“Max”imum blood
Welcome to buttonmashing.com, a weblog were we talk about video games. If you're new here or you arrived from a Google search, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed and keep up with our site. While you're visiting, why not visit My MiniCity, Joystickland! Thanks for visiting! You can reach the homepage here.
A while back, during one of my CAG-fueled shopping sprees, I picked up a copy of Max Payne for the Game Boy Advance. I had never played Max Payne on the PC (which, by all accounts, was a great game) or the sequel. In fact, my copy of Max Payne sat on my shelf, untouched and unopened, for months while I wasted time on losers like Tiger Woods PGA Tour for the DS. It’s a shame too, because Max Payne is the most of fun I’ve had with a GBA game in a long time. (Even though I’m playing it on my DS Lite)
Max Payne is an undercover cop who’s life is torn apart after his wife and child are brutally murdered, killed by a couple junkies high on a new designer drug called “V.” Max quits the police force, joins the DEA and goes undercover to infiltrate the drug rings pushing V on the street. He’s framed for a murder he actually witnessed and is now on the run. He’s basically got nothing to lose. The story is told from Max’s point of view, and is a spiral into the depths of organized crime, government conspiracies, and Norse mythology. If that alone is not enough to convince to pick this game up, hopefully the rest of the review will.
The hallmark of the Max Payne series has been “bullet-time,” the time-bending film technique used by John Woo and over-popularized in the Matrix Trilogy. It’s basically slowing down time, except for your trigger finger, so you can manuever, mid-flight, to send bullets flying in all directions. From what I’ve read, it works great in the PC version of the game. I wasn’t sure how it’d translate to the GBA version, but it works excellent. Jumping into a room, a 9mm in each hand and dispatching all the bad guys in a matter of seconds while your jump for cover is pure fun.
The game is played from the isometric, 3rd-person view. On the pixelated GBA screen, 3D games often suffer from slowdown and flicker but this isn’t been the case with Max Payne. The controls take a while to get used to, seeing how the movement is at an angle and the directional pad isn’t, but once you’re used to it, it’s not a big problem. Visually, they’ve somehow fit everything from the big screen onto the little GBA screen, which is quite a feat.
As far as sound is concerned, I don’t think this much mileage has been squeezed out of the Game Boy Advance. The story is delivered in stylized cut-scenes, each narrated by Max himself, and they sound suprisingly good. There’s only a few musical themes, but they create a gritty and dark atmosphere.
But the most striking aspect of the game has been the amount of blood! Every gunshot, every explosion, ever swing of the lead pipe solicits a spray of blood. With the lack of gory detail, those little red pixels splattered on the wall are still able to invoke quite a visceral experience. Couple that with the blast of a shotgun and the grunt of a man injured and you’ve captured the essence that is Max Payne. A man after revenge, with nothing to lose. It’s fierce.
So fierce that I’m surprised it’s a GBA game. On the system where Pokemon and Sponge Bob rules, it was interesting that Rockstar would port such a violent game over to the kid-friendly GBA. Max Payne is anything but kid-friendly. But it is rated M, so any parent would be wise to avoid it.
And any “mature” gamer would be wise to pick it up.
What’s next?
So I finally, after months of off-and-on playing, finished Metroid Fusion. Even though it was actually easier than I thought it would be, it was a fun game. It didn’t knock my socks off like Metroid Prime did, but it was an enjoyable game. Playing it on the DS was a treat. It looked so beautiful on the bright DS Lite screen. So pretty.
Anyway, now that I’ve finished it, I’ve decided to go back and play through the original Metroid again (prompted in no small part by this post by Jeremy Parish). The question is which “version” of the game should I play? I still have my old-school NES hooked up in the basement, complete with a copy of Metroid. The main thing that stops me from taking the retro route are the codes that would have to be entered in time and time again. So it comes down to the Metroid Classic or Zero Mission (on the GBA, of course). I’d also like to grab a copy of Metroid II for the Game Boy and of course Super Metroid. Super Metroid may prove more difficult but I never finished it back in the day. But those are topics for another post.
So, any suggestions? Right now I’m leaning toward picking up a copy of Zero Mission. I like the idea of an updated version of the classic game. I finished the original game years ago but still have the Metroid bug. Going back through it should be a fun trip down memory lane.
What I’m playing
I’ve been pretty busy lately and it’s been cutting into my gaming time. We traveled home to my parents house this past weekend for the buttonSon’s first birthday and we’ll be heading to the button-In-Laws this weekend. What’s a gamer to do when he’s busy and on the road? What games should he play? That’s a great question. And the Nintendo DS is a great answer.
