Sometime’s it takes a video game a full soundtrack to set the mood, tone, and atmosphere needed to evoke a certain feeling in the player. Other times, by luck or talent, composers need only a single song to capture the entire essence of a game and its characters. It could be three minutes or fifteen seconds, a repeating melody or a lyrical track played over the end credits. Attached to a single character, they can add layers to the psyche that would take hours of cut scenes to put to words. In the background of a level, the tune can remain etched in the player’s memories, keeping the feeling of what it was like to play it long after the console is off. Each generation of games had its masterpieces, narrowing it all down was almost impossible. Needless to say you’ll disagree with us, but we love that, inspiring response and forcing people to explain why we’re wrong and they’re right gets them thinking of the songs they choose, and on video game motifs themselves. Quiet in the audience, the orchestra is warming up. These are The Top Ten Video Game Themes in all of Video Game History.
The Top Ten Video Game Themes
#10: Contra - Jungle Theme
In the olden days of cheat codes and coin-operated gaming systems, an arcade measured its worth by how loudly and how often you heard this little ditty. It was not only the theme of one of the most challenging arcade experiences, but it also stood for the entire second generation of arcade gaming, of blistered thumbs and the fervent searches for that one quarter deep in your pocket as the Continue? timer ran down. But beyond the metaphysical nostalgia, it’s just a damn rocking tune, fit for the millions of covers done with electric guitars over the years since. You knew as the first level loaded and your commando fell onto the jungle terrain that you were in for the undeniable fun of spread shots and huge bosses. The rest of the soundtrack packed the same punch, but its this first track that takes us back to laser-sighting our focus and cracking our fingers above the trigger button in readiness for the first wave of enemies.
#9: Duke Nukem – Megadeth Theme
This little ditty is badass in the way that Black Sabbath’s opening riff to “Iron Man” made the trailer for the superhero movie badass. Within the first few opening notes, you know shit is about to go down, a prologue of epic manliness. Toss in the Duke spitting one of his famous sound bites, “Come Get Some!” and there is no way someone could mistake the game to count for anything other than violence in glorious gratuity. With the 3D interation of this franchise being reborn on Xbox Live, a whole new generation of Halo-ites and Gear(s)Heads can return to a time of media-driven rebellion, back when First Person Shooters were good. When the Duke ruled alongside “Doom” and “Castle Wolfenstein”; a generation of gamers that found solace in gore after the world around them just didn’t understand the bloodlust. Maybe I’m reading too much into this, maybe its just badass. Ya know what? That works too.
#8: Guilty Gear XX #Reload - Megatona Furioso
Kicking someone’s ass has always been an activity made better by kickass tunes. It just makes the impact of fists and groans of defeat that more ego-stroking. Never is this more apparent than in Guilty Gear games, Megatona being the most lauded example. Hard hitting riffs complemented the sheer machismo that oh so often comes with the supreme combo execution. It was the character Potemkin’s theme, but the hardcore track soon became synonymous with the series itself, giving it a reputation for a wicked anime aesthetic that permeated from its character animations to its menu screens. It may not have the sales of “Soul Caliber” or the sophistication of “Tekken”, but no one can deny Guilty Gear its rocking style. Naysayers are called to look up Furioso as exhibit A.
#7: Mass Effect – M4 Part II
The completion of any role-playing game, even without side quests and ultimate weapons, bears a sense of accomplishment, especially at Mass Effect’s length. These feelings of elation at one’s ability are made even better with a triumphant ending theme, something that puts a cap on your contentment. Mass Effect's opens with a guitar riff halfway between the latest alternative rock single and the victory theme from Top Gun, acting as a modern take on the “epilogue montage” moment that often accompanies the main credits, with a little bit of a electronic ambiance thrown in to prevent it from descending too much into Kenny Loggins-levels of cheese. This piece makes it on the list for the moment when we first hear it, in addition the song's own merit. More so than any other credit music, this primped, Emo-esque ballad caters to the feeling of finality and accomplishment felt at the end of an adventure only a role-playing game could provide. It doesn’t hurt that Part II follows one of the best games of last year, either.
