There are probably as many MMOs out there that are “free to download, free to play” as there are ones that require you to pony up, if not more. Many times, this ends up making the game more accessible to all, however these games have their own set of challenges, all which contribute into how “Free-to-play” MMOs are run and the community that plays them.

That being said, I’ve been playing various MMOs for close to five years now, and I have my share of good and bad experiences. This list covers some of the more apparent bad experiences that you’re likely to come across. Hit the jump to find out what they are:

1. Whiners
It’s really hard to come in as a newbie and start reading forums, only to find the long-time vets complaining about a skill, job, weapon, etc… that was nerfed, or that their favorite “cash shop” item was removed or made more expensive. Or, maybe they’re just complaining that there’s not enough cake. F2Pers have this odd knack for just finding the most random thing to complain about and threaten things like cash strikes, sit-ins, or to just plain quit. (Good riddance) If it isn’t a trivial thing, it’s something that probably needed to be done, just like MapleStory needed to add a cooldown to a certain skill and add stat penalties for non-light element wands for the grossly overpowered bishop class.

2. Cash Shops
It might be free to obtain, free to play, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways to spend money on these games. In order to generate revenue, these games usually run on a microtransaction business model, which allows you to buy certain items for a small cost that can get you anything from a simple costume to an exp. bonus. These things can typically cost you in the range of a buck to around 20. However, most of these games have made it so that people who spend money in the game have a clear advantage over those that don’t or can’t. (Some games, however, allow you to trade or sell these cash-bought items in game, which eases this a bit.) Sadly, there are some publishers out there that put their efforts solely into generating revenue, and so most updates seem to simply just be cash shop additions, leading to gripe #1.

3. Griefers, Trolls, and Drama Whores
Griefers and trolls, in my opinion, have no place in a video game, on the Internet, or anywhere else for that matter. That won’t keep them from trying to make your experience a living hell, though. They will go about their business, try to stalk and harass you, steal your mobs, pretty much do everything that the “MMO bible”, also known as the “Terms of Service” tells them not to.  Most tend to not care if they get banned as they can just create a new e-mail address or a new account, and the publisher can’t stop them from making a new character on a second account. Ah well… that report button would come into good use. As far as drama is concerned, don’t even get me started on drama.

4. Hackers
Unfortunately, many F2P games tend to become a breeding grounds for hackers, not afraid to get banned since they won’t be losing any money by doing so. Most F2P games tend to have anti-hack solutions such as GameGuard and Hackshield, most which only seem to become effective at blocking legitimate programs from running and with hackers able to bypass them within hours of an updated version going up. Still, developers won’t come around to developing their own anti-hack solution and go with these third party ones, resulting in people messing the game up to the point where the game masters have a hard time keeping up with them. Some of the more popular games go through mass hacker crises on and off while some of the smaller ones tend to not really have hacker problems at all, though, so this happens more on a game-by-game basis.

5. Broken English
The majority of F2P games usually come from South Korea, the so-called Mecca of online gaming. Obviously when they come over here, they have to be translated, right? Usually when a new game enters the beta stages and starts to go into its early official service, it tends to contain a whole slew of grammar gaffes that can only remind us about Zero Wing sometimes.

6. Bugs
For some reason, there’s always two departments that seem to be lacking in F2P MMO’s. The first of those seems to be quality assurance. Although some are better than others, there isn’t an F2P out there that, at one point it’s been crippled by a bug in which the game has needed to be either brought down for an extended amount of time or rolled back. Some games have various major bugs pop up almost every patch, others every once in a while.

7. Lack of Presence From Game Masters
Companies hire GMs to promote and moderate the game. Most players see them as a PR person and usually base how they’re doing with how much they interact with the community at times, though it turns out that the job description of the game master is more than just hanging out in-game and banning the evildoers.  Some of these duties tend to leave the game unmoderated and things tend to get out of hand, and after constant problems with this the community starts to lose hope.

On the other hand, some publishers are really good at having their GMs respond to issues on the official forums, or by spending some time with the community that they’ve been hired to take care of. In other cases, publishers have created volunteer programs as well to recognize outstanding players and to provide a “player contact” for some of the more simple things, such as Nexon America’s “Maple Watch Leaf Brigade” for MapleStory, or Aeria’s “Game Sage” program across all their games.

8. Scammers
Scammers can pose a real problem. Fast. although I’m sure P2P games have this problem on a large scale as well, it’s a fluctuating issue in the F2P realm, especially with the playerbase usually being quite a bit younger due to the game’s availability.

9. “Update Lag”
Going back to the fact that I said that most F2P MMOs originate from Korea, the most advanced versions of these games are usually overseas as well. In just about every game there’s at least a small community dedicated to figuring out what’s happening in these Asian versions of the game in order to see what we may get. The only issue is… when would we get this content? For many games, it takes months or even more than a year to get that content out in the American versions, and usually that leaves the community in a shroud of pessimism.

Still, though, a few months isn’t all that bad, given the time it takes to localize a game for the western market to begin with. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise sometimes.

10. Customer Support
Customer Support is that second “lacking” department with many publishers that I was getting at before. Don’t get me wrong: Many publishers like OGPlanet, Aeria, and GamesCampus have excellent support. (All of which I’ve had to deal with at one time or another) However, there are horror stories with other companies who seem to have left customer support out of their budget. Automated replies, extremely long response times of weeks, even months or even not at all, and replies that have nothing to do with the issue are all things that we see in the F2P world.

