GAMES I REGRET PARTING WITH: Jumping Flash!

Ah, Jumping Flash! No, I’m not exclaiming. The ! is just part of the game’s name, as well as the feeling I get when I realize that I traded this quirky gem during my transition from Playstation to Playstation 2. Why? Because, as far as I can tell, there’s never been anything quite like it since.

Releasing in 1995 for the Playstation, Jumping Flash! was a 3D platformer played from a first-person perspective. You are a robotic bunny named Robbit that is out to stop an insane astrophysicist named Baron Aloha from turning a bunch of worlds into private resorts. Yup, that’s the plot. I said it was quirky. To stop this low-life, Robbit must find the Jet Pods that propel each world and reunite the Crater Planet. Basically, you will jump, shoot things, jump, jump, shoot things, jump, and jump some more. There’s a lot of jumping to do, outpacing the shooting by several miles. Good thing this wasn’t called Step Aerobics Flash!

Robbit can jump up to three times: once off the ground, then in mid-air, and then a third time in mid-air, allowing him to reach crazy heights. What’s neat about this is that, as Robbit jumps, the camera tilts down to his feet so you see the ground (if it is still visible) below you rather than just staring at sky horizontally. This was pretty impressive the first time you did it, and gave the player an amazing sense of freedom.

Level designs varied, with the funnest being the one set in an amusement park with a roller-coaster as your launching point. In every world, Robbit could pick up a bunch of power-ups like rockets and cherry bombs, as well as hourglasses to extend the time. Yes, levels were timed, which made jumping around more exciting and intense, especially when the clock was ticking down and you were flying high.

Graphically, it is what it is. Polygon count is low, the sky is a static wash that never changes, and the enemies were cutesy animals like penguins and bomb-tossing beetles. It’s an early PS1 game, and it shows. Thankfully, the gameplay more than makes up for things.

Alas, I can’t recall too much about Jumping Flash! other than the main hub levels. I do know that at the end of each world, there would be a boss fight, but shake me silly because I don’t remember doing any of them. I suspect you had to shoot them somewhere special (keep it clean, people) and that jumping was involved.

It seems there was a direct sequel, Jumping Flash! 2, as well as some games loosely-based on the gameplay concept. It’s a shame that the series itself is so underrated and did not find a stronger fanbase. Given today’s consoles and technology, something truly great could be achieved here if developers were interested. Take this, add some Mirror’s Edge, a pinch of love, and go to town.

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GAMES I REGRET PARTING WITH is a regular feature here at Grinding Down where I reminisce about videogames I either sold or traded in when I was young and dumb. To read up on other games I parted with, follow the tag.

Achieving Them All

There’s a really interesting article over at Kotaku about a 24-year-old stay-at-home mother named Kristen who is the No. 4 ranking player, worldwide, in Gamerscore. Currently, she’s at 166,365 GS. Man, and I thought my 8,000+ GS was impressive /sarcasm. She’s achieved this mountain of a score from “boosting” and playing a slew of terribly reviewed games.

And it’s all for the boasting.

Because in the article, she is quoted as saying that, “Like, maybe 65 percent of the games I play I don’t enjoy.”

This part bothers me, mostly because I can’t really wrap my head around it. Let’s break it down. More than half of the games she plays…she doesn’t enjoy. Yet she journeys onwards. Pushes through the tedium thanks to party chat and other boosting gamers. Me? The minute I hit a wall or the game becomes a chore (hello, Eternal Sonata), I shut it off and move on. Because I paid a lot of money for my gaming system, as well as its games. And for that amount of money, I deserve to be entertained–to a point. A lot of entertainment is actually determined on us, the consumer, to bring something to the table. I guess, in a way, this Kristen, this CRU x360a, is entertaining herself with every ding that sounds when an achievement unlocks (even at the cost of playing Night at the Museum 2 and games in Japanese), but I don’t know. It seems like a lost cause, and I worry for the day that revelation reveals itself.

