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CollectionsIf you don't have the exceptional Half-Life, the new retail edition of Counter-Strike is a chance to get a stand-alone version of this outstanding multiplayer mod.
Half-Life: Counter-Strike is one of the most unusual PC game releases in months. The hugely popular mod for Valve Software's Half-Life has been available for free download for well over a year, and you can still download it for free off the Internet now that it's been through beta testing and has reached version 1.0. And if you don't have the exceptional Half-Life, the new retail edition of Counter-Strike is a chance to get a stand-alone version of this outstanding multiplayer mod. The retail package also includes stand-alone versions of other multiplayer mods and game modes that normally require Half-Life, the best of which are also available free off the Internet: Team Fortress Classic, Opposing Force Multiplayer, Firearms, Redemption, Ricochet, and Wanted. Counter-Strike itself is a superb game that fully deserves top billing in this release.
Counter-Strike divides players into teams of terrorists and counterterrorists in four game modes: rescue/hold hostages, bomb target/defuse bomb, escape from/guard an area, and assassinate/guard a VIP. None of these ideas are particularly original, but they're well implemented, and they strike an effective balance between realistic stealth and frenzied action. The thematically varied maps maximize tactical possibilities with alternate routes, multiple levels, and abundant cover. Games are played in short rounds, and when you're killed, you sit out the round as an invisible observer; there are no deathmatch-style respawns. This creates a strong social aspect, because with "dead" players chatting, there can be an enormous sense of tension for the remaining players stalking each other. Another big impetus to stay alive is that the more successful you and your team are each round, the more money you earn for buying bigger and better weapons. Unfortunately this can lead to a huge imbalance in firepower when one team wins a few consecutive rounds.
One of Counter-Strike's biggest appeals has always been the selection of weapons. In addition to a knife and assorted grenades, there's a wide variety of accurately modeled pistols, shotguns, submachine guns, assault rifles, and sniper rifles. Three new weapons have been added to version 1.0: the H&K UMP .45, FN Five-Seven, and the SIG SG-550, though the retail version of the game uses invented names for all weapons.
Each weapon has unique characteristics, so mastering them all and learning which is best for different situations is a lot of fun, and it adds replay value. For instance, high-caliber weapons can penetrate thin walls and doors, which makes lugging a heavy belt-fed machine gun worthwhile when the enemy has been doing more hiding than fighting. Guns also have varied kicks, which makes full automatic fire a "spray and pray" affair - as in real life, short, controlled bursts are best for accurate fire. Effective weapon ranges are well simulated, so shotguns are brutal in close quarters and useless in large open spaces. Location-specific damage modeling means that shots to the head are more likely to get an instant kill.
Another part of the weaponry's appeal is the superlative sound effects. The guns sound remarkably realistic and powerful, which makes them viscerally fun to shoot. Equal care is given to other game sounds, like explosions, injuries from weapons or falling, glass shattering, and so on. Another good feature is the various audio messages you can send to teammates. They cover a whole range of warnings, status reports, and requests for backup. The only problem is that they all use the same voice, regardless of your team.
The Half-Life graphics engine may be dated now, but Counter-Strike has always used it to its fullest potential. The maps are visually appealing, and they have imaginative texturing and dramatic (though sometimes too dark) lighting effects. The updated character models in version 1.0 now use Valve's model-blending technology, along with even better skins than in the past, which makes for great-looking player graphics. Best of all are the firearm models and skins, which are some of the best you'll find in any shooter.
Counter-Strike is an online-only game that has experienced the mixed blessing of its immense popularity. You're guaranteed to find plenty of available game sessions online at any hour. However, cheating and even verbal abuse have long marred the gameplay in Counter-Strike. The game is not in any way newbie-friendly, despite the inclusion of a simple offline tutorial. You'll have to leave your ego at the door when you encounter the countless veteran players you'll face online. Fortunately, the abundance of experienced players means you can quickly learn the tricks of the trade through observation. It should also be noted that while Counter-Strike does require tactical thinking and teamwork, it's still a fast-paced shooter at its core. So not only are lightning-fast reflexes necessary to excel, but so are a fast connection and a low ping.
Still, despite its weaknesses, Counter-Strike is undeniably influential, and has already helped inspire countless similar mods and games. It's easy to see why: Counter-Strike has a simple yet effective design that's brought to life with superior maps and vivid graphics and sound. The end result is utterly exciting and addictive. Counter-Strike is a model of its kind and a thrilling action game.
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Games (111)
Duplicate review
Posted : 11 years, 1 month ago on 2 April 2013 08:50
(A review of Duplicate)
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Neighbours From Hell review
Posted : 11 years, 1 month ago on 1 April 2013 08:34
(A review of Neighbours From Hell)Despite the disappointment of a rather short campaign, Neighbors From Hell is still worth a look for any strategy or puzzle game fan.
If nothing else, JoWood's recently released strategy game, Neighbors From Hell, has an attention-grabbing title. The game has a lot more to offer than just a catchy name, though. Neighbors From Hell's simple gameplay mechanics and quirky theme make it a fun, albeit easy and short, strategy game reminiscent of the classic '80s computer game Spy vs. Spy.
The premise of Neighbors From Hell centers on Woody, who is the star of a reality-based television show. As Woody, you must sneak into the house of your oafish-looking neighbor and play as many practical jokes on him as possible, all while remaining undetected. With each successful joke, the television ratings for that particular show will climb--you'll need to reach a minimum ratings threshold before the mission is considered complete.
With 2D graphics that remain fixed at a resolution of 800x600, Neighbors From Hell isn't the most technically impressive game, but it doesn't need to be. The art style is appropriately quirky and comical for a game based on practical jokes. Fans of the Wallace & Gromit short films will certainly appreciate the look and feel of Neighbors From Hell and its characters, who appear cartoonish, almost claymation-like. The game's sound also gets the job done without too much flashiness; the characters talk in a Sims-style gibberish, while the music tracks and laugh tracks remind you that you're playing a television show.
Aside from the premise, Neighbors From Hell's presentation also takes a cue from Spy vs. Spy. Your viewpoint consists of a cutaway, cross-sectional view of your neighbor's house. This means you can always keep an eye on what your neighbor is doing in the next room or on a different floor as you sneak around in another portion of the house. The developers of the game have also included a useful "thought bubble" feature in the bottom left of the screen that helps you keep tabs on your neighbor. If you're moving about the kitchen and you see the thought bubble change to a cup of coffee, you know you will need to clear out of the kitchen quickly, lest you get caught and beaten up by your neighbor.
Setting up a joke in the game is usually pretty straightforward. You'll wander around the house, opening up drawers and cabinets looking for loose items. You can use these items in some other part of the house in order to set up a gag. For example, you may go into the bathroom and find a bottle of laxatives in the medicine cabinet. You'll need to somehow sneak these into the beer that your neighbor is drinking upstairs in order to complete the joke. However, winning a scenario isn't just about finding all of the loose items in the house and applying them correctly. To maximize your ratings, you'll need to make sure your neighbor falls for one gag after another in quick succession. Doing so means you'll need to observe his pattern of behavior and figure out the most efficient way to lay out your traps.
Getting back to the laxative example, you know your neighbor will head straight for the bathroom after drinking the laced beer. Before mixing the Ex-Lax cocktail, you could grab a wet bar of soap and leave it on the tile floor of the bathroom so your neighbor will slip and fall as he comes running in. If you're ever confused about what to do with an item, you can get hints by mousing over your inventory or by having Woody look at the parts of the house that can be interacted with.
The game's 14 episodes are divided up into three different seasons. In early seasons, your neighbor's routines are simple, and the house remains quite small and easy to navigate. In the later seasons, the basement and attic of the house are opened up, and your neighbor's routine becomes more complex. You'll also have to sneak by pets, such as a dog and a parrot, both of which will bark or cry out loudly if they hear you stomping around the room they're sleeping in. Even with all the rooms opened, and all the obstacles in place, Neighbors From Hell isn't a challenging game by any means--the first two seasons are almost ridiculously easy.
Unfortunately, each of the game's episodes lasts for only five to 10 minutes. Counting in a couple of replays per episode, most players will be done with everything Neighbors From Hell has to offer in around four hours or less. And unlike in its spiritual predecessor, Spy vs. Spy, there is no multiplayer mode in Neighbors From Hell to keep you going, so once you're done with the 14 episodes, there isn't anything else to do.
Overall, Neighbors From Hell is a fun little game that could potentially appeal to both core gamers and a mainstream audience. Watching the hapless neighbor fall for one gag after another appeals to the sadist in all of us, and you'll often feel a little twinge of anticipation as he approaches each trap you've set up. For some, the jokes may wear thin quickly, but you'll still get some thrill out of setting up several pratfalls in the same room and diving under the bed to hide at the very last moment. Despite the disappointment of a rather short campaign, Neighbors From Hell is still worth a look for any strategy or puzzle game fan looking for something out of the norm.
If nothing else, JoWood's recently released strategy game, Neighbors From Hell, has an attention-grabbing title. The game has a lot more to offer than just a catchy name, though. Neighbors From Hell's simple gameplay mechanics and quirky theme make it a fun, albeit easy and short, strategy game reminiscent of the classic '80s computer game Spy vs. Spy.
The premise of Neighbors From Hell centers on Woody, who is the star of a reality-based television show. As Woody, you must sneak into the house of your oafish-looking neighbor and play as many practical jokes on him as possible, all while remaining undetected. With each successful joke, the television ratings for that particular show will climb--you'll need to reach a minimum ratings threshold before the mission is considered complete.
With 2D graphics that remain fixed at a resolution of 800x600, Neighbors From Hell isn't the most technically impressive game, but it doesn't need to be. The art style is appropriately quirky and comical for a game based on practical jokes. Fans of the Wallace & Gromit short films will certainly appreciate the look and feel of Neighbors From Hell and its characters, who appear cartoonish, almost claymation-like. The game's sound also gets the job done without too much flashiness; the characters talk in a Sims-style gibberish, while the music tracks and laugh tracks remind you that you're playing a television show.
