Parasite Eve – Aya Brea

In a real ugly art phase

Finish Him Part One: It Begins (Mortal Kombat 1 Fatalities – All Versions)

This is the first in a series of blog posts where I review fighting game fatalities in a retrospective. The factors considered will be:

Blood and Guts: How visceral the fatality is

Originality: Points for creativity

Impact: For lack of a better term, how much oomph the fatality has

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Part One

“Epic Fantasy Reborn”

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Legendary Edition | Developer: Bethesda Softworks LLC | Publisher: Bethesda Game Studios | Platform: Xbox 360 | Released: November 11, 2011 | Originally Played From: June 29, 2018 – August 29, 2018 (Main Quest)

Ulfric Stormcloak, the “true leader”? We’ll see about that.

Box Art Battle #2: Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry Series

Box Art Battle is a series where we compare box art for several games across multiple regions – and declare one of them the best.

Battle 1: Theatrhythm Final Fantasy

The difference in covers between the US/Canadian and Japanese/UK versions of TFF shows a difference in culture. You may be aware of a trope known as “American Kirby Is Hardcore”. This is when a Japanese game with a cutesy and non-confrontational cover is imported and changed for other regions into something less friendly and more action-oriented.

US/Canada Cover

JP/UK Cover

In the US/Canada, the game’s cover sets up the conflict between the warriors aligned with Cosmos and the monsters that work for Chaos. It’s a simple dichotomy that perfectly conveys the game’s adorable art style.

However, in Japan and the UK, we have what appears to be a chocobo singing a song of the game’s numerous characters, protagonists of the Final Fantasy games contained therein. It’s more whimsical and even cuter than the US and Canada’s box art, so I have to give the edge to it.

2021 Halloween Special: Scary Moments in Non-Horror Retro Games

Content Warning: Violence and Gore, Flashing Lights and Colors

Some games intentionally utilize the horror genre to great effect. But other games outside of the genre occasionally foist unexpected, and unwelcome, surprises and situations upon the audience. So much so, that they become what the game is best known for. What examples can we come up with here?

The World of Drakkhen Hates and Really Wants to Kill You, No Matter How Disturbing It Has to Get

Drakkhen is a clunky medieval RPG that originated on PC and Amiga, and was then ported to the venerable Super NES early on its life cycle. Looking at the game’s box art and some of its screen shots, it appears generic and unremarkable. But the game is like a mullet of sorts; clichèd fantasy in the front, unspeakable horror and weirdness in the back. Part of this is owed to its day-night cycle, ambitious for a title of its age. However, it used its powers to menace and confound players. Even Wikipdia cites:

“Drakkhen’s gameplay is colored by its early-game brutality and surreal enemy encounters, the former especially in the SNES version. One special enemy is relegated solely to appearing when the player kicks one of the many urns in the ground. Upon doing so, a black, stationary canine head rises from beneath the floor to shoot bolts from its eyes. These encounters are quickly fatal to new players who don’t know any better.”

There is also the deadly and invincible Shadow Man, AKA the Shade of Doom, who lives up to his name by appearing as a tall and lanky black silhouette with a red symbol in his chest (though some posit that this is not a completely random monster design, but rather a fine art reference); Some of the constellations in the game will form monsters to menace your party; There is a strange encounter with an “unburnt”, indescribable monster in a fireplace in one area that does immense damage to the party while making strange noises, almost like a frog ribbiting; And then… then there’s the “I Love You” monster in the Fire Area. Clearly an eldritch abomination of pure evil, it looks like a human silhouette that dances on a loop. What really makes it unsettling is what it says: “I Love You” over and over, with the pitch changing up and down randomly. This is only in the PC version, however; in the SNES port, it just… moans, which some say is even worse.

Perhaps the developers of Drakkhen missed their calling in horror, but they later made a spiritual successor called Dragon View to more acclaim. This screenshot LP is pretty positive.

Doom II Part One: Sin…

“Let the obsession begin. Again.”

