Game Art #0: Plumber's Dilemma

Art by Michael Mayne.

"This is why only fools are heroes -- because you never know when some lunatic will come along with a sadistic choice." - The Green Goblin, Spider-Man (2002 film)

While browsing Gaming Art, I came across this humorous piece that was just too cool not to repost. It also reminded me of the above quote.

So who do I think Mario should save? Well, Peach is beautiful but I've always felt Pauline was smoking hot! That and Pauline has only been kidnapped a handful of times since she's been around. Peach? She's been abducted WAY too many times. Also, Donkey Kong's traps tend to be a bit easier to get over than Bowser's. But if it comes down to material needs, Mario really should choose Peach. I mean, she's a princess. Princess = kingdom. And Pauline? Well, I'm sure she has a nice house or something.

Review: Mega Man 9 WiiWare

System: WiiWare (Also on PSN, Xbox Live)
Genre: Action/Platformer
Developer: Inti Creates
Publisher: Capcom
Original Release: 2008
Cost: 1000 Wii points

SCORE: 8.5/10

For years Mega Man fans thought that Capcom was finished making classic Mega Man games. It was thought that players would have to just be content playing the titles of the past to get their fix of the blue bomber. So when Capcom made the announcement that Mega Man 9 was in development in the summer of 2008, to say that fans were excited would be an understatement. Not only was Mega Man 9 a revival of the traditional franchise, it also, quite literally, took the series back to it's NES-style roots. Mega Man 9 is without question, one of the most polished games in the series.

Its a typical day for the citizens living in the year 20XX. Typical that is until robots start rioting all over the world. Turns out these aren't just any robots that are causing a ruckus. These robots were constructed by the world's number one robot expert, Dr. Light. Even the good doctor is shocked to see his creations are causing such devastation. There's even video footage of Dr. Light trying to coax Dr. Wily into joining him in his quest for World domination, but he refuses. Now why would Dr. Light, a man who has spent the last dozen games doing good, try to take over the world? Something is screwy (cough cough Wily cough) and it's up to Mega Man to clear his mentor's name.

This reminds me of that really annoying platform segment at the start of Guts Man's stage in the original Mega Man. Except this one here is much harder. Off five robot masters, get Rush Jet and then tackle Tornado's Man's stage if you don't have much faith in your platforming skills.

Mega Man 9 is just like any other game in the beloved classic franchise. The first eight stages can be selected in any order you like. Once you make it to the stage boss and defeat him/her (yes, there's a woman this time around), you'll be able to wield their weapon. Still following the rock-paper-sicciors gameplay, each robot master is weak to another's power and finding out who's weapon defeats who is the key to eliminating your foes quickly. Of course if you prefer a challenge, the game by no means forces you to face the robot masters or the final stage bosses using the weakness. That's the beauty of Mega Man games; no two people will play them the same way.

Behold, one of the most broken Mega Man weapons of all-time.

You can expect the same tight controls the series is known for. Mega Man moves and jumps with ease, but don't expect him to slide and charge his Mega Buster. In an attempt to simplify things, Mega Man functions exactly the way he did in the first two Mega Man games. This forces you to become even more adept at evading enemy attacks in a game that can already be quite challenging at first.

Splash Woman, the series first female robot master is also the only one in the game that takes the most damage with just the Mega Buster. Hmmm...

If this is your first Mega Man game, be warned. The series is known for it's difficulty. Novice players are likely to die a lot and even veterans may take a beating until they get the hang of how certain sections work. Mega Man 9 can be difficulty but by no means is it impossible.

The arsenal Mega Man acquires in Mega Man 9 is extremely useful. 

The shop makes a return and unlike Mega Man 8, screws are not scarce. Screws can be used to purchase items such as extra lives, E-Tanks, the ever-useful spike guard, and the energy balancer.

The game does offer a few odd balls among the bunch of robot masters (Plug Man, Jewel Man), but even taking them into account, you've got a bunch that really is hard to dislike. Even better the the weapons you get from them after they fall. Splash Woman's Lazer Trident is almost the equvilant of the Metal Blade. It can be used in rapid succession and it hardly uses any energy. Hornet Man's Hornet Chaser homes in on enemies and picks up screws and other power ups for you. Jewel Man's Jewel Sattelite is the best shield weapon. Ever. It can deflect bullets from Mettols and Machine Gun Joes and it will only go away if you leave the screen, or it hits a super strong opponent. Mega Man 9 has one of the best arsenals of weapons of any Mega Man game.

