Despite my "I really should stay away from superheroes for a while" mood, I've started playing the Nintendo DS version of Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions as something to fill an odd half-hour here or there. It's a cute little 2.5D Metroidvania which successfully translates the charm, wit and quality of its home console counterpart to the small screen(s). There are the obligatory touchscreen minigames, of course, and it's been a while since I've played my DS so I'm forgetting which buttons are which, but I had great fun playing through its first three chapters and testing out its trio of Spider-Men earlier. Definitely worth the wait caused by delayed shipping, and the slight premium I paid to track down a new copy.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
Cuphead. I'm really enjoying it so far. It's a challenging game, but in a good way. Each of the bosses seem daunting at first, but they start to become more bearable with practice and once you start getting used to their attacks.
Practice makes perfect at this game. There is a helpful meter that shows up whenever the player dies, showing them exactly how far they were through the battle. This lets the player see how close they were to winning, as well as showing that they're improving.
The biggest positive with this game is the art style. The 30's animation visuals look so fluid, and the developers have clearly poured a lot of creativity into it. This is also true for the character designs. The weird and wacky characters have a lot of charm to them.
Out of the Park Baseball 21 is now on Game Pass PC. There goes the rest of my weekend, time to put the Yankees in their place by continuing my 1939 save file and getting Ted Williams and Jimmie Foxx the titles they deserve.
@crimsontadpoles Cuphead is brilliant, it’s a real shame it isn’t on PS4. The mechanics just work really well together and it has heaps of charm.
I love that game @KratosMD! Sly Cooper is my favourite PS2 platform series. The rooftop hopping is really fun. The visuals are really nicely stylised too so it doesn’t look dated.
One good example is when you tail Dimitri in the first level and I was watching over him on a tower when suddenly Bentley told me that I had to get close to him in order to see what he was doing. I had barely any time to react before the mission failed just one second after he told that to me, lol.
@KratosMD That happened to me as well. I'm on that tower, can see exactly where he's going. Then he decides to go through a locked door with a keypad, at which point it's too late for me to see the code he enters.
But yes, the checkpoint system is good in this game. It's very noticeable on missions where you have to do X number of things, e.g. collect 3 keys. Whenever the player fails, it keeps the current progress, so you don't have to recollect everything again.
Ok so Hwoarang is insanely OP in Tekken 3. Managed to beat his arcade mode in 1:02:36, even with 1 round wins that’s pretty crazy. This game is a massive step up from 2, which I did like as well. Tekken Force is pretty fun as well, I already unlocked Dr Bosconovitch, who is one of the most absurd fighting game characters I’ve ever played as.
In an effort to get through my backlog a little quicker, I'm trying to maintain a habit I recently started, namely playing one game for a couple hours before breakfast, and then a different one in the evening after dinner. Usually I stay focused on one game at a time, and that can cause problems if I get stuck or I'm simply not in the mood for that particular game on any given day. By playing a pair, I can (hopefully) keep momentum and, should I wanna take a break from one, I can always dedicate more time to the other.
That was the logic behind booting up Spider-Man 2 (PS2) a couple hours ago, anyway, on the same day as introducing myself to Trico in The Last Guardian.
And, just like earlier this morning, my initial impressions of Spidey's supposedly finest hour are mixed. I can see why it made a splash back in 2004, when boasting a functional open-world sandbox was more of a selling point in the wake of GTA3 and its sequel, Vice City. You're thrown right into a sprawling New York City which... well, honestly, it doesn't look half-bad for the PS2. Everything is kept very, very basic (characters who aren't important to the plot don't even move their lips) but the trade-off is that it runs smoothly, with barely any lag. From a technical standpoint, therefore, it's competent and playable.
From a control standpoint, however, things haven't aged well. The oft-vaunted web swinging is indeed an improvement over the previous PS2 game, but that's not much of a compliment considering that it was literally "tap R2 to turn it on" before. This time, you tap R2 to connect with a building, but then need to press, hold and release Cross in order to charge the jump you'll be using to disengage from your swing. Knowing how much you need to charge this doesn't just require Spidey-Sense, it requires actual clairvoyance, and so I ended up faceplanting many a wall or window... which Spidey won't stick to unless you press Circle. There's no alternate way to disengage from a swing, by the way; pressing R2 again will send out another web from Spidey's other hand, stringing him up like a Passion Play centrepiece.
I fumbled my way about for a good hour, and did okay when heading down long, straight streets. I foolishly attempted an "easy" timed ring race early on, and stressfully scraped a win, but I think I'll need more time getting comfortable with the game's awkward opinion of physics.
Combat is surprisingly good, though. It's an early prototype for the Arkham model, whereby you pummel thugs with Square and web them up with Triangle, and then counter incoming attacks with Circle when you see a Spidey-Sense trigger flash over our hero's head. You can also slow time and increase your power with a refillable gauge, which I found useful when mobbed by the mob. Whenever I'd stop and help a civilian, I'd secretly hope that they'd issue me a combat-heavy challenge, because this gameplay was the most fun (unfortunately, they mostly told me about carjackings, a.k.a. the ones where I had to land on a moving car's roof; see the previous big paragraph for an idea of how well that went).
