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Fade to Black
1995
Just fired up a bit of Fade to Black, just to make sure it's every bit as shite as I've been telling folk it is for the twenty-odd years since I last played it.
You know, there's qualities I kind of admire about it. How mechanical and deliberate your actions have to be, the sound design, the ability to make a temporary save anywhere. There's aspects that make this feel like a completely natural 3D successor to Flashback. The tone's clearly more inspired by Star Wars, and less its own thing, but I can take that. I like Star Wars.
I knew the moment I just would not be willing to play the game any longer was rapidly approaching, though.
Conrad can duck behind cover, and the camera shifts to view his face while he's doing it. Fair enough. You couldn't see what was on the other side of a box when you were ducking behind it, either. The angle shift looks kind of cool, too.
Temporary saves take fucking ages to write. When you die, there's about a two-second delay while it loads the death animation FMV, and the start of the level is loaded again. You bring up the load menu, and load once again. Flashback strictness. I can respect the consistency, I guess.
Then the jumping rears its head. There's electrified panels on the floor. The size of the panels isn't clear, as they're just a pulsing electrical texture on top of standard floor tiles. If you even graze one, it's Game Over, and the loading loop begins again. Conrad doesn't jump like Lara Croft - his movement doesn't align with the griddy design of the game - He just kind of overshoots the size of a panel, with no regard for the surrounding design. You have to kind of wobble him into position, taking care not to glance wherever the hazard may be. Leaping over a single electrified panel quickly leads into jumping from safe panel to safe panel, surrounded by buzzing squares. Then you have to do it at a 45-degree angle.
Fade to Black, lick my crack. Don't come back.
You know, there's qualities I kind of admire about it. How mechanical and deliberate your actions have to be, the sound design, the ability to make a temporary save anywhere. There's aspects that make this feel like a completely natural 3D successor to Flashback. The tone's clearly more inspired by Star Wars, and less its own thing, but I can take that. I like Star Wars.
I knew the moment I just would not be willing to play the game any longer was rapidly approaching, though.
Conrad can duck behind cover, and the camera shifts to view his face while he's doing it. Fair enough. You couldn't see what was on the other side of a box when you were ducking behind it, either. The angle shift looks kind of cool, too.
Temporary saves take fucking ages to write. When you die, there's about a two-second delay while it loads the death animation FMV, and the start of the level is loaded again. You bring up the load menu, and load once again. Flashback strictness. I can respect the consistency, I guess.
Then the jumping rears its head. There's electrified panels on the floor. The size of the panels isn't clear, as they're just a pulsing electrical texture on top of standard floor tiles. If you even graze one, it's Game Over, and the loading loop begins again. Conrad doesn't jump like Lara Croft - his movement doesn't align with the griddy design of the game - He just kind of overshoots the size of a panel, with no regard for the surrounding design. You have to kind of wobble him into position, taking care not to glance wherever the hazard may be. Leaping over a single electrified panel quickly leads into jumping from safe panel to safe panel, surrounded by buzzing squares. Then you have to do it at a 45-degree angle.
Fade to Black, lick my crack. Don't come back.
Xanadu Next
2005
A JRPG that gets almost everything right. It's very light on story but the setting is a decent enough backdrop for the action RPG combat, clever 'Guardian' system that lets you prioritise aspects of your character build, weapon abilities and spells that you can permenantly learn and then apply to anything in your arsenal and - crucially - an occasional grind that feels relaxing rather than repetitive.
The combat is very basic but the little wrinkle in that you can dodge enemy attacks and do more damage from the rear, combined with some properly satisfying impact sound and visual effects feels good to use and fun to master.
There's a sprinkle of Ys, a touch of a dungeon crawler and a drop of Zelda in the mix here - a strong concoction and well worth ten hours of your time.
The combat is very basic but the little wrinkle in that you can dodge enemy attacks and do more damage from the rear, combined with some properly satisfying impact sound and visual effects feels good to use and fun to master.
There's a sprinkle of Ys, a touch of a dungeon crawler and a drop of Zelda in the mix here - a strong concoction and well worth ten hours of your time.
This was my first time playing through Metal Gear Solid on the new CRT. Obviously, I played it on a CRT back in February, 1999, but that was with the old RF cable on a Grundig set from the mid-eighties. This was with shielded RGB SCART on a 2006 Toshiba - about as perfect a setup as KCEJ could have imagined when they made the game. I don't know if it's just how much I was scrutinising the visuals, or if this really is the sharpest I've seen the 240p version of the game, but a bunch of visual effects stood out to me for the first time. The subtle scanlines whenever the game is showing the perspective of a digital camera, like when the Thermal or Night Vision Goggles are equipped. The use of a dithered 2D layer in front of the camera when simulating different levels of lighting, like when Snake is crawling through vents or in the wolf-dog caves. The soft-focus effect used in some cutscene shots when the camera is highlighting a subject in the background - not quite as good an effect, but I appreciate what they were attempting. There's an ambition in MGS1's presentation that's fairly unique for a PS1 game. If you look at what the team achieved with pixelart on the PC-98 release of Policenauts, you'll understand that world-class computer artists were behind Metal Gear Solid, and they would have attempted everything they could to make a polygon-based game look as good as their previous work. Even the lowest-resolution textures in the game's map have a subtle artistry to them. The fragile patches of wall on the way to Ocelot look really fantastic. There's even some subtle storytelling in the contrast of how horrible the bathroom outside Meryl and "Donald Anderson"'s cells looks compared to the pristine one beside the torture chamber - one's where Johnny shits and one's where FOXHOUND do.
The setting just works great to criticise nuclear proliferation, too. How much the US has stockpiled nuclear material in sight of maintaining its position as a dominant world power, and how little they've worried about maintaining it. Baker's talk about corroding "drums and drums of nuclear waste, stacked this high" and the emergence of an international black market to get rid of the stuff, paired with real-world footage of silos and missile launches, really is effective in getting players to worry about the sustainability of nuclear deterrence. Worse - when you're put in a room of the stuff and not allowed to fire a gun because of it. There's no chance I would have researched this stuff on my own as a kid, but there was no chance I was missing out on the new Official UK PlayStation Magazine 10/10 either.
It's interesting that before notions of "The Patriots" and GW and everything, the real villains of Metal Gear were the US government and power-hungry imperialistic forces. The story directly points to the Pentagon, and finally, the US president, as the figures behind all the underhanded subterfuge and betrayals. Metal Gear Solid really was formative in my political outlook. Prior to that, the most informed political message I got from a videogame was the notion that it was bad to trap animals in robot suits.
Metal Gear Solid 1 continues to inform, inspire and comfort me in new ways each time. I'd love to visit Alaska sometime.
The setting just works great to criticise nuclear proliferation, too. How much the US has stockpiled nuclear material in sight of maintaining its position as a dominant world power, and how little they've worried about maintaining it. Baker's talk about corroding "drums and drums of nuclear waste, stacked this high" and the emergence of an international black market to get rid of the stuff, paired with real-world footage of silos and missile launches, really is effective in getting players to worry about the sustainability of nuclear deterrence. Worse - when you're put in a room of the stuff and not allowed to fire a gun because of it. There's no chance I would have researched this stuff on my own as a kid, but there was no chance I was missing out on the new Official UK PlayStation Magazine 10/10 either.
It's interesting that before notions of "The Patriots" and GW and everything, the real villains of Metal Gear were the US government and power-hungry imperialistic forces. The story directly points to the Pentagon, and finally, the US president, as the figures behind all the underhanded subterfuge and betrayals. Metal Gear Solid really was formative in my political outlook. Prior to that, the most informed political message I got from a videogame was the notion that it was bad to trap animals in robot suits.
Metal Gear Solid 1 continues to inform, inspire and comfort me in new ways each time. I'd love to visit Alaska sometime.
No More Heroes III
2021
GOTY 2022 & '21 - Number 9
(A video version of this is available here)
I think Suda's a good egg - killer7's a great game that I'll put up there with the top Resident Evils - but he's put his brand to a lot of shallow, obnoxious trash. I think a lot of that happened around the start of the 2010s, when he became convinced that people only wanted one thing from him - Do that No More Heroes thing again.
