posted by Chris on July 14, 2008 6:45 PM in Podcast
With all of our jaded jackassery, we at The Weekly Geek do actually acknowledge the positive things in the geek realm, and what better time to express the joys of gaming than E3? This week's episode has Chris, Jinny and Qais disseminating the massive amount of information released at the Microsoft pre-E3 conference, from Avatars to Netflix integration, Party Mode, dashboard updates and more. The Rock Band 2 set lists and drum kits have also been detailed, and Jinny and Chris talk about their current favorite iPhone apps and why you should download them now. But first, won't you download a podcast? I am sure you will enjoy it.
download now
continue reading "Podcast for 07.14.08 | Everything Wrong is Right Again"
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posted by Mike on February 22, 2008 1:38 PM in Games
Before my take is completely washed over by an assault of white noise from the echo chamber (I can feel my inner ear giving way already), I wanted to post my first impressions on the recent XNA demo launches. The select few that I played gave me faith in the little guys. Small game developers often have the most glorious ideas because, for the most part, they're like us. They want to have fun playing games. The money is irrelevant when you're coding out of hobbyist fervor - so, instead of stale franchises sucking the life out of our collective gamer soul, you get interesting, novel games.
Hit the jump for short blurbs on the first three game demos I played and my assessment as to whether you should waste your hard-earned Microsoft Points on them if/when they hit the actual XBLA stage.
continue reading "XNA Demos: First Impressions, Pt. 1"
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posted by Chris on February 13, 2008 10:48 AM in Video Game Review
Tetsuya Mizuguchi's creations are transcendent. No other game developer has shown such an awareness of what makes games engaging on a base level. He creates whole experiences, such as Lumines, Every Extend Extreme and Rez that tap into a very primal part of our brains. Playing these games gets you into a trance as the sights, sounds and motions (the vibration of the controller and the pressing of the buttons) synchronize. I never had a chance to check out Rez when it was first released for the Dreamcast, and then I only recently picked up the PS2 version. I had heard people talk about the game for quite some time, most notably Gabe from Penny Arcade who used to obsess over the game in various news posts. Rez HD was my first time experiencing this particular world, and I have to say it's pretty crazy amazing.
There are only a few games that I have played in my lifetime that I can say are perfect gaming experiences. It's remarkable to me that out of those few games, most are created by Q? Entertainment. The feeling you get when you experience Rez HD is that of a futuristic Star Fox, but perfected. The gameplay is fairly simple, you move your reticule over enemies and it targets them. Release the button to fire. Stack targets for combo points. What is amazing is the translation of this simple on-rails shooter to complete sensory experience. Your shots fired sync in time to the music, which is synced in time to the vibration of your controller which is synced in time to the vibration of the other controllers surrounding you. That's right, you can use your additional 360 controllers to act as the "Trance vibrator". I found placing controllers behind my back and neck were ideal, helping me focus deeper on the game play experience.
The music is incredible. I could imagine a party being deejayed by someone playing Rez HD on a big projection screen, the music pumping loudly in time. In fact, out of everyone I have shown the game, no one has balked at watching me play. It's a fascinating game to sit and watch and contemplate. There's so much beauty going on all at once, it's difficult to keep track of what is going on at any given time. After about an hour of silence and watching me play, Qais said softly "I love video games". Any game that gets you to reaffirm your love of the medium is completely worthwhile. I am excited to see how else Mizuguchi is going to enrich our gaming experiences in the future.
Score: 5/5 An essential game that will reaffirm your love of the medium. A true work of art.
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posted by Chris on January 21, 2008 10:00 AM in Games
I don't know about you guys, but every time I hear the word "vote" I get excited. I never pass up a chance to inflict my own strange personal tastes, opinions and morals on the rest of society. Microsoft announced today that they are bringing the first ever Xbox Live Arcade awards to the Game Developer's Conference this February, in recognition of all those developers who have made XBLA the awesome place it is today. You can vote starting Tuesday for what you think is the bestest of the bestest of XBLA in 2007.
Below is the list of award categories that will be open for public voting:
- Best Overall Arcade Game
- Best Classic Game
- Best Original Game
- Best Family Friendly Game
- Best Competitive Multiplayer Game
- Best Cooperative Multiplayer Game
Other award categories include the following:
- Best selling game
- Most played game
- Highest rated game
- Staff choice
There's a grand total of 112 games on the XBLA, which ones would you choose?
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posted by Chris on December 7, 2007 10:23 AM in Games
The contest is over and we have our winners! We asked you to come up with a funny caption for this screenshot in exchange for 2 XBLA game codes.
Here are the winners!
- bfeld - "Just because it's a Shrek movie doesn't necessarily mean that this scene will be filled with a poor Pirates of the Carribean parody and some fart jokes. Just joking. It totally will."
- Zac - "We're setting sail in an attempt to find Mike Myers' dignity!"
- Bryan - "Stop me if you've heard this one: What did the pirate say about the steering wheel attached to his crotch? It's driving me nuts! Get it, Get it!"