Aside from the premise, Neighbors From Hell's presentation also takes a cue from Spy vs. Spy. Your viewpoint consists of a cutaway, cross-sectional view of your neighbor's house. This means you can always keep an eye on what your neighbor is doing in the next room or on a different floor as you sneak around in another portion of the house. The developers of the game have also included a useful "thought bubble" feature in the bottom left of the screen that helps you keep tabs on your neighbor. If you're moving about the kitchen and you see the thought bubble change to a cup of coffee, you know you will need to clear out of the kitchen quickly, lest you get caught and beaten up by your neighbor.
Setting up a joke in the game is usually pretty straightforward. You'll wander around the house, opening up drawers and cabinets looking for loose items. You can use these items in some other part of the house in order to set up a gag. For example, you may go into the bathroom and find a bottle of laxatives in the medicine cabinet. You'll need to somehow sneak these into the beer that your neighbor is drinking upstairs in order to complete the joke. However, winning a scenario isn't just about finding all of the loose items in the house and applying them correctly. To maximize your ratings, you'll need to make sure your neighbor falls for one gag after another in quick succession. Doing so means you'll need to observe his pattern of behavior and figure out the most efficient way to lay out your traps.
Getting back to the laxative example, you know your neighbor will head straight for the bathroom after drinking the laced beer. Before mixing the Ex-Lax cocktail, you could grab a wet bar of soap and leave it on the tile floor of the bathroom so your neighbor will slip and fall as he comes running in. If you're ever confused about what to do with an item, you can get hints by mousing over your inventory or by having Woody look at the parts of the house that can be interacted with.
The game's 14 episodes are divided up into three different seasons. In early seasons, your neighbor's routines are simple, and the house remains quite small and easy to navigate. In the later seasons, the basement and attic of the house are opened up, and your neighbor's routine becomes more complex. You'll also have to sneak by pets, such as a dog and a parrot, both of which will bark or cry out loudly if they hear you stomping around the room they're sleeping in. Even with all the rooms opened, and all the obstacles in place, Neighbors From Hell isn't a challenging game by any means--the first two seasons are almost ridiculously easy.
Unfortunately, each of the game's episodes lasts for only five to 10 minutes. Counting in a couple of replays per episode, most players will be done with everything Neighbors From Hell has to offer in around four hours or less. And unlike in its spiritual predecessor, Spy vs. Spy, there is no multiplayer mode in Neighbors From Hell to keep you going, so once you're done with the 14 episodes, there isn't anything else to do.
Overall, Neighbors From Hell is a fun little game that could potentially appeal to both core gamers and a mainstream audience. Watching the hapless neighbor fall for one gag after another appeals to the sadist in all of us, and you'll often feel a little twinge of anticipation as he approaches each trap you've set up. For some, the jokes may wear thin quickly, but you'll still get some thrill out of setting up several pratfalls in the same room and diving under the bed to hide at the very last moment. Despite the disappointment of a rather short campaign, Neighbors From Hell is still worth a look for any strategy or puzzle game fan looking for something out of the norm.
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Beetle Crazy Cup review
Posted : 11 years, 1 month ago on 1 April 2013 08:20
(A review of Beetle Crazy Cup)Its varied courses and vehicles enhance its replay value and will keep casual gamers coming back for more.
Infogrames' Beetle Buggin' isn't exactly the answer to hard-core driving simulation fans' prayers. It offers a variety of tracks, options, and licensed cars, but it makes no pretenses of being a full-fledged racing simulator. Instead, Beetle Buggin' is content to be a lighthearted arcade-style racing game with a liberal physics engine, fairly simple graphics, and plenty of gameplay modes.
Beetle Buggin' has a very intuitive menu screen from which you can choose one of three single-player modes that make up the meat of the game: quick race, championship, and Beetle challenge. Each of the three modes is composed of five unique ways to race that include monster-truck driving, supercross races, off-road races, track races, and distance events. The supercross, off-road, and track events let you choose from a handful of cars that you'll race against seven rivals across a number of dirt, paved, and beach courses. The object of these racing events is simply to place first, and the game keeps it interesting by varying the time of day, weather conditions, and location of each race. Most of the racing modes have been designed simply to deliver the thrill of competitive racing without the worries of real-life physics or car trouble.
However, the jumps and the monster-truck events aren't as well designed as the other three. To pass a jumping event, you have to clear a certain number of yards by activating your car's nitrous booster at precisely the right distance before the ramp at exactly the right speed. However, you have no way of knowing what the required distance and speed are, short of attempting a series of trial-and-error runs. What's more frustrating is that the win conditions change completely every time you progress to a later jumping event.
While the monster-truck game of Beetle Buggin' is somewhat more forgiving, it's also a little agitating. During the monster-truck events, you have a limited amount of time to maneuver a massive Volkswagen truck around a course littered with cars and buses - the key word being, "maneuver." That's because you'll also have to contend with going around a series of cones and pylons, and you're penalized every time you run over one. It'd be perfectly acceptable if you were behind the wheel of a nimble sports car, but there's no place for precision driving on a monster-truck track.
Aside from its two more-problematic play modes, Beetle Buggin's varying modes of racing keep it fresh and enjoyable and push you to unlock more vehicles by successfully completing each of the events. Fans of the classic VW Bug, the most recognizable and widely produced car in the world, will also enjoy Beetle Buggin's wide selection of cars. Because of its licensing agreement with Volkswagen, Infogrames has included 17 unique VW models in the game, including favorites like the Baja Bug and the VW bus. Each of the models has several variants that boast unique paint jobs and enhanced engines that effectively raise the total number of vehicles in Beetle Buggin' to over 50 - more than enough to please even the most discriminating fahrvergnugen zealot.
The cars themselves are modeled with a fair amount of detail and are skinned using adequate texture sizes. However, the tracks are somewhat lacking by comparison: The textures used along most of the courses are washed out, and sprite-based trees, crowds, and other outlying objects are typical throughout the entire game. While the graphics won't win the game any awards, Beetle Buggin's 3D engine does make use of certain rendering technologies, like environment mapping and 32-bit color, that serve to keep the game's visuals on par with similar racing games.
For Volkswagen fans interested in nothing more than a few laps around the track in a classic '60s Bug, or a cruise along the beach with a Baja racer, then Beetle Buggin' is definitely a bargain. Its varied courses and vehicles enhance its replay value and will keep casual gamers coming back for more.
Infogrames' Beetle Buggin' isn't exactly the answer to hard-core driving simulation fans' prayers. It offers a variety of tracks, options, and licensed cars, but it makes no pretenses of being a full-fledged racing simulator. Instead, Beetle Buggin' is content to be a lighthearted arcade-style racing game with a liberal physics engine, fairly simple graphics, and plenty of gameplay modes.
Beetle Buggin' has a very intuitive menu screen from which you can choose one of three single-player modes that make up the meat of the game: quick race, championship, and Beetle challenge. Each of the three modes is composed of five unique ways to race that include monster-truck driving, supercross races, off-road races, track races, and distance events. The supercross, off-road, and track events let you choose from a handful of cars that you'll race against seven rivals across a number of dirt, paved, and beach courses. The object of these racing events is simply to place first, and the game keeps it interesting by varying the time of day, weather conditions, and location of each race. Most of the racing modes have been designed simply to deliver the thrill of competitive racing without the worries of real-life physics or car trouble.
However, the jumps and the monster-truck events aren't as well designed as the other three. To pass a jumping event, you have to clear a certain number of yards by activating your car's nitrous booster at precisely the right distance before the ramp at exactly the right speed. However, you have no way of knowing what the required distance and speed are, short of attempting a series of trial-and-error runs. What's more frustrating is that the win conditions change completely every time you progress to a later jumping event.
While the monster-truck game of Beetle Buggin' is somewhat more forgiving, it's also a little agitating. During the monster-truck events, you have a limited amount of time to maneuver a massive Volkswagen truck around a course littered with cars and buses - the key word being, "maneuver." That's because you'll also have to contend with going around a series of cones and pylons, and you're penalized every time you run over one. It'd be perfectly acceptable if you were behind the wheel of a nimble sports car, but there's no place for precision driving on a monster-truck track.
Aside from its two more-problematic play modes, Beetle Buggin's varying modes of racing keep it fresh and enjoyable and push you to unlock more vehicles by successfully completing each of the events. Fans of the classic VW Bug, the most recognizable and widely produced car in the world, will also enjoy Beetle Buggin's wide selection of cars. Because of its licensing agreement with Volkswagen, Infogrames has included 17 unique VW models in the game, including favorites like the Baja Bug and the VW bus. Each of the models has several variants that boast unique paint jobs and enhanced engines that effectively raise the total number of vehicles in Beetle Buggin' to over 50 - more than enough to please even the most discriminating fahrvergnugen zealot.
The cars themselves are modeled with a fair amount of detail and are skinned using adequate texture sizes. However, the tracks are somewhat lacking by comparison: The textures used along most of the courses are washed out, and sprite-based trees, crowds, and other outlying objects are typical throughout the entire game. While the graphics won't win the game any awards, Beetle Buggin's 3D engine does make use of certain rendering technologies, like environment mapping and 32-bit color, that serve to keep the game's visuals on par with similar racing games.
For Volkswagen fans interested in nothing more than a few laps around the track in a classic '60s Bug, or a cruise along the beach with a Baja racer, then Beetle Buggin' is definitely a bargain. Its varied courses and vehicles enhance its replay value and will keep casual gamers coming back for more.
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Starsky & Hutch (PC) review
Posted : 11 years, 1 month ago on 1 April 2013 08:10
(A review of Starsky & Hutch (PC))With television in the 1970s rife with cop shows of varying quality, you needed some sort of hook in order to stand out. Starsky & Hutch had one of the best--a 1974 Ford Gran Torino with a memorable red and white paint job. Though the show didn't rely as heavily on its trademark car as, say, The Dukes of Hazzard, it was still a fundamental part of the show. Now Gotham Games has released a driving-and-shooting game that evokes the general style of the show. The gameplay isn't terribly deep, and the story mode isn't very long, but the game is still mildly enjoyable. What Starsky & Hutch does best is pay homage to the wonderful clichés of 1970s cop shows.
