Recent Gaming

Well, I’m way, waaay behind on my Roger Ebert Great Movie reviews – in the hole by 5, in fact.  What better time to do a post on video games!!  These little gems are what kept me going during my biannual personal hell, i.e. sitting for an actuarial exam (yes, these things are, in fact, endless).

Bionic Commando Rearmed:  I’m a big fan of the original Bionic Commando for the NES (1988, baby), and it’s clear that the creators of this excellent remake are as well.  All the levels have been faithfully recreated, and there are lots of humorous references to the game’s infamous Engrish.  More importantly, they took a good, long look at what didn’t work in original and made organic improvements that are in the same spirit as the Capcom classic.  To whit:

- The weapons have been revamped.  The Rocket Launcher was significantly nerfed (good call), the useless “3-way” was replaced with the much niftier Vector Cannon, and Joe’s Machine Gun got a face lift.  All the weapons now have special upgrades and can be switched to at any time, thus eliminating one of the more annoying aspects of the original.  Oh, and that goes for the various communicators as well.

- They added several secrets to each level, as well as an encyclopedia of sorts for which you collect entries as you encounter stuff.  There are two new mini-levels replacing the secret passageways of the original, and they’re pretty tough.  Several “challenge rooms” were also added to further test your swinging skills.

- The boss battles have been massively redesigned, generally for the better.  I say generally because I found myself missing the classic boss battles a little.  They were definitely a part of BC’s charm.  But from a purely gameplay standpoint, this is definitely an improvement, and some of the battles take particularly clever advantage of the bionic arm mechanic.  Oh, and the Albatross is now its own level!

- They improved the graphics and remixed the soundtrack.  I liked the graphics upgrades, but missed the less techno-y tunes of the original.  That Area 2 music was just the best.

Overall it’s a really thoughtful remake.  My biggest single complaint is that they left the overhead stages in, which continue to be a huge hassle as you navigate the map.  This is sort of like making a Star Wars Special Edition and changing everything EXCEPT the blatant mistake of not coloring the lightsabers in certain shots.  You know what scenes I’m talking about.  “Ben!?!?!!  NOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Mega Man 9:  It’s pretty amazing that Capcom made this game.  Mega Man 9 is a fully-formed, brand new NES-style Mega Man game, complete with 8-bit graphics.  It follows the gameplay mechanics of the best entry in the series, Mega Man 2 – and that means no slide, although you do get Rush instead of the various adapters.

I’ve played all the original Mega Man games without regret, to the extent that you can play video games without regretting doing more productive things, and if you’ve liked all the previous Mega Mans you’ll like 9 as well.  Mega Man is kinda like the Rocky of the video game world, or Friday the 13th - they just keep on comin’.  With Mega Man, though, the core concept is really that good, and I think the endless sequels are pretty well justified.

Mega Man 9 is a bit of a rally for the franchise in some departments.  The Robot Masters were taking a serious turn for the lame towards the end of the NES run, and that has been somewhat rectified here, including the first female Robot Master (Splash Woman).  The music is actually quite good, as well…not quite MM2 standards, but definitely more enjoyable than anything in 5 and 6.  The level design is thoughtful, although murderously difficult at points (Tornado Man’s stage is just ridiculous).  A slight drawback to this game is that it’s shorter than the Mega Mans past 3 – there’s only the first 8 stages and 4 stages after that.  I’m not going to tell you where those final 4 stages take place, but I bet you can make a good guess.

Symphony of the Night:  My latest foray into classic gaming, I’m really only a half hour into the game at this point.  But it is totally awesome, justifying its frequent appearances on top game lists.  Basically this game is Super Metroid in Castlevania, and that’s enough to make me a very content person right now.