Dare to Play the Game

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. I’m the beetle with the skeetle, YO! I kinda feel like I’m one California roll short of a sushi plate. This would assume of course I tried sushi and if I ever had the notion to discover asian food outside of chicken or crab ragoon. Well, what are you waiting for, lets check out relea…es!

PS2

Monster House
NCAA Football 07
Super Dragon Ball Z

PSP

Miami Vice
NCAA Football 07
Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth
Blade Dancer
Stacked

XBOX

NCAA Football 07
Warpath
World War II Combat: Iwo Jima

XBOX 360

NCAA Football 07

Gamecube

Monster House

DS

Monster House

GBA

Monster House

Guess which family friendly movie comes out this week. 4 releases on all the most accessible systems. Not much hope in game quality there to be honest. The two releases to be excited about would certainly be Super Dragon Ball Z(maybe they finally got the fighting system right?) and Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth. The original VP was a great and rare game for the PS1 (one I wish I had), and we don’t get a PS2 VP until late September. So this should fit the gap nicely. I almost forgot as well, but the NCAA Footballs make their round this week too. Not sure how the release schedule forgot that one initially. Folks feel free to always advise corrections or additions to me, I take my audience seriously and want to make this a better column for you.

Next-generation builds of WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007 have been the only versions of the cross-platform title revealed thus far. But for the first time since the game was announced in March, screenshots of the PlayStation 2 version have finally be unveiled. What’s more, these initial images serve a dual purpose — to also announce two more WWE superstars for the lineup.
The two wrestlers in question, Booker T and Chris Benoit, join the already-confirmed roster of Triple H, John Cena, Rey Mysterio, Kurt Angle, and Shelton Benjamin — making for what amounts to roughly 12% of the final list of grapplers.
Perhaps the biggest news of the day, however, is the fact that SmackDown vs. Raw 2007 will be available for public play at the San Diego Comic-Con later this week. The event begins on July 20 (through the 23rd) at the San Diego Convention Center and will include a number of games from a number of different publishers. The build of SmackDown available will include all the wrestlers listed above except for the two revealed today.

Hrmmm, 7 wrestlers is 12%, that means we will see about 80+ wrestlers. Awesome! The last version had roughly 60-70 with the legends. I’m a huge wrestling fan and since this is the swan song before it goes off to PS3 or XBOX land, so I want it to be the best it can be. Of course, there is the Raw brand, Smackdown and if you have been watching lately; ECW Brand. So it easy to see all of the rosters spots. What is more, it will be already playable by July 20 (just a couple of days) and it should make its release date of Fall 06. I’m ready; are you ready? I SAID ARE YOU RRRRRRRREADY? Then for the thousands in attendance and the millions watching worldwide, lets get ready to SU…umm sorry I got off track there.

Clive Barker Summons New GameHorror master is teaming up with Codemasters to scare the bejeezus out of gamers.

A Horror “Sandbox” type game? Sweet! Not to mention that Clive is one of the foremost horror experts there is. I mean outside of Stephen King, who would you want to write a horror game? If Clive is able to create something to rival the Silent Hills that stand at the beginning of the line in true creepy form, then count me in. Hopefully appropriate music is at the top of his list. A Pinhead cameo would also be nice though not crucial. Look for the game to include enemies from various eras of time which should mean like Skeletons and Ghouls for older time periods and maybe mutant radioactive type monsters for the modern era. Codemasters heading it up is a nice touch, we’ll see what they bring to the table.

Pokemon, sure anytime! So cute, so dainty, I don’t even like yellow all that much, but I’m sure digging the way Morgan is stepping into this one. TechTV is just a wonderous place sometimes even if the writing isn’t all that good. When it comes to shots like this, I pick this one Pikachu!

The Phantasy Star series of the RPGs was the finest selection of RPG games on the Sega Systems (I just poed all of the Shining Force fans). The Sega Genesis sported three fantastic games (even III was better than most RPG offerings). The games were focused around the events of the Algo Star System. This series was unique as it was one of the few RPG’s to be based in the future rather than more frequently used fantasy/medevial setting. It was also one of the first carts to sport battery backup from its Sega Master days. It had an engrossing story and a easy to get into interface with many different weapons and things to do. To be honest, I used to have these games and sold them when I was a kid. I am working on selling some of my stuff so I can get back things like the Phantasy Star series. I really do wish they would come out with a compilation. The only compilations have been on the GBA and the Japanese Sega Saturn. The GBA version only has 1-3 and the small screen does not do wonders for my eyes. There was a rumoured collection for PS2 roughly a year ago, but it was dropped. There has been reduxs of the first two for the japanese PS2, but again not here. With the Phantasy Star universe game coming out later this year for the major consoles, just maybe a compliation is around the corner. Sega, just be sure if you do a compliation, do it for PS2, it would be a great sendoff.

Maniac Mansion was a game truly ahead of its time with multiple endings and a true horror plot inside a tiny game. The game started out with six characters and depending on which characters were selected, you would get a slightly different scenario. This was based on the SCUMM engine which was essentially a point and click interface which would be seem in later Lucas Art Games such as the Monkey Islands and Sam & Max. The PC version was also rather racy, something that was bastardized by the NES version. (The story about the NES translation can be read here)Think about it, how innovative is it to have a game that changes depending on who you use to complete an action. Heck you don’t see that today really except once in a while. It certainly adds to the replay value. The sequel to this game was a fun romp as well in Day of the Tentacle. There is supposedly a 256 color version of the original running around called Maniac Mansion Deluxe by LucasFanGames, if anybody knows where to get a copy I would appreciate it.

Thank you for joining me in another column of Dare to Play the Game. I have been doing some rethinking in the game arena. I love games, fact. Problem is throughout my years, I have collected a lot of crap games for systems I don’t want to think about. I really need to get rid of stuff I don’t need or care to play. Then I would use that money to get rare games or ones I really need to play. Games like the Phantasy Star series; Castlevanias (including the illustrious Dracula X, probably the Sega Saturn version, I don’t think I can really aford the Turbo Duo version), and maybe even rare games like the original Valkyrie Profile or Suikoden II (I own the rest). I’ll save on space for sure, and have a better collection. I own about 10 different systems and 700+ games. If I could dump 200 crap titles for about 30 great titles I would do it in a heart beat. Feel free to comment if you think I’m crazy, but I feel pretty good about it. I just need to get motivated. Take care.

As Always,
Kedrix of Aldrianian
(*The Forgotten One*)