Doom II | Developer: | Publisher: Bethesda | Platform: Xbox 360 | Originally Released (PC): October 10, 1994| Originally Released (Xbox 360): May 26, 2010 | Originally Played From: November 21, 2016 – August 27, 2019

The Premise: Immediately after the events of Doom, the Marine (AKA Doomguy) discovers that a portal to Hell has been opened on Earth. Hell’s demons came through and killed billions of people. The survivors seek to escape Earth, so it’s up to the Marine to clear the way to Earth’s sole remaining terrestrial spaceport.

Basically: It’s time for him to once again do what he does best. And it’s not very nice.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf Part One: Welcome to Ylisstol

“Welcome to your new life!”

Animal Crossing: New Leaf | Platform: Nintendo 3DS | Developer: Nintendo EAD | Publisher: Nintendo of America| Originally Played From: March 7, 2014 – November 21, 2016 | Originally Released (North America): June 9, 2013 | Released (Japan): November 8, 2012 | Released (Europe): June 14, 2013 | Released (Australia): June 15, 2013

Vanquish

“An Epic Third Person Sci-Fi Action Shooter from the Critically Acclaimed Game Director Shinji Mikami”

Vanquish

Developer: Platinum Games, Inc. | Platform: Xbox 360 | Released: October 19, 2010 | Publisher: Sega | Originally Played From: July 10, 2012 – September 14, 2012

Metroid II: Return of Samus

“A Sinister Planet Threatens the Galaxy!”

Metroid II: Return of Samus | System: Nintendo 3DS (Virtual Console) | Developer: Nintendo R&D 1 | Publisher: Nintendo |Original Platform: Game Boy | Released (North America): November 1991 | Released (Japan): January 21, 1992 | Released (Europe): May 21, 1992 | Played From: December 14, 2014 – May 4, 2016

It Came from the Recording Booth

Bad acting in video games! It’s funny, but if we dig a little deeper, what else can we find? The simple reasons why so much of the acting in early games was so bad, whether or not some of these actors went on to do any more acting, and some of the technical reasons why it was so poor. Let’s jump in!

This YouTube video has the answers to the basic question of why acting in early games was so bad:

If you can’t or don’t want to watch the video (which I highly recommend), to sum up the most common reasons: No one had any idea what they were doing back then, the people involved usually didn’t really care about what they were doing, most of the budget went to other aspects of development (leading to members of the dev teams having to attempt to act; I don’t envy being in this position), actors usually performed alone and with little knowledge of context or character relationships (which a good director would provide), and their equipment sometimes wasn’t quite up to snuff, either, with bad microphones. I would posit a few other factors: Some of the people involved with acting and direction didn’t take games seriously, no one really had many connections to experienced actors and directors, and let’s be honest – game writing usually wasn’t that great back in the day. Games were frequently content to regurgitate fantasy/science fiction tropes to justify basic plots. Another aspect to this is how abysmal some of the Japanese-to-English localizations were at the time, as we’ll see in many examples.

Adaptation April 2021: Star Wars: Republic Commando Part One of Two

“The Most Lethal Weapon in the Galaxy… Your Squad”

Star Wars: Republic Commando

Developer: LucasArts| Publisher: Electronic Arts K.K.| Released: February 17, 2005| System: Xbox (played on Xbox 360)| Originally Played From: March 3, 2019 – March 22, 2019

SW: RC is a cult classic, squad-based, single-player first-person shooter wherein you play as a squad of Republic clone troopers. The game takes place during the prequel trilogy.

Adaptation April 2021: Resident Evil (The First Movie)

“Survive the Horror”

Resident Evil| Written and Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson

The first movie! It’s relatively grounded, especially considering how the series turned out.

Adaptation April 2021: Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara

“Join the Party, Split Your Enemies”

Chronicles of Mystara: Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom| Platform: Xbox 360| Developer: Iron Galaxy| Publisher: Capcom| Released: August 22, 2013| Originally Played From: December 21, 2018 – December 24, 2018

Sometimes, I forget that Capcom used to make lots of licensed games. CoM collects both of their D&D beat ‘em ups. Both games boast multiplayer for up to four participants, and each player has to choose a class. Each class has distinct abilities.