Now, I like achievements. I do. They can be great enablers, and I’ll often skim a list of them for a game I’ve bought to see if there’s any gameplay tactics or tricks I should be keeping an eye on. Sometimes you are rewarded for just natural progression, other times for trying something different. They are nice pats on the shoulder, and while I’d love to unlock every single one in every game I have, I won’t. The games I truly enjoy, sure, most likely, because I just have to have more and more of said game, but finding all the flags in Assassin’s Creed will never happen, nor will I be completing Mass Effect three more times or whatever.

After all, there’s a reason achievement whore and achievement chore rhyme.

Fallout 3: Status Report (Level 30)

Previous status updates include:

• Level 10: Where I grew up in a vault, chased after my dad, and hightailed it to faux-Alaska for a bit
• Level 20: Where I found my dad, learned of his plan to purify the Capital Wasteland, and got probed by some aliens

And here we are now…Level 30. Experience-wise, I can go no further. I’ve gotten all the perks I can get for my super-duper messiah, and enough ammo to shoot whatever I want, wherever I want, how ever many times I want. Bottle caps up the who-ha, too, thanks to the Fortune Finder perk. Which is a shame, because I now feel like everything from here forward is pointless (maybe that’s too harsh a word), a little less satisfying because there’s no more XP to earn.

[Some vague spoilers to follow]

But let’s talk about what I’ve been up to these past final 10 levels. Well, to start, I “took it back” wherein I, some Brotherhood head honchos, and Liberty Prime stormed against the Enclave in order to retrieve the G.E.C.K. they originally stole from me. This was a pretty epic fight hampered by the fact that I roleplay a sneaky sneak, meaning I basically hung back and watched my friends do damage. After that I continued on to wipe out the Enclave entirely (though, as a few continue to pop up later on in the game, this is not accurate), and then decided it was time for a change of scenery.

Enter: Point Lookout, Maryland.

What a creepy and quiet place. Now, the bombs did not drop in Maryland, but the state certainly has been affected by radiation. There’s shovel-weilding inbreds and a host of ghouls, as well as an abandoned amusement park pier and some unnerving caves full of coffins and booby-traps (“That’s what I said, booby-traps.”). The main missions involve protecting a mansion, and then picking a side between a foul-mouthed ghoul and Mother Brain. I was level 25 when I arrived, and I found it harder in the beginning and a breeze to complete come the end. It’s really more of the same, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing when it comes to Fallout 3, but I would’ve liked more enemy variety and quest choices in this DLC. There’s some sidequests which I started, but left to the wayside, returning to the Capital Wasteland to finish up some miscellaneous tasks.

That’s right. Miscellaneous tasks…at this point, it’s all I have left besides a few quests which I won’t do until I replay as an evil-doer (specifically, “Strictly Business” and “You Gotta Shoot ‘Em in the Head”) . I’m missing two Bobbleheads at the moment, need to kill three more Super Mutant Behemoths, and win some more Speech challenges. Once those are done, I’m starting all over to play Fallout 3 completely different. And this time I mean it because I said the same with Fable 2, but just found it to be the same game with a slightly different outlook. Evil woman avatar is basically good male avatar that scares people away. No terrible punishments. I really do get the impression that, in Fallout 3, your character’s actions (i.e., your actions) truly have consequences, making the world real, making the experience real.

And that’s it for now. I absolutely love this game, probably the first I’ve absolutely loved in awhile since Suikoden II and Super Metroid, and I can most certainly assure you I’ll be back once more to summarize the entire experience Fallout 3 brings to the player, and to the genre. Don’t think I’ll do status updates for the evil character though. Unless she holds a Chinese assault rifle to my head, that is.

LEGO Harry Potter looks charming

As you can see from the Achievements Ahoy! sidebar, I love the LEGO videogames. At the moment, they are the only two retail games I’ve played full and fully, unlocking every silly and frustratingly challenging achievement. Truth be told, the games are fun and engaging, easy to pick up, as well as highly addicting. I rank them, currently, in this order of affection: LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Batman, and then LEGO Indiana Jones. I’m fairly sure that list is going to change the day LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 comes out.

Why? Because I’m in Ravenclaw.

The above video offers a first look at the next LEGO game, which covers Harry’s first four years at Hogwarts. It’s the same ol’, same ol’, with the character designs cute and spot-on, and the background details surprisingly vivid. I can only suspect that, after a few tutorial levels, the castle-school itself will act as the hub world for the game, with moving paintings leading to other levels and such. I just hope that each “year” gets a good amount of attention, and that Hagrid’s special attack involves a butt-stomp.

