Level Up: Xexyz

There’s sometime a lot of talk about people buying games just based on graphics, cover art or a licence. However, I have bought a game based on nothing more than the name. Try to pronounce this: X – E – X - Y – Z. According to Wikipedia it is either pronounced “zeks-zees” or “zeks-iz” (I go with the second one). If you’re like me, you just gotta find out what type of game lies behind the name. Let’s find out in this review of Xexyz for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

This review was chosen for Valentine’s Day so there is a damsel in distress. However it feels very tacked on and unnecessary here. I mention this now, because it doesn’t come up in the following summary.

So by the title Xexyz, have any of you guessed that this was a sci-fi game? Taking place in the year 2777, the earth has been changed to the point where only five islands exist. Together, they form the nation of… Xexyz (yay for title explanation)! Not only is Xexyz home to humans, but it also fairies and other spirits, all under the rule of a king. One day Xexyz is attacked by an alien named Goruza (who I assume is related to Garuda from Shadow of the Ninja). Goruza sets up a mechanical fortress on each of the 5 islands, kidnaps each of the island’s queen, kills the king of Xexyz and kidnaps the king’s daughter (damn, normally bosses only one of those). You play Apollo, a battle-soldier fighting back in a “space battle suit” (because it’s not sci-fi unless you needlessly put space in front of something).

Again, the romance doesn’t play much of a part in the story, but the game IS named after the setting. That’s where I feel was the focus here: the world you’re in. It actually creates a neat theme of balancing the old ways (the peaceful but defenseless fairies) and the over bearing but powerful technological future. Apollo, who lives with the fairies but enhances himself with technology, walks the line between the two. Or maybe I’m over thinking a game with a last second romance shoved in there.

The game play of Xexyz is an interesting mix. For the most part it’s a platformer adventure type thing comparable it to Zelda 2, but not quite. You’ll walk around the main area jumping and shooting monsters to get money in order to buy upgrades and better weapons (essential in later stages). You also can’t just walk left to right and get the boss: there is some exploring that needs to be done. As previously mentioned, each island has a fortress. To get into this fortress, you need a star. In order to get a star you need to find the proper room and beat a sub boss. In order to find that sub boss, you must find the correct star block (there are many in a stage) and shoot it five times. All that, THEN you’re ready to enter the castle, and NAVIGATE your way around it to find the boss.

However, that’s the main part of the game play. In between platforming levels, you’ll have side scrolling shoot ‘em up ones, which seems very inspired by Gradius. It’s pretty much your typical shoot things before they hit you affair. While they have their own level numbers, they’re done much faster and pretty much just serve as a means to get you to the next island and mix up the game play. But if you think this change feels jarring at all, then you’d be wrong. You know how modern games have physics, and you can take its engine, put it in a different game and it still feels the same? Yeah, that’s what these sections are like. While the game play is switched, it still feels like the same game.

I was pleasantly surprised by Xexyz. While it can come off as a space rip-off of Zelda 2, the game play works really well and it does make it more engaging than a typical side scrolling platformer. The graphics and music/sounds aren’t anything to rave about (in some cases, kind of bad) but for the world that developer Atlus and publisher Hudson Soft tried to create, it’s fitting enough. There are also some moments where it can get pretty frustrating, like when you need to start collecting money for an upgrade you lost while dying, finding the right star blocks and navigating the castles. But all together, Xexyz is one game where my curiosities about it really paid off, and it comes recommended for any NES collection. I give Xexyz for the NES 8 levels out of 10.

Level Up: the Cave

The earth has rotated around the sun once more since I have been born and I am reminded of my mortality: and I celebrate this by reviewing a PC game! Yaaaaaaay! This year is a little different though, as I’m reviewing my first steam game. And by that, I don’t just mean that it’s the first time I talk about a game available on Steam, but also it’s the first game I bought on there. As a matter of fact, the game was even released to Steam on my birthday in 2013. Let’s take a look at The Cave.

I typically make a purpose of mentioning the companies involved in the making of a game, in this case Double Fine Productions are the Developers and Sega is the Publisher. I do this not just to give credit to them, but because it can give people an idea of what type of game you might be in for. In this case the name Double Fine might have been a hint, but I think it would be better to mention the game was created, directed and written by Ron Gilbert, who is mostly known for his work on The Monkey Island series and the Maniac Mansion games. That is pretty much the linage that leads us to this game and heavily influences the style, but I might be getting ahead of myself.

