Yes, it is a real thing, and yes, it is actually pretty good...
Chex quest was released in 1996 as a promotional game for Chex cereal. In it, you play as a warrior wearing Chex shaped armor who is on a quest to free his planet from slime monsters called "Flemoids." It is a first-person shooter geared towards children. Thus, it is very low in difficulty, and has some very muted violence. The Chex warrior uses zap guns to zap the Flemoids away, and for melee combat, he is equipped with a... spoon.
A spoon.
The game is built upon the classic Doom engine by Id software, so the controls, graphics, and pretty much every other aspect of the game are very reminiscent of the mega-violent classic Doom games. But, like I said, it is very toned down and made to be quite family friendly. And, it promotes good nutrition!!!! Whenever the hero is low on health, you can regain it by eating bowls of fruit.
There are only a handful of levels, each growing in complexity and difficulty as the game goes on. Mostly, they are some form of maze, in which the player has to find various colored keys that open their corresponding doors. Scattered throughout the levels are various slimy Flemoids that range from mindless blobs, to half-robot slimy cyborgs.
Honestly, the game is decent for what it was, an obvious advertisement for Chex cereal. However, it spawned not one, but two sequels, as the game was successful because of it's target audience, children who eat Chex. The game is not mind-blowing in any way, but was good for an hour or so of fun, and a single playthrough.
I love older and classic games. Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Game Boy... I enjoy them all. So, the next game that I set out to conquer is one from an older game generation: Bomberman Tournament, on the Game Boy Advance.
Originally published in North America in 2001, Bomberman Tournament is another installment in the well known Bomberman franchise. As such, it has a lot of the gameplay style of the older games, like running around square rooms that contain various traps and obstacles, all while planting bombs on the ground to lure enemies to their explosive doom. There is definitely a little strategy involved, as the rooms can be unforgivingly cluttered with traps and enemies, and a misplaced bomb can hurt the player as well.
This particular installment of Bomberman was unique in some new features of gameplay.It included a single player story campaign, which includes elements influenced by classic Legend of Zelda and Pokemon games. The player controls Bomberman through a complex world of mazes, forests, caves, towns, and dungeons. All the while, he is collecting items which can further the quest, and collecting animals with fighting abilities to be pitted against others in a coliseum.
In terms of gameplay, Bomberman Tournament was fairly fun. It can become a little repetitive at times, but the increasing difficulty and variation of the dungeons does keep player's interest afloat. The Legend of Zelda-style adventure gameplay is an interesting addition to the Bomberman series. It allows for a plethora of fresh environments and puzzles, and keeps the player questing for those certain items and collectible creatures that will unlock the next dungeon or area. As for those creatures, they are called Karabons, and are the game's version of Pokemon. They are used for upgrading Bomberman's bombs and for accessing new areas and for fighting in the games coliseum.
The sound effects and music had much to be desired. However, it was one of the first games for the Game Boy Advance system, so I give them a little slack for that. The environments were varied and colorful, and each were unique. The dungeons as well were colorful and each had a different theme, which also meant that each dungeon had its own unique set of traps and obstacles. Boss battles could be a little difficult if time wasn't taken to learn the patters each boss had. Once the patter was recognized, the battles became quite easy, even maybe a little too easy.
All in all, this was a fun game, and a good addition to the Bomberman franchise, a franchise I have enjoyed very much over the years.
As a side note, I didn't play any of the multiplayer features, as I played this on an emulator. But for the original Game Boy Advance, it was possible to play with up to four other players via Direct Link cables for the console. Hence, the "Tournament" in the title.
Spinning off of the Star Wars films, the Han Solo Adventures trilogy included some of the first novels published for the series. Written by Brian Daley back in 1979, the novels feature a young Han Solo and Chewbacca, struggling to survive as smugglers in a time before that fateful meeting with Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi in the cantina.
