GameSetWatch: Platforming on the PC: A Brief History

After an extended absence, I’m posting at GameSetWatch again. Writing about Abuse had me looking back to the early 1990s and the excessive number of platforming titles released by Apogee and Epic MegaGames, so I decided to put together a brief history of the trend. While I only touched upon Jazz Jackrabbit 2, I expect to be revisiting the game in its own column, as I still believe it is one of the finest 2D platformers ever made.

a televised sports video game mashup

An American Express commercial featuring tennis player Andy Roddick versus the blocky paddle from Pong has recently been airing more frequently in support of the upcoming Rogers Cup here in Toronto. I figured it was another sign of the commoditization of video games, but I found the Stop Pong URL tagged at the end of the commercial made it a lot more interesting. The game lets you play as Roddick using the simple Pong-style gameplay in either a 2D or 3D mode. For the purpose it serves it's actually a decent looking distraction.

I hate commercials, but I have to give American Express credit for tapping into the trendiest internet meme at the moment. The mashup mixes real life action and a piece of video game history, creating a pretty surreal display. The commercial is also mixing two different sports. However, the "Roddick vs. Pong" game that adds an extended "interactive" element to the commercial is probably the biggest accomplishment, because they could have left it at the commercial itself. Instead, they understand that structuring a passive advertisement around a video game is easily transferrable to the form that inspired it, while lengthening the exposure of their brand.

Alien Shooter 2: an alloy?

Recently, there have been more complaints lodged against the game criticism community by developers. Apparently these so-called "journalists" don't finish games before assessing their quality.

I am about to describe a game after exactly eight minutes of playing it. Because that's all I was allowed in the time-locked demo of Alien Shooter 2. Though I did have some help from the official site:

This is the unique alloy of arcade action and RPG elements which combines well-established world of classical games and unmatched dynamics of the first part.

Have you ever asked someone a simple question, and in response received an answer that goes into so much terrible detail that the question itself becomes irrelevant to the entire conversation? Sometimes a developer has to know when to leave things alone. In the case of Alien Shooter 2, Sigma Team couldn't stop talking.

Rebirth of the Arcade: a false alarm

After I wrote last week's post for The Cultural Gutter, I was given a link to an interview at Gamasutra that had been published a week prior. The interview was with Clint Manny, vice president of sales and marketing at GameWorks. The arcade chain was recently acquired by the Sega-Sammy Group, who has big plans to boost GameWorks' market share - and rebuild the U.S. arcade scene while they're at it.

What Happened to the Arcade?

After exploring the relationships formed by console gaming, I thought about the place of the arcade in the evolution of the bonds shared by gamers. The friendly competition established by beating a high score in Galaga or mastering the moves of Street Fighter II seem like such simple pursuits when compared to the complexity of multiplayer gaming today. The Internet, voice chat and anonymous challenges have supplanted the community building that took place inside the local arcade. While a form of this pastime may have made its way onto home consoles, it's hard not to lament the loss of these hallowed dens of gaming. This month's article at the Cultural Gutter tries to figure out what happened to the arcade.

New Super Mario Bros.: it's all relative

Did the New Super Mario Bros. have to be made for the DS? After all the thought that went into the handheld's features, is a simplistic, side scrolling platformer really what it needs? Short answer: yes.

Now it's time for the long answer.

return of Alien Shooter

It's been over a year since I first played Sigma Team's Alien Shooter, an excellent arcade shooter that blurred the lines between shoot 'em up, FPS hallway crawlers and isometric clickfest RPGs.

Sigma Team has since released an informal sequel of sorts, Theseus: Return of the Hero. In it you play Theseus, a lone warrior that crash lands onto the surface of Earth only to find that it has been overrun by the same aliens seen in Alien Shooter. What I want to know is, just where is he returning from? Is this indeed the Greek hero of old? The question just begged to be asked.