One would think that Capcom would take the game in a new visual direction. Instead, it looks exactly like the first six NES games. It may look like an NES title, but it seems to brim with more detail (in the game's intro especially) and there's not an ounce of slow down, though flicker can be turned on if you desire to further emulate this being an NES game. What's more, even the game's musical score sounds like it could have been done on the NES, though this along with the graphics, really aren't a negative. One of the many reasons Mega Man games have been so popular is thanks in large part to the music and Mega Man 9 does not disappoint. The music is catchy, energetic, and very andrenalyn driven. If there's one fault with the audio, it comes from some reused music. Six jingles were lifted straight out of Mega Man 2. As great as Mega Man 2's music is, some new jingle themes would have been nice. That said, you'll be humming Mega Man 9's original tracks for days.

Mega Man 9 does offer something no other Mega Man game has before: downloadable content. Proto Man becomes playable after you fork over 200 points and he can slide and charge his shots. However, those nifty abilities can be seen as both a blessing and a curse. Proto Man not only takes double damage when hit, but he gets knocked back even further as well. To add insult to injury Proto Man can't even access the shop nor does he have any story. It sort of feels like he was a tacked on extra. The Endless Attack mode is more worthy of you spare points. You get one life to last as long as you can in a randomized endless stage, complete with the robot master battles from time to time. There's also the rather challenging special stage that pits you against Fake Man, one of the robot cops that arrests Dr. Light. There's also Time Attack mode for those of you feeling speedy and looking to compete with other players across the globe, or if you wish to compete with yourself and best your own times. You've also got a sizable list of achivements if you're looking for bragging rights. These range from simple tasks like finishing the game, to more gruling stunts like completing the game without taking any damage. Along with the Time Attack and Endless Attack modes, Mega Man 9 has some good replay value to what was already an outstanding game.

Proto Man is playable but only pick him up if you want more of a challenge.

It was a long time coming and many thought they'd never see it, but Mega Man 9 was worth waiting for. The old-school visuals should please long-time fans along with the retro-style music. Mega Man fans should get this bargain game without hesitation. If you're playing a Mega Man game for the first time, this certainly isn't a bad place to start, just be prepared for a rough start. You really can't go wrong with this one.

Motion Sickness: A Reoccurring Battle

Do you remember thee dawn of thee 3D era of gaming? I sure do. Polygonal graphics were the best thing since the invention of the digital pad, analog controls were becoming an industry standard and CD-based games were replacing cartridges. Yes, 3D gaming was a very exciting time. I thought I was ready for everything it would throw at me. Regrettably my entrance 3D gaming also brought with it something that I've battled off and on since mid 1990s: motion sickness.

For me, being sick is one of the worst feelings in the world and I nearly equate motion sickness to having the flu. There are numerous things that can cause motion sickness and sadly, gaming is one of them. Certain 3D games in particular do it for me.

My first bout with motion sickness was the summer of 1996. During this time my father and I were still renting the original PlayStation and one game that intrigued both of us was the port of the PC hit Descent. As fun as that game was to play, it had the nasty side affect of making me nauseous. All the turning with the game's 3D movement was just a little too much for me to take and after a while, I desperately need to lie down. If I'm not mistaken, I think Descent was my very first FPS style game so I probably wasn't used to that sort of view. Descent gave me motion sickness a couple of times but I eventually got over it to the point where I was able to play for extended periods.

Descent has the (dis) honor of being the first game to give me motion sickness.

I thought I was done withe gaming-induced motion sickness but I was wrong. In the summer of 1998, I rented GoleneEye, a game I'm sure all of you are no stranger to. Due to all the high accolades the game had received, I had to see what all the hype was about. The game was everything critics said it was and more and I was having the time of my life. By the time I reached the fourth stage, my old adversary, motion sickness, had shown up to cause trouble again. I was so afraid of getting sick again theat I didn't play the game on the last day I had it before it had to be returned. Still, I didn't let that fear stop me from buying GoleneEye for my 18th birtheday a year later and motion sickness never showed up once whether I was playing solo or good old split screen multi-player.

I sent my motion sickness packing during my second experience with GolenEye.

Each time I conquer motion sickness, it always comes back to taunt me. I summarize that unless I play FPS games fairly often to get used to the view, I'll catch the sickness again. Sounds good in theeory and it is. But motion sickness is not limited to FPS games. You can only imagine my surprise when Kingdom Hearts, a game with a third person view, actually made me ill. What's worse, I've gotten motion sickness twice from playing Katamari Damacy, the first time when I first got it when the game released and recently a few weeks ago when I was playing it again. I was doing so well playing it last year around Christmas time. But I let too much time pass before I played it again so that's probably why I couldn't take all the moving about.

