Posted October 18, 2008
A couple of games that, while released recently, would be more in line with older games in terms of gameplay, or are, in fact, spiritual successors to them.
Bionic Commando: Rearmed - after some first-hand experience with the NES game, I realized just how awesome this game could turn out to be. I wasn't mistaken, it really is an 8-bit platformer brought back, the gameplay and the graphics highly polished, but mostly unaltered. As for the game itself: basically, it's a platformer without jumping. Instead, you swing around using your bionic arm in style. The ending sequence of the game was quite spectacular in the NES version, and that scene, has thankfully been retained (and is also pretty much the only reason for the M rating of the game). Enough talk, check out the launch trailer and the Japanese trailer instead.
King's Bounty: The Legend - So, a bunch of guys decided to make a spiritual successor to King's Bounty, and eventually managed to get the rights to the name as well. In the original game you'd be running around on a world map, hunting down villains and battling bandits with your army in turn-based fashion, kind of like Heroes of Might and Magic, minus the strategy part. In this game, they decided to leave the strategy aspect to HoMM, but they boosted the tactical and adventure/RPG parts considerably. Quests, while still pretty basic, sometimes have multiple solutions now. The creatures you can recruit have lots of varied skills and abilities at their disposal. You can equip your hero with tons of different weapons and artifacts, and have him learn new skills by spending the runes you earn when leveling up. Aside from magic spells, you now have four Rage Spirits to summon during battles, each with four unique abilities. The polished mechanics of the game are accompanied by great art design, presenting a colorful, if generic fantasy world. The genericness of the setting isn't a huge flaw, since the game does not take itself too seriously. Just check the writeups on RPS and [url=http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/10/13/still-consumed-by-kings-bounty/]here to see how crazy things get. The game suffers from a bad translation, but is still excellent.
World of Goo - An indie physics-based puzzle game, with graphics reminiscent of an era of gaming when there were still blue skies in games. Aside from having stylish graphics and great music, the game sports incredibly inventive levels. There's always something new and interesting going on. The narrative is outright bizarre, and entertaining precisely for that reason. However, the game is fairly short - I would still highly recommend it, because what's there is excellent. Go grab the demo consisting of the first chapter here.
Now it's your turn, list whatever else you can. No unreleased games, please, despite the fact that remakes seem to be the "in" thing now, with new X-COM, Syndicate, Carrier Command, etc. games on their way.
Bionic Commando: Rearmed - after some first-hand experience with the NES game, I realized just how awesome this game could turn out to be. I wasn't mistaken, it really is an 8-bit platformer brought back, the gameplay and the graphics highly polished, but mostly unaltered. As for the game itself: basically, it's a platformer without jumping. Instead, you swing around using your bionic arm in style. The ending sequence of the game was quite spectacular in the NES version, and that scene, has thankfully been retained (and is also pretty much the only reason for the M rating of the game). Enough talk, check out the launch trailer and the Japanese trailer instead.
King's Bounty: The Legend - So, a bunch of guys decided to make a spiritual successor to King's Bounty, and eventually managed to get the rights to the name as well. In the original game you'd be running around on a world map, hunting down villains and battling bandits with your army in turn-based fashion, kind of like Heroes of Might and Magic, minus the strategy part. In this game, they decided to leave the strategy aspect to HoMM, but they boosted the tactical and adventure/RPG parts considerably. Quests, while still pretty basic, sometimes have multiple solutions now. The creatures you can recruit have lots of varied skills and abilities at their disposal. You can equip your hero with tons of different weapons and artifacts, and have him learn new skills by spending the runes you earn when leveling up. Aside from magic spells, you now have four Rage Spirits to summon during battles, each with four unique abilities. The polished mechanics of the game are accompanied by great art design, presenting a colorful, if generic fantasy world. The genericness of the setting isn't a huge flaw, since the game does not take itself too seriously. Just check the writeups on RPS and [url=http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/10/13/still-consumed-by-kings-bounty/]here to see how crazy things get. The game suffers from a bad translation, but is still excellent.
World of Goo - An indie physics-based puzzle game, with graphics reminiscent of an era of gaming when there were still blue skies in games. Aside from having stylish graphics and great music, the game sports incredibly inventive levels. There's always something new and interesting going on. The narrative is outright bizarre, and entertaining precisely for that reason. However, the game is fairly short - I would still highly recommend it, because what's there is excellent. Go grab the demo consisting of the first chapter here.
Now it's your turn, list whatever else you can. No unreleased games, please, despite the fact that remakes seem to be the "in" thing now, with new X-COM, Syndicate, Carrier Command, etc. games on their way.