The second installment in the series, Han Solo's Revenge features the duo getting tangled up in a bad deal with slavers. When the deal goes awry, Han and Chewbacca end up unable to collect a large sum of money that they desperately need. Thus their journey to collect payment and get what they are owed begins. Along the way, they face Authority forces (a large corporate entity that controls the section of space where the novels take place) who don't take kindly to smugglers, and become involved briefly with a large powerful family feud Ala Montagues and Capulets.
These novels, having been written after A New Hope are fun, fast-paced, and offer an interesting insight on a scoundrel Han Solo before he joins the Rebellion. Daly does a good job of showing Han Solo's self-centeredness and greed, but introducing some of his characteristics that would be developed in Episode IV, like his caring heart, and senses of justice and of right and wrong. His disgust at finding out that the group he has been dealing with are slavers is one such glimpse at the man he would become. And of course, the close bond of friendship between he and Chewbacca is a central part of the story.
While Daly does write a good fun adventure story in Han Solo's Revenge, the story seems to come to a screeching halt at the end, and wraps up a little too quickly. Granted, these aren't ground-breaking world-changing novels, and you don't expect the writing to be the greatest in the world, the abruptness of the ending is a little jarring. However, any Star Wars fan looking for a good adventure in a galaxy far, far away can appreciate the book, even with it's slight flaws.
Filled with good humor, quick-paced action and memorable characters, Han Solo's Revenge is a great little peek into the universe that George Lucas created, and gives readers a little more Han Solo in their life... Which is something we all could use, right? Stand tall, Star Wars Nerds!
Before I begin, let me say that any game that has a level with the name "Death Circus" sounds promising. A level with the name of an 1980's metal band is always promising... (A quick Google search revealed that there is no such album with the name Death Circus. I feel like this is an opportunity missed...)
Air Buster (also known as Aero Blaster in Japan) is a side-scrolling arcade shooter.
There seem to be a million of these games out there, all pretty much the same as the rest. You fly a plane, shoot a bunch of bad guys, and face a gigantic boss at the end of every stage. That being said, Air buster was pretty enjoyable. It tended to be easier than a lot of other arcade-style shooters, and only had six stages, so it was a pretty short game. It was also not as fast paced as many games of the same genre tend to be, and it had much to be desired in terms of graphics. However, it was enjoyable because of the easy stages, and the lack of levels actually kept the game from becoming too repetitive.
Weapon variation was good too, as the player's plane could be upgraded with secondary weapons that included homing missiles, companion guns that followed the plane, or even a bumper on the front of the plane that kept it from crashing into the ceiling or the ground. This last upgrade became especially valuable in later levels, when the landscape would change to trenches ala Star Wars. The main weapon of the plane was a basic arcade-style auto firing gun, that could be upgraded by collecting power-ups.
Since this was an arcade-style shooter, you pretty much died after being hit once by any enemy or their fire, so the game required quite a bit of fast maneuvering on the player's part to avoid the constant incoming missiles, lasers, and other various fire. However, conveniently, you always revived at the exact moment that you died, instead of having to start back at the beginning of the level like in many shooters of the time.
I played the Sega Mega Drive version of this game, but it was also released on other consoles of the time. Apparently, the Mega Driver version was closest to the original Arcade release, in keeping close to the original graphics and sound effects. Which brings us to the next feature, the sound and music. Sound effects tended to be pretty repetitive, but the music was quite good. Up-tempo and dramatic, the music fit each stage well. And of course, there was intense boss music to go along with the boss fights. As for the sound being repetitive, the game was released in 1990, so it shouldn't be expected to stand up to today's standards, so the lack of variety in sound effects is forgiveable.
All in all, this was a fun game.
Oh, I do have to say something about the atrocious Japanese to English translation. For example, the characters are part of an Earth defense group called the " Trouble Specialty Raid Unit." and the game has other pretty blaring typos.