I cannot believe I got motion sickness from Katamari Damacy. Seriously.

Motion sickness is a nasty inconvenience that can at times even prevent me from simply watching someone else play a game. I could only stand to watch my brother-in-law, Charles play Mirror's Edge for just a few minutes. The camera jerked around so badly, like a drunk frat boy that never held a camera before. Usually it takes a little longer for motion sickness to settle in but with Mirror's Edge, it was almost instantaneous. I quickly stepped away and was able to shake it off after some time but I don't think I'll be playing Mirror's Edge. Ever.

Just looking at Mirror's Edge makes me ill.

Of course I still plan on getting back into FPS games and Katamari Damacy. As I said before, I think I just have to get used to the moving and what not. Play for a bit, if I feel lightheaded, stop, lay down if necessary and resume. I've done some reading on video game motion sickness and found that sitting fartheer away from the TV can help. Playing with the lights on is also good. You can also take ginger pills and use some special wrist straps, but I'm not sure I wanna go to those lengths. Much as I loathe battling motion sickness, I've beaten it before, so I'll do it again.

20 Years of Street Fighter II

Photo by ARMYCOM at deviantart.com

In August of 1987, Street Fighter was released in arcades. It introduced the gaming world to Ryu and Ken, the game's only two playable characters. Unfortunately getting acquainted with one of the most iconic duos in gaming (and maybe scrapping with Sagat) is about all the original Street Fighter was good for. The game was plagued with unresponsive controls, making executing special moves a chore.

Japanese flyer for Street Fighter II.

The Japanese arcade flyer for Champion Edition. Hello, nightmare fuel-inducing M. Bison.

It's not at all hard to see why most people forget that at one point there never was a number at the end of the words "Street Fighter". Be that as it may, if the first Street Fighter was never produced, the plethora of updated sequels and spin-off series never would have came to be. Capcom easily could have closed the doors on the fighting genre forever. Thankfully, the company decided to give fighting games another go and rather than create a whole new franchise, they simply dropped another quarter into Street Fighter's life arcade cabnet before the timer reached zero.

In March of 1991, a tidal wave hit the gaming world via arcades. That tidal wave was called Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. Ken and Ryu returned along with six more playable characters and four bosses. Each of the game's fighters (save for Ryu and Ken who were clones of each other) had a unique feel to them along with their own fighting style. E. Honda fought in the sumo style, Guile used his combat skills obtained from his years of service in the military, and Blanka came at opponents with his beastly method of fighting. The game's subtitle, "The World Warrior" carried a lot of meaning. Zangief hailed from Russia, Dhalism from India, Chun-Li from China, and so on. You never fought in just one place, but were taken all over the world.

M. Bison was practically the blueprint for SNK Bosses.

The impact that Street Fighter II made was HUGE. College students were skipping classes, elementary school kids were sucking even more than usual in math, and dates were postponed or dropped all together because people were too busy mastering the fine art of throwing Hadoukens. It was not uncommon to see crowds of players waiting to throw down. You were lucky if you able to get a turn on a SFII arcade machine because the lines were so long. SFII wasn't just a game, it was a way of life, one that everyone was a part of.

The American SNES box art.

My exposure to Street Fighter II mania didn't come until 1992 when Capcom released a port of the game on the SNES. I didn't own the game, nor did I even know it or the craze existed. My friends Justin & Matthew Moses had already gotten me into the Mega Man and Contra series by letting me borrow their games. When they let me borrow their copy of Street Fighter II, I was introduced to my very first fighting game and a whole new addiction was born.

The SNES version of Street Fighter II looked and played extremely well.

The SNES version of Street Fighter II may not have been arcade perfect but it was still an amazingly awesome home version. All the fighters were present, along with their memorable stage backgrounds, the controls were tight, and the fighting itself was very engaging. I didn't even know about combos, priority, charging and all the other technical stuff any fighting game purist can tell you about, and really, back then, it didn't matter. What mattered most was that I was having a blast playing Street Fighter II. I'd never seen or played anything like it.

Japanese flyer for Super Street Fighter II.

The attract demo for Super Street Fighter II is still one of the most impressive openings to any game. 