- Chadd - "It is called a poop deck. That is why I pooped there."
- Mike - "If you call me Chris Farley one more time, I'll shove this so far up your sexyback you'll be crying a river for weeks!"
Your codes are in the (e)mail! Think you could have done better? Subscribe to our RSS feed to better keep an eye out for our next contest!
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posted by Chris on December 4, 2007 12:09 PM in Games
We've got 5 codes for both Screwjumper and Shrek n' Roll for the Xbox Live Arcade, and I am just itching to give them away. I doubt there is any sort of salve in existence that I can use, so the best way I can come up with to sate my scratchy needs is to hold a contest. (I apologize for any disturbing imagery that might have caused. Please direct all complaints to Qais.) The perfect title for this contest? Screw Shrek. That's right, I came up with that all by myself.
The rules are simple. All you have to do is comment on this post with a funny caption to this image (why not use this opportunity to register for an account?). The top 5 funniest captions will receive codes for both games.
Contest ends Dec. 7. Go on, be funny and win some free stuff!
UPDATE: comment registration works now! Comment away!
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posted by Mack on November 14, 2007 8:45 PM in Video Game Review
As I sit down to write the review for Switchball, I've been trying to remember what the normal criteria for reviews are here at the Weekly Geek. But for the life of me, I can't remember what they are so I'm just going to wing it and make up my own. Also there will probably be a lot of references to "balls" and statements that might seem funny taken out of context, but I urge you to rise above it.
Synopsis: In Switchball you guide a ball through 36 levels up puzzles. The game gets its name from the little stations throughout the game that allow you to change your ball into another form in order to solve tasks. The majority of the game involves having the right ball for the job and most puzzles involve several different balls.
Neophyte Friendliness: Switchball has an integrated tutorial feature that whisks you through the first couple of levels with frequent hints about all the new objects that your balls will run in to. After a while the messages peter out, but make brief appearances as more things are introduced. The game has plenty of new contraptions to torment you but it doesn't throw them at you faster than you can it. By the time you reach the final stages you should be able to keep your balls away from the various traps and tricks.
Responsiveness: The controls handle pretty well, and are very simple. The left analog moves the ball, the right analog moves the camera, and A is your action button. That's it. Sometimes the heavier balls can feel less responsive, but this is to be expected.
Shininess: Here the game excels. Everything has a nice feel to it. I played the majority of the game zoomed out as far as I could but when I needed to get in close to my balls for more tricky maneuvers, I was not disappointed. However this added graphical detail had a downside...
Frustratingness: Honestly this is one of the more frustrating games I've played this year, but it was never the level design. Unfortunately it was mainly due to the art design. Although beautiful, ornamental polygons caused more than a couple careens off in to the abyss. It's very disheartening to pull off a tricky and complex puzzle only to have to start completely over because your ball took a bad bounce off a little nubby thing on a moving platform near the end. Several times I put the game down for the day because little bits of geometry were making it impossible to progress. Near the end of the game the puzzles become incredibly long, time sensitive ordeals that involve essentially completing the entire level in one go. At one point the game refused to recognize checkpoints that I have to admit that I didn't not complete the last two levels because after my 10th or so try in the second to last I just gave up on it.
Multiplayerosity: I could never connect to a multiplayer game so I can't comment on that portion of it.
Replayability: The game kept me pretty entranced for most of it, but the later levels sapped my energy with the constant restarting of puzzles. I can't say that I would play it often, but it kept me entertained for a few hours.
Worthiness: If you love puzzles and you don't mind a challenge, you can have a lot of fun with Switchball. If you're easily frustrated or low on brainpower I'd save your money.
And remember, if you notice a sudden change in your ball, please see a physician immediately.
Okay, that one was a bit gratuitous.
Score: 3/5 Check out the demo, and if you like it snap it up. Also snap into a Slim Jim™.
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posted by Chris on November 12, 2007 5:35 PM in Video Game Review
Word Puzzle is the next game in a long series of XBLA titles that no one is really going to care about. What is the reason for this mediocrity? I'd say Lazy presentation, lack of any compelling game play and incredibly generic title would probably be a good place to start. The concept is simple: you are in some sort of South American jungle looking at Mayan (Aztec?) ruins and you have to solve word puzzles. It's your generic word find, where a list is given to you, and you must find the word on a field of letters, whether it be printed backwards (crazy!), forwards (too easy!) or diagonal (indigestion!). If Word Puzzle had JUST this formula, maybe it would be a tolerable game, but since it's on Xbox Live Arcade it supposedly has to be extreme and give you a horrendous 3d puzzle board to work with. You have your standard viewing area like in any puzzle video game, but inside this area is an even smaller area that moves at slight angles to give the effect of 3d. It doesn't add anything to the game, and in fact makes it incredibly less efficient than if they decided to not fancy anything up. The camera sometimes takes too long to catch up with your cursor, which is frustrating for a time-based game.
