jtduckman
2014
more like the mid
I was planning to play this way later but the whole server shutdown turning every copy of this game into a coaster in 3 months forced me to play my hand and see what this game is all about.
Considering the fact that I've mostly been playing racing games from 5th/6th gen, getting whacked over the head with all the modern gaming tropes in this game was certainly jarring at first. There's a HUGE open world of fucked up america to drive around, and I really do mean HUGE. It takes about 45 minutes just to drive from one end of the map to the other, and while the copious amounts of space definitely allowed me to get into the zen headspace that long scenic car rides do, it also is just too overwhelmingly massive for me to really know what to do with. I'm the kind of guy that likes to slow down and appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into game worlds, and there's just not enough time in this universe for me to really be able to see all the sights that this game has, much less before the imminent server shutdown. So my options with world interaction slowly became a choice between slowly meandering through large empty spaces unrelated to anything else in the game, or just bumrushing straight from waypoint to waypoint to progress as much as possible. Neither of them really felt very satisfying, as both had this sense of "am I really playing this right?" lingering in the back of my head. Maybe I just need to get more comfortable with large-scale open world games, I don't really play that much in the genre.
The plot was a whole lot of whatever. Absolute junk food western shlock, yanno? Join car gang, rise the ranks in the car gang, it's edgy and gritty and written like a cheesy action movie and I can't tell how seriously it really wanted me to take it, but I eventually tuned most of the plot out and focused more on the road trips. The main character looks like what would happen if Gordon Freeman and Alex YIIK had a child, truly terrifying.
The actual racing is also solid enough. The cars control with a decent amount of weight to em, but also slide around a lot and sometimes the physics can freak out in comical ways so it's all decent enough fun. The events where you gotta take down other drivers kinda suck though, its like trying to ram a bar of soap into a drunk driver.
The game also has this huge focus on online multiplayer, with the always-on structure and how players are supposed to populate the game world in real time alongside the game being entirely playable in up to 4 player co-op meant that the biggest focus of the crew is in your literal crew of fellow players. Ironically though, in my entire playthrough of this game throughout this entire month of January I didn't bump into a SINGLE other player, despite what the large populated map every time I signed in would suggest. I left my game in "searching for crew members" mode the entire time, and not a single other soul answered the call. Surely, due to the fact the game is 10 years old and I am playing on Xbox (which is a platform that I do not really associate with active playerbases), there's not much surprise in the game being a ghost town. But that also begs the question of why this game needed to be always online in the first place when you absolutely can play the entire game solo and enjoy all the game has to offer that way. The closest thing I got to human interaction was spending like 5 minutes chasing a player location waypoint only for their car to vanish like a ghost once I actually got up close to them.
Overall, it surely is a Ubisoft title. Doesn't really do anything atrocious, but also doesn't do anything amazing. I will say that the licensed OST so far has been one of the most irritating setlists I have heard though, and the game constantly rerouting my GPS waypoint to fucking Ohio or whatever to try and get me to buy the delisted DLC was very annoying. But at least I got the chance to squeeze a playthrough in before the end of times. Maybe someone might make a fan server or offline mod or some shit to keep this game preserved and accessible down the line, but I won't hold my breath. Shame too, because while the game was certainly kinda existantcore to me, I definitely think enough effort was put into it that it's lowkey a waste to just get rid of it. Please look forward to my review of the Crew 2 in 2028 when the servers for that are about to bite the dust.
I was planning to play this way later but the whole server shutdown turning every copy of this game into a coaster in 3 months forced me to play my hand and see what this game is all about.
Considering the fact that I've mostly been playing racing games from 5th/6th gen, getting whacked over the head with all the modern gaming tropes in this game was certainly jarring at first. There's a HUGE open world of fucked up america to drive around, and I really do mean HUGE. It takes about 45 minutes just to drive from one end of the map to the other, and while the copious amounts of space definitely allowed me to get into the zen headspace that long scenic car rides do, it also is just too overwhelmingly massive for me to really know what to do with. I'm the kind of guy that likes to slow down and appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into game worlds, and there's just not enough time in this universe for me to really be able to see all the sights that this game has, much less before the imminent server shutdown. So my options with world interaction slowly became a choice between slowly meandering through large empty spaces unrelated to anything else in the game, or just bumrushing straight from waypoint to waypoint to progress as much as possible. Neither of them really felt very satisfying, as both had this sense of "am I really playing this right?" lingering in the back of my head. Maybe I just need to get more comfortable with large-scale open world games, I don't really play that much in the genre.
The plot was a whole lot of whatever. Absolute junk food western shlock, yanno? Join car gang, rise the ranks in the car gang, it's edgy and gritty and written like a cheesy action movie and I can't tell how seriously it really wanted me to take it, but I eventually tuned most of the plot out and focused more on the road trips. The main character looks like what would happen if Gordon Freeman and Alex YIIK had a child, truly terrifying.
The actual racing is also solid enough. The cars control with a decent amount of weight to em, but also slide around a lot and sometimes the physics can freak out in comical ways so it's all decent enough fun. The events where you gotta take down other drivers kinda suck though, its like trying to ram a bar of soap into a drunk driver.
The game also has this huge focus on online multiplayer, with the always-on structure and how players are supposed to populate the game world in real time alongside the game being entirely playable in up to 4 player co-op meant that the biggest focus of the crew is in your literal crew of fellow players. Ironically though, in my entire playthrough of this game throughout this entire month of January I didn't bump into a SINGLE other player, despite what the large populated map every time I signed in would suggest. I left my game in "searching for crew members" mode the entire time, and not a single other soul answered the call. Surely, due to the fact the game is 10 years old and I am playing on Xbox (which is a platform that I do not really associate with active playerbases), there's not much surprise in the game being a ghost town. But that also begs the question of why this game needed to be always online in the first place when you absolutely can play the entire game solo and enjoy all the game has to offer that way. The closest thing I got to human interaction was spending like 5 minutes chasing a player location waypoint only for their car to vanish like a ghost once I actually got up close to them.