#6: Silent Hill 2 - Theme of Laura
The Silent Hill series is unrivaled in atmosphere. The game’s uncanny ability to maintain a state of constant tension and unease was always aided with a claustrophobic level design and, more importantly, Akira Yamaoka’s score. His predilection towards sounds both weird and alluring was never more beautifully demented than in this tune. Despite the soothing melody, there is something unnerving crawling beneath this tune's surface. This theme epitomized the series’ motto of “simultaneous attraction and repulsion;” a perfect medley of an electric and acoustic guitar, with a haunting undercurrent of echoed strings and computerized sound effects, not to mention the famous mandolin of the series's opening. Not quite gothic, not quite horror, the song bleeds atmosphere and haunting beauty; everything that makes Silent Hill the ultimate series of survival horror.
#5: Chrono Cross - Time Scar
It was buried under its popular brother, Chrono Trigger, but not for lack of quality. In fact, many fans’ cite the sequel’s soundtrack as just one of the ways this RPG is superior to Trigger, offering up Time Scar as evidence. It’s not difficult to see why this one song could be held up to such a standard, being one of the most self-contained musical pieces in the genre. It begins as a light and airy piece, a relaxing Celtic melody, useful for gameplay in towns and inns. Without hesitation, it slips into a string-heavy, fast-paced drumbeat set, exceptional for combat and exploration gameplay. It’s the game itself set to melody, a poetically paced narrative coupled with a deep and rewarding combat system. If Square's smart, gamers that made the mistake of passing this one up will be playing Time Scar re-made for this generation.
#4: Legend of Zelda - Overworld Theme
If ever there was a tune that embodied the word, “classic,” here it be. For most of us, this song is synonymous with our first fun video game experience, and it hasn’t gotten any less powerful with time. It’s an upbeat and jaunty tune that makes all who hear it want to go out on their own adventure, sword and shield in hand. It symbolized the pure fun one had when playing the game, whether it was in the first few minutes or the last hour. Link has been forever tied to the song since, and developers have carried the mantle with pride, reinventing it each generation with new orchestration. But its the classical tune that will ever be immortal, embedded in minds and hearts of any gamers that long to quest.
#3: Final Fantasy VI - Terra's Theme
“I don’t think I have what it takes to make a good action game. I think I’m better at telling a story.” This was Hironobo Sakaguchi’s response to what type of game would be made with the last of - then-failing - Square’s money. The first Final Fantasy was published under that credo, and each one after it pays respect to Sakaguchi-san’s original vision. For many fans, nowhere is Hironobo’s idea embodied more perfectly than in Terra’s Theme in Final Fantasy VI. This is the perfect song to complement the words “once upon a time.” It’s a sense of weighted whimsy; a folkloric lightness coupled with a dramatic foundation. It’s the first six games of the series brought into a single tune, a reflection on where the series has been with an acknowledgement to what it hoped to accomplish in the future. It’s modern Shakespeare, the perfect prologue to an adventure of Team Fantasy’s standards.
#2: Tetris - Main Theme
Think about how much of your life has been spent playing Tetris. On the Gameboy, the PC, your cell phone, the NES and all of its other incarnations. Think of how long you spent on each playthru, how long it took to beat each level. Add that up over your lifetime, and for many people the total runtime is longer than what it takes to beat all of the Final Fantasies put together. You may have hated it, loved it, or never gave enough notice to it as you watched the blocks drop. But however you thought of the song, one thing is for sure, it didn’t stop playing once the power button was turned off. It was lodged in your head for at least a few days, coming out as humming or whistling or just having it play over and over in your mind as you go about your day. That alone gives it a spot. It’s one of the most remix-able songs in history, it’s a repeatable tune that doesn’t have that snag at the end when the track starts over, and its one of the first tunes we as a generation remember in terms of gaming. It. Will. Never. Leave.
