Thursday 27 November 2008

Top 10 Zelda Items

The next list in my unnecessary series of Top 10 lists is about the best or coolest items in the Legend Of Zelda franchise! It took me quite some time to compile this list but I think I'm happy with the result.

10. Staff Of Somaria (A Link To The Past)
- A cool item with many uses that just begs to be used in the next 3D console Zelda-game. Imagine the possibilities and puzzles they could create with this item in the game! It'd be a lot more fun than just pushing huge blocks around. This staff creates an orange block that you can push around to use as an ordinary block or you can hit it and it will shatter, damaging enemies that get hit by the shards. If Nintendo could incorporate this item in the next Zelda-game (and not just forget about it after the dungeon you get it in (Spinner *cough*, Ball & Chain *cough*, Dominion Rod *cough*)) they can create some seriously fun puzzles and challenges!

09. Quake Medallion (A Link To The Past)
- Okay, not really the most useful item there is but it sure has some fun value to it. Once you activate this, you will freeze the screen for a moment and activate a series of lightning and quakes that will turn all enemies on the screen into ugly little turnips (or well, yellow blobs with big eyes). Hilarious to see those big bomb-throwing things turn - not so tough now, are you? :P

08. Ocarina Of Time (Ocarina Of Time/Majora's Mask)
- A classic item, isn't it? If you played OoT/MM when they were first released and have beaten them a couple of times since then, I bet all those little melodies are stuck in your head and I'm sure you still remember some of the button combos for them! It was a really cool item at the time and while it's not a groundbreaking item, it holds some nostalgia factor mostly due to the nice melodies you had to play over and over again. I love Song Of Storms and Sonata Of Healing. Minuet Of Forest is nice too. What's your favourite?

07. Hero's Charm (The Wind Waker)
- It's only a neat, not very useful, item that I just found myslef loving. With this, every enemy gets a visible little health bar. That's it. But I love it. Every Zelda-game should have this. :D

06. Magic Cape (A Link To The Past)
- This cape turns you invisible! It consumes magic but it's still cool. It works much like the Stone Mask from Majora's Mask (however, the Stone Mask doesn't require magic), most enemies don't see you so you can run around freely as long as your magic meter isn't depleted. It's a life saver when you're low on health and need to escape! It's also nice when you just don't want to be bothered by anything I wouldn't mind seeing this item return in a 3D Zelda... I don't mean because I need life saving (the games are easy enough) but because it's nice to get past some enemies undetected so you don't have to fight them (save time :D).

05. Pegasus Boots (A Link To The Past/The Minish Cap)
- Dash attack! Bwahaha! This is probably the item I've used most in ALttP. It has many uses and you get it very early on - right before the very first dungeon (or Palace, if you prefer). You can sprint with it by just pressing A once and cross screens in matter of 1-2 seconds, making travelling very enjoyable, and if you happen to run into an enemy he will get hurt by your sword, possibly even killing him. Sometimes you can also use it to break walls, works as a substitute for bombs in some cases. ALttP just wouldn't be the same without it! But it sure does look like it hurts when you hit a wall or obstacle with it - the whole screen shakes and Link is hurled back a bit! :D

04. Bow (Most games)
- Although a standard item, I always find big uses for this. It's really nothing special but I use it so much and it comes with a variety of arrows (Light, Fire and Ice) that it deserves a spot in this list. It was as most fun to use in Twilight Princess for Wii due to the Wiimote aiming; made it much more enjoyable to use. I used the Bow almost every chance I got in TP because it was so fluidly integrated with the Wiimote. I think this item has been used in every Zelda-game, correct me if I'm wrong. It's also a nice candidate for puzzles. :)

03. Fierce Diety Mask (Majora's Mask)
- Many of the masks in Majora's Mask are cool. The Zora Mask is probably my second fave and I thought of putting this here until I realized I had forgotten about the coolest of them all - The Fierce Diety Mask! It's the hardest mask to get in the game because you need all other 23 masks before you can get it, then you need to complete some mini-games on the moon at the end of the game and only when they are done, can you get the Fierce Diety Mask. And it rocks. Oh hell yeah! Too bad you can only use it in boss-rooms, though. Link turns into some kind of oni and slaughters absolutely everything - he shoots some energy bolts from his sword and that alone can kill the last boss' all three transformations in mere 10-20 seconds. It's THAT powerful! Would have loved to use this outside the boss rooms, just for fun, though. :(

