Video Games – Page 95

Mass Review Time – Fargo ’08

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It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these mass review articles (usually they’re just blogged). More importantly, it’s been a while since I’ve done an article at all. Much to my own dismay, a cheap mass review is not way to worm my way back into the game, but it’s all I’ve really got the gumption to work on at the moment. It’s not that I don’t want to write articles anymore, it’s just that there are so many other things I want to do more. And even more things I need to be doing.

But I digress. Blabbing about why I’m no longer writing full-length pieces is not today’s topic! But rather I’m here to discuss money well spent? I decided to end that sentence with a question mark because at this point I still can’t gauge the actual quality of most of the products below. I just bought most of them through good word-of-mouth and personal tastes. In fact, I’m pretty sure that at least a couple would be considered complete garbage by the general population, but we’ll see!

So the bonus theme here is that I picked up all this stuff when my girlfriend and I went away to Fargo(, North Dakota) for the weekend. I did a little photo gallery with commentary of last year’s trip south of the border (see sidebar), so maybe you’ll prefer that one if you’re looking for an article with a little more meat on its bones. Also, certainty. This here article, as of this writing, is pretty much all assumptions. It’s built on the hopes and dreams of millions! …Or maybe just me.

• Item #1

Tesla – Five Man Acoustical Jam

Okay, I know said it was all assumptions from here on in, but I’m starting with something I know is awesome: Tesla. I’ve been listening to Tesla for many, many years now, and sadly, I’ve only ever been able to find one of their CDs in any local stores. Thus, I often take it upon myself to scour the multimedia-type shops south of the border for anything I can find by them. This time I got real lucky, finding the two Tesla discs I was really gunning for. Five Man Acoustical Jam is obviously enough, a recording of a live acoustic show. It’s one of very few Tesla albums that I haven’t downloaded, so jackpot!

In other news, it’s completely awesome. Tesla is a great band, and they made their name through their acoustic prowess, so the only logical conclusion is that this album must rule. And rule it does. Don’t know what else there is to say other than I love it. Score: A

• Item #2

Tesla – The Great Radio Controversy

I know it seems silly that I only bought two Tesla CDs while I was down there, and now that I really think about it, I probably am really silly for it. I mean, I probably could have completed the full discography, but I stopped looking after I picked up these two.

Unlike its lovably live cousin above, The Great Radio Controversy is a studio album, but that means little. The Tesla-loving community largely believes this to be their finest work, and I’m not one to argue. It’s everything that makes Tesla great (minus the “awesome live performers” bit), and while it may not rock quite as hard as Psychotic Supper, it rocks just as well or better. Two thumbs up. Score: A

• Item #3

Mega Man Star Force 2

Yeah, I know you’re groaning right now and about to skip this paragraph, but that’s quite alright. You put up with more than enough of my Mega Man nonsense that you deserve a break from it if you can find one here or there. So go ahead and move on to the next item if you’ve gotten sick of hearing me rave about Mega Man.

For those that care, Star Force is the dual-screened big brother to the MegaMan Battle Network games. It seems like it’ll be following the same “new chapter every summer” release schedule that Battle Network had. I played the first one almost to completion last summer (I didn’t beat the final optional boss), and I was surprised to see this one in stores because honestly, I had no idea it was out. so I picked it up, and I’ve got to say, it’s most certainly not as big a step up from the first as Battle Network 2 was to its predecessor. I mean, I’m enjoying the game, but it hasn’t offered anything that improves on the first game. Well, not enough to make it feel exciting and new anyway. Score: C+

• Item #4

Etrian Odyssey 2: Heroes of Lagaard

As soon as I’d finally stopped flip-flopping on whether I wanted the first Etrian Odyssey or not, it had long since become impossible to find at retail. I was afraid EO2 would see a similar fate (despite being a new release), but after searching each and every store that sells video games in Fargo, I gave up and checked GameStop. As much as I generally loathe the GameStop/EB chain, it has to be said that they do actually carry Atlus games, and as a fan of Atlus’ niche titles, that scores some decent points in my book.