Suda and Grasshopper's earlier stuff didn't often feature slick, intricately designed gameplay or comprehensive, satisfying storylines, but they were always daring, creatively ambitious and rich with style and atmosphere. Stuff like Flower, Sun & Rain or The Silver Case felt like you'd unconvered 40 minutes of an unknown foreign language horror film on an unlabeled VHS. Post-No More Heroes, GhM games frequently felt like Newgrounds pish in 3D. Full of worn-out tropes, excessive swearing and banal, braindead combat. No More Heroes felt like the turning point when the cynicism crept in and the sincerity slipped out.
There was definitely something to the original No More Heroes though. Grasshopper really chasing their ideal of being the videogame industry's punk rock band. There was a real energy and individual voice to it. The contrast of the mundane, humiliating part-time jobs and the raucous, wild boss fights. An invitation to ignore convention and adopt dangerous ideas. That feeling of being about 20 years-old, wrapped up and sold on a Nintendo Wii disc.
No More Heroes is an exceptional game, not necessarily in terms of quality, but in how distinct it is. If you like it, you're going to have a very hard time finding more games that scratch that itch. It deserves to be remembered, and it's a great pleasure to see them get it right again.
No More Heroes 3 is a scruffy, ugly little game, but one that's bursting with energy. Suda's willingness to just pick up things he thinks are cool, like lightsabers or Kaneda's bike and just paste them into his game are a mark of how its design is lead by sincere, unpretentious passion. It's a team having a great time making a game, and it's easy for players to get wrapped up in that. Thankfully, this time, Grasshopper have also put some consideration into how to make an exciting combat system, and No More Heroes 3 might be the most fun game they've ever made.
Spacing between your enemies is fundamental to how you approach fights in No More Heroes 3. You can crowd enemies into groups for sweeping attacks, or draw them out for one-on-ones to protect yourself from swarming defenses. They've got dodge rolls in here, and if you know how committed I am to Splat Dualies, you'll understand why I've taken to that so instinctively. There's new abilities that charge up over the course of each fight, allowing you to slow enemies, set up automated attacks in a designated spot, or kick them away into a corner. You soon find yourself getting into a rhythm of attacks, learning how each new enemy type fights, and really getting the most out of your abilities. It's really fun, and miles away from the endless, brainless, repetitive action sequences offered by No More Heroes 2. 3 had me eating up opportunities to grind away for the next boss fight or stat boost.
No More Heroes games' structure is always a good comfort. They're proper games. PS2 stuff. Zone of the Enders and Onimusha. Boss characters and level gimmicks. You're not passively getting through them. When you're away from them, they're still on your mind. Really standard stuff for pretty much any Capcom or Konami game between 1997 and 2006, but they're a shrinking niche when everything has to be an ever-expanding revenue source. I don't know if anyone under 25 would even think to play No More Heroes 3 - I don't know if it would resonate with them - but there's a great satisfaction to seeing a new title with this kind of structure. I think a lot of the backlash towards The Phantom Pain was directed towards shifting away from linear progression and charismatic bosses, and towards micromanagement and enemy camp raids. If you want a game that feels like 2004 again, you might really appreciate No More Heroes III.
It's that variety that makes the game. The scattershot energy. There's a lot of bad sidejobs and some levels that don't really come together too cohesively, but you can appreciate all the wild directions it's pushing in. There was always a concern that Grasshopper would lose its identity as it rapidly expanded and started hiring swathes of young western fans. I think the previous decade of their titles indicate that it wasn't an unwarranted concern, but it works to No More Heroes III's benefit. Even if I don't love every avenue it decides to head down, it approaches it with real vigor. I don't think anyone could accuse the game of feeling passionless.
As someone who vocally supported Suda through the 2000s, I feel a bit of responsibility to how the wider perception of him has formed. It was an era when publishers and the media were looking for Japanese auteur developers with devoted fanbases to drive excitement for news and projects. I don't think Suda is a poor fit alongside names like Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Hidetaka Suehiro, especially given how much time he's spent with those individuals, but I think the public latched on to Suda's more superficial qualities, and made that his name. The presentation that his games have become associated with. I'd argue that his most interesting work comes from the innovation in his design. The Xevious meets Bosconian of Liberation Maiden, or how killer7 boiled down survival horror design to linear exploration and action stand-offs. I don't think No More Heroes III does quite as much to innovate in design, but it successfully develops upon something he'd previously established. I think that's something to latch onto. Even if Suda doesn't bring us games as ambitious and daring as his early titles, he can still make good stuff that doesn't feel like a retread.
(A video version of this is available here)
I think Suda's a good egg - killer7's a great game that I'll put up there with the top Resident Evils - but he's put his brand to a lot of shallow, obnoxious trash. I think a lot of that happened around the start of the 2010s, when he became convinced that people only wanted one thing from him - Do that No More Heroes thing again.
Suda and Grasshopper's earlier stuff didn't often feature slick, intricately designed gameplay or comprehensive, satisfying storylines, but they were always daring, creatively ambitious and rich with style and atmosphere. Stuff like Flower, Sun & Rain or The Silver Case felt like you'd unconvered 40 minutes of an unknown foreign language horror film on an unlabeled VHS. Post-No More Heroes, GhM games frequently felt like Newgrounds pish in 3D. Full of worn-out tropes, excessive swearing and banal, braindead combat. No More Heroes felt like the turning point when the cynicism crept in and the sincerity slipped out.
There was definitely something to the original No More Heroes though. Grasshopper really chasing their ideal of being the videogame industry's punk rock band. There was a real energy and individual voice to it. The contrast of the mundane, humiliating part-time jobs and the raucous, wild boss fights. An invitation to ignore convention and adopt dangerous ideas. That feeling of being about 20 years-old, wrapped up and sold on a Nintendo Wii disc.
No More Heroes is an exceptional game, not necessarily in terms of quality, but in how distinct it is. If you like it, you're going to have a very hard time finding more games that scratch that itch. It deserves to be remembered, and it's a great pleasure to see them get it right again.
No More Heroes 3 is a scruffy, ugly little game, but one that's bursting with energy. Suda's willingness to just pick up things he thinks are cool, like lightsabers or Kaneda's bike and just paste them into his game are a mark of how its design is lead by sincere, unpretentious passion. It's a team having a great time making a game, and it's easy for players to get wrapped up in that. Thankfully, this time, Grasshopper have also put some consideration into how to make an exciting combat system, and No More Heroes 3 might be the most fun game they've ever made.
Spacing between your enemies is fundamental to how you approach fights in No More Heroes 3. You can crowd enemies into groups for sweeping attacks, or draw them out for one-on-ones to protect yourself from swarming defenses. They've got dodge rolls in here, and if you know how committed I am to Splat Dualies, you'll understand why I've taken to that so instinctively. There's new abilities that charge up over the course of each fight, allowing you to slow enemies, set up automated attacks in a designated spot, or kick them away into a corner. You soon find yourself getting into a rhythm of attacks, learning how each new enemy type fights, and really getting the most out of your abilities. It's really fun, and miles away from the endless, brainless, repetitive action sequences offered by No More Heroes 2. 3 had me eating up opportunities to grind away for the next boss fight or stat boost.
No More Heroes games' structure is always a good comfort. They're proper games. PS2 stuff. Zone of the Enders and Onimusha. Boss characters and level gimmicks. You're not passively getting through them. When you're away from them, they're still on your mind. Really standard stuff for pretty much any Capcom or Konami game between 1997 and 2006, but they're a shrinking niche when everything has to be an ever-expanding revenue source. I don't know if anyone under 25 would even think to play No More Heroes 3 - I don't know if it would resonate with them - but there's a great satisfaction to seeing a new title with this kind of structure. I think a lot of the backlash towards The Phantom Pain was directed towards shifting away from linear progression and charismatic bosses, and towards micromanagement and enemy camp raids. If you want a game that feels like 2004 again, you might really appreciate No More Heroes III.
It's that variety that makes the game. The scattershot energy. There's a lot of bad sidejobs and some levels that don't really come together too cohesively, but you can appreciate all the wild directions it's pushing in. There was always a concern that Grasshopper would lose its identity as it rapidly expanded and started hiring swathes of young western fans. I think the previous decade of their titles indicate that it wasn't an unwarranted concern, but it works to No More Heroes III's benefit. Even if I don't love every avenue it decides to head down, it approaches it with real vigor. I don't think anyone could accuse the game of feeling passionless.
