Showing posts with label Kingdom Hearts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kingdom Hearts. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

In Sickness and in Gaming

I have been very sick. Oh, so very sick. Got a stomach virus, got better for a week, then got infected AGAIN. It seems this frikkin' virus is almost a pandemic, sweeping across Massachusetts and the rest of the counrty. It has been nicknamed the boom virus; you can probably imagine why. Me, I don't have to. :S
My poor wife also got this virus from hell, and there was a period of time where we were both deathly ill. Not a good predicament to be in. At least we have no kids that would also have gotten sick. That would have added to misery.
We are gradually getting better. Enough of this *bleep* is enough.
I have been playing games when I have not been puking or worse. Started Persona 4, good game so far but it starts real slow, at least for me. It was a good three and a half hours before I actually got to go dungeon diving. The story is great, it's just the setup seemed to take forever. Really not a knock on the game, I am after all the impatient type, and very eager to see where the games' story takes me. Plus great music (and the game comes with a bonus music disk, niiice.), graphics and delightful persona splicing. Looking forward to more...
Also playing Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. Good game, although at this point my thoughts for this game could be summed up as "Um...". Gameplay mostly consists of going on missions, beating up on Heartless, rinse and repeat. There is a panel system where every single weapon, magic, action, even level you earn must be placed, which at this point is very frustrating to me. Plus I could care less about any of the main characters, even Roxas. Despite this I do like the game, which will likely get better as I'm only about 10 hours in. Oh, and the camera sucks...but that's standard to most Kingdom Hearts games that I have played.
Finally, just got Thor for the DS. It rocks, it's by Wayforward, nuff said.
Hope everyone is well. I suggest lots of Purell, you DO NOT want to get the Boom virus. Take it from me, I know.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

The House of the Dead 2 trifecta

A lot of video games have their own spinoffs; not sequels exactly but games that have the same characters and sometimes plot points. The Kingdom Hearts series, for example, has only two real games in the series but about 20 different spinoffs (give or take.) Actually, I think KH3 is just a myth created by SquareExix, a carrot to drive the horse so that the company can make spinoffs forever.
Nintendo is master of the video game spinoff, so much so that they have gotten it down to an art form. Mario has been whored out to so many different games that don't require jumping and butt stomping goombas that it boggles the mind. Me, I'm waiting for Cooking Mario. It will happen soon, trust me.
No video game has had spinoffs as eclectic as The House of the Dead 2 for the Dreamcast, however. To date there has been only two, although Zombie Revenge could be a gaiden (side) story for The House of the Dead 2. That's never been proven, however.
Mind you, the spinoffs I am about to mention are both based on HotD 2. There is the original House of the Dead for the Saturn, which most people of would rather forget about, as well as House of the Dead 3 for the Xbox and House of the Dead Overkill for the Wii and Playstation 3.
Several pinball games have been 'spun off' from different series, such as Sonic Spinball and Metriod Prime Pinball. And so too does The House of the Dead 2 have Pinball of the Dead for the Gameboy Advance. A light shooting game with zombies having it's own pinball game? Yes, and a pretty good one too.
This game reminds me of the the old Turbographx chestnuts Alien Crush and Devils Crush, and since I adored these games, that is a very good thing. There are three tables to chose from, all loosely based on a chapter from HotD 2, including Boss battles. There are sound bites taken from the game too, complete with horrible voice acting, but they do add to the game. I was lucky enough to get this rare game for 10.50 from amazon, and if you have a GBA, like a pinball and are a fan of HofD 2, then it's highly recommended.
Can there be anything more different than shooting zombies and typing...never mind typing so that you can shoot zombies? Well, that's what you do in The Typing of the Dead for the Dreamcast. Also based on The House of the Dead, instead of using a gun, you use a keyboard to type out letters and phrases to get rid of the zombies. It doesn't sound like that much fun...but it is, as well as being hilarious. Your in game character has a keyboard strapped to his chest instead of packing a gun, and some of the zombies, instead of bloody axes, have toy hammers as weapons. Typing of the Dead is almost a direct port of The House of the Dead 2, except that words can kill. Also recommended, but both the game and the Dreamcast keyboard are hard to find. If you can though, learning to type has never been so much fun.
So from The House of the Dead 2 comes two unlikely but ultimately fun games. Got to hand it to Sega, making these instead of the usual kart racer. Wait a minute, has there ever been a cart racer made that has zombie drivers? And why hasn't that been made yet, with every other video game featuring zombies? Perhaps The House of the Dead 2 well has not dried up just yet....