PlayStation 2

Nightmare of Druaga: Fushigino dungeon

November 23, 2004

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Mike Carabajal Make a comment! / Tweet it!

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/nodruaga/cover.jpg[/floatleft]I do not pretend to be a saint. We started Snackbar with creating a large community in mind-something for the people. Call it an investment in karma, or what have you. We often get a few thanks, and it gives us warm fuzzies. We dig it. But you must take the good with the bad; the bad being we have to review some terrible games from time to time. Thus, I began playing [i]The Nightmare of Druaga[/i], and thus I began hating video games that much more.

One would assume that game developers take formulas that have been proven to work in the past and build on them to achieve innovation. At the very least, game developers can stick to a proven formula to at least achieve mediocrity. More often then not, we are privileged with games that are mailed in from the get-go-this game is a shining example of one of those games.

[heading]It’s all in the gameplay-ahhh, who am I kidding?[/heading]

It is hard to pinpoint an exact moment when the game got bad; I think it was, however, around the first five minutes. You are treated to some dialog then venture forth to the meat and potatoes of the game: dungeon crawling, with an emphasis on the word crawling. The dungeon crawling is based on a grid system where you guide the hero from square to square. You must guide the hero from area to area, finding keys and items along the way. Finding these items is the real incentive in progressing. You get some fancy weapons and items that give you some advantages in battle, or cool actions you can execute. Most of it is pretty tame against the standards of today’s video games. Did I mention this game sucks?

[floatright]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/nodruaga/ss08_thumb.jpg[/floatright]You will, of course, encounter monsters along the grid and fight them in a turn-based hit fest. We are talking the most simple of systems as you literally exchange attacks back and forth until either you or the monster emerges victorious. Should you in fact die in one of these dramatic battles, it will cost you everything you have found. You cannot just up and save to preserve your goods-the game has a way of making sure you don’t. Trust me on that one. Once the monsters are taken care of, you must find the key and move on. Mix this formula and repeat until you beat the game, assuming you stick around that long.

[heading]Circa 1998[/heading]

The game’s character design brings me back to a time when games such as these were flooding the market. Developers and publishers were quick to release just about anything, and this is a terrible reminder of those less than perfect times. Slightly anime inspired with a twist of fantasy is the call for the day. The animation is as good as your little guy hitting a monster with his weapon. Some bells and whistles include some shallow particle effects for when you execute an ability, the lighting effects that reveal the wondrous surroundings of yet another dungeon, and finally the amazing sound effects as you hit a monster and wait for him to hit you back.

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/nodruaga/ss02_thumb.jpg[/floatleft][heading]You have been warned. But you kids don’t pay attention to warnings anymore.[/heading]

Time for a bit of honesty: I was so unimpressed by this game that I had a few movies playing on my computer as I trudged through playing the game enough to get a good feel for a review. I did not stick around to beat it; I had plenty of other things to do. Namco has been good to us with some of its better published titles, but this is a no-brainer. Do not even waste your valuable time in thought pondering whether to rent this game or-worse yet-purchase it. The only reason I could think of someone wanting to test the waters is the fact that you enjoy being tortured with monotonous, simple gameplay shelled onto a disc and sent out to the masses. Besides, you kids play to many games, mix in a book every so often, or at least an RPG with the words [i]Fantasy[/i] and [i]Final[/i] in the title, but not necessarily in that order.

Katamari Damacy

October 19, 2004

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Chris Rasco Make a comment! / Tweet it!

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/katamaridamacy/cover.jpg[/floatleft]Picking up Katamari Damacy was kind of an accident on my behalf that turned out to be one of the smarter things I have done in recent times. I was talking with some friends on another gaming forum and they were discussing how awesome the game was and how hard it was going to be to find the game once retail stock was depleted. The formula in my head went something like this: awesome game + low stock = go buy it now. So I picked up the last copy at EB to find out that 5 or so people had come looking for the game between the time I called and the time the game was picked up. That made me release a little sigh of relief. Someone almost snagged my copy of this wonderful and obscure Japanese release.

