor, this game does indeed feel like a step down. Indeed, it is here that many of the criticisms associated with Sierra Adventure games rear their heads: Timed puzzles, situations that leave the game unbeatable and working towards a goal that is never made clear (thus making puzzles being overcome largely through trial and error). 
Furthermore I'm not sold on the graphics. One might say that they were a product of their time but the sprite of Larry looks nothing like the dude on the box art. Indeed, Larry looks more like a creep than the lovable loser he eventually grew into. Granted that was kind of the point in the original game but it is jarring to see how this character evolution started from. Moreso when Larry's character portrait makes him look like he's in his fifties.

Grumbling aside however, the jokes are still funny and the writing is still top-notch - even with the passage of time. It's just a shame that the writing has to share room with some glaring design flaws.
I often hear how people grumble how modern games play like the design team and the writing team were operating in separate rooms, segregated from each other. Funny how I got that same impression from a game made in 1988...