Talking About My Generation Games

Since it's NBA Draft Night and I'm in the mood of compiling my own selection of picks, I thought I shared my choices for IGN Game of the Generation Poll. I loved taking part in these polls and finding out the results even though IGN tend to be doing these Best of list almost every other month.

Now I gave quite a bit of thought as to which three games should make up the top 3 but not nearly as long for the rest on the list. Mostly I just knew the other games had to be there no matter what the order were, most were really early in the generation so no game had the benefit of making the list just because I recently played it. Well, except The Last of Us but I don't think anyone would argue it isn't a game for the generation.

1. Red Dead Redemption - Playstation 3

I wasn't as hyped up for this game when it came out, in fact I patiently waited for the GOTY edition before picking it up and really took my time to play and finish this. But it's pretty apparent this game did everything right even down to the DLC and multi-player mode. I was pleasantly surprised by how good the writing was, now I'm used to playing Japanese games so most of the time the story is just serviceable or sometimes things get lost in translation. Red Dead may be about outlaws and lowlifes but the conversations are never random babbling or meaningless chatters, and you don't have sit through a long cutscene most of the time too.

2. Super Mario Galaxy - Nintendo Wii

Mario 64 was my first 3D Mario game but it was years after release when I finally played it on the Nintendo DS. Let's just say the controls on the DS remake are not nearly as accurate as the original without an analog pad on the handheld. So Super Mario Galaxy was more like my first real taste of 3D Mario platform and the game works so well because Nintendo didn't just do a 3D version of conventional Mario platform levels like how the early 3D Castlevania games were.

3. Catherine - Playstation 3

This was a first day buy for me despite not having played much of Atlus' previous games. I bought this game after being intrigued by  the premise and characters but the only reason I replay this game is solely because of the addictive puzzle/block-climbing. In fact, I wish you could just skip all the evening drinking session because once you played through it once, those nightly sessions can be a chore.

If you look at the rest of my picks, you may think I deliberately left out any Capcom's games but the truth is, most of their game released this generation just weren't very good though Dead Rising is noteworthy exception.

Dressed to Kill

Part of the appeal of the No More Heroes games is you get to play dress-up with the main hero, fashioning his clothing style to your delight. All this comes at a price from the local airport 51 store but when you see your new garments in all its glory during the cutscenes you will made the extra effort to afford these new clothings.

A glitch in the second game threatens to ruin the experience as some of your purchases tend to disappear from the wardrobe forcing you to buy them again. It isn't detrimental to the game however and appears to be unavoidable considering how much of the game consists of dressing up Travis touchdown. If you don't focus on what GHM didn't improve in the second game you will surely be impressed with what they did, the environments don't look as sparse as in the first and the wardrobe has a nice set of options. Travis is certainly dressed to kill in NMH2 it's just a shame there wasn't a worthy opponent to kill anymore.

Unworthy Sequel

It's ironic that Grasshopper Manufacture enjoy making toilet references in No More Heroes when it's starting to reflect the quality of their games, this sequel truly feels like a pile of crap! At first I wasn't really sure but now that I have finished the game I'm utterly convinced that the sequel is a poor follow-up to the first Heroes game.

The lame assemble of assassin is one thing, what happened to the cool introduction where their names splashed across the screen with a creepy silhouette of the assassin in the background? Also GHM clearly needs to watch more revenge movies because the vengeance plot in Desperate Struggle is about the lamest I have seen. This game took more than six months after its release to make its Japan release, perhaps GHM knew what they had in their hands with this game. Hopefully Suda 51 will be inspired by Nintendo forthcoming new hardware to come up with a better sequel as the first game was clearly inspired by the Nintendo Wii unique wii-mote.

Less Means More or Less?

No More Heroes was one of the early favourites on the Nintendo Wii platform but as time grows the "series" began to lose its charm with me. It's a real shame as the first No More Heroes still sits at the top of my longest playing time list on the Nintendo Channel, something I suspected will not change for a while until I find the time to pick up playing Monster Hunter Tri again.

It started when the game made an appearance on other consoles as a high -def port of the Nintendo Wii original. This was right around the time when Grasshopper Manufacture were about to release the sequel Desperate Struggle on the Nintendo Wii, a sequel which Suda 51 had earlier decided to step away from the directing duties and instead served as a executive director. Understandably, it caused quite a damper in my excitement for the game despite the glowing reviews early on.