Don't worry too much about losing, though. Because you won't. The game is hand-holding at its worst with the first letter of a word highlighted on the board already for you. It's impossible to notice unless you were trying to lose on purpose. Which I did because I got so bored I didn't want to play any more. There is seemingly no goal to Word Puzzle, I could hardly tell if I had completed the tutorial or not. There's no level structure or numbering system, you just play and find words until you don't. How long or how short that time period is up to you.
Most of this game just feels like a half-assed attempt at getting good-intentioned people to download a crappy game by mistake. The word sets don't even provide anything compelling besides finding weird and slightly offensive words that seemed to have slipped through the quality control cracks. In my first game, I got the words "schmeg" and "jewfish". Seriously. One of these is disgusting and the other feels slightly racist. Either way I wrote a letter to my congressman. I am highly offended. The next game I got "underrotated" and "futz". I refuse to believe that those are actual words, and therefore I refuse to find them. And if I wasn't already offended by the word selection (using "NYC" as a word is a crime in of itself) the music won the "most annoying music in a video game ever" award, with its inspirational and sweeping Lion King-esque score. I imagine writing a soundtrack for a puzzle game is a challenge; you have to write something that won't make people stab themselves in the face after hearing your song twenty times over. The person who scored Word Puzzle failed, and now has blood on his hands.
Worthiness? There is none. If your grandma has an Xbox 360 and you are somehow trying to get her brain stimulated again after a coma, maybe Word Puzzle would be good for that. Maybe you could coordinate some sort of odd prank on a friend by downloading Word Puzzle to his account and getting all the achievements for him, just to have that mar up their Gamercard. Who knows, man. I don't recommend it, not by a long shot.
Jewfish? Seriously?
Score: 1/5 Skip it!
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posted by Chris on November 5, 2007 2:42 PM in Games
We're completely in love with the Xbox 360's Live Arcade here at The Weekly Geek, its system of delivering a weekly dose of (usually) fantastic new titles combined with the seamless integration of Live make it the ultimate social arcade-style gaming experience. Remember the feeling of hanging out at an arcade with friends? You see a game you all want to play and you walk over and play it for a little bit, and then move on to the next one? The vast variety and ability to share games with your friends was a feeling unmatched by home systems until now. We have polled every staff member and asked them what their top 5 XBLA games are, and the results were a surprising mix. Proof that the Live Arcade has a little bit of something awesome for everyone. Hit the jump for The Weekly Geek's list of Top 5 XBLA Games and then post your own Top 5 in the comments.
continue reading "Top 5 List: Top 5 XBLA Games"
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posted by Chris on October 19, 2007 12:12 PM in Games, Video Game Review
There is no way in hell I can come even close to describing Every Extend Extra Extreme (or E4) as well as Tycho did today, but I will try my best. When I first tried Mizuguchi's Every Extend Extra for the PSP, I was a bit confused. Turned on to the game by its curious cover art (which features a minimalist style with the contours of a woman's face being traced by dripping rainbow strands) and pedigree (Q? Entertainment being the house behind Rez) I was eager to understand its strange, abstract concept. It was presented as a sort of top down space shooter would, like Asteroids or even Geometry Wars. I didn't seem to grasp the idea that there was a sort of rhythm game component, and its lack of a tutorial mode made things even worse. Instead of shooting at enemies, you destroy yourself, your explosive death cascading into passing baddies (I guess they aren't evil per sé, more neutral. Neuties?) which in turn explode and affect things around them. The goal is to get bonuses which extend the ever-counting down timer, and rack up a high chain score.
The Xbox Live Arcade version features the same style of game play, remixed, honed and perfected in gorgeous HD and eargasm inducing 5.1 surround. Remember the first time you played Geometry Wars? Yeah, it feels like that. The experience of the visuals matched with the thumping bass and rumbling controller, with the beat-based combo multipliers and trippy concept is so immersive it feels like a drug trip. One of the good ones. It feels like a game that a scientist would have subjects play while he was dosing a new form of MDMA, with tubes and nodules stick to their faces, their never-blinking eyes watering.
I still don't ultimately understand it. The game play relies on feelings and interpretation more than anything. I am beginning to understand why they avoided a tutorial, because so much of the experience feels like a learning process. It's intensely abstract but not boringly so. There is a classic arcade-style game beneath the artistic flair, one that I know is going to get a lot of play from me. E4 is available on XBLA now, and I highly recommend it. I was really looking forward to being able to play Rez for the first time when it comes out for XBLA, but now I can't wait.
Score: 5/5 Buy it!
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posted by Chris on October 8, 2007 3:51 PM in Games
Geon: Emotions is an Xbox Live Arcade puzzle-ish game that kind of went under the radar. It functions on the concept of "emotions", with a cube of your choosing from a vast array like "envy", "courage" or "melancholy". Each emotion allows your cube to use certain power ups more efficiently as you roll around a gridded board collecting dots Pac-Man style. There is, of course, a twist. Once you collect enough dots, you can flip over to your opponent's side of the board and score on his goal. It's a strange mix of Pac-Man, basketball and Marble Madness - all beautifully detailed and nicely presented.
