Hi, I'm Dranzerstorm
Welcome to the Video Game & Music Lounge
This world is dedicated to Video Games and Music as I'll be showcasing the following.
Video Game Reviews set to the same tones as Retro Retrospective's Anime Reviews
Music reviews of Anime Openings & Closings
Western Cartoon music
Vocaloid Classics.
We may even have some Top Tens
I hope this World entertains you.
Back to some gaming as I'll be throwing up some quick reviews for old games, these will come out thick and fast so try to keep up. We start off with Re-Volt.
Re-Volt was made by Acclaim Entertainment, a late 90s company that could compete with the big names but ultimately fizzled out when it found out that it wasn't capable of flogging Turok anymore. The concept of Re-Volt is a Remote Controlled car game in which comically named vehicles race around Suburban Neighbourhoods, Rooftops, Gardens, Supermarkets, Toy Stores, Ghost Towns, Museums and even a scaled down Titanic, the game also included power ups, a battle mode and a stunt track in order to better compete with some real big name racers at the time.
Re-Volt was best remembered for it's stunning soundtrack, realistic RC handling and having a track maker mode; it's difficulty can be anything from simple to outright brutal with some tracks really punishing your mistakes.
It's legacy is still felt now as the PC community constantly strive to build more and more custom tracks and cars for the game, even to this day, allowing the license to be purchased and rereleased as an IOS game.
I have great memories of this game as it was one of my favorite racing games of all time, and I owe much of my skill with racing games to this title.
Current State: It's currently active as an IOS title, even releasing a sequel with reasonable success.
Why Should it be Revived?: Rocket League kind of has the RC thing down at the moment, granted it's car football but it follows much of the same charm as Re-Volt, and I hope it becomes something more if the developers decide on a racing mode.
Time for another game review this time it's Mini Ninjas.
Mini Ninjas is an action adventure game made by IO Interactive who are probably better known for the Hitman series; It was released in 2009 when the likes of Naruto was still popular and everyone loved ninjas so this is very much like it's contemporaries which was a way to cash in. The story revolves around Hiro and a group of other trained ninja attempting to save the world from the Evil Samurai Warlord, as the name suggests everything is mini in size compared to the huge environment the ninjas travel in. Taking a page out of the book of Sonic all the enemies are animals that have been transformed into samurai in order to take over the world and upon defeat they return to their animal forms making the game more family friendly. Hiro also has Kuji Magic, a selection of jutsu on scrolls that Hiro can perform from animal possession to the usual elemental attacks, so for what is an unremarkable looking game actually manages to show some surprising depth, the fun little videos on the characters does a great job of making us understand how each character acts and it shows that all of them are needed to finish the game not just Hiro. The enemies range from the hilarious to the outright intimidating although hearing the samurai shriek ninja all the time does get old very quick. The gameplay is solid and gives you a satisfying experience despite the need to collect things for 100% completion.
Current State: Mini Ninjas has ironically been stealthily releasing some games on Android as recently as 2013 and even more unknown has released a cartoon series, originally picked up by 4Kids but later released last year in France, so we've not seen the last of the franchise by any stretch.
Why Should it be Revived?: Well technically it hasn't been finished but a mainstream return would be welcomed on current generation consoles.
It's been a while since I've graced the Video Game Lounge so lets look at Sonic R.
Sonic R is a racing game using 3D environments that give you freedom to run as all your favorite characters. It was released on the Sega Saturn and is probably best remembered for largely being unimpressive yet surprisingly addictive, mostly thanks to the cheesy poptastic soundtrack along with legends of the Tails Doll being evil and the gameplay being less than stellar.
Sonic R came with a lot of high expectations but never amounted to anything special, mainly because the idea is supposed to work really well, a Sonic racing game without cars just suits him down to the ground and there was no excuse for skipping on characters as there were plenty to choose at the time of release.
What we got really isn't bad, playing it now you can see where they wanted to go with it and it still did things that most racing games are only recently doing which is weather effects. Yeah Sonic R created the concept of weather effects in racing games bet you didn't know that; but overall the experience for most players was just disappointing but you know Sonic has done a lot worst.
Current State: It was last seen in 2005 as part of the Sonic Gems Collection, it's not been seen since but it's main theme Super Sonic Racing is a staple of Sonic History.
Why Should it be Revived?: believe it or not there is still enough potential in the game to give it another try, it can't be any worst than Sonic Boom.
Following directly from the last list, lets look at the games that have no morality.
Honorable Mentions
Final Fight - You'd think being a professional wrestler would clean up Metro City but it doesn't, but at least there's an attempt to stop it.
Duke Nukem - He's a product of his time, he can get away with his misogyny in the 90s but these days it's vulgar and not wanted in this day and age.
Saints Row - Your a criminal anyway but some of the crazy stuff that happens in this Grand Theft Auto clone are too crazy to be real sometimes.
10. Mortal Kombat
Although this is standard for a lot of fighting games, Mortal Kombat features actual graphic killing so it represents pretty much all fighting games attitudes in general, story or not, the object is to kill your opponent and the more gory the better.
9. Shadow the Hedgehog
Any one playing this game will do the same thing, just rush to the end of the stage, the fact that this game makes you play it ten times minimum just to see which morality you'll take only for the final story to suck all the fun out of judging for yourself what path Shadow should take.
