Console Glory 2012 Year In Review!!

Year in review time!  This time around I thought I'd take a look back at all the games I played this year, rank them, and offer my thoughts on a few of the standouts.  People love lists, ya know!  I'm going to split them up and rank the games that were released this year separately from games that were released in the past.  Sound good?  I'll start with the games released in 2012.

1. Resident Evil 6 - B+ (PS3)
2. Sakura Samurai - B+ (3DS)
3. Journey - B (PSN)
4. Kid Icarus: Uprising - B (3DS)
5. Double Dragon Neon - B- (PSN)
6. Resident Evil: Revelations - C+ (3DS)

That's it?!  I only played six games that were released this year?!  Yep, it's true.  I told you I'm always late to the party.  Fuck it.

1. Resident Evil 6

With a 'B+', Resident Evil 6 is indeed my game of the year.  I know that a lot of people hated on RE6, and it truly is far from perfect, but I still say that it's a solid game and I have spent a lot of time playing it since it was released in early October.  I don't think that it will hold my attention for years on end the way that RE5's multiplayer did, but yeah, RE6 is Console Glory's game of the year.  Suck it, haters!

2. Sakura Samurai

Sakura Samurai might seem like too slight a title to receive runner-up honors, but I think it's right where it belongs.  The precise gameplay, steep challenge, and perfect pacing made this downloadable 3DS title one of my top picks.  It doesn't overreach, and it doesn't try to be something that it's not...a bit of a rarity in console titles these days.

3. Journey

Journey is a game that was at the top of many people's best of 2012 lists.  I enjoyed it quite a bit myself, but I wasn't as blown away by it as some people were.  As striking as its design and visuals were, it felt a little shallow overall.  Walk toward a shining light in the distance... so deep!

4. Kid Icarus: Uprising

Kid Icarus: Uprising was an ambitious title that I'd have to put into the category of "almost awesome".  Unlike Sakura Samurai, Kid Icarus throws so much at you that I was surprised at how well it all held together.  Some aspects (weapons, characters) worked better than others (vehicles, controls), but overall Kid Icarus: Uprising is an exciting update to a long dormant franchise.

5. Double Dragon: Neon

I must admit that as of this writing, I still haven't finished Double Dragon: Neon.  I almost got through it, but I started playing it around the time that I got Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and as brawlers go, that title is much more engaging.  Still, I enjoyed Double Dragon.  If you have nostalgia for the old games and can get it for less than $10 then you should snatch it up.

6. Resident Evil: Revelations

I wasn't so positive in my review of Resident Evil: Revelations and time has done little to change my opinion.  It's a well made game, but I just found it kind of boring.  It almost felt like a tech demo to me.  Old school RE fans...what's so fuckin' great about "survival horror"?  It's always just a bunch of wandering around, looking for keys and shit.  Old REs, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame...boring.  I understand the importance of vibe and atmosphere, but I don't really play games for the vibe itself, and that's what playing survival horror games always feels like to me.

Alright, now on to the older games.

1. Super Mario 3D Land - A

Great game.  It's the only 'A' grade that I awarded all year, and it's easily the best 3DS game I've played yet.  If you liked Super Mario Galaxy then this one is a no-brainer.

2. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World - B+

I hated the movie so I wasn't sure what to expect from the game, but Scott Pilgrim is a tight little brawler with loads of charm.  If you ever got into Double Dragon, Final Fight, or River City Ransom this game is worth a look.  Pick it up.

3. Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin - B+

4. Catherine - B+

This intriguing puzzler really made an impact on me.  I keep thinking about it months after finishing it.  I wonder why?

5. Pushmo - B+

6. Intelligent Qube - B+

7. Pokemon Soulsilver - B+

I might have graded his one a little high.  I know that people love their Pokemon, but this game didn't hold my attention after I wrote my review.

8. Resident Evil 4 HD -  B+

9. Kirby Mass Attack - B+

10. Quantum Conundrum - B

11. Samurai Champloo - B

12. Alex Kidd in Miracle World - B

13. Rochard - B

14. Ico - B-

15. VVVVV - B-

Somehow I managed to make my way through this bitch of a game.  It's tough, but worth it!  I probably should have given it a slightly better grade.

