GoldenEye 007 (2010)
It’s almost criminal that this game isn’t mentioned more often among the GOATs of FPS shooters, particularly in the James Bond 007 franchise.
2010 brought about a buzz when Activision acquired the James Bond license and announced a reboot of one of the most influential console first person shooters ever made: Goldeneye.
Based on the movie and the 1997 game baring the same name, this title is an oddity that shares some characteristics with other video games which add to the movie canon, such as Ghostbusters: The Video Game or any number of Star Wars games which add to their universe.
In this iteration of Goldeneye, the settings are familiar but like the movie series, it has been completely retooled with its new Bond lead, Daniel Craig. For me, this is over the top and very ambitious – could Activision and developer Eurocom pull this off?
The answer is a resounding yes – so much so that I wish I had a higher rating on this site for a few games that stand out in a category all their own.
The first edition of Goldeneye 007 was released on the Nintendo Wii, and is thus the copy I reviewed here. There’s something off about the “remastered” versions that came out one year later for the PS3 and Xbox 360 – namely, even the first level is laid out a bit differently, and some of the voice acting parts seem to have been cut – leaving me less than impressed I stuck with the original.
We all know the Wii wasn’t an HD machine, but playing this in an emulated state greatly sharpens the graphics and there’s a “film grain” effect to the Wii edition that’s missing from the later “remastered HD” versions.
Plus, playing with a Wiimote and nunchuk is totally satisfying, to a degree, when it comes to the FPS genre. (It also gets annoying in firefights, so I opted to use the Gamecube controller later on, but the classic controller is also supported.)
2010’s Goldeneye recasts all of the actors, minus Judy Dench’s “M” (who has appeared in quite a few films). The settings and plot are all similar, albeit tweaked to match 2010 rather than 1995 when the original film was released.
What that means is that Bond is using a smartphone instead of his Dick Tracy style watch, and that the Goldeneye installation is now part of a solar array.
The tweaks are subtle, and as part of a reboot with Daniel Craig, it hits just right. If this were a movie, it would’ve been a blockbuster, and you get that sense every step of the way playing it.
All of the Bond gimmicks are here and then some.
The game is filled tons of fan service. I swear you’d think this was a Michael Bay production. From the start, you get the same overhead pan of a dam somewhere in, IDK, Serbia? I forget… not the point however, as it brings you back to the N64 days of Goldeneye with Pierce Brosnan. Yet, after you pass a security tower and a tunnel, the game starts to shine immediately with booms and bangs, and you get a sense for how much more polished every detail is.
Carried over from the original game are most of the levels, including the dam, the library, monument park, and a thrilling tank drive through town.
The computer AI is solid as a diverse cast of recurring enemy mercenaries floods the screen, finding cover, ducking and diving about.
Stealth is a huge component of this game, as a run-and-gun style will often get you killed on the spot. The big gimmick is holding the L trigger to zoom in while aiming, as the game eschews your typical “auto aim” feature to hone in while shooting. Your gun will often vibrate or move, realistically, making it harder to hit targets as well.
You can duck behind cover, and use this feature to pop up to shoot.
Other stealth items include shooting security cameras, hacking into drone guns, or simply waiting out entertaining conversations between soldiers – who will move on on their own without any other interaction needed on your behalf.
Beware, however, that one wrong misstep, such as shooting a soldier conversing with another, can bring an onslaught of armies headed your way!
There’s so much packed into the single player campaign that I didn’t even get a chance to review multiplayer unfortunately. Yet, that’s a testament to just how complete and satisfying of a game this is.
If you’re a fan of FPS games, 007, Daniel Craig… you know what. Just play the game.
It’s so darn good that I now wish I hadn’t put off finishing this one for so long – and would love to see this translated onto the big screen as a real Daniel Craig reboot too!
Halo 2
Like most of my Xbox reviews, I want to point out that I played this version of Halo 2 on the Xbox One.
Unlike a lot of my reviews, this game was remastered for the new console, but with a caveat: you could switch between the HD remastered graphics and the original, while playing on the fly!
Now back to our regularly scheduled program.
When Microsoft launched their first-ever console, the original Xbox, a lot of folks had no idea what to think of it. Would it be yet another failed concept in a crowded field? That field included Nintendo, Sony, and at the time, a struggling and then failed Sega console division.