Immediately noticeable are the game environments. No longer are you limited to the gray corridors of a research facility teeming with nasty aliens; you are instead transported to a Western-styled post-apocolyptic wasteland, complete with dual six-guns and a suitably twangy soundtrack.

Though I knew something was funny when I saw "Powered by Alien Shooter" on the title screen. Apart from the different objectives and open yet strangely corridor-driven outdoor areas, this seems like a repackaging of Alien Shooter. The monsters are the same, and what's worse, there are less weapons available! Was the intent of Theseus to develop the storyline in the Alien Shooter universe from another perspective? Had the alien creatures escaped from the research lab, despite my best efforts to trap them inside the structure with thousands of packets of dynamite? Why am I asking these questions about a simple arcade shooter? It doesn't matter; I want Alien Shooter 2.

I'm O.K.!

Remember Splatterhouse?

I remember parents being up in arms over the game's presentation of ultra-violence, afraid that their children would don a hockey mask and run out into the street to whack people with 2x4s while praising the name of Satan. Except without the flying heads. Or shambling mounds of undead flesh. Of course, that was before Mortal Kombat made its way into the arcades, educating young children on the wonders of spine removal.

Now we have Jack Thompson, the self-proclaimed White Knight for parents against violent videogames everywhere, and a repeat offender when it comes to putting his foot in his mouth.

In a comment that was probably intended to be a joke, Thompson asked game developers to create a game about Osaki Kim, a man "swearing revenge upon the video game industry whom he is convinced contributed to his son's murder." In this statement would be a task that gamers would take to the bank.

Shortly after this proposal was handed over to the entire Internet, "Defamation of Character: A Jack Thompson Murder Simulator" was revealed. Even though it really had nothing to do with Thompson's idea, it was sure to mock publicly the sensationalist campaign he was waging upon the games industry. What's more, this game was a modification of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - a game at the very centre of his crusade against the video game industry. How deliciously poetic.

Bodythumper, the first original game to be based on Thompson's "modest proposal" was released shortly after. Though I think it was made out of principle than to actually create something worth playing.

With Thompson's proposal having such a stunted viewpoint on violence in videogames, I didn't think anyone could create a game that was actually, well, a game that would still be worth spending some time with. Insert a few over-the-top conventions of violent video games, make a few jokes at Thompson's expense, and call it a day.

Last week, Thompsonsoft released "I'm O.K.", the latest game to adopt Jack Thompson's design proposal. I didn't think I'd end up actually enjoying it.

After an extremely humorous cutscene that borrows heavily from the poor art direction in intros from the NES titles of yesteryear, you're given a bat and the violence begins. This is what made me think of Splatterhouse. The endless, almost nonsenical beatings that erupted into blood and gore. Enemies would drop coins that could be used to purchase bigger and better weapons between levels. But I didn't bother. I liked the bat. All of the elements of Thompson's proposal are in there: the detailed opening cutscene, the bloody trail blazed across a map of the U.S. and a visit to the fictional Paula Eibel's house.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any more gratuitous, I was asked to pee on the dancing brains of people I'd just bludgeoned to death. At this point I was speechless.

With "I'm O.K.", Thompson's sarcastic remarks have been given right back.

mario kart DS

It's hard to imagine a Nintendo console without a version of Mario Kart. Ever since the mold was cast on the SNES, there have been numerous imitations. Even Nintendo's own following iterations didn't seem to capture the same charm as the original. This time Mario Kart DS provides the entire package, borrowing only those components from its ancestors that worked well and created one of the best games I played last year.

Halo gets 2D treatment

I'm not big a fan of Halo by any means, but when I saw the announcement for Halo Zero, I knew I had to check it out. This isn't the first time a beloved FPS has had a dimension removed: nuclear vision's Codename: Gordon was based on Half Life. Of course, the Codename: Gordon project was officially sanctioned by Valve and was the first game available through Steam. Whether Microsoft opts to take any legal action over this fan-created platformer remains to be seen.

