Article: I love physical strategy guides

I love physical strategy guides. I didn't use to, mostly because I saw them as an unnecessary cost on top of the already purchased game. If I got stuck I could check a walkthrough on GameFaqs. With the introduction of touch screen phones it became even more convenient to whip the phone out whenever I got stuck.

But times change and I've slowly grown tired of scrolling through anonymous .txt files. And the convenience aspect of the phone is out the window. If the game is long then it's quite a hefty body of text that needs to be navigated through searchable chapter codes. Fiddling around with ctrl+F on a phone isn't a seamless process to say the least, it's mostly just a chore. And the ASCII-art maps were certainly getting on my nerves...

So I opted for other forms of walkthroughs often hosted at the bigger gaming sites more centered around being browsed through a smart phone. But this, too, changed from bliss to nightmare fairly quickly. Their walkthroughs were divided into chapters which I then had to navigate while dodging loads of ads and filler text (which they use to be able to serve even more ads). I felt almost abused by all the dumbed down content paired with heaps of ads and "Skip in 3... 2...", "I want to continue as a guest" and "No thanks, I don't want to join for more benefits and/or disable my adblocker" and what not. That's when the thought of a good old printed guide popped into my head once again.

I looked up a few previews of printed guides online and they were filled with everything you'd ever need to know about the game they covered and the pages were decorated with beautiful pictures and graphics from that game. I immediately saw the appeal on a whole new level. How the added expense was more than justifyed. And with that I changed my stance on physical strategy guides. The climate on the modern corporate internet is so predatory, manipulative and consumer focused that I'm more than willing to pay $20 to get a physical copy of a guide. A guide I can read without interruptions, a guide I can find my way around without cumbersome screen fiddling and failed gestures. A guide filled with illustrations, charts, maps and all sorts of creative and colorful things without watching an ad every other minute or giving up my privacy.

My latest purchase is a FFX guide that is said to arrive any day now (but it's sent from Denmark, a.k.a. the country where all post services go to die so you never know), and therefore that game will probably be my next review.

Review: Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (Xbox)

Several years ago, when it was common to have a chipped Xbox and some burnt discs, me and my girlfriend started playing Shaolin Monks and got to a point where it was evident it was a bad iso and we couldn't advance anymore. Some time later I bought the real deal with the intent of finally beating it. We gave it a try and for some reason we stopped pretty early on. Our memory of why differs so I'm going to go with mine: we got lost (we didn't pay any attention to what the characters were saying and therefore lost track of the objective) and subsequently bored. It would pass a good 10 years before I finally decided to go back to it and give it another try - this time alone. (I'm still together with my girlfriend though!)

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is a 3D beat 'em up set in the timespan of Mortal Kombat II (a game which also is present in the disc as an unlockable extra). Shang Tsung lures Liu Kang (and/or Kung Lao since it's possible to play this in two player co-op) to Otherworld where the majority of the game takes place and to remain spoiler free I'll sum the story up with "the journey is filled with familiar encounters, predictable twists and turns, and leads up to a bombastic finale in an familiar arena". During the course of the game the player earns XP through pulling off moves and combos with which more moves and combos are unlocked. That's pretty much the jist of it.

"I had a blast trying out different combos and stuff"

I immediately advanced further than we've ever gotten and I had a blast trying out different combos and stuff. I found, however, that the unlockable moves and specials were pretty limited in quantity and I maxed everything out pretty early on - rendering the rest of the XP earned point(hehe)less. There's a lot of secrets (artwork, video clips, unlockable characters and things like that) to find, I found a fair bit but far from everything. The maps are varied and easy enough to navigate, with a few metroidvania elements thrown in there (Reached a point where you can't advance? Try coming back when you've learned new abilities.) and most areas lead up to a a roster character encounter. I had fun through most of it, some moments really showed the game's age and there were some technical issues (sometimes the voiceovers and/or music was played at 10% volume and the controls ignored some of the inputs) but I didn't fire this game up looking for perfection but for some casual fun and Mortal Kombat goodness. On this Shaolin Monks delivers.