As such, onlookers such as myself heard of Halo and only knew of rumblings that it was a “killer app”.
As the Xbox gained momentum, I also gained an Xbox, just in time for the release of Halo 2.
Let it be known, Halo 2 was the true killer app for the OG Xbox.
By this time the bulky “Duke” controller was replaced with a more streamlined version, broadband internet began to penetrate more homes, and Xbox Live was taking off like a rocket. The sequel to the original Halo dropped in 2004 to take advantage all of all this and more.
While Halo 2 brought online multiplayer, I still feel Halo 3 (on Xbox 360) was the pinnacle of that component being a bigger feature than offline campaigns in games. Halo 2’s campaign was solid, but I can’t be the only one who felt the plot was a bit disjointed.
You alternate playing as the Master Chief and “enemy” Covenant equivalent “The Arbiter” as we learn of opposition’s obsession with the Halo ring world installations. I won’t spoil anything else here, but just know that sometimes the storyline gets confusing if you’re not totally all-in on the Halo universe.
Halo 2 is considered one of the greatest games of all time because it greatly expands on what made the first game so popular. The game’s cover art teases a feature missing in the first game, the ability to wield two guns at the same time.
While some weapons are exempt from dual-wielding, the change was notable as first-person shooters such as Goldeneye and Perfect Dark had done so years earlier. The omission felt odd in Halo, but Halo 2 makes it “make sense”.
New weapons are a given, but none more so than the introduction of the energy sword, which often allowed for one-hit kills that were also popular in other FPS titles.
Of course, the weapons all have their give-and-take moments, and dual-wielding means you can’t melee attack, toss grenades, or switch to your holstered item without dropping the second gun. (In other words, there’s strategy involved!) The inclusion of vehicles is here as well, including more opportunities to see how the Covenant tech works too.
There are some sheer brilliant moments in Halo 2, aided by full-motion video cutscenes, gorgeous settings, and an epic cinema quality soundtrack.
To this day, playing Halo 2 on its original settings is still jaw-dropping. The HD remake sends it into another stratosphere where the no longer dated effects disguise it as a current-gen blockbuster.
FPS fans who have never had the privilege of playing the original Halo games are definitely missing out – and the series’ first sequel is as over the top as any other franchise’s, including Super Mario Bros.
I highly recommend this game – and as a bonus, those with Xbox Game Pass can play it at no extra charge.
The Simpsons
Here’s a hidden gem for some of you retro gamers out there – The Simpsons Arcade Game.
Developed by Konami, it shares a ton of similarities to their other beat’em up games, such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle series. In fact, it’s practically the same exact game with Simpsons paint over it.
And that’s not a bad thing!
Originally made in 1991 upon the advent of the TV series’ popularity, console gamers were given a treat in 2012 when the arcade-only title was ported to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (via Xbox Live Arcade). This review focuses on the PS3 version specifically.
The first note I want to make is that The Simpsons is not a remake like my earlier review of Turtles In Time: Re-shelled. It’s also not upconverted or altered for HD gameplay. The developers took, what I feel is a wise decision, and simply windowed the game into an HD frame which resembles the original arcade bezel.
The rest is a straight playthrough of the arcade game in all its glory, showcasing one of four characters you can play with: Homer, Marge, Bart or Lisa. With the exception of Homer, each of the other characters uses a weapon in their arsenal. Bart has a skateboard, Lisa has a jump rope and Marge, um, has, a, uh, vacuum cleaner… yeah…
Two players can also team up for tandem attacks, with Bart and Lisa holding hands, screaming like little kids and giving a clothesline to oncoming bad guys.
That’s not all, as the characters can also pickup items such as a slingshot, signboards, bowling balls, or even Santa’s Little Helper to hurl at enemies which range from guy in navy blue suit to guy in gray suit.
Okay, it was a 1991 title, so the palette swap ninja deal is still in effect, but overall, without any real protagonists in the TV series, the game script does a decent job of creating an environment where it makes sense to have the family members beat up on someone else in order to retrieve Maggie – who was kidnapped by Mr. Burns’ lackey Smithers.
While that’s contrived at best for a plot, the game is a lot of fun to button smash through and still relieve nostalgia that’s still applicable to the TV show today.
There are several Easter eggs throughout the game too, with subtle details such as Moe handing out life-replenishing drinks at his tavern in one stage, or a bear escaping in one level only to see it resurface as a boss in another.