As someone who vocally supported Suda through the 2000s, I feel a bit of responsibility to how the wider perception of him has formed. It was an era when publishers and the media were looking for Japanese auteur developers with devoted fanbases to drive excitement for news and projects. I don't think Suda is a poor fit alongside names like Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Hidetaka Suehiro, especially given how much time he's spent with those individuals, but I think the public latched on to Suda's more superficial qualities, and made that his name. The presentation that his games have become associated with. I'd argue that his most interesting work comes from the innovation in his design. The Xevious meets Bosconian of Liberation Maiden, or how killer7 boiled down survival horror design to linear exploration and action stand-offs. I don't think No More Heroes III does quite as much to innovate in design, but it successfully develops upon something he'd previously established. I think that's something to latch onto. Even if Suda doesn't bring us games as ambitious and daring as his early titles, he can still make good stuff that doesn't feel like a retread.
Tender Frog House
2020
It is perhaps an all too common occurrence to encounter those who would seek to use the medium of video games as a means of exploring the complex and multifaceted theories of Theodor Adorno, particularly his ideas surrounding aesthetic theory and the ways in which it relates to the perpetuation of neoliberal hegemony. While it is certainly true that video games, like any other cultural form, can be analyzed and interpreted through various theoretical lenses, it is important to recognize that such an approach is ultimately futile, as it fails to take into account the complex and nuanced nature of both video games and Adorno's theories.
To begin with, it is essential to acknowledge the fact that video games are a highly diverse and multifaceted medium, encompassing a wide range of genres, themes, and gameplay mechanics. As such, it is impossible to explore the aesthetic theories of Adorno in any meaningful way through the lens of "wholesome" video games alone, as these games represent only a small fraction of the medium as a whole. To truly understand the ways in which Adorno's ideas might be relevant to the medium of video games, one would need to consider a much broader range of games, including those that might be considered more "edgy" or "provocative" in nature.
Furthermore, it is important to recognize that Adorno's theories, particularly those related to aesthetic theory, are highly complex and nuanced, and cannot be fully understood or appreciated through a superficial analysis of any single cultural form. Adorno's ideas are rooted in a deep and critical engagement with the broader social, cultural, and economic context in which they were developed, and to truly understand their relevance and significance, one must consider these broader contexts as well.
Finally, it is essential to acknowledge the fact that video games, like any other cultural form, are not inherently political or ideological, and that they can be used to convey a wide range of ideas and perspectives. While it is certainly possible to analyze the ways in which video games might reflect or challenge existing power structures and ideologies, it is important to approach this analysis with a critical and nuanced understanding of the context in which the games are produced and consumed. To suggest that the medium of video games can be used as a means of exploring the intricacies of Adorno's aesthetic theory and the ways in which it relates to neoliberal hegemony is to oversimplify and misunderstand both the medium and the theory in question. So, in conclusion, it is ultimately futile to attempt to explore the aesthetic theory behind neoliberal hegemony through the medium of so-called "wholesome" video games, as such an approach fails to take into account the complex and multifaceted nature of both the medium and the theory in question.
To begin with, it is essential to acknowledge the fact that video games are a highly diverse and multifaceted medium, encompassing a wide range of genres, themes, and gameplay mechanics. As such, it is impossible to explore the aesthetic theories of Adorno in any meaningful way through the lens of "wholesome" video games alone, as these games represent only a small fraction of the medium as a whole. To truly understand the ways in which Adorno's ideas might be relevant to the medium of video games, one would need to consider a much broader range of games, including those that might be considered more "edgy" or "provocative" in nature.
Furthermore, it is important to recognize that Adorno's theories, particularly those related to aesthetic theory, are highly complex and nuanced, and cannot be fully understood or appreciated through a superficial analysis of any single cultural form. Adorno's ideas are rooted in a deep and critical engagement with the broader social, cultural, and economic context in which they were developed, and to truly understand their relevance and significance, one must consider these broader contexts as well.
Finally, it is essential to acknowledge the fact that video games, like any other cultural form, are not inherently political or ideological, and that they can be used to convey a wide range of ideas and perspectives. While it is certainly possible to analyze the ways in which video games might reflect or challenge existing power structures and ideologies, it is important to approach this analysis with a critical and nuanced understanding of the context in which the games are produced and consumed. To suggest that the medium of video games can be used as a means of exploring the intricacies of Adorno's aesthetic theory and the ways in which it relates to neoliberal hegemony is to oversimplify and misunderstand both the medium and the theory in question. So, in conclusion, it is ultimately futile to attempt to explore the aesthetic theory behind neoliberal hegemony through the medium of so-called "wholesome" video games, as such an approach fails to take into account the complex and multifaceted nature of both the medium and the theory in question.
Holy Ghost Story
2022
This review contains spoilers
In the closing moments of 2022, a ping on discord alerts me that the game I spent most of my Christmas break from work finishing up has been added to IGDB, just in time for me to mark it as my GOTY for 2022. It is of course, not actually that, but something about the misplaced arrogance of doing that, ironically or otherwise, really tickles me. I giggle about it to myself for the rest of a party in a far nicer house than I have scarcely been in for my entire life that puts me on edge about it the entire time I am there.
But, of course, in order to mark it as GOTY, I have to mark it as played. And the easiest way to do that is to give it a star rating, which, of course, was 5 stars, on the urging of a voice in my head telling me that if I'm not going to give the game 5 stars, who will?
In a turn that feels immensely humbling, others have in fact rate it 5 stars. Which I am grateful and mortified about, but also thankful because it lifts from me the burden of having to mark this as 5 stars.
I don't know if other people feel the same about this, but I find it extremely difficult to look at something I've made holistically. I was there for every step of the sausage being made, after all, so maybe it's just natural that I all I see are a thousand tiny pieces, a jigsaw that has no clear overall shape. What this means is that when I look at Holy Ghost Story, I can see lines, scenes, moments and beats, but the whole picture is unclear to me. I think it's a real weakness of my writing, getting lost in the weeds and losing sight of the larger whole. Which is probably why this is twice as long as I planned it to be and has some scenes that an editor probably would have cut, but which I retained because I liked the way the light caught them, irrespective of their place in the wider thing.
Unlike some of the other entries in this mini genre, which comprises some of my favorite pieces on this site, I don't know if I have anything enormously interesting or cool to say about holy ghost story. As something that was originally planned to be a short and sweet project I could cobble together for Halloween, it ending up two months late and maybe twice as long as I intended does feel like something of a failure. Truthfully, I don't know how I feel about this and it's likely that I won't for a while, and if my track record with this sort of thing is any indication I'll probably come down pretty hard against it.
But right now, all I have are the pieces, and I can still pick them up and turn them over in my hands. I know I like reading about game development and the way these things come into life, so in lieu of any actual insightful thoughts or analyses, here are just some little tidbits from the time I spent making this game.
(spoilers, obvs)
- The whole thing was inspired by a riff I had with two of my friends about ghosts whose Unfinished Businesses were incredibly mundane. The ideas I had ballooned out during a visit to the Tate Modern the next day, and then contracted in again while I tried to siphon out the actual core of the story.
- The original title, inspired by one of the pieces in the Tate I saw, was "...almost religious awe..." but ultimately I could not resist the gag of evoking The Holy Ghost. Sorry, big man.
- I wanted to avoid any explicit queer/trans themes for this. A lot of my creative and critical work exists in this space, and I kind of wanted to avoid it for this. Not because I have anything against such works - far from it - but just because I wanted to go out of my comfort zone a little, into the moderately different comfort zone that is Catholic Guilt.
- Embarrassingly, the logo/cover art was partially inspired by the HD Remaster OPs for Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, specifically the bits naming the various Gundams. I'm so sorry.
- This was originally going to be made in Visual Novel Maker, something which appealed to me because of my past work in RPGMaker. However, while RPGMaker as a toolset has it's ups and downs, I think VNM is something of a disaster, with an incredibly clunky interface that is catastrophically less intuitive than the python-based Ren'Py, which is where this ended up.
- Following on from above, the entire script was written in a word document before Ren'Py was opened even once. I future, I think I will play around much more with visuals and music as I am writing rather than writing everything and then making visuals and sounds around that, but I do think inputting the final script manually was good, because it allowed me to do some final last-minute editing and drafting that ended up with some of my favorite lines.
