Category: Games

NHL 2003

NHL 2003

Still going strong

EA Sports’ NHL series has been going on for ages. (In fact, so have all EA’s other sports franchises as well) I believe the first yearly edition was NHL ’93, although there was a NHL Hockey for Sega Genesis before that.
Since then, EA’s been whipping up a new edition every year. This policy tends to annoy people who frequently claim that new editions aren’t anything but the same game with updated player data. It’s true that the changes aren’t exactly groundbreaking, but there’s always been enough new to make people buy the new version.

Florida PanthersWhile the player face models are decent,
only a few resemble the player in real life.

As the long time fans of the series know, the biggest change in the series wasn’t changing the name from two year digits in NHL ’99 to four in NHL 2000. Actually the biggest update ever is probably the PC version of NHL ’96 which was the first one in the series to use 3D graphics. (Console versions remained in 2D until the 32 bit ones came around, though)
After that, it’s been quieter. New expansion teams have been added, player data updated, new features and more customizable options, online leagues. As I said earlier, not much, but enough to keep the fans happy. NHL 2003 uses the same formula, little changes here and there, updated rosters and more focus on the online aspect of the game. Has the path EA Sports took been the right one?

GoalIn goes the puck

It’s difficult to answer that question with a simple yes and no. Although I myself have no objections in new hockey game every year if it’s done well, it seems more and more evident that instead of polishing the product, EA just keeps on adding more features without paying enough attention to the core of the game. If the basic gameplay is flawed, future editions should try to improve on their predecessor. That is the problem with the series. EA’s going to the wrong direction and as the result, it continues to lack the feeling of real hockey.

I have to admit that the situation isn’t easy for EA either. With the NHL series being the only real contender in hockey games (at least in the PC front), EA has to balance the game between two different user bases, those who wish for realistic hockey and those who want arcade. It’s a fine line to walk on, and EA’s done it rather well. Until recently, the game’s been pretty well balanced.

Top perspectiveReflections on ice look nice

Past additions have been such everyday hockey features as big hits, big shots, the momentum meter, breakaway camera, hero players, NHL cards which enable cheats and latest invention, the game breaker. Most of these have some real-life counterparts in NHL. Still, it’s not the idea, it’s the execution that I’m unhappy with.
There are big hitters in NHL, sure. But do they really cross-check their opponents in the neck at full speed? And get away with it? And why do victims of such checks do twin somersaults in the air, land on their head and get up unharmed after lying in the ice a few seconds?
Yes, there are big shooters in the league. Their slap shots can set the puck over a 100mph. Even then, I doubt the goalies get knocked on their ass by such shots as I’ve witnessed in the NHL series. The game breaker meter is another strange phenomenon. When the meter is full, star players can move in slowed time for awhile (like the bullet time in The Matrix). Stuff like that shouldn’t be in a game that’s supposed to be about real hockey.

Audience closeupMost of the audience looks seriously pissed all the time

Plenty of settings

In EA’s defense, most of these features can be turned off from the options. The customizability in the game is good, although there are less options in 2003 than there were in NHL 2002. You can still change things like AI passing accuracy, puck friction & rebounds etc., but gone are goalie & player boosts and oddly the ability to import your own face into the game. Create-a-player option has gone down the drain on other aspects as well. There are less choices to pick from when creating the face for your player. Then there are just plain stupid things like a huge variety of glasses that all look like they’ve been done by an intern with Windows’ paintbrush in 5 minutes. Well, at least the option to create a custom player is still there, crippled or not…
Gameplay-wise not much has been changed from NHL 2002. The goalie animations are noticeably better although the puck still tends to stop on a magic wall every now and then. Skating looks like the players are on roller skates on occasion, but generally are decent.

Enigmatic saveSometimes the replay mode displays interesting details.
This did not result in a goal, for example

Despite of my earlier criticism, NHL 2003 is still a good game. It may not resemble real hockey much, but NHL 2003 has its moments. Gameplay is good and the game is generally well done. For those who like online gaming, NHL 2003 may be the best in the series. EA has focused on the online modes more than ever and NHL 2003 provides online leagues and gaming on the EA Sports Online as well. Since playing against other people removes most of the AI related problems from the game (unless your opponent is retarded), the game may offer different experience than the single player mode.

For those with no interest to play the game online (like myself), all the online pushing tends to get annoying. Half of the main screen on frontend is devoted to online options and the game has weird obsessions to connect to internet every now and then. This is a fun feature on dial up connections because it opens the ‘Connect to internet’ window on Windows (and causes the in-game window to minimize).
As usual, the frontend interface has changed as well. Instead of the polished menus in the last years version, it now reminds of an internet page. Works ok, but is a bit clumsier to use than those on previous games. (Actually, a quick browse on install directory proves that all frontend menus really are html pages, kind of a cheap solution, but I guess EA has its reasons…)

Stats pageFrontend look has undergone major changes

One good thing about the NHL series is that if you’ve liked one game, you’ll probably like the others too. Sad thing is that the series offers less each year for those gamers who seek a realistic hockey game. If you can accept it, you’ll be happy with NHL 2003. Online gamers may feel they’re in heaven, since this time EA has really worked on it.
Other than that; there is still no financial aspect in the season-mode, AI is far from perfect, fights look like they’re modeled after old Chaplin movies, hits are way overdone, shot counts are far away from realistic. The list is long. NHL 2003 is far from the perfect hockey experience. Yet, for some reason, I still like it.