The game stars 7 archetypal characters: a Hillbilly, a Knight, a Scientist and so forth. You start off at the entrance to a Cave knowing practically nothing about them. However, The Cave itself is apparently magical (and sentient), as it promises that it will deliver what you desire most. However, as you adventure into the cave, you’ll find that there is a section that represents a scene from the past of each character. Here’s where you learn about the characters one by one and what they have done to land them in the Cave. There are also cave paintings which show these scenes in better detail. As there are 7 characters, the stories don’t run TOO deep, but it is enough to give you an idea of how different the Aventurer and the The Knight are.

Package all that with puzzles and NPCs full of just odd humor, and you get a weird story that kept me coming back for several playthrews.

While the game has 7 characters to play as, you only pick 3 characters to use per game. This means having to play at least 3 times to see the full game (as the sections for the characters you aren’t playing as are locked off), and as every character has a good and bad ending, you’ll need to play through at least 5 times to see all of them. However, since this game is sort of a point and click adventure, parts of the game you’ve already played through will go faster making each run shorter due to already knowing what needs to be done. Yeah, while there are 4 sections of the game that are mandatory no matter what character you are, there are only one or two times where something  feels like a chore.

Also, some of the characters can help make those sections easier. While most of the time, your three characters are like pawns- strategically placing them so that they can get the most done the fastest, having them carry items and interact with their environment- each character also has a special skill you can use. All of them are used heavily in their respective sections, but people have found ways to use them creatively to skip certain sections of the game. While not all are as useful- the Twins’ power don’t have much use while the Knight is almost invaluable- they do have their moment and change the game enough to keep things interesting, even if it is just for one section.

The Cave is one of those games that I have played over and over again and keep enjoying due to the quirky humor of it. The game play balances having to think and having to do well for a point and click inspired game. True that the characters might as well be chess pieces in some cases, just to be set in certain locations. But, in a way, that’s what I enjoy about the game: controlling the characters, placing them in the right spots and using their skills the right way. The graphics also look pretty good (making the characters look like figures, back to the chess pieces thing) and it even runs well on a relatively bad computer like my old laptop was. It may not be a perfect game, but I think I’ve proven with Spider-man Shattered Dimensions that I’ll take a really charming game, fun game that makes me want to play through again and again, over one I can’t find a flaw in. I give the Cave for the PC 10 levels out of 10.

Level Up: Rock Band Country Track Pack & Rock Band AC/DC Live Track Pack

For the past few years, I’ve been talking about the Guitar Hero series to celebrate the New Year, and I think it’s time that we talk about Rock Band. I’ll get into the history behind the two series someday, but today I want to focus on how they both handled additional content. One of the reasons Rock Band “won” over Guitar Hero is that Guitar Hero focused on pumping out games, while Rock Band just provided more songs. While most were DLC, they also had standalone disks with 20 or so songs on them. Let’s take a look at one of those with the Rock Band Country Track Pack for the Nintendo Wii.

While it might seem a little silly to only have a disk with about 20 songs on it, I need to mention that this was mostly a way for Developers Harmonix and Publishers MTV games to put out extra content for the Wii and PlayStation 2 consoles (which apparently couldn’t support DLC like the others). A handy work around as it gets you a lot of songs at a bulk price, and since it’s a standalone game, you could buy the instruments and not bother with the original Rock Band. But if you just wanted Alan Jackson’s good time, you’ll have to still endure and pay for Sara Evans’ Suds in the Bucket.

This is also a very bare bones version of the Rock Band game mechanic. There’s no shop in game and no avatar creation; you only get the songs. Plus, since it’s modeled after the first Rock Band, you don’t have the option of changing instruments or difficulty if it gets a too hard for you, and in some modes that may stop your progress completely. I can’t hold this too much against the game though, as this remains from what Guitar Hero was doing before. I will say that I believe the songs to be well arranged for the instruments, so no sudden difficulty spike. As a matter of fact, I’ll say that there’s not much difficulty at all. This isn’t for people who want a challenge, this is just for people who like and want to play country.

Well that’s all I really have to say about a Track Pack that’s a little bit country, so now let’s move on to one that’s a little bit Rock and Roll. Here’s the AC/DC Live Track Pack.

I need to start off by saying that AC/DC ranks pretty high among my favorite bands, and that’s why I bought this game. That being said, band specific track packs are very polarizing: you either like pretty much all the songs, or you might like none.However, unlike the country track pack, I can see people playing this game for the challenge, as some of AC/DC’s songs can be fast with a lot of notes. While a higher difficulty isn’t a bad, this does cause a problem with the song order. See, they were arranged to preserve the live concert experience, so the songs aren’t put in order of difficulty. Thunderstruck (one of the songs I’ve had the hardest time with) starts things off, instead of something easy like Money Talks. Also, since this is a live recording, even if you are familiar with the songs you might have difficulties with subtle changes (particularly if you’re singing).

