Review: Space Invaders Extreme (Sony PSP)

As you may or may not know, 2008 marks the 30th anniversary of the release of the original Space Invaders in the arcades back in 1978. To commemorate this milestone, Taito, now owned by Square-Enix, released Space Invaders Extreme for both the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP roughly 3 weeks ago. A re-imagined game in the same sense as Pac-Man CE, that has a mixture of the old gameplay and new modes and elements common by today’s standards.

Now et me get the bad stuff out of the way first. There aren’t any sound options for turning down the music or sound effects (which are both good mind you). The Ad Hoc multiplayer mode is really simple and not all that feature rich. That’s it, that’s all the bad I have to say about this game!

The first thing I’ll mention I like about this game is it’s price. $19.99 is a great value for any game new and this one is no exception. Since the DS has such tiny controls for my hands, I decided to opt for the PSP version instead. It’s also my preferred choice because of the bigger screen.

One of the best features of this game are the changes made to the gameplay. Now I like Space Invaders in all it’s revisions and spinoffs, but that’s not to say that it can’t change while maintaining it’s identity and heritage. Taito did a great job of keeping the core game intact while adding such things as powerups, boss battles, bonus stages and colour coded enemies and UFOs. In some ways, this game reminds me of a Galaga/Xevious/Space Invaders mashup with all it’s parts and pieces of added gameplay elements. The boss battles are cool because they showcase the pixelated form of the aliens on a larger scale as well as adding a bit of strategy as to how each one needs to be beaten.

Control is simple and you won’t get cramped thumbs trying to be everywhere at once on the screen. Graphics are crisp and colourful and there is an option to turn the background effects on or off if you find them too distracting. If you do those effects are replaced by a colourful background that doesn’t move.

Difficulty is on a more steady curve and those who may not be pros at shooters or twitch/reflex types of games will still be able to enjoy it and survive for 10-15 minutes at a time. In other words it’s equally suited both as a short diversion as well as a marathon high score challenge. Also as you play you’ll unlock Stages which you can always go back to later on and rack up more high scores.

I think Taito did an amazing job in re-invigorating an old game for it’s third decade of play. This has to be among the most addictive, simple and enjoyable games on the PSP system and one of my favorite games of the year so far. As far as this wave of retro remakes is concerned, Space Invaders Extreme sits very high on the quality list and sticks to it’s roots while adding something new at the same time. A feat not easy to accomplish when you have 3 generations of gamers to try to appeal to!

9.0/10

Review: Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements

Now before I get to my review, I want to say that I bought this game at a bargain bin price a month or so ago because my instincts told me it wasn’t a full price kind of game. Although late to the party in terms of writing a review (4 1/2 months after release) I can honestly say I’ve beaten it and have experienced all four player classes. This game has gotten a bit of a bad rap by the gaming press and much of it undeservedly so.

Now as many of you know, I’m a sucker for WRPGs (Western RPGs). That’s a bit of a stereotype I’m afraid but it has since taken root and is generally used on a wide scale to describe these type of games. A WRPG is basically a sword & sorcery type role playing game, usually developed by a European or North American company, and has plenty of Dungeons & Dragons or Tolkien inspired elements to it.

This game is a port of the 2006 PC Dark Messiah title and is more simplified and altered to better match the console experience. You have four player classes (Fighter, Archer, Mage & Assassin) and have no real customization of your character other than the equipment you choose to use. Leveling up is linear and since there is no respawn of enemies, it’s carefully spread out throughout the game.

Gameplay if I was to formulate an analogy, would be something like a cross between Thief, Tomb Raider and Oblivion. The combat is pretty straight forward, the controls work well and the platforming aspect of it using the rope bow can be very challenging and rewarding. It let’s you explore and challenge yourself on a scale I wish more games would offer. This exploration is a combination of acrobatics, skill and puzzle solving and is one of the best virtues of this game.

This would be what I’d call a “Lite” RPG, where one could argue this to be a “action RPG” or an “unsophisticated dungeon crawler”. There’s even a bit of humor in the game from time to time to keep the dark story in check. The story itself is pretty simple and really unimportant, and there are two different endings to the game for you to explore as well as a few in-game story paths you can follow.

The sounds & voice acting is generally well done, the graphics look a bit dated but still work well for the type of game and considering it’s a 2 year old port. There are a couple minor bugs but nothing game breaking or overly aggravating. You can expect a solid 20 hour game give or take a few hours depending on how you play it and the multiplayer is simple, mindless fun.