Overall, it surely is a Ubisoft title. Doesn't really do anything atrocious, but also doesn't do anything amazing. I will say that the licensed OST so far has been one of the most irritating setlists I have heard though, and the game constantly rerouting my GPS waypoint to fucking Ohio or whatever to try and get me to buy the delisted DLC was very annoying. But at least I got the chance to squeeze a playthrough in before the end of times. Maybe someone might make a fan server or offline mod or some shit to keep this game preserved and accessible down the line, but I won't hold my breath. Shame too, because while the game was certainly kinda existantcore to me, I definitely think enough effort was put into it that it's lowkey a waste to just get rid of it. Please look forward to my review of the Crew 2 in 2028 when the servers for that are about to bite the dust.
2008
EA usually doesn't make very much that interests me outside of the Need For Speed series, but occasionally they make something that's super interesting like this or Unraveled (which I still haven't gotten around to, but will eventually!). Aesthetically, this game owns. There's an excellent use of color and lighting here as each setpiece and landmark is clearly and carefully shaded to make such a unique visual identity that no other game before or really since has recaptured. The fact that this game happened to release in the gaming era where all the other heavily-marketed blockbusters shared the same gritty tone and oppressive color palettes also helped it stand out among its peers. It certainly did for me; I remember seeing gaming sites and magazines cover this game back then and being enamored by its visual style, and while I never did play this game in its time, I definitely gave the PS3 demo a shot. The clear blue skies contrasted with the pure white/reflective cityscape highlighted only by the red context-sensitive objective points is that good shit.
The gameplay consists of parkour freerunning from point to point in order to clear various levels. It's got a decent amount of heft to it, a la cinematic platformers like Prince of Persia or Out of this World, but done in a first person perspective and smoothened out just a tad. The level designs are open and multifaceted (except for when they aren't), and even if you get lost theres a button that points you in the right direction (except for when it doesn't). Sometimes the game slows the pace of the parkour running down to instead focus on either puzzle platforming challenges where ya gotta figure out how to get from point A to B, or combat challenges where there's tons of enemies and ya gotta beat em up to proceed. The game has a short length, roughly 4-6 hours, which honestly became a godsend to me as the further the game went, the less patience I had with it. The reason for that being....
The game makes me motion sick! I've played a lot of games in all sorts of perspectives and framerates, and with the exception of VR titles I don't get any sort of fatigue/sickness from vidya gamin. This game actually got to me though and gave me headaches!!!! The first person perspective is constantly bobbing, even when standing still, and doing all sorts of acrobatics, ledge climbing, wall jumping, pole sliding, and parkour rolling just got me disoriented. The game also has quite a closed-in FOV that didn't make things much nicer. The lack of any sort of static HUD alongside a crosshair that's just a miniscule dot also doesn't give the game any sort of static anchor on the screen to help with the motion and FOV problems. I'm sure on PC there are settings and mods to fix all of those issues, so I'd def suggest playing this there if you are sensitive to that kind of thing, but on console you just gotta take the vertigo like a man. If this game was in VR it would absolutely kill me for sure.
It's certainly a one of a kind game, for better or for worse. Can't really even blame the lack of accessibility options, this game came out at a time when most people didn't think about that kinda thing as well as them very clearly wanting to have this distinct gopro-core POV feel to it with the freerunning so yea. I don't see many other people complain about the motionsickness here and my friends that have played this were unaffected so maybe everyone else is just built different. Shoutouts to the xbox version essentially being remastered when played on series X, as there's a 4K resolution bump, native HDR support, and an FPS boost to 60 from the original games SDR 30FPS 720p output. It really makes the already-timeless artstyle shine even more, the upgrades def make this 16-year-old game look almost current gen! though honestly if you are to play this just get the PC version instead to potentially make it more comfortable...
sasuga mirrors edge. the only flat 2D TV ass game to give me headaches from playing. it was cool! but im gonna go lie down now
The gameplay consists of parkour freerunning from point to point in order to clear various levels. It's got a decent amount of heft to it, a la cinematic platformers like Prince of Persia or Out of this World, but done in a first person perspective and smoothened out just a tad. The level designs are open and multifaceted (except for when they aren't), and even if you get lost theres a button that points you in the right direction (except for when it doesn't). Sometimes the game slows the pace of the parkour running down to instead focus on either puzzle platforming challenges where ya gotta figure out how to get from point A to B, or combat challenges where there's tons of enemies and ya gotta beat em up to proceed. The game has a short length, roughly 4-6 hours, which honestly became a godsend to me as the further the game went, the less patience I had with it. The reason for that being....
The game makes me motion sick! I've played a lot of games in all sorts of perspectives and framerates, and with the exception of VR titles I don't get any sort of fatigue/sickness from vidya gamin. This game actually got to me though and gave me headaches!!!! The first person perspective is constantly bobbing, even when standing still, and doing all sorts of acrobatics, ledge climbing, wall jumping, pole sliding, and parkour rolling just got me disoriented. The game also has quite a closed-in FOV that didn't make things much nicer. The lack of any sort of static HUD alongside a crosshair that's just a miniscule dot also doesn't give the game any sort of static anchor on the screen to help with the motion and FOV problems. I'm sure on PC there are settings and mods to fix all of those issues, so I'd def suggest playing this there if you are sensitive to that kind of thing, but on console you just gotta take the vertigo like a man. If this game was in VR it would absolutely kill me for sure.
It's certainly a one of a kind game, for better or for worse. Can't really even blame the lack of accessibility options, this game came out at a time when most people didn't think about that kinda thing as well as them very clearly wanting to have this distinct gopro-core POV feel to it with the freerunning so yea. I don't see many other people complain about the motionsickness here and my friends that have played this were unaffected so maybe everyone else is just built different. Shoutouts to the xbox version essentially being remastered when played on series X, as there's a 4K resolution bump, native HDR support, and an FPS boost to 60 from the original games SDR 30FPS 720p output. It really makes the already-timeless artstyle shine even more, the upgrades def make this 16-year-old game look almost current gen! though honestly if you are to play this just get the PC version instead to potentially make it more comfortable...
sasuga mirrors edge. the only flat 2D TV ass game to give me headaches from playing. it was cool! but im gonna go lie down now
1999
The first strider game was a fun albeit hard to initially grasp arcade game with really cool ideas and a sizable learning curve both with play control and level memorization. This game basically takes the good parts of strider 1 and "modernizes" them to shine brighter than they did previously. They cracked up the movement speed and gave the game much more fluid controls, which makes it easy to get in a nice flow state of goin fast and kickin ass through the levels. The game constantly references iconic moments in the first game like the gravity changing chambers with the sphere bosses, the bouncy laser chambers, and the multi-segmented dragon bosses, all in new ways that keep the game fresh while still making it feel like strider. The visuals are also super rad, with stylish cutscenes and that kino late-90s capcom pixel art powering the character sprites. My only real gripe with the game is the fact that the PS1 port gives infinite continues which makes it incredibly easy to credit spam and trivialize the entire game in like 20 minutes. There's a rating system that will let you know you suck for doing that, and you can obviously stick to the 1CC code of honor should you choose, but idk I feel like doing what a lot of other arcade console ports do and giving a limited credit pool that builds up over repeated game overs would have done better to potentially get goop-brained gamers like me to engage with the levels and mechanics more. It's definitely one of those games where you have to really be self-motivated to master it if you want, because the game doesn't really offer much incentive and motivation to get cracked at it itself. Regardless, if the rigidity of the original strider game was a bit much for ya, just play this instead.
