Shenmue for the Sega Dreamcast is a unique blend of a role playing game and a fighter. Shenmue follows the story of Ryo Hazuki as he seeks to avenge his father's death. The story starts off with Ryo racing home to find his father confronted by a strange man who seeks a sacred object. The strange man, later to be revealed as a member of a Chinese cartel, kills Ryos father and leaves to go back to China. Players take on the role of Ryo as he finds out exactly who this strange person is, and how to get to him.
the game surprisingly starts off slow despite all he action that recently took place, but it serves the players well as they get acquainted with the mechanics of the game. Ryo spends a majority of the game looking for clues and talking to almost everybody in Japan to see if they know anything about what happened the day of his fathers death. This isn't exactly a bad thing, as most of the characters that you come across are pretty amusing and interesting.There also is an open world element to Shenmue, which covers a small town. The game also has a time cycle, which includes day, night, and even seasons. The cool thing is with Shenmue there are multiple ways to go about getting to the next part. There are things that I never witnessed in my first playthrough that I did in my second. However, one thing that players will always come across is the QTEs.
A core gameplay mechanic of Shenme is QTE, or quick time event. These are the sequences in the game that offer no preparation what so ever, and hope that the player is paying the slightest bit of attention. The way that QTEs are set up is, during a cutscene(a movie of sorts), out of nowhere a specific button, or direction, will flash on screen and players have to react to it. Press X not to die! The thing that gets me about these QTEs in Shenmue is that they can last up to 5 minutes, and if you mess up even just one little thing, you have to go back to the beginning of the QTE and do it all over again, there's no checkpoints and no remorse for the players. While this may be a big glaring frustration, it is not a majority of the game.
The way that players mostly handle hostile situations is with kung-fu. Luckily for players Ryo is a martial arts master, and knows a plethora of moves, and he can learn new ones along the way! The controls require precision, so it's not so easy to pick up and start hammering away at the punch and kick buttons. Thankfully there is a full list of moves that the game provides, as well as a dojo for practice. There are some great fight sequences in the game, especially at towards the end where players take on 40 bad guys!
The graphics, sound, and voice acting of the game are very well done, especially for it's time. The graphics set the tone for the small town which players walk through and gives it a quaint homey feel. The soundtrack of the game is absolutely astonishing, with sweeping overtures and soft melodies, the music is something to truly behold and admire. The voice acting, while not much by todays standards, is still pretty solid. Though it seems as though the actors of the main characters really put forth the effort.
If you've ever owned a Sega Dreamcast, or looking to get one, you need this game to go along with it. It will consume your time and you will be completely immersed in the story. There is plenty to do in this game, whether it be helping out a friend or wasting your hard earned paycheck on toy capsule machines, check this title out!
Monday, July 19, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
SSX 3
Platforms: Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube
Release date: October 20, 2003
ESRB rating: E
SSX 3 comes to us from EA BIG, famous for creating the Street Sports series (NBA, NFL, FIFA). SSX 3 is obviously the third installment of the series, and I'd have to say it's the best on several different levels.
SSX 3 is an arcade style snowboard game. Characters in SSX 3 can pull off ridiculous tricks on their snowboard, or should I say off, as they detach themselves from their board and perform impossible aerial acrobatics. The trick system in SSX 3 has grabs assigned to three buttons on the controller, players can press a button to perform a grab, or combine it with another grab button to perform another kind of grab. Players can also "tweak" grabs to nab themselves some more points, and use the directional pad to flip and spin to earn even more points. Performing tricks also generates boost, which makes players go faster and fly higher allowing for bigger and better tricks. Pull off enough tricks and you can go Uber, which is where characters leave their boards for more exotic high-flying stunts.
SSX 3's single player mode has players conquering the mountain, on three different peaks. Players start from the bottom and work their way up to the top. The game has players carving through the back country or shredding through insane trick courses. A neat feature about the mountain in SSX 3 is that all the courses are interconnected, the game even has player going on tours through each peak. There are also challenges that players can do to earn some extra cash for the shop and work toward achieving 100% completion.
The soundtrack of SSX 3 is the best licensed soudtrack I have ever heard. Songs range from booming trance music to relaxing electronic jams, also are some really good rock songs from Finger Eleven, Yellowcard, Thrice, Autopilot Off, and many others. There are a few songs that I don't particularly like, but the soundtrack is completely customizable, so you don't have to worry about being forced to listen to that annoying song all the way through before something good comes up.
The voice work and writing for SSX 3 is brilliant. Characters shouting out taunts and dissing others as they zip past them, or exclaiming how awesome they are for pulling off that incredible stunt. Another cool voice that is heard throughout the game is good ol' DJ Atomika, he's never seen in the game but he's always watching you. Not that it really matters, because his job is to play some great tunes and deliver some witty conversation that will make you smile.
Each peak in SSX 3 is extremely different from the next. Peak 1 is mellow, yet colorful, taking players through the beginning courses with style. Peak 2 has a dichotomy of the serene and dangerous, as players will run away from avalanches or race over crumbling bridges. Peak 3 is very blunt about how it wants players to feel about it: mean. Right from the start of peak 3 players have to carve their way out of danger as huge chunks fall out from beneath them.
All in all SSX 3 is an incredible game with really fun gameplay, clever one-liners, a wicked soundtrack, and a slick presentation it would be an injustice to pass this game up. Find yourself a copy and start shredding!
Release date: October 20, 2003
ESRB rating: E
SSX 3 comes to us from EA BIG, famous for creating the Street Sports series (NBA, NFL, FIFA). SSX 3 is obviously the third installment of the series, and I'd have to say it's the best on several different levels.