Starsky & Hutch plays like a long-form version of the many chase scenes that populated the TV show. You tear around Bay City, chasing down bad guys and occasionally escorting witnesses, usually while driving Starsky's signature 1974 Ford Gran Torino, the "Striped Tomato." The fundamental mechanics here are driving and shooting. As you give chase, a reticle automatically locks on to the closest targetable object within your line of sight, allowing you to focus most of your attention on the driving. The auto-targeting is pretty intuitive and dynamic. There are times--specifically during defensive missions where you're severely punished for shooting up the car you're supposed to be defending--that the automation can prove frustrating. The driving mechanics are pretty forgiving, and the car has the kind of weight you'd expect from a mid-'70s muscle car. It's generally pretty fun to drive too. There are some weird physics issues that pop up from time to time, though. Sometimes you can catch an edge that changes your direction dramatically, or you're just brought to a complete stop. Occasionally, destructible objects don't give way right when they should. The real problem with the core gameplay mechanics is that there's not enough variety. Chasing a car while constantly hammering on the fire button can become tiresome after a while.
Starsky & Hutch offsets the repetitive nature of the gameplay, slightly, by rewarding you for driving in a dangerous, entertaining fashion--though it will punish you for out-and-out recklessness. Every mission puts you on a kind of a clock, though it actually reflects your "viewer rating," which is one of the game's many self-aware nods to its television roots. Though it's constantly dropping, the VR can be replenished in a variety of ways. Shooting at the criminals you're chasing nets you a small amount of VR, as does having a near-miss with a civilian vehicle--though skidding around corners, getting up on two wheels, pulling off a jump, or blowing up some explosive red barrels give it to you in bigger chunks. You also see big VR icons in the sky and on the road. These can be shot at or simply driven over. Your VR drops significantly if you run into a civilian vehicle or building. Simply driving too close to a pedestrian also significantly lowers your VR. Curiously, your car can take an infinite amount of damage. The only two ways to fail a mission are letting your VR run out entirely or failing a primary mission objective, like protecting another vehicle.
Aside from the VR icons, there are a variety of other power-ups to drive over and shoot at in Bay City. Most of these affect your performance for a short time, giving you better tire grip, a faster top speed, or a bigger gun. There is also an icon that causes the criminals' guns to jam, and there are special event icons that usually cause big explosions or spectacular crashes. You can also find special Huggy Bear and car key icons in hidden locations. These finds can unlock some novel, if superfluous, extras.
Though there's no competitive multiplayer in Starsky & Hutch, two players can go through the game cooperatively, with one player driving and the other shooting. There's support for a steering wheel, and in the PS2 and Xbox versions, there's light gun support as well, further augmenting the arcade feel of the game. This option is less enjoyable on the Xbox because you're forced to use the shoddy Mad Catz Blaster--the only Xbox light gun currently on the market. Either way, though, the co-op play in Starsky & Hutch feels tacked on, and, ultimately, isn't as fully conceived or enjoyable as the single-player game.
Starsky & Hutch is powered by Criterion's venerable Renderware engine, and it makes pretty good use of the technology. Bay City is a good-sized, clockwork city with a level of detail that falls a bit short of what we've seen in the Grand Theft Auto games--though there isn't nearly as much interactivity in Bay City as in Liberty City or Vice City. The inhabiting pedestrians and automobiles aren't nearly as dynamic either. The general look of the game is just shy of realistic, instead looking more like a series of Hollywood backlot sets that have been stitched together. When you consider the game's TV roots, this seems fitting, however. There are some other visual touches that further evoke the cop-show feel, like the dramatic slow-motion angle the game cuts to during a big jump or the way the camera swings extra wide around corners, giving you a sense of increased momentum. The cutscenes between missions are rendered in a fashion that looks an awful bit like simple Flash animation. It has its own sense of style, though some might find the limited amount of actual animation to be cheap-looking. The Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions of Starsky & Hutch both exhibit some occasionally choppy frame rates, though nothing show-stoppingly bad. The PC version performed without a hitch on a high-end machine, even with all of the graphics options completely maxed out.
The sound design in Starsky & Hutch is really the factor that brings the whole package together. Antonio Fargas reprises his role as Huggy Bear and acts as the game's narrator, who pops up from time to time within the game. Fargas is the only actor from the TV series to appear in the game, though the actors used for Starsky, Hutch, and the captain all turn in fair approximations of the original actors. The dialogue they're given is pretty standard cop-show material; it's sometimes a little clever, sometimes a little cheesy. The music, which consists of several themes borrowed from the Starsky & Hutch TV show, as well as some original compositions, is an amazing collection of 1970s-style funk. Full of wah-wah guitars, funky walking basslines, and vintage synthesizer sounds, the music in Starsky & Hutch does a particularly good job of immersing you into the game. Some of the in-game sound effects are pretty good, like the tire screeches and the engine sounds. Unfortunately, the gun effects, which are probably the sounds you hear most in the game, sound tinny and hollow and don't carry much impact.
The strangest thing about Starsky & Hutch is that it's based on a TV show that's older than a good majority of the game's potential audience. Though specific nostalgia for Starsky, Hutch, the Striped Tomato, and Huggy Bear may be lost on most of the game's players, the game does a pretty capable job of capturing a bit of the vibe from that era. The game's main story mode isn't longer than a weekend rental (for console gamers, anyway), and there isn't much to go back to once you wrap that up.
Starsky & Hutch plays like a long-form version of the many chase scenes that populated the TV show. You tear around Bay City, chasing down bad guys and occasionally escorting witnesses, usually while driving Starsky's signature 1974 Ford Gran Torino, the "Striped Tomato." The fundamental mechanics here are driving and shooting. As you give chase, a reticle automatically locks on to the closest targetable object within your line of sight, allowing you to focus most of your attention on the driving. The auto-targeting is pretty intuitive and dynamic. There are times--specifically during defensive missions where you're severely punished for shooting up the car you're supposed to be defending--that the automation can prove frustrating. The driving mechanics are pretty forgiving, and the car has the kind of weight you'd expect from a mid-'70s muscle car. It's generally pretty fun to drive too. There are some weird physics issues that pop up from time to time, though. Sometimes you can catch an edge that changes your direction dramatically, or you're just brought to a complete stop. Occasionally, destructible objects don't give way right when they should. The real problem with the core gameplay mechanics is that there's not enough variety. Chasing a car while constantly hammering on the fire button can become tiresome after a while.
Starsky & Hutch offsets the repetitive nature of the gameplay, slightly, by rewarding you for driving in a dangerous, entertaining fashion--though it will punish you for out-and-out recklessness. Every mission puts you on a kind of a clock, though it actually reflects your "viewer rating," which is one of the game's many self-aware nods to its television roots. Though it's constantly dropping, the VR can be replenished in a variety of ways. Shooting at the criminals you're chasing nets you a small amount of VR, as does having a near-miss with a civilian vehicle--though skidding around corners, getting up on two wheels, pulling off a jump, or blowing up some explosive red barrels give it to you in bigger chunks. You also see big VR icons in the sky and on the road. These can be shot at or simply driven over. Your VR drops significantly if you run into a civilian vehicle or building. Simply driving too close to a pedestrian also significantly lowers your VR. Curiously, your car can take an infinite amount of damage. The only two ways to fail a mission are letting your VR run out entirely or failing a primary mission objective, like protecting another vehicle.
Aside from the VR icons, there are a variety of other power-ups to drive over and shoot at in Bay City. Most of these affect your performance for a short time, giving you better tire grip, a faster top speed, or a bigger gun. There is also an icon that causes the criminals' guns to jam, and there are special event icons that usually cause big explosions or spectacular crashes. You can also find special Huggy Bear and car key icons in hidden locations. These finds can unlock some novel, if superfluous, extras.
Though there's no competitive multiplayer in Starsky & Hutch, two players can go through the game cooperatively, with one player driving and the other shooting. There's support for a steering wheel, and in the PS2 and Xbox versions, there's light gun support as well, further augmenting the arcade feel of the game. This option is less enjoyable on the Xbox because you're forced to use the shoddy Mad Catz Blaster--the only Xbox light gun currently on the market. Either way, though, the co-op play in Starsky & Hutch feels tacked on, and, ultimately, isn't as fully conceived or enjoyable as the single-player game.
Starsky & Hutch is powered by Criterion's venerable Renderware engine, and it makes pretty good use of the technology. Bay City is a good-sized, clockwork city with a level of detail that falls a bit short of what we've seen in the Grand Theft Auto games--though there isn't nearly as much interactivity in Bay City as in Liberty City or Vice City. The inhabiting pedestrians and automobiles aren't nearly as dynamic either. The general look of the game is just shy of realistic, instead looking more like a series of Hollywood backlot sets that have been stitched together. When you consider the game's TV roots, this seems fitting, however. There are some other visual touches that further evoke the cop-show feel, like the dramatic slow-motion angle the game cuts to during a big jump or the way the camera swings extra wide around corners, giving you a sense of increased momentum. The cutscenes between missions are rendered in a fashion that looks an awful bit like simple Flash animation. It has its own sense of style, though some might find the limited amount of actual animation to be cheap-looking. The Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions of Starsky & Hutch both exhibit some occasionally choppy frame rates, though nothing show-stoppingly bad. The PC version performed without a hitch on a high-end machine, even with all of the graphics options completely maxed out.
The sound design in Starsky & Hutch is really the factor that brings the whole package together. Antonio Fargas reprises his role as Huggy Bear and acts as the game's narrator, who pops up from time to time within the game. Fargas is the only actor from the TV series to appear in the game, though the actors used for Starsky, Hutch, and the captain all turn in fair approximations of the original actors. The dialogue they're given is pretty standard cop-show material; it's sometimes a little clever, sometimes a little cheesy. The music, which consists of several themes borrowed from the Starsky & Hutch TV show, as well as some original compositions, is an amazing collection of 1970s-style funk. Full of wah-wah guitars, funky walking basslines, and vintage synthesizer sounds, the music in Starsky & Hutch does a particularly good job of immersing you into the game. Some of the in-game sound effects are pretty good, like the tire screeches and the engine sounds. Unfortunately, the gun effects, which are probably the sounds you hear most in the game, sound tinny and hollow and don't carry much impact.
