Saturday, June 23, 2007
-Hey Yo! I am getting pretty close to wrapping up my nice three day break from work, and I made the absolute most out of it. I am just starting to unwind from it all.
-On Thursday I met up with Matt, and we did a nice marathon of old school gaming. We played a bunch of co-op side scrolling action games, and during that marathon I beat my seventh, eighth, and ninth games for the year. But before I mentioned those I gotta mention how we came so close to beating two other games. First, we got real close to completing Captain America and the Avengers on the Genesis, but we both ran out of lives just moments before meeting the last boss, Red Skull. The other game we came close to beating was Punisher on Genesis, that game still freaking rules, we were rocking that game and only used up just a couple lives each when the game froze at the beginning of the final stage! Grrrrr
Onto the three games we beat! Making that now 9 beaten for the year thus far!
#7 - Metal Slug Anthology (PS2) - Already played through most of this on the Wii, but my friend recently got the PS2 version and we played through all 7 games with each one taking about 45 minutes each to complete. This was just a blast to play through all these gems again.
#8 - TMNT: Hyperstone Heist (Gen) - Friend just got this and we decided to play through it the other day. Man is it short, only five stages which took just an hour to beat overall, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted. This is a lot better than TMNT2: The Arcade Game (NES, Live Arcade), with a bit more gameplay variety and more fun stages to experience. I haven't played Manhatten Project or Turtles in Time Yet, but between this and the first two NES games this one easily outclasses them.
#9 - Spiderman: Separation Anxiety (SNES) - A two player arcade brawler/beat-em-up where you get to play as Spidey and Venom. If I recall right this came out towards the end of the SNES life cycle and it shows as this is a very polished game with some very nicely detailed and animated characters. This one was short too and we beat it within an hour and half, but it was more fun co-op action from the good old days of gaming.
If you're curious here are the other six games I beaten this year: Saints Row (360), Just Cause (360), Civil War (360), Cars (360), Bullet Witch (360), and Crackdown (360). My goal is still set for at least twelve!
-After playing through all those old school games we threw in a couple episodes off the Freaks and Geeks DVD set. Anyone remember this short lived-yet-hella-awesome show? I remember watching it a lot on the old FOX Family Channel back in 2001. It was set in 1980, and focused on two groups of high school kids, hence the name of the show. Wasn't really a sitcom, but I really wouldn't consider it a late night drama. From the several episodes I have seen it has a strong sense of reality to it as I fondly remembered myself in a lot of the situations seen on the show.
-After that was said and done it was nearly 11pm on Thursday night, but I still had more plans and met up with my coworkers Dave and Rich, and we pretty much played WWF No Mercy for a good four hours straight. All we did was 30 minute Iron Man matches with Pins and KOs only. We did three of them, and I won all three! I am really glad I still play this game and found some new addicts to enjoy it with. We were bringing up the idea of getting one of those silly foam belts you can buy at Wal-Mart and making it our own mini-championship and putting it on the line whenever we play. Yes, I know that exceeds a whole new level of geekdom, but dammit it just feels right!
-Friday ruled as I hung out with my sister, Jane and her husband, Shawn for most of the day. I use to always go over and crash there a lot way back yonder, but since going back to college a couple years ago and with Shawn seeming to go on military leave a bit more lately I just haven't found a lot of time to. Well, he is leaving for about a good 8 months starting next week so I made sure to have one day to hang with him, and we tore up the tennis courts pretty good that evening. First time I actually had a really good tennis match going on in awhile, he beat me but I still had a ton of fun and was just glad I got to play. After that us three and one of their kids played Mario Party 8 on the Wii for a few hours. Mario Party is allright, the main board part of the game can grow tiring after awhile, but I love the mini-games. It was a blast watching my five year old nephew get really into this game.
-Today/Saturday was great as my dad and I went to Grafton to watch their annual Demolition Derby. They only had a total of five heats, and a couple were rather brief, but the main event with all the winners made up for it as it went long and had a lot of good crashes and eliminations. This year was way better than the last one I went to as they had a couple bands playing between heat setups and intermessions so it didn't seem like I was killing time like before. They were just local cover bands, but they played a lot of pop-rock stuff I usually like.
-To finish things off, I did a post on a forum where someone was wondering why Clover Studios (guys who developed Okami on PS2) shut down after making some great games. Things just kind of clicked for me and I ended up with a rather lengthy post, but I want more people to see it, so I'll post it here too.....
When releasing original games, there are always two ways I feel which can help them sell. And in Okami's case, word of mouth doesn't always seems to work.
Box art designs and marketing are two key things. Some of my gamer friends aren't way into games like myself and don't follow up on the latest news, so when we're at Best Buy or Gamestop or wherever we'll be looking at games and sometimes just a game with badass box art can grab their attention and get them to ask the clerk about a game.
With that said, Okami had some of the most unappealing boxart ever. If I was just your average gamer who bought just a handful of titles a year after seeing the watercolored wolf and the Japanese name which gives me no clue as to what the game is about on the cover I wouldn't even glance at it for more than a couple of seconds and pass it off as a kids game.
Secondly, marketing. Capcom needs to know who to market this game to. I don't ever recall seeing a single Okami add on television. There are some good to mediocre racing games I have played in the past (FlatOut) that originally surprised me at how well they sold because I didn't think the game would stand out in what seems like a flooded market of racing games, but then I remember running across ads on television all the time for it on shows that would appeal to their demographic they're aiming for (sports, action shows).