#1: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty – Theme
Harry Gregson-Williams, of the Hans Zimmer filmmaking studio, was tapped by Kojima for the score of Sons of Liberty. Although he produced an intense and cinematic soundtrack for the project, it is this main theme of the game that has become instantly identifiable with both the series and its creator. The orchestral piece has an intense emotional arch, beginning in a traditional covert military style with computerized sound effects and a strong bass, but with a steady speed: strings are added, with their ascending crescendo. A sense of strength and power are built, only to be crushed seconds later as the entire song falls into a silence. Then, from the ashes of the first set comes the slow rise of the familiar tune, the sense of power replaced with a more somber tone as they play out their stanza. The strings are slowly added, also at a slower pace, with triumphant vocals sewing the orchestration together. The sense of strength found in the first set replaced with one of hurt pride; what was loud and chest-thumping returns at a humbled, poetic pace, only to finish with the highest point in the theme, an ultimate triumph after sobering defeat. Intense, emotional, inspirational and patriotic, it acts as a perfect abbreviation of the series, a microcosm of Kojima’s fiction and storytelling capabilities, and a summary of Snake’s philosophical journeys. If ever you find yourself trapped in life, a situation seemingly too difficult to complete, play this tune, just once, and regain back your strength. Remember what’s it like to be moved, to be empowered, to be human. Its a remarkable achievement to capture such essence and depth within just a few moments of music, but Gregson-Williams resounding success, and the powerful feelings across the world that its caused, makes its placement easy to bestow. This is the greatest theme in the history of video games.
About six months after street fighter we got another movie based on a fighting game Mortal Kombat and 2 years 2 months and 3 days later we got its sequel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Because this is a double review I’m going to first do the plot of each then the review of each then the scores so let’s get right to it.
Quick question what do you get when you mix one of the greatest fighting games ever with a horrible movie adaptation? Answer street fighter the motion picture there’s a lot to be said about this horrible piece of coin-op garbage so let’s jump right in.
So the plot of street fighter follows the adventure of UN COL. Guile oh sorry I mean AN COL. guile portrayed by one of the greatest martial artist of our time jean Claude van damn wait did I say greatest oops never mind let’s move on. Anyway M.Bison has taken over shadow-loo and is demanding money or he’s going to kill some hostages so guile is planning on saving them. Meanwhile ken and Ryu get their kicks by fighting great martial arts challengers oh that’s not right I mean selling nerf guns to terrorists so they can rip them off. Also mean while Chun-Li, E.Honda and Belrog want revenge on bison and his thugs Sagat and Vega because they have all been wronged by him.
Castlevania, Contra, Metal Gear, Lone Ranger. You look at Konami, and you think "Oh yeah. Greatness." But did you know that Konami was also a bunch of assholes?
Now before you scream for MY severed head on a stick (http://www.screwattack.com/node/4393), I'll explain this line of thinking:
-----Contra----- Lack of arcade ports when the hardware was available. Granted, the NES games were superb, and still hold to this day. But it took them twenty years to bring the arcade originals to the home consoles? I can understand not doing it with the NES and Super NES with the limited hardware, but the Playstation was more than capable, and maybe even the N64. The previous-gen consoles have enough space to put all of the contra games (Arcade, NES, SNES, and Genesis) onboard, as well as more than enough processing power to handle it. Konami just didn't want to give it to us.
-----Gradius----- We never got the real sequel to the franchise, and instead got a Gradius-hacked version of Salamander called Lifeforce, with the levels re-arranged, and with new boss characters. Gradius 3's Super NES port was simply rushed, and never got rid of the slowdown bug. Obviously they had to chop out some of the content to save space. Plus for some reason, when the Gradius 3&4 collection was released for the PS2, they chose to ONLY release 3&4 on the disc. Were they trying to cut costs with the CD-ROM format? Release the whole goddamned series on a disc! THERE'S MORE THAN ENOUGH SPACE ON THE DISC. Gradius, Gradius 2, Gradius 3, Gradius 4, Salamander, and even Salamander 2. Hell you could even fit the Parodius games on the disc as unlockable extras! Konami just didn't want to give it to us...........wait, it's on the PSP? Oh fuck you, Konami.
