"Jurassic Radio," episode 00
To get in over our heads even farther, Gameodactyl (Patrick), Gamegnathus (Rambo) and I recorded the first episode of Jurassic Radio yesterday. It's the inaugural installment in what we hope will become a weekly podcast, and it's a technical disaster.
I think it's listenable, but there are all sorts of pops and audio drops that wouldn't happen if I let a professional take control. But I have trouble delegating and know next to nothing about real recording, so this is what you get!
In episode 00, we talk about what we've been playing (the second STAR OCEAN port for the PSP, CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK: ASSAULT ON DARK ATHENA, some neat PC RPGs), the five games we most regret not finishing, hentai, eroge, yaoi, executing rapists and terrible voice acting, among other things.
We're open to criticism, constructive or otherwise. Comment away!
Jurassic Radio, episode 00
(click to play)
Review: "Star Ocean: Second Evolution"
Everyone with an Xbox 360 has probably (ed: hopefully) at least glanced at STAR OCEAN: THE LAST HOPE and thought, "Hey, maybe this would be awesome." And I won't make a judgment call on that one, since I haven't spent much time with it.
But the general consensus is that it's an in-depth RPG with an okay storyline and somewhat annoying, cliché-ridden characters, so your mileage will vary based on what you enjoy and what you simply cannot stand in an RPG.
But let's back up a moment and take some time to consider what I believe is the best game in the series. The PS1's STAR OCEAN: THE SECOND STORY got ported to PSP earlier this year under the title STAR OCEAN: SECOND EVOLUTION. And let's face it: thus far, the PSP's primary purpose has been to bring life to classic PlayStation titles, particularly RPGs. Their RPG library is more port/remake than it is original. In this review, I will not only consider the merits of the game, but also do a historical comparison of the original to the remake, as there are some significant changes.
THE SETUP
Developer tri-Ace specializes in a unique blend of traditional and action-based RPGs. The combat is real-time and action-based (though sometimes the action freezes for magic spells). However, combat scenes take place through random encounters, so exploration and menu navigation feel like that of a traditional turn-based console RPG (i.e. FINAL FANTASY). In Second Evolution, the simple 2-and-a-half-D combat is simple, streamlined and fun. Up to four characters participate in battle, and you can control any one of them, while AI takes care of the other three.
The first few hours of the game feature slow, simple combat (like an early DOUBLE DRAGON game). But over time, with additional skills and character-leveling (the level cap in this game is 255), battles become complex, strategic, and absurdly fast-paced. Fortunately, the action pauses when you enter into menus to select spells or items, or switch which character you control. It's a needed respite for some of the more intense battles later in the game.
Second Evolution's plot isn't too complicated, but it is intriguing. We're basically talking about a two-planet story. Originally, on the PS1, this was a two-disc game. Disc one took place on one planet, and disc two on the other. Fortunately, the UMD disc has no problem fitting all of the content.
Claude and Rena, in full anime style!
At the start of the game, you choose either a male or female protagonist, each with a very different background. Regardless of whom you choose, you'll learn about both Claude and Rena throughout your first play. But I highly recommend playing through the game at least twice, especially since the main plot arc allows for a quick play (in RPG terms, anyway; a run-through takes about 30 hours). That way you can experience both the Claude and Rena paths.
The differences in their path include some different cut scenes, a few different events, and limitations as to which characters join your party. There are a total of 13 playable characters in Second Evolution (up from 12 in The Second Story, as a character from Last Hope named "Welch" makes a cameo appearance in the PSP port). However, of those 13, only 8 can join your party per playthrough, and some of them simply won't go with Claude or Rena as lead.
Most of the characters come in these dichotomous pairs: you have to choose between Precis and Bowman, Opera (plus Ernest) or Ashton, and ultimately, you won't have room for Celine, Welch, Noel, and Chisato if you fill out your party with other characters. Because of the game's "private action" system (allowing you to have fun and relevant conversations with your party members at each town), choosing different party members gives an entirely different "feel" for your playthrough. And each playable character has their own individualized ending cut scenes, and some characters have some "shared" (paired) ending cut scenes. The most hardcore gamers would have to beat the game upwards of 15 times to see them all.