- Originally, the POV character, or "genius", was a much more passive person, who spoke in the present tense, and had almost no internal monologue or interiority. However, through successive drafts, more of a character started to creep in as I started to move the didactic qualities of the script into Genius as a character. I have mixed feelings about how Siobhan is presented but I do feel good about where Genius ended up, this kind of unpleasant, unempathetic, well-meaning but patronizing figure. Despite them being almost completely absent in the original outline, I think the story ended up being as much about them as it did about Siobhan, which I do like, even if it did take perhaps too many drafts to reach that point.
- Accordingly, the scene with Genius by themselves was a late addition that didn't get as much redrafting as the rest of it. I think it's better with than without, but I also side-eye it even more than I do the rest of it.
- My actual favorite thing in the game is Siobhan's name turning pink during the "flashback".
- Do you know how difficult it is to find public domain visual novel schoolgirl sprites that aren't very horny? Let me tell you: pretty fucking difficult!!
- ? speaking in a more formal tone was something inspired by Squigglydot's Post-Disclosure Devil's Night, and it's use of purple prose, to suggest my interpretation that ? was in some way separate from Genius without saying it outright.
- Let me tell you - it has been pretty nerve-wracking working on this while an emerging trend of people in my activity feed crept up of taking random itch.io games, writing a scathing dunk of them, and then others who, clearly, would not have liked said game, downloading and playing it anyway to get their own hilarious dunk in. Which is not to say that I don't think there aren't going to be people who find this to be nails on a chalkboard and will write a funny dunk review of this, but I do think the one thing that would make me regret having made this would be if it became something people crowded around to get the boot in.
- Kevin MacLeod is such a real one dude
- If I had to sum up the lessons I learned from this project, I would say that researching and testing out software with miniscule practice runs is essential even for a "small" project you undertake to "learn the basics" of software, and also that I think I need to divorce myself entirely from the prospect of "true" "solo" development. Anxiety prevented me from reaching out to talented artists and musicians I know about commissioning stuff that would have helped give the game an actual visual identity to call it's own, and I don't want that to happen next time. When I write that Siobhan scowled and yelled, I wish I could have properly conveyed how I wanted that to look.
I hope this has been interesting at all! My nerves and anxiousness around this title have yet to dissipate, so I likely won't be reading anything about it for at least a few days, but knowing that people took the time to check this out means more than I can say, both for the people who enjoyed it and the people it didn't. I'm really looking forward to reading people's thoughts once I feel able to do so without my nerves exploding at first brush.
Hopefully I'll see you again sometime in 2023, hopefully with a less played-out theme!
But, of course, in order to mark it as GOTY, I have to mark it as played. And the easiest way to do that is to give it a star rating, which, of course, was 5 stars, on the urging of a voice in my head telling me that if I'm not going to give the game 5 stars, who will?
In a turn that feels immensely humbling, others have in fact rate it 5 stars. Which I am grateful and mortified about, but also thankful because it lifts from me the burden of having to mark this as 5 stars.
I don't know if other people feel the same about this, but I find it extremely difficult to look at something I've made holistically. I was there for every step of the sausage being made, after all, so maybe it's just natural that I all I see are a thousand tiny pieces, a jigsaw that has no clear overall shape. What this means is that when I look at Holy Ghost Story, I can see lines, scenes, moments and beats, but the whole picture is unclear to me. I think it's a real weakness of my writing, getting lost in the weeds and losing sight of the larger whole. Which is probably why this is twice as long as I planned it to be and has some scenes that an editor probably would have cut, but which I retained because I liked the way the light caught them, irrespective of their place in the wider thing.
Unlike some of the other entries in this mini genre, which comprises some of my favorite pieces on this site, I don't know if I have anything enormously interesting or cool to say about holy ghost story. As something that was originally planned to be a short and sweet project I could cobble together for Halloween, it ending up two months late and maybe twice as long as I intended does feel like something of a failure. Truthfully, I don't know how I feel about this and it's likely that I won't for a while, and if my track record with this sort of thing is any indication I'll probably come down pretty hard against it.
But right now, all I have are the pieces, and I can still pick them up and turn them over in my hands. I know I like reading about game development and the way these things come into life, so in lieu of any actual insightful thoughts or analyses, here are just some little tidbits from the time I spent making this game.
(spoilers, obvs)
- The whole thing was inspired by a riff I had with two of my friends about ghosts whose Unfinished Businesses were incredibly mundane. The ideas I had ballooned out during a visit to the Tate Modern the next day, and then contracted in again while I tried to siphon out the actual core of the story.
- The original title, inspired by one of the pieces in the Tate I saw, was "...almost religious awe..." but ultimately I could not resist the gag of evoking The Holy Ghost. Sorry, big man.
- I wanted to avoid any explicit queer/trans themes for this. A lot of my creative and critical work exists in this space, and I kind of wanted to avoid it for this. Not because I have anything against such works - far from it - but just because I wanted to go out of my comfort zone a little, into the moderately different comfort zone that is Catholic Guilt.
- Embarrassingly, the logo/cover art was partially inspired by the HD Remaster OPs for Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, specifically the bits naming the various Gundams. I'm so sorry.
- This was originally going to be made in Visual Novel Maker, something which appealed to me because of my past work in RPGMaker. However, while RPGMaker as a toolset has it's ups and downs, I think VNM is something of a disaster, with an incredibly clunky interface that is catastrophically less intuitive than the python-based Ren'Py, which is where this ended up.
- Following on from above, the entire script was written in a word document before Ren'Py was opened even once. I future, I think I will play around much more with visuals and music as I am writing rather than writing everything and then making visuals and sounds around that, but I do think inputting the final script manually was good, because it allowed me to do some final last-minute editing and drafting that ended up with some of my favorite lines.
- Originally, the POV character, or "genius", was a much more passive person, who spoke in the present tense, and had almost no internal monologue or interiority. However, through successive drafts, more of a character started to creep in as I started to move the didactic qualities of the script into Genius as a character. I have mixed feelings about how Siobhan is presented but I do feel good about where Genius ended up, this kind of unpleasant, unempathetic, well-meaning but patronizing figure. Despite them being almost completely absent in the original outline, I think the story ended up being as much about them as it did about Siobhan, which I do like, even if it did take perhaps too many drafts to reach that point.
- Accordingly, the scene with Genius by themselves was a late addition that didn't get as much redrafting as the rest of it. I think it's better with than without, but I also side-eye it even more than I do the rest of it.
- My actual favorite thing in the game is Siobhan's name turning pink during the "flashback".
- Do you know how difficult it is to find public domain visual novel schoolgirl sprites that aren't very horny? Let me tell you: pretty fucking difficult!!
- ? speaking in a more formal tone was something inspired by Squigglydot's Post-Disclosure Devil's Night, and it's use of purple prose, to suggest my interpretation that ? was in some way separate from Genius without saying it outright.
- Let me tell you - it has been pretty nerve-wracking working on this while an emerging trend of people in my activity feed crept up of taking random itch.io games, writing a scathing dunk of them, and then others who, clearly, would not have liked said game, downloading and playing it anyway to get their own hilarious dunk in. Which is not to say that I don't think there aren't going to be people who find this to be nails on a chalkboard and will write a funny dunk review of this, but I do think the one thing that would make me regret having made this would be if it became something people crowded around to get the boot in.
- Kevin MacLeod is such a real one dude
- If I had to sum up the lessons I learned from this project, I would say that researching and testing out software with miniscule practice runs is essential even for a "small" project you undertake to "learn the basics" of software, and also that I think I need to divorce myself entirely from the prospect of "true" "solo" development. Anxiety prevented me from reaching out to talented artists and musicians I know about commissioning stuff that would have helped give the game an actual visual identity to call it's own, and I don't want that to happen next time. When I write that Siobhan scowled and yelled, I wish I could have properly conveyed how I wanted that to look.
I hope this has been interesting at all! My nerves and anxiousness around this title have yet to dissipate, so I likely won't be reading anything about it for at least a few days, but knowing that people took the time to check this out means more than I can say, both for the people who enjoyed it and the people it didn't. I'm really looking forward to reading people's thoughts once I feel able to do so without my nerves exploding at first brush.
Hopefully I'll see you again sometime in 2023, hopefully with a less played-out theme!
Pu Li Ru La
1991
I don't think old scrolling beat 'em ups are that compelling to play, but there's times where you want to play one, so it might as well be something that's fifteen minutes long and full of a bunch of mad shit.
Shredders
2022
I didn't really see it coming, but the credits just came up, so I guess I finished Shredders.
