Jojo's Bizarre Adventure HD (XBLA)

Hit it or Quit it?

Year: 2012 -- Developer: Capcom -- Publisher: Capcom

First impression:
"Bizzare" definitely seems accurate, the more of the intro screens I see.  After a few seconds, it looked like it might be a beat 'em up, but then it switched screens, and it's actually a fighter.  Haven't done one of these yet.  Let it be known now, that I'm not a huge fan of fighters.  Especially 2d, cartoonly ones.  Just something about them never really clicks with me.  It was surprising enough that the new Mortal Kombat and Soul Calibur 4 grabbed me for as long as they did.

So, yeah, lots of crazy japanese yelling already.  Some of the fighters look like they are just standing behind some sort of being they are controlling, instead of fighting themselves.  Also, one of the still shots shows some guy holding a gun out, except his fingers are coming through the gun in places they shouldn't be.  Someone hand-drew this, and let that slip?  I don't understand.  I have a feeling I'm not going to understand this game in general.  This seems pretty obviously to be a remake, but why, I'm not sure.  Being a Capcom fighter, this probably has some huge cult following I don't know about.  We'll see if they convert me.

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Fooled around for: 15 Minutes (Played each of the available demo characters)
Again "Bizzare" is definitely right.  And I still feel like I'm missing some inside joke about all of this.  It's just sooo anime and crazy, it has to be from a Manga or show or something.  If not, good job guys back whenever this was made on coming up with such ridiculous material for a game.

The whole guys-controlling-things mechanic I mentioned actually turned out to be pretty interesting.  They are called Stands, and you can summon it during the fight to basically fight in front of you, presumably blocking damage and causing extra damage.  They also come out during some special moves without being summoned directly.  They have their own little health bar, and when it runs out, they just go away.  The bar refills quickly and you can summon them again.  It was cool to have something like that to manage, but when both fighters had Stands out, the screen got a little too chaotic.

Otherwise, it was pretty much a straightforward 2d cartoony fighter.  Light, Medium, Heavy attacks, blocking, dashing, special moves, crazy combos, etc.  The biggest draw was those Stands.  Otherwise the game seemed pretty difficult to me, but I also haven't played many of these that long to really learn any general tactics.

The music was pretty awesome though, definitely kept you pumped.  The stories for each character seemed to weave into each other.  They all definitely seemed aware of their Stands, though one said his was a "demon within".  Crazy animations, crazy expressions, random Japanese here and there.  Again, bizzare.

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Hit it or Quit it? (1600 MSP)
Whoa!  I didn't even noticed how expensive this was until I looked it up for this section.  How did a 2D fighter get priced at 1600 points?  $20!?  Really just makes me think still there is something I'm missing.  Maybe this was the greatest game ever in Japan at one point or something, otherwise, I'm just confused why it needed an HD remix, and more confused at such a high price point.

I wouldn't let my Stand hit this.  I probably wouldn't even hit this for 80 points, let alone 1600.  It's just not my kind of game.  Quit it.

Aladdin - SNES

Year: 1993
Producer: Capcom

From across the room:
Ah, so nice to hear a familiar splash screen of a decent company for a change, Capcom!  I've played Aladdin before, so this won't be completely new, but it's been a while, so it will be new enough.  The startup sequence is running through the story.  Aladdin and Jafar are trying to open the Cave of Secrets or whatever it was. The animations are nice and colorful, as they should be, being based on a Disney cartoon movie.  Running demo scene now.  Ah, yes, this does look familiar.  I think this is supposed to end up being pretty hard, like The Lion King.  Like they were thinking "hm, Disney movies are nice and accessible.. but let's make the games so even seasoned gamers can't handle this shit... also.. penises."  Sounds like the music should be catchy and referential to the movie as well.

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Played for:  8 minutes

Hit it or Quit it?
Don't let the playtime fool you.  Or maybe do let it fool you, I don't know.  Maybe I'm just having an impatient day, but I just wasn't into dying over and over.  I see that yes, it's difficult, but it's partly only because of the controls.. and level design.. Both of which should be expected I guess, and I guess you would be expected to get over it.  But they just weren't as fluid as they felt like they could have been.  Most of the levels just need to be memorized so you can avoid the awkwardly placed enemies.  It feels like there could be some pretty cool parkour type runs, but then all of a sudden you catch something and it stops you right in front of an arrow.  Also, the controls just feels really loose.  For a platformer with ahead-of-its-time parkour, and very precise jumping needed, the hit/grab boxes just don't feel right.  One time, it seems you'd be fine to grab this or jump on that, but the next time, it feels like the same place, and it just doesn't connect.  Also running is really loose and sloppy, being unsure of when you're going to start and stop speed-running or sliding.

I do feel impatient today, so I would probably come back and hit this again sometime to try to learn the levels a little more and see how much of the movie is involved in this game.  I do remember very similar issues with the Lion King game too though, as I mentioned.  I wonder if that was Capcom too.. hm..  Either way, games like these usually have codes, or you can at least look up the passwords and start wherever you want in the game, so there's some replay in just jumping around and seeing further into the game for the heck of it.  Not right now though!