16. Bit.trip Saga - B-

17. Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy - B-

18. Bust-A-Move Universe - C+

19. Choplifter HD - C+

20. Outland - C+

21. Mario Kart 7 - C+

I might have scored this one a bit low.  It didn't grab me, but it's probably better than a 'C+'.

22. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - C+

23. Kid Icarus 3D Classics - C

24. Sonic the Hedgehog - C

25. Lollipop Chainsaw - C-

Fuck this game, and fuck Suda 51.

So there we are.  I just thought that it might be cool to take a look back and put everything into some kind of context.

In the new year I plan to continue on as I have been, writing my thoughts about the games I play and the gaming news that catches my attention.  I hope to post more frequently, write a few more in-depth articles, and introduce some new (semi) regular features such as "Games I'm NOT Playing".  Huge thanks to all of my readers!  Hope everyone had a good 2012.  Here's to another year of Console Glory!

P.S. Listen to my PODCAST! It's pretty alright...

Resident Evil 6 Demo

The RE6 demo is now available for download and you can bet your sweet pippy that I have made my way through it! I'll start out by breaking down the individual campaigns and wrap up with my overall thoughts.

The Campaigns

So the demo (and the game itself) consists of three different storylines or "campaigns".  It is unknown whether or not the campaigns will intersect in the full game, but in the demo they appear to be independent of one another.  The campaigns follow Leon Kennedy, Chris Redfield, and series newcomer Jake Muller as they work with their partners to stop outbreaks and kill zombies and shit.  Let's dive in...

Leon and Helena

I started off by selecting Leon’s campaign. From there you can choose to play as either Leon or his new partner Helena.  As I came to find out, this campaign is the most “survival horror” of the three offered in the demo. The player guides Leon and Helena through the many stairwells and narrow hallways of an Ivy League college campus while fighting off zombies. The enemy encounters are sporadic at the outset, but as the campaign progresses things pick up, and a couple of intense battles ensue near the end of this 10-15 minute chapter.

Chris and Piers

Next I played Chris’s campaign.  In this section you can choose to play as either Chris or a dude name Piers.  This campaign is the most action packed and combat heavy of the three. You start out in a European looking city environment.  Chris and his team are aboard a transport truck discussing their upcoming mission when suddenly they are attacked by bizarre looking men wearing kabuki-like masks and motorcycle jackets. Unlike the shuffling zombies in Leon’s campaign, these guys are armed and they move quickly. As the enemy closes in, you must use cover and shoot accurately in order to take them out.  Near the end of this section, Chris and his team must defeat a HUGE three-story-tall mutant freak in order to progress.

Jake and Sherry

Finally, there’s Jake’s campaign. This time you can play as either Jake or Sherry as they make their way through a downtown cityscape at night.  The enemies in this section seem a lot like the baddies from RE 4 and 5 in that they are human but they also occasionally mutate. Remember the “snake heads” from the last two installments? These guys are kind of like “snake arms”. They can grab you and hit you from longer distances and (I guess since they still have their heads) they can still move around fairly deftly. There’s also another new enemy type in this campaign. Right now I’m calling them “fishraptors”. While moving around they sort of resemble fish with legs, but occasionally they rear up and spit (or shoot needles, I can’t tell) and do damage that way.

My Thoughts

In general, this demo has me pretty excited about the full game.  A few minor gripes aside, I think I'm going to have a hell of a good time with this.  First, I'll tell you what I liked:

Combat feels pretty good.  The system has been tweaked a bit (yes, you can move and shoot now) but those who are familiar with RE 4 and 5's combat system will have little trouble catching on.  One of the biggest and most welcome changes is that now you can perform a melee attack at any time.  You can still stun your enemies with a well placed bullet and then move in for the coup-de-grace, but you can also take them down with a well placed combination of kicks, punches, and finishing moves.  This was a smart move I think, as it takes the already visceral RE combat scheme and makes it even more brutal and fun!