On the contrary, the community does bear slight fault to this, as I’m sure each publisher gets a handful of tickets that are either hard to understand, don’t have enough information, or is for something that they can’t do. (Usually dealing with people who lose their accounts because they forgot their password and the e-mail they associated to it, but that’s why you only keep one e-mail for personal stuff, people!)

All in all, these gripes are all a collaberative effort: Some are the fault of the community, some of the publisher and even the developer. Keep in mind that this doesn’t reflect on any publisher out there. As I’ve said a couple times there are some good publishers. Don’t take this is a “F2P MMOs are bad” kind of thing because a lot of them are actually pretty good. How do you think MapleStory got so popular despite the shortcomings of its developer?

So, go ahead, find a good free MMO you wanna play. Just beware some of these things if you know what I mean. You’ll have fun.

In October 2000, Pokemon Gold and Pokemon Silver had already been out in Japan for quite some time. I had a preorder for Gold, due out October 14th. It was a day I couldn’t wait for. I remember I didn’t sleep the night before and I showed up at the mall a half hour before it opened so I could pick the game up right away.  I took it home and played, played, played, and played the crap out of it. So much, in fact, that the only game that I have ever played more than my beloved Gold version is Tales of Symphonia.

Pokemon Gold and Silver introduced a lot of new things to the series that wasn’t around in Red and Blue: A real-time clock, day/night phases, pokemon genders, battle screen enhancements such as experience meters, new plot events, and Pokemon Crystal took it even further by introducing a playable female character, battle animations, a “second rival” (Eusine) and a forced legendary battle after the seventh badge; Something we’ve seen in every game after Crystal.

Nine and a half years later to the day on March 14th 2010, Pokemon HeartGold and Pokemon SoulSilver made landfall in North America. Just like before I had it preordered, although I didn’t rush out to get it.  As I unboxed the big package that the game came in (which includes the Pokewalker, which I will get to in a bit) and started playing, I came to realize that not only has all of that been improved on, but things that had been added later on had also been put into this game, along with a few new things.

So, now that I have the remake of one of my most beloved games of all time, what do I think of it?

Game Overview

If you were gaming when Pokemon was all the rage back in the late 90s, then chances are you know what this game is already about. For those that are a bit newer, Pokemon HeartGold and Pokemon SoulSilver are remakes of the second-gen games; Pokemon Gold, Silver, and Crystal. Summed up, it’s basically the same game with a lot of updates an additions to bring it into this generation of gaming. Aside from the obvious and necessary visual update there are new things such as enhanced touch screen functionality, (you can pretty much do anything except for moving via the touch screen) and most other things added to complicate the game. (Such as pokemon abilities) Additions from other generations can be seen by simply looking at the new Johto region map: Gold/Silver was the only generation not to have a Safari Zone; This was fixed by adding one by Cianwood City. A Battle Frontier was added where the Battle Tower was in Crystal, and a new type of pokemon contest, a more “athletic”-like competition called the Pokethlon, was added to the national park to try something different from the third and fourth-generation contests. The most apparent addition, however, is one long-forgotten from Pokemon Yellow. When you first start the game, you’ll notice that your lead pokemon now follows behind you as you walk around. You can interact with it in a similar fashion as you could with Pikachu in Yellow, and usually you’ll get a quirky comment such as your pokemon “breathing fire” and whatnot. The game of course features all the multitudes of additions made to the original Gold/Silver that has been seen since, such as the real-time clock, day/night phases, trainer re-matches, etc…

Chances are, old gamers who played the original will like this just as much. If you’ve never experienced the original games, now is the time to get this and see what made me play the living hell out of my Gold version.

How does it play?

I earlier mentioned that you can do just about everything with the touch screen, aside from walking. I wasn’t lying; You seriously can. The menu is now a permanent fixture on your DS’ bottom screen and can be accessd with a single tap. All of the menu screens from Diamond/Pearl/Platinum have been moved to the bottom screen for a more streamlined touch interface, and you can also toggle your running shoes on and off. Any time you talk to someone and a response is required it will pop up on the bottom screen. The only thing that does not utliize the touch screen as I mentioned before is walking. Unfortunately because of the design, it tends not to be very left-handed friendly, so if you’re like me you’ll likely still be using the buttons if you only need to access something on the bottom screen very briefly.

Online functionality was expanded compared to Diamond/Pearl/Platinum. A new Wi-fi plaza has been set up that allows you to just muck around and play minigames with a random group of people, ending with a parade. The Global Trade Station from the fourth-gen has also gotten an upgrade as well, turning into Goldenrod City’s new Global Terminal. As well as having a GTS in the far corner, this allows you to access various functions, such as peeking into PC boxes that people have decided to share online, and viewing uploaded battle videos. All in all, the new online features don’t really add much to the game and maybe aside from being able to upload and share battle videos from your VS Recorder, is pretty much useless. I guess as an added plus, you can enter your Wii number into the game and Nintendo WFC will send a message to your Wii message board whenever a GTS trade is completed.

The general plot, catchable pokemon, and other things hasn’t really changed, although you do have the ability to trade with the fourth-gen as well as import pokemon from any of your GBA games (Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald and FireRed/LeafGreen) given that you’re not playing on a DSi.

Included with every copy of the game is a device called a pokewalker. This fancy pedometer designed to look like a poke ball is in fact a minigame in itself. You can take one of your pokemon out of your box, and transfer it to the pokewalker. As you walk around with the device in your pocket, it will gain experience based on the number of steps you take, as well as watts, which can either be used to try to find items or catch pokemon on the walker, or can be transferred back to your game in order to unlock new “areas” on the pokewalker, which basically don’t really do much other than offer up different varieties of pokemon and items.