Now that I have the game, I can finally see how much better this sequel supposedly is compared with the original. The most obvious difference when you first start playing is the world hub from the original is completely gone, every location in Santa Destroy is now a button click away with a loading screen in between. There are a lot of loading time maybe because the playing time on each mini-game is so brief especially if you fail, you spent very little time actually playing the "real" Travis Touchdown. A sequel is expected to have more content than the original but somehow I can't tell if that's the case for Desperate Struggle, a startling discovery considering how much content was in the first game.

Last Hurrah for Touchdown

Although there have only been two No More Heroes games so far the series has always been about Travis Touchdown to me. Kinda like how Al Pacino's Tony Montana made Scarface into one of the best mob movie ever, it hard to imagine how either one would fare without their central character. The first No More Heroes game was a very average game when striped to its bare-bones and mind you, there isn't even that much meat on the bone to begin with. It has a couple of things that made it stand out though like a killer soundtrack, good voice casting and of course, Travis touchdown.

Suda was mentioned that No More Heroes 2 will probably be the last one appearing on the Wii platform and also travis touchdown's final appearance. Any future installment will have to wait for Nintendo's next-gen console and will not feature travis as the central character. Things have changed quite a bit since the first No More Heroes game, there weren't so many third-party games on the Wii platform back there. Now that I finally have my copy of NMH2 I can finally see how it stacks up against today's third-party games, hopefully Suda and co have given travis a proper send off that he deserves...

...and have him killed off at the start of NMH3 in a totally-irrelevant manner like only Suda can.

One at a Time

I have a habit of not leaving my games unfinished before moving on to the next one, whether it's a game i have played before or for the first time. To me it's a meticulous process of figuring what to play now, when i would roughly finish and what would be next. Of course along the way, new games come in to the picture and i have to change my schedule to suit everything but often than not, the process is very satisfying. What i'm currently playing would be influenced by what interests me right now and that in turn will influence what i play on the other platform as well. It sure sounds like a lot of thought and work is put into this but i realised i tend to get the most out of the games by playing them in the right order at the right time.

For instance i could have just leave No More Heroes aside when i got hold of my copy of Madworld but i decided to play Yasumi Matsuno earlier hit Vagrant Story instead in the mean time. The timing was just right as i doubt i will have any desire to play Vagrant Story again in the foreseeable future. Now that i have finished NMH, it worked out pretty well with July being a big month for my favourite comic books and a game as artistic-influenced by comic books as Madworld.

Separate Opinion

Now that i have finished No More Heroes i can really sink my teeth into RE4 Wii edition to see how much better it's compared with the Gamecube version. With the help of some save files on gamefaqs, i was able to unlock everything from the go and immediately jump into Assignment Ada and Separate Ways. True enough, Assignment Ada does feature knife attacks now so it's possible for RE fanatics to do their knife-runs. As much as i liked the Wii controls i also notice it makes the game almost too easy to play, aiming is second nature and you can switch back and forth between knife attack instantaneously. I didn't even get hit one bit by krauser during my first run on assignment ada which i usually struggled before.

Separate Ways is definitely re-built from the ground up using the Gamecube engine so everything looks on par with the rest of the game. I have heard that ada model is ripped definitely from the ps2 version without any enhancements so that could possibly be the only downside of this Wii edition. The cutscenes are also in FMV like the ps2 version but since Separate Ways doesn't feature any alternative costume, it's not such a major issue. It has taken me a long time to finally play the Wii edition but i'm glad the time is finally here since i told myself i won't bother with it until i'm on LCD display.

Reality Bites

I used to think No More Heroes was a pretty easy game so much so that i didn't give it a second thought whether or not i could actually finish it on Bitter mode. Finishing the Bitter mode however has managed to send my (gamer) ego come crashing back to reality and nearly reduce me to tears. Ok maybe not that but i easily spent over 5 hours to dispose of both Bad Girl and Jeanne as both boss fight require a heavy dose of patience especially if you tend to be very careful. I have certainly come to appreciate the game and the intricacy boss fights a lot more, something that would have been lost on an easier mode as you can basically button-mash your way through them.

I remember when finishing DMC4 on Hard mode i got message screen with a rather cheeky remark about how you are not just a casual gamer after all. These days i try to get the most out of my games so playing it first on a cheap easy mode is another way of prolonging the life of these games. Action games tend to have a pretty short playing time so looks like it's the ribbon of disgrace for now in Ninja Gaiden Sigma.