In-game options allow you to change characters on the fly if you get bored too.
Upon beating the USA version of the game you also unlock the Japanese version, which is altered for their region in several ways, including being easier to beat – though each ROM type allows for “free play” so you aren’t restricted to a finite amount of continues. (You can see how many quarters were probably eaten up back in ‘91 by playing the free mode too!)
For fans of the show as well as the Konami style beat’em up games, this is a can’t miss game. Unfortunately, it’s been removed from the various console stores, so you may have to find another method of playing it – I’m also lucky enough to have a local arcade nearby which still has a working cabinet.
It’s that enjoyable of a game to seek out and play.
Doom 3
This one was a long time coming!
I remember when this game first came out on the original Xbox – back when Circuit City was still a thing. I was excited to pick it up, and quickly fell out of love for the dark environments.
The version I’m reviewing is a port, played on Xbox One: as are a lot of my reviews of Xbox games these days, as they’re the most easily accessible (and documented) on the updated system.
Doom 3 also received an update since that fateful day I picked up a copy. The dark environments forced you to use a flashlight or a weapon – while the update allowed for the flashlight to remain on while wielding a gun, etc.
While the flashlight still drains, this change made the game more accessible for dolts like myself… though I wasn’t quite on board with Doom 3’s approach at first either. The first two Doom games were simple run-and-gun to the exit first person shooters. Doom 3 takes a more narrative approach, adding a PDA (ahem, tablet computer for you youngsters) to check emails, audio/video clips, and your inventory.
The PDA is essential for knowing some objectives or getting codes to storage lockers, which are typically stocked with a gun you may not have acquired yet, armor, and ammo. You will also use quite a bit of computer terminals and monitors throughout the game to unlock areas or solve minigames.
The extra computer/tablet content also widens the depth of the game, as you play the titular role of a space marine who is stuck on a Mars research facility that just so happened to also open a portal to Hell.
The dark environments are often covered in blood and guts, and you’ll fight zombified humans and demons in tight corridors that ratchet the game back to its roots.
You also encounter some NPCs, some friendly, and some, well, no spoilers here…
Having played every Doom game created, I was upset with myself for taking so long to give this one its rightful time. Looking back at a 2005 release, this game was pretty groundbreaking even if the pace wasn’t “arcade” enough for me way back when. The visuals hold up well, as Microsoft always had their eye on creating HD content even back when the first entered the video game console market.
The audio is full enriching, with gun shots, explosions, and the occasional creepy whisper of something not of this world. I won’t say that this is survival horror at its finest, but the game pushes enough buttons to creep you out at times.
Speaking of buttons, the controls are tight as well, and there aren’t many sections that require stupid jumps or tightrope walks leading to cheap deaths. You can also save at any time which is a lifesaver for some of us who need to take our gaming sessions in small chunks.
The best part of Doom 3 by far is the weapons.
Everything you could want is here in this edition, from the classic shotgun and chainsaw to the BFG. As the game progresses you get a sense of your own progression – and some over-the-top classic bosses top the cake.
Like practically every other Doom game ever made, Doom 3 holds its own as a unique entry which serves as a bridge from the old FPS run/gun style to a more in-depth experience worth checking out if you’re a fan of the series or any first person shooters.
Dr. Mario
If you were to tell six-year-old me while growing up, that puzzles games would be some of my fondest memories, I’d probably look at you confused – because I’m only six, remember?
Seriously though, puzzle games? The mere mention of the word puzzle brings to mind grandparents doing crosswords or the word jumble in the newspaper. Not video games.
Yet, two of the most influential video games in my life were both puzzle-based. First, there was Tetris which dominated the life of anyone who owned a Game Boy.
Then came Dr. Mario.
Ah, yes – let’s slap the plumber on this box and sell it like hotcakes. Afterall, all things Mario were hot. Nintendo at this time could do no wrong. Super Mario Bros. 3 had released months earlier as a blockbuster larger than some summer movies. The Super Nintendo and another Mario title was on the way with Super Mario World – but somewhere in the middle is where Dr. Mario landed.
Initially this is a game I missed as a kid. Some parents were apparently up in arms over the doctor/drug theme, but for myself, the puzzle game looked like a rip-off of Tetris. (How dare they?!) Little did I know years later how many times I would play the NES original, and its many sequels, with my girlfriend and wife-to-be.