All in all, it’s a still well-rounded package. Newbies to the series will indulge in all the extra features added into this game while veterans coming back for a second time will enjoy the nostalgia induced by it, much like with FireRed and LeafGreen six years ago.

Pros:

• Utilization of the touch screen
• Bringing a classic game up to speed with the current fourth-gen games
• Nostalgia

Cons:

• Introduces useless online features
• The overall formula hasn’t changed (Although, you can’t really expect it to for a remade classic)
• No Mudkip (Because we all like them… okay, this one isn’t a real con.)

Do I like it?

Let’s do the math. It’s a classic pokemon game that clocks in as my second-most played video game ever, remade for the DS. Why would I not?  But really, Nintendo did a bang-up job recreating the second-gen in these two titles.

So… for the first quarter of 2010, with a bit of help from GameFAQs:

(Note that this is for North America only)

Nintendo Wii

Jan. 26th: No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
Jan. 26th: Tatsunoku vs. Capcom
Mar. 23rd: Sakura Wars: So Long My Love

Xbox 360

Jan. 5th: Bayonetta
Jan. 6th: Mass Effect 2
Feb. 9th: Bioshock 2
Feb. 9th: Dante’s Inferno
Feb. 23rd: Lost Planet 2
Mar. 2nd: Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Mar. 9th: Final Fantasy XIII

Playstation 3

Jan. 5th: Bayonetta
Feb. 2nd: Gran Tourismo 5
Feb. 9th: Bioshock 2
Feb. 9th: Dante’s Inferno
Feb. 23rd: Lost Planet 2
Mar. 2nd: Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Mar. 9th: Final Fantasy XIII

Nintendo DS

Feb. 16th: Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
Mar. 17th: Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver

Playstation Portable

Feb. 9th: Dante’s inferno

PC

Jan. 26th: Mass Effect 2
Feb. 2nd: The Sims 3: High End Loft Stuff
Feb. 9th: Bioshock 2
Mar. 2nd: Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Mar. 16th: Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight

E3 has come and gone, EVO 2009 and well underway, and people have gone away for the summer. However, I’m still here for the most part, wasting away in front of the computer…

…Speaking of which, let’s talk about my computer.

My Dell Inspiron 2200

Yes, this is what my computer looked like before it started to fall apart; While I still played mediocre free Korean MMOs (see the screenshot again.) despite still being involved in the community today, before I had to buy a USB headset because my audio jacks fried, and before I had to borrow my friend’s monitor because my knuckles met with the screen and cracked it.

Yep, that was my faithful, beat-up laptop… until about four days ago.  Now it’s time to introduce you to my new baby:

My new laptop, The Toshiba L300

I can tell you this much: It’s nice to have all this desk space again. Even if the laptop was crap I’d be happy, but this one’s pretty damn good, and it wasn’t all that pricey either. Here’s just a quick overview of what this has. Of course it’s not gaming quality, but for now it gets the job done:

CPU: AMD Athlon Dual Core 2.0GHz
RAM: A whopping 4 gigabytes worth! (It`s so nice not to have to page stuff back and forth)
HDD: 250GB (AFAIK the brand doesn’t really matter. Laptop HDs aren’t that great to begin with.)
Video: ATI Radeon 3100, 256MB shared, Pixel shader 3.0, Vertex shader 3.0. Can actually play good games.
Optical: CD-RW/DVD-RW
OS: Vista Home Premium SP2
Other stuff no one cares about: WiFi b/g/draft-N compatible, 100mbit Ethernet, 56k modem, (They STILL make these things?!) Built-in webcam, built-in SD/MS card reader (SDHC supported)

I wasn’t initially going to get the Toshiba. There was an Acer laptop that I wanted that was about 30 bucks less but it was gone before I could get the chance to buy it. I ended up on the Toshiba because I overheard one of the sales reps saying that it was one of his preferred brands; That, and for an extra 30 bucks I got Home Premium instead of Home Basic, which also means I might be able to get a free upgrade to Windows 7, and an extra gigabyte of RAM. It was worth it.

Of course, this means one thing: I CAN ACTUALLY PLAY GAMES THAT OTHER PEOPLE PLAY. Of course, most of the games I’ve been wanting to play are by Valve, so here’s what I’ve been playing:

Portal: I actually bought Portal a while ago because I found out that I might be able to get it to run, albeit very slowly, on my old computer; It didn’t work, and so it sat there on my Steam account unplayed, undownloaded, unloved. After getting all of my stuff transferred from the old computer, the first thing I did was download this and start playing it; And I’ve had fun with it so far.  However, I haven’t been playing this as much as…

Team Fortress 2: Oh yes. I loved playing Team Fortress Classic. I knew my computer couldn’t run TF2 and was sad that I couldn’t play this. I ended up buying this after acquiring this computer and have gotten immersed in it… although for the most part I suck. I’m not all that bad, though. Earlier today I joined a fellow member from Maple Towers and started kicking some serious ass; I went in as a Heavy while he stayed back as a Medic and kept me healed. Needless to say I was bowling over people quite well; It’s the first time in a long time that I’ve finished anything with a positive KD; Although back in TFC my K:D would be absolutely unbelievable with the Heavy.