Tobey Maguire hasn't improved as a voice actor since his last outing, and some of the soundalikes they've hired in other roles clearly used his downbeat performance as a benchmark (seriously, the J. Jonah Jameson they've got is appalling), but it's passable enough. The music is a bizarre mix of styles, with some tracks trying to ape Danny Elfman's movie score and others serving up techno typical of the time. There's also this ear-rape from the timed pizza delivery missions which... well, let's just say I wanted to complete that particular objective as quickly as possible, so maybe it's the perfect tune.
I'm writing a lot because I doubt I'll return and write any more. It's an interesting bit of gaming history, and one I'm pleased to be playing (despite a recurring appearance from a talking pair of breasts called Black Cat, which I could really do without) but, in what is rapidly becoming a catchphrase for me nowadays, I think a lot of its reputation is context-sensitive. There was a time when "GTA with webs!" was something to get excited about, and that time was 2004. Gaming has moved on.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RogerRoger I still love the Raimi games, they’re definitely from a simpler time so I do understand your gripes with it. That pizza theme is incredible though, I will hear nothing against it because it’s a work of art.
Argh, you posted right at the same time! Yep, onto Tag Tournament after this I reckon. I’ll need to get hold of 4 but I’m loving seeing the changes as the combat gets more fluid and the roster gets more diverse.
@nessisonett Oh, no regrets, despite all that. I've also got Spider-Man 3 on my shelf now, and will play through it in short order. Had I been a Spidey fan back in 2004, I'd likely be calling this a favourite today.
When searching for that pizza delivery music on YouTube, I came across this incredible remix created from the high-pitched laughing noise J. Jonah Jameson makes in the Spider-Man 2 movie (because apparently that's a thing). Makes it slightly more tolerable, I reckon!
Hope you continue to enjoy your Tekken retrospective! Are you returning to them, or is this your first time? Tag Tournament is where I jumped in and paid actual attention, after some random fights on a friend's copy of the original when I was still in single digits. I'm glad you're liking the incremental improvements, as that's always the best part of going back and starting at the beginning of a series.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RogerRoger Spider-Man 3 has absolutely nothing to do with the movie, therefore is automatically better! I had the original Tekken on PS1 growing up but outside of a few games against my brother, it was far too difficult. I managed to get copies of 2 and 3 a few years ago but never got round to playing them because there were new consoles at that point, with other games to play. If I can play a series through, I usually try to since it gives a bit of perspective when you get to the later entries.
Same; as a kid, Tekken was nothing but a local multiplayer button-masher. It's cool going back to those games we once found "prohibitively difficult" and realising we now have the skills to unlock them.
Best of luck sourcing a copy of Tekken 4. I'm seeing some on eBay in half-decent condition.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RogerRoger How dare you besmirch the name of Spiderman 2!
I seem to remember you can unlock a zip line type move like the current game has which helps with traversal. My favourite combat move to unlock is one where you tie enemies up from lampposts which I spent way too long trying to do.
It’s a shame to hear it’s not clicking with you though because, at the time at least, it was a great game.
@Thrillho Hey, c'mon... I praised the performance and combat, what more do you want?!
Yes, I unlocked the web-zip just before shutting down last night, so I'll be incorporating that into my super-commuting when I return later on. Haven't managed to tie anybody to a lamppost yet, but it's early days; am really looking forward to playing with the combat mechanics, more than anything.
It will click eventually, I'm sure. I think I've just reached the point where I can't simply pick up and immediately "get" some older games, s'all. We've come too far!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RogerRoger It's hard to know quite how the good the game is now seeing as it's probably been 15 years since I played it..
I quite liked the swinging mechanic with the combo of shoot web, speed swing, jump feeling really cool at the time. It's interesting to hear you say about the combat being a pre-cursor for Arkham etc though as it's funny that I can't think of any games between the two which used something close to that but it's now quite a ubiquitous combat mechanic.
The Bruce Campbell narrated tutorial is pretty neat too
@PSVR_lover Ah, cool. I thought the second was a huge improvement, so I hope you enjoy!
@Thrillho There are definitely elements of Spider-Man 2 which feel kinda groundbreaking, even today since that ground has become well-trodden. I'll admit, some of the parts I played yesterday were a headache because of the swinging; just when I'd start to feel comfortable, it'd increase the difficulty or complexity of my objectives. I loved the whole Madison Square Garden sequence, though!
Bruce Campbell makes for a perfect narrator. In the previous game, there's a tutorial where he encourages you to play around with the combat for a while, because he's gonna go make a sandwich. When you reach the next hint marker, he reads it with his mouth full.
@KratosMD Blimey, that music is incredibly evocative of the late MegaDrive / early Saturn era!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
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