Anyway, I haven’t actually had a chance to plug it in and start playing yet (probably because I’m awasting all sorts of time writing about shit I buy), but I’ve read more than enough on the subject to be more or less familiar with what I’m getting into. The Youngest One bought it too (before I had a chance to advise him otherwise), probably because he thought “Ooh, an RPG. I should buy it”, and promptly got his ass whupped and put it right down. I doubt he’ll be spending too much time on this one, but someday when I’m in the middle of fewer games, I’ll crack this one open and spend a little quality time with it.

Edit : Decided I’d just forego finishing some other games so I could sink my teeth into this one. I’m not regretting it. Etrian Odyssey II is even better than I’d imagined. This is a real horror game, because you’re always on the edge of your seat, wondering if you’ll be able to survive the next fight. Also, even the slightest progress feels like you’ve made a huge accomplishment, so yeah. props to that. Love it. Score: A

• Item #5

Day of the Dead

No, it’s not Romero’s classic with a new cover. It’s one of those horrid “re-imaginings”, or so I assume. At least on the back cover it said it’s inspired by Romero’s Day of the Dead, so we can hope it at least pays a little homage to the original. In any case, it’s a zombie movie, so it most definitely belongs in my collection.

I should let you know that I fully expect this to be completely awful. That’s how these movies are. The characters are stupid and unlikable, the plot makes little to no sense and there’s buckets and buckets of gore. Yeah it sounds like a disaster, but that’s exactly what I’m looking for. I enjoy a good zombie movie, but I love a zombie movie that makes you want to root for the zombies. It’s brainless (in a manner of speaking) fun, and that’s really what I want in movies. So despite the fact that it’s defacing a classic, I have high-ish hopes for this one.

Edit : Yeah. So I watched it, and it’s not so great. It has almost nothing in common with the original, though if you concentrate real hard you can find a couple loose parallels between the two. But yeah, it’s not even a fun gore-fest. Just low-grade zombie schlock. When Nick Cannon is the best part of a movie, you know that you’ve got a bit of a train wreck on your hands. I’m a little let down by this one, honestly. Score: D+

• Item #6

The Dead Pit

As I was perusing the horror section at Fargo’s Best Buy (why doesn’t our Best Buy sort movies by genre? It’s so much easier…), and I saw that Day of the Dead remake thing, and then right beside it, The Dead Pit caught my eye. The cover didn’t really get the idea of zombies across to me, but reading the synopsis on the back confirmed my suspicions: zombies!

Much to my delight, this is one of those 80’s zombie flicks that pretends to have a cohesive plot. By that of course, I mean it’s more than “OMG zombiez. Let’s try to survive!” Something about a mad scientist attacking a mental ward with a horde of zombies? I dunno and I’m too lazy to go check the case, but it sounded like a riot at the time. I honestly think this could be as unpredictably lovable as Hellraiser. Score: B (pending)

• Item #7

Chucky: The Killer DVD Collection

I’ll level with ya, I’ve only ever seen the first Child’s Play movie, and even then, I was still a little squeamish at the time and covered my eyes a lot. I did like the movie though, and I’ve always wanted to at least see the first two sequels. Bride of Chucky isn’t exactly a priority, and Seed of Chucky seems like they’re just taking it too far. Alas.

I’ve been putting off buying this collection for a while now because I knew that not having the first one would drive me bonkers (OCD, you see), but it actually hasn’t been grating on my nerves too much. It’s not like the movie isn’t on DVD or anything either, I just can’t find the damn thing anywhere. Oh well. I’m sure some day I’ll be in the right place at the right time, and it will be mine. Or I’ll have forgotten my wallet and smack myself in the forehead. Score: B+ (pending)

• Item #8

Bruce and Lloyd: Out of Control

I’ll say this now, because it’s the most important note here: I was promised a lot more Patrick Warburton than I got from this purchase, and it makes me ever so slightly disappointed. Other than that, good times!

