Retro Game Friday: Jet Force Gemini

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m covering a game I’m shocked I never covered before. It’s Jet Force Gemini!

Plot Synopsis: Jet Force Gemini begins with the three heroes, Juno, Vela and Lupus in orbit around the planet Goldwood after barely escaping the destruction of the entire Jet Force fleet at the hands of Mizar, who has been capturing and enslaving a race of survivors known as the Tribals. When they are attacked by several drones, the three decide to abandon their ship and go off on their own separate paths to stop the invasion.

Plot: The plot is okay, not amazing, but it’s better than Destiny’s non existent story.

Gameplay:  The three heroes all play slightly differently, but there are some things that are the same like the targeting and general movement. However Juno can walk through lava, Vela can swim indefinitely and Lupus can hover for a short period of time. The gameplay itself is actually pretty good, however the fact that you have to rescue every Tribal to beat the story is more than a bit annoying, especially since you can accidentally kill them with friendly fire. Or on purpose if you’re just in a mood for destruction and mayhem. The game also has local co-op where the second player can play as Floyd, a robotic drone that hovers above the characters and can open fire on enemies.  The multiplayer was okay, but really not that amazing compared to now a days.

Art: The art has definitely aged poorly, but it was pretty freaking awesome back when it released.

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

Overall: If you get the chance to play this, give it a whirl it’s pretty fun. That being said it does require a lot of effort to actually finish the story which is more than a bit frustrating.

For those who like: Sci-Fi, Third Person Shooters, Action, Adventure, Drama, Decent Plot, Great Gameplay.

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

Retro Game Friday: Metroid Prime 3

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m covering the final entry in the Metroid Prime Trilogy! It’s Metroid Prime 3: Corruption!

Plot Synopsis: Admiral Castor Dane, leader of a Galactic Federation fleet, calls for a meeting with Samus Aran and three other bounty hunters—Rundas, Ghor, and Gandrayda. The bounty hunters receive orders to clear a computer virus from several organic supercomputers called “Aurora Units” in the Galactic Federation’s network. Suddenly, the meeting ends abruptly when Space Pirates attack the Federation fleet. Samus and the other bounty hunters are deployed to the planet Norion, where the Space Pirates are concentrating an attack on a Federation naval base. While suppressing the attack, Samus learns that a Phazon asteroid, called a Leviathan Seed, will soon collide into Norion. Samus and the other bounty hunters attempt to activate the base’s defense systems, when they are suddenly attacked by Dark Samus…

Plot: The plot is actually really good, and I enjoyed the heck out of the story for this game. It’s a pity that it played less desirably than the prior entries.

Gameplay: This was the only entry to be made for the Wii, which led to some unfortunate design choices like the choice to make use of motion controls. However other than that, it was easily the best entry in the series and was quite a blast to play if you could get over the awkward controls. It also was the first game in the series to take place on multiple planets instead of just one like the prior two games.

Art: It hasn’t aged well, but for the time it was pretty good looking. But if you were to play it now, it’d be an eyesore.

Music: Very well done, creepy in the parts where it was supposed to be and heart pounding in the action sequences.

Overall: A great entry marred by aged graphics and motion controls.

Retro Game Friday: My Favorite Imbalanced Items

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m doing another list! It’s My Favorite Imbalanced Items!

The Pistol from Halo: This baby was given to you in the very first level, and if you ever dropped it in favor of something else without picking it back up after emptying the ammo of whatever you picked up, you were playing the game wrong. This thing had ammo almost everywhere, and except for the most annoying level The Library, could be used to devastating effect from the first level to the final level. It had a zoom function, could kill most enemies in a few shots (including the Hunter enemies) and in multiplayer had no trail like a Sniper Rifle had. This thing was stupidly overpowered and was nerfed in later entries, although Halo: Reach and ODST did bring it back to a somewhat decent level of power.

The Fierce Diety Mask from The Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask: The only thing preventing this monster from completely breaking the game was the fact that it was only usable in Boss Fights, but with it makes the final boss completely powerless to stop you. The way to get this item was to get every mask in the game and present them to the Skeleton Kid in the final dungeon, so it’s really only useable in the final fight if you don’t plan on playing the game after beating the final boss.

Farsight from Perfect Dark: This gun let you see through walls and then shoot through walls to kill your enemies. Oh and it automatically aims at your enemies. Need I say more?

The Unrelenting Force Shout from Skyrim: Given how many mountains this game has, or cliffs, or something to push someone off of, this shout becomes completely unbalanced in any situation when you are at a location with a decent height and place to push things off of. Pretty funny to use on the Bandit’s near Whiterun on the bridge.

Knights of the Round from Final Fantasy VII: While it really required a clever mixture of materia to cast endlessly to be put to best use, it still was the main force behind the complete imbalance it brought to the game. Thankfully it was hidden towards the end of the game, and if you were focused purely on the story it wouldn’t even be possible to get it, but if you did and used the mimic materia on the next party member they’d cast it too, and so on.

Mehrune’s Razor from Skyrim: I’m not done with you yet Skyrim, this Daedric artifact had an incredibly overpowered proc ability that would instantly kill a target, which while having a low rate of success was increased if you delayed getting the artifact until you well above the minimum level of 16 to start the quest to get it. To make things even worse, it was a dagger, one of the fastest hitting weapons in the game. Needless to say, having this allowed thief build characters in Skyrim to absolutely destroy people, especially once they gained the ability to enter stealth in combat by crouching.

Crissaegrim from Castlevania Symphony of the Night: This is probably my favorite item in the Castlevania series, more because of the mythology behind the weapon, than the fact that it completely broke the game, and dear god if you had two of them it was devastating. Crissaegrim had no animation lock when using it, which means that you could use it while moving, and it would swing as fast as you could hit the button. The fact that a single press of the button would have the weapon hit 2-3 times in a split second wasn’t even fair at all. The only thing making this even slightly balanced, and it isn’t really at all, was the drop rate. However clever people would go to a certain room to farm the enemy that dropped the item over and over again, until it dropped. Even more clever people would then repeat the process once more with it in hand to get a second one, because it’s possible to dual wield the monster.

That’s it for this week’s Retro Game Friday, are there some favorite Imbalanced Items of yours that I left out? Leave a comment below with your favorites.

Retro Game Friday: Perfect Dark

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m covering a game I really enjoyed when I was younger. It’s Perfect Dark!

Plot Synopsis: The player is cast as Carrington Institute agent Joanna Dark, whose excellent scores in training have earned her the codename “Perfect Dark”.On her first mission, she is sent to extract a scientist named Dr. Caroll from the dataDyne skyscraper.

Plot: The plot isn’t super amazing, but it’s not bad either.

Characters: The characters in this game were awesome, and it was pretty refreshing to be a kickass female lead.

Gameplay: This game played alot like Goldeneye, many people’s first console FPS game, and that’s not surprising since it was made by Rare. The multiplayer was fun, although you had to avoid screenwatching friends who would shoot you, and the single player was interesting.

Art: The game hasn’t aged well, but most games from that era haven’t. Was great back in the day though.

Music: Awesome.

Overall: If the graphics had aged better it’d be worth playing, but now it’s probably not worth doing so.

For those who like: FPS games, Spy games, Action, Good Plot, Awesome Gameplay, Great Music, Kickass Female Leads.

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

Retro Game Friday: Banjo-Tooie [Spoilers for Banjo-Kazooie]

 

This week I’m covering the best non-Sonic platformer I think I’ve ever played, take that Mario, it’s Banjo-Tooie! Spoilers after the jump.