Damn, didn't mean to make this post last forever, but yeah those are the two key things that original games need to have to succeed in my view.
-Tiz all for now....latez!
-On Thursday I met up with Matt, and we did a nice marathon of old school gaming. We played a bunch of co-op side scrolling action games, and during that marathon I beat my seventh, eighth, and ninth games for the year. But before I mentioned those I gotta mention how we came so close to beating two other games. First, we got real close to completing Captain America and the Avengers on the Genesis, but we both ran out of lives just moments before meeting the last boss, Red Skull. The other game we came close to beating was Punisher on Genesis, that game still freaking rules, we were rocking that game and only used up just a couple lives each when the game froze at the beginning of the final stage! Grrrrr
Onto the three games we beat! Making that now 9 beaten for the year thus far!
#7 - Metal Slug Anthology (PS2) - Already played through most of this on the Wii, but my friend recently got the PS2 version and we played through all 7 games with each one taking about 45 minutes each to complete. This was just a blast to play through all these gems again.
#8 - TMNT: Hyperstone Heist (Gen) - Friend just got this and we decided to play through it the other day. Man is it short, only five stages which took just an hour to beat overall, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted. This is a lot better than TMNT2: The Arcade Game (NES, Live Arcade), with a bit more gameplay variety and more fun stages to experience. I haven't played Manhatten Project or Turtles in Time Yet, but between this and the first two NES games this one easily outclasses them.
#9 - Spiderman: Separation Anxiety (SNES) - A two player arcade brawler/beat-em-up where you get to play as Spidey and Venom. If I recall right this came out towards the end of the SNES life cycle and it shows as this is a very polished game with some very nicely detailed and animated characters. This one was short too and we beat it within an hour and half, but it was more fun co-op action from the good old days of gaming.
If you're curious here are the other six games I beaten this year: Saints Row (360), Just Cause (360), Civil War (360), Cars (360), Bullet Witch (360), and Crackdown (360). My goal is still set for at least twelve!
-After playing through all those old school games we threw in a couple episodes off the Freaks and Geeks DVD set. Anyone remember this short lived-yet-hella-awesome show? I remember watching it a lot on the old FOX Family Channel back in 2001. It was set in 1980, and focused on two groups of high school kids, hence the name of the show. Wasn't really a sitcom, but I really wouldn't consider it a late night drama. From the several episodes I have seen it has a strong sense of reality to it as I fondly remembered myself in a lot of the situations seen on the show.
-After that was said and done it was nearly 11pm on Thursday night, but I still had more plans and met up with my coworkers Dave and Rich, and we pretty much played WWF No Mercy for a good four hours straight. All we did was 30 minute Iron Man matches with Pins and KOs only. We did three of them, and I won all three! I am really glad I still play this game and found some new addicts to enjoy it with. We were bringing up the idea of getting one of those silly foam belts you can buy at Wal-Mart and making it our own mini-championship and putting it on the line whenever we play. Yes, I know that exceeds a whole new level of geekdom, but dammit it just feels right!
-Friday ruled as I hung out with my sister, Jane and her husband, Shawn for most of the day. I use to always go over and crash there a lot way back yonder, but since going back to college a couple years ago and with Shawn seeming to go on military leave a bit more lately I just haven't found a lot of time to. Well, he is leaving for about a good 8 months starting next week so I made sure to have one day to hang with him, and we tore up the tennis courts pretty good that evening. First time I actually had a really good tennis match going on in awhile, he beat me but I still had a ton of fun and was just glad I got to play. After that us three and one of their kids played Mario Party 8 on the Wii for a few hours. Mario Party is allright, the main board part of the game can grow tiring after awhile, but I love the mini-games. It was a blast watching my five year old nephew get really into this game.
-Today/Saturday was great as my dad and I went to Grafton to watch their annual Demolition Derby. They only had a total of five heats, and a couple were rather brief, but the main event with all the winners made up for it as it went long and had a lot of good crashes and eliminations. This year was way better than the last one I went to as they had a couple bands playing between heat setups and intermessions so it didn't seem like I was killing time like before. They were just local cover bands, but they played a lot of pop-rock stuff I usually like.
-To finish things off, I did a post on a forum where someone was wondering why Clover Studios (guys who developed Okami on PS2) shut down after making some great games. Things just kind of clicked for me and I ended up with a rather lengthy post, but I want more people to see it, so I'll post it here too.....
When releasing original games, there are always two ways I feel which can help them sell. And in Okami's case, word of mouth doesn't always seems to work.
Box art designs and marketing are two key things. Some of my gamer friends aren't way into games like myself and don't follow up on the latest news, so when we're at Best Buy or Gamestop or wherever we'll be looking at games and sometimes just a game with badass box art can grab their attention and get them to ask the clerk about a game.
With that said, Okami had some of the most unappealing boxart ever. If I was just your average gamer who bought just a handful of titles a year after seeing the watercolored wolf and the Japanese name which gives me no clue as to what the game is about on the cover I wouldn't even glance at it for more than a couple of seconds and pass it off as a kids game.
Secondly, marketing. Capcom needs to know who to market this game to. I don't ever recall seeing a single Okami add on television. There are some good to mediocre racing games I have played in the past (FlatOut) that originally surprised me at how well they sold because I didn't think the game would stand out in what seems like a flooded market of racing games, but then I remember running across ads on television all the time for it on shows that would appeal to their demographic they're aiming for (sports, action shows).
Damn, didn't mean to make this post last forever, but yeah those are the two key things that original games need to have to succeed in my view.
-Tiz all for now....latez!
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