02. Master Sword (Most games)
- I realise many people probably think this is the cheesiest or most boring item of all but I can't help but get shivers whenever I pull this out of the pedestal in A Link To The Past, Ocarina Of Time and Twilight Princess. The music that plays comes from A Link To The Past and it brings back so many memories that in the moment you press "Check" or "Grab" the hair on my arms just stand up! Magic, but I know not everybody's feeling it, sadly. It also looks good, especially when it glows! Ahhhhh! Look at this video - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OwZjhoYVhbo - when the sword is pulled from the pedestal in A Link To The Past. I love this scene... The foggy, gloomy forest turns into a beautiful, lush and sunny forest.

01.Double Clawshot (Twilight Princess)

- The best item ever in a Zelda-game is the Double Clawshot from Twilight Princess for Wii/GCN! It lets you handle two Clawshots at the same time, one in each hand, and you can sweep across distances flawlessly. This opens up a new way of puzzles and it's too bad you get this at the end of the game because of the usefulness of this item. It makes the ordinary, not-so-special Clawshot into something very special! And oh, once you got this, who didn't instantly run to the STAR-game in Hyrule Castle Town to play the second game? :D Fun, fun, fun! If you don't know, a Clawshot is much like a Hookshot. I hope to see something similar in a future title, Nintendo!

Friday 14 November 2008

Top 10 Star Wars Games

It's time for the Top 10 Star Wars games! Yes, I'm a Star Wars-nerd! Only one game per "franchise", you know?

10. Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (X360)
- Surprise! Seriously... There are lots of funny spoofs in this game. In fact, if it hadn't been for the spoofs this game wouldn't be ranked this high. Lego Star Wars II has given me many laughs and coupled with a good gameplay makes a good, enjoyable game. There are some problems with the over-sensitive controls and the camera but if you can see past that then there's a lot to fetch from this game. I probably wouldn't advise this game to anybody but fans of the franchise, though. I also love being able to play as just about any character I want - Favourites being Yoda (Ghost) and Boba Fett! I love Boba Fett!

09. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (X360)
- I think many people will disagree with me but the truth is the game IS fun to play. Yes, it's also very glitchy and throws cheap tricks to kill you which only leads to frustration but I found that I still wanted to continue playing the game because it is so much fun to just slaughter everything with my fully upgraded Force Lightning! Funnily, the game entered my previous list too but it still ranks pretty highly on this list because the majority of the Star Wars games are much worse than this. If you think The Phantom Menace for the PSX is better than this game, you need an examination by a professional doctor. I also love playing as Vader in the prologue and going around tossing Wookies to the left and right is very satisfying! The story is quite good, too, to be honest. I like the story. If you are a massive fan of destruction and Star Wars and wondering whether you want to play this game or not - play it! It's lots of fun, if you can handle the frustrating issues.

08. Star Wars: Shadows Of The Empire (N64)
- This might be the third surprise of the list, I know I might have an odd taste. This game probably hit the list because of the nostalgia factor, though. I keep telling myself - this game is really good, but it could just be the nostalgia. I think this game was the first to let us hop into a Snowspeeder and whack AT-STs and AT-ATs on Hoth in 3D, am I right? That was a remarkable experience back in the days. I haven't played this... gem... for a long time but I remember the levels are lengthy (especially Boba Fett's level - Gall Spaceport, my favourite level of the game) and that made up for the fact that there are only 10 levels. I would like to dedicate a bit of this space to Gall Spaceport. I was about 9 or 10 years old and this level kicked my bloody ass! I remember almost every second of it! It seemed to go on forever, too, and in the end, you fight Boba Fett and I remember he was hard as hell! Eventually, a friend of mine beat this level (he had a copy of the game, too) and beat the remainder of the game in a few hours only. The biggest challenge in this game is that level and when I finally beat it, the happiness was immense! One of my favourite gaming moments. I guess that might be a reason why I like this game so much.

