Mashing buttons since 1984
I was listening to Opie and Anthony the other day and was introduced to the beauty that is The Angry Nintendo Nerd (AKA The Angry Video Game Nerd) on Youtube.
Before I start to get into this hilarious series I must warn you if you are easily offended by vulgar language or have little ones within earshot of your PC speakers DO NOT WATCH THESE!
[Read more…] about The Angry Nintendo Nerd (Very funny but very vulgar)
Music has Motown, Basketball has James A. Namesmith, and videogames have the coin-op arcade cabinets. It is important to every man, woman, and child to know where they come from, what it is that makes them who they are. Videogames are no different.
When Micro$oft rolled out the Xbox Live Arcade to go along with the 360 and the Wii followed suit with it’s Virtual Console hundreds of previously forgotten about classics had new life breathed into them, and justifyably so.
Legendary titles like Golden Axe (my personal all-time favorite) and Super Mario Bros. should never be cast aside for the sake of polygons and Blu-Ray HD-DVD Players.
Seriously, what is more kick ass than a 7 foot dude with an axe named Death Adder?
Without these titles, which laid the foundation for the mega-success the videogaming industry is today, who knows what would’ve come of our little 1’s and 0’s. After Atari single-handedly crashed the market in 1983 with colossal stink-a-roo’s like E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Ark things looked pretty bleak until Nintendo came on the scene in 1985 with their NES and upstart Sega, previously a division of Tonka Industries, released the Sega Master System.
Thankfully the developers of Raiders of the Lost Ark held true to the movie right down to Indy’s pink warmup suit and the scene where he transverse the blue void to get the ancient Hockey Stick of Rah.
Ok, enough with the history lessons. The point is not only were these classic titles needed in the mid-80’s but they are need now as well. We need to remind the newer generations of gamers that not everything was about how maxxed out your Pokemon was, how many hours you logged into Final Fantasy VII or your worldwide rank in Rainbow Six: Las Vegas’ multiplayer. It was about getting that high score, maximizing every last second from that quarter, and fun.
For anyone with these consoles that offer a trip back to the Golden Age of Gaming sans a tricked out Dolorean you owe it to yourself to check out where gaming came from.
ad·dic·tion –noun the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.
My name is Dark Reyule, and I am an achievement addict. I’m not sure when it happened… well, OK I know exactly when it happened. According to chart on my 360voice.com blog it started around 2/20/07, around the time Xbox had their first little boost your gamerscore contest for crappy prizes. My addiction, seemingly dormant before, came out in full force then and has manifested itself into something I cannot control.
A new feature I’d like to introduce to the Buttonmashing community where I give you the 411 on some of the gems that may have fell through your gaming cracks
THE GIST: A few months ago I rented Earth Defense Force 2017 on a whim, what I got was pure balls-to-the-wall action for 53 carpal tunnel inducing levels. Throughout my entire time with this title I was continually astonished at both how large in scope and how wonderfully detailed it was.
The idea is simple, take on a seemingly endless horde of alien bugs, ships, mechs and mega-mechs en route to saving the world for the umptenth time in digital fashion amidst some of the best lighting and explosive effects on the 360.
[Read more…] about Bargin Bin Review – Earth Defense Force 2017 (360) – By Dark Reyule
THE GIST: License? We don’t need no stinkin’ license! Visual Concepts and 2K Sports make their triumphant return to the gridiron with All-Pro Football 2K8 featuring over 240 of the best to ever hug the pigskin, innovative gameplay elements, and immersive realism. Some thought that the 2K brand of football games died when EA secured (read: took away your options as a consumer) the NFL and NFLPA licenses… well, it’s time to think again. 2K Football is back, better than ever, and stands today as the best football game I have ever played.
[Read more…] about Game Review – All-Pro Football 2K8 [360] – By Dark Reyule
THE GIST: License? We don’t need no stinkin’ license! Visual Concepts and 2K Sports make their triumphant return to the gridiron with All-Pro Football 2K8 featuring over 240 of the best to ever hug the pigskin, innovative gameplay elements, and immersive realism. Some thought that the 2K brand of football games died when EA secured (read: took away your options as a consumer) the NFL and NFLPA licenses… well, it’s time to think again. 2K Foot ball is back, better than ever, and stands today as the best football game I have ever played… YOU CAN’T COACH THAT!