This past weekend I had some time to play a little more Metroid Prime Hunters
I’m also still working off my Nook Loan. Thanks to my helpful commenters, I have been regularly opening my gates and increasing the value of my turnips. I have a flea market coming up this weekend, so I’m starting to hoard the expensive fish.
When I have a few moments to game at home, I’ve been playing EVE. I’m giving each of the “professions” a try. I’ve given manufacturing a try, churning out a bunch of small projectile ammo. I was hoping for a great “crafting” experience but it was a little too hands off for my liking. It still seems like a very viable way to make ISK so I haven’t sworn it off yet, I just didn’t get the crafting feedback I had hoped for. I upgraded my Probe for a Thrasher (pictured here) which was a big upgrade, fire-power-wise (even though it looks wimpy with those little turrets). With my newfound muscle I “ganged up” with BM reader Bobster for a little pirate hunting and that was a good time. Not entirely lucrative, but we weren’t going after the big boys. We’ll be trying some low-security mining soon, so we’ll see how that goes. I’ve also been running as many missions as I can.
Since I’ll be out of town again this weekend, I’m hoping to finish up Metroid Fusion
What about you guys? Playing anything new? Outside of GRAW and Oblivion, there doesn’t seem to be a bunch of new stuff out there. I’ve been eyeing Galactic Civilizations II but I don’t think I can take on another game right now.
Just the fun ones, please
We moslty talked about Super Mario Strikers, a game none of us owned but all had played. We all gushed about how fun it was and how easy it seemed to play. It’s nothing more than a simple street-style game of soccer with a Mario flair but it’s downright fun. What was it about such a simple game that made it so appealing?
Later that week, I took my Gamecube to work for some lunchtime gaming. We hooked it up to the projector in our conference room and threw down, Nintendo style. We started off with a little Pac-Man Vs. which is the best use of the GBA-GC link I’ve played. Take the simplicity of Pac-Man and then add in multiplayer and you’ve got a sweet party game. We then moved onto some Mario Kart: DD and finished up with Mario Power Tennis. Two of us had played most of these games and the other two hadn’t. It didn’t matter. All of them were easy to pick up and play. Our Mario Tennis matches took a few minutes to get everyone up to speed, but after a little while we were volleying, smashing and saving like pros. It was good, serious fun.
All of these games had something in common - they were either published or developed (or both) by Nintendo. They all have fantastic mutliplayer modes. They’re simple and easy to learn but complex enough to have an element of strategy and discovery. To put it simply, Nintendo just makes fun games. More specifically, Nintendo makes fun party games.
Even their actual “Mario Party” games are great, even though not everyone agrees. Just look at the reviews for the past few Mario Party games. The argument could be made that this particular franchise is getting long in the tooth. But I think that misses the point. The reviewers may give Mario Party 7 a low score and justify it by saying “it’s more of the same” but that doesn’t capture the whole picture. The reviewers have probably been playing Mario Party since it was an N64 game. Most casual gamers have not. So they don’t care if one of the mini games in MP7 is derivative of a game from MP4. It doesn’t matter. It’s fun, no matter how you play it.
So what is it about Nintendo’s games that make them fun? I think Matt at Press the Buttons was on to something when he was trying to explain why he was describing the Game Boy version of Mario Tennis. “So it’s like Pong,” was the common reply when describing a video game version of Tennis. Is Pong fun? Thirty years ago it certainly was. So is the actual game of tennis. A digital version of a fun game - it’s a no brainer.
But that’s discounting the Nintendo/Mario angle. They’ve distilled the basic mechanics of a particular game and make it accessible through simple controls. Sometimes it seems like you can’t be “bad” at Nintendo games. Other people may be better than you, but sucess is usually easy to come by. Are the games artificially easy for the sake of enjoyment? I don’t think anyone who’s played a Super Mario game would agree with that they’re “easy.” Fun? Yes. Easy? Not everytime.
Is it nostalgia? I definitely think that plays a big part in my enjoyment. Most “older” gamers (come on, I’m only thirty!) grew up with Mario and Luigi. So this is like playing with old friends. The familiarity with the characters, their idiosyncrasies and nuances are what we look for everytime we boot up a Nintendo game.
We’re seeing this all over again with the Nintendo DS. Nintendo makes great games that are fun to play for the casual gamers as well as the serious gamer. Will it happen with the Revolution? Will the simple game play continue? Is it a new shift in gaming overall?
