You’re watching MTV, where music videos are still played, and Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” comes on. Bruce is rocking out on stage but… he keeps making eyes at this somewhat androgynous brunette in a sleeveless t-shirt. Then, during The Big Man’s sax solo, The Boss actually pulls her up on stage for a brief, intimate, and somewhat awkward dance. And thus the world was introduced to Courtney Cox; she of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Scream and Friends fame. From those dubious beginnings, a long and fruitful career blossomed.
For two of the N64’s most well-known anthropomorphic platform heroes, the beginning was almost as humble.
There was a time when the turtles were bigger than pro wrestling. As it’s been a number of years since the pinnacle of their success, it’s probably best to specify that I’m referring, of course, to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Undoubtedly, there is a certain generation of people who don’t need that specification; when they hear ‘the turtles’, their minds make that immediate synaptic connection to the Ninja Turtles. But, as time passes, there is bound to be ever more gamers and movie fans who weren’t there to experience Turtle Power first hand.
Throughout the years, countless storytellers have taken up the legends of Arthur, monster-hunting king of yore, and his heroes of the round table; these storytellers sometimes seemed on a quest against one another to put Camelot’s king and his brothers in continually more romantic and fantastical adventures. While the chivalrous hero of Capcom’s 1991 SNES platformer Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts may not be the same Arthur of circular table-fame, he certainly shares his name, appearance, and general quest; that is, to save a princess from a slew of horrible beasts.
Arthur begins in a classic iron suit of armor, purely utilitarian and consistent with the mythical prehistoric defenders of Britain, but he can uncover several upgrades that become increasingly more ornate and regal. The suit upgrades also magnify the power of whichever weapon Arthur happens to be holding onto; he starts with a lance but other options encountered through the game include speedy daggers, frightful bows, and useless torches. No matter how terrific Arthur appears in his shiny armor, a single hit from an enemy instantly rips our hero from his protective shell, leaving him to carry on in nothing but his skivvies.
But aren’t suits of armor notoriously hard to put on and take off? One wonders if perhaps Arthur expected his quest to the princess to be a rather lackadaisical journey, and designed his suits of armor accordingly, so that when he finally reached his damsel he could more speedily disrobe and make with the obligatory reward sex.
There are a lot of videogames that involve having to destroy a few, or a few hundred enemy creatures that pose a threat to you as you try to trek to wherever your destination may be. It’s easy to forgive Mario for stomping his enemies into the ground, because they would probably do the same to him as soon he let his guard down.
Bomberman is a bit different though – he actively invades habitats just to destroy whatever is living there. It’s almost like some sort of commentary on the world – he is humanity personified, and he has a habit of seeking out new lands and exploding whatever gets in his way. Or he’s just running around and doing what most of us would do if we were given access to an unlimited amount of bombs.
Either way, he’s a pretty entertaining guy, but I can’t help but think that Bomberman is also kind of a jerk.
Super Smash Bros. will always be one of my favorite games. I guess I’m just a sucker for cute little non-threatening characters bludgeoning each other with whatever objects fall from the sky, and continuing to dish out damage until the opponent is weak enough to be sent flying down to hell. I’m pretty sure that this game (and Pokemon Snap, of course) was the reason I had an N64 instead of a PlayStation.
Also this is my first comic here at Gamesugar, which I hope will be recurring, so let me know what you think.
-As before, the welcoming party consisted of armed thugs swinging chains and spikes, meat grinders waiting for fresh juice, walls of spikes, and all other manner of death traps eager to paint the town red all over again. In short, it reaffirmed my long running suspicion that cities are intent on killing us, or at least hurrying the speeds at which we kill each other.
-The city is where we need to go in order to make a name for ourselves as well, where we can fight to claw our way ahead and raise our rank and edge ever closer to the prize that eluded us everyplace else.
Moving boxes around yesterday turned up more than a few PS1 games I hadn’t seen in awhile – my life is mostly comprised of boxes in case you’re curious, and every so often I turn them over instead of writing semi-cohesive paragraphs about how important videogames are. Along the way I found the original Ghost in the Shell, which often gets labeled as a mediocre licensed title by people who haven’t played it.
In actuality the game is several shades of meeting and beating expectations, tossing players into a nimble tank, your trusty Fuchikoma, and offering up animation work from Production I.G – essentially making the game a precursor to all the work done on the Stand Alone Complex series.
The game was made by Exact in Japan, an internal Sony Japan studio that became Sugar & Rockets (the studio that inspired this site’s name) for awhile before apparently vanishing – but I’ve pieced that last bit together mostly from sugar packets given the fleeting and scarce nature of information regarding internal Sony Japan.
Anyway, what’s particularly special about this copy I turned up is that it’s an import from Japan. Not surprisingly, I’m a bit obsessive about collecting import copies of games whenever possible, but PS1 titles are one of the sweetest in my opinion. So long story short, I’ve tossed together some pictures of what certainly isn’t the rarest, but does qualify as one of the most impressively packaged games I own, which you can catch after the break if you’re into that sort of thing.
Reviewing and playing a year’s worth of RPG releases in various styles from numerous companies has left me feeling that the genre is a tired dog looking for a place to die – or at least I wish this was the case. Aside from a few titles that sought deviations in control and narrative development, there were and continue to be plenty that cram “me too” titles onto consoles, believing that narrative aspirations and a few modest features can sell to a sedated audience.
At best we get something immediately rooting into safer choices to furnish a series, and even if this provides a few pleasures to be found along the way, we’re living on the long end of a beast’s tail that took the fullest shape on the original PlayStation.
This might begin sounding like the typical “they don’t make them like they used to” ploy. I assure you that can’t be the case, because the problem is that they do make them like they used to quite a bit, with far less success for the trouble.
Refresh Rate 01
Sin and Punishment: Successor to the Earth
Runtime – 7:52
Developer – Treasure
Publisher – Nintendo
System – Nintendo 64 / Virtual Console
Released – November 21, 2000 / October 1, 2007
I really want the Refresh Rate to be a category worth the special place in your heart I insist you give it. Ideally it should be less about re-writing prspeak and more about being a Zen garden of all things noteworthy and composed of awesome-ite, which I assure you is a real element, so don’t go grabbing the periodic table hoping to prove me wrong.
Back to the point, this taste of concept art from Might & Magic Clash of Heroes that Capybara Games offered us should help set my lofty goal in motion.
If you’re wondering whether or not you should care about Clash of Heroes, you can catch my review of the game here. Otherwise you can catch the goods after the break.