Dr. Mario is considered one of the best NES games ever made and with good reason.
The premise is simple: align four blocks of a single color in a row, either vertically or horizontally. The blocks can be made up for the three colors of viruses, red, blue and yellow, which are randomly placed at the start of each level and must be eliminated to move to the next.
Strategy is incorporated in many ways. Each pill contains only two of the three colors, so you do not want to block your ability to gain four in a row of a single color. You may also use the edge of one pill to eliminate other rows and columns, with the extra piece breaking off and falling lower in the stage.
In this manner, savvy players can clear boards quicker – critical to victory as gameplay speeds up throughout each level to a breakneck pace. The amount of viruses are also predetermined as you level up, but players can also set this, as well as the speed and catchy tunes of the game’s timeless soundtrack, in the main menu.
In two player mode the game remains essentially the same. Players split screens and attempt to beat the other by clearing their stage first. When clearing two or more rows/columns simultaneously, extra one-bit pills fall on your opponent’s stage, which usually clogs up their plans to eradicate the viruses.
Explaining the dynamic might be more difficult than actually seeing the game in action – and there’s a real ending to it as well, which, I’m so far removed from my peak Dr. Mario skills that I prefer to show you a YouTube clip of someone who’s done the hard work for me.
If you’ve never played Dr. Mario, well, you’re missing out. It’s a good solo romp as well as a great game to play in tandem. The are numerous follow ups which build upon one another but retain the same core game play too – in fact, Dr. Mario has appeared on nearly every Nintendo system, with this game spawning yet another subgenre in which the famous plumber printed money for his creators.
If you haven’t indulged, I highly recommend this game – and series – especially if you are a fan of puzzle games.
Soulcalibur
I’ll never forgot the golden age of working in a video rental store. My high time there was the period when VHS was transitioning to the brand-new DVD discs, as well as video games moving into a new generation.
The Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64 were king at first, but our shelves started to stock the next generation Sega Dreamcast, which had an infamous launch date of 9/9/1999.
However, Hollywood Video, my employer back then, had obtained exclusive sneak-peak rights to the console:
On July 15, Hollywood Video will begin renting Sega Dreamcast, the superconsole with a built-in 56K modem that brings the most realistic and advanced game play ever achieved in a consumer videogame system, at more than 1,000 of its 1,390 stores nationwide, raising awareness among a potential consumer audience of approximately 40 million.
Sega Dreamcast officially launches in the United States on Sept. 9, 1999, at a retail price of $199 with a launch library of 16 titles. (And I had a chance to play it a lot upon launch!)
One of those 16 launch titles was Soulcalibur, which at the time (and even looking back on it now) was unlike anything before it.
The sequel to Soul Edge (and known as Soul Blade on the PSX) had an arcade version that was out earlier and simply rocked. But how would it stack up on Sega’s new hardware, especially after the flops that were the 32X and Saturn?
Tremendously I would say.
I recall my first time with Soulcalibur like it were yesterday. I couldn’t believe how great the graphics were – actually superior to the arcade version – buttery smooth as the framerate clipped along with gameplay reminiscent of watching a Bruce Lee movie.
The latter was especially true of the weapons-based combat inherent to the Soulcalibur series.
Namco and its development team took extra care for finer details which made for an incredible next-gen experience. Executing an attack, your character had more animations which may swing nunchakus a few more times while the next input for an attack (or defense) awaited.
As such, the “buffer” used in this game, that is executing button presses for each move, made combos chain together smoothly with a result akin to watching a movie rather than playing a game.
Unlike its predecessor, Soulcalibur also allows for true 8-way movement, expanding the previous combat – which also expanded on your defense capabilities.
This took raised the bar of the fighting genre, as other “3D” games didn’t chain combos as smoothly – probably my biggest gripe with the 3D Mortal Kombat series also is how jerky each of the moves felt when executed. Due to the buffer, combos, defense, animations, and 8-way movement, Soulcalibur felt like a real fight and upped the ante for tense, strategy-based battles. (Though your novice, like myself, could also button mash their way around as necessary, so the game was fairly accessible to noobs and seasoned pros.)
Most of the original characters returned from the first game, along with ten new fighters, increasing the depth of the game (albeit some tended to be redundant in ways).