What makes this Star Ocean title so addictive, in my opinion, is the character growth. With each level-up, you get some skill points that can be spent on about 40 different traits. Each trait is described (vaguely) as giving some stat bonuses, or enhancing a particular field or combat ability. Hardcore players will find ways to exploit the system (and these are well-documented), but Second Evolution put some work into the game to balance out some of the cheapest exploits that existed in The Second Story. But, generally, the skills are all helpful in their own way. From learning to write, compose/perform music, or get into herbology, to learning any number of combat skills (the best is Godspeed, which increases character movement speed), you'll have a lot of fun customizing your characters. And, again, you'll want to play through the game more than once to get a well-rounded experience.
The most shocking thing about Second Evolution is that it doesn't get old or boring. Dungeons are long, but never too long. Random encounters aren't too frequent, but they happen enough to allow you to experiment with new combat styles, abilities and party setups. There's so much that can happen for your party.
But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and if you choose not to invest in all the game has to offer, it'll feel like "just another JRPG." And that's an awful feeling.
THE PRESENTATION
There's this guy. Maybe you've heard of him, maybe you haven't. His name is Motoi Sakuraba, and he's written more videogame music than any other composer I know. And I've devoted much of my young adult life to the study of game music, so I think I know what I'm talking about.
Because Sakuraba believes Quantity is Job 1, and because he generally sticks to synth prog rock as genre of choice, people tend to get tired of him quickly. If you've played virtually any tri-Ace or Tales game, you've heard him. If you've played any BATEN KAITOS or ETERNAL SONATA, you've heard him. He's a fairly prolific composer. Among all the music he's composed in one lifetime, I can safely say my favorite score by him is the one he wrote for Star Ocean 2. So there you have it. The pinnacle of his career, put into one game. The battle themes are solid, the town theme "Sacred Song" is beautiful, the character-specific track "Rena's Theme" is unforgettable, and the end credits music "We Form in Crystals" is mind-blowing.
One thing that didn't go over well in the transition from Second Story to Second Evolution is voice acting. Now, Second Story was notorious for having crappy voice acting. However, there wasn't much of it. The only VA work that went into the PS1 original was battle cries. It was like doing voice acting for a fighting game: lots of one-liners, difficult to pull off without sounding cheesy.
Well, for Second Evolution, they got a whole new cast, and they also recorded all event dialogue, including Private Actions. Now, what we have here is hit-or-miss dialogue. Generally, Square Enix goes out of their way to hire competent actors, but things don't always go over without a hitch, even for S-E. To give an example: my favorite scene in the game is one where Rena discovers some startling truths about her homeland, as well as her place (and time) of birth. The discovery leads her to give this startling monologue while standing next to a giant tree.
In The Second Story, all I had to go on was text, so I took it to be a very dramatic and heartfelt moment. However, in Second Evolution, the half-assed acting really ruined this moment for me. No longer was it a life-changing moment for Rena. It was just something she had to talk about for a bit, then get over for the sake of saving the world. Perhaps this scene, like many others in the game, had more to do with my preconceived notions of the characters and less to do with the quality of the voice acting. Whatever the reason, it's safe to say that I only partially enjoyed the VA, and sometimes wished it just didn't exist.
World maps and flight-based transportation near the game's end? How I miss the days of the "old-school" RPG.
The game's graphics remain virtually unchanged. Anime cut scenes have replaced some of the old-school 3-D CG sequences (though the 3-D scenes also appear, sparingly, throughout the game...the staff roll sequence was cut, which made me mad). Also, anime-style portraits of all major characters (playable and NPC alike) were created and appear on-screen next to the text bubbles during dialogue. That was a nice touch.
THE JUDGMENT
I know this isn't a perfect RPG. Most people would argue it's far from perfect. But for me, it's one of my favorites. I've beaten about 150 RPGs in my life, and I'm OCD enough to personally rank them from best to worst. And Star Ocean: Second Evolution ranks 4th-best. That's a pretty big achievement. I simply can't get enough of this game, whereas I can (and have) gotten enough of other tri-Ace titles.
I think that says something. So I'm going big, giving our first 5 out of 5. We don't do halfsies around here, so 4.5 out of 5 ain't happenin', and the game's too good to get "just a 4." Don't like it? Deal with it! Or leave a comment.
Check out: Maria Bamford, "Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome"
Gameosaurus isn't a music or comedy blog, but the site was conceived as a place where we could talk about anything that comes out of a screen or speaker. Mostly games, though.
Maria Bamford hangs out with my favorite cabal of loser comics -- Brian Posehn, Zach Galifianakis, those guys. Her standup deals mostly with her neurotic family and obsessive compulsive disorder, which are concepts I can get behind.
