Retro Game Friday: Pokemon Stadium

Hey all I’m back with a game that has no story for this week’s Retro Game Friday. It’s Pokemon Stadium!

Gameplay: It’s standard Pokemon gameplay, you battle with six ‘Mon from the first Generation and can either battle against another player or you can take on the “Stadium Mode” where you battle AIs. Beating them got you a Pokemon you could transfer to the Gameboy games. Really it’s not that amazing a game, though it was useful for those friendless or isolated people who didn’t get the chance to trade ‘Mon with said people to complete their Pokedex in the Gameboy games.

Art: The art has aged really poorly, but back in the day it was pretty cool.

Music: Standard Pokemon music, that’s all that really needs to be said.

Overall: Not a game to play just for itself, it only was worth playing when you had an accompanying Gameboy game to go with it.

For those who like: Pokemon.

Not for those who don’t like: Pokemon.

Retro Game Friday: Advance Wars 2

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m back with the sequel to one of my favorite GBA games. It’s Advance Wars 2!

Plot Synopsis: While the Allied Nations were still recovering from the war in Cosmo Land, the Black Hole Army had already recovered and has decided to launch a large-scale invasion on Macro Land. Along with the original Black Hole army’s commanding officers (COs), four new COs were recruited, under the command of Sturm…

Plot: The plot is fairly simplistic, but not terrible either. It’s nothing spectacular, but that was never the point of the game, at least to me.

Gameplay: The gameplay is excellent, and while it only adds one new unit, the Neotank, it honestly didn’t need more units. My favorite tactic of using a tank to block a pass and artillery behind it to deal damage is still an excellent strategy and so I enjoyed the gameplay quite a bit. It’s simple to use, but difficult to master, which is always a good sign when talking about strategy games.

Art: It looks not that much differently from the first game, and honestly that’s a good thing. The art has aged really well, but that’s how it is with pixel art.

Music: I don’t remember it at all, sorry.

Overall: A solid sequel, and a ton of fun to play.

For those who like: Turn-Based Strategy, Strategy, War Games, Excellent Gameplay, Great Artwork.

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

Video Game Tuesday: Gandhi in the Civ Series

This week for Video Game Tuesday I’m looking at one of the more bizarre quirks of the Civilization series. It’s all about Gandhi in the Civ Series!

Huh?: So for those unaware, Gandhi in the Civilization games has always been a bit of an asshole. In the first game this occurred due to a mistake in the coding, but it was so hilarious that it’s stuck in all future games.

Wait what? So Gandhi in reality was one of the most peaceful and influential movers towards keeping peace between various nations. This isn’t the case in the Civilization series, oh sure he’s still one who prefers peaceful leaders and dislikes those who keep going to war, but if pushed the wrong way you’ll see him start dropping nukes on his enemies in a complete opposite of what you might expect.

How did this happen?: Well like in all games, it comes down to the coding, in the first game he was given the value of 1 for aggressiveness, but if the player chose democracy as their government type they’d get an automatic -2 to all other leaders for that stat. So it would go from 1 to -1 and the code being as it was it’d become 255, which is stupid high in terms of aggressiveness. So he’d start dropping nukes on everyone and everything. This has lead to him being a rather vindictive leader in later games, including the latest Civilization VI.

So the next time you see someone drop a ton of nukes on their enemy after declaring war in a game of Civ, it’s probably due to Gandhi being an ass. That’s it for this week’s Video Game Tuesday!

Retro Game Friday: The Falsebound Kingdom

This week for Retro Game Friday I’m covering a rather obscure game in a series that was a huge fad back in the 2000’s. It’s Yu-Gi-Oh: The Falsebound Kingdom!

Plot Synopsis: Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Téa being invited to the testing of the virtual reality game “Kingdom,” created by the company SIC. When they enter the game they soon find themselves trapped within it, and they must summon the help of the game’s characters and monsters in order to defeat the game’s villain, Emperor Heishin, and ultimately stop the plans of the game’s designer, Scott Irvine…

Plot: The plot is pretty freaking terrible, although it serves as a reminder that the “trapped in game” plot device has been around for ages.

Gameplay: This plays mostly like an RPG, although there are some Turn-Based Strategy elements as well. Frankly the game wasn’t that great and the fact you’ve probably never heard of the game is a good indication of how bad it was.

Art: The art is really dated, but given that it’s almost purely 3D on a console that wasn’t known for it’s power compared to it’s competitors is another sign that this game wasn’t all that big.

Music: I don’t remember it at all, sorry.

Overall: Skip this game, it’s definitely not worth your time playing, unless you are incredibly bored. However there are better games out there that are free.

For those who like: Yu-Gi-Oh, RPGs, Turn Based Strategy.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above, terrible plots, or Konami in general.

 

Retro Game Friday: Heroes of Might and Magic

Hey all, I’m back with a true PC gamer classic for this week’s Retro Game Friday! It’s Heroes of Might and Magic!

Plot Synopsis: Lord Morglin Ironfist, is forced to flee his homeland through a magical portal, because his cousin, Ragnar, had usurped the throne after his uncle, Ragnar’s father, killed Ironfist’s father, the legitimate owner of the throne. He finds himself along with his few followers in a strange and uncharted land, called Enroth. The land is unruled but contested by Ironfist and three other warlords: the barbarian Lord Slayer, the sorceress Queen Lamanda, and the warlock Lord Alamar.

Plot: The plot isn’t all that special, in fact it’s pretty boring and bland. But this did pave the way for later games in the series.

Gameplay: It played like a Turn Based Strategy Game, a Sim and an Adventure style game at times and did so pretty reasonably well. By today’s standards, it’s a very mediocre game, but was pretty damn good at the time.

Art: It’s seen better days, the Artwork, while 2D, is very, very outdated. Heroes of Might and Magic doesn’t have the usual timeless quality I often praise 2D games for having.

Overall: Give this a whirl if you’re really bored, but later games in this series would probably be more fun to play. Probably.

For those who like: Sims, Adventure, Turn Based Strategy, Fantasy, Strategy, Action

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above, or really bad artwork.