In terms of gameplay, Halo Zero takes everything familiar to players of the XBox version and translates them directly: the recharging health meter, the Covenant's many plasma weapons, the Warthog - and all with their original sound effects. It's great fun, and like Codename: Gordon and Abuse before it, the mouse is integrated perfectly into the action. While the game's developers say this is the "Final" version, there are still a number of small bugs to be found (such as a finnicky weapon swap), and the game's resolution makes the art look worse than it should. Still, the bright, colorful graphics and campy cutscenes brought me back to the days of the Genesis and SNES. Though don't kid yourself - it doesn't provide the fast paced arcade action of Gunstar Heroes or Metal Slug, but instead offers an enjoyable diversion that's more novelty than anything else.

some candy talking

gunstar super heroes

I've decided to share a few words about Gunstar Super Heroes, the recently released follow-up to the Genesis classic, because it has me completely turned around.

My initial skepticism was rightfully deserved, as the wounds of disappointment I sustained while playing Guardian Heroes Advance continue to bleed to this day. That games are still being published for the GBA is a revelation in itself; the fact that an excellent 2D side scrolling shooter has been made available at this point in its lifespan is doubly surprising.

What initially gripped me was the game's speed. Gunstar Super Heroes runs smooth. Actually, forget that - the game runs as smooth as my fondest memories of Gunstar Heroes. It made me remember the days where we convinced ourselves the term "blast processing" actually possessed technical weight. Compared with my experiences with Guardian Heroes Advance - a game that single-handedly made me question the existence of a special hell for gamers - this was reason enough to embrace the game immediately. But.

Similar to Metal Slug Advance, the game is limited by its number of levels. Someone proficient in the 2D side scrolling shooter arts will likely surpass the game's extremely diverse levels within an afternoon. Once you complete the first mission, the four following missions are available to be completed in any order, though it does completely obliterate the game's forgettable storyline. A "final" stage and giant boss battle are encountered at the end of these four missions. Once again Treasure has produced some legitimately challenging bosses, complete with their over-the-top appearances and attacks. In a bid to prolong the game, you're dumped to the menu screen every time you die, forcing you to continue from the beginning of the level. As usual, pattern recognition becomes the only gameplay strategy.

Disappointing was the lack of cooperative multiplayer, which is how I got most of my enjoyment out of the original Gunstar Heroes. The game lets you begin as either Red or Blue, offering a different selection of starting weapons and moves and a slightly different perspective on the same story, but it's no replacement.

I was bothered by the need for Treasure to lead off every level with some kind of "vehicle" or "flying" sequence, where you're on a jet or flying a helicopter over a cityscape replete with skyscrapers. Because each sequence is so different, they require a brief learning period to adapt to the change in controls and environment. Still, when it got down to the actual running and shooting, I was appeased. All the weapon power-ups from the original Gunstar Heroes - including some new ones - are available, and for a few moments it felt like I was playing the same game, familiarity clouding my ability to judge quality. Nevertheless, I remained most impressed with the style of gameplay that was so effortlessly maintained throughout the game.

As the DS continues to gain momentum in the portable gaming market with its many holiday releases, it's heartening to see that simple affairs like Gunstar Super Heroes are still worth pursuing by developers. While I can understand the need to supply games for the GBA given that Nintendo's official position on the DS is that it is not the follow-up to the GBA, the release of Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow and Lunar: Dragon Song has shown that traditional 2D titles can offer something more than a pushbutton experience. That being said, a game like Gunstar Super Heroes would almost certainly fail in any context other than the GBA. As the shift towards graphical prowess permeates the handheld market, it becomes harder to determine who plans to sustain this genre.

I found that essence rare

the legendary x-men

I got together with some very good friends on the weekend to catch up with each other and play video games. Collectively we decided that the centerpiece of our evening with an XBox would be X-Men Legends, allowing us to avoid the embarassing multiplayer gameplay of old standbys Hunter: The Reckoning and the infinite brown-ness of Dungeons and Dragons: Heroes. Halo is never considered because my friends know well enough that in order for me to play multiplayer FPS it must involve several computers.

