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Shadow of the Colossus: First Blood

This weekend, I did a bit of shopping, visited my parents, and destroyed two idols the size of skyscrapers. Yes, I have drawn my first blood (or some kind of black ichor, anyway) from Shadow of the Colossus, and it's been as much fun as a naked pagan dance.

My previous assessment of the first Colossi battle was a little off. The first Colossi battle is a tutorial battle—of sorts. It's just not a very easy one. You're expected to learn and perfect the basics of climbing, stabbing, and shimmying. Otherwise you don't stand a chance against the second Colossi, which is three times as large as the first and has twice as many hooves to flatten you with. The sink-or-swim approach of Wander's first real fight is a clever way to bypass modern gaming's overzealous hand-holding, though it took me a while to realise I would get better if I tried. I was just initially scared to keep trying.

I'm not even sure why I harboured that fear. Who was going to laugh at me for my failures? The shadowy Gods flitting near the ceiling of the Temple of Worship? Wander, who wouldn't change his facial expression if you dropped a cinder block on his foot? Agro? Wander's dead girlfriend/wife? I eventually realised I was being silly, and took up the controller again.

Posted Apr 20 2009, 08:16 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 2 comment(s)

Filed under: super mario bros 3, shadow of the colossus, ps2, mega man x, nadia oxford, secret of mana, Suikoden ii

The 61FPS Review: Suikoden Tierkreis

Let’s get something out of the way first, to avoid misunderstanding: I love Suikoden. I know that Suikoden II is the best game on the PlayStation, and that it is easily one of the two best games I’ve ever played. I left Suikoden III spinning in my PS2 for hours, and I’m not talking about playing it—I’m talking about letting the attract video repeat over and over just to listen to its score. I played Suikoden Tactics from beginning till end, and so help me, I didn’t hate it.

I’m telling you this because I want you to understand the depth of my meaning when I tell you Suikoden Tierkreis isn’t for me.

Posted Apr 08 2009, 09:00 AM by Joe Keiser with | with 2 comment(s)

Filed under: nintendo ds, konami, 61fps review, joe keiser, Suikoden ii, Suikoden Tierkreis, jrpgs

PSOne on PSN: Somehow, it’s Suikoden

Just in time for me to tell you about it before our holiday break, Sony has updated the PlayStation Network Store with another PSOne game. I’m not telling you this because this marks the second week in a row we’ve gotten a new PSOne on PSN game, although that probably at least ties the service’s previous record streak. No, you have to know this because the game is Suikoden, the excellent 1996 RPG that set the stage for its even more excellent sequel. So that’s the best part. The second best part is it’s selling for the PSN standard $5.99. That sound you hear is hundreds of Ebay sellers having simultaneous aneurysms.

Between this and last week’s Castlevania Chronicles, it almost seems like Sony and Konami have figured out how to use this service properly. Both these titles are uncommon and in demand from franchise fans. Neither game has aged particularly badly, if you keep in mind that Chronicles was a port of a port and already felt pretty old school upon its original launch. And finally, they’re both from extent franchises that each could use a bit of a boost right now.

Posted Dec 23 2008, 07:47 PM by Joe Keiser with | with 2 comment(s)

Filed under: konami, playstation network, psone, song, Suikoden, joe keiser, castlevania chronicles, Suikoden ii

Beating the Dead Horse Who Has It Coming: Playstation Releases on PSN

Castlevania Chronicles, the peculiar Playstation remake of a peculiar X68000 remake of the original Castlevania, was released as a downloadable title on Playstation Network today. It ain’t the best Castlevania out there, but it’s still a swell action title. The disc release was never widely distributed either, so this will be the very first time most interested players will even get the chance to try it out. Of course, the same could be said of a lot of Playstation games. The halcyon days of 2003 when you could walk into any Blockbuster or Gamestop in the country and pick up five classic PS1 games, often times still shrinkwrapped, for ten or twenty bucks are long over, and the collector’s market is making many great games prohibitively expensive. Want to play Silent Hill? Hope you’ve got an extra sixty-five dollars lying around. How about Suikoden II, considered to be the series’ definitive installment? That’ll be $150. And what about cult classics like CyberConnect2’s Silent Bomber? Yeah, seventy smackers.

You shouldn’t have to pay top dollar for these games, though, considering they could very easily be released on the Playstation Network.

Posted Dec 18 2008, 06:45 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: john constantine, playstation 3, psp, silent hill, konami, castlevania, Playstation, psn, scea, Suikoden, cyberconnect2, castlevania chronicles, silent bomber, Suikoden ii

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.