The strangest thing about Starsky & Hutch is that it's based on a TV show that's older than a good majority of the game's potential audience. Though specific nostalgia for Starsky, Hutch, the Striped Tomato, and Huggy Bear may be lost on most of the game's players, the game does a pretty capable job of capturing a bit of the vibe from that era. The game's main story mode isn't longer than a weekend rental (for console gamers, anyway), and there isn't much to go back to once you wrap that up.
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Re-Volt review
Posted : 11 years, 1 month ago on 1 April 2013 08:00
(A review of Re-Volt)Re-Volt has its share of problems and ends up being only decent when it could have been great.
Imagine that all the coolest and most popular radio-controlled cars have come to life and escaped the store shelves. OK, maybe you'd better not. It's a silly idea that feels unnecessary and tacked on in Acclaim's new racing game Re-Volt. Fortunately, the game is better than its premise and delivers some memorable arcade racing thrills. On the other hand, Re-Volt has its share of problems and ends up being only decent when it could have been great.
Strip away the bad premise, and the basic idea behind the game is that you race little radio-controlled cars around a series of cool and unusual tracks. Essentially, you get to drive these puppies where you wouldn't be able to in real life. You have more than 28 different cars to choose from (each rated differently for speed, acceleration, and weight), though most of these are locked at the beginning of the game. As you progress through the game's four championship circuits, you'll gain access to more cars.
Tracks include the inside of a toy store, a suburban neighborhood, the deck of a ship, a museum, and a town in the Old West. In all, the game offers 14 single-player tracks including the stunt track, which is a free-for-all course on which you can try some slick jumps, loops, and other nifty maneuvers. If you manage to win enough races, you can also take on most of the tracks in mirrored or reverse modes. The game relies a little too heavily on this, however, and actually throws a mirrored track at you very early on. So instead of letting you race on a new track for each of your first 13 runs, you begin seeing familiar surroundings as early as your sixth race.
Fortunately, gameplay is pretty solid as far as arcade racers go. The game offers four different speed and realism settings, which govern how fast you can go and how harsh the physics are during each race. On the higher settings, Re-Volt can be extremely challenging, as it becomes remarkably easy to spin out your little car or, worse yet, flip it over to lose precious seconds. The lowest setting offers little relief, since it slaps a speed delimiter on your car but doesn't seem to slow down your opponents at all once you progress past the first championship circuit. Actually, that seems to be a theme throughout the game, since even when you're running flat-out with the fastest car available, the computer cars always seem to be able to pass you with ease. The AI also has access to different cars than you do at most points, which doesn't seem very fair.
Still, if you can grasp the controls, you should be able to stay competitive in Re-Volt after a few races' worth of practice. If you're still having trouble, the various power-ups can help even the odds a bit. The optional combat race mode lets you pick up much-needed energy boosts, as well as weapons and other goodies that you can use to take out your opponents. Of course, the AI cars can pick them up as well, so many races end up resembling high-speed mini-deathmatches.
As you compete, you'll find that one extremely annoying problem with Re-Volt is the lack of a basic save game feature. True, your progress is recorded after you complete a championship circuit, and each circuit is typically only three or four races in length. But the developers should have recognized the fact that not all players can sit down and race through four tracks at a time every time they play the game. Saving mid-race would be ludicrous, but saving after each race should have been a no-brainer.
Re-Volt includes a track editor that lets you build your own courses. While I'm hesitant to criticize any feature that lets you extend the life and enjoyment of a game, unfortunately the editor is rather unintuitive and offers a paltry array of scenery and track-style options. In fact, it's nearly impossible to recreate any of the pre-built tracks' coolest jumps, twists, or slopes with this editor. Also, you can't drop your track into any of the stunning environments that surround the game's pre-built tracks. A few more options, a much better interface, and a way to create surrounding terrain would not only have improved the editor, but would have made it fit the look, feel, and style of the game. As it stands, the game and the editor feel like they're two different products, not two parts of the same thing.
Don't get me wrong, Re-Volt isn't a bad game. It's quite a lot of fun, in fact. It even has a great soundtrack, which is predominantly techno-dance music but very good techno-dance music and perfect for the gameplay. But the overall package is weaker than it should be as a result of its scattered flaws, which is unfortunate since it could just as soon have been one of the year's best arcade racers.
Imagine that all the coolest and most popular radio-controlled cars have come to life and escaped the store shelves. OK, maybe you'd better not. It's a silly idea that feels unnecessary and tacked on in Acclaim's new racing game Re-Volt. Fortunately, the game is better than its premise and delivers some memorable arcade racing thrills. On the other hand, Re-Volt has its share of problems and ends up being only decent when it could have been great.
Strip away the bad premise, and the basic idea behind the game is that you race little radio-controlled cars around a series of cool and unusual tracks. Essentially, you get to drive these puppies where you wouldn't be able to in real life. You have more than 28 different cars to choose from (each rated differently for speed, acceleration, and weight), though most of these are locked at the beginning of the game. As you progress through the game's four championship circuits, you'll gain access to more cars.
Tracks include the inside of a toy store, a suburban neighborhood, the deck of a ship, a museum, and a town in the Old West. In all, the game offers 14 single-player tracks including the stunt track, which is a free-for-all course on which you can try some slick jumps, loops, and other nifty maneuvers. If you manage to win enough races, you can also take on most of the tracks in mirrored or reverse modes. The game relies a little too heavily on this, however, and actually throws a mirrored track at you very early on. So instead of letting you race on a new track for each of your first 13 runs, you begin seeing familiar surroundings as early as your sixth race.
Fortunately, gameplay is pretty solid as far as arcade racers go. The game offers four different speed and realism settings, which govern how fast you can go and how harsh the physics are during each race. On the higher settings, Re-Volt can be extremely challenging, as it becomes remarkably easy to spin out your little car or, worse yet, flip it over to lose precious seconds. The lowest setting offers little relief, since it slaps a speed delimiter on your car but doesn't seem to slow down your opponents at all once you progress past the first championship circuit. Actually, that seems to be a theme throughout the game, since even when you're running flat-out with the fastest car available, the computer cars always seem to be able to pass you with ease. The AI also has access to different cars than you do at most points, which doesn't seem very fair.
Still, if you can grasp the controls, you should be able to stay competitive in Re-Volt after a few races' worth of practice. If you're still having trouble, the various power-ups can help even the odds a bit. The optional combat race mode lets you pick up much-needed energy boosts, as well as weapons and other goodies that you can use to take out your opponents. Of course, the AI cars can pick them up as well, so many races end up resembling high-speed mini-deathmatches.
As you compete, you'll find that one extremely annoying problem with Re-Volt is the lack of a basic save game feature. True, your progress is recorded after you complete a championship circuit, and each circuit is typically only three or four races in length. But the developers should have recognized the fact that not all players can sit down and race through four tracks at a time every time they play the game. Saving mid-race would be ludicrous, but saving after each race should have been a no-brainer.
Re-Volt includes a track editor that lets you build your own courses. While I'm hesitant to criticize any feature that lets you extend the life and enjoyment of a game, unfortunately the editor is rather unintuitive and offers a paltry array of scenery and track-style options. In fact, it's nearly impossible to recreate any of the pre-built tracks' coolest jumps, twists, or slopes with this editor. Also, you can't drop your track into any of the stunning environments that surround the game's pre-built tracks. A few more options, a much better interface, and a way to create surrounding terrain would not only have improved the editor, but would have made it fit the look, feel, and style of the game. As it stands, the game and the editor feel like they're two different products, not two parts of the same thing.
Don't get me wrong, Re-Volt isn't a bad game. It's quite a lot of fun, in fact. It even has a great soundtrack, which is predominantly techno-dance music but very good techno-dance music and perfect for the gameplay. But the overall package is weaker than it should be as a result of its scattered flaws, which is unfortunate since it could just as soon have been one of the year's best arcade racers.
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Re-Volt review
Posted : 11 years, 1 month ago on 1 April 2013 07:53
(A review of Re-Volt)Re-Volt has its share of problems and ends up being only decent when it could have been great.
Imagine that all the coolest and most popular radio-controlled cars have come to life and escaped the store shelves. OK, maybe you'd better not. It's a silly idea that feels unnecessary and tacked on in Acclaim's new racing game Re-Volt. Fortunately, the game is better than its premise and delivers some memorable arcade racing thrills. On the other hand, Re-Volt has its share of problems and ends up being only decent when it could have been great.
Strip away the bad premise, and the basic idea behind the game is that you race little radio-controlled cars around a series of cool and unusual tracks. Essentially, you get to drive these puppies where you wouldn't be able to in real life. You have more than 28 different cars to choose from (each rated differently for speed, acceleration, and weight), though most of these are locked at the beginning of the game. As you progress through the game's four championship circuits, you'll gain access to more cars.
Tracks include the inside of a toy store, a suburban neighborhood, the deck of a ship, a museum, and a town in the Old West. In all, the game offers 14 single-player tracks including the stunt track, which is a free-for-all course on which you can try some slick jumps, loops, and other nifty maneuvers. If you manage to win enough races, you can also take on most of the tracks in mirrored or reverse modes. The game relies a little too heavily on this, however, and actually throws a mirrored track at you very early on. So instead of letting you race on a new track for each of your first 13 runs, you begin seeing familiar surroundings as early as your sixth race.
Fortunately, gameplay is pretty solid as far as arcade racers go. The game offers four different speed and realism settings, which govern how fast you can go and how harsh the physics are during each race. On the higher settings, Re-Volt can be extremely challenging, as it becomes remarkably easy to spin out your little car or, worse yet, flip it over to lose precious seconds. The lowest setting offers little relief, since it slaps a speed delimiter on your car but doesn't seem to slow down your opponents at all once you progress past the first championship circuit. Actually, that seems to be a theme throughout the game, since even when you're running flat-out with the fastest car available, the computer cars always seem to be able to pass you with ease. The AI also has access to different cars than you do at most points, which doesn't seem very fair.