If you haven’t seen Get Smart yet, you’re really missing out on something. I loved it so much, I ran out an bought this straight-to-DVD supplemental material without even reading a review first. Fortunately, it’s not nearly as awful as most straight-to-DVD stuff, but it’s still nowhere near as great as the main movie. Then again, I never expected it to be. I’m just confused as to why exactly Steve Carell couldn’t make at least a cameo. Anne Hathaway shows up in one scene, so why do we get no Steve Carell? Ah well. If Get Smart was at the “hilarious” level, I’d probably only rate this one as “silly” at best, but it’s still worth a look if you liked the source material. Score: B

Also, I should mention that I bought some other stuff, like shorts and foodstuffs, but I decided to cut them out because clothes are boring (do not tell my girlfriend I said that, she bought clothes almost exclusively) and junk food isn’t something that really needs to be logged into the annals of internet history. At least, not any of the food I bought. It was all pretty much run-of-the-mill junk food that a) isn’t available in Canada or b) is ridiculously expensive in Canada. So yeah. That’s the end then. Good night.

Two lovers in love, we was lovin’ a lot

Not as though I’d be doing too much blogging anyhow, but for the next couple days we’re heading down to Fargo to celebrate… well, not working for like four days? I dunno. Going down to the States to celebrate Canada Day seems a little dumb, but there really isn’t any other occasion. I suppose it’s just for the sake of shopping and getting away. Yeah.

So how about that Mega Man 9 news? Pretty damn awesome, I’d say. This is exactly what digital distribution is all about. I suppose that means that Capcom will finally be putting all the old Mega Man games on the Virtual Console then? I have the Anniversary Collection, so I wouldn’t be buying them, but it would be nice to know that they’re there.

Tell me that I’m not all alone

I know just as well as anyone that I’ve been doing an absolutely atrocious job of keeping a blog as of late. I ‘ve been slacking of on my comicing duties pretty badly too, and does anyone remember when the last time I wrote an article was? Sad to say, but I don’t really see that changing anytime soon. I’d like to be able to just blame all the crazy hours I’ve been working lately, but I think we all know that it’s because I’ve been spending most of my free time on something a wee bit more important than websites that nobody reads.

So, whether my blog is shitty or not, I just popped in to say that I picked up Guitar Hero DS yeterday, and am still on the fence about whether I’m impressed with the job they did. The game itself is just fine, it’s got pretty much all the Guitar Hero frills, just watered down a little so that it could all fit on the tiny DS card. And speaking of fitting, there are 25 songs in the game, and the sound quality is as good as I’ve heard on the DS, as long as you’re pumping it through external speakers or headphones; Mr T. pities the foo who settles for the DS speakers. The setlist itself is way under par for a Guitar Hero game, including a bunch of songs that really have no business there (Maroon 5? WTF?), but I suppose we can chalk the somewhat more varied musical range to that fact that the DS has that huge “casual” following, and most of the old people I know don’t particularly enjoy metal and punk. I’ll be happy though, as it does feature “Spiderwebs” by No Doubt, and as I’ve told pretty much everyone I know, I love Tragic Kingdom and almost every song from it. Also, “Jessie’s Girl”! How can you not love that song?

The issue that I have with it is with the insane little guitar grip peripheral that is used to play the game. Oh, it works fine, and I eventually found my most comfortable way to hold it, but the problem is that it’s too small. Actually that’s a poor choice of words. What I meant to say is that the buttons are way too close together. Normally it’s passable, but once you get onto the expert level and try to mash your way through some of the harder solos, you’re just fucked because your fingers will be mashing each other and everything just goes to Hell. Even small hammer-on/pull-off sequences can be tricky. If they had just added about a quarter of an inch between each button, things would be so much better, and the contraption wouldn’t even be that much bigger. So yeah, other than the fact that I’ll never be good at soloing on it, I’ll give Guitar Hero DS a passing grade. I just hope that they whip up an improved grip for the inevitable sequel.

Look out!

Needless to say, it’s been kind of a busy month. I am pretty wizziped out right now, and should probably be catching up on sleep rather than blogging. But I haven’t blogged in weeks! One might say I haven’t had a good sleep in at least as long, but that’s besides the point. I’ve kind of let video games drop off my to-do list lately, barely able to find time to cram in games I’ve been working on for a while, much less new ones. So just so you know what I’m trying to play as of late, here are some impressions of said games.

