My Games of 2012, Part 2

Tonight's group of games is where things started to get a little dicey and where the surprises really started.  If there's any section of my list where I imagine the games could be shuffled about and still be representative of my overall opinion, this could probably be it since I like all these games....in a sense, but at the very least, I liked them all -more- than the previous group, if only just a little in the case of a couple of them.  Again, that's all that really matters for this kind of list in the end, but still, I do feel a little wonky with the places some of these have ended up.  Oh well, it's not like I won't make it painfully obvious which of those are the ones.  Still, enough stalling, let's just get to the numbers and get this one knocked out.

15.  Retro City Rampage

I'll admit, when I played Retro City Rampage the first time, I spent hours just enjoying the hell out of it and loving it for what it was, or rather, what it was trying to be.  I told myself, told you folks that it was just too awesome for words, because I simply couldn't find the appropriate ones.  Admittedly in the months since I played it, my opinion has simmered quite a bit, thanks in no small part to the absolute awful final boss/section and the rather tedious and annoying task of mopping up the last collectibles in the game that, in all honesty, are really hard to find.  Not to mention a certain trophy that has all sorts of hidden flags that are -not- what it says on the tin, turning a rather simple matter into something entirely different, much harder to accomplish, which borders on "Why should I even bother?" territory.  Ultimately, that sort of thing just gets in the way of my fun, detours it and unfortunately just takes the rest of the game down with it.

Not that it isn't a really wonderful little game, if only for the nine billion references to gaming and pop culture, classic and modern, that have been packed into it.  It's just that, yes, the fun does eventually run out when there's nothing else to do because, ultimately, the city that Retro City Rampage takes place in is built on references.  Once you've seen them, they become less "Oh wow, that's awesome" and just blend into the scenery, which leaves it to be simply a place that you navigate on the way to your next objective.  Hence, when there's -not- a next objective..there's little reason for you to make one for yourself.  To its credit, it's very much like classic games in that sense, which, I mean, the game was definitely going for a classic game feel.  You can only conquer those worlds once and then do it again and again if you wish, but there's no incentive to remain once you've planted your flag, so to speak.

14.  Ragnarok Odyssey

I admit, when I first saw Ragnarok Odyssey, I wasn't expressly seeing it for what it was, and was instead looking at it like it was something else that I wanted.  What I -want- is another Phantasy Star Portable experience, but Sega has been a little too busy with the doing jack shit in America thing to comply.  At first glance, RO seemed like it would fill that need quite capably - after all, it's about entering zones, taking down mobs and getting loot, what's the difference, right?  Well, unfortunately the difference is there in a way that I can't quantify and while I ended up liking Ragnarok Odyssey for what it was, it just wasn't what I wanted in the end.  It doesn't help that the difficulty turns from an uphill climb to a sheer cliff-face in the latter chapters which is what ultimately put me off the game, but really, there was just a little more to it than that.

Part of RO's charm, and yet part of its short-comings is the way it handles your character and the specific customization of it.  You can buy new outfits, you can change the hair style and this and that after the fact and eventually, you can even change jobs.  You don't -have- to start a new character to find out what a Cleric is like - just switch to the Cleric Job and go do a couple missions, bam, Cleric experience garnered.  If anything, though, that more or less highlights the fact that you -don't- really have that much to say in exactly what your character can be, because your character is flexible enough to be anything decently.  It all boils down to your playstyle in a sense, which is admirable, but again that just sort of negates the replayability and such of the game since if you don't like being a Mage, there's no -reason- to because you will not get better at it.  

It's nothing like other games where you spend hours playing one style because it's what your character needs, then switching to another character so you can see what it's like on the other side of things.  That individuality might seem unimportant, but ultimately it's one of the factors that brought me down on the game.  Of course, that only brought me down after playing into it for eight or so chapters, spending hours on extraneous missions and just straight-up going back to older bosses and murdering the shit out of them only to prove that I could.  Which is to say there's some definite fun to be had with the game - I had it - and it's well worth a look if you're into the type of thing it's offering.  Still, I'm hoping for something more and I'll openly applaud the first damn company that gives me the Phantasy Star Portable experience because I friggin' need it.