I've seen snowboarders talk about how much they like this, so I assume there's a degree of authenticity that I'm numb to. To me, it's kind of a nothing game. Aggressively forgettable. A chill out game. Game Pass fodder. Forza Horizon.
I guess there's some distinction between snowboarding and skateboarding where I can play a (reportedly) very good snowboarding game and not think much of it, but really dig into trash like Street Skater or 720. Is it flip tricks? I think that's part of it, but also the very nature of skateboarding. Snowboarding doesn't exist without sliding downhill. In skateboarding, you can go in any direction. It lends itself to more creative expression, and its best representations in videogames always have a bit of a 3D platformer angle to them. Snowboarding's just going with the flow.
Shredders isn't bad. You do big jumps. You never feel too involved with the outcome. I couldn't reliably predict how fast I'd spin in a jump, or figure out how I'd have to tilt the right stick for specific grabs. It's all kind of passive. That's fine. It never felt terribly expressive to me.
There is a campaign of missions, and they vary from following another snowboarder through cluttered environments to skitching (do snowboarders call it that?) on the back of a snowmobile and racing over the wider environment. It's rarely strict on how you complete objectives, unless you want the very best results. There's cutscenes, and sometimes it takes a few seconds before you're allowed to skip them, and you end up seeing some of the most atrocious shit you've seen in your life.
Otherwise, you can just free roam. It's always downhill though, so you're basically just riding through the same obstacles over and over again.
I wouldn't recommend anyone buy this. Especially because most folk who have any interest will just play it on Game Pass. Do that.
I've seen snowboarders talk about how much they like this, so I assume there's a degree of authenticity that I'm numb to. To me, it's kind of a nothing game. Aggressively forgettable. A chill out game. Game Pass fodder. Forza Horizon.
I guess there's some distinction between snowboarding and skateboarding where I can play a (reportedly) very good snowboarding game and not think much of it, but really dig into trash like Street Skater or 720. Is it flip tricks? I think that's part of it, but also the very nature of skateboarding. Snowboarding doesn't exist without sliding downhill. In skateboarding, you can go in any direction. It lends itself to more creative expression, and its best representations in videogames always have a bit of a 3D platformer angle to them. Snowboarding's just going with the flow.
Shredders isn't bad. You do big jumps. You never feel too involved with the outcome. I couldn't reliably predict how fast I'd spin in a jump, or figure out how I'd have to tilt the right stick for specific grabs. It's all kind of passive. That's fine. It never felt terribly expressive to me.
There is a campaign of missions, and they vary from following another snowboarder through cluttered environments to skitching (do snowboarders call it that?) on the back of a snowmobile and racing over the wider environment. It's rarely strict on how you complete objectives, unless you want the very best results. There's cutscenes, and sometimes it takes a few seconds before you're allowed to skip them, and you end up seeing some of the most atrocious shit you've seen in your life.
Otherwise, you can just free roam. It's always downhill though, so you're basically just riding through the same obstacles over and over again.
I wouldn't recommend anyone buy this. Especially because most folk who have any interest will just play it on Game Pass. Do that.
Pokรฉmon Violet
2022
"I don't know what to do about the frame rate shit," I say, staring at the laptop screen on my picnic table. "It's so boring to talk about, and everyone's aware of them. They're not even that big of a deal. BUT they're significant enough that it feels wrong to act like it's not a thing at all."
"Tinkaton," Tinkaton responds sympathetically before golf-swinging a boulder into a passing Corviknight, snapping it's neck and killing it instantly. Tonight, the team will dine well
"Tinkaton," Tinkaton responds sympathetically before golf-swinging a boulder into a passing Corviknight, snapping it's neck and killing it instantly. Tonight, the team will dine well
Pentiment
2022
โโ๐ช ๐ฃ๐ฏ๐ฌ๐ช ๐ ๐ฑ๐ฌ๐ด๐ซ ๐ ๐๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ข๐ก โญ๐ฌ๐๐ฑ๐๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ก๐ค๐ข. โ๐ฑ'๐ฐ ๐ฆ๐ซ ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ก. โญ๐ฌ๐๐ฑ๐๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ก๐ค๐ข ๐ฆ๐ฐ ๐ฌ๐ซ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข ๐๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ก๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฌ๐ฃ ๐๐ฉ๐๐ฐ๐ค๐ฌ๐ด ๐๐ซ๐ก ๐ฆ๐ซ 2001 ๐ฆ๐ฑ ๐ฅ๐๐ก ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข ๐ก๐ข๐ซ๐ฐ๐ข๐ฐ๐ฑ ๐ญ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฒ๐ฉ๐๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ซ ๐ฌ๐ฃ โ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฅ โญ๐๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ ๐ฐ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ ๐๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ ๐๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ฅ๐ข๐ฏ๐ข ๐ฆ๐ซ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข ๐ด๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฉ๐ก ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ก๐ข ๐ฌ๐ฃ โ๐ฏ๐ข๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ก.
โ ๐ก๐ฆ๐ก๐ซโ๐ฑ ๐จ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ด ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ญ๐ฏ๐๐ถ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฐ ๐ข๐ฆ๐ค๐ฅ๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ช๐ข๐ฐ ๐ ๐ก๐๐ถ ๐ด๐๐ฐ๐ซโ๐ฑ ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ช๐๐ฉ ๐ฒ๐ซ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฉ โ ๐ด๐๐ฐ 14. ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ซ โ ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ฏ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฉ๐ข ๐ฐ๐๐ถ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข๐ช ๐ฌ๐ซ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ซ ๐ฌ๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ซ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฐ, โ ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ญ๐ฏ๐๐ถ ๐๐ฉ๐ฌ๐ซ๐ค ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข๐ช ๐ฆ๐ซ ๐ช๐ถ ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ก. โ ๐ก๐ฆ๐ก๐ซ'๐ฑ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐จ๐ข ๐ค๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ฑ๐ฌ ๐ช๐๐ฐ๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฅ๐ข๐ซ โ ๐ด๐๐ฐ ๐ถ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ซ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ, ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ โ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ซ๐จ โโ๐ก ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐จ๐ข ๐ฆ๐ฑ ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ด. ๐๐ถ ๐ช๐ฒ๐ช ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐๐ฑ ๐ ๐ฉ๐ฌ๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐ฌ๐ฌ. ๐๐๐ถ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค โ๐ญ๐ข๐๐ ๐ข ๐๐ข ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฅ ๐ถ๐ฌ๐ฒโ ๐๐ซ๐ก ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ฅ๐๐ซ๐ก๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฉ๐ข ๐ด๐๐ฐ ๐ช๐ถ ๐ฃ๐๐ณ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ข ๐ญ๐๐ฏ๐ฑ ๐ฌ๐ฃ ๐ค๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ฑ๐ฌ ๐ช๐๐ฐ๐ฐ.
๐ฟ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ด ๐๐๐๐'๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ด๐ ๐ฝ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฐ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐.
๐ฟ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ณ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ดโ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐๐ ๐บ๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ณ๐๐๐ ๐ธ๐๐๐๐. ๐ด ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ยฃ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฐ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐.
๐ฌ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ณ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ณ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ฌ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐.
๐โ๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ท๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ช๐ท๐ ๐ด๐ฒ๐ท๐ญ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฎ๐ญ๐พ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท ๐ฏ๐ป๐ธ๐ถ ๐ช๐ท๐๐ธ๐ท๐ฎ, ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ธ๐พ๐ฐ๐ฑ ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐ฒ๐ผ ๐ถ๐ช๐ท๐ญ๐ช๐ฝ๐ธ๐ป๐ ๐ฏ๐ธ๐ป ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต๐ผ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ต๐ต ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ท๐ธ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ท๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท๐ผ ๐ฒ๐ท ๐ข๐ฌ๐ธ๐ฝ๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐ต๐ผ ๐ช๐ซ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐น๐พ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฝ๐ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ท๐ผ๐ฝ๐ป๐พ๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท. ๐๐ท ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ญ๐ช๐ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐ต๐ผ ๐ฒ๐ท ๐ธ๐พ๐ป ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ช๐ป๐ท ๐ช๐ซ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐ช๐ต๐ต ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ผ, ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ซ๐ธ๐๐ผ ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ช ๐ต๐ธ๐ฌ๐ช๐ต ๐๐ช๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐น๐ช๐ป๐ด. ๐๐ ๐ฏ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ท๐ญ๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ ๐ถ๐ช๐ท๐ช๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฝ ๐๐ช๐พ๐ท๐ฝ๐ต๐ฎ๐ฝ ๐ช๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ป๐ฌ๐ช๐ญ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฝ ๐ญ๐ช๐ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ท ๐๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ธ๐ต๐ญ ๐ธ๐พ๐ป ๐ธ๐ท๐ต๐ ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ช๐ต๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ท๐ญ ๐ช๐ซ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐ต๐ช๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ธ๐ท, ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ช๐ป๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ.