Mario Kart Wii : Is there anything more frustrating than Mario Kart? The rubber-band AI is infuriating, but at the same time, when you win, you feel like you’ve really accomplished something. And of course, multiplayer is a blast too. But I think this one’s even more broken than ever, because I earned gold trophies on every grand prix on every difficulty on Mario Kart DS, but I just barely struggled my way to victory in the 100cc class in this iteration. But like I said, multiplayer really makes up for it. I’ve yet to win a single online match, but I’ve enjoyed each and every race I’ve participated in.

Baroque : A roguelike, but not. The only difference is that it’s not turn-based. I’ve developed a really bad crush on roguelikes as of late (as I may have said before) and Baroque is sating my need nicely. The real-time thing makes it noticably easier than turn-based roguelikes, but that’s okay. After being completely destroyed over and over in Shiren the Wanderer and Izuna, I like having a place to go where I can make some notable progress. Although it’s hard to tell exactly when you’re making progress in Baroque, because it’s structured very differently from any game I’ve ever played, but still, goodness. The somewhat macabre aesthetic really helps keep me into it too.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time : Before we move off the topic of roguelikes, I might as well mention the pokémon entry. It’s probably the only roguelike that non-niche gamers will ever play, but in that, it’s a great way to draw in new fans to the genre. It’s not a (comparative) cakewalk like Baroque, but it’s cerainly not as brutal as Shiren. It stands to reason though, because the target demographic is between the 5- to 10-year-old age range, and I don’t recall children being overly fond of games that are as merciless as the common roguelike. But do I like the game? Uuuh, yeah. It’s Pokémon, come on. I actually skipped the first set of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games, but I’m glad I broke down and picked one up this time around.

Crosswords DS : Hey fuck you. I love doing crossword puzzles, especially when they don’t reference pop culture and I’m able to solve them. But what’s better? The card is not only loaded with bajillions of crosswords; it’s got a vast expanse of word search puzzles too! Do you have any idea how many giant word search books I burned through in my childhood? Lots.

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A King : I am in love with this game. I’m seriously considering spending less time with my girlfriend so I can play this game more*. I even tried to write a comic about it. And I sort of described how much I like it there too, so just go there if you want to read that.

The World Ends With You : Oh, wait. I haven’t actually started playing this yet. But it looks so good! Well, not literally. I’m actually getting kind of tired of Tetsuya Nomura, but the gameplay aspect seems like it’s really fun. So yeah. Maybe I’ll be able start it by the end of the summer. I’ll let you know.

*I’m not actually considering that. I’m dumb, but not that dumb.

All the times that we suffered

Wow. It’s funny how fast life can turn itself around. For all the shit I’ve been putting up with over the last while, this week has been exceptionally awesome. I guess the most important thing is that I took a trip to the optometrist yesterday, and it seems that I don’t have eye cancer. But that wasn’t really an issue anyway. Also, I won’t be needing glasses for a while still, which was infinitely more likely.

Less importantly to my health, but more important to my happiness, work has been great this week! I’ve actually had time to get some things done, which has been getting increasingly more difficult over the last few weeks. I almost forgot what that sense of accomplishment after a long eight hours was like, since I’ve basically just been running inconsequential errands all day for what seems like forever lately. But this week has been better, and it’s only going to improve, because after plenty of stalling and excuses, I’ve finally been promoted. It’s not much, and not exactly what I was aiming for, but at least now I’m officially in charge of the outdoor world at my store. I suppose that sometimes there’s something to be said for laying all your cards on the table, especially when your employers know that they desperately need you. Or, you know, maybe I just deserve it. I sure think I do. I’ve certainly fought through enough crap to have earned a little retribution and that shiny badge.