Shininess: Geon, like many other XBLA titles, feels a bit too pretty for its own good. It is formulated to blast your friend's eyeballs as they stare deep into your brand new HDTV set-up. The menus and logos for the different emotion cubes are clever and neat, but when the game starts it just feels like there is too much going on at once. The music consists of generic driving techno-beats, which combined with the crazy particle effects and lighting make it difficult to see what the heck is going on.
Funness: It is very difficult to create a simple game with underlying deep complexity. Take Geometry Wars for example. There's one power up in the game (the bomb) and only a handful of actual enemy types. Yet the game is timeless. Pac-Man, same thing. The game can be played infinite ways. Geon tries to join the ranks of these classic arcade-style titles and fails by putting in way too much confusing and needless shit. First off, you can choose your "emotion" for your cube, which seems like it should have more of an impact on your game play than it actually does. All the emotions do is make the various power-ups you get on the board work better according to whatever emotion you chose. So, logically, for each emotion there is a power-up. It's hard to tell what you are picking up when you run over a power-up, and even harder to remember what each and every one of these things actually does. Then there is a stupidly ridiculous series of steps to actually score a goal. You have to eat all the dots on your side to fill up a meter before your opponent does. Then you have to go to the edge of the board and press the control stick and he X button in the direction you want to flip. Then you flip and move to your opponent's goal and start over again. Repeat until time runs out. Sound like fun? Nope! You're wrong. Hah! Fooled you.
Worthiness: Download the demo of Geon to see if it is the kind of game you would enjoy. You can get the entire confusing experience for free. I am a fan of puzzle games, and I have always loved Pac-Man. Geon: Emotions feels like it is just trying too hard, which makes me sad.
See what I did there?
Score: 3/5 Download the demo
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posted by Chris on October 8, 2007 10:50 AM in Games
I have purchased Tetris probably about 5 times during my life for various systems. I had it back on the NES (classic!), the Gameboy (even classic-er!), Mac, PC, DS and now Xbox 360. Tetris Splash is a brand new way for Tetris to sap our precious wallet contents, capitalizing on the fact that they can release a million different downloadable content packs and people will buy them. The concept is that you are playing Tetris in an aquarium (or something. Tetris doesn't have a plot no matter what anyone tells you.) You can set your aquarium background to different things, customize your fish and whether you want saltwater or freshwater, and unlock more features as you play. You can also use your aquarium as a screen saver. Oh, you can also play Tetris.
Shininess: I don't really know if there was an aquarium screen saver niche that needed to be filled for HDTV owners, but screen saver fans can now rejoice! The graphics are crisp and the aquarium effects are nice, but when it comes down to it, the game is just plain Tetris. Tetris with weird voices that tell you when you do something awesome. Also, by default, this version has the ghost blocks that we see in Tetris DS, which some people find distracting. Thankfully, you can turn them off. As for the music, it's got a couple remixes of original Tetris music, but as in all XBLA puzzle games it's better if you just use your own music as a soundtrack.
Funness: It's Tetris.
Worthiness: If you enjoy buying copies of Tetris over and over again (and I do!) or are a fan of screen savers and want a fake aquarium to display on your tv, Tetris Splash may very well be for you. There are about a billion downloads to customize your fish and tank and junk, along with various multiplayer modes. When it comes down to it, it's the same game you know and love. Download accordingly.
Score: 3/5 Download the demo!
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posted by Chris on September 23, 2007 4:51 PM in Video Game Review
Fatal Fury is a classic Neo Geo title - one of those crazy arcade games you could take home with you. I remember seeing stuff about Neo Geo as a kid and thinking it was the best thing in the known universe - being able to play a game at the arcade and then having the same experience at home! Without sticky floors or greasy joysticks! Though, being a poor kid I missed out on this obviously mind-blowing experience. I also didn't go to the arcade too often. Fighting games have never really been my thing, and while I casually enjoyed Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat, my expertise never really escaped the realm of button mashing. Fatal Fury almost completely relies on memorization of special move sequences which is the kind of thing that made me want to put my fist through a wall as a kid. There was always that one punk who committed every single special move to memory and would just wipe the floor with you. Now with Fatal Fury Special, you can meet every single one of those jerk kids online and either experience heart-wrenching defeat or join the collective. Isn't Xbox Live grand?
Hit the jump for the full review.
continue reading "Review: Fatal Fury Special (XBLA)"
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posted by Chris on August 8, 2007 3:06 PM in Games
Woo! All you Carcassonne fans can, as of today, download a brand new expansion, Rivers II on Xbox Live Arcade! From Major Nelson:
Title: Carcassonne
Content: Carcassonne - Rivers II Expansion Pack
Price: 300 Microsoft Points
Availability: Not available in Korea
Dash Text: [ESRB: E (EVERYONE)] This will add 12 new river tiles to the original game. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.
My condolences to those in Korea. And to those who only own the board game version. Though, 300 points may be a bit much for an expansion...
