Impressions: Shaolin Monks

A number of years ago I was priveledged to see the Shaolin Monks perform in the United States, showing off their great physical prowess and discipline, and educating the audience on their ancient ways. Finally a video game has been made celebrating their brand of martial arts. Eh, not really. Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks gleefully celebrates the hey-day of the franchise by taking place between MK and MKII. Its a 3D brawler not unlike the mega-popular, mega-hard Ninja Gaiden. Take Lui Kang or Kung Lao beyond the tournament and button mash and combo and jump and special attack the shit out of an endless number of Outworld enemies. After the stunning opening FMV, I was totally ready for this game. While I booted up MKII the other night, it really shows its age and the most fun you can have is the cheese aspect of the story. MK:SM has that in spades! Voice acting isn't great, story is as expected so far, but what fun! Its a great pick-up and play game after the first hour. And after you beat it (or use a code...) you can select Sub Zero or Scorpion and do the game all over! Can't say so far its a must buy experience, but if you've got the means to rent it, I'd endorse that option. Mortal Kombat was a such a cultural touchstone of the 90s that there isn't a gamer out there who won't chuckle with every uppercut, "Superb!" announcement, and Fatality. MK started losing its audience a couple games ago, and Deception might not be for everyone, especially if they stopped playing after MK3. But I'm really looking forward to getting through Shaolin Monks. Its not a perfect game, and i'll wager the replay value isn't high unless you're playing Co-op, but it puts a smile on your face to see Raiden's blue apron and fighting those weird robed guys from the portal and hear Lui Kang jibbering howl as he does that bicycle kick. Review pending upon completion of the game...

GameFly rentals finally quicker

I'm a big fan of gamefly's service as an online rental place for games. Price is right, selection is awesome, and you can opt to keep almost any game you rent for a fair price. One thing I wasn't a fan of was how LONG the return process is. It can be a week between sending a game back and getting the next one on the list. They're based in California and mailing that game all the way just takes that long. Thankfully they're fixing it withFast Return, where the post office scans the game while its still on the way back to GameFly so they know to go ahead and just send me the next thing on my list. Sounds cool, and maybe now I won't stagger my returns so I'm not left with all my games in the mail for a week.

Pro Gaming goes to 60 Minutes

60 Minutes interviews Fatal1ty, and you can either watch the whole show or read a word-for-word transcript at that link. Pretty nice. Toward the end of the peice Steve Kroft even goes a couple rounds of Halo 2 with Lil' Poison, the 7-year-old prodigy from the MLG. The story plays up the possibilities of pro gaming as a spectator sport in the US, but doesn't forget to mention that 100,000 people show up in South Korea to see people play StarCraft on a giant screen. Me, I love watching other people play. Especially when its a game I play! Reaction times play into Fatal1ty's success, but learning and watching and thinking up strategies plays a big part too.

Follow up: Sonic Rush!

Just to continue on the rest of the review I started with the impressions, I'd like to say Sonic Rush is easily the best portable Sonic game to date, and is great fun to race through levels you've already completed trying to get the best time and high scores (I left zone 7 act 2 with over 500 rings on my best run!). It should also be noted that the Chaos emerald stages are super fun and take after the Sonic 2 half-pipe, using the stylus to guide Sonic toward rings and away from obstacles. The final Chaos emerald is a real pain in da ass, so I'm throwing in the towel and sending this one back to Gamefly. Sorry Sega! I haven't collected all the emeralds in any game aside from Sonic Adventure.

Supply and Demand: The Next Generation

Hot on the heels of reading a major japanese retailer is importing Nintendo DS units from the USA to satisfy demand, I walked into Best Buy to find a single, lonesome Xbox 360 core system that nobody wanted. Its funny that the 360 launch has generated so much hype that impression is that its somehow the greatest thing ever, when people are telling Peter Moore to his face that theres serious problems. Meanwhile, the DS has generated some of the most talked about a played games of the past year, and so many people are ready to see Nintendo fail. Is this fair? I mean, Animal Crossing is still selling like nuts, I can't even find a copy. And the hottest thing for 360 is Call Of Duty 2, which at best is a game available on PC as well and at worst is yet another WWII game. Who said the 360 is the next generation? Outside of the online service, theres nothing next gen about the experience yet. Nintendo DS much more aptly fits the next gen description, even if it is a portable. Its offering high demand games, innovative experiences, and new ideas. Best of all, people are actually buying them and playing with them. The 360 can't move a core unit right now because theres nothing to do with it and the majority of gamers don't think much of the 'stripped' system in the first place.

Impressions: Peter Jackson's Official King Kong Official Game Of The Movie. Officially.

Beyond Good and Evil was a really good game. I can see why PJ would want Michael Ancel to direct the game for King Kong. As a major movie license its going to give Ancel a boost too. Maybe he'll be able to do that BG&E sequel! I heard it described as a 'thinking man's first person shooter' and thats about right. blowing away the monsters won't clear the game. You've got to set traps, distractions, hide, solve puzzles, and blow away monsters. And it does this to pretty good effect. All the levels playing as Jack Driscoll will impress and delight even a novice shooter fan. What this game DOESN'T do right is the much advertised Kong levels. They're on rails, they're a mess, and sloppy controls. Mash the hell out of the punch button and do a couple grabs and you'll kill anything pretty quickly. Some stuff like chasing down a target is really bad because its just pressing forward and tapping jump or climb as you get to those obstacles. I also notice significant frame rate drop. Much of the Jack levels run at 30 FPS, and even hit 60 when you're in a smaller room. I had Kong drop my frame rate to like 15 FPS at some points. Maybe the 360 version doesn't do this, but my regular xbox doesn't seem to be able to handle the big ape swinging all nimbly bimbly from tree to tree. But I digress. Its a movie game! And its mostly fun. Its worth a rent, and maybe even a purchase when it inevitably hits the greatest hits list. To anyone who hasn't seen the movies and only played the game or vice versa, theres good news. The game has an original story. Yes, the characters from Peter Jackson's movie do make up the cast, but there are virtually no common events between the movie and game. Everything is similar and basics like Anne being taken away and Jack goes to save her are all there, but you arrive on the island at night in the rain instead of in the morning, theres a sea plane that drops supplies and rescues some of the crew, several deaths are under much different circumstances, and theres way more of those goddamned centipedes. It had to be reworked to make it a playable game, but they went out of their way to make the game as much a reworking of the Kong remake as the Kong remake does with the original!