It’s scheduled for release sometime during 2010, and I for one am wishing for a Time-Turner for Christmas so we can speed things up a bit.

There’s fun to be had in Wii Sports Resort

I could never imagine playing Wii Sports Resort (or its early mutation, Wii Sports) by myself. The fun of sharing your greatest triumph, your biggest downfall, your oddest moment…it is moot when the spaces to your left and right are blank.

Over the weekend, the Girlfriend and I visited her brother and his wife and played some Wii into the wee hours of the night/morning. No, I’m not apologizing for that one. Despite having to share a single Wiimote, we all had a blast. Because even though the games within Wii Sports Resort are more or less mini-games, things of very little variety, the people you play them with makes all the difference.

We played some bowling, basketball, archery, and dog frisbee, and the most fun–group-wise–seems to be bowling. In the original Wii Sports, you just bowled. Simple as that. Here, Nintendo has added some extra features to really help enhance the experience. You can bowl regularly, you can bowl against 100 pins (which make a beautifully addicting sound as they all flip-flop away under the weight of a striiiiiiiike), and you can bowl around obstacles, as shown in the picture above.

Alas, I came in last in each category thanks to my constant curving of the ball. Stupid wrists. Yes, I need lots of practice, but that’s okay. Sometimes it’s not so much fun being a pro at a game like Wii Sports Resort, hitting strike after strike after strike. You can’t laugh at those moments.

But taking five minutes to position yourself just right so that you can narrowly miss the moving obstacles ahead only to toss the bowling ball directly into the gutter?

That‘s where it counts.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Bayonetta demo

Bayonetta, created by Hideki Kamiya, the brains behind Devil May Cry, is a videogame that seems to have folks in Japan going love-crazy. Me? Not so much.

Downloaded the demo last night for the Xbox 360, and without knowing much or anything about the game, dived right into the mix of things. It starts with some random bits of story, which really tell you nothing, and then opens the demo up to three areas: training, the Falling Clock tower level, and the Angel’s Metropolis level. Each section involves a ton of button-mashing and motion sickness.

First, Bayonetta is a weird woman. Her entire outfit is made from her hair, and she has guns on her feet. The amount of combos she can do–at least in the demo–is impressive, but good luck trying to really see each one in action. Your best bet for staying alive is to constantly hit the Y and B buttons while dodging left and right to initiate bullet time witch time. Do a combo just right and you might get to torture your victim, which provides for some fun, original death moves.

Anyways, training is training. Just an empty space where you can learn some moves and a bit of the basics. The Falling Clock tower level is just that, a cinematic piece of jumping from tower-chunk to tower-chunk while taking out bird enemies. I wish there had been time to admire the background details or even Bayonetta herself as she pulled off a bunch of sick moves, but alas, it all goes by in a blur. The game has a frenetic pace, and once your life bar starts to deplete you will just smash ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK, and pray you make it out alive.

The best part of the Bayonetta demo, however, is the final section: the Angel’s Metropolis. After falling through the sky and fighting giant bird-freaks, Bayonetta is suddenly on a train. I have no idea how the two scenes connect, if they even do (was it a dream?). We’re then in a hub world, with most of the other worlds block off for now. Head straight down the path, fight some more enemies, earn coins and pick up colored gems (?), and then you’ll get to do two boss battles. These are fun and not completely frantic, which is nice because you can then work on some strategy.

The demo lasted for about 15 minutes and was somewhat fun. However, the button-mashing, one million things on screen happening at once sort of gameplay left me nauseous and unimpressed. Controlling the camera is problematic, too. I did, however, get a Gold trophy for all my butt-kicking. Not sure what that means though.

JUST BEAT: MySims Agents

Developer/Publisher: EA Redwood Shores/Electronic Arts
Platform: Nintendo DS [reviewed], Nintendo Wii
Genre(s): Mystery Adventure Game
Mode(s): Single player
Rating: E
Time clocked: The main storyline took less than 6 hours to complete, but game continues afterwards

Ultimately, this is a shame. Now, that’s not the best way to start a review, but it’s the truth. This game will let you down no matter what your expectations are, and considering I could only find one or two DS-only reviews online…well, I had zero expectations. The only thing I knew going into MySims Agents was that the Wii version was pretty good, that it involved solving mysteries and questioning townspeople and so on, as well as incorporating the standard Sims-like customization gameplay. Sounded like a great mix of things.