From episode 13 of "The Maria Bamford Show":
"You haven't ever thought of skinning a retarded person, making their skin some sort of jerky and then feeding it back to their parents? Have you ever thought of jacking off an entire farm family, and then rubbing yourself down with all the semen, and then killing them?"
Her new CD, "Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome" (a very real affliction, I can tell you), came out yesterday, and I enthusiastically recommend it. I also recommend Lala, a wonderful Web site that either foolishly counts on the integrity of the American consumer or has monetized its service in some completely mysterious way.
By signing up, you can listen to any track in Lala's considerable database once for free and infinitely for 10 cents. Example! Listen to "Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome" below. Free! Once.
Virtual Console Round-Up: April '09
In terms of raw quantity, it's been slim pickins for the Wii's Virtual Console this month. Though Nintendo technically could bust out a huge load of surprise releases before the month ends, we've only seen three releases in North America thus far, with one release per week.
Fortunately, the quality of the releases is fairly high. I have a place in my heart for each one of these games. Let's take a quick look.
Pirates!, or New Horizons; which is the better age-of-exploration Sim?
On April 6th, KOEI released UNCHARTED WATERS: NEW HORIZONS, which was originally an SNES title. The second game in the series (which has since spawned its own MMORPG, UNCHARTED WATERS ONLINE), New Horizons is best remembered for two things: 1) being a knock-off of SID MEIER'S PIRATES!, and 2) having incredible music written by Yoko Kanno (COWBOY BEBOP, GUNDAM WING).
Regarding the music, it's worth noting that Kanno wrote the majority of the music for KOEI titles from 1990 to 1995. Though no one has delved deep into Kanno's composing process, it almost can be assumed that she did not write the music with the intent of having it "fit" on the limited chiptunes of the day. Much like Koichi Sugiyama (DRAGON QUEST), Kanno had grand schemes for her music. But Kanno's specialties are jazz and ethnic/world music. Import soundtrack collectors should note that Uncharted Waters II: Special Edition ranks among my all-time favorite arranged soundtracks, and it's probably my favorite Kanno score (or at least tied with NAPPLE TALE).
The real Catalina pulled a Mulan. Fortunately, KOEI's portrayal of Catalina is far less androgynous.
The game itself is a hybrid Simulation/RPG, and as I said already, it's something of a Pirates! clone. That said, despite the popularity of Pirates!, I would argue that New Horizons is a far superior product. The game was actually released on both SNES and Genesis, but here we're specifically getting the (superior) SNES version. What sets it apart from Sid Meier's games are the six protagonists, of which you choose to play as only one per playthrough. Sid Meier's games tend to have "blank" protagonists, allowing you to play the role as you would see fit. But these six characters hail from different nations and have different back-stories. And their stories are rather interesting. The most interesting, in my opinion, is Catalina Erantzo, who is based on a historical figure. The game is worth playing through with multiple characters. I particularly enjoyed playing as the Turkish merchant, if only because it's so rare to have a Turkish protagonist (and from a Japanese developer, no less!).
PITFALL: THE MAYAN ADVENTURE came out on April 13th, and it's based on the Sega Genesis version (note that there are, like, a bazillion ports of this game for a variety of platforms). Loosely based on the concept of the original Atari 2600 game PITFALL, this particular platformer remains near and dear to my heart primarily because it didn't suck. It was challenging, but it wasn't cheap (like the original Pitfall, or um...all Atari games ever). If you don't have a copy of this game lying around for any number of different consoles/handhelds, it may be worth the download now. Don't tell anyone, but this is one of the few games that I prefer to play on the Genesis over the SNES (though I'm told that the Sega CD version is the true superior, despite the load times).
Another Genesis game was released on April 20th. WONDER BOY III: MONSTER LAIR is part of the MONSTER WORLD series. However, it is technically a "Monster Land" gaiden title. The main-series Monster Worlds play as a platforming-action-RPG hybrid (a genre first seen in ZELDA II: THE ADVENTURE OF LINK and further popularized, decades later, by the MMORPG MAPLE STORY). The Sega Master System had a game in this vein titled WONDER BOY III: THE DRAGON'S TRAP. But that's a wholly different game. This Wonder Boy III, as a "gaiden" game, is strictly a side-scrolling platformer with origins in arcades. I first experienced this game at a roller rink as a young boy, and I was immediately captivated by how much more fun this game was than attempting to rollerskate (and falling on my butt) while Garth Brooks' "The Thunder Rolls" played over the loudspeaker. Unfortunately, my mom had only so many quarters and thought that "practice makes perfect" as a mantra works for clumsy eight-year-olds. By the way, my mom was wrong.