I haven’t even gotten to the plot, which by this time, is really an afterthought excuse to have a fighting tournament – retrieving the Soul Edge from the main boss Nightmare, in a strangely woven storyline that again, isn’t all that important to the gameplay.
The Dreamcast version also sported the original’s boss, Cervantes, as well as a bunch of extra modes including Team Battle, Survival, and Training Mode, plus other unlockable content.
Soulcalibur is widely regarded as one of the best Dreamcast titles, is the second highest rated video game of all time, behind The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time with a 97% score on GameRankings, 98 on Metacritic, and won the majority of Game of the Year awards in its respective year and is often cited as arguably one of the greatest fighting games, as well as one of the greatest video games ever, topping numerous best video game lists over the years.
Yeah, I wasn’t going to retype all of that from Wikipedia – I think you get the hint. If you have never dipped your toe into this series, find a way to jump in on Soulcalibur – either on the Dreamcast or via Xbox Live Arcade.
RoboCop Versus The Terminator
Dual console releases became more common as the 90’s war between Sega and Nintendo forged on. Publishers were caught between exclusivity licenses with Nintendo or breaking the mold to work with Sega – or eventually both, when Nintendo’s practices came into legal question.
As such, you’d often find titles, such as the yearly editions of EA Sports’ John Madden Football or Midway’s Mortal Kombat on each platform. Other times you’d find a similar or identically named game sharing no resemblance to its counterpart on the competitor’s console.
Thus is the story of RoboCop Versus The Terminator. Each of the games released was completely independent of one another. In fact, the Sega Genesis version (reviewed here) released a full six months later than its cousin on the Super Nintendo. (Which I plan to review later.)
The plot of the Genesis title, per Wikipedia, is as follows:
Set a few years after RoboCop’s invention, the story involves SAC-NORAD contracting Cyberdyne Systems on building Skynet. Cyberdyne used RoboCop’s technology in creating Skynet. When activated, Skynet becomes self-aware and launches a war against mankind. In the future, Skynet sends several Terminators back to the past to cripple the Resistance. After destroying one of the Terminators, RoboCop proceeds to Delta City, where he confronts RoboCain.
After RoboCain was destroyed, RoboCop battles his way to the OCP building, where he defeats all the Terminators. After defeating an ED-209 unit reprogrammed by the Terminators, RoboCop plugs himself into a console. Unbeknownst to him, RoboCop gave Skynet information it can use. This ends up with RoboCop falling into a trap. In the future, RoboCop assembles himself, where he battled in the Terminator-infested future and destroyed Skynet.
Armed with this knowledge you may start to roll your eyes at the crossover of movie characters and think “this is going to suck”. However, this is one of the best Genesis titles – ever.
The game takes a lot of inspiration – and stated as such from their developers – from Contra.
RVT is at its heart a shoot’em up style platformer, with RoboCop as the protagonist who slowly plods around each level. RoboCop can shoot straight ahead, above, beneath and at 45-degree angles (think Metroid) which makes the pace of the game fun when you add in the Contra-style ability to upgrade weapons – carrying two at a time.
The weapons are mostly of the same flavors too, including the standard RoboCop semi-auto pistol, which he’ll twirl like the movie if you stand still at times. Oddly, there’s a few other nods in this game that eerily remind me of Sonic The Hedgehog also, including the industrial style levels and using poles to climb on… but back to the guns.
Other firearms include a grenade launcher, homing missiles, a spread gun, and even a futuristic laser weapon. One more goodie is in the game, but I don’t want to spoil it for those who may play it – let’s just say it’s a gamebreaker in terms of ingenuity!
The game adds some variety to just walking and jumping. As mentioned, you can scale horizontal poles and also climb ladders. There are different paths throughout, but the “wimpy” mode I played on (one of three difficulty settings) was on point with showing me the proper path.
While RoboCop can barely jump, the developers didn’t cheap out and make this a Double Dragon style cheap death tactic, and seldom do you find a difficult jump as the cause of your death.
The game also packs in the almost obligatory Sega “violence mode”, accessed with a homescreen button press sequence. Honestly, this is the ONLY way to play, as the movie-to-game translation benefits from bursting bodies and blood splatters, much like the unrated RoboCop.
There are plenty of nods to both franchises when it comes to fan service, and most of the bosses, plus the pacing of what little story is between the homescreen and end credits, makes the game feel at home with fans of either movie.