Still, if you can grasp the controls, you should be able to stay competitive in Re-Volt after a few races' worth of practice. If you're still having trouble, the various power-ups can help even the odds a bit. The optional combat race mode lets you pick up much-needed energy boosts, as well as weapons and other goodies that you can use to take out your opponents. Of course, the AI cars can pick them up as well, so many races end up resembling high-speed mini-deathmatches.
As you compete, you'll find that one extremely annoying problem with Re-Volt is the lack of a basic save game feature. True, your progress is recorded after you complete a championship circuit, and each circuit is typically only three or four races in length. But the developers should have recognized the fact that not all players can sit down and race through four tracks at a time every time they play the game. Saving mid-race would be ludicrous, but saving after each race should have been a no-brainer.
Re-Volt includes a track editor that lets you build your own courses. While I'm hesitant to criticize any feature that lets you extend the life and enjoyment of a game, unfortunately the editor is rather unintuitive and offers a paltry array of scenery and track-style options. In fact, it's nearly impossible to recreate any of the pre-built tracks' coolest jumps, twists, or slopes with this editor. Also, you can't drop your track into any of the stunning environments that surround the game's pre-built tracks. A few more options, a much better interface, and a way to create surrounding terrain would not only have improved the editor, but would have made it fit the look, feel, and style of the game. As it stands, the game and the editor feel like they're two different products, not two parts of the same thing.
Don't get me wrong, Re-Volt isn't a bad game. It's quite a lot of fun, in fact. It even has a great soundtrack, which is predominantly techno-dance music but very good techno-dance music and perfect for the gameplay. But the overall package is weaker than it should be as a result of its scattered flaws, which is unfortunate since it could just as soon have been one of the year's best arcade racers.
Imagine that all the coolest and most popular radio-controlled cars have come to life and escaped the store shelves. OK, maybe you'd better not. It's a silly idea that feels unnecessary and tacked on in Acclaim's new racing game Re-Volt. Fortunately, the game is better than its premise and delivers some memorable arcade racing thrills. On the other hand, Re-Volt has its share of problems and ends up being only decent when it could have been great.
Strip away the bad premise, and the basic idea behind the game is that you race little radio-controlled cars around a series of cool and unusual tracks. Essentially, you get to drive these puppies where you wouldn't be able to in real life. You have more than 28 different cars to choose from (each rated differently for speed, acceleration, and weight), though most of these are locked at the beginning of the game. As you progress through the game's four championship circuits, you'll gain access to more cars.
Tracks include the inside of a toy store, a suburban neighborhood, the deck of a ship, a museum, and a town in the Old West. In all, the game offers 14 single-player tracks including the stunt track, which is a free-for-all course on which you can try some slick jumps, loops, and other nifty maneuvers. If you manage to win enough races, you can also take on most of the tracks in mirrored or reverse modes. The game relies a little too heavily on this, however, and actually throws a mirrored track at you very early on. So instead of letting you race on a new track for each of your first 13 runs, you begin seeing familiar surroundings as early as your sixth race.
Fortunately, gameplay is pretty solid as far as arcade racers go. The game offers four different speed and realism settings, which govern how fast you can go and how harsh the physics are during each race. On the higher settings, Re-Volt can be extremely challenging, as it becomes remarkably easy to spin out your little car or, worse yet, flip it over to lose precious seconds. The lowest setting offers little relief, since it slaps a speed delimiter on your car but doesn't seem to slow down your opponents at all once you progress past the first championship circuit. Actually, that seems to be a theme throughout the game, since even when you're running flat-out with the fastest car available, the computer cars always seem to be able to pass you with ease. The AI also has access to different cars than you do at most points, which doesn't seem very fair.
Still, if you can grasp the controls, you should be able to stay competitive in Re-Volt after a few races' worth of practice. If you're still having trouble, the various power-ups can help even the odds a bit. The optional combat race mode lets you pick up much-needed energy boosts, as well as weapons and other goodies that you can use to take out your opponents. Of course, the AI cars can pick them up as well, so many races end up resembling high-speed mini-deathmatches.
As you compete, you'll find that one extremely annoying problem with Re-Volt is the lack of a basic save game feature. True, your progress is recorded after you complete a championship circuit, and each circuit is typically only three or four races in length. But the developers should have recognized the fact that not all players can sit down and race through four tracks at a time every time they play the game. Saving mid-race would be ludicrous, but saving after each race should have been a no-brainer.
Re-Volt includes a track editor that lets you build your own courses. While I'm hesitant to criticize any feature that lets you extend the life and enjoyment of a game, unfortunately the editor is rather unintuitive and offers a paltry array of scenery and track-style options. In fact, it's nearly impossible to recreate any of the pre-built tracks' coolest jumps, twists, or slopes with this editor. Also, you can't drop your track into any of the stunning environments that surround the game's pre-built tracks. A few more options, a much better interface, and a way to create surrounding terrain would not only have improved the editor, but would have made it fit the look, feel, and style of the game. As it stands, the game and the editor feel like they're two different products, not two parts of the same thing.
Don't get me wrong, Re-Volt isn't a bad game. It's quite a lot of fun, in fact. It even has a great soundtrack, which is predominantly techno-dance music but very good techno-dance music and perfect for the gameplay. But the overall package is weaker than it should be as a result of its scattered flaws, which is unfortunate since it could just as soon have been one of the year's best arcade racers.
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Stunts review
Posted : 11 years, 1 month ago on 1 April 2013 07:12
(A review of Stunts)"Stunts is easily the greatest, most recognizable, racing game on the PC."
Stunts is one of those games that defined a generation of gamers. It hailed in a time when the PC was seemingly capable of doing anything it set its mind to. There was no shortage of games from any genre when Stunts came out on the PC and it was fairly hard for even the most well done racer to set itself apart from the crowd.
Luckily for the gaming public, Stunts was not only able to set itself apart from the competition but it made a name for itself in the PC racing genre that won't be likely forgotten soon... or, not at least until PC gaming kicks the bucket.
Graphics: 10/10
When Stunts came out in 1990 it simply floored me. This game looked impeccable, and going back to play it even after all these years, Stunts is simply stunning. Not even in the last generation of SNES games was there such perfection in graphics as the one encountered in Stunts back in the day.
The resolution of the game simply hasn't held up that well, but the detail of everything from the expansive mountains, plains or huge tracks to the expertly drawn dashboards (which are unique for every car) give Stunts an air of professionalism and cleanliness that hasn't been seen in 2D racers before, or after. Each car is expertly modeled and there are quite a few camera angles to experience with. The animation is also top notch and the game has a fully featured damage model, which despite its fairly useless use outside of the replay mode, adds a great deal to the game.
As far as things have been documented, Stunts is also the first game to feature a replay editor, which is a plus all on its own, but this is actually one of the best replay editors I've ever seen! You can set a plethora of camera angles, zoom levels, or speed levels and switch anything on the fly whenever you so please.
Sound: 7/10
Where Stunts excels in the graphics department it doesn't do nearly as good in the sound department. The series of beeps-and-bops of the early racing games are all present here. It's hard to ignore the preposterously bad sound quality, but that's to be expected from a racing game that came before the assault of 3D racers and NFS later in the decade.
In all honesty, I don't remember much about Stunts' music, except the title page which had "decent" music for the period. A series of quick techno beats combined with the aforementioned beeps-and-bops is what you should expect from this game. Obviously enough, this is the last place to be looking for sweeping orchestras or high quality opera.
Gameplay: 8/10
The basic premise of Stunts' gameplay is quite different from any other racing game out there, which will no doubt confuse some. The game doesn't have you facing many opponents in an attempt to make it through an oval racing track first across the finish line, rather you attempt to fight the extremely tricky tracks, along with your idiotic AI opponents and come across the finish line in one piece.
What makes Stunts different in the racing genre is clearly its track design. Where other racers at this time did nothing but throw a track at you and encouraged you to never take your foot off the acceleration pedal, Stunts did something different. The tracks in the game are very tricky and technical and include a plethora of insane stunts, including 180-degree turns in mid air and insane jumps and... amazingly enough, require the use of the brake pedal every now and then. The cars are also influenced by the type of terrain they're racing on, for example racing on dirt makes the car more prone to skidding that it is when racing on regular tarmac. What's better is that the tracks can be quite long and that their complexity is amazing and their design is very good including everything from the average straight-away to all kinds of crazy stunts that should be pulled with the greatest of care. There's no lack of tilesets to speak of as every type of background, terrain texture, and stunt that you can think of is available on both the packed in tracks and in the track editor.
Stunts' car selection is fairly varied and it includes everything from the average, slow-as-a-turtle 4WD "Jeep" to the F1 powered super cars. All of the cars handle fairly differently from one another and they all have fully designed dash boards as well as a choice of colors and two types of transmissions (automatic and manual). The AI on the other hand is utterly idiotic. Unless the car in the player's possession is considerably slower than the AI it will never pose a problem for the average gamer. The AI is prone to crashing on even the most basic of courses and, even if by some miracle it doesn't flip upside down on the first turn, it can easily be "influenced" to do so. However, that hurts the game a great deal less than it might seem since the difficulty can be quite draconic during the later levels as the tracks become so complicated that even as much as finishing them can tax the most experienced race veteran.
However, there are two things that make Stunts the standout game it is: The track editor and the controls. Stunts is easily the best-controlling racing game ever to be released on the PC. The controls are responsive and their layout is perfect. Never once will anyone have to touch the "Controller Configuration" button because the ergonomics of these controls is downright amazing. And then there's the track editor: In all of the years that the racing genre has been on the market never has there been a game with such an in-depth track editor as Stunts. The game's editor is simply amazing. Half the fun from this game comes from making these insane tracks and then attempting to beat them. Some of the tracks I've played for this game are better than anything I've seen in racers, and those were all made by amateurs. The editor is fully featured and it allows you to lay a track as you please from its 2D perspective on a map carefully divided in a hexagonal grid. There's a huge variety of road pieces that includes anything you might even think of, from hair-pin turns to simple 2-lane-tracks. And, of course, the stunt pieces. The range of pieces in this category, the ease of laying them down and the lack of restrictions on how one can put them together ensure, if that wasn't obvious already, this track editors' pole-position in the history of racing games.
