Shadow of the Colossus: Mysterious Landing (Review)

 One man at the edge of the world

Shadow of the Colossus takes place on a grand landscape where the only living creatures are the soaring eagles, white-tailed lizards and the elusive colossi. There’s much to please the eye here, as the realm of colossi is surreal; its vast scenery is painted with mysterious colours signaling natural, subtle and dangerous motifs.

Your journey will take you through forking forests, placid plains, majestic mountains, dark dunes, and cavernous dwellings filled with huge lakes hiding ancient temples and strange artifacts. Guided by the light of Wander’s mystical blade, you’ll need to seek out the 16 hidden colossi.

To aid you in adventure, your character (Wander) has been equipped with a sword, a bow and a black steed named Agro, who's your only sole companion in world exploration, and instrumental to surviving some of the ingenious battles ahead.

www.kekkai.org

By exploring the Forbidden Lands and ruling over the creatures therein, you’ll be able to bring back life to the fading dame that is Mono -- that is all you are shown, or meant to know. The game has almost no dialogue, and its story is told with only several cut-scenes. This minimalist approach lets the player figure out things as he/she explores. By finding the 16 Guardians of Forbidden Lands you will be able to unravel the illustrious tapestry that is this game.

Most of these livid colossi are stages onto themselves: walking temples that need to be navigated by cleverly manipulating the environmental puzzles, and infuriating the colossus to engage you in combat. The graphical feats during the colossi battles are stunning. The ground quakes and cracks shooting out dust particles, and the camera zooms and shifts with a smooth blurry motion. Everything reacts in contrast to the beastly size of your opponent.

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The first colossus you’ll face is a boar-faced, club wielding, mythical monster. If you manage to get close enough by avoiding its club and hoofs you can grapple onto its leg and stab it – which will bring the giant to its knees. From this point you can climb onto its back. There are parts of its body adorned with armour where you can stand for a bit to regain your stamina, and plan your strategy how to reach the sigil weak point branded on each of the encountered colossus.

There are many breeds of the colossi, majestic bird-dragons, sea serpents, ancient titans, and even a gigantic wall-clinging lizard salamander. The colossi rule the very environment around them, causing chaos and destruction within the realm - yet there’s something very unearthly and grand to them. As if they were a part of some greater design…

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Accompanied by fully orchestrated arrangements, mimicking the tone setting epic scores of the great movie masters like John Williams and Vangelis, the music in this game is superb. The compositions passing through your speaker tend to imprint your ear with soothing and mysterious melodies, which often swing full circle and shift to more intense, dramatic, and epic tunes when the colossi struggle for their existence.

The games slower pace may not be appealing to more action savvy junkies. That’s ok, because this story moves at its own gait, and rewards the more curious players with plenty of fun and unique situations; such as, hang-gliding on eagles, or surfing on a fish (tru). Stabbing the shoulders of giants, I can tell you this game is cinematic, bold and memorable.

Developer: Team Ico

Publisher: SCE

Platform: PS2, PS3

Released: 2005

Genre: Action-adventure

Axelay (Review)

Ax·elay

• Last remaining attack vessel of the Illis Fleet

• SNES shooter known for its encompassing and dynamic music, captivating graphic, and imaginative design

• Six stages of unrelenting aerial sci-fi warfare

>Axelay offers a unique sci-fi adventure which spans across six vertical and side-scrolling stages. This bold design choice was a big departure from the standard shooter formula of having either vertical or side-scrolling levels, but never both (except Konami’s Salamander).

The vertical levels provide mode-7 scrolling vistas that emulate the approaching horizon in a cascading motion. And the side-scrolling levels offer a traditional respite from the laid back succession of their vertical counterparts. The controls scheme works seamlessly between both viewpoints – which is good, because the game can be challenging, especially on hard mode. Fortunately your ship can take more than one direct hit.

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Beginning of each stage, your Axelay can be retrofitted with three different weapons such as homing lasers, spread shot, and sidewinder missiles. There are nine weapons in total, with each one having a secondary function such as rockets or bombs. New weapons become available after each cleared level, which means that the complete armament is not available until last mission.

Switching between weapons becomes an integral part of gameplay, as enemies tend to ambush you from odd places and angles. It’s not uncommon to have suishuttles trying to run into you, or take flaky potshots from behind cover. Equipping the controllable spread-shot is a given before every level. Especially since the weapon can be fired in a wave-like salvo, that grinds foes behind, above and beneath.

www.nintendolife.com

You’ll strafe floating islands, dodge moving platforms of a bustling space colony, outrun lava waves, and skirmish in deep-space with an invasion flotilla. Each level ends with an impressive and unique screen-filling boss. In a true sci-fi tradition the creature designs are wacky and weird. Mechanical spiders, mobile walkers, and even biogenetic magma beasts, are all part of an eclectic invasion force you’ll required to smash before it obliterates your home planet.