๐ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ธ๐ท๐ฌ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ธ๐ต๐ญ ๐พ๐ผ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฝ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ฎ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ช๐ป๐ป๐ฒ๐ช๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐๐ธ๐พ๐ต๐ญ, ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ช๐ป๐ญ๐ต๐ฎ๐ผ๐ผ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ฌ๐ธ๐ท๐ฝ๐ป๐ช๐ฌ๐ฎ๐น๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท, ๐ช๐พ๐ฝ๐ธ๐ถ๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐น๐ป๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ท๐ช๐ท๐ฌ๐ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐ธ๐ท๐ฝ๐ป๐ช๐ฌ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐๐๐๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐๐๐ฅ. ๐๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ธ๐พ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฝ ๐๐๐๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐๐๐ฅ ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐๐ธ ๐ญ๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ๐ผ. ๐๐๐๐ผ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐๐ธ๐ญโ๐ผ ๐น๐พ๐ท๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ ๐ฏ๐ธ๐ป ๐น๐ฎ๐ธ๐น๐ต๐ฎ ๐๐ฑ๐ธ ๐ญ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ท'๐ฝ ๐ป๐ฎ๐ผ๐น๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ต๐ ๐ผ๐ช๐ฌ๐ป๐ช๐ถ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ช๐ฝ๐ป๐ฒ๐ถ๐ธ๐ท๐. ๐ฃ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ป๐ผ๐ฝ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐ต ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ผ๐ต๐ฎ๐น๐ฝ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ฏ๐ป๐ธ๐ถ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฌ๐ต๐ช๐ผ๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ท๐ด ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฝ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ธ๐ท ๐ซ๐ธ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐พ๐ป ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ท๐ญ๐ผ ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ท ๐๐ฎ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ผ๐ฎ๐.
๐๐ฏ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ ๐ป๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐๐ธ๐ญ ๐๐ฎ๐ต๐พ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐พ๐ป๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐ฑ๐พ๐ถ๐ช๐ท ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฌ๐ฎ, ๐ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ธ๐น๐น๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐น๐ป๐ช๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ถ๐ช๐ญ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฒ๐ท๐ญ๐ฒ๐ผ๐น๐ธ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ป๐ธ๐ผ๐ผ ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ท ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐ธ๐ถ๐ถ๐พ๐ท๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท. ๐ ๐ช๐ต๐๐ช๐๐ผ ๐๐ช๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ผ ๐ธ๐ฏ๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฏ๐ธ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ช๐พ๐ผ๐ฎ ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ญ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐ถ๐ ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ฎ-๐ฏ๐ป๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ๐ฎ. ๐๐ท ๐ถ๐ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ท๐ช๐ต ๐๐ฎ๐ช๐ป ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต ๐ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ช๐ญ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ช๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฝ ๐ช ๐ณ๐ธ๐ซ ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ช๐พ๐ผ๐ฎ ๐ ๐๐ช๐ผ๐ท'๐ฝ ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฐ๐ช๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต'๐ผ ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฟ๐ช๐ต๐พ๐ฎ๐ผ.
๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐ด๐ต๐ถ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ข ๐ซ๐ฐ๐ฃ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต๐ด๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ. ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ. ๐ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ, ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ค๐ฉ ๐ช๐ด ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐บ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ถ๐ฑ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ธ๐ฐ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ช๐ต-๐ช๐ฏ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ถ๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต.
๐๐๐๐ ๐ธ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ธ๐ท, ๐ธ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ถ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐พ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ข ๐ธ ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ข ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฟ๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐ ๐ฟ๐๐๐ ๐ธ๐ธ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ฐ ๐๐๐ ๐ข๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ธ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐.
โ ๐ก๐ฆ๐ก๐ซโ๐ฑ ๐จ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ด ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ญ๐ฏ๐๐ถ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฐ ๐ข๐ฆ๐ค๐ฅ๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ช๐ข๐ฐ ๐ ๐ก๐๐ถ ๐ด๐๐ฐ๐ซโ๐ฑ ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ช๐๐ฉ ๐ฒ๐ซ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฉ โ ๐ด๐๐ฐ 14. ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ซ โ ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ฏ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฉ๐ข ๐ฐ๐๐ถ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข๐ช ๐ฌ๐ซ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ซ ๐ฌ๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ซ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฐ, โ ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ญ๐ฏ๐๐ถ ๐๐ฉ๐ฌ๐ซ๐ค ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข๐ช ๐ฆ๐ซ ๐ช๐ถ ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ก. โ ๐ก๐ฆ๐ก๐ซ'๐ฑ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐จ๐ข ๐ค๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ฑ๐ฌ ๐ช๐๐ฐ๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฅ๐ข๐ซ โ ๐ด๐๐ฐ ๐ถ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ซ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ, ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ โ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ซ๐จ โโ๐ก ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐จ๐ข ๐ฆ๐ฑ ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ด. ๐๐ถ ๐ช๐ฒ๐ช ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐๐ฑ ๐ ๐ฉ๐ฌ๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐ฌ๐ฌ. ๐๐๐ถ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค โ๐ญ๐ข๐๐ ๐ข ๐๐ข ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฅ ๐ถ๐ฌ๐ฒโ ๐๐ซ๐ก ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ฅ๐๐ซ๐ก๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฉ๐ข ๐ด๐๐ฐ ๐ช๐ถ ๐ฃ๐๐ณ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ข ๐ญ๐๐ฏ๐ฑ ๐ฌ๐ฃ ๐ค๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ฑ๐ฌ ๐ช๐๐ฐ๐ฐ.
๐ฟ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ด ๐๐๐๐'๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ด๐ ๐ฝ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฐ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐.
๐ฟ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ณ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ดโ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐๐ ๐บ๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ณ๐๐๐ ๐ธ๐๐๐๐. ๐ด ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ยฃ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฐ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐.
๐ฌ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ณ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ณ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ฌ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐.
๐โ๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ท๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ช๐ท๐ ๐ด๐ฒ๐ท๐ญ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฎ๐ญ๐พ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท ๐ฏ๐ป๐ธ๐ถ ๐ช๐ท๐๐ธ๐ท๐ฎ, ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ธ๐พ๐ฐ๐ฑ ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐ฒ๐ผ ๐ถ๐ช๐ท๐ญ๐ช๐ฝ๐ธ๐ป๐ ๐ฏ๐ธ๐ป ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต๐ผ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ต๐ต ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ท๐ธ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ท๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท๐ผ ๐ฒ๐ท ๐ข๐ฌ๐ธ๐ฝ๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐ต๐ผ ๐ช๐ซ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐น๐พ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฝ๐ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ท๐ผ๐ฝ๐ป๐พ๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท. ๐๐ท ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ญ๐ช๐ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐ต๐ผ ๐ฒ๐ท ๐ธ๐พ๐ป ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ช๐ป๐ท ๐ช๐ซ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐ช๐ต๐ต ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ผ, ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ซ๐ธ๐๐ผ ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ช ๐ต๐ธ๐ฌ๐ช๐ต ๐๐ช๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐น๐ช๐ป๐ด. ๐๐ ๐ฏ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ท๐ญ๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ ๐ถ๐ช๐ท๐ช๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฝ ๐๐ช๐พ๐ท๐ฝ๐ต๐ฎ๐ฝ ๐ช๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ป๐ฌ๐ช๐ญ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฝ ๐ญ๐ช๐ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ท ๐๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ธ๐ต๐ญ ๐ธ๐พ๐ป ๐ธ๐ท๐ต๐ ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ช๐ต๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ท๐ญ ๐ช๐ซ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐ต๐ช๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ธ๐ท, ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ช๐ป๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ.