-----Metal Gear----- Oh Jesus, this one hurts. You have a butchered NES port, a completely-DIFFERENT sequel that even Kojima despised, and a story that was given the tentacle rape treatment because Ultra Games thought they could do it better. Us Yankee folk were forced to buy the Playstation 1 & 2 games twice because the Japs give themselves additional features after bringing the single game to our shores. Either release the full experience from the start, or suffer the backlash. Take your pick, pricks.
Castlevania series:
-----Haunted Castle----- For those that look for the ultimate Castlevania challenge, the first one is the biggest one. Yes, Haunted Castle was a remake of the first game, and to really screw with you, they only give you one life. Try to take that in. Seriously. One life. It's hard enough to play through the first NES game without continuing at least once, let alone DYING just once. This game deserves to be on XBox Live, if and any just for the achievement points and leaderboards.
-----Rondo of Blood----- I'm very pissed about Konami only releasing this game on the PSP. I'm not buying a PSP for this. Fuck you, Konami. You had a GOLDEN opportunity to please the fans when the Playstation homebrew project was underway.
Believe it or not, much like Final Fantasy 5, a group of developers were working on an unofficial port of Rondo of Blood for the PS1, until Konami shut it down. Despite the fan-interest, there was no official port on the PS1, not even in Japan. Konami just didn't want to give it to us. You notice a pattern here?
===================================== =====Unreleased Arcade Greatness===== ===================================== The Japanese got a Konami Classics collection for the Playstation and Saturn. Us Americans had to wait for the Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, and PS2 to get the 1980s arcade games. Here was some arcade greatness of the 80s and 90s that you may not have known about, but kicked serious ass.
-----Ajax----- Konami's Gradius-esque answer to Xevious, but with a special take: Lots of powerups to utilize, and an alternate flying machine of death for between levels. What other game lets you point an F-15 straight down at a battleship and not crash the damn thing? Classic.
Seriously, skip to 3:25 and see for yourself.
-----Crime Fighters----- You can never have too many four-player beat-em-ups, you also can never have too many games where the overall goal was to save twice as many girls as there are limits on the amount of players (Who doesn't want a girl on each arm?). The only complaint I have with this game is that you only have one life, and you gotta keep pumping quarters to keep your strength up.
-----Devil World----- This was a nice attempt to merge Gauntlet with Gradius. You have two characters, an Indiana Jones-esque archeologist and a Barbie-doll reporter who were sucked through a portal into a world of demons. Luckily, there are powerups all over the place that increase your speed, give you shields, flamethrowers, lasers, and even sticks of dynamite. Unfortunately, when the game was brought to the States, the name was changed to Dark Adventure (eh), a third player was introduced (yay!), the players now only have melee combat (hmm), the Gradius powerup system was removed (huh?), the level layout was randomized (the fuck?), and the boss monsters were removed (wait a minute!), making the game unwinnable whereas Devil World had an ending (Oh fuck you!). This hits a little close to home for me, as I used to play Dark Adventure at the local Big Lots......and came to regret it.
Unfortunately, there's no existing video of Dark Adventure, so here's Devil World:
-----G.I.Joe----- This game reeks of awesomeness. What other G.I.Joe game out there was simply about a small squad of Joes rushing the most fortified of Cobra's fortresses, and blasting the shit out of EVERYTHING? This was worth every wasted quarter, and the time spent blowing up the weapons factory. This is what G.I.Joe was about, plain and simple.
Duke, Scarlett, Roadblock, and Snake Eyes, the original wrecking crew(tm).
-----Guitar Freaks----- Make no mistake, Guitar Hero and Rock Band are great games, but don't kid yourself: They are knockoffs. Konami started the movement with Guitar Freaks, along with Drum Freaks, Beatmania, Keyboardmania, and Dance Dance Revolution. Will the originator please stand up and claim the throne?
November Update: I know that Konami decided to go the same route as Guitar Hero and Rock Band with their own version, but it's just too late.
-----Iron Horse----- Nothing like a train robbery to make for a good game plot. Yes, for the first time in gaming, you get to be the evil cowboy train robber. Just simple fun.
