Make sure to check the bottom of this article for important schedule news. Now then, poll results!
"This is one delay too many" 5 votes (11%)
"Well, poop. I'll deal, though." 17 votes (37%)
"I don't really care" 2 votes (4%)
"Whatever it takes, man." 20 votes (44%)
"It was delayed again?" 0 votes (0%)
"I'm not sure what to think." 1 vote (2%)
It was pretty much a sure thing that most people would be bummed about this. But at least it's still coming!
...right?
So, this week's banner is from forum member Zapster. As you can plainly see, the theme is Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Quite fitting, considering it's premiering in Japan within the next three days. And I have to wait until March...
As always, you can submit a banner via this thread on the forums, or you can e-mail it directly to me using the address listed in the sidebar. Just make sure you follow the guidelines listed on the forums, and all's good!
Make sure to vote on this week's poll, "About how many hours of gaming do you get each week?"! If I had to guess, I'd say more than 50 hours a week. Between my DS, Wii and PC, there's just so much to play!
Now, here's the news I was talking about before. I will NOT be posting on Wednesday, January the 30th. It is my birthday, and I plan on spending the day with my family. I will be back as usual on Friday!
Okay, there should be an article up in a bit. Might not be anything huge, though.
EDIT: Sorry, nothing today. It's nearly 3 AM, I'm incredibly tired, and I couldn't think up a decent article topic to save my life. I'm gonna have to pass tonight. I might write something up tomorrow instead, but for now, I need my sleep.
Sorry, folks.
The Duck Has Spoken.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
A brand new take on the world of Pokémon
Every Pokémon game has a big thing in common. I'm not talking about the gym leaders, the Elite Four or the Pokédex. I'm talking about the huge, evil organizations the player always fights against. But what if everything was backwards? What if the player instead fought from the syndicate's point of view? I've been dreaming this up for years on end, and it gets bigger and better each time I think of it. Here is the fruit of my many hours of thought.
The player is a new recruit in a new Pokémon crime syndicate. Like Team Rocket, Magma, Aqua and Galactic before them, this new organization is once again out to use innocent Pokémon for evil. The player takes the role of an entry-level grunt, who will eventually rise to become the boss' right hand man, or even overthrow him altogether.
The player works their way up the ranks by capturing Pokémon, scamming trainers and fulfilling general evil organization duties. New promotions bring more missions, better Pokémon for use on duty and better pay (For buying items and such).
Of course, with each completed mission, more and more backstory and many secrets will become known to the player. Perhaps the founder is a disgraced member of another syndicate, out to get revenge? Maybe the organization's grand goal isn't as it seems? Or perhaps the player will begin to see the error of their ways?
When it comes to the gameplay itself, I'm seeing it as an alternative RPG to the current line of games. The set-up would be similar to that of any other standard Pokémon RPG, with Pokémon Centers, Marts, towns and whatnot. Players could get mission details on a portable device such as a cell phone or PDA, and then run off to complete their objective. Skills necessary for missions could be stealth, strength and intelligence. Some missions wouldn't be available until your team reaches a certain level, so training evenly would be a necessity.
As for the setting, it could take place in a brand new country, or in a familiar location in a different time. Imagine what must be going on in Kanto and Johto as of now, seeing as Team Rocket has been disbanded... Perhaps this new organization formed from the remnants of Rocket?
Or for a totally different approach, what if the game took place parallel to the main series, but behind the scenes? What if you played as one of the grunts who hassled the hero in an already-released adventure? There have been some situations where a grunt will recall having met the hero at an earlier part of the game, so why can't players be him/her? And maybe this would also give some insight on where the hero's rivals are all the time. What the heck was the renegade kid in Gold/Silver/Crystal up to anyways? Stealing Pokémon, breaking the law... Was he secretly a member of Team Rocket? Man, he could take the lead role in a game like this!