I still haven’t really told you what kind of game Katamari Damacy is, but don’t worry I will get to that in a moment. The official homepage says that Katamari Damacy translates to “Clump of Souls” in English. The explanation of the game on the homepage is hilarious and I encourage you to go check it out if you are interested in this game. (Go [url=http://katamaridamacy.jp/contents_e.html]here[/url] and click on “What is Katamari Damacy?”) Now what exactly do you do in Katamari Damacy? In the game you play the part of the Prince. Your father is the King of all Cosmos and in a drunken stupor and a fit of dancing he knocked down all the stars from the sky. They allude to the fact that you “came from” this event which leads me to believe the King and Queen had a cosmic romp in the stars if you catch my drift. At any rate, the King has asked you to rebuild the stars in the sky. This is the part where you actually get to start playing the game.

[floatright]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/katamaridamacy/ss02_thumb.jpg[/floatright]After the bizarre but entertaining intro and story ends you get to start playing the first level. There are few different types of levels that all have the same basic purpose and that is to create the largest katamari possible. You will create 9 different stars, a handful of constellations, and finally the Moon. To do this you start out with a small ball. The starting size differs in each level and that really helps create a sense of diversity in the game. In each level you are given a time limit and a size that you must reach in order to complete the level. Once the level starts, you use the 2 analog sticks to control the Prince and hopefully things will start sticking to your katamari. The ultimate goal of each level is to run over as many things as possible and have them all stick to your katamari.

As each level goes on and your katamari grows in size you will be able to pick up larger and larger objects. The first level has you picking up buttons and other very tiny objects and as you reach the Moon level you will be picking up skyscrapers and things even larger than that. Namco did a fantastic job of creating a game engine that scaled wonderfully between a 1cm katamari and a 600m one. It really is an amazing thing as you play a level and gradually you notice that things are getting smaller and smaller and finally you can’t even see the items you were initially picking up because you just picked up the house you started inside.

Katamari Damacy also packs a multiplayer mode in there for some good head to head action and it can be quite gratifying to roll up your opponent and laugh as they try and break free. You probably won’t spend a large amount of time playing head to head but it was quite nice that Namco had the foresight to add it in there.

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/katamaridamacy/ss07_thumb.jpg[/floatleft]I will admit that the using the 2 analog sticks to move around at first was quite challenging, but once I got the hang of it I wanted to roll over everything in sight. The controls are similar to tank style controls where 1 stick forward and 1 back makes you turn and both forward or both back make you move in the respective direction. You can also strafe and there are various other methods for executing quick turns that you will learn upon starting the game.

One of my favorite things about Katamari Damacy is the sound and that is a rare thing for me. Generally I just pass over the music and sound effects in games because they don’t stand out. Namco released Katamari in the US with the original soundtrack intact. What this means is we have this incredibly quirky game with a very original concept AND it’s equally strange soundtrack. After playing through Katamari Damacy I had this urge to buy the soundtrack that I thankfully warded off due to its high import price, but man did I want it. On occasion Dots and I still break out into some of the tunes from the game. She also loves the noise the punks make in the game when you roll them up.

I know that Katamari Damacy sounds like a very strange game and it is. It is also a very simple game that can be very challenging which makes you want to keep outdoing yourself. On top of all the great things I have already mentioned about the game it is only $19.99. I know that there will be some of you that totally hate this game so I am not going to recommend everyone run out and buy it (because you probably won’t find it in most retail stores anyway), but if you love quirky games then try to find a copy at one of the local game stores. You may even have to order it from one of the online stores. A sequel is already planned for release later this year in Japan which just makes me jump for joy. You can bet that I will get that as soon as it comes stateside. In the meantime, keep on rolling.

Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX 2

August 31, 2004

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Chris Rasco Make a comment! / Tweet it!

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/probmx2/cover.jpg[/floatleft]I have a deep love for what are often times referred to as aggressive sports. BMX, skateboarding, and rollerblading all make me anxious to be 17 again. The Tony Hawk games do a fantastic job of quenching my thirst for rolling very fast on a tiny board with 4 tiny wheels. Likewise I figured Mat Hoffman Pro BMX 2 might quench my thirst for another type of outdoor activity.