One more issue that might come from the fact that this is focused on a band is that the difficulty the remains pretty consistent. In other Rock Band games, individual instruments have their own difficulty curve, so no matter what you’re playing, as you play, you get better. In here, there are no real mountains to make valleys, and the hardest song for one instrument tends to be the hardest song for another. Other than that, it’s pretty similar to the Country Track Pack: it’s very bare bones, but if you’re an AC/DC fans who likes to play Rock Band, than this is for you.

The Rock Bands Track Packs were definitely a neat way to tide you over between major game releases, and I really do like how they’re standalone games. The country track pack has a really good selection of songs for its theme, however it could be argued that you might be missing your target demographic for this reason. The AC/DC one hit that mark, but it made me realize how much variety having other bands adds to the game play. Now when I was writing this I questioned if it was fair to give these games scores, as with collections, it’s the songs that decide if you’ll like this game. But, since these are standalone games and I can still judge them on how they handle, increase in difficulty and other such elements, so  I still feel just in giving them scores. The Country Track Pack is a good mix for country fans, but that’s it. The AC/DC Track Pack offers songs for AC/Dc fans, a decent challenge, knows its audience more and uses more Rock Band elements (like most of the songs having an ending bonus). I give the Rock Band Country Track Pack 8 and the Rock Band AC/DC Live Track Pack 9 levels out of 10.

Level Up: Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes

The holidays have always been a time for togetherness, and what says that more than a standard RPG adventuring party? The standard group is an icon of being together, not just out of usefulness, but due to their similarities. As much as it’s always handy to have a rogue to pick locks or a cleric to heal wounds, the backstory and reason they’re all going on this quest is normally about a sense of adventure or duty that they all share with each other. Or… I suppose people could be working selfish angles… or it could be a marriage of convenience… Ok, I really didn’t have anything for this game beyond that I got it as a gift and that fits my criteria. Here’s Dungeon & Dragon Heroes for the Microsoft xBox.

I’m not a D&D fan myself, but I’ll be honest when I say that I never quite understood how things like a movie could be based ON D&D. I get that certain creatures, spells or other details like that could be referenced, but it seems weird to base a structured narrative on a game about creating your own story.

Not to say you don’t know what to expect with the D&D name: it’s going to be something medieval themed, potentially involving sorcery, powerful artifacts, the end of the world and a fight of good against evil. And if you assumed all that you’re right. The story starts with the legend of the evil wizard Kaedin, who sought amazing power with 5 magic gems, each powered by an element. After destroying many towns, 4 brave heroes were called in to stop Kaedin. They stop and kill him, but with his final breath, he kills them right back (which… I don’t know why he wouldn’t do that sooner). 150 years later, a group of evil clerics believe that they can channel Kaedin’s powers for their own use. That backfires, and it brings Kaedin back from the dead. Knowing the best way to stop him is with the same heroes who stopped him last time, the 4 legendary heroes are also revived to fight the evil wizard.

The intro about needing a party and coming together is not completely a joke. My personal experience with this game is that I actually had to start it twice. The first time I decided to play it, I got passed the first boss. However, my rogue character could not get passed the onslaught of enemies that were right after. The boss fight also used up a good portion of my potions, so even going back was not an option. I was stuck. The second time, I played the game with a friend. Granted, I decided on a different class too, but it changed the game so much that I don’t believe that it would make a difference. This is all to say that I don’t think the developer and publisher Atari envisioned this as a one player game, much like how D&D is a better experience at least a second person in the party.

And obviously this game is very much D&D based, but like I said before, I don’t get how things can be based on D&D all that much. Yes, some of the game mechanics do mimic some of the aspects of D&D, such as the skill tree that you get to allocate points to (with the classes having different skills), the different stats, equipment and inventory management, optional quests, etc… The issue is that all that stuff is now very common in games. It doesn’t matter if video games originally took it from D&D, in the video game medium it just doesn’t stand out. As a matter of fact things that are missing from D&D could have added to making this game stand out at the time, such as being able to select your race, more classes or having luck decide some of your stats. It’s still a well done hack and slash style RPG, as I cared about certain aspects of my inventory (since it felt like it made a difference). There’s just that little spark missing to it.

