Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow over Mystara Arcade Review

Fifty-One

Total cost to finish game: $12.75

Released 3 years after D&D: Tower of Doom, D&D: Shadow over Mystara displays improvements in both graphics and gameplay from Tower of Doom. The storyline picks up from events in Tower of Doom and chronicles the attempts of a group of heroes to thwart the resurrection of Raziel the immortal. Updated graphics are on display in both the backgrounds, enemy renderings and the effects of character and enemy attacks. Gameplay is little changed from Tower of Doom on the fighting side. However, Shadow over Mystara plays with gameplay styles like escape the baddie and explore the village gameplay styles in a departure from the pure hack'n'slash gameply of Tower of Doom. Given this was the 2nd D&D Capcom action fighting title I had played, I was more used to executing special moves and item attacks this time around. As a result, I felt that the item system in Shadow over Mystara was more useful and had a positive effect on gameplay. Difficulty in Shadow over Mystara is worse than Tower of Doom, if that could be possible. The game is designed for multiplayer, so the single players needs to come loaded for bear with several rolls of quarters to hope to finish this game. D&D: Shadow of Mystara is a worthy sequel to Tower of Doom and deserves a play through, just remember to bring a bowl full of quarters to the party.

Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom Arcade Review

Forty-One

Total Cost to finish game: $10.25


This game represents one of those fairly rare collaborations between US and Japanese gaming companies. In this case SSI and TSR, of dungeons and dragons roleplaying fame, teamed up with Capcom to produce a side-scrolling action 4-person fighter. The results of this collaboration are pretty good. You get the playablility and graphic finesse of Capcom combined with the backstory, characters and variety of SSI and TSR. Since this is 1993, graphics are in the Street Fighter II/III mold. There is a plotline to this game, albeit a thin one. SSI and TSR throw in branching paths through the main game, which gives you interesting sublevels and an incentive to play through the game more than once. The locations in the game are varied and the levels show a nice progression through different environments. Enemies run the gambit of D&D inhabitants, from gnolls, kobolds, and troglodytes, to dark elves and dragons. The game implements an item system that is awkward to access in the heat of battle, but the items can help stem the flood of enemies assaulting you onscreen. Your characters are varied in both their normal moves and special attacks. The difficulty and number of enemies seem to favor a warrior, dwarf or cleric for those wishing to actually finish the game. Framerate keeps smooth, even when the screen is flooded with characters moving about. Game difficulty is a problem, though. Dungeons and Dragons: Tower of Doom plays like Golden Axe on growth hormone. This game is meant to be played by a group of 4 people. The game does not scale back the difficulty for a single player. 1 or 4 people you get hit with the same number of baddies. Play the game along and easily expect to spend 11.00 to finish the game. Enemies take many hits to kill and bosses are an exercise in popping quarters as their health gets whittled away by your attacks oh so slowly. Some of the mid and end game bosses are ridiculously tough to kill. Still, its tough to deny the game has real charm and this Capcom title plays great, easily fitting into a good pedigree of arcarde titles from Capcom like the Street Fighter Series and Aliens Vs. Predator. If you find this title squirreled away in an arcade, get a roll of quarters or two and have at it for some good old hack'n'slash fun the Capcom way.

Mercs Arcade Review

Eleven

Total cost to finish game : $3.75


This lightweight vertical and side scrolling shooter is another fun title from Capcom. The game puts you in the role of a mercenary assigned to bring down an evil military government in a vaguely middle-eastern country. You play a blond-haired Rambo clone in a blue pantstraps. Background detail and framerate are good, even when moving objects fill the screen. Weapon selection is moderate with good variety between area damage weapons like shotguns and flamethrowers and rapid fire weapons like machine guns and power guns. Difficulty is easy to moderate. Don't expect a shooter like Konami's contra. Mercs' diffulty level is tuned for arcade lightweights. End bosses lack any differention from ingame bosses. End Game Sequence is succinct but I love how you can hit the fire button to fast forward through the credits. No surprises here, a solid action game from Capcom, one I would recommend you play if you find it in an arcade or pizza joint somewhere.

New Fist of North Star: Vol. 1(Anime)

New Fist of the North Star: Vol. 1: The Cursed City

There are a few things that snap out about this anime. First off, it’s violent. Body parts fly around and heads explode with great frequency. Second, this is one of the new types of anime shows that actively integrate hand drawn animation sequences with computer generated animations, especially for the vehicle travel sequences where the main characters going from town to town. Plot is typical post apocalyptic struggle between mad tyrant and strong, loner hero. What is atypical is the overall dour tone of the show. Fist of the North Star starts downbeat and stays that way. The villain is a real jerk and just gets worse as the show goes on. The hero is helpful without being uplifting. The heroine is pretty but passive. The warts in these characters persona keep the show compelling and the viewer interested past the many violent scenes. This DVD is worth a rent, just keep the eyes closed during the violent scenes.