1996
hell yeah. This shit is 90s anime as FUCK, it's got it all. vibe girls, vibe OST, vibe setting, it owns. The plot basically consists of 3 girls that can dive into a physical manifestation of technology to help solve problems and save the world n whatnot. The cast is rad; there's Alice, your typical anime heroine, Rena, your Oujousama type beat, and Juri, the more moe-coded one whose ditziness makes her the punching bag of the group. The writing is also great, and I never got tired of hearing the banter between the three as they go through the game. The gameplay is basically an adventure game/VN with occasional RPG battles that use a rock-paper-scissors system, and while it's a bit frustrating to have the tides of battle be essentially up to chance, I never actually lost any encounter and the battles are so few and far between that they may all be rigged from the start to make the whole combat system a placebo.
The game is basically paced in a way where things just happen and ya gotta roll with it as it comes. A lot of the conflicts happen for very "blink and you miss it" reasons, and the game has a LOT of stuff crammed inside its brisk 4-hour runtime. Like, sometimes a girls cyberpet will go crazy in the cyber movie world and ya gotta stop it, or sometimes your QT classmate will get possessed by her new smart watch to become a baddie cat-themed phantom thief. The game actually did end up predicting a lot of the modern cyberworld, including the existence of vtubers, AI deepfakes, NFTs, and the overabundance of garbage information, which is quite crazy for a PS1 game. The world building is quite cracked indeed. There's also an entire optional bonus chapter where you can go on a gay date with one of the side characters, and it's done in a really innocent and wholesome way instead of being really weird and fanservicey about it. Fuck yeah.
It's just good vibes all around. I looked around on mobygames to see what the heck the studio and people behind this game went on to do, only to find the studio behind this only made like one other game, and most key staff members went on to either work at konami or sega. Truly an anomaly of a video game. But still, got damn, this game was some of that good shit.
The game is basically paced in a way where things just happen and ya gotta roll with it as it comes. A lot of the conflicts happen for very "blink and you miss it" reasons, and the game has a LOT of stuff crammed inside its brisk 4-hour runtime. Like, sometimes a girls cyberpet will go crazy in the cyber movie world and ya gotta stop it, or sometimes your QT classmate will get possessed by her new smart watch to become a baddie cat-themed phantom thief. The game actually did end up predicting a lot of the modern cyberworld, including the existence of vtubers, AI deepfakes, NFTs, and the overabundance of garbage information, which is quite crazy for a PS1 game. The world building is quite cracked indeed. There's also an entire optional bonus chapter where you can go on a gay date with one of the side characters, and it's done in a really innocent and wholesome way instead of being really weird and fanservicey about it. Fuck yeah.
It's just good vibes all around. I looked around on mobygames to see what the heck the studio and people behind this game went on to do, only to find the studio behind this only made like one other game, and most key staff members went on to either work at konami or sega. Truly an anomaly of a video game. But still, got damn, this game was some of that good shit.
Another year, another Yakuza. Crazy to think I've been keeping this tradition of mine going for the past 7 years at this point.
It's definitely scaled back from the 5th game in terms of content, but honestly I felt like that was for the better. Yakuza 4 and 5 were getting to the point of being a bit overly bloated with content that it kinda muddied the actual connecting plot imo, so to focus solely on kiryu and his journey between two different towns a la the games previous to 4 was a solid move. The actual gameplay is still the same as always in the series; beat up dudes, explore wonderfully modelled Cool Japan, do wacky sidestories, crime drama, the whole nine yards are still here.
The Dragon Engine looks as breathtaking as always, I kept being blown away by the usage of lighting and how good the character models looked. The game likes to simulate that kinda lens flarey type effect that bright lights in darkness have and it looks REALLY good imo. I spent a lot of my time just admiring the visual fidelity of everything, and the game getting FPS boost on Series X is always welcome. I'm certainly looking forward to playing the dragon engine games that are on modern hardware just to see how much more the visuals can improve.
The storyline though, is a bit uhhhhhhhhhhhhh
It's supposed to be the end of the Kiryu saga, but didn't really focus on much of the things that Kiryu had done in the previous games. Similarly to Yakuza 3, Kiryu finds himself inducted in a local Yakuza group (who me and my friends have dubbed "bozo gang"), and tbh how much you like these random dudes and their antics of questionable intelligence will make or break your enjoyment of the game. The character writing in this game isn't really BAD per se, but it's definitely strange. Apparently there's a different writer for this compared to the previous game, and it kinda shows. Kiryu acts quite differently from how I would have expected him to in certain scenes, almost to the point of being a borderline parody of himself. The substories are also significantly longer in this game which makes the classic yakuza problem of substory jumpscares all the more annoying. I guess at the end of the day the plot was still entertaining to me, but I definitely couldn't take it nearly as seriously as the previous 5 games just due to how off the characters were acting.
In short, yea. It's more yakuza. Yakuza is like pizza; even when it's questionably written, it's still pretty good. I'm glad that they decided to go back to a more streamlined shorter pace for this one though. Can't wait for the next ones to be just as short! (pray for me in 2026)
It's definitely scaled back from the 5th game in terms of content, but honestly I felt like that was for the better. Yakuza 4 and 5 were getting to the point of being a bit overly bloated with content that it kinda muddied the actual connecting plot imo, so to focus solely on kiryu and his journey between two different towns a la the games previous to 4 was a solid move. The actual gameplay is still the same as always in the series; beat up dudes, explore wonderfully modelled Cool Japan, do wacky sidestories, crime drama, the whole nine yards are still here.