And AND I’ve learned today that Namco-Bandai is not only making a Tales of Symphonia sequel for Wii (really old news), but there’s also a new Tales game coming to the 360! If you didn’t know, I am as fanatical about the Tales series as the garden-variety gamer is about anything with Final and/or (but usually and) Fantasy in the title. It’s my RPG series of choice, and the fact that they’re using the Tales of the Abyss battle system helps a lot, because it’s unquestionably the best one yet. Well, except maybe for those FOFs. They’re cool and useful, but really just too hard to make good use of. Anyway, I’m pretty happy right now. Life is good.

One sky, one destiny

Due to life’s many demoralizing little complications, I’ve found it very hard to get excited about anything for some time now (Hell, I wasn’t really even that pumped for Brawl by the time it actually came out), and it only gets worse with time. But that’s why this blog post is so important! I’m actually really thrilled today! Why? Because I got a new CD in the mail yesterday, that’s why! Exclamation marks!

So then, how could a single CD make me go from borderline miserable to jumping with joy? Well, for one I’ve been waiting for it for well over a month now, and it’s not often that I’m anticipating a CD release. It’s even rarer that I pre-order a CD, and I got my copy secured almost as soon as I heard Play-Asia had it available for pre-order. But I guess I’ve still forgotten to mention the important part: what exactly this mystifyingly monumental disc is all about.

This, my friends and colleagues, is a best-of CD of my second-most favouritest game music composer ever, Yoko Shimomura, entitled Drammatica – The Very Best of Yoko Shimomura (the first being Motoi Sakuraba, but that’s another story entirely). And it’s not just a regular “slap sixteen tracks on a disc and call it a day” best-of either. Nope, these are all new arrangements of some of Ms. Shimomura’s finest works, and holy God damn, it does not disappoint in any way. Hell, it could even just be a hackjob with the original pieces and I’d still love it to death.

The album takes a handful of tracks from five games from very distinct generations: Live A Live, Front Mission, Legend of Mana, Heroes of Mana, and Kingdom Hearts. Anybody who’s familiar with her work will immediately jump at the thought of new arrangements of tunes from Legend of Mana and Kingdom Hearts, which had such extraordinary soundtracks to begin with. The SNES titles aren’t represented as strongly as the rest, but the tracks seen from them are there for obvious reasons, and it’s no secret that the music in Heroes of Mana is by and large the best part of the game. And for anyone who’s into that kind of thing, there’s also a bonus track in there from the yet-to-be-released Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Normally I don’t care much for FF soundtracks, but since Ms. Shimomura’s going to be the head on this one, I think that I’ll most definitely have to invest in the soundtrack when it’s released. Hell, knowing me, I’ll likely end up buying a PS3 just for the sake of listening to that single game’s soundtrack.

The one thing about the album is that while it says it’s a “best of”, the fact of the matter is that all the material is picked from her work on Square-Enix games. What you may not have realized is that she has worked on a lot of other game soundtracks. Most notably, she’s a member of Alph Lyla, Capcom’s house band. I really wouldn’t have had anything against hearing one or two Street Fighter-related themes on there somewhere. Hey, even some love for the music from the Mario & Luigi games would have been nice. It’s not nearly as epic as anything from Kingdom Hearts, but I would have appreciated the extra bit of diversity all the same. Not that I’m complaining! I love music and all, but it’s not often that a disc comes around that gets me as excited as this one.

If you’re at all interested, but have no idea what to expect, you can check out a preview right here. I personally would recommend “Destati” and “Legend of Mana ~Title Theme~”, but really anything is a winning choice. You can even play with a slider there to hear the difference between the original and arranged versions. Such good stuff. Should that pique your interest, the album sells for about $30 over at Play-Asia plus shipping charges, which may seem expensive for a single-disc album, but that’s a steal compared to the $50 plus shipping that Amazon’s charging. Dear God, they really gouge you on the prices of those imports.

In any case, as far as I’m concerned, it was totally worth whatever the final price came out to, because I absolutely love it. Would have been nice to get a pre-order bonus like I did with the Silent Hill Zero soundtrack (which was just a shitty coin purse, but free shit is free shit), but again, I’m not complaining. It’s an epic CD, and I think anyone who’s a fan of video game music, or even classical/orchestral music will find something to enjoy here. Sure, maybe she isn’t as big a name as Mr. Fancy-Pants Nobuo Uematsu, but Yoko Shimomura is totally on the top tier of game music composers, and I absolutely cannot wait to hear whatever she’s got cooking up for the next Kingdom Hearts games, among others.

