Don Bluth death reels never get old.
Filed under: Games, Uncategorized, animation, Azn Badger, blog, death reel, Don Bluth, Games, Space Ace, videogames
November 25, 2011 • 9:33 PM 2
Small Victory On Black Friday
Pictured: A big pile of crap, for half the price!
Today marked only the second occasion in which I decided to set forth into the wild and brave the insanity that is Black Friday.
Oddly enough, both times my intention in doing so was not to capitalize on the various sales events, but rather to simply take in the spectacle of watching others step over each other in hopes of acquiring a precious Tickle Me Elmo-like gift, or in the case of this year, an incredibly cheap 40″ TV.
It’s funny, whenever I think of Black Friday and other Christmas/holiday related shopping insanity, there’s one image that comes to my mind.
Said image was from one of my brother’s old Mad magazines, and to date, it serves as the definitive vision of Christmas carnage in my mind:
Pictured: "The Last Parking Space At The Mall."
It might be kind of hard to tell, as the image is kind of small, but basically “The Last Parking Space At The Mall” is a brilliantly rendered Norman Rockwell-esque painting depicting a man shooting another man in a snowy parking lot while his wife attempts to pull him back into the car.
Mad Magazine is usually good for a snicker or 2, but this painting was easily one of the most brilliant fuckin’ comedic images I can recall from my youth.
Sadly though, I didn’t see holiday mayhem of any kind this time around.
I did however get to laugh at the people standing in line surrounding the Best Buy.
Seriously man, I spent close to 3 hours in the general area, and I never once saw that line shrink an inch.
Needless to say, I never even got to set foot in Best Buy this morning.
Oh well, thanks to holiday “tent culture,” virtually all of the really good deals in there are literally impossible to acquire without spending the night outside the building.
Or at least without bringing one of these...
Which brings me to the deals that I actually did get a chance to capitalize on.
I initially set out to “do” Black Friday with a friend of mine around midnight.
Said friend ultimately ended up walking away with 2 boxes of half price golf balls, while I bought absolutely nothing.
Fortunately, there were some other sales going on in the U-district at a reasonable hour that I ended up checking out after catching a few much needed hours of sleep.
First, I went to Zanadu comics, where a 50% off everything sale was going on from 8AM to 12PM.
In case you couldn’t tell from the image above, I ended up getting a softcover copy of the absolutely massive X-Men/Dark Avengers: Utopia, as well as the first volume of Ed Brubaker’s The Immortal Iron Fist.
Truth be told, I’m not exactly salivating over the prospect of reading either of these books, however Utopia will serve to complete my Dark Avengers trade collection, and Iron Fist is a book that, given my status as a rabid kung fu movie fan, should’ve been in my collection years ago.
All together now: "WAATAAAAAHHHH!!!!"
I’m a little wary of Utopia, as X-Men books haven’t been kind to me in the past, I don’t know, 15 goddamn years; but I’m hoping the Dark Avengers stuff will help to round things out a little.
Yes. I am in fact still made about this.
As for Iron Fist, I’ve read nothing but good about it, and I’ve been putting off reading it for a really long time; so I’m pretty sure it’s gonna’ be awesome.
Anyway, 2 good to great books for 50% off = Definitely worth it in my book.
Next I went to Pink Gorilla to check out their highly variable collection of used/retro videogames.
While I haven’t found anything too special there in a few years now, I was surprised to find a perfectly good copy of Super Castlevania IV.
Outside of that though, I didn’t find anything else exciting, or failing that; worth the asking price.
Despite this, I was surprised to be given a randomized coupon at the register, with the one I drew being a buy1 get 1 free!
Upon scanning the wall, I decided to pick up Donkey Kong Country 3, a game that, while inferior to the sequel (which I already own) is somewhat rare, and often prohibitively overpriced.
Lucky me, I got it for free.
Oh yeah, and I got a free poster too.
Anyway, while I’d like to say I made it through the day without spending a decent amount of money, I’m proud to say that I at least managed to save more than I spent this Black Friday.
How did you do?
Filed under: Comics, Games, Uncategorized, 3, Azn Badger, Black Friday, blog, Castlevania, Christmas, Comic Stop, Comics, Dark Avengers, Donkey Kong Country, Ed Brubaker, Immortal Iron Fist, IV, Konami, Mad, magazine, Marvel, NES, Nintendo, Pink Gorilla, Super, Tickle Me Elmo, Utopia, videogames, x-men, Zanadu
November 18, 2011 • 7:00 PM 4
And Now, A Message From Brock Lesnar
In case you’re wondering, the clip above comes from an advertisement for the upcoming videogame, WWE ’12.
