Initial Impressions: P0rtal 2

I'm about two hours into this little wonder, and I am highly impressed.

The game picks up where the first one left off - kind of. You have been somehow detained in suspended animation, and awoken by a male AI voice that informs you that "you have been asleep for FIFTY days" and instructs you to "look at the art on the wall" to stimulate your brain. Then you are instructed to go back to sleep. The next time you wake up the voice says "you have been asleep for 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9..." and your room looks like an ancient ruin, leading you to believe that you've been launched hundreds, if not thousands of years into the future.

Then the anticipation begins. Where is GlaDos? She is nowhere to be seen or heard as you make your way through the first few levels of the game, instead you are guided by an extremely friendly, witty and for some reason, British droid. When you finally do reunite with GlaDos, the tension is at a fever pitch and it's clear that she is bent on revenge. But not simply killing you - that would be too easy. The first few hours that I've played have shown GlaDos piling on the insults. Calling you fat in clever ways, torturing your mind with the fact that you will never leave the testing chambers, making things up about your back story and your parents, saying that your standard issue Aperture Science testing uniform looks "Stupid" on you, and only you - saying that this fact is stated on file by a female scientist with a fashion degree - from France.

What a bitch

The one thing I was worried about was that they would try too hard with GlaDos in this one. Making her more aware and conscious than she should be. One of the things that made her so much fun in the first game was that she was still restricted by the fact that she was a computer - kinda like how you're often reminded that Stewie is indeed still a baby on Family Guy.

To an extent, they did try too hard. GlaDos just sounds like a mean human female with auto-tune, but I don't care. The writing is so sharp and funny that it doesn't negatively impact my impression the way I thought it would. And not nerd-funny like "Oh they made a Star Trek reference" or "Haw haw! A Periodic Table joke!" Like this is legit, clever comedy writing.

The gameplay has undergone several tweaks and adjustments - all for the better. Here's what I've seen so far:

The "energy pellet" that you so often had to redirect in the first game has seemingly been replaced by a redirect-able laser beam. You can now see through walls to any portals you've laid down - similar to how you can see an outline of your allies in Left4Dead. There are the new "light bridges" which can be redirected through portals, and finally the "faith plates" are like human catapults that fling you around the room, which allows you to use the fling+portal mechanic upside down - which makes for very interesting gameplay.

Light Bridge

Overall, it's incredible. I'm finding it a little easy, and I'm not as "brain tied" as I was when I started the first one, but I know it's coming with the heavily promoted "gels" that I have yet to see.

I will have my revenge on GlaDos. I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!

Up Next: P0rtal 2

Yup. I been breakin rules left and right lately. Here's what happened.

As you may remember, my out-of-warranty 360 bit the dust a few weeks back, rendering every XBOX and XBOX 360 in my library useless. So I traded them in to Amazon's game trade-in service and got enough for P0rtal 2, and then some.

So, technically I didn't spend any money on this new game, but it's still a new game nonetheless.

Regardless, this is the most excited I've been about a new release in a while. I'm bursting at the seams to dig into this thing. I'm gonna take my sweet, sweet time playing this one.

Let's do it. P0rtal 2 for PS3!

Review: Mega Man

Mega Man is as well known a character as Mario or Master Chief. The first game in the series was about as hard to find as it was to beat back in the heyday of the NES. So does ol' Mega Man stand the test of nearly a quarter of a century? Let's find out.

Gameplay
The basic idea of Mega Man is that there's a good scientist and a bad one. The good one creates a bunch of robots to help society and the bad one taints them and makes them do naughty things. The only one that isn't sullied is Mega Man. His goal is to stop all the evil robots from taking over the world, and finally to stop the bad scientist from being a jerk in the future. 

Guess which one is the bad guy?

Mega Man was a unique game when it was first released. It was one of the only games at the time that allowed you to complete levels non-sequentially, meaning you could pick your path through the game. The levels are all based around the robotic bosses at the end of each level. For instance, Fire Man's stage is filled with molten lava and rogue flames. Elec Man's level is buzzing with electricity and energy.

Level Select Screen

After besting each baddie, you gain the ability to use their special weapon. Bombman allows you to throw bombs, Cutman, scissors and so on. Each ability also helps you through the rest of the game and certain bosses are weak against others' abilities, so there is indeed a recommended order in which to tackle the levels that makes the trek easier.

The actual gameplay itself is tough as nails and the very meaning of unforgiving. Disappearing platforms, indestructible enemies, overpowered bosses - as tough as the game is, the designers showed real creativity for a game released two and a half decades ago. No one had ever seen anything like it, and that's what made it so dang successful and what spawned an empire of the gaming world.

Presentation
There is possibly no other 8-bit character that is riffed on more than Mega Man. Countless message board avatars, internet memes, T-Shirts, and other various paraphernalia all play on the original, blocky Mega Man design. 

Behold the Iconic Blue Bomber

The design of the characters, enemies, stages and bosses is top notch. It's how an 8-bit game would be designed today - just dripping with style and personality. Even people who have barely scraped the surface of the Mega Man universe can recognize a Mega Man boss on first glance - a true testament to fantastic 8-bit art design.

The music...well...

This is gonna generate a lot of hate, but the music really bugged me. Mega Man's music is regarded as some of the finest in the 8-bit era, but it's so high pitched and tinny that it was just unenjoyable. It was almost the feeling I got when playing an old Tiger Electronics handheld. Don't get me wrong, the melodies were very well written and masterfully constructed, but simply too high pitched to listen to. It's the type of game music that anyone else in the room would be immediately annoyed by.

