Retro Game Friday: Space Channel 5

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m back with a classic game. It’s Space Channel 5!

Plot: The plot is pretty mediocre, and while it was fun as a kid I’d be pretty bored by the story itself now. Thankfully this isn’t a book.

Gameplay: The gameplay was pretty fun, with it being split between “Dance” and “Shooting” sections. I’ll admit I suck at the dance sections but that’s a personal failing because I can’t hold a beat to save my life, in this case literally.

Art: The art has aged pretty poorly since it was released, but considering this game first released in 1999 that isn’t a surprise.

Music: The music is still great though!

Overall: This is a fun game, although those who aren’t good at holding a beat might get frustrated, otherwise this is a great way to spend some time.

For those who like: Sci-Fi, Music, Good Gameplay.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Retro Game Friday: Soul Reaver

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m back with a real classic game. It’s Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver!

Plot Synopsis: Raziel approaches Kain’s throne and extends newly grown wings. In an act of seeming jealousy, Kain tears the bones from Raziel’s wings and has him thrown into the Lake of the Dead, a large natural whirlpool; however, Raziel is resurrected as a wraith by The Elder God to become his “soul reaver” and kill Kain, thus restoring Nosgoth.

Plot: The plot is pretty good, although due to legal issues between developer and publisher there were some parts missing from the game that were added to later games.

Gameplay: A hack and slash this game is pretty damn fun. In addition gliding with Raziel’s wings was tons of fun. Honestly the game mostly revolves around switching back and forth between material and spectral planes to either attack enemies or complete puzzles.

Characters: The characters were okay, with Raziel being on a quest for vengeance the cast is fairly jaded which was odd for me at the time. Granted I was a kid, but it was a marked difference from games like Zelda or Donkey Kong.

Art: The art has aged poorly, however there are rumors that this will be getting a remake or remaster.

Music: I don’t remember much of it, mostly I remember my cousin laughing as I took down enemies.

Overall: This is a great game, often thought to be the best in the series. Hopefully a remaster will be coming soon.

For those who like: Action, Hack and Slashs, Intriguing Gameplay, Good Plot.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Retro Game Friday: Seaman

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m back with probably one of the oddest games ever made. It’s Seaman!

Plot Synopsis: During the 1930s, Dr. Jean Paul Gassé was a member of a special team of French biologists sent to Egypt by the French government. During that time, Dr. Gassé was determined to research a creature that was an “omnipotent messenger of gods” among the ruins of the Third Dynasty. In March 1932, in the city of Alexandria, Dr. Gassé met up a local resident, who, while fishing, caught a seaman. Dr. Gassé obtained a sample of some of the seaman eggs, and went back to France with the egg samples in his possession.When Dr. Gassé returned to France, he attempted to raise the eggs, but in the process, the seaman died. Shortly after this, he published a thesis of his work. Leading academics, however, dismissed him and his work as a PR stunt and without proper evidence to support these theories. As the result, the work was ignored, and no one believed him. His hypothesis suggested that the Seaman was responsible for transferring knowledge that increased during the Third Dynasty across oceans and other lands. This theory became the basis for Anthro-Bio Archaeology, which is a highly valued field of study.

Plot: You never get to actually learn all of that in the game, you just kind of get thrust into raising one. Yeah you read that right, this is a pet simulation game like a Tamagotchi. Huh, I probably should cover one of those in a future RGF column. Anyways, yeah the plot’s never explained.

Gameplay: You get to interact with the “Seaman” while raising it through various machinery and voice commands, but if you don’t do it every day he’d die. Sound like a Tamagotchi? Yeah it does to me too.

Art: The art is pretty aged, and frankly fairly disturbing now. Not that it was any less disturbing when it was released, it’s just the polygonal nature makes it even more jarring compared to modern day games.

Music: I don’t remember a whit, sorry.

Overall: Umm, yeah I really can’t say you should play this. If you are really desperate, I suppose it might be a fun game to play, but I can only think of it as an odd Tamagotchi.

For those who like: Oddball Games, Pet Raising, Tamagotchi.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Retro Game Friday: Crazy Taxi

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m covering a game I swore I had already covered, but apparently I never have. It’s Crazy Taxi!

Gameplay: The gameplay is quite fun with you controlling your taxi through a busy and hilly city as you ferry customers to and from their destinations. It could really get hectic, especially if you played on the lower time limitation settings. The main goal of the game was to be as fast as you could getting to the destination while performing “tricks” like barely missing cars by going on the wrong side of the street to earn you even more points. Honestly if this happened in real life, no one would ever take a cab, which might not be a bad thing? The only problem I had with the game was the time limitations seeming to be too short, but that’s just me.

Art: The art is very dated, but was awesome for the time.

Music: It was just as frenetic as the gameplay, which was kind of the point.

Overall: if you’ve never played or at least watched someone play Crazy Taxi you ought to give a shot.

For those who like: Driving Games, Crazy Drivers, Time Limitations.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Retro Game Friday: Sonic Adventure

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m covering one of the Sega Dreamcasts bigger games. It’s Sonic Adventure!

Plot Synopsis:  Knuckles the Echidna is guarding the Master Emerald on the floating Angel Island.  However Doctor Eggman arrives and shatters the Emerald, freeing a being that was trapped inside.  Angel Island falls into the sea, scattering the Master Emerald’s shards…

Plot: The plot isn’t super amazing, I’ll be the first to admit that. It’s pretty standard, but still the gameplay for the most part made up for it.

Gameplay: The gameplay is all in 3D and at the time was pretty damn advanced. Sure it wasn’t quite as fast as the blistering pace previous games had, but there was always going to be a loss with the transition to 3D. The biggest issue with the game was one of the 6 characters that were playable, namely Big the Cat. Big’s parts were all about fishing and were considerably slow compared to the rest of the game. It was also fairly boring to play.

Art: The art was pretty good, and while not as amazing as the sequel it was pretty amazing nonetheless. It has aged poorly, but it and the sequel both received ports to the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Music: The music was pretty different from previous Sonic games, but it was definitely fun for most of the game. That said some of it was less than spectacular like during Big’s levels.

Overall: This isn’t a must play, but it’s one of the few good 3D Sonic games from the 2000’s.

For those who like: Sonic Games, Platformers, Action.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.