๐ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ธ๐ท๐ฌ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ธ๐ต๐ญ ๐พ๐ผ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฝ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ฎ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ช๐ป๐ป๐ฒ๐ช๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐๐ธ๐พ๐ต๐ญ, ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ช๐ป๐ญ๐ต๐ฎ๐ผ๐ผ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ฌ๐ธ๐ท๐ฝ๐ป๐ช๐ฌ๐ฎ๐น๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท, ๐ช๐พ๐ฝ๐ธ๐ถ๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐น๐ป๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ท๐ช๐ท๐ฌ๐ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐ธ๐ท๐ฝ๐ป๐ช๐ฌ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐๐๐๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐๐๐ฅ. ๐๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ธ๐พ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฝ ๐๐๐๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐๐๐ฅ ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐๐ธ ๐ญ๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ๐ผ. ๐๐๐๐ผ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐๐ธ๐ญโ๐ผ ๐น๐พ๐ท๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ ๐ฏ๐ธ๐ป ๐น๐ฎ๐ธ๐น๐ต๐ฎ ๐๐ฑ๐ธ ๐ญ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ท'๐ฝ ๐ป๐ฎ๐ผ๐น๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ต๐ ๐ผ๐ช๐ฌ๐ป๐ช๐ถ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ช๐ฝ๐ป๐ฒ๐ถ๐ธ๐ท๐. ๐ฃ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ป๐ผ๐ฝ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐ต ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ผ๐ต๐ฎ๐น๐ฝ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ฏ๐ป๐ธ๐ถ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฌ๐ต๐ช๐ผ๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ท๐ด ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฝ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ธ๐ท ๐ซ๐ธ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐พ๐ป ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ท๐ญ๐ผ ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ท ๐๐ฎ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ผ๐ฎ๐.
๐๐ฏ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ ๐ป๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐๐ธ๐ญ ๐๐ฎ๐ต๐พ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐พ๐ป๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐ฑ๐พ๐ถ๐ช๐ท ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฌ๐ฎ, ๐ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ธ๐น๐น๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐น๐ป๐ช๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ถ๐ช๐ญ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฒ๐ท๐ญ๐ฒ๐ผ๐น๐ธ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ป๐ธ๐ผ๐ผ ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ท ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐ธ๐ถ๐ถ๐พ๐ท๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท. ๐ ๐ช๐ต๐๐ช๐๐ผ ๐๐ช๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ผ ๐ธ๐ฏ๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฏ๐ธ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ช๐พ๐ผ๐ฎ ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ญ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐ถ๐ ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ฎ-๐ฏ๐ป๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ๐ฎ. ๐๐ท ๐ถ๐ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ท๐ช๐ต ๐๐ฎ๐ช๐ป ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต ๐ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ช๐ญ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ช๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฝ ๐ช ๐ณ๐ธ๐ซ ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ช๐พ๐ผ๐ฎ ๐ ๐๐ช๐ผ๐ท'๐ฝ ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฐ๐ช๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต'๐ผ ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฟ๐ช๐ต๐พ๐ฎ๐ผ.
๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐ด๐ต๐ถ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ข ๐ซ๐ฐ๐ฃ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต๐ด๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ. ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ. ๐ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ, ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ค๐ฉ ๐ช๐ด ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐บ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ถ๐ฑ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ธ๐ฐ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ช๐ต-๐ช๐ฏ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ถ๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต.
๐๐๐๐ ๐ธ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ธ๐ท, ๐ธ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ถ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐พ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ข ๐ธ ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ข ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฟ๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐ ๐ฟ๐๐๐ ๐ธ๐ธ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ฐ ๐๐๐ ๐ข๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ธ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐.
Time Crisis
1995
You know what. Fuck it. Time Crisis 1 is the best.
The president's daughter has been kidnapped on a remote castle island. It's sunset and you have a leather jacket. Time Crisis fucking rocks.
There's a certain je ne sais quoi to Namco's late 90s output. No other developer carried so much of what defined the "video game" in the prior decade and a half into their early 3D output, and certainly not while feeling so daring, bold and unbound by convention. There's always such a strong sense of style and energy, and there's few better examples of it than Time Crisis 1.
I have a bit of a history with TC (close friends are allowed to call it that, providing it's with dignity). Our family went on a big international holiday when I was about 11, visiting cities, theme parks and national heritage sites, but finding this arcade cabinet on the ferry there, complete with its chunky paddle and sliding recoil action, irritatingly remained the highlight of my trip when my parents asked afterwards. I was delighted to receive the PS1 port on my subsequent birthday. I think that's still my favourite birthday present ever. Finding a CRT on the side of the road earlier this year presented a dilemma. Claiming and carrying a heavy discarded television for half an hour back to my home was challenging and embarrassing, but the longing to bring Time Crisis back into my life made me accept who I was, and push past the looks of disgust and bewilderment from passing pedestrians.
The game is so excited about 3D. Swooping helicopters, a ride on suspended platforms, shoot-outs in active factories, wee moments of cinema. The ducking reload system is so much cooler than anything that preceded it, making you feel just that little bit more involved with your surrounding environment, and making avoiding attacks something more interesting than simply shooting the other guy first. Beyond gunfire, there's moving hazards you have to watch out for. Lunging attacks can be avoided with a quick duck, and effectively countered by popping back up before they retreat.
Enemy designs are simple, and instantly recognisable. You see a red guy, shoot him first, because he's dangerous. Orange? Get him for a time bonus. Blue are fodder, but you need to dispatch them quickly to keep on top of the ticking clock at the bottom of the screen. Standard enemies never take more than a single shot, making your gun feel powerful and keeping high-level play frantic.
What really makes me love Time Crisis 1 is that it's all one self-contained scenario. Having distinct levels in your game is an easy way to add variety, but as is true in games like Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil, little can make the objective as meaningful or the threat as tangible as laying all the cards on the table and have the player sweat and scramble through to the end, carrying each new war wound into the next fight. This is a "Time Crisis". You've got to sort this shit out right now. You're not getting a plane ride to an ice level halfway through.
Time Crisis is filled with little 10-second screens that change up the pace and keep it exciting. The bit where you step back from a barricade, or open a door into a 15 foot drop, or have to shoot gunners hiding behind turrets before they fire at you. It's just great. I love it.
The scenario of an old empire's coup against an incumbent presidency is great, too. The old regime's castle has been around for centuries, isolated from the rest of the world, but growing technologically advanced by their active war interests. You get romantic stone walkways, and the iconic clocktowers, hiding rooms full of submarines and blinking control panels. It's such a cool playset for this gun game.
It's the top of tip, it's the championship, it's the most tip-top Time Crisis.
(FURTHER PARAGRAPHS EXPLICITLY COVER THE EXPERIENCE OF PLAYING THIS VIA THE JAPAN-ONLY PS2 "GUNVARI COLLECTION + TIME CRISIS" RELEASE, AND I WOULD DISCOURAGE ANYONE OTHER THAN HARDCORE TC FANS FROM VENTURING FURTHER)
Bringing Time Crisis to the PS2 allowed Namco the opportunity to bring the arcade version to home consoles. Curiously, this isn't what they decided to do. What you get on the disc is essentially the PS1 ISO, but with G-Con 2 support.
Endearingly, in-engine assets used to reflect the G-Con 45 have now been modified to reflect the new controller. Take a closer look, and you'll notice Richard Miller, as well as Point Blank's Dr. Don and Dr. Dan, are now holding G-Con 2s in their respective keyart.
The increased precision of the G-Con 2 is welcome, and I was even able to hit that six pixel guy behind the distant turret at the start of Level 3 in one shot, but the game insists on using A as the reload button, which doesn't make for quite as comfortable a grip, so you may opt for your old 45, regardless. You can still use a second controller as a makeshift pedal, but the game seems fussy about which controllers you can use. I was only able to get a Dualshock 2 to work, but entertainingly, everything works on it. I was able to use L3 and R3 as my duck button. You may find success with contemporary Namco controllers, or maybe even PS2-era steering wheel pedals, but I can't guarantee that.
The game still displays in pixel-heavy 240p, with the biggest performance boost appearing to be in the loading times. It shaves a second or two off between stages, though you're sometimes faced with a disconcerting black screen.
All the familiar PS1 stuff is here, including the Original Mode and the old options menu. I wouldn't recommend getting this unless you're also interested in playing Japanese-language releases of the Point Blank games, but the precision and slightly quicker stage transitions are welcome. I'm sure anyone who's made it to the very end of this review wouldn't be dissuaded if this has piqued their interest.