With a range of opponents to pick from, 2 modes of driving, a fully-featured track editor and a whole slew of cars all with different handling features Stunts' game time can easily surpass the 200 hour mark. Stunts is probably the racing game with the highest replay value ever to hit the market, and that alone is something to be proud of.
Multiplayer: N/A
None.
Overall: 8/10
Stunts is the premiere racing game on the PC. It's a true tour de force that proves that there was a time when the PC was able to do something more than just shooters and strategy games. Anyone with even a passing interest in classic gaming, the PC, or racers owes it to themselves to buy this game.
Especially since, hell, it's .99$ on eBay and available for free download on any self-respecting abandoware site.
Stunts is one of those games that defined a generation of gamers. It hailed in a time when the PC was seemingly capable of doing anything it set its mind to. There was no shortage of games from any genre when Stunts came out on the PC and it was fairly hard for even the most well done racer to set itself apart from the crowd.
Luckily for the gaming public, Stunts was not only able to set itself apart from the competition but it made a name for itself in the PC racing genre that won't be likely forgotten soon... or, not at least until PC gaming kicks the bucket.
Graphics: 10/10
When Stunts came out in 1990 it simply floored me. This game looked impeccable, and going back to play it even after all these years, Stunts is simply stunning. Not even in the last generation of SNES games was there such perfection in graphics as the one encountered in Stunts back in the day.
The resolution of the game simply hasn't held up that well, but the detail of everything from the expansive mountains, plains or huge tracks to the expertly drawn dashboards (which are unique for every car) give Stunts an air of professionalism and cleanliness that hasn't been seen in 2D racers before, or after. Each car is expertly modeled and there are quite a few camera angles to experience with. The animation is also top notch and the game has a fully featured damage model, which despite its fairly useless use outside of the replay mode, adds a great deal to the game.
As far as things have been documented, Stunts is also the first game to feature a replay editor, which is a plus all on its own, but this is actually one of the best replay editors I've ever seen! You can set a plethora of camera angles, zoom levels, or speed levels and switch anything on the fly whenever you so please.
Sound: 7/10
Where Stunts excels in the graphics department it doesn't do nearly as good in the sound department. The series of beeps-and-bops of the early racing games are all present here. It's hard to ignore the preposterously bad sound quality, but that's to be expected from a racing game that came before the assault of 3D racers and NFS later in the decade.
In all honesty, I don't remember much about Stunts' music, except the title page which had "decent" music for the period. A series of quick techno beats combined with the aforementioned beeps-and-bops is what you should expect from this game. Obviously enough, this is the last place to be looking for sweeping orchestras or high quality opera.
Gameplay: 8/10
The basic premise of Stunts' gameplay is quite different from any other racing game out there, which will no doubt confuse some. The game doesn't have you facing many opponents in an attempt to make it through an oval racing track first across the finish line, rather you attempt to fight the extremely tricky tracks, along with your idiotic AI opponents and come across the finish line in one piece.
What makes Stunts different in the racing genre is clearly its track design. Where other racers at this time did nothing but throw a track at you and encouraged you to never take your foot off the acceleration pedal, Stunts did something different. The tracks in the game are very tricky and technical and include a plethora of insane stunts, including 180-degree turns in mid air and insane jumps and... amazingly enough, require the use of the brake pedal every now and then. The cars are also influenced by the type of terrain they're racing on, for example racing on dirt makes the car more prone to skidding that it is when racing on regular tarmac. What's better is that the tracks can be quite long and that their complexity is amazing and their design is very good including everything from the average straight-away to all kinds of crazy stunts that should be pulled with the greatest of care. There's no lack of tilesets to speak of as every type of background, terrain texture, and stunt that you can think of is available on both the packed in tracks and in the track editor.
Stunts' car selection is fairly varied and it includes everything from the average, slow-as-a-turtle 4WD "Jeep" to the F1 powered super cars. All of the cars handle fairly differently from one another and they all have fully designed dash boards as well as a choice of colors and two types of transmissions (automatic and manual). The AI on the other hand is utterly idiotic. Unless the car in the player's possession is considerably slower than the AI it will never pose a problem for the average gamer. The AI is prone to crashing on even the most basic of courses and, even if by some miracle it doesn't flip upside down on the first turn, it can easily be "influenced" to do so. However, that hurts the game a great deal less than it might seem since the difficulty can be quite draconic during the later levels as the tracks become so complicated that even as much as finishing them can tax the most experienced race veteran.
However, there are two things that make Stunts the standout game it is: The track editor and the controls. Stunts is easily the best-controlling racing game ever to be released on the PC. The controls are responsive and their layout is perfect. Never once will anyone have to touch the "Controller Configuration" button because the ergonomics of these controls is downright amazing. And then there's the track editor: In all of the years that the racing genre has been on the market never has there been a game with such an in-depth track editor as Stunts. The game's editor is simply amazing. Half the fun from this game comes from making these insane tracks and then attempting to beat them. Some of the tracks I've played for this game are better than anything I've seen in racers, and those were all made by amateurs. The editor is fully featured and it allows you to lay a track as you please from its 2D perspective on a map carefully divided in a hexagonal grid. There's a huge variety of road pieces that includes anything you might even think of, from hair-pin turns to simple 2-lane-tracks. And, of course, the stunt pieces. The range of pieces in this category, the ease of laying them down and the lack of restrictions on how one can put them together ensure, if that wasn't obvious already, this track editors' pole-position in the history of racing games.
With a range of opponents to pick from, 2 modes of driving, a fully-featured track editor and a whole slew of cars all with different handling features Stunts' game time can easily surpass the 200 hour mark. Stunts is probably the racing game with the highest replay value ever to hit the market, and that alone is something to be proud of.
Multiplayer: N/A
None.
Overall: 8/10
Stunts is the premiere racing game on the PC. It's a true tour de force that proves that there was a time when the PC was able to do something more than just shooters and strategy games. Anyone with even a passing interest in classic gaming, the PC, or racers owes it to themselves to buy this game.
Especially since, hell, it's .99$ on eBay and available for free download on any self-respecting abandoware site.
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Disney's Tarzan Action Game review
Posted : 11 years, 1 month ago on 1 April 2013 06:55
(A review of Disney's Tarzan Action Game)Even if movie-license games turn you off, this game is an exception and worth taking a look at.
Several months after Sony shipped Tarzan for the PlayStation, Activision released the same game to Nintendo 64 owners, perhaps in an attempt to satisfy those N64 fans who might have heard that the earlier Disney animated-film-to-game translation actually fared quite well. In both versions, gameplay is fun, diverse, and not just a cross-media no-brainier licensing affair. However, the N64 game does fall short of the previous version, in a couple of areas that do not necessarily impair the overall quality of the game. But first, on to the details.
The single-player platform game follows the recently released animated film's plot exactly, and that's a very good thing, as the movie's pacing is conducive to the challenges you expect from a video game. Actually, what Tarzan captures, surprisingly, is the simplicity (with challenge) found in classic games. You play as Tarzan most of the time, first as the young ape-man in training and then later as the perpetually "prime of life" Tarzan. When you're not playing as Tarzan, you're running through the jungle as Jane, in a Victorian dress, attempting to flee a pack of baboons, or you're tearing up the campsite as Terk, Tarzan's she-ape companion.
There are 14 levels in all, and, surprisingly, each level and the objective therein is strikingly different from one another. Sure, there are conventions that reoccur in some levels, such as swinging on vines or sliding along fallen trees. However, these consistent features contribute to your overall grasp of the gameplay and become more demanding as you proceed (yes, demanding, on anything other than the "easy" setting, which is insanely novice, yet good for beginning gamers, no doubt). About half the levels are composed of standard 2D platform jumping, while you grab items and avoid animals until you reach the end. The rest of the levels take advantage of action scenes in the movie. In the Stampede level, for example, you control Tarzan as he runs ahead of a pack of elephants Crash Bandicoot- or Herc's Adventures-style. You move from side to side and jump when necessary. This parallels the stampede scene in the movie. In the SaborAttacks level, you fight the leopard, Sabor, with a spear and with tricky jumping moves a number of times until you conquer him, just as in the film. The aforementioned event with Jane is the Baboon Chase level, which follows the movie so closely that it has Tarzan swinging in to save you, hence navigating the chase at that point.Bonus levels exist as well. To earn one, you must collect four pieces of Jane's baboon drawings scattered around the environment. If you do so, you'll glide down a stream on a raft, grabbing tokens and fruits until the timer runs out, or you'll ride through the jungle on a stork, doing the same, or you'll slide along the fallen trees in the style of Crystal Dynamics' Pandemonium, ducking limbs and jumping over others. What's the point of tokens and fruit? It's all pretty intuitive. The tokens, in lots of 100, give you an extra life, and the fruits (yellow, purple, red, and blue of varying strengths and availability), are for you to lob at animals that get in your way. You'll also pick up other objects, such as a stone blade, to use against close-range predators. Bananas are used to increase your health meter and are pretty readily available throughout the game. If you collect all the letters in Tarzan's name (also scattered throughout each level), you open up movies that move the game forward. Worthy of mentioning, too, is the fact that you can go back and replay saved levels, should you want to find all the tokens, drawing pieces, or letters to gain extra lives (necessary for some of the later levels) or acquire a better ending score.
One problem with the N64 Tarzan is that the controls aren't the greatest. The PlayStation version was moderately plagued by similar shortcomings, yet the N64 stick does not respond well to climbing, swinging, or fighting tigers. In fact, the analog offers entirely too much freedom - a feature that Tarzan gameplay doesn't require. Stick with the D-pad or nothing, for the most part, through most of this game.
You'll usually deal with the animals (sometimes your enemies, sometimes there to give you a lift) immediately, but if you don't, you'll discover fairly quickly that the AI isn't too swift. In most cases, the animals are predictable and can be dispelled with fruit bombs or avoided altogether with little effort - with the exception of the evil, evil birds. We also noticed that the collision is occasionally laughable. Several times we managed to use our knife, which is more of a handheld stone blade, to dispose of pesky animals without even making contact with them. But this wasn't a repeated offense, so it's forgivable, considering the game's strong points.