For whatever reason, they hired Brock Lesnar to show up in the last 3 seconds of the video so he could scream at the audience.
Apparently that qualifies as good sales technique these days.
Anyway, I apologize if you fail to derive any sort of humor from this clip, though you should probably know that I cut it together just for you.
Filed under: Games, Uncategorized, 12, ad, Azn Badger, blog, Brock Lesnar, clip, funny, Games, MMA, TUESDAY, UFC, videogames, WWE, WWF
November 3, 2011 • 6:48 PM 5
And Now, Watson Doing The Jason Voorhees Teleportation Tango
So, I found this clip from Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis awhile back.
From what I can tell, the thing has become quite well known across the vast expanse of the internet since then.
Regardless of whether you’ve seen it or not, I thought this was amusing, and I was feeling kind of nostalgic.
Enjoy!
Filed under: Games, Movies, Uncategorized, Azn Badger, blog, creepy, funny, Games, Jason Voorhees, Nemesis, PC, Sherlock Holmes, teleport, videogames, Watson
October 11, 2011 • 9:47 PM 0
The Worst Comics I Own: Army Of Two – Dirty Money
Why I Bought It:
Believe it or not, there was a time when I thought Army of Two was poised to be a force to be reckoned with in the realm of co-op gaming.
As evidenced by both the first and second games’ vanilla gameplay, obvious technical flaws, and tiresome usage of “bro-iness” in place of characterization; the franchise pretty much failed to live up to any of the promise I saw in it.
Despite poor reviews, I actually bought the first Army of Two, almost entirely due to the impressive nature of the character designs.
I don’t know about you, but if you ask me, the tactical armor+mask combo that Salem and Rios wear are some of the more iconic designs the of past half decade.
Seriously man, if you ever go to any airsoft meet, I guarantee you there’ll be at least one kid wearing one of their masks.
Pictured: Cosplay for people too "manly" to call it cosplay.
In many ways, the character designs blinded me to what I knew, deep down, was little more than a mediocre third-person shooter.
That being said, I ended up picking up a copy of “Dirty Money” in anticipation of the games’ release.
…And because it was on sale on Amazon.
Why It Sucks:
Army of Two: Dirty Money isn’t necessarily a shitty comic, it’s just incredibly bland.
In nearly every element of it’s composition, there’s a niggling sense of vanilla-ness that just sucks the fun out of what could’ve been a decent military conspiracy comic.
The art by Brandon McKinney is actually pretty good, but indistinct and poorly reproduced so as to muddy the colors and actually pixelate the text.
While I’d love to show you some examples of said mediocrity, all images of the book’s interior seemed to be buried in the internet, as I can’t find any scans of it.
If that’s not a sign of crappiness, I don’t know what is.
Instead you get a pic of Salem and Rios high-fiving... During a firefight.
The plot is your run of the mill military/revenge thriller stuff, with a double-crossing phantom of the past (a past introduced to the franchise solely within the context of this comic) reemerging to tangle with our heroes in the present.
The real problem with “Dirty Money,” is the horrendously “bro-ish” dialogue penned by John Ney Rieber.
I know it was a conscious decision of the designers of the Army of Two game to make both Salem and Rios foul-mouthed, high-fiving bro’s of the highest degree; likely in the hopes of reeling in the A.D.D-afflicted UFC/Spike TV demographic, but in written form, their dialogue just doesn’t work.
In the game, most of the annoying and ludicrous bro-isms are used as asides, sound bites that only occur intermittently.
In “Dirty Money,” bro-isms aren’t just used as asides to the action, they make up virtually every exchange of dialogue between our 2 heroes.
That’s like 80% of the fuckin’ book!
Seriously man, any book that includes the use of the terms, “Eat Me” and “bro” within it’s first page is one that takes pride in it’s bro-iness and doesn’t give 2 shits about whether you like it or not.
This guy likes it.... He likes it A LOT.
Potentially worse than the palpable nature of “Dirty Money’s” bro-osity though, is it’s excessive use of profanity.
I don’t mind swearing, in fact I do quite a bit of it myself; but the way the characters in “Dirty Money” let ‘em fly would make even the saltiest of potty-mouthed sailors blush in embarrassment.
Virtually every speech bubble in the book has a 4-letter word of some sort, and if I recall correctly, I seem to remember Rios referring to someone as an “asswipe.”
I don’t know about you, but battle-scarred, Vin Diesel-esque bro-hemoths aren’t exactly the people I picture tossing around schoolyard terms like “asswipe.”
Then again, I pretty much described exactly the type of dudes I tend to avoid in my daily life, so I’m not exactly drawing from a great deal of life experience in this regard.
