Dare to Play the Game

Welcome to another edition of Dare to Play the Game. I’m your host that knows Stone Sour is a condition that you encounter with eating gummi worms while you are smoking pot. Seriously, go get their new cd this week, its called Come What(ever) may. Supposed to be pretty good. I tried win…ing it yesterday at one of our fine Houston radio stations and went 0 for 3 (9th caller, no idea, and 7th caller). Now I’m kinda stuck between buying it this week or hoping I get it for my birthday. Well, what are you waiting for, lets check out releases…wait change of format this week. Let’s go straight to Morgan (I’m always pretty straight for Morgan).

I got you babe! Well I want to get you, and I want you to experience the everlasting facet of my exterior. I really do miss E3, mainly cause they finally really covered it right on G4. Tons of exposure and a good helping of Morgan Webb to get me through my insecurities. Morgan, morgan, morgan, if only you knew (and wouldn’t tell the police), then I really would be huge. I can dream.

For twelve years now, gaming professionals and geeks alike have gathered for a week of electronic entertainment frenzy. The annual Electronic Entertainment Expo has hosted giants and small players alike as companies present their latest game titles and hardware to media, retailers, and colleagues. The event crammed the Los Angeles Convention Center with blazing lights, blaring speakers, bustling crowds, and endless activity — before spilling into flashy press conferences and notoriously decadent after-hours parties. Now, E3 as we’ve known it is a thing of the past.
The Entertainment Software Assocation, which hosts E3 each year, announced today that going forward the Expo will be an “intimate event” rather than a massive trade show, hosting press events and small meetings with media, retailers, and developers. According to Electronic Arts, the redesigned E3 will now take place in July.

Well, this is certainly the big news of the week, I think I wept openly at this. To think that I actually fathomed being able to go to one of these in 2-5 years (cause you know that my fame will be off the charts by then) is something I can no longer aspire to. Oh well, blame it on massive booth costs and society on a whole of moving away from the big trade event and doing their own thing. I mean I could have went to the decadent after-hours parties. The only after-hours parties I seem to end up at are ones where everybody is already drunk and fallen over. So much that they refuse to leave until the following morning. No chicks either. I really need to get out more, or perhaps there are some booth girls now looking for a job. May I offer the job of personal assistant. Low pay, and I’m your only benefit. (But that’s one big benefit, remember I’m huge!)

New Guitar Hero II Tracks Announced
RedOctane loves the ’80s and ’90s.

Oh yeah, as if the first one wasn’t awesome enough; we are already getting some good selection for the second installment. Van Halen, Rush, Kiss, STP, Motley Crue and more? S’yeah! If you don’t think when November rolls around I’m not getting this, you are smoking something serious (or not smoking enough). I would have preferred better selection for a STP song, but sometimes you have to promote the little less obvious. Just trying to think of what else needs to be out there, I would think some Whitesnake (with the Steve Vai guitar parts) would be in order, but who knows. I would absolutely adore a Lita Ford song but I’m just wishing for Guitar Hero: the Hair Metal Symphony I think. (we really need some Metallica tracks but we know how they are)

Known as the original launch game for the Sega Genesis (before Sonic came and ruined the show), this was the first game most people played when they got the system. It helped to promote sales and was honestly one of the reasons I got a genesis in the first place (along with golden axe and phantasy star). This was basically an adventure game like Golden Axe where you played a hero raised from the dead to rescue Athena from the evil Demon God Neff. There was 5 stages and you essentially became 5 different characters (1 for each level) via spirit balls(powerups). From a Werewolf to a Dragon to a Tiger to a Bear and finally the Golden Werewolf; all had interesting and unique abilities. Plus once you got powered up, the music sped up and you knew you were in for it. Like many games of the era, this one experimented with digitized voice. “Rise from Your Grave” often sent chills down your spine as sometimes you felt more like a zombie than a true action hero. However in either 1 or 2 player mode it was a great deal of fun. This game has been ported to other systems with some success (Turbo Graphix – CD) and mostly failure (NES, SMS). The Genesis seems to be its real home. This game does have a true North American sequel in Altered Beast: Guardian of the Realms for the GBA but I would truly like to see Altered Beast included in a Sega Compliation pack similiar to the one released on PS2.

Speaking of digitized voice and funny one liners, we are taken to the fantastic ensemble of Gauntlet. One of the first 4 player arcade cabinets, you took on the role of the Warrior, Valkyrie, Wizard or Elf. It was also one of the first dungeon crawls that would greatly influence fantasy games to come through its gameplay and the ability to truly cooperate in a game with another player. Most games to this point, a second player was almost a burden. However, this game truly influenced the spirit of quarter munching by constantly reducing your health 1 by 1 and even worse if you get attacked. There was food to be found, but these were few and far inbetween. As mentioned in the first sentence, digitized voice was abundant with cautionary notices like “Remember-don’t shoot food” or sometimes encouragement like “I’ve not seen such bravery”. The game then kicked into high gear when you were about to die. The most infamous “Wizard is about to die” or “Warrior needs food badly” still are used in pop culture today (use it in your next board meeting when talking about last quarter’s sales figures). This game was ported to about every system imaginable, and the original can be found most recently in the Midway Arcade treasures lineup for PS2/XBox. The sequels with the exception of maybe Gauntlet II failed to capture the imagination of gamers, but the original always stays. May your life force never run out.

PS2

Barnyard
FlatOut 2
Super Monkey Ball Adventure
Tony Hawk’s Wasteland SE GH (Holdover from previous week)
VeggieTales: Larry Boy and the Bad Apple

PSP

Super Monkey Ball Adventure

XBOX

FlatOut 2

Gamecube

Barnyard
Super Monkey Ball Adventure

DS

Action Replay Max

GBA

Barnyard
VeggieTales: Larry Boy and the Bad Apple

Not too much of interest this week. FlatOut 2 is kinda fun if you are looking for a game where you can propel yourself into the air and through targets due to a result of crashing your car. Really that’s the only reason the game is midly amusing, for about 20 minutes. Go get Burnout 3 or Revenge, you are a whole lot better off. DS is finally showing off an Action Replay Max which has made my PS2 and Sega Saturn (among others) a more pleasurable experience. Not by cheating, but by little interesting extras included. Such as the PS2 version plays Sega Genesis games, and the Saturn version lets me play imports and includes more memory to save games. Maybe this one will play Game Gear roms or something 🙂 (go for gusto, Neo Geo Pocket babie!). Veggie Tales also makes an appearance this week; doesn’t anybody learn that bible humping and console games don’t mix? Do you remember Bible Adventures for the original NES…I didn’t think so.

Thank you for joining me in another column of Dare to Play the Game. I finally got my revolving DVD cabinet this week. It was super easy to put together and it looks pretty nice. I really do have a lot of dvds. Anyhow, I already took my PS2, Genesis (boxed), and Saturn games out of the closet and into one of my old dvd storages. It looks really good and I actually feel like I can pick any game now rather than leave it to just what isn’t in the closet. Once I get things a little more organized, then the massive selling and re-sorting begins. If you would like a list (this will include 3do, genesis, snes, and also possibly games from PS1, PS2 and Saturn, I honestly doubt I will sell any NES, TG-16 or Sega Master stuff), drop me a line (magkick@yahoo.com) and I will email you what I am going to sell when I’m done with the list. I will entertain private offers at first before going to Ebay. Any DVDs or music cds I need to get rid of will automatically go to Ebay. Rememeber the idea here is I’m getting rid of the games I will most likely never touch again in favor of rare or interesting games that I will. Take care.

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