Welcome to the RETRObituary: Feb Edition!
By @vertigoDC with @shaune_gilbert
Anyway - I'm here now. It's a weekend morning, I have coffee and a bunch of old games to talk about. But before we do I have a quick appeal to make: We'd sincerely love to include more home computer titles in the RETRObituary each month - Spectrum, Amstrad, C64, Amiga and Atari ST especially but we can't seem to find a website that lists game releases by month and year. With well over a thousand reads I figure someone, somewhere must know of a site lurking somewhere in the dark underbelly of the web. If you do, please, please hit me up on Twitter and let us know.
So let's talk.
In increments of five we'll go back through February's notable video game releases over the last thirty years - all this without a Delorean or a TARDIS in sight. So, let's dispense with the amuse-bouchery and get on with the main course, starting off with a segment from @shaune_gilbert: Kowalski want MEAT!!
2010: Bioshock 2 - Multi-format
@shaune_gilbert
Bioshock 2 launched in February 2010 and was the much anticipated sequel to 2007's multi-award winning Bioshock. A first-person shooter, it was set once again in the underwater city of Rapture.
Rapture is a beautifully designed city that’s inspired by the past in an art deco style but yet very futuristic. Think of what New York City will be like when we all refuse to drive Hybrids and the sea rises from global warming and you’ll be close. Or maybe the ending of Spielberg’s A.I. when Haley Joel Osment's character David goes looking for the crying lions, that’s pretty close to it. (DC's note: Crying lions? Are you sure about this dude? The only thing I can remember about this movie is that Jude Law played a sexbot!)
This game is set ten years after the original bioshock which would make it 1968 - You play a human called Delta; a Big Daddy: a huge bulky scuba-like character with a huge drill on his arm. Now ‘Big Daddy’ isn’t as you may think, (depending on your age) the great British wrestler, whose real name was Shirley Crabtree, (must’ve had a hard childhood..geez) nor is it Big Daddy from the hit movie Kick Ass.
I love this game, firstly the city design of the underwater art deco hotels etc with leaking windows and pipes etc. I think it is beautiful.
I believe there were plans for a movie made by Gore Verbinski (the original Pirates of the Caribbean director), but were cancelled due to budgeting reasons I think. That and he was probably sick to the back teeth of water. Anyways, probably a good thing - look at how much the snorefest that The Lone Ranger turned out to be, plus the amount it cost him to make…geez!!!
So, you go around trying find the ‘little sister ‘you once loved. In your adventure you’ll come across deranged physco killers called ‘splicers’. These are people who will attack you when they see you. They are male and female and in keeping with the theme are dressed in 1940s clothes, another touch I like.
Throughout the game you can upgrade yourself with plasmids e.g. fire, ice, electricity etc. and also weapons such as spear guns etc. plus you can have ‘tonics’ which benefit you continuously, these can be changed to suit your style of play. E.g. easy hacking or softer footsteps.
In the game you will come across little sisters who will get you ADAM (you buy plasmids with ADAM) Little sisters are protected by other Big Daddies which you have to defeat, these can be quite difficult, especially at the start of the game.
The main ‘bad guys’ you meet are the repeating characters of the Big Sisters; they let their presence be known by terrifying screams before they show up, now these are very tough, they’re like you but feminine obviously and more agile, fast and very dangerous. The screams they let out put you yourself in a panic mode to get the right weapons ready or set traps in the ten seconds or so you have..really, this gets you pumped.
Back to it, as you go around you’ll pick up recorded messages - listening to these will flesh out stories and characters of Rapture.
So in all I love this game, I personally love all the Bioshocks. The game design and characters are creepy yet somehow beautiful. The first person shooter element is enjoyable, smooth and satisfying as you set fire to the splicers while shooting their heads off…nice.
The story is engaging and rewards you for exploring, you’ll be double-crossed and surprised by the main characters you meet. The ending will play out slightly different depend on if you heal and free little sisters or harvest them for more ADAM.
Honourable Mentions: Heavy Rain - PS3, Mega Man 10 - Wii
2005: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords - Xbox, PC
@vertigoDC
In last month's blog we covered Mass Effect 2, generally considered to be a Bioware classic. Although the Canadian developers produced the first, critically-lauded game in this series they were busy with their own new intellectual property, Jade Empire and thus they handed over the reins to Osbidian Entertainment for February of 2000's Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. The game itself was more of the same and that was no bad thing. Again, the popular trope of the mysterious protagonist with an amnesiac past was rolled out and served a couple of purposes: divorcing the character from their history allowed that past to show itself to great effect further within the story and from a gameplay perspective, 'resetting' the character meant that you would have to build them as a Jedi from scratch - levelling them up through the mysteries of the force in true RPG fashion.