That is not the case here. Pun intended.

In MySims Agents, you play an agent visiting a town, there to unravel the mystery of its secret treasure. I named my town Megaton, but alas, the secret treasure was not an A bomb that I got to detonate and rid the world of these gibberish-speaking buffoons. Plot-wise, this is not a direct port of the Wii game. In the Wii version, you must stop Morcubus and his corrupt company MorcuCorp from stealing the Crown of Nightmares. In the DS version, you must stop Thief V from stealing the secret treasure. Seriously, it is written as secret treasure until the very end of the game when you discover what it actually is. SPOILER ALERT: it’s lame and insensible and…a giant bell. I’m not even kidding. Just goes to show the different level of care and love between the two iterations.

Gameplay involves receiving a mission from HQ, talking to townspeople, playing a minigame, waiting, waiting, waiting, solving a riddle, and then doing it all over again. In between all of this is the collecting of house blueprints, essences from in-game items, furniture, and fish, as well as redecorating your room and town. Repetitive, but the fun is left up to you, as I challenged myself to collect all things Japanese, which made it a little more exciting when dealing with the synthesizer and such.

The mini-games…they are uninspired. Granted, I still need to unlock three or four, but the ones I’ve played so far are either frustratingly challenging or just a rip-off of something else (hi, Diner Dash!). Kite surfing is extremely unforgiving (two hits and you basically have to restart), identifying the suspect is pretty fun but grows stale, and the one where you unearth mines in the ground has some wonky control issues. None of them stand out, really, but I am interested in seeing how the gem-themed one featured on the back of the box turns out.

Graphically, MySims Agents is pretty good, full of colors, all of them bright and playful. I particularly liked seeing my town during sunset with a wash of reds and oranges. That said, some of the furniture/clothing is just the same item with a different skin.

The biggest problem MySims Agents has going for it is that it’s a lie. You do no real detective work or anything close to what I imagine a secret agent might do, and truth be told after I changed my character into more casual clothes (instead of a suit) I completely forgot who he was supposed to be all along. It’s the bare bones of a good game, and could have been so much more. I understand that it is targeted at a younger demographic, but when the credits started to roll after 6 hours I thought someone from EA was going to jump out of my closet and yell, “Gotcha!”

The little coverage found for MySims Agents DS should have been my first clue that this game was a bit of a failure. It is tedious through and through, and I only hope this here review will help others steer clear.

4 out of 10

The Best/Worst Glitches in Fallout 3

There’s a really great list of Fallout 3 glitches over at Bitmob, which is totally worth checking out.

I’ve come across a few in my 70+ hours of gameplay, but the one that bothers me the most is probably not even a glitch in glitch-terms. It has something to do with the physics engine. Anyways, whenever I re-enter a room in which I shot up some robots or Super Mutants, they always reappear and then crumble to the floor, scaring the living the daylights out of me. Even now when I expect it, the sound of bodies thumping to the ground makes me jump. I don’t really get why it happens…

I’ve also experienced a Deathclaw being sucked into the sky, over and over and over. Fun to watch for a bit. Until, y’know, it lands on you.

Got any favorites glitches?

POTM: MySims Agents DS

…and the Purchase of the Month for November 2009 is:

MySims Agents DS!

My first MySims game actually. Early impressions show that it is a fun game with really bad grammar issues (lots of “alright”s and I spotted the use of “a while” once). I like the amount of stuff to collect and use in decorating the room, but I only just started it really. Humor is good, too. Will compile a full review of it soon for sure.

Fallout 3 froze again

My second freeze after over 70+ hours…which is not a terrible record by any means, but still, I’m nervous. Was in Point Lookout and I fast traveled to the boardwalk area only to have the music get all glitchy and then poof…FROZE. Hadn’t been playing for very long at the time either so maybe it is just the DLC. Think good thoughts, everyone.