13.  Persona 4 Arena

I am not a fighting game person, despite my love for punching dudes in video games.  The allure is that, in most cases, you are exponentially more badass than the dude whom you are punching and that gap in skill allows you to skillfully display that.  Which is fun.  And every now and then, you get that opponent that is -as- badass as you and it's a challenge, but at the same time, it's fun because you're getting to put your badassery to the test.  It's a welcome change in pace every now and then.  Nothing to be repeated over and over, however.  To me, that's what fighting games are - going against an equal with the goal of punching them a whole bunch.  In these occasions, I find my skills lacking more often than not and I don't really find it all that fun to 'train' within the confines of fighting games to then get better at it when I could just pop in Yakuza and suplex a guy across a steel divider and just enjoy that.

Still, I allow myself the occasional dalliance outside of my comfort zone here and there if the draw is right and fresh off my Persona 4 Golden playthrough, I was admittedly looking towards Persona 4 Arena, if only because I am told it is at least somewhat canon and, well, I really dug P4's canon.  Then the stars aligned and the price dropped to $20 the day before I was going to head into GameStop and they just happened to have a copy.  It was providence, pure and simple, so who am I to argue?  Perhaps thankfully, I went in with the same expectations as any fighting game and as such, I wasn't disappointed with my brief dips into it here and there.  It is definitely interesting from all sides, and it is also definitely entertaining, even if it is a fighting game to the core.  Perhaps because it has the lovely Arc System Works people behind it who excel at making wonderful looking fighting games, which this is no slouch at either.

I haven't played P4A a whole lot, but I've played it enough to appreciate it for what it is, I believe and I will certainly be dipping back into it sooner rather than later.  I like it, I honestly do, but I would like it a whole lot more if I knew just what in the blue hell I was doing.  I played through all 67 or however many tutorials there were (which, admittedly were single things like a single tutorial about crouching, a single tutorial about blocking, etc.) and all that information just went in one ear and out the other.  When I am put down in a match with a (computer) enemy (hahaha, noooooo, no online for me, no thanks) I just do things and eventually I win, but it's not skillfully, it's not with mastery of the system, it's just because I hit a lot of buttons that did a lot of stuff.  I hope to figure it out as I play, but I guess if that'll carry me through everyone's story modes, I'll take it.

12.  LittleBigPlanet Karting

Much like fighting games, I just don't do racing games a whole lot, but I did have to make an exception for LittleBigPlanet Karting for the simple fact that it's friggin' LittleBigPlanet Karting.  My opinion of it hasn't changed much since I last talked about it, but that is to say I haven't really played it much since the last time I talked about it.  I've been thinking about it, but I just haven't yet gotten behind the cardboard steering wheel once more, namely because I've been scrambling to put my playtime into other games so that I could judge them as well.  I still say that, for as weird and out-of-sorts as the mash-up of LittleBigPlanet and a Kart Racer is, it's also a perfect fit in a sense because, well, that is the strength of LittleBigPlanet.  It's meant to be anything and everything you could want it to be, which is why the other iterations of the series have been so popular, or at least so striking with a certain group of people.

In the end, however, I think LittleBigPlanet Karting is a good enough idea to be good, but probably not a good enough idea to substantiate an entire game.  I've only been to two different planets in the story, but if previous games are any indicator, there will only be about five or six in total, so I've seen quite a bit already.  If, perhaps, Karting was simply a level choice for a grander, larger LittleBigPlanet game, that would have been the best course of action, though I understand the scope for that is quite large, almost absurdly so.  So what we're left with is a good idea that goes on a little too long, even if it does take every opportunity to give you ideas that it's not just a racing game.  In all reality, it's -not- just a racing game, but it is, of course, -mostly- one, which does not differentiate itself enough.  Still, it's charming and it's fun enough and I should say I'm better at driving games than fighting games, so I'm not quite as hard pressed to find my own enjoyment with them.  Not much, though.

