Showing posts with label callback. Show all posts
Showing posts with label callback. Show all posts

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Double Dragon Neon (XBLA)

This week is still XBOX Live Demos, but we will be seeing XBOX Live Arcade games, specifically.  Slightly longer of an experience, and a higher cost in the end, but will they be worth shelling out that extra cash?  We'll see!

Hit it or Quit it?
Year: 2012 -- Developer: WayForward Technologies: Developer: Majesco
First Impression:
From the description and screen shots, the gameplay looks like pretty standard Double Dragon beat 'em up. What's interesting it that's a crazy looking cel-shaded art style. Also, it looks like there may be some shopping/upgrades involved.  Text says the game has 10 levels, I'm expecting to be able to play the first one.    I'm hoping for solid controls, maybe even some decent combos, otherwise pretty much just walk and fight, walk and fight.

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Fooled around for:  20-25 minutes, Demo ends right before 2nd level boss

Hm, where to start.. How about HOLY CRAP THIS GAME IS AWESOME!  It's not even just that I've been playing 20something year old games before graphics and even design could catch up, many of those still really fun, just lots of them aren't.  Best Double Dragon ever!  It was so much more than I even expected.  It has this ridiculous 80s vibe throughout, and the graphics style is so fitting.  It's cel-shaded, but everything still has depth and weight to it, so it really feels like you're actually hitting them.  

There are power moves and stat upgrades via Cassette MixTapes, that you collect, and the more your collect, the more that particular move upgrades.  Each Mixtape even has a song that plays as you select it, and those are almost good enough to just listen to themselves.  You can equip one power move at a time.  They are all pretty sweet so far, and help get you that edge.  The combos are fluid, and string well together.  When you successfully dodge, you get Gleam, which grants double power for a few seconds.  

The music is awesome, and cheesy, the sounds and voices are great.  There is a shop to buy MixTapes at, though they look like they can get pretty expensive versus just finding them.  The text throughout gives the impression that it knows how cheesy it is. 

Co-op is called Bro-op, if that gives any indication to how this game views itself.  And when you play Bro-op, you can tilt the right stick at the same time to do a high five.  Depending on which direction, you can share life, steal life, or something else I forget right now.  I think something with Gleam and double power.

Okay, I need to calm down, I'm just so hyped on this game.


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Hit it or Quit it? (800 Microsoft Points)
Not only would I buy this game, but I'm also going to leave the demo on here as a reminder to buy it, and also to just play the demo every now and then, it's that awesome.

Hit it like Jimmy and Bimmy hit Marian from the front and the back.. at the same time.

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One quick side note:  
I was looking up something about this game, and stumbled across the IGN review.  They only gave it a 3, saying it was awful.  They said the controls were clunky and the platforming was miserable.  They said they disapproved of the difficulty, basically saying it should have been easier, since it was a new-school remake.  Maybe later in the game, these things become more apparent, but for now, I'm sold.  It felt like Double Dragon++ so far, so if it's a little hard, whatever.  It's not any harder or more annoying than the earlier ones.  Also, they complain that it's 10 bucks for an hour's worth of game.  Yeah, grinding for MixTapes may get boring, but there is some replay in that, just to see how powerful you can get.  Also, people pay out the ass to go be entertained for 2 hours at the movies, so $10 bucks for a 1 hour shot that you can still pick up whenever you want doesn't sound like too bad of a deal.  

On the plus side, the community has it rated at 6.4.  G4 has it at 4 stars, and metacritic is sitting at 75%.  Not super awesome great, but certainly not 3. Wtf.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Alcahest (SNES)

Hit it or Quit it?
Year: 1993 -- Developer: Hal Laboratory -- Publisher: Square
First impression:
Square!  And Hal!  No wonder this got translated.  Yes, this is my first foray into a translated game.  Since I'm assuming it's an RPG, I'm not sure how long I will actually play it for Hit it or Quit It since I don't really plan to get into it that much.  7th Saga worked out pretty well though, so maybe this will too.  Just seeing those names, and hearing this pretty awesome title screen music makes me wonder if this might even be a long-term game in the future.  There's no demo screens or anything, so who knows how this is going to go.  Being worthy of translation might be a good sign too though!

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Fooled around for: 25 minutes
It turned to not only be an RPG, but actually an action RPG!  Totally wasn't expecting that, and almost instantly bumped my rating up to Hit it.  Aside from a few text glitches on what look to be some type of Chapter screens, I couldn't even tell it was translated.  The script is just about as lame and cheesy as all of this era of games were, and it was awesome.

The music is a little lamer than I was hoping, especially running the same song over and over while you are getting through it.  And the controls are just a little bit sticky considering the amount of enemies and the angles at which they come at you.  Besides this, it was just straight-forward enough to not have to think, but fun enough to play so I didn't get bored with it.  It's actually hard to stop playing, since it was just starting to get good. I just got some fire guy as a partner and he's supposed to team up with me.  Being on the early side, it seems the leveling has something left to be desired, and the item system is a little weird, but it also may get better later on.  The graphics are pretty good for trying to be detailed considering it's on the SNES in 1993.

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Hit it or Quit it?
I wouldn't be surprised if it gets annoyingly hard later on, but for now, I would definitely hit again.  This may actually be one that I try to play for a longer style review.  I will actually create a new tag for Callbacks, because I think I'm going to want to take another go at this in the future.  Thinking back, I'm not sure I would even retro-fit any other reviews with a Callback.  This game is breaking all sorts of new ground for me!