NGPC Countdown #21 - Neo 21

Neo 21..........(sealed)



At some point, the boys at SNK thought it was a good idea to compartmentalize Caesar's Palace into a set of portable games and dubbed them "Pocket Casino Series".

....Why?

If they were trying to capitalize on the instant PokerStar fame...then they're 3 years too early. But what's really peeves me is we in the US get stuck with Twenty One and Mystery Bonus while everyone else in the world enjoys the greater joys NGPC can offer. So, everytime one of these "Pocket Casino Series" gets on here, I'll jot down a name of a game. Then throw my two pennies why said item is thousands times better. For example, Cotton. Who doesn't love crazy anime shooter fun?

NGPC Countdown #22 - Dark Arms: Beast Buster 1999

Dark Arms: Beast Buster 1999......(complete w/box)



The frightful time of ghost, ghouls, and sugary, gooey goodness draws near and keeping up with ToT tradition. Tonight's entry is a treat fit for the festivities. ( I would opt for Trick but hard to pull off thousands of miles away with a keyboard unless I use the ol' "Free 2 CDs" trap.)

Dark Arms: Beast Buster 1999 is by far the scariest and darkest (forgive the pun) addition to the Neo Geo Pocket family, at least on the US side. The whole thing give off the SMT aura (Shin Megami Tensei). For starters, you, as the hero, plunged into the underworld for the sake of power. The cover itself explains it all. Second, your boss is the Grim Reaper himself, on off days when he's not Drac's stooge. Searching for the ultimate weapon, ol' bag of bones here hands over a capture gun to 'harvest' roaming monsters and get this...feed it to your weapon in hope of evolving. It's Pokemon meets (insert cannibalistic movie name here) and one of the best RPGs NGPC has to offer.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Classic Unleashed - Amazing Penguins

A happy cornerstone of my youth. Amazing Penguin wasn't as big or popular compared to the Big N's heavy hitters (Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc.). But why should that stop me or anyone else for that matter? If it's makes you happy, then by all means play to your heart's content, I say. :D

Amazing Penguin Review

Enjoy!

NGPC Countdown #23 - Crust Roller

Crush Roller......(complete w/box)



A little review.

What happens when Pac-Man crosses with a paintbrush and Pokemon add-in steroids and the scrutiny of a perfectionist? Answer: A raging, muscle-bound artist with an obsessive munching for cute furry creatures in convenient little balls....or Crush Roller.

Like Pac-Man? Good, its the same thing....except you're a paintbrush. Goal is to paint all the roads while the Inky-ghost reincarnations, simple right? Well. not so simple. Actually, it's harder than playing Mike Tyson's Punch-Out with the Power Glove while blindfolded. Remember the part about perfectionist scrutiny, I wasn't kidding. To pass the level, all parts from EVERY angle must be covered. The spot can be so miniscule that you'll end painting the whole stage over again just to be sure while fending off enemies.

The only weapon of attack is the crush roller, paint roller, or whatever to smash enemies within a selected path but used only as a last resort as Blinky comes back stronger, faster, and meaner than before and only gets worse each time. At some time during the stage, they release a Pokemon-esque creature to undo your work. You can "catch" it before disappearing and add to the gallery.

For all my griping, Crush Roller still holds a good game though a challenging good game. If you're looking for tons of replayability, then Roller's multipath worlds has got you covered.

Spyborgs: First Impressions

Caught a nasty cold and my throat landed in Frog City for a week. Puts my next video review on hiatus for now. So, I went to Gamestop and picked up a copy of Spyborgs for $20 (really cheap for a recent release).

In Capcom beat'em up tradition, you have selection between three characters: the fast and furious yet not-so-strong ninja (Clandestine), the hulked-out, slow muscle machine (Bouncer), and the not-so-fast, not-so-strong, middle guy (Stinger) with built-in machine gun. After your first selection, its asked for your second. That's right....two-player co-op, and here's where the game begins to lose steam.

I've played Bouncer (Square's PS2 game). It's a neat beat'em up but three-character co-op idea was a major joykill. What's the fun in punching bad guys, if you're hardly doing the punching. It's like the game becomes the player and the player has become a Youtube walkthrough watcher. What's worse is fights become more chaotic. The AI wails the same enemies you are and you don't know whether you're the one hitting your enemies or not. Others times, the AI character blocks your view and can't see what the hell is going on. With a friend, both of you can coordinate strategies together, finding effective methods to overcome obstacles. The AI on the other hand is like a savant, he's smart enough to wail damage and survive but stupid enough to leave the enemy standing. What a nuisance.

Another thing that frustrates me is the special attack activated when the orange bar is filled by collecting orange sparky orbs. It's basically you and your partner wail enemies following a sequence of GoW (God of War) triggered events for an extra boost in power. What boggles my mind is with two players the attack effects only one enemy, but if alone, you can damage a group of them. Shouldn't the logic be if one person can attack a group, then two should damage all of them. It only give more incentive to throw your friend in the fire and do it alone, but a bad move for two reason. One, the AI character is regenerated after each round of fighting.