11.  Assassin's Creed 3:  Liberation

You would think that, after just reviewing it recently, I would be sick of talking about AssLib by now.  You would also be right in that.  It hasn't even been a full week since I posted that up and I've even been playing it -still-, trying to mop up the miscellany because the Platinum trophy is behind a wall of tedium, not one of impossibility, so I want to get it and be done with it, that I might return to the world of Persona 4 or some other Vita game, just so I am not playing Assassin's Creed 3:  Liberation anymore.  So, if you will allow me to be so lazy, allow me to take an except from the review to leave you with here:

Assassin's Creed 3:  Liberation is not a perfect game, much like no Assassin's Creed game is a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination.  The upside is that Liberation is just as flawed as the previous titles, not more, which means if you enjoyed them, you will probably have quite a bit of fun with this.  The story itself is fairly short and not terribly involved with the rest of the overarching story, but in many ways, that's probably a good thing all told.  The draw here is pretty simple - more Assassin's Creed, but wherever you could want to play it at, and that's a very good thing since it does work much the same as the previous titles.  If you're looking for something Action-y to throw into your Vita for a while, AssLib is a fine choice that likely won't leave you feeling disappointed.

So there's that.  Nothing but the Top 10 left and already you've seen some games that might've just been heavy hitters for my list, or might've been considered so, given how much I've talked (or haven't talked) about them.  Still, if you've been keeping up with Kupowered, you'll probably be able to figure out which games are still yet to be revealed, and I'm sure you can understand that it was goddamn hard to actually rank the games that are remaining.  So yes, it's all uphill from here and it's going to be rough going to actually explain my reasoning for why some of the games are where they are.  That is a problem for another night, however, likely tomorrow night.  For tonight, I just have some music and some writing (elsewhere) on my mind.

Retro City Rampage Has a Lot of References, You Guys

If you were to ask me just how many references one can find within the 31 MB confines of Retro City Rampage, my answer would be a succinct "so many".  I'm sure you've heard as much from the rest of the internet, as it's been a -thing-, but to hammer in the point at just how -many- references there are, I decided to show a few of them off.  Now, anyone who has been playing games since the NES days (or before) -should- probably get -all- of the references, but there are a few that perhaps not everybody is in the know about, or just wouldn't think about it.  As well as one that's kind of hard to make out and requires you to really think about it for a moment before it just clicks as to what you've got on your hands.  Really, I'm just very excited about RCR still, even though I'm sitting at about 95% completion of it and there's probably not going to be anything for it after the fact, because it was and is just a really lovely little game for those of us who've been in this for a while.

So, having said all that, let me just start with possibly my favorite reference which isn't a video game reference whatsoever, directly counter to the whole set-up I laid down because shut up. I bring this one up because I assume it's in the game for the same reason that I noticed it, since it's from about the same era as everything else.  The building is clearly a reference to the late 80s/Early 90s sitcom "Married...With Children"  And that's....that's just awesome.  I'm not exactly sure just -how- popular the show was, or rather whether or not it reached "Household name" status, but I do know that I grew up watching the show.  I really probably shouldn't have, all things considered and it's weird to watch it now and know what's actually going on, but it was definitely a big thing for me at least.  So when I saw that and got that it was definitely a reference to the show, I couldn't help but let out a hearty chuckle, especially because of the signage.  "NO REFUNDS" is probably one of my favorite parts of the entire game.  Yes, just written on the walls of that building as it is.  That's how you do a friggin' good reference, folks.

This one is probably still a little obvious, but seeing as they haven't been relevant in years, I don't think, I think it's worthy enough to point out since there is a very off-chance that there's folks out there playing games that doesn't know what a Game Genie is.  I know, I know.  Relaaaax.  We don't speak of those people when we can help it.  I do like how the sign is modeled specifically after the NES model of the device, however, as it's a nice touch, certainly.  Appropriately enough, the Great Gamedini has a few signs in his building with some of the many, many cheat codes littered around the game, harkening back to ye olden days of gaming.  And just like the not-so-olden days, no good code goes unpunished - entering any single cheat code disables your ability to save until you re-launch the game.  I want you to read that again for me, very specifically.  Re-launch the game.  That doesn't mean quit to the main menu and then jump back in, that means quit to the main menu and get out of the game.  Tear it off the screen (if you're playing on the Vita, which you -should-) and then bring it back up to launch fresh again.  I'm certainly not warning you about this because I was an idiot and completed about 30% of the game after putting in a single code that ended up just giving me $100,000, rendering that all moot.  Certainly not.