The Dragon Engine looks as breathtaking as always, I kept being blown away by the usage of lighting and how good the character models looked. The game likes to simulate that kinda lens flarey type effect that bright lights in darkness have and it looks REALLY good imo. I spent a lot of my time just admiring the visual fidelity of everything, and the game getting FPS boost on Series X is always welcome. I'm certainly looking forward to playing the dragon engine games that are on modern hardware just to see how much more the visuals can improve.
The storyline though, is a bit uhhhhhhhhhhhhh
It's supposed to be the end of the Kiryu saga, but didn't really focus on much of the things that Kiryu had done in the previous games. Similarly to Yakuza 3, Kiryu finds himself inducted in a local Yakuza group (who me and my friends have dubbed "bozo gang"), and tbh how much you like these random dudes and their antics of questionable intelligence will make or break your enjoyment of the game. The character writing in this game isn't really BAD per se, but it's definitely strange. Apparently there's a different writer for this compared to the previous game, and it kinda shows. Kiryu acts quite differently from how I would have expected him to in certain scenes, almost to the point of being a borderline parody of himself. The substories are also significantly longer in this game which makes the classic yakuza problem of substory jumpscares all the more annoying. I guess at the end of the day the plot was still entertaining to me, but I definitely couldn't take it nearly as seriously as the previous 5 games just due to how off the characters were acting.
In short, yea. It's more yakuza. Yakuza is like pizza; even when it's questionably written, it's still pretty good. I'm glad that they decided to go back to a more streamlined shorter pace for this one though. Can't wait for the next ones to be just as short! (pray for me in 2026)
2013
They pretty much improved the animation aspect of flipnote studio by giving a bigger canvas, more colors, and 3D depth support, but what's even the point when the whole online community aspect got cancelled internationally and the game was exclusive to club nintendo members for a sizeable portion of its life. I think Nintendo got scared from the great swapnote spotpass scandals and just decided miiverse was enough to moderate as is. You might be able to share flipnotes through streetpass but that had never happened to me in my entire time of bringing my 3DS to high school so that sure goes to show how effective that was. It's a good animation tool for sure, but I just can't think of it as anything other than a complete disappointment with immeasurable amounts of wasted potential.
2008
Didn't have this logged due to the fact that it's not technically a game per se but fuck it we ballin
I remember back in like 2009 I was a plucky kid on a camping trip with some other fellow plucky kids and one of them had a DSi. It was with that kid that I learned about the many features of the DSi, like the goofy sound and photo apps, the ability to use a rainbow pen in pictochat, and most importantly, the ability to make crude animations of stickmen getting brutally mutilated through a mysterious orange app called flipnote studio. After that camping trip, I knew that I had to start saving up for a DSi.
Flipnote Studio is a flipbook animation program. It's featureset is light enough to the point where anyone can figure out how to use it, yet still offers enough features for talented artists and animators to make their work shine. The game used to offer an online service where users could upload and share their own animations as well as view and download other users animations, and that combined with the apps free price tag essentially meant everyone with a DSi at the time had access to this entire online subculture of music videos, fan re-edits, stick fights, and more.
It was basically my first exposure to social media back in the day. I (thankfully) wasn't allowed to go on the greater parts of the internet or youtube back then outside of like randomly researching old video games, so through flipnote studio I was able to keep up with all sorts of internet inside jokes and memes, even if most of them were exclusive to the flipnote studio subculture. It was pretty much a mixture of youtube and newgrounds except mostly populated by kids and nintendo fans, shit was crazy.
I was certainly a stick figure guy, watching stuff like gizmos many goofy stick figure cartoons, or getting immersed in BosS' kingdom-hearts-ass shonen anime-core serial dramas, which I always adored the aesthetic of despite not really understanding their influences back in the day. And of course, let's not forget the legendary stick fight animation by 100%, that shit was copied and pasted NONSTOP with all sorts of fan edits and song changes throughout all the years I used hatena. Another noteworthy creator I followed was fred, whose smooth criminal music video is still saved on my DSi to this day. It was also cool to see the flipnote microcelebrities pay tribute back to the community with their own flair, especially since gizmo's harder better faster stronger boo video might as well be the poster animation for hatena as a whole. Boy, did hatena love to play that song everywhere. There are a lot of other flipnotes that shaped the platform, far more than I could detail.
The flipnote hatena service would eventually shut down in 2013, and with the 3DS version to succeed it getting stuck in developmental hell to the point where online support internationally was cancelled, it ostensibly marked an end of an era. A time period that you really had to be there for in order to have truly appreciated it. Or so you thought!!! Not only does the excellent flipnote archive that I've been using to grab old examples still exist making virtually every previous noteworthy flipnote and creator still accessible in the present day, but also there exists the sudomemo service, which restores online flipnote functionality on the original app with just a simple DNS change in your DS online settings. Sure, the community is a bit smaller now than what it once was, but there are still people making stuff, the flipnote dreams are still alive. The fact I was able to watch several undertale animations on the same old DSi I had as a kid just feels like a time paradox, but it is indeed real and possible.
It's crazy that I can write so much about a simple animation program, but I think this little app is so well loved for a reason. I feel like everyone has their own personal experiences with Flipnote Studio/Hatena, so I wanted to share my own. The one thing that I won't share, though, were the flipnotes that kid me made and uploaded to the service. Nobody needs to see those and they will remain between me and God for as long as I draw breath. Then again, maybe I should make something new and post it to sudomemo some day, just for old times's sake.
I remember back in like 2009 I was a plucky kid on a camping trip with some other fellow plucky kids and one of them had a DSi. It was with that kid that I learned about the many features of the DSi, like the goofy sound and photo apps, the ability to use a rainbow pen in pictochat, and most importantly, the ability to make crude animations of stickmen getting brutally mutilated through a mysterious orange app called flipnote studio. After that camping trip, I knew that I had to start saving up for a DSi.
Flipnote Studio is a flipbook animation program. It's featureset is light enough to the point where anyone can figure out how to use it, yet still offers enough features for talented artists and animators to make their work shine. The game used to offer an online service where users could upload and share their own animations as well as view and download other users animations, and that combined with the apps free price tag essentially meant everyone with a DSi at the time had access to this entire online subculture of music videos, fan re-edits, stick fights, and more.