Two, the enemies are hard as hell, even the game's so-called "casual" difficulty will pound your cybernetic behind to the scrap heap in a split-second. It's so easy for them to gang up and force you into a defensive stance, there's hardly a way to fight back without taking damage. Reapers (machines with huge claws) are the worst. Not only are they cheap and deal heavy damage, they got a "dark" attack that can't be stopped unless heavy damage is dealt to them FAST! With so many things going on at once, it's hard to know when to block until it's too late.

It's a catch 22. Go at it alone and immediately slaughtered by the robot onslaught or bring the dumb AI and lose some of the fun. Big opposition said Spyborg will not be an awesome game and they're right....for all the WRONG reasons.

The concept of cyberheroes fighting evil robot armies wasn't a bad idea, in fact, it heralds back to the days of NES/SNES. What wrong if looks like a Saturday Morning Cartoon? Most video games from our childhood fit that description easily, so why hate something you loved as a kid? No, the Wii graphical capabilities aren't to blame either. That's saying all NES games are bad cause of its 8-bit graphics. As for the usual culprit (a.k.a. Wii Motion Control), you can turn it off in the option menu.

To tell you the truth, Spyborgs didn't rub me the right way. (Actually, it pounded my face into the wall...repeatedly.) But it kinda grew on me over time and found myself enjoying it more and more. We talked the bad, now let's get to the good stuff!

Boss battles are stupendously epic. It's the brightest part of the game, so far. Hell, the first boss is a 10-story robo-colossus with armaments that'll make the Army cry. Maybe a bit tough at first, but the fun is worth the reward. I know I've said special attack was backwards ass but here it's the opposite. Developers did great work creating each sequence as unique and entertaining for every boss, helping redeem the game's other crapfests.

If robots are still breaking your metallic heiny, you're welcome to revisit previous stages and acquire enough red orb to buy upgrade for greater power, improved health, or new moves. It's also a good chance to get practice your new moves and does help make later levels more manageable, but tough as nails to get through.

Like I said, Spyborgs is $20 less than half the price of new console games. If you like brawlers with balls to the walls difficulty and epic boss fight you can clutch your fist into, then Spyborgs may be for you.

R.I.P. Mario

Captain Lou Albano, a.k.a. the best damn Mario EVER, died today. I'd be lying if I said I didn't like the Super Mario Super Show. As a matter of fact, I loved it to death. To death I mean, watched every episode (including the Zelda cartoons, which I like too), buying every possible cassette they had out, and yes, I "did the Mario" A LOT. I used to do this everywhere I went....school, home, even the bathroom and it annoyed the hell out of everyone.

If by now you don't have a clue what I'm talking about, here's a history lesson. The Super Mario Bros Super Show was every young Mario fan's wet dream come true, right after Super Mario Bros 3 of course. A two-decade old show starring every kid's favorite pair of sibling plumbers. Each episode had a live segment and a cartoon, usually the live-segment was split into two with the cartoon in the middle. Lou Albano and Davis Wells played and voiced Mario and Luigi respectively.

The live portions circles around the plumbers misadventures in Brooklyn with an oddball cast and stranger selection of guest stars including Dracula, Tina Turner, Mario's mom, Luigi's mom and Lou Albano as himself. The plots were cheesy and the actors were even cheesier but when everything's all said and done, Lou and Davis made it worth our wild. Up to this day, I haven't heard anyone top Lou's performance and it's a shame Nintendo didn't hire Lou to be the official voice of Mario. In retrospective, it was Albano and Davis that made their alter egos such likable characters to children all across the country and in turn, transformed Mario and Luigi into household name. In short, I may not have known the wrestler, but I loved the plumber.

So, until next time everybody.....DO THE MARIO!



RIP Lou (1933 - 2009)

NGPC Countdown #24 - Pac-Man

Pac-Man........(complete w/box)



A straight port of the arcade 80's classic ventures to NGPC given the option of full screen or scrolling. Controls are a bit slippery, at least for me that is. When acquiring it, I got the box and manual first, then the game second. Why?

Boxes are first priority for my collection strategy more so than the actual games themselves. Yeah, I could get all the cartridges themselves and the boxes/manual later. Think about that. Remember people tended to throw the boxes and the chances of finding the box by itself is nearly slim. Finding one on sale is usually paired with matching manual and game and makes the whole buying games first idea seem redundant. Especially aiming for a complete boxed set.

Classic Unleashed - Run Saber

Given all the praise Strider get, I'm surprise this little gem isn't talked about as often. Few games follow the Strider formula and Run Saber comes close to the bullseye with 2 player co-op to boot!

Enjoy!

Run Saber review