PSX! - GAMES OUT NOW NEWS (WEEK 43)
PSX! - GAMES OUT NOW NEWS (WEEK 43)
INFOS AND SCREEN SHOTS!
--- DON PACHI! ---
--- STONE WALKERS ---
--- MEGATUDO 2096 ---
DON PACHI!
Atlus is a well known publisher of shooters. They released Gunbird for both the Saturn and the Playstation about a year ago which was a good, albeit extremely difficult shooter. Gunbird's saving grace was its collection of roughly 400 pictures contributed by both professional artists and from devoted fans of Gunbird. Atlus' latest release for the Playstation is by no means a new product; it has been available on the Sega Saturn for about half a year already but it is a fine addition to the PSX's shooter library. Don Pachi gives the player a choice of three gunships to choose from. There are two fighter planes and one helicopter, each with it's own weapon. The helicopter spews out a streaming green laser and is a medium-speed vehicle. The first fighter in the selection screen is the fastest plane and it's weapon is a gold colored streaming laser. The other fighter shoots out a powerful crescent shaped laser and is the slowest of the three vehicles. There are two modes of attack for each vehicle; one shooting mode concentrates your laser into one direct blast which is useful for blowing away bosses and heavily armored enemy vehicles. The other shooting mode is a spray shot where your firing arc covers roughly 90 degrees of the space in front of you. The satisfying thing about Don Pachi is the fairness of the enemy shots. I'll explain: there are shooters where there are so many shots fired at you that it is absolutely impossible to avoid them all. One game that comes to mind is the aforementioned Gunbird where volleys of shots would be fired at the player and there would be no space to avoid them all. Don Pachi gives the skilled player a chance to avoid shots that come at you provided you are quick enough and can map the path of all the shots. Another forgiving aspect of Don Pachi is when your ship is destroyed; all of your power up icons will float on the screen for you to pick up when your next ship appears. You will theoretically be able to power up to maximum levels immediately with every fighter. Like any other shooter, there is a bomb button that you can push should things get a little hairy.
Unleashing a bomb will cover the screen with destruction and destroy every enemy unit in your vicinity. You can use the bomb button in another way also - if you are shooting with the concentrated shot, pressing the bomb button will magnify your firepower greatly which is useful for destroying end level bosses. Don Pachi's graphics are unremarkable but they convey the intense action well. You may experience some slowdown when there are a lot of shots on the screen but this usually only lasts for a millisecond. If I had one complaint, it would be that Don Pachi is a relatively short game. There are only five levels and once you are done with the fifth level, the game will start over again at level one with higher difficulty.
A seasoned shooter pro will be able to blow through Don Pachi in about an hour's time which makes this game more of a rental than a purchase. Like some other shooters, Don Pachi gives the player the option of playing the game in a horizontal or a vertical mode, with the latter involving a 90 degree turn of your television.e game again but it did dampen my enthusiasm in finishing the game.
STONE WALKERS
Interactive movies will always be with us. It seems that publishers feel that they are a viable product and will continue to produce them. Stone Walkers is such a product and after playing it a bit, I see that the level of interactivity has increased a lot since the days of Dragon's Lair or Cliffhanger. Your character has a lot more actions to perform and options to choose from but the game remains of the type that can be completed and then never played again.
Stone Walkers is a linear game where you help a group of young adventurers search for treasure and fun in what appears to be ancient ruins and third world cities. The graphics are attractive, cleanly drawn anime that animate smoothly and look great.
Your character's options include the ability to look, talk to characters in the game, search for objects, think (yes, think!), walk around, use items that you have in your possession and of course pick up items that you find.
I was able to complete both part one and part two in the game in about 10 minutes using trial and error.
I imagine that the rest of the parts of the game can be polished off in about the same amount of time. Fans of interactive movies will enjoy Stone Walkers for its quality animation and its intrigue.
Others will be well advised to stay away. Ains of the type that can be completed and then never played again. Stone Walkers is a linear game.