SSX 3 is an arcade style snowboard game. Characters in SSX 3 can pull off ridiculous tricks on their snowboard, or should I say off, as they detach themselves from their board and perform impossible aerial acrobatics. The trick system in SSX 3 has grabs assigned to three buttons on the controller, players can press a button to perform a grab, or combine it with another grab button to perform another kind of grab. Players can also "tweak" grabs to nab themselves some more points, and use the directional pad to flip and spin to earn even more points. Performing tricks also generates boost, which makes players go faster and fly higher allowing for bigger and better tricks. Pull off enough tricks and you can go Uber, which is where characters leave their boards for more exotic high-flying stunts.
SSX 3's single player mode has players conquering the mountain, on three different peaks. Players start from the bottom and work their way up to the top. The game has players carving through the back country or shredding through insane trick courses. A neat feature about the mountain in SSX 3 is that all the courses are interconnected, the game even has player going on tours through each peak. There are also challenges that players can do to earn some extra cash for the shop and work toward achieving 100% completion.
The soundtrack of SSX 3 is the best licensed soudtrack I have ever heard. Songs range from booming trance music to relaxing electronic jams, also are some really good rock songs from Finger Eleven, Yellowcard, Thrice, Autopilot Off, and many others. There are a few songs that I don't particularly like, but the soundtrack is completely customizable, so you don't have to worry about being forced to listen to that annoying song all the way through before something good comes up.
The voice work and writing for SSX 3 is brilliant. Characters shouting out taunts and dissing others as they zip past them, or exclaiming how awesome they are for pulling off that incredible stunt. Another cool voice that is heard throughout the game is good ol' DJ Atomika, he's never seen in the game but he's always watching you. Not that it really matters, because his job is to play some great tunes and deliver some witty conversation that will make you smile.
Each peak in SSX 3 is extremely different from the next. Peak 1 is mellow, yet colorful, taking players through the beginning courses with style. Peak 2 has a dichotomy of the serene and dangerous, as players will run away from avalanches or race over crumbling bridges. Peak 3 is very blunt about how it wants players to feel about it: mean. Right from the start of peak 3 players have to carve their way out of danger as huge chunks fall out from beneath them.
All in all SSX 3 is an incredible game with really fun gameplay, clever one-liners, a wicked soundtrack, and a slick presentation it would be an injustice to pass this game up. Find yourself a copy and start shredding!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Dynamite Cop
Rated: T
Platform: Sega Dreamcast
Release: November 3, 1999
Dynamite Cop for the sega dreamcast is an absolutely rumpus, ridiculous, and just all around fun game. Dynamite Cop has players taking back a cruise line boat that has bee "taken over by modern day pirates" and they have "taken captive all of the over 20,000 guests on board... including the presidents daughter!" The objective, if you could call it that, is to find and rescue the presidents daughter. Nevermind the other 20,000 guests. Howver, they never seem to cross my mind as i'm having too much fun beating the snot out of these "modern day pirates" which for some reason have been cybernetically augmented, and on occassion dress up like sea creatures.
Dynamite Cop onlly has 3 different missions to go through but all of them are equally fun. The game is a beat 'em up, but it's a fun beat 'em up where you can use anything and any one as a weapon. The weapons of Dynamite Cop range from a pistol, to a rocket lancher, to cake, to even a nuclear bomb. Aside from the vast array of weapons, players can use hand to hand combat. There are three different characters to choose from, each with a unique fighting style. players can acquire power-ups throughout the game, collecting enought will super charge the players to unleash furious combos on the unsespecting pirates. The pirates have a varied cast of characters at their disposal, ranging from actual pirates, to people dressed like tortoises, to the cybernetically enhanced, to voodoo priests, to even a kraken.
The graphics and presentation are terrible, but it's not something to take seriously, especially when cybernetic-modern-pirates are on the line. Voice work and the soundtrack are over the top and reek of pure cheesiness. The environments of Dynamite Cop take players all over the cruise liner, from the dance club to the engine room.
All in all, Dynamite Cop is a great load of fun. Every time I dust off the Dreamcast I have to play it, because simply it brings a smile to my face. With the addition of Cooperative mode, you can share that smile with a friend.
Platform: Sega Dreamcast
Release: November 3, 1999
Dynamite Cop for the sega dreamcast is an absolutely rumpus, ridiculous, and just all around fun game. Dynamite Cop has players taking back a cruise line boat that has bee "taken over by modern day pirates" and they have "taken captive all of the over 20,000 guests on board... including the presidents daughter!" The objective, if you could call it that, is to find and rescue the presidents daughter. Nevermind the other 20,000 guests. Howver, they never seem to cross my mind as i'm having too much fun beating the snot out of these "modern day pirates" which for some reason have been cybernetically augmented, and on occassion dress up like sea creatures.
Dynamite Cop onlly has 3 different missions to go through but all of them are equally fun. The game is a beat 'em up, but it's a fun beat 'em up where you can use anything and any one as a weapon. The weapons of Dynamite Cop range from a pistol, to a rocket lancher, to cake, to even a nuclear bomb. Aside from the vast array of weapons, players can use hand to hand combat. There are three different characters to choose from, each with a unique fighting style. players can acquire power-ups throughout the game, collecting enought will super charge the players to unleash furious combos on the unsespecting pirates. The pirates have a varied cast of characters at their disposal, ranging from actual pirates, to people dressed like tortoises, to the cybernetically enhanced, to voodoo priests, to even a kraken.
The graphics and presentation are terrible, but it's not something to take seriously, especially when cybernetic-modern-pirates are on the line. Voice work and the soundtrack are over the top and reek of pure cheesiness. The environments of Dynamite Cop take players all over the cruise liner, from the dance club to the engine room.
All in all, Dynamite Cop is a great load of fun. Every time I dust off the Dreamcast I have to play it, because simply it brings a smile to my face. With the addition of Cooperative mode, you can share that smile with a friend.
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