All in all, “Dirty Money” pretty much lives up to the standard of the game it serves as a prequel to in the sense that it’s bland and lacking in most regards, and completely without depth or substance.
Is It Still Worth Reading Anyway?:
“Dirty Money” was published by Prima Games, (a publisher of strategy guides) likely on the cheap and in short order, and it shows in virtually every regard.
Like most licensed comics, “Dirty Money” was likely produced for the purposes of cross-media promotion, however in this case, Army of Two was as a particularly weak source material, and a comic of said franchise was a very poor choice of medium.
Put it all together, and you have a lame comic that is constantly winking at you with the fact that it’s based off a game, but fails to hide the fact that said game is a piece of crap.
They got my money with all the pre-release hype, and I’m still kicking myself over it, but without all that to suck you in; there’s really no reason for an intelligent human being to ever pick up a copy of “Dirty Money.”
That is, unless the clip below describes an act you’ve performed on others at some point in your life:
Filed under: Games, Movies, Worst Comics I Own, Army of Two, Brandon McKinney, bro, Comics, Dirty Money, Games, Hitler, Inglourious Basterds, John Ney Rieber, Movies, Prima Games, Spike TV, UFC, videogames, Vin Diesel
September 29, 2011 • 8:26 PM 2
Really Digging Deus Ex
In light of the insane number of A-list games coming out this season, I had assumed, well in advance; that I was likely going to forgo purchasing Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
It’s not that I wasn’t interested in the game, it’s just that when you look at the upcoming releases over the next couple of months, well, Deus Ex just doesn’t seem like as big of a deal as it likely should.
That being said, thanks to a very generous (and random) sale on Amazon.com, I found myself saying “Fuck it, it’s too cheap not to buy,” and a few clicks of the mouse later I found myself with a brand new copy of a heavily discounted Deus Ex.
Well, I’ve been playing around with it for awhile now, and I can honestly say, I’m happy I made the investment.
Mind you, it’s not a perfect game by any means, but there’s just so many little things about it that mean a lot to me personally.
I’m not really an avid fan of the Deus Ex series, in fact I only played the original for a few hours before deciding I didn’t need to finish it, but I do have a lot of love and respect for what it represents.
I’ve always been into the whole cyberpunk design aesthetic, and character customization/modification means enough to me that I’ve bought countless wrestling videogames purely for the character creator function, so on paper; the Deus Ex games are very much up my alley.
The new Deus Ex includes both of these aspects of the original, while adding a new layer of polish and presentation that make it far more accessible than it’s predecessors.
For example, the core gameplay; the stealth and shooting, really feel on par with a straight action game.
Action RPGs that feel “floaty” or involve a lot of noticeable number crunching in their combat mechanics are kind of a pet peeve of mine.
I hate shooting at someone in a game, and then “feeling it” as the game computes my character’s attributes, applies them to the statistics of his gun, and then applies said data to the attributes of the enemy I’m shooting to determine the amount of damage I deal.
It’s hard to explain, but you know it when you feel it.
I don’t know about you, but in my world guns do gun-like damage regardless of what “level” my Marksman skill is at, or how hard I pull the trigger.
I don’t get this feeling when I’m playing Deus Ex.
On that note, I feel I should probably point out that, as of writing this, I haven’t killed anyone in Deus Ex!
Early on I found the Metal Gear/Rainbow Six: Vegas-esque stealth mechanics to be robust and rewarding to the point in which I never found a need to kill anyone.
Oddly enough, I’ve found it very rewarding playing through the game relying exclusively on taser-ings and choke holds.
It’s funny though, as good as the stealth mechanics are, in many ways they are somewhat primitive.
Sure, the guards are more responsive to sound than in most games, and their sight distance is atypically high, but at the end of the day; the AI is actually kind of dumb.
For instance, in Metal Gear Solid 2, guards make use of radios, and if they don’t check in frequently enough; reinforcements are deployed to assess the situation.
This always made maneuvering around guards an ideal course of action over fighting/neutralizing them, but it also made the game somewhat frustrating at times.
While the enemy AI and stealth mechanics of Deus Ex are technically less complex than this, I feel it’s a gameplay decision that lends itself well to making the game much more streamlined and fun.
In all, sneaking around in Deus Ex is one of the more enjoyable parts of the game, especially when you’re playing the way I am with a totally non-lethal character.
I’ve heard the AI is less than stellar in direct combat, but that’s something I likely won’t be encountering until I start a new playthrough.
Moving on, another aspect of Deus Ex that surprised me, was the hacking mini-game.
I can’t stand locked doors/sealed off areas in games, so I knew I was going to be doing a lot of hacking in Deus Ex; which had me a bit worried it was going to ruin the experience for me.