There are enough good points to keep you playing. But I really hope EA Sports seriously changes the direction of the series. Let NHL Hitz carry the flag for arcade style NHL. In realistic hockey games, Sega has thrown the challenge with NHL 2K3. Now it’s EA’s time to answer the call. And I hope they start by dealing with the crappy jokes both announcers throw out in NHL 2002 & 2003. There’s no need for a poor stand-up comedy duo in the announcers booth. Boy do I miss the good ol’ commentary of previous NHL’s…

MenuMenu screens remain the same
ReplayThere’s something amusing on the looks on players’ faces

Shenmue

Shenmue

Highly anticipated game

Shenmue has been in development for five years. When it finally came out, the expectations were huge. Yu Suzuki had said for many times that Shenmue is unlike any game you’ve ever seen before, and the only game that has tried to simulate life in some way.
When the release date came closer and closer, more details and screenshots were made public. People could only imagine what would the game be like. As the development process lasted, many were skeptical about Suzuki’s project, but when the game’s trailer was released, it blew away the criticism. Is Shenmue really something you’ve never seen before? A game which surpasses other games with creativity and originality? The best game ever?

LeapRyu does his own stunts

The answer is… yes…and no. While Shenmue is truly an unique game, it is not perfect and has flaws. It’s a bit hard to make opinions as this is just the first chapter of the saga. Shenmue consists of many chapters and shouldn’t be reviewed chapter by chapter, as that’s not truly a fair approach to the game.

Because of the reasons mentioned above, the story in Shenmue leaves many questions unanswered and this first chapter leaves you with an ending that raises new questions rather than answers any of the old ones.
The main character of the game is a young Japanese boy named Ryu Hazuki. At the beginning of the game, Ryu sees his father murdered by a mysterious man. The game begins as Ryu sets out to find out why his father was killed.

If we take a close look at the game, it’s easy to see that the designers have thought of almost everything. The graphics are remarkable and put most of other games in shame (Yes, even PS2 ones) and has amazing details in it, such as corporate logos in items and advertisements in the buildings’ walls.
Quality shines from Shenmue and it has so many features that are worth mentioning: e.g. the characters in the game have their own daily routines that resemble ones of our own. Weather changes dynamically based on weather charts form 1986′s Japan (the year the story happens on), lighting effects and sound effects are realistic, just to name few.

TrainingLearning the moves

Nothing’s perfect

No game is without flaws. While Shenmue doesn’t fail in any category, it’s controls would’ve needed more tuning. While I’ve seen many games with worse controls, Shenmue sometimes makes easy tasks more challenging than they should be. Turning can be annoying sometimes as Ryu often turns too much and it takes time turning to the right direction. Shenmue also shares one flaw with many 3D games: the camera angles. Usually they’re all right but there are times when you’d like to say a few chosen words to the cameramen.

Music is composed by Yuzo Koshiro. He’s done soundtracks for various Sega games, including Streets of Rage series, for example. Shenmue’s soundtrack is equally impressive to the game. Mostly the themes just stay on background, adding atmosphere to the game, but on various occasions the themes really shine.

Shenmue is not all about adventuring. Probably people who developed Virtua Fighter series were involved in making Shenmue, action is also a crucial part of the game. When an action event happens, the game switches to fighting mode where you can use combo attacks and throws, just like in VF series. In those scenes you just have to beat up every opponent that comes in your way. After that, the game continues, usually with a story event.
You can practice the moves for action events at certain places, like the dojo at Ryu’s house, for example. By practicing, the moves become more powerful and it is easier to settle your disputes with the evil ones.

ArcadeVisiting the arcade

There are also quick time events (QTE for short), where you’ll have to push certain buttons fast enough to execute a certain move. (Like avoiding a knife stab, for example). In those a button symbol appears on the screen. If you managed to press the corresponding button on your control pad fast enough, Ryu succeeds in the move. If you fail, so does Ryu. Fortunately the game is very forgiving, and gives you another chance in most of the events in case you didn’t succeed.

Despite of the minor problems with content, controls and camera, Shenmue is clearly an exceptional game. It manages to fulfill most of the promises the designers made while still being a real game, instead of just an virtual tour in a Japanese city.
Shenmue has divided opinions among the critics, and has received ratings ranging from topnotch to below average. Therefore the best way to find out, if Shenmue is a good game or not, is by playing it. Each player experiences Shenmue differently, other may say it’s the greatest game ever while others say it’s an average game. Either way, Shenmue is a game that every Dreamcast owner should try out.

The story continued in Shenmue 2, where Ryu has tracked his fathers killer to Hong Kong. Shenmue 2 was released for Dreamcast only in Japan and Europe. XBox version of the game was released in all three major markets.The future of the series is still fairly uncertain, Sega hasn’t mentioned anything about the next parts of the saga and which consoles they’ll appear on.

Trucks at docksTruck racing

Xenogears

“Stand tall and shake the heavens”

Xenogears is certainly one of the most ambitious rpgs the folks at Square have cooked up. The game heavily on its complex and intriguing plot. The story is really well written and interesting, but can be difficult to follow and to understand at some points. The dialogue is good and real funny at some points and the characters get well developed during the game.

The world of Xenogears relies heavily on gears. Gears are huge machines controlled by human pilots. They are leftovers from ancient civilization and the technological information to construct new gears is now out of reach for most countries. The ability to repair old gears is limited too, as barely enough skill and parts exist to fix damaged ones.

Fei is a young man living in the village of Lahan. His life has been peaceful and calm despite of his mysterious past. Fei was brought to the village years ago, badly injured. Although he recovered, memories of his past were completely lost. This doesn’t seem to bother Fei too much anymore and he’s been able to enjoy his life in the village. Fei’s situation changes soon. When unknown military forces are transporting a newly discovered gear by air, they suddenly lose control of the gear. It lands into the village of Lahan.