I sure hope so.
Should I or shouldn’t I?
I’m this “] [” close to trading in my Game Boy Advance SP for a Nintendo DS. I’m going out for the evening and I know my friendly neighborhood Game Crazy would facilitate said transaction without any problems.
The question is: Should I or shouldn’t I?
Update: Okay, a quick update. I heard Walmart had a DS/Mario 64 bundle. Supposedly Toys ‘R Us had a Spider Man 2 bundle as well. I made stops at both places but Walmart was out of them and TRU’s deal is over. So as it stands now, taking into consideration the comments thus far, I think I’ll keep my GBA SP (Pacman Vs. is a great party game, so keeping the GBA to link up with the Gamecube has become an issue) and I’ll just pick up a new DS. I’m also very interested in Advance Wars DS like Mr. LaMosca. I play Advance Wars all the time and can only imagine how sweet the touch screen works. I’ve heard Madden and Tiger Woods work great with the touch screen, too. I’m pretty excited about new game kit.
So I’ve pretty much decided on a new DS. Now the question is: what color do I get?
Video-fenky: F-word on computer game
Video-fenky: F-word on computer game - This is getting the attention of a lot of sites, but it appears that it comes from an unreliable(?) source, The Sun. Looks like they have some seriously lazy reporters over there, as the did a terrible job of fact checking. Luckily, intrepid bloggers, like Video-fenky and others, are quick to point out the ESRB label, which is only for games from the States. Turns out it’s a pirated version of the game. Score one for the game bloggers!
Of course the article never mentions this but rails against games yet again. Games with bad words! Hackers leaving their mark on games, and poor Disney gets the bad rap. Unfortunately people will have the knee-jerk reaction. Too bad.
Update (1/5): Video Games Ombudsman has a more detailed write-up than mine.
Gold GBASP Competition
gamesTM.co.uk - Gold GBASP Competition:
“Win a gold Game Boy Advance
A gold GBASP could be yours, exclusively on gamesTM.co.uk”
These golden Gameboy SPs are pretty tasty.
Simple games
Now that I’m back to playing Advance Wars, I really think it is a better game. I think its appeal is its simplicity. There are only a handful of units available and each commanding officer has a certain power that gives him a brief advantage. Moves require chess-like preparation, avoiding long range missile attacks while considering the best defensive position for the next computer turn. The strategy component of AW is much more pronounced. Each move will impact the next. When I played Age of Empires, my strategy and style was build up a big army and then send them to their death while I pumped out more units. Wars in Age of Empires usually become wars of attrition. Not so in Advance Wars. Often you have a limited arsenal and you’ll need each and every unit. Brute force usually isn’t the best answer (unless your C.O. is Max). The computer can be brutal, too. But while the computer AI is tough, I wonder what a human opponent would be like.
My gaming pedigree
One’s gaming experience, or as I like to call it, “gaming pedigree,” is often a source of pride for us old-school gamers. We use it to give creedence to our opinions and it gives us a sense of superiority over the casual gamer. So before I spout off any more gaming knowledge, I thought I’d share my gaming pedigree. I’ll list a handful of my favorite games here but look forward to top five lists in the future.
Updated (2/24/2005)
1984-1986
Atari 2600 - This is where it started for most of us. I still remember that frigid Christmas morning, seeing the wood-trimmed piece of hardware, thinking I ruled the world. I played the heck out of my 2600. Favorite games included Space Invaders, Missile Command, Pitfall, and many others. I think my favorite 2600 game was Kaboom! I played that game at every chance I got.
1986-1990
NES - Definitely a big change for me. Christmas of ‘86 brought me the cherished Nintendo Entertainment System. I played my NES past “Nintendo Thumb”. It was more like Nintendo Raw, Cracked, Blistered Thumb. I don’t think I could imagine what path I was taking as I played countless Nintendo games. If you would have told me twenty years from then I would still be playing video games I would have said you’re nuts. But here I am, playing away on a my Gamecube.
Trying to choose favorite games would be foolish, there are so many, but a few of my favorites were Baseball Stars, Rygar, Bionic Commando, Contra, any Super Mario Brothers, many many more.