Was this kid more than an average crook?He treated his Pokémon like tools, and cared little about anything but himself. Or did he? Perhaps he truly cared about the cause he was helping out with? He has some character development, too, what with his perceived softer treatment of Pokémon at the ending of Gold/Silver/Crystal. This new game could go beyond that point, showing us how the character actually continued to see more and more he was doing wrong, up to the point of even leaving the organization. Perhaps he'd even start fighting against the syndicate he was once a valued member of!
There's just too much potential in playing the bad guy... I'm not too sure how well this idea would go down with the target audience. Seems a little dark. But hey, this is just me daydreaming, so it doesn't have to make sense!
Discuss This Article On The Forums
The Duck Has Spoken.
Post delayed until tomorrow
Sorry, guys, but I gotta hold off tonight's article. I need to take a shower, get to sleep, and then wake up in, oh... seven hours. Yeah, I don't really have the time tonight... But since I have the idea jotted down (Complete with Photoshopped image!), I'll write it up tomorrow. Sorry, but even The Duck must sleep.
Article tomorrow, people! Marketh thine calendar!
The Duck Has Spoken.
Article tomorrow, people! Marketh thine calendar!
The Duck Has Spoken.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Mini-article: Why can't they make a good video game movie?
Some game storylines seem perfectly well-suited to movie adaptions. For horror, you have Doom, and for adventure, you have Tomb Raider. Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought these franchises would make good movies, as they've already been turned into films. There's one problem, though:
The movies sucked.
I'm not going to go into specifics about why the above movies were no good, nor am I going to name ways I think they could have been improved, and that's for the simple reason that I don't want to be writing this article from now until Christmas. I'm just merely asking the simple question of "Why?". What is there stopping a game movie from being great? We have a few exceptions like the above-average Resident Evil films, but most of it's utter crap.
You know what, film makers? I'll get you started. Here are some franchises perfect for movies:
-The Legend of Zelda
-Metroid
-Jak
There, three solid franchises perfect for becoming movies. Make them animated, make them CG, make them live-action. I don't care. Just make them good. It can be done. They've made movies based on all other forms of media, why should games be any different?
So put some effort into game movies, rely more on content than fan-service, and even hire a few of the game's writers to pen the script. Toss in some good actors and a great musical score, and you just may go against the norm and make a good game movie.
Discuss this article on the forums
The Duck Has Spoken.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
The greatest final boss battles of all time
It should go without saying that there will be some spoilers within, specifically for Portal, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Super Mario Galaxy. Be warned.
Almost every video game leads up to a final battle between good and evil, light and dark. Every one of these battles is memorable, but a few stand out to really stick in your mind for ages. Here are three such encounters that do that to me. And no, Link: The Faces of Evil's Ganon is not one of them.
Of all the bosses I've ever fought, the battle with Ganon at the end of Ocarina of Time is by far the most epic. After having already fought him in his humanoid form, Ganondorf once again rises from the rubble of his castle for a rematch, but this time, he's battling as the monstrous Ganon. Your sword is knocked out of your hands at the beginning, flung outside the arena's fiery border.
Find a way to get behind him, then pummel his tail with the Megaton Hammer. After doing this a few times, you'll retrieve your sword and enter the final phase of the battle. Strike his tail a few more times with your sword, and he'll eventually fall over. As Princess Zelda holds him down with her magical powers, deliver the final blow with the Master Sword, right into the evil beast's skull. And then it's all over. The beast falls silent, and is sealed away to the gaping void of the Sacred Realm. Swirling through nothingness, Ganondorf swears his vengeance on Link's ancestors.
No matter how many times I played through this battle, it never got old. If I ever had to fight one boss over and over for all eternity, this would be it. Ocarina of Time's Ganon shall go down in history as one of the greatest final bosses ever, if not the greatest.
When Portal first begins, you wake up in some bizarre test facility. A computerized voice suddenly begins to speak, telling you that you're in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center. Despite the name, this facility does little in the ways of "enrichment", no matter how you look at it. It instead consists of a gauntlet of arbitrary challenges designed to be nigh impossible to complete. After fighting your way through all nineteen tests, GLaDOS tricks you into boarding a platform headed directly for a fiery pit. Using the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (Or "Portal Gun"), you manage create a series of space-altering portals to escape and confront GLaDOS' mainframe. And this is where the battle begins.