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posted by Chris on July 24, 2007 5:12 PM in Video Game Review
Missile command is one of those games you play when you don't have anything else. It's not really a game you hear people raving about. No one is going out and getting retro Missile Command tattoos. It's more of one of those games that comes for free on your computer and you're too poor to buy anything cooler. Though, if you are one of those crazed Missile Command fans, the Xbox Live Arcade version is definitely the one for you. It features pretty menus, photo-realistic landscapes, and a neatly designed interface to update the old classic. It even has driving techno music to keep your blood pumping! Or to annoy you. It's pretty repetitive.
The game features two different versions: the classic arcade version and the "retro evolved" version. Each version has two gameplay modes, a normal and a "throttle monkey" mode, which I imagine is some sort of slang for "whoa this is too fast how can non-augmented humans play this". Personally I find it all boring.
The trouble with reviewing retro games is that they aren't deep enough for an elaborate analysis, and everyone already knows the game anyway. It's Missile Command, but prettier and with achievements. It looks real nice in HD, but there are plenty other better Xbox 360 titles to impress your friends with. Grab it. Or don't.
Score: 3/5 Grab the demo
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posted by Chris on July 23, 2007 6:49 PM in Podcast
The Geek, Chris and Colette wax nostalgic this week about Nintendo Power and the glory of magazines devoted to in-game maps and brand-whoring. Also discussed is Live Arcade titles for the week and Paper Mario. Roger Ebert returns us to six months ago when the "Are Video Games Art?" question was still relevant, and Jon Lovitz beats up Andy Dick. This was a very random week. Enjoy!
continue reading "Podcast for 07-23-07 | You've Got The Power"
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posted by Grant on June 6, 2007 12:11 PM in Video Game Review
Overview: Today's review is of a quirky new racing game on the Xbox Live Arcade called Mad Tracks. It's a fun little party game where you drive around spring-powered little toy cars. It's got standard races, but also has a variety of other games such as pool and darts that you play with your vehicle. The game was first released in 2006 for the PC, but seems to have found a better home in the Arcade.
Shininess: The graphics in Mad Tracks aren't anything spectacular, but they are spiffy enough for a quick'n'dirty little XBLA game. Everything seems to flow well and looks nice enough for a game that takes all of 10 seconds to download.
The music is also pretty minimal, but the few mellow lounge-ish, jazz-ish numbers play in the background help make it nice and relaxing.
Funness: Mad Tracks is actually quite fun, for a while. The format of toy cars racing and also doing odd missions or bar games is a nice departure from both the standard race car games and party mini-game games. The single player has a good variety of games with different objectives and goals to get gold, silver, or bronze medals on different difficulty levels. It gives the game a nice collectables aspect. You've got basic races, but there are also games where you have to push a golf ball around a mini-golf course to get into the hole first, drive around on a foosball table to score goals, or just try to push the other cars off a dining room table. The variety will keep you entertained and the Achievements will make you want to go back and try to better your score on each game. Oh, there are also various wacky power-up items like rockets, freeze rays, and EMPs.
There is also an online multi-player aspect, but it's fairly lacking for two reasons. First, you can't stay with the same group of people in a random quick match and just play differenet games over and over. You have to back out to the menu and start a new quick match. Granted, this takes just a couple seconds, but it's kind of annoying and you have to wait for other people to show up in the game again. And that brings us to the second con of the online play. Not a lot of people seem to have this game so it can sometimes take a while to get a match going.
Worthiness: At 800 points (10 bucks in real dollars), Mad Tracks could be a good deal, depending on how much you think you'll play it. Test it out on the demo first to see if you think you'll want to play it over and over. You probably won't. The single player missions will only get you so far, and there isn't a huge online community for it. Maybe everyone's off playing the Halo 3 beta. But if you and a few friends plan on all buying the game, you can have some good party game nights online in a dedicated room to play lots of different mini-games.
Score: 2/5 Download the demo.
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posted by Chris on May 24, 2007 6:39 AM in Video Game Review
The Xbox Live Arcade is a haven for casual gamers. With games like Uno, Catan, Bejeweled and now Sotrilo Solitaire, it is almost worth it to pay the full price for the system in order to play these games. There's been a lot of hate on Sotrilo by the games journalism community since it's release because of the awkward play controls and high price, but when it comes down to it Sotrilo Solitaire is actually a really high quality game.
Some of the points made were that it's a fancier version of a game that ships free with basically any PC. Sure. That's a valid point, however Sotrilo offers pretty much every Solitaire game ever made. There's like 20 in there, including a very interesting story mode where you can unlock new card themes. It looks great in HD with lots of neat little animations and visual effects. They really did put a ton of effort into this game in order to make it worth the 800 Microsoft points. Because you can just go out and buy a deck of cards, or an old Windows 95 PC and play Solitaire whenever you want to.