It was basically my first exposure to social media back in the day. I (thankfully) wasn't allowed to go on the greater parts of the internet or youtube back then outside of like randomly researching old video games, so through flipnote studio I was able to keep up with all sorts of internet inside jokes and memes, even if most of them were exclusive to the flipnote studio subculture. It was pretty much a mixture of youtube and newgrounds except mostly populated by kids and nintendo fans, shit was crazy.
I was certainly a stick figure guy, watching stuff like gizmos many goofy stick figure cartoons, or getting immersed in BosS' kingdom-hearts-ass shonen anime-core serial dramas, which I always adored the aesthetic of despite not really understanding their influences back in the day. And of course, let's not forget the legendary stick fight animation by 100%, that shit was copied and pasted NONSTOP with all sorts of fan edits and song changes throughout all the years I used hatena. Another noteworthy creator I followed was fred, whose smooth criminal music video is still saved on my DSi to this day. It was also cool to see the flipnote microcelebrities pay tribute back to the community with their own flair, especially since gizmo's harder better faster stronger boo video might as well be the poster animation for hatena as a whole. Boy, did hatena love to play that song everywhere. There are a lot of other flipnotes that shaped the platform, far more than I could detail.
The flipnote hatena service would eventually shut down in 2013, and with the 3DS version to succeed it getting stuck in developmental hell to the point where online support internationally was cancelled, it ostensibly marked an end of an era. A time period that you really had to be there for in order to have truly appreciated it. Or so you thought!!! Not only does the excellent flipnote archive that I've been using to grab old examples still exist making virtually every previous noteworthy flipnote and creator still accessible in the present day, but also there exists the sudomemo service, which restores online flipnote functionality on the original app with just a simple DNS change in your DS online settings. Sure, the community is a bit smaller now than what it once was, but there are still people making stuff, the flipnote dreams are still alive. The fact I was able to watch several undertale animations on the same old DSi I had as a kid just feels like a time paradox, but it is indeed real and possible.
It's crazy that I can write so much about a simple animation program, but I think this little app is so well loved for a reason. I feel like everyone has their own personal experiences with Flipnote Studio/Hatena, so I wanted to share my own. The one thing that I won't share, though, were the flipnotes that kid me made and uploaded to the service. Nobody needs to see those and they will remain between me and God for as long as I draw breath. Then again, maybe I should make something new and post it to sudomemo some day, just for old times's sake.
Definitely not as cracked as I was hoping "dating party game by hudson soft" to be, but still pretty interesting nonetheless! It basically takes the concepts of stat/affinity/time management used in dating sims and puts it in a (comparatively) short competitive environment. You and 3 other lucky bachelors have 14 days to court the girl of your liking, and the first person to successfully confess their love and be accepted by any girl wins the game. Each day is split into 3 distinct times of day, and you basically choose where you want to go for each time of the day. There are items that can be used to cause shenanigans between other players and ruin their dates. Players have to manage a general looks and stamina stat by spending time staying home to bathe/rest instead of chasing girls. It's a bit of a handful to learn at first but once a few turns settle in things make a solid amount of sense.
My only problems are really from the games pacing and the cast of girls. The girls are pretty swagless all things considered, and the game kinda just railroads you down a particular girl (usually the first that you happen to bump into) to stay competing with the other players, personal feelings be damned. In my party of 3 there wasn't any particular character that got any real reaction out of us, which is kinda problem when the girls themselves are supposed to be the emotional motivators yanno? Each girl also isn't the most balanced, as I completely threw the game by going after a girl that barely talked and didn't follow any specific schedule. The game also definitely drags on a bit, a day takes about 10-20 minutes which makes a full 14 day run take several hours. My group got pretty exhausted by the end of the first week... Due to the dating simulatory nature of it, everyone's gotta do a lot of reading, which isn't necessarily something that everyone is gonna have the same attention span for unfortunately. Unless this game randomizes every girls personalities for every playthrough, I feel like this game would also absolutely favor those that play it more frequently as the girls generally have the same schedules which allows you to predict where to go, giving first timers a huge disadvantage. Lastly, there's the stereotypical ugly girl that functions as an FOE to be avoided at all costs, and while the game SAYS she targets whoever is in first place, I was in dead last the whole game and was stuck with her for THREE different days.
Overall it was okay. Definitely not as peak as I was expecting it to be, but still an interesting curiosity. I didn't even know this game got a full fan translation recently which actually allowed me to play this with my non-japanese-literate friends which was rad. That being said, if you want a more simple and fun party game based on the premise of being the biggest chick magnet, Koi Wa Balance on the satellaview is the way to go (and also miraculously fan-translated to english!)
My only problems are really from the games pacing and the cast of girls. The girls are pretty swagless all things considered, and the game kinda just railroads you down a particular girl (usually the first that you happen to bump into) to stay competing with the other players, personal feelings be damned. In my party of 3 there wasn't any particular character that got any real reaction out of us, which is kinda problem when the girls themselves are supposed to be the emotional motivators yanno? Each girl also isn't the most balanced, as I completely threw the game by going after a girl that barely talked and didn't follow any specific schedule. The game also definitely drags on a bit, a day takes about 10-20 minutes which makes a full 14 day run take several hours. My group got pretty exhausted by the end of the first week... Due to the dating simulatory nature of it, everyone's gotta do a lot of reading, which isn't necessarily something that everyone is gonna have the same attention span for unfortunately. Unless this game randomizes every girls personalities for every playthrough, I feel like this game would also absolutely favor those that play it more frequently as the girls generally have the same schedules which allows you to predict where to go, giving first timers a huge disadvantage. Lastly, there's the stereotypical ugly girl that functions as an FOE to be avoided at all costs, and while the game SAYS she targets whoever is in first place, I was in dead last the whole game and was stuck with her for THREE different days.
Overall it was okay. Definitely not as peak as I was expecting it to be, but still an interesting curiosity. I didn't even know this game got a full fan translation recently which actually allowed me to play this with my non-japanese-literate friends which was rad. That being said, if you want a more simple and fun party game based on the premise of being the biggest chick magnet, Koi Wa Balance on the satellaview is the way to go (and also miraculously fan-translated to english!)