After promising cake if you stand down and surrender (Which, of course, you don't do), GLaDOS becomes irritated by your persistence and fills the chamber with deadly gases. Using motion-sensing rocket turrets and a series of portals, you can attack GLaDOS' physical form directly, breaking off pieces of her mainframe. These pieces of the computer can be picked up and disposed of in an incinerator located conveniently in the same room. After disposing of the last piece (Which growls and writhes in your grip), GLaDOS becomes destabilized, imploding in on herself. Amidst the chaos, you manage to escape, and the game comes to an end.
This game is incredibly addictive, as I went and played it to grab the above screenshot of GLaDOS. Even after snapping the above picture, I felt like continuing on to defeat the evil computer. Somehow I managed to save in that room and exit the game. But darn it, that was not easy to do. All of Portal is incredibly addictive, and the final boss battle is the icing on the cake.
And by the way, said cake is a lie. Just a heads-up.
Perhaps excluding only Super Mario Sunshine, every final battle with Bowser in all the Mario games ever made is amazing, but dang it, the Bowser in Super Mario Galaxy just blows all the other fights out of the water. First of all, this Bowser requires more hits than ever before to be defeated (At least ten). Second, this battle takes place on several planetoids. It begins on a small, plain planet. At this stage, Bowser covers up almost his entire body in rocks and rolls around the planet, chasing Mario. The only way to counter this is to attack his face when it rolls towards you. He then falls on his back and spins uncontrollably around the planet. Again, attack him when he gets close.
After battling him like this for a few rounds, he breaks the gravitational pull and takes the both of you to another planetoid. Now is when he starts getting really angry. He launches fireballs at you, curls up in his spiked shell and rolls around the planet, becoming nearly invincible in the process. The only way to attack him here is to use your spin attack on nearby plants, sending the bulb flying off in the other direction. When it hits Bowser, he begins spinning on his back like before. Just like last time, attack him until he takes you to a different planet.
The final stage is a glassy, lava-filled sphere with a few weak points. Stand near a weak spot when bowser tries to jump on you, and he'll rupture the glass, fall into the lava, and begin running around in pain. Take the opportunity to strike at his scorched tail, which will again send him spinning on his shell. Yet again, attack him when he spins towards you. After doing this a few times, he is finally defeated. He falls off the planet and lands in the molten surface of a nearby sun.
But he isn't done yet! He emerges from the fiery depths, and stumbles around on a floating rock. He looks around and screams in sorrow at seeing his galaxy destroyed. The sun he's on collapses in on itself, dragging the rest of the universe in with it. After Mario talks briefly with Rosalina, he, Bowser and Peach awake on the Mushroom Kingdom Castle's lawn. All is well again in the new galaxy.
Bowser's resilience in Galaxy is amazing. It's definitely the fiercest of all his incarnations. Who else could fall into the sun and be okay? Bowser's one tough hombre.
The Duck Has Spoken.
Almost every video game leads up to a final battle between good and evil, light and dark. Every one of these battles is memorable, but a few stand out to really stick in your mind for ages. Here are three such encounters that do that to me. And no, Link: The Faces of Evil's Ganon is not one of them.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's Ganon
Of all the bosses I've ever fought, the battle with Ganon at the end of Ocarina of Time is by far the most epic. After having already fought him in his humanoid form, Ganondorf once again rises from the rubble of his castle for a rematch, but this time, he's battling as the monstrous Ganon. Your sword is knocked out of your hands at the beginning, flung outside the arena's fiery border.
Find a way to get behind him, then pummel his tail with the Megaton Hammer. After doing this a few times, you'll retrieve your sword and enter the final phase of the battle. Strike his tail a few more times with your sword, and he'll eventually fall over. As Princess Zelda holds him down with her magical powers, deliver the final blow with the Master Sword, right into the evil beast's skull. And then it's all over. The beast falls silent, and is sealed away to the gaping void of the Sacred Realm. Swirling through nothingness, Ganondorf swears his vengeance on Link's ancestors.