The biggest fall of Dungeons and Dragons Heroes is that, because so many RPGs have evolved from the base of D&D, it sadly makes it seem generic. Considering that over the years so much has been added to the RPG formula, they were sort of painted into a corner. Along with the fact that I don’t find this game being much fun one player, there a lot of the games in the hack and slash RPG genre that are easier to recommend. That being said, saying that a game is generic or hard doesn’t mean that it’s BAD. It still works fine and it’s easy to really get into with a group of fellow adventuring friends. The only other problem is that the last boss was so disappointingly easy, but if you’ve gotten all the way to the end of a D&D style RPG game, it has to have been holding your attention to that point. I give Dungeons and Dragons Heroes for the xBox 7 levels out of 10.

Level Up: Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Last episode, I talked about Mega Man being a popular request for Super Smash Bros. But while people were clamoring for Mega Man since Snake was announced, people wanted to see Sonic the Hedgehog fight Mario pretty much since the first game (I recall seeing fake screen shots of him in Melee before its release). The rivalry between Mario and Sonic is incredibly iconic for anyone who remembers the Sega and Nintendo console wars of the 90’s. While I sided with Nintendo, I did enjoy playing some Sonic on Genesis when possible. And the game that first struck a chord with me would have been Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Let’s take a look at that one, shall we?

After the events of the first game, the villain, Dr. Robotnik (who would later become known as Eggman), picked himself up after his defeat. However, he doesn’t try the same thing; rather he comes back with the Death Egg: a Star Wars lawsuit waiting to happen that could kill everything in its path if Dr. Robotnik could power it. However, he would need the mystical Chaos Emeralds to power it. This is where Sonic comes in, as he is determined to take down Robotnik and his Death Egg before he is able to find them. Robotnik isn’t the only one who developed in between games though, as Sonic is getting a little help from his new friend “Tails”.

The story is actually a lot better than what you’d expect. Unlike games such as Mario which are content keeping their characters still between games, Sonic and Dr. Robotnik did stuff. It’s not like they took a life changing trip to Tibet or anything, but it’s enough to see they aren’t just 2 dimensional characters living a cycle: Dr. Robotnik tries a new tactic. Though the story doesn’t really come through much in the game play, the levels where you see the Death Egg or hop aboard it, you get that sense that it’s an urgent threat. This is the game where Dr. Robotnik goes from just a goal to beat to a character.

While the addition of Tails might not seem like much plot wise, it would greatly affect pretty much every game to come. For those of you who don’t know, Tails’ nick name comes from the fact that he has 2 Tails, and he can use these to fly by rotating them like helicopter blades. It seems pointless at first you play as Sonic, but this game actually has a simultaneous 2 player option. Someone can take the player 2 controller and control Sonic’s pal. While he might not be as fast as the Hedgehog, he can keep up, and he becomes very useful by killing baddies and accessing new areas. This is, however, a second player in a one player mode, so the screen still only follows Sonic, meaning there will be times where player 2 might be completely lost off screen. It’s still cool that there’s a 2 player simultaneous story mode option (something Mario wouldn’t do until relatively recently)

As for the gameplay itself, I’d say this is really where Sonic started to become Sonic. I’ll get into the first Sonic the Hedgehog game someday and why it’s still a good game, but while that one could be considered a little generic in some ways, there’s no doubt with the tight level design and fast moving sections that this is a Sonic game. The levels even seem to have a lot more personality added to them, with some of them since becoming icons of the series such as Chemical Plant Zone, Death Egg Zone and the first appearance of the Casino Night Zone. The levels are well laid out and the game play is tight, but fast. What else can I say?

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a great game and really could have started making Genesis fans out of Nintendo fans boys. It’s well designed, handles great and even did right by the characters. As a Sonic game, I’d actually recommend THIS as a starting point for anyone who wants to get into the series, as the game play changes less from this game onwards and due to the levels (both in theme and layout) simply feeling more like a Sonic game. …However, this is not the definitive Sonic game I talked about in my Sonic Adventure review. Yeah, it’s unfortunate, but there are just a couple of things another game did better that’ll talk about later on. Beyond that, a lot of people have complained about the special stages (with Tails being more of a bane than a boon there) and it being rather difficult in the later levels (and with no save feature in the original, that might be an issue for some). But let’s not end on a negative note. Like I said, it was enough to make me want to play some Genesis when I got the chance and made Sonic from an attempted mascot, to a gaming icon. I give Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Genesis 9.5 levels out 10.