Hello readers!
I haven't been posting new articles here lately, because I can't really re-post the articles I've been writing these days. If you want to continue reading my work, you can find my endless flood of words at GameZone.com.
March 11, 2011
December 17, 2010
More Human Than Human - Videodrone Episode 5
Podcast
We're sliding from enemy to enemy this week as we talk about games we love... that no one else loves. In the first part of this two-part special, we form a very lonely club in honor of these hated gems. This week Joe and David are joined by special guest Michael Budassi, who is immortal.
Click to Listen
Highlights include: Earth Defense Force 2017, German-style wheat beer, Too Human and Silicon Knights, forklifts, Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, and Pleasure!
Click to Listen
Highlights include: Earth Defense Force 2017, German-style wheat beer, Too Human and Silicon Knights, forklifts, Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, and Pleasure!
Shank, or a Look Inside the Mind of a 15-Year Old Boy
Review
Originally posted at: http://www.criticalgamer.co.uk/2010/08/30/shank-review/
If The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai is 2D Ninja Gaiden, Shank is 2D God of War. It’s a pretty game with flashy combat and moments of badassery that come at the expense of precision. The fighting game pedigree that carried over into those aforementioned games (and even the more recent God of War games) is a bit lacking here. As a result, it’s all too often that Shank (the protagonist) seems to slip from your control like a wet bar of soap.
That wouldn’t be a problem if the game was all flash with no substance, but the AI enemies don’t mess around. They attack in mobs, exploiting any moment of weakness with a barrage of bullets or a quick stab from behind. The challenge is welcome, but Shank’s easily punished repertoire of combos is not. Sometimes he just tries too hard to be cool, and as a result ends up shooting bullets in the air at enemies that aren’t there or failing to block while he finishes a flashy combo.
It’s those moments in Shank, when things just don’t work, that deflate what should be a relentlessly awesome experience. When it does work (which is most of the time) bouncing between three distinct weapons, leaping across the room at enemies, or executing showy gun combos feels incredibly satisfying.
Shank is a story of revenge, one inspired by... well, Robert Rodriguez movies mostly. Turn the upcoming film Machete into a cartoon and stylistically, you wouldn’t be able to tell the two apart. Shank plays its Mexican drug cartel violence a little too seriously though. Especially with the Samurai Jack-esque art style and flat voice acting that makes the story laughably corny.
You basically fight your way from one criminal stereotype to the next. The plot is filled with violent beheadings, strippers, misogyny, torture, and just about any scenario you can imagine a teenager coming up with after a binge of revenge movies. Devoid of any kind of substance, self-aware comedy, or unique style, the story is just sort of annoying.
Shank’s co-op mode works as a prequel to the story. With two players, the screen is a bit busy, but it’s a fun time regardless. Boss fights require players to work together in clever ways and finishing a tough fight with a partner is an awesome experience. Still, if you don’t have a like-minded friend around to enjoy the game with, Shank is going to be an alarmingly brief experience.
Between single-player and co-op modes, the game rounds out at an all-too brief 5-6 hours. After that, there’s hard mode (which is insanely difficult), and some extra costumes to unlock, but overall there’s little reason to go back. Even over the course of those initial hours, the experience starts to drag. Areas and enemies are repeated far too often to keep the gameplay feeling fresh - by the eighteenth time you leap dramatically through a window it loses its impact.
Shank is the kind of game that’s a blast when you first start playing, but as it drags on, the flaws become a bit too apparent. That it wears out its welcome so quickly is a serious issue. And with so much style, it’s unfortunate that it feels so soulless. It’s not at all a bad game, at least average, even great if you’re willing to look past the issues; but in the grand scheme of character action games, Shank is a big letdown.
(Scored 2 out of 5)
If The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai is 2D Ninja Gaiden, Shank is 2D God of War. It’s a pretty game with flashy combat and moments of badassery that come at the expense of precision. The fighting game pedigree that carried over into those aforementioned games (and even the more recent God of War games) is a bit lacking here. As a result, it’s all too often that Shank (the protagonist) seems to slip from your control like a wet bar of soap.
That wouldn’t be a problem if the game was all flash with no substance, but the AI enemies don’t mess around. They attack in mobs, exploiting any moment of weakness with a barrage of bullets or a quick stab from behind. The challenge is welcome, but Shank’s easily punished repertoire of combos is not. Sometimes he just tries too hard to be cool, and as a result ends up shooting bullets in the air at enemies that aren’t there or failing to block while he finishes a flashy combo.