I like that they've decided to break up the narrative by offering three different storylines.  The RE story is kind of boilerplate in general, and doing it this way will keep things moving while also allowing you to play as more characters.  Plus, as any RE fan knows, more characters = a more robust "Mercenaries" mode! It's also good to see Leon back in the fold; I like that character and I'm happy to see him make his comeback.  I'm also interested in this Jake Muller dude.  Supposedly he is the "son" of  super-freak Albert Wesker, and I can only imagine what strange powers he might have inherited as a result.

Also welcome is the decision to map the action, melee attack, and item use functions to DIFFERENT BUTTONS!!!  This was a hugely annoying issue in RE 4 and 5.  Thank you for fixing that Capcom.  Seriously, it's like developers don't even play their own games sometimes. 

I didn't really have too many negative reactions to the demo, but there were some things that concerned me:

Control-wise, most things worked pretty well.  Aiming and shooting is much as it has been in RE 4 and 5 (if not a little smoother) and it's generally not difficult to move around.  Still, a few little things gave me some big problems.  Performing a 180 degree turn, while easy to do and a reliable means of escape in RE 4 and 5, is made more difficult by the game's sometimes wonky camera controls.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  Also somewhat troublesome was the newly introduced cover mechanic.  Like a lot of games that allow you to duck behind things for safety, the controls for this feature are kind of confusing and involve the pressing and holding of many buttons.  It's usually easy enough to get into a cover position, but I encountered some problems when I tried to return fire.

Weapon and item selection is pretty strange as well.  It may just be that I'm not used to it, and things may change in the full version of the game, but the icons for the weapons look very similar and it's often kind of hard to tell which is which.  In addition, it seems you can't assign hotkeys to specific weapons as you could in RE 5.  The result is that you have to scroll through your weapons until you reach the one you want.  It's inelegant at calm moments and frustrating during intense firefights.  I'm sure I'll get a handle on it after awhile, but it could end up being something of a drag.

This demo is also quite DARK....as in it's difficult to see shit.  Scrolling through the game options I can see that there's an option to tweak the brightness, but the demo doesn't allow you to change it.  This will obviously change in the final version, but it makes me wonder if RE 6's visuals might be a little on the muddy side.  Don't get me wrong the graphics are nice, but they don't represent a huge improvement over RE 5, and like that game they're still only running in 720p.

The Verdict

Overall, I'm very positive about RE 6, and I believe that that I will have a lot of fun with this game.  The combat is a lot of fun and it seems to contain all of the visceral, in-your-face thrills of RE 4 and 5 and then some.  I have my issues with some of the control and presentation schemes, but I don't think we're talking about anything game-breaking.  Potentially annoying yes, but not exactly deal breakers.  In my review of Resident Evil: Revelations I mentioned how I thought that Capcom is in the odd position of trying to please two distinct audiences for the Resident Evil franchise.  With the multiple campaigns of RE 6, I see them trying to appeal to BOTH the classic survival horror fans, and the more action/combat oriented fans of RE 4 and 5.  It remains to be seen whether or not they can please everyone (I expect a lot of crying from both sides), but I'm fairly confident that RE 6 will be a hit with me.

...and Conan.

My Month In Games: February 2012

Back again with another 'Month In Games'. Here's what I've been playing:

Saukra Samurai - 3DS


Recently released as a downloadable title from the 3DS eShop, I decided to give Sakura Samurai a shot after I read a glowing review over at IGN. Boy, downloadable titles sure are getting nicer these days! This tight little sword combat game is a blast to play and features some lovely graphics and music as well. Best described as a combination between Onimusha and Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!, players lead a young samurai into battle against groups of enemies who come at him one at a time. The combat resembles Punch-Out! in that you must read your enemies movements, dodging their attacks and slashing at them when they're vulnerable. Some light RPG elements (sword upgrades, new special attacks) help fill out the experience, but timing-based swordplay is the meat of the experience. Easy to pick up, but challenging to master, Sakura Samurai is a stand out title that's well suited to the 3DS system. Recommended!