In the sensory areas, Tarzan doesn't really look too fantastic on the N64. The PlayStation version (all hail the disc!) offers animated cutscenes from the movie to progress the plot along, while the N64 version tosses you into the gameplay, so as a result the N64 game doesn't have the same degree of plot coherence. Some slowdown is apparent if too much action is happening on the screen, which can be annoying on levels such as the Baboon Chase, wherein you're trying to knock apes out of your way as you run from baboons and avoid other obstacles. In a word, consistency in speed is mandatory to get through such challenges successfully. Also, the N64 cart doesn't support the rich sound you expect. It's somewhat muddled-sounding.
However, all in all, Tarzan on the N64 is a pleasant surprise that rises from its rough spots with a fair amount of success. While the game is not particularly mind-stumping or sophisticated, it is challenging and does require a good amount of skill, whether in jumping from place to place, knowing where hidden items might be, or fighting belligerent leopards who lunge a lot. Even if movie-license games turn you off, this game is an exception and worth taking a look at. If you can't stand Disney and have no interest in the franchise, this game is still worth looking at.
Several months after Sony shipped Tarzan for the PlayStation, Activision released the same game to Nintendo 64 owners, perhaps in an attempt to satisfy those N64 fans who might have heard that the earlier Disney animated-film-to-game translation actually fared quite well. In both versions, gameplay is fun, diverse, and not just a cross-media no-brainier licensing affair. However, the N64 game does fall short of the previous version, in a couple of areas that do not necessarily impair the overall quality of the game. But first, on to the details.
The single-player platform game follows the recently released animated film's plot exactly, and that's a very good thing, as the movie's pacing is conducive to the challenges you expect from a video game. Actually, what Tarzan captures, surprisingly, is the simplicity (with challenge) found in classic games. You play as Tarzan most of the time, first as the young ape-man in training and then later as the perpetually "prime of life" Tarzan. When you're not playing as Tarzan, you're running through the jungle as Jane, in a Victorian dress, attempting to flee a pack of baboons, or you're tearing up the campsite as Terk, Tarzan's she-ape companion.
There are 14 levels in all, and, surprisingly, each level and the objective therein is strikingly different from one another. Sure, there are conventions that reoccur in some levels, such as swinging on vines or sliding along fallen trees. However, these consistent features contribute to your overall grasp of the gameplay and become more demanding as you proceed (yes, demanding, on anything other than the "easy" setting, which is insanely novice, yet good for beginning gamers, no doubt). About half the levels are composed of standard 2D platform jumping, while you grab items and avoid animals until you reach the end. The rest of the levels take advantage of action scenes in the movie. In the Stampede level, for example, you control Tarzan as he runs ahead of a pack of elephants Crash Bandicoot- or Herc's Adventures-style. You move from side to side and jump when necessary. This parallels the stampede scene in the movie. In the SaborAttacks level, you fight the leopard, Sabor, with a spear and with tricky jumping moves a number of times until you conquer him, just as in the film. The aforementioned event with Jane is the Baboon Chase level, which follows the movie so closely that it has Tarzan swinging in to save you, hence navigating the chase at that point.Bonus levels exist as well. To earn one, you must collect four pieces of Jane's baboon drawings scattered around the environment. If you do so, you'll glide down a stream on a raft, grabbing tokens and fruits until the timer runs out, or you'll ride through the jungle on a stork, doing the same, or you'll slide along the fallen trees in the style of Crystal Dynamics' Pandemonium, ducking limbs and jumping over others. What's the point of tokens and fruit? It's all pretty intuitive. The tokens, in lots of 100, give you an extra life, and the fruits (yellow, purple, red, and blue of varying strengths and availability), are for you to lob at animals that get in your way. You'll also pick up other objects, such as a stone blade, to use against close-range predators. Bananas are used to increase your health meter and are pretty readily available throughout the game. If you collect all the letters in Tarzan's name (also scattered throughout each level), you open up movies that move the game forward. Worthy of mentioning, too, is the fact that you can go back and replay saved levels, should you want to find all the tokens, drawing pieces, or letters to gain extra lives (necessary for some of the later levels) or acquire a better ending score.
One problem with the N64 Tarzan is that the controls aren't the greatest. The PlayStation version was moderately plagued by similar shortcomings, yet the N64 stick does not respond well to climbing, swinging, or fighting tigers. In fact, the analog offers entirely too much freedom - a feature that Tarzan gameplay doesn't require. Stick with the D-pad or nothing, for the most part, through most of this game.
You'll usually deal with the animals (sometimes your enemies, sometimes there to give you a lift) immediately, but if you don't, you'll discover fairly quickly that the AI isn't too swift. In most cases, the animals are predictable and can be dispelled with fruit bombs or avoided altogether with little effort - with the exception of the evil, evil birds. We also noticed that the collision is occasionally laughable. Several times we managed to use our knife, which is more of a handheld stone blade, to dispose of pesky animals without even making contact with them. But this wasn't a repeated offense, so it's forgivable, considering the game's strong points.
In the sensory areas, Tarzan doesn't really look too fantastic on the N64. The PlayStation version (all hail the disc!) offers animated cutscenes from the movie to progress the plot along, while the N64 version tosses you into the gameplay, so as a result the N64 game doesn't have the same degree of plot coherence. Some slowdown is apparent if too much action is happening on the screen, which can be annoying on levels such as the Baboon Chase, wherein you're trying to knock apes out of your way as you run from baboons and avoid other obstacles. In a word, consistency in speed is mandatory to get through such challenges successfully. Also, the N64 cart doesn't support the rich sound you expect. It's somewhat muddled-sounding.
However, all in all, Tarzan on the N64 is a pleasant surprise that rises from its rough spots with a fair amount of success. While the game is not particularly mind-stumping or sophisticated, it is challenging and does require a good amount of skill, whether in jumping from place to place, knowing where hidden items might be, or fighting belligerent leopards who lunge a lot. Even if movie-license games turn you off, this game is an exception and worth taking a look at. If you can't stand Disney and have no interest in the franchise, this game is still worth looking at.
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Jazz Jackrabbit review
Posted : 11 years, 1 month ago on 29 March 2013 07:40
(A review of Jazz Jackrabbit )It's a fun ride while it lasts, and it can be very entertaining.
A handful of years ago, Epic MegaGames (now just Epic Games) redefined the platform action genre on the PC with Jazz Jackrabbit--a knockoff of Sonic the Hedgehog, albeit with one very important difference: Jazz carried weapons. A sequel, as well as a Christmas patch, soon followed. Nowadays, Jazz Jackrabbit is fairly well known among PC gamers, many of whom otherwise aren't familiar with platformers. Seeing the potential to revive this well-liked series, Jaleco has brought Jazz out of retirement for an outing on the Game Boy Advance. And while Jazz Jackrabbit for the GBA has a lot in common with its predecessors on the PC, it flaunts a number of changes and improvements as well.
Jazz has a pistol and the reptile has rockets. Very cool.
The gameplay in Jazz Jackrabbit for the GBA retains the basic design from the PC games. Armed with a pistol, you have to make your way through stages full of enemies in order to reach the boss. There are cash prizes, weapons, and health items strewn all around, and amid all of the fighting you have to navigate complex levels that will require you to run in every direction, ride floating platforms, and trigger all manner of switches and keys. Jazz also has a nifty helicopter move that he can perform with his ears, much like Earthworm Jim or Rayman, and this helps him float to distant platforms. As you play through the game, you'll also acquire five additional weapons to add to Jazz's arsenal. There really isn't too much strategy to using them, but a flamethrower will certainly cut through a turtle faster than a machine gun will.
Unfortunately, Jazz Jackrabbit doesn't quite achieve the same level of diversity as similar games, namely Yoshi's Island or Metroid Fusion. The 24 single-player levels all start to feel the same as you proceed through them, and you really won't feel as though you're doing much other than ducking and shooting reptiles. The helicopter technique augments the standard run-and-jump gameplay pretty well, but the six included weapons don't offer nearly enough variation. As it stands, Jazz Jackrabbit is very well executed, but it's not as ambitious as many of the other games available for the Game Boy Advance. If Jazz could crawl, dangle from ledges, or acquire other special abilities, it would be a different story. But he can't, and as a result, you may lose interest even though you can blow through the game in approximately three hours.
In addition to the single-player mode, the game includes a multiplayer mode that offers both single- and multicartridge play options, which make for decent diversions. With multiple cartridges, you and three friends can play deathmatch or capture-the-flag contests on any of 11 different maps. On a single cartridge, however, you're limited to plain old deathmatch.
Even in light of its humble design, there are plenty of good things to say about Jazz Jackrabbit. First, the game is teeming with humorous situations and pop-culture references that will amuse anyone who understands them. For example, there's an early scene where a chameleon attempts to capture Jazz, who in turn calls the chameleon's bluff. "Yeah, you and what army?" asks Jazz. Just then, a dozen other chameleons armed to the teeth fall in behind the leader. Later on, there are turtles in Star Wars stormtrooper outfits and lizards that quote General George S. Patton before scurrying off in fright. There are dozens of these crazy events, and they give the game a rather distinct sense of humor.
Another positive aspect is that the game looks gorgeous. The graphics in Jazz Jackrabbit prove that you don't have to abuse the use of digitized images or fill the screen with every color in the rainbow in order to create a great-looking game. The backgrounds emphasize a less-is-more attitude. Terrain features are simple, and there are only a few solid colors used in each environment. While this would be a drawback for many games, it gives Jazz Jackrabbit a look similar to that of animated cartoons. Further, the abundance of scrolling backgrounds and use of overlays for weather effects, such as snow and rain, offer the kind of visual sophistication you've come to expect from great GBA action games. In keeping with the cartoon atmosphere, Jazz moves like a green-tinted version of Bugs Bunny, with his ears constantly flapping and his body contorting in dozens of different positions as you move him throughout a level. His enemies don't exhibit quite the same amount of grace, but they're so large that you hardly notice. As it is, the interactions between Jazz and his reptilian foes are extremely entertaining. You can watch Jazz catch fire or get flattened like a pancake and just shrug it off like nothing happened.