No matter how many times I played through this battle, it never got old. If I ever had to fight one boss over and over for all eternity, this would be it. Ocarina of Time's Ganon shall go down in history as one of the greatest final bosses ever, if not the greatest.
Portal's GLaDOS
When Portal first begins, you wake up in some bizarre test facility. A computerized voice suddenly begins to speak, telling you that you're in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center. Despite the name, this facility does little in the ways of "enrichment", no matter how you look at it. It instead consists of a gauntlet of arbitrary challenges designed to be nigh impossible to complete. After fighting your way through all nineteen tests, GLaDOS tricks you into boarding a platform headed directly for a fiery pit. Using the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (Or "Portal Gun"), you manage create a series of space-altering portals to escape and confront GLaDOS' mainframe. And this is where the battle begins.
After promising cake if you stand down and surrender (Which, of course, you don't do), GLaDOS becomes irritated by your persistence and fills the chamber with deadly gases. Using motion-sensing rocket turrets and a series of portals, you can attack GLaDOS' physical form directly, breaking off pieces of her mainframe. These pieces of the computer can be picked up and disposed of in an incinerator located conveniently in the same room. After disposing of the last piece (Which growls and writhes in your grip), GLaDOS becomes destabilized, imploding in on herself. Amidst the chaos, you manage to escape, and the game comes to an end.
This game is incredibly addictive, as I went and played it to grab the above screenshot of GLaDOS. Even after snapping the above picture, I felt like continuing on to defeat the evil computer. Somehow I managed to save in that room and exit the game. But darn it, that was not easy to do. All of Portal is incredibly addictive, and the final boss battle is the icing on the cake.
And by the way, said cake is a lie. Just a heads-up.
Super Mario Galaxy's Bowser
Perhaps excluding only Super Mario Sunshine, every final battle with Bowser in all the Mario games ever made is amazing, but dang it, the Bowser in Super Mario Galaxy just blows all the other fights out of the water. First of all, this Bowser requires more hits than ever before to be defeated (At least ten). Second, this battle takes place on several planetoids. It begins on a small, plain planet. At this stage, Bowser covers up almost his entire body in rocks and rolls around the planet, chasing Mario. The only way to counter this is to attack his face when it rolls towards you. He then falls on his back and spins uncontrollably around the planet. Again, attack him when he gets close.
After battling him like this for a few rounds, he breaks the gravitational pull and takes the both of you to another planetoid. Now is when he starts getting really angry. He launches fireballs at you, curls up in his spiked shell and rolls around the planet, becoming nearly invincible in the process. The only way to attack him here is to use your spin attack on nearby plants, sending the bulb flying off in the other direction. When it hits Bowser, he begins spinning on his back like before. Just like last time, attack him until he takes you to a different planet.
The final stage is a glassy, lava-filled sphere with a few weak points. Stand near a weak spot when bowser tries to jump on you, and he'll rupture the glass, fall into the lava, and begin running around in pain. Take the opportunity to strike at his scorched tail, which will again send him spinning on his shell. Yet again, attack him when he spins towards you. After doing this a few times, he is finally defeated. He falls off the planet and lands in the molten surface of a nearby sun.
But he isn't done yet! He emerges from the fiery depths, and stumbles around on a floating rock. He looks around and screams in sorrow at seeing his galaxy destroyed. The sun he's on collapses in on itself, dragging the rest of the universe in with it. After Mario talks briefly with Rosalina, he, Bowser and Peach awake on the Mushroom Kingdom Castle's lawn. All is well again in the new galaxy.
Bowser's resilience in Galaxy is amazing. It's definitely the fiercest of all his incarnations. Who else could fall into the sun and be okay? Bowser's one tough hombre.
The Duck Has Spoken.
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