The third rollicking installment of the GameSpite too-digital-to-be-a-fanzine concern is now online. Unlike last time, where we crammed Final Fantasy down your throat until Moogles were spilling out of your ears, this update has only the general concept of “video games” as its connective ligament. Mmm, stringy.
Breath of Fire III
Mightyblue returns to the Breath of Fire series to look at its third installment. His perspective is quite a bit more positive than mine; BoF3 was the first blow in the three-punch knockout that made me realize that I don’t actually have to finish a boring game, because the payoff for 70 hours of tedium can never outweigh said 70 hours.
Breath of Fire IV
And also, a look at the fourth Breath of Fire as well. I learned my lesson from the third game and skipped over this one, but Mightyblue makes it sound… not so bad, if not necessarily great. Oh well. The good news is that this means he has saved the best (Dragon Quarter) for last.
CryptoSafari Snap! The Skyfish
Brandon provides a second installment in his fever dream-like CryptoSafari Snap! series. Last time he hunted down a killed a Tsuchinoko; today, he goes all stabby style on the Skyfish. No, this has nothing to do with bizarre meteorological conditions caused by fish eggs being drawn into the sky through evaporation.
Gunstar Heroes
LeGeek makes his GameSpite debut with a look at an intricate, hardcore exercise in pushing the Genesis to its limits. (No, not Shaq-Fu.) Fun fact: I have been branded a Treasure hater because I don’t love their games without reservation. This is because nerds don’t deal well with contrary opinions.
Ico
For Ico, LumberBaron provides us with a suitably high-falutin’ retrospective. At this point it probably would have been edgier and more unpredictable to have reviewed the game in a dry, formal, standard review template. A missed opportunity! I guess I have to turn in my Meta badge, now.
Kid Icarus
Contributor Red Hedgehog examines the terrible dichotomy of Nintendo’s Kid Icarus: why do some revile it, while others regard it as the bee’s ever-lovin’ knees? The answer lies within.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
And bobservo offers up Majora’s Mask as an already-existing cure for the sensation of “been-there-done-that” which seems to have seized the Zelda series in its soporific clutches. Seriously, if the next Zelda doesn’t do something new I’m not even going to bother playing it.
MacVenture on NES: Uninvited
Meanwhile, Red Hedgehog’s retrospective on Kemco-Seika’s NES MacVenture trilogy comes to its conclusion with an analysis of the third entry in this loosely-affiliated series, Uninvited. That’s “Uninvited,” mind you, not The Uninvited. The box art scared away the article.
U.N. Squadron
Finally, a retrospective on Super NES shooter U.N. Squadron. I had forgotten all the changes made to the home version — it might well be the last vestige of Capcom’s 8-bit-era compulsion to add depth to its arcade conversions by introducing new gameplay mechanics. (Giving Guy his own version of Final Fight does not count.)
Disappointingly, I didn’t have time to write up the Mass Effect review I had hoped to include in this issue. But you’re probably sick of me talking about it anyway.
Actually, I’d love to hear more about Mass Effect.
Just as I was about to dive back into Final Fantasy Legend, this pops up! I frown at the not loving of Breath of Fire IV, but I smile at the eventual loving of Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. Or do I and will it be?
I fondly remember Kid Icarus, but not the NES game. My experience was with Kid Icarus of Myths and Monsters, the completely-forgotten Game Boy sequel/port/remake/whateveritwas. Just comparing it to the article here it had no inertia from landing after jumps and scrolled all directions (no bottomless pits) so it might actually be a much better game.
Also, UN Squadron is love. If you want another RPG parallel you missed out that, like in Zelda, when you are one hit away from death a loud siren will play constantly, interfering with the lovely music and distracting you at a crucial time when concentration is required.
Issue #3 has officially rocked my socks. Awesome articles all around!
Oh, it was the RUBY that was killing me!?
I just assumed the game was hard, and dumb. Only one of the three I never finished.
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I fondly remember Kid Icarus, but not the NES game. My experience was with Kid Icarus of Myths and Monsters, the completely-forgotten Game Boy sequel/port/remake/whateveritwas. Just comparing it to the article here it had no inertia from landing after jumps and scrolled all directions (no bottomless pits) so it might actually be a much better game.”