To be fair, it took me awhile to warm up to it, but now I think I really like hacking in Deus Ex.
The controls are a bit sloppy on the console, but it’s not overly complicated, and more importantly; it’s quick.
Few things are more annoying in games than mini-games that eat up too much time and take you out of the core experience.
To date, I have yet to encounter a door I couldn’t open with a little finessing, something I can honestly say was not the case in games like Oblivion.
Speaking of Oblivion, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the fact that Deus Ex is a fairly streamlined and distinctly un-sandbox-y experience.
I don’t know about you, but I find sandbox games to be massively intimidating.
I’m very much a completionist when it comes to most things in life, so the idea of being dropped into a massive world with free rein to do whatever the fuck I want, is not exactly ideal.
I need structure in my gaming, a clear purpose or direction to keep me on track.
Without it, I tend to freeze up, get lost, or worse yet, end up spending 40 hours in the first town of the game and never even start the main quest.
In this way, Deus Ex’s small-ish city setting and mission based narrative really “does it” for me.
I’ve never felt lost or daunted, and for once, I actually feel rewarded when I do most of the quests.
That being said, the conversation system of Deus Ex, while simple, is exceptional.
Most of it’s success can be attributed to good writing and line delivery, but I really enjoy conversing with characters and being forced to remain attentive in order to succeed.
On one occasion I found myself having to rely on information imparted to me from optional documents, items I could’ve easily picked up and not read.
You can tell a game’s writing is exceptional when you actually want to read the random notes and e-mails scattered throughout the environment.
The one downside to the dialogue of the game, and this is totally just me being weird, is the very obvious use of a largely Canadian voice cast.
I realize the game was developed by EA Montreal, so Canadian voice actors are to be expected, but I’m one of those jackasses that giggles whenever he hears an “uh-boot” or “bee-n” instead of “about” and “been.”
It’s a minor gripe, but it actually does make the drama a little harder to swallow for me, so I figured I’d mention it.
As of now, I’m currently in the second half of the Hengsha segment of the game, and I’m still enjoying every moment.
I’ve read that a lot of people are extremely disappointed in some of the game’s boss fights, however as of now I have no issue with them.
True, I’ve only fought 1 as of now, but to me, it didn’t seem that bad at all.
Maybe it’s just because I entered into the fight ill-equipped (non-lethal playthrough, remember?) and actually had to scramble for ammo and weapons before I could even begin to fight back, but I honestly had some fun fighting the first boss.
Hell, any occasion in which you have to take on a grenade and mini-gun toting hulk of a boss with nothing but fire extinguishers and a silenced pistol has got to have some redeemable qualities, right?
Anyway, there’s a whole lot more to be said, but for now that’s all I’ve got.
Don’t be afraid to check out Deus Ex, it’s a lot more fun than it lets on.
Filed under: Games, 360, accent, Canadian, Deus Ex, EA Montreal, Games, Human Revolution, Metal Gear, Oblivion, PC, Playstation, review, Square Enix, videogames, Xbox
September 13, 2011 • 8:23 PM 1
The Top 10 Hardest Boss Fights, #3
Yesterday on our list of The Top 10 Hardest Boss Fights, we took our first steps into the rage inducing realm of fighting game bosses.
As mentioned previously, fighting game bosses tend to be some of the hardest challenges in all of gaming, though more often than than not this comes as a result of unfair or “cheap” elements in their design.
Whether it be by breaking the mechanics of the game, or possessing unbalanced attributes; fighting game bosses are rarely designed to function (fairly) within the established gameplay parameters of the games they reside in.
That being said, yesterday we took a look at Gill from Street Fighter III, a boss that I would personally consider to be one of the better designed bosses in all of fighting games, if not for the fact that he’s a cheating bastard that gobbles cock under the bleachers on Tuesday nights.
While I bear a great deal of animosity, or rather, straight-up HATE towards Gill, those feelings pale in comparison to those I feel for today’s entrant on our list of the Top 10 Hardest Boss Fights.
I hate Gill, but as mentioned earlier, I also respect the intelligence of his design.
#3 on our list doesn’t benefit from that luxury.
#3 is the kind of ball-stomping ass-clown that wouldn’t even get a nod from me if I saw him rescue a kitten from a burning tree.
And I fuckin’ love kittens.
#3 is the kind of unbelievably loathsome fighting game boss that only one videogame company could produce.
#3 on our list of the Top 10 Hardest Boss Fights is:
#3. Magaki – King of Fighters XI
Pictured: Kensou, standing within striking range of the mysterious Magaki.
I love their games, but goddamn does SNK know how to fuck us in the ass with bosses from the broken-as-fuck school of fighting!