There’s not much else I want to talk about tonight; My mind is a bit fatigued. If I’m going to say something however, I’m once again going to point to OCRemix. If you remember I gave props to the guys who did the remix album for Tales of Phantasia and Symphonia: Summoning of Spirits.  Just today a remix album was released for another game I can relate to; Final Fantasy 4, titled “Echoes of Betrayal, Light of Redemption.”  I haven’t been able to listen to it yet since I just downloaded it, but if SoS was anything, I would really suggest checking this one out, too.

Anyway, that’s all for now. To close this post out, here’s a video of crash compilations… with some very good dubbing utilizing TF2 voices:

There’s only a handful or so games that I actually do finish; Midway through one game, I find myself jumping to another newly acquired game.  It’s been something that’s been happening since the days of the GBA for me.  Games for me come and go way too quickly and I find myself changing games faster than some of my friends change girlfriends. (I seriously wish I was joking about that… Fortunately those people don’t visit my blog… yet.)

So, let’s very quickly go over 10 games that I haven’t beat and should go back and finish.

10. Pokémon Diamond (DS)
I loved Pokémon. I loved it so much it was almost like a disease. My red version logged countless hours, well over 100, of playtime and my gold version even more.  Ruby didn’t go so well; I got right up to the end and I just lost interest.  Diamond took even shorter to fizzle out.  I’ve had this game since release and have only gotten about halfway through it.  I keep telling myself that I’ll get back to it if I ever find myself not wanting to play anything else on my DS, but I never had.  One day this will get beat. Once you’ve caught ‘em all, you don’t go back.

9. Megaman 9 (WiiWare/XBLA/PSN)
As a retro gamer, I feel ashamed that I had never played through an old Megaman game. It wasn’t until the crappy GBC Megaman X games that I really got a taste of how the series was like.  I had played some of the later ones (and of course Megaman Battle Network and Starforce) and had my fair share of frustration over the difficulty.  I decided that with Megaman 9 I was NOT going to miss out on.  After a lot of practice I managed to make it up to the third Wily stage, and then I just stopped.  I haven’t really touched the game all that much since except to do a quick endless mode run.

8. No More Heroes (Wii)
You can probably count the number of hardcore games on the Wii with two hands, but make sure you count No More Heroes in that count.  Not only does it feature some good waggle usage, a storyline that will make your brain implode, and a protagonist that is pretty much the king of otakus, it caught me off guard when the game’s first F-bomb occured not even three minutes into the game. (On a NINTENDO console, even. Moreso that a lot of people think that Travis’ “F**khead!” line is the best in the game.)  Sadly, I dropped this game just before the rank 3 stage and have yet to beat this game and its absolute greatness.  I guess Bishop really was telling the truth when he said that “a lot of gamers out there don’t have much patience.”

7. At least one Fire Emblem
At one point or another I’ve owned every Fire Emblem game to have come out on American soil… but have I beaten any of them? Nope.  I guess part of it is the fact I’m not that much of an SRPG buff, and also the sheer difficulty that this line of games is known for.  I definitely do have a thing about Fire Emblem though… It’s too bad one of those things is actually beating one of them.  Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon or Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword would be the two I would likely go after.  Maybe I outta take on this instead of Pokémon.

6. Megaman 2 (NES)
Just a bit before Megaman 9 hit WiiWare, I acquired Megaman 2 on the virtual console.  With 2 being called the definitive point of the whole Megaman series, I had to take advantage of it when it came around.  To be honest, I found the game to be quite simple for the most part (Heck, I even beat Airman with the megabuster.) until I got to Wily’s castle.  I had gotten all the way to the boss on Wily’s fourth stage but hadn’t taken it any further than that.  Maybe I should dedicate some time to finishing off both 2 and 9 on the same day? Who know.

5. Kirby Super Star Ultra (DS)
Ah, Kirby.  Kirby’s Dream Land was the first game I ever finished; And then after that I finished it again… and again… and again. All in all it only took about 15 minutes to beat KDL… Or about 5 minutes if you’re playing Spring Breeze, the abridged version of the original game as it’s seen in Kirby Super Star. Now, take note of the fact that I said Kirby Super Star Ultra. Having passed Milky Way Wishes, I’ve practically beaten the original KSS; Now I just need the motivation to get through the last few games.  Let me tell you, though: The arena is pretty tough.

4. At least one Grand Theft Auto game
I use to be a bit skeptical about the GTA games, as I might have said in my GTA Chinatown Wars impressions, and so I stayed away from them for a long time.  One day though I bought GTA: Vice City Stories on the PSP and thought it to be okay.  I was lucky enough to find out that I could get a good chock of the GTA series at the time (1, 2, 3, Vice City, and San Andreas) on Steam for 30 bucks, and so I went for it. I definitely wasn’t disappointed after all the time I spent playing Vice City and San Andreas, but I never really finished them.  It’s true that I’m still working on Chinatown Wars but not as fast as I want to be.  Maybe I’ll pull through eventually and get to finishing at least one of those.

3. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
What is wrong with me? Seriously.  I’ve had this game nearly as long as I’ve had my Wii and I’ve only completed… two galaxies?!  Super Mario Galaxy is said to be one of the best if not THE best mario game to have hit since Super Mario 64 and it just sits there on my shelf collecting dust.  It’s not like I have anything else to play on the Wii that I haven’t beat, other than No More Heroes of course, but if anything finishing this game at least once should be mandatory.

2. Mariokart DS
I got so close to finishing this… and then I just stopped.  I don’t know why but 150cc got really frustrating once I got to the Special Cup.  I only have two more cups to go (I can’t remember if there was a mirror class) but I just cant get around to finishing things up.  Ah well. I’ll get it done some day.

1. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
Probably the most sacrilegious thing in the video game industry; I had this game when I was a kid. I could get up to Bowser’s castle and for whatever reason, I never wanted to finish it!  Man… I was a weird child.  I would seriously just waste my lives on the first status because I didn’t feel like fighting bowser. Even in later days, when I had Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 and even today on the virtual console, I can’t see myself to beat it. (Although this time I’d actually do it if I could.)  One day, Bowser. One day…

So, those are only a few of the games I have yet to beat.  I can name off a whole bunch that in my collection that remain unfinished to this day.  Will I be able to get through this eventually? We’ll see.

First on the list: Namco Bandai’s Retro Game Challenge

Namco Bandai once again tried to screw us out of another game they developed, but XSeed stepped in to publish it!

Okay, not really. As the game is based off of the Japanese show Gamecenter CX there would’ve likely been no commotion had this game never been released outside of Japan, unlike another certain Namco franchise. (coughtalesofcough)

As much as my gaming history dates all the way back to the Intellivision and the Commodore 64, I can safely say that I was never aware of this game until I heard the Destructoid guys talking about it on Podtoid shortly after it came out. (Unfortunately I can’t remember which episode; Likely near the end of February.) What I heard from them sounded like an amazing game based around my childhood pastime, although I had kind of written off ever trying to find it.  It was only a couple of weeks ago that I had an ample amount of cash burning a hole in my pocket, and so I was browsing the shelves at my local EB games when lo and behold, what do I find? Yes, Retro Game Challenge. It was a no-brainer; The game was mine for the taking.

This is going to be quite odd for a “First Impressions” because really I’ve nearly finished the game. I only have one more game to go and then the final challenge.

Game Overview
As I mentioned before, Retro Game Challenge is based off of Fuji Television’s Gamecenter CX, a show featuring mediocre gamer Shinya Arino trying to beat some of Japan’s hardest games, or try to pull off feats that take a bit of grunt work to clear.  In the game, a “virtual” version of Arino haunts your DS and then sends you back in time, as a child, to his house in the 1980s. From there, you must tackle Arino’s challenges in eight different 8-bit style games. Although these retro games aren’t real games from the 80s, they are all similar to at least one type of game of that time period, whether it be the Galaga-inspired Cosmic Gate, Dragon Quest-esque Guadia Quest, Star Soldier-ish Star Prince, or Haggleman, which could resemble various NES platformers back in the days.

How does it play?
Imagine yourself in the late 80s in a room with an NES, with a stack of games on one side, and a bunch of Nintendo Power magazines on the other. That is Retro Game Challenge. Every aspect of home console gaming from the 80s has been recaptured, from the gameplay style, to the old cheat codes, even the cheesy magazine articles  and features back in the days. If that isn’t enough, try talking to young Arino with the chat feature. He’ll even start using cheesy schoolyard words and Fresh Prince quotes. (“Take it from me, parents just don’t understand.”) Just about all of the eight games are addicting to play except for maybe one, which is more or less showing how some developers got away with pallate swapping stuff and calling it a “new game.”  Otherwise, there’s much fun to be found in this game.  Every once in a while, Arino will pick up a magazine that will reveal some hints and cheats for certain games if you thuroughly read them.  (All of the challenges are “no holds barred” meaning you can use whatever cheats you want to clear them)  As well, after you beat all the challenges for a game and move onto the next one, you can play the game in “freeplay” mode; Your stats from playing these games in freeplay mode contribute to your overall “gamer ranking” and even keeps track at how well you are at rapidfire. (Without the use of a turbo button.)

All in all, this game is bound to leave any old gamer with a nostalgic experience that will have you coming back to it over and over again.

Pros:

• Game experience is bound to give most old gamers a BIG throwback to the 8-bit era, and also show to the younger crowd what gaming was like before they were born, without the flashy graphics and the Internet.
• Addicting gameplay
• Authentic representation of retro gaming

Cons:

• Some challenges and games can be a bit too easy
• The game also emulates the “bad” side of retro gaming (i.e. Rally King SP)

• Young Arino can get on your nerves when playing a game.

Do I Like It?

Am I a gamer? Yes. Was I a retro gamer? Maybe I was a bit young being born in the mid-80s, but you bet I was.  I didn’t have too much time over the last week to play very much but when I did play this game, I just could NOT put it down. This game is just amazing and brings back so many memories, and I seriously like it.

Who should buy it?
If you ever owned an NES or anything similar, and you own a DS now, you need to go out RIGHT NOW and get this game. No, seriously. Step away from the computer, go to your nearest GameStop or whatever, (except if you live in Europe, then you’ll likely have to import it) and buy this game. Now. You won’t regret it.

That ends my First Impressions coverage for Retro Game Challenge. Now onto what is one of the most anticipated DS games of the year so far: Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

In what was probably the only game worth mentioning from Nintendo’s E3 conference last year, Rockstar Games has brought GTA back to the handheld some five or six years after the GBA version of GTA.  This time, though, they’ve created an original game rather than a downgraded port.  GTA: Chinatown Wars is much like a GTA3 or 4 from a GTA2 perspective, offering most of what the recent games have to offer from a top-down view.

As much as I was an idiot for following all of the mindless media drones in how GTA3 was a bad influence on everyone (and how they claim it still is) the GTA series has grown on me as of late. I took quite a liking to the vast world that San Andreas was and really enjoyed the previous entries in the series, despite not being able to play GTA4 yet. It hasn’t gone too far up my list and so I wasn’t trying to hard to acquire it, and would really only get it if I could find it.  Believe it or not I managed to find this game on release day (Which is unheard of around here) and so it was an easy 40 dollar buy.