"I can absolutely recommend it for fans of the series"

A few hours in I arrived at the final showdown which consists of a three fights long bossrush - and the third and very last boss was an absolute anticlimax. I struggled with him and went to ask the guides - all of which adviced me to keep my distance, use projectiles and go for chip damage. Close combat is mostly out of the picture. I wanted to shine, to put my acquired knowledge of the fighting to the test in the final fight, and instead I had to run around like a coward slowly grinding the boss down like a Souls-cheese. But the last boss is only a few minutes, the rest of the game is awesome (that is; b-movie fun) and I can absolutely recommend it for fans of the series.

Review: Shenmue 2 (Dreamcast)

"All in all I think that Shenmue had some great ideas that overshines the shortcomings and the tale of Ryu was engaging enough to make me want to play the sequal."

That's how my review of Shenmue ended, and now I have played the sequal. And my overall thoughts on the second entry in this series is also very (and even a bit more) positive. Shenmue 2 continues where the first game left off, storywise it's a direct continuation so in that regard it really feels like I just kept playing one and the same game. A lot of things are, however, different. A lot of "quality of life" changes have been made to alleviate the frustrating moments of the first game. My favorite improvement is that if I reach an area outside of the hours where the story progresses I get the option to "Wait", which means the time fast forwards in an instant to the time I want it to be. Also, conversations now have a few options so I can steer the topics a bit more in many cases!

"I find myself not exploring as much as I would like, because I know it's 40% loading screens"

But when things are easier to just... enjoy, without having to navigate outdated mechanics that's only in the way, other shortcomings become evident. For example, I find myself not exploring as much as I would like, because I know it's 40% loading screens. Have to open a door? 30 seconds. Want to gamble? a few seconds to initiate the conversation, a few seconds to get started, a few seconds to load the conversation afterwards, a few seconds to get back to free-roam. Need to restart the system (only way to reload a save)? A couple of minutes. Want to check out a new area? First you have to get there, it's three blocks away with a minute of loading screen between each block, and then a small loading screen when interacting with anything on the way. Most of the time I end up just going where I'm supposed to, because otherwise I've wasted an in-game day with walking and seeing a fracture of what I planned anyway. Perhaps I should've gone the HD remake route, but wouldn't that take away a bit of the awe? I mean, it's a cool game because it's on an old Dreamcast. It's all part of the charm. If it's on a modern system it'd feel underwhelming and outdated.

"it's really entertaining, in its own quirky way"

The main story progresses fairly slow to be honest, it's all the other things I experience "on the side" that makes it seem like a lot is happening. I mean this in a positive way, I feel like I've been through a lot even though I'm not particularly nearer the answer to Ryus question (who is Lan Di and why did he kill Ryu's father). As long as one is prepared to let the game take its detours, twists and turns it's really entertaining, in its own quirky way.

However - towards the end of the third disc they, to my great frustration, ramp up the QTE:s and it all becomes rather cumbersome. It's a lot of trial and error and I was starting to think "I hope they wrap things up soon" going in to each session. And then there's disc 4. It completely changes the pacing and the gaming experience as a whole. All you do through the entirity of the last disc is walk on a forest path with a girl I won't describe further to avoid spoliers. It's a mixture of walking, talking and the occational QTE. For three hours straight. Don't get me wrong, in the beginning I loved it, it felt like a fresh change of both scenery and pace and I quite enjoyed just talking about everything and nothing while taking in the scenery. But by the time we arrived at our destination I was so bored I think I almost fell asleep sitting up once. I know I had the option to skip most of the dialogue but then what was the point of the last part at all? I wanted to experience it the way it was intended. Anywho! Once we arrived this chapter of Shenmue came to its end and even though it dragged on towards the end a bit I'm still very eager to see how things unfold. The third installment is however on the PS4 so I won't be covering it on this blog. How's that for a cliffhanger.

Review: Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone (PS2)

While I'm well aware J.K. Rowling is a complete idiot nowadays, I was too curious (I've heard it's supposed to be really good) to pass up on this game when a neighbour offered it to me for free. Well, was it any good? Yes and no. Mostly no actually, but a little yes. Let me explain. 