1988-Present
PC’s - While PC gaming has always taken a backseat to console gaming I still take time to get in as much PC gaming as I can. I started out on a whimpy 286, playing Sierra adventure games on my 4-color CGA monitor, but I also played my share of Commodore 64 (even though I never owned a C64), Apple IIe, TSR 80, and others. I played most of the D&D Forgotten Realms and DragonLance games. I played Doom before it was released, when all you could play was the first level, with no weapons or monsters. My favorite genre of PC games is either RPGs or RTS games. I love Blizzard games, played the Age of Empires series to death, and currently play Neocron. While MMORPG appeal to the most basic needs to me, I don’t play them as much as I wish I did.
1989
Game Boy - While I owned the Classic Game Boy I didn’t play it much. I played Tetris on the crapper a lot but I would much rather play on the TV so Game Boy didn’t have much of an impact on my gaming repertoire until much later in life. Tetris still logged hundreds of hours and my mom still plays my original Game Boy.
1991-1994
Super NES - Like many people, I consider the SNES to be the pinnacle of gaming. I hold dear my memories of playing my SNES. I actually remember when my friend rented an imported Super Famicom months before the SNES was released on the masses. We played F-Zero and Mode-7 owned me. I had a crap-load of SNES games. Some of my favorites included Act Raiser, the Final Fantasies, Final Fight, Street Fighter 2, NBA Jams, Super Mario World, the list goes on. Man I loved that machine. I am still waiting to find a good deal on a used SNES with a handful of games on eBay to relive those days. (Update: I purchased a SNES this past November, along with Super Mario World and NBA Jams SE. I am always on the look out for games to add to my collection)
1994-1996
I lived in Spain for two years as a Mormon Missionary, effectively cutting me off from gaming from May 1994 to May 1996. I did get a chance to play a Playstation in one area I lived in, but I didn’t do much gaming from 1994-1996.
1996-2002
Nintendo 64 - I was first in line to get my gaming on after returning from Spain. I got my N64 the day it was released, along with Mario 64, easily one of the greatest games ever. Words don’t do that game justice. I played a handful of games on my N64, but my interest sort of waned as my interest in a certain lady-friend grew. I paid more attention to her and less to the N64, and we were married in August ‘97. The N64 came along for the ride down to Columbus but only got pulled out occasionally to play Killer Instinct. I missed out on most of the seminal N64 games, like Perfect Dark, Ocarina of Time, Goldeneye (I played this a couple times) and others. I spent most of this time on the PC but my interest was sparked by the release of the Gamecube. My N64 was sacrificed as a trade for my Gamecube. I will own another N64 and go through some of the games I missed.
2002-Present
Gamecube - Ahhh, the Nintendo Gamecube. I hold the Gamecube near and dear to my heart. It was what made console gaming relevant for me again, easing me back into the gaming scene. So many good games for the little black box. My favorite Gamecube game is easily The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker. I think there is so much detail and beauty in that game that gets overlooked by the A.D.D.-generation. Scenes in the underwater Castle are breathtaking. Easily my number one game, EVER. Metroid Prime is top ten, as well. NCAA 2004 has consumed many hours of my time (I am a HUGE college football fan). There are countless others: Viewtiful Joe, Prince of Persia, NFS:Underground. The list goes on.
2003-Present
Game Boy Advanced SP - I don’t know why I waited so long to pick one of these up, but the GBA-SP is an amazing piece of hardware. I have a back log of good games, so it will take me a while to catch up but I am currently playing classics like Advance Wars and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Doom on the GBA takes me back to my old PC Doom days.
2004 and beyond
Don’t get the idea that I have only played Nintendo Systems. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve played all the Sega Systems (Man I was jealous of Altered Beast when the Genesis came out), I have played PS1/2, they don’t do much for me. I played the ill-fated Turbo-Grafx 16, the Neo-Geo, sheesh, I could go on but you get the point.
Who knows where I go from here. I am still contemplating the XBox angle. (Update: I picked up an XBox and have played the heck out of Halo 2. I also played the very disappointing Fable but traded that away a while ago because it SUCKED SO BAD. I’ve got other XBox games, I’ve just got so many games that I need to play) There are a handful of games that look good that I want to play and I can’t deny the allure of Halo 2. I’ve never been drawn to the PS2, I don’t know why, but I doubt I’ll ever pick one up. But if I can convince Greta of that XBox, mmhhmhmmm.
-
What we're playing
Tony
GTA IV | Mario Kart Wii | Super Mario Galaxy
Nat
Okami | Bioshock | Overlord | Mario Kart Wii | Boom Blox | FF7: Crisis Core | The World Ends With You | DiRT | Rogue Trooper (PC) -
-
-
Subscribe to our Feed