Once the crash site is discovered, the military forces send out units to retrieve the lost gear. The events lead to tragedy. Military units attack unarmed villagers and Fei enters the abandoned gear and plans to fight back. When huge machines fight in the middle of a small village, the result isn’t going to be pretty and this time is no exception.
Although the attack was stopped, the price was terrible. Village of Lahan is destroyed. Fei feels responsible of the destruction and leaves the remains of Lahan. He takes the gear along, hoping to find out what to do next…

Xenogears is one of first true 3D-rpgs for the PlayStation. Instead of pre-rendered backgrounds (like in Final Fantasy VII for example) Xenogears uses the game engine instead. The result is not as pretty as in FF games, but it allows fully rotating camera, for example. The character models don’t look as out of place as in FF7 either. The graphics are OK, nothing spectacular, but good enough.

The only difference to other RPGs in controls is the ability to jump. This is also used heavily in the game, there are lots of places to exercise your platforming talents. Despite of jumps, Xenogears doesn’t resemble a platform game. There aren’t any endless ancient chasms of doom for you to fall into, and it isn’t possible to jump to instant death.
World map can be traveled either by foot or by gears. The biggest difference is that with gears you can avoid battles on map screen and are able to move faster.

The best parts of Xenogears are the story (as mentioned above) and music. Yasunori Mitsuda, the man who composed majority of Chrono Trigger’s songs is responsible for Xenogears’ soundtrack. He certainly doesn’t disappoint and delivers one of the most impressive videogame soundtracks ever created. The songs very from calm and soothing to powerful and energetic. Tracks like Shevat: the Wind is Calling, The One who is Torn Apart, Omen, and Awakening make the soundtrack worth of purchasing by itself.

Combat complexity

Xenogears has two battle modes. The regular one where the characters fight like in any RPG games and the second one where the characters fight inside their gears (Gears are those huge robots which you see in a couple of the screen shots here). These modes are different since when using gears you also have to worry about fuel. Gears use fuel and each attack consumes a certain amount of it.
The only way to gain fuel during battles is by charging it, but it only restores a little amount per turn and you can’t attack while charging fuel. Once the fuel is gone, gears can only charge (or use magic) which kinda makes them sitting ducks. Therefore the gear battles require a bit more strategy than regular ones.

Gears can’t do their strongest attacks at the beginning of a fight. They have attack levels and each gear starts the battle in attack level 0. Attack level 0 attacks are basically just kicks and punches. Once a gear damages an opponent with level 0 attack it’s attack level goes up. When attack level rises, gears can do combo attacks which are way powerful than the normal ones.
After a gear has reached attack level 3 it has a chance to enter hyper mode (attack level infinite). Gears in infinite level do insane amounts of damage, but unfortunately the hyper mode only lasts for three turns. If this sounds difficult to understand, it really isn’t. It’s a simple system, but difficult to describe.

As I said before, there are both hand-to-hand battles and gear battles. Interesting thing about regular battles is that if things are looking grim, you can call your gear for help. That’ll change the odds a bit, since fighting regular enemies with gears offers the challenge equal to stomping an ant. That works both ways, trying to battle a gear-sized foe by hands is asking for trouble. To maintain the challenge in hand-to-hand battles, the use of gears is limited in some areas, you usually won’t be able use your gear in small dungeons for example (for obvious reasons).

Xenogears is a great game and definitely worth buying. Completing Xenogears takes well over 40 hours of your time, so prepare to lose your free time for quite a while, since it’s difficult to stop playing this game once you’ve started it. The first prequel game to Xenogears, Xenosaga – Episode One was released in 2004 and the sequel to it, Xenosaga Episode II was released in 2005 . Although the connections to Xenogears are slim, those who liked Xenogears should check Xenosaga out too.

Suikoden

Konami’s surprise

Suikoden (Titled Genso Suikoden in Japan) was one of the first RPGs on PlayStation. It is published by Konami, the company which created the marvelous Castlevania series, but Konami isn’t known for their RPGs. When Suikoden was released, many people thought that it was a stupid move from Konami to use 2D graphics instead of 3D.
I think Konami was right; RPGs don’t need beautifully rendered 3D graphics to deliver a great gaming experience, what RPGs do need is a great, long storyline, good music and playability. While Suikoden’s graphics aren’t that great and the game looks a little bit like 16-bit RPGs, the graphics are definitely good enough and there’s lots of small details.

What Suikoden lacks in graphics, it fixes in the storyline and characters. There’s an incredible amount of characters, 108 overall! While about 100 of them are playable, the rest are NPCs which add something to the story. Graphics aren’t the most important thing when it comes to RPGs. Music is one of the most important ones. If the game has bad music, you can bet it’s not fun to play (at least with volume on). Suikoden doesn’t disappoint in this area either. It has one of the best RPG soundtracks I’ve heard. The songs are well done, not repetitive and fit the game really well.

The story is set on the Scarlet Moon Empire, and the main character (referred as the hero or McDohl from now on, as no default name is given) is the son of a great imperial general Teo McDohl. The story starts as the hero and his father visit Emperor Barbarosa who assigns Teo to set off the rebellion on north and the hero joins the imperial guard at the same time. After Teo has left, young McDohl starts working at the guard with his father’s servants Gremio, Pahn and Cleo and hero’s childhood friend, Ted.
The assignments they first receive are lowly, but while working at them, they realize how corrupt the empire really is. During one mission they are attacked by a powerful monster, but Ted saves the day by using mysterious magic. One imperial commander sees this and believes his superiors might be interested in Ted’s power, asking Ted to accompany him to the imperial palace once they get back home.