Pros: Sotrilo has pleasing graphics, all the Solitaire games you can ever want, a neat story mode, fun themed decks, achievements, online multiplayer (!). Cons: The music's kinda boring and repetitive, controls are awkward but should be familiar for people who have played the iPod version of solitaire, 800 points is a lot for solitaire, the more obscure games have very basic instructions and the learning curve is really really steep. Should you pick it up? If you're really into the live arcade and that's all you play, why not? It's an enjoyable game. It's not a killer app, but it's not something to get all fussy about. Just play fun games, people!
Score: 2/5 Download the demo
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posted by Chris on May 21, 2007 2:03 PM in Video Game Review
In the vast continuation of our childhood, and the feeding of our insatiable retro hunger, Double Dragon was unleashed upon the Xbox Live Arcade last week and it's one of those titles that makes you stop and think "oh man, we were really dumb little kids". Maybe it's just that there is so much better out now, but the Xbox Live Arcade version of Double Dragon certainly doesn't make me pine for the days of yesteryear.
Now, I grew up playing the NES version (pictured) and not the arcade flavor, but I can accept the differences and give an adequate review based on my experiences. The XBLA version shows a complete lack of effort on the developers part, and doesn't inspire confidence in any way. It offers two options for the graphics: original and enhanced. The enhanced version looks akin to a Flash version of Double Dragon, which is not to say it looks bad but it certainly doesn't look good. Switching between the two is a breeze and can be done on the fly in the pause menu, so essentially it's just a new skin. Unfortunately they didn't give the same enhanced treatment to the soundtrack. For all your effort setting up the best, most kick ass HDTV living room, you are still going to have to suffer the worse-than-midi style soundtrack. I am not exaggerating, it's completely awful. Even if they had to do this remake on the cheap, at the very least get one of the kids from OCRemix to come up with different versions of the FOUR SONGS you have in the game!
Even worse than the "original score" is the fact that there is slowdown during co-op and even during single player. If any more than 3 enemies appear on the screen at once, it starts to bog down. I don't find this in any way charming in its authenticity. I have a very high powered gaming console, I would like my 20 year old games to work with accuracy and efficiency.
At least the achievements make it a bit more interesting to play through the game, and you have to give props to Double Dragon for paving the way for other mindless brawlers to come. But for all of it's difficult play control, boggy slowdown, ear piercing soundtrack and kind of shoddy art - it's something that is best left alone. At least it's only 400 Microsoft points. Pick it up if you want to. I guess. It's not a must have killer app for the XBLA, but if you really enjoyed the original - say you have fond memories o f meeting your first girlfriend at the arcade and you played the game for hours and hours and hours.... check it out.
Score: 2/5 Download the demo
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posted by Chris on May 21, 2007 6:25 AM in Podcast
On this week's super excellent podcast, Chris Furniss, The Geek, White Mage and Colette Bennett give you BREAKING NEWS about Starcraft II. Not really breaking, since everyone and their mom knows about it now. They also lament the loss of a childhood institution, rip into Spiderman 3 (the game), gush about Batman, tolerate Transformers, gush even more about Odin Sphere and give away the secrets of the universe. That last part may be a lie. Download the show now or subscribe! Show notes after the jump.
continue reading "Podcast for 05-21-07 | Big in Korea"
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Starcraft II
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posted by Chris on May 14, 2007 6:07 AM in Podcast
This week sees Chris Furniss, The Geek and White Mage trapped in a cave somewhere in the Welsh countryside discussing such matters as the Halo 3 beta, new Crackdown content, Square Enix's new offerings and how the TSA angers us. Subscribe now or download the MP3, you will be sorry if you didn't. Seriously. Hit the jump for some show notes!
continue reading "Podcast for 05-14-07 | Halo is Overrated"
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posted by Chris on May 11, 2007 9:26 AM in Geek Culture
Aaaaand the winner of our Catan contest is...
Jharks!
Jharks told us his favorite board game in the forums and now has a shiny new code to download Catan for the Xbox Live Arcade in his private message box. Congrats!
Stay tuned for more awesome contests here at The Weekly Geek. Tune your internets to this internet station.
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posted by Chris on May 6, 2007 1:54 PM in Games
So you say you want to join the awesomeness that is hundreds upon hundreds of games of Catan with The Weekly Geek? Well then enter this contest and you can win your very own copy for the Xbox Live Arcade!
Here is all you have to do. Register for an account in the Weekly Geek forums and post a response to this thread with the name of your favorite board game. That's it! I will choose a winner at random on Friday, May 11th.
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posted by Chris on May 3, 2007 10:03 AM in Video Game Review
How cool is it that while Nintendo is sitting there shoveling old games that they have already made money from into our Wii Virtual Consoles that Microsoft is putting out shiny new titles like Catan? I mean, it's a freaking BOARD GAME. A really good one, at that. Equal parts Monopoly, Risk and Civilization, Catan is the brand new Xbox Live Arcade title based on the popular (in Germany!) board game Settlers of Catan. The premise is this: there is an island and you are trying to colonize it before your opponents do. You must be the first to reach a set amount of victory points (10 is default) and pretty much everything you do in the game gives you points. It's laid out in a hex pattern and each space counts for a resource (either wool, lumber, brick, wheat or ore). Every turn someone rolls the dice and whatever number is rolled "activates" a space that corresponds to that number. If you have a settlement (kind of like Monopoly houses) that is adjacent to that space, you get one of that resource.