I have spent very little time playing BMX games in comparison with skateboarding games and it didn’t take very long to notice the fact that maybe there are certain sports that are just too complicated to be made into video games. Before I offend all the fans of the BMX games I want to set the record straight. I have no intimate knowledge of the world of BMXing, but I do of skateboarding. Maybe this in and of itself makes the latter easier for me to play.

There are a few different gametypes that aim to keep it fresh in this title. You have your basic story mode called Road Trip, Free Ride, and Session which comes in 2, 5 or 10 minute flavors. We also have the Multiplayer mode that packs its own list of modes that range from Trick Attack, Push, and Free Ride to Treasure Hunt. I find multiplayer in extreme sports games to be a great waste of time since they are by and large individual sports, but I digress.

There are a few major things that I felt were missing from Pro BMX 2 that have been included in other games from Activision that would have added to the experience. The main feature would have to be the lack of a “create a rider”. Tony Hawk had this and it really made the game more personal as you progressed with your character. Another annoyance would have to be the fact that unlocking the different cities in the Road Trip mode was individual. What I mean by this is that unlocking it with Mat Hoffman didn’t unlock it for any of the other riders. While I can see this being logical in a career mode where you follow your created rider, I think it is a little silly this time around.

The gameplay is actually quite solid in this title. I enjoyed cruising through the different courses and busting out wicked tricks, but I had a lot of trouble landing them. Landing goofy footed in skateboarding may be difficult in real life but none of the games seem to emphasize that fact. Landing backwards on a bicycle after pulling a 540 tabletop seems to result in a crash 99.9% of the time. You really have to plan out your tricks and execute them precisely as opposed to just making up runs as you go. This resulted in some initial frustration as I learned to handle the bike but seemed to get better over time.

The detail in the levels as well as the character detail was quite nice. It was very easy to tell the different riders apart and identify them if you know your riders. I got to play the PS2 version so you can expect a slight improvement in the visuals on the GC and Xbox versions. A nice break in between cities was a short clip of some of the riders really going to town in an actual cross country tour. Nice stuff and it seemed to be just the right amount of video playing in between levels.

One aspect that Activision’s extreme sports titles always seem to deliver on is the soundtrack and Pro BMX 2 is no exception. It rocks the house with hits from groups like N.E.R.D. and Fugazi as well as rap stars LL Cool J and Ice T.

I had a lot of fun playing Pro BMX 2 and I think it is a really solid game, but I feel like the BMX games still need a little more refinement. They don’t seem to be as polished as the Tony Hawk series which I know is on its 5th or 6th release, but I have a feeling the next Pro BMX game will be awesome. At $19.99 new or $10 used fans of BMX have no reason to not be tearing up the ramps at home.

Resident Evil: Outbreak

August 2, 2004

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Chris Rasco Make a comment! / Tweet it!

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/reoutbreak/cover.jpg[/floatleft]Resident Evil Outbreak is the newest game in the vastly successful series put out by Capcom. Outbreak stands apart from other games in the genre with the addition of online play while still maintaining a single player mode for offline play. The mere idea of a co-op survival horror game got fans in a frenzy. As the game was released, people were less excited as it just didn’t seem to measure up to the hype.

Outbreak is a scenario based game which differs greatly from its predecessors. At the beginning of each scenario you are given a choice of which of the 8 playable characters you would like to use. Each character has a different personality and a vastly different natural ability. Choosing Kevin, the cop, will start you out with a pistol while choosing Yoko, a student with a backpack, will double your inventory space. I quickly decided that David the plumber was my personal favorite. Maybe the handyman in me needed some attention at the time.

Once the game gets underway you will notice that the gameplay mechanics are similar to past RE games. One significant difference is that you have 3 additional characters that will assist you in the level. Unfortunately, the AI is less than superior and they have a tendency to run off and do their own thing only to return just after you could have used their help. In the online mode, these additional characters are played by other gamers. Due to this co-op concept, accessing your inventory does not pause the game since it would pause it for the additional 3 players. This is also true for the single player game and can make it very frustrating trying to navigate the inventory menu while a zombie is feasting on your flesh.