8. Watch Dogs
Your a genius hacker and you want to take revenge on the syndicate that killed your loved ones, what do you do? Destroy the lives of innocent people by using them as collateral to take your revenge, bonus points to the game company for trying to bribe reviewers with gifts for decent scores.
7. X-Blades
Your not supposed to use dark magic, it gives you the bad ending, thanks a bunch because a) Completing this crap game requires dark magic, b) the lead character is such a bitch that I can't see a benevolent bone in her body and c) I utterly refuse to play the entire game again just for the good ending.
6. Prototype
Why tell me not to kill civilians when they restore your health and provide you with disguises for killing them, which proves crucial in completing this game without dying.
5. Bulletstorm
Your drunken exploits got most of your crew killed, you avenge them by still being drunk and trigger happy to the very end. Even the worst pirates aren't that bad.
4. Kirby
You devour everyone and everything in your endless stomach even if they look like the most harmless creatures in the world, Kirby is a monster puff ball not a star warrior.
3. Fable
You can be good or evil but being evil is just easier, ruling with tyranny and fear doesn't punish you at all and you even get achievements for it.
2. Pokemon Black & White
Team Plasma logic: "Fighting with Pokemon is wrong, your using Pokemon for violence every time you use them in battle. So we'll use Pokemon to fight for this cause" yeah you get the picture it's just hypocrisy.
1. Tomodachi Life
Yet the most selfish jerks in the gaming world are the Tomodachi Mii's. They demand everything, get into domestics over stupid things and break up relationships as if it was nothing. Out of the blue a Mii would just destroy it's own relationship with no reason why despite you telling them otherwise. How does Nintendo sleep at night?
When you play a game do you think of what might happen if you fail? What happens if you ignore the obvious signs that your about to do something that can't be reversed? Well these games test that morality to the limit as we look at the Top Ten Most Testing Morality Games.
Honorable Mentions
Magic Knight Rayearth - Don't fight your friends even if you end up defeated, but as it's also an anime it's just a mention.
Ace Attorney - Your client will be in jail if you fail to defend them but there are second chances and you can save yourself the embarrassment of failure.
Fire Emblem - Your troops won't come back if they die, but this is optional in some releases and not as essential a gameplay mechanic as it used to be.
10. Elite Beat Agents/Ouendan
The concept of the following dance/singing tropes is that these singers and cheerleaders swoop down and do their thing to try and cheer up or save the troubled individual, this could be anything from lighthearted such as supporting a taxi driver while they drive a pregnant woman to hospital or something heavy like cheering up a little girl who just lost her father at Christmas and failure to complete the song successfully makes for a very sad ending so it weighs quite heavy on your heart strings.
9. Virtua Cop
The Rail Shooter is an outdated concept yet its still more or less used in arcades but the mechanic of shooting a civilian will cost you one of your lives makes you think twice about wildly shooting at everything and makes you pay attention to what your doing, so look before you shoot.
8. Goldeneye
Shooting games are the worst offenders when it comes to trigger happy attitudes but in classic game Goldeneye being too trigger happy will cost you the mission or worst your own life. Shoot a tank in Facility will make you choke to death in the gas, accidentally trigger one of the high powered explosives in Silo will cause instant death, letting your allies die will cost you the mission, blowing up an essential piece of equipment you fail the mission; you get the idea, look before you shoot all those soldiers.
7. Rhapsody A Musical Adventure
In this RPG the love of your life has been turned to stone so your mission is to go out and save him by gathering special stones from mystic guardians, to bad your actions could cost your allies their lives, actually outright kill the guardians, bring ruin to a kingdom and generally make you look like the worlds worst person. You can avoid all this but that depends on how much you pay attention to what's going on.
6. Bioshock
A classic case of whether you decide to kill or save a child; what should be a very easy choice to make, can end up making you look like the world's worst human being if you ignore the obvious just by the fact that you want your special powers quickly, patience and benevolence offer more rewards.
5. Trauma Center Under the Knife
Equally you don't need to be an expert to understand that if you fail your patient will die.
4. Pikmin
You crash land in a mysterious place and have the ability to control these little creatures who can help you escape their world and you have hundreds of them to play with, don't think of these creatures as expendable, your experience will be much smoother if you keep them alive, they aren't Lemmings you know.
3. Undertale
Most recent video game smash hit Undertale gives you the basic moral choice of choosing whether to fight or not. Going by instinct is easy but makes you feel like a villain for doing so and really punishes you for killing certain characters so be a little more conservative in your approach and you'll find a better ending.
2. Cannon Fodder
No matter the rank of the soldier, no matter how talented they are with a gun, if they die, they die and the poignant message it always gives is this: You can line up as many soldiers as you like, but all they do is replace the ones that are dead and Cannon Fodder makes you feel the more guilty when they tell you names of everyone who's died while more soldiers line up for you to send to an early grave, and remember this is the retro hard gaming era so they will die a lot.
1. Chrono Trigger
But the ultimate game for morality is Chrono Trigger, right from the beginning, your messing about at the fair could land you in jail later on, your failure to stop certain things in the past triggers changes that cannot be reversed so easily, humanity will be doomed if you can't stop Lavos. There are more scenarios in this game than you can imagine and all may lead to the same fate, choose your path wisely young Chrono, assuming your still alive by the end of the adventure, hope you won that replica doll of yourself.