The only game where mere existence knocks your health bar down.
In any case, I wouldn't have the chance to play it again, because the only American version of the game was released on TurboGrafx (as simply MONSTER LAIR, with all the Wonder Boy nonsense dropped so as not to confuse fans of the RPG series). I didn't have any friends who owned the console at the time that I first played the arcade version. For all I knew, the arcade version was all I'd ever aspire to play. The Genesis version, which now has been released to us, actually was published in Europe originally; so this is, technically, an "import" title.
Anyway, it's a simple and fun platformer. Also rather difficult. You don't just lose health from running into enemies. No no, just the fact that you're *alive* is a drain on your health. The health bar slowly decreases, and you need to collect items (primarily fruit) to stay alive as you venture forth. Good times! I recommend you play this one.
Next month, who knows what will come out! Square Enix has announced plans to release the original FINAL FANTASY on NES (which is worth it for one key reason: none of the recent ports and remakes are even half as difficult as the original). But we don't know when that will be. In the May round-up, we'll also be sure to analyze the game(s) that drop(s) on April 27th.
Josh Whelchel's "Relay For Life" Charity Album: Indie Game Music Extravaganza!
Josh Whelchel is one of those up-and-coming musicians. At least, I hope he is. If he keeps working hard and has some good luck in making industry contacts, he'll go far.
Right now, the young and aspiring composer is in college, refining his craft. He's composed music for a couple of very interesting indie games: chief among them, THE SPIRIT ENGINE 2. The four disc soundtrack was a large part of what brought this unique RPG to life. I became a 'net-friend with this particular composer, and I even conducted an interview with him. (okay, I think that exhausts all the self-promotion I can do with hyperlinks. I'd apologize, but I do really think you should check out those links!)
Anyway, Whelchel's most recent project was a surprising collaborative effort. In his second attempt at a musical "Relay For Life" (to support The American Cancer Society), Whelchel got in touch with as many indie composers as he could and asked them to submit an original composition for the project. There are vocal and instrumental pieces on the album, and there is no question that what you'll find on this album, you're not likely to find anywhere else.
To sweeten the deal, the big star of the album is Kyle Gabler, co-creator of WORLD OF GOO. Some people don't realize that, but along with creating the game mechanics alongside Ron Carmel, Gabler actually composed the entire score for World of Goo. And that music is quite good. (Expect more from us on Kyle Gabler in the future!)
A donation of $10 or more gets you a digital copy of the charity album, and $25+ will get you a printed CD copy of the album. Whelchel has set a goal for $2,500 raised, and as of this post, they are nearly there (about $100 to go). You could be the one to help put them over the top! Visit this site to learn more and donate (they use PayPal). It's a good cause, and the contributions from over a dozen indie game artists make it one of the most unique fundraising events I've ever seen.
Review: "Rhythm Heaven"
Cheering on a charming, genial little game like RHYTHM HEAVEN for the Nintendo DS is tricky business.
If there's one thing Nintendo has done well by the DS and the Wii -- and there may be only one thing -- it's been the stacks and stacks of mostly playable mini-game collections you can find on either console. But we've seen so many of them by now that rooting for another one is like begging for whatever Seth Rogen / Jonah Hill / Jason Segel / Leslie Mann bromance that Judd Apatow cooks up next. Fun enough, but increasingly familiar.
THE SETUP
What pop star _doesn't_ have an army of sentient monkeys aping her every move? Wordplay!
Rhythm Heaven blends the manic mini-game slide-shows of the WARIO WARE titles with the beat-heavy gameplay of ELITE BEAT AGENTS. If you've ever played the latter, you know the DS can pull off rhythm games remarkably well. Rhythm Heaven isn't as compulsively playable as Elite Beat is, but as a mini-game collection, it works well enough.
The game offers 24 base-level mini-games that are unlocked sequentially. Each set of four games is capped with a "remix" level that strings the mini-games together in a challenging new way, bringing the initial batch of stages to 30.