Fuck that, most of SNK’s fighting game bosses didn’t just graduate from Broken-As-Fuck University, they’re fuckin’ tenured professors there!
Rage-gasm aside, Magaki is just about the motherfucking-est motherfucker I’ve ever run across in a fighting game.
I’ve beaten him before, more times than I have Gill actually; but the sheer frustration generated by every encounter was more than enough to convince me to rank him higher than the latter on this list.
While Gill is at times fair, at times borderline human; Magaki just takes the motherfuckin’ rulebook and smears pink and blue shit all over it.
Hell, that’s his M.O. for pretty much everything:
Magaki doesn’t like how his Moons Over My Hammy turned out?
Pink balls and blue floaty shit.
PINK BALLS.
Magaki gets served a tax evasion notice?
Pink balls and blue floaty shit.
BLUE FLOATY SHIT.
Should that fail, and it likely won’t, Magaki’s got his bases covered in the form of being able to neon tie-dye THE ENTIRE FUCKING screen at the drop of a hat.
Just watch this poor sap take it up the butt as he literally comes this close to besting Magaki only to have his eyes raped by the rainbow sherbet shit storm of pink and blue shit that is Magaki’s super combo:
Ouch! No lube even….
*AHEM!* To walk into a fight with Magaki is to have your 3-on-3 fighting game instantly turned into a 3-on-1 shoot ‘em up.
King of Fighters bosses often come with a write-off excuse for their extreme difficulty and cheapness due to the fact that you, the player; get to fight them with 3 characters to their 1.
Despite having 3 characters at your disposal, more often than not the balance ends up being all out of whack, with the boss being extraordinarily overpowered in every way imaginable.
King of Fighters bosses have been consistently cheap as balls since before the series was even called King of Fighters.
Fun Fact: The events of Fatal Fury actually took place during the '91 iteration of the King of Fighters tournament.
It’s a gaming tradition practically as old as Final Fantasy games having a character named “Cid.”
Fighting Magaki though, is unlike any other boss encounter in the King of Fighters series, let alone any other fighting game period.
While many King of Fighters bosses are highly mobile and make use of potent attacks designed to counter from virtually any angle, Magaki fights like fuckin’ Sagat on crack.
Nothing THIS BIG should ever be on crack.
Sagat has his high-low fireball combo, Magaki has, well, endless waves of pink balls and blue floaty shit.
Seriously man, when you fight Magaki it feels like you just stepped into a game of R-Type.
The screen is literally filled with shit to the point in which you’ll often times find yourself just throwing up your hands and saying:
“Fuck this shit! Let’s play some Street Fighter…”
Simply put, there is no “good” way to handle Magaki.
While he’s admittedly kind of Mechagodzilla like in the sense that he’s basically a slow-moving projectile platform with feeble melee skills, on every occasion you do manage to get close enough to deal damage; he’ll usually just toss you away with….. I’ll just let the picture do the talking:
EXPLODING PINK BALLS.
You can easily spend an entire battle with Magaki, that is, all 3 of your characters; without ever getting past his fruity barrage of carnage.
This would be entirely forgivable if not for the fact that SNK saw fit to grant Magaki all of the standard cheap-ass advantages they give to virtually all of their bosses.
Giving him the ability to fill the screen with projectiles would’ve been fair if not for the fact that his attributes are broken-as-fuck as well.
If he had been, say, fragile for instance; then I could’ve bit my tongue and said he was a decent boss.
But no, they gave him the ability to execute all of his moves with frame-by-frame precision and timing, and they made him absurdly powerful and durable.
Makes you just wanna' get him on the ground and do this to him!
When I finally beat Magaki for the first time, I didn’t feel any sense of pride in my achievement.
I felt like I had just lost an hour of my life to a barely decent game, and truth be told I think I actually recall saying to myself:
“Good. Now I can get on with my life and never play this shitty game ever again.”
While I actually did go back and play the game a few times here and there, rest assured, the moment King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match came out, I pretty much lost interest in every other game in the series outside of ’98.
Nowadays I don’t have much interest in any of them…
A bit too much of this was going on I'm afraid...
Magaki is admittedly not quite as hard as his #3 spot likely deserves, but in my mind no other fighting game boss has caused me as much frustration and borderline physical pain as he has.
During the course of our list of the Top 10 Hardest Boss Fights, I’ve stressed the fact that the best examples of genuine difficulty in boss fights are stemmed from clever and rewarding gameplay design, and not outright cheapness.
Along with Duriel from Diablo II, Magaki’s presence on this list serves as a symbol championing the power of broken game design and cheapness.