Stuff I Loved: 

• Challenging and rewarding gameplay
• Wonderfully thought out character design
• Unique-for-its-time design

Stuff I Hated: 

• The freaking cyclops boss. I was forced to cheat.
• The music...sorry 

Overall, this is a beacon of fantastic 80's game design. Still fully enjoyable today by anyone who's got a taste for pain.

Finished: Mega Man 1 (Mega Man Anniversary Collection)

 

Completion Time: About four hours

Cheated: On the cyclops and Wily

Yes, one of my rules was to beat every game without cheating, but this was remarkably frustrating. The cyclops is ridiculously tough and time consuming to beat, and by the time I reached Wily, I was done with dying. 

The cheat works like this: If you pause and unpause the game while your shot is over the weak point of an enemy, the shot will count multiple times. The timing of the cheat itself takes some practice, but indeed, it is still cheating. But who cares? I beat it. Bam.

Mini Review coming shortly.

ARGGHHHHH!!!

THIS!

_

Up Next: MegaMan Anniversary Collection: MegaMan 1

This is gonna be a beast. MegaMan AC contains the first eight, excruciatingly difficult MegaMan games. I think what I'm gonna do is break this one up - since it's technically eight separate games, I'll play them one at a time and not try to take the whole disc down at once. Since its only one disc, it only counts as one game in my backlog, but if I don't break it up, I might kill something.

I just began MegaMan 1, and it's definitely hard, but not as hard as I remember. The game has infinite continues, so your progress through the six robot masters doesn't fall apart once you lose all your lives. Additionally, once you learn the timing and patterns of each level, they become a cinch - it's just the learning that makes people crazy.

I've got some free time tonight, so I may be able to beat the first one and move on to the second one if I'm up for it.

Let's do it! MegaMan 1 within MegaMan Anniversary Collection for PS2.

Review: Super Castlevania IV

When the Super Nintendo Entertainment System launched in 1991, it came with the renowned Super Mario World. However there were a few other titles available if you were a day-one purchaser, and Super Castlevania IV was one of them. For being one of the first games on a new system, it was in the spotlight - which means critiques would be particularly harsh if it bombed. Twenty years have passed since then, but the question remains the same - is this game worthy of your time and money?

Gameplay.
Super Castlevania IV's gameplay, like its design, is based very heavily on the first game in the series. Once again, you control Simon Belmont in his quest to kill Dracula. You'll be using the whip and special items just like you remember, and anyone who's played the first game, will instantly feel at home in this one. At the same time however, changes have been made that make the game significantly more fun to play than its older brothers.

First off, the special items. In the NES series, you had to press Up+B to use your special item. This worked OK until you were near a staircase and the game got confused - are you trying to go up the stairs or use your item? In SCIV, special items are thrown using the Y button. Much better.

One of the fantastic themed stages

 The jumping has also been improved. In the original, once you jumped in one direction, there was no changing it. No tweaks to make sure you landed in the right spot. While the jumping still feels stiff in SCIV, you can "course correct" in mid air - which makes for a lot less cheap deaths.

All in all the game controls the way you imagined the first one should have controlled. Smooth, intuitive, and fun.

The level design in this game is a real treat. There's a total of eleven levels - five taking place outside Castle Dracula and six within the confines of the fanged fascist's home. All of them are remarkable and the variety on display is simply jaw dropping. Levels like the gold-doubloon-laden haunted treasure trove or even the opening stage's lush, green garden really makes each stage stand out and gives each area a distinct identity.

The enemy design has been improved upon as well. No longer are you facing seemingly invincible knights, or an endless stream of Medusa heads. Sure those guys are still around, but have a much more recognizable pattern and can be dispatched much more easily. Which leads me to my only real complaint - it was a little too easy. I didn't use a single one of my infinite continues until, like, level 9.

When I finished the game I wondered why I didn't feel the same connection I did when I finished the first Castlevania. And I think its because the first one was so hard, that I was forced to memorize every single level and can even now probably draw maps that are pretty close to the design of those levels. In SCIV, aside from the last three stages, I only saw each level once.

Nit picking aside, the game is a genuine blast to play. The last few levels pose the perfect level of challenge and definitely left a good taste in my mouth.


Presentation.
Again, this being an SNES launch title, all eyes were on the game's graphics - so its a good thing that they are flippin fantastic. Everything animates smoothly, character models are large and well drawn, bosses are huge and detailed and the levels feature some of the best artwork on the system. The devs also did a little showin off with some of the stages - a famous stage where the background is spinning as if you're walking through a tunnel is particularly impressive for the hardware, but there are hundreds of little visual treats sprinkled throughout the experience.

Spinny Stage.

Then there's the music. Ohugh the music! Its so freakin good. The game's soundtrack consists of mostly original scores, but its sprinkled with 16-bit remixes, nay, reorchestrations to make the nostalgic little girl in all of us squeal just a bit.

Stuff I Loved:

• Completely overhauled controls make the game infinitely more enjoyable to play than its predecessors. 
• Beautifully and intricately designed stages make you look forward to each new level.
• The music is stunning

Stuff I Hated:

• Jumping controls, while improved, still felt stiff
• Relatively easy until the end 

Ultimately, what you're getting here is a fantastic reimagination of Castlevania. Its been finely tuned to be enjoyed buy a larger market, and everything about it screams "AAA product." Its a shame this game isn't mentioned more often in best classic games lists because it's definitely up there for me.

Review in Ten Words or Less: 
The blueprint of how to rerelease a game.