This right here, however, this is -the- reference of the game that I anticipate some people just won't get.  Mostly because I almost didn't get it - I knew it was familiar, but why it was familiar was completely lost to me until I just thought about it for a moment.  That hanging refrigerator is the main clue of it, so I'll allow you a moment to read this sentence and try to get it before I spoil it for you.  If that hanging fridge in a dump reminded you of a certain part of Earthworm Jim then congratulations, you had a fantastic childhood.  Two things stand out here in particular though which just really speak of the detail that actually went into the game.  It's almost staggering when you think about it.  First off, driving a car onto the platform that features a car emblazoned on it will, perhaps unsurprisingly, cause someone to shoot the rope, dropping the fridge on the panel, launching the car off into the water just outside of the dump.  It's a pretty fantastic effect for something that is purely an easter egg, and just fits the whole 'love letter to gamers' theme that everyone has said the game carries.  (And rightly so)

The second thing is kind of hard to tell in this picture, so allow me to show you this which is a much clearer image and a bigger one at that.  When you pass by that little bit of yellow in the first picture, the results is what is shown off in the second.  Jim peaks out with his raygun and blasts little energy bullets at you for some real damage if you're not careful.  It's not a trap, it's not anything negative just because it can damage you, but it's just...it's surprising.  The whole -game- is surprising, especially when you consider that these little touches?  The easter eggs I've pointed out?  That's the entire game.  A mishmash of theories and memorable sequences and quotes (from the hilarious mistranslations of years gone by) on the foundation of a pretty solid game regardless.  I could literally do a dozen of these posts, pointing out three references in each, and it would take a while before I covered everything.  It's really just kind of amazing that there's -that much- and borders on sensory overload.  In a good way.  With any luck, my brain will cooperate and I'll be able to write up a review tomorrow to tell you what I really think about the game.  (Because I haven't made that clear enough yet.)

Retro City Rampage is Too Awesome, Words Fail Me

I never do this.  Ever.  Or at least not in the year and change that I've been doing this blog.  I just want to preface this.

I cannot quantify Retro City Rampage with words right now.  There are words circling in my head, words that are itching to be put to keys to be put to whitespace on a computer screen, but I just can't do it.  Not right now at least.  So I'm just going to throw this up and perhaps come back to it later, I don't know.  Possibly edit in some -actual- thoughts and such when I can actually form them, but for now, all I can do is announce the high praise that is "I cannot stop playing this game for long enough to think about words.".  Because I think that -is- high praise indeed.  Seriously, if you have the cash, go buy it, or if you have the PS3, get the demo.  (There's not one for the Vita)  You really don't -need- a demo, I don't think, but if you worry even slightly that my taste and yours might diverge on this, then by all means.  But at the very least, give it a shot.

Retro City Rampage has a Release Date!

I gotta be honest with you folks, as you all know I generally am.  I love doing this blog, you know that and I know it.  But some nights are just harder than others because it's an ever-shifting thing and one night, you can have something to talk about and others you have to kind of reach for straws.  Few things (several things, I'm lying) annoy me more than having one of those reaching nights and then there being something rather big announced after I've gone and scraped together a post of something after much searching and pondering.  I welcome the challenge, of course, but sometimes it just overstays its welcome, you see.  So I'm sure you can all imagine my reaction after last night's post about the Zero Escape:  Virtue's Last Reward demo when not one, not two, not three, but eight different games either saw an unveiling, announcement or release date between last night and right this moment as I am typing this.  Eight games.  In a single night/day.  I have to tell you that I was very, very tempted to actually upend a table earlier at around the sixth thing I noticed.  Because what the fuck, man.

This is the veritable other extreme of the problem I have most times, which is usually only a problem I have around E3, TGS or a similar show:  Entirely too much to speak of.  You know how I roll - I pick one to a few things and usually can drum up about 3-5 paragraphs bare minimum about the topic, trying to bring in opinions, other information and the like.  I don't really like just saying "Here is this thing, here is some info, bam, there's a paragraph, new topic".  Yet it's on nights like this where it seems that I am almost tempted to do just that because how else am I going to cover everything aside from doing that -or- a friggin' essay-level News Dump?  That's the real question here and the answer is pretty simple - I'll talk about everything else tomorrow.  Mostly because I don't really care about the rest of it so much as I care about one of the things in particular, and that thing is Retro City Rampage, which finally has a release date of This Coming Friggin' Tuesday.  (October 9th.)