To complete a mini-game, you tap, slide or flick the DS in time to movements on the left or right screen (the game forces you to hold the DS storybook-style). Stages like "Love Lizards" challenge you to Simon Says-style mimicry; others require rote memorization and quick reflexes.
Once you complete the first 30 stages, the game opens up a little further by adding 16 difficult variants of mini-games you've already completed and four new remixes. These remixes get especially tough; they switch between all of the mini-games you've unlocked, rather than just the four in their respective columns.
So as a toy and an unlock-a-thon, Rhythm Heaven succeeds. But as a full-throated $30 game, it has issues.
Cute. Simple. Impossible, if you're going for a perfect.
Even with dozens of valuable goodies, Rhythm Heaven has trouble creating a satisfactory sense of momentum. You open new mini-games by completing the ones before them, and you unlock extras by earning medals in each of the mini-games and remix stages. There seem to be just four grades for each stage -- "Try Again," "OK," "Just OK" and "Superb" -- and the only way to medal is to clear the stage with a "Superb."
The rub lies in the complete opaqueness of the criteria on which you're graded. You generally can tell if you're messing up so badly that you're going to get a "Try Again." But the difference between "OK" and "Just OK" is unknowable, and the "Superb" quota varies from stage to stage. You can fumble four or five times in "Lockstep" and still snag a medal, but flubbing just once in the utterly infuriating "Fillbots" is enough to demote you to "Just OK."
The game occasionally will challenge you to earn a "perfect" after you've picked up a medal. These opportunities -- you get three chances per -- pop up randomly, like the comets in SUPER MARIO GALAXY.
In all my hours with Rhythm Heaven, I managed only one perfect. The game is absolutely unforgiving about accuracy, and when you're entering 200 to 300 combinations of taps, slides and flicks in the space of a minute or two, the likelihood that you'll hit every one becomes brutally small.
THE PRESENTATION
Stretch out your neck! Tap, flick!
Wario Ware veterans will remember that those games' visual charm lay in their shopworn look. Rhythm Heaven carries over a lot of that, though some of the games are inadvertently attractive. The two "Rhythm Rally" games, in which bobbleheaded dudes face off over a polygonal ping pong table, isn't the most sophisticated DS imagery out there, but it is clean. Other mini-games, like "Munchy Monk," look like careless hand-drawn garbage. ("Munchy Monk" is my favorite stage of the bunch.)
The audio is much more consistent, and thankfully so. Aside from the remix stages, in which you're forced to rely partially on visual cues, Rhythm Heaven can be played almost entirely without looking at your DS. Some stages implicitly encourage you to do as much, inserting objects that obscure your view of the action and throw you off the beat.
The music, by Japanese vocalist Tsunku and other artists you haven't heard of, is bubbly, pleasant and occasionally catchy. It all exists to serve the mini-games, which is smart, but it isn't Jumpin' Jack Flash or September, either (just two of the tracks that made Elite Beat Agents so great).
THE JUDGMENT
If Rhythm Heaven gave you a better way to gauge your ability, or if it were a little more generous with "perfect" timing, it would be easy to recommend. But unsparing difficulty works only when you can figure out a way to better your play. Rhythm Heaven offers no clues.
But as a disposable pile of mini-games, or as a time-waster on long car trips, the game is just fine.
Review: "Dishwasher: Dead Samurai"
Our hero, at home in the graveyard.
THE DISHWASHER: DEAD SAMURAI is the labor of one guy, James Silva, who won Microsoft’s Dream-Build-Play contest and got his game up on Xbox Live Arcade. He won with a 2D beat-’em-up featuring a slave-wage zombie with an arsenal of cruel implements out for a little revenge on his cyborg overlords, so I gave it a chance and came away happy.
THE SETUP
Our hero, the deranged, undead and slightly amnesic dishwasher, wakes up to remember getting his heart ripped out of his chest. And before he comes to grip with the fact that he’s breathing, men in black suits and shades show up with guns and declarative statements.
Another player can take control of your shadow.
You use both analog sticks to move the dishwasher around. The left stick is for basic movement, and flicking the right stick sends him rolling or teleporting in whatever direction you’d like. The A button jumps, and the other three face buttons hurt the bad guys. X does a light attack, Y does a heavy attack and B throws people. Hitting the buttons in the right sequence can help the dishwasher’s opponents die a lot faster.
