State of the Steke Address

My fellow gamers, heck yeah, I’m back!  I recently finished up the second of my collegiate degrees – again with little or no prospect of actually pursuing a career with said degree.  Now that that is over with we can get back to the important things in life:  Videogames, Lego, Running, Friends.  Awesome.

It’s been nearly a year since I last posted.  Ironically, it was a self-reflection post about getting my ass in gear and rejuvenating my passion for the things I like to do.  Well… then the final semester of an engineering degree took hold and doing things I like went out the window.

However I did play some games since last February and, much to my own surprise, most were pretty good.  That said – Time for the Rapid Fire Bonus Round

Round 1: StarCraft 2

I finally caved and bought it, then proceeded to easily sink about 200 hours into it.  I’ve beaten the campaign several times on the hardest setting and played on ladder for two or three seasons (I’m a pretty poor player, in most respects – mid to high silver at my best).

Needless to say, I love the game and still spend at least an hour a day either watching pro level casts or playing. 

Round 2:  Kirby’s Epic Yarn

Kirby is a nice title for the Wii with a very unique and original presentation.  While playing Epic Yarn, I was constantly marveling its creativity and outstanding level design.  At numerous points in the game I commented, ‘This is how you make a 2-D side scroller!’  My only complaint was the absence of challenge, as it is impossible to die and getting the various medals for each level is pretty stinking easy. 

Not exactly what you see everyday

Round 3:  Donkey Kong Country Returns

Fan-freaking-tastic!  I loved DKCR!  Throughout the entire game I was amazed at pretty much all of it.  I constantly commented, ‘Screw Kirby, now THIS is how you make a 2-D side scroller!’  The music, graphics, play control, challenge, everything was all top notch.  DKCR easily makes it high on my best games of all-time list.  Very awesome.

So effen' sweet!

 

Round 4:  Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Okay.  Let’s get this straight.  The Uncharted games are all really good.  They are fun, cinematic, challenging, and have a truly adventurous feel to them.  Uncharted 3 is no different.  Each of the different environments is exquisitely presented, vary dramatically from one another (and from previous games), and a blast to play.  However, I feel that the story linking each of the different set pieces lacked a certain… umph, and simply served to get us from one action scene to another.  Plus, I was very disappointed in the ending.  Seriously, I feel like I shot a rope and that was it – end of story.  I enjoyed playing Uncharted 3, but was left feeling a bit hungry.

Round 5:  Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

This is the fourth of the metroidvania-style games I’ve played, and to be honest, is my least favorite.  It was fun and got me just as addicted as the others, but I didn’t quite dig the art style or feel that the ‘castle’ map was very intriguing.  I’d recommend it for fans of the series, but not to new-comers (I’d have them play Symphony of the Night – so awesome!).

Round 6:  Gaia Seed

Let me tell a bit of a story.  I love 2-D shooters.  It kills me that the genre is all but dead.  So, when I was reading Destructoid a while back and saw a mini-review of an old PS1 era Japanese 2-D shooter, I was intrigued.  When the reviewer stated that Gaia Seed, ‘was probably one of the best 2-D shooters ever..’ I was obsessed.  I hurried over to the PlayStation Store and the description of the game confirmed that Gaia Seed, ‘…is widely touted as one of the best side-scrolling shooters ever…’  Hurry up and take my money!

Then I played it.  Uh, what?  Am I missing something?  I beat the game on my second play-through, beat it on one credit on my third, and got the ‘good’ ending on my fifth (It took me to my fifth only because the game tricks you into getting the bad ending).  The graphics look like a late generation SNES game, the music is unremarkable, the power-up system is weak, and the levels lack challenge.  Maybe I’m missing something, but Gaia Seed is nowhere near the best shooter ever made.  This game, it kinda sucks.   

That's some serious epicness... for serious?

                                        

State of the Steke:

See, I do play games every once in a while!  Let’s take a look at the stats:

Games Owned:  329

Games Finished:  132

Percentage:  40.1%

Progress to Date:  Present, but not quite visible to the human eye

Just Beat: New Super Mario Bros. Wii

My fellow gamers, I wish I had an excuse for my lack of activity on this esteemed publication that follows my path to gaming glory. The truth is that I have been… uh… distracted; distracted by life (which has been pretty treating me pretty awesome, I might add).

This does not mean that I haven’t been playing anything. I have beaten a couple of games and been playing another few pretty extensively. The two games I have beaten deserve more than just a quick gloss over, so each will (hopefully) get a full and equal treatment, so without further wasted words:

New Super Mario Bros Wii

Let me tell you what I remember.

I remember that a majority of my childhood was spent playing Super Mario Bros 3.

I also remember that SMB3 is easily on of my top ten games of all time. It's damn near the closest thing to perfection from the 8-bit era.

Given that New Super Mario Bros Wii is directly inspired by SMB3, I suppose I was the target audience. Additionally, the nostalgia that sold me the game might also be responsible for my reaction: I freaking love New Super Mario Bros Wii! (NSMBW? how is it the acronym is almost more cumbersome than the actual title?)