Not suspecting anything, Ted agrees, and once the party reaches capital city Gregminster he leaves for the palace. Ted comes back in middle of the night, badly wounded. He tells McDohl about the source of his power. As it turns out, Ted has one of the true runes, the Soul Eater, and therefore the empire is so interested in him. Ted refused to give up the rune, knowing that it’s power should never be allowed to evil hands. He barely managed to escape from the palace and is in no condition to flee Gregminster.
He asks McDohl to take the rune and protect it from the Empire. Young McDohl reluctantly agrees and escapes Gregminster with Pahn, Cleo and Gremio, while Ted stays to distract the enemy. They get out of the city with the help of stranger named Viktor. Viktor later introduces the hero to the leader of resistance movement, Lady Odessa Silverberg. As Odessa is mortally wounded in an imperial assault at the rebel headquarters, McDohl is eventually chosen to be her successor. After a while the news of his son joining the rebels also reach imperial general Teo McDohl…

A call to arms

Suikoden isn’t a really difficult game, in fact, it’s a bit on the short side, but there’s lots to explore and search. It’s great fun to play: easy to learn, no places where you can get stuck (Well except the dice game which annoyed me for a little while.), funny dialogue (Though a bit odd sometimes, still funny….) and the story moves pretty fast. The biggest downside in the game is shortness of it. Fortunately there’s lots of replay value, and the game lasts even when completed many times.

Besides the large amount of characters, one thing that makes Suikoden different from another RPGs are the army battles. In these battles you lead the whole Liberation Army (Rebels) against the forces of Scarlet Moon Empire. They offer a bit of a change and are not too difficult. Basically the large battles are just a variation of ‘paper, scissors and rock’, i.e. magic is strong versus melee attacks, but weak against arrows. Bow attack is strong against magic, but weak against melee, etc. The strategist-feature available boosts the power of infantry attacks for few turns. The use of thieves and other special attacks offer a bit more strategy to the mix, nothing overcomplicated though.

In army battles all your playable characters form units which they then lead into battle. Each unit has one commander and two vice-commanders. If you’ve recruited all characters in one team it’s more powerful than having just one or two of them. The units are sorted by their leaders name, for example Commander’s Team for the main character and Viktor’s team for Viktor. Something that needs to be kept in mind is that if you make a really bad decision – like using your weakest infantry team against enemy’s strongest magic users, not only will they get completely wiped out, there’s also a chance that a commanding officer from that team dies in that attack.
And yes, once he/she is dead, there’s no chance of any resurrection besides the mighty load-rune on your memory card. Some characters are more vulnerable to this than others, and major characters never perish in the battle. Nevertheless, if someone does die, he’s out of your 108 characters. If that happens, it sucks and there’s no chance getting the best ending anymore, better to be careful.

The normal battle system is quite traditional turn-based RPG-battle, besides the usual ‘attack’ ‘defend’ ‘rune’(magic) ‘item’ and ‘run’ there’s also ‘Free Will’, which lets the character choose the enemy and the attack by him/herself. There’s also an option to bribe enemies to let the party escape, but it costs too much money to be useful. Certain characters have powerful combo attacks called ‘Unite’ with others. Most unite attacks involve two characters, but some have even more, up to five.

Magic system is rune based. You can attach a rune to character’s hand and that gives him/her the ability to use magic. Each character can wield only one rune, and the only spells characters can cast are those granted by the rune. Wind Rune gives wind magic, Fire Rune fire magic, etc. Runes can also be detached, but after the rune is removed, the character loses the ability to use the magic of that rune until it’s reattached.
There are also special runes which can’t be removed from a character, the most notable example is the main character who wears Soul Eater rune. It can’t be removed, and therefore the main character is stuck with it for the rest of the game.

There are no magic points, but spells have limited number of uses. The more skilled character is with magic, the more times he can use the spell. Magic is restored after a nights rest at an inn. Some special runes and unite attacks make the character to lose balance, which makes him/her unable to attack next turn and vulnerable to enemy attacks. This needs to be kept in mind in battles.

Besides the battles mentioned above, there’s also a duel system. At some points in the game, you’re challenged to a duel, which leads to it’s one-on-one battle between your character and the enemy. In the duel you’re given a couple of choices: ‘attack’, ‘desperate attack’ and ‘defend’. Like in the army battles, one of these attacks is strong against one and weak against another. (e.g. desperate attack deals lots of damage, but when opponent chooses to defend, it’s not that effective anymore.)
You make choices either by choosing randomly, or by listening what the opponent says, since the opponents always use same sentences before certain attacks (when the opponent says things like “Go ahead and attack!”, something tells me he uses defend next turn…).

One of the best aspects of Suikoden is the Headquarters system. At one point in the game, you’ll acquire your own castle which serves as the Liberation army base of operations. All characters you recruit hang out at the castle, often bringing changes with them.
For example, one character builds an elevator, another brings an item store and one guy even builds a bath to your castle. The HQ expands as the number of recruits increases. If you have managed to recruit all 108 characters, you’ll see the castle in it’s finest and also get to see the best ending.

I think Suikoden is definitely one of the best RPGs for the PSX. Unfortunately it wasn’t very popular, and there are lots of RPG players who’ve never played it and that’s a shame. In my books, it’s even better than Final Fantasy VII. (Don’t know why, maybe I’m just a loony…) It is my favorite RPG and if you like traditional role-playing and don’t mind the bit aged graphics, then it’s really something worth checking for. Suikoden was also released for Sega Saturn with added features, but it was never published outside Japan.
Suikoden spinoffs Genso Suikoden Gaiden I & II: Swordsman of Harmonia & Duel at the Crystal Valley never made it outside Japan either. GBA game Suikoden Card Stories may still have a small, but unlikely chance to be translated.