[floatright]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/reoutbreak/ss02_thumb.jpg[/floatright]When my friends first started playing Outbreak all I heard was a bunch of complaints in regards to the loading time so I paid extra attention to this as I figured it would ruin the gaming experience for a lot of people if what I was hearing was true. I am glad to report that it isn’t nearly as bad as everyone made it seem. The initial loading time for the level clocked in at 35 seconds which is a little on the long side but not unbearable. Each room you enter is also accompanied by a 10-15 second load time which wasn’t that long but it did get annoying if you accidentally entered a room or had to travel long distances across the level. After playing for a few hours you will no doubt begin to loathe the “now loading” screen. The use of the PS2 harddrive should cut down on loading times by a very large factor since Outbreak will copy the game files onto the drive. Unfortunately the drive only comes with FFXI and at a price tag of $99 it seems rather silly to spend the extra cash unless you plan to make good use of the game as well as FFXI.

After you complete the scenario your results can be sent to the Outbreak online leaderboard. The results are also used to unlock bonus content and new scenarios in your single player experience. You can also go back and replay previous scenarios as you desire.

I want to issue a formal warning to parents thinking of letting their children play Outbreak. It obviously deals with zombies etc and can be pretty gory, but the language in Outbreak took me by surprise. Curse words are littered throughout the dialogue between characters. For these reasons I would suggest that Outbreak be reserved for an older more mature audience. I know I know that makes me sound like an old fogey.

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/reoutbreak/ss05_thumb.jpg[/floatleft]The controls in Outbreak are just as I remembered from past RE games and only one aspect of them annoyed me. When you walk in Outbreak you don’t really walk you kind of shimmy. This isn’t some normal shimmy either; it is like a 90 year old man shimmy. Until I realized you could hold down a button to run I was getting severely pissed off at how slow you move. After playing for a while I had to wonder why the default would be to walk and not run as I couldn’t think of a single time in the game where I chose to walk over running.

Before it sounds like I have nothing good to say about Outbreak I want to discuss its visual merits. The graphics were downright pretty. They were far and away better than any previous game and really did a number to increase the immersion of the gamer into the story. Of course any good that did was immediately ruined by the loading screens.

I didn’t mean for it to sound like Outbreak was a bad game because it isn’t. Outbreak just has a few major issues that prevent if from being fun for anyone but a Resident Evil fan. Naughty Dog proved that you can have immersive levels without loading screens on the PS2 and Capcom obviously didn’t get the memo that waiting for loading is unacceptable. If you are a Resident Evil fanatic then you have probably already bought and beat the game. If you aren’t, then I wouldn’t recommend spending your time with Outbreak as you will probably spend an equal amount of time being frustrated or loading as you will playing the game.

Front Mission 4

July 27, 2004

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Chris Rasco Make a comment! / Tweet it!

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/frontmission4/cover.jpg[/floatleft]I have made it no secret that I don’t care for turn based games in the slightest. I would even go so far as to say that I loathe them. Turn based games remind me of board games and I don’t really see the point in electronic board games. Obviously there are at least a few people that don’t agree with my opinion and a tiny company called Squaresoft made quite a few games that did pretty well that happened to be turn based. Before you get all up in arms about someone who hates the genre reviewing this game, know that I didn’t realize this was a turn based game. I rented it without knowing a single thing about it. I didn’t even know it was made by Square Enix up until I turned it on. You can understand my level of dismay when I started playing and realized what type of game it was, but I didn’t let that stop me and I think my take on the game will surprise everyone.

Before I realized what type of game I was about to play, the intro came on and boy was it gorgeous. The graphics were so realistic I had to look closely to make sure they were rendered. It was at this point that I really knew that I was playing a Square game.

As you can probably tell, I am not familiar with the Front Mission series so I won’t pretend to know what is true to the series and what isn’t. In this particular game you are playing the role of a mech pilot. The mechs are aptly named “wanzers” and the story takes place in the future in what is called the European Community or EC for short. Wanzers have basically replaced standard infantry as the staple of military action. You work for a non military research team in the EC called the EC Armored Tactics Research Corps or Durandal as they are referred to. Immediately after joining the Durandal a mysterious attack is launched on several German military bases by a group of wanzers. The military bases were obliterated and it is up to Durandal to aid in the investigation. Much like a movie, a second parallel plot begins with some rogue soldiers in South America. The plot is interesting enough to keep even me glued to the game so I will let you see how it unfolds on your own.