-----Jail Break----- Same graphical style as Iron Horse and Green Beret, only now you're one of the present-day city's finest, aiming to stop the outbreak of escaped prisoners from a maximum security prison, and save a few hostages while at it.
-----Lightning Fighters----- The video speaks for itself:
-----M-I-A----- For those who played Rush'n'Attack or Green Beret, this is the sequel to both games, and it shows. The same mechanics, but now there's hidden areas, and new dangers to avoid. Veterans of the original games are in for a surprise with this one.
-----MX5000----- This is an interesting vertical shooter. Much like Xevious, this also has a bomb-launching button, but in this game, it crawls along the ground, a-la Gradius, and explodes on contact with an enemy. The boss battles have an interesting take that hasn't seen seen again until Star Fox 64: All-range mode. During boss battles, you're not limited to facing and firing upwards. You can face and fire in eight directions.
-----Simpsons----- Not much needs else to be said. It's the TMNT game with upgraded mechanics and replaced with a different trademarked license. But awesome nonetheless.
-----Solar Assault----- Gradius meets Star Fox. I only got to play this in the arcades once at the local Wal-Mart, and was blown away by how fast and smooth the controls were.
-----X-Men----- The only time Konami got to make use of the X-Men license, and they made it memorable. It was the first time I had ever seen a game with two screens, and six players. Unfortunately, I only ever saw the 6-player cabinet at places like Cedar Point in Ohio.
But hold on: Konami was not always flawless with their arcade titles.......
Arcade Exceptions:
-----Monster Maulers----- Dear god. Just......no. The gaming concept makes for a refreshing take on the classic 2D-Fighter, but most likely, the chick will be the most-chosen character to play as. Anyone who chooses either of the dudes will have their sexuality SEVERELY-questioned. No doubt about it.
Konami, what the fuck?!
-----Mr. Goemon----- The origin of the Goemon/Mystical Ninja series, not much can really be said about it. The Super NES game was neat, but I just can't get into the series in general. That's just me, though.
-----Violent Storm----- Typical beat-em-up plot: Girlfriend gets kidnapped, and you bring your friends along to help rescue her. The only problem I have with this game is: Which game are they trying to be a ripoff to?!
* Large characters: Final Fight. * Crudely-detailed characters: Streets of Rage. * Special moves: Street Fighter 2.
This one has 'em all!
In conclusion: I know Konami has made some great games over the years, but much like Nintendo, they chose to screw us over by letting some of their games rot than allow us to play them on a home console. Fuck the handhelds, these deserve to be played on a TV. Until Konami gets the message, I'm whipping out my Xbox version of MAME, and flipping them the finger.
Don't let tall buildings tell you what you can and cannot play, and on what.
Long before I started blogging here, I commented on what would make for a good WWE Legends game. I'll be re-heating some of the issues somewhere down the line, but mostly, I want to comment on some serious problems concerning wrestling games in general.
Ironically-enough, Nintendo got the ball rolling with "Pro Wrestling" for the NES (Now available on VC), and Technos followed up with a home port of their "Tag Team Wrestling" arcade game, but everything after that has been either the WWF, or WCW. Wrestlemania, Wrestlemania Challenge, WWF Steel Cage Challenge, Super Wrestlemania, WWF Royal Rumble, WWF Raw, WWF Wrestlemania (Arcade), WWF In Your House, WWF Warzone, WWF Attitude. That was everything Vince McMahon had to offer under the Acclaim label, and you could count them on your fingers.
I'll excuse every WWF game released under Acclaim/LJN for the simple fact that the NES/SNES/Genesis/GameBoy had their limits, and Acclaim was goofing around in their later years. But when War Zone and Attitude were released for the 32-bit consoles, I was flabbergasted at how little had been improved. Acclaim was using the Mortal Kombat style of performing manuevers (Ex: Tap forward, back, down/up+A to do a suplex), and was using motion-capture to showcase the movements of the WWF talents, as well as the techniques themselves. And granted, the Hardy Boys were curtain-jerker talent at the time, but they went above and beyond by doing all the motion capture themselves, and yet they were never featured in either game. Most of the disc space was used up for the motion capture, video promos of the 12 characters, and FMV cutscenes of a rich woman who wants you to win the world championship so she could invite you into her limo. The rest was for match types, entrance music, movements, and something new called "Create-A-Wrestler". Yes, despite the many flaws of this wrestling game with poor hit-detection, this was the beginning of the customized wrestler feature. WCW tried to mimic that style with WCW Nitro and WCW Thunder, and failed miserably.