For those who already have played the first game, don’t forget the sequel, Suikoden II. Remember to keep Suikoden I save games on your memory card because they’ll change the sequel a bit, i.e. there will be cameo appearances by some of the original one’s cast. The third game in the mains series, Suikoden III is going to be released in Japan in fall 2002 for the PS2 and takes the series to complete 3D. Then well see how Konami has managed to handle the changes, hopefully the magic of the prequels is still there.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Divided opinions

Although Mario may be Nintendo’s most popular franchise, many players still value one series even more: The Legend of Zelda. Like Super Mario series, the Zelda franchise also begun on the NES. Both the Legend Of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link were technological masterpieces back then, with a large world and multiple dungeons to explore. Ever since then Zelda games have set the standards for adventure games, always improving. Nintendo 64′s The Ocarina of Time was a huge leap which brought the series to 3D and Nintendo faced a huge challenge with the next installment.

First images for GameCube Zelda were very realistic and detailed, showing Link fighting with his arch nemesis Ganondorf. People were very pleased with what they saw and liked the look. That’s why the showing of Zelda in last year’s E3 show came as quite a shock for most people. While designer of the series, Shigeru Miyamoto was confident with the new, cell shaded, approach, the gaming community wasn’t sold. “They’ve ruined Zelda”, “It looks like a kids game!”, “What’s Miyamoto been smoking?”, “That won’t sell.” were lines many people said. At this point what they saw was mostly just screens from very early versions of the game.

Seeing the game progress made many skeptics change their opinions. The new style turned out quite nice and Zelda is as popular as ever. Perhaps the cell shaded approach Nintendo took wasn’t as stupid as it seemed to be.

One of the main reasons for the new appearance was that cell-shading allowed Nintendo to add easily recognizable facial impressions for the characters, to make them feel more ‘alive’. This feature is used throughout the game and in many points you can spot the important details by just looking at Link’s eyes.

The much criticized graphics are actually excellent. The game looks like a cartoon come alive. It’s simply stunning how much detail Nintendo has managed to add into the game. Grass waves according to the wind, lighting and shadows look great, you even see butterflies fly and clouds go by. The transition from night to day is also worth mentioning. You can see the first rays of the sun slowly appearing as the new day comes.

One of the wonderful things in the game is that if you see something in the horizon, you can travel there and explore it. There are no invisible barriers blocking your way, you can travel as you will. In fact, most of the time in Wind Waker goes while sailing around the massive world. This is a change from traditional Zeldas, as dungeons have always been the focus. This change is a welcome one, I always preferred exploring the world instead of dungeon crawling.

Unlike the most Zeldas, WW’s story has some continuity to previous games. In Wind Waker’s world the events of Ocarina of Time have become a legend. There is a tradition in Outset Island that when a boy comes of age, it’s customary to dress him in green tunic in memory of a legendary hero. To our main character, Link, this tradition is soon becoming reality. Things don’t go as planned, though, as a huge bird spoils the party by kidnapping Link’s sister, Aryll. Something must be done, so Link decides to accompany a pirate ship and travel to rescue his sister.

Wind Waker is much more story driven than other Zeldas. While in Ocarina of Time you got to roam freely and the main quest stayed in the background, Wind Waker has story events throughout the game, instead of something happening only after you’ve gathered all three talismans, for example. While this certainly helps the storytelling, it does take away some of the freedom usual to Zelda series, however.

Strangely I found that the Wind Waker lacked some things that were very traditional for Zelda games. Even though the game world is filled with water, you can’t dive (or swim very far). This is a bit weird, considering that in almost every Zelda you can. Although the huge task to add all the things underneath the surface could be a reasonable explanation for this. More peculiar thing is the complete absence of Zoras. You’d think that from all the races in in Zelda games, the water people would be in Wind Waker, but apparently not. Guess they’ve gone deep deep underwater.

The different colored tunics are also absent, as well as finding secret doors by bombing cracks in walls. Spells are no go too, magic meter is strictly for item use. Iron boots make a comeback but the hover ones or the running shoes are nowhere to be found. Hookshot is accompanied by a newcomer, the grappling hook, which does basically the same thing, except that it clings on to slightly different objects. The shovel is gone (aww, no digging…) but boomerang, bow and arrows do return, alongside with The Most Useful Tool Ever, hammer (It is much bigger than before, but still as slow as ever). Deku leaf is the most interesting new item. It allows Link to hover across the air for short distances (It consumes the magic meter rapidly, though). The leaf can be also used on the ground, where it makes small wind breezes (which are useful mostly on solving puzzles).

Looks good, sounds good

The music is done by Koji Kondo (who has been the main composer of both Zelda and Mario series ever since their beginning), with help from Kenta Nagata (Mario Kart 64), Hajime Wakai (Star Fox 64) and Toru Minegishi (Majora’s Mask). While there’s plenty of new stuff to listen to, fans haven’t been forgotten. Some of the classic Zelda-themes make a comeback in new arrangements. Overall the soundtrack maintains the adventurous feel throughout the game and the music reacts well to game’s events. Like on all Zelda games, the overall quality is high, although I still rank Ocarina of Time’s soundtrack a bit higher.

Music changes dynamically during the game. When night changes to day, the music reacts to that. This goes for battles as well, so when you’re near enemies, the music becomes more intense. When you strike an enemy, music tempo increases and more aggressive chords are played. The bigger combo gets, the more chords you hear. Sounds amazing.

The biggest music-related aspect of the game is the Wind Waker, a magical conductors baton that Link uses to control the wind. It works the same way as the ocarina did. To conduct a melody, you push buttons according to notes of the song. After that Link plays the rest of the song (Ocarina sounded better, by the way), and the magic kicks in. Since most of the game is spent on sailing, the song you get to play most is, surprise, the one that lets you control the direction of the wind. You’ll play it a lot throughout the game.