One more little gem... Apparently this game was supposed to be shipped with a bonus item in the box. Each game was supposed to come with a "Kaneko Power Glove" which was pretty much a cloth glove to wear while holding the controller... Pretty cheesy... From what I have found on the internet, there was actually a shortage of the gloves, and many of the boxes ended up not carrying any gloves, and consumers had to send in a letter by mail to the manufacturer to get their glove. In my opinion, this was a gimmick that was not needed. The game stood by itself, and shouldn't have needed the glove to encourage sales.
Today I finished playing through Evoland on Steam...
Evoland is a journey through the first few generations of video games. Starting with simple black and white 8-bit graphics that resemble the earliest GameBoys, it slowly evolves into Nintendo 64 era features. Each time the player opens one of many treasure chests scattered across the worlds, new graphical, musical, or sound effects are "unlocked." In this way, the game slowly progresses through the history of action/adventure video games.
Obviously inspired by classics like The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Diablo, this game appeals to fans of those games, like myself.
Highlights of the game include the unique evolution style, decent music (though sometimes overly repetitive), and a great homage to classic games. On the negative side, the game was a bit too long for me, but only because I searched for every secret room and hidden items. So, without the side-questing, I am sure the game would have been less of a drag. There was included as well in the game a side mini-game, called Double Twin. This was a basic card game twist of tic-tac-toe. Again, an interesting idea, but only good for a few plays, not for prolonged play-time.
This also marks the first time that I have gained all the achievements for a game on Steam... No reward for that except a little self-pride...
As a first post, I thought I would review the most recent landmark on my journey of Nerd-dom. That is, I finished the series, the X-Files (the original).
Oh, X-Files, we've had a tumultuous journey, you and I...
I first experienced the X-Files as a young boy, as my older brothers would watch it often. I remember the theme music scaring the daylights out of me, due to it's creepy, other-worldly sound, and terribly catchy melody. It even gave me nightmares when I laid eyes on the aliens in the series for the first time. Young Brock learned to steer clear of the living room once that theme music came on the television.
Now, however, having grown older, wiser, and a lot more brave, the show definitely did not give me the heeby-jeebies.. In fact, it was entertaining, fast becoming one of my favorites. A good mix of science fiction, supernatural fiction, and just plain fiction, X-Files became a favorite series of mine the more I watched. Mulder and Scully, with their uncomfortably obvious sexual tension, seemed to get into the weirdest of predicaments. Of course, every time that Mulder had an experience that would prove his theory of aliens' existence, or elements of the paranormal, Scully always missed out. Face-palming over Scully's naivete became a regular occurrence.
Aliens, ghosts, killers with crazy psychic powers, or mutated bug-men... On their own, it could sounds like a campy plot that has been done way too many times in way too many iterations. But, the X-Files did a good job of never taking itself too seriously, and always finding something unique in every episode. Finding a way to incorporate just about every major conspiracy theory into one series was a big undertaking, including having the agents investigate Bigfoot, Aliens, the Jersey Devil, Telekinesis, Demons, Shapeshifters, etc. And a great cast of recurring side characters, like the famous Cigarette-Smoking-Man, Assistant FBI director Skinner,and my personal favorites, the Lone Gunmen trio serve to help... or hinder... Mulder and Scully at every turn.
The X-Files also bravely made a cross-over onto the big screen when its first movie was released in theaters in between seasons. Why bravely? Because the movie would not have made much sense without having seen the many TV seasons before its release.
As much as I liked the series, I would say that the last two seasons seemed to drag, especially as... without giving too much away... certain characters make fewer and fewer appearances. However, with the introduction of some new X-Files agents, the show gained a new dynamic. It felt more like a spin-off at times, but still made for good television.
Overall, I am glad I gave the series a second chance, and am glad to have experienced it is a much older, and braver, self. I can chalk that one off my list, and move on to the next one.
Gonna work on watching the latest X-Files movie "I Want to Believe..."
Then move on the most recent X-Files season, which aired after many years of hiatus.
Until next time,
Stand proud and stay true to you inner nerd...