GRADE: B+


Intelligent Qube - PS1



Inteligent Qube (or Kuroshi as it's known in some parts of the world) is a Playstation 1 puzzle game that was originally released in 1997. It was actually one of the first PS1 games I ever played. I loved it then, I love it now, and I usually dust it off and play through it once every couple of years. I won't bore you by trying to describe the mechanics of a 15 year old puzzle game in print, but suffice to say that it's fun to play. Still, there's more to this title than its basic elements. Perhaps the biggest draw of Intelligent Qube is its presentation. Instead of viewing the action from a 2D perspective (a la Tetris, Plants Vs. Zombies, or just about any other puzzler out there) players guide a man across a stark, floating 3D landscape. Giant cubes bear down on our hero and he must clear a path through them or risk being crushed and sent plummeting to his doom. It's as if Masahiko Sato, the game's creator, deliberately tried to make a game that played like a fever dream. The empty black backgrounds, Takayuki Hattori's dramatic orchestral score, and the God-like voice that bellows "PERRR-FECT!" when you successfully clear a stage all come together to create a tense, yet thrilling puzzle experience.



GRADE: B+

Resident Evil: Revelations - 3DS


Regular readers know that I generally love me some Resident Evil, but playing through this latest adventure has opened my eyes a bit and showed me some of the series flaws. Before I go there, however, I'd like to acknowledge that this game does indeed look and play marvelously well. With some expected limitations to its visuals and general scope aside, this is a fully fledged Resident Evil adventure that actually stands up well next to its console brothers. The thing that sets this game apart from RE 4 and 5, and ultimately tarnishes the experience for me, is the combat. In RE 4 and 5 the series moved away from its roots as exploration/puzzle driven and became more combat oriented. It was no longer so much about making your way through a huge mansion while outrunning lumbering zombies and conserving scant resources; gameplay became more linear, the puzzle aspects were less prominent, and gunplay became the order of the day. This change served to divide Resident Evil's fan base somewhat, and I feel that since that time Capcom has been trying to find a way to bridge the gap between the tense, claustrophobic gameplay of the original trilogy, and the run and gun pacing of the more recent games.

Now, I may have mentioned this before, but I was never a fan of the series until RE 4 came out. The earlier entries in the series bored me with their stiff controls and emphasis on asset management, and it wasn't until RE 4 that Capcom made the necessary adjustments to draw me in. Not only did they make the shooting aspects of the game more prominent and engaging, they also introduced a more sophisticated melee system, thus making combat a more up-close and visceral experience. Shoot a bad guy in the shin and when he drops to his knees, hit him with a roundhouse kick to the face....oh so satisfying! Now I only say all of this because I want to be clear which side of the fence I'm on. For me, when it comes to Resident Evil, puzzles are bad and combat is good, but I also understand that Capcom is trying to appeal to a bit of a fractured fanbase. So with that in mind I understood what they they were trying to do when, for this game, they basically took the tight corridors, blind corners, and asset management of the original trilogy and combined it with the combat mechanics of the more recent games. Seems like a decent way to try and appeal to both camps, right? The problem is that, for some unknown reason, Capcom decided to basically remove the melee aspect of combat. Well actually, they didn't REMOVE it... it's technically still there, but it can't be reliably triggered and when you DO make contact it seems to have very little effect on your enemies. Thinking about it now, I suppose there's a chance that this was done in an attempt to appeal to fans of the original trilogy, where melee combat was even LESS prominent, but that doesn't make a whole lot of sense either. Perhaps this seems like a small detail, but it really limits the experience for me. The shooting aspect of the game works well and all, but the decision to give melee combat such a diminished role really narrows the scope of this title and it forced me to reevaluate my feelings about the series as a whole. Chuck in some of the series' blandest enemy design, and the whole affair starts to feel a little half-baked. Indeed, I had a revelation of my own while playing this game: I don't really care for any other aspect of this series beyond the combat. The story and characters are lame (except for maybe Leon and Wesker who aren't in this game) and hacking out an important part of the gameplay experience only highlights this. I'm still looking forward to RE 6 later this year, and I'm sure that Capcom will be on the ball with that one, but Revelations just didn't do much for me.

GRADE: C+