Spite, love, whatever — who cares about such base emotions? This latest issue of GameSpite is all about random nonsense rather than the forced themes of the past few updates. And yet, we still ended up with a sort of theme anyway: totally epic and fantastic portable games. Actually, I guess that’s not really much of a theme so much as a mild coincidence. Eh, never mind, then.
Astro Boy: Omega Factor
Treasure games and I have an uneasy relationship, in that I recognize their excellence but don’t really particularly enjoy them, and they promise not to hit me again if I don’t try to play them. That being said, the amount of love and goodness described in this article and its companion makes me realize that some things transcend mere enjoyment.
Pokémon
Pokémon is the woody wagon of video games: it’s uncool, everyone makes fun of it, but gosh dang if it doesn’t get the kids to school safely. No, wait, that’s nonsense. Sorry. But this article isn’t! So you should read it, ayup.
two awesome articles right there. Kat, you pretty much hit on the head why I got into Pokemon in the first place (I friggin saved Lunch Money back in 8th grade for Red AND Blue when they first came out), and while I personally think that Pokemon, these days, is played best by children who pick whichever latest version as their FIRST version…those that have played the first series are either at a point where they want SERIOUS change, or are content. Also, The first movie was probably one of the greatest Video Game-based-movie experiences I’ve ever had, ever.
Astro Boy…I remember trying it out at my local game crazy, but I didn’t buy it for some odd reason…I regret that, and next time I see the game, I’m pickin’ it up no matter what.
While I love some Treasure games, I would not describe them as precise. It is often hard to tell where exactly the hit boxes are, and which part of the enemy can hurt you, and which moves get priority. Treasure seems to know this themselves, which is why most of their games allow you to get hit so much before dying. The obvious exception being Ikuruga, of course.
Excellent article on Astro Boy. You summed up everything I love about the game. I have zero experience with the source material yet I was instantly won over by the quirky characters and enjoyable storyline.
To this day I still have no idea what the heck was going on with the rabbit, duck and horse in the giant tire.
The rabbit and friends are the Wonder 3, localized in the 60’s as “The Amazing Three”. It’s kind of bizarre and charming, three aliens come to Earth to investigate why we have so many wars. They take animal forms to, uh, blend in I guess. English theme song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z71s2GOt2s0
Man, I really need to play Astro Boy. Pity it doesn’t show up in the used game section very often.
That article about Astro Boy made me remember just how awesome that game is. It also humbled me – I’d been used to thinking Hard difficulty was not that bad, but Astro Boy forced me to play it on Medium.
Well, you convinced me to order a used copy of Astro Boy. However, no force on Earth would be sufficient to convince me, against the evidence of my senses, that Pokemon is a fun game that I like to play.
I’ve spent years saying Astro Boy might just be the best game on the GBA but it seems like there’s a lot of people who just don’t want to be interested in any Treasure game that doesn’t have the words Gunstar and Heroes in the title.
I normally try and avoid talking about the twist ‘ending’ because when I do I seem to get responses like “it’s just ripping off Ghosts n Goblins to make itself longer, that’s lame”. It’s so much better than it sounds. It’s like Ghosts n Goblins and Chrono Trigger had a beautiful baby. That’s what Omega Factor’s second half is like.
Despite being deemed “uncool” and whatnot, I think Pokemon is best viewed as a celebration of being a kid — kind of like Earthbound, really.
The Pokemon thing happened in reverse for me – I came for the game, but stayed for the anime. The battles were so much more interesting, and there was a lot of quality ridiculousness (i. e. the Jigglypuff/Clefairy duel).
Astroboy is the only game I’ve seen to work stage-select into the story line.