The president's daughter has been kidnapped on a remote castle island. It's sunset and you have a leather jacket. Time Crisis fucking rocks.
There's a certain je ne sais quoi to Namco's late 90s output. No other developer carried so much of what defined the "video game" in the prior decade and a half into their early 3D output, and certainly not while feeling so daring, bold and unbound by convention. There's always such a strong sense of style and energy, and there's few better examples of it than Time Crisis 1.
I have a bit of a history with TC (close friends are allowed to call it that, providing it's with dignity). Our family went on a big international holiday when I was about 11, visiting cities, theme parks and national heritage sites, but finding this arcade cabinet on the ferry there, complete with its chunky paddle and sliding recoil action, irritatingly remained the highlight of my trip when my parents asked afterwards. I was delighted to receive the PS1 port on my subsequent birthday. I think that's still my favourite birthday present ever. Finding a CRT on the side of the road earlier this year presented a dilemma. Claiming and carrying a heavy discarded television for half an hour back to my home was challenging and embarrassing, but the longing to bring Time Crisis back into my life made me accept who I was, and push past the looks of disgust and bewilderment from passing pedestrians.
The game is so excited about 3D. Swooping helicopters, a ride on suspended platforms, shoot-outs in active factories, wee moments of cinema. The ducking reload system is so much cooler than anything that preceded it, making you feel just that little bit more involved with your surrounding environment, and making avoiding attacks something more interesting than simply shooting the other guy first. Beyond gunfire, there's moving hazards you have to watch out for. Lunging attacks can be avoided with a quick duck, and effectively countered by popping back up before they retreat.
Enemy designs are simple, and instantly recognisable. You see a red guy, shoot him first, because he's dangerous. Orange? Get him for a time bonus. Blue are fodder, but you need to dispatch them quickly to keep on top of the ticking clock at the bottom of the screen. Standard enemies never take more than a single shot, making your gun feel powerful and keeping high-level play frantic.
What really makes me love Time Crisis 1 is that it's all one self-contained scenario. Having distinct levels in your game is an easy way to add variety, but as is true in games like Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil, little can make the objective as meaningful or the threat as tangible as laying all the cards on the table and have the player sweat and scramble through to the end, carrying each new war wound into the next fight. This is a "Time Crisis". You've got to sort this shit out right now. You're not getting a plane ride to an ice level halfway through.
Time Crisis is filled with little 10-second screens that change up the pace and keep it exciting. The bit where you step back from a barricade, or open a door into a 15 foot drop, or have to shoot gunners hiding behind turrets before they fire at you. It's just great. I love it.
The scenario of an old empire's coup against an incumbent presidency is great, too. The old regime's castle has been around for centuries, isolated from the rest of the world, but growing technologically advanced by their active war interests. You get romantic stone walkways, and the iconic clocktowers, hiding rooms full of submarines and blinking control panels. It's such a cool playset for this gun game.
It's the top of tip, it's the championship, it's the most tip-top Time Crisis.
(FURTHER PARAGRAPHS EXPLICITLY COVER THE EXPERIENCE OF PLAYING THIS VIA THE JAPAN-ONLY PS2 "GUNVARI COLLECTION + TIME CRISIS" RELEASE, AND I WOULD DISCOURAGE ANYONE OTHER THAN HARDCORE TC FANS FROM VENTURING FURTHER)
Bringing Time Crisis to the PS2 allowed Namco the opportunity to bring the arcade version to home consoles. Curiously, this isn't what they decided to do. What you get on the disc is essentially the PS1 ISO, but with G-Con 2 support.
Endearingly, in-engine assets used to reflect the G-Con 45 have now been modified to reflect the new controller. Take a closer look, and you'll notice Richard Miller, as well as Point Blank's Dr. Don and Dr. Dan, are now holding G-Con 2s in their respective keyart.
The increased precision of the G-Con 2 is welcome, and I was even able to hit that six pixel guy behind the distant turret at the start of Level 3 in one shot, but the game insists on using A as the reload button, which doesn't make for quite as comfortable a grip, so you may opt for your old 45, regardless. You can still use a second controller as a makeshift pedal, but the game seems fussy about which controllers you can use. I was only able to get a Dualshock 2 to work, but entertainingly, everything works on it. I was able to use L3 and R3 as my duck button. You may find success with contemporary Namco controllers, or maybe even PS2-era steering wheel pedals, but I can't guarantee that.
The game still displays in pixel-heavy 240p, with the biggest performance boost appearing to be in the loading times. It shaves a second or two off between stages, though you're sometimes faced with a disconcerting black screen.
All the familiar PS1 stuff is here, including the Original Mode and the old options menu. I wouldn't recommend getting this unless you're also interested in playing Japanese-language releases of the Point Blank games, but the precision and slightly quicker stage transitions are welcome. I'm sure anyone who's made it to the very end of this review wouldn't be dissuaded if this has piqued their interest.
it was kind of cool, then it made me not enjoy it later
I feel like it should be better than it is
Look at the time! It's schlock o'clock! Time to add another layer of total nonsense to the Resident Evil canon.
Did Albert Wesker invent ghosts? What a virus! It's nice that Rose can still go to school and live in a thriving city, some twenty years after apocalyptic global events. Look - I played through all four acts of Resi 6. The only thing I ask for in return is the freedom to relentlessly rip the piss out of the state they've left the Resident Evil storyline in.
Shadows of Rose is a mixed bag, starting out fairly strong with a new take on Resi 8's castle section, descending to a fairly tedious retread of the scary puppets bit alongside a crap stealth section, and tapping out before bringing back anything from the game's two other major sections. Maybe they're saving those bits to frame another DLC campaign around, maybe they had to scale back this campaign midway through production. Either way, their absence seems weird, given how much else they've dredged up.
I'd have been fine if they just did the castle bit. That's pretty much what I thought they'd done when it started to wrap up. I like these wee Bowser's Fury things that sum up the appeal of a bigger game in a tight little campaign. It's Resi, but it holds back on much of the key finding and, instead, uses big patches of Malice from Breath of the Wild to keep you from your destination. Rose has to run around them until she finds their weak spot and deactivates them. It's a fine little system that keeps goals and progression tangible, while stripping back on the scale of your searches. I'd have recommended the DLC if this is all it was.
The campaign then delves to further passionlessly plod through a clichรฉd, shallow and shockingly juvenile storyline. It's Frozen meets Casper in a PEGI 18 horror game. I just wanted it to end. The writers seemed to care as little about it as I did.
I had to try the last boss three times, because it requires you to do a new move in the last section, and you'll only know that if you have tutorial pop-ups turned on in the menu- I had them off since the second time Resident Evil Village reminded me what the reload button was, back in May 2021.
Did Albert Wesker invent ghosts? What a virus! It's nice that Rose can still go to school and live in a thriving city, some twenty years after apocalyptic global events. Look - I played through all four acts of Resi 6. The only thing I ask for in return is the freedom to relentlessly rip the piss out of the state they've left the Resident Evil storyline in.
Shadows of Rose is a mixed bag, starting out fairly strong with a new take on Resi 8's castle section, descending to a fairly tedious retread of the scary puppets bit alongside a crap stealth section, and tapping out before bringing back anything from the game's two other major sections. Maybe they're saving those bits to frame another DLC campaign around, maybe they had to scale back this campaign midway through production. Either way, their absence seems weird, given how much else they've dredged up.
I'd have been fine if they just did the castle bit. That's pretty much what I thought they'd done when it started to wrap up. I like these wee Bowser's Fury things that sum up the appeal of a bigger game in a tight little campaign. It's Resi, but it holds back on much of the key finding and, instead, uses big patches of Malice from Breath of the Wild to keep you from your destination. Rose has to run around them until she finds their weak spot and deactivates them. It's a fine little system that keeps goals and progression tangible, while stripping back on the scale of your searches. I'd have recommended the DLC if this is all it was.
The campaign then delves to further passionlessly plod through a clichรฉd, shallow and shockingly juvenile storyline. It's Frozen meets Casper in a PEGI 18 horror game. I just wanted it to end. The writers seemed to care as little about it as I did.
I had to try the last boss three times, because it requires you to do a new move in the last section, and you'll only know that if you have tutorial pop-ups turned on in the menu- I had them off since the second time Resident Evil Village reminded me what the reload button was, back in May 2021.
every bad thing anyone has ever said about kojima's writing and game design is 100% correct, 5 stars