If you can find this game for $20 or less and would enjoy a “Lite” RPG, or a simple game with a fun laid back single player, I recommend this game wholeheartedley. Few instances in gaming does a “Jack of all trades, Master of none” type of title work out so well. Just don’t spend a lot of money on it hoping to get your WRPG fix until Fallout 3 or the Two Worlds sequel comes out.

8.0/10

Metallic Rodents + Sci-fi = Good! (Stainless Steel Rat)

On the weekend we hit up the local flea market for a change since it had been a couple years from the last time we had been there. I was fortunate enough to find a few interesting items including a Stainless Steel Rat novel for a mere 25 cents. When I was a kid I had a sizable comic book collection including several issues of 2000 A.D. Which among favorites like Judge Dredd, ABC Warriors, Robohunter and Nemesis the Warlock, it also had “Slippery Jim diGriz” a.k.a “The Stainless Steel Rat“.

I’m super excited to slip into a novel of this character. He makes me laugh in a way only the best sarcastic rogues can manage and it’s written by his creator. I’ve since tagged off a list of these novels for future hunting and I can’t wait to start reading this one. In fact, it’s distracting me from finishing the book I’m reading now, so I think i’ll just give in and get right too it!

The Stainless Steel Rat for President

Play ‘em: Custom Game Sountracks

As a sort of unofficial part II to a great blog entry Dave wrote in January called “Game Music through the Ages… Why is Game Music so Popular?“, I’ve decided to write one focusing on custom soundtracks and user recommendations.

In the last decade or so, custom soundtracks in video games have increased in popularity both due to the digital age as well as advances in game systems and personal computers. Of course there are also the memories and nostalgia of times when one would have their 8-track, LP, Cassette, or CD playing in the background. Add digital files to that and you’ve come all the way across 30+ years of gaming. Any of you listen to Pac-Man fever while chasing ghosts? Or “Gangsta’s Paradise” when Ridge Racer came out for the PlayStation and you found out you could take the game disc out and pop in a music CD? No shame in that, we’ve all made mistakes in the past. Hell I remember when “U Can’t Touch This” was all the rage a few months after Super Mario Bros. 3 came out 18 years ago. Did that make you feel old, or maybe really young? Just wait until the 25th anniversary of that song and the game when you, or one of your parents, break out the elephant pants and make an ass of you/themselves, hopefully all in good fun. Maybe Fred Savage will reprise his role in the sequel: The Wizard II: Arthritic Speedrun Pwnage.

That’s not to say the default game music that is included in a title is bad, in fact in many cases far from it. It means that if a game’s soundtrack doesn’t suit you, you can always change it. So if your willing, feel free to share with your fellow RFGen members, your favorite custom music you listen to while gaming. Everyone’s tastes are different and it’s always great to find new songs or albums that may make a particular game that much better, or a song that really suits a genre perfectly. So here’s a few favorites of mine and the games I like to play while listening to them:

Aerosmith - back in the saddle - Wild west games, Darkwatch. Oblivion & Two Worlds while your exploring.
AC/DC - Back in Black - Shooters, Battlefield series, Serious Sam.
AC/DC - Shoot to thrill - Same as above, good for Billiards & Hockey as well.
America - Horse with no name - Games that have a lot of exploration, especially horseback RPGs and also Wild west titles.
Bachman Turner Overdrive - Ain’t seen nothin’ yet Project Gotham, Burnout, Puzzle games.
Bee Gees - Stayin’ Alive - Tetris, Quake III, Twisted Metal
Big Wreck - Blown wide open - Silent Bomber, WWII shooters
CCR - Sweet hitch hiker - Racing games, in particular fast ones like Need for Speed and Burnout.
Commander Cody - Hot Rod Lincoln - Racing games also especially those with a pursuit mode
Dr. John - Right place, wrong time - Man this song works just about anywhere. Imagine it in a game where you are overwhelmed with on screen enemies!
Dwight Yoakam - A Thousand Miles from Nowhere - Exploring games and the 4×4 Evolution series.
Elton John - Rocket Man - Space Hawk (Intv), Asteroids (2600), Astro Warrior (SMS)
Elvis Presley - Way down - Dig Dug and for some reason Super Mario Bros. 2
Golden Earring - Twilight Zone - Just about any game with a strong sense of danger
Guns ‘n’ Roses - Out Ta Get Me - Pursuit titles or Cops ‘n’ Robbers types of games
Heart - Barracuda - Shooters and Racing games
Jackson Browne - Running On Empty - Makes me laugh when my character has low health and besieged by enemies!!
Jimi Hendrix- Crosstown Traffic - Burnout’s 2 & 3, was also good when playing Crackdown for the X360.
Johnny Horton - Sink The Bismarck - Silent Hunter series or Silent service
Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express - An odd song that finds it’s way into many games, good for racing too.
Led Zeppelin - Carouselambra - A great song for those long races & tracks like Nürburgring
Lenny Kravitz - Fly Away - Ace Combat & other flight series
Martha & The Muffins - Echo Beach - Wave Race series because it has that summertime fun feel to it.
Martha and the Vandellas - Nowhere To Run - Awesome for Counter-Strike and car chases!
Marty Robbins - big iron - Dead Man’s Hand, Gun, Darkwatch, Red Dead Revolver, Mass Effect
Megadeth - Hangar 18 - Missile Command, Atlantis, Ace Combat, Mechwarrior
Megadeth - Psychotron - Armored Core, Mechwarrior, Gundam, Battletech, Chromehounds, Gungriffon Blaze. Basically anything that’s badass mecha!
Ministry - Jesus Built My Hotrod - Another great song for long races or intense fighting/shooting.
Muse - Knights of Cydonia - Racing, Shooters or just about anything needing a catchy fast song.
Nazareth - This Flight Tonight - Cosmic Ark, Colony Wars series
Ozzy Osbourne- Crazy Train - Twisted Metal, Vigilante 8
Pink Floyd- Run Like Hell - Space Harrier, Hang-On and Super Hang-On
Queen - Another one bites the dust - Mafia shooters, The Punisher, Quake
Rammstein- Rammstein - When your needing something heavy and angry!
Rhett Akins - Driving my life away - Pretty obvious but really great for games with semis in them.
Rob Zombie - Dragula - I’m sure everyone has played a racing game to this in the last 10 years or so!
Rolling Stones - She’s so cold - Snowboarding games, Ace Combat series
Rush - Tom Sawyer - Jedi Outcast/Academy, Just Cause and other sandbox type games.
Sammy Hagar - Heavy metal - FPS, Mechwarrior, Chromehounds and other mecha games
Sepultura - Symptom of the Universe - Another one when you need something catchy and heavy
Simon & Garfunkel-The Sound of Silence - Splinter Cell, Thief, Morrowind
Smashing Pumpkins- Eye - Splinter Cell, Thief, Morrowind. Basically any stealth game same as above.
Stan Rogers - Barrett’s Privateers - Need something for the high seas? Look no further, just about anything from Stan is suitable for pirates & plunder!
Styx - Renegade - Need for Speed games, GTA, Morrowind
Styx - Too Much Time On My Hands - Just about anything Pre-NES. Just feels right with older games, also works well with Wetrix.
System Of A Down - B.Y.O.B. - RTS games when your using peasants as cannon fodder! Also Worms 3D and Perfect Dark Zero
The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations - Snowboarding, Wave Race series, Outrun 2006
The Beatles- Day Tripper - Outrun 2006, Snowboarding games
The Doors - Five to one - Shooters and RTS games
The Fixx - One Thing Leads To Another - Project Gotham Racing, Columns
The Fureys- The Green Fields Of France - Turn the game sound effects down and turn this up, if it doesn’t clutch at your heart when storming the beaches of Normandy, your dead inside!
The Watchmen - Stereo - Doom, Doom II, Burnout,
Trans-X - Living on video - Like most 80’s music, it works well with Atari and Intv. Especially games that use the Intellivoice or take place in outer space.
White Zombie - Super Charger Heaven (Adults Only Mix) - A great fast intense song, works for many games.
Wings - Band on the Run - Feel like a criminal? Here’s a tune to match!
The 1920s, 30s and 40s station on Shoutcast - Great for those games that take place half a century ago like WWII shooters or games like Fallout where everything came to a standstill in music. I suspect Fallout 3 and Bioshock would match them as well, compliment the great soundtracks those two already have.

Some of my favorites are played loud, others quietly in the background. It’s always rewarding to mix yourself something to listen to, especially as bandwidth is cheap and so are blank CD’s. I love the default soundtracks of many games, but sometimes you want more bass, or something heavy or funky to match your mood. Sometimes you want to relax with a quiet game but it has boring, repetitive music. In any case, I’m looking forward to reading replies and comments and maybe adding a few new songs to the hundreds I already enjoy!

List ‘em: Most Wanted Edition 2008

*Reposted from an entry of mine at www.rfgeneration.com

To follow up on last week’s weekly poll, I thought I’d make this edition of List ‘em another Most Wanted Edition. Like last year, feel free to list the most anticipated games on your want list and feel free to explain why each one is important or interesting. Holiday 2008 promises to cram everything good in a 2-3 month span, doing 2D8 damage to our wallets while overwhelming us with so many games to choose from at the same time.