It’s those moments in Shank, when things just don’t work, that deflate what should be a relentlessly awesome experience. When it does work (which is most of the time) bouncing between three distinct weapons, leaping across the room at enemies, or executing showy gun combos feels incredibly satisfying.
Shank is a story of revenge, one inspired by... well, Robert Rodriguez movies mostly. Turn the upcoming film Machete into a cartoon and stylistically, you wouldn’t be able to tell the two apart. Shank plays its Mexican drug cartel violence a little too seriously though. Especially with the Samurai Jack-esque art style and flat voice acting that makes the story laughably corny.
You basically fight your way from one criminal stereotype to the next. The plot is filled with violent beheadings, strippers, misogyny, torture, and just about any scenario you can imagine a teenager coming up with after a binge of revenge movies. Devoid of any kind of substance, self-aware comedy, or unique style, the story is just sort of annoying.
Shank’s co-op mode works as a prequel to the story. With two players, the screen is a bit busy, but it’s a fun time regardless. Boss fights require players to work together in clever ways and finishing a tough fight with a partner is an awesome experience. Still, if you don’t have a like-minded friend around to enjoy the game with, Shank is going to be an alarmingly brief experience.
Between single-player and co-op modes, the game rounds out at an all-too brief 5-6 hours. After that, there’s hard mode (which is insanely difficult), and some extra costumes to unlock, but overall there’s little reason to go back. Even over the course of those initial hours, the experience starts to drag. Areas and enemies are repeated far too often to keep the gameplay feeling fresh - by the eighteenth time you leap dramatically through a window it loses its impact.
Shank is the kind of game that’s a blast when you first start playing, but as it drags on, the flaws become a bit too apparent. That it wears out its welcome so quickly is a serious issue. And with so much style, it’s unfortunate that it feels so soulless. It’s not at all a bad game, at least average, even great if you’re willing to look past the issues; but in the grand scheme of character action games, Shank is a big letdown.
(Scored 2 out of 5)
November 14, 2010
Yes, I Am The First Moron To Be Hospitalized By Kinect
Commentary
Well, this is embarrassing...
A few years ago my kneecap popped out quite suddenly and unexpectedly while drinking with some friends at Barcade in Brooklyn. It wasn't just a little popped out either - when I fell to the floor, collapsed against a nearby Tapper cabinet, I assumed my leg had just mysteriously broken. Whatever was going on, all I could tell was that something was jutting out of my leg by several inches.
An ambulance ride and two hours of agony later, a doctor popped my kneecap back in and sent me home limping, swollen, but relatively fine. My hope was that it would never happen again.
Fast forward to about a week ago. Kinect came out and Dance Central looked awesome - I had to get one. I ordered it from Amazon and it arrived a couple days later. Kinect Adventures got boring pretty quickly and the dashboard was a disappointment, but Dance Central ended up being everything I hoped for. I loved it so much I started playing it every chance I got, twisting and contorting that knee for hours on end - I probably had this coming.
So my friends and I got together to play it and we were having a blast. Everyone was drinking, laughing, and our dance moves ranged from smooth and sexy to hilariously spastic. I landed somewhere in the middle, at least until I landed on the floor after one knee jerk too many dancing to Teach Me How To Jerk.
Here's the song in question, it explains a lot:
"Not again!" I shouted in agony, hitting the floor and scaring the hell out of everyone in the room.
"Joe, are you okay?"
"No."
"Should I call an ambulance?"
"Yes."
I tried popping it back in again, but it wouldn't budge. Between the pain and the room full of terrified friends, I could see this would be another long night. The paramedics arrived to a room full of beer bottles, a Kinect, and me collapsed in the middle of it all. A police officer picked up the game and joked that he'd have to take it in for evidence.
And yes, once again, hours of agony just so a doctor can finally pop it back in, hours of my knee looking like this:
So I'm pretty sure that despite all the incidents of parents clubbing their kids in the head during Kinect Adventures or people smacking low-hanging objects into their TVs, I'm the first moron that was carried out of my house on a stretcher.
P.S. For anyone counting, Dance Central is still awesome and I'm still going to play the hell out of it once my knee is better.
A few years ago my kneecap popped out quite suddenly and unexpectedly while drinking with some friends at Barcade in Brooklyn. It wasn't just a little popped out either - when I fell to the floor, collapsed against a nearby Tapper cabinet, I assumed my leg had just mysteriously broken. Whatever was going on, all I could tell was that something was jutting out of my leg by several inches.
An ambulance ride and two hours of agony later, a doctor popped my kneecap back in and sent me home limping, swollen, but relatively fine. My hope was that it would never happen again.