The initial assessment of Legends' combat is still correct: aside from removing a group of adversaries from around a teammate with your mutant power, the game requires fists to be flying through the air at all times. Though where I'm beginning to see the game's long lasting appeal is in the development of the roster of characters - there really is a time and place for all of them. Levelling characters and selecting new abilities becomes a group activity, and not nearly as invasive as I would have thought. Though despite my Iceman and Juan's Storm being elemental magic users, we always found ourselves on the front lines taking bullets for Wolverine and Cyclops. Yes, Wolverine, with the healing factor. Cyclops, for some reason, found pleasure in picking up explosive cannisters and throwing them into groups of people (often our own ranks). This is not how you win the game.

Even with four players, the game gets extremely difficult, and will almost always punish you for trying to plow through its lengthy missions. I may have been a bit harsh in saying that there's no strategy; on the contrary, Legends makes you take the same approach as you would in games like Diablo or RTS titles. Lead smaller, manageable groups of the enemy into a controllable environment where they can be dealt with efficiently. The lack of healing potions was a scenario that was completely avoidable; we just couldn't seem to convince someone that the "heal" button need only be pressed once to deliver a potion.

Although I had already experienced multiplay during my review, it was only with two players, which required the control of two characters per player. With everyone in control of their own character, it convinced me of two things: firstly, that X-Men Legends is actually a very well rounded multiplayer experience, and secondly, it shared more in common with Konami's X-Men arcade game than I first realized.

I doubt that Raven used Konami's X-Men as a stencil, but I find it odd that the first boss that you encounter in both games is Pyro. Furthermore, in Legends there is a throwback to 70s era X-Men in a flashback mission where they do battle with Sentinels on the streets of New York, which is almost word for word the first level of the arcade game. It brought back a lot of fond memories of sitting on a wobbly stool in Canada's Wonderland's Crystal Palace, playing through the game with complete strangers and getting into arguments over who got to be Wolverine. Reminiscing about days spent in arcades suppressed by a heavy fog of B.O. was enough to make me want to relive past glories with MAME. Though I quickly came to the conclusion that my opinion of the X-Men arcade game in hindsight was grossly optimistic.

I always found the introduction to the game to be quite short. Abrupt, even, when compared to the multi-layered and overly complicated backstories you might see in a 2D fighter at the time. Facing Magneto was clearly your ultimate goal, but why did he have an army of Sentinels at his disposal? Weren't they built to eliminate mutantkind, of which Magneto was clearly a member? The selection of playable mutants was also puzzling. Though the four player version of the arcade game was more common, the six player version had Wolverine, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Storm, and Dazzler as playable characters. Dazzler? Clearly a product of the 70s, Dazzler's "power" is to turn sound into light energy. The game designers were evidently unfamiliar with the comic books. Or more accurately, completely out of touch with what fans wanted to see in an X-Men game.

The X-Men arcade game attempted to recreate the beat 'em up action of Final Fight and Captain Commando, but the enemies in the game were boring and repetitive. Indeed, it was difficult, but you didn't get to fight things that weren't robots until you got to the Savage Land where you fought a bunch of Lizard look-alikes and robots. The special abilities, though brutally efficient in clearing the screen, were equally trite. Wolverine probably had the best power, even though it didn't make any sense. Cyclops was limited to exploding, which I can only assume was an uncontrolled optical blast. Wolverine had his claws to fight with, but everyone else was limited to punching. I understand that technology was probably a factor (this was, after all, 1992) but it seems to me Konami's interpretation of a multiplayer X-Men adventure was simply lazy and uncreative. Compared against this low-fi predecessor, Legends seems a much more palatable recreation of Marvel's superhero team.

sitting still was never enough

another shooting spree

Playing both Metal Slug Advance and CT Special Forces in the past couple of weeks awoke in me a renewed desire for the simplistic arcade shooters of old. It's been a year since I last checked out Kraisoft's offerings, and it seems they have been busy crafting an entirely new shooter to join their collection: After the End. The game is an isometric clickfest that pits you, a lone human soldier, against hordes of evil mutants as you blast your way through 73 levels and a variety of locations on the planet Rydon 7. Though they seem to have a strange obsession with the word "hot" when describing the game's many attributes.

