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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. Read More... 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

• Playing Treasure's Lost PS2 Game

  I don’t know how this got past me, but I’m on it now: a few weeks ago, the unreleased game saviors at Lost Levels gave up on their seven year wait for Tiny Toons: Defenders of the Universe and finally pushed the beta they had been sitting on into public channels. The reason you should care about such inexplicable, unfinished, licensed pap? Two reasons. It’s from Treasure, the Japanese game developer everyone so loves (probably too much). And it’s been billed in the past as the spiritual successor to Rakugaki Showtime, the cult crayon arena fighter nobody’s ever played. Read More... Posted Mar 19 2009, 05:00 PM by Joe Keiser with | with no comments Filed under: ps2, treasure, joe keiser, licensing tragedies, unreleased games, rakugaki showtime, leaked games

• Spring Cleaning: Dusting Off Your Old Games

  I, like Cole, have been feeling the pinch of the economy lately. I’m not quite at the stage he’s at though: for example, I still live in New York, which means that naturally I meet our editor John regularly in that secret room on Wall Street where all New Yorkers adjust their monocles and laugh at the world. I also continue to own my most intricately designed brandy snifters, and I still swirl them daily. But this lifestyle necessitates other cut backs, and one of them—the biggest one, actually—is my games spending. This is bad, because I am a consummate hoarder and cutting back in this way is hard. But it’s also good; because I’m a consummate hoarder and have tons of games I have not given nearly enough love to. Read More... Posted Feb 24 2009, 02:00 PM by Joe Keiser with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: gamecube, ps2, wario games, joe keiser, new york city, virtual on, collections, wario world, zone of the enders

• Life Without Playstation

  The future is a funny thing. If you had told me back in the fall of 2005 (what I regard as the height of the PS2) that Sony would be a money-bleeding mess three short years later, I probably would have slapped you out of pure contempt. It wasn't that I was a Sony fanboy, you see; it's just that the thought of a powerful company taking such a fall from grace was something once regarded as sheer lunacy--hell, even when Nintendo was sucking with the N64, they at least had the Pokemon brand to pump billions of dollars into their coffers. Sony? ...Not so much. Read More... Posted Jan 07 2009, 08:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: playstation 3, sony, sega, ps2, ps3, Saturn, bob mackey, economy, business

• Underappreciated: Sly Cooper

  Not too long ago, in the days of PS2 supremacy, three mascot platformers helped pave Sony's streets with gold: Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, and Sly Cooper.  It's kind of strange that the genre would thrive so long after its supposed death and 16-bit burial at sea, but if you were a fan of fuzzy critters and floating platforms, you didn't bother to ask any questions.  Of course, not all of the aforementioned games were exactly worth playing; Jak and Daxter started as a pretty-but-middling take on the Rare platformer and soon mutated into a tough-as-nails GTA clone with a soul patch for added baditude.  Other franchises, like Ratchet and Clank, were able to build a reputation through their quality and hang on into the current-gen, only to be largely ignored by their former audience.  But out of all the platformers worth remembering, Sly Cooper seems to be the forgotten--and possibly abused--middle child.  It's one of gaming's greatest shames. Read More... Posted Jan 05 2009, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 8 comment(s) Filed under: ps2, jak and daxter, platforming, ratchet &amp, clank, bob mackey, sly cooper, underrated, underappreciated

• Underrated: Metal Arms - Glitch in the System

  When it comes to shooters I'm a pretty picky gamer. I don't like First-Person Shooters in general but I do like some Third-Person Shooters. Jak 2 and 3 along with the Ratchet and Clank series come to mind, though they are mostly shooter/adventure hybrids. The under appreciated game I'm featuring today is also a Third-Person Shooter, one that comes much closer to the feel of an FPS than the aforementioned games. Indeed, if you have played Metal Arms: Glitch in the System then pat yourself on the back. You are one of a handful of people that took a chance on an unknown title from an unknown studio and struck solid gold. Read More... Posted Dec 02 2008, 10:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: gamecube, amber ahlborn, ps2, xbox, underrated, metal arms glitch in the system, underappreciated