Game Overview:
The game takes place in GTA4′s version of Liberty City, minus the westernmost island, in the present day. (Early game dialogue reveals that the game takes place in the year 2009.)  After word of his father’s death, Huang Le flies into Liberty City from Hong Kong in order to deliver a sword to his uncle “Kenny”, whom would become the successor to the Triads in his father’s place given that the sword was delivered into the proper hands.  However, Huang is ambushed the instant he touches down, shot in the side of the head, and is then dumped into the harbour as his assailants make off with the sword. Huang’s delivery is about to get much much harder as he delves into the criminal underworld.

How Does It Play?
As I’ve already mentioned, this game takes many of GTA 3 and 4′s features and throws them into a game with a GTA2-like viewpoint. With the DS being the least powerful of all the consoles and handhelds out on the market right now, Rockstar was able to make this game look nice and crisp with cel-shaded visuals. Although, with many games that aren’t completely top-down, the game can get a bit disorienting at first but it becomes quite easy to find your bearings.  You also have to discover points on the map by yourself, so you may need to just explore once in a while in order to find the locations of scratch card shops and dealers.

One thing Rockstar did differently is that they took the chase mechanics and turned it upside, down.  You can now slowly fight off your wanted level by taking out police cars that are chasing you.  When you take out the number of police cars equal to your wanted level, one star turns grey. Once all your wanted stars are grey your wanted level is suspended. (Which means your level will be cleared as long as you don’t do anything in front of the cops until it disappears.)  Of course, you can always try to hide from the police or rush to one of your safehouses as well, although it’s actually quite easy to evade the cops as long as you’re able to duck down an alleyway without being spotted and there’s always an alley nearby.  One thing to note, though, is that your wanted level is never instantly cleared now. When you exit a safehouse or evade the police altogether, your level is suspended before it’s cleared making it more important not to cause any extra havoc once you’re out of sight.

Progressing through the game is like most others; you’ll have people that will give you missions and it’s your job to complete them all. As you progress through the story, missions through other people become available; It’s just like it’s been since GTA3. One thing that was brought back from the classic games was Rampage mode, which requires you to kill a certain amount of people in a certain time with unlimited ammo for a certain weapon. (I think it was GTA2 that we last saw this feature?)  This game also introduces you to trading and dealing, as you buy some “controversial merchandise” (Sorry. I don’t want certain activists going bonkers over my blog.) from certain dealers and then try to sell it to others for a higher price.  This is definitely the easiest way to make money in the early going, as long as you don’t get caught doing it. (Though outrunning a 2-star level isn’t all that hard.)  At times, dealers will send you e-mails saying that they’re selling especially cheap or buying higher than usual.

Although this game is really great in a way, it does have a few technical issues with it, other than the noticable slowdown when you have a lot of cars on screen. The game seems to have a couple of glitches related to vehicles, though they don’t happen frequently enough to become a problem, (especially since you have the autosave feature) and the game tends to freeze up often if you leave the game online. (Though, I have yet to discover what you can do with this game online besides uploading your game stats to the Rockstar Games Social Club, but god forbid that this happens while the game is autosaving.)  However, since most of these glitches are either rare or have a workaround that won’t hamper the game experience, it only slightly hampers the experience.

Pros:

• It’s GTA on a handheld!
• Meshing the features of GTA3 and 4 with the viewpoints and some features of GTA1 and 2
• Easy to pick up and play.

Cons:

• Lack of online multiplayer. Online functionality only really good for one or two things.
• GPS route plotter frequently plots idiotic routes, such as doubling back on a road.
• Rare technical glitches and freezes

Do I Like It?
Although not like the more recent Grand Theft Auto 4, this game is definitely not any worse off than its console bretheren. GTA: Chinatown Wars did not fail to impress me in most areas (aside from online functionality) and is easily one of the best titles I’ve bought for the system.

Who Should Buy This?
Any GTA buff regardless if you prefer the classic or modern games.  Many first-timers have also said that this game is gold, so if you’re looking for just any open world experience, this game is for you.

On a day where Canada is marking the one year countdown to the start of the opening ceremonies for the 2010 winter games, Sega decided to mark the occasion in their own way by uploading a teaser video on YouTube for their second Olympic-based game following their Mario and Sonic mashup of Beijing 2008, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games.

A short video, it starts with a computer generated flyby starting with the stone “Inukshuk” (which in reality is prominently displayed on Whistler mountain) culminating with Mario, Sonic, Eggman, and Wario at the boardercross start on [which I would believe to be] Cypress Mountain.  There’s nothing special about the video other than the announcement about the game itself.

The press release on Sega’s website goes into greater detail:

Developed by SEGA of Japan, under the guidance of Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games will take players to lifelike Olympic venues where they can choose from a legendary cast of playable characters, including new faces to the series to be revealed later this year. Following the phenomenal worldwide popularity of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, which has sold over 10 million copies worldwide, this fresh gaming experience will feature completely new Olympic Winter Games events from the official competition schedule including Alpine Skiing and Speed Skating with more events announced throughout the year.

It then goes on to detail some of the new gameplay options, such as co-op play, (which I’m guessing would entail either speed skating relays, figure skating, curling, or hockey) and the ability to use the Wii balance board.