07. Star Wars: Battle For Naboo (N64)
- Sure, it's Rogue Squadron with different ships and a couple of decades earlier, but I won't count it as a Rogue Squadron. There's a bit of differences though - the drawing distance is massively increased (that means you can see much farther ahead) and there are several ground missions on speeders. The ground missions are a nice change of gameplay but don't really vary the gameplay TOO much since the missions objectives and everything else stays the same. It doesn't follow Episode 1's story but takes place a bit before it (I think) and I think this was because not many people enjoyed the movie so the developers didn't want the gamers to feel like they experienced the movie again. Correct me if I'm wrong though. My favourite ship is the Naboo Starfighter and there's actually a code you can input in Rogue Squadron that lets you select the Naboo Starfighter! This is a nice little game that I chose over Conker's Bad Fur Day (I chose between the two) and I actually regret not choosing Conker because I played a bit of it and I love it already... I've been trying to get it for Xbox but no luck yet. Anyway, onwards! :D

06. Star Wars Arcade (Arcade)
- Everytime I go to a nearby amusement park here (Liseberg in Gothenburg, one of the most popular in the Nordic) I make sure I enter the Aracade hall to play this one at least once. I love it even if it's hard and I never beat a level, haha. The lightsaber against Vader is really cool and same goes for the Hoth battle with the Snowspeeder. Actually, I almost beat the Hoth battle once! :D I hope they never remove this game from the Arcade halls - it's a classic and still works even today, 14 years after its release. If you see this game when you're out somewhere then drop a coin into the machine and play because it's a lot of fun and you never know when the Arcade machine gets removed or replaced.

05. Super Star Wars: Episode 6: Return Of The Jedi (SNES)
- A classic! I chose between this one and Epiosde 5 but went for this one because this is the one I remember most. I used to rent this game when I was younger and played it til my eyes bled! It's a very challenging game and takes some patience to get through. You can play as Luke, Han Solo, Chewbacca or Leia (I'm not sure if you can play as anybody else, I don't remember) and they differ a bit from each other - Luke has the lightsaber while the others have blasters and rifles. I enjoyed playing as Luke the most, not surprisingly. He just looks so cool with his green lightsaber and it's more fun than to run around and blast stuff.
To be honest, I never beat this game. I got to the final stage where you blow the Death Star up but I never managed to escape with the Millennium Falcon - it was too hard for me. Who knows, maybe one day I will download a rom for the game and play on an emulator (I'm not gonna go through the pain of trying to find the game to buy for my SNES) and finally get to finish it.

04. Star Wars: Bounty Hunter (GCN)
- I said before that I love Boba Fett. Well, that's why I love this game. You get to play as Jango Fett (Boba's father) and he's just as badass as his son. Dual pistols, jetpack, flamethrower, rockets - you name it! The missions are fun and the game is HARD, almost too hard sometimes, so it takes a while to plow through it. If you want to, you can also claim bounties by scanning the right enemies and then either capture them by snaring them with some kind of rope or kill them - a neat and fun little addition. The game takes place before Episode 2: Attack Of The Clones and ends where the movie starts and explains Jango's story. It also explains where he got his badass Slave 1 from! I may be biased because I love Boba & Jango Fett but I do think this is one of the best Star Wars games ever made.

03. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3: Rebel Strike (GCN)
- Now, while Rogue Squadron for N64 was really good, I still think that the third installment is a bit sharper. Why? Because you get to control a freaking AT-AT!! You get to speed through Endor's moon on a Speederbike!! What isn't there to love about that? The game has excellent visuals and music, too, and includes some short scenes from the original movies which is a cool addition. It has some ground levels on foot that weren't very good but they weren't that many and except those parts, it is the best Rogue Squadron to date (is the franchise finished?) and the 3rd best Star Wars game ever.

02. Star Wars: Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast (PC)
- I've talked about this game before in my Top 10 FPS list so I won't write much about it here. I love the lightsaber duels, they're definitely the highlight of the game and I look forward to everyone. I had tons of fun online, too. Bespin. Ahhhh... Memories! I also loved downloading maps and especially remember a Ladder-one that I could play forever cause I enjoyed the lightsaber duels so much (it just threw lightsaber duel after lightsaber duel at you). Jedi Knight 3 was just as good, too, and had some improvements like three different lightsaber styles but I wasn't as impressed with it because it had the feeling of "been there, done that". Oh and I loved the online play with the X-Wings and TIE Fighters mod!

01. Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (PC)
- Seriously the best Star Wars game ever and probably the best RPG ever. Mass Effect and KotOR1 are both candidates for best RPG ever in my book. It takes place 4000 years before Episode 1: The Phantom Menace and BioWare's take on the franchise is very interesting. The story is massive and engaging and spawned a sequel (however, the sequel was developed by Oblivion and was pretty much just as good but what stopped it from competing for the 1st place is that it's unfinished - it ends abruptly without resolving the main story and leaves many loose threads...). Jedi and Sith are still (can I say "still", I mean it takes place in the past? :P) in conflict, lightsabers are going strong and the Force is just as cool as usual. The technology is more or less just like 4000 years into the future which I personally think is a bit odd - surely development happens in 4000 years? Anyway, to be frank, I don't care because the game is so awesome. I think many people agree with me that this is the best Star Wars game to date. Now, if we could get KotOR3 instead of The Old Republic....

Monday 3 November 2008

Top 10 Most Anticipated Games That Didn't Live Up To The Anticipation

That's right. You know all those games that have gotten your attention and totally seems to rock but when released, they turn out to be just a disappointment? Too much hype, to be exact. Here's my top 10 list of the games that were hyped up (at least by me) and seemed awesome but that didn't live up to the hype. #1 in this list is the worst game of those, and #10 is the best (pfft, the best out of those 10!).

10. Super Mario Sunshine (GCN)
- Sure, a good game, it sure is but it was so hyped up and everybody awaited the true sequel to Super Mario 64. When it was released, I hurried to grab a copy, plugged the CD into the Gamecube and after about two hours I felt bored. I didn't like the level designs and the game just gave me a strange feeling - I just couldn't LOVE it like I wanted to. It has a few great moments (I love the amusement park and the rollercoaster boss battle) but I was still very disappointed with this game. The bonus games were good but for some reason I can't help but to think of Jeopardy! (Swedish version, don't know what the English sounds like) whenever I hear the music for the bonus stages. Maybe the stakes were too high, Super Mario 64 is still unbeaten and is still the #1 3D platformer. It's a classic and I will never forget it. Nintendo tried but failed. How's Super Mario Galaxy? I keep hearing great stuff about it but I don't feel compelled to play it because it seems too messy. Ah well. Next!

09. Perfect Dark Zero (X360)
- Perfect Dark 64 is the best FPS ever, in my opinion (check the top 10 FPS list), and, just like Super Mario Sunshine, maybe the stakes were a bit too high. RARE has always developed great games and their peak was during the N64-era - every single game they released for that system rocked! Star Fox Adventures was really good too. However, they didn't quite make PDZ the game it could have been. The game is too short (13 missions I think, whereas the last one is just a boss battle, and PD64 had 21 missions, 17 regular + 4 bonus) and the missions just aren't as fun as the ones in PD64. Same goes for the story, it's not nearly as good as PD64's story. Where the hell are the Maians and Skedars!? Those were what gave PD64 such a great touch and in PDZ it's like they never existed! PD64 (noticed how many times I mentioned this abbrevation so far?) also had a very memorable soundtrack and PDZ only a few memorable songs (I love Bridge - Assault, Subway - Retrieval - Ambush and the best one is Temple - Surveillance - Main Theme). I keep hoping for a Perfect Dark 2 that is a worthy sequel (not a prequel) to PD64. Or a remake of PD64. God, give me!!!

08. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (X360)
- So long we had been waiting for this game, and in such short time we were disappointed. For starters, the game is glitchy. Everybody who has experienced the "Default Text"-glitch knows what I'm talking about - it's the most loathed glitch of the game. Second, the character and controls are too sensitive to the control stick. Third, it's too freaking hard sometimes (I played on the hardest difficulty available at the start - "Sith Lord", there is a "Sith Master" too but screw that... at least for a few months) and keeps throwing cheap tricks to kill you (endless waves of enemies with homing attacks and whatnot, you get hurt by attacks while knocked down and can't get up until a few seconds and by then you're probably mauled half-dead already). I have cursed at this game up until the point of almost throwing my controller out the window! Fourth, the targetting system sometimes doesn't target what you want to target and that can lead to frustration because you either miss your enemy or die because you can't attack it... but! The game is fun. It is. For one playthrough. Maybe.