Once the dishwasher gets his sword, he has it at the ready at all times. You can trade between it and a secondary weapon -- cleavers, scythes, firearms or a chain saw. The diswasher can teleport with the sword equipped, but he can’t run up walls. Each weapon has about twenty different combos, which can be extended by switching switching from one weapon to another mid-combo. Punctuating a sword strike with a shotgun blast is particularly satisfying.
When your enemies are near death, they can be finished off with either clean or messy deaths. The enemy lets you know which death it would prefer, and if you do the right one, the dishwasher is rewarded with hearts, extra coins and a magic green skull.
You use these magic skulls to perform dish magic, which strikes a large portion of the screen, killing or wounding most of the weaker bad guys it touches, but it’s pretty useless on bosses. Use the coins to upgrade weapons, raise max health and buy continues and potions (nutribread and uberfishes), and the hearts fill up your life bar.
Dishwasher is fast paced and chaotic, so the controls are essential. But they’re tight and intuitive. With a little bit of practice, you’ll be flying across the screen and chopping suits in half. At least when you’re fighting one or two at a time.
It’s when you start facing three at a time that you’ll need to have mastered the controls to advance, because the game is not easy. Dishwasher starts with three difficulty settings and is the only game that I can think of where starting with easy is a reasonable strategy. This is because your accomplishments stay with you. If you decide to take on normal mode after finishing half of easy, you can keep the weapon and health upgrades you've already bought.
Though, even with a fully improved sword and max health, easy wasn’t a pushover, and normal has been pretty hard. I expect ninja will be brutal, and the final two modes will probably make some pretty strong men cry.
With only 10 of the common enemies (and about as many bosses) spread across 14 levels, things can feel repetitive, especially on a second playthrough. But can you think of a beat-’em-up that isn't? Each enemy behaves in a pretty unique way, which is more than STREETS OF RAGE 3 could say, and I played through that more times than I’d like to remember.
Each common bad guy has about two attacks in addition to a basic physical attack. The suits shoot horizontally and diagonally up, the marines climb a rope and shoot down diagonally or drop a grenade. So when fighting, you have to think carefully about space control. The marines aren’t much of a threat if they’re more than halfway across the screen, because the grenade drops right underneath them and their shots only reach about halfway. The suits take a while to draw their guns before they shoot, so they’re not much of a threat close up because you can see the shots coming, but they’re a big threat when off screen because the shots will come without warning and you don’t have time to dodge them. So later in the game, your most useful combos aren’t necessarily about doing the most damage, but in controlling where the bad guy ends up after the combo is finished. Combos can knock the guy high into the air, down into the ground or flying across the screen. When four enemies start showing up on the screen, you won’t have much time to think, but it’ll pay off if you do.
Dishwasher does try to break things up with a guitar minigame and some interesting level elements. When the dishwasher rides down a long rope at the end of the third level, soldiers with jet packs and rocket launchers attack from above. Using the sword, which lets you teleport, you dart around the air avoiding rockets and slashing at the soldiers, which was the most fun I had before I became more comfortable with the controller.
THE PRESENTATION
Anything that moves in Dishwasher looks wonderful. From the title screen’s hazey backround to the smoke pouring off the heart on the menu to the the comic-like cut scenes, things move as if they’re alive. The attention to detail is impressive.
The game, well, it looks like a 2D button masher –- Imagine if VIEWTIFUL JOE had starred Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. Everything is dark or pale until things die, when they bleed red (or black, it’s your choice in the options) and give off red hearts, green skulls and gold coins. The sprites have to be seen in motion to be appreciated, because they’re not much to look at when still.
The backgrounds, the things in DISHWASHER that don’t move, are the least inspiring element. They’re mostly bland and change little from screen to screen. The same could probably be said of the sprites, but they come alive with fluid and elegant movement, something that can’t really help the backgrounds.
The off-center comic cut scenes look pretty good, but they don't do much beyond introduce the levels boss and any new common enemies that you come across. After their introduction, common enemies appear more-or-less at random. You'll be underneath a graveyard fighting skeletons and zombies on a pile of skulls thinking "man, this feels thematically appropriate," and then marines will spawn over your head for no reason than the game designer thought you'd get tired of fighting zombies and skeletons.
THE JUDGMENT
The core gameplay is quick, fun and chaotic, and things look good on the screen. I can't wait for my roommate to get back from the wilderness to play co-op through one of the harder modes. The level design could be more thematically cohesive, but a weak story is no reason to dismiss a beat-’em-up. Especially one that's only 800 points.