Now, I wasn’t to big on Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games but even though I don’t think this game will be spectacular, I do get a warm feeling about this game; If not for the fact that this is Vancouver’s Olympics or my involvement in them that we’re talking about, then it’s more about the relation to winter sports and the fact that my main source of income involves hockey and that in the winter I ski on a weekly basis at one of the Olympic venues.  Even if this game isn’t all that great, you can probably expect me to be picking up both versions of this game.

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games is currently scheduled for release late this year on the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS.

Sega’s been really busy with their long-running RPG franchise in the past while, first releasing this, Phantasy Star Portable, in Japan, and then Phantasy Star Zero on the DS, and then getting their localizations underway.  The demo for PSP, which takes you up to the first boss then leaves you to explore the multiplayer option as much as you choose, has been available for download on PSN for a good portion of the last week now.  With turn-based combat pushed aside a long time ago, being replaced with the real-time combat of MMO entries Phantasy Star Online and Universe, how does this fare on the handheld?

I do have to say that I’m impressed so far. To make me want to play a demo over and over again in anticipation of the release for the full game is quite a feat.  I’m definitely not all that experienced with the PSO-like systems since most of my experience has had to do with playing offline multiplayer at my friend’s house.  I do remember enough of PSO though to know that they’ve greatly improved things in the long run, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

Phantasy Star Portable is like a Sequel to MMO Phantasy Star Universe, with the story picking up not long after it.  In this game you’re playing a new recruit to GUARDIAN, and in your first mission your task is to eliminate the cause of a number of robot malfunctions in a certain area of the GUARDIAN base, along with your mentor and a new CAST. (Cast being the name they give humanoid robots in the PSO timeline.)  In the demo you can only play story mode up to the first boss, but you already get quite the story progression as you come across mysterious woman that could be behind the malfunctions.

Most of the gameplay improvements aren’t new to you if you’ve been playing Phantasy Star Universe, but if you’re an old PSO player that hasn’t touched Universe than you’re bound to love some of the things they’ve done.  First off, moving around is much faster than in the first game, and for you ranger enthusiasts, you can now move and shoot at the same time. (Meaning no more getting ganged up on because you’re stuck shooting in one spot as you get surrounded.)  Targeting is done a bit differently; Where in the original targeting was automatic, holding down the L button will target the closest enemy in front of you and also tell you, in the form of a red reticule, when you are in range.  You can also strafe while targeting, which if you’re a ranger type person like me allows you to spread and hit multiple targets as well.

Along with your usual repitoire of spells you also now have photon arts that can be linked to certain types of equipment.  This gives your weapons special attacks and elemental attributes that can also inflict status ailments on your enemies as well.  The use of technique points has also been abolished in exchange for photon points, which works the same as TP except that it’s linked to your weapon instead. (In other words, each weapon has their own set amount of PP that gets used up as you use photon arts that you’ve linked to said weapon.)  Also new is that photon arts and techniques level up as you continue to use them, unlike in PSO where you had to buy or find a higher level disc and have a high enough mind strength stat.

Along with your base EXP. level now, you also have a class level. You now gain class EXP. whenever you complete a mission in both story and multi mode, which in turn will level your class. This gives you not only an additional stat boost but also raises your proficiency with weapons associated to that class. You are able to switch between the basic classes: Hunter, Ranger, and Force, and also advance to higher classes such as Fighmaster, (I kid you not, it’s listed as “Fighmaster” and not “Fightmaster”) and Gunmaster.  This is a welcome addition as now you are no longer committed to staying to a single class, and can advance to higher ones.

The action pallete from the first game has been improved as well.  Instead of just having six slots for various attacks, techs, and items, which are all assigned to a certain button, you now have six slots for items and six slots for weapon configuration. (You can now hold two weapons at once, although some weapons take up both hands. You can use your “left hand” weapon by holding down the R button)  Each weapon usually has a basic attack which is executed by pressing the square button, and its linked photon art is used with the triangle button.  You can change your weapons or use items on the fly by holding down the circle button, selecting the weapon set you want to switch to/selecting the item you want to use, and releasing circle.  Although in the heat of battle, it takes a bit more time to heal yourself with an item than it did with the one button press in PSO, I find this a lot better.

I only have two beefs with the game so far right now, one being the “city” areas being replaced with menus, which is something I’ve never been used to before.  The other is the fact that things get screwed up when you change weapons on the action pallete slot that you’re currently using. You’d think that if you changed a weapon in the pallete that you currently had equipped that it would automatically update it, right? But it doesn’t; You have to reselect it in order to use the new configuration, else you’re going in weaponless.

And that’s all I have to say so far.  I’m absolutely digging this right now, and if you’re an old PSO vet, or maybe you haven’t played any of them past Phantasy Star IV, I would highly suggest giving this a try if you have a PSP.  Go ahead and download the demo, as it will definitely keep you busy up until its release.

Phantasy Star Portable is developed by Sonic Team (They did something right for a change!) and Alfa System, (The same company that also brought you Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology and Radiant Mythology 2) and published by Sega.  PSP has been out in Japan since last July and is currently slated for release in North America on March 3rd.

Fighting games are quite the genre of its own.  One on one fights in which you try to bust out absolutely insane combos and memorize complex button combinations make it one of the more difficult and more competitive types of games out there.  I remember back in the days; I was so bad with Street Fighter II that I couldn’t even throw a Hadouken.  The game when it initially made its way to the SNES was a hit with all the boys at school.  They would go home and that’s all they’d play.