I’ll expect you won’t cry

As I briefly touched on in yesterday’s post, lately I’ve been going back to some older games in anticipation of upcoming/recently released sequels/prequels. I even started playing Final Fantasy VII again a while ago because I was beginning to buy into the Crisis Core hype (I’m still on the fence about it). But if there’s one series I really have a hankering to see a new installment in, it’s gotta be Timesplitters.

I have no idea why, but as I was playing Rock Band with The Tall One last weekend, it suddenly hit me that it seemed like it was about time for a new Timesplitters game. It’s without a doubt my favourite FPS series, and one of my preferred multiplayer games. Hell, I still pop in Future Perfect now and then just to fiddle around with the map creator [I just realized why timesplitters is on my mind] and run a couple rounds with some bots. I’ve never built the same level of camraderie with my AI teammates in TS as I did with the ones in Unreal Tournament (customization helped a lot)(and yes, I know it’s sad to make friends with AIs), but it’s still fun. But seriously, am I wrong? Do you not feel like we need a new Timesplitters game to spend all our weekends for the next couple months on?

Well, I was doing a little digging earlier, and I found out that there is a new one on the way! Huzzah!

I was squealing with joy (on the inside) when I saw that logo image pop up. It’s like a magical promise that one day everything will be right in the world again, if only for a while. Or something epic like that anyway. The issue is that while it was revealed in June of last year, we still haven’t heard anything about it other than that they’re focusing on gameplay over graphics. Which, along with David Doak’s statement that they’d like to put it on Wii, is a pretty good indication that it’ll show up on my little white box of happiness. I mean, of course a multiplatform release would be the best, because for all the bragging rights that exclusivity gets you, the more people that get to enjoy the Timesplitters experience, the better. I really just hope that it’s Wii-bound in general. Of course it’s completely irrelevant to me because I own a 360 as well, but whatever. Brand loyalty, man.

In any case, as long as the game retains its big brothers’ trademark hilarity and monkeys, I think I’ll be satisfied. I complain about companies pushing out the same sports games year after year with nothing but roster updates, but I think that would be just fine for Timesplitters, so to speak. Put a new storyline in there, make up a few new maps and characters (perhaps a character customization mode?), and you’re good. This is one series that I would really prefer just to stay where it is and not be fucked up by trying to be innovative. Of course, if there are any major changes and they work out for the best, I’ll be tickled pink, but I’m pretty much expecting a standard FPS with a few pinches of zazz and a light comedy glaze. You know, exactly like the last two.

I can hardly breathe

Wow, so March was pretty slow then. Actually, over the last couple weeks I’ve been getting a lot accomplished. And by “Getting a lot accomplished” I mean “watching DVDs and playing video games”. I spent almost three hours last night playing Super Paper Mario, grinding enemies for coins and items so that I could conjure up enough good healing items to get me through the Flopside Pit of 100 Trials, which is basically the last thing I feel the need to complete in that game (nuts to finishing the various collections). I gave it a go this morning, and got somewhere into the 70’s where I was disgracefully murdered by a Dark Dayzee. For some reason, I’ve also started playing through the Wind Waker again, and I have to say that I’d really like to see a true sequel.

I should mention that I bought three new games today. All cheap, too! First off, they finally put a Mr. Driller game on Xbox Live Arcade, so I totally jumped on that. I’m completely terrible at Mr. Driller, but I cannot resist the bright colours and the promise of online play. After much deliberation, I also picked up Shiren the Wanderer. I have a lot to say about it, but you might as well go ask Parish, because he just won’t shut up about it. I will say that I really love it, because roguelikes are totally awesome, but I do much prefer Izuna (which I have yet to finish).