Ah, yes. After almost 24 years on this earth, I have finally played a "Tou hou" video game. It's honestly hard to overstate the impact that this series has on the internet culture as a whole, and ZUN's choice of essentially putting his characters and IP into the true public domain has done wonders for the world. Honestly given my interest in older games and general weebshit, it's an honest to god wonder how it's taken me so long to actually play a game in this series.
It's a solid if not slightly frustrating time. I've heard this game be described as a breakout clone but it really doesn't play much like that all things considered. The main crux of the game comes from manipulating this yin-yang ball to either defeat enemies or overturn background tiles by either kicking or shooting it. The ball also has the potential to kill you if you touch it though, so make sure to time your inputs properly! The game is definitely simple to learn but hard to really master and get good at, which is something that I have a feeling will carry on to other games in the series. There are also a ton of secret techniques that can be done with certain key inputs when certain criteria are met, which honestly makes the game feel like it has a lot more depth than it initially lets on. That being said though I suck at the game so getting the ball to actually hit bosses was an absolute trial in frustration, ESPECIALLY with the makai final boss. Fighting that shit is like trying to play soccer while the entire US armed forces are on your ass. The fact that the game grades you upon completion and has the best endings locked behind 1CCs def gives me the impression that it's one of those games that is meant to be learned and mastered. I don't have that kind of time though, so bad endings and youtube it is!
Overall it def feels like an experimental one-man project, and I do mean that in a good way. The fact that this was all made by one dude as a doujin game is hella cool in its own right tbh. The mechanical complexity of something cool is here, even if the execution is a bit of a struggle to actually learn and overcome through. I'd imagine that ZUN would go on to hone his craft more with the sequels.
It's a solid if not slightly frustrating time. I've heard this game be described as a breakout clone but it really doesn't play much like that all things considered. The main crux of the game comes from manipulating this yin-yang ball to either defeat enemies or overturn background tiles by either kicking or shooting it. The ball also has the potential to kill you if you touch it though, so make sure to time your inputs properly! The game is definitely simple to learn but hard to really master and get good at, which is something that I have a feeling will carry on to other games in the series. There are also a ton of secret techniques that can be done with certain key inputs when certain criteria are met, which honestly makes the game feel like it has a lot more depth than it initially lets on. That being said though I suck at the game so getting the ball to actually hit bosses was an absolute trial in frustration, ESPECIALLY with the makai final boss. Fighting that shit is like trying to play soccer while the entire US armed forces are on your ass. The fact that the game grades you upon completion and has the best endings locked behind 1CCs def gives me the impression that it's one of those games that is meant to be learned and mastered. I don't have that kind of time though, so bad endings and youtube it is!
Overall it def feels like an experimental one-man project, and I do mean that in a good way. The fact that this was all made by one dude as a doujin game is hella cool in its own right tbh. The mechanical complexity of something cool is here, even if the execution is a bit of a struggle to actually learn and overcome through. I'd imagine that ZUN would go on to hone his craft more with the sequels.
1990
It was alright. More games need a game over goblin that smirks at your failures and flips you off whenever you complete a level. It's a pretty no-frills shmup with a few random absurdist enemies that caught me off guard a few times and gameplay that's all about manipulatin the surrounding options for both offensive and defensive purposes. It do have that Gradius problem where dying once basically fucks your entire run over, but the short overall run time of only 5 levels actually makes restarting not that painful. Overall a decent enough easier shmup.
its more ranma baby
This time around it's more of a 1 on 1 fighting game rather than the spartan X vibes of the first game or the digital comic vibes of the second game (that i have not played yet due to time but likely will eventually). The fighting is jank as to be kinda expected with masayas ranma games, but it works decently well enough I guess. It's not nearly as unbalanced as the first ranma PCE game that's for sure. The cutscenes also have a fair bit more work put into their production, likely due to usin the trusty super CD card. Not really too much else to say tbh. If ya like ranma and have mild jank tolerance then give it a go.
(also shoutouts to the dev team for adding sonic-CD-esque hidden content behind secret passwords, there's tons of weird stuff ranging from a photograph of some random dudes face and a gag animation where kunou breaks your TV to what i assume to be the art director of the game offering a mini gallery of robot ranma girls they drew. Always like it when games have those kinds of things in em. I made a thread showcasing the hidden content since I didn't find much else about it online )
This time around it's more of a 1 on 1 fighting game rather than the spartan X vibes of the first game or the digital comic vibes of the second game (that i have not played yet due to time but likely will eventually). The fighting is jank as to be kinda expected with masayas ranma games, but it works decently well enough I guess. It's not nearly as unbalanced as the first ranma PCE game that's for sure. The cutscenes also have a fair bit more work put into their production, likely due to usin the trusty super CD card. Not really too much else to say tbh. If ya like ranma and have mild jank tolerance then give it a go.
(also shoutouts to the dev team for adding sonic-CD-esque hidden content behind secret passwords, there's tons of weird stuff ranging from a photograph of some random dudes face and a gag animation where kunou breaks your TV to what i assume to be the art director of the game offering a mini gallery of robot ranma girls they drew. Always like it when games have those kinds of things in em. I made a thread showcasing the hidden content since I didn't find much else about it online )
1999
hell yea, i finally got around to playing this
it's a short and sweet lil robo-battlin part-swappin action game. It certainly has those monster collecting genre vibes as it stars a cast of plucky elementary schoolers with their cool robots that they duel for sport; there are tournaments to compete in and a shady underground gang to mess things up. Definitely standard stuff, but comfy nonetheless. The game also runs really damn smoothly on the ol' N64. It ain't the smooth consistent 60 FPS of something like F-zero X or whatever, but it's usually in the 30 and above zone which is honestly an accomplishment on that hardware.
The actual mech combat is pretty cool too! It's like a 3D arena fighter where you got 4 different methods of attack as well as a jump and airdash. The game likes to constantly hammer into you that the ideal playstyle is to use all 4 attacks in conjunction with one another to box in your opponents movement and take them out that way, but I found there's definitely enough variety in parts and customization to suit all sorts of playstyles. The game also has a knockdown mechanic where mechs go into a downed state after taking a large enough hit depending on the mech, and when they get up they have a period of invincibility to back away from. It pretty much exists as a way to prevent infinites as the combo potential this game has is really busted. It do make battles have a more stop-and-go pace because of it, but what can ya do i guess. You can also obviously duel a friend in multiplayer with each player making a custom mech, and I'd imagine theres a solid amount of depth to be had against another human, though also I feel like there would definitely be a "best" combination if you were to develop an actual meta.