Anyone familiar with Reflexive's Crimsonland will have seen this approach before: your character is dropped into an arena and you must destroy a certain amount of monsters before proceeding. And while After the End allows you to switch between weapons, the power-ups and basic gameplay elements are almost identical. Though After the End feels more open, as the later levels in the demo have more objective-based missions where you must fight your way to a point on the map. In both cases, it feels like the develoeprs tried to merge a space shooter with a ground based battle. Crimsonland's graphics are more polished, and definitely has the better soundtrack, but they're equally fun if you don't mind seeing your character rotate 360 degrees about his waist.

And then there's Alien Shooter. Such a simple, unassuming name. Why are you brought to a mysterious facility full of corridors and power switches and barrels of green goo? To shoot aliens, of course. In the same vein as Crimsonland and After the End, the game is an isometric shooter with a simple objective: destroy everything on screen while completing various mission objectives, and collect money that can be spent on better weapons, skill upgrades or extra lives at the end of each level. It feels a lot more complete, and has more in common with games like Quake and Doom than Crimsonland or After the End. The sad part is that the demo only lets you play for six minutes at a time. It's like they give you the needle, but only let you stick it part way in before snatching it from your eager hands. So what was I supposed to do? Buy the full version, of course. And I'd be lying if I didn't fire it up at least once a day, if only to see myself be swarmed by endless waves of monsters, my chaingun slowly running out of ammo.

Clearly English is not Sigma Team's native tongue, but I won't hold it against them. In games like these it's really hard to accept the story for why you're unloading buckets of lead into alien creatures, let alone how you got your hands on the weapons in the first place. For an arcade-style game, Alien Shooter is great - though the 10 missions in the campaign go by pretty quickly once you get accustomed to the basic "hit and run" strategy. Survival mode will keep this game on my computer for a long while indeed; much like some will load up Bejeweled or Alchemy to kill some time, I'll be trying to survive the endless waves of aliens.

After playing Alien Shooter for hours on end, it's hard not to notice how much actual detail went into the creation of the game's engine. The majority of the items in the game are movable or destructable, certain walls can be blown up to reveal secret areas and the explosive weapons have area/splash damage. If there was one thing I would change for an added touch of excitement, it would be the load times on the weapons. Both Crimsonland and After the End have magazine-style weapons, and once you run out of ammo there is a short delay while it reloads. This adds a lot of tension when you're being attacked from all sides. As long as you have a lot of ammo in Alien Shooter, you could basically stand in one part of the screen and completely unload on anything that approaches. Anyone who's interested in more Alien Shooter action after the first game can check out Sigma Team's two expansions, a bit ridiculously priced for what they're offerening (only 5 more levels each) and considering the cost of the original game.

Back to the realm of traditional shmups, Wings of Megaira is an entry in the 2005 Independent Games Festival student showcase. I read about it on this blog, a collection of Shockwave and Flash games that I could easily dedicate another post to (the port of the original Prince of Persia comes to mind). You'll need Direct X 9.0c to enjoy Megaira's commendable 3D graphics, and I'm not sure if it's just my computer, but there was no sound in the game. It would have added a much needed dimension to the experience, because visual feedback alone in such a fast paced game almost becomes irrelevant. Megaira uses two features to make this game interesting: you can absorb enemy weapons to use them on your own ship, as well as create a "Time Shift" that stops time and allows you to dodge tougher spread-fire attacks. You get a meter on the side of the screen similar to the Sands of Time that fills up when you kill enemies. As a complete game experience it still needs some refinement, but it was nice to see what the next generation of game developers are up to.