That Magaki could make me eat my words with such resounding vigor as to place him at #3 on this list is proof enough of just how motherfuckin’ cheap that pink bastard is.
In any case, here’s a video of the Apex of Pimp himself, Geese Howard; putting the hurt on Magaki as only he can:
*Gifs courtesy of Fighter’s Generation, the finest fighting game site I’ve ever known.*
Filed under: Games, The Top 10 Hardest Boss Fights, Tokusatsu, Uncategorized, armbar, Azn Badger's Blog, Blue Mary, Boss, Cid, Diablo, Duriel, Fatal Fury, fight, Fighter's Generation, Fighting, Final Fantasy, Games, Geese Howard, Gill, II, III, King of Fighters, KOF, Magaki, Mechagodzilla, R-Type, Sagat, SNK, Street Fighter, videogames, XI
September 11, 2011 • 8:28 PM 2
The Top 10 Hardest Boss Fights, #5
Yesterday I mentioned in passing that fighting Beowulf from Devil May Cry 3 was a boss fighting experience that transcended the staples of normal gaming challenges.
To me, the difficulty of fight with Beowulf stemmed not just from the challenges presented by the gameplay of that segment, by also by the psychological stress the battle places on you, the player.
Now, I consider myself a particularly seasoned gamer, so whenever a videogame is able to genuinely cause me stress, and not just anger or annoyance; it tends to stand out to me as something special.
Such is the reason the battle with Beowulf stood out to me as both an incredibly difficult and exhilarating fight entirely worthy of The Top 10 Hardest Boss Fights.
On that same note, today’s boss just happens to have earned their spot in much the same fashion as Beowulf.
As chatty as he is dangerous, the #5 entrant on our list of the Top 10 Hardest Boss Fights is:
#5. Sinistar – Sinistar
Pictured: A lone fighter pilot prepares to face the dreaded Sinistar head-on.
“BEWARE, I LIVE!”
If ever there were a phrase in gaming history capable of sending a chill down a gamer’s spine, that quote from Williams’ Sinistar would have to be it.
Announcing his presence with a Jack and the Beanstalk-esque “Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum!” of sorts, the arrival of Sinistar at the end of each level in the game of the same name is one of those moments in gaming that, though it may seem ho hum by today’s standards; will live on forever as a classic of it’s time.
Sinistar’s hilariously minimalist taunts and battle cries will likely live on forever, however it’s easy to forget that, as fun as it could be when you were winning; the game was hard as fuck.
A classic twitch shooter through and through, Sinistar was one of those mean-ass arcade games that would bait you into thinking it wasn’t all that tough, only to stomp the ever loving shit out of you by level 2.
Be it Centipede, Missile Command or Robotron, arcade games of the early 80′s, and indeed throughout much of the history of arcade machines thrived on inviting players in win the promise of a fun first level, only to drop the hammer and crush them just a few stages down the road.
Centipede: A whole helluva' lot harder than you'd think.
I’m guessing this was supposed to trigger a “What the fuck? Let’s try this again…” psychological response in the players or something.
Things were different back then.
It was a lot easier to justify pumping money into a machine for a few minutes of fun when few people owned consoles of their own, not to mention the fact that the home systems weren’t capable of the graphical sophistication presented by arcade machines of the time.
History lesson aside, Sinistar was entirely guilty of the gameplay model mentioned above.
It was pretty easy in the first level, but holy Ewoks and graham crackers brother, you gotta’ be a motherfuckin’ pinball wizard to get much further than that!
The boss of the game, Sinistar; being largely responsible for said nut-crushing difficulty.
Fighting Sinistar is not what you’d call a “fight” in the traditional sense.
Much in the way I wouldn't call this a "fight."
Up until his arrival, you spend your time in the game piloting your star fighter, shooting the occasional enemy, and, quite literally; shaking down asteroids for “Sinibombs” and crystals.
The gameplay during this phase of the game, at least during some of the earlier stages; is actually kind of eerie in terms of how quiet and relaxed it can be.
Like many arcade games of the day, the game features no music during play, resulting in a unnerving silence in between the occasional laser or explosion sound effect.
Don’t let my overly romanticized descriptions fool you, this phase of the game is merely the calm before the storm.
Allow me to paint for you, a picture (in words) of how a typical fight with Sinistar goes down:
As you’re collecting shit out in space, at some point you’ll likely notice the enemy ships zipping about and snagging crystals before you can get to them.
For whatever reason they aren’t trying to shoot you down…. For what purpose could they be gathering the crystals for?
As this process continues for a time, it will likely dawn on you that those little ships are up to something…
Something…. SINISTAR.