Controls are similar to Ocarina of Time. Locking on to enemies is done with L-button (opposed to Z-targeting in N64), R-button handles the shield, A is the main action button, B is for sword and Y, Z & X are devoted to item use. C-stick is used for camera control. Jumps are done automatically, so no worries about screwing them up.

The difficulty level isn’t very high. While the Wind Waker isn’t a pushover, only few bosses offer a real challenge. Fortunately the world is vast, there’s plenty to explore and the dungeons are filled with puzzles. Since the game allows you to sail freely, there’s so much to do that the lack of difficulty really isn’t an issue.

Like in most of Nintendo’s GameCube games, Wind Waker uses the GameCube / Game Boy Advance connectivity. At certain point in the game you get an item called the Tingle Tuner which allows you to use GBA to control Tingle. Tingle helps you by dropping bombs on enemies, selling items, giving advice, etc.

ink’s first adventure on GameCube is a successful one, just like its predecessors on Nintendo 64, SNES & NES. There’s a good reason why Zelda is considered to be perhaps the best game franchise ever. Wind Waker proves this. Although the series is more than ten years old, it still has capability to renew itself and always offer something new and exciting for the fans.

While the cell shaded look isn’t for everyone, it’s part of the reason why Wind Waker is such a great game. Many of the things Nintendo has been able to do with it just wouldn’t be possible on realistically styled graphics. If you don’t choke on the graphics, Wind Waker is a must buy for every GameCube owner. It might be a long time before you see another adventure like this one. In fact, you might have to wait for the next Zelda game, so better not pass by Wind Waker.

UFO: Enemy Unknown

Ufo

The classic

The first game in X-Com series places you in the lead of X-Com, a multi-national force founded by world’s governments to fight the extraterrestrial threat (the aliens). The game was released as X-Com: Enemy Unknown in North-America and went by the name UFO: Enemy Unknown in Europe.

As the leader of X-Com (Extraterrestrial Combat), you must organize your troops, manage the funding and command the researchers as well as order units to intercept the UFOs. All this is done in the Geoscape mode, where you’ll find yourself watching the world map.
In the map screen, you see your bases and crafts. As the radar of your base picks up an alien craft, it appears as a red dot in the world map. Then you must order aircrafts to intercept it. As soon as your interceptors have managed to make it crash land (or to blow it to bits, depending on your craft’s weaponry), a new part of the game is about to start.

Intro sequenceYay, a cinematic intro

Once the UFO has been shot down, you must send units to neutralize the survivors and salvage the alien technology. All that takes place in the game’s turn-based combat mode where you control your soldiers in an overhead perspective.

Each soldier has a certain of time units and each action you take (walking, firing a gun, etc.) consumes them. Once you have run out of the time units, you switch to next soldier and repeat the process. When all of your troops have taken their action, it’s time to end the turn. After that the computer does the same for aliens with hidden movement. You can’t see what they’re doing, unless one of your soldiers sees it, but you can hear what the aliens are doing (opening doors, firing shots…).

One of the most important aspects in making UFO a classic was the line-of-sight system. The fact that you only see what your soldiers see, keeps the game interesting. You may hear sound an see bits of movement happening, but you don’t truly know what’s going on until one of your soldiers is at the scene. Once an alien is spotted, you have to neutralize it. This means you’ve got two options: either you kill it or you stun it and take to scientists for researching. (Pay back all that probing they did to us…)

Once you’ve taken care of all hostile units, the mission ends. Then you’re presented with a review of your performance. Obtained alien artifacts and neutralized aliens add to score while own casualties reduce it.
In addition the normal cleanup missions, there are terror missions where aliens have attacked a city and X-Com must come to deal with the threat. (Interestingly the textures the game uses indicate that aliens only seem to attack city outskirts with cabbage fields and occasional gas stations…) There you also need to protect the civilians on the scene. Aliens enjoy firing at them and each casualty shows up negatively in your mission performance reviews.

Base overviewBases start small burt eventually grow huge

Happiness is a warm gun

The combat mode is very well done. You can blow up everything you see (Which always is a great feature…), the line of sight is very well done and both the obstacles and lighting affect to your field of vision. The maps can contain multiple floors and sniping from the roof is always fun.
Speaking of weapons, the arsenal is huge! You have just about everything: rifles, hand guns, grenades (standard, smoke and motion detecting), heavy explosives, laser weapons, plasma weapons, stun rods, motion detectors, cannons (with different types of ammo) and even a homing missile launcher! Not to mention the battletanks you can use…

You start with very basic equipment and the aliens weaponry seems far superior to yours, but once your scientists manage to complete some of their their projects, the aliens soon find themselves outgunned. As you get your hand on alien technology, you can create more powerful equipment and armors which are essential to your success.
At the beginning your troops are true one hit wonders, who drop dead from nearly every hit they take while the aliens can survive two or three. Once you get the armors, your soldiers can switch to personal armors and eventually to flying suits (extremely spiffy armor which is not only durable, but allows the soldier to hover in the air).

InterceptorInterceptor is the first fightercraft you’ll get

One of the best parts in X-Com is that eventually you start caring what happens to your soldiers. They all have names (You can even change the names if you want to) and ranks and it’s fun to observe as John Smith advances from rookie to sergeant. And soon you’ll be genuinely pissed off if poor John gets shot in the back by some alien punk. You want revenge and find yourself using your most powerful weaponry to get that alien bastard…

Even though I’ve talked a lot about the combat system, the Geoscape mode shouldn’t be forgotten. You’re able to control the projects the scientists are researching, build additional structures to your base (or even a new base if you feel like it), buy or sell weaponry, hire or sack people, build new weaponry or view the UFOpedia encyclopedia which contains all information you’ve gathered about your equipment or about your enemies.