I'm going to skip ahead a bit to the AKI era for the Nintendo 64 and our previous console generation:
"WCW vs NWO: World Tour" offered four-player gameplay, alternate costumes, a solid grapple/defense system, and was the only time a 5-on-5 fighting-game style elimination match was implemented.
"WCW vs NWO: Revenge" offered limited customization, but continued to offer more talents to choose from, as well as improved their wrestling engine.
When THQ brought AKI with them to the WWF brand, "Wrestlemania 2000" improved more on the Create-A-Wrestler feature, a more improved engine, and was the first include a story mode.
"WWF No Mercy" would be the last AKI-produced game under any official wrestling promotion, included a ladder match, a steel cage, a survival mode, improved Create-a-Wrestler feature, and an improved story mode.
"Def Jam: Vendetta", despite being a game not licensed to any wrestling promotion, was heavily influenced by the WWF, borrowing many signature maneuvers. Unfortunately, despite the increased processing power of the Gamecube, Playstation 2, and the Xbox, it still could only handle up to four competitors, and it would not improve with "The Fight for New York".
The Smackdown series borrowed many elements from the AKI series, saw many gradual improvements over the past nine years, but suffered a great deal along the way, mostly due to the combination of licensed wrestlers, the inability to use more than thirty customized wrestlers, and the constant pushing towards mimicking that of the WWE experience.
This is where I have to draw the line on things.
It was more than possible to make over 30 custom wrestlers ten years ago with WWF Warzone, all you needed was multiple memory cards. Now that there's mass amounts of hard drive space, there's no excuse.
Obviously, there's this need to make the WWE games resemble that of the TV programs, but why even go that route? If I wanted to watch storylines unfold, I'd watch WWE TV, so scrap the storylines, and get down to the wrestling. You'll save lots of space that way, and make more room for more wrestlers, more customizable options for your wrestlers, MALE AND FEMALE. What the fuck has happened there? The girls have limited options now? The girls can't participate in storylines? How are they supposed to level up their stats? I can't max out my Samus Aran character without experience points, and those can only be achieved through the storylines.
If they're going for realism, they failed. If I wanted realism, I wouldn't be playing video games OR watching WWE.
Why are there fewer moves available every year, while being swapped out for other moves used by current wrestlers? I understand the need to keep with the times, but why does ANYTHING need to be swapped out? Again, scrap the storylines. We just want to jump into the action, we don't need the soap-operafest.
Seriously: Where is the Kawada-Driver?
Or the "Six-Seconds Magic"?
Or neck-crunch portion of Aleksander Karelin's "Russian Neck Drop"?
Seriously, drop the bra & panties matches, the story modes, and the "superstar" voiceovers, and get those moves back.
We're in the era of 3ghz processors and 500mhz graphics chips, and yet we still can't get more than eight guys in the ring? More importantly: Where are the giant online wars? I was looking forward to a 16-player hardcore match with multiple refs doing simultaneous pinfall counts and submission verification, and yet there's still only a limit of four?
With the amount of open-source programmers on the rise, it shouldn't be very difficult to construct a cross-platform wrestling game that's just as good as the AKI games and the entire Smackdown series, and distribute it on Sourceforge. Wrestling gaming should not be regulated just to whatever Vince McMahon shoves down our throats. The possibilities should be LIMITLESS.
The release date for Sonic Unleashed, the latest adventure of video game's only blue, spiny, hyper-kinetic mammal is but a few days away, and Sonic fans have their hopes high that this could be the return-to-form that Sega had been hyping over and over. Let me address those Sonic fans directly for one moment:
Stop it.