Anime DVD reviews pending

New Fist of the North Star: Vol. 1: The Cursed City, 2004 07/27/05
New Fist of the North Star: Vol. 2: The Forbidden Fist, 2004 07/27/05
GateKeepers: Vol. 1: Open the Gate!, 2000 07/18/05
Heat Guy J: Vol. 1: Super Android, 2003 07/18/05
Fullmetal Alchemist: Vol. 3: Equivalent Exchange, 2003 07/18/05
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth, 1995 07/01/05
Fullmetal Alchemist: Vol. 2: Scarred Man of the East, 2003 06/28/05
Porco Rosso, 1992 06/24/05
Fullmetal Alchemist: Vol. 1: The Alchemist's Curse, 2003 06/24/05
Soul Hunter: Vol. 1, 2003 06/14/05
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, 1984 06/14/05
Samurai Champloo: Vol. 2, 2004 06/08/05
Samurai Champloo: Vol. 3, 2004 06/08/05
Samurai Champloo: Vol. 1, 2004 06/08/05
Gungrave: Vol. 6: Erosion, 2004 05/31/05
Hellsing: Vol. 4: Eternal Damnation, 2002 06/02/05
Hellsing: Vol. 3: Search and Destroy, 2002 06/01/05
Gungrave: Vol. 5: The Protector, 2004 05/27/05
Gungrave: Vol. 4: Die Trying, 2004 05/24/05
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion, 1995 05/23/05
Samurai Deeper Kyo: Vol. 5: Fire and Ice, 2003 05/03/05

Video game to do list

Fable(Xbox)
Conker Live and Reloaded(Xbox)
Devil May Cry 3(PS2)
God of War(PS2)
Pikmin(Cube)
Zelda Windwaker(Cube)
Advance Wars 2(GBA)
Golden Sun(GBA)
Zelda Ocarina of Time(N64)
Zelda Majora's Mask(N64)
Record of Lodoss War(DC)
Skys of Arcadia(DC)
Super Mario All Stars(SNintendo)
Mario RPG(SNintendo)
Chakan(Genesis)
Herzog Zwei(Genesis)
Raystorm(Arcade)
Cyvern(Arcade)
D&D: Legends of Mystaria(Arcade)

LOTR:Return of the King(Xbox)

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King on Xbox was on my hitlist for last night. This games takes you through the events of Tolkien's "Return of the King". The game is produced by EA, makers of the extremely popular EA Sports video game line and the stratospherically renowned Harry Potter video games. You are offered 3 branching paths, following the quests of Gandalf the Grey, Aragorn and Frodo/Samwise. Each level path is made up of relatively few levels - 5 or 6 for each path. The game compensates for this by making each game level spectacular and including some noteworthy extra features as "rewards" for finishing each level. The 1st two levels with Gandalf involve you to going to Isengard, smacking around orcs and goblins along the way. Level graphics are very crisp on the Xbox, with plenty of figures flitting about but no slowdown. Electronic Arts has done a spectacular job of integrating the movie very closely with the game content. In the Frodo/Samwise path the game starts with a near seamless segue from movie footage into the game. From here Samwise has to guide a dazed Frodo and cowering Gollum through the chaotic maze of warring Osilgiliath. I don't know how these guys did it, but there something very invigorating about the action sequences in this game. Moving your character around laying the smack down on the bad guys really does allow you to live out the fantasy of the game. Levels in this game tend to be on the long side. It's easy to die at first, with your character being quickly swarmed and put down. As you play through again, though, you notice that you survive a lot longer if you defend a bit. The game also provides fairly liberal health power ups for you to use. EA seems more concerned in having folks "play through" the movie than be seriously challenged with dying and retrying. I like this focus, since it allows me to immerse myself in the responsive battles in the game

Air Gallet, Banpresto(Arcade)

Seventeen

Total Cost to finish game $4.25


The premise for this game is that a pair of UN pilots try to stop the world from being destroyed by freakish mechanistic creatures on one tank of gas. This is a hard game to finish, especially when Banpresto fills the screen with firing, multihit enemies and your ship gets blown up with a single shot. Your weapon power-ups can make a difference. There are multiple opportunities on each level to build up your firepower. However, weapon efficacy can be spotty. Spread shot works great, but the laser sucks. Bombs are only moderately effective, as neither iteration of the bomb clears the screen for you. Enemy shot frequency is high, resulting in the Malachi crunch of smacking into enemy weapon fire. Levels are of moderate length, as are the boss encounters. There are 5 levels to the game, with a final Boss encounter that is 3 times the normal length of a level Boss fight. Boss fights chewed up quarters, as did cheap hits while progressing through each level. Power ups were easy to recover, though - which made things easier. This game was good but certainly not great, and probably not worth the dough spent to finish it. Your reward for spending $4.25 to finish this game? Hearing the hero say "I'm going to take a nice hot shower, Ha Ha Ha!". As the guy in the Mitsubishi ad says: "I'm all tingly".

19xx, Capcom(Arcade)

Fifteen

Total Cost to finish game $3.75

Officially the final game in the "194x" series by Capcom, this game featured sprite graphics with some cool special effects. Your uber-enemy throughout the game is this SR-71 style airplane that is the master of all the level bosses. Boss encounters range from planes, to trains, then automobiles, ships and tanks. Graphic detail is the height of spritedom on Earth, with clear rich colored objects and some very smoothly animated weapon effects and explosions. Power ups are useful enough in this game that you work hard to stay alive to continue using them. This is a one hit shooter. You get hit, you die. As a result, enemy shot frequency is greatly reduced (except in boss encounters). Still, getting nailed right before you finish a level still feels pretty cheap. This game was a final exam for 194x fans, so the levels were very long and the bosses were incredibly difficult. I spent most of my quarters on boss encounters. The wonderful thing about shooters is that you can always spend yourself out of trouble, unlike some side scrolling arcarde games or fighting games. This game was enjoyable enough that it left you wanting a sequel. Since "1944" came out 5 years later, I guess I played the sequel before the game that preceded it, so I got my wish early. :)