The game’s compelling graphical style and intricate music create a very captivating gaming experience. There’s a lot of interplay between what happens on screen and what comes out of your speakers. As each piece of music is perfectly formulated to capture the character of the strange mechanical and organic beings that flood this title. Axelay’s music is original and memorable, thanks to Mr. Taro Kudo (totally looked that up) and his captivating techno compositions injected with industrial textures and out-worldly sounds.

Axelay is an unparalleled, darkly, and distinctively futuristic shooter that has defied convention on its own terms. The game’s complex yet memorable music and impressive technical design make it runner-up for best playing, and most sought after SNES shooter of early 90s.

Developer:   Konami
Publisher:    Konami
Platform:     SNES
Released:    1992
Genre:         Shooter

Fighters With Maniacal Mechanics

Which one of these fighters has the most technically maniacal game mechanics?

-Primal Rage-

Wideo-games.wikia.com

Giant prehistoric gods battle for the control of Urth. The character models are made of clay, digitized into ravaged landscapes filled with human tribes. Each of the seven gods has finishing moves and unique spacial attacks, which require several buttons held at the same time while doing overtop inputs. Yes, it all works. Somewhat.   
 
-WeaponLord-

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Seven blood thirsty barbarians born under the cursed Blood Moon, battle with brutal finesse, weapon to weapon. The sprites are huge, the backgrounds imposing, and the sounds are tribal to the bone. Parrying, counters, weapon-clash mechanics, knock-downs, guard-breaks, link combos, and gruesome fatalities. This game needs a sequel, NOW! 

-Killer Instinct-  

www.tapscape.com


"OK guys, let's make a game with a cyborg, werewolf, raptor, alien, boxer, skeleton, Indian, ninja, and a chick. Let's digitize them into a 3-D'ish landscape, and make the engine run on auto-combos and linkers. Oh, and let's compose a soundtrack with every musical genre. Don't bother balancing the thing, Nintendo wants it now! Wait, wait, wait, it needs some fatalities!"

Console Gaming: Going Loco Locally

My friend plugs his controller into the multi-tap, and quickly rushes to an empty seat before anyone could slide in. His basement is occupied by seven people all anxiously waiting to play their multiplayer video game of choice: Saturn Bomberman.

Before the first game ends, a multitude of (mostly incidental) poking, insult hurling, controller tossing, lewd screaming, and general head-butting occurs. This is multiplayer console gaming at its best!

Yes, online gaming has expended player experiences across the globe, a great feat. However, with the advent of global connectivity came the loss of long-lasting friendship forging that could only happen by face-to-face competition while gaming on home consoles.

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The biggest appeal of multiplayer games is that they are engaging and sociable. But real magic happens when people are in the same proximity to each other: body language and comfort levels can be observed closely, severity of threats, and insults can be interpreted, and answered with a proper responses (such a knee to the thorax).

Know any other ways to hinder or help other players?

With no online anonymity to hide behind, comfort and enjoyment of others must be considered. The sole purpose of gaming would always be have fun and laugh a LOT. There’s also no chance for any psychotic outbursts, or shady reasoning that usually comes with online anonymity. But if there is some disturbance, I recommend another thorax-crusher to the guilty party.

Granted that certain unforeseen circumstances may cause issues to some players, most times the group’s focus on enjoyment prompts a quick resolve. Additionally, due to a smaller and more controlled group size, disgruntled players have to consider their actions more carefully and behave accordingly.

Or do you think some players just like to stir the pot?

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Most multiplayer games encourage players to be competitive, but gaming on consoles in the same room with everyone tends to curb dominance of (a) player. This makes going for first place a tough task for everyone. Careful examination of moods, current tactics, and threats from all players are important parts of group play.

At night’s end, after lots of (joyous) yelling and (mostly accidental) beer spilling, players can linger, and muse about their great plays and sneaky tactics. This is also a perfect opportunity to recap some of the more quirky and interesting moments that occurred on prior game nights.

I always make time to happily squeeze in to a small basement room just to goad and rag on my friends while enjoying awesome multiplayer games.

Thinking of hosting a videogame party?

Check out these gems:

• Mario Party: http://bit.ly/ZuD4qE
• Saturn Bomberman: http://bit.ly/WM70C2
• Castlevania: Harmony of Despair: http://bit.ly/ZuDehR
• Death Tank Zwei: http://bit.ly/Ye77om