After each month in game time, you’ll get a review from your funders. The governments may increase or decrease your funds, based on your performance within their borders. The more alien attacks to their cities you stop, the happier they’ll be.
If you, however, have neglected protecting, for example, Great-Britain, they can reduce your funding or (if you’ve really screwed up) sign a deal with the alien invaders, cutting their support entirely. Which is NOT a good thing… (Although the nations aren’t good at keeping secrets, you immediately get notified of their ‘secret pacts’). Loose enough supporting nations and the game ends.

Ufo crashesOne thing less to worry for Asia

The game has no actual time limit (at least not that I know of), but as the time goes by, the alien’s attacks become more frequent. You can advance by getting information from the alien leaders you capture. First you find about their bases on earth, than about their plan and finally you’ll be able to locate their home world and end the war with a counterstrike.
When you congratulate yourself on finding an enemy base, it’s good to remember that the aliens may assault your bases as well. Therefore it’s good to invest on base defense systems. If they get inside, you’ll have defend your base with all the men currently stationed there. If all your available troops are still on their way back from a mission, it sucks to be you…

You don’t see games like X-Com very often. Game’s which have nearly no flaws at all. Sure, it lacks some features. Soldiers can’t run or crawl, just to mention the most obvious ones. The lack of those things, however won’t change the fact that the game is near perfect.
If you haven’t played X-Com, now is a good time to give it a try. The game has that kind of an atmosphere that many games nowadays don’t have. They’ve even added all those cattle mutilation references to the game! Don’t let the now outdated graphics frighten you, playability is the most important thing and X-Com really has lot of it. This is a game you find yourself playing again and again.

Excercise cautionI knew I should’ve brought weaponry

Even though I talked about the PC version for X-Com, they’ve ported Enemy Unknown and it’s sequel Terror from the Deep for PSX and possibly for other consoles as well (although I’m only aware of the PC & PSX versions).

Even though the PSX version hogs an entire memory card (yeah, 15 blocks…) and isn’t as easy to control as the PC version (PSX pad doesn’t suit to X-Com as well as mouse does), it’s a great game nevertheless. They’ve also added some cut scenes to PSX version, as well as new opening and ending videos, which look great. Also, getting the PSX version may be easier to find because the PC one is really rare (and doesn’t work well on fast computers).

If you like the X-Com series you should also try the Jagged Alliance series, which has an entirely different setting, but the combat system is very similar to X-Com. And Jagged Alliance 2 is much easier to find, as it was released much more recently.

Enemy at sightBefore…
Hostile down…and after. Viktor Andianov’s finest hour.

Star Ocean: The Second Story

‘Expel’led (aka. the almost clever headline)

Star Ocean is the first RPG by Enix for a while that has come to Europe. Also a sequel to SNES game titled Star Ocean (figures…). One of the most interesting things in Star Ocean 2 is that you get to choose between two different scenarios. Although the storyline is mostly similar, certain events are different.

The story sets in planet Expel, a remote planet far from earth and you can choose to play it as Expelian girl named Rena, or Earth Federation ensign Claude C. Kenni, who was investigating another planet near Expel and was transported to Expel in an accident.
These scenarios relate very closely to each other and the basic story is the same, with few differences. Some characters are only available in Claude’s scenario and some in Rena’s only. Those who’ve played Star Ocean might be interested to know that Claude is the son of Ronixis J. Kenni, one of the original Star Ocean’s characters. He will also make a few appearances in Star Ocean 2.

While ago a meteorite had crashed to Expel, and soon after some strange events have started to occur. When Claude appears to Expel, he has no idea where he is or how to return to home. He meets Rena and hears about strange events near the meteorite. He decides to go to investigate the meteorite with Rena, hoping to find some information about his whereabouts.

Star Ocean’s story is quite interesting and offers challenge for about 30 hours. (That depends, of course. Experienced players may play through it faster while inexperienced may need more time.) The game comes in two CDs and they’re filled with good graphics, music and story, so the game should bring entertainment for a while.
It can also bring lots of challenge. The bosses are hard to beat as they share the same experience level as the main character does. Leveling up won’t help beating them. Completing the game unlocks new difficulty settings (They’re REALLY difficult) for masochists who like to get beaten up in the fights.

The game has an interesting battle system. Battles happen in real time, and you control one character during the battle and let the computer control the rest (If anyone has played Tales of Destiny, they know what I’m talking about.) You have full control over your characters movement in the 3d battlefield, and sometimes the game reminds me of some action games as I make my character run across the field and beat the crap out of bad guys. While you get to control only one character at a time, you can give orders to computer controlled ones, such as cast spells with them.
Too bad that the battle system doesn’t work too well. Many times controlling your characters is too confusing and difficult and the computer does some weird stuff while controlling your other characters, like attacking the biggest monster with party healer… (Fortunately such cases are rare). This is bad, since it really pisses off in areas with lots of fighting.

A test of patience

Xenogears has two battle modes. The regular one where the characters fight like in any RPG games and the second one where the characters fight inside their gears (Gears are those huge robots which you see in a couple of the screen shots here). These modes are different since when using gears you also have to worry about fuel. Gears use fuel and each attack consumes a certain amount of it.
The only way to gain fuel during battles is by charging it, but it only restores a little amount per turn and you can’t attack while charging fuel. Once the fuel is gone, gears can only charge (or use magic) which kinda makes them sitting ducks. Therefore the gear battles require a bit more strategy than regular ones.

Graphics are quite pretty, especially the backgrounds are very nice. And the movie sequences are also beautiful, as usual. Music is good, but not all of it. Some pieces are average and there are some songs that just annoy. But there are some real gems there and many good tracks. And battle theme is a good one, which is good, since it gets played a lot.

