AT Gaming Review 7-16-04 Options

[Dive]

This is something I have been wanting to do for a while now. This is primarily a gaming related site, so what have you accomplished this week? Got a new piece of AF gear in FFXI? Get a killer time in C-Mode? Get into any Betas? Finished a game? Started a new one? Let's hear your gaming stories for this week.

I am going to try and keep this a weekly thing, now who's first?

[Crushinator]

Aside from FFXI, I am rolling through Mega Man Anniversary Collection and Front Mission 4.

On MMAC I have MM2, 3, and 4 finished...starting on 5 now. Having never played 5 before, I'm surprised at the quality of the graphics for an NES game. It came out in 1991, so I already was geared up (or maybe already had, I can't quite remember) a SNES by then...so I skipped out on a few of the NES releases in lieu of the newfangled SNES games. Definetly some quality stuff...a lot easier than the previous MMs, but the gameplay is still tight...and even though the Boss concepts are alittle whack (Train man? wtf?) its still fun to play.

Front Mission 4 is a tactics style mech strategy game, for the uninitiated, this is the series' 2nd release in america, with FM3 coming out on PSOne a few years ago. There is a huge focus on FM4 on setting up combos with your units via the "Link" system, so oftentimes I spend an hour between battles just tweaking and testing my combos to make sure they work well for the next battle. If you played FM3 you'll have no trouble jumping into it, but it's a bit different from other "standard" fantasy type tactics games, but there's a buttload of tutorials to explain all the minutia of the game provided you have the patience to sit thru em.

A little late on reporting this, but my friends (Twolf, Chawbacon, Naba, my brother, and I) had a blast going through Zelda 4 Swords Adventures on GC. There is definetly much fun to be had in the adventure mode of this game. The puzzles are the same ingenious quality you expect from a standard Zelda game, and the story would even make a great single player Zelda game. The graphics are like a combo of LOZ:ALTTP and LOZ:TWW, with lots of sprite scaling and cool 3D effects. It's really endearing, and a great throwback to 2D games of yore...it makes ya wonder what they could do if they went balls-out with a 2D game on GC...but I digress. The areas cover all the basic Hyrule zones, you have Towns, Easter Palaces, The Forest of Illusion, Death Mountain, and you can even teleport to the dark world (which is used for lots of excellent puzzles). Of course just like FF:CC you'll need GBA's and link cables to get the most outta this game, but good god it's worth it.