 

It starts off very stiff, it's just as bad as one would imagine a licence game made for kids to be. And then it doesn't really... rise above that. But I somewhat enjoyed it anyway! When the jarring from the awkward pauses in the horrendous dialogue, the beyond clunky controls and the awful loading times had subsided I found myself thinking "this is like a watered down miniature version of Canis Canem Edit (Bully), but wholesome". I was thinking of ways to praise its simple fun behind all the bad stuff but then it was over. I think it lasted four sittings, I had just started to warm up and feel a bit entertained when it threw its unceremoniously (pun intended, if you know you know) brief ending at me. Huh.

"It's a solid bit of casual fun from the bargain bin, but not more."

Okay so, sure, I got to visit a lot of places and see some lore from the movie and it was pretty faithfully represented (even though they obviously had to make drastic compromises), but the gameplay was just too lacklustre. There were almost some good exploration segments, there were almost some good fights - but they both suffered from being too shallow and immediately repeated too many times. I bet the kids in 2001 had a blast with it, but I'm 38 when I play this for the first time and then it's just not as good as some people will lead you to believe. It's a solid bit of casual fun from the bargain bin, but not more. And that's pretty much all I can say about it. It just doesn't evoke anything worth bringing up.

Review: Nanostray (DS)

The first thing I do when I get a new system is to see what it has to offer in the shoot ’em up-department. The Nintendo DS didn’t have a wealth of shmups but it did actually have a few. I immediately got my eyes on the slimmed down version (a boss rush version called Death Label) of Ketsui but I never found it at a reasonable price. Then I saw Nanostray and I went for it, thinking that if I liked it I could get the sequal as well. I never did, for reasons to come.

Nanostray is divided up into parts – a bite sized campaign with a save feature to fit the platform (gaming on the go requires one to take frequent breaks), a more traditional arcade mode and a challenge mode. The campaign is not that long but it does have several different locations and a fair amount of difficulty. The arcade mode is a few of the campaign levels stringed together with traditional rules. Both are played with the same controls – being a regular shot, a charge attack and a smart bomb. The charge attack needs to be refilled constantly which is done through killing entire groups of enemies and collecting the blue medal they drop. Since the blue medals are basically raining down on the player at all times I felt it was a bit unnecessary to have that mechanic at all. Either make the medals few and far between or just have infinite charge attack. The medals can be sucked into the player ship by holding down R – something that could be used for something much more important. Namely switching weapons.

"It was a serious mistake that put me off from the get go"

As it stands, the ship has four different kinds of shots. All available to switch between on the fly when the situation calls for a different approach (homing, straight forward, sideways shooting and so on). The problem is that this is done on the touch screen. Not only do I need to take my eyes off the action to see where I should press to change to the desired weapon, I also have to move my thumb off the shoot button to press the touch screen, leaving my ship blind and not shooting for a brief moment. I used the main weapon during 99% of the game for this reason. Why it was done in such an idiotic way I have no idea. It was a serious mistake that put me off from the get go.

The stages themselves are okay with variety, a bit of walls to avoid (generally I don’t like that but here it made sense) and a couple of unique enemies. Nanostray is played at an angle which makes shots fly into the centre of the screen when the ship is off to either side and this takes some getting used to.

The bosses are where it’s at though. They don’t cheap out on the attacks and they often have several formations, even though the last boss is kind of a let down. (The final form of the last boss have exactly ONE attack pattern which it repeats throughout, they could’ve added a few more attacks to make things interesting if you ask me.) When the bosses try their hardest it’s actually really fun to play. I’d love to see a boss rush mode.

"It left me wanting to play a ”real” shoot ’em up instead"

I didn’t really care for the challenge mode where I had to reach certain goals within a set time or place. It felt like artificial lengthening with no worthwhile rewards. When the end credits rolled on the screen I felt pretty much done with Nanostray and although it had its moments it left me wanting to play a ”real” shoot ’em up instead.