• The Tale of the Identical Box Art

  The blogosphere is rumbling with news of an industry lawsuit that isn't very interesting, and it's all about box art.  Seems like Activision had a little bit of "inspiration" for the cover of their latest Baja game--an inspiration that came from THQ's own library.  GameDaily reports: THQ's box art has been out in the open since this June. The company contends that Activision's box art uses "virtually identical" artwork. Activision's game, developed by Left Field Games, is shipping to retail this week, but THQ had asked the court to enjoin the release of the title. THQ apparently got in touch with Activision earlier this month to request that they create a different box art for SCORE International Baja 1000, but Activision refused to comply. And here's the evidence: Aside from the hilariously blatant plagiarism, there's really not much to this story--or is there!?  My ulterior motive for reposting this news is that it finally gives me a chance to talk about an observation I made during my dark, dreary days at GameStop.  You see, Baha games alone do not inspire thievery; there exists another pair of games with shockingly similar box art.  And the truth is so stunning I'm going to go ahead and hide it behind a cut. Read More... Posted Oct 29 2008, 05:30 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: xbox 360, ps2, klonoa, bob mackey, box art, lawsuit, baja

• Fan Art: Sly Cooper

  If you haven't played any of the Sly Cooper games by Sucker Punch Productions, then you have missed out. Released on the PS2, the Raccoon Trilogy covers the exploits of a thief named Sly Cooper through three installations: Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, Sly 2 – Band of Thieves, and Sly 3 – Honor Among Thieves. These are among my best loved games and even inspired me to sculpt the lead character: Sly himself. I hope you enjoy the art, and forgive me my lousy photography skills. Read More... Posted Sep 18 2008, 11:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 9 comment(s) Filed under: amber ahlborn, ps2, sly cooper, fan art

• Surprise of the Week: Sega Releases a Good Game

  Man, that PS2 just keeps hanging in there, doesn't it?  We're nearly 8 years after the system's launch and still getting some pretty high-profile games; part of me wishes that the PS2 wasn't on its last legs (as far as  quality software goes), because that would mean we'd still be seeing the great output that Japanese studios gave us last generation--when development costs were merely crazy instead of wholly and intractably insane.  But in the world of reality, Yakuza 2 ships today, and it's pretty important. If you didn't play the first Yakuza, you're not alone; it came out in the Fall of 2006, when the world cared only for the tidal wave of next-gen was about to hit. I actually found out about the game long after its release date, and GameFly-ed it the following Fall. Yakuza was actually pretty surprising for what I assumed would be a ripoff of Grand Theft Auto--okay, it kind of is a ripoff of Grand Theft Auto, in its own way. Add a distinctly Japanese sense of game design to the GTA series, and you've basically got Yakuza; and obviously, there are some benefits and drawbacks to this equation. Read More... Posted Sep 09 2008, 01:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments Filed under: sega, ps2, grand theft auto, bob mackey, yakuza

• Play It Again, Sam

  How many times have you bought the same game? I don't mean full on remakes like Metroid: Zero Mission or sports games sequels where they dusted off the old engine and updated the roster. I mean how many games did you repurchase because it was a special edition with some new features, or it was released for a different home system, or it was the hand held version? Read More... Posted Aug 08 2008, 11:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: metroid, remake, wii, snes, amber ahlborn, chrono trigger, ps2, ds, okami, super mario advance, gba, special edition

• Personal Firsts: My Gaming Scrapbook, From A to Wii

  Written by Amber Ahlborn At some point in the 1980s, the year nebulous in my memory, my mom bowled with her team every Thursday night. I loved Thursday nights because dad let me stay up late to watch M.A.S.H. and Benny Hill. Sometimes he and I would hop in the car and go visit mom at the alley, and that was the best. Dad would sit and watch mom bowl. Me? I would squeeze every last quarter I could get out of him. With a fist full of change and dollars soon to be converted into change, I’d walk down to the alley’s hamburger bar, snag a stool, and drag it through the glass doors into the arcade. Without deviation, I’d position my stool in front of the “Ostrich Game” and stay planted there until I ran out of money. I’m speaking of Joust of course, but at that age I could neither reach the controls without a stool to sit on nor read very well. Read More... Posted Jun 02 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: pac-man, metroid, wii, legend of zelda, snes, nes, ico, mega man, atari, gamecube, amber ahlborn, kaboom, katamari damacy, chrono trigger, firsts, pikmin, Playstation, joust, pitfall, star fox, ps2, frogger, super mario bros, ds