Here’s what I liked:

1) Classic Approach: SMB3 changed the Mario paradigm by not simply advancing the player level by level, but incorporating a sort of overworld. This allowed a player to choose their path, route around difficult levels, and find secrets and bonuses. NSMBW returned to this style, complete with Mushroom houses, bonuses, hidden paths, and varying routes.

2) Play Style: This is traditional Mario play style with innovative, creative, and flat out entertaining side scrolling levels. Simply put, I really enjoyed almost all the levels. Each was unique and reflected the respective theme of the world in which it was located. Additionally, there was plenty of familiar enemies and terrain, but each level also contained a healthy mix of new and just plain cool stuff. The best example of cool new shit is in World 8, the new lava and volcano based hazards are crazy… crazy awesome!

3) Airships: In the first world, I was a bit disappointed that it ended simply with a castle and lacked an airship battle, like in SMB3. However, this only made my excitement even greater when I discovered there were indeed airship levels (and they even had a sweet updated version of the original music)!

4) The Final Battle: I’m not going to spoil this one. If you’ve played it: you know what I’m talking about. I’ll simply say, I did not see that coming and it was Awesome!

5) Challenge: The game rewards you for finding all the star coins in each level and beating all the levels. The difficulty in accomplishing this varies on the level and your own personal standards. For the more difficult locations for star coins and secret levels, one can usually go to the Mushroom Kingdom Palace and watch one of the many hint videos, which are less like hints and more like flat out cheating. However, if you resist the urge to head to the videos for a coin you can’t find, the feeling of accomplishment can be very satisfying.

While I thoroughly enjoyed NSMBW, I did find some flaws in the game. Here’s what I didn’t like:

1) Challenge: NSMBW is easy. I mean really easy. I accumulated 99 lives by World 3 without even trying. Only a few levels in the game actually pose some sort of challenge, and those are mainly the bonus levels in World 9 (and of those... 9-7 is flat out brutal). But, the rest of the game is a relative cake walk. I don’t like how a vast majority of the challenge in NSMBW is wrapped up in the collection of star coins or finding the secret levels.

9-7, the exception to the 'too easy' complaint...

2) Power Ups: Most of the power-ups in NSMBW just plain suck. The propeller cap is so powerful it reduces 95% of all the levels to all kinds of easy. Meanwhile, the remaining power-ups are only useful for the specific areas for which they were designed. All I really want is a Racoon or Tanooki Suit and a Hammer Brothers Suit. Is that too much to ask? Oh, I would also have really liked to see a level or two sporting a goomba shoe. I loved that thing…

Oh, it's on now!

3) Multiplayer: Nintendo billed the four-player aspect of NSMBW as the primary feature, and honestly, it sucks. First, the mechanics of multiplayer just don’t seem… right. The way the characters interact and react to hitting each other seems way too loose and over exaggerated. I suppose if a dedicated group of people spent a ton of time planning and practicing, the result would be in some truly epic youtube videos. But, if you simply want to sit down and have some fun with friends for a few hours, go play Mortal Kombat or something.

4) Multiplayer, Again: Why am I stuck with Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Another Toad!? Seriously. With the massive wealth of characters available to choose from, why are we stuck with the lamest three choices in the entire Mario universe? Remember how Mario 2 sucked? Yeah, well at least they had four characters to choose from, each of which had a unique trait that distinguished them from the others. Why didn’t NSMBW follow that model? And don’t tell me it would ‘unbalance’ the game. This isn’t competitive, professional gaming. This isn’t Starcraft or Marvel vs Capcom, this is Mario. It’s already insanely easy, why not spice it up. Let me play as Peach. Yes, I know the point is to rescue Peach, but gloss that over with some convenient explanation and put her in the game. Or Daisy. Or, hell, let me play as Bowser. Or Yoshi. That would be interesting: Player One as Mario, Player Two as Yoshi. That could lead to some pretty inovative cooperation. At least make some of these characters unlockable. How about instead of getting gold stars (or even the glowing gold stars for doing a super good job…) for beating all the levels and getting star coins you get additional characters? That could be fun. The point is that Nintendo phoned in Multiplayer in virtually every respect. It sucks and I really don’t think I’ll ever play it again.

However, despite the flaws in NSMBW, I loved it. It was enough nostalgia mixed with some really awesome levels with creative and fun platforming. Yes, it wasn’t a big challenge. But it was a blast to play and kept my attention long enough to completely play through it twice in a row. And in my book, that’s the biggest complement a game can get.

Current State of the Steke:

Games Owned: 305
Games Finished: 121
Percentage: 39.7%
Progress to Date: Embarrassing

State of the Steke Address

My fellow gamers, first I would like to thank the two of you for reading this web-zone. Your patriotism to Steke the Geek is admirable, although likely misplaced. I am deeply regretful of my inability to post anything for the past quarter of a year. One of you may believe that it was a result of how bad Super Mario Bros 2 is. While the craptasticness of that poor excuse of a Mario game may have crushed a weaker gamer’s soul, rest assured that I survived and have moved on to better things.