[floatright]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/frontmission4/ss02_thumb.jpg[/floatright]The actual gameplay mechanics are very new to me and I never realized the level of strategy that goes into a turn based game. Real time games are a race to hack and slash as quick as possible and don’t require strategy in most cases. I had to do quite a bit of thinking and really focus in order to play this game. Turn based strategy fans should feel right at home though. Like most RPG style games, everything is based upon experience points or EP in this game. As you successfully complete a battle by completing the objectives your pilots are awarded points based on their performance in the battle. You can use these points to purchase upgrades for your wanzer of upgrade the abilities of your pilot. There are 3 types of abilites you can purchase: Attirbute Enhancements, Weapon Proficiency Level Enhancements, and Battle Skills. Attribute and Weapon Proficiency enhancements are effective immediately and enhance your pilot’s abilities and their proficiency with a myriad of different weapons. There are 3 levels of attribute enhancements 0, 50, and 100 and they are available as you level up your pilot. Weapon proficiency is done on 4 levels 0-3. In addition to the actual leveling up due to EP you can upgrade the rank of the pilot’s computer. Each upgrade you purchase opens up more abilities and battle skills for you to purchase. These computer upgrades are costly but often give you access to much better abilities. Battle skills are a little bit different from the rest of the abilities in that they need to be equipped. Each pilot has a certain number of battle skill slots they can fill and additional slots may be purchased as an ability. Prior to the battle you simple equip the different skills you wish to use for this battle and you are set to go.

In addition to abilities and skills you are also able to do major upgrades to your wanzer. Battles will also net you cash that you can spend in the wanzer store. You use this cash to buy new weapons, new legs, new arms, etc. I highly suggest you do some reading in this department before you try to upgrade as it was very confusing. In the end I bought a whole new wanzer since I wasn’t sure how to upgrade individual parts. Factors such as weight come into plan and I figured a prebuilt wanzer would suit me just fine.

The graphics for the aspect of the game that advance the plot were pretty weak. They reminded me of playing Bionic Commando back on my NES which wasn’t bad since I loved that game. I figured that Square just decided the effort would have been for not had they made super cool looking graphics for an aspect of the game that many people might skip.

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/frontmission4/ss04_thumb.jpg[/floatleft]The actual battles themselves are quite intense and caught me off guard. At the beginning of each battle you are given an objective to carry out. Sometimes it is to defend a certain unit or structure and other times you are out to wipe out the enemy. Regardless of the objective you need to have a well thought out battle plan. The main factor you need to be concerned with in each turn is your AP. AP determines how many shots you can get off or how far you can walk and still shoot. It all sounds rather confusing but you will get the hang of it after you play a few battles. Since it is turn based, you will take a turn with each of your wanzers either getting into position, firing, or both. Then each enemy mech will take a turn and so on. The cut scenes where you or an enemy actually attack the other is quite cool and the machines have very human like movements. I would say realistic but I am not sure what a 500 ton robot punching another 500 ton robot really looks like.

One major addition to the game is in the form of link support. Each pilot has a set number of links they can form with other pilots. These links can be offensive or defensive and allow other wanzers to assist you during battle. It makes the game a lot more team based if you setup your links properly. Offensive links allow other pilots to use their AP to assist in attacking the enemies and defensive ones may let a fellow pilot repair your wanzer. The links you setup are fully customizable and are a nice addition to the game.

I know everyone is waiting for the part where I continue with my turn based hating, but it isn’t coming. I really enjoyed Front Mission 4 and have every intention of making this part of my PS2 library at some point. Had I known this was turn based I probably would have passed over it and never realized how enjoyable it really is. So here is an official endorsement from the man who hates turn based games. Rent it, buy it, or borrow it from a friend but do whatever you have to in order to give this one a chance.

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