Now I have to admit, this year doesn’t feel as exciting in terms of huge releases as last year did. The DS and PSP seem to have quieted down a bit. The PS2 is slowing down in new releases of note and first party titles for the three current systems seem a bit scarce for the second half of the year. With over 40% of our voters suggesting they’ll only be getting 1-5 titles, I think it’s safe to say many of you feel as I do. Or is that a sign of the economic downturn which has affected just about every corner of the globe?

In any case, here are my personal top 5 most anticipated titles of 2008:

• Samurai Shodown Anthology - I like SNK, always have. While I may still be trying to track down a copy of SNK Arcade Classics: Volume 1 without resorting to buying online, I’m very much looking forward to yet another compilation, this time my beloved SS series. I’ve been playing SS since II came out 14 years ago. I still pop a few quarters in when I spot a cab in the wild. With 3rd party arcade sticks for home consoles being of comparable quality these days, it’ll be great to finally have a nice setup in my living room without using MAME. Available in a few months for the Wii, PSP and PS2, it’s supposed to contain Samurai Shodown, I, II, III, IV, V, V Special and VI. Yep that’s right, SSVI as well! That’s a lot of bang for the buck and a lot of nostalgia all in one package.

• Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise - Those of you who have played or beaten the original VP, can attest to just how special and addictive this deceivingly childish looking game truly is. Micromanagement on a scale that rivals any of the Tycoon series of games while being something anyone regardless of gender or age can enjoy. It’s actually one of the few X360 games I have every achievement for and a testament to how good RARE still is despite the biased criticism from longtime Nintendo fans who downplay their departure even to this day. While not on my top list, I’ll also mention there’s a DS version coming as well which may be a getter if it’s anything like it’s console counterpart. Candy incest and cannibalism runs rampart sometime in September is all goes on schedule.

• Two Worlds: The Temptation - Despite general scorn by gamers and reviewers alike who couldn’t see past the bugs this game had (since been patched BTW), I enjoyed it tremendously. It rivaled Oblivion but in some ways was even better. It had a level of humor I found refreshing and was fun to go questing for hours on end (as long as you didn’t use a horse lol). Ask Tynstar about that, me kept me amused to no end with his frustrations and curses at his horse’s inability to even walk in a straight line while on XBL. Well the sequel promises to address many issues the first game had right off the bat and from the screenshots it looks a lot more fun with the added gameplay elements like boating and interacting more with the environment. This game may actually be my most anticipated of the year. But then again I’m always a sucker for “Western RPGs”.

• Fallout 3 Oblivion with guns? Well that wouldn’t be so bad now would it? I’ve been on a bit of a post-apocalyptic kick lately. Between re-watching Jeremiah again and reading novels from the Deathlands / Outlanders series, I’ve gotten a taste for a new game in that genre. Now I won’t go out and buy that survival edition for $120 but I will probably get the next limited edition down. As usual Bethesda is sparing no expense for this title and voice acting is no exception. Ron Perlman and Liam Neeson are among those signed for major roles in the game.

• Just Cause 2 It’s a sandbox type game that takes place in South America and in my humble opinion, an easy source of mindless relaxing fun on so many levels. The first title lets you do so many things that I couldn’t adequately describe it in a paragraph or two. Everything from racing, to urban assault in tanks, to paragliding and flying jets, airliners and helicopters. Base jumping, watercraft & boats, assassination and high speed chases you name it. A mix of Hitman. Crackdown and Vice City all in one. Sometimes I just like to fly around for hours in an aircraft, just because it’s that fun. All that in a last gen game ported to the X360. So you can imagine how good a ground up new game for the same system would be! My only concern is whether that same freedom of movement in a non-linear environment will be in the second game. Some sources have said there will be no side missions. That may or maynot be a good thing.

So that’s my top 5. But on the periphery of my gaming radar, the following games also interest me on a smaller scale: Zoids Assault, Fable 2, Spore, the various band/guitar games, Banjo Threeie, Sonic RPG and prob more I’m forgetting right now.

So now it’s your turn folks! Name your “big list” and then in say 7 months or so, we’ll revisit our choices like a cyber time capsule and see how everything turned out!

500th book!

I can’t believe my book collection has swelled so much in the past few months! I’m reading them almost as fast as I’m buying them. Good thing the different series I tend to read are so large in volume. Last night I picked up 7 more Deathlands novels, some of them are low on the number list like Neutron Solstice which is #3 not to mention 21 years old. I hear the earlier ones are hard to come by so I consider last night a lucky find. So officially at this point I’m somewhere around 503 books or so……in big boxes all over the living room! Damn we need a bigger place…

Finished my first Mack Bolan novel: Target Lock #258

OK first off, I cheated a bit and read reviews of this book beforehand. No spoilers mind you, just what the general concensus was on this particular book. Suffice to say it’s generally regarded as a cookie cutter story where the names and places are copy/pasted from others in the series. I figured if i could handle a “meh” story, I’d really enjoy the better ones.