Speaking as someone who hasn't enjoyed a Sonic game since he left the 2nd dimension, let me say that while I'm intrigued by the return to 2D gameplay, mark my words, this ISN'T the return to form that you've been waiting for. There's a very good chance that this game will be just as bad as Sonic 2006.
Okay, maybe not THAT bad, but still...There's not much cause to get your hopes up as high as you're getting them.
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HERE'S HOW I KNOW:
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1. The Humans Are Still There
I can't begin to fathom why there'd be humans in a Sonic the Hedgehog game. Sure Dr. Robotnik sort of resembles a human, (And it IS Dr. Robotnik if you're American. If you call him Dr. Eggman you are a whipped, Japanophile pansy, and I invite you to go stick some pocky up your ass.) but I thought that it ended there.
Surely I wasn't the only one getting a "Nature vs Humanity" vibe from the first few games, as though the anthromorphic creatures were defending the habitat of their slightly less evolved bretheren. If they had any sort of sense, shouldn't the rest of humanity be seen as some sort of antagonist?
But no, instead we've got humans associating with giant bi-pedal animals as if there's nothing wrong. Ridiculousness aside, the inclusion of humans and human cities has added NOTHING to the gameplay. (It's taken plenty away however, in the form of moronic side-quests in Sonic The Hedgehog 2006.)
2. The Music Still Sucks
This is more a personal hatred than anything else, but I can't stand how just about every level in the 3D Sonic games are filled with chunky guitars and shrill-voiced pop-punk vocalists. I think it takes away from the game when the background music barely fits the stage scenario, and sounds extremely annoying.
While not a lot of info has been leaked in regards to the music, after hearing what HAS been available on YouTube, and the godawful theme music, which features of all people, the guy from Bowling For Soup. (Never a good sign.) I can honestly say they're doing it all over again.
I've never liked the soundtracks of any of the 3D Sonic games. They're just completely unpleasant to me. The last Sonic-related song I genuinely liked was when Green Hill Zone was remade for Super Smash Brothers Brawl. That was pretty cool, because anyone who's a Sonic fan pretty much considers Green Hill Zone to be THE signature Sonic song. (Okay, there's the intro to the original, but that's barely more than 7 seconds long.) Lately though it seems as though Sega's been trying to distance itself from its old and BETTER soundtracks from it's Genesis/CD heydays. And that's a really bad idea.
3. Sonic Gets Turned Into A Were-Kratos
I'm sure much of the video game community, Sonic fan or not, all raised a collective eyebrow of confusion upon the discovery that Sonic Unleashed would include a strange new feature in which Sonic can transform into a were....thing...that was stronger, slower, and had impossibly elasticine arms.
I watched many videos of gameplay footage of that, never sure what to think until Yahtzee Croshaw summed it up best during an episode of the Australian Gamers Podcast, when he compared the new gameplay style to God of War. (Prior to that, I thought it looked more like Wario World.)
Whatever the case, it's not a good omen. Everytime Sega has had to introduce new elements of gameplay to Sonic games as means of "mixing things up", it generally means one thing: You don't get to play a genuine Sonic game.
What is a genuine Sonic game? Really really inhumanly fast platforming. It's not a God of War-style brawler. When you drive a wedge in the game to block off what people EXPECT from the game, I have found that the hypothetical player enjoying the game now hates you for it.
4. More New Useless Characters
Think back long and hard. When was the last time that you truly embraced the introduction of a new character in the Sonic franchise? Sonic 3, right? When Knuckles was introduced. After that it was just one long trip towards expanded universe Hades.
If there's one thing that Sega likes to do more than shoot its own hardware in the foot, and release its entire Genesis library on Greatest Hits packs, it's add more completely superficial characters to the Sonic franchise, and Unleashed at least holds back a little bit, with only two new characters; an extremely annoying sidekick thing, (Because Tails apparently wasn't enough.) and a new villain, which is unacceptable considering how long it's been since Dr. Robotnik hasn't been a complete joke.