The music thumps, and can be repetitive, but a few choice soundbytes (and some one-liners) are icing on the cake for a game well done – that still feels fresh even to this day.
New Super Mario Bros. 2
It’s hard to believe this game is almost ten years old now, while the Nintendo 3DS is still alive (but on life support due to the portability of the Nintendo Switch).
That’s where it falls into odd territory as a “retro game” but I feel it’s old enough now to go back and explore – anyone else’s definition of “retro” be damned!
Released in 2012, NSMB2 is the successor to the Wii title of a similar name, which itself was a sequel to the first of the “New” Super Mario Bros. titles, released for the Nintendo DS.
Did you follow all of that?
Essentially this is “New” Super Mario Bros. 3 – and as such, it shares a lot of similarities to the NES Super Mario Bros. 3, namely the reintroduction of Racoon Mario. For the unaware, grabbing a leaf powerup would give Mario a raccoon tail he could use to swipe enemies, smash blocks, or, for whatever reason, fly.
Considering SMB3 was one of the greatest titles of all-time, it’s not hard to imagine that this was one of the highest-selling 3DS games of all-time as well. Yet, it felt like it was lacking.
In my opinion the game reuses too much of the same “new” formula: that’s not really a bad thing, just an observation. It has the same 2.5D graphics (3-D models in a 2-D platformer) plus the familiar super mushrooms, fire flowers, and the invincible star man.
In addition, there are golden variants of the same which make for a coin-collecting boost – as collecting coins becomes a major focal point in this game over previous ones, though the star coins are also important to unlocking areas or challenging completionists.
With that component in place, a “blockhead” powerup (for lack of better terms – not sure what it’s really called!) has Mario (or Luigi) produce even more coins as they run and jump around every stage.
The game tracks every coin you collect in something akin to a “career mode” throughout every playthrough on your saved game file.
Speaking of stages, this title is deep: with 85 levels over 9 worlds and tons of hidden exits and areas.
There’s also a Coin Rush mode, which admittedly I didn’t get into very much, so here’s what Wikipedia had to say about it:
In addition to the main game, New Super Mario Bros. 2 features a Coin Rush mode, made accessible after the player completes the first world.
In Coin Rush, the player plays through three randomly chosen levels collecting as many coins as possible. Star and Moon Coins add several coins to the player’s running total in this mode. However, the player is given only one life and each level gives a time limit of 50 or 100 seconds.
It’s a need addition, but really just a distraction from the main game.
The premise of NSMB2 is the same as it’s predecessors: rescue Princess Peach from Bowser and his underlings. Again, no departure from the norm which can be seen as a good or a bad thing – or both.
Regardless this is a fun game and deserves attention from any Mario fans. Newcomers to the series may be best served starting with earlier Mario titles, just to get the mechanics down – some of the coin grabbing and non-linear landscapes tend to be great for experienced gamers but a bit of a learning curve for kiddos.
Either way, I enjoyed NSMB2 as its yet another Mario title where Nintendo can seemingly do no wrong.
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
The fifth installment of Mortal Kombat was the first to not be released prior in the arcades; a dwindling and almost extinct concept for today’s gamers who didn’t have the theater-to-home experience with gaming as we do with film.
Deadly Alliance takes us on a journey that actually had me depart the series. I grew up on the 2-D motion capture actors and cheesy inspiration of Enter the Dragon and Big Trouble in Little China. When the series moved entirely to 3-D with Mortal Kombat 4, I just found the polygonal artwork to have lost some of the feel that made Mortal Kombat special.
Coming back to this game years later, my feelings haven’t changed so much. Fighting games had become incredibly cliché and Mortal Kombat started to lose steam to true 3-D fighters, such as Soul Blade/Caliber, Tekken, DOA, and others that arrived on the scene.
It felt like Midway was playing catchup and also lost its originality. Fatalities had long been overdone by the time Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was released, for example. Blood and violence were not the same shock value by the early 2000’s, with DOA’s top-heavy divas even getting a volleyball spinoff not even two months after Deadly Alliance released.
As such, we see these subtle differences show up in DA, as the characters bounce or jiggle, I should say, much like the other games noted. And fatalities were now limited to one per fighter.
What is this nonsense? Even MK2 had several ways to finish off opponents including multiple fatalities! Stage fatalities, like the famous iterations of “The Pit” are missing too.