Lastly, because I apparently never noticed it before, I sawBomberman Land and decided to pick it up on the account of it was only $30 and it would be a good idea to have a Bomberman game for Wii. Then I realized that I have the VC version of Bomberman ’93. Oops. On the upside, despite the fact that the “adventure” mode is just a glorified mini-game collection, I feel that it’s one of the best mini-game collections in the overcrowded genre. It might have something to do with the RPG-esque way the game works, because having a reason to play mini-games other than for the sake of playing mini-games is a nice change of pace. Having a light plot, character interaction/customization, and a sense of progress make it much more bearable than most other efforts. As far as gameplay goes, I’d even place it above Rayman Raving Rabbids. It doesn’t have nearly as much personality, but it’s far more acceptable as a single-player game. The only real complaint is that the graphics are unabashedly crappy. Seriously. It doesn’t look a whole lot better than the top-tier N64 titles. I don’t mind if you didn’t put your whole heart into the graphics department, but the visuals here are almost inexcusably poor.

Obviously, I bought it for multiplayer though, and while the game does try to push the mini-games on you even then, Hudson was smart enough to keep our dearly beloved battle mode intact. It’s the exact same formula we all know and love, so it’s a perfect choice if you’ve got people to play with. They even had the foresight to allow use of the Classic controller and Gamecube pads, which is excellent because I only own one Wiimote. Overall, I recommend it because not only is classic Bomberman some of the best multiplayer gaming you’re ever going to see, but the single-player adventure is entertaining enough to spend a few hours with. Of course, I’d also recommend Shiren and Mr. Driller Online, but those are far more nichey than Bomberman ever was.

Next time on Torrential Equilibrium: waxing about why we need a new entry to another beloved multiplayer franchise, and then a short run down of what movies and TV DVDs have been sapping up the rest of my free time lately.

You might think I’m delirious

Do I have to say it? Okay fine.

Brawl is awesome.

So there you have it. I should mention that I’m quite surprised at how much I’ve been using the Stage Builder feature. I never thought too much of it before release, but I’ve made at least seven stages of my own, and I play them pretty often too. It really shouldn’t come as as much of a surprise as it does though, because after all, I spent hours and hours designing stages for Timesplitters 2 and Future Perfect. And my favourite part of The Sims has always been building houses for the little sims to live in. So yeah, I guess it kind of stands to reason that I might enjoy a tool made for builiding stages in my favourite fighting series. The only real downside to it is that you can only assign a single song to play on each stage, and I can’t break my insufferable need for symmetry. The first one I made, I just threw down bits and pieces here and there, and it’s easily the best I’ve made, but all that came afterwards have been perfectly symmetrical. I’ve tried to make another more random one, but it physically hurts me to do so.

The Stage Builder will slowly eat away your time and system memory.

The other thing to note is the sheer amount of things to accomplish in the game. I mean, yes, the best thing you can do is get at least one other person and just duke it out for hours, but the choices of game modes is just mind boggling. Thankfully, for people like me, the Challenges make it a little easier to sit back and decide what it is you need to do. Of course, until everything is unlocked, most of them will be marked with question marks, making it impossible to determine exactly what it is you’re supposed to beat on the “insane” difficulty, who you have to win 10 matches with, etc, but they’re still exceedingly handy. In any case, I don’t think I’ll be seeing the “You got all the trophies!” notice for a long, long time to come.

Whatcha gonna do?

You may have heard something recently about the next Guitar Hero game. If you haven’t, I have some news that may disturb or excite you: It’s all Aerosmith. Yeah. Harsh. I mean, it’s just an “expansion” like the 80’s edition, but still. There are a lot of other bands I’d much rather have entire Guitar Hero games based on. Off the top of my head, let’s see…

Tesla
Helix
The Ataris
Rush
Sons of Butcher

And the list goes on, really. I mean, I like Aerosmith, but a whole game worth of them is a lot to take. I really don’t see myself buying into this one. Which is sad, because I’m pretty much ready to drop money on new Guitar Hero games at the drop of the hat. But Aerosmith… Man, I really wish it was Tesla instead. I fuckin’ love Tesla.