Resources are important because they allow you to build more settlements, roads, cities (like a hotel in Monopoly) or draw a card. An opponent have a resource you need? Every turn has a trading round where you can exchange resource cards.
Sound complicated? It is at first. It took me at least three rounds before I wasn't completely confused. After that it was incredibly addictive. Read on for the full review.
continue reading "Game Review: Catan (XBLA)"
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posted by Chris on April 30, 2007 9:52 AM in Games
Well, maybe 2 and a half games. Still quite impressive! Microsoft just announced that this Wednesday not only will you be able to download the classic arcade goodness that is Centipede and Millipede, but Catan as well! If you aren't familiar with Catan it's a board game from Europe which is apparently quite addicting.
With Nintendo and Sony's often anemic offerings with their download services, it's quite cool to see some really unique stuff coming to the Xbox Live Arcade. I mean, obscure German board games?! Fantastic. Any of you Geekateers going to grab up these delicious nuggets of gaming?
Full release after the jump.
continue reading "Microsoft kicking ass and taking names - 3 games to hit the live arcade this week"
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posted by Chris on April 19, 2007 11:41 AM in Games
Every Wednesday brings delicious new games to the Xbox Live Arcade. Last Wednesday was Gyruss and some 3d Minigolf game (congratulations to Brian for guessing correctly, your prize is in the mail). What are we gonna get this week?
All you have to do is post in the comments what you think is going to go up on Xbox Live Arcade next Wednesday and if you get it correct, we will send you a code to unlock the game. Comments will be closed before the official press releases are sent out, so no cheating!
Get guessing! Once guess per person. If you guess twice, you are disqualified. Duplicate guesses are on a first come, first served basis.
UPDATE: No winners this time as it was announced that Eets and Pinball FX are being released! Try again next week!
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posted by Chris on April 16, 2007 9:52 AM in Games
Aaaaaaand the winner of our Weekly Xbox Live Arcade Psychic Giveaway is....
Brian, guessing Gyruss!
Please email frodo@weeklygeekshow.com so we can get you your code when the game is released. Didn't get a chance to enter? Check out next Thursday when we do another edition of the Weekly Xbox Live Arcade Psychic Giveawayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy *fades into black*.
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posted by Chris on April 12, 2007 10:56 AM in Games
Welcome to a brand-new Weekly Geek contest feature! Each week we are going to hold a contest to see which one of you Weekly Geekateers are psychic. Each Thursday tune in to this spot to have a chance at the prize. All you have to do is post in the comments what you think is going to go up on Xbox Live Arcade next Wednesday and if you get it correct, we will send you a code to unlock the game. Comments will be closed before the official press releases are sent out, so no cheating!
Get guessing! Once guess per person. If you guess twice, you are disqualified. Duplicate guesses are on a first come, first served basis.
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contests
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Weekly XBLA Psychic Giveaway
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Xbox Live Arcade
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posted by Chris on April 11, 2007 9:18 AM in Games
Aww yeah. From the creators of the super excellent Geometry Wars comes Boom Boom Rocket, released today on the Xbox Live Arcade. Boom Boom Rocket is described as DDR for your fingers and if the published screens and videos are any indication, it's going to be just as addictive as DDR and Geometry Wars combined. Pick it up on XBLA today for 800 points ($10).
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posted by Chris on March 26, 2007 3:48 PM in Video Game Review
Originally released in 1997 on the original Playstation, Castlevania Symphony of the Night is widely regarded as a classic. Merging the platforming and storyline of Castlevania with the non-linear goodness of the Metroid series, SotN set the standard for all Castlevania titles to come. Recently released for the Xbox 360 with HD graphics, achievements and leaderboards, is it worth your money a second time around? Hit the jump for the full review.
continue reading "Review: Castlevania Symphony of the Night (XBLA)"
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posted by Chris on March 16, 2007 2:02 PM in Video Game Review
Overview:Xbox Live Arcade has really been coming into its own in the past month or so, with great releases such as Alien Hominid HD, TMNT and Worms. If you are unfamiliar or otherwise uninitiated, Worms is a turn-based strategy combat game in the same vein as Scorched Earth. Players take control of a team of Worms each with a certain number of hit points on a 2d landscape. Then you take turns whittling away your opponent's hit points with an array of wacky weapons that each serve a different purpose. You can shoot worms in the face with a shotgun, or you can fire punch them into the abyss. The possibilities are endless, and the Xbox Live version is a fun distraction.
Shininess: As far as shiny goes, Worms for XBLA is just like any other Worms game. Nothing too amazing, the graphics amount to not much more than a Flash game, but the animations tend to be funny and charming. The music is non-existant (just a loop of some dramatic sounding stuff.) so prep your music library.