This skewed me away from MK as the gameplay in DA is a lot different than the previous MK games also.
While MK4 had side-stepping, it felt more natural than tacked-on in DA. New fighting styles supplanted picking up any random fighter and just going to town – each character has three styles, one of which includes a weapon, akin to my eyerolling least favorite addition to MK4.
There are some other modes tossed into the fray, including Konquest and The Krypt, which are mainly there to make it see like there’s more to the game than there really is. Fans and completionists will go for it, but it was a nothing burger for me now or then.
However, the one redeeming quality of Mortal Kombat has been the depth of their roster. Nine new characters, as well as two secret ones, round out a total of 11 new combatants – though some of them seem to have had some lack of inspiration. (Frost? Did we really need a third Sub-Zero/female ninja clone or another cyborg/robot warrior?)
Yet, I will admit that the new characters are a huge improvement over the truly uninspiring ones in MK4.
Even Mokap and Blaze, the hidden characters, are somewhat cheesy by this point in the series.
Yet, for those cringey spots, Moloch and Nitara are actually pretty cool.
The returning cast is a decent who’s who of the series, including stalwarts such as Scorpion and Sub-Zero (who the team may never live down removing from MK3) plus more originals such as Reptile, Raiden, Kano, Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade and Shang Tsung.
However… the devs still didn’t learn their lesson from MK3 anyway and left Liu Kang out of Deadly Alliance. (How?!)
In summation, I feel as though the classic game bears little resemblance where it evolved to. That happens with different game series and I’m okay with it – but I don’t have to like it. At the time it felt like MK was trying to compete with other 3-D fighters and sacrificed quite a bit of what made it a cult classic in the process.
Perfect Dark HD
The original Perfect Dark was a pseudo-successor to the massively popular Goldeneye 007 for the Nintendo 64. Created by the same Rare Studios team, Perfect Dark took everything that made Goldeneye great and blew it up tenfold.
The result was another cult classic cartridge which pushed the limits of the N64.
With the 007 license tied to the source material, and Rare having been purchased by Microsoft, the dream of seeing any sort or re-release seemed unlikely. Rare had in fact made a sequel with some lineage, Perfect Dark Zero, but it wasn’t the same game – feeling more like the first-person shooters of that era (such as Halo) than the original 64-bit formula that made Goldeneye and Perfect Dark popular.
As an Xbox 360 launch title, Zero was quickly overshadowed as superior titles started flooding the new generation console – the game was solid, but wasn’t remembered as highly as the N64 predecessors.
Then, five years later, out of nowhere (or so it seemed) Perfect Dark HD dropped as a digital-only title on Xbox Live Arcade.
I remember this game sort of flying under the radar despite some moderate success – it wasn’t terribly expensive (I believe $10 USD) at launch too. Yet, I have friends who were never aware this version of the game existed.
According to the game’s Wikipedia entry, the original source code was ported to the 360 but the game engine was completely rewritten. New graphic elements were remastered, and while the “blocky” N64 feel was retained, the game is cleaner is many aspects.
For starters, the graphics are sharp and clear. The game initially ran at 60fps at 1080p, a huge leap from the 480i N64 version. The move to a new engine didn’t sacrifice anything in terms of authenticity – and if anything, the game is just a new layer of shiny paint with an addition on the house.
That addition is the inclusion of Xbox Live multiplayer – something we could’ve only dreamed of in the split-screen world of the N64 and such a noteworthy addition that it changes the game to where I just had to make this its own entry, as it’s simply not a rehash at all.
In fact, the graphics were once again enhanced for 4K native resolution on the Xbox One!
However, there’s still more.
If you remember the N64 only had a single analog stick. While it got us to where we are today with FPS games, the 360 control is damn near perfect for these types of games. Transitioning to Microsoft’s console feels natural and a no-brainer.
I’ve actually come around to this being my preferred way of enjoying the original Perfect Dark in all of its glory. The N64 game was the reason I had bought that console, as its one of my favorite games of all-time.
Therefore, the great improvements to this game a whole two generations later have made it so it can be enjoyed to this day, preserving the legacy of one of the biggest cult classics ever.
If you liked Perfect Dark on the N64, I encourage you to pick up this copy – which is also available on Xbox Game Pass too. (I don’t shill buying games often, but this is one I make an exception for and especially if you’ve never played it!)