Obsidian stuck to Bioware's formula in a number of other ways - as well as using their proprietary engine they included an array of colourful companions to recruit and accompany you on your planet-hopping adventures: new companions such as Hanharr, the dark-side wookie bounty hunter who's kind of like Chewbacca, only if Adi Shankar had produced a dark and gritty reboot of everyone's favourite sidekick. Seriously though, have you seen that Power Rangers reboot? Shankar certainly has a talent for celebrating and destroying childhoods - all at the same time - personally, I can't wait to see what he does with Captain Planet... (Note: that last line started out as a fanciful joke - whilst trying to source an image I found out that Captain P. Is indeed next up for 'Shanking' - Sweet zombie Jesus, that sounds bananas!)
A few companions such as the acerbic HK-47 returned from the first game - this human-hating killer robot is one of Bioware's finest creations and my top companion from their games. His take on love, that most human of emotions for example:
"Definition: 'Love' is making a shot to the knees of a target 120 kilometers away using an Aratech sniper rifle with a tri-light scope... Love is knowing your target, putting them in your targeting reticule, and together, achieving a singular purpose against statistically long odds."
Ah, HK-47. I often find myself wishing he'd show up in some of Bioware's current-day games. I'd pay cash money to see him pop up in Dragon Age Inquisition and shoot Cole in the head. After, of course referring him as a 'stupid, frail, non-compartmentalised, organic meatbag.' I also recall liking the Miralukan companion, Visas Marr. Miralukans were an Expanded Universe addition to the Star Wars mythos, initially appearing (I think) in the Dark Horse Tales of the Jedi comics. Born physically blind, the whole race possess the ability to 'see' entirely through the force. Imagine Marvel's Daredevil but female and with a lightsaber and you're halfway there.
One particularly cool scene came in the game's denouement, where if you'd hooked up with the character you were able to 'see' each other through the force. Of course, all of this is gone now - the Expanded Universe is a casualty of Star Wars' upcoming cinematic return - decades of inspirational and canonical material has gone the way of the dodo whilst The Holiday Special presumably still happened. Because somewhere George Lucas is laughing.
Anyway, I digress. Knights of the Old Republic II was a great game. Its story suffered somewhat from a rushed release, thanks to LucasArts who unfortunately had a history of pushing developers to release games before they were ready, but nonetheless KotOR II sated fans' desires for further adventures in A Galaxy Far, Far Away... Sadly we never saw a true sequel: 2011's Bioware MMO, The Old Republic continued the story but most fans out there never got the single player follow-up that they really wanted and now with the Expanded Universe rendered surplus to requirements, perhaps we never will.
Honourable Mentions: Tekken V - PS2, World of Warcraft - PC, Grand Turismo 4 - PS2
2000: Ridge Racer 64 - Nintendo 64
@vertigoDC
Fifteen years ago this Feb is slim pickings I'm afraid. There was (another) Resi game released but I think that's going to be the case pretty much every month throughout the naughties. As we covered Resident Evil 4 last month we'll avoid that one, which leaves us with Ridge Racer 64. Full disclosure - I never played this game. Although I had (and loved. And cherished.) a Nintendo 64, my gaming hours were taken up with GoldenEye, WWF No Mercy, Shadows of the Empire, Perfect Dark, the odd dash of Zelda and Rogue Squadron. If there was ever time in my life for a racing game? Mario Kart 64, fool!
Despite missing out on it back at the turn of the century, that's no reflection on the game - in fact, Ridge Racer 64 was no slouch. Hailing from a crop of quality arcade racing titles that cut their teeth in the nineties, the series originally aligned itself with the all-conquering first generation Playstation and became synonymous with quality, high-speed racing action. Ridge Racer 64 marked the series' first appearance on a Nintendo machine, and for the most part, critics and fans were impressed with the end product. IGN gave it a 9.0, praising in particular the sense of speed that it created:
Namco also included a few little Easter eggs for fans - including the ability to whizz around the track as iconic constructs from their classic stable of games such as the starship from Galaga. You could also zoom around as Blinky, one of the ghosts from the Pac Man series. He was pretty quick too; presumably because the titular, yellow devourer-of-worlds had gobbled up a power pill and was still chasing him. It's only just occurred to me that with their never-ending appetite plus their destructive penchant for consuming everything within a realm before moving on, leaving only an empty dried-up husk - when you add to that the fact that they've never been seen in the same place together, it seems certain to me that Pac Man and Galactus are one and the same:
Proves the law: Type unto Google and ye shall find.