Fast forward to about a week ago. Kinect came out and Dance Central looked awesome - I had to get one. I ordered it from Amazon and it arrived a couple days later. Kinect Adventures got boring pretty quickly and the dashboard was a disappointment, but Dance Central ended up being everything I hoped for. I loved it so much I started playing it every chance I got, twisting and contorting that knee for hours on end - I probably had this coming.
So my friends and I got together to play it and we were having a blast. Everyone was drinking, laughing, and our dance moves ranged from smooth and sexy to hilariously spastic. I landed somewhere in the middle, at least until I landed on the floor after one knee jerk too many dancing to Teach Me How To Jerk.
Here's the song in question, it explains a lot:
"Not again!" I shouted in agony, hitting the floor and scaring the hell out of everyone in the room.
"Joe, are you okay?"
"No."
"Should I call an ambulance?"
"Yes."
I tried popping it back in again, but it wouldn't budge. Between the pain and the room full of terrified friends, I could see this would be another long night. The paramedics arrived to a room full of beer bottles, a Kinect, and me collapsed in the middle of it all. A police officer picked up the game and joked that he'd have to take it in for evidence.
And yes, once again, hours of agony just so a doctor can finally pop it back in, hours of my knee looking like this:
So I'm pretty sure that despite all the incidents of parents clubbing their kids in the head during Kinect Adventures or people smacking low-hanging objects into their TVs, I'm the first moron that was carried out of my house on a stretcher.
P.S. For anyone counting, Dance Central is still awesome and I'm still going to play the hell out of it once my knee is better.
November 2, 2010
Explosionade - Indie Game Spotlight (Xbox 360)
Indie Game Spotlight
Explosionade is the latest from Mommy's Best Games, the developers of Weapon of Choice and Shoot 1Up. That's a pedigree that demands at least a download of the trial, and I'm happy to report it's worth your buck as well.
Quick aside - I just have to say how much I love seeing the developers of great indie games sticking to XBLIG, hopefully gaining a following, and continuing to put out game after game. After sifting through one student project or zombie massage cash-in too many, I can look at the Mommy's Best, Ska Studios, or radianGames logos and know I'm in for a treat.
Explosionade is a 2D shooter/platformer with combat reminiscent of Metal Slug and some clever platforming mechanics. You have a normal jump and some jet packs that'll keep you hovering for a couple seconds. Additionally, you have a recharging shield that's activated with a pull of the left trigger. Activating the shield in mid-air gives you some momentum, allowing you to bounce and float around.
Jumping, floating, and bouncing eventually become your main modes of transportation. The finesse and technique required to do this (while also conserving shields to actually block bullets) becomes the major joy of playing Explosionade. That, and you can have a second player join in for the game's 40 stages.
The only real issue with Explosionade is how limited its environments are. I don't mind repetitive art in a $1 game (especially when it's this good), but the gameplay left me wanting a bit more room to move around. Every level is limited to a single room and it can get really cramped with two players.
Explosionade isn't quite the ride that Mommy's Best's first game Weapon of Choice was, but it's at least as good as Shoot 1Up. Like that game, it offers a quick and enjoyable experience for a mere dollar, backed by a level of polish and gameplay refinement that's still extremely rare on Xbox Indies.
Download on the Xbox Live Marketplace
Quick aside - I just have to say how much I love seeing the developers of great indie games sticking to XBLIG, hopefully gaining a following, and continuing to put out game after game. After sifting through one student project or zombie massage cash-in too many, I can look at the Mommy's Best, Ska Studios, or radianGames logos and know I'm in for a treat.
Explosionade is a 2D shooter/platformer with combat reminiscent of Metal Slug and some clever platforming mechanics. You have a normal jump and some jet packs that'll keep you hovering for a couple seconds. Additionally, you have a recharging shield that's activated with a pull of the left trigger. Activating the shield in mid-air gives you some momentum, allowing you to bounce and float around.
Jumping, floating, and bouncing eventually become your main modes of transportation. The finesse and technique required to do this (while also conserving shields to actually block bullets) becomes the major joy of playing Explosionade. That, and you can have a second player join in for the game's 40 stages.
The only real issue with Explosionade is how limited its environments are. I don't mind repetitive art in a $1 game (especially when it's this good), but the gameplay left me wanting a bit more room to move around. Every level is limited to a single room and it can get really cramped with two players.
Explosionade isn't quite the ride that Mommy's Best's first game Weapon of Choice was, but it's at least as good as Shoot 1Up. Like that game, it offers a quick and enjoyable experience for a mere dollar, backed by a level of polish and gameplay refinement that's still extremely rare on Xbox Indies.
Download on the Xbox Live Marketplace
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