It turns out that deciding, on a whim, to go back to college is taking a bit more of my time than I anticipated. As a result, gaming for this fiscal quarter has been down. However, some slight progress was made. So, let’s get to it! To save some time, we’re going into the Rapid-Fire Bonus Round!

Round 1: Soldner X and Soldner X-2

A long time ago there were these awesome games that we used to call shooters. This was before the host of crappy military/space-marine first person shooters stole that name for their own. No, this was when the 2-D, side-scrolling space shooter held the title. Unfortunately, this genre is all but dead. Occasionally, a new 2-D shooter crops up, but they are few and far between. And the ones we do get are all too often eastern bullet-hell imports that are essentially impossibly unless you happed to by Jimmy from The Wizard or Japanese.

Bullet Hell: I'd last 3 to 4 seconds; Japanese schoolgirls last 45 minutes, playing one handed while talking on their cell phones

Fortunately, for us non-Japanese, non-savant gamers, we’ve been given Solder X and its brilliantly named sequel Soldner X-2. Since this is the Rapid-Fire Bonus Round (RFBR?), here’s the quick and dirty:

A) These games are awesome
B) Yeah, they’ve got some glitches, but nothing you can’t overlook as they are independently produced games for dirt cheap.
C) The gameplay mechanic has greater depth than ‘just hold down the fire button,’ which leads to a surprising amount of strategy and requires a little bit of forethought
D) Soldner X-2 is a game with ‘X-2’ in the title that I actually want to play

And one I do NOT want to play

E) They are graphically stunning, with lots of pretty colors
F) The Challenge Mode in X-2 is addictive, time consuming, and tons of fun
G) Did I mention these games are awesome?

Yeah, so I liked them.

Round 2: Vanquish

For some reason, Vanquish appealed to me when I saw the initial previews. It completely isn’t my type of game: third person shooter, standard cover mechanic, Gears of War clone in a Halo type setting. It’s all very, um, average. It wasn’t necessarily bad and I had fun… it was just rather unremarkable. The only thing that sort of sets it apart from the other bajillion games just like it is the suit mechanic. Your suit has several unique features that can greatly aid you in battle. Most notably is the ability to go into matrix style bullet time, which actually allows me to aim somewhat effectively (because otherwise, I can’t hit shit). A futuristic action game with a bad-ass protagonist in an awesome suit? Yeah that reminds me of something else I would rather play…

Hint: It starts with 'M' and ends with 'etroid'

Round 3: Muramasa: The Demon Blade

I love Muramasa. Everything about this game oozes style. The beautiful watercolor style graphics, the distinctly Japanese character and level design, the sub-titled and not-dubbed over Japanese voice acting; everything adds to an overall world in which the player can truly become lost.

Style...

There are two different story arcs to play through each with unique main characters and sets of weaponry. This adds a nice bit of replayability, but beyond an additional difficulty level unlocked upon beating the game and optional Monster Lair battles, there isn't a lot gameplay-wise to bring a player back. What will bring me back for future playthroughs is the presentation. Yeah, the game is fun, but the shear awesomeness of the game's style creates an overall experience that makes me want to replay it.

Even More Style...

Round 4: Mortal Kombat

One reviewer of Mortal Kombat mentioned that no one seems to be able to review the game without reflecting on their own personal history with the series. I don’t think I can break that pattern. I essentially grew up playing MK 1 through 3. I followed the mythology and read the strategy guides. I loved the series and that affair culminated with MK3. Patrick Curtis and I used to rage against each other in MK 3 on his Sega Genesis all those years ago. Smoke and Sub-Zero were our main guys and we would go head to head for hours.

While the past-Steke I just described is who this game is made for, the true genius behind Mortal Kombat is how accessible it is for newcomers. MK virgins don’t have to worry about not knowing the moves: in-game tutorials; the availability of move lists in the pause menu; and the switching of primary characters in the story and challenge modes all combine to give a comprehensive introduction to the game mechanics. Additionally, the story mode (in a fighting game!? and it's actually good!?) cleverly retells the story arc of MK 1 through 3. This eliminates the burden of trying to understand the increasingly convoluted mess that became of the MK storyline through the later games. For us old-schoolers, the new story has plenty of nods and connections to the previous games, which makes me very happy.

Soooooo Awesome!

The total package for Mortal Kombat is incredible. The story mode is challenging and takes maybe ten or so hours to beat, there is standard arcade ladders (like traditional fighting games), 2v2 matches are now included (and implemented very well, not just a throwaway add-in), the challenge mode is a 200 level tower with a ton of variety, there are numerous unlockables (of which most are worthless, except for the alternate costumes and additional fatalities), and the online component is implemented better than every other fighting game I’ve played.

So, I guess you could say I liked it.

And that brings us to the end of the Rapid-Fire Bonus Round. Some good games have been played, and all of them way better than Mario 2. I suppose that my faith in humanity has been somewhat restored.

State of the Steke:

From now on, I’d like to finish every gaming post with the State of the Steke. This is just a quick breakdown of my games owned to games beaten. After all, the whole point of this (pointless) blog is for it to track the journey through my very substantial backlog of games.

Games Owned: 303
Games Finished: 120
Percentage: 39.6%
Progress to Date: Abysmal