I liked it less because of the lack of horrible difficulty. It was just too easy.
How do you call the music genre of which Ocarina of Time’s “Song of Storms” is an example? That’s my favorite music genre ever and would like to find more songs like that. It’s kinda like the music from that Amélie Poulain movie or something.
I could never really get into UN Squadron. Probably because I knew it was originally called Area 88, which caused me to compare it with Zone 66. While UN Squadron may be decent on its own, it really doesn’t stack up compared to Zone 66.
A friend of mine forced me to borrow Breath of Fire III about a month ago, and I still haven’t played it though I have a soft spot for late 90s RPGs who’s aesthetic is sorta like Xenogears.
Whatever. I just found a band called Accordion Tribe which is pretty much the Song of Storms band.
I used to hate the McVentures for NES, only the music in them was good. Another more badass title by Kemco is the little talked about “Rescue: The embassy mission” which is a game way ahead of its time (a tactical FPS for the NES? I say yes!).
True story: Breath of Fire used to be my family’s favorite RPG series; that is to say, my parents and siblings played them all (my mother multiple times) even when Final Fantasy ceased being interesting to them 10 hours into FF8. It was a bonding gaming experience. But 8 hours into the alien DQ we just gave up. I’m probably the only one in my family with the patience to pick it up again, but without everyone else involved, it’s too hollow a venture for the effort.
Just a little reminder that one gamer’s “bold new direction” is another family’s bane.
Hmm. Reviewing it now, I’m afraid the last statement comes off with a different tone than I’d intended. Sorry for that. I’m just more or less disappointed that of all its series Capcom chose BoF to experiment with, at the cost of my family’s interest. But it came out wrong, and my lament now reads like a petty snark.
Blah blah blah…I’m a rash, wordy bastard who misses the BoF of his youth and I’m sorry if I offended with my other post.
“Fun fact: I have been branded a Treasure hater because I don’t love their games without reservation. This is because nerds don’t deal well with contrary opinions.”
I can’t imagine why anyone would think that you hate Treasure.
http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3148855
“I don’t know why, but I detest Treasure games. From Gunstar Heroes to Gunstar Super Heroes, I’ve yet to play a game by this wildly-venerated developer that didn’t strike me as unremarkable at best, utterly horrid at worst. Apparently this means that I am not a real gamer.”
Might get lost in the shuffle here, but I’d like to say you do an outstanding job with these GameSpite Blog/Mag/E-Zine…things! Very cool stuff man, keep up the good work!
Too bad that “I hate Treasure!!” quote is from a year and a half ago, and people can, like *change their minds* about stuff.
In fact, the actual context of the quote (which somehow didn’t make the copy-and-paste) is “I would like to change my mind.” Since then I’ve given positive ratings to just about everything of theirs I’ve come across (on Virtual Console, for instance) and have gone on record saying OMG BANGAIOH SPIRITS. Besides, I didn’t say I dislike Treasure, just their games — I’ve always had respect for the developer itself.
God the bof4 review makes me sad with its use of gia material. That was my first alternative source for gaming news aside from egm when I was growing up, and when it shut down it was rather traumatic.
I may have recommended this before, but I’ll say it again: Astro Boy for GBA is dangerously close to being the best thing Treasure has ever done and totally justifies the company’s reputation. You MUST try it.
Sin and Punishment. Isn’t it a Treasure game? It is really good. Too bad it suffers from the horrible sharp blocky graphic syndrome of the 32 bit era (wich was a horritble time for console graphics, all wanting to be 3D and being completely blocktastily and sharptastily disgustingly ugly at it).
Man, it’s really nice to see some appreciation for Majora’s Mask. Sometimes I think I’m the only one who can recognize its genius, like I’m the only one with the right decoder ring or something.
Just be careful there, Jeremy. People might think that you hate Final Fantasy VII next!
Bring it.
Yeah, “Final Fantasy VII: Attack of the bipolar Lego people featuring something that looks like a mamushka doll and FMV cutscenes featuring Barbies and Kens”. There was a reason some of us were 2D fanatics back then. If someone managed to live through the 32 bit hell era without a Genesis or a SNES, wow, that someone had some twisted awful taste.