07. Resident Evil Zero (GCN)
- This is not a bad game either but it's far from the best RE-game. I hate the majority of the enemies - most especially the frogs... Zombie-frogs?! That whip you with their tongue!? What the hell!? A giant zombie-crab in a train!? A giant zombie-bat!? Again, what the hell!? The story is meant to be a prequel to the first game but the story is still not that interesting and the main villain is a man singing to leeches, to control them. Did Capcom run out of ideas or what!? There are so many ridiculous things in this game that it's cringeworthy. In any case, the game does a few good things - like the partner zapping system and allowing you to drop items wherever you want. The graphics are also improved REmake graphics and look gorgeous even today. I also loved revisiting the factory from RE2 - a very nice moment in the game. I would say this game is only for fans of the RE-franchise, everybody else should play REmake.

06. Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Wii)
- Splinter Cell: Double Agent was developed by two teams - one (I think Ubi's Shanghai studios) team for Wii/GCN, PS2 and I think Xbox and another (Ubi's Montreal studios) team for Xbox 360, PC and PS3. The Montreal version is awesome but the Shanghai version is not nearly as good. They're two different games (the missions and locations are totally different) but with the same story. I'm a huge fan of the Splinter Cell games so of course I was thrilled to get Double Agent for my Wii but it sucked - and it was so glitched. I couldn't throw cans to distract the enemies, they were DEAF! I don't remember if I finished it or not but I have traded it in at EBgames (now Gamestop) for a discount on another X360-controller. I got the X360 version of the game a week after and I loved it. A so much better game!

05.
Assassin's Creed (X360)
- So many people assumed this would be Game of the Year! The free-running and climbing mechanics in the trailers seemed to awesome. It is awesome, too. It also looks TERRIFIC and just standing on the highest point of Damascus and looking over the city is breath-taking to say the least! Where the game falls flat is the gameplay. So. God. Damn. Boring. And. Tedious. Every single mission is a repeat of the previous and you have to do it like 9 times. Go to a town then gather information by either: Picking pockets, eavesdropping, doing a small mission (either assassinations or flag collecting) for an informant or interrogating somebody. That's it. All the way through the 9 assassinations. There's also the options of reaching the highest points in the area to scout and "synchronize" the area to your map and to save citizens in need (which basically just leads to a long and tedious fight because the guards won't stop coming at you). It's so repetive. What happened to the creativeness, Ubi? Oh, and I HATE the beggars! Grrr!

04. The World Is Not Enough (N64)
- The anticipated "sequel" to GoldenEye (Tomorrow Never Dies was released for PSX only) and developer EA (back then, we still had faith in them making a great game) had bought the rights for the Bond-franchise. Well, the game was like a downgrade of GoldenEye. Plastic sound effects, crappy graphics, horrible voice acting, boring missions and no blood. I was so disappointed at the time. I sort of half-enjoyed it, though. Thank god there was still GoldenEye and Perfect Dark!

03. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (X360)
- Many Xbox 360 games in this list, eh? Capcom knows how to make awesome graphics, that's for sure, but they didn't succeed in making this game fun. Before I got my X360, I really wanted to get this game as fast as I could but when I played it I was bored senseless after the third or fourth level. Almost every level looks exactly the same (zZzZzz). Every level plays exactly the same. Go from the starting point to the ending point to kill the boss. On the way there, kill as many aliens as you can. Pick up a few weapons. That's it, that's every level. It's boring and I had to force myself to beat this game, I really mean I FORCED myself. I did it, after almost 9 months of having the game. I almost wish I hadn't cause the game just made me bored and angry.

02. Donkey Konga (GCN)
- I wanted this game so bad when I first heard about it and using Bongo drums seemed like a cool idea. It is a cool idea, still, but Donkey Konga doesn't know how to make it cool. The Bongos don't fit to the music which really detracts from the fun factor and I still feel like a dork when I clap like a maniac (yes, when you clap there's this microphone that picks it up and some songs require you to clap). The soundtrack is very strong, though. A big plus for the soundtrack. But the game is only worth playing so you can hear the songs.

01. Alone In The Dark (X360)
- Hahaha. Hahahaha! This game is a joke (err, I mean "a glitch"). Stay away from this game. End of.