Well it wasn’t too bad. I skipped a few pages here and there when the characters were jabbering on about some political turn of events or some such thing, but the action was solid in a Rambo type of way. I’ll probably try another one out, perhaps one of the higher rated novels, or maybe the original ones written by Don himself. Cheap thrills and gunplay on a Punisher/James Bond type of narrative. Good for a bus ride or waiting room, not sure if it’ll become a serious series for me to get involved in.

Cataloged Once More!

Finally got my game collection listed on RF Generation once more! I had wanted to start over with all the buying, selling swapping etc I had done in the past few months. I had lost track of what I did and didn’t have and I knew it would be a big job.

It took several hours but I’m finally finished. There may be a few hardware items I’ve yet to add but other than that I’m set. Right now I’m hovering at around 885 games and 172 or so gaming hardware items. Not bad considering the massive culling that took place a while ago. Some system libraries dropped by 50-70 games at a time. That’s because I got rid of just about anything I wasn’t playing for whatever reason and kept on the “essentials”.

Now that I’m done listing them, it’s time to start scanning. I’m sure I have a good 100 or more games to scan into the database yet. That’s no small task either!

My Notebook Finally Has Some Breathing Room

Today I fulfilled a long standing promise to myself that I’d get around to doubling my notebooks RAM from 1gig to 2. There was a sale on Kingston ValueRAM 1 gig sticks for $39.99 and that was what I was initially going to buy. I’ve been a Kingston man for the better part of a decade now and I figured no reason to change now. Unfortunately however, they didn’t have any in stock. They did however have Buffalo branded PC-5300 for the same price. I’ve never used Buffalo before myself but I did some research beforehand just in case I was left with this eventuality and was satisfied it would be a good alternative as opposed to Corsair or ComStar or any of the misc no-name stuff.

No compatibility problems and everything went smoothly. If all RAM was as easy to install as it was in mine the world would be a happy place for techs. I had considered going 4gig instead but the limitations of 32bit Vista and the bios would only recognize 3-3.5 gig anyway I figured no point. With only two slots forcing me to use 2 gig sticks it would be like losing $20 on RAM my system can’t access. Maybe in the future in they ever address these shortcomings, I’m sure the hungry hungry hippo called Vista will need it in the years to come.

In the meantime, the system is cruising along nicely and has that bit of breathing room that it needed. Especially for the light gaming duties I ask of it from time to time. That and after sorting out my onboard video’s problems with Neverwinter Nights and Baldur’s Gate II, I can live with Vista on this machine a lot easier now.

Today Was A Good Day For Collecting!

It’s not often I get to go out and shop like it’s Christmas in the middle of summer, but today was an exception. Besides fun stuff like gifts for my wife and tools for myself, I managed to find several items of interest collection-wise.

I used to buy PlayStation games at Canadian Tire of all places  like 8-9 years ago. But since then they had stopped selling gaming related items altogether. So imagine my surprise when my wife pointed out a bargain bin full of them right in the middle aisle. Xbox, PS2, PC all various titles all super cheap too! Of course being the collector/gamer that I am, I tore that bin apart scoping out every title. There were a few there I was interested in but I only bought two of them seeing as I was at that store for a completely different purpose in the first place. Now I find a bit of irony in the fact that the two Xbox games I got, were two I had been looking for since they were released. Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil and RoboCop. That they would be found in a bin in a store that doesn’t sell games is even more amusing. Needless to say I was as “happy as a pig in shit” to have these two games!

Just when I thought my luck couldn’t get any better, we stopped into EB Games, out second trip in two days no less, and they got a shipment of Guitar Hero III for the PS2. Sure I already had a copy, but I wanted all the music games on one system. I was lucky enough to get Rock Band (game only) for the PS2 for $8.99 the day before.

On the DVD front, I picked up the Dirty Harry Ultimate Collectors Edition boxset and Star Trek Enterprise season 4. With the exception of Voyager, I now have everything Trek on DVD. Voyager will be the hardest to get, it seems the seasons are scattered to the four winds and will take a bit of work to track them all down.

Now that my appetite for both games and DVDs is satisfied for a while, I think I’ll concentrate on books. I have a crapload of Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms titles to catch up on. I’ve been reading something about a “Spellplague” in FR which will alter the whole campaign setting like the Cataclysm or Chaos War did to Dragonlance.