Other companies started to break through the mold to try to challenge CAPCOM, and now we have quite the selection of different fighting franchises: SNK’s King of Fighters, Namco Bandai’s Soul Calibur, Guilty Gear and so on.  From that spawned crossovers into comic books (the ever-popular Marvel VS. Capcom) and franchise vs. franchise offerings. (Capcom VS. SNK)  However, as far as crossovers go, there’s a lot of untouched ground.  Enter M.U.G.E.N.

M.U.G.E.N. is a highly-customizable fighter; In fact, with the exception of one stage and one character, it’s all custom content.  Could you ever imagine Megaman taking on Sol Badguy in one of Tsukihime-inspired Melty Blood‘s locales?  Anything can happen in M.U.G.E.N.  If you look on YouTube you can find countless people boasting off their character roster that literally goes into the thousands, taking up gigabytes and gigabytes of hard disk space. (For the M.U.G.E.N. obsessed, you will likely need a good sized hard disk, or clear off a bunch of old crap.)  This started off as a DOS game; The developers abandoned a later Windows port that was eventually patched by the community to keep it going strong.

I mean, how else can you hold a “battle of the fatty foods” and pit Ronald McDonald against the Colonel?

A handful of characters and stages can be found anywhere online, as well as “screenpacks” that can change the look of the interface into something that caters to your interests.  Everything can be easily added into the game with just a simple file edit.  Many characters have been created multiple times for each version that they appear in. (Such as a Marvel VS. Capcom Ryu seen here.)  Some people even go out of their way to create characters that have never appeared in a 2-D fighting game before, such as characters from cartoons, anime, other games, and even (as you’ve seen above) fast food mascots.

There really isn’t much to say about M.U.G.E.N, other than the fact it plays like a whole bunch of 2D fighters put together. Like other games it follows a “6 buttons and a joystick” control scheme, although what the buttons do is different depending on the character and its creator.  Most characters come with a text file showing their commands, although you might have to sift through some Japanese on some of them. (As long as you can figure out each command, though.)  If you’re a fan of fighters and you haven’t heard of this game, though, you’re missing out.

Hyper Combo finish!

M.U.G.E.N. cannot be found “officially” anymore, but you can download any version (winmugen plus is recommended) from http://randomselect.piiym-net.com/

A database of websites containing characters, stages, and custom screenpacks can be found at http://www.mugen-infantry.net

[View with PicLens]

At the same time, however, Nintendo and Inis put rhythm to the stylus with the Japanese hit Osu! Tatake! Ouendan!, which sees players tapping hit circles and dragging across sliders to music as they appear on the screen.  Over here, that became Elite Beat Agents with its exclusive 15 song library of popular western hits spanning the past 20 or so years.

For some people, though, EBA was not enough. Although Japan has a Ouendan 2 and there’s currently no word of a similar American sequel, one Australian stepped up to the plate with his own answer: Osu!

Osu!

Osu! is pegged as a “Ouendan simulator.” The gameplay is exactly the same in a sense, except that the vast majority of users will be playing this game with their mouse and keyboard. (Unless they have a tabletPC or a monitor with touchscreen support.)  This in some way adds to the difficulty of Ouendan’s original concept, if not for the fact that a lot of the harder beatmaps that are conceived by its large userbase can be much MUCH harder than the harder difficulties on EBA. Don’t believe me? Take a look at this:

Only the #1 player could do something like that.

Osu! song select

Every single song, or “beatmaps” as they’re called, are made by community members.  The highest quality beatmaps become “ranked” meaning that scores are registered and count towards your overall rank.  The community highly encourages creating and helping others with their own beatmaps to get as many ranked as possible. (Fortunately, no one has come around with a copyright infringement notice yet.)  Because of this, Osu! contains songs from many different eras and cultures, though most either seem to come from video games, J-pop, or internet memes.

Osu! gameplay

Al l the elements that make up Ouendan games can be used to make a full beatmap. Sliders can be made of any shape and length and storyboarding options allow people to create scenes that mimic those that you would find in a Ouendan or EBA game as well. (Although it’s not fairly used.) In-game, the game keeps track of your accuracy and overall score, in which the game assigns you a rank depending on how well your performance is.  Mods can be used to make the game easier (such as No Fail or Half Time) or harder (Hidden, Double Time, Hard Rock, Sudden Death, and Flashlight) and will affect your score depending on what you have selected, so even after you’ve mastered a beatmap you can always go back and try for a higher score with a bigger challenge.

Osu! ranking screen

Osu! is a fully functional online game as well. Along with the ranking system, the game also includes multiplayer mods for both competitive and co-operative play, much like the games it was inspired by.  Players can chat in-game with others, and also doubles as an IRC server so players can also chat with those that are outside of the game.  In addition, online functions can be used by people to collaborate on a single beatmap or to help another user fix a problem with their own beatmap as well.  Osu! is also fully skinnable, with skins being made based on other themes. (Such as “Osu! Ends With You”, which is the skin you’re seeing in my screenshots.)

Osu! Taiko Mode

Other mods have also been introduced to Osu! over time, such as Taiko mode (a replication of the arcade game of the same name) and an exclusive game mode called “Catch the Beat”, which has the player catching fruits in time with the song’s rhythm.  Both game modes are designed to use a song’s standard beatmap and modify it for the proper game mode, meaning you don’t have to create seperate maps for all modes.

All in all, if you’re a Ouendan fan, I would highly recommend trying this out.  The possiblities are endless for this game as a clone and it should entertain you, even if Nintendo/Inis never comes out with an EBA2.  Rhythm is only a click away with Osu!

Osu! can be found at http://osu.ppy.sh