Honourable Mentions: Resident Evil: Veronica - Dreamcast
1995: NBA JAM: Tournament Edition - Arcade
@vertigoDC
Bit of a cheat this one - NBA Jam itself actually came out a year or two previously but the Tournament Edition released in Feb '95 with a few new features to augment the wildly popular gameplay of the original. Man, this game was so nineties; I mean, it couldn't have been more of the era unless it was the Fresh Prince of Bel Air wearing parachute pants, bopping to Pearl Jam on a Sony DiscMan, flicking Pogs at you whilst simultaneously scoffing Pop-Tarts. (Hey, they only came to the UK then!)
Okay. Maybe not quite as 90s as this horror.
Its inextricable connection to that decade was partly due to the fact that NBA basketball had started to explode in popularity, supplanting American Football as the U.S sporting export of choice to follow across the pond here in the UK. What I don't get is why America has never really adopted our sports: Where's the love for cricket America? It's a gentleman's game; you play for five days and sometimes there's still no winner. Now that's a sport!
If you've never played Midway's NBA Jam, you should. Even now, it's terrific. An arcade-style, two-on-two basketball game with officially licensed teams (although no Michael Jordan), digitised player likenesses and ridiculously over-the-top slam dunks, this game tore it up in arcades upon its first release in 1993. By the time the Tournament Edition came out in early 1995 it had earned over a billion dollars (which admittedly everyone was earning at the time - the dotcom boom was in full swing and the Internet was ushering in a new age of prosperity for all... of the existing rich people) as well as spawning a multitude of playground catchphrases: "Is it the shoes?", "He's on fire!" and "Boomshakalaka!" became common parlance amongst youngsters as we dreamed of making slam dunks that shattered backboards and left commentators so speechless that they could only spout metaphors, rhetorical questions and senseless gibberish.
NBA Jam: Tournament Edition was also notable for including cameos from Midway's other major franchise: The Mortal Kombat series, although the NBA reportedly blocked this feature on most versions, presumably because they didn't want to be associated with the disembowelling, spine-ripping antics of Sub-Zero and pals - all the time , blissfully unaware that the previously mentioned Michael Jordan was engaging basketball in a much darker alliance:
1996's 'Space Jam' - A deal with the devil. A Tasmanian devil to name but one. And you know Pepé Le Pew is exacting his price later Mr Jordan. *Shudders*
Honourable Mentions: Star Wars: Dark Forces - PC, Star Wars: Rebel Assault - 3DO
1990: Super Mario Bros. 3 - NES
@vertigoDC
Twenty-five years ago this February saw another major hitter enter the fray. Super Mario Bros. 3 launched for the NES in North America to a rapturous critical reception. The game had already been released in Japan almost a year and a half by this point and would take about the same amount of time again to make its way to Europe but it mattered not because the little Italian plumber's fourth proper outing (1989's Super Mario Land was a non-numbered entry) was a smash hit worldwide. Perhaps the hold up in the release schedule had a little something to do with Nintendo bosses awaiting the release of The Wizard, a 1989 movie that basically functioned as a 96 minute Nintendo advert. As well as heavily featuring Super Mario Bros. 3 the movie also introduced us to the future of gaming. Or at least, the future of gaming according to the late eighties:
The Nintendo Power Glove.
Although the Power Glove turned out to be a non-starter, Mario 3 proved to be the exact opposite, garnering stellar critical reviews and selling so well that it made a ton of money too. I still remember CVG's Paul Rand raving about it being the best game ever made to this day; not only that but it served as a timely reminder to a certain new, blue hedgehog on the block that Mario was still the Daddy of D Block. The game itself consisted of another rescue attempt to save the Princess whilst offering more of the same but with a few inventive twists: Mario could now pick up power ups that allowed him to fly for instance as well as as a neat new graphical interface that linked the worlds together.
It doesn't look that impressive - until you realise that EVERY game since has used it.
The game would go on to spur Mario to the very zenith of his popularity; an animated TV show based on the game would follow. Only a couple of years later, Hollywood would beckon but I'm pretty sure we all know how that one turned out. Interestingly enough, this is the last of the numbered Mario Bros. titles - maybe after this one they figured they couldn't top it and they were probably right. Less than
twenty years later and Nintendo's iconic mascot was pimping himself out along with former arch-rival Sonic the Hedgehog to hawk copies of their Winter Olympics game. Before they both went back to their crack den to burn the profits on meth presumably.
Honourable Mentions: Super Contra - NES, Dragon Warrior IV - NES
That's all from The Geek Beat this week folks. Big thanks to @shaune_gilbert for his contributions. Any inaccuracies are a failing of my memory or bad Googling.
Mosey on back this way next week pardner for a look at how Marvel's Civil War comic book series might inform the upcoming movie. Or might not as the case may be.
Until then be sure to follow me on Twitter @vertigoDC. I think we both agree that you owe me that at least. Peace!
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