[Read more…] about Game Review – The Darkness [360] – By Dark Reyule
THE GIST: THE BIGS is developer Blue Castle Games’ offering on the whole “extreme” take on sports in the vein of NFL Blitz, NBA JAM, and MLB Slugfest. Build up your respective POWER BLAST or BIG HEAT meters by performing certain in-game tasks and unleash some hurt on your opponent.
Pitching and batting all take place from the behind the plate perspective
THE GAMEPLAY: Normally with these kind of games the gameplay is rather bare bones and all pick-up-and-play, THE BIGS is no different in that regard. I felt right at home within minutes with the controls save for the always initially confusing base running. The title offers several modes, all with the depth and character as Keanu Reeves doing Shakespeare except for the compelling Rookie Challenge. In this mode you build a prospect from scratch, assign him some limited ability, and take to the minors to work on beefing up his ratings. This mode is akin to the 24/7 mode in NBA 2K7 and is quite fun.
Blue Castle also tossed in Home Run Pinball, a unique mini-game where you tee-off in downtown NY and earn points for taking out everything littering the city streets while the pitcher gradually throws more mixed pitches at you, this is mindless fun.
Standard games are stretched out over 5 innings though you can switch that to 9 if you’re a rawhide purest at heart. Much of the action in THE BIGS seems to be focused on the batting, you will see fly balls hit to the track in droves and you will see just as many fence-climbing catch attempts. Though the 5 innings may read like too little it isn’t. You will complete a game in about 20 minutes, perfect for quick gaming fixes.
Homerun Pinball rules. Just about everything seen here is hittable and breakable.
THE GRAPHICS: The stadiums all look very good, and there are some nice effects when you use your power-ups. The player models often look like their respective counterparts (best Jim Thome I’ve ever seen, he almost oozes hillbilly off of the screen when he steps into the box) though they have a somewhat doughy look to them. The framerate and camera angles are all spot-on as well.
Plays-at-the-plate are made all the more dramatic with a bullet-time buttonmashing fest to see who will win the most grand of jousts.
THE AMBIANCE: This is baseball, from the fans in the stands to the homer schlep in the booth you know you’re engaging in America’s pastime. Fan noise, ball-on-bat sounds, etc. are all what you’d expect in a game like this however the 2K beats soundtrack is awful. “Ace of Spades” by Motorhead in a baseball game? Lemmy and his facial tumors should not be involved with a title about baseball, period.
Fly-ball hit deep, he goes back, at the wall… Will you be Griffey or Canseco in the spotlight? You’ll have plently of chances to find out.
THE VERDICT: Blue Castle pulls off a… wait for it… homerun with THE BIGS. Though I can imagine a title like this losing much of it’s luster after a week or two the rather deep Rookie Challenge mode is enough to justify a purchase.
I can easily see this becoming a series that improves year after year. Not based off of what I see, but rather what I don’t. For as many opportunities as you get to rack up points there feels like there should be more like bonuses for back-to-back HR’s, home-run distance, and hits in clutch situations, expect to see things like this in future incarnations.
Still, as an initial offering you can’t go wrong with THE BIGS.
Photos courtesy of www.gamespot.com
THE GIST: Based on the movie of the same name, veteran sports developers Visual Concepts take a shot at the “if-it’s-a-movie-we-can-make-a-game-about-it” market in this souped up version of Final Fight that is bizarrely reminiscent of Phantasy Star Online, but with significantly less depth. You control one of the four heroes but can change to anyone of the on-the-fly, and in some cases you have to.
[Read more…] about Game Review – Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer [360]
THE GIST: FASA Studios gives you a full-blown, online-only FPS based off the cult-classic Shadowrun that came out in the 16-bit era and is the first 360 title to allow 360 owners and Windows Vista users to sync up online. Players can choose from 4 races (each unique in their own abilities, strengths, and weaknesses) and do a pre-round stock up on various weapons, tech abilities, and magic a’la Counterstrike. Combatants engage in various derivatives of capture the flag (called the artifact) as well as deathmatch (called attrition) in a first-to-six-wins battle. Matches can be public or private and players can also add bots with several levels of difficulty to the mix. (This game has no offline campaign mode but does come with a tutorial which I strongly recommend going through.)