Just as you’re starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together in your mind, suddenly a horrifying call resonates from the void of space, shooting shivers down your spine and dookie out your poop-hole.
“BEWARE, I LIVE!”
HOLY FUCKING SHIT!
The ravenous space-beast Sinistar has arrived!
His hunger knows no bounds!
He dares you to run, as it is truly your only option in the face of such a beast!
Moreover, he is Sinistar, and he lives!
From the time the hunting call sounds, precious few seconds remain before the great gray beast comes into view and gives chase.
Innumerable questions come flooding into your mind with the utmost urgency:
Should I go out looking for Sinistar, or let him come to me?
Do I have enough Sinibombs to kill him?
Am I a bad enough dude to rescue the president?
Eventually, all questioning and speculation goes out the window as the mighty Sinistar rears his demonic head and cuts a swath through the flotsam of the cosmos, bellowing insults and taunts at every turn!
You juke left!
You juke right!
And all the while Sinistar follows close behind!
In your panic, your fingers trace their way across the surface of the arcade cabinet in search of the one weapon, the one source of sanctuary that can hope to save you from the advance of Sinistar:
The Sinibomb button.
You mash on the button again and again, scattering scores of Sinibombs into the massive face of Sinistar!
With every impact the great beast howls in pain, delivering a shock to your nerves, and a morbid sense of satisfaction…
Bomb after bomb makes it’s mark and your confidence begins to build.
13 direct hits are all that are needed to fell the space monster, could victory be within reach?
NO.
You depress the Sinibomb button one last time only to realize:
You’re out of ammo.
The gray space leviathan follows close behind without any semblance of fear across it’s battered, mechanical visage.
"Never wound... What you can't kill."
In a desperate bid for survival, you begin making attempts to rebuild your ammo supply, carefully skirting asteroids while slowly giving ground to the rapidly encroaching Sinistar.
You juke left!
You juke right!
And just before you recover the last Sinibomb you need to finish the monster pursuing you, it happens:
You accidentally bump an asteroid, Sinistar slams into your ship and crushes it in his terrible maw; sending fiery chunks of debris out into every corner of space.
Such is the ordeal that is fighting Sinistar.
The actual procedure is little more than a fairly straightforward chase, however due to the panic-inducing presence of the boss in question, coupled with the variables of the level construction, (I.E. enemy ships, asteroids) the difficulty piles up very quickly.
If that’s not Top 10 Hardest Boss Fights material, I don’t know what is.
Oh yeah, after all my fanciful storytelling I guess you deserve a look at what the actual battle with Sinistar looks like in-game:
Filed under: Uncategorized, Games, The Top 10 Hardest Boss Fights, 3, Arcade, Bad Dudes, Beowulf, Boss, Capcom, Centipede, Devil May Cry, Dragon Ninja, Ewok, fights, Games, list, Missile Command, Robotron, Sinistar, Star Wars, Top 10, videogames, Williams
September 10, 2011 • 5:21 PM 2
The Top 10 Hardest Boss Fights, #6
It’s funny, as I was typing out the article for yesterday’s entry on our list of The Top 10 Hardest Boss Fights, it dawned on me just how much I hated fighting Duriel from Diablo II.
As much as I discovered I hated him though, I feel I was justified in placing him relatively low on this list.
Despite the fact that I’m pretty sure there’s not a single boss character on this list that I hate more than him, the actual difficulty that came from fighting Duriel came almost entirely as a result of his unbalanced and, quite frankly; cheap design.
He’s not hard per se, he’s just broken….. And more than a little douche-y.
The point I’m trying to make, is that, in my eyes; the hardest boss fights are the ones that are just that:
Tough fights.
Fighting Duriel isn’t what I’d call a traditional fight, it’s just an unwarranted and totally out of place exercise in tedium within the confines of an otherwise straightforward and balanced game.
I know it’s just a matter of opinion, but I felt I needed to make my stance on this subject as clear as possible.
That being, the next boss on our list, earned his spot, not through being cheap, or even unpredictable; but by simply being one of toughest motherfuckers I’ve ever fought.
There are bosses with patterns, and there are bosses with weaknesses, and then there’s the #6 entrant on our list of the Top 10 Hardest Boss Fights:
#6. Beowulf – Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening
Pictured: Dante, about a half second a way from getting bitch slapped by Beowulf.
To me, Beowulf isn’t just one of the Top 10 Hardest Boss Fights, he’s also one of the best.
His pattern isn’t anywhere near as complex as some of the other bosses in Devil May Cry 3, and he certainly doesn’t deal an inordinate amount of damage; but for my money he’s the toughest boss in a game packed to the hilt with some of gaming’s stiffest challenges.