I wouldn't mind the introduction of all these new faces so much, (Heck, the Super Mario RPGs do it all the time.) but Sega is always carrying these characters over into the main canon, and it gets to the point where they have as many characters as The Simpsons. WHO THE FUCK IS G.U.N., and more importantly WHY SHOULD WE CARE?!
Which is another point I ought to bring up: Sega just keeps adding and adding and adding to their already expansive castlist inconsequential character after another. I defy you to name one person who is a fan of "Marine The Raccoon." You can't name any, can you? Am I right? I'm right, aren't I. 9_9
5. 3-D
While I'm ever so slightly optimistic about the "seamless 3D-to-2D" system of camera switching that Sega has been hyping so much, and I'm genuinely pleased that they're making something of return to Sonic's 2-D roots, I shudder thinking about the 3-D portions.
Why? A while ago I played Sonic Adventure 2 which I had lying around, just because I hadn't played it in a long time, and as I played it the game was made far harder than it should have been because their camera system is one of the WORST ONES I'VE EVER SEEN IN A VIDEO GAME.
Regularly I found the camera getting stuck behind walls, (Leaving my character completely obscured from view.) switching to dramatic angles at the least opportune moment, (Which is another thing I dislike. the pretention that the game was some sort of dramatic epic.) and the sudden perspective switch, where I suddenly find my character turning around in the opposite direction, into the oncoming truck I was supposed to run away from.
This god-awful camera system carried into Sonic 2006, which was one of the worse games of the year, and if Sonic Team didn't learn from their blithering mistake then I shudder to think.
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These are just MY perceptions of what I've seen so far. Who knows? Once Unleashed DOES come out, the game might be a glimmering gem of good game design, they might have fixed up the camera angles, and they might have gotten a better writing staff and voice actors that don't always sound like they're reading their lines out of context. It could be good, but heed my words, and take caution.
Platforms:Playstation 3,Xbox 360,Microsoft Windows
Plot
In a future straight out of Orwell's '1984,' where all actions of daily life are regulated and monitored by the government, you take control of Faith, a woman struggling to retrieve her sister from the clutches of the omniscient government regime. Our protagonist is a runner, a member of an elite group of citizens living on the outskirts of the city, in the corner of the security camera's rotation. They are the last denizens of free thought, carriers of information and objects their owners don't want to go through stiff government legislation. In constant battle with local police forces, dubbed 'blues' in runner slang, wanting to shut down their operation, Faith and her company free-run across town, using the city's angular building design against it.
The plot is mainly told through 2-D animated cutscenes, with a few moments playing out in-game. Its a common setup with a bit of character motive through in to individualize it, but here's hoping the narrative pulls away from cliche long enough to make us happy we just parkour-ed our way through dystopian downtown.
Style
As we all have heard from the title song played over nearly every released gameplay video (named 'Still Alive', a bit awkwardly in a post-Portal world), the soundtrack takes a bit of a techno-hinged ambiance to it, reflecting the rigid design and bright color palette of most of the city's buildings while tossing a bit of a electric heartbeat to add to the main running mechanic of the IP's gameplay. The symmetrical, and almost boring, landscape design looks uninviting from afar, but acts as simple way to create easily recognizable patterns of platforms for Faith to free-run to and from. The way the level design is built around preserving our lead runner's momentum is its true draw, where a sort of poetry of motion arises out of the convenience Dice has given to the layout, placing two ascending rooftops beneath a ripe-line that leads to a series of grabbable pipes should give the player a sense of fluidity and rhythm.
Character designs not cloaked in SWAT gear look a bit behind the design timeline, but considering how little they appear in 3-D, it shouldn't be too much of a bother. In-level, we see Faith sometimes reflected in the windows of more decorated buildings, but otherwise we only glimpse her arms and hands, again giving the majority of focus on the organization of usable objects in each level. The whole game has a sense of a brightly colored take on the German film 'Run Lola Run,' which is not a bad thing.
Gameplay
Mirror's Edge takes place entirely in first-person, save for the non-interactive animated cutscenes. The player controls only Faith, guiding her sliding, jumping, climbing, and rolling al
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