Turtles in stormtrooper outfits.
As is typical of most GBA games, the audio in Jazz Jackrabbit isn't as ambitious as the game's visuals. There are plenty of sound effects for weapons and the various reptile calls, but none of them stand out for any particular reason. The music is upbeat and usually fits the scenery, but again, there's nothing about it that begs for your attention.
Overall, Jazz Jackrabbit plays just as well as any of the better-known action games that are available for the GBA. The gameplay comes up short in terms of variety, however, so it doesn't have the same kind of staying power as games like Yoshi's Island or Sonic Advance. Still, it's a fun ride while it lasts, and it can be very entertaining.
A handful of years ago, Epic MegaGames (now just Epic Games) redefined the platform action genre on the PC with Jazz Jackrabbit--a knockoff of Sonic the Hedgehog, albeit with one very important difference: Jazz carried weapons. A sequel, as well as a Christmas patch, soon followed. Nowadays, Jazz Jackrabbit is fairly well known among PC gamers, many of whom otherwise aren't familiar with platformers. Seeing the potential to revive this well-liked series, Jaleco has brought Jazz out of retirement for an outing on the Game Boy Advance. And while Jazz Jackrabbit for the GBA has a lot in common with its predecessors on the PC, it flaunts a number of changes and improvements as well.
Jazz has a pistol and the reptile has rockets. Very cool.
The gameplay in Jazz Jackrabbit for the GBA retains the basic design from the PC games. Armed with a pistol, you have to make your way through stages full of enemies in order to reach the boss. There are cash prizes, weapons, and health items strewn all around, and amid all of the fighting you have to navigate complex levels that will require you to run in every direction, ride floating platforms, and trigger all manner of switches and keys. Jazz also has a nifty helicopter move that he can perform with his ears, much like Earthworm Jim or Rayman, and this helps him float to distant platforms. As you play through the game, you'll also acquire five additional weapons to add to Jazz's arsenal. There really isn't too much strategy to using them, but a flamethrower will certainly cut through a turtle faster than a machine gun will.
Unfortunately, Jazz Jackrabbit doesn't quite achieve the same level of diversity as similar games, namely Yoshi's Island or Metroid Fusion. The 24 single-player levels all start to feel the same as you proceed through them, and you really won't feel as though you're doing much other than ducking and shooting reptiles. The helicopter technique augments the standard run-and-jump gameplay pretty well, but the six included weapons don't offer nearly enough variation. As it stands, Jazz Jackrabbit is very well executed, but it's not as ambitious as many of the other games available for the Game Boy Advance. If Jazz could crawl, dangle from ledges, or acquire other special abilities, it would be a different story. But he can't, and as a result, you may lose interest even though you can blow through the game in approximately three hours.
In addition to the single-player mode, the game includes a multiplayer mode that offers both single- and multicartridge play options, which make for decent diversions. With multiple cartridges, you and three friends can play deathmatch or capture-the-flag contests on any of 11 different maps. On a single cartridge, however, you're limited to plain old deathmatch.
Even in light of its humble design, there are plenty of good things to say about Jazz Jackrabbit. First, the game is teeming with humorous situations and pop-culture references that will amuse anyone who understands them. For example, there's an early scene where a chameleon attempts to capture Jazz, who in turn calls the chameleon's bluff. "Yeah, you and what army?" asks Jazz. Just then, a dozen other chameleons armed to the teeth fall in behind the leader. Later on, there are turtles in Star Wars stormtrooper outfits and lizards that quote General George S. Patton before scurrying off in fright. There are dozens of these crazy events, and they give the game a rather distinct sense of humor.
Another positive aspect is that the game looks gorgeous. The graphics in Jazz Jackrabbit prove that you don't have to abuse the use of digitized images or fill the screen with every color in the rainbow in order to create a great-looking game. The backgrounds emphasize a less-is-more attitude. Terrain features are simple, and there are only a few solid colors used in each environment. While this would be a drawback for many games, it gives Jazz Jackrabbit a look similar to that of animated cartoons. Further, the abundance of scrolling backgrounds and use of overlays for weather effects, such as snow and rain, offer the kind of visual sophistication you've come to expect from great GBA action games. In keeping with the cartoon atmosphere, Jazz moves like a green-tinted version of Bugs Bunny, with his ears constantly flapping and his body contorting in dozens of different positions as you move him throughout a level. His enemies don't exhibit quite the same amount of grace, but they're so large that you hardly notice. As it is, the interactions between Jazz and his reptilian foes are extremely entertaining. You can watch Jazz catch fire or get flattened like a pancake and just shrug it off like nothing happened.
Turtles in stormtrooper outfits.
As is typical of most GBA games, the audio in Jazz Jackrabbit isn't as ambitious as the game's visuals. There are plenty of sound effects for weapons and the various reptile calls, but none of them stand out for any particular reason. The music is upbeat and usually fits the scenery, but again, there's nothing about it that begs for your attention.
Overall, Jazz Jackrabbit plays just as well as any of the better-known action games that are available for the GBA. The gameplay comes up short in terms of variety, however, so it doesn't have the same kind of staying power as games like Yoshi's Island or Sonic Advance. Still, it's a fun ride while it lasts, and it can be very entertaining.
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Disney's Hercules Action Game review
Posted : 11 years, 1 month ago on 29 March 2013 07:37
(A review of Disney's Hercules Action Game)Hercules is a game not to be missed.
Virgin Interactive has brought the magic of Disney's animated motion picture Hercules to the PlayStation - awkwardly-named Hercules Action Game. Hercules is a side-scrolling action-adventure game that puts you in the role of the mighty Hercules on quests that follow the movie's storyline to the letter. In fact, players that have seen the movie actually have an advantage because the movie shows how Hercules beats some of the same bad guys that you must defeat in the game. Although Hercules is a 2-D side-scrolling game, it possesses some unique features that put it in its own class. The use of the Z-axis lets Hercules move in and out of background scenery, giving the game a pseudo 3-D look and feel. The other feature that truly makes Hercules fun is the constant interaction that Herc has with his surroundings. For instance, you must use Herc's amazing strength to pick up giant boulders to throw at enemies or use Herc's powerful fists to knock columns and other obstacles out of your way.
Hercules seems to be composed of a combination of the best features of previous 16-bit Disney titles, such as the behind-the-back running sequence from the Lion King, the item system from Pocahontas, and the simple pleasure of exterminating bad guys with big swords from Aladdin. While its 16-bit predecessors may have influenced Hercules, Eurocom has definitely taken this Disney title to the 32-bit level in terms of graphics, sound, and gameplay.
Graphically, Hercules is a masterpiece. The game is energized with cartoon-style graphics that look almost as good as the animated movie. A staggering number of animation frames was used for the character movements - over 10,000! There are also some 3-D elements and objects in Hercules' world that are similar to those in the movie, such as the terrible nine-headed Hydra who was rendered with computer graphics in the movie. This seamless blend of 2-D and 3-D objects makes the game more than just a 2-D side scroller.
Although the visuals are impressive, they are only half the experience. The sound and music are fantastic, mirroring the musical score from the movie. Also from the movie are the voices of Danny DeVito, James Woods, and other stars. Besides using the recorded material from the movie, Virgin Interactive also recorded dialogue specifically for the game.
Hercules is an amazing game that features some of the best graphics and sound ever seen in a side scroller. With all its eye candy, amazing music, and voices, Hercules is a game not to be missed. Even though Hercules is an action game (as the title implies), players who like looking for secrets and hidden items won't be disappointed. The only drawback to the game is the recurring problem with most side scrollers: It is easily beaten within a week or so. Just the same, anyone looking for some old school action should definitely pick up this game.
Virgin Interactive has brought the magic of Disney's animated motion picture Hercules to the PlayStation - awkwardly-named Hercules Action Game. Hercules is a side-scrolling action-adventure game that puts you in the role of the mighty Hercules on quests that follow the movie's storyline to the letter. In fact, players that have seen the movie actually have an advantage because the movie shows how Hercules beats some of the same bad guys that you must defeat in the game. Although Hercules is a 2-D side-scrolling game, it possesses some unique features that put it in its own class. The use of the Z-axis lets Hercules move in and out of background scenery, giving the game a pseudo 3-D look and feel. The other feature that truly makes Hercules fun is the constant interaction that Herc has with his surroundings. For instance, you must use Herc's amazing strength to pick up giant boulders to throw at enemies or use Herc's powerful fists to knock columns and other obstacles out of your way.
Hercules seems to be composed of a combination of the best features of previous 16-bit Disney titles, such as the behind-the-back running sequence from the Lion King, the item system from Pocahontas, and the simple pleasure of exterminating bad guys with big swords from Aladdin. While its 16-bit predecessors may have influenced Hercules, Eurocom has definitely taken this Disney title to the 32-bit level in terms of graphics, sound, and gameplay.
Graphically, Hercules is a masterpiece. The game is energized with cartoon-style graphics that look almost as good as the animated movie. A staggering number of animation frames was used for the character movements - over 10,000! There are also some 3-D elements and objects in Hercules' world that are similar to those in the movie, such as the terrible nine-headed Hydra who was rendered with computer graphics in the movie. This seamless blend of 2-D and 3-D objects makes the game more than just a 2-D side scroller.
Although the visuals are impressive, they are only half the experience. The sound and music are fantastic, mirroring the musical score from the movie. Also from the movie are the voices of Danny DeVito, James Woods, and other stars. Besides using the recorded material from the movie, Virgin Interactive also recorded dialogue specifically for the game.
Hercules is an amazing game that features some of the best graphics and sound ever seen in a side scroller. With all its eye candy, amazing music, and voices, Hercules is a game not to be missed. Even though Hercules is an action game (as the title implies), players who like looking for secrets and hidden items won't be disappointed. The only drawback to the game is the recurring problem with most side scrollers: It is easily beaten within a week or so. Just the same, anyone looking for some old school action should definitely pick up this game.
0 comments, Reply to this entry