The sound effects are OK, but during battles comes up the voice acting. Now, this can be a good thing, but on Star Ocean, it isn’t. Some voices sound damn stupid and overacted. Usually every character in the party have something different to say at the beginning of the fight, like “We can win this!”, but unfortunately they only have about two different sentences. That starts pissing off when you have to hear the same words at the beginning of almost every fight, not to mention the other things the character has to say… Fun at first, but since the game has lots of fighting, it gets annoying fast.

Star Ocean characters gain levels as other RPG heroic-like-people do, but there is one thing different from most RPGs. As characters in SO2 gain levels, they also get Skill Points. These Skill Points are used to gain new skills and become better in old ones. There’s wide variety of skills ranging from cooking to animal training. Even if it may not seem like it, even these skills are useful, thanks to the item creation SO2 is using.
Let’s take cooking, for example. You get to buy cooking ingredients from various shops in the game and with cooking skill, the character makes food out of them. Same with alchemy. Combine items to make new ones. You can modify your equipment or weapons by adding special items to them. You can write books and sell them for money. It feels like endless amount of new items can be made. There are also many other skills which don’t involve item creation. Combat skills sometimes rise characters speed, defense or attack power for a while, allow ignoring enemy’s defenses and causing larger damage. Animal training allows player to summon an animal who goes shopping on players behalf. This is particularly useful in dungeons.

Star Ocean: The Second Story has moments when it can be boring or frustrating, but mostly it keeps players interest high. And with the multiple endings and the two different scenarios it offers, SO2 has more replay value than most other RPGs. It’s a good buy if you’re looking for a new RPG to spend your time with.

As an interesting sidenote, Star Ocean: The Second Story has also spawned an anime series, Star Ocean EX. Unfortunately I haven’t seen anything from the series besides a short clip, so I really can’t tell you much about it, but those interested might want to check it out. Let’s hope there’s an English translation available. The third game in the series, Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time has also been released in Japan, and hopefully we’ll see the English translation soon. The series has also appeared on Game Boy, but Star Ocean: Blue Sphere was never released outside Japan.

Super Smash Bros Melee

Stars’ gathering

The last time Nintendo’s characters gathered to beat the crap out of each other was Super Smash Brothers for Nintendo 64. SSB had one of the longest life spans for a N64 game. In fact, it was so full of features and secrets that it would still be the game of choice for fighting fans if something better hadn’t come out. The new king of fighting games is Super Smash Bros. Melee for GameCube.
Smash Bros developer HAL laboratories couldn’t wish for a better license – all Nintendo’s greatest stars in one game. It’s not easy to build up from the enormous success of the original game and the easiest way would’ve been to release just a graphical update with minor improvements. It’s good to see that Hal took a different path and decided to make the new Smash Bros better than the original game in every aspect, giving Nintendo’s characters the treatment they deserve.

Super Smash Bros has over 20 characters from pretty much every franchise Nintendo has. Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, Link, Zelda, Pikachu, Kirby, Captain Falcon from F-Zero, Fox McCloud from Star Fox & Samus Aran from Metroid, just to name few of them. Some are available right away, some will become available later on.
In addition to characters, there’s also stages from their games, Eg. Mute City from F-Zero, Brinstar from Metroid, Termina Great Bay from Zelda & Fountain of Dreams from Kirby. Stages and characters aren’t the only things included form the games. The soundtrack consists of new versions of all-time Nintendo favorites.

Melee adds a new game modes not in the original Smash Bros. While Melee is the normal beat’em up mode, adventure mode is a new addition. It’s basically a side-scrolling platformer. The stages vary depending on the game they’re based on. First stage is just like one from the first Mario game. Then there’s F-Zero stage which places you in the middle of race. You’ll have to run towards the goal and avoid being squashed by the F-Zero vehicles passing by once in a while. Metroid stage has you escaping from an exploding planet and on the Zelda-stage you search for the Triforce. The stages aren’t overly complicated but bring a nice change to regular melee every now and then.

Clearing the adventure mode gives you a trophy of the character you completed the game with. You’ll also get trophies from bonus games and by collecting them from the stages. Each trophy you get is placed in your trophy room where you can read tidbits of info about that particular item or character and also view a nice 3d-model of the trophy.
In over 150 trophies there are items from most Nintendo franchises, including Balloon Fight, Ice Climbers, Mario series, Earthbound and not to mention the obscure Japan-only games. The trophies also serve as a glance to the history of Nintendo. Veteran gamers are guaranteed to have a nostalgia trip…

The precise playability of N64 version has moved well to GameCube and the controls are responsive. Graphics are colorful and filled with details. In fact, they’re so detailed that you may have problems distinguishing your character when there are 4 characters battling in front of an animated object in the background. This doesn’t occur very often and wouldn’t even be an issue if SSB Melee’s gameplay wasn’t so fast paced.
Because of the game’s tempo, extreme concentration is required every time you play – unless you wish to get beaten severely. Smash Bros Melee is easy to learn but mastering each character is more difficult. Each one has their strengths and weaknesses and if you wish to gain all trophies you’ll need to be a bit experienced with each character.

One thing I’ll need to mention is the points rewarded after melee battles. There are dozens of different things you may be rewarded for. For example, points are given for the players with most KO’s, who collected the most items, got most power ups, used items hazardously never blocked, etc.
Minus points are awarded for players with most suicides or who resorted to cheap tactics. The points have no relevance to the rest of the game apart from high scores, but since there are so many things you may be rewarded for, it’s always a fun thing to check.

Smash Bros Melee was released soon after GameCube and it’ll be interesting to see if we’ll see a GameCube fighting game that’s as complete and feature-packed as SSB Melee anytime soon. Offering so many challenges and features, SSB Melee set a new standard for fighting games and and is certainly one of the games for GameCube that’ll last for years to come.