It's just an honest fun game from that experimental 5th generation of systems. I'm honestly surprised that it never got an official localization given how strapped for games the N64 library was and its popularity in the west. Especially given how it was at the peak of pokemania, I feel like this game could have been a huge cult classic of the N64 library had they brought it overseas. What is it with mech collecting/customizing games that always makes them remain obscure? Every time I play something like this, gotcha force, LBX, etc, I always think to myself "how didn't this catch on?" There is a fan translation which I used and the translation quality was okay. Sometimes the text would corrupt and be unreadable though so it's certainly not the BEST way to play the game, but it's better than nothing for all you english-only gamers out there. Definitely a fun time and I'd recommend checking it out if you can do so.
it's a short and sweet lil robo-battlin part-swappin action game. It certainly has those monster collecting genre vibes as it stars a cast of plucky elementary schoolers with their cool robots that they duel for sport; there are tournaments to compete in and a shady underground gang to mess things up. Definitely standard stuff, but comfy nonetheless. The game also runs really damn smoothly on the ol' N64. It ain't the smooth consistent 60 FPS of something like F-zero X or whatever, but it's usually in the 30 and above zone which is honestly an accomplishment on that hardware.
The actual mech combat is pretty cool too! It's like a 3D arena fighter where you got 4 different methods of attack as well as a jump and airdash. The game likes to constantly hammer into you that the ideal playstyle is to use all 4 attacks in conjunction with one another to box in your opponents movement and take them out that way, but I found there's definitely enough variety in parts and customization to suit all sorts of playstyles. The game also has a knockdown mechanic where mechs go into a downed state after taking a large enough hit depending on the mech, and when they get up they have a period of invincibility to back away from. It pretty much exists as a way to prevent infinites as the combo potential this game has is really busted. It do make battles have a more stop-and-go pace because of it, but what can ya do i guess. You can also obviously duel a friend in multiplayer with each player making a custom mech, and I'd imagine theres a solid amount of depth to be had against another human, though also I feel like there would definitely be a "best" combination if you were to develop an actual meta.
It's just an honest fun game from that experimental 5th generation of systems. I'm honestly surprised that it never got an official localization given how strapped for games the N64 library was and its popularity in the west. Especially given how it was at the peak of pokemania, I feel like this game could have been a huge cult classic of the N64 library had they brought it overseas. What is it with mech collecting/customizing games that always makes them remain obscure? Every time I play something like this, gotcha force, LBX, etc, I always think to myself "how didn't this catch on?" There is a fan translation which I used and the translation quality was okay. Sometimes the text would corrupt and be unreadable though so it's certainly not the BEST way to play the game, but it's better than nothing for all you english-only gamers out there. Definitely a fun time and I'd recommend checking it out if you can do so.
1990
wtf was this shit lmfao
it's basically spartan X if it was kusoge. the hitboxes here are all sorts of fucked; Ranma has got the god foot in this shit. The air kick has a continuous hitbox that lasts as long as you hold the button down so jump kick to win the game baybee!!! there's also like a shinobi-esque timed double jump you can do that powers up your downwards jump kick just in case the regular jump kick wasn't already broken enough for ya. The balance of the game goes from infuriatingly impossible to trivially easy depending on whether or not you learn how to work the hitboxes in your favor, as bosses hit like trucks but also can go down in an instant if you jumpkick em the right way. It's just dumb, pure unadulterated kusoge. The last level is actually a pretty satisfying challenge despite the final boss being some classic BS. Would probably be a fun as hell game to speedrun given how busted it is. shoutouts to licensed shovelware bro they didn't give a FUCK
it's basically spartan X if it was kusoge. the hitboxes here are all sorts of fucked; Ranma has got the god foot in this shit. The air kick has a continuous hitbox that lasts as long as you hold the button down so jump kick to win the game baybee!!! there's also like a shinobi-esque timed double jump you can do that powers up your downwards jump kick just in case the regular jump kick wasn't already broken enough for ya. The balance of the game goes from infuriatingly impossible to trivially easy depending on whether or not you learn how to work the hitboxes in your favor, as bosses hit like trucks but also can go down in an instant if you jumpkick em the right way. It's just dumb, pure unadulterated kusoge. The last level is actually a pretty satisfying challenge despite the final boss being some classic BS. Would probably be a fun as hell game to speedrun given how busted it is. shoutouts to licensed shovelware bro they didn't give a FUCK
man...
I wanted to like this game a lot, due to both me being a reasonable enough fan of arcade dogfighting games as well as how much I admire factor 5s insane technical prowess, but shit man the balance is too off for me to really say I enjoyed myself here.
It really didn't feel like the vehicles were designed around the levels or vice versa, as each of the five main vehicles felt like they were more designed for air-to-ground combat rather than air-to-air, with maybe the exception of the V-wing? Each vehicles primary method of attack is the laser blaster cannon doohickeys, and the laser beams they shoot are slow and only shoot straight, and every vehicle except the speeder has an extremely limited supply of either static rockets or bombs as a secondary weapon. As someone used to games like Ace Combat, I was yearning for some homing missiles to actually pressure airborne enemies instead of being essentially locked to a guns-only run. Hitting moving targets was pretty much an absolute crapshoot in my run, which was kinda a problem given that's the core aspect of the gameplay. The speeder doesn't even get a secondary weapon, as it's stuck with the iconic AT-AT tripping harpoon. You actually can find upgrades for the vehicles to improve attack/defense parameters as well as getting actual homing missiles, but the game doesn't really tell you that the upgrades exist in the first place and they are quite well-hidden so it's easy to completely overlook things that make the game significantly more digestible.
On the topic of the levels themselves, things were quite inconsistent. Sometimes, a level would be quite straightforward and after a few tries of grasping the objective and routing things properly I could clear it, and sometimes the levels are marathon gauntlets from hell that took hours to get through. None of the levels have checkpoints, so it makes those longer levels all the more punishing if you die like 10 minutes into a run because that's 10 minutes you aren't mfin getting back, loser. Specific shoutouts to the level where you need to protect a whole ass city juggling different time-sensitive objectives in the mfin speeder where killing AT-ATs takes 7 centuries from needing to loop around the legs so many times. Or the many, many escort missions, particularly the one where you need to protect this random mfin ship as it slowly bumbles around four prisons collecting passengers for 10 minutes while you get pelted by TIE interceptors and SAM turrets the whole time. And let's not forget the penultimate second-to-last level where you need to destroy every single enemy unit on the map while the game just throws as much shit as it can at you, to the point where you spawn in right in front of an active homing missile cannon because fuck you I guess. Call it a skill issue or whatever but I just found this game absolutely aggravating to play through.