Hubba Hubba

Playing No More Heroes got me looking forward to the sequel, will Desperate Struggle feature a new HUB? While it's entirely possible to Travis to get out of his small apartment in Santa Destroy, it would be a bit sad to see it go. I'm completely fine if GHM retains Santa Destroy while opening out new location and stores in the town ala the Shinjuku HUB in Yakuza 2. I'm beginning to grow fond of those sadistic one-hit kill missions too so hopefully they will scatter some more of those side mission in NMH2 hub.

Wii Deserve Better

Now that i have the proper HD TV setup that i have been longing for i can finally play the ps3 like it was meant to be played. In the process i also couldn't resist hooking up my Wii to it as well despite the Wii not being a pure HD console. Actually with some decent component cables, the Wii doesn't look too bad on a LCD screen from my early playtest of No More Heroes. The same unfortunately cannot be said of Gamecube game running on the Wii, Resident Evil 4 NGC looks absolutely terrible with letterbox borders and a very blurry image compared with NMH. I'm sure not all Gamecube games looked this bad as Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes demo theatre looked pretty dazzling with progressive scan mode on. I'm tempted to switch over to my Wii edition of RE4 to see if it's any better now that i'm on LCD display but i'm already halfway through professional mode so i'll try to make it as quick and painless as possible. These are some of the games i have tested on the new display over the weekend, the best part of it all is seeing them again and how much better they looked on LCD display.

Second Opinion on NMH

I went back to playing No More Heroes in an effort to finish up my remaining batteries as soon as possible. It's been probably over a year since i last touched it, i was surprised to learn that i only spent a little over 18 hours in my first go especially since i clocked more than 40 hours on a much shorter game like Umbrella Chronicles. I still think the graphics looked great, cel-shading can do a lot to mask the technical limitations of a console and none is more apparent than here. I remember reading somewhere that NMH had ps2 standard graphics but i sincerely don't feel like that's the case.

I do agree that the game controls aren't very precise, some say you can play the game with your back to the screen, just wave the motes aimlessly and still can get by. I do believe that is possible, even more now that i'm playing on hard mode and still barely struggling despite the long lay-off. There are a lot of room for improvement so hopefully we get to see how far the sequel is coming along in the upcoming E3.

Wii love Suda

and Suda51 loves Nintendo. Sure it's probably a business strategy for Grasshopper Manufacture to develop games for Nintendo given its relatively low development cost and large user base but over the years, Nintendo has played host to some of Suda's finest work.

killer7, Suda's US debut was originally meant to be a Gamecube exclusive before Capcom started with their multiplatform strategy but the Gamecube version remained as arguably the definitive version of Suda's debut. No More Heroes, a sort of spiritual sequel to killer7 is Nintendo Wii exclusive and still reigns as one of the finest third party action games on the platform. Fatal Frame VI, another love child of Suda and Nintendo collaboration was recently released in Japan to favourable reviews.

Now, the Nintendo DS is about to play host to another Suda game, Flower, Sun and Rain, a Playstation2 title originally available only in Japan, completely remade from the ground up for Nintendo's popular handheld.I have seen the demo of the game and frankly, the 3D engine for the DS version looks like an early PSOne game it certainly looks like the developers are taking a lot of constraints in shrinking this Playstion2 title to the Nintendo DS. It still looks mighty enticing and being a Nintendo fan, it looks like i'm going to have to get used to being compromised as the Wii developers at Capcom are apparently facing major hurdles too in bringing Dead Rising to Nintendo Wii.

Reflections

One unexpected turn after another, the Playstation3 is finally in my possession! Though things did not turn out exactly as how i expected, i think everything worked out pretty well at the end.

I got to enjoy a nine months of bliss devotely playing my Nintendo Wii at which time, it felt like i just got two new consoles both at the same time (Gamecube and Wii). During that time, finally getting the chance to play Nintendo-exclusive games like Resident Evil Remake and Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes seems far more surreal than any recent gaming experience. I think i manage to cover quite a lot of ground as far as Gamecube games goes and now can look forward to the future great titles for the Wii. The disappointing showing of Captivate 08 did got me concerned about the Nintendo Wii future as far as third party games are concerned however No More Heroes will likely remained as my Game of the Year. No doubt getting the Nintendo Wii nine months ago was a wise decision, it help filled a gaming void at a point which i was getting saturated with Playstation2 titles and was not ready to make the jump to HD gaming.

Getting Playstation 3 now ensures that i should have a healthy flow of new games to play all the way till the end of the year. Not forgetting the highly-sought after backwards compartiblity will allow me to go back and replay earlier games in anticipation for their next-gen sequels. Devil May Cry 4 and Metal Gear Solid 4 are more than enough to keep my hands full up until the end of the year when Fatal Frame IV is likely to be released. Gaming for 2008 looks to be exciting for this fanboy, if only there are more hours in a day to play all of them !