My father and sister were just as engrossed with the game as I was. We'd take turns passing the controller as we made our way across the world in arcade mode. We'd hit a bump in the road on some fighters, but the biggest hurdle was the game's four bosses, Balrog, Vega, Sagat, and M. Bison. Up until this point, I'd never faced such strong opposition in a game. Balrog was very fond of his Dash Punch, Vega loved to climb that fence, Sagat's "Tiger!" and "Tiger Uppercut!" never stopped haunting me, and if I could see Bison's Pyscho Crusher coming, I already knew I was dead. Persistence and skill payed off and we were eventually able to put them all down, but every time we played the game, they'd crush us at first. Ah, good times.

Japanese flyer for Super Street Fighter II Turbo. 

Street Fighter II was a huge success for Capcom but they obviously saw room for improvement. Since the first installment, SFII has seen six, count 'em, six updates! Each new sub game added something new. The first update in 1992 was Street Fighter II': Champion Edition. The biggest change in Champion Edition was that all four bosses fighters were now playable, which was unfathomable levels of awesome. The next update came just seven months later in the form of Street Fighter II': Hyper Fighting. This update greatly increased the game's fighting speed and much like charging and half circle moves, went on to become a mainstay in Capcom fighters. May fans consider Hyper Fighting to be the best SF game. 1993 brought us Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers. Super included four new playable characters, bumping the total number of fighters up to 16. In 1994, the final update (until 2003, that is) was Super Street Fighter II Turbo. Super Turbo gave us among other things, super combos, air combos and the inclusion of hidden character Akuma. To commemorate the 15th anniversary of Street Fighter, Capcom released Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition in Japanese arcades in 2003. This super special version of SFII let players select all playable versions of the SFII fighters from World Warrior all the way to Super Turbo, which allowed to tons of different match ups. Like every other SF game, this one thankfully received a home port in 2004 on the PS2 and Xbox under the name Street Fighter Anniversary Collection and came compiled with Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. Then in 2008, Capcom released Super Street Fighter II Turob HD Remix. (What a moutfull!) HD Remix has the original Super Turbo game along with a remix mode containing high resolution graphics and rebalanced gameplay.

The fighting game scene largely wouldn't even be what it is today without Street Fighter II. I may not have been able to experince it in the arcades in 1991, but I'm glad I did get in on the phenomenon a year later and I've loved the Street Fighter series ever since. Similar to how Super Mario Bros. got me hooked on platform games, Street Fighter II made me appreciate fighters. I'm not the world's best player, in fact I'd say I'm more of a casual fan, but I still love to do some rounds of virtual fisticuffs. Here's to another 20 years of Hadouken's, Spinning Bird Kicks and Tiger Uppercuts.

Wii Love

Photo by KeiWorld at deviantart.com

I love my Wii. As much as it's possible for a grown man to love an inanimate object such as a sleek, white video game console, I love my Wii.

Super Mario Galaxy ROCKS! 'Nuff Said.

Obtaining a Wii has been on my "to do" list since 2006 when the system launched but I was never able to buy one because I didn't have an extra $250 laying around so I was just content with picking up PS2 and DS games when I could. When I got my tax returns back from 2009, I was finally able to get one. Even better, the Wii was only $199 at this point. I bought my Wii at the end of March in 2010 and it has been providing me with hours of entertainment since day one.

Shoot and never ask questions in House of the Dead: Overkill.

People often say there's nothing to play on the Wii and it's an argument I've never been able to understand. Maybe it's because I jumped into next generation console gaming some three years later than most gamers did, but I've never had a problem finding games to play on the Wii. There are both old and new games for the system that catch my eye. I've got fellow forumites over at the Shoryuken.com forums that have owned a Wii since launch along with a PS3 and 360 and the Wii is the system they play the most out of the three and have the most games for. Like any system made by Nintendo, the first party software is nothing short of amazing. Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Punch-Out!!, Kirby's Epic Yarn, all fine games. However, if you look beyond the first party stuff, you'll find No More Heroes, House of the Dead: Overkill, Murasama: The Demon Blade, Red Steel 2, Mad World, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and a slew of other great picks. And those are just the disc-based Wii games. That "only a handful of good games for the Wii" line is garbage. If you can't find games to play on the Wii, you either aren't looking hard enough or you're one very picky gamer.

Rondo of Blood, a super hard Castlevania game that I absolutely love.

Being a huge old-school gamer, the Virtual Console is a God-send. I cannot tell you how awesome it is to have some of my favorite NES, SNES, and Genesis titles all in one place. Many times I don't feel like screwing with my old NES (anyone that owns or has owned one knows how troublesome it can be to get one of these to work). With the Virtual Console, all the NES games boot up and work just fine.

