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With two racers just a few feet ahead of me, the race is about to end. I plan to make a dash for the finish line on the penultimate corner. Maybe I’ll manage to squeeze in and beat them to first place. The second-last corner is looming ahead; now’s my chance. But before I can even understand what’s happening, the driver in the second position suddenly spins out of control and crashes into the side wall. As I whiz past, I look back to see him still spinning and crashing into the trailing pack of cars, leading to a satisfying pile up. I grin in amazement at how the AI racers are more realistic than the previous racing games I’ve played. No more rubber band AI. Nice touch there - AI racers that don’t always follow the perfect driving line.
With just one driver separating me from the finish line, it’s time to concentrate. In the excitement of the previous crash I failed to overtake him. The last corner is my only chance to overtake him. As I approach it with just a few feet separating us, I try to overtake him from the inside line. Much to my disappointment, I completely misjudge the turn and crash to my left. The screen goes crimson red. Front bumper crumpling in, windshield glass shattering - the car is wrecked beyond repair. It’s the end of the race for me…or is it? This is where the Flashback Feature comes to my rescue, which allows me to rewind up to the last ten seconds before my fatal crash. I can select any point from those ten seconds from which I can restart the race! I roll back to the point just before the crash, adjust my turn and shoot past my rival towards the finishing line and a thrilling victory.
All of this happened in the last twenty seconds of the race. That’s how exciting and adrenaline pumping this game can get.
2007 was a good year for racing games. Fans weren’t exactly spoilt for choice, but it was more a case of quality over quantity. There was something for everyone; Forza Motorsport 2 for the purists and car enthusiasts, DiRT for some off-road escapades and the best car damage ever, and the highly underrated and overlooked PGR4 with its addictive pick-up-and-play approach.
Like in most other genres in 2007, the Xbox 360 came out on top here was well. Forza 2 and PGR4 were exclusive to Microsoft’s console, while DiRT came to the PlayStation 3 months after it did on the Xbox 360.
But 2008 is a new year, and it’s already off to a smashing start – literally. Here’s a look at what racing fans can look forward to in 2008. Once again, there’s something for everyone – simulation, arcade and even some combat racing. And Sony fanboys can finally stop sulking now, because from the looks like it, the PS3 has got some heavy-hitters lining up on the grid.
I can tell what you’re pondering. No, I know what you’re pondering. Here you are, setting idly in your chair and skimming through random game message boards. The howls and cries of the current console generation are anywhere and everywhere, whether its about how balls-to-the-wall it is too see how much Nathan Drake can get his shirt-wet in gorgeous wide-screen high-definition or the municipal assertion that the waggle generation is here to stay, just so long no one has to endure Nintendo’s smutty online service for too long. Yeah, you’ve been there. But not too long back, you were rubbing your thumbs red over a console that reserved a special place in your heart for more than 7 years. Good times! Wonderful times! And now they’ve departed.
“If only there were still some new games to play,” you think to yourself.
Splendidly, it so happens that this April will be seeing several titles released on the PS2, and if you find yourself curious (and you should be), you’ll want to thank – who else – but Japan (or at least the company Atlus for publishing certain titles)! After all, it’s the only country in the world that still has an extensive backlog of games that most people haven’t even heard about.
“Wait, wouldn’t mean they were too crappy for public ingestion or…”
Quiet, you! Now hit the jump like a good munchkin.
Arctic Quest is a simple puzzle-solving game, where you finish each board by collecting falling crystals from the sky and placing it on the board. Once you finish a board, you move on to the next level. The boards take the shape of different animals, or according to the developers “…other tropical wonders.”
Azangara is a pretty neat arcade adventure game. You play the role of a sombrero wearing hombre, on the run to gather hidden treasure from castles in the long lost land of Azangara. The dark castles are littered with an assortment of monsters, puzzles and traps that make your life harder. Find keys to doors or force them open with crowbars to reach an exit while collecting as much as booty as you can on the way. The whole point of the game is to explore enough of the castle to gather all of the collectibles to get a high score.
I had promised myself that I would write a review a day on whatever game Giveaway of the Day… well, gives away (be it good or bad). So on with it!
Ok, so what’s on today’s menu? A small 3D Breakout clone by the name of Real Ball 2, developed and published by Arcadebird. Real Ball 2 looked promising as it started out, reminding me a lot of the old, original Breakout games to DX-Ball to Ricochet.
About a week ago, I was on the phone talking with Reggie . No, I didn’t ask him if he knew Hutch had switched over to Vodafone!
He did throw a question that ostensibly came out of nowheres-ville: “Dude, have you every played Ninja Commando?” A quick and resonant “Yes” followed, and for moderately good reasons. That sucker along with many other arcade games from the late 80s till the early 90s, were carved into my mind like stone. For every passing day, I dropped a few quarters into these soul-sucking apparatuses with their half-working joysticks. Just a few quarters, and then maybe a few more. And if I ever ran out, hey no biggie, I’d come back tomorrow with a new stack. And then the next day. And then the next day. And then the next day. I didn’t have a lot of friends back then, what can I say.
Ninja Commando was released way back in 1992 (although I mostly likely played it roughly a year afterward) and later ported to SNK’s Neo-Geo/Neo-Geo CD console. Developed by the now defunct Alpha Denshi Corp (or ADK), they were also responsible for other relatively well-known games – World Heroes, a 2D Fighter, and Twinkle Star Sprites, shoot’ em up with puzzle elements and no less than three under-aged girls hiding underneath a grand sailor motif. But this isn’t the time to blabber about that, this is about ninjas going commando!