The First Time

Remember what's the very first game you bought for your new console? well i do, in fact most of the time the first game i get for my new consoles will probably raise a couple of eyebrows. it's not that i'm trying to be different by buying something else but most of the time, i end up buying a new console in advance before the game i originally got the console for is out and therefore, i end up buying some other game in the meantime to fill up my time. The first game i got for my Nintendo DS? Viewtiful Joe Double Trouble ! Hardly a memorable DS title now, but back then i was really curious what kinda graphics the Nintendo DS could pull off and Clover Studio portable adaption of their hit franchise does seems to stretch the Nintendo DS graphic capabilities and stylus gameplay. When i got my Sony PSP, the first ever UMD i got was Metal Gear Solid: Digital Novel. I know it's not even a game but this quirky idea of reading a graphic novel on a PSP along with Silent Hill Experience was what initially got me interested in the system.

By the time i got around to getting my Nintendo Wii, i had a lot of catching up to do because my goal right from the beginning was to play as many Gamecube games as possible before the Wii catalogue starts to pick up steam, much like what happened with the Nintendo DS after the first launch year. Some may think it's a bit silly to pay so much for a Wii only to play Gamecube games but if it saves me the trouble of having another console around and offers me the same experience as playing it on it's original platform then i'm in. I was lucky enough to find a non-Player's Choice version of the Resident Evil Gamecube Remake and ended up finding most of the Gamecube titles i originally set out to get, save perhaps the Gamecube version of Viewtiful Joe. Of course i eventually started playing Wii games too though i still only have two miserable Wii titles (not including bundled games) despite getting the system more than five months ago. My first real Wii title was Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles which while was fairly entertaining, is a couple of notches below No More Heroes, my second Wii title. I have a feeling the best is yet to come for the Nintendo Wii and i look forward to see what Capcom and Konami will bring to Nintendo system.

Looking back, i guess the first game for your new console is kinda like your first love it may not be the best you have experienced but it's one that you will surely remember for life. Either that or i'm just a sentimental sap even when it comes to games...

Get Real

Having finished No More Heroes recently, i was thoroughly satisfied with the game and honestly felt a little empty now that i got no game left to play. I must stressed that i only manage to obtain the normal ending though the real ending is fairly easy to unlock, i decided to put it off for a while and play some other games. You see, i actually have two approach when it comes to playing and finishing games, firstly there are games that i know i will only play once and therefore try my very best to unlock and see everything in my first go. Then there are games which i know i will eventually go back to one day and play them again, in which case i will normally leave certain 'things' behind, sometimes intentionally so that when i do get around to playing them again, there are always new stuff to unlock and look forward to. In this case, i intentionally didn't purchase the third and final beam katana in No More Heroes which i heard was necessary in order to unlock the real ending of the game. Of course during then i had no idea that move would lead to such events but it turned out to be a beautiful revelation after all, since i do intend on replaying No More Heroes again even more so since i currently lack a vast selection of games to play on my Wii.

Unfortunately in most case however, me intentionally leaving certain parts of my favourite games unresolved has resulted in never getting around to seeing or fully experiencing the game as more and more new games are released and i find myself having less and less time to go back and replaying them. Sigh as you can see this has become somewhat of a double-edged sword and i shall leave you guys with this one last image of another game which i always remind myself to replay but have yet to get around to it...

Wii Need More Games Like These

Some say only Nintendo first-party games will continue to sell well on Nintendo Wii system. Well, we have the likes of Suda 51 to thank for at least trying to prove them wrong. Upon hearing that the game have finally arrived at my local game store, i "camped" outside of the shopping mall this morning in an illegal parking spot no less, waiting patiently for them to open their doors. I couldn't wait to play this game and more importantly i wanted to do my part and support the sales of this title. I can't think of a game i would rather play right now, in fact i was hooked pretty much when i first saw the teaser trailer of the game revealed. Of course, shortly after that the game went into hiding as development ramped up and since i thought i had little hopes of playing it then without a Wii, I just put it under my 'one to watch' list.