MEGATUDO 2096
Megatudo begins the game with an rendered introduction that takes a look at all of the robots in the game. Three options are presented to the player once the game is up and running. There is a story mode which is basically the normal game where you battle against the Playstation. A VS mode gives two players the chance to fight each other and the Options screen lets the user set the level of difficulty and time constraints for each battle among some other options. There are 12 robots to choose from and all of them have their strengths and weaknesses though there are two robots in the game that are superior to every other robot and can decimate their power levels easily. I'll get to them later. The robots are for the most part humanoid in form though there are a couple that look like the odd constructs found in Zero Divide. The battlefields that you fight in are sloped at the edges so there are no ring-outs in this game. If you try to move to the edges, you will only be barred from doing so. The gameplay is enjoyable but the short range mobility of the robots is oddly inadequate. In one respect, the fighting and long range attacks are great but the mobility of the robots when you are walking is poor. For example, if you are at the edge of an arena and wish to move closer to your opponent, your walking will result in your robot taking what appears to be baby steps. This was very annoying but then again, I suppose that is why Banpresto gave every robot the ability to 'power slide'. The power slide is activated by pressing the R1 button and pressing left or right on your joypad. Your robot will jet its way around the playfield in a concentric circle. You can press right and then the R1 and R2 button simultaneously to center in on your opponent for a close attack. Pressing left and R1 will put some distance between you and your opponent. This was confusing to control at first but you will get used to it and perhaps even forgive the 'baby steps' that every robot uses to move in small distances. The power slide can close vast distances very quickly. Each robot has two modes of attack; one mode is a long distance attack mode where you shoot at the other robot with your gun. This attack does very little damage and should only be used in times of duress or in emergencies. The other mode of attack is a close range sword attack which does major damage but increases the chance of damage being done to your robot as well. The smart robotic player will learn to use the power slide to engage and disengage opponents quickly and with as little opposing retaliation as possible. The power slide should be used sparingly at times however because if you slide too much, the camera can lose track of you and thus you will not know where you are. This was somewhat annoying but it made me learn to not rely on the power slide too much to avoid an aggressive enemy. Megatudo is definitely one of those games that you will have to invest some time into before you can play it well. The control scheme is not like other fighting games and takes some getting used to before you can master it. Megatudo is not like Tekken where you can jump right into and start punching your way through the ranks to reach the end boss.
Lets now focus on some of the robots in the game. I won't describe them all as I did not play as all of the robots but there were some that were supremely powerful while others were hampered by their poor long range attack skills. Sword Gear is a Gundam-esque looking robot who carries a huge broadsword. Sword Gear's close range attack is devastating if his sword connects but his long range attack is weak. A player with a strong long range attack robot can easily destroy Sword Gear in a minute or less. Samurai is a speedy robot with a powerful close range attack as well but he couples this with an adequate long range attack. Samurai can be a formidable opponent, especially when he does his 360 degree sword slash which covers a lot of ground and can cause some major damage. Barba Yoga wields a sickle and I consider this robot to be the weakest of the robots that I tried.
His close range attack and long range attack are well balanced but since neither of them are particularly powerful, he was defeated by many of the other robots that I went against. I'll now describe who I consider to be the two most powerful robots in the game. A skilled (and cheese-laden) player can use these two robots to defeat every other robot in the game, and handily defeat the end level boss Gul Ogre also. Hell Bride is an agiile 'female' robot who has two devastating long range attacks. One is a death ray which looks like a rainbow. A direct hit from this rainbow can take off 1/3 of your opponents power level. The other attack is a move where she puts both of her light sabers together and pulses off a bolt of light which can also take off 1/3 of your opponents energy level. In terms of close range offense, Hell Bride has a spinning dance attack where she flails her sabers and can cause moderate damage. Her advantage however is her long range skills which can easily wreak havoc in the right hands. The other killer is Vanilla Giger who looks like one of those weird Zero Divide robots.
Vanilla Giger prances around with four legs and has a pair of arms in which she carries a rifle. Her other arm ends up with a claw which is pretty useless in a close bout. Giger's power is her death ray which she lances at you and removes 1/3 of your energy. If Giger had one weakness, it is her slow speed but she can more than make up for this by power sliding away from you if you try to get close. One way that I was able to destroy Giger was by circling her and then pummeling at her with my sword (I used Dy-Bringer) but she was able to knock me off a few times with a concussion blast. I was able to destroy her regardless but only after some difficulty.
Overall, Megatudo is a very interesting and playable game that I enjoyed. The movement of the robots (sliding around) reminded me a bit of Virtual On on a level playing field and the exploration aspect of the game (learning the controls and moves) kept me playing longer than I should have.
Once you get the control of a particular robot and its special moves down, you can be a devastating force on the battlefield and impress your friends with your robot handling skills.
The disappointing thing about Megatudo was the unimpressive ending screen. You will get some text that proclaims "You win the Megatudo Grand Prix championship" and then the production team credits start rolling. It didn't lower my desire to play the game again but it did dampen my enthusiasm in finishing the game.