A fucking rock concert of an experience, Jets 'n Guns is another shoot 'em up that lives by its name. I wish all developers were this straightforward. Instead designers love to obfuscate the game's intentions by giving it a title like "Project: Snowblind" or "Splinter Cell". Why not just "Generic futuristic first person shooter" or "Stealthy espionage action-adventure that is suprisingly realistic for a multiplatform release"? Never mind. The game has style, too: the cartoonish, Crimson Skies-inspired aircraft and exaggerated environments are mixed with an incredibly catchy soundtrack by video game metalheads Machinae Supremacy. Like Alien Shooter, the whole point of the game is to complete missions while making money to upgrade your equipment; in this case, the parts on your jet. A great addition is the temperature monitoring of your weapons - the longer they are in use the hotter they get, eventually making them unusable. This deters players like myself that just lay on the fire button flying their ship all around the screen. Based on some recent reading, this game might even be available in arcades thanks to the FlexArcade PC-based cabinets.

There's something to be said about this simplistic approach to game design, because the end result is just as fun to play as the latest FPS or 3D platformer sporting a licensed engine. If you can look past the low-tech visuals, you'll find they share more in common with their big-budget counterparts than initially apparent. In fact, all this makes me think about what Andrew Phelps said about the game industry needing B-sides. Why not include these experimental, simplistic games as a side order to the main course? I mean Valve did this by releasing nuclear vision's Codename: Gordon over Steam. I think it would be entertaining to see developers have a little fun with their properties and create mini-games based on the main game. Better yet, give an independent developer a chance to show off by including their game as part of a larger package - this will increase their visibility or perhaps create a cult favorite, while adding value to the purchaser. There are way too many underground developers out there trying to save dying genres (adventure games are a classic example) while big publishers keep pushing out sequels or rehashes of proven formulas. For the industry to survive in the long term this symbiotic approach is almost necessary.

one finger parallel to the sky

retro space shooters

I know a lot of old school gamers were feeling pretty nostalgic when they learned that Space Invaders would be returning to arcades in its original state. The cabinets are being manufactured and distributed by Namco at $2,772 US apiece, and they plan on selling 10,000 of these. A bit optimistic in my opinion, but it's still kind of cool to think that present-day gamers will have the chance to pay homage to a game that helped shape an industry.

We've come a long way since those green-on-black pixelicious graphics. But if you still crave some modern, low system requirement space shooter action, Moonpod Games has an excellent Asteroids clone called Starscape. I played that for a while earlier this year when the boys at PA were advertising them. It's not a bad time waster, but you have invest a lot of time before it actually becomes interesting to play. The initial missions are of the tedious debris-destroying variety, and are mainly intended to build up your resources so you can upgrade your ship. Once you get past those though it's a great throwback to the button-mashing space shooters of old.

Another company that's putting out the same kind of gaming is Kraisoft Entertainment. On this month's PCGamer CD they included a demo of the highly addictive Alien Sky. This is basically a mixture of Space Invaders and Galaga with some updated graphics, that manages to look exceptional at a meager 800x600. However if you must try one of their games, I highly recommend Astrobatics. I wasn't a fan of reverting back to keyboard bashing for Alien Sky, so controlling my ship using only the mouse in Astrobatics was most appreciated. This game takes its cues from Gradius, Nemesis, Lifeforce and R-Type - side-scrolling space shooter classics. If you don't want to deal with the hassle of shareware, but still want a nice looking Asteriods clone, the kind programmers at Kraisoft have made the extremely low-tech Trashkiller 2 a free download.

I keep meaning to mention that I saw Return of the King this weekend in this sudden profusion of posts. Although just a tad long, I enjoyed it immensely. It provided a fitting end to this absolutely magnificent series. I think Mr. Jackson needs to be commended for his utmost respect for the source material (despite his many subtle deviations). I'm currently writing a full review, so look for it sometime soon.

is it chemically derived?