The game has been out for a few weeks in the states now having earlier debut in the Japanese market to poor sales about a month back. The sales figures in the US are much better, selling 100,000 units to japan's 40,000 units. Though better, those are hardly chart-topping figures to say and Nintendo non-believers are quick to point out that the game should have been released on Sony/Mircosoft system to ensure it reaches out to the right market rather than Nintendo's supposedly "casual" gamers. I disagree as Suda 51 has always had a track record of developing and releasing cult games to poor sales, if he was given the resources to develop this on a system like PS3 which required a lot more development cost, he would probably be reduced to selling toilet paper for real with sales figures like this. Putting it out on the Wii allows Grasshopper to keep development cost down while reaching out to the widest audiences of this generation's console. Well this game is on track to becoming Suda's best selling game so far and i look forward to playing it and seeing what else is in store for us from his Grasshopper studios.

Something old, something new, something doubled

Every year around this time, i will be away in Singapore to visit my relatives during the festive Chinese New Year. I will also find the time to dropby some of my favourite game stores (assuming they are opened for business) to pick up some games. This year is no different, my haul this trip consist of well, games that i have mainly played/owned already but decided nevertheless to upgrade my current existing copy. I got myself a Gamecube version of Suda51's cult classic killer7, having already beaten the game sometime back on my playstation2. This is basically to drum up some excitement for Suda's newest Wii game No More Heroes as well as to own the definitive version of this game as many have commented the Gamecube version is far superior to the playstation2 version. Not much of a surprise seeing that the game was originally announced as a Gamecube exclusive and development on the platform was well underway before Capcom decided to announce the game on the playstation2 platform. If you never played killer7, it's basically a surreal action-adventure with a lot of style and quirky memorable characters, which seems to be a prevalent style of Suda's now. The game received a lot of criticism back then for it's over-simplistic gameplay but kept fans and critics guessing with it's convoluted storyline and characters. In fact from what i seen of No More Heroes so far, a lot of the criticism for killer7 seems to be addressed in NMH as it looks like a gamey version of killer7 with the same blend of quirky off-beat characters. Speaking of No More Heroes, i did do some fair searching about for the game despite hearing rumours that the game was reportedly banned in Singapore for its violence. Heck i even tried asked some retailers just to see what kinda of response or reaction i will get. Amusingly enough, when asked most of the retailers just response in a whisperly voice "oh we don't have the game or no more stock" like it's a taboo to even talk about it in the open.

I also happened to pick up another Gamecube exclusive, Resident Evil Zero which i earlier played a pre-owned copy just before tackling Umbrella Chronicles. Call it rash, call it paranoid i just wasn't sure if i was able tofind a non-Player's Choice version of this game at that time and decided not to take any chances. I guess my opinion of the game was that i like it enough to buy a sealed copy to replace my existing copy, now i just have to figure out what to do with the other one....

One thing that wasn't on my list was UMD movie for my PSP, yes i have a PSP for close to two years now but have never used it to watch any movies before. Blame it on Sony's insistence to have region-lock on the UMD movie format, i just wasn't able to find any decent region3 UMD for my PSP up till now. The Gramophone in City Hall had a couple of UMD videos tucked away next to their Blue-ray selections and i thought it was too good of an oppurtunity to pass up. A bit implusive, but i can't wait to see King Kong on my PSP, especially since i haven't watched the movie before.

Finally i thought i closed my recap of my Singapore trip with a cover of the latest EGM issue Singapore edition. That's right, Singapore has a gaming community big enough to warrant a localization of the famous videogame magazine, though if you actually pay attention and read the contents it's hard to tell the difference. i always make it a point to pick up a copy whenever i'm there as a keepsake/momento of my trip and this month edition feature a 11-page on the upcoming Street Fighter IV, keep the faith everyone Capcom will deliver!

No More Battery Power.....

Apparently the Wii-mote batteries aren't even enough to last through an entire game as it just ran out of juice, 10 hours into Umbrella Chronicles. Ouch, the painful feeling of having to spend on batteries for a home console is unbearable, even handheld comes with built-in lithium-ion battery these days! In the wake of this, i decided to go back to playing Resident Evil 4 Gamecube version in anticipation for the Wii edition i ordered recently. Having Leon in his Resident Evil 2 RPD uniform throughout the game (and cutscenes too, take that PS2!) is a nice nostalgic trip back to RE2, I still remember playing it on my beat-up computer years back, unable to view the FMVs properly as my specs were even up to the minimum requirements. I would later beat the game on the Playstation again and even finish the 4th survivor a few times too.

Some games just never, ever gets old....

The Resident Evil 2 Gamecube port just gets more enticing everyday, perhaps i should just order it along with killer7 Gamecube in time for Suda51's latest opus No More Heroes? Aah Capcom, i'm forever a slave to your scheming ways.....