Believe it or not, Devil's Crush is the best pinball game ever created.

You don't fly a ship but Lords of Thunder is still a spectacular shooter.

I never owned a TurboGrafx/PC Engine. In fact, I was largely unaware of the console(s) existence in the 1990s because I was preoccupied with the SNES and Genesis. When I lived in Ohio, I wanted to pick one up but never got around to it. The Wii's Virtual Console took care of the need to even pick one up and I now see how many awesome titles I missed out on. I've never been the biggest pinball fan but bot Alien Crush and Devil's Crush made me feel like a pinball addict. Blazing Lasers, (a game that feels very similar to the Aleste games) gets my pick for one of the best shooters you can download among the Virtual Console's huge supply of SHMUPs.

Depending on what part of the planet Earth you reside, you'll have to fork over an extra buck for import titles, but considering some of the best Virtual Console titles are imports, I really don't have a problem with that. Castlevania: Rondo of Blood is easily one of the hardest Castlevania games I've ever played but it's nice to be able to experience the whole game, even if it isn't in English. DoReMi Fantasy, a fun platformer staring the same Milon from Milon's Secret Castle is easily the better of the two Milon games.

Forget Milon's Secret Castle. Just pick up DoReMe Fantasy. You can thank me later.

Now despite all the Wii has going for it, critics are still quick to slam the system. Among the most common of criticisms is the Wii's technical specifications. "The Wii's visuals pale in comparison to the PS3 and 360!" It's no secret that the Wii is just slightly more powerful than the GameCube. To this I say, so? The PS2, from a tech standpoint was the weakest console last generation and yet it still dominated the market. I know it feels like I'm beating a dead horse but if graphics were everything, by all accounts the 3DO should have slaughtered the competition in the 1990s and we all know how that turned out. It's all about the games. Your system can have the most impressive specs in the universe and it won't mean a thing unless you've got some quality titles. Do you think all those fancy visuals are free? It costs money to make games and those jaw dropping visuals do not come cheap. The Wii was developed with cost in mind and not every developer has the funds to put out a game as pretty as Bayonetta.

Pulseman is as fun as it is visual stunning.

Another frequent complaint is that the Wii has a ton of shovel ware, which is valid. Again, I bring up the PS2. Being the most successful of the consoles last generation, for all the amazing titles it offered, the PS2 had a copious amount of crappy games and shovel ware, too. It was the exact same case with the original PlayStation. Even Nintendo's Game Boy Color was a dumping ground for sub par titles. Sadly, that's just the way it when your system is top dog.

I'm not saying the Wii is perfect, because it certainly isn't. Just a little over 500 MB of internal system memory is a joke, there's the aforementioned shovel ware and at times the motion controls on games can be cumbersome, but there's so much good on the Wii that I can't help but love it. Now if you'll excuse me, the Virtual Console is calling.

Mega Man Mania Revival Pitch

Mega Man III on the black & white Game Boy.

All you Mega Man fans remember Mega Man Mania? I'm sure you do. It was the ill-fated collection of original black & white Game Boy Mega Man games that would have been given the port treatment with some new colors for the Game Boy Advance. After numerous delays, the game was canceled.

Despite having all five original Game Boy Mega Man titles, I still would have grabbed Mania in a heartbeat. It would have been the perfect chance for anyone that missed the originals or for those struggling to hunt them down to get their hands on them in a legal manner.

I've given thought to this collection being resurrected in the past. Someone could probably just do a home brew similar to the 8-bit Rockman 7, giving the game a full color scheme akin to the NES Mega Man titles. It turns out Heat Man over at the Mega Man Network has a far greater idea.

Mock up screenshot for Mega Man III on the 3DS.

Heat Man presents a pitch that would not only give us all five Mega Man Game Boy games, they'd get remade with extra features, most notably some spiffy new visuals. As much as I love 8-bit Mega Man, I'd love to see the games be taken in a new graphical direction. Doesn't that mock up shot just make you salivate? I'd buy a 3DS for that alone!

Sure, the idea is just a pitch but it has reached Capcom's attention. News has been around on the net for at least a week already and I figure the more fans catch wind of this pitch, the better.

Source: Proto Dude.

Guest Post: Video Games and Violence - What's It All About?

At the request of my sister, I did a guest post on an all too familiar subject. This is actually the first time I've written in depth on the matter.

http://networkedblogs.com/eCgFh