We're talkin' TURBO TUNNEL-tough!
The fact of the matter is, Beowulf’s a hard boss simply because he makes you work for your victory over him.
There’s no such thing as a quick win over Beowulf, and therein lies the beauty in fighting him.
The frantic nature of the battle prevents his various “phases” from ever feeling overlong, not to mention lead to instances where the sheer intensity of the conflict cause you to make mistakes with your controller.
If ever there were a sign that a boss is tough, it’d have to be that of making your hands twitch out of pure sensory overload.
To this day, I have yet to find a “good” way to fight Beowulf outside playing it cool and wearing him down.
That’s the thing with Beowulf:
He doesn’t have any weaknesses.
Unlike most Devil May Cry bosses, and indeed most bosses in general, Beowulf doesn’t have a magic solution to his pattern.
Hell, he doesn’t even really have a significant vulnerability to any weapon in the game, making defeating Beowulf an affair based purely on skill and endurance.
Unlike fuckin’ Crash Man:
Beowulf’s pattern is essentially that of a pressure-fighter, a Rocky Balboa if you will.
He’s predictable, and he’s kind of slow, but he’s on your ass all night long and there’s no safe way to hurt him.
At first glance he seems like a pushover as long as you keep your distance, however the sad truth of the matter is:
Inevitably he’s going to catch up to you.
.... But not without taking 20 times the punishment in the process.
While all Beowulf really does in his opening phase is stomp and throw haymakers, there’s a clever science to the placement of his attack angles.
You can see every move he makes coming from a mile away, and yet, due to the wide-arcing nature of his swipes; you’ll often find yourself caught by blows that initially looked harmless.
As is typical of Devil May Cry bosses, Beowulf is rarely reactive to the damage of your attacks, making it unwise to exchange blows with him, given his potent attack power that is equally typical to the series.
The one exploitable weakness I know of that Beowulf has, is extraordinarily minor to the point of being almost counterproductive.
Throughout various cutscenes in the game, as well as the in-game graphics; it is imparted to you that Beowulf bears a scar over one of his eyes.
Whenever a blow is delivered to Beowulf’s scarred eye, he immediately clutches it in pain and swings wildly with his free arm with surprising accuracy.
"Nobody move! One of my contacts just fell out!"
This technique is only really viable in the first phase of the battle, and indeed does a fair amount of damage, however the dangers in employing jumping attacks against Beowulf are numerous, so in my opinion it’s better to play defensively and simple forego the exploit altogether.
The second and third phases of the fight are where things get really hairy.
Up until this point in the fight, Beowulf basically just plods about and punches at you, however once you’ve done enough damage to trigger his second phase, he drops down onto all fours and starts running about the arena with frightening speed.
In between phases, he throws easy to dodge metal towers at you, but make no mistake, once he’s on all fours, he becomes quite difficult to keep up with.
Given his ability to break into a gallop at any given moment, Beowulf’s second phase takes the tricky accuracy of his initial attack pattern and injects a element of unpredictability that makes it a bitch to keep up with.
Much like fighting Sigma in the Mega Man X games, Beowulf is a test not only in a twitch sense, but also in the sense that you never really feel like you’re pulling ahead in the fight.
Sadly, defeat usually comes very late in the fight against Beowulf, as his third and final phase is hard to avoid without taking at least some damage…. Damage that one usually can’t afford to spare by this point in the fight.
Beowulf’s third phase compounds all of his previous attacks and abilities, but adds a few volleys of glowing white energy fired from his now fully outstretched wings.
...I guess I better say what everyone's thinking: BEAST MODE: ENGAGE.
The damage dealt from these projectiles is significant, but mostly survivable.
The real kicker in all this, is the fact that it’s very difficult to avoid these volleys without taking at least some damage.
After softening you up with the projectiles, typically Beowulf will charge at you full speed, at which point one of you will likely be killed given the lowly state of your health bars.
Just take a look at this video where the player does well throughout, but inevitably ends up with almost no health by the battle’s final moments:
That’s what I love about fighting Beowulf:
He represents the rare case when a boss demands not just precision, but also endurance.
He really doesn’t do all that much, but something about the way he subtly changes his angles in order to chase you, and unpredictably makes use of his running attacks; makes him hard in a way that’s different from many other bosses.
Simply spamming the dodge or roll commands won’t work, because if your timing is off he’ll punish the shit out of you.
Simply pulling out the “right” weapon won’t work, because he doesn’t bear any weaknesses to any of them.
Simply hanging back and shooting him death won’t work, because eventually he’ll spread his wings and run your ass into the ground.
Beowulf’s a terrific boss, that also just happens to be one of the hardest I’ve ever fought.
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