Fighter: The balanced guy, who also has the highest amount of health

Elf: Has short range and less power, but has seven spells at her command

Cleric: The best character at using shields to block. He also has five spells

Dwarf: Has short range, but the quickest combos

Adaptation April 2021: Alien 3 (NES, Sega Genesis, and Super NES)

“The ALIENS are fast, spit acid, and are right behind YOU!”

Alien 3 (NES)| Developer: Probe| Publisher: LJN| Released: March 1993

Talking about some of the games based on what may be the worst Alien movie out of the original quadrilogy? Sure, why not. Despite… most of the recent flicks in the series, I still love the franchise, and these games have some interesting trivia, like which one adapts the film’s tragic ending. It may not be the one that you’d think.

The NES, Sega Master System, Genesis, and Game Gear games based on the flick have the same basic premise: As Ripley, you have to run around the levels and rescue the other prisoners and reach the exit under the time limit. Depending on which version you’re playing, this is easier said than done.

Contrary to the flick’s premise, there are numerous aliens wandering around instead of just one, and Ripley is packing heat to deal with them, but because all of the prisoners are trapped in Xenomorph webbing, none of them are free to help her. The Super NES version of the game is a bit more involved because you acquire multiple objectives per level, and you can do them in any order you wish.

Music Monday #3: Best JRPG Battle Themes

Darwin: “We’re finally strong enough to take on THE AWESOME STORE! Let’s go!”

Gumball: “Wait, don’t you kinda want to hear that awesome battle music one last time?”

–The Amazing World of Gumball, “The Console”

Power Stone Collection

“Take Back the Power!”

Tales from the Borderlands Part One: We Dig Giant Robots

“On the unforgiving world of Pandora a Hyperion suit and a con artist embark on an adventure to recover cash they both think is theirs.”

Tales from the Borderlands|Developer: Telltale Games|Publisher: 2K Games|Platform: Xbox 360|Originally Played From: July 16, 2016 – July 23, 2016|Released: April 26, 2016 (Complete Collection; all five episodes originally released from November 2014 – October 2015)

Doom (1993) Part One

Doom (1993)

Platform: Xbox 360|Developer: id Software|Publisher: Bethesda|Released (Original PC Version): December 10, 1993|Released (XB360 Version): September 27, 2006|Originally Played From: October 13, 2016 – October 26, 2016

A portal to Hell opens up after the Union Aerospace Corporation experiments with teleportation between Mars’ two moons, Phobos and Deimos. You are an unnamed Marine who has to fight his way out of Phobos’ moon base, braving the horrors that now call it home.

The PC game originally consisted of three Episodes made up of eight missions each. The first Episode: Knee-Deep in the Dead.

Splatterhouse (2010) Part One: Blood

“Bloody Brutal Monster Violence”

Splatterhouse (2010)

Developer (until 2009): BottleRocket|Developer: Namco Bandai Games|Publisher: Namco Bandai Games|Platform: PlayStation 3|Released (North America): November 23, 2010|Released (Australia): November 25, 2010|Released (Europe): November 26, 2010|Originally Played From: July 8, 2012 – October 9, 2012

This is a 3D reboot of Namco’s cult classic, horror-themed beat ‘em up, Splatterhouse. It uses a premise similar to the first game, wherein Rick has to rescue his girlfriend, Jennifer, from the nefarious Dr. West. To do this, Rick has to make a devil’s pact with a certain artifact…

It all began when Jennifer was supposed to interview West, a professor of “necrobiology”, at his mansion. Rick went with Jennifer, not only to look out for her, but also to propose. Before he can, however, some specimens of West’s experiments attack the couple, kidnapping Jennifer and leaving Rick at death’s door. Rick manages to knock open a sarcophagus… and that’s when he meets him.

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together Part One: Good Company

“Rise up soldiers and prepare for battle!”

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together| Developer/Publisher: Square Enix| Platform: PlayStation Portable| Released (North America): February 15, 2011| Released (Europe): February 25, 2011| Released (Japan): November 11, 2010| Originally Played From: August 29, 2012 – July 4, 2018

Final Fantasy VIII – Ultimecia

Final Fantasy – Terra

Colored pencil drawing of Terra from Dissidia Final Fantasy. Approximate time taken: Two hours