And that sucks! because this game does a lot of really cool things too! I really like the visuals, the fact that they were able to use the expansion pak to run the game at 480i without adding much slowdown is really impressive! There's a hefty amount of voice acting and the audio is really good due to factor 5s incredibly impressive audio compression on N64! The draw distance is really far and there's still a ton of detail in the worlds and lighting! There are tons of fun little cheat codes like the famous hidden naboo starfighter and the goofy flying car that replaces the V-wing! It has that feeling of being made by a small team that cared about what they were doing and had a decent amount of fun doing so, which pains me all the more to be filtered by it so much...
In all honesty if they put checkpoints in the longer levels and balanced the capabilities of the vehicles to more closely match what the missions demand for, this would be a banger for sure. Maybe there are mods for the PC version that do just that, I have no idea. I partly played this to hype myself up to play the sequels on gamecube, but after struggling through this game I'm def a bit weary to give those an earnest go... Maybe they will fix the problems this game had?
I wanted to like this game a lot, due to both me being a reasonable enough fan of arcade dogfighting games as well as how much I admire factor 5s insane technical prowess, but shit man the balance is too off for me to really say I enjoyed myself here.
It really didn't feel like the vehicles were designed around the levels or vice versa, as each of the five main vehicles felt like they were more designed for air-to-ground combat rather than air-to-air, with maybe the exception of the V-wing? Each vehicles primary method of attack is the laser blaster cannon doohickeys, and the laser beams they shoot are slow and only shoot straight, and every vehicle except the speeder has an extremely limited supply of either static rockets or bombs as a secondary weapon. As someone used to games like Ace Combat, I was yearning for some homing missiles to actually pressure airborne enemies instead of being essentially locked to a guns-only run. Hitting moving targets was pretty much an absolute crapshoot in my run, which was kinda a problem given that's the core aspect of the gameplay. The speeder doesn't even get a secondary weapon, as it's stuck with the iconic AT-AT tripping harpoon. You actually can find upgrades for the vehicles to improve attack/defense parameters as well as getting actual homing missiles, but the game doesn't really tell you that the upgrades exist in the first place and they are quite well-hidden so it's easy to completely overlook things that make the game significantly more digestible.
On the topic of the levels themselves, things were quite inconsistent. Sometimes, a level would be quite straightforward and after a few tries of grasping the objective and routing things properly I could clear it, and sometimes the levels are marathon gauntlets from hell that took hours to get through. None of the levels have checkpoints, so it makes those longer levels all the more punishing if you die like 10 minutes into a run because that's 10 minutes you aren't mfin getting back, loser. Specific shoutouts to the level where you need to protect a whole ass city juggling different time-sensitive objectives in the mfin speeder where killing AT-ATs takes 7 centuries from needing to loop around the legs so many times. Or the many, many escort missions, particularly the one where you need to protect this random mfin ship as it slowly bumbles around four prisons collecting passengers for 10 minutes while you get pelted by TIE interceptors and SAM turrets the whole time. And let's not forget the penultimate second-to-last level where you need to destroy every single enemy unit on the map while the game just throws as much shit as it can at you, to the point where you spawn in right in front of an active homing missile cannon because fuck you I guess. Call it a skill issue or whatever but I just found this game absolutely aggravating to play through.
And that sucks! because this game does a lot of really cool things too! I really like the visuals, the fact that they were able to use the expansion pak to run the game at 480i without adding much slowdown is really impressive! There's a hefty amount of voice acting and the audio is really good due to factor 5s incredibly impressive audio compression on N64! The draw distance is really far and there's still a ton of detail in the worlds and lighting! There are tons of fun little cheat codes like the famous hidden naboo starfighter and the goofy flying car that replaces the V-wing! It has that feeling of being made by a small team that cared about what they were doing and had a decent amount of fun doing so, which pains me all the more to be filtered by it so much...
In all honesty if they put checkpoints in the longer levels and balanced the capabilities of the vehicles to more closely match what the missions demand for, this would be a banger for sure. Maybe there are mods for the PC version that do just that, I have no idea. I partly played this to hype myself up to play the sequels on gamecube, but after struggling through this game I'm def a bit weary to give those an earnest go... Maybe they will fix the problems this game had?
This game is pretty much the unfortunate result of not only delayed game localizations but localizing games with licenced content in general. This is the second american DDR game at a time when japan already had 6 main mixes, a best of mix, 2 club discs, and 3 dancing stage side-games. Instead of doing another US DDR1 best-hits style setlist, konamix opts instead to go solely for konami original music, not a single dancemania license is in sight here. On one hand it works out because there's already a large wealth of songs from the previous JPN games to pick from to make the setlist a very satiable 52 songs wide, but at the same time it feels like it's missing something thanks to no licenses.
The game also uses the engine and assets from DDR 4thmix which I definitely understand given that this was likely the slapdashiest of rush jobs to make another US DDR game and 5hmixes buttery smooth 60fps PS1 engine was only like 7 months prior to this games release, but it is certainly jarring to go back to the lower framerate. That being said though, there are 5thmix songs in this so they must have spent time backporting new songs to an older engine in some capacity.
It's a strange mix for sure and definitely a byproduct of circumstance, but it's still fun enough to go through. Would definitely have been solid enough to get a DDR fix for an american gamer that can't play the JPN mixes.
The game also uses the engine and assets from DDR 4thmix which I definitely understand given that this was likely the slapdashiest of rush jobs to make another US DDR game and 5hmixes buttery smooth 60fps PS1 engine was only like 7 months prior to this games release, but it is certainly jarring to go back to the lower framerate. That being said though, there are 5thmix songs in this so they must have spent time backporting new songs to an older engine in some capacity.
It's a strange mix for sure and definitely a byproduct of circumstance, but it's still fun enough to go through. Would definitely have been solid enough to get a DDR fix for an american gamer that can't play the JPN mixes.