It's been a long time since I talked about Retro City Rampage which is pretty much what's been expected so far as anything related to the game has been, apparently.  Though I really can't blame anyone for it since the game is being made by one dude but for five different platforms entirely - entire teams of developers apparently can't always get the finer points of porting simple content between one system to another, so can you imagine trying to get the same game working on five different platforms by yourself?  Yeah.  Probably not.  Still, whether or not he's actually gotten the game up and running on said five platforms is up for debate as October 9th is only the release date for three of them, specifically the PC version and the PS3/Vita versions.  The PC version will be offered through three different venues alone, with Steam, GOG and the developer's website (which will give you a Steam or GOG key, your choice) but no matter where you buy it, the game will be $15.  However, and this is where you would put a drumroll if you were into that sort of thing, the PS3/Vita versions will be Cross-Buy!  Meaning for $15 through PSN, you'll actually be getting -two- versions, one for both PS3 and Vita no matter which you buy it through, so unless you are a super dedicated PC gamer, perhaps the wiser option would be something with a Playstation logo on it.  Just...saying.

Nobody really knows why it's taken the game so long to come out (aside from the common sense answer) and similarly mysterious is why it's only releasing on about half of the platforms it was announced for.  Specifically egregious is the lack of the XBLA version which, well, might just cause some problems for the game down the road.  We've all had a peek into the fairly restrictive guidelines that Microsoft has on XBLA releases, particularly the ones where the game cannot have released on another platform prior unless X, Y and Z are met which has only been 'broken' a mite few times.  Some whisper in the recesses of the dark corners of the internet that it's in fact Microsoft's guidelines and rigid structure that have caused the delay, where others go so far as to suggest that it's been delayed for months because they didn't want to slot it in for the Summar of Arcade (because of the exclusivity that goes along with it) which creates a problem on either side of things.  I'm not one to suggest rumors where it's unnecessary, but I could very well see either scenario, though not completely at the face value with which they're presented.  But still, the whole kernel of truth thing and such.

For my part, I....don't really care.  Yes, yes, I'm supposed to care and blah blah, but I'm going to get to play Retro City Rampage on my Vita Tuesday so I really don't care about much else to do with the game.  I certainly hope not releasing day one on XBLA won't cause problems for the dude with releasing on that platform and I similarly hope that it won't be remedied by 'platform-exclusive' content or support or the like, but that's all well in the future, I suppose.  What will happen will happen, but I wouldn't really expect the XBLA version to be 'the definitive version' whenever it comes out, if any of the rumors have even the slightest bit of truth to them.  That probably means that in three months, I'll be quoting this post as something awesome is announced as 360-exclusive DLC for the game or something, but whatever, I really don't care at the moment.  Still getting over the fact that this game is a thing I will be playing by week's end if I can tear myself away from everything else, as well as the fact that I have to write a post tomorrow about seven games.  Seriously, I said it already, but what the hell, industry?

Pretty Bleh

I hate to do this, really, because it just feels like I'm not trying, but it's been a long, long day, I have a headache and I just don't feel good because the temperature and conditions have changed rapidly over and over again in the past few days.  So yeah, not really a whole lot to post about tonight, I'm just going to throw down a couple of trailers for Retro City Rampage which was announced last month as heading to Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita both which made it fall squarely onto my radar.  Quite clearly, once you take a look at the game, you'll see that it appears to be a take on an 8-Bit style Grand Theft Auto with all sorts of other NES-related shennanigans.  In other words, it looks awesome.  Previously exclusive to WiiWare and XBLA, everyone seems to get a chance at it now since, as I said, it will be available for those, PS3, PS Vita and PC, either supported by Steam or exclusively through it.  So, with that said, let's take a look.

Looks pretty wild, really.  I went with an older trailer after the teaser because of the clear Batman parody to show off some of the other things they try to do, and then the final trailer is the "Big News" one, wherein I assume it was first announced (in video form) that it was coming to more platforms than previously thought.  I'm sure you can have a nice rousing game of "Spot the Parody" with the last trailer, definitely.  Personally, I can't wait for this; it'll have quite the nice home on my Vita.  And with that, I say good night.