Funness: Worms is by far one of the most fun strategy games out there. Unfortunately, the pace feels incredibly slow at times, while you wait for the other players to take their turn. It's even worse in the short single player mode, where you aren't even waiting for an actual human, it's just a computer who feels like wasting your time while he thinks. Each worm in the single player challenges tends to take 10-20 seconds to even think about their next turn, which is pretty mind-numbing. It's actually tolerable in multiplayer, because watching other people play is all part of building future strategies.
The single player game features 20 challenges of varying difficulty. It didn't take long to get through and helped me hone some of my strategies, but for the most part I could have done without them, or with different modes. The multiplayer is where it's at, it's the whole reason you get the game. It's insane amounts of fun to play with others, seeing them mess up a perfect ninja rope swing, or accidentally blow themselves up with a sheep. The Live worms community seems to be a bit more cordial than most, as well. Full English sentences abound! Just watch out for the ranked matches, as players can tend to get a bit more hardcore. I even played with someone who seemed like they thought they were playing a Halo match. Not fun.
Worthiness: The features and weapons array is a bit lacking compared to PC and previous console versions of Worms, but for 800 points I think it's worth it. Worms is also the first Live Arcade game I have completed all the achievements for, as they tended to be fairly easy to get. If you don't have any Xbox Live friends (sad!) or you don't have any real-life friends (even sadder!) then don't download this. As a matter of fact, if you meet both those criteria, don't download anything. Just throw your Xbox through the nearest window. If you DO have friends, check out the demo and see if the pace is for you. Like I said, it's slower than most games this generation, but once you get into it there's really nothing better than a game of Worms.
Score: 5/5 Buy it!
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posted by Chris on March 16, 2007 9:13 AM in Games
Finally. Promised last month and delayed and delayed, Castlevania Symphony of the Night is headed for the Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday. For a mere 800 points, you too can experience what is widely regarded as one of the best games in the series, blending whip-cracking action with Metroid-style exploration. It's also the very first console game to grace the Live Arcade. Special! For you fancy TV owners, it's even got brand spanking new widescreen and HD support. Check out those gorgeous hand-drawn sprites in high def. That is, if you can pull yourself away from God of War II.
Personally, I haven't played this game yet (could never find it at used game stores) but I love the GBA and DS iterations of the series and I plan on dropping a cool 800 points this Wednesday. Anyone else?
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posted by Chris on March 12, 2007 9:23 AM in Games
This Wednesday sees the release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the Xbox Live Arcade. The original 1989 classic arcade brawler can be yours for only 400 Microsoft points (a steal!). It's also got voice support, online co-op for up to 4 players and leaderboards. Excellent. Here's to hoping the servers are better than previous Xbox Live Arcade titles and won't lag out or drop me while I'm trying to serve up some pizza-powered justice on the Foot.
We need to start using the words "tubular" and "radical" more often now, as well. In completely non-ironic fashions. I want to start integrating them into my vocabulary at work and at home. "Honey, this pot roast was totally tubular" or "If you could pay the credit card bill on time that would be radical." Eh? Ehhhh?!
I've got fond memories of this in the arcade, anyone want to join me in a nostalgia-fest?
continue reading "Experience Turtle Power on Xbox Live Arcade"
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posted by Chris on March 12, 2007 6:03 AM in Podcast
This week, Frodo, The Geek and White Mage meet up in Frodo's secret underground lair to discuss 300, the Game Developer's conference and the sweet nuggets it dispensed, and E3. That's right, E3!
Download now
continue reading "Podcast for 03-12-2007 | GDC and E3"
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posted by Chris on March 5, 2007 9:32 AM in Games
After posting a comment on a Joystiq article about how cool it would be to have You Don't Know Jack on the Wii, I was contacted by a Jellyvision intern who informed me that YDKJ is back! That's right, pretty much the best game of the CD-ROM golden age has brought back it's very own web version (still in beta, apparently). They inform me that the site is updated every weekday, and currently has 5 "Dis or Dat" questions every week. Also, today is the launch of the weekly 7-question game.
I love seeing this game come back. The Geek and I still talk about it to this day. What would be super uber rad would be to actually see them become successful again and create versions for the Wii and Xbox Live Arcade. The possibilities for episodic content are really expanded these days and I'd drop a cool 800 msft points on an XBLA version in less than a heartbeat.
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posted by Chris on March 2, 2007 9:06 AM in Games
Are you a fan of blowing stuff up? Of course you are. This is why you should be excited about the news that Worms is going to be headed to the Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday, March 7th.
If you are unfamiliar with Worms, it's an updated version of Scorched Earth, and back in the Dreamcast days it was the number one 4 player game played between me and my friends. So many good explodey times.
I love that for the past two weeks Xbox has announced their games for the Live Arcade in advance. I like knowing what's coming up, although there is a bit of romance in Nintendo's habit of just springing random games on us every Monday.
You know what to do, hit the jump for the full release. The sweet, sweet release.
continue reading "Xbox Live Arcade Gets Worms"
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Scorched Earth
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