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: The Legend of Dragoon

Hey all I’m back for this week’s Retro Game Friday with a game I played a couple times at a friends house way back when I was a kid. It’s The Legend of Dragoon!

Plot: The plot is okay, but not that amazing either. It’s got a fairly stereotypical plot, and honestly if I hadn’t come across the name dragoon and had a flash of memory about this game I would probably not remember it at all, let alone set myself a reminder to write about this for a Retro Game Friday post.

Gameplay: What little I remember about this game was that it was mostly Turn Based and had what we now call Quick Time Events in it’s combat. Frankly I’ve always hated QTEs, a sentiment shared by many gamers I know, so the precision required for these particular ones stuck out to me as being particularly frustrating. It’s probably why I didn’t bother playing it more than a couple times at that friend’s house. The fact that the dragon transformation was rather pointless was just further incentive to disregard the game.

Characters: Dart is our lead, and honestly is as stereotypical as you can get, destroyed village, kidnapped friend and overall lack of parental figures all make him one of the more bland characters from what very little I can remember. Honestly if I hadn’t read up on the plot while finding the producer and developer information for this post I probably wouldn’t even remember his name. The rest of the cast is little better.

Art: The art is very polygonal, which means it’s aged incredibly poorly since it was released, and the CGI movies are even worse in that regard.

Overall: A very skippable game and definitely not a must play game.

For those who like: JRPGs, Mediocrity, Stereotypical Stories and Cast of Characters.

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

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: Strategy Games

This week for Video Game Tuesday I’m back with a look at some different types of games and the bigger differences between them and the common features. It’s all about Strategy Games!

Strategy Games?: There are two main types of games that come to mind when you talk strategy games at least to me. There is the RTS, or Real Time Strategy, and TBS, or Turn-Based Strategy. They are very different in how you play them, and while there are some common strategies between the two, how you go about them is completely different.

RTS?: So RTS games are games like Starcraft or Command and Conquer. These take place in real time with you giving orders and building armies and bases to destroy your opponents. Often the biggest skill that professionals in this kind of game look for is APM, or Actions Per Minute. Getting 100+ APM consistently is generally a good thing and means you may be cut out to try becoming a pro if you so desire. If you can’t do that you’re unlikely to be able to ever compete at a professional level. I think I remember getting 100+ apm for brief spurts of time in some games of Starcraft 2, but I never considered myself ever cut out for the pro scene. One because I dislike competing immensely, and two because even getting 100+ for those brief times is already rather incredible with my physical disability.

TBS?: Games like the Civilization series are a good example, these aren’t always as action or war oriented, and sometimes you can even play a game and win without ever getting into conflict once, at least with AI opponents.  I tend to prefer these sorts of games, although I’ve not played too many strategy games in general with more in the RTS category, although those are mainly for the custom game maps and types that you could create in games like Warcraft 3. Angel Arena is still one of my favorite custom game types, beating over any DotA clone easily.

So what are some similarities between the two?: Well in both games the key to success, at least to me, is to always increase your production capabilities. This means increasing the number of your base or cities as the game progresses to constantly produce units that you may need to fight off an opponent quickly. In RTS games this means quickly building your worker units and getting a steady supply of resources as your first steps. Once that happens you can start building up your fighting force while constructing your base. In TBS games this is still the case, but it’s more about buildings and land improvements at least in the Civ series.

In addition always upgrading your units with tech upgrades as much as possible is always a key to winning, if your units can launch more powerful attacks than your opponent, battles will quickly turn your way even if you have the same amount of troops in a battle.

What’s different?: Well in RTS games speed is always going to be a priority, can you attack your enemy before they get a defense going? If so you have a quick victory in sights and can probably clinch a fast win. In TBS games, it’s more about location and choke points. If you can block your enemy from getting resources or funnel them into one area you can easily defend your bases and prevent them from overwhelming you.

That’s it for this week’s